Stephen Lendman

Public sentiment in Britain, across Europe, in America and elsewhere is being manipulated to believe Brexit assures economic and financial chaos.

New world order con man/billionaire speculator George Soros, known for profiting from color revolutions, imperial wars and neoliberal harshness warned of disaster from Brexit, saying:

“Now the catastrophic scenario that many feared has materialized…the disintegration of the EU (is) practically irreversible,"

“Britain eventually may or may not be relatively better off than other countries by leaving the EU, but its economy and people stand to suffer significantly in the short to medium term.”

Financial Times chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman made similar comments. So did others.

They failed to explain Thursday’s vote was non-binding. House of Commons MPs will decide if Britain remains in or leaves the EU - the latter option extremely unlikely because powerful US-led Western interests oppose it.

So often in the mainstream, what isn’t explained is most important of all. For now and likely weeks or months ahead, fear-mongering has center stage, misinformation rife.

Fallout from Thursday’s vote remains to be seen. One thing seems certain. Recall Winston Churchill once saying “(n)ever let a good crisis go to waste.”

At times like now, governments can implement policies they wouldn’t dare attempt during periods of stability - harming ordinary people to benefit privileged ones, letting corporate predators consolidate to more dominant size, force-feeding neoliberal harshness on people, convincing them to go along with what’s detrimental to their welfare.

Following the 2008/early 2009 financial crisis, the above scenario played out - likely again in some form ahead. Mark Twain once remarked history doesn’t repeat. It rhymes.

State-sponsored fears over Brexit may facilitate the coup d’gras against remaining freedoms, Europe and America further thirdworldized, full-blown tyranny replacing what remains of constitutional protections - the worst of Orwell’s 1984 becoming reality, including endless wars against invented enemies.

On Monday, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne commented publicly for the first time since last Thursday’s vote - warning of economic and financial problems ahead, trying to soothe markets, saying:

“(N)o one should doubt our resolve to maintain the fiscal stability we have delivered for this country. The British economy is fundamentally strong. We are highly competitive and we are open for business.”

Bold words during a time of economic weakness, recession looming, companies likely to scale back investments, trade perhaps weakening, as well as banks and other businesses warning of layoffs and moving some operations out of Britain.

PricewaterhouseCoopers warned of up to 100,000 financial services jobs lost if Britain leaves the EU. Expect similar dire warnings ahead.

An unnamed Vote Leave spokesman called fear-mongering “typical of the pro-EU campaign…The same establishment (saying) we would lose jobs if we didn’t join the euro is trying to create a misleading report over the referendum.”

Pro-EU New York Times editors hyped fear, reinterpreting history, claiming Brexit “could have…profound foreign policy consequences, weakening…Western (unity) that helped guarantee international peace and stability for 70 years.”

Perhaps The Times editorial board forgot about endless post-WW II US-led Western imperial wars, notably raging post-9/11, along with increasing confrontation with Russia and China - risking possible life-on-earth ending nuclear war.

EU and NATO represent pure evil, threatening world peace and security. Dissolving them may be the only way to preserve them.

Times editors have things backwards, supporting what demands committed opposition. Powerful interests intend continuing business as usual. Brexit voting changed nothing.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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