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It's the Free Trade, Stupid
By Ian Fletcher
One point that seems largely to have been missed in recent weeks, amid all the excitement over the Federal budget and the sovereign-debt crises in Europe, is how free trade is largely the root cause of all these problems. Let’s trace the causation for a minute.
Start with the Federal budget. Federal revenues are derived from the underlying economy, and therefore, if the underlying economy were larger, revenues would be, too—even without any tax increases. As a result, anything that causes the U.S. economy to be smaller, tends to widen any gap between taxes and revenues.
Enter free trade.
Rick Perry: Extremist White America's Evangelical Hope
by Stephen Lendman
Consider the unpalatable 2012 options, a choice between:
-- a so far unopposed lawless/crime boss/militarist/pro-war/anti-populist president; and
-- a rogue's gallery of Republican aspirants, looking more like a police lineup than legitimate candidates for any office, let alone the nation's highest - with one exception, Ron Paul, ignored by America's media for the following reasons:
Dispatch From Libya, Tripoli on the Cusp
By FRANKLIN LAMB
Tripoli
Truth be told, some foreign observers, and certainly this one, having been based in Tripoli the past nearly eight weeks, have not taken very seriously occasional media predictions that Tripoli might soon be invaded by “NATO rebels” -- though not by NATO country forces putting their boots on the ground.
The reasons include observations that the Libyan population is increasingly expressing anger over members of their families and tribes being killed by NATO sorties claiming to be “protecting civilians.”
It is said by many here that tens of thousands are ready to repulse invaders who try to enter Tripoli. Support for Colonel Kaddafi appears to reflect even Western polls such as the one referred to by the UK Guardian recently that Libya’s leader Colonel Gadaffi’s popularity had perhaps doubled during the current conflict. This morning’s Rasmussen poll claims that support for NATO-US involvement has plummeted to just 20 per cent among the American public due to among other reasons, NATO killing of civilians. It is even lower in several other NATO countries.
Until quite recently, life appeared fairly normal except for the scarcity of benzene for vehicles and some luxury food items and also some necessities such as baby formula, some medicines and reliable phone service. Earlier piles of household trash that began accumulating at some street corners around Tripoli in early March when up to 400,000 foreign workers fled West to Tunisia and East to Egypt began being cleared a couple of weeks ago as the municipality of Tripoli reorganized its severely and instantly depleted work force.
Cops kill 3 as farmers protest water project, land seizure near Mumbai
By Rady Ananda
On August 9, police shot nine farmers, killing three, who were part of a mass protest against a water pipeline project in Baur Village, 50 miles east of Mumbai, India. Police also smashed cars, fired tear gas and threw rocks at farmers as they fled the violence. This was all caught on video:
Kantabai Thakar (age 40), Moreshwar Sathe (40) and Shyam Tupe (29) were fatally shot by police. Over 100 others were injured, and nine vehicles damaged in the lethal attack on protesters, report several news outlets in India.
Falsified Major Media Reports on Libya
by Stephen Lendman
Major media specialize in what they do best: truth inversion (aka bad fiction), not doing what journalists are supposed to do - their job, especially covering imperial wars for dominance and rich spoils.
With Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) falling apart and rebel forces in disarray, today's headlines belie the truth, reported by independent "un-in-bed-with" journalists and other sources.
Daily Rogue State Israeli Lawlessness
by Stephen Lendman
It begs the question why Israelis put up with lawless governance harming them as well as Palestinians. When will weeks of social injustice outrage arouse them to embrace universal equity?
Why haven't Martin Luther King's words hit home that, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In Israel and Occupied Palestine, Arabs and Jews both are harmed. Injustice to anyone denies it to all.
Since the 1980s, destructive neoliberalism plagued Israel like the West. A race to the bottom followed, producing social injustice, inequality, and growing human need. Israelis finally reacted, demanding change, at the same time showing a hint of solidarity with Arab citizens, far more gravely impacted than themselves.
Pakistan Independence Day: Strange Celebration
Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.
When was the last time Pakistan got independence from the colonial rule? Many would time it - August 14 (month of Ramadan) 1947. That is right and that was the only time power was peacefully transferred by the British Empire to the chosen representatives of the new emerging Muslim nation of the world. Afterwards, history is blank and its pages full of self-inflicted wounds, bloody and treacherous neo-colonial politics of the few and tormenting tragedies that Muslim is forced to endure for long time to come. The record reads Pakistan is being governed by the wrong people, with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things. Pakistan Needs a navigational Change, away from the corrupt politics of the few egomaniacs and criminals called politicians. They are all hired puppets to perform at the stage and nothing else. Pakistan must return to its Islamic value based roots and institution-building, its originality and a system of governance free of corruption and subservience to the former and current Masters in the West.
Economic End Times
by Stephen Lendman
Despite a deepening global depression, establishment economists are in denial. On June 9, the Wall Street Journal said those surveyed expected slow, steady growth through 2011, despite high US unemployment, a housing depression, European sovereign debt in crisis, and the unreported insolvency of major French and other banks.
On June 8, testifying before the House Budget Committee, Fed chairman Bernanke fantasized about 3.5% US growth through 2011, stopping just short of ruling out the possibility of recession he called "unlikely."
Netanyahu Spurns Social Justice Demands
by Stephen Lendman
Unaffordable housing prices ignited mass social justice protests in Israel. At issue is settlement developments at the expense of other construction, creating a supply/demand imbalance enough to cause prices to skyrocket. Israelis demand that issue be addressed responsibly.
In response, Netanyahu's government announced thousands of illegal new West Bank/East Jerusalem settlement units on stolen Palestinian land, harming them grievously. At the same time, he arrogantly ignored the urgency of addressing serious shortages in Tel Aviv, Haifa, West Jerusalem, and other Israeli cities.
Tell Rick Perry that there was NO 'Texas Miracle'
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
As a fourth generation Texan, a descendent of Texas pioneers, I deny a favorite myth among the GOP inclined. There was no 'Texas Miracle' --a term cooked up in a GOP focus group, fly-by-night political consultants (perhaps from Chicago). It's BS. Fact is --not only has education dropped off the radar, Texas has run out of oil that can be pumped profitably; real jobs are as scarce as hen's teeth.
Frankly, I am surprised to learn that --as economist Paul Krugman points out --that in June 2011 the Texas unemployment rate was ONLY 8.2 percent. I had expected that it would have been higher. About that, economist Paul Krugman asks: "...what does population growth have to do with job growth?" Krugman is right to ask and the point is made as only Krugman can make it!
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