Bulletin N° 881
It’s Wonder Life
&
https://putlocker123.me/movies/234530-watch-its-a-wonderful-life-1946
A 1946 Frank Capra fantasy film
based on a short story, "The Greatest Gift," written in 1939 by Philip
Van Doren Stern. The film stars James Stewart as
George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and
whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his
guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers).
Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched, and how different life
would be for his wife Mary and his community of Bedford Falls if he had never
been born.
Subject
: The Geriatrics of ‘Late Capitalism’: Looking for Forensic Evidence.
February
17, 2020
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The
geriatrics of ‘Late Capitalism’ recognizes the complexity of the pathogens that
have mutated within the system and the inadequacy of 19th–century
concepts like “structure” and “super-structure” to successfully diagnose the fatal illness.
It is widely believed today that organs once classified as existing within the
category of “super-structure” – such as laws, governments, religious beliefs, literary creations, etc. – are "moments" just as causal as are the economic relationships
and modes of production assigned to “the
base” of the social structure. In fact, there exists no linear cause-and-effect
relationship; no single prime mover is to be found in this system. Propaganda, Psychological Operations (PSYOP),
Marketing . . . all influence material production and the intensities of class relationships,
as much as does the notorious labor
exploitation and private profit motive. The obvious pathological state into which ‘Late
Capitalism’ has fallen is inexplicable without the assistance of Social
Psychology (an activity believed to reside, according to the “vulgar” Marxist
analysis, in the Super-Structure). But
contemporary Marxist scholars, like David Harvey, Bertell Ollman, and Richard
Wolff, suggest otherwise; they invite us to re-read Marx and to examine our own
lives over the past fifty years in light of our careful reading.
The
body of ‘Late Capitalism’ lies on the table - dying, but not dead ; and the
gravediggers are eagerly assembled, waiting to play their historic role. But
the prognosis is not complete, and we stand around waiting, wondering, wanting
to know what will follow the demise of this spasmodic old tyrant, ‘Late Capitalism’,
who has grown so rigid in his old age and seems to be determined, more than ever, to take us all
down with him: “Après moi, le déluge!”
It
is in this vein that we at CEIMSA have recently looked at the history of the
monetary system; to examine the role financial institutions have played in the
vastly complicated, interconnected system of capital accumulation, of which we
are all a part. [See past ceimsa bulletins, beginning
with our June 16, 2017 Bulletin
N° 757; then on to N°
834, cf. . . . .]
Early
attempts at analysis of the role played by banks and financial institutions in
capitalist production and in the reproduction of capitalist societies, are instructive
- not in the religious sense of the word, like the eastern religious teachings
from the Talmud, the Catechism, or the Quran, to be learned by heart and
internalized once and for all - but rather as a heuristic encounter pursuing
lines of thought, to see where they go and what additional questions they
raise.
These
early studies are sometimes flawed with gratuitous declarations of bigoted
beliefs and old prejudices, which perhaps once served to produce a sense of belonging to one community or another, but since
have mutated into pathological delusions, providing a false sense of security
against some amorphous threat. The perpetuation of such prejudices serves
no real purpose today, except the occasional opportunity to exploit the naiveté
of unaware persons, to recruit them to perform some unrewarding task, which they
would otherwise likely not choose to engage in. Such transcendent solidarity,
promoted by propaganda and psychological warfare (to displace class
consciousness), appears increasingly to be gratuitous. Identity politics, taken to its extreme, is one genre of this delusion.
It exists, in many cases, as an atavism
from past times – a dead-end reactive politics,
instead of collective preparation for proactive
change. Political propaganda and marketing techniques seem to have taken on
lives of their own, neutralizing self-knowledge and any consciousness of
collective self-interests, and producing instead a slippery slope pulling us down toward
guaranteed self-destruction. A refreshing exception to these early studies of US corporate
power and finance is found in Gabriel Kolko’s
influential book, The
Triumph of Conservatism, A Reinterpretation of American
history, 1900-1916 (1963).
Our venture into reading more about financial
institutions and economic history is not a religious quest, seeking a
confirmation of some received idea for self-identity. We simply wish to learn
how the political economy we live in functions, and what crippling affects it
has on us and on society in general.
About
11 years after Eustace Mullins (1923-2010) - influenced by the American
literary figure, Ezra Pound (1895-1972) - published his iconoclastic 200-page exposé, The
Secrets of the Federal Reserve (1952
edition), in which he proceeded to analyze the privately controlled interest-based monetary system of the Anglophone world, which for the past
hundred years has produced wars, famines and depressions unparalleled in human
history, a new book appeared on the same subject – longer, and more
accessible to the general public . G.
Edward Griffin (b.1931), holding a B.A.
in speech and communications at the University of Michigan, produced a riveting
595-page popular account of the role of central banking in the usury industry,
since the creation of the Federal reserve in 1913. Griffin’s book, The
Creature from Jekyll Island, A Second Look at the Federal Reserve (1998
edition) has gone through 42 printings and has been the beneficiary of
expert promotion drives.
The
two men, despite their many disputes, have taken an unpopular and intentionally
obscured subject and popularized it, escorting it on to front center stage for
public inspection, where it is now a common topic of conversation, openly discussed
in classrooms, offices and at public gatherings around the world. He who controls the money supply controls
the world.
In
the summary of his first chapter, Griffin explains the need for secrecy at the time
the Federal Reserve Banking System was created.
The
basic plan for the Federal Reserve System was drafted at a secret meeting held
in November of 1910 at the private resort of J.P/ Morgan on Jekyll Island of
the coast of Georgia. Those who attended represented the great financial institutions
of Wall Street
and, indirectly, Europe as well. The reason for secrecy was simple. Had it been
known that rival factions of the banking community had joined together, the
public would have been alerted to the possibility that the bankers were
plotting an agreement in restraint of trade – which, of course, is exactly what
they were doing. What emerged was a cartel agreement with five objectives: 1) stop
the growing competition from the nation’s newer banks; 2) obtain a franchise to
create money out of nothing for the purpose of lending; 3) get control of the
reserves of all banks so that the more reckless ones would not be exposed to
currency drains and bank runs; 4) get the taxpayer to pick up the cartel’s inevitable
losses; and 5) convince Congress that the purpose was to protect the public.
It was realized that the bankers would have to become partners with the politicians
and that the structure of the cartel would have to be a central bank.(p.23)
The
Federal Reserve System was conceived as a private profit-making enterprise, and
in terms of its true goals, stated above in the five objectives, “it has been an unqualified success.”(p.23)
At
the start of his introduction, Griffin reproduces a 1957 satire published in
the British magazine Punch which illustrates
the private profit motive of ubiquitous interest-based money and private dept,
the foundation of the private banking industry.
In
the second chapter, Griffin pursues this theme of deception. He entitles
Chapter 2 of his book, “The Name of the Game is Bailout,” and proceeds to use a
sports analogy to explain the rules of the game and dispel confusion.:
in order to be able to see how “the federal government [is] an agent for
shifting the inevitable losses from the owners of banks to
the taxpayers.”
To understand how banking losses are
shifted to the taxpayers, it is first necessary to know a little bit about how
the scheme was designed to work. There are certain procedures and formulas
which must be understood or else the entire process seems like chaos. It is as
though we had been isolated all our lives on a South Sea island with no
knowledge of the outside world. Imagine what it would then be like the first
time we travelled to the mainland and witnessed a game of professional
football. We would stare with incredulity at men dressed like aliens from
another planet; throwing their bodies against each other; tossing a funny shaped
object back and forth; fighting over it as though it were of great value, yet,
occasionally kicking it out of the area as though it were worthless and despised;
chasing each other, knocking each other to the ground and then walking away to
regroup for another surge; all this with tens of thousands of spectators riotously shouting in unison
for no apparent reason at all. Without a basic understanding that this was a
game and without knowledge of the rules of that game, the event would appear as total chaos and
universal madness.
The operation of our monetary system
through the Federal Reserve has much in common with professional football.
First, there are certain plays that are repeated over and over again with only
minor variations to suit the special circumstances. Second, there are definite
rules which the players follow with great precision. Third, there is a clear
objective to the game which is uppermost in the minds of the players. And
forth, if the spectators are not familiar with that objective and if they do
not understand the rules, they will never comprehend what is going on. Which, as far as monetary matters is concerned, is the common state
of the vast majority of Americans today.
Let us, therefore, attempt to spell out in
plain language what that objective is and how the players expect to achieve it.
To demystify the process, we shall present an overview first. After the
concepts are clarified, we then shall follow up with actual examples taken from
the recent past.
The name of the game is Bailout. As
stated previously, the objective of this game is to shift the inevitable losses
from the owners of the larger banks to the taxpayers. The procedure by which
this is accomplished is as follows . . . . (pp.25-26)
To
avoid trivializing these life-and-death maneuvers by comparing them to a
football game, Griffin quickly proceeds to everyday relationships in capitalist society,
and the careful calculations in financial institutions that determine so much
about the way we live, but which often appear counterintuitive to the uninitiated.
Griffin
summarizes the central banking procedure this way:
Although national monetary events
may appear mysterious and chaotic, they are governed by well-established rules
which bankers and politicians rigidly follow. The central fact to understanding
these events is that all the money in the banking system has been created out
of nothing through the process of making loans. A defaulted loan, therefore,
costs the bank little of tangible value, but it shows up on the ledger as a
reduction in assets without a corresponding reduction in liabilities. If the
bad loans exceed the size of the assets, the bank becomes technically insolvent
and must close its doors. The first rule of survival, therefore, is to avoid writing
off large, bad loans and, if possible, to at least continue receiving interest
payments on them. To accomplish that, the endangered loans are rolled over and
increased in size. This provides the borrower with money to continue paying
interest plus fresh funds for new spending. The basic problem is not solved,
but it is postponed for a little while and made worse.
The final solution on behalf of the banking
cartel is to have the federal government guarantee payment of the loan should the
borrower default in the future. This is accomplished by convincing Congress
that not to do so would result in great damage to the economy and hardship for
the people. From that point forward, the burden of the loan is removed from the
bank’s ledger and transferred to the taxpayer. Should this effort fail and the
bank be forced into insolvency, the last resort is to use the FDIC to pay off
the depositors, The FDIC is not insurance, because the presence of ‘moral
hazard’ makes the thing it supposedly protects against more likely to happen. A
portion of the FDIC funds is derived from assessments against the banks.
Ultimately, however, they are paid by the depositors themselves. When these
funds run out, the balance is provided by the Federal Reserve System in the form
of freshly created new money. This floods through the economy causing the appearance of rising
prices but which, in reality, is the lowering of the value of the dollar. The
final cost of the bailout, therefore, is passed to the public in the form of a
hidden tax called inflation.
So much for the rules of
the game. In the next chapter we shall look at the scorecard of the
actual play itself. . . . . (p.39)
Meanwhile,
a contemporary Marxist description of the capitalist system includes David
Harvey’s “map of interrelated moments of cultural and economic transformations”
which aims to clarify the “totality” of capital formations.
Totality and
Capital
A suggested map of 10
interrelated moments which have historically interacted to reproduce capitalist
relationships
Reproduced from David Harvey lecture,
January 30, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-LHV5dn7fU
By
separating the capitalist system into interrelated moments, he seeks to explain
what phenomena interact to reproduce capitalist relationships and how these
different moments link together to form a totally, keeping in mind that
different moments reveal the totality,
but do not determine it. This search is oriented towards systemic
influences, and not towards identifying final causes.
While
reading about the history of central banks over the past one hundred years, we focuse on specific moments in the history of institutions.
After gathering information at this level, we broaden the optic of our
microscope to include other moments on our map, moments that were linked to these
institutions, until we grasp the “totality” of capitalist relationships and how
they have changed over the past 100 years.
The 20+ items below are articles and essays produced on the battle field
of class struggle, where propaganda and psychological warfare aim at disarming resistance
and protecting the accumulation of capital in the hands of fewer and fewer
people. The discussions and presentations below should serve to protect us from
the worst aspects of such alienation, while we wrestle for control
over our own lives against authoritarian state actors, the servants of capital.
While the technology of social control is more precise than ever, it has been widely perceived that its accuracy is greatly flawed, and what
passes as control is truly chaos, in the most morbid sense of the
term. Our self-selected rulers and their allies have all but lost their
credibility. As social structures weaken, they must revert increasingly to rapport de force.
Francis
Feeley
---
Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur de Researches
Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego
a.
When a black swan flies over a house of
cards: The Coronavirus & global collapse
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52959.htm
by
Jerry Kroth
It
looks like a very rare bird finally landed on our planet.
Moody’s Analytics called the coronavirus “a Black
Swan like no other.” Ditto for Anthony Fauci,
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who
says, “It’s very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a
pandemic.”
One respected Wall Street analyst said the disease will impact both global
supply and demand and ultimately “paralyze China.”
But Wall Street shrugged off these prognostications and is in such a mania of
late, it managed to convince itself—on almost no evidence at all— that the
virus is curable. Not only has it discounted the pandemic, but its ditzy moods
pushed markets to all time highs as if to show its scorn for any intrusion
sanity which might otherwise interrupt the frenzy.
Stephen Roach, former Morgan Stanley chief economist, says Wall Street’s mania
is ludicrous: “This is a market where if you declared it was World War III,
they would rally on reconstruction!”
Tesla doubled in value in less than a month. Nothing seems to temper the
delirium.
But Frances Collins, NIH Director, says this disease is serious and transmissibility
is incredible. One person was infected after only 15 seconds of exposure —and
that was at a distance.
The fact is this disease is only in its incipient stages, its transmissibility
is horrific, and frankly we haven’t seen anything yet.
So let us dig down into some of the implications. Take a look for a moment at
the house of cards—that is the world economy— over which this black swan is
flying. It sits upon a foundation of an unimaginable $253 trillion in debt, something the IMF repeatedly has warned is excessive
and egregious.
+
Powell testimony: Fed is 'closely
monitoring' coronavirus for impact
by Ylan Mui
& Jeff Cox
+
How to Yellow-Cake a Tragedy: The New York Times
Spreads the Virus of Hatred, Again
https://www.blackagendareport.com/how-yellow-cake-tragedy-new-york-times-spreads-virus-hatred-again
by
K.J. Noh
+
A Most Convenient Virus
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52988.htm
by
Dmitry Orlov
I prefer to write on things I know about, but once
in a while an opportunity presents itself for me to comment on some aspect of
widespread mistrust and confusion while resting on a solid foundation of my
professional curiosity. This is the case of the 2019-nCoV novel coronavirus. A lot of the elements of the coronavirus story just don’t add up, and that’s what I want
to explore. At the outset, I want to make it clear that I am no expert on these
matters. Is 2019-nCoV a genetically engineered biological weapon or is it a
naturally evolved strain of a virus that is endemic in China’s bat population?
This we don’t know, but it is interesting to look at the plausibility of each
of these scenarios and also to consider whether what we are observing could be
a combination of a little of each.
As a biological weapon of mass destruction, 2019-nCoV isn’t particularly good.
On the plus side, it is highly contagious and can be spread by infected
individuals who are not showing any of the symptoms, such as fever and
shortness of breath. On the minus side, the mortality rate is a mere 2.1% and
is likely to trend down because this rate does not account for a potentially
huge number of young, healthy people who contracted the virus but never developed
any symptoms, were never tested for it, and will never know that they had
survived it. For a virus to be potent as a bioweapon,
its kill ratio needs to be optimized for killing the largest possible number of
its victims, but doing so slowly enough so that the victims don’t die before
they have a chance to spread the infection.
Another minus: the average age of those who succumb to it is around 65, making
it rather ineffective in impairing the productive capacities of a nation, be
they industrial or military, since many of those who die are past their peak
productive years or retired. In fact, taking a rather cynical view, this virus
could be rather helpful in reducing the burden of economically unproductive
sick an elderly people who, in an aging Chinese population, and given the
respect Chinese society traditionally gives to its elders, consume a growing
share of the country’s resources.
+
Xi Jinping appears in
public as China returns to work after holiday
by
Lily Kuo
===========
b.
Mexico Is Showing the World How to Defeat Neoliberalism
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mexico-is-showing-the-world-how-to-defeat-neoliberalism/
by
Ellen Brown
While U.S. advocates and local politicians struggle
to get their first public banks chartered, Mexico’s new president has begun
construction on 2,700 branches
of a government-owned bank to be completed in 2021, when it will be the largest
bank in the country. At a press
conference on Jan. 6, he said the neoliberal model had failed; private
banks were not serving the poor and people outside the cities, so the
government had to step in.
+
3 Reasons Why the Stock Market is Headed
for a Devastating Crash
https://www.ccn.com/3-reasons-why-stock-market-headed-for-devastating-correction/
by Ayush Singh
The Chinese economy has come to a standstill due to coronavirus. With earnings and buybacks falling, a stock
market crash seems inevitable.
+
Household
debt jumps the most in 12 years, Federal Reserve report says
by
Jesse Pound
Total household debt balances rose by $601 billion
last year, topping $14 trillion for the first time, according to a new
report by the Fed branch. The last time the growth was that large was 2007,
when household debt rose by just over $1 trillion.
Fed economists said on the Liberty Street Economics blog that the growth was driven
mainly by a large increase in mortgage debt balances, which rose
$433 billion and was also the largest gain since 2007.
Housing debt now accounts for $9.95 billion of the
total balance. Balances for auto loans and credit cards both increased by $57
billion for the year, according to the Fed.
The economists said in the blog post that credit
cards have again surpassed student loans as the most common form of initial
credit history among young borrowers, following several years after the crisis
when student loans were higher.
+
Consumer insolvencies approach record in
debt-weary Canada
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/consumer-insolvencies-approach-record-in-debt-weary-canada-1.1387954
by Chris Fournier
===========
c.
Weimar Germany Hyperinflation Explained
(The Truth About
History's Most Infamous Hyperinflation Horror Story)
https://www.businessinsider.com/weimar-germany-hyperinflation-explained-2013-9
by Matthew Boesler
+
When Did the Stock Market Crash?
https://www.thebalance.com/when-did-the-stock-market-crash-4158559
by
+
“Panic: The
Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis”
(1:35:53)
Documentary with
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President
Timothy Geithner, and Federal Reserve Chair Ben
Bernanke
===========
d.
"Francisco's Money Speech"
https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/
by Ayn Rand
+
Wall Street duo make $150m
each on back of Trump election victory
by Julia
Kollewe
(July 24, 2017)
+
The ECB and Fed are hoping the public will give them
a new direction
by Silvia Amaro
Central banks are experiencing a soul-searching
moment as they look to strengthen their popularity after the global financial
crisis — an exercise that could ultimately change how they operate.
The European Central Bank
(ECB) is hosting its first “listening event” in Brussels next month. President Christine Lagarde is set to
discuss with European citizens the role of the central bank across the
19-country region. However, the ECB is not the first
major central bank to organize such events. The U.S. Federal Reserve
announced in late 2018 that it would be reviewing its work, which included
several “Fed Listens” events across the country. The results are
set to be unveiled in the first half of 2020.
“The ECB is simply imitating the Fed, and both are
doing the public consultations because they feel insecure as their instruments
seem to have lost ‘bite,’” Daniel Gros, the director
of the Brussels-based think tank CEPS, told CNBC via email.
===========
e.
Learn the Warning Signs of the Next Stock Market
Crash
https://www.thebalance.com/warning-signs-of-next-stock-market-crash-4147361
by Barbara Friedberg
+
"Prof. Wolff on Trump's Economic Shell
Game"
(38:38)
with RJ Eskow
& Richard Wolff
+
"Understanding Socialism: Redefining the Value
of Labor"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJo0JuKNWkg&feature=youtu.be
(24:59)
with
Richard Wolff
+
New Documentary "Coded Bias" Explores How
Tech Can Be Racist And Sexist : Code Switch
by Jennifer 8. Lee
===========
f.
Lords of the Universe
US
agreed to counter Iran in Iraq while Israel fights it in Syria; Israeli
"defense" minister
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52963.htm
by
Nati Yefet and Judah Ari
Gross
Defense
minister also expresses opposition to mainly relying on bombing Iranian arms
shipments to Hezbollah, saying ‘for every convoy you hit, you miss five’
Jerusalem and Washington have divided up the fight
against Iran, with Israel taking responsibility for countering the Islamic
Republic in Syria and the United States in Iraq, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Saturday.
Last Thursday, Bennett returned from a working visit
to Washington, in which he met US Defense Secretary Mark Esper
and other senior American officials.
Speaking at a campaign event on Saturday, he said
the two countries had agreed to work in tandem to block Tehran’s efforts to
create a corridor through which it could move men and materiel from Iran,
through Iraq and Syria, and out to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea.
“I met with my colleague the American defense
minister Mark Esper, and we sorted out the
coordination exactly — they’re taking Iraq, and we’re taking Syria,” Bennett
said at a synagogue in the Tel Aviv suburb of Givat Shmuel.
A Pentagon spokesperson said he could not comment on
the matter, but said, “the United States Department of
Defense remains committed to a strong military partnership with Israel, as well
as the enduring defeat of [Islamic State] in Iraq.”
+
Israel Just Admitted Arming Syrian Rebels
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52962.htm
by
Daniel J. Levy
In his final days as the Israel Defense Forces’
Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot confirmed, on
the record, that Israel had directly supported anti-Assad Syrian rebel
factions in the Golan
Heights by arming
them.
This revelation
marks a direct break from Israel’s previous media policy on such matters. Until
now, Israel has insisted it has only provided humanitarian aid to civilians
(through field hospitals on the Golan Heights and in permanent healthcare
facilities in northern Israel), and has consistently denied or refused to
comment on any other assistance.
In short, none other than Israel’s most (until
recently) senior serving soldier has admitted that up until his statement, his
country’s officially stated position on the Syrian civil war was built on the lie of non-intervention.
As uncomfortable as this may initially seem, though,
it is unsurprising. Israel has a long history of conducting unconventional
warfare. That form of combat is defined by the U.S. government’s National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 as "activities
conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt or
overthrow an occupying power or government by operating through or with an
underground, auxiliary or guerrilla force in a denied area" in the pursuit
of various security-related strategic objectives.
While the United States and Iran are both
practitioners of unconventional warfare par excellence, they primarily tend to
do so with obvious and longer-term strategic allies, i.e. the anti-Taliban
Northern Alliance fighters in Afghanistan, and various Shia militias in post-2003 Iraq.
In contrast, Israel has always shown a remarkable
willingness to form short-term tactical partnerships with forces and entities
explicitly hostile to its very existence, as long as that alliance is able to
offer some kind of security-related benefits.
The best example of this is Israel’s decision to arm
Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War, despite the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strong
anti-Zionist rhetoric and foreign policy. During the 1980s, Iraq remained
Jerusalem’s primary conventional (and arguably existential) military threat.
Aiding Tehran to continue fighting an attritional war against Baghdad reduced
the risk the latter posed against Israel.
Similarly, throughout the civil war in Yemen in the
1960s, Israel covertly supported the royalist Houthi
forces fighting Egyptian-backed republicans. Given Egypt’s very heavy military
footprint in Yemen at the time (as many as a third of all Egyptian troops were
deployed to the country during this period), Israelis reasoned that this
military attrition would undermine their fighting capacity closer to home,
which was arguably proven by Egypt’s lacklustre
performance in the Six Day War.
Although technically not unconventional warfare,
Israel long and openly backed the South Lebanon Army, giving it years of
experience in arming, training, and mentoring a partner indigenous force.
More recently, though, Israel’s policy of supporting
certain anti-Assad rebel groups remains consistent with past precedents of with
whom and why it engages in unconventional warfare. Israel’s most pressing strategic
concern and potential threat in Syria is an Iranian encroachment onto its
northern border, either directly, or through an experienced and dangerous proxy
such as Hezbollah, key to the Assad regime’s survival.
For a number of reasons, Israel committing troops to
overt large-scale operations in Syria to prevent this is simply unfeasible. To
this end, identifying and subsequently supporting a local partner capable of
helping Israel achieve this strategic goal is far more sensible, and realistic.
Open source details of Israel’s project to support
anti-Assad rebel groups are sparse, and have been since the outbreak of the
Syrian civil war.
Reports of this first arose towards the end of 2014,
and one described how United Nations officials had witnessed Syrian rebels
transferring injured patients to Israel, as well as "IDF soldiers on the
Israeli side handing
over two boxes to armed Syrian opposition members on the Syrian side."
The same report also stated that UN observers said they saw "two IDF
soldiers on the eastern side of the border fence opening the gate and letting
two people enter Israel."
Since then, a steady stream of similar reports
continued to detail Israeli contacts with the Syrian rebels, with the best
being written and researched by Elizabeth Tsurkov. In
February, 2014 she wrote an outstanding feature
for War On The Rocks, where she identified Liwaa’ Fursan al-Jolan and Firqat Ahrar Nawa
as two groups benefiting from Israeli support, named Iyad
Moro as "Israel’s contact person in Beit Jann," and stated that weaponry, munitions, and cash
were Israel’s main form of military aid.
She also describes how Israel has supported its
allied groups in fighting local affiliates of Islamic State with drone strikes
and high-precision missile attacks, strongly suggesting, in my view, the
presence of embedded Israeli liaison officers of some kind.
A 2017 report published by the United Nations
describes how IDF personnel were observed passing supplies over the Syrian
border to unidentified armed individuals approaching them with convoys of
mules, and although Israel claims that these engagements were humanitarian in
nature, this fails to explain the presence of weaponry amongst the unidentified
individuals receiving supplies from them.
+
From: Ariel Gold, CODEPINK [mailto:info@codepink.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2020 4:57 PM
To: fancis feeley
Subject: More sinister than ISIS?
Dear fancis, Did you hear about the Facebook ad
by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) attacking
Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida
Tlaib, and Betty McCollum? Next to
pictures of the three congresswomen, the ad read: “It’s critical that we
protect our Israeli allies especially as they face threats from Iran, Hamas,
Hezbollah ISIS and — maybe more sinister — right here in the U.S. Congress,”
Really? Supporting freedom, equality, and human rights for Palestinians is
worse than ISIS? Betty McCollum responded to AIPAC’s ad by stating that,
“AIPAC’s language is intended to demonize, not elevate, a policy debate. Vile
attacks such as this may be commonplace in the Trump era, but they should
never be normalized. Hate speech is intentionally destructive and
dehumanizing, which is why it is used as a weapon by groups with a stake in
profiting from oppression… AIPAC claims to be a bipartisan organization, but
its use of hate speech actually makes it a hate group.” AIPAC is attacking McCollum because of her legislation in
Congress to end Israeli military detention and abuse of Palestinian children.
It is attacking Omar and Tlaib because they have
taken brave positions as the first two members of Congress to support the
nonviolent boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS). AIPAC is
desperate. While it used to force Congress to provide unquestioned support
and cover for Israel, its stranglehold is rapidly evaporating. Last year,
thanks to pressure from CODEPINK, If Not Now, Jewish Voice for Peace, Move On
and others, almost all the 2020 candidates skipped the AIPAC conference. Take a moment
to email your Senators, Representative and the 2020 presidential candidates.
Ask them to tell AIPAC that they have no tolerance for hate speech and
support freedom, dignity, and human rights for all. Tell
them to skip the 2020 AIPAC conference. We’ve been protesting AIPAC for years and we are happy to see
this right-wing lobby losing power. It is a good sign for American democracy,
a good sign for Palestinian rights, and even in the long-term interests of
Israel. Together, let’s make the 2020 AIPAC conference the lowest attendance
yet. Towards peace, |
|
This email was sent to francis.feeley@u-grenoble3.fr.
To unsubscribe, click here. To update your email
subscription, contact info@codepink.org. © 2020 CODEPINK.ORG | Created
with NationBuilder |
|
+
NATO’s eastward
expansion and large-scale drills near Russian borders may lead to unpredictable
consequences and it's time for Europe to change course, Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov told the Munich Security Conference.
Europe is where
the "crisis of confidence"
in international relations is felt the most, Foreign Minister Lavrov said as he took to the stage, explaining that "the structure of the Cold War rivalry
is being recreated" on the continent.
"Escalating tensions, NATO's military infrastructure advancing to
the East, exercises of unprecedented scope near the Russian borders, the
pumping of defense budgets beyond measure – all this generates
unpredictability,"
he added.
He then called
on Europe to focus on security cooperation and helping to uphold international
treaties, instead of following a policy of confrontation.
Give up on promoting the phantom of the 'Russian threat' or any other
threat – before it's too late – and remember what unites us all.
===========
g.
Israel
bombs Damascus as Syrian Arab Army advances in Idlib
https://thewallwillfall.org/2020/02/06/israel-bombs-damascus-as-syrian-arab-army-advances-in-idlib/
(February 6, 2020)
by Vanessa Beeley
+
Israel has played a key role in US aggression
towards Iran
(35:02)
with Gareth
Porter
+
Israel's role in Trump assassination of Qasem Soleimani
by
Nora Barrows-Friedman
+
Israel lashes out at UNHRC after LIST of companies
doing business in occupied Palestine is finally released
A swimming pool in the West Bank
settlement of Vered Yericho
© Reuters / Ronen Zvulun
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has released a
long-delayed database of firms doing business in the occupied Palestinian
territories. The anodyne, well-hidden document was denounced by Tel Aviv as
‘shameful capitulation.’
The document lists 112 companies operating in the
occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights. The vast majority are Israeli firms, and their number is
significantly less than the 206 corporations hinted at when the idea of the
database was initially floated back in 2017. Its publication Wednesday in a
difficult-to-locate corner of the UNHRC website is nevertheless provoking
strong reactions from Israel and its most strident ally, the US.
+
Israeli Blocking of Palestinian Exports to Jordan
Shows Reality of Apartheid That the Kushner Plan Would Only Cement
by
Juan Cole
+
Did Israel use civilian airliner as human shield?
(28min)
+
Abby Martin Sues Georgia Over Israel Loyalty Oath
Law
(20:16)
with
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and The Partnership for Civil
Justice Fund (PCJF)
+
AIPAC is a ‘hate group’ ‘weaponizing
anti-Semitism’, says US Congresswoman
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum
+
Poll: Labour members say
anti-Semitism crisis "invented"
by Asa Winstanley
===========
h.
Palestine in Pictures: January 2020
https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-january-2020/29466
+
Israel kills four Palestinians in West
Bank
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-kills-four-palestinians-west-bank-0
by Maureen Clare Murphy
+
The IDF Spokesman Announces: Continue to Shoot
Palestinian Children
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52989.htm
by
Gideon Levy
Israeli soldiers shoot children. Sometimes they
wound them and sometimes they kill them. Sometimes the children wind up brain
dead, sometimes disabled. Sometimes the children have thrown rocks at the
soldiers, sometimes Molotov cocktails. Sometimes by chance they wind up in the
middle of a confrontation. They almost never put the soldiers’ lives in danger.
Sometimes the soldiers intentionally shoot at the
children, sometimes by mistake. Sometimes they aim at the children’s heads or
the upper body, and sometimes they shoot in the air and miss, hitting the
children in the head. That’s how it goes when a body is small.
Sometimes the soldiers shoot with the intent to
kill, sometimes to punish. Sometimes they use regular bullets and sometimes
rubber-coated bullets, sometimes from a distance, sometimes in an ambush,
sometimes at close range. Sometimes they shoot out of fear, anger, frustration
and a sense of having no other option, or a loss of control, sometimes in cold
blood. The soldiers never see their victims afterward. If they saw what they
caused, they might stop shooting.
Israeli soldiers are allowed to shoot children.
Nobody punishes them for shooting children. When a Palestinian child is shot
it’s not a story. There’s no difference between the blood of a small
Palestinian child and the blood of a Palestinian adult. They’re both cheap.
When a Jewish child is hurt, all of Israel shakes,
when a Palestinian child is hurt, Israel yawns. It will always, always find a
justification for soldiers shooting Palestinian children. It will never, never
find a justification for children throwing stones at soldiers who raid their
village.
For six months a boy named Abd
el-Rahman Shatawi has been
convalescing at the rehabilitation hospital in Beit Jala. For 10 days a relative of his, Mohammed Shatawi, has been at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, in Jerusalem. Both are
from the village of Qaddum in the West Bank. Israeli
soldiers shot them both in the head. They shot regular bullets from a great
distance at Abd el-Rahman
as he stood at the entrance to a friend’s home, they
shot a rubber-coated bullet at Mohammed from a nearby hilltop as he tried to
hide from them down the same hill. The army said he had set a tire on fire.
Abd el-Rahman is 10 and looks
small for his age. Mohammed is 14 and looks older than he is. These are the children
of the Palestinian reality, both hanging between life and death. Theirs and
their parents’ lives have been destroyed. Abd el-Rahman’s father drives him home from Beit
Jala to Qaddum once a week
for a weekend in the village, Mohammed’s father doesn’t stray from the doorway
of the neuro-intensive care unit at Hadassah Ein Karem, where he’s alone
facing his son and his fate. Neither of these children should have been shot.
Neither should have been shot in the head.
After Abd el-Rahman was shot the army spokesman’s office said that
“during the incident a Palestinian minor was wounded.” After Mohammed was shot
the spokesman said: “A claim about a Palestinian who was wounded by a rubber
bullet is known.” The office is familiar with the complaint. The army spokesman
is the voice of the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF is a people’s army, therefore the IDF spokesman also speaks for Israel.
The spokespeople publish their bloodcurdling
statements from a new office tower in Ramat Aviv near Tel Aviv, where the office
recently moved. They refer to a 10-year-old boy as a “Palestinian minor” and
remark that “the Palestinian claim is known” about a boy fighting for his life
because soldiers shot him in the head. The dehumanization of Palestinians has
reached the IDF spokespeople. Even children no longer rouse human sentiment
such as sorrow or mercy, certainly not in the IDF.
===========
i.
Syrian military helicopter shot down amid tensions with
Turkey
+
Turkey hits back at Russia claims over Syria's Idlib
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/turkey-hits-russia-claims-syria-idlib-200215103337565.html
+
But would anyone notice? CNN breaks ‘report’ of Syrian
airstrikes… from 2018
CNN
readers anxious to get updates on the Syrian war have been treated with a fresh
report on the “regime’s atrocities” citing the usual suspects… or it would only
seem so, as the network reran a two-year-old story instead.
Citing the
UK-based and rebel-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the story claims that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad killed at least 71 people and injured 325
others in a series of airstrikes on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.
Published this week, the report is featured on CNN website’s ‘World’ and
‘Middle East’ sections.
The only problem is that Ghouta
has been under the control of Assad’s government for nearly two years. Homes in
the region are being rebuilt, not leveled by bombs.
In fact, CNN ran the same story, word for word, back in February 2018. The same
paragraphs detailing the horrendous bombing appeared, along with a handy
get-out-clause: “CNN could not independently verify the claim.”
So why tell old news again? Did the network feel the
need to remind its readers again which side they should take in Syria’s
eight-year civil war? Did its editors slip in an old story under the radar to
bulk up its weekend coverage?
===========
j.
Earth
Sees Hottest January on Record: NOAA
+
Corporate Philanthropy Is a Downright Lie
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/corporate-philanthropy-is-an-downright-lie/
by Jim Hightower
+
The Clinton Machine Will Do Anything to Stop Bernie
Sanders
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-clinton-machine-will-do-anything-to-stop-bernie-sanders/
by
Robert Scheer
+
US enters brutal
ideological civil war as four-party system begins to take form
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52973.htm
by Slavoj Zizek
Despite Trump’s impeachment victory, the US is
entering into an ideological civil war, because the real conflict is not
between the Democrats and the Republicans, but within each of those parties
themselves.
Two weeks ago, while promoting his new film in
Mexico City, Harrison Ford said that “America
has lost its moral leadership and credibility.”
Really?
When did the US exert moral leadership over the world? Under
Reagan or Bush? They lost what they never had, ie,
they lost the illusion (the “credibility”
made in Harrison’s claim) that they’ve had it. With Trump, what was already
true merely became visible.
Back in 1948, at the outset of the Cold War, this
truth was formulated with brutal candor by US diplomat and historian George
Kennan: “[The US has] 50 percent of
the world’s wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population. In this situation,
our real job in the coming period…is to maintain this position of disparity. To
do so, we have to dispense with all sentimentality…we should cease thinking
about human rights, the raising of living standards and democratisation.”
In this we find an explanation of what Trump means
by “America first!” in much
clearer and more honest terms. So we should not be shocked when we read that “the Trump administration, which came into
office pledging to end ‘endless wars,’ has now embraced weapons prohibited by
more than 160 countries, and is readying them for future use. Cluster bombs and
anti-personnel landmines, deadly explosives known to maim and kill civilians
long after fighting has ended, have become integral to the Pentagon’s future
war plans.”
Those who act surprised
by such news are simply hypocrites: in our upside-down world, Trump is innocent
(not impeached) while Assange is guilty (for
disclosing state crimes).
===========
k.
Three Extraordinary Australian Journalists:
Burchett, Pilger & Assange
by Rick Sterling
+
Wikileaks Editor in Chief Kristinn
Hrafnsson on Julian Assange
(10:36)
+
What Is Happening to Assange
Will Happen to the Rest of Us
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/what-is-happening-to-assange-will-happen-to-the-rest-of-us/
by Chris Hedges
+
After 10 months’ silence, UK Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn warns against extradition of
Julian Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/02/13/assa-f13.html
by Oscar Grenfell
and Chris Marsden
Julian Assange Wins 2020
Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/10/julian-assange-wins-2020-gary-webb-freedom-of-the-press-award/
by Joe
Lauria
+
"Coup of the century”: Countries bought rigged
#CIA encryption device
https://mobile.twitter.com/rt_com/status/1227985783363031041
&
https://www.rt.com/news/480627-cia-spied-swiss-firm/
+
How does our
government get away with this?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52984.htm
by Andrew P.
Napolitano
“The Framers … conferred, as against the
Government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and
the right most valued by civilized men.”
— Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)
While we were all consumed by impeachment, a
pernicious piece of legislation was slowly and silently making its way through
Congress. It is a renewal of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act of 2001 has three sections that are
scheduled to expire on March 15. One of those sections is the infamous 215,
which authorizes the federal government to capture without a warrant all
records of all people in America held by third parties.
Do we really want the federal government to spy
without warrants? How can Congress, which has sworn to preserve, protect and
defend the U.S. Constitution, legislate such a blatant
violation of it? Here is the backstory.
+
State-Backed Alliance for Securing Democracy Smears The Grayzone
by Alex
Rubinstein
===========
l.
The Spider's
Web: Britain's Second Empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8&feature=youtu.be
(1:18:01)
(Documentary inspired by Nicholas Shaxson's book Treasure
Islands)
+
Britain's
poisoned legacy in Palestine
https://electronicintifada.net/content/britains-poisoned-legacy-palestine/29281
by Rod Such
===========
m.
'This is what panic looks like': Sanders team hits
back after Wall Street criticism
+
Detroit
Overtaxed Residents by $600M, Causing Foreclosure Crisis. Residents Are Now
Fighting Back.
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/2/14/detroit_class_action_lawsuit_foreclosures
===========
n.
More Lies on
Iran: The White House Just Can’t Help Itself as New Facts Emerge
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52985.htm
by Philip Giraldi
Admittedly the news cycle in the United States
seldom runs longer than twenty-four hours, but that should not serve as an
excuse when a major story that contradicts what the Trump Administration has
been claiming appears and suddenly dies. The public that actually follows the
news might recall a little more than one month ago the United States
assassinated a senior Iranian official named Qassem Soleimani. Openly killing someone in the government of a
country with which one is not at war is, to say the least, unusual, particularly
when the crime is carried out in yet another country with which both the
perpetrator and the victim have friendly relations. The justification provided
by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking for the
administration, was that Soleimani was in Iraq planning
an “imminent” mass killing of Americans, for which no additional evidence was
provided at that time or since.
It soon emerged that the Iranian was in fact in
Baghdad to discuss with the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi
a plan that might lead to the de-escalation of the ongoing conflict between
Saudi Arabia and Iran, a meeting that the White House apparently knew about may
even have approved. If that is so, events as they unfolded suggest that the
U.S. government might have encouraged Soleimani to
make his trip so he could be set up and killed. Donald Trump later dismissed
the lack of any corroboration of the tale of “imminent threat” being peddled by
Pompeo, stating that it didn’t really matter as Soleimani was a terrorist who deserved to die.
+
The Belief That
Everything Will Be Fine Once Trump’s Gone Is More
Dangerous Than Trump
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52979.htm
by Caitlin
Johnstone
The New
Hampshire primary election, much like the Iowa caucuses, saw Bernie Sanders doing worse
than polls anticipated and establishment
favorite Pete Buttigieg doing much better than
polls anticipated.
Buttigieg closed at a tight second place behind Sanders and
both were awarded the
same number of delegates, which
with the bizarre Iowa shenanigans means the former South Bend mayor is
now leading the pack in total delegates despite receiving fewer votes than
Sanders in both states.
So of course “Buttigieg
leads” is the information that the mainstream media is placing special emphasis
on today.
It is entirely possible that we’ll continue seeing
strange electoral results combined with mass media manipulation result in Buttigieg riding a contested convention into a superdelegate-boosted nomination, even if Sanders has more
votes overall. We have at this point in time seen no reason to believe that
Sanders will be able to secure the
number of delegates needed to prevent such an occurrence.
Then you’ve got racist
Republican oligarch Mike Bloomberg jumping on the ballot come Super
Tuesday, with his $300
million+ ad campaign throwing more chaos into the mix. Billionaire
Bloomberg’s unprecedented campaign spending power has enabled him to push up just shy of
second place in a recent Quinnipiac national poll despite having no
redeeming characteristics and no real goal agenda apart from stopping Sanders,
which is as clear an illustration as you’ll ever see of the power of money in US
politics.
===========
o.
A Step Towards Nuclear Doomsday
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
by Scott Ritter
US Puts
Low-Yield Nukes on Submarines in Response to Made-up Russian ‘Escalate to
Deescalate’ Strategy
The US has deployed “low-yield” nuclear missiles on
submarines, saying it’s to discourage nuclear conflict with Russia. The move is
based on a “Russian strategy” made up in Washington and will only bring mass
annihilation closer.
In a statement released earlier this week, US Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood announced that “the US Navy has
fielded the W76-2 low-yield submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM)
warhead.” This new operational capability, Rood declared, “demonstrates to potential adversaries that there is no
advantage to limited nuclear employment because the United States can credibly
and decisively respond to any threat scenario.”
The threat underpinning justification for this new US nuclear deterrent had its
roots in testimony delivered to the House Armed Services Committee in June 2015
by US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, who declared that “Russian
military doctrine includes what some have called an ‘escalate to deescalate
strategy’ – a strategy that purportedly seeks to deescalate a conventional
conflict through coercive threats, including limited nuclear use.”
However, any review of actual Russian nuclear doctrine would have shown this to
be a false premise. Provision 27 of the 2014 edition of ‘Russian Military
Doctrine’ states that Russia “shall reserve the right to use nuclear
weapons in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass
destruction against it and/or its allies, as well as in the event of aggression
against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the
very existence of the state is in jeopardy. The decision to use nuclear weapons
shall be taken by the President of the Russian Federation.”
===========
p.
The U.S. is
formally accused of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court
assange
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52983.htm
by TeleSur
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza
arrived in The Hague (Netherlands) on Thursday to file a complaint with the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against the United States and
its sanctions.
During his meeting with the Court, Arreaza exposed the crimes against humanity
perpetrated by the U.S. government in its failed attempt to
overthrow Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
Currently, the economic, financial, and commercial
sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump administration have prevented
Venezuela from accessing international markets.
As a consequence, the Venezuelan people's
rights to health, food, and development have been systematically violated.
"We have the right, the obligation, and the
responsibility to protect our people," Arreaza said
at a press conference held after handing over the documentation of the case to
the Hague court.
"The consequences of U.S.
coercive unilateral measures are crimes against humanity and violate both
international laws and the United Nations Charter."
===========
q.
Does Capitalism Invariably Breed Fascism?
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/does-capitalism-invariably-breed-fascism/
(18:57)
with
Greg Wilpert & William I. Robinson
===========
r.
AIPAC Is Helping
Fund Anti-Bernie Sanders Super PAC Ads in Nevada
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52987.htm
by Ryan Grim, Akela Lacy
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is
helping to fund a Super PAC launching attack ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders in
Nevada on Saturday, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement.
The ads are being run by a group called Democratic Majority for Israel, founded
by longtime AIPAC strategist Mark
Mellman.
The Nevada attack ads, which will air in media
markets in Reno and Las Vegas, follow a similar spending blitz by DMFI ahead of
the Iowa caucuses. Like the ads that aired in Iowa, the Nevada ads
will attack Sanders on the idea that he’s not electable, Mediaite
reported.
DMFI spent $800,000 on the Iowa ads, while the spending
on the Nevada ads remains private. AIPAC is helping bankroll the anti-Sanders
project by allowing donations to DMFI to count as contributions to AIPAC, the
sources said. As is typical with most big-money giving programs, the more a
donor gives to AIPAC, the higher tier they can claim — $100,000 level, $1
million level, and so on — and the more benefits accrue to them. A $100,000
donor gets more access to members of Congress at private functions, for
instance, than someone who merely pays AIPAC’s conference fee. A $1 million
donor gets still more, which means that it is important to donors to have their
contributions tallied. There is also status within social networks attached to
one’s tier of giving. The arrangement allows donors to give directly to DMFI,
which is required to file disclosures naming its donors, without AIPAC’s
fingerprints.
+
Oligarch Buys
Political Party - Seeks to Become President
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52993.htm
by Moon Of Alabama
Mike Bloomberg is the world's ninth richest person. An oligarch known for strong racism
and insulting
sexism
who once was the Republican mayor of New York City. He since decided
that he wants to become president.
As he saw no chance to run for a Republican party
that is happy with Trump he filed to run as a Democratic candidate. Bloomberg
has since bought
the Democratic Party in every state as well as the DNC:
The DNC told Mike Gravel they wouldn't change the
debate rules for any candidate. "That's our #1 rule - we can't change the
rules for anybody."
A few months later, they changed the debate rules to
let oligarch Bloomberg into the debates... after he gave the DNC $300K.
His political
tactic is
very simple. He does not talk about issues, as people would not like what
he has to say, but simply spends
tons of money:
He’s dropping huge sums of money: on staff
and resources, on TV
advertisements, and on Facebook ads, where Trump has long dominated. And he’s
attempting to overcome his stodgy public image with the help of a meme
army and through well-catered campaign events seemingly designed to
convince voters that life under a wealthy technocrat might not be so bad. “I
think it’s classy,” one supporter told
the Times at a Philadelphia
campaign rally complete drink station and a selection of cheesesteaks,
hoagies, and brie-and-fig appetizers. “I feel like it’s a nightclub in here.
This is what he needs to get people going.”
To this date Bloomberg has spent more than $350
million for his campaign. He is willing and can afford to put several billions
into it.
+
Why Bernie Is
Democrats’ Best Hope to Beat Trump
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52990.htm
by Finian Cunningham
Maybe the Democratic Party should sometimes listen
to President Trump for a change instead of reflexively deriding him at every
turn. The party is desperate to beat the Republican incumbent whom it hates
with a vengeance. So as the Democrats prepare to nominate their presidential
candidate from a crowded field, who gives them the best chance at winning the
election in November?
According to the president himself, it is Bernie
Sanders, whom he fears most.
Asked whether Trump would prefer to run against
Sanders or billionaire tycoon Michael Bloomberg, the president said
this week: “Frankly, I’d rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders,”
speaking to reporters at the White House. “Because Sanders has real followers,
whether you like him or not, whether you agree with him or not. I happen to
think it’s terrible what he says.
But he has followers. Bloomberg’s just buying his
way in.”
Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City and media
mogul, is spending tens of millions of dollars to promote himself as the
Democratic presidential candidate. The party will nominate its candidate at a
convention in Milwaukee in July.
But as the Democrat primaries get underway across
the US, it is Bernie Sanders, the 78-year-old senator from Vermont, who has
shown the early lead. The self-declared socialist won the popular vote in Iowa
last week despite a debacle over delegate counts. This week, Sanders topped the
ballot in the state of New Hampshire.
Later this month, the Democrat campaign moves on to
Nevada and South Carolina before the Super Tuesday races take place in
heavyweight states like California and Texas.
In his victory speech in New Hampshire, Sanders told
ecstatic supporters: “We’re going to Nevada, we’re going to South Carolina,
we’re going to win those next as well… Let me say that this victory here is the
beginning of the end for Donald Trump.”
===========
s.
Veterans of
Foreign Wars, Demanded a Presidential Apology
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52986.htm
by Helen Ubiñas
Trump insisted no troops were seriously injured in
Iraq, but a Philly vet’s final words show the true cost of war.
It’s been six weeks since Rosalind Williams’
30-year-old son, Army veteran Corey Michael Hadley, took his own life.
When grieving the death of a child, that’s a moment.
A blink of an eye, a flip of a calendar. Barely enough time for Williams to pick herself up and return to
her Northeast High School classroom where she teaches science.
And yet in that small window, 900 other military
parents have been dealt the same blow — left behind to try to find the rhythm
of a life that they’ve lost after losing their children to suicide. According
to the most recent data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 20
veterans, active-duty service members and members of the National Guard and
Reserve, die by their own hand every day. |
In the quiet that followed the initial flurry of
collective shock and grief after his death on Jan. 2, Williams sat with her
anguish. She went through old photographs, collected new ones from his funeral
and military interment. She read, and reread, the numerous news stories written
about her son after the family spoke unsparingly about his death.
“His wounds were slow-acting and invisible, but
nonetheless crippling and fatal,” the family said in a statement that spoke of
his struggles with depression and PTSD after six years and three tours of duty
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Just as she did when she and the family struggled to
find the right way and words to describe the loss of her son, Williams has
continued to consider the cause of his death. His PTSD and the mental-health
issues that medicines and other interventions failed to help — those were
merely symptoms, torturous as they were, of what really ailed him. Instead, his
mother believed: What finally cost him his life was the traumatic brain injury
he suffered after the Army sharpshooter’s multiple deployments. Even in his
final letter to his family, which she read aloud to me at her dining-room
table, he spoke about it.
“I’m so sorry for doing this to you,” Hadley wrote.
“I am so grateful to have been born into a loving, strong family.
"Sadly I’m not as strong as you may think I am.
I have endured for as long as I could. My brain feels as though it’s swelling
within my head. My ankles do not support my weight causing me to lose balance
often and my heart ... my heart feels as though there is a black hole in the
center of it sucking in all positive emotions allowing them to never leave and
me never truly feeling happiness.”
Hadley’s family knew his mental health had
deteriorated after the infantryman and sharpshooter returned home in 2013. But
the wounds he and so many others experience remain invisible to many, including
the president of the United States.
In January, Trump announced that “no Americans were
harmed” when Iran fired
over a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Even
after the Pentagon said 34 U.S. troops were diagnosed with concussions or
traumatic brain injury following the attack, he downplayed the injuries and
said compared with “people with no legs and no arms,” they were “not very
serious injuries.” He only doubled down after it was recently announced that
109 U.S. troops were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury from the
attack.
“I won’t be changing my mind on that," he said
during an interview with Fox Business.
Veterans
advocates, led by the 1.6 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, demanded
a presidential apology.
+
County in rural
Kansas is jailing people over unpaid medical debt
COFFEYVILLE,
Kan. - Tres and Heather Biggs' son Lane was
diagnosed with leukemia when he was five years old. At the same time, Heather
suffered seizures from Lyme disease.
CBS News
"We had so
many — multiple health issues in our family at the same time, it put us in a
bracket that made insurance unattainable," Heather Biggs said. "It
would have made no sense. We would have had to have not eaten, not had a
home."
Tres Biggs was
working two jobs but they fell behind on their medical bills, then the
unthinkable happened.
"You
wouldn't think you'd go to jail over medical bills," Tres
Biggs said.
Tres Biggs went to
jail for failing to appear in court for unpaid medical bills. He described it
as "scary."
"I was
scared to death," Tres Biggs said. "I'm a
country kid — I had to strip down, get hosed and put a jumpsuit on."
Bail was $500.
He said they had "maybe $50 to $100" at the time.
In rural
Coffeyville, Kansas, where the poverty rate is twice the national average,
attorneys like Michael Hassenplug have built
successful law practices representing medical providers to collect debt owed by
their neighbors.
"I'm just
doing my job," Hassenplug said. "They want
the money collected, and I'm trying to do my job as best I can by following the
law."
That law was put
in place at Hassenplug's own recommendation to the
local judge. The attorney uses that law by asking the court to direct people
with unpaid medical bills to appear in court every three months and state they
are too poor to pay in what is called a "debtors exam."
If two hearings
are missed, the judge issues an arrest warrant for contempt of court. Bail is
set at $500.
Hassenplug said he gets
"paid on what's collected." If the bail money is applied to the
judgment, then he gets a portion of that, he said.
"We're
sending them to jail for contempt of court for failure to appear," Hassenplug said.
In most courts,
bail money is returned when defendants appear in court. But in almost every
case in Coffeyville, that money goes to pay attorneys like Hassenplug
and the medical debt his clients are owed.
t.
We’re All in This Together: A Case for Not Giving Up on the American Dream
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52978.htm
by John W. Whitehead
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”—Benjamin Franklin
Listen: we don’t have to agree about everything.
We don’t even have to agree about most things.
We don’t have to love each other. We don’t even have to like each other. And we certainly don’t need to think alike or dress alike or worship alike or vote alike or love alike. But if this experiment in freedom is to succeed—and there are some days the outlook is decidedly grim—then we’ve got to find some way of relating to one another that is not toxic or partisan or hateful or so self-righteous that we’re doomed to failure before we even start.
America has been a warring nation—a military empire intent on occupation and conquest—for so long that perhaps we, the citizens of this warring nation, have forgotten what it means to live in peace, with the world and one another.