There have been talks of a cease fire, and finally it has arrived. The cease fire among Israel and Hamas is to begin at 2 pm. EST. There has been a bus explosion in Tel Aviv (with about 22 people injured with an IED. It was an evil attack) and the destruction found in Gaza is apparent. The Western media mostly justifies the attacks in Gaza as a means of self-defense on the part of the Israelis. That's the fundamental point. Children can die and no real, radical discussions for peace come about since to the corporate media, it's all in self-defense. The White House says that Israel has the right to defend itself. Operation "Pillar of Cloud" is of a controversial, complex nature. According to sources, senior U.S. military officials were on location in Israel working with their IDF counterparts in the days leading up to the attack. This operation started in November 14th. This was exactly one week after the U.S. Presidential elections. 75,000 Israeli troops have been deployed in case Israel wants to formulate a ground invasion of Gaza. One month before the attacks, U.S. and Israel were involved in the largest joint war games in Israeli history. The purpose of the war games was to test Israel's missile air defense system against attacks (from far and near like from Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas). US Defense Secretary Leon and Israel’s Minister of Defense Ehud Barack had established a process of close consultation. Panetta was in Israel in early August 2012. He returned to Tel Aviv two months later on October 3, two weeks before the launching of the US-Israeli Austere Challenge 12 military exercises. The first wave of the joint war games among Israel and America came about on October 18. These military exercises occurred during the U.S. elections too on November 6. These U.S./Israeli war games dealt with preparing for a military action. Even the joint war games called "Austere Challenge 12" involved the active participation of 3500 U.S. and 1000 Israeli troops. The U.S. contingent was made up 1000 U.S. troops stationed in Israel (including military advisers and special forces together with 25000 U.S. personnel under the jurisdiction of the U.S. 6th fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean and U.S. European Command (or EURCOM) according to the UPI. The Iron Dome is a new anti-rocket system. It's found near the southern city of Beersheba, Israel. The Israeli Defense Force deployed the $200 million Iron Dome system in response to dozens of rockets fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza in the past weeks. The Iron Dome is being used to protect Israel towns from rockets fired from Gaza. The joint US-Israeli war games were jointly coordinated by U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Craig Franklin and IDF Brigadier-General Shachar Shohat. The stated objective of these military maneuvers was to “create “stress situations” in Israel’s airspace and off its Mediterranean coast that test the ability of both countries to act against attacks” from near [Hamas, Hezbollah] and far [Iran]." These war games were overseen by the United States European Command (EUCOM) Admiral James G. Stavridis. The whole Gaza attack operation was prepared for because of the war games involved these scenarios. Hamas firing rockets into Israel that targets civilians is wrong and illegal under international law. Yet, Israel is wrong for violating international law on many occasions as well (according to Pulitzer prize winning journalist Christ Hedges, Israel broke almost 100 Security Council resolutions regarding Gaza alone). It is interesting to note that there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. Israel and Palestine are debating and fighting over the oil reserves now. Washington has no relationship with Hamas since they view Hamas as a terrorist group. This is why Egypt (with Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood Prime Minister) is a key player in the negotiations. The destruction of Gaza has been opposed by even pro-Western nations like Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt. The West claims to oppose terrorism, but they are coordinating efforts to destroy Syria and install a puppet state. Even so-called humanitarian groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch support the imperialist attacks in Syria. Qatar has worked in the U.S./Israeli/Saudi enterprise in trying to subvert and overthrow the government of Syria. This fact as been exposed in the 2007 New Yorker article titled, "The Redirection," which was written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh. Netanyahu is a reactionary and his support of a murderous policy is just as wrong as the bus being bombed in Tel Aviv. Another man said that no country on Earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders, but he surely promotes sending murderous drones in Somalia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as a means to fulfill kill list orders. America is also complicit in supporting this bloodshed in the Middle East too. In the final analysis, progressive voices in Israel and Palestine should use political efforts in resolving this crisis indeed. Hopefully, the ceasefire will stick among both parties. First, we must oppose any form of apartheid (when those in Israel have laws that have Israeli Jewish only roads, and other discriminatory laws. This is wrong) in the Middle East period. Second, we should advocate the right of the Palestinians to have nationhood or statehood.
Peter Schiff is one of the most extreme members of the Austrian economic movement. He blatantly endorses austerity and the agenda of the1 percent by his own words. He's a big shill. He blames the people and the government for our economic crisis instead of the international banking oligarchy (which has caused boons and busts including predatory capitalism for centuries in the globe). Schiff ignores the fact that corporate corruption ought to be exposed, the Laffer Curve has been discredited, and the right spending can help our economy greatly. He blamed the Great Depression solely on the government, which is a lie. The Great Depression was created by the policies from the big banks and their manipulation of economic currency (including deflation of assets, speculation, the crash of stocks, etc.). Peter Schiff promotes the gold standard policy when he's on the payroll of numerous gold related companies. Peter seems to omit that in a complex society, you need reasonable regulations, strong protections of human liberties, and legitimate government interventions to prevent anarchy, greed, fraud, etc. The Koch brothers promote Schiff's ideologies. Peter Schiff is an extremist that wants huge cuts to our social safety net and he wants even tax increases on middle income earners. Massive tax increases to the middle class will surely cause a very strong economic recession instead of a financial recovery. This person even wants to have cuts to Social Security (that has no massive bearing on the deficit) and Medicare. This shows to me that his economic philosophy is a recipe for disaster. Yes, Infowars.com supports this extremist too. Deflation kills economic growth since the cutting of the value of products is wrong. When you have old school reactionaries like Schiff (and Alex Jones, who promotes unilateral secession, which is a neo-Confederate doctrine. I reject the agenda of neo-Confederates since they oppose labor rights, they support austerity, they definitely hate immigrant rights, and they believe in the fairy tale of American exceptionalism) claiming to be like revolutionaries (when they are not), then you know that we have a problem here. The big picture is that we need a fiscal policy that can sustain full employment, increase sufficient aggregate demand in the economy relative to its real productive capacity, and to reduce economic inequality. We know that neoliberalism facilitates economic inequality. That is why investments and tax increases on the super-rich can increase revenues (along with other policies). Peter Schiff made the ignorant comment that people who voted against Mitt Romney are idiots. Peter is obviously dead wrong. This puppet Peter Schiff ignores the fact that progressive policies after WWII radically increased our standard of living for decades. People like Peter Schiff use fear mongering about financial issues. We should never promote that mindset. Didn't Alex Jones say that Mitt Romney would be elected the 45th President of America? LOL. Alex Jones is wrong to assume that the President wants to ban all guns. You can disagree with the President's views on guns via reasonable argument, but he didn't explicitly say that he wants to ban guns from all citizens in America. Jones is proven wrong just like his predictions about Y2K. You can't blame the government for everything and be an accurate thinker. The issue is that we need efficient government, fairness, and equality not fear mongering. Englebert Stockhammer's book on economics proves that austerity didn't work in Europe to cause economic growth. Greece has been declining in its GDP including its wages as a product of austerity policies. We should advance truth, liberty, hope, and moving forward with our lives instead.
The war on terror is happening even in Mali. Many Islamists have been exploited by the West as a means to cause conflict in Mali. There is an internal civil war in Mali and other foreign factions are interfering with it. We have Africom (or the U.S. Africa Command military force) acting like they are "humanitarian" in their orientation. The reality is that the Anglo-American network has their influence in Libya, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, and other places in Africa. One reason why the West is fighting in Somalia is that massive untapped oil reserves in the Puntland region of northeastern Somalia. Mali has a huge amount of resources in mining, agricultural commodities, and oil. Ghana and Mali made a significant percentage of oil supplies in the world. America and France don't want Islamists to take over northern Mali. That is why both nations are leaning on Abdelaziz Boutefika or the President of Algeria to support an international invasion of Mali. The West doesn't want independent factions to control Mali. To this credit, President Boutefika said that an invasion of Mali would cause more problems than solutions. Drone attacks by America have been executed in Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Mali is complex since many Muslims in Mali deal with local concerns. Not every Muslim is some terrorist. Mali has been an economically stable nation in Africa for years. Mali is Africa's third larger producer of gold after South Africa and Ghana. Mali has a lot of uranium resources as well. We know the Tuareg (who live in many areas filled with uranium) oppose colonization and some Tuareg fighters are being slandered as Islamic jihadists as an excuse to promote Western imperialism. Mali is having a civil war with the Tuareg fighters who once fought on the side of Gaddafi. The U.S. trained Captain Amadou Sanogo led a coup d'etat against the government in Bamako. The Taureg rebels also are fighting the al-Qaeda forces in Mali. It is obvious that the West wants the eviction of China from the continent. They want ARFICOM to have more a geopolitical foothold in Africa. This form of imperialism wants to eliminate competition or total African control of the resources in Africa as a means to rape Africa's great resources. If African countries further control their own natural resources, then a significant dent in African nations' poverty rates can transpire according to a World Bank report. So, it is important for us to understand what is happening in the Motherland greatly.
Bill O'Reilly is still trying to defend Mitt Romney's comments about free stuff. He is also defending his own comments that Americans voted against Romney, because they want more stuff or more things. He tries to say that “real, traditional Americans” voted mostly for Mitt Romney when just because you oppose the agenda of a flip flopper, doesn't mean you are not a real traditional American. For some, traditional Americans is code for older, more conservative Caucasians. The reality is that regular Americans exist in every color and every background (all of these human beings have value). Real Americans don't want more free stuff. We just want more freedom, justice, and equality. Bill O'Reilly is wrong since people from across the political spectrum believe in self-reliance, but most Americans don't believe in tax breaks for the super wealthy or a war mongering, neo-con foreign policy agenda. Most of us love personal responsibility, but we just reject intolerance and crony capitalism. Also, when Bill O'Reilly speaks of American exceptionalism, it is always linked to a false American superiority complex. The truth is that true Americans ought to be respected, but America is not God. America will never be God. Brothers and sisters have classified American exceptionalism as an extension of white supremacy. They are right, because American exceptionalism teaches the fiction that American culture is superior to all cultures and that America must dominate even the peoples of the world culturally. Readily, extremists utilize the concept of American exceptionalism as a sickening excuse to promote wars, invasions, thefts, genocides, etc. We can easily respect American heroes without embracing the ideal of American exceptionalism. O'Reilly ignores the fact that most black people don't take up welfare benefits at all. African Americans, women, Hispanics, the young, and others constantly fought to what they have earned all of the time with a lot of personal responsibility indeed. Now, we all know that FOX News shows propaganda and Bill O'Reilly is a very good deceiver. O'Reilly even slandered a son of a 9/11 victim (that just want to promote peace in the word. His name is Jeremy Glick) as unpatriotic or anti-American. The reactionaries are just angry that they have spent billions of dollars in the 2012 Presidential election. These billions of dollars were useless in the election since Mitt Romney wasn't elected President at all. Bill O'Reilly has said bigoted statements for years from the hubcaps comment to his words on other groups of people. Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and even Bill Maher (with his Suge Knight comments) have made ignorant statements about my people before. I don't want to revert back to the bad old days when there was Jim Crow, suppression of human rights, suppression of voting rights, and a draconian society at all. We are moving forward not backwards. It seems that some of the proposals for the Grand Bargain are about the Grand Larceny. One proposal of this Grand Charade (according to the Huffington Post) wants to cut $40 billion in federal pensions, $11 billion in military retirement, $20-127 billion in SNAP benefits (this will affect little children. Little children can potentially starve as a product of these cuts. SNAP is a food stamp programs), $30 billion agriculture subsidies, $200-$300 billion in healthcare, etc. This is pure austerity, which is about stealing money from even veterans. Top Democrats and Top Republicans (who seek to cut the federal deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years) support this piece of work of a bill. It's a shame. Yet, it is correct to cut highest earners deductions, cut oil and gas subsidies, cut money for corporate jets, and cut all forms of fraud, waste, and abuse. We need to raise revenues by raising the rates on the super-rich and ending loopholes. In the final analysis, we need investments, better public transportation, fully funded public schools, Medicare for all, the preservation of Social Security, an end to the war on terror, and other reforms. These proposals aren't final yet, so I want to make that clear. I will never compromise with austerity. You are either for austerity or you are not for it.
You can't discuss about Hurricane Sandy without reviewing about Hurricane Katrina. On August 29, 2005, New Orleans wasn't adequately protected at all. Even in early 2001, FEMA predicted that there was going to be a terrorist attack on New York, a major San Francisco earthquake and a hurricane plus a flood in New Orleans. New Orleans was shaped like a bowl below sea level. The unprotected areas didn't have a chance. Many of the poor black communities suffered the most from Hurricane Katrina. Predatory capitalism displaced numerous populations during the aftermath of the Hurricane back in 2005. Levees were left weak in the Katrina era. The hurricane strength winds damaged many placed in the Gulf of Mexico in the realm of a Category 3 storm. A sick then Congressman Richard Baker even said that: "...We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it but God did.” Even Common Ground Relief co-founder Malik Rahim admitted that the corporate elites exploited Katrina in ethnically cleansing poor neighborhoods via the building of upscale condos (and other high profit projects on choice city land). The developers worked on the people's land to create more gentrification projects. Most displaced black people weren't allowed back on their own land. Corporate predators and complicit politicians worked their policies on land exploitation in New Orleans. Floodwaters heavily damaged the lower ninth ward. A huge amount of the percentage of the New Orleans population has been displaced. After more than 7 years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has the world's highest prison rate. Louisiana according to Loyola University New Orleans Law professor/Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Bill Quigley wrote that: "...Louisiana imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of the other 50 states.” New Orleans has the 2nd highest U.S. homeless and poverty rates in cities over 10,000 population. Income inequality is the highest in America. Crime is still high and police abuse is still rampant. Over 35,700 homes are abandoned or blighted in New Orleans. Public school enrollment is so low that charter school figures are very high in New Orleans. The catch is that most of the charter schools are for profit. People need rental financial aid and real, affordable housing. Some parts of New Orleans are still vulnerable for flooding like in 4 of the 13 Planning Districts. The list goes on, so Post-Katrina New Orleans doesn't validate laissez faire capitalism. It proves that there is evil in the worst forms of disaster capitalism. The reactionaries from the Heritage Foundation still wants massive cuts to FEMA, deregulation, the suspending of the Davis Bacon Act (that allows federal funds on construction projects), the cutting environmental regulations, and other pro-corporate goals. Today, the Heritage wants deregulation and privatization during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The Heritage Foundation omits that cost cutting, under investment, poor infrastructure, and indifference are responsible for Sandy causing thousands of lacking power, heat, and public services (not so-called "big government"). Now, a disgraceful response by FEMA and the Red Cross has been done involving Staten Island. Yet, the Heritage Foundation wants more privatization of government functions. Some extremists want no federal involvement in helping people who suffered major disasters. A Blue Ribbon Commission appointed in 2007 by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority warned of precisely the type of flooding of subway tunnels that occurred recently. It urged the creation of “strategic storm barriers for the NYC harbor and estuary.” Budget cuts federally, state wise, and local wise have prevented a real response to tragedy. So, a holistic approach is needed to help the victims from the public sector and private sector without austerity. There ought to be an allocation of billions of dollars to restore power, mass transit in the Northeast (including a repair of infrastructure, help families, and the upgrading of the anti-storm, electric, and flood control systems in the region).
By Timothy
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