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Mike can be contacted at fergiewhitney@msn.com SHARE
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, September 23, 2016 America's Racist Killer Cops: Why Stand for a Country That Can Gun You Down in Cold Blood?
There's a large group of people living in this country whose rights have always been provisional and who've never gotten a fair shake, and that sure as heck hasn't changed since Obama got took office, in fact, the situation is worse than ever. When living under the American flag means that everyone is protected equally from killer cops, then I'll gladly stand for the national anthem. Until then, forget about it.
(14 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 20, 2016 Rogue Mission: Did the Pentagon Bomb Syrian Army to Kill Ceasefire Deal?
Warhawk Supremo, Ash Carter, and his Russophobe colleagues want to intensify the conflict, expand America's military footprint in Syria, and confront Russia directly. They don't approve of the President's policy, so they're doing everything they can to torpedo the ceasefire deal. But why now, after all, the ceasefire began five days ago?
(15 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 15, 2016 Assad's Death Warrant
There is no difference between Bush's invasion of Iraq and Obama's invasion of Syria. The moral, ethical and legal issues are the same, the only difference is that Obama has been more successful in confusing the American people about what is really going on. And what's going on is regime change: "Assad must go."
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, September 9, 2016 Stop the Fed Before it Kills Again
Companies have all but abandoned the traditional practice of recycling earnings into factories, productivity or research and development. Instead, they're engaged in a protracted liquidation process where the creditworthiness of their companies is used to borrow as much money as possible from the bond market which is then divvied up among insatiable CEOs and their shareholders.
(18 comments) SHARE Friday, September 2, 2016 Can We Please Get Rid of the Pledge?
Many people think the Pledge is simply an affirmation of their respect for the flag, their love for the country, and their gratitude to the men and women who fought in America's wars. But that's not what it is. The Pledge is an attempt to impose conformity on the masses and compel them to click their heels and proclaim their devotion to the Fatherland.
(63 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 30, 2016 Three Cheers for Kaepernick: Is Sitting During the National Anthem an Acceptable Form of Protest?
Does Kaepernick really deserve this outpouring of hated and vitriol? Isn't he just asking whether the values espoused in the National Anthem actually apply to African Americans or not? That's a fair question, isn't it? Think of it this way: Maybe this IS the "land of the free and the home of the brave" if you're white, but if you're black, not so much.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 25, 2016 The Broken Chessboard: Brzezinski Gives Up on Empire
Unfortunately, Brzezinski's more cautious approach is not likely to be followed by presidential-favorite Hillary Clinton who is a firm believer in imperial expansion through force of arms. It was Clinton who first introduced "pivot" to the strategic lexicon in a speech she gave in 2010 titled "America's Pacific Century."
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, August 8, 2016 Washington Slapdown: Turkey Turns to Moscow for Help
The Obama administration is still uncertain of how to proceed mainly because no one had expected that Erdogan would break with Washington, purge his enemies, pursue rapprochement with Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, and throw a wrench in Uncle Sam's plan for redrawing the map of the Middle East.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 20, 2016 The Coup in Turkey has Thrown a Wrench in Uncle Sam's "Pivot" Plan
Putin and Erdogan have settled their differences and scheduled a meeting for the beginning of August. In other words, the first world leader Erdogan plans to meet after the coup is his new friend, Vladimir Putin. Is it starting to sound like Turkey may have slipped out of Washington's orbit and moved on to more reliable friends that will respect their interests?
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 2, 2016 Another Fed Fiasco: U.S. Bond Yields Fall to Record Lows
Basically, bond yields are telling us all that there is no hope for the future, that what you see is what you get. There won't be an economic recovery because an economic recovery is not in the interests of the people who are getting rich off the current policy. So just suck it up and get used to it.
SHARE Saturday, June 25, 2016 Basta Ya, Brussels! British Voters Reject EU Corporate Slavestate
Not only has the EU failed to live up to its promise of lifting all boats and widening prosperity, it has also transformed the region into a low-growth, high unemployment charnel house where bankers and their corporate allies siphon off the wealth of the weaker states to enrich high-flying speculators and voracious bondholders. And Britain is just the tip of the iceberg.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, June 17, 2016 Negative Rates, Plunging Yields and a "Fix" for the Economy
If Obama rehired the 500,000 public sector employees who got their pink slips during the recession, then we'd have positive inflation in no-time-flat. But the bigwigs don't want that. They don't want full employment or higher wages or workers to a bigger share in the gains in production. Fixing the economy is the easy part. It's the politics that are tough.
(6 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 23, 2016 The Strange Death of Hugo Chavez: an Interview with Eva Golinger
There is a very strong possibility that President Chavez was assassinated. There were notorious and documented assassination attempts against him throughout his presidency. Numerous attempts on his life were thwarted by the Venezuelan intelligence agencies and particularly the counterintelligence unit of the Presidential Guard that was charged with discovering and impeding such threats.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, April 18, 2016 Blanket Student Debt Amnesty Now
Congress knew what they were doing. They knew they were part of a big sting operation targeting credulous students who never guessed that their government was just a bunch of lousy shakedown artists. And now congress can pat themselves on the back for a job well done, for luring millions of millennials into a lifetime of indentured servitude.
(57 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 14, 2016 Socialist Senator Explains the Difference Between Democrats and Republicans
Long was a scrappy street fighter who liked confrontation and didn't mind getting his nose bloodied every now and then. He also liked winning, which is precisely what we need right now, someone who knows how to win and doesn't sweat the details. Leave that to the historians. Politics is bloodsport, not pattycake.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 9, 2016 PEW Explains Who is Voting for Trump and Why
A higher percentage of Trump supporters think they are getting screwed-over by an unfair system. They think "free trade" only benefits the rich, they think the government is unresponsive to their needs, they think the system is rigged, they think the economy stinks and they're really, really mad.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 6, 2016 The "Gig Economy"; Another Vicious Attack on Ordinary Working Slobs
Create a bubble with easy money and low rates. Burst the bubble and precipitate a crisis. Impose excruciating belt-tightening measures that restructure the workforce, privatize public assets and transfers more of the national wealth to the parasites at the top of the foodchain, the mighty one percent. Wash, rinse, repeat.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 18, 2016 Subprime Auto Loans: the Next Shoe to Drop?
You know what comes next, don't you? The delinquencies start piling up, the finance companies begin to creak and groan, the banks and other counterparties hastily sell off assets to try to stay afloat, and, finally, the Fed rides to the rescue with another batch of emergency loans to prevent the whole wobbly, over-leveraged system from crashing to earth.
SHARE Tuesday, March 15, 2016 Draghi's Giant Giveaway; More Handouts for Wall Street
Draghi and his ilk want unemployment to remain high in order to keep inflation low. As long as inflation stays low, Draghi can continue to provide cheap money to his crooked friends on Wall Street, which is the real objective. What this tells us is that Draghi's QE is not really "stimulus" at all, but a form of upward distribution concealed behind public relations sloganeering.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 10, 2016 A Warning From the B.I.S.: the Calm Before the Storm?
Profits are down and stocks are in trouble. Is it any wonder why the BIS is running around with its hair on fire? Also, corporate earnings have dropped for two straight quarters which is a sign that the economy is headed for a slump.