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Amend the Fed: We Need a Central Bank that Serves Main Street
by Ellen Brown
December 23rd marks the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve. Dissatisfaction with its track record has prompted calls to audit the Fed and end the Fed. At the least, Congress needs to amend the Fed, modifying the Federal Reserve Act to give the central bank the tools necessary to carry out its mandates.
The Federal Reserve is the only central bank with a dual mandate. It is charged not only with maintaining low, stable inflation but with promoting maximum sustainable employment. Yet unemployment remains stubbornly high, despite four years of radical tinkering with interest rates and quantitative easing (creating money on the Fed’s books). After pushing interest rates as low as they can go, the Fed has admitted that it has run out of tools.
Iran-US Interim Agreement: Historic Breakthrough or Historic Sellout?
James Petras
Introduction
The recent interim accord between the six world powers and Iran has been hailed as an “historic breakthrough”, a “significant accomplishment” by most leading politicians, editorialists and columnists (Financial Times, (FT) 11/26/13, p. 2), the exceptions being notably Israeli leaders and the Zionist power brokers in North America and Western Europe (FT 11/26/13, p. 3).
What constitutes this “historic breakthrough”? Who got what? Did the agreement provide for symmetrical concessions? Does the interim agreement strengthen or weaken the prospects for peace and prosperity in the Gulf and the Middle East? To address these and other questions, one also has to include the powerful influence wielded by Israel on US and European policymakers (Stephen Lendman
Ukrainian Protests Continue
by Stephen Lendman
Pro-EU elements called for a Sunday "March of Millions." They hoped for maximum numbers turning out.
Their plan is a Washington manipulated power grab. It's got nothing to do with democracy. It ignores Ukrainian sovereign rights.
The event's slogan was "Ukraine for Europe." It should be named Ukraine for Western corporate predators.
At noon Sunday Kiev time, Itar Tass estimated about 1,000 in Independence Square. By mid-afternoon, thousands more joined them. Reports differ. AP said "several hundred thousand." Russia Today had a live feed. Visually the crowd size looked large.
John Kerry's Anti-Palestinian Agenda
by Stephen Lendman
He's no peacemaker. He never was throughout 30 years in state and federal government service. He's one of America's privileged. He's super-rich.
His record shows exclusive support for wealth and power. He spurns popular interests. He's been conducting Middle East shuttle diplomacy for months. He's Israel's man at State.
He's no honest broker. He never was. He's not now. His dirty hands are manipulating dead on arrival Israeli/Palestinian peace talks.
They're more pretense than real. They demand unconditional Palestinian surrender. Israel is all take and no give. So is Washington.
Peace in our time reflects a convenient illusion. Last week, Kerry met with Netanyahu and Abbas. He presented a new plan. It's largely old wine in new bottles. It focused on security issues.
Venezuelan Municipal Elections
by Stephen Lendman
On Sunday, Venezuelans voted. A follow-up article will discuss results. More on what's at stake below.
Last week, Venezuela's National Assembly (AN) passed Chavez's Second Socialist Plan 2013 - 2019.
It followed his National Project Simon Bolivar 2007 - 2013. It focused on ethics and morals. The new plan goes further. It aims to strengthen and expand existing programs.
It calls for greater participatory democracy. It focuses on grassroots control. It discusses serious unresolved problems.
It aims to take Bolivarianism to the next level. It's fair, ambitious and realistic. It states in part:
"This is a program for the transition to socialism and the radicalization of a pre-eminent and participatory democracy."
Western Officials Collaborating Against Ukraine's Government
by Stephen Lendman
US and other Western officials do it openly. They're doing it lawlessly. They're violating international law.
UN Charter Article 2(7) states:
"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter."
Under no circumstances may one nation, or combination thereof, intervene against another without Security Council authorization.
Article 8 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention of Rights and Duties says: "No state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another."
Mandela Eulogies: Reinventing His Disturbing Legacy
by Stephen Lendman
Mainstream praise is unanimous. It ignores reality. It got short shrift. It reinvents Mandela's disturbing legacy. It turned a Thatcherite into a saint. A previous article discussed it.
Editorials, commentaries, and feature articles read like bad fiction. Tributes are overwhelming. They reflect coverup and denial.
The true measure of Mandela is hidden from sight. It's willfully ignored. Illusion replaced it.
Obama issued a disingenuous statement. He called Mandela "a man who took history in his hand, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice."
"We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again."
Seymour Hersh, Sarin, and the Obama Deception on Syria WMD
Michael Collins
The people of the United States were subject to a deliberate deception by the Obama administration concerning the use of chemical weapons in Damascus, Syria on August 21 according to leading investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh. No stranger to big stories, Hersh has a successful track record of books and articles based on sources deep in the United States intelligence community.
The article, Whose Sarin, was published in the London Review of Books on Sunday. If we believe Hersh and his sources, the pattern of deliberate lies is so pervasive, there is no reason to believe much of what we hear from the Obama administration without independent verification.
The Core Case for Deception
Hersh begins by stating that we didn't get the whole story from the administration when the president and Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria for the chemical weapons attacks. The administration "omitted important intelligence" and "failed to acknowledge" that the Syrian rebels, the Al-Qaeda aligned Al Nusra group in particular, had chemical weapons capabilities.
Of all the points Hersh makes, the most devastating is in the opening of the article. He reports:
NSA Mass Monitoring Cell Phone Calls Globally
by Stephen Lendman
On December 5, the Washington Post broke the story. It headlined "NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show."
Doing so enables tracking individual movements. It maps their relationships. It does it in "previously unimaginable" ways.
NSA maintains a vast database. It's called FASCIA. It "stores information (on) locations of at least hundreds of millions of devices…"
New efforts analyze data collected. Doing so reflects mass global surveillance. NSA claims it doesn't target Americans willfully. It lied saying so.
"Incidental" whereabouts alone are tracked, it claims. WaPo said the term "connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result."
Mandela's Disturbing Legacy
by Stephen Lendman
On December 5, Mandela died peacefully at home in Johannesburg. Cause of death was respiratory failure. He was 95.
Supporters called him a dreamer of big dreams. His legacy fell woefully short. More on that below.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, and Mandela Rhodes Foundation issued the following statement: "It is with the deepest regret that we have learned of the passing of our founder, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela - Madiba." "The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa will shortly make further official announcements."
"We want to express our sadness at this time. No words can adequately describe this enormous loss to our nation and to the world."
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