Global Policy Dominated by Elites?

Source: RT

Income inequality has been on the rise on a global scale. Currently there are two global forums that are discussing possible solutions to close that gap. Some believe that the one percent is in Davos while on the other hand World Social Forum is more for the 99 percent. But is there really a difference? Mike Norman, chief economist at John Thomas Financial, joins us to take a deeper look.

Panetta: Military Spending Is Going Up

Source: Global Research
David Swanson

On Thursday, Leon Panetta held a press conference announcing what he called "cuts" to military spending.  The first question following his remarks pointed out that the "cuts" are to dream budgets, while the actual spending will be increased over Panetta's 10-year plan.  Is there any year, the reporter asked, out of the 10 years in question, other than the first one, 2013, in which spending will actually decrease at all.  Panetta replied that he was proposing really truly to cut the projected dream budgets that he had hoped for.  In other words, he did not answer the question.

Now, there are additional minor cuts "on the table" as the saying goes, cuts that Panetta has described as disastrous, cuts that would take U.S. military spending back to about 2007 levels, cut nowhere close to what a majority of the country favors.  (How we survived 2007 and all the years preceding it has never been explained.)  Earlier this week, Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee sent President Obama a video denouncing these cuts.  They are, of course, the cuts mandated by the legislation that created the Super Committee, which failed, resulting in supposedly automatic cuts.

The video (available here) is itself packed with lies.  It falsely claims that cuts have already been made.  It uses dollar figures derived from lumping 10 years of budgets together to make cuts sound 10 times larger.  It pretends the automatic cuts would all be to the military, whereas many could be to the State Department and other subsidiary arms of the military.  These Republicans propose slashing 10% of non-military government jobs and describe this as saving jobs, even though non-military spending produces more jobs for the same dollars than military spending does.  And of course there is no mention in this video or in any official discussion of exactly how outrageously huge the U.S. military has become.  But a crazy video, and a bill to go with it, can not only pass the House and make its way into the Senate (Senator John McCain is already working on companion legislation), but the President is already in agreement with this bill's primary purpose of undoing any actual cuts to the military.  The history of lame duck officials, by the way, is that of becoming less, not more, representative of the public will. Caveat emptor!

In 2004, three times in three debates Senator John McCain proposed cutting military spending and Obama avoided the topic. Candidate Obama proposed significantly enlarging the largest military the world had ever seen.  And he has done so.  He now proposes not to cut it while pretending to cut it.  The best bit of rhetoric in this week's State of the Union address was this:

"Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home."

Under NDAA, Obama Can Release Death Sqauds on Americans

Source: Infowars

Alex interviews Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, about the NDAA and the impending war to be waged against Iran.

BREAKING NEWS: Putin accuses America of attempts to "Dominate the World"

Source: Itar Tas

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States of attempts to dominate the world and challenging internal political procedures in other countries as a tool for achieving that goal.

He spoke about foreign policy at the end of his meeting with Tomsk students that lasted about 3.5 hours on Wednesday, January 25. One of them asked Putin what could be the reasons for the negative Western reaction to the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan.

“The reason is the U.S. foreign policy doctrine. They want to control everything...sometimes I have the impression that the United States does not need allies, that it needs vassals,” the prime minister said.

“They are not prepared to cooperate on real terms either with Europe or us. Cooperation on equal terms means determining threats together and working out a system of response to them together. They reject that flatly,” he said, referring to the missile defence system the U.S. is building in Europe.

According to Putin, one of the American ways to influence other countries is to “doubt everything and say that you do not meet certain standards” but “they work out these standards themselves”.

The Russian authorities are ready to cooperate with public organisations in the country but will not allow them to turn into a tool for external influence, Putin said.

“An attempt to use our non-governmental organisations by foreign states in their own interests for securing their own foreign policy goals with regard to our country must entail rejection. This must not be allowed to happen,” he said.

“The authorities must respond and listen, no matter what they say and how abuse their language may be. It’s indecent, but all the same [we] must listen to them,” Putin said. “The only thing we must not allow is allowing anyone to use anything inside the country for achieving their own foreign policy goals with regard to our country.”

Speaking of the elections in Kazakhstan, he recalled that the number of parties represented in the national parliament has increased from one to three. “That’s a step forward. That’s good,” he said.

Will the Young Rise Up and Fight Their Indentured Servitude to the Student Loan Industry?

Source: AlterNet
Bruce E. Levine

The solution to class exploitation and abuse is always the same: Get conscious, get angry, get energized, and get organized.

In October 2011, the White House announced, “Currently, more than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt.” By the end of 2011, student loan debt had exceeded $1 trillion. Two-thirds of college seniors graduate with student loans, including over 62 percent of public university graduates.

According to the Project on Student Loan Debt, they carried an average of $25,250 in debt in 2010, but many have far greater debt than that average. And nowadays, with high unemployment, even higher underemployment, the inability to pay bills, and accumulating interest and penalties, the lives of student loan debtors can quickly turn into financial nightmares.  

Indentured Servitude? I’ll be paying for my student loans for the rest of my life....A large portion of my earnings goes to the Wall Street elites that have commoditized and securitized my loans....I knew at the time I signed the student loans (again and again) that I would be responsible...what I didn’t figure was the cost to my children —Jeff Vincent, AlterNet 

How outlandish is it to say that the spirit of indentured servitude has been revived in the United States? What can young people and their parents do to prevent student loan debt servitude, and what can all of us do to help liberate student loan debtors who are currently doomed to decades of financial misery? 

Colonial Indentured Servants and Modern Student Loan Debtors

In colonial America, historians estimate that between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants arrived as indentured servants. Indentured servants in England were in servitude typically for one year, while indenture in America was typically four to seven years. Today in the United States, student debt is an even longer debt commitment than colonial indentured servitude. The standard Stafford federal loan is, for example, 15 years, and with waivers and refinancing, it is not uncommon for Americans to be paying off student loans well into middle age. 

24 Facts That Show How Ridiculously Unfair Our Economy Is For Americans Under The Age Of 30

Source: The American Dream
Michael Snyder

If you are an American under the age of 30, you have probably figured out by now that the entire economic system is stacked against you.  The way that our economy is structured today is ridiculously unfair to younger Americans.  First, we endlessly push our young people to go to our ridiculously expensive colleges and universities where the pile up enormous amounts of debt.  Then they get out into the real world where they find that only a handful of really good jobs are available for the vast army of college graduates entering the workforce.  Sadly, most of the jobs that our young people are working these days do not pay enough to be able to support a family or buy a decent home.  Meanwhile, our politicians are busy mortgaging their future.  Our young people are expected to support a Social Security system that will not be there when they get older, and every single day more than 2 billion dollars is added to a debt that will hang around the necks of younger Americans and their children for the rest of their lives.  If you stop and think about all of this for too long, your head might just explode with anger.  Well, not literally, but you get the point.  The truth is that this is going to be the first generation in U.S. history that is going to do significantly worse than their parents, and that is a terrible shame.

Are you not convinced that things are really bad for younger Americans?

Do you think that they should just shut up and quit whining about things?

Well, keep reading.  You just might change your mind by the time this article is over.
The following are 24 facts that show how ridiculously unfair our economy is for Americans under the age of 30 that will make your head explode....

#1 U.S. households led by someone 65 years of age or older are 47 times wealthier than U.S. households led by someone 35 years of age or younger.

#2 Today, only about 55 percent of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have a job.

#3 Back in the year 2000, more than 50 percent of all Americans teens had a job.  This past summer, only 29.6% of all American teens had a job.

#4 Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.

#5 It is absolutely ridiculous how much it costs to get a college education in America today.  After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are now borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

President Obama's State of the Union: Ten Skirted Issues

Source: The Intel Hub
Nomi Prins

I confess; I expected to be bored out of my mind listening to President Obama’s campaign – I mean, State of the Union – I mean campaign, speech.

I kept hoping some truly earth shattering story would sneak in there beforehand, like say some discovery that Mitt Romney had been having an affair with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife while he was creating jobs at Bain capital, and we could all focus on that instead.

It turned out that my pre-determination proved accurate. I wonder if the members of Congress felt the same sense of same déjà vu that I did, as they were bopping up and down and applauding.

Obama’s speech was a compilation of highlights from his past ones. One part optimism, two parts repetition equals one total uninspiring. Maybe it’s so boring, because it matters so little at this point.

Taking away popularity polls, our national threshold for belief in hope or change has been trampled, not just because of Obama or Romney, but of the whole political apparatus that thrives on deflection of reality and posturing.

We don’t have the same energy to expend listening to politicians, the endless spin that renders fact obsolete, responsibility absent, and true accomplishment, unnecessary.

We saw Optimistic Obama in his first address to Congress in 2009: “While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”

We got Presumptuous Obama in 2010: “As we stabilized the financial system, we also took steps to get our economy growing again, save as many jobs as possible, and help Americans who had become unemployed.”

We watched Philosophical Obama in 2011: “We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea -– the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny.  That’s why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here… The future is ours to win.”

Now, we had Campaigning on Fairness Obama. He returned to the roots of his pre-Presidential words, having accomplished little to attain the goal that his words implied. Here are ten things that President Obama skirted:

Fukushima Saga, Seal 6 Psyop, Preppers - New World Next Week

Source: Corbett Report and Media Monarchy


Welcome to the 100th episode of New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:

Story#1: Who Knew What When? The Fukushima Saga Continues
http://ur1.ca/7spje
Calgary Sun: Fukushima fallout hit home
http://ur1.ca/7sx0o

Story#2: Nine Dead, Hostages Saved – SEAL Team 6 Does It Again
http://ur1.ca/7spk6
Obama State of the Union 2012 Transcript
http://ur1.ca/7spkq
Related: Inside Story of the UK’s Secret Mission to Beat Gaddafi
http://ur1.ca/7spkt

Story#3: Subculture of Americans Prepares for Civilization’s Collapse
http://ur1.ca/7spla
Video Flashback: In Hard Times, Some Flirt With Survivalism
http://ur1.ca/7splc

Previous Episode: SOPA Backout, SCOTUS Copywrong, Abuse Archives
http://ur1.ca/7spld

ALERT: World War III Imminent

Source: GreeneWave






A recent embargo by Europe and the United States all but assures a Pearl Harbor style retaliation by Iran. WW3 here we come!

Empire, Power, and People with Andrew Gavin Marshall - Episode 3

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
Andrew Gavin Marshall

Punishing the Population: The United States in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

This podcast episode examines the early 20th century United States military occupations of Haiti (1915-1934) and the Dominican Republic (1916-1924), undertaken as an imposition of the Monroe Doctrine (1823) declaring Latin America as the “backyard” of the United States. The ruthless military occupations, inflamed by racism, supported by the media, and undertaken by the ruthlessly imperialistic and racist politicians who are today celebrated as champions of ‘democracy,’ resulted in the strengthening of state structures, establishment of brutal militaries, and exploitation by American corporations and banks, leading to the establishment of military dictatorships which dominated these countries for much of their recent history, while American economic interests reigned supreme. These incidents provide a brief, yet illuminating look at the nature of American imperialism as it progressed throughout the 20th century.

Corbett Report Radio - FBI Blackballing with Jason Leopold

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

James talks to Jason Leopold of truth-out.org about his recent report: “Revealed: The FBI’s Secretive Practice of ‘Blackballing’ Files.” Leopold reveals (yet another) trick the FBI has been using to hide records from FOIA requests, a practice called “blackballing” that has never been previously disclosed. We also discuss the case of former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was recently charged by the DOJ for leaking classified information.

Monsanto: No Need for Testing, Pre-Crime, SOPA and More - Infowars Nightly News

Source: Infowars

UK Gears Up for Iran Face Off

Source: PressTV

UK Defense Secretary Philip Hammond says Britain could send military reinforcements to the Persian Gulf in the wake of a military confrontation with Iran.

Speaking at a press conference in London on Tuesday, he said two British and French warships and the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln had entered the Persian Gulf on Sunday. 

Hammond added that the decision to send British HMS Argyll sent a "clear signal" to Tehran, The Telegraph reported. 

When asked if more resources could be sent, Hammond said, "The UK has a contingent capability to reinforce that presence should at any time it be considered necessary to do so." 

UK defense ministry declined to offer further details on what assets and personnel are currently in the Persian Gulf. 

Anti-Iran measures and war rhetoric provoked by the United States and its Western allies are aimed to deny Iran's right of having peaceful nuclear program. 

Iran, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has the legal right to develop nuclear capability for civilian purposes. 

Iran's nuclear facilities are under the constant surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) cameras. The agency's inspectors have repeatedly traveled to Iran and inspected the country's nuclear sites and held talks with officials at the sites. A high-ranking delegation of IAEA negotiators is also scheduled to visit Iran on Saturday, January 28. 

Information obtained by the IAEA inspectors during visits to Iran's nuclear sites has been abused, and the leakage of confidential information by the UN nuclear agency to the Western countries and the Israeli regime has led to all the recent assassination attempts against Iranian nuclear scientists. 

Tehran Pushes to Ditch the US Dollar

Source: Casey Research
Marin Katusa - Chief Energy Investment Strategist
Casey Research

Report: India and Iran are hammering out a deal to trade oil for gold 

Rumors are swirling that India and Iran are at the negotiating table right now, hammering out a deal to trade oil for gold. Why does that matter, you ask? Only because it strikes at the heart of both the value of the US dollar and today's high-tension standoff with Iran.

The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran's oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles.

But that line doesn't make sense, and the sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated and its friends – like India – will stand by the oil-producing nation until the US either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.

The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the US dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil, and from that monopoly on the all-important oil trade the US dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for US dollars ensued, pushing the dollar's value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess US dollars savings in US Treasuries, giving the US government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.

We know where that situation led – to a US government suffocating in debt while its citizens face stubbornly high unemployment (due in part to the high value of the dollar); a failed real estate market; record personal-debt burdens; a bloated banking system; and a teetering economy. That is not the picture of a world superpower worthy of the privileges gained from having its currency back global trade. Other countries are starting to see that and are slowly but surely moving away from US dollars in their transactions, starting with oil.

If the US dollar loses its position as the global reserve currency, the consequences for America are dire. A major portion of the dollar's valuation stems from its lock on the oil industry – if that monopoly fades, so too will the value of the dollar. Such a major transition in global fiat currency relationships will bode well for some currencies and not so well for others, and the outcomes will be challenging to predict. But there is one outcome that we foresee with certainty: Gold will rise. Uncertainty around paper money always bodes well for gold, and these are uncertain days indeed.

Google Announces Privacy Changes Across Products; Users Can’t Opt Out

Source: Washington Post
Cecilia Kang

Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.

Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices.

FAQ: What exactly will Google be able to collect and integrate? How does this affect me?

The move will help Google better tailor its ads to people’s tastes. If someone watches an NBA clip online and lives in Washington, the firm could advertise Washington Wizards tickets in that person’s Gmail account.

Consumers could also benefit, the company said. When someone is searching for the word “jaguar,” Google would have a better idea of whether the person was interested in the animal or the car. Or the firm might suggest e-mailing contacts in New York when it learns you are planning a trip there.

But consumer advocates say the new policy might upset people who never expected their information would be shared across so many different Web sites.

A user signing up for Gmail, for instance, might never have imagined that the content of his or her messages could affect the experience on seemingly unrelated Web sites such as YouTube. 

“Google’s new privacy announcement is frustrating and a little frightening,” said Common Sense Media chief executive James Steyer. “Even if the company believes that tracking users across all platforms improves their services, consumers should still have the option to opt out — especially the kids and teens who are avid users of YouTube, Gmail and Google Search.”

Soros Mouthpiece Calls On Google To Police "Conspiracy Theories"

Source: Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

Former fellow of George Soros’ Open Society and current Stanford University scholar Evgeny Morozov has called on Google and other search engines to become thought crime enforcers, by providing warnings about websites that contain “conspiracy theories” such as the belief, held by a majority of Americans, that global warming is not primarily man-made.

Morozov, whose biography confirms him as a well-connected insider, decries in a Slate piece how the Internet is a useful tool for “People who deny global warming” as well as “the anti-vaccination movement,” calling on Google to provide a “socially responsible curated treatment” that would marginalize such beliefs by amending search results.

His solution is to, “Nudge search engines to take more responsibility for their index and exercise a heavier curatorial control in presenting search results for issues like “global warming” or “vaccination.” Google already has a list of search queries that send most traffic to sites that trade in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories; why not treat them differently than normal queries? Thus, whenever users are presented with search results that are likely to send them to sites run by pseudoscientists or conspiracy theorists, Google may simply display a huge red banner asking users to exercise caution and check a previously generated list of authoritative resources before making up their minds.”

Morozov describes the potential that such a move will be judged as Google “shilling for Big Pharma or for Al Gore” as “a risk worth taking”.

This represents a similar argument to Cass Sunstein’s “cognitive infiltration,” an effort by Obama’s information czar to slap government warnings on controversial websites (including those claiming that exposure to sunlight is healthy). In a widely derided white paper, Sunstein called for political blogs to be forced to include pop ups that show “a quick argument for a competing view”. He also demanded that taxes be levied on dissenting opinions and even suggested that outright bans on certain thoughts should be enforced.

Giving companies like Google, which has grown to virtually become the gatekeeper of the entire Internet itself and is already engaging in SOPA-like acts of censorship, the power to denote which political and scientific positions are acceptable and which are fringe “conspiracy theories” is an insult to free thinking and smacks of Chinese-style thought control.

SUPERPOWER: Behind The Scenes of America's National Security Apparatus

Source: Global Research

"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know."
-Harry S. Truman

SUPERPOWER: A documentary film by Barbara-Anne Steegmuller
Available to order from Global Research:
https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/superpower-dvd/

SUPERPOWER is a comprehensive film that asks tough questions and goes behind the scenes of America's national security apparatus and military actions. Far from a conspiracy film about the dangers of government secrets and regime change, this well-balanced film straddles the philosophical divide and allows viewers to understand the US quest for global dominance through economic and military strategy that is exposed through review of historical events, personal interviews, and analysis of US foreign policy.

Featuring interviews with Michel Chossudovsky, Bill Blum, Chalmers Johnson and Noam Chomsky, among many others.

SUPERPOWER has won a number of awards, including the 5th Annual Hollywood F.A.M.E. Award for Documentary of the Year 2011 as well as the 2011 32nd Annual People's Choice Bronze Telly Award.

For more information, visit:
http://superpowerthemovie.com

Available to order from Global Research:
https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/superpower-dvd/

Resisting the Police State: Answers and Solutions

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
James Corbett

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:

With TSA abuses back in the headlines, continued concern over the NDAA and other legislation codifying martial law, President Obama’s unchallenged use of his self-proclaimed authority to assassinate American citizens without trial, and an increasingly bewildering array of tracking, tracing and pain-compliance technology being used against law-abiding citizens, more and more people are becoming aware of the police state that currently exists in the US, and indeed throughout much of the so-called “free world.”

With this understanding comes a certain amount of apprehension: after all, the enemies of liberty are organized and persistent, and they inhabit positions of authority. The defenders of liberty, meanwhile, seem few and far between, and more time seems spent convincing others that the police state even exists than in working to dismantle these systems of control.

Ron Paul Ignored In Mainstream GOP Debate Once Again

Source: Prison Planet
Steve Watson

During Last night’s NBC hosted GOP debate in Florida, Ron Paul was once again roundly ignored and dismissed as a potential candidate.

Paul spoke for less than 6 minutes out of the hour long debate. He was skipped over completely on three questions when everyone else got to speak, and was not offered the chance to respond to several attacks on his policies from the other candidates.

In comparison, Romney and Gingrich were afforded close to 35 minutes of speaking time, not even taking into account the now ubiquitous bickering between the two that viewers had to once again endure.

When Paul did want to speak he had to raise his hand and wave at the moderators like he was a troublesome fourth grader at the back of the classroom.

Debate moderator Brian Williams took around 15 minutes before finally asking Ron paul a question. The line of questioning from there on in essentially amounted to ‘You are unelectable so when are you going to drop out of the race?’

SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive - And a New Bill Joins Them

Source: Activist Post
Heather Callaghan

Many of us breathed a sigh of relief when an overwhelming amount of Americans banned together and voiced their opposition to Congress over both the Stop Online Piracy Act, and Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Sites that dimmed the screen for a day or two have gone back to normal -- Facebook users have swapped their anti-SOPA images for their previous profile pictures.

We may have even believed that the postponement of the vote originally scheduled for January 24th was some sort of white flag of capitulation. But that is certainly not the MO of most lawmakers.

While the outcry did get the attention of Congress, they are simply returning unflinchingly back to the drawing board to wait out our attention spans. Articles whirled that SOPA was dead and the bill was pulled when the bill's sponsor Lamar Smith said in a statement that there would be no further action “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

Lamar isn't really listening. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Actually, SOPA is set to be reformulated in February. PIPA will be revisited with possible amendments in the coming weeks. Case in point, all is still open and possible -- nothing is dead, pulled, or cancelled. If that wasn't enough to keep us on our toes, a new, similar bill has surfaced.

Déjà Vu in the form of OPEN -- The New Anti-Piracy Bill

As an alternative to SOPA-PIPA, Representative Darrell Issa (CA-R), and 24 co-sponsors introduced the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) H.R. 3782 on Wednesday, during the Internet blackout.