May 192013
 

Syria has put its most advanced missiles on standby with orders to hit Tel Aviv if Israel launches another strike on its territory, The Sunday Times reported overnight Sunday.

According to the British newspaper, reconnaissance satellites have been monitoring preparations by the Syrian army to deploy surface-to-surface Tishreen missiles.

An Israeli official told The New York Times that Israel, which has launched three recent attacks on Syria, was considering further strikes and warned President Bashar Assad that his government would face “crippling consequences” if he hit back at Israel.

The Sunday Times said the deployment of the Syrian-made Tishreen missiles, each of which can carry a half-ton payload, marks a significant escalation of tension “in a region in which the United States and Russia appear to be preparing for a Cold War-style stand-off.”

האיום המיידי: טילי S-300 (צילום: AFP)

Russian S-300 missile (Archive photo: AFP)

Uzi Rubin, Israel’s leading missile expert, told the newspaper that the Tishreen missiles are “extremely accurate and can cause serious harm.

“Even if they don’t hit Ben-Gurion (Airport) directly, they would halt all commercial flights out of the country,” he said. An Israeli official told The New York Times last week that Israel, which has reportedly launched three attacks on Syria recently and destroyed advanced anti-aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles that were designated for Hezbollah, was considering additional strikes and warned President Assad that his regime would face “crippling consequences” if he hit back at Israel. 

Read More…

Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Report%3A_Syria_prepared_to_fire_missiles_at_Tel_Aviv/26098/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 192013
 

Degrowth embraces the ongoing devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed.

The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth.

Degrowth is based on a number of principles:

1. Consumerism is psychological/spiritual junk food (French: malbouffe) that actively reduces well-being (bien-etre) rather than increases it.

2. Better rather than more: well-being is increased by everything that cannot be commoditized by a market economy or financialized by a cartel-state financial machine– friendship, family, community, self-cultivation–rather than by acquiring more. The goal of economic and social growth should be better, not more. On a national scale, the cancerous-growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) should be replaced with gross domestic happiness/ gross nation happiness (GNH).

3. A recognition that resources are not infinite, despite claims to the contrary. Even if fossil fuels were infinite and low-cost (cheerleaders never mention costs of extraction and refining or the external costs), fisheries, soil and fresh water are not. For one example of many: China Is Plundering the Planet’s Seas (The Atlantic). Indeed, all the evidence suggests that access to cheap energy only speeds up the depletion and despoliation of every other resource.

4. The unsustainability of consumerist consumption dependent on resource depletion and financialization (i.e. the endless expansion of credit and phantom collateral).

5. The diminishing returns on consumption. Investing in clean air and water, public transit, universally accessible knowledge/information–these forms of consumption yield high returns in public health, affordable mobility, etc. Buying clothing to wear once or twice and then throw away does not.

The investment in the rule of law, public infrastructure and universal access to clean air, water and education moves nations from developing to developed and greatly improves the material lives of the residents. Beyond this, consumption of resources offers diminishing returns up to a point of social/spiritual/ psychological derangement. Consumption beyond this point actively reduces well-being.

6. The failure of neoliberal capitalism and communism alike in their pursuit of growth at any cost.

7. We have reached Peak Consumption (video 27:30 minutes).

The Degrowth movement explicitly questions what John Michael Greer calls the religion of progress (i.e. growth). The civil religion that growth equals progress is akin to the Cargo Cult of Keynesianism, the notion that growth is so essential that expanding debt exponentially to drive diminishing returns of growth is necessary.

But both the religion of growth and its Cargo Cult enablers are merely superficial facades masking the real force: the expansion of global finance via financialization. Expanding capital, profits and power is the key agenda, and the quasi-religion of growth is just the public-relations narrative that mesmerizes the debt-serfs, political toadies and media sycophants.

What does Degrowth mean in practical terms? Use the thing until it cannot be repaired. Don’t ditch the mobile phone, auto, dress or digital device until it can no longer repaired. Buy local rather than than global-corporate whenever feasible. Crave less, need less, want less, resist the brainwashing of 24/7 marketing. Learn to become a person who does not need corporate-status signifiers for a sense of identity.

In a very real way, Degrowth embraces the devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed. Growth and consumption based on financialization, expanding credit and phantom collateral is unsustainable and will devolve or implode. Rather than pine for what cannot be, it’s far healthier to embrace using less of everything and increasing well-being by leveraging the web, the commons and what cannot be commoditized or financialized.

New video with CHS and Gordon Long: Peak Consumption (27:30)

 

Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Degrowth%2C_Anti-Consumerism_and_Peak_Consumption/26099/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 192013
 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated threats to launch more attacks against Syria, saying Israel remains prepared to “take action” against Syria for the sake of Israeli security.

Netanyahu warned of the “leakage” of weapons from Syria into neighboring Lebanon as a primary reason for such moves, though officially the Israeli government hasn’t admitted its past attacks and has only vaguely referenced them.

Netanyahu also denied previous reports, attributed to Israeli intelligence agencies, saying his government preferred Syrian President Bashar Assad to the rebels. Netanyahu insisted it was “untrue” but didn’t say if he preferred one side or the other.

Read More…

Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Netanyahu_Threatens_More_Attacks_on_Syria/26102/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 182013
 

Source: The Telegraph

Not long after Jamie Dimon met his wife, she threw a party. The chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan went along, but part way through the evening he told her, “I’m going home and I want you to go with me”. She might still have been busy as hostess, but she liked him enough that she did.

Now Dimon is playing a similar trick with investors.

Next Tuesday, the charismatic banking chief will meet shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Florida. Sunshine State though it might be, a storm is brewing over whether he should be stripped of part of his power. A sizable faction of investors want JP Morgan to appoint an independent chairman in the wake of the London Whale scandal, which put an indelible blot on Dimon’s otherwise pretty pristine record, and a $6.2bn hole in the bank’s balance sheet.

Read More…

Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Jamie_Dimon%E2%80%99s_power_struggle_is_a_watershed_moment_for_Wall_Street/26073/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 182013
 

An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper. (AFP Photo / James Lee Harper Jr.)
An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper. (AFP Photo / James Lee Harper Jr.)

Two of America’s medium-altitude Reaper drones will be sold to France as backup for the country’s operations against Islamist rebels in Mali.

The news comes from the ‘Air et Cosmos’ specialist magazine, which reported online that a deal had been reached between France and the United States for the sale of two non-armed MQ-9 units.

The French air force had already deployed a European-made Harfang drone to Mali, with the country now wishing to acquire more modern models quickly, although any purchase of the US Reapers directly from the manufacturer (as was done with Harfang) is expected to delay delivery by seven months.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is presently on a visit to the US, where he is expected to make the announcement, according to Air et Cosmos. The defense ministry has declined to comment.

In a bid to curb the spread of extremism and Al Qaeda-linked militants in the northern parts of its former colony, France started a military operation in January of this year. The anti-government Islamists had spread Sharia law everywhere they went, and it is widely feared that if they are successful in Mali, the country will become a hotspot for extremism and the launching of terrorist attacks against European and other African nations.

French efforts have since pushed the militants into mountain and desert hideouts. However, this changed the rules of the game in such a way that they now launch sporadic guerrilla attacks.

French soldiers take position during a false alert by the population signaling the presence of MUJAO (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa) members in a street in Gao on April 13, 2013. (AFP Photo / Joel Saget)
French soldiers take position during a false alert by the population signaling the presence of MUJAO (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa) members in a street in Gao on April 13, 2013. (AFP Photo / Joel Saget)

Operation ‘Serval’ started with a deployment of 2,500 troops and the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declaring on January 30 that they would be out of there “quickly”. Since that time, that number has risen to 4,000, while the departure date had been moved up. Currently, the idea is that half will leave by July, when Mali holds their presidential election.

Although Paris has begun withdrawal from the West African nation, ahead of the security handover to the International Mission for Support to Mali (MISMA), Le Drian’s recent visit to London paints a different picture, whereby 1,000 French troops will stay in Mali indefinitely, in case further problems arise.

“This is the reason why France will remain with roughly 1,000 troops on Malian territory for an undetermined period of time to carry out counter-terrorism operations if necessary,”
said Le Drian.

As the battle against extremism in Mali shows no signs of abating, international donors have pledged €3.25bn to its rebuilding, as currently the country is in a state of complete destitution.

Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/France_to_buy_American_drones_for_Mali_operation/26074/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 182013
 

More than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data.

The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government imposed the tax surcharge last year, shortly after taking office, to offset the impact of a rebate scheme created by its conservative predecessor to cap an individual’s overall taxation at 50 percent of income.

The government has been forced to redraft a proposed bill to levy a temporary 75 percent tax on earnings over 1 million euros, which had been one of Hollande’s campaign pledges.

The Constitutional Council has judged such a high rate of taxation to be unfair, leaving the government to rehash it to hit companies rather than individuals.

Since then, a top administrative court has determined that a marginal tax rate higher than 66.66 percent on a single household risked being considered as confiscatory by the council.

Les Echos reported that nearly 12,000 households paid taxes last year worth more than 75 percent of their 2011 revenues due to the exceptional levy. ($1 = 0.7798 euros)



Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Taxes_on_some_wealthy_French_top_100_pct_of_income%3A_paper/26075/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 182013
 

A trio of Obama scandals has forced the corporate media admit its own reports are nothing more than the government-controlled talking points and not the product of a free and open press.

If you have been following the news lately you’ll notice there are 3 government scandals that the media is focusing on 1) The DOJ spying on the AP reporters 2) Benghazi gate 3) IRS targeting of activist groups.

While each of these are truly a damning indictment of the widespread corruption in our now gone rogue federal government, combing these three stories reveals an even bigger story which is recurring open admission by the media that the news they report is being controlled government.

Media Now Openly Admitting The Government Controls The News

These three scandals have led the media to rebel against the Obama administration in a way that it has not done in the past while at the same time forcing the media to admit some damning facts about the way news is truly originated in America.

The media’s reporting on the scandals has provided the public insights into the operations of the incestuous relationship between the press and the government.

Such revelations clearly suggest the corporate media is telegraphing to the public the American government has just gone way too far out of control.

These three scandals forced the corporate media to admit openly what has long been dismissed as merely conspiracy theory —  that the corporate media is now openly admitting that they are in fact controlled stenographers that do nothing more than echo pre-scripted narratives outlined in talking points created by the rulers of America’s shadow government.

To be absolutely clear, that is not hyperbole nor is it speculation. It’s a fact that the corporate media is now openly admitting their reporting on the Benghazi scandal over the last 8 months has been merely the parroting of statements given by government officials who were merely echoing talking points issued by the CIA.

By now just about every news organization has repeatedly reported the story about how those CIA issued talking points were edited 12 times by various people in the shadow government before they were given to figureheads to relay to the press who in turned echoed them to the masses.

This is a direct admission that the false narrative about Benghazi that has been shoved down our throat as fact by the corporate media was nothing more than CIA issued talking points.

Since subliminal manipulation the consciousness of the masses is now a science that the government has completely mastered, let make make sure you have been deprogrammed before continuing.

Wake up – Every news outlet in the country is admitting 8 months of news reports about Benghazi were nothing more than the parroting of CIA issued talking points.

Stop.

 Let it sink in.

This is not hyperbole and not sensationalism.

The entire corporate media is now openly admitting what they presented to us as objective independent news reports was nothing more than echoing of list CIA talking points.

Does that not at all disturb anyone?

Most people that are disturbed are merely disturbed by the fact the talking points were lies.

That is what the media is telling us the scandal is.

But the real scandal here, and the one no one seems to have a problem with, is that the media is echoing an actual list government talking points to the public and manipulating the public into believing those talking points were the result of objective independently verified investigative journalism.

Yes the real scandal is that the government is entirely controlling the news and the media is doing nothing more regurgitating an official narrative crafted by spooks in the shadow government.

Those spooks operate in secret and disseminate their propaganda operation instructions to public figure heads behind the scenes who in turn relay that information to the media who then relays it to the public.

Information Operations, Google it.

But the media wants us to believe that the scandal is that CIA’s talking points were lies and that’s the only scandal the media wants you to see.

The media not dare look in the mirror and point onto itself.

Surely they represent themselves to the public as fact checkers who vet and verify all information in their reports.

But nothing can be further from the truth because as we clearly see here even an amateur who made a measly attempt to independently verify the statements issued by the government would have easily outed the falsehoods in their claims.

Instead, the only scandal the media sees here is the fact the CIA’s talking points were deliberately falsified so Obama didn’t catch heat  sothat he could be reelected.

Now look, I don’t disagree that is in fact a scandal and the media by all rights should continue to investigate and expose the truth about that scandal.

But for the well-being of this nation and the protection of its citizen’s that media needs to be held just as accountable because if they didn’t take the government at its word despite a continual track record of lies and deception America would be a much safer place today and the citizens of this nation and humanity as a whole would have a much brighter, safer and secure future.

Instead the media’s incestuous relationship with the government has lead to illegal overseas wars and ongoing bombings in several nations that have claimed the lives of an untold number of numerous people all being perpetuated by an ever-expanding police state that looks more and more like an Orwellian totalitarian nightmare with each day that passes.

Of course the damage the media has allowed to occur will continue to reverberate destructive echoes of carnage upon the masses for generations to come.

The IRS scandal illustrates this point even further. The media has ignored for years complaints from activist groups saying they were unfairly being shaken down by the IRS. Those complaints were ignored even while members of congress of provided evidence to back up the allegations. But what we saw was a corporate media controlled by the American Gestapo that dared not step off script and report anything beside the talking points the government gave them. The same goes with the destruction of the constitution through an escalating campaign of post 9/11 hogwash from the Patriot Act, the NDAA, and drones to draconian measure containing to be pushed by the propaganda machine to implement measures such as CISPA, real-time total surveillance, and the inevitable disarming of the public.

The reason for this is clear but I fear if those in the media do not find the courage to be brave now it wil soon be too late.

News organizations know if they step out of line they their access to their “inside sources” and be blacklisted by the government. For individuals in those organization committing such acts of bravery are career ending moves. When the media steps out of line and reports anything that contradicts official government narrative we see them get targeted by the government, both covertly and overtly. We saw it with the coalition of journalist that sued the government for being targeted through the NDAA and with WikiLeaks.

This of course ties into the third scandal which is the Associated Press being spied on by the Gestapo for daring to report information that wasn’t explicitly authorized in talking points issued by the shadow government.

Yes, every now and then we see outlets such as the Associated Press, The New York Times, or the Washington Post do so-called investigative journalism that adds we are supposed to believe steps outside the boundaries and conflicts with the official narrative. But don’t be fooled. Yes the media reports them as “leaks” coming from “inside sources speaking on the condition of anonymity” but nothing could be further from the truth. Those reports are nothing more than statements given by officials from the same Gestapo who are quoted on the condition of anonymity and those leaks are authorized.

Just look at what is happening to the Associated Press right now. They dared contradict the talking points narrative. Instead they implicated the CIA as being involved in planning a Yemen based terror plot which Al Qaeda operatives were going to attack American airplanes and now they are being targeted by the Gestapo for leaking that information.

Look at the reporting on Benghazi. I did several investigative reports which debunked the government’s narrative soon after the attacks. Many of the details I uncovered in my reporting still to this day are not being discussed by the corporate media so even the reports we are now being given by corporate media about the scandal are still being controlled by talking points or we would hearing much different information about the scandal from the media.

Of course this is typical of a media that simply echoes government talking points. Just look at the reporting on drone strikes, which in every case echoes government statements that militants were killed despite hundreds of foreign news reports on the bombings showing drone bombings repeatedly kill innocent woman and children. The examples are numerous. Iraq’s WMDs, Libya, the BP oil spill, Fukushima and even now we see the same thing in Syria.

Despite the corporate media’s track record, be it unwittingly or knowingly or some combination thereof for various reasons, of acting as an obedient mouthpiece in the propaganda machine this all appears to be changing in the wake of the latest scandals rocking the Obama administration.

This is all evidenced by the fact the media is admitting its reporting is based on government generated talking points which as stated before was never before admitted or discussed openly beyond what has long been labeled the fringe conspiracy theorist crowd.

What is being signaled by this revelation to the public is the government has gone far too rogue and we ought to be wary that what we once accepted as credible news is nothing more than a well-orchestrated campaign of propaganda.

Yet even in the wake of the media’s rebellion we should not get to overzealous as government handlers will soon work to stamp out those who are working to resist the machine.

Mass media news organizations will be forced in one way or another to get their reporting back on script.

For those in the media who read this, the time to act is now. We cannot continue to allow the information that is communicated to the masses by the media, which is the public’s tool to keep the government in check and prevent it from becoming overbearing on the people, to be controlled by a few rich and powerful figureheads working as icy manipulators of a well oiled propaganda machine that for a secret shadow government.

Article source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Media_Now_Openly_Admitting_The_Government_Controls_The_News/26077/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Share
May 172013
 

Amid the Justice Department scandal, there is renewed interest in protecting the media’s First Amendment rights. Now we see media organizations pushing for what’s called “shield laws” to protect reporters. The Obama Administration has expressed interest in enacting such legislation. But would a media shield law have protected the Associated press from government snooping? RT Correspondent Liz Wahl has more.

Share
May 172013
 

Switzerland’s cherished banking secrecy is under threat. In the ongoing battle against tax evasion, EU finance ministers have agreed to put pressure on the non-member nation to share its banking data with the Union. Investor Jim Rogers told RT that instead of trying to crack tax havens, EU leaders should address the real problems – like their own unchecked spending habits.

Share