World Politics

[Amsterhammer]

BREAKING - Kim Jong 3 feeling constipated today, orders nukes to readiness, Defcon H.

 

[frenchfry]

Re:

BREAKING - Kim Jong 3 feeling constipated today, orders nukes to readiness, Defcon H.

Maybe he is feeling threatened as Trump challenges him for the position of intellectual leader of the free (and not so free) world.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Re: Re:

BREAKING - Kim Jong 3 feeling constipated today, orders nukes to readiness, Defcon H.

Maybe he is feeling threatened as Trump challenges him for the position of intellectual leader of the free (and not so free) world.

Insulting to Kim...

 

[frenchfry]

Europe is a mess, and many of its members are in trouble in many ways - unemployment, insecurity, bureaucracy, overwhelming debt, corrupt politicians, inequality, and on and on. I don't know where the delusion.

I am not saying unbridled capitalism is the answer, but there is no denying that Europe has problems.

Your last posts are a caricature. The pessimism that radiates from it, is much of the *real* problem in Europe nowadays. Several countries in Europe take the 'best places to live' top spots, violence is actually going down (and is much lower than in the USA), pollution is decreasing, inequality is lower than in the US, so is the number of poor in almost all W-European countries, etc.

Sure, there are problems, but your incredibly bleak and skewed vision that is seen in so many places nowadays is a much bigger problem in my eyes. Instead of voting FOR something, many people are now voting for parties that feed fear and anxiety, parties that offer no long-term solutions and are mostly reactionary.

I thought I would bring this to the world politics thread.

I really don't think I am being pessimistic, rather realistic. Yes in many ways Europe is a good place to live, but there is a worldwide trend to governmental mismanagement that is omnipresent here as it appears to be in the US. Not exactly the same problems, but overall there isn't much to look forward to in the short/medium term and only time will tell what will happen long term.

You say we should vote FOR something. Unfortunately in France, there is a political class that has totally locked down the political system. To get in, you have to be a graduate from certain elite political schools or be nominated by someone on the inside. We are run by political careerists that know only how to play the little political games and enjoy the privileges of power and €€€€. Many of those in power have lost multiple elections, yet maintain appointed positions in the government executive. There is no alternative, the political class has made sure of that. Even the "alternative" Front National is a family run political machine that is even more opportunistic and incompetent than the traditional parties. Unfortunately the present government, like the precedent, operates on a combination of communication and gadget policy measures while distributing tax euros to their friends and allies. The country is virtually bankrupt, and all those lovely social advantages are now financed largely by debt - health care, pensions, welfare etc. The system will explode soon (look what happened to Greece) and the utopia will lose its glow. There is reason to be worried.

I am neither left wing nor right wing. I am for responsible management, so right now it is true that I will have trouble voting FOR anyone because they are all a bunch of corrupt and irresponsible thieves.

It is an interesting phenomenon that many major countries have such clowns vying for the highest office. Where have all the leaders gone?

 

[Amsterhammer]

Vlad is not pleased with Kim Jong3.

“We consider it to be absolutely impermissible to make public statements containing threats to deliver some ‘preventive nuclear strikes’ against opponents,” the Russian foreign ministry said in response to North Korea’s threats.

“Pyongyang should be aware of the fact that in this way the DPRK will become fully opposed to the international community and will create international legal grounds for using military force against itself in accordance with the right of a state to self-defense enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” continued the statement, translated by Itar Tass news agency.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/08/russia-warns-north-korea-nuclear-strike

 

[blutto]

....anything " funny" here is just done been drowned in fecund pathos....and made all the more pathetic because this is not a tragic one-off...no, this is just a standard product of a disgusting sausage factory using crap scraped off the floor and turning it into weaponized crap that is so toxic it glows in the dark...

US Claims to Have Killed ISIS' US-Trained 'Minister of War'

Well how about that. First you train them. Then you kill them! Or at least you do if you're Uncle Sam

By Mark Nicholas

March 10, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "RI" - In latest Syria news US claims to have carried our a series of airstrikes against ISIS in eastern Syria. It also claims these strikes "likely" killed a top ISIS commander. The Chechen-Georgian Abu Omar al-Shishani (born Tarkhan Batirashvili):


An Islamic State commander described by the Pentagon as the group's "minister of war" was likely killed in a U.S. air strike in Syria, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, in what would be a major victory in the United States' efforts to strike the militant group's leadership.

Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, ranked among America's most wanted militants under a U.S. program that offered up to $5 million for information to help remove him from the battlefield.

Now this would not be particularly humorous but for the fact the man Pentagon describes as ISIS' "minister of war" was originally trained by Pentagon in the build up to the Georgian-Russian war of 2008:


According to Batirashvili’s ex-comrades in the Georgian military, Batirashvili was tapped immediately upon his enlistment to join Georgia’s U.S.-trained special forces.

“He was a perfect soldier from his first days, and everyone knew he was a star,” said one former comrade, who asked not to be identified because he remains on active duty and has been ordered not to give media interviews about his former colleague.

“We were well trained by American special forces units, and he was the star pupil.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44406.htm

Cheers

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re:

BREAKING - Kim Jong 3 feeling constipated today, orders nukes to readiness, Defcon H.

Should have gotten with the Team Sky Enema Marginal Gain. Never would have had to take it that far.

 

[Maxiton]

 

[blutto]

Re:

....

Cheers

 

[Maxiton]

Re: Re:

....the di-lithium crystals just vapourized.... we are now in the afterlife(?) but that ain't no angel so I'm confused...

...wow, that is really plumbing the depths....minds shudders thinking about what else was down there....

Cheers

I posted it quickly so that I didn't have to look at it too long.

 

[Maxiton]

Mikhail Lesin, 57, founder of the RT television cable channel, died mysteriously in a Washington, DC hotel room in November of last year. At the time, media reported that the cause of death was thought to be heart attack, and that the police had found "nothing suspicious" in the room.

Today, four months later, the medical examiner's office has finally released the autopsy: blunt force injuries to the neck, torso, arms and legs. Cause of death: blunt force trauma to the head. Manner of death: undetermined.

The BBC announced this information by saying that "at the time of his death, media in Russia attributed his death to suspected heart attack." Well, yes - but perhaps that was because media in the west were saying the same thing, and it was apparently what his family was told.

 

[python]

is germany moving foxxxy ?...unprecedented voter turnout. the right gains are serious, but less sweeping than some headlines suggested

German voters batter Merkel over migrant policy
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-election-idUSKCN0WE0ZQ?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

 

[blutto]

....latest from the Libya file....

In a “source comment,” the original declassified email adds:


According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya. According to these individuals Sarkozy’s plans are driven by the following issues:

1 A desire to gain a greater share of Libya oil production,

2 Increase French influence in North Africa,

3 Improve his internal political situation in France,

4 Provide the French military with an opportunity to reassert its position in the world,

5 Address the concern of his advisors over Qaddafi’s long term plans to supplant France as the dominant power in Francophone Africa

Conspicuously absent is any mention of humanitarian concerns. The objectives are money, power and oil

.

Toppling the Global Financial Scheme

Qaddafi’s threatened attempt to establish an independent African currency was not taken lightly by Western interests. In 2011, Sarkozy reportedly called the Libyan leader a threat to the financial security of the world. How could this tiny country of six million people pose such a threat? First some background.

It is banks, not governments, that create most of the money in Western economies, as the Bank of England recently acknowledged. This has been going on for centuries, through the process called “fractional reserve” lending. Originally, the reserves were in gold. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt replaced gold domestically with central bank-created reserves, but gold remained the reserve currency internationally.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/14/exposing-the-libyan-agenda-a-closer-look-at-hillarys-emails/

Cheers

 

[python]

a significant news just in - vlad has announced the withdrawal of his armed forces from syria.

this was not expected given what we were told all along in the west regarding his aggressive goals in the m.e.

quite frankly, even w/o the west's spin, the announcement is surprising on many levels...the peace process, and the prerequisite seizefire, have barely started. the isis - his major goal in syria vlad sighted is far from defeated. the assad regime is far from fully secured as the rebels supported by the saudis and turkey and encouraged by the russian pullout, can resume armed resistance any time. neither did vlad achieve a full understanding with the us re. syria.

a very puzzling move to me

it can not be looked at its face value BUT as a chess move vis-a-vis america.

as if 'look we are not stuck up on keeping the assad regime forever but pls show us what are YOU and your proxies have got to reciprocate with if the syrians are to enter a negotiated as opposed the military solution ?'

verrry interesting now.

the russians can bring back 'the withdrawn' flyers in a matter of hours plus a few dozens more to drive the point they keep repeating - 'talk to us as equals if the defeat of isis in syria and iraq is your priority'.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

a very puzzling move to me

How much money does it cost to wage war in Syria? How is Russia's economy doing right now?

 

[Brullnux]

This isn't an economically charged move. If this was a problem Putin cared about, then he would never have gone into syria. The Russian economy is much stringer now than in 2013. I agree with Python: very interesting and surprising news.

 

[python]

Re: Re:

a very puzzling move to me

How much money does it cost to wage war in Syria? How is Russia's economy doing right now?

i thought of their economic cost too, but doubt it was a major factor. undoubtedly, they can NOT afford a scaled up conflict the way the us treasury and pentagon easily endured in iraq, afghanistan etc

but they could afford this relatively easily given their limited commitment in in syria - about 40-50 planes and helos plus 2-3 thousand of maintenance, guard, special op and other auxiliary troops.

there were several western attempts at 'costing' their effort. pls, prove me wrong, but i recall the numbers at around $1-2 billion. if so, a small commitment for a country with $50-70 billion defense budget. that, plus their claims that all syrian operations were financed from their allotment on training and scheduled maneuvers within russia.

don't expect them getting cheap when historically they have been proven to pay the highest price possible, both in human lives and whatever it takes... to reach the goals.

that's the most typical mistake made in the west - a projection based on its own values.

 

[Merckx index]

Here’s a balanced view of GMO, echoing an ironic disconnect that has long upset me. Many on the left have a view of GMO that is a lot like the view of climate change by many on the right: they dismiss a large body of solid scientific evidence, in favor of the view that it’s a plot by large institutions to control our behavior. When people ignore the science on GMO, they lose their credibility when arguing that science supports climate change. If your view on climate change is based on science, not on ideology, than your view of GMO should be as well.

In 2013, British environmentalist and author Mark Lynas became one of the first to publicly admit his anti-GMO stance had become “intellectually incompetent and dishonest,” while U.S. TV personality and science educator Bill Nye (the Science Guy) last year revisited his cautious outlook on GMOs after visiting Monsanto’s St. Louis labs.

There is now a long list of national bodies that suggest approved GMOs are no riskier to eat than conventionally produced food. In addition to regulators, they include: the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, the Royal Society of Medicine, the World Health Organization and the European Commission (even though more than a dozen European countries want to ban GM crops). Moreover, a 2015 Pew Research Center survey of scientists who belong to the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that 88 per cent believe it is safe to eat GM foods, compared to just 37 per cent of the public at large. That’s slightly higher (one percentage point) than the number of scientists who believed climate change was “mostly due to human activity.” Given that just about everything we eat, from apricots to zucchini, has been genetically modified though selective breeding practices, astrophysicist and TV personality Neil deGrasse Tyson summed up the feelings of many within the scientific community when, two years ago, he suggested anti-GMO activists should just “chill out.”

As I’ve emphasized here before, there are legitimate criticisms to be made of GMO, including pesticide contamination of foods (which, however, is a potential health hazard of most agribusiness, not just that involving GMO), some of the heavy-handed economic practices by Monsanto (like patents that require farmers to buy the seed every year, rather than collecting it from their crops, as traditional farmers have always done), and possible environmental effects of new genetic combinations in nature (and also the spread of GM seeds to farms that advertise themselves as organic). But again, the comparison with climate change is apt. Just as there are legitimate environmental and economic criticisms to be made of GMO, there are also legitimate economic criticisms of reducing the carbon footprint. The way forward is not to ban all GMO, any more than it is to ignore the effects of fossil fuels.

Andreas Boecker, an associate professor at the University of Guelph’s department of food, agricultural and resource economics, argues that the sooner Canadians realize GMOs are neither a magical cure nor a pox on humanity, the better. “It would be a big mistake to ban a technology for more or less ideological reasons,” he says. “Where the debate has to go to be productive is to look at risk management.” He likens GM food to automobiles in this respect, noting thousands die in traffic accidents but we continue to drive because the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. The one difference with GM foods, Boecker says, is each one is unique, meaning “we have to look at every single product case-by-case.”

http://www.macleans.ca/society/science/in-praise-of-genetically-modified-foods/

 

[Maxiton]

Denmark ‘the world’s happiest country', says report

The 2016 survey showed that three countries in particular, Ireland, Iceland and Japan, were able to maintain their happiness levels despite economic crises.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

This isn't an economically charged move. If this was a problem Putin cared about, then he would never have gone into syria. The Russian economy is much stringer now than in 2013. I agree with Python: very interesting and surprising news.

Putin is more about muscle flexing on the world stage. The economy would not even be considered and the Russian military budget is set to increase. As for their economy being stronger I have my doubts. Budget cuts in Russia for things non military say otherwise.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

If this was a problem Putin cared about, then he would never have gone into syria.

Not necessarily. The fact that Russia can't afford a long-term commitment to Syria doesn't mean it can't afford the short campaign we saw.

 

[cellardoor]

Re:

This isn't an economically charged move. If this was a problem Putin cared about, then he would never have gone into syria. The Russian economy is much stringer now than in 2013. I agree with Python: very interesting and surprising news.

The move seems to prove that ISIS was never a priority as they clearly haven't defeated ISIS. However, whatever one may think of Russia, I don't think they want a long drawn out conflict any more than anyone else does. They have put Assad in a strong negotiating position that should end up being favourable to Russia - at the same time Assad needs to be willing to make some concessions if there is to be a peace process. This may be meant to nudge Assad to be more willing to negotiate. It also has the side-affect of making Russia look good in terms of the peace process, when in practice it doesn't mean much as they still have bases in Syria and can come back at any time.

 

[python]

regarding their operation cost and why vlad is pulling out of syria...

i just saw some news feeds that during the award ceremony of the returning aviators, vlad said the syrian operation cost to-date was about 30 billion rubles, or at the latest exchange appr $500 mil. by any account these are peanuts for the 2nd largest military, if true.

regarding the WHYs, everyone says whatever they WANT to see. for instance, the al nusra front leader said yesterday the russians ran b/c they failed and were defeated. on the other end of the opinions 'sample' was a comment i saw (can't recall the source atm) that it was b/c vlad got very mad at assad for not winning fast enough given the generous support he got....

whatever one wants to see into the vlad move, it was a surprise. as i said above, besides the obvious propaganda/pr effects ('no afghanistan', 'a road to peace'...) imo it could be a result of some behind-closed-door developments we cant yet be fully let on. like a possible deal btwn the us and saudis in one corner and vlad in another. about each trying to influence their proxies, so that another geneva round does not get wasted.

 

[blutto]

....the latest from Pepe....most interesting developments ...

Let’s start with some classic Russian politics. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is drawing up Russia's economic strategy for 2016, including the government budget. Siluanov – essentially a liberal, in favor of foreign investment - will present his proposals to the Kremlin by the end of this month.

So far, nothing spectacular. But then, a few days ago, Kommersant leaked that Russia's Security Council asked presidential aide Sergei Glazyev to come up with a separate economic strategy, to be presented to the council this week. This is not exactly a novelty, as the Russian Security Council in the past has asked small strategy groups for their economic assessment.
The Security Council is led by Nikolai Patrushev, the former head of the Federal Security Service. He and Siluanov are not exactly on the same wavelength.
And here’s where the plot thickens. Glazyev, a brilliant economist, is a Russian nationalist – sanctioned personally by the US.

Glazyev is arguably going no holds barred. He is in favor of barring Russian companies from using foreign currency (which makes sense); taxing the conversion of rubles to foreign currencies (same); banning foreign loans to Russian firms (depending if they are not in US dollars or euro); and – the smoking gun - requiring Russian companies that have Western loans to default.

Imagine Russia defaulting on all its foreign debt - over $700 billion – on which Western sanctions have raised extra, punitive costs in terms of repayment.

The default would be payback for the twin Western manipulation of oil prices and the ruble. The manipulation involved unleashing on the oil market over five million barrels a day of excess reserve production that were held back by a few usual suspects, plus derivative manipulation at the NYMEX, crashing the price.

Then, the derivative manipulation of the ruble crashed the currency. Almost all imports to Russia were virtually blocked – as oil and natural gas exports remained constant. In the long run though, this should create a significant balance of trade surplus for Russia; a very positive factor for long-term growth of Russia’s domestic industry.

After Russia, Western financial ‘Masters of the Universe’ went after China for allying with Russia. The usual financial suspects rigged the Chinese stock market in an attempt to crash the economy, using Wall Street proxies manipulating cash settlement mechanisms to first raise up the prices of the Chinese A shares, creating a giant boom, and then reversing the cash settlement rig to crash the market.

No wonder Beijing, very much aware of what was happening massively intervened; is actively studying cash settlement moves; and is carefully reviewing the records of major stock operators in China.

The Kremlin’s got to do something about the Russian Central Bank.

The Russian Central Bank kept interest rates high, forcing Russian oil and natural gas producers to finance their operations from Western sources, and thereby plunging the Russian economy into a debt trap.

These loans to Russia were part of the New York-London financier axis control mechanism. Were Moscow to “disobey” the West, the West would call in their loans after crashing the ruble, making repayment almost impossible, as they did with Iran.

This is the mechanism through which the West – and its institutions, the IMF, World Bank, BIS, the whole gang – rule. Beijing is moving either to complement or replace this set-up with new and more democratic international institutions.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44466.htm

Cheers

 

[CheckMyPecs]

If Russian companies default on their foreign loans, they're going to be locked out of Western capital markets for a long time.

Before you say "they'll simply borrow from Russian banks instead", ask yourself why they didn't do it in the first place.