Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The Catholic Church is rejecting a new law that critics say could force Venezuelans to act as informants for intelligence agencies.
Provisional results from local elections in the eastern German state of Saxony have provided a significant boost for the far-right NPD party, news agency DPA reported. The German National Democratic Party is likely to be represented in all local authorities in the state, which borders the Czech Republic and Poland, after it secured around 5.5% of the vote in elections held on Sunday.
The economic wastelands of the former East Germany are becoming the focus for a rush for reserves of oil as world prices rise to unprecedented levels. Companies from across the globe, including Britain, have been competing to locate and tap oil fields once considered too small to be profitable.
But with prices now flirting with a record $140 a barrel, and forecast to keep rising, an oil rush is on to recover every last drop of Germany's energy resources.
Chancellor Merkel today emphatically rejected legislation passed by the previous government to phase out nuclear power by 2021, saying the decision was 'absolutely wrong.'
All eyes are on Ireland this week as the European Union awaits the result of the country's EU treaty referendum on Thursday with a mixture of relief that the day has finally come around and fear that it may bring a "no" vote.
President Sarkozy met with Chancellor Merkel today in southern Germany as France prepares to take the reins of the European Union next month. Before Sarkozy's arrival in the Bavarian town of Straubing, Merkel pledged that Berlin will "support to the best of its ability" the 6-month French presidency.
President George W. Bush's motorcade will speed through European capitals this week, but for many Europeans, the Bush presidency is already in their rearview mirrors. Like many Americans, Europeans are showing signs of Bush fatigue.
Outgoing President Bush is to make a farewell tour of Europe this week visiting the UK , Germany, Italy and France in a mood expected to be one of good riddance as much as farewell. One senior French politician claimed that Bush would receive short shrift from many European leaders who are already looking forward to a new US administration.
A German political commentator however warned last week that the problem may not be the administration but America itself saying "America, this steam hammer of a nation, is fundamentally a destroyer."
(Analysis: Time to say goodbye)
Looks at Bush with indifference, and Putin with prudence and respect
Vladimir Putin was in town a little more than a week ago, and George Bush follows in the next couple of days. Their diverging relevance and trajectories at the end of 8 years of parallel presidencies mark the era.
The lineup told it all about Russia's importance today. There, rarely on one stage, sat the CEOs or chairmen of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Total, Schlumberger and Dow Chemical, plus the chairman of the Russian energy giant Gazprom and the president of the Russian oil company Lukoil.
The busy big men of energy, accustomed to jetting around the globe, seemed scarcely to believe themselves that they were all in one place. Regardless of the conflict over BP's partnership with some of Russia's most ambitious billionaires, big Western businesses seem here to stay, swarming around the Russian honey pot for large contracts and access to its resources.
The XII World Economic Forum, which took place last week in St. Petersburg, will be remembered for its daring statements made by Russia's top economic officials. The opening speech made by President Dmitry Medvedev produced a furore.
"Today Russia is a global player. Realizing our responsibility for the fate of the world, we would like to participate in the creation of new rules of the game not because of the notorious imperial ambition, but because of the fact that we have official opportunities and resources."
In 1946, 2 years before the partitioning, as Israel was being birthed from Palestine, the Zionist terror bombing of the King David Hotel shook the Middle East. The brutal bombing was ordered by no less than Menachem Begin.
In the summer of 1954, Israel pursued a series of false-flag terror bombings against US and British libraries, theatres, and other government institutions in Egypt.
In June 1967, some 13 years later, the Israeli Air Force and Navy methodically bombed, strafed, napalmed and torpedoed an unarmed US ship, the USS Liberty, in the hope of killing all aboard, sinking the ship from sight, for their own purpose.
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and President Reagan sent 1,800 marines to Beirut to act as peace keepers. Israel resented the interference and used the US presence to commit a false flag operation that killed 242 marines.
[In 2001, the US was attacked.] Could this possibly have been another false flag operation, in which Arabs took the fall for Zionists? For really who in fact experienced the terror in each incident: Westerners and Arabs.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, charged with addressing human rights abuses around the world, has been accused by US government officials of "bashing" Israel, because the body has accused Israel of human rights abuses against the Palestinian people.
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, says that the US will withdraw from its seat on the Council, and will only deal with the Council when matters of "deep national interest" are in question.
American troops in Iraq would be confined to their bases and private security guards subject to local law if Iraq gets its way in negotiations with the US over the future status of American forces. According to a senior Iraqi official, the negotiations between the two allies became so fraught recently that President Bush intervened personally to defuse the situation.
Iranian state television says the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has told Iraq's prime minister that the US military in Iraq is Baghdad's main problem. State TV quoted Khamenei as saying today that "occupiers" who interfere with Iraq's affairs through their "military and security might" is the number one issue facing Iraq.
One remark by a minor Israeli cabinet officer hinting at a possible US or Israeli attack on Iran has sent oil prices up by a record $11/barrel to a record $139 per barrel Friday. That should tell us what would happen if the Bush administration were crazy enough to attack Iran, or to let its vassal state of Israel do it.
Most analysts say an actual attack on Iran would send oil almost immediately to past $300 per barrel — a level that would strangle economies worldwide and send the world into an economic collapse not since the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs kicked off the Great Depression. The repercussions of that would be staggering.
America, which runs on oil, would grind to a halt. In China, hundreds of millions of workers would suddenly find themselves unemployed. It is likely that unrest unprecedented since the Cultural Revolution would erupt. The Middle East would explode.
Prime Minister Olmert last night refused to discount the possibility of a military strike against Iran. Just back from talks in Washington with President Bush, Olmert said a strike against Iran remained an option.
"The sanctions decided upon now are important, but they are not nearly sufficient. It remains very important for other nations to increase the pressure on the regime in Tehran, and we've been talking about a number of ideas with the international players. All options, including the military option, must remain on the table," said Olmert's spokesman.
As the countdown to the end of the hated Bush-Cheney regime proceeds, calls for the US and/or Israel to take military action against Iran, have been multiplying almost in inverse proportion. That the war party is still committed to an attack against Iran, is no secret, and continues to be an item discussed daily in anti-war websites.
There have been a number of important events indicating that circles opposed to the Cheney-Bush war party, are mobilizing to prevent an "October surprise" attack on Iran.
It was made known that Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired 2 leading figures in the Air Force, allegedly in connection with that branch's security failures regarding nuclear materials. Informed sources in Washington have mooted that Gates's action had less to do with that, than with plans for a US aggression against Iran, an attack which the Air Force, would be deployed to execute.
Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Cheney last summer for air strikes against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the US would go in escalating the conflict, according to a former Bush administration official.
Over the recent weeks, US officials and the vassal Israeli regime have ramped up their aggressive rhetoric against the Islamic Republic of Iran, making their usual threat that they will attack Iran's nuclear facilities if the country continues its nuclear program.
Police in Washington DC have set up vehicle checkpoints in the American capital in a controversial measure aimed at tackling a wave of gun violence.
In a move that critics have compared to the security clampdown in Baghdad, police are stopping motorists travelling through the main thoroughfare of Trinidad, a neighbourhood near the National Arboretum in the city's northeast section.
Drivers' identification are checked and those who didn't have a "legitimate purpose" in the area, such as a church visit or doctor's appointment, are turned away.
McCain is a hard-line neocon allied with Bush's 'preemptive war' theories abroad and his concept of an all-powerful 'unitary executive' at home.
Barack Obama may have secured the Democratic nomination for president, but I don't think he will ever see the inside of the White House except as a visitor. He has 2 things going against him: he's African-American, and he's way too liberal for most Americans.
According to the American media, the emergence of African-American man and a woman as leading presidential candidates represents a social advance for masses of people — despite the fact that Obama was carefully groomed by wealthy corporate interests, while Hillary Clinton owes her political prominence to her marriage to the former president.
There is no doubt that the Obama nomination—and still more, should it transpire, an Obama presidency—will be used to whip up popular illusions in the democratic character of American society. The social reality, however, is very different.
(Op-ed: 1 historic night, 2 Americas)
(Analysis: If others could vote in US)
The mainstream American corporate press has once again proven itself to be no better than the state controlled media in places like Communist China or Zimbabwe, by steadfastly refusing to print even a mention of over a hundred global power brokers meeting in secret to discuss the future of the planet.
Based on this precedent, the Bilderberg Group may find it more convenient to abandon their European roots and permanently confine their meetings to a country where they can count on the silent obedience of the cowardly, castrated and complicit US corporate media.
But not the WARriors!...
Oscar-nominated actor Omar Sharif is blasting President Bush's Middle Eastern policies and the American "ignorance" that spawned them. Americans "don't understand what is going on in the rest of the world. They are ignorant."
"Only 10% of all Americans have a passport. In other words, 90% never left America. ... You show them an unmarked map of Europe and ask them where France is, and they don't know. Ask them where Italy is ... . OK, Italy they know because it looks like a shoe. They don't know anything."
Things are so out of hand, Williams sees "no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon." We're nearly or already bankrupt; are creating money to cover our obligations; the more we print, the more we need; it's fiat currency unbacked by gold; and every new dollar created dilutes the value of all others in circulation.
At some point, the music stops, the dollar collapses, it becomes worthless paper, and related dollar-demoninated paper assets go down with it. How does Williams advise? Evaluate one's own circumstances, use common sense, and forewarned is forearmed. That will help, but hard times hurt everyone.
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913. No one promoted this institution with the slogan that it would make wars more likely and guarantee that nearly half a million Americans would die in battle in foreign lands, along with millions of foreign soldiers and civilians.
No one pointed out that this institution would permit Americans to fund, without taxes, the destruction of cities abroad and overthrow governments at will. No one said that the central bank would make it possible for the US to be at large-scale war in one of every 4 years for a full century.
It was never pointed out that this institution would make it possible for the US government to establish a global empire that would make Imperial Rome and Britain look benign by comparison.
It comes down to this. If you hate war, oppose the Fed. If you hate violations of your liberties, oppose the Fed. If you want to restrain despotism, restrain the Fed. If you want to secure freedom for yourself and your descendants, abolish the Fed.
On June 6, Fed boss Ben Bernanke arrived at the Bilderberg confab in Virginia to take his marching orders. Bernanke's assigned task is to micromanage the depreciation of the dollar and oversee the destruction of America's middle class, a process well underway.
(And: Squeezing the American dream)
Banks and investment banks whose health is crucial to the global financial system should operate under a unified regulatory framework with "appropriate requirements for capital and liquidity", according to Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Writing in today's Financial Times, Geithner -- a key US policymaker throughout the credit crisis and one of the main architects of the rescue of Bear Stearns -- says that the US Federal Reserve should play a "central role" in the new regulatory framework, working closely with supervisors in the US and round the world.
Fetch your tin helmets once again. The European Central Bank is opting for a monetary purge. So too is the US Federal Reserve, now ruled from Dallas. Über-hawks and Cromwellians have gained the upper hand at the great fortress banks. Whether or not they admit it, both are embarked on policies that must lead to retrenchment across the Atlantic world.
Dallas Fed governor Richard Fisher has led a hard money revolt from the hinterland warning of a "debauching of credit". After voting against the last three rate cuts, he now wants rate rises.
The ECB demarche is ominous for the rest of us as well. We may be watching a replay of the Bundesbank's ill-judged rate rise in October 1987, which sent the dollar into a tailspin and triggered the Black Monday crash. Any tilt to monetary tightening is a dangerous gamble at this delicate juncture.
The world is facing an almighty clash between 2 opposing storm systems. The West is in the full grip of a debt deflation as years of credit abuse come back to haunt it. The East - loosely speaking - is in the blow-off phase of an inflationary boom. The 2 camps face radically different problems at this point. We are in uncharted waters...
The price of crude oil is set to rise even further to $150 by the end of summer, Iran's representative to the OPEC oil cartel warned on Sunday. "I foresee the price of oil reaching around $150 a barrel by the end of the summer."
(Cartoon: Oil boarding Uncle Sam)
The central problem underlying the current food crisis is not a physical lack of food, but rather its unaffordability for masses of people due to rapidly increasing prices.
Among the immediate factors driving the rapid worsening of the food crisis, a major role is played by the explosion of speculative investment in basic commodities such as oil and grain, itself bound up with the difficulties facing US and world financial markets and the decline in the US dollar.
Rampant speculation by hedge funds and other big market players has increased costs, encouraging private firms to further bid up prices in a competitive drive to amass as much profit as possible.
(Op-ed: Politics trumps hunger, again)
How Britain is facing a very real food crisis
It was Lord Cameron's estimation that it would take just 9 meals - 3 full days without food on supermarket shelves - before law and order started to break down, and British streets descended into chaos
A far-fetched warning for a First World nation like Britain? Hardly. Because that's exactly what happened in the US in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People looted in order to feed themselves and their families.
If a similar tragedy was to befall Britain, we are fooling ourselves if we imagine we would not witness similar scenes of crime and disorder. Well, today Britain is facing a very real crisis.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
New US fleet to threaten Latin American sovereignty
The US Navy on April 24 announced the return of the 4th Fleet to the Caribbean, Central America and South America, covering 30 countries in the region. The new operations are scheduled to begin on July 1.
It is a floating city. This armada is larger than the total military forces of many of the Latin American and Caribbean countries it will surround. It includes the biggest and most powerful nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington.
It can host 90 ultra-rapid, state-of-the-art military aircraft, like the infamous F-16 and F-18 jet fighters, stealth bombers, helicopters, additional warships and submarines. There can be no illusions. Reconstituting this fleet is preparation for threatening the peoples of the region with war.
Then Moses went up to ELOHIM, and YAHWEH called to him from the mountain and said: "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:
'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." (Exo 19:3-6).
'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." (Exo 19:3-6).
[WAR: Even though these verses (and the one for the remainder of this week) don't indicate the exact date, I've come to this conclusion from using the internal evidence and backtracking from the events on Pentecost (this coming "Sunday").
On this past Sabbath day, I really contemplated the events in the first part of Exodus 19. The biggest problem was verse 1: "In the 3rd month after the Israelites left Egypt -- on the very day -- they came to the Desert of Sinai."
The commentaries point out that there's only 3 choices on what day the Israelites arrived: 1st, 3rd or 15th of the month. But alas, there's a 4th alternative!: they arrived on the same day of the week that they left Egypt -- which was on the 5th day ("Thursday").
So Israel arrived on the first "Thursday" of the 3rd month (which was last "Thursday", the 1st day of the month this year). Then the events between then and Pentecost was strung out through the days leading up to it.]
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