Activist Post: Study: Monsanto’s Roundup causes “gluten intolerance”
Activist Post: Study: Monsanto’s Roundup causes “gluten intolerance”.
Jon Rappoport
Activist Post
A recent study proposes that gluten intolerance and celiac disease are on the rise as a result of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.
The National Library of Medicine states that celiac disease “damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.”
The study authors, Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff, have a different view. They point out that this rise in celiac disease parallels the increase in the use of Roundup, and the effects of glyphosate are those listed for celiac disease.
“Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it.
“Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression.
“It is a multifactorial disease associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure, and cancer.
“Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic.
“Fish exposed to glyphosate develop digestive problems that are reminiscent of celiac disease. Celiac disease is associated with imbalances in gut bacteria that can be fully explained by the known effects of glyphosate on gut bacteria.
“Characteristics of celiac disease point to impairment in many cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are involved with detoxifying environmental toxins, activating vitamin D3, catabolizing vitamin A, and maintaining bile acid production and sulfate supplies to the gut.
“Glyphosate is known to inhibit cytochrome P450 enzymes. Deficiencies in iron, cobalt, molybdenum, copper, and other rare metals associated with celiac disease can be attributed to glyphosate’s strong ability to chelate these elements.
“Deficiencies in tryptophan, tyrosine, methionine, and selenomethionine associated with celiac disease match glyphosate’s known depletion of these amino acids.
“Celiac disease patients have an increased risk to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which has also been implicated in glyphosate exposure.
“Reproductive issues associated with celiac disease, such as infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects, can also be explained by glyphosate.
“Glyphosate residues in wheat and other crops are likely increasing recently due to the growing practice of crop desiccation [drying] just prior to the harvest. We argue that the practice of “ripening” sugar cane with glyphosate may explain the recent surge in kidney failure among agricultural workers in Central America. We conclude with a plea to governments to reconsider policies regarding the safety of glyphosate residues in foods.”
This study could change the way gluten intolerance and celiac disease are understood, and it adds to the growing body of evidence against Monsanto’s Roundup and those GMO crops which require Roundup as the herbicide of choice.
Jon Rappoport is the author of two explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed and Exit From the Matrix, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com
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Canada Middle-Class Dreams A ‘Myth’ In Troubled Economy: Internal Gov’t Report
Canada Middle-Class Dreams A ‘Myth’ In Troubled Economy: Internal Gov’t Report.
OTTAWA – Canada’s middle-class is mortgaging its future to stay afloat, making the Canadian dream “a myth more than a reality.”
That’s the blunt assessment of an internal Conservative government report, an unvarnished account of the plight of middle-income families that’s in contrast to the rosier economic picture in this month’s budget.
The document was prepared last October by experts in Employment and Social Development Canada, the department that runs the employment insurance fund and other income-support programs. The Canadian Press obtained the report under the Access to Information Act.
“The wages of middle income workers have stagnated,” it says, referring to the period from 1993 to 2007.
“Middle-income families are increasingly vulnerable to financial shocks.”
The document, drawing on three years of “internal research,” was prepared for the department’s deputy minister, Ian Shugart, shortly before the resumption of Parliament last fall.
“In Canada, political parties are making the middle class a central piece of their agendas,” notes the presentation.
A department spokesman, Jordan Sinclair, said in an email that the research “was not linked to the parliamentary schedule or topics raised within the House of Commons.”
The authors say middle-income families have seen their earnings rise by an average of only 1.7 per cent a year over the 15 years ending 2007.
“The market does not reward middle-income families so well,” says the report. “As a result, they get an increasingly smaller share of the earning’s pie” compared with higher-income families.
Shugart was also told middle-class workers “get lesser government support for their work transitions,” referring to a sharp fall-off in employment-insurance benefits compared with other economic groups.
The analysis stops short of the 2008 global recession, though other analysts have noted the economic crisis wiped out many well-paid manufacturing jobs in central Canada that have supported middle-class prosperity.
The report also refers to debt, saying “many in the middle spend more than they earn, mortgaging their future to sustain their current consumption.”
“Over the medium term, middle-income Canadians are unlikely to move to higher income brackets, i.e., the ‘Canadian dream’ is a myth more than a reality.”
Current Conservative messaging emphasizes a million new jobs created since the recession; Canada’s relative economic stability compared with other industrialized countries; and various tax cuts provided to “average” families since 2006.
Sinclair repeated those talking points when asked for comment on the report.
“Today, the Canadian economy is remarkably strong, setting the conditions for Canadians and their families to succeed and enjoy a high quality of life,” he said. “Middle-income Canadians receive proportionately greater (tax) relief.”
This month’s budget acknowledged the need to create jobs and provide workplace training, but the budget documents never refer explicitly to the “middle class.” The term “middle income” occurs just three times in the main budget, and once in a news release.
Since becoming Liberal leader in April last year, Justin Trudeau has frequently cited the plight of the middle class, a theme repeated at the party’s weekend convention in Montreal.
Research from the Library of Parliament shows that since Jan. 1, 2013, Trudeau has used the phrase “middle class” 52 times in the House of Commons, compared with twice for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and nine times for NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. None of them used “middle income.”
Toronto Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland commended the public servants who produced the report, saying that for the Liberals “it was like getting a good grade on your homework.”
“This is a very strong, non-partisan, data-driven report, focused on Canada, which confirms our assertion, which is at the centre of our policy, that the middle class in Canada is being squeezed and that we have to do something about it,” she said in an interview from Montreal.
“The public discourse has been lagging — we’ve been in denial.”
Freeland, who won a November byelection and now is the party’s trade critic, is author of the 2012 book Plutocrats, which argues that wealth distribution has favoured the ultra-rich and left everybody else behind.
Follow @DeanBeeby on Twitter
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Ukraine overthrows Yanukovych amid US/Russia power struggle over natural gas – National Environment | Examiner.com
See also
The popular uprising in Ukraine has resulted in ex-President Yanukovych fleeing the capitol on Saturday, apparently retreating to the safety of Kharkiv, a city in Russia-friendly Eastern Ukraine. While it’s extremely historically significant that a popular uprising has overthrown a Russia-backed government, the events also illustrate a global power struggle centering on natural gas supplies, hydraulic fracturing, and Europe’s reliance on Russia for natural gas.
Ukraine is not only a key linkage point between Europe and Russia, the country also has significant shale deposits from which shale gas can be extracted through fracking (a.k.a. hydraulic fracturing). Coincidentally, the two regions of shale deposits, centered around Lviv in western Ukraine and Kharkiv in the east, happen to be key cities in Yanukovych’s overthrow. Lviv freed itself from rule by the central government months ago. Further, the platoon of police officers who “defected” on Friday, joining the protesters, were from Lviv. Kharkiv is the city to which Yanukovych has fled, and which was the scene of an assembly of regional political bosses who have voted to reject actions by the Parliament.
The crisis in Ukraine began a few years ago when Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe because Ukraine had raised trans-shipment fees. Ukraine houses several natural gas pipelines that have historically linked Russia and Europe, and through which Russia supplies Europe with most of its natural gas. Since then, Russia has begun work on two pipelines, Nordstream and South Stream, which are meant to bypass the pipelines going through Ukraine, letting Russia directly sell natural gas to Europe.
At the same time the US State Department set up a program, the Unconventional Gas Technical Engagement Program, whose purpose is to export hydraulic fracturing technology to countries all around the world. One focus of the program is also to help Europe free itself from dependency on Russian natural gas. The pattern followed by the UGTEP is to start by educating governments about the benefits, downplaying hazards, while assessing regulatory requirements in each country. An example is a USAID document, UKRAINE SHALE GAS: ENVIRONMENTAL AND REGULATORY ASSESSMENT, assessing the possibility of exploiting shale gas deposits in Ukraine. The document was meant to prepare the Ukranian government to exploit their shale gas deposits, or specifically:
- Help the government of Ukraine to develop an environmentally sound framework for pursuing shale gas development
- Develop more refined environmental reviews for shale gas development
- Develop improved regulatory approaches
- Assist in the development of more transparent and efficient contract tendering
Therefore, the US Government’s goal is to develop shale gas in Ukraine using Hydraulic Fracturing. The task is very expensive, well beyond Ukraine’s financial capabilities, leading the country to seek financial aid from either the European Union or Russia. In January 2013, Ukraine signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell allowing that company to begin exploratory work ahead of fracking operations, and in November 2013 Ukraine signed a similar deal with Chevron. Meaning that Western powers were making progress in Ukraine, until the country performed an about-face and embraced Russia.
The crisis began when Ukraine chose to partner with Russia rather than the EU. That pitted the West (US and EU) against Russia in a battle for dominance over Ukraine.
The protesters in the street were angered by that turn of events, preferring to partner with the EU rather than Russia. Now that the protesters have succeeded in removing Yanukovych from power, the door is open to Western powers reasserting the control necessary for Western oil companies to go about the job of Fracking Ukraine. Unless the country dissolves into a civil war.
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YOU Have Been Targeted for Internment & Resettlement
YOU Have Been Targeted for Internment & Resettlement.
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Editor’s Note: As a followup to his many informative articles that include an expansive investigation into FEMA camp locations around the United States, Dave Hodges ofThe Common Sense Show blows the doors open on the legislation, executive orders and policies that, in essence, allow for the mass detainment of American citizens. This is certainly a controversial topic, but one that has merit. The evidence is absolutely startling and lends ever more credence to the notion that our government’s security apparatus is preparing for a large-scale event that will require the domestic mobilization of military personnel, local law enforcement, and even foreign troops in order to “normalize” the situation. This may sound like something out of a movie, but as you’ll see in the report below, it’s as real as it gets.
This is not just another FEMA camp article which can be easily debunked. This article deals with the fact that a recent government manual, leaked to the public, details the plans for mass arresting dissident Americans and stripping them of their citizenship so as to be able to violate the Constitution and the Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners.
The previously mentioned document which has been leaked online, is entitled FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations (PDF). The document was originally to be kept secret, but everyone in the military command structure, as we know, is not on board with the encroaching tyranny sweeping across this country.
There are two terms which should concern you, namely, Internment and Resettlement (I/R). As if this needs any further elaboration, the two terms simply mean that you will be snatched from your home and sent to a detention camp for an undetermined period of time and treated in a manner which will not be defined by any law.
The Authorities Practice Targeting Second Amendment Supporters
There exists solid evidence that our illegitimate government, hijacked by the banksters, possesses a detailed plan to mass arrest Americans and it has moved from the pages of government documents and it is actually being practiced by authorities on American soil.
Jesse Hathaway wrote for MediaTrackers in which he said that a recent Ohio State National Guard exercise “reveal the details of a mock disaster where Second Amendment supporters with ‘anti-government’ opinions were portrayed as domestic terrorists.” Hathaway’s article went on to say that the “Ohio National Guard Communications Director James Sims II, MediaTrackers claims, told the website that it was “not relevant” as to why conservatives may feel targeted by being portrayed as anti-government extremists”. “Okay, I’m gonna stop ya there. I’m going to quit this conversation,” Sims told the site when reached for comment. “You have a good day.”
Then there is the ’fake” $96 million dollar Northern Virginia town which is being used to train the military to enforce martial Law. Of course, the government says that this is a foreign town being used to train our troops to occupy a foreign town. If this is true, then someone needs to explain why the town has a Christian church, handicap parking spots, Washington DC subway logos, loading zone signs and road signs in English. A picture is worth a thousand words as you will see in the following video.
In the Words of the Government
Straight from the Internment/Resettlement article (12 February 2010 FM 3-39.40 1-5) it states the following:
“…I/R operations may place Soldiers in continuous contact with or near insurgents, terrorists, or criminals who will exploit every opportunity to escape and kill or injure U.S. personnel or multinational partners“.
Whether you believe there are Russian troops training on our soil, along with other UN “Peacekeeping” troops is an irrelevant argument at this point. The above excerpt makes it clear regarding the INTENT to use “multinational partners” to round up and detain American citizens.
The following is a list of involved agencies involved in the soon-to-be roundups of American citizens who are not drinking from globalist Kool-Aid.
AGENCIES CONCERNED WITH INTERNMENT AND RESETTLEMENT
1-40. External involvement in I/R missions is a fact of life for military police organizations. Some government and government-sponsored entities that may be involved in I/R missions include—
International agencies.
UN.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
International Organization of Migration.
U.S. agencies.
Local U.S. embassy.
Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
There can be no doubt as to the meaning of the above quote from the manual. This government plans to enlist the aid of foreign troops in conjunction with the UN, DHS and FEMA for the purpose of rounding up and detaining American civilians.
Segregation of Civilian Detainees
I have previously been told my military sources that when families are transported to the I/R camps, husbands will be segregated from wives and children from parents.
“Detainees may also be segregated by ethnic and family groups and further segregated to protect vulnerable individuals. Additionally, detainees may be categorized by behavior (cooperative, neutral, or combative) to accurately resource guards and facilities”. Juveniles within the I/R population are typically segregated from the general population. (See DODD 3115.09.)
You Are An Enemy Combatant
Most of us who are detained in these I/R camps will be classified as enemy combatants. The following reads like the MIAC Reporton steroids.
“Enemy Combatants
1-15. An enemy combatant is, in general, a person engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners during an armed conflict. (JP 3-63) Enemy combatant includes EPWs and members of armed groups.
1-16. Enemy combatants are divided as follows:
An enemy prisoner of war is a detained person who, while engaged in combat under orders of his or her government, was captured by the armed forces of the enemy.
Member of an armed group is a person who engages in or supports acts against the United States or its multinational partners in violation of the laws and customs of war during a named conflict that do not meet the criteria of a prisoner of war as defined within the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War”
The last sentence is frightening. It says that anyone who supports acts against the United States or its foreign mercenaries, is not entitled to humane treatment under the Geneva Convention. An offense against the US government could include the failure to turn in your gun or to not pay your taxes. This also opens the door to torture and summary extermination as you will not likely have any rights. For those who think this is an exaggeration, ask yourself what does “do not meet the criteria defined within the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war”, actually mean?
We already know that the present administration holds the US Constitution in complete disdain and utter contempt. Do you remember the domestic terrorist designations which are contained in the MIAC Report? An authority not recognized by this criminal government would include Libertarians, Constitutionalists, a former Ron Paul supporter, a Bible believing Christian, a Second Amendment supporter and a veteran. If you belong to any of these groups, you are a domestic terrorist, an enemy combatant, a sovereign citizen and a stateless person.
The Legal Justification to Snatch You From Your Home
The following definition of an “evacuee” should concern all Americans. The definition of the term indicates the right of the military to remove a citizen from their home.
“Evacuee. An evacuee is a civilian removed from a place of residence by military direction for reasons of personal security or the requirements of the military situation.” (JP 3-57)
Do you remember when the globalists began to use the term “sovereign citizen”? This term was applied by DHS to Americans who claimed that they followed the Constitution, but not the “legitimate” governmental authority. The first time that I saw the term utilized by the government was in the Stacy Lynne case in which this anti-Agenda 21 activist had her son stolen by a NWO Judge, Julie Kunce Field, without so much as an allegation of parental wrong doing. This former World Bank and IMF consultant, turned judge, referred to Stacy as a “sovereign citizen”. As a result, Stacy was not allowed to call witnesses or object to the illegal practices she was subjected to while in Fields’ courtroom on the basis of any of the “constitutional violations” of law. This is because Field labeled Stacy as a noncitizen, a stateless person. The following defines a sovereign citizen as a stateless person.
Stateless Person. A stateless person is a civilian who has been denationalized or whose country of origin cannot be determined or who cannot establish a right to the nationality claimed.
If one is a stateless person, they are, by default, an enemy combatant. I have been assisting the Larimer County resident, Stacy Lynne, for 26 months. Stacy has not been able to see her son in almost a year and a half. I always wondered what kind of chicken outfit could steal someone’s child without cause. When I read this I/R manual, my eyes were opened and chills went up and down my spine. What was done to Stacy was accomplished because she was an anti-Agenda 21 advocate. And through the complicity of this globalist judge, Stacy was declared to not be a citizen and, as such, was not entitled to any Constitutional protections because a “sovereign citizen” is in effect a stateless person.
When martial law comes to our land, we will be snatched from our homes because of our collective verbal and behavioral resistance to the tyranny that is sweeping our land. We will be met by the likes of the self-appointed authority that globalist judges like Julie Kunce Field represent. These despots will use their unconstitutional powers to declare a wide swath of Americans to be stateless, or sovereign citizens. This mentality already exists in places like Ft. Collins, CO., and in Austin, TX. Soon, the entire nation will be declaring any perceived dissident to be a sovereign citizen.
Conclusion
Do I have to spell it out for you? All of us are Stacy Lynne. The NDAA is for you and for me. By virtue of the fact that you have visited this website, or a website that linked into this website, your every keystroke has been cataloged by the NSA and you and your family have been declared to be non-citizens and are targeted for forced Internment/Resettlement at some future date. This will most likely occur following a false flag event.
In the eyes of this criminal administration, we are all enemy combatants. We are all “sovereign citizens”. We are all stateless people not protected by either the Constitution, in the pre-arrest period, or, by the Geneva Convention, in the post-arrest period.In the next part of this series, I will spell out what losing your Geneva Convention rights will mean to you and your family.
You will never stand before a judge and jury and have your freedom stripped from you. You will likely be taken from your home at 3AM, loaded into a transport vehicle with other designated sovereign citizens with only the clothes on your back, and shipped to your final designated I/R camp.
Also in the next part of this series, I will expose more details on the upcoming mass incarcerations and what the dead banksters and fired generals have to do with all of this.
Dave Hodges is an award winning psychology, statistics and research professor, a college basketball coach, a mental health counselor, a political activist and writer who has published dozens of editorials and articles in several publications such as Freedom Phoenix, News With Views, and The Arizona Republic.
The Common Sense Show features a wide variety of important topics that range from the loss of constitutional liberties, to the subsequent implementation of a police state under world governance, to exploring the limits of human potential. The primary purpose of The Common Sense Show is to provide Americans with the tools necessary to reclaim both our individual and national sovereignty. You can follow Dave’s work at his web site, on Facebook and Twitter.
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Meanwhile In Non-Pro-Europe Ukraine | Zero Hedge
Meanwhile In Non-Pro-Europe Ukraine | Zero Hedge.
The bad feelings concerning Russia run deep in the Western parts of Ukraine (as they topple statues of Lenin in growing numbers) while in the East they see themselves much more as Russians. These feelings run very deep in the region and memories do not fade so easily as the mayor and police chief of Kerch vigorously defend the Ukrainian flag in the clip below – deep in the eastern Crimea region (that Russia has already suggested it is willing to go to war over). Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been placed in a very difficult position, as Martin Armstrong notes, the entire set of circumstances creates the image of events in Ukraine that have diminished the power of Russia, which is a matter of pride and the only stable resolution remains a split along the language faultline. The critical question then is – will Putin let it go?
In the west they are toppling Lenin statues en masse
But in the East, the mayor and city officials in Kerch, Crimea defend the Ukrainian flag…
The big question- of course – will Putin let it go? (via Martin Armstrong),
Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been placed in a very difficult position. As the protesters in Ukraine gathered the support of the police against the mercenaries, they turned the tide of politics for the moment. Putin’s Sochi Olympic moment has been overshadowed by the bloody mess in neighboring Ukraine thanks to the insanity of Yanukovich trying to oppress the people as in the old days. Yanukovich has demonstrated that ultimate power always corrupts ultimately. There must be checks and balances.
The entire set of circumstances creates the image of events in Ukraine that have diminished the power of Russia, which is a matter of pride. The situation may appear that it is slipping out of control and Russia will just walk away. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine that Putin will just walk away and leave Ukraine to its own devices. There is political pride that is at stake here and Putin said in 2005 that the fall of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. Putin’s view of this is not economic, but only political. From that perspective, we must understand that if the USA split apart as was the case with the Civil War, there is a sense that a loss of prestige and power will engulf the nation unless the lost portion is regained.
There are lessons from history on this point to demonstrate this is not my personal opinion. Take the Roman Emperor Aurelian (270–275 AD) who fought to regain the European portion that separated from Rome known as the Gallic Empire and in the East defeated Zenobia who established the Empire of Palmyra. Putin’s desire to retake the former nations that were part of the Soviet Union is in accordance with history and would be an exception if it were not true. Therefore, to allow Ukraine to slip out of Russia’s orbit would make Putin no better than Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the Soviet empire’s dissolution in 1991 and allowed the very thing he sees as a great geopolitical catastrophe.
There can be no question that Putin wants Ukraine to join Russia’s economic attempt to create the offset to the EU with his Customs Union that includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, and soon, Armenia. The Customs Union is his counter economic response to the European Union’s much larger trading bloc. On this score, economics is the battleground.
It is true that only after Yanukovych broke off with the EU moving away from a European Union integration accord last November and chose Russia instead that the protests began in Ukraine. Putin applied pressure and Yanukovych responded taking the nation toward the Customs Union rather than the EU that would have no doubt curtailed trade to a large extent and reduced the prospect for greater entrepreneurship in Ukraine. The emergence of small business in Ukraine does not match the oligarchy monopolies inside the Russian economic model. However, this was more the straw that broke the camel’s back than the spark that ignited the revolution.
I have explained in the Cycles of War that Russia and Ukraine have deep historical links dating back to the Kievan Rus, from whom the very word “Russia” emerges. They were the days of the 11th and 12th centuries and they are traditionally seen as the beginning of Russia and the ancestor of Belarus and Ukraine. Kiev was the first real capital of Russia before Moscow. Therefore, we have a mother-country complex involved as well.
According to the Russian business daily Kommersant, they cited a source in a NATO country’s delegation back in 2008 that reported Putin had told President George W. Bush: “You understand, George, that Ukraine isn’t even a state.” Indeed, Ukraine has been the real mother-country to Russia for most of the last 900 years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Certainly, parts of what is now called Ukraine have been controlled by many various countries as the borders have constantly change including Poland, Lithuania, the Khanate of Crimea, Austria-Hungary, Germany, in addition to Russia. Putin has often referred to Ukraine as “little Russia.” So clearly, there are serious issues here that warn that the immediate result in Ukraine may not yet be permanent independence. I have suggested that Ukraine split along the language faultline BECAUSE history warns that Russia is not likely to simply fade into the night. This is the ONLY solution that may allow Ukrainian independence and Russia to maintain its pride.
Strategically, Crimea, the southern part of Ukraine on the Black Sea, was part of Russia until 1954. At that time, Crimea was given to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, supposedly to strengthen brotherly ties. However, the majority of the population were Russian – not Ukrainian! Therein lies part of the problem. This “gift” of Crimea to Ukraine would be like the USA giving Texas to Mexico and Texans would suddenly all be Mexican. Would they “feel” Mexican or American?
There is also Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that is headquartered in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, which is less than 200 miles northwest of Sochi where the Olympic Games are being held. It is hard to imagine that the Ukrainian government could even end that lease without major consequences. Russia would no doubt be forced to move its headquarters east to Novorossiysk, yet this will have a serious geopolitical loss of face. Just last December, Russia proposed a deal of providing cheaper natural gas to Ukraine in exchange for better terms on its lease in Sevastopol. This is another reason there should be serious consideration of a split handing back the Crimea to Russia.
With the crisis over Syria that is the Saudi attempt to get a pipeline through Syria to compete with Russia on natural gas sales to Europe, Ukraine also presents a very serious problem for Russia. Natural gas sales to Europe are a key source of foreign exchange for Russia, yet a large portion of that gas actually passes through Ukraine. An independent Ukraine may present an economic threat to Russia if those pipelines were to be shut off. Nevertheless, Gazprom is also hedging its bets by building a new South Stream pipeline that crosses the Black Sea on the seabed from Russia to Bulgaria, bypassing Ukraine. This could relieve that geopolitical-economic threat, but it is not immediate. Clearly, this comes at a time that is serious in light of what the USA and Saudi’s are trying to pull off with the overthrow of Syria pretending they care about human rights when in fact it is all about that pipeline.
The Ukrainians really do not “feel“ that they are Russian and they have toppled statues of Lenin everywhere. Why? Historically, Josef Stalin brutally subjugated Ukraine back in the 1930s. He confiscated all the wealth liquidating the farmers that were known as kulaks. The bad feelings concerning Russia run deep in the Western parts while in the East they see themselves as Russians.These feelings run very deep in the region and memories do not fade so easily. We still have the word “vandalize” that comes from the North African Vandals sacking Rome back in 455AD. China still hates Japan for their brutal invasion. These feelings and memories do not really exist in the USA most likely because of the very diverse ethnic backgrounds creating a melting pot rather than one group that remembers another.
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G-20 Agrees To Grow Global Economy By $2 Trillion, Has No Idea How To Actually Achieve It | Zero Hedge
Apparently all it takes to kick the world out of a secular recession and back into growth mode, is for several dozen finance ministers and central bankers to sit down and sign on the dotted line, agreeing it has to be done. That is the take home message from the just concluded latest G-20 meeting in Syndey, where said leaders agreed that it is time to finally grow the world economy by 2% over the next 5 years.
The final G-20 communiqué announced its member nations would take concrete action to increase investment and employment, among other reforms. “We will develop ambitious but realistic policies with the aim to lift our collective GDP by more than 2 percent above the trajectory implied by current policies over the coming 5 years,” the G20 statement said.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who hosted the meeting, sold the plan as a new day for cooperation in the G20.
“We are putting a number to it for the first time — putting a real number to what we are trying to achieve,” Hockey told a news conference. “We want to add over $2 trillion more in economic activity and tens of millions of new jobs.”
And to think all it took was several dozen of politicians sitting down for 2 days in balny Syndey and agreeing. So over five years after the start of the second great depression the G-20 has finally agreed and decided it is time to grow the economy: supposedly the reason there was no such growth previously is because the G-20 never willed it…
There is only one problem: the G-20 has absolutely no idea how to actually achieve its goal of boosting global output by more than the world’s eighth largest economy Russia produces in a year. Nor does it have any measures to prod and punish any laggards from this most grand of central planning schemes. From Reuters:
There was no road map on how nations intend to get there or repercussions if they never arrive. The aim was to come up with the goal now, then have each country develop an action plan and a growth strategy for delivery at a November summit of G20 leaders in Brisbane.
“Each country will bring its own plan for economic growth,” said Hockey. “Each country has to do the heavy lifting.”
Agreeing on any goal is a step forward for the group that has failed in the past to agree on fiscal and current account targets. And it was a sea change from recent meetings where the debate was still on where their focus should lie: on growth or budget austerity.
So who is the mastermind behind this grand plan? Why the IMF of course: “The growth plan borrows wholesale from an IMF paper prepared for the Sydney meeting, which estimated that structural reforms would raise world economic output by about 0.5 percent per year over the next five years, boosting global output by $2.25 trillion.”
The same IMF whose “forecasts” can best be summarized in the following chart (which will be revised lower shortly to account for all the snow in the Northeast US):
Aside from this idiocy, the other topic under boondoggle discussion was the fate of the taper, and specifically how emerging markets will (continue to) suffer should the Fed continue to withdraw liquidity. Here, once again, the developed nations won out, leaving the EMs, and particularly India’s Raghuram Rajan – who has been pleading for far more coordination between central banks in a time of globla tightening – high and dry.
- RBI’S RAJAN: POLICY TIGHTENING MUSTN’T UPSET GLOBAL ECONOMY
- RAJAN SAYS INFLATION IS HURTING GROWTH
- INDIA’S RAJAN SAYS BRINGING DOWN INFLATION BIGGEST CHALLENGE
- RAJAN: DEVELOPED, EM NATIONS AGREE ON NEED TO CALIBRATE POLICY
What inflation? As for coordination, here is what the G-20 did agree on: whatever Yellen says, goes:
Financial markets had been wary of the possibility of friction between advanced and emerging economies, but nothing suggested the meeting would cause ripples on Monday. “The text of the communiqué indicates that the standard U.S. line that what is good for the core of the world economy is good for all seems to have won out,” said Huw McKay, a senior economist at Westpac, noting there was nothing that could be taken as “inflammatory” about recent volatility in markets.
There was a nod to concerns by emerging nations that the Federal Reserve consider the impact of its policy tapering, which has led to bouts of capital flight from some of the more vulnerable markets.
“All our central banks maintain their commitment that monetary policy settings will continue to be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated, in the context of ongoing exchange of information and being mindful of impacts on the global economy,” the communiqué read. There was never much expectation the Fed would consider actually slowing the pace of tapering, but its emerging peers had at least hoped for more cooperation on policy.
Hockey said there had been honest discussions among members on the impact of tapering and that newly installed Fed Chair Janet Yellen was “hugely impressive” when dealing with them.
Indeed, in the three weeks that Yellen has been Chairmanwoman, she has been truly hugely impressive. It’s the next three years that may be more problematic.
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2014 Worldwide Wave of Action: Activist advises what YOU should do (3 of ?) Washington’s Blog
2014 Worldwide Wave of Action: Activist advises what YOU should do (3 of ?) Washington’s Blog.
As a political activist since 1977 (details here), here’s my “Top 3 list” of advice for what YOU should do during the 2014 Worldwide Wave of Action that begins ~April 4 on the anniversary of Martin King’s assassination by the US government (civil court trial verdict), and completing ~July 4.
1. Know your purpose has 95%+ agreement when people have the facts: There’s abundant power when you recognize people want what you know, whether they recognize it or not in a current state of relative ignorance. That is, if free choice were available under full knowledge, 95%+ of humanity would choose to have the purposes of the 2014 Worldwide Wave accomplished:
- Expose 1% oligarchs in the US and elsewhere as OBVIOUS criminals centering in war, money, andmedia (also in ~100 other crucial areas).
- Cause their surrender through arrests or Truth & Reconciliation.
- Initiate true freedom for all Earth’s inhabitants to explore ready breakthroughs in economics (linkshere) and technology, and discover what it is to be human without psychopathic criminals who joke about killing millions, harming billions, and looting trillions.
I mean, the alternative is the ongoing conditions we have that even most of our oligarchs wouldn’t choose to continue, if they had full freedom of choice!
2. Do what is natural and virtuous for your self-expression: Given a position of power that you have an outcome people really want, AND given a condition that people may not recognize easily the attractiveness of what we offer, experiment with your most virtuous self-expression to play this game.Your unique, powerful, and beautiful sense of virtue is attractive when expressed, and the best you have to offer. Connected with my next point, my own sense of virtue is to be of simple service and fun with others. I only offer information when a genuine opening occurs consistent with someone’s expressed interests. My friend, Bucky Fuller, called this particular indirect outcome precession (andhere), similar to the contribution honey bees make with pollination as a side-product of their interest in honey. The outcome is ever-increasing experience and expression of virtue.
3. Relax and have fun ‘cuz we’re guests on Earth, not management: For the first part of my activist career, I operated to save human lives from poverty as quickly as possible. The hard truth is that I am insufficiently powerful to produce that outcome on my own; I am only able to offer this outcome (or any other) in networks for various groups’ consideration. Given my gradual acceptance of an apparent status as a human guest on Earth outside of direct managerial decisions, I’ve looked at different perspectives to be effective and enjoy this experience. From having “played” as hard and fast as I could for years, I’ve surrendered to Bucky’s conclusion/observation of precession.
So what does this mean for YOU and possible actions for the 2014 Worldwide Wave of Action?
If a pathway hasn’t opened to your interests so far, and you’re interested, look from the power of purpose, what’s natural to your sense of virtue, and what seems fun. Having a chat with like-minded friends should also open valuable ideas 
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ClubOrlov: Shock over Ukraine
ClubOrlov: Shock over Ukraine.
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| Pawel Kuczyński |
[Update: I am pushing this live a few days early, because the Ukrainian situation is evolving so rapidly. One political corpse (Yanukovych) is out; apparently he has fled to Russia. Another political corpse (Tymoshenko) has been hastily rehabilitated and is ready to be put on the ballot for elections in May. Question is, Will there still be a country for her to (pretend to) run? Financial reserves are down to a few days, federal structures are being dismantled throughout the country, regional governors are fleeing, and a default on some €60 billion of Ukrainian bonds, many held by Russian banks, seems likely. Could this be just the kind of financial contagion needed to finally pop the ridiculous US equities bubble? At least two Ukrainian provinces are openly talking secession; one (Crimea) wants to immediately join Russian Federation. A question for US State Dept. flunkies and EU functionaries: What does that do to your geopolitical calculus? At risk are five nuclear power plants and a lot of Russian gas that transits Ukraine on its way west. Ukraine is shaping up to be a lot like Yugoslavia, except with more than twice as many people, lots of crazed street fighters who think they now own the place, and a role critical to European energy security. If you aren’t in shock about this, then you haven’t been paying attention.]
I’ve been receiving a lot of emails asking me what I thought was happening in Ukraine. It took me a while to formulate an opinion, but what I now think is happening is this: a complete and utter failure of politics on every level.
Gazing down from their lofty diplomatic perch, these experts were blindsided when the barbarous dictator suddenly decided to do a bit of arithmetic, spotted a flaw in the deal (Ukrainian national bankruptcy) and swiftly decided to take his 46 million slaves away from the EU and give them to Moscow instead. And then, due to their ridiculous bureaucracy and complete lack of understanding of Ukrainian reality, they allowed an initially peaceful protest to develop into something like civil war.
The barbarous dictator, Yanukovych, is in shock too. His luck has been quite good until now, but has suddenly run out. He rose from low ranks, became one of the kingpins of the Donbass region, survived the collapse of 2004 and then got rich and built himself a palatial estate complete with a Solid Gold Toilet. Up until now he had several different ways of winning the elections in 2015. After that, he could have borrowed a page from Lukashenko’s playbook and fashioned himself into Ukraine’s president-for-life. But now that dream is gone.
The administration’s hard-liners are in shock too. They sincerely believed that all they have to do is wave some night-sticks and the crowds will disperse. They trucked in special forces, traffic cops, criminals under their control, assorted zombie idiots, and ordered them all to attack the protesters. They tried it once—nothing; tried it again—still nothing. Protesters aren’t dispersing. Just the opposite: the more they beat on the protesters, the more their numbers grow and the more violent their tactics become. Once they saw an armored personnel carrier —a symbol of their invincibility—engulfed in flames, their hands started to shake. They don’t think that Yanukovych will abandon them, but what can he do? Order in the army? But the army people haven’t been placated with special privileges like the special forces and the police, don’t have much to lose, and could easily cross over to the other side.
The Kremlin is in a bit of shock as well. They were carefully masterminding the situation, supporting the Donbass thugs, gradually ramping up their influence in Ukraine and buying up key stocks. They were methodically planning to annex half of Ukraine as a “voluntary incorporation.” But then this idiot Yanukovych started giving them a hard time trying to extort money in return for joining the Customs Union, and then he made a series of mistakes leading to the current disaster—in the middle of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, no less! The right thing to do would be to send tank columns into Donbass and Crimea, but that would put a damper on the Olympics. Plus, nothing is ready—Ukraine is not tiny Georgia, and a beautiful textbook military operation would not be possible without preparation. And a less-than-stylish military operation could lead to visa problems and international banking difficulties for the Russian leadership at a minimum, and World War III at a maximum.
The Americans and the Brits are also in shock. They couldn’t possibly care any less about the sufferings of the Ukrainian aborigines. All they care about is that Russia doesn’t grow stronger. Until recently Yanukovych seemed like a pleasant sort of dictator—not too accommodating toward the Russians, and willing to talk business with the West, about shale gas and other natural resources in particular. But now there’s a bloody mess, with Molotov cocktails, troop carriers on fire, catapults, snipers… They could dismiss Yanukovych, but then who would honor all the agreements and contracts he has signed? And who will they talk business with? The guerilla warrior nationalists from The Right Sector? The club-wielding Cossacks? And what if the Russians achieve some kind of breakthrough, absorb Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine into the Russian Federation, and grow even stronger?
Even China has something to think about. China has its own interests in Crimea, and is not so much shocked as perplexed: why can’t the local barbarian put down his opponents? There was a similar problem in China in 1989 on Tiananmen square, but there they mowed down hundreds of unarmed students without any undue excess of emotion and it was all over quickly. The West grumbled for a bit, but then resumed economic cooperation as if nothing happened. The Chinese can’t grasp why this dictator can’t do the totally obvious thing, but in general they don’t care. Ukraine is far away, and they have no desire to play a part in Eastern European conflicts. They have more important things to think about, like winning every single medal at the Olympic games in 2016 and putting a red flag on Mars.
The passive population of Kiev is still quietly drinking beer and poking around with social networking apps. They don’t understand what’s happening yet. But if the unofficial state of emergency (including limitations on access to the city) last a few more days—and food and drink running out—then they will end up in a state of shock more serious than anything they have ever experienced.
So, who isn’t in shock? I saw him today on Independence Square: a Cossack dressed in national garb, who, with a smile on his face, was marching off to skirmish with the special forces. In one hand he held a shield with “Glory to Ukraine” written on it, and in the other a frighteningly big club. He was singing a patriotic song. It occurred to me that this man isn’t bothered by questions such as “How will I get home tonight?” or “What if something happens to me?” or “What is going to happen to us all?”
He isn’t in shock. He no longer gives a damn, bless him.
Olduvaiblog: Musings on the coming collapse 