CounterCurrents: Beginning Of The End? Oil Companies Cut Back On Spending, Venezuela, et al

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


US Builds Up Military Forces, Threatens End To Diplomacy Over Ukraine
By Chris Marsden

http://www.countercurrents.org/marsden100314.htm

Washington spent the weekend ramping up pressure on its allies to intensify the provocations and threats against Russia over Ukraine


Corrupt Trade And Investor Agreements: Facilitating Corporate Plunder
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter100314.htm

Since the economic crisis hit Europe, international investors have begun suing EU countries struggling under austerity and recession for a loss of expected profits, using international trade and investment agreements. Speculative investors are claiming more than 1.7 billion Euros in compensation from Greece, Spain and Cyprus in private international tribunals for the impact of measures implemented to deal with economic crises. This is the conclusion from a new report released by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)


Venezuela: Bullet Over Ballot?
By S. Chatterjee

http://www.countercurrents.org/chatterjee100314.htm

The issue underlying this utterly confusing spectacle of events is whether political decisions are to be taken through the ballot or through muscle-flexing on the streets. It seems patently undemocratic to allow the ballot to be cowed down by the bullet and now is a time for governments around the world to take a stand on whether democracy, by itself, is deserving of respect, or whether democracy is to be given lip-service only when it serves the interests of those demanding it


Beginning Of The End? Oil Companies Cut Back On Spending
By Gail Tverberg

http://www.countercurrents.org/tverberg100314.htm

Steve Kopits recently gave a presentation explaining our current predicament: the cost of oil extraction has been rising rapidly (10.9% per year) but oil prices have been flat. Major oil companies are finding their profits squeezed, and have recently announced plans to sell off part of their assets in order to have funds to pay their dividends. Such an approach is likely to lead to an eventual drop in oil production


I Blame You For The Snowstorms
By Mary Shaw

http://www.countercurrents.org/shaw100314.htm

This winter has been harsh and merciless, with record-breaking snowstorms, floods, droughts, and other weather disasters all across the U.S. And I believe the climate scientists who say that these extreme weather conditions are an expected consequence of global climate change. Accordingly, I blame you - yes, you, dear reader - for all the snow I've had to shovel, because of all the carbon you've pumped into the atmosphere through your own actions


The European Union, Institutionalised Corruption And The Revolving Door
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter100314A.htm

One of the many ways by which rich corporations exert their influence over and hijack government bodies is via the ‘revolving door' process. Big business is highly adept at positioning its (former) employers within policy and regulatory bodies in order to slant legislation in its own interests. And employees from the government sector have often left highly paid, politically well-connected jobs to take up even higher paid jobs lobbying or working on behalf on behalf corporations, with former British PM Tony Blair being a prime example, working on behalf of big oil and big finance


The Leader Obama Wanted To Become And What Became of Him
By David Bromwich

http://www.countercurrents.org/bromwich100314.htm

How Obama Became a Publicist for His Presidency (Rather Than the President)


Indian Independence And Workers' Freedom
By Alan Johnstone

http://www.countercurrents.org/johnstone100314.htm

It can be seen in retrospect that independence for the vast majority of the people of India has simply meant the exchange of one set of exploiters for another. Independence has solved few of the peasant or working-class problems and in the case of the Indian urban working class the solution to their problems is the same as ours


Remembering Ali Mustafa
By Justin Podur

http://www.countercurrents.org/podur100314.htm

Ali Mustafa was a Canadian freelance journalist and activist. He died with 9 Syrians in an airstrike by the Assad government in the Hadariya neighbourhood of Aleppo on March 9, 2014


An Epitaph For AGP
By Sazzad Hussain

http://www.countercurrents.org/hussain100314.htm

The dwindling profile of once popular Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in run-up to the incoming Lok Sabha Polls is writing the climax of the script of its journey from a euphoric formation to the junkyard of collective memory