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The US and its proxies continue to murder people over a large area of the earth. Clearly Obama is not a man of peace, and neither are his European enablers and the United Nations. So what is the reason for the accommodation with Iran after many years of rabid demonization of a country for no other reason than the country insisted on its rights to nuclear energy granted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?
Everything the Obama administration does internationally cannot be a conspiracy (or any worse a conspiracy than what the guy ahead of him partook in anyway). At least when the big conspiracy theories like Scientology, the War on ISIL (or orthodox Judaism, for that matter) were revealed in all their fullness, everyone didn't keep saying how much sense they always thought they made (no, they just vanished from the conversation of sensible people). Funny, almost, how any event can start to look suspicious when you know enough about it. I know I'm still applauding that mad agreement to actually stop pretending that Iran was desperately working to build a nuclear device with which it could blow itself and its neighbors up. Yay. Now, as to that Greek one . . . .
The Real Reasons For the Iran Agreement
July 18, 2015
Paul Craig Roberts
Obama is being praised as a man of peace for the nuclear agreement with Iran. Some are asking if Obama will take the next step and repair US-Russian relations and bring the Ukrainian imbroglio to an end?
If so he hasn’t told Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland or his nominee as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Paul Selva, or his nominee as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, or his Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James.
The other day on Ukrainian TV Victoria Nuland declared that if Russia does not “fulfill its obligations,” by which she means to turn all of Ukraine over to Washington including Crimea, a historical Russian province, “we’re prepared to put more pressure on Russia.” During the past week both of Obama’s nominees to the top military positions told the US Senate that Russia was the main threat to the US, an “existential threat” even. With this level of war rhetoric in play, clearly Obama has no interest in reducing the tensions that Washington has created with Russia.
In my last column I wrote that the agreement with Iran does not mean much, because Washington can renew the sanctions at any time merely by making false charges against Iran. Obama knows this even if Lindsey Graham and John McCain pretend that they don’t know it.
The US and its proxies continue to murder people over a large area of the earth. Clearly Obama is not a man of peace, and neither are his European enablers and the United Nations. So what is the reason for the accommodation with Iran after many years of rabid demonization of a country for no other reason than the country insisted on its rights to nuclear energy granted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?
If you can free yourself from the brainwashing from the presstitute media, three BIG reasons jump out at you. One is that the neoconservatives’ perception of the threat has shifted from “Muslim terrorists” to Russia and China. Unlike Muslim terrorists, both Russia and China are constraints on Washington’s unilateralism. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington has grown accustomed to being the Uni-Power, able to exercise its will unchallenged in the world. The rise of Russian strength under Putin and Chinese strength under the new policy has destroyed Washington’s Uni-Power privilege. Washington wants the privilege back.
Washington is not in good shape, economically or militarily. According to Nobel Economist Joseph Stieglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes, Washington has wasted at least $6 trillion dollars in its 14-year old wars in the Middle East. Despite the extraordinary cost, Washington has been defeated, and is now faced with the Islamic State, a new entity arising out of Washington’s mistakes that is creating a new country partly out of Iraq and partly out of Syria.
Despite its gigantic hubris, Washington has figured out that the US cannot simultaneously take on Russia, China, Iran, and the Islamic State. This realization is one reason for the nuclear agreement with Iran. It removes Iran from the mix.
A second reason for the agreement is that Iran is opposed to the Islamic State and can be employed as an American proxy against the Islamic State, thus freeing Washington for conflict with Russia and China.
A third reason for Washington’s agreement with Iran is Washington’s concern with Europe’s energy dependence on Russia. This dependence is inconsistent with the EU going along with Washington’s sanctions against Russia and with NATO’s military moves against Russia. Washington wants to end this dependence and has hopes that money can bring Iran into becoming a supplier of natural gas and oil to Europe.
The explanation I have provided is realism, not cynicism. All that the agreement with Iran means is that Washington has belatedly realized that the concocted Iranian and Muslim threats are using up time, energy, and resources that Washington needs to apply to Russia and China. Moreover, there were too many threats for the American people to know which was paramount.
One of the reasons that Greece has to be destroyed is to block the entry of Russian natural gas into Europe from the Russian pipeline into Turkey.
Washington has US troops in Ukraine training the Ukrainian military how to subdue the break-away provinces, and the stooge Ukrainian government has taken no steps to comply with the Minsk Agreement. Clearly Washington intends that peace is not in the cards in Ukrainian-Russian relations.
At some point Russia will have to accept defeat or else stop contributing to its own defeat. On more than one occasion when the Russian break-away provinces had the Ukrainian military totally defeated, the Russian government intervened and prevented the collapse of the Ukrainian military. For its consideration, Russia has been rewarded with more demonization and with US aid to the Ukrainian military. When hostilities resume, which they will, Russia and the break-away Russian provinces will find themselves in a worsened position.
The Russian government cannot pursue peace when Washington is pursuing War.
And on the latest Grecian formula, Penny offers insight into the backdoor efforts to create EU and EU2. Or didn't you know?
Greece & EU: There is NO Agreement. EU and EU2?
Flashback: Greece : The Straw that Breaks the Euro Area - Full Integration or an Amicable Split
Concluding
Can't be sure. However, I'm sticking with what I see at this time. Greece (Tsipras) is being used to put pressure on the EU to fully and completely integrate or split into two factions. EU & EU 2 the poor cousinsContinuing:
No Agreement, still - Only an agreement to negotiate. Tsipras doesn't 'believe' in this deal. Schauble doesn't believe in the deal. The IMF, of all entities, does not support this deal. Still thinking this has all been designed to fail. Not sure why the talking heads are leading the audience to believe there is a deal pushed on Greece by Germany - As of yet, there is no agreement, no deal.
Europe has given its consent for formal talks on a third Greek bail-out package to begin
Greece news: Europe gives go ahead for third Greek bail-out talks - As it happened 17 July 2015
Europe has given its consent for formal talks on a third Greek bail-out package to begin2:37
Germany about to give approval to negotiate third Greek bail-out
After a few hours of speeches and debate, German politicians are now preparping to vote on whether to approve talks a third bail-out package for Greece.
They're expected to wave it through, and are the last European country needed to do so, after Austria gave its consent earlier today.10:42
Time for another change in Greek Government
Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, managed to survive Wednesday's vote on tougher austerity measures. They were passed, but he's not been left unscathed.
Many of his own cabinet rebelled, and he's now expected to shake things up.
In total, 38 of his own party dissented to vote against him, including his energy and welfare ministers. A reshuffle is now expected in the next three days.
Still not comprehending the excuse making on behalf of duplicitous Tsipras. That's how I see his actions. He should not have gone back to the EU to grovel after all his inspirational but misleading talk. Instead he Sacks His Own Party Rebels in Shuffle
"rebels"?
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sacked left-wing Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and two deputy ministers on Friday as he reshuffled his cabinet following a party revolt against a tough new bailout deal adopted this week.
The 40 year-old prime minister moved to clear out the rebels after 39 Syriza hardline lawmakers refused to back the government over the measures, which were demanded by European partners as a pre-condition for beginning talks over a new bailout.
The main economic ministries remain unchanged, with Euclid Tsakalotos remaining in place at the finance ministry and George Stathakis staying at the economy ministry.
But Labor Minister Panos Skourletis, one of Tsipras' closest allies, will replace Lafazanis in the key energy portfolio, where he will be responsible for sensitive privatization dossiersAlongside Lafazanis, leader of Syriza's Left Platform, a faction that was bitterly opposed to the bailout, Deputy Labor Minister Dimtris Stratoulis and Deputy Defense Minister Costas Isychos also lost their jobs.Flashback: There is No Greek Deal ? Will the Greek government fall?
Stratoulis was replaced by Pavlos Chaikalis, a former comic actor from Syriza's right-wing coalition partners, the Independent Greeks, in a slightly reworked portfolio.
Is a coup by any other name ("national unity government") still a coup?Tsipras 'shuffles" Here come the technocrats?
Former Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani, another bailout opponent who resigned earlier this week before the vote, was replaced by Tryfon Alexiadis, a leading member of Greece's tax experts' union.Any NATO affiliations for the academic? I wonder.
Christoforos Vernardakis, an academic, will become deputy defense minister
The new ministers are expected to be sworn in on Saturday.From the No Greek Deal etc post - " A coalition of national unity, led by Tsipras, is likely to emerge by the end of the week with new elections in the autumn" Reads as if the new unity government is coming to fruition.
Tsipras has ruled out immediate early elections before a bailout deal is actually agreed, but Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis said this week that elections may come in September or October.
Finally:
German finance minister backs Grexit before Bundestag vote on bailout deal that no one believes in
Days after Greece appeared to escape crashing out of the euro, hawkish German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has put Grexit back on the political agenda, raising tensions in Berlin and across the EU.EU and EU2 the poor cousins - eventually taking in Portugal, Spain, Italy, likely Ireland. The private bankers can live with that.
Speaking before a key Bundestag vote on Friday, Mr Schäuble said voluntary departure from the eurozone “could perhaps be a better way” for Greece than a proposed €86bn bailout package, which was painfully assembled at a marathon eurozone summit in Brussels over the weekend.
Best case scenario, in my opinion, for all nations - Go your own way, because this economic bankers union can't work/won't work without substantial harm to all the people concerned - Definitely not worth the trouble.
Earlier today:
“Villain" Angela Merkel," Victim" 10 Year Old & Hashtag Manipulation
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts affords us a few choice words on Greece's current situation.
He's not a conspiracist.
More a realist.
Lost Chance In Greece
July 15, 2015
Syriza turned its back to the opportunity to save Greece by removing the country from the EU. The cost of this failure goes far beyond Greece and is political as well as economic. Syriza’s failure threatens the sovereignty of EU member states as well as their social welfare systems. More importantly, an opportunity to avoid World War III by unraveling NATO was thrown away.
The collapse of Syriza one week after receiving the strong support of the Greek people in the referendum vote awaits explanation. I doubt Syriza would have stood up to the pressure as long as it did if the prime minister intended to join previous Greek governments in selling out the people. It makes no sense for Syriza to sell out on the heels of a referendum victory that greatly strengthened its position in its confrontation with the Troika, especially with one member of the Troika, the IMF, expressing doubts about the Troika’s hardline position. Possibly threats were issued that neutered the voice of the Greek people.
Remember when everyone thought the governments in Europe were boring?
I'm guessing no one's aching for the WW2 crowd to take over there again.
Just to liven things up, ya know.
Or is this comment a tad late?
Soulless Economics
July 16, 2015
'An allegedly impersonal economic structure, which quietly benefits the infinitesimally few who have far more than they need, is no foundation for our future,' the author writes.
A march against austerity in London. (Photo: Paul de Gregorio/flickr/cc)
Austerity, the tool of neoliberal capitalism, stands up to Greek democracy and stares it down. Oh well.
We’re remarkably comfortable with soulless economics.
Pope Francis, speaking this week in Paraguay, cried to the nations of Planet Earth: “I ask them not to yield to an economic model . . . which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit.”
But we have yielded to this economic model, in thought, word and deed:
“At issue,” USA Today informs us, “is whether Greece has taken adequate steps to cut spending and raise taxes to deserve the new three-year, $59 billion infusion of funds it has requested, and whether it can be trusted to follow through on the austerity program it has proposed as the price for new loans.”
The pope’s words haven’t penetrated the pseudo-objective certainties of financial reporting, much less the dark sanctuaries of money and power. But they must. And eventually they will, or human evolution is dead. An allegedly impersonal economic structure, which quietly benefits the infinitesimally few who have far more than they need, is no foundation for our future.
This economic system is a relic of the Industrial Age, or perhaps it’s a relic of the Agricultural Revolution. It’s imbued with deep prejudices — human beings can be bought and sold, the nurturing of human life (women’s work) has no monetary value whatsoever — and reinforces our place outside the circle of life, separated from one another and from our deepest values.
Climate change and poverty are intertwined, the pope cries out in his stunning encyclical, “Laudato Si” — “Praised Be” — which reaches well beyond traditional Catholicism in its scope and message . . . and well beyond the parsimonious morality of global capitalism. We must, he declares, “look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity” and “replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing.”
And we cannot bring about a change in humanity without a change in our economic system, which asks for sacrifice only from those who already have next to nothing and has no language that values generosity, except the sort that flows from the poor to the rich (but then it’s called “interest”). The present system does not acknowledge our connectedness to one another or to the planet or in any way understand that true, lasting prosperity emerges from sharing and giving, not exploitation.
“But the campaign of bullying — the attempt to terrify Greeks by cutting off bank financing and threatening general chaos, all with the almost open goal of pushing the current leftist government out of office — was a shameful moment in a Europe that claims to believe in democratic principles,” Paul Krugman wrote recently in the New York Times. “It would have set a terrible precedent . . . even if the creditors were making sense.
“What’s more, they weren’t. The truth is that Europe’s self-styled technocrats are like medieval doctors who insisted on bleeding their patients — and when their treatment made the patients sicker, demanded even more bleeding.”
The present system does not acknowledge our connectedness to one another or to the planet or in any way understand that true, lasting prosperity emerges from sharing and giving, not exploitation.What God are we worshipping?
In his book Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein writes “It is hugely ironic and hugely significant that the one thing on the planet most closely resembling the forgoing conception of the divine is money. It is an invisible, immortal force that surrounds and steers all things, omnipotent and limitless, an ‘invisible hand’ that, it is said, makes the world go ’round.”
And thus Greek ATMs have no euros to dispense. “Without more help from the European Central Bank,” the USA Today article continued, “the Greek banking system may soon run out of cash” — implying that cash has the same sort of objective existence as oil or wheat or diamonds. That’s absurd, of course. Its existence is purely symbolic: an exchange medium with a commonly agreed-upon value backed by a government or central bank.
Krugman, describing the mysterious persistence of this medium, wrote that “if the money doesn’t start flowing from Frankfurt (the headquarters of the central bank), Greece will have no choice but to start paying wages and pensions with IOUs, which will de facto be a parallel currency — and which might soon turn into the new drachma.”
Money, in other words, is a function of social need. It is not an independent entity controlled solely by a financial priesthood, whose terms for its use — high interest rates, austerity, endless debt and poverty for some, endless freedom to exploit the human and environmental commons for others — are absolute.
Imagine a currency that serves a humane, intelligently conceived economic system, one that has at its core an awareness that all life is sacred. Imagine this reality reflected, rather than spurned, in every financial transaction that takes place, no matter how small, no matter how large.
Nyaah. I have to disagree.
Icky Vicky is undoubtedly exactly whom they want presiding.
2 comments:
Angela Merkel flew into Athens Airport. The immigration officer said:'Occupation?' She said 'No, just a visit'.
Come on, T.
You know she said "Yes."
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