Dialectical Maneuvers

Syria rebel chief rejects U.S.-Russia chemical weapons deal

"Syria’s rebel Free Syrian Army chief rejected Saturday a US-Russian deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014. 'We cannot accept any part of this initiative,' General Selim Idriss told reporters in Istanbul. He preceded that by saying: 'We in the Free Syrian Army are unconcerned by the implementation of any part of the initiative… I and my brothers in arms will continue to fight until the regime falls.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSyria rebel chief rejects U.S.-Russia chemical weapons deal

Chauvinists and Other Anti-Peace Voices

"We cannot even take a baby step toward peace without these neocon warmongers trying to shove us back into the 'Fight the dirty un-American commie bastards' mode of thinking. What a bunch of chauvinists (jingoists, nationalists) these guys are. The most amazing of all reactions comes from the Syrian rebel coalition. They 'announce our definitive rejection of the Russian initiative to place chemical weapons under international custody.' I find this amusing. The group that Kerry-Obama supports with arms and military training, the group that Obama-Kerry were willing to bomb for in the name of curtailing chemicals in warfare, that group rejects a huge Syrian government concession to give up its chemicals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChauvinists and Other Anti-Peace Voices

The Green Energy Religion Meets the Real World

"It seems political leaders in Europe have figured out that there are consequences for allowing faith to substitute for markets when it comes to energy. 'We face a systemic industrial massacre,' said Antonio Tajani, the European industry commissioner. Mr Tajani warned that Europe's quixotic dash for renewables was pushing electricity costs to untenable levels, leaving Europe struggling to compete as America's shale revolution cuts US natural gas prices by 80pc. Never fear – they have a solution: print money." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Green Energy Religion Meets the Real World

NSA evidence may be key to Hammarskjold mystery death

"America's National Security Agency may hold crucial evidence about one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Cold War — the cause of the 1961 plane crash which killed United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, a commission of prominent jurists says. Widely considered the U.N.'s most effective chief, Hammarskjold died as he was attempting to bring peace to the newly independent Congo. It's long been rumored that his DC-6 plane was shot down, and an independent commission set up to evaluate new evidence surrounding his death on Monday recommended a fresh investigation — citing radio intercepts held by the NSA as the possible key to solving the case." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA evidence may be key to Hammarskjold mystery death

CFR Floats Neo-Bretton Woods to Create a New Monetary System

"This article is bylined by Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations. The groundwork is apparently being prepared. The plan has evidently always been a global currency. And it is marching closer. The world is in a mess and surely the post-Bretton Woods system is responsible for it. One hundred and fifty central banks now administer the world's money, many under the supervision of the mysterious Bank for International Settlements. Whatever goes on in the world financially is a product of what has gone before. With money stuff controlled the marketplace itself is organized and directed. The free market exists from a production standpoint but not from a demand standpoint." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCFR Floats Neo-Bretton Woods to Create a New Monetary System

Capitalism: A Hate Story

"In Year 1 of Obama, two fat cats named Michael Moore and Harvey Weinstein released a movie. Their magnum opus was 'Capitalism: A Love Story'. The unsubtly sarcastic point after the colon was that capitalism was an unmitigated bag of evil. And to reaffirm the faith of capitalism-haters in the evils of capitalism, here was a movie put out by a bunch of corporations owned by millionaires. The traditional image of the anti-capitalist as a ragamuffin who dies of consumption in his garret has always been at odds with the real image of the anti-capitalist as a rich man or the son of a rich man. The man of the people is rather often stuck at the bottom of the top of the pole." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCapitalism: A Hate Story

White House Considering Top Female Treasury Official for Federal Reserve Post

"The White House is considering nominating the top woman at the Treasury, Lael Brainard, for one of the vacant seats at the Federal Reserve, amid criticism over the role of women in the administration, people familiar with the matter said, WaPo is reporting. Note this would not likely be the Fed chair position. In addition to naming a new chair for the Fed, as WaPo reports, Obama must fill as many as four open seats on the central bank’s board. Is this a bone thrown to women because it is going to be Summers as Fed chair nominee and not Yellen?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhite House Considering Top Female Treasury Official for Federal Reserve Post

A war the Pentagon doesn’t want

"They are embarrassed to be associated with the amateurism of the Obama administration’s attempts to craft a plan that makes strategic sense. None of the White House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war violates every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly defined and obtainable objective. They are repelled by the hypocrisy of a media blitz that warns against the return of Hitlerism but privately acknowledges that the motive for risking American lives is our 'responsibility to protect' the world’s innocents." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA war the Pentagon doesn’t want

Assad did not order Syria chemical weapons attack, says German press

"President Bashar al-Assad did not personally order last month's chemical weapons attack near Damascus that has triggered calls for US military intervention, and blocked numerous requests from his military commanders to use chemical weapons against regime opponents in recent months, a German newspaper has reported, citing unidentified, high-level national security sources. The intelligence findings were based on phone calls intercepted by a German surveillance ship operated by the BND, the German intelligence service, and deployed off the Syrian coast, Bild am Sonntag said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAssad did not order Syria chemical weapons attack, says German press

U.S. Intelligence: Syrian Government Didn’t Launch Chemical Weapons

"We regret to inform you that some of our former co-workers are telling us, categorically, that contrary to the claims of your administration, the most reliable intelligence shows that Bashar al-Assad was NOT responsible for the chemical incident that killed and injured Syrian civilians on August 21, and that British intelligence officials also know this. In writing this brief report, we choose to assume that you have not been fully informed because your advisers decided to afford you the opportunity for what is commonly known as 'plausible denial.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Intelligence: Syrian Government Didn’t Launch Chemical Weapons