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Collapse of Roman Republic: Will the EU repeat history?


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 01:29 UTC
Angela Merkel
© Virginia Mayo/Agence France Press
German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks out of her car window as she arrives for an EU summit at the EU Council building in Brussels on Monday, March 7, 2016
According to historian and professor at the Free University of Brussels David Engels, the EU is currently facing a system change comparable with that in the late Roman Republic. In his book On the Way to Empire, he draws historical parallels between the current changes in the EU and the fall of the Roman Republic.

In an interview with Sputnik, Engels argued that problems like populism, high unemployment, growing influx of migrants, asymmetric and economic wars as well as the decline of traditional values had already existed in the 1st century BC. Exactly these things have become major challenges for Europe in recent decades.

"Over the past few decades, corruption, social naivety and general political apathy of European citizens have sharply increased. Here you can also see clear analogies to the late Roman Republic, where citizens were even ready to accept an authoritarian government — due to poverty, unemployment, loss of values and the civil war — if this was the only way their belongings could be protected," the expert argued.

Comment: The similarities go even further than that. What's remarkable is that the environment itself also became less stable as Rome became more totalitarian. Scarcity and greed brought on famine, crop failures, then 'fire in the sky', unusually powerful earthquakes and devastating plague.

The seat of empire today is not in Europe but in the US, but Europe is undoubtedly feeling the effects of collapse just as strongly.

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Sheeple

Delusional Ukraine official boasts 'Russia won't last four days in a war with Ukraine


Fort Russ
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 01:19 UTC
Turchinov Ukraine

Alexander Turchinov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
Alexander Turchinov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, has responded to the statement by the Speaker of the State Duma of Russia Sergei Naryshkin, who said that if Russia were to enter into a military conflict with Ukraine, it wouldn't last four days.

On his social network page Turchynov wrote that fighting with a country like Ukraine, Russia would not last four days.

Recall that in July last year, the chairman of the State Duma Naryshkin noted that Russia is not involved in the conflict in Ukraine. According to him, there are no Russian troops on the territory of Donbass, regardless of what the Kiev authorities are trying hard to convince the world community.

In March 2016, Petro Poroshenko said that during the armed conflict ten thousand Ukrainians died in the Donbass. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that there is no reason to trust information on victims from Kiev.

According to official figures from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in the south-eastern Ukraine, 9 thousand 167 people have been killed in two years. Almost 22 thousand were injured. These figures include "civilians, Ukrainian soldiers, and members of armed groups."

Translated from Russian TV Zvezda by Tom Winter

Comment: The translator notes, "The interesting thing about this item is not the Turchinov boast, but the plain implication of it: In taking the bait from Naryshkin with this countering boast, Turchinov admits that Russia is not, and has not been, at war with Ukraine. Not what Poroshenko has been telling the West!"

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Yoda

Russia the peacemaker: Azerbaijan confirms Moscow mediated ceasefire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict


TASS
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 01:11 UTC
nagorno karabakh war
© Vahan Stepanyan/PAN Photo via AP
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the agreement on ceasefire on the contact line in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was reached through Russia's mediation at the meeting of senior military officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow.

The meeting on Tuesday was attended by the chiefs of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Najmaddin Sadigov and Yuri Khatchaturov. "At the meeting an agreement was reached on ending military operations on the contact line of forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia," the ministry said in a statement.

The situation along the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. The Armenian and Azerbaijani defense ministries announced cessation of combat operations in Nagorno-Karabakh from 11:00 a.m. (0800GMT) Moscow time on April 5.

Comment: For background on this conflict, see:

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Recycle

Inside man: Brussels bomber worked as janitor at EU Parliament


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
brussels
© Yorick Jansens / Reuters
Broken windows of the terminal at Brussels airport are seen during a ceremony following bomb attacks in Brussels in Zaventem, Belgium, March 23, 2016.
One of the Islamic State suicide bombers that carried out a deadly terror attack in Brussels on March 22 had previously worked as a janitor in the European Parliament, a spokesman for the EU assembly said, according to Reuters.

The attacker, whose name was not mentioned, had the job from 2009 to 2010.

He "worked for a period of one month for a cleaning company which was contracted by the European Parliament at the time," spokesman Jaume Duch Guillot said in a statement.

According to an EU official, the terrorist is Najim Laachraoui, 25, who, according to prosecutors, blew himself up in Belgian airport.

Comment: The man identified as Laachraoui was wearing a glove, most likely to avoid leaving fingerprints in the airport. (Incidentally, the Bakraoui brothers reportedly worked as janitors at the airport.) If so, he didn't intend to die that way. The third man, who was identified as Faisal Cheffou, was later arrested, but then let go. Was he or someone else responsible for remotely detonating explosive devices (in which case, Laachraoui and Bakraoui were dupes and victims of the attack)? Why was he released? Where is he now, and what did he have to say about Laachraoui and Bakraoui, with whom he was walking in the airport?

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Laptop

Panama papers: Forget the reporters - who built the database?

Ronald Zonca
Fort Russ
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 23:54 UTC
Supercomputer_1
© European Southern Observatory
The case involves a selection of public persons whose social status requires us to look at the causes and the source of the revelations, to say nothing of journalistic ethics. 11.5 million documents, even supposing each is just one page, would stack more than a kilometer high. It is impossible to deal with such a volume with simple humans, even for super journalists. The work had to be done by other people fully equipped. Faced with such a mass of data, very powerful computers are needed and one asks first, who was able to provide them. For each offshore company name, you must first determine all the actual people. This presupposes a well-populated database and means way beyond the simple request for information from the authorities.

Once spotted, an individual name must be found with whom there were linkages in the past or today. This requires a huge, well fed, and extremely well managed database.

Comment: Further reading: The Panama deception: America is the biggest tax haven in the world

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Snakes in Suits

The U.S. empire's human sacrifice in Yemen


Dan Sanchez
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
Starving children Yemen

Udai Faisal, a baby born in Yemen who died of starvation because of US/Saudi imperial designs.

Is America the World's Worst Girlfriend?

Stand-up comic Louis CK recently did this bit where he characterized America as "the world's worst girlfriend":
"America is like a terrible girlfriend to the rest of the world. If someone hurts America, she remembers it forever. But if she does anything bad, she's like: 'Whaaatt? I didn't do anything!' America, why do you keep bombing those people in Yemen? 'Because nine-eleven, okay. Nine-eleven. So shut up!'"
The bit is really funny and perceptive. But in actuality, the average American would respond with, "We're bombing Yemen? What's Yemen?" While the average American foreign policy official wouldn't cite 9/11, but would feign innocence. "We're not! That war belongs to Saudi Arabia. Whaaatt? I didn't do anything!"

These veils of ignorance and deception parted ever so slightly recently, when, after a whole year, the war on Yemen finally received some major coverage in the mainstream media. A March 29 Associated Press "Big Story" exposed mainstream readers to the war's horrific human toll. The article, titled "An infant's 5-month life points to hunger's spread in Yemen," frames the story by delving into one of the war's innumerable tragedies.

Comment: Art imitates life:



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Gold Bar

Why are Russia and China buying gold at a fever pace?

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 23:31 UTC
gold
Gold is one of the most fascinating of all rare metals. Throughout all history it has been given a special, at times sacred or spiritual value, since six thousand years ago when the Egyptian Pharoahs' tombs were filled with it to accompany the dead on their journey. In times of world financial crisis as in the 1930's, gold is preferred by central banks and ordinary citizens as a store of value when paper money loses value. We are approaching another of those times when the accumulated paper debt of the dollar system is debasing the worth of paper dollars. What's highly significant in this light is to see which central banks are buying all the gold they can get.

The dollar today is no longer backed by gold. That has been so since Nixon unilaterally abrogated the 1944 Bretton Woods Treaty and took the dollar off its statutory gold backing to float free in August, 1971. He did so at the insistence of then Under Treasury Secretary Paul Volcker and Volcker's patron, David Rockefeller at Chase Manhattan Bank. Nixon took that desperate measure, simply said, because the Federal Reserve vaults of reserve gold were disappearing as France, Germany and other trading partners of the United States demanded gold in exchange for their accumulated trade dollars, as was allowed under the Bretton Woods rules.
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Bad Guys

NATO commander admits Putin created potent military force in Russia


Sputnik
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 23:27 UTC
General Breedlove
© AP Photo/ Virginia Mayo
According to Gen. Philip Breedlove, Vladimir Putin's efforts have allowed Moscow to create a potent military force in the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts have allowed Moscow to create a potent military force in the country, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Philip Breedlove said.

"I look at the capabilities and the capacities that Mr. Putin is creating in his military force... As you know he has been investing strongly now in his military for over five years. He has created a very potent land force. You have seen his air forces in Syria recently and he has exercised that and he has also got into the long-range precision strike capabilities both from his ships and his submarines," Breedlove told the Estonian ETV television channel on Monday.

Russia is currently implementing a large-scale rearmament program, announced in 2010, to modernize 70-percent of its military hardware by 2020. The total modernization program cost is estimated to reach about 20 trillion rubles (some $291 billion at current exchange rates).
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Apple Red

U.S. admits Russia is right: the Syrian people should decide who governs them


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 23:16 UTC
Assad West dishonest
© SANA / Reuters
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad
Washington seems to agree with Russia that the Syrian people should decide whether President Bashar Assad remains in power. During a briefing, US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said it is up to the Syrian people to decide the future government.

Russia has been pushing the notion for years that the only people who should decide President Assad's future are the Syrian people themselves. Now it seems as if Washington may have changed its tune, having originally been unwilling to accept any idea of Assad staying in power, regardless of the wishes of the Syrian population.

"We believe that a political process that reflects the desires and will of the Syrian people is what should ultimately decide the future leadership and the future government of Syria," Toner said during a briefing on Monday.

He also agreed that there has been an increased amount of cooperation between Washington and Moscow regarding Syria.
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USA

Amnesty International: U.S. among top executioners surpassed only by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 11:26 UTC
Electric chair
© Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Tribune/Reuters
With 28 killings in 2015, the US is the only country in the Americas and among OSCE members to be on the list of top executioners published by Amnesty International, coming right after Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan.

At least 1,634 people were put to death in 25 countries in 2015, Amnesty International said. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan account for nearly 90 percent of those.

The US, it appears, had more executions than Iraq last year - 28 in six states: Texas (13), Missouri (6), Georgia (5), Florida (2), Oklahoma (1) and Virginia (1).

Last year, at least 2,851 people were under sentence of death in America, including 746 in California, 389 in Florida, 250 in Texas, 185 in Alabama and 181 in Pennsylvania, according to the report.

"While the 2015 figure was the lowest number of executions recorded in a single year since 1991, the decrease was in part linked to legal challenges that resulted in the revision of lethal injection protocols or problems faced by states in obtaining lethal injection chemicals," the human rights watchdog explained.

Thirty-two US states still retain the death sentence. Texas carried out almost half of all executions in 2015.

The state of Virginia carried out its first execution since 2013, while two states - Arizona and Ohio - had to put executions on hold because of issues concerning lethal injections.

"The USA continued to use the death penalty in ways that contravene international law and standards, including on people with mental and intellectual disabilities," Amnesty said in its annual report on the use of capital punishment.

Amnesty cited the case of Warren Hill, who was executed by the state of Georgia despite the fact that all experts who had assessed him, including those provided by the state, agreed that he had an intellectual disability. "His execution amounted to the arbitrary deprivation of life in violation of Article 6 of the ICCPR [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights], to which the USA is a state party," Amnesty said.
Kill chart
© amnesty.org
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