Mês: novembro 2018

Lebanon and Hezbollah

Por | 26 nov, 2018 | , |

Hezbollah in Lebanon: US Hegemony Is Over   Elijah J. Magnier Nov. 22, 2018   The policy of the US establishment towards Lebanon is evidently changing and unstable, with a President who lacks general knowledge about the Middle East and above all of Hezbollah’s role in the region. It seems President Donald Trump is willing to reduce military support to the Lebanese Army and to impose further sanctions on Lebanon, unaware that he is thereby strengthening the Axis of Resistance and throwing the country of the Cedars into the arms of Russia and Iran. While the US is imposing further sanctions on Hezbollah, in the last few months its European partners have held secret meetings with that Organisation’s leaders during the visits of their official delegations to Beirut. The US is gradually losing its hegemony in the Middle East. In Iraq, the “Islamic State” (ISIS) grew under the watchful and complaisant eyes of the US establishment in the first months of its occupation of Mosul in June 2014. Washington considered ISIS a strategic asset, oblivious to how this unscrupulous policy would backfire against its interests in the Middle East. The policy alienated Europe but above all the people of the Middle East, especially those minorities who suffered grievously under ISIS tyranny. This ruthless US policy triggered the creation of Hashd al-Shaa’bi (the Popular Mobilisation Forces). This force has now become...

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SI

Por | 20 nov, 2018 | , |

Situação Internacional    João da Silveira     Seg. 19 BOLSONARO PRESIDENTE ELEITO : DEMANDAS DO ANTAGONISTA : O Antagonista abre uma entrevista com Roberto Castello Branco, futuro presidente da Petrobras. Qual é o plano? O que vai ser privatizado? Como evitar que a Petrobras seja saqueada outra vez? Essas são as perguntas. E não há novidade nas respostas. A Petrobras, empresa de capital misto e, portanto, já parcialmente privada, vai desinvestir (privatizar) nas atividades em que não é “dona natural”: distribuição, refino, petroquímica etc. Dona natural? Do que será mesmo que será dona? Do que achar? Achar é caro e nada lucrativo se não for produzido. Do que produzir? Produzir também é caro e nada lucrativo se não for comercializado… A Petrobras já está cumprindo (complying, compliance) o que deve ser e continuará a ser feito. O objetivo é maximizar retorno para seus acionistas, entre eles o governo federal, o acionista estatal controlador. Castello Branco até repete a velha ficção de que o principal acionista da Petrobras é o povo brasileiro. Oh, o povo canta, nos engana, que gostamos! Por causa do povo brasileiro, então, o governo federal vai continuar a investir na prospecção e na produção de petróleo e gás, para gerar a matéria prima do refino, da distribuição e da petroquímica… E mais, a Petrobras vai abandonar as práticas monopolistas e o preço dos combustíveis vai flutuar tanto para...

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SI

Por | 19 nov, 2018 | , , |

Situação Internacional   João da Silveira     Seg. 12 BOLSONARO PRESIDENTE ELEITO : A semana começa com uma pauta de assuntos domésticos bastante insípidos, mas será sacudida na quarta-feira pela notícia da retirada dos médicos cubanos do programa Mais Médico. O governo Bolsonaro ainda nem começou e o antiesquerdismo carvalhesco do novo presidente já colhe frutos… Na sua entrevista à Folha, Armínio Fraga descreveu esse antiesquerdismo como “conservadorismo cultural” sem explicar melhor o que isso significa. Pelo que Bolsonaro tem dito e tem feito, esse conservadorismo cultural é um sincretismo de valores liberais, católicos, evangélicos e sionistas. É esse sincretismo que levou o Bolsonaro católico a ser batizado pelo pastor Everaldo no Rio Jordão e a desfraldar a bandeira de Israel….   DONALD TRUMP E O IRÃ :O PODER E A FÚRIA : Será isso normal? Pergunta Ron Paul ao observar o comportamento no exterior das autoridades governamentais dos Estados Unidos….   Ter. 13 USA LIDERA, MAS NINGUÉM SEGUE : “Perdido no Palácio da Memória” : Os Estados Unidos não participaram da Cúpula da Síria, em Istambul, no dia 27 de outubro. Quem participou: os chefes de Estado da Turquia, Rússia, França e Alemanha. A agenda: aumentar a ajuda humanitária, reconstruir cidades e vilas arruinadas, ajudar no retorno dos refugiados, redigir uma nova constituição e montar eleições monitoradas internacionalmente. Os quatro países se reuniram sem serem propriamente aliados, enquanto que os Estados...

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Donald Trump

Por | 18 nov, 2018 | |

Diminishing Power and Rising Rage   Jeffrey D. Sachs Nov. 12, 2018   The coming months may be especially dangerous for America and the world. As US President Donald Trump’s political position weakens and the obstacles facing him grow, his mental instability will pose an ever-greater danger. NEW YORK – The drama of Donald Trump’s presidency has centered around whether an extremist president would be able to carry out an extremist policy agenda against the will of the majority of Americans. So far the answer has been no, and the midterm elections make it far less likely. Yet Trump’s rising frustrations could push him over the edge psychologically, with potentially harrowing consequences for American democracy and the world. None of Trump’s extremist policy ideas has received public support. The public opposed last year’s Republican-backed corporate tax cut, Trump’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), his proposed border wall with Mexico, the decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, and the imposition of tariff increases on China, Europe, and others. At the same time, contrary to Trump’s relentless promotion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), the public favors investments in renewable energy and remaining in the Paris climate agreement. Trump has tried to implement his radical agenda using three approaches. The first has been to rely on the Republican majorities in the two houses of Congress to...

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Multipolarity : Russia’s Mission

Por | 15 nov, 2018 | , |

Russia’s Mission   Nicolai N. Petro Nov. 14, 2018   A decade ago, influential Russian analysts concluded that the emergence of a multipolar world was inevitable, and that Russia could benefit from this transition by adopting a strategy that combined great power realism and “traditional” Russian values.This strategy, first elaborated in Vladimir Putin’s Valdai Speech of 2013, has since come to be known as “civilizational realism.” This essay describes how, through civilizational realism, Russia hopes to forge a new, and more ‘congenial’ world order.   The unexpectedly peaceful end of the Soviet Union seemed to augur an end to the Cold War. The first inklings that this was not to be were revealed by the eastward expansion of NATO in the late 1990s. The exact nature of what was agreed to at end of the Soviet Union is still hotly debated. On the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, those involved in negotiations on the Russian side insist that the alliance would not be expanded even “an inch to the East.” Many, though not all, of those involved on the American side had a different recollection. Whatever the reality, NATO expansion has become symptomatic of the broader misunderstandings of the post-Cold War era. Despite this disappointment, however, Russia still aspired to become a full-fledged part of the Western community, though early on Putin hinted that much would depend on how...

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