CounterCurrents: Demonetisation, Modi's Napolean Moment?, Anti-racist Jewish Humanitarians Oppose Apartheid Israel & Support UN Security Council Resolution 2334

Dear Friend,

Nobel Prize winner for Economics Amartya Sen has termed demonetisation as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Napolen Moment'. "Napoleon after his attempt to raid on Russia, on his way back, said that actually he did not wanted to do anything , just wanted to do an excursion into the snowy mountains of Russia," said Sen.

Many indices coming out seem to show that Amartya Sen may be right after all. 

We have also many stories on Obama's legacy and also one by Dr Binoy Kampmark on Trump/Fake News/US Intelligence agencies. 

And also more stories from around the world. 

If you don't mind, and if you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/. 

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Dossiers, Make Believe And Fantasy: The CIA, Trump And Unverified News
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/dossiers-make-believe-and-fantasy-the-cia-trump-and-unverified-news/

Morning breakfast news on the BBC’s Radio Four on Friday was a delightful affair filled with discussions on Russia (when do we not talk about that busy, stirring Bear these days?), Donald Trump, dossiers and the intelligence fraternity. Did it even matter that various sources have been unverified, subject matter lumped together in cumbersome conversations on fake news, sexual frolics and the like?





Freeland – Aimed At Putin? Or Trump?
by Jim Miles 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/freeland-aimed-at-putin-or-trump/

The CBC presented the news concerning Chrystia Freeland’s new appointment as Foreign Affairs Minister for Canada’s Trudeau government, noting mainly that she was on the sanctions list from Russia. The announcer also noted that she is of Ukrainian background and is very opposed to Russia’s supposed actions in Ukraine.





Obama’s Stellar Effort To Preserve Our Cultural Heritage in Syria
by Franklin Lamb

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/obamas-stellar-effort-to-preserve-our-cultural-heritage-in-syria/

There is one major, if not widely heralded, Obama Administration achievement which relates to Syria and the Middle East that has not gained much public recognition but for which the Obama Administration deserves great credit. That subject is Obama’s leadership and achievements, working with a divided Congress, in taking new and concrete measures with respect to Protecting and Preserving Syria’s Endangered Heritage which we all share as our common cradle of Civilization. 






Eight Years A President: What Did The Hope And Change Champion Achieve?
by Nijam Gara 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/eight-years-a-president-what-did-the-hope-and-change-champion-achieve/

Barack Obama will remain the most affable world leader that we have seen in modern history. He will also arguably be the best US President in history mostly because of his company in that club. But he comes nowhere close to a revolutionary leader both on the domestic and international fronts. He had all the makings of an iconic figure but his tenure proves that the office of US President is perhaps not the most powerful at an individual level and it is in fact the entrenched forces and ‘too big to fail’ power lobbies and business interests be it the corporate class or the military-industrial complex that dictate most policy decisions of the world’s superpower. Being an astute reader of history himself, Obama probably did not want to take a great personal risk like John F Kennedy.






Political Prisoners Remain Behind Bars As Obama’s Term Nears End
by Matt Peppe

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/political-prisoners-remain-behind-bars-as-obamas-term-nears-end/

In the last full week of Barack Obama’s eight year tenure as President of the United States of America, dozens of political prisoners still sit in cages across the nation’s prisons, rotting away as Obama consciously chooses not to exercise the power to simply free them with the stroke of a pen. Many activists for Puerto Rican independence






Anti-racist Jewish Humanitarians Oppose Apartheid Israel & Support UN Security Council Resolution 2334
by Dr Gideon Polya 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/anti-racist-jewish-humanitarians-oppose-apartheid-israel-support-un-security-council-resolution-2334/

For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”. Accordingly, all decent folk must bear witness to the appalling maltreatment  of Indigenous Palestinians by Apartheid Israel. 





Helping Traumatized Youth
by Rachel Olivia O'Connor 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/helping-traumatized-youth/

What effects are a decrease in privacy and an increase in domestic militarization having on our youth? More importantly, why isn’t something being done about such dynamics — simultaneously — as we treat a given individual with necessary tourniquets? I fear that — with the select examples I’ve given — counselors generally think either that someone else will address the challenges, and/or that effective work is already being done on those counts. Nothing sufficient is being done, to put it mildly. But that can change, if you do.






Rally To Close Guantanamo At U.S. Supreme Court
by Abdus Sattar Ghazali 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/13/rally-to-close-guantanamo-at-u-s-supreme-court/

On January 11, 2017, a coalition of human rights activists, torture survivors, Guantanamo attorneys, 9/11 family members, and members of diverse faith communities held a “Rally to Close Guantanamo” outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The rally was followed by a march to the Senate Building where the confirmation hearing of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General was taking place.