G7 to weigh future of G8

Reuters

Money talks: The impact of sanctions on Russia

The Economist

Obama’s Half-Brother Reveals What the President Did the First Time They Met in Kenya and Talked About ‘Heroes of Western Culture’

President Barack Obama with half-brother Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo and his wife. (Image: Mark Obama Ndesanjo Foundation Ltd.)

Sharona Schwartz

President Obama’s half-brother told an Israeli newspaper that when he first met Barack, he was struck by his sibling’s rejection of Western culture.

“I remember that my impression at the first meeting was that Barack thought that I was too white, and I thought that he was too black,” Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo told Maariv. “He was an American citizen on a journey in search of his African roots, while I was a resident of Kenya seeking to find his white roots.”

“I remember that when I spoke with him about the heroes of Western culture he rolled his eyes impatiently. My feeling was that, here is an American who in many ways is trying to be a local Kenyan youth. This is something I tried to flee my entire life,” Ndesandjo said of the brothers’ first meeting in Kenya, which Obama described in his 1995 best-selling memoir, “Dreams From My Father.”

In his memoir, Obama also described the first meeting with his brother: “I don’t feel much of an attachment [to Kenya]. Just another poor African country,” Obama quoted Ndesandjo saying. He went on to say, “You think that somehow I’m cut off from my roots … Well, you’re right.”

As reported on TheBlaze last month, Ndesandjo has said he wants to “set the record straight” about some of the details presented in Obama’s memoir.

The siblings have met since that first meeting in Kenya, including in 2007 before then-candidate Obama’s debate with rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“I came to visit him in Texas, and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. He entered the room where I was waiting for him, looked at me and said, ‘Mark, what happened to your afro?’ And I asked: ‘What happened to your afro?’ He said: ‘I cut my hair.’ It was a real moment, very natural, as if for a moment we returned to being two brothers,” Ndesandjo recounted.

Keep reading on TheBlaze.com >>

Behind the Scenes of the Geneva Accord with Iran

theinnoplex

baroness ashton and kerry

..Not only in Israel, but among Arab allies of the U.S., the belief that America is no longer a reliable partner in the Middle East is gaining momentum. After the failures of American plans in Iraq and Afghanistan, the countries of the region have reason to doubt the ability of the U.S. to guarantee a predictable outcome in the Middle East. Now it is unclear how the situation in Egypt will play out, what awaits the region in connection with the nascent revival of relations between America and Iran, how...

read more >>

World powers, Iran seek nuclear deal despite Israeli opposition

Talks between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear program entered their third day in Geneva on Friday, despite fierce opposition from Israel over negotiations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls the ‘deal of the century’ for Iran.

Secretary of State John Kerry and counterparts from Britain, France and Germany negotiating with Iran consulted on how to resolve the obstacles at the talks, including differences on ways to reduce Tehran's ability to make atomic weapons using plutonium and enriched uranium

Keep reading on Fox News >>

Welcome to the Global Jihad

breitbart

www.crethiplethi.com

By Frank Gaffney 

Authorities in Massachusetts have identified suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday as Dzhokhar and (the now-deceased) Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two brothers of Chechen descent originally from Kyrgyzstan. Many Americans haven’t heard of the place; most couldn’t find it on a map. Nearly all would be unable to say why people from there would want to kill people from here.

Welcome to the phenomenon of global jihad. It is time to dispense with the illusion that we are safe from foreign threats because we have put, as President Obama repeatedly insisted during the last campaign, “al Qaeda on the path to defeat,” thanks to the death of Osama bin Laden and the drone-delivered thinning of the ranks of his lieutenants.

The Chechen jihadists in Boston may or may not have been associated with, or even inspired by, bin Laden’s terror network. But in the days and weeks to come we are likely to discover that they identify with its goals: 1) imposing the supremacist Islamic doctrine of shariah – a totalitarian, brutally repressive and anti-Constitutional ideology – on the entire world, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. And 2) recreating a caliphate (or a similar theo-political entity) to rule according to that doctrine.

The same is true of other violent jihadists of the Sunni and Shia stripes, including, respectively, the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia and the regime in Iran. Ditto the so-called non-violent Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, that organization – which is the mother-ship for virtually all modern Sunni jihadists – favors an approach better described as pre-violent: The Brotherhood is perfectly prepared to use violence when it will be effective. Until then, they will adopt other measures (which they call “civilization jihad”) to create conditions that would be conducive to the realization of the goals they share with all other Islamists.

My preliminary read on the Brothers Tsarnaev is that they, too, were committed to the triumph of shariah. And whether they were associated with one or the other of these groups, factions, or sects, or if they were self-taught and operating alone, it seems likely that they embraced that doctrine’s requirement to wage jihad against infidels – something they evidently did with pressure-cooker improvised explosive devices near the Finish Line on Monday.

Literally by the minute, we are learning more about their backgrounds and behavior. With luck, we will also know shortly whether they were aided by accomplices or organizational infrastructure that may still pose a threat.

What we know already, however, is that there are perhaps hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of others like them around the world. Folks who believe that their god commands them to engage personally in holy war against the infidels and non-shariah-adherent Muslims (whom they call apostates). 

What is particularly worrying is that this is not a new revelation. We have been on notice of this fact since well before 9/11. And yet we have at times ignored it – or, in some cases, denied it assiduously. And that is not simply true of average Americans. It has been the widespread practice within administrations of both parties, beginning in earnest under George W. Bush and metastasizing greatly in the Obama presidency. (For a detailed treatment of how this has happened and why, see www.MuslimBrotherhoodinAmerica.com and The Muslim Brother in the Obama Administration www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org.)

We have thus systematically violated one of the cardinal principles of warfare dating back at least to the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tsu, who warned that you cannot defeat an enemy you do not know. Worse, we have allowed an enemy we could and should have known long ago to dictate to us what we are allowed to understand, think, and do about them. 

For example, the Obama administration has purged the files and training materials of federal law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security, and defense agencies of information that might “offend” Islamists. That would include knowing such truths as that it is the orthodoxy of Islam (although a practice not embraced by all Muslims) to engage in jihad to advance the supremacy of shariah. 

Even more alarming, the U.S. government now operates under guidelines for training in “countering violent extremism” (the euphemism it adopted in lieu of the Bush administration’s preferred euphemism for jihad, “terrorism”) that make matters infinitely more dangerous: those using federal funds for such training must now first consult with “community partners” about the trainers and their materials. Those partners appear to be Muslim Brotherhood operatives and front groups.

Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we are a nation at war. And not simply in Afghanistan, but worldwide. Not with every Muslim, but with every Muslim that believes shariah must reign supreme and will do whatever is necessary to bring that about. 

Those enemies fully understand and embrace this war. They regard our efforts to pretend otherwise or to accommodate, placate, or appease them as submission. According to their doctrine of shariah, the appropriate response to the infidel submitting is, in the words of the Koran, to make them “feel subdued.” And that is a formula for more violent jihadism, not less.

At a moment when our elected representatives are contemplating immigration “reform” that would likely have the result of enabling, among others, still more global jihadists into our country, we need to grasp the lessons of the latest Boston massacre. We must be clear about the enemy, vigilant against his jihadist techniques – both the violent and pre-violent ones – and adopt the war footing required to prevail over this threat here at home and elsewhere, before more of us suffer the perils of global holy war.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. formerly acted as an Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan. He is President of the Center for Security Policy (www.SecureFreedom.org) and host of the nationally syndicated program, Secure Freedom Radio. 

Assad: West will pay for backing al Qaeda in Syria

worldnews

SANA via Reuters

Syria's President Bashar Assad, right, attends an interview with Syrian television channel al-Ikhbariya in Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on April 17.

By Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans, Reuters

President Bashar Assad accused the West on Wednesday of supporting al Qaeda militants in Syria's civil war and warned they would turn against their backers and strike "in the heart of Europe and the United States."

Assad also launched his strongest criticism yet of neighboring Jordan for allowing thousands of fighters to cross the border to join a conflict he insisted his forces would win and save Syria from destruction.

"We have no choice but victory. If we don't win, Syria will be finished and I don't think this is a choice for any citizen in Syria," the defiant president said in a television interview.

Assad's forces have been fighting back across the country against rebels who have taken control of much of rural Syria and seized a provincial capital in March for the first time in two years of fighting.

The conflict started with mainly peaceful demonstrations but descended into a civil war in which the United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed. Islamist militants have emerged as the most potent of the anti-Assad rebels.

Drawing parallels with Western support for anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s, some of whom later formed the al Qaeda organization which attacked the United States in September 2011, Assad said Washington and Europe would regret supporting rebels in Syria.

"The West paid heavily for funding al Qaeda in its early stages in Afghanistan. Today it is supporting it in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price later in the heart of Europe and the United States," he told al-Ikhbariya channel.

"The truth is, what is happening is that we are mainly facing extremist forces," Assad added.

He was speaking a week after Syria's rebel al-Nusra Front, one of the most effective rebel forces battling his troops, formally pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

The United States has designated the Nusra Front a terrorist organization and has sought to bolster rival rebel forces to counter the influence of the Islamists, training fighters in neighboring Jordan and allowing arms shipments to them.

In some of his toughest comments against Jordan, Assad said Syria's southern neighbor had allowed thousands of fighters with military gear to cross into Syria to join the fight, and warned that the conflict could spread to Jordanian territory.

"The fire will not stop at our border and everybody knows that Jordan is exposed as Syria is," he said.

He said Syria had sent a security envoy to Amman in recent weeks to inquire about the fighters and reports of rebel training camps but he was met with "complete denial" of any Jordanian role in either issue.

The United States will send 200 troops to Jordan in the coming weeks to help the kingdom boost its defenses in the face of a "deteriorating situation" in Syria, Jordanian Minister of State for Information Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters.

Rebels say U.S. officers in Jordan have been training groups of anti-Assad fighters from Damascus and the southern province of Deraa - where fighting has intensified in recent weeks and rebels have made gains.

"It's not possible to believe that thousands enter Syria with their gear (from Jordan) when Jordan is able to stop or arrest a single person carrying a simple weapon for resistance in Palestine," Assad said.

30 Year CIA Vet Admits West Runs Al-Qaeda

TheAlexJonesChannel

Muslim Roulette

frontpagemag
By Bosch Fawstin
Can anyone tell which Muslim will go jihad before he or she does?

Non-Muslim Muslims, or as some call them “Moderate Muslims,” give the Jihadist enemy cover. They’re pointed to as “proof” that violence has nothing to do with Islam when, in fact, non-violent Muslims are reluctant Muslims. And they’re the reason we’re playing a game of Muslim Roulette in the middle of the Muslim world’s jihad on us. While we’d like to discriminate between “moderate Muslims,” “extremist Muslims,” etc., Muslims see us as Infidels, period. Not moderate Infidels, extremist infidels, etc., but simply Infidels.

Since 9/11 – a day that FAR too many Muslims celebrated – we’ve been expected to treat Muslims as if they’re not only above reproach, but as if it’s racist or “Islamophobic” to consider for an instant that any Muslim might be up to no good; that they’re All innocent no matter how many of them have been proven guilty of engaging in or supporting jihad.

When our government bureaucrats tell us “If you see something, say something,” they rely on us to be the ones to decide what that means, in order to protect themselves from accusations of “Islamophobia.” Islam is an ideology, not a race, so what we’re supposed to be looking for gets very complicated, since, in addition to Arab Muslims, there are white, black, Hispanic, female, blond-haired, red-haired, and blue-eyed Muslims as well. This is not a call to condemn all those who call themselves Muslims, it’s just a reminder that we need to be better able to detect killer Muslims before they kill. And that’s the job our government should be engaged in — not protecting Muslim feelings, but protecting American lives.

For more on this, see the most popular piece I’ve written on Islam, Non-Muslim Muslims and the Jihad Against The West.

The Enemy Within

wilderssupport

The Post-Western World without the United States as the Economic Superpower

patdollard

Excerpted from Canada Free Press:

Christian and American customs around the country are under attack by atheist minorities and groups with anti-American agendas. Institutions, freedoms, and traditions that we had previously taken for granted are threatened. The church, turning left and complicit, clamoring for new membership and revenues, has chosen to remain silent in defense of life, liberty and Americanism. Conservative groups have abandoned their principles in order to be popular and liked. The future of our country in general is irrelevant to most who selfishly live in the bubble of the moment.

The majority of Americans are either asleep, lulled into a false sense of temporary well-being and abundance, or have resigned themselves to their fate because it is hard to have spring with one flower. Those who are keenly aware of negative transformations and have seen this movie play before are shaking their heads in disbelief and speaking in the wind like mythological Cassandras.

Few seem to worry about future generations, except in empty posturing rhetoric. Lost in egotistical self-indulgence, our collective elected officials continue to make decisions predicated on the Me Generation. The Lost Generation must fend for itself when the time comes.

Since the low-information reality show spectator voters have elected the most “transformational president” in history to a second term of lavish spending and punitive socialist redistribution of wealth, if the U.N. Agenda 21 and the ginned-up class warfare succeed, the thinking Americans will watch powerlessly as the U.S. will no longer be a Constitutional Republic and a superpower, becoming a second rate nation in the dustbin of declined and fallen “empires.”

What will the world be like and what kind of country will America be in the next 15-20 years at the rate of the fast-paced involuntary and hopeless change that is aimed at pushing us “forward” to disaster?

The “unprecedented change” will drive “60 percent of the world’s population to mega-cities by 2030, and competition for food, water, and energy resources could increase the possibilities of violent conflict.” (Frederick Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council)

“The United States must urgently address its domestic economic and political dysfunctions.” The Atlantic Council, a think tank, wrote a 57-page report, “Envisioning 2030: U.S. Leadership in a Post-Western World,” to “help prepare the Obama Administration and its global partners for unprecedented change.”

The report predicts a future of “vast economic and political volatility, environmental catastrophe, and conflicting, inward-looking nationalisms that would be unlike any period that the United States has seen before.” “President Obama will be setting the tone and direction for U.S. policy in a post-Western world.” (Atlantic Council, Executive Summary, p. 5)

As the powers that be are actively and speedily working to affect this outcome, the global order champions “predict” that wealth will shift from west to east. Learning Mandarin may be a good idea – China is recognized in the report as “the most crucial single factor that will shape the international system in 2030.” (Atlantic Council, Executive Summary, p. 7)

Is a post-western world a world without the United States as the economic superpower, benefactor, and military protector of the globe’s ungrateful nations? The 20th century economic guru of the liberal elites, John Maynard Keynes, said in 1937, “…the idea of the future being different from the present is so repugnant to our conventional modes of thought and behavior that we, most of us, offer a great resistance to acting on it in practice.”

The National Intelligence Council discusses in its December 2012 166-page paper, “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds,” the mega trends, game-changers, Black Swans, and potential worlds in the next 15-20 years.

Food, water, and energy sources will become problematic due to growing populations in emerging markets and policies adopted at home that favor expensive green energy, wind, solar, and biofuels, preventing exploration of existing cheaper domestic resources of fossil fueled energy. As one commodity becomes an issue, it will affect the supply and demand of the others. Water needs will grow by a predicted 40 percent.

Continue Reading >>

The Decline and Fall of Western Culture in One Photo

By Zombie

Read on PJM >>

Muslim Brotherhood's plans to take over the United States [Documentary]

NoisyRoom

A Documentary about the Muslim Brotherhood and their plans to take over the United States from the inside. Clinton, Bush and Obama are all aware. How many more in the Government are involved.

The Muslim Brotherhood "Project"

From The Blaze

The Muslim Brotherhood "Project"
The following English translation of The Project has been prepared by Scott Burgess
and was first published in serial form by The Daily Ablution in December 2005 (Parts
I, II, III, IV, V, Conclusion). It is based on the French text of The Project published in
Sylvain Besson, La conquête de l'Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (Paris: Le
Seuil, 2005), pp. 193-205.]

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent and Merciful
S/5/100 report
1/12/1982 [December 1, 1982]

Towards a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy
(Points of Departure, Elements, Procedures and Missions)

This report presents a global vision of a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy [or
"political Islam"]. Local Islamic policies will be drawn up in the different regions in
accordance with its guidelines. It acts, first of all, to define the points of departure of
that policy, then to set up the components and the most important procedures linked to
each point of departure; finally we suggest several missions, by way of example only,
may Allah protect us.

The following are the principal points of departure of this policy:
Point of Departure 1: To know the terrain and adopt a scientific methodology
for its planning and execution.
Point of Departure 2: To demonstrate proof of the serious nature of the work.
Point of Departure 3: To reconcile international engagement with flexibility at
a local level.
Point of Departure 4: To reconcile political engagement and the necessity of
avoiding isolation on one hand, with permanent education and institutional action on
the other.
Point of Departure 5: To be used to establish an Islamic State; parallel,
progressive efforts targeted at controlling the local centers of power through
institutional action.
Point of Departure 6: To work with loyalty alongside Islamic groups and
institutions in multiple areas to agree on common ground, in order to "cooperate on
the points of agreement and set aside the points of disagreement".
Point of Departure 7: To accept the principle of temporary cooperation
between Islamic movements and nationalist movements in the broad sphere and on
common ground such as the struggle against colonialism, preaching and the Jewish
state, without however having to form alliances. This will require, on the other hand,
limited contacts between certain leaders, on a case by case basis, as long as these
contacts do not violate the [shari’a] law. Nevertheless, one must not give them
allegiance or take them into confidence, bearing in mind that the Islamic movement
must be the origin of the initiatives and orientations taken.
Point of Departure 8: To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis
without abusing the basic principles, bearing in mind that Allah's teachings always
apply. One must order the suitable and forbid that which is not, always providing a
documented opinion. But we should not look for confrontation with our adversaries,
at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to
attacks against the dawa or its disciples.
Point of Departure 9: To construct a permanent force of the Islamic dawa and
support movements engaged in jihad across the Muslim world, to varying degrees and
insofar as possible.
Point of Departure 10: To use diverse and varied surveillance systems, in
several places, to gather information and adopt a single effective warning system
serving the worldwide Islamic movement. In fact, surveillance, policy decisions and
effective communications complement each other.
Point of Departure 11: To adopt the Palestinian cause as part of a worldwide
Islamic plan, with the policy plan and by means of jihad, since it acts as the keystone
of the renaissance of the Arab world today.
Point of Departure 12: To know how to turn to self-criticism and permanent
evaluation of worldwide Islamic policy and its objectives, of its content and its
procedures, in order to improve it. This is a duty and a necessity according to the
precepts of shari’a.

THE FIRST POINT OF DEPARTURE:
Know the terrain and adopt a scientific methodology for [The Project's] planning and
execution.
a- Elements:
Know the influential factors in the world, whether they act as Islamic forces,
adverse forces, or neutral forces.
Use the necessary scientific and technical means for planning, organization,
execution and follow-up.
b- Procedures:
Create observation centers in order to gather and store information for all
useful purposes, if need be relying on modern technological methods.
Create centers of study and research and produce studies on the political
dimension of the Islamic movement.
c- Suggested missions:
Draw up a map of [religious and ideological] doctrines in the world to have a
global vision from 100 years ago to our era, and analyze the current situation
in light of that configuration, taking account of changes both happening and
predicted.
Draw up a map of doctrines of the Muslim world.
Draw up a map of Islamic movements in the Muslim world.
Carry out successive political and scientific studies in varying Islamic areas,
those which apply more particularly to current events.
Carry out a scientific study which addresses the history of contemporary
Islamic movements, and use it.

THE SECOND POINT OF DEPARTURE
To demonstrate proof of the serious nature of the work.
a- Elements:
Clarity of the principal objectives of the dawa in the eyes of all, as well as
clarity of the temporary objectives, necessitates exploitation, channeling and
orientation of the energies.
Devote sufficient effort to the service of the workers [for Allah] and
coordinate their efforts to the sole and same objective.
Devote sufficient time.
Spend money to the extent possible.
b-Procedures:
Exploit all the energies of the workers to the service of the dawa, each at his
level (the criterion of efficiency, given that each must be devoted to the task to
which he's assigned).
Mobilize the greatest possible number of supporters and officials.
Collect money efficiently, control expenses and invest in the general interest.
c- Suggested missions:
Carry out a survey of workers (appropriate men and appropriate location)
Establish schedules with the hours of workers and specialists and use their
efforts with good judgment and on time (appropriate effort at the right time).
An engagement with economic institutions adequate to support the cause
financially.

More >>

"The Project": A Muslim roadmap for infiltrating and defeating the West

FireWire from The Blaze/

In 2001, an inconspicuous manifesto now known as "The Project" was recovered during a raid in Switzerland: A manifesto that turned out to be a Muslim roadmap for infiltrating and defeating the West. Today, files containing evidence from the largest terror financing trial in U.S. history, which include details about "The Project", are being withheld by the Department of Justice.

In an explosive two-part mini-series, TheBlaze documentary unit investigates how the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American government and exposes how our nation's safety is in jeopardy as a result of this dangerous government cover up.

 

In the Name of Austerity, Stimulus and Growth, Amen!

ClubOrlov/

Paul Kuzhynski

Here's some food for thought. If you've been listening to the muffled and incoherent noises coming from the G8 and the surrounding political chattersphere, it's starting to sound like a prayer meeting: “In the name of Austerity, Stimulus and Growth, Amen!” And if you look at the individual leaders, what is there for them to do except pray?

Starting from the bottom, there is The Man Who Wasn't There: the newly reinaugurated Russian president Vladimir Putin. He didn't even show up, but sent his obedient deputy Medvedev instead, who made positive noises about how wonderful the meeting was. Putin is a lonely man: he's been seen in public with his wife a total of twice over the last two years; his two daughters are living incognito somewhere in Europe, there are mobs of people outside chanting “Russia Without Putin!” over and over again, and even the VIPs present at the inauguration seemed to be half-concealing a message behind their idolatrous smiles: “Wish you weren't here, Vova!”

The situation in the US isn't that much better: even his (once) ardent supporters see Obama as slightly worse than ineffectual, while many others are happy to vilify him for things he had nothing to do with. One thing is certain: the office changed him far more than he has managed to change the office. Even if he gets reelected, it will be four more years of ineffectual waffling, futile attempts to stay the course laid in by his manifestly incompetent predecessor, and frontal assaults on our remaining civil liberties. And if his opponent gets elected, it will much the same, except without the thin plastic veneer of pretending to give a damn.

Germany's Angela Merkel doesn't have much of a reason to be cheerful either. Her political support is eroding with each election. The task of pleasing the Germans while holding Eurozone together is an impossible one: the Germans are fed up with carrying the weaker European countries on their shoulders, but if they don't, then all fall down. The European dynamic is different because there the states that make up the EU negotiate with each other directly rather through the opaque proxy of Washington. If New York and California had a choice as to whether to give Louisiana, Missouri and Arkansas an endless series of financial piggyback rides, they would tell them to go ask Jesus for a loan, and then these three states would be worse off than Greece. But eventually something has to give, both here and in Europe.

The new face, the freshly elected socialist François Hollande, hasn't had a chance to do much yet, but, uncharacteristically for an elected official, he seems to want to fulfill his campaign promises: he said that he will withdraw French troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, as promised. But his hand is weak: financially, France is not far ahead the Eurozone laggards; politically, Marine Le Pen's National Front is breathing down his neck.

And so, all they can do is pray: “In the Name of Austerity, Stimulus and Growth, Amen!” Growth is the holy grail, and austerity and stimulus will help us find it. But how?

Austerity is meant to bring deficit spending under control, curb the uncontrolled expansion of public debt, and avoid national default. But it has the unwelcome effect of triggering a severe recession, shrinking the tax base, and causing budget deficits to increase, not decrease.

Stimulus is meant to provide a way to kick-start economic growth, but the money for stimulus spending has to be borrowed, and this results in the expansion of public debt. And even an economist will tell you that a higher debt-to-GDP ratio results in lower growth.

This brings us to growth. The world is resource-constrained: the supply of most of the essential industrial commodities cannot be increased without triggering a price spike, which, in turn, will trigger another, even deeper, recession. Even with all the deep-water drilling (and spilling), fracking, tar sands and so on, there just isn't much growth potential for the US or the Eurozone, with their already high levels of per capita resource consumption.

Contrary to the ardent prayers of the world's leaders, the three-legged stool of austerity, stimulus and growth is a rickety piece of furniture: no matter which combination of legs they try put their weight on, they will end up sitting on the floor, and we will end up sitting on the floor with them. Now, sitting on the floor does not have to be uncomfortable. Perhaps, instead of praying, they should try some yoga: I am thinking of the lotus position. Repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't seem to be working; let's try meditating instead. Growth is over; now what?

G8 lean towards Obama growth, not Merkel austerity

Guido Bergmann  /  Zuma Press

Leaders walk out to attend the group photo for the G8 Summit at Camp David, Md., on Saturday.

Read >>

Victories and defeats: The Bin Laden's case

CFP/  By Daniel Greenfield

The whole “Gutsy Call” narrative depends on the calculus of risk. In going after Bin Laden, the SEALs were risking their lives, but what was Obama risking?

An ordinary leader would at least be expected to suffer political fallout from a failure. But does anyone really believe that a media which failed to hold Obama accountable for his defeats in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Islamic disaster in Egypt and Libya, not to mention an economic crater, would have held him accountable if the operation had failed?  More >>

A World of Refugees: A straightforward migration

Canada Free Press/ Daniel Greenfield

The old paradigm that a country has the right to decide who enters it has been decisively overturned in Europe, it’s under siege in such first world countries as America, Canada, Australia and Israel by the creed that says it’s the human rights obligation of every nation to accept every refugee.

Given a chance, a sizable portion of the third world would move to the first, a minority because of oppression and a majority because the opportunities and freebies are much better there. Even low ranked first-world nations still find themselves swamped with refugees looking to move in. 

International law does not assign any priority to a nation’s citizens over any person who happens to stray across the border. At the ground level that means the end of borders and the end of citizenship, which is why immigration isn’t just a touchy issue in Arizona, it’s a touchy issue in Sydney, Tel Aviv and Birmingham. You can hardly open a newspaper of the liberal persuasion without being treated to another group of refugees in some troubled part of the world walled up behind fences and trying to get over to London, Sydney or New York.

This sort of thing can’t be called immigration anymore, it’s a straightforward migration and it has no apparent limits. However many you take in, there will be more waiting and always burdening you with an unsolvable crisis.

One approach is to try and stabilize whatever crisis they are supposedly escaping from. Too many Libyans running away to Italy? Just bomb their dictator and they’ll go home again. At least that’s the theory, it doesn’t work too well in practice. For one thing, Libya is more dangerous and unstable than it was under Gaddafi. Stabilizing it would require an Iraq-level investment of money and manpower, and Iraq isn’t stable either. And London is still full of Iraqi refugees dating back to the 1980’s.  More >>

Israel-Iran: La Guerra que Occidente debe evitar

Los halcones de Israel pueden estar muy cerca de desatar una guerra a gran escala con Irán. El pasado lunes 28 de noviembre, las fuerzas de operaciones especiales israelitas mas como conocidas como la "Mano de Dios", hicieron estallar una parte de la instalación nuclear iraní  de Isfahan.

 

En otro incidente, una explosion en Teheran provoca la muerte de un general irani.

De acuerdo con el Times de Londres, Dan Meridor, ministro de inteligencia israeli, implicitament asumio la responsabilidad con los hechos: "Hay países que imponen sanciones económicas y hay países que actúan de otra manera para hacer frente a la amenaza nuclear iraní."
     

Por su parte el mayor general Giora Eiland, ex director de la seguridad nacional de Israel, declaro a la radio del Ejército de Israel que la explosión Isfahan no fue un accidente: "No hay muchas coincidencias, y cuando hay tantos eventos es probable que haya algún tipo de mano que guía, aunque tal vez es la mano de Dios"

 Otro ex funcionario de inteligencia israelí, menciona al menos dos otras explosiones que habrian neutralizado bases de lanzamiento del misil de alcance medio Shahab-3.

La respuesta "oficial" de Iran llego en la forma del ataque de los estudiantes extremistas a la embajada del Reino Unido en Teheran.  No hay ojo por ojo no por deseos de venganza de los halcones y la jerarquia eclesiastica, sino por imposibilidad de ejecutarla en proporcion a la incursion israeli. No es prudencia o sabidura politica sino impotencia que inflama las llamas de una guerra casi inevitable por parte de los protagonistas principales.

Al margen de las altisonantes declaraciones de los halcones israelies, el pequeno pero poderoso enclave judio en el corazon del medio oriente islamico, no puede actuar a gran escala en solitario. 

 

Ahora mismo los estados mayores politico-militares de un Occidente envuelto en la mayor crisis economica desde la gran recesion [en un escenario optimista] deben estar evaluando cuidadosamente pero  con toda celeridad los impactos que sufririan si una guerra de estas caracteristicas llegara a desatarse.

Considerando solo la variante energetica [a lo que habria que anadir la reaccion del mundo arabe y musulman no solo de la region y el rol que China y Rusia adoptarian ante la conflagracion] de unas economias donde precios de $150 dolares el barril de crudo, provocan una recesion inmediata en sus maltrechas economias, la disminucion de la oferta diaria en el mercado mundial petrolero estimada en mas de 10 millones de barriles como resultado del conflicto, lanzaria los precios por encima de la barrera de los $200 dolares.

Enfrentados a movimientos sociales si bien poco organizados pero desestabilizadores como el Occupy Movement en muchas de las principales metropolis, huelgas de mas de dos millones de trabajadores publicos en el Reino Unido, una Zona Euro en crisis estructural cronica que amenaza su desintegracion, mientras su poblacion volcada en las plazas rechaza la aplicacion de los programas de austeridad previstos y una Union Europea que acaba de ser apuntalada por los bancos centrales occidentales para atenuar los negativos impactos en sus respectivos mercados, no es un escenario alentador para apoyar una incursion israeli en gran escala contra Iran.