This mostly Syrian refugee hype going across Europe now has to be also considered as a racist event.
Think about the the Congolese genocide and it’s refugee exodus, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere, etc, and none of those far larger or notable exoduses, got no way near The attention that refugees in Europe get.
Racist, in service of the Empire, as well as white domination.

Posted by: tom | Sep 6 2015 19:34 utc | 4

We are all murderous cowards, standing with the Israelis allied with the Arab ‘royals’ and dictators. We are certainly not standing with the Palestinians.
If the average American watches TV and goes to church and talks to his friends, and does facebook, then he knows nothing of the truth of the IP situation.

Posted by: fast freddy | Sep 6 2015 20:17 utc | 6

The Poisoned Chalice (ht nakedcapitalism.com)

First of all, it’s important to distinguish between the public rationale for the policies that have been imposed on Greece, which are as you describe, and the underlying reasons which are quite different. The public rationale is the notion that so-called structural reforms will produce growth. The underlying reason is that the creditors wish to get their hands on as many Greek assets as possible at the lowest possible prices.

There is no “rescue” going on here. There is no “rescue,” there is no “bailout,” there is no “reform” going on. I really need to insist on this, because these words creep into our discourse. They are placed there by the creditors in order for unwary people to use them, but there is nothing of the kind taking place. What is going on is a seizure of the assets owned by the Greek state, by Greek businesses and by Greek households.

This bad deal was suppose to be balanced by debt restructuring/re-profiling. But it hasn’t been. And it seems more and more that real, meaningful debt relief is a mirage. Germany/Schauble seem to be fine with losing IMF support (which Merkel had previously said was ‘necessary’).
IMO Tsipras would not have called early elections if he thought he could that the promised debt relief was still on the table. Greece has no means of forcing the Troika to deliver the expected debt relief. AFAIK Tsipras has not publicly denounced the backtracking. No election is needed to do recognize and denounce ‘bait and switch’ tactics.
Another point that seems to be lost is that most of the third bailout is simply rolling-over debt from previous bailouts. Only 17bn of the 86bn Euro is ‘new money’. And Greece was denied 7.2bn of the second bailout + billions of ECB funds + 17bn of IMF money. The total of these funds (which I believe would’ve gone toward re-capitalizing Greek Banks) is about 25bn Euro. Recapitalization of Greek banks is now to be done via 25bn of privatizations (and matched by another 25bn of privatization for Greek Government).
Other points in the interview:

>> … [is there] room for a sensible advance in the European project? JG: It would have to come from a political movement that transcends the boundaries of individual countries, particularly crisis countries …
>> The first thing that Yanis said to me when I arrived in Athens on the 8th of February was “welcome to the poisoned chalice.” ” We were under no illusions . . . I think that proving what the troika and the creditors interests really were was something that had to be done . . . the world had to be persuaded of that. Had Greece taken the exit ramp on the 28th of January the world would have condemned the Greek government for reckless action and for not negotiating.
>> It’s fair to say that the French and the Italians were more sympathetic to the Greek position without being effective advocates for it.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 6 2015 20:46 utc | 8

I posted this in the last thread, but will add it here too as it is so revealing as to US-ISIS connections. It seems that so many who spend time in the hospitality of the USA end up joining ISIS. Coincidences never cease…

Concerning Tajikistan, I happened upon this little tidbit and found it extraordinarily revealing:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-trained-commander-of-tajikistans-elite-police-force-just-defected-to-isis-2015-5

The US-trained commander of Tajikistan’s elite police force just defected to ISIS

May 28, 2015

The US-trained commander of Tajikistan’s elite police force has defected to the Islamic State, he said in a YouTube video, and his former unit will issue a statement condemning him, media said on Thursday.

Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov commanded the Central Asian nation’s special-purpose police known as OMON, used against criminals and militants. He disappeared in late April, prompting a search by Tajik police.

He reappeared Wednesday, vowing to bring jihad to Russia and the US as he brandished a cartridge belt and sniper rifle, in a professionally made, 10-minute video clip posted in social networks.

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 6 2015 22:34 utc | 10

As for @1 – the long legacy of this brutal drug wars, though now past their climax, presumably, will go on for decades. For one, only 5% of murders in Mexico are even investigated much less prosecuted.
And like ISIS, we have to wonder – why is it that the most brutal drug gang, los Zetas, happened to be started by men given military training by the US. Why is it that they used such exact similar tactics as groups such as ISIS (the filmed beheadings and tortures, etc)?
We should recall that the biggest issue in Mexico in 2006 was not the drug wars, but instead was the mysterious defeat of the popular left-wing candidate in the presidential elections, this during the midst of an flurry of left wing victories throughout Latin America continuing the trend started in Venezuela in 1998.
And then the new President, while protests were rocking Mexico, got all dressed up in an army uniform and declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels which dashed the country into a spasm of bloodletting well on par with the Syrian War by some death counts (as indicated, mass graves are constantly uncovered).

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 6 2015 22:41 utc | 12

@ 10, Looks like the CIA has activated one of its assets.

Posted by: Lysander | Sep 6 2015 23:14 utc | 14

Greatest head-fake of all time:
For the first time in history, the internet provides the means for the people to throw off the royalists/oligarchs and their assorted political puppets and other “serious people” convince them otherwise (hey look, immigration! drugs! terr0r! war! gays! stocks!…).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 7 2015 2:27 utc | 16

there is no way that those refugees would have suddenly decided to up and go all at once without some benefit to a third party
obviously there will be a price ….cheap oil and gas to replace the russian monopoly,hence russia,s scramble to secure control of the pipeline,s
putin may have a problem but either way damascus is doomed to its fate,
http://journal-neo.org/2015/07/24/drive-to-replace-russian-gas-supplies-to-eu-intensifies/
one thing is sure.iraq and syria have lost all control of there resources…it is open season.the gulf arabs and iran should pay attention
the crows are circling,i can hear there calls

Posted by: mcohen | Sep 7 2015 5:05 utc | 18

Vulgar Bild already doing lying propaganda against Assad. Haha, its all “Bomb Serbia” script… again. But this time assholes there’s no Yeltsin in Moscow, but guy with a name of Putin

Posted by: Russian Boy | Sep 7 2015 9:56 utc | 20

3
In exploring their offshore Leviathan natural gas fields using British oil companies and technology, Israel illegally explored Gaza’s offshore gas fields and found considerably more gas there, refusing Gaza the right under international law to drill and deliver their own resources to their own people.
With the recent discovery last month of even more fabulous natural gas resources off Egypt, it now becomes clear that the whole E Med region is not only self-sufficient in gas, but closer to EU than either Qatar or Iran, for the sale of excess supply. The question is then how to limit domestic demand.
Therefore, in order to shut in Gazan development so that Egypt and Israel (and British Oil) can siphon the Gazan gas away for themselves to sell to EU, Israeli Operation גולם is now in play, the genocide of Western Palestine.
“We won, you lost. It’s just business, get over it. Now hurry up and die.”

Posted by: NoReply | Sep 7 2015 10:18 utc | 22

11
KSA borrowed that from their BFF Israeli Likudniks, the Hannibal Directive.
And to think that just months ago MENA oil media announced those huge new frackable oil and natural gas finds in Yemen, just about 60 days before the coup and KSA attack, so reminiscent of Iran and Iraq, there has to be a Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski in their somewhere, …or maybe a Henry K?
“We won, you lost. It’s just business, get over it. Now get off my land.”

Posted by: NoReply | Sep 7 2015 10:43 utc | 24

in re 8 —
You’re over-complicating this.
Such touching illusions in Tsipras. Had he been a man of principle, he would have quit right after Frankfurt rammed the deal down his throat. Despite the solid backing of the referendum, though, he folded before the weekend was out.
He called the election now for one simple reason — Syriza has split, and so he lacks a majority. He went to the masses not for a renewed mandate to fight, but for an opportunity to get a really nice arrangement of deck chairs. Instead of parsing the intent of the troika (which, BTW, is all bad) in the Memo, he should have torn it up and called an election right there.
He hopes to replace recalcitrant leftists in his own party with outsiders whom, he believes, will give a him center-right Parliamentary majority. Tsipras has accepted his role comprador-in-chief, and having internalized it, is being creative in his new role. Euro-DC sees his tendency to magic thinking as akin to its own, I would think, but apparently it annoyed the Left Platform.
in re 16 —
Distraction has long existed, it can now be subjected to “metrics” and monetized in nearly real-time.
Ever since the unwashed masses began to get the vote in numbers, ca. 1830, mass media manipulation tried to get them to think along with the bosses. Think “penny dreadfuls” and “yellow journalism.” Remember the Maine??
That the supposed liberatory internet allows easy centralization and tracking of though-control functions is comparativly new, however.
I like to think truth wins in the long term, as illusions have a way of inevitably becoming lethal.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 7 2015 15:24 utc | 26

I doubt this is criticism is made in good-faith. Whatever-it-takes hates opposition (unless it is controlled oppo).
Syriza split only AFTER Tsipras called elections. Why prompt that split and risk election now if he could deliver substantial debt relief?
“Its always been like that” is the refuge of small minds. The other side of that coin is the hopium of controlled oppo. Both are a boondoggle for Whatever-it-takes manipulators.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 7 2015 16:41 utc | 28

I think you’re Caroline “We Con The World” Glick – whom Niqnaq’s Rowan Berkeley used to refer to as ‘the inimitable’ Caroline Glick (as if anyone would want to).

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 7 2015 17:27 utc | 30

Looks like that not only the US is upping the ante. Russia also seems to be preparing for more war/battles:
– http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-06/russian-military-presence-syria-risks-confrontation-us-backed-forces-kerry-warns-lav
– http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-05/putin-confirms-scope-russian-military-role-syria

Posted by: Willy2 | Sep 7 2015 20:56 utc | 32

This is more than a year old, but is still a good discussion of the situation. I’m never against listening to “old” news, it helps you realize how we got where we are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3UYT8SObwY
Stephen F Cohen & John Batchelor – What Does Petro Poroshenko Represent 27/05/2014
Stephen F. Cohen graced John Batchelor to speak about the current political situation between the Russian Federation and NATO.

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 7 2015 23:51 utc | 34

—
Phoney, phoney immigration crisis.
There have been proportionally larger immigration waves.
More than 2/3 of this wave are not from war zones– and more than half are men 18-34., looking for economic opportunity– the result of neo-colonial globalization and neoliberal economics inhibiting their own countries’ economies.
“The President of the German Industrial Federation, Ulrich Grillo, hopes for 800,000 extra foreign workers in Germany. Since European agreements forbid this, and since public opinion is hostile to the idea, he is playing his part in the staged « refugee crisis » in order to force the evolution of the law.”
http://www.voltairenet.org/article188623.html

Posted by: Penelope | Sep 8 2015 1:19 utc | 36

Obama is prosecutor, judge, and executioner of Americans … and Cameron is now prosecutor, judge, and executioner of Brits …
Prime Minister Cameron confirms Royal Air Force killed two British citizens in Syria

Prime Minister David Cameron used his Monday statement to Parliament, nominally on the refugee crisis in Europe, to announce that he authorised the assassination of two British citizens in Syria last month.
Reyaad Khan, 21, and Ruhul Amin, 26, died in Raqqah on August 21 in a drone attack carried out by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Cameron said.
The targeted killing of British citizens overseas on the say-so of the prime minister is unprecedented.

… can the French government, the German government, the Spanish government … be far behind?

Posted by: jfl | Sep 8 2015 6:48 utc | 38

j’rabbit —
Left Platform left something like two weeks ago. The loss of these and other seats left them without a working majority. I commented on it at the time. Tspiras tried to cobble together another majority, failed, the right and then Left Unity (the party LP set up the moment it split) then got turns, and now a caretaker gov’t. prepares for elections.
Horsy —
Abusive bad pop psych. No class.
By the way, not a fake bon vivant, just a cut-rate one. I’m just a working stiff, no bling for the high life for me.
nana2007 —
He’s was only the head of goverment, why wouldn’t it be his fault? Cabinet and the parliamentarians get a lot of blame too.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 8 2015 12:01 utc | 40

That ekath. article posted by nmb @ 2 is OK. http://bit.ly/1LUDItz
There has been quite some discussion here about the pro-EU, hi fair left, and pro-Euro stance of both Tsipras and Yanis V; and reportedly (though I have never been very sure of that), of the Greek public. The pro-stance is hard to explain.
Explanations usually hinge on ‘socialist internationalism’ or even ‘communist internationalism’, or as in the case of Greece, to its particular situation (isolated, small, poor) and ‘in search of belonging’ and in the case of G being in a better position vs. inimical neighbors, Turkey and Macedonia (not part of the EU.) Was also mentioned or discussed a kind blanket ideology that can’t be questioned:: EU as a great good…etc.
We should also remember though that it was the “left” – Clinton, Mitterand, and others, who opened up the banking / finance sector, and Obama, who is first and foremost a Wall Street Man, continues the tradition.
As I pointed out, Tsipras is first of all a Greek politician (nothing derogatory about Greece, only meaning that he grew up and lives in that milieu); the article says he was ‘domesticated’, which amounts to the same thing. If you don’t have much power you are quite free to express opinions and muddle along, once you have arrived big guns are brought in. I have read rumors that Tsipras was influenced by two bankers whose names I have forgotten (say), and that sounded very credible to me. Yanis V has always been against a Grexit, as we know. Yanis V. seems to be starting some kind of reform the EU party? From within of course!….*Good luck* ..
There are also some historical examples or metaphors, this is not the same of course, as it is about WW2 and France. Those in F who were for (in whatever way) the Pétain – Vichy Gvmt, and collaboration with Germany (even sometimes prefering Hitler to Blum, a socialist) came from all over the political (associative, corporate in the old sense) spectrum. There was no left-right split (hyper right-wing nationalists and communists found themselves on the same side. In fact the left was very supportive of Pétain..) My interpretation is that what was at stake then was F’s relations with the outside, within Europe, and was interpreted or seen in different ways, independently of ‘official / announced affiliation’ to one or another political, etc. body. Just like in Greece…
The good news (from an anti-EU pov) is that in France an anti-Euro movement is beginning to timidly take shape. Both Frederic Lordon and Jaques Sapir and some others have been on the attack, and naturally…disagree! with each other about an alliance with the Nationalist Right (Marine le Pen.) France is polluted with the ‘it is my club’ mentality.
Sapir’s blog, some articles trans to Eng. http://russeurope.hypotheses.org

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 8 2015 14:47 utc | 42

In its sad little entirety:
AP: Pentagon: US Looking for Ways to Fix Syrian Rebel Program

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s spokesman says the Obama administration is considering ways to fix the problems in supporting moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook tells reporters that Defense Secretary Ash Carter still believes training and equipping moderate Syrian rebels and sending them into battle against the Islamic State is the right strategy.
But Cook also acknowledged failures when the first group of 54 U.S.-trained Syrian fighters were sent into Syria in late July and were attacked by a Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida.
Cook offered no details Tuesday on how the program might be revamped, nor would he say how many moderate rebels are now being trained in Turkey or elsewhere.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Sep 8 2015 18:51 utc | 44

Its no secret that Left Platform was unhappy and didn’t support the bailout legislation. But they didn’t split with Syriza until after Tsipras called the snap election.
The point that I have made (prehaps obliquely to anyone not following Greece) is that on August 20th (after the legislation was done and the ECB was paid) Tsipras could have denounced Germany’s back-tracking with respect to debt relief. Instead he called elections. What does this say about: a) the likelihood of substantial debt relief? b) Tsipras?
Would the ‘Left Platform’ have broken away from Syriza as Tsipras took up the fight for debt relief? We can’t know for sure, but I doubt they would’ve.
=
As Germany back-tracked on the Summit Agreement commitment to debt restructuring, Tsipras said nothing. One could argue that denouncing the back-tracking would put the new bailout at risk because it would make it hard to pass the legislation that was necessary.
But when the legislation was done and the August 20th payment to the ECB was made, Tsipras had no reason not to denounce the back-tracking. Indeed, since the commitment to debt relief was the only real accomplishment for Greece in the Summit Agreement, and the only means of redeeming his flagging popularity, Tsipras should’ve been EAGER to push back on the back-tracking. But he didn’t; he called a ‘snap’ election instead.
While its true that he might not have survived a confidence vote, Tsipras didn’t HAVE to do call elections on August 20th. A fact which is noted in many MSM accounts. (Some may recall that there was suppose to be a Syriza party conference held in September.)
MSM say that Tsipras called the election before Greek people started to feel the new austerity measures. But many of these measures are not slated to start for months. Tsipras himself has said that the election is about who Greeks trust to negotiate debt relief. But AFAIK he hasn’t denounced German back-tracking.
The IMF’s description of what debt relief was needed (about 50% write-down or 30-year extension of maturies) was expected to be the baseline for debt negotiations because Merkel said that the IMF was a “necessary” participant in the third bailout. But now the Germans talk about the need for Greece to build “trust” before obtaining meaningful debt relief. This essentially adds ‘conditionality’. And in August the Germans implied that IMF participation was NOT necessary by talking down the IMF role (they now say the IMF are needed only for their technical expertise).
And so, in my first comment in this thread, I pointed out that only about 17bn of the 86bn Euro in the third bailout was new money. Further, Greeks were refused nearly $25 billion of aid from the second bailout. More ammunition, if Tsipras choose to use it, for pushing back against the Troika/Creditors/Germany.
=
I initially thought that winning a written commitment to debt relief was an accomplishment. Now it looks like it was bait and switch. I would be screaming bloody murder. Tsipras is not. I can only think that it is because he believes that substantial debt relief is not really in the cards. Debt relief as dictated by German is likely to be conditional and incremental – keeping Greece in debt peonage.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 9 2015 1:26 utc | 46

follow on @47
gmail.com’s false fronts

Posted by: jfl | Sep 9 2015 3:23 utc | 48

Twenty Indians killed in Yemen as more foreign troops reported arriving

A Saudi-led alliance killed at least 20 Indian nationals in air strikes on fuel smugglers at a Yemeni port [Al Hudaydah] on Tuesday, fishermen said, and more foreign troops were reported to be arriving to intensify the campaign against Houthi forces.
The Houthi-run state news agency Saba also said that 15 citizens were killed in air strikes on Sanaa, and medical sources said at least 15 civilians were killed in similar attacks on Monday. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the figures.

‘Grown up’ in the US’ shadow the Saudis have learned well, and think nothing of killing any and everyone in their way. I hope this brutal war in Yemen is the end, not only of the Saudi regime, but of all the rotten royals in the Gulf. I am not at all sure that that was/is not the aim of the US itself, encouraging and helping the Saudi atrocities.
I will not be surprised to see the US/Israel eventually take over the Saudi oilfields to ensure the ‘stability’ of the region. I imagine the US’ junior partner has its eyes on its old imperial domains in the Gulf as well. The Brits must be looking at the bare floor of the moneybin by now.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 9 2015 4:45 utc | 50

I was wondering at first why Abby Martin didn’t go the way her colleague http://whowhatwhy.org/2014/04/02/whose-propaganda/ “>went, but she didn’t exactly correct her public denouncement of Russia on Ukraine or was it Crimea? before she ended her show, did she?
She’s since migrated to Telesur, another media challenger to western hegemony, to do what? More of the same. Following a Libertarian script, rally the crowds, using other countries platforms to attack the image of the US gov, while at the same time executing some underground nazi vendetta against old and new enemies that dare live alternatively with self-determination.
Mark my words, after she’s done her damage, she’s gonna bite the hand that feeds her at Telesur.
I suppose she didn’t look to Haim Saban to be her new sugar daddy because the fruits of his labor aren’t as appetizing to her right-wing ilk, like her buddies Greenwald et al got bankrolled by Pierre Omidyar and we all should know what a wonderful technocratic bunch is that paypal mafia and Omidyar network.
As for Empire, the Saker recommended Dr. John Marciano a few months back that will probably put her production to shame.
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/L.A.+Sound+Posse

Posted by: Shadow Nine | Sep 9 2015 5:04 utc | 52

the fundamental theorom of probability,
*once is accident, twice coincidence, thrice…..enemy action* !
by the fourth time in less than a mth,
its obvious the sobs want the chinese to know its their *calling card*.
*When the Tianjin explosion happened right after China’s currency devaluation (i.e. currency war), Natural News was told by Chinese dissidents that the United States was engaged in “kinetic retaliation” against China for its cyber warfare attacks and currency moves. Naysayers insisted Tianjin was just a “random event” and wouldn’t be repeated.*
i was 90% sure its an *enemy action* when tianjin was hit, the way i was sure about mh370.
im 99.99% sure now.
*Then a retaliatory explosion destroyed a U.S. military weapons depot in Tokyo. A sabotage device was found on the scene, all but proving the explosion was deliberate sabotage.*
bs.
u bet its a sabotage, but by who ?
this isnt china’s m.o.
my hunch says its a murcunt ff, planting evidences is one of the oldest trick in the cia playbook.
*As I wrote just five days ago, “Watch for yet more war posturing, currency devaluation moves, debt dumping attacks, cyber warfare, strategic hacking and “unexplained” explosions throughout the remainder of 2015. These are not random events. They are all part of the war with China that has already begun.”*
all the socalled cyber attacks from china are unsubstantiated allegations by the pentagoons and its contractors.
where’s the *war* ?
it’s been one way attack all the way since the opium war.
p.s.
this mike adams dude claims to have many *chinese dissidents* informants ,
hmmm…
more revealing perhaps, he banned me from posting in his site, .
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=121248

Posted by: denk | Sep 9 2015 15:15 utc | 54

fairleft at 53 —
I began my remarks in a reproaching but respectful tone, barely responded to the attempted anathema shout-down, and was merely my usual thorough self (or long-winded, to taste) on the facts of the matter at hand.
You may be right about losing readers, but frankly, it’s not a concern of mine. But I will take the hint and stop beating the dead horse.
jr at 55
I make no apologies for the rigorous defense of the interests of my class, the working class, against any and all comers.
I’ll speak of any “indiscretions” you care to discuss (though maybe f’left et al. might be sick of it), as long as we’re agreed — I’m right about Left Platform having brought down Tsipras by their principled stand in categorically rejecting the bailout package. Tsipras deserves to lose the election.
And the hegemony of the bourgeoisie must be destroyed!

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 9 2015 19:12 utc | 56

This should cause a revolt in a normal nation or society: To Protect And Infect : The militarization of the Internet Part 2 (Jacob Applebaum )
I highly recommend watching the whole thing, even if you don’t know geek speak. And of course. share it.

Text

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 10 2015 1:48 utc | 58

I thought the right to spin came with the 15 mins. of fame.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 10 2015 5:20 utc | 60

2 nmb
Two monks walk into a bar.
After awhile, one monk starts talking into his hand.
The bartender gets concerned these guys might be nuts, and asks the monk what he’s doing.
The monk explains that he has the power of astral communication channeled through his hand. He turns his hand over and shows the bartender it’s an ordinary palm, nothing hidden, then winks to his fellow monk.
The bartender expresses his utter disbelief, so the monk asks for his home phone number. He goes into a meditative state, then holds his hand up to the bartender’s ear, as his wife answers and asks why the hell he’s calling her from work.
The bartender says “That’s really amazing, but this is kind of a rough neighborhood, so you might want to keep that magic hand under wraps, or people are going to think you’re crazy, and then there’ll be trouble.”
The monks agree and go on drinking their drinks.
A little while later the bar gets crowded, when suddenly there’s the ethereal sound of a gong sounding. Bwonnnng! The monk starts talking into his hand again. Then the monks go into the bathroom and are gone for awhile.
The bartender starts getting nervous about their safety, so he goes to check on them. When he gets into the bathroom, sure enough, one monk is standing spread-eagled against the wall with a roll of toilet paper shoved up his ass, and the other monk is holding his hand over his face, making a high thin wailing sound, like he’s been punched in the nose.
The bartender says “SEE! I told you to be careful in this neighborhood!”
The monks reply, “No! It’s OK, we’re waiting for a fax!”

Posted by: Chipnik | Sep 10 2015 9:27 utc | 62

55 farleft
I don’t know if it was Timothy Leary or Gary Snyder, Alex Solzhenitsin or Rob Brezny who said it, but this IS the Apocalypse — we’re living in that epoch right now. Then when Internet power goes down, as it inevitably must, and The Cloud inexorably de-atomizes, all those terabytes of urgent Twitters and Tweets, Amazon Recommends and Annie’s Chamorro Kitchen, will dissolve into eukaryotic electron spins, leaving driftwood mountainscapes of fleshless bones and some few Gelly Roll archival-inked cuneiform scrolls in a newly dead sea cave, for the lost aliens to transcribe at the end, while they listen to earthworms sing.

Posted by: Chipnik | Sep 10 2015 10:37 utc | 64

Chipnik at 65:
It _is_ already apocalyptic in the West, but it can always get more apocalypticer. To see that future, tragedy travel to Lagos, Nigeria. I dumped the following under a typical blissfully unaware class war piece in symbol of pseudo-left decline Guardian:
Lagos isn’t ‘rising’, though the wealthiest 20% may be, as it walls itself off from the rest of the city. The city’s elite compounds and districts may be ‘Lagos’ for Onuzo, but for the real Lagos, read ‘Boko Haram insurgency exposes Nigeria’s extreme economic inequality‘:

The economic inequality in Nigeria is among the most extreme in the world – and growing worse. Despite its rising oil wealth, the percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty (earning less than a dollar a day) has increased to 61 per cent over the past decade, compared with 55 per cent in 2004. Yet at the same time, Nigeria has nearly 16,000 millionaires, and that number has jumped by 44 per cent over the past six years.
Much of the wealth is concentrated in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos …
Lagos is a microcosm of the social dysfunction that plagues Nigeria and feeds the insurgency. It is one of Africa’s biggest and most overcrowded cities, with vast slums, bad traffic jams, daily electricity shortages and eroding infrastructure. To escape those pressures, the richest residents are moving into their own privatized suburbs, where they need never leave. …
The main beach of Victoria Island, once a popular haunt for ordinary Nigerians, is now virtually inaccessible. It has been swallowed up by a 10-square-kilometre city, called Eko Atlantic, currently being constructed on land reclaimed from the ocean. Its luxury apartments and skyscrapers will house 250,000 residents and 150,000 workers …
Most significantly, it will all be privately controlled: Everything from its electricity and drinking water to its transit systems and telecommunications will be privatized and operated independently from the decrepit public infrastructure. It will allow the rich to abandon Lagos, retreat from the poor and segregate themselves in their own self-contained enclave.

Posted by: fairleft | Sep 10 2015 13:00 utc | 66

@66
I really know nothing about Abby Martin … she’s on TV, right? No TV. The videos are good … where have I seen them before ?

Posted by: jfl | Sep 10 2015 23:06 utc | 68

fairleft, yes Koenig is consistently good, or worth reading/listening to hadn’t seen that.
Thread is dead, but for what it is worth, some personal experience of Euro attachment, France. A small town in the South (5-K ppl or so but that is with the outskirts. all night party, a 3 day w-end, with some local big-wigs etc. The person I know best knows Hollande aka met him a few times and is proud of that.)
Region consistently run by the right (UMP now Républicains) but with the Socialists very often taking a turn and holding the Municipal Council. A few FNs are sometimes elected but they don’t count. To put it very CRASSLY (there are good things to say as well, for ex. as concerns schooling, community spirit, bio agri, transport, compensating for poverty, and more) the political differences mask a power and profit-sharing scheme.
My reading: The left holds the agricultural subsidies from the EU (huge), and pretty much runs the agri (water, spin off industries like flavors, bottled drinks, etc.) and the right ‘owns’ property development and construction (region is touristy, retirement homes, etc. etc.), is pro-entrepreneurship and money-making, so is tied to banks/finance, as they always need to ‘invest’, i.e. borrow.
So, the two are at logger-heads on all kinds of topics. The left finds its roots in ‘old catholicism’ – family owned places (farms), family values, though most are now secular, and the right is more ‘protestant’ (roots) and for personal success (measured by bank account and personal ‘local star’ visibility merely.)
The left thus weeps – literally – if it is suggested that the Euro currency (as a key point of EU belonging) is not optimal or adequate, fair, good for long-term, etc. They just can’t even get their minds around it. For them, it is a big source of funding, and at the same time a sign of belonging and that they are on ‘the right path’, 100% legitimate in the eyes of Europe. With their comrades!
The right – those I spoke to – don’t care much in a kind of ‘we will see, who knows, whatever, won’t happen in the next years’ attitude. They don’t seem to even consider it as a topic of interest. To sum up, the left is dependent on the EU, the right, not so much, or not in their imagination.
In this one small place. As an example.

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 11 2015 15:40 utc | 70

Florida Man Indicted for Telling Informant to Carry Out 9/11 Bombing
FBI nabs Jewish-American Daesh militant who called for bombing Australia mosques
Strange story … the only way it makes sense is : the FBI entrapped someone else’s entrapper? Serves ’em both right, I guess.
But while they’re wasting their time on self-referential stings like this, there are real people being beheaded, real 3 year-olds washing up drowned on beaches.
In a few hundred years, after the post-worldwide-collapse dark ages, when some few souls have learned to read again, what will they make of this not just stupid but lethal nonsense?

Posted by: jfl | Sep 12 2015 7:35 utc | 72

US Drone Strikes Kill 15 Pakistani Taliban in Southern Afghanistan

A US drone strike in the Gomal District of the Paktika Province, along the Afghan border with Pakistan, killed 15 people who the Pakistani government says were fighters loyal to Mullah Fazlullah’s faction of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
US drone strikes are increasingly common in Afghanistan, though exact figures on them are much less easy to come by than the ones in Pakistan, as at times they are reported simply as airstrikes, and the distinction between those and unmanned drones aren’t always apparent.

Fifteen more people killed by the foreign occupier’s robots. Maybe they were actively resisting the foreign occupation … maybe they were just people. Usually its the latter case, The foreign occupier kills to keep it own robot factories humming, long ago having forgotten why they have always been at war with eurasia. Consistency is the thing … apparently.
Theirs not to wonder why
  theirs but to kill and fly
Into the valleys, high over the humans
  flew the robot drone operators

Posted by: jfl | Sep 13 2015 22:57 utc | 74

@75 further
Actually, as I read the NSC further – with the little exercise above having focused my attention – the extent of the NSC’s projection of its own motivations, tactics, and ends onto The Enemy is apparent at every turn of the page, and the congruence of its own actions over the intervening 67 years with those it is projecting onto the Russians – not only the Soviets but the Russians especially and in particular – is amazing.
Well, utterly unamazing I suppose, but oh, so precise. The shoe fits the same Cinderella today as it did in August 1948, and the projection onto The Enemy of the MT&E of our very own, in-house, misanthropic fanatics over the course of those 67 years is the proof of the pudding, the blood pudding I suppose, in this case, which has caused – and is certainly still causing – so much misery to so many for so long.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 14 2015 5:16 utc | 76

Saudi Airstrikes Taking Heavy Toll on Yemeni Civilians

Saudi warplanes were active again over the weekend, targeting multiple cities held by the Shi’ite Houthi forces. As is so often the case in their war against Yemen, the casualties are largely civilian in nature, with at least 16 more civilians killed in attacks on Saturday alone.
Large civilian tolls in the 5-month-long Saudi war have become incredibly commonplace, and hardly a day goes by that Saudi warplanes aren’t destroying a honey farm or a bottling plant, or just the random homes of civilians in residential districts of cities held by the Houthis.

Just like Barak the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate slash drone assassin Obama. And why not? The NPPL is behind the Saudi/Yemeni genocide 100%, just as he backs the Israeli/Palestinian genocide 100%.
Just as Hillary, Bernie, the Donald, Jeb and all the donleys and all the elephants will back these genocides and the Ukrainian/Donbas genocide 100%.
No change without changing.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 14 2015 19:05 utc | 78

Abbot out in Australia, Corbyn in in the UK. With elections nearing Syriza is probably out in a Greek election stalemate.

Greece’s campaign for Sept. 20 elections enters its final stretch this week with polls showing the outcome too close to call, threatening fractious coalition negotiations that may delay or derail implementation of the terms of a bailout only sealed in July….
Tsipras was elected prime minister in January at the head of a SYRIZA-led coalition on a promise to end austerity, only to sign the bailout accord after six turbulent months of wrangling with creditors that pushed Greece to the verge of exiting the euro area.
Tsipras’s capitulation triggered a mutiny within SYRIZA that stripped him of his parliamentary majority and triggered a collapse of his lead over the opposition. The Independent Greeks, SYRIZA’s former coalition partner, will struggle to make it into the next parliament….

Is that meaningful debt relief on the horizon? Nah, just a mirage.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 14 2015 22:56 utc | 80

follow-up @81
For anyone that is interested, there are two links in the comment. One link to Jackrabbit @8 and one to Jackrabbit @59.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 15 2015 3:02 utc | 82

in re 81
I quoted a Greek paper on Greek politics, I get back Journalism 101.
I don’t recall that you ever presented any sources on that point, as I did back when I first made it. “Party dissidents cost him his majority” seemed a pretty fair, authoritative summary of what happened.
Your links above to right proper little tirades, though. I see all sort of accusations, but no actual proof.
My evoking your phrase was my typical inside pitching. That you fell away from the plate swinging wildly….
I recalled “meaningful debt relief,” I’d forgotten you’d already blown off your former hope that Tsipras might beg more out the troika as a mirage. Thanks for the timely reminder.
If they’re smart, they’ll relent a bit for a nice, polite New Democracy government and offer a few crumbs. The Ukraine got 20 pct. off, I believe it was, but they’re actually fighting a war.
But the Troika will continue to screw the now-subservient Syriza if they do manage to cling to power. “Resistence is useless!”

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 15 2015 6:02 utc | 84

I don’t think the greek elections will bring stability for Greece. Just see what happened in Argentina in 2001 & 2002. They had 3 presidents in less than one year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80%932002_Argentine_great_depression

Posted by: Willy2 | Sep 15 2015 13:55 utc | 86

@rufus
What you object to is so well known that it hardly merits a rebuttle. But here it is: NYT: Alexis Tsipras, Greek Prime Minister, Calls for New Elections.

Some analysts had thought Mr. Tsipras might postpone snap elections until October, after the country faces the first review of its progress in meeting the terms of the bailout.
Politically, the most organized opposition within Syriza comes from Left Platform… Left Platform member Dimitris Stratoulis hinted at the formation of a new breakaway party…. “The forces of ‘no’ inside and outside Syriza will be united.”

You are factually wrong: a) Tsipras didn’t have to call elections on Aug 20th, and b) while the Left Platform’ minority objected to the bailout, the Party didn’t “split” until the day after elections were called (as I pointed out @41).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 15 2015 14:21 utc | 88

in re 88, 89
Well, a breezy, casual, carefree insouciance is a hallmark of the cut-rate bon vivant.
Bur frankly, if I thought you a serious person, I would not be so flippant in dismissing your ill-founded assertions and groundless smears.
I never said you were incorrect about the date of the foundation of Popular Unity. I think you are mistaken as to the significance of it. It is the quiet denouement to a long-running drama. Regardless of the formal date of Left Platform’s departure, its dissent brought down Tsipras and they were clearly in de facto opposition from the division over the Troika’s diktat.
AFAIK, in many parliamentary systems, that Syriza had to rely on votes from opposition parties on such a serious vote would have immediately counted as losing a confidence vote. In Greece, however, they need to be formally called by either the government or opposition. Tsipras would not have been obliged to call elections at all — until he had lost a formal confidence vote.
From your NYT pc., they rather seem in Tsipras’ corner, like yourself; emphasis added.

The deal infuriated Syriza’s far-left factions and managed to pass through Parliament only with the help of opposition parties. Defections from Mr. Tsipras’s coalition had raised the possibility [i.e., demonstrated the mathematical certainity – rm] that he would not have the necessary support to prevail in a potential parliamentary test of confidence in his leadership — a possibility he avoided by calling for new elections.

As I asked earlier, how long would it have been before someone tabled the confidence motion? I doubt that he would have lasted until 1 Sept., let alone October. It showed a minimal political astuteness to step aside before being pushed.
And while we’re talking political formalism, had either New Democracy or Popular Unity been able to secure their own majorities (procedure req’d. that the next two parties get a shot, if memory serves), there would not be elections at all.
I had thought that the delay between the passage of the EU bailout measure and the formal foundation of Popular Unity lay in the needs to organize and formalize. Already dissatisfied, Left Platform started moving out of Syriza as soon as Tsipras folded on the bailout and austerity.
Here’s a preview of coming attractions. This WSJ item from May notes tensions were already high.
Let me again call your attention to this from late July. Note if you would my added emphasis, especially in the last paragraph.

One wonders what Tsipras was thinking while watching Left Platform chief Panagiotis Lafazanis making a leadership appearance… in which he said, more or less, that the Left Platform will… fight whatever the Prime Minister is trying to legislate in regards to the bailout…
In essence, Lafazanis challenged Tsipras’ leadership…
The show put by the Left Platform means that by the time the government will try to implement the required reforms in the fall, the faction will rebel and call for elections. In the elections, the question should be clear: Europe or isolation. Then the Left Platform can pursue its dream to make Greece a Mediterranean Venezuela. [And this would be a problem, because…?] Most likely SYRIZA will split in two and the country will go through a painful period of government absence.

The timing of the actual split seems to have involved tactical considerations on both sides. This from the Financial Times on 14 Aug. states that “A confrontation is close, say supporters of both factions, yet neither the prime minister nor Mr Lafazanis seems willing to strike a blow before an emergency Syriza party congress due to take place early in September.”
It adds that Tsipras wanted to force them out earlier by calling a confidence vote. But for unstated reasons, he backed off.
As I keep saying, Left Platform fought a principled fight within Syriza and the parliament against austerity. This split Syriza and forced Tsipras to the right, thereby causing him to quit before he got fired.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 15 2015 23:20 utc | 90

Fathers of PKK Fighter and Turkish Solider Bury Sons Together

“They spent their childhood together. We want peace. We don’t want brothers to go under the dirt. We don’t want anyone’s heart to burn. Our lives have burned. We do not want anyone’s life to burn,” the two men said as they accepted condolences over their son’s death together.
“God’s willing, our sons would be the last youngsters who die. The crying of their mothers is burning our lungs. Those are their children. They did not find them in the street, they did not pick them up from the trash. They raised them and brought them to 20-25 years of age and now they suffer this,” Ramis added.

Of course it is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has thrown the lives of these young men into the trash of his civil war, and now it is up to the Turkish peoples to unite and throw the megalomaniac Erdoğan into the trash where he belongs.

Posted by: jfl | Sep 16 2015 1:29 utc | 92

@rufus
You want to focus on recovering from your factual inaccuracies with respect to Greece rather than address your spinning and plagiarism – which is now part of the record and can’t be dismissed by shooting the messenger.
=
It is tedious when you insist on being right about facts that are not in question.
Despite their objections to the July Summit Agreement, Left Platform continued to be part of Syriza 6-weeks later – even as THREE votes were taken to enable/enact the third bailout. So internal divisions clearly did not “split” Syriza until after Tspiras called for a ‘snap’ election. Indeed, as I have said previously, the divisions that eventually cause political parties to split can be days or years in the making. So one does not say that a Party has ‘split’ until it has done so.
Furthermore, Tsipras wasn’t forced to call for elections on August 20th. I believe that Left Platform would NOT have undermined Tsipras if he had chosen to publicly fight Germany’s back-tracking by demanding meaningful debt relief BEFORE calling for a poll (see my comment @46). And the NYT article that I cited noted that: “Some analysts had thought Mr. Tsipras might postpone snap elections until October.
This is an important point because I believe that Tsipras’ CHOICE to have early elections instead of taking the fight to Germany/Troika implies that his expectation for meaningful debt relief is low (a “mirage” due to back-tracking by Germany). I described my reasoning for this @46.
In my view, you are being argumentative (while evading serious questions about spinning and plagiarism), while I am trying to defend my analytical reasoning. So who is the serious one here?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 16 2015 10:43 utc | 94

I have not yet begun to be argumentative. It’s even more tedious when you deny the obvious.
Your analysis is bullshit. You pose as some sort of left radical, yet you contort yourself to justify some of the crassest centrist opportunism and belittle leftists taking the struggle to the streets. You fix upon irrelevant trivia in an effort to defend the indefensible.
You pile on counterfactual after counterfactual and ignore clear evidence in favor of an irreconcilable split, the consummation of which was merely a matter of timing for political advantage by both parties.
IF Tsipras had fought, THEN no split. But Jesus Christ Almighty — he didn’t fight and obviously had ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION OF FIGHTING. Agreeing to the terms was giving up the fight.
Why would the troika relent upon the re-election of Syriza? Assuming, of course, it happens. If such relief were in the cards, why not announce it now? If you could show that the Troika considered such measures and backed away, but might reconsider, as you assert, that might be nice.
So he’s going into an election based on some irrational, unstated expectation that once he wins, then the Troika will be nice to him.
And nobody would have forced his hand by tabling a confidence motion, right?
Tsipras wanted to obfuscate the meaning of the deal he struck for as long as possible before the consequences were felt, and to use the time to discretely pack the pending Syriza conference.
Now he can’t. Good job, Popular Unity, I’d say.
The split was de facto as soon as austerity was rammed down the throats of the Greek electorate. “Some analysts thought” and your uniformed hope that the Troika might be nice to him are mighty slim reeds to rest upon. Other analysts saw the split as inevitable, if not already done. He did not last through August, so which of those analysts do we think was right?
I based my analysis on what contemporaneous local sources said was happening, not what the Gray Lady hoped would happen, stated after the fact. I continue to develop that line of analysis.
I did not plagiarize you. I knowingly used a phrase, “Meaningful Debt Relief (TM)” that I knew you favored. You took the bait. I have my own analysis, if you wish to style that “spin,” well, hop to it. But I’m under no obligation to agree with you.
Finally, let me conclude with even more evidence, from leftist Liberation, emphasis added:

In the tense days leading up to the July 20 debt payment to the European Central Bank, the leadership of SYRIZA was faced with a choice—relent and impose the austerity they were elected to end, or prepare to default and exit the Eurozone. This was an entirely predictable scenario, but one that Prime Minister Tsipras had repeatedly assured would not occur. They could not keep their promise to reverse austerity as well as keep the Euro, and in the end the leadership chose the latter.
A faction of SYRIZA, primarily the Left Platform led by former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, has bitterly opposed this decision and first abstained then voted against the new memorandum in parliament. The Left Platform has been gaining influence in the party’s governing bodies—a slim majority of central committee members signed a document opposing the new bailout…
It increasingly appears to be only a matter of time before a formal split takes place….
On August 13, Lafazanis issued a joint statement with 13 other SYRIZA leaders calling “for the creation of a nationwide movement, by establishing committees against the new Memorandum, austerity and the country’s new guardianship. A unitary movement that will fulfill the aspirations of people for democracy and social justice.” This is envisioned as an extra-parliamentary organization for struggle in the streets, but it is still a clear indication that the Left Platform is leaning towards the creation of a new political formation as well. Meanwhile, revelations from former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis about contingency planning for a new currency undermines Tispras’ line that there was no alternative to submitting to a new memorandum.

Getting your members tossed as ministers, getting your MP’s to vote against their government, obtaining a Central Committee resolution backing your position, announcing a new popular-based mass movement (vs. pleading with Eurocrats to relent) — that sounds like a split to me. But what do I know; I’ve only been active in left politics since the 1980’s? As I have shown, I am not alone in that opinion.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 16 2015 16:39 utc | 96

I’m still on about Greece because your still full of it. “Terrible behavior” seems to have the same definition as “lying”, i.e., disagreeing with you. And proving it with facts! My god, the horror….
As I earlier made clear, both sides in the split had (unstated) tactical reasons for their timing. Germany can be easily attacked, and she will likely not give a damn and will continue to turn the screws.
Left Platform was ready to go to elections to fight austerity, as Syriza pledged when given their majority. Tsipras is going to them to implement austerity and move Syriza to the right, after trashing that pledge. That you see the latter behavior as more principled speaks ill of your judgement, IMHO.
I’m not interested in sympathy, I’m interested the truth. I will on occasion note bits of my background, it speaks to my motivation, experience and judgement. Make of it what you will.
I do wonder now what actual political experience, if any, you might possess.
“Meaningful Debt Relief (TM)” remains an illusion. I think the bold-faced hysteria and insults are a dodge to cover sloppy analysis and wishful thinking.
We’ll take this up again after the election stalemate then, shall we? You can offer up more fantasies about why voters turned Syriza out.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 17 2015 12:31 utc | 98

From what I could tell through the dodgy accusations, you seemed to approve of his handling of the matter, in that it might lead to unspecified “Meaningful Debt Relief (TM).” See an authorized local retailer near you. Euros only, please.

Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 18 2015 5:56 utc | 100