Category: US Politics
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Sunday, August 17, 2014
U.S. Empire of Death and Lies / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: Armed humanitarianism 2.0. That’s our new western version of old-fashioned 19th century imperialism, now feminized by President Barack Obama’s lady advisors, painted pink and accompanied by the kind of soft piano music you hear in ads for women’s products.
Last week, the Obama administration latched onto the plight of Iraq’s Yazidis who were being persecuted by those awful ISIS folks - just in jolly good time to divert attention from the massacre in Gaza.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Welcome to the New Crusades / Politics / US Politics
A Fine Vacation
President Obama had a plan. Take two weeks and have a fine vacation (not taking his problem to the United Nations) in Martha’s Vineyard, rapidly becoming the Graveyard of US foreign policy. Boots would soon be on the ground in Iraq, about 600 of them to start with, and the Kurdistan he studiously never mentioned as a thing or “near nation” that exists would soon receive US arms shipments. The ISIS or Islamic State which received funding, in Syria, from the USA's NED or National Endowment for Democracy, was now The Enemy. It seems to be threatening oil supplies...
Friday, August 15, 2014
America the Neighborhood Bully Recklessly Throws its Weight Around / Politics / US Politics
On June 30, U.S. authorities announced a stunning $9 billion fine on French bank BNP Paribas for violations of financial sanctions laws that the United States had imposed on Iran, Sudan and Cuba. In essence, BNP had surreptitiously conducted business with countries that the United States had sought to isolate diplomatically (sometimes unilaterally in the case of Cuba). Although BNP is not technically under the jurisdiction of American regulators, and the bank had apparently not broken any laws of its home country, the fine was one of the largest ever issued by the United States and the largest ever levied on a non-U.S. firm. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve made clear that unless BNP forks over the $9 billion (equivalent to one year's of the company's total earnings), the U.S. will prevent the bank from engaging in dollar-based international transactions. For an institution that makes its living through such transactions, that penalty is the financial equivalent of a death sentence. The fine will be paid.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Russia, Ukraine - Washington Chokes Truth With Lies / Politics / US Politics
Are Western propagandists fooling anyone but themselves?
The latest absurdity coming out of Ukraine, the EU and Washington is that the humanitarian aid that Russia and the Red Cross are trucking into the former Russian territories that comprise eastern Ukraine is a trick, a deception, a pretext for Russia’s invasion forces. Such a preposterous lie tells us that Western propagandists have no respect whatsoever for the intelligence of Western peoples.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
ISIS - The Latest Neocon Lies for War / Politics / US Politics
Patrick J. Buchanan writes:
U.S. air strikes since Friday have opened a corridor through which tens of thousands of Yazidis, trapped and starving on a mountain in Iraq, have escaped to safety in Kurdistan.
The Kurds, whose peshmerga fighters were sent reeling by the Islamic State last week, bolstered now by the arrival of U.S. air power, recaptured two towns. But the peshmerga have apparently lost the strategically important town of Jalawla, 20 miles from Iran, the furthest east that ISIS forces have penetrated.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Writing Off America's Losses In Iraq And Ukraine / Politics / US Politics
Spend and Defend
It is impossible to get exact figures and numbers on how many Iraqi civilians and American soldiers died in Iraq post-2003, nor on how much it all cost US taxpayers and the Federal government. We can probably say at least 4,500 American lives, over 100,000 Iraqi lives and $1700 billion spent doing what? Although star players in the rush to war in 2003 such as Paul Wolfowitz memorably said that “Iraq floats on a sea of oil – so we had to intervene” the lure of cheap oil was played down as the main war aim. Today, we can pretty much forget all about that. Obama's present fumbling in a so-called humanitarian war against ISIS will help oil prices upward at a time when basic supply-demand metrics are driving its price below the “magic three digit” level of $100 a barrel.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Politics of the U.S. Election Cycle and Policy Spin / Politics / US Politics
Political Spin
The Republicans are coming out in force on their criticism of President Obama`s decision to utilize primarily air strikes to thwart ISIS aggression in Iraq towards the Kurds and the minority Christian group the Yazidis.
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Monday, August 11, 2014
Why America is Ungovernable - The Republicans’ Civil War / Politics / US Politics
Back when the republican party was actually the party of small government it was possible for country club moderates (white guys and their trophy wives who love the status quo and want to preserve the tax breaks that make it possible), Christian conservatives (who want the bible to be the template for the US legal system) and libertarians (who want a limited government that exists almost solely to protect property rights and individual freedoms) to coexist. While disagreeing on some major issues like abortion and foreign affairs, they could unite on taxes, regulation, school choice and enough else to hold the party together.
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Sunday, August 10, 2014
President Obama Statement on Israel Gaza War / Politics / US Politics
President Obama delivers an update on the Gaza situation and U.S. position on Israel including authorisation of use of military force, a ball growing event.
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Friday, August 08, 2014
Iraq - Obama's No-Win Doctrine / Politics / US Politics
Innocent Mr Obama Addresses the Nation
Long ago in politics, in 2011, in his address to the nation from the East Room on March 18 the president said he had to act in Libya. Without international action, he said, there would be "atrocities against [the] people." and "many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue. The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners”. Obama in 2011 also said “The calls of the Libyan people would go unanswered. The democratic values that we stand for would be overrun”.
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Thursday, August 07, 2014
The US Needs to Stop Meddling in Russia-Ukraine Politics / Politics / US Politics
West Point Speech & Foreign Policy Philosophy
It is ironic that President Obama in his West Point speech posited that the US couldn`t be the world`s police, and intervene in every single dispute all over the globe; and yet his foreign policy approach has ended up getting involved in every single dispute all over the world.
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Thursday, August 07, 2014
How Obama’s Support of Israel Undermines U.S. Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
Blasting Gaza into rubble has affected the average American in ways that U.S. politicians will learn to regret. The result will be more than simply bleeding hearts for dead Palestinian children (430 at last count). There is a deeper political effect happening, as young and old alike realize for the first time the cancerous lies coursing through the veins of the U.S. media and political system.
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Monday, August 04, 2014
We are America, the Exceptional Empire, Above All Law / Politics / US Politics
The USA does not rule the Universe. It does not rule the world. It certainly will never rule Russia and China. If America wishes to risk planetary destruction by waging a nuclear exchange to attempt any of the above, it will be stopped by other means. No country ever was, is, or ever will be above the laws of God and man.
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Sunday, August 03, 2014
Zionism And The American Dream / Politics / US Politics
Ideology Trumps Rationality
Zionists like to claim there “no limit expansion” doctrine for Israel is on a twin track with the so-called American Dream so we can ask this question. What about the Global Caliphate dream or nightmare of ISISI? Is that also “historically valid”?
We can forget the short-lived American foreign policy doctrine that Israel must be defended because, for a period of time, it controlled several major transport routes for oil from the Arabian peninsula to America and its allies in Europe. The “oil handle” for US aid of all kinds to Israel was short-lived but support to Israel is a cornerstone of foreign policy, and Congress is at this moment rushing to vote about $225 million to strengthen Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
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Thursday, July 31, 2014
US Failure: Unintended Consequence / Politics / US Politics
The contributors are many as actors in the American Tragedy, to cause the systemic breakdown failed state. Faulty monetary policy, economic policy, and political policy have caused the resulting failure. The primary perpetrators are the central bankers, led by Greenspan and Bernanke. These two men have done more to destroy the USEconomy, the US financial structure, the US currency, than any two men of prominence. To be sure, the Bush, Clinton, and Rubin gang played a huge role in the collapse. Their supporting cast of destructive actors is very long, like the serial bank criminals residing on Wall Street. To be sure, the system itself has played a key role in the harmful factors. The two most apparent harmful resident factors are the strong US labor unions and the influential environmental movement, which together encouraged the vast outsourcing of US industry at first to the Pacific Rim, and then fanning across the developing world. Both workmen compensation and OSHEA regulations interfered with US cost settings, but not as much as USGovt corporate taxes. The textile industry went to India and Pakistan, even Bangladesh. Call centers went to India, Philippines, even Costa Rica. The culprits are too numerous to cite.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Rogue States And Loony Tunes / Politics / US Politics
The Term No Longer Exists
According to the semi-official Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, published by the University of Michigan, the term “rogue state” ceased being used by any US agency or politician in year 2000. It says American foreign policymakers had used the terms "rogue," "outlaw," and "backlash" states almost interchangeably as the Cold War reached its end. It says that as early as July 1985, President Reagan asserted that "We are not going to tolerate attacks from outlaw states by the strangest collection of misfits, loony tunes, and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich". It was during Clinton's two administrations that “rogue state” had its heyday.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Ukraine MH17 - Washington Thinks Americans Are Fools / Politics / US Politics
At this point, you may want to consider making it personal. Your government, wherever you are in the west, but especially in the US, takes you for a bunch of fools they can feed anything at all and fully expect you to believe all of it. As for the media who convey government messages, it’s up in the air whether they too take you for a flock of dimwits, or are just plain fools themselves. As for your families, friends and neighbors, you decide.
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Monday, July 28, 2014
Will the US Destroy the World? - Don’t Expect to Live Much Longer / Politics / US Politics
European governments and the Western media have put the world at risk by enabling Washington’s propaganda and aggression against Russia.
Washington has succeeded in using transparent lies to demonize Russia as a dangerous aggressive country led by a new Hitler or a new Stalin, just as Washington succeeded in demonizing Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Qaddafi in Libya, Assad in Syria, Chavez in Venezuela, and, of course, Iran.
Monday, July 28, 2014
The Israeli Tail Keeps Wagging the US Dog / Politics / US Politics
Eric Margolis writes: NEW YORK – In 1956, Britain and France were convinced that Egypt’s charismatic nationalist leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, was threatening what was left of their Mideast and African colonial empires. London branded Nasser, “Hitler on the Nile.”
So the British and French governments secretly enlisted Israel to invade and annex Egypt’s Sinai. British and French troops were to seize the Canal Zone in a supposed “peacekeeping mission,” march on Cairo, and install a puppet government there. Israel would keep the entire Sinai Peninsula.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
US Government Complicit in Israeli War Crimes Against Humanity / Politics / US Politics
Paul Findley writes: A section of the barrier — erected by Israeli officials to prevent the passage of Palestinians — with graffiti using President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote when facing the Berlin Wall, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” (Photo credit: Marc Venezia)
Virtually the entire U.S. news media and almost every national politician bends to the desires of Israel’s government regardless of its behavior, a reality that enables the persecution and even slaughter of Palestinians.
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