TURKEY TO KISS EU GOOD-BY, SAY HELLO TO RUSSIA AND CHINA , THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION (SCO)
Turkey can join Shanghai Pact instead of EU: Erdogan

“For example, I say ‘why shouldn’t Turkey be in the Shanghai 5?,” he asked.
Erdogan said he had already discussed the idea with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“I hope that if there is a positive development there, I think if Turkey were to join the Shanghai Five, it will enable it to act with much greater ease,” added the Turkish head of state.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) — also called the Shanghai Pact — is a security and economic bloc led by Russia and China. Other members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

I don’t know what others make of this, but it looks like the whole spiel is addressed to the EU and not to the SCO, Shanghai 5, and that if it were – letting Erdogan in would be like letting the fox into the henhouse.
I’m sure that Putin and Xi Jinping are both very wary of Erdogan and of his aims with the Turkmen and others on their borders and in their own countries. Although Putin is always eager to talk he is certainly a prudent man and can see what is obvious to me and to millions of others in Erdogan’s dance, whirling dervish that Erdogan is.

Posted by: jfl | Nov 20 2016 14:46 utc | 104

Wrt: Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 20, 2016 12:32:52 AM | 98 & 99
Psycho,
In retrospect, my choice of terms and phrasing were suboptimal. I did not mean to give people an impression that I am a proponent of private finance. In contrast, sovereign nations can benefit by printing their own currencies, PLURAL. Some can be oriented more toward, for example, national and international trade. And another type ought to have negative-interest rates (aka demurrage) linked to a “parallel” currency in order to catalyze their use, for example, in more localized communities, i.e., in order to counteract hoarding of this parallel currency.
Lietaer has discussed countless examples of such “complementary” or “parallel” currencies (a trivial example: airline mileage point systems) that have been, and continue to be, very effective compared to other more pervasive, so-called monocultural (monetary) ecosystems that are driven by central banks:e.g., http://www.lietaer.com/images/Journal_Future_Studies_final.pdf
Posted on December 9, 2012 by Yves Smith
Former Belgian Central Banker [Lietaer] on Why the Money System is a Taboo Topic
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/12/former-president-of-the-central-bank-of-belgium-on-why-the-money-system-is-a-taboo-topic.html
Related five part series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfMbYllbN6c
These links ought to get those interested started. I’d be glad to dredge up others if the need arises.
See also: http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Money_and_Economics/The_Future_of_Money-Bernard_Lietaer.pdf
From what I’ve scanned of Psycho’s monetary considerations/links, I believe that our outlook probably is similar. Notwithstanding inadvertent misapprehensions so common in many exchanges.

Posted by: Avid Lurker | Nov 20 2016 16:13 utc | 106

Important
Robert Reich describes the failure of the Democratic Party and Wonders Aloud If It Can Be Changed:

You might think this overwhelming drubbing would cause the Democratic party to reorganize itself into a very different party from the one it’s become – which is essentially a giant fundraising machine, too often reflecting the goals and values of the moneyed interests that make up the bulk of its funding.
Don’t bet on it.
For one thing, many vested interests don’t want the Democratic party to change. Most of the money it raises ends up in the pockets of political consultants, pollsters, strategists, lawyers, advertising consultants and advertisers themselves, many of whom have become rich off the current arrangement. They naturally want to keep it.
For another, the Democratic party apparatus is ingrown and entrenched.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 20 2016 16:43 utc | 108

Wrt: Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 20, 2016 12:59:40 PM | 109
Psycho,
Many who have “vested interests” in not rocking the boat too much will only follow root cause analyses to a certain degree. Although Lietaer migrated up through the ranks along with Krugman (at MIT) Lietaer eventually persisted in his root cause analyses to the point where he was no longer welcome in the inner sanctum (IMO). He has said as much about himself becoming a persona non grata.
I’ve encountered lines of evidence on the internet that Lietaer acknowledges some (but limited) benefits of MMT yet still maintains that MMTers are, in general, perfectly willing to work within the unobtrusive confines of monocultural currency systems. Lietaer cannot, with solid reasons backing him, be completely in favor of MMT, so far as my limited grasp of monetary theory goes. (FWIW, my own systems analyses/risk analyses stemmed, initially, from research in the natural sciences.)

Posted by: Avid Lurker | Nov 20 2016 18:24 utc | 110

@ Avid Lurker,
If you look back at my comments at ALMOST naked capitalism you will read my challenge to the MMT folks is/was, how do you get there from here?…to be met with stony silence or derision. In your last sentence you bring up risk analysis which is where private finance is horrible from a societal perspective….i.e. Fukushima
Thanks for the interchange of thoughts.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 20 2016 21:24 utc | 112

Re: Posted by: Mina | Nov 20, 2016 3:38:24 PM | 111
So we should be backing Francois Fillon on then.

Posted by: Julian | Nov 20 2016 23:36 utc | 114

“Thanks for the interchange of thoughts.”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 20, 2016 4:24:05 PM | 112
Another individual worth studying (if one hasn’t already) is Silvio Gesell,
esp. Gesell’s classic monographs cited below:
https://www.community-exchange.org/docs/Gesell/en/neo/
Elsewhere:
“Silvio Gesell was born at St. Vith on the German-Luxembourg frontier of a German
father and a French mother. In 1886 he
migrated to Argentina, prospered as importer
and manufacturer, and became interested in
the currency question during the world
depression of 1873-96. In his first work,
“Currency Reform as Bridge to the Social
State” (1891), Gesell made the celebrated
proposal for unhoardable money. Further
studies on the disastrous effects of deflation
and the necessity for stabilizing the
purchasing power of money followed. Retiring
to Switzerland, Gesell brought out a
periodical for currency and land reform and in
1906 wrote his main book, The Natural Economic Order.”
… Some comments on the book:
“I believe that the future will learn more from the spirit of Gesell than from that of Marx.”
J.M. Keynes
“Clarity and literary grace…Theoretically perfectly sound”
Hugh Gaitskell
“May I say at once how delighted I am that there is to be a translation of this book?”
Professor E.A.G. Robinson, Joint Editor of the Economic Journal, 1957.”
http://www.appropriate-economics.org/ebooks/neo/gesell.htm

Posted by: Avid Lurker | Nov 21 2016 10:55 utc | 116

Turkey pushes for no-fly zone
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/21/turkey-calls-on-us-allies-to-reconsider-syria-no-fly-zone/
And who would enforce it? And would it be used to destroy the Syrian govt, armed forces, and infrastructure as it was against Libya?

Posted by: Curtis | Nov 21 2016 14:24 utc | 118

Julian | Nov 20, 2016 6:36:26 PM | 114
François Fillon emerges as the winner of the last TV debate among the seven candidates in the Republican primaries in France, and is also now backed by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing;
The last of the three TV debates among the Republican candidates for the French primaries on Sunday covered a wide range of subjects from Donald Trump to Syria, education, public services, and social payments. The televison poll after the debate suggests that supporters of the right and centre found François Fillon to have won the debate (39%), against Alain Juppé (25%) or Nicolas Sarkozy (26%). Fillon was considered the most convincing (33%) ahead of Juppé  (32%) and Sarkozy (18%).
undertook controversial reforms of the 35-hour working week law and of the French retirement system

Posted by: okie farmer | Nov 22 2016 2:38 utc | 120

@121 AL, ‘ … “The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs” ‘
Whoever did say that was correct, in my view.
@119 psycho, ‘Again the question for me is how do you get to try this concept from where we are now.’
I think that ‘educating others’ to the evils of the present system is growing ever more unnecessary as those evils become ever more apparent to all. I think what is necessary is the presentation of an alternative, and that Creating New Money does just that.
I wonder what happened to the initiative Noirette pointed out in Switzerland that proposed to effect just that plan? Must have failed, otherwise the world would have shaken. Nonetheless, it remains an alternative, ready to hand when things do get so tough that people are as ready for change with finance as they were for Brexit, or Trump.

Posted by: jfl | Nov 22 2016 21:40 utc | 122

Puzzling news:
“Kentucky Atheist sues for denied request of ‘IM GOD’ license plate”. There is no God. I am God. ???
NYT informs that “CIA medical doctors lost their moral moorings” at some unspecified date. Did it happen before or after a series of experiments aimed to reproduce North Korean practice of brainwashing? In 50-ties, American establishment was enormously impressed by Soviet Union and allies, and worked hard not to be left behind, copying “secrets of success”. IMHO, that was the origin of the Pledge of Allegiance being forced on American school kids (after being redacted by Congress to insert a reference to the Almighty), so they would be as patriotic and enthusiastic as young Pioneers in Stalin’s USSR. Psychological and somatic torture was also keenly investigated by proper specialists. In any case, how can a normal person expect “moral moorings” in CIA?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 23 2016 2:05 utc | 124

I don’t agree with everything in this posting link but want to give it considerable credit about clearly describing a big chunk of America…and not just the flyover part.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/rural-america-understanding-isnt-problem

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2016 7:41 utc | 126

@psychohistorian #126
I read about a third of the article then quit because it isn’t that the author is absolutely wrong in what he/she says of the beliefs of many amerikans, but is wrong about how that closed mind develops.
The 1st time I visited amerika I was a kid on my way to england to study and stopped off to stay with a schoolfriend in a small town on the Kansas/Oklahoma border. It was 1975 my friend was studying at OU and although he had spent his teenage years in NZ & Australia once he got ‘back home’ to the middle,he had reverted quite quickly.
The ideas of the great, friendly & charming people I met were uniform and fixed, but I put that down to their indoctrination into christianity. Sure there were a few xtians where I came from, but not like this, all the xtians I had met in Aotearoa accepted evolution, didn’t worry about women choosing to terminate their pregnancy and were the opposite of racist.
Sadly that is no longer the case amerikan style fundie xtianity has taken hold now, altho fortunately the numbers of believers is still quite low.
But one night back then I still remember we caught up with my friend’s mother’s family. We had been staying with his paternal grandparents who were typical upper middle class whitefellas – always been in the oil business (well past three generations hence OU & degrees in geology), but his mother was native amerikan and they were not so lucky. One of my friend’s aunts asked me what I was going to study in england and when I told her she got really antsy and said “Are you a communist? The medical system in England is communistic isn’t it?” I resisted to opportunity to say ‘No I’m a socialist’ which I was back then because I saw nothing good coming from that statement and I wanted to keep the conversation alive as this was an intelligent woman – I betcha not many other Kansas hausfraus would know anything at all about the UK health system back in 1975, I learned that like the rest of the town, she believed everything she was told.
An intelligent Native American woman stuck on the bones of her arse in poverty because she had been indoctrinated into accepting everything she was told, taking it on faith because that was how everything was taken starting with the bible.
Xtianity is the curse of amerika’s poor; it is xtianity which tells them to unquestioningly believe what they are told and that these outsiders saying otherwise are the spawn of the devil.
I have been back many times since then and even lived in Norman studying at OU for a coupla semesters where I grew used to seeing students believe science to get their mealticket, use it in their work then teach their children that evolution was wrong, that science was one big lie. Especially that global warming tosh.
The worst part was observing the change come over my friend who quickly forgot his native american heritage and while he had many friends of many races in Aotearoa (his best friend came from Pitcairn Island & was a descendant of the Bounty mutineers plus of course the Pacific people from Pitcairn).
I would be lying if I said there was no racism in NZ back then but it wasn’t anything like US racism which was so open and overtly hostile.
That also appears to be rooted in the fundamentalism and cannot be argued against using logic, many fundie amerikans I have spoken with still believe that other races, especially african amerikans are intellectually inferior, plus all the rest of the evil, easily disproven, shit they spout.
My brother was so angry at some throwaway racist comment our Kansas friend offhandly spouted in a skype about 10 years ago, that he hung up the phone and wouldn’t talk to the guy ever again.
Our friend was nonplussed he had been living in middle amerika too long and had forgotten exactly how offensive that stuff comes across to people who don’t subscribe to the whitefella delusion.
He actually asked me what race we were – if we were whitefellas why was my brother so pissed?
I asked him that since he was native american why wasn’t he pissed, and what the fuck was he doin spouting shit like that.
He paused, we changed the subject, I genuinely reckon he had ‘forgotten’ his own heritage.
There is no point, nothing to be gained from confronting middle amerikan whitefellas because they won’t accept anything which challenges their mindset, altho they have shown that they are just as up for cognitive dissonance as any other human being.
They will support so called leftish parties if they believe that those parties will support them with jobs and a working economy, but they will never, ever, go for politicians a la democrat iteration 2016, where the poor still get shat upon and abortion, blokes playing with other blokes bottoms, and women tongue n grooving is A OK.
I reckon most of em would turn a blind eye to the ‘bad’ bits if there were still good bits for them in the dem platform – especially jobs.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Nov 23 2016 9:16 utc | 128

@ jfl who asks what I mean by private finance
I want finance that is totally public like the rest of the utilities provided by government…i.e. water, sewer, electricity in some places, roads/mostly, etc.
What we have now is, for all intent and purpose, private finance.
Why do I want that? Two major reasons.
1. End usury
2. Perform better risk analysis…..i.e. no more Fukushima’s
The canard that the private world can and should provide/control finance is contrived BS as most of the folks at MoA know.
What do I expect the effects of that to be.
1. End the sick cancer of our real top/bottom social order
2. End this debt craziness so society can evolve….debt, if it continues to exist would be held/managed by totally sovereign countries.
3. End the focus on God of Mammon and evolve to global commons type purpose.
As I have written before part of the change also needs to be evolving the laws of inheritance so none can accumulate enough to control society like now.
@ Debsisdead about the Alternet article
While your anecdotal story is interesting I am sorry you didn’t read the complete article which, IMO, was/is better in its depth and breath.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2016 16:02 utc | 130

|@ psychohistorian | Nov 23, 2016 12:01:31 AM | 125
Still braying your BS ideology I see; private finance and the laws of unfettered inheritance, as pointed out are your private constructs, not concepts found in professional or historic literature – in other words bogus specie, counterfeit concepts. What the incessant caterwauling does reveal is a profound lack of knowledge or understanding of money, banking and law, an ignorance that leads only to disastrous, self-defeating decisions. Banks do not create money, they create credit, a credit based upon an enforceable contract, a credit that returns to zero as that contract is completed; this credit is denominated in money but no money is created, only and just only credit is created. I suspect that is a subtlety that few are capable of appreciating; as you so often demonstrate.
Unfettered inheritance, how quaint. All inheritance is unfettered when it passes to the inheritor to do with as they will as long as legality of use is observed. Be aware there are some places having restrictive laws about certain kinds of inheritance, such as inherited titles of the aristocracy and their holdings but these are exceptions to the rule and are rather uncommonly encountered. Could you be speaking of some other condition, confounding that with unfettered inheritance? Historically, in development of law in the U.S. special and specific advancements were obtained concerning both corporations and trusts in the late 19th century, where controlling corporate equities were gifted to ‘beneficial’ trusts that escaped inheritance altogether, keeping effective control of economic production or resources intact for the inheritors of those estates through influence over the equity holding trust. When those trusts control monopoly or monopolistic economic resources that control economic markets, removing those from laws governing inheritance makes for a different matter altogether. But that is not what you are braying.
You also might take a look at Steven Poole “UNSPEAK™ …n. mode of speech that persuades by stealth. E.g.., climate change, war on terror, ethnic cleansing, road map.”. ISBN 0-316-73100-5. The adjectives you employ are indication of an argument by stealth. The word finance is in common usage, private finance is not. The same goes for inheritance, but what possibly is unfettered inheritance. Both are lame attempts to frame an argument without undertaking the effort to define the terms of that argument. How lazy is that. Again your specious arguments do not stand scrutiny but that is unlikely to deter your opinions from being incessantly expressed. You are also quite rapidly headed for the elide bench where others not worth the effort to read reside.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Nov 23 2016 17:16 utc | 132

@ psychohistorian | Nov 23, 2016 12:39:42 PM | 133
Did I get that right – “… have an undergraduate degree in macro-economics, …”? That is a first isn’t it? You must be well trained in neoliberal economics then, macro-economics no less. Just where did you get your degree? Maybe Chicago School of Economic Phrenology? or the highly respected Harvard School of Business Chicanery? Or was it at some community college of Podunk, Somewhere? I am obviously not impressed with your credentials whatsoever. Just another neoliberal ideologue, original thought forever beyond your capacity to experience. Sad.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Nov 23 2016 19:40 utc | 134

@ Formerly T-Bear who continues to attack my character instead of my arguments.
What do you see when you look in a mirror?
I feel sorry for you and hope your life is everything you want it to be.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2016 20:40 utc | 136

The idiot at 136
Had you the capacity to notice, I did question your ideas, you chose to hide behind a fictitious charge of ad hominem and remain their still. Pathetic for an adult, expected from an adolescent.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Nov 23 2016 20:52 utc | 138

@ jfl about Creating New Money
Here is another quote from that piece and a today link from ZH provided w/o comment.
The quote:
”
Gold will almost certainly continue to take an increasingly unimportant place among the assets of a central bank. The metal age of money is over now. Central banks all round the world are already selling their stocks of gold, as discreetly as possible, and as slowly as necessary to avoid a goldprice collapse.
”
The link:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-23/putin-buys-dip-russias-gold-buying-october-largest-millenium

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2016 21:24 utc | 140

Betsy Devoss, child of the AMWAY DeVosses, sister of Erick Prince, the Blackwater man, will be Trump’s new Secretary of Education. The dinosaur republicans will be salivating over this choice.

Posted by: Copeland | Nov 23 2016 22:16 utc | 142

Syrian Air Force denies bombing Turkish Army in east Aleppo

“No Syrian or Russian aircraft bombed the Turkish Army near Al-Bab on November 23rd – all reports claiming otherwise are lies,” the official confirmed to Al-Masdar on Thursday.
“Turkey is planning something in east Aleppo and using this alleged attack as a ploy to escalate the situation,” he added.
The Turkish regime accused the Syrian Air Force on Wednesday of carrying out an airstrike that killed 3 of their soldiers and wounded 10 others.
Prior to this alleged attack in east Aleppo, the Turkish Army shelled the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Latakia, forcing them to halt their offensive against the Turkish-backed jihadists near the border.

Syrian war threatens to escalate as Turkey accuses Damascus of attacking its troops

While it is entirely possible that Syrian aircraft did launch the attack, there is strong evidence to suggest that Turkey is seeking to pin the blame on Damascus to legitimize its ongoing incursion. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-aligned organization that can hardly be accused of having a brief for the Assad government, reported that the Turkish casualties were in fact caused by an ISIS suicide bombing on Wednesday. For its part, the Turkish government imposed a gag order on media reporting of the attack. The Syrian government has not commented on the incident and there has been no independent verification of Ankara’s claims.
Last week, the Pentagon announced it was withdrawing its Special Forces that had been embedded in the Euphrates Shield mission since its launch in August. A Pentagon spokesman told a Turkish newspaper on Monday that the Turkish and FSA offensive on al-Bab was not being conducted as part of the international coalition’s efforts to retake Raqqa.
A report on the Stratfor website, which has close ties to US intelligence, noted earlier this week that Washington was becoming concerned that Turkish clashes with the YPG could “undermine the Raqqa effort altogether.” It went on to raise the prospect of clashes breaking out between the Turkish-backed FSA and Syrian government troops, which are backed by Iranian forces and Russia, if Turkey’s advance into Aleppo province proceeds.

Moscow hopes Turkey learned a lesson from last year’s downing of Russian jet

“I think that the Turkish side has drawn necessary lessons,” she [Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova] added. “And accordingly, a mechanism for restoration of relations was launched,” she said.
Zakharova said “it is very simple to mar relations, but it is very difficult to bring things back to the former level” and although Russia is demonstrating a bid to get relations back on track, “it is a long process as much time has been missed”.

The Turks have invaded Syria. The Turks are threatening the Syrians for interfering with their invasion! Even the US is trying to walk away from the Turkish invasion. Yet the Turks persist.
I guess they have the go-ahead from Moscow?

Posted by: jfl | Nov 25 2016 7:22 utc | 144

@ 145
Yesterday RT was reporting Turkey’s application to join the EU was suspended by the EU. Turkey reported as furious. Might check The Guardian or BBC for their take and an overdose of requisite grains of salt.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Nov 25 2016 8:54 utc | 146

Philippine’s Duterte Seeks Peace

[S]ignificantly, Duterte is engaging with revolutionary forces in the peace process that aims to end 47 years of armed struggle against the repressive Filipino government. And Duterte has taken actions that, for the first time, challenge the longstanding military and economic power of the United States in the Philippines.

Duterte seems actually to be thinking of the Philippines first. Cozying up to the regional power and deep-sixing the USA is a no-brainer, as they say. Of course the US/Philippine 1% are ‘shocked’ and aghast, they deplore him!
Marjorie Cohn’s article details the sort of man The Donald pretended to be. Well, the man whom The Donald encouraged the anti-Clinton ‘left’, with some notable success, to think of him as.

Posted by: jfl | Nov 26 2016 2:32 utc | 148

145
Serious, it escaped you that Turkey is already a member of Nato? Which says a lot of ‘democracy’ in Europe and how neither the EU or Nato can guarantee any sort of democracy, rather undermine it because of the “superior interests”.

Posted by: Mina | Nov 26 2016 13:43 utc | 150

– James Woolsey wrote an article for the South China Morning Post. Woolsey joined the Trump campaign in the 3rd quarter of 2016.
“Under Donald Trump, the US will accept China’s rise – as long as it doesn’t challenge the status quo”
http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2044746/under-donald-trump-us-will-accept-chinas-rise-long-it-doesnt

Posted by: Willy2 | Nov 29 2016 0:18 utc | 152

Jimmy Carter ain’t no Fidel, but he’s worth a handfull of Clintons, Bushes, and one Obama …
‘Short’ time left for Obama to recognize Palestine, Carter writes

“The simple but vital step this administration must take before its term expires on Jan. 20 is to grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine, as 137 countries have already done, and help it achieve full United Nations membership,” wrote the American 39th commander-in-chief.
“Israel is building more and more settlements, displacing Palestinians and entrenching its occupation of Palestinian lands. Over 4.5 million Palestinians live in these occupied territories, but are not citizens of Israel. Most live largely under Israeli military rule, and do not vote in Israel’s national elections.”
Carter added he was “certain” that the recognition of a Palestinian state “would make it easier” for other countries to follow along, and “clear the way for a Security Council resolution on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The council, he noted, “should reaffirm the illegality of all Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders, while leaving open the possibility that the parties could negotiate modifications.”
“A strong Security Council resolution would underscore that the Geneva Conventions and other human rights protections apply to all parties at all times. It would also support any agreement reached by the parties regarding Palestinian refugees,” Carter said.
He further warned that “This is the best — now, perhaps, the only — means of countering the one-state reality that Israel is imposing on itself and the Palestinian people.”
“Recognition of Palestine and a new Security Council resolution are not radical new measures, but a natural outgrowth of America’s support for a two-state solution,” Carter claimed.
The former president came under harsh criticism in Israel over his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, in which he wrote, “Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East.”
In 2013, he called on the European Union to label products from the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they are illegal under international law.

Carter’s 92.

Posted by: jfl | Nov 29 2016 1:23 utc | 154

Very interesting report from Credit Suisse, reported by the Independent UK.
Check out the graphic. They have the Russian 1% at 74.5% of the nation’s wealth. Just like the good old days, under the Czars.
Followed by India and Thailand, with the 1% at nearly 60% of the wealth in each.
The Chinese plutocratic 1% edge out that in the USSA, 43.8% to 42.1%.
Them ‘commies’ come a long way in a short while.

Posted by: jfl | Nov 29 2016 13:39 utc | 156

Houthi delegation arrives in Beijing to meet Chinese government

At the invitation of the Chinese government, Houthi spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam senior figures such as Hamza al-Houthi and Mahdi al-Mashat arrived in Beijing on Thursday to discuss resolving the conflict in Yemen with China’s support and to help build relations.

Rome has moved from AC/DC to Beijing? The Chinese are tying to help their best friends the Saudis out of their jam on the peninsula?

Posted by: jfl | Dec 1 2016 21:33 utc | 158