January 15, 2016

Question submitted by betterdemsonly

January 14, 2016

I hated Hillary's ad claiming,"She was the only one who could stop the GOP"

I thought it sounded dishonest and entitled. I notice the floor dropped out of her campaign here in Iowa after she released it.

January 14, 2016

How neoliberalism begets neoconservatism

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-neolibralism-begets-neoconservatism.html

Many libertarians claim to hate the neocon empire builders. Their critiques can be quite helpful -- I read Antiwar.com on a regular basis -- but also shortsighted. Critics of this stripe will never comprehend (or admit) that libertarianism (in the guise of neoliberalism) is the key weapon of the neocons.

Patrick Cockburn makes that very point in this fine article about Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the dangerous young nutcase who has become the de facto Big Cheese in Saudi Arabia. The Prince understands that "his" country has many internal troubles, and he has decided that the best solution is to inject Milton Friedmanism into the system.

He suggests austerity and market reforms in the Kingdom, but in the context of Middle East autocracies and particularly oil states this breaches an unspoken social contract with the general population. People may not have political liberty, but they get a share in oil revenues through government jobs and subsidised fuel, food, housing and other benefits. Greater privatisation and supposed reliance on the market, with no accountability or fair legal system, means a licence to plunder by those with political power.

This was one of the reasons for the uprising in 2011 against Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. So-called reforms that erode an unwieldy but effective patronage machine end up by benefiting only the elite...........

January 8, 2016

Neoliberalism Raises Its Ugly Head in South America: As Washington Targets Venezuela, Brazil and Arg

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Following his re-election in 2012, Obama announced what was called a ‘pivot’ to Asia to contain and check China’s growing economic and political influence. In 2013-14, it was the U.S.-directed Ukraine coup – i.e. a pretext for sanctions on Russia designed to sever that country’s growing economic relations with Europe. But there is yet another U.S. policy shift underway that is perhaps not as evident as the refocus on China or the U.S. new ‘cold war’ offensive against Russia. It is the U.S. pivot toward Latin America, begun in 2014, targeting in particular the key countries and economies of South America – Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina – for economic and political destabilization as a fundamental requisite for re-introduction of Neoliberal policies in that

Economic destabilization in its most recent phase has been underway in Venezuela since 2013. The collapse of world oil and commodity prices, a consequence in part of the United States vs. Saudi fight that erupted in 2014 over who controls the global price of oil, has caused the Venezuela currency, the Bolivar, to collapse. The United States raising its long term interest rates the past year has intensified that currency collapse. But U.S. government and banking forces have further fanned the flames of currency collapse by encouraging speculators, operating out of Colombia and the ‘DollarToday’ website, to ‘short’ the Bolivar and depress it still further. U.S. based media, in particular the arch-conservative CATO institute in Washington, has joined in the effort by consistently reporting exaggerated claims of currency decline, as high as 700 percent, to panic Venezuelans to further dump Bolivars for dollars, thus causing even more currency collapse. Meanwhile, multinational corporations in Venezuela continue to hoard more than US$11 billion in dollars, causing the dollar to rise and the Bolivar to fall even more. The consequence of all these forces contributing to collapse of the currency is a growing black market for dollars and shortages of key consumer and producer goods

But all that’s just the beginning. Currency collapse in turn means escalating cost of imports and domestic inflation, and thus falling real incomes for small businesses and workers. The black market and dollar shortage due means inability to import critical goods like medicines and food. Rising cost of imports means lack of critical materials needed to continue production, which results in falling production, plant and business closures, and rising unemployment.

Currency collapse, inflation, and recession together result in capital flight from the country, which in turn exacerbates all the above again. A vicious cycle of general economic collapse thus ensues, for which the popular government is blamed but which it has fundamentally not caused.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/08/neoliberalism-raises-its-ugly-head-in-south-america/

January 7, 2016

Oh boy! Juanita Broaddrick is back! Says the rape "never goes away"

She says Hillary tried to silence her.

Broaddrick allegation that Bill Clinton raped her emerged at the time of congressional impeachment proceedings over his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Broaddrick has also said that Hillary Clinton approached her some time after the alleged assault and attempted to thank her for her support in what Broaddrick took as appreciation for her silence about the attack.

Through his lawyers, Clinton has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Broaddrick’s tweet comes a month before the Iowa caucus, and days after Bill has gone on the 2016 trail to stump for his wife’s presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton was loudly heckled at a Sunday campaign event about

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/juanita-broaddrick-twitter-bill-clinton

Many liberal feminists including Maureen Dowd and Gloria Alred supported women like Jones and Broaddrick and will again.

Maybe people who are concerned about Bernie's socialism should switch to O'Malley because it is obvious the Clinton impeachment machine is coming back. Paula Jones made a recent appearance on CNN.

January 7, 2016

Rubio is running a commercial criticizing Obama for "spying on Israel!" here in Iowa!

Is there a more bald faced neocon panderer on the planet than Rubio? Also by making it campaign issue, it will make the Press cover what really happened including the fact that Israel has been spying us, so he is harming the cause in the end by drawing attention to them. They get what the want by doing stuff behind the scenes.

Here is the ad on youtube.

January 7, 2016

Who is more of a threat to the West? Iran, Isis, or Saudi Arabia?

January 3, 2016

Many of our networks are owned by corporations with investments in Arms manufacturing

and Wall Street and it shows. Anyone who disagreed with the Iraq war and other military conflicts is persona non grata in the American media. Anyone who doesn't agree with privatization of schools and social security or is a critic of free trade, might as well not exist as far as the major news networks are concerned. Climate change and poverty are ignored in favor of grotesque personalities like Trump and ambulance chaser stories, not to mention stories designed to sell products. Important issues are rarely covered in favor of bullshit. Fox news is owned by a right winger who promotes international austerity, in every country he own a press, yet you don't notice. There is not a complete blackout of the Bernie Sanders campaign on Sputnik like there is in the American media. I am guessing most here would enjoy sputnik much more than the bullshit in cnn, fox and now msnbc. There is no objectivity and the American media is the shittiest in the world.

January 3, 2016

They invite American liberals to participate in their panels unlike anyone in the socalled Free

media of the West, which only feature neocons and neoliberals These are both conservative philosophies. I frankly enjoy them more than any of the stupid corporate propagandists here in the United States, or the other English speaking countries. I won't stop listening to them. They also cover other things besides Trump, shopping, car crashes, and pop psychology. I don't see them as any different from the bbc, or cbc except they are less neocon. Al Jazeera is much more enjoyable to those who like serious debate and news, than the corporatists too.

December 31, 2015

The Washington Post has fired Harold Myerson

Fred Hyatt cited too much concern about labour unions and germany, http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2015/12/washington-post-harold-meyerson-columns-failed-to-attract-readers-217256#superComments

There are still liberals on the Washington Post but they aren't concerned with labour issues like Myerson is. Bernie Sanders has said this is is a terrible decision. Noting there aren't many labour writers left in the mainstream media.