Steve Bull's Blog, page 1219
December 30, 2017
US State Department Hints At Iran Overthrow: Are We Witnessing The Early Stages Of Regime Change?
The US State Department has issued a formal condemnation of the Iranian government following two days of economic protests centering in a handful of cities, calling the regime “a rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos” while announcing support for protesters. It fits a familiar script which seems to roll out when anyone protests for any reason in a country considered an enemy of the United States (whether over economic grievances or full on calling for government overthrow).
Map via The Daily Mail
The statement by spokesperson Heather Nauert, released late on Friday, further comes very close to calling for regime change in Iran when it asserts the following:
On June 14, 2017, Secretary Tillerson testified to Congress that he supports “those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of government.Those elements are there, certainly as we know.”The Secretary today repeats his deep support for the Iranian people.
View image on Twitter
Heather Nauert
@statedeptspox
U.S. strongly condemns arrest of peaceful protestors in #Iran, urges all nations to publicly support Iranian people. As @POTUS said, longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are Iran’s own people. #Iranprotests
6:33 PM – Dec 29, 2017
Though most current reports strongly suggest protests are being driven fundamentally by economic grievances, the US has already framed this week’s events inside Iran as revolutionary in nature and as aiming for “transition of government”. On Friday evening White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted the following statement:
Reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights including their right to express themselves. The world is watching.
The media is already promoting a regime change narrative
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Debt to GDP: Only 4 Major Countries Worse Off Than the US
Of major nations, only Japan, Greece, Italy, and Portugal have debt-to-GDP ratios higher than the US.
With the new tax overhaul, U.S. government debt will rise by one to two trillion dollars over the next decade. I view that assessment as majorly optimistic as it assumes no recession and unlikely growth.
Citing IMF statistics, the Wall Street Journal reports Just Four Large Countries Have a Higher Debt Burden Than the U.S.
Japan’s government carries debts at 240.3% of gross domestic product, far and away the world’s largest burden. Japan has struggled in recent decades to tackle its debt, in part because its economy has been stagnant. Attempts to raise revenue via higher taxes have often knocked the economy into recessions. Tax cuts haven’t generated enough growth to ease debt burdens.
The Bank of Japan has embarked on the world’s most aggressive monetary policies, including decades of rates near zero, and the world’s largest asset-purchase program. None of it has revived growth or inflation, meaning Japan’s debt burden has been slowly grinding higher. (Although the low rates have meant the costs to the government of servicing that debt have remained under control.)
Japan’s government debt has been a persistent fiscal challenge, but never quite blossomed into a full-blown crisis.
The next three nations haven’t been so lucky. Greece’s debt-to-GDP stands at 180.2% of GDP, Italy’s at 133% and Portugal’s at 125.7%. When the global financial crisis struck, and government revenues plunged around the world, Greece and Portugal found themselves unable to manage debts on their own. Both nations turned to international bailouts to make it through the years of weak growth that followed. All three nations have had to bail out some of their largest banks in order to keep their financial systems from collapsing.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
A Future Free For All
Reading Pepe Escobar’s beautiful memory of Jean-Paul Sartrereignited a thought process which I had previously set aside on several occasions because of my tendency to submit to a sense of futility in the face of the seemingly ever expanding human proclivity for degradation. My interpretation/analysis stems from a consistently chronic sense that I have, for most of my life, been as much an outside observer of human social pursuits as I have been a participant. In the face of what appears to be an ongoing expansion of planetary domination by humanity, I cannot help but strongly suspect (I dare not believe) that humanity is not capable of transcending its own seeming essential characteristics which, in themselves, negate any possible belief in freedom.
Human nature has us longing for inclusion while we simultaneously desire rising above the banality of our social structures. These desires seems to underlie the majority of our precepts and the necessity of laws for guiding what might be called our fragmented global social body.
The belief in different strokes for different folks is consistently clashing with authoritarian limits, while both are portrayed as necessary for maximizing human potential. This is where I tend to wander into the vicinity of B.F. Skinner – even as I know that that piece of property is not where I want to be.
The great problem of the unending repetition of leap-frogging from the desire for liberation to the implementation of another authoritarian tyranny as the all too typical solutions to the seemingly never-ending cycles of a survivalist game usually has the exact same result. It is a result which is always based within a singular belief.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
2018 – war or no war?
If the first months of 2017 were a time of great hopes following the historical defeat of Hillary Clinton, the year is ending in a sombre, almost menacing manner. Not only has the swamp easily, quickly and totally drowned Trump, but the AngloZionist Empire is reeling from its humiliating defeat in Syria and the Neocons are now treating our entire planet to a never ending barrage of threats. Furthermore, the Trump Administration now has released a National Security Strategy which clearly show that the Empire is in “full paranoid” mode. It is plainly obvious that the Neocons are now back in total control of the White House, Congress and the US corporate media. Okay, maybe things are still not quite as bad as if Hillary had been elected, but they are bad enough to ask whether a major war is now inevitable next year.
If we go by their rhetoric, the Neocons have all the following countries in their sights:
Afghanistan (massive surge already promised)
Syria (threats of a US-Israeli-KSA attack; attack on Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria)
Russia (disconnecting from SWIFT; stealing Russian assets in the USA; attack on Russian forces in Syria)
Iran (renege on nuclear deal, attack Iranian forces in Syria)
The Donbass (support for a full scale Ukronazi attack against Novorussia)
DPRK (direct and overt military aggression; aerial and naval blockade)
Venezuela (military intervention “in defense of democracy, human right, freedom and civilization”)
There are, of course, many more countries currently threatened by the USA to various degrees, but the seven above are all good candidates for US aggression.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
December 29, 2017
Last record-breaking winter with snow hits Canada, US, before “nobody knows what snow is”
UPDATE: Record breaking snow falling in upstate New York. Pennsylvania.
The airport in Erie, Pennsylvania, has had a whopping 65.1 inches of snow from this lake effect event — the highest snowfall total from any event on record in Erie. (Heavy lake effect snow is produced by cold Arctic air moving over relatively mild water temperatures in the Great Lakes.) — World News, ABC (US) News
40,000 people in Cleveland lost power overnight.
New York City may have coldest New Year’s Eve since 1960s… — ABC News
In freak conditions, Canadians (and many people in the US too) are getting a chance to enjoy record cold for the last time before climate change makes winters unbearably mild.
Extreme cold in Toronto smashes 57-year-old temperature record
Temperatures observed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport bottomed out at -22 C [-7.7F] this morning. The previous record for this date was set in 1960, when it hit -18.9 C. [-2F]
Tristan Hopper does some first class bragging about the cold:
Mars and the North Pole are warmer than Winnipeg: A guide to how damned cold it is
Vancouver is as cold as Moscow, Toronto is colder than CFS Alert and a piece of the country roughly the size of Europe was under an extreme cold warning
It’s colder in Winnipeg than it has ever been in Scotland (ever)
The coldest ever in Scotland was apparently only – 27C. (-16.6F). And for southerners, “CFS Alert” is the worlds most northern inhabited place, deep into the Arctic, and beyond even where Inuits would live. Today, by the way, in midsummer the South Pole warmed up to -18C.
A swath of Canada the size of Europe was under an extreme cold warning
Alberta’s warmest place was almost as cold as Mars
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Greatest Bubble Ever: Why You Better Believe It, Part 1
During the 40 months after Alan Greenspan’s infamous “irrational exuberance” speech in December 1996, the NASDAQ 100 index rose from 830 to 4585 or by 450%. But the perma-bulls said not to worry: This time is different—-it’s a new age of technology miracles that will change the laws of finance forever.
It wasn’t. The market cracked in April 2000 and did not stop plunging until the NASDAQ 100 index hit 815 in early October 2002. During those heart-stopping 30 months of free-fall, all the gains of the tech boom were wiped out in an 84% collapse of the index. Overall, the market value of household equities sank from $10.0 trillion to $4.8 trillion—-a wipeout from which millions of baby boom households have never recovered.
Likewise, the second Greenspan housing and credit boom generated a similar round trip of bubble inflation and collapse. During the 57 months after the October 2002 bottom, the Russell 2000 (RUT) climbed the proverbial wall-of-worry—-rising from 340 to 850 or by 2.5X.
And this time was also held to be different because, purportedly, the art of central banking had been perfected in what Bernanke was pleased to call the “Great Moderation”. Taking the cue, Wall Street dubbed it the Goldilocks Economy—-meaning a macroeconomic environment so stable, productive and balanced that it would never again be vulnerable to a recessionary contraction and the resulting plunge in corporate profits and stock prices.
Wrong again!
During the 20 months from the July 2007 peak to the March 2009 bottom, the RUT gave it all back. And we mean every bit of it—-as the index bottomed 60% lower at 340. This time the value of household equities plunged by $6 trillion, and still millions more baby-boomers were carried out of the casino on their shields never to return.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How Facebook will infiltrate national elections and rule the world in less than 10 years — unless we stop it
What do NATO, private military contractors, giant arms manufacturers, wine merchants, the NSA, Trump, British property tycoons, Russian oligarchs, and Big Oil have in common? The world’s largest social network
Source: Geek.com
Published to launch the new beta platform for INSURGE intelligence, a crowdfunded journalism platform for Open Inquiry and coordinated action in service of people and planet. Become an owner of the media revolution.
Imagine a world in which everybody gave away their freedom, willingly, in return for being able to belong to a toxic network which, rather than enriching their lives, profited from eroding civil discourse, polarizing communities, and manipulating their minds.
Wouldn’t you wonder what was wrong with these people?
You would. And yet that is the world you are about to inhabit, right now. Unless you do something about it.
This story is a call to action. A call on citizens, technologists, philanthropists, journalists and beyond to take action to disrupt our current path to a dystopian, monocultural future. As such, it experiments with a new form of journalistic narrative called Open Inquiry, that aims to balance out the investigation of power with a recognition of solutions and alternatives.
Facebook is on track to become more powerful than the National Security Agency — so says a senior advisor to the US military intelligence community who predicted the rise of artificial intelligence and robot warfare. In less than a decade, Facebook’s growth will mean it potentially has the ability to monitor almost everyone on the planet. This will make the firm more powerful than any other government contractor in the world.
This prospect has dangerous ramifications for democracy. Increasing evidence reveals that Facebook’s most lucrative business model is to outsource itself as a conduit for psychological warfare to any third party that wants to influence the beliefs and behaviors of citizens.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Epidemic Levels: Tens of Thousands Infected as this Year’s Flu Vaccine Totally Ineffective
The 2017-2018 flu season has shown to be particularly nasty this year —in part, they believe, because of a less effective vaccine. Each month, flu case have multiplied and CDC has already warned this year’s flu will be worst than the last. To date, 23 states are showing widespread influenza levels and many believe this season could easily reach epidemic levels.
Headlines across the country are indicative of epidemic fears.
9 Texas schools have closed due to flu outbreaks this month
Several Tennessee schools closed due to the flu
Flu has sent more than three times the number of people to the hospital in Colorado than usual
The University of Chicago hospital is even taking steps to restrict visitors. In a recent article, the hospital “will not allow children under age 12 and those with a fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose or nasal congestion will not be allowed to visit patients.
U.S. not prepared for a flu pandemic, experts warn
Texas flu epidemic spreading rampantly
An Ineffective Flu Shot Has Led to Health Concerns
The results of tests performed by public health laboratories, as well as the age group distribution of influenza positive tests, during the current week are summarized below.
Week 50
Data Cumulative since
October 1, 2017 (Week 40)
No. of specimens tested
1,623
15,994
No. of positive specimens*
795
5,046
Positive specimens by type/subtype
Influenza A
689 (86.7%)
4,387 (86.9%)
A(H1N1)pmd09
58 (8.4%)
366 (8.3%)
H3N2
611 (88.7%)
3,965 (90.4%)
Subtyping not performed
20 (2.9%)
56 (1.3%)
Influenza B
106 (13.3%)
659 (13.1%)
Yamagata lineage
75 (70.8%)
438 (66.5%)
Victoria lineage
10 (9.4%)
39 (5.9%)
Lineage not performed
21 (19.8%)
182 (27.6%)
*The percent of specimens testing positive for influenza is not reported because public health laboratories often receive samples that have already tested positive for influenza at a clinical laboratory and therefore percent positive would not be a valid indicator of influenza activity. Additional information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/overview.htm.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
DHS Announces Program to ILLEGALLY Scan Our Faces—And They’re Forcing Us to Pay For It
Both Congress and the Department of Homeland Security have never justified the biometric scanners at airports that could cost Americans $1 billion in 2018.
As TSA agents continue to prove their incompetence in the “War on Terror,” the Department of Homeland Security is now allocating $1 billion in taxpayer funding to create a facial recognition program that will illegally scan Americans’ faces.
A study conducted by Georgetown Law’s Center for Privacy and Technology looked at the biometric scanners that are creating an inventory of the faces of individuals leaving the country at airports across the United States. While they are only at certain major airports right now, the full implementation of these scanners could cost Americans up to $1 billion.
The study noted that while the “9/11 Response and Biometric Exit Account” created by Congress has the funds for the program, “neither Congress nor DHS has ever justified the need for the program.”
In addition to the fact that Congress has never provided a reason why the system is needed in the U.S., the study claimed that DHS has “repeatedly questioned ‘the additional value biometric air exit would provide’ compared with the status quo and the ‘overall value and cost of a biometric air exit capability,’ even as it has worked to build it.”
Not only is a government agency pouring $1 billion into a program to increase the country’s security measures even though it lacks full confidence, and has no evidence that the program it is implementing will do so, there is also the fact that the program requires Americans to give up their civil liberties, and it has never been explicitly authorized by the government. As the researchers from Georgetown Law noted:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Happy New Year: Don’t Be Fooled By the Orthodoxies of the Messengers
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
– Edward Bernays, “Propaganda”
Edward Bernays (1891 – 1995) was a famous pioneer in the field of public relations and is, today, often referred to as the Father of Propaganda.Perhaps Bernays became thus known because he authored the above quoted 1928 book titled with that very term. He was actually the nephew of the famed psychopathologist Sigmund Freud and was very proud of his uncle’s work. More than that, however, Bernays accepted the basic premises of Freud towards the use of emotional manipulation of the masses through advertising. It was, in fact, Bernays, who changed the term propaganda into “public relations”.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
