Apr 16

Today’s News 16th April 2019

  • Turkish Economist Arrested After Insulting Erdogan On Twitter

    Following his party’s embarrassing defeat at the polls earlier this month, where the opposition wrested control of the municipal governments of Istanbul and Ankara, and last month’s destabilizing currency crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again cracking down on dissenters, including the few remaining voices in Turkish media who dare criticize him directly.

    According to Bloomberg, Istanbul police briefly arrested and detained the economist Mustafa Sonmez, known for opposing the government’s policies, after he allegedly insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Sonmez’s lawyer told the state-run Anadolu press agency that police barged into the economist’s home on Sunday morning, arrested him, and took him to a police station in Istanbul. Sonmez, who has also been working as a columnist and a television commentator, was reportedly questioned about several tweets that were critical of the government’s response to the results of the local elections.

    Sonmez reportedly criticized Erdogan for not recognizing Ekrem Imamoglu as the winner of Istanbul’s mayoral race.  The AKP is demanding a recount and possibly a new vote.

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    His lawyer said that Sonmez was interrogated for a few hours and then released. But just because he was let go doesn’t mean he won’t face a legal case in Turkey.

    Erdogan has been cracking down on the press and freedom of expression in Turkey since the failed July 2016 coup, when Erdogan began a purge that has ensnared tens of thousands of Turks. Turkish police made headlines in late 2016 for shutting down one critical television outlet in the middle of a live broadcast.

    After the arrest, Sonmez tweeted that police burst into his home at three o’clock in the morning, and promised that he wouldn’t be silenced, saying “the water never stops.”

    He later claimed that it was ridiculous that he was detained for alegedly insulting Erdogan when there’s so much substantive criticism to levy at AKP and its policies.

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    We imagine that defiant tone will win him plenty of friends in Ankara.

  • As Notre Dame Burns, European Churches Are Vandalized, Defecated On, & Torched "Every Day"

    Authored by Raymong Ibrahim via The Gatestone Institute,

    Countless churches throughout Western Europe are being vandalized, defecated on, and torched.

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    In February, vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, France, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner. In addition, an altar cloth was burned. (Image source: Eutrope/Wikimedia Commons)

    In France, two churches are desecrated every day on average. According to PI-News, a German news site, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France in 2018. This represents a 17% increase compared to the previous year (2017), when 878 attacks were registered— meaning that such attacks are only going from bad to worse.

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    Among some of the recent desecrations in France, the following took place in just February and March:

    • Vandals plundered Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nîmes and used human excrement to draw a cross there; consecrated bread was found thrown outside among garbage.

    • The Saint-Nicolas Church in Houilles was vandalized on three separate occasions in February; a 19th century statue of the Virgin Mary, regarded as “irreparable,” was “completely pulverized,” said a clergyman; and a hanging cross was thrown to the floor.

    • Vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner. In addition, an altar cloth was burned.

    • Arsonists torched the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris soon after midday mass on Sunday, March 17.

    Similar reports are coming out of Germany. Four separate churches were vandalized and/or torched in March alone. “In this country,” PI-News explained, “there is a creeping war against everything that symbolizes Christianity: attacks on mountain-summit crosses, on sacred statues by the wayside, on churches… and recently also on cemeteries.”

    Who is primarily behind these ongoing and increasing attacks on churches in Europe? The same German report offers a hint:

    “Crosses are broken, altars smashed, Bibles set on fire, baptismal fonts overturned, and the church doors smeared with Islamic expressions like ‘Allahu Akbar.'”

    Another German report from November 11, 2017 noted that in the Alps and Bavaria alone, around 200 churches were attacked and many crosses broken:

    “Police are currently dealing with church desecrations again and again. The perpetrators are often youthful rioters with a migration background.” Elsewhere they are described as “young Islamists.”

    Sometimes, sadly, in European regions with large Muslim populations, there seems to be a concomitant rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols. Before Christmas 2016, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, where more than a million Muslims reside, some 50 public Christian statues (including those of Jesus) were beheaded and crucifixes broken.

    In 2016, following the arrival in Germany of another million mostly Muslim migrants, a local newspaper reported that in the town of Dülmen, “‘not a day goes by’ without attacks on religious statues in the town of less than 50,000 people, and the immediate surrounding area.”

    In France it also seems that where the number of Muslim migrants increases, so do attacks on churches. A January 2017 study revealed that, “Islamist extremist attacks on Christians” in France rose by 38 percent, going from 273 attacks in 2015 to 376 in 2016; the majority occurred during Christmas season and “many of the attacks took place in churches and other places of worship.”

    As a typical example, in 2014, a Muslim man committed “major acts of vandalism” inside a historic Catholic church in Thonon-les-Bains. According to a report (with pictures) he “overturned and broke two altars, the candelabras and lecterns, destroyed statues, tore down a tabernacle, twisted a massive bronze cross, smashed in a sacristy door and even broke some stained-glass windows.” He also “trampled on” the Eucharist.

    For similar examples in other European countries, please see here, here, here, here, and here.

    In virtually every instance of church attacks, authorities and media obfuscate the identity of the vandals. In those rare instances when the Muslim (or “migrant”) identity of the destroyers is leaked, the perpetrators are then presented as suffering from mental health issues. As the recent PI-News report says:

    “Hardly anyone writes and speaks about the increasing attacks on Christian symbols. There is an eloquent silence in both France and Germany about the scandal of the desecrations and the origin of the perpetrators…. Not a word, not even the slightest hint that could in anyway lead to the suspicion of migrants… It is not the perpetrators who are in danger of being ostracized, but those who dare to associate the desecration of Christian symbols with immigrant imports. They are accused of hatred, hate speech and racism.”

  • Forget Iran & Saudi Arabia, China Dominates The World Executions League Table

    Great news, world citizens, 2018 saw a 31 percent decrease in executions, according to Amnesty International’s annual review of countries using the death penalty. Excluding China, 690 people are known to have been executed around the world, a decline on 2017’s 993.

    But, as Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, China is the world’s top executioner by far and it’s believed that thousands of people are put to death every despite accurate figures remaining a state secret.

    Infographic: The World's Top Executioners | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Iran comes second after China with 253 people thought to have been executed last year. That is still a significant reduction on 2017 when more than 500 people had their death sentences carried out. The decline in Iran has been attributed to a change in the countries anti-narcotic laws. Other countries known for high numbers of executions also saw noticeable declines including Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia.

    Despite the reduction in executions by the worst perpetrators, a small number of states are still bucking the trend. They include developed nations like Japan and Singapore who both reported their highest execution totals for years. Thailand has also resumed executions after nearly a decade while the United States also saw a minor increase in 2018.

  • CJ Hopkins: Assange & Uncle Tom's Empire

    Authored (satirically) by CJ Hopkins via The Unz Review,

    I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but, given the arrest of Julian Assange last week, and the awkward and cowardly responses thereto, I felt it necessary to abandon my customary literary standards and spew out a spineless, hypocritical “hot take” professing my concern about the dangerous precedent the U.S. government may be setting by extraditing and prosecuting a publisher for exposing American war crimes and such, while at the same time making it abundantly clear how much I personally loathe Assange, and consider him an enemy of America, and freedom, and want the authorities to crush him like a cockroach.

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    Now I want to be absolutely clear. I totally defend Assange and Wikileaks, and the principle of freedom of the press, and whatever. And I am all for exposing American war crimes (as long as it doesn’t endanger the lives of the Americans who committed those war crimes, or inconvenience them in any way). At the same time, while I totally support all that, I feel compelled to express my support together with my personal loathing of Assange, who, if all those important principles weren’t involved, I would want to see taken out and shot, or at least locked up in Super-Max solitary … not for any crime in particular, but just because I personally loathe him so much.

    I’m not quite sure why I loathe Assange. I’ve never actually met the man. I just have this weird, amorphous feeling that he’s a horrible, disgusting, extremist person who is working for the Russians and is probably a Nazi. It feels kind of like that feeling I had, back in the Winter of 2003, that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons, which he was going to give to those Al Qaeda terrorists who were bayonetting little babies in their incubators, or the feeling I still have, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Trump is a Russian intelligence asset who peed on Barack Obama’s bed, and who is going to set fire to the Capitol building, declare himself American Hitler, and start rounding up and murdering the Jews.

    I don’t know where these feelings come from. If you challenged me, I probably couldn’t really support them with any, like, actual facts or anything, at least not in any kind of rational way. Being an introspective sort of person, I do sometimes wonder if maybe my feelings are the result of all the propaganda and relentless psychological and emotional conditioning that the ruling classes and the corporate media have subjected me to since the day I was born, and that influential people in my social circle have repeated, over and over again, in such a manner as to make it clear that contradicting their views would be extremely unwelcome, and might negatively impact my social status, and my prospects for professional advancement.

    Take my loathing of Assange, for example. I feel like I can’t even write a column condemning his arrest and extradition without gratuitously mocking or insulting the man. When I try to, I feel this sudden fear of being denounced as a “Trump-loving Putin-Nazi,” and a “Kremlin-sponsored rape apologist,” and unfriended by all my Facebook friends. Worse, I get this sickening feeling that unless I qualify my unqualified support for freedom of press, and transparency, and so on, with some sort of vicious, vindictive remark about the state of Assange’s body odor, and how he’s probably got cooties, or has pooped his pants, or some other childish and sadistic taunt, I can kiss any chance I might have had of getting published in a respectable publication goodbye.

    But I’m probably just being paranoid, right? Distinguished, highbrow newspapers and magazines like The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Vox, Vice, Daily Mail, and others of that caliber, are not just propaganda organs whose primary purpose is to reinforce the official narratives of the ruling classes. No, they publish a broad range of opposing views. The Guardian, for example, just got Owen Jones to write a full-throated defense of Assange on that grounds that he’s probably a Nazi rapist who should be locked up in a Swedish prison, not in an American prison! The Guardian, remember, is the same publication that printed a completely fabricated story accusing Assange of secretly meeting with Paul Manafort and some alleged “Russians,” among a deluge of other such Russiagate nonsense, and that has been demonizing Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite for several years.

    Plus, according to NPR’s Bob Garfield (who is lustfully “looking forward to Assange’s day in court”), and other liberal lexicologists, Julian Assange is not even a real journalist, so we have no choice but to mock and humiliate him, and accuse him of rape and espionage … oh, and speaking of which, did you hear the one about how his cat was spying on the Ecuadorean diplomats?

    But seriously now, all joking aside, it’s always instructive (if a bit sickening) to watch as the mandarins of the corporate media disseminate an official narrative and millions of people robotically repeat it as if it were their own opinions. This process is particularly nauseating to watch when the narrative involves the stigmatization, delegitimization, and humiliation of an official enemy of the ruling classes. Typically, this enemy is a foreign enemy, like Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad, Milošević, Osama bin Laden, Putin, or whoever. But sometimes the enemy is one of “us” … a traitor, a Judas, a quisling, a snitch, like Trump, Corbyn, or Julian Assange.

    In either case, the primary function of the corporate media remains the same: to relentlessly assassinate the character of the “enemy,” and to whip the masses up into a mindless frenzy of hatred of him, like the Two-Minutes Hate in 1984, the Kill-the-Pig scene in Lord of the Flies, the scapegoating of Jews in Nazi Germany, and other examples a bit closer to home.

    Logic, facts, and actual evidence have little to nothing to do with this process. The goal of the media and other propagandists is not to deceive or mislead the masses. Their goal is to evoke the pent-up rage and hatred simmering within the masses and channel it toward the official enemy. It is not necessary for the demonization of the official enemy to be remotely believable, or stand up to any kind of serious scrutiny. No one sincerely believes that Donald Trump is a Russian Intelligence asset, or that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite, or that Julian Assange has been arrested for jumping bail, or raping anyone, or for helping Chelsea Manning “hack” a password.

    The demonization of the empire’s enemies is not a deception … it is a loyalty test. It is a ritual in which the masses (who, let’s face it, are de facto slaves) are ordered to display their fealty to their masters, and their hatred of their masters’ enemies. Cooperative slaves have plenty of pent-up hatred to unleash upon their masters’ enemies. They have all the pent-up hatred of their masters (which they do not dare direct at their masters, except within the limits their masters allow), and they have all the hatred of themselves for being cooperative, and … well, basically, cowards.

    Julian Assange is being punished for defying the global capitalist empire. This was always going to happen, no matter who was in the White House. Anyone who defies the empire in such a flagrant manner is going to be punished. Cooperative slaves demand this of their masters. Defiant slaves are actually less of a threat to their masters than they are to the other slaves who have chosen to accept their slavery and cooperate with their own oppression. Their defiance shames these cooperative slaves, and shines an unflattering light on their cowardice.

    This is why we are witnessing so many liberals (and liberals in leftist’s clothing) rushing to express their loathing of Assange in the same breath as they pretend to support him, not because they honestly believe the content of the official Julian Assange narrative that the ruling classes are disseminating, but because (a) they fear the consequences of not robotically repeating this narrative, and (b) Assange has committed the cardinal sin of reminding them that actual “resistance” to the global capitalist empire is possible, but only if you’re willing to pay the price.

    Assange has been paying it for the last seven years, and is going to be paying it for the foreseeable future. Chelsea Manning is paying it again. The Gilets Jaunes protestors have been paying it in France. Malcolm X paid it. Sophie Scholl paid it. Many others throughout history have paid it. Cowards mocked them as they did, as they are mocking Julian Assange at the moment. That’s all right, though, after he’s been safely dead for ten or twenty years, they’ll name a few streets and high schools after him. Maybe they’ll even build him a monument.

  • Mapping 40 Years Of Nautical Piracy

    For millennia, voyaging on the open seas has been a dangerous and risky endeavor.

    Between the powerful forces of Mother Nature and self-made obstacles stemming from human error, there is no shortage of possible calamities for even the bravest of sailors.

    But, as Visual Capitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, for most of human history, perhaps the biggest fear that sailors grappled with was that of piracy. A run in with such marauders could lead to the theft of valuable cargo or even possible death, and it’s a threat that carries on even through modern times.

    Hotbeds of Modern Piracy

    Today’s map comes from Adventures in Mapping and it aggregates instances of piracy over the last 40 years based on the database from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

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    View the full-size version of the infographic by clicking here

    It should be noted that all individual events can be seen on this interactive map, which is what we will use to look at current hotbeds of piracy in more depth below.

    1. The Strait of Malacca

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    The Strait of Malacca is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, and also one of the most notorious.

    A key chokepoint that sits between Malaysia and Indonesia, the Strait of Malacca is as narrow as 25 miles wide while also seeing a quarter of the world’s traded goods shipped through it every year. As a result, the strait and surrounding area are a frequent target for modern piracy.

    Example account: (September 2002)
    “The 1,699-ton Malaysian-flag tanker (NAUTICA KLUANG) was hijacked 28 Sep at 0300 local time while underway off Indonesia in the vicinity of Pulau Iyu Kecil at the southern tip of the Strait of Malacca. The pirates, armed with guns and machetes, tied up the crew and locked them in cabins. When the crew freed themselves at 0900, 29 Sep, the thieves had transferred the ship’s cargo of 3,000 tons of diesel oil, damaged communications equipment, and renamed it (CAKLU). “

    2. The Horn of Africa

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    When many people think of modern piracy, they think of the coast of Somalia. While those waters are often avoided, the nearby areas can be just as problematic.

    In particular, the Bab el Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, is a target for modern piracy. Similarly, the waters just off of Yemen are quite treacherous as well.

    Example account: (January 1991)
    “Somali pirates attached MV Naviluck off Somalia, killing three Filipino crewmen and setting fire to the vessel. Three boatloads of armed Somali pirates boarded the vessel on 12 Jan 91 took the crew ashore and killed three of them. The captain said the vessel was attacked off Xaafuun while on her way from Mombasa to Jeddah. He declined to specify the cargo. The surviving crew were made to jump overboard, and were later rescued by M Stern TRLR Dubai Dolphin.”

    3. The Gulf of Guinea

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    While we hear the most about Somalian pirates, the Gulf of Guinea that sits south of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana in West Africa is also a well-known hotbed.

    Tanker theft of petroleum products being shipped to and from Nigerian refineries is rampant, creating an ongoing concern for companies operating in the region.

    Example account: (June 2013)
    “On 13 June, the Singapore-flagged underway offshore supply vessel MDPL CONTINENTAL ONE was boarded and personnel kidnapped at 04-02N 008-02E, approximately 7 nm southwest of the OFON Oil Field. Two fiberglass speedboats, each with 2 outboards engines, each carrying 14 gunmen in wearing casual t-shirts and no masks, launched an attack. The pirates were armed with AK47’s. After stealing personal items and belongings, four expat crew were kidnapped (Polish Chief Engineer) and three Indians (Captain, Chief Officer, and Bosun).”

    4. The Caribbean

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    The Caribbean has a longstanding history with piracy – and while things have died down considerably since the peak, there are still isolated incidents that occur, especially with yachts.

    Most incidents happen off the coast of Venezuela, or in and around the islands on the eastern side of the sea, such as Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, and Grenada.

    Example account: (March 2016)
    “On 4 March, near position 13-16N 061-16W, several gunmen boarded a yacht anchored at Wallilabou in southwestern St. Vincent. During the course of the boarding, a German citizen aboard the yacht was killed and another person was injured. Authorities are investigating the incident.”

  • America's War Against Iran & Venezuela's "Deep States" Is Going Public

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,

    The US’ desire to dismantle the network of Iranian influence in Latin America and specifically in Venezuela speaks to its commitment to counter the regional sway of its rivals’ “deep states”, though it’s hitherto unprecedented for any country to make such a crusade public since the end of the Old Cold War, let alone clothe it in “anti-terrorist” and “anti-criminal” rhetoric.

    US Secretary of State Pompeo recently reiterated his rhetoric that Iran is a “global threat”, this time basing it on his claims that the country’s network of influence in Latin America is supporting “transnational crime” and “terrorism”. This comes shortly after Washington designated the IRGC as a “terrorist” organization and approximately half a year since the Justice Department began investigating Iranian ally Hezbollah’s alleged links to drug cartels as a follow-up to the scandalous Obama-era “Operation Cassandra“.

    Taken together, it’s clear that the US desires to dismantle Iran and Venezuela’s supposedly interconnected influence networks in Latin America as the next step in fortifying “Fortress America“, and while “deep state” wars such as this one have been going on for decades, it’s hitherto unprecedented for any country to make such a crusade public since the end of the Old Cold War when the US used to make similar claims about the USSR and its communist proxies.

    Evidently, the US isn’t shy about ushering in a new era of “deep state” wars whereby Great Powers such as itself (which is presently the leading one in the world) openly work to thwart the networks of influence established by its regional rivals’ on the grounds that the military-intelligence wings of their “deep states” are engaged in “criminal” and “terrorist” activities that threaten the world at large. It’s no secret that the CIA has been involved in these exact same activities for years, but getting bogged down in “feel-good” “whatabouttism” isn’t the purpose of this analysis even though it’s still important to point that out since it shows that the Trump Administration’s “hyper-realist” foreign policy is centered on the notion that “might makes right” and that double standards don’t matter as long as a state is strong enough to implement them with minimal consequences to its interests.

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    If successful in what it’s setting out to do, then the US will undoubtedly expand its operations against Venezuela and Iran’s “deep states” to include Russia and China’s as well, with the first-mentioned being relevant because of the emerging role that it plays in strengthening “Democratic Security” across the “Global South” in counteracting America’s regime change influence whereas the latter is importantly leading the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) that will tie all of its partner states together in a “community of shared destiny” that revolutionizes 21st-century geopolitics.

    Russian influence is already on the decline in Latin America except for in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Cuba, though China’s is on the ascent and poses the largest long-term threat to the “New Monroe Doctrine”, which is why it’ll probably be targeted next. Given the pattern being established through the public crusades against against Venezuela and Iran’s “deep states”, the US will likely attack China’s using similar “criminal”- or “corruption”-related rhetoric too, at the very least.

  • A Global Rally Killer Has Emerged In China

    Back in early October, the market catalyst that killed the US rally and sent stocks tumbling into a brief bear market after Powell warned that the neutral rate was a “long way away”, was the sudden spike in yields, which surged above 3.3%, breaking out above long-term resistance, and leading to renewed speculation that the 30 year long bull market in bonds is (again) officially over.

    But while US yields have remained stubbornly low, perhaps in anticipation of rate cuts and/or QE4, perhaps due to increased buying from foreigners due to sliding FX hedging costs, there is one place where yields have recently soared much higher: the same place whose massive credit expansion in the past three months has led to renewed hopes for global “green shoots”, and speculation that the economic slump is now over – China.

    After surging in the the first two weeks of April at the fastest pace in more than 2 years, on Monday Chinese ten-year yields rose to 3.38% Monday, extending their highest levels this year. And while for much of the recent advance Chinese equities were willing to ignore the spike in interest rates, in the past week Chinese stocks have been ominously toppy, and have continued to slide in Tuesday’s session.

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    As a result, and perhaps due to fears that Chinese liquidity is again getting too tight, on Tuesday the PBOC broke its streak of 18 consecutive days without open market interventions, and injected a net of 40 billion yuan via 7 day reverse repos. That plus concerns that the Chinese central bank will not cut rates as previously consensus had expected, stocks have topped out, even as 10Y yields have continued marching higher, and hit 3.40% in early Tuesday trading, the highest level since mid-December. In other words as Bloomberg’s Wes Goodman writes, while the PBOC says it will keep good control of the money supply, “yields may have more to rise even if the central bank is trying to temper the pace of the advance.”

    The risk is that if yields rise even higher, the rally in Chinese stocks – which has outperformed all major markets in 2019 – is now officially over.

    And, all else equal, it does appears that Chinese liquidity will shrink even more in the coming weeks, and local markets will face tighter credit conditions this quarter than in 1Q after the PBOC indicated the current pace had gone beyond its target. That, as Yinan Zhao cautions, is going to add to the pain for slumping sovereign bonds as investors face an uncertain economic outlook and reduced chances for stronger easing.

    1Q credit growth at 10.7% was way above the PBOC’s goal to keep it “in line with the pace of nominal GDP,” a range it specifically emphasized in yesterday’s policy statement. It usually doesn’t go into that much detail on credit growth goals.

    The PBOC emphasized a need for a balanced approach. Given 10-year yields are rising at the fastest pace in more than 2 years, that’s perhaps not the message fixed-income investors would have been hoping for.

    But wait, there’s more: while US traders are casting a fearful eye on just how bad the EPS contraction in Q1 earnings season will be (and whether it will recover in Q2 and onward) in China it will be far worse.  Indeed, the sharp Monday slump in Chinese small caps “underscores the dangers for mainland stock markets as what could be an ugly earnings season kicks off and steals the limelight from stimulus hopes”, as Bloomberg’s Kyoungwha Kim writes today.

    Here’s the punchline: while US stocks are expected to post a roughly 4% drop Y/Y, China small cap earnings will be a massacre, with Q1 EPS on the ChiNext board forecast to slump 29% y/y, following a 12% drop in the prior quarter. That’s in line with China’s dour Jan.-Feb. economic data. Paradoxically, as earnings tumbled, the ChiNext index soared by over 35% during the same period, so any disappointment in earnings will lead traders to rush for the exits… especially if rates keep rising as liquidity shrinks. This will keep markets volatile in April, especially as the ChiNext’s double top formation sets the gauge up for a correction.

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    The silver lining in China, just like in the US, is that any earnings recession is expected to be brief: in Q2 earnings are already predicted to rebound, largely thanks to the recent VAT cut, with overall 2019 EPS growth for the ChiNext seen at 52%.

    Whether or not that happens will ultimately depend on whether Chinese interest rates keep rising from here, and will also likely determine the fate of the global rally which, all else equals, is now entering extremely overbought territory.

  • US Government Won't Care About Your Definition Of Journalism After The Assange Precedent Is Set

    Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

    Since I published my last article about about the idiotic “Assange isn’t a journalist” smear, this talking point has become more and more commonplace in online discourse. It’s very important to defenders of the political status quo for us all to believe that Assange is not a journalist, because otherwise that would mean they’re cheering for a dangerous precedent which would allow for the prosecution of journalists who exposed the truth about US government malfeasance. And that would mean cognitive dissonance, which all defenders of the political status quo spend most of their day-to-day mental energy running away from.

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    So in the past few days, editorials like this one from free press avatar Peter Greste have popped up all over the place with their own definitions of what journalism is in order to argue why that label can’t possibly apply to Assange. All of these definitions ultimately boil down to the argument that because Assange doesn’t publish leaks in a way that they feel journalism ought to be practiced, it isn’t journalism and therefore sets no legal precedent for journalists around the world. As though the US government is going to be consulting their feelings about what specifically constitutes journalism the next time they decide to imprison a journalist for doing what Assange did.

    It doesn’t work that way, sugar tits. Assange is being prosecuted by the Trump administration for standard journalistic practices, he stands no chance of receiving a fair trial, and it is very likely that he will be hit with far more serious charges for his activities once on US soil. The next time the US government, under Trump or someone else, sees another journalist anywhere in the world doing something similar to what Assange did, there will be nothing stopping them from saying, “We need to lock that person up like we did Assange; they’re doing the same sort of thing.”

    It’s just so amazingly arrogant how people imagine that the way their feelings feel will factor into this in any way. Like the US Attorney General might show up on their doorstep one day with a clipboard saying “Yes, hello, we wanted to imprison this journalist based on the precedent we set with the prosecution of Julian Assange, but before doing so we wanted to find out how your feelings feel about whether or not they’re a real journalist.”

    You won’t get to define how the US government will interpret what constitutes journalism in the future. Only the US government will. It’s amazing that this isn’t more obvious to more people.

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    In reality, journalism has always been and will always be defined as an activity. It’s not like being a doctor. If you happen to witness a car crash and you give CPR on the scene, you are not a doctor in that moment, but if you take some photos and post them online with a summary of what you saw then you are engaging in the act of journalism and all the legalities and rules of journalism apply to you.

    The particular journalistic activities that the US is currently trying to extradite Assange for is encouraging a source to give him more documents and conspiracy to help Manning hide her identity so that she would not be persecuted for her heroic act of whistleblowing. In other words, Assange was attempting to make sure Manning’s leaks had enough impact to justify the risk, and also to try and make sure she wasn’t caught and tortured for it.

    As Glenn Greenwald has pointed out on Twitter, the indictment describes an activity that all investigative journalists partake in all the time. A source offers you some docs and you see a gap that needs to be filled, you will ask them to get them for you. A source fears they will be found out and you do what you can to hide their identity. That’s journalism at its most raw and dangerous and important. Check out the film Spotlight to see a fairly true version of what the journalists at the Boston Globe had to do in order to expose the pedophile ring of the Catholic Church. These high level crimes must be exposed for people’s safety, but the higher the level the crime, the more risk there is in its exposure.

    To be clear, you only have to engage in these kinds of activities when you are exposing the most powerful people with the most political clout for the most heinous of crimes. Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning suspected she was risking years of torture if she was found out, and history has since proved them both correct.

    So of all the many enraging aspects of all of this extraordinary act of Nice Guy Fascism, one of them is the constant bloviation of the mainstream media elite with their endless personal definitions of what makes a one journalist. You’d think they were quaffing wine at an opening and wanking on about whether the paintings in the gallery were really art. “This journalist is not a journalist, my five year old son could paint that!” they grandstand to any poor bastard within earshot while inhaling olives and patting the waitress on the bum.

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    These people have obviously had their personal opinions taken far too seriously for far too long. It’s truly the hallmark of someone whose mother put too many of their crappy crayon drawings on the fridge when you think that your precious little homespun definition of what constitutes journalism will serve as a legal precedent in the years to come. No one will care about your feelings regarding who is a real journalist or not when the long arm of the US empire reaches out across the planet and nabs the next guy for exposing inconvenient truths about the US military-industrial complex or US corporate interests. No one is going to grant you a sit-down and consult you about your oh-so-fascinating ruminations about the next journalist they wish to use Assange’s precedent on.

    It’s obvious to any journalist who doesn’t have their head up their ass that this is the beginning of the end of the fourth estate. Want to expose the US corporate corruption fueling the degradation and desecration of your environment in your particular province in the world? Oh well, uh-oh, now you’ve found yourself on a plane to Gitmo.

    Journalism is an activity. It is bringing the detrimental activities of the powerful to the light, regardless of how you do it, whether it’s through the legacy media, publishing documents, or making a Facebook post. The powerful are not entitled to a private space where they can abuse humans or resources. They don’t get to commit crimes in secret just because they are rich or in government. Journalism is the only way the everyday person has any window into what the powerful are doing to them, doing to their planet, doing with their tax money, and doing in their name.

    So in every way it is probably even worse if you don’t consider Assange a journalist. This precedent puts every single person on earth in danger. That means you can be nabbed wherever you may be on the globe for helping a whistleblower, and I’m sorry to say to all you impassioned bloviators, you will not be consulted on how your feelings feel about whether they fit your dubious definition of what a journalist is, because journalism is an activity, not an elitist club of which you have been the self-proclaimed gatekeeper for so long.

    These narcissistic wankers are a severe danger to press freedom and they need to put their personal proclivities aside and start fighting a very dangerous legal precedent that is being set right before our eyes.

    *  *  *

    Everyone has my unconditional permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon orPaypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here.

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  • A History Of Revolution In U.S. Taxation

    As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”

    While this quote was penned in 1789, Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross notes that his words still ring true today. U.S. taxation has changed over time, but it has always existed in some shape or form for over 250 years.

    U.S. Taxation: 1765 to Today

    In today’s infographic from New York Life Investments, we explore the history of U.S. taxation – from its colonial roots to its recent reform.

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    The modern American tax code has little resemblance to its early iterations.

    Over the last few centuries, Americans have battled against British taxation, faced sky-high tax rates to fund war efforts, and enjoyed tax cuts designed to boost economic growth.

    A Timeline of U.S. Taxation

    Today, total U.S. tax revenue exceeds $3.4 trillion. Below are some notable events that have shaped modern American taxation.

    Colonial Roots: 1765 to 1783

    1765 – Stamp Act
    In its first direct tax on the colonists, Britain places a tax on all paper – including ship’s papers, court documents, advertisements, and even playing cards.

    1767 – Townshend Revenue Act
    Importation duties are placed on British products such as glass, paint, and tea. The taxes are expected to raise £40,000 annually, (£6,500,000 in 2018 GBP). As hostilities continue to bubble up, colonists argue for “No taxation without representation”. Although taxes are imposed on the colonists, they aren’t able to elect representatives to British parliament.

    1770 – The Boston Massacre
    British troops occupy Boston to end the boycott on British goods. The March 5th Boston Massacre sees five colonists killed. By April, all Townshend duties are repealed except for the one on tea.

    1773 – The Tea Act (May 10)
    Britain grants the struggling British East India Company a monopoly on tea in America. While no new taxes are imposed, this angers colonists as it is seen as a thinly veiled plan to gain colonial support for the Townshend tax while threatening local business.

    1773 – The Boston Tea Party (December 16)
    Three ships arrive in Boston carrying British East India Company tea. Colonists refuse to allow the unloading of the tea, throwing all 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbour.

    1775-1783 – The American Revolutionary War
    Growing tensions between Britain and the colonists erupt in a full-scale war. After eight long years, Britain officially recognizes the independence of the United States.

    A Free Nation: 1787 to 1943

    1787 – The U.S. Constitution
    Congress gains the “power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.” The government primarily earns revenue from excise taxes and tariffs, including an “importation tax” on slaves.

    1791-1794 – Whiskey Rebellion
    Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of Treasury, leads the implementation of a whiskey excise tax. In 1794, whiskey rebels destroy a tax inspector’s home. President Washington sends in troops and quells the rebellion.

    1862 – The Nation’s First Income Tax
    To help pay for the Civil War, President Lincoln legislates the nation’s first income tax.

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    Over the coming years, income tax is repealed and reinstated twice.

    1913 – 16th Amendment
    As World War I looms the 16th amendment is ratified, allowing for taxation without allocation according to state populations. An income tax is permanently introduced for both individuals and corporations, and the first Form 1040 is created.

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    At this time, less than 1% of the population is paying income tax.

    1918 – The Revenue Act
    Tax rates skyrocket to pay for World War I efforts. The top tax rate is 77%.

    1935 – Social Security Act
    In light of the Great Depression, the Social Security Act introduces:

    • An old-age pension program

    • Unemployment insurance

    • Funding for health and welfare programs

    To fund the programs, a 2% tax is shared equally by an employee and their employer.

    1942 – The Revenue Act
    Described by President Roosevelt as “the greatest tax bill in American history”, the Act increases taxes and the numbers of citizens subject to income tax. Total personal and corporate income tax revenue more than doubles:

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    1943 – Current Tax Payment Act

    It becomes mandatory for employers to withhold taxes from employees’ wages and remit them four times per year.

    Modern Times: 1961 to 2018

    1961 – Beginning of The Computer Age
    The National Computer Center at Martinsburg, West Virginia is formally dedicated to assisting the IRS in its shift to computer data processing.

    1986 – Tax Reform Act
    The Tax Reform Act:

    • Lowers the top individual tax rate from 50% to 28%

    • Increases taxes on capital gains from 20% to 28%

    • Reduces corporate tax breaks

    The revisions are designed to make the tax code simpler and fairer.

    1992 – Electronic Filing
    Taxpayers who owe money are given the option to file electronically.

    2001 – Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act
    President George W. Bush implements large tax cuts:

    • Creates a new lowest individual tax rate of 10%
    • Reduces the top individual tax rate from 39.6% to 35%
    • Doubles child tax credit from $500 to $1,000* (*From $700 to $1,400 in 2019 dollars)

    2017 – Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
    President Trump signs off on reductions in tax rates, while some deductions are made more restrictive.

    For example, State and Local Taxes (SALT) deductions are capped at $10,000. Residents in high-tax states such as New York, New Jersey, California and Connecticut could see substantially higher tax bills.

    The Future

    U.S. taxation policy remains a contentious issue and shifts depending on who is in the White House.

    Investors need to stay informed on current legislation, so they can engage in proactive financial planning and minimize their tax obligations.

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