Alastair Crooke looks at the sudden transition of America's ruling elite class into new-cold-war mentality and action in the last 18 months.
America's élite is being fractured into balkanised enclaves that are not communicating with one another – nor wanting to communicate with each other. Rather, it is another conflict between deadly rivals.
One such orientation insists on a renewal of the Cold War to sustain and renew that supersized military-security complex, which accounts for more than half of America’s GDP. Another élite demands that US dollar global hegemony be preserved. Another orientation of the Deep State is disgusted at the contagion of sexual decadence and corruption that has wormed its way into American governance – and truly hopes that Trump will ‘drain the swamp’. And yet another, which sees DC’s now explicit amorality as risking the loss of America’s global standing and leadership – wants to see a return of traditional American mores – a ‘moral rearmament’, as it were...
But all these divided Deep State factions believe that belligerence can work...
Like any cosseted élite, they have an exaggerated sense of their entitlement – and their impunity.
Trump is Commander-in-Chief of the Trade War.
He's sneak-attacking, pressing China to financial failure as hard as he can, without polite warning.
On Friday, when we learned courtesy of Bloomberg, that Trump imposed the latest, and very unexpected, round of Chinese tariffs less than 24 hours after Powell's "insufficient" rate cut, he did so by overruling Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in at least giving Beijing the courtesy of an advance notice, and instead China - like the rest of the world - learned what was coming by reading Trump's twitter feed in real-time, resulting in a violent market selloff. Commenting on this development, we said on Friday that Trump's refusal "suggested that the trade hawks are now fully in charge of the situation in the White House."
The $US, the global reserve currency, bastion of fly-by-wire financial stability, may have a flank exposed to attack, with the firing of 2 key players.
"The most important trading desk in the world", staffed by over 400 financial warriors, is the Plunge-Protection-Team desk in New York. This desk has nursed the US stock markets back to the appearance-of-health since 2009. "Don't fight the Fed" and "Buy the F....ing Dips" became the passwords to easy money for over a decade. 2 particular financial warriors ran this show: Simon Potter and Richard Dzina.
"levitating market wizard, Simon Potter, who promptly realized that to crush the bears one simply had to crush the VIX specs, and the rest would promptly follow." ...
As Bloomberg writes "the story involves Simon Potter, who ran the all-important markets desk, and Richard Dzina, head of the financial services group. Both were abruptly relieved of their roles in late May by Williams. Little explanation was given, but according to current and former New York Fed employees, as well as those close to the bank, the nature of the exits, by fault or design, seemed to be a warning: fall in line." It is not clear exactly what the two titans of US capital markets had to "fall in line" for, but two things are certain - i) Potter did not "resign", he was fired by Williams, and ii) now that an economist with zero capital markets experience is in charge, and following his termination of Potter and Dzina, the world is one step closer to collapse as a clueless PhD hack is in charge of the most important market in the world.
Trump attack on Chinese imports drops value of Yuan/Renmenbi and China counters with halt on state purchase of US farm products.
This is war, pressing the assault when the enemy is close to a critical weakness, as China is with massive internal debt instability.
China has vast gold reserves, and a lot of $US reserves. The $US reserves are already assigned to critical tasks of maintaining trade and stability of the currency.
Trump is forcing China to expend it's ammunition in defense, at this time of his choosing, rather than on offense, later, at China's choosing.
Trump adds insult to injury, accusing China of currency devaluation.
Hong Kong has long been a critical global financial center. When the UK handed it back to China at the end of the colonial "lease" it was agreed that Hong Kong would retain almost all political and financial-center autonomy. That goose needed to keep laying golden eggs.
This year, Hong Kong has been racked with protests, by citizens who get no gold at all for their labors, mainly austerity and beds that rent for $1200/month. It is broadly rumored that this is being fed the color-revolution-diet by CIA and friends. I don't know.
Hong Kong is increasingly paralyzed, just when China needs that battle group most, and to break the paralysis, China will have to militarily intervene, killing the goose.
Chinese military intervention will lead to invalidation of Hong Kong's "special statue" and cut the legs out from under the Chinese financial system.
The situation in Hong Kong is rapidly deteriorating, with violence breaking out in seven locations Monday afternoon as the citywide strike crippled transportation. What were supposed to be peaceful sit-ins in different districts turned into riots, "with Wong Tai Sin and Harcourt Road seeing the most intense confrontations as protesters kneel instead of flee, to shield themselves while tear gas rounds and sponge grenades rain on them," according to SCMP.
Professor Michael Hudson on the Petrobuck Empire and it's global strategy.
Control of oil has long been a key aim of U.S. foreign policy. The Paris climate agreements and any other Green programs to reduce the pace of global warming are viewed as threatening the aim of dominating world energy markets by keeping economies dependent on oil under U.S. control. Also blocking U.S. willingness to help stem global warming is the oil industry’s economic and hence political power. Its product is not only energy but also global warming, along with plastic pollution. This fatal combination of the national security state’s mentality and oil industry lobbying threatens to destroy the planet’s climate. The prospect of raising temperatures and sea levels along the coasts while inland regions suffer drought is viewed simply as collateral damage to the geopolitics of oil. The State Department is reported to have driven out individuals warning about global warming’s negative impact.1
The only attempts to restrict oil imports are the new Cold War trade sanctions to isolate Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The aim is to increase foreign dependence on U.S., British and French oil, giving American strategists the power to make other countries “freeze in the dark” if they follow a path diverging from U.S. diplomatic aims.
It was the drive to control the world’s oil trade – and to keep it dollarized – that led the United States to overthrow the Iranian government in 1953, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to invade Iraq in 2013, and most recently for Donald Trump to isolate Iran while backing Saudi Arabia and its Wahabi foreign legion in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Sixty years earlier, in 1953, the CIA and Britain joined to overthrow Iran’s elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh to prevent him from nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. A similar strategy explains U.S. attempts at regime change in Venezuela and Russia.
“Years of misguided alarmism over ‘Islamic terrorism’ resulted in the erosion of civil liberties, militarization of police, and a host of other bad outcomes. Applying the same alarmist logic to ‘white nationalist terrorism’ is likely to produce a host of similarly bad outcomes,” tweeted independent journalist Michael Tracey in response to the chatter.
Unstable guys with guns kill people again and websites immediately get shut down again.
There's much more to come, "crime-speaker".
Yesterday, two men allegedly killed 30 people at a store in Dayton Ohio, and a mall in El Paso Texas.
Today 8chan has been totally shut down.
If you don’t know what 8chan is, well it’s like 4chan but without the sense of decency.
Today 8chan has been totally shut down.
If you don’t know what 8chan is, well it’s like 4chan but without the sense of decency.
If you don’t know what 4chan is, it’s like reddit went off its medication.
Both places could be, can be, kinda gross. But they could – can – also be amazing. Insightful. Useful. Free speech is like that. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly. If you cut off the ugly parts it’s not “free speech” anymore.
Both places could be, can be, kinda gross. But they could – can – also be amazing. Insightful. Useful. Free speech is like that. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly. If you cut off the ugly parts it’s not “free speech” anymore.
Here is an analysis of why the Democratic Debates are pressing so hard to the left of normalcy, to the left of what 80% of Democratic voters would vote for, which stands to be hard in the real race next year. (The DNC are control freaks, I think they want to put Michelle Obama in late in the game, NOT in the debates.)
Grass roots! Organic support from people from many states! What could go wrong? Instead of finding supporters in early primary states by going door-to-door, the candidates instead were forced to run a national campaign of small donors. But it takes a lot of money to buy the necessary social media ads to push people into donating $1 to qualify as a real donor.
This meant seeking huge donors to fund expensive ad buys. They pay on average $70 to get a $1 donation from as many people as possible. Who gives $1 to a candidate: you guessed it, the extremist activists who just happen also to be financially poor, also known as The Twitter Mob. In order to get them to throw a buck at you, you need to inspire silly activists, as many as possible. That in turn means that you have to reduce your campaign to silly slogans activists like in order to get their attention.
Then on top of that, the standards keep tightening as the debates go on. There are so many candidates that they only get one minute. So their soundbites have to be extra catchy to be broadcast the next day on as many channels as possible in order to maximize more $1 contributions. This means they have to attack each other ever more, from the left, left, left, in order to get the goofballs to open their wallets.
Tulsi Gabbard has shifted what people can say in public about US wars. ("Overton window" refers to the range of acceptable public discourse.)
For her blunt assessment of U.S. foreign policy, one that is arguably shared by a large portion of the American electorate, Gabbard is vilified or ignored by most in the mainstream media. Pundits have made careers of maligning anyone who dares go against the neoconservative gospel on foreign policy, and Gabbard, of course, is no exception. Even the late-night comedy shows avoided any significant mention of her compelling performance in their detailed summations of the second night’s debate — this despite the fact that she was the most Googled candidate during the debate. Tulsi Gabbard has moved the Overton window on what is acceptable discussion when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. She has punctured the rose-tinted narrative being constructed around establishment favorites like Harris. This has not endeared her to mainstream pundits like Cooper of CNN or Brian Williams of CNBC.
Caitlin Johnstone:
The Washington Post, which is wholly owned by a CIA contractor who is reportedly working to control the underlying infrastructure of the global economy, has published a shockingly deceitful smear piece about Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard in the wake of her criticisms of her opponent Kamala Harris’ prosecutorial record during the last Democratic debate.
The article’s author, Josh Rogin, has been a cheerleader for US regime change interventionism in Syria since the very beginning of the conflict in that nation. It is unsurprising, then, that he reacted with orgasmic exuberance when Harris retaliated against Gabbard’s devastating attack by smearing the Hawaii congresswoman as an “Assad apologist”, since Gabbard has been arguably the most consistent and high-profile critic of Rogin’s pet war agenda. His article is titled “Tulsi Gabbard’s Syria record shows why she can’t be president”.
The article’s author, Josh Rogin, has been a cheerleader for US regime change interventionism in Syria since the very beginning of the conflict in that nation. It is unsurprising, then, that he reacted with orgasmic exuberance when Harris retaliated against Gabbard’s devastating attack by smearing the Hawaii congresswoman as an “Assad apologist”, since Gabbard has been arguably the most consistent and high-profile critic of Rogin’s pet war agenda. His article is titled “Tulsi Gabbard’s Syria record shows why she can’t be president”.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/08/03/wapo-publishes-gabbard-smear-piece-filled-with-blatant-lies/
And more vested interest reaction to the horrific threat of peace, brandished by Congresswoman Gabbard:
Running as an anti-war candidate in the US comes with a target painted on your back that draws fire from those rooting for foreign interventions. In case of Tulsi Gabbard, it includes a lengthy piece on chemical attacks in Syria.
Gabbard, a Democratic presidential hopeful, became the most-googled candidate during the second primary debate – but the surge of public interest came with renewed attacks against her anti-interventionist agenda. In case you’ve missed it all, Gabbard has been branded a ‘Russian’ spoiler for whichever candidate is eventually picked, and, once again, an apologist for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Joining the chorus of bashers on Sunday was Elliot Higgins, the founder of the UK-based ‘citizen investigation’outlet Bellingcat, who wrote a whopping 4,000-word piece attacking Gabbard’s negative attitude toward regime change wars. In particular, Higgins didn’t like her skepticism over chemical weapons attacks in Syria reflected on her campaign website. The attacks were used by Washington to justify missile attacks against the country’s government – and by extension continued illegal US military presence in the country.
Gabbard, a Democratic presidential hopeful, became the most-googled candidate during the second primary debate – but the surge of public interest came with renewed attacks against her anti-interventionist agenda. In case you’ve missed it all, Gabbard has been branded a ‘Russian’ spoiler for whichever candidate is eventually picked, and, once again, an apologist for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Joining the chorus of bashers on Sunday was Elliot Higgins, the founder of the UK-based ‘citizen investigation’outlet Bellingcat, who wrote a whopping 4,000-word piece attacking Gabbard’s negative attitude toward regime change wars. In particular, Higgins didn’t like her skepticism over chemical weapons attacks in Syria reflected on her campaign website. The attacks were used by Washington to justify missile attacks against the country’s government – and by extension continued illegal US military presence in the country.
Whoa... Look how scared the MSM wants us to be about Marianne Williamson!
"It's not FUNNY! She's pure, scary EVIL! She'll kill your children by outlawing vaccines.
She would have made me kill myself by taking away the antidepressants that saved my life."
Turkey is tired of getting nothing, and is ready to loose millions of hungry and profoundly frustrated human beings upon Western Europe if Turkey does not get a lot more of what Turkey was promised a few years back.
"We are facing the biggest wave of migration in history. If we open the floodgates, no European government will be able to survive for more than six months. We advise them not to try our patience." — Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
Surrounded by Threats
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