It’s the Military, Stupid!
NYT Blames America’s Debt Crisis on Social Security and Medicare
Dave Lindorff – This Can’t Be Happening – May 29, 2011
It was kind of disappointing–even shocking–to read Gretchen Morgenson’s latest New York Times article reporting on a new “study” by Peterson Institute for International Economics Senior Fellow Joseph Gagnon, warning about the nation’s growing debt crisis.
The Peterson Institute, founded by Wall Street tycoon Peter Peterson, has long been gunning for the Social Security and Medicare systems, which he, and the rest of the Wall Street gang, see as unfairly competing with Wall Street for the assets of the public, and as destructive of the “free market.”
Peterson’s basic schtick is that the two critical support systems for the elderly and infirm are going to bankrupt the country as they pay out benefits that exceed what retirees paid into the system, and that the solution is to cut back on those benefits, increase the taxes collected, or better, to privatize both systems.
Given Peterson’s and his institute’s long-standing agenda to gut Social Security and Medicare, it’s not surprising that Gagnon, as a fellow there, would say the solution to the nation’s growing debt is to either raise taxes or cut those two hugely successful, critically important and broadly popular social programs.
Morgenson is too smart not to know better, and yet not once in her article did she look outside of Gagnon’s narrow definition of the problem at the real cause of the national debt: the country’s outlandish military budget and a decade of unfunded wars, which have been piling up debt at a rate of some $150 billion a year (and that’s just the principal!).
Real cause of the deficit: the Pentagon, not “Entitlements”
After all, the country has been piling up this debt for several decades, and especially over the last decade, but during all this time, Social Security and Medicare have been paying out their benefits from current dedicated payroll taxes and by drawing on the trust funds that had built up because of the years that more was being collected than paid out in benefits.
Get the point? Nobody, including Gagnon, Morgenson or the Social Security and Medicare-hating members of Congress like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), will acknowledge the fact that not one dime of the huge US deficit has been caused by a benefit check paid by Social Security (and the only parts of Medicare that are funded by general tax revenues are doctors bills and the prescription drug benefit–Medicare Part D–a lousy measure promoted by President George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress which bars the government from negotiating discounts from the pharmaceutical companies–a problem easily fixed by improved legislation).
It’s the wars, stupid!
If the US would just cut its military spending down to size, instead of spending as much as the rest of the world combined on war or preparing for war–say by 75%–it would free up more than $450 billion a year that could go towards funding things like improved education, research into alternative energy, improving health care access, and paying down the deficit, too. Toss in cuts in the outsized $40+ billion annual secret intelligence budget, in the nation’s obsolete and dangerous nuclear weapons program and other ancillary military-related expenditures, and we’re talking about saving half a trillion dollars a year!
Morgenson should be ashamed at carrying water for the likes of Peterson and Gagnon.
Bahraini women recount abuse, torture
Press TV – May 30, 2011
Bahraini female doctors have detailed the humiliations and beatings they suffered after being arrested on suspicion of supporting anti-government protests.
Recently freed from prison but in fear of being rearrested, the doctors said they were released only after they agreed to sign every confession papers they were given after days of brutal torture and being subjected to verbal abuse, AFP reported.
They were also forced to sign many pledges, including not to take part in any protests and not to talk to the media. […]
“I advise you that we will get you to say whatever we want, either by you saying it willingly, or we will beat you like a donkey and torture you until you say it,” AFP quoted a female doctor as saying, citing her interrogator.
Another female doctor, who spent over 20 days in detention, said she was severely beaten by her interrogators after she refused to sign a confession paper reading that doctors themselves killed two anti-government protesters while trying to “expand (their) wounds in order to make them look bad,” for cameras.
Manama officials claim that the two protesters had arrived at the hospital suffering only minor injuries.
“I couldn’t tell on which side of my head the slaps would land,” said the doctor adding that she was made to stand blindfolded in the interrogation room, where she claimed she was repeatedly called a “wh**e.”
Another doctor said she was forced to testify against some male doctors accusing them of mobilizing medics to join anti-regime protests. … Full article
Bias at the BBC
InFocus | May 29, 2011
This program is about the claims, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the BBC is biased to Israelis. The edition of InFocus provides some examples as proof and raises the question whether the bias is an internal agenda or an external pressure. However, the BBC management dismisses the claim and says the network has always followed professionalism. Experts on this program say otherwise.
Israeli occupation forces demolish home, barn near Qalqiliya
Ma’an – 30/05/2011
QALQILIYA — Israeli forces on Monday demolished a home and a barn in the Bedouin village Arab Abu Farda south of Qalqiliya, locals said.
Forces bulldozed the home and barn of Abdul Qader Farda, village council president Salem Abu Farda told Ma’an.
The local official said officers from Israel’s civil administration claimed to have notified Qader Farda that his home would be demolished. But he never received any notices, the council president said.
Abu Farda said Israeli authorities were trying to force the local population from the area to expand the nearby Jewish-only Alfe Menashe settlement.
He urged human rights groups to visit the area, and said residents would not leave their land.
A spokesman for Israel’s civil administration said he would look into the report.
Cleaning up city squares in ‘democratic’ Spain
By Pablo Ouziel | Intrepid Report | May 30, 2011
On Friday the 27th of May, five days after an overwhelming victory by centre-right political parties in the local and regional elections across Spain, the country woke up to the bitter reality of how nonviolent movements calling for economic democracy, political justice and peace are going to be dealt with by the country’s police forces in this new era of right-wing political dominance.
Just twenty-four hours after Spain’s largest telecom company, Telefonica, announced a new round of layoffs affecting 8,500 people, 25 percent of the work force, and as the G8 was meeting in Deauville, France, to discuss amongst other things the discontent sweeping across Europe, the Catalan police force—the Mossos d’Esquadra—following orders from the Town Hall’s new Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) government, surrounded the nonviolent citizens camped at the Plaza Cataluña in Barcelona’s city centre. Armed with full riot gear, batons and machine-guns with rubber bullets, the police kettled in the protestors, making it impossible for them to leave or others to enter.
With the excuse of cleaning up the square for safety reasons, in preparation for Saturday’s Champions League soccer final between Barcelona and Manchester United, the city government called for the dispersal of the crowds in order to allow for clean-up teams to enter. Although this was the official stance, it soon became apparent that cleaning garbage from the square was not the true intent, and that the real aim of the operation was to seize computers, printers and documents from the movement’s steering committees, and to put an end to this popular uprising which is posing a threat to the country’s political and economic elites.
As soon as the police surrounded the crowds and the news aired on local television stations and radios, citizens from across the city began to leave their work places and made their way to the square in order to show their solidarity with those being harassed by the police. The scene they encountered resembled one of Gandhi’s legendary acts of civil disobedience—the demonstrators sitting on the floor, in silence, with their legs crossed and hands up in the air, symbolizing their defiance to the oppressive and brutal nature of this unannounced police action.
Unlike during pre-election campaigning time, 11 days ago, when the 15M Movement began to congregate in city squares across the country with shouts of indignation, this time the police did not hesitate, the orders were clear. The police began to point their guns at those outside the square that were shouting “This is our democracy,” and one by one they began to pull those sitting down inside the square—beating them with their batons. I have just heard that economics professor Arcadi Oliveras, was amongst those on the receiving end of the police’s indiscriminate use of batons.
At the time of writing, thousands of citizens are making their way to the square in Barcelona, and following two arrests and 99 injured, around 5,000 protestors have already reclaimed the city square. In Madrid Esperanza Aguirre, who presides over the autonomous region and who also heads Madrid’s Partido Popular, has asked the ministry of the Interior to evict the protestors at the Puerta del Sol. On their part, the protestors at Madrid’s plaza have sent messages of solidarity to those being attacked in Barcelona. The police force in the city of Lerida has also evicted the crowds camped in the city square using water canons, and two protesters have been arrested. While in the city of Granada, the town hall is in negotiations with the central government about how to empty the city’s square.
The ambiance in Barcelona’s plaza is now jovial, once the city showed its support to the protestors, the police were forced to leave, and despite the fact that they have confiscated many laptops and pamphlets, and have destroyed tents and equipment, which the protestors have been using for their popular assemblies, people intend to stay. A large banner in the middle of the square reads in Spanish: “You have cleaned up our exhaustion and now we are back”
Despite the fact that the political elites in Spain, in this new era of right-wing dominance are showing their mass use of force, they have encountered a well-organized nonviolent movement. If the movement holds to its principles, and other European countries join in the struggle, it will be the European Union which will be forced to restrain this police brutality, and which will eventually have to make concessions to democratic citizens fighting non-violently for change. If the movement spreads, as many signs already seem to indicate, European political and economic elites will have to decide between reform and revolution.
Pablo Ouziel is a sociologist and freelance writer based in Spain.
Over 1,600 Israelis enter Nablus overnight
Ma’an – 30/05/2011
NABLUS — Israeli soldiers escorted 1,600 Jewish settlers into the northern West Bank city of Nablus overnight Sunday to visit a shrine in the area, known to many Jews as Joseph’s Tomb.
While accompaniment by Israeli forces remains mandatory according to laws governing settlers, an additional 200 Jewish worshipers entered Palestinian neighborhoods without coordinating with Israeli authorities, an Israeli military spokesman said.
During the visit, around 50 settlers barricaded themselves inside the West Bank city, and an army spokesman said confrontations erupted between the settlers and Israeli soldiers trying to evacuate them.
On Sunday, an Israeli military investigation into fire that caused the death of a settler – who was found by Palestinian Authority police to be sneaking into the tomb along with 30 others – was labeled “unwarranted,” Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said in a statement.
Under the Oslo accords, Nablus is in Area A and is part of the 17 percent of the West Bank under Palestinian civil and security control.
Israeli soldiers generally coordinate the visit, requesting that PA police evacuate the area. Palestinian security sources told Ma’an, however, that the Sunday night visit was not coordinated with the PA.
Witnesses said Ultra-Orthodox settlers were among the visitors. Locals said the Huwwara checkpoint, south of Nablus, was closed at midnight and Palestinian drivers were not allowed to use the main road from the city.
Israeli forces set up several flying checkpoints in the area, locals and an Israeli military spokesman said.
The army spokesman said Palestinians had filed complaints over property damage caused by Israeli settlers during the visit. He said all complaints would be “thoroughly examined by the relevant authorities.”
Nablus residents said around 50 military vehicles escorted the Israelis, who arrived at around 1 a.m. and left at 5 a.m.
Israeli occupation forces place tight grip on village near Nablus
Palestine Information Center – 29/05/2011
The gate villagers have to cross
QALQILYA — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) has tightened procedures at the gates of the separation wall in the Azzun Atma village near Qalqilya, locals have reported.
For the past week, the IOF has been curbing civilian movement there through provocative searches and inspections.
Long lines of students, farmers, and laborers have mounted daily outside the gates as searches continue.
Azzoun Atma is encircled by the Orinet, Shaarei Tikva, Elkana settlements, which are said to serve as a “death certificate” to the farming village as they blockade it and take the majority of the land and restrict the possibility of its expansion.
Walls have been erected on all four sides of the village for alleged security reasons.
Khalid Raddad, a resident, points out that the planning situation has isolated Azzoum Atma from nearby villages Beit Amin and Sineria, which serve as natural extensions to it. The result is that families are separated from each other as well as farmers from their fields.
“We are forced to cross the wall’s gates which are only opened for us during the daytime after waiting hours in an inspection line. We have to also cross a physical inspection whenever we want to leave the village to buy something or for work or for school or just to go to whatever is beyond the wall,” Khalid says.
He goes on to say that outsiders are not permitted to enter, and school teachers and women married outside face major inconveniences when going in and out of the village and must produce permits for that.
Zionist plan to change the demography of occupied Jerusalem within five years
Palestine Information Center – 29/05/2011
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli occupation government has revealed a plan to further Judaize occupied Jerusalem and change demographic realities under the pretext of propping up the economy of the city.
The Prime Minister’s office has announced recently the government’s intention to approve the spending of over 80 million dollars to carry out what it called “a comprehensive economic plan” over the next five years.
The plan, which is considered by Palestinian parties a noticeable escalation of the Judaization of the holy city, is to implement a number of projects that will change the face of the city and to encourage new segments of Israeli society to settle in it.
According to the announced plan 42 million US million dollars will be spent on developing the infrastructure and developing the Western Wall (the Buraq Wall as it is called by the Palestinians) to encourage tourism.
The Zionist Ministry of Tourism will also spend 21.5 million US dollars to encourage the building of hotels to increase the number of hotel rooms available to tourists in the city.
The plan also includes 20.5 million dollars for establishing research and science institutes which requires establishing new buildings.
Another 20.26 million will go to building student accommodation and an academic city which aims to attract economically productive people to live in the city.
The statement from Netanyahu’s office also said that the government might add Jerusalem to the areas which get government support where university students who finished their military service will be eligible for government grants.
Israeli Pressure Leads To Zionist Support Statement By G8 Ministers
By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News – May 29, 2011
After a call from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Canadian Premier Stephen Harper agreed to draft a statement for all G8 ministers to sign that expressed support for Zionist aspirations by removing any reference to the 1967 borders
The Group of 8, or G8, meeting was held Thursday and Friday in France, and included representatives from France, Britain, Russia, the US, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada. Going into the meeting, all but one (Canada) supported the inclusion of a sentence supporting a return to the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed upon land swaps, as a basis for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
But with Canada’s refusal to accept the Final Declaration of the Summit unless that sentence was removed, the other nations succumbed to the pressure and removed the reference to 1967 borders. Instead, the Declaration, entitled “G8 Declaration: Renewed Commitment for Freedom and Democracy”, included criticism of the Palestinian plan to declare statehood in September at the United Nations.
It called for a return to the peace process, but did not mention the ongoing violations of past signed agreements by Israeli authorities. It also did not mention the core demands of the Palestinian people and their representatives: the return of Palestinian refugees, the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the release of Palestinian political prisoners.
The final statement by the G8 ministers also failed to specify the terms on which the ‘negotiations’ would be based, saying only, “The framework for these negotiations is well known.”
According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, “The Foreign Ministry instructed its envoys in the various capitals to ask that the G-8’s concluding statement emphasize three things: that a Palestinian state will arise only through direct negotiations, not through a unilateral move in the United Nations; opposition to Hamas-Fatah reconciliation as long as Hamas rejects the Quartet’s conditions; and opposition to a mention of the issue of 1967 borders and exchanges of territory.”
Ha’aretz also quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in a statement to his counterpart in Canada, thanking him for Canada’s role in pushing through the statement that Israel wanted, saying, “Canada is a true friend of Israel and with a realistic and proper view of things, it understands that the 1967 borders do not conform to Israel’s security needs and with the current demographic reality.”
Lieberman frequently refers to the Palestinian population as a “demographic threat”, and has openly called for the transfer of the one million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to some place outside of Israel, as their presence, and their growth due to higher birth rates, threatens the “Jewish character” of the state of Israel.
Since its creation in 1948 on the land of historic Palestine, Israel has never defined its borders, and has continually expanded onto Palestinian land. The state of Israel is currently constructing a wall throughout the West Bank that would, by the time it is completed, leave the Palestinians with 13% of their original land in three separate reservations completely surrounded by Israel, with no access to Jerusalem or any other country.
For the full text of the Declaration, click here: G8 Summit “Freedom & Democracy” Declaration
Protests continue in Spain
Press TV – May 29, 2011
Spaniards remain camped out at Madrid’s main square, despite tight security, to protest against the government’s austerity measures and growing unemployment rate.
Thousands of angry protesters have packed the capital’s Puerta Del Sol square, since the protests began two weeks ago, and promised to stay out in makeshift tents until Sunday, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.
The leading protest group known as “the indignants” once again took to Madrid’s main square to decide whether to carry on a vigil, AFP reported.
In Barcelona, fresh clashes erupted between protesters and police amid a mass celebration following Barcelona’s Champions League 3-1 win against Manchester United.
On Friday, similar clashes in Spain’s second-largest city left over a hundred protesters wounded after police ordered them to move their tents out of Catalonia Square.
Jorge Naroja, a spokesman for the “Democracia Real Ya” (Real Democracy Now) compared protests in Spain with the anti-government movements in the Middle East and North Africa, saying what they have in common is protesters’ courage and their determination to fight corrupt politicians and dictators.
The protests in Spain are inspired by the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt as pas part of the Islamic Awakening that has been sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa.
Spain has been witnessing demonstrations against the government’s austerity measures since mid-May.
The massive protests came after the government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero introduced a slew of drastic austerity measures.
The measures include the cutting of civil servant wages, as part of its plans to curb the budget deficit from 11 percent a year earlier to within three percent of the GDP, a limit set by the European Union by 2013.
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Mossad behind Italian ‘blackmail’ spying scandal
The Cradle | November 1, 2024
An Italian private intelligence firm that allegedly hacked government databases to collect information on thousands of prominent people, including politicians, entrepreneurs, and celebrities, is accused of working for Israeli intelligence and the Vatican, media reported on 30 October.
Police wiretaps leaked to Italian media show that Equalize, which employs former members of Italian intelligence, is accused of breaching the servers of government ministries and the police between 2019 and 2024 to collect information.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Equalize allegedly collected numerous classified files that contain sensitive information about prominent Italians to sell to clients – including major companies and law firms seeking information to gain an advantage over competitors, win court cases, or for blackmail and extortion.
Prime Minister Meloni described the alleged scheme as “unacceptable” and “a threat to democracy.” … continue
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