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. ⟴  
Showing posts with label Dilma Rousseff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dilma Rousseff. Show all posts

May 15, 2016

Brazil Coup: Despicable Hybrid War Hyenas Usurp Democracy







Brazil Coup:  
Despicable Hybrid War Hyenas
Usurp Democracy


Following condemn Brazil Coup:
  • OAS - Organization of American States
  • Mercosur - sub-regional bloc:  Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela (+ Brazil)
  • Unasur - Union of South American Nations
  • BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa


https://www.rt.com/op-edge/342821-brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment/


RT News

Dilma out: Brazilian plutocracy sets 54mn votes on fire

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: 12 May, 2016 16:00


Never in modern political history has it been so easy to “abolish the people” and simply erase 54 million votes cast in a free and fair presidential election.

Forget about hanging chads, as in Florida 2000. This is a day that will live in infamy all across the Global South – when what was one of its most dynamic democracies veered into a plutocratic regime, under a flimsy parliamentary/judicial veneer, with legal and constitutional guarantees now at the mercy of lowly comprador elites[comment:  comprador = intermediary / middleman]

After the proverbial marathon, the Brazilian Senate voted 55-22 to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial for “crimes of responsibility” – related to alleged window dressing of the government’s budget.

This is the culmination of a drawn-out process that started even before Rousseff won re-election in late 2014 with over 54 million votes. I have described the bunch of perpetrators of what Brazilian creativity has termed ‘golpeachment’ (a mix of coup – “golpe” in Portuguese – and impeachment) as Hybrid War hyenas[comment:  ie coup+impeachment]

Sophisticated golpeachment – supported by what amounts to an Electoral Inquisition College – has propelled Hybrid War to whole new levels.

Hybrid War as applied to Brazil exhibited classic elements of a color revolution. Of course there was no need for no-fly zones or humanitarian imperialism to “protect human rights” – not to mention provoking a civil war. But considering the high resistance level of the victim state, where civil society is very dynamic, Hybrid War designers in this case bet on a mix of capitulation – and betrayal – of local elites, mixed with “peaceful protests” and a relentless mainstream media campaign. Call it ‘Civil War Light.’

That carried with it a fabulous cost-benefit ratio. Now the (immensely corrupt) Brazilian political system and the current executive/legislative/judiciary/mainstream media alignment can be used by the usual suspects for their geopolitical agenda.

Welcome to regime change lightpolitics, in a nutshell – as war by other means on the BRICS. A new software, a new operating system. Carrying a pathetic corollary; if the US is the Empire of Chaos, Brazil has now gloriously reached the status of Sub-Empire of Scoundrels.
 

Scoundrels galore

Rousseff may be accused of serious economic mismanagement, and of being incapable of political articulation among the shark pool that is (immensely corrupt) Brazilian politics. But she is not corrupt. She made a serious mistake in fighting inflation, allowing interest rates to rise to an unsustainable level; so demand in Brazil dramatically dropped, and recession became the norm. She is the (convenient) scapegoat for Brazil’s recession.

She certainly may be blamed for not having a Plan B to fight the global recession. Brazil essentially works on two pillars; commodity exports and local companies relying on the teats of the state. Infrastructure in general is dismal – adding to what is described as the “Brazilian cost” of doing business. With the commodity slump, state funds dwindled and everything was paralyzed – credit, investment, consumption.   

The pretext for Rousseff’s impeachment – allegedly transferring loans from public banks to the Treasury in order to disguise the size of Brazil’s fiscal deficit – is flimsy at best. Every administration in the West does it – and that includes Clinton’s, Bush’s and Obama’s.

The Operation Car Wash investigation, dragging on for two years now, was supposed to uncover corruption in the Brazilian political system – as in the collusion of oil giant Petrobras executives, Brazilian construction companies, and political campaign financing. Car Wash has nothing to do with the golpeachment drive. Yet these have been two parallel highways converging to one destination: the criminalization of the Workers’ Party, and the definitive – if possible – political assassination of Rousseff and her mentor, former President Lula.

When golpeachment reached the lower house of Congress – an appalling spectacle – Rousseff was eviscerated by Hybrid War hyenas of the BBC variety; “BBC,” in English, stands for “bullet,”“bible” and “cattle,” where “bullet” refers to the weapons and private security industry, “bible” to pastors and evangelical fanatics, and “cattle” to the powerful agribusiness lobby.

The “BBC” hyenas are members of almost all Brazilian political parties, paperboys for major corporations, and – last but not least – corruption stalwarts. They all benefited from millionaire political campaigning. The whole Car Wash investigation ultimately revolves around campaign financing, which in Brazil, unlike the US with its legalized lobbies, is a Tarantino-worthy Wild West.   

The Brazilian Senate is not exactly an “upper” – as in more polished – house. Eighty percent of members are white men – in a country where miscegenation rules. A staggering 58 percent is under criminal investigation – linked to Car Wash. Sixty percent hail from political dynasties. And 13 percent – as alternates – were not elected at all. Among those favoring impeachment, 30 out of 49 are in trouble with the law. Charges include mostly money laundering, financial crimes and outright corruption. Renan Calheiros, the president of the Senate – who oversaw today’s impeachment vote – is the target of no fewer than nine separate money laundering/corruption Car Wash lines of investigation, plus another two criminal probes. 


Meet the three Banana Republic amigos

Rousseff is now suspended for a maximum 180 days while a Senate committee decides whether to impeach her for good. Enter President-in-Waiting Michel Temer – a dodgy, shady operator – who has been branded a “usurper” by Rousseff. And usurper this provincial Brutus certainly is – according to his own words. On March 30 last year, he was tweeting that, “Impeachment is unthinkable, it would create an institutional crisis. There is no judicial or political basis for it.

His administration is born with the original sin of being illegal and massively unpopular; his approval rating floats between an epic 1 percent and 2 percent. He was already fined last week for violating campaign finance limits. And, predictably, he’s drowning in a corruption swamp – named in two Car Wash plea bargains and accused of being part of an illegal scheme of ethanol buying; he may become ineligible for the next eight years. Almost 60 percent of Brazilians also want him impeached – on the same charges leveled against Rousseff.

Brutus 1 (Temer) would not bask in the glow of his 15 minutes of fame without the shenanigans of Brutus 2 (Brazil’s number one crook, former speaker of the lower house Eduardo Cunha, facing charges of bribery and perjury, holder of illegal Swiss accounts, and now finally sidelined by the Supreme Court). It was Brutus 2 who fast-tracked impeachment as pure vengeance; the Workers’ Party did not cover his back as he was facing a tsunami of corruption charges. Brutus 2 used all his vast powers – he runs a campaign financing scam inside Congress – to obstruct the Car Wash investigation. His replacement, the interim speaker, is also under investigation for bribery.

So meet Temer, Cunha, Calheiros; these three amigos are the true stars of the Banana Republic of Scoundrels/Crooks.

As if the Supreme Court would be rascal-free. Judge Gilmar Mendes, for instance, is a lowly plutocrat vassal. When an attorney for the government entered a motion to suspend impeachment, he quipped, “Ah, they can go to heaven, to the Pope, or to hell.” Another pompous judge received a request to sideline Cunha as early as December 2015. He only examined the request over four months later, when the whole golpeachment scam was in its decisive phase. And still he argued, “there’s no proof Cunha contaminated the impeachment process.”

Finally, complementing the whole scam, we find Brazilian mainstream media, with the toxic Globo media empire – which lavishly profited from the 1964 military coup – at the forefront.  [comment:  Grupo Globo]


All hail the neoliberal restoration 

Wall Street – as well as the City of London – could not hide its excitement with golpeachment, believing Brutus 1 Temer will be an economic upgrade. Arguably, he might dare to tweak Brazil’s Kafkaesque tax code and do something about the enormous hole in the pension system. But what that mythical entity – the “markets” – and myriad “investors” are salivating about is the prospect of fabulous rates of return in a reopened-for-speculation Brazil. The Brutus 1 game will be a neoliberal feast, actually a restoration, with no popular representation whatsoever.  

The golpeachment gang gets really incensed when they are identified as coup plotters. Still, they could not give a damn about the OAS, Mercosur, Unasur – all of them condemned the coup – not to mention the Holy Grail: the BRICS. Under Brutus 1, the Foreign Ministry, to be led by a sore loser senator, is bound to sink Brazil’s key role in BRICS cooperation, to the benefit of Exceptionalistan.

All one needs to know is that neither Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack “kill list” Obama nor Queen of Chaos Hillary “We came, we saw, he died” Clinton condemned the ongoing regime change light/golpeachment. That’s predictable, considering Exceptionalistan’s NSA spied on Petrobras and Dilma Rousseff personally – the genesis of what would develop as the Car Wash investigation.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest limited himself to the proverbial platitudes: “challenging moment”; “trust in Brazilian democratic institutions”; or even “mature democracy.” Yet he added, significantly, that Brazil is “under scrutiny.”

Of course, the current stage of a very sophisticated Hybrid War strategy has been accomplished. But there are countless cliffhangers ahead. The Car Wash investigation – currently in slow motion – will pick up speed as a rash of dodgy plea bargains is already in store to create the conditions to criminalize for good not only Dilma Rousseff but the key piece in the chessboard: Lula.

Game over? Not so fast. The anti-golpeachment front does have a strategy: to imprint especially in “deep Brazil,” the vast masses of the working poor, the notion of illegality; to rebuild Rousseff’s image as the victim of a profound injustice; to re-energize the progressive political front; to make sure the Brutus 1 government will fail; and to create the conditions for the man who will come in from the cold to win the 2018 presidential elections.

Brazilian House of Cards? Bets could be made this may even end up as Anaconda, with Lula immobilizing the Hybrid War hyenas in a cobra clutch.

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/342821-brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment/


COMMENT

Hope this ends badly for the Hybrid War hyenas.





May 14, 2016

Brazil Coup




Brazil Coup



 [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]





Brazil Coup


Michel Temer
-- Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia
-- lawyer, politician
-- VP Brazil since 2011
-- Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB)
-- centrist 'big tent' party with no defined ideology / seeking to appeal to diverse

-- assumed the presidential role as 'acting president'
-- on suspension of Dilma Rousseff during impeachment trial
-- Maronite Lebanese
-- family migrated to Brazil, 1920s from north Lebanon
-- due to post-WWI instability
-- children spread over 3 women so far:
--     -- wife #1 - Maria
--     -- journalist
--     -- wife #2 - Marcela (42 years Temer's junior, dating then 60yo at 17)
-- second VP of Lebanese origin
-- Temer subject of corruption investigations
-- 'Operation Car Wash'
-- re construction contracts from Petrobras US$1.5 million alleged kickbacks
-- payments characterised by Temer as 'legal campaign donations'

-- & wrongdoing denied
-- Temer involved in Dilma Rousseff impeachment process
-- 2015 sends letter to President Rousseff complaining he's not consulted enough
-- Temer letter mocked on Brazilian social media
-- Rousseff condemned him as a traitor to her administration
-- 2016 - audio file of Temer leaked to media
-- Temer speaks as if impeachment process under-way & he was the new president
-- leak came hours before special lower house committee scheduled to vote re impeachment

“Let’s not think that a possible change in government will solve everything in three or four months.” [Michel Temer]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Temer

 Operation Car Wash
-- Brazil Federal Police investigation
-- since March 2014
-- money-laundering investigation expanded to allegations of corruption
-- involving state-controlled Petrobas
-- alleging executives accepted bribes

-- for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated prices
-- alleged ring used currency exchange & money transfer service
-- to move illicit money

-- 2016:  Marcelo Odebrecht, CEO of Odebrecht
-- convicted of paying more than $30 million in bribes to Petrobras executives
-- sentenced 19 years prison


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Car_Wash


Petrobas
-- 54% govt Brazil owned
-- 5% Brazilian Development Bank
-- 5% Brazil Sovereign Wealth Fund (Fundo Soberano)
-- 36% privately held shares (BM&F Bovespa)

-- f. 1953 under slogan 'the oil is ours' (& not the foreigners)
-- 92% production = Brazil holdings
-- significant oil & energy assets:  x16 countries, Africa, North & South America, Europe, Asia
-- began processing oil shale 1953
-- Petrobas almost went bankrupt 1973 oil crisis
-- 2005 joint venture Japan + supply ethanol
-- 2007 & 2009 SEVERAL MAJOR OIL DISCOVERIES
-- partnership incl: 
--     Royal Dutch Shell (Anglo-Dutch multinational)
--     Shell:  world's second largest oil company
--     Galp Energia (Portuguese)
-- 2009:  loans from China - US$10-bn
-- 2013:  US government spying on Petrobras (US journalist Glenn Greenwald)
-- 2015:  Petrobas accumulated $128-bn debt (84% foreign currencies)
--     Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sue Petrobras
--     and its auditors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
--     arising from corruption scandal
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrobras
 


'NSA spied on Brazil's oil giant Petrobras' 
[3:49]

[Source - PressTV video (above) / Gloria La Riva, ANSWER Coalition] 
[for quotation purposes, confirm audio] 



SUMMARY


US oil companies & military corporations 

have a decided interest in domination & recapturing of oil resources throughout world.

Spying on Mexico due to struggle in Mexico to privatise Mexican oil.

Pressure from US to dominate oil as it did to 1938, along with British.

US & British working in tandem & using British territory (Ascension) to spy on Brazil.

US militarising several Latin American countries & building more bases Colombia, and trying to pressure Latin American countries to break friendships with anti-imperialist countries in Latin America. 

-------/\/\/

The anti-imperialist Latin American nations:
  • Antigua & Barbuda
  • Bolivia
  • Cuba
  • Dominica
  • Ecuador
  • Grenada
  • Nicaragua
  • Saint Kitts & Nevis
  • Saint Lucia
  • St Vincent & the Grenadines
  • Venezuela
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALBA



NSA’s Top Brazilian Political and Financial Targets Revealed by New WikiLeaks Disclosure
Glenn Greenwald, David Miranda
July 4 2015, 8:59 p.m

Top-secret data from the National Security Agency, shared with The Intercept by WikiLeaks, reveals that the U.S. spy agency targeted the cell phones and other communication devices of more than a dozen top Brazilian political and financial officials, including the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, whose presidential plane telephone was on the list. President Rousseff just yesterday returned to Brazil after a trip to the U.S. that included a meeting with President Obama, a visit she had delayed for almost two years in anger over prior revelations of NSA spying on Brazil.

That Rousseff’s personal cell phone was successfully targeted by NSA spying was previously reported in 2013 by Fantastico, a program on the Brazilian television network Globo Rede. That revelation — along with others exposing NSA mass surveillance on hundreds of millions of Brazilians, and the targeting of the country’s state-owned oil company Petrobras and its Ministry of Mines and Energy — caused a major rupture in relations between the two nations. But Rouseff is now suffering from severe domestic weakness as a result of various scandals and a weak economy, and apparently could no longer resist the perceived benefits of a high-profile state visit to Washington.



May 05, 2016

Filthy Wall Street & London Banker Swindlers in Collusion with Arabs, Knee-Capping Targeted Economies





Filthy Wall Street & London Banker Swindlers in Collusion with Arabs, Knee-Capping Targeted Economies
SOURCE
http://www.mintpressnews.com/brics-attack-western-banks-governments-launch-full-spectrum-assault-russia-part/215761/

Eric Draitser


BRICS Under Attack: Western Banks, Governments Launch Full-Spectrum Assault On Russia (Part I)

Russia is the target of a multi-faceted, asymmetric campaign of destabilization that has employed economic, political, and psychological forms of warfare -- each of which has been specifically designed to inflict maximum damage on the Kremlin.


By Eric Draitser

@stopimperialism | April 20, 2016 



This article is part of a series on Western meddling to foment unrest and destabilize BRICS nations in an effort to ensure the continuation of Western economic and political control over the Global South. The first two parts, focusing on Brazil and South Africa, can be found here and here. Up next: Part II on the assault on Russia, which focuses on the political, psychological and military aspects that run in tandem with the economic war on Moscow.

NEW YORK — The U.S.-NATO Empire, with its centers of power in Washington, on Wall Street, and in the city of London, is on the offensive against the BRICS countries. This assault takes many forms, each tailored to its specific target.

The ongoing soft coup in Brazil has recently entered a new stage with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff of the left-wing Workers’ Party. Simultaneously, the destabilization of the ANC-led government in South Africa continues as political forces align to remove President Jacob Zuma. These two situations illustrate clearly the very potent forms of subversion via Western-funded political formations and movements being employed against Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the bloc of emerging economies also known as BRICS. 

However, when it comes to a country as large as Russia, with its vast military capabilities, consolidated and wildly popular political leadership, and growing antagonism toward the West, the tools available to the Empire to undermine and destabilize are in some ways more limited.

Indeed, in the context of Russia, the popular mobilization pretext does not apply, and so that weapon in the imperial arsenal is blunted considerably. But there are other, equally potent (and equally dangerous) methods to achieve the desired effect. 

Russia is the target of a multi-faceted, asymmetric campaign of destabilization that has employed economic, political, and psychological forms of warfare, each of which has been specifically designed to inflict maximum damage on the Kremlin. While the results of this multi-pronged assault have been mixed, and their ultimate effect being the subject of much debate, Moscow is, without a doubt, ground zero in a global assault against the BRICS nations.

Economic war: Hitting Russia where it’s vulnerable

While Russia is a world class power militarily, it is highly vulnerable economically. For that obvious reason, this area has been a primary focus of the destabilization thrust.

Russia has for decades been overly reliant, if not entirely dependent, on revenues from the energy sector to maintain its economic growth and fund its budget. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and Russia’s Federal Customs Service, oil and gas sales accounted for 68 percent of Russia’s total export revenues in 2013. With more than two-thirds of total export revenues and roughly 50 percent of the federal budget, not to mention 25 percent of total GDP, coming from oil and gas revenue, Russia’s very economic survival has been as dependent on energy as almost any country in the world.

In light of this, it’s no surprise that the drop in oil prices over the 18-month period from April 2014 to January 2016, which saw prices dive from $105 per barrel to under $30 per barrel, has caused tremendous economic instability in Russia. Even many leading Russian officials have conceded that the negative impact to Russia’s economy is substantial, to say the least. 

At the World Economic Forum in January, former Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin explained that not only has the drop in oil prices badly hurt the Russian economy, but the worst may be yet to come. Kudrin noted the potential for prices to drop even further, possibly even below $20 per barrel, and he warned that the impact to the economy will be significant.

Specifically, it’s not just the loss of revenue, but the negative effect on wages and the currency which have many economic analysts and political figures worried. 

According to the Russian Federal Statistics Service, real wages for Russian workers have dropped significantly since the end of 2014, with steep declines throughout 2015 continuing into early 2016. This has been felt by ordinary Russians, whose wages have stagnated while inflation causes prices to shoot upwards and who have had to endure belt-tightening in terms of personal consumption, and at the national level, where the Russian government has been facing a potentially large budget shortfall for 2016.

It must be noted, however, that recent months have seen an improvement in the relative performance of the ruble, but the long-term outlook from experts remains gloomy.

This has led many Russian analysts and policymakers to advocate yet again for a decreased dependence on energy revenues. They argue that the current climate could force economic restructuring away from the critical energy sector. Aside from Kudrin, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev made the case for potential “structural economic reforms,” as did Vladimir Mau of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. 

Writing earlier this year in Vedomosti, Russia’s leading business publication, Mau explained:

“The demand for oil as a commodity depends on technological progress…And it’s not obvious that oil as a fuel will be always in demand in times of economic growth. With the change of the technological model, it is not ruled out that oil will become just a stock commodity for the energy and chemical industry.”

This last point — how oil is used relative to the market — is the most salient; in other words, it’s the financialization of oil. But the analysis must go a step further and explore how the financialization is, in effect, a weaponization process as oil prices become increasingly the playthings of powerful financial institutions, particularly the major banks on Wall Street and in the city of London. And this is no mere conspiracy theory.

How Wall Street targeted Russia using oil

In July 2013, Sen. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, opened a hearing to probe just how connected major Wall Street banks were to the holding of physical oil assets, and the attendant ability of these companies to manipulate oil prices. The findings of the hearing, considered damning by multiple analysts knowledgeable on the subject, prompted an investigation by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, published as “Wall Street Bank Involvement with Physical Commodities.”

The report highlighted just one of the big banks, Morgan Stanley, noting:  

“One of Morgan Stanley’s primary physical oil activities was to store vast quantities of oil in facilities located within the United States and abroad. According to Morgan Stanley, in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area alone, by 2011, it had leases on oil storage facilities with a total capacity of 8.2 million barrels, increasing to 9.1 million barrels in 2012, and then decreasing to 7.7 million barrels in 2013. Morgan Stanley also had storage facilities in Europe and Asia.  According to the Federal Reserve, by 2012, Morgan Stanley held ‘operating leases on over 100 oil storage tank fields with 58 million barrels of storage capacity globally.’”

Pam and Russ Martens of the well-respected financial analysis site WallStreetOnParade.com succinctly noted in their analysis of this issue: “With financial derivatives and 58 million barrels of physical storage capacity, it might not be so hard to manipulate the oil market.”

Indeed, the sheer scope of Morgan Stanley’s market influence demonstrates the obvious fact that the major Wall Street banks, and their cousins in the city of London, are able to significantly affect global prices using multiple levers like supply and derivatives, among others.

The Senate report’s brazen honesty is likely the main reason the corporate media failed to cover it all.  As noted in the report:

“Due to their physical commodity activities, Goldman, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley incurred increased financial, operational, and catastrophic event risks, faced accusations of unfair trading advantages, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation, and intensified problems with being too big to manage or regulate, introducing new systemic risks into the U.S. financial system.”

But perhaps most jaw-dropping is this January 2014 statement by Norman Bay, director of the Office of Enforcement at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who testified before the Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Subcommittee. He plainly outlined how the big banks manipulate global oil markets:

“A fundamental point necessary to understanding many of our manipulation cases is that financial and physical energy markets are interrelated … a manipulator can use physical trades (or other energy transactions that affect physical prices) to move prices in a way that benefits his overall financial position. One useful way of looking at manipulation is that the physical transaction is a ‘tool’ that is used to ‘target’ a physical price.”

When one considers how much influence these large banks have on global prices, it’s almost self-evident that they would be able to use oil prices to execute a political and geopolitical agenda. With that in mind, it seems highly suspicious (to say the least) that the collapse of the oil price coincided directly with Russia’s move to annex Crimea and assert its dominance over its sphere of influence, thereby effectively stopping the eastward expansion of NATO in Ukraine.

It’s amusing then when one reads The New York Times reporting this month that “simple economics” explains the drop in oil prices. In fact, it’s clear that it’s just the opposite: The collapse of oil is the result of financial manipulation by Wall Street in the service of the broader agenda of the Empire.

Indeed, in late 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin implied strongly that the oil plunge had less to do with economic factors than with political decisions. Putin openly theorized: “There’s lots of talk about what’s causing (the lowering of the oil price). Could it be the agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to punish Iran and affect the economies of Russia and Venezuela? It could.”

Of course, Putin was not alone in this assessment, as many international observers spread “conspiracy theories” about collusion between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to deliberately depress oil prices by not cutting production despite all market indicators pointing to a needed decrease.

With U.S.-Russia relations having reached their nadir at precisely that moment, and with Venezuela and Iran also on the enemies list, it is no surprise that many analysts around the world concluded that Washington and Riyadh were conspiring on oil for political reasons.

Of course, the other major impact of the oil plunge on Russia has to do with the burgeoning energy-trade relationship between Russia and China. After the massive oil and gas deals announced between Russia and China in 2014 — deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars over the next three decades, it seems that Washington calculated that while it could not prevent the deals from moving forward, it could undermine them by fundamentally changing the calculus of the deals by tanking oil prices. In so doing, not only have the contracts been rendered less profitable for Russia, they are now subject to decreasing demand from China, which is experiencing its own economic slowdown.   

In short, Russia’s attempt to break free of its dependence on revenue from gas sales to Europe by shifting its focus eastward has left Moscow in a bind. Facing the prospect of significantly less revenue than it anticipated coming from the deals with Beijing, Russia has been forced to adjust its own estimates and outlook for the coming years.

Sanctions: The other economic weapon

The overall impact of Western sanctions against Russia is a hotly debated subject. Russian media tends to downplay the overall impact of the sanctions, while the Western media paints a picture of imminent collapse. Notably, Paul Krugman, the leading liberal doomsayer, prognosticated in The New York Times in 2014 that “Putin’s Bubble Bursts,” warning that Russia was headed for economic meltdown thanks to the courageous sanctions regime imposed by the fearless leader President Barack Obama. 

In reality, the sanctions had little immediate, direct impact on the Russian economy, but the indirect bruising might be significant, particularly over the medium- and long-term. Last year, the International Monetary Fund issued a report, noting:

“IMF estimates suggest that sanctions and counter sanctions might have initially reduced real GDP by 1 to 1½ percent. Prolonged sanctions may compound already declining productivity growth. The cumulative output loss could amount to 9 percent of GDP over the medium term. However, the report’s authors underline that these model-driven results are subject to significant uncertainty.”

But, looking beyond the raw numbers, one must realize that the policy prescriptions outlined by the IMF and leading economists internationally are perhaps the actual target for the West. 

The IMF recommended “reforming the pension system” (read: reduce pensions), reducing energy subsidies, reducing tax exemptions, and other measures, while also suggesting that education, health care, and public investment be safeguarded. However, the subtext of the recommendations is that austerity, which by its very definition starves public programs of much needed funding, is the way to go for Russia.

There are likely strategic planners in Washington who recognize that the political subversion model employed in Brazil and South Africa simply won’t work in Russia. If nothing else, the failed “White Revolution” protests of late 2011 led by Russian liberals and various pro-Western political forces, demonstrated unequivocally that the Russian state was prepared to prevent precisely this sort of outcome. 

And so it seems that those who play on what former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously called “The Grand Chessboard,” have made their moves in an attempt to corner Russia economically. Whether that strategy has been, or will be, effective likely depends on perspective. While it alone will not bring about the Western pipe dream of regime change in Russia, the Empire’s elites are banking on the collective assault on Russia and the BRICS broadly to do what political subversion alone could not.

About the author
Eric Draitser

Eric Draitser is a geopolitical analyst based in New York and the founder of StopImperialism.


More articles by Eric Draitser [MintPress]



SOURCE
http://www.mintpressnews.com/brics-attack-western-banks-governments-launch-full-spectrum-assault-russia-part/215761/

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Eric Draitser
"Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com. He is a regular contributor to RT, Counterpunch, New Eastern Outlook, Press TV, and many other news outlets. Visit StopImperialism.com for all his work."   [RTNews]

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Enemies of the Free World:
  • Morgan Stanley
  • Goldman Sachs
  • JP Morgan
  • City of London
  • Wall Street
  • International Monetary Fund
  • The New York Times

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COMMENT

Help save Russia & Brics countries from greedy Wall Street & city of London banks. 

Call for worldwide privatisation of their foreign assets ... that ought to throw a spanner in the works.

 *Not sure I'll remember much of this.


April 12, 2016

Brazil - Has CIA Struck Again?



BRICS
five major emerging national economies
developing or newly industrialised countries
large, fast-growing economies
significant influence on regional and global affairs
represent over 3 billion people, or 42% of the world population
GDP of US$16.039 trillion, equivalent to abt 20% of the gross world product

estimated US$4 trillion in combined foreign reserves
[wikipedia]
RT News

source
https://www.rt.com/news/339268-brazil-rousseff-impeachment-protests/

Rousseff supporters confront MPs after Brazil congressional committee ‘recommends’ impeachment

Published time: 12 Apr, 2016 05:01
Edited time: 12 Apr, 2016 05:38


A Brazilian Special Parliamentary Committee has voted to recommend the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in a move that was slammed as an attempted coup by her supporters. They rejected accusations of alleged budget manipulation during her re-election campaign.

The 65-member congressional committee voted 38 to 27 to recommend her impeachment, paving the way for the possible dismissal of the Brazilian president.

The lower house of Brazil's Congress is now expected to vote April 17 on whether to impeach Rousseff. At least 342 of the 513 members of the body need to vote for impeachment for the measure to move to the Senate. If half the Senate votes for impeachment, Rousseff would be temporarily suspended from office pending a Senate trial.

If the impeachment charges stand ground, the 69-year-old who took up the presidential seat in 2011, will be the first to be impeached since 1992. More than two decades ago Fernando Collor de Mello resigned right before a Senate conviction prompted by corruption charges.

After receiving the news of the commission’s vote, Rousseff was “perplexed and saddened” by the result, presidential chief of staff Jaques Wagner announced.

Rousseff is suspected of having broken fiscal laws by shifting government funds ahead of her re-election campaign in 2014, which allegedly allowed her to boost public spending to drive her votes. Rousseff denies the accusations, claiming that she didn’t do anything that was not common practice in all prior administrations. Furthermore, she argues that she has not been accused of a crime which could serve as basis for any impeachment.

Monday’s vote took place amid ongoing protests from both supporters and opponents of President Rousseff. Supporters of the president were quick to confront congressional committee members after the vote. Shouting “putschists”, “fascists” and “no pasaran” (they shall not pass) at the congressmen, they prevented the MPs from leaving the building.

Security forces even built an 80-meter-long metal barricade in front of the congressional building to keep supporters and opponents of the government apart. Brazilian security forces also deployed thousands of troops in the capital city of Brasilia.

As Brazilian society remains split over idea of Rousseff’s impeachment, local newspaper Folha de S. Paulo leaked an audio recording of Vice President Michel Temer rehearsing and address to the Brazilian people if the impeachment process were to move forward. In the leaked speech, Temer speaking as the new president says that Brazil needs a “government of national salvation” to save the country from recession as he called for unity in the political system.

Reacting to the recording, Temer said the 13-minute audio message was recorded for a friend, but was distributed through WhatsApp to other party members “by accident.”



EXTRACT

The Empire President: Jeremy Scahill on Obama's "Neocon" Doctrine of Military Force in U.N. Speech

September 25, 2013


In an address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama openly embraced an aggressive military doctrine backed by previous administrations on using armed force beyond the international norm of self-defense. Obama told the world that the United States is prepared to use its military to defend what he called "our core interests" in the Middle East: U.S. access to oil. "[Obama] basically came out and said the U.S. is an imperialist nation and we’re going to do whatever we need to do to conquer areas [and] take resources from people around the world," says independent journalist Jeremy Scahill. "It’s a really naked declaration of imperialism ... When we look back at Obama’s legacy, this is going to have been a very significant period in U.S. history where the ideals of very radical right-wing forces were solidified. President Obama has been a forceful, fierce defender of empire."

TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: I want to turn back to President Obama’s address at the U.N. General Assembly. During the speech, Obama told the world the U.S. is prepared to use its military to defend what he called, quote, "our core interests" in the Middle East—that is, U.S. access to oil.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The United States of America is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure our core interests in the region. We will confront external aggression against our allies and partners, as we did in the Gulf War. We will ensure the free flow of energy from the region to the world.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was President Obama speaking yesterday at the U.N. General Assembly. Jeremy, your response to what Obama said in his speech?

JEREMY SCAHILL: I mean, during this section of the speech, my jaw sort of hit the floor. I mean, he just—he basically came out and said the United States is an imperialist nation, and we’re going to do whatever we need to to conquer areas to take resources from people around the world. I mean, it was a really naked sort of declaration of imperialism—and I don’t use that word lightly, but it really is. I mean, he pushed back against the Russians when he came out and said, "I believe America is an exceptional nation." He then, you know, defended the Gulf War and basically said that the motivation behind it was about oil, and said we’re going to continue to take such actions in pursuit of securing natural resources for ourselves and our allies. I mean, this was a pretty incredible and bold declaration that he was making, especially given what he—the way that he’s tried to portray himself around the world.

On the other hand, you know, he—I mean, remember what happened right before Obama took the stage, is that the president of Brazil got up, and she herself was a former political prisoner who, you know, was abused and targeted in a different lifetime, and she gets up and just blasts the United States over the NSA spy program around the world.

AMY GOODMAN: We have President Dilma Rousseff in her address to the U.N. General Assembly.

    PRESIDENT DILMA ROUSSEFF: We are a democratic country, surrounded by democratic, peaceful countries that respect international law. We have been living in peace with our neighbors for more than 140 years. Like so many other Latin Americans, I myself fought on a firsthand basis against arbitrary behavior and censorship, and I could therefore not possibly fail to uncompromisingly defend individuals’ rights to privacy and my country’s sovereignty.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff openly criticizing U.S. spying on her government, the news that just broke from the Ed Snowden releases that was released with Globo newspaper in Brazil by Glenn Greenwald, who is a U.S. journalist who lives in Brazil. And, Jeremy, you’re headed down there for the opening of your film, Dirty Wars, this week.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Right, and, you know, I was there when this story was breaking. It is a major, major scandal in Brazil. I mean, it was such a major scandal that President—the president cancelled her state dinner with President Obama. This wasn’t just like sitting in the Oval Office or something. This is a thing where they create a huge menu, and they invite all these people, and it was meant to sort of secure this relationship of these two huge Western Hemisphere powers. I mean, Brazil is a rising power in the Western Hemisphere, and this was to be a very important moment in the history of relations between the U.S. and Brazil. And for the Brazilians to cancel it just shows you the severity of this scandal. I mean, all around the world right now, in the aftermath of the WikiLeaks cables being revealed, now you have the Edward Snowden documents, people around the world have access to documentation that in some cases is bolstering what people already thought was going on, but in other cases is revealing the extent of dirty tricks that the United States is playing on other nations around the world, and not to mention its own citizens."

SOURCE
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/25/the_empire_president_jeremy_scahill_on




Dilma Rousseff
President, Brazil

-- economist

-- Workers' Party (Brazil)
-- centre-left
-- one of the largest left-wing movements in Latin America
-- party identified as 'socialist'
-- 1988:
-- party advocated repudiation of Brazil's external debt
-- party advocated nationalisation of banks & mineral wealth
-- party advocated land reform
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_Party_%28Brazil%29




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Dilma Rousseff
-- socialist during youth
-- after 1964 Brazilian coup d'état


1964 Brazilian coup d'état
-- coup = US supported overthrow of democratically elected
-- Prsident Joao Goulart ('Jango') by military
-- Brazilian Labour Party
--  Cabo Anselmo - agent provocateur (Sailors' Revolt / navy)


-- Lincoln Gordon (Abraham Lincoln Gordon)
-- US ambassador Brazil (1961-1966)
-- academic and govt/diplomatic career
-- Kennedy's leading expert on Latin American economics
-- 1960:  helped develop 'Alliance for Progress' aid program
-- to prevent Latin America turning to revolution & socialism for economic progress
-- grants and credits provided by the USA to Brazil
-- development loans and military aid
 

-- Lincoln Gordon (Abraham Lincoln Gordon)
-- played major role for the support of opposition versus President João Goulart
-- 1964 Lincoln Gordon cable: 
    -- urged support of:
    -- Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
    -- with a “clandestine delivery of arms"
    -- with shipments of gas and oil
    -- with possibility of CIA ops

   
*Noam Chomsky has been critical of coup
    -- US destroyed Brazilian democracy
    -- by supporting military coup 1964
    -- support for coup initiated by Kennedy but carried to conclusion by Johnson
    -- US installed first really major national security state, Nazi-like state, in Latin America
    -- with high-technology torture

    -- Lincoln Gordon called it 'totally democratic'
    -- there was an economic increase in GNP miracle
    -- there was also INCREASED SUFFERING for much of population
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Gordon


NOTE:
    -- actual operational files of CIA remain classified
    -- preventing historians from examining CIA's direct involvement in coup

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat



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COMMENT

Exciting development in Latin America.
Dilma Rousseff and her political party sound good to me.  But they also sound like a classic American capitalist 'enemy'.   Uh-oh.  Look out for the American oligarchy and its CIA machinery.

Note that Brazil is one of the BRICS countries:  thus a challenger to the US-led trade-financial and power hegemony, threatening the capitalist US-led bloc's domination and plans of one world government (capitalist profits, control etc) expansion and imposition on the rest of the world.

Bet the CIA has been up to dirty tricks again.

Check out what they've already done to Brazil!

I've only just quickly skimmed this, the 1964 Brazil coup is in keeping with what little I know of the standard American capitalist order pattern of subverting democracy in Latin America (and elsewhere) and installing oppressive US corporate friendly, US-backed, regimes.