Repost:
In that there is little coverage regarding the situation at Dara’a, would someone with knowledge of the situation kindly post info as to why it has been so difficult to push the jihadists out and why the area south of Damascus remains so firmly entrenched in jihadist control.

Posted by: chet380 | Jun 30 2017 18:31 utc | 4

@4 chet… israel is now al nusra/al qaeda air force.. that is part of it..
opcw basis is thanks the white helmets… i guess the usa/uk want some results from all the money they have given this lovely ngo who always seem imbedded with the moderate headchopper cult..
scott ridder discusses this and more here here..

Posted by: james | Jun 30 2017 18:37 utc | 6

1] Caniabalizing their own: Tulsi Gabbard Is Not Your Friend. https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/tulsi-gabbard-president-sanders-democratic-party
2] Turkish state evacuates villages in Shehba and Efrîn for invasion. https://anfenglish.com/rojava/turkish-state-evacuates-villages-in-shehba-and-efrin-for-invasion-20727
3] Sen. [Bernie] Sanders’ Wife Tried Evicting Disabled Group Home Residents… http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2017/06/sen-sanders-wife-tried-evicting-disabled-group-home-residents-closing-shady-college-deal-fbi-probe/
4] Helmut Kohl’s Death Reminds us of NATO’s Uselessness. http://wsenmw.blogspot.com/2017/06/helmut-kohls-death-reminds-us-that.html

Posted by: Rawdawgbuffalo | Jun 30 2017 18:42 utc | 8

Two more articles folks might be interested in –
Paul Craig Roberts has an article titled ‘Washington Has Been At War For 16 Years: Why?’ –
Snippet –
“There are three reasons for Washington’s war, not America’s war as Washington is not America, on Syria. The first reason has to do with the profits of the military/security complex.”
“The military/security complex is a combination of powerful private and governmental interests that need a threat to justify an annual budget that exceeds the GDP of many countries. War gives this combination of private and governmental interests a justification for its massive budget, a budget whose burden falls on American taxpayers whose real median family income has not risen for a couple of decades while their debt burden to support their living standard has risen.”
“The second reason has to do with the Neoconservative ideology of American world hegemony. According to the Neoconservatives, who most certainly are not conservative of any description, the collapse of communism and socialism means that History has chosen “Democratic Capitalism,” which is neither democratic nor capitalist, as the World’s Socio-Economic-Political system and it is Washington’s responsibility to impose Americanism on the entire world. Countries such as Russia, China, Syria, and Iran, who reject American hegemony must be destabilized and desroyed as they stand in the way of American unilateralism.”
“The Third reason has to do with Israel’s need for the water resources of Southern Lebanon. Twice Israel has sent the vaunted Israeli Army to occupy Southern Lebanon, and twice the vaunted Israeli Army was driven out by Hezbollah, a militia supported by Syria and Iran.”
I’d add a couple of more reasons starting with OIL! Interesting read, however.
After 16 years of offering the same amendment before House Appropriations, Del Barbara Lee was a bit surprised her amendment to sunset the 2001 AUMF easily passed out of the House Appropriations committee yesterday – http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/29/congress-vote-authorize-war-islamic-state-240095
Of course the House Leadership is going to do whatever to stop such a move, but it’s looking more and more like some are readying for such a challenge.
For any who are sick to death of U.S. wars/proxy wars or CIA special ops wars, this includes all who read this blog from abroad, I might suggest getting organized and to start a massive letter writing campaign to the leadership in both the House and Senate. This presents a huge opening for the citizenry of the world to allow their voices to be heard. It would be a truly beautiful, hell, who am I kidding, it would be a truly MAGNIFICENT step made by the People of the World to tell the U.S. Congress to Repeal the 2001 AUMF.
Yeah, I realize they want to replace it with some other God Awful authorization, but that can be stopped if the masses of the world flood congress with letters and postcards. Emails won’t work for numerous reasons with most important being you can’t ‘SEE’ stacks of emails but you can ‘SEE’ stacks and stacks and stacks of letters.
Just a thought…

Posted by: h | Jun 30 2017 19:00 utc | 10

CIA examined the possibility of assassination of the Iranian PM Mohammad Mosaddegh before the 1953 coup

Posted by: nmb | Jun 30 2017 19:24 utc | 12

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Jun 30, 2017 2:28:05 PM | 3

For example, here is a very clever apology for how we justified not having the OPCW investigate Khan Shaykhun and the Syrian airbase

I guess by ‘we’ you refer to you Americans.
You obviously failed to notice that this is not an American blog, lot of us here are not US residents nor citizens, the host included. So lots of your assumptions how ‘we’ perceive the world affairs in general and Vladimir Putin in particular are basically wrong. For example your offhand remark that we can debate Putinism, I find silly and a bit ignorant.

Posted by: hopehely | Jun 30 2017 20:28 utc | 14

Christian Chuba @ 3:
Jon Hellevig’s Awara blog has published an interesting report into the current state of Russia’s economy after two years of sanctions imposed by the West: “What Does Not Kill You Will Make You Stronger – The Russian Economy 2014 – 2016, the Years of Sanctions Warfare”
https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/russian-economy-2014-2016-the-years-of-sanctions-warfare/
Here’s a quick rundown of the report’s key findings:
KEY FINDINGS:
– Russia’s economy has successfully adjusted to dual shock of sanctions and oil price plunge
– Minor GDP loss of -2.3% for 3 years of sanctions will be completely recovered in 2017 with expected 2-3% growth
– Oil & gas share of GDP drops to below 10%
– Industrial production stable 2014-2016, soars in May by +5.3%
– Russia’s economy now the most diversified in the world. Exports remain relatively undiversified, but domestic production highly diversified and self-sufficient
– Debt Crisis predicted by Western pundits failed to materialize
– [Central bank] reserves intact and sovereign wealth funds solid
– Budget deficit never went below -3.9%. Tax collection soars in 2017, budget now balanced
– Oil & gas only 17% of budget revenue (2016)
– Inflation falls to near 4%
– Unemployment remains low at 5% level
– Demographic indicators reach all-time best
– Population at 146.8 million – all-time high
– Only clearly negative data: Salaries, disposable income and consumption. Retail sales down more than 10%
In effect, the sanctions have acted as a tariffs policy Russia might have introduced to enable key domestic industries to develop.
Mike Norman Economics blog on the Awara report has some interesting comments on Putin’s economic and financial policy. Russia’s Central Bank is apparently still staffed by senior officials (like Elvira Nabiullina) who adhere to a neoliberal economic approach and who maintain a high interest rate regime which might be good for pensioners’ incomes but bad for people establishing small businesses and needing loan funding.
http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com.au/2017/06/awara-russian-economy-2014-2016-years.html

Posted by: Jen | Jun 30 2017 21:05 utc | 16

@hopehely I guess by ‘we’ you refer to you Americans.

Point taken hopehely.
I tend to fall into a writing style where I think of the average reader as an American who thinks that Nikki Haley is the greatest thing since the invention of the flour mill. I have to write like that if I respond to something on National Review or one of the articles on realclearworld. How do you write about someone or something that people have been convinced is the devil?

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Jun 30 2017 21:23 utc | 18

With all our discussions of events in Syria, the deep state and the MIC one significant player has not recently been in the spotlight: Wall Street. In some historical research I did recently I always had to ask the question, where is Wall Street (or the City of London) and what is its role in what is happening? As we spend endless time discussing movements in T2 in Syria perhaps that is exactly where they would like the focus of our attentions to be, and not on them. In the case of Qatar, the recent astonishing attack from its neighbours and fellow sponsors of Jihadists would seem to have come from nowhere. That is, until we discover Qatar has been taking its first shaky steps away from the petrodollar.
In the article linked to below the author discusses the privatization of the US military; how these companies are now bought and sold, bringing nice fat M&A fees into the investment banks. And just when private equity was running out of companies to pillage along come some excellent candidates.
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/ppm487/wall-street-at-war-0000515-v21n12

Posted by: Lochearn | Jun 30 2017 22:00 utc | 20

h 5
Sometimes I forget to check out AMCON mag. It is yet another alt media source to add to the list.
h 10
Israelis seem to have no problem violating different commandments whether not coveting their neighbors house (property, not committing murder, steal, etc.

Posted by: Curtis | Jun 30 2017 22:08 utc | 22

” Global leadership is part of US foreign policy DNA, according to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger” now everyone knows what they probably already knew… this jackass loves flattering and worse the americans while being hated by pretty well everyone else on the planet for good reason… a complete warmonger and jackass of the first order, still not held accountable for any of his actions – another 24/7 american thang…

Posted by: james | Jun 30 2017 22:23 utc | 24

I see the desert hawks are back in the game, joining with Tiger forces to clear the east Hama/Homs pocket.
According to the current Mercouris article, they have been retrained by Russia and supplied with T-90s, early in the Russian intervention, it was only Tiger forces and Desert Hawks that were capable of taking ground in an offensive.
I guess the retraining would have been mainly about operating the T-90s and not posting happy snaps of trophy heads to social media.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jun 30 2017 23:57 utc | 26

I find it amusing how there’s so much talk about supposed Russian-Turkish negotiations on an S-400 sale, such as here.
Poll: Anyone believes there’s something to it? A chance of such a deal happening?

Posted by: smuks | Jul 1 2017 0:03 utc | 28

Smuks 28
I have seen Putin make statements. The deal appears to be going ahead. Turkey is headed for the multi-polar world (not to be confused with becoming a Russian ally) and will need air defences to keep the US out. I suspect this is the reasoning behind the deal and I would also guess the S-400 will be a downgraded export version.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 1 2017 0:08 utc | 30

Amen @31
The world knows the military industrial complex that has worked over years, and year to create the ugly tentacles throughout what was once our government has been usurped. Dollars. All these rastards see is dollars. Not human life. Not the potential of that lost life in science, math, technology. Just dollars.
For heavens sakes the voters in Arizona returned the worst of ALL Warmongers to congress. And you, the World, think for a moment we, citizens in this colony, have a snowball’s chance in hell reeling these creatures in all by ourselves are sorely mistaken. We can’t even get the voters to learn their votes equal WAR with what ever Party they are aligned with. Get real. Our challenge is yours. Help us!

Posted by: h | Jul 1 2017 0:38 utc | 32

NemesisCalling | Jun 30, 2017 8:21:54 PM | 31
The US could be divided into three or more parts. First the US as a state, which is its government. Neo-cons/full spectrum dominance ect. Second the US culture in general, Exceptionalism/arrogance that gave rise to the state. Third is the tiny percentage of Americans who do not have the culture of exceptionalism and arrogance.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 1 2017 0:49 utc | 34

@ Nemesis and all,
I’m from California. Technically the USA. My take on things is we United States of Americans are exceptional. Most of us are exceptionally ignorant and violent. That is exceptionally sad.
I am very glad to have found MoA and the crew of experts. I have learned so very much.
Big up b!
Booyakah as they say in JA.
God help us.

Posted by: lex.talionis | Jul 1 2017 1:14 utc | 36

smuks | Jun 30, 2017 8:41:30 PM | 33
In looking up Putins history, his popularity over the past 17 years has risen from 50% to where it now hovers around the 80%. In the west, a politicians ratings generally drop off very sharply over time.
the only reason I can see for this is that Putin thinks things through before saying anything, and then holds to his word. Chechnya and the loyalty of Kadrov junior is perhaps the best example.
I think he will push his vision of a multi-polar world in the same way. Putin himself has announced that the deal has been agreed on, so as long as Erdogan does nothing stupid in the meantime, the deal will most likely go through.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 1 2017 3:07 utc | 38

@39

So far, the German shipbuilder has announced that it believes there is no misconduct in the huge purchase, a third of which is reportedly to be financed by the German government.
During the past two decades, Israel has ordered six submarines from Germany, with the final one set to be delivered in 2018. Tel Aviv says it has decided to buy the three more submarines to renew its fleet.

that one in the pipeline makes 9 altogether. and the german government financed 1/3 of this project.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2017 4:05 utc | 40

jfl
Thinking about it a bit more, if I were a neo-con, number one threat would be Chinese economy, number two threat would be Russian diplomacy. Perhaps the reason a large number of Russian diplomats died last year.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 1 2017 4:45 utc | 42

…or to put it another way, how many F35s could one buy for the price of one 747?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 1 2017 5:12 utc | 44

@39 jfl
the german mic seems to be doing just fine. making sure israel has the ability to launch thermonuclear weapons in the middle east. this will make 8 of them.
And letting key people know they’re parked a couple of miles off the coast of Long Island would explain key people behavio

Posted by: stumpy | Jul 1 2017 6:10 utc | 46

@smuks | 28
Think it’s still a step too far, or too concrete a step for Turkey to take at the moment. Turkey’s ‘divisive’ influence in NATO is to Russia’s benefit, and for that reason Russia wouldn’t want to jeopardise Turkey’s position in NATO. So, I don’t think it will happen. Any break with NATO will have to come from NATO and given McGurks visit yesterday to shore up Turkey’s position it’s clear that NATO has not given up on Turkey yet.
@Rawdawgbuffalo | 8
Re. Afrin.
Interesting situation. According to Turkish media 7k soldiers are at the ready; invasion of Afrin is a matter or when not if, etc. This is Turkey going head to head with US supported and RF nominally protected YPG. Interestingly, Russia has apparently, withdrawn its soldiers from the area. Why? To facilitate TR – US head to head maybe? To give credence to TR’s threats and anti-YPG stance thus increasing pressure on US? Seems like it could flare up until we remember that next week Erdogan and Trump will probably run into each other at the G20… Then it seems more like someone is trying to strengthen his negotiating hand with a little help from RF. Again Russia benefits from further strained TR-US relations.
On the other hand, as I noted yesterday, the anniversary of the managed coup is in a couple of weeks – a week after G20- and Erdogan would love to make an exaggerated statement of national power!

Posted by: AtaBrit | Jul 1 2017 8:25 utc | 48

@ Lochearn #20
Indeed, in a context where the medium of exchange is owned unilaterally and arbitrarily by one entity, crisis is to be exploited and, wherever possible, stoked.
The diminishing marginal utility of debt however, not only guarantees that at some point the political construct must confront the electorate but, also, it guarantees that shortly after engaging the electorate, the political construct will have to take on the owner of the medium of exchange too.
That is the point at which the real fireworks start.
We are pretty much there.

Posted by: guidoamm | Jul 1 2017 12:40 utc | 50

Re: @16
Awara blog is a product of a Russian company that offers services to foreign companies engaged or interested in Russian markets, so this company has an interest in compiling as rosy picture as possible.
In one place, the author adds numbers from a table presented just above, wrongly, getting a “better result”. I got an outright false statement: population of Russia is not “at all time high” but about 9 millions lower. The period of population decline was about 20 years, and it is counterfactual that it was compensated with 3 years of growth.
And it is hard to tell what does it mean that Russia has “most diversified economy”.
But the general picture is consistent with what I have read before, e.g. data from trading economics.com.
The gist is that while Russia has a lot of problems, they made huge progress in Putin/Medvedev years, and data on alcohol, suicide, murder, deaths/births show nearly complete recovery from the collapse after the end of USSR. And the decline/recovery after the drop of oil prices and sanctions is quite remarkable.
Russian economy and politics are run in a different way than in the West, and since many crucial numbers are hard to understand or explain, it is not easy to understand and explain them. In politics, Putin is characterized as autocrat, but more objective authors remark that he has a “light touch” compared with historical record and countries that can be used to compare.
For example, is Putin “neoliberal”? Taxes on individuals are low, monetary policy seems tight. The response to oil shock was in a sense “shock therapy”: rubble was allowed to float, lost half of its exchange value, the imports were halved, trade surplus was maintained. Most strange: ca. 100 billions of foreign debt was repaid in one year (which seems to confuse Krugman a lot). Real salaries declined quite drastically. But the largest surprise is that the employment was maintained.
Thus we have a combination of neoliberal elements with a very determined strategy to foster import substitution. Import substitution is detrimental to productivity, but when the economy is under shock, it is better to loose productivity, especially if the effect is transient, then employment, which lead to social pathologies — and government unpopularity. Concerning popularity, the current generation of Russians know one collapse and the previous oil shock, so apparently they appreciate orderly reorientation of the economy. Import substitution can easily go wrong, Argentina is a textbook negative example, and in Venezuela it turned to be a disaster, but Russia has a much larger internal market and non-oil resources and industries.
I would cite Iran as another import substitution country. Western sanctions are truly a double edge sword. They cut off a country from the international financial system. This makes many types of economic activity harder, but in the same time, it spares a country the dubious benefits that we can observe in Greece.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 1 2017 16:33 utc | 52

Said above
“We American’s need everyone’s help to clamp a lock on this demonic beast that sadly our taxpayer dollars have unleashed. Did WE ‘Amerikan’s’ do this knowingly? to which I repond
I think it might be useful to look at the divide and conquer provision in the US constitution and the empowering documents of other republic type governments for your answer… knowingly depends on the perspective of your group membership: the 340,000,000 kept in the dark members of the never paid, governed group or from prospective as a member of the 517 salaried, elected or associated couple million hired hands, which collectively constitute the always paid, governor group..
…Members of the smaller “governed” group have 100% of the power, the smaller group members always get paid no matter their performance, additionally the SMALLER GROUP MEMBERS have, at their personal disposal, all the manpower and natural resources contained within, or possessed by, the larger group (the smaller group just takes what its members want). Around the globe I think you will find this same division of political power in the founding documents of the nation states ( in fact bottom heavy mass servitude might be the common thread that defines all nation states).. Republics separate people from their resources and their power: one side has: all of the power to practice democracy among its members, while the other has: no power to with which to impose democracy on the nation.
Until the form of governments known as Republics (and or top down dictatorships) are outlawed .. nothing will or can change.. The smaller group is empowered by documents that create the state, with the full knowing intention that its empowered governor group, shall be able to do as it damn well pleases.

Posted by: 5votes_for 527 | Jul 1 2017 17:38 utc | 54

@55 ftb
15 seconds of fame, or infamy. divide by 60 since warhol’s time.

… according to the ACX Crystal’s captain, the USS Fitzgerald failed to respond to warning signals before the collision took place.
Seven sailors dying is a tragedy regardless from what port they sail – but don’t expect the US Navy to be forthcoming about what went wrong.

the first is – typical of russian insider, as of a many others – an unsourced assertion. might be true. might not be true. can’t even assess the odds from the assertion.
the second is the truth, based on historical fact.
the dod – the entire government – lies even when they don’t have to, just to keep in practice, and to keep us in practice as well, on the hearing end. and this time they undoubtedly feel they ‘have to’.
they created a homosexual affair and assigned their murder to a couple of their victims to ‘explain’ their murder of 47 sailors on the iowa due to their use of wwii ammunition. i can easily imagine something as vicious and equally libelous here to cover some other admiral’s ass.
the tnc msm is at ease, awaiting for the call to scramble and publish it, when it comes.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2017 18:33 utc | 56

@51 noirette, ‘No. 1. contrast is the USA, where time is annihilated in favor of an ever-ongoing present in which anything goes and all things can change very rapidly, by the day even – seeing to it that no coherent history, narrative, exists, and thus no future goals can be imagined, constructed, agreed on, and then acted on.’
very well put, noirette. and well thought. that just seems the most pregnant and salient line at first reading. i’m going to save your post for future reference. thanks. short and sweet, too. a master at work.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2017 18:57 utc | 58

There’s a line that goes: “it’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” What percentage of yanks on food stamps will it take for people to rise up..or, has Empire found the new American dream…?

Posted by: MadMax2 | Jul 1 2017 20:04 utc | 60

@ftb, jfl
Ah come on folks, don’t be so…
It’s a decidedly odd story indeed. My first thoughts – based purely on intuition, not on concrete clues:
– was this a little demonstration of ‘better give way – whose seas are these, anyway’?
– any evidence there to destroy, any witnesses to silence?
– USN discipline already worse than Greek ferries?
Don’t think we’ll ever know. But it’ll be interesting to see if USN behaviour in Asia changes in any way.

Posted by: smuks | Jul 1 2017 23:18 utc | 62

@ 66
It was all over the Japanese media when that (not-final) report was made public. Other tidbits: the US has refused access by the Japanese Coast Guard (responsible for the inquest) to the crew of the mil ship – that is routine…. A TBS tv report had a graphic with the likely path of the container ship: first it hit the mil ship, was pushed out of path and had to made a U-turn and came looking for the mil ship to provide eventual help (from memory, I saw that report while in the waiting room of a hospital). IIRC, they also mentioned that the container ship was traveling more slowly than average as it was ahead of schedule for berthing in Tokyo.

Posted by: Philippe | Jul 2 2017 3:32 utc | 64

@65 ftb
Don’t be ridiculous, you’re making yourself look more foolish than you are.
I had read two of the three links. After reading the third, the only additional ‘information’ is that hacking may have played a role. But this is just as much speculative guessing as the points I mentioned (with my third obviously being tongue-in-cheek). I don’t have any idea what happened, and neither do you.

Posted by: smuks | Jul 2 2017 12:13 utc | 66

@ Piotr Berman | Jul 2, 2017 11:25:43 AM | 72
Two observations:
First: When one vessel passes another, the passing vessel must not interfere or interrupt the course and speed of the vessel being passed. A basic inviolate rule.
Second: A vessel is under the command of the skipper or captain at all times. A watch may be under the command of a watch officer or appropriately licensed mate in the case of larger vessels. At the hour of this incident, the command officer was in their quarters and the bridge was under watch command and whatever happened the cause for the event will originate there, the responsibility is still the commanding officer’s – it is the way that works. A good place to look at maritime protocol are the shipping channels of the English Channel having also heavy cross channel traffic to see who gives way to whom. The annual results keep many a maritime lawyer fat. The Strait of Hormuz has similar traffic organisation and shipping channels.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 2 2017 16:18 utc | 68

A thought on the ms vs cs; the ms had just had about $12 million in upgrades and I remember reading something about the ms had deployed a sea anchor prior to the collision. Could it be that the ms was blind, or possibly even dead in water at the time of the collision? I recall when Trump had “3” ships supposedly steaming to SK that one had to return to home port because the upgrades it had recently received were on the Fritz. Just a thought.
And a question, I am never able to access Sputnik News either directly or via posted links. I used to be able to, any ideas as to how I can correct the problem?

Posted by: frances | Jul 2 2017 21:34 utc | 70

Formerly T-Bear | Jul 2, 2017 12:56:37 PM | 74
Its coming. The US will keep up its freedom to provoke exercises until eventually China enforces the 12 mile limit. Then US will claim self defence to take action against China.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 3 2017 0:53 utc | 72

Michaelj72 (45) notes ‘the dogs of war are barking’. Indeed they are and Canada’s Minister of Global Affairs Chrystia Freeland is among them.
Canada Announces Additional Support For Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Syria
https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2017/06/canada_announcesadditionalsupportforprohibitionofchemicalweapons.html
“Canada is committed to supporting the Syrian people and has repeatedly condemned the egregious war crimes that have been committed by the Assad regime in Syria, including the use of chemical weapons on its own people….”
What a good doggie Canada!

Posted by: John Gilberts | Jul 3 2017 5:43 utc | 74

Saudi led-bloc extends Qatar demands deadline by 48 hours
looks like the saudis blinked. now they all have 48 hours to come up with a story that leaves them all ‘whole’.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 3 2017 7:03 utc | 76

@ 80 – 82
Same as it always was, isn’t it. The epigone is never brighter than it’s father, another proof of genetic entropy at work.
[Encountered n interesting word recently, thanks for giving the chance to use it].

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 3 2017 8:40 utc | 78

According to Trumps’s tweeting past days, hes been talking with saudiarabia, and alot of nato members, is he planning another war on Syria?

Posted by: Anon | Jul 3 2017 16:25 utc | 80

Coincidence ?
Smith DIED just 10 days after he reported his story to the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 4 2017 1:59 utc | 82

Macron speaks to assembled houses of French parliament in Versailles

Macron’s decision to summon together the houses of parliament in Versailles was not, however, simply an act of personal arrogance. It was a recognition that his initiatives have consequences as far-reaching as a market crash that threatened to take down the world financial system or Hollande’s decision to suspend indefinitely basic democratic rights guaranteed by the French Constitution.
This time, Macron forced the parliament to assemble so he could deliver a speech discussing his government’s drive to escalate neo-colonial wars in Africa, write the state of emergency into law, impose social cuts by decree and fundamentally restructure the French state. …
he went on to defend his reactionary agenda of rewriting French labor law in favor of the corporations, and doing so by decree, and incorporating the state of emergency into law. He denounced “false accusations” made against his policies: “Are we discussing liberalizing the labor code? We are told we are obeying the diktat of Brussels. Are we talking of escaping the state of emergency? We are told that our freedoms are being traded away… None of that is true.”
It is Macron’s assurances, not the widespread sentiment in the population, that are untrue. His reactionary plan to facilitate mass sackings and allow corporations to violate the labor code, in line with the original plans of the previous Socialist Party (PS) government’s labor law, was worked out in close collaboration with Berlin and the European Union bureaucracy in Brussels. Similarly, by permanently granting police the right to impose house arrest on individuals and ban protests, Macron aims to gut basic democratic rights with the stroke of a pen.

are the french going to lie down for this? it seems they are. fascism is on the march, unopposed, worldwide.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 4 2017 7:39 utc | 84

I am sure some of you will dream it happens one day to a number of US pundits!!
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/272949/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-repeats-call-on-Interpol-to-arrest-fugitive-.aspx

Posted by: Mina | Jul 4 2017 8:23 utc | 86

92
Angry Arab has a post on this issue of different information in English and Arabic:-))
But you can be sure that Israel hates Qatar for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza and in this conflict is firmly on Saudi’s side.
You can also be sure that Israel would love a Gulf Iran cold war.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 4 2017 8:58 utc | 88

not about Hamas but about the Israeli diplomatic representation
“In Doha “we have an Israeli trade office, and we have a Hamas representative office,” Mohammed, the foreign minister, told a group of reporters and academics in Washington last week. Hamas is a militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. “We have an open-door policy.””

Posted by: Mina | Jul 4 2017 9:20 utc | 90

plus 94
British look at the situation
Edging Qatar out of Gaza.
96 Mina
Hamas has become more Israel can handle. Their strategic planners thought they could control religious people easily and make them look crazy – “we cannot deal with them” – whilst occupying the West Bank indefinitely.
They think they can hand off Gaza to Egypt for security.
This here is Al Jazeera

Israel, UAE, Egypt plan to install Dahlan Gaza leader

Posted by: somebody | Jul 4 2017 9:40 utc | 92

@98 mina
Scandal at the EU: Eurocrats miss work meeting as Europe falls apart

The head of the European Commission, in a complete surprise to himself, found that his speech was attended by 30 of the 751 deputies in the European Parliament.
Standing in the almost empty hall in Strasburg, Jean-Claude Juncker was so disappointed with the behavior and discipline of European parliamentarians, called them “not serious people.”
The current Presidency of the European Parliament is held by Malta. The Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat smiled as he watched the dispute erupt. Then he said that actually, they were supposed to gather today to debate the important issue of the resettlement of 160,000 refugees, currently located in Italy and Greece.

juncker takes it personally, but the meps weren’t so much bailing on his speech as they were bailing on the refugees and on italy. 250 groups of three monkeys … see no refugees, hear no refugees, say nothing about the refugees.
micron cranks up the wars in africa.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 4 2017 22:21 utc | 94

Iran Air #655, July 3, 1988
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2017/07/03/the-forgotten-us-shootdown-of-iranian-airliner-flight-655%C2%AD/

Posted by: HD | Jul 5 2017 6:23 utc | 96

Total’s deal bares Europe-US split on Iran

French energy giant Total’s signing of a $5 billion contract on Monday to develop phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars offshore gas field has sparked fresh interest in business opportunities in the Islamic Republic.
An Indian consortium said after the deal that it was willing to spend as much as $11 billion to develop Iran’s giant Farzad-B field and build the infrastructure for exports of gas from the repository.
Italy’s state railway company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) will send its CEO Renato Mazzoncini to Tehran next Tuesday to sign a 1.2 billion euro contract for the construction of a high-speed railway in Iran.
And Volkswagen announced it would resume selling cars in Iran from August after signing a deal with local importer Mammut Khodro.
Over the past year, Iran has finalized deals to buy up to 140 planes from Boeing and 100 from Airbus. Last month, two more Iranian airlines made prospective deals with Airbus to buy 73 jetliners worth $2.5 billion.
Experts believe Total’s landmark deal is expected to have far-reaching implications, setting a path for other international companies also to follow.

it looks like it’s the us that’s going to be isolated in iran, and in russia, and everywhere else the neocons ‘sanction’.
when their actions start to hit americans in the pocketbook maybe we’ll ‘notice’ who’s been running our country into the ground for the past 16 years … we’re deaf, dumb, and blind to the plight of the rest of the world otherwise.
we didn’t notice the 2 million muslins the neocons murdered, the millions they dispossessed, the cities and countries they destroyed.
but money always does seem to get our attention.
maybe that will finally end the neocons’ wars.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 5 2017 11:43 utc | 98

@ 104 jfl
I would guess this little brouhaha with Qatar spells finis to the Arab League, at least for now. Somebody would not mind the breakup of that League and negation of their Palestinian peace initiative so it disappears altogether – wonder who that might be.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 5 2017 12:28 utc | 100