'RT talks to political risk consultant Dr. John Hulsman. Comparing the EU with a push-me-pull-you beast, he predicts that the union should either go for further substantial integration and unification, or cease to exist as a geopolitical entity.' -- "I was in a meeting with senior European leaders and they asked: 'What discipline can keep us from doing this?' And I just started laughing; they looked at me and I said, 'The markets.'"

"We're seeing the house being burnt down, and the Germans keep insisting that we need to get the building regulations sorted out before we douse the flames with the water supply they control." -- Pull it

'If you are going to go the devaluation route you are going to have to do it all at once. Like the big-bank weekend (maybe coinciding with a week long bank holiday) in which all core European countries get their own currency back. There is a precedent. It is not a pretty one. When the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed there was a single currency over a huge area covering much of what is now Euroland. In this case the rather Germanic Austrians were in charge (or rather were in charge until their empire collapsed). What they did was put troops on all the borders and made it illegal to take cash (or wire cash!) across borders. Then all Austro-Marks in each country was stamped - converted to Drachma for Greece, Marks for Germany, Peseta for Spain or whatever the currencies of the day were [If someone remembers the 1918 border splits better than me they are welcome to say...] In this conception all Spanish debts become Peseta debts. All German debts become Mark debts. All Greek debts become Drachma debts. Unstamped currency goes worthless. If you are going to split the currency I see no alternative to a big bang - and if you do that I see no alternative to troops at the border... Unilateral Greek default and devaluation without planning for the periphery to do the same - well that is a true mess. Too ugly almost to think about - and it would be unilateral for less than a week. The rest of Europe falls into that abyss with maximum movement of deposits and cash in the meantime.'

'The ultimate solution for all government debt is always pay off, repudiate or hyperinflation hence the impasse in EU Land. No nation has ever paid off their national debt, the citizens generally benefit from repudiation over hyperinflation but central banks always use inflation as the solution. Due to rather recent German history the German people will never allow any government to sanction high rates of inflation. The EU was a vehicle designed to control all of Europe but the German people will not stand for the massive money creation and ultimate inflation necessary to preserve the failed European Union and inflate away the massive sovereign debts of nations in the EU. The German people will surely demand withdrawal from the Euro and a return to the currency credibility of a restored D-Mark (Deutsche Mark) backed in some way by gold. The alternative is to risk a return to the 1930's and the Germans have not forgotten that mistake. I would suggest that at the next federal election in Germany in the fall of 2013 Chancellor Merkel will likely be repudiated at the polls because of the EU problems. She and her party alliance will be forced from power as her dream for a German-led Europe through the European Union crumbles like so many grandiose plans of earlier empires. Remember, 70 years earlier in 1933 another chancellor was swept into power because of government debts, hyperinflation and outside meddling. It did not end well for Germany.'

'The phrase petrodollar warfare refers to a hypothesis that one of the driving forces of United States foreign policy over recent decades[when?] has been the status of the United States dollar as the world's dominant reserve currency and as the currency in which oil is priced. #The hypothesis: Most oil sales throughout the world are denominated in United States dollars (USD).[1] According to proponents of the petrodollar warfare hypothesis, because most countries rely on oil imports, they are forced to maintain large stockpiles of dollars in order to continue imports. This creates a consistent demand for USDs and upwards pressure on the USD's value, regardless of economic conditions in the United States. This in turn allegedly allows the US government to gain revenues through seignorage and by issuing bonds at lower interest rates than they otherwise would be able to. As a result the U.S. government can run higher budget deficits at a more sustainable level than can most other countries. A stronger USD also means that goods imported into the United States are relatively cheap. Political enemies of the United States therefore have some interest in seeing oil denominated in euros or other currencies. -- In 2000, Iraq converted all its oil transactions under the Oil for Food program to euros. When U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, it returned oil sales from the euro to the USD. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran takes this theory as fact. As retaliation to this policy seen as neoimperialism, Iran has made an effort to create its own Iranian Oil Bourse which has sold oil in Gold, Euros, Dollars, and Japanese Yen since its opening. The theory is supported historically by Iranian intellectuals as a move made by the American elites after World War II with the Bretton Woods Act, taking away Gold backing from the Pound Sterling and discreetly starting the eventual pegging of Gulf Arab Oil producers' currencies after Britain gave them independence in 1961 and 1971. These countries were further secured militarily after the Gulf War in 1990. This pegging of the currencies along with the exchanges being exclusively in USD in only two places, the IPE in London and NYMEX in New York City, has given the United States a near monopoly, with growing economies such as India and China waiting in line for orders. Critics say this revolutionary move by Iran in creating a rival market may also be one of the reasons for the ongoing energy-related US competition with Iran.'

'The war rhetoric from Washington towards Iran is again being ramped up - just ahead of the second round of high-level international talks on the country's nuclear program. US military top brass claim they would need just three weeks to defeat Iran's armed forces.' -- Let the dollar circulate

Cool zombie flick, bro!

Ingo Bischoff at 03:14 PM -- 'The USD, as exclusive "world reserve currency", is like writing checks which are never cashed. If a competing currency can cut into or replace the USD for paying oil bills, the "USD checks" would be presented for payment. That is the reason the U.S. military makes sure that nothing happens to the Saudis, and nothing happens to the free flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf. It's all about securing the value of the USD. As to Russia and China, they have the democraphic and natural resources to compete with the U.S. as an industrial economy. What they don't have, is a currency which can match the USD in value. Having gold to "back" a currency means nothing, unless the currency is redeemable. Would Russia or China create a "redeemable" currency? There is doubt whether China or Russia would accept Anglo-American monetary superiority voluntarily. A hot war to resolve the problem, is unlikely. Therefore, the fight is on the political level, primarily by turning the U.S. into a complete and openly controlled and managed economy ala Russia and China. In the meantime, the U.S. has been involved in Afghanistan to prevent the construction of an Iranian pipeline into China, and a Russian pipeline into the Indian Ocean. The Obama administration is a friend of the FED central banking crowd which determines the quantity of USDs. However, they are an ardent foe of the American oil majors which decide the "value" of the USD in connection with the Saudis and their fix of the oil price. The present presidential election must be understood in this context. NATO has evolved into a enforcement arm to assist the U.S. in securing the value of the USD. The trouble with the EURO must be seen in context of Europe having to support the value of the USD.'

'As of 2011, there are 1.4 m people in US gangs. That's 40% higher than 2009 (FBI: 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment). Why the rapid growth? Lots of little factors, but the big driver: 17% unemployment (with treble that in areas where gangs are prevalent) and the growing illegitimacy of the current power structures. With the ongoing deterioration of the US system, young people are going to increasingly opt to give their primary loyalty to organizations that will take care of them. More interestingly than simple gang growth/spread, is the increasing presence of gang members in the military (primarily the Army) and the transfer of combat skills gained in Iraq/Afghanistan to the street. The US, currently running a $1.5 trillion a year deficit with the spectre of HUGE cuts in the military (reduction in force) as a certainty, will dump hundreds of thousands of combat vets onto the street w/o an economy able to absorb them.'

'Every year the production of opiates is growing, despite the billions of dollars spent by the international community to fight the country's narcotics machine. Heroin and opium are openly used even in the center of Kabul, while NATO says stopping all this is simply not its goal.' -- Guns, Oil, Drugs, Sex. Doin' GODS work.

'Western powers-that-be also intend to drag India and Russia directly into the conflict... It would be most surprising if the current Afghan war does not resolve itself with a further, bloody civil war that pits the Northern Alliance and the remnants of NATO against the Pashtuns and an increasingly destabilized Pakistan. It is a most cynical and even genocidal outcome. ...the Afghan war was never about revenge for 9/11 or even about nation-building. It was a war to advance the one-world ambitions of the Anglosphere power elite. Having been thwarted again, the City of London will be merciless in defeat. The Afghans will pay. That bloody, tortured, irradiated land will not receive a moment's peace. This is the fate that the Anglosphere elites have in mind for the Pashtuns, to punish them for their continued resistance. The Pashtuns have doubtless slowed the rush to one-world government but the price, apparently, shall be one of continued death and despair.'

'Great empires often turn to mercenaries to fulfill their military needs. But mercenaries are a sign of weakness, not strength. Their presence indicates that those prosecuting a war do not have the resources to do so legitimately. It means the citizens in whose name the war is being fought are not sufficiently involved in the matter to support it. It also means that the elites running the war are using extra-curricular means to prosecute it... Such mercenary power truly makes government unaccountable to the people it is supposed to serve. And the use of mercenaries gives rise to bigger questions as well. If these mysterious troops can be used in foreign wars, what stops those who are funding them from using such shadowy forces to enforce unpopular agendas at home? The use of such forces raises uncomfortable questions; unfortunately, Western mainstream media, and American media in particular, have not reported on this growing trend or the evident danger it represents.'

'A majority of Americans also agreed that the spate of roadside bombs, suicide attacks, and ethnic murders might—and this is just an opinion, they claimed, which may or may not actually hold water—cause one to deduce that the federal government had sacrificed 4,500 troops, not to mention more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, in a campaign that ultimately, perhaps, proved ruinous for both nations. "Sure, through the narrow prism of the violence that has resulted, I guess it'd be possible to conclude we accomplished nothing and threw away a staggering number of human lives as well as trillions of dollars for no real reason," Boise, ID resident Tricia Booth said. "This latest carnage almost makes it seem as if this war were something we shortsightedly got ourselves into and were woefully underprepared to conduct. Fortunately, I have the benefit of all the facts."'

'The latest Afghan war foundered in Afghanistan because the Pakistan elites would not expel the Pashtun Taliban from "safe havens." Of course, what was never explained in mainstream Western media was that these were not safehavens so much as regional areas in Pakistan where the Pashtuns had lived for thousands of years. With good reason, the Pakistan elites were reluctant to invade. The Pashtuns practice private, tribal justice. The families of victims remember and may take vengeance "unto the seventh generation." What Western propagandists have demeaned as "lynch mob" (private) justice turns out to have a good deal of logic behind it after all. It discourages unwarranted attacks. The Afghan war against the Pashtuns was the high-water point of the British empire. They couldn't defeat the Pashtuns 150 years ago and have not done so today. Afghanistan is truly the graveyard of empires.'

'Investigative reporter Wayne Madsen, who spent some time in Libya, shares his views on what's really going on in the country and why the mainstream media deliberately misinforms the public about real goals of NATO.'

'The Arab Awakening is truly a regional if not global phenomenon. Of course, we have our own name for it: The Internet Reformation. The world will never be the same. The world's economy, when you come down to it, is a product of American military force. Use the dollar to buy oil or else ... But if the US and Saudi Arabia cannot control the spiraling disaster in Yemen, the next stop on the revolutionary train is Bahrain. And after that ... Saudi Arabia. And THIS time, events may not be easily salvageable. The Internet has educated the Arab world about its history. ...the elites chose to propagate a central banking economy in order to chase after world government, and now they are in danger of an eroding dollar reserve, which could eventually result in the creation of an entirely new (and uncontrollable) currency. Anyway, if Saudi Arabia falls, the dominoes may simply keep tumbling. Who pays any attention to funny little countries like Yemen anyway?'

'CIA director Leon Panetta praised Lt. Gen. Pasha's announcement, calling his ISI counterpart an indispensable ally in the ongoing fight against terrorism. "We've certainly had our differences, but I appreciate the candidness and transparency he brings to our joint operations," Panetta said. "Though there may be some elements within his organization sympathetic to al- Qaeda, I know we have a trustworthy partner at the head of the ISI." As of press time, the U.S. has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid since Sept. 11, 2001.'

'The City of London has a big problem. Once you have fallen back on the immoveable rigor of brute force you have to make sure that people understand that you will not back down. Not now. Not ever. If people cannot be frightened into supporting one-world-government (the point of it all) by fear-based memes, then they must be panicked into supporting it via military power. They must be made to feel that they have no other choice. But what if the biggest war – the most important war of the past 100 years – is also the war that you are evidently and obviously LOSING? What then? Well, if you are the top honcho of the Pentagon or Hillary Clinton, you will do ANYTHING to make sure your pending defeat does not become common knowledge and tabloid fodder. No, you cannot admit it! No how, no way! It will lead to a chain reaction, or so you fear. If people begin to understand that the entire Western world HAS LOST ITS MOST IMPORTANT WAR TO A BUNCH OF GOAT-HERDERS AND POPPY GROWERS ... what then?'

'Bin Laden's supposed death is tied into the unfortunate reality that the US (and NATO) is losing the Afghan war. The Afghan war is a critical power elite meme. The US needs Pakistan to attack the Pashtun/Taliban. If they do not, the war is likely lost. Enter bin Laden and his "death." Whatever else it may be, it was likely supposed to shove Pakistan into an aggressive posture against the Pashtun/Taliban. With bin Laden's "death" there were few rhetorical alternatives. Either Pakistan's leaders had been terribly incompetent in letting the terror master live in Pakistan for years or the military had been horribly incompetent – or perhaps both. Either way, the Pakistanis had much to apologize for. And the biggest way for Pakistan to atone was to attack, the Taliban. For a while, it must have seemed like a stroke of genius. And yet ... something went horribly WRONG. The result in this increasingly bipolar world was only to push the Pakistanis into the waiting embrace of China.'

'The stakes are ludicrously high. As goes Saudi Arabia, so goes the dollar... A destabilized fiat currency could be only months away. Yes, the CIA ripped it! Poor boys. Even a Yale education doesn't help during a technology Reformation. A good idea to encourage meddlesome color revolutions? Not really. Foggy Bottom woke up the youth around the world and provided them with a most unusual and resolutely denied commodity ... hope. It showed young people how to use social media to inform and agitate. Now the result: "Blowback." Serbia, Tunisia and Egypt were all initial victories for one reason or another. But in the era of the Internet, triumphs can mutate inconveniently. Yemen's democratizing, and it will come, will be a setback; Bahrain's likely regime change will pose great difficulties; Saudi Arabia's regime change (whenever it occurs) will be an unmitigated, rolling disaster for Western elites. Oh, heads will roll, not just in Saudi Arabia but also at the CIA, MI6 and Mossad.'

'Empires based on force last only so long as they are victorious and expansive. Rome began to die once its legions ran up against the "barbarians"... The Anglo-American empire—which has been showing signs of stress for 20 years—will begin to die as well. It is perfectly possible that the power of the Anglosphere banking families shall wane as well. ....what the Anglosphere is faced with in this era of the New Internet Reformation. When empires confront their limits, social instability inevitably expands. Having turned to violence, the great banking families cannot afford to look as if they have lost—even a little bit. The patina of inevitability must not chip. Yet the "hive mind" is well aware of the real conversation. Fear shall subside; defiance shall expand as defeats (even if explained away) mount. The nightmare scenario the Anglosphere elite fears most shall likely begin to unfold. All the money in the world cannot fully ameliorate such entropy, not at this point in time, anyway.'

'...we don't think the hostilities themselves are any coincidence. The West and American intelligence in particular are behind many of these color revolutions, as has been reported in numerous places. The goal is ever-closer global governance, the implementation of a one-world order run by the Anglo-American power elite. This is of course anathema to the mainstream media crowd. And even within the alternative 'Net press, there is much confusion about the current stance of America and European countries as regards the reason for the rising hostilities. The most common reason cited for the additional entanglements is oil. The West is supposedly embarked on a big push to control as many energy-producing countries as possible. But how then does one explain the military tensions or outright rebellions in Tunisia, Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Yemen and any number of other countries now in the process of destabilization.'

'Today in the Middle East, either by stupidity or design, the Federal Reserve's perpetuation of the dollar and treasury debt Ponzi schemes is now dependent on the survival of a few dictatorial regimes staying in power in the Persian Gulf while surrounded by spreading freedom revolutions [initially foreign intelligence-engineered for regime change]. This is the most dangerous region in the world and the focal point for conflict between Iran and America, the freedom revolution and authoritarian regimes, Sunni and Shiite, Israel and the Arab world, vast oil resources and the oil needs of the West and China, and where the decision will be made to price oil in depreciating dollars or in other currency alternatives. Of all the conflicts and threats in the region, the question as to whether oil continues to be priced in dollars and the dollar remains the world's reserve currency for now and the risk of a US dollar and debt collapse are the greatest threats facing America and the West.'

'Hoppe: All states must begin small. That makes it easy for people to run away. Yet states are by nature aggressive, as I have already explained. They can externalize the cost of aggression onto others, i.e., hapless tax-payers. They don't like to see productive people run away and try to capture them by expanding their territory. Empire building also bears the seeds of its own destruction. The closer a state comes to the ultimate goal of world domination and one-world government, the less reason is there to maintain its internal liberalism and do instead what all states are inclined to do anyway, i.e., to crack down and increase their exploitation of whatever productive people are still left. Consequently, with no additional tributaries available and domestic productivity stagnating or falling, the Empire's internal policies of bread and circuses can no longer be maintained. Economic crisis hits, and an impending economic meltdown will stimulate decentralizing tendencies... '

'Afghanistan is a "graveyard of empires" for a reason. The Pashtuns have occupied the same land for perhaps 2,000 years; the Pakistan Punjabis may be an equally ancient tribe. The Pashtuns especially tend to defend their lands aggressively, maybe because they've been invaded so many times. The Anglosphere elites are just one more challenge, though certainly a persistent one. London's City in our view wants to crush these tribal presences once and for all to ensure that the upcoming, planned one-world order will not be upended by an independent Near Asia. It is impossible to have world government when a fairly large territory remains unpacified. But given what is occurring and the length of time for which this war has already been prosecuted the likelihood that the Pashtuns shall give in seems less and less feasible. The longer the occupation continues, the more opportunity there is for atrocities to occur. These are not anomalous incidents but predictable ones.'

'Achieving new heights of hypocrisy, the U.S government is hyping the threat of Libyan-backed reprisal terror attacks inside the United States, while launching air strikes in support of so-called “protesters” who ... are in fact Islamic fundamentalist Al-Qaeda cells who want to impose sharia law in Libya. -- The fact that the establishment media, particularly the BBC, which has aggressively pushed this “humanitarian” hoax in its rapacious cheerleading effort for the conquest, is parroting the narrative that this is a just war, when in reality it is about helping Al-Qaeda terrorists to carry through a coup d’état, is the ultimate hypocrisy. It’s a hypocrisy made more revolting by the fact that [2+2=5] who so vehemently opposed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are now willing to offer their enthusiastic backing for military attacks having bought the sickening lie that the likes of the United States ... has now suddenly developed a conscience for human suffering.'

'Rap News, Episode 7: It's 2011 and amid a flurry of political leaks and revelations, revolutions have rolled across North Africa and The Middle East, sweeping regimes and dictatorships before them. Join your host Robert Foster for long overdue analysis of these events, asking the question that's on everyone's lips -- where will revolution spark next? But when a news flash comes in from a special embedded correspondent, the episode takes an unprecedented turn, as that very question is answered in dramatic fashion. How will the world treat the latest courageous country to throw off the yoke of oppression? Is any cow sacred in this time of massive upheaval? Can there be any doubt that History Is Happening?'

'RT gets more analysis on Libya from Jean Bricmont, author of the book 'Humanitarian Imperialism'.' -- "If the US knows how to suppress an insurrection without harming civilians, why aren't they doing that in Afghanistan? Why don't they do that in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Lebanon, or in the 'occupied territories', etc? [They] would like to justify so-called 'humanitarian intervention' wherever they can and Libya looks a perfect case. They won't leave."

'Following the US-lobbied UN authorization of military murder in Libya, the death-dealing regime of Colonel Gaddafi said immediately that it would stop all killing. That put Obama's war on hold, for a little while. The crazy Colonel has learned a thing or two about American foreign policy. If you pretend to favor the stated goals of the empire and comply with its stated dictates, you can otherwise do what every government in the world is structured to do: stay in power at all costs. Gaddafi learned this lesson about a decade ago, when, with much fanfare, he announced that he would stop his nuclear weapons program and join the war on terror. The US then decided to rank him and his regime among the world's good guys, and proceeded to hold him up as an example of wise statesmanship. Then he proceeded to dig in more deeply and tighten his despotic control over his citizens, all with the implied blessing of the US. -- War will not achieve its claimed objective.'

'Here's what you won't hear discussed on CNN or FOX or in the pages of the NY Times, etc.: The US dollar, priced in oil, became necessary for ALL nations to maintain as a reserve currency. That is if they wanted to buy any oil—as dollars were what the Saudis and the rest of the OPEC members would accept. This created the effect of an ever-growing demand for dollars. And like any Ponzi scheme, you need an ever-expanding base of demand, or else it crumbles, which they all eventually do. So, under the guise of spreading their new religion, democracy, Western elites have brought various developing countries under the control of non-elected world government agencies. If it were just about the oil supply, why wouldn't the US open up their vast oil resources in the mid-west? The answer is because it isn't really about oil at all. It is about maintaining the global oil trade in the fraudulent US dollar so that the 20th century game of wealth redistribution and mind manipulation can continue.'

'Russia is imposing sanctions against Colonel Gaddafi's regime, banning the exports of weapons and military equipment. It's part of mounting pressure for action against Libya, following fresh clashes between rebels and the government. Anthony Wile – founder and chief editor of online newspaper The Daily Bell told RT that the opposition in Libya is far from united.' -- "[The 'rebels'] are going to get help whether they like it or not and some would say that help is what has been driving this 'revolution' to begin with."

'The Rothschilds it should be noted have a strong base of operations in Britain, specifically in the City of London where the strategic braintrust of the New World Order is located. The Rothschild's operations are apparently worldwide and the money that the Rothschild's and others control via central banking is virtually limitless. From this nexus of investment and banking families has spread the plague of mercantilist central banking, which now afflicts the globe. Not content with the ruinous centralization of central banking, the Rothschild's, their allies and intelligence operatives have apparently launched a global attack on developing countries. Libya is just the latest country to receive the "treatment." Even the orchestration is deliberate, with each country falling in line, like dominoes, no two at once to ensure maximum media coverage. Additional Islamic republics only buttress Western authoritarianism at home and provide the pretext for further domestic oppression.'

'This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece. But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour. (Credit Justin Rohrlich with the catch.) The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.'

"The Jolly Roger it is." -- Starve the beast, me hearties!

'Pakistan, a necessary ally, continues to sponsor the very enemies that the Anglosphere has been combating. Recently, the West and America in particular have applied considerable additional pressure on Pakistan to combat the Taliban on its soil. But the five or six great families of Pakistan are not about to give up the leverage that the Taliban affords them. And it is not just the Taliban. There are apparently thousands if not millions of Pashtuns in the areas that the West wants to target for Pakistani attacks. These tribes have been there for 2,000 years and Pakistani leaders are correct to tread cautiously. As we have pointed out previously, the Pashtun tradition is in part a military one and if offended families and tribes seek revenge not just immediately but for several generations thereafter. One does not enter into a blood feud lightly; not if one lives in close proximity to those likely to pursue it. The whole thing seems a bit like a "non-starter."'

'The result of these "revolutions" will be inevitably some other governmental organization. The choices are said to be: democracy, authoritarian (military) rule or some sort of Islamic republic. The last option has to do with the evolution of Islamic republics within the Middle East. This ... I believe will eventually become a reality. It will happen because this is the outcome that Western money power actually seeks. The Anglo-American power elite needs an enemy if it is to continue its "war on terror." Just as it did during the Great Depression, Western money power badly needs a war. The central banking economy, having ruined the wealth of the West, is not going to recover any time soon and is, in fact, unraveling faster than ever. The hope of the elite is that confrontation with the Middle East and parts of Africa will refocus the Western citizens' attention on an outside threat and paint the inevitable collapse of Western monetary systems in a different historical light.'

'RT's Rory Suchet discusses the situation in the Middle East with Anthony Wile - the founder and chief editor of the political website TheDailyBell.com.' -- "It's an embarrassingly boring continuation to watch in this Internet Age..."

'"We are all thankful for the hard work and long hours President Mubarak put in over the years, and hope our discussions continue smoothly," said senior U.S. negotiator Frank Wisner, who admitted that the final settlement would have to be considerable, as Mubarak's contract with the U.S. was being terminated 15 years early. "Unfortunately, he no longer reflects our needs in the region at this time, but we would like to end our relationship on the right foot. He deserves to retire in comfort." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also reportedly offered to write Mubarak a letter of recommendation in case he wishes to apply for any dictatorship jobs with U.S. allies in the future.'

'These Middle Eastern uprisings are not entirely spontaneous but are in a sense orchestrated by Western powers that be for a variety or reasons. Even the proximate causes – rising food prices and a lack of employment – can be seen as deliberate Western policies designed to create hopelessness and despair that can then be converted to civil unrest at the opportune moment. Fortunately, the truth-telling of the Internet has helped people wake up from the overwhelming mind-control of the 20th century. We think the same process is occurring in the Middle East. Elite manipulations yet continue. The "color revolutions" constitute a shadow-play, even a Dreamtime; participants may yet not know they are being manipulated. Certainly they will not learn of it from the mainstream media which is covering these events in a purely linear fashion, ignoring evidences of manipulation and promoting the uprisings merely as expressions of grievances that must be addressed by new regimes.'

The Pied Pipers are piping.

'Many protestors claim the U.S. helped destabilise their country to make it more dependant on them. Mohamed El-Baradei who is the ex-chief of the International Atomic watchdog has been put forth to replace incumbent President Hosni Mubarak. Even though Egyptians want a regime change they are not sure whether this candidate will serve in their best interests or those of the U.S.'

'It is part of a larger dialectic, and one we have mentioned many times before. In Afghanistan a war is being fought to initiate Western-style governance in that region of the world. But elsewhere in this region, the West is supporting various sociopolitical movements in countries that have already been subjected to Westernizing influences. The idea is to create a spectrum, apparently, of Western governments that may range the gamut from Islamic radicalism (Iran) to secular Islamic democracy (the Emirates and Qatar) – with or without sharia law. Ultimately, the Anglosphere seeks world governance and the boiling political cauldron that this area of the world is becoming must somehow further this goal. By continually agitating and Westernizing or Islamifying the countries of Africa and the Middle East, the power elite is in the process of creating a larger war on terror. It allows for continual warfare—or at least political tension—in the area and facilitates authoritarianism at home.'

'The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police. On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011. The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information about human rights abuses. The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their activities.' -- What have you bought into; what will it cost to buy you out?

'On the long trajectory we have the birth of modern empire, globalization, limited liability corporations and high-energy machines steam and then internal combustion. We are experiencing an Entropic Financial Breakdown. This breakdown is a subset of the trends started in the 1600's. The police state trajectory is in competition with the breakdown trajectory.'

'This is the issue: "How can the US cease its warring when so many people in that beleaguered country depend on conflict for their employment?" The US unemployment or under-employment rate (the real one) is somewhere between 25 and 30 percent. To reduce or eliminate garrisons in both Iraq and Afghanistan would inject hundreds of thousands of additional individuals into an economy that is struggling to provide employment to available workers. (Not to mention the private-sector "defense" jobs that would be made redundant.) And assuming that the additional workers find jobs; wouldn't they be at substantially lower salaries than their existing military compensations?" Were the US to suffer such an influx of unemployed as a result of adopting a sensible foreign policy rather than acting as the policemen for global morality, it is likely that trade unions and other leftist organizations would demand the existing wages of the military workers be maintained at current levels.'

John Romer: "Rome didn't fall, it just got poor. Constantine had moved the capital from the great old cities in the West, to the East. And with him moved the government, the generals, the army, the artists and the architects... everybody who made the empire moved with him. So in 475 AD, the last Roman Emperor of the West, sent The Crown back here to Constantinople, to new Rome. The story about the fall of the Roman Empire – that's the Western Empire – was really invented in the renaissance by the Popes, who really wanted to get [across] the idea of a pagan empire falling and a christian empire of the West rising. But the real truth is that old Rome, ancient Rome, had been modeled on the great cities of the East, of Antioch and Alexandria. Rome didn't fall at all. It simply went back home again."

'NATO is training the Afghanistan military and civilian police at breakneck speed but all this will do in our estimation is to help with the potential break up of the country (such as it is). The dirty little secret here is that the army and police force are not made up of Pashtuns but of their ethnic adversaries. In order to maintain the narrative that the US is "imposing stability" on Afghanistan, Western leaders seem to be actively laying the groundwork for a civil war once the West has departed. ...we would also guess that emphasizing a narrative over victory (whatever that is) will not prove feasible in the deeper sense. The US cannot attack the Taliban in Pakistan without turning a local war into a serious regional one (complete with nuclear weapons) and it cannot truly dislodge the Pashtun/Taliban from Afghanistan either, as it is where these people live. -- Afghanistan is often the graveyard of empires.'

'Dominant Social Theme: A new cold (or hot) war is gaining force. How did this happen? Will the bombs drop soon or is there another plan? ...he's a very paranoid person. ...he believes that the powers-that-be may have intended to have a US president with a Muslim background and a Nobel Peace Prize at this point in time. The idea was, he believes, that the president, using his mixed heritage, would in some sense bridge the gap between East and West, emerging as a hero and problem solver—even if tensions remain. This would bring Islam further into the West's orbit while making the West more amenable to Islam. Muslims have to be Westernized if global governance is to proceed, he points out. Israel and America have plans to bomb Iran back to the stone age if the leadership starts enriching uranium—and that could happen as soon as tomorrow. We give the power elite a lot of credit, but planning and creating a new cold war over a 50-year interval ... well that's a stretch. Isn't it?'

'...the war going on now in the Middle East and Afghanstian is intended to subdue once and for all those entities that remain stubbornly unintegrated into the Western system of finance and governance. There are other such areas of course, in Africa especially, but it the Pashtuns (and perhaps the Punjabs) who present the most difficulties. From this perspective we can see that the war being fought today in Afghansitan (and increasingly in Pakistan) is a critical one for the West not because Afghanistan is at the center of amorphous trade routes but because Afghanistan is the epicenter of unameliorated tribal entities. To maintain that these wars—and the war in Afghanistan especially—are merely a CIA and Pentagon two-sided action is cynical. Beyond this it is chauvinistic. Is the idea then that the Pashtuns and Punjabis are mere pawns or puppets of the Anglo-American axis? These are ancient tribes. The war is in earnest. To us the meme that the "West controls all" is another promotion.'

'What then could constitute a "dramatic shift in appetite for international cooperation" presaging the proposed new international currency which the IMF is apparently calling the "bancor?" Certainly chaos in the Middle East combined with a China crash (and the euro-zone's ongoing weakness) could create conditions that might be more sympathetic to such an international currency, which would apparently be an elaboration on the current use of IMF SDRs. Do we believe that a series of crises are being engineered to create formal demand for a new international currency? Actually, we take no position other than to point out the possibilities. If the goal of all the current manmade chaos is to smooth the way for an advent of an acceptable and accepted international currency, then ramifications would be obvious, if not radical. As usual, careful scrutiny of the power-elite's dominant social themes may hold a key to unlocking what these immensely powerful families have in mind.'

'The pathologies of late empires...' -- "There's a reason that you have to invent the government to make all this stuff work – you have to invent the government to make all this stuff work because people wouldn't buy it without the government! You have to invent God if you're a priest to tell people what to do because nobody's going to obey you, you're just some guy. You have to invent governments to justify theft because so very few people want to steal directly. The important question to ask is, what's going to happen when this ponzi scheme called government stops 'working'?" [Are people going to be able to admit that] what has failed is coercion, is government, is using violence to achieve your ends? The price we pay for fantasy is destruction. And we will continue to pay that price until we understand the mechanics of what governments do, which is rape and pillage the average person for the profit of the elite."

'Increasingly, we believe the high-water mark of the Anglo-American axis came in 2007. History will record, as with Rome, that this first decade of the 2000s marked a gradually shifting away from one of the bloodiest annals of human history. The Anglo-American axis in the 20th century helped sponsor two world wars, while its banking elite (initially anyway) supported three of the most bloodthirsty regimes this poor globe has ever seen: The Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany and Mao's China. Of course this is not the way well-intentioned Europeans – or Americans or Britains – see the 20th century, nonetheless it is unfortunately true in our view – and can be borne out with a brief Internet search of reputable documents. In the name of global governance, the Anglo-American power elite has wreaked much havoc on the world and continues to wreak it today. Violence is the melancholy currency of Western powers-that-be.'

'Our belief is that the power elite waging this war is doing so to expand the possibilities of global governance and to attempt to reconfigure Islam, generally, to make it more amenable to Western economic and monetary methodologies. The tribes the West is fighting against have a good deal of cultural cohesiveness (more than almost anywhere else in the world), which is why they have proven so hard to "democratize" in the first place. There was a statistic we read recently that claimed only one percent or so of Pakistanis pay taxes to the central government. We can only assume it is even less in Afghanistan. Western regulatory democracy with its elaborate prescriptions for citizen-government relations – including complex regulatory, monetary and fiscal policies – will take a long time to build in either country. -- Without the availability of a consistent and credible dominant social theme, pursuing a large war overseas becomes an increasingly difficult proposition.'

'There are riddles within riddles and secrets within secrets, when it comes to Afghanistan and who is fighting whom, and for what. It is a Crusade war, a cultural war, a war of utmost importance. Empires have dashed themselves on these inhospitable stones before. The reporting to be done for this wretched war will likely increasingly reflect the realities of a region that does not want Westernization and in fact sees Western-style regulatory democracy as undesirable. ...when the elite cannot create a believable narrative (a dominant social theme), then there are inevitable, negative ramifications. The ramifications begin with the end of the Afghan war but extend far beyond it and have economic and financial resonance as well. In fact, the war in Afghanistan may come to represent the modern high water mark for the West's peculiar amalgam of central banking and regulatory democracy. It is a most important war, and the lack of a credible dominant social theme is most important as well.'

'Dominant Social Theme: War is inevitable. Too bad. An unfortunate necessity. Is it serendipitous that the United Arab Emirates is in favor of bombing Iran? Why would America seek a three-front war? Well, the answer is that it doesn't; in fact it's worse! Right now, America is all-but-at-war with Pakistan (over Afghanistan) so this can rightly be conceived of as a potential FOUR front war. America is about to set the Middle East ablaze? Will Israel sit out the fireworks? How about Syria, Libya, et. al? We really cannot see where America is going with all this. We write a great deal about the power elite in these pages. Perhaps the elite has simply in a sense reached the end of its collective rope: Loose the dogs of wars and let chaos multiply. It is, as we have pointed our previously, a strategy better suited to a pre-Internet era. Too many people understand. The manipulations are transparent. What are we missing? Ideas? Maybe the Obamas are buying gold.'

'The war in Afghanistan, more even then other wars of the recent past, is an elite war, not a war that Western citizens are much engaged in. The elite in our view is attempting to build global governance at an inopportune time. The global economic crisis is likely worse than expected. Meanwhile, the tools of total war and media control are conspicuously lacking. Nuclear weapons and the Internet have seen to that. The regulatory democracy that has evolved out of the West's far more palatable classical liberalism is increasingly authoritarian and destructive. People have neither jobs nor hope, and there are no solutions that can likely be extracted from the current system. It is in fact, increasingly, a profoundly immoral system and for this reason we question whether the West will have the ethical, economic and sociopolitical capital to fight on for as long as it takes to pacify the Pashtuns and bring regulatory democracy to Afghanistan.'

'Faith in Numbers examines the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance from the perspective of how commercialism, climate change and the Black Death influenced cultural development.'

'Ask the man on the street what nation Britain has been at war with for 80 years and you will get a blank stare. Explain that it is the Pashtuns, and he still won't know what you're talking about. The power of the mainstream media to obfuscate and to rewrite history is just tremendous. (But you already know that.) From our point of view of course such a rewriting is actually a dominant social theme: "The West is at war with the Taliban because they are a backwards group of tribal terrorists who are trying to drag Afghanistan back to the 19th century." It should be more and more obvious to anyone who pays attention that this is a major war. A defining moment, in fact, for Western power. The war is in fact a kind of New Crusade. It is being fought to consolidate Western power over the Muslim world and also to distract the West, secondarily, from the truth-telling of the Internet and the collapsing economies of NATO members.' -- "Spreading democracy" AKA slavery. Hidden in plain sight.

'Dominant Social Theme: Don't look at the man behind the curtain. He's holding a gun, but he doesn't exist. -- The Internet itself, along with the invention of nuclear weapons, has considerably depleted the applicability of tried-and-true elite strategies of command and control... A war against Iran would probably turn regional conflicts into a war against the Muslim world. At least it might be perceived this way by Shias and Sunnis alike, as the West would then be at war with both sects – a billion and a half Muslims. There is no telling how such a war would turn out. The elite may believe that such militarism is both controllable and sanitary; war being just another methodology of domestic control designed to reassert dominance within the West itself, as wars are almost always directed at the citizens of those states waging it (by their own governments). But those who plan these sorts of engagements may not be thinking clearly. The 21st century is not the 20th.'

'Max talks to Michael Hudson about debt, deficits, austerity, Greece and more.' -- Capitalists vs Rentiers

'...we are told over and over that the CIA runs both sides of the war – helping harvest poppy crops (along with Marines) in order to provide funding as necessary. ...this is increasingly reported with requisite eagerness and cynicism by both the mainstream and alternative media. It is a dominant social theme – one of overweaning control. The "Anglo-American-Zionist" power trilogy is in control of all, you see. There can be no recovery from this state of affairs... There is nothing anyone can do to change the West's depressive and authoritarian course. If the government doesn't get you, the secret society will. It is perhaps a meme intended to sap one of the will to take human action. ...every time we examine the war we come to the same conclusions: There is significant opposition to the Afghan Anglo-American invasion. It is real. It exists. It is being generated by one of the oldest tribes in the world – The Pashtuns, some 40 million strong, straddling the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.'

'The U.S., long interested in the Byzantine Empire for its strategic location and close proximity to Eastern spice and silk markets, is following the developments closely. "The stability of Byzantium is extremely important to the United States," said U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-RI), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Certainly we're concerned about the Ottomans' ambitions and the threat they pose to the security of the spice routes. Rest assured we'll be in close contact with the Venetian city-state and the Frankish duchies on this matter."'

'The probable reason to continually agitate and attack in the Middle East is to gradually transform Muslim states into an East-West amalgam that is conducive to Western-style regulatory democracy and central-banking "capitalism." We believe that the formation of the state of Israel was part of this strategy, and that the tensions constantly induced into the Middle East are part of this process as well. It is for this reason that we think the West—America and Britain in particular—attacked Iraq and Afghanistan. Not for minerals, or for oil, or to "strategically surround Russia," or to "threaten China" but simply to further extend Anglo-American economic hegemony. The point is to stay as long as possible and to inflict as much damage as possible on the native cultures in order to Westernize them. The war is really being waged against the world's last powerful tribal entity, the Pashtuns—a thin, turbaned line that stands between global regulatory democracy and something less homogenous.'

'We blame the decline of the alliance mostly on the Internet, which has thoroughly exposed the machinations and manipulations of the Anglo-American power elite – a group of supernally wealthy and powerful families and individuals. Many within the alternative media community believe that the Internet has not had any real impact on the power elite and that it cannot in the future. We beg to differ. Our position is that the Internet has fully exposed the system and in doing so has begun to draw its poison. A ruling elite that relied on secrecy and propagandistic/thematic promotions to work its will, now stands revealed on ten thousand blog-rolls and alternative news-sites. Its secret meetings are broadcast before they begin. Its plans are scrutinized before they are even put in place. Its agenda is available for anyone to read who is willing to be labeled a conspiracy nut – and millions are these days.'

'"It has come to our attention that, due to the inherent risks and hazards it poses, the American flag is simply unfit for general use," said Annin & Company president Ronald Burman, who confirmed that the number of flag-related deaths had noticeably spiked since 2003. "I would like to strongly urge all U.S. citizens: If you have an American flag hanging in your home or place of business, please discontinue using it immediately." Added Burman, "The last thing we would want is for more innocent men and women around the world to die because of our product."'

'Iran has never directly threatened Israel with nuclear weapons – even if it had them. Israel on the other hand is said to have up to 400 nuclear missiles or more, though Israel has never confirmed their existence. States, in fact, usually do not commit suicide. The idea that a nuclear Iran would suddenly start lobbing nukes at Israel strikes us as preposterous. It is a serious situation. Boycotts are not inevitably a prelude to war, but they are often destabilizing and can well be a cynical prelude to action. From the standpoint of the power elite, there is likely an upside to the chaos and ruination that a strike (especially a nuclear one) on Iran would create. War is always "the health of the state" and an active war waged against Iran would put turn a series of regional conflicts into a kind of mini-world war. Certainly both Europe and America would end up on some kind of war-footing with all the further curtailments of humans rights that such "emergency" measures imply.'

"The entire U.S. strategic position is beginning to crumble, worldwide."

'The paradigm we'd like to express is an economic one of Misesian "human action" and might be considered as an alternative to the great-man theory of warfare and statism. In our paradigm, one observes first of all an agglomeration of small settlements that share customs and the same language. As time goes on, these settlements (states) compete with each other, but are not repressive because if one state attempts an authoritarian regime, its brightest citizens will just pick up and move to another state. This is the way we believe that many successful cultures got their start – China (competing cultures), the Greeks (city states); Egyptians (upper and lower Nile nations); Rome (the seven hills and seven separate communities); Renaissance Italy (nation states); America (13 separate colonial settlements). It is an irony that the many programs on the History Channel (for example), in focusing on the "great" achievements of Egypt or Rome, tell the story not of republics but of empires...'

'Both in Afghanistan and Iraq, it would seem, the net result of American/allied interference will have been to create a new political dynamic, but it is not necessarily one that will redound to the West's benefit, long-term. The 21st century does not offer America or the allies the opportunities of the colonial occupations of the British in the 1800s. In fact, the chances would seem slim for a Western sociopolitical infrastructure being successfully established in either of these countries, absent a long-term commitment of troops and state department bureaucrats. Aren't wars often fought for domestic reasons? There is no doubt that the twin wars waged in the first decade of the 2000s have increasingly militarized Anglo-American societies. Yet we are not so sure that there will be many tangible benefits seen by either Britain or America as time goes on and the West's presence in Afghanistan and Iraq diminish. Or course, there is always Iran.'

"Everyone came; they were all bloodied. Russia fought very well—very well!" -- 'Brigadier Amir Sultan Tarar, widely regarded as the 'Godfather of Taliban', told RT that NATO will never succeed in Afghanistan.'

'The Course of Empire is a five-part series of paintings created by Thomas Cole in the years 1833-36. It is notable in part for reflecting popular American sentiments of the times, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilization, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decay. The series of paintings depicts the growth and fall of an imaginary city and comprise the following works: The Course of Empire - The Savage State; The Course of Empire - The Arcadian or Pastoral State; The Course of Empire - The Consummation; The Course of Empire - Destruction; and The Course of Empire - Desolation.'

'What awaits the Afghans if the American and allied surge is successful? Presumably a Westernized way of life. In its advanced incarnation, it will include perhaps a British variant of "freedom" – cameras on every street corner (and in every field) to ensure there is no poppy cultivation except by select, government-enabled criminals. What else? Let us prognosticate. There will be eventually a high income tax; various sales taxes; an Afghan central bank that will inflate Afghanistan's currency to nearly nothing; a plethora of regulations that will "empower" Afghan women (who will then have to work several jobs along with their husbands to keep up with taxes and inflation); ... currency controls; gun confiscation; hate speech laws; endlessly degrading public schools; confiscation of private property; ever-enlarging police and military forces to "keep the peace"; manipulated democracy and vote rigging to sustain the intolerable status quo ... we could go on and on.'

Oh dear, Tarpley lumps the Austrian Libertarians (free markets) in with the Neo Liberals (state-rigged markets). Silly Socialism/Big Daddy Issues die hard, I guess.

'This film goes in detail through the untold history of The Project for the New American Century with tons of archival footage and connects it right into the present. This film exposes how every major war in US history was based on a complete fraud with video of insiders themselves admitting it. It film shows the white papers of the oil company Unocal which called for the creation of a pipeline through Afghanistan and how their exact needs were fulfilled through the US invasion of Afghanistan.'

'American journalist and Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges told RT the United States has developed a new form of corporate totalitarianism.' -- "Obama is a brand. You confuse a brand with an experience, you confuse how you are made to feel with knowledge, you confuse propaganda with ideology. It's not accidental that Advertising Age gave the Obama campaign the marketing award of the year. Take it from the professionals."

'...empire is the methamphetamine of nations; in the short term, the effects feel great, but in the long term they’re very often lethal. Britain managed to walk away from its empire without total catastrophe because the United States was ready, willing, and able to take over... most other nations have paid for their imperial overshoot with a century or two of economic collapse, political chaos, and social disintegration. That’s the corner into which the United States is backing itself right now. The flood of lightly disguised tribute from overseas, while it made Americans fantastically wealthy by the standards of the rest of the world, also gutted America’s domestic economy – the same economic imbalances that funnel wealth here also make it nearly impossible to produce goods or provide services at home at a cost that can compete with overseas producers – and created a culture of entitlement that includes all classes from the bottom of the social pyramid right up to the top.'

'War is a racket, General Smedley Butler said, and we tend to believe that this entire 10-year arc of actions against various Middle East entities and enemies is indeed a power elite meme - one long, building promotion. Yes, that's our position: The "war on terror" is (at least partially) just one more scam designed to drain the wallets and confidence of the Anglo-American middle class while justifying additional repressive domestic measures to circumvent traditional Western freedoms. Democracy in the Middle East, so far as we can tell, is just some sort of afterthought. The war is aimed in large part at you, dear Western reader, not some fellow squatting in a cave. -- We think the power elite is going to end up losing at least some control over its war-making machinery, much as it has recently lost control of the global warming meme. Yes, that sounds ludicrous, but we are merely observing which way the society is trending - and the trend is your friend, they say.'

Carroll Quigley, 1961: "The hope of the future does not rest, as commonly believed, in winning the people of the "buffer fringe" to one superpower or the other, but rather in the invention of new weapons and tactics that will be so cheap to obtain and so easy to use that they will increase the effectiveness of guerrilla warfare so greatly that the employment of our present weapons of mass destruction will become futile, and on this basis there can be a revival of democracy and of political decentralization in all three parts of our present world. This possible development in political and military matters, would, of course, require the development of decentralized economic techniques such as would arise if sunlight became the chief energy source for production and the advancement of science made it possible to manufacture any desired substance by molecular rearrangement..." -- #1. Mixture #2. Gestation #3. Expansion #4. Age of Conflict #5. Universal Empire #6. Decay and #7. Invasion

YES WE CAN-CAN CARRY ON UP THE KHYBER TO AFPAKISTAN BOMB BOMB BOMB IRAN!