U.S. Pushes Russia Towards War

As his empire collapses around him and the White House traitors and criminals, virtually the only out for Obama now is WWIII and survival in his bunkers ala Hitler & Co. 

US-RUSSIA.ORG
By Margaret Kimberly
07/02/2015

"The United States has intervened in too many countries without paying a high enough price.”

This columnist recently said that "Russia Wins” in its handling of America’s attempt to eviscerate its influence and its economy. At the time those words were written Secretary of State John Kerry met with Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia. 

The meeting appeared to be an admission that the imperial power grab was not working out as Washington hoped. Among other things, Kerry was concerned that the Ukrainian tail was starting to wag the American dog. In a public statement he warned Ukrainian president Poroshenko, who threatened to retake Crimea and the Donbass. "We would strongly urge him to think twice not to engage in that kind of activity, that that would put Minsk [accords] in serious jeopardy. And we would be very, very concerned about what the consequences of that kind of action at this time may be.” 

Barack Obama promptly tossed Kerry under the bus upon his return home.

Kerry’s subordinate Victoria Nuland and the United Nations ambassador Samantha Power repeated the very words that Kerry warned against and contradicted everything he said. 

Insane Obamaite whore Samantha Power

Power went to Kiev to sing the praises of the Ukrainians in person. 

She didn’t have to mention Kerry by name, her presence alone said that he and any talk of diplomacy were on the outs. Of course the meeting between Kerry and Putin had to have been approved by president Obama, but just one month later it appears to have been a figment of the world’s imagination.

In the battle to stay on top of the world and remain in control of it, Washington inevitably lurches back and forth in its policy decision making. 

"Russia Has Every Right To Arm Its Own Territory.”

Now they and their scribes in corporate media have settled back into comfortable territory, simultaneously vilifying the Russian government and endlessly repeating anti-Russian propaganda.

A recent New York Times editorial with the grandiose title, "The Fantasy Mr. Putin is Selling,” claimed that president Putin has a "willingness to brandish nuclear weapons.” 

MSM war shills will be the first to go following

a nuclear strike on an American city, burned out

of their corporate headquarters and slaughtered

There was no mention of America’s unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002. Not content to tell one lie the Times then criticized Putin for "aggressive behavior, including pouring troops and weapons into Kaliningrad, a Russian city located between NATO members Lithuania and Poland.” Of course, Russia has every right to arm its own territory. TheTimes also neglected to mention that the American military are positioning weapons and holding training exercises in Ukraine, Poland, Romania and the Baltic states that border Russia. It seems that those provocations are not deemed worthy of mention.

The New York Times and its counterparts always play this role. They cozy up to president Obama as they have with all his predecessors and support any and all of their mischief. Far from being a voice of information for the public, they do the bidding of the powerful and are accessories to their crimes.

"Antagonizing Russia is riskier than paying jihadists to take over Libya.”

The Obama administration is in the process of killing the Minsk accords which were shepherded by France and Germany. This is the only process which can defang the beast, and that is why it is being sabotaged. The United States has intervened in too many countries without paying a high enough price. It is like a serial criminal who remains at large and thus thinks of himself as invincible. This county is responsible for carnage in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria and that is the list of victims only since 2001.

One has to ask where and when the straw will break the camel’s back. American military power has allowed it to run rough shod over humanity, but antagonizing Russia is riskier than paying jihadists to take over Libya.

Not only does the United States have the most and the biggest guns but it has the corporate media at its disposal, parroting every word as if they were gospel truth. 

The ultimate surprise for American sheep despite repeated warnings

Americans who think of themselves as well informed will be in for a shock if Moldova turns out to be the flash point for open warfare that was instigated by their government.

”Russia Will Never Be Beholden To America.”

Everyone knows that an assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 pushed the world into war. In 2015 the signs are ominous that something terrible may happen because of an incident in Transnistria or Donetsk or some other locale Americans know nothing about.

The process of marginalizing Russia began as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed. While the Warsaw Pact disbanded, NATO grew at Russia’s expense. But Russia will never be beholden to America. There is no puppet they can place in the Kremlin. These fantasies have put the world on the brink.

Obama and his friends in NATO may not want to start a war but they may get one all the same. 

Of course the president is concerned about his legacy. He ought to be. If he continues as he has done since 2009, his legacy may be that he was head inmate in the asylum when the last war began.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.    

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The Global Template For Collapse : The Enchanting Charms Of Cheap, Easy Credit

Criminal banks set to collapse like a house of cards - again  

WASHINGTON'S BLOG
By Charles Hugh Smith
07/01/2015

According to polls, the majority of Greek citizens want the benefits of membership in the euro/EU and the end of EU-imposed austerity. The idea that these are mutually exclusive doesn’t seem to register.

Greeks now in open revolt, having been pushed 

over the brink by IMF criminals, EU bankers

This is the discreet charm of magical thinking: it promises an escape from the difficulties of hard choices, tough trade-offs, the disruption of vested interests and most painfully, the breakdown of the debt machine that has enabled the distribution of swag to virtually everyone in the system (a torrent to those at the top, a trickle to the majority at the bottom, but swag nonetheless). If we had to summarize the insidious charm of magical thinking, we might start with the overpowering appeal of using credit to ease all difficulties. Need money to fund various healthcare/national defense rackets? Borrow the money. 

Need to keep people employed building ghost cities in the middle of nowhere? Borrow the money. Need to keep buying shares of the company’s stock to push the value of each share ever higher? Borrow the money.

The problem with cheap, easy credit is Cheap, easy credit destroys discipline. 

Euro a fake, failed fiat currency soon to be worthless

The lifetime costs of debt taken on to fund bridges to nowhere, healthcare/national defense rackets, ghost cities, stock buybacks, etc. are never calculated. The opportunity costs are also never calculated.

When credit is costly and hard to get, marginal borrowers can’t get loans and nobody dares borrow at high rates of interest for low-yield, high-risk schemes. When credit is costly and hard to get, what doesn’t pencil out doesn’t get funded.

When credit is cheap and easy to get, every scheme and racket gets funding because hey, why not? The cost is low (at the moment) and the gain might be fantastic. 

But even if the gain is unknown, the kickback/campaign contributions make it worthwhile even if the scheme fails.

Greece now completely looted by IMF, EU bank criminals

Professional economists are duty-bound to claim national economies are not merely extensions of households. But this is just another falsity passed off as sophisticated truth by a profession that is being discredited by the reality of its failed policies, failed theories and failed predictions.

Since human psychology remains the dominant force in all economics, the household and national economies can only differ in scale.

Greek people have now chosen to go down fighting

In the 1970s, credit was scarce and hard to get. Young workers qualified for a $300 limit credit card, and it took careful management of that responsibility (always paying on time, etc.) to get a meager increase to $500. Mortgage rates were high (10%+) and your income and household balance sheet were scrutinized before any lender took a chance on lending you tens of thousands of dollars to buy a house. After all, the bank would be stuck with the losses if you defaulted.

Then came financialization. Banks could skim the profits from originating loans and offload the risk of default onto towns in Norway, credulous pension funds and other greater fools.

And if a default threatened the bank–for example, Greece in 2011–the bank simply bought political power and shifted the debt onto taxpayers. “The ATMs will stop working,” the bankers threatened their political flunkies in Congress in 2008, and the bought-and-paid-for toadies in Congress and the Federal Reserve obediently shifted trillions of dollars in private liabilities and sketchy debt-based “assets” such as mortgages onto the taxpayers and the Fed balance sheet.

The same transfer of risk and losses occurred in Europe, as these charts demonstrate: (Source: If Greece Defaults, Europe’s Taxpayers Lose)

Here is the debt in 2009–mostly owed to private banks and bondholders:

Here is the debt in 2015–almost all was shifted onto the backs of taxpayers:

Ask yourself this: if you could shift risk and losses to the taxpayers, how would that affect your investing/gambling?Wouldn’t you take much higher risks, knowing that losses would not fall to you but to abstract taxpayers? 

Of course you would, and this is the essence of moral hazard–the disconnect of risk and consequence.

Cheap, easy credit has created moral hazard and nurtured magical thinking throughout the global economy. The heart of magical thinking is that consequences have been disappeared or shifted onto others by financial enchantment.

The interest on the debt will be paid by growth.

We will make so much money on this investment/gamble, paying off the debt will be easy.

This bet can’t lose because the Fed/People’s Bank of China/ECB/Bank of Japan etc. will never let the market decline.

When I write about the Martian Central Bank issuing quatloos to save Earth’s bankrupt financial system, we know it’s a joke: the Martian Central Bank and the quatloo do not exist.

There will be no replay of this - unless Greek cops have a death wish and value their criminal masters over their own lives

But there is no difference between believing in cheap, easy credit as the solution to all problems and believing that the Martian Central Bank will save us from the consequences of cheap, easy credit and the destruction of fiscal discipline.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.    

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Defiant Greek PM Stands Ground On Referendum

The beginning of the end of the EU Nazis, IMF criminals, Merkel, Lagarde  

AFP
By Alex Pigman
07/02/2015

BRUSSELS - 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras vowed Wednesday to push ahead with a controversial bailout referendum despite pressure from European leaders, and urged creditors to accept a fresh reform offer by Athens.

IMF criminals, Merkel, EU Nazis target Greek 

retirees, the disabled, middle classes thinking 

they are defenceless - the personification of evil

Hours after Greece became the first advanced economy to default on the IMF, the leftist leader used a televised address to tell Greeks to vote 'No' on Sunday to creditor austerity demands.

European ministers were due later Wednesday to consider a new proposal from Athens but German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already insisted there can be no new deal before the referendum.

"A 'No' vote does not signify a rupture with Europe, but a return to the Europe of values," Tsipras told the nation, rebutting accusations from EU leaders that the plebiscite was essentially a vote on whether to stay in the union.

"Come Monday, the Greek government will be at the negotiating table after the referendum, with better terms for the Greek people," he added, standing between Greek and EU flags.

The radical Greek leader spoke hours after Merkel effectively ruled out all negotiations until after Sunday, saying that Europe could "calmly" await the outcome of the referendum.

Striking back: Greek retirees, cut off from their pensions now targeting bank criminals

"The world is watching us. But the future of Europe is not at stake," Merkel told Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament.

But there were signs the crisis was opening rifts in Europe's united front, with France's leader Francois Hollande urging an "immediate agreement" after six months of stalemate with the radical-leftists in Athens.

Uncharted Waters

A poll on Wednesday showed the 'No' camp in the lead with 46 percent, against 37 percent for 'Yes' and 17 percent undecided. However the 'No' vote share was down compared to before capital controls were introduced Sunday.

The Council of Europe rights group meanwhile said the vote fell short of European standards.

Greece entered uncharted waters with its default on a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) International Monetary Fund loan, the first by an advanced economy, and expiry of its current European bailout at 2200 GMT Tuesday.

It is now without external financial assistance for the first time in five years, while at home the banks will be closed all week, although around a thousand branches opened Wednesday to allow the elderly to receive pension payments.

Lagarde, Merkel, IMF, EU bank criminals will now pay for the the evil they have visited upon the Greek people

Greece on Tuesday made a last-minute proposal for a third bailout worth nearly 30 billion euros to follow the two rescue programmes worth 240 billion euros that cash-strapped Athens has received since 2010.

On Wednesday Tsipras said he was ready to accept terms offered by the creditors on Sunday, despite the fact that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that proposal was no longer on the table.

"The Hellenic Republic is prepared to accept this ... agreement subject to the following amendments, additions or clarifications," the letter said, referring to the reforms-for-cash contract binding Greece with its creditors.

The government said any deal would have to allow Greece to maintain a 30 percent VAT discount on islands and postpone a 2012 pension reform until October 2015.

Angry Pensioners

In Greece there were angry scenes as pensioners waited to be allowed into some banks that opened for them. For everyone else the only option was to queue -- sometimes for hours -- at cash machines to withdraw a maximum of 60 euros a day. 

Finance ministry employees meanwhile hung a huge banner saying "No to blackmail and austerity" out of the window of their office.

European and Asian stocks mostly rallied on hopes of a deal while the euro slid against the dollar, to $1.1082 from $1.1139 late in New York on Tuesday.

The European Central Bank's governing council will also meet on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Greece. 

Lagarde along with her satanic IMF will go the

way of Hitler and the Third Reich

It was the ECB's decision on Sunday to refuse to increase emergency funding for Greek banks that pushed Athens to close lenders and impose the capital controls, although it is thought likely to stick with its current stance.

Missing the IMF payment means that Athens "can only receive IMF financing once the arrears are cleared", IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement.

The IMF will rule "in the coming weeks" on Greece's request for a rare extension, a source close to the matter told AFP Wednesday. 

Greece faces further big repayments to the ECB on July 20.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Gazprom Halts Gas Deliveries To Kiev

Putin now needs to cut off gas to the EU Nazis, cooking them a stew they will choke on while reducing their capacity to wage war to stone age levels  

AGENCIES
07/01/2015

Gazprom has confirmed the suspension of gas supplies to Ukraine from 10:00am MSK on July 1. Russia’s gas monopoly will not supply gas to Kiev without prepayment, no matter what price, said company CEO Aleksey Miller on Wednesday.

EU will now pay for Obama's CIA engineered and

financed coup in Kiev

After trilateral Russia-EU-Ukraine gas talks in Vienna failed on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Naftogaz reported it would cease purchases of Russian gas starting from Wednesday as it didn’t agree on the price. The three parties gathered in Vienna to discuss the terms of the gas deal for the next three months as the previous ‘summer package’ expired.

The Ukrainian company stressed that Kiev would continue gas transit to Gazprom’s customers in Europe “in accordance with the existing transit contract”.

Russia offered Ukraine a discount of $40 per thousand cubic meters on Monday. 

Nazi Merkel, Obama and Cameron won't be laughing at

the riots this winter as Europeans burn furniture for heat

The price of Russian gas with the discount was $247.18 per 1,000 cubic meters. The same price Ukraine bought gas in the second quarter.

However, Naftogaz refused to sign the deal, saying Kiev was dissatisfied with the price and the discount.

Ukraine's wish to get more than a 40 percent discount is "groundless", Russia's Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak told Rossiya 24 TV channel on Wednesday.

The $100 discount Kiev is asking for, worked when the price neared $495 per 1,000 cubic meters, said Novak.

Ukraine's decision to halt gas purchases from Russia is politicized, not justified by economic reasons, he added.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow could no longer provide generous gas discounts to Kiev due to low crude oil prices in the world.

On April 1, 2015 Russia and Ukraine signed a ‘summer package’, deal on gas supplies for the second quarter. The agreement replaced a similar ‘winter package' signed at the end of October, 2014.

Russia switched Ukraine to prepayment terms last summer after the country’s ‘chronic’ failure to pay its massive debt. Naftogaz paid Gazprom $247.18 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. The price included a $100 discount.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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