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Sham Libyan Elections
by Stephen Lendman
In 2011, Washington-led NATO forces destroyed Libya. It was ravaged, not liberated.
Humanitarian intervention was cover to wage war. "Responsibility to protect (R2P)" was subterfuge to colonize and plunder another country.
Tens of thousands were killed. Vital social services were lost. Imperial control replaced Jamahiriya governance. Pre-2011 Libya no longer exists.
Libyans call what NATO wrought "dimacracy." Dima in Arabic is blood. NATO gains control by shedding it.
An illegitimate National Transitional Council (NTC) was appointed. Puppet leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil was made chairman.
Bullying, Bluster and Imperial Arrogance 101
by Stephen Lendman
Hillary Clinton's outbursts reflect bullying, bluster, and imperial arrogance, not diplomacy. More on her strong-arm tactics below.
On July 6, Friends of Syria met in Paris. Tunis and Istanbul meetings preceded this one. Conflicting reports said representatives from 60 to around 100 countries attended.
EU and Arab League states comprise most of them. Since last year, they've been involved in crimes of war and against humanity.
Friends like these assure death, destruction, colonization, plunder, exploitation, deprivation, and unspeakable human misery.
Russia and China boycotted the meeting. Clinton used the occasion to lambaste both countries.
Her comments reflect imperial arrogance, contempt for rule of law principles, and commitment for war, not peace.
She's a war criminal multiple times over. She's arguably America's most shameless ever secretary of state. She's clearly the most brazen. Her language and attitude exceed the worst of Cold War rhetoric.
It's Complicated
By Timothy V. Gatto
There is a stir in the air. Something is changing but I don’t think that anyone can actually put their finger on it. People are just tired, tired and disgusted. They don’t seem to believe anyone or anything anymore. The trustful population of a sleeping nation is starting to realize that their trust was put into the wrong hands.
It’s about time. What’s so sad about this situation is that people don’t want to wake up. They would rather close their eyes and dream on. Reality sucks, but sooner or later it comes around to bite you. The bankers, the politician and the media have become dangerous. People have had so much taken from them in the last few decades, remaining asleep is no longer an option. The people have lost their homes, their savings and most importantly, their freedom.
The question that everyone has is what can they do about it? Who can they go to in order to put everything back together? The answer that the people are starting to figure out is that there is no one to go to. Everything is controlled and manipulated by the very same people that are committing all of the atrocities. The answer they get to their question of who to go to is that the only person that can help them change their reality is the one asking the question. The answer, the person to trust, the one who can right these wrongs society faces is themselves.
TPP: A Trade Deal from Hell
by Stephen Lendman
Obama and political Washington support an alphabet soup of repressive police state laws, other freedom destroying measures, and hellish trade deals.
SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA threaten online freedom. Free speech and civil protections are endangered species. So are other inviolable rule of law provisions. With bipartisan support, they're heading for the trash bin of history.
Obama officials secretly negotiated and adopted ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). It established unrestricted supranational global trade rules. Its provisions trample on national sovereignty, privacy and personal freedoms.
The Western Welfare State: Its Rise and Demise and the Soviet Bloc
James Petras
Introduction
"The ‘Great Reversal’ appears to be a long-term..."
One of the most striking socio-economic features of the past two decades is the reversal of the previous half-century of welfare legislation in Europe and North America. Unprecedented cuts in social services, severance pay, public employment, pensions, health programs, educational stipends, vacation time, and job security are matched by increases in tuition, regressive taxation, and the age of retirement as well as increased inequalities, job insecurity and workplace speed-up.
The demise of the ‘welfare state’ demolishes the idea put forth by orthodox economists, who argued that the ‘maturation’ of capitalism, its ‘advanced state’, high technology and sophisticated services, would be accompanied by greater welfare and higher income/standard of living. While it is true that ‘services and technology’ have multiplied, the economic sector has become even more polarized, between low paid retail clerks and super rich stock brokers and financiers. The computerization of the economy has led to electronic bookkeeping, cost controls and the rapid movements of speculative funds in search of maximum profit while at the same time ushering in brutal budgetary reductions for social programs.
Jefferson is spinning
Mary Shaw
As I write this on the July 4th holiday, 2012, it occurs to me that Thomas Jefferson is surely spinning in his grave.
When he and the other Founding Fathers created this nation 236 years ago today, their vision was of a society in which "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
At the same time, they recognized that a true democracy requires an informed electorate. In a letter to William Charles Jarvis in 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."
PRI Regains Mexican Presidency
by Stephen Lendman
Like its northern neighbor, wealth and power dominate Mexican politics. Elections are notoriously tainted. Populist candidates are excluded. The late John Ross said Mexico perfected the art of electoral theft.
Longstanding problems fester. For millions, they're unbearable. They include extreme poverty, unemployment, underemployment, deep-seated private and public corruption, drug-related crime and violence, and political repression.
Beyond lip service, none of the candidates addressed them. Conditions are worse now than years earlier.
Sunday's election changed nothing. Privately, Nieto assured Washington that business as usual will continue.
AMERIKA’S LAST INDEPENDENCE DAY
Allen L Roland
2012 could well mark the last celebration of our once brave and free Republic whose firm moral bearings have slowly been eroded by a cancerous military industrial complex and the sinister emergence of a fascist corpocracy.
Enjoy this fourth of July; watch the patriotic parades and fireworks, wave your flags and stuff yourself with hamburgers and hotdogs ~ but beware, this could well be Amerika’s last independence day. The moral pillars of our Republic have almost disintegrated and beneath the ruins lay a rapidly blooming fascist corpocracy.
Failure in Geneva
by Stephen Lendman
Morning headlines belie continued conflict on the ground. East/West divisions remain. Nothing changed but political rhetoric from Geneva.
After Annan's so-called peace plan, violence increased because Washington planned it that way.
Expect it to continue now. America needs conflict and instability to further regime change plans. Peace and stability defeat its interests.
AP ran a June 30 headline with no text, saying:
"Clinton urges UN Security Council to pass sanctions authorizing military action in Syria"
Government by the Banks, for the Banks: The ESM Coup D’Etat in Europe
by Ellen Brown
On Friday, June 29th, German Chancellor Angela Merkel acquiesced to changes to a permanent Eurozone bailout fund—“before the ink was dry,” as critics complained. Besides easing the conditions under which bailouts would be given, the concessions included an agreement that funds intended for indebted governments could be funneled directly to stressed banks.
According to Gavin Hewitt, Europe editor for BBC News, the concessions mean that:
[T]he eurozone’s bailout fund (backed by taxpayers’ money) will be taking a stake in failed banks.
Risk has been increased. German taxpayers have increased their liabilities. In future a bank crash will no longer fall on the shoulders of national treasuries but on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a fund to which Germany contributes the most.
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