SPIEGEL Interview Assange - Drowning in Material

ARTICLE SPIEGEL Interview with Julian Assange:  'We Are Drowning in Material' Interview Conducted By Michael Sontheimer SOURCE http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-wikileaks-head-julian-assange-a-1044399.html ------------------------------------ PARTIAL SUMMARY Attacks on WikiLeaks legal cases blockades PR attacks attacks on technical infrastructure staff had to take 40% pay cut  Extrajudicial Banking Blockade WikiLeaks cut off from more than 90% of its finances Donations new infrastructure / updated, secure submission system Drowning in Material challenge is whether WikiLeaks can scale up income in proportion to volume of material Transparency education / understanding preferred term Publication *publish both secret documents & accompanying analyses *over 10 million documents and associated analyses Taboo / McCarthyism *US government employees & US Army blocked *federal government employees / contractors  must remove WL data from computer & self-report Readers Largest number from:  India Closely followed:  USA Media Collaboration over 100 contracts with media orgs  around world Edward Snowden Only org that cared about him:  WikiLeaks Snowden abandoned in Hong Kong, esp. by Guardian Journalists Activists for the way things are / status quo. Protection of sources:  extreme diligence & professionalism is required. Book:  "The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to the US Empire" Lack explanation:  media economics / short-term news cycles > Academia failing  - geopolitical / technical intersection Where are the academics? / Not explaining how modern power is exercised Noam Chomski, 86, still at forefront Younger academics not keen to risk career Academia WikiLeaks: has published over 2 million diplomatic cables. single largest searchable repository for international relations of primary source materials. cannon for international relations [***] Some research published in Spanish & in Asian languages. American &  English journals silent. Academia:  acts as feeder schools for the US State Dept. ISA - US association controlling big 5 international relations journals: has quiet, official policy of not accepting any paper that is derived from WikiLeaks' materials. [  ISA - International Studies Association  ] NSA Spying on European Govts US intelligence info very valuable for German intelligence, BND. NSA Throw Crumbs to Keep Control Americans probably share/trade info obtained by spying, to keep German spying agency puppet from complaining. Likewise, Americans probably provide info re such spy partners to the targets of NSA spying, when targets complain about being spied on. Germans play down the intelligence issue, so as not to expose themselves as weak. German govt vulnerable to take-down by USA, who have been spying intensively at top level for decade - all it takes is US leaking info to journalists, in terms of pointing journalists in the right direction. NSA-obtained spy info re politicians can be used for blackmail of politicians. UK - JTRIG MO blackmail fabricating videos fabricating SMS texts in bulk creating fake businesses with the same name selling inferior products, so that the business gets a bad reputation Concretely documented in Snowden docs. Manning / Snowden 35 years in prison = some deterrent effect. but it erodes perception of US govt as legitimate authority just authority perception is the key to legitimacy USG Assange Charges Five Types: espionage conspiracy to commit espionage computer fraud & abuse theft of secrets general conspiracy Were the above x1 charge each = 45 yrs But they're multiples of each type of charge. Also:  Espionage Act has life imprisonment & death penalty provisions. WikiLeaks - Library built from courage & sweat of many during 5-year confrontation with a superpower What is more powerful than USG & its military & secret services? Assange: Physics. Mathematics. The underpinnings of physical reality are harsh and could do with adjustment but it is not clear how. USA Investigation - Unprecedented Scale & Nature 120 - US Intelligence & FBI officers Moved from Pentagon to Dept of Justice FBI continuing to provide "boots on the ground" Over  dozen US agencies - ranging from US State Dept to NSA - involved WikiLeaks Proceedings dozen various proceedings, incl: largest international espionage case against a publisher in history bogus 'sex case' role of WikiLeaks in Edward Snowden's asylum Anti-Terror Act (UK) - Sarah Harrison, investigations editor, Berlin.  criminal investigation / gag order used to cover up a major international bribery Australia Sweden "preliminary investigation," initiated during heat of the US conflict dormant for almost 5 years  NO charges "In 40 other cases, Swedish prosecutors have interviewed people in Britain during those five years. They have not done that in my case and they placed me under a gruelling bail situation." Assange had to report each day for 600 days: "I had to wear a monitoring unit around my ankle. Alleged war criminals from the former Yugoslavia being held on bail here in Britain don't have such conditions. " Lawyers WikiLeaks received advice from: abt 150 lawyers across cases. [ SKIP FORWARD ] German Leak / BNDNSA Focus of NSA spying: Global Signals Intelligence Highlights (Executive) USG very interested in idea that Germany would propose a greater role for China in IMF. German initiative nipped in the bud:  b/c China helping Europe = threat to US dominance. Google Mass Surveillance Free services disarming / non-corporate or civic seeming exporting a specific mindset of culture "cultural imperialism" / "Disneylandization" of the Internet ie Google "digital colonization" new societal rules re activities are permitted and what info can be transmitted from nipples to:  function of public debate & parliamentary lawmaking "Once something becomes sufficiently controversial, it's banned by these organizations. Or, even if it is not so controversial, but it affects the interests that they're close to, then it's banned or partially banned or just not promoted. SPIEGEL: So in the long run, cultural diversity is endangered?  Assange: The long-term effect is a tendency towards conformity, because controversy is eliminated. An American mindset is being fostered and spread to the rest of the world because they find this mindset to be uncontroversial among themselves. That is literally a type of digital colonialism; non-US cultures are being colonized by a mindset of what is tolerable to the staff and investors of a few Silicon Valley companies. The cultural standard of what is a taboo and what is not becomes a US standard, where US exceptionalism is uncontroversial." WikiLeaks Source Re Trade Secret Agreements Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Trans-Pacific Partnership (TP) FTAs ASSANGE "package that the US is using to reposition itself in the world against China by constructing a new grand enclosure." "tighter economic and legal integration with the United States, which draws Western Europe's center of gravity away from Eurasia and towards the United States, when the greatest chance for long-term peace in Eurasia is its economic integration" PHOTO: Julian Assange (right) speaks to SPIEGEL journalist Michael Sontheimer inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. SOURCE http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-wikileaks-head-julian-assange-a-1044399.html ------------------------------------ COMMENT Michael Sontheimer does great interviews. Really enjoyed this article. Skipped summary in the middle, as I was running out of steam. Lengthy article, but really worthwhile having a read. As to, 'cannon for international relations," not sure if he meant 'cannon', as in weapon, or 'canon' as in standard/criterion or maybe benchmark.  But doubt he meant 'holy scripture' ... LOL. Was surprised there's such a big WikiLeaks readership in India, but I guess it makes sense.  Large population.  English speaking, I think. ------------------------------------ LOOK-UPS ISA - International Studies Association

IMAGE - 1970s

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Demonstration of my inability to use paintbucket without 'spill' ... but, hey, I still like the effect. Right into this old photo.  Guessing it's the 1970s. It was a black & white of Southwest Airlines hosties that I rather fancied for the safari style jacket, mini, hotpants, belts, & boots.

Iran Nukes Deal A Trap?

ARTICLE Iran Deal: Ploy for Future Sabotage? Brandon Martinez http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2015/07/iran-deal-ploy-for-future-sabotage/ --------------------- COMMENT It looks like Iran's been a US target for some time. This is just a couple of the points in the article. 2007 = Bush covert war on Iran involved CIA sabotage op: *propaganda *disinformation *currency manipulation *international financial transaction manipulation US also planned to give financial support to anti-Iran terrorists; *Jundullah *MEK (Mujahadeen) 2012 - NBC Mossad finance & training of anti-Iran MEK (Mujahadeen) / MEK carrying out assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists Thought this was an interesting article.  And I like how it makes my 'Iran nukes deal could be a ruse' paranoid take on the nukes deal sound not so paranoid after all.  LOL

Propaganda 101 - When America's War on Russia Went Full Retard

Propaganda 101 Podcast: When Putin's Ukraine War Went Global One year after the downing of Flight MH17 killed 298 people from 10 countries on four continents, the evidence continues to mount that pro-Moscow seperatists in Ukraine -- and perhaps Russia itself -- were responsible. And as the evidence piles up, pressure is building for an international tribunal to prosecute the guilty parties -- pressure Russia is strenuously trying to resist. On the latest Power Vertical Podcast, we discuss MH17 one year later. Joining me are James Miller, managing editor of The Interpreter magazine, who authored a new report on MH17; and Andreas Umland, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and editor of the academic book series Soviet And Post-Soviet Politics And Society. Also making an appearance on the podcast is Han ten Broeke, a member of the Dutch parliament who chairs its Defense Committee and the Netherlands' delegation to the NATO Assembly. http://www.rferl.org/content/podcast-when-putins-ukraine-war-went-global/27134600.html --------------------- COMMENT This isn't news; it's Propaganda 101.  1) James Miller, THE INTERPRETER The Interpreter = Institute of Modern Russia  (IMR)     & Herzen Foundation (London, seed money) IMR = USA think tank assoc with: oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky (son, Pavel Khodorkovsky President IMR) HERZEN FOUNDATION Also behind The Interpreter = Herzen Foundation originally est. 1960s by dutch 'Slavist' for publication of USSR dissidents { LOL ... sounds very CIA, Cold War style tool that was in vogue } Herzen Foundation ended 1988 b/c end of cold war, Wikipedia indicates. But IMR think tank says it partnered in set up of The Interpreter (ie seed money). 2) Andreas Umland, fellow Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation =  political action committee based Ukraine Institute for Euro-Atlantic Co-op = funded by Western doners = campaigns for NATO & EU membership of Ukraine Andreas Umland fellow IEAC = academic, teaching at National Uni of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", Kiev pt quals. Stanford & Cambridge Andreas Umland fellow IEAC was also a visiting fellow at Stanford’s HOOVER Institution, in 1997-99 Kyiv-Mohyla Academy "The university is known as pro-Western and served as headquarters for Orange Revolution activists." [*] -- Borys Tarasyuk is the founder of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation (IEAC) Borys Tarasyuk, Ukraine politician (former diplomat) lobbying for EU / NATO membership for Ukraine since early 2000s, at least. Borys Tarasyuk = diplomat - moved to ministerial post 1991 on Ukraine independence = dismissed but reappointed after Orange Rev. mid 2000 UKRAINE 2005- 2010 received more than USD 30 billion in foreign investment 2005 alone > foreign companies invested USD 9 billion source: Borys Tarasyuk - balticworlds -- 3) HAN TEN BROEKE, NETHERLANDS - DEFENCE / NATO Han ten Broeke People's Party for Freedom & Democracy Netherlands centre-right / liberalism pro EU / NATO Just checking out the guests on US govt's RFE/RL ('Radio CIA'), it's pretty clear that there's a US-Ukraine agenda being put forward.  All the propaganda ducks are neatly lined up in a row:  it's Putin's war on Ukraine; it's Global!  'Evidence continues to mount'.  LMAO.  That's a good one. This thing is hilarious.  Might be fun to do a transcription of the podcast. --------------------- RESOURCES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Modern_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Herzen_Foundation http://imrussia.org/en/project/135-projects/special-projects/448-the-interpreter-a-new-online-publication-from-imr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Euro-Atlantic_Cooperation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_for_Freedom_and_Democracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_University_of_Kyiv-Mohyla_Academy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borys_Tarasyuk http://www.voltairenet.org/article30105.html

UK's Run By Psychopaths - Ignore Parliament Decisons, Hide Facts from Public | Airstrikes Syria

Today's most shocking story. SOURCE http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/british-pilots-flew-airstrikes-against-syria-1828462799 British pilots flew airstrikes against IS in Syria #SyriaWar British PM accused of contempt for democracy after revelations that pilots took part in bombing campaign without parliamentary sanction A British fighter jet returns to its base in Cyprus after a mission over Iraq last September (AFP) Simon Hooper's picture Friday 17 July 2015 12:14 UTC Last update: Friday 17 July 2015 15:19 UTC British military pilots carried out airstrikes in Syria while embedded with allied forces fighting the Islamic State group, the UK government has confirmed, despite parliamentary opposition to military involvement in the civil war-stricken country. Responding to a freedom of information request, the Ministry of Defence said that Royal Air Force pilots embedded with US and Canadian forces “operating in Syrian airspace” had flown “strike missions” against IS targets. British forces have been involved in the air campaign against IS in Iraq since last September but they have not formally participated in the wider coalition effort targeting territory held by the group and other Islamist factions in Syria. The British parliament voted against military action in Syria in 2013, and Michael Fallon, the British defence secretary, had earlier indicated that any expansion of the UK’s air campaign to Syria would be put before parliament. Critics on Friday accused David Cameron, the British prime minister, of displaying contempt for democracy and of keeping the public in the dark about the activities of the country’s armed forces. “Parliament voted against bombing Syria two years ago. Now we find that the government ignored this and allowed British pilots to bomb under US command,” Lindsey German, one of the founders of the Stop the War Coalition, told MEE. “This was a political and not a military decision and shows the contempt our prime minister has for democratic decisions. This should stop now and we should oppose all further attempts to bomb Syria.” 'Open and honest debate' The Ministry of Defence revealed details of British involvement in Syria in response to a freedom of information request submitted by Reprieve, a human rights organisation, which made the information public on Thursday. “It is alarming that parliament and the public have been kept in the dark about this for so long,” said Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney at Reprieve. “Yet more worrying is the fact that the UK seems to have turned over its personnel to the US wholesale, without the slightest idea as to what they are actually doing, and whether it is legal. “We need an open and honest debate about UK involvement in Iraq and Syria. We can’t have that, though, until the UK comes clean about what actions its personnel are already undertaking.” Responding to Reprieve, the Ministry of Defence said it did not have information on the specific number or location of airstrikes carried out by British pilots, and said that its personnel were subject to the chain of command of the forces with whom they were embedded. “UK military personnel embedded with the USA, French and Canadian armed forces have been authorised to deploy with their units to participate in coalition operations against ISIL. UK embeds operate as if they were the host nation’s personnel, under that nation’s chain of command,” it said. “These personnel include pilots flying ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and strike missions against ISIL targets using the equipment of those units. Of these three nations only the USA and Canada are operating in Syrian airspace.” A Ministry of Defence spokesman told the UK’s Press Association news agency that there were currently no British pilots operating in Syria and said only “small numbers” had been involved in operations there as part of the embed programme. Fallon has argued for an extension of British military involvement in the international campaign against IS and suggested it is an “illogicality” to target the group in Iraq but not in Syria. British armed forces have committed about 1,000 personnel to the coalition, with most of them involved in airstrikes in Iraq launched from bases in Cyprus and others deployed in training and advisory roles with Iraqi and Kurdish forces. On Thursday Fallon announced plans to deploy a second RAF spy plane to the region later this year and said the UK was the only coalition member conducting “manned ISR” over Syria. 'Lack of leadership' Cameron has also suggested that the UK should consider joining the military effort in Syria after 30 British tourists died in an attack claimed by IS on a beach resort in Tunisia last month.  [What?  Nothing to do with Syria.] Earlier this week he invited several senior members of the opposition Labour Party to attend a meeting of the government's national security council in an effort to win cross-party support for potential attacks on targets in Syria. A spokesperson for Cameron said on Tuesday: "He has been clear he wants to approach this with consensus. He thinks it is important that people understand the nature of the threat." The Labour Party said it would call for the government to make a statement about the airstrikes in parliament on Monday. Jeremy Corbyn, one of four candidates currently running for the leadership of the party, said the government needed to be straight with the public and said there was no mandate for UK involvement in Syria. "It absolutely has no authority for British forces to be involved in Syria. The excuse that these individual pilots are embedded with other airforces seems to me a very difficult and dodgy argument," Corbyn told Sky News television. Criticism of the role of British pilots in the skies over Syria also came on Friday from inside Cameron's governing Conservative Party, with one parliamentarian suggesting the government had displayed "an insensitivity to parliament's will". "I think this is a lack of, if anything, political leadership. We had a major vote. There should be sensitivity on this issue, and we should be very sensitive to the fact that we have military personnel participating, in effect, in military intervention," John Baron, a Conservative MP, told BBC Radio's Today Programme. "Those individuals should be withdrawn from the embedded programme whilst this vote holds sway, while it still has authority, until we vote again. This is at the end of the day what parliamentary democracy is all about, regardless of the pros and cons of military intervention." Members of parliament rejected a government motion seeking support for British military backing for a proposed US-led campaign against Syrian government forces in 2013 following a deadly chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. The US subsequently ruled out taking unilateral military action against Bashar al-Assad's government. The US-led coalition against IS has conducted thousands of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since launching Operation Inherent Resolve last year. Coalition forces on Wednesday bombed 15 targets in Syria and 16 targets in Iraq, US Central Command said in its latest operational update. -Charles B. Anthony contributed to writing this report. SOURCE http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/british-pilots-flew-airstrikes-against-syria-1828462799 --------------------- COMMENT What a great way this is to palm off responsibility: "UK embeds operate as if they were the host nation’s personnel, under that nation’s chain of command" Ummm, I think this was the work of the US-backed 'moderate rebels': "deadly chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus" Earlier posts refer to articles about how this 'chemical attack' story was spun. Seeing the US perversely names operations as the exact opposite of true intent, Operation Inherent Resolve must be Op Don't Really Give A F*ck .. which would explain why crazy fundamentalists are overrunning the Middle East, despite these 'thousands of airstrikes' that somehow miss the convoys of barbarians that can probably be seen driving across barren desert, from as far as the moon. Don't know what's going on in the UK, apart from insanity. If UK government is going to go ahead and ignore parliament, doing whatever it wants regardless of parliamentary decisions, then the whole thing's a farce, really.  And if it's that much of a farce, does it really matter what happens in future (re meetings, debate etc), when you're still dealing with liars that do whatever they want?  It's not like they can ever be trusted to be straight. --------------------- As I understand it: The US, Gulf Arabs (incl. Saudi Arabia) & the West are trying to bring down the Assad govt. So they've sponsored and armed the 'moderate rebels' (who turn out to be some shade of ISIS or other), and all these 'rebels' slash religious zealots are running amok all over the Middle East, where the West has already engineered the destruction of the Libyan government & funnelled arms to the Syrian 'moderate opposition' slash jihadists.  And the end game is to undermine Iran and its allies in the region, in favour of fundamentalist Saudi dictatorship regional hegemony. However, the West has recently reached the Iran nukes deal.  But I imagine, the West would be just as keen to bring down Iran as it would Syria, so this is rather odd.  But the deal's done and there's talk of corporate investment in Iran.  Don't understand this development, unless the nukes deal is some kind of ruse and maybe Iran will be surprise attacked. Israel has pretty much said it doesn't care about the deal:  it will ignore the terms and attack Iran, if it sees fit.  But all of this will probably be smoothed over & sweetened by upping USA military aid to Israel ... & releasing Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, by the look of things. Among all of this, the West is making out like it's attacking ISIS ... but they're not really.  They're violating Syrian sovereignty and, from what I've read, backing regional (US-friendly) Kurds in the bid for control of territory. What's really disgusting is that the nations that wish to bring down the Syrian government, violate Syrian sovereignty rather than co-operate with Syria in tackling the ISIS threat. Likewise, I think there's also a gap in the co-operation with Iran, when it comes to co-ordinating defence in the region. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia gets a 'free' card and bombs Yemen to smithereens, but nobody's squawking in the UN about human rights and sanctions on the Saudis. [This is just my take from what little I've read.]

GREECE - Pilger Article - "The problem of Greece is not only a tragedy. It is a lie."

ARTICLE SOURCE http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-problem-of-greece-is-not-only-a-tragedy-it-is-a-lie The problem of Greece is not only a tragedy. It is a lie. 13 July 2015 John Piliger An historic betrayal has consumed Greece. Having set aside the mandate of the Greek electorate, the Syriza government has willfully ignored last week's landslide "No" vote and secretly agreed a raft of repressive, impoverishing measures in return for a "bailout" that means sinister foreign control and a warning to the world. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pushed through parliament a proposal to cut at least 13 billion euros from the public purse - 4 billion euros more than the "austerity" figure rejected overwhelmingly by the majority of the Greek population in a referendum on 5 July. These reportedly include a 50 per cent increase in the cost of healthcare for pensioners, almost 40 per cent of whom live in poverty; deep cuts in public sector wages; the complete privatization of public facilities such as airports and ports; a rise in value added tax to 23 per cent, now applied to the Greek islands where people struggle to eke out a living. There is more to come. "Anti-austerity party sweeps to stunning victory", declared a Guardian headline on January 25. "Radical leftists" the paper called Tsipras and his impressively-educated comrades. They wore open neck shirts, and the finance minister rode a motorbike and was described as a "rock star of economics". It was a façade. They were not radical in any sense of that cliched label, neither were they "anti austerity". For six months Tsipras and the recently discarded finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, shuttled between Athens and Brussels, Berlin and the other centres of European money power. Instead of social justice for Greece, they achieved a new indebtedness, a deeper impoverishment that would merely replace a systemic rottenness based on the theft of tax revenue by the Greek super-wealthy - in accordance with European "neo-liberal" values - and cheap, highly profitable loans from those now seeking Greece's scalp. Greece's debt, reports an audit by the Greek parliament, "is illegal, illegitimate and odious". Proportionally, it is less than 30 per cent that of the debit of Germany, its major creditor. It is less than the debt of European banks whose "bailout" in 2007-8 was barely controversial and unpunished. For a small country such as Greece, the euro is a colonial currency: a tether to a capitalist ideology so extreme that even the Pope pronounces it "intolerable" and "the dung of the devil". The euro is to Greece what the US dollar is to remote territories in the Pacific, whose poverty and servility is guaranteed by their dependency. In their travels to the court of the mighty in Brussels and Berlin, Tsipras and Varoufakis presented themselves neither as radicals nor "leftists" nor even honest social democrats, but as two slightly upstart supplicants in their pleas and demands. Without underestimating the hostility they faced, it is fair to say they displayed no political courage. More than once, the Greek people found out about their "secret austerity plans" in leaks to the media: such as a 30 June letter published in the Financial Times, in which Tsipras promised the heads of the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF to accept their basic, most vicious demands - which he has now accepted. When the Greek electorate voted "no" on 5 July to this very kind of rotten deal, Tsipras said, "Come Monday and the Greek government will be at the negotiating table after the referendum with better terms for the Greek people". Greeks had not voted for "better terms". They had voted for justice and for sovereignty, as they had done on January 25. The day after the January election a truly democratic and, yes, radical government would have stopped every euro leaving the country, repudiated the "illegal and odious" debt - as Argentina did successfully - and expedited a plan to leave the crippling Eurozone. But there was no plan. There was only a willingness to be "at the table" seeking "better terms". The true nature of Syriza has been seldom examined and explained. To the foreign media it is no more than "leftist" or "far left" or "hardline" - the usual misleading spray. Some of Syriza's international supporters have reached, at times, levels of cheer leading reminiscent of the rise of Barack Obama. Few have asked: Who are these "radicals"? What do they believe in? In 2013, Yanis Varoufakis wrote: "Should we welcome this crisis of European capitalism as an opportunity to replace it with a better system? Or should we be so worried about it as to embark upon a campaign for stabilising capitalism? To me, the answer is clear. Europe's crisis is far less likely to give birth to a better alternative to capitalism... I bow to the criticism that I have campaigned on an agenda founded on the assumption that the left was, and remains, squarely defeated... Yes, I would love to put forward [a] radical agenda. But, no, I am not prepared to commit the [error of the British Labour Party following Thatcher's victory]... What good did we achieve in Britain in the early 1980s by promoting an agenda of socialist change that British society scorned while falling headlong into Thatcher's neoliberal trip? Precisely none. What good will it do today to call for a dismantling of the Eurozone, of the European Union itself...?" Varoufakis omits all mention of the Social Democratic Party that split the Labour vote and led to Blairism. In suggesting people in Britain "scorned socialist change" - when they were given no real opportunity to bring about that change - he echoes Blair. The leaders of Syriza are revolutionaries of a kind - but their revolution is the perverse, familiar appropriation of social democratic and parliamentary movements by liberals groomed to comply with neo-liberal drivel and a social engineering whose authentic face is that of Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's finance minister, an imperial thug. Like the Labour Party in Britain and its equivalents among former social democratic parties such as the Labor Party in Australia, still describing themselves as "liberal" or even "left",  Syriza is the product of an affluent, highly privileged, educated middle class, "schooled in postmodernism", as Alex Lantier wrote. For them, class is the unmentionable, let alone an enduring struggle, regardless of the reality of the lives of most human beings. Syriza's luminaries are well-groomed; they lead not the resistance that ordinary people crave, as the Greek electorate has so bravely demonstrated, but "better terms" of a venal status quo that corrals and punishes the poor. When merged with "identity politics" and its insidious distractions, the consequence is not resistance, but subservience. "Mainstream" political life in Britain exemplifies this. This is not inevitable, a done deal, if we wake up from the long, postmodern coma and reject the myths and deceptions of those who claim to represent us, and fight. Follow John Pilger on twitter @johnpilger SOURCE http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-problem-of-greece-is-not-only-a-tragedy-it-is-a-lie --------------------- COMMENT Another good article re Greece. How inaccurate are the mainstream press articles about these 'radical' lefties?  LOL This mob must be one of those third-way, pretend lefties.  And they've betrayed the electorate making promises they've not kept, & sullied themselves doing secret deals, contrary to the basis upon which they were elected.  Very grubby. Not really sure what postmodernism is: postmodernism, also spelled post-modernism,  in Western philosophy, a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power. This article discusses postmodernism in philosophy.  [britannica] Too lazy to get into it the look-ups.  Favourite bits: *theft of tax revenue by the Greek super-wealthy.  *euro is a colonial currency:  a tether to a capitalist ideology. *liberals groomed to comply with neo-liberal drivel and a social engineering whose authentic face is that of Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's finance minister, an imperial thug.

GREECE - Germany reasserts hegemony over the eurozone - Ryan Cooper Article

ARTICLE SOURCE http://theweek.com/articles/566079/how-germany-defeated-syriza--reasserted-hegemony-over-eurozone How Germany defeated Syriza — and reasserted its hegemony over the eurozone Ryan Cooper July 13, 2015 It looks like a deal between Greece and eurozone elites has finally been reached — and it is a horrendous one. Greece's Syriza government has utterly capitulated, agreeing to a tremendous new austerity package with no debt restructuring whatsoever; huge cuts to pensions and worker protections ("labor liberalization"); and selling off €50 billion in unspecified government assets to pay off debt. The deal doesn't even guarantee funding — only after these conditions are met can a new loan package be negotiated. The Financial Times calls it "the most intrusive economic supervision program ever mounted in the EU. " Even to a hardened cynic, the "bargain" is nothing short of staggering in its awfulness. The eyes of even the most sober market analysts are practically bugging out of their heads at the sheer viciousness of it. (To give you a small idea of how badly Syriza caved to Germany and other European powers: The Institution for Growth, which will apparently take possession of the Greek government assets, is part of a fund called KfW, whose chairman is none other than German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.) If the Greek parliament passes the proposal, Greece will have effectively ceded economic sovereignty to eurozone elites. None of the underlying economic issues have been improved — on the contrary, they will all be made much worse. This means the crisis is certain to recur at some point. The only silver lining is that the true nature of the eurozone has been revealed to all: It is an empire based on force, not the physical kind, but economic. Bend to Germany's will, or see your economy destroyed. It's worth taking a step back to remember how we got here. Before 2008, capital flowed from the eurozone core to the periphery, chasing higher yields. Normally this would be moderated by exchange rate adjustments and monetary policy, but in a common currency the first is impossible and the second was set for the core's needs only. Hot money flowed south, sparking inflationary overheating in the periphery and building up price imbalances. When the crisis came, the lack of exchange rate adjustments and monetary policy once again proved fateful, and cash-strapped nations could not finance fiscal stimulus. After the crisis, the eurozone should have stepped in with stimulus and debt restructuring to restore employment and growth, as the U.S. did with the Recovery Act of 2009. As Steve Randy Waldman writes, "What was required was a Europe-wide solution to a European problem." Instead, economic elites talked themselves into thinking the problem was one-sided, and demanded massive austerity in return for loans to avoid default. The result in many countries has been brutal recession, in some cases rivaling that of the Great Depression. Before the crisis, Greece was dishonest about its finances and made many bad decisions. But the roots of Greece's problems are inherent eurozone defects, not shady accounting. Spain is much more scrupulous and had almost no budget deficit before 2008, and has done nearly as bad as Greece has. Syriza was elected in January on a promise to end austerity, but the party has been totally outmaneuvered. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras apparently did not think euro exit was possible, and rumors are that his party made no contingency plans to introduce a replacement currency. In a riveting interview, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis explains why. He says that eurozone elites were never negotiating in good faith. Instead they were stringing the Greeks along with pointless busywork (given this bargain, an easy thing to believe). He lost all faith in talks, and after the huge victory in the July 5 referendum, he proposed an aggressive scheme in line with what economist JW Mason has suggested: the introduction of euro-denominated IOUs to ease the liquidity crisis; a unilateral partial default; and greater autonomy for Greece's central bank from the European Central Bank. Unfortunately, it was untested policy territory, and Tsipras chickened out. Bereft of support, Varoufakis resigned. With no backup plan, Syriza had no leverage, and so had to take whatever German Chancellor Angela Merkel was dishing out — in this case, an economic shotgun to both kneecaps. It's an open question whether Tsipras will be able to get this turd through the Greek parliament, and odds are good it will shatter the majority coalition, requiring new elections. As Wolfgang Münchau points out, at least the deal brings some needed clarity to events. The eurozone is now openly "run in the interests of Germany, held together by the threat of absolute destitution for those who challenge the prevailing order." The lessons for those radicals who would challenge Germany, such as Spain's Podemos, are clear. Any nation that won't docilely submit to economic bleeding will receive no quarter. Self-serving claptrap about the rebels' fecklessness will be quickly constructed and propagated. Unemployment in Spain is 24 percent. In Portugal it is 13 percent. In Italy it is 12 percent — a country where there has been virtually no productivity growth since the introduction of the euro in 1999. Should a radical party want to break German hegemony, it would do well to learn from the failures of Syriza. It may sound foolish to risk everything on an aggressive grab for economic sovereignty — but if these countries want their problems fixed in years, rather than in decades, there may be no other option. SOURCE http://theweek.com/articles/566079/how-germany-defeated-syriza--reasserted-hegemony-over-eurozone --------------------- COMMENT Enjoyed this article.  Bit of a catch-up for me, as I haven't kept track of Greece.  Didn't expect to understand ins and outs of the economic dramas in Greece, so I haven't taken time to do reading on the subject. Sounds really bad.  How can they not have an exit plan?  That's just insane.  And it looks as though they're putting off the inevitable, having already put the public through an austerity regime, in the lead up to this.  And for what?  Greece, apparently, still doesn't have restructuring or guarantee of funding. [Weird all over the place highlighting & text colours are for myself.   Can't make up my mind how to highlight, as my browser shows highlights overlapping text when published.]