China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, opened its one and only 2015 session in Beijing on March 5. The Congress – the NPC – meets for just 10 days a year and, in that short window of time, is supposed to set China’s policy direction for the next 12 months. In theory, the NPC has much greater power than the U.S. Congress, including …
The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? (See January 6th post here.) It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made good on …
Why America Lacks Credibility in the Middle East
To hear politicians and beltway pundits tell it, credibility in international relations boils down to this: Do others believe that the United States is willing and able to follow through on its word? Actually, this is a sloppy and often pernicious way to think, leading policymakers to senselessly commit themselves to failing policies (like enforcing a “red line,” for instance) …
China’s Tensions With Dalai Lama Spill Into the Afterlife: Order Dalai Lama to Reincarnate
Chinese Communist Party leaders are deathly afraid that the Dalai Lama will not have an afterlife. Worried enough that this week, officials repeatedly warned that he must reincarnate, and on their terms. Tensions over what will happen when the aging 14th Dalai Lama dies, and particularly over who decides who will succeed him as the most prominent leader in Tibetan Buddhism, have …
Partners in Stupidity and the War on Terror
Casus belli anyone? So Obama wants Congress to authorize a war on ISIS. They’ll do it, of course, but not before the usual partisan sniping. So far the “debate” has been a festival of irrelevance. Should it be sun-setted? Is three years right? What about the open-ended authorization for Al-Qaeda from 1991? Does it limit a future President’s options? Oh, the …
Russia’s Remarkable Renaissance
Something remarkable is taking place in Russia, and it’s quite different from what we might expect. Rather than feel humiliated and depressed Russia is undergoing what I would call a kind of renaissance, a rebirth as a nation. This despite or in fact because the West, led by the so-called neo-conservatives in Washington, is trying everything including war on her …
Applauding Themselves to Death: Why the UN climate talks have wasted 23 years
If you visit the website of the UN body that oversees the world’s climate negotiations(1), you will find dozens of pictures, taken across 20 years, of people clapping. These photos should be of interest to anthropologists and psychologists. For they show hundreds of intelligent, educated, well-paid and elegantly-dressed people wasting their lives. The celebratory nature of the images testifies to …
NATO Lies and Provocations
“The war has been provoked to destroy the Russian World, to draw Europe into it, and to surround Russia with hostile countries. Unleashing this world war, America is trying to deal with its own internal problems.” – Sergei Glazyev, Advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin The fabrications of NATO’s top commander in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, have driven a wedge …
UN condemns ‘destruction’ of ancient Iraq city of Hatra
The United Nations’ cultural body on Saturday condemned the “destruction” by the Islamic State jihadist group of Hatra, a stunning Roman period ancient fortress city in the Iraqi desert. The destruction of the UNESCO world heritage site was reported two days after the Iraqi antiquities ministry said that IS bulldozed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, and a week after …
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, wants Arab-Israelis Beheaded
Anyone doubting racist lunatics run Israel take note of what ultranationalist/fascist/defrocked for criminality/reinstated Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proposes. He wants anyone he considers disloyal to Israel as a Jewish state beheaded. Recall GW Bush’s polarizing September 20, 2001 statement to a joint congressional session about “either (being) with us or against us.” Ahead of next week’s Israeli elections, Lieberman addressed …