contributions

Israel has never had a government that so blatantly violates the core values of liberal democracy, which dismisses identities of 85% of the world’s Jewry.
In June last year, Peter Beinart published an article in the New York Review of Books that created quite a storm by pointing out the deep estrangement between the young generation of American Jews and Israel. A year later, it is time to take stock.
Unfortunately, the situation has only grown a lot worse. In my travels to Europe I speak (…)

The Federal Reserve Is Selling Paper Gold and Buying Physical Gold The good ole "American way"—through proxies
BY ROB KIRBY 10/04/2010
A couple of weeks ago, I pitched an idea to some associates of mine who are involved in SERIOUS [tonnage] PRECIOUS METALS procurement—physical metal only—let’s just say HUGE money. I asked them if they would be interested in purchasing an “option”—cash up front—for the exclusive rights [first right of refusal on off-take] of a gold producer [miner] for a (…)

Those Who Know Will Understand
BY JR NYQUIST09/17/2010
According to some experts the U.S. economy is one “event” away from a catastrophic sequence. My own variation on this sequence goes something like this: first, the dollar collapses; second, the government’s response prevents any chance for recovery; third, political unrest and destabilization begins; last, the defensive function of the state fails as external and internal enemies take advantage of the country’s weakness. This (…)

Why We Are Totally Finished
BY DAVOS SHERMAN OKST06/27/2010
In A Nutshell: Corporatocracy Has Replaced Capitalism
Capitalism Fixes Problems & Preserves Democracy: Capitalism is what we should be relying on to fix our problems. Capitalism has it’s own ecosystem, just like biology’s ecosystem. An economic ecosystem that weeds out the weak, has parasites that eat the failures and new bacteria that evolves and grows replacements for that which failed. A system that keeps everything in (…)

China Pledges Continued Support for European Debt
26/06/2011
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday said China will continue to buy euro-denominated bonds to support Europe, in China’s latest public endorsement of the efforts to contain a potential debt crisis in the common currency area.
The remarks by Mr. Wen, who was in Budapest on a five-day European tour that will also take him to London and Berlin, came as European leaders wrangle over mechanisms to provide fresh financing to (…)

In war, accounts of atrocities need to be treated with scepticism. Surveying a battlefield where he had once fought, the great Confederate general Stonewall Jackson turned to an aide and asked: "Did you ever think, sir, what an opportunity a battlefield affords liars?"
He meant that in war people, motivated by fear, self-interest or a simple desire to make sense of a confusing and terrifying situation, make things up. And in the midst of a fast-moving conflict it is more than usually (…)

Human rights organizations have cast doubt on claims of mass rape and other abuses perpetrated by forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which have been widely used to justify Nato’s war in Libya.
Nato leaders, opposition groups and the media have produced a stream of stories since the start of the insurrection on February 15, claiming the Gaddafi regime has ordered mass rapes, used foreign mercenaries and employed helicopters against civilian protesters.
An investigation by Amnesty (…)

27 October 2006
Defence scientists secretly tested E.coli bacteria as a possible biological weapon in and around two British towns, documents revealed today.
Between winter 1965 and November 1967 a series of Government trials involving the release of "microthreads" covered in the bacteria were carried out near Swindon and Southampton.
The experiments are detailed in the 1966 Ministry of Defence report on the Microbiological Research Establishment at Porton Down, Wilts.
It is being (…)