It’s a long article, but I think it’s worth the time, Ella George’s “Purges and Paranoia,” which appeared in a May issue of London Review of Books. Say what you will about Erdogan, but he’s proven that Turkey is able to take on all comers

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jun 26 2018 18:07 utc | 4

If one recounts well, Pearl Harbor was a direct result of these same economic
strangulation technique used by the US against Japan in those days.
I would believe that if the US succeeds in this project, which depends
on the US ‘ ability to prevent China and India from buying Iran’s oil
– if it succeeds- Iran will certainly retaliate by making sure all ME
production and shipping facilities are destroyed.
Or they can rain missiles on the root cause of all the Mayhem
in the ME: Israel.
I believe cornering Iran is not the best policy.

Posted by: CarlD | Jun 26 2018 18:53 utc | 6

CarlD 6
The U S forced the U K to discontinue her alliance with Japan and aid to the Japanese navy between the world wars .

Posted by: ashley albanese | Jun 26 2018 19:55 utc | 8

CarlD @6–
The huge difference is Iran extracts more than enough hydrocarbons for its use; japan was entirely dependent on imports for its war economy. Iran long ago instituted a program to have most of its domestic auto and truck fleet powered by LP gas, not refined petroleum which was being limited due to sanctions. So, Iran’s even more energy resilient than most other nations–including the Outlaw US Empire. The Islamic Republic of Iran isn’t going to disappear anytime soon; it’ll probably outlast the US Empire.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 26 2018 20:06 utc | 10

Syria Update
The SAA is rapidly clearing out the foreign terrorists in the south of the country.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dgn35-7X4AEhYdF.jpg
The entire Lajat area has been cleared almost cutting in half the eastern territory occupied by terrorists.
The SAA is now advancing in two main areas:
1. The SAA is surrounding Daara city from the north. The southern half of Daara city is held by terrorists. Once surrounded, the terrorists in the eastern part of the south of Syria will be cut off.
2. The SAA is now clearing out Al Hrak and will be moving down south clearing out the remaining terrorists in the eastern Daara countryside.
The goal is to secure the Nasib border crossing. Once secured, the flow of terrorists and weapons into Syria will be a major step closer to being stopped.
I assume that once the SAA surrounds Daara city, that the terrorists in the south of the city will just be contained while the massive SAA forces ready to start phase 2 of the anti-terror campaign.
Once they are ready the SAA will move on to clearing out the western Daara countryside all the way to both the Jordan and Palestine borders with Syria.
Activity by the US regime trying to play the same tired old UN and other ‘humanitarian’ organization games. The SAA is making such rapid advance that it will most likely be moot. Still waiting for the US regime’s next fake chemical attack.

Posted by: Nerrian | Jun 26 2018 21:04 utc | 12

Today I was pleasantly surprised to find a short piece on Syria in Swedish MSM that looked like perfectly honest reporting. It depicted the Homs “rebels” in a very bad light, and though they didn’t spell it out, it was an unequivocally pro-government piece.
Makes me think the efforts of the empire have shifted somewhere else. So where aren’t we looking?
Here is the link (Swedish): https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=6984187

Posted by: Per | Jun 26 2018 22:18 utc | 14

Speaking of Iran, I must endorse this excellent article detailing some of Iran’s post-war economic thought and practices that allowed it to survive then and prosper now despite sanctions.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 26 2018 23:20 utc | 16

I have a budding theory that Daniel Ellsberg is not trustworthy.
Douglas Valentine wrote an extremely interesting article on Ellsberg’s CIA connections in 2003 here:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2003/03/08/will-the-real-daniel-ellsberg-please-stand-up/
and did an interview talking about it here:
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-709-douglas-valentine-on-ellsberg-and-the-cia/
I’m wondering whether he may have been posing as a heroic whistleblower for all these years when the whole time the Pentagon Papers were extremely useful for the CIA in hiding their drug smuggling operation in Southeast Asia and for the FBI hiding COINTELPRO while also bringing down Nixon. And whether he could since be using his status to befriend all these whistlebowers, who he would then have great influence over (eg. Kirakou, Snowden both love him, Freedom of the Press Foundation) . And the surely CIA-sponsored film The Post, which minimised the journalism done by the NYT, and hugely backed the WaPo. With their new “democracy dies in darkness” slogan it seems like they’re honeytrapping whistleblowers like The Intercept with Reality Winner etc, while simultaneously bigging up Ellsberg as a hero.
Also, on 16 November 2014 Sue Gardner, then the executive director of Wikipedia,, made some changes to Ellsberg’s wiki page at his request. Some of the changes were strange, such as this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Ellsberg&diff=634026472&oldid=634026053
which removes a reference to Ellsberg’s high security clearance after serving in Vietnam, at the RAND corporation, for the given reason: “Ellsberg says he didn’t have a high security clearance while in Vietnam: I can’t find explicit support for it in the citation”.
But the removed part wasn’t talking about when he was in Vietnam.
Also this edit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Ellsberg&diff=634026053&oldid=634025889
which removes a comment about Ellsberg being at the Gulf of Tonkin, reporting the incident to McNamara, because:
“Ellsberg says this isn’t true (and it should probably come out regardless — if it’s only worth a parenthetical it’s probably not sufficiently notable/interesting to be in the article”.
But in Ellsberg’s own memoir he writes about the incident, and how he was the first to receive the cable from the courier about the Gulf of Tonkin:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/mostdangerousman/excerpt-ellsberg-memoir/2/
It all seems very suspicious to me and I think it could use some more attention, Valentine is incredibly knowledgeable about the CIA and I think he makes a good case.

Posted by: J | Jun 26 2018 23:45 utc | 18

J @ 18
I think I would take Ellsberg over The Intercept any day of the week, and also would point out that the Washington Post, at the time of Watergate and thereabouts was the paper of record in breaking that whole messy but enlightening political scenario out of its sordid underworld and into the light of day. (I don’t remember what part the NYT had to play in that, but newspapers were actually newspapers back in that day. That was then.)
It’s always possible for those who have done something heroic to later become lesser men, but I don’t think the changes to the record you document are in any way proof of that. For instance, Ellsberg says he wasn’t at the Gulf of Tonkin, hence the correction. Then says he ‘received the cable about…’ Both statements agree in this case.
Certainly the Washington Post today is a different beast than it was back then.
They all are. I don’t know the film, The Post, but if it was CIA sponsored that in no way changes what happened then, nor after the extremes that Snowden has gone to would he, I suspect, be vulnerable to any outside influence. I could always be wrong – I was wrong in voting for Obama first time, shame on me. I didn’t the second time around, so I hope I am forgiven. Fool me once…

Posted by: juliania | Jun 27 2018 0:22 utc | 20

@4 mike maloney… thanks for sharing that.. it’s a good article.. i have isolated some quotes from the article that might interest moa readers… it is as you note – a long article, but well worth the read for anyone interested in erdogan and turkey at present.. the article was written may 11th… turkey is on a very difficult path at present.. erdogan has consolidated power to an unusual degree, but as the author of this article notes in his last statement – “Against the grim backdrop of Turkey’s contemporary descent into authoritarianism, the history of Abdul Hamid provides a reminder that Erdoğan’s project has its precedents.
“The best way to make sense of the party’s trajectory is to identify the moments at which alternative paths were ignored in favour of another step towards authoritarianism.” and further down “The final move towards authoritarianism in the AKP’s second term was a showdown between Erdoğan and a group of newspapers and TV stations partly owned by Aydın Doğan, a businessman and a prominent critic of the government.”
and further down “The AKP’s fourth term, Erdoğan’s first as president, has been far and away the most repressive. Since 2015, the country has been dragged into a war and experienced an attempted coup; it has been ruled under a state of emergency for 21 months and counting. The AKP can be charged with crushing the country’s secularist opposition, eroding the separation of powers, waging war and embracing a hyper-chauvinist nationalism.”
and further down “A parliamentary commission attempting to investigate the events leading up to the coup was denied access to those involved and their requests to interview Fidan and Akar were rejected.”
“He described the attempted coup as a ‘gift from God’, and in the following months it became clear that it had provided him with an opportunity to realise his most ambitious goals. Within days a state of emergency was declared. It was renewed for a seventh time this April, minutes after the government announced that snap parliamentary and presidential elections would be held on 24 June, 18 months earlier than expected. These elections will be conducted under emergency rule, a form of government which, according to Erdoğan, has been good for the economy because it protects the country from terrorism and prevents workers from going on strike.”
“Turkey has become a society of informants in which no one is safe.”
april 2017 vote “the vote was a referendum on Erdoğan’s rule. Remarkably, he nearly lost, saved only by a decision made after voting had begun to allow unstamped ballots to be counted, making it virtually impossible to determine whether or not there had been ballot stuffing. That the party had to resort to vote-rigging was stunning. Even more so was the narrow margin of the purported victory; only 51 per cent voted in favour. The country’s three largest cities – Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir – and much of the Kurdish south-east voted ‘No’.”
“Erdoğan is an increasingly lonely figure; the shine long ago came off his international reputation. At home he presides over a state that is in many ways a reflection of his own paranoia. Fear of internal enemies means the highest echelons of state have been emptied out, leaving him to rule with his son, his son-in-law and a few trusted loyalists.”

Posted by: james | Jun 27 2018 0:32 utc | 22

Re: current Mexico politics post by psychohistorian (another poster i’ve always read)…
Website for a dark horse candidate in Municipal President election in a provincial city.
http://mexico-nostalgia.net/

Posted by: Guerrero | Jun 27 2018 2:00 utc | 24

The Space Force Trump wants to create opens up all kinds of possibilities. To get support for funding a credible threat/enemy must be found. I suppose protection of satellites works to some degree but what would be better is alien enemies. The technology exists to simulate an alien invasion. What better way to unite the world against a common enemy? Those countries not going along can be said to be harboring alien bases.
Its coming

Posted by: Pft | Jun 27 2018 2:16 utc | 26

OK, so now is yet another moment for us aged cynics to sharpen our stakes in readiness for the DNC reaction to the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez win the dem primary for the congressional gig in safe dem seat of NY’s Bronx and Queens.
An early Saunders 4 prez backer in a state where the machine turned out huge for Hill the shill, Ocasio-Cortez knocked a formerly high ranking dem congressman who goes by the handle Joe Crowley outta ‘his’ spot at the top trough. After ten terms in congress, Crowley has been an Irish step ‘n fetchit for Wall St and just about every ‘shit on the people’ action of the Clintons plus Oblamblam.
They (the DNC) will have to be much more circumspect in dealing with Ocasio-Cortez than they were say, with Ned Lamont when he rolled the zionazi Lieberman for the senate primary in Conneticut 10 years ago.
This is a slightly unwhite woman, whereas Lieberman a jew, was trounced by a middle aged whitefella businessman so the DNC played the old ‘anti-semite’ card when they jerked all funding off Lamont and gave kazillions to genocidal Joe.
I suppose the DNC will argue that since Ocasio-Cortez was a Bernie supporter backing an old bloke against the greatest sheila to walk on water she cannot be a ‘real’ feminist anyhow and the Latino issue will be dealt with by insinuations that her Puerto Rican heritage shows that Ocasio-Cortez is a mainchancer out to get Puerto Rico deeper into the federal funding trough because the minor storm which those theives n rapists beat up into a hurricane hasn’t proved to be much of an ‘earner’. Although that may play well in whitefella land Agent Orange has pretty much stitched up all those votes for the rethugs making this a particularly dangerous ploy since Latinos and blackfellas have become the two major demographics the dems can rely upon.
That unfortunately hasn’t made much difference in the past when the professional pols do their well-worn “Fuck ’em. where else they gonna go” act.
This is gonna be a tough act to undo, I see the Graun thousands of miles east of amerika, but with a long tongue always ready and able to lick DC arse, has been quick to leap onto the ‘damn with faint praise’ stunt by calling Ocasio-Cortez a socialist, a term which is a vote winner everywhere but amerika where a century plus indoctrination of the mugs has made it a bigtime vote loser, a reality the graun is well aware of.
So we shall see what happens next. The only thing we can be certain of is that the DNC reaction will be hypocritical, ugly and self-serving.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 27 2018 3:31 utc | 28

@21 juliania
Please don’t stay clear of those tags. Simply keep them in their place. You used the ending tag < / i > correctly but you put it at the end of everything you wrote instead of the phrase you wanted to enclose within its format.
TIP: the “Preview” button is your friend. We will wait through many other comments while you perfect the look of yours, there’s no rush.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 27 2018 3:47 utc | 30

Paul Craig Roberts has always been one of my experts on the US economy – and I’ve disparaged his abilities in other geo-strategic fields – so his latest piece is a pleasure to share, for those who may be interested in such things:
How Long Can The Federal Reserve Stave Off the Inevitable? — Paul Craig Roberts
I have always had trouble understanding what role the bond market actually plays, and Roberts in this piece explains part at least of the equations at the heart of it. Here’s a snippet that explains much to me [my emphasis]:

The way the Federal Reserve saved the irresponsible large banks, which should have failed and have been broken up, was to raise the prices of troubled assets on the banks’ books by lowering interest rates. To be clear, interest rates and bond prices move in opposite directions. When interest rates are lowered by the Federal Reserve, which it achieves by purchasing debt instruments, the prices of bonds rise. As the various debt risks move together, lower interest rates raise the prices of all debt instruments, even troubled ones. Raising the prices of debt instruments produced solvent balance sheets for the big banks.

It makes sense that bonds either rise in buy/sell value or they pay a larger dividend instead. That’s what the bolded part of the quote means.
Roberts continues a few paragraphs later with this [my bold again]:

The Federal Reserve has learned that it can keep afloat the Ponzi scheme that is the US economy by printing money with which to support financial asset prices. The alleged rises in interest rates by the Federal Reserve are not real interest rates rises. Even the under-reported inflation rate is higher than the interest rate increases, with the result that the real interest rate falls.

This is why the cost of money is not actually rising. The Fed is paying us to spend its money – if by “us” we mean the banks, and if by “spend” we mean corporations buying their own stock to raise their CEO bonuses.
Another good piece on the US economy by Roberts.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 27 2018 4:09 utc | 32

@ Grieved with teh PCR link
I have read it now and agree with his last two sentences
”
If the prices of US debt and stocks were reduced to their real values, the United States would no longer have a place in the ranks of world powers.
The implication is that war, and not economic reform, is America’s most likely future.
”
What bothers me about PCR writings is that he knows, like many of us, that American finance is the proxy of the control of this version of GLOBAL empire….and yet PCR never explains things like The Shock Doctrine or reports on other global supra-national financial manipulation…..like commodities, etc.
People like PCR keep the public from seeing clearly that structural change is needed over bandaids like his proposals……that is why he is still alive and being published. If/When he starts writing like Ellen Brown (web of debt) I might take notice.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 27 2018 5:15 utc | 34

Julianna @ 20
I misquoted the Tonkin incident, sorry: it doesn’t say he was AT Tonkin, it says ‘(and, in fact, was on duty on the evening of the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]], reporting the incident to McNamara).’ This is in fact corroborated by the memoir. The NYT were actually the first to break the story and played a more important role than the Post in many ways. I also held Ellsberg up as a great hero but Valentine discusses how Ellsberg regularly lies about his time in Vietnam saying he was there with the army in a relatively unimportant role when in fact he worked closely with the CIA gathering intelligence on South Vietnamese leaders and lots of of other stuff, which doesn’t in itself show he didn’t leak in good faith of course, but his lying about it is very strange. I recommend listening to the interview linked as it goes into a lot of the details and is very interesting.
Re Snowden, he is a hero of course but his decision to go to corporate media with his leaks demonstrates great naivity in my view, and less than 10% of them have been released. He is President of the Freedom of the Press Foundation which sports Ellsberg as a board member (as well as Wikileaks-hating Micah Lee) and they unanimously voted to stop providing their financial service to Wikileaks in very sketchy circumstances. I think it’s certainly feasible at least that Ellsberg could have helped to persuade Snowden to vote this way, and then not to talk about the decision much afterwards. Assange tweeted a photo of loads of rats after the decision captioned ‘Freedom of the Press Foundation’ incidentally.
I’m no expert myself but the lack of any journalism about this topic whatsoever past the Counterpunch article I linked is strange as it seems like a very interesting topic to look into.

Posted by: J | Jun 27 2018 5:47 utc | 36

karlof1 | Jun 26, 2018 6:55:46 PM | 15
Escobar ends with this sentence: „“Illiberal democracy”? Who cares?“
Well, some people care. Especially those who live there. In general they think about their well-being in this moment and do not like to sacrifice this in the favour of others peoples geopolitical dreams. Try to get informed about the details of present day life in Turkey!

Posted by: Hausmeister | Jun 27 2018 8:07 utc | 38

J 35
Re Snowden, he is a hero of course but his decision to go to corporate media with his leaks demonstrates great naivity in my view, and less than 10% of them have been released.
Although I didn’t follow the Snowden affair closely (I’ve never understood the celebrity infatuation with “whistleblowers” who point out the obvious), my understanding is that his main message has been that the deep state is a good and necessary thing which merely needs “reform”. If so that makes him no hero of mine, quite the contrary.
That’s why I’ve found plausible the theory that Snowden is really some kind of misinformation agent, or else was part of a turf war between the CIA and NSA. That would also explain why he went to the corporate media, why his alleged revelation was immediately put under “professional journalistic” curatorial control (as if by pre-arrangement), and the murky way in which this PR firestorm served as the occasion for Omidyar to launch the Intercept (self-evidently no revolutionary publication, but well-designed to corral rising quasi-radical energy within prescribed limits).
The common thread throughout is a line designed to appeal to people with serious doubts about the system but who have not yet committed to rejecting it completely. The point is to rope them back in.

Posted by: Russ | Jun 27 2018 10:53 utc | 40

Big Day today. México versus Sweden in the third round of the World Cup in Ekaterinburg.
The Tri is group leader with all six points, yet there is some combination of results
involving goal differentials and penalty cards that come into play in cases of ties.
There were something like 40,000 tickets sold in Mexico;the USA bought 90,000 tickets.
At least half of those visitors have to be Mexicans who reside in the United States.

Posted by: Guerrero | Jun 27 2018 12:39 utc | 42

…
Although I didn’t follow the Snowden affair closely … my understanding is that his main message has been that the deep state is a good and necessary thing which merely needs “reform”. If so that makes him no hero of mine, quite the contrary.
…
Posted by: Russ (from Langley) | Jun 27, 2018 6:53:42 AM | 39
Bullshit.
Snowden showed that NSA spies on everyone. The scope and ubiquity of the snooping made a mockery of NSA’s pathetically juvenile NatSec excuse.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 27 2018 12:47 utc | 44

J 40
I didn’t know about Snowden selling privacy software, but that sure fits.
Meanwhile even if such encryption “works”, we already know every telecom and infotech seller (at least among US companies) puts backdoors into all such encryption and collaborates freely and willingly with the deep state. So it’s most rational to view encryption itself (unless you can write and deploy your own software and communicate only with those who use same) as a baited trap, where the use of it is itself a red flag which draws surveillance attention. Like I said already, the telecom will happily hand over the encryption key whenever asked.
Returning to the main point, the whole notion of encryption technology clearly is a propaganda campaign to convince people that humanity can co-exist with the police state and surveillance technology. I’ve often seen techno-cultists claim that a surveillance-vs.-encryption arms race of information technology gives the people the edge over the corporate state. That’s self-evidently absurd and thus provides a clue to the real propaganda function of the idea.
Certainly there are ways the people can beat the state, but they involve evasion and ju-jitsu, not direct confrontation on the state’s own chosen ground. Again, we see the propaganda forces which are deployed to neuter all dissent and kill all thought.

Posted by: Russ | Jun 27 2018 15:03 utc | 46

Syria must be shaking, also a clear warning to Iran:
John Bolton in Russia for talks on Syria, Iran
https://on.rt.com/98lj

Posted by: Zanon | Jun 27 2018 15:27 utc | 48

I am aware that spectator football is an unhealthy force of mass mind control.
Myself, i NEVER watch professional league play, only the Mexican national team.
(I am not excusing myself, rather admitting to a life-persistent vice.)
The World Cup 2018 in Russia from a futbol fan’s POV could NOT be more dramatic!
The broadcasting booth of Enrique Bermudez went CRAZY when Korea scored a goal
out in Kazan in their Group Match against reigning champion Germany. Something
was definitely strange about the officiating in the Mexico 0-3 loss to Sweden.
For what it is worth, there is definitely something magic about this World Cup.
The national teams are well matched; low scoring over-all, yet outstanding goals.
I think the experience of the supporters over there will be transformative
and I don’t doubt too that Russian people will be tranformed by the presence
of the spontaneous and gaity that the mexican people generate when they gather.

Posted by: Guerrero | Jun 27 2018 16:13 utc | 50

The Russian Ministry of Defense is building a military innovative technopolis of the future. The opening is scheduled for September 2018.

Posted by: alaff | Jun 27 2018 17:06 utc | 52

@ financial matters | Jun 27, 2018 5:11:47 AM | 38, Grieved and psychohistorian
I do enjoy great posts by all 3 of you, but I must admit that I actually admire Grieved’s calm, measured and very optimistic approach to daily issues. Let me add my 2 cents to your discussion.
The only real solution for all that extra money splashing around in the Five eyes, is devaluation of $US, and currencies of those other 4 countries which depend on it. I think that actual value of $US is at most 1/3 of the current value!!! Only after the devaluation value of these Mac mansions (made of particle boards) would make some sense, but also value of the mostly undereducated labor force in those countries would become reasonable. It does not make any sense that engineer, or scientist, or even physical laborer in North America (and also in core EU countries) makes almost 10 times more than their peers elsewhere. And I do not even need to talk about chosen occupations: doctors, layers and banksters … Yes, I think that purchasing power of all those countries is at least 3 times higher then it should be!

Posted by: ex-SA | Jun 27 2018 17:41 utc | 54

Horse 51
“Like I said” means “like I said”. Maybe you need to reread my original comment to confirm that, if your meds are affecting your memory.
Langley-speak? That reminds me, hasn’t your hero Snowden been quite easy on the CIA (his former employer) all along, insisting it’s the NSA who commits all the “abuses”? Ergo the turf-war theory about him.

Posted by: Russ | Jun 27 2018 18:49 utc | 56

Deds, that’s partly why I never post here anymore.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 27 2018 20:37 utc | 58

@57 jason – another video from the white helmet or syrian defense usa/uk funded bullshit..

Posted by: james | Jun 27 2018 21:55 utc | 60

“So, it’s not just Turkey we must strive to comprehend, but all nations large and small, weak and powerful, and which admittedly is a very tall task.”
The tangled mess of religion, tribalism, geo-politics with ignorance and a touch of psychopath added as a binder.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jun 27 2018 22:09 utc | 62

I’m going a little crazy this week between the escalated rhetoric of the Trump Administration and Establishment Democrats about the Supreme Court decision on the visa ban. I don’t see this as a Muslim Ban. The total Muslim ban, that Trump campaigned for and generated Islamophobic fervor for among his right-wing base, was given a try and failed months ago. His retooled Muslim ban was also tried and failed. His third ban is really a Neocon/Neolib Targets ban, encompassing most of Wesley Clark’s listed countries, with Venezuela and North Korea added for good measure. So Trump is bragging to his base that he delivered on his promise and liberal pundits are warning about the erosion of civil rights, but all I’m seeing is one more level of viciousness toward the peoples in countries that are the top targets of American Imperialism.

Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Jun 28 2018 0:28 utc | 64

Mike Maloney @4
The MSM coverage of Nicaragua in the US, and what I’ve seen from Britain is universally pro-“protester” and demonizing of Ortega. In fact, so is much of the “alternative” media. Just as with the Libya and Syria projects, one of the worst propagandists has been Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow!
Some days after devoting a show to fawning interviews of “protesters” and their backers, she did have a gentleman on who provided some good contrary views. DN questioned his views very critically (which would be great if they’d done anything of the sort for the “protesters”), but I give her/them credit for responding to the waves of criticism her earlier coverage received.
She continues to “report” on Syria and Nicaragua with “regime change” perspectives, but I think she’s devoting less and less time to those subjects.

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 28 2018 1:37 utc | 66

J @18
Yep. Reading Valentine’s most excellent “CIA As Organized Crime” caused me to begin to look at Ellsberg and others a bit more skeptically. He also pointed out that Chris Hedges wrote some pro-“regime change” Iraq articles at the NY Times before coming out against the invasion.
I hadn’t caught Hedges’s uncritical interview not even two months after 9/11 with Iraqi “opposition” members promoting the myth that Saddam Hussein was training Sunni extremist terrorists, specifically to hijack airliners.
So, I looked it up.  And sure enough, none other than Ahmed “Curveball” Chalabi arranged the interview.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/08/world/a-nation-challenged-the-school-defectors-cite-iraqi-training-for-terrorism.html
Kiriakou noted today that the same “journalist” who set up Reality Winner to get busted had set him up. He does not understand why anybody trusts Omidyar’s The Intercept. Of course, Winner was promoting a CIA “Russia did it” conspiracy, so I really don’t know what to make of her arrest and plea bargain.
I think it a generally good idea to never trust a former intelligence officer/agent. Some may be real whistleblowers and truth seekers. But never just take their words at face value (especially when those words reinforce one’s own views).

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 28 2018 2:05 utc | 68

After years of ridiculing “conspiracy theorists” for their claims that militaries have built vast underground bases (DUMBs), the Pentagon just announced that it has been running a $1/2 Billion/Year training program for war fighting in what it says are 10,000 underground military bases around the world.
They do not mention whether the vast underground structures recently uncovered by SAA and RF forces in Ghouta were included in that tally.

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 28 2018 2:23 utc | 70

@ ex -SA with thoughts about devaluation of US dollar
I am not so concerned with how much adjustment needs to be made but how the elite have stacked the deck so that their “financial instruments” are “legally” first in line when the music stops and the world has another Bretton Woods sort of meeting. The private banks of the elite have had since 2008 with ZIRP and the newly legalized derivative instruments to establish their Bretton Woods “beachhead”.
Yes, the ongoing equalizing of global consumption will continue and possibly accelerate in relation to Americans consuming less if the rest of the nations stop buying Treasuries and stop the MIC led vampire economy of the West.
At some point the discussion about which countries owe how much to the elite becomes funny but we are not quite there yet.
The God of Mammon/global private finance religion is losing its mystique to many and in a MAD world, might-makes-right can only get one so far. As the world shrinks with electronic communication, and assuming it all doesn’t get taken away, continued bullying, verbal and physical is seeing daylight around the world and energy is growing to reign it in…..Trump is doing a great job of bring that sick energy out of the closet so humanity can see its hurt and chose to not allow anti-social behavior to become ascendant.
And the discussion about allowable social behavior needs to happen everywhere within the context of mutually respecting humans first with culture right behind and discrimination not allowed…..blah, blah, blah!!!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 28 2018 3:30 utc | 72

@72 psychohistorian
“Might makes right” is an assassin’s knife that cuts in two directions – fortunately for us.
I think we have seen the security state of Russia turn to the Mammon lobby and say, “These are your boundaries: pay your taxes, stay out of the affairs of state, and we will allow your corrupt game to endure.”
I think we have seen the same thing from China, but rather less dramatically, when the west attempted a run on the Yuan (which I didn’t follow and so am woefully ignorant about), and the government commanded the exchange markets to adhere to its policies – thus staving off defeat.
I say this because in some lights we could see the security state as the “might makes right” faction. But the light has changed. And I suspect the notion of the integrity of the state will continue to assert itself, even unto the final confrontation, which is against the bankers, who have no use for states.
~~
It’s a late-night thought, and I can wait to see how it plays. I was mostly riffing on your words. I admire the overall thesis, as you know.
But I wanted to introduce the notion of “debt repudiation” into the scheme. I think this is part of the realm of possibility. After all, the creditors don’t really care about the principal. They’re really only in it for the interest. So the nominal debt itself is always negotiable, I suspect. And it would be the non-bankers, the security state, who repudiate. And the bankers would simply roll over and settle to a new interest level. So long as the notion of interest itself was not challenged.
And this is exactly where we would ask our security state to be like Cuba and Iran – I think – and go the whole way to destroy even that notion, the central evil of compound interest.
I appreciate greatly your point about “their” instruments being first in the line of the tranches, and also your observation about Trump – this mysterious force of the unconscious, breaking surface continually into conscious policy. And what an unexpected bonus this has given to clear-seeing and the prevalence of truth in the air.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 28 2018 4:24 utc | 74

psychohistorian “The God of Mammon/global private finance religion…”
Religion. It seems we humans are blessed with and imagination that allows us to make tools, build shelters from the elements, grow plants as crops and farm animals rather than chasing them. It also curses us as our imagination creates spirits and supernatural to explain the unexplained or unknown which develops into gods and religions.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jun 28 2018 5:07 utc | 76

elijah j m’s latest on syria here.

Posted by: james | Jun 28 2018 6:36 utc | 78

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, met on Wednesday afternoon in Moncloa [official residence of Spanish PM] with the guru of financial speculation, the Hungarian billionaire George Soros. Around seven in the afternoon, Sánchez and Soros began the meeting, which was not on the president’s public agenda. The talk, as OKDIARIO has learned, lasted about an hour and a half.

Posted by: passerby | Jun 28 2018 9:15 utc | 80

(US immig. topic.) karlof @ 7: What writers like Bunch must do is to link the numerous anti-people policies together so people can see the entire fabric being woven into so many funeral shrouds.
yes… Bunch sort-a points out that the ‘serious’ problems began under Obama, true (probably the best policy was that of Bush J., though his admin. was the one who pushed through The Wall w. Mex. and built most or all of what exists) – he doesn’t delve deep.
The various voted-in rules and how they were applied he is not familiar with (me neither..) and will not venture to explain how illegal immig., deportation, child ‘separation’ went totally thru the roof under Obama.
Mid screed, he takes a swipe at ‘repugs’ – nasty racist ppl who vociferated and seem to ‘like, + thumbs up’ imprisonment or whatever – standard fare in apportioning, sharing out, blame. The only photo of US citizens is one of such an event. No numbers are quoted. No experts are applied to. No income figures for private prisons. Nothing is said about what happens to these children after they have been locked up in cages -or nice child friendly centers- which is astonishing. Most importantly, no suggestions whatsoever about ‘what needs to be changed’ or ‘what should be done’ or ‘what can do’ etc. are made.
Vacuous, despicable, moral outrage with the usual props of terminally distressed babbos-kiddos touted to propagandise hate towards some person/group/entity. All leads nowhere. The US treats its children with extreme cruelty (highest in child poverty, income inequality, lack of health care, in OECD, etc. whatever, see intl. stats.. starvation is already a worry..) and it has, imho, an informal hierachy for how babies and children are treated. The most exploitable and ignored, under-the-radar, are these immig. children, because they are ‘parentless’, locked into a system, and have NO advocates. They are fair game for anything. Another slot (perhaps 3rd) is adopted children in the US.
A society (state..) who treats its children, native born or not, in this way is close to implosion, collapse.

Posted by: Noirette | Jun 28 2018 15:53 utc | 82

financial matters @83
I’ve been round and round with true believers in the Federal Reserve System, and am not in the mood to engage with another right now. As regards the Fed’s “pretend” independence, I’ll just cite Alan Greenspan.
Alan Greenspan PBS interview
Q: “What SHOULD BE the proper relationship between a Chairman of the Fed and a President of the United States?”
A: “Well, first of all, the Federal Reserve is an independent agency. And that means basically that, uh there is no agency of government which can overrule the actions that we take.
“So long as that is in place.. then what the relationships are don’t frankly matter.”

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 28 2018 20:29 utc | 84

@ Grieved with the comment #85 about the Fed
My beret is off to you sir. The paradigm shift so nicely stated.
If only others could perceive what the manifestations of such a shift would be we could make “Alice’s Restaurant ……” seem like just a song.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 29 2018 4:20 utc | 86

Grieved@85 Good points.
I would put more of the blame on Congress.
“This is epic. Pretty much no one expected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to oust 14 term Congressman Joe Crowley, who was widely seen as Speaker-in-Waiting should the Dems retake the House in November and Pelosi was challenged.”
I liked seeing this young socialist candidate beat a long standing neolib/neocon opponent who outspent her about 10-1 with many corporate sponsors.
The above comment is from a Naked Capitalism article. Nice to see their commentariat so strongly in favor of a socialist. I don’t think we would have seen this 5 or 10 years ago.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/06/earthquake-in-the-bronx-ocasio-cortez-beat-14-term-establishment-dem-crowley-in-primary.html

Posted by: financial matters | Jun 29 2018 4:33 utc | 88

Grieved@89
I think you accurately describe the pressure that is applied.
I see it similar to Putin fighting back in Syria. He stood up to the US bombing even knowing that it may lead to nuclear war. He was tired of being blackmailed and had to stand up to the bully.

Posted by: financial matters | Jun 29 2018 4:48 utc | 90

I appreciated reading some of the comments above discussing what happens when the great settlement moment comes and encourage more of it.
Our world is evolving, unless the elite chose global genocide, to not need labor in the same way as in the past. With the advances in mechanization, robotics, machine learning, etc. most of society could be without a job in 20 – 30 years or less. We are already on that path as evidenced by the high global unemployment rates and reduced participation percentages but not speaking to it as a society.
Given the above I believe that society needs to redefine an individual’s responsibility to and support from “government”. I think that most education should be free but some needs to have payback attached to the investment. I think that everyone should be required to “vote” and “contribute to the common good” on a regular basis in exchange for basic support and a “safe world”.
I believe that humanity would be better served if we conducted better “risk management decision making” than that which led to nuclear energy perfidy like Fukushima. Requiring humanity to vote on such technological direction may impede some progress but eliminate immoral directions, IMO.
A debt jubilee is a great idea but not likely without telling the “should be holders” of such debt, the elite , that they are now like the rest of us riff-raff. I suspect that the current global debt has been manipulated by the elite to be held by pension funds, weak governments and lots of grandpa Joe and aunt Louise types….anyone but the elite.
Oh, to have the opportunity to make finance a public utility………….sigh

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 29 2018 6:43 utc | 92

psychohistorian @92. Agreed. Anthropological studies for well over a century show that almost all “normal” people want to feel they are productive and appreciated members of their society. Our current “crony meritocracy capitalist system” strips many people of the ability to fulfill those near-universal drives, and encourages the egoism of “individuality” that is structurally anti-social.
As many researchers are now saying, our system rewards psychopathy and sociopathy, and so actually creates and nurtures those “social diseases” (still a fan of ) “Dear Officer Krupke”
But I believe that given the chance, almost all of us would happily adopt the world-view you promote.
re. a dharma to a social contract, I propose a mandatory “draft.” Not for the military (though that could be one option). But how about every “able bodied person” giving 2 years after high school to public service? They could do “works projects,” or data entry, or a whole range of services.
Before one enters “higher education” or trade school, or the work force, and while the mind is still a thirsty sponge, do good and imprint that ownership of and allegiance to one’s society.
Any ideas?

Posted by: Daniel | Jun 29 2018 7:33 utc | 94

The Swiss voted against (only 25% for) the sovereign money initiative, which would have given all ‘money creation power’ to the Central Bank under Gvmt. control/ directives/ strictures.
https://www.ft.com/content/686e0342-6c97-11e8-852d-d8b934ff5ffa (maybe paywall?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_sovereign_money_referendum,_2018
Idk know why exactly. Neither pro or con campaigned in a determined way.
The public conversations (press, TV round tables, radio, etc.) that took place were interesting enough, but were perhaps too opaque, specialised? Only a third of voters actually voted on this proposal, which is ‘normal’, as we vote all the time, it is considered ‘proper, noble’ to abstain on issues one has little knowledge of, interest in, opinion about.
Plus, it is not as if the Swiss dislike or mistrust their Central Bank, which is a ‘private’ entity (to keep it separate from the acrid and unpredictable rough-n-tumble of electoral politics) which does far more than just supervise the minting of coins, and returns iirc half (it might be somewhat less) of its profits to Cantons, to do with whatever they like, i.e. manna from heaven that goes to funding day-care, bicycle paths, and other stuff ppl love. In the popular imagination, the CB is respected, it defends the Swiss Franc tooth and nail, and so on.
Maybe it was just that ppl are used to having a ‘personal’ relationship with ‘their banker’, aka at least a phone no. and e-mail, and the thought of having to borrow money ‘from the Gvmt’ and not from someone one has met? Or maybe just conservatism, what is wrong with the present system, nothing? (Gouging interest rates are forbidden by law.) Still, not a good omen for such plans.
The pov that CH lives of its banking sector which thus had huge occult influence etc. doesn’t wash. The whole finance-insurance sector (banks, hedge funds, traders, health insurance!, etc.) accounts for 5% employment and pre 08, 12% GDP, now down to 10 or so. (FAR lower than many EU countries. About the same as the USA.)

Posted by: Noirette | Jun 29 2018 14:37 utc | 96

The amazing number of villages and towns accepting reconciliation in Daraa region is quite uplifting. This twitter page has many videos showing people rejoicing over the end of their long nightmare. As is noted, Russian troops are very much involved in the process. It seems Trump has won the internal political struggle to remove Outlaw US Empire forces from at least Southern Syria.
Meanwhile, Mattis gets lectured by Xi regarding China’s position on its sovereign lands and expansionism. Garrie provides an elegant solution to ward off potential conflict over South China Sea.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2018 17:05 utc | 98

99
I had thought the ISIS pocket in the desert would be left as a dumping ground until the ISIS pocket on the Jordan Israel borders was cleared. But then Russian MoD says it has intel that a false flag CW attack is being prepared by the US for the Deir Ezzor area, so straight away, the entire desert region is cleared of ISIS.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jun 29 2018 23:13 utc | 100