Paul Rogers Craig is no longer a credible source of analysis. Much like his attempts to explain away his “trickle down economics” and his entire lunacy on the causes of the US war to preserve the union and free the slave–he adds nothing but obfuscation–NO ONE EVER SAID THE VACINES PREVENTED INFECTION–when the virus began spreading under Trump- I referred to it as the Trump virus. Other pointed out it was the “boomer broom”. Now of course in the US it is “the Red death”. Another 2560 unvaccinated Americans died today from the “red death”.

Posted by: wobblie | Sep 15 2021 18:52 utc | 3

Snake@1
This should be interesting because i get the distinct impression they do not want to talk about that round here.

Posted by: simon crow | Sep 15 2021 19:06 utc | 5

my post is tied up in moderation.. first time that has happened in a long time… worldometers link and a Geert Vanden Bossche link.. hopefully it shows up later..

Posted by: james | Sep 15 2021 19:07 utc | 7

Very interesting interview by Jimmy Dore of Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA. I am very pro vaccination, but this really made me think about the right balance between vaccines, ivermectin, masks, lockdowns etc.
So refreshing how Jimmy lets him talk for a while at the beginning to set the stage, a comedian does a much better job of being a journalist than any of the MSM people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPKnOhJRYg

Posted by: Roger | Sep 15 2021 19:43 utc | 9

Below is a short but telling quote from a ZH piece
”
Bipartisan lawmakers on Friday unveiled a bill that seeks to freeze taxpayer-funding for gain-of-function research for a period of five years.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 15 2021 19:52 utc | 11

Posted by: snake | Sep 15 2021 18:32 utc | 1
Very interesting links.
Paul Craig Roberts analogy with the Lysenko case in the USSR is quite appropriate, and the first time I hear about it. When I read it sort of reacted like wow!, how come I did not think about that earlier? Actually it is even worse than the Lysenko case, the price then was to fall behind in genetics and cybernetics, plus brilliant scientists like Vavilov lost their lives, now we are talking about the lives of millions if not billions.

Posted by: Paco | Sep 15 2021 19:59 utc | 13

Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 15 2021 19:59 utc | 13
As an Australian I read this shit and weep. Those submarines have been a sinkhole of corruption, incompetence, grifting and stupidity. It was originally $25B, then blew out to 40, then 50, now 90. And now we’re going to dump it and start again. The French deal also requires us to pay a proportion of the costs if we renege on the deal. Meanwhile a woman in Perth whose mother had passed away was sent a ‘Final Demand Or Else’ letter from the federal government for $1500. Apparently her mother was overpaid a welfare benefit back in 2009. Excuse my French, but our leaders and bureaucrats here are arch-fuckwits of the first order.

Posted by: Patroklos | Sep 15 2021 20:19 utc | 15

…and while I’m here: what’s going on with Evergrande? What do the China-watchers make of this? Exaggerated my the MSM?

Posted by: Patroklos | Sep 15 2021 20:22 utc | 17

@ 5; This is an open forum, say what you want to say. Doesn’t mean people must read it.

Posted by: vetinLA | Sep 15 2021 20:40 utc | 19

Posted by: Susan | Sep 15 2021 19:46 utc | 9
Thanks for the feedback, I am glad you enjoyed the article. The links are informative too. I’ll be buying McCoy’s new book too. He is a brilliant writer and historian.
I have a number of his books. Some of his books are not even mentioned anymore and are not available except for rare booksellers. I remember when McCoy was a history lecturer in Sydney decades ago. He is also an authority on Australian crime and was often interviewed on radio.
Importantly, China achieved its victory without firing a shot or deploying one soldier. A skilful combination of soft power and economic clout.
Meanwhile, the US squandered trillions on destruction while China built, created and enhanced its reputation.
I say to those in doubt, have a look at the scoreboard.

Posted by: Paul | Sep 15 2021 20:50 utc | 21

Susan @9
Fred Reed explains the difference well.
https://www.facebook.com/BeastNR/posts/351877306621010

Posted by: Ron McKenzie | Sep 15 2021 20:53 utc | 23

According to Daily Mail, Biden says he fully supports Milley.

Posted by: Lysias | Sep 15 2021 21:01 utc | 25

Paul @20–
Meanwhile, the US squandered trillions on destruction…
No, the trillions went to the top .1% as detailed by the two Keiser Reports and interview with Dr. Hudson I link @23. What many barflies don’t seem to understand is that it’s part of the plan, that the “squandering” is completely deliberate. And I say the same to Patroklos @14–the subs have zero to do with defense and everything to do with oligarch enrichment at the public’s expense.
If the collective bar can handle it, here’s Kit Klarenberg’s review of the “newly released ‘Profits of War’ report from Brown University [that] has revealed in staggering detail the full extent of the corruption unleashed by Washington’s profligate defense spending during the 20-year War on Terror.” And of course, it’s not just the Outlaw US Empire but all of NATO and other associated vassals like Australia. This also was part of the topic of the two Keiser Reports. The 23 page Brown University Report can be accessed here.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 15 2021 21:14 utc | 27

Patroklos @16: “what’s going on with Evergrande?”
Nope, not exaggerated, but the fallout from it might not be in the direction that the mass media is wishcasting. We’re probably looking at a couple hundred $billion evaporating from global finance’s balance sheets like morning mist before the rising sun.
Note that I used a US dollar sign ($) there and not the yuan symbol (¥). That is intentional and reflects the fact that much of the liabilities are denominated in US dollars. If we consider the current “tension” between the US and China, along with the recent assertion by President Xi that “…housing is for living in and not for speculation”, as well as the moves over the last couple years in China to drive their own currency out of the domestic real estate speculation markets, the probability is that the Chinese government is NOT going to bail out investors speculators, the majority of whom are foreign anyway. Tangible assets will be nationalized and liquidated at fire sale prices, but note Xi’s words: “…housing is for living in and not for speculation”. I strongly suspect that the vulture capitalists will be kept far away from those irresistibly sweet real estate sales with liquidated properties only going to buyers who will hold onto them long term.
Basically, I suspect the Chinese will be handling the collapse of Evergrande in precisely an opposite fashion to how Wall Street is desperately hoping.
“B-b-b-but $billions will disappear from China’s GDP! They can’t do that!”
Meh, it’s just speculation money anyway. It’s actually healthy to blow that scum off the surface of the economy every now and then. Unfortunately for America, though, most of that scum is in the form of dollar denominated financial instruments. Furthermore, unlike China, the solid majority of the USA’s GDP is only so much speculation scum. To say that the reverberations from Evergrande defaulting to death will “put additional strain on the US economy” is humor of understatement.
If China decides that it is no longer worthwhile to try and be nice to the psycho empire then there will be no bailout of Evergrande and instead its assets will be carefully liquidated. Done properly (and I have no reason to suspect otherwise) the whole process will result in a very large transfer of tangible wealth to the average Zhou.
Short version: The death of Evergrande will hurt the USA far more than it will China, and in fact it may end up not hurting China at all except briefly.

Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 15 2021 21:31 utc | 29

Posted by: Paul | Sep 15 2021 18:48 utc | 2
Thanks for the McCoy reference Paul. His output is brilliant but I had no idea he taught at UNSW in the 80s! Just pre-ordered his new book, it looks like perfect summer reading——let’s hope the lockdown is over by then eh? I’m in a western Sydney LGA and it’s getting very tedious. I’d give anything to go to a cafe with a good book for a few hours… this may very well be the book.

Posted by: Patroklos | Sep 15 2021 21:42 utc | 31

@ Paul #2
Returning the favour: this book is a devastating and utterly depressing analysis of the decline of academia under neoliberalism
https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341064/dark-academia/

Posted by: Patroklos | Sep 15 2021 21:44 utc | 33

@Piotr Berman (27)
Let’s hope for some rightly vectored thrusts of winds, that may force him right smack in the harbour of Scheveningen, the picturesque fishers’ town next to The Hague…

Posted by: bjd | Sep 15 2021 21:53 utc | 35

@ Posted by: Patroklos | Sep 15 2021 20:22 utc | 16
I’m reposting the article here:
Evergrande’s crisis does not pose ‘systemic risk,’ won’t change housing regulations: experts
Long story short, it won’t be a Chinese version of 2008. The secret here is that Evergrande is indebted directly, so there isn’t a house of cards to fall, but just a big company that will go bust. As with every big company that goes bust, a lot of jobs will be lost, but it will not be a structural crisis.
The Evergrande bankruptcy process is important because there are a lot of economists who share some kind of variation of the theory that China is a normal capitalist country and that, as such, it will collapse and thus fall victim of the “middle income trap” through the detonation of a housing market meltdown a la USA 2008.

Posted by: vk | Sep 15 2021 22:36 utc | 37

Posted by: Roger | Sep 15 2021 19:43 utc | 8
Yes, a very good talk with Malone. Dore may be a better journalist than comedian even :).
It was nice to get confirmation from Malone on most of my arguments for the past year on this COVID debacle, where “common sense” was the tool I most used to figure things out. The underlying logic of most of Malone’s arguments should be obvious to at least anyone with any kind of background in science and/or ability to think critically.
On the Weinstein panel that James linked a month ago, Malone had very little time to talk and was often interupted by the other guest, some businessman, I forget his name. Dore allows Malone to explain things carefully without interuption. Very well done.

Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Sep 15 2021 22:45 utc | 39

karlof1 | Sep 15 2021 20:55 utc | 23
Just thx you n MHudson serving up so much fresh air…rejuvenating

Posted by: chu teh | Sep 15 2021 22:51 utc | 41

I did not expect mayhem on 9/11. I think the psychological effect would be greater days or weeks later. Interestingly enough Yom Kippur is only a few days later this year 18:46 on 15 September 2021 when it is 11:46 in the eastern U.$ and runs for 25 hours. However, that is not all, the SCO meeting starts after it begins on 16th. Will there be serious bad Karma, real or manufactured on the Day of Atonement perhaps meant to derail the entry of Iran? Anyone else speculating about that possibility?

Posted by: William Haught | Sep 15 2021 23:52 utc | 43

Re: fnord | Sep 15 2021 19:18 utc | 7
If they wear burkas, is it less likely fake populist loud generation neocons like him will grab ’em by the meow?

Posted by: William Haught | Sep 16 2021 0:05 utc | 45

snake #1
New Afghanistan government? Same as the last Taliban Government perhaps?
https://www.memri.org/reports/memri-archives-turkish-president-erdo%C4%9Fans-past-close-relations-afghan-warlord-gulbuddin
Taliban have unsavory allies. But there are more ways than war to engage with them.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 0:11 utc | 47

I still don’t know what a repo is, but damn if this video doesn’t break down the relationship between the FED and the Shadow Banking system and why an inevitable interest rate rise will doom us all to a greater, great depression.
Time is running out. China and Russia, with their precious metal holdings, stand to inherit the reins on a global financial system.
Praise be to Jesus Christ. And may the Lord see to it everyday that when the greenback falls without a world cataclysmic war, which seems ever more likely.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 16 2021 0:34 utc | 49

AUKUS. Pronounced Orc Us.
Can they be any clearer? They are literally screaming that we are officially the bad guys.
Also, I noticed how the emphasized over and over again that the nuclear subs were nuclear powered, not armed. Ergo, since politicians only know how to lie, the obvious intent is for the subs to be nuclear armed to give the orcs ‘unofficial’ nukes to target China.

Posted by: JustAnotherAussie | Sep 16 2021 0:50 utc | 51

@45 William Haught
That’s an interesting point, so I did a little reading to check into it.
Nat gas is present in the geologic formations that also contain oil, but the well is drilled to extract primarily oil or primarily gas. One can extract nat gas (methane) from the well without extracting very much oil.
It is possible for oil production to fall a lot while nat gas production stays level or increases.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Sep 16 2021 1:02 utc | 53

@49 Karlof1
Thanks for those points. I spent a lot of time and emotion on the whole Peak Oil thing, and got blind-sided by fracking like many others…the supply of oil and gas didn’t fall; on the contrary, it rose a lot – at least in the short run.
It’s ironic that what actually seems to be happening is that the demand for oil is currently almost static, and will likely fall a lot as EVs gradually replace internal combustion engines (ICE) in auto fleets around the world.
And this is, apparently, just what will happen. The major manufacturers have made it clear that they see EVs as their future – something they absolutely have to do in order to remain commercially viable.
And since most of oil is used for motor fuel, the fact that the demand is very likely going to fall by a lot…changes a lot of things.
Of course it changes geopolitics; oil-producing countries and regions become progressively “not important”.
But the reduction in oil production has implications for the industry in most developed economies. Oil is feedstock for the petro-chem biz, and those petro-chems are used in a lot of products. Think about plastic – it’s in darn near everything. Plastics are made from oil. Aviation fuel and diesel fuel, bunker fuel, etc. would all become more expensive if gasoline wasn’t in demand.
Even ethanol factories would become obsolete here in the U.S. If there’s not much gasoline being sold, why produce ethanol? You wouldn’t. Ethanol is big, big biz in the U.S. mid-west corn-producing states.
There’s a lot of corollary effects, Karlof1, not just the geopolitics thing. Might be some big economic effects, too.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Sep 16 2021 1:25 utc | 55

William Haught #42

Will there be serious bad Karma, real or manufactured on the Day of Atonement perhaps meant to derail the entry of Iran? Anyone else speculating about that possibility?

Yes. Perhaps more like anticipating. I guess the SCO team have contingencies in place.
After all the room to move is narrowing, the need to maintain the annexation of Socotra is paramount in the USizzy mind. They never seem to leave these small island annoyances until chucked off. They are a bit like pus in a boil, need to be squeezed out forcefully.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 1:43 utc | 57

Roger @ 8,
Thanks for the link, it might be Dore’s most important guest ever. I’m looking forward to an update from Dr. Malone on the subject matter in the future.

Posted by: ReconFire | Sep 16 2021 1:54 utc | 59

Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 15 2021 21:31 utc | 28
…..Done properly (and I have no reason to suspect otherwise) the whole process will result in a very large transfer of tangible wealth to the average Zhou.
I chuckle at your funny spelling of Joe, but I guess in China Joe does spell as Zhou :-).
You got right. Most of Evergrande’s debts are denominated in $$$, traded on off-shore bond markets. We’ll see how this event unfolds.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Sep 16 2021 2:38 utc | 61

@50 I suspect that the phrase will be “built for but not with”.
There is no way the Australian government is going to be doing anything but buying off-the-shelf, because they can only be of the opinion that War Is Coming and there isn’t a moment to waste to get ready for it.
I mean, honestly, the air is thick with the smell of war. It is practically dripping off Biden, Bonkers Boris and Scottie-from-marketing.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Sep 16 2021 3:04 utc | 63

Two headlines in my newsfeed this morning:
Australia to acquire nuclear submarine fleet as part of historic deal with US and UK to counter China’s influence
And:
The culture in the grip of Instagram influencers can ruin lives and Facebook knows it. It’s time someone took responsibility
And what went through my admittedly still somewhat sleepy minds was: “Wow. Those Chinese infulencers must be really good. Wouldn’t it just be cheaper for Australia to just stay off Instagram?”
But I guess if Australia wants to compete in the lifestyle image department, nuclear subs are one way to go.

Posted by: Kukulkan | Sep 16 2021 3:48 utc | 65

Posted by: Patroklos | Sep 15 2021 21:42 utc | 30
Thanks, glad you appreciated the McCoy link and thanks for your book link. Another problem with higher edu is politicians pulling various levers in the hope the institutions will turn out graduates who think like themselves.
I think it might be another long hot summer in the heat bowl of Western Sydney, good luck.

Posted by: Paul | Sep 16 2021 4:29 utc | 67

From Paul’s Tomdispatch link at No 2:

“The key difference (between South Vietnam and Afghanistan) would seem to lie in the fading of America’s aura as the planet’s number one power and of its state-building capacities.”

The key difference is that South Vietnam was, though a shambolic and disintegrating country, still a country at war with another country. The puppet child sex slaver Quisling warlord regime army of the Amerikastani citizen Ashraf Ghani was asked to fight against its own people for a hyper corrupt and utterly vile Vichy regime that was the slave of a murderous foreign invader.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Sep 16 2021 4:40 utc | 69

Thanks to all those recommending the Jimmy Dore interview with Dr. Robert Malone – well worth the time. Also, to james @ 6, thank you for your attempted link; I hope it surfaces at some point. Dr. Malone mentioned with respect the efforts of Dr. Bossche, I was glad to see. And it was commenter John who gave a link to his line of worries about vaccination in a time of pandemic, so thanks to him also.
Very good interview, bravo to both participants.

Posted by: juliania | Sep 16 2021 4:50 utc | 71

trying one more time for a link that didn’t post earlier…
the last post long paper from geert vanden boosch

Posted by: james | Sep 16 2021 5:25 utc | 73

Philippine government warning:
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1153531

Posted by: Paul | Sep 16 2021 7:00 utc | 75

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Sep 16 2021 7:11 utc | 75
Australians are neither ‘chosen’, ‘exceptional,’ or ‘indispensable,’ unlike others.
But their leaders, at all three levels of governments, are very cheap to buy by world standards….
Too many examples spring to mind.
No Manifest Destiny either.

Posted by: Paul | Sep 16 2021 7:28 utc | 77

New Eastern Outlook has a take on the realignment of the USA vs Middle East and the Saudi shuffle in particular here. It is worth considering.

So, while Riyad may be using its ties with Moscow to force Washington to change its behaviour, it remains that the change in US position vis-à-vis Saudia is indicative of a broader shift the US is in the middle of introducing. For Washington, the locus of future rivalry is not going to be the Middle East, or even Europe. If China is the most important country that truly rivals Washington’s economic and military might, the locus of tussle is Southeast Asia/the Indo-pacific region, rather than the Middle East. Therefore, if the US is withdrawing from the Middle East, it is only responding to the changing global geo-political realities.
For the Saudis, too, the US’ changing priorities mean that the Kingdom needs to find allies and partners willing to set their foot in the Middle East. This includes both Russia and China.

Well perhaps they might be willing but I doubt that comes without conditions.
For one the Saudis might just have to end their relentless blitzkrieg against Yemen and perhaps use every effort to bring Israel into a peacemaking mindset rather than its current endless belligerence. If the Saudis think they can suddenly disrupt the emerging Iranian relationships with China and Russia, I believe they are mistaken.
Russia and China don’t actually need Saudi but could humour it along.
The FUKUSAUS submarine brain is likely to come to very little unless of course there is a new ‘Gulf of Ton-kin’ incident. I guess that is a likely chance.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 8:19 utc | 79

Tajikistan is happening now.

On September 16-17, the Tajik capital will host the jubilee summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), when it celebrates its 20th anniversary. The SCO is a regional international association whose full members are Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Four states have observer status – Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia; another six countries are in the organization as dialogue partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Since 2004, SCO has been an observer at the UN General Assembly. In 2021, Tajikistan holds the presidency of the organization. This year’s Dushanbe summit will be attended by many leaders of the organization’s member states. Their meetings on the margins of the summit are envisaged and agreed upon, making the Tajik capital a prominent venue for important international organizations meetings and discussions of not only current regional issues. During the forthcoming summit, it is expected that the procedure of inclusion of Iran as a full member of the SCO will begin.
However, especially frequent mentioning of Tajikistan in various mass media lately is conditioned by events in Afghanistan as well. Tajikistan is the only country bordering Afghanistan that has taken a stubborn stand against the current regime in Kabul, which consists entirely of Taliban fighters (a terrorist organization banned in Russia).

More on this at New Eastern Outlook.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 9:02 utc | 81

Ken McCallum is an interesting spook as head of MI5 with interesting mates and a past that is so truly Perfidious Albion that he would frighten a treacherous dog off.
He has brought us many silly things like novichok, the Skripals, Constable Bailey, Dawn Sturgess and the entire absurd fakery of Salisbury UK. He doesn’t like Russians either.
He recently threatened / forecast that UK was about to be visited by Urban Moving Systems 9/11 style terrorist attacks. On top of that he claimed: “that MI5 and the police have thwarted 31 ‘late-stage’ plots to attack Britain in the past four years, including six during the pandemic.”
Then this fabulous act of bravery: “Mr McCallum recalled the thwarted 2006 transatlantic airline plot to detonate liquid explosives on seven aircraft taking off from Heathrow, saying plots of that ‘spectacular’ magnitude had been less common due to 20-year effort to combat the terrorist threat from Afghanistan.”
He was venting at some function or other on the celebration solemn memorial occasion of the amazing flying prang into the world trade centre in New York. He has a thing about planes and bombs it seems. But he reassures us with these bedside words:- “‘There is no doubt that recent events in Afghanistan will have heartened and emboldened some of those extremists, and so being vigilant to precisely those kinds of risks is what my organisation is focused on, along with a range of other threats.’ Phew, I feel safer now.
Then in the same edition of this ‘newspaper’ one of his clever chums “Donna Jones, serious crime lead at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said: ‘I don’t think the increase (in heroin) is hitting Britain’s streets yet but I think it will do over the next six to 12 months… because of British and US forces not being [in Afghanistan] to control and regulate airports and borders.’
Dare I suggest that she and her forces are in the UK and can’t even control their own bloody airports and borders.
Oh yes, THAT heroin produced in THAT country who was luckily occupied by UKUSNATO forces for the past 20 years where the heroin production went from zero to 80% of the worlds supply immediately following the ‘occupation’ and ‘defeat’ of the Taliban. And this dumbarse copper has the gall to say that she doesn’t think the increase in heroin has hit the UK streets yet.
Now that is what I would call a world class intelligence service. As I recall the UK forces were in Helmand province, the place with the highest opium poppy cultivation in the entire country of Afghanistan.
The idiocy, the blatant propaganda of these twits and do the UK public actually drink this cool aid?

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 9:56 utc | 83

Post rant addendum:
Martin Jay at Strategic Culture was equally deranged as myself by the dopey remarks of the MI5 Chief and posted a solid report here.

One wonders if Britain’s MI5 chief, Ken McCallum is a real person or some banal technical creation of the boffins of the UK’s home security service. His recent comments about the Taliban giving rogue winnable terrorists around the world a moral boost after the calamity of the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan not only smacks of ‘stating the bleeding obvious’ but also of paternal baloney nefariously designed to distract the UK’s public attention away from the real issues.
Is McCallum actually the real boss of MI5 or the nerdy, hapless fake chief who is there merely to generate fake news in the UK press?

Worth a read and there is much more.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 10:05 utc | 85

Anglo-Turkish oil company Genel Energy has been the front-runner for Kurdish oil contracts and is unprepared to let go.

New documents show that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) still owes $137 million dollars to Genel Energy PLC, an Anglo-Turkish company that began exploiting Kurdistan’s oil fields just prior to the commencement of the US occupation of Iraq. The KRG owes the company this amount despite already paying Genel Energy $33.7 million dollars in June this year.
How international oil companies entered Iraqi Kurdistan
The development of hydrocarbons in Iraqi Kurdistan has been of tremendous importance for the political economy of the region. It has also been one of the main factors in allowing the Kurdish region the autonomy it enjoys today.

I am beginning to comprehend why there are Israeli trade offices in the Kurdish region of Iraq and why the current US ‘withdrawal’ is perplexing for some.

there has been extensive knowledge of the hydrocarbon resources present in the region for well over a century. The Chemchemal gas field was discovered as early as 1921, the Khor Mor gas field in 1953, the Demir Dagh oilfield in 1960, and the Taq Taq oilfield in 1978.
The earliest well to be drilled – called Chia Surkh – has existed since 1901.
Between 1991 and 2004, during the Kurdish struggle for independence, there was little exploration in Taq Taq for local use, but with sanctions imposed on Iraq by the UN, and amidst the uncertain political and security situation, no international company could operate in the region.
Certainly, the Kurds had neither the knowledge nor the resources to do so.
A Turkish company grabs oil rights right before the Iraq invasion
The 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein led to an influx of international companies into Kurdistan. Among these oil and gas operators were the Swiss Group Addax, Norway’s DNOASA, UAE’s Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, and Canada’s Western Zagros Resources.

The interconnections and treachery involved in stealing Iraq’s oil and gas are made clear: “The former British Petroleum (BP) chief executive running Genel Energy was followed in this scheme by major US oil companies Exxon Mobil, Chevron and others, bolstering Kurdish plans to break Baghdad’s control over oil shipments from the Kurdistan region.
“A driving force behind these maneuvers was Turkish President Erdogan’s determination to reduce his country’s dependence on Russian and Iranian oil imports and seek cheaper sources. In early 2013, Erdogan made a deal with KRG Prime Minister Nechivan Barzani to increase Turkish stakes in Kurdish oil and negotiate terms for the direct pipeline to Turkey.
“It was a blow to Iraq’s sovereignty, as the Turkish-Kurdish agreement would further diminish Baghdad’s oversight of its natural resources and its access to the funds derived from oil sales.”
Global piracy and plunder!

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 16 2021 10:29 utc | 87

Dammit…………sorry everyone
https://fivegunswest.blogspot.com/2021/09/instant-pharmas-gonna-get-youits-gonna.html

Posted by: Vlad Lennon | Sep 16 2021 10:31 utc | 89

@79 JD “So this AUKUS plan has no more clear a roadmap to actual subs than the original deal with now royally shafted French contractors?”
Oh, much less than that. Note that the (now shafted) French contractors actually had an actual contract. Signed ‘n’ all.
This, this not so much.
I am now of the opinion that this is all a pantomime. A puppet show to scream out the headlines that Scott Morrison wants, because what he wants are headlines to drown out the real news.
Which is this: he is cancelling an existing submarine project without really having anything to replace it.
So it’s all [blah] [blah] [blah] NUCLEAR SUBMARINES!!! [blah] [blah] [cancelling the French contract] [blah] [blah] DID I MENTION THE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES? [blah] [blah] AUUKUS PACT! [blah] [blah] [blah].
I mean, honestly, look at the Australian newspapers. In amongst all the pages of NUCLEAR SUBMARINES!!!! is there more than a line or two about the cancelation of the French contract?
I doubt it.
Morrison has just stage-managed the cancellation of that existing project without paying any political cost or facing any pointed questions regarding it. And all because he got his two bestest buddies in the world to help him out with this little panto.
Scratch under the surface and you will see that today’s nonsense contained only TWO commitments:
1) F**k you, Frenchie.
2) There will be an 18 month “consultation process” regarding the viability of Australia acquiring NUCLEAR SUBMARINES!!!!!
I can write that report now, and save everyone the hassle: Australia can’t afford nuclear subs, and even if they could it is incapable of operating them safely.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Sep 16 2021 11:01 utc | 91

This link should work
https://youtu.be/F3_PrtRzi5Q

Posted by: Down South | Sep 16 2021 12:19 utc | 93

BTW, I’m planning to purchase a beginner level quadcopter drone for photography purposes. Can anyone give me pointers on what to look for in the specs?

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Sep 16 2021 12:38 utc | 95

Scum Mo’s AUKUS nuke submarine scam has dominated the Fake News today.
But it also helped to explain why his bungled COVID Vax non-rollout was such a colossal clusterfuck. It turned out that he and his mafia gangsters didn’t respond to Pfizer’s June 2020 “get in early” warnings until November 2020.
So it’s tempting to assume that from June to November 2020 he and his gangsters were too busy negotiating the magnitude, currency and timeline of the submarine kickbacks from the Yankees.
(If you’ve seen the doco The Shadow World you’ll know that ‘defense’ contracts ALWAYS involve bribes and other incentives for politicians)
On today’s news of the day beat-up program, The Drum, one of the panelists thought the name AUKUS was as stupid as it is ironic because there’s a Roman underworld god and punisher of broken oaths called Orcus.
Knowing what a deaf, treasonous, lying, opportunistic c*nt Scum Mo is, and the primary aim of AUKUS to trick Oz deep into the Nuke rabbbit hole, it won’t be long until the Pangea psychopaths resurrect their dream of making Oz THE dumping ground for The World’s most ‘troublesome’ Nuclear Waste.
Pangea is a geological name for the oldest and thus most stable continent on Earth. And Oz is what’s left, above sea-level, of Pangea.
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On a lighter note, a Fun Fact.
I was watching Nature film big-shot David Attenborough’s doco Climate Change – The Facts today. About 4 minutes in there’s a Global Temperature Change graph covering the period 1850 to 2020 with data from Met Office Hadley Centre, NOAA, Japan Met Agency and NASA.
Its role is to illustrate that the rate of Temperature Increase has accelerated sharply in the last 50 years.
Wild annual fluctuations aside, it shows that average temperatures were stable until 1900. Rose markedly to 1950 which LOOKS as though WWI & WWII were contributing factors. But the most fascinating aspect is that the recent sharp accelerating trend began around 1975 when Neoliberalism, aka deaf Governments ‘owned’ by business folk, began Privatising Everything and trashing Democracy.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 16 2021 13:09 utc | 97

@Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 16 2021 13:09 utc | 96

On a lighter note, a Fun Fact.
I was watching Nature film big-shot David Attenborough’s doco Climate Change – The Facts today.

David Attenborough is known to be economical with the truth

Frozen Planet fakery row: Polar bear filmed in zoo
Mixing real Arctic shots with zoo scenes, documentary makers fooled the audience into believing the footage was gathered by intrepid cameramen in the brutal sub-zero wilderness.
It was actually filmed from the comfort of a wildlife park enclosure using bears in a man-made wood den.
During the carefully worded Frozen Planet commentary, Sir David Attenborough’s script failed to explain how the moving scene was made.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 16 2021 13:29 utc | 99