Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Coming of Cold War 2.0 | TomDispatch

Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Coming of Cold War 2.0 | TomDispatch

Russia vs. China 
The Conflict in Washington Over Who Should Lead America’s Enemies List
By Michael T. Klare

America’s grand strategy, its long-term blueprint for advancing national interests and countering major adversaries, is in total disarray. Top officials lurch from crisis to crisis, improvising strategies as they go, but rarely pursuing a consistent set of policies. Some blame this indecisiveness on a lack of resolve at the White House, but the real reason lies deeper. It lurks in a disagreement among foreign policy elites over whether Russia or China constitutes America’s principal great-power adversary.

Knowing one’s enemy is usually considered the essence of strategic planning. During the Cold War, enemy number one was, of course, unquestioned: it was the Soviet Union, and everything Washington did was aimed at diminishing Moscow’s reach and power. When the USSR imploded and disappeared, all that was left to challenge U.S. dominance were a few “rogue states.” In the wake of 9/11, however, President Bush declared a “global war on terror,” envisioning a decades-long campaign against Islamic extremists and their allies everywhere on the planet. From then on, with every country said to be either with us or against us, the chaos set in. Invasions, occupations, raids, drone wars ensued -- all of it, in the end, disastrous -- while China used its economic clout to gain new influence abroad and Russia began to menace its neighbors.

Among Obama administration policymakers and their Republican opponents, the disarray in strategic thinking is striking. There is general agreement on the need to crush the Islamic State (ISIS), deny Iran the bomb, and give Israel all the weapons it wants, but not much else. There is certainly no agreement on how to allocate America’s strategic resources, including its military ones, even in relation to ISIS and Iran. Most crucially, there is no agreement on the question of whether a resurgent Russia or an ever more self-assured China should head Washington’s enemies list. Lacking such a consensus, it has become increasingly difficult to forge long-term strategic plans. And yet, while it is easy to decry the current lack of consensus on this point, there is no reason to assume that the anointment of a common enemy -- a new Soviet Union -- will make this country and the world any safer than it is today.

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Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight — War Is Boring — Medium

Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight — War Is Boring —

New stealth fighter is dead meat in an air battle

by DAVID AXE

A test pilot has some very, very bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can’t turn or climb fast enough to hit an enemy plane during a dogfight or to dodge the enemy’s own gunfire, the pilot reported following a day of mock air battles back in January.

“The F-35 was at a distinct energy disadvantage,” the unnamed pilot wrote in a scathing five-page brief that War Is Boring has obtained. The brief is unclassified but is labeled “for official use only.”

The test pilot’s report is the latest evidence of fundamental problems with the design of the F-35 — which, at a total program cost of more than a trillion dollars, is history’s most expensive weapon.

The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — not to mention the air forces and navies of more than a dozen U.S. allies — are counting on the Lockheed Martin-made JSF to replace many if not most of their current fighter jets.

And that means that, within a few decades, American and allied aviators will fly into battle in an inferior fighter — one that could get them killed … and cost the United States control of the air.

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Malvinas 2.0? Argentina Plans Asset Seizure Of Falkland Oil Companies | Zero Hedge

Malvinas 2.0? Argentina Plans Asset Seizure Of Falkland Oil Companies | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Andy Tully via OilPrice.com,

Is it just election fever, or is Argentina serious about reclaiming the Falklands Islands?

Presidential elections loom in the country in October, so perhaps it’s not surprising that a Lilian Herraez, a federal judge in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina’s southernmost region, ordered the seizure of $156 million in property and bank holdings of oil drilling companies, including Noble Energy of the United States.

The government in Buenos Aires said on June 27 that the other targets of asset seizures were Edison International of Italy and three British-based companies, Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd., Premier Oil Plc and Rockhopper Exploration Plc.

Reuters quoted a source which it said was knowledgeable of the situation as saying none of these four companies tends to have financial holdings in Argentina or to work in Argentine waters. But a statement by prosecutors said Noble Energy “has a local office registered in Argentina,” and that its assets there would be frozen.

“The [Argentine] foreign ministry will be notified of the court order so that by diplomatic means and in compliance with international treaties it can be carried out,” the statement said.

The Falklands, an archipelago within 450 miles of the Argentine mainland, have been under British rule continuously since 1833. Buenos Aires still claims the islands, which they call the Malvinas, as its territory, although a majority of the islands’ approximately 3,000 residents say they prefer to remain under British rule.

In 1982, Argentina’s military dictatorship tried to seize the Falklands from Britain, but were beaten back during a brief war.The matter was considered settled for nearly 30 years when oil deposits were discovered in the vicinity of the archipelago, due east of Tierra del Fuego. Drilling in the waters around the islands began in 2010 over the objections of the Argentine government.

The prosecutors had asked Herraez on June 1 to fine the energy companies and to order the seizure of five ships, a drilling platform and what is known as a floating dam. They argued that all these assets had been used to conduct illegal exploration and exploitation of Argentine waters.

In her order, Herraez granted a request by prosecutors that she order the energy companies to end exploration of Argentine waters forfear of a negative environmental impact on them.

The Buenos Aires Herald quoted government sources as saying they doubted Herraez’s order could be enforced because the judge’s jurisdiction doesn’t include the Falklands and because that jurisdiction doesn’t extend to the countries in which the companies are based.

Government prosecutors, however, say they believe the judge’s ruling will carry weight. “I strongly believe the judge’s resolution is going to have a practical effect,” said one, Carlos Gonella, the head of the Attorney General’s Economic Crime and Money Laundering Unit. He didn’t elaborate.

But will oil drilling off the Falklands remain a political issue in Argentina once the October election are past?

Greek Referendum in Vote on GRexit « The Burning Platform

Greek Referendum in Vote on GRexit

by Martin Armstrong

Brussel’s worst nightmare is coming true. The one thing the Trioka has fought so hard to do is kill any democratic vote by the people in any country about the Euro. This is now not about the terms of austerity which they still cannot understand is DEFLATIONARY and supports debt holders at the expense of society because politicians borrow forever, waste money, and the hand the bills to the people – TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

They are trying to scare the Greeks that they will be the loser, when in fact it is really the other way around. Protests in support of a NO vote (GRexit) are not only crowding the streets in Athens, they are coming out in Britain in support of Greece. What comes to mind is Mel Gibson’s classic movie – Brave Heart when he, playing Willian Wallace the hero of Scotland, is being disemboweled and his last words are – FREEDOM!

The break down in negotiations followed a rejected extension proposal put forward by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. Meanwhile, the Greek parliament voted on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ proposed a referendum to secure popular support for their staunch negotiation position. The government won approval for the vote, which will be held on Sunday July 5th. This vote may decide the fate of Greek’s future in the Eurozone not whether to accept the terms.

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

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

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

Cheap, easy credit has created moral hazard and nurtured magical thinking throughout the global economy.

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.

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. 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.

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THE SEA GYPSY PHILOSOPHER: THE STRANGER ARRIVES

THE SEA GYPSY PHILOSOPHER: THE STRANGER ARRIVES: by Ray Jason Welcome, Stranger!   We are the Pelican/Slocum Sea Gypsy Tribe.   I am currently our Spokesperson – a position that rotat...

ClubOrlov: The Care and Feeding of a Financial Black Hole

ClubOrlov: The Care and Feeding of a Financial Black Hole: A while ago I had the pleasure of hearing Sergey Glazyev—economist, politician, member of the Academy of Sciences, adviser to Pres. Putin—sa...

The Emergence of Orwellian Newspeak and the Death of Free Speech « The Burning Platform

The Emergence of Orwellian Newspeak and the Death of Free Speech « The Burning Platform



Guest Post by John W. Whitehead

“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it…. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

How do you change the way people think? You start by changing the words they use.

In totalitarian regimes—a.k.a. police states—where conformity and compliance are enforced at the end of a loaded gun, the government dictates what words can and cannot be used. In countries where the police state hides behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance, the citizens censor themselves, policing their words and thoughts to conform to the dictates of the mass mind.

Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language appear well-intentioned—discouraging racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably, the end result is the same: intolerance, indoctrination and infantilism.

It’s political correctness disguised as tolerance, civility and love, but what it really amounts to is the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.

Cont.... 

Former Senator Opines on the Incredible Corruption in America and the Fourth Branch of Government | Liberty Blitzkrieg

Former Senator Opines on the Incredible Corruption in America and the Fourth Branch of Government | Liberty Blitzkrieg

Michael Krieger | Posted Monday Jun 29, 2015 at 7:06 pm

On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so.

Our ancestors did not depart Europe and elsewhere to seek freedom and self-government alone. They came to these shores to escape social and political systems that were corrosive and corrupt. Two and a quarter centuries later, we are returning to those European practices. We are in danger of becoming a different kind of nation, one our founders would not recognize and would deplore.

In addition to the rise of the national security state, and the concentration of wealth and power in America, no development in modern times sets us apart more from the nation originally bequeathed to us than the rise of the special interest state. There is a Gresham’s law related to the republican ideal. Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption

A former senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, has written an extremely powerful and accurate critique of the unfathomably corrupt and crony state of the U.S. government in 2015. It covers several very important angles, including how appalled and disgusted our founders would be at the current state of affairs. How a once great republic has devolved into a thieving oligarchy in which the pursuit of money at power at the expense of the public good has been elevated into something that’s not just tolerated, but actually celebrated and encouraged amongst an ethics deprived status quo.

Don’t take it from me though, here are several of my favorite excerpts:

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Good On You, Alexis Tsipras (Part 1) | Zero Hedge

Good On You, Alexis Tsipras (Part 1) | Zero Hedge

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

Late Friday night a solid blow was struck for sound money, free markets and limited government by a most unlikely force. Namely, the hard core statist and crypto-Marxist prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras. He has now set in motion a cascade of disruption that will shake the corrupt status quo to its very foundations.

And just in the nick of time, too. After 15 years of rampant money printing, falsification of financial market prices and usurpation of democratic rule, his antagonists—–the ECB, the EU superstate and the IMF—-have become a terminal threat to the very survival of the kind of liberal society of which these values are part and parcel.

In fact, the Keynesian central banking and the Brussels and IMF style bailout regime—which has become nearly universal—-eventually fosters a form of soft-core economic totalitarianism. That’s because the former first destroys honest financial markets by falsifying the price of debt. So doing, Keynesian central bankers enable governments to issue far more debt than their taxpayers and national economies can shoulder; and, at the same time, force investors and savers to desperately chase yield in a marketplace where the so-called risk free interest rate has been pegged at ridiculously low levels.

That means, in turn, that banks, bond funds and fast money traders alike take on increasing levels of unacknowledged and uncompensated risk, and that the natural checks and balances of honest financial markets are stymied and disabled. Short sellers are soon destroyed because the purpose of Keynesian central banking is to drive the price of securities to artificially high and unnatural levels. At the same time, hedge fund gamblers are able to engage in highly leveraged carry trades based on state subsidized (free) overnight money, and to purchase downside market risk insurance (“puts”) for a pittance.

Eventually bond and stock “markets” become central bank enabled casinos—-riven with mispriced securities, dangerous carry trades, massive unearned windfall profits and endemic instability. When an unexpected shock or “black swan” event threatens to shatter confidence and trigger a sell-off of these drastically over-priced securities, the bailout state swings into action indiscriminately propping up the gamblers.

That’s what the Fed and TARP did in behalf of Morgan Stanley and Goldman back in September 2008. And it’s what the troika did in behalf of the French, German, Dutch, Italian and other European banks, which were stuffed with unpayable Greek and PIIGS debt, beginning in 2010.

Needless to say, repeated and predictable bailouts create enormous moral hazard and extirpate all remnants of financial discipline in financial markets and legislative chambers alike. Since 2010, the Greeks have done little more than pretend to restructure their state finances and private economy, and the Italians, Portuguese, Spanish and Irish have done virtually nothing at all. The modest uptick in the reported GDP of the latter two hopeless debt serfs are just unsustainable rounding errors—–flattered by the phony speculative boom in their debt securities that was temporarily fueled by Draghi’s money printing ukase that is presently in drastic retreat.

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Texas Liberals Sign Petition to Remove 'Racist' George Washington Statue -

Texas Liberals Sign Petition to Remove 'Racist' George Washington Statue



by Paul Joseph Watson

“It’s so bad….it’s like having a statue of Hitler”

Liberals at the University of Texas signed a petition to remove a statue of George Washington and memorials to other founding fathers in another illustration of the politically correct insanity that has emerged in the wake of the Charleston massacre.

Students at the University have started an actual petition to remove statues of Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate army, and Albert Sidney Johnston, a Confederate general who died during the Civil War, remarking, “It is impossible to reach the full potential of an inclusive and progressive learning institution while putting an idol of our darkest days on a pedestal.”

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Shoot the Dog and Sell the Farm « The Burning Platform

Shoot the Dog and Sell the Farm « The Burning Platform

By John Mauldin

“If this were a marriage, the lawyers would be circling.”

The Economist, My Big Fat Greek Divorce, 6/20/2015

Greece is again all the buzz in the media and on the commentary circuit. If you’re like me, you are suffering terminal Greece fatigue. You just want Greece and its creditors to “do something already” rather than continually coming to the end of every week with no resolution, amid finger-pointing and dire warnings from all sides about the End of All Things Europe – maybe even the world.

That frustration is a common human emotion. Perhaps the best and funniest illustration (trust me, it is worth a few minutes’ digression) is the story about one of my first investment mentors, Gary North, who was working in his early days for Howard Ruff in Howard’s phone call center before Gary began writing his newsletters and books. (Yes, I know I am dating myself, as this was the late ’70s and early ’80s, just as I was getting introduced to the investment publishing business. And for the record, I knew almost everyone in the publishing business in the ’80s. It was a very small group, and we got together regularly.)

Howard set up a phone bank where his subscribers could call in and ask questions about their investments and personal lives. One little lady had the misfortune to get Dr. Gary North on the line. (Gary was the economist for Congressman Ron Paul and went on to write it some 61-odd books, 13,000 articles, and more – all typed with one finger. He is a human word-processing machine.)

This sweet lady lived way out in the country and was getting older. She asked Gary if he thought it would be a wise idea for her to move into the city (I believe it was San Francisco) to live with her daughter. Not knowing the answer, Gary helped her work out the pros and cons over the phone, and she decided to move. A few days later she called back and said that she couldn’t bring her dog with her because of the rules at her daughter’s apartment. It turns out she couldn’t live without her dog, so Gary helped her come to the conclusion that she could stay in the country.

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Greece, Democracy, And Magical Thinking | Zero Hedge

Greece, Democracy, And Magical Thinking | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

Regardless of what the Greek people choose, at least the choice will be theirs, along with the consequences.

What is representative democracy but organized bribery on a mass scale? Politicians seeking control of the spigots of state wealth and power promise endless swag to voters. Those who promise the most swag and do so with the most inspirational Soaring Rhetoric (tm) win elections and gain control of the spigots of state wealth and power.

What are promises of endless swag but lies cloaked in magical thinking? The magical thinking has many manifestations: the aptly named Laffer Curve, used to justify cutting taxes to the already-wealthy; entry into the Eurozone, a magical land of unicorns and endless prosperity, based not on hard work and the creation of value, but on membership alone; the blowing of serial asset bubbles in real estate and stocks (works equally well in Asia and the West), and various iterations of Manifest Destiny: it's our right to grow rich, preferably on the labor and resources of others.

Representative democracy offers choices with no consequences: no matter which politico and party is elected, the promises of endless swag remain unchanged.

In contrast, direct democracy offers choices with consequences: voters make a choice of policies that, whether intended or not, have consequences.

This forces voters to actually ponder consequences rather than indulge politico promises of endless swag in return for supporting a corrupt, predatory, parasitic status quo that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

Even direct democracy is easily corrupted by magical thinking. The actual consequences may be ignored in favor of magical-thinking dreams of only good consequences and no trade-offs or sacrifices, all powered by the magic of debt.

Debt is the ultimate political aphrodisiac, for it enables an orgy of consumption and a bacchanalia of spending on the backs of children and the yet unborn who don't vote.

The most potent of all political fantasies is that growth will solve every problem, i.e. we can grow our way out of corruption, artifice, lies, kleptocracy and most importantly, out of debt.

And so now, at long last, the Greek people have a direct say on whether they prefer magical thinking (i.e. that a debt-based, Elite-ruled kleptocracy can produce endless swag for all as long as the kleptocracy is within the European Union) or the real world of trade-offs, opportunity costs, sacrifices and broad-based growth that must be earned by producing more than is spent and investing the surplus in productive assets rather than being squandered on interest payments for past consumption.

Direct democracy is anathema to politicos, Elites, state bureaucracies, vested interests and kleptocracies, because the people might refuse to be bribed by magical thinking promises.

Elected representatives and the public can both be bribed or threatened into compliance, but when the promises of endless debt-based swag for all fade, it's the people who bear the consequences, not the politicos.

There are no guarantees that the people will choose more wisely than their representatives. The masses can choose magical thinking over reality, too. But with direct democracy, at least the people have an opportunity to choose wisely.

Regardless of what the Greek people choose, at least the choice will be theirs, along with the consequences.

New Thousand Page Pentagon War Manual Potentially Lumps Journalists in with “Unprivileged Belligerents” | Liberty Blitzkrieg

New Thousand Page Pentagon War Manual Potentially Lumps Journalists in with “Unprivileged Belligerents” | Liberty Blitzkrieg

Michael Krieger | Posted Monday Jun 29, 2015 at 9:41 am

A 1,176 page Pentagon war manual was recently released that hasn’t received the attention it deserves. The book of combat instructions, titled “Department of Defense Law of War Manual,” apparently covers rules of war for all branches of the U.S. military.

One passage in particular is generating controversy, where journalists seem to be thrown into a convoluted and opaque category, in which they could be seen as “unprivileged belligerents” as opposed to civilians. Naturally, this has sparked concern that journalists the U.S. government doesn’t like could be lumped into the “unprivileged belligerents” category and subsequently murdered at will. The Washington Times covered this story, here are a few excerpts:

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Epsilon Theory - Salient Partners | 1914 is the New Black

Epsilon Theory - Salient Partners | 1914 is the New Black



Nothing like a good Friday-after-the-close blockbuster to set the stage for an interesting week.

At 1am Saturday morning Athens time, the Greek government called for a nationwide referendum to vote the Eurogroup's reform + bailout proposal up or down. The vote will happen on Sunday, July 5th, but Greece will default on its IMF debt this Wednesday, and as a result the slow motion run on Greek banks is about to get a lot more fast motion unless capital controls are imposed. If you want to get into the weeds, Deutsche Bank put out a note, available here, that I think is both a well-written and comprehensive take on the facts at hand. As for the big picture, I've attached last week’s Epsilon Theory note ("Inherent Vice"), as this referendum is EXACTLY the sort of self-binding, "rip your brakes and steering wheel out of the car" strategy I wrote about as a highly effective way to play the game of Chicken. 
Look, I have no idea whether or not Tsipras will be successful with this gambit. But I admire it. It’s a really smart move. It’s a wonderful display of what de Tocqueville praised as the “condition of semi-madness” that was so politically effective in 1848, and I suspect will be today. Plus, you can’t deny the sheer entertainment value of hearing Dijsselbloem splutter about how he was open to a revised, revised, Plan X from Greece all along, if only Tsipras would continue with this interminable charade. “The door was still open, in my mind.” Priceless. 



Cont.... 

Tomgram: William Astore, "Hi, I'm Uncle Sam and I'm a War-oholic" | TomDispatch

Tomgram: William Astore, "Hi, I'm Uncle Sam and I'm a War-oholic" | TomDispatch

America’s Got War 
Poverty, Drugs, Afghanistan, Iraq, Terror, or How to Make War on Everything 
By William J. Astore

War on drugs. War on poverty. War in Afghanistan. War in Iraq. War on terror. The biggest mistake in American policy, foreign and domestic, is looking at everything as war. When a war mentality takes over, it chooses the weapons and tactics for you.  It limits the terms of debate before you even begin. It answers questions before they’re even asked.

When you define something as war, it dictates the use of the military (or militarized police forces, prisons, and other forms of coercion) as the primary instruments of policy.  Violence becomes the means of decision, total victory the goal.  Anyone who suggests otherwise is labeled a dreamer, an appeaser, or even a traitor.

War, in short, is the great simplifier -- and it may even work when you’re fighting existential military threats (as in World War II).  But it doesn’t work when you define every problem as an existential one and then make war on complex societal problems (crime, poverty, drugs) or ideas and religious beliefs (radical Islam).

America’s Omnipresent War Ethos

Consider the Afghan War -- not the one in the 1980s when Washington funneled money and arms to the fundamentalist Mujahideen to inflict on the Soviet Union a Vietnam-style quagmire, but the more recent phase that began soon after 9/11.  Keep in mind that what launched it were those attacks by 19 hijackers (15 of whom were Saudi nationals) representing a modest-sized organization lacking the slightest resemblance to a nation, state, or government.  There was as well, of course, the fundamentalist Taliban movement that then controlled much of Afghanistan.  It had emerged from the rubble of our previous war there and had provided support and sanctuary, though somewhat grudgingly, to Osama bin Laden. 

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Project "Make Everyone German" Has Failed... | Zero Hedge

Project "Make Everyone German" Has Failed... | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

It is somewhat amusing that the word ‘crisis’ originates from Ancient Greece.

It’s actually a medical term; Hippocrates wrote extensively about ‘crisis’ being the key turning point in disease progression– the time at which it either overcomes the patient, or it subsides.

And though the word ‘crisis’ is thrown about routinely these days, it’s safe to say that Greece is now truly in crisis in the purest sense of the definition.

Same with the euro, for that matter.

A century from now when future historians write about our time, it’s highly likely they’ll conclude that the euro was the dumbest invention of this age.

And that will really be saying something because the competition is fierce: pet rocks. Acid-washed jeans. FATCA. Google Glass. Fox Business News. Obamacare.

But the euro deserves first prize in the ugly contest.

The idea was to take completely incompatible economies, pretend that they were all Germany, and put them under one monetary roof simply because they were on the same continent.

This is ridiculous, especially today. It’s 2015. Geography is an irrelevant anachronism.

Imagine jamming Argentina, Australia, Angola, and Azerbaijan into a currency union simply because they all start with the letter “A”. It’s just as pointless and arbitrary as geography.

And when one of them starts to collapse (probably Argentina), rather than admit their mistake and dissolve the whole stupid idea, the bureaucrats spend massive amounts of other people’s money fruitlessly trying to hold the project together.

This is what’s happened in Europe.

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Obamacare’s Best Allies: The Courts and the Republicans

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Obamacare’s Best Allies: The Courts and the Republicans

written by ron paul

sunday june 28, 2015

By ruling for the government in the case of King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court once again tied itself into rhetorical and logical knots to defend Obamacare. In King, the court disregarded Obamacare’s clear language regarding eligibility for federal health care subsides, on the grounds that enforcing the statute as written would cause havoc in the marketplace. The court found that Congress could not have intended this result and that the court needed to uphold Congress’s mythical intention and ignore Obamacare’s actual language.

While Obamacare may be safe from court challenges, its future is far from assured. As Obamacare forces more Americans to pay higher insurance premiums while causing others to lose their insurance or lose access to the physicians of their choice, opposition to Obamacare will grow. Additional Americans will turn against Obamacare as their employers reduce their hours, along with their paychecks, because of Obamacare’s mandates.

As dissatisfaction with Obamacare grows, there will be renewed efforts to pass a single-payer health care system. Single-payer advocates will point to Obamacare’s corporatist features as being responsible for its failures and claim the only solution is to get the private sector completely out of health care.

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Bill Whittle on The Narrative: The origins of Political Correctness

Greece: Reality Bites HARD « The Burning Platform

Greece: Reality Bites HARD « The Burning Platform

Guest Post by Karl Denninger

Tsipras tweeted shortly before the markets opened that Greeks should be calm and that their deposits were completely safe.The Greek people appear not to believe him, crowding gas stations, grocery stores and (working) ATMs to grab whatever they can.  They have good reason not to believe him — or anyone else for that matter.

Several years ago, if you remember, I put forward a One Dollar of Capital standard for banks.  The premise is simple, just as a bank is in fact quite simple: Since liabilities (deposits) are always known to the penny, and assets must be greater than liabilities or you are bankrupt, a bank run cannot harm you provided that you never lie about asset values.

It can shrink the bank to the point of extinction, but no depositor can lose money.

All bank runs that threaten to, or do, cause depositor loss occur only because the bank is fraudulently claiming asset values that are not, in the present tense, true.

The truth of an asset is that it’s value is only what someone will pay you for it at any given point in time.  This is always true, whether the asset is a house, car, rock of some composition (e.g. gold, silver, diamond, etc.), piece of machinery, bushel of corn or whatever.  There is no intrinsic value in any asset beyond its ability to be converted into useful work, and even that is subject to debate as to what it may be exchanged for.

Banking does not have to be performed in a fraudulent manner but it nearly always is, because the banksters always demand the ability to associate a value with their assets that they cannot receive at this given moment in time whenever it suits them.  Demanding to value something on tomorrow’s price is inherently a fraud because nobody can predict tomorrow with accuracy.

Greece has declared a “bank holiday” because both its previous and present governments, yes, that includes you Tsipras, permitted its banks to claim asset values they could not receive in the present day should they sell those assets.  This is known to be fact because said banks “had” to pledge those assets to the ECB through the Emergency Liquidity Apparatus (ELA) in order to be able to meet depositor demands.

Cont....