Catégorie : Politics

Published on Russia Today RT, Nov 23, 2014.

Germany’s FM, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has said he is against Ukraine joining NATO. In an interview with Der Spiegel, he said he considers “that it is possible for NATO to have a partnership with Ukraine, but not membership.”
He also added that he does not believe it is realistic for Ukraine to join the European Union in the foreseeable future, as the economic and political modernization of Ukraine is a “project for a few generations.”
He also urged Kiev to introduce reforms to fight corruption and mismanagement of the economy, saying they had to start immediately and that there was no time to lose … // Continuer la lecture de « German foreign minister speaks out against Ukraine joining NATO »

Published on Intrepid Report, by Ellen Brown,Nov 21, 2014.

While 49 state treasuries were submerged in red ink after the 2008 financial crash, one state’s bank outperformed all others and actually launched an economy-shifting new industry. So reports the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing the Bank of North Dakota (BND) and its striking success in the midst of a national financial collapse led by the major banks … //

… Excess deposits do not explain the BND’s record profits: … //
… The real reasons for its stellar success: … //

… The downsides of a boom:   Continuer la lecture de « Bank of North Dakota outperforms Wall Street »

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Katrin Kuntz, Nov 21, 2014 (Photo Gallery – Translated from the German by Paul Cohen).

A group of Belgium’s leading practitioners of euthanasia recently visited the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial to learn more about death and humanity. The trip proved to be just as controversial for the doctors as it did insightful … //

… Some 70 people gradually gather around Distelmans. The group consists of doctors, psychologists and nurses from Belgium, most of whom work in the area of euthanasia. One of them is Eric Vandevelde, who during the course of his career has killed 20 people at their own request even as he helps women give birth every day. He’s accompanied by his wife Colette, who was instrumental in introducing Belgium’s euthanasia law 12 years ago. Manu Keirse, a psychologist, is also on hand. Continuer la lecture de « Students of Death: Euthanasia Doctors Seek Existential Answers at Auschwitz – part 1 »

Published on Counterpunch, by WILLIAM BLUM, Nov 20, 2014.

… None of the photos accompanying this New York Times story online showed any of these Russian troops or armored vehicles. … //

… Where are these photographs? And how will we know that these are Russian soldiers? And how will we know that the photos were taken in Ukraine? But most importantly, where are the fucking photographs?

Why am I so cynical? Because the Ukrainian and US governments have been feeding us these scare stories for eight months now, without clear visual or other evidence, often without even common sense … // Continuer la lecture de « The Missing Burden of Proof – Russia Invades Ukraine: Again. And Again. And Yet Again »

Ideological foundations of the mainstream neoclassical economics – Published on Intrepid Report, by Ismael Hossein-zadeh, Nov 20, 2014.

There is now a widespread consensus that mainstream/neoclassical economists failed miserably to either predict the coming of the 2008 financial implosion, or provide a reasonable explanation when it actually arrived. Not surprisingly, many critics have argued that neoclassical economics has created more confusion than clarification, more obfuscation than elucidation. Economic “science” has, indeed, become “an ideological construct which serves to camouflage and justify the New World Order” [1].   Continuer la lecture de « Class interests as economic theory »

Published on The Guardian, by Spencer Ackerman in NY, Nov 19, 2014.

• Senators, mostly Republicans warning of leaving the country exposed to terrorist threat, voted to beat back the USA Freedom Act
• Failure to pass US surveillance reform bill could still curtail NSA powers
• Nearly 18 months after Edward Snowden’s disclosures, the USA Freedom Act has died

… It was the denouement to over a year’s worth of political drama, characterized by shifting alliances and a reduction in ambitions for constraining the NSA, even in a post-Snowden Congress.   Continuer la lecture de « US: Senate Republicans block landmark NSA surveillance reform bill »

Published on VOXeu.org, by Alex Bryson, John Forth, Lucy Stokes, Nov 17, 2014.

It is generally agreed that firms can improve their employees’ wellbeing through improvements in job quality – but is it in their economic interests to do so? This column reports research showing that satisfied employees and higher productivity go together. Analysis of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey finds that employee job satisfaction is positively associated with workplace financial performance, labour productivity, and the quality of output and service … // Continuer la lecture de « Does it pay for firms to invest in their workers’ wellbeing? »

in Texts, on Russia Today RT:

• Putin: Supporting Russophobia in Ukraine will result in catastrophe, on Russia Today RT, Nov 16, 2014 … Transcript of the Interview;
• Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a big mistake, Nov 16, 2014;
• Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks, Nov 16, 2014;
• Politics blinded them?’ Putin says sanctions against Russia may backfire on Ukraine, on Nov 15, 2014;   Continuer la lecture de « Putin's ARD Interview »

Published on The Guardian, by Daniel Boffey, Nov 15, 2014: study shows gains for wealthier half of population, delivering a blow to George Osborne’s claims on fairness;

A landmark study of the coalition’s tax and welfare policies six months before the general election reveals how money has been transferred from the poorest to the better off, apparently refuting the chancellor of the exchequer’s claims that the country has been “all in it together”.

According to independent research to be published on Monday and seen by the Observer, George Osborne has been engaged in a significant transfer of income from the least well-off half of the population to the more affluent in the past four years. Those with the lowest incomes have been hit hardest.   Continuer la lecture de « Revealed: how coalition has helped rich by hitting poor »

Published on Global Research.ca (first on War is a Crime), by David Swanson, Nov 13, 2014.

The similarities between mass incarceration and mass murder have been haunting me for a while, and I now find myself inspired by Maya Schenwar’s excellent new book Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better. This is one of three books everyone should read right away. The others are The New Jim Crow and Burning Down the House, the former with a focus on racism in incarceration, the latter with a focus on the incarceration of youth. Schenwar’s is an overview of incarceration in all its absurd and unfathomable evil — as well as being a spotlight leading away from this brutal institution.   Continuer la lecture de « How Is a Prison Like a War? »

Published on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Doaa El-Bey, Nov 13, 2014: On Egypt’s defence of its record at the UN Periodic Review meeting in Geneva.

While the head of the Egyptian delegation to Geneva insisted Egypt had witnessed a qualitative “leap” in the status of human rights, human rights groups have widely condemned Egypt’s record on basic freedoms over the last four years.

More than 300 recommendations, questions and comments from member states were included in the UN outcome report that followed Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) last week. Reservations were expressed over laws regulating NGOs, human rights, judicial procedures and the right to protest. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, however, was keen to point out that amid the criticisms there were positive remarks. “From at least 100 countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti told Al-Ahram Weekly. Continuer la lecture de « Egypt: Human rights under scrutiny »

Published on farmlandgrab.org, by Chris Arsenault, Nov 12, 2014.

ROME, Nov 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Development funds from European governments have helped to rescue a Canadian company that pays workers as little as $1 per day to toil on some of Africa’s largest palm oil plantations in the impoverished Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Government-backed investment funds from Britain, France and Spain, designed to help poor countries develop, stepped in to buy 60 percent of Toronto-listed Feronia Inc for about $35 million in two separate investments in 2012 and 2013.   Continuer la lecture de « Taxpayer funds save Congo plantation paying workers $1/day »

latest Related Links:

• Pax Pacificana? US, China agree to avoid military conflict, on Russia Today RT, Nov 12, 2014;
• (remember on Global Research.ca, by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts:
• Will Russia and China Hold Their Fire Until War Is the Only Alternative? Sept 26, 2014; … and: Washington’s War Against Russia – Undermining Russia’s Historic Relationship with Western Europe, Sept 15, 2014);     Continuer la lecture de « USA – CHINA – RUSSIA – (and our politician's arse licker eu) … quo vadis? »

LIVE UPDATES – Go-go-go! Rosetta’s Philae lander descent to comet surface, on Russia Today RT, Nov 12, 2014!
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Published on The National Security Archive, by Thomas Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya, Nov 9, 2014.

• Documents show accident and contingency, anxiety in world capitals;
• East German crowds led the way, with help from Communist fumbles, self-fulfilling TV coverage, Hungarian reformers, Czechoslovak pressure, and Gorbachev’s non-violence.

Washington, DC, November 9, 2014 – The iconic fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago today shocked international leaders from Washington to Moscow, London to Warsaw, as East German crowds took advantage of Communist Party fumbles to break down the Cold War’s most symbolic barrier, according to formerly secret documents from Soviet, German, U.S., Czechoslovak and Hungarian files posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (The National Security Archive.org).   Continuer la lecture de « The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 25th Anniversary »