'Operation Decisive Storm' - the Pentagon-style House of Saud glorifying of its ghastly 'Bomb Yemen' show - could be summed up in a single paragraph.

The wealthiest Arab nation - the House of Saud petro-hacienda - supported by other GCC petro-rackets and also the wealthy "West", has launched an - illegal - bombing/war/kinetic operation against the poorest Arab nation in the name of "democracy."

And this absurdity is just the beginning.

The EU's foreign policy chief, the innocuous as a stale cannoli Federica Mogherini, seems to be mildly alarmed. She remarked that Saudi bombing of hospitals and "deliberate targeting and destruction of private homes, education facilities and basic infrastructure cannot be tolerated."

Well, the EU tolerates exactly the same thing in Donbass perpetrated by Kiev's goons - so nothing will come out La Mogherini's feigned outrage.

The Red Cross and the Russian Federation, for their part, at least are demanding a temporary ceasefire to allow for humanitarian relief. Humanitarian relief is incompatible with the House of Saud's bloodline. So after two weeks of Saudi 'Shock and Awe', the current toll of at least 560 Yemeni civilians dead (and counting), and 1700 wounded - dozens of them children - is bound to increase.

The United States' airspace defense military is planning to move its communications equipment back to its iconic nuclear Cold War-era bunker which was abandoned nearly a decade ago, the head of the agency announced.

The Cheyenne Mountain bunker in Colorado Springs, which was the filming location for the popular Stargate SG-1 science fiction TV series, was first built in 1965 to resist a Soviet nuclear attack. It was a key center for United States Space Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which scanned Canadian and US airspace via a worldwide system of missiles.

The site was abandoned in 2006 due to heavy costs, and since then the complex has been merely on "warm standby," meaning it is only staffed when required.


Now NORAD and US Space Command have decided to move back to the Cold War-era bunker. Admiral William Gortney, chief of NORAD and Northern Command, said it was necessary to safeguard sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.

"Because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain's built, it's EMP hardened. [It] wasn't really designed to be that way, but the way it was constructed makes it that way," Gortney said at a Department of Defense press briefing.


According to the navy admiral, "there's a lot of movement to put capability into Cheyenne Mountain and to be able to communicate in there."

"We have the space for it, we have the cube. My primary concern was are we going to have the space inside the mountain for everybody who wants to move in there, and I'm not at liberty to discuss who's moving in there, but we do have that capability to be there."

In this episode of Last Week Tonight, comedian John Oliver lays out the various government surveillance programs in an easy-to-understand way, reminding Americans of the information that was released by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. His random sample of Times Square tourists asking them who Edward Snowden was is an indictment of how the corporate media keeps people ignorant, and/or how most Americans just don't give a f**k.

The second half of the episode is an interview with Edward Snowden; it's hilarious and scary at the same time.

"A spectre is haunting the treasuries and central banks of the West - the spectre of secular stagnation. What if there is no sustainable recovery of the economic slump of 2008-2013? What if the sources of economic growth have dried up - not temporarily, but permanently?" - preeminent Keynes scholar and economic historian Robert Skidelsky, "Secular Stagnation and the Road to Full Investment," Social Europe Journal, May 22, 2014

Both Karl Marx and J.M. Keynes concluded that the trajectory of capitalist development placed a radically emancipatory possibility on the political-economic agenda. For the first time in modern history work time could be dramatically reduced with no reduction in our standard of living. In fact, if living standards are measured not merely by money wages but also by increased leisure, i.e. increased time available to develop and exercise our broad range of gratifying capabilities, the reduction in work time would elevate our standard of living to a degree hitherto unimaginable.

In what follows we'll see that less work with higher wages is at this historical juncture not merely economically possible, but desirable as the only practical alternative to the secular stagnation grimly forecast with much flurry by such luminaries as Paul Krugman, Larry Summers and Robert J. Gordon, and by the IMF in its April 2014 World Economic Outlook. Both Marx and Keynes saw their prescriptions as not merely a "better idea," but as the alternative to severe ongoing crisis, understood as dramatic reductions in real production, employment and wages.

The stakes are very high; even the mainstream it pricking up its ears. Krugman recently referred to "a growing consensus among economists that much of the damage to the economy is permanent, that we'll never get back to our old path of growth." ("Does He Pass the Test?, The New York Review, July 10, 2014)

The secular stagnation portended is defined by Krugman as "a persistent state in which a depressed economy is the norm,with episodes of full employment few and far between." ("A Permanent Slump?" The New York Times, November 17, 2013) Austerity hell forever.

There is an alternative, and the only one that is capable of addressing a situation in which profits and economic growth can no longer be achieved by investing in real production and hiring workers. An overripe, industrially saturated economy can be made into one that can deliver on capitalism's false promises. All workers can be employed, but for far fewer hours, and a just living wage can be provided to all. This is the arrangement recommended by Marx and Keynes. Keynes the Enlightenment liberal imagined that this could be accomplished by rational persuasion within the framework of a democratic capitalist economy. Marx knew better. Capitalism's property relations, along with its insatiable drive for increased profits, are incompatible with the desired prescription.

The big story regarding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was the application by the Israelis. This came just prior to the deadline and of course at the displeasure once again to Washington. Britain was the early defector followed by Germany, France and Italy. Eyebrows were raised when Saudi Arabia made their announcement but I believe what was truly missed was the application by Taiwan.

If you are old enough to remember, Taiwan was "recognized China" in the eyes of the U.S.. Mainland China was "Red" China and not officially recognized by the U.S., the application by Taiwan slipped by with little to no comment. I believe Taiwan's application holds great significance because it means the "elder families" are on board and have given their approval. This is truly big news yet not even spoken of in the West? As I understand it, the application must now be approved, a potential sticking point is the name "Taiwan", this will be very interesting to watch!

Why is the AIIB such a big deal? There are several reasons but I believe the biggest is because it is a very public piece to the bigger picture. Not only has the bank attracted the Asian countries one would expect, it has attracted many Western countries and even those closest to the U.S.. Going one step further, ALL of these applications came against U.S. lobbying and were followed by public rebukes from Washington. This was the first instance where the world collectively (including long time U.S. allies) has expressly denied Washington's wishes.

I'll be brief.

I spent the last few days in Donetsk and surrounding villages. When I read yesterday that Dmytro Yarosh had been appointed an advisor to the Ukrainian Army's General Staff, I nearly vomited in my mouth.

If you want to know what kind of sage "advice" Yarosh will be providing the army with, just visit the village of Stepanovka, where Pravy Sektor shot at civilians and the Ukrainian Army. After all, Pravy Sektor is "highly-trained and known for their tough discipline," according to AFP.

I will now defer to the elderly woman I filmed waiting in line for humanitarian aid, who summarized Pravy Sektor's world-famous discipline quite succinctly:

For a second time within a couple of weeks, Greek Defense Minister and leader of coalition government junior partner Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos warned that if the European Union keeps undermining the coalition government and the country exit or is forced to exit the Euro "waves of migrants: will stream from Turkey to Europe and among them there would be ISIS "radicals."

Speaking to The Times, Kammenos said:

"The gross meddling into [Greek] domestic affairs isn't just unheard for European standards, it's unethical and it's dangerous. If Greece goes, then a lot more than financial stability and the euro is at stake.

"If Greece is expelled or forced out of the eurozone, waves of immigrants without papers, including radical elements, will stream from Turkey and head towards the heart of the West,"

Benjamin Netanyahu insists that opposing Thursday's framework nuclear deal with Iran doesn't mean he wants war. "There's a third alternative," the Israeli prime minister told CNN on Sunday, "and that is standing firm, ratcheting up the pressure until you get a better deal."

There are three problems with this argument. The first is that even some of Netanyahu's own ideological allies don't buy it. Netanyahu and many Republican politicians—knowing that the American public doesn't want war—insist that there's a diplomatic alternative to the current deal. But over the years, key conservative foreign-policy experts, have said exactly the opposite. Eliot Cohen, a former Bush administration official who teaches at John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, has written that, "The choices are now what they ever were: an American or an Israeli strike, which would probably cause a substantial war, or living in a world with Iranian nuclear weapons, which may also result in war, perhaps nuclear, over a longer period of time. Understandably, the U.S. government has hoped for a middle course of sanctions, negotiations and bargaining that would remove the problem without the ugly consequences. This is self-delusion." According to Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations, "The only credible option for significantly delaying the Iranian nuclear program would be a bombing campaign." The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol has argued that, "It's long since been time for the United States to speak to this regime in the language it understands—force. ... We can strike at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and weaken them. And we can hit the regime's nuclear weapons program, and set it back." And over the last month alone, two other prominent hawks, John Bolton and Joshua Muravchik, have penned op-eds entitled, "To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran" and "War With Iran is Probably Our Best Option." Netanyahu may sincerely believe that there's a preferable diplomatic alternative to last week's deal. But it's telling that for years now, many on his ideological side have disagreed.

A closer look at the details of the so-called framework accord to emerge from Lausanne shows that Iran falls short on both counts of sanctions removal and nuclear rights.

After investing so much political capital in achieving a nuclear deal, it is understandable that all sides of the stand-off would claim the Lausanne accord arrived at this week to be an "achievement".

US President Barack Obama declared it "an historic" landmark in American-Iranian relations, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed it as a success in which all key disputes are settled.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was greeted as a hero by jubilant Iranians on his return to Tehran from Switzerland.

Zarif emphasised that the framework accord produced in Lausanne after more than a week of intense negotiations will allow Iran to continue enriching uranium and that none of its nuclear research facilities would be shut down, as Washington and its Western allies had previously demanded.

Another crucial point made by Zarif was that all economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the West and the United Nations Security Council would be lifted "immediately" on conclusion of the final Joint Plan of Action comprehensive agreement, scheduled for signing on June 30.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to visit Moscow this week, where it's reported Russia may offer Greece a discount on gas deliveries and new loans. The visit comes amid a huge row between Greece and Germany over a bailout deal for the Mediterranean country.

A Kremlin spokesman said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tsipras planned to discuss economic ties and EU sanctions during their talks, which the newspaper Kommersant said would take place on Thursday.

"We are ready to consider the issue of a gas price discount for Greece," the newspaper said, quoting an unnamed Russian government source. The source said that in exchange for the discount and some unspecified loans, Russia would want access to Greek assets.

The news comes as many say Greece has been forced to look outside the EU for state aid because of the punitive bailout deal forced on Greece largely by Germany, which has been vehement and is calling for a massive austerity-push in the Mediterranean nation to prevent it falling out of the EU.

#Putin and #Tsipras to meet on April 8 and May 9 #Russia #Greece http://t.co/HGCBLaXWxh pic.twitter.com/kZbvoAiJWg

— themanews.com (@themanews) April 3, 2015

The bailout — the latest of which involves Greece paying $494 million in loan repayments to the IMF this Thursday — was caused by the Greek economy crashing. The EU — led by Germany and the European Central Bank — forced the Greek government into a harsh austerity package, which has proved deeply damaging to Greek society and immensely unpopular.

Tsipras was swept to power in the latest election on a promise to hit back at the EU sanctions package and renegotiate the bailout terms with the EU, which Germany has strongly rejected.