US drones are destroying many “collateral damage” civilians in Yemen and thus inspiring more and more Yemenis to bitterly and momentously side with Al-Qaeda against the US. Declares Glenn Greenwald, the droning is not only amoral but strategically STUPID. Read below the fold...
(This is the first of two posts regarding an extremely dangerous free trade treaty, known as the Transpacific Partnership, that is being negotiated in total secret – and a new treaty, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, that China and some ASEAN nations are promoting)
Obama is now promising jobs to American workers. But there is a COLOSSAL catch. Savaged wages and benefits.
Repeat: SAVAGED!!!
Exactly what the one percenters have been lusting after and now enjoy coming to fruition from a DEMOCRATIC President, of all creatures, who has managed to hoodwink the American citizenry into not seriously noticing. You put the rhetorical emphasis on JOBS .... yadda yadda yadda ... then who seeks more reality-troubling negative details as to how this will come about. Who seriously applies individual critical thinking in this hysterical climate of political gamesmanship and mass corporate disinformation?
Apparently our Democratic president thinks he can keep up the big lie beyond his election in November. Sadly, I wouldn't make book against that. Read below the fold...
President Obama's page on Google's social network site has been inundated with messages in Chinese after restrictions in China were removed.
Every current topic on Mr Obama's Google+ page attracted hundreds of Chinese comments.
Some contributors made jokes; others said they were occupying the site in the style of western Occupy campaigns.
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On 24 and 25 February, to the consternation of American readers, every current topic on President Obama's 2012 election campaign page attracted hundreds of comments, apparently from China.
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A few appealed for the liberty of the civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who is under house arrest.
According to Michael Klare, Obama has now launched a “military-first” policy in Asia. Or what any sane person would call it, a LOSE/LOSE policy. During his Nov. 19, 2011 visit to Australia, in Canberra Obama declared:
"After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia-Pacific region."
Obama is playing a long (but not necessarily slow) game of global proxy profiteering-chess-for-oligarchs with China. The next opposing pawn to fall will be Iran.
US preparations for a war against Iran are not directed at stopping the country’s alleged nuclear weapons program, but at furthering Washington’s hegemony over the strategic, energy-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia. The US has not abandoned the aim that drove the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq: to exercise control over the oil and gas supplies of its European and Asian rivals.
Over the last couple of weeks there's been an exchange between Charles Krauthammer writing in one of the austerity mongers' favorite newspapers and Jack Lew, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), writing at the OMB blog. This exchange illustrates a kerfuffle, that ignores the real issue surrounding entitlements and fiscal responsibility.
Krauthammer kicked off his criticism of the Administration's recent statements that Social Security is “off the table” for spending cuts at present with this: Read below the fold...
Here's a genuine challenge. Correntian MsExPat photographed this unusual vegetable while in Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan province. (A great big hat tip for taking the time to do this, MsExPat!)
I saw this exquisite purple vegetable on top of a street vendor's cart in the market today. Don't know what it is -- I'd guess it is some relative to Chinese broccoli or Gai Lan.
In "All Together Now: There Is No Deficit/Debt Problem,” I warned against the message calling for deficit reduction that the President will probably deliver in his State of the Union Address next month. I view the coming narrative as very likely to be composed of a number of fairy tales. In previous posts in this series I've analyzed and critiqued five of the fairy tales I expect the President to tell us in his coming State of the Union speech. Read below the fold...
Last weekend that so-called epitome of liberal media bias called The Washington Post continued its on-going war on economic recovery and the American people with two salvos on the “crisis” in Government finances created by our “unsustainable” deficits, written by Fred Hiatt and Robert Read below the fold...
It looks like we're approaching an inflection point of great danger in working through problems in creating Economic Recovery. The inflection point is coming because there has been little economic recovery both internationally and domestically, with some nations continuing to run large deficits, and a growing chorus from many, calling for austerity and Governmental budget balancing even though it's well known that the consequences of these policies will be economic contraction and further hardship for all of us but the rich. Read below the fold...
