Affichage des articles dont le libellé est USA. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est USA. Afficher tous les articles

2014/03/06

Russia, the Budapest memorandum, and the crisis of representativeness


Steven Blockmans published today a short commentary on Russia and the Budapest Memorandum. It is an assault against Russia foreign politics, and he wrote in his conclusion:
"So far, the Kremlin has not bothered to seriously rebut allegations by the US and the EU that it has violated the terms of the Budapest memorandum.

More worryingly, the Moscow allows itself to be inconsistent with its own commitments and is reneging its own words.

This has all the trappings of a panicking dictatorship, which crushes dissent at home and portrays confidence in winning a great battle with the enemy abroad. How can anybody trust what Putin’s Russia says or commits to in the future?"
My comments:

1) As a Professor of Law, he started with the Budapest Memorandum, but he failed to discuss the Helsinki CONFERENCE ON SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE (CSCE) Final Act mentioned in Article 1. This one states:
The participating States [...] Have adopted the following:
I Prior notification of major military manoeuvres They will notify their major military manoeuvres to all other participating States through usual diplomatic channels in accordance with the following provisions:
Notification will be given of major military manoeuvres exceeding a total of 25,000 troops, independently or combined with any possible air or naval components (in this context the word "troops" includes amphibious and airborne troops). In the case of independent manoeuvres of amphibious or airborne troops, or of combined manoeuvres involving them, these troops will be included in this total. Furthermore, in the case of combined manoeuvres which do not reach the above total but which involve land forces together with significant numbers of either amphibious or airborne troops, or both, notification can also be given.
Notification will be given of major military manoeuvres which take place on the territory, in Europe, of any participating State as well as, if applicable, in the adjoining sea area and air space.
You read correctly: no notification are required below 25,000 troops. 16,000 is lower.

More: Because of the agreement signed on 21 April 2010 between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, Russia is allowed to maintain thousands of troops in Crimea, without mentioning others in surrounding coasts (Gudauta, Krasnodar Kra).

2) Professor of Law Steven Blockmans failed to mention that M. Yanukovich has not resigned, is still alive and is still constitutionally the current legitimately elected Ukraine President, whatever Kiev may claim. No current power in Kiev is legitimate. Thus, they cannot claim themselves to be "the Ukraine government" and claim from this position that Russia has invaded Crimea. Moreover, Crimea is an autonomous republic within Ukraine, electing its own parliament. Crimea political representatives have not claimed to be invaded by Russia.

There was an armed seizure of power in Kiev and a legitimately elected president was overthrown. This was a violation of Ukraine’s constitution. Who cannot agree with this fact? 

3) Steven Blockmans failed to mention that Leaked EU Phone Call Suggests Kiev Snipers Were Hired by Opposition Coalition not former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich (read this news thread in the comments section of this article). He would have remarked that Ms Ashton did not express any human sentiment whatsoever about 94 persons killed at Maidan events by neo-nazis and that she failed so far to report this publicly since this phone call 26 February, and to call for an international investigation about these crimes. 
Steven Blockmans, this is the most important international law and you failed to protect it. It is justified to say that human rights and fundamental freedoms were violated by fascists and neo-nazis in Kiev which seized power by unconstitutional means.

4) Steven Blockmans failed to mention that US department of State supported the ukrainian opposition, the ones who killed innocents and accused Yanukovich, with "more than $5 billion" during years as claimed by Ms Nuland on a leaked phone call (1, 2).

5) Steven Blockmans failed to mention the fascist way of doing politics the ukrainian opposition leaders nowadays (3, 4). Who does he really want to protect with his comments in Law: ukrainian citizens or fascists, terrorists and neo-nazis? 

6) Steven Blockmans failed to mention how Klitschko betrayed Ukraine for money to NATO (5, 6)

Conclusion at this step:

Thus, if the international community, and Western in particular, is encouraging those acts, who is going to protect the rule of law? What does it means for Western citizens?

So far, the US and the EU representatives have not bothered to seriously rebut allegations by the Kremlin that ukrainian opposition has violated the ukrainian Constitution and human rights.

More worryingly, the US and the EU allow themselves to be inconsistent with their own commitments and are reneging their own words.

This has all the trappings of panicking dictatorships, which crush dissent at home and abroad and portrays confidence in willing to support the citizens' fascist enemy abroad. How can thus anybody trust what the US and the EU representatives say or commit to in the future?


Europeans citizens, our political and civil society representatives who supports the Kiev neo-nazi coup are all attempting to violate our deepest and most honorable values. Will you let them do that there and inevitably after in your country by your own government (the same who declare to support the Kiev coup)? Don't you understand not only the historical shame for us but the deadly path for our societies on this road

Without common values there is no trust, no society. No european spirit whatsoever would remain for a long time: it would be split.



2014/03/03

The Test of Citizenship: The speech that no US President can no longer give


This speech is copied as much as possible from President John F. Kennedy’s speech “The President and the Press” given before the American Newspaper Publishers Association at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, April 27, 1961 [1]. 

JFK's original speech has to be understood in the perspective of President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell address January 17, 1961 and ten days after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion April 17, 1961 because of the CIA. But also in the perspective of President F.D. Roosevelt's speech "Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies" April 29, 1938 who stated :
"Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people.
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.
Both lessons hit home.
Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."

My modified version has to be understood following Edward Snowden's and all others whistleblowers' revelations. The inner politics behind what is revealing nowadays has been summarized in a previous political anticipation.

All the differences (in strikeout text) or additions (in italics) made by me to the original text are clearly indicated inline.

__________________

 


Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate very much your generous invitation to be here tonight.
You bear heavy responsibilities these days and an article I read some time ago reminded me of how particularly heavily the burdens of present day events bear upon your profession.

You may remember that in 1851 the New York Herald Tribune under the sponsorship and publishing of Horace Greeley, employed as its London correspondent an obscure journalist by the name of Karl Marx.
We are told that foreign correspondent Marx, stone broke, and with a family ill and undernourished, constantly appealed to Greeley and managing editor Charles Dana for an increase in his munificent salary of $5 per installment, a salary which he and Engels ungratefully labeled as the "lousiest petty bourgeois cheating."

But when all his financial appeals were refused, Marx looked around for other means of livelihood and fame, eventually terminating his relationship with the Tribune and devoting his talents full time to the cause that would bequeath the world the seeds of Leninism, Stalinism, revolution and the cold war.

If only this capitalistic New York newspaper had treated him more kindly; if only Marx had remained a foreign correspondent, history might have been different. And I hope all publishers will bear this lesson in mind the next time they receive a poverty-stricken appeal for a small increase in the expense account from an obscure newspaper man.

     I have selected as the title of my remarks tonight "The President and the Press." Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded "The President Versus the Press." But those are not my sentiments tonight.

It is true, however, that when a well-known diplomat from another country demanded recently that our State Department repudiate certain newspaper attacks on his colleague it was unnecessary for us to reply that this Administration was not responsible for the press, for the press had already made it clear that it was not responsible for this Administration.

Nevertheless, my purpose here tonight is not to deliver the usual assault on the so-called one party press. On the contrary, in recent months I have rarely heard many complaints about political bias in the press except from a few Republicans. Nor is it my purpose tonight to discuss or defend the televising of Presidential press conferences. I think it is highly beneficial to have some 20,000,000 Americans regularly sit in on these conferences to observe, if I may say so, the incisive, the intelligent and the courteous qualities displayed by your Washington correspondents.

Nor, finally, are these remarks intended to examine the proper degree of privacy which the press should allow to any President and his family.
If in the last few months your White House reporters and photographers have been attending church services with regularity, that has surely done them no harm.
On the other hand, I realize that your staff and wire service photographers may be complaining that they do not enjoy the same green privileges at the local golf courses that they once did.
It is true that my predecessor did not object as I do to pictures of one's golfing skill in action. But neither on the other hand did he ever bean a Secret Service man.

My topic tonight is a more sober one of concern to publishers as well as editors.

I want to talk about our common responsibilities in the face of a common danger. The events of recent weeks may have helped to illuminate that challenge for some; but the dimensions of its threat have loomed large on the horizon for many years. Whatever our hopes may be for the future--for reducing this threat or living with it--there is no escaping either the gravity or the totality of its challenge to our survival and to our security--a challenge that confronts us in unaccustomed ways in every sphere of human activity.

This deadly challenge imposes upon our society two requirements of direct concern both to the press and to the President--two requirements that may seem almost contradictory in tone, but which must be reconciled and fulfilled if we are to meet this national peril. I refer, first, to the need for a far greater public information; and, second, to the need for far greater official secrecy.

I

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.

Today no war has been declared--and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.

If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.

It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions--by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed except by whistleblowers. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

Nevertheless, every democracy recognizes the necessary restraints of national security--and the question remains whether those restraints need to be more strictly observed if we are to oppose this kind of attack as well as outright invasion.

For the facts of the matter are that this nation's foes have openly boasted of acquiring through our newspapers technical systems information they would otherwise hire agents to acquire through theft, bribery or espionage;
that details of this nation's covert preparations to counter the so-called enemy's covert operations have been available to every newspaper reader, friend and foe alike; that the size, the strength, the location and the nature of our forces and weapons, and our plans and strategy for their use, have all been pinpointed in the press and other news media to a degree sufficient to satisfy any foreign power; and that, in at least in one case, the publication of details concerning a secret mechanism whereby satellites countries were followed spied required its alteration and control at the expense of considerable time and money.

The newspapers which printed these stories were loyal, patriotic, responsible and well-meaning. Had we been engaged in open warfare, they undoubtedly would not have published such items. But in the absence of open warfare, they recognized only the tests of national security journalism and not the tests of national security citizenship. And my question tonight is whether additional tests should not now be adopted.

The question is for you alone to answer. No public official should answer it for you. No governmental plan should impose its restraints against your will. But I would be failing in my duty to the nation, in considering all of the responsibilities that we now bear and all of the means at hand to meet those responsibilities, if I did not commend this problem to your attention, and urge its thoughtful consideration.

On many earlier occasions, I have said--and your newspapers have constantly said--that these are times that appeal to every citizen's sense of sacrifice and self-discipline. They call out to every citizen to weigh his rights and comforts against his obligations to the common good. I cannot now believe that those citizens who serve in the newspaper business consider themselves exempt from that appeal.

I have no intention of establishing a new Office of War Information to govern the flow of news. I am not suggesting any new forms of censorship or any new types of security classifications. I have no easy answer to the dilemma that I have posed, and would not seek to impose it if I had one. But I am asking the members of the newspaper profession and the industry in this country to reexamine their own responsibilities, to consider the degree and the nature of the present danger, and to heed the duty of self-restraint which that danger imposes upon us all.

Every newspaper now asks itself, with respect to every story: "Is it news?" All I suggest is that you add the question: “Is it in the interest of the citizens' freedom in this nation?” after asking "Is it in the interest of the national security?" And I hope that every group in America--unions and businessmen and public officials at every level-- will ask the same question of their endeavors, and subject their actions to the same exacting tests.

And should the press of America consider and recommend the voluntary assumption of specific new steps or machinery, I can assure you that we will cooperate whole-heartedly with those recommendations.

Perhaps there will be no recommendations. Perhaps there is no answer to the dilemma faced by a free and open society in a cold and secret war. In times of peace, any discussion of this subject, and any action that results, are both painful and without precedent. But this is a time of peace and peril which knows no precedent in history.

II

It is the unprecedented nature of this challenge that also gives rise to your second obligation--an obligation which I share. And that is our obligation to inform and alert the American people--to make certain that they possess all the facts that they need, and understand them as well--the perils, the prospects, the purposes of our program and the choices that we face.

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers--I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: "An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment--the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution--not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.

This means greater coverage and analysis of international news--for it is no longer far away and foreign but close at hand and local. It means greater attention to improved understanding of the news as well as improved transmission. And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security--and we intend to do it.

III

It was early in the Seventeenth Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world's efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.

And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news--that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.


[1] source: JFKLibrary

2013/11/20

Questions Internationales: les Etats-Unis, JFK, et la CIA

A.I. Solzhenitsyn
 Le bimensuel Questions Internationales publie ce mois (N°64, nov-déc 2013) un large dossier de 80 pages sur les "Etats-Unis: vers une hégémonie discrète". L'équipe éditoriale brosse au fil des articles un portrait des plus rassurants pour la situation de ce pays. Il restera le seul dominant nous dit-on ("hégémonie") et il choisit de lui-même de se montrer plus "discret". Pas fuyant, ni en déroute, ni même en retraite. Ni absent, ni ralenti, ni malade, ni convalescent, ni bien Sur impuissant. C'est un "repli apparent", "une politique extérieure furtive", et même "une modestie internationale affichée... qui nourrit une stratégie à long terme d'une hégémonie durable" selon Serge Sur (rédacteur en chef).

Page 8 on peut cependant noter un passage intéressant à propos du Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) et des relais de l'influence des USA en Europe: 
"C'est ainsi que le projet, dont la négociation est ouverte, de zone de libre-échange entre l'Union européenne et les Etats-Unis, tend à absorber l'Union dans une sorte d'Otanie économique qui compléterait la vassalisation sécuritaire, monétaire, financière de l'Europe occidentale. Règles, normes, standards américains seraient, par la force des choses, plus que jamais la loi commune au lieu de la compétition actuelle avec une Union qui sait conserver son autonomie. 
Pour cela, les Etats-Unis disposent, dans l'Union même, de relais actifs, publics ou privés. François Mauriac polémiste évoquait, à propos de certains hommes politiques européens, des "poulets nourris aux hormones américaines". Ils ont beaucoup de descendants dans tous les milieux."
Nous aurons l'occasion de revenir sur ce dossier USA de manière plus détaillée, comme nous l'avons déjà fait (en février, en mars). Il est plus urgent pour aujourd'hui de passer à un problème plus grave dans cette publication.

Questions Internationales est publié par La Documentation Française, imprimé par la Direction de l'Information Légale et Administrative, et bénéficie de la participation de Sciences Po Paris. Son rédacteur en chef, au CV académique, est actuellement juge ad hoc à la Cour internationale de justice de La Haye. Fort bien.

Pourquoi dès lors accepter la publication p110-114, à l'occasion du 50ème anniversaire de la mort de JFK, d'un article de Charles Cogan, ancien chef de la CIA à Paris, et qui commence par ce résumé:
"L'assassinat de John F. Kennedy fut commis par un tueur isolé, Lee Harvey Oswald dont l'acte s'explique en partie par son admiration pour Fidel Castro et son animosité envers le gouvernement et le président des Etats-Unis. Deux éléments suggèrent que Fidel Castro aurait pu être le commanditaire de l'assassinat : le caractère outrancier du personnage et le fait qu'il était au courant des complots ourdis contre lui par les frères Kennedy. A ce jour, aucune information probante n'est toutefois apparue pour corroborer cette hypothèse et la question reste ouverte."
De l'avis même de son auteur, rien ne vient corroborer cette hypothèse castriste 50 ans après les faits. Par contre, d'autres pistes ont été depuis patiemment investiguées, et qui viennent à la fois totalement invalider le rôle de Castro comme commanditaire de l'assassinat, révéler le rôle déterminant et positif joué par Robert Kennedy (dont je me souviens) auprès de son frère, pour le soutenir contre son entourage de conseillers dans la résolution de la crise des missiles; qui viennent également totalement invalider la thèse officielle du tireur isolé, et qui mettent en lumière le rôle de l'état profond (qui recouvre les officines comme la CIA et le FBI) dans la gouvernance du pays. 

J'aurais attendu du comité scientifique et du comité de rédaction d'un tel journal publié par nos institutions de la République un respect plus marqué des valeurs de vérité historique. Au strict minimum, une mention comme "Selon la thèse officielle de la commission d'enquête Warren,..." au début du texte aurait par exemple permis au lecteur de comprendre le nécessaire recul à avoir. Un encart pour donner brièvement un autre point de vue n'aurait pas été de trop non plus.

Je me vois donc obligé de mentionner moi-même ces éléments, puisque cela n'a pas été fait, afin qu'on ne pense pas qu'au pays des Lumières un tel discours honteux qui fait obstacle à la raison et à la vérité passe sans qu'un citoyen ne remplisse son devoir. Nous ne sommes pas à Washington, Dieu merci.

Pour être concis, nous rappelons les références suivantes. Les liens qui ne sont pas en italique conduisent aux textes intégraux et à leurs références documentées qui corroborent les propos: 

"The JFK Assassination: New York Times Acknowledges CIA Deceptions" Peter Dale Scott, Global Research, October 2009
- The Assassinations of the 1960s as `Deep Events'Peter Dale Scott, History-Matters.com, October 2008
JFK and 9/11: Insights Gained from Studying BothPeter Dale Scott, Global Research, December 2006
- The CIA, the drug traffic, and Oswald in Mexico, Peter Dale Scott, History-Matters.com, December 2000
- The 3 Oswald deceptions: The operation, the cover-up and the conspiracy, Peter Dale Scott; This piece was originally published in:Deep Politics II
- The Kennedy-CIA divergence over Cuba, Peter Dale Scott, History-Matters.com; This piece was originally published in: Deep Politics II
- CIA files and the pre-assassination framing of Lee Harvey Oswald, Peter Dale Scott; This piece was originally published in: Deep Politics II 
Deep Politics II: Essays on Oswald, Mexico and Cuba. The New Revelations in U.S. Government Files, 1994-1995. Newly Revised Edition, 1996. JFKLancer Publications
- Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott, 1993, University of California Press.

On pourra aussi s'intéresser aux travaux publiés de la commission parlementaire "Select Committee on Assassinations" de 1979 qui concluent notamment:
"The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the Cuban Government was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy."

Et je rappelle à Serge Sur que le maintien de cette parole est une condition nécessaire de justice. Je cite en anglais puisqu'il comprend fort bien cette langue:
"In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations." 
(A.I. Solzhenitsyn, 1918 – 2008 ; The Gulag Archipelago, 1958-68)
J'ai résumé les causes socio-politiques qui ont conduit au drame du 22 Novembre 1963 dans la première partie de cet article publié en Mars. Parce que la justice n'a jamais pu s'exercer de manière satisfaisante, cette date marque celle de l'émancipation officieuse mais définitive de l'appareil sécuritaire américain vis-à-vis de l'Etat de droit. Ce n'est pas un acte de naissance de l'Etat profond, mais c'est un acte hautement visible et symbolique de son pouvoir, geste rendu logique à ses yeux parce qu'il n'avait pas pu contrôler cet opposant puissant.

La leçon que l'Histoire nous a donnée, retranscrite ici par Solzhenitsyn, nous explique la lente dérive du contexte socio-politique américain étouffé par cet Etat profond jusqu'au coup d'Etat permanent démarré en 2001. J'ai synthétisé l'accélération de cette dérive jusqu'à nos jours dans la deuxième partie de l'article, donnant ainsi un cadre cohérent pour appréhender les conséquences prochaines que j'exposent en conclusion, et en particulier l'inévitable contre-révolution du peuple américain qui conduira nécessairement à ré-exposer en pleine lumière l'intégralité des dessous de cette affaire.

Une société qui se pense libre ne peut en aucun cas faire l'économie de la justice, et réciproquement: une société qui fait l'économie de la justice ne peut se penser libre. C'est pourquoi le système judiciaire américain est autant miné de l'intérieur, et le premier ouvertement remis en cause. Sa défaillance a entraîné les sonneurs d'alarme toujours plus loin, en boule de neige jusqu'au tremblement de terre Snowden qui a écroulé les jeux d'alliance chancelants du gouvernement US.

L'Histoire retiendra que les individus au sein de l'Etat profond ont voulu jouer avec des forces sociales qui les dépassaient, et dont ils n'ont jamais compris la portée, comme tous les tyrans. Ils ont vécu dans l'illusion, ont donc voulu imposer l'illusion de masse à un niveau jamais atteint dans l'Histoire, et ils sont finalement rattrapés par la réalité. Tout le monde peut voir maintenant qu'un César multiforme a bel et bien franchi le Rubicon et que les institutions sont devenues des simulacres. Les masques et les décors de carton tombent. C'est l'effet de dévoilement de la crise.

Le long processus de dé-américanisation du monde passe nécessairement aussi par une dé-américanisation de l'Europe. Dans ce berceau historique de l'esprit démocratique, ce mouvement se traduit de manière plus aiguë par un dépassement des représentants de ce que Francis Dupuis-Déri a nommé l'agoraphobie politique, c'est à dire la peur ou la haine du peuple assemblé pour délibérer et se gouverner. Cette peur justifie dans l'esprit de ceux affectés qu'une élite auto-proclamée exerce son «pouvoir sur» le peuple, se situant donc dans un rapport dialectique de domination hiérarchique et de confiscation du pouvoir.

[Conclusion de l'article complétée en plusieurs ajouts entre le 20 et le 26/11]

2013/11/19

We are Polluted by the Pervasive IT Unsecurity - Washington NSA broke Internet’s security for everyone


 All Internet infrastructures, OS and devices are not only unsecured or targetable. Because security shortcomings have been voluntarily and wildly dispersed, the whole digital environment is now deeply polluted by efficient but still unpublished back-doors and weaknesses. 
The control of this global infrastructure, and of its private content, is potentially the winning price offered by a rogue state to any organisations able to find each hack. A new hidden race is ongoing. 

"In its haste to "weaponize" the Internet, the NSA has broken its mechanisms of security. And those breaks—including the backdoors that the NSA convinced or coerced software developers to put into the implementations of their encryption and other security products, are so severe that it is now just a matter of time before others with less-noble causes than fighting terrorism will be able to exploit the holes the NSA has created.
Schneier said that the vulnerabilities inserted into security products by the NSA through its BULLRUN program could easily be exploited by criminals and other nation-states as well once they are discovered. And the other attacks and surveillance methods used by the NSA " will be tomorrow's doctoral theses and next week's Science Fair projects."
But with Congress focused on the woes of the Affordable Care Act, it's not clear if anyone other than those already friendly to Schneier's message was listening." (1)

I am listening.
Any state able to catch this should officially ask the US government to force the NSA to collaborate back with IETF and vendors as soon as possible in order to patch, to publish and to document each and every backdoor or weakness added into implementations of algorithms (software and hardware based).
Any person able to catch this should ask himself why the US government is unable to force the NSA to do this.

This would be only the easiest part of the recovery trail. Think about Fukushima: in both cases we only know at this moment the beginning of the story. Environmental contaminations are very complex and they take considerable time to clean up.

Because Internet belongs to all of us the citizens, and does not belong to any organisation, it is very worrying that the US Government has allowed to seriously damage a common good (the first ever artificial common good, by the way): the infrastructure of our digital environment. This government first, but not only one, must then make every effort to repair it right now, as much as it can. If it fails in this task, it would be a failed state.

This is a major topic for Ars Industrialis... and for any people involved in the mastered value of Internet and digital environments for citizens.

Sources:
(1)


2013/11/17

About the de-americanized way of thinking

 Pr. Chomsky recently wrote (emphasis added):
"When the U.S. gained independence, it sought to join the international community of the day. That is why the Declaration of Independence opens by expressing concern for the "decent respect to the opinions of mankind."
A crucial element was evolution from a disorderly confederacy to a unified "treaty-worthy nation," in diplomatic historian Eliga H. Gould's phrase, that observed the conventions of the European order. By achieving this status, the new nation also gained the right to act as it wished internally.
It could thus proceed to rid itself of the indigenous population and to expand slavery, an institution so "odious" that it could not be tolerated in England, as the distinguished jurist William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, ruled in 1772. Evolving English law was a factor impelling the slave-owning society to escape its reach.
Becoming a treaty-worthy nation thus conferred multiple advantages: foreign recognition, and the freedom to act at home without interference. Hegemonic power offers the opportunity to become a rogue state, freely defying international law and norms, while facing increased resistance abroad and contributing to its own decline through self-inflicted wounds."
I would like then to add :
Becoming a rogue state, a treaty-unworthy nation thus conferred multiple disadvantages: blunt foreign recognition, erosion of influence and soft power, diplomacy side-lined in the rapidly evolving international system, and at the extreme point: the freedom for a failed state to act at home without interference is challenged. Hegemonic power seems to offer the opportunity to freely defy international law and norms. In fact, a rogue state is always recognized for what it is, and is facing ever increasing resistance both at home and abroad.
I wrote about this conception in The inevitable counter-revolution of the American people.

[Thanks to Ipernity.com for the article about W.T. Stead's book (The Americanization of the world; or, The trend of the twentieth century) published in 1902 and freely available.]

2013/10/14

Remembering Bob K.

A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability. 
(R. F. Kennedy, 1925 - 1968 ; Speech in the United States Senate, 9 May 1966) 

Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress. This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.[...]
First, is the danger of futility: the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills — against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. [...]
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.[...]
The second danger is that of expediency: of those who say that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate necessities. Of course, if we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But [...] there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities, no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems.[...because] it ignores the realities of human faith and of passion and of belief — forces ultimately more powerful than all of the calculations of our economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.[...]
And a third danger is timidity. Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.[...]
For the fortunate amongst us, the fourth danger, my friends, is comfort, the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who have the privilege of an education. [...] 
There is a Chinese curse which says, "May he live in interesting times." Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone here will ultimately be judged — will ultimately judge himself — on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort. 
(R. F. Kennedy, 1925 - 1968 ; Day of Affirmation Address, 6 June 1966)

     O captain! dear father! 
     This arm beneath your head; 
     It is some dream that on the deck, 
     You've fallen cold and dead. 
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; 
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; 
The ship was long ago anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage since never closed and done; 
From fearful trip, the victor ship, has yet to come in with object won; 
(inspired by W. Whitman - 1865)




2013/10/11

The day of the last Nobel Memorial Prize laureate in Economics

 A small part of the population knows that the "Nobel Prize in Economics" is in fact the "Swedish Central Bank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel". There are many similarities between the selection for the regular Nobel Prizes and for the Swedish Central Bank Prize in Economic Sciences, and there is indeed a deliberate will to be consistently identified with them. 

But only a few persons remember that this Prize in Economics was first awarded in 1969, i.e. 68 years after the regular ones. 
Some brief statistics have been published about the laureates, by country in which are located the universities where they worked (cf references). I have updated these results to take into account the years 2011, 2012, 2013 : 


Okay, nice shoot from anglo-saxon scholars. Now with such an overwhelming share of first-class thinkers awarded for their achievements during their life-long careers (specially in macroeconomics domain), the U.S. and UK economies should be huge successes, shouldn't they ?

1- Mainstream economists (both Friedman's side and Keynes' side) are always very reluctant to confront their models and their past predictions with long term and updated data series.
Let's just have a look if they really won the match since 1960's :
  • How close to an exponential trend is the growth of U.S. Total Public Debt :
Source: Conscience-Sociale.org, using Fed data up to 2013Q1
  • How close to an exponential trend is the growth of Federal Total Public Debt (In 2013 Q1, it reached US$ 16.8 Trillion) :
Source: Conscience-Sociale.org, using Fed data up to 2013Q1
  • Interest rates in US and UK :
 

  • U.S. Net Export of Goods and Services :
  • Real Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index :
  • Consumer Price Index :
(note the log scale)
  • "Civilian Unemployed and Not Looking Ratio" is the proportion of the civilian non institutionalized population aged 16+ that is unemployed and not looking for work :
  • US Population receiving food stamps :
  • Ratio of Corporate dividends over wages & salary :
  • US total monetary base priced in tonnes of Gold :
  • 1 U.S. $ priced in mg of Gold :
  • Annual U.S. and UK output produced (GDP per capita) priced in troy ounces of gold :
Source: Conscience-Sociale.org; data series 1791-2012 from MeasuringWorth 

2- Observations:
* these results are the worse seen in recorded history. 

* The only "positive" result is the historical high and ever rising level of incomes only for the top 1% and above :

* the creation of Nobel memorial Prize in Economics was first announced in 1968, at the same time where neoconservatism in US appeared and neoliberal ideas started to develop.

* all mainstream commentators have analyzed the economical policy of the U.S. and UK to use neoliberals ("Chicago school") principles, and more Keynesian policies since 2008.

3- Then we can affirm :
- either the US/UK Nobel Memorial laureates in economics were listened by the US/UK governments, but others economists would have given better advices : the observed results prove their Prize was not deserved ;
- or the US/UK Nobel Memorial laureates in economics were listened by the US/UK governments, but others economists would not have been able to give better advices : then the observed results prove economics is still not a science, but only a art. The laureates then deserve an Oscar-like prize, but not a Nobel-like prize ;
- or the US/UK Nobel Memorial laureates in economics were not listened by the US/UK governments, despite the highest level of promotion and audience given, and the observed results prove their Prize was useless and all mainstream commentators were clueless ;

4- In any case, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics has proven that deep reforms are required in the way laureates are chosen, at least. Given  the historic and catastrophic failure of neoliberalism and therefore the huge loss of credibility of the whole mainstream economics, this will be surely been done.
But given the very low speed of reforms by EU academies, the lock by Swedish Central Bank from one side, and the current global shift of power from the other side, we can anticipate that BRICS will announce the creation of a new "Prize in Economics funded by a BRICS organisation" and elected by the BRICS academies, before any process reform for Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics takes place. This is an anticipated consequence of both the global geopolitical dislocation and the scientific crisis in economics.

We anticipate this announcement within 4 years at the latest, depending on the number of future laureates working in universities located in BRICS countries, or eventually from non mainstream school of economics (for instance A. Fekete from NewASoE but this award alone would finalize a paradigmatic change).

The day of this announcement will be the day of the last Nobel Memorial Prize laureate in Economics.

Updated 10/14/2013:
- including results of 2013 awards ;
- My congratulations to Shiller who is pursuing a good work using data and facts about the housing market., although I did not agree with his sale of the rights to build the Case-Shiller index to a private company.


References