[Needless to say, if you've been paying attention, 2015 is poised to be a crucial year geopolitically and then some. I don't buy into some of the following scenarios that "progressive" Stephen Lendman has posted, but even his most over-the-top, paranoid predictions are NOT out of the realm of reason, not by a long shot. And that is scary. We appear to be living in that proverbial Chinese curse of "interesting times." I prefer to observe that the proverbial glass should be filled, and I can only hope that the PTB come to their frickin senses before it's too late for those "great unwashed masses" walking around in a state of waking coma...
—chris]
By Stephen Lendman
Understanding what's ongoing is perhaps the best way to assess what's coming. What's happening in real time is grim.
So is next year's outlook. More of the same and then some. Wars without end. Punishing neoliberal harshness.
Police state crackdowns on nonbelievers. Big Brother watching everyone. Freedom eroding in plain sight.
America bears full responsibility for horrific global conflicts. Rogue EU collaborators and Israel share it. Partners in high crimes against humanity.
Under or unreported. Largely out of sight and mind. Ongoing without end. In multiple war theaters. Washington's dirty hands manipulating things.
Permanent war is official US policy. One country after another is attacked, ravaged and destroyed.
Turned to rubble. Killing millions. By wars and their aftermath. Including human exploitation. Deep impoverishment. Extreme deprivation.
Preventable diseases. Many lethal when untreated. Starvation. Daily post-war violence. Appalling human misery.
America is the greatest threat to world peace. The "greatest purveyor of violence in the world," said Martin Luther King.
Using its resources irresponsibly. Inordinately for militarism. War-making. Corporate handouts. Benefitting its super-rich. Trillions of dollars down a black hole. Unprecedented grand theft.
While essential homeland needs increasingly go begging. In the world's richest nation. Including healthcare. A fundamental human right. Martin Luther King saying:
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." Neo-Malthusaian and then some.
Mandating no public sphere. Unrestrained corporate empowerment. Controlling nonbelievers repressively.
Inside the bubble it's paradise. Outside is dystopian hell. Ordinary people increasingly on their own out of luck.
In the United States of inequality. Bipartisan complicity mandates it. America increasingly a ruler-serf society. Neofeudalism and then some.
Casino capitalism replaced free enterprise. At the expense of fundamental human rights. Ordinary people are swindled.
Their welfare and futures stolen. Few benefit at the expense of most others. Hardwired injustice defines America. Beautiful for its privileged few alone.
Republicans and Democrats in lockstep. On issues mattering most. Washington's criminal class is bipartisan. Public and private corruption is rampant.
In Obama's first term, America's top 1% got 95% of the gain in household income. Most others got lump of coal harshness. Protracted Main Street Depression conditions.
Getting worse, not better. Around 70 million Americans rely on Medicaid for healthcare. Expiration of the so-called Obamacare mandated "fee bump" means fewer services for enrollees.
For many when most needed. Because amounts paid participating doctors will be nearly cut in half. Many won't accept new Medicaid patients. Some may abandon current ones.
Increasingly they'll be on their own when ill. Unable to receive a fundamental human right when most needed.
Americans can have whatever they want. Based on the ability to pay. At increasingly higher costs. With stagnant or lower incomes in inflation-adjusted dollars.
America is the United States of I don't care. Serving its privileged class exclusively. At the expense of all others.
Inequality is institutionalized. Families struggle to get by. Human suffering is real. Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, hunger, and despair affect growing millions.
The world's richest country doesn't care. Imperial priorities take precedence. So does redistributing wealth to bankers, other corporate favorites, and super-rich elites.
America was never beautiful. For sure not now. A year ago article said expect 2014 to be bloody. More global death, destruction and human misery.
Merchants of death profit more than ever. Corrupt politicians benefit at the expense of their constituents.
Polar opposite what Americans deserve. Democrats in lockstep with Republicans. On issues mattering most.
Pro-war. Pro-Wall Street. Pro-business. Pro-privilege. Pro-super-wealth. Anti-dissent. Anti-democracy.
Anti-civil and human rights. Anti-labor. Anti-environmental sanity. Anti-government of, by, and for everyone equitably and just.
Monied interests alone matter. In 2014, 3.6 million jobless Americans lost extended unemployment benefits. When most needed.
Expect millions more to lose theirs in 2015. On their own unable to find work. Highly touted recovery is fake.
Main Street Depression conditions persist. Bipartisan indifference makes things worse. Help when most needed is denied.
Obama is a serial liar. His yearend press conference repeated one canard after another. Ludicrously calling 2014 "a breakthrough year for America."
His touted jobs recovery doesn't exist. Numbers are fake. Manipulated to show more than actually created.
Available jobs are mostly low pay/poor or no benefit part-time or temp ones. The kinds most Americans shunned decades earlier. Two or more needed to get by.
As of December 30, the national debt exceeded $18 trillion. An all-time high. Increasing by $2.4 billion daily.
Paul Craig Roberts call Western economies and Japan's "a house of cards." Their economic policy opposite of what’s needed.
Supporting "over-sized banks, sovereign debt, and the US dollar." While their "economies and the ability of populations to cope have deteriorated."
Obama didn't explain. Instead touted his Affordable Care Act. A healthcare rationing scheme. A boon for insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains.
Ripping off millions. Leaving many uninsured. Most underinsured. "(A)round the world, America is leading," claimed Obama. Waging war on humanity he left unexplained.
Challenging Russia irresponsibly. Moscow considers US-dominated NATO a major threat.
Expanding east in violation of international law. Close to its border. Nuclear armed missiles target its heartland.
Three frightening Stop NATO reports should scare everyone. Headlined:
"Kiev: Poroshenko Signs Law Paving Way for NATO Absorption." What Russia made clear it won't tolerate.
"Ukrainian Official: Impose Martial Law, Join NATO." Escalate war on Donbas. Challenge Russia belligerently perhaps.
"Mobilization: Ukraine Junta Prepares For 'Continental War.' " Neo-Nazi national security and defense council head Okeksandr Turchynov intends greater mobilization.
Likely at Washington's behest. Irresponsibly challenging Russia. Risking open confrontation.
Obama's new friends are lunatics. In Europe's heartland. One fascist regime supports another.
Is the unthinkable possible? Perhaps likely? Will global war erupt in 2015? Will Washington initiate it?
Will Americans experience homeland war for the first time since mid-19th century civil conflict? Will cities like New York, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles be destroyed?
Will millions of Americans die? Making the world safe for monied interests. In bunkers until things subside.
Perhaps a wasteland awaiting them. An irradiated one won't sustain human life.
Washington already wages political and economic war on Russia. With illegal sanctions. Perhaps more to come.
Manipulating oil prices lower. Attacking the ruble. Henry Kissinger once said: "Control oil and you control nations. Control food and you control people."
Maybe Obama intends starving millions of Russians to death. Maybe by irradiating arable land. Making crop yields toxic.
America plans global dominance through two pillars and one commodity:
Unchallenged military power.
The dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Global control of oil and other energy resources.
Waging permanent wars to achieve imperial aims. Risking mass annihilation. Perhaps humanity's survival.
America is the real evil empire. Unmatched in human history. An out-of-control killing machine. Unrestrained. Ruthless. Run by lunatics. Stomping on people relentlessly.
One genocide follows others. Winning hearts and minds doesn't matter. Death squad diplomacy eliminates nonbelievers.
At home and abroad. Madness defines US policy. Police state harshness criminalizes right over wrong defenders.
Democracy is America's most dangerous export. Washington tolerates the real thing nowhere. For sure not at home.
Fear-mongering persists. Enemies are invented. Crime bosses make policy. Monied interests own them.
Rule of law principles don't matter. Nor democratic values. Or fundamental human and civil rights. Or societies fit to live in.
Dominance assures capital's divine right. Plunder guarantees obscene profits. Money is used to make more of it. A villainous cycle persists.
Expect more of the same in 2015. Perhaps worse than ever. Continued wars without end. Greater than ever wealth disparity.
A race to the bottom leaving ordinary people increasingly on their own. Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, hunger, homelessness and deprivation worse than ever in America.
Bipartisan complicity assures it. Social safety net protections increasingly eliminated. Freedom disappearing in plain sight.
The American dream is more illusion than reality. George Carlin once said you have to be asleep to believe it.
Expect no change for the better next year. Expect more of the same and then some.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].
—chris]
By Stephen Lendman
Understanding what's ongoing is perhaps the best way to assess what's coming. What's happening in real time is grim.
So is next year's outlook. More of the same and then some. Wars without end. Punishing neoliberal harshness.
Police state crackdowns on nonbelievers. Big Brother watching everyone. Freedom eroding in plain sight.
America bears full responsibility for horrific global conflicts. Rogue EU collaborators and Israel share it. Partners in high crimes against humanity.
Under or unreported. Largely out of sight and mind. Ongoing without end. In multiple war theaters. Washington's dirty hands manipulating things.
Permanent war is official US policy. One country after another is attacked, ravaged and destroyed.
Turned to rubble. Killing millions. By wars and their aftermath. Including human exploitation. Deep impoverishment. Extreme deprivation.
Preventable diseases. Many lethal when untreated. Starvation. Daily post-war violence. Appalling human misery.
America is the greatest threat to world peace. The "greatest purveyor of violence in the world," said Martin Luther King.
Using its resources irresponsibly. Inordinately for militarism. War-making. Corporate handouts. Benefitting its super-rich. Trillions of dollars down a black hole. Unprecedented grand theft.
While essential homeland needs increasingly go begging. In the world's richest nation. Including healthcare. A fundamental human right. Martin Luther King saying:
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." Neo-Malthusaian and then some.
Mandating no public sphere. Unrestrained corporate empowerment. Controlling nonbelievers repressively.
Inside the bubble it's paradise. Outside is dystopian hell. Ordinary people increasingly on their own out of luck.
In the United States of inequality. Bipartisan complicity mandates it. America increasingly a ruler-serf society. Neofeudalism and then some.
Casino capitalism replaced free enterprise. At the expense of fundamental human rights. Ordinary people are swindled.
Their welfare and futures stolen. Few benefit at the expense of most others. Hardwired injustice defines America. Beautiful for its privileged few alone.
Republicans and Democrats in lockstep. On issues mattering most. Washington's criminal class is bipartisan. Public and private corruption is rampant.
In Obama's first term, America's top 1% got 95% of the gain in household income. Most others got lump of coal harshness. Protracted Main Street Depression conditions.
Getting worse, not better. Around 70 million Americans rely on Medicaid for healthcare. Expiration of the so-called Obamacare mandated "fee bump" means fewer services for enrollees.
For many when most needed. Because amounts paid participating doctors will be nearly cut in half. Many won't accept new Medicaid patients. Some may abandon current ones.
Increasingly they'll be on their own when ill. Unable to receive a fundamental human right when most needed.
Americans can have whatever they want. Based on the ability to pay. At increasingly higher costs. With stagnant or lower incomes in inflation-adjusted dollars.
America is the United States of I don't care. Serving its privileged class exclusively. At the expense of all others.
Inequality is institutionalized. Families struggle to get by. Human suffering is real. Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, hunger, and despair affect growing millions.
The world's richest country doesn't care. Imperial priorities take precedence. So does redistributing wealth to bankers, other corporate favorites, and super-rich elites.
America was never beautiful. For sure not now. A year ago article said expect 2014 to be bloody. More global death, destruction and human misery.
Merchants of death profit more than ever. Corrupt politicians benefit at the expense of their constituents.
Polar opposite what Americans deserve. Democrats in lockstep with Republicans. On issues mattering most.
Pro-war. Pro-Wall Street. Pro-business. Pro-privilege. Pro-super-wealth. Anti-dissent. Anti-democracy.
Anti-civil and human rights. Anti-labor. Anti-environmental sanity. Anti-government of, by, and for everyone equitably and just.
Monied interests alone matter. In 2014, 3.6 million jobless Americans lost extended unemployment benefits. When most needed.
Expect millions more to lose theirs in 2015. On their own unable to find work. Highly touted recovery is fake.
Main Street Depression conditions persist. Bipartisan indifference makes things worse. Help when most needed is denied.
Obama is a serial liar. His yearend press conference repeated one canard after another. Ludicrously calling 2014 "a breakthrough year for America."
His touted jobs recovery doesn't exist. Numbers are fake. Manipulated to show more than actually created.
Available jobs are mostly low pay/poor or no benefit part-time or temp ones. The kinds most Americans shunned decades earlier. Two or more needed to get by.
As of December 30, the national debt exceeded $18 trillion. An all-time high. Increasing by $2.4 billion daily.
Paul Craig Roberts call Western economies and Japan's "a house of cards." Their economic policy opposite of what’s needed.
Supporting "over-sized banks, sovereign debt, and the US dollar." While their "economies and the ability of populations to cope have deteriorated."
Obama didn't explain. Instead touted his Affordable Care Act. A healthcare rationing scheme. A boon for insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains.
Ripping off millions. Leaving many uninsured. Most underinsured. "(A)round the world, America is leading," claimed Obama. Waging war on humanity he left unexplained.
Challenging Russia irresponsibly. Moscow considers US-dominated NATO a major threat.
Expanding east in violation of international law. Close to its border. Nuclear armed missiles target its heartland.
Three frightening Stop NATO reports should scare everyone. Headlined:
"Kiev: Poroshenko Signs Law Paving Way for NATO Absorption." What Russia made clear it won't tolerate.
"Ukrainian Official: Impose Martial Law, Join NATO." Escalate war on Donbas. Challenge Russia belligerently perhaps.
"Mobilization: Ukraine Junta Prepares For 'Continental War.' " Neo-Nazi national security and defense council head Okeksandr Turchynov intends greater mobilization.
Likely at Washington's behest. Irresponsibly challenging Russia. Risking open confrontation.
Obama's new friends are lunatics. In Europe's heartland. One fascist regime supports another.
Is the unthinkable possible? Perhaps likely? Will global war erupt in 2015? Will Washington initiate it?
Will Americans experience homeland war for the first time since mid-19th century civil conflict? Will cities like New York, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles be destroyed?
Will millions of Americans die? Making the world safe for monied interests. In bunkers until things subside.
Perhaps a wasteland awaiting them. An irradiated one won't sustain human life.
Washington already wages political and economic war on Russia. With illegal sanctions. Perhaps more to come.
Manipulating oil prices lower. Attacking the ruble. Henry Kissinger once said: "Control oil and you control nations. Control food and you control people."
Maybe Obama intends starving millions of Russians to death. Maybe by irradiating arable land. Making crop yields toxic.
America plans global dominance through two pillars and one commodity:
Unchallenged military power.
The dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Global control of oil and other energy resources.
Waging permanent wars to achieve imperial aims. Risking mass annihilation. Perhaps humanity's survival.
America is the real evil empire. Unmatched in human history. An out-of-control killing machine. Unrestrained. Ruthless. Run by lunatics. Stomping on people relentlessly.
One genocide follows others. Winning hearts and minds doesn't matter. Death squad diplomacy eliminates nonbelievers.
At home and abroad. Madness defines US policy. Police state harshness criminalizes right over wrong defenders.
Democracy is America's most dangerous export. Washington tolerates the real thing nowhere. For sure not at home.
Fear-mongering persists. Enemies are invented. Crime bosses make policy. Monied interests own them.
Rule of law principles don't matter. Nor democratic values. Or fundamental human and civil rights. Or societies fit to live in.
Dominance assures capital's divine right. Plunder guarantees obscene profits. Money is used to make more of it. A villainous cycle persists.
Expect more of the same in 2015. Perhaps worse than ever. Continued wars without end. Greater than ever wealth disparity.
A race to the bottom leaving ordinary people increasingly on their own. Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, hunger, homelessness and deprivation worse than ever in America.
Bipartisan complicity assures it. Social safety net protections increasingly eliminated. Freedom disappearing in plain sight.
The American dream is more illusion than reality. George Carlin once said you have to be asleep to believe it.
Expect no change for the better next year. Expect more of the same and then some.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].
