The End of the American Century?

[Bugatti Veyron]

Politics is such a dirty game. Whether over here or in other nations. Politicians are hated by their constituents all over the world. But the ironic thing is voters were the ones who put these guys in power.

It's not like the voters had a choice. No matter whom they put into power, the people will get the same lousy government.

[Bugatti Veyron]

http://www.upworthy.com/know-anyone-that-thinks-racial-profiling-is-exaggerated-watch-this-and-tell-me-when-your-jaw-drops-2

 

Know Anyone Who Thinks Racial Profiling Is Exaggerated? Watch This, And Tell Me When Your Jaw Drops

 

Rafael Casal

 

I know everyone gets uncomfortable talking about race, but it would be great if people were more aware so they could challenge their own preconceived notions. You sharing and tweeting this could go a long way toward doing that. Totally your call though.

 

 

 

[dungeonbaby]

http://www.upworthy....our-jaw-drops-2

 

Know Anyone Who Thinks Racial Profiling Is Exaggerated? Watch This, And Tell Me When Your Jaw Drops

 

Rafael Casal

 

I know everyone gets uncomfortable talking about race, but it would be great if people were more aware so they could challenge their own preconceived notions. You sharing and tweeting this could go a long way toward doing that. Totally your call though.

 

an example of belief and/or confirmation bias, where one makes biased conclusions because of the believability of that conclusion, or when one remembers certain information when they lead to previously held beliefs. a belief like white people are racist, for example.

 

without supporting data, such as how this "experiment" was conducted, crime statistics in the area, or recent reporting of crime in the media, you can very easily come to a misguided conclusion.

[Ryuji_tanaka]

Politics is such a dirty game. Whether over here or in other nations. Politicians are hated by their constituents all over the world. But the ironic thing is voters were the ones who put these guys in power.

 

Turns out it is politics and vested interest:

http://godfatherpolitics.com/15161/harry-reid-sons-solar-power-scheme-connected-bundy-ranch-standoff/

[maxiev]

Dollar dying; multi-polar world in offing

 

Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:55PM GMT

57620 45 By F. William Engdahl

 

Washington’s decision to go for the military coup in Ukraine was intended to rupture the emerging cooperation between key Eurasian nations that ultimately would have isolated the power of US hegemony and opened the door for a genuine multi-polar world where peaceful cooperation replaced military threats and sole Superpower domination.

 

The very rich and powerful families who control the US military industry complex reacted by trying to revert to their tried strategy of re-activating a new Cold War that paints Russia as evil and tries to cripple or severely weaken her. Ultimately it was a stupid decision being implemented by very stupid people, who believe they are very smart.

 

One of the unintended consequences of their stupidity is the fact that because of the foolish US decision to impose economic sanctions on Russia over Crimea’s annexation, Washington has forced Moscow to react by selling Gazprom bonds not in the dollar market but rather in the fast-emerging Chinese Yuan. The US has just shot itself in the foot.

 

OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural-gas producer, plans to issue Chinese Yuan-denominated debt in the coming days. Because of Obama Administration sanction threats, the interest rate for Gazprom debt in dollars is rising dramatically while that of Yuan debt is falling, making it attractive to issue the Yuan debt. But this is a decision that makes more than business sense. It accelerates a trend by Russia, China, Iran and other countries to abandon the US dollar as world central bank and trade reserve currency.

 

Wars with other countries’ money

 

The role of the US dollar as the world’s leading reserve currency is more than a status symbol. Since the creation of the Bretton Woods monetary order in 1944, the role of the dollar as reserve currency has been at the center of American power. After August 1971, when Nixon ended the convertibility of foreign-held dollars for US Federal Reserve gold stocks, the dollar has been a fiat currency whose relative value has fluctuated up and down.

 

Today, despite the worst economic depression in the USA since the 1930’s and despite three decades of US trade deficit, combined with a soaring Government debt that is now over 103% of GDP, the US Government is able to finance wars in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere because of the reserve currency role. Other trading nations like China or Russia who buy or sell dollar-priced

goods must have dollars for trade, so their central banks invest their trade surpluses into “safe” US Treasury bonds.

 

Ironically, that has in effect meant that the US has been able until recently to finance its foreign wars and trillion dollar military budget using Chinese, Russian and other nations’ dollars.

 

When the Euro threatened the reserve currency status of the dollar in 2010 as Washington ran annual trillion dollar+ budget deficits, the Chinese and others began buying bonds denominated in Euros instead to diversify their risk of a possible US default.

 

To prevent the emergence of the Euro, Washington launched a financial warfare operation using key Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JP MorganChase together with the US-based credit rating agencies Standard & Poors and Moodys and the US Federal Reserve to prevent the shift to the Euro. It was called the “Greek Crisis.” The Euro fell and the dollar was suddenly “safe haven...”, for a while.

 

But other national central banks took notice that the dollar was losing its value, as Washington continued to print money without limit, in order to rescue the bankrupt Wall Street banks with what the Federal Reserve calls Quantitative Easing.

 

China, Russia and other major trading nations have quietly begun to develop alternatives to using the US dollar for their bilateral trade.

 

Dramatic shift in dollar role

 

A new report by the International Monetary Fund reveals a dramatic shift in the role of the US dollar as reserve currency. Some 23 countries today report holding Chinese Yuan as official reserves. That, despite the fact the Yen, much like the French Franc after World War II, is not yet fully convertible into other currencies. The Chinese are moving to convertibility in very carefully measured steps.

 

Not only do 23 other central banks hold Yuan officially, twelve more have invested in Yuan without officially declaring so.

 

The most dramatic point in the IMF report is the fact that the relative role of the US dollar in central bank reserves is rapidly declining. Yes, the dollar is still the largest reserve currency. But whereas in 2000 some 55% of all reserves worldwide were in US dollars, today it has declined to 33%. And the trend is accelerating. The IMF does not list the Yuan as an official reserve currency as it is not yet convertible. In its statistics the Yuan falls under the category “other currencies.” The Other Currency share according to the IMF has doubled since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

 

In recent years the central bank of China has been buying gold in huge amounts to prepare for Yuan becoming a fully convertible currency. Now, with Russian companies increasingly looking east to China and Asia generally, the shift away from the dollar could accelerate dramatically, forcing US interest rates sharply higher and significantly increasing the pressures on Washington’s government spending.

 

The foolish Obama sanctions threats against Moscow are simply accelerating the refocus of giant Russian companies like Gazprom and Norlisk Nickel to the huge Asian market. Russian mining companies, including OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel, are stepping up activities in Asian markets in the last month.

 

A China-Iran-Russia Triangle

 

The NATO-led Ukraine coup and ensuing crisis have dramatically accelerated the trend not only by Russian companies to look east. Other nations realize they could someday be target of Washington sanctions and are looking to lessen their dollar exposure. Iran and Russia recently announced a huge barter deal that allows the two to skirt US-imposed economic sanctions.

 

On April 2, the two countries agreed a barter deal that would reportedly be worth up to $20 billion, enabling Tehran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions. Reportedly Moscow would buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods. Russian technical assistance in building two new nuclear plants in Iran are reported part of the deal, as well as purchases of various metals and perhaps Russian missiles. The dollar, of course, would play no role. Washington was furious, but why should Russia or Teheran obey US-dictated measures of economic warfare when both now are being attacked by them?

 

And in May, Russian President Putin is scheduled to fly to Beijing where he is expected to sign a mammoth 30-year deal to supply China’s energy-hungry economy with Russian gas. State-owned Gazprom plans to pump 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year to China from 2018 via the first pipeline between the world's largest producer of conventional gas to the largest consumer. Signing this deal after almost a decade of tough negotiations would mark another major step away from the dollar in international trade as both countries seek to free themselves from dollar wars or threats of same.

 

When Rosneft’s Igor Sechin was in Tokyo in late March discussing energy deals there, he told the press that US sanctions on Russia over Crimea could have negative consequences for the West. He declared that more sanctions over Moscow's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine would be counter-productive.

 

The underlying message from the head of Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft, was clear: If the USA and EU try to isolate Russia, Moscow will look East for new business. That will include major new energy deals, military contracts and political alliances. China surpassed Germany as Russia's biggest buyer of crude oil this year when Sechin’s Rosneft secured deals to boost eastward oil supplies via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline and another crossing Kazakhstan.

 

What is emerging is a tectonic shift in monetary relations with the largest nations of Eurasia to conduct bilateral trade denominated in either Rubles or Renminbi, or gold. If we add Iran, possibly Iraq and India, and now, with Turkey’s Recep Erdogan looking away from NATO for new allies, amid his life-or-death battle with the CIA-run Fetullah Gülen, Turkey could well join such an emerging Eurasian economic alliance.

 

Unintended consequences

The Ukraine NATO coup and Washington’s disastrous attempt to topple Syria’s Assad have accelerated the creation of what they ultimately most want to avoid. It’s what Zbigniew Brzezinski warned of in his 1997 The Grand Chessboard when he wrote, “It is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America.” The former Obama adviser went on to state,

 

"In that context, how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania (Australia) geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."

 

Brzezinski then spoke of what he called a “Zone of Percolating Violence.” The heat on the percolator, of course, would be regulated by Washington and NATO.

 

 

The people in Washington or Brussels, like Brzezinski or the pathetic Victoria Nuland at the State Department—the former Dick Cheney aide who was given responsibility for the logistics of the Ukraine NATO coup—are essentially stupid people. They are stupid in a very specific way. Not that they are not well-educated, some from the finest “elite” universities, with years of political experience.

 

Their stupidity lies in their inability to think-through or foresee the global consequences of their actions.

 

 

F. William Engdahl is a political economist specializing for more than thirty years in geopolitical analysis of global events. He is author of the international best-selling book on oil and geopolitics, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, published as well in French, German, Chinese, Russian, Czech, Korean, Turkish, Croatian, Slovenian and Arabic. In 2010 he published Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century, as a sequel to ‘Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, completing a trilogy on the power of oil, food and money control. Engdahl has lectured in economics at the Rhein-Main University in Germany and is a Visiting Professor in Economics at Beijing University of Chemical Technology. He currently lives in Germany and, in addition to teaching and writing regularly on issues of international political economy and geopolitics, food security, economics, energy and international affairs, is active as a consulting political risk economist for major European banks and private investors. More articles by F. William Engdahl.

[wackyracer]

Turns out it is politics and vested interest:

http://godfatherpolitics.com/15161/harry-reid-sons-solar-power-scheme-connected-bundy-ranch-standoff/

 

Did Sen. Harry Reid drive the standoff at the Bundy ranch for personal gain?

 

 

Claim: The Bundy Ranch deal is all about Nevada Sen. Harry Reid "using federal violence to take people’s land in his state so he can package it to re-sell it to the Chinese."

Bloggers on Thursday, April 17th, 2014 in multiple blog and video posts

 

 

PolitiFact verdict: The Republic Broadcasting Network said Sen. Reid was behind the use of force to take away Bundy’s land and sell it to the Chinese. There is nothing accurate about this claim. The dispute involved Bundy’s long use of federal land without a permit. The land gained protected status long before solar energy projects were on the table. The Chinese solar energy proposal no longer exists. The land where such projects might be developed are far from Bundy’s property.

 

We rate this claim Pants on Fire.

 

READ MORE

[wackyracer]

Rancher Proudly Breaks the Law Becoming a Hero in the West

The New York Times

By Adam Nagourney

April 23, 2014

 

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. — Cliven Bundy stood by the Virgin River up the road from the armed checkpoint at the driveway of his ranch, signing autographs and posing for pictures. For 55 minutes, Mr. Bundy held forth to a clutch of supporters about his views on the troubled state of America — the overreaching federal government, the harassment of Western ranchers, the societal upheaval caused by abortion, even musing about whether slavery was so bad.

 

Most of all, Mr. Bundy, 67, who was wearing a broad-brimmed white cowboy hat against the hot afternoon sun, recounted the success of “we the people” — gesturing to the 50 supporters, some armed with handguns and rifles, standing in a semicircle before him — at chasing away Bureau of Land Management rangers who, acting on a court order, tried to confiscate 500 cattle owned by Mr. Bundy, who has been illegally grazing his herd on public land since 1993.

 

...

 

But if the federal government has moved on, Mr. Bundy — a father of 14 and a registered Republican — has not.

 

He said he would continue holding a daily news conference; on Saturday, it drew one reporter and one photographer, so Mr. Bundy used the time to officiate at what was in effect a town meeting with supporters, discussing, in a long, loping discourse, the prevalence of abortion, the abuses of welfare and his views on race.

 

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

 

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

 

...

 

Mr. Bundy, whose family has grazed cattle here since they homesteaded in the 1870s, owes the government more than $1 million in grazing fees. He stopped paying after the bureau ordered him to restrict the periods when his herd roamed the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area as part of an effort to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

 

READ FULL STORY

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

Rancher Proudly Breaks the Law Becoming a Hero in the West

The New York Times

By Adam Nagourney

April 23, 2014

 

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. — Cliven Bundy stood by the Virgin River up the road from the armed checkpoint at the driveway of his ranch, signing autographs and posing for pictures. For 55 minutes, Mr. Bundy held forth to a clutch of supporters about his views on the troubled state of America — the overreaching federal government, the harassment of Western ranchers, the societal upheaval caused by abortion, even musing about whether slavery was so bad.

 

Most of all, Mr. Bundy, 67, who was wearing a broad-brimmed white cowboy hat against the hot afternoon sun, recounted the success of "we the people" — gesturing to the 50 supporters, some armed with handguns and rifles, standing in a semicircle before him — at chasing away Bureau of Land Management rangers who, acting on a court order, tried to confiscate 500 cattle owned by Mr. Bundy, who has been illegally grazing his herd on public land since 1993.

 

...

 

But if the federal government has moved on, Mr. Bundy — a father of 14 and a registered Republican — has not.

 

He said he would continue holding a daily news conference; on Saturday, it drew one reporter and one photographer, so Mr. Bundy used the time to officiate at what was in effect a town meeting with supporters, discussing, in a long, loping discourse, the prevalence of abortion, the abuses of welfare and his views on race.

 

"I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro," he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, "and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn't have nothing to do. They didn't have nothing for their kids to do. They didn't have nothing for their young girls to do.

 

"And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?" he asked. "They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."

 

...

 

Mr. Bundy, whose family has grazed cattle here since they homesteaded in the 1870s, owes the government more than $1 million in grazing fees. He stopped paying after the bureau ordered him to restrict the periods when his herd roamed the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area as part of an effort to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

 

READ FULL STORY

All these to allegedly protect the endangered desert tortoise? There's got to be more to this than meets the eye. Mr Bundy's cattle have been roaming on federal property for over 20 years. Why has the federal government failed in enforcing its laws for over 20 years. If they had nipped it in the bud 20 years ago, none of this would be happening today.

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

http://news.yahoo.com/nevada-rancher-had-limited-sympathy-west-193228653.html

 

 

Nevada rancher had limited sympathy in the West

http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png By KEN RITTER and NICHOLAS RICCARDI April 25, 2014 6:54 PMBUNKERVILLE, Nev. (AP) — For a while, in certain quarters, Cliven Bundy was celebrated as a John Wayne-like throwback to the Old West — a weathered, plainspoken rancher just trying to graze his cattle and keep the government off his back. But that was before he started sounding more like a throwback to the Old South.

 

Conservative Republican politicians and commentators who once embraced Bundy for standing up to Washington are stampeding in the other direction — and branding him a racist — after he suggested that blacks might have had it better as slaves picking cotton.

 

The furor has made it apparent how limited Bundy's appeal ever was.

 

Bundy, 67, and his armed supporters thwarted an attempt by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management two weeks ago to seize his family's cattle over his failure to pay $1.1 million in grazing fees and penalties for the use of government land over the past 20 years. A local land-use dispute soon turned into a national debate, with conservatives calling it another example of big-government overreach.

 

But the rugged West that Bundy was said to represent has changed, becoming more urban and less concerned about federal intrusion than it was during the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1970s and '80s. In the urban areas that now dominate the West, there have been few stirrings of support for Bundy.

 

Even many fellow ranchers regard him as more a deadbeat than a hero.

 

"You've got hundreds of ranchers in Nevada who pay their fee regularly," said Tom Collins, a rancher on the Clark County Commission. "On the grazing fee issue, Bundy doesn't have sympathy from the ranchers."

 

At the Bunkerville Post Office, Chad Dalton, a lineman for a power company, said that the case brought up important issues but that they should be addressed through laws, not with guns.

 

"It's a fight to be had," Dalton said from inside a car full of his children, "but I'm not sure he's the one to lead it."

 

Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Bundy was made into a hero by conservative activists and journalists in New York and Washington "who did not understand how extreme Cliven Bundy is ... even among Sagebrush rebels and Nevada ranchers."

 

In fact, the remote area outside Las Vegas where Bundy and his supporters made their stand is represented by a black Democrat, Rep. Steve Horsford.

 

The congressman said Friday that many of the people in the small towns in the region, which has drawn an increasing number of retirees and tourists seeking to enjoy its open spaces, are upset with Bundy, who "does not reflect Nevada or the views of the West."

 

The BLM claims Bundy's cattle are trespassing on fragile habitat set aside for the endangered desert tortoise. Bundy says he doesn't recognize federal authority over lands that his cattle have grazed on for years.

 

After the BLM called off the roundup and released about 350 animals back to Bundy, the rancher drew praise from many Republicans — most notably Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a likely 2016 presidential candidate — and condemnation from several Democrats.

 

Then, in an interview in Thursday's New York Times, he suggested that "the Negro" might have been better off during slavery rather than on government welfare.

 

In a statement Friday, Bundy defended himself by saying he is "trying to keep Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream alive." At his regular afternoon address to the media and supporters at his ranch, Bundy apologized if he offended anyone. "I might not have said it right," he said, "but it came from my heart."

 

John Rosenberger, 76, who said he had gone 25 years without paying federal taxes because he did not believe in Washington's authority, came to the ranch from Las Vegas after watching Bundy's supporters stare down the government.

 

"The stuff that I grew up with, the cowboys, the good guys with the white hats, today it's the ranchers being harassed by the government," said Rosenberger, a 9 mm revolver strapped to his waist. "They're the black hats."

 

Before the newspaper story broke, Gov. Brian Sandoval and Sen. Dean Heller, Republicans who got their political start in the sparsely populated northern end of the state, issued statements supportive of Bundy.

 

Bundy's racial comments, however, drew bipartisan condemnation.

 

Heller's spokeswoman said the senator "completely disagrees" with Bundy's remarks.

 

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose power base is in Las Vegas, home to most of Nevada's Democrats, said Bundy "revealed himself to be a hateful racist."

 

"But by denigrating people who work hard and play by the rules while he mooches off public land," Reid added, "he also revealed himself to be a hypocrite."

 

At a conference of Western Republicans in Salt Lake City on Friday, several conservatives reiterated their long-held complaints about federal control of vast swaths of the West. The federal government owns more than 80 percent of the land in Nevada.

 

Republicans complained that the federal holdings prevent development that could generate tax revenue for public services, and that environmental restrictions hinder ranchers and others who want to use some of the region's scenic spaces. They distanced themselves from Bundy but said they hope his racial remarks don't overshadow their concerns.

 

"This is bigger than one rancher in Nevada," Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory said.

 

 

 

[kisshmet]

The agreement merely provide real estate for the americans & their equipments

 

It will not in anyway strengthen the AFP because those facilities are off limits to pinoys

 

The only good thing it will provide is logistics. The americans will buy provisions locally, that will certainly help local economy.

 

Additionally this will deter the chinese from attacking the mainland not spratleys unless the americans set up a facility directly in pagasa island which we currently occupy

Edited April 29, 2014 by kisshmet

[kisshmet]

Raptors come in limited supply so the americans deploy it only in key areas mostly close to US mainland & limited hotspots

 

Its electronic suite is so sensitive it needs a special hangar which had to be built from scratch if ever they intend to deploy it in the phil

Edited April 29, 2014 by kisshmet

[kisshmet]

^dude keep on dreaming raptors are off limits even to israelis..its one item in the US arsenal that is prohibited for export much more available for lease to other nation even to the closest allies of USA

Edited April 29, 2014 by kisshmet

[maxiev]

It would be nice though to see a couple of Raptors flying over Philippine skies.

[camiar]

^^

The facilities that will be built under EDCA are predominantly to support the logistics of US Navy fleet operating in the area. So, don't expect USAF in the picture.

 

F-22 Raptors are USAF birds. US Navy don't have them.

 

The Navy is getting F-35C Lightning, but since they only started taking deliveries of the new carrier-based JSFs last year, don't hold your breath waiting to see any of them flying in the Philippines.

Edited April 29, 2014 by camiar

[LostCommand]

I've met them, these Americans. Worked with them. Studied with the best of them for years, at the masteral level.

 

Even in their so called "decline" they remain formidable. And they keep adopting/co-opting the best of new blood from other cultures - asian, indian, japanese, hispanic, and of course european. No other culture can do that. No other so called "superiorist" culture can elect a black to the top job.

 

They will fall, yes, perhaps gently, like the Brits, perhaps roughly, like the Romans. No one can tell.

 

But not in my lifetime, or at least, the lifetime of that generation I had studied with; for they were not all talk, many were really good.

 

And I say that as a Pisay graduate.

 

LC