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“To the United States, a drone strike seems to have very little risk and very little pain. At the receiving end, it feels like war. Americans have got to understand that. If we were to use our technological capabilities carelessly—I don’t think we do, but there’s always the danger that you will—then we should not be upset when someone responds with their equivalent, which is a suicide bomb in Central Park, because that’s what they can respond with.”

-- Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal

News and Opinion

Former Drone Operators Say They Were “Horrified” By Cruelty of Assassination Program

U.S. drone operators are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing today in New York.

The killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added. Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.

In addition to Haas, the operators are former Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Bryant along with former senior airmen Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis. The men have conducted kill missions in many of the major theaters of the post-9/11 war on terror, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We have seen the abuse firsthand,” said Bryant, “and we are horrified.” ... The drones are good at killing people, just not the right ones,” Bryant said. “Have we forgotten our humanity in the pursuit of vengeance and security?”

Beyond the press conference, the group also denounced the program yesterday in an interview with The Guardian and in an open letter addressed to President Obama.

Drone Pilot Whistleblowers Describe Devastating Impacts of Targeted Kill Program

File Says N.S.A. Found Way to Dodge Accountability For Bulk Collection of Americans' Email

When the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of records about Americans’ emails came to light in 2013, the government conceded the program’s existence but said it had shut down the effort in December 2011 for “operational and resource reasons.”

While that particular secret program stopped, newly disclosed documents show that the N.S.A. had found a way to create a functional equivalent. The shift has permitted the agency to continue analyzing social links revealed by Americans’ email patterns, but without collecting the data in bulk from American telecommunications companies — and with less oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. ...

The report explained that there were two other legal ways to get such data. One was the collection of bulk data that had been gathered in other countries, where the N.S.A.’s activities are largely not subject to regulation by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and oversight by the intelligence court. Because of the way the Internet operates, domestic data is often found on fiber optic cables abroad.

The N.S.A. had long barred analysts from using Americans’ data that had been swept up abroad, but in November 2010 it changed that rule, documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden have shown. The inspector general report cited that change to the N.S.A.’s internal procedures. ...

“The document makes it clear that N.S.A. is able to get all the Internet metadata it needs through foreign collection,” Timothy Edgar, a privacy official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, said. “The change it made to its procedures in 2010 allowed it to exploit metadata involving Americans. Once that change was made, it was no longer worth the effort to collect Internet metadata inside the United States, in part because doing so requires N.S.A. to deal with” restrictions by the intelligence court.

Turkey could cut off Islamic State’s supply lines. So why doesn’t it?

In the wake of the murderous attacks in Paris, we can expect western heads of state to do what they always do in such circumstances: declare total and unremitting war on those who brought it about. They don’t actually mean it. They’ve had the means to uproot and destroy Islamic State within their hands for over a year now. They’ve simply refused to make use of it. In fact, as the world watched leaders making statements of implacable resolve at the G20 summit in Antalaya, these same leaders are hobnobbing with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a man whose tacit political, economic, and even military support contributed to Isis’s ability to perpetrate the atrocities in Paris, not to mention an endless stream of atrocities inside the Middle East.

How could Isis be eliminated? In the region, everyone knows. All it would really take would be to unleash the largely Kurdish forces of the YPG (Democratic Union party) in Syria, and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ party) guerillas in Iraq and Turkey. These are, currently, the main forces actually fighting Isis on the ground. They have proved extraordinarily militarily effective and oppose every aspect of Isis’s reactionary ideology.

But instead, YPG-controlled territory in Syria finds itself placed under a total embargo by Turkey, and PKK forces are under continual bombardment by the Turkish air force. Not only has Erdoğan done almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting Isis; there is considerable evidence that his government has been at least tacitly aiding Isis itself.

The exact relationship between Erdoğan’s government and Isis may be subject to debate; but of some things we can be relatively certain. Had Turkey placed the same kind of absolute blockade on Isis territories as they did on Kurdish-held parts of Syria, let alone shown the same sort of “benign neglect” towards the PKK and YPG that they have been offering to Isis, that blood-stained “caliphate” would long since have collapsed – and arguably, the Paris attacks may never have happened. And if Turkey were to do the same today, Isis would probably collapse in a matter of months. Yet, has a single western leader called on Erdoğan to do this?

The next time you hear one of those politicians declaring the need to crack down on civil liberties or immigrant rights because of the need for absolute “war” against terrorism bear all this in mind. Their resolve is exactly as “absolute” as it is politically convenient. Turkey, after all, is a “strategic ally”. So after their declaration, they are likely to head off to share a friendly cup of tea with the very man who makes it possible for Isis to continue to exist.

Outside Powers Must End Their Proxy Wars in Syria

International attacks, as well as the oppression and terror that ISIS has inflicted on large parts of Syria and Iraq, do not call for a response. They do not call for revenge. They do not call for gestures of the kind that British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to ram through Parliament in Westminster. They do not call for Europe and the U.S. to deny shelter to refugees who are fleeing from ISIS terror that the world ignored when it was confined to Syria. They do not call for further erosion of privacy and other rights.

The Islamic State’s international attacks call for a strategy. If the goal is to eliminate ISIS from territory it rules in Iraq and Syria, and from which it plots murder elsewhere, the forces opposed to it must come together. It took more than 100 dead in Paris and 224 passengers on a Russian airliner for France and Russia to coordinate their airstrikes in Syria. What will it take for the U.S. to do the same? ...

One step would not involve any combat at all: Close the open supply line between ISIS and the outside world through Turkey. Turkey is an ally, but no friend. Its open border with Syria is the jihadis’ lifeline. Without it, the weapons and ammunition the jihadis seized from the Iraqi Army last year would not be enough for them to defend all their territory. Without it, jihadis trained in Syria would not pass easily into Europe to murder civilians. Without the Turkish supply line, the local forces whose shared hatred of the jihadis — who include the Syrian Army, the Kurds and all of Syria’s and Iraq’s other minorities, Iraq’s majority Shiite population, secular Sunnis in Syria and Iraq, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — would stand a better chance of defeating them.

Diplomacy is better than war, and the outside powers who have been using Syria to fight their proxy wars must agree in Geneva or Vienna that enough is enough. The U.S., Russia, Iran, Turkey, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have all played their parts in destroying Syria. It is up to them to end this war that has cost as many as 310,000 lives. No one is winning. No one can win. They provide their clients with the means to fight the war. And they can cut them off.

Secretary of Defense: US Expanding Rules of Engagement to Escalate ISIS Strikes

Citing ongoing US efforts to escalate their attacks on ISIS, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter says the US is reviewing its rules of engagement in the war and expanding their list of legitimate targets to allow for more strikes against ISIS-related targets.

Carter cited a recent flurry of US airstrikes against fuel trucks in ISIS territory as an example of “changing tactics” in the war. ... The US has been escalating airstrikes intermittently since beginning their strikes against ISIS targets last year, and is constantly looking for new targets. Though there has been a flurry of activity since last week’s Paris attacks, they have mostly hit empty buildings.

US sticks to anti-Assad strategy in Syria, won’t share intel with Russia

Kerry: US Will ‘Neutralize’ ISIS Quicker Than It Did al-Qaeda

In comments that will only raise new questions about the administration’s view of foreign policy, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters he believes the US will be able to “neutralize” ISIS much more quickly than it was able to do so with al-Qaeda.

“It took us quite a few years before we were able to eliminate Osama bin Laden and the top leadership and neutralize them as an effective force,” Kerry insisted, which raises the rather surprising suggestion that al-Qaeda, still active around the world, is “neutralized” in the administration’s view.

This is a truly excellent article, well worth reading in full, here is a small taste:

Lost on the ‘Dark Side’ in Syria

When, in early August, the Pentagon’s former highest ranking intelligence official, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, said that it had been a “willful decision” by the “West” to back the establishment of “a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria” in order to bring pressure on the Syrian government, and then went on to confirm that the recently declassified 2012 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report on the rise of ISIS in Syria, had explicitly warned of the possibility of “an Islamic State” being declared “through a union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria,” there was almost silence in the mainstream media.

No one wanted to touch the “live wire” of possible U.S. collusion with Caliphate forces. ...

The “mess” that the West is in is apparent to all across the region: the U.S. and its allies are both ostensibly “at war” with head-chopping, radical Sunni forces, and “in bed” with them, at the same time. ...

The roots to U.S. ambivalence towards fired-up radical Sunni Islam (as I have previously noted) lie primarily with the group of American neoconservatives who formed an influential “Cold-Warrior” nexus around Vice President Dick Cheney, and who were obsessed with rolling-back Soviet influence in the Middle East, and in overturning the Arab socialist-nationalist states who were viewed both as Soviet clients, and as threats to Israel.

David Wurmser, Cheney’s Middle East adviser, stressed (in 1996) that “limiting and expediting the chaotic collapse” of Ba’athism must be America’s foremost priority in the region. Secular-Arab nationalism should be given no quarter, not even, he added, for the sake of stemming the tide of Islamic fundamentalism.

In setting the destruction of secular nationalism as its overwhelming priority, America by default found itself compelled to be allied with the Gulf Kings and Emirs who traditionally have resorted to Sunni jihadism as the inoculation against democracy.

Later in the above article, the author cites this 1998 interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski. It's also worth a peek:

Brzezinski: How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen

Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. ... Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. ...

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

Brzezinski: Nonsense!

Hypocrisy Dressed Up as "Realism" Justifies American Alliance with Saudi Dictatorship

"Give me liberty or... a really nice cage?"

Billionaire Hillary Supporter Haim Saban: I'm Not Suggesting We Torture Muslims, but They Should Be Scrutinized

Haim Saban, the American-Israeli media mogul, has told the Los-Angeles based entertainment and website The Wrap that the United States should intensify its scrutiny of Muslims following last Friday's deadly wave of terrorist attacks in Paris.

"I'm not suggesting we put Muslims through some kind of torture room to get them to admit they are or they're not terrorists," he is quoted as telling The Wrap in a story posted Wednesday, "but I am saying we should have more scrutiny." Suggesting that some civil liberties may need to be suspended in the face of security threats, he asked rhetorically: "You want to be free and dead? I'd rather be not free and alive."

French Muslims Resist the Lure of Fear

As French police continue to search for suspected terrorists, many of France’s 6 million Muslims have an additional anxiety. Not only are they reeling from Friday’s attacks, but many within the Muslim community anticipate a surge in racial profiling by the police, as well as hate crimes and violence by ordinary citizens.

“The minute something like this happens, everyone thinks it is us,” said Nora Boukhari, a 39-year-old former police officer of Algerian descent living in the heavily North African 20th arrondissement of Paris. ... The aftermath of the November 13 attacks brought Boukhari back to 10 months ago, when masked gunmen stormed the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 11 members of its staff. After the attack, divisions within French society arose almost immediately, with those claiming solidarity with the slain journalists claiming “Je suis Charlie” and those critiquing the racist nature of the cartoons saying, “Je ne suis pas Charlie” — I am not Charlie.

“It is not the same as the Charlie Hebdo attacks,” said Khalil Merroun, an imam in Évry-Courcouronnes, ... “This time the terrorists were targeting the diversity in French society — including French Muslims,” he continued. ...

While the Islamic State’s goal of creating animosity toward Muslim communities is working in other countries, it has been less effective in France. Though mosques in the United States and Canada have experienced threats, and arson attempts, damage to mosques in France has been minimal following last Friday’s attacks. As the United States attempts to use the attacks in Paris as an excuse to further limit entry to Syrian refugees seeking asylum, President Francois Hollande announced that in spite of the recent attacks he will honor his commitment to take in thousands more refugees — with extensive security checks — over the next two years.

“Our country has a duty to uphold this promise,” the French president announced in an address on Wednesday. “We have to reinforce our borders while remaining true to our values.”

A remarkable amount of the stoopid has been released into the public mind. Can America survive?

Muslim databases and 'rabid dogs': Trump, Carson and GOP in explosion of rhetoric over Syrians

The race for the Republican nomination for the White House took a new turn in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks on Thursday as the front-runner, Donald Trump, called for a database to track Muslims living in the United States, while his closest rival, Ben Carson, suggested refugees of the Syrian conflict should be screened as they might be “rabid dogs”. ...

A week after attackers linked with the Islamic State group killed 132 people in Paris, the simmering political debate in the United States rose to a boil, with Trump, Carson, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and others floating new proposals they said would protect the United States from such an event.

Earlier in the week Cruz and Bush proposed a religious test for refugees from Syria – only about 2,200 of whom have entered the United States in the last four years after extensive security vetting – saying that Christian applicants should be prioritized.

By Thursday a religious test for refugees had become a religious test for all Americans for one Republican candidate, with Trump telling reporters he would “absolutely” implement a database of American Muslims and unspecified other measures.

“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump told NBC between town hall appearances in Iowa. “There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases,” he added. “We should have a lot of systems. And today you can do it.”

Asked whether there would be a sign-up at mosques, Trump said: “Different places. You sign them up at different places. It’s all about management.”

Asked how the practice of registering Muslims would be different from registering Jews in Nazi Germany, Trump said: “You tell me.”

CNN suspends journalist over tweet disapproving of bill to keep out Syrian refugees

House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish @CNNPolitics https://t.co/5RvZwVftgD

— Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) November 19, 2015

CNN has suspended a journalist after she sent a disapproving tweet about the House of Representatives passing a bill seeking to halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the US.

Global affairs correspondent Elise Labott has been stood down for two weeks after tweeting out a CNN story written by Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett with the comment: “Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish.”

Congressworm of the week: Rep. Scott Perry R-Pa

Congressman Chides Refugees, Says If He Were Syrian, He Would Stay and Fight

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., appearing on talk radio this week to discuss his opposition to resettling Syrian refugees, said the “first thing” that needs to be done is to “get away from” referring to the individuals fleeing Syria as “refugees.”

Perry explained that while “some of them” are leaving a civil war, he would have stayed.

“With all due respect, if there’s a civil war in my country, I stay and fight for my country,” Perry said during a discussion with Clarence M. Mitchell IV, known as “C4,” the host of a program carried by WBAL radio in Baltimore.

“There is absolutely no reason they need to be coming to America,” Perry continued.

81% of Isis-linked suspects charged in US are American citizens

As politicians rush to curb refugee intake, research reveals 55 of 68 people indicted over alleged Isis ties were born in US and none came from Syria

None of the Isis-linked suspects who have ever been charged in the United States came from Syria and the overwhelming majority were born in the US, research reveals.

Sixty-eight people have been indicted because of alleged involvement in Isis, of whom 18 have been convicted, with an average sentence of 10 years three months, according to figures published this week by Center on National Security at Fordham University.

Yet despite a growing political clamour over a perceived security threat posed by an influx of Syrian refugees, the data shows that only three of those indicted in connection with Isis was a refugee or asylum seeker; none came from Syria.

Instead 55, or 80.9%, of the individuals concerned are US citizens, including 44 who were born in America. The rest include six born in Bosnia, four in Uzbekistan, three in Somalia and two in Sudan. Fifty-eight are men and 10 are women. The average age is 26 and around a third are under 21.

The typical alleged Islamic State adherent is intent on fighting abroad rather than plotting attacks at home, research shows.

Judge rules to release video of Chicago teen being shot 16 times by police

A Cook County judge ruled on Thursday that a video allegedly showing a black teenager being shot 16 times and killed by a Chicago police officer last year should be released.

After his ruling, Judge Frank Valderrama heard arguments from the city to hold the video’s release until an appeal, but denied its motion, saying that the city could not deny the footage under exemptions outlined in the state’s Freedom of Information Act. ...

A police spokesman told to the Chicago Sun-Times that officers found McDonald “with a strange gaze about him” and carrying a four-inch knife, which he used, when confronted by officers, to slash a tire of a squad car and damage its windshield before fleeing on foot.

The officers pursued McDonald and a different squad car joined the pursuit, attempting to box in the teenager by a fence, the police union has said. McDonald allegedly refused requests to drop his knife and began approaching officers, officials have said.

According to the police union, an unnamed officer, fearing for his life, began firing shots at McDonald.

An autopsy report from the Cook County medical examiner’s office showed that McDonald was shot 16 times, at least twice in the back.

In April 2015, the FBI announced a joint investigation with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, into the shooting.

Two days later, the city council approved a $5m settlement for McDonald family, though they had not filed a lawsuit. Chicago’s corporation counsel, Stephen Patton, said the dashboard-camera footage had prompted the city’s decision to settle.

Detroit-area ‘RoboCop’ found guilty in beating of unarmed black man

A former Detroit-area police officer has been found guilty in the January beating of an unarmed black man – a case that drew national attention for footage of the incident and comparisons to the 1991 assault of Rodney King in Los Angeles.

The officer, William Melendez, 47, was convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and misconduct in office. He was not found guilty of a third charge, assault by strangulation.

The trial caps a law enforcement career for Melendez that included a litany of accusations in lawsuits and a federal indictment of planting evidence, wrongfully killing civilians, falsifying police reports and conducting illegal arrest. At one point, he received more citizen complaints than any officer in Detroit, where he started his career in 1993 and served until his resignation in 2009. His conduct cost the city of Detroit millions in legal settlements.

But it was video depicting a beating of Floyd Dent during a routine traffic stop in the Detroit suburb of Inkster that brought Melendez his starkest punishment yet, and led to his firing.

Police and protesters clash during Jamar Clark protests as NAACP plans response

As protests in Minneapolis intensified over the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced a planned candlelight vigil and march for Friday, which their leaders would attend. ...

On Wednesday afternoon, police demolished part of a makeshift camp that protesters had erected outside the police precinct near the site where Clark was shot. Protesters have blocked the entrance to the precinct since Sunday. As the afternoon turned to night, a tense standoff ensued. Protesters surrounded the precinct compound, and held up tarpaulins to protect themselves from chemical irritant sprays being used by police.

Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison posted a picture on Twitter showing his son being confronted at the protest by police holding a weapon.

Photo is agonizing for me to see. My son is PEACEFULLY protesting w/ hands up; officer is shouldering gun. Why? https://t.co/TTUBR0fxtS

— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) November 19, 2015

In a press conference on Thursday, Nekima Levy-Pounds, the president of the Minneapolis branch of the NAACP, one of the US’s oldest civil rights group, and one of the protest’s leaders, said that two female protesters were “beaten in an alley” by police, and that the incident had been caught on video. She condemned the “militarisation of the police force”, and called for it to be placed under federal control.

Argentina's presidential run-off vote could bring political shift to Latin America

Argentina is gearing up for its first-ever presidential run-off on Sunday, a vote with regional ramifications for the progressive, leftwing movements that have dominated Latin American politics for the past decade.

Polls indicate centre-right opposition candidate Mauricio Macri leads the ruling camp candidate Daniel Scioli, suggesting the political tide could be about to turn in the region’s fourth most populous nation. ...

Regardless of who wins, the election will mark at least a temporary end to rule by the Kirchners, which started with former president Néstor Kirchner in 2003. His widow and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who took over in 2007, has been a vocal critic of capitalism, globalisation and neoliberalism. When she steps down on 10 December, like-minded leaders in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia will lose a prominent ally.

Scioli belongs to the same party, but he is closer to the political centre and more inclined to build ties with wealthy nations – a middling stance that is part of the reason why he has struggled to inherit the popularity of Fernández despite her endorsement.

Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, would take Argentina in a different direction. He has promised to make the country more appealing to foreign investors by curbing inflation and mending ties with hold-out creditors – referred to as “vulture funds” by Kirchner – who have rejected the country’s previous efforts to restructure its debt. Critics say he is a rightwing, free-market advocate who will erode welfare programs and government support for social movements. ...

When it comes to foreign affairs, however, Macri is unequivocally opposed to Kirchner’s policies. As well as taking a less confrontational position on the Falkland Islands dispute with the United Kingdom and a less friendly stance towards Iran, he has been openly critical of the support Argentina has given in recent years to Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and Cuba’s Raúl Castro. ...

“A Macri victory would signal a political change in the region,” said Rafael Duarte Villa, a political scientist at the University of São Paulo. “The left-wing governments that have been in power for the last 10 to 12 years could be substituted by more liberal governments.”

More Mexicans Are Leaving the US Than Entering

As Donald Trump vows to shield America from a deluge of Mexican migrants, he may be a bit flabbergasted by this fact: More Mexicans have actually left the States than entered it in recent years.

The US saw a net decrease in Mexican residents from 2009 to 2014, a report by the Pew Hispanic Center reveals. The trend marks a major shift in migration patterns by the largest foreign population in the US. There was a net decrease of 140,000 residents in the five years to 2014, compared with a net increase of 2,270,000 from 1995 to 2000.

Fewer Mexicans entered the country partly because of the US recession in the early part of the period examined, while there was a boom in Mexico's economy.

"There were a lot less jobs particularly in construction, which made people go back to Mexico but also made it less attractive to come here," the author of the Pew report, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, said. ...

According to immigration scholars, the Pew findings confirm similar research from recent years. A recent report by the Census Bureau found more Asians than Latin Americans were migrating to the US, until in 2013 China replaced Mexico as the top country sending immigrants to the United States. Other data shows illegal border crossings into the US, although hard to measure by their nature, may have hit a 40-year low. Since 2007, immigration from Mexico has steadily decreased.

Hang Onto Your Wallets: Negative Interest, the War on Cash and the $10 Trillion Bail-in

Four European central banks – the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank, Sweden’s Riksbank, and Denmark’s Nationalbank – have now imposed negative interest rates on the reserves they hold for commercial banks; and discussion has turned to whether it’s time to pass those costs on to consumers. The Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve are still at ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy), but several Fed officials have also begun calling for NIRP (negative rates).

The stated justification for this move is to stimulate “demand” by forcing consumers to withdraw their money and go shopping with it. When an economy is struggling, it is standard practice for a central bank to cut interest rates, making saving less attractive. This is supposed to boost spending and kick-start an economic recovery. ...

The problem with imposing negative interest on savers, as explained in the UK Telegraph, is that “there’s a limit, what economists called the ‘zero lower bound’. Cut rates too deeply, and savers would end up facing negative returns. In that case, this could encourage people to take their savings out of the bank and hoard them in cash. This could slow, rather than boost, the economy.”

Again, to the ordinary observer, this would seem to signal that negative interest rates won’t work and the approach needs to be abandoned. But not to our undaunted central bankers, who have chosen instead to plug this hole in their leaky theory by moving to eliminate cash as an option. If your only choice is to keep your money in a digital account in a bank and spend it with a bank card or credit card or checks, negative interest can be imposed with impunity. This is already happening in Sweden, and other countries are close behind.

As reported on Wolfstreet.com:

The War on Cash is advancing on all fronts. One region that has hogged the headlines with its war against physical currency is Scandinavia. Sweden became the first country to enlist its own citizens as largely willing guinea pigs in a dystopian economic experiment: negative interest rates in a cashless society. As Credit Suisse reports, no matter where you go or what you want to purchase, you will find a small ubiquitous sign saying “Vi hanterar ej kontanter” (“We don’t accept cash”) . . . .

The scheme to impose negative interest and eliminate cash seems so unlikely to stimulate the economy that one wonders if that is the real motive. Stopping tax evaders and terrorists (real or presumed) are other proposed justifications for going cashless. Economist Martin Armstrong goes further and suggests that the goal is to gain totalitarian control over our money. In a cashless society, our savings can be taxed away by the banks; the threat of bank runs by worried savers can be eliminated; and the too-big-to-fail banks can be assured that ample deposits will be there when they need to confiscate them through bail-ins to stay afloat.

What Exactly Is a Democratic Socialist? Bernie Sanders Offers His Take

Bernie Sanders wants America to know that his brand of politics isn't your grandpa's or even your father's socialism.

The 74-year-old self-styled "democratic socialist" delivered a long-awaited speech at Georgetown University in Washington, DC on Thursday to outline the policies underpinning the ideology that is driving his surprising presidential election campaign.

"My view of democratic socialism builds on the success of many other countries around the world who have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of the working families, the elderly citizens, children, the sick, and poor," he told a crowd of mostly 20-something students. "Economic rights must be a central part of what America stands for.... This is not a radical idea, it is a conservative idea. It is an idea and practice that exists in every other major country on earth."

Throughout the nearly hour-long speech, Sanders repeatedly evoked Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he credited with implementing progressive policies and reviving concepts — including the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, collective bargaining, strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, job programs, and the abolition of child labor — that he noted were "defined as socialist" at the time.

"Real freedom must include economic security," Sanders said. "It is a vision that we have not yet achieved. It is time that we did." ...

"Next time you hear me attacked as a socialist — like tomorrow," he said with a grin, "remember this: I don't believe government should take over the grocery shop down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe the middle class and working class of this country, who produce the wealth of this country, deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down."

The Pentagon and Bernie Sanders Agree: Terrorism Linked to Climate Change

Hillary Clinton calls for more ground troops as part of hawkish Isis strategy

Hillary Clinton distanced herself from Barack Obama’s strategy for defeating Islamic State extremists on Thursday in a sweeping foreign policy speech that called for greater use of American ground troops and an intensified air campaign.

Though ruling out deploying the tens of thousands of US troops seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, the former of secretary of state made clear she would take a notably more hawkish approach than the current administration if she is elected president. ...

The extensive but nuanced speech singled out coalition efforts against Isis in Iraq for particular implied criticism, urging that US troops be given “greater flexibility” to embed with Iraqi troops on the frontline and target airstrikes. She also said the US should arm Sunni tribes and Kurds in the country if the government in Baghdad refused to.

But Clinton called for further US special forces to be deployed to Syria too, reiterated her call for a no-fly zone and demanded an “intelligence surge” to allow the airstrikes against Isis to be stepped up. “We have a lot of work to do to really decimate Isil in Iraq and Syria,” she said, using an alternate name for Isis.

Clinton also used the speech to attack a number of key allies, including Turkey and the Gulf states for not doing enough to tackle fundamentalism.

Hillary Clinton’s Road to War

She’s the Democratic version of Chris Christie and Marco Rubio combined

Hillary Clinton promised us a speech on what she’d do to destroy ISIS, but what she gave us was a speech detailing how she would destroy Syria – and drag the US down the road to another unwinnable war. What she essentially proposes is that we fight a three-sided battle – against ISIS, on the one hand, and against Bashar al-Assad, Russia, and Iran on the other.

She elaborated on her “no-fly zone” scheme, saying she wanted to set it up only in the north. This means not only that the US air force will be protecting the “moderate” Syrian rebels – a coalition of US-supported head-choppers and al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda – but also preventing Russian warplanes from flying over the huge swath of territory in the north controlled by the Islamic State – including Raqqa, their capital. So how does she intend to keep Putin out of the skies over Raqqa – by shooting down Russian planes, Chris Christie-style?

Signaling that her main focus is still overthrowing Assad, rather than fighting ISIS, Clinton averred that Putin is “making things somewhat worse.” Yet the Russians have been pulverizing ISIS, pushing them back on every front – and there is evidence that the terrorists’ increasing desperation in the face of this merciless onslaught provoked the Paris attacks. The snake lashes out one more time before it is decapitated. Francois Hollande seems to understand the importance of enlisting Russia in the anti-ISIS coalition, but Hillary is intransigent on the subject of Assad, thus ruling out any real cooperation with Moscow.

Incredibly, Clinton called for another “Arab Awakening,” signaling that under her reign the US will continue to play the “Sunni card,” arming the “moderate” Islamist rebels, and even encouraging insurrection among Iraqi Sunnis and Kurdish ultra-nationalists. “Baghdad needs to accept, even embrace, arming Sunni and Kurdish forces in the war against ISIS,” she declared. “But if Baghdad won’t do that, the coalition should do so directly.”

There is no limit to this woman’s arrogance: here she is openly proclaiming her contempt for Iraq’s sovereignty and all but declaring war on the central government in Baghdad – a government thousands of Americans died to install.

And while abjuring the need for 100,000 US ground forces, Clinton would increase the number of US Special Forces and “embed” them in greater numbers with “indigenous forces.” In other words, she would escalate the US presence gradually, Vietnam war-style, so as not to alarm the American public, which wants no part of another war in
the Middle East. So it’s time to dust off her plan – rejected by the Obama administration – to arm and fund the “moderate” Islamist opposition on a large scale.

Rubio's paltry foreign policy track record gives him an edge over Hillary Clinton

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll gets to the heart of the problem: while 60% of Americans think the US should do more to fight the Islamic State, only a small majority would support the use of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. A full 65% oppose Obama’s move to send special forces to the region; 76% voice opposition to boots on the ground, or deploying ground troops.

The political reality in the US of the Paris attacks is that support for fighting terrorists coexists with opposition for any real-world policy solutions. And since there are no simple solutions to the problems presented by Isis, no presidential candidate wants to tell the American public that there’s nothing to be done – or that nobody knows what precisely to do.

That atmosphere makes life very good for Marco Rubio and other top conservatives who can criticize Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton while offering nothing more than vague plans about coming together with international allies.

Clinton, meanwhile, has the particulars of her record – specifically, why Isis grew so strong on her watch – to answer for. And she can’t distance herself too much from a president still popular with their shared base, even on foreign policy where she may want to do so.

Serving for four years as Obama’s secretary of state was supposed to be one of Clinton’s greatest strengths on the trail but, as opponents have continued to tie her to Obama’s foreign policy in the wake of Paris, it’s emerged as a point of vulnerability, which she’s yet to effectively counter.

Heat Building on Exxon as Multiple Probes Explore Climate Cover-Up

As the world gets hotter, climate activists are turning up the heat on ExxonMobil, the big oil giant they say bears responsibility not only for the ever-worsening climate crisis, but for perpetuating the "most consequential lie in human history."

Amid a growing push for the corporation to be held accountable for its climate crimes, a coalition of activists was in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to deliver 360,000 petitions demanding a Department of Justice probe into what ExxonMobil knew about global warming—and how far it went to cover up its role in the phenomenon. This appeal comes on top of calls for a Congressional inquiry and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation.

"Over the course of nearly forty years, the company has contributed millions of dollars to think-tanks and politicians that have done their best to spread doubt and misinformation—first on the existence of climate change, then the extent of the problem, and now its cause," reads the petition, circulated by groups including 350.org, CREDO, and Climate Parents. "If Exxon intentionally misled the public about climate change and fossil fuels, then they should be held accountable." ...

The petition delivery comes on the heels of a high-profile open letter calling on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to follow the "remarkable roadmap to this corporation’s potential misconduct," provided by reporting in the LA Times and Inside Climate News. It was that reporting that led 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben to hold a one-man civil disobedience action that drew public attention to the scandal. A similar one-man action was held Wednesday night.

Emergency Lawsuit Filed To Fight FDA Approval of 'Frankenfish'

At least one consumer advocacy group announced immediate plans to sue the FDA over its approval of AquaBounty's GMO salmon, which is now set to become the first genetically engineered food animal in the world.

"The fallout from this decision will have enormous impact on the environment," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety (CFS). The organization was left with no other choice, he added, "but to file suit to stop the introduction of this dangerous contaminant."

Conservation group Food & Water Watch also called on President Barack Obama to overturn the FDA's approval.

Dwindling Snowpack Around the World Threatens the Water Supply for 2 Billion People

As global warming brings about a decline in snowpacks around the world, billions of people face a high risk of shrinking water supplies in the coming century, a recent study has found.

Scientists from Stanford University and Columbia University's Earth Institute said that if greenhouse gas emissions continue along their current trajectory, about 97 snow-dependent basins would face more than 67 percent chance of their water supplies declining, potentially impacting spring and summer water availability for nearly 2 billion people. ...

The areas projected to be worst hit by dwindling snowpack are the San Joaquin basin in Western United States, the Colorado River basin that spans several US states and Mexico, and the Syr Darya basin of Central Asia.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

As France Bombs ISIS, Civilians Are Caught in the Middle

Research Paper: ISIS-Turkey Links

The National Security State’s Incestuous Relationship With ISIS

How Isis attack in Paris changed the landscape of militancy

How sex, spying and Bobby Jindal ruined David Vitter's run for Louisiana governor

Donald Trump's bigotry against Muslims has safety implications we can't ignore

Spaniards aim for a new democracy and end to Franco's long shadow

An FBI Informant Seduced Eric McDavid Into a Bomb Plot. Then the Government Lied About It.

The Statue of Liberty was originally conceived to be Muslim

A Little Night Music

Syl Johnson - Take Me To The River

Syl Johnson - Come On, Sock It To Me

Syl Johnson - That's Just My Luck

Syl Johnson - Is It Because I'm Black

Syl Johnson - Little Sally Walker

Syl Johnson - I Feel an Urge

Syl Johnson - Different Strokes

Syl Johnson - Right On part 1 & 2

Syl Johnson - Dresses Too Short

Syl Johnson - Get Ready

Syl Johnson - Straight Love No Chaser

Syl Johnson - Don't Do It

Syl Johnson - Thank You Baby

Syl Johnson - Stuck in Chicago

Syl Johnson - Sockin Soul Power

Syl Johnson - Ode To Soul Man

Syl Johnson - (She's So Fine) I Just Gotta Make Her Mine

Syl Johnson - Any Way The Wind Blows

Syl Johnson - I'll Take Those Skinny Legs

Syl Johnson with Hi Rhythm - Back in the Game

Syl Johnson with Hi Rhythm - Driving Wheel