“Turkey withdrew troops from Iraq”, seems that from one location only, but seems that Erdogan is under some pressure to avoid open conflict with Iraq. First, he cancelled plan expansion of the units in Iraq, and now, a withdrawal. A speculation: Sen. McCain tried to support Erdogan’s resolute stand with a personal phone call, and he uttered his famous “we are all Georgians”.
Yemen’s military once more demolished the forces of GCC expedition, both Emiratis and Saudis with a Tochka. A weeklong ceasefire is suppose to take effect, so perhaps this time there will be no massive bombardment of civilian targets as a retaliation.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 14 2015 14:02 utc | 103

Turkish opposition MP say’s he has evidence Turkish government implicated in transferring sarin to Al-Qaeda group in Syria https://www.rt.com/news/325825-sarin-gas-syria-turkey/
This is getting intolerable, weapons of mass destruction, to lie us into the Iraq war, now it would appear OBama’s red line in Syria was crossed, by a NATO ally. Our leaders are lying constantly to get us into one war after the other.

Posted by: harry law | Dec 14 2015 15:10 utc | 105

psychohistorian @ 51

“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.”

You do MMT a disservice by referring to it as a ‘theology’. MMT is a description of how monetary systems work within an accounting framework. MMT is thus a real-world accounting model of modern finance with respect to sovereign nation states. We are already living in an MMT world in which bad policy is having the predictable result, the ‘tyranny of the arithmetic’ cannot be trumped no matter how hard we try.
Private finance will only be changed through politics, even though it resides in the hierarchy of power below Congress in the US and similarly in other western economies. Wealth has captured political systems and rendered the hierarchy of power according to the law meaningless, largely because the populations are ignorant of finance at even the simplest level and continue to buy into myths. You know what those myths are.

Posted by: paulmeli | Dec 14 2015 15:10 utc | 107

Sorry,
that LAST LINK should have been THIS ONE:
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/10/31/crisis-by-design-hungarian-pm-reveals-social-engineering-role-of-george-soros-in-eu-refugee-run/

Posted by: susetta | Dec 14 2015 15:17 utc | 109

Trump calls Shillary mass murderer!So far he’s got my vote!A Fascist?Nah,I don’t believe Trumps an ideologue at all,just an American fed up with business as usual.
What other immigrant group has ever turned on their fellow Americans for being that?None,other than possible South Koreans?(upstate NY,Va.).I like Islam,myself,I like their piety shown by true believers in God,but right now a time out is in order.
And there was story from TX today,about a plumber who is suing a Ford dealership in Tx because he saw his truck,still with his plumbing logo, in Syria.
Now why would a old Ford end up in ISUS’s hands?
American collusion.

Posted by: dahoit | Dec 14 2015 15:51 utc | 111

@100 I guess anything is possible, but why can’t the simple answer be correct? LH Oswald was a committed Communist, and eyewitnesses saw him downing officer Tippit.
Just because JFK had a supposed ideological opposition to the CIA doesn’t give me enough reason to believe that they’d off him.

Posted by: bbbb | Dec 14 2015 15:58 utc | 113

Oh,uneducated 55-64 year olds.Well,the seemingly educated poison ivy league cruds sure don’t have much intelligence,borne out by their world in shambles.
What do you expect from Commies anyway,the seekers of utopia who founder on their command and control,and plans for others,which those others aren’t consulted on.
Reminds me of Zionists in America,Trotsky scum all.
The mob definitely had some thing to do with JFK,probably over the loss of Cuba as a thugs playground.And the CIA also was pissed,so collusion must have been the story.

Posted by: dahoit | Dec 14 2015 16:02 utc | 115

Pretty funny video from RT mocking the flak they get from the western press. Featuring a bear eating money and that short British guy locked in a basement
http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20151214/1031733055/rt-propaganda-truth.html

Posted by: Bill | Dec 14 2015 16:46 utc | 117

“A Fascist?Nah,I don’t believe Trumps an ideologue at all…”

Trump’s not an ideologue or a fascist, but that’s a large part of the demographic he appeals to so he’s a dangerous foot-in-the-door for Fascism.
He’s not fit for governance. In fact, we”l be lucky if anyone running is.
The only way to get real change is to alter the character of the party establishments. Without that there can be no change. Anyone we get to vote for from the menu is puppet.

Posted by: paulmeli | Dec 14 2015 16:50 utc | 119

Death Squad policy in work.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/01/blogs/20130401-lens-haviv-slide-5NH2/20130401-lens-haviv-slide-5NH2-jumbo.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijeljina_massacre
Executors were executed, later on, by Milosevic’s secret police in numerous and chain of killing spray in Belgrade and Serbia.
While this is not first time that chauvinistic circles from Belgrade implementing ethnic cleansing, this time dissolution of Yugoslavia is supported by the US, politically and financially. Preparatory work was done ahead by the”structural reforms” and “advisers” who comes from the west. Of course it wasn’t meant to be successful. A Nazis want to dominate by all means.
Milosevic was darling of the west (celebrated as a “reformer”), as long as he did deconstruction of Yugoslavia in behalf of Nato/US. Than they killed him in prison cell.
Death Squad policy well known from the Latin America comes to Europe, actually first sign of that probably were in Indonesia immediately after WWII. Or maybe it is invented by British in Malaya and Kenya or…French
Death Squads was a pillar of US policy in Iraq, US officers were brought from Latin America along with the British SAS from Northern Ireland. They instigated sectarian and communal intercine massacres just like in Yugoslavia. Massacres without any military objective. Than Syria were careful implemented war plan called for a “stretch” of the Syrian security forces. Reason being to avoid mistake from past in Hama 1982 were Assad mopped them up.
They, the West, actually celebrate a death like Spanish fascists have celebrated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Millán_Astray

Posted by: Neretva’43 | Dec 14 2015 16:53 utc | 121

How crazy does one have to be to stab oneself in the neck and blame it on ISIS?
Actually these fake hate crimes are v popular in Paris, but they usually just involve graffiti and “threats”.

Posted by: Ananymus | Dec 14 2015 17:08 utc | 123

A minor point about the discussion of Marxim, meaning communism (usually) vs. capitalism.
If one considers them purely economic schemes, in an abstract, theoretical way, then they do present an opposition, or at least divergent alternatives. On the whole, economic science is junk, nonsense. (Economics should be a minor branch of Social Anthropology, say, ha ha.)
In real life, investment, in the sense of planning for the future and putting effort and ressources into realising future goals; garnering profit, for oneself or one’s group, even for others, in the sense of doing better, dominating a “market”, not only in monetary terms; quarrels about the worth and necessary payments of indentured labor (includes many workers today) and social re-distribution, or support, if only of mothers, children — have always co-existed.
—Even under feudalism, which was quite agressive. And I don’t mean towards serfs. Towards their neighbors.
The devil is in the details, in socio-cultural aspects, beliefs, the glue that holds society together.
The US for ex. is a highly re-distributive society, arguably it maintains 50 million alive thru taxation, and has the highest business tax in the world (with Japan), 35%. France, with a lower business tax (15% for small biz. with profits under a threshold..but up to 33%…for ex, but how to define all this..VAT, social contributions, property taxes, tax havens, etc. etc. ) and less ppl on the formal dole or supported circuit, i.e. has a slightly higher labor participation rate (link, just one example), is less socialistic than the US, under such a reading.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/26/the-u-s-stands-out-on-labor-force-participation-rates/
Yet, typically the Economist and US MSM paint France as a hell-hole of louts who live off Gvmt. subsidies, drink all day, crunch stale baguettes with rotting teeth or whatever, and don’t want to work, and the US as the great country of virtuous capitalism, entrepreneurs, inventors, international successes, go-ahead ppl, and so on. A move of blame-n-shame propaganda, to subjugate and control. Not only F but the US populace.
All this hype has nothing to do with Marxism vs. capitalism. Both systems, US and F, are mixed and in fact resemble each other greatly, which is why I chose the 2 ex. (Vintage Red I appreciate your posts.) The discourse serves to distract from control by Mega-corporations, Finance, and beholden, on-the-take, puppet Gvmts, and has nothing to say about war, well it doesn’t claim to.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 14 2015 17:19 utc | 125

Vintage Red @26,
A most excellent response. Thank you. I would add that the battle is also between those who recognze cooperation & compassion as necessary to our nature & to the Good Life– indeed to our survival vs those who would be slavers.
The link you provide http://fortruss.blogspot.com.ar/2015/11/reading-between-lines-great-war-of.html describes the battle as between “Deracinating Atlanticist Hegemony vs. Multipolar and self-determination”. To my great dismay, Vintage Red, I can find not a hint that any great power or personality is for “self-determination”.
The very engine of Hegemony is the bleeding of national sovereignty over monetary, economic & trade matters into the control of supranational entities which will always be hegemonically ruled– which have more power than anyone can ever be trusted with. Self-determination requires in the first place sovereign nations. Then the breakup of the huge, ill-gotten fortunes & mammoth holding companies which have allowed pernicious persons to buy our governments.
I should like more than anything in the world to see that either Russia or China is moving to weaken or break up the IMF/Fed system or the WTO. But I see only the wish for a more prominent position within them.
Even so, if I were sure that the confrontation in Syria were real, even if it were only for multipolar vs unipolar, I would be glad. That tons of airplane parts fell onto the Sinai without making an impact crater is not so terrible; nations do things they ought not, to influence public opinion, and if it’s false, at least no one was killed. But I have the same problem with MH17, where an engine weighing a ton fell on farmland & left no contact crater. Some of the bodies were long dead, so it appears there is collusion among the “investigators” to continue forwarding the complex “story” of MH17. One story for the unawakened masses, and another for those of us who, thru championing Russia, have penetrated it– but w the possibility of a hoax scarcely imagined.
First responders report the smell of perfumed formaldehyde, Strelkov reported that those who handled the bodies said they were long dead, and the lack of a contact crater even under the heavy engines, where other crashes have them: http://killtown.911review.org/flight93/crash-comparisons.html what the impact craters of plane crashes look like.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 14 2015 17:50 utc | 127

The US now has to bomb Turkey, after declaring it a terrorist state, followed by regime change.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 14 2015 17:57 utc | 129

Susetta @ 23,
We’ve debated the meaning & motivation of 2249 for several days– since it was passed. It authorizes no one to use military force in Syria or Iraq; it merely urges those who can LEGALLY do so to redouble their efforts to eradicate safe havens of ISIS, al qaeda, etc. Obviously this includes only those countries invited in. Unfortunately, Iraq has now invited 4 countries in, and rescinded only one invitation so far.
My question is why did Russia invite other powers to participate in bombing– surely only Syria and Iraq could legitimately do that!

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 14 2015 18:00 utc | 131

Vintage Red @ 28,
Yes, you’re right: Of the 3 systems humanity has tried regulated Capitalism w Welfare is better than the other two. However, I think it could be vastly improved by much stricted regulations against monopolies, a much more progressive tax code including on capital gains and inheritance, public financing of political campaigns, etc. Plus conscious promotion of co-op enterprises and public ownership of natural monopolies.
There’s no way to make any system safe from tyrants and future degradation of the system. The best we can hope for is to make it better in our time– and I would be ecstatic if we could just cause the downfall of the present system, its tyrants and their control over production.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 14 2015 18:11 utc | 133

Noirette @ 124,
Many good points. Thanks for your thoughts. One of the things we tend to forget is that financialization of the system, including invisible looting by adding interest payments at every step of production & distribution, doubles the cost of living. (We know that because the worst looters now own half the wealth produced by our labor). So if we get clear of them, making a living will not be so time-consuming. In the 50s it was easy for a man to support kids and a nonworking wife, and there was talk of a reduced workweek coming soon.
Another vast change that we can depend upon when we get clear of the bankers, is the lessening international competition, which is constantly telling Americans that they must “compete” w someone who’s working for 26 cents an hour. A large fraction of such competition occurs because all those countries labelled as “developing” by the IMF can print their own currency only in an amount equivalent to their export income. This greatly skews their economies towards the export market. And then they must compete w low labor costs to attract the investment capital from abroad that they are not allowed to create for themselves.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 14 2015 18:39 utc | 135

Also …
○ NY Times Backs Off Its Syria-Sarin Analysis (Vectoring Ghouta Attack)
○ Washington ‘Cherry-picked’ Intelligence on Sarin Production Syrian Rebels   By Seymour Hersh

Posted by: Oui | Dec 14 2015 19:13 utc | 137

O@136
Neither the analysis of the NYT nor the opinions of Sy Hersh about the US governments intelligence has any more effect on the known facts about Sarin and Syria than the BS RT/Turkey fable.
The facts that have been proven, by Russia, are that Assad was and is the only one shown to have possessed and had the capability to produce Sarin in or anywhere near Syria. The rest is conjecture, rumor, speculation or myth even what comes from the US until actual verifiable evidence is produced.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Dec 14 2015 19:36 utc | 139

You don’t need to be able to produce sarin gas in order to use gas that you have somehow gotten your hands on. And the Syrian rebels had sarin in 2013, when they were caught redhanded with it in Adana by Turkish authorities.

Posted by: lysias | Dec 14 2015 20:10 utc | 141

Sorry. Let me correct the coding.
France24: French aircraft carrier to move to Gulf ‘in a few days’, says Hollande (Dec. 4, 2015):

The French aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle is to move into the Persian Gulf in a “few days” to take over a command role in air strikes against the Islamic State group, French President François Hollande said on Friday as he visited the ship.

Mysterious move, as the Persian Gulf is not closer to the territory of ISIS than the coast off Syria. It is in fact much farther away from the areas within Syrian borders that are controlled by ISIS.
What is also mysterious is how this move has not, to my knowledge, been reported in the media of English-speaking countries. (France24, although it is in English, is based in France.)

Posted by: lysias | Dec 14 2015 20:14 utc | 143

The Hill: Trump hits new high in poll:

Donald Trump has crossed the 40 percent threshold in a new national poll, giving the Republican presidential candidate the largest lead he’s held in any survey so far.
A Monmouth University poll released Monday found Trump taking 41 percent support and opening up a 27-point lead over the next closest contender ahead of Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is a distant second place, taking 14 percent, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at 10 percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 9 percent.
The rest of the Republican field barely registers in the poll, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich taking 3 percent support each, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) each taking 2 percent.
The poll was conducted between Dec. 10 and Dec. 13, in the days after Trump made his controversial call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Trump isn’t going away anytime soon.

Posted by: lysias | Dec 14 2015 20:25 utc | 145

@51psychohistorian
Fully agree re: Mmt. And great to see so a few thoughts on this site on the idea of positive, sovereign money – money that actually works for the people that is not prone to enslaving masses in debt. Banking sector also must also see a change, with a return to public banking being on the policy changes of any potential governing body – for large or small communities. The most important feature of any state labelling itself foreign is money creation and supply, and currently in the west that responsibility fall largely to private sector banking. Higher education is said to free the population, instead it is a tool used to enslave a young population…sell, sell, sell.
Case in point would be the only state in the U.S. that didn’t suffer the negative effects the rest of the U.S. and western hemisphere did: North Dakota. Why? The State Bank of North Dakota. A bank with limited loaning functions that acted like a kind of MiniFed For The People, setting accurate interest rates in the interest if propagating the state agricultural sector. Its rate setting kept all the other private banks in check and basically saw to it that the state didn’t see a mass of defaults – the banks were doing as they should in their role of who should be given credit and who is not.
This will hopefully prove to be the way any sized group or community takes control of its destiny. Simply understanding who control the money supply controls, and how easy it is to legislate a parallel system in the interests of the people.
Ellen Brown has her finger on the pulse, her latest blog post quite relative to the Russian part of this site.
http://ellenbrown.com/2015/12/11/reinventing-banking-developments-in-russia-iceland-the-uk-and-ecuador/
With regards to capitalism,I dont think anyone really knows what its like to live in capitalism..so far its proved inefficient and unsustainable…’rigged capitalism’ or ‘free markets for the peasants who generate tax to socialise the losses of the oligarchy’ yes, maybe we know that. Its pretty dark, really. There has to be a better way to encourage the human spirit to push forward, innovate and evolve without the expense of enslaving large swathes of people.

Posted by: MadMax | Dec 14 2015 21:06 utc | 147

lysias @ 140 says:
You don’t need to be able to produce sarin gas in order to use gas that you have somehow gotten your hands on. And the Syrian rebels had sarin in 2013, when they were caught redhanded with it in Adana by Turkish authorities.
and where is Adana?
it’s where Incirlik Air Base is. home for the USAF’s 39th Air Base Wing, five thousand airmen, a 10,000 ft-long runway, 57 hardened aircraft shelters, and one of six NATO sites in Europe which hold tactical nuclear weapons.

Posted by: john | Dec 14 2015 21:20 utc | 149

Amusing to watch post-Stalinoids try to rationalize their own past. Fact is that capitalist restoration emerged from one or another faction of your misnamed “communist” political movement. Certainly none claimed to be “former Trotskyites”. The retreat from Marxist materialism to Hegelian idealism is its intellectual corollary.

Posted by: Matt | Dec 14 2015 21:25 utc | 151

*suffer negative effects of the 2008 global financial crisis that the
correction post 146

Posted by: MadMax | Dec 14 2015 21:34 utc | 153

Bruno Marz@139:

… even Obama wasn’t simple enough to commit US ground troops to enter Syria on a lie that weak.

Ground troops were not going to be deployed. The rebels had run out of steam. They could no longer advance. They needed air support. Obama was definitely ready and willing to BOMB first and ask questions later.
It wasn’t Obama’s skepticism that prevented the bombing anymore than it was a triumph of democracy (Parliament’s rejection, US Congress upset). It was Russian diplomacy that combined:

>> Russia’s determination to stand by its ally – including use of military force;
>> A ‘peace offering’ to save face: Syria’s relinquishing chemical stockpiles.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
People cling so fiercely to the MYTHS that they have been fed. ‘Heroic Obama’? LMFAO ‘Democracy works’? Only if… ‘They hate us for our freedoms’? CYA BS

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 14 2015 21:44 utc | 155

Hersh also said that the reason Obama found a convenient way to avoid bombing Assad’s regime is that he was getting pushback from his military and intelligence agencies.
And Obama certainly did find a way to avoid the bombing.

Posted by: lysias | Dec 14 2015 21:48 utc | 157

@Wow
Such crap, I can’t take you seriously.
Al Qaeda has been involved in chemical lab tests from it’s earliest existence as the US Armed Forces found out in a matter of months in Afghanistan after 9/11 …
○ Al Qaeda Sites Point to Tests Of Chemicals NY Times | by James Risen and that lady reporter | Nov. 11, 2001 |
Later the Al Qaeda Terror Manual was found in Afghanistan and put on the Internet. Video has been released of experiments on animals. In recent years, Al Qaeda groups opposing al-Maliki in Iraq and Assad in Syria used crude chemicals in attacks. The sarin gas was found in Syria deployed by al-Nusra terrorists, see report by the UN’s Del Ponte.
○ Al Qaeda Documents Outline Serious Weapons Program – 2002
Tags: Judith Miller | John Bolton | Abu Khabbab | Wayoutwest | David Albright | 😉

Posted by: Oui | Dec 14 2015 22:55 utc | 159

paul 107
The Gallagher interview is excellent. That which the man refers to as a “Sting” seems to me that he means to indicate (or include by definition) a “reverse sting” and there is not a great deal of daylight between these and a “false flag operation”.

Posted by: fast freddy | Dec 15 2015 0:13 utc | 161

@132 lysis, @158 monter
According to this view the only part of Syria that the French can flyover with impunity is the part with the US airstrip and their 50 immortals.

Posted by: jfk | Dec 15 2015 0:31 utc | 163

Is Wayoutwaste still foaming at the mouth braying endless drivel “Assad did it, Assad must go…” blah, blah, blah? Why wasting neurons in feeding this troll, whose feeding lines come straight from IS/AQ? His posts are baseless, hollow manure, his only point is to distort and twist any narrative that goes against his takfiri-based discourse, and all his posts have to end with “Assad did it” whatever that is. Now he has added the Russians, Iranians, and whoever else is succeeding in shortening his trolling days for all kind of head-choppers, rapists, kidnappers, thieves and cannibals. A truly despicable entity.
“Nolite dare sanctum canibus, neque mittatis margaritas vestras ante porcos, ne forte conculcent eas pedibus suis, et conversi dirumpant vos”

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 15 2015 1:02 utc | 165

Putin – raising road tolls in Russia for his billionaire oligarch friends.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/12/14/rus2-d14.html
https://www.rt.com/news/321622-russian-track-drivers-protest/

Posted by: tom | Dec 15 2015 1:30 utc | 167

Vintage Red at 28, 38 —
The existence of the Soviet Union is a byproduct of the ongoing crisis of capitalism. Neither of the three alternatives for industrial society that Demian sketched and you cite above is stable. There is but one choice available to us, the same one that capital has evaded for over 100 years — socialism or barbarism.
Capitalism is a prerequisite for socialism; it takes the existing means of production and places them under collective control. Mechanized production made possible the elimination of scarcity for basic commodities.
Despite the work of Witte (a late Imperial rail official and minister) in developing heavy industry, and the earlier abolition of serfdom and civil reforms of Alexander II, Russia in ca. 1910 still lagged far behind the capitalist states of the West.
The Bolsheviks were well aware of this. They argued that the small ranks of the liberal bourgeoisie were too weak to effect bourgeois-democratic reforms. Workers had to make that revolution, and keep the momentum going towards socialism. Victorious workers revolutions in the West would aid the Russians in skipping over capitalism and going directly to socialism.
If I might paraphrase Hobsbawm, “the long crisis of capital” began in 1914, and continues to this day. There was a brief period of stabilization post-1918, an intensified crisis in the 1930’s, followed by a long cycle of stability, which we see coming to an around us. The destruction of the Soviet Union marked the beginning of a new cycle of disruption, culminating in the 2008 financial panic.
The Bolsheviks expectation of world revolution in the aftermath of The Great War were born out by events in Germany. The collapse of the Imperial government brought the Social Democrats to power. The war had, however, badly split the socialist movement world wide. What Lenin termed “social patriots,” typically associated with the revisionist wing of the Second International sided with their states. Anti-war socialists would form the base of the new Communist parties.
In order to keep their power in face of the threat of further social revolution, the Social Democratic War Minister, Noske, conspired with the High Command to deploy the Freikorps against the revolutionaries in Munich, Berlin, and elsewhere. These paramilitaries later provided many street fighters for the Nazi SA and SS. The German Social-Democrats are in large part responsible for our present difficulties, IMHO.
With the failure of the German Revolution came the failure of the Russian Revolution. The peculiarities of Hobsbawm’s “short twentieth century” kept that fact from being realized fully in practice until the early 1990’s. That the forced-march planned economy was able to defeat German fascism gave the Soviet state critical legitimacy.
As a practicing Fourth Internationalist, I would argue that Trotsky’s predictions about the nature of the transition from a deformed workers state to a standard capitalist one came about. The Revolution Betrayed is his most sustained consideration, and his later polemics in the American Socialist Workers Party debate on the Soviet Union are very useful, too.
A counter-revolution was needed. A section of the apparat, in league with assorted petty capitalists and mafiya converted the economy from collective to private ownership. No initial violence was involved to overturn the Soviet state, but physical and economic violence wrought havoc on the Soviet worker class.
This process was of course helpfully guided by the IMF and World Bank. That rapid, cash privatization of Soviet enterprises was demanded ensured that rapacious thugs, and not the workers who built them, obtained control.
As you suggest, the Soviet effort was a first approximation, rather like Cromwell, Robespierre, and Napoleon were rough drafts of bourgeois democracy. Sadly, I fear the process of the cooking of the planet, or worse, growing military tensions, may well rob us all of the opportunity of correcting the Bolsheviks work.

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 15 2015 2:26 utc | 169

From The Angry Arab News Service
At the end of 2016, expect the red points on the map symbolizing “Damage, destruction, vandalism” to cover most US states, multiple times during the year.
Mosques targeted across the US
Map source: Council on American-Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R)

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 15 2015 3:37 utc | 171

Thanks for the Gallagher interview, its really interesting. I like these kind of oral histories. The longer the better in fact.
Unrelated, it also happens to be the first thing I’ve seen on LaRoucheTV that didn’t include the old man screaming about British agents. So that was nice. But that’s neither here nor there, really.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 15 2015 3:58 utc | 173

The Saudis Must Be Crazy.
The “Coalition of the Beggars.”
‘Islamic coalition against terrorism’: Saudi Arabia presents 34-state military block

A Riyadh-based “Islamic military alliance” has been formed with a mission to fight terrorism, Saudi Arabian state TV has announced. The coalition consists of 34 countries, including the Gulf States, a number of African countries, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Countries involved in the coalition aside from Saudi Arabia, include Jordan, the UAE, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Turkey, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, the partially-recognized state of Palestine, the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros, Qatar, Cote d’Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Yemen.
“The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations,” state news agency SPA quoted an official statement as saying […] (keep on laughing)

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 15 2015 4:16 utc | 175

Susetta @ 166,
I agree absolutely that 2249 gave the bad guys the fig leaf they needed with their citizens, therefore cover for their parliaments to agree to military action. I have been highly critical of it. There are about 3 previous threads on this subject, where many of us debated the matter, cited informed links, etc.
—
Lysias @ 156, I agree that Obama didn’t want to bomb Syria. It was obvious from the timing of his statements, his delays, his referring it to Congress, etc. It was obvious from the beginning
—
Mad Max @ 146, Nice Post: It’s heartening to see that others are familiar w both Public Banking, which can be accomplished right now, and with Modern Monetary Theory. Did you know that the Services treaty that goes with TTIP (Think it’s called TiSA) provides that anything once privatized can never again become public? That means utilities, P.O., banking, you name it.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 15 2015 4:31 utc | 177

Lone Wolf @ 173,
Mass insanity. I would keep laughing if I could get my mouth to close. Were they bribed? Bullied? Or it didn’t happen?

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 15 2015 4:51 utc | 179

12/14/15 http://thesaker.is/qatar-unplugged/ Ghassan Kadi “Erdogan wants to build a military base in Qatar. How odd indeed? Why does Turkey need a base in Qatar? And how would America allow having a non-American base in Qatar?
“Perhaps the question becomes easier to answer if we ask it in a different manner; if we ask who is it that really needs a military base in Qatar? Again, the only non-Qatari party that would love to have a base in Qatar is none but Israel.
“It is easy to allow imagination to fly and go astray, but given the American-Iranian nuclear deal, any Israeli attack on Iran needs a launch pad that is close enough to Tehran, and you cannot get much closer than Qatar. Is the proposed Turkish base in Qatar going to be a disguised Israeli base? This is not a far-fetched speculation.
“The relationship between Qatar and Israel is weird, unique, and perhaps the first of its kind. Qatar is not hiring Israel for a fee per se. Israel is protecting the “company” of Qatar and using its UN state membership status to legitimize actions that can only be sanctioned by states; a new type of warfare that not even Blackwater is capable of doing.
“Qatar is neither a nation nor a state. It is a major corporation like Haliburton. It has a UN-given guise of a state, but it is a corporation that seeks survival and in doing so, it has contracted its security to Israel”. . . more http://thesaker.is/qatar-unplugged/

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 15 2015 5:05 utc | 181

Ghassan Kadi has a new article at the Saker today, a thesis about Qatar. A fascinating take. The question, Kadi says, is not so much why Qatar acts as it does, but rather, what is Qatar? He likens Qatar to a company rather than a state. [In the comments thread, a comment cites Meyssan as saying Qatar is Exon.] I recommend the article, and I can’t resist quoting this part:

Qatar is not a nation. It does not have the foundations of a nation. Qatar is not even a state when it has the population of a municipality, and it is definitely not a regional leader.
Qatar ought to be seen for what it is. Qatar is simply a very big and rich company. It is not any different from Shell Oil or BP, with the single difference that it has a UN-given mandate that gives it a seat as a UN member and the legitimacy that comes with it, something that private corporations do not have.
This is on the political scene. On the military scene, Qatar is a much more sinister “company”. In this respect, it is not a Western partner, a colony, a vassal state, an agent state or an ally in strategic military alliance.
Qatar is simply an outpost, a precinct, but not for America as first comes to one’s mind.
– Qatar Unplugged – Ghassan Kadi

To spoil the punchline, I’ll give away his conclusion that Qatar is the outpost for Israel, its launch pad against Iran.

Posted by: Grieved | Dec 15 2015 5:26 utc | 183

@166 Yep 2249 was a terrible move. Thanks for reminding us yet again. Just a question of time now before Cameron/Hollande test the S-400 system.

Posted by: dh | Dec 15 2015 6:08 utc | 185

@166 susetta… your link doesn’t work..

Posted by: james | Dec 15 2015 7:40 utc | 187

Andrew Cockburn:
“A Special Relationship, The United States is teaming up with Al Qaeda, again”.
http://harpers.org/archive/2016/01/a-special-relationship/
http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2015/12/11/121115-andrew-cockburn/

Posted by: Willy2 | Dec 15 2015 7:46 utc | 189

Posted by: MadMax | Dec 15, 2015 1:21:17 AM | 181
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m (all but) convinced that there has been an escalating rise in the most appallingly cowardly, pointless, depraved and unprovoked attacks on soft targets (girls, women) since USrael invented the Fake War on Terror. It’s almost an epidemic in Oz and elsewhere in the West afaict. And the perps almost always turn out to be cretins /morons radicalised (imo) by the inflammatory bs of bribed morons like Cameron, Messrs JW Howard & Bush, Sarkozy, Bliar, Abbott et al. Then there are people like Norway’s(?) Anders Breivik who was a relatively harmless Right-wing Crank and shit-stirrer until his delusions were reinforced by Bush & Bliar’s pathetically dishonest (and indignant) rhetoric. And in Breivik’s case their timing and his first steps on the path to “final solutions” fit like a glove.
These lying assholes, masquerading as leaders have got a lot to answer for…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 15 2015 8:07 utc | 191

Hackers trace ISIS twitter accounts back to British government agency

Hackers have claimed that a number of Islamic State supporters’ social media accounts are being run from internet addresses linked to the Department of Work and Pensions.
A group of four young computer experts who call themselves VandaSec have unearthed evidence indicating that at least three ISIS-supporting accounts can be traced back to the DWP’s London offices.
Every computer and mobile phone logs onto the internet using an IP address, which is a type of identification number.
The hacking collective showed Mirror Online details of the IP addresses used by a trio of separate digital jihadis to access Twitter accounts, which were then used to carry out online recruitment and propaganda campaigns.
At first glance, the IP addresses seem to be based in Saudi Arabia, but upon further inspection using specialist tools they appeared to link back to the DWP.

The plot unravels.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 15 2015 9:13 utc | 193

add to 188
Actually, the market for geographical IP addresses is interesting.

So which countries/regions are buying up ‘old’ IPv4 addresses? Between October 2012 and May 2015, Iran bought over 1.4 million IPv4 addresses, and exported just 1,280, while Saudi Arabia imported over 1.9 million and exported just 6,144, according to RIPE NCC. That makes them the two leading IPv4 purchasers in the service region, though the traders of IP addresses are mostly telecoms companies and ISPs, rather than nations.

So, no, the IP addresses were owned by Saudi Arabia but software tracing their geography would trace them to Britain.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 15 2015 9:25 utc | 195

@189 sbody ‘ So, no, the IP addresses were owned by Saudi Arabia but software tracing their geography would trace them to Britain. ‘
So, too, ISIS/Da’esh is owned by Saudi Arabia. And ‘software’ traces extensive support to Britain/France/Germany/USA. Dog bites man at this point. I wonder if, among those IP addresses owned by Saudi Arabia, is the one attributed to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory … or whatever’s the name of the gnome in Britain who is the font of Western reportage on the ‘civil war’ in Syria?

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2015 9:49 utc | 197

@ 181 MadMax
Two remarks:
1. Don’t forget to add Obama.
I recommend a comment on the article:

Well, the list is long. “If I were in charge here …”, they would be living / dying in solitary confinement until they die. I’d prolong their death as long as possible in that situation. I know legally we cannot “torture” them, even though the UN says solitary confinement is torture. But, death is too good an out for these murderers, liars, war criminals, cowards, torturers and terrorists. And let me perfectly clear here: Obama is not far behind, if you add up his many Crimes Against Humanity, especially his recent destruction of the hospital in Afghanistan where his helicopter gunships mowed down all those fleeing the hospital, while circling above them. I have a photo of a child who had his arms blown off, and badly burned his body, such that this 10 year old boy now has to live in an ungodly, horrible hell due to Obama. And this little boy is not the only one – 1000s are like him – blown to smithereens and living without limbs and skin, no faces, no ears, no nose, and still alive like that due to Obama. If you saw this little boy, you’d start a civil war against Obama and all of the government. I’m inclined to do so individually alone, my anger is so great, knowing exactly what Obama is, and he’s “better” than dubya? A few days later, Obama’s weapons of mass destruction sold to Saudi Arabia killed everyone in 2 more Doctors Without Borders hospitals in Yemen – performed by our buddies the Saudis. These are relatively trivial crimes compared to what Obama is doing right now, under our noses, and of course lying about everything – too.

2. Off course these people will –after appeal- be acquitted.
It’s very naive to believe American justice works otherwise.
I recommend a comment on that same site a couple of days ago:

“The ICC has subject matter jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression,” yet never has prosecuted an American or Nato war criminal, despite undisputed war crimes going back many decades.
Having practiced law for decades, I believe courts have no legitimacy, as they exist solely to protect the status quo and keep entrenched evil people in power.
Just as the American criminal law punishes poor people harshly and rich people not at all, international criminal law focuses on third world perpetrators of genocide, while leaving the truly big criminals, such as Obama, W, and both Clintons, free to enjoy lives of luxury and excess.
The US has the Hague Invasion Act, which makes it US law to invade and destroy the Netherlands if the ICC should prosecute any American for war crimes.

Posted by: From The Hague | Dec 15 2015 10:39 utc | 199