Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The beatification of Pope Pius XII is not imminent, the Vatican's chief spokesman told reporters at a Tuesday press conference. The cause for the beatification of Pope Pius XII has been dogged by controversy, with some critics charging that he failed to condemn the Nazi extermination campaign against European Jews.
Defenders of the wartime Pope have cited historic records to rebut those charges. But Cardinal Bertone has observed that the myth of papal indifference to the [Nazi persecution] 'is now so firmly rooted that people [and COG "prophets"] just ignore evidence to the contrary."
It used to be that Germans would brag about their social market economy. Now, though, almost three-quarters of the country think the system is unfair. Eastern Germans are particularly unhappy.
On Monday, many in the European Union raised the possibility of a "2-speed Europe." On Tuesday, leaders look to be leaning towards offering a list of guarantees to Ireland so the country can vote again. But will the ratification process proceed?
The various and often conflicting groups that made up the multi-headed No campaign in Ireland want any European institutional interpretation of why Irish people voted the way they did to take on board their key demands.
"A couple of protocols, whether on neutrality or taxes is not enough because the very heart of the Lisbon Treaty will not have been changed in any way."
European Union leaders who meet for summit talks in Brussels on Thursday are bracing themselves for more delays in the ratification of the bloc's Lisbon treaty after its rejection last week by Irish voters.
Legal and political complications in the Czech Republic and Poland make it unlikely that they will ratify the treaty in time for a scheduled EU summit in October, politicians and diplomats forecast on Tuesday.
Ahead of a summit in Brussels, the EU called today for the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty to continue.
The House of Lords is preparing to vote on the controversial Lisbon Treaty. The Government is confident that peers will vote to ratify the treaty despite intense Conservative opposition.
The European Union is facing a structural crisis of legitimacy. Over the last 16 years, seven European referenda have been lost.
Even profoundly pro-European citizens have voted against Europe, because they fear that the EU is heading in a direction they do not understand, approve, or control. The message behind all negative referenda is simple: Europeans want a different Europe.
The entire British Imperial plan to ram through the fascist Lisbon Treaty ran into a brick wall in Ireland. What was delivered was a brutal shock to an oligarchy gone mad with its own arrogance.
And with that rejection, they have opened up a flank internationally, to destroy the globalized British Empire.
Build a Europe of the Fatherlands!
The new crisis into which Ireland's "No" vote has now plunged the EU, gives us an excellent opportunity for Europe's nations to extricate themselves from the corset of every EU treaty already in effect, from Maastricht to Nice, and to opt instead for a system of Europe-wide cooperation of sovereign republics.
The Lisbon Treaty, which was to transform Europe into an oligarchical and imperial dictatorship, cannot go into effect as planned on Jan 1, 2009. The only thing that the Treaty would have done, would have been to consolidate the policy of neoliberalism, and thus to hand over quasi-dictatorial powers to the British imperial free-trade faction and to the EU bureaucracy.
It's precisely this neoliberal free-trade policy which, for the past 11 months or so, has been plunging us ever deeper into one crisis after another. The impending disaster of Lehman Brothers, the 4th-largest Wall Street bank, is only the most recent expression of a financial and banking crisis which already some time back, had turned into a crisis of confidence in the entire system.
In the coming weeks and months, the international banking and financial crisis, and the hyperinflationary explosion, will grow to tsunami strength. Leading financial institutions' presumption that the remedy for this crisis is globalization and world government, have extremely small chances of success now.
[WAR: As I've been saying for years, the "New World Order" is nothing more than the House of Israel's/Jacob's attempt at world domination. And this is falling apart as Jacob's Trouble is just about to hit. Then the Gentile beast will be able to rise from its mortal wound to fill the vacuum.]
Four decades after President de Gaulle broke with the NATO command President Sarkozy announced France's return to the heart of the alliance — with conditions on EU defence that may unsettle Britain.
Setting out a big shift in doctrine and spending yesterday, France's most pro-Atlanticist President said that nothing prevented a return to the integrated command from which de Gaulle withdrew in 1966 in dispute with the US.
Sarkozy insisted, however, that French re-entry must be matched by progress towards a European defence system that would be complementary to the NATO structure.
(And: German FM favors EU army)
The developments around Kosovo suggest many questions, each worse than the last. All of them are addressed to Russia. It is obvious that in the Kosovo confrontation our interests have again clashed with those of the West.
All Russians, starting from the president and foreign minister and ending with the man-in-the-street, have said more than once that we have our own response to the West's obvious neglect of the basics of international law and the role of the UN, and that we "won't weep in the corner like schoolboys."
But so far this response has been extremely vague. Maybe, though, Moscow has something up its sleeve that will stun the whole world.
When meeting with Henry Kissinger in the Kremlin, President Medvedev first expressed pleasure about the chance to get acquainted with the prominent policymaker of the US and then proposed to Kissinger to deliberate on burning issues of Russia's-American dialogue when having a cup of tea.
Israel has agreed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Hamas for the Gaza area starting Thursday, officials said today. Egyptian and Hamas officials announced on Tuesday that a deal had been reached but Israel delayed its confirmation until it received final clarifications from Cairo.
Syria does not have the skilled personnel nor the fuel to operate a large-scale nuclear facility, the head of International Atomic Energy Agency has said, casting doubt on claims that the country is building a clandestine nuclear programme.
Ongoing entrenched hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea could lead to another war, according to a new report by the International Crisis Group. The report says the UN Security Council's reluctance to take action against either Ethiopia or Eritrea and the overall neglect of the tense situation could allow hostilities to escalate further into a full-blown repeat of the nations' 1998-2000 war.
The US military has accused Iranian-backed Shia groups of setting off a huge car bomb that killed more than 60 people in a mainly Shia area of Baghdad, hinting at yet another new twist in the complex web of violence gripping the capital.
The US and allies seek to force Iran to suspend enrichment activities but Tehran will never give in to the pressures, Iran's IAEA envoy says. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will never yield to the illegal US pressures to pull out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and freeze its uranium enrichment activities completely."
Iran's IAEA envoy says that Israel's nuclear arsenal has prevented the Middle East from becoming free of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
"Israel adheres to none of the international regulations which aim to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology. While Iran has fully complied with the UN nuclear watchdog safeguards, Israel has a long history of defying IAEA resolution 553 which states any threat or attack on nuclear facilities under construction or undergoing work violates the UN Charter."
Israel believes Tehran is 'evading Western sanctions' by working with banking systems in China, the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia.
Are these iconic artefacts genuine symbols of nationalism or just Scotch mist?
No one doubts what Alex Salmond would like his destiny to be. He sees himself as leader of an independent Scotland. How odd, then, that he should now be questioning the authenticity of a Scottish icon that stands as a symbol of the nationalism he embraces - namely, the Stone of Destiny.
Surely, if it is a fake, it should be sent straight back to Westminster Abbey. If not, then Scots may legitimately ask why it continues to be accorded pride of place in Edinburgh. Some may even begin to question the authenticity of another Scottish icon - Mr Salmond himself.
Such invocations of Scotland's cultural identity notwithstanding, the SNP's campaigning for independence is in reality a mercenary affair. It is motivated by the efforts of a section of the Scottish bourgeoisie and upper middle class to secure greater privileges for themselves by attracting investment from global companies.
Bush's legacy (cartoons)
It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when one reads Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's article in the current issue of the CFR's Foreign Affairs. It is a delusional inversion of reality.
If anyone thinks that there is any significant difference between Barack Obama or John McCain, or that either represents any break from the policies of the Bush Administration, consider this:
The scheme to create an Anglo-American led Concert of Democracies is being promoted by top advisors to the Obama campaign who are working hand-in-glove with leading neocons and McCain advisors. McCain himself explicitly endorsed the Concert of Democracies scheme in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.
The major difference between the Bush-Cheney approach and that advocated by the proponents of the Concert of Democracies, is that the unilateralism of Bush-Cheney is replaced by a more-or-less permanent multilateral "Coalition of the Willing," which would bypass or even replace the UN Security Council.
Revising history to pave the way for new wars
John McCain is routinely referred to in the US media as a "Vietnam War hero." What is the objective source of McCain's designation as a "war hero"?
The American ruling establishment has spent more than 3 decades attempting to revise the history of the Vietnam War in order to conceal its own responsibility for the greatest war crimes since the fall of the Nazis and to erase the political memory of US imperialism's defeat under conditions of mass opposition and social struggles at home.
The eulogies for Tim Russert ignore his role as the War Party's sounding board
Enough already with the encomiums to Tim Russert, whose untimely death has sparked a veritable chorus of eulogies depicting him as the epitome of objectivity and the greatest of journalists.
This is all coming, quite naturally, from his fellow journalists and intellectual gatekeepers, who share his prejudices, his politics, and – alas! – his shortcomings. It's time for a little Russert revisionism.
While we are remembering Tim Russert and his years as moderator of "Meet the Press," we would do well to recall his interview with Vice President Cheney at Camp David on September 16, 2001, just 5 days after the 9/11 attacks.
In fact, Cheney himself, during an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer the morning after Russert died, reminded us of that Camp David interview, saying: "I always, when I think of Tim and think of 'Meet the Press,' that's the show that always comes to mind. . . . It was a remarkable moment in American history."
If I am asked one question by my readers far more frequently than any other, it's why do so many American Jews insist on aligning themselves with the far left. Believe me, being Jewish myself, it's the question I most frequently ask myself.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next 3 months as inflation paralyses the major central banks. "A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared."
A report by the bank's research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as "all the chickens come home to roost" from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.
Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century. The US Fed and the European Central Bank both face a Hobson's choice as workers start to lose their jobs in earnest and lenders cut off credit.
"The Fed is in panic mode. The massive credibility chasms down which the Fed and maybe even the ECB will plummet when they fail to hike rates in the face of higher inflation will combine to give us a big sell-off in risky assets."
"Economic weakness is spreading and the latest data on consumer demand and confidence are dire. The ECB is hell-bent on raising rates. The political fall-out could be substantial as finance ministers from the weaker economies rail at the ECB. Wider spreads between the German Bunds and peripheral markets seem assured."
The FT has a good speculative currency column this morning in which the author ponders the consequences of a weakening in the euro's exchange rate – now forecast by several analysts. The impact would be severe on the euro area periphery, Poland, Czech Republic in particular, as investors would dump those currencies as the euro weakens.
Since last year, the major central banks of the Anglo-Dutch Liberal system, led by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, have issued some $3.5 trillion in loans to the banking system, much of that in exchange for "illiquid" collateral — illiquid being a polite way of saying worthless.
This debt-recycling scheme has, at least temporarily, taken some of the huge quantities of worthless paper off the banks' books, making the banks look a little less bankrupt; but the bailout program has been an unmitigated disaster, spreading hyperinflation from the financial markets into the prices of everyday essentials such as food and oil, raising the cost of nearly everything our households need to survive.
Without this extraordinary bailout operation, the financial system would cease to exist. The banks would have to close their doors, and quadrillions of dollars of fictitious assets and derivatives bets would have to be written off, wiping out all the so-called profits of the past 4 decades, revealing the post-industrial financial boom for what it was: a fraud.
The central banks are thus faced with a dilemma: If they stop the bailouts, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down; but if they keep the bailout going, the hyperinflation will blow out the financial system, the dollar, governments, households, and what's left of the economy. They are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
Our team is now convinced that July thru December will consist for the whole world in a major plunge into the heart of the phase of impact of the global systemic crisis. The upcoming 6 months are in fact the core of the unfolding crisis. The troubles met in the past 6 months were mere harbingers.
In the next semester indeed, all the components of the crisis (financial, monetary, economic, strategic, social, political) will converge at the height of their intensity.
Throughout history, 2 commodities have been able to outcompete all other goods and be chosen on the market as money – 2 precious metals, gold and silver (with copper coming in when one of the other precious metals was not available).
Move over Las Vegas. The big time gamblers are on Wall Street and they are gambling with your money, your pensions, and your livelihoods. Because Washington, DC has increasingly become corporate-occupied territory, the Wall Street Boys have been taking even greater risks with your money.
Iran said on Tuesday it opposes any unilateral move by Saudi Arabia to raise its crude oil output without a consensus from OPEC.
Consumers aren't the only ones being hit by high oil prices. Now that the oil shock has reached producing countries, Saudi Arabia has called a crisis summit this weekend in an effort to find concerted solutions that could push barrel prices down.
German press...
You might think there's an echo in the room when you hear that oil prices hit a new high Monday. Saudi Arabia is increasingly anxious to calm the market's volatility but German commentators doubt whether it can.
Transportation and packaging costs are where the greatest increases lie. Those affected range from paper producers to electrical goods providers to rubber manufacturers.
US regulators have announced plans to impose limits on oil trades overseas. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the London-based electronic exchange would have to comply with US rules.
This is the 12th consecutive day [as of Monday] for record-setting corn prices on the exchange, occasioned by binge-speculation off the likely destruction of at least 5 million acres of crops in the Midwest flood zone, including at least 3 million acres of corn (out of 86 million nationally).
At the same time, prices are falling for the farmer trying to forward-sell his corn or soybeans to his local buyer. Many local terminals, strapped for cash, have gone bankrupt, or sold out to the wave of hedge and index funds now on a buying spree for hard infrastructure, with which to further hold and hoard grain.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
The number of refugees fleeing to other countries to escape conflict and persecution rose in 2007 for the second year as factors from climate change to overly scarce resources threatened to increase the flow, the UN refugee agency warned Tuesday.
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