CounterCurrents: Olympic Capitalism: Bread And Circuses Without The Bread, Madmen In Power, et al

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


12 People Killed In Assam When Militants Open Fire On Villagers
By Countercurrents

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc020514.htm

12 villagers were killed in Indian state of Assam when suspected Bodo militants opened fire on villagers in two separate incidents . 8 people including two children were killed Balapara village and four people were killed in Gobardhana village. Those killed are Bacchu Sheikh (65), Moharbhan Bibi (50), Shonabhan Bibi (22), Jalima Bibi (25), Sayatun Bibi (45), Shohana Khatun (3), Farida Begum (4)


Ukraine Reinstates Military Draft As NATO Threatens Russia
By Alex Lantier

http://www.countercurrents.org/lantier020514.htm

NATO officials escalated their military build-up against Russia yesterday, as the pro-Western puppet regime in Kiev reinstated conscription in order to boost its crackdown on spreading pro-Russian protests in eastern Ukraine. The news came as the position of the far-right regime in Kiev weakened, with more cities and government buildings in east Ukraine held by protesters and militias opposed to it. Protesters stormed the prosecutor’s office, disarming police, in the city of Donetsk, one of many cities in the region, including Luhansk, Slavyansk, and Kramatorsk, now outside of Kiev’s control


Washington Intends Russia’s Demise
By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts020514.htm

Washington has no intention of allowing the crisis in Ukraine to be resolved. Having failed to seize the country and evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base, Washington sees new opportunities in the crisis. One is to restart the Cold War by forcing the Russian government to occupy the Russian-speaking areas of present day Ukraine where protesters are objecting to the stooge anti-Russian government installed in Kiev by the American coup


Madmen In Power
By Gaither Stewart

http://www.countercurrents.org/stewart020514.htm

I don’t believe that Putin’s long silences are signs of a tolerance born from weakness —neither his own nor of the people he leads. Washington should be extremely careful not to overstep here the limits as it does regularly. As Cioran writes in Histoire et Utopie, “Ambition is a drug which makes of the addicted a madman in power.”


The New Emperor's New Clothes: A Fairy Tale For Adults
By Mary Metzger

http://www.countercurrents.org/metzger020514.htm

The Russia Vs America game told in a fairy tale


This Land Isn’t Your Land, This Land Is Their Land
An Empire in Decline (City by City, Town by Town)
By Peter Van Buren

http://www.countercurrents.org/buren020514.htm

As America's new economy starts to look more like the old economy of the Great Depression, the divide between rich and poor, those who have made it and those who never will, seems to grow ever starker. I know. I’ve seen it firsthand


Olympic Capitalism: Bread And Circuses Without The Bread
By David Swanson

http://www.countercurrents.org/swanson020514.htm

Brazil is set to host the World Cup this year and the Olympics in 2016. In preparation Brazil is evicting 200,000 people from their homes, eliminating poor neighborhoods, defunding public services, investing in a militarized police and surveillance state, using slave and prison labor to build outrageous stadiums unlikely to be filled more than once, and "improving" a famous old stadium (the world's largest for 50 years) by removing over half the capacity in favor of luxury seats. Meanwhile, popular protests and graffiti carry the message: "We want 'FIFA standard' hospitals and schools!"


Preventing A Human-Initiated Sixth Geological Extinction Event
By John Scales Avery

http://www.countercurrents.org/avery020514.htm

The scientific community, when aware of a grave danger to our species and the biosphere, has a duty to bring this knowledge to the attention of as broad a public as possible, even at the risk of unpopularity. The size of the threatened catastrophe is so immense as to dwarf all other considerations. All possible efforts must be made to avoid it


Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters And Nick Mason: Why Rolling Stones Shouldn’t Play In Israel
By Roger Waters and Nick Mason

http://www.countercurrents.org/waters020514.htm

Pink Floyd’s founding members come together to argue in favor of the BDS movement -- and urge the Stones to reconsider


A Model of Socialist Society
By Alan Johnstone

http://www.countercurrents.org/johnstone020514.htm

One comment on my series of articles said: “If the world socialist movement declines to outline how the revolutionary transformation would take place or what the new society would be like, it is impotent.” I hope this essay addresses part of that failing


A Clash Of Frenetic Happiness
By Maryam Sakeenah

http://www.countercurrents.org/sakeenah020514.htm

While the ‘Happy British Muslims' video would not have in itself elicited a response more than a fleeting bemused scepticism, it was impossible to get over it and move on, given the 2 million youtube views, the reams of commentary and discussion it generated. The short clip apparently became the biggest issue in the issue-ridden Muslim world, judging by social media ratings. Ardent supporters of the attempt to showcase Muslims in the West as adaptable and ‘happy' people, as well as bitter opponents of such meaningless and inappropriate depiction of Muslims, all jumped into the fray- soon enough, there was a raging storm in a teacup. It all signifies the contradictions, polarities, sensitivities and contentions rife in the Muslim world- like a bubbling, gurgling, steaming cauldron


Lie, Cheat And Steal: Corporate-State Corruption in India
By Graham Peebles

http://www.countercurrents.org/peebles020514.htm

Since Independence (1947) endemic corruption has been part and parcel of daily life in India. The scale of corruption is immense, the cost to the country staggering; according to Global Financial Integrity (GFI), illicit financial flows since 2007 have averaged 52 million $ US. A staggering “$123 billion was lost in the last decade,” a huge sum, which they state is “thirty times the amount New Delhi spent on social services like healthcare and education last year.”


Is There Still A Modi Wave?
By Narendra Modi Facts

http://www.countercurrents.org/nmf020514.htm

So what is the verdict? There may be a wave, but there is also an anti-wave of considerable strength. There are still many possible outcomes to the election. It's too early to tell which will happen, and above all it is too early to give up the fight