To Capture and Subdue: America’s Theft of Syrian Oil Has Very Little To Do With Money

Near the end of July, one of the most important recent developments in U.S. foreign policy was quietly disclosed during a U.S. Senate hearing. Not surprisingly, hardly anybody talked about it and most are still completely unaware that it happened.

Answering questions from Senator Lindsey Graham, Secretary of State Pompeo confirmed that the State Department had awarded an American company, Delta Crescent Energy, with a contract to begin extracting oil in northeast Syria. The area is nominally controlled by the Kurds, yet their military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was formed under U.S. auspices and relies on an American military presence to secure its territory. That military presence will now be charged with protecting an American firm from the government of the country that it is operating within.

Pompeo confirmed that the plans for implanting the firm into the U.S.-held territory are “now in implementation” and that they could potentially be “very powerful.” This is quite a momentous event given its nature as a blatant example of neocolonial extraction, or, as Stephen Kinzer puts it writing for the Boston Globe, “This is a vivid throwback to earlier imperial eras, when conquerors felt free to loot the resources of any territory they could capture and subdue.”

 Continue reading on MintPress News... 

At DNC, Democrats Recycle False Russian Bounty Story to Attack Trump from the Right

During the Democratic National Convention, the party in one fell swoop exemplified how their foreign policy platform is characterized by superficiality with no substance, dishonesty absent an ounce of shame, and downright immorality when their intentions are laid bare.

One of the main and recurring arguments that was made against Trump (in the few short instances when they actually deigned to discuss policy at all) was that he is unfit to lead because Russia put a bounty on US soldiers in Afghanistan, and since he didn’t do anything to stop it he can’t be trusted to protect the troops.

Note that the argument was not that Trump is an imperialist warmonger who breaks international law as easily as he steps on cracks on the sidewalk. Nor was it that he is aiding Saudi Arabia in a genocide in Yemen. Nor even that he has and is currently supporting the overthrow of democratically elected leaders throughout the world. No, instead it is that he hasn’t been hawkish enough in colonizing Afghanistan and leading the world further toward a confrontation between its two biggest nuclear superpowers.

This, however, is a very enlightening example of how propaganda functions within our current political climate, and as well gives good insights into both how the Democratic establishment operates and how easily public perception can be manipulated by intelligence agencies.

 

First off, the Russian bounty story that blared across the headlines of every major newspaper and TV station is completely unfounded and untrue. The original New York Times report quoted anonymous, unnamed “intelligence officials” without any further evidence. The authors even admitted that these same sources “did not describe the mechanics of the Russian operation” and that they were “not clear” about its details. When the Washington Post “corroborated” the Times report, they included the caveat “if confirmed”, admitting that the story was, in fact, not confirmed. Both stories included denials from every party involved: the White House, the Taliban, and Moscow.

So, if the story is baseless, why has it been repeatedly cited as fact?

It must firstly be understood that American foreign policy is not determined by considerations of morality, defense, or the desire to spread democracy. Instead, it is based on the interests of expanding and protecting state and corporate power. Areas of the world where interference can be seen to benefit state influence or the enrichment of US investors will be targeted for such ends. Trump’s own advisors explained to him, in presentations that AP has titled “American power 101”, that an expanded American footprint abroad is necessary “in making the world safe for American businesses.” This, of course, is then defended based upon a moral justification such as democracy promotion or the eradication of some great evil, much like the British justified their colonization based upon “the white mans burden.”

Indeed, it was revealed in the beginning of the Trump presidency by a State Department memo that Washington views “ideals and interests” “in relation to our competitors” as something to be used “to pressure” and “outmaneuver” them, because “pressing those regimes on human rights is one way to impose costs, apply counter-pressure, and regain the initiative from them strategically.”

Specifically, Afghanistan has always been understood as a key strategic prize, the control of which would grant access to the energy resources of the region and help maintain influence over the wider Middle East, which itself is a primary lever of global power.

So it is not surprising that the initial Russian bounty story came at a time when the Trump administration was negotiating with the Taliban and had committed itself to pulling all troops out of the country. Nuclear weapons reduction treaties with Russia are also set to expire and face the possibility of being renewed. The commotion caused by the story had the effect of pressuring the administration to backtrack on troop withdrawal and to further stoke confrontation with Russia, with the New START nuclear accord still hanging in the balance, set to expire in early 2021 while Trump remains “ambivalent” about re-signing it.

As well, at a time when the longest war effort in American history is not going well, with the population turning against it, and when the original justifications have been exhausted of their legitimacy, a newfound reasoning for why the US must stay there is required.

So, anonymous spooks “leak” out a completely baseless story about Russia killing American troops, and now anytime someone brings up, say, the fact that invading and colonizing other countries is bad, they can be summarily dismissed as unpatriotic and having loyalty to our enemies that mean us harm.

The effect, therefore, is to pressure the administration to remain committed to the interests of US global hegemony.

 

This entire scenario perfectly exemplifies the propaganda notion that if you say a big enough lie enough times it will become true.

Now, imagine you are an average American who doesn’t have time to verify every political argument that is made. You read a headline one day about Russia paying for the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan. You might even hear a soundbite of it on the nightly news. Then you’re watching the DNC and important people repeatedly bring it up and state it as fact. How would you respond to that? Of course, you would likely accept it as true. This is how easy it is for intelligence agencies to manufacture “truth” within the minds of the populace given a compliant media that does not question them.

The Democrats, of course, then go full-in on weaponizing this against Trump, because fundamentally they are the same imperialist warmongers as the Republicans (just go watch John Kerry’s DNC speech on ‘American Exceptionalism, a.k.a. American Supremacism, if you’re in doubt).

The Democrats and Republicans are merely two factions of the same party, one that represents the business and investor interests of the country’s major elites. The Democrats might make more effort to couch their imperialism with pretty words and a nice smile, but at the end of the day they want to make the world safe for American businesses too.

It is therefore not surprising that they have decided to attack Trump most strongly from the jingoistic, hawkish right, as they have continuously done throughout his presidency with the ridiculous Russiagate debacle or when trying to derail peace negotiations with North Korea.

Furthermore, if the Democrats truly cared about “protecting our troops”, they would advocate for the obvious: bringing the troops home out of harm’s way, and the reinvesting of military funds into education, healthcare, and jobs that would actually improve the lives of their working class constituency.

Yet this all does provide an instructive example of how propaganda functions. Whenever a “big scoop” like this comes out, it is important to always demand sources and evidence before accepting it, as well as to ask “who benefits” from the conclusions that are derived.

If the sole source of the claims are “unnamed intelligence officials,” go grab for your wallet, because you know someone is trying to pull one over you.

 

Venezuela's Elections Were Not Free or Fair – They Were Undermined by the US

The Western press did its utmost to portray the recent elections in Venezuela as fraudulent. There were legitimate allegations raised, such as how Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro offered recipients of state benefits a “prize” if they came out to vote. Therefore, an increasingly reluctant public would be compelled to vote for him to receive much-needed food and supplies.

But in reality this is only a minor example of a common practice employed throughout the region and surely prevalent in US-backed states. It also confuses the loyal support Maduro has amongst the poor as mere clientelism, disregarding the much more substantial impact of how the government looks after their interests & wellbeing. Despite being most harmed by the economic downturn, the poorer sectors are those most supportive of the government; not exactly what you’d call clientelism.

However, what is often not discussed is the much more substantial ways in which the elections were undermined—by the United States.

Continue reading...

Trump's Assault Against the Working Class; June 4-10

Last week, Trump signed a “right to try” bill that allows terminally ill patients to try experimental drugs that are not approved by the FDA. This is a major boost to Big Pharma companies. They now have even greater leeway to push potentially harmful drugs onto patients.

However, it is no consolation that the FDA chief this week said that, despite the bill, the agency will still make decisions on whether patients receive the drugs. Even before the bill, the FDA had approved around 99% of all such requests. The FDA, like all governmental agencies, mainly operates in the interests of the major corporations and their profit incentives. The Trump administration is only making their control even more blatant.

The conservative business newspaper the Wall Street Journal reported that Social Security will have to dip into its $3 trillion trust fund this year since its costs exceeded its income, the first time it has done so since 1982.

It’s important to keep in mind what the WSJ says are the reasons are for this years’ costliness: “The tax cuts signed into law last year have slightly lowered Medicare and Social Security’s projected revenue over the next few years,” while revenue has also been reduced due to Trump’s “decision to end a program [DACA] offering young undocumented immigrants reprieve from deportation while allowing them to work.” At the same time “The nation’s aging population is boosting the costs of Social Security and Medicare,” a problem that could be remedied through immigration. “Slower growth in the economy” is also noted, something that could be aided by a public-funded jobs and infrastructure-rebuilding program, if public fund weren’t already going to wasteful tax cuts that have not increased growth.

Trump’s effort to revitalize the profits of the coal company owners who funded his campaign (as reported last week), would, if successful, “cost ratepayers [i.e., the population] a fortune” since the cost of coal energy is becoming much more expensive (“more expensive than any other power source”) than cheaper, safer renewables, writes Greg Ip this week. This cost is even greater when you add in the costs imposed upon the environment though climate change.

Furthermore, burning coal emits harmful soot emissions that directly kills people, both in terms of the coal factory workers (“most tragically” harming “the coal miners [Trump] seeks to help”—which goes to show these measures are meant to help company owners, not workers) and by reducing the life expectancy of households that use subsidized coal.

However, Trump needs to secure campaign contributions from the coal companies to help fund his reelection, and so the efforts continue.

Obamacare was a failure on many levels (it did not, and could not, reduce medical costs), but the reason it is attacked is mainly because of its beneficial measures.

One of its good features was that it charged taxes on the exorbitantly wealthy and used that money to give healthcare to poor people who couldn’t afford it. This tax is the main reason why the law receives is so much hatred within establishment politics. It is also despised by insurance companies because it restricts their ability to do things like denying coverage and charging higher rates to people with pre-existing conditions. Now, Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department are asking a federal court to strike down these restrictions, including “the bans on insurers denying coverage and charging higher rates to people with pre-existing health conditions” and the limits “on how much insurers can charge people based on gender and age.”

This is just the latest salvo in Trump’s concerted effort to destroy Obamacare. He is working in service of rich investors and the insurance companies.

The reason the US healthcare system costs twice as much as other industrial nations while having some of the worst outcomes is because of the privatized system; high costs are charged to increase profits, while companies try to skirt providing as much care as possible to reduce costs. This could all be remedied by switching to the type of less-costly, more efficient national healthcare systems that almost all other Western nations employ, but the insurers won’t allow it. Trump’s efforts attack Obamacare in the wrong direction and exacerbate the problem.

There is also a human cost. Maintaining the privatized system means “maintaining” a situation that results in the unnecessary deaths of 45,000 people each year, who die due to lack of preventative care resulting from lack of health coverage. The Justice Department’s efforts to unwind protections for people with existing medical conditions will only exacerbate this.

The Trump administration is continuing its signature policy of placing industry officials and lobbyists into government positions designed to regulate industry.

A former banker, Joseph Otting, now heads the Comptroller of the Currency office, which oversees banks such as Bank of America and U.S. Bancorp, which are “two of his former employers.”

Mr. Otting’s initial efforts have been dedicated to rolling back “requirements for banks to have anti-money laundering and community-development programs”—for the record, big banks are the main lifeline of the illegal drug industry, because they launder its profits—and toward encouraging banks to expand business into things like providing more “loans to companies deep in dept.”

As I reported before, the EPA recently was embroiled in a scandal after trying to conceal a federal study showing that toxic chemicals had contaminated significant portions of the country’s water supply. I noted that the intimate connections between the EPA and the chemical industry are likely major factors behind this. Now, after much lobbying from the chemical industry, the EPA has decided that it will only review the effects of harmful chemicals that result from “direct contact with a chemical” and will exclude “any potential exposure caused by the substances’ presence in the air.”

The NYT notes “the approach means that the improper disposal of chemicals – leading to the contamination of drinking water, for instance – will often not be a factor in deciding whether to restrict or ban them.” The agency “will not focus on exposures that occur from traces of the chemical found in drinking water in 44 states as a result of improper disposal over decades”—in essence, allowing the chemical industry free reign to poison the environment, leading to illness and death, all in search of higher profits.

Needless to say, the Trump administration is working diligently to increase the major problems afflicting the country. This point was captured quite beautifully in a recently released report by a Special UN Rapporteur who just completed a mission surveying poverty and inequality in America. It provides a scathing critique of US policy:

The US is “a land of stark contrast” where “the immense wealth of the few” is juxtaposed with “the squalor and deprivation in which vast numbers of Americans exist.”

For “almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best,” but the current administration’s efforts “seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship." The tax cuts “overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality,” and simply follow a general template that will only “worsen this situation” even further.

Download the full report here. I highly recommend reading the entire thing.

Trump's Assault Against the Working Class; May 28-June 3

This week, Scott Pruitt, the head of the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who also has extensive ties with fossil fuel companies (as reported last week), is further revealed by the New York Times to be in bed with even more billionaire coal barons than previously thought.

The NYT piece runs-through some of the ways Pruitt has been working to undermine and neuter the agency he is charged with running. It notes how the EPA has repealed (already marginal and insufficient) Obama-era laws aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, further freeing up coal companies to harm the environment, including by making it easier for them to dump toxic metals into rivers.

The EPA has also now completed one of the final steps before it can impose a weakening of rules designed to cut pollution from vehicle tailpipes, the next salvo in its assault against the public good in order to make life better for the exorbitantly wealthy. It’s important to understand that car manufacturers already get around these rules by rigging their vehicles with technology that tricks emissions testers. This is done on a consistent basis, evidenced by the frequency with which they get caught doing so.

Essentially, companies factor in the slap-on-the-wrist fines they receive as penalties within their cost-benefit analysis, and—given the weak laws and enforcement—they rightly judge it is more profitable to continue the practice and pay the fine if they get caught. Thus, the EPA will soon alleviate that small annoyance and manufacturers will be free to poison the air with even more impunity. These kinds of emissions, by the way, lead directly to disease and death.

 On a similar note, Trump’s Energy Department is working on a draft plan that would force energy-grid operators to purchase energy from nuclear and coal plants, in an effort to bail-out these failing industries. This is what is called “conservatism.” But what Trump is really doing here is paying back the corporate owners who funded his campaign. At the same time, he is accelerating the destruction of the environment through climate change. This is even more egregious given that these industries are already dying off due to the shift toward renewables, unlike the oil companies, who won’t go down without a fight. The obvious answer would be to just let them go.

As predicted last week, the momentum of the deregulation drive is only just getting started.

The Fed is now seeking to roll back a rule designed to curtail the kind of risky financial derivatives trading that led directly to the ’08 financial crisis, known as the Volcker rule. The proposed change to the rule would restrict all banks, including the largest ones, from further regulatory oversight of their high-risk derivatives transactions. The change would give the banks further leeway to use FDIC (public) insured deposits to make risky speculative bets in hopes of receiving quick super-profits. The point being, if the bets go sour, the taxpayer is on the hook.

Though the Fed is not a federal agency and is instead representative of the financial elite, the Wall Street Journal notes that the proposal “is part of a broader regulatory rollback that includes a recently enacted law easing rules on small banks and less aggressive leadership at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau”, which was covered here last week. The Trump administration, which in many ways represents the interests of the private equity industry which lavishly funded Trump’s campaign, has no doubt been pushing for this kind of deregulation from the Fed.

Four other regulatory institutions must approve the proposed changes before they come into effect, and there will be a 60-day period for public comments before the rule could be implemented.

As the World Socialist Web Site notes, although Big Finance routinely condemns regulatory oversight laws like the Volcker rule, in reality “bank profits soared to a record $56 billion during the first quarter of 2018.” As noted before, Trump has already lavishly showered financial investors (who had already been benefitting from rising profits) with even more wealth with the tax cut, which has been used mainly for stock buybacks and to pay dividends to investors.

This, as the worlds richest 1% snagged 82% of all of the wealth generated last year, and while the US “has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries” and “one of the highest poverty and inequality levels among the OECD countries.” Thus, the US represents a “land of stark contrast” where an increasingly shrinking number of elites live in luxury while “40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty,” as reported by the special UN Rapporteur, Philip Alston, who recently completed his official report on poverty in the US.

As predicted last week, these and other deregulatory measures will lead directly to another economic meltdown. A question of “when”, not “if.” And after all, there is nothing to lose in the eyes of the financial elite. They can simply rely on their Too Big To Fail government insurance policy when everything collapses. The last time that happened they survived unscathed, got rewarded, and now are reaping record-setting profits.

Those who will suffer, as always, will be the working class and the poor; those who are marginalized and disenfranchised both by a tyrannical and rapacious economic system, as well as the decisions of political leaders, better known as—for accuracy’s sake—the in-office representatives of the corporate elite, who, every four years, are charged with managing the economy in service of the masters. It is no surprise then, that they would do so within their interests.

Trump moves to protect ISIS, al-Qaeda enclave in Syria

Syria is preparing an offensive to regain control of the southwest of the country near the Daraa and Quneitra regions. The area is occupied by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups associated with them, and a substantial portion is controlled by ISIS. But the US says it is opposed to the Syrian action because it would violate the de-escalation agreement made between the US, Jordan, and Russia. The administration has warned that it will take “firm and appropriate measures” if the operation is carried out — effectively putting the US squarely on the side of ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Negotiations are now underway to determine the fate of the region, with Israeli media reporting that a possible deal could include a Russian agreement to prevent the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah from any operations in return for the Israeli agreement to refrain from intervening against Syrian government attempts to take area.

However, the US warning makes clear that the administration regards the presence of ISIS, al-Qaeda, and associated forces as preferable to the Syrian state, and that it would like to maintain these in the area to prevent a Syrian advance. This is conducive with the overarching goal of keeping Syria weak and divided, of attempting to punish Russia and its allies for defeating the US-backed opposition by turning the Syrian victory into a liability.

Continue Reading...

Trump's Assault Against the Working Class; May 21-27

Ever since Trump’s election, he has presided over a dedicated assault against the working class.

Despite his populist rhetoric, it was not surprising that a billionaire capitalist would side with the interests of business owners while eroding the ability of labor to interfere with their ability to amass profits. The surprising thing has been how much these efforts have flown under-the-radar. While the $1.5 trillion tax cut is correctly seen as a handout to the rich, there has also been a constant stream of other actions aimed at enriching the wealthy at the populations expense.

Focus, however, has been diverted to irrelevancies like scandals and Trump’s most recent exploit. So, I decided to give a brief rundown of the administrations recent efforts, sticking to just the past week.

--

While the tax cut was packaged as a way to inject a windfall of private investment into the economy, and thereby create jobs and increase wages, it became apparent that this was just a narrative used to justify a massive government welfare payment to the wealthy.

In a CNN report this week, “Tax cut sparks record-setting $178 billion buyback boom,” the journalists describe how “corporate America is throwing a record-setting party for shareholders” by “showering Wall Street with at least $178 billion of stock buybacks during the first three months of 2018.” In the past 12 months, this has resulted in payouts to shareholders that “could top $1 trillion for the first time ever.”

For context, around 84% of all stocks are owned by the top 10%, while the richest 1% own nearly 40%. A party indeed for the sectors of already exorbitant wealth and privilege, who are now “raking in monster profits”, in addition to the profits that were already accelerating before the tax cut. And, according to CNN, “they can thank President Trump for their success.”

In contrast, the promised job-creating investment has yet to materialize, which is not surprising, since there has never been any data to suggest that it would.

After giving a windfall of taxpayer funds away to investors, Trump moved to further disenfranchise the black working class—already the demographic most disenfranchised and harmed by our economic system—by making it harder for government agencies to enforce fair housing policies, which are aimed at addressing discriminatory housing practices.

The barely-disguised racism underlying this move was evident in the argument that was used to justify it: the Wall Street Journal reports that “Critics of the Obama administration’s housing policies said the tool was intended to force communities to integrate against their will and was cumbersome.”

One of the major facets of the Trump presidency has been to further blur the already blurry line between corporate representatives and government officials. For example, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, is a climate denier with intimate relations with corporations that profit from burning fossil fuels. He is also the man appointed to the task of protecting our environment. It is not hard to see how this will turn out, especially within a system where business interests already determine policy.

This week, Pruitt headed off a public relations stunt meant to provide damage control to a story exposed by Politico. Documents proved that the EPA was blocking the publication of a federal study which revealed a nation-wide water-contamination crisis. Certain chemicals, found in products like Teflon and foam, have been seeping into the water supply and endangering civilians.

The deputy assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the body that is supposed to protect us from harmful chemicals, went from working at the EPA under Obama to working at the American Chemistry Council, a trade association for US chemical companies, before then coming back to the EPA; government and private office are a revolving door.

It is therefore not surprising that representatives of the chemical industry would try to hide information showing that its chemicals are poisoning Americans.

On a similar note, it is widely expected that Trump will sign a “right to try” bill next week, which recently cleared Congress. It allows terminally ill patients to access experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA. However, nearly all of the patients who ask to try experimental medication get approval to do so already. The bill is simply a way for Big Pharma to bypass FDA regulations and push unsafe and unproven medications onto patients; giving people on the cusp of death false hopes of remedy, while increasing bottom lines.

Trump also just signed a bill to deregulate the financial industry and roll back measures aimed at preventing another financial crisis. The Obama-era Dodd Frank regulations were exceptionally weak and did not adequately protect the economy. Yet the financial class refuses to even entertain minor curbs to their ability to accumulate wealth, no matter how harmful it is to the world.

The bill exempts a majority of financial firms from stronger regulatory oversight, and will be followed up by further measures to erase what little protections still exist.

It is important to understand that in the period after the New Deal when there were strict regulations there were no major financial crisis. Ever since the deregulation drive of the ’70s took off we have experienced intermittent and expanding crisis’, the last of which nearly brought down the global economy, and from which we have yet to recover.

Those who will eventually pay the costs of these measures, as happened after the last crash, will be working class, the poor, and the disenfranchised. The banks, on the other hand, don’t have to worry because they have a “Too Big to Fail” public insurance plan, paid by you, the taxpayer.

In closing, this headline from the Wall Street Journal says all that is needed to be said: “Trump Issues Orders Making It Easier to Fire Federal Workers.”

The executive orders further diminish the already marginal and decreasing leverage of workers over their employers. While making it easier to fire workers considered “poor performers”, the White House says it could save taxpayers more than $100 million a year. Of course, it is fine to charge the taxpayer $1.5 trillion over 10 years to pay for record corporate profits, but when it comes to public sectors jobs, that’s where we have to tighten the belt. It is unlikely this will be mentioned the next time Trump promises to “bring back our jobs.”

The orders also limit the power of public-sector unions, the last holdout of worker representation after years of assaults have reduced union participation to a shadow of its former self. It limits the amount of time employees can spend on union activities, while cutting union funding and also charging unions for rent space in federal buildings. The order will also “halt payments to unions specifically related to their time lobbying Congress,” the intent to decrease the influence of workers being readily apparent.

Given the anti-labor corporate agenda briefly outlined in the preceding examples, it is obvious that this move is just another example of the Trump agenda of further increasing the totalitarian nature of capitalism. Whereby owners and managers own the profits and exercise tyrannical control over decision making, while the workforce is subordinated to wage-slavery and order-taking from the masters, without there being even a pretense of a social contract or respect for worker rights.