The Cost Of Winning, 5/22/16

Succeeding to Death,

What Would a War With Russia Look Like? The Saker

"I fear the (relatively) new generation of “ass-kissing little chickenshit” officers à la Petraeus, or maniacs like General Breedlove, which have replaced the “old style” Cold Warriors (like Admirals Elmo Zumwalt, William Crowe or Mike Mullen) who at least knew that a war with Russia must be avoided at all cost."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/what-would-a-war-between-russia-and-the-usa-look-like/5526402

The EU is expected to extend economic sanctions against Russia, since Minsk Agreement is not completely enacted (by Ukraine). Vassal states comply with US orders.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/eu-expected-extended-russian-economic-sanctions

Roundup is glyphosate and "inert ingredients, right? Wrong.

“It took around one year and three people (a specialist in pesticide toxicology, a specialist of chemical mixtures, and a specialist in mass spectrometry) to unravel the secrets of Monsanto’s Roundup formulations,” Mesnage explained in an email. The hard work paid off. In 2013, his team was able not only to deduce the chemical structure of additives in six of the nine formulations but also to show that each of these supposedly inert ingredients was more toxic than glyphosate alone."

In February, the team published its findings, which showed that each of the five co-formulants affected the function of both the mitochondria in human placental cells and aromatase, an enzyme that affects sexual development. Not only did these chemicals, which aren’t named on herbicide labels, affect biological functions, they did so at levels far below the concentrations used in commercially available products. In fact, POEA — officially an “inert” ingredient — was between 1,200 and 2,000 times more toxic to cells than glyphosate, officially the “active” ingredient."

"John Sanders, who is now in remission after undergoing chemotherapy, it doesn’t really matter which chemical did what. When he was using Roundup, Sanders had no idea that anything in the liquid that sometimes dripped on his clothes and skin might cause cancer. “That was never in my wildest dreams.”

https://theintercept.com/2016/05/17/new-evidence-about-the-dangers-of-monsantos-roundup/

These 3 People just Tore Apart the Democratic Party

https://medium.com/@ykahan9/these-3-people-just-tore-apart-the-democratic-party-dacff6b38cee#.35u1r2455

Former JFK and LBJ Press Secretary, Bill Moyers, says the Democratic Party cannot unite until Debbie Wasserman Schultz goes away.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36991-democrats-cant-unite-unless-wasserman-schultz-goes

There is a big surge in Democratic voter registration for the 2016 California primary, a lot bigger than in 2008 when people registered to vote for Barack Obama. Who do you think these new registrants intend to vote for?

http://politicaldata.com/and-the-surge-goes-on/

Clinton leads Sanders by about 10 point in polling before the 6/7/16 California primary. Team Clinton really wants a victory to justify hammering Sanders to capitulate. ("Resistance is Futile" works so well for the Borg, right?)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ca/california_democratic_presidential_primary-5321.html

Counting Chickens

Pricing Cat Food

Planning for the Future,

407,000 retirees just learned that a 60% in their pensions is "not enough". These are the beneficiaries of the Central States Pension Fund. (They are facing what we will all face. The math is inescapable. WE are the Baby-Boomers, the last of the big families, and the economy is not so good, and all those 1% get first dibs on what's left of it.)
https://mishtalk.com/2016/05/20/rejected-central-states-fund-proposes-60-pension-cuts-treasury-dept-says-not-enough-407000-affected/

New Jersey's Problems are "Not Mathematically Solvable" (Yeah, it's not just mismanaged Teamsters pensions.)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-21/state-states-new-jerseys-problems-are-not-mathematically-solvable

Ron Paul "feels a kinship" with Bernie Sanders, though they disagree on that Libertarian vs Socialist thing.

Trump is an insider, not an "outsider" and Paul recommends that Libertarians vote Libertarian, and lefties vote Green, if they find Republicrat candidates distasteful.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-21/ron-paul-i-feel-kinship-bernie-sanders

The origins of "superdelegates". Thanks Ray
The proceedings of the Hunt Commission were never published, so In These Times went to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., to study the transcripts of the seven-month-long discussions. The records paint a picture of a party eager to win and convinced that, in order to do so, it must return control of the nominating process to top officials. It’s a strategy that reflects a shift in the party since the 1970s, away from the grassroots—a shift that has led to tensions within the party that are boiling to the surface with Bernie Sanders’ campaign.

http://inthesetimes.com/features/superdelegates_bernie_sanders_hillary_clinton.html

Hybrid Geo-financial war between NATO and Russia is dangerously escalating. (Huh? Why?)
"The American people are sick of war, but the misleaders in Washington are eager enough to reinvigorate their sense of power and entitlement to control the affairs here and abroad. After all, war – in a sick kind of way – is good for the economy, and a big one means a mandate of emergency powers and a period of unquestioning obedience from the domestic population."
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/wwiii-a-hybrid-geo-financial-war-between-nato-and-russia-is-dangerously-escalating_05202016

Nice graphic video shows colored dots flowing to the US since 1820, each one 10,000 humans, with countries of origin lit up in same color as dots.
http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/

It's not what we have been told:
"Segregation increased markedly between 1900 and 1970. However, fully 97% of the overall increase in dissimilarity had occurred by 1930, and 63% of the overall isolation had already taken place by the same year...While discriminatory institutions faced by blacks were clearly important, segregation may have emerged in US cities even in their absence simply as a consequence of market choices made by white families... Our results indicate that one exogenous black arrival was associated with 1.9 white departures in the 1910s and 3.4 white departures during the 1920s. In contrast to studies on the post-war era, when whites were leaving central cities for better housing in the suburbs, we find that blacks and whites were both attracted to growing central city neighbourhoods during this time."

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/05/why-us-cities-are-segregated-by-race-new-evidence-on-the-role-of-white-flight.html

Reconsidering Narratives

Sloppy Empire

Dancing Blindly,

"While the sun may never set on the empire, the emperors have lost their sight... So far, the empire project in the Middle East and North Africa has been the costliest and least successful for Western imperialism. First and foremost, responsibility for the current Middle East imperial debacle falls directly on the top tier political and military leaders who have pursued policies and strategies (regime change and national dismemberment) incompatible with imperial precepts that normally guide empires. The top tier of the US imperial-military elite follows Israeli military prerogatives, as dictated by the Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) embedded within the US state apparatus. Their policy has been to destroy Islamic and Arab-nationalist structures and institutions of power - not conquer and reconfigure them to be absorbed into Western imperial institutions . . . as the US was able to do in Asia and Europe. This parrots the Israeli- settler policy of ‘erasure’ and has made the region totally unstable for imperial trade. The wanton dismemberment of the whole social-political-security institutional structure of Iraq is a prime example of the Israeli policy of ‘erasure’ promoted by US Zionist advisers on a grand scale. The same advisers remain within the top tier imperial decision-making apparatus despite 15 years of abject failure. Western empire’s multi-tier structure, from the US and Western Europe at the top to Kosovo at the bottom, have followed imperial imperatives. In contrast Israeli imperatives direct US military power into perpetual war in the Middle East through the influential ZPC."  Thanks Eleni     http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44690.htm

Israeli PM Netanyahu figures out how to get rid of top Generals who support the antisemitic Geneva Convention:   Netanyahu has now replaced Yaalon (a man of the right himself) with Avigdor Lieberman, who has been accused of racism. Lieberman once talked about destroying the Aswan Dam and sweeping 80 million Egyptians into the Mediterranean. He is in favor of expelling Palestinian-Israelis from Israel and taking away their citizenship unless they swear fealty to a Jewish state.      http://www.juancole.com/2016/05/netanyahu-appointing-lieberman.html   

US, Turkey, Qatar,  and Saudi Arabia are preparing to Invade northern Syria (end of May?) according to this Iranian report. Lots of "moderate rebels" will participate or lose funding.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/05/16/465875/Syria-Saudi-Arabia-Qatar-US-Turkey-North-Army

US Army Chaplain resigns his commission, in protest of unrestrained killing by the empire. Thanks, Tom.

“I resign because I refuse to support U.S. armed drone policy. The Executive Branch continues to claim the right to kill anyone, anywhere on earth, at any time, for secret reasons, based on secret evidence, in a secret process, undertaken by unidentified officials. I refuse to support this policy of unaccountable killing.”

http://nsnbc.me/2016/05/19/this-us-army-chaplain-just-stood-up-to-the-american-empire/

CIA "mistakenly destroys"  6700 page Torture Report. (The prisoner ate it.)   http://www.globalresearch.ca/cia-mistakenly-destroys-6700-page-torture-report/5526231

Clear Cutting Ukrainian Forests: Hurry Up, there's still some left! Thanks Eleni:  https://off-guardian.org/2016/05/18/the-eu-and-the-deforestation-of-ukraine/

“There is a struggle for the checkpoint Tisa [west border], where there is a major flow of smuggled goods. Through this checkpoint the expensive timber is exported from Ukraine, which is illegally logged in the national parks across the Carpathians.”  Meanwhile, despite an official ban on exporting timber, dozens of trains with illegally logged wood daily cross Ukrainian west border – going to the EU.  

It's weird that the US "missile-shield" against Iranian missiles that don't exist, is in a spot that could not intercept them if they did, and can incorporate nuclear armed cruise-missiles in Romania, an ideal first-striking point into the heart of Russia. Thanks again, Eleni:   http://www.defenddemocracy.press/preparing-war-europe-us-anti-missile-shield-sword/

Paul Craig Roberts asks if Russia can survive Washington's attack:   http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/05/19/can-russia-survive-washingtons-attack-paul-craig-roberts/

French Presidential front-runner, Marine Le Pen, says "Hillary Clinton as president is a danger to world peace".     https://www.rt.com/usa/343716-le-pen-clinton-president-danger/ 

  

The Faux Fracas in Nevada, How a Reporter Manufactured a Riot: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/18/the-faux-fracas-in-nevada-how-a-reporters-pack-of-lies-ran-riot-in-the-fact-averse-media/    

(Whoa! How can this be?)  Hillary's Support Among Democrats Fades as Party Crisis Looms   http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/dont-look-now-but-the-democratic-party-is-in-the-midst-of-an-existential-crisis/

Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline is latest effort to weaken Russian bargaining leverage on EU/NATO countries, which makes war potentially awkward in winter.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Greek-Pipeline-Breakthrough-To-Challenge-Russian-Gas-Dominance.html

Memo: EU Stop Being Afraid, Refugees are Good for GDP (We'll tell you when to be afraid again.)  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/18/refugees-will-repay-eu-spending-almost-twice-over-in-five-years-report

Morley Safer, who went into Vietnam and sent out a story depicting the destruction of a hamlet that was totally passive, burning all homes to the ground, has died at 84, a good foreign correspondent of the old school of American journalism, now successfully replaced by more coherent reporting. "You shat on the American flag", was Lyndon Johnson's angry response to CBS news after that story. Thanks Tom.     http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/entertainment/veteran-60-minutes-newsman-morley-safer-dies-at-84/nrQKP/

Facebook "apologizes" for secretly carrying out psychological testing on users, by eliminating certain critical words from posts that some people got, with the intent of seeing how this manipulation affected likes and dislikes. The same story went out to 2 large groups, tweaked a little, and perceptual shaping was carefully noted, again and again. Do we know ourselves this well?   Thanks again, Eleni.  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/02/facebook-apologises-psychological-experiments-on-users  

  

"Bayer AG made an unsolicited takeover offer for Monsanto Co. in a bold attempt by the German company to snatch the last independent global seeds producer and become the world’s biggest supplier of farm chemicals." “It’s a relentless string of bad news,” Jonas Oxgaard, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in New York, said. “It’s almost like they forgot to sacrifice a goat to the gods.”  (So which/what is worse. I can't figure it out.)      http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/monsanto-says-it-received-unsolicited-offer-from-germany-s-bayer       http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/bayer-s-mega-deal-for-monsanto-faces-mega-pr-backlash-in-germany  

EU declines to renew glyphosate/RoundUp license again, due to inadequate support. (It doesn't actually run out until end of June. Don't worry; blackmail and bribes just need to be stepped-up.)    https://euobserver.com/environment/133478

G-7 countries are unable to agree upon any further coordinated fiscal economic stimulus. Do what'cha want... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-japan-idUSKCN0YB0DQ      http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-and-the-us-are-headed-for-a-showdown-over-currency-manipulation-2016-05-19

"Saxo Bank chief economist Steen Jakobsen said that zero rates, zero growth, zero productivity, and zero reforms have left a great many countries adrift in a “new nothingness”.   "...apathy, stagnation and “an economic outlook based more in peoples’ heads than in reality”. Central Banks are powerless now... No low-interest-rate "ammo" left.        https://www.tradingfloor.com/posts/central-banks-can-do-nothing-jakobsen-7641241 

Another leading indicator of economic distress just hit "Lehman moment" levels. Don't worry; it's all been fixed...

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/19/delinquencies-of-commercial-industrial-loans-spike/

(Holly Day MD is 27 today, and hard at work, serving fellow humans.)

Becoming the Change...

Some Kind Of Fake Reality

Weirded-Out,

"Clinton's Allies Nudge Sanders Towards Reality", as Bernie completely fails to see how badly embarrassed he is by tying and winning another two primaries. 

"C'mon Bernie, we've humored you long enough. I'm your friend. You are pissing into the wind. Don't keep getting humiliated this way. Bow out gracefully and you'll get something good, I promise."  

[This guy just does not get it. He's pretty old; I wonder how his health is...]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/hillary-clinton-allies-bernie-sanders-drop-out-223362

Hillary Clinton reveals to CNN interviewer that the votes of Californians and citizens of 23 other states, waiting to vote in primaries, are completely pointless. She OWNS the Democratic nomination.

CLINTON: "I will be the nominee for my party, Chris. That is already done, in effect. There is no way that I won’t be."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/clinton-to-californians-y_b_10053848.html   

New polls put Trump ahead of Clinton, with a fair number of people wanting somebody else. (What happened to all the polls that showed Sanders with the biggest lead against Trump? It almost seems like we are being shoved down a cattle-chute here, doesn't it?)

http://www.inquisitr.com/3111861/trump-leads-clinton-by-five-in-new-poll-but-large-number-would-prefer-a-third-candidate/http://www.inquisitr.com/3111861/trump-leads-clinton-by-five-in-new-poll-but-large-number-would-prefer-a-third-candidate/

Clinton Cash, or how to go from 0 to $150 million, while squandering every step of the way, if you're Secretary of State, or married to same.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/17/first-look-at-explosive-hillary-documentary-clinton-cash/

Eleni sends this article from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism about the thuggish (Al Capone style) railroading of the Nevada Democratic convention by party-insiders-for-Clinton, which would never be complete without blaming the victims.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/05/democratic-establishments-thuggish-power-grab-at-nevada-convention.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

"Nobody rings a bell at the top of the credit supercycle, to misuse an old adage. Except that this time somebody very powerful in China has done exactly that... Most think the author was either President Xi Jinping himself, or his right-hand man Liu He." 

Ambrose Evans Pritchard looks at China's impending debt-bubble collapse, and the mysterious warning of the "Authoritative Person".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/18/chinas-communist-party-goes-way-of-qing-dynasty-as-debt-hits-lim/

US imposition of 522% import duty on Chinese steel is taken as economic form of nuclear-war in China. 

(Yes, China has been massively dumping steel at ridiculously low prices across the world, putting British steel into the dustbin of history, so it was already WAR, just not nuclear, or whatever...)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-19/china-furious-after-us-launches-trade-war-nuke-522-duty

Congress agrees on framework for Puerto Rico to go into bankruptcy and debt restructuring proceedings. Bondholders demand more austerity for Puerto-Ricans first, but apparently don't get it.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-19/republicans-democrats-agree-bill-bailout-puerto-ricohttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-19/republicans-democrats-agree-bill-bailout-puerto-rico

The real economy is in recession. (Ssshhh! It's a secret until after the November elections, but yeah, it started in early 2015.)

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/undeniable-evidence-that-the-real-economy-is-already-in-recession-mode

Ilargi explains why we are so bad at solving global scale problems. That was never our evolutionary job, since we operated in small groups to survive.

"We evolve the way Stephen Jay Gould described evolution: through punctuated equilibrium. That is, we pass through bottlenecks, forced upon us by the circumstances of nature, only in the case of the present global issues we are nature itself. And there’s nothing we can do about it. If we don’t manage to understand this dynamic, and very soon, those bottlenecks will become awfully narrow passages, with room for ever fewer of us to pass through. As individuals we need to drastically reduce our dependence on the runaway big systems, banking, the grid, transport etc., that we ourselves built like so many sorcerers apprentices, because as societies we can’t fix the runaway problems with those systems, and they are certain to drag us down with them if we let them."  /http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/05/why-we-are-so-bad-at-solving-problems/

In Too Deep

Abrupt Change

Misrepresented,

Bernie Sanders win in West Virginia was by a wide margin, and in a state that Hillary Clinton won in the 2008 primary. Scott Creighton looks at the "rancor" rising among working people against the insulated patrician elites, like Hillary Clinton. Thanks Tom.

https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/bernie-wins-west-virginia-as-rancor-for-the-proletariat-builds/

"TRICKLE-DOWN FEMINISM"

Yves Smith, at Naked Capitalism, who is always very careful with her facts and homework, observes the horrific slaughter visited upon women and children by the policies driven by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. 

(Those savage terrors are not over.)  Thanks, Eleni.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/05/clinton-policies-have-hurt-women.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

FBI Director, James Comey, disagrees with Hillary Clinton's characterization of current FBI investigation as "routine security inquiry".

“We’re conducting an investigation ... That’s what we do,” he said.

"We want to do it well and we want to do it promptly. I feel pressure to do both of those things," Comey said. "As between the two things, we will always choose 'well.' "

Clinton herself is expected to answer questions from FBI investigators and federal prosecutors in coming days or weeks.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/279552-fbi-head-challenges-clinton-on-email-probe

Chelsae Clinton's husband closes hedge fund after losing 90% of investors' money.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/11/chelsea-clintons-husband-closing-hedge-fund-after-losing-90-percent-of-its-money/

Paul Ryan announces he and Donald Trump are "totally committed to working together". 

(Some deal made between Donald, the Koch brothers and Wall Street, then?)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-12/donald-trump-arrives-showdown-paul-ryan-washington

David Stockman looks at that, too, saying that "General" Paul Ryan will meet with the presidential hopefuls to tell them how things are going to be. 

Stockman says the Wall Street frog will be left to boil this time. Take losses. No bailout. "X marks the spot", same as 2007-2008.

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-frogs-are-boiling-again-why-wall-street-stays-in-the-pot/

Amber and Jim Day graduate college today, Mathematics and Engineering. Tomorrow after work, I start driving the U-Haul to Rochester New York for Amber's Grad School, which starts Monday Afternoon.

Communication may be spotty.

Turning on a Dime

Prepare For Impact

Hearing Voices,

Anonymous Authority Speaks in China. "Reset time again":

http://www.pandahedge.com/?p=149

 

"Welcome to a currency war in which victory depends on your perspective."

Charles Hugh Smith believes that global central banking coordination has reached the end of it's capacity, and currency wars will begin.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay16/CB-war5-16.html

Shell realizes that drilling for Arctic oil is a losing proposition, and takes $2.5 billion loss on drilling rights.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-10/big-oil-abandons-2-5-billion-in-u-s-arctic-drilling-rights

71 year old Greek shopkeeper, crushed again by newest round of austerity, is betrayed and seeks any recourse. Grexit? Drachma?

“My income tax has just gone up to 29%, my social security payments have gone up 20%, my pension has been cut by 50 euros; they are taxing coffee, fuel, the internet, tavernas, ferries, everything they can, and then there’s Enfia [the country’s much-loathed property levy]. Now that makes me mad. They said they would take that away!”

After nine months of wrangling with the international creditors keeping the country afloat, Athens must apply policies that until now had been abstract concepts for a populace who have suffered as unemployment and poverty rates have soared.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/10/greece-austerity-grexit-drachma

As it happened many times in Greece for six years since the explosion of the financial crisis, the European Financial Dictatorship (EFD) seeks to bypass democratic processes in order to impose the "Greek model" throughout eurozone.

Thousands took to the streets of major French cities, after the Socialist government bypassed a parliamentary vote on a controversial labor reform and approved it with an edict.

http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2016/05/alert-european-financial-dictatorship.html

NATO is Much Worse than a Cold War Relic (It's a voracious global war machine. JFK wanted to negotiate peace with the USSR, but "died funny".) , from David Stockman's blog:

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/actually-nato-is-much-worse-than-a-cold-war-relic/

‘The United States considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held under Israeli occupation subject to negotiation and Israeli withdrawal. The United States considers the application of Israeli law to the Golan Heights to be a violation of international law, both the 4th Geneva Convention’s prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242’

The potential production of newly discovered oil deposits in the Golan may reach billions of barrels, while Israel consumes 270,000 barrels per day, it currently imports up to three quarters of its oil from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq. (Thanks Eleni)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israeli-rape-of-golan-heights-is-also-netanyahus-settlement-plan-for-the-west-bank-jerusalem-and-gaza/5524163

Yes, today's New York Post cover:

Organized Complexity, how to engage in the process of thought about cities and other human social arrangements. A good article pointing out basic methods.

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/5/4/organized-complexity

Moving from a cohousing community to a farm, an older and experienced couple, and a young and motivated couple with children, work out a shared vision pretty smoothly.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-05-11/one-family-s-move-from-cohousing-to-a-smaller-tighter-community

Sharing Purpose