Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday 14 December 2014

The European Union Times



Posted: 13 Dec 2014 02:41 PM PST


A study by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims up to 100 million Americans could lose electrical power in the event of a magnetic space storm, which would knock out the electric grid and cause other infrastructure to fail.
An internal fact sheet in 2012, from the just-released DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), noted that the damage and impact from a future solar storm isn’t known.
Space weather means conditions on the sun, in space, the upper atmosphere or in the earth’s magnetic field that can impact technological systems on the ground and endanger human life on earth.
The report states that a “coronal mass ejection” from the sun would first be detected by satellites and would reach the earth in 24-72 hours and affect up to 100 million people.
The largest of these storms are called G-5s and would disrupt power grid operations, GPS satellites, aircraft, manned space flights, satellite operations, communications cables and gas distribution pipelines.
“The extreme geomagnetic space weather event will cause widespread power outages to a large number of people (approximately 100 million people) in a multi-region, multi-state area of the US due to geomagnetic induced currents damaging EHV transformers, especially along coastal regions,” the report says.
Once transformers and transmissions lines are put out of action, it will cause many other electrically operated items to stop working, including water systems, refrigerators, computer systems and fuel distribution.
The report predicts that within 36 hours of the storm passing, 65 million people would have electric power again, and after two weeks another 25 million would be reconnected, but for the remaining ten million people in six states it would take two months to restore power to them, although it doesn’t say why.
However, there is some disagreement about the exact number of people that would be affected, and the document noted that in 2011 DHS experts were not convinced about the appalling consequences of an earlier study. But whatever the effect, its consequences would be huge and unknown.
“It occurs rarely, can’t be predicted, full protection is impossibly expensive and the potential impact ranges from inconvenient to cataclysmic,” said Mark Sauter, coauthor of the book Homeland Security: A Complete Guide, who managed to get hold of the report under the Freedom of Information Act.
He noted that more than 200 pages from the FEMA report were blacked out.
“This makes one wonder why FEMA is refusing to release the government’s space weather response plan. How would the government deal with ten million or many more Americans without power for two months or even longer?” said Sauter.
He questioned if the government is taking the threat seriously or just going through the bureaucratic motions and crossing its fingers that such an event won’t happen.
There were two major solar storms in 1859 and 1921, but electricity was much less prevalent then than today and so their effect was far more limited.
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Posted: 13 Dec 2014 02:31 PM PST
Ukrainian serviceman guards at hydro meteorological station tower at the airport of eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on December 11, 2014.
The UN says the death toll from fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine has exceeded 4,600 in nearly eight months.
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Saturday the conflict has left more than 300 people dead in less than a month, taking the overall toll to 4,634.
The statement said some 10,243 people have been wounded since the fighting erupted in mid-April. Moreover, it said, more than 1.1 million people have since been displaced.
According to the statement, as many as 488,466 people have fled to Russia. It also said that some 5.2 million people live in war-torn areas.
In its last report on November 20, the UN rights office put the number of fatalities at 4,317.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian army said on Saturday the pro-Russian forces had launched 11 attacks against its positions in the east despite a ceasefire deal between the two sides.
The army said in a statement that it had spotted a drone over Mariupol, the last major eastern town under Kiev’s control.
“The surveillance activities of the enemy have intensified around Mariupol where a drone was identified,” the statement read.
The ceasefire introduced on December 9 has been violated 11 times in the past 24 hours, it said.
The pro-Russians have yet to comment on this report.
The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev’s military operation started in mid-April in a bid to crush the protests.
Kiev and pro-Russia forces recently agreed to stop fighting under the terms of a Kremlin-brokered ceasefire.
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Posted: 13 Dec 2014 01:56 PM PST


On occasion a reader will ask if I can give readers some good news. The answer is: not unless I lie to you like “your” government and the mainstream media do. If you want faked “good news,” you need to retreat into The Matrix. In exchange for less stress and worry, you will be led unknowingly into financial ruin and nuclear armageddon.
If you want to be forewarned, and possibly prepared, for what “your” government is bringing you, and have some small chance of redirecting the course of events, read and support this site. It is your site. I already know these things. I write for you.
The neoconservatives, a small group of warmongers strongly allied with the military/industrial complex and Israel, gave us Granada and the Contras affair in Nicaragua. President Reagan fired them, and they were prosecuted, but subsequently pardoned by Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush.
Ensconced in think tanks and protected by Israeli and military/security complex money, the neoconservatives reemerged in the Clinton administration and engineered the breakup of Yugoslavia, the war against Serbia, and the expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders.
Neoconservatives dominated the George W. Bush regime. They controlled the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the Office of the Vice President, and much else. Neoconservatives gave us 9/11 and its coverup, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the beginning of the destabilizations of Pakistan and Yemen, the U.S. Africa Command, the invasion of South Ossetia by Georgia, the demise of the anti-ABM Treaty, unconstitutional and illegal spying on American citizens without warrants, loss of constitutional protections, torture, and the unaccountability of the executive branch to law, Congress, and the judiciary. In short, the neoconservatives laid the foundation for dictatorship and for WW III.
The Obama regime held no one accountable for the crimes of the Bush regime, thus creating the precedent that the executive branch is above the law. Instead, the Obama regime prosecuted whistleblowers who told the truth about government crimes.
Neoconservatives remain very influential in the Obama regime. As examples, Obama appointed neoconservative Susan Rice as his National Security Advisor. Obama appointed neoconservative Samantha Power as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Obama appointed neoconservative Victoria Nuland as Assistant Secretary of State. Nuland’s office, working with the CIA and Washington-financed NGOs, organized the U.S. coup in Ukraine.
Neoconservatism is the only extant political ideology. The ideology is “America uber alles.” Neoconservatives believe that History has chosen the United States to exercise hegemony over the world, thereby making the U.S. “exceptional” and “indispensable.” Obama himself has declared as much. This ideology gives neoconservatives tremendous confidence and drive, just as Karl Marx’s conclusion that history had chosen the workers to be the ruling class gave early communists confidence and drive.
This confidence and drive makes the neoconservatives reckless.
To advance their agenda neoconservatives propagandize the populations of the U.S. and Washington’s vassal states. The presstitutes deliver the neoconservatives’ lies to the unsuspecting public: Russia has invaded and annexed Ukrainian provinces; Putin intends to reconstitute the Soviet Empire; Russia is a gangster state without democracy; Russia is a threat to the Baltics, Poland, and all of Europe, necessitating a U.S./NATO military buildup on Russia’s borders; China, a Russian ally, must be militarily contained with new U.S. naval and air bases surrounding China and controlling Chinese sea lanes.
The neoconservatives and President Obama have made it completely clear that the U.S. will not accept Russia and China as sovereign countries with economic and foreign policies independent of the interests of Washington. Russia and China are acceptable only as vassal states, like the UK, Europe, Japan, Canada, and Australia.
Clearly, the neoconservative formula is a formula for the final war.
All of humanity is endangered by a handful of evil men and women ensconced in positions of power in Washington.
Anti-Russia propaganda has gone into high gear. Putin is the “new Hitler.” Daniel Zubov reports on a joint conference held by three U.S. think tanks. The conference blamed Russia for the failures of Washington’s foreign policy. Read this article: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20141205/1015538604.html to see how neoconservatives operate in order to control the explanations. Even Henry Kissinger is under attack for stating the obvious truth that Russia has a legitimate interest in Ukraine, a land long part of Russia and located in Russia’s legitimate sphere of influence.
Since the Clinton regime, Washington has been acting against Russian interests. In his forthcoming book, The Globalization of War: America’s Long War against Humanity, Professor Michel Chossudovsky presents a realistic appraisal of how close Washington has brought the world to its demise in nuclear war. This passage is from the Preface:
“The ‘globalization of war’ is a hegemonic project. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The US military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.
“Under a global military agenda, the actions undertaken by the Western military alliance (US-NATO-Israel) in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Ukraine, Syria and Iraq are coordinated at the highest levels of the military hierarchy. We are not dealing with piecemeal military and intelligence operations. The July-August 2014 attack on Gaza by Israeli forces was undertaken in close consultation with the United States and NATO. In turn, the actions in Ukraine and their timing coincided with the onslaught of the attack on Gaza.
“In turn, military undertakings are closely coordinated with a process of economic warfare which consists not only in imposing sanctions on sovereign countries but also in deliberate acts of destabilization of financial and currency markets, with a view to undermining the enemies’ national economies.
“The United States and its allies have launched a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity. As we go to press, US and NATO forces have been deployed in Eastern Europe. US military intervention under a humanitarian mandate is proceeding in sub-Saharan Africa. The US and its allies are threatening China under President Obama’s
‘Pivot to Asia’.
“In turn, military maneuvers are being conducted at Russia’s doorstep which could lead to escalation.
“The US airstrikes initiated in September 2014 directed against Iraq and Syria under the pretext of going after the Islamic State are part of a scenario of military escalation extending from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to Central and South Asia. The Western military alliance is in an advanced state of readiness.
“And so is Russia.”
As I have often remarked, Americans are an insouciant people. They are simply unaware. Suppose they were aware, suppose that the entire population understood the peril, could anything be done, or have the insouciant Americans fallen under the control of the police state that Washington has created?
I don’t think there is much hope from the American people. The American people cannot tell genuine from fake leadership, and the ruling private elites will not permit real leaders to emerge. Moreover, there is no organized movement in opposition to the neoconservatives.
The hope comes from outside the political system. The hope is that the House of Cards and rigged markets erected by policymakers for the benefit of the One Percent collapses. David Stockman regards this outcome as a highly likely one. The collapse that Stockman sees as being on its way is the same collapse about which I have warned. Moreover, the number of Black Swans which can originate collapse are even more numerous than the ones Stockman correctly identifies. Some financial organizations are worried about a lack of liquidity in the fixed income (bonds) and derivatives markets. Barbara Novack, co-chair of Black Rock, is lobbying hard for a derivatives bailout mechanism.
David Stockman’s article is important. Read it until you understand it, and you will know more than most everyone.http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/david-stockman/duck-and-cover%E2%80%A8/
Many will ask: If the wealth of the One Percent is vulnerable to economic collapse, will war be initiated to protect this wealth and to blame the Russians or Chinese for the hardships that engulf the American population? My answer is that the kind of collapse that I expect, and that David Stockman and no doubt others expect, presents government with such social, political, and economic insecurity that organizing for a major war becomes impossible.
Whereas the political impotence of the American people and the vassalage of the Western World impose no constraints on Washington, economic collapse brings revolutions and the demise of the existing order.
As hard as collapse would make it for people to survive, the chances for survival are higher than in the event of nuclear war.
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Posted: 13 Dec 2014 01:42 PM PST
Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann announced the first stage of budget cuts in May.
Australia is to scrap around 175 government agencies in what many say would exacerbate the country’s unemployment problems.
The decision is expected for Monday as part of Prime Minister Tony Abbot’s mid-year economic outlook. Abbot’s administration has already abolished more than 76 agencies in addition to selling the country’s largest health insurer Medibank Private.
Officials accuses the former labor administration of making the government too big and wasteful.
The list of departments waiting for abolition includes a consultative forum on veterans of the Vietnam war, an advisory committee on Antarctic and a specialized group working on drought. Some other departments will be consolidated into or merged with other organizations, bringing the total number to more than 170.
Australia faces increasing levels of budget deficit as the price of commodities is on the fall and the general demand from Chinese markets has experienced a decline over the past months.
The abolition of the government agencies has sparked criticism within the opposition, with their leaders saying the decision may be a blow to the general economic confidence in Australia and could further deepen the unemployment crisis in the country.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey is expected to release the mid-year economic outlook Monday with many expecting the government’s budget deficit to amount to USD 35 billion.
Last week, Australia’s unemployment rate hit a new 12-year high, rising to 6.3 per cent.
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Posted: 13 Dec 2014 10:50 AM PST


The shocking revelations of CIA torture techniques give France a reason to exit NATO, National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said on Saturday. The report on the CIA’s former interrogation practices has drawn wide criticism since its release.
“If indeed everyone is outraged by the tortures used by the US then, let’s leave NATO,” Le Pen said during an interview with Europe 1 radio channel. She wrote the same statement on her Twitter account.
The US Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA “torture report,” which details the CIA’s use of torture on prisoners in the wake of 9/11, was released by the Senate on Tuesday.
After four years of research at a cost of over $40 million, the findings unveiled the “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, used within the walls of covert, overseas prisons by the CIA.
The report raised serious questions over controversial tactics which included sleep deprivation, waterboarding, rectal feeding, and others. Dianne Feinstein, the committee chair, admitted that the techniques were “torture,” though the word was never used in the report.
The findings also revealed that the CIA’s treatment breached the body’s legal mandate, as investigators said they found evidence of the intelligence agency’s systematic deception of Congress. Despite the methods used, the agency failed to gather information that foiled subsequent threats to US national security, the report found.
Since the report’s release, prominent human rights groups have demanded to prosecute the responsible US officials listed in the document.
Despite widespread criticism and a wave of outrage sparked by the results of the Senate investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday that it will not be pursuing charges against those involved in the interrogations.
UN special rapporteur for torture Juan Mendez told RT that the report will likely create momentum that will lead to justice. He insisted that countries complicit in the CIA torture need to carry out their own investigations.
“We have lived without prosecutions now for several years, but the experience shows that when truth telling is done honestly and sincerely, it generates a debate and the debate then generates a momentum towards justice,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
Le Pen has previously criticized French President Francois Hollande’s close ties with the US and called on France to leave NATO.
Speaking to RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze in June, Le Pen said that NATO is an opportunity for the United States to extend its influence.
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