The Evil Empire, the Age of Authoritarianism, marching into WW III, and a conversation with Ray Merriman about 2016 planetary cycles. . .
U.S. Fate 2016
Vermont Rep. Peter Welch Comes Out For Bernie Sanders [Vermont Public Radio]
Welch is Vermont’s only congressman, and he’s a super delegate. The state’s senior senator, Patrick Leahy, has said he will keep his pledge as a super delegate for Hillary Clinton, regardless of what Vermont voters want – and it appears they are solidly behind Sanders.
Making Her Mark: Alabama Woman Playing Key Role in S.C.’S Sanders-Clinton Presidential Showdown [Birmingham Times]
I just love profiles like this in the smaller papers. They recognize the accomplishments of someone like Aneesa McMillan and regard her as special, whereas reporters for the major media barely notice.
U.S. judge orders discovery to go forward over Clinton’s private email system [WaPo]
The judge sounds like he’s running out of patience with Hillary Clinton and the State Department, which has been dragging its feet in responding to the court’s orders. He indicated he might demand that she turn over all e-mails from her private server and not just the ones she deemed were work-related. There’s also a possibility he will order Clinton and top aides to testify under oath about whether her private server was set up expressly to evade Freedom of Information Act requests. This is not looking good for Clinton, especially since this is a federal judge and not a politically motivated plot to damage her presidential campaign.
Propaganda Wars
Krugman and His Gang’s Libeling of Economist Gerald Friedman for Finding That Conventional Models Show That Sanders Plan Could Work [Naked Capitalism]
Yves Smith finally weighs in with her analysis and provides a recap of this ugly attempt by influential economists to smear a colleague who had the gall to declare that Bernie Sanders’s economic plan is solid. Adding insult to injury, they accused him of being in the pay of the Sanders campaign.
Readers might think this is a big yawn, but the real story is that this was a broad, well-organized attack on Bernie by Clinton supporters, and they were willing to lie, cheat, and even ruin the reputation of an honest academic, who arrived at his conclusions using standard economic models. I have a blog post in the works about this, as it fits in with something Ray Merriman recently said in an interview about the 2016 planetary cycles.
Phobos & Deimos
U.S. Military White Paper Describes Wearing Hijab as “Passive Terrorism” [The Intercept
This guy is often cited as an “expert,” but something doesn’t add up. Filed away in my mind for future reference.
Slouching Down a March of Folly [Consortium News]
The threats from Turkey and Saudi Arabia to mount a full-scale invasion of Syria create the potential for a modern-day “march of folly” into World War III by drawing NATO and the U.S. into a direct military confrontation with Russia and Iran. By former CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. With all the hoopla surrounding the 2016 presidential race, this important story is being overlooked, but there’s a real chance it could blow in the next few months. Mars is retrograde from mid-April to the end of June, and then in August, he moves into alignment with Saturn in Sagittarius, the sign associated with foreign ventures and religious beliefs. There are theories already about a war being ignited deliberately to influence the elections, should they not be going in the direction the ruling class wants.
Financial Astrology
‘The stock market is not the economy,’ A conversation with Ray Merriman [FXStreet]
Ray gives a brief outline of the key planetary cycles in 2016 and some of the ways they could manifest, in general and specifically within markets.
http://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/conversations-with-forex-experts/2016/02/18/
New World Pecking Order
The Evil Empire Has the World in A Death Grip [Paul Craig Roberts]
As appalling as it was, the destruction of Libya was not Hillary Clinton’s greatest “accomplishment” as secretary of state. Her real contribution to U.S. foreign policy was to make the world safe for American corporations and financial institutions to plunder. Although Clinton didn’t invent the concept, e-mails released by the State Department from her private server reveal the extent to which she was committed to taking it to a whole new level. PCR doesn’t mention Clinton in this essay, but what he describes is precisely what her foreign policy was all about.
Red Pill
Flint just one example of need to upgrade water supply [Detroit Free Press]
In a guest editorial for Detroit Free Press, Bernie Sanders and Erin Brockovich write that Flint is a “wake-up call to the fragile nature of our public water stary cycles. Oh, and have I mentioned that Saturn is associated with lead (according to planet-metal affinities passed down through the ancient Greeks).
The Age of Authoritarianism: Government of the Politicians, by the Military, for the Corporations [Washington’s Blog]
History may show that from this point forward, we will have left behind any semblance of constitutional government and entered into a militaristic state where all citizens are suspects and security trumps freedom. Eric Zeusse writes that America is at a crossroads. I’ve been saying it for some time now, although I believe that all of humanity, and not just the United States, is facing a critical choice. In fact, that’s the whole reason I started this blog.
Hygeia
ObamaCare Open Enrollment Whimpers to a Close, as Exchanges Continue Their Slow Death Spiral [Naked Capitalism]
I know the Affordable Care Act has helped a lot of people, but for me it has been worse than no insurance at all. We need BernieCare, ASAP.
Revolt of the Peasants
The End of the Establishment? [HuffPo]
Robert Reich tries to explain, very slowly, in short sentences. But they’re probably not listening. They’re all reading Krugman.
The Plutocracy
I’ll be so proud when my daughter is president and runs a corrupt oligarchy [The Guardian]
Other parents might say they want their mediocre children to make the world a better place. But my girl is destined to do more than that, mostly for white people. It’s satire, but there seems to be an inability to recognize satire and sarcasm on the Internet these days. So it’s not a surprise that The Guardian disabled comments on this piece of biting sarcasm by Kiese Laymon.
One-Minute Meditation
The Aquarius Chronicles 