Harburg’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” so closely resembles the Weimar song “Irgendwo auf der Welt” in both melody and sentiments that it approaches being plagiarism. But most Americans were and are unfamiliar with Weimar songs.

Posted by: lysias | Aug 15 2016 17:16 utc | 103

“When the world countries stop buying US debt, the big debt balloon goes POP!”
So, according to your theory, holders of cash $ are going to refuse to be paid interest on them. Put the cash in their mattress maybe? Nope, all electronic funds ($) live at the New York Fed.
Never mind that, No.1, there is so much demand for bonds in the US alone that the bonds would still be sold, without foreign participation.
No.2, Primary dealers are obligated to buy whatever is on auction, so Treasury auctions can’t fail. No primary dealer is going to give up their privileged position of receiving money for nothing, even at negative yields (see Japan).
No. 3, If everyone in the World went insane and took their $ funds from their (privileged) savings accounts at the Fed and moved them to their checking accounts at the Fed, then refused to buy more bonds instead piling up cash, the Fed can step in and buy the bonds. In that case interest paid goes to Treasury instead of the non-government (see below).
No. 4, Congress passed the law requiring bond issuance dollar-for-dollar with deficits, a self-imposed law obviously, around 1918. Prior to that the US created $ outright with no bond issue. Guess the banks didn’t appreciate their limited ability to rape citizens for interest on massive military spending during WWI.
Congress pays interest on previously-created dollars because it wants to, not because it has to. It was a political decision, one that makes the rich richer. Funny that.
And to those that claim the Fed can say no, or charges the government interest on it’s ‘borrowings’…No. The Fed turns every penny it ‘earns’ less expenses over to Treasury, and it’s main mandate is to make sure no checks bounce in the FRBS.
interest paid on bonds is income to the non-government. No one is going to give that up willingly.

Posted by: paulmeli | Aug 15 2016 18:03 utc | 105

Assad Makes A Great Point About Foreign Experience & Why Hillary’s Record Should Worry You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtTDq0lrIsE

Posted by: Mann | Aug 15 2016 18:20 utc | 107

@94, a wise man once said: Just because someone plays a guitar, doesn’t mean he’s making music.

Posted by: ruralito | Aug 15 2016 19:41 utc | 109

@ Noirette | Aug 15, 2016 11:00:45 AM | 97
I think what may be happening is the breakdown of the marketing theory as applied to political propaganda. Like the economy, the use of political sales methods has become extreme and precedes the economy over the proverbial cliff. The perception developing punditry is no longer talking with their audience. To manage their problem, they have begun talking at their audience and have lost their audience as consequence. It will be a very interesting political cycle, this one. The herd instinct is strong but that herd has become a herd of cats. The dissonance has become louder than the message.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Aug 15 2016 20:04 utc | 111

Paul Meli @105,
One small quibble with this:

No. 4, Congress passed the law requiring bond issuance dollar-for-dollar with deficits, a self-imposed law obviously, around 1918. Prior to that the US created $ outright with no bond issue. Guess the banks didn’t appreciate their limited ability to rape citizens for interest on massive military spending during WWI.

Actually, what happened at the beginning of WWI–and just after the Federal Reserve Act was created but before its national infrastructure was set up–was that the US Treasury was terrified of what all the holders of paper cash would do in response to the war. Would they trade in 20 of them for an ounce of gold–the going rate since 1900? The back of every USD gave them that right. If everyone in the US did it, even if just one ounce per, it would deplete the nation’s gold supply, and severely affect the nation’s ability to pay for war overseas.
So they came up with a patriotism scam. Liberty Bonds! Be patriotic and help pay for the war! We’ll give you interest on those bonds for your patriotic largesse! The American public fell for it like a ton of bricks. After all, no one pays interest on gold, right? And the public were getting federal government-guaranteed interest. A win-win for everyone.
The deal was that they could trade them, sell them, but no one could replace them for gold until the bond matured, no matter who the final owner was.
There was no reason to continue with Liberty Bonds in 1918, but everyone loved the interest and the no-risk guarantee of their savings. And the federal government got to protect the nation’s gold’s supply, a critical matter because all international payments (until 1971) were on the gold-standard.
The federal government had also realized the protective power of bonds to contain that gold supply. All issued treasury securities (bills, notes, and bonds) subsequent to that carried the same edict. Trade away in the daily bond market to your heart’s content, but you couldn’t trade them in for gold until the treasury security actually matured, which with long-term bonds was 30 years.
As you note, the federal government–Congress–had previously imposed the Debt Limit in 1917 to protect the nation’s gold supply as well. When we thankfully got rid of the gold-standard domestically in 1933/34 for a far more economically advanced fiat currency, Congress refused to remove the Debt Limit law (were they worried about its effect on international payments that they couldn’t foresee or occupied with the Great Depression?) even though it became utterly meaningless. And still is. Increasing the Debt Limit was always a de facto passage in Congress until the Republicans in 1995 used it against that financial hayseed Clinton and again with the Mr. Total Lack of How Things Work Obama a few years ago.

Posted by: MRW | Aug 15 2016 21:08 utc | 113

@114 it is, easy to photoshop, that is. But that screenshot is the real deal. Zbig deleted the tweet.

Posted by: h | Aug 15 2016 21:44 utc | 115

Posted by: h | Aug 15, 2016 5:44:14 PM | 115
I checked his account because I thought it unlikely he or whoever looks after his account would tweet something like that.
He simply is in no position to know and if he knew he would have no reason to spill it.
My guess is that some faction of the multi-headed US beast might have encouraged the coup personally and via Saudi but not the “official” US government or – more likely – Saudi lobbied for it in the US and bought a few people.
Syrian secret service would be pleased to insinuate it was official US policy.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 15 2016 22:04 utc | 117

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, former DNC chair and forced to resign after email leaks is now HRC’s “honorary” campaign chair. Debbie is very proud of herself:
Sunday on MSM TV – “Facing South Florida
https://www.rt.com/usa/356067-wasserman-schultz-boasts-clinton/
Debbie admitted:
“The work we did to prepare for Hillary Clinton, to be our nominee and then make sure that we could get her elected president, is absolutely critical to advancing the issues that are important,” she said.
~ ~ ~ ~
Debbie, it’s indecent to brag that you cheated.
This country is done. Stick a fork, let it cool 10 mins, then slice and serve. No sauce required.

Posted by: likklemore | Aug 15 2016 22:39 utc | 119

I’m urging everyone to vote for Trump.
We have two poor choices. However.
If we elect Clinton, not only will we have the threat of WWIII and war with Russia/China/the rest of the Asian bloc, but she has claimed to put the economy in Bill Clinton’s hands. She still maintains the fiction that what he did during his reign–the federal government surplus–was peachy-keen, when it caused the Great Recession of 2008, delayed by the consumption binge of the dot.com and housing bubbles.
If Bill Clinton manages the economy for her, you can count on one thing: unless you are part of the 1%, you will go to your grave broke, and leave your kids destitute. Take it to the bank. Mark my words.
A vote for Jill Stein or the Libertarian candidate is a screw-myself vote.
Whatever you do, or whomever you favor, VOTE, and make sure everyone you know does so as well. There will be massive voter fraud with election results, but sheer numbers can help overcome it.

Posted by: MRW | Aug 16 2016 0:16 utc | 121

paulmeli | Aug 15, 2016 6:18:00 PM | 118,

Regards and good to see you’re still around.

And you as well.

Posted by: MRW | Aug 16 2016 0:21 utc | 123

@ paulmeli | Aug 15, 2016 2:03:15 PM | 105
@ MRW | Aug 15, 2016 5:08:54 PM | 113
Much of the development of government bonds happened due to the extreme and existential financial demands caused by war on government’s resources, the classical perception of governmental spending was from taxes collected. The operative financial system being based on gold as measure of value as well as store of value, thus limiting economic activity to whatever quantity of commodity metal held on hand and in circulation augmented by balance of trade surplus. IIRC much of John Maynard Keynes efforts were to educate about the deficiencies of such classical mythology, alas to no lasting effect. It was found that bonds formed a method of exercising some control over the heating or cooling of economic activity as well, a useful tool to encourage or discourage investments in production and thereby employment levels as well. But that takes a sophisticated mindset to appreciate; common sense becomes deceptive and counterproductive in most cases, e.g. equivalence about balancing budgets between family and government’s sovereign issuance of money that leads to the Modern Monetary Theory and heterodox economic perceptions.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Aug 16 2016 2:39 utc | 125

@ 125 Addendum
The development of bonds sold to public during WW I came from British experience where unabsorbed wages chased too few goods leading to severe price inflation. The U.S. having a delayed entry into wartime economy used War bonds to absorb excess demand and suffered significantly less price inflation and distortion to its economy. The British adopted the policy early on WW II as did the U.S. about the time of its entry into wartime economy; the results of deferred demand were what enabled the economic growth of the U.S. at the end of that war and enjoyed by the succeeding generation as well.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Aug 16 2016 2:54 utc | 127

@120 v, ‘it’s a life’s work to see the big picture and not stay stuck in snap shots’
It takes practice and discipline not to let the facts interfere with preconceptions?

Posted by: jfl | Aug 16 2016 3:16 utc | 129

Syrian War Report – August 15, 2016: ISIS Attacks US Base in Northern Syria

On August 14, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced creation of the Al-Bab Military Council. This could indicate that developing the success in Manbij, the Kurds are going to advance on Al Bab in order to link the four cantons of Rojava along the Syrian-Turkish border. Al-Bab has a population about 69,000. Its inhabitants are mostly Sunni Muslim Arabs. Even with the significant superiority in manpower, military equipment and air power, and with support of the US Special Forces, the Kurdish-led SDF will face a stiff resistance there. ISIS militants could easily launch flank attacks on SDF units advancing on Al-Bab. Furthermore, the liberation of Al Bab is far away from the political goals of Obama administration in Syria. The White House is seeking to show the success of American anti-terrorist operations by taking major ISIS strongholds – Raqqa and Mosul – in Syria and Iraq. Al Bab is just located in another direction.

The Kurds insisting on advancing their own goals? They’ve certainly carried enough of the US’ water to insist. The Russians (South Front) reporting it so that the Turks will be sure to not to miss it? See if it actually happens.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 16 2016 4:26 utc | 131

Is Hillary insane?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ojeiby_l7E&feature=youtu.be
Hillary Clinton demands United States build a wall at the Mexican border
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezaw-g6TIQI
Absence of Adversaries Challenges NATO’s Financial Existence
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160812/1044196724/russia-nato-baltic-sea.html
Team USA wins gold but cheapens Olympics with Cold War-style behavior
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/355909-usa-rio-gold-washington-warmongering/

Posted by: Mann | Aug 16 2016 7:34 utc | 133

Interesting,
Russia to use iranian aircraft station against ISIS:
“Moscow and Tehran signed a military agreement allowing Russian aircraft to station at Hamadan Airport in western Iran. Strategic long-range Tu-22M3 bombers have already delivered airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State from the airfield. ”
https://www.rt.com/news/356098-russian-bombers-iran-hamadan/

Posted by: Mann | Aug 16 2016 8:24 utc | 135

The news about Russian in Hamadan are very interesting indeed.
Most immediately, the value of air support is much higher if it react quickly, but Russians do not have enough capacity in Syria. Support of Palmyra and Deir-Ezzor from the airport less than 1 hour aways can be effective, for example, a bomber plane capable of action after 2.5 h flight can also hang there above battle field for few hours giving cover to attack/defense. Or make 4 runs in a day rather than one.
More strategically (Great Game), this increases Russian-Iranian cooperation which was rather loose and testy. The mutual trust is better, and that follows the deliveries of SS-300’s. This decreases the spirits in KSA with their Shia obsessions.
In terms of Syrian long term strategy, it seems that it is like that: SAA hanging there and chipping at both Rebels and ISIS, while ISIS is increasingly hammered from Iraqi and Kurdish directions. Americans have hopes of getting influence out of it because of the Kurds, but Shia volunteers and Iraqi forces seem to provide the bulk of forces, and Americans have very complex entanglement with Turkey. In any case, within Syria there are troops of SAA side ready to pounce and collect most of the territory and land border with Iraq during the collapse of ISIS. And while the relationship with Kurds is testy, it never amounted to warfare, and SAA + allies will gain decisive advantage against the Rebels.
But they need to remain at good positions, with adequate air support, and Hamadan base can do it.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 16 2016 9:15 utc | 137

@134 pw. ‘they don’t make completely unsubstantiated claims all the time’
I read what you point out as the meat of the ‘news’ but I confess I was unaware that ‘they don’t make completely unsubstantiated claims all the time.’ I figured maybe 40 Kurds and 1 mercenary. The US would deny he was theirs anyway. Maybe IS got more then 1.
The Russians were at great pains to point out that the ‘move’ on al-Bab was not consistent with US’ stated aims. I thought they were rubbing that in. I also think everyone in the USA is bereft of any cover now … gee he said he wouldn’t do that. Right. They’re kidding themselves at this point. They know what’s going on, pretending they’re being ‘lied to’.
If they’re covering anything up in Manbij, I think it’s the fact that they forgot to close the door to Manbij one night and all the IS guys ‘snuck’ out while they were sleeping. And that’s why they’re suddenly in ‘possession’ of Manbij now. Where do you think IS went, Paveway?

Posted by: jfl | Aug 16 2016 13:42 utc | 139

58;Trotskyite Hebrews for the Hell Bitch!Like we didn’t know that.sheesh.
Windsurfing is emblematic of yuppie elites,walking on water,and tacking repeatedly when the wind changes.Kerry-Cohen fits that bill perfectly.

Posted by: dahoit | Aug 16 2016 16:01 utc | 141

Sorry if posted before. Time to make the list of Soros employees worldwide.
Soros Hack Exposes Plot Behind Refugee Crisis, his Media Control, Cash for “Social Justice”

Leaked files from billionaire globalist George Soros’ Open Society Foundation two days ago have exposed several startling machinations about the organization — including flagrant schemes to manipulate the media, influence international immigration policy, and cash designated for social justice initiatives.
Soros has been outed previously for pulling political strings in Ukraine, but as one memo revealed in the massive DCLeaks cache shows, the globalist also sought direct manipulation of Western media to align with that political agenda.
Titled the “Ukraine Media Project,” the memo’s authors admit that “this isn’t proper independent journalism and we may damage our credibility with journalists,” but that “journalists may produce stories that have no relevance for the narrative we seek to inform or stories that are counterproductive (enforcing narratives of fascism, etc.)”
In other words, Soros and his OSF acknowledged their designs in Ukraine could be conflated with fascism and thus, as they wrote, sought to alleviate potential backlash or opposition by offering “[s]elect journalists from 5 target countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece) and offer them long stay reporting trips in Ukraine.”
Once finagled into the trip, the memo’s authors decided, rather than dictating content directly, they would “retain a veto on stories we think are counterproductive.”
Tellingly listed under the memo’s “Pros” section is the fact the scheme is a “Similar approach to what we have done for other press trips” and that the Ukraine trip would provide an “Opportunity to build relationships with journalists and news outlets.”
Judging by the degree of influence Soros sought, those relationships wouldn’t amount to just a drink after a hard day’s work.
In fact, under the “Cons” portion, the authors lament specifically the potential for the trip to “enforce the narrative of GS/OSF manipulation” — because that’s exactly what it would be?
Another portion of the Soros leaks concerns Europe’s immigration crisis — which OSF argues should just be accepted as the “new normal.”
On May 12, OSF program officer Anna Crowley and program specialist Katin Rosin co-wrote a memo titled “Migration Governance and Enforcement Portfolio Review,” focusing on the OSF’s International Migration Initiative created to influence world immigration policy, as the Daily Caller first reported.
The outlet reports:

The MENA people coming to EU should finally realize by now that they are tools in the world evil oligarchy mischievous plan against the population of Europe.
Stay in MENA, defend you countries against the terrorists and help in rebuilding them.
If you come to EU lured by the Soros propaganda, only to “fuck blondes and live off welfare” as some of you admit, please realize that are not welcomed here. Or you will face tragic consequences. Just a fair warning.

Posted by: ProPeace | Aug 16 2016 20:37 utc | 143

Did you know? Jeff Rothschild helps the U.S Military censor civilians on Facebook

Jeff Rothschild was brought in by the CIA, to help Mark Zuckerberg maximize “high performance at a massive scale” for CIA funded Facebook. But the reality was that Jeff was brought on board and given a 600$ million share of Facebook, in order to maximize the efficiency of Palantir software (being used by the U.S Military in syncronization with Facebook censors to censor large publics).
Millions of people have witnessed themselves or others getting direct interference from a third party. And sometimes this would lead to hour long shut downs of parts of Facebook, because it bothered people. People came on Facebook and Youtube because they thought it wouldn’t be rigged, especially when posting anti-war and anti-statist content.
The worst part being, that these operations are done covertly, and regularly draft outside help from like minded hierarchist groups. These sorts of operations were conducted on Iraqis with Operation Earnest Voice, and the end result was over 2 million people dying, because George Bush had denied them medicine, hospitals (bombed), and food. So to use this military weapon against civilians, especially Americans is criminal.
Supposedly they do it to spread “pro-americanism”. But when you have over 50,000 Department of Homeland Security workers straight out of high school, who have never traveled outside the U.S spreading manufactured consent, it starts getting very nasty and war like. Especially while having people like Jeff Rothschild and Mark Zuckerberg pretending to be democratic figures who never give over information to their government. Which is a big fat lie. It’s supposed to be government for and by the people… not government against the majority of the people who are poor as well as voiceless.

Posted by: ProPeace | Aug 16 2016 21:01 utc | 145

Serbs have lost it.
Serbian PM calls top advocate of Yugoslavia NATO bombing Biden a ‘friend of country’
https://www.rt.com/news/356197-biden-serbia-us-friend/

Posted by: Belo | Aug 17 2016 7:12 utc | 147

Today NYT has an editorial urging the termination of weapons sales and presumably other military assistance to KSA until the “carnage in Yemen will end”. I penned a comment which may appear or not:
Piotr Berman State College Pending Approval
“Mr. Obama has also supplied the coalition such indispensable assistance as intelligence, in-flight refueling of aircraft and help in identifying appropriate targets.”
In other words, using satellite photography and superb analytic capabilities of our military intelligence, USA helped identify a hospital, a school and a chip factory. And a wedding, a collection of fishermen in boats and so on. Hard to tell what are actual communications between our military and the Gulf coalition, for all appearances, they are the customers and we are the technicians/mercenaries.
Of course, the recommendation is totally inadequate. It would be better if USA would call for emergency session of UNSC and made a motion: we are sorry, we made a terrible mistake, we want to finish this nonsensical war, nonsensical barriers on the trade and so one, let’s think together how to finish it as soon as possible.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 17 2016 13:06 utc | 149

The dangerous alliance between Hillary Clinton’s Democrats and neocons: Fear of Trump is cementing a strange relationship

Hillary’s tacit approval allows these neoconservatives to accrue renewed prestige and eventually insinuate themselves back into positions of power.
…
Although his business dealings with sketchy Moscow oligarchs warrant scrutiny, the notion that Trump is some kind of secret agent of the Kremlin is preposterous, and harkens back to the old days when McCarthyite slurs were regularly heaped on anyone who dared deviate from foreign policy orthodoxy.
That these nasty tactics have been so fulsomely embraced by the Democratic establishment and liberal media should be seen as an ominous omen as to how things might proceed in a potential Hillary presidential term.
Again: Trump may pose certain unpredictable dangers, but the dangers posed by re-empowering the neoconservative ideologues who brought about the Iraq invasion are already known. There’s no guesswork involved — we have incontrovertible proof of their destructive potential.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 17 2016 15:27 utc | 151

@152 followup
Note other NC readers are also expressing skepticism (to give credit where credit is due).
Sadly, many more people will read Yves post (which she places under “guest post”) then will read the comments. And Hillary supporters will use Yves reasoning to promote their candidate.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 17 2016 15:45 utc | 153