TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  

May 10, 2016

It's Nothing But Lies ... Please Save Us, Russia





It's Nothing But Lies 
... Please Save Us, Russia



http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/05-05-2016/134341-russia_west-0/
 
Russia must save the West from totalitarianism
05.05.2016

Russia must save the West from totalitarianism.


Strangely enough, many Western policy-makers become "enlightened" and suddenly admit the falsity of their statements about Russia as soon as they retire.

The most recent example is the statement from federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin about her sentence against Russian citizen Viktor Bout in 2012. According to Scheindlin, 25 years in prison, to which she sentenced the Russian, was too much strict a sentence, The New York Times wrote. It is worthy of note that the judge had resigned before she made the above-mentioned statement.

We can recall other examples. For example, the head of French intelligence, General Christophe Gomart, stated that the Russian army had not invaded and did not plan to invade Ukraine. Former US President Jimmy Carter said that the return of the Crimea to Russia was inevitable against the backdrop of the circumstances of the Ukrainian crisis. It is highly unlikely that Carter would dare to make such a statement, if he served as the current President of the United States.

This behavior of politicians and officials shows that one of their work duties is to lie, writer Anatoly Wasserman said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. As they retire, they try to whitewash their reputation.  [Comment:  journalist & political commentator]

All this must be taken into account not to expect an opportunity to come to an agreement with Western officials, Wasserman believes.  It would be more correct to address common people of Western countries to show the false nature of their leaders to them.  [comment: As Western politicians and officials demonstrate a pattern of public pretence while in office (per above few examples), coming to an agreement on issues with Western authorities cannot rationally be expected.  Under the circumstances, the more rational approach is to address the general public that is routinely deceived by politicians, in order to lift the veil of Western political deceit.]

"We must try to show the truth to ordinary citizens in the first place. We must show them what is really happening and what long-term effects may come from what appears to be absolutely acceptable and even beneficial to them," Anatoly Wasserman said in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

The population of Western countries still benefits by following the advice of their leaders, the expert said. It is important to explain to them what losses these benefits may entail tomorrow. "If they see how dangerous their own actions can be, then one can hope that they will reject the lies and step on the path of truth in their own interests."

The Western society is based on the concepts of freedom that it does not have. Instead, the Western society has been displaying signs of totalitarianism.

According to Anatoly Wasserman, the Americans raised their economy on slave labor before launching the global campaign not to call blacks 'blacks.[comment:  ie before launching into a global
campaign of American government political exploitation, as the world's newly minted 'champions' of black issues / politics etc, I would guess.  Much like their politically exploitative women's and homosexual issues schtick. ]

"They remember those crimes, and now they are trying to make the whole world believe that it was not them, who committed those crimes, that it was the whole world that shared bad attitude towards blacks, and, accordingly, it is the whole world that should wash away the American guilt before blacks. Similarly, when they fight and proclaim their freedoms, they imply that the West has bid farewell to its freedoms," Anatoly Wasserman said.

The expert added that in the Western society, especially in the Anglo-Saxon part of it, the pressure of public opinion is much stronger than in the Russian society. "Even in Russian provinces, where people traditionally dislike everything that is not traditional, people are more tolerant to other people's conduct. In European cities, intolerance has reached even most remote neighborhoods. "Many Russians, who have moved to the West in a hope to find tolerance and freedom, acknowledge that they come across absolutely the opposite. Therefore, all the stories about the totalitarian Russia display another attempt of the West to lay their own fault to somebody else's door."
http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/05-05-2016/134341-russia_west-0/


COMMENT

The American Capitalist Empire needs to quit projecting its own vices on the rest of the world.  Nobody's buying the bull America's selling anymore. 
LOL ... you can actually see that scrolling through the reader comments in Western hit piece articles.  Comments in favour of Vladimir Putin.  It's hilarious.
Noam Chomsky also has something interesting to say about the extent of 'thought control' and public opinion shaping that we're subjected to in the West - link.




Syria, Palmyra - Concert





Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
concert:   "Pray for Palmyra. Music Revives Ancient Ruins"

Palmyra ('City of Palm Trees') Syria
Roman amphitheatre
Russia Insider






May 09, 2016

The Kitchen





The Kitchen


Was super excited about making yoghurt.

Now I'm apprehensive about my lame prep.

Intended to throw myself into yoghurt making some time ago, but that sort of fell by the wayside after a bad result or maybe two (runny ... then made cottage cheese instead, by boiling bad result).

The Thermos flask style yoghurt maker was really lame; the op-shop bought electric yoghurt maker was effective (but too fiddly for my liking, which is probably why it ended up in the charity bin); and the wrap-and-stand method was hit and miss (for me).

Been eating loads of yoghurt lately, so it seemed like a good time to have another shot at making my own.

Watched a few videos and opted for the yoghurt & sour cream starter option (some use culture, others use store-bought yoghurt as starter, or yoghurt starter and milk powder, for the fat content & creamier result).

The electric model came with a thermometer, which is handy to have when you don't know by feel what temperature you're looking for.  It just has a basic gauge on it, rather than an indicator of precise temperature (which ought to be brought down to 45ºC before introducing culture/starter). 


 [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

Aside from the fiddly x6 cups (& lids) individual factor, the capacity of the electric model was too low to bother messing around.  If you're going to bother making yoghurt, make at least a couple of litres to make it worth the effort.

Yoghurt can be used in all sorts of ways:  in cooking; dolloped on top of meals served; eaten with cereal; eaten as a snack; sweetened, and eaten as a dessert; in cake preparation etc. ... or (in natural unsweetened state) fed to dogs (small doses, to test for tolerance!) ... LOL

For 1.5 times less than the price of a tub of store-bought plain yoghurt, I can make x2 the amount of yoghurt at home ... or, that's the plan.  :)

Once you have successful home-made yoghurt happening, you reserve a cup (or whatever) as the starter for the next batch.  So, how easy & economical is that?

The only hassle is getting the right environmental/incubation conditions.  Or that's what I've found.

Instead of messing with the individual cups & lids method of the electric yoghurt-maker, I've chosen to set aside the cups (which I'll probably use as spice jars).  I'm using the base as an improvised 'heat-mat'.  The 'heat-mat' sits on large towels; a large glass mixing bowl containing 2 litres of the yoghurt mix sits on top of the 'heat-mat' (with a dinner plate resting on top of the bowl as a lid); and an extra towel has been placed on top, to complete the package, in case its not warm enough.

In maybe 4 hours from now, I ought to have yoghurt ... if all is well with that thermometer, and (I guess) if I haven't let the temperature drop too much by fiddling with that heat-mat, which I failed to set up and warm beforehand, because I tend to do things on the fly (instead of properly planning)  :( .

Just checked the 'heat-mat'.  It's working & it's nice and warm under the bowl.  I'll have yoghurt ... or I'll have cheese.  LOL

Can't take photos, as the camera batteries have died.


*recipe example here


Ta-da
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

It worked.  It worked.  It worked!
It's perfectly set.
Can't taste it yet, because it's not chilled.




May 08, 2016

WWI Hell March, Capitalist Propaganda, Thought Control, Censorship, Noam Chomsky & WikiLeaks






WWI Hell March, 
Capitalist Propaganda,
Thought Control, Censorship,
Noam Chomsky & WikiLeaks
German Army
Hell March WWI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6rPoCoSkG4



Noam Chomsky
American academic
[for quotation purposes, confirm audio]


PARTIAL EXTRACTS

Narrator:

... His comments post 9/11, when he described the US as a leading terrorist state drew hostile fire even from allies on the left.

He has the gloves back on, denouncing Western greed & hypocrisy.

Noam Chomsky:

We need not rehearse the reasons why Britain, and later the United States, have been determined to control the Gulf region.

It's enough to recall the observation of the State Department in 1945 that the resources of the region are a stupendous source of strategic power and one of the greatest material prizes in world history
 


<<  Chomsky most recent work:  "Pirates & Emperors"  >>
Insert:
Book:
The City of God (410 CE)
Sait Augustine (354-430)
Latin Church Father
b. North Africa
Bishop of city of Hippo
The City of God written by him
following sack of Rome by Alaric & the Vandals
Pagans blamed conversion of Roman empire to Christianity
for sack of Vandals
http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-city2.asp

[In respect of Chomsky book title]

 

Noam Chomsky:
 
That's plagiarised from Saint Augustine, who in The City of God has a story about Alexander.  His forces capture a pirate, and there's an audience between the pirate and the emperor, and he asks the pirate, "How dare you molest the seas?"

And the pirate tells him, "I am a small man with a tiny boat, so they call me a pirate.  You're an emperor with a vast navy and you molest the world, but they call you an emperor."

And that's a good allegory for the world and, in particular, for the contemporary world.

The pirates are the ones who were contemned and not the emperors.

Of course, the general population is attacked by both the emperors and the pirates.

Saint Augustine is not saying that the pirate is a nice fellow; he's just saying he's a small criminal as compared with a major criminal.


Interviewer:

So, who does control the world?  Who are the emperors?


Noam Chomsky:

Overwhelmingly the United States since the Second World War, Britain before that, and concentrations of private power, which are enormous and tyrannical corporations closely linked to the powerful states.

It's a network of concentrated power with international institutions, like IMF and so on, which sometimes call themselves the 'Masters of the World'.  


It's a phrase that was in the Financial Times, a little ironically, but not wrong.

Actually, they call themselves the 'Masters of the Universe'.  Adam Smith called them the 'Masters of the World'.  Now they're called the 'Masters of the Universe'.

They didn't have space age in Smith's time.


Interviewer:

But don't you sometimes need big government to deal with big business, since there is a kind of balance between these large forces?


Noam Chomsky:
 

It's like saying that there's a balance between the members of the Board of Directors of General Motors.

Yes, there's some kind of a balance.  But they're so closely interlinked and they're connected, that to first approximation they're the same thing.

Interviewer:

Now, did September 11th, do you think, mark a change in world politics?


Noam Chomsky:
 

It was a historic event.  It was the first time in hundreds of years that the West, Europe, and its offshoots, have suffered the criminal atrocity that they constantly carry out against others, which is quite a change.  


That's why there's such shock in the West. 

This kind of thing we do to you, you don't do it to us.

It's like the reaction in England in the so-called Indian mutiny rebellion, in India.  Tremendous shock.

[tape distortion]

... would use it as an opportunity to intensify repressive and somewhat violent actions, and that's just what's happened.


[skip]

Interviewer:

You make quite a lot in the book on the fact that there is freedom of expression in America.  But what you do point to is something more insidious, because you suggest that there is actually -- although there may be freedom of expression -- there's a control of freedom of thought.

Now, how does that happen?


Noam Chomsky:
 

It was understood, back in the time of the First World War that it's becoming much more difficult to control people by force.

The popular struggles have led to the development of unions, the parliamentary Labour party, franchise extended and so on, and coercion is just not going to work by force.  So, therefore, you have to control thought.

It's very striking that the contemporary systems of thought control, which are highly developed, very self-conscious, you know, leaders talk all about it.  They come from England and the United States.

So the British Ministry of Information, which the reader of any Orwell knows what it was, that's from the First World War.

It was aimed primarily to convert a pacifist population into raving anti-German fanatics, and it worked.  And it impressed people.

It impressed the business world.  That's the origins of the modern public relations industry.

It impressed American intellectuals who developed the conception of what they call the 'manufacture of consent', control of thought.

It impressed Hitler, who blamed the German defeat on superior Anglo-American propaganda and vowed that next time Germany would be prepared.

And it has led in the United States primarily, and in England secondarily, to huge industries devoted to control of attitudes, because you cannot control people by force.


Interviewer:

But dissent has been growing since the 1960s in the Western world.  I mean, people are far more sophisticated now.  Even popular culture reflects the fact that anything from the X-Files to the film, The Insider, that the idea of people discussing things of trying to manipulate public opinion; I mean, that's highly developed now.


Noam Chomsky:
 

Sure.  But when people were under the lash they knew about it, too.

People are so aware of it, that it has led to tremendous cynicism about almost anything.

I mean, nobody believes what government officials say, nobody believes what they read in the press, people don't believe professions.  It's led to enormous cynicism and tremendous opposition.  In fact, in my view, the more crucial things than the things you mentioned, are opposition to aggression.

Just take a look at the current war in Iraq and compare it with, say, the Vietnam War.

It's a comparison which is often made about the protest, but the comparison is completely false.

The opposition to the war in Iraq is far greater than it ever was to the war in Vietnam at any remotely comparable stage, and this is the first war, I think in European history, Europe and the United States -- the first one I can think of -- where there was massive protests before the war.  It's never happened.

I mean, in the case of Vietnam War, there was no protest until years after the war.

Just in the last 30 or 40 years, in say the united States, the level of civilisation among the general public -- not intellectuals, that's a separate category, but among the general public -- it's advanced enormously.

Interviewer:

So, do you think that intellectuals are not sufficiently engaged?  Do you think that they have become cynical?


Noam Chomsky

Intellectuals are a separate category.

Intellectuals are mostly servants of power.

I'm talking about the general public, not the intellectual world.

They remain pretty constant, I don't think they are subject to these changes -- except marginally, of course, to some extent.

But they are quite different and quite generally -- it goes right through history -- intellectuals have been servants of power.

Take, say, the First World War.

On all sides  --  Germany, England, United States, France -- intellectuals were extremely enthusiastic about the war.

There were a few dissenters and the best known of them ended up in gaol, like Bertrand Russell, for example -- or, Eugene Debs, in the United States, or Rosa Luxemburg, in Germany.

Very small group of critics.  Some of them best known in prison.

But most intellectuals were enthusiasts for their own country, and that's common and it remains common.

Intellectuals write history, so you have to be a little cautious about what they say about themselves.  And it looks prettier when it's written in books.


[CONTINUES]
[for quotation purposes, confirm audio]

NOAM CHOMSKY ON:
JULIAN ASSANGE
|  WIKILEAKS

https://youtu.be/5MzPbRlxvfI

Article
Noam Chomsky Defends WikiLeaks & Declassifying Information
"The threat is that the public will know what the government is up to."
By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet
April 18, 2016
http://www.alternet.org/media/noam-chomsky-defends-wikileaks-and-declassifying-information
 

CAPITALISM
WANTS YOU!

WWI Propaganda




'Panama Papers' - CIA PsyOp






'Panama Papers' - CIA PsyOp


http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/12/swiss-banker-whistleblower-cia-behind-panama-papers.html

Swiss banker whistleblower: CIA behind Panama Papers
Eamon Javers    | @EamonJavers
Tuesday, 12 Apr 2016 | 12:11 PM ET


Bradley Birkenfeld is the most significant financial whistleblower of all time, so you might think he'd be cheering on the disclosures in the new Panama Papers leaks. But today, Birkenfeld is raising questions about the source of the information that is shaking political regimes around the world.

Birkenfeld, an American citizen, was a banker working at UBS in Switzerland when he approached the U.S. government with information on massive amounts of tax evasion by Americans with secret accounts in Switzerland. By the end of his whistleblowing career, Birkenfeld had served more than two years in a U.S. federal prison, been awarded $104 million by the IRS for his information and shattered the foundations of more than a century of Swiss banking secrecy.

In an exclusive interview Tuesday from Munich, Birkenfeld said he doesn't think the source of the 11 million documents stolen from a Panamanian law firm should automatically be considered a whistleblower like himself. Instead, he said, the hacking of the Panama City-based firm, called Mossack Fonseca, could have been done by a U.S. intelligence agency.

"The CIA I'm sure is behind this, in my opinion," Birkenfeld said.

Birkenfeld pointed to the fact that the political uproar created by the disclosures have mainly impacted countries with tense relationships with the United States. "The very fact that we see all these names surface that are the direct quote-unquote enemies of the United States, Russia, China, Pakistan, Argentina and we don't see one U.S. name. Why is that?" Birkenfeld said. "Quite frankly, my feeling is that this is certainly an intelligence agency operation."

Asked why the U.S. would leak information that has also been damaging to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, a major American ally, Birkenfeld said the British leader was likely collateral damage in a larger intelligence operation.

"If you've got NSA and CIA spying on foreign governments they can certainly get into a law firm like this," Birkenfeld said. "But they selectively bring the information to the public domain that doesn't hurt the U.S. in any shape or form. That's wrong. And there's something seriously sinister here behind this."

The public relations office for the CIA did not immediately return a message for comment.

Birkenfeld also said that during his time as a Swiss banker, Mossack Fonseca was known as one piece of the vast offshore maze used by bankers and lawyers to hide money from tax authorities. But he also said that the firm that is at the center of the global scandal was also seen as a relatively small player in the overall offshore tax evasion business.


"We knew that firm very well in Switzerland. I certainly knew of it," Birkenfeld said.

But Mossack Fonseca was
just one of a number of firms in Panama offering such services, he said. "The cost of doing business there was quite low, relatively speaking," he said. "So what you would have is Panama operating as a conduit to the Swiss banks and the trust companies to set up these facilities for clients around the world."


Eamon Javers
CNBC Washington Reporter

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/12/swiss-banker-whistleblower-cia-behind-panama-papers.html




COMMENT


I'm not the only one that thinks this reeks of USG.




EU-NATO Bastard Invasion of Europe Jihadist Recruitment Drive







EU-NATO Bastard
Invasion of Europe
Jihadist Recruitment Drive



44%


European jihadists won't need a Turkish visa to get to Syria



The filthy EU-NATO bastards have opened European borders to a horde of invaders from all of Africa, Middle East and Asia, so that they can select, train and equip jihadist mercenaries to attack Syria, via an open borders Europe/Turkey.

In pursuit of their evil plan, EU-NATO have opened Europe to further onslaught of:

  • rape of European women and children;
  • Rotherham, UK - thousands of British children sacrificed.
  • Cologne rapes - hundreds of German women sacrificed.
  • Stockholm rapes - hundreds of Swedish women sacrificed.
  • decades-long pattern of offending, ignored by European politicians.
already facilitated by:
  • European government, police & media cover-ups pattern.
  • governments failing to keep appropriate (a) demographics statistics & (b) criminal offending statistics (pretext of  'non-discrimination' motives).
as well as:
  • enormous & enduring social and other costs;
  • inevitable terrorist attacks on European soil; and
  • displacement, dispossession, and destruction of Europe as the ancestral homeland of Europeans.

The European Union and NATO scumbags make the Islamic Caliphate look like national heroes.



EDIT


Also a part of the general destruction of Europe program that has been implemented by the scum that control Europe, and a program of destruction that has been 'mid-wifed' by the capitalist scum that consider Europe a colony.

Invasion, dismemberment, dispossession and dissolution of Europe as ancestral homeland of the Europeans is a LONG-STANDING PROGRAM that has been implemented by ALL SERVANTS OF CAPITALISM.

The program of destruction of Europe continues irrespective of the program of the destruction of Syria, that the West and their Middle Eastern allies inflict with impunity on the Syrian people.

Sending armed jihadist militias to Syria from Europe via the Turkish route is entirely in keeping with the Western years-long program of having already sent destructive proxy forces to Syria.

It explains why the scum that control Europe are not concerned that armies of able-bodied military-age young men invade Europe.






American Oligarchy's Free Trade Deals Set to Destroy Europe






American Oligarchy's
Free Trade Deal Set to Destroy Europe


https://www.rt.com/op-edge/341801-ttip-eu-obama-us-elections/

NATO on trade, in Europe and Asia, is doomed

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of "Globalistan" (2007), "Red Zone Blues" (2007), "Obama does Globalistan" (2009) and "Empire of Chaos" (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is "2030", also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.


Published time: 4 May, 2016 14:03


The President of the United States (POTUS) is desperate. Exhibit A: His Op-Ed defending the Asian face - the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - of a wide-ranging, twin-headed NATO-on-trade “pivoting”.

The European face is of course the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

POTUS frames TPP – as well as TTIP - in terms of a benign expansion of US exports, and private (US) firms having “a fair shot at competing against state-owned enterprises.” “Fair”? Not really. Let’s see how the mechanism works, focusing on TPP’s European twin.

With impeccable timing, almost simultaneously to Obama’s Op-Ed, Greenpeace Netherlands leaked 248 pages of classified TTIP documents that were to be re-discussed last week by negotiators in New York. There have been no less than 13 rounds of TTIP negotiations so far, over nearly three years.

The documents – negotiated in total secrecy since 2013 - represent roughly two-thirds of the latest negotiating text. An array of detailed studies, like this one, had been warning about the state of play. The veil of secrecy ended up being the ultimate giveaway to TTIP’s toxicity. Before the Greenpeace Netherlands leak, EU elected representatives could only examine these documents under a police watch, in a secure room, without access to experts, and on top of it they could not discuss the content with anyone else.
 

I will crush you with my GMOs

Everything civil society across Europe – for at least three years – has been debating, and fearing, is confirmed; this is a sophisticated, toxic US-led corporate racket, a concerted assault across the spectrum, from the environment and animal welfare to labor rights and internet privacy. In a nutshell; it’s all about the US corporate galaxy pushing the EU to lower – or abase – a range of consumer protections.

Hardball, predictably, is the name of the game. Washington no less than threatened to block EU car exports to force the EU to buy genetically engineered fruits and vegetables. In my travels in France, Italy and Spain over the past two years, I confirmed this to be the ultimate nightmare expressed by practitioners of top-end artisanal agriculture[traditional agricultural methods]

Predictably, the lobbyist-infested European Commission (EC) fiercely defends TTIP, stressing it could benefit the EU’s economy by $150 billion a year, and raise car exports by 149 percent. Obviously don’t expect the EC to connect these “car exports” to a US-led GMO invasion of Europe.

At least some nations have finally woken up from their (corporate lobbyist-induced) slumber. The French Minister for Foreign Trade, Matthias Fekl, said negotiations over a “bad deal” should stop. He went straight to the point, blaming Washington’s intransigence; “There cannot be an agreement without France and much less against France.”

Perennially ineffectual President Francois Hollande, for his part, has threatened to block the deal altogether. Three years ago Paris had already secured an exemption for the French film industry not to be gobbled up by Hollywood. Now it’s also about the crucial agriculture front. Hollande said he would never accept “the undermining of the essential principles of our agriculture, our culture, of mutual access to public markets.”

And what is the EC – leading the negotiations on behalf of the EU - doing? Pulling its predictable Trojan horse act; these are all “alarmist headlines” and “a storm in a teacup”. Puzzled EU citizens, en masse, may question if this is really the way for the EC – a bureaucratic Brussels behemoth - to supposedly defend the rights of EU consumers. Yet, infiltrated as it is by corporate lobbyism, the EC simply can’t protect the EU’s environmental and health standards, much more sophisticated than the US’s, from a corporate America bent on meddling with the content of EU laws all along the regulatory line.
 

I got an offer you can’t refuse

POTUS was heavily campaigning for TTIP last month in Germany. POTUS still hopes he may have a deal in the bag before he leaves office in January 2017. White House spokesman Josh Earnest has tried to put on a brave face, saying the leaks will not have a "material impact" on the negotiations. Wrong; they will – as they are mobilizing public opinion all across the EU.

David Cameron, in the UK, is also in a bind. He’s fiercely pro-TTIP. But Obama has already warned; this means Brexit is a no-no. Club Med nations, for their part, are leaning against. All 28 EU member nations – plus the European Parliament – would have to ratify TTIP if a deal is eventually reached.

TPP, for its part, has been negotiated. But it has not been approved by the US Congress (nor by Pacific nations). The approval process has gone nowhere. In fact it will be up to either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Trump arguably is oblivious to TPP’s details; but considering the deal is being heavily championed by Obama, Trump may go against it.

A case can be made that both TPP and TTIP vow to distort markets, in Europe and Asia; prop up (US) monopolies; transfer jobs to slave labor markets (in the case of parts of Asia); trample on intellectual property rights (in the case of the EU); facilitate tax evasion; and ultimately transfer more wealth from the many to the 0.00001 percent.

And this leads us to how Hillary Clinton – the Wall Street/US establishment candidate – views both TPP and TTIP. Well, she supported both NAFTA and CAFTA, approved under Bill Clinton in the 1990s. As Secretary of State, she lobbied for the Panama trade deal. And, crucially, she has always treated the TPP as the “gold standard”. No wonder; this is the trade arm of the “pivoting to Asia” she’s been so fond of - a Pacific trade deal that excludes China, which happens to be the top trade partner of most Asian nations.

Moreover, those by now famous Goldman Sachs speeches are increasingly being seen as payments for services rendered (and promised) by Hillary Clinton to the 0,0001 percent, who are, of course, in favor of global corporate America expansion.

    Things we've learned from the #TTIPLeaks:
    1. 'We're being sold down the river by our reps in the EU' - @WarOnWanthttps://t.co/CWH0smP0kY
    — RT UK (@RTUKnews) May 3, 2016


Yet it ain’t over till the November ballot sings. Hillary now faces serious scrutiny by working class voters in the US. So no wonder, in another flip-flopping masterpiece, she’s now leaning towards describing herself as opposing both TPP and TTIP.

Still, TPP at least may be approved during the post-election ‘lame-duck’ session of the US Congress. As for TTIP, it’s now mired in Walking Dead zone. Talk about what it takes for the Obama administration to imprint its trade “legacy” in the history books; to keep blackmailing Europeans and Asians alike as if it was just a lowly Mob extortion racket. 

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/341801-ttip-eu-obama-us-elections/

COMMENT

They are a lowly mob extortion racket.

Refuse, Europe. It's not worth it.
Tell the reps of American oligarchs to f*ck off and tell the greedy European oligarchs to fuck off, as well.
Communism has got to be better than this rip off and destruction of Europe for the sake of a few European ruling rich, whose selfishness and greed is destroying Europe.