CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The US-centralized empire has been plotting the destruction of Russia for many years. There is far too much power and money invested in the unipolar world for anyone at the top to willingly risk the re-emergence of another rival superpower, be it Russia, China, or an unsympathetic alliance in the Middle East. Any analyses of the accusations America or its allies make against any of these governments which do not factor in their clear and obvious motives to manipulate the narrative are inherently flawed, but no one ever includes that obvious factor in their analysis. There is a built-in assumption that only governments like Russia or Iran ever lie, and that western governments have safeguards in place to prevent that. Plainly, they do not.
June 2018
PETR LVOV—The question of who is going to prevail in this struggle is a serious one, because even now the punitive detachments of the Hashd al-Sha’bi and Badr groups, now notorious for atrocities committed against the Sunni population in the struggle for the liberation of Iraq from ISIS, have made it clear that should a pro-Iranian government be formed, they will move most of their units to Syria. But this cannot happen until a stable government capable of finalizing ISIS’ defeat is in place. Iran intends to create a new system and a new factor that will strengthen its position in Syria by assembling groups, consisting of criminal and semi-criminal elements gathered from the whole region, and strengthened by the Iraqi punitive detachments before being sent to war.
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: “DEMOCRACY IS FIGHTING TO SURVIVE THE RISE OF WESTERN AUTHORITARIANISM”
6 minutes readP.C. ROBERTS—In the West and among Western funded NGOs that operate in Russia and China, there is mindless talk about Russian and Chinese authoritarianism. Yet, democracy is far more alive in Russia and within the Chinese Communist Party that it is in the West.
Ecuador’s Ex-President Rafael Correa Denounces Treatment of Julian Assange as “Torture”
13 minutes readGLENN GREENWALD—Correa said that unlike the U.S., which surrounds its embassies with massive military protection, Ecuador does not have the means to do that. “So, when we have special security needs, we hire private firms to provide it. There is nothing unusual about this. It would have been a violation of our duties if we did not.” Correa said his government hired a well-known security firm based in Spain, UC Global, to provide those services, but the current government replaced it with an Israeli firm. “But those services are still being provided by the current government,” Correa said.
F.W. ENGDAHL—Because never in its history has the Federal Reserve indulged in such a monetary experiment with so low rates so long, the effects of reversing are going to be as well unprecedented. At the onset of the 2008 financial crisis the Fed rates were around 5%. That is what the Fed is aiming at to return to “normal.” However, with rising interest rates, the lowest credit sector, so-called non-investment grade or “junk bonds” face domino style defaults.
