Shame on UN Security Council’s P-5 members!

The United Nations has unanimously passed the resolution tabled by France on fighting the extremist groups operating in Syria and Iraq. The speed with which this has happened is partly explicable by the sense of horror over the terrorist strikes in Paris and partly by the fact that the Islamic State (IS) has drawn the blood of the citizens of all the P-5 world powers in such a short span of time. This was beyond the capability of the al-Qaeda. Unsurprisingly, the P-5 harbor a strong revenge mentality, having been made to look impotent.

But, when baser instincts trump reason, there is cause to worry, and Resolution 2249 on Counterterrorism adopted last night in New York generates serious misgivings.

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2015/11/21/shame-on-un-security-councils-p-5-members/

Posted by: From The Hague | Dec 13 2015 10:02 utc | 1

Colombia in the news:

Six Colombian mercenaries and their Australian commander were killed in Yemen, media from the Arab nation reported Wednesday.

The gold inside the sunken galleon San Jose, found off the Caribbean coast of Colombia on Friday, is worth between a staggering $4B and $17B but is disputed by a US investor group that claims half of the treasure.

Posted by: Maracatu | Dec 13 2015 11:02 utc | 2

Posted by: Maracatu | Dec 13, 2015 6:02:54 AM | 2
$4B is paper gold (COMEX), $17B is street value, which do you think they will eventually use!

Posted by: papa | Dec 13 2015 11:34 utc | 3

Very good recent lengthy Varoufakis interview - English with German subtitles

Posted by: somebody | Dec 13 2015 11:56 utc | 4

How Hollande fooled Putin and Lavrov

Our Western partners have realized the pointlessness of that line, that ultimatum, basically, that if Assad leaves, all problems will be solved," Lavrov told Radio Rossii.
"I think that [French President Francois] Hollande's phone call to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin following the heinous terrorist attacks in Paris, his proposal to coordinate our efforts, and the [Russian] president's reaction, willingness to do so as allies — all this shows that sensible politicians are setting aside secondary issues and focusing on the main priority: fighting the Islamic State's attempts to win over positions across the globe," the minister said.

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151119/1030384384/lavrov-syria-isil-assad.html

Posted by: From The Hague | Dec 13 2015 12:10 utc | 5

I doubt they have been fooled by Hollande. More likely they are humouring him and would seek to embarass him in the eyes of the French citizens when the weasel fails to live up to his words to work with Russia against the terrorists.

Given the latest Turkish provocation of Russia I hope Russia is ready to switch off the gas taps to Turkey at a moments notice - and also to execute a Shock & Awe on Incirlik/Adana that will leave the world in no doubt about how Russia treats having its red lines crossed.

Posted by: Julian | Dec 13 2015 14:50 utc | 6

The JFK Assassination seems like old news, but there are a great many who argue that it was the key event that sealed the fate of the US - and sent us down the dark path of war-without-end where we find ourselves today.

http://www.jfklancer.com/audioconversations.html

For people interested in assassination and the extraordinarily interesting history surrounding it (the height of the Cold War, the Cuban Revolution and Cuban exiles affect on the US, the Civil Rights Movement, the rise and fall of organized crime) here is a collection of interviews with several of the best people working on the case today - as historians, or as journalists, or as lawyers who have cases open to get more records released.

Jefferson Morley, former WaPo reporter has a really good interview which takes us on his journey investigating the CIA. Morley has a lawsuit pending against the CIA for the documents that they held back even from the ARRB (Assassination Records Review Board) of the 1990s. John Newman, a former US Army Intelligence officer and assistant to General Odom, discusses his research into JFKs intention of ending the Vietnam War. Russ Baker the journalist who run the website "Who, What, Why" is also worth a listen as covers the role of the Bush family in the event. Jim DiEugenio's interview is very important as well - he looks specifically at the Congo, and views JFK as someone committed to taking down the European empires of his day and replacing them with independent, centrist democracies (we can scoff at this today, seeing how the US has handled recent "democratic revolutions", but in those days when the Europeans were still committed to bloody maintenance of their empires, it was a fairly radical policy).

All the interviews are quite good in fact - these are the most sober and serious researchers of the case. There's no wild theorizing in these interviews - just sober analysis of the facts which have lead all of these people to acknowledge that JFK was most certainly killed by "a faction in his own government, with the help of the CIA".

http://www.jfklancer.com/audioconversations.html

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 13 2015 15:31 utc | 7

Watching John Pilgers documentary on Latin America I came across this shitbag Duane Clarridge, the CIA chief in Latin America during the 70s and 80s, getting very angry at the suggestion that the CIAs actions were wrong.

Turns out he currently runs his own 'private CIA' called Eclipse Group. They helped provide 'security' for the Benghazi compound along with a British firm called Blue Mountain. Security who had no weapons or security experience.

It seems they are using the same agents they used decades ago only with an extra degree of deniability. Anyone got more info on his Eclipse business? Apparently they tried to get evidence of Karzai taking smack but I cant find any other record of their activities.

Posted by: Bob | Dec 13 2015 15:42 utc | 8

Bob | 8, now that is interesting. Benghazi?? Why hasn't Eclipse Group been mentioned?

More:

Ben Carson Adviser Who Blasted Him Has A Controversial Past All His Own

In 1991 he was indicted in the Iran-Contra scandal for lying to Congress. His trial was never completed. In 1992 he was pardoned before George H.W. Bush left office.

From a Cold War spy, Clarridge transitioned into self-made operative in the war on terror.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ben-carson-s-adviser-duane-clarridge-has-his-own-colorful-past

Posted by: shadyl | Dec 13 2015 16:14 utc | 9

Unfortunately for MoA, of about 17 million Dutch, we got a broken record retard troll, a Russophobic nincompoop, card-carrying member of the "conspiracy theories" crowd who troll here day in and day out, with the purpose of hijacking any thread topic and turn it into a theater of the absurd.

As dh@204 said in the former thread @201 OK. 2249 huge mistake. Got you the first time. Now, would you just STFO?

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 16:32 utc | 10

Signs of a dying empire that becomes dangerous

Posted by: nmb | Dec 13 2015 16:56 utc | 11

nmb | 11, Great link.

Found lots more:

Mexican, Colombian 'Blackwater' mercenaries killed in Yemen

A Mexican mercenary commander and an Argentine soldier of fortune working for a U.S. military firm Blackwater in Yemen died in fierce combats in the southeastern Yemeni city Taiz, local media reported Thursday.

The Mexican mercenary has been identified as Macias Bacneba, who was killed Wednesday in clashes between Yemeni and foreign forces, security sources told local media.

http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2015/12/mexican-colombian-blackwater.html

Private armies everywhere. What did we expect after 14 years of non-stop open warfare. Poisoning ourselves with GMO food on one end, on the other fueling a financial system that will collapse without constant growth. Are we at a crossroads?

Any ideas on the Dupont/Dow merger?

DuPont, Dow Chemical Agree to Merge, Then Break Up Into Three Companies
Deal forms more than $120 billion chemical, agricultural giant amid weakening commodity prices
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dupont-dow-chemical-agree-to-merge-1449834739

Posted by: shadyl | Dec 13 2015 17:12 utc | 12

@12 Shadyl

The NYT article says Clarridge basically just runs operations wherever he wants and gathers intelligence he feels would be useful to the US.

Weve got to the the point that private armys and intelligence agencies are allowed to do what they want where they want without repercussions. Even if they are ran by men indicted for illegal arms deals...

Actually seeing he was involved in Iran Contra it makes perfect sense for him to be involved in Bengazhi if its been used as an arms depot for Syrian jihadis as Hersh suggests.

Posted by: Bob | Dec 13 2015 17:24 utc | 13

Thierry Meyssan on Webster Tarpley's radio show 12/12/15 (whole statement}

Turkey's reason for coming into Iraq was to prepare a pseudo-Kurdistan w/o Kurds, via training Peshmerga to help.

Coalition plane (maybe Qatari) bombing SAA at Deir es-Zoir was a Qatari false flag, using Russian bombs obtained from Ukraine. De-bunked by Rus -published docs.
.
Rus preparing big op inside Syria, opening a 2d military base & now trying to create a 3d one in the East of Syria, just at the border with Turkey & Iraq. W this base it wd be easier to stop this pseudo-Kurdistan.

SAA & Hezbolla preparing an uprising by the people who are under the rule of ISIS, al qaeda, etc., to oust them from the main part of Syria-- not including the desert. Don't know how Rus will proceed to help w this.

It will take a couple months to prepare both of these ops.

Rus is now testing all over Syria its new weapons-- the inactivating one that prevents communication and radar/satellite imaging . For example, NATO can't command its own weapons, like its missiles. In the last week, Rus was testing something else for two days in the Mediterranean, which involved shutting down aviation in Cyprus & Lebanon, also Iraq. Officially, they said they were testing new missiles, but they were testing something else too.

At Saudi Arabia opposition-meeting, Kurds not invited. So it is only Turkey, France, UK & Israel who are behind the pseudo-Kurdistan, not the Gulf countries. He says the op will be begun sometime after the beginning of the year.

Verrry difficult right now to understand who is governing in the US; because there are two different powers at the same time & it's difficult to know who is deciding foreign military action.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 13 2015 17:26 utc | 14

Verrry difficult right now to understand who is governing in the US; because there are two different powers at the same time & it's difficult to know who is deciding foreign military action.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 13, 2015 12:26:24 PM | 14

I completely. Hillary, McCain, Whitehouse, private citizens, everyone doing their own thing, imo.

More interesting stuff from unbalanced link, from July but still relevant, panic in the air:

Wolfgang Schäuble and the German leadership of the eurozone have good reasons to worry, maintaining an uncompromising attitude in the negotiations with Greece. But the repayment of Greek debt, which amounts to EUR 317 billion, is not one of the most important ones. The Greek debt is insignificant in comparison with the financial dynamite of the German (and other) banks, which in recent months gives more daily ignition signs.

Only Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, is significantly exposed, holding dubious financial products known as "derivatives", worth 67 trillion euros. This amount is similar to the GDP of the entire world and 20 times greater than the GDP of Germany. Any comparison with the situation of the bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 would not be irrelevant. Just when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, had available derivatives of only 31.5 trillion. The crisis of 2008 confirmed the concise definition of derivatives as proposed by the American tycoon Warren Buffet: "financial weapons of mass destruction."
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2015/07/eurozone-is-ready-to-explode-but.html

Posted by: shadyl | Dec 13 2015 17:36 utc | 15

Posted by: Bob | Dec 13, 2015 10:42:26 AM | 8

Re: US Consulate in Benghazi

The report faulted as "misplaced" the mission's dependence for security support on the "armed but poorly skilled" Libyan February 17 Martyrs' Brigade militia members and unarmed guards hired by State Department contractor Blue Mountain Libya.

○ Regurgitated Video Fallacy by NYT Kirkpatrick
○ Feds Hired Unlisted British Security Firm for Benghazi Consulate

Posted by: Oui | Dec 13 2015 17:59 utc | 16

@shadyl@12

There are more mercenaries from other countries in Latin America, all connected to gross human rights violations and death squads, e.g., Chile, El Salvador, and Panama, besides Colombians and Mexicans. There is a clear US connection to all these mercenaries, who are hired by US companies to be cannon fodder and kill people they have never seen and have no business with.

Historically, the use of mercenaries has been prevalent by all empires, which have use them for conquering other lands and peoples, sacking, pillaging and plundering. The Roman army made wide use of mercenaries from all the "barbarian" tribes that surrounded Rome.

The US, however, has elevated the killing "business" to new heights, creating another version of the MI complex "revolving door" at a lower level, training Latin American soldiers in CI tactics to fight native insurgencies opposed to US domination, and once their time is up in their respective armies, same training is used by soldier of fortune companies to send them kill people anywhere the empire needs them. In other words, the Pentagon shares their DB with soldiers of fortune companies, which then can choose from a large pool in different countries.

Fortunately, our Yemeni brothers and sisters are taking good care of them, and of their Saudi/UAE partners in crime. Yemeni soldiers are fearless, their tactics flawless, and are kicking KSA's ass deep into their country.

Yemeni reprisal attacks shake Saudi Arabia deep into core

-----------------------------------

Mercenaries in Yemen: the US Connection

Latin American mercenaries are leaving the ranks of the national armies of their countries to fight in the deserts of Yemen, wearing the uniform of the United Arab Emirates. They have been contracted by private US companies and in some cases directly by the government of the Arab country, which, thanks to vast oil reserves, has the second largest economy of the region.

An article in the New York Times revealed that 450 Latin American soldiers, among them Colombians, Panamanians, Salvadorans and Chileans, have been deployed to Yemen. The mercenaries receive training in the United Arab Emirates before deployment, in part from U.S. trainers.

The presence of Latin American mercenaries in the Middle East is not new. Colombian news media have interviewed mercenaries returning from the Middle East for years. They tell of being recruited by transnational companies with promises of salaries far beyond what they’d receive at home. However, the conflict in Yemen seems to be the first time that Latin American mercenaries have been sent into combat.

Colombia contributes the largest number. According to the New York Times, the UAE military recruits Colombians because of their experience fighting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the jungles and mountains of their country. But there is another reason.

Since the beginning of Plan Colombia, between 2000 and 2015 the U.S. spent almost $7 billion to train, advise and equip Colombia’s security forces. In the last few years, the U.S. government has carried out a strategy to prepare the Colombians for an emerging industry: the “export of security.”

And apparently, one way to export security is to become a U.S.-trained mercenary for Washington’s wars in other parts of the world.

Colombian troops, drilled in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency techniques, instead of exporting security are exporting the United States’ geopolitical agenda of permanent war. They end up doing the dirty work of their ally to the north, who, as a consequence, avoids exposing its forces to harm or facing accusations of interventionism.

According to analyst William Hartung, the United States government has trained a total of 30,000 soldiers from the four countries that make up the Latin American mercenary force in Yemen. A recent investigative report from El Salvador cites a Ministry of Defense source affirming that there are about 100 Salvadorans operating in Yemen. While the Colombians claim to have contracts directly with the Emirati military, in El Salvador the source states that contracting goes through a national company subcontracted by Northrup Grumman.

Northrup Grumman has a history in the Middle East mercenary business. Forbes reports that it absorbed an obscure company called Vinnelli that holds a $819 million-dollar contract to provide personnel for the Saudi National Guard, dating back to 1975.

The same Salvadoran source affirms that there are also Mexicans in Yemen. Mexico was not included in the New York Times report, but has a close relationship with the United States security complex through the war on drugs [...]

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 18:15 utc | 17

@ Lone Wolf |17...well we all remember who helped train Los Zetas who started the never ending drug war in Mexico:

2011

The Mexican criminal organization known as ‘Los Zetas’ was created in the mid to late 1990’s by Gulf Cartel Leader Osiel Cardenas and alleged DEA informer and double agent Edgar ‘Barbie’ Valdez. The criminal group ‘Los Zetas’ was originally formed by 33 Mexican special forces soldiers that were trained at Fort Benning, Georgia. Since the arrest of Osiel Cardenas in 2003, Los Zetas broke away from the Gulf Cartel and are currently disputing Mexico’s northern territory with the Cardenas family. Till this day, Los Zetas still recruit Mexican military members and veterans, which might indicate that Espinoza and his group were probably current or former military members.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-34-commandos-created-mexicos-most-brutal-drug-cartel-2015-3

Sprinkling stardust wherever we go.

Posted by: shadyl | Dec 13 2015 18:48 utc | 18

Russian destroyer has to shoot at a Turkish Seiner boat to prevent collision

Military attaché at the Turkish embassy in Moscow was urgently invited to the Russian Ministry of Defence in connection with the incident in the Aegean Sea.

On December 13, 2015, the Russian guard ship Smetlivy staying 22 km far from the Lemnos Island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea prevented the collision with a Turkish seine vessel. At 9:03 (MSK), the watchmen of the ship detected a Turkish vessel at the distance of 1 000 metres approaching the anchored guard ship Smetlivy from the starboard. Despite multiple efforts of the Smetlivy to establish a contact with the Turkish seine vessel, its crew did not respond to radio and semaphore signals as well as signal rockets.

After the distance between the Turkish seine vessel the Russian guard ship reached 600 metres, the naval small arms were used at the distance of guaranteed survivability of the target in order to prevent the collision of the ships. Immediately after that, the Turkish vessel changed the heading and continued movement at the distance of 540 metres without contacting the Russian crew. In connection with the incident in the Aegean Sea, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov invited the military attaché at the Turkish embassy in Russia to the Russian Defence Ministry.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 18:51 utc | 19

Fort Russ revisits the issue of US plans to change borders in the ME. http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/12/what-is-us-cooking-up-for-turkey-iraq.html

Posted by: yellowsnapdragon | Dec 13 2015 18:52 utc | 20

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13, 2015 1:15:16 PM | 17

Re: UAE Partnerships.
Hiring mercenaries is nothing strange to the Middle-East, US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor anywhere else across the globe. Also in past centuries, throughout history of warfare.

The Rolling Stone profile of Stanley McChrystal that changed history (?)...

McChrystal Working for UAE-Owned Arms Brokerage

(Defense News) Dec. 13, 2012 - Corporate records show that Knowledge International was registered in Delaware in 2010 by Hussein Ibrahim Al Hammadi, the U.S.-educated CEO of EAI. Hammadi, according to one of the U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, "is a retired Colonel with the UAE Special Operations Command and has close ties to the Abu Dhabi Al Nahayan royal family." An email and a phone call to EAI were not returned.

C4AS Joint Ventures

Knowledge International LLC (KI): wholly owned by Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) and was established
in Delaware in 2010 with a main business office in Washington DC to:

Create a bridgehead for EAI into the United States

Facilitate EAI Group company Defense related transactions (products & services) with US supplier's

Provide a link to the US Departments of State and Defense in connection with such activities.

Knowledge International's first mission has been to help reorganize UAE's land forces along U.S. lines.

Posted by: Oui | Dec 13 2015 19:08 utc | 21

the F elections, was asked to explain to a friend far away. pasted.

Regional elections, the power of the Régions is not strong. France is a very centrally governed country, run by a self-satisfied clique in Paris. Régions are not US States or CH Cantons, but merely represent an intermediary administrative layer. In the previous Régionales, 2010, (the no. of regions was different, which goes to show), the Socialists won in 21 / 22 regions. There will be no other elections in F till the Presidential one, 2017.

The F MSM like to spin the results as the “rise of the far right.” The FN is not far right, it is nationalist-populist, *on the face* of it at least (this would merit an extremely long discussion), after the detox - removal of anti-semitism, neo-nazis, see link. In these results, the FN is now the first party of F, with a tiny 1% or so more than Les Républicains (LR, Sarkozy.)

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/11/marine-jean-marie-le-pen-national-front-immigration-elections/

The F mutter about ‘a protest vote - anger, fear.’ In part! What has happened, is the F elected Sark I because he promised a clean sweep, a new era, etc. and presented himself as a mirror of the F people. His rule was a diaster, so they elected a Socialist (who promised to be a *normal* president, no less!), even when the supposedly chosen, favored candidate, Strauss-Khan, went awol in the NY Sofitel. Now voters gingerly turn to the populist right (anti-immigration, Paris attacks, muslim hate, etc.) A party that has never governed.

The highest scores (41, 40, 35) are in the 3 regions where the person standing is known: Marion M.le.P. and Marine le Pen, and Philippot, the FN VP. This reflects a chronic problem of the FN - to attract ppl who are ‘good solid leaders’ and can get visual/audio media time. Problems, both internally (little party discipline, jockeying and infighting amongst the figures, see for ex. Marine ousting Papa) and externally, as the voters vote the person in first place, rather than a platform, a program.

Other aspects of the map are ‘traditional’ - Brittany is ‘left’ for ex. The FN score is very variable: from 10% in Corsica to 41% in Provence-…-… It is not related to ‘where the most immigrants /foreignors are.’

But to the economically disadvantaged REGIONS (link.) A slice and dice of the electorate (previous studies) shows it is not the “very poor” who vote FN, as they have extremely high abstention rates, and when voting go for ‘standard’ or ‘fringe’ such as Left Front, green, etc. Intermediary professions as the French call it vote FN: mechanic, hairdresser, PA, tourist guide, shop owner, cash-girl, carpenter …(are also a mainstay vote of LR.)

red (brighter = more) unemployment (old data but still valid) brown le pen vote (darker = more) for 2012 elections

http://craigwilly.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Le-Pen-vote-unemployment.jpg

Abstention rate, 50%, so analysis is hazardous. Abstention correlates with economic disadvantage, lower incomes, etc., e.g. 58% to 61% abstention for manual workers and ‘low’ employees. Also with age: 18 - 34 yr-olds abstained about 65%! (those who did vote preffered the FN) and older workers. Because the F have very short and intense working lives (see youth unemployment, older workers unemployment, poor situations for workers aged 55, etc.) Left sympathisers, etc., abstained, 56% or so. In comparison, for recent presidential elections, abstention rates were around 20%.

The interest in these elections (even in the Régions where the FN ‘wins’ they will govern with all the others, it is not a winner takes all system, but is roughly proportional) is as a predictor for the Presidential election.

I expect that events from now to 2017 will reinforce the FN: rising unemployment/poverty, financial scandals / difficulties, more EU problems (migrant crisis, etc.), more garbage from Hollande, more strife abroad, maybe more terrorism. The Pres. election might very well put forward the same 3 figures, Hollande, Sark, le Pen - which in itself is weird - > Marine would come out 1st or 2nd. The 2nd. round pits the two top candidates against each other, and le Pen cannot then win.

Marine is quite admired abroad! Actually, imho, she is there to gather the ‘discontented’ vote thus maintaining the whole system. It is ‘democratic’ and everyone can bash the FN. She - along with the other two parties - effectively block any change, any new parties, new proposals, etc.

Update: the results will be in soon, they don’t matter much. What matters is how the FN manages to ‘govern’ in the regions it does win. if that goes well, the FN will be in a better position. And on the world stage, France is now not even a minor power.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 13 2015 19:10 utc | 22

Regarding entry #1:

I Know this an open thread – hereto, anyone can say anything regarding anything regardless of topic. BUT, BUT, BUT, is anyone going to remark on what was posted here on the FIRST COMMENT?!!! Something monumental just happened, as reported on the FIRST comment and no one else thinks important to deliberate on?!!!!

Russia just voted on a resolution which shreds the idea of SOVEREIGNTY 50 million pieces, sort of speak, after having, for years stated that it was against the West’s (most prominently, the United States) disrespect for it altogether, and no one here on this blog thinks to say anything regarding this?!!!

As reported by Ambassador Badrakumar is reporting, resolution 2249 just passed allows for any country with the means to do so to fight ISIL in Syria and Iraq ---- that means:

1) No accountability whatsoever – as there is no leader, no ultimate stated party responsible

2) The sovereignty of these countries is “shot to hell”

3) Russia just betrayed its moral high ground and anyone else who supported it on the grounds of is previously supposed higher-ground position, -- namely regarding that of respect for sovereignty.

4) It is going to be a “blood-bath” in the middle east

5) There seems to not be any organized structure in this world holding back the forces of destruction and eventual totalitarian global control. (Not that there were any good guys and bad guys before, but there was, at least the indication, if not the hope, that there were, at least, bad guys and moderately defective ones.)

Posted by: susetta | Dec 13 2015 19:36 utc | 23

The JFK assassination and the assassinations which followed were critical and pivotal events in world history. Preface the JFK presidency (the speeches & expert use of "the bully pulpit"; actions taken, tenacious refusal to backstop the CIA's BoP invasion; and the subsequent assassination) with the ominous warning from President General Eisenhower....

... the calamity that would ensue if the MIC were left to grow unchecked as it were. And here we are.

Posted by: fast freddy | Dec 13 2015 19:37 utc | 24

@shadyl@18

@ Lone Wolf |17...well we all remember who helped train Los Zetas who started the never ending drug war in Mexico:

And then the Zetas hired the Guatemalan "Kaibiles"(from the Mayan "Kayb'il B'alam," another US trained death squad, and together with the Zetas they became the US created monsters: Zetas and Kaibiles death squads, both groups graduates of the infamous School of the Americas, now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia, as in changing names will wash away the blood of hundreds of thousands killed by their graduates. Zetas and Kaibiles were hired as mercenaries in Iraq, and performed as "UN peacekeepers" in Congo, Bosnia and Haiti, all countries that suffered a rape epidemic while under "UN peacekeepers."

The so-called "war on drugs" is another pretext to train and arm death squads in Latin America, drugs being an integral part of the US war on the poor, and a sizable amount of the US economy, where money laundering is massively done by banksters with the tacit approval of the Federal Reserve.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 19:53 utc | 25

@Demian:

Back in the “UK accuses US of Supporting Terrorists” thread (@111) you asked questions delving into my worldview, to which I said I’d need time to answer. My apologies for the delay (off-grid a lot these days) and length (big topic).

I do agree that we’re likely to be on the same side concerning resistance to imperial hegemony for the foreseeable future. Consider this analysis, which I’ve seen referenced but not linked to in earlier threads: Reading between the lines: the Great War of Continents, information wars, and multipolarity

This war, which is currently being waged in hybrid form, is called by different names and seen at different levels in different ideologies and worldviews. In geopolitics, this is the antagonism between Land and Sea. For conspirologists, this is an occult struggle. For Marxists, this is a manifestation of the struggle between labor and capital at the stage of national liberation and anti-imperialism. For the liberals themselves, this is a struggle for maintaining their precious neo-liberal capitalist “open society” and thwarting the “enemies of the open society.” For Eurasianists, this is a struggle for a multi-polar world against the unipolar “globalization” of the Atlanticists and the multi-faceted hegemony of the North American superpower. For Traditionalists, this struggle is against the destructive forces of modernity and what the Hindu tradition calls the Kali Yuga, the Christian tradition the Kingdom of the Antichrist, the Islamic tradition names Masih ad-Dajjal, etc. All of these struggles relate to, intersect with, and are woven into the fabric of the planetary confrontation of two alternative models of approaching human societies, organization, and interactions on a global scale.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 13 2015 19:53 utc | 26

@Oui@21

Thanks for the info, and the links.

@Noirette@22

Thanks for the report on the French elections.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 19:58 utc | 27

@Demian—here is the first part of my reply to your questions @comment 111 of the “UK accuses US of Supporting Terrorists” thread:

"I think the two of us are fully aligned in terms of what we want to see in the near to intermediate future, so the following question is purely of theoretical import. You seem to be operating within a 'Marxist framework', in which you expect that eventually the contradictions of the present system will became so severe that a major 'social transformation' will occur, in which the world, or at least individual societies, will shift to a 'new system.'”

Social transformation is constant, a given of the historical dialectic. The transformation/shift to a new system in question I call revolution, the overthrow of one set of class relations for another. No need for all the quotation marks, I *am* working within a Marxist framework.

"I am honestly bewildered by how anyone can still think in these terms."

You aren’t alone, at least here in the US. Folks from other countries seem to have a much more accepting if not sympathetic reaction encountering a US communist. If you remember when I first started posting here last year you asked me why I took the name Vintage Red—I replied that it reflected my tastes both in politics and in wine. I’ve never tried to hide this.
If many former Marxists have ceased to identify and act as such —especially in the Anglosphere—I’d venture that their socialism was never very deep, perhaps more a matter of faith and projected expectations than understanding. I’ve heard the Greek philosophers considered different levels of knowledge, of which they held faith to be the lowest. “Communism” held solely on the basis of faith is much more easily subverted, eroded or overthrown by reverses or ever-present superficial contradictions skillfully spun by ruling class propaganda—“A nice idea, but…” Communism as a method of investigation to understand the world sees through ruling class propaganda and perseveres despite inevitable contradictions and setbacks.

"As far as I can understand, we've seen three kinds of economic system since the industrial revolution:
1. unfettered capitalism;
2. regulated capitalism combined with a social welfare state;
3. socialism as implemented by the USSR et al.
Now, as far as I can tell, (2) is less bad than the other two. This whole idea that there is something radically different that succeeds capitalism was tried by Lenin et al, and it proved to be a catastrophe."

Interesting that you pose these three alternatives. More on the first two in a following post; for now I’ll simply observe that your third characterization is phrased so as to dismiss every socialist revolution in one stroke (“This whole idea… as implemented by the USSR et al. … was tried…”). This is akin to saying, sometime in the 1820s, “This whole idea of capitalism as implemented by Cromwell, Napoleon, et al. was tried and proved to be a catastrophe.” It takes into account neither the unique circumstances, path and relationship of each revolution to the global struggle, nor their achievements and contributions, nor the development of more favorable conditions over time. More on all these below as well.

Even the counterrevolutionary catastrophe in the USSR and several other socialist societies is spun as a final sentence by capitalist propagandists (“the end of history”), when in fact that very socialism allowed an underdeveloped, mostly-illiterate and war-ravaged Russian Empire to rise within a single human lifespan as the USSR to challenge the most powerful and technologically advanced imperialist hegemonists the world has ever known. If anything, Communism hasn’t been a failure—it allows astonishing successes. That’s why capitalists worldwide celebrated its overthrow in the USSR, continue to heap scorn on all things socialist/communist, and even try to denigrate any regulation, social safety net, or anything not strictly privatized as “socialist.”

"Once they took over, the Bolsheviks abolished money, but they soon found that you can't do without it, so they quickly brought it back. It took them a while longer to realize that markets and prices serve useful functions as well, and are not mere mystifications of power relations."

I assume you are referring to the early periods of the Russian Revolution known as War Communism and the
New Economic Policy? While various groupings and individuals took different positions on both, as far as Lenin went he clearly stated War Communism to be an emergency measure due to war-related economic collapse, and the NEP to be likewise temporary if longer-term, strictly until the productive forces could be rebuilt to the point at which socialism was possible (again, more on this in a following post).

"It is well known that Marx did not have a theory of how to implement a socialist alternative to capitalism, so Lenin was left high and dry and had to muddle along as best he could."

Marxism is a tool of analysis, not a crystal ball. If Marx had propounded detailed outlines or theories about how to construct socialism, it’s certain they would’ve differed from the Russian and all subsequent experiences. Two things would doubtless result: 1) his critics would now be excoriating his “bad theories/plans” on this point, and 2) some within the movement might provoke splits solely on the basis of whether a revolution was developing “according to script.” Oh, and a third: capitalist agents within the movement would specifically attempt to provoke the splits described in (2) where they weren’t happening spontaneously.

Marx was wise in not projecting detailed plans. He didn’t want “to write the cookbooks of the future” (as he put it) for he said social being determines consciousness, that any revolutionary society doesn’t emerge as fully-formed socialism but has to build socialism while still dealing with the scars left upon it by the previous ruling class(es), and that the social and material conditions from which any revolution arises will largely determine the nature of the transition.

I sincerely doubt Lenin felt “left high and dry” by Marx’s refusal to devise such plans. Indeed, I’m sure he realized (as Marx would’ve) that the new USSR was entering uncharted territory and that what was needed was not a detailed script but honest and rigorous observation, analysis, implementation and continuous reevaluation and reapplication to the struggle as it evolves. Strategize, yes, but let plans be flexible, for as in war no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
I am sure Mao would’ve concurred, as he stated China’s need for “Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Theory must be rooted in practice:

“If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.”

"But after that, we had 70 years of “really existing socialism” during which both Soviet social scientists and Western social scientists could work on what the problems are of socialism as the Soviets implemented it and try to come up with a theory that would allow one to build a better system."

Or really existing *building socialism*—again, see below. It should be noted that most of the Soviet social scientists were working constructively on the above effort, while the overwhelming majority of their Western counterparts were working on understanding the problems of socialism so as to find weak points through which Western capitalism could “make the economy scream” (as Kissinger put it regarding Chile). Ideologically, this “understanding” was utilized to drive divisive counterrevolutionary wedges into social solidarity. This went beyond “captive nations” and “religious freedom” scheming and backing Soviet dissidents, to even claim to advocate for Soviet women, sexual minorities, the environment, etc.—essentially developing an early prototype of their “right to protect” doctrine.

"And now we’ve had 25 years since the Russians themselves admitted that their approach to this problem didn’t pan out."

Which Russians? Certainly not these or those whose memoirs of the counterrevolutionary transition appear here. Perhaps you mean the traitors who expropriated 74 years of workers’ achievements to become the new robber barons of the ‘90’s? The corporate media only seem to interview anticommunists…

"So what are we left with? …. All there is Anglophone predatory capitalism, and European'“social capitalism'."

Ah, another two party system. TINA? Capitalism is capitalism, welfare or robber, and will run aground on its internal contradictions regardless. The “regulated” version may seem kinder, gentler, more rational, etc., but is still based on exploitation and ever-expanding markets for profitable investment in the face of its ever-worsening overproduction crises. “Social capitalism” is more “efficient” than its predatory version? Why has the “social” form pretty much given up the ghost in the US and EU, falling into lockstep behind austerity and privatization in the years after the USSR fell? Because Wall Street and its global vassals and wannabe rivals no longer had a alternative system whose offer they had to beat! “Social capitalism” was a tactic through which to look better than what then-existing socialism could offer. After it had served its purpose, back on the shelf.

As you responded to guest77 @115 in our old thread:

“It appears that you are right. I was not the only one who was fooled by the powers that be allowing for capitalism to be restrained in the West, because the example of the Soviet Union showed everyone that a moral order of society is possible in the modern age.”

Now, you asked me questions that are very much rooted in a worldview of capitalism triumphant. I do not share this perspective. Below is a brief sketch of my own with regard to Soviet history and socialism’s historical prospects, which should hopefully answer your question of how I “can still think in these terms”…

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 13 2015 20:00 utc | 28

Posted by: susetta | Dec 13, 2015 2:36:29 PM | 23

We discussed UNSC 2249 in the "Sistani Orders Turkey Out of Iraq" thread. From The Hague is only providing additional related info.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 13 2015 20:05 utc | 29

@ 29

Yes you did:

UNSC 2249

Was it smart to invite Western countries to help in the fight against ISIS? Yes. But that had already been done before the resolution.

Also, critics are not saying that a resolution should not have been passed but that the resolution that WAS passed is flawed. The scope is too broad and sovereign States are an afterthought. And IMO there is yet another problem (which I had pointed out the day before passage): the resolution names the ISSG (the group of nations that are talking in Vienna) as the lead on the matter. But 15 of the 20 members of ISSG are anti-Assad countries. And AFAIK Russia and China do not have a veto in ISSG like they do in the UNSC.

I think the Russians accepted the French draft of the UNSC resolution because they believed (or were led to believe) that after the Paris attacks the French had a changed perspective. One that was more in-line with Russia's view that ISIS as the bigger threat and Assad's continued rule was necessary to defeat them.

So France was woo-ed - but to no avail. France is STILL in the Assad must go! camp.

Posted by: Anybody | Dec 13 2015 20:14 utc | 30

@30 The only countries, other than Russia, with the 'capacity' to intervene are US, Britain & France and they don't care much about ISIS. In fact they see ISIS as the future Sunnistan. Their objective is removing Assad. What they would really like to do is act as air cover for Cameron's 70,000 'moderates'. They may lose a few planes in the process.

Posted by: dh | Dec 13 2015 20:26 utc | 31

Susatta@23 Chas Freeman, who always talks sense on the middle east said "Turkey’s occupation of Iraqi territory, a flagrant act of aggression, is a consequence of the US invasion of Iraq and the collapse of all principles of international law in the region since then", former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman told Sputnik. http://sputniknews.com/military/20151208/1031396288/turkey-iraq-us.html When two veto wielding powers at the UNSC disagree on fundamentals, International law goes out the window, the resolution is ambiguous, [many experts do not regard it as authorizing aggression, also it has not been passed under chapter 7] therefore both sides can interpret it any way they like, bottom line is, Russia has red lines in Syria and will not back down as a result of any provocation.

Posted by: harry law | Dec 13 2015 20:38 utc | 32

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 13, 2015 2:10:13 PM | 22

Excellent explanation. BTW - FLN supports The Separatists in Ukraine. Starting late 2013 checking their website for validating the events there. More or less they are honest and objectives on their views unlike MSM.

http://www.nationspresse.info/

Posted by: Jack Smith | Dec 13 2015 20:38 utc | 33

The Turkish elites must be getting seriously concerned not only about sanctions on agricultural products and loss of Russian tourism and trade but about the repercussions of picking a fight with a major Black Sea neighbour. And not only that. With recent German and British involvement in Syria it is quite possible that a major tourist zone such as Antalya could be attacked by ISIS with the resulting obliteration of the tourist industry. Russian gas will surely keep flowing while the Bosphorus sea lanes remain open but Iranian gas may not be so dependable. Perhaps said elites will be casting an eye over at Ukraine, another country used by the U.S. as a proxy to attack Russia, and wondering whether a similar fate could await them.

Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 13 2015 20:40 utc | 34

How many coalition air-to-air fighters are entering Syrian air space? How many ZATO foot soldiers are entering Syria without air supremacy coverage? ZATO won't fight without air cover. What did Vlad just say to Russian military? "Destroy any threatening targets!" What do we have here? An impasse. USiAns sent French, Turks and Germans but Vlad isn't blinking. ZATO troops don't want to die in Syria. The idea was for only Syrians and brown people to die. This is a lot more serious when white (non-Russian and non-Donbass) people die. Saudi is now being invaded by Yemen and Qatar, UAE is in the sights of Iran. Egypt and Jordan are on the fence and ISrael is ready to jump on the Russian rescue ship. May you live in interesting times!

Posted by: Sun Tzu | Dec 13 2015 20:47 utc | 35

@Lochearn@34

The Turkish elites must be getting seriously concerned not only about sanctions on agricultural products and loss of Russian tourism and trade but about the repercussions of picking a fight with a major Black Sea neighbour. And not only that. With recent German and British involvement in Syria it is quite possible that a major tourist zone such as Antalya could be attacked by ISIS with the resulting obliteration of the tourist industry. Russian gas will surely keep flowing while the Bosphorus sea lanes remain open but Iranian gas may not be so dependable. Perhaps said elites will be casting an eye over at Ukraine, another country used by the U.S. as a proxy to attack Russia, and wondering whether a similar fate could await them.

A very insightful view of a potential future for Turkey. An attack in Antalya a-la Paris would be a devastating blow for Turkey's economy, and making enemies of Russia and Iran will be a serious mistake for Turkey's future.

Diplomatically, Russia couldn't issue a most stern warning to Erdogan after the incident with the Smetlivy.

Russian warns Ankara about possible consequences of actions against Russian military

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov on Sunday summoned Turkey’s defense attache Ahmet Gunes to warn him of possible consequences of Turkey’s actions against the Russian military, a defense ministry spokesman said.

"A strict representation was made to the Turkish diplomat about possible serious consequences of official Ankara’s reckless actions against the Russian military contingent on an anti-terrorist mission in Syria," the spokesman said.

"In particular, the Russian side voiced serious concern over more provocative actions by the Turkish side against the Russian Smetlivy guard ship in the Aegean Sea, which was forced to open warning fire from firearms at a safe distance from the Turkish vessel to prevent possible collision," the spokesman said.

"Rear Admiral Ahmet Gunes promised to immediately inform Ankara about the Russian representation," the spokesman said.

According to earlier reports, the crew of The Smetlivy guard ship of the Russian Navy had to open fire from small arms to push away Turkey's seiner in the Aegean Sea so that to avoid a possible collision as the Turkish ship wound not respond to attempts to establish contact.

The Russian defence ministry said the Russian vessel was 22 kilometres from Greek’s Lemnos Island in the northern Aegean Sea. At 09:30 a.m. Moscow time, the watch service located a Turkish vessel at the distance of about 1,000 metres. The Turkish ship was approaching the anchored Smetlivy from the starboard side. Despite numerous attempts by the crew, the Turkish seiner would not have a radio contact with the Russian ship or would not respond to special visual signals or signal flares.

"As the Turkish seiner was approaching the Russian guard vessel to a distance of about 600 metres, in order to avoid a collision of the vessels, small arms were used along the route of the Turkish vessel at the distance of guaranteed non-hitting," the Russian defense ministry said. "Immediately after that, the Turkish vessel changed its route without communicating the Russian crew and continued moving past the Russian vessel at a distance of 540 metres.".

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 21:16 utc | 36

@Lochearn@34

The Turkish elites must be getting seriously concerned not only about sanctions on agricultural products and loss of Russian tourism and trade but about the repercussions of picking a fight with a major Black Sea neighbour. And not only that. With recent German and British involvement in Syria it is quite possible that a major tourist zone such as Antalya could be attacked by ISIS with the resulting obliteration of the tourist industry. Russian gas will surely keep flowing while the Bosphorus sea lanes remain open but Iranian gas may not be so dependable. Perhaps said elites will be casting an eye over at Ukraine, another country used by the U.S. as a proxy to attack Russia, and wondering whether a similar fate could await them.

A very insightful view of a potential future for Turkey. An attack in Antalya a-la Paris would be a devastating blow for Turkey's economy, and making enemies of Russia and Iran will be a serious mistake for Turkey's future.

Diplomatically, Russia couldn't issue a most stern warning to Erdogan after the incident with the Smetlivy.

Russian warns Ankara about possible consequences of actions against Russian military

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov on Sunday summoned Turkey’s defense attache Ahmet Gunes to warn him of possible consequences of Turkey’s actions against the Russian military, a defense ministry spokesman said.

"A strict representation was made to the Turkish diplomat about possible serious consequences of official Ankara’s reckless actions against the Russian military contingent on an anti-terrorist mission in Syria," the spokesman said.

"In particular, the Russian side voiced serious concern over more provocative actions by the Turkish side against the Russian Smetlivy guard ship in the Aegean Sea, which was forced to open warning fire from firearms at a safe distance from the Turkish vessel to prevent possible collision," the spokesman said.

"Rear Admiral Ahmet Gunes promised to immediately inform Ankara about the Russian representation," the spokesman said.

According to earlier reports, the crew of The Smetlivy guard ship of the Russian Navy had to open fire from small arms to push away Turkey's seiner in the Aegean Sea so that to avoid a possible collision as the Turkish ship wound not respond to attempts to establish contact.

The Russian defence ministry said the Russian vessel was 22 kilometres from Greek’s Lemnos Island in the northern Aegean Sea. At 09:30 a.m. Moscow time, the watch service located a Turkish vessel at the distance of about 1,000 metres. The Turkish ship was approaching the anchored Smetlivy from the starboard side. Despite numerous attempts by the crew, the Turkish seiner would not have a radio contact with the Russian ship or would not respond to special visual signals or signal flares.

"As the Turkish seiner was approaching the Russian guard vessel to a distance of about 600 metres, in order to avoid a collision of the vessels, small arms were used along the route of the Turkish vessel at the distance of guaranteed non-hitting," the Russian defense ministry said. "Immediately after that, the Turkish vessel changed its route without communicating the Russian crew and continued moving past the Russian vessel at a distance of 540 metres."

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 13 2015 21:21 utc | 37

@12. Thank you Shadyl. Private armies and all kinds of mercenaries increasingly gaining ground in various battlefields across the planet. But when the arms industry will fully automate the new weapons, private armies will only serve as assistance to fully automated war machines. We already see the test fields of the weapons of future˙ the drones in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. It's not accidental that the arms industries demonstrate new weapons designed to be used inside urban areas for suppression of potential riots.

Posted by: nmb | Dec 13 2015 21:26 utc | 38

@Demian, part 2. Since your questions above draw heavily on the historical experience of the USSR, here is my evolving evaluation of the same:

The “inefficient, top-down socialism” meme exists *partly* because those who pay the piper call the tune. The capitalist media will of course report a socialist society’s every failure, challenge, conflict and contradiction in the worst possible light, because it’s themselves—international and local capital—that socialism is repressing. Add hot and cold running wars to force socialism into siege mentality, economic warfare, arms races, cultivating dissidents, etc. and any socialist state would have to guard its revolution pretty assiduously to survive. But these are just the surface manifestations of the real challenge.

Beneath it all, the reason the first socialist states have seen it necessary to have a more controlling hand on the political, economic and social helm is *scarcity*. When the Russian Revolution occurred most of the then-left couldn’t believe it—socialist revolutions were supposed to happen in the most developed countries first, with their organized, conscious working classes, highly developed means of production and technology, political culture, etc. Many argued that the Russian Revolution couldn’t possibly result in a socialist society, even if it should certainly be supported out of solidarity with workers in struggle.

In the context of the above-mentioned shifts between War Communism and the NEP, Trotsky in The Revolution Betrayed stated scarcity to be the social base in which bureaucracy takes root: when there is not enough to go around and egalitarianism demands rationing, two social actors come to the fore—a bureaucrat to administer and a gendarme to make sure everyone keeps their place in line. In such rationing the bureaucrat and the gendarme will often make sure they are first in line for what is available. Needless to say this begins corrupting egalitarianism, and workers’ democracy soon after. When China and other countries broke free from the capitalist empires many were in as poor if not worse condition, ravaged by war and colonialism.

Another aspect: before and during the revolution there was no immediate incentive to join the Communist Party (CPSU)—one was risking one’s life for the common good, so (police agents aside) comrades’ motives could be trusted pretty completely. But once the revolution was won this dynamic changed: everyone who sought a cushy job or privilege wanted in. While Lenin was alive he strove to keep membership standards very high to maintain this level of dedication to the people and revolution—Better Fewer but Better. After he died Stalin opened up a membership drive, ostensibly to replenish CPSU ranks after the repeated decimations of war, civil war, famine, epidemic. But whatever the dedication or ideological level of those admitted, almost all knew they owed their new status to Stalin. In the years and struggles to come, most inducted at this time effectively became his base within the CPSU.

(I’m not particularly Trotskyist—I learn from the past but like the Ukrainian Communists of Borotba I’m interested in what advances the struggle now and don’t want to be mired in “historical reenactments.” But this particular seems a fair observation of what was happening at the time. I also am under no illusions: were I a Soviet Communist then I might well have ended up on the wrong side of a purge, since along with spies and counterrevolutionaries they purged some Old Bolsheviks as well—I probably would’ve been lumped in with the Left Opposition despite my having major differences with Trotskyism, e.g. on “Socialism in One Country”.)

Stalin had a tendency to resolve contradictions through administrative fiat rather than inspiring the masses in their own struggle. After the losses and exhaustion of the civil war and the later repression of the purges, the workers and peasants who made the Russian Revolution retreated from the frontlines of class struggle activism. As the people laid down their political initiative, Stalin’s government took it up and Soviet democracy—working class rule through the councils—fell quiet. The Nazi assault interrupted these developments, necessitating an all-out effort not just to defend the Revolution but for very survival in the face of fascist genocide. After the war the main focus was on rebuilding and defending against new Cold War threats rather than on reviving working class democracy. But whatever the USSR’s challenges, shortcomings, and tragedies, its advances and achievements were what earned it the undying hatred of world capitalism, whether of the fascist or democratic bent.

After Stalin died Khrushchev declared that the dictatorship of the proletariat was over, then replaced by an “all-people’s government.” The USSR was still developing the means of production and was nowhere near abundance—whatever cover-up, corruption and/or compromise between factions it sprang from, this mischaracterization was an enormous betrayal of the very idea of communism. It masked continuing authoritarian elitism and bureaucracy as somehow being “still on the path,” advancing conditions for the state withering away. Even though the economy was still socialist in form, “all-people’s government” politically represented a further turning away from class struggle within the USSR and internationally, and could only demoralize revolutionaries while gaining no sympathy from the imperialists.

From this time two factions effectively existed within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. One was for preserving the bureaucratized but collectivist status quo while continuing to develop the forces of production. The other was composed of those who realized they’d reached “the top of socialist society” and had no way to go up but to jettison socialism altogether and become capitalist. Brezhnev held the two factions in balance, but upon his death contradictions surfaced in the choice of two short-lived leaders, with the US corporate media seeming to like Andropov while calling Chernenko a “dullard.” Thatcher’s “we can work with him” endorsement of Gorbachev spoke volumes.

The rest is counterrevolutionary history. Popular support in the USSR for ending elitism and the bureaucracy was played (by the West and the CPSU traitors) with the promise that entry into the ranks of the “normal nations” of the West would be on the level of West Germany, Britain or the US. By the time the “bait and switch” was revealed—entry to the capitalist world would be on the level of a subject neocolony—it was too late.

What might I have liked to see? The USSR and GDR sent technical advisors to Cuba and other socialist countries recently emerging from colonialism. If only Cuba could have sent *political* advisors in exchange, reintroducing them to revolutionary democracy, working class consciousness and internationalist solidarity… Despite the above-outlined degeneration within the CPSU there were many revolutionary-minded people within and outside its ranks. If these could have organized and led a movement opposing said elitism and bureaucracy from the *left* (they’re still there…).

Capitalism finally overthrew feudalism though it took a few tries, a couple of centuries, and a lot of struggle. And as far as the Union part of the USSR is concerned, the US had to survive a civil war 89 years after its founding—that the USSR was chopped up 74 years after its founding doesn’t prevent a USSR 2.0. The struggle isn’t over by any means. In fact it may even be reaching a phase of new revolutionary potential.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 13 2015 21:33 utc | 39

Vintage Red @28

An excellent rebuttal. Very few understand that Marxism is a School of Thought and thus an analytical tool. IMO, humanity will be forced to adopt Communalism if it wants to survive into the centuries beyond given the existential challenges constructed by Capitalistic Competition. The transition will likely be brutal, bloody and drawn-out given human history; I certainly won't live to see the result.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2015 21:36 utc | 40

@38 Vintage Red

The first sentence of your last paragraph reads, "Capitalism finally overthrew feudalism though it took a few tries, a couple of centuries, and a lot of struggle."

What is missing from this summary is that private finance and inheritance survived the transition from feudalism to what you call capitalism.

I see capitalism as a fig leaf myth covering the ongoing control by the inherited global plutocratic families of the Western world who own private finance and most of everything else.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 13 2015 22:12 utc | 41

@From the Hague re: shame on p5+1

If you are going to quote 2249, at least quote the whole paragraph. Like the part about complying with international law. What a troll...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-international-law-in-syria-us-natos-humanitarian-air-strikes/5492208

"Let’s examine the pertinent language of UNSCR 2249:

The resolution “calls upon Member States that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular with the United Nations Charter…on the territory under the control of ISIL also known as Da’esh, in Syria and Iraq.

Note that the resolution demands “compliance with international law, in particular with the UN Charter.” This is probably the most significant explainer to the “all necessary measures” phrase. Use of force is one of the most difficult things for the UNSC to sanction – it is a last resort measure, and a rare one. The lack of Chapter 7 language in the resolution pretty much means that ‘use of force’ is not on the menu unless states have other means to wrangle “compliance with international law.”

Posted by: pirkster | Dec 13 2015 22:50 utc | 42

Reuters: Russia warns Turkey over Aegean warship incident.

Posted by: lysias | Dec 13 2015 23:00 utc | 43

Interesting ... reading in between the lines!

○ Western alliance worried about Russian return to Middle East: Former ambassador Pamir | Hürriyet Daily News |

Posted by: Oui | Dec 13 2015 23:17 utc | 44

psychohistorian @40

There's much to be said in favor of your political-economic hypothesis. I wonder if you've read Brooks Adams's The Law of Civilization and Decline published about 120 years ago given its great influence on the Plutocrats of the era. Aside from killing them all, how do we break the solidarity of the global plutocratic financial elite and thus their grip on the levers of power?

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2015 23:23 utc | 45

In the last few years I have been perplexed by Turkish actions towards Syria. They seem to be completely against Turkish national interests. What seems to be happening is that Turkey has been taken over by an ideologue, ie Erdogan, that is guided by some other force. As b as described here in those three recent posts Erdogan's ideology is guided by some crazed notion that he can re-establish the Ottoman empire and become the grand sultan for this empire.

It looks like it is up to Russia to bring the Turks back to reality. Unfortunately Turkey is part of NATO so any efforts by Russia to resist this insanity could result in a major military confrontation with the US. Hopefully, Obama and his advisers recognize this danger. If not we could really be looking at WWIII.

Posted by: ToivoS | Dec 13 2015 23:41 utc | 46

@44 karlof

Thanks for the reference to The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History. I appreciate it.

@28 @38 vintage red

Thanks very much for taking the time to elaborate on your views, I'm always interested. I've reformated the two for my own convenience, anyone else interested is welcome to my 'easy reading' copy ... if anyone else finds my idea of 'easy reading' congruent with their own :)

This thread seems a welcome break from what chipnik aptly describes as war pr0n. We all 'have' to follow it, but not here.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 13 2015 23:51 utc | 47

@45 ToivoS

Very apt, implicit, analogy between Erdogan in Turkey and Obama/the neocons in the USA ... both following an ideological course which is not in the interest of their respective countries' ... or in the case of the USA, of the world's.

And, by extension, it is Russia that is trying to bring not just the Turks but Americans and 'their', not our, empire back to reality.

We're left to sit tight, root for the Russians, and hope they succeed, aren't we? Fortunately, Russia, at least, seems to have competent leadership.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 13 2015 23:58 utc | 48

.... and, unfortunately, America seems to have ...

Posted by: jfl | Dec 13 2015 23:59 utc | 49

Noirette - thanks for that, very interesting.

Glad to see the Zetas being brought up. I've pointed this out a million times, but I find it "interesting coincidence" that the psychological terror tactics of groups like Los Zetas and ISIS/al Qaeda et al are so similar. The videotaped decapitations and insults, and the deft use of social media to advance their tactics... its like they all got that same training... *nudge nudge* *wink wink*

I tend to think that los Zetas vs the Sinaloa Cartel tracks conflicts and debates within the US ruling class. When we consider the old old rumors of Nazi involvement with the Colombian cartels and right wing death squads, and then we watch the development of los Zetas who struggled for command of Mexico with the very organic, long standing cartels like Sinaloa which emerged from the inhabitants Mexican countryside... there's something there for sure. Another face of Mexico's class wars. Reading Peter Dale Scott, Mike Ruppert, Gary Webb, and Al McCoy you can really get the sense of the epic nature of the drug wars and how they span so much history and conflict. So much money is at stake....

Lastly, I can't wait to dig into Vintage Red and Demian's conversation, I hope you both don't mind... ;)

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 14 2015 0:00 utc | 50

"the deft use of social media to advance their tactics"... uh, should be: "the deft use of social media to advance their cause"

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 14 2015 0:00 utc | 51

@44 karlof1

I have not read the book/author but will look into it/him, thanks.

Your question, "Aside from killing them all, how do we break the solidarity of the global plutocratic financial elite and thus their grip on the levers of power?" I think is being answered as we spew our textual white noise. China is setting itself up as an alternative financial "center" as is evidenced by the AIIB, the BRICS bank and alternatives to SWIFT and BIS. The theology is called MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) by us Western types but in reality it is totally sovereign finance as opposed to the private finance that controls our world now. I am hopeful that socialist/communist/utilitarian/humanistic finance is in our species future.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 14 2015 0:12 utc | 52

@45 ToivoS
@47 jfl

I concur that the world’s primary problem is that Erdogan/Turkey, Obama/Empire and by extension Cameron/UK and Merkel/Germany are all pursuing policies contrary to best interests of their citizens to the benefit of a very few and themselves. This is the worst crisis between nuclear powers since the Cuban Missile Crisis yet all that is heard in the babble is a great silence about this real danger.

Posted by: VietnamVet | Dec 14 2015 0:17 utc | 53

Posted by: pirkster | Dec 13, 2015 5:50:10 PM | 41

There is an active debate on what it means to respect the UN Charter in the context of this resolution. See The Constructive Ambiguity of the Security Council’s ISIS Resolution which was linked to in the last thread. In sum, there is a question of whether any decision has been taken / authorization given.

IMO there has been a decision/authorization - one which addresses a novel situation.

The most straightforward interpretation of the reference to the UN Charter in light of the "call upon" nations to "eradicate the safe haven" that ISIS has established is that the measures taken against ISIS should not be such that it threatens sovereign borders (no land grabbing/annexation) or the apparatus of State. But operations on ISIS-held territory - which is not under the control of any UN member State - is fair game and is open-ended in scope and duration. All that is required is "coordination" - which could be simply informative, as in: our forces will enter territory held by ISIS in your State in 2 hours.

We now see talk of forming an international ground force to attack and hold ISIS territory. This force is mooted at 100k mostly comprised of Turkish, Saudi, Jordanian, and US. UNSC 2249 references to humanitarian and refugee concerns and its deference to ISSG creates the only ambiguity: at what point must territory freed from ISIS be returned to the control of the State (Iraq/Syria)?

Disclaimer: I am not an international diplomat or lawyer.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 14 2015 0:21 utc | 54

@psychohistorian, 40:

I don’t consider it missing but implied. Apologies if I should've made it explicit. My definition of capitalism—a particular form of private ownership of the means of production—includes private finance and inheritance. Feudalism and slavery are other forms, with their own take on private finance and inheritance. I’m as against private finance and inheritance as you are, even if you separate ownership from them.

It might be interesting to contemplate a capitalism in which one could “entrepreneur oneself” to great wealth only to have it be socialized upon one’s passing through a 100% inheritance tax—“all the creative and productive incentive, but without the corruption of concentrated wealth.” But that’s not the capitalism that capitalists want. To my way of thinking it’s not even be a matter of conspiracy among themselves as a class, it’s about the inherent needs of capital itself to keep accumulating.

Complete agreement re: private finance.

*

@jfl, 46:

I’m always interested in your views and have learned much from your posts and linked articles as well. As I mentioned to Demian @26, I think we’ll be on the same side for the foreseeable future, even if our analyses seem disparate and we envision very different paths to desirable (or even acceptable) futures. If you haven’t read it already you may find the article I linked to ("Reading between the lines") of interest.

And thank you for the reformatting—I don’t seem to be able to use italics, bold or blockquote options without affecting all following text, and so am stuck with workarounds such as regular quotes and asterisks. Your reworking does make easier reading.

*

@guest77, 49:

Turnabout is fair play—I’ve already quoted your exchange with Demian after I got drawn off-grid! I’ve always found your contributions to be invaluable even when I’ve not been able to reply.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 14 2015 0:50 utc | 55

".....all pursuing policies contrary to best interests of their citizens to the benefit of a very few and themselves."

Not sure about it, there is parasitic relationship between the US ruling class and its voters. Nothing better is that relationship is shown that with its military force and so-called veterans.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-trump-huge-lead-polls-194000337.html
"The poll also shows that Trump runs significantly stronger among less-educated, less-affluent voters, and performs particularly well among voters in the 50-64 age range."

According to the article, truck drivers and construction workers, veterans and etc. are primary supporters of Trump. But I would argue that those with diploma are not any better, just a cave minded folks with the purchased paper. Since this type of people are representing 95% of US population no wonder that the US is fertile soil for fascism.

As a remainder the most backward region of Germany in 30s, Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria were at the core of Hitler supporters.

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 0:59 utc | 56

ps on eastern Europe—I don’t count the former Eastern European Warsaw Pact countries as proper examples of revolutionary socialism. Their socialism didn’t originate in revolutions and their leading parties weren’t really Communist: in most cases they were formed by Stalin’s ordering forced fusions between each country’s Communist and Social Democratic Parties. This was to arrange friendly majority governments in the region on short notice once it was clear the Cold War had begun. Again, Stalin’s penchant for administrative fiat obtained a quick solution to a problem, but swept under the rug a *huge* political weakness that in conjunction with scarcity and US efforts eventually led to the catastrophe of 1989-91.

Even so, there are those in Eastern Europe who are wising up to the raw deal they’ve gotten under capitalism.

*

pps on “Socialism in One Country” and Mackinder’s Heartland hypothesis—Demian, you wrote in your exchange with guest77 (@125, “UK accuses US of supporting terrorists but sells out to Saudi Arabia”):

“Why would Russia have imperial ambitions, given that it is already in the heartland? Russia had its fill of dominating other countries during its Soviet incarnation, and I think that we can all agree that that was done as a defensive measure.”

Yes, the USSR under Stalin did dominate Eastern Europe (see ps above), and it was done as a defensive measure. As to Mackinder’s geostrategic thinking, it was of course conceived as a theory of how a developed imperialist power could rule the world by conquering “the Heartland”—hitherto a resource-rich but underdeveloped Russia. Having just defeated its German rival, Anglo-US imperialism was now confronted with a USSR that under Stalin’s Five Year Plans had lifted “the Heartland” from an imperialist prize to an industrial power in its own right. However, domination of Eastern Europe and measured internationalist aid aside, Western capitalists either couldn’t grasp that the USSR was not imperialist in the same way they are (as guest77 pointed out @126)—or did grasp it but drew the Soviets thusly anyway for propaganda purposes.

What interests me is how this relates to Stalin’s policy of ”Socialism in One Country”. If there were ever a place in which socialism could be built in one country the USSR was it, huge and rich with all manner of resources. The USSR’s pulling itself up by its own bootstraps industrially and scientifically was difficult beyond reckoning, but it was proven possible. The only other land in which “Socialism in One Country” might be possible is the US itself, which is both resource-rich and economically developed. Hypothetically other large countries such as Brazil, China and Australia have many resources but lack oil, a significant vulnerability. Canada has some petrochemicals, but neither it nor Australia have the population base (labor power) to prevail against an imperialist alliance.

Thus I believe Stalin was right on this major point: socialism *could* be built in the USSR sans industrialized allies—it simply required more time to develop the forces of production. Obviously things would have been so much easier had the German Revolution succeeded, but it did not, and so Socialism in One Country it was.

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 14 2015 1:01 utc | 57

ToivoS

"They seem to be completely against Turkish national interests."

What would that be?

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 1:05 utc | 58

Looks to me as though the US is putting the full court press on in Latin America and has won some victories. Argentina has a new right-wing, business oriented government. Venezuela's Chavistas have lost their first big national elections in some 12 years. In Brazil, Dilma is going through impeachment at the urging of some right wing members of the legislature.

Keep an eye on these events, they're very important. The US is cleaning up its "back yard".

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 14 2015 1:17 utc | 59

"The USSR and GDR sent technical advisors to Cuba and other socialist countries recently emerging from colonialism. If only Cuba could have sent *political* advisors in exchange, reintroducing them to revolutionary democracy, working class consciousness and internationalist solidarity"

This is very interesting! I like it.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 14 2015 1:23 utc | 60

http://russia-insider.com/en/top-german-politician-tells-ash-carter-go-fck-himself-finally/ri8261

Top German Politician Tells Ash Carter to 'Go F**K' Himself. Finally!

Oskar Lafontaine is a major force in German politics. When he comes out swinging this way, you know something is changing.

He has been an outsized figure in German politics since the mid-70s. He was chairman of the SPD (one of Germany's two main parties) for four years, the SPD's candidate for chancellor in 1990, minister of finance for two years, and then chairman of the Left party in the 2000s. He is married to Sarah Wagenknecht, political heavyweight, who is currently co-chairman of Left party.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 14 2015 1:31 utc | 61

[ Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 13, 2015 4:33:03 PM | 38 ]

From this time two factions effectively existed within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. One was for preserving the bureaucratized but collectivist status quo while continuing to develop the forces of production. The other was composed of those who realized they’d reached “the top of socialist society” and had no way to go up but to jettison socialism altogether and become capitalist.

What might I have liked to see? The USSR and GDR sent technical advisors to Cuba and other socialist countries recently emerging from colonialism. If only Cuba could have sent political advisors in exchange, reintroducing them to revolutionary democracy, working class consciousness and internationalist solidarity…

The struggle isn’t over by any means. In fact it may even be reaching a phase of new revolutionary potential.

Vintage Red writes "I learn from the past ..." And I can too. I haven't with regard to the USSR/PRC - the PRC went down the road of 'those who realized they’d reached “the top of socialist society”' in my opinion - but through ignorance, not inability to learn. So that's why I appreciate your efforts to educate us all, or at least to share your informed opinions. Those are all any us have, after all. Not counting our uninformed opinions, of course :)

Posted by: jfl | Dec 14 2015 1:39 utc | 62

Trump is bad, but would he be worse than Hillary or worse than Rubio, Jeb or Cruz? Be mindful of the gamesmanship and the brinkmanship at play here. Then consider that all of the candidates must veer left for the general. Consider the relationship each would have with the stupid House and The corrupt Senate.

The machine hates Trump. Therein lies his appeal. He can't do the bigoted nonsense if he wins the presidency. His adversarial relationship with congress (essentially getting nothing accomplished) might be our best hope.

All are promising lots of war and lots more MIC.

(Except for Sanders whom hasn't got a prayer IF he got the D nomination which he won't. He's a sheepherder for the Party. IMHO)

Posted by: fast freddy | Dec 14 2015 1:43 utc | 63

"Fascism is an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of the financial capital... Fascism is neither the government beyond classes nor the government of the petty bourgeois or the lumpen-proletariat over the financial capital. Fascism is the government of the financial capital itself. It is an organized massacre of the working class and the revolutionary slice of peasantry and intelligentsia. Fascism in its foreign policy is the most brutal kind of chauvinism, which cultivates zoological hatred against other peoples."

Georgi Dimitrov's definition of Fascism and his last sentence is quite narrow by today's standard, it cultivates zoological hatred against other peoples in its domestic policy as well. Just ask Latinos, Japanese, Muslim, Black and Brown etc.

@fast freddy this above is the answer to your question.

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 1:49 utc | 64

https://www.rt.com/usa/325689-gun-paris-attack-iran-contra/

I do not know whether this is true or not. I do not read RT and never will since I have feeling that I am watching Fox Channel. Now, that article has a link to Infowar.com which is a "product" of the US propaganda machine and underculture.

Just a sign more that Russian's media are on the course of propagandistic and spectacle driven content.

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 2:12 utc | 65

Posted by: ToivoS | Dec 13, 2015 6:41:09 PM | 45

"The machine hates Trump. Therein lies his appeal. He can't do the bigoted nonsense if he wins the presidency. His adversarial relationship with congress (essentially getting nothing accomplished) might be our best hope."

Being a pacifist, free thinkers an undecided voter and thinking on the same line like you, even if I'm wrong and Trump start WW3 so be it. The rest of the presidential hopeful including Bernie Sanders is warmongers and liars. There is no way I’ll vote for Democrats ever and I hate Republicans. The only exceptions switch to Ben Carson.

Posted by: Jack Smith | Dec 14 2015 2:20 utc | 66

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to Interfax questions, Moscow, December 7, 2015

Very interesting discussion of the state of play.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

Does the inability of the opposition to form a group to enter talks with Syria work to the advantage of the anti-Assad/anti-ISIS Coalition? Would they prefer to occupy ISIS areas before a ceasefire that allows the 4+1 Coalition to divert resources to attacking ISIS?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 14 2015 2:25 utc | 67

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Emma Goldman

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 2:26 utc | 68

Posted by: fast freddy | Dec 13, 2015 8:43:34 PM | 62 Correction wrongly directed

"The machine hates Trump. Therein lies his appeal. He can't do the bigoted nonsense if he wins the presidency. His adversarial relationship with congress (essentially getting nothing accomplished) might be our best hope."

Being a pacifist, free thinkers an undecided voter and thinking on the same line like you, even if I'm wrong and Trump start WW3 so be it. The rest of the presidential hopeful including Bernie Sanders is warmongers and liars. There is no way I’ll vote for Democrats ever and I hate Republicans. The only exceptions switch to Ben Carson.

Posted by: Jack Smith | Dec 14 2015 2:27 utc | 69

@ #64.
It's probably just Russia's way of saying "We don't believe any of AmeriKKKa & Israel's Fake Global War on Terror bullshit, and neither do some AmeriKKKans. And here's just one of the reasons."

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 14 2015 2:35 utc | 70

@psychohistorian

are you familiar with the book The Occult Technology of Power? if not, check it out. it represents the final lessons a finance capitalist gives to his son before passing down his financial empire. it's not "real" but it definitely rings true. I would also suggest reading Drugs as Weapons Against Us, by John Potash. it wasn't just political figures taken out by the coup forces during the 60's, it was counter-culture icons, and it didn't stop in the 60's. drugs and finance capital have had a strong interconnection going back to the opium wars. good reads for any interested moonbats, imho.

cheers!

Posted by: lizard | Dec 14 2015 2:36 utc | 71

Jack Smith

There are other choices:

>> Vote Third Party

>> Write-in a candidate (real or spoof)

>> Deface the ballot

>> Don't vote

Any of the above sends a message of dissatisfaction with THE SYSTEM, not the false choices. The duopoly thrives on your fear of the other candidates (aka lesser evil voting) and the legitimacy that you provide by voting for one of their candidates.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 14 2015 2:40 utc | 72

@Neretve'43@63

Georgi Dimitrov was a Bulgarian Marxist, who defined fascism applying Marxist theory to the concrete conditions of his pre-WWII time. Marxism is a creative theory, ever evolving on a par with the reality that purports to analyze, and Dimitrov's definition of fascism falls short by far to comprehend the new reality of US capitalism in the XXI c. You are welcomed to define the US as a fascist society, but you would have to do your own analysis, and PROVE the US is a fascist society, instead of quoting someone and assume you have already answered a poster's question, a la magister dixit.

The US and many societies, can be easily categorized as fascist, then quote anyone and think "the enemy has been defined." Wrong. The main problem with Marxist theory and its application to current conditions is its stagnation in the classics i.e. Dimitrov et al, who already did their theoretical homework and it was proven right by the defeat of Nazi-Fascism represented by the Axis. Now is time to do ours. The classics are the light we use to walk our dark times, not to sit on the side of the road appearing wise by quoting them.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 14 2015 3:03 utc | 73

"Colombian troops, drilled in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency techniques, ..."

Unfortunately, experts at killing weaponless peasants and converting them, post mortem, into guerilla fighters (google "false positives Colombia") may even perform well against actual guerillas armed with light automatic weapons but still incompetent to fight with opponents that use artillery. I think that mercenaries cannot be canon fodder -- that requires conscripts or ideologically motivated fighters.

Mercenary experts like snipers, drone operators, operators of long range artillery can form a valuable addition to the force, but GCC problem is the lack of ideologically motivated fighters or conscripted citizens. Plan A was to use Pakistanis and Egyptians, but that failed. Plan B was to blockade and bomb and wait until Yemenis, starving and running out of ammunition, will submit. It is unclear to me why it did not work, except that the blockade is imposed by Royal Saudi Navy, and this is not the most competent bunch. But if that is a reason, the little vessel running the blockade would have to transport an enormous amount of cargo from SOMEWHERE. Chinese base in Djibuti?

Plan C is to collect a bunch of mercenaries without any question where they come from and what kind of training and fighting spirit they possess. This basically means that KSA vassals switched to the support of KSA as cheaply as possible -- and they do not care if mercs are competent or not.

Plan B still has a chance, but I guess that American government does not have the stomach for that atrocity. A blockade requires reliable targeting, something that KSA is not able to accomplish.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 14 2015 3:15 utc | 74

@karlof1, 39:

Thank you. I agree as to prospects in the face of capitalism’s existential challenge to our survival (perhaps even survival of Earth-life in general). Despite my moniker I’m a lot less picky as to the color of our survival-and-liberation flag than I might seem. But if any alternative doesn’t include collective ownership, social planning and sustainable abundance that allows a decent realization of every human’s potential, I just see it as leading us back down to the bad places of haves and have-nots, empires of chaos and eventual burn-out of our biosphere.

“From each according to ability, to each according to need.” If with our beautiful planet and brainpower we can’t achieve this, what good are we as a species? Even if we never see that day it’s still the right thing to set our sights on (and for any who believe in reincarnation, I hope you’re devoting yourself to making the world as just as you humanly can, ‘cuz you’re coming right back).

I would that the path be as smooth, sane and humane as possible, but yes, we are certainly in for a long struggle regardless.

*

@jfl, 61:

I know you and others learn from the past as well—my wording was perhaps because so many (at least in the US) assume that communists don’t do so, only adhering rigidly to the aforementioned “scripts.” Caricaturization of course, again aimed at dismissal.

My effort is to answer Demian’s questions put to me, but if my responses are of interest and use to others, I am all the more glad. I agree with you about all of our informed opinions. I have always rather liked the old Neoplatonic teaching that evil’s true root is ignorance. While each of us is shocked at birth to find ourselves incarnated into a pretty helpless, pretty ignorant form, we have the capacity to learn, join our knowledge and efforts with those of others (usually over ignorance’s bloody resistance) and so attain reason and a decent, just life. *Per aspera ad astra*—Through struggles to the stars.

Uninformed opinions? Yeah, we all got’em. Laugh and return to learn…

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 14 2015 3:22 utc | 75

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 13, 2015 9:25:56 PM | 66

Two days later ...

○ Riyadh, Rumeilan, and Damascus: All You Need to Know About Syria’s Opposition Conferences   by Aron Lund | Carnegie Endowment |
○ AQ linked terror group Ahrar al-Sham leaves Riyadh meeting ... or did they?

Posted by: Oui | Dec 14 2015 3:24 utc | 76

Concerning right wingers winning elections in South America:

My take is that we cannot expect the "angels" to win every time, especially if not-so-angelic. I do not know particulars in Argentina, but the new government will probably have to tackle the consequences of the idiotic decision of an American court on the national debt. The best scenario would be for American authorities to reveal their partiality and revoke that idiocy, and subsequently Peronistas staging a come back. They are down but not out.

Venezuelan government succumbed to cheap oil and domestic crime problems. Brazil had a genuine corruption problem. A period for the Left in opposition may be a good prescription.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 14 2015 3:26 utc | 77

I do not have to prove anything, I dare to say it is self evident. For NFL, Nascar, Harley, Dodge etc. folks who support our troops most likely it is not, and it never will be. For domestic white collar professionals who are in incestuous relationship with regime this is also valid. Not only the US is ruled by a Nazi regime as such it is Genocidal in its "nature", from its inception onwards. That's exactly what we can see in daily life, that is in Gov. controlled media outlets, and what Dimitrov had called "....zoological hatred against other peoples." On domestic scene one can see Internal Colonies and colonial behaviors of "Special Bodies of Armed Men, Prisons, etc."
I know that from my personal experience from the Balkan. And it is what the people from Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Latin America, Indonesia or in short every corner of this planet.

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 3:29 utc | 78

Wow - this vid... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDtOUrsuNEE#t=343

Posted by: bbbb | Dec 14 2015 4:00 utc | 79

@Neretva'43@77

I do not have to prove anything, I dare to say it is self evident.

As it is that "all men are created equal" blah, blah, blah. Me think you have a caricaturesque view of the US, and whatever you quote only conform your preconceived, distorted notions. You can call the US a fascist, nazi, racist, apartheid society, and won't be advancing an inch in terms of defining the enemy configuration. But, since you don't have to prove anything...I hope it helps venting anger.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 14 2015 4:11 utc | 80

@Vintage, et al. Interesting discussion. Castro said an important thing about communism or socialism, I forget which. He said nobody knows how it's supposed to work, though there are many theories: in more than one country at once? Only one? Will it happen in the rural districts or the cities? How is the proletariat supposed to lead and keep leading before they're undermined? A spokesman for the NPA, maoist-type army in the Philipines, says something sensible too to the effect that the only chance to overturn the Reptilian Order is for communist-style insurgencies(the only kind the RO is really worried about) to spread across the planet thereby diluting the effectiveness of the anti-communist armies and their hirelings to keep things the way they like 'em. This situation, no telling when, or if, it will ever be reached (but comrade Mao said "a single spark can ignite a forest fire") will usher in the
era of the Strategic Stalemate when the Righteous and the Obnoxious shall be evenly matched

Posted by: ruralito | Dec 14 2015 4:11 utc | 81

Proof!? Here is one.

http://orientalreview.org/2011/07/06/anglo-saxon-roots-of-german-nazism/

Posted by: Neretva'43 | Dec 14 2015 4:31 utc | 82

@ 41 pirkster

The point is: A UNSC Resolution IS international law

And M K Bhadrakumar knows something about 'international law'

'M.K.Bhadrakumar served in the Indian Foreign Service for three decades and served as ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey. Apart from two postings in the former Soviet Union, his assignments abroad included South Korea, Sri Lanka, West Germany, Kuwait, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He served thrice in the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, including as the Head of the Division in 1992-95. Mr. Bhadrakumar sought voluntary retirement from the IFS in 2002 and has since devoted himself to writing. He contributes to various publications in India and abroad and is a regular columnist for Asia Times and The Hindu. He has written extensively on Russia, China, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and on the geopolitics of energy security. He normally resides at Delhi, when not travelling and lecturing abroad. '

http://www.gatewayhouse.in/author/m-bhadrakumar/

Posted by: From The Hague | Dec 14 2015 4:49 utc | 83

Good discussion on the role of private finance/inheritance, and it's impact on the globe today. After 40 plus yrs. of hearing the "deregulation" mantra, it's time society took a look at where it's taken us. But we won't.

Posted by: ben | Dec 14 2015 4:57 utc | 84

Nerevta, a quick Google would show you that the Paris attack/Iran Contra arms dealer scandal is a local story being covered by the local media. The offending company is located in Delray Beach, FL.

It would appear that an actual case of journalism has happened. You should read the full story instead of slagging it off just because it was republished by RT. Good grief.

Posted by: Ananymus | Dec 14 2015 5:06 utc | 85

Link to the Iran Contra arms dealer/Paris attack guns story.

Posted by: Ananymus | Dec 14 2015 5:09 utc | 86

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 13, 2015 9:40:56 PM | 71

Correct me if I'm wrong, not sure I should post this.

I'm sick and tired of the same old shits. War and more war endless wars. Lie and more lie endless lies. I'm not voting out of fear or for the lesser evil but against the lesser evil - the Democrats.

Just to be sure you understand me. I don't care who wins, but NOT Democrats even if voting Republicans means war with Russia and China. The Democratic will do it even if they swear they won't. There are differences here. If Republican's president starts, another war liberal Democrats will howl and yell including impeachment. If Democrat’s President starts a war, both Democratic and Republican encourage more wars or remains silence like what Obama doing - boots on the grounds in Iraq, Syria and Afghan, and instigates China's Spratly island with Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia Nations.

My first choice was and still is Green Party - Jill Stein. Jill Stein got ZERO chance and why not Trump? Possibly gridlock Congress with the White House. Worst scenario WW3 better than drips, drip slow pains and suffering while they enriched themselves?

Posted by: Jack Smith | Dec 14 2015 5:26 utc | 87

@jackrabbit 73 ' Write-in a candidate (real or spoof) '

I think your choice number two is the only way to go at this particular point in time. Do you know that writing in a candidate is illegal in some jurisdictions? Louisiana, for instance.

The idea is to have the number of 'write-ins/ballots spoiled by write-in' exceed the total of the elephant and the donkey in the 'race'. That's the immediate, do-able goal. There will be outrage and blow-back when the 'authorities' disallow millions of votes, there will be even more outrage and blow-back when the 'authorities' pick a 'winner' who has received fewer votes than the number they have disallowed.

We can refine the process. Hold our own primaries. Hold multiple elections prior to the 'real' election to allow support to coalesce around some few of those written in. Eventually, individual candidates we chose ourselves will receive more votes than either the donkey or the elephant. Will be elected. From dog-catcher all the way 'up' to POTUS.

This is our only hope. But it's not only a hope : it's a plan. Self-actualizing democracy. Just do it. If we'd started in 2004 we'd be in control by now. Not only is it do-able it will be a hell of a lot of fun once we get started.

Once we have built-up our electoral muscles we can turn to the real tasks of restructure. Kick sand in the face of the oligarch bullies.

Consider the alternative ...

Posted by: jfl | Dec 14 2015 5:47 utc | 88

ISIS and US

And that brings up the question, once again, of how Daesh was able last year to conquer Mosul – the second city in Iraq - without a fight. And this after their notorious convoy of gleaming white Toyotas crossing the desert from Syria to Iraq managed to evade detection by the most sophisticated satellite surveillance system in the history of the Universe.

Regarding the mystery, persistent intel rumblings across the Middle East and among the “4+1” coalition are bound to turn into a volcano.

According to the rumblings, the official - Pentagon - narrative that the Iraqi Army supposed to fight Islamic State in Mosul last year got scared and simply ran away is a myth.

As we know, the Iraqi Army, trained by the Pentagon, left behind a wealth of tanks and heavy weapons duly captured by IS. And IS couldn’t be luckier in collecting this almighty ‘gift’.

The new narrative rules that the Pentagon deliberately “instructed” the Iraqi Army to run away, as a sort of tactical retreat, leaving behind all that fabulous hardware.

So what we have here is the Pentagon fully protected by plausible deniability.

And Islamic State duly weaponized as a proxy/regime change army in Syria. A perfect chaos-provoking tool aligned with the strategic objective of the ‘Empire of Chaos’ in Syria. Which, by the way, does include, in the absence of full regime change, the formation of a ‘Sunnistan’ in Syria as well.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/325218-syria-turkey-iraq-war/

Posted by: From The Hague | Dec 14 2015 5:53 utc | 89

@ruralito, 80, and @Demian re: unfettered vs. regulated capitalism:

A century ago most socialists felt revolutions would happen first in the most developed countries, which would then peacefully guide/help the rest of the world toward economic development and eventually socialism and communism. As noted above the Russian, Chinese and other revolutions shook up this expectation—the core vs. periphery struggle Lenin pointed out in his last years. When I was young and first radicalizing I remember hearing many speak of Third World liberation movements, more or less in conjunction with the USSR and PRC, steadily isolating the capitalist empires—a kind of global guerrilla war besieging the rulers in the metropolitan countries, slowly depriving them of colonies to exploit and so forcing their exported contradictions to come home to roost.

Instead socialist revolutions have occurred not in the metropolitan countries but in their colonies and neocolonies. In most of these the local capitalists were so deeply aligned with imperialism that the leadership of the national liberation struggles fell to communists, socialists and other left nationalist forces. Upon independence they were then faced not merely with creating just, cooperative and sovereign societies according to their ideals, but also with fulfilling the historic task of capitalism, building up the productive forces. This is necessarily a contradiction for egalitarian movements, as capitalism builds these forces up through extreme exploitation.

Two main strategies have emerged so far: 1) central planning with collectivization, and 2) NEP/the “capitalist road” (with somewhat less central planning). Either strategy is difficult and laden with contradictions. Either is easy for the US and other former colonists to sabotage (sanctions, mercenary “freedom fighters,” color revolutions, etc.). Also, either allows imperialism to depict the national liberation governments—whatever color their flag—as themselves exploitative and restrictive.

Ironically the periphery-vs.-core siege now seems to be manifesting, but led by a different sort of alliance than guerrillas and liberationist governments tacitly or openly backed by a socialist group of nations. The present struggle is shaping up to be between direct rule by the bankster-corporate capitalists versus an emerging constellation of “Sovereigntist” governments. These latter range from:

1) Russia, once building socialism and now capitalist, but retaining or reconfiguring a strong guiding role for the state in its capitalist economy (consider Putin’s recent address on this very synthesis: “State Capitalism 2.0”);
2) China, which is still building socialism, albeit pioneering what I’ve called a “New Economic Policy on steroids” to develop the means of production ASAP (a strategy working at least enough to freak out the US);
3) India, Brazil, South Africa, Iran and other former colonies or neocolonies who as mentioned above have developed strong state guidance and participation in their otherwise capitalist economies to facilitate development and sovereignty; and
4) Everyone else on the planet that doesn’t want to end up a debt serf to finance capital.

What the Sovereigntists have in common are economies not simply regulated by the state, but in which the state participates as a strong organizing principle—China and Russia are approaching this from opposite sides of class rule. In the US-led hegemony the financial sector is bent on austerity aimed, as Grover Norquist put it, at “shrink[ing] government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub”—even to the point that significant parts of their own repressive apparatus are being privatized: mercenaries, prisons, surveillance, courts… “Private armies are everywhere” as one poster recently put it—a capitalist parody of the withering away of the state?

Why this line-up of forces? Because capitalist sectors that are still developing the forces of production actually *benefit* from the state as the one entity that can focus and channel blind market forces (maximum-profit allocation of scarce resources) toward something more-or-less creative. I’ve heard it said that black markets are often tolerated as a defensive reaction to the pressures of scarcity while building socialism. There is a mirror-image phenomenon within capitalism, a defensive reaction by capitalists (or by capital itself?) to order the irrationalities in their own system for its further growth and development. End-stage capitalism, however, deeply mired in its own contradictions and with no further developmental potential, has gone completely rotten and has no such incentive. It only wishes to retard if not cannibalize or destroy the forces of production. It’s only guided by what it takes to maintain long-term control for the glory of maximizing short-term profits. It has nothing to offer humanity but debt and death.

It is no accident that all the above-mentioned national liberation movement-type governments are with the Soverieigntist camp—it is a natural continuation of their struggles over the last century for development and national liberation. The PRC, itself originating in a national liberation struggle, is almost as conspicuous among the Sovereigntists as the USSR was among its WW2 “partners,” but with a much larger economic weight and thus influence in the current camp.

Communists like myself certainly support the Sovereigntist camp not simply because of China’s presence and nostalgia for the remnants of socialism in Russia, nor “simply” because its victory over the fascism of finance capital is both essential for the interests of the great mass of humanity and indeed Earth’s biosphere. We also look ahead to a resurgence of our own—a Sovereigntist victory over the US-led hegemony will create the multipolar conditions most favorable for, as Hugo Chavez phrased it, 21st Century Socialism. By so defeating US imperialism it will indeed force capitalism’s contradictions to come home to roost, breaking the material basis for the stranglehold the US PTB have had on popular consciousness here for so long. One way or another, the class struggle will reemerge even here. Finally getting to your last question, Demian:

“So why not admit that that’s [“social capitalism” vs. predatory capitalism] all there is, instead of still continuing to dream of a kind of future which exists only in science fiction?”

Ah, science fiction… one of my best friends is a published science fiction author. No socialist, he surprised me one day by stating that in his view the world’s economically and technologically developed countries are perhaps of the verge of real abundance. But the PTB are holding back this abundance by hook and crook, by war and waste, up to and including global climate catastrophe. The capitalists know that realizing this potential would pull the rug out from under their web of control through commodity and financial markets. Perhaps my friend foresees the kind of revolution originally envisioned by socialists over a century ago.

For those who for whatever reason feel we will never achieve any kind of cooperatively-created and justly-distributed abundance, believe what you think best, but to my thinking this forever condemns the huge majority of humanity to poverty and repression under some kind of ruling class. I think we can do better than this.

Utopia lies at the horizon.
When I draw nearer by two steps,
it retreats two steps.
If I proceed ten steps forward, it
swiftly slips ten steps ahead.
No matter how far I go, I can never reach it.
What, then, is the purpose of utopia?
It is to cause us to advance.

—Eduardo Galeano

Posted by: Vintage Red | Dec 14 2015 7:11 utc | 90

Century International Arms founded 1961 – owner Monttreal Jew William Sucher

○ Dealer: Gun linked to Paris attack came thru US

William and Phyllis Sucher founded Century International Arms in 1961, according to an article that appeared in the publication Shooting Industry Magazine. William Sucher sold typewriters until he accepted a rifle as payment, according to the article. When he listed the rifle for sale, he received numerous offers, and his surplus weapons business was born out of a warehouse in Vermont.

[Florida-based Century Arms also involved in the Iran-Contra affair]

He was sitting downstairs at the Texas book depository when the shots were fired. He owned a WWII Italian carbine but no one saw him take it into the building. The CIA presented a document to the Warren Commission that it said it got from Italian intelligence that each of these rifles had a “unique serial number.” Much later when Giulio Andreotti, who had been defence minister in Italy in 1963, learned of this he said that this was nonsense, that document didn’t come from them. William K. Harvey was the Rome CIA agent and he prepared it. William Sucher, a Montreal Jew, who imported all these rifles into North America, said the same serial number could be on two, three, even more rifles. The CIA planted the rifle at the scene and got rid of Oswald’s, still at home.

[Source: The Times of Israel - Lee Harvey Oswald — Almost An Israeli

Posted by: Oui | Dec 14 2015 7:49 utc | 91

Posted by: Oui | Dec 14, 2015 2:49:53 AM | 90

Times of Israel article might be a bogus story, the Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5 millimeter bolt-action rifle was ordered in Chicago and Crescent Firearms, Inc., of New York City, was a distributor of surplus Italian 6.5-millimeter military rifles.

Posted by: Oui | Dec 14 2015 8:26 utc | 92

Posted by: dh | Dec 13, 2015 3:26:06 PM | 31

Whatever - the US are using all this as "leverage" to get what they want. Russia has changed the rules by being another power ME politicians can turn to - but it will cost them, same as with the US.

Actually, protection will cost them twice now.

It is a racket.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 14 2015 9:05 utc | 93

So, could Beijing's new ten-year leasing agreement with Djibouti to build a logistical hub in the Horn of Africa just across from Yemen have anything to do with Saudi regime aggression in Yemen?

http://russia-insider.com/en/china-expands-military-reach-africa/ri11460

Posted by: doveman | Dec 14 2015 9:44 utc | 94

good readigs
https://www.rt.com/news/325826-turkey-us-isis-oil-un/
https://www.rt.com/news/325825-sarin-gas-syria-turkey/
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/173379/World/Region/Christian-female-fighters-take-on-ISIS-in-Syria.aspx
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/173445/World/Region/Two-senior-Gulf-commanders-killed-in-Yemen-Media.aspx

Posted by: Mina | Dec 14 2015 10:06 utc | 95

@89 vr

I don't think it has to do with national borders. Pew Research has published a report, The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground. Check out the graph showing the relative proportion of 'upper income' and 'middle income' crossing :

  1970, 29%. 62%
  2014, 49%, 43%.

This is no surprise, but there it is on the graph. Even more greatly skewed distributions have long been the norm in 'the South', but it has reached the seat of empire now, so is certainly the case all over this earth. The socialist countries, willingly or un-, decided 'if ya cant beat 'em, join 'em'. In the Plutocrats' Republic, certainly. Being a capitalist country is like being pregnant, you are or you aren't. It is a class-war on a global scale. The divergence is only going to increase between income classes and decrease among nations. As everything is monetized income becomes more and more crucial to us poor humans dispossessed by the cyborg plutocrats.

Will we humans do something to arrest the divergence? Or will the financial cyborgs set about eliminating us?

See Old Microbiologist | Dec 9, 2015 4:50:18 AM | 138 and Posted by: Old Microbiologist | Dec 9, 2015 7:12:36 AM | 140

I think we're going to have to realize what we're up against - those who are benefiting from the present arrangement certainly have - and seize control. I think it can be done, by the book, in the USA. It is going to take a victory for a large population so somewhere on earth to pull it off, both as an example, and to gain control of the presently repressive apparatus and apply relief elsewhere. We're all in this together, and we have to realize it and join forces if we're to have a chance. They won't bat an eye at eliminating us.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 14 2015 10:47 utc | 96

Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin accuses Washington and Turkey of failing to inform the SC about ISIS trafficking in stolen Syrian and Iraqi oil as required under SC Resolution 2199.
Syrian Foreign Ministry sent letters to the UN General Sec and Security Council President saying continued silence over terrorist crimes only emboldens them. Meanwhile the SC condemned in the strongest terms possible, a Kabul, Afghanistan attack near Spain's Embassy. This is what Russia and Syria have to put up with, gross hypocrisy and double standards bottom line is do not trust the bastards.http://sjlendman.blogspot.co.uk/

Posted by: harry law | Dec 14 2015 10:47 utc | 97

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 13, 2015 8:17:47 PM | 58

the US partner is doing what it does everywhere, finds patsies to manipulate...new Saddams or Noriegas, of socialist states to turn into deplorable afghanistans

Posted by: brian | Dec 14 2015 10:47 utc | 98

1

Wow, didn't even make it to the first post on the open thread before more war pron.

The Saker has an interesting post today about Russia and how (in a general way) it recovered from the Bush-Khashogi-Marcus embezzlement of Philippines bullion to create junk bonds for the post-Soviet oiligarch dis-integration of the country into the Zeks and the fabulously rich mafiosa, being played out with US and EU taxpayer monies today in Ukraine, in exactly, absolutely exactly the same play book at Papa Bush, but what is most interesting is The Saker writes the article without one word of war pron.

2

Those US investors were the ones who found the galleon, and who claimed the find and the finder's fee under international law, were awarded the finder's fee by Colombian courts, then overturned by the recent Colombian familia mafia, and remains a caution for all US/EU expatriates looking for a home in the sun...don't . trust . Colombians!

7

The Kennedy's, like the Bush's and the Clinton's, are mafia families. G-d, I hope there isn't anyone on MoA who doesn't understand that part of American history. Castro overthrew the NY Italian and Jewish mobs controlling Havana nightclubs, prostitutes, drugas, rum, and tobacco. Havana was like the Damascus of it's day, the tax dodge money laundering center for the mob. Kennedy was killed by the mob after he failed to go through with the Cuban invasion. Obama learned that lesson, and created I$I$ so the mob could seize control of Damascus, the pipelines, the prostitutes, drugas, opium.
Lee Harvey Oswald was a total dupe. They put him in front of some paper targets and sent him off to fire a few rounds, then run into a theater. Jack Ruby's real name was Rubenstein, he owed a big debt to the Jewish mob, and he paid it off with the hit. The CIA was created after WW2 by German generals brought to the US for just that reason, to create a Deep Government, but they too were corrupted by the NY Italian and Jewish mob who they relied on, shared intel with, it all became inbred, and there's many many historical investigations showing how the CIA-Mob works, and why Kennedy had to die.
The unelected supra-national EU leaders today are all controlled by the mob as well, and now comes the Climate Caliphate, with their Carbon Prohibition and tax credits, you're looking at $3T a year in hot money and baaksheesh whose sole purpose is theft.

10

This is an Open Thread for all you hagiographers of the Given Wisdom.

12

Corporate stock-buybacks and M&A are the predominate global demand for credit since the 2011 QE failed to regen EU, despite MASSIVE injections from the FED, in fact, EU banks were the largest recipient of money flows from the FED any banking system in the world by a factor of 10x.
Dow/Dupont have overlapping markets, it makes perfect sense to merge for the benefit of shareholders, likely 12,000 layoffs with plant closures, and that hit on the public welfare treasury will be smoothed over by higher margins, higher profits, tax credits, lower borrowing costs, more stock buybacks, and so laissez les bon temps for the investment class.

15

The assumes the derivatives are all on the same side of the positions, which they are not, just like a bookies book (ideally) has a net-zero book by changing the odds, so derivatives are both long or short, and the job of the banks investment analysts is to STRADDLE the risk to nearly net-zero. All the much-hyped $468T worth of collateral risk is just like a day at the horse track. Some win, many lose, and at the end of the day, all those $Ms of dollars flying around are lying on the floor as torn tickets, with a small bag of profits in a Brinks armored car. The derivatives hype is pure scare tactics by the Goldbuggerers, the same ones who brought you 16x re-hypotheticated 'store your bullion in a private vault!', or the Goldman near zero reserves toilet paper GLD/SLV. It's all a casino now.

16

Benghazi reveals that, at it's black core, USA State:CIA Werhmacht were arming and funding foreign merceneries to overthrow the sovereign nation of Syria, which is a war crime under International World Court. All the crooks and criminals who were making mad stacks off of this crime, like John McCain after Hillary Clinton screwed the pooch, will do anything, say anything, pay anything, they'd leave your mother in a shallow grave and put your children out of the street to distance themselves from the noose.
If there was any Justice left in the world, these McCainaut scum would all be hanging from lampposts, while we celebrated our Second War of Freedom.

52

The world's greatest crisis is the oiligarchs diversion of public monies, or credit-debt laid onto the back of the public, being used to underwrite junk bonds at a 6:1 metastasis, being used to buy up the worlds last free lands, last forests, last minerals reserves, last industrial companies, it's all going behind an Iron Curtain of hot money and baaksheesh, as the majority of the world's 8B or 9B campesanos, who for the most part live in huts and cook with dung, are being driven from those free lands with that totally fraudulent, completely illegal hot money-underwritten high yield junk, driven into vastly swelling urban gulags around the world to die. The world's greatest crisis is the largest outdoor concentration camps since Dachau, with the same Fascist Wehrmacht, now operating on a global scale, in full control of the US and EU finance system. Turkey schmurkey.

"We won, you lost. It's just business, get over it. Now get off our land."

Posted by: Chipnik | Dec 14 2015 11:20 utc | 99

@38

All I'd like to say about your narrative of the Soviet Union is that it completely ignores the vital, hidden role capitalists played in constructing Stalinist Russia. Albert Kahn, Ford's right-hand architect, designed practically the entire First Five Year Plan in Detroit. There were massive contributions by American industrialists: Ford himself built the world's largest car plant. The world's largest iron plant was likewise constructed by American engineers (along with an entire city, Magnitogorsk, modeled on Gary, Indiana). The Kochs' father contributed cutting-edge oil refineries (and only broke with the USSR, incidentally, after his client Stalin's death). I could go on and on.

Stalinist Russia and its industrial "achievements" are unimaginable without capitalists, mostly American.

Posted by: Huffman Aviation | Dec 14 2015 11:54 utc | 100