We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Global Financial Order Could Utterly Collapse on Dec. 21

Click here to access article by Valentin Katasonov from Strategic Culture Foundation.
The fund’s recent decisions have created a precedent for a game played without rules, and it is almost impossible to calculate the consequences for international finance.

.... Washington ordered the fund to rewrite the rules so that even if Kiev defaults on what it owes Moscow, the IMF could still lend Ukraine money. The fund – ever submissive – fulfilled this seemingly unfulfillable command.

.... There have been few decisions of such a radical nature in the IMF’s history.
First, I would like to make it clear that I condemn the rhetorical headline of this article. I don't know if the author or the editors of the website chose it in order to dramatically draw attention to the essay, but what I do know is that his essay does not support it. However, what Katasonov does draw attention to are the desperate measures, rewriting the rules of the IMF, that the directors of the Empire have resorted to in order to damage Russia. 

It's becoming clearer day by day that these directors are willing to engage in desperate measures to prevent Russia, as a leader of a bloc of nations including China and Iran and a host of movements, from interfering with the Empire's hegemonic agenda. So, could this lead to a nuclear conflagration? It seems very possible so to me (and to Pepe Escobar). Whether our extinction is caused ultimately by climate destabilization in the long run, or in the short run by nuclear wars, I am convinced that the only way we humans can save ourselves is by working to end the rule of capitalists.