The long awaited report from John Durham will seem like an anti-climax
now that Orange Man is openly an international criminal and Washington his complicit enabler.
(hmm…guess, technically, that crosses the line into “related to the recent U.S.-Iran conflict”;
but it is intended as a memory jogger that just days ago Russiagate/Ukrainegate was the biggest scandal
ever)
Is fatigue setting in for horrid news out of Washington?

Posted by: librul | Jan 9 2020 14:39 utc | 3

Earlier this morning I did an AOL google search on “genesis” because I wanted a piece of information on the Biblical book.
The results came up, in order: Car, rock band, car, car, car, car, Biblical book.
Gives you an idea what the real dominant religion is.

Posted by: Russ | Jan 9 2020 14:46 utc | 5

Bolivia’s interim administration has been working very aggressively to essentially criminalize MAS ahead of proposed elections scheduled for May.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bolivia-opens-probe-600-former-morales-officials-205329824.html
This in concert with wide-ranging policy changes which have replaced the positions of the former elected government with policy reflecting the unelected hard-right opposition. This is exactly what was planned for Venezuela.
Western media routinely reports that October’s election was marred by “widespread fraud”, or similar description, ignoring the serious detailed critiques of the OAS analysis on which the mischaracterization depends.

Posted by: jayc | Jan 9 2020 15:54 utc | 7

IRGC generals are claiming, on video in Farsi, that several sorties of helicopters and airplanes were transferring something from Ayn al-Asad to Tel Aviv and Jordan immediately after the strikes.
They imply that they were killed and wounded soldiers.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-state-media-claims-more-than-80-us-soldiers-killed-in-missile-barrage/
What are your thoughts?

Posted by: A | Jan 9 2020 16:17 utc | 9

Bolivia seems to be almost a carbon copy of the coup in Honduras. HOw much core strength to resist does MAS have?

Posted by: paul | Jan 9 2020 16:34 utc | 11

So POTUS refused the rehearsed bait. Iran bombed some empty bases for public consumption. No escalation. All parties seem pleased with the calculus. The neat and tidiness of it all is too surreal for words.
It looks to me like the revolutionary wing of Iran (really, everyman-in-the-street Islam) has been decapitated –very reminiscent of MbS culling the Wahabbist financiers from the House of Saud. Sorry, but I think Trump has been working the Swiss intermediation line with Khameini. And on these phone calls, Pompeo was NOT listening in. Is the ME swamp being drained of Dal al Harb making it more habitable for old-fashioned state power? A lot of Mullahs are struggling to makes ends meet under crippling sanctions. Apparent True Believer Soleimani had to have a lot of enemies in-country. He wasn’t a State Actor. He was a Transcendent Actor. Castro hated and feared Che Guevara. We’ll be seeing Soleimani on t-shirts for decades to come.
Cui bono from the too-charismatic (and dangerously transborder hero) Soleimani’s demise? Why, every state actor with a bordered interest, that’s all. Was the Shia Crescent getting ahead of Iran’s state interests? But how to turn it off except by hiring the Great Satan for a hit and then crying like a baby (tears augmented by guilt) at the Great Man’s funeral.
America retreats to its corner, leaving the ME (a key Trump objective) while Iran reels back the IRGC’s revolutionary fervor. Sounds like the bones of a decent quid pro quo to me, with a revised JCPOA and removal of sanctions looming in the future.
Let the Rapturists form their own version of the Revolutionary Guard for Jesus and obtain the necessary building permits to construct the Third Temple, if the Israelis will consent to that, which they most certainly won’t. Cannon-fodder perhaps; but otherwise, the Rapturists are viewed with fear and loathing in Jewish circles.
Keep our formal military out of the Armageddon biz. That’s how the Iranians do it. Lockheed Martin can sponsor them.
If Pompeo drops a few pounds and gets a tan, he’ll make a great Laurence of Arabia. He has the temperament for a Soleimani-type job, Dar al Harb (House of War) not Dar us Salam (House of War). A modern secular nation-state is no place for him. Similarly, Esper should just drop the state actor charade altogether and sell bombs.
If you want to kill a Christian Zionist’s buzz, tell him the Jewish calendar has 220 years left. You can practically see the righteous venom drain out of their eyes. Unless the New Testament caught Gd in a math error.
How are we going to kill the time? Besides making Hal Lindsey a wealthy man, Christian Zionism’s hubristic forcing of Gd’s hand was always a little unseemly. (For the record, I’m a Christian, just not in its death-cult formulation.)
Christian Zionists are going to have to deal with the arduous task of being Christians one day at a time without salivating over blowing stuff up, which is the easy way out. Psychologically, they are married to a climactic end. It’ll be a tough dependency to kick.
Or here’s a good idea. Divert some apocalyptic energies into stemming the Christian extinction event happening all over the Middle East. That would be a very Christian gesture. Saving fellow Christians from the lions.

Posted by: FSD | Jan 9 2020 16:50 utc | 13

I’ll put the news here in this comment following the order of the most relevant to the less relevant.
—
1. The NY Fed finally admits the obvious:
An increase in sales of riskier corporate debt poses a “financial stability concern”
This is specially interesting:

Just two companies in the US — Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft — still have a pristine, triple-A rating, the researchers noted. While sales of both the safest, triple-A rated bonds and the riskiest “high-yield” bonds have been declining over the past five years, there has been a dramatic rise in the amount of triple-B rated bonds that sit on the lowest rung of the investment-grade ladder, just above high-yield.

You don’t need to be Warren Buffet to know J&J and Microsoft are blue chips. The problem is: how much rotten are the triple B? Financial expertise has degenerated to who know which is the not-so-rotten-papers instead of knowing which are the most promising investments for the progress of humanity, free market etc. etc. Having a guy spying for you behind the scenes became more valuable than being a rocket engineer with a suma cum laude at MIT.
Russia, Iran and China are doing well in biding their time. The whole capitalist system is ripe for another “corrective” recession somewhere between 2020-2023.
–/-
2. The giant of giants of the Asian Paper Tiger is in trouble:
One-third drop in Samsung’s Q4 operating profit
This is the funny part:

Samsung was hit by a series of difficulties in 2019, with chip stockpiles bloating and prices falling
[…]
But the figures beat expectations, analysts said, with chip demand starting to improve and strong smartphone sales.

So, the Samsung’s profit took a nose dive and still this was good news?
Who cares about “expectations”? In capitalism, either you’re profiting enough or you aren’t. You can’t just move the goal posts like that.
If it happened to some SOE in China, those “experts” would’ve already be souding the trumpets of Apocalypse, calling for a complete privatization of the system and the mass suicide of every CCP member – you know, because “the system doesn’t work”.
–/-
3. Speaking of a system that doesn’t work:
India facing major recession: Nobel laureate
Those two Rijksbank laureates (there’s no Nobel Prize of Economics, that’s a fantasy term) are two pseudo-scientists, but the numbers are too clear:

India’s gross domestic product has been on a downward spiral for six consecutive quarters, finishing at 4.5% in the September 2019 quarter. Private consumption, which contributes about 60% to the gross domestic product, is growing at 5.7% in 2019-20, much below the rate for the previous financial year when it grew at 8.1%.
The National Statistical office has now forecast that India’s gross domestic product growth will hit a 11-year low of 5% in 2019-20, down from 6.8% in the previous year.

People who are reading this blog for enough time know that India cooks the books, essentially doubling its own GDP growth figures. That means a 5% GDP growth in India actually means 2.5% (maybe even 2.0%).
India promised the world and its own people it would become a superpower by 2020. They have 357 days left.
–/-
4. About Australia’s raging bushfires:
Raging bushfires expose multiple governance woes of Australia
Yep. The Chinese agree with me: climate change was the main factor responsible for the scale, durability and vastness of this year’s epic bushfires in Australia. Drier eucalyptus forests turn even a kid with a matchstick into a deadly eco-terrorist; a lightning bolt into a massive volcanic eruption.
The Australian government itself agrees with me and the Chinese:
Australian fires: Victorians urged to leave amid fears ‘heat spike’ will cause bushfires to merge
Emphasis on “heat spike”.
Bushfires are natural to the Australian ecosystem, and they happen every summer – what is up to debate is the scale and vastness of this years’ bushfires. The Australian right-wing, backed up by the Murdoch media, should not try to pull a Nero and try to blame a random group of innefective ecologists in a shameful witchhunt.
–/-
5. Age segregation in the UK seems to be serious business:
‘Age apartheid’: Britain is one of world’s most segregated countries – report

Britain is one of the world’s most age-segregated nations, with the generational divide increasing over the last decade, according to a new report which calls for urgent action to address the “age apartheid” dividing the country. […] According to the report, divisions have increased as a result of the housing market, with the concentration of wealth now firmly in the hands of older people. They tend to live in towns and rural areas, while the young are sucked in by city life.

Nice curiosity if you’re into that sociology stuff.
–/-
6. Japanification of the USA continues:
Why Are Young Americans Killing Themselves? Suicide is now their second-leading cause of death.
Suicide in Japan already is (it is for some decades now) the main cause of death among young adults. The USA is quickly catching up.
Before blaming China for exports of Fentanyl, the Americans (and Trump) should look themselves in the mirror first.

Posted by: vk | Jan 9 2020 16:56 utc | 15

Every tragedy is a propaganda opportunity. Why does anyone read US news anymore?
Ukraine claiming Russians shot down plane

Posted by: goldhoarder | Jan 9 2020 17:38 utc | 17

blues @16:
TTYL

Posted by: David G | Jan 9 2020 17:51 utc | 19

@ DontBelieveEitherPr. | Jan 9 2020 16:47 utc | 12 (Die Anstalt)
They did one where they exposed the names and faces of the nazis in prominent position in Germany at the present time…
I don’t remember what episode.
In a remote provincial backwater California town, my dentist watches Die Anstalt, in German. So do I.
(I also favor the old DDR and Soviet films…)

Posted by: Walter | Jan 9 2020 18:09 utc | 21

@Posted by: Abe | Jan 9 2020 17:58 utc | 20
“I, for one, stopped reading any msm sources about current events”
There is a Catch-22. Do you not want to be informed about what is the narrative that is
currently being fed to people? Is that not news itself?
It is also good exercise in discernment to read, for example, Reuters.
And, if you need it, a good exercise in anger management. :-;

Posted by: librul | Jan 9 2020 18:21 utc | 23

Putin hopped aboard the guided missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov and left Turkey to observe/participate in joint exercises involving the Black Sea and Northern Fleets which utilized some of its most modern weapons. So, there was quite a bit more “insurance” on hand when Putin visited Syria and Turkey than we knew of.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 9 2020 18:23 utc | 25

Posted by: somebody | Jan 9 2020 17:46 utc | 18
Trump just said the Ukraine plane was “flying in a rough neighborhood” and that it might have been shot down “by mistake.”
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1215318790155788288

Posted by: Mao | Jan 9 2020 18:27 utc | 27

If US officials claim they are “confident”, that actually means they don’t have a shred of evidence. Intelligence lingo.
It’s too early to call but POTUS claims Iran shot down the Ukrainian 737 near Tehran. On CBS fake News they suggest that the US have satellite imagery showing two SAM launches right before the crash.
Almost six years down the road we are still waiting for the MH17 satellite imagery that exist according to John Kerry. He was lying or the images and the narrative don’t match. Hint: the second option.
To prevent crashing airliners, PSYOPS, sanctions, fake trials etc. steer well clear of the Ukraine, Ukrainians, Ukrainian airspace, the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian missiles and Ukrainian planes. You don’t want to touch the Ukraine, not even with a very long stick.
We can be confident (in the normal sense of the word) that Bellingcat will be involved. Those NATO sponsored citizen propagandist will spend countless hours doctoring “evidence” and spinning neocon lies to their heart’s content.
It must have been a Russian BUK that was driven on the back of a trailer by Putin’s niece all the way from Kursk to Tehran, a direct order from the Kremlin!
In Turkey the trailer almost overran Bana Alabed and evil Assad provided some Novichok along the way to coat the throttles of the 737 in case the missile wouldn’t hit its intended target. Boeing 737’s don’t fall from the sky on their own.
A fact finding mission from the OPCW has left The Hague for Tehran, they might even find some cannisters containing chlorine in the wreckage. It looks like they dropped from the air, they were not placed there manually.
The Dutch Safety Board is 100% independent from NATO influence and could conduct the accident investigation in an impartial way. No conflict of interest whatsoever.
The Ukraine will be part of the Joint Investigation Team that does the criminal investigation and to assure everything will be done according to law they will even get a veto right over the investigation.
Iran can be confident that justice will be served.

Posted by: Symen Danziger | Jan 9 2020 18:36 utc | 29

It has been a month now but, for my money, the defeat of the labour party in the UK remains a major international issue. It represents the final defeat of the sort of left social democracy that has been kept out of power since the last war, when it emerged as the most popular current in European politics.
The story behind the defeat of Corbyn, which was the work of the “New” Labour majority in the Parliamentary Party-the Blairites- can only be properly understood by understanding the role that Israel, both as a state organism and as a pivot for imperialist ideas, played.
Working people across Europe ought to realise that Israel has become the most formidable road block on the path to progress and democracy. It is the oldest story of imperialist era: injustice in the colonies, on the periphery of the capitalist system, has immediate impact throughout the world. Just as British rule in India pre-figured fascism and north American racist genocides inspired the Nazis, so does the daily example of ruthless racism in Palestine show precisely what the rest of the ruling class has in store for us.
So long as Israel exists none of us- of any race or religion- will be free.

Posted by: bevin | Jan 9 2020 18:45 utc | 31

–There historically has been extremely bad blood between the Bahai’is, whom Iran considers an outsider-driven political cult dedicated to overthrowing the government vaguely similar to the MEK, and the Iranian government, whom the Bahai’is (correctly) consider to be genocidal towards them, and they hate with a passion. Iran has offered to take out Haifa, a Bahai’i enclave in Israel, as a demonstration if further hostilities continue. So a logically possible alternative is that the jetliner was downed by a Bahai’i, perhaps with CIA backing.

Posted by: Imagine | Jan 9 2020 18:51 utc | 33

“So long as Israel exists none of us- of any race or religion- will be free.” bevin 31
Exactly, importantly, excruciatingly correct. Nor will any of us be safe, prosperous – or have a chance to have a future worth living. I emphatically do NOT join up with those who are happy or relieved that ‘greater conflict was avoided and tensions have returned to merely ever-simmer’.
I say shame on us all for kicking this can down the road for our grandchildren to have to pay the price. Just how ignoble are we to be happy to pass this buck to innocents???????????????

Posted by: Phryne’s frock | Jan 9 2020 19:03 utc | 35

Hi first time commentor on here. With all that is happening in the U.S right now I can’t help but think that it’s past time for the people to reassert their power over the National security state, as unrealistic as that might sound. The Anti war movement is ideologically divided between progressives and libertarian/paleoconservatives, so a political party would not likely be the answer. Instead perhaps we should consider a grassroots movement to amend the constitution to guarantee U.S neutrality in world affairs(banning both the arming or financing of foreign belligerents) and to ban the Federal government from having a standing military force except in times of actual war. I don’t know what chance either would have of actually being passed, but it might at least force a debate on these issues in a way that might resonate better with the average American. Just thought I’d throw that out there. Peace and Solidarity

Posted by: HarryOrd | Jan 9 2020 19:06 utc | 37

@Kali #22
Michael Hudson is not the only one who’s come to understand that maintaining the reserve-currency status of the US dollar (the “dollar hegemony”) is the primary goal of US foreign policy. Indeed, it’s been the primary goal of US foreign policy since the end of World War II, when the Bretton Woods agreement was put into effect. Notably, the Soviets ended up balking at that agreement, and the Cold War did not start until afterwards. This means that even the Cold War was not really about ideology – it was about money.
It’s also important to note that the point of the “petrodollar” is to ensure that petroleum – one of the most globally traded commodities and a commodity that’s fundamental to the global economy – is traded primarily, if not exclusively, in terms of the US dollar. Ensuring that as much global/international trade happens in US dollars helps ensure that the US dollar keeps its reserve-currency status, because it raises the foreign demand for US dollars.

Posted by: Cynica | Jan 9 2020 19:20 utc | 39

Finally, a report on the nefarious oil company spending against climate change: Guardian report
Unfortunately, the report is really weak:

Over roughly the last three decades, five major US oil companies have spent a total of at least $3.6bn on advertisements – not counting their investments in public relations programs like sponsored beach clean-ups, or their influence through trade associations, dark money groups and campaign donations.

$3.6 billion for advertising in 3 decades = $120 million a year. Even if all of this spend was specifically for anti-climate change whatever, this is nothing compared to say, Greenpeace’s annual budget alone Greenpeace 2016 financial statement Note that the 80 million euro = $100M is just for the international Greenpeace org; the individual country orgs increase total budget by at least 60% more. Then there’s WWF, NRDC, EDF, UNEP, list goes on and on and on.
For that matter, I have never seen an oil company anti-climate change ad. Has anyone?
Greenwashing, certainly: Chevron/Exxon cares about the environment, etc. That’s not anti-climate change spend though.
The idea that the evil oil companies are subsidizing anti-climate change sentiment continues to be completely unsupported.

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 9 2020 19:29 utc | 41

@ Posted by: Cynica | Jan 9 2020 19:20 utc | 38
I agree that, today, protecting the Dollar Standard is the main national security objective of the USA. That is so because issuing the universal fiat currency is a conditio sine qua non of keeping the financial superpower status.
I also agree that the Petrodollar is the base that sustains the Dollar Standard.
But I disagree with the rest:
1) the Cold War didn’t begin in 1945, but in 1917 – right after the October Revolution. There’s overwhelming documental evidence of that and, in fact, the years of 1943-1945 was the only break it had. Until Stalingrad, the Western allies were still waiting to see if the USSR and the Third Reich could still mutually anihilate themselves (yes, it is a myth the Allies were really allies from 1939, but that’s not a very simple demonstration);
2) in the aftermath of WWII, the USA emerged as both the industrial and financial superpower in the capitalist world (i.e. the West). But this was an accidental – and very unlikely – alignment of events. The USA always had imperial ambitions from its foundation (the Manifest Destiny), but there’s no evidence it was scheming to dominate the world before 1945. The American ascension was more a fruit of the European imperial superpowers destroying themselves than by any American (or Jewish, as the far-right likes to speculate) design;
3) the USSR had nothing to do with Bretton Woods. BW was a strictly capitalist affair. And it could not be any difference: the USSR was a socialist country, therefore, it didn’t have money-capital (money in the capitalist system has three functions: reserve of value, means of exchange and means of payment). The only way it had to trade with the capitalist half of the world was to exchange essential commodities (oil) for hard currency, with which it bought what it needed for its own development (mainly, high technological machines which it could copy and later develop on). So, the USSR didn’t “balk” at BW – it was literally impossible for it to pertain to the agreement.

Posted by: vk | Jan 9 2020 19:35 utc | 43

@ Posted by: vk | Jan 9 2020 19:35 utc | 42
Correction: the three functions of money in capitalism are reserve/store of value, means of exchange and unit of account. I basically wrote “means of exchange” twice in the original comment.

Posted by: vk | Jan 9 2020 19:40 utc | 45

Cynica @38–
Hello! Michael Hudson first set forth the methodology of the Outlaw US Empire’s financial control of the world via his book Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire in 1972. In 2003, he issued an updated edition which you can download for free here.
If you’re interested, here’s an interview he gave while in China that’s autobiographical. And here’s his most recent Resume/CV/Bibliography, although it doesn’t go into as much detail about his recent work as he does in … and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure, and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year, which for me is fascinating.
His most recent TV appearances are here and here.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 9 2020 19:45 utc | 47

@Cynica #38
Financially, the US dollar as reserve currency is enormously beneficial to the US government’s ability to spend.
And oil has historically been both a tactical and a strategic necessity; when the US was importing half its oil, this is a lot of money. 8 million bpd @ $50/barrel = $146B. Add in secondary value add like transport, refining, downstream industries, etc and it likely triples the impact or more – but this is only tactical.
Worldwide, the impact is 10X = $1.5 trillion annually. Sure, this is a bit under 10% of the $17.7T in world trade in 2017, but it serves as an “anchor tenant” to the idea of world reserve currency. A second anchor is the overall role of US trade, which was $3.6T in 2016 (imports only).
If we treat central bank reserves as a proxy for currency used in trade, this means 60%+ of the $17.7T in trade is USD. $3.6T is direct, but the $7 trillion in trade that doesn’t impact the US is the freebie. To put this in perspective, the entire monetary float of the USD domestically is about $3.6T.
USD as world reserve currency literally doubles (at least) the float – from which the US government can issue debt (money) to fund its activities. In reality, it is likely a lot more since foreigners using USD to fund trade means at least some USD in Central Banks, plus the actual USD in the transaction, plus corporate/individual USD reserves/float.
Again, nothing above is formally linked – I just wanted to convey an idea of just how advantageous the petrodollar/USD as world trade reserve currency really is.

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 9 2020 19:58 utc | 49

@Ian2 #43
Yes, the development is interesting because it is a direct offshoot of Left Coast states and cities defying US federal mandates on immigration.
Thus counties in Virginia have the precedent to defy state mandates.
I wonder how far down this will extend?

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 9 2020 20:00 utc | 51

c1ue | Jan 9 2020 20:00 utc | 50:
Apparently there’s going to be a rally on Jan 20 in Richmond between 8AM to 1PM around the General Assembly Building. More info HERE.

Posted by: Ian2 | Jan 9 2020 20:12 utc | 53

Not sure what to make of this news exactly, but it seems the organ-grinders are getting into action again…
Trudeau claims ‘Intel from multiple sources’ points at Iran shooting down Ukrainian Boeing

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Jan 9 2020 20:13 utc | 55

@c1ue #49
Indeed, the reserve-currency status of the US dollar has been referred to as the US’s “exorbitant privilege”. It essentially allows the US to consume more than it produces (with the rest of the world making up the difference).

Posted by: Cynica | Jan 9 2020 20:25 utc | 57

Posted by: Cynica | Jan 9 2020 20:16 utc | 56

1. It does not seem accurate to posit that the Cold War began once the October Revolution occurred.

You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT !!!! Business is Business.
As I hate writing about these people I will just include this that I came across in some comments about this period. I must say it was an interesting shock for me.

Dear Comrade Hammer!
Excuse me please; I have been very ill; now I am much, much better.
Many thanks for Your present—a very kind letter from American comrades and friends who are in prison. I enclose for You my letter to Comrade Zinoviev or for other comrades in Petrograd if Zinoviev has left Petrograd.
My best wishes for the full success of Your first concession: such success would be of great importance also for trade relations between our Republic & United States.
Thanking You once more. I beg to apologise for my bad English. Please address letters & telegrams to my secretary (Fotieva or Smolianinoff). I shall instruct them.[1]
Yours truly,
Lenin

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/may/11b.htm
McCarthy was right but being alone he had no chance.

Posted by: Tom_LX | Jan 9 2020 20:30 utc | 59

@Tom_LX #54
No worries – it may well be my writing style, too 🙂
“tactical”: When the US was the largest importer of oil in the world, this fact made the petrodollar much more likely. The biggest customer drives the terms. However, because of shale fracking for oil, this is no longer true. The biggest importer of oil is now China – and China has many reasons why it would not want to subsidize a belligerent nation that is confronting China at every turn.
“worldwide”: the world actually consumes a bit under 100 million bpd. The former US oil imports of around 8 million bpd, at $50/barrel – is multiplied by 10 to approximate the total USD value of world annual oil consumption. The actual number is tricky and isn’t “100 million bpd x $50 x 365” because lots of oil isn’t actually bought/sold: the Middle Eastern producers consume a lot of oil “for free”, for example, but I use $1.5 trillion as a rough approximation of just how many petrodollars there might be due to the oil trade.
“anchor tenant”: tactical above describes a reason why the petrodollar was formed – in reality, it is a lot more complex. In reality, the petrodollar arose because of the US closing the gold window/exiting Bretton Woods I. But because the US was both largest oil importer and largest single trade partner (before the EU was formed) – this is a very significant reason why the standards came to be. And so long as they both hold true (largest trader, largest oil importer), these facts would prevent anyone from displacing the USD in its existing position much as anchor tenants in a mall bring more traffic to all the stores. If you subtract an anchor tenant, however – in this case, US oil imports and US largest trade nation (Still true, EU and China are about 2/3rds volume of US), then it would be unsurprising if fewer people went to that mall (or wanted to use USD for trade).
“central bank reserves as proxy for currency” – I’ve looked for, but have never found any credible data which shows just how much of world trade is denominated in USD vs Euros or whatever. However, I make these assumptions
1) that the central bankers in each country have some idea of how much of their trade is USD denominated
2) that the central bankers hold USD in reserve to protect liquidity and flows for these operations
So that’s what I meant: USD as central bank reserves is around 60%, meaning likely 60% of all world trade is USD denominated.
Hope this helps.

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 9 2020 20:54 utc | 61

Pat Lang sees the light (finally).
Only months ago, pl would’ve rebuked, censured, or banned someone that made a “TDS” comment like this:

Trump offered Iran peace negotiations in his post Iran strike speech? No. He did not. He once again offered them the opportunity to surrender to Israeli demands relayed to them by the US.
Now, he is transformed into just another neocon, in fact the neocon in chief.

Hey pl, you’ve been part of the problem. Welcome back to reality.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jan 9 2020 21:04 utc | 63

Posted by: c1ue | Jan 9 2020 20:54 utc | 61
Yes it did !!!
I mull over it for a day and if new questions come up I know who to ask 🙂
Thank you.

Posted by: Tom_LX | Jan 9 2020 21:09 utc | 65

@ Posted by: Cynica | Jan 9 2020 20:16 utc | 56
My replica, in order.
1) yes, cooperation happened after the Civil War ended, but it was mainly individual endeavors with individual American capitalists that require herculean effort from exceptional diplomats. This pattern repeated with the European powers. Not only these isolated cooperations didn’t happen with the blessing of the USG, but it is known the Americans had a plan to completely bankrupt Soviet Russia by stipulating only gold was accepted in trade with the USA.
The American anti-communist operation during the first half of WWII was very sophisticated. It pretended it didn’t have enough resources to effectively help the USSR and gave only token supplies until 1942. Meanwhile, everytime Molotov urged the Americans to open a second front in the west, the American diplomats always conditioned it with the end of Lend Lease to the USSR. There is an overabundance of documentation on the Soviet side that prove beyond reasonable doubt they were certain the West planned to let them bleed the most possible, so they could march gloriously later over two corpses.
This double-faced politics rapidly ended after Stalingrad – after which it became very clear the USSR not only would win the war, but march to the entire European Peninsula. Suddenly, the Americans had a lot of high-octane fuel, a lot of spam and a lot of trucks to give to the Soviets, all the while also opening a second front.
And yes, I consider the Red Scare period as the first Cold War.
2) Yes, the main factor was that it would be impossible to draft American men to fight for nazism against the British. But the main reason the USA drew a red line on the UK was for it national security: the Americans have a doctrine that stipulates its real frontiers in the west and south lie in a crescent in the North Atlantic, that goes from the UK to the northeastern coast of Brazil (therefore, also engulfing the entire Caribbean). This means that the mere fact the Third Reich could deploy its submarines in Gibraltar or anywhere in the northern Atlantic would mean an attack on American soil.
The Americans had a plan of defense in depth: the first line of defence would be the UK itself and its Royal Navy (RN). If the RN failed, the second line of defense would be the islands of the Caribbean and northeastern Brazil. Luckily, the UK didn’t fall, so it was never necessary to activate the Latin American line of defense.
A curiosity: the first baseball game ever played in Brazil happened because of that. A deal was made for the construction of American military bases in Brazil and, in one of those bases (Natal), American soldiers played the first baseball game in the country’s history. It is also very possible the first ever American Football game was also played in Natal, although there’s no documental evidence for that.
3) Bretton Woods lasted only 27 years. It wasn’t sustainable even in the capitalist system itself – let alone in a capitalist-socialist system.
The problem with Bretton Woods was that it was essentially the gold standard with extra steps. The gold standard has a fatal flaw in capitalism, which is that it is a deflationary system: as capitalism produces more and more commodities, the gold production stagnates (until it would eventually stop, since the amount of gold on planet Earth is finite). That results in falling prices over time, which will erode profits. The capitalists then react to this by stopping production – for the simple fact you can’t print gold (therefore, devaluing it). This results in cyclical famines in capitalism, where many workers died.
The gold standard only survived for so much time for two reasons:
a) it existed in an era there was no democracy (i.e. no universal suffrage), so the governments could inflict heavy losses on the working classes without worrying being voted out and
b) there were at least three big discoveries of gold reserves at pivotal moments of its history (California, Australia and South Africa). The California gold rush, by the way, culminated with the American Civil War of 1861-1865.
A big crisis during the gold standard era was the likely cause of the eruption of the French Revolution of 1789. The riots were likely triggered by the lack of bread in the market (and the stratospheric prices of the few that still existed), and not the storming of the Bastille, as many liberal historians like to tell us.

Posted by: vk | Jan 9 2020 21:10 utc | 67

@William Gruff #68
Something similar to #2 is the case – Iran has been less than completely loyal to the “dollar hegemony” and “Western” business interests since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Posted by: Cynica | Jan 9 2020 21:19 utc | 69

US Media HAS TO DOWNPLAY Al Assad bombing.
Else Raytheon, Lokheed stocks down the drain.
So, put on some Boeing in Teheran soap opera to distract 24/7.
Though Boeing an US corp too. So, lose lose for the US during “win-win” Trump presidency. WHO bennefits other than “Yinon” project?

Posted by: Qparticle | Jan 9 2020 21:24 utc | 71

@ Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 9 2020 21:14 utc | 68
Certainly for geopolitical reasons.
Today’s conflicts in the Middle East have nothing to do with religion (e.g. Israel is allied with Saudi Arabia).

Posted by: vk | Jan 9 2020 21:47 utc | 73

Al Assad
Possible candided for US Navy EM warfare experiments forward base.
Google: “m.i.r.a.g.e : microwave ionosphere reconfiguration ground based emitter”
Mobile plasma screen shooting EMR at sounding rockets particle trails.
System fits in a simple trailer or shipping container. Israel has a small ballistic missile LORA which can be used as high capacity trail dispenser, also fits in to small containers. Can also be loaded on commercial ships. coms – radar Jamming, more effective monitoring, weather mod on demand.
Stealling Iran’s clouds, but also if deployed on a nexus, Turkey, Lybia, Iraq, Afghanistan, China, Russia borders, the Med too.

Posted by: Qparticle | Jan 9 2020 22:09 utc | 75

IRGC commander pinpoints US bases aroun Iran.
https://youtu.be/J5jdr1D12rc
Note: First base shown is in Qatar.
Americans hastily started moving out from there since Iraq’s Al Assad base attack.
THEY GOT THE MSG!

Posted by: Qparticle | Jan 9 2020 22:22 utc | 77

William Gruff
War with Iran is the goal Israel and neocons have had for many decades. I thought that fact was obvious here to be honest.

Posted by: Zanon | Jan 9 2020 22:32 utc | 79

@vk
The Australian right-wing, backed up by the Murdoch media, should not try to pull a Nero and try to blame a random group of ineffective ecologists in a shameful witchhunt.
But you know they will because they own, run and dig up the joint. Neoliberalism married to two centuries of colonial-settler exploitation—it’s wonder they haven’t concreted over the bush yet. “If it wasn’t for those bloody trees mate, the place’d be a paradise!” No trees, no fires, no worries—that’s the National Party motto (almost).

Posted by: Patroklos | Jan 9 2020 23:00 utc | 81

vk@15
‘The Australian government itself agrees with me and the Chinese:’
So what. So do corporate executives- see the problem with this?
The Chinese have privatized water rights and had the AU government build dams to contribute to the ‘fuel’. In addition, arson, mining and in general criminal mismanagement of the land are explicit contributing factors. Citing climate change as the key is spurious at best and criminal at worst. Consider your sources ffs.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/77-cfos-say-stock-market-overvalued-even-they-order-record-stock-buybacks
‘And just to keep everyone distracted from this great discrepancy, CFOs had a convenient scapegoat on which to “focus”: global warming. According to Deloitte, CFOs were also asked about climate change, with more than 70% saying they are under some pressure from stakeholders to take preventive actions. Perhaps that “action” is to buyback their own stock?’
https://www.smh.com.au/national/arson-mischief-and-recklessness-87-per-cent-of-fires-are-man-made-20191117-p53bcl.html

Posted by: Chris S | Jan 10 2020 0:07 utc | 83

Below is a ZH link to a posting about Occupied Palestine attacking supposed Iranian forces on the border with Iraq and Syria today
Israel Bombs Weapons Depot Run By Iranian Militia
The take away quote
”
Sources claimed that the airstrikes were targeting weapons shipments, according to the Washington Post. The Kataib Imam Ali, an Iran-backed militia, was apparently moving weapons, possibly in preparation for a strike against US interests.
Al Mayadeen reported that the strikes targeted ballistic missile warehouses run by the group. The warehouse was situated outside of the city of Al Bukamal
”
There is more warfare to come but the direction is good. At some point Occupied Palestine will start losing all their jets to defensive S-300 or S-400 equipment……6 months is a guess to Iraq for delivery and installation that just might be speeded up for some reason.
Interesting times.
Is Saudi Arabia working behind empire back on a ME deal?
Just like I hope that both North and South Korea kick out the problem with their relationship………

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 10 2020 1:59 utc | 85

@1
Adam Green is a limited hangout and pied piper to lead those curious about the big Q towards white nationalism.

Posted by: m00n_cricket | Jan 10 2020 2:55 utc | 87

@ 63 jackrabbit.. you missed my post @ 58 where i said much the same thing!
@ 68 william gruff… number 2 obviously.. it is always about money and maintaining the us$ dominance on the planet..

Posted by: james | Jan 10 2020 3:57 utc | 89

Zarif from Iran was not able to come speak to the UN directly but his words were delivered by Iran’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi as detailed in the Xinhuanet story below:
”
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday told the United Nations Security Council that one “unhinged” regime is frantically clamoring to turn back time and explicitly pointed the finger at the United States in his speech.
Zarif, whose visa was denied by the United States which made him impossible to attend in person the Security Council ministerial-level open debate on the topic of “Maintenance of international peace and security upholding the UN Charter,” told the meeting, through the delivering of Iran’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi, that “the world is at a crossroads: with the end of monopolies on power, one unhinged regime is frantically clamoring to turn back time.”
“This has meant more damaging American unilateralism in defiance of international norms and law, most recently a dastardly targeted assassination of the heroes who were the nightmare of groups such as ISIS,” said Zarif.
“Since the regime’s inauguration, more and more threats and attacks against the people of Iran and other sovereign nations in utter disregard of the Charter. It now even seeks to emulate the war crimes of Daesh (also known as ISIL, Islamic State, or ISIS), menacing the cultural heritage of the millennia-old civilization of Iran,” said Zarif.
“Our January 8th, action against an air base in Iraq from which the cowardly armed attack against martyr (Qassem) Soleimani was launched, was a measured and proportionate response to a terrorist attack, in the exercise of our inherent right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter,” he said.
Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad airport on Friday. In retaliation, Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq on Tuesday, which U.S. President Donald Trump said resulted in no American or Iraqi casualties.
“This rogue U.S. regime has withdrawn from several landmark accords, including the Paris Agreement, the INF Treaty, and not least, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). That, in an open affront to this very Council, has involved unprecedented and unlawful U.S. punishment of anyone who attempts to comply with Resolution 2231, which unequivocally endorses the JCPOA,” said the Iranian top diplomat.
Also in his speech, Zarif blasted what he called the U.S. economic terrorism and said the U.S. regime has adopted “mob tactics to expand or gain market share” in the face of the increasing diversification of the sources of power.
“In the case of my own country, U.S. economic terrorism has involved the strangulation of access of ordinary Iranians to food and medicine as well as use of illegal unilateral sanctions to give American oil a foothold in Asia,” said the foreign minister.
“No one is spared from this malign behavior, as evidenced by how the U.S. approaches global trade – including its targeting of European infrastructure to force the entry of its own natural gas,” said Zarif.
“The question amidst this rogue behavior is how to protect the UN Charter,” the Iranian diplomat said.
“For if other states become ‘passive unilateralists; if they succumb to unilateralism in their bilateral relationships or compromise Charter principles for the sake of short-term gains or the avoidance of immediate harm, they inadvertently encourage the lawless unilateralist to bully them,” Zarif added.
“To protect multilateralism, we must never appease unilateralist regimes. We need political will as well as an instrument that will safeguard the values, principles and multilateralism enshrined in the Charter,” said Zarif.
Zarif called for renewed commitment to the Charter, “particularly non-intervention in internal or external affairs and prohibition of the threat or use of force.”
He also urged rejecting all coercive unilateral measures including sanctions as unlawful, entailing international responsibility, including financial responsibility to compensate for damages imposed on the target and third countries.
The top Iranian diplomat urged assigning international criminal responsibility for obstructing in any way, shape or form humanitarian trade.
He noted that Iran is dedicated to multilateralism and committed to the Charter and its principles.
“Our commitment to the JCPOA as well as our most recent inclusive initiative to promote peace and security in the Persian Gulf region (Hormuz Peace Endeavor, or ‘HOPE’) prove our strategic approach,” he said.
In reaction to the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 Iranian nuclear deal in May 2018 and the subsequent sanctions, and in response to the Europe’s sluggishness in facilitating Iran’s banking transactions and its oil exports, Iran, since May 2019, has made stage-by-stage moves away from its nuclear commitments.
Iran on Sunday announced the fifth and final step to drop its commitments pertaining to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal after U.S. killing of Soleimani. Iran also said it would continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and remain ready to re-embrace its nuclear commitments if anti-Iran sanctions were removed and its economic interests under the nuclear deal were secured.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 10 2020 4:19 utc | 91

Another juicy bit of 737 max news for @b and @fellow barflies. Perhaps not as urgent as the other current news (middle east), but nonetheless another arrow into the heart of Boeing… More Very Incriminating Boeing Correspondence

Posted by: retiredmecheng | Jan 10 2020 4:51 utc | 93

ben
Trumpor empire.. they may have different priorities. For Trump, the Tehran embassy hostage drama makes Iran the worst of the worst. They embarrassed his exceptional country.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2020 6:42 utc | 95

@ CarlD | Jan 9 2020 21:19 utc | 70
I apologize for OT.
Is self-evident 737 blew engine below “The minimum control speed (VMC)”.
See wiki. Generally this results in a yaw-roll toward the failed engine and the aircraft hitting the ground upside down. Poor maintenance, defective design, foreign material ingestion. There are photographs of the compressor wheels online that show severe blade erosion.

Posted by: Walter | Jan 10 2020 9:29 utc | 97

ben @ 92

Iran trading oil outside the petrodollar system and potentially representing a development model that competes with western values capitalism.”

Nah, Washington is still bitter about the occupation of the U.S. Embassy and the overthrow of the Shah. Yasha Levine has tweeted repeatedly about how Washington weaponizes immigrant against the countries they come from but it’s a two way street. Recent immigrants who are often people who wielded political power in their former countries know that the most reliable way to regain that power is to persuade Washington to back them. For example, many leading Nazis in Eastern Europe fled to the United States after their defeat but because they were anti-communist, they achieved positions of influence in Washington and with the collapse of the Soviet Union, they spread that influence back to Eastern Europe. Same with the former Yugoslavia. With the overthrow of the Shah, the same has happened with Iran. Washington has never accepted the result of the revolution and has always regarded the Islamic Republic as an interregnum until normal service is resumed with the monarchy.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 10 2020 12:55 utc | 99