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P.J.Media.Com keeps you abreast of the NSA scandal. (See 1 below.)
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Rogoff on inflation. Love it because it should not leave. He warns that the punch should not be taken away prematurely. (See 2 below.)
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Why not audit the IRS? (See 3 below.)
Lloyd Marcus finds the Obama Administration scary. (See 3a below.)
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Turks letting off steam or is change in the air? (See 4 below.)
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Obama's vacuum to be filled by Russians on The Golan? (See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1)Since the Guardian story about the NSA seizure of the Verizon phone records of millions of Americans dropped late last week, the administration and its allies have been asserting that privacy wasn't invaded because intelligence agencies didn't listen in on those calls.
But since the first report, we've learned more about operation PRISM, a secret operation that has gained steam since its inception in 2007 that lets the National Security Agency and the FBI tap directly into the servers of nine U.S. Internet companies with access to audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs.
And neither side of the political aisle is buying the White House's defense that phone records did not include snooping on the content of the calls, that email and web habits of U.S. citizens weren't monitored, and that all activities started in some form during the George W. Bush years.
It doesn't help the Obama administration that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Democratic senator under oath in March that the NSA wasn't spying on Americans - "wittingly."
This story continues to unfold. Over the weekend, the NSA whistleblower outed himself. But is Edward Snowden, the NSA contract employee who talked to Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian, really a whistleblower?
PJ Media is keeping a close eye on this story. Here are links to some of our other articles on this topic:
- Government Surveillance: the View from Misgav Am
- NSA: Electronic Frontier Foundation Wants New Church Committee
- Who in the UK Had Access to PRISM Intel?
- Your Computer Is Bugging Your House
- Will Voters Be Angry Over Government Snooping?
Stay tuned to PJMedia.com for more insightful news and commentary about the NSA surveillance story, and other important stories coming out of Washington, D.C.
Sincerely,
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2)The Central Bank Needs to Learn To Love Inflation
By Kenneth Rogoff
Instead of dreading inflation, central banks need to learn to love it, advises Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the IMF, in an article for Project Syndicate.
Rather than preparing to take away the punch bowl, central banks should be spiking it, argues Rogoff, a Harvard University economics professor who co-authored the book, "This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly."
The Federal Reserve may soon end quantitative easing (QE) to "take away the punch bowl before the party gets going" and head off inflation before reaching its employment target.
"The trouble is that this is no ordinary recession, and a lot people have not had any punch yet, let alone too much," he explains.
Despite legitimate concerns about QE distorting asset prices, bubbles are not the main threat, Rogoff maintains. "And it would be a catastrophe if the recovery were derailed by excessive devotion to anti-inflation shibboleths, much as some central banks were excessively devoted to the gold standard during the 1920s and 1930s."
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) began its own version of QE, seeking a 2 percent annual inflation rate. But the central bank seemed to pause when longer-term interest rates crept up. Rogoff wonders what the BoJ was expecting.
"If the BoJ were to succeed in raising inflation expectations, long-term interest rates would necessarily have to reflect a correspondingly higher inflation premium. As long as nominal interest rates are rising because of inflation expectations, the increase is part of the solution, not part of the problem."
As for Europe, the European Central Bank has been cautious about monetary easing because it has already been using its balance sheet to decrease borrowing costs for peripheral eurozone countries.
"But higher inflation," he notes, "would help to accelerate desperately needed adjustment in Europe’s commercial banks, where many loans remain on the books at far above market value. It would also provide a backdrop against which wages in Germany could rise without necessarily having to fall in the periphery."
Central banks can offer reasonable arguments for caution, and they are right to urge balancing budgets over the long term, Rogoff concedes.
"But, unfortunately, we are nowhere near the point at which policymakers should be getting cold feet about inflation risks. They should be spiking the punch bowl more, not taking it away."
Inflation is too low almost everywhere in the world, notes The Washington Post, reporting that inflation is below central banks' 2 percent target in almost all major countries. Falling commodity prices were the major reason for super low inflation, but even the U.S. consumer price index was up just 1.7 percent when excluding food and energy.
Low inflation, The Post adds, discredits warnings that QE programs would spark massive inflation.
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3)Audit the IRS
By Mark J. Fitzgibbons
Lois Lerner and other officials at the IRS should be grateful that they do not live in 18th century America when tar and feathering were considered appropriate "remedies" against lawbreakers in government. Better yet for the IRS that this is not late 18th century France.
The Tea Party Patriots have organized an Audit the IRS Rally set for noon, June 19 on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington. Yet it is doubtful that many people at the IRS are as familiar as Tea Partiers with Thomas Jefferson's line: "When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
In June 2010, Rasmussen reported that 48 percent of Americans "see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights." By December 2011, Gallup reported that 64 percent of Americans fear that big government is the biggest threat to the country.
Fortunately for the IRS, Tea Partiers are decent people fighting for the rule of law, not against it.
IRS abuse of constitutional conservatives and others fighting for liberty has precedent. Under Bill Clinton's IRS Commissioner Peggy Richardson, conservative organizations, all more established than the upstart Tea Party groups, were targeted. They did not organize rallies to audit the IRS then. American government had not yet reached the level of contempt for the law that we now see. Barack Obama's divisive leadership has created open season on government's abusing liberty and the American people.
True liberty in America may now be lost, but the Tea Party is still making its place in the history of fighting for freedom versus tyranny. That history is one of ebbs and flows. Not all movements for liberty succeed, and freedom is never won by the timid; it is won by the bold. The Tea Party is bold.
For its organizing, acting, writing, studying and speaking out, the Tea Party was targeted.
The IRS made a tactical and strategic mistake in employing its illegal bullying tactics on a movement consisting of small-business owners, home school moms, farmers and such. The IRS tactics had always worked in intimidating people into silence, or at least hedging. A skunk can't change its stripes
Recognizing the bigger picture, Tea Partiers had relatively little to lose when the IRS picked this fight with them. They did not represent big interests with lots to lose. America was already slipping away. But they have turned the tables on government. Government is now the hunted, not the hunter.
"Audit the IRS" is not merely a valid response of the People to a federal agency that breaks the very laws it claims to implement and enforce. It is a statement of contempt -- not of government itself -- but of government that has shown contempt for the rule of law.
Audit the IRS. Investigate the Justice Department. Expose, expose, expose.
"Audit the IRS" is a statement of mockery, ridicule and disdain not just for the IRS, but for lawbreaking government in general. Its mockery will surely be lost on bureaucrats and the institutions that protect them. They will dig in their heels instead of adjusting in the better direction.
And, institutions have indeed made their bed with big, bad government. The "press," which now feverishly seeks protection for itself under "shield laws because their clique is now the victim of government lawbreaking, provides more cover for, than exposure of, government corruption.
The bad press for the Tea Party since 2009 has only magnified that they were right, and the negative press was wrong, even corrupt. Bad press has been free press for the constitutional conservative cause.
Health insurance companies that supported ObamaCare were complicit in the rise of healthcare insurance premiums. Some state governments valiantly fought ObamaCare; some were complicit in its fraud. California was part of that fraud on its citizens. ObamaCare will increase individual-market premiums by percentages of at least two digits, yet California's top insurance official claimed that it would lower them.
These corrupt institutions and government officials also further magnify how the Tea Party was correct from the start. Their lies, crony practices, lawbreaking and contempt for the Constitution were the res ipsa loquitor, "the thing speaks for itself," in the Tea Party's case against government.
In Olmstead v. US, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, "If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
People fear government not just because it has power; it's the lawlessness of government. The Tea Party and constitutional conservative movements are the People enforcing the law on government. American citizens are providing more leadership than most of our elected officials by turning fear of government into contempt and mockery of it.
3a)The Administration: Scarier Than You Could Imagine
By Lloyd Marcus
If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If the Obama administration breaks the law at will, lies to the American people, uses every government agency at its disposal to punish its conservative/Republican enemies and no one does anything about it, does the administration make a sound? Yes it does -- resulting in devastating consequences for the American people.
Despite a trifecta of scandals, Obama and company continue to stonewall, lie, or refuse to answer questions -- in essence, giving Congress and the American people the finger. Pundits are shocked and taken aback by the unprecedented arrogance of the Obama administration.
Such pundits are a bit late coming to the dance, as we in the Tea Party have been well aware for years of the lawlessness and arrogance of this bunch of thugs from Chicago. Have these surprised pundits forgotten Obama's unprecedented overreaches into the private sector -- nationalizing General Motors, bullying banks,ignoring the ruling of federal judges, trashing the Constitution, and more?
Still, pundits are missing the much greater horrifying picture. My fellow Americans, we are in deep, deep trouble. The cold reality is that until someone steps forward in real opposition to Obama governing according to his will while ignoring all the laws, checks, and balances, we are defenseless, expendable supplicants of a tyrannical dictator.
Remarkably, the mainstream media is complaisant with Obama acting like our king rather than our president because he is liberal, he is black, and his presidency is historic. Obama's agenda fits neatly with the mainstream media's socialist/progressive agenda. So they are elated to have a Teflon liberal black guy in the White House furthering their cause.
Speaking of expendable supplicants, let us not forget Ambassador Chris Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty, and Sean Smith, who lost their lives -- left to die in our consulate in Benghazi.
The people in the Obama administration are emboldened to do whatever they please: bully conservative groups and individuals, secretly invade our privacy, target reporters, and thumb their noses when they get caught -- all without any real political push-back or consequences. We the American people are in deep excrement.
Ponder that, folks. As long as the mainstream media provides cover for Obama and keeps his poll numbers high by making sure no bad news is linked to Obama (Limbaugh Theorem), our president is empowered to function as a supreme ruler, free to do whatever he pleases to us. Dear God, help us!
Obama is the first black president. Okay, I get it. But neither Obama's black skin nor the mainstream media's rabid desire to protect his legacy should award him imperial dictator status, trumping the best interest of the American people.
The Republican party desperately needs leadership -- someone willing not just to say "no" to Obama's tyranny. We need someone who will walk tall and passionately proclaim, "H*** no!"
America needs a politician with backbone and fortitude willing to endure being called racist by Obama's subservient mainstream media; someone unafraid of being targeted by the IRS; someone willing to be hated by clueless poll participants; someone willing to endure EPA persecution if he is a business owner; someone willing to endure his phone and e-mail privacy illegally violated; and someone willing to endure attempts to criminalize their opposition to Obama's agenda.
Under Obama's IRS-controlled health care, any politician daring to oppose Obama's agenda will more than likely suffer delays and denial of medical care for his family and himself. Suddenly, his conservative Republican mom finds herself at the bottom of the list for that kidney.
Yes, it is going to take a politician with incredible stones to challenge the great all-powerful beast, the Obama administration.
I am confident that such a hero will step forward. Between you and me, I am keeping an eye on Rep. Trey Gowdy, House Oversig Government Reform Committee.
Most people caught lying or with their pants down back off. When caught red-handed, Obama pokes his finger in our eye.
It has been exposed that the administration sent Susan Rice out to lie about Benghazi on five national TV shows. In response to getting caught, Obama promoted Rice. Lois Lerner was caught using the IRS to bully, intimidate, and suppress the conservative vote in the 2012 presidential election. Obama promoted Lerner. The latest in his growing list of offenses and scandals, Eric Holder was caught lying about targeting reporter James Rosen.
Naïve pundits say, "Eric Holder is toast. He has to go." My reply is, "Holder ain't goin' nowhere. You guys still do not get it. Holder is black and liberal, and Obama is arrogant beyond belief, with the media in his back pocket." Obama recently stated that he is behind Holder 100 percent.
Folks, do you see the horror of what we are dealing with in America today? We have an administration free to rule as it pleases, with no one -- I repeat: no one -- really holding its feet to the fire. Will someone please throw this out-of-control administration across their knee, spank its butt, and say no?
Meanwhile, I heard someone say on TV in response to Holder's stonewalling and lying, "Holder risks another contempt of Congress filed against him." I am sure Holder is quaking in his boots.
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4)The Protests in Turkey: Letting off Steam or Engine of Change?
INSS Insight No. 434
The protests that started at Taksim Square in Istanbul and have spread to
other locations throughout Turkey are among the most interestingdevelopments to have occurred in the country since the Justice and
Development Party first came to power over a decade ago. While it is still
difficult to envision a scenario in which these protests might topple Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, they could hamper his efforts to achieve
constitutional reform before the direct presidential election in 2014, in
which he plans to run. In fact, parts of Turkey’s population are worried
about a strongman president, a la Russia’s Vladimir Putin, which is one of
the underlying factors causing the protests. Pamphlets distributed during
the demonstrations read: “This is not about a park. It's about not being
heard. It's about the abuse of state power. It's about media being censored.
It's about minorities not being protected. This is about democracy.”
Secular Turks comprise a key protest group. Among them one may discern a
wide range of ideologies – liberals, communists, and conservative Kemalists.
Young liberals are growing more hostile towards the Justice and Development
Party and feel that they have no representation in parliament. They express
repugnance for the obsolete stances of the Republican People’s Party
(founded by Kemal Ataturk) and do not identify with the nationalistic
positions of the National Action Party.
Another interesting group participating in the demonstrations is made up of
the country’s Alevi minority, estimated at 15 percent of the population, and
possesses historic grievances against the Sunni majority. Some of its
current frustration seems to be a result of the recent peace process between
the government and the Kurds, a process in which the Alevis think their
rights have been forgotten. A symbolic manifestation of the government’s
attitude to this minority is seen in the ambitious plan to build a third
bridge over the Bosphorus that will be named Yavuz Sultan Suleiman Bridge,
after the ninth Ottoman sultan, 'Selim the Grim', historically known for
slaughtering Alevis. In addition, the Alevis are unhappy with Turkey’s
policy regarding events in Syria and its tough stance against Bashar
al-Assad’s regime. The Kurdish minority also has a presence at the protest,
though southeast Turkey is relatively quiet.
People who identify with the Gulen movement seem to be sitting on the fence.
On the one hand, they’re unhappy with Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian
tendencies, but on the other hand many of the movement’s supporters are
Justice and Development Party voters. The military is also not a player in
the protests, neither in the social media nor in the streets. This is hardly
surprising, given the process Erdogan started and implemented in recent
years of neutralizing the Turkish army as a political player. Most of the
demonstrators in the Square also don’t want the military’s interference.
Nonetheless, in terms of historical perspective, this could turn out to be a
precedent as political instability was in the past one of the strongest
motives for military intervention.
One of Turkey’s most pressing problems in recent years is the
self-censorship of the media resulting from the arrests of many of the
country’s journalists and the pressure exerted by the Justice and
Development Party on media outlets not toeing the government line. Thus, the
social media – already popular in Turkey (32 million registered Facebook
users and some 10 million on Twitter in a population of almost 74 million) –
have become a major factor in the spread of the protests and the gain in
their momentum. There was criticism of the Turkish traditional media before
the protests too, but the media’s conduct during the demonstrations (as well
as that of the police) was described on the social media as 'betrayal'.
As for what led to the protest, social media discourse claimed the
demonstrations were a spontaneous, emotional reaction to the regime’s
violent, suppressive conduct. Tear gas, water cannons and other violent ways
to disperse demonstration were only some of the means the police used to
break up the civil, non-violent protest. As a result of the mismanagement of
the initial protest, the chain reaction accelerated, as did the regime’s
inability to contain and control the height of the flames. The situation
worsened when it was clear that the official, traditional media were
co-opted by the regime. When the riots erupted, all the official television
stations continued with their previously scheduled programming. The social
protest wasn’t covered and no official media platform was extended for it to
be heard. The frustration was therefore fueled even more, and the coverage,
analysis and documentation of the protest became almost exclusively the
province of social media. The government’s anxiety about the effect of
social media is reflected by the fact that Turkcell, the country’s leading
cell phone provider, admitted that on the first day of large-scale
demonstration it was told to curtail service in the Taksim Square area, and,
as well, by Erdogan’s public assertion that Twitter is full of lies.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s and President Abdullah Gul’s
comments that the protests may tarnish Turkey's image, are notable. They
should be understood in the general context of Turkey’s attempt to expand
its influence in adjacent regions via soft power and the concept of the
'Turkish model'. But it would be more accurate to say that the
demonstrations are not what is harming Turkey’s image but rather the manner
in which they are being suppressed. More specifically, the comments of these
senior Turkish representatives should be understood in the context of
Istanbul’s campaign to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Given that the
decision on the games’ host city is supposed to be announced in September,
current assessments are that Istanbul’s chances to win the coveted host role
have been seriously compromised.
The possibility of the demonstrations becoming a Turkish Spring, in the
sense of toppling the government, seems remote. On the social media, many
stressed that Taksim is not Tahrir, and the Turkish president noted the
demonstrations have more in common with Occupy Wall Street than they do with
the upheavals in the Arab world. It would also be a mistake to view what is
happening in Turkey as simply a struggle between secular and pious Turks.
Even if the secularists are leading the protests, other members of the
public also identify with some of their criticism of Erdogan’s conduct. The
current protest may be seen therefore as a warning sign to the Justice and
Development Party. The claim on the social media is that the popular
outburst will have a strategic impact on Turkey’s political map. Many
believe that what started as a spontaneous social protest must be translated
into organized political activity. Even though some signs carried during the
demonstrations called for Erdogan’s resignation, it is apparent that most of
the protesters are primarily interested in restraining him and some of his
steps, which have recently been viewed by many as undemocratic.
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5)Moscow sets up Russian Golan brigade, warns Israel Sunnis plus al Qaeda are bigger threat than Assad
Moscow is not ready to give up on getting Russian troops posted on the divided Golan as part of the UN force policing the Israeli-Syrian separation sector, even after rejections by the UN and Israel. Monday, June 10, the Russian lawmaker Aleksey Pushkov, an influential foreign relations policy adviser to the Kremlin, said: “The issue has not been yet solved, it is being considered. We must take some real action because we cannot exclude that the Syrian-Israeli topic would be involved in large-scale military action.”
Shortly before he spoke, the military announced in Moscow that the Russian Airborne Troops had formed a separate brigade especially designed to serve as peacekeepers “under the aegis of the United Nations or as part of the force set up by the Russian-led CSTO (Russian-Asian) security bloc for combating
terrorism. Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan contribute special units.
Vladimir Shamanov, commander of Russian Airborne troops, said the new brigade had been awarded the status of “a peacekeeping unit” on June 1. He did not say by whom. Military sources disclose the Moscow proposes to give the “peacekeeping” brigade from the Russian Airborne Troops “teeth” in the form of of MI-24 combat helicopters.
The idea of placing Russian peacekeepers on the Golan was first voiced by President Vladimir Putin on June 7, after Austria decided to withdraw its 377-strong contingent from the area over an outbreak of fighting there between Syrian troops and rebels.
The idea was quickly shot down by the United Nations and Israel on the grounds that the Israeli-Syrian 1974 ceasefire accord barred veto-wielding UN Security Council members from participation in the peacekeeping force.
Putin is determined to override Israeli and UN objections and get Russian troops deployed on the Syrian Golan by hook or by crook.
On June 9, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the Putin offer, saying Israel could not afford to place its security in the hands of international forces.
Speaking at a Moscow press conference on Monday, MP Pushkov went on to say that it was too early to say that Vladimir Putin’s suggestion of placing Russian peacekeepers on the Golan Heights lacked perspectives or could not be implemented.
As though on cue, the Hizballah-controlled Lebanese Al Akhbar Monday quoted President Bashar Assad as warning that, for him, opening a front on the Golan against Israel was “a serious matter” and would not just consist of firing a few improvised rockets from time to time.
This gave Pushkov the opening for his warning to Israel: That Israeli authorities would oppose this step (Putin’s offer) was not surprising, he said, but he warned about possible consequences: “Assad could be replaced by radical Islamists in comparison with whom Assad would seem an angel from heaven,” said the Russian lawmaker.
“The people who are now offering friendship to Israel would not necessarily see Israel as their partner when they come to power, rather they would see it as an enemy,” the Russian MP said, hinting at the references made by Hizballah and Syrian government spokesmen to the relations Israel had purportedly formed with certain Syrian rebel groups. Hizballah broadcasts even depicted outdated Israeli tanks and other equipment, booty captured in its 2006 war with Israel, to prove its point.
Therefore, Pushkov advised Israeli leaders to pay more attention to the possible future scenarios in Syria and take into account that Russia could play a positive and stabilizing role in the region.
This was the first time any Russian official had mentioned the unmentionable: a possible future turn in the wheel of the Syrian conflict that would oust Assad and bring his foes, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda, to power in Damascus.
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