Like all men held at Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed el Gharani, who was imprisoned at the age of 14, is barred from entering the USA. But American artist Laurie Anderson found a way to bring him to the states, via telepresence. This week: an interview with Laurie Anderson and words from el Gharani. All that and an F Word from Laura on a long, 40 second delay.
A Poem about Labels, and why we MUST get rid of them.
Download this Spoken Word piece here:
https://princeea.bandcamp.com/track/i…
By Samuel Edward Konkin III
Excerpt from Samuel E. Konkin’s classic New Libertarian Manifesto, with text included. This is the first chapter, outlining the birth of the Left-Libertarian [i.e. Agorist] movement. Narrated by Mike Gogulski [www.nostate.com].
SHOW NOTES AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=16733
Today James talks to Derrick Broze of TheConsciousResistance.com about the philosophy of agorism, the practice of counter-economics, and how the combination of this theory and practice is the true path to dismantling the state.
How to take down a tyrant without firing a shot.
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Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/StormCloudsGathering
Captured ISIL leaders in Iraq confess to receiving US intelligence support – Iraqi military commander: ‘We saw US coalition jets transporting terrorists’  Spokesman of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini disclosing that captured ISIL leaders have acknowledged receiving logistical backup and intelligence support from the US. “As the ISIL commanders captured in Iraqi popular forces’ recent military operations have confessed, the US supports for the terrorist groups are not limited to the dispatch of logistical support,” Al-Hosseini told FNA on Sunday.
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The United States and its Allies |
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SELECTED ARTICLES:
By Muftah, October 22 2015 Hashem Azzeh was the Israeli government’s worst nightmare. First, he was Palestinian. Second, he was educated, a medical doctor. Third, he was a leader in his community. Which brings us to his next offense, he was a peace activist.
By Eric Zuesse, October 22 2015 On October 14th, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the U.S. government had turned down the proposal from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for the U.S. and Russia to cooperate together to eliminate ISIS and other jihadists in Syria and in Iraq.
By Stephen Lendman, October 22 2015 Assad’s invitation to Moscow, making Western media headlines, shows solidarity between both leaders – committed to eliminate terrorism, defeat US regional imperial policy, as well as Putin’s respect for Syrian sovereignty and the right of its people alone to decide who’ll lead them, not America or any other foreign power.
By Fars News Agency, October 22 2015 Spokesman of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) Jafar al-Hosseini underlined that his forces are planning to win back the city of Ramadi after expelling the American forces from Anbar province.
By Sputnik, October 22 2015 Qatar which has been a major sponsor of jihadist groups fighting in Syria for years, now is actively considering a direct military intervention in the country, according to its officials.
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Tuesday, Jun 9, 2015 04:00 AM EST
The former secretary of labor makes the case for politicians disclosing three years’ worth of personal payments
This originally appeared on Robert Reich’s blog.
Washington has been rocked by the scandal of J. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker in the history of the U.S. House, indicted on charges of violating banking laws by paying $1.7 million (as part of a $3.5 million agreement) to conceal prior misconduct, allegedly child molestation.
That scandal contains another one that’s received less attention: the fact that Hastert, who never made much money as a teacher or a congressman, could manage such payments because after retiring from Congress he became a high-paid lobbyist.
This second scandal is perfectly legal but it’s a growing menace.
In the 1970s, only 3 percent of retiring members of Congress went on to become Washington lobbyists. Now, half of all retiring senators and 42 percent of retiring representatives become lobbyists.
This isn’t because more recent retirees have had fewer qualms. It’s because the financial rewards from lobbying have mushroomed, as big corporations and giant Wall Street banks have sunk fortunes into rigging the game to their advantage.
In every election cycle since 2008, more money has gone into lobbying at the federal level than into political campaigns. And an increasing portion of that lobbying money has gone into the pockets of former members of Congress.
In viewing campaign contributions as the major source of corruption we overlook the more insidious flow of direct, personal payments – much of which might be called “anticipatory bribery” because they enable office holders to cash in big after they’ve left office.
For years, former Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor was one of Wall Street’s strongest advocates – fighting for the bailout of the Street, to retain the Street’s tax advantages and subsidies, and to water down the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation.
Just two weeks after resigning from the House, Cantor joined the Wall Street investment bank of Moelis & Co., as vice chairman and managing director, starting with a $400,000 base salary, $400,000 initial cash bonus, and $1 million in stock.
As Cantor explained, “I have known Ken [the bank’s CEO] for some time and … followed the growth and success of his firm.”
Exactly. They had been doing business together so long that Cantor must have anticipated the bribe.
Anticipatory bribery undermines trust in government almost as much as direct bribery. At a minimum, it can create the appearance of corruption, and raise questions in the public’s mind about the motives of public officials.
Was the Obama White House so easy on big Wall Street banks – never putting tough conditions on them for getting bailout money or prosecuting a single top Wall Street executive – because Tim Geithner, Barack Obama’s treasury secretary, and Peter Orszag, his director of the Office of Management and Budget, anticipated lucrative jobs on the Street? (Geithner became president of the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus when he left the administration; Orszag became Citigroup’s vice chairman for global banking.)
Another form of anticipatory bribery occurs when the payment comes in anticipation of a person holding office, and then delivering the favors.
According to the New York Times, as Marco Rubio ascended the ranks of Republican politics, billionaire Norman Braman not only bankrolled his campaigns but subsidized Rubio’s personal finances.
A case of anticipatory bribery? Certainly looks like it. In the Florida legislature, Rubio steered taxpayer funds to Braman’s favored causes, including an $80 million state grant to finance a genomics center at a private university and $5 million for cancer research at a Miami institute. “When Norman Braman brings [a proposal] to you,” Rubio said, “you take it seriously.”
Hillary and Bill Clinton have made more than $25 million for 104 speeches since the start of last year, according to disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission in mid May – of which she delivered 51, earning more than $11 million of the total.
Now that she’s running for president, she’s stopped giving paid speeches. But her husband says he intends to continue. “I gotta pay our bills,” he told NBC News.
Anticipatory bribery? Asked about his paid speeches, some of which pay $500,000 or more, Bill Clinton said, “People like to hear me speak.”
That may be the reason for the hefty fees, but is it possible that some portion comes in anticipation his having the intimate ear of the next president?
We need some rules here.
First, former government officials, including members of Congress, shouldn’t be able to lobby or take jobs in industries over which they had some oversight, for at least three years after leaving office.
Second, anyone who runs for office should bear the burden of showing that whatever personal payments they received up to three years before were based on their economic worth, not anticipated political clout.
Finally, once they declare, even their spouses should desist from collecting big bucks that could look like anticipatory bribes. See Salon source at more info:
A new bizarre kind of Holocaust revisionism has landed, incredibly blaming Palestinians for inspiring Hitler to exterminate the Jewish race.
By Zaid Jilani / AlterNet
October 20, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not known for his nuance, but his disregard for historical facts themselves took a new turn today as he claimed, in a speech in Israel, that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler actually did not want to exterminate Jews until a Palestinian religious leader convinced him otherwise.
Read what Netanyahu said:
Holocaust historian admits legally there is no physical evidence of gassings, a “final solution”, and other myths.
Who Controls America?
Michael Hoffman questions the legitimacy of anyone’s claim of being a Jew.
Michael’s web site is:
Tarachansky has set out to address the inconvenient truth about the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Doing so is vital for justice to be achieved, she believes.
Not only does On the Side of the Road confront the reality of 1948, it examines how Israelis deal with that past today — how it is taught to the young; how the facts about it are available; how those facts are sometimes deliberately ignored.
Tarachansky has broken this taboo as part of what she makes clear is a long and ongoing process of rejecting Zionism. When she was six year old, Tarachansky was brought from Ukraine to the occupied West Bank by her mother. She grew up in the settlement of Ariel on land stolen from the Palestinians, yet inculcated with the idea that the Palestinians were an enemy of Jewish people.
“Delegitimize Zionism,” says Israeli filmmaker” Read more:
A Very Dangerous Megalomaniac Psychosis and Fascism in Israel, when the truth is hate speech !
Zoabi on Sunday told Channel 2 Online that an Israeli pilot “is no less a terrorist than a person who takes a knife and commits a beheading.”
She said she believes that “both are armies of murderers, they have no boundaries and no red lines.”
“In Iraq and Syria they have their picture taken with a knife and here they have their picture taken with dead bodies and with their bombardments and they also laugh,” she said. “The M-16 and the bombardments kill more than a knife.”
Her remarks drew harsh responses from fellow Israeli lawmakers, including Likud MK Miri Regev, who said, “Zoabi is a dangerous enemy of the Israeli public who should not be in the Knesset.” Regev also said Zoabi’s “incitement are as grave as the acts of a terrorist who harms innocents.”
Read more at The Ugly Truth:
The people of Israel deserve Benjamin Netanyahu as their leader and they deserve to have that fact reflected upon them. For all the evil the man represents it speaks to Israel itself.
Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2015-05-14 03:26. Section: Daily Dispatches
11:29p ET Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Colorado securities lawyer Avery B. Goodman writes tonight that China’s vast acquisition of gold is meant to create a mechanism for controlling the currency markets and devaluing the yuan against the U.S. dollar as convenient while escaping charges of currency market manipulation.
Drawing on a crucial U.S. State Department document unearthed by GATA —
http://www.gata.org/node/13310
— Goodman writes: “Whoever controls the price of gold against their own currency controls the price of gold against any other currency that gold is denominated in. When China increases the number of yuan it takes to purchase an ounce of gold, the dollar will respond by rising in value, even though China will not be pegging its yuan directly against the dollar.” Chinese goods thereby will become cheaper against U.S.-made goods, preserving China’s advantages in world trade.
Goodman continues: “Control over the worldwide currency markets is why China wants to control the gold market. It is already taking affirmative steps to establish that control, and that is what is behind the announcement that the Shanghai Gold Exchange will establish a yuan-based gold fix before the end of 2015.”
Goodman’s analysis is headlined “The Real Reason China Is Buying Up the World’s Gold” and it’s posted at Seeking Alpha here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3178896-the-real-reason-china-is-buying-…
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
in less than 6 months. The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year by several months. Well, now it is happening again, but this time the stakes are even higher.When the price of oil falls dramatically, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down. It can also have a tremendously destabilizing affect on financial markets. As you will read about below, energy companies now account for approximately 20 percent of the junk bond market. And a junk bond implosion is usually a signal that a major stock market crash is on the way.
So if you are looking for a “canary in the coal mine”, keep your eye on the performance of energy junk bonds. Read more:
“…it is high time that the currency of worldwide theft, abuse and exploitation – the US dollar – financial instrument for endless wars and economic terrorism, be replaced with a currency of peaceful endeavors that respects national sovereignty – a currency that works for the people, not for the elite few,” said Koenig adding that currently six US banks control more than 60 percent of all banking assets.
A new monetary system should replace the existing FED-BIS (Bank for International Settlement)-Wall Street “dollar denominated predatory casino scheme that has in the last 100 years alone largely contributed to – and benefitted from – two world wars, impoverished our planet, socially and environmentally,” Koenig said “This system is at the verge of a larger abyss than the depression of the 1930s.”
BRICS, which is actively leading a massive effort of de-dollarization, can become a viable alternative to the Western economic system, Koenig believes.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange said on Monday regulators are ready to experiment with resuming same-day settlement for stocks after a long freeze, a move that would put Hong Kong and mainland Chinese exchanges on the same settlement regime and eliminate a big operational mismatch. ($1 = 6.1144 Chinese yuan)
The announcement by Hong Kong and Chinese regulators on Monday comes as China is making a big push to widen the use of the yuan, with Canada and Malaysia becoming the latest addition to a growing list of trading hubs for the currency.
The so-called Stock Connect trading scheme could boost the average daily value of stock trading in Hong Kong by about 38 percent by 2015, French bank BNP Paribas estimates, and may ultimately lead to the creation of the world’s third largest stock exchange.
* Link allows foreigners to buy more China stocks
* Could creates world’s third largest equity market
* Launch of scheme was expected late October
* Move is milestone in opening-up of China capital markets
* Chinese retail investors can buy foreign shares directly for first time (Updates with comments from Hong Kong, China exchanges)
Russia’s colossal economic shift toward Asia in energy, finance, and infrastructure deepened at this year’s APEC summit in Beijing with 17 major bi-lateral business deals with China. The strategic alliance could crowd out other global players.
The deals signed by the world’s second and eighth largest economies reflect a ‘synergy’, as natural resource rich Russia has a lot to offer a country with one of the world’s fastest growing populations and economies, Martin Jacques, columnist and author of When China Rules the World, told RT.
“Russia is very rich in natural resources and China is very poor so there is a natural synergy in their economic relationship. Russia has something to offer China which China needs,” he said.
Both Russia and China are also uncomfortable with the current US-dominated world order, although not in quite the same way, says Jacques. Read more:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday that the Fed’s bond-buying program, which aimed to lower unemployment and spur stronger economic growth, fell short of its goals.
Mr. Greenspan’s comments to the Council on Foreign Relations came as Fed officials were meeting in Washington, D.C., and expected to announce within hours an end to the bond purchases.
“Effective demand is dead in the water” and the effort to boost it via bond buying “has not worked,” said Mr. Greenspan. Boosting asset prices, however, has been “a terrific success.”
The question of when officials should begin raising interest rates is “one of those questions I cannot answer,” Mr. Greenspan said.
He also said, “I don’t think it’s possible” for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner.
He said the Fed may not even have that much power over the timing of interest-rate increases. The problem as he sees it is an interest rate the Fed pays on the money banks park at the central bank, called reserves. Fed officials plan to use this tool as their primary lever for raising interest rates when the time comes. If bankers decide to put this money to work, creating inflation risks, the Fed may be forced to raise rates, even if the economy isn’t ready for it, he warned.
“I think that real pressure is going to occur not by the initiation by the Federal Reserve, but by the markets themselves,” Mr. Greenspan he said.
Mr. Greenspan said gold is a good place to put money these days given its value as a currency outside of the policies conducted by governments.
He was also downbeat about Europe and said the only way the euro can survive over the long run is through full political integration of the 18-country area that shares the currency. Anything short of that will allow imbalances to fester and build, eventually leading to a collapse of the currency, he said. Read More:
Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei gives a speech during the signing ceremony of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. China and 21 other Asian nations have signed on to the new international bank opposed by Washington as an unnecessary rival to established institutions such as the World Bank.(AP Photo/Takaki Yajima, Pool)
In a landmark achievement, 21 Asian nations including China and India on Thursday signed on a new infrastructure investment bank which would rival the World Bank.
The governments of Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam signed on as founding members of the new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing on Friday.
One of the first projects of the new Bank is expected to be financing infrastructure projects along the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “Maritime Silk Road” re-establishment.
Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Friday the “multi-national financial institution which is fair, just, open … with a good governance structure” will be an “efficient financing platform for infrastructure”.
Lou said the AIIB has a different focus than established multilateral organizations such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
China and other emerging economies, including BRICS, have long protested against their limited voice at other multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank. Read More:
This is a translation of a speech delivered by Xu Luode, Chairman of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, at the LBMA Bullion Market Forum in Singapore on 25 June, 2014.
Thank you for inviting me to attend the LBMA Singapore Forum. It’s my great pleasure to be here. So now let me give you a brief introduction on our country’s gold market.
First of all, let us all have a look at China’s current gold production. For seven consecutive years, gold production in China has been the largest in the world, with nearly 430 tonnes produced last year. China has the second- largest gold reserves in the world. This is the latest figure. Before that, China had been ranked third.
Next is our consumption of gold. According to the statistics compiled by Mr Zhang Bingnan, gold consumption reached 1,174 tonnes last year, and that is also the largest in the world. I slightly disagree with Mr Zhang, as I think we might have consumed even more than that. I think that it is always a good thing to have a higher figure, rather than a lower one. There are two factors supporting consumption in China’s gold market. One of them is jewellery. China has an extremely high level of jewellery consumption. Such growth in jewellery consumption shows that China’s level of consumption, as in gold consumption, is in a very healthy state. The other one would be gold bullion, as residents are now allocating gold to their asset allocation, and this volume is currently also high.
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by Peter KoenigEver since the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) expressed their unison through the formation of a joint Development Bank – Durban, South Africa on 27 March 2013 – the Zionist-Anglo-Saxon caliphate attempted to divide them. The BRICS constitute some 45% of the world population and close to 30% of global GDP. The BRICS idea is to issue a joint alternative currency, fully detached from the US dollar and its greed economy.In the meantime a number of other countries would like to join the BRICS, including Argentina, Venezuela, Iran, Mongolia, Malaysia and others, which would result in about one third of the world’s economic output and half of the global inhabitants.
This gives the BRICS a profile of strength surpassing that of the United States and Europe together. China alone is not only already the world’s largest economy, China is also dominating the Asian market of some 4.2 billion people, 60% of the world populations and a combined GDP of about US$ 20 trillion, equivalent to about US$ 25 trillion, when comparing purchasing power with the dollar based US economy of about US$ 17 trillion. Asia registered an average growth rate of almost 8% over the past few years, compared to that of the western world, hovering around 1%.
There is no need for the BRICS to fear US interference – divide to rein – if they are able to solidify their union with solidarity – political and monetary solidarity, as well as common trade policies – and if they have the political will to decouple their economies from the dollar – which is key for the BRICS success. read more:
Influence
The BRICs matter because of their economic weight. They are the four largest economies outside the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the rich man’s club). They are the only developing economies with annual GDPs of over $1 trillion
IN ANY global gathering, the American president is usually seen, at a minimum, as primus inter pares: the one who can make or break the final bargain and select his favoured interlocutors. Not anymore !
In Copenhagen December 2009, as negotiations for a new climate-change treaty were entering their final hours, a hastily convened meeting between Barack Obama and China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, looked as if it would be the critical moment when a deal might be struck. But when the president turned up, he found not only Mr Wen but the heads of government of Brazil, South Africa and India. This was unexpected. The Americans even thought the Indians had already left the summit. What was conceived as a bilateral talk turned instead into a negotiation with an emerging-market block. As an additional sign that things were changing in the world, the president got a finger-wagging from one of Mr Wen’s hangers-on. But at least Mr Obama was in the room; Europeans were shut out while the emerging powers and America put the final touches to their deal.
As we suggested last night, the anti-dollar alliance among the BRICS has successfully created a so-called “mini-IMF” since the BRICS are clearly furious with the IMF as it stands currently: this is what the world’s developing nations just said on this topic “We remain disappointed and seriously concerned with the current non-implementation of the 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) reforms, which negatively impacts on the IMF’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness.” Read More:
“We will ask the Bangladeshi ambassadors to the BRICS countries to know details about the proposed global bank. After getting details we will decide on our joining in the framework,” the newspaper quoted one Finance Ministry official as saying. “If the details are found favorable, Bangladesh might consider becoming a proud founding-member with a good amount of fund contribution.”
Bangladesh Wants to Join BRICS Bank | The Diplomat
On Sept. 30, statistician and economist Dr. Jim Willie was a guest on the Caravan to Midnight radio show to talk about current financial, economic, and geo-political events. During his three hour interview, Dr. Willie stated that one of the purposes behind China’s creation of the new Shanghai gold exchange is to eventually take over global price controls for the monetary metal away from the Comex, and then force a global currency reset by raising the price of gold to its true or actual value.
The way this will come about in the near future according to Dr. Willie, is that China will re-price gold to near or above twice the current price, which will have a devastating effect on derivatives and ongoing use of the Comex futures market to suppress gold prices, and protect the dollar. And based upon supply details for the Comex over the past two years, America’s primary gold exchange no longer settles their contracts through the delivery of physical gold, but instead settles in cash payments or through the hedging of gold using derivatives. Subsequently, once this failure to deliver takes place, then China, through the Shanghai gold exchange, will become the default market for price discovery, and at that point will re-adjust gold to its true value, instantly causing massive chaos in the fiat currency markets and leaving the world little alternative but to implement a complete currency reset.
We remain disappointed and seriously concerned with the current non-implementation of the 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) reforms, which negatively impacts on the IMF’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness. The IMF reform process is based on high-level commitments, which already strengthened the Fund’s resources and must also lead to the modernization of its governance structure so as to better reflect the increasing weight of EMDCs in the world economy. The Fund must remain a quota-based institution. We call on the membership of the IMF to find ways to implement the 14th General Review of Quotas without further delay. We reiterate our call on the IMF to develop options to move ahead with its reform process, with a view to ensuring increased voice and representation of EMDCs, in case the 2010 reforms are not entered into force by the end of the year. We also call on the membership of the IMF to reach a final agreement on a new quota formula together with the 15th General Review of Quotas so as not to further jeopardize the postponed deadline of January 2015.
BRICS, as well as other EMDCs, continue to face significant financing constraints to address infrastructure gaps and sustainable development needs. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the signing of the Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB), with the purpose of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging and developing economies. We appreciate the work undertaken by our Finance Ministers. Based on sound banking principles, the NDB will strengthen the cooperation among our countries and will supplement the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global development, thus contributing to our collective commitments for achieving the goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
The Bank shall have an initial authorized capital of US$ 100 billion. The initial subscribed capital shall be of US$ 50 billion, equally shared among founding members. The first chair of the Board of Governors shall be from Russia. The first chair of the Board of Directors shall be from Brazil. The first President of the Bank shall be from India. The headquarters of the Bank shall be located in Shanghai. The New Development Bank Africa Regional Center shall be established in South Africa concurrently with the headquarters. We direct our Finance Ministers to work out the modalities for its operationalization.
We are pleased to announce the signing of the Treaty for the establishment of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with an initial size of US$ 100 billion. This arrangement will have a positive precautionary effect, help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures, promote further BRICS cooperation, strengthen the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements. We appreciate the work undertaken by our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The Agreement is a framework for the provision of liquidity through currency swaps in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures.
Max Keiser talks with John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man). Discussed is how that in the past debt was used as an enslaving tool against foreign countries to insure Americans continued to receive cheap goods is now being turned back against Americans. Financial debt is now being used by Wall Street Banks to destroy Americas freedoms and enslave them.
Read More
The Truth As It Changes; 