Puppet Masters
One such book I probably will subject myself to, however, is titled Periphery by the former Israeli spy Yossi Alpher. For all the tediousness one has to wade through in such propagandising dross, there are sometimes a few nuggets of insight - usually given away unintentionally.
Alpher is a former military intelligence officer.Periphery, released earlier this year, is his account of years of desperate Israeli efforts for allies in a region it is inherently alienated from, due to its long record of military aggression against neighbouring countries, the 67-year-long military occupation and dispossession of the Palestinian people.
The Periphery strategy sought out allies in states and minority groups considered outside of the Arab or Muslim mainstream of the region. Israeli spies sought to forge alliances with the Kurds of northern Iraq; Turkey, during the height of the military's political power there; and Iran, under the dictatorship of the Shah.
© Sputnik / Andrei Stenin
A popular meeting which will be held in Kiev by the Ukrainian nationalist Right Sector movement on Tuesday should bring Ukrainians the prospect of further changes in their country, Dmitry Yarosh, leader of the organization, said.
Earlier, the Right Sector announced it would organize a meeting at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in central Kiev on July 21.
Comment: Anyone who takes Yarosh's desire for "social reforms" seriously is exhibiting one of the first criterion for ponerogenesis:
One phenomenon all ponerogenic groups and associations have in common is the fact that their members lose (or have already lost) the capacity to perceive pathological individuals as such, interpreting their behavior in a fascinated, heroic, or melodramatic ways. The opinions, ideas, and judgments of people carrying various psychological deficits are endowed with an importance at least equal to that of outstanding individuals among normal people.
The atrophy of natural critical faculties with respect to pathological individuals becomes an opening to their activities, and, at the same time, a criterion for recognizing the association in concern as ponerogenic. Let us call this the first criterion of ponerogenesis.
Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes)
© AFP 2015 / Louisa Gouliamaki
As part of 'confidence building' measures, introduced by the Greek government on the back on negotiations with Eurozone creditors, an existing sales tax was expanded and increased from 13 percent to 23 percent.
The wide-ranging tax applies to the sale of various products and services such as coffee, restaurants sales, various meat products, language schools and even ferries to the Greek islands.
If these people are radicalized and don't support the United States, and they're disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principal that's fine, that's their right. It's our right and our obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.Noting that the recent tyrannical, entirely anti-American comments made by General Wesley Clark during a MSNBC interview are statist and disturbing would be the understatement of the century.
- General Wesley Clark in a MSNBC interview
Following is a rough transcription of the interview.
© Jean-Paul Pelissier / Reuters
Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis
The EU is preparing to start talks with Athens on a third bailout which could reach €86 billion ($93 billion), but the reform program laid down by Brussels as a precondition for the bailout will "go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever," Varoufakis told BBC.
"This programme is going to fail whoever undertakes its implementation," he said. Asked when will it fail, he replied, "It has failed already."
Varoufakis stressed that in given conditions Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who himself does not believe in the bailout, had little option but to sign the agreement. "We were given a choice between being executed and capitulating. And he decided that capitulation was the ultimate strategy," Varoufakis said.
On Saturday, new cabinet ministers were sworn in after Tsipras replaced hardliners in his government, following the agreement with the EU creditors.
Comment: Bottom line: Greece was made an offer it couldn't refuse.
- Bailout agreement is Greece's total humiliation and 'unconditional surrender'
- Dealing with monsters: Yanis Varoufakis on the impossible battle for Greece (interview)
- The mask comes off: EU plans to force 'communists' Tsipras and Varoufakis from power, regardless of referendum outcome
- Grexit or Jubilee? Greek debt could be annulled the same way it was created (if the EU wanted to)
© Unknown
In this piece we focus on how the United States exercises its power over Europe — and why.
Firstly, it is often asserted that Nato is a purely defensive alliance.
Certainly, the original Washington Treaty which established Nato in 1949 was framed as a mutual defence pact with the emphasis on defence, security and protection.
Yet the reality of recent practice is different.
Comment: NATO has Europe ensnared in an elaborate web of debt, blackmail, corruption, and austerity. The rest of the world, struggling to grow in this corrupting atmosphere, is attempting to build an alternative. Check out:
The "safe zones" are to be used by various terrorists fronts Brookings admits are tied to Al Qaeda, to take refuge from Syrian air power and from which to stage and launch attacks deeper into Syrian territory. The end game is the Balkanization of Syria into ineffectual vassal states the US can later stitch together into a larger client regime.
It was also reported that this signed and dated conspiracy to invade, occupy, and destroy Syria would be followed by widespread propaganda aimed at selling the policy paper under the guise of "defeating" the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS/ISIL). In reality, hundreds of trucks a day, originating deep within NATO-member Turkey's territory, cross the Turkish-Syrian border unopposed, destined for ISIS territory, keeping the terrorist front well supplied and armed, along with its ranks full of fresh fighters.
It is clear that US, British, and other regional allies conducting airstrikes on ISIS in Syria are doing so with full knowledge that whatever damage they are doing is quickly absorbed by the logistical torrent they themselves allow, even underwrite, to freely flow into ISIS territory. No attempts have been made by the US or any of the NATO nations involved in the Syrian conflict, to first stem ISIS' supply lines - an elementary and obvious strategic goal necessary if the West was truly interested in stopping ISIS.
Comment: The psychopathic U.S. political-military-industrial-complex learned that they would not be allowed to overtly attack Syria on the fabricated 'Assad used chemical weapons on his own people' narrative in September 2013. Russia had its navy waiting to respond to Obama's 'red line' rhetoric, which is probably why the opportunity and choice to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons was taken and observed by the world community. But as the U.S. and allied regimes creep forward in the covert and slow motion attempt to invade, undercut and subsume sovereign Syria, they'd better think twice: Russia, Iran and other nations know exactly what's occurring and are only biding their time until a tipping point of aggression is breached. When that happens, all hell may break loose because the U.S. will not - cannot - be allowed to take over Syria. That is when we will see a real red line.
© Sergey Kuznecov/ / RIA NOVOSTI
The office of the MICEX-RTS Stock Exchange, Moscow, Russia
The office of the MICEX-RTS Stock Exchange, Moscow, Russia
Analysts polled by Bloomberg say Russian shares are undervalued, by up to a half compared with other BRICS countries. Russian shares can be more profitable if the political risks continue to reduce.
One of the two key Russian indices - a ruble denominated MICEX - trades at 5.9 times the projected earnings of its members. For example, Brazil's Ibovespa, Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Index, shows 12.6 multiples, being the second cheapest in the BRICS. China, India and South Africa are above 15.
"Our models are telling us to buy Russia. There is a very strong turnaround potential. It's an increasingly difficult call to get right because of politics. I'd be happy to pull the trigger in the next two to three months," Tim Love, a London-based investment manager at GAM told Bloomberg. GAM's assets are estimated at $130 billion.
Comment: This is another clear sign that the sanction levied by the U.S./EU against Russia have ultimately failed to produce what they intended. Russia is not only surviving the economic attack, they are turning it into a beneficial development by finding alternative sources of economic output. They should thank the imperialists!
Comment: See Afghanistan Map of War, July 13-16, 2015 for additional information about the developments in Afghanistan.