Countries such as India, Turkey and China seem to be lining up to support Trump’s strangulation od Iran.

Posted by: paul | May 30 2019 17:42 utc | 4

Hi everyone,
Can anyone give me some suggestions on Spanish language websites or blogs along the lines of this one? I’m trying to gather some other perspectives as well as hone up on on mi Español.
Gracias, danke, شكرا جزيلا, спасибі

Posted by: roza shanina | May 30 2019 18:39 utc | 6

Robert Mueller is a pedophile.
We can’t prove it false, so it must be true.

Posted by: JoeG | May 30 2019 18:56 utc | 8

US energy department rebrands fossil fuels as ‘molecules of freedom’…and this is in The Guardian and not The Onion:
https://tinyurl.com/y5uyb28g

Posted by: Victor | May 30 2019 19:12 utc | 10

“Countries such as India, Turkey and China seem to be lining up to support Trump’s strangulation od Iran.”
US desire rather than the truth, I would think.

Posted by: Laguerre | May 30 2019 19:27 utc | 12

Zachary Smith
I believe Russia buys oil from Venezuela. US refiners then buy oil from Russia to replace the Venezuelan oil.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | May 30 2019 19:58 utc | 14

Laguerre @13 said: “US desire rather than the truth, I would think.”
Western corporate mass media, owned by the oligarchs attending the Bilderberg meeting mentioned by Zanon above, and choreographed by the CIA, trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy perhaps?

Posted by: William Gruff | May 30 2019 20:18 utc | 16

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905301075472395-rapper-burn-france/
Amazing the methods the state uses to crush dissent and opposition. Here is a prime example of how they use this “tool” against popular and national sentiments to stir yellow vests to another direction and maybe extinguish.

Posted by: Uncle Jon | May 30 2019 20:21 utc | 18

Some people say US corporations rule the US. I say the Deep State/National Security State rules the US. They are the top tier. Corporations are secondary.
What happens when the Deep State demands that corporations stop cooperation with Huawei? They stop cooperation with Huaiwei. What happens when the Pentagon demands US corporations to stop using Russian space launches & satellites? They stop using russian space launches & satellites.
https://www.rt.com/news/460677-roscosmos-pentagon-ban-russia-launches/
What is it that Trump said recently? That Google assured him that they are committed to the US Military, not the Chinese military.
Thus there is a hierarchy in the US. My ranking:
1. Deep State/National Security State.
2. Neocons/Zionists.
3. Corporations.

Posted by: Passer by | May 30 2019 20:33 utc | 20

One event to watch is this weekend’s Shangri La Dialogue, where US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a government greenhorn, is expected to unveil a new American Indo-Pacific Defense Strategy following months of increasingly assertive U.S. statements and actions regarding the People’s Republic of China.
That new American Indo-Pacific Defense Strategy, a supposed extension of Obama’s shift from the Middle East to Asia, which didn’t pan out, has included a change in the US military’s moniker for its Pacific Command, based in Hawaii, to the Indo-Pacific Command. Why the “Indo?” The plan was to form a new Asian NATO called the Quad, composed of the US, Japan, Australia and India. But India with its independent policies didn’t go along with that. In the recent US naval exercise in the Pacific the fourth participant was South Korea not India. (So much for Indo-Pacific.)
This is the US effort (including sanctions) to counter China’s rise, which includes its Belt and Road and its Made in China 2025 initiatives, which are intended to propel China into world contention in the commercial and technical areas, which Washington sees as a direct attack on the US and also against “the liberal rules-based international order” which has worked so well for the US for fifty plus years.
more at Breaking Defense:

This all takes place in the context of a framework established by last year’s National Defense Strategy. The NDS prioritized “Great Power Competition” and the Trump Administration later designated the People’s Republic of China – with Russia as dangerous but dysfunctional runner-up – as the principal competitor driving U.S. defense planning and modernization priorities (or, as Patrick Shanahan reportedly told his staff after becoming Acting SecDef, it’s now “China, China, China.”). . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 30 2019 21:02 utc | 22

@ Peter AU 1 | May 30, 2019 3:58:45 PM #15
Venezuela oil exports seem to be imploding. Headline:
Venezuela Oil Exports Slump to a 28-Year Low
By Lucia Kassai January 2, 2019
More recent:

Shipping data shows that imports of fuel and diluents necessary to make Venezuela’s extra heavy crude refinable have dropped to 86,000 b/d in the first part of May from 225,000 b/d for April. Fuel rationing is being overseen by the military as shortages begin to bite deeper. As local crude oil production continues to fall, and refineries operate much below capacity, the lines at gas stations outside of the capital are now miles long.

The shipments to Cuba and Russia and possibly a few others just aren’t enough. Remember that Venezuela’s population in 1989 was 19.3 million while today it is 32.7 million. And back then that nation didn’t have to cope with smothering economic sanctions of every kind along with the physical attacks and sabotage of infrastructure.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 30 2019 21:34 utc | 24

At the peak of their power, ISIS killed nearly 20k in 2 years in Iraq.
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-death-toll-18-800-killed-iraq-2-years-u-n499426
For an Iraqi population of 36 million in 2015, this converts into a homicide rate of 28 per 100,000 inhabitants
20,000 * 100,000 / 36,000,000 * 2 = 27.78
(deaths by war or conflict would not normally be counted to calculate a homicide rate but is done here simply for comparison)
Some homicide rates for comparison (from wikipedia):
El Salvador 83
Honduras 57
Venezuela 56
St. Louis 65
Baltimore 55
New Orleans 40
Detroit 40
I’ll leave the implications up to the reader but remember there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Posted by: Colin | May 30 2019 22:21 utc | 26

@ Colin | May 30, 2019 6:21:23 PM #28
Perhaps you ought to have consulted the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant wiki, for it has a civilian population statistic for the area ISIS possessed at its maximum size.

Civilian population In 2015 (near max extent): 8–12 million

Even that number causes a re-adjustment of your final figure by a factor of three or four. Add to that the fact ISIS held the maximal territory only for a short while, so the true figure for the civilians in their tender care would be even lower and the corresponding murder rate far higher.
As an aside, why are you defending the head-choppers and burning alive guys?

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 30 2019 22:43 utc | 28

At her site Caitlin Johnstone has an article titled Assange Is Reportedly Gravely Ill, And Hardly Anyone’s Talking About It. In the text she uses the term “slow-motion assassination”, and unfortunately that might be a spot-on observation.
Speculation: middle of last year an unfriendly President of Ecuador took office. Might he have included among his other actions against Assange giving the Brits and/or the US access to the prisoner’s food and/or medications? That they might actually murder Assange hadn’t occurred to me, but such an event may be entering the final stages even now.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 30 2019 23:05 utc | 30

Pepe Escobar’s latest provides great detail about the ongoing effort to integrate BRI/EAEU by linking to events from the “May 14-15, Third Russia-Kazakhstan forum held in Nur-Sultan. Over the course of the two days, the Valdai Club, in partnership with the Kazakhstan Council on Foreign Relations, held five sessions with the participation of experts from the two countries.” An overview:
“It was important for Russian and Kazakhstani experts to “synchronise their watches” in light of the latest (US-Chinese) events, and talk about the changes that China’s well-known rise has generated. The violent reaction of the United States in the form of the trade war vividly demonstrates the Chinese-centric fears of the former hegemon, and indeed of the West as a whole. Russia and Kazakhstan view the rapid rise of China a little differently, although, as the forum revealed, not without some trepidation.”
Pepe remarks on the formation of a new geopolitical grouping, NAM 2.0, about which the forum says:
“A concept is being developed that can be called the Non-Aligned Movement 2.0. It suggests the emergence of a bipolar world with the opposing sides being US and China. The other big countries should not have to join either side on the front lines; the best tactic is to remain neutral.”
The analysis provides a much different slant at the Sino/Russo relationship, although it’s mostly describing reality. At the end of the linked page is a link to a summary of the discussion wherein it’s proposed the current state of geopolitics represents, “According to Andrei Sushentsov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, what is happening now cannot be called a ‘Cold War’. It is rather a ‘Phony Cold War’ – there is no pronounced aggressor, and no one sees an ideological component in the confrontation,'” a judgement to which I totally disagree with–The Outlaw US Empire’s clearly the aggressor and the ideological component pits the Empire’s Neoliberal Zero-sum philosophy against the China and Russian adopted Win-Winism, which is amply displayed in Xi’s Socialism With Chinese Characteristics. What the summary does make clear is a disappointment over the pace of Eurasian integration.
Another curious paper Pepe links to is one by Oleg Barabonov: “China’s Road to Global Leadership.” Very much in contrast is the recent Rand effort [PDF], “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia: Assessing the Impact of Cost-imposing Options,” the opening paragraph showing it was written by Rand’s version of Yeltsin:
“Today’s Russia suffers from many vulnerabilities—oil and gas prices well below peak that
have caused a drop in living standards, economic sanctions that have furthered that
decline, an aging and soon-to-be-declining population, and increasing authoritarianism under
Vladimir Putin’s now-continued rule. Such vulnerabilities are coupled with deep-seated (if
exaggerated) anxieties about the possibility of Western-inspired regime change, loss of great
power status, and even military attack.”
Given the outstanding misdirection by US-based stink tanks, it’s no wonder Trump’s efforts against Russia, China, Syria, Venezuela, Iran, etc, produce failure upon failure.
A note about Syria. The 2019 wheat and barley harvest was one of the best ever, but storage is tight thanks to many silos being destroyed by terrorists. As for Idlib’s terrorists, SAA has deployed @100,000 combat troops around Western Aleppo, while its Tiger forces and their support continue to clear Hama and will soon enter Latakia. Yet, SAA still had plenty of forces to send a battle group back to the Palmyra region to blunt the anticipated disruption attack by terrorists based at al-Tanf. Iranian and Hezbollah forces will be involved in the liberation of Idlib, a fact Zionists will loathe.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 30 2019 23:52 utc | 32

For Roza Shanina @6. Try sakerlatam.es. It is a Spanish language blog affiliated with The Saker. I find the Spanish language website of RT interesting for a different perspective also: actualidad.com. Like you I like to read different sources and practice Spanish at the same time. I could send some different suggestions in the future.

Posted by: Steve | May 31 2019 0:41 utc | 34

Why China Likely Won’t Buy Fewer U.S. Treasury Bonds

A January 2018 Bloomberg article suggests that Chinese officials may reduce their purchases of U.S. government bonds. It is very unlikely that China can do so in any meaningful way because doing so would almost certainly be costly for Beijing. And even if China took this step, it would have either no impact or a positive impact on the U.S. economy.

China Cannot Weaponize Its U.S. Treasury Bonds

A number of recent articles suggest that Chinese officials may reduce their purchases of U.S. government bonds.
This is an updated version of a previously published January 2018 blog post.

Posted by: John Smith | May 31 2019 1:03 utc | 36

“Trade war” between the United States and China in pictures:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7jk1cuVsAEG7dQ.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7jk1r5U8AAqcyh.jpg

Posted by: John Smith | May 31 2019 1:10 utc | 38

Posted by: alaff | May 30, 2019 9:08:42 PM | 39
Mahathir bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, in an interview with FCCJ (Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan) stated that he did not believe in Russia’s involvement in the crash of the Boeing MH17. The politician, in fact, directly accused the so-called JIT of being biased and not transparent.
————————
MH17 – 5 years on:

“How BBC faked an MH17 story” now available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAZaloocFXs …
Our official copyright dispute filed 30 days ago was not challenged. #MH17 #BBC

Posted by: John Smith | May 31 2019 1:19 utc | 40

@ myself and John Smith about what China can/can’t/should or whatever with their 1+ trillion in US Treasuries
I went looking and it would have to be small countries to create the bunch I speculated about but that is China’s style…..bring the bottom up.
As long as the global private finance “music” keeps playing the assumptions that China can’t do anything are relevant but it seems obvious to me and others that the global private finance “music” is being challenged in a way that makes that future iffy and overburdened by debt, getting ready for a fatal fall.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 31 2019 1:31 utc | 42

Bloomberg claims that Kim Hyok Chol, ex-ambassador to Spain, was executed for spying for the USofA. The one whose embassy was raided by the CIA.

Posted by: Maleńczuk | May 31 2019 2:10 utc | 44

@ John Smith who is responding with derisive comments instead of addressing my positions
Commenters get thrown out of MoA for that sort of petty response.
Please tell us why your sources are so authoritative that they preclude other options like I have been commenting about

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 31 2019 3:09 utc | 46

@6 & @36 Telesur’s Twitter account as well..
https://twitter.com/teleSURtv

Posted by: Lozion | May 31 2019 4:21 utc | 48

@ Peter AU 1 | May 30, 2019 11:22:31 PM #49
Given the nature of the Corporate Media, we’re probably hearing of only a small fraction of the dirty work going on.
It’s a puzzle to me how Trump figures this stuff is going to look good in future history books. Naturally that assumes his putzing around will allow the writing of those future history books.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 31 2019 5:15 utc | 50

Karlof1 @ 37:
I’m well aware that most “information” about Russia that routinely appears in the Western MSM and which the US government and think-tanks like the RAND Corporation rely on is actually misinformation.
Although it’s probably a good thing that neither the US government nor these think-tanks read reports on the Russian economy like this one from Jon Hellevig’s Awara Group.
Grieved @ 47:
Thanks for dredging up that link for me.

Posted by: Jen | May 31 2019 5:24 utc | 52

@ psychohistorian | May 30, 2019 9:31:53 PM #44
My knowledge of economic issues approaches being a know-nothing. I did make a quick search for numbers:

China reduced its holdings of U.S. debt in March by about $20.5 billion, bringing its overall ownership down to $1.12 trillion.

I’d say Option one is to buy up everything in sight a pile of US money will currently purchase. Belt/road? Resources? Option two would be to use the US holdings to maximize destructive effects to the US. Walking away from a trillion dollars would seem a reasonable swap in exchange for becoming #1 in the world.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 31 2019 5:40 utc | 54

China reduced its holdings of U.S. debt in March by about $20.5 billion, bringing its overall ownership down to $1.12 trillion.
There was some more detailed coverage of this not long ago, probably on Strategic Culture. China has largely stopped buying US treasuries for a few years now, and more recently has been very slowly reducing its holdings. It has to recycle its US dollars from its exports to the US somehow – instead of buying US treasuries and thereby funding the US military encirclement of China, it is using them for infrastructure investments in Eurasia under BRI – much of that is denominated in US dollars.
So that Carnegie Endowment crap is nothing but mindless bullshit propaganda*. No wonder the US fails in everything it tries to do these days – these are the sort of idiots who “advise” the US government what to do!!
As to that troll – B’s advice is always this: Don’t feed the trolls
* Disclaimer – I haven’t read the troll’s links, nor do I intend to.

Posted by: BM | May 31 2019 6:56 utc | 56

For the football fans, another leaker faces long jail time for simple revealing the truth about the sport
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/how-football-leaks-is-exposing-corruption-in-european-soccer

Posted by: isaac | May 31 2019 7:31 utc | 58

even though we’ve pretty much established that the cia is running the show, i share this link with some reluctance. by default i just don’t trust any of these people, though in this case it is very clear that these treasonous crimes against the State have indeed been committed(yes, Circe, they have).
but how many opportunities to prosecute treasonous activity have we seen come and go over the years and decades without delivering even a semblance of accountability?
a lifetime smoking opium might well be more rewarding than a lifetime smoking hopium.

Posted by: john | May 31 2019 10:01 utc | 60

For those who think China is going to help the American Empire take down Iran and thus wreck their Belt and Road Initiative, please think again: HK ignores US sanctions on Iran as tanker heads east
Western corporate mass media is cherry-picking what China has said: “Restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council on Iran have been fully implemented in the HKSAR under the United Nations Sanctions [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – Iran] Regulation [Chapter 537BV of the Laws of Hong Kong].”
“Woohoo! China’s on our side! They are backing US sanctions!” -gullible American mass media consumer
Fake western “journalists” leave out the very next three sentences: “However, the UN Security Council has not imposed any restrictions on the export of petroleum from Iran. Certain countries may impose unilateral sanctions against certain places on the basis of their own considerations. Those sanctions are outside the scope of the UN Security Council sanctions implemented by the HKSAR.”
In other words, “Go f#$k yourselves, you exceptional fools!”, though of course the Chinese are too polite to say that outright.

Posted by: William Gruff | May 31 2019 11:18 utc | 62

@60 john
It bears repeating: Trump has delivered more for Israel and Zionists, especially the 1%ter kind than any other President since Truman. Sooo, anyone defending Trump at this point IS highly suspect of having a Zionist agenda. If Trump is a rabid Zionist, which he has proven to be again and again (they love him in IZ land!), Netanyahoo loves him and it’s a mutual admiration club, THEN, anyone defending Trump at this stage has a Zionist agenDUH! OKAY?! Case closed.

Posted by: Circe | May 31 2019 13:27 utc | 64

One more thing, William Barr, the Attorney General acting as Trump’s personal attorney, was a CIA man for 5 years and also tried to institute an illegal phone surveillance program later in his career. And now he’s fueling a conspiracy that Trump is a victim of the deep state Barr was and still is a part of??? Hello??? This is all kabuki theater for the gullible masses patronized by Zionist interested parties. Poor, poor Trump the victim outsider. HAAAAAA! Suckers for Trump victimhood abound and Zionists can count on a sucker every day,

Posted by: Circe | May 31 2019 14:31 utc | 66

Circe @ 64 says:
anyone defending Trump at this stage has a Zionist agenDUH
no dude, ’cause most all of the folks accusing him are not accusing him for his Zionist agenDUH, but for inanities designed to obfuscate their own treasonous sabotage.
if they wanted to impeach him for, say, illegally launching a volley of cruise missiles into Syria, then you might have a point, but they don’t, and they don’t because the entire imperial agenda is reinforced in the halls of power by a bipartisan mass majority on a daily basis…
…no matter who’s president!

Posted by: john | May 31 2019 15:05 utc | 68

@Mina #59
Signing up under a pseudo doesn’t work if you have to pay via credit card or Paypal.
As far as I know, the major platforms do not accept cash payments.

Posted by: c1ue | May 31 2019 18:00 utc | 70

@ c1ue with the MFHT data….thanks……I use to know here to go find all those numbers but have been preoccupied
I read somewhere that the percentage foreign ownership had gone down and appreciate the confirmation.
Let me add follow on points
Since 2008 the elite have time and motivation to set up the next crash that sends them and other nations to the “global settlement table” with an even bigger percentage ownership of everything. Certainly all those trillions that have added to the US debt are not in the pockets of the common man.
The elite have also had time since 2008 to insure that the debt bubble will not injure their holdings either by not owning any or having derivative positions that cover the losses of the debt they do own.
What is the wild card are the rest of the parties at the “global settlement table” were not at previous settlements of the West. That is an argument for a period of dual global nation axis centered around public/private finance until private finance is shown more clearly for the anti-humanistic social construct it is.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 31 2019 18:55 utc | 72

>> james | May 31, 2019 3:45:11 PM | 73
Gee. it would really be too bad if somebody were to ‘hit’ some Saudi Irabian boats off the coast of Yemen. Let’s just hope that that never happens!

Posted by: blues | May 31 2019 20:20 utc | 74

c1ue @71–
Thanks for posting that figure which tells us 82%+ of US Debt is held by the FED or other US-based entities. So, when the debt default occurs, it surely looks like US-based holders will suffer the great majority of the blow.
Thus this question’s begged: What would occur if the debt is written off, that is the portion owed to the FED?
Economic Affairs writer Ellen Brown writes about Japan’s debt write-down and offers links to similar articles.
Alexander Artamonov writing for Pravda concludes his article about US Debt level with this observation:
“It does not matter how high the ceiling of the US debt is going to be raised. More than 80% of US public debt is of national origin, which means that the USA owes most of its debt to itself. Needless to say that the USA can write off the debt to itself at any moment, so there is no financial disaster coming from this direction.”
(Most articles that appear when using ‘writing off US national debt’ don’t deal with that subject at all.0
Then of course we have Michael Hudson’s series of articles on debt jubilees declared in the ancient world, which cancelled debt owed to the palace/government. The difference being those debts, like credit card or student loan debts, are personal debts, not the collective debt of a nation which was loaned to it by its central bank in return for interest bearing bonds. What would occur if the federal government defaulted on the bonds held by the FED, saying it will no longer pay the interest or purchase them–what recourse would the FED have? FED stockholders would no longer be paid dividends based on bond interest and the FED would have to write the bonds off its balance sheet. But would it be harmed, debilitated in its ability to do what it does, which is loan monies to other banks? Given how loans are made nowadays, I don’t see any damage being done as the monies are virtual, not physical.
The danger is thus faced by the non-FED owners of US Bonds, but the write-off doesn’t apply to them as only bonds held by the FED would be retired. What then does that mean? IMO, it means the US Government can self-finance any type of program it legislates into reality, like national healthcare, free K-20 education, all sorts of infrastructure programs, and a massive military. The authorizing legislation’s passed and signed into law; the monies required are created via keystroke at Treasury and electronically transmitted to providers enabling the legislation’s program, which in turn pays the individuals doing the work. The above is essentially how Modern Monetary Theory would function. It would probably work best in a unitary state rather than a federal state with multiple legislating and budgeting entities.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 31 2019 21:15 utc | 76

From Caitlin’s essay:
“It is hugely significant that a UN expert has included the massive anti-Assange smear campaign in his assessment of psychological abuse. For far too long this devastating psychological weapon of the powerful has gone fully normalized and unacknowledged for the damage and suffering it causes, and now an authoritative voice has pointed it out and called it into public consciousness for the depraved manipulation that it is. It’s a very interesting development to see western governments and their media stenographers condemned in this way for their participation in such savagery….
“Menzer’s report is an indictment on our entire society. It’s an indictment of the US-centralized western power alliance. It’s an indictment of the politicians, opaque government agencies and plutocrats who lead that alliance. It’s an indictment of the mass media who regurgitate whatever their government tells them to into the minds of a credulous populace. It’s an indictment of everyone who has ever helped spread the smear campaign against Assange, wherever they may have spread it; every remark, every social media comment, every share and retweet. The entire abusive construct has been outed as exactly what it is, from top to bottom.
“So things have been severely shaken up. A massive smear campaign spanning all western nations across all political sectors has been pulled into the spotlight of public consciousness, mass media outlets who’ve devoted huge amounts of resources to assassinating Assange’s character have been forced to report a major revelation coming directly from the United Nations, Assange supporters can now officially say with full authority that his persecutors have literally tortured him, and establishment narrative managers are fighting on the back foot….
“Because of that decision, because Julian Assange decided to stand his ground and trade blows toe-to-toe with the most powerful empire in the history of human civilization, he forced them to expose themselves. He forced the oppression machine to reveal its true face, by coordinating across national borders to drag him bodily out of the embassy, locking him in a cage, waging a war upon the free press with outrageous espionage charges, and finally being found guilty of torturing a journalist for publishing factual documents about the powerful.
“We have all that information now. It can’t be unseen. Because Assange chose to fight, we now have that evidence and we can use it to help wake people up to the true face behind the smiling mask of “liberal democracy” we’ve all been told to believe in since grade school. Even while imprisoned, sick, and barely even able to speak, Julian Assange is still exposing these bastards for what they are.
“Don’t let his example go to waste.” [My Emphasis]
No, that’s not her entire essay. Please click the link and read in full!

Posted by: karlof1 | May 31 2019 22:23 utc | 78

Karlofi @77
“Given the appalling lack of discussion by barflies, it appears few care for his fate”
I think that maybe we avoid talking about the Assange predicament or thinking about is because it exposes our helplessness to ourselves.

Posted by: arby | May 31 2019 22:41 utc | 80

“Because Assange chose to fight, we now have that evidence and we can use it to help wake people up to the true face behind the smiling mask of “liberal democracy” we’ve all been told to believe in since grade school.”
Even collateral murder did not dent the sacred cow of ‘liberal democracy’. For controlling the rabble, democracy is the best thing since sliced bread.
Turns the masses into addicted gamblers – always thinking the next vote will be a winner.
But then, only a small percentage of voters in the so called liberal or western democracies bother to look further than MSM for their news.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | May 31 2019 23:16 utc | 82

The current GRC system has broken beyond repair.
Trade surplus dollars are NOT being recycyled into dollar denominated assets.
Existing dollar reserves have declined in nominal terms over the last four years.
In inflation adjusted real terms the decline is -30%.
The smart money has been getting out of dollars before a stampede.
The TIC report should be taken as a lie,or fairytale,depending on your mood.

Posted by: Winston2 | Jun 1 2019 1:55 utc | 84

Open Thread – question
At the GritPost site is this headline: “New Poll Suggests Trump Would Beat Biden in Key Battleground States in 2020”
I don’t believe it – Trump is raising his lunacy to a new level with threats to slap tariffs on Mexico. He is directing the US military to destroy internal oil transport within Syria. This and much more contradicts all the ‘progressive’ and isolationist stuff he was peddling in 2016. Farmers, Corporations, and many more are beginning to suffer from the fool’s work.
But suppose I’m wrong. Let’s say it’s now a ‘given’ Trump will trounce Biden. Obviously Democratic party leaders don’t care, for what Trump has been doing makes them happy even if they can’t say so out loud. Question is, should I care? Both men have a “hands-on” approach to women. Trump is a newly developed disaster while Biden has a long, long record of being a Corporate hack and smiling thug – but both are horrible. Neither one will do anything to halt and reverse global warming climate change with either one in the White House.
Why shouldn’t I line up with the Zionists on this issue and say “doesn’t matter to me which one is elected”.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 1 2019 2:31 utc | 86

As we discuss troubles in various countries, Israel seems to be an oasis of tranquility. External threats are so remote that they actually have to look for them 1000+ miles away. To avoid death of boredom, Israel is bent on showing that proportional representations may be ridiculous too (in USA we complain about gerrymandering, electoral college etc.) The last election led to impossibility in forming a government, so in few months there will be another one and the chances are, with identical outcome.
The root of the problem lies in the top achievement of Israel. As you know, there are many achievements, but could you guess the top one? “In Israel you can be more Jewish than anywhere else”. This is a quote from memory of the most celebrated Israeli novelist (NYT would not lie about that, would they?) The achievement is fine, but a vexing political problem is how to be most Jewish. There are two main school of thought: (a) military service in IDF, preferably in an “elite unit”, highly recommended by so-called secular Jews and Modern National Orthodox, (b) spending years on prayer and studying texts like Torah and Talmud, without such unseemly distractions like military service. “Right wingers” got 65 seats, 61 are needed to form a government, 5 insists on reducing exceptions for military draft — the most sacred Jewish duty, and 16 insist on increasing the exceptions for “religious studies” — needless to say, even more sacred endeavor.
Of course, the religious nuts could be replaced by “left-of-center” militaristic nuts, but the latter hate Netanyahu, raising objection that police and prosecutors promise to indict him on bribery. But replacing Netanyahu as Prime Minister is not possible according to the law, And there is a good chance that the next elections will have the same outcome.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 1 2019 3:44 utc | 88

some people still regard Saudi Arabia and Israel as different countries.
They are both sides of the same pharisee coin, murderous wahhabists and satanic jews who destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya and are now telling us that IRAN is the problem.
When are the retarded American Christians going to wake up and realise that these demons are not their friends? After they’ve killed another 2 million Christians?
just sayin

Posted by: boris | Jun 1 2019 11:22 utc | 90

One takeaway from the Trish Regan-Liu Xin exchange on Fox News is the remark by the Chinese anchor that – for talks to move forwards again – the American team has to respect its Chinese counterparts.
Sounds like the aggression and bullying may come right down to the person-to-person level, talking at and down to the other party.
Trump should know better, even if his troglodytes don’t (or don’t care less).
He had already taken a measure of the Chinese president during dinner.
Xi Jinping barely flinched when the Donald casually dropped that missiles were being fired upon Syria even as they spoke. “ None of China’s business.’’ (Russia could take care of that neck of the woods).
As I mentioned on Saker’s blog before, China won’t react. It will choose the moment, and method, to act and defend its interests.
Perhaps forbearance is the Chinese way; there are precedents, such as the Marco Polo bridge incident that sparked the second Sino-Japanese war.
Intuiting that the clash was a false flag by Imperial Japan to push into China proper, Chiang Kai-shek decided that the time had come for all-out resistance.
Imperial Japan was an advanced technological power, China only a semi-feudal society; an asymmetric contest.
Yet, as Mao elaborated so passionately in Protracted War (as posted earlier by another commenter) time, circumstances and history were on China’s side.
Even Baron von Falkenhausen, who trained Chiang’s Nationalist troops, supposedly claimed that China would eventually prevail over the invaders.
Face is an Asian value that Westerners may hear about, but don’t always grasp.
Giving face is so often more important than face for yourself; it reflects on a person’s magnanimity to another party, in the spirit of win-win compromise.
So much face was given to the American team, yet they chose to cross the Marco Polo bridge – or in Western terms, the Rubicon, the point of no return.
The reality, of course, could be that Washington was never ready to negotiate in good faith.
The trade war was, from the start, a fig leaf for what Kishore Mahbubani recently called a `multi-dimensional’ assault (political, military, etc) on an almost-peer power.
As the chief Chinese negotiator put it:“China is not afraid, the Chinese people are not afraid.”

Posted by: LittleWhiteCabbage | Jun 1 2019 13:24 utc | 92

”
Sarah Abdallah
‏ @sahouraxo
16h16 hours ago
Imagine the international uproar if Julian Assange was rotting away in a Russian dungeon for the “crime” of mere journalism. But because he exposed US war crimes, he’s been unfarily persecuted and subjected to psychological torture for years, and the media’s cheering it on.
66 replies 1,493 retweets 3,149 likes”

Posted by: arby | Jun 1 2019 14:15 utc | 94

@ 34 Steve & Lozion – Thanks for the suggestions! I didn’t know the Saker had a Spanish site.
Regarding the unresolved crime of MH17, Manchester University Press recently published a book by Dutch author Kees van der Pijl:
MH17, Ukraine and the new Cold War
Global Research gave it a good review. I’m going to read it when my copy arrives.

Posted by: roza shanina | Jun 1 2019 14:57 utc | 96

more on assange today from craig murray…
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/06/jeremy-hunt-works-that-rogue-state-status/

Posted by: james | Jun 1 2019 15:26 utc | 98

The Melzer UN report
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24665&LangID=E
news.com.au/world/europe/un-torture-expert-names-australia
“Melzer said he had seen no sign of Australian assistance for Assange.
“Australia is a glaring absence in this case. They’re just not around, as if Assange was not an Australian citizen. That is not the correct way of dealing with that.””

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jun 1 2019 16:03 utc | 100