politics for the 99%

The case for Aggressive War against George W. Bush and his Administration – Published on Global Research.ca, by Inder Comar, April 21, 2014.

… At the Nuremberg Trials, American chief prosecutor and associate justice of the US Supreme Court Robert H. Jackson focused his prosecution on the planning and execution of the various wars committed by the Third Reich. Jackson aimed to show that German leaders committed “crimes against peace,” and specifically, that they “planned, prepared, initiated wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances.”   Continue Reading…

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Peter Radford, April 18, 2014.

I will not pile on any more: the Piketty book is required reading. Enough said.
What strikes me is that his data set is so comprehensive that it ought to end many of those lingering debates within economics. I doubt it will, but it ought to.
I have a few comments I want to make because of his book and the reaction to it.

First:   Continue Reading…

Published on Russia Today RT, April 18, 2014.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has produced a scathing report detailing the Air Force’s mismanagement of its active-duty drone pilots, who are responsible for the most demanding and deadly missions in the entire US military.

US senators asked the GAO to investigate how the Air Force treated its pilots back in 2012, following previous reports of pilot issues, and in view of the massive expansion of America’s secretive drone pilot army. Since President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the number of drone pilots has tripled, and now stands at over 1,300.   Continue Reading…

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Peter Radford, April 16, 2014.

Buried somewhere in the pile of stuff I have accumulated as I think about inequality are these statistics:

• Of all the income generated between 2009 and 2011 in the US 121% went to the top 1% of income earners
• The top 1% owns just over half of all investment assets including 64.4% of all bonds
• And, the bottom 90% incurs 72.5% of all debt

Think through the consequences of these numbers.   Continue Reading…

• Nirvana Café, The Conversation, 5.18 min, uploaded by xEgale999999x, July 13, 2008;
• Hearing You Now, 6.51 min, uploaded by Aamit Wraj, March 25, 2012;
• Goa sunset, 5.39 min, uploaded by Luiiviia, Dec 17, 2012;
• Desert Flower, 15.14 min, uploaded by EDNAYTEL, Jan 6, 2013;
• Heaven & Earth, 8.07 min, uploaded by PasqualeMeleSA, Jan 21, 2011;
• Solitude, 7.14 min, uploaded by albert hustoff, March 4, 2012;
• Dervish Dream, 5.52 min, uploaded by starguest paky, March 11, 2013.

Videos:

• Who Rules America Today? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich, 43.14 min, uploaded on YouTube by G. William Domhoff, April 7, 2014; (also on Zvideo, April 15, 2014);
• Millichamp lecture Jan 23 William Domhoff, uploaded by Mellichamp UCSB, Feb 13, 2014: part 1, 30.16 min; part 2, 28.26 min;
• Why Does Big Business Love Big Government? (Domhoff, Rothbard, and Evers), 51.47 min, uploaded by Libertarianism.org, Nov 20, 2013: G. William Domhoff is a research professor in psychology and sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of Who Rules America? (1967), Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruling-Class Cohesiveness (1974), and other books;   Continue Reading…

Published on NYTimes, by Paul Krugman, April 13, 2014.

Four years ago Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, abruptly canceled America’s biggest and arguably most important infrastructure project, a desperately needed new rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Count me among those who blame his presidential ambitions, and believe that he was trying to curry favor with the government- and public-transit-hating Republican base.   Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by Ellen Hodgson Brown, April 13, 2014.

Taxpayers are paying billions of dollars for a swindle pulled off by the world’s biggest banks, using a form of derivative called interest-rate swaps; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has now joined a chorus of litigants suing over it … //

… The Largest Cartel in World History:   Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by Binoy Kampmark, April 12, 2014.

Edward Snowden’s revelations on the voracious appetite of spying on all and sundry by the National Security Agency and allied agencies should not give pause for too much comment, other than to affirm a general premise: activists and non-government groups are to be feared. Non-profits are seen as potential threats, though what to is sometimes unclear. Any government worth its salt should be afraid of its citizens – the latter must make the former accountable; the former must hold to the contractual bargain with citizens.   Continue Reading…

Published on Amnesty International, April 11, 2014;

Somali refugees and asylum-seekers living in Kenya are being trapped in a catch-22 situation by the government’s counter-terrorism crackdown, Amnesty International said as thousands of Somalis continued to be rounded up by security forces in Nairobi.

Registration of Somali refugees in Kenya has been largely halted since December 2011, preventing many who should qualify for refugee status from obtaining papers. Without these they could be returned to Somalia, where they may be at risk of human rights abuses.   Continue Reading…

Is the US or the World Coming to an End? It will be One or the Other – Published on Global Research.ca, by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, April 10, 2014.

2014 is shaping up as a year of reckoning for the United States.

Two pressures are building on the US dollar. One pressure comes from the Federal Reserve’s declining ability to rig the price of gold as Western gold supplies shrivel and market knowledge of the Fed’s illegal price rigging spreads.   Continue Reading…

Published on truthout, by Laura Flanders, April 9, 2014.

Video on GRITtv: Interview With Jessica Gordon Nembhard, 15.28 min, (also on YouTube, uploaded there by GRITtv, April 8, 2014).

Excerpt of Transcript:

… So, tell us some of the stories. Some of the documents in your book go all the way back to slavery times. Continue Reading…

Published on Washington’s Blog, by blog owner, April 8, 2014.

… This is not the first false flag by NATO members. For example:

• The former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people’s support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: “You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security” (and see this)(Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred). And watch this BBC special,    Continue Reading…

• Published on ahram online, by Dina Ezzat, April7, 2014.

Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will officially become a presidential candidate this week, but speculation is already high regarding who will be among his presidential staff and what his policies will be … //

… Shades of grey: … //

… Human rights versus security:   Continue Reading…

Published on ZNet, by David Harvey, April 7, 2014.

This is an excerpt — the last two chapters — from Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism by David Harvey, out now from Profile Books. David Harvey the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. He has authored such books as The Condition of Postmodernity (1989), A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005), and A Companion to Marx’s Capital (2010). An interview with Harvey was featured on our website in 2012.

Prospects for a Happy but Contested Future: The Promise of Revolutionary Humanism:    Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca (first on Eco-Watch), by Global Research News, April 4, 2014.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) will introduce legislation this month backed by the Grocery Manufactures Association—including biotech giant Monsanto and Koch Industries—that would establish a voluntary labeling system for food made withgenetically modified organisms (GMO), according to an industry insider.

The bill includes a “prohibition against mandatory labeling,” according to The Hill, and is designed to head off the many state bills and ballot initiatives that would impose more stringent labeling regulations on GMOs … // Continue Reading…

Radicalise, reform or fragment: these are the options facing the Muslim Brotherhood – on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Dina Ezzat, April 3, 2014.

Most people expect that on 5 June that Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi will be inaugurated as Egypt’s new president. The recently resigned military chief officially announced his candidacy against a backdrop that includes — according to local and international human rights organisations — the detention of more than 20,000 Muslim Brotherhood members who face a raft of charges. Triple that number are thought to be on the run, either in Egypt or abroad.   Continue Reading…

von Kleinkunstpreis 2014 alle im März 2014 auf YouTube hochgeladen:

• HG. Butzko: Die wirklich Mächtigen sind die Banken, 10.01 min;
• Oliver Welke: heute show vom 28.3.2014, 35.54 min;
• Volker Pispers: Demokratie in USA, Ägypten, Ukraine und Russland, 4.40 min,
• Christian Ehring: extra3 vom 26. März 2014, 29.23 min;
• Lars Reichow: Spätschicht, die SWR Comedy Bühne, 21. März 2014, 43.14 min.

Links:   Continue Reading…

Published on Pambazuka News, by Hamza Hamouchene, April 3, 2014.

In the run up to Algeria’s presidential elections on 17 April, a tragic comedy unfolds in which presidential candidates contest against a rigid regime with false stability. The outcome of the election is predetermined; and the people will lose, no matter which candidate wins.

Algeria’s next presidential elections will be held on 17 April 2014 and for the last few months; this important electoral rendezvous showed all the hallmarks of a masquerade, consistent with almost all the elections in the history of the Algerian state since independence in 1962.   Continue Reading…

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Peter Radford, April 2, 2014.

… If we are to set up an institute to support change, provoke discussion, and otherwise meddle about with the established way of thinking, and thus to earn the moniker of “newness”, we ought not to pack our agendas with a steady stream of establishment figures. That is not the way to revolution. It might, however, be the way to raise esteem and thus get the institution media attention.

Newness in economics is devilishly hard to locate. This is due, possibly, to the continued warring amongst longstanding points of view that have neither been reconciled nor defeated. Indeed, from my perspective, it is practically impossible to kill off an economic idea once it has attached itself to an ideological flag.    Continue Reading…

(two with english transcript … the rest in german):

uploaded on YouTube by ggwporg, March 2014:

• (written transcript in english and german): Leaked phonecall Timoshenko: “I’ll raise the whole world to reduce Russia”, 2.21 min,  am 24. März 2014 hochgeladen: „Ich wäre bereit diesem Mistkerl (Putin) mit einem Maschinengewehr in den Kopf zu schießen.” „Wir müssen Waffen nehmen und diesen „Scheiss-Kazapen” (Russen) abknallen.” „Ich würde den Weg finden wie ich diese Arschlöcher platt machen würde”. (sie meint Krim). „Ich werde all meine Verbindungen nutzen und die ganze Welt gegen Rußland anstifften so dass von diesem Land nicht mal ausgebranntes Feld bleibt”. Auf die Frage was man mit 8 Millionen Russen machen soll die in der Ukraine leben, antwortet Timoschenko: „Wir sollen sie mit Atomwaffen vernichten” – (deutsch + english = for english click on the Transcript Icon):    Continue Reading…

Published on Intrepid Report, by Paul Craig Roberts, April 1, 2014.

… In the Genesis of the World War, Harry Elmer Barnes shows that World War 1 was the product of 4 or 5 people. Three stand out: Raymond Poincaré, president of France; Sergei Sazonov, Russian foreign minister; and Alexander Izvolski, Russian ambassador to France. Poincaré wanted Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, and the Russians wanted Istanbul and the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. They realized that their ambitions required a general European war and worked to produce the desired war.   Continue Reading…

Published on Corriere della sera english, by Enrico Marro, Marzo 25, 2014 (English translation by Giles Watson).

Impeccably efficient and well worth a full bonus. Despite the best efforts of the then civil service minister Renato Brunetta, almost all public-sector managers in the top two pay bands managed to obtain assessments of more than 90% and pocket a full bonus. The Renzi government will now have to find a way to link earnings to results in its reform of public administration. But it will have to do more than that.   Continue Reading…

2014-03-01: The Geopolitical Dimensions of the Coup in Ukraine: A Struggle for Power and Influence;
2014-03-02: International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance;
2014-03-02: Former NASA Scientist claims conspiracy about Mars photo;
2014-03-03: EURO, von der Union zum Alptraum;
2014-03-03: Inequality;
2014-03-04: A New World Order? Missing in Action, What Happened to War and the Imperial Drive to Organize the Planet?
2014-03-05: Global war on the 99%;
2014-03-06: How can the right be defeated in Venezuela?
2014-03-07: The stone that brings down Goliath?
2014-03-08: The State of Class Struggle in South Africa;
2014-03-09: Egypt: we want to work, they won’t let us;
2014-03-09: En prison pour avoir refusé de polluer;
2014-03-10: “Fed up” day laborers launch anti-deportation drive;
2014-03-11: Target Ukraine: How Foreign Intervention is Tearing the Country Apart;
2014-03-12: China: Press conference on financial reform held for 2nd session of 12th NPC;
2014-03-13: Yatsenyuk Comes to Washington;
2014-03-14: Ukraine Between ‘Popular Uprising for Democracy’ (Canadian Government) and ‘Fascist Putsch’ (Russian Government);
2014-03-15: Why I Didn’t Make it to Gaza for International Women’s Day;
2014-03-16: White House withholding documents from CIA torture probe;
2014-03-17: The Decalogue of a Neoliberal Economist;
2014-03-18: music for the living being;
2014-03-19: The regretable closure of the Independent Living Fund ILF;
2014-03-20: le miracle de fatima – Pinon-Seval;
2014-03-21: Westward March of Chinese Dragon in Eurasia;
2014-03-22: Searching for Justice: An SS Soldier and the Massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane – Part 1;
2014-03-23: Crimea: Putin’s Triumph, Now the Confrontation Moves East to “New Russia”;
2014-03-24: Defeating Fascism before It’s too Late;
2014-03-25: Crimea and Punishment;
2014-03-26: Let’s make money;
2014-03-27: Regime Change in Ukraine and the IMF’s Bitter Economic Medicine;
2014-03-28: German Industry Goes To See Uncle Putin;
2014-03-29: Hamid’s Shadow: Karzai Confidant Takes Aim at Afghan Presidency;
2014-03-30: Collective Industrial Relations;
2014-03-31: German magazine Die Zeit calls for reintroduction of compulsory military service.

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Published on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, by Christoph Dreiere, March 29, 2014.

A day after US President Barack Obama intensified NATO’s confrontation with Russia in Brussels, Germany’s second largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, has come out in favour of the reintroduction of compulsory military service.    Continue Reading…