Allen L Roland: The Nine Stages of Civilization, We're Entering the Eighth!

Dependence: The United States is now firmly entering the eighth stage of all civilizations, Dependence with only Bondage ahead of it. Apathy has allowed our constitution to be shredded in stage seven, which led to our current state of Dependence on the state, but soon an IRS monitored Obama-care program of shared responsibility, or else will usher in the Orwellian ninth stage of militarized Bondage: Last year I wrote that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years, and that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years, and that these nations have progressed through a nine stage sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependency back again into bondage. As Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General once correctly said: We are not a democracy. It is a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality , we are a plutocracy, a government by the wealthy. In our present Plutocracy, we made the transition last year from complacency to national apathy, but with the passage and implementation of Obamacare, along with an increasingly militarized surveillance state, we have now entered stage eight, Dependence on the state, which will soon be followed with militarized Bondage by the state. John Adamsonce correctly defined the perils of dependence: The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society. Obama-care or shared responsibility or else  is the most visible evidence of the plutocracy's leveraged buyout of Democracy as we officially enter stage eight of our rapidly crumbling civilization or empire, and no one nails this truth better than Bill Moyers. Huxley correctly predicted in Brave New World, that the truth would eventually be drowned in a sea of irrelevance, which is precisely the case now, as we transition from Apathy to Dependence.   

Roi Tov: Is Iran anti-Semitic? The Mechanics of Hatred and the Right to Self Defense!

Writing on certain topics demands visiting unpleasantly racist websites. Yet, even such an event has a positive side: It re-vindicates our understanding of goodness. Israeli and Jewish media love to portray Iran as anti-Semitic. The Anti-Defamation League even has a hate page dedicated to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The page claims. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti Semitic and anti-Israel views place him and the Iranian regime among the foremost threats to Jews and the State of Israel. Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel, and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, he described Israel as a fake regime, that must be wiped off the map. Expectedly, the eminent ADL chose not to mention a few facts. UN Secretary General and Rita Yahan Farouz My Joys: OK, but how is that related to the woman in the picture? Rita Yahan Farou is an Iranian born Israeli singer. In the local context, she is a superstar, having won practically every award given to Israeli singers. Most recently, she was mentioned by international media on March 5, 2013, when she gave a concert entitled Tunes for Peace, at the UN General Assembly. She sang in Hebrew, English and Farsi. In her Facebook page, she published the expected pleasantries. Yet, Hebrew is a multi-layered language Saying Peace, Meaning War, an additional message was to be expected in her words. She said: There is a story about a boy, who walked into a synagogue, and didn't know how to pray like everyone else, so he just whistled with all his might. I have no knowledge of the language of politics, but I will be there, whistle my prayer, and hope that it reaches as far as Iran. Let me confess that I have no idea how a native English reader would react to her words. However, to a Hebrew reader, a whistle is a sharply negative. The mark of street thugs. Was Rita crossing her fingers while writing this? Rita is only one member of the large Jewish Iranian community living in Israel. There are at least two other prominent members. Former IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz and former Member Of the Knesset Michael Ben Ari. Shaul Mofaz became the recipient of one of the first pictures taken by the Israeli Ofeq reconnaissance satellites made public. The image showed his former house in Tehran. Another testimony of his links with the Farsi culture is his regular talk shows in Farsi, broadcast by Israeli Radio. Finally, Michael Ben Ari is notorious for his extremist views, which are of relevance to rest of the article. While in the former Knesset, he was denied a visa by the USA, due to his former membership in a terror organization.  

Dr. Kevin Barrett: Making mayhem in Boston: The CIA links!

CIA fingerprints are all over the Boston Marathon bombings. In this article, Jerry Mazza notes that the likely perpetrator of the bombings, Craft International, is a CIA spin off. The patsies' Uncle Tsarny is part of the family of rogue CIA spook Graham Fuller. And the patsies were set up with the help of another rogue CIA spin off, the Mujahedin e Khalk (MEK), which uses American tax dollars to murder innocent civilians by the thousands in Iran. This shouldn't be surprising. After all, the radical Muslim terrorists in Chechnya are heavily supported by the CIA, their job is to attack Russia, not the US. The whole idea of a self radicalized Chechen attacking the US is preposterous. Bottom line: It looks as though the CIA is split by the same bifurcated command structure that afflicts the US military. The making of mayhem: By Jerry Mazza: First, you find two or more young, disgruntled immigrants and/or US citizens, preferably from countries that have been violated by the US, or another superpower, like Russia. They might have been taken to the US by parents who were refugees, looking for asylum from some part of the world like Chechnya, split by civil war, brutal repression of the larger power, seeming to breed terrorists who had already been creating attacks against civilians, including schools, movie theaters, public events, within that larger power. Two of these young immigrants were the Tsarnaev Brothers, Tamerlan, the elder, 26, and Dzokhar, 19, the younger. A third immigrant was the bellicose Uncle Tsarny, who changed his name from Tsaraev to Tsarny to distance himself from the family. In this case, the two, would be Chechan guerillas were supported by a terrorist organization called MEK, People's Mujahedin e Khalq, which was also supported by the CIA. Take note. Now, mix in the national intelligence agency of a rival country to that larger, more powerful one that was willing to provide support to terrorists that were attacking it, and add our Brothers and their bellicose Uncle Tsarny, who coincidentally had been married to the daughter Samantha Fuller of a top member of the CIA, Graham Fuller. Fuller had a substantial history of active participation in that agency's major clandestine operations. Is anyone suspicious about the connections between the brothers, Uncle Tsarni, and the CIA so far? The real Chechen terrorists, it turns out, were useful to the US in keeping the heat up on the Russians, just as the Afghan mujahedeen was used in the anti Soviet war in Afghanistan, from 1980 to 1989, to sap Russia's military strength and financial resources. Chechnya even drew neocons who signed up as Chechnya's friends, including former CIA Director James Woolsey. The acting principle is the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Dylan Murphy: Money Laundering and The Drug Trade!

The role of the Banks. Mexico is in the grip of a murderous drug war, that has killed over 150,000 people since 2006. It is one of the most violent countries on earth. This drug war is a product of the drug trade, which is worth up to $400 billion a year, and accounts for about 8% of all international trade. The American government maintains that there is no alternative, but to vigorously prosecute their zero tolerance policy of arresting drug users and their dealers. This has led to the incarceration of over 500,000 Americans. Meanwhile the flood of illegal drugs into America continues unabated. One thing the American government has not done, is to prosecute the largest banks in the world for supporting the drug cartels by washing billions of dollars of their blood stained money. As Narco sphere journalist Bill Conroy has observed, banks are where the money is in the global drug war. HSBC, western Union, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase & Company, Citigroup, Wachovia among many others have allegedly failed to comply with American anti money laundering (AML) laws. The Mexican drug cartels have caught the headlines again and again, due to their murderous activities. The war between the different drug cartels and government security forces has spilled the blood of tens of thousands of innocent people. The drug cartels would find it much harder to profit from their murderous activity, if they didn't have too big to fail banks willing to wash their dirty money. In March 2010 Wachovia cut a deal with the US government, which involved the bank given fines of $160 million under a deferred prosecution agreement. This was due to Wachovia's heavy involvement in money laundering moving up to $378.4 billion over several years. Not one banker was prosecuted for illegal involvement in the drug trade. Meanwhile, small time drug dealers and users go to prison. If any member of the public is caught in possession of a few grams of coke or heroin, you can bet your bottom dollar they will be going down to serve some hard time. However, if you are a banker caught laundering billions of dollars for some of the most murderous people on the planet, you get off with a slap on the wrist, in the form of some puny fine, and a deferred prosecution deal. Charles A Intriago, president of the Miami based Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialist has observed, if you are an individual and get caught, you get hammered. But if you are a big bank, and you are caught moving money for a terrorist or drug dealer, you don't have to worry. You just fork over a monetary penalty, and then raise your fees to make up for it. Until we see bankers walking off in handcuffs to face charges in these cases, nothing is going to change, Intriago adds. These monetary penalties are just a cost of doing business to them, like paying for a new corporate jet.    

Tomgram: Peter Van Buren, If the Government Does It, It's Legal!

Indefinite detention of the innocent and guilty alike, without any hope of charges, trial, or release: This is now the American way. Most Americans, however, may not care to take that in, not even when the indefinitely detained go on a hunger strike. That act has certainly gotten Washington's and the media's collective attention. After all, could there be anything more extreme than striking against your own body to make a point? Suicide by strike? It's the ultimate statement of protest and despair. Certainly, the strikers have succeeded in pushing Guantanamo out of the netherworld of non news and onto front pages, into presidential news conferences, and to the top of the TV newscasts. That, in a word, is extraordinary. But what exactly do those prisoners, many now being force fed, want to highlight? Here's one thing: Despite the promise he made on entering the Oval office, President Obama has obviously not made much of an effort to close the prison, which, as he said recently, hurts us, in terms of our international standing, and is a recruitment tool for extremists. If Congress has been thoroughly recalcitrant when it comes to closing Guantanamo, the president's idea of what shutting down that prison meant, proved curious indeed. His plan involved transferring many of the prisoners from Cuba, that crown jewel of the offshore Bermuda Triangle of injustice that the Bush administration set up in January 2002, to a super max style prison in Illinois Gitmo North. That would mean, of course, transferring indefinite detention from the offshore world of extraordinary rendition , black sites, and torture directly into the heart of the American justice system. Obama himself has indicated that at least 50 of the prisoners can, in his view, never be released or tried, in part because confessions were tortured out of some of them. They would be kept in what he, in the past, politely termed prolonged detention. Here's a second thing the strikers undoubtedly wanted to highlight, and it's even harder to take in: Guantanamo now holds 86 prisoners out of the 166 caged there, who have been carefully vetted by the US military, the FBI, the CIA, and so on, and found to have done nothing for which they could be charged or should be imprisoned. All 86 have been cleared for release, years late, often after brutal interrogation experiences, sometimes involving torture. The problem: there is nowhere to release them to, especially since the majority of them are Yemenis, and President Obama has imposed a moratorium on transferring any prisoner to Yemen.   

Michael Korn: Wanted, A psychiatric diagnose of Nazi holocaust denial.

Mr Hart, I am a Jewish believer in Jesus. I was raised in the USA, and moved to Israel after college, where I lived as an ultra Orthodox Jew for 18 years. I was raised in the USA, and moved to Israel after college, where I lived as an ultra Orthodox Jew for 18 years. I was baptized by South African missionaries on 20 June 2000 in Israel. Recently I have had some correspondence with Germans, who have shared perspective on the Holocaust and WWII. I think I might be able to provide you with some answers. First, these Germans believed that Hitler was a genuine patriot, who wrought miracles for a German society, that had been devastated by the punitive financial terms of the Versailles Treaty. Second, they are incensed that Jews, who comprised less than 1% of the German population in those days, virtually controlled the entire German economy. Third, they consider that Germany herself suffered a Holocaust of intensive Allied firebombings of German civilian cities from the very outset of the war. The book Human Smoke, documents Churchill's murderous crusade against German civilians in nighttime bombings, that lasted for six months, before Germany finally retaliated with the battle of Britain. The Jewish Holocaust narrative does not make room to ever acknowledge this holocaust, or those inflicted on Imperial Japan by Americans. Why deny? A Christian Jew explains Holocaust denial. Finally, as a Christian believer, surely you recognize that Jewish people have an account to settle with their Creator, for continuing to denigrate His Son Jesus. If Hitler was God's instrument of wrath, who are we to soften the blow? Now kindly read the excerpts from Mr. Grisham: This is a really interesting exchange about a John Grisham book, that inadvertently puts some of the claims of Holocaust Revisionists in a more favorable light. Leonard Vincent is the chief attorney for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, whom Grisham thanks in his acknowledgements as being of great assistance in helping him prepare the background for the book. Vincent substantiates the passage from the novel I have excerpted below, as truthfully describing the incredible precautions necessary when executing a prisoner in an American gas chamber. Given these precautions, how do you explain the claims of Jewish groups, that the Germans would gas 100-200 inmates at a time, and then other inmates were forced to immediately evacuate the gas chamber, and cart off bodies to ovens without any protective measures. Is it even possible? Or is it the case that the prison officials simply erred on the side of caution, and there is no real danger to come into direct contact with corpses gassed to death with cyanide?    

Dylan Murphy: Money Laundering and The Drug Trade:

The role of the Banks. Mexico is in the grip of a murderous drug war, that has killed over 150,000 people since 2006. It is one of the most violent countries on earth. This drug war is a product of the transnational drug trade, which is worth up to $400 billion a year, and accounts for about 8% of all international trade. The American government maintains that there is no alternative, but to vigorously prosecute their zero tolerance policy of arresting drug users and their dealers. This has led to the incarceration of over 500,000 Americans. Meanwhile, the flood of illegal drugs into America continues unabated. One thing the American government has not done, is to prosecute the largest banks in the world, for supporting the drug cartels, by washing billions of dollars of their blood stained money. As Narco sphere journalist Bill Conroy has observed, banks are where the money is, in the global drug war. HSBC, Western Union, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, Wachovia among many others, have allegedly failed to comply with American anti money laundering (AML) laws. The Mexican drug cartels have caught the headlines again and again, due to their murderous activities. The war between the different drug cartels and government security forces, has spilled the blood of tens of thousands of innocent people. The drug cartels would find it much harder to profit from their murderous activity, if they didn't have too big to fail banks willing to wash their dirty money. In March 2010, Wachovia cut a deal with the US government, which involved the bank being given fines of $160 million under a deferred prosecution agreement. This was due to Wachovia's heavy involvement in money laundering, moving up to $378.4 billion over several years. Not one banker was prosecuted for illegal involvement in the drug trade. Meanwhile small time drug dealers and users go to prison. If any member of the public is caught in possession of a few grams of coke or heroin, you can bet your bottom dollar, they will be going down to serve some hard time. However, if you are a banker caught laundering billions of dollars for some of the most murderous people on the planet, you get off with a slap on the wrist, in the form of some puny fine, and a deferred prosecution deal. Charles A Intriago, president of the Miami based Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists has observed, If you are an individual  and get caught, you get hammered
But if you are a big bank, and you are caught moving money for a terrorist or drug dealer, you don't have to worry. You just fork over a monetary penalty, and then raise your fees to make up for it.   

Jake Blumgart: It's All Too Easy to Get Fired in America.

In 49 of 50 States, You Can Be Fired for Any Reason. Don't get too comfy at your desk, your job might not be as secure as you think. Anecdotal reports from labor lawyers, and a few polls, show that most Americans believe their bosses must have good reason to kick them to the curb. We labor under the illusion of what Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman calls, there's got to be a law syndrome. We don't want to believe someone can be fired because her boss finds her sexually irresistible. In every other industrialized democracy, that could not legally happen, but in 49 of the 50 states, there is no law requiring a just or reasonable cause for employee termination. Most Americans can be legally fired for almost any reason. Private sector workplace relationships tend to operate under the standard of employment at will, which means you can be fired for the color of your shirt, your political views, supporting your favorite sports team, or for refusing to fetch your boss a cup of coffee. The Bill of Rights does not apply to your office. The protections in place are limited. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. But not sexual orientation. While 21 states have anti discrimination laws on their books, it is legal under federal law, to be fired for your sexual preferences or gender identity. The National Labor Relations Act theoretically protects workers trying to form a union, or engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection, but the law is notoriously weak, and its sanctions rarely deter employers. Any union contract worthy of the name, will include a just cause clause, protecting workers from arbitrary termination, while leaving room for management to act in case of economic necessity, or poor job performance. But 93.4 percent of private sector workers don't have a union, and serve at the whim of their employers. Unless they live in Montana. In 1987, the legislature passed the Montana Wrongful Discharge Act, which states that after a six month probationary period, a worker can only be fired for a good reason like failure to satisfactorily perform job duties, disruption of the employer's operation, or other legitimate business reason. That's awfully similar to the laws protecting the workers of almost every other industrially developed nation on the planet, as this management side presentation warns:Protections enjoyed by nations like the Netherlands, where a McDonalds employee can win back pay, after being fired for giving an off duty worker an extra slice of cheese with her burger, while the company was required to cover court costs too. How did Montana become a socialist hell-scape? The same way most laws are passed: With the backing of the organized business community!

Gordon Duff: Air Force Leaks Launch Codes: Minot Air Force Base Ground Zero

for Annihilation Cult Treason. This week, the Air Force went through Minot Air Force Base again, The 91st Missile wing failed an inspection, and 17 officers with nuclear weapons authority were relieved of duty. The real story, pushed by AP and other agencies out of the public eye, is that the real reason for the crackdown was the leaking of America's nuclear launch codes. From the Associated Press, the toned down version of what may well have been doomsday for the world, not at all unexpected at a base deeply infiltrated by extremist cult members: possible disciplinary action is pending against one other officer at Minot, who investigators found had purposefully broken a missile safety rule in an unspecified act, that could have compromised the secret codes, that enable the launching of missiles, which stand on high alert in underground silos, in the nation's midsection. Officials said there was no compromise of missile safety or security. This isn't the first time for something like this at Minot, not by a long shot. Back in 2008, Defense Secretary Robert Gates cleaned out the entire Air Force, with the exception of key personnel with strong backing from the Israeli lobby. Beginning in 1956, Minot AFB quickly grew, to become one of the largest dual wing Strategic Air Command bases, covering over 5,000 acres of land, with the Minuteman missile complex distributed over 5,500 acres of land, with the Minuteman missile complex distributed over 8,500 square miles. During the sixties, there were 5,742 officers and enlisted personnel working at the base, with another 468 at the radar sites, making Minot one of the largest of the forty nine SAC bases. Throughout the Cold War, the importance of the base cannot be overemphasized for it fielded a full arsenal of weapons for nuclear deterrence, including 150 Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in silos. Fifteen B-52H Stratofortress nuclear bombers, also capable of air to ground missile launch systems, fifteen KC-135 Stratotanker refueling tankers, UH-1F Huey rescue helicopters, and the Aerospace Defense Command's 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of twenty F-106 Delta Darts. To this day, the B-52 Stratofortress, and 150 Minuteman III ICBM's remain on alert at Minot AFB. The spin is blaming a malaise in the Air Force, since their diminished role, after the end of the Cold War. With an Army armed with its own drone capabilities, we are told the Air Force is having a "hissy fit" over not being able to threaten the planet with nuclear destruction quite as often as they used to.

Gordon Duff: War Has Begun. US Led Zio Wahabis Wage War on Syria!

This morning, the government of Israel contacted President Assad of Syria. They did so as the leader of a coalition now openly at war against Syria and Iran, with plans to broaden the conflict. Assad was told he would be allowed to continue his rule, but on the Jordanian model, as a puppet of Israel and Turkey. Israeli armor is now inside Syria, not just the occupied zone, but has closed the distance to Damascus, and has that city under artillery fire. The claimed air attacks are a ruse. Israel has been using 155 and 175 mm artillery, mobile howitzers of extreme range, enhanced by arms expert Gerald Bull, who was assassinated by Israeli agents in 1990 as his reward. The artillery attacks on Syria, using time delay and cluster munitions, are in direct support of military actions with fire control, and communications being supplied by Israeli UAV aircraft operating in Syrian air space in support of Al Qaeda led rebel groups. These terrorist groups, aided by extremists from Libya and the Gulf States, are being trained and supplied in Jordan and Turkey. It is hard to ignore the fact that US troops, on a secret mission to verify Israeli claims of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government, are fully complicit in aiding Al Qaeda operations against the Syrian government. As for chemical weapon use, a report from the United Nations human rights investigators, according to Reuters, has verified that it is rebels who have been using these weapons, in particular, deadly Sarin Gas. Former Swiss attorney general, Carla Del Ponte, representing the United Nations independent commission of inquiry, based in Geneva, is quoted in a televised interview: Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions, but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of Sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated. This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities. Last week, President Obama declared that use of chemical weapons by the Assad government would represent a red line for the United States, justifying military action against Syria. However, despite numerous unsubstantiated news reports, the first actionable reports of that mythic line being crossed, place Israel, Turkey and even the United States on the wrong side, aligned with Al Qaeda, in the use of deadly nerve agents against Syria. King Abdullah II of Jordan, on a mission at the request of Israel, met with President Obama on April 26, 2013. His message, supplied by his Israeli handlers, was that Syria has been using artillery shells, loaded with Sarin gas against rebel held enclaves inside Syria.     

Gordon Alex Graham: Allison in Wonderland, Boldly Going Nowhere!

When a progressive newspaper like the Washington Post speaks out, or permits others to use their fish-wrap, against the ruling Administration and one of his cabinet hirelings, you just know the King's new invisible finery is going to be put to the test. Rep. DD. Hunter and Pete Hegseth, his wordsmith, recently vocalized for all to hear, what many have been nodding their heads, and saying privately for weeks. Ever since Allison in Wonderland went up the Hill, and wove her tale of a rabbit hole of claims, and a cat with a timepiece to fix it, Congress in both houses has been rather aloof and cool to both generals. You get to do the Wolf! Yo! I say Wolf-yonder! Bring the guns! on several occasions before the novelty wears off, Chicken Little didn't get that email, and was forced to repeat the blunder years later. Doesn't anyone read George Santayana anymore? Well, here we are. Someone has discovered that the books have been cooked, and things are actually worse than the bean counters said they were, It actually takes way more than 273 days, on average, to get your claim adjudicated. If you currently have a claim with the VA and an IQ above room temperature, you may have noticed this anomaly. Try 600 days at some of the bigger VAROs, they have outfitted with the drive thru windows for the fully developed claims. Why they put in bulletproof glass, is fairly self explanatory by now. In all fairness, let's be realistic. Would I want that job? Would would you? I am sure we would be well intentioned, just as General Shinseki most undoubtedly is. I may give him a lot of grief here, but his little people are killing him. They are completely caught up in a culture that died around World War Vietnam. Deny. Deny. They are completely caught up in a culture that died around World War Vietnam. Deny, Deny. If they are completely caught up in a culture that died around World War Vietnam. Deny. Deny. If they do not appeal, there are more bonuses for us. These "Untermenschen" are the reason we suffer as we do. Instead of a culture modeled on Greece's, where warriors were considered just below Gods, our Veterans Administration obfuscates, nitpicks and delays settling with Veterans, until they are between the proverbial rock and the hard place. Having a complaisant VSO willing to settle for tinnitus and withdrawing the TBI claim, does not help much either. Or the one I heard today about the C&P, where the Doctor did a TBI exam, but managed to overlook the amputation of one of the gentleman's limbs. Good to go, bro! Just don't get in any ass kicking contests. A new paradigm is in the offing. The President discovered this hot potato was not going down well with the majority of Americans. They vote! 

Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Last Empire? And Then There Was One.

It stretched from the Caspian to the Baltic Sea, from the middle of Europe to the Kurile Islands in the Pacific, from Siberia to Central Asia. Its nuclear arsenal held 45,000 warheads, and its military had five million troops under arms. There had been nothing like it in Eurasia since the Mongols conquered China, took parts of Central Asia and the Iranian plateau, and rode into the Middle East, looting Baghdad. Yet when the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, by far the poorer, weaker imperial power disappeared. And then there was one. There had never been such a moment: a single nation astride the globe without a competitor in sight. There wasn't even a name for such a state, or state of mind. Superpower had already been used when there were two of them. Hyper-power was tried briefly but didn't stick. Sole superpower stood in for a while but didn't satisfy. Great Power, once the zenith of appellations, was by then a lesser phrase, left over the zenith of appellations, was by then a lesser phrase, left over from the centuries, when various European nations and Japan were expanding their Empires. Some started speaking about a unipolar world in which all roads led, well, to Washington. To this day, we have never quite taken in that moment, when Soviet imperial rot unexpectedly above all, to Washington, became imperial crash and burn. Left standing, the Cold War's victor seemed, then, like an empire of everything under the sun. It was as if humanity had always been traveling toward this spot. It seemed like the end of the line. The Last Empire? After the rise and fall of the Assyrians and the Romans, the Persians, the Chinese, the Mongols, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the English, the Germans, and the Japanese, some process seemed over. The United States was dominant in a previously unimaginable way - except in Hollywood films, where villains cackled about their evil plans to dominate the world. As a start, the US was an empire of global capital. With the fall of Soviet style communism, and the transformation of a communist regime in China, into a crew of authoritarian capitalist "roaders", there was no other model for how to do anything, economically speaking. There was Washington's way, and that of the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank, both controlled by Washington, or there was the highway, and the Soviet Union had already made it all too clear where that led: to obsolescence and ruin.

By Alex Kane: Foor Big Pushers of the War in Iraq!

now gunning for intervention in Syria, consequences be damned. The news from Syria over the past week has been dizzying, but if you can keep your head on straight, you will recognize an uptick in strident calls for American intervention in Syria, though it remains unlikely the Obama administration will commit to full scale war. Over the weekend, the Israeli air force reportedly bombed Syrian military installations in Damascus, a move that marked the most significant and direct international intervention yet, in a civil war that has turned into a proxy battle between regional forces. The Israeli strike over the weekend, followed another Israeli attack last week, that was reportedly meant to prevent Iranian weapons from being transferred through Syria to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a bitter enemy of the Jewish state. The Israeli attacks come over two years into the grinding Syrian conflict, which started out as part of the wave of Arab uprisings, but has transformed into an armed civil war, that has taken the lives of tens of thousands of people. The Israeli strikes have been hailed by war hawks as proof that the US and Western allies, can easily pummel the Syrian regime to the ground, and pave the way for a rebel victory. Calls for intervention have been ratcheting up since Israel, Britain, France and finally the US concluded that there had been chemical weapons use by the Assad regime, a red line the Obama administration has warned Syria not to cross. But the chemical weapons use claims were muddied up yesterday, when a UN investigator said that it may have been the Syrian rebels that used sarin gas, not the Assad regime. If the UN investigator is right, and there is no guarantee of that, it should complicate the calls  for the US to directly arm the rebels. But considering their track record, proponents for more intervention can't be stopped by much. Since the news broke of chemical weapons use, war hawks and their allies in the US, have taken to the air waves and Op Ed pages to push for US intervention. What is missing from their analysis, is recognition that US intervention to depose Assad, would lead to a power vacuum with unknown consequences, that the US would become a target for those opposed to the West, including among the rebel groups, that America has a poor track record of intervening in the Middle East, and that the vast majority of Americans has a poor track record of intervening in the Middle East, and that the vast majority of Americans have no desire to get embroiled in another war. Also not on the table: A serious attempt to negotiate, with all international powers, an agreement to end the fighting, and begin a transition in Syria. While that won't be easy, the US and its allies have stymied chances of that in the past.  

By Amy Goodman and Michael Pollan: How the Processed Food Industry Undermines Healthy Food Culture!

We spend the hour with Michael Pollan, one of the country's leading writers and thinkers on food and food policy. Pollan has written several best selling books about food, including The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food: an Eater's Manifesto. In his latest book, Cooked: A Natural History History of Transformation, Pollan argues that taking back control of cooking, may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make our food system healthier and more sustainable. There is a deliberate effort to undermine food culture to sell us processed food, Polan says. The family meal is a challenge, if you are General Mills or Kellogg, or one of these companies, or McDonald's, because the family meal is usually one thing shared. Pollan also talks about the slow food movement. Slow food is about food that is good, clean and fair. They are concerned with social justice. They are concerned with how the food is grown, and how humane and chemical free it is. He adds, Slow food is about recovering that space around the family, and keeping the influence of the food manufacturers outside of the house. The family meal is very important. It is the nursery of democracy. Amy Goodman: We spend the hour today, with one of the country's leading writers and thinkers on food and food policy: Michael Pollan. He has written several best selling books about food, including The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. He has just written a new book, called Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. In the book, Michael Pollan argues taking back control of cooking, may be the single most important step anyone can take, to help make our food system healthier and more sustainable. Michael Pollan is the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism. He joined me in New York, when his book was released just a week ago. I started by asking him about the journey he took in writing Cooked. Michael Pollan: It was probably the most fun I have ever had as a writer, and it is hard to describe it as work exactly. When I figured out what I wanted to do, which was kind of drive cooking back to its most elemental reality, I decided to apprentice myself to a series of masters, and I divided it into four essential transformations that, you know, kind of the common denominator of all cooking: Fire, cooking with fire, you know, the oldest, water, which is to say cooking in pots, which comes much later in history, and involves a whole different set of ways of transferring heat, air, for baking, and earth for fermentation. And so, in each case. I found someone or a couple someone who were really good at the mastery of that element, and I worked for them a number of shifts, a number of events, and or lessons, and just kind of acquired these skills that I had never had before.

Jim W. Dean: Boston: Who did what to whom?

The postmortem of the Boston bombing begins, which includes identifying controlled deception and cover. The smoke has cleared, and the dust on the Boston bombing is finally beginning to settle a bit. The frenzy on the Internet, of everyone pouring over the huge number of images, and appointing themselves instant photo analysts, has cooled down somewhat, too. But today we will drive the wooden stake through the heart, of some of the god awful silly accusations, that were made, which has hurt the hunt for the truth. We understand the public is hypersensitive about false flag attacks now. The 911 commission was considered a bad joke majority around the world, but that went nowhere. The Bush administration, and virtually all of America's institutions, acted as they did not care, the proof being, that there was no major push for an under oath investigation. That was a huge mistake, as it invited more attacks, and they came. It's good for people to be skeptical, but going too far, plays into the hands of the bad guys as well, meaning Internet sleuths can provide good cover for the professional deception crowd. This always takes the attention away from the most vulnerable areas, any false flag perpetrators prefer to be ignored. An experienced Intel analyst, right off the bat, is going to be hypersensitive about what is not being talked about, and/or covered by media and investigators on the first day or two. That is where you start sniffing like a bird dog. At Veteran's Today, we stuck our flag in the ground early on the bombing drill, once again, being conducted on the day of a major event. Yes it was early in the morning, and in the vicinity of the start of the race, while the bombing was at an end. But this has happened so many times, I think now, that all live events that are going to have a Homeland Security drill should be canceled, or all those attending be made to sign a release waiver, that they understand they might be blown up. After the first day, media reports of the drill disappeared. Poof, and they were gone. With that also went anomaly number two, the Craft security contractors, who were so prominently visible at the finish line area, with their silly hats and uniforms. The backpacked fragment of the first bomb matched exactly one that was clearly photographed on an Israeli looking Craft contractor. But corporate media never mentioned a word about them, something that was an obvious and normal area of inquiry to even a rookie detective. That is a sign that the media was waived off of the bombing drill, and Craft presence on one day one a bad sign, but also a good one in that someone very high up wanted that shut down, and it was. 

Abayomi Azikiwe: Detroit's Economic Crisis and the Role of the Banks!

Part of a Global Crisis. Since late March, the city of Detroit has been under a so called financial emergency, where right wing multi-millionaire Governor Rick Snyder designated Kevyn Orr, a bankers' agent, to head this municipality in total contravention of the political will of the people, not only here but around the state. When the announcement of emergency management was made, the corporate media never bothered to mention that a large majority of people within Michigan had just voted against Proposal II, which would have changed the constitution to ensure payments to the banks, irrespective of the interests of the people of his area. Public Act 436, is nothing but a legislative and executive mechanism, to further impoverish, exploit, oppress and repress the people of Detroit. Over the last census period , some 237,000 people were driven from the city through predatory lending, utility shut offs, the flight of jobs and repression by the state apparatus. When the city loses residents, it means that tax revenues go down, and this inevitably results in a greater drain of resources for the payment of civil servants, and the maintenance of municipal services, like public lighting, public transportation, public schools, etc. The banks who evicted the residents of Detroit do not pay taxes on the seized properties, many of which now are controlled by Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, who are deadbeat property occupiers themselves. At present, there is no viable or legitimate government running the City of Detroit. The current corporate imposed Mayor, and majority City Council, voted to abdicate their authority to the state, and consequently the banks which have ruined Detroit. Just last month, this same Mayor and majority City Council, voted to hand over another $3.3 million to Jones Day law firm, a multi-billion dollar outfit, that was involved in the much championed Chrysler bailout in 2009. These forces, which are the enablers behind Orr, were part of the auto prepackaged bankruptcy, that led to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, the slashing of salaries, and the institutionalization of a two and three tier wage structure, and attacks on the eight hour day. Jones Day is being contracted to supposedly restructure the debt for the city. We know that whatever they decide to do, will not involve the people of Detroit. We also know that the type of restructuring they are talking about, has nothing to do with the interests of the people of the city, which includes the need for jobs, economic opportunities, housing rehabilitation, municipal services, the re building of public education, public transportation, food security, the maintenance of our water system and other public assets.   

Global Research News: Unprovoked Israeli Acts of Aggression against Syria!

Prelude to a broader war? The US feigns dissociation with an act of Israeli aggression, as was planned since 2007. The West has carefully cultivated Israel into a regional bully. Immune from inter national condemnation, it is now being used to commit egregious war crimes against neighboring Syria, in hopes of provoking a retaliation, and giving the US and its regional axis, the justification it has long sought to militarily intervene. Unprovoked, Israel has attacked Syria numerous times over the past 2 days, including attacks on the Syrian capital of Damascus, in what appears to be a series of intentional provocations, designed to drag the region into a wider conflict. Its series its US sponsors can then enter militarily. Neither attacked directly by Syria, nor able to cite credible evidence in regards to perceived threats, Israel claims to be reacting to, the assault on Syria represents a Chapter VII breach of the United Nations Charter. What's more, is that while the US feigns disassociation with Israel's breach of international peace, after jointly fueling a genocidal sectarian conflict within Syria's borders for the past two years, it is a documented fact that the US and Saudi Arabia planned to use Israel to conduct military attacks against Iran and Syria, they themselves could not justify politically, legally, or strategically. What is now hoped, is that Syria and Iran retaliate militarily , allowing the other shoe to drop, and for the US, UK, France, and their regional axis to directly intervene in Syria, and with luck, Iran. Insidious Ploy Engineered and Documented in 2007-2009. As early as 2007, it was reported that a US Saudi Israeli conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Iran and Syria, by arming sectarian terrorists, many linked directly to Al Qaeda, was already set in motion. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, in his 2007 New Yorker article, The Redirection, stated, with emphasis added: To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia's government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The US has also taken part in clandestine operations, aimed at Iran and its allay Syria. A by-product of these activities, has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups, that espouse a militant vision of Islam, and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.         

Sami Jadallah: Islam: The Danger Within by Jamil Jadallah!

As if the war on Islam and Muslims declared by certain evil forces within the US and international Zionism, is not enough, the so called Takfiri Jihadist terrorists have also declared war on Islam and Muslims. Mohamed Imami Kashani, the Imam of the Friday Prayer Mosque in Tehran is correct, when he recently labeled these Takfiri Jihadists as not Sunnis. not Shiites, not even Muslims, but true die hard Zionists. The Reagan administration with intellectual and philosophical advocacy from Neo Cons think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute, and in fulfillment of its objective to wage overt and covert war on Communism, and in fulfillment of its objective to wage overt and covert war on Communism, and with the support, certainly generous financial payments, to Arab and Muslim governments, began to recruit all the misfits, radicals and lost generation to fight its war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Mujahidden war in Afghanistan, is and will remain the incubator of Islamist terrorism and the radicalization of so many young Muslims, in countries like Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in India, Kashmir, Somalia, Iraq, and recently in Tunisia. Assisting this international war on Islam are radical clergymen, who are doing their best to emulate the Rabbi's of Christ, time and are doing their best to take over the Temple, and everything in it and are working very hard for the Talmudization of Islam, and trying to shape Islam and Islamic Civilization's in their own image of ignorance, and intolerance. Promoting and sad to say winning the sectarian wars in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Syria. They have been waging verbal and armed war in mosques all over the Muslim world, anointing themselves as leaders of the Ummah, when in fact they lack all the intellectual and religious credentials to lead such Ummah, let alone a mosque. Any one of these days, with a shaved head, and a long beard can claim to be an Islamic leader, gathering around themselves unemployed failed misfits, who have been left out and marginalized by society. These so called Emir truly think of themselves as Prince's of Believers, moving around in motorcades with armed guards, and processions fits for a Mafiosi's, and acting like a criminal gang leaders of Los Angeles and Chicago. If America's war on Islam in Afghanistan, in Iraq has caused the direct death of hundreds of thousands, then the Takfiri Jihadist war on Islam and Muslims has caused a number far exceed these modest figures. Always directing their acts of terror, toward poor neighborhoods and innocent bystanders.  

Tracey Shelton and Peter Gelling, Global Post.

A recent strike in Aleppo led Syrians to think chemical warfare had broke out, But a closer analysis reveals something different. Yasser Younes went to bed around midnight on April 13. When he woke up two days later, he was in a hospital, and his wife and two young children were dead. Younes, who lives in the Kurdish controlled neighborhood of Sheik Maqsoud, said he doesn't remember much from that night. He recalled waking up to a loud noise at 3 a.m. Opening the door, he said he saw smoke. And that was it. At Avreen Hospital in Afrin, about 40 miles away, the doctors who received the emergency call, said they had little doubt about what was going on. Dr. Kawa Hassan prepared his staff to receive 22 patients suffering from conditions he believed were caused by a chemical weapons attack. I received the call at 3:30 am, said Hassan, who has worked as the director of Avreen Hospital for the past eight months. I had no idea what chemical it might be, so we prepared masks and protective clothing. I was scared, not for myself, but for all of Syria. I didn't think it would come to this. A closer analysis, however, raised doubts and highlights the challenge of confirming whether the Syrian government, or anyone else, is using chemical weapons. The reality could have major implications for Syria and beyond, prompting foreign powers to intervene directly, or continue with the status quo. Looking at video and photos obtained by Global Post at the scene, experts say the spent canister found in Younes' house, and the symptoms displayed by the victims are inconsistent with a chemical weapon such as sarin gas, which is known to be in Syria's arsenal. Sarin is typically delivered using artillery shells or spray tanks. While analysts have not been able to identify the canister, they say tear gas, some kind of generated smoke, as well as any number of chemicals found in military munitions and devices, could also have been responsible. Chemicals used for riot control are not prohibited by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. In recent years, in other countries in the Middle East, where security forces used tear gas on protesters, witnesses reported seeing victims foam at the mouth, convulse and twitch, the same symptoms seen in the Syrian victims. The telltale sign of a sarin gas attack is myosis, or constricting of the pupils, and fasciculations, the medical term for tremors. While Global Post confirmed that some of the victims in the April 13 attack suffered from tremors, it was unable to confirm any of them had myosis. Moreover, experts say an attack by sarin gas would cause virtually anyone who had come into contact with the toxin to immediately feel its effects. Exposure to even a very small amount of sarin could be lethal. While there were casualties in the Aleppo attack, most of the victims survived, which would not likely be the outcome of a sarin attack in a confined environment.

Noam Chomsky: Boston and Beyond: Terorism at Home and Abroad!

April is usually a cheerful month in New England,with the first sign of spring, and the harsh winter at last receding. Not this year. There are a few in Boston, who were not touched in some way by the marathon bombings on April 15, and the tense week that followed. Several friends of mine were at the finish line, when the bombs went off. Others live close to where Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect, was captured. The young police officer Sean Collier was murdered right outside my office building. It's rare for privileged Westerners to see graphically, what others experience daily for example, in a remote village in Yemen, the same week as the marathon bombings. On April 23, Yemeni activist and journalist Farea Al Muslimi, who had studied at an American high school, testified before the US Senate committee, that right after the marathon bombings, a drone strike in his home village in Yemen killed its target. The strike terrorized the villagers, turning them into enemies of the United States, something that years of jihadi propaganda had failed to accomplish. His neighbors had admired the US, Al Muslimi told the committee, but Now, however, when they think of America, they think of the fear they feel at the drones over their heads. What radicals had previously failed to achieve in his village, one drone strike accomplished in an instant. Rack up another triumph for President Obama's global assassination program, which creates hatred of the United States, and threats to its citizens more rapidly than it kills people who are suspected of posing a possible danger to us someday. The target of the Yemeni village assassination, which was carried out to induce maximum terror in the population was well known, and could easily have been apprehended, Al Muslimi said. This is another familiar feature of the global terror operations. Suspect murdered, his body disposed of without autopsy, when he could easily have been apprehended and brought to trial: Osama bin Laden. This murder too had consequences. To locate bin Laden, the CIA launched a fraudulent vaccination campaign in a poor neighborhood, then switched it, uncompleted, to a richer area, where the suspect was thought to be. The CIA operation violated fundamental principles as old as the Hippocratic oath. It also endangered health workers associated with a polio vaccination program in Pakistan, several of whom were abducted and killed, prompting the UN to withdraw its anti polio team. The CIA ruse also will lead to the deaths of unknown numbers of Pakistanis who have been deprived of protection from polio, because they fear that foreign killers may still be exploiting vaccination programs.  

Robert O'Dowd: Marine with Prostate Cancer in Pain!

Called 9/11for help. An El Toro Marine with prostrate cancer, was left om his own, to drive home, after telling a cancer treatment doctor of severe abdominal pains. Cancer is not something that anyone would volunteer for, or for that matter, wish on another human being. The cliche 'avoid like the plague comes immediately to mind. Images of bone thin humans, wasting away in a hospice bed, flood the mind. Images of bone thing humans, wasting away in a hospice bed, flood the mind. Unable to eat from the effects of chemotherapy, awaiting death's call, sedated with drugs to kill the pain, all hope of recovery gone. For me, cancer is not a vicarious experience. I had bladder cancer in 2005, no history of bladder cancer in my family, and I don't smoke, despite getting cigarettes in Vietnam. Robert Dowd was not so lucky. He has been through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. He is an El Toro Marine veteran who worked and slept in a Radium 226 contaminated hangar, in the most environmentally contaminated 200 acres at El Toro, once the premier Marine Corps' jet fighter base, and now an EPA Superfund site. It's not a shock that he developed cancers, small vessel disease of the brain, 'hyperprolactinemia', sterility at age 44 from prostrate surgery, and other medical conditions, linked to exposure to radiation and organic solvents used in the hangar and in the base's water supply. Tim King, founder of Salem News.com, and a former El Toro Marine, and I co-authored the story of environmental contamination at El Toro and Camp Lejeune in Betrayal: Toxic Exposure of US Marines, Murder and Government Cover up. Betrayal: Toxic Exposure of US Marines, Murder and Government Cover up, was published as an eBook on Amazon's Kindle (580 pages) in 2013, tells the story of the thousands of veterans and their families, once stationed at El Toro and Camp Lejeune, NC. Legislation to provide health care for Camp Lejeune, NC. Legislation to provide health care for Camp Lejeune veterans and their dependents, was passed in the 112th Congress. No veteran compensation was included in the Janey Ensminger Act. None of the veterans that served aboard these two installations were notified of their exposure to deadly contaminants, when it was discovered these two installations were notified of their exposure to deadly contaminants resulting in both cases earning EPA Superfund Cleanup Site status. Many veterans have died without connecting the dots, between their killing diseases and military service.