IMF/Austerity budgets; shades of Westmoreland; and other mourning news

Notes 58

Understanding why the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are not well liked outside the industrialized west and why nations like Britain and the U.S have become one of the Third World debtor nations. Explained in less time that it takes to get a taxi in New York


"Austerity" Comes to America
Monday 14 February 2011
by: Richard D. Wolff, t r u t h o u t | Video

His documentary film on that crisis, Capitalism Hits the Fan, can be previewed at www.capitalismhitsthefan.com.

________________________________________________

Back to General Westmoreland and the Tet Offensive that proved his lies unbelievable

Deferring to Petraeus, NIE Failed to Register Taliban Growth
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Despite evidence that the Taliban insurgency had grown significantly in 2010, the U.S. intelligence community failed to revise its estimate for Taliban forces as part of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan in December. That unusual decision was in deference to Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan, who did not want any official estimate of the insurgency's strength that would contradict his claims of success by Special Operations Forces in reducing the capabilities of the Taliban in 2010."

__________________________________________________

Our own sectarian state right here in River City

Christian Flag Folding Ceremony Reveals Official Sanction of Church-State Violations in the Military
Valerie Tarico, Away Point: "When American soldiers come forward with tales of divisive evangelism run amuck in the military - for example, proselytizing by commanding officers, coerced attendance at revival meetings, distribution of Bibles to Afghanis or Jesus coins to Iraqis - one problem they face is that people find the stories too outrageous to be credible. A combat soldier being forced to pick hairs out of a latrine because he wouldn't pray? Another being told he's responsible if any of his buddies die? An Iraqi child post-IED given a tract that shows dead Iraqis going to hell and Americans (aka Christians) going to heaven? Some folks have accused the Military Religious Freedom Foundation of making this stuff up. Military officials insist that each event was the isolated actions of individual soldiers and lacked official sanction. One recent scandal left little room for such framing."
_____________________________________________________

Obama’s con job--masking as a liberal while acting like an antidote for liberal values and programs

Liberal Fallacies: Protecting Social Security From Its "Friends"
L. Randall Wray, new deal 2.0: "Liberal attacks on Social Security are the unkindest cut of all. The Center for American Progress's Matt Miller has argued that liberals can learn a valuable lesson from NY Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget. With his state facing a fiscal crisis, the Governor has proposed to cap growth of state spending on the Medicaid program. Miller has argued that we should follow his example and apply a similar cap to Social Security spending."

_______________________________________________________


The Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf just of the tip of the damage done to environment by oil companies In Ecuador, Nigeria, Siberia and places off our usual maps

Chevron fined $8.6 billion in Ecuador
By Gonzalo Solano And Frank Bajak, Associated Press –
QUITO, Ecuador – An Ecuadorean judge ruled Monday in an epic environmental case that Chevron Corp. was responsible for oil drilling contamination in a wide swath of Ecuador's northern jungle and ordered the oil giant to pay $8.6 billion in damages and cleanup costs.
The amount was far below the $27.3 billion recommended by a court-appointed expert but appeared to be the highest damage award ever issued in an environmental lawsuit.

_________________________________________________________


Busted--why the Arabs and the rest do not like U.S military on the ground in their countries

Argentina, US tangle over military material
By Michael Warren, Associated Press – Mon Feb 14
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina is accusing the U.S. military of trying to sneak guns and spy equipment into the country under the guise of providing a routine police training course — a charge disputed Monday by U.S. officials.
Argentine authorities say they seized nearly 1,000 cubic feet of undeclared equipment, describing it as machine guns and ammunition, drugs and spy equipment. It was on a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane that landed Thursday with material for a training course that a U.S. Special Forces team had been invited to provide to Argentina's federal police.
"Argentine law must be complied with by all, without exception," Foreign Minister Hector Timerman told Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, when Valenzuela called him to complain about how authorities handled the cargo, the ministry said.

___________________________________________________________

FYI--the New York Stock Exchange will soon be a memory

The Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext are expected to announce their merger Tuesday.
The merger would create the world's largest exchange operator.
Once Deutsche Boerse completes its takeover agreement with NYSE Euronext, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, the 17-member board of the combined firm will mostly be drawn from the Germany company, The Wall Street Journal reports.