John Day
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http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/planetary-life-is-russian-asset.html
Planetary Life Is A Russian asset
We Need an Ecological Civilization Before It’s Too Late
In the face of climate breakdown and ecological overshoot, alluring promises of “green growth” are no more than magical thinking. We need to restructure the fundamentals of our global cultural/economic system to cultivate an “ecological civilization”: one that prioritizes the health of living systems over short-term wealth production...
In practice, transitioning to an ecological civilization would mean restructuring some of the fundamental institutions driving our current civilization to destruction. In place of an economy based on perpetual growth in GDP, it would institute one that emphasized quality of life, using alternative measures such as a Genuine Progress Indicator to gauge success. Economic systems would be based on respect for individual dignity and fairly rewarding each person’s contribution to the greater good, while ensuring that nutritional, housing, healthcare, and educational needs were fully met for everyone. Transnational corporations would be fundamentally reorganized and made accountable to the communities they purportedly serve, to optimize human and environmental wellbeing rather than shareholder profits. Locally owned cooperatives would become the default organizational structure. Food systems would be designed to emphasize local production using state-of-the-art agroecology practices in place of fossil fuel-based fertilizer and pesticides, while manufacturing would prioritize circular flows where efficient re-use of waste products is built into the process from the outset.
In an ecological civilization, the local community would be the basic building block of society. Face-to-face interaction would regain ascendance as a crucial part of human flourishing, and each community’s relationship with others would be based on principles of mutual respect, learning, and reciprocity. Technological innovation would still be encouraged, but would be prized for its effectiveness in enhancing the vitality of living systems rather than minting billionaires. The driving principle of enterprise would be that we are all interconnected in the web of life—and long-term human prosperity is therefore founded on a healthy Earth.
We Need an Ecological Civilization Before It’s Too Latehttp://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/third-grade-politicians.html
Professor Anthony Hall has a lot of insight gained from his attendance at the New Horizon Conference in Lebanon. The Yemeni victories within Saudi Arabia have been particularly hushed up in the west, as has the weakness and instability of the ruling Saudi royal clan.
In recent years the Saudi assault on Yemen has been widely recognized as the basis of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. The invasion has directly affected about 80% of Yemen’s 24 million people where starvation in running rife. As a high-level UNICEF official put it, “Yemen has become today a living hell for children…. with 400,000 children suffering acute malnutrition.”
Those engaged in the Yemeni resistance to Saudi Arabia’s assault on their country began in the summer of 2019 to demonstrate increasingly sophisticated forms of self-defense especially through the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles including drones. In mid-September this strategy of targeting Saudi installations in the cause of undermining the strength of the imperial predator extended to hitting oil-producing and oil-refining installations of the Saudi corporate giant, Aramco.
As the New Horizon delegates learned in Beirut, the Yemeni resistance forces followed up this action in late September by capturing about 2,000 Saudi officers and their mercenary soldiers who hail from many locations including Sudan, Pakistan, and Iraq. The Yemeni resistance also captured hundreds of Saudi military vehicles including some light armored vehicles made in Ontario by a Canadian-based unit of General Dynamics.
The turnaround in the military balance of power in the Arabian Peninsula in September of 2019 has many global implications. There is no doubt this turnaround is a game-changer with many far-reaching implications. The Yemeni resistance demonstrates that the world’s biggest importer of armaments emanating mostly from the United States cannot repel a concerted attack on the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces within Saudi territory. The attack comes from highly-skilled fighting units hailing mostly from one of the poorest and most aggressively assaulted countries in the world.
In 1945 Saudi Arabia was effectively taken over by the United States and its oil and gas sector. The USA claimed the lion’s share of Arabia’s fossil fuel wealth as one of the main fruits of victory for intervening to help shift the balance of power towards the allies in the Second World War. The family of Ibn Saud was entrusted to play the role of custodian of the massive Saudi oil fields largely on behalf of the emerging US superpower with its imperial headquarters in the Pentagon.
https://ahtribune.com/world/3564-iran-biggest-exporter-of-terrorism.htmlCongresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was again, most-Googled during the Democratic debates Tuesday.
Why does that always happen? White suit?
Here is 6 minutes of Tulsi.
https://971talk.radio.com/blogs/marc-cox-morning-show/tulsi-gabbard-democratic-debate-highlightsPepe Escobar, who was also at that New Horizon conference in Beirut with Professor James (lead article) has a complimentary update on Syria, discord in US politics, and the Iraqi rumor that the snipers were US/Israeli actors.
In the annals of bombastic Trump tweets, this one is simply astonishing: here we have a President of the United States, on the record, unmasking the whole $8-trillion intervention in the Middle East as an endless war based on a “false premise.” No wonder the Pentagon is not amused...
What’s happening is a quadruple win. The US performs a face saving withdrawal, which Trump can sell as avoiding a conflict with NATO alley Turkey. Turkey has the guarantee – by the Russians – that the Syrian Army will be in control of the Turkish-Syrian border. Russia prevents a war escalation and keeps the Russia-Iran-Turkey peace process alive. And Syria will eventually regain control of its oilfields and the entire northeast.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/10/article/kurds-face-stark-options-after-us-pullback/http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/weakest-link.html
Moon of Alabama:
The U.S. had more than 1,000 troops in northeast Syria. There were also several hundred French and British special forces and some 2,000 U.S. contractors. They, and a huge amount of equipment, are now moving out. They have nothing to fear from the Syrian forces. Syria is happy to see them leave. (Reports that the U.S.yesterday bombed Syrian troops are false.)
The strategic plan behind last week’s development must have come from Moscow. Russia has tried for some time to get Turkey into its camp. Russia, Iran and Syria allowed Turkey a limited invasion of Syria to scare the U.S. out. Russia largely supported the Turkish move but it will also set its limits.
Trump has been looking for a chance to move the U.S. troops out of Syria since December 2018. The borg made that politically unfeasible. The Turkish (Russian) move gave him the excuse he needed.
It is possible that the whole arrangement was made for exactly that purpose.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/10/syria-regains-its-northeastern-parts.html#moreGlobal Research:
The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to guarantee the safety of the Kurds as long as these become part of the National Security Forces. No other conditions were put forward by the Kurds, who have lost momentum with the sudden US withdrawal. Damascus promised there will be no revenge or resentment measures towards the Kurds who have, for years, acted as human shields to protect the US occupation forces which remained in Syria notwithstanding the defeat of ISIS.
The Russian-Kurdish deal consists of the deployment of the Syrian army on all borders with Turkey and the return of all sources of energy (gas and oil) to the Syrian government-controlled forces. These sources of energy are vital to the Syrian government, which has been suffering under heavy US-EU sanctions. Any delivery of oil was blocked, except the crude oil from Iran, whose supertanker managed to breach the siege.
The initial agreement between the Kurds and Damascus (via Russia) consists in the ending of the self-administration of NES, the integration of the Syrian Kurds under the command of the Syrian Army, and the pursuit and destruction of all ISIS forces.One Rocket Provoked the US Withdrawal: Details of the Kurdish-Russian-Syrian Deal
There is a lot of bloviating by Trump and Erdogan, but I don’t get the feeling they are actually mad at each other.
They’ll have to stay-together-for-the-children, anyway…
Erdogan Holding 50 US Tactical Nukes ‘Hostage’ As Trump Authorizes Sanctions
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/erdogan-holding-50-us-tactical-nukes-hostage-trump-authorizes-sanctionsIt’s not looking like the House is going to formally vote on whether to begin impeachment proceedings against President-Orange-Republican.
Schiff: Public Has No Right To Observe Impeachment Inquiry…Then Kicks GOP Lawmaker Out
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/schiff-says-public-has-no-right-observe-impeachment-inquiry-then-kicks-gop-lawmaker-out A formal vote would allow Republicans to subpoena their own documents and witnesses, something the minority party was allowed in both the Nixon and Clinton impeachment inquiry resolutions – which is why the Trump administration won’t cooperate until a vote is held.
Pelosi has called pressure to do so a “Republican talking point.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pelosi-punts-official-impeachment-vote-robbing-gop-subpoena-powerElizabeth Warren comported herself deftly and “won” the debate last night, I think.
Bernie Sanders is setting the popular agenda, and AOC will endorse him.
Tulsi Gabbard is not noticed in the American media. She was there. Nobody really agreed with her. Sanders, sorta’.
“The slaughter of the Kurds being done by Turkey is yet another negative consequence of the regime-change war that we’ve been waging in Syria. Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hand — but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime-change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime-change war,” she said.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/democratic-debate-tulsi-gabbard-syria-pete-buttigieg-trump-turkey-a9157711.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/democratic-debate-summary-highlights-biden-warren-sanders-trump-impeachment-a9157716.htmlThe CIA has had a heart-attack gun since the 1960s…
Bernie Sanders released a proposal today that would gradually shift 20 percent of corporate equity into funds owned and controlled by the workers in each company. The plan, which would apply to all publicly-traded companies and large closely-held companies, would move 2 percent of corporate stock into worker funds each year for a decade. Once the shares are transferred into the funds, workers would begin receiving dividends and have the ability to exercise the voting rights of the shares, including the right to vote on corporate board elections and on shareholder resolutions.
Sanders’s plan is by far the most radical worker ownership proposal put forward by a presidential candidate in recent memory.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/bernie-wants-you-to-own-more-of-the-means-of-productionThe only thing keeping Bernie alive is having been robbed by the DNC…
Billionaires could be slapped with an effective tax rate of 97.5% if Bernie Sanders wins the 2020 presidential elections, reported Bloomberg, who spoke with two economists advising both the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Presidential Campaigns.
Sanders’ effective tax rate of 97.5%, includes an income tax, but also a wealth tax that is aimed at breaking up family fortunes over time.
“With the wealth tax, you get directly at the stock instead of hitting the flow of income, making it a much more powerful de-concentration tool than income taxes,” University of California, Berkeley professor Emmanuel Saez wrote in an email.
Saez said Sanders’ wealth tax would slash the number of billionaires in the country by at least half by 2030.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sanders-goes-jugular-could-slap-billionaires-975-effective-tax-rateMoon of Alabama
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/10/syria-regains-its-northeastern-parts.html#more
The strategic plan behind last week’s development must have come from Moscow. Russia has tried for some time to get Turkey into its camp. Russia, Iran and Syria allowed Turkey a limited invasion of Syria to scare the U.S. out. Russia largely supported the Turkish move but it will also set its limits.Trump has been looking for a chance to move the U.S. troops out of Syria since December 2018. The borg made that politically unfeasible. The Turkish (Russian) move gave him the excuse he needed.
Maybe they use cryptocurrency transactions to communicate. I think that would be workable. I’m no expert.
There is a lot of public bloviation by Trump, Erdogn and EU “leaders” about what is going on with the reset of forces in Northern Syria.
I suspect, as Ilargi does, that it is staged for domestic audiences, and actual details a been pre-arranged with agreed limits.
I suspect Russian diplomacy is in action.Hi Alexander,
Point of correction.
Pol Pot was not a school teacher. He was always of the elite ruling class. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot
You are conflating him with “Comrade Duch”, who was a schoolteacher, and became the head of Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_Kek_Iew
The only reason I know this is that I took my wife and kids to that prison when we traveled through Southeast Asia. The lesson is that ordinary people become monsters in such circumstances. Spot the trend and avoid the circumstances. Comrade Duch never tried to hide what he did, admitted and repented, helped investigators and converted to Christianity, by the way.Alexander,
We are kindred spirits. So were our grandfathers. My grandfather was an observer-gunner in a Spad in WW-1, attended the Sorbonne after that, traveled the world as a radio man on a tramp steamer, went to Harvard Grad School in Journalism, raised a family during the depression and built them a house with his hands, then went to WW-2 in OSS counter-intelligence, Major Robert H. Williams. I knew him as my grandfather who raised cattle. He was a good and loving hman, who wanted the world to be free of it’s sociopathic masters. I listened.
I also appreciate Murray Bookchin, and have read his work in my search for the best form of human government. His :ibertarian Municipalism apealed to Ocalon, too, who is the long-confined Kurdish leader, and seemingly a good and thoughtful human.
I am not sure what is going on. Fog of war. You are also not sure what is going on.
Different powerful interests want a gas pipeline from the Pars gas field (Iran/Qatar) to feed Europe’s energy thirst. It has to go through Syria. Assad (a decent human, unlike his brother and sociopathic father) said “No”. That’s what made the US/Israel/Western-interests start this war in Syria and fund it with money and mercenaries.
That’s failed. Iran may eventually get to do it’s pipeline. Turkey is in a critical position for a lot of pipeline and trade flows, where Greece used to be, and mostly made up of ethnic Greeks, not Turkic peoples.
There are different reports of levels of support from Basher al Assad for Kurds than what you have posted. I don’t personally know. He’s an Ophthalmologist. He didn’t plan to rule Syria. It’s an accident of history.
The Kurds have been used by Israel and the US/Empire, and are now discarded, but they are still who they are, whoever that is, always a people without a country.
I was hopeful a few years ago for Rojava, and I dearly want this communitarian form of governance to flourish. The Empire does not, of course.I watched Beau’s 5th Column video about Trump crowing that the Saudis are paying for that infusion of 1800 US soldiers, added to those already stationed there.
I would look at this more carefully. The $US is the petro-dollar because Nixon & Kissinger made that deal with King Faisal.
Saudi Arabia just lost over half of it’s mercenary army, and their Saudi officers to the Yemeni army last month, and never said a word about it.
The House of Saud needs that Aramco IPO to go through, and so does Wall Street.
This makes it possible.
Also, the US military is in the act of occupying Saudi Arabia to protect-the-oil, not to protect the house of Saud, at least not more than is necessary to control the oil.
(Or so I interpret this)Tom at INN World Report sent this clip of President Trump talking to a large crowd in Iowa this past week. He cued it up to the part where Trump talks about the worst thing he has to do, which is to sign all the letters to the families of dead servicemen and women. He reads the letters.He greets the planes and the families sometimes.He describes his first time greeting families of dead soldiers on the tarmac. I wish you would watch these three minutes. He wants them to come home alive, now. He seems to genuinely mean it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT3O5WFYUxo&feature=youtu.be&t=4825Trump can’t be a sociopath, having made that unscripted speech to those people. He also can’t be a complete narcissist, though he sure has some narcissistic traits.He’s human.He’s “The Gray Champion” of this country, for this particular systemic-reset-round as history deploys.
I had a dream early Sunday (yesterday) morning, that I was (sort of) Donald Trump, and I started speaking truth, correcting history, apologizing for nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and explaining why, and explaining FDR’s trick to get Japan to attack Pearl Harbor, to get the US into the war, and assure that so many Americans died that day and then more and more, and about JFK and 9/11, and how this is our real world.
It was a good dream. It felt good.
Just a dream, right?http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/coupa-cola.html
Matt Taibbi
I’ve lived through a few coups. They’re insane, random, and terrifying, like watching sports, except your political future depends on the score.
The kickoff begins when a key official decides to buck the executive. From that moment, government becomes a high-speed head-counting exercise. Who’s got the power plant, the airport, the police in the capital? How many department chiefs are answering their phones? Who’s writing tonight’s newscast?
When the KGB in 1991 tried to reassume control of the crumbling Soviet Union by placing Mikhail Gorbachev under arrest and attempting to seize Moscow, logistics ruled. Boris Yeltsin’s crew drove to the Russian White House in ordinary cars, beating KGB coup plotters who were trying to reach the seat of Russian government in armored vehicles. A key moment came when one of Yeltsin’s men, Alexander Rutskoi – who two years later would himself lead a coup against Yeltsin – prevailed upon a Major in a tank unit to defy KGB orders and turn on the “criminals.”
We have long been spared this madness in America. Our head-counting ceremony was Election Day. We did it once every four years.
That’s all over, in the Trump era.
On Thursday, news broke that two businessmen said to have “peddled supposedly explosive information about corruption involving Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden” were arrested at Dulles airport on “campaign finance violations.” The two figures are alleged to be bagmen bearing “dirt” on Democrats, solicited by Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman will be asked to give depositions to impeachment investigators. They’re reportedly going to refuse. Their lawyer John Dowd also says they will “refuse to appear before House Committees investigating President Donald Trump.” Fruman and Parnas meanwhile claim they had real derogatory information about Biden and other politicians, but “the U.S. government had shown little interest in receiving it through official channels.”
For Americans not familiar with the language of the Third World, that’s two contrasting denials of political legitimacy.
The men who are the proxies for Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in this story are asserting that “official channels” have been corrupted. The forces backing impeachment, meanwhile, are telling us those same defendants are obstructing a lawful impeachment inquiry.
This latest incident, set against the impeachment mania and the reportedly “expanding” Russiagate investigation of U.S. Attorney John Durham, accelerates our timeline to chaos. We are speeding toward a situation when someone in one of these camps refuses to obey a major decree, arrest order, or court decision, at which point Americans will get to experience the joys of their political futures being decided by phone calls to generals and police chiefs.
My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.
The Trump presidency is the first to reveal a full-blown schism between the intelligence community and the White House. Senior figures in the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies made an open break from their would-be boss before Trump’s inauguration, commencing a public war of leaks that has not stopped...
It was also a bold new foray into domestic politics by intelligence agencies that in recent decades began asserting all sorts of frightening new authority. They were kidnapping foreigners, assassinating by drone, conducting paramilitary operations without congressional notice, building an international archipelago of secret prisons, and engaging in mass warrantless surveillance of Americans. We found out in a court case just last week how extensive the illegal domestic surveillance has been, with the FBI engaging in tens of thousands of warrantless searches involving American emails and phone numbers under the guise of combating foreign subversion.
The agencies’ new trick is inserting themselves into domestic politics using leaks and media pressure. The “intel chiefs” meeting was just the first in a series of similar stories, many following the pattern in which a document was created, passed from department from department, and leaked...
I don’t believe most Americans have thought through what a successful campaign to oust Donald Trump would look like. Most casual news consumers can only think of it in terms of Mike Pence becoming president. The real problem would be the precedent of a de facto intelligence community veto over elections, using the lunatic spookworld brand of politics that has dominated the last three years of anti-Trump agitation.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/were-in-a-permanent-coupTrump is cutting staff loyal to Bolton and neocons at the National Security Council.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/national-security-council-gutted-establishment-loyalists-undermine-trumpBut I thought the US was pulling soldiers out of the Mideast!
The Pentagon has increased the number of US forces in the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations by about 14,000 since May this year, as it continues to lock horns with Tehran. Not all of those went to Saudi Arabia, however, as CENTCOM’s area of operations covers the entire Middle East, including Afghanistan and Syria.
https://www.rt.com/news/470730-pentagon-troops-saudi-iran/Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach revealed on Wednesday that former Vice President Joe Biden received $900,000 from Burisma Group for lobbying activities, citing materials related to an investigation.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-biden-personally-paid-900000-burisma-according-ukrainian-mp-bombshell-admissionUkrainian Government Will ‘Happily” Investigate Pro-Hillary Election Interference, President Says
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukrainian-government-will-happily-investigate-2016-us-election-interference-zelenskyReal whistle-blowers get treated like this:
Julian Assange to remain locked up in UK prison following brief court appearance ahead of US extradition hearing
https://www.rt.com/news/470708-assange-remanded-custody-extradition/But the border area Erdogan marked is quite populated with some 850,000 people living there. Most of them are Kurds.
Turkey wants to replace those Kurds with the Syrian mob that it armed and supported against the Syrian government troops. These people and their families currently live in Turkey. To move them into north Syria would be one of the largest ethnic cleansing operation the world has seen in recent times.
A saying goes “The Kurds have no friends but the mountains.” But there are no mountains in Syria’s north east. While the YPG might want to fight off a Turkish invasion they have little chance to succeed. The land is flat and the YPG forces only have light arms.
There is only one solution for them. They will have to call up the Syrian government and ask it to come back into the north east. That would remove the Turkish concerns and would likely prevent further Turkish moves.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/10/syria-trump-gives-green-light-for-another-turkish-invasion.html#more
The illegal weapons rat-line into Syria, to arm the ISIS caliphate and assorted “good terrorists” is laid out again in detail. It is US and UK covert operations, as usual.
Arms Watch published emails exposing how British shell companies were used as cover for a US government program to arm militants in Syria, called in internal memos ‘Task Force Smoking Gun’.
Years after the height of the CIA billion dollar program ‘Timber Sycamore’, and after the US Department of Defense ‘Train and Equip’ program, more and more details of the nuts and bolts of covert aid to jihadists in the Levant are falling into place.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wikileaks-covert-arms-investigation-reveals-uk-shell-companies-served-us-weapons-ratIs the second CIA “whistleblower” John Bolton?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/there-is-a-lot-of-speculation-that-john-bolton-is-the-second-whistleblowerIsraeli politics has been jammed recently. This article has good detail on those political processes. Johnathan Cook
The reality is that there is strong unity in Israel – over shared, deeply ugly attitudes towards Palestinians, whether citizens or those under occupation. Paradoxically, the only obstacle to realising that unity is Netanyahu’s efforts to cling to power.Why Israel is Struggling to find a way out of Its Political Deadlock
A few days old, but useful information. Israel has been attacking Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, frustrated by the formation of a “Shia Crescent” of political solidarity from Iran to Syria.
During the last five days there have been protest all over the south of Iraq where the majority of the people are Shia. The protest escalated within a few days into shootings with over a hundred killed. In several cities party and government offices were burned and various groups hustle to take a position in the “leaderless” movement.
There are legitimate reasons for protests. The majority of the people in Iraq is younger than 20 years. The people have little chance of finding a job. The state is weak and many of its actors are corrupt. Services the state is supposed to provide don’t get delivered. Electricity and water supply is often sparse.
But those are not the reasons why the protests immediately escalated into violence:
Liz Sly @LizSly – 22:19 UTC · Oct 4, 2019
Many Iraqi protesters are complaining of unknown snipers targeting them from rooftops, and it’s possible they are aiming at both the demonstrators & the security forces.
Quote: Reporting Iraq @TFPOI · Oct 4
Protestors are confirming the use of snipers from buildings, targeting protesters approaching Tahrir Square.
A young man was killed by the use of snipers. Evidence in the form of a photo can be seen.
#iraq #baghdad #save_the_iraqi_people
During the 2014 U.S. coup in Ukraine the same method was used to inflame the country.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/10/the-us-led-coup-attempt-in-iraq-may-further-weaken-that-country.htmlTurkey Joins Russia’s Ruble-Based Alternative To SWIFT
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/turkey-joins-russias-ruble-based-alternative-swift Brexit talks have come to an abrupt halt in Brussels days after the British government demanded intensive negotiations on Boris Johnson’s proposals.
Sources on both sides confirmed that no meetings between the negotiating teams were scheduled. There are 22 days to go before the UK is due to leave the EU.
Discussions between EU and UK officials had been held almost daily since the prime minister and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, met for lunch in Luxembourg in mid-September.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/09/brexit-talks-in-brussels-between-eu-and-the-uk-come-to-a-haltMPs will be called to Parliament for a special Saturday sitting in a decisive day for the future of Brexit.
Parliament will meet on 19 October after a crunch EU summit – seen as the last chance for the UK and EU to agree a deal ahead of 31 October deadline.
If a deal is agreed, Boris Johnson will ask MPs to approve it – but if not, a range of options could be presented.
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says these could include leaving without a deal, and halting Brexit altogether.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49984367Tom Luongo thinks Trump has been motivated by the impeachment political circuis to go all-out.
Michael Snyder says the rumor is that the “second whistleblower” is John Bolton
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/there-is-a-lot-of-speculation-that-john-bolton-is-the-second-whistleblower
And Israeli political deadlock explained rather well:
The reality is that there is strong unity in Israel – over shared, deeply ugly attitudes towards Palestinians, whether citizens or those under occupation. Paradoxically, the only obstacle to realising that unity is Netanyahu’s efforts to cling to power.Why Israel is Struggling to find a way out of Its Political Deadlock
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/innocent-until-charged.html
Democracy is the coat of paint applied for PR purposes to the Imperial State. Charles Hugh Smith
If we step back from the histrionics of impeachment and indeed, the past four years of political circus, we have to wonder if America’s democracy is little more than an elaborate simulation, a counterfeit democracy that matches our counterfeit capitalism (Matt Stoller’s term).
If we review the mechanics of our “democracy,” we find that swapping which party controls Congress doesn’t really change the policies of The Imperial State, the central state that oversees America’s global commercial and geopolitical empire…
Bush I was the ideal Imperial State president because he understood the need for the velvet glove of diplomacy, the most important element of which is an orchestrated demonstration of Imperial restraint. This also includes healthy dollops of PR about the sanctity of our alliances, which are heavily promoted as the acme of win-win cooperation, etc. He also understood the essential role of America’s commercial Empire: the US dollar, US banking and US corporate interests around the world.
Imperial State handlers cannot tolerate loose-cannon presidents, those who keep their own council and who act outside the “recommended guidelines,” for example, trying to make peace with rivals and enemies that the Imperial State cultivates as “enemies” for its own purposes.
John F. Kennedy appeared to be the ideal Imperial State president: wealthy Eastern Establishment, Harvard, combat military service, informal diplomatic experience via his father’s connections, an enthusiastic supporter of the Imperial State’s Cold War and a youthful politician with superb communication skills who the mass media fell for hook, line and sinker.
Once Kennedy soured on the CIA, things got dicey. The ideal president quickly became less ideal as his independence grew.
The Imperial State and mass media always feared and hated Richard Nixon, a poker player who kept his cards hidden and who surrounded himself with loyalists and outsiders, a rogue politician who could upstage the Imperial State’s agenda by private diplomacy (opening relations with China) or expanding wars of choice (the invasion of Cambodia).
Nixon’s cabinet was well-stocked with Establishment pros, but they were largely figureheads when it came to the bold private diplomatic moves Nixon favored. In other words, Nixon was the Imperial State’s nightmare president.
Just to show that the Imperial State plays no favorites in party affiliations, the State and its media organs also hated Jimmy Carter, another independent who wandered outside the “recommended guidelines” and had to be destroyed via endless mockery and the undermining of his initiatives…
Bush II was no Bush I, but he followed orders and never strayed from the “recommended guidelines.” The same can be said of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, telegenic communicators in the Kennedy mold.
Needless to say, the Imperial State and its media organs loathe Trump, the loosest cannon imaginable. Hillary Clinton had proven herself a reliable water carrier for the Imperial State, and so her election was elaborately planned and staged: potentially loose cannon Bernie Sanders was shivved in the primaries by the Democratic Party, and the champagne was chilled for Hillary’s victory.
Democracy is the coat of paint applied for PR purposes to the Imperial State. “Democracy” is only tolerated if it follows the approved script. The Republic is good PR, but the Empire makes the rules and the scripts that elected officials follow, and woe to anyone who wins an election they were supposed to lose or who strays too far from the “recommended guidelines.” (Imperial enemies must remain enemies until the Empire decides otherwise.)
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct19/democracy-empire10-19.htmlFormer CIA Chief Brennan Unblinkingly Rewrites Entire Basis Of US Judicial System In One Short Sentence:
In an interview on MSNBC, Brennan, unblinkingly states that “people are innocent, you know, until alleged to be involved in some kind of criminal activity.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/former-cia-chief-brennan-unblinkingly-rewrites-entire-basis-us-judicial-system-one-shorthttp://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/what-future-history.html
Historical transitions are completely insecure. No assurances exist. No comfort zone. Root hog or die.
How much daily insecurity are we used to?
One of our main goals in life is to be more secure, to save resources for times of need, to be well liked socially, to have good clothes, a good roof over our heads, and a warm hearth, surrounded by loving family.
Nonetheless, economic resets must periodically be worked out by all the economic participants, in all of the critical classes: Production and Transport, Management/Organization, Politics, Resource-Allocation and Enforcement. (That’s just my own quick division of economic segments. I’d lump religion with politics, for instance.)
All of us could be more conversant with production, especially kitchen-gardening, the intimate scale.
Below is a picture of me before work, October 1, at one end of the long break-patio at People’s Community Clinic, It shows about half of the vegetable garden I grow there for my coworkers. My purpose growing vegetables at work, is to create familiarity with that core human activity, to provide a chance to get some vegetables in season, and to understand how a garden progresses through the seasons and years.
Vegetable gardening provides the kind of security that comes from knowing the context intimately. It’s well aware of all of the limitations and weaknesses that inherently exist. It is not like the blind faith that “we” can transition to “completely renewable energy” by 2050, for instance.
One of the classes of people which is still being supported by global financial capitalism is the managerial class, that I include second in the list, those who provide structure and order to the fundamental processes of our economy, roughly the top 10% of wealth, minus the 1-2% at the tip.
I’m in that demographic, as you likely are. We can’t feel too easy; at least I do not. I’m in the business of understanding humans, their problems, diagnosing what is wrong, and finding inroads to improve and heal what is failing.
I believe that American and global economies broke away from the paradigm of sustainable economy in the early 1980s, started lying about the future, which was well-received, and started a Ponzi scheme for all forms of retirement plans, keeping up payments from current receipts, while gutting the productive assets, and protecting them from the future claims of society, under private ownership.
The problems inherent in that are myriad. “Ownership” exists within the context of a pervasive social-contract. The “owners” assume this will always exist for them, despite their covert embezzlement of all the cookies from the jar.
They pay the enforcers and managers and transport people, don’t they?
They are the masters of resource-allocation, are they not?
They have lots of product saved up for bad times, and protected in bunkers, right?
The problem is that the economy still needs productive workers, even though automation is so vast and pervasive. Workers and managers who are directly engaged in production have a working bond, that does not extend to bankers.
Which side do the police and army take?
Historically, they side with the bankers until they change sides and the revolution succeeds.
They are never the banker’s kids, after all…
At this point, we are forced to accept that there is actually an important societal role for Politicians. (Consider a writhing mass of earthworms in a manure bucket, which we don’t really want to reach in and grab with both hands.)
All of our lives, the main paid-job of politicians has been to deliver the workers, managers and enforcers to the resource-allocators.
That’s ending. It’s entering transition.
The successful politicians in the next decade will convince the resource-allocators to allocate a lot less to themselves, in trade for some security, which will be gained from creating a new societal contract.
The new social contract will be viable under conditions of more expensive and scarce energy and natural resources, and the fouling of our nest, which we finally have to address2020 is for all the marbles. The global capitalist ruling classes either crush this ongoing populist insurgency or … God knows where we go from here. Try to see it through their eyes for a moment. Picture four more years of Trump … second-term Trump … Trump unleashed. Do you really believe they’re going to let that happen, that they are going to permit this populist insurgency to continue for another four years?
They are not. What they are going to do is use all their power to destroy the monster … not Trump the man, but Trump the symbol. They are going to drown us in impeachment minutiae, drip, drip, drip, for the next twelve months. The liberal corporate media are going to go full-Goebbels. They are going to whip up so much mass hysteria that people won’t be able to think. They are going to pit us one against the other, and force us onto one or the other side of a simulated conflict (Democracy versus the Putin-Nazis) to keep us from perceiving the actual conflict (Global Capitalism versus Populism). They are going to bring us to the brink of civil war in order to prevent civil war. And, if that doesn’t work, and Trump gets reelected (or if it looks like he’s going to get reelected), they’ll probably have to just go ahead and kill him.
One way or another, this is it. This is the part where the global capitalist ruling classes teach us all a lesson. The lesson they intend to teach us is the same old lesson that masters have been teaching slaves since the dawn of slavery. The lesson is, “abandon hope.” The lesson is, “resistance is futile.” The lesson is, “shut up, eat your tofu, get back to work at your three gig jobs, service your school loans and your credit card debt, vote for who and what we tell you, and be grateful we don’t fucking kill you.
http://www.unz.com/chopkins/trumpenstein-must-be-destroyed/Former Israeli Intel Official Claims Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Worked for Israel
A recent interview given by a former high-ranking official in Israeli military intelligence has claimed that Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual blackmail enterprise was an Israel intelligence operation run for the purpose of entrapping powerful individuals and politicians in the United States and abroad. by Whitney Webb (Thanks for the link, Cat)Former Israeli Intel Official Claims Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Worked for Israel
Bernie Sanders may get to be “kingmaker” this time. His endorsement will be extremely sought after.
I say he should endorse Tulsi Gabbard, whi stood up for him last time, and which would be a proud stance, and a historic F__k You to the DNC billionaires who defrauded voters and robbed him in 2016.I forwarded personal communication from John Ward, of The Slog (fame), who keeps up, being a Limey, and author of this piece about the UK Supreme Court. https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2019/09/25/exclusive-why-this-supreme-court-was-never-going-to-find-bojos-proroguation-legal/
This is his communication of 9/26/19:
“Trust me, Ocean’s Eleven had nothing on this shower.
Overnight, it has emerged that 9 of the 11 each receive a “stipend” of €175,000 per annum from the EU for their ‘European harmonisation duties’…..and the Chair of the Court Lady Hale ACTIVELY campaigned to Remain, as well as being in favour of revoking Article 50…..which, as it happens, was drafted originally by another member of the Supine Court, Lord Nunn.
They’re bought….every last useless, arrogant, élitist international blocist one of them.
A sad Englishman”http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/two-borders.html
“Two Borders for Four Years” is BoJos Brexit offer. “Take it or leave it”, quoth he.
It proposes that Northern Ireland will remain aligned with EU regulations on manufactured and agricultural goods for 4 years. He apparently has just enough support in Northern Ireland for this, and does not have support in Ireland. The trajectory is toward no-deal-Brexit, unless the EU capitulates from their hard line stance.
Boris will certainly go to court, and could conceivably go to prison, but…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/01/boris-johnsons-brexit-deal-breakdown-section/Boris speaks to Tory Party Congress in Manchester, saying this is his best deal, it is a compromise on the part of the UK and that the EU must compromise in it’s turn, or there will certainly be no-deal-Brexit.
He will not extend article 50 again.
The European Commission said “they will examine the proposal objectively”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49906702John Ward is dubious that anything will actually happen for Brexit until the EU breaks up. The high-eurocrats are bound to be worried about the same thing. It should be clear that crash-out-Brexit is a huge threat to the EU power elites.
OPINION: the British Establishment has lost all interest in our independence.Kiev has agreed, in an odd multilateral signing process, to the 2015 Steinmeier Formula for devolution of Eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, into a separate autonomous entity, but with Ukraine formally controlling the border of that entity with Russia. This is unpopular among Uko-Nazis, who call for blood. Zelinsky is trying, and risking his life.
https://www.rt.com/news/470014-ukraine-donbass-steinmeier-formula/http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/10/equally-dead.html
King Salman’s long time bodyguard, the man who protected him 24:7 for decades has been murdered 3 days after somebody fired him. The murderer is dead too. Faithful bodyguard knew too much and was too faithful?
JFKs Marine security detail got sent to new Zealand when JFK went to Dallas.
MBS might need to be king sooner than planned, after massive embarrassment by the Yemeni army, killing or capturing half the Saudi army, without having any air-support, and inside Saudi Arabia.
MBS is Defense Minister. It’s his war. Moon of Alabama has the story.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/saudi-arabia-another-defeat-in-yemen-kings-bodyguard-killed.html#moreSaudi rout update:
On Saturday 29 the Houthis and the Yemeni army conducted an incredible conventional attack lasting three days that began from within Yemen’s borders. The operation would have involved months of intelligence gathering and operational planning. It was a far more complex attack than that conducted against Aramco’s oil facilities. Initial reports indicate that the forces of the Saudi-led coalition were lured into vulnerable positions and then, through a pincer movement conducted quickly within Saudi territory, the Houthis surrounded the town of Najran and its outskirts and got the better of three Saudi brigades numbering in the thousands and including dozens of senior officers as well as numerous combat vehicles. This event is a game changer, leaving the US, Mike Pompeo and the Israelis and Saudis unable to lay the blame on Iran as all this took place a long way from Iran.
The large-scale operation was preceded by Yemeni rocket artillery targeting Jizan airport, with 10 missiles paralyzing any movements to and from the airport, including denying the possibility of air support for the encircled troops. The Houthis also hit the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in a key operation that targeted Apache helicopters, forcing them to leave the area. Nearby military bases were also targeted so as to cut off any reinforcements and disrupt the chain of command. This led to the Saudi forces fleeing in disorganization.Three Saudi Brigades Annihilated in Devastating Houthi Offensive in Saudi Arabia
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/eternally-vigilant.html
(Please look at the picture of our Garden Guardian in the peach tree this morning, stayed all day)Sun Yat Sen was one of the great historical figures of the 20th century, but we Americans never heard much about him.
His acolytes were lesser and more egotistical, Mao and Chiang Kai-shek.
Eleni sent this article with some quotes from Master Sun about the British Empire, considering it as a whole entity, not considering where the core will-to-power might lie, which directed that empire.
Where does that will-to-power reside now?
It seems mobile and transnational, like money, come to think of it…
“The British are as cunning as the fox and as changeable as the weather and they are not ashamed of themselves… Britain seeks friendship only with those which can render her services, and when her friends are too weak to be of any use to her, they must be sacrificed in her interests. Britain’s tender regard for her friends is like the delicate care usually shown by farmers in the rearing of silkworms; after all the silk has been drawn from the cocoons, they are destroyed by fire or used as food for fish. The present friends of Britain are no more than silkworms.”
“The key policy of England is to attack the strongest enemy with the help of the weaker countries and join the weakened enemy in checking the growth of a 3rd country. The British foreign policy has remained basically unchanged for two centuries.”
“When England befriends another country, the purpose is not to maintain a cordial friendship for the sake of friendship but to utilize that country as a tool to fight a third country. When an enemy has been shorn of his power, he is turned into a friend, and the friend who has become strong, into an enemy. England always remains in a commanding position; she makes other countries fight her wars and she herself reaps the fruits of victory.”Sun Yat-sen’s Advice to Young Revolutionaries: Don’t Be Imperial Stooges
Yemeni Houthis claim to have killed 500 Saudi (mostly mercenary) troops and captured 2000, along with Saudi officers (Those will include lower royal family, most likely.) This operation was an ambush inside Saudi Arabia, letting the Saudi forces run into an ambush, cutting them off, then hammering them from all sides. This is a reported majority of the Saudi army.
The House of Saud has had nothing to say yet about these claims…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/29/houthis-claim-killed-hundreds-saudi-soldiers-captured-thousands
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/yemen-houthi-rebels-release-saudi-attack-video-190929130644121.htmlhttp://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/sudden-reversals.html
Rothschild owned Financial Times comes out for curative surgery on Rentier Capitalism, which is killing the host again. Reset near, I guess.
The reality is that the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few privileged rentiers is not a deviation from capitalist competition, but a logical and regular outcome. In theory, we can distinguish between an unproductive rentier and a productive capitalist. But there is nothing to stop the productive, supposedly responsible businessperson becoming an absentee landlord or a remote shareholder, and this is often what happens. The rentier class is not an aberration but a common recurrence, one which tends to accompany periods of protracted economic decline.
It is a shift that tends to occur after economic crises, when less profit is to be had in productive enterprise and money is more effectively spent seeking monopoly rents or moved into speculative assets. Take, for example, the Medici family in Renaissance Florence, when they transformed themselves from textile traders into bankers after the crisis of the 14th century. The wealthy merchants of Amsterdam, too, became “periwig” rentiers as the Dutch Republic declined in the 18th century.
The French historian Fernand Braudel called this regular shift “a sign of autumn” – a symptom of the final phase of a long expansion, which is inevitably followed by a period of disorder and reorganisation.
The same process has been unfolding once more, albeit on a much larger scale, since the economic crisis of the 1970s. Having picked up steam after 2008, it has given rise to a new crop of rentier capitalists and platform monopolists – from Amazon to Facebook, Goldman Sachs to GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer – that exert not just immense market power, but also great political influence.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2019/09/rentier-capitalism-does-not-come-reset-buttonPepe Escobar Interviews a Yemeni military commander about Yemen’s strike capability against Saudi petroleum infrastructure:. (Where now, petrodollar?_
“There is no other plausible explanation” translates as the occultation of Yemen. Yemen only features as the pounding ground of a vicious Saudi war, de facto supported by Washington and London and conducted with US and UK weapons, which has generated a horrendous humanitarian crisis.
So Iran is the culprit, no evidence provided, end of story, even if the “investigation continues.”
Hassan Ali Al-Emad, Yemeni scholar and the son of a prominent tribal leader with ascendance over ten clans, begs to differ. “From a military perspective, nobody ever took our forces in Yemen seriously. Perhaps they started understanding it when our missiles hit Aramco.”…
Al-Emad breaks down Houthi weaponry into three categories: the old missile stock; cannibalized missiles using different spare parts (“transformation made in Yemen”); and those with new technology that use reverse engineering. He stressed: “We accept help from everybody,” which suggests that not only Tehran and Hezbollah are pitching in.
Al-Emad’s key demand is actually humanitarian: “We request that Sana’a airport be reopened for help to the Yemeni people.” And he has a message for global public opinion that the EU-3 are obviously not aware of: “Saudi is collapsing and America is embracing it in its fall.” (Whazzat s’posta mean?)
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/how-yemens-houthis-are-bringing-down-a-goliath/John Ward had this news today on the UK Supremes. “Stipend”.
Trust me, Ocean’s Eleven had nothing on this shower.
Overnight, it has emerged that 9 of the 11 each receive a “stipend” of €175,000 per annum from the EU for their ‘European harmonisation duties’…..and the Chair of the Court Lady Hale ACTIVELY campaigned to Remain, as well as being in favour of revoking Article 50…..which, as it happens, was drafted originally by another member of the Supine Court, Lord Nunn.
They’re bought….every last useless, arrogant, élitist international blocist one of them.John Ward performed Dude-diligence on the UK Supremes. Blairites.
EXCLUSIVE: WHY THIS SUPREME COURT WAS NEVER GOING TO FIND BOJO’s PROROGUATION LEGAL
Attorney General Cox assured Team Johnson that proroguing Parliament was “entirely lawful”, and objections to it “are nothing more than political rhetoric”.These are the eleven judges who unanimously overturned that judgement….
Lady Brenda Hale (Chair) is a lifetime academic and former Law Professor who went straight into being a Judge with no history in commercial law at all. She is a feminist, a great believer in diversity, and a lifelong liberal. I would be amazed if she voted any other way than Remain.
Lord Robert Reed (Deputy) is a Scot who also sits on the EU’s European Court of Human Rights. He was an expert advisor to the EU/Council of Europe Joint Initiative with Turkey. No prizes for guessing where Rabbie’s sympathies lie.
Lord Brian Kerr is the former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, and the first Catholic ever appointed to that post. In 2014, he had this to say in a lengthy interview:
“The Law has changed enormously since the enactment of the Human Rights Act. The central point about the Act is that it has given judges free access to the rich vein of jurisprudence that is provided by the Strasbourg Court…..we now have the ability to draw on jurisprudence from all over the Council of Europe on matters that critically affect the balance of power between the citizen and the state and I think that that can only be a good thing.”
Draw your own conclusions.
Lord Nicholas Wilson is left of centre and on the record as saying, ““In pursuit of its economic policy, the UK government has recently felt the need to dismantle much of our welfare state, namely social security and the National Health Service.” He is a passionate supporter of the ECHR in Strasbourg. The activist site Divorce & the City is currently preparing to impeach Lord Wilson for alleged corruption and ‘pro State’ bias. He is, reputedly, not a fan of Boris Johnson or Brexit.
Lord Robert Carnwath is an unknown quantity who appears never to have expressed an opinion about anything, except he sits on the advisory council of the English School in Poland.
Lord Patrick Hodge is another Scot. He was a civil servant in the 1970s, and then Counsel to the Department of Energy from 1989 to 1991, and to the Inland Revenue from 1991 to 1996. Ergo, chummy with the unelected State, 99.99% of whom are anti-Brexit. I’d imagine he’s also a wow at parties.
Lady Jill Black is unique in the Supreme Court in not having been to Oxbridge. You can see from this just how inclusive the Court is, and thus totally in touch with the average person.
Lord David Lloyd-Jones is another scholar who wound up a judge. He was a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge from 1975 to 1991. From 1999 to 2005, he was a visiting professor at City University, London, and was then put onto The Bench. He has always specialised in international and EU law. Only two months ago, in a Supreme Court hearing involving Kuoni Travel, Lloyd-Jones ruled that EU Law had primacy in the case. He gave the judgement in Welsh, which was a first. Highly unlikely to have voted to leave a Union in whose law he specialises, one could reasonably argue.
Lady Mary Arden became a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2011, and sits as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg blah blah yawn etc. In 2015 she published a book about the impact of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the domestic law of the UK. In his preface to the book, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales noted:
ArdenEUquote.PNG
Not a Leaver then, we suspect. This is all getting terribly predictable, isn’t it?
Lord David Kitchin coxed the team that won the 1975 Boat Race for Cambridge. More pertinently, he has for many years been a strong advocate of more harmonisation of the Law between EU jurisdictions. In May this year, he gave an interview offering the following opinion in relation to patent law, in which he is a specialist:
“The situation is improving and that is because there is now much more discussion and communication between judges in different countries. Judges now meet regularly to discuss these and other difficult issues. We consider each other’s judgments; all of us attach importance to the decisions of the Technical Boards of Appeal and the Enlarged Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Convention….there might not be jurisdiction to make references to the EU Court of Justice in these cases, or any cases after Brexit.”
And so this would be a bad thing, wouldn’t i? Get real: Lord Kitchin is a Good European who lectures about legal alignment in the EU.
Lord Philip Sales really is a case of leaving the best until last. Sales has had something of a meteoric rise: he is the youngest of the Supreme Court judges, and was a practising barrister at 11 King’s Bench Walk – according to The Guardian ‘a network of old boys and cronies’ that enabled him to be appointed First Counsel at the Treasury…a department of State with a long and grubby history of undying support for the EU. The recommendation that he be appointed came from Lord Irvine and Tony Blair’s old chambers.
Philip Sales is New Labour through and through. In 2016, he was a member of the Court of Appeal which ruled that 130,000 Labour members who joined the party after 12 January 2016 would not be able to vote in the leadership contest. This overruled the previous High Court decision to allow the 130,000 disenfranchised Labour Party members to vote in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. In short, it was a bid by the Blairites to keep Corbyn out.
Finally, he was one of the three judges forming the High Court in proceedings concerning the use of the royal prerogative for the issue of notification in accordance with Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. His role in this judgment meant that he appeared in an infamous front-cover of the Daily Mail – Enemies of the People – as a solid-gold Remainer.
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/greta-and-tulsi.html
Tulsi Gabbard may become a historical agent of change.
She’s against the wars of empire, and with first-hand knowledge of war.
She’s sure. That’s necessary.
Tulsi has shown up with over 2% support in so many polls, that another one was finally in the list the DNC had to accept for qualifying..
She will be in the October Democratic debate(s). Will she be in the same debate with Warren and/or Sanders, if there are two?
Will Joe Biden give up his spot?
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/462789-gabbard-qualifies-for-fourth-presidential-debateThe DNC announces tougher inclusion criteria for November debate. Who will get weeded? Who won’t get weeded? Now taking bets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-debate-idUSKBN1W82F4Rudy Giuliani went on TV this morning and fired a broadside at Biden and Obama.
He also called out the Obama administration for being “in the tank,” asking “Why didn’t Obama say – when he saw the first Ukraine article that said there was a serious conflict of interest. Why didn’t Obama call his Vice President and say ‘Joe, you can’t give this kid a job … Joe, did you get your kid a job with the crookedest oligarch in Ukraine? Just four months after we had to toss him out of the military for drug addiction? Do you know how that’s gonna look Joe?”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rudy-drops-new-bombs-slams-obama-cabinet-pattern-corruption-claims-china-bought-bidenUkraine Likely to Reopen Probe of Hunter Biden Firm
President Zelensky came to office vowing to fight corruption, and it looks like he’ll open a lot of cases shut by shady prosecutors. But the focus is on Ukraine, not the U.S.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukraine-likely-to-reopen-probe-of-hunter-biden-firm-sourcesFollowing the release of a transcript betwen President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – which does not reveal a ‘quid pro quo’ or other attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden, the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel took to Twitter to dissect yet ‘another internal attempt to take out a president.’
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wsj-journo-shreds-attempt-take-out-president-after-transcript-releaseIG Says Trump-Ukraine Whistleblower Had ‘Bias’ In Favor Of ‘Rival Candidate’
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ig-says-trump-ukraine-whistleblower-had-bias-favor-rival-candidate-retains-clintonhttp://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/greta-and-tulsi.html
Let me return to Greta-the-Threat.
Greta walked into the UN and pulled back the curtain, showing the man working the levers, and said,
“You appear to be lying to us and killing our whole planet for short-sighted selfish reasons, which is immature”.
This did threaten the elite narrative, pushing herd-austerity through carbon-pricing, wage arbitrage and other “market-mechanisms”.
It also threatens a lot of personal narratives, because it demands immediate, “radical” change, and implies a threat.
Greta clearly implied a future threat to all vested interests, certainly including us, dear readers.
This is the seething, angry threat of the young-and-robbed, the threat of pitchforks and mass killings.
French Revolution, Bolsheviks, Krystallnacht, Cultural Revolution, and Killing Fields come to mind.
Greta is the first to raise this threat in America, and in the Imperial city of New York, at the United Nations.
I think belittling her and trying to put her in her place won’t work, because she embodies the core archetypal threat message.
I also do not think that counter-offers will be made soon, though many must be in consideration at various elite levels.
The black flag threat of class violence against the elite rulers has been planted on a small hill in new York.
There it flies.http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/rich-people-naked.html
This Jinni won’t go back into the bottle.
Greta Thunberg was invited by global elites to speak as the honored guest within the UN holy-of-holys and she decreed that they are evil liars, but she just doesn’t want to believe it.
She has taken the role of the kid in the crowd who says “The Emperor is Naked”.
She just spoke to the world that the whole ruling class is lying, deceptive, and taking no necessary action, while knowing that is killing life on earth.
They have put her in a position to be Grand Inquisitor, and she has judged them harshly.The elites are also common criminals. Look at Joe Biden and son (fruit-not-far-from-tree) Hunter.
Fancy the overlay of broadening the application of legal statutes to apply to Air Force 2 fliers, then Air Force 1, Bibi Netantahu,the House of Saud, and so on, in the context of Greta Thunburg’s declaration that the whole class is evil, by definition.
There has been massive commentary backlash against her UN speech by those elites who actually watched it, after thinking she was a nice sincere, mildly-autistic girl who they could use for their PR purposes.Here is the core of her speech Monday:
“My message is that we’ll be watching you.” …
“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
“You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
“The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.” …
”How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions? With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years.
”There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
”You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
”We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
“Thank you.”
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/over-cliff.html
Still the best ex-president ever…
The truth is emerging four decades after the fact: the Carter administration knew of a clandestine Israeli nuclear test in the 1970s, but turned a blind eye, Foreign Policy reported this weekend, based on new analysis of declassified government documents.
The report strongly suggests the administration was worried about Carter’s reelection should the Israeli test be revealed, and also about negative impact on the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, only a year old at the time. The FP report begins dramatically:
Shortly before sunrise on Sept. 22, 1979, a U.S. surveillance satellite known as Vela 6911 recorded an unusual double flash as it orbited the earth above the South Atlantic. At Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, where it was still nighttime on Sept. 21, the staff in charge of monitoring the satellite’s transmissions saw the unmistakable pattern produced by a nuclear explosion — something U.S. satellites had detected on dozens of previous occasions in the wake of nuclear tests. The Air Force base issued an alert overnight, and President Jimmy Carter quickly called a meeting in the White House Situation Room the next day.
Carter wrote in his diary of the September 22, 1979 event: “There was an indication of a nuclear explosion in the region of South Africa – either South Africa, Israel using a ship at sea, or nothing,” according to the report.
Problem was that under the 1977 Glenn Amendment to the Arms Export Control Act, the United States would have to cease all arms assistance to any nation not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty should they conduct a nuclear test.
So to deflect the potential for a scandal and forced cessation of US aid to Israel’s military, the administration convened a panel of ‘experts’ and scientists whose job it was to publicly dismiss the possibility that Israel detonated a nuke. This would be the official line of the administration within the DoD: to essentially cover-up the satellite findings and to proclaim is wasn’t a nuclear flash at all detected on that day…
The Foreign Policy report revealed, shockingly: “The Carter administration was so afraid to enforce the Partial Test Ban Treaty against Israel’s 1979 violation that it did what it could to erase or keep hidden evidence of its detection of a test.” Thus the hard science and evidence survived in the classified records, while the lie and cover-up attempt did also.
From there it became an entrenched lie. All future administrations would use it as a smokescreen to shield public attention from what top officials well understood — that close US ally Israel has long been a nuclear power, despite its public stance to the world that it is not.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jimmy-carter-turned-blind-eye-israeli-nuclear-test-declassified-docs-revealWe’re not supposed to know this. We’re nowhere near smart enough to even comprehend it.
Google’s new quantum computer reportedly spends mere minutes on the tasks the world’s top supercomputers would need several millennia to perform. The media found out about this after NASA “accidentally” shared the firm’s research.
The software engineers at Google have built the world’s most powerful computer, the Financial Times and Fortune magazine reported on Friday, citing the company’s now-removed research paper. The paper is said to have been posted on a website hosted by NASA, which partners with Google, but later quietly taken down, without explanation.
Google and NASA have refused to comment on the matter. A source within the IT giant, however, told Fortune that NASA had “accidentally” published the paper before its team could verify its findings.
In the research, Google reportedly claimed that it takes their new quantum processor just around 200 seconds to make calculations that existing supercomputers would require around 10,000 years to perform. They also said the processor requires mere 30 seconds to complete a task the Google Cloud server would need 50 trillion hours to do.
https://www.rt.com/usa/469325-google-quantum-computer-reports/Oh, somebody is making this all scary for us.
Am I supposed to be more scared of Google than of China, Russia, Israel, and Donald Trump?
Well, Google does have deals with the first 3 and the CIA and NSA already, I guess…
Google’s “Quantum Supremacy” to Render All Cryptocurrency & Military Secrets Breakable
Supercomputer breakthrough will allow Big Tech giant to control the world.Google’s “Quantum Supremacy” to Render All Cryptocurrency & Military Secrets Breakable
@V.Arnold.
I like Thailand, too, and have traveled there with and without AC. The worst heat stress was India, central India in late May 1988, and the monsoon rains were not there yet. It was really draining, and we were young and lean, then.
One thing I really liked about living in Hawaii (rural, Big Island) was just being able to live with the windows open. Thailand is often that way, though Southern Thailand is different from Chiang Mai…http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/green-work-deal.html
Any actual sustainable human economy will involve small-holder subsistence farming as it’s foundation. It is really efficient at meeting human needs for food, activity, meaningful livelihood, social engagement and cooperation, and it is how we all got here over the past several thousand years. Fossil fuel fired industrialization is a blip. Anybody can learn to do things easier, but it’s a one way street, and we’re near the end.
That’s my thesis.
We are deeply ill-at-ease because we sense that things are unstable, won’t last, and we can’t see how to prepare for what is next.
We can see, actually, but we know we can’t do the work needed to live like Chinese farmers did for thousands of years, on the same little family farms.
It is reassuring to be told that trillions of dollars will be spent on a Green New Deal, allowing us to have a better and eco-friendly standard of living.
“You can’t get there from here” might be the best answer, because all of those projections omit what it takes to accomplish them, and overlook our recent past performance, as well.
We just added solar and wind power onto everything else. It’s actually really hard to replace natural gas fired power plants with anything, except hydroelectric, and that has all been spoken for.
It requires fossil fuels and mines to make solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. All the minerals to make batteries will run out way before we get enough batteries, and we already have a problem with used batteries, which will become huge.
Did you grow up in a world where not every family had a car, and nobody had air conditioning yet? I started there, and wonder how I could cope without the AC in Texas these days, though we all did in those days. It was hard to sleep at night in the summer. Those box fans only do so much. School classrooms had really big fans and open windows, and let out for the summer.
Less, a whole lot less, less than any of us remember, unless we have traveled to “poor countries”; that’s what we will have to work with.
We can make preparations now, prepare ourselves, prepare our gardens, repair our bicycles and ride them for at least a few hours per week, maybe figure out how to get groceries home…
That’s not making the jump, but it is getting into a position to understand it better. It’s possible.
Look for the Green New Deal to start advertising “Green Job Guaranty” instead of “universal income”. That will be the marker for something real.
A further thought came to me this morning in the okra rows: Rulers don’t really need the consent of ALL of the ruled.
Rulers do need full cooperation from the productive workers, though.
What will be the necessary productive work in 2029?
Okra will be part of it, I think. I’ve got lots of okra right now.http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/completely-different.html
Asymmetric-warfare-changes-everything update:
We are the Houthis and we’re coming to town. With the spectacular attack on Abqaiq, Yemen’s Houthis have overturned the geopolitical chessboard in Southwest Asia – going as far as introducing a whole new dimension: the distinct possibility of investing in a push to drive the House of Saud out of power…
The only missile parts shown by the Saudis so far come from a Yemeni Quds 1 cruise missile. According to Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Sana’a-based Yemeni Armed Forces, “the Quds system proved its great ability to hit its targets and to bypass enemy interceptor systems.” …
My conversations with sources in Tehran over the past two years have ascertained that the Houthis’ new drones and missiles are essentially copies of Iranian designs assembled in Yemen itself with crucial help from Hezbollah engineers.
Professor Mohammad Marandi from the University of Tehran, who has very close relations with the Foreign Ministry, is adamant: “It didn’t come from Iran. If it did, it would be very embarrassing for the Americans, showing they are unable to detect a large number of Iranian drones and missiles. That doesn’t make sense.”…
Now we are entering a whole new dimension in asymmetric hybrid war.
In the – horrendous – event that Washington would decide to attack Iran, egged on by the usual neocon suspects, the Pentagon could never hope to hit and disable all the Iranian and/or Yemeni drones. The US could expect, for sure, all-out war. And then no ships would sail through the Strait of Hormuz. We all know the consequences of that.
Which brings us to The Big Surprise. The real reason there would be no ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz is that there would be no oil in the Gulf left to pump. The oil fields, having been bombed, would be burning.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/how-the-houthis-overturned-the-chessboard/ In comments to reporters on Wednesday, President Trump is continuing to reject the idea of starting a war with Iran. After dismissing Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) calls, saying not starting a war was a sign of strength, he continued to roast Graham, citing Graham’s support for the Iraqi War, and saying reporters should ask “how did going into Iraq work out?“
Trump Mocks Sen. Graham’s Calls for War, Asks How Iraq Worked Out
Russian President Vladimir Putin has during talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman called for an unbiased investigation to be carried out into the recent attack on Saudi oil facilities on 14 September, the president’s press service reported.
”The issue of the attack on Saudi oil refineries has been discussed [during talks]. Vladimir Putin expressed his concern with regard to the situation and has called for conducting a thorough and unbiased investigation of the incident”, the statement said.
https://sputniknews.com/world/201909181076831796-putin-calls-for-unbiased-investigation-of-saudi-aramco-attacks-in-talks-with-crown-prince/A Guy is standing on the wood floor in this picture, providing scale.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/saudi-oil-attack-act-of-war-iran-pompeoThe House of Saud has ruthlessly bombed and starved poor Yemenis for the last 5 years, without fear of consequences, let alone retaliation.
The world is hurriedly recalculating the financial implications of that Yemeni brick through the west wall of the Glass House of Saud.
The devastating blitz on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry has led to a flurry of accusations from US officials blaming Iran. The reason for the finger-pointing is simple: Washington’s spectacular failure to protect its Saudi ally.
The Trump administration needs to scapegoat Iran for the latest military assault on Saudi Arabia because to acknowledge that the Houthi rebels mounted such an audacious assault on the oil kingdom’s heartland would be an admission of American inadequacy.
Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars in recent years purchasing US Patriot missile defense systems and supposedly cutting-edge radar technology from the Pentagon. If the Yemeni rebels can fly combat drones up to 1,000 kilometers into Saudi territory and knock out the linchpin production sites in the kingdom’s oil industry, then that should be a matter of huge embarrassment for US “protectors.”
American defense of Saudi Arabia is germane to their historical relationship. Saudi oil exports nominated in dollars for trade – the biggest on the planet – are vital for maintaining the petrodollar global market, which is in turn crucial for American economic power. In return, the US is obligated to be a protector of the Saudi monarchy, which comes with the lucrative added benefit of selling the kingdom weapons worth billions of dollars every year.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Saudi Arabia has the world’s third biggest military budget, behind the US and China.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/468935-saudi-oil-field-drone-attack/This is just going to get more embarrassing with each passing day…
Saudi Arabia revealed yesterday that, contrary to its initial estimates, Aramco should be able to restore oil production to 100% capacity by the end of the month. And on Wednesday morning, the kingdom’s Defense Ministry said it was planning a press conference to present “material evidence” purportedly linking Tehran to the unprecedented attack on the Kingdom’s oil infrastructure.
The country’s defense ministry will hold a news conference later in the day laying out new evidence. This follows reports from the US claiming that the roughly 20 missiles and drones used in the attack had been traced back to a ‘launch site’ in southern Iran.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/saudi-arabia-says-it-has-material-evidence-tying-iran-aramco-attackJapan says they don’t know of any evidence that Iran attacked Saudi Arabia, and believe that the Yemenis did it, like they said.
(It could be more than one attack, and Israel could have done the second one. Yemen made 10 holes. Who made the other 7 holes?)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-attacks-japan-idUSKBN1W30KVIran tells Saudi Arabia it should see missile strike on its oil facilities as a WARNING and end its war with Yemen
Sounds like reasonable advice. The House of Saud should pay for some food, medicine, electricity, water, sewer, and hospitals, too.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7476507/Iran-tells-Saudi-Arabia-missile-strike-oil-facilities-WARNING.htmlThere is a sudden desperate rush for $US right away, and nobody can seem to say why. There may be panic in covering some kind of speculation, which we might presume has flipped negative from the successful cheap-Yemeni-drone attacks on the big Saudi refinery.
What cascading repercussions are underway now?
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/fed-begins-repo-operation-funding-rates-ominously-elevated-across-board
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fed-funds-prints-230-breaching-target-range-libor-replacement-soars-remarkable-525Trump talks big to move financial markets (and Israeli elections?), then quietly moves to reduce actual risk.
It appears oil markets just heard that one – since the early Saturday attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities talk of war has been on the table, especially given President Trump’s initial “locked and loaded” threat – however it now seems certain there will be no war, given the president has announced new sanctions.
”I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/war-avoided-trump-announces-new-iran-sanctions-insteadTrump names Mormon Hostage Negotiator, Robert O’Brien to National Security Adviser post. (whazzat gonna mean?)
It looks like he has a lot of experience negotiating settlements for blowback-damage mitigation. Negotiate with Iran?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-nominates-special-envoy-obrien-replace-bolton-national-security-advisor#comment_streamWe are members of nature, participants in the web of life on Earth, not separate owners/managers of lifeless property. Grow vegetables.
In the Anthropocene, we are seeing more and more how the fates of humanity and nature are intertwined. Governments and corporations have developed such control over the natural systems they exploit that they are destabilising the fundamental chemistry of the global climate system. As a result, inhospitable heat, rising seas, and increasingly frequent and extreme weather events will render millions of humans and animals refugees.
https://theconversation.com/humanity-and-nature-are-not-separate-we-must-see-them-as-one-to-fix-the-climate-crisis-122110What actual steps need to be taken to consider Green New Deal concepts as the basis for a long term, sustainable economy, that will support global life forms and healthy ecosystems? What is the next step after Sparkle-Pony?
But here is the problem. Increases in the scale of economic activity (as conventionally measured in terms of GDP) are associated with increases in the throughput of energy and materials, and these increases have involved increased emissions of greenhouse gases, resulting primarily from the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. Green growth, requires that this association between GDP and GHG emissions must cease to exist: this is known as ‘decoupling’. It is doubtful whether any developed country has achieved this at the scale and permanence required (Burton and Somerville 2019, pp. 99–101), especially when international shipping and aviation plus embodied carbon in imports are taken into account (Anderson 2019)…
So the desired, clean, growth of the economy has undesirable implications in terms of additional resource and energy use. Clean begets dirty…
So far, increases in renewable energy deployment have not led to a reduction in fossil fuel usage globally. Overall their deployment has been to add to the global energy mix rather than replacing fossil fuels. Moreover, it is doubtful whether renewables can provide the scale of concentrated energy used by the current global economy: the constraints are less in the power that could theoretically be generated from natural flows than in the minerals needed to deploy them: minerals used in generators and motors, in batteries and in electronics, as well as copper for transmission of power (García-Olivares 2015). These are finite and with limited substitutability. The revolution will be low powered, so the Green Deal has to factor in a plan for energy descent…
…You can’t create minerals from sunlight. These economic consequences of the increasing scarcity and inaccessibility of most minerals and metals need to be addressed in any credible Green Deal, yet there is almost no discussion of this crucial reality in any of the proposals, nor of the ‘hidden’ resource intensive demands of new technology…
“Four of nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed as a result of human activity:
Two of these, climate change and biosphere integrity, are what the scientists call ‘core boundaries’. Significantly altering either of these “core boundaries” would “drive the Earth System into a new state”…
Some advocates suggest that the GND be funded through money created by government especially for this purpose – by electronically printing money.
In all these cases, the advance of money for investment ultimately requires ongoing expansion of capital, the modus operandi of the capitalist system, founded on the expropriation of surplus value in the labour process, which we know as economic growth. Without expansion, there is no, or insufficient, return on the outlay.
Despite the claims of some GND advocates, Green Deals are predicated on the expansion of GDP and as we saw, we can’t rely on that to decouple from material impacts.
That is, unless another way can be found. There are some indications that this might be possible.
Resource and energy caps.
Review evidence that credit needn’t imply growth.
Take production out of private ownership.
Redirect unnecessary expenditure. [Military]
Substitute material production with social & environmental stewardship / “dépense”.
Six problems for Green Dealshttp://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/laughing-nervously.html
The US has made impressive, expensive offensive weapons and platforms, which were profitable for the military-industrial-complex. Russia and Iran have long had to find cheap ways to make do and defend themselves from attack, and also to create deterrent’s to attack. US and allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel are having to suddenly come to terms with these capabilities. (No, Mr. President, you don’t want an open war with Iran, nor do your regional allies, now that they see what that might mean.)
Yesterday, during a press conference in Ankara with his Turkish and Iranian colleagues, Putin trolled Saudi Arabia (video @38:20) with a similar offer as he had made to Trump:
Q: Does Russia intend to provide Saudi Arabia with any help or support in restoring its infrastructure?
Putin: As for assisting Saudi Arabia, it is also written in the Quran that violence of any kind is illegitimate except when protecting one’s people. In order to protect them and the country, we are ready to provide the necessary assistance to Saudi Arabia. All the political leaders of Saudi Arabia have to do is take a wise decision, as Iran did by buying the S-300 missile system, and as President Erdogan did when he bought Russia’s latest S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft system. They would offer reliable protection for any Saudi infrastructure facilities.
President of Iran Hassan Rouhani: So do they need to buy the S-300 or the S-400?
Vladimir Putin: It is up to them to decide.
Erdogan, Rouhani and Putin all laughed over this exchange.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/how-russian-and-iran-beat-their-opponents-strategies.html#moreThe Pantsir Missile System and sophisticated electronic jamming measures are what you need to defend your refineries and nuclear reactors from swarms of cheap drones carrying bombs. Too bad nobody makes that stuff… except Russia, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantsir_missile_systemBedtime for Bibi:
Netanyahu basically lost the Israeli election, because he needed an absolute majority in the Knesset to get around the legal process which will put him in prison for some of the crimes that he and his wife Sarah did.
No party got a majority. A lot more dancing will be done before there is a new Israeli gub’mint.
Initial exit polls Tuesday reportedly indicate Netanyahu failed to secure a parliamentary majority. And while Israel’s three major television stations had challenger Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party holding a slight lead over Netanyahu’s Likud party, neither will reportedly be able to control a majority in the Knesset — at least without the support of former Netanyahu ally Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party, which refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition in April. Lieberman may very well end up playing the role of kingmaker.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/865795/exit-polls-reportedly-show-no-able-win-majority-israeli-election
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/exit-polls-show-dramatic-deadlock-israel-netanyahu-could-finally-go-downNow that Israeli voting is over… Only two of these candidates have the military background for National Security Adviser. Bolton never did.
President Trump Tuesday afternoon revealed to reporters his short list of candidates to replace former national security adviser John Bolton. He presented his “top 5 candidates” which had been whittled down from 15 he was previously reported to be considering.
Per Axios the finalists are:
Top hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien
Former deputy national security adviser Ricky Waddell (yeah, Major General, but sleazy career in central America)
Department of Energy Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Lisa Gordon-Hagerty
Bolton’s former chief of staff Fred Fleitz
Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser Keith Kellogg.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-reveals-his-top-5-names-replace-john-boltonWhat if the North and the South both had nuclear weapons during the American Civil War?
Risking further inflaming tensions over Kashmir, a chief minister in the Indian state of Gujarat warned Pakistan to brace for losing its part of the contested state to New Delhi as it is ready to ‘re-unite’ pre-1947 India.
Islamabad “should be ready to lose Pakistani-occupied Kashmir,” Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was quoted as saying by local media, using the Indian term for the disputed territory. The bellicose remark came weeks after India stripped Jammu and Kashmir region of its autonomous status, which the minister said provides an opening for Indian territorial claims.
Now, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) too is ours … For fulfilling the dream of united India, we are ready to move forward for PoK.
Both countries were part of British India until the 1947 partition which triggered bitter sectarian divides and led to the Kashmir dispute. India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full, but control only parts of it.
They fought a number of conventional wars, along with several border skirmishes, most recently this February.
https://www.rt.com/news/468888-india-pakistan-lose-kashmir/Pakistani PM Khan hints at nuking India in ‘surrender-or-death’ scenario (Well, there’s always THAT…)
https://www.rt.com/news/468854-imran-khan-nuclear-weapons/Darn, since the DNC found a way to exclude Tulsi from debate 3 she has no chance for people to be aware of her message and vote for her.
Look, this is cute, but I had to go to Russia to find it!
Hawaii Congresswoman and Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard took a shot at President Donald Trump after he tweeted about the US being “locked and loaded” and ready to respond pending Saudi conclusions on who was responsible for this weekend’s drone attacks against the country’s oil supplies.
Addressing the president at his @realDonaldTrump handle, Gabbard accused him of awaiting “instructions from his Saudi masters,” and blasting the president using his own “America First” rhetoric.
“Having our country act as Saudi Arabia’s b**** is not ‘America First’,” Gabbard wrote.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201909161076818443-tulsi-gabbard-sparks-tweetalanche-after-accusing-trump-of-acting-like-saudi-arabias-b/Ilargi: How is that “Oops”? Tons of stuff you post has been in Debt Rattles before.
John: Yeah, but intentionally for completion. I usually try to leave out what’s up today, unless it is core to the progression of ideas. This is one of my go-to sites, and has been since early 2008.
You, Ilargi, have been a tutor.Oops, Zerosum got Charles Hugh Smith’s “Black Swan is a Drone” article in just before my screen refreshed after I sent my news dredge. No intentional redundancy…
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/global-resource-war.html
Satellite images say it will take months to fix the extensive damage done by the drones and cruise missiles.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/declassified-satellite-images-reveal-it-would-take-months-fix-saudi-oil-facilityMoon of Alabama has more specific details of the precisely targeted damage today.
Damage At Saudi Oil Plant Points To Well Targeted Swarm Attack
Saturday’s attack on the Saudi oil and gas processing station in Abqaiq hit its stabilization facility:
The stabilization process is a form of partial distillation which sweetens “sour” crude oil (removes the hydrogen sulfide) and reduces vapor pressure, thereby making the crude oil safe for shipment in tankers. Stabilizers maximize production of valuable hydrocarbon liquids, while making the liquids safe for storage and transport, as well as reduce the atmospheric emissions of volatile hydrocarbons. Stabilizer plants are used to reduce the volatility of stored crude oil and condensate.
The pictures show some 17 points of impact. There are cars visible in the second more detailed picture that demonstrate the gigantic size of the place. The targets were carefully selected. At least 11 of those were egg shaped tanks with a diameter of some 30 meter (100 foot). These are likely tanks for pressurized (liquidized) gas that receive the condensate vapor from the stabilization process. They all have now quite neat holes in their upper shells.
The piping to and from the egg shaped tanks shows that these were configured in groups with double redundancy. Two tanks beside each other share one piping system. Two of such twin tanks are next to each other with lines to their processing train. There are a total of three such groups. Damage to any one tank or group would not stop the production process. The products would be routed to another similar tank or group. But with all tanks of this one special type taken out the production chain is now interrupted.
Two processing areas were hit and show fire damage. At least the control equipment of both was likely completely destroyed...
The hits were extremely precise. The Yemeni armed forces claimed it attacked the facility with 10 drones (or cruise missiles). But the hits on these targets look like neither. A total of 17 hits with such precise targeting lets me assume that these were some kind of drones or missiles with man-in-the-loop control. They may have been launched from within Saudi Arabia. (Distant launch with nearby control?)
There is no information yet on the damage in Khurais, the second target of the attacks.
The U.S. and Israel are able to commit such attacks. Iran probably too. Yemen seems unlikely to have this capability without drawing on extensive support from elsewhere. The planing for this operation must have taken months...
U.S. President Donald Trump was way more careful in attributing the strike than his Secretary of State.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – 0:50 UTC · Sep 16, 2019
Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!
Any direct attack on Iran would result in swarms of missiles hitting U.S. military installations in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Saudi water desalination plants, refineries and ports would also be targets.
It is doubtful that Trump or the Saudis are ready to risk such a response...
Saudi Arabia has no defenses against this kind of attacks. The U.S. has no system that could be used for that purpose. Russia is the only country that can provide the necessary equipment. It would be extremely costly, and still insufficient, to protect all of the Saudi’s vital facilities from similar swarm attacks.
Attacks of this kind will only end when Saudi Arabia makes peace with Yemen and when the U.S. ends its sanctions of oil exports from Iran. As Iran’s President Rouhani said:
“If one day they want to prevent the export of Iran’s oil, then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/damage-at-saudi-oil-plant-points-to-well-targeted-swarm-attack.html#moreHouthis Say It’s Not Over – Saudi Oil “Still Within Range”; Iraq Denies Its Territory Used
While US officials were quick out of the gate to allege an Iranian attack on Saudi Aramco facilities launched from Iraq early Saturday, a theory which the WSJ said was focus of an ongoing US-Saudi investigation, Iraq’s government issued a firm denial on Sunday, which followed Iran’s own denial that condemned Washington’s “maximum lies”.
Saying there was no link to Iraqi soil and the attack which caused oil prices to spike to record levels the moment markets opened, initially surging to as much as 18% before retreating after President Trump authorized use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to “keep the markets well-supplied,” the Iraqi government further vowed to “punish anyone who intended to use Iraq as a launchpad for attacks in the region.”
Despite Yemen’s Houthis themselves claiming responsibility for the precision strike using ten drones, unleashing explosions that rocked Abqaiq facility and the Khurais field, US officials have long eyed Iraq’s Shia paramilitary forces also as bad actors which Iran deploys as proxies from Iraqi soil.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/houthis-say-its-not-over-saudi-facilities-still-within-range-iraq-denies-its-territory”Iranian Weapons Used”, Saudi Arabia (Duh)
Update: It’s official — after Trump over the weekend put the ball squarely in the Saudis’ court, saying the US was “waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!” — Saudi Arabia has responded by saying it was indeed Iran, confirming that “Iranian weapons” were used to attack its oil facilities.
After the US apparently ruled out Iraq as a launching pad on Monday, following Baghdad’s firm denial, it looks like Riyadh appears to be pointing to a potential direct cruise missile or drone attack from Iran.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/houthis-say-its-not-over-saudi-facilities-still-within-range-iraq-denies-its-territory
Charles Hugh Smith says “The Black Swan is a Drone”:
What was “possible” yesterday is now a low-cost proven capability, and the consequences are far from predictable.
Predictably, the mainstream media is serving up heaping portions of reassurances that the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities are no big deal and full production will resume shortly. The obvious goal is to placate global markets fearful of an energy disruption that could tip a precarious global economy into recession.
The real impact isn’t on short-term oil prices, it’s on asymmetric warfare: the coordinated drone attack on Saudi oil facilities is a Black Swan event that is reverberating around the world, awakening copycats and exposing the impossibility of defending against low-cost drones of the sort anyone can buy.
(Some published estimates place the total cost of the 10 drones deployed in the strike at $15,000. Highly capable commercially available drones cost around $1,200 each.)
The attack’s success should be a wake-up call to everyone tasked with defending highly flammable critical infrastructure: there really isn’t any reliable defense against a coordinated drone attack, nor is there any reliable way to distinguish between an Amazon drone delivering a package and a drone delivering a bomb.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-black-swan-is-drone.htmlOK, I’ll give y’all Gilad Atzmon’s “End of Israel” article that I held back yesterday, because I see you have been paying attention to what I post. Bibi can lose. This could be the nudge.
Thank you. I’m happy to be of service.
https://www.sott.net/article/420301-Gilad-Atzmon-The-End-of-Israelhttp://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/rumors-of-wars.html
Eleni sent this. Tuesday’s vote in Israel determines if Bibi stays in power or goes to prison.
He’s in a tight spot. Putin and Trump have more leverage than usual.
Israeli Attacks On Syria Halted After Russia Threatened To Shoot Down Jets
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-attacks-syria-halted-after-russia-threatened-shoot-down-jets-reportEleni also sent this, about how Sheldon Adelson (and Bibi Netanyahu) need Trump right now. (Adelson looks like a zombie.)
Sheldon Adelson needs Donald Trump more than Trump needs Adelson (no kidding!)
Donald Trump fired the fire-breathing national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton was gifted to the Trump administration in 2018 by Sheldon Adelson, Trump’s biggest donor, and Trump duly ended the Iran deal once Bolton came aboard.
Now Trump has fired Bolton, thereby signaling that he is open to renegotiating the Iran deal. And Trump’s Defense Department has all but criticized Israel for its drone war in Iraq and Syria that is threatening Americans and American proxies.
Trump is showing more independence of the rightwing Israel lobby than he has his entire administration – after three years of doing everything for Israel that the rightwing lobby wanted, from Jerusalem to the Golan to UNRWA.
The simple explanation for Trump’s conduct is that he at last has the upper hand in his relationship with Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson.
https://www.sott.net/article/420227-Sheldon-Adelson-needs-Donald-Trump-more-than-Trump-needs-Adelson-no-kidding Immediately after the last election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined to members of his inner circle a plan to extract him from facing trial. The plan was based on obtaining immunity from the Knesset and passing legislation to prevent the High Court of Justice from removing that immunity. If his bloc wins 61 Knesset seats next week, Netanyahu will presumably resort to this rescue plan. For him it will be the Day of Judgment. “Stop being frightened. It’s time for them to be frightened,” Netanyahu told his confidants, referring to justice officials, headed by Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, who have decided to indict him in three cases, subject to a hearing.
Netanyahu told his confidants why he insisted on his destructive plan, telling them he had lost all confidence in the legal system on all levels – the attorney general’s office, the state prosecutor and the court system. “They want me in prison,” he told one of his cronies, noting that if he were indicted that would indeed be the result – not because he had crossed a red line, but merely due to the jurists’ collective hostility toward him and his ideology.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-netanyahu-s-escape-plan-from-indictment-in-his-own-words-1.78374025th try: Really look at what Trump said about the World Trade center on the afternoon of 911/01
On the afternoon of 9/11/01, Real Estate Developer, Donald Trump was interviewed by Channel 9 in New York City:
Channel 9: “There is a great deal of questions about whether or not the damage and the ultimate destruction of the buildings was caused by the airplanes, by architectural defect or possibly by bombs, or after-shocks. Do you have any thoughts on that?”
Donald Trump: “It wasn’t architectural defect. The World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building. Don’t forget that it took a big bomb in the basement [in 1993]. Now the basement is the most vulnerable place, because that is your foundation and it withstood that. And I got to see that area about 3 or 4 days after it took place, because one of my structural engineers actually took me for a tour because he did the building. And I said ‘I can’t believe it’. The building was standing solid and half of the columns were blown out. This was an unbelievably powerful building if you know anything about structure. It was one of the first buildings that was built from the outside. The steel, the reason the WTC had such narrow windows is that in between all the windows you had steel on the outside of the building. That’s why when I first looked at it you had big, heavy I-beams. When I first looked at it I couldn’t believe it because there was a hole in the steel. And this was steel that was … you remember the width of the windows of the World Trade Center, folks, I think that you know, if you were ever up there, they were quite narrow and in between was this heavy steel. I said: How could a plane, even a 767 or 747 or whatever it might have been, how could it possibly go through the steel? I happen to think that they had not only a plane, but they had bombs that exploded almost simultaneously. [italics mine]. Because I just can’t imagine anything being able to go through that wall. Most buildings are built with the steel on the inside around the elevator shafts. This one was built from the outside, which is the strongest structure you can have. And it was almost just like a can of soup.”
Channel 9: “You know…we were looking at pictures all morning long of that plane coming into Building #2. And when you see that approach the far side, then all of a sudden within another millisecond the explosion pops out the other side.”
Donald Trump: “Right. I just think that there was a plane with more than jet fuel.”
