Syria… Yemen, same modus operandi
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33338647
About 1,200 prisoners, including al-Qaeda suspects, have escaped from a prison in central Yemen, officials say.
There were clashes at the prison in the central town of Taiz ahead of the break out.
Yemen is in the grip of its most severe crisis in years, as competing forces fight for control of the country.
The country was thrown into turmoil after the Houthi rebels forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee to Aden and then to Saudi Arabia.
It is not clear how the prisoners escaped.
State news agency Saba quoted a security official as saying that the prison had come under attack from al-Qaeda supporters.
However, another official told Reuters news agency that the inmates had fled amid heavy clashes between warring militias.
AP news agency said the prison guards had deserted their posts following clashes between Houthi rebels and their opponents, citing a security source.
It is the third major jailbreak in Yemen since a Saudi-led air campaign against the rebels began on 26 March.

Posted by: Mina | Jun 30 2015 19:47 utc | 4

5
If Greece isn’t the death knell for Friedman meoliberal economic theory of the whole world going to the cats, then surely Puerto Rico is, as both their governments and their borrow-and-spend freewheeling cronyism is not one twit different from Feds QEn to their Banksterling cronies, and none of them will ever pay back their deadbeat debts, so Greece and Puerto Rico are just HARBINGERS for the greater unpayable external debts implosion of the various EU and US states.
53% or so USAryans work for or are on contract to Mil.Gov borrow-and-spending Wehrmacht. We have reached critical debt mass. For all the prattle about debt being ‘immoral’ and babies and bathwater, that 《a href=”http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=5573&source=GovDelivery”》DEBT《/a》 will hit $20 TRILLION and zoom right on by, condemning every human outside that credit-debt system to death by a thousand hot millions.

Posted by: Chipnik | Jun 30 2015 21:57 utc | 6

“…Friedman [n]eoliberal economic theory…”

You’re conflating ideas here…neoliberal policy is ideologically opposed to public investment by sovereign governments. It believes (dictates) that all funding must be obtained through banking institutions, that countries must obtain their surplus ‘income’ by selling their production to foreigners, and that ‘markets’ rather than governments, should be relied on to manage economies. A finance theory of monetary systems. Monetarism. Fiscal theory is associated mainly with Keynesianism, capitalism managed by the fiscal authority.
How have the ‘markets’ managed economies of late? Or ever?
If Greece had control of it’s own currency instead of using a foreign currency (which makes Greece equivalent to a private borrower, or a U.S state, ) it wouldn’t be in this particular straight-jacket, although any monetary system can be mis-used through incompetence and/or greed, which Greece gas a history of.

“53% or so USAryans work for or are on contract to Mil.Gov borrow-and-spending Wehrmacht.”

With U.S. federal spending at $3.9T and Gross private Domestic Investment (GPDI) at $2.9T, it’s more like 57%, but then, spending=income, so would we be better off with it or without it? The problem is we should be spending it on building stuff rather than blowing stuff up. That and, without U.S. Govt. money-printing (spending) the economy would be a tiny fraction of what it is and we would all be living like the Amish. The fiscal authority is the spender of last resort, and we obviously don’t have enough of it, or we wouldn’t have such high unemployment.
As far as debt is concerned, private debt is the killer, the U.S. Govt voluntarily pays interest on previously-created money, essentially creating savings accounts for huge sums of money, and will always be able to pay the interest, since it creates the money (and the Fed sets the interest rate). The U.S. Government has no reason to ‘borrow’ that which only it has the power to create (Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution).
China, et al can’t create dollars, they can only put them in savings accounts at the Fed (what we call bonds…their only other choices are a mattress or safety deposit box) and economies can’t grow without growth in the money supply (well, they never have).
Banks create zero net dollars. It’s banking that blew up the World economy, not government money printing. The same as all previous credit crises…we call them banking crises for a reason.
The belief that the ‘market’ sets interest rates should now forever be debunked by 7 years and counting of zero-interest-rate policy dictated by the Fed (not to mention Japan), the ultimate arbiter of interest rates. The’market’ quivers in fear every time the Fed threatens to raise rates. This is the only thing ‘debt-free-money” advocates have in their toolkit, that the ‘market’ will someday raise interest rates and public debt will become unsustainable. I suppose I should say ‘had”, but as we know, zombies are hard to kill.
Hard (impossible) to have compound interest on our savings and investments if we don’t have compound spending by some entity, and for the U.S the U.S. Congress is that entity.

Posted by: paulmeli | Jun 30 2015 23:10 utc | 8

@8
I agreed with all of what you said until you called our nemesis “zombies”. My read would call them the vampires with the zombies being the brainwashed and faith breathers among us. Read Monsters of the Market by David McNally for a historical/anthropological rendering of the beasts called vampires and the zombie victims.
I have said for some time that as goes Greece, so goes the 99%. Greece is the knife point target within the existing Empire of the ongoing Shock Doctrine Monetarists behavior. If Greece exits the EU and gets financial help from the new China led AIID, it is time to dump your US dollars……and it can’t happen too soon for me.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 1 2015 1:43 utc | 10

NSA — Despite Claiming It Doesn’t Engage In Economic Espionage — Engaged In Economic Espionage…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 1 2015 4:26 utc | 12

9
FOX is in full battle-rattle with nano-doc-psyopmercials ala Goldwater’s famous little-girl-with-daisy-voiceovercountdown-nuclearmushroomcloud video ad, only now it’s allfast cutaways and jump shots, some anonymous Joint Chief, then some anonymous Heritage Foundation wonk, the smirking Ayatollah, then Obama and finally a ferocious Netanyahu, of our 51st state, morphing into a nuclear missile launching behind a growling super: Don’t Let Iran Get the Bmob!
I’ve said all along Syria was just the next chess move before Tehran, and Greece is just the pre-show before the Big Squeeze by IMF/WB on countries who must pay back fully 100% of the principal as interest, now how did they structure that installment plan, WHEN IT’S ALL FUNNY MONEY ANYWAY!!?

Posted by: Chipnik | Jul 1 2015 5:40 utc | 14

@8

and economies can’t grow without growth in the money supply (well, they never have).

In other words, capitalism is a Ponzi scheme, that why ALL other Ponzis are illegal.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 1 2015 7:21 utc | 16

Another Black Church Burning Haunts South Carolina

Firefighters in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, were called out Tuesday night to Mount Zion AME Church after it was reported to be on fire, local news agencies reported, only days after the FBI announced it was investigating a string of arson attacks on Black churches.
This is the second time the church has been on fire. In 1995 the church was burned to the ground by former Ku Klux Klan members.
1. Last Monday, the College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church in Tennessee was burnt. And
2. on Tuesday, God’s Power Church of Christ in Georgia was intentionally set on fire.
3. On Wednesday Briar Creek Baptist Church in North Carolina was burned in the middle of the night, causing $250,000 in damage.
4. And on Friday, the Glover Grove Missionary Baptist Church in South Carolina and
5. Greater Miracle Apostolic Holiness Church in Florida were both set on fire. The church in South Carolina was completely destroyed.
On Sunday, the FBI launched an investigation into a series of fires that occurred in five predominantly Black churches across the country.
Although the FBI has not found the people responsible for the fires or any links between the events, three of the five incidents were ruled as arsons. The others are still being investigated.

The good ole boys are havin’ fun, just like in the good ole days.
I guess the FBI got caught flat-footed, with all their best people running entrapment scams on Muslims.
Don’t worry Dixie, Louis Farrakhan rides to the rescue of the Stars and Bars.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2015 8:14 utc | 18

18
Of course those two would come out for ‘No’, …because ‘Yes’ immediately proves the GYN OR MO US LIE behind State:Bank credit:DEBT collusion is, there is no such thing as ‘trickle down’, and you can’t ‘borrow’ your way out of deflation recession created by looting the citizens. All it does is, Karzai is the pre-eminent example, create a Mil.Gov elite and a bankrupt national State.
Who wants to move to the economic miracle of Friedman economics, Kabul, with a GDP the size of Texas, entirely borrowed, then burrowed into Dubai, London, Paris, San Francisco, gentrified $Ms condos this GYN OR MO US LIE has created.
Where I live, the Gubernator borrowed $Bs from Goldman to hide huge holes in the budget before the inexplicable losses could be audited, then built a massive $100Ms state office building, give all State workers 14% wage increases and pensions for life, even pensions for life for all elected officials, even if they only serve 3 years!!! And now they’really jacking up taxes and utilities 17%, claiming they’re running out of money, well yeah, look at your crony State, nepotism rampant, everyone in his extended family holds a Mil.Gov department title, even if they have never held a job!
Friedman economics simply creates a soviet state elite, higher taxes and fees, and perpetual, unparalleled debt.

Posted by: Chipnik | Jul 1 2015 8:52 utc | 20

19) great analysis.
18) It is a lot about mentality. Berlin’s semi ruling conservatives grew up on an ideology of “devaluation is a crime”, “debtors are morally weak, saving up for bad times is morally good”, “unemployed people are lazy, if you want to work you can work”, they now have to explain Keynesian policies to their constituency or risk conflict with Southern Europe and France.
This here is a good summary of the Berlin-Greek drama

Despite having experienced an angry German government almost push Greece out of the Eurozone in 2012 first hand, I never thought we’d be standing at this crossroads again. It took many of us – advisers, EU technocrats, American politicians and some academics several weeks to convince the key-decision makers in Berlin not to pull the trigger, and it was far from obvious we would be successful. In the end Chancellor Merkel took a fateful decision to overrule the finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who remained unconvinced.
Living through this process was hell not least because economic arguments, financial calculations and political scenarios are not ideal for changing the minds of often-ideological lawyers that form the core of the German financial policymaking community. For them it was less about the economics and more about rules and morality.
To be fair to them, when Greece first announced in late 2009 that it had been understating its deficit figures for years, German policymakers were amongst the first to seriously countenance debt restructuring for Greece. However, word from Trichet at the ECB as well as active lobbying by large German and French banks convinced them otherwise. They were told that restructuring Greek debt would trigger a major financial crisis through losses that the banking system could not afford to bear and through potential contagion to other Eurozone sovereign bond markets.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 1 2015 9:50 utc | 22

@20
Thanks for the link to the ISIS reel, I found the 9/11 reel after I watched the first. They are very dense and slick propaganda pieces. All the information in each has been available before … and they offer to make it available again with the click of a mouse, at least for the ISIS reel.
But not long ago, ‘even here at MoA!’, the deniers rallied and … there is no way of convincing someone whose faith has been challenged, or who feels complicit and ashamed, or who feels not up to the task of doing something to stop the onrolling juggernaut.
I really don’t know what is going to become of us, but if nothing is done to finally stop what has already been in motion for the past decade or two … well, the ends they are seeking are obvious.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2015 12:01 utc | 24

http://english.almanar.com.lb/adetails.php?eid=218755&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=18&s1=1
The Zionist entity officially admitted on Tuesday that the security zone created by the armed groups to protect its borders with the Syrian Golan Heights became a fait accompli according to an agreement signed between both parties.
The Zionist Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon confirmed that the entity has agreed on providing the assistance and support for the terrorist armed groups operating in the Golan and deployed on the northern borders of occupied Palestine in return for being committed to prevent attacks against the Zionist targets in the area.
Yaalon stressed that the agreement entered into force and became a fait accompli proved by the absence of any attack against Zionist targets in the areas controlled by these groups, where as the vast majority of the attacks are launched from areas controlled by the Syria army.
In addition to the Zionist entity claims about asking the militant groups to be apart from the Druze in the villages adjacent to the borders, Yaalon said that the occupation authorities have called on these groups not to hurt the Syrian Druze in that area as a condition for receiving Tel Aviv assistance.
~~~
Yaalon moreover accused some Druze in the Israeli-occupied Golan and north of Palestine of supporting the group that was provoked by the attacks against the Syrian Druze.
He defended the armed groups actions, and said they are committed not to launch any attack against Israel.
Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the western media reports accuse countries, mainly the USA, Turkey and Saudi Arabia of orchestrating the civil conflict in the country and providing terrorist groups with money, weapons and trained mercenaries.
Several reports by Western media outlets and intelligence services revealed that the Zionist entity is directly supporting the takfiri groups. Hundreds of the injured terrorists were taken for treatment in Zionist hospitals.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 1 2015 12:22 utc | 26

Islamic State Group Threatens to Topple Hamas

The Islamic State group threatened to topple the Hamas resistance movement on Tuesday and take control of the Gaza Strip, since it considers that the organization that rules the Palestinian territory is insufficiently stringent about religious enforcement.
“The rule of sharia (Islamic law) will be implemented in Gaza, inspite of you,” said a masked Islamic State group militant in a video statement and added that the group will uproot the state of Israel, Hammas and the U.S.-backed Palestinian faction Fatah.

The US/IL are going to sic their pet bulldogs on the Palestinians in Gaza … you have to wonder that the ‘Sunnis’ haven’t yet caught on to just who it is the ISIS is working for.
It’s the Muslim inversion of the betrayal of 9/11. The Americans were ‘convinced’ that 9/11 was the work of their Muslim enemies, and the Middle Eastern Muslims are convinced that ISIS is the work of their Muslim friends.
The authors in each case were/are the same, and they aren’t Muslims.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2015 13:00 utc | 28

Chipnik @7 on deforestation
Frequently enjoy your poetic take. A short while ago there was an excellent articl at Counterpunch about the success of, I think it was “reforestation projects,” something like what you seem to be doing, but on a much larger scale. And how quickly and effectively these projects “restore” and could renew life on earth. So many great informative and noteworthy writings at this point in time! Which of course I forgot to save. . .
Anyway, with for example Fukishima, and the death of the Gulf of Mexico, I wonder if all that could be done to reclaim the earth is more or less fruitless at this point in time. Alł we can do is die trying!

Posted by: geoff29 | Jul 1 2015 13:46 utc | 30

Follow-up:
I think that if the Greek government described such possible commercial opportunities (if they have been smart enough to think of and explore the possibilities) before the referendum, the likelihood that the ‘NO’ vote wins would increase dramatically.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 1 2015 14:36 utc | 32

I hope Junker gets 20 years older in the next 4 days

Posted by: Mina | Jul 1 2015 15:10 utc | 34

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1, 2015 10:49:02 AM | 32
Hmm, Schäuble seems to be under serious attack.
This here is the New York Times.

In the home’s library, the two men spoke about Greece’s prospects and begun discussing ways for the European Union to keep the country in the eurozone.
To Mr. Geithner’s dismay, however, Mr. Schäuble took the conversation in a different direction.
“He told me there were many in Europe who still thought kicking the Greeks out of the eurozone was a plausible — even desirable — strategy,” Mr. Geithner later recounted in his memoir, “Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises.” “The idea was that with Greece out, Germany would be more likely to provide the financial support the eurozone needed because the German people would no longer perceive aid to Europe as a bailout for the Greeks,” he says in the memoir.
“At the same time, a Grexit would be traumatic enough that it would help scare the rest of Europe into giving up more sovereignty to a stronger banking and fiscal union,” Mr. Geithner wrote. “The argument was that letting Greece burn would make it easier to build a stronger Europe with a more credible firewall.”
Fast-forward three years. What Mr. Schäuble articulated that summer afternoon to Mr. Geithner is finally taking shape ….
The E.C.B.’s decision also has another important purpose outside of Greece: It might be a warning to countries like Spain and Italy, should they ever consider following Greece out of the eurozone — if that comes to pass.
It may seem counterintuitive, but rather than make a Greece exit easy and seamless to avoid dislocations in financial markets, the E.C.B. has the perverse incentive to make it messy and difficult to deter others.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 1 2015 17:06 utc | 36

I like Jackroabbit’s idea. The Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards could make a killing by trading with the huge part of the world currently under sanction by the US/EU cabal. Russia and Iran are cash/resource rich, and the Southern European countries would be industrial powerhouses if they could do business in the places the Germans, by Washington decree, could not.
These are also the states that have the most to lose with a Middle East in turmoil. Let Italy, Spain, and Greece take the lead – along with China and Russia – in getting Libya back on its feet, and Syria too. It’s time for those who get the shitty end of the stick of Washington’s policy of chaos to say “No!”.
Let the revolt be complete. The kicking of Greece out of the EU will be the first step of a huge exit of all the Southern European countries. They can form the industrial heartland of a new “non-aligned movement” and do honest business outside of the diktat of Washington’s increasingly syphilitic power elite.

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 1 2015 19:00 utc | 38

No Okie just watch the speech given by Tsipras this afternoon and you’ll understand

Posted by: Mina | Jul 1 2015 19:10 utc | 40

More from Francis’ encyclical. I’m editing to what to me are the most powerful parts, but I’m also attempting to give a full impression of the whole so that it isn’t misleading.
Chapter 3 is called “THE HUMAN ROOTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS” and I was going to skip it thinking it would be a rehash of ecology science, but it is far more than that. It is a critique of man’s approach to technology and free market economics. Francis notes, rightfully, that the technological progress of late is concentrated in few hands. Francis calls for “resistance” and a revolution in the culture to deal with todays problems instead of techno-bandaids which will only exacerbate the problems. Francis maintains that so much of what is considered “good” for the economy, is in fact “bad” for humanity. As an example, he makes a call for full employment – an idea absolutely antithetical to post-Cold War, neo-liberal capitalism.
It is a tremendous attack on the idea that things – the economy, society, poverty, questions of power – will simply “take care of themselves” through “rational self interest” of the actors involved. It is a huge call for the recognition that, without the application of morality and spirituality, everything we hold dear – our freedom and our humanity – is at risk.

“Nuclear energy, biotechnology, information technology, knowledge of our DNA, and many other abilities which we have acquired, have given us tremendous power. More precisely, they have given those with the knowledge, and especially the economic resources to use them, an impressive dominance over the whole of humanity and the entire world…. In whose hands does all this power lie, or will it eventually end up? It is extremely risky for a small part of humanity to have it.”
“The fact is that “contemporary man has not been trained to use power well”…we cannot claim to have a sound ethics, a culture and spirituality genuinely capable of setting limits and teaching clear-minded self-restraint.”
“The basic problem [is that] it easy to accept the idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology. It is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry beyond every limit.”
“We have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups…Our capacity to make decisions, a more genuine freedom and the space for each one’s alternative creativity are diminished.”
“The technocratic paradigm also tends to dominate economic and political life….Finance overwhelms the real economy. … Some circles maintain that current economics and technology will solve all environmental problems, and argue, in popular and non-technical terms, that the problems of global hunger and poverty will be resolved simply by market growth….. Their behaviour shows that for them maximizing profits is enough. Yet by itself the market cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion….the deepest roots of our present failures, which have to do with the direction, goals, meaning and social implications of technological and economic growth.”
“Ecological culture cannot be reduced to a series of urgent and partial responses to the immediate problems of pollution, environmental decay and the depletion of natural resources. There needs to be a distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, policies, an educational programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm.”
“Yet we can once more broaden our vision. We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral. Liberation from the dominant technocratic paradigm does in fact happen sometimes, for example, when cooperatives of small producers adopt less polluting means of production, and opt for a non-consumerist model of life, recreation and community… Will the promise last, in spite of everything, with all that is authentic rising up in stubborn resistance?”
“There is also the fact that people no longer seem to believe in a happy future;… There is a growing awareness that scientific and technological progress cannot be equated with the progress of humanity and history, a growing sense that the way to a better future lies elsewhere…All of this shows the urgent need for us to move forward in a bold cultural revolution.”
“Modern anthropocentrism has paradoxically ended up prizing technical thought over reality… When human beings fail to find their true place in this world, they misunderstand themselves and end up acting against themselves.”
“Modernity has been marked by an excessive anthropocentrism which today, under another guise, continues to stand in the way of shared understanding and of any effort to strengthen social bonds.”
“This situation has led to a constant schizophrenia, wherein a technocracy … sees no special value in human beings. …we cannot presume to heal our relationship with nature and the environment without healing all fundamental human relationships.”
“The practical relativism typical of our age is “even more dangerous than doctrinal relativism”…. the rise of a relativism which sees everything as irrelevant unless it serves one’s own immediate interests. There is a logic in all this whereby different attitudes can feed on one another, leading to environmental degradation and social decay.”
“The culture of relativism is the same disorder which drives one person to take advantage of another, to treat others as mere objects, imposing forced labour on them or enslaving them to pay their debts. The same kind of thinking leads to the sexual exploitation of children and abandonment of the elderly who no longer serve our interests. It is also the mindset of those who say: Let us allow the invisible forces of the market to regulate the economy, and consider their impact on society and nature as collateral damage. In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species? Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted? This same “use and throw away” logic generates so much waste, because of the disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary. We should not think that political efforts or the force of law will be sufficient to prevent actions which affect the environment because, when the culture itself is corrupt and objective truth and universally valid principles are no longer upheld, then laws can only be seen as arbitrary impositions or obstacles to be avoided.”
“[There is] the need to protect employment…[in] any approach to an integral ecology, which by definition does not exclude human beings, needs to take account of the value of labour… it is essential that “we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone” no matter the limited interests of business and dubious economic reasoning.”
“To ensure economic freedom from which all can effectively benefit, restraints occasionally have to be imposed on those possessing greater resources and financial power. To claim economic freedom while real conditions bar many people from actual access to it, and while possibilities for employment continue to shrink, is to practise a doublespeak which brings politics into disrepute.”
“In many places, following the introduction of these [GMO] crops, productive land is concentrated in the hands of a few owners due to “the progressive disappearance of small producers, who, as a consequence of the loss of the exploited lands, are obliged to withdraw from direct production”. The most vulnerable of these become temporary labourers, and many rural workers end up moving to poverty-stricken urban areas. The expansion of these crops has the effect of destroying the complex network of ecosystems, diminishing the diversity of production and affecting regional economies, now and in the future.”

He does make one irritating reference to “the millions killed by Naziism and Communism”.
I think it is time to make the point, especially in a tome like this, which must be inclusion of the millions killed by Cold War capitalism (not to mention the tens of millions killed by colonial capitalism). Its time for this charade to be over – this idea that somehow the USA actions during the Cold War were righteous and without victims as opposed to “Communism” which is made to sound as though it is waist-deep in the blood of “millions”. This is a sad misunderstanding of history. The Cold War battles of the USA – massacres, coups, and torture regimes from one end of the globe to the other – took far more lives than did the actions of those labeled “Communists” specifically during the Cold War. Many of the torture regimes have direct links back to the Nazis themselves, showing there is a far closer connection between the 20th Centuries “Big Three” ideologies than (Western) conventional wisdom allows for.
The USA won the Cold War for many reasons, but it did not do so with clean hands. Its time this lie falls. There is no system of power which is innocent. And this current hegemon, centered in Washington DC, has as much blood on its hands as any.

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 1 2015 19:58 utc | 42

guest thanks for the Pope’s encyclical. No wonder MSM and everybody else ran away from it fast as they could.
Also very nice comment on cold war crimes of US.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 1 2015 20:41 utc | 44

Re the Encyclical…
Posted by: guest77 | Jul 1, 2015 3:58:07 PM | 41
A surprise visit to a collection of intuitively lofty sentiments can be a pleasant experience but there are two things wrong with this one:
1. The source, which has an unbroken record of insular dishonesty, savagery and unmitigated abuse of power.
2. The Church is in its death throes so it’s hardly surprising that desperation has led to inspiration. Who would have dreamt that the Catholic Church would ever deign to clamber down from its pedestal and strike a blow for Personal Empowerment?
That’s an about-face of Biblical proportions.
It’s (not quite) jolly decent of the Church to confess that it was wrong all along but it’s too little, too late.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 1 2015 20:59 utc | 46

in re 46 —
It’s not like the ancients had private property or divine rulers, right? It’s all the Whore of Babylon’s fault. The development of capitalism in Northern Europe was just a spot of good luck, as those Protestant layabouts don’t give a tinker’s damn about money or property. It’s not like they didn’t adopt the Gregorian calendar for centuries just ’cause the Catholics came up with it. Or for them to deny evolution in favor of Biblical literalism.
Apart from that, a fair rant. Better psycho than history, though.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 2 2015 2:23 utc | 48

Catholic Church by country from Wikipedia

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 2 2015 2:31 utc | 50

@34
I was joking about Farrakhan’s ‘support’ for the confederate flag … but the confederate flag and the confederacy are the msm’s chosen ‘escape valve’ at this point … even counterpunch has a piece on the flag … and I thought Farrakhan was bringing it all back home where it belongs.
@35
Yeah, but from the USA, whose own geopolitical calculus has decided that Greece outside the EU might not be such a good idea afterall … and why not blame it all on the Germans in any case?
@37
Yeah!! That all sounds great to me.
Stathis Kouvelakis says

Workers feel the pressure of the situation created by the media hysteria and the closure of the banks. They are rather critical of the concessions made by the government during those exhausting “negotiations,” but in general they are confident in the victory of No. They expect this to be a new start for the Syriza government, with more of its program implemented.

It doesn’t really matter what the US/DE want any longer. It’s got beyond their control. And the MSM is just doing its best to completely muddy the waters. Or so it seems to me anyway. Monday is the day, isn’t it?

Posted by: jfl | Jul 2 2015 3:23 utc | 52

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/07/02/why-a-no-vote-in-the-referendum-is-a-yes-for-a-proud-greece-in-a-decent-europe-talking-with-phillip-adams-on-lnl-abc-radio-national/
radio interview, 13min

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 2 2015 6:22 utc | 54

NYT
Mixed Messages and No Progress as Greek Crisis Continues
By ANDREW HIGGINS 9:04 PM ET
European leaders have been saying distinct — sometimes directly contradictory — things about whether there’s still a bailout deal on the table, and whether they want Greece to hold its referendum.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 2 2015 7:11 utc | 56

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/us-venezuela-usa-exclusive-idUSKCN0PB5WR20150701
Exclusive: U.S., Venezuela launch quiet diplomacy to ease acrimony
WASHINGTON | By Lesley Wroughton
The United States and Venezuela have embarked on their most extensive dialogue in years in an attempt to improve their acrimonious relations, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
The quiet diplomacy, the extent of which has not been previously reported, is a sign that U.S. detente with Communist Cuba may be helping to reshape another troubled Latin American relationship. The official, who has direct knowledge of the high-level talks, cautioned that the process is at an early stage.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 2 2015 7:26 utc | 58

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 2, 2015 3:11:03 AM | 55
European German “leaders” are in an election campaign now trying to remove the Greek government. Martin Schulz, president of the EU parliament, came out with “we will help the Greek people, not this government”.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 2 2015 8:55 utc | 60

@59
Yeah, I just saw Schulz’ statement on Bloomberg – PoS

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 2 2015 9:32 utc | 62

32
I live far enough south where solar is a going deal. Everyone has solar yard lights, or a solar water heater. Most of them failed long ago, or the solar water heater blew its seams. A new solar-lighted parking lot I drive by at night has 58% of the lights dead already, not even two years old. Nobody parks there now, it’s darker than Hades on an industrial way.
I just got a cook’s tour of a 25MW solar field using the latest high-efficiency solar cells from Sun Power, …but how efficient, they were not willing to say. Nor were they willing to give me a mean-time-between-failure (MTBF), or what the efficiency drop is as one cell goes dark, …until some poor schmuck is sent out into a 40-acre field of dreams to sniff it out.
For awhile, I worked for a Chinese R/E developer, looking for LEED credits, back before LEED was seen as the tax scam that it was. I would ask solar developers who wanted to lease our properties and ‘provide you with royalties!’ exactly those questions, with no answers. I’d put my hands together on the table in front of me, and say, ‘You want a 20-year lease on the roof of our $80M condo tower, but you can’t tell me what the MTBF and drop in efficiency is, go frack your payback period bullhockey.’ Then they’d fold up their portfolio and leave.
Their roof penetrations were warrantied for 1 year. We’d have to perform the roof repairs. Their batteries were warrantied for 5. Replacement would come out of royalty streams. And their solar panels warrantied for 10 years, unless there was a wind or hail storm first. Again, replacement came out of royalties, until the break-even point where they would walk away, as so many have, then you’d have zero royalties and a roof full of dogstuff to remove.
Today you’re seeing the first of those MTBFs as areas of rooftop burst into electric flames. That’s when you find out your master insurance plan doesn’t cover lease-back installations, and your only recourse is to sue the solar installer. Oh, and notify all the condo owners that their roof may spontaneously combust at any time, but we have everything under control.
The Green Profit Train and Mil.Gov tax credits complicity has created a massive distortion, not only in the energy markets, but in science and technology itself. I won’t bore MoA with a long discussion. I’m Old Green, the Back to the Earth Greens, with a bunch of technology degrees, and I read all those Climate Change studies line by line at night. They’re garbage!
I’ll give you an example. Remember the ‘Tundra Releasing Massive Methane!!’ crisis from two years ago? Well, the Perfesser who did that study got his tax-funded summer fishing trip to Alaska, with a bunch of female grad students, no doubt, then he dug a trench in the tundra with a f’ing BACK HOE, covered it with plywood and plastic, and went off to fish. The study actually says there was no increase, no detectable difference between undisturbed tundra and the tundra Big Dig, …but that this study would, he has concluded, ‘INFORM THE SCIENCE.’
Then the Green Rags picked up his study title, We’re All Gonna Die from Tundra Methane’, and a bunch of green scientists got their wings, and a bunch of Alaska villagers got tax doles for housing, and Al Gore inched ever closer to his CBOT wet dream of a carbon credit market.
Long-winded reply, but everyone should realize you’re only being given the Holy Mother church sermon, then some Popular Science Green Fiction. You will never find the economic analysis, or the life-cycle analysis, or the energy balance analysis. Ain’t gonna happen.
You will be taxed and boned to make the Green Profit Chain a side business for Mil.Gov.
Hallelujah, and On to Mars With SpaceX!! That intelligent humans would not ride Elon Musk out of town on a rail, for chasing this $40T tax-funded Mission Mars abortion is astounding! Freidman Economics Tulip Mania at its finest. “Oh, but it will really improve our economy!!”
I should finish with a Happy Up. SunPower 3s, which stole the idea from innovator Waka Waka, is pushing solar reading lights into the 3W with your last life savings. It’s a great thing. I have a Waka Waka, and it kept me reading through i-less 48 hours after a major hurricane, together with my little $17 Sony ICF-S10MK2 battery radio waltz music. And I have friends in Afghanistan living with those solar lights, that solar radio and German solar well pumps.
Solar truly is a miracle at the bottom of the pyramid.
So if you can grow enough vegetables in vertical solar garden sun room racks on your little suburban 1/10th hectare lot, and covertly drill a solar well for when the City cuts you off, then you can live off the grid, and out of the grocery, in your starving solar shangrilai.
Then why 1W isn’t cashing out and moving to cheap farm properties in the 3W is beyond me.
A jug of oinochoē, a bag of rice, and your little Waka Waka paradise.

Posted by: Chipnik | Jul 2 2015 10:11 utc | 64

Chipnik says:
“A jug of oinochoē, a bag of rice…”
well, actually, the oinochoē IS the jug.
careful, don’t stumble on the Lighted Stairs.

Posted by: john | Jul 2 2015 11:05 utc | 66

john at 65 —
Nice song, I thought it sounded like an acoustic version of King Crimson from the “Discipline” era. Where did they find the vintage footage of assorted jets? Libations all around!

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 2 2015 11:54 utc | 68

Government may resign if Greeks vote yes in referendum: Minister

Responding to a question about whether the government will resign if people voted yes in the referendum, Varoufakis told Australian public radio network ABC on Thursday, “Yes, we may very well do that. But we will do this in the spirit of cooperation with whoever takes over from us.”

Makes sense. Why hang around and deal with what then becomes the Yay-sayers mess?

Posted by: jfl | Jul 2 2015 12:18 utc | 70

rufus magister
dunno where they got the footage(what are those markings anyway?). they are two bravi ragazzi from North Carolina with a very interesting blend.

Posted by: john | Jul 2 2015 13:46 utc | 72

What if Russia exempts Greece from its trade sanctions on EU agricultural (and other?) products if Greeks leave the EuroZone? Jackrabbit at 30.
Russia has to treat the EU as a block, that is where the sanctions come from. Switz. for ex. is not subject to these sanctions, and it has been selling some dairy products, cheese mostly, and fruit products (jam, flavors, alcohol, concentrate, powders and much more) to Russia like nobody’s bizness. However, there are limits on supply, and the trade, while welcome to the Swiss, so to speak, is a mini-blip on the chart as compared to energy, armaments, infrastructure building, for ex. Small beer. Small potatoes. Small yoghourt.
Greece actually has little in that line to export .. small, arid, and southern – geography is destiny. (So they exploited the sea, but that is another topic.) Take into account long, costly, transport routes. Russia could accept only if Greece left not only the Euro but the EU. The EU has been buying G agri products as much as it can under the ‘empathy and support for Greece’ thing. Greece getting together with Russia (which will not happen as is now clear, or not for now anyway) would have involved high-level energy deals, privatization, or public-private consortiums, with maybe public participation, in the areas of energy, transport (ports, refineries, shipping, but see gas transport routes, etc.), defense, and even banking…A bit of olive oil and Greek soap is neither here or there.
Not that Greece shouldn’t leave the EU.

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 2 2015 14:38 utc | 74

@68 jfl… i agree…
“It’s ironic that Netanyahu insists that there is no blockade while at the same time prohibiting the flotilla from reaching Gaza.”
what is ironic is the msm pushes this shit and some people believe it… that spineless leaders go along with it tells us where there priorities are..

Posted by: james | Jul 2 2015 16:01 utc | 76

“Chinese Oligarchs instead of Western Oligarchs”
Hahahahaha. This is the lowest form of intellectual slime so no surprise who it is dripping out of. To suggest that the “oligarchs” of China are in any way comparable to the real criminal oligarchs of the West.
We hear all the time people in the media talking out of both ends of their asses – on the one hand, China and Russia are “imperialist oligarchies” yet on the other hand, left wing parties like Syriza are criticized for “preferring China and Russia for ideological reasons”. So which is it? Are China and Russia “imperialist oligarchies” or are they “communist ideologues”? You can not have it both ways if you want to maintain credibility any longer – not that that’s something you’ve ever showed an interest in…
The super-wealthy Chinese, unlike the super-wealthy Westerners who control the governments of their nations, do not constitute in themselves a ruling class. The same goes for Russia. Though powerful, they do not control all the levers of state power in these two countries and the criminals among them are subject to arrest and prosecution and punishment. Something which cannot be said about the West where even rich pedophiles go free – and economic crimes are practically celebrated.
It’s clear from their weak appearance on Forbes billionaire list (for the world’s largest economy and largest population) as well as China’s Gini coefficent as measured by the World Bank (you might forgo the CIAs version for obvious reasons) or you might even consult the long list or arrested and even executed Chinese “oligarchs” as evidence that the super-rich in China are not considered above-the-law like their Western counterparts.
But for someone who thinks that even the blood-soaked fiends of ISIS are “brilliant”, we shouldn’t be surprised to find ever more examples of poor judgement and mistaken analysis, should we?

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 2 2015 18:44 utc | 78

The official endorsement of same-sex marriage in the USA is causing Starry & Stripey eyed Opus Dei warrior Tony Abbott a few problems. He is moving Heaven and Earth to frustrate all attempts to debate the issue in Parliament; thereby outing himself as the Pope’s Mini-Me.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 2 2015 22:36 utc | 80

John Perkins on Greece how-greece-has-fallen-victim-economic-hit-men

“Greece is being ‘hit’, there’s no doubt about it,” exclaims John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, noting that “[Indebted countries] become servants to what I call the corporatocracy … today we have a global empire, and it’s not an American empire. It’s not a national empire… It’s a corporate empire, and the big corporations rule.”

Posted by: Nana 2007 | Jul 2 2015 23:23 utc | 82

@83- yes and his stepdad was a Suharto henchman I believe, who never killed a man who wasn’t weak, or some damned thing. I’m rooting for financial collapse before Lady Macbeth ascends the mercy seat.

Posted by: Nana 2007 | Jul 3 2015 0:01 utc | 84

The fallout from the Greek showdown is not all falling on the wrong people …
Greek Crisis Sees World’s Wealthiest Lose Billions

The 200 top wealth holders of the world have been seriously affected by the collapse of world stock markets that followed Greece’s announcement to hold a referendum on the troika’s offer, reported Le Figaro.
According to the Bloomberg index on billionaires, they have lost almost US$88 bn in one week.
This amount included US$52.3 bn only on Monday, the day the world stock markets plunged.
On average, this represents a loss of about US$217.5 million for each of the top 200 billionaires, calculated the French news outlet.
The most impressive loss was the one of Spanish Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara and second wealthiest person in the world with US$69.2 bn, who lost US$3.5 bn – 3.2 percent of his fortune.
The richest man of the planet, Bill Gates, lost US$1.4 bn on Monday, while Warren Buffet lost US$1.6 bn – corresponding to what Greece owed to the International Monetary Fund.
Carlos Slim and Mark Zuckerberg also registered significant losses, respectively US$1.6 bn and US$0.94 bn

… although, in typical speculative-financier fashion, they probably picked up Greek debt for pennies on the euro and figure their – probably as yet unrealized – losses at face value.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 3 2015 5:51 utc | 86

@87
And haven’t they made it all back and gobs more since, Noirette?

Posted by: jfl | Jul 3 2015 22:49 utc | 88

@87
… unlike the people they stole it all from.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 3 2015 23:02 utc | 90

Of interest on Banderastan.
New Cold War has a pair of items on fascism in the Ukraine. Pravyi Sektor and the “Aidar” Battalion marched, demanding more war against Novorossiya (I did not watch the video BTW). Victor Shapinov of the Ukrainian left group “Borotba” (“Struggle”) explains the growth of Ukrainian fascism, pre- and post-Maidan.
This bit caught my eye. Amongst the factors producing the current fascist strength, from Shapinov’s presentation is the —

Failure of the “communist revenge” in 1999. The presidential candidate of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko, could have won the 1999 elections against right-wing incumbent President Leonid Kuchma. However, the Communist Party failed to unite with other leftists to support a single candidate, and then did not dare to oppose the unfair and rigged election results. This indecision at the top of the Communist Party led to disillusionment in the left’s ability to take power and return the country to the socialist path of development. After 1999, the Communist Party lost support from election to election. After President Yanukovych came to power in 2010, the Communist Party became part of the ruling coalition, abandoning the role of critic of the authorities’ socio-economic policies to the ultra-right forces.

It strikes me as similar to the experience of Weimar Germany. The Social Democrats used the proto-fascist Freikorps (supplied by the rump of the Imperial Army command) against the Communists. The resulting antagonism caused the weakness of the left against the Nazis.
In any case —

…the coming to power of openly fascist forces, as well as the transition of mainstream right-wingers (such as Poroshenko and Yatseniuk) to fascist positions, was predictable and to some extent natural in the developing global economic crisis.
While the fascist forces were prepared for the development of the Ukrainian crisis, our resistance forces were not….
Due to the fragmentation of resistance forces, there was no coherent ideology or common goal in the uprisings. However, the general anti-fascist and anti-oligarchic orientation was healthy and clearly reflects the proletarian and semi-proletarian class composition of the resistance….
We believe that Ukraine will be free, will be socialist.

A little too old-fashioned and Starry Eye’d for you? NCW also has a dollop of Realpolitik, served up hypocritically cold by UN Ambassador Samantha Power. Samantha Power lies to U.S. Congress about civilian shelling in Ukraine, and commits a felony.

She has made protection of human rights a hallmark of her career, yet she is one of the most energetic and committed boosters of the aggressive Ukrainian military campaigns in the East, which have featured the most barbaric human rights violations imaginable – shelling defenseless civilians – children and elderly, with horrific, blood-curdling casualties, visible for all to see in gory detail on Youtube.

That’s a yellow card for sure. If you doubt, check the replay for her answer on the question, might it “be possible that the majority of the civilian casualties killed in Ukraine were victims of the Ukrainian army.” It also conveniently presents the rules and explains the violation.
The ride is not my style, but it’s a nice cover, so we’ll be back to the game after this word from our sponsors.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 4 2015 1:56 utc | 92

“How World War III became possible”
“A nuclear conflict with Russia is likelier than you think”
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8845913/russia-war#redline

Posted by: Willy2 | Jul 4 2015 7:27 utc | 94

Ted Cruz calls on US to withdraw from UN rights body over Israel

“It is time to stop ceding moral authority to the UNHRC and tell the truth about this hopelessly biased and anti-Semitic institution,” Cruz said in a statement posted on his website Friday.
“The United States should stop legitimizing the UNHRC with our membership and withdraw now,” the Texas Republican added.
On Wednesday, Cruz said the Obama administration’s decision to reopen the US embassy in the Cuban capital, Havana, was a “slap in the face” of Israel.
Cruz called Obama’s announcement “unacceptable and a slap in the face of a close ally that the United States will have an embassy in Havana before one in Jerusalem (al-Quds).”

I guess this is the way a US presidential campaign is run now. The first cull is Tel Aviv. If you make the cut, step one is when you’re allowed to kiss the ring there. How can people continue to think of the USA as a superpower? I guess it’s the world’s first gelded superpower? Israel’s ox?

Posted by: jfl | Jul 4 2015 12:42 utc | 96

Shadow Nine — sorry, I recall someone saying so. But wouldn’t such a throw-down be a blockbuster, though? I’m not to the task. I can wax poetic a bit, but I’m too reality-based and drift back to analysis.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 4 2015 17:26 utc | 98

@99
I read a more or less similar story at telesurtv.net – they’re certainly not hard to find – and I looked up a link to killedbypolice.net which is a spontaneously created database of police shootings of civilians – created by ordinary citizens since the US does not keep track of those shot down by the police – ‘we don’t do body counts’ was used to ‘explain’ Americans’ national ignorance of the 1 million plus Iraqis murdered by the US armed forces – who knew it applied to Americans shot down by police as well?
Anyway I combined their data with wikipedia’s demographic data and made a couple of graphs.
Yeah, the UNHRC ought to look at the USA and Israel … but they won’t. They work for the US/EU/… Neolibraconia. Look at Ukraine, look at Yemen … scarcely a peep. The UN is as much a fraud as are the Western ‘democracies’ that rule it.
Ted Cruz plays the part of fundamentalist know-nothing for his audience in TX, but he was one of Alan Dershowitz best students, and now caters to Dershowitz’ exclusive clientele.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 5 2015 7:50 utc | 100