The United States and the Russian Devil: 1917-2017

… the Anti-Empire Report #149 – Published on Dissident Voice, by William Blum, March 7, 2017.

… Ah yes, the infamous KGB. Can anything good be said about a person associated with such an organization? We wouldn’t like it if a US president had a background with anything like that. Oh, wait, a president of the United States was not merely a CIA “colonel”, but was the Director of the CIA! I, of course, speak of George Herbert Walker Bush. And as far as butchery and thuggery … How many Americans remember the December 1989 bombing and invasion of the people of Panama carried out by the same Mr. Bush? Many thousands killed or wounded; thousands more left homeless … // Continuer la lecture de « The United States and the Russian Devil: 1917-2017 »

Wikileaks Unveils 'Vault 7'

Published on Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden, March 7, 2017.

WikiLeaks has published what it claims is the largest ever release of confidential documents on the CIA. It includes more than 8,000 documents as part of ‘Vault 7’, a series of leaks on the agency, which have allegedly emerged from the CIA’s Center For Cyber Intelligence in Langley, and which can be seen on the org chart below, which Wikileaks also released: … // Continuer la lecture de « Wikileaks Unveils 'Vault 7' »

Trump and Saving Capitalism

Published on Counterpunch, by Richard D. Wolff, March 6, 2017.

Capitalism, Thomas Piketty showed in his book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century has a built-in tendency to worsen income and wealth inequalities. One consequence of this tendency are periodic political explosions of mass, popular anger. People push back against those inequalities and the political corruption and social divisions they always aggravate. Politicians who grasp these moments often succeed in taking advantage of them and win. Continuer la lecture de « Trump and Saving Capitalism »

Most of the World is Just Collapsing in Laughter

… on Claims that Russia Intervened in the US Election –  an Interview with Noam Chomsky, published on ZNet, by Noam Chomsky, March 4, 2017 … download.

… Gibbs: One of the surprises of the post-Cold War era is the persistence of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other US-led alliances. These alliances were created during the Cold War mainly or exclusively for containing the claimed Soviet threat. In 1991, the USSR disappeared from the map, but the anti-Soviet alliance systems persisted and in fact expanded. How do we account for the persistence and expansion of NATO? What in your view is the purpose of NATO after the Cold War?  … // Continuer la lecture de « Most of the World is Just Collapsing in Laughter »

Megabank Caught Laundering for Terrorists and Drug Cartels

… and the Feds Are Keeping It Secret – Published on Global Research.ca, by Jack Burns, March 5, 2017.

When a bank is found guilty of doing business in countries where they’re not supposed to be, and when the same bank is found guilty of helping drug cartels launder money, shouldn’t the public have a right to know about the banks’ efforts at correcting such actions? That’s the question being raised with respect to HSBC’s 1.92 billion dollar settlement with the U.S. and oral arguments are taking place in federal court this week on whether or not the compliance report should stay sealed. Continuer la lecture de « Megabank Caught Laundering for Terrorists and Drug Cartels »

How Much Does It Cost to Tell a Lie That Big?

Published by Hiroyuki Hamada, March 2, 2017.

… How much does it cost to tell a lie that big? What is the human price of making people complicit in a project of death and suffering? What consequences do we pay in erasing facts and twisting history when we regard ourselves as cultural beings? But all these questions are perhaps trivial compared to the 500,000 deaths, displacements of half of the population, and all the destruction inflicted by the imperial assault against Syria so far. Continuer la lecture de « How Much Does It Cost to Tell a Lie That Big? »

The contemporary shadow of the Scramble for Africa

Published on VOXeu.org, by Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou, March 1, 2017.

the Scramble for Africa has contributed to economic, social, and political underdevelopment by spurring ethnic-tainted civil conflict and discrimination and by shaping the ethnic composition, size, shape and landlocked status of the newly independent states. This column, taken from a recent VoxEU eBook, summarises the key findings of studies that use high-resolution geo-referenced data and econometric methods to estimate the long-lasting impact of the various aspects of the Scramble for Africa. Continuer la lecture de « The contemporary shadow of the Scramble for Africa »