Sunday, March 3, 2019

Proactively Changing

Asset Managers,

​We are used to the global dollar regime sending us Chinese stuff through Wal-Mart for cheap. 
What will happen in the 2020s, when that goes away?
In other words the Iraqi puppets the Entity had installed unceremoniously kicked the Entity out of the country.
Until that time the Entity had been running a protection racket in the Middle East. But after the loss of Iraq these threats seemed a lot less plausible. The game was: oil had to be sold in dollars. Know as Dollar Hegemony, this racket allowed the Entity to print money. Oil backed the dollar just as gold once had. Governments had to maintain large supplies of dollars to protect against “emergencies,” that is, dollar shortages during speculative attacks on their currencies. “To prevent speculative and manipulative attacks on their currencies, the world’s central banks must acquire and hold dollar reserves in corresponding amounts to their currencies in circulation.” The Entity enforced dollar hegemony with military threats. One of the most important reasons for the Entity’s attack on Iraq was Saddam’s abandoning of dollar hegemony. He had begun to sell oil in euros. The Entity had to stop that. It invaded, and as soon as it was victorious, reversed that policy. Dollar hegemony restored. But the loss in Iraq revealed The Entity’s protection racket as a bluff. It’s threats were suddenly unconvincing.​..
Russia, China, India and Japan are now unloading dollars carefully, so as not to cause a panic. But they are steadily unloading them. They see dollar hegemony disappearing. Naturally, Saudi Arabia sees what is happening, and is not that enamored of the dollar either. As long as they thought the Entity protected them from Iran and, of course, from the Entity itself, they went along with it. Now the Entity is impotent to enforce dollar hegemony. The dollars the Saudis take for their oil today will be worth a whole lot less tomorrow if dollar hegemony ends. They are wavering, especially after Trump scolded them for murdering Kashoggi. Naughty, naughty MBS. They know the Entity cannot protect them from Iran, and they are panicking.
The Entity’s hive mind, for it’s part, refuses to accept the Iraq failure as having revealed its weakness. It still wants to maintain dollar hegemony and its protection racket. The end of dollar hegemony is an existential threat to The Entity. Originally The Entity exchanged securities for these dollars, one piece of paper for another, or more likely bits of code, with the Federal Reserve. Then it spent them, mostly on the military. The Federal Reserve unloaded these dollar-denominated securities to whoever had faith in the dollars they could exchange them for. Nice work if you can get it, but securities are debt. The Entity is so far in debt that it pays almost a trillion dollars in debt service annually. To do so it needs more dollars and to sell more securities. Faith in this Ponzi scheme might waver. If everyone unloads dollar securities the entity will have to print more dollars, and sell more securities to buy them. Otherwise their price will crash. But what real something or other will these dollars buy given how many will be floating around? For there will be no other buyers unless the dollars can buy something real. The Securities will then be worthless. If Entity securities become worthless so will the dollar. Bye-bye Entity.​..
When Rouhani did not do what the Entity hoped, it abandoned him and with him the JAPOCA, which Obama signed only to prop him up. That was the end of any hope for a Ukraine style regime change in Iran. At that point the Entity had to reestablish itself as the bully of the Middle East, which meant it had to threaten to attack Iran. Otherwise even Saudi Arabia, mortally afraid of Iran, wavering on dollar hegemony, and no longer believing in Entity protection, might itself abandon dollar hegemony. That would be curtains.​..
Earlier this year, the Chinese Ambassador Li Huaxin was pictured with Saudi officials as he praised Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which calls for stronger economic cooperation between the two nations. This pact pressures Saudi Arabia to adopt the “petro-yuan,” which would effectively axe the petrodollar. Although Saudi Arabia relies heavily on U.S. military power, Saudi Arabia warming ties with China closeness are alarming.​..
   With the credibility the Entity had had while it pretended to be the United States gone, and attacking Iran impossible for any sane entity, Trump is left with only one option if he is to maintain dollar hegemony: to go insane.  
​[It's gotta' be bombs and embargo alone. You can't invade Iran. It has mountains in the way. Saudi oil will have to get to China through Israel.]​

​The Fed is not particularly "independent" It serves dollar hegemony and a coherent team is needed right now to defend the global reserve currency. It is important to show team cohesion. The Fed now openly demonstrates this, as it did ubder Richard Nixon, when he had to go off the gold standard.
​Charles Hugh Smith lays out the historic pattern. We are entering winter.
How would you describe the social mood of the nation and world?
Would anti-Establishment, anti-status quo, and anti-globalization be a good start? How about choking on fast-rising debt? Would stagnant growth, stagnant wages be a fair description? Or how about rising wealth/income inequality? Wouldn’t rising disunity and political polarization be accurate?
These are all characteristics of the long-wave social-economic cycle that is entering the disintegrative (winter) phase. Souring social mood, loss of purchasing power, stagnating wages, rising inequality, devaluing currencies, rising debt, political polarization and elite disunity are all manifestations of this phase.
There is a template for global instability, one that has been repeated throughout history…
Historian Peter Turchin explores the historical cycles of social disintegration and integration in his new book Ages of Discord.
Turchin finds 25-year cycles that combine into roughly 50-year cycles. These 50-year cycles are part of longer 150 to 200-year cycles that move from cooperation through an age of discord and disintegration to a new era of cooperation...
Unfortunately, those cycles did not have Disney endings: the turmoil of the 13th century brought war and a series of plagues which killed 40% of Europe’s population; the 16th century’s era of rising prices tilled fertile ground for war, and the 18th century’s violent revolutions and resultant wars can be traced directly to the unrest caused by spiking prices.
(The very day that prices for bread reached their peak in Paris, an angry mob tore down the Bastille prison, launching the French Revolution.)

US officials' statements, saying that Venezuelan President Nicolas "Maduro's days are numbered" mean that Cuba and Nicaragua will be next, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated at a press conference in China.  

​The Saker:​
I​t appears that Maduro and his ministers were successful in devising a strategy combining roadblocks, a concert on the Venezuelan side, and the minimal but effective use of riot police to keep the border closed.  Most remarkably, “unidentified snipers” did not appear to shoot at both sides (a favorite tactic of the Empire to justify its interventions).  I give the credit for this to whatever Venezuelan (or allied) units were in charge of counter-sniper operations along the border.
Outside Venezuela this first confrontation has also been a defeat for the Empire.  Not only did most countries worldwide not recognize the AngloZionist puppet, but the level of protest and opposition to what appeared to be the preparations for a possible invasion (or, at least, a military operation of some kind) was remarkably high, while the legacy corporate Ziomedia did what it always does (that is whatever the Empire wants it to do), the Internet and the blogosphere were overwhelmingly opposed to a direct US intervention.  This situation also created a great deal of internal political tensions in various Latin American countries whose public opinion remains strongly opposed to any form of US imperial control over Latin America.
In this respect, the situation with Brazil is particularly interesting. While the Brazilian government fully backed the US coup attempt, the Brazilian military was most uncomfortable with this.  My contacts in Brazil had correctly predicted that the Brazilian military would refuse to attack Venezuela and, eventually, the Brazilians even issued a statement to that effect​...
The truth is that Mr MAGA and his Neocon puppet-masters have failed, at least so far, at absolutely everything they tried. And if taking on China, Russia, Iran or even Syria is no easy task, Venezuela is by far the most fragile country in what could be called the “Resistance countries”: Venezuela is far away from it’s allies (except Cuba), it is surrounded by more or less hostile countries (especially Colombia), it’s economy is crippled by US sanctions and sabotage and its armed forces are dwarfed by the immense firepower the Empire has available in the region.  Add to this the truly demonic mindset of Neocons like Abrams and the future for Venezuela looks bleak.

The details of the first massive air combat between the Indian and Pakistani fighters since the third Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 emerged as India waited for the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman from Pakistan's captivity.
The wing commander was in pursuit of a Pakistani F-16 jet, which he shot down with an R-73 air-to-air missile.
"Both pilots were seen parachuting down on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control," the TV Channel said.
http://tass.com/world/1046940  

​Who won and who lost here?​
According to the IAF, the (1956 design) MiG-21 that was shot down on Feb. 27, 2019, was part of a formation of 8 Indian fighters which included four Sukhoi 30s, two upgraded Mirage 2000s and two MiG 21 Bisons that were dispatched to engage a package of 24 PAF jets that included eight (1998 model) F-16​s​, four Mirage-3 aircraft, four JF-17 “Thunder”.
 But the most interesting part comes next. Indeed, the Indian Air Force declared that before it was crashed, the MiG-21 Bison managed to shoot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16D over the Line of Control:
“In the aerial combat that ensued one F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force was shot down by Indian Air Force MiG 21 Bison aircraft. The F-16 crashed and fell across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Air Force lost one MiG 21 aircraft. Though the pilot ejected safely, his parachute drifted into PoJ&K, where he was taken into custody by Pakistan Army,” Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor said at a press conference in New Delhi.

​Badass wing commander goes home.
The Pakistani foreign minister says Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, the Indian pilot who was shot down and captured earlier this week during the first aerial scuffle between India in Pakistan in nearly half a century, has now been released.

With his poll numbers sagging just weeks before a crucial election, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has apparently decided that Pakistan's "goodwill gesture" - returning a captured Indian fighter pilot - wasn't enough to warrant a complete de-escalation. Overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning, the two sides exchanged artillery fire across the border, resulting in civilian and military casualties...
On the Indian side of the border, three died after a shell fired by Pakistan hit their home in the Poonch region. In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, a man and boy were killed by Indian shells in Nakiyal, while another man was wounded in the Tatta Pani region. Two soldiers have also been killed.

​Turkey is a critical country; used to be an empire, right in the middle of lots of paths.​ Turkey can make other deals. And what about Syrian feelings?
News recently that President Trump has once again done a U turn on his Syria policy – and will keep US forces in the north with their SDF (mainly Kurdish) allies – couldn’t have been more felt than in Turkey. Trump’s decision to listen to his military advisors and even titans in Congress like Lindsey Graham to keep a contingent of US troops in the north with the SDF and in the south east at Al Tanf is hugely important in that it keeps other allies there – namely France and the UK – on board and retains America’s barrier to Iran taking the east of the country as a key corridor all the way to Lebanon. It also keeps Saudi Arabia and Israel happy who were particularly vexed by the hasty decision which would have dramatically changed the Syria War chequers board.
But the decision, which is believed to involve 400 troops staying and not 200 as reported – comes with a high price: it looks as though it will alienate Turkey once and for all.​..​
In recent weeks, according to leaked documents, reports have emerged of a new impetus of anti Turkey hatred, which has eclipsed even the paranoia over Iran and Hezbollah and focused the minds of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Washington.​..​ 
 The Trump decision on troops to stay in Syria, which on the face of it masquerades as a strategy against Russia and Iran – in fact, is part of a bigger plan for Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt to support the Kurds in a new battle with Turkey. A secret meeting held in December agreed to let Assad back into the Arab League and move forward with a new anti-Turkey plan, via the Kurds. With Mossad taking this initiative, we have to assume that Trump’s blessing would come with it.

​Well, Duh!​
The Israeli military may have committed war crimes in 2018 when 189 Palestinians were killed and 6,100 wounded at Gaza protests, a UN human rights inquiry has found.
Palestinian demonstrators “did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities,” the panel’s report said on Thursday, citing confidential information about those responsible for the killings.
The commission said every use of live fire during the protests was unlawful​.

​This guy is as persistent as Keith Richards. Maybe this time...
Three months after Israeli police recommended that the country's attorney general pursue charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his alleged involvement in "Bezeq Walla Affair", it appears an indictment is finally being handed down on Thursday, much to the longtime leader's chagrin.
Since Netanyahu and his wife have become embroiled in multiple scandals over the past few years, seemingly all of which have yielded recommendations of prosecution, let us pause a moment for a quick refresher on the most serious allegations. The crux of the case is that Netanyahu and his wife accepted bribes from Shaul Elovitch, the owner of Israel's largest telecoms firm, Bezeq. Elovitch also owns the "Walla" news website. The prime minister crossed a line when he allegedly fired Communications Ministry Director-General Avi Berger and hired ex-Netanyahu campaign manager Shlomo Filber in a bid to help guarantee special treatment for Elovitch and his companies. In exchange, Netanyahu and his wife purportedly struck a deal with Elovitch for favorable coverage on his news website.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-28/israeli-justice-minister-indicts-netanyahu-charges-bribery-fraud-breach-trust

​I'll believe something-or-other when the Army starts drafting transgender, black, Jewish ​single-"parents". The US military mess is broken and worsening. Break it! Break it!
The cornerstones of the psychology of the modern military as we understand it today are self-sacrifice, heroism, machismo etc. The military is a combination of some sort of macho romanticism and destruction of the ego of each individual soldier until they can function only as a cog in the machine, for individual desires and feelings don’t do well during trench warfare. Overcoming one’s feelings and instincts of self-preservation are critical for battle.
Despite these rather obvious facts the DC bourgeoise is subjecting the troops to things like transgender sensitivity training and making the ROTC march in red women’s high heels to somehow create some sort of understanding with women.​..
When abortion rights activists claim that the government has no right to control their bodies, they conveniently ignore the fact that thousands and thousands of men can be conscripted and forced to die if the government sees fit. This sort of discrepancy has not gone unnoticed and now the legal ground work to allow women to be drafted is beginning to come into place.​..
The female draft is now viable because the draft itself is non-viable and no longer necessary for the United States. The less the military continues to need the human component them more extreme Left policies can implemented into the organization from pressure from within Washington without breaking it entirely.

​Bigger, better, smarter, faster, empty killing machines can replace all of the army persons, to kill humans here and there. Terminators.

​It should be obvious upon analysis. The Future (if any) is Rural.
Whether because we can no longer afford the damage caused by burning fossil hydrocarbons or because they are a nonrenewable resource, the era of oil, coal, and natural gas will come to an end in the foreseeable future. Mass urbanization has been made possible by the prodigious exploitation of fossil fuels. Cities have always been wholly reliant on the capacity of rural areas to produce basic goods, most importantly food. But due to the concentrated energy in oil, with its ability to power heavy equipment and transport goods over long distances, cities have been able to reach the scale they do today by drawing support from a land base often several hundred times their own area.[ii]​ ...
In anthropological terms, as we have less energy available, our society will become less complex, characterized by fewer monetary transactions and an increase in subsistence and informal economies. Progressively less energy from fossil fuels will require greater labor inputs and less reliance on mechanization over time. As energy use in countries like the U.S. declines over the coming decades, rural areas will repopulate, and lifestyles may resemble those in countries that never had access to vast energy supplies (Figure 3). [vi]​ ...
Food, its scarcity, the desire and opportunity to grow it, and the need to do it in ways that are appropriate to place and circumstance, will drive demographic shifts this century. People with life experiences and training suited for the urban environment are going to need a rapid education on what it takes to live off the land, and so-called conventional farmers and ranchers will have a steep learning curve to adopt more frugal and sustainable methods. But farmers and ranchers are not the only ones who need help adjusting to 21st century pressures. A society that actively supports them is also crucial to their success.​..
Navigating energy descent will likely require that we take the best of liberal world views—like openness to ideas, enthusiasm for change, and tolerance of differences—and at the same time be deeply conservative—valuing interpersonal relationships, demanding respect and civility when those are under threat, and rediscovering a land ethic that resets social norms to help us restore and protect the places we love.

P​lanting Vegetables​

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