Big Lie

Chris Hedges: The Day That TV News Died

"Phil Donahue and Bill Moyers, the last honest men on national television, were the only two major TV news personalities who presented the viewpoints of those of us who challenged the rush to war in Iraq. General Electric and Microsoft—MSNBC’s founders and defense contractors that went on to make tremendous profits from the war—were not about to tolerate a dissenting voice. Donahue was fired, and at PBS Moyers was subjected to tremendous pressure. A leaked MSNBC memo stated that Donahue was hurting the image of the network. He would be a 'difficult public face for NBC in a time of war,' the memo read. Donahue never returned to the airwaves." Continue reading →

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How The News Media Betrayed Us On Iraq

"The tenth anniversary of the start of America’s illegal and aggressive war against Iraq should not pass without recalling that the mainstream news media eagerly participated in the Bush administration’s dishonest campaign for public support. Most news operations were little more than extensions of the White House Office of Communications. The media became shameful conduits for unsubstantiated and outright false information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged threat to the American people. Unfortunately, even as media figures now issue mea culpas about their shameful Iraq 'coverage,' they are engaged in precisely the same shoddy business with respect to Iran." Continue reading →

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The Top 4 Lessons of the Cyprus Debacle You Shouldn’t Have to Re-learn

"Lesson #1 - Do Not Trust Politicians. Lesson #2 - Ditch the 'This Can’t Happen Here' Mentality. Lesson #3 - Recognize the Pattern (Bank Holiday, Wealth Confiscation, Capital Controls). Lesson #4 - Take Action Before it is Too Late. You must take precautionary action and internationalize before it is too late to act. Unless you are part of the political elite, you won’t know exactly when the window of opportunity will slam shut. For Cypriots that moment came on the morning of Saturday, March 16 , 2013. It is better to be a year early than a minute late." Continue reading →

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Europe’s Bailout Rebound Lasts Three Hours. Reverses Despite Panicked EU Minister Tweet.

"The faceless bureaucrat who heads the faceless, unnamed EuroGroup admitted the truth: the rescue of Cyprus would serve as a model for the next round of bailouts. That sent a clear message: anyone with a lot of money deposited in a bank of Italy or Spain or Portugal is at risk. He may wind up like all those rich Russians who thought their money was safe in Cyprus. Down went bank shares. Down went the stock markets. Down went the euro. Wait! Wait! He then reversed himself again. He tweeted a message that Cyprus was a one-time event after all. Too late. The truth was out. The damage was done. The stock markets did not reverse again. Neither did the euro." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEurope’s Bailout Rebound Lasts Three Hours. Reverses Despite Panicked EU Minister Tweet.

Saving Cyprus Means Nobody’s Bank Accounts Safe as Europe Breaks Taboo

"The island nation’s rescue sets precedents for the euro zone that may stick in the memory of depositors and bondholders alike as investors debate who will next fall victim to the debt crisis. Senior Cypriot bank bond holders will take losses and uninsured depositors will be largely wiped out. The message that stakeholders of all stripes can be coerced into helping a cash-strapped nation may make investors more skittish they’ll be targeted if Slovenia, Italy, Spain or even Greece again is next in line to need help. The risk is that bank runs and bond market selloffs become more likely the moment a country applies for a new rescue." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSaving Cyprus Means Nobody’s Bank Accounts Safe as Europe Breaks Taboo

Nigel Farage: Major European Bank Runs Now Taking Place

"The Germans are going to have a vote on it in their Parliament, but the Cypriots are being told that they shouldn’t have a vote on it. If that’s not moving into a German dominated Europe, I don’t know what is. If you happen to be a financial officer for a company, it would be criminally negligent of you to now leave your money or a company’s money in a Spanish or an Italian bank. I think what they’ve done today is to spark a major run on those banks. I see that some of the banks stocks have fallen 6% this afternoon, and I think in their desperation to keep the eurozone propped-up, I really believe that long-term they have made an absolutely fatal error." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNigel Farage: Major European Bank Runs Now Taking Place

Top EU official: Cyprus bank rescue new template

"Inflicting losses on banks' shareholders, bondholders and even large depositors should become the 17-country eurozone's default approach for dealing with ailing lenders, a top European official said Monday. Banks' owners and investors must be held responsible 'before looking at public money or any other instrument coming from the public side,' said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the Eurogroup gatherings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers. The bailout program for Cyprus marks the first time in Europe's three-year-old debt crisis that large deposit holders — wealthy savers, business people or institutions — will be forced to take losses." Continue reading →

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The Iraq War: 10 Years Later – Anthony Gregory

"Operation Iraqi Freedom unleashed terrorism, draconian Shariah law, and the systematic persecution of women and religious minorities. Bush’s gang established martial law, deadly checkpoints, and torture chambers; used white phosphorous, flooded the country with sewage and disease, destroyed infrastructure that twelve previous years of U.S. war and sanctions had yet left standing, confiscated Iraqis’ guns, and implemented central taxation and economic planning. Wilson’s WWI bungling helped lead to communism, Nazism, and WWII; Bush’s bungling has exacerbated jihadism and will reverberate for decades. One good resulted: Global disrespect for American empire." Continue reading →

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Fox News analyst: ‘Very high probability’ Iraq hid WMDs in Syria

"A Fox News military analyst who has previously justified the U.S. invasion in Iraq by asserting that Russia conspired to hide Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now says that there is a 'very high probability' that those WMDs are in Syria. 'That’s conjecture, but we do know prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was a lot of vehicles crossing the border into Syria. And there was a great deal of conjecture. A Iraqi major general swore by it. He said he delivered it. And so I think that it would be a very high probability if we could get into those bunkers that they would have Iraqi signatures on them.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFox News analyst: ‘Very high probability’ Iraq hid WMDs in Syria

Syrian Insurgent Provocations: Going For Endgame?

"After creating the chaos in Syria through his policy of arming and training the insurgents, President Obama said last week in the Middle East that he is 'very concerned about Syria becoming an enclave for extremism because extremists thrive in chaos, they thrive in failed states, they thrive in power vacuums.' The US created the very instability by empowering radicals that it now seeks to mitigate, first by the CIA fool's errand of supporting 'moderates,' when it is clear that only the radicals are capable of actually fighting. It would be interesting to see the criteria for determining who is eligible for CIA assistance. Beards are, after all, quite easy to shave..." Continue reading →

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