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by Eric Zuesse
April 2, 2015
from
Infowars Website
Spanish version
Italian version
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Investigative
historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of
They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican
Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S
VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity. |
Image Credits:
Aleph, Wiki Commons
Europeans fear Russian gas
could stop and thus drive
Europe
to give up considerable
resistance
against fracking
On Wednesday,
April 1st, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's
cabinet approved a measure to bring
fracking (the patents for which are
owned mainly by "large
American companies, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes
and Schlumberger") into Germany.
This is a prelude
not only to U.S. President Obama's
secret Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP)
pact with Europe to
subordinate national laws and regulations to
trans-national mega-corporate panels that will be
dominated by U.S. firms and that will override the participating
nations' environmental and labor regulations and consumer
protections (and
harm European economies generally),
but it is also a major step toward removing Europe from Russia's
energy-market, and bringing U.S. and European oil companies to
dominate there instead.
German Economic News headlined on
April 1st, "Precursor
to TTIP - Federal Government brings Fracking to Germany," and
reported that:
The
controversial shale gas extraction (fracking) process is coming
to Germany: In order not to provoke excessively large protests
at home, the federal government highlighted that fracking is
initially allowed only for testing purposes.
But
in fact, the draft law of the Federal Environment and the
Federal Ministry of Economics, approved today by the the
Cabinet, also allows subsequent large-scale extraction of shale
gas….
The American interest in a continuing
conflict simmering in Ukraine also causes Europeans to fear that
Russian gas could stop and thus drive Europe to give up our still
considerable resistance against fracking.
Some US politicians have personal
interests, such as the US Vice President Biden, whose son
works for a Ukrainian fracking company.
Last year, U.S. agent, friend of Angela
Merkel, and EU Council President,
Donald
Tusk,
wrote in a commentary in the Financial Times that,
'excessive dependence on Russian
energy' is an EU weakness.
Currently, the EU countries derive 44
percent of our natural gas from Russia and 33 percent from Norway…
Objectively, there is no reason to be
afraid of the Russians:
Even Angela Merkel acknowledged a
few months ago that Russians have always accurately fulfilled
their gas contracts and therefore are a reliable partner.
Halliburton and Baker-Hughes have
merged, and are
the two major owners of fracking
patents. Schlumberger is third. ExxonMobil
is a distant fourth. So, this could produce a huge boost to those
stocks.
The fact that the only independent
economic analysis of the impact of the TTIP finds that, without a
doubt,
it will harm European economies and
especially will increase the inequality of wealth in both the U.S.
and EU, suggests that the U.S. aristocracy's control over European
aristocracies must be rather strong in order for the TTIP to be
moving forward toward approval by, apparently, people such as Merkel
and Tusk.
Merkel has already shown that she is the
EU's enforcer of austerity ("the Washington Consensus") upon the
residents in Greece and Spain in order to guarantee payments to the
bondholders of those countries; but in the present instance, the
aristocrats whom she is serving are specifically, if not only,
American ones.
And, in particular, the oil
companies that will be primary beneficiaries of her pro-fracking
maneuver are mainly American ones. She comes from the former East
Germany, and, apparently, hates Russia just as the
CIA-connected, Barack
Obama does.
After the Cabinet meeting, a joint press
conference was held with Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk, in which he said and she seconded, that Ukraine was
ready to join the EU and was making the required progress toward
rooting out corruption, and toward other matters.
He said that the only barriers against
that are Russian aggression, and a shortage of money from Germany
and from other Western nations. The two leaders stated that the
front-line against the threat from Russia is Ukraine, and
Merkel promised to do what is needed in order to help.
As
a Russian news report put it:
"Reassuring each other in their
heartfelt friendship, mutual hatred of Russia, and the bright
prospects of Ukraine being on the way into Europe, the heads of
Government remembered their shared history.
Yatseniuk again accused Russia of
trying to 'privatize the history of Ukraine', referring to the
debate on the participation of Ukrainians in the victory over
Nazi Germany.
The Prime Minister of Ukraine
proposed to celebrate 8 May as a day of reconciliation and
European solidarity."
Additional Information
Obama Blocks Making...
TTIP Trade-Deal Terms Public
by Eric Zuesse
23 February 2015
from
Countercurrents Website
TTIP is a secretly negotiated trade deal between the U.S. and the
EU, and all indications are that it will replace each nation's,
...placing them into the hands of panels
composed of appointees of large international corporations, no
longer in the hands of publicly elected officials, no longer in the
hands of elected politicians, who need to face voters periodically
in order to stay in power.
Basically:
U.S. President
Barack Obama is demanding
that European nations weaken their regulations, but has been
encountering stiff resistance from some, which has dragged out
negotiations.
German Economic News headlined, on 4
February 2015, "TTIP: civil rights complaint alleging secret
negotiations," and reported that Europe's Ombudsman, Emily
O'Reilly, said:
"American objection to the
publication of certain TTIP documents is not a sufficient
reason, alone on its own, to withhold information from the
European public.
The Commission will at all times
ensure that exceptions to the basic rights of EU citizens are
justified and reasonable whenever there is a limitation on
access to documents."
But, she didn't do anything to enforce
her statement; the non-disclosure continued.
Furthermore,
"In July, the European Court had to
decide whether the public should have access to institutional
documents. The conclusion: Only in exceptional cases would a
refusal be possible.
The judges ruled at that time that
documents of international scope (such as TTIP) are not
automatically excluded from the European Transparency
Requirements."
Obama lost on that one too.
However, still, nothing has yet been made public about the TTIP
terms; and the many consumer, worker, and other organizations, that
have demanded to see what is in the agreement, have faced a stone
wall of inaction, even after court decisions in their favor.
Despite this secrecy and foot-dragging against the public, Europe's
public seem to want whatever is inside that black box, regardless of
whether it's lowering their product-safety standards, lowering their
worker-protections, lowering their environmental protections, or
whatever.
In fact, on 20 February 2015, German
Economic News bannered, "EU survey: European citizens are
enthusiastic about TTIP," and reported:
"The EU has published a survey
according to which citizens are downright euphoric about the
free trade agreement TTIP.
In all, 25 Member States [of the 28]
there will pour sheer enthusiasm over the completely secretly
negotiated agreement, but for one small exception: Germans are
mostly against the TTIP."
Actually, however, tiny Austria was even
more strongly against it, and was the only nation to be
majority-opposed to TTIP.
The only English-language publication of the results of that EU poll
has been the 6 January 2015, "Eurobarometer
- Who's for and against TTIP in EU"; and here were the
national breakdowns, as published there:
"Eurobarometer -
who's for and against TTIP in EU"
06 January, 2015
No Comments [that's how obscure this
publication was: 0 comments].
Question:
"What is your opinion on each of
the following statements? Please tell me for each statement,
whether you are for it or against it. (ONE ANSWER PER LINE).
A free trade and investment agreement between the EU and the
USA":
|
|
FOR |
AGAINST |
DON'T KNOW |
|
EU average |
58 |
25 |
17 |
|
Austria |
39 |
53 |
8 |
|
Belgium |
66 |
26 |
8 |
|
Bulgaria |
64 |
14 |
22 |
|
Croatia |
67 |
23 |
10 |
|
Cyprus |
59 |
25 |
16 |
|
Czech Republic |
62 |
25 |
13 |
|
Denmark |
71 |
17 |
12 |
|
Estonia |
72 |
11 |
17 |
|
Finland |
62 |
21 |
17 |
|
France |
50 |
33 |
18 |
|
Germany |
39 |
41 |
20 |
|
Greece |
61 |
32 |
7 |
|
Hungary |
62 |
28 |
10 |
|
Ireland |
71 |
15 |
14 |
|
Italy |
58 |
22 |
20 |
|
Latvia |
66 |
18 |
16 |
|
Lithuania |
79 |
9 |
12 |
|
Luxembourg |
40 |
43 |
17 |
|
Malta |
75 |
11 |
14 |
|
Netherlands |
74 |
18 |
8 |
|
Poland |
73 |
11 |
16 |
|
Portugal |
60 |
23 |
17 |
|
Romania |
75 |
11 |
14 |
|
Slovakia |
62 |
26 |
12 |
|
Slovenia |
57 |
31 |
12 |
|
Spain |
63 |
19 |
18 |
|
Sweden |
59 |
26 |
15 |
|
United Kingdom |
65 |
19 |
16 |
Now that you know that the survey's
question was actually referring to "A free trade and investment
agreement between the EU and the USA," and that it made no mention
at all of TTIP, nor of Obama's demand that it be approved in secret,
does this change your mind about what is, and has been, actually
going on here?
The poll-findings were misreported to
the press by the (pro-deal) EU, which (to the extent that the press
reported them, which was little) misreported them to the public.
(NOTE: The only
independent economic analysis that has been done of TTIP concluded
that, even without considering the lowered safety-standards for
drugs and other products, and for the environment, etc., it would
very much harm European economies, and that it would probably even
harm people in the lower 99% of America's economy; but this economic
analysis was never publicized.)
The EU itself (its "European Commission") wrote each one of the
poll-questions.
-
What do you think of their
having written a poll-question about "A free trade and
investment agreement between the EU and the USA," and then
publicized the findings as if they had instead been about
TTIP, which wasn't even mentioned in the question (and there
was also no mention in it about Obama's demand for secrecy)?
-
What does all of this
information suggest to you, then, about whether the U.S.
Congress will likely give President Obama "fast-track"
approval of this treaty, instead of debate and discuss it in
public and in the open, prior to granting any such approval
of it?
-
If this deal wins approval in
both Europe and America without any authentic democratic
process, on either side of the Atlantic, then what would
that indicate about the meaning of the term 'democracy' as
applied in and to Europe, and in and to America?
-
How serious a concern should
this be; and is the TTIP matter receiving in the 'news'
media an appropriate degree of concern and corresponding
attention in the press?
-
If it's not receiving the public
attention in your country, that it deserves, then what does
this fact itself say about the meaning of 'democracy,' as
being applied to your country?
-
Has the term 'democracy' become
then merely a sham? Is it now purely for propaganda - no
longer actually descriptive of your country?
-
Where is this world heading? Are
huge international corporations, and their leading
stockholders, replacing nation-states and their citizens, so
as to turn those citizens into no longer citizens but mere
subjects of a huge new international aristocracy, the U.S.
aristocracy and its affiliated and dependent subordinate
aristocracies in all U.S.-allied nations - a return of
feudalism, but on an international scale, via a modern form
of feudalism: internationalized fascism, America's Empire?
-
Are you concerned about this?
Should your children be?
-
If so: What can be done against
it? Who will start it, and how? And when?
-
Should it start now, by all
Presidential candidates being asked their view of TTIP?
Would that perhaps defeat Obama - and Hillary Clinton, and
Jeb Bush, and… all the boosters of American Empire? Would
that defeat the international aristocracy, and their
political agents (such as those) for the very first time,
and so start our world back on the road toward democracy,
and away from the very dangerous imperial path it's now on?
-
And should all 'news' people who
refuse to drill down on this (perhaps because their bosses
won't allow it) become tuned-out (and their 'news'
organizations turned off) by the public?
-
And, should this same demand be
made on Obama's similar proposed TPP trade-deal with Asia,
and his similar proposed global TISA trade-deal on banks and
other financial companies, the latter of which deal aims to
facilitate financial fraud by lowering reporting-standards
etc.?
NOTE:
The euphemisms for all of these proposed
U.S.-pushed trade-deals are "trade liberalization," "free trade,"
and "getting rid of bureaucracy."
With phraseologies like that, we're
heading toward a paradise for mega-crooks, if Obama and other
champions of the American aristocracy win.
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