Binh Nguyen's Blog: Are we now the USSR?, Brexit, and More

Friday, July 1, 2016

Are we now the USSR?, Brexit, and More

Look at what's happened and you'll see the parallels:
- in many parts of the world the past and current social and economic policies on offer basically aren't delivering. Clear that there is a democratic deficit. The policies at the top aren't dealing with enough of the population's problems
CrossTalk BREXIT - GOAL! (Recorded 24 June)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgKIc0bobO4
The Schulz Brexit breakdown - Defeat for Obama, opportunity for Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32I3RqYTSU
Giuliani - Brexit a major setback for Obama, Clinton, Kerry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PSxyaHCiiw
Obama Brexit Threat Shows Why Globalists LOVE Hillary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HEBfEfGmvk
Keiser Report - Your Special Brexit Coctail (E 932)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSTEACxuEmM
CrossTalk on Brexit - EU implosion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBWggwzRCjw
https://www.rt.com/uk/348294-fk-brexit-rally-remain/
Keiser Report - Reagan’s warning (E929)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mIBoopBB_U
http://russia-insider.com/en/brexit-signals-end-neocons-end-history/ri15213
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/heres-what-you-need-know-about-cold-war-20-because-its-already-here/ri15034
- if you understand the way the Russians and Chinese think about Western democracy and capitalism it's a lot easier but this can take a lot of time. Working with them is one thing, living with them is another, being born into it is a completely different proposition, etc... When it comes down to it what we're choosing is whether private individuals run things or state based individuals run things (when looking at the primary difference between the West and Russia, China, some part of Europe. One of the interesting things for me is if democracies were run properly (people were educated, politicians/public servants were less corruptible, etc...) would we be better off or worse off? Some people have mentioned that certain people shouldn't have been allowed to vote because they they didn't understand things. That really goes to the core of the problem though. Capitalism and democracy don't mix? If capitalism requires that certain people aren't educated enough to discern the truth, that this can be used to justify pricing differences, etc... then what we're really putting into question is capitalism itself and the way it's run and not so much democracy
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-paul-keating-slams-unaffordable-corporate-tax-cuts-in-fiery-letter-to-editor-20160623-gpqq18.html
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/23/australia-destined-for-minority-government-says-greens-di-natale
http://www.smh.com.au/business/insight/australias-election-needs-to-come-into-the-21st-century-20160623-gpq7ry.html
http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/uk-richest-lose-more-than-7b-as-markets-drop-on-brexit-result-20160624-gprnua.html
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/scope-businessday-economic-survey-cut-negative-gearing-not-company-tax-economists-say-20160624-gpqx5k.html
- the powers that be will almost certainly try manufacture a re-run (think about the volume on financial markets. Most of these people who are engaging in such trades are from major financial institutions. They have a core interest in swaying things to their desire not necessarily to the overall satisfaction of those within the overall system). In fact, I've heard of similar things being done elsewhere in the EU. You basically change the question slightly, create some FUD, and run elections until you get the result that you want? Else, the vote will be simply ignored (in spite of people believing that we live in democracies). I'll believe that Brexit will happen when I actually see it (whether or not the issues with Scotland, Northern Ireland, etc... are real or not the fact that both UK primary parties have basically been decimated gives plausible deniability if the UK ultimately decides to ignore the referendum results)
CrossTalk on Brexit - EU implosion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBWggwzRCjw
http://thechronicleherald.ca/world/1375144-the-latest-calls-for-2nd-referendum-crash-uk-website
http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/us-secessionists-hanker-for-texit/news-story/fc38e9d76f12e9c45fdcb7a6ef48e47d
http://www.news.com.au/world/brexit-remorse-brits-google-what-is-eu-after-the-vote-call-for-rerun/news-story/e15ce21fb61d340767f86f626592ba27
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-25/founding-eu-members-hold-crisis-talks-after-shock-brexit-result/7543832
http://www.news.com.au/world/brexit-remorse-brits-google-what-is-eu-after-the-vote-call-for-rerun/news-story/e15ce21fb61d340767f86f626592ba27
http://www.manxradio.com/news/uk-business/germany-warns-of-brexit-domino-effect/
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/lib-dems-pledge-british-return-eu-next-general-election
Privacy Shield: White House makes EU spying promise
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36619416
Brexit referendum: EU must not fall into 'depression'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36626409
BREXIT_NOW FRANCE_ITALY_NETHERLANDS CALL FOR EXIT VOTE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW3bcMRHf5U
Second EU referendum petition investigated for fraud
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36634407
http://www.smh.com.au/world/overwhelmed-by-brexit-this-is-what-it-all-means-20160625-gprs6x.html
http://www.smh.com.au/world/brexit-vote-young-britons-despair-and-fear-20160625-gprrpp.html
http://www.smh.com.au/world/brexit-vote-mayhem-sweeps-across-a-disunited-kingdom-20160624-gpro44.html
http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/brexit-vote-global-shares-lose-trillions-overnight-20160624-gpro79.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-26/scotland-threatens-veto-brexit
http://www.smh.com.au/world/scotland-will-do-whatever-it-takes-to-stay-in-eu-including-veto-brexit-nicola-sturgeon-20160626-gpsenb.html
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/06/29/472703/US-UK-EU-Brexit-Kerry
‘You are not laughing now, are you’ Nigel Farage at European Parliament (FULL SPEECH)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJzRa7HWVqs
‘Why are you here’ Juncker attacks Brexit MEPs during European Parliament session
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQrRVcH6PjE
- notice how they ask to vote on behalf of all? They should vote for self and then it will work itself out
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/tv-comedy/last-week-tonight-host-john-oliver-lets-fly-at-brexit-vote-and-donald-trump-20160628-gpt99i.html
http://qz.com/717781/best-two-out-of-three-the-precedents-for-re-doing-the-brexit-referendum/
- clearly, US status as global superpower is weakening. The irony is that the system/policies that they have instituted are the core failure though. In defending it, they're drawing more resources into defending rather than upholding their system. Either way, it will lead to it's own possible collapse. They need to re-think their system/policies not defend one that isn't working? Alternate perspective is that neo-liberal capitalists don't think about future, self interest only. They believe that market forces will basically find a way through our difficulties? Understand the system more fully and you'll understand the problem with this perspective though. People fleeing into US dollar and Japanese Yen? Jumbles things a bit but ironically makes things a bit worse in both countries making it easier for others to export to them but harder for them export outwards
https://www.rt.com/usa/346259-tariq-ali-on-contact/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Revolution
http://www.smh.com.au/world/overwhelmed-by-brexit-this-is-what-it-all-means-20160625-gprs6x.html
Jim Rickards The Global Economy Almost Collapsed Twice In 18 Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwXACk_mjow
Global Economy at the Brink of Collapse!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqxV0THUQJQ
Paul Keating in conversation with Kerry O'Brien
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Y_p9dXZGE
CrossTalk - Bullhorns Brexit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1VyVt3mjkg
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/is-western-leadership-required-more.html
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/religious-conspiracies-is-capitalism.html
- the biggest worry for Europe is that speculators and other enemies of UK are going to move in attempt to 'break/collapse' their financial sector. The concern is whether or not the stress tests that have been enabled actually work because all that's basically happened is that everything has been shifted from one balance sheet to another (central banks). On top of that, they're struggling to find 'real growth'
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-result-live-counting-leave-remain-brain-in-europe
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/jun/24/global-markets-ftse-pound-uk-leave-eu-brexit-live-updates
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/23/british-pound-given-boost-by-projected-remain-win-in-eu-referendum
http://www.smh.com.au/world/brexit-mayhem-as-australians-rush-to-buy-pounds-20160624-gprfuv.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-23/pound-surge-builds-as-polls-show-u-k-to-remain-in-eu-yen-slips
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/OverseasTradeStatistics/Pages/EU_and_Non-EU_Data.aspx
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/internationaltrade
http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/citis-willem-buiter-says-islams-ancient-solution-could-solve-household-debt-20160614-gpiuga
RBS and Standard Chartered weakest in Bank stress test
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34972092
Keiser Report - All Sorts of Charts (E931)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Qez9weZv0
https://www.rt.com/news/348307-keiser-brexit-systemic-collapse/
- while the USSR was previously admonished for being 'Godless' it's clear that this mightn't have been entirely true and that 'Western values' don't necessarily overlap better with religion either
http://thediplomat.com/2016/06/when-capitalism-came-to-north-korea/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/is-western-leadership-required-more.html
- the West is now the one with massive intelligence and security apparatus with whistleblowers coming out everywhere (certain that some of them are 'plants' though. They're there to keep an eye on things and ensure that things don't get too out of hand. At the other end of the scale if things really were that bad people would quite en-masse?). The US/West has military bases all over the world, is engaged in proxy wars, and the US itself has a military budget that is worth half of it's budget while economic growth is stagnating (exact same position that the USSR was previously in). Since they constantly want to maintain a 'leadership' position they have to push further and further ahead with regards to risk and R&D. All others have to do is make the tiniest threat and it'll just drive US/Western debt further and further up. They US/West needs to distinguish better between core and non-core threats. It's like those new countries that are entering NATO and the EU. The US/West thinks it's getting stronger but it's actually getting weaker. In either case, if the new entrants can't actually pull their own weight all they're doing is subsidising 'freeloaders' (not sure how else to put it. Am aware this may be a bad choice of words). Moreover, if they did fake the collapse of the USSR you're just handing over your defense technology as well

http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/religious-conspiracies-is-capitalism.html
- subtle admission that system is somewhat rigged? It can result in 'chaos'. Is what is popular a bad thing? Making assumption that everything come down to money all the time though. If there were educated voters surely they'd always make the best decision without having to resort to crazy amounts of propaganda/PSYOPS. Ironically, if the public were given free reign (proper democracy) surely they would learn from their mistakes if there were adequate feedback mechanisms? Surely, this would be better or would it circumvent the importance of politicians and the public service which means they lose their 'place in society'? There's a difference between a policy wonk, someone who is informed, and someone who is propagandized... Surely, we'd be better off if democracies worked the way they were supposed to?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-thats-the-end-of-australia-barnaby-joyce-lashes-independents-20160622-gpp6c4.html
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/21/how-fake-democracies-damage-real-ones-madagascar/
http://thediplomat.com/2016/06/chinese-democracy-is-this-how-the-wukan-moment-finally-ends/
- trickle down effect doesn't really work. Most people spend on saving for retirement. Why are so many people resistent? Because it doesn't work for everyone? Time for a reset? At times, it feels like some politicians are just chasing a legacy that will have no meaning. Bringing the world together in a system that many people are resistent to and which is creating more problems than benefits is bizarre. When and if it happens it will happen. I don't think anybody is arguing that we shouldn't be coming together but it has to be on the right terms. Here's the other thing if people can't reach the point where they can save enough to invest then how are we all benefiting from neo-libearlism?
Obama Brexit Threat Shows Why Globalists LOVE Hillary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HEBfEfGmvk
Trump Not Sure What To Think Of Brexit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuGhZ5Jb33g
Giuliani - Brexit a major setback for Obama, Clinton, Kerry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PSxyaHCiiw
Obama Brexit Threat Shows Why Globalists LOVE Hillary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HEBfEfGmvk
What is the 'real' unemployment rate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRE47DZGCEE
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/25/great-britain-just-killed-globalization-as-we-know-it/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-it-was-a-brutal-week-for-obama-and-his-liberal-vision-of-an-interconnected-world/2016/06/25/f42bfe86-3a24-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016-opinion/election-2016-malcolm-turnbull-fears-seepwalking-voters-could-deliver-his-worst-nightmare-20160626-gps6g4.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/08/01/157664524/how-the-poor-the-middle-class-and-the-rich-spend-their-money
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670463/infographic-how-the-poor-spend-their-money-vs-the-middle-class
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/mcdonalds-lowers-its-tax-bill-as-profits-soar-20160626-gps2b3.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/27/the-losers-have-revolted-and-brexit-is-only-the-beginning/?tid=pm_business_pop_b
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/28/hillary-clintons-tech-agenda-is-really-a-huge-economic-plan-in-disguise/
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-company-tax-cut-claims-built-on-uncertain-foundations-modeller-says-20160630-gpvh62.html
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/youth-to-foot-bill-for-baby-boomer-budget-incompetency-20160630-gpvf26.html
- this brings me to another point. While the US, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc... are most often criticised for running propaganda/PSYOPS programs. However, there is one important difference with the US (and West). They seem to express a core belief/affirmation that they are somehow necessary to the running of the world and that we are much better off for it (note, that even their weapons have Biblical references. For instance, Hellfire, Brimstone, etc... which all have references in 'Revelations')? That the are almost messianic in some way. To those who are devout they recognise that this can't possibly be. History, Wikileaks, and other open source intelligence indicates that thing are a lot murkier than they should be and that the values that describe the US/West now share little with what is in religious texts. All of a sudden the US's/West perception of being the 'Great Satan' or 'Anti-Christ' all makes much more sense (particularly in the context of some Middle-Eastern countries and terrorist groups)(though it may still seem very awkward if you don't have enough background in religious areas)
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/religious-conspiracies-is-capitalism.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-opens-first-criminal-case-under-foreign-agent-101140004.html?ref=gs
http://keranews.org/post/russias-ex-spy-chief-shares-opinions-his-american-counterparts
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/third-rome-rising-the-ideologues-calling-new-russian-empire-16748?page=2
CrossTalk - Declining Pax Americana (ft. Pepe Escobar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI9dWu5qIwQ
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1178-jerry-day-examines-the-science-of-social-control/
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1181-michel-chossudovsky-dissects-americas-global-war/
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/06/28/472665/new-world-order-brexit-uk-us
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/a-30-year-old-saudi-prince-could-jump-start-the-kingdom--or-drive-it-off-a-cliff/2016/06/28/ce669a3e-3c69-11e6-a66f-aa6c1883b6b1_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/27/the-losers-have-revolted-and-brexit-is-only-the-beginning/?tid=pm_business_pop_b
Fixing Capitalism’s Deepest Flaws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KteeNFRjHk
Amazing Evidence For God – Scientific Evidence For God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiMqzN_YSXU
✡ Believe in God in 5 Minutes (Scientific Proof)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQVm8RokoBA
100% Proof That God Exists (Like 2 + 2 = 4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOrsN9BcvEw
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/06/28/how-to-save-venezuela/the-us-bears-blame-for-the-crisis-in-venezuela-and-it-should-stop-intervening-there
http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/outgoing-uk-prime-minister-david-cameron-didnt-want-to-do-all-the-hard-st/news-story/97b0828313648fdc4b9b873283f562ff
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/celebrity-news/lily-allens-cutting-response-to-donald-trump-on-brexit-20160625-gprq17.html
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/donald-trumps-brexit-press-conference-was-beyond-bizarre-20160624-gprojw.html
https://www.rt.com/uk/348228-petition-parliament-uk-brexit/
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/348214-hot-off-brexit-vladimir-putin/
http://russia-insider.com/en/daring-filmmaker-oliver-stone-shakes-us-narratives/ri15106
http://russia-insider.com/en/brexit-signals-end-neocons-end-history/ri15213
- once you see through everything it looks very strange. Basically, media in virtually all countries are biased (nothing classified about this. It's actually in the credits. Only thing is how much editorial input they have). If you want to break yourself out and figure out the way things really are it's basically similar to a process of de-radicalisation. Despite all of this, most will still not figure out that things aren't as what they seem. Most countries have some input into what their media says (the extent is the only question) which means that it can be very difficult to break them out without actually having to resort to more extreme measures. Watch media from opposing countries. For every accusation there is a counter-accusation of exactly the same thing
Dr. Adil Rasheed - Counter _ De-Radicalisation Measures including Institutional and Social Reforms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v76Ft_O94t0

Gilles de Kerchove - Radicalisation and De-radicalisation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHvSPXBuZlQ

Radicals - The man who is being de-radicalised - BBC News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8NJfJ2_Uas

Counter Radicalisation of Youth _ Prashan de Visser _ TEDxUND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pCH-zG3c3s

Dealing with returning jihadists - Is de-radicalisation possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4REFti0PSqU

- But retaining low interest rates won’t be enough to counter the private sector’s ongoing reluctance to invest. Rather, the note argues that public spending will need to fill the gap.

"The sluggish private demand and weakening inflation expectations are signs that the repair process for the private sector's balance sheets is not yet complete," the economists write. "Activating fiscal policy, particularly at a time when the monetary policy stance is still accommodative, could lead to a virtuous cycle where the corporate sector takes up private investment, and sustains job creation and income growth.”

Interest rates are low, and inflation is weak. There are millions of Americans unemployed or underemployed, and wage growth isn’t where we’d like it to be. And we’ve got roads to fix, bridges to build, and airports to renovate from sea to shining sea. Even Morgan Stanley and Larry Summers are saying we need to run up the deficit. Last time we were in this mess, it took a world war to get us back on track. Rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure shouldn’t be too much to ask.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/06/world-economy-is-stagnating-like-its-1937.html
- George Soros is a Hungarian-born American trader who has amassed a fortune of almost $25 billion over the course of his legendary career. My favorite Soros quote is "All of economic history is one lie and deceit after another. Your job as a speculator is to get on when the lie is being propagated and then get off before it is discovered." George Soros' view of economic history contains a lot of truth, but it is terribly pessimistic. The quote gives insight into Soros' favorite two pursuits, markets, and politics.
Makris is blunt about the next set of problems confronting Australia. He says younger people aren't conditioned to working extreme hours and putting in the hard work required to build businesses. There are exceptions of course, he says, but there has been too much of a hand-out mentality that has wound its way through society.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3982327-soros-takes-central-banks-guess-wins
- North Korean hackers reportedly infiltrated a computer network belonging to a South Korean aerospace firm’s computer network and made off with blueprints for the F-15 Eagle—the American-designed jet fighter that forms the backbone of the U.S. and South Korean air forces.

But don’t panic quite yet. There’s not much Pyongyang’s engineers can actually do with the blueprints. For sure, we won’t be seeing F-15s rolling out of some North Korean factory in the distinctive dark camouflage of the Korean People’s Air Force.

The hack began in 2014 and South Korean authorities first detected it in February this year, South Korea’s police cyber investigation unit told Reuters. In the meantime, the hackers gained access to the networks of two defense-industry conglomerates in South Korea and made off with some 42,000 documents.

Among the documents were blueprints for the wing design of the twin-engine, supersonic F-15, police told Reuters. Korea Aerospace Industries builds the Eagle’s wings under contract with Boeing, the No. 2 U.S. defense firm. Boeing has described KAI as a “valued supplier” (PDF).
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/17/north-korea-steals-u-s-fighter-blueprints.html
- Very few U.S. allies have nuclear weapons, and if they get into a scuffle with a nuclear power such as China or Russia, even over a minor issue, such as contested rocks in the South China Sea, the United States could ultimately be responsible by treaty to defend them. This ultimately could mean using nuclear weapons and inviting a retaliatory strike on American soil.

This essentially irrational policy was initiated during the Cold War to protect countries from attack by the powerful Soviet Union. However, as bad as a Soviet takeover of Western Europe or Japan would have been, it pales in comparison to American cities becoming nuclear wastelands.

The implicit U.S. pledge to use nuclear weapons to defend its allies was predicated on the risky notion that it would deter a Soviet attack. There was little or no conversation about the cataclysmic horror that could result if deterrence didn’t work.

If the policy was irrational during the Cold War, continuing it has been even more irrational since the Cold War ended.

Donald Trump is wise to question the United States’ outdated, inflexible and costly commitment to protect large numbers of nations around the world. Such formal and informal alliances are the core of an overextended American foreign policy that requires having hundreds of U.S. military bases overseas and conducting countless—now seemingly perpetual—military campaigns, such as the wars Clinton supported in the Balkans, Iraq and Libya, to support this informal American Empire.

With a $19 trillion national debt, the United States can no longer afford such a policy.

Besides, it is unwise and puts the American public—and our military—unnecessarily at risk.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/hillarys-foreign-policy-scarier-trumps-16639
- National service in Eritrea, as in many other countries, includes not only military duty on the front lines with Ethiopia – which still occupies parts of Eritrea in clear violation of an international arbitration agreement – but also labor in public works projects as well as service in health and education infrastructures. (Most teachers in Eritrea, for example, are national service workers.) Lots of folks would call that socialism or nation-building – which is how the Eritreans see it.

The Eritreans defend extended national service on grounds of necessity, citing an existential threat from the Ethiopian military, backed to the hilt by Washington. Economic sanctions have also necessitated that Eritrea mobilize the population to develop its own national resources. However, self-reliance is also a cornerstone of Eritrean domestic development policy, and seen as central to maintaining true national sovereignty and independence. Eritrea rejects foreign “aid” and entanglements with structures of international capital, and is one of only two nations in Africa that has no relationship with AFRICOM, the U.S. military command on the continent (Zimbabwe is the other).

Eritrea’s fierce independence has put it in imperialism’s crosshairs. Eritrea is “Africa’s Cuba” – and the United States treats it as such in a striking variety of ways. Indeed, the other Big Lie against Eritrea – that it is the second largest contributor to the waves of refugees risking life and limb to reach Europe – is directly related to European immigration policies, urged on them by the U.S., that put Eritrea in much the same bind as U.S. policy towards Cuba.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-sets-stage-for-libya-like-regime-change-in-eritrea-africas-cuba/5531472
- On sanctions. Putin offered to “meet the EU halfway.” At the same time, he warned that Brussels shouldn’t hold Moscow solely responsible for fulfilling the Minsk agreements on the peace process in Ukraine. “Especially regarding those issues that are beyond our ability,” he explained.

Putin was channeling growing Russian exasperation at the blind eye the West has shown to Kiev’s failure to implement any of the key Minsk protocols.

Juncker's position on sanctions was less positive. The EU leader made it clear that Russia would remain subject to sanctions until the Minsk deal is fully implemented - apparently regardless of Ukraine’s behavior - and insisted that Moscow’s reabsorption of Crimea in 2014 was “illegitimate.” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi concurred with this.

Renzi and Juncker were among a number of Western bigwigs who showed up in St Petersburg. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and French opposition leader Nicholas Sarkozy were also present, alongside Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who called for the lifting of trade embargoes. Despite pressure from Washington to boycott the event, Exxon Mobil’s Chief Executive Officer, Rex Tillerson, also came along.

Putin used the event to drive home the message that Russia desires close friendship with the EU. But that Washington’s apparent control of Brussels makes this impossible. On the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) he said: "It is evident that Europe has huge potential but to stake it on only one regional association clearly narrows its possibilities.”

He might have been talking about overall EU policy.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/347264-putin-eu-nato-russia-friend/
- While pointing out that NATO keeps rejecting “concrete” proposals from Russia on cooperation, Putin said that US policy is now jeopardizing “the so-called strategic balance... thanks to which the world has been safe from large-scale wars and military conflicts.”

By unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Washington “struck the first colossal blow at international stability,” the president said. To maintain the balance, Moscow has had to develop its own missile program in turn, to which the US agreed in the beginning of the 2000s, when Russia was in a difficult financial situation.

“I guess they hoped that the armament from the Soviet times would initially become degraded,” he said.

“Today Russia has reached significant achievements in this field. We have modernized our missile systems and successfully developed new generations. Not to mention missile defense systems,” Putin told the international news agencies, stressing that these moves are counter-measures and not “aggression,” as Moscow is so often accused of.

READ MORE: Shift to multipolar world: Lavrov says Russia working to adjust foreign policy to new reality

“We must provide security not only for ourselves. It’s important to provide strategic balance in the world, which guarantees peace on the planet... It’s the mutual threat that has provided [mankind] with global security for decades,” Putin concluded.
https://www.rt.com/news/347313-putin-us-missile-defense-nuclear/
- In her speech, Clinton engaged in her own Trump-like grandiose fear mongering: “[I]f America doesn’t lead, we leave a vacuum — and that will either cause chaos, or other countries will rush in to fill the void. Then they’ll be the ones making the decisions about your lives and jobs and safety — and trust me, the choices they make will not be to our benefit.”
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/jeffrey-sachs-destroys-hillary-clintons-foreign-policy-speech/ri15024
Project Loon, according to the complaint, is an R&D project aimed at providing wireless services. It also uses high-altitude balloons at a height of about 18km to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G-LTE speeds.

The Space Data filing says its representatives met as many as 10 officials from Google, including the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in 2007 and 2008 to discuss a partnership to share the technology. It says confidential information and trade secrets were divulged to Google under a mutual confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement.

Given that, it says the complaint has been filed for infringement of US Patent 6,628,941 which is titled "Airborne constellation of communications platforms and method" and US Patent 7,801,522 titled "Unmanned lighter-than-air safe termination and recovery methods".

The complaint also claims the defendants are guilty of misappropriation of trade secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act and breach of written contract.
http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/enterprise-solutions/73381-arizona-firm-alleges-google-stole-balloon-network-tech.html
- The business classes, which largely run the country, are highly class conscious. It is not a distortion to describe them as vulgar Marxists, with values and commitments reversed. It was not until 30 years ago that the head of the most powerful union recognized and criticized the "one-sided class war" that is relentlessly waged by the business world. It has succeeded in achieving the results you describe. However, neoliberal policies are in shambles. They have come to harm the most powerful and privileged (who only partially accepted them for themselves in the first place), so they cannot be sustained.

It is rather striking to observe that the policies that the rich and powerful adopt for themselves are the precise opposite of those they dictate to the weak and poor. Thus, when Indonesia has a deep financial crisis, the instructions from the US Treasury Department (via the IMF) are to pay off the debt (to the West), to raise interest rates and thus slow the economy, to privatize (so that Western corporations can buy up their assets), and the rest of the neoliberal dogma. For ourselves, the policies are to forget about debt, to reduce interest rates to zero, to nationalize (but not to use the word) and to pour public funds into the pockets of the financial institutions, and so on. It is also striking that the dramatic contrast passes unnoticed, along with the fact that this conforms to the record of the economic history of the past several centuries, a primary reason for the separation of the first and third worlds.

Class politics is so far only marginally under attack. The Obama administration has avoided even minimal steps to end and reverse the attack on unions. Obama has even indirectly indicated his support for this attack, in interesting ways. It is worth recalling that his first trip to show his solidarity with working people (called "the middle class," in US rhetoric) was to the Caterpillar plant in Illinois. He went there in defiance of pleas by church and human rights organizations because of Caterpillar's grotesque role in the Israeli occupied territories, where it is a prime instrument in devastating the land and villages of "the wrong people." But it seems not even to have been noticed that, adopting Reagan's anti-labor policies, Caterpillar became the first industrial corporation in generations to break a powerful union by employing strike-breakers, in radical violation of international labor conventions. That left the US alone in the industrial world, along with apartheid South Africa, in tolerating such means of undermining workers' rights and democracy -- and now I presume the US is alone. It is hard to believe that the choice was accidental.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-18/noam-chomsky-breakdown-american-society-world-transition
- Bugs that are reported will earn fees from US$5000 downwards depending on the extent of their severity. Critical bugs that permit remote code execution on the server as an unauthenticated user will earn that amount.

Other categories of bugs and their respective bounties are high vulnerabilities (those that allow gaining of access to the complete data of another user - US$2000), medium (limited disclosure of user data or attacks granting access to a single user's user session - US$750), and low (very limited disclosure of user data or attacks involving a very high unlikely amount of user interaction - US$250).

Nextcloud community spokesman Jos Poortvliet said: "While we do perform internal research and add pro-active security hardening all the time (a prominent example being the introduction of same-site cookies) we are always looking for external input as well.

"Few limitations and exclusions as well as some of the highest rewards in the open source world for responsible disclosure will serve to attract the kind of professional expertise needed to turn this into a success.

"We’re confident in our codebase and our work and with this project we will bring the Nextcloud security to an even higher level."
http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/cloud/73397-nextcloud-announces-bug-bounty-program.html
- The EEU is a trade bloc established in 2015 on the basis of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. It currently has five members: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, while Tajikistan is a prospective member.

"We are suggesting the creation of a larger Eurasian partnership involving the Eurasian Economic Union and countries with which we have already had a close relationship: China, India, Pakistan, Iran,” he added.

According to the Russian leader, the countries could start with industrial and investment cooperation as well as making customs clearance easier and protecting intellectual property rights.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking at the SPIEF, said Brussels should cooperate with the EEU and not try to isolate it.

"The disintegration and economic isolationism will not solve any internal problems; it will be only a self-deception. The Eurasian Economic Union is interested in an efficient and stable European Union, which wants to cooperate closely. Similarly, it’s advantageous for the United Europe to cooperate with our union," he said.

Nazarbayev added that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will soon be joined by India and Pakistan, while Iran could join, as well.

“Thus, this organization that will unite three billion people is becoming very powerful. Isn’t it profitable to anyone to cooperate with such an organization?” he said.

SCO includes China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Other countries holding observer status with the organization include India, Iran, Belarus, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Belarus.
https://www.rt.com/business/347145-putin-russia-asian-partnership/
- To prepare its submarines to hunt and sink American aircraft carriers in some future World War III, during the Cold War the Soviet navy ordered its hundreds of sub captains to get as close as possible to U.S. flattops … and stay there. The U.S. Navy routinely surrounds its multi-billion-dollar carriers with escorts including surface ships and submarines, but the defensive screen is not impenetrable.

In 1974 a Soviet Il-38 patrol plane spotted what was later described as the carrier USS Nimitz and its escorts off the U.S. East Coast. The ship’s identity is in doubt, as in 1974 the brand-new Nimitz was in the water at a Virginia shipyard and still being worked on.

Whichever carrier it was, Soviet commanders instructed an attack submarine to track the flattop and its escorts. “Three days we [followed] Nimitz [sic],” navigator Pavel Borodulkin told Tom Briggs, an American who visited Russia decades later.

Borodulkin implied that the sub spent much of the time at a depth of 120 feet. As for being detected … “We did not worry,” Borodulkin said, explaining that American sonar was not optimized for detecting a target moving on the same course and speed as the vessel doing the searching.

“Our stealth was high,” Borodulkin said. To prove his claims, the navigator gave Briggs the above blurry photo of a flattop, snapped through the Soviet sub’s periscope
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-ultimate-way-sink-aircraft-carrier-16643
- In past elections, the trust question has been at the forefront. John Howard often asked: "Who do you trust?" It's being asked less so this election because the answer is becoming unpalatable for the major parties: "Neither of you."

So rather than warn and lecture about the "danger" of minor parties and independents, how about the major parties address the two big dangers they represent? First, being beholden to their donors and, second, being swayed by disingenuous, self-serving "arguments" and campaigns driven by lobby groups.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/voters-turning-against-major-parties-and-their-wellfunded-backers-20160610-gpg44k.html
- And that is the greatest legacy that Hitler left Russia. Putin’s Russia has but a shadow of the military power and global influence of the Soviet Union. But compare the military power and influence of today’s Britain, France and Germany to what those nations enjoyed in 1939, and Russia doesn’t seem in bad shape. Moscow could maintain an expeditionary force for months in Syria: NATO could barely muster enough resources to tackle a fifth-rate power like Gaddafi’s Libya in 2011.

Hitler left a power vacuum in Europe for Russia to fill. Whether this was worth twenty million dead is another matter.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-hitler-made-russia-superpower-16634?page=2
- Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, promises supporters in Texas that he would protect their right to bear arms.

Troubled by Donald Trump, Apple will reportedly not provide free computers or funding to the US Republican National Convention — a break with tradition.

The company, along with other tech giants like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, usually contributes technology and funding to both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, where each party officially nominates their candidate for President.

Apple contributed just under $200,000 in MacBooks and other technology to each party's convention in 2008, and lent much technology in 2012.

Two sources told Politico that Apple privately communicated its political stance to Republicans, citing presumptive nominee Trump's comments on women, immigration, and minorities.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/apple-to-pull-out-of-republican-convention-because-of-donald-trump-reports-say-20160620-gpn0aa.html
- "I think millennials are a generation of 'slashies'. They're a DJ/entrepreneur/fashion designer. With all those slashes between your job titles, you lose depth and integrity," she says.

"Narrow down what you want to be good at, then focus on that. It might not work for the first six months or the first 18 months but it took me 12 years to become an overnight success."

While she doesn't go into gruesome detail, Wills was clear that growing a business took a hit on her personal life.
http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/samantha-wills-jewellery-designer-took-12-years-to-become-an-overnight-success-20160616-gpktj3.html
- The dispatch of electronic warfare planes makes sense given that the U.S. Navy has repeatedly reported difficulties in collecting data in the past due to Chinese electronic countermeasures. For example, in April 2015, a Global Hawk Long-Range surveillance drone was not able to gather data on Chinese military installations on the Spratly Islands due to Chinese electronic interference.

The EA-18G Growler aircraft are part of an air contingent at Clark Air Base stood up on April 16, following a joint announcement by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin in Manila. The contingent at Clark Air Base was made possible by a new U.S.-Philippines defense pact. This so-called Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) provides U.S. military personnel and equipment access to Philippine military bases on a rotational basis, among other things.

“The first temporary Air Contingent was comprised of five A-10C Thunderbolt aircraft, three HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and approximately 200 personnel deployed from multiple Pacific Air Forces units. The forces deployed to the Philippines for exercise Balikatan and completed their final mission April 28, 2016,” the press statement notes.
http://thediplomat.com/2016/06/us-navy-sends-electronic-attack-warplanes-to-philippines-amid-south-china-sea-tensions/
- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to declassified documents and testimonies of previous agency officials, had a permanent operation to intervene in political and social decisions of Ecuador.

Starting from the 60s, the CIA infiltrated governments, police, civilian groups, and NGOs to advance U.S. interests in the country, and continues to fight for its power and influence in the region.

Unfortunately, few have knowledge of the political moves that led to the intervention of foreign intelligence forces and the deadly consequences it had for South and Central America, as well as the impact on the new world order.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/CIA-in-Ecuador-20160610-0025.html
- China has built the world's fastest supercomputer using locally made microchips, a survey said Monday, the first time the country has taken the top spot without using US technology.

The Sunway TaihuLight machine is twice as fast as the previous number one, which was built in China with chips from US firm Intel, the Top500 survey of supercomputers said on its website www.top500.org.

China also has more top-ranked supercomputers than the US for the first time since the survey began, with 167 compared to 165.

Located at China's national supercomputer centre in the eastern city of Wuxi, the Sunway TaihuLight will be used for climate modelling and life science research.

Its performance ends "speculation that China would have to rely on Western technology to compete effectively in the upper echelons of supercomputing," the survey's website said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-entirely-made-china-survey-092602807--finance.html?ref=gs
- You do not need a survey to ascertain the plight of American youth. You can look at their bank accounts, at the jobs they have, at the jobs their parents have lost, at the debt they hold, at the opportunities they covet but are denied. You do not need jargon or ideology to form a case against the status quo. The clearest indictment of the status quo is the status quo itself.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/16/why-young-americans-are-giving-up-on-capitalism/
- The bespoke service isn’t for everyone. At banks like Citigroup, the biggest clients are the ones pining for the human touch. That’s because they’re only getting bigger and so hold ever larger positions. For example, assets under management at global investment firms have been rising since the depths of the crisis, and gained 8 percent to a record $74 trillion in 2014, according to data from Boston Consulting Group.
Handling a mammoth trade presents hazards. Algorithmic trading programs try to avoid detection by drizzling out trades little by little, but traders have become adept at sniffing out those patterns and will drive prices the other way. Another risk is that news could break, whipsawing the value of the stock before the transaction is completed. Those risks are why big investors would prefer to avoid expensive mistakes and are willing to pay higher fees to make a trade in one big swoop.
So called “high touch” sales traders like Huggins specialize in those transactions, and they’re expected to know all about their customers, including what’s in their portfolios, how they like to transact and what kind of news is important to them.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-20/human-traders-strike-back-against-stock-market-s-robot-dominance
- Construction of a heavy-lift aircraft engine for a Russian-Chinese long-range wide-body aircraft has started, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Monday.

"We’ve informed the Chinese side about the beginning of work on Russia's heavy-lift aircraft engine in the thrust segment of up to 35 tons. The decision was made by the Russian president in May, with all the necessary funds allocated", Rogozin said after the meeting of the Russian-Chinese intergovernmental commission.

According to Rogozin, the new plane will have two engines instead of four.

“Neither the Soviet Union nor Russia have ever developed such a powerful engine. They are manufactured only by General Electric and Rolls-Royce," said Rogozin, adding “now this kind of engine will also be developed for the Russian-Chinese joint project."

"All development issues of a new passenger jet will now be solved, because you can't have a plane without an engine," he added.
https://www.rt.com/business/347492-russia-china-jet-engines/
- US officials have said it was occupied by US-backed Syrian ‘moderate’ rebels engaged in the fight against Islamic State. The At-Tanf rebels are supposed to be party to the Moscow-backed ceasefire established earlier this year.
US Defense Department sources have told media that its fighter jets were scrambled and sent over the area — broadcasting warnings over an emergency communications channel established after a Russian warplane was shot down by Turkey for violating its airspace late last year.
The report states the modern Russian Su-34 strike fighters backed off once the Americans arrived after their first attack.
The two groups of combat jets then circled the ground base in close visual range of each other.
But, once the ageing US F/A-18 Hornet jets were forced to withdraw to refuel from a nearby tanker aircraft, the Russians raced back for a second bombing run.
“The Russian government either doesn’t have control of its own forces or it was a deliberate provocative act. Either way, we’re looking for answers,” the LA Times quotes one of the unnamed officials.
http://www.news.com.au/world/russian-combat-jets-attacked-usbacked-syrian-rebels-despite-warnings-fighter-patrol/news-story/7396aa68e74fdb7ef92fadb524bf35eb
- Did you know that dolphins are able to rest half their brain while the other half stays awake so they can keep swimming?

And did you know that the last duck in a row will sleep with one eye open to keep watch for predators as the other ducks rest?
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rnafternoons/how-dolphins-sleep-and-why-we-should-care/7526868
- OTHRs typically operate at lower frequencies during night hours, due to a diminished ionosphere, and this significantly reduces the radar cross section of small targets, such as cruise missiles.
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/asia-pacific/2016/06/17/lockheed-martin-australia-radar/86026690/
- The bloc’s missile defense compound in Deveselu, Romania, became operational in May. Poland plans to obtain a similar base within two years. Washington insists the Aegis Ashore systems are for “defensive purpose only,” arguing they would help protect European allies from Iran or North Korea’s missile threats.

Moscow says the systems can be easily adapted to deploy offensive weapons. “The missiles are put into a capsule used for launches of sea-based Tomahawk missiles. Now they are placing their antimissiles there, which are capable of engaging a target at a distance of up to 500 kilometers [310 miles],” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.

“We know year by year what will happen, and they know that we know,” he said, adding that Western officials “pull the wool over [their news outlets] eyes,” who in turn misinform their audiences.

Russian leaders have previously said Washington’s missile defense plans in Eastern Europe leave Moscow with no choice but to target countries hosting such systems, stressing that Russia’s next-generation ballistic missiles are capable of penetrating any adversary missile defense shield.
https://www.rt.com/news/347577-russia-missile-defense-test/
- "North Korea has slowly been cut off from its sources of hard currency so selling low-tech weapons to Uganda was a good way of keeping the cash flowing," said Dujarric. "And when one considers however many millions the Ugandans might have been paying them, to have that taken away is probably quite a significant blow to a poor nation like North Korea.

"South Korea is really trying to hit the North where it hurts and they're almost certainly telling these countries that South Korea has more money, more trade to offer and is not an international pariah, and in that way they are ticking Pyongyang's allies off one by one," he said.

North Korea remains defiant, however, with state media this week issuing a statement condemning "the foolish moves of the US to block economic exchange and cooperation between the DPRK and African countries."

Clearly seeing Washington's hand behind Seoul's diplomatic maneuvers, the Korea Central News Agency said the campaign is "No more than a clumsy trick that the US seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK and sow discord between the DPRK and African countries through all sorts of paradoxes and estrangement moves."

In a parting shot, the North Koreans claimed their advisers had only left Uganda because the contract had expired. For the US to say otherwise, state-run media said, "is indeed ridiculous."
http://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-losing-african-south-american-allies/a-19344851
- “It’s rare to find a postcode within 10km of Melbourne’s CBD where the concentration of investors within the unit market is less than 50 per cent,” it says.

“Outside of the inner city, investment trends tend to follow the major transport corridors, with detached housing investment showing higher proportions around the Greenfield housing areas to the west, north and east of the city.”

The report states that Australian investors have generally earned strong capital gains from their properties in recent years, but rental income growth had been comparatively soft.

Gross rental yields have been substantially lower in Melbourne and Sydney than the other capitals.

The report also reveals that in the 2013-14 financial year, Australians claimed $3.719 billion in losses associated with investment properties. This was down on previous years, thanks in part to low interest rates.

The report expects investors’ net rental losses to continue to fall over the coming financial years.

More Melbourne investors (7.1 per cent) resold their properties at a loss than owner-occupiers (2.4 per cent) last year, with investors typically more “willing and able” to do so because of their ability to offset losses against future capital gains.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/realestate/news/melbourne-vic/investors-own-a-third-of-melbourne-homes-corelogic-report-reveals/news-story/c0ce4ee1f909cd91e9f80f5fa2a9a18b?nk=876bc0817a62aae2a4adccc5d06b9b0d-1466573273
- "Let's envisage a [Parliament] with 150 independents. What we [would] have is total and utter chaos. That's the end of Australia. The Commonwealth will collapse."

The colourful Press Club address also contained policy sweeteners for regional Australia: $100 million to seal The Outback Way, more generous eligibility requirements for remote students claiming Youth Allowance and a new "regional investment corporation" for water and agriculture financing.

Mr Joyce also cited a recent Lowy Institute poll that found nearly 90 per cent of Australians opposed the sale of agricultural land to foreign companies. "It is not politically incorrect, nor xenophobic, nor myopic, to have a proper control over who owns what in your nation," he said.

But the recurrent motif was in defence of the two-party system, rid of independents, populists and other irritants. The Nationals leader knows his best hope of success in his sprawling electorate is pitching himself as the only man who can deliver results and be a regional advocate at the very heart of government.

"I don't think there is anything courageous about being the biggest hit in Aussies," he said, referencing the Parliament House coffee stop where pollies and journos often congregate. "It is better to be the biggest hit in Cabinet."
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-thats-the-end-of-australia-barnaby-joyce-lashes-independents-20160622-gpp6c4.html
- China has scaled back its cyber-espionage activities against the U.S. and its theft of stealing company secrets, according to a new study released on Tuesday.

U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye said it had seen a "notable decline" in China-based groups' attacks on U.S. firms.

At the height of Chinese cyber-espionage on companies around the world, the hackers were carrying out over 70 network compromises a month. This is down to less than 10 as of May 2016, according to FireEye. The major drop-off in attacks came around mid-2014.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/21/china-has-cut-back-on-its-cyber-spying-activity-against-us-firms-study.html?__source=yahoonews&par=yahoonews
- MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Europe's growing army of robot workers could be classed as "electronic persons" and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution.

Robots are being deployed in ever-greater numbers in factories and also taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, raising fears over unemployment, wealth inequality and alienation.

Their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability, a draft European Parliament motion, dated May 31, suggests.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europes-robots-become-electronic-persons-173945396.html
- The dual policies of isolating and provoking Russia and endless war in the Near East is the predictable yet natural outgrowth of American foreign policy as it has been pursued since 1950.

Searching for a post-World War Two rationale on which to base American policy in the aftermath of perceived Soviet aggression in Greece and Turkey, President Harry Truman’s National Security Council issued NSC-68. The brainchild of former Wall Street wunderkind turned uber-hawkish policy adviser Paul Nitze, NSC-68 might correctly be viewed at the original sin of the America’s postwar foreign policy.

According to the policy directive, the U.S. must “foster a fundamental change in the nature of the Soviet system … foster the seeds of destruction within the Soviet system … with a view to fomenting and supporting unrest and revolution in selected strategic satellite countries” all with an eye toward reducing “the power and influence in the Kremlin inside the Soviet Union.”

Sound familiar? Substitute the word “Soviet” with “Russia” or even “Syria” and we have the template for America’s more recent imperial adventures. Worryingly, as we approach the November presidential elections, there seems not an ounce of interest inside the Washington establishment for a new approach.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/neocons-scheme-more-regime-change/ri15061
- Russia’s proposal to create the UN-run database reportedly encountered US resistance, with a diplomatic source explaining to Izvestia: “The Americans want to keep their monopoly on regulating outer space traffic… Plus, the US military is not keen on disclosing information on a number of defense-related objects.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s own space objects database will go online “at any rate,” as the country already has enough telescopes, radars and observation stations to detect any human-made body orbiting Earth, the report claimed.

“Our network spots approximately 40 percent more [space] objects than you can find in open American databases,” Igor Molotov, senior research fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the newspaper.

“We have several times more telescopes … than NORAD,” he said, adding that Russian observation stations are able of covering larger areas of space because of better weather conditions.

The databases would apparently help make orbit operations more secure and hazard-free, but would also contribute to shedding more light on the militarization of outer space, which Moscow has opposed for many years. Russia and China have long been advocates of weapons-free space, contributing to a number of important international regulations in the UN and beyond.

In the meantime, both countries are preparing to counter security challenges coming from orbit. In 2015, the Russian Air Force and Russian Aerospace Defense Forces were merged to form the Russian Aerospace Forces, tasked with neutralizing attacks both from the air and outer space.

Earlier that year, the Pentagon accused China of launching spacecraft carrying “directed-energy weapons and satellite jammers.”

In the US, the Boeing X-37B spacecraft, a highly secretive Air Force project, has reportedly undergone orbital tests to carry the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system, which is able to survive a nuclear blast and is the USAF's back-up plan should ground communications fail. The US Air Force has two X-37Bs in its fleet and has been sending them into space on secret missions since 2010.
https://www.rt.com/news/347744-russia-satellites-database-norad/
“You don’t have to solve the whole problem,” Simmons said. “It’s a question: If I give you 30 percent of the capability, and you can field it today, or would you rather wait 15 years to get a 100-percent solution? Well if 30 percent today gives you a better position on the battlefield, you want that today.”
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/06/21/us-lawmakers-set-reconcile-defense-policy-bills/86217052/
You see, when NATO masses an armada off the Russian coast or along the Russian border, that’s “deterrence” and defense and “underwriting security,” but when Russian planes fly over those ships or hover a hundred miles off the coast of California, that’s “unprofessional behavior” and “aggression.”

NATO has spent the past 25 years marching East, gobbling up “states” carved out of the corpses of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union so that it is now literally sitting on Russia’s doorstep – yet in Carter’s upside-down universe, NATO is the one being threatened by “Russian aggression.”

Welcome to Pentagon logic, folks, the looking-glass world in which NATO destroying countries on a whim whenever US “non-governmental organizations” fail to overthrow their governments in color coups is considered upholding the “principled international order” while any resistance to such schemes is “aggression” or “malignant behavior.”

Lest you think I’m projecting the way Carter does, Russia was actually the first of the five “challenges” listed by the Pentagon boss in the CNAS address, followed by China, North Korea, Iran – and only then, as an afterthought, the so-called Islamic State (IS formerly ISIS/ISIL). Even when he got around to talking about the Middle East, Carter brought up Iran first. To him, IS is a cancer, with a “parent tumor” to be defeated in Iraq and Syria and “metastases” elsewhere, meaning that Washington sees the struggle against the faux-caliphate as never-ending. That’s bad news for victims of IS, but great news for the US “defense contractors” and their place at the taxpayer trough.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/347769-nato-pentagon-carter-russia-threat/
That order was a product of the idealistic World War II hope for a rule-governed postwar world. It represented a wide range of elements that in some cases applied globally (such as the United Nations system), in other cases were open to any who would accept a specific rule set (such as the World Trade Organization) and in still others provided for a deepening of the order among value-sharing democracies (such as the European Union and NATO). The essential idea of the order was to learn the lessons of the 1930s and avoid the economic chaos and geopolitical confrontations that gave rise to the war by shaping the preferences and behavior of states.

This order became the architecture for U.S. grand strategy and has played an important role in supporting the pursuit of U.S. goals. It has not produced peace or prosperity on its own, but that is holding it to an unfair standard; its components were always designed to work alongside global economic integration and U.S. military and diplomatic power. Viewed this way, the elements of the postwar order fit easily within an important strand of realist thinking. States can pursue self-interest in many ways—including cooperation, sometimes institutionalized with international organizations and expressed in the form of generally followed norms.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/russia-america-the-world-big-enough-both-us-16686
- One would be hard-pressed to find US Think Tankland focusing on American economic collapse – as true unemployment in the US may be as high as 23%. Inflation is also much higher, as the Bureau of Labor statistics takes out of the commodity basket rapidly rising individual commodities or products and substitutes it for less expensive replacements. This biases inflation to about half its actual rise over time. Meanwhile the — dwindling — “American dream” middle class is being squeezed, and that largely explains the masses coming out to cheer Donald Trump.
http://russia-insider.com/en/us-think-tanks-are-dreaming-russian-collapse-despite-facts/ri15140
- Federica Mogherini, the High Representative/Vice-President, said: "The European Union and China already cooperate on so much: we work together on the global and political issues of our times, such as Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, migration and climate change. But we can and must do more to connect the European Union and China. Our citizens, industries, and organisations can all benefit from a closer, improved, and better-defined EU-China relationship based on shared responsibility. The Joint Communication that we have adopted today will, I am sure, enable our relationship to fulfil its clear potential."

The Joint Communication identifies major opportunities for the EU's relationship with China, in particular with the aim of creating jobs and growth in Europe as well as vigorously promoting a greater opening up of the Chinese market to European business, thus contributing to the first priority of President Juncker's Commission.
...
The Joint Communication also highlights opportunities for closer cooperation and partnership between the EU and China in the fields of foreign and security policy. Building on the positive experience of the Iran nuclear talks, the European Union and China should work more closely together in order to resolve international conflicts and foreign policy priorities both bilaterally and in multilateral contexts such as the UN system and in the G20. Issues of a global nature like migration, international development assistance, the environment and fighting climate change can only be resolved through a global response, and for this reason a collaborative EU-China relationship is crucial.

The EU's engagement with China will be principled, practical and pragmatic, staying true to its interests and values, in particular adherence to international rules and norms, and respect for human rights. The EU should continue to work cohesively and effectively as a coherent block to achieve ambitious objectives on behalf of European citizens.

The Joint Communication will now be presented to the Council and to the European Parliament.
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-2259_en.htm

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Friday, July 1, 2016

Are we now the USSR?, Brexit, and More

Dodgy Job Contract Clauses, Random Stuff, and More