Thursday, May 31, 2018
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
20 Photos From Live Moments IN TV Show
Photography is the science, art, application and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure. With an electronic image sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel, which is electronically processed and stored in a digital image file for subsequent display or processing. Wikipedia
1.
Next>>>>>>>>>>>
DE -- Manlio Dinucci -- Die Kunst des Krieges -- Bannon drängt auf italienische «Souveränität» von Brüssel, nicht von Washington
Die Kunst des Krieges
Bannon drängt auf italienische «Souveränität» von Brüssel, nicht von Washington
Manlio Dinucci
Steve Bannon - Der ehemalige Stratege von Donald Trump, Theoretiker des Nationalpopulismus, drückte seine enthusiastische Unterstützung für die Allianz mit der 5-Sterne-Liga-Bewegung für "die Regierung des Wandels" aus. In einem Interview (Sky TG24, 26. Mai) sagte er: "Die grundlegende Frage in Italien im März war die Frage der Souveränität. Das Ergebnis der Wahlen war, diejenigen Italiener ins Amt zu bringen, die Souveränität und Kontrolle über ihr Land wiedererlangen wollen. Zieht einen Schlussstrich unter die Regeln, die aus Brüssel kommen ".
Aber das heißt nicht "Schluss mit den Regeln, die aus Washington kommen".
Es ist nicht nur die Europäische Union, die Druck auf Italien ausübt, um dessen politische Entscheidungen zu lenken, dominiert von den mächtigen Wirtschafts- und Finanzkeisen, insbesondere Deutschland und Frankreich, die einen Bruch der “Regeln” befürchten, die ihren Interessen dienen.
Starker Druck auf Italien wird, in einer weniger offensichtlichen, aber nicht weniger aufdringlichen Art, durch die Vereinigten Staaten ausgeübt, die einen Bruch der "Regeln" fürchten, die Italien ihren wirtschaftlichen und strategischen Interessen unterordnen.
Dies ist Teil der Politik, die Washington durch verschiedene Verwaltungen und mit unterschiedlichen Methoden gegenüber Europa anwendet und das selbe Ziel verfolgt: Europa unter amerikanischem Einfluss zu halten.
Ein grundlegendes Instrument dieser Strategie ist die NATO. Der Vertrag von Maastricht begründet in Art. 42, dass die EU "die Verpflichtungen einiger Mitgliedstaaten achtet, die ihre gemeinsame Verteidigung durch die North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) realisiert sehen. Und das Protokoll 10 zur Zusammenarbeit stellt fest, dass die NATO "die Grundlage der Verteidigung" der Europäischen Union bleibt.
Heute sind 21 der 27 EU-Länder (nach dem Brexit), mit rund 90% der Bevölkerung der Union, Teil der NATO, deren "Regeln" es den USA erlaubt, seit 1949 die Position des Obersten Alliierten Befehlshabers in Europa inne zu halten sowie alle anderen Hauptbefehligungen; sie erlauben den Vereinigten Staaten, die politischen und strategischen Entscheidungen des Bündnisses zu bestimmen, indem Sie unter dem Tisch Vereinbahrungen treffen, insbesondere mit Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien, und Sie dann vom Nordatlantikrat billigen lassen, in dem es nach den «Regeln» der NATO keine Abstimmung oder Mehrheitsentscheidung gibt, sondern in dem Entscheidungen immer einstimmig getroffen werden.
Der Beitritt der osteuropäischen Länder in die NATO - ehemals Mitglieder des Warschauer Pakts, der Jugoslawischen Föderation und auch der UdSSR - hat es den Vereinigten Staaten ermöglicht, diese Länder, denen die Ukraine und Georgien hinzugefügt werden und die faktisch bereits in der NATO sind, mehr an Washington als an Brüssel zu binden.
Washington war somit in der Lage, Europa in einen neuen Kalten Krieg zu drängen und es zur Frontlinie einer zunehmend gefährlichen Konfrontation mit Russland zu machen, die für die politischen, wirtschaftlichen und strategischen Interessen der Vereinigten Staaten von Nutzen ist.
Sinnbildlich ist die Tatsache, dass in der Woche, in der Europa bitter um die "italienische Frage" kämpfte, die erste Panzerbrigade der 1. US-Kavallerie-Division aus Fort Hood in Texas in Anvers (Belgien) gelandet ist, ohne irgend eine nennenswerte Reaktion hervorzurufen. 3.000 Soldaten sind gelandet mit 87 Abrams M-1 Panzern, 125 Bradley Kampffahrzeugen, 18 Paladin Selbstfahrlafetten, 976 Militärfahrzeugen und weiterer Ausrüstung, die in fünf Stützpunkten in Polen stationiert und von hier aus in die Nähe des russischen Territoriums geschickt werden.
Dies "verbessert weiterhin die Bereitschaft und Letalität der US-Streitkräfte in Europa" die ab 2015 16,5 Milliarden Dollar bereitstellen.
Gerade als die aus Washington gesandten Panzer in Europa landeten, drängte Steve Bannon die Italiener und Europäer, "ihre Souveränität » von Brüssel wiederzuerlangen.
(Dieser Artikel erschien zuerst am 29. Mai 2018 in
Übersetzung: K.R.
More videos
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
America’s Fifth Column Will Destroy Russia by Paul Craig Roberts
America’s Fifth Column Will Destroy Russia
America’s Fifth Column Will Destroy Russia
This is the lecture I would have given if I had been able to accept the invitation to address the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia this weekend.
Paul Craig Roberts
Executive Summary: From the standpoint of Russia’s dilemma, this is an important column. Putin’s partial impotence via-a-vis Washington is due to the grip that neoliberal economics exercises over the Russian government. Putin cannot break with the West, because he believes that Russian economic development is dependent on Russia’s integration within the Western economy. That is what neoliberal economics tells the Russian economic and financial establishment.
Everyone should understand that I am not a pro-Russian anti-American. I am anti-war, especially nuclear war. My concern is that the inability of the Russian government to put its foot down is due to its belief that Russian development, despite all the talk about the Eurasian partnership and the Silk Road, is dependent on being integrated with the West. This totally erroneous belief prevents the Russian government from any decisive break with the West. Consequently, Putin continues to accept provocations in order to avoid a decisive break that would cut Russia off from the West. In Washington and the UK this is interpreted as a lack of resolve on Putin’s part and encourages an escalation in provocations that will intensify until Russia’s only option is surrender or war.
If the Russian government did not believe that it needed the West, the government could give stronger responses to provocations that would make clear that there are limits to what Russia will tolerate. It would also make Europe aware that its existence hangs in the balance. The combination of Trump abusing Europe and Europe’s recognition of the threat to its own existence of its alignment with an aggressive Washington would break the Western alliance and NATO. But Putin cannot bring this about because he erroneously believes that Russia needs the West.
America’s Fifth Column Will Destroy Russia
If the neoconservatives had self-restraint, they would sit back and let America’s Fifth Column—Neoliberal Economics—finish off Russia for them. Russia is doomed, because the country’s economists were brainwashed during the Yeltsin years by American neoliberal economists. It was easy enough for the Americans to do. Communist economics had come to naught, the Russian economy was broken, Russians were experiencing widespread hardship, and successful America was there with a helping hand.
In reality the helping hand was a grasping hand. The hand grasped Russian resources through privatization and gave control to American-friendly oligarchs. Russian economists had no clue about how financial capitalism in its neoliberal guise strips economies of their assets while loading them up with debt.
But worse happened. Russia’s economists were brainwashed into an economic way of thinking that serves Western imperialism.
For example, neoliberal economics exposes Russia’s currency to speculation, manipulation, and destabilization. Capital inflows can be used to drive up the value of the ruble, and then at the opportune time, the capital can be pulled out, dropping the ruble’s value and driving up domestic inflation with higher import prices, delivering a hit to Russian living standards. Washington has always used these kind of manipulations to destabilize governments.
Neo-liberal economics has also brainwashed the Russian central bank with the belief that Russian economic development depends on foreign investment in Russia. This erroneous belief threatens the very sovereignty of Russia. The Russian central bank could easily finance all internal economic development by creating money, but the brainwashed central bank does not realize this. The bank thinks that if the bank finances internal development the result would be inflation and depreciation of the ruble. So the central bank is guided by American neoliberal economics to borrow abroad money it does not need in order to burden Russia with foreign debt that requires a diversion of Russian resources into interest payments to the West.
As Michael Hudson and I explained to the Russians two years ago, when Russia borrows from the West, the US for example, and in flow the dollars, what happens to the dollars? Russia cannot spend them domestically to finance development projects, so where do the dollars go? They go into Russia’s foreign exchange holdings and accrue interest for the lender. The central bank then creates the ruble equivalent of the borrowed and idle dollars and finances the project. So why borrow the dollars? The only possible reason is so the US can use the dollar debt to exercise control over Russian decision making. In other words, Russia delivers herself into the hands of her enemies.
Indeed, it is the Russian government’s mistaken belief that Russian economic development is dependent on Russia being included as part of the West that has caused Putin to accept the provocations and humiliations that the West has heaped upon Russia. The lack of response to these provocations will eventually cause the Russian government to lose the support of the nationalist elements in Russia.
Putin is struggling to have Russia integrated into the Western economic system while retaining Russia’s sovereignty (an unrealistic goal), because Putin has been convinced by the element in the Russian elite, which had rather be Western than Russian, that Russia’s economic development depends on being integrated into the Western economy. As the neoliberal economic elite control Russia’s economic and financial policy, Putin believes that he has to accept Western provocations or forfeit his hopes for Russian economic development.
Russian economists are so indoctrinated with neoliberal economics that they cannot even look to America to see how a once great economy has been completely destroyed by neoliberal economics.
The US has the largest public debt of any country in history. The US has the largest trade and budget deficits of any country in history. The US has 22 percent unemployment, which it hides by not counting among the unemployed millions of discouraged workers who, unable to find jobs, ceased looking for jobs and are arbitrarily excluded from the measure of unemployment. The US has a retired class that has been stripped of any interest payment on their savings for a decade, because it was more important to the Federal Reserve to bail out the bad loans of a handful of “banks too big to fail,” banks that became too big to fail because of the deregulation fostered by neoliberal economics. By misrepresenting “free trade” and “globalism,” neoliberal economics sent America’s manufacturing and tradeable professional skill jobs abroad where wages were lower, thus boosting the incomes of owners at the expense of the incomes of US wage-earners, leaving Americans with the lowly paid domestic service jobs of a Third World country. Real median family income in the US has been stagnant for decades. The Federal Reserve recently reported that Americans are so poor that 41 percent of the population cannot raise $400 without selling personal possessions.
Young Americans, if they have university educations, begin life as debt slaves. Currently there are 44,200,000 Americans with student loan debt totalling $1,048,000,000,000 — $1.048 trillion!https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/
In the US all 50 states have publicly supported universities where tuition is supposed to be nominal in order to encourage education. When I went to Georgia Tech, a premier engineering school, my annual tuition was less than $500. Loans were not needed and did not exist.
What happened? Financial capitalism discovered how to turn university students into indentured servants, and the university administrations cooperated. Tuitions rose and rose and were increasingly allocated to administration, the cost of which exploded. Today many university administrations absorb 75% of the annual budget, leaving little for professors’ pay and student aid. An obedient Congress created a loan program that ensnares young American men and women into huge debt in order to acquire an university education. With so many of the well-paying jobs moved offshore by neoliberal economics, the jobs available cannot service the student loan debts. A large percentage of Americans aged 24-34 live at home with parents, because their jobs do not pay enough to service their student loan debt and pay an apartment rent. Debt prevents them from living an independent existence.
In America the indebtedness of the population produced by neoliberal economics—privatize, privatize, deregulate, deregulate, indebt, indebt—prevents any economic growth as the American public has no discretionary income after debt service to drive the economy. In America the way cars, trucks, and SUVs are sold is via zero downpayment and seven years of loans. From the minute a vehicle is purchased, the loan obligation exceeds the value of the vehicle.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mike Meru, a dentist earning $225,000 annually, has $1,060,945.42 in student loan debt. He pays $1,589.97 monthly, which is not enough to cover the interest, much less reduce the principal. Consequently, his debt from seven years at the University of Southern California grows by $130 per day. In two decades, his loan balance will be $2 million.https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-meru-has-1-million-in-student-loans-how-did-that-happen-1527252975
If neoliberal economics does not work for America, why will it work for Russia? Neoliberal economics only works for oligarchs and their institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, who are bankrolled by the central bank to keep the economy partially afloat. Washington will agree to Russia being integrated into the Western system when Putin agrees to resurrect the Yeltsin-era practice of permitting Western financial institutions to strip Russia of her assets while loading her up with debt.
I could continue at length about the junk economics, to use Michael Hudson’s term, that is neoliberal economics. The United States is failing because of it, and so will Russia.
John Bolton and the neocons should just relax. Neoliberal economics, which has the Russian financial interests, the Russian government and apparently Putin himself in its grip, will destroy Russia without war.
Will Putin’s Policy of Concession Succeed? Paul Craig Roberts
Will Putin’s Policy of Concession Succeed?
Will Putin’s Policy of Concession Succeed?
Paul Craig Roberts
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Conference last weekend shows the Russian government’s ensnarement by neoliberal economic policy. Putin defended globalism and free trade, and he warned that crisis will result from the breakup of the global system.
In fact, crisis is the result of globalism and neoliberal economics. For Russia neoliberal economics means both economic and political crisis. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/05/25/americas-fifth-column-will-destroy-russia/
Neoliberal economics produces domestic economic crisis, because it diverts employment in high-productivity, high-value added activities, such as manufacturing and tradeable professional skills such as software engineering, from developed economies, such as the US, UK, and Europe, to economies where wages are much lower. Neoliberal economics is also the basis for financialization, which diverts the economic surplus from real investment into debt service. Together these devastating impacts of neoliberal economics kill economic growth. Just look at the no-growth experience of the Western world in the 21st century, where growth has been limited to the prices of financial assets while well-paid employment disappears.
The problem is not only that neoliberal economics is a device for financialization and the ruination of populations for the benefit of oligarchs and global corporations. The larger problem is that The Russian government’s belief in neoliberal economics makes Russia impotent to withstand pressure from Washington. Russia cannot stand up to Washington or even to Israel, because the government believes that Russia’s economic success depends upon being integrated into the Western economic system. To keep the door open, Russia continually accepts provocations which encourages more provocations.
There are situations in which this is statesmanlike and commendable, but not this situation because the crisis goes beyond economics. Putin’s prudent diplomacy is perceived in Washington as weakness. The neoconservatives who control the US government are committed to US hegemony. They are already over-filled with hubris. Each time they witness Putin back away, they become more confident that they can with more pressure force Russia into submission.
For example, the neoconservatives read Putin’s standdown in the face of Trump’s missile attack on Syria, an attack based on an obvious fake news event, as a lack of nerve. Putin’s acceptance of Washington’s attack was very damaging to Russia’s credibility with Washington’s neoconservatives. What they saw was Putin accepting an attack on an ally to whose defense Russia had committed armed forces. What is the point of clearing Syria of American supported jihadists and then allowing Washington and Israel to attack Syria?
I have explained Putin’s standdown as his gamble that Washington’s aggression could break apart Washington’s European empire as long as Russia does not exercise force in a way that would scare the Europeans. In other words, Putin is behaving carefully, not rashly. This is admirable, especially as Putin has superweapons against which the West has no defense.
My concern is what happens if Putin’s bet doesn’t pay off, and the effect of Putin’s restraint is to convince the neoconservatives that Russia can be bullied into submission. I do not think Russia can be bullied into submission, but the neoconservatives will have Russia in a corner where Russia has to fight or surrender. Russia will fight, and it will be the end of us all.
In other words, if Putin’s admirable strategy fails, the neoconservatives, who are already more full of hubris than was Hitler when he sent the Wehrmacht marching off into Russia, will push Russia to the point of war.
Therefore, I have suggested a different strategy: that Putin put his foot down. For example, he could stop accommodating US and Israeli attacks on Syria. These attacks are illegal under international law. They are the actions of war criminals under the Nuremberg Standard established by the US itself. Putin could supply Syria with the S-300 missile defense system, but at the request of Washington and Israel Putin has not fulfilled the contract, another example to the neoconservatives of Putin’s lack of nerve, a misreading that encourages Washington in its provocations.
A foot-down strategy carries the risk of scaring the Europeans about Russian aggressiveness, which is the way the presstitute Western media would report it. However, this strategy does not carry the risk of convincing hubristic neoconservatives that Putin is a pussy. The effect on Washington could be positive and push Washington back to the time when the US was respectful of the Soviet Union. The effect on Europe could be to make Europe aware that the conflict that Washington is initiating is what threatens Europe, not a threat from Russia.
The evidence is clear that the neoconservatives are discounting Russia as nothing more than a short-term obstacle to US world hegemony. Let’s attempt to weigh some of the evidence in behalf of Putin’s diplomatic strategy. French President Macron, Washington’s puppet, who has French troops in the US-occupied part of Syria, is toasted by RT for going to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum with the mission of “keeping Russia in the European family.” https://www.rt.com/news/427820-putin-macron-russia-europe/
Is Macron, who has French troops in Washington-occupied Syria, breaking with Washington, or is Macron playing Putin along by encouraging Putin in his belief that Europe will break from Washington and welcome Russia into the “common European home,” thus encouraging more concessions from Putin.
Is the Russian government being deluded into making more concessions and accepting more requests that serve the agenda of Washington and Israel instead of Russia and her allies? Washington’s latest request is that Putin encourage Iran to withdraw its military contingents from Syria. Putin did as requested, but Iran refused on the grounds that, unlike the US, France, and Washington’s mercenary jihadists, Iran is in Syria at Syria’s requests. The result is that Washington and Israel, both of which continue to attack Syria, have succeeded in creating tensions between Russia and Iran. http://tass.com/pressreview/1005664
To avoid a rift with a necessary ally, Putin might instead have told Washington that Russia and Iran would withdraw after Washington removes the forces it has placed in Syria. Washington was quick to take advantage of the rift and has informed Putin that Washington does not approve of Russia fulfilling the contract to deliver jet fighters and the S-300 air defense system to Iran. If Putin accommodates this Washington request as well, it will make it much easier for the US and Israel to attack Iran.
Washington has won again. Dispute between Russia and Iran leaves Iran more vulnerable to a US military attack, an attack that a number of commentators see in the works. If Iran is destabilized, the easier to destabilize Russia.
What did Putin get out of again acquiescing to Washington? More threats to Syria from Washington and Israel. On May 28 Washington informed the Syrian government that if it attempts to clear Daraa of foreign invaders who are occupying, with Washington’s support, Syrian territory, Syria will receive a “firm response” from Washington. https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201805261064839163-syria-leaflets-reaction-daraa-ceasefire/ Israel informed Syria
that Syria is not permitted to use its air defenses to protect its territory against Israeli aircraft operating within Syrian territory. https://sptnkne.ws/hAhP
that Syria is not permitted to use its air defenses to protect its territory against Israeli aircraft operating within Syrian territory. https://sptnkne.ws/hAhP
In other words, Washington and Israel have rewarded Putin’s concession by forbidding Syria to defend itself.
The neoconservative Washington regime is confident that it has Putin locked into the backdown mode and will even be able to negotiate Russia’s withdrawal from Syria. If that occurs, Washington will restart the war to overthrow the Syrian government.
With Russia on the run, Putin can expect a Washington-ordered Ukrainian attack on the breakaway Russian republics that Russia has left hanging and also Washington-organized ISIS attacks on Russia through the former Soviet central Asian republics.https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/05/24/putins-peace-efforts-coming-naught/ The Ukrainian attack could occur during the World Cup when the Russian government will be focused on the prestige of hosting the World Cup and not on its foreign policy.
When Russia is incorporated into the Western economy, it will be as a vassal state.
But for now Russia is celebrating, pointing to the large attendance at the St Petersburg Forum, including that of the French president, as evidence that Russia is not isolated and is hoping for another prestige gain from the World Cup.
Perhaps someone in the Russian government will remember that it was its focus on the Sochi Olympics that delivered Ukraine into Washington’s hands.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)