The Perverse Paradox In Mexico’s “Model” Economy

Aberration or design feature?

By Don Quijones: With Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, mired in its deepest recession for years, with Venezuela perpetually poised on the edge of the abyss, and with Argentina facing a treacherous period of political and economic transition, Mexico is once again drawing the attention of international investors.

The economy could grow as much as 3.5% in 2015, predicts Mexico’s fifth largest bank, Banorte. The OECD expects it to expand by at least 3%.

A Model Economy

In recent years, glowing economic forecasts have become a New Year formality for Mexico. Economists representing international banks and supranational institutions like the OECD and the IMF confidently predict record-breaking annual growth for the year to come, only to spend the rest of the year frantically downgrading their predictions until, by November or December, they’re more or less spot on.

That’s not to say that Mexico’s economy doesn’t have important points in its favor, especially at the macro level. Unlike Brazil and many other Latin American economies, Mexico is not heavily dependent on Chinese demand for its commodities, although the economy has been hit hard by cascading oil prices. And although the peso depreciated by 17% last year, the official inflation rate is still comfortably below the 2% line — compared to over 10% in Brazil. Meanwhile, things are so bad in Argentina that the National Institute of Statistics has stopped publishing official inflation figures altogether. As for Venezuela, the less said the better.

A Short Declaration Of My Political Standpoint

"I, being of sound mind, want to see the downfall of feminism!" fidelbogen

Mainstream Feminism Is Radical #allfeminismisradical

A dissection of an interview with "moderate" NSW feminist Elizabeth Broderick. Oh, and one more thing, 96% of workplace fatalities in Australia are men. Six Minutes of Shit

Seymour Hersh Report On Syria: White House Knew US Was Arming Islamic State

Commentary by David Duke: Renowned journalist Seymour Hersh has just published an article full of evidence that the Obama administration has been fully aware that its policy in Syria of trying to overthrow the legitimate government of President Assad was bound to lead to an ISIS takeover of the country, and that it has been knowingly arming to ISIS. These are allegations that Dr. Duke has been making all along with a great deal of supporting documentation. Hersh’s article fully backs these allegations with numerous quotes from leading generals at the Pentagon. His original article can be found here at the London Review of Books. A concise summary is below. 

Seymour Hersh report on Syria: White House knew US was arming Islamic State

By Andrew V. Pestano: Journalist Seymour Hersh writes in the London Review of Books that the Obama administration’s Syria policy has sparked dissent at the Pentagon. File photo by Giorgio Montersino/Flickr

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) — Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Seymour Hershreports that the administration of President Barack Obama, in particular the CIA, has knowingly armed militant Islamists in Syria, including the Islamic State.

Why Is US Congress So Mad That The NSA Spied On Their Conversations With Israel?

Commentary by David Duke: Why is Congress so mad that the NSA spied on their conversations with Israel? Because they don’t want the American people to know what treacherous shills they are for a foreign and hostile government. In the article below, Glenn Greenwald does not go that far, but he does lay out some very interesting information and analysis on what should become a major yet very delicate issue. 

Spying on Congress and Israel: NSA Cheerleaders Discover Value of Privacy Only When Their Own Is Violated

Glenn Greenwald: The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the NSA under President Obama targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides for surveillance. In the process, the agency ended up eavesdropping on “the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups” about how to sabotage the Iran Deal. All sorts of people who spent many years cheering for and defending the NSA and its programs of mass surveillance are suddenly indignant now that they know the eavesdropping included them and their American and Israeli friends rather than just ordinary people.

Baird’s Police Website Doesn’t Provide A Single Support Resource For Male Victims Of Domestic Abuse - She’s Twitter Blocking Such Organisations Instead

hequal: As promised, we’re pleased to present the second part of our investigation into sexism against male victims of domestic abuse by Northumbria Police and in particular PCC Vera Baird (and those in her office). You can read part one here.

One of the latest developments in this story concerns an interview given on Tuesday by Baird about the scandal in which she claims Northumbria Police is here to support ‘all’ victims of domestic abuse. Obviously Baird’s posters are totally at odds with this statement and they’re not the first set of sexist or dishonest posters she’s produced either. However, in the interests of fairness lets put all such campaigns to one side and assess her force’s other possible forms of support for male victims in order to consider the full picture.
By far the easiest way to figure out if a force is serious about helping all victims of violent crime is to put oneself in the shoes of a male victim of domestic violence and see what sort of help they have to offer you.

Dr Murtaza Khanbhai, Dr M Ruhul Amin, Mr Darrel Gregory, Mr Farooq Ali Khan And Mr M Asad Saleemi, Mutilate Male Genitals At The Thornhill Clinic, Luton, UK

neonatalcutting.org: Dr. Murtaza Khanbhai has been placed on the “Known Genital Mutilators” directory at neonatalcutting.org.
From the Circumcision Centre website circumcisioncentre.co.uk:
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You can also purchase this service as a gift for your grandchildren for Eid, Christmas or any other festival. Please contact us for further information.
We specialise in male circumcision, so not only are you assured of the best possible care, but will also be treated by doctors with many years of experience in circumcisions.

Caught On Tape - TSA Gropes 10 Year Old Girl For Two Minutes Due To Capri Sun In Baggage

By Michael Krieger: Just when you thought the TSA couldn’t possibly get any worse…

From the San Diego Tribune:

A Capri Sun juice pouch mistakenly left in a 10-year-old San Diego girl’s carry-on handbag led a TSA agent to subject the girl to almost two minutes of frisking and extra screening that lasted about an hour, her father said.
Liquids exceeding 3 ounces are not allowed in carry-on bags, for fear they might contain explosives, but the girl’s father said the resulting search was an over-reaction and an inappropriate intrusion.
Kevin Payne of Pacific Beach and his daughter, Vendela, were passing through the Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Dec. 30, 2015, headed home to San Diego, when U.S. Transportation Security Administration agents discovered the liquid.
Authorities followed up with a swab of the bag and a false-positive test for explosives, then a nearly 2-minute-long full-body pat-down in which a female TSA agent touched the girl’s buttocks and groin repeatedly.

Additional Details Emerge on How Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms Loot Public Pensions

Despite the at times disconcertingly polite tone, the SEC has now announced that more than 50 percent of private equity firms it has audited have engaged in serious infractions of securities laws. These abuses were detected thanks to to Dodd Frank. Private equity general partners had been unregulated until early 2012, when they were required to SEC regulation as investment advisers.
Bowden heads the SEC’s examinations unit, and his rap sheet was based on his two years of experience in auditing private equity firms. As bad as embezzlement and other sharp practices are, at least as troubling is the revelation that the limited partners have been derelict in their duties. They’ve agreed to terms in their relationship with the general partners to make it easy for the general partners to abuse the investors. The general partners can steal from their limited partners because the limited partners are asleep.

The War Against The Cowboys

The Oregon stand off and US imperialism

By Justin Raimondo: As our old republic fades into history, replaced by a voracious global Empire, the division between foreign policy and domestic policy is erased. A conquistador treats his helots on the home front with the same contempt he has for his subjects abroad. In both cases, conquest and subjugation is the goal – and rebellion is the inevitable result.

Just as the people of Iraq rose up and finally threw out the American occupiers, so the people in the American West are rising up against their federal overlords. This is the reason for the occupation of a federal facility in Burns, Oregon, where hundreds of protesters rallied against the jailing of ranchers Dwight Hammond and his son Steve.

The Hammond case has become a cause celebre West of the Mississippi, where federal control of huge swathes of real estate has become a life and death issue for ranchers and others who make their living off the land. As the feds encroach on their livelihood, they are pushing back, and nothing illustrates this better than the Hammond case.

In 2001, the Hammonds started a controlled burn on their own land to eliminate invasive junipers from ruining grazing for cattle: the fire spread to neighboring federal lands.

#FatCatTuesday: Top Bosses Will Earn ‘More Than UK Average Salary' In Just 22 Hours

RT: Top FTSE 100 bosses will have earned more money by Tuesday afternoon than the average British worker will do in the entire year, a think tank has claimed.

The High Pay Centre (HPC) compared the earnings of top executives with the average salary of UK workers and found that bosses would only need to work 22 hours to reach the median full-time employee salary. 

Deception Unmasked - Yemen Starvation

"In Saudi Arabia the new king kicked off the new year by murdering 47 people [men] including a Shiite cleric leader that has caused riots. ...Of course the US has not issued a statement of condemnation for Saudis beheading people. Saudi Arabia's air campaign on Yemen is still full tilt. ...The situation in Yemen is dire., it is a country that imports 90% of its food. They haven't been able to do that because of the Saudi air campaign. Saudi munitions are supplied by the US with the full knowledge of where they are going and what they are being used for. ...80% of the people 7,000,000 are on the brink of starvation and there has been basically 0% media coverage and the US arms keep flowing." Ryan Dawson.