Countering Washington’s Confrontation
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY } CROSSPOST WITH STRATEGIC CULTURE
when she declared that Washington felt threatened because “Less than a week ago Russia began the largest exercise on Russian soil in four decades… with more than 300,000 troops and 1000 aircraft.
On the other side of the world, China’s first aircraft carrier was declared combat ready this year, and promptly sailed into the Pacific to conduct flight operations.”
The absurdity of that statement escaped fitting comment by the West’s mainstream media, which also considers it astonishing that Russia should carry out a military exercise in its own territory following the massive build-up by the US-NATO military alliance along its borders. As pointed out on November 15 by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, this expansion can be seen “along the entire stretch of land connecting the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Since October, vast operational resources have been concentrated in the Baltic Region and the north of Europe, due to a series of major international exercises. They are being deployed in addition to NATO regiments already present in the countries of the eastern flank. Those regions have never seen such a military presence since the end of the World War II”.
And it is growing.
Foreign Policy in Focus observes that “In all NATO countries in Eastern Europe, the US Air Force is investing multimillion-dollar sums in the expansion of its air bases, with more than $50 million pouring into a base in Hungary, more than $60 million allocated to the modernization of two air force bases in Romania, and two bases in Slovakia that will be upgraded with more than $100 million, besides various base upgrades in other countries in the region.”
In October President Putin said that “Russia doesn’t threaten anyone and has strictly adhered to its obligations in the sphere of international security and arms control,” but made it clear there would be decisive action if an attack takes place, and “the aggressor should know that retaliation is inevitable, and he will be destroyed.” Russia has “precision hypersonic weapons” exemplified by the Kinzhal missile and a new system, the Avangard, that will enter service in the next few months.
His outlook and approach are echoed by China’s leader, President Xi Jinping, who reminded those attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea on November 17 that “History has shown that confrontation, whether in the form of a cold war, a hot war or a trade war, produces no winners.”
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n early 2018 President Xi said plainly that China “will forge a powerful military that is ready to respond to the call, to fight and to win a war,” and in October, following Washington’s increasing military activity in and around the South China Sea, the President told his armed forces to “concentrate preparations for fighting a war”, which is as blunt a warning to Washington as might be expected in the circumstances, in which the US is deliberately provoking China by its widely-publicised support for Taiwan. This has gone so far as for the Defence Minister Wei Fenghe to announce that Beijing would never give up “one single piece” of its territory. He warned that “repeated challenges” to China’s stance on Taiwan would lead to military action.
What China and Russia are saying is plain, blunt and unambiguous : stay out of our territory; stop prodding our borders and cease your coat-trailing provocation.
US tanker in Poland. The US has hundreds of bases ringing the world and a huge footprint in Europe, which is now in aggressive expansion. With really no discernible enemies, Washington creates its own via incessant propaganda. Wars and war preparations are highly profitable. (US Army photo)
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is an unpleasant person, but on November 17 he put things in perspective in his region. When questioned about US Navy operations in the South China Sea he asked in turn “Why do you have to create frictions that will prompt a response from China?”
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the more ridiculous observations by the US Air Force Secretary concerned the commissioning of China’s first aircraft carrier. In tones of hushed horror she revealed that it “was declared combat ready this year, and promptly sailed into the Pacific to conduct flight operations.”
What upsets the US military is the fact that China now has an aircraft carrier that can defend the country from beyond its shores, unlike America’s eleven enormous aircraft carriers which sail round the world’s oceans in order to impose Washington’s will. At the moment there are two carrier groups in the Philippines Sea, ready to move into the South China Sea to conduct more provocative operations.
The Air Force Secretary added to absurdity by declaring that “now all of Southeast Asia is within reach of China’s long-range bombers” — presumably considering it irrelevant that in October, in the latest of a series of provocative operations, two nuclear-capable USAF B-52 bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, overflew the South China Sea. As reported in the Air Force Times “the flights were in support of US Indo-Pacific Command’s Continuous Bomber Presence, a mission focused on deterring regional challengers.”
Regional challengers? Just who is challenging whom with a “continuous bomber presence”?
[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ike Russia, China has had to develop advanced weapons to counter the menace patrolling and probing its borders, and these could be employed effectively in the event of US confrontation getting out of hand.
A CNN headline in October was “US Navy proposing major show of force to warn China” and it indicated that the “Pacific Fleet has drawn up a classified proposal to carry out a global show of force as a warning to China and to demonstrate the US is prepared to deter and counter their military actions . . . The plan suggests sailing ships and flying aircraft near China’s territorial waters in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in freedom of navigation operations to demonstrate the right of free passage in international waters. The proposal means US ships and aircraft would operate close to Chinese forces.”
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f Washington is insane enough to go ahead with this deliberately confrontational fandango, there could be serious consequences. Chinese warships could manoeuvre to bar US Navy vessels from coming with 12 nautical miles of one of its islands in the South China Sea, and if there were attempts by the US to penetrate that barrier, there could well be a serious incident. Should this involve damage to a Chinese ship, Beijing would not stand idly by and would respond appropriately. Given its inventory of weapons, especially its advanced torpedoes, this could involve destruction of one of the US Navy’s carriers.
There are similar possibilities in the north. CNN noted that “Currently the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman is taking the unexpected step of operating in the North Sea — sending a signal to Russia that US military forces can extend their reach to that area.” But if US warships behave aggressively it can be expected that Russia will counter such behaviour most forcefully.
James Foggo: drunk with a sense of superiority, this 59-year old acts like a schoolyard bully. Par for the course in the imperial military.
In October the Commander of US Naval Forces Europe, Admiral James Foggo, told the US Naval Institute that “it would be important to have a greater naval presence in Europe than the US has had in the last two or three decades, and that this year’s presence by the Harry S Truman Carrier Strike Group and the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group were part of the effort to boost presence to reassure allies and to keep an eye on Russian activity. With the Truman Strike Group now back in the region — spending time in Iceland and the North Sea ahead of Trident Juncture [the November 2018 anti-Russia US-NATO exercise based on Norway] — ‘that sends a very strong message that the United States will operate anywhere, either unilaterally or in collaboration with our NATO partners and allies. And like I said, nobody in the world can come close to a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in terms of firepower, dwell and endurance,’ he said.”
Foggo’s diatribe ended with the juvenile but still dangerous pronouncement that “And those guys and gals out on that carrier and the Marines are doing a fantastic job. So we’re keeping the adversaries back on their heels. They don’t know where we’re going next and that’s a good thing. And we’re working more with allies and partners because we have that additional capability. Right now I have — I think, at last count — 495,000 tons of grey-hulled shipping operating in the theatre. And that’s great. I love it.”
This type of trigger-happy immature belligerence is official warning of US policy as regards Russia and China, and it is not surprising that both nations are countering Washington’s confrontation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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Revolutionary wisdom
Words from an Irish patriot—
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By Bill Van Auken, wsws.org On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented what was billed as Washington’s “Plan B” following the Trump administration’s scrapping of the nuclear agreement reached in 2015 between Iran and the so-called P5+1—the US, UK, France, Germany, China and Russia. The thuggish and bellicose address, titled “After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy,” was delivered to the right-wing Heritage Foundation in Washington. It amounted to a war ultimatum to Tehran, demanding the complete capitulation of the Iranian government in the face of what Pompeo vowed would be “the strongest sanctions in history,” as well as military pressure on all fronts in the Middle East. The speech was the first delivered by Pompeo since leaving his post as CIA director. That position was filled by Gina Haspel, the former director of a CIA torture site who was sworn in Monday by Trump after her nomination was ratified with key support from Democratic senators. Together with the elevation of John Bolton—a fanatical right-winger who has repeatedly called for the bombing of Iran—to the post of national security advisor, Trump has assembled what amounts to an anti-Iranian war cabinet. The secretary of state’s address constituted a laundry list of lies and false accusations against Iran, beginning with praise for “Israel’s recent remarkable intelligence operation.” This referred to the absurd theatrical performance by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented on the eve of Trump’s May 8 decision to abrogate the nuclear agreement. Netanyahu failed to present any evidence that Iran had violated the terms of the nuclear accord. Pompeo placed the entire blame for the crisis in the Middle East on Iran. In reality, the region has been ravaged by a succession of US wars for regime-change—from Iraq to Libya and Syria. He placed responsibility for the war that has brought Yemen to the brink of starvation on Tehran, even as the US supplies the bombs and military support that enables its key regional ally Saudi Arabia to decimate the country. He added a list of charges that are grounded in fantasy and fabrication, claiming that Tehran is providing sanctuary for leaders of Al Qaeda—a movement based on fanatical anti-Shia elements—and attempted to pin the blame for the catastrophic situation in Afghanistan, where the US military has waged a 17-year war, on alleged Iranian support for the Taliban, something for which no evidence whatsoever has been presented. Making a phony and cynical appeal to the Iranian people, he accused Iran’s government of “corruption” and diverting “hundreds of millions of dollars to military operations.” This is from a government in Washington that is beset by innumerable corruption scandals, and which diverts roughly a trillion dollars annually into military spending. Pompeo then delivered a list of 12 demands on what Iran “must do.” These entail shutting down the country’s nuclear program and halting its development of missiles. They include the withdrawal of all military forces from Syria, the ending of support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the ceding of any influence in Iraq. Vowing to “crush” Iran’s “operatives” all over the world, the US secretary of state declared, “Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East.” The demands amount to an ultimatum requiring Iran to cease any role as a regional power and submit to Washington’s unfettered neocolonial domination. The Iranian government issued an immediate rejection of Pompeo’s demands. “The world today does not accept that the United States decides for the world. Countries have their independence,” President Hassan RoUhani said in a statement broadcast by Iranian media. “Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?” he added. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi told a press conference in Tehran, “No one can force Iran to do anything and Iran will remain in Syria as long as there are terrorist groups in there and as long as the Syrian government wants.” He added, “Those who have entered Syria without the Syrian government’s permission should leave the country,” referring to the more than 2,000 US troops that have been sent to occupy the country’s east and its oilfields. Pompeo also left no doubt that Washington intends to pursue its policy of aggression against Iran at the expense of its nominal allies in Western Europe through the imposition of extra-territorial or “secondary” sanctions. These will penalize any company in Europe or anywhere else in the world that seeks to do business in Iran. “We understand that our reimposition of sanctions and the coming pressure campaign on the Iranian regime will pose financial and economic difficulties for a number of our friends,” he said. “Indeed, it imposes economic challenges to America as well. These are markets our businesses would love to sell into as well.” This is nonsense. US trade with Iran in 2017 amounted to just $170 million. Trade between the European Union and Iran, on the other hand, amounted to some $25 billion, with a host of major European corporations having struck trade and investment deals in the wake of the 2015 nuclear agreement. While the UK, France and Germany all opposed Trump’s decision to abrogate the nuclear agreement and have vowed to support the accord without the US, Iran has demanded that the European Union take concrete steps to assure that the substance of the deal—freeing Iran’s economy from the effects of crippling sanctions in return for strict limits on the country’s nuclear program—is maintained. “With the withdrawal of America ... the European political support for the accord is not sufficient,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the EU’s energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete on Sunday. “The announcement of the possible withdrawal by major European companies from their cooperation with Iran is not consistent with the European Union’s commitment to implementing” the agreement, Zarif was quoted as saying. The EU and the major European powers are anxious to prevent Washington’s policies from depriving them of the ability to exploit the potentially lucrative Iranian market. At the same time, European governments, while themselves deeply involved in imperialist operations in the Middle East and engaged in pressuring Iran, fear that the precipitous drive toward war with Iran would have devastating effects, including the driving up of energy costs, the destabilization of the entire region and the resurgence of the flow of refugees. nauseating EUROPEAN COWARDICE AND VASSALAGE [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he French energy giant Total has already announced that it will withdraw from a $5 billion deal to develop the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf unless it is granted a sanctions waiver by US authorities. The Danish shipping giant Maersk Tankers said Thursday it would cease its activities in Iran, while German insurer Allianz and the Siemens corporation, which has sold gas turbines to Iran, have also announced that they are closing down their operations there. Airbus, which has already provided jets to Iran under a multibillion-dollar contract, has indicated it is considering compliance with US sanctions. Meanwhile, China’s state-owned oil company CNPC announced that it is prepared to take over the contract for the Iranian gas field if Total withdraws. China is Iran’s top trade partner. The Russian government has signaled that it is prepared to incorporate Iran into a free trade zone. While the unilateral US action has brought relations between Europe and America to their lowest point in the post-World War II era, with calls from European officials for an independent policy and a defense of “economic sovereignty,” the EU and its member states have yet to agree on any concrete policy for defying Washington. Proposals coming out of Brussels reportedly include the continuation of Iranian oil imports by making direct euro-denominated payments to Iran’s central bank, bypassing the US financial system; paying damages to companies affected by US sanctions; and the retooling of a 1996 “blocking statute” drafted in response to US sanctions against Iran, Libya and Cuba, which makes it illegal for European firms to comply with extra-territorial sanctions. At the time, the Clinton administration provided relief for European corporations doing business in those countries, rendering the statute moot. There is no indication that the Trump administration intends to provide any such exemptions. This means that, whatever the divisions among the European powers, trade war and political tensions will continue to intensify as the threat of a major new war in the Middle East looms. [premium_newsticker id="211406"] Parting shot—a word from the editors “I Said Why? They Said They Didn’t Know” [dropcap]L[/dropcap]et history record that on Wednesday, September 6th, 2017, 14 days after climate change-fueled Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas and 4 days before Hurricane Irma hit southern Florida, the climate-denying President of the United States Donald Trump went to North Dakota to deliver a “tax reform” speech before hundreds of workers and managers at a major oil refinery. The president made comments so senseless and stupid that one must read them twice to believe they were uttered: “I…want to tell the people of North Dakota and the Western states who are feeling the pain of the devastating drought that we are with you 100 percent — 100 percent. (Applause.) And I’ve been in close touch, numerous times, with our Secretary of Agriculture, who is doing a fantastic job, Sonny Perdue, who has been working with your governor and your delegation to help provide relief. And we’re doing everything we can, but you have a pretty serious drought. I just said to the governor, I didn’t know you had droughts this far north. Guess what? You have them. But we’re working hard on it and it’ll disappear. It will all go away.” Then Trump got into the real eco-cidal meat of the matter – the de-regulation of energy and the lifting of restrictions on fossil fuel extraction and burning: “We’re getting rid of one job-killing regulation after another. We’ve lifted the restrictions on shale oil. We’ve lifted those restrictions on energy of all types. We’re putting our miners back to work. We’ve cancelled restrictions on oil and natural gas. We’ve ended the EPA intrusion into your jobs and into your lives. (Applause.) And we’re refocusing the EPA on its core mission: clean air and clean water. (Applause.). In order to protect American industry and workers, we withdrew the United States from the job-killing Paris Climate Accord. Job killer. People have no idea…And right here in North Dakota, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is finally open for business. (Applause.) Now, what other politician, if elected President, would have done that one? They would have stayed so far away. And I did it immediately…It was the right thing to do. And that is flowing now beautifully. So it was the right thing to do. (Applause.)” “…We opened it despite so many people that were on the other side calling and asking for this not to happen: Please, we don’t want it to happen. I said, why? They didn’t know. There was no — they just didn’t want it to happen…So I did that. I also did Keystone. You know about Keystone. (Applause.) Another other one, big one — big. First couple of days in office, those two — 48,000 jobs. “ Where to begin in gaging the absurdity of the president’s words in North Dakota? We’re “working hard” on the drought and “it will disappear”? Seriously? His militantly anti-environmental EPA was working for “clean air and water.” For real? The truth was precisely the opposite. Job-creation? Renewable energy would generate far more and better paying positions – jobs that would save livable ecology rather than destroy it (and there’s no jobs on a dead planet). The really mind-blowing statement for me was Trump’s assertion that the people who fought the DAPL – the tens of thousands who camped and protested in Standing Rock, the pipeline resisters (I was one of them) across Iowa – “didn’t know why” they opposed the pipeline. What was someone supposed to say in response to something that soul-numbingly idiotic? Anti-DAPL activists spoke loudly and clearly about the reasons for their opposition: defense of tribal lands, water-protection, and climate sanity. Trump’s bizarre Bismarck address included this creepy little daddy-daughter interlude: Donald Trump: “And, by the way, Ivanka Trump — everybody loves Ivanka. (Applause.) Come up, honey. Should I bring Ivanka up? (Applause.) Come up. Sometimes they’ll say, ‘You know, he can’t be that bad a guy. Look at Ivanka.’ (Laughter.) …Now, come on up, honey. She’s so good. She wanted to make the trip. She said, ‘Dad, can I go with you?’ She actually said, ‘Daddy, can I go with you?’ I like that, right? ‘Daddy, can I go with you?’ I said, ‘yes, you can.’ ‘Where you going?’ ‘North Dakota’. Said, ‘oh, I like North Dakota.’ Hi, honey. (Applause.) Say something, baby. Ivanka Trump: “Hi, North Dakota. (Applause.) We love this state, so it’s always a pleasure to be back here. And you treated us very, very well in November and have continued to, so we like sharing the love back. Thank you. (Applause.)” Donald Trump. “Thank you, honey. Thanks, baby. Come. (Applause.)” You can’t make stuff like this up. (In case you think this is a satire and that I am making Trump’s comments up, read his Bismarck speech here). Missing: The Biggest Story of Our or Any Time [dropcap]M[/dropcap]ichael Wolff’s instant bestseller Fire and FURY: Inside the Trump White House is chock full of disturbing quotes from – and alarming reflections on – the malignant orange beast who fouls the White House and makes a laughingstock out of the U.S. Wolff even replicates in its entirety of the mind-bogglingly moronic, delusional, and disjointed “speech” that the Sick Puppy-in-Chief gave at the CIA’s headquarters on the first day of his presidency – the one where the new president blustered that “we should have kept [Iraq’s] oil” and that “maybe you’ll have another chance.” Reading this weird rant in its entirety is a disturbing experience. It’s enough to make you cringe (as did most of the CIA agents and managers who heard it) again at the “holy shit!” realization that a man stupid enough to say such things sits in the world’s most powerful job. “In the seconds after [Trump’s CIA monologue] finished,” Wolff notes, “you could hear a pin drop.” The equally weird Bismarck oration did not make it into Fire and Fury. Neither does anything else relating to climate, fossil fuels, and the environment. That is quite an omission, since anthropogenic – really capitalogenic– climate change (CCC) has clearly emerged as the biggest issue of our or any other time in human history and Donald Trump and the Republican Party have shown themselves to be militantly dedicated to the Greenhouse Gassing-to-death of life on Earth – a crime that promises to surpass all others in the ruling classes’ long rap sheet. Even more than how Trump ups the risk of nuclear war and emboldens the proto-fascist right, this has always been the gravest danger posed by Agent Orange – his threat to advance Big Carbon’s mad determination to trump livable ecology once and for all. I really shouldn’t single out Wolff. He is hardly alone in this deletion. It’s been chilling to watch the entire corporate U.S. media fail to cover the climate question in any serious or sustained way under Trump – this even as epic storms, fires, floods, and landslides rooted in CCC ravage the nation and world, even as the planet speeds to 500 carbon parts-per-million by 2050 (if not sooner), and even while scientists report the ever-more near-term peril of true, species-threatening catastrophe. The news cycle has been dominated by a seemingly endless series of outrageous Trump Tweets and statements, by a constant White House soap opera (with a bizarre and shifting cast of characters), and by the related interminable Russiagate story. The last constant news story is about how Moscow supposedly stole something that doesn’t actually exist – “American democracy” – in 2016. So what if actually existing livable ecology is burning to death under the command of carbon-addicted capital? Jeff Zucker: “Okay, a Day or So but We’re Moving Back to Russia” “So, my boss, I shouldn’t say this. … Just to give you some context, Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half, we covered the climate accords. … The CEO of CNN [Jeff Zucker, the flagship cable news network’s president] said in our internal meeting … ‘Good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we’re done with that. Let’s get back to Russia.’ … So, even the climate accords, he was like ‘OK, a day or so, but we’re moving back to Russia.’ ” So said CNN co-producer John Bonifield to an undercover guerilla journalist with the conservative media watchdog group Project Veritas (PV) last summer. By “the climate accords,” Bonifield was referring to President Trump’s decision in June of 2017 to keep his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. The accord, at least symbolically, committed the U.S. to joining the rest of the world in reducing carbon emissions with the hope of averting human extinction through anthropogenic global warming. PV caught Bonifield on the same tape expressing doubts about the Russia and Trump story. Bonifield told PV that CNN had been running with this story to an extraordinary degree in pursuit of liberal eyeballs—and the advertising dollars that follow with a growing audience: PV journalist: So you think the Russia thing is a little crazy, right? Bonifield: Even if Russia was trying to swing the election, we try to swing their elections, our CIA is doing shit all the time, we’re out there trying to manipulate governments. You win because you know the game and you play it right. She [Hillary] didn’t play it right. PV: Then why is CNN like constantly, Russia this, Russia that? Bonifield: Because it’s ratings. Our ratings are incredible right now. … There are a lot of, like, liberal CNN viewers who want to see Trump get really scrutinized. If we would have behaved that way with President Obama, and scrutinized everything he was doing with as much scrutiny as we applied to Donald Trump, I think our viewers would have been turned off. They would have felt like we were attacking him. … I’m not saying all of our viewers are super-liberals, but there’s just a lot of them. PV: So Trump’s good for business, you’re saying. Bonifield: Trump is good for business right now. Ecocide is bad for business and ratings. This Week in Terrible Trump and Russia (TWITTR) is good for business (including those parts of the U.S. military-industrial complex invested in the weaponization of Eastern Europe) and ratings. (For those who like sound empirical data produced by respectable scholars [I do], please see this excellent report by communications professor Jennifer Brook on how the seven leading U.S. corporate television networks severely downplayed the relevance of climate change while obsessing over “Trump” in its coverage of last year’s epic hurricanes. Trump throwing paper towels at Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria was a huge story. The role of climate change in the lethal intensification of hurricanes was not. How childish.) “Everything Else Won’t Matter” [dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s not just the climate issue that has been trumped by TWITTR. Also unduly pushed too far to the margins have been the really big problems of racism, sexism, nativism, class inequality, plutocracy, militarism, nuclear escalation, urban despair, mass incarceration, police shootings, and the general trashing of democracy by the profits system. Arguably, though, the environmental problem has emerged as the most urgent matter of all. It’s not just good jobs, health care, social justice and democracy that are going in the tank while dominant media obsesses endlessly over TWITTR. It’s life itself that’s at risk – yes, life itself. CCC (global warming) is not just one among numerous “single issues”that should concern progressive and serious liberals. If this unfolding environmental cataclysm isn’t averted soon, Noam Chomsky explained six years ago, then “everything else we’re talking about won’t matter.” All bets are off on prospects for a decent future unless homo sapiens acts quickly to move off fossil fuels and on to renewable energy – a technically viable project. Standard liberal and progressive struggles over how the pie is distributed, managed and controlled (and for whom) lose their luster when the pie is poisoned. Who wants to turn the world upside down only to find it riddled with disease and decay? Who hopes to inherit a dying earth from the wealthy few? Unlike many of the other issues ordinary citizens, liberals and progressives rightly care about, there are no letter grades with the climate issue. It’s pass-fail. We either quickly (historically speaking) make the leap across the chasm and move from fossil fuels and the madness of nuclear power to water, wind and solar, or we fail to survive. There’s very little room for cutting an incremental deal here. You don’t negotiate with physics. Of all the endlessly infuriating and insane things about the malignant narcissist Trump, the most dangerous of all is his climate change-denialist promise to “deregulate energy” – rightly described by Chomsky as “almost a death-knell for the species.” Not that the Paris agreement offered anything like a full solution, but Bonifield was right to be disturbed to see “even the climate accords” trumped by the Trump-Russia story at CNN. There are some Americans who have been paying rapt attention to Trump and the GOP’s exterminist war on livable ecology – a network of hard-right millionaire and billionaire political donors under the direction of carbon ecocide kings and fossil fuel uber-capitalists Charles and David Koch. According to an important recent reportfrom The Intercept: “In the background of a chaotic first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the conservative Koch brothers have won victory after victory in their bid to reshape American government to their interests.” “Documents obtained by The Intercept and Documentedshow that the network of wealthy donors led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have taken credit for a laundry list of policy achievements extracted from the Trump administration and their allies in Congress.” “The donors have pumped campaign contributions not only to GOP lawmakers, but also to an array of third-party organizations that have pressured officials to act swiftly to roll back limits on pollution, approve new pipeline projects, and extend the largest set of upper-income tax breaks in generations.” “’This year, thanks in part to research and outreach efforts across institutions, we have seen progress on many regulatory priorities this Network has championed for years,’ the memo notes. The document highlights environmental issues that the Koch brothers have long worked to undo, such as the EPA Clean Power Plan, which is currently under the process of being formally repealed, and Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, among their major accomplishments. The memo also highlighted administration efforts to walk back planned rules to strengthen the estate tax in a list of 13 regulatory decisions favored by the network.” The evil geocidal Koch brothers and their planet-melting billionaire brethren get it – and they approve. They’ve been paying attention, even if CNN hasn’t. “The rich,” as Le Monde’s ecological editor Herve Kempf reported 11 years ago, “are destroying the Earth” – and enjoying themselves a great deal along the way. Some of the oligarchs doing that today are Russians. A much bigger and more significant number of them are U.S.-Americans. Someone tell a U.S. reporter! Things to ponder While our media prostitutes, many Hollywood celebs, and politicians and opinion shapers make so much noise about the still to be demonstrated damage done by the Russkies to our nonexistent democracy, this is what the sanctimonious US government has done overseas just since the close of World War 2. And this is what we know about. Many other misdeeds are yet to be revealed or documented. Parting shot—a word from the editors window.newShareCountsAuto="smart"; DISPATCH FROM MOON OF ALABAMA DATELINE: December 08, 2017 The Trump administration seemed to get along very well with the Saudi tyrant and his son Mohammed bin Salman. They together admired the orb and joined up to bash Iran. But now the Trump administration scolded and embarrassed MbS three times in as many days. One wonders what is going on behind that scene. In mid November a mysterious buyer bought a probably fake Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ for a cool $450 million. On December 6 the New York Times reported that some Saudi prince was the front-man for the purchase: He is a little-known Saudi prince from a remote branch of the royal family, with no history as a major art collector, and no publicly known source of great wealth. But the prince, Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, is the mystery buyer of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Salvator Mundi,” which fetched a record $450.3 million at auction last month, documents show. The revelation that Prince Bader is the purchaser, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times, links one of the most captivating mysteries of the art world with palace intrigues in Saudi Arabia that are shaking the region. Prince Bader splurged on this controversial and decidedly un-Islamic portrait of Christ at a time when most members of the Saudi elite, including some in the royal family, are cowering under a sweeping crackdown against corruption and self-enrichment. As it happens, Prince Bader is a friend and associate of the leader of the purge: the country’s 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. <img src=”http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/salvatorsaudi-s.jpg” />The NYT did not explain how it had gained access to the documents it reviewed. Later that day Bloomberg reported that the painting would be shown in Abu Dhabi. This somewhat diverted from the trail to MbS: The Louvre Abu Dhabi is getting Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which sold last month at a Christie’s auction for $450 million, the most ever paid for a work of art. Christie’s said the artwork will be going to the museum, but declined to say whether the Louvre Abu Dhabi bought the painting. The Louvre Abu Dhabi said in a tweet Wednesday: “Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi is coming to #LouvreAbuDhabi. A day later, on December 7 the Trump administration gave a tip to the Wall Street Journal‘s Shane Harris. The real buyer, it confirmed, was the Saudi clown prince: Prince Mohammed, known by his initials MBS, was identified as the buyer of the 500-year-old painting, “Salvator Mundi,” in U.S. intelligence reports, according to people with direct knowledge of the information. American officials have closely watched the activities of the 32-year-old, who is trying to portray himself as a reformer determined to root out corruption in the oil-rich kingdom. The NYT had already hinted at MbS as the real buyer. But it did not say from where it had that information. The WSJ confirmed the buyer and made explicit that the Trump administration was behind the embarrassing leak. A few weeks ago MbS arrested 200 of the richest and most powerful people in his country. He locked them in a hotel and is fleecing them for their money which, he says, was gained though corruption. That claim is nonsense. He simply wants to steal that money and let them know who the boss is. The Saudis have a budget problem and are cutting on social spending in the country they rule. It does not look good to cut money from the poor, fleece other members of the wider family and to then waste a large fortune on a picture that might even be fake. On top of that owning that picture is religiously problematic for MbS. Under Wahhabi doctrine no visual portrayals of prophets like Jesus Christ are allowed. The UAE again came to the rescue. Today the museum tweeted: Louvre Abu Dhabi @LouvreAbuDhabi – 1:57 PM – 8 Dec 2017 The Department of Culture and Tourism seemed to confirm (ar) that, but when the museum was directly asked by the AP it went mum: Jon Gambrell جون @jongambrellAP – 8:07 AM – 8 Dec 2017 Hmmm … this is a cover up. Why is the UAE doing this? The de-facto ruler of the UAE is the 56-year-old crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed. He is the mentor of (and brain behind) the 32-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman. Did MbS buy a little Christmas gift for MbZ, but was embarrassed when the Trump administration let the world know about it? Or is MbZ running covering for an outrageous buy MbS made for himself? The buying of the picture is not the only issue at hand. Just the day before the administration leaked to the WSJ about the art deal, President Trump had publicly scolded MbS about the situation in Yemen: President Trump called on Saudi Arabia to lift its crushing blockade against its war-torn neighbor Yemen on Wednesday, hours after defying the kingdom and saying the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump said he had directed members of his administration to reach out to the Saudi leadership “to request that they completely allow food, fuel, water, and medicine to reach the Yemeni people who desperately need it.” Today Secretary of State Tillerson again pushed that line: Speaking in Paris on Friday, Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, called on Saudi Arabia to be “measured” in its military operations in Yemen. “With respect to Saudi Arabia’s engagement with Qatar, how they’re handling the Yemen war that they’re engaged in, the Lebanon situation, we would encourage them to be a bit more measured and a bit more thoughtful in those actions to, I think, fully consider the consequences,” he said. He once again demanded a “complete end” to the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen so that humanitarian aid and commercial supplies could be delivered. Embarrassing MbS about the art buy and publicly(!) scolding hm for the situation in Yemen, for which the U.S. is just as much responsible as the Saudis, is quite an assault. What has MbS done – or not done – to deserve such a punishment? Trump has just declared that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Did the administration expect the applause of the Saudis for its breaking of international law with regards to Jerusalem? Does it lash out to the Saudis to get their agreement? If so the miscalculation is clearly on the U.S. side. It is impossible for the Saudis to concede the Haram al-Sharif, the mosque on the so called temple mount, to the Zionists. The Saudi King would no longer be the “custodian of the two holy mosques” in Mecca and Medina but the “seller of the third holy mosque” of Islam in Jerusalem. The people would kill him and his whole family. If the issue of this public hustle it is not Jerusalem, what else might it be that the Trump administration wants and the Saudis can not, or are not willing to concede? A few hours ago the Saudi King fired his ankle biting Foreign Minster Adel al-Jubair. A relative of the king, Khaled bin Salman, will take the job. Is this related to the spat with Trump? Posted by b on December 8, 2017 at 02:52 PM | Permalink Select Comments from the original thread It was Jerusalem. They were not willing to sacrifice Jerusalem. Posted by: Madderhatter67 | Dec 8, 2017 3:14:21 PM | 2 Where does MbS’s interpretation of Salvator Mundi come from. The Saudi’s have something with crystal orbs, like the one Trump so fondly stroked in Riyadh after giving a masterful interpretation of the sword dance. Posted by: Quentin | Dec 8, 2017 3:20:29 PM | 3 Yes. It is puzzling what is going on between MbS and the Trump administration. I was sure MbS, the reformer, secretly okayed the Jerusalem move. His negative statement might be just theater, I figured. But I am not so sure anymore. Yes, MbS wants a peace deal (any deal with “peace” written on it) between Palestinians and Israelis. But both he and Trump/Kushner are novices in politics and diplomacy (and that ain’t the same as getting a deal for a new tower) and absolutely underestimated the effort. Totally. Word is that Kushner made Trump delay delivering his campaign promise because he needed more time for his peace plan (and that would be 6 months???). This is the level they are at. And now, they placed an obvious obstacle in the path go their peace plan – out of folly. Complete folly. Because Trump wanted to deliver. I believe they are already backtracking as good as they can. But the damage is done. I think Palestinians were just waiting for a good opportunity/reason to get rid of the US in the process and found it now. Also, the single state solution is being talked about. The source for the WSJ need not be the Trump administration in the narrow sense but some stray intelligence official (“U.S. intelligence reports”) wanting to throw a wrench because that story is absolutely damaging. Absolutely, because it is embarrassing and I don’t think MbS enjoys that. Note, the story began to become known around the time it became obvious Trump would not sign the waiver and reached its epitome (WSJ) just after that. Trump set himself up for this. Posted by: BX | Dec 8, 2017 3:20:30 PM | 4 My pet hypothesis is Trump’s recognizing Jerusalem was the bone he was willing to throw the Israelis after his generals told him attacking Iran would be catastrophic for the US military and world economy. The Saudis, who are as rabid about bombing Iran as the Zionists, were pissed as they probably had been led to believe the attack was a matter of time. In order to remind them of their position and get them on board with the “peace” deal Tillerson has been hinting about, they’ve been turning the screws on MBS as a taste of what’s to come if he puts up stink about the wonderful Kushner- concocted “plan”. Posted by: Don Wiscacho | Dec 8, 2017 3:38:33 PM | 5 $450 mil… MbS’s Egyptian torturer-in-chief must have just torn a few princely nails and whip a few feet for that, just a few days’ worth of “anti-corruption” “campaigning”. Wait, wasn’t the Saudi populace all behind MbS because he was going to spend the money on them? If there is no bread, let them non-royals eat paint. Posted by: fx | Dec 8, 2017 3:42:39 PM | 6 The Saudis could always stuff the Masterpiece into a Patriot launching tube and fire it at the next Houthi missile. It’s costs and effectiveness is comparable to a Patriot PAC-3 round. Posted by: Christian Chuba | Dec 8, 2017 3:42:47 PM | 7 About the picture – after the shake down of Saudi Arabia’s rich princes MBS must have a lot of ennemies. Some of these princes might have been close to the Trump administration. Posted by: somebody | Dec 8, 2017 3:56:36 PM | 8 That sacked FM – Is that the little fellow that Col Lang calls “The Chihuahua”? Posted by: Bart Hansen | Dec 8, 2017 4:01:43 PM | 9 Good Patrick Cockburn article on the mess. Gazan military groups are warming up to a rocket competition. I am sure the real stuff is not involved yet. What were they thinking? That people did not take the chance to unite on the only issue they all agree on? 4 Posted by: somebody | Dec 8, 2017 4:09:19 PM | 10 MbS is in it for himself, no one else. Leave him aside for the moment. However, Trump probably thought he had a marvelous peace plan for Palestine which he would show the world…. errr… tomorrow. This was supposed to have the backing of the Saudis and the Israelis and all the other ME “actors” would be lined up behind MbS. ie. Saudis would provide the backing, which included the “Arab” states as per the recent gathering of them all (excluding Iran and Iraq). Abbas would be blackmailed to go along in order to keep his position (Moneywise), and the Palestinians as well – but by the withholding of funds. (New vote in Congress). Leaks of the plan (unverified) suggest that the PA’s would be held in walled-in isolated camps, with all contact subject to the harassement and nightly raids of the IDF, the land still open to theft by settlers (this has been “legalised” in Israel !) and so on. ie they get nothing except a tissue-paper “treaty” . They seem not to have even been consulted by Kushner and the Israelis. ie who possibly expected to be able to impose whatever Netanyahu and the Israeli Generals might allow. BUT, when have either the US or Israel kept to an agreement – never. and the PA’s and the rest of the ME know it. Jerusalem Those countries with a large Palestinian refugee population, either fear them, or may be outnumbered if there are more arriving (Jordan), or will find that they now have a potential source of militants at their disposal.. (Syria?, Lebanon?). The Syrians and Lebanese have not let the Palestinians get more arms – yet, as they might have become targets themselves. But, there have been PA’s in the Syrian counter-terrorist forces, even when Yarmouk camp was held by Daesh (or one of the others). So I think that the “bit” players have got cold feet. They cannot go along with the eradication of the Palestinians or their confinement to concentrated internement camps such as Gaza, whose conditions are WORSE that prisons. Otherwise the whole “Rulers-People and the power-structures that keep them in place” would be in jeopardy. I think that answer to b’s question has a lot to do with trying to incite war in the ME I think that SA does not want to be the global elite’s proxy in a war with Iran….especially to start/incite the war. It really is becoming a public spectacle and that plays into the desire of the masses to see such incompetence writ large. I entreat everyone’s spirits to keep these kooks away from the nukes. Posted by: Jef | Dec 8, 2017 5:17:11 PM | 13 Maybe that canvas Jesus is meant to be a hostage one day, potentially. Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Dec 8, 2017 5:18:55 PM | 14 Posted by: Kabobyak | Dec 8, 2017 5:27:13 PM | 15 Great stuff, b et al. This Jerusalem declaration has me genuinely scared. Violence (real or false flag) could be the expected Reaction to this Problem, resulting in the long-plannd Solution of finishing off MENA. If Russia is sincere in its alliance with Syria and Iran, and interest in a multi-polar world with self-determination for sovereign nations, this war could easily escalate to the End Timer’s dreamt of Final Battle of Armageddon. Most of the MSM coverage of Reactions I’ve seen name Muslim/Arab countries as opposing, and others as “concerned,” even though almost all official state responses have denounced President Trump’s® declaration. This “Clash of Civilizations” type narrative is not encouraging. Posted by: Daniel | Dec 8, 2017 5:37:14 PM | 16 Posted by: Flatulus | Dec 8, 2017 6:09:23 PM | 17 @ Daniel ending with “This “Clash of Civilizations” type narrative is not encouraging.” That is exactly what they want you to focus on as a narrative rather than the simple truth about the demise of private banking. On the previous thread about the Republican: Ryan deficit BS there was a commenter ex-SA with a John H. Hotson link that I want to see go viral because it simply explains the history of the Gordian Knot we face as a species The link to a 1996 article: Understanding Money by John H. Hotson The take away quote Clash of Civilizations is as vapid a meme as the common understanding of the Capitalism myth as that article so clearly states. Spread his word far and wide to wake up the zombies. It is time! Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 8, 2017 6:22:05 PM | 18 thanks b.. fascinating.. i wait for the next shoe to drop.. it’s coming… hopefully we get the back story on this sooner then later.. i would think the timing of Foreign Minster Adel al-Jubair being fired has something to do with all this.. he revealed something that he wasn’t supposed to? i would also imagine those heavies still hanging at the saudi ritz carlton might be pulling some strings from behind the scenes? meanwhile mbz is doing a hell of a fine apprentice with mbs, lol.. nice pic in the post btw!! clown prince as savior of ksa, lol… Posted by: james | Dec 8, 2017 6:56:26 PM | 19 Belief in Jerusalem as the Jew capital is the same as belief in the intrinsic value of fiat currency, or the exceptionalism of the US. It’s just mental illness. The Kingdom of God is within you, not in temples of stone and wood. We’d be better just cultivating our own personal relationship with our higher selves and leave the deluded to scrap it out over ash and sand. That said, if someone with a big nose came to my door and said my house was going to get knocked down because Shalom etc, that would be the day I would have to really figure out how to proceed without becoming the necessary victim in another’s persecutor drama complex. I guess that’s what Palestinians have to deal with every day. Horrible situation. I heard a story once that when the British were throwing the Aborigines of Australia off cliffs en masse in their Australian version of the Middle East story of dispossession and demonization, the Aborigines would look up calmly at the officers as they fell and in their own language say: “You have a problem, bro”. Sometimes death is better than becoming a victim. And as a worshiper of Lord Shiva the Destroyer, I wish you all completely liberating and renewing deaths from yourselves. Posted by: jezabeel | Dec 8, 2017 7:02:46 PM | 20 What it is beyond me is that the Russians, are always amongst those who swallow these theater plays….I wonder why….In front of the demential way this administration makes fun of every event, people, country… in the world, in spite of the suffering they could inflict on them, I concur with Terry in that this just could be some esoteric issue more proper of unoccupied people with too much money to waste. Most probably something involving “Damian” Kushner, his 666 Madison Avenue penthouse and an occult message from The Messiah in the reverse of the canvas of that Jesus paint with a codified message on the results of the coming final battle of Armageddon amongst the forces of evil and those of good, when Russia will be sanctified as the real Promised Land and The Saker will be ( finally! ) crowned as the saint he always claimed to be along with Saint Nicolas Romanov, and they will all eat sardinas together with the Trumps, the Kushners and the Netanyahus in Mar a Lago or in the super-yatch of Abramovich during the summer, but in winter they will go together to Sochi´s Putin dacha, since they love to meet super-intelligent, well educated, cool people….well, the elite of everything…The surviving Arabs and the rest of us, plebeian ignorant clumsy sinners not so white as them, ( what they call “the sheeple”, vaya )we will continue working from sunrise to sunset for crumbs, but, who cares? We will continue having good times with our peers and loved ones and laughing as usual with the little things of real life…Do not despair…. Posted by: elsi | Dec 8, 2017 7:20:02 PM | 21 The poster above was drawn by Basque artist Josetxo Ezcurra Posted by: elsi | Dec 8, 2017 7:44:26 PM | 22 Western media called Putin unpredictable, but that was because he could see moves that others didn’t see. Erdogan looked unpredictable and irrational while moving from the hedgemon to the multi-polar world. Trump? Like Erdogan, trying to move US to the multi polar world? Too many moves he makes puts sand in the hegemon’s gears. Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Dec 8, 2017 7:46:42 PM | 23 Change just one letter and you have “waRabbi”. The one state solution. There, fixed it for ya! Posted by: mireille | Dec 8, 2017 8:29:57 PM | 25 It’s an awful fucking painting anyhow. Even if it’s not a fake it has been overpainted (sorry ‘restored’) so many times the original dauber’s intent is long lost. As to who the buyers are; was it was pretty bloody obvious to anyone who watched the auction, that this was a laundry scheme. As the price went up, instead of becoming at least a little faint of heart at the thought of raising the bid by another ten lamborghinis or whatever, the bidder accelerated – obviously emboldened by being able to rinse another coupla hundred mill. Since any self respecting coke dealer would be wanting to stay out of the limelight of this purchase, that left Asian manufacturing magnates (who haven’t been having a great year) or oil princes flushed with the continued rise of a barrel of brent crude. So the junior creep has managed to flush nearly half a billion of his ill-gotten gains down the toilet, an act that would make him with the huge front and tiny back, agent orange, ropeable with jealousy. Where others see conspiracies I see a twerp who reacts rather than plans, who is already pissed at being upstaged in ‘his year’. Remember that Time mob went and gave the cover to a gang of women how dare they. trump has lashed out in his usual weak arsed passive aggressive way by leaking intelligence about the picture, what a sad little derp he is. Nothing good for amerika can come from the crazy Jerusalem stunt and I point out again that the Palestinian issue is one of a very few on which all of Islam (not just Arabs, also Kurds, Persians, South Asians and South East Asians) have always united. I was in Indonesia for a good part of 1990 and it wasn’t just the Indonesian Arabs who saw Saddam Hussein as their potential world leader, it was the entire Islamic population because he had been outspoken on Palestine. Yes, the Palestinians will have their 3 days of rage, something the zionists planned for and maybe even organised, but underneath that something much bigger and covert will be happening, as every Islamic leader on this old rock develops a strategy to unite everyone behind himself. The obvious ones such as erdogan will fall by the wayside, but out there somewhere is a young smart & nimble Islamic leader who will achieve a unification, if only because muslims have come to realise the current mess of division and discord is an exercise in self-mutilation whose only beneficiaries are amerikans & jews. Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 8, 2017 8:46:00 PM | 27 But…the real nitty-gritty is not in this strange purchasing of a Jesus paint amongst a Saudi crown prince and a Russian oligarch close to Putin, but in the babbling by Trump during his speech on Al Quds, when he failed to pronounce some letters….. Mental crisis! Trump crawls during his Al-Quds speech White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday experienced uneasy moments when faced with a question about the abnormalities in Wednesday’s speech by US President Donald Trump, in which he recognizes Al-Quds ( Jerusalem) as the capital of the Israeli regime. The oral cadence of the president became irregular during his speech, in which he failed to pronounce well some letters, particularly that at the end of “United States”. “God bless the United Shhtates” he said. Saying that “the president had a dry mouth. There is nothing more than that”, Sanders tried to justify the fact, in addition to considering the journalists’ questions about the president’s pronunciation of “quite ridiculous”. In this regard, the spokeswoman pledged to reporters that Trump will undergo a complete medical examination during “the first part of next year” and said he will release his results to demonstrate that the head of state enjoys good health. The former Republican member of the US Congress Joe Scarborough said on Thursday on his MSNBC show that dementia was the most likely explanation for the rarity in Trump’s oratory, a sign that does not occur for the first time. The presidency of Donald Trump is unique, but to criticism, fears have been added that the US president is out of his mind, and there are even suspicions that he suffers from a delusional paranoid disorder, which would make him unfit to direct USA. Posted by: elsi | Dec 8, 2017 8:46:18 PM | 28 U-turn: Tillerson is in, Adel el Jubair is out I think that Tillerson is on the rebound and Jared Khusner pushed aside. It is quite possible that Jared Kushner and Adel Al Jubair have been plotting in the back of MBS about Lebanon, Iran and Israel. Tillerson, now rehabilitated after rumors of his imminent dismissal, is trying to minimize that blunder and limit the damages. Posted by: Virgile | Dec 8, 2017 8:53:33 PM | 29 Posted by: frances | Dec 9, 2017 12:19:23 AM | 30 Some people say that these ridiculously large art payments are hoaxes to hide money laundering, dope payments, etc. http://mileswmathis.com/davinci.pdf Posted by: Penelope | Dec 9, 2017 12:57:18 AM | 31 The Saudi’s are going to sell oil to China in Yuan rather than american dollars. Methinks that is why trump is trying to pressure MBS Posted by: Ike | Dec 9, 2017 1:19:02 AM | 32 The Saudis are going to sell oil to China in Yuan rather than american dollars. Methinks that is why trump is trying to pressure MBS Posted by: Ike | Dec 9, 2017 1:19:02 AM | 38 While I’ve seen some discussion of this, I wonder how serious it actually is. Perhaps on a small, small scale (which would still make the USA mad I’m sure, signifying changing global economy), I can’t see that MbS just up and start trading in the yuan one day. SA is a client state. Period full stop. There’s not way it would just happen so suddenly with the current state of affairs. It’d be way too big a deal to the US to stand idly by. US weapon sales there and the consistent Saudi’s use in regard to proxy troops/whabbi missionary work/financing of proxy wars/etc are not comparable (to trading oil in dollars). That’s one big reason why Iran is so hated after all. SA and USA seem on the same page on that for sure. I do wonder what will happen if the Chinese get that sale of (part of) Aramco however. Don’t see it happening but would introduce interesting dynamics into the situation. MbS seems really unbalanced and impulsive anyways so who knows. Posted by: George Smiley | Dec 9, 2017 1:51:19 AM | 33 psychohistorian, yep, the private banking system is a house of cards. More often than not, I’m surprised it hasn’t collapsed in on itself already (or collapsed more completely is probably a better phrasing). And JSIL (Jewish State of Israel in the Levant, (and thanks to Max Blumenthal for that acronym) is a creation of the supra-national private banking cabal. And those blood-suckers encourage and profit off of both sides of every war. And war is precisely what I fear is the “Solution” that’s behind this. And the MSM’s “Clash of Civilizations” narrative is the excuse that’s already in use to excuse our Global War OF Terror, which is why I noted it being suggested as regards reaction to Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. As has been mentioned here before, some of us are not so sure that Russia really is an independent actor, but if they are then this next war could escalate quickly to near-extinction event levels. Posted by: Daniel | Dec 9, 2017 2:37:01 AM | 35 Posted by: Hausmeister | Dec 9, 2017 4:49:43 AM | 37 Anyway, there is a strange communication going on where Israeli media claim that Saudis are on board with Trump’s announcement and Saudi say they are not. Wishful thinking? Posted by: somebody | Dec 9, 2017 6:36:11 AM | 38 “Hoaxes” is probably not the word to use. The Art market (upper end) has long been a means of transferring large sums of money, without Government oversight or taxes. No need to think drugs. An example from several years ago; Basle Art Fair, Swedish Gallery, five translators on call, and at first the principle exhibition was one of Yves Klein Paintings, sponges and other smaller works. (The Prospective buyer, a Lady, only drank white wine – which we had – so the Gallery asked for some for their client, which is how I know about this). The biggest painting, large, blue, was at that time very expensive, and had been brought up from Italy. Recently “dipped” Klein sponges were about $25’000 apiece. Good money at the time. (Call them “renovated” if you want – Klein had been dead for several years). The whole collection was sold to a buyer from the US. BUT, at the end of the exposition an exactly same sized “blue” painting of a guy sitting on a ladder, was sent to Italy and the Kleins went to the US. No visible “sale” had happened – but several millions $ changed countries. Note that the “sponges” tastefully mounted on stands – would also have been categorised, catalogued, probably photographed and otherwise identified as genuine productions by Klein. – even if they had been redipped in “Klein blue” paint. This is important as it is the “visibility” and track of expensive works that upholds their “value”, on the market. Oh, and the Klein exhibition disappeared and was replaced on each of the other days (5 in all) by a new exhibition). The “acquisition for” the Louvre is actually standard practise at a certain level of smart-alex. The Leonardo, and I take as an assumption that it is one, has possibly been “touched up, renovated” or whatever. BUT, Leonardo usually used sfumato, ie with a series of fine transparent glazes and a bit of finger painting to get the final result. Result being that the “final touches” by the master’s hand may have been screwed up. So by lending or some other arrangement to the Louvre – it can then be accepted as genuine, catalogued, tomes written about it etc. ie. Its’ “value” as an original becomes reinforced, by the Louvre. There could also be a part of the contract giving the owner a large percentage of the revenue from any “special exhibition”. Can be big money – as the quantity of “exposable” artists with drawing power for the masses, is limited. Leonardo would be top. @ terry tibbs | Dec 9, 2017 9:39:05 AM | 47 “he does give lots of truth you just have to remove the dung” Posted by: Hausmeister | Dec 9, 2017 9:58:08 AM | 41 I prefer money-laundering as an explanation for the $450M Leonardo. I presume that ‘fake’ means a fake Leonardo because Jesus is a figment of someone’s imagination so ANY likeness is as real or fake as any other. Since the Presidential campaign got into full swing, it’s been obvious, to me, that Trump is a very clever individual; among the top 1% of everyone on the planet, imo. If he’s hammering the Saudis then it’ll be because they’ve breached a ‘private’ understanding with him, and he’s reminding them that POTUS is the most powerful person on Earth and they’d better not forget… And, not completely irrelevant, Pat Lang thinks POTUS Trump has a lot of constitutional power/authority which hasn’t been wielded – yet. Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 9, 2017 10:16:53 AM | 42 Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 9, 2017 10:16:53 AM | 49 He is up for reelection in two years time. Good Luck! (not) Posted by: somebody | Dec 9, 2017 10:49:33 AM | 43 Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 9, 2017 11:14:50 AM | 44 @ Daniel, karlof1 and others with a question What is the early history of the seemingly structural mutual support pact of the ME religious myth folks and the “thou shall not be named” cabal of global elite that control our lifeblood/money and maintain/extent the private property/inheritance/usury meme that the West lives and has since……feudal era? I see it as some sort of Devil’s Pact between the two social organization tenets that evolved out of the never quite finished Enlightenment period. I posit all this as some context for the drama play that we are watching before us…..like this posting from b Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 9, 2017 11:15:40 AM | 45 Good points. He is quite different from the Clinton/McCain/Obama/Bush old guard. I agree with the headway. He stated originally that he wanted to work with Russia against actual terrorism and that seems to be what is going on. He is approaching climate change in somewhat the same way rather than the Clinton/Obama deceptive lip service. I think the Clinton Foundation crime syndicate is in the crosshairs. Then he can move on to universal health care and improved social security. 🙂 (First things first. I supported Bernie but it seems we need the swamp drained first.) Posted by: financial matters | Dec 9, 2017 11:40:20 AM | 47 Author: b By subscribing you won’t miss the special editions. Parting shot—a word from the editors window.newShareCountsAuto="smart"; Dateline: September 22, 2017 [“if you have nukes, never give them up–if you don’t have them, get them”. —Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence.] That is why North Korea is a nuclear power. Period. That is the reality and eventually the U.S. will have to accept “Mutually Assured Madness“. The U.S. has nobody to blame for its self-inflected wounds. It is called Blowback. If there is any comfort in living with a nuclear armed North Korea, then be thankful that it is not even close to the dangers of the Cold War. The propaganda mill and the mainstream media greatly exaggerate the US national security risk to the American people, and it is for their own greedy self-interest to spread panic and paranoia among the American people. If Kim Jong-un wanted to kill Americans out of insane hatred, he has that capability now with conventional weapons. There are over a quarter of a million American citizens living in Seoul, 100 miles from Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un has not attacked Seoul to kill Americans because he is not insane or suicidal, and that is according to experts on North Korea such as Dan Coats and Donald Gregg, and others. Forget the propaganda, it is nonsense aimed at selling extremely expensive Thermal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles and further encircle and threaten China and Russia . THAAD’s installed in South Korea at a cost of $1 billion are ineffective and useless against North Korean missiles in the early stage of launching. It is the U.S. that is the most dangerous country and threat to the world, not North Korea. The U.S. has beaten its own world record as a serial mass murderer of the 21stcentury. That does not go unnoticed by small vulnerable countries, which is the kind that the U.S. likes to destroy for its own sick reasons. For North Korea to fear the U.S. is reality. To want a nuclear deterrent is sanity. “if you have nukes, never give them up–if you don’t have them, get them“. This week’s performance at the United Nations by Trump raises more questions of his sanity. We won’t know until he is kept under further observation. It is not looking good. Without knowing it, Trump gave the same message that Coats did. His raving has sent any vulnerable country back to the nuclear weapons-planning drawing board, if they know what is good for them. Trump’s speech has done more for nuclear proliferation than Iran and North Korea combined could ever do. Trump should have listened to Steve Bannon when he said: “There’s no military solution, forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, and they got us.” North Korea is not playing “gotcha”. For them it is not a game, like it is to the US planners. North Korea rightly fears for its life and its existence. We may not like the way they live, but that is not for us to decide. It is for the North Koreans to determine. This is the 21st century not the 19th century of Kipling’s “white man’s burden” (which Theodore Roosevelt said “made good sense, from the expansionists point of view“). If the U.S. wants to do something good (instead of expansionism) for human rights it should start with its own cabal of right-wing dictators and their death squads. Trump says he is going to succeed where Obama and Bush failed. He should take a page from President Bill Clinton who successfully negotiated with North Korea, until Bush destroyed the agreement. Trump talks big and the mainstream media and Trump backers love it. It is the cowboy image that so many Americans think they are in their own mind. Trump says he is going to kick down Kim Jong-un’s door, take away his rockets and free his people. That is insanity, cowboy insanity. But it is nothing new for America. U.S. history is a history of wars of aggression, sold to the public as “making the world safe for democracy“, but really for the profits of tycoons. When the Euro-American migrants followed their Manifest Destiny and hit the Pacific Ocean, they just kept on going until they got to Asia. When they got there they started kicking down doors. They discovered civilizations that did not know they were lost, and then kicked their doors down to sell them trinkets for treasures, and steal their resources of natural and human capital. The Euro-Americans justified kicking down doors in order to teach the ‘heathens’ Christianity, free-trade (at the point of a gun) and table manners. It is now called nation building. First the U.S. destroys a nation, then sends in the contractors to rebuild, and turn a tidy profit too. It is war profiteering insanity and leaves a pile of human corpses in the rubble. [dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen America discovered the 5,000 year civilization of Korea in the late 1800’s, the Koreans wanted nothing to do with the foreigners. So the Americans sent the gunboats to Korea’s Ganghwa Island and took it hostage. When the Koreans defended it, President Ulysses S. Grant sent the U.S. Korean Expeditionary Force in 1871. Night raids and kicking down doors followed until they changed their behavior. All the Koreans wanted were to be left alone. During their long history they had learned from experience that no matter how friendly foreigners seemed at first, eventually they brought war, conquest and subjugation. North Korea is simply remembering the lessons inflicted on the nation over centuries by abject invaders and aggressors. Skip forward to 1945. There is a lot of U.S. history in between, and most of it is repetitions. Only the names and dates change, but not the plot. Invasions followed by invasion. During the early 20th century, the U.S. proxy Japan had bitten off more of Asia than the U.S. thought they should chew, the U.S. wanted to chew on it themselves. The U.S. appetite for empire did not end in 1945’s end of WW2. It was just getting its second wind. At the end of WW2, both the U.S. and Soviet Russia had liberated Korea from Japan. So the Americans and the Russians split the difference at the 38th parallel. In the north half of Korea the Soviets established Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung to head the communist government. The Grandfather Kim had been a communist revolutionary and freedom fighter against Japanese occupation. Later he fought in China with Mao Zedong’s communist against the U.S. backed Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek. After Chiang’s defeat, the deposed autocrat fled to the Chinese island of Formosa, along with his entourage of Chinese wealthy, businessmen and intellectuals. With U.S. blessing, Chiang ruled as a brutal military dictator, committing hundreds of massacres of his own people. He imprisoned, tortured and executed thousands; anybody that he suspected of being a dissident to his dictates. Today Formosa is Taiwan; it is not a member of the UN and has formal diplomatic relations with few countries, not even the U.S. If Trump is so concerned about “Rocket Man’s” human rights record, then Trump would make a good start by reading U.S. history, and correcting the behavior of the dozens of U.S. backed right-wing dictators. He could learn from history about the military dictatorships and human rights violations of U.S. backed military dictatorships of South Korea. After the U.S. military rule from 1945 to 1948, the U.S. installed the military dictatorship of Syngman Rhee, and later Park Chung-hee. You won’t hear about it from “Hair Man” Trump or Fox News. Nor will you hear much about the new progressive president of South Korea Moon Jae-in. He ran on a popular campaign of bettering relations with North Korea, much like the “Sunshine Policy” of former president Kim Dae Jung (1998 to 2003), for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000. Better relations between South Korea and North Korea is not what the U.S. wants. Bush killed it, Obama embalmed it, and Trump is trying to bury it. The U.S. neocons could not be happier. Better relations, normalization, a peace treaty and eventual reunification are against the U.S. Empire’s interest. That is why South Korea’s wishes are never mentioned, except in rare staged events. Strange, since Koreans are said to be our thankful beneficiaries. The U.S. is undermining and pressuring Moon to drop his efforts at better relations. Putting in THAAD’s before Moon could take office was an embarrassment and a loss of “face”. U.S. domineering is not unnoticed by the South Korean people, and anti-Americanism is on the rise again. Most Americans believe that South Korea became an economic miracle by following the U.S. mythological example of democracy and free-market competition. The propagandists and repeaters never get tired of waxing eloquent that fairytale, singing the praises of capitalism and U.S.-style democracy. South Korea did not develop economically under democracy, free-trade and free-markets. It developed under military dictators, state-corporate monopolies and free-flowing U.S. economic aid. Ditto Taiwan. Trump talks about “fire and fury”. Both North and South Korea know what U.S. fire and fury are from the 3 years of the Korean War (1950 to 1953). The history of the Korean War would be enough for the Nuremberg Tribunal to hang President Truman and all of his generals. Air Force Curtis LeMay and the State Department’s Dean Rusk tell the gores of the war. LeMay was in command of the bombing of Korea, and said about U.S. fire and fury: LeMay: We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, someway or another, and some in South Korea too.” Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure? Dean Rusk was the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs during the Korean War and later he was the Secretary of State. Here is what Dean Rusk had to say: “The United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops . (VOX.co)” Kim Jong-un does not need teaching on fire and fury. In the past 30 years the U.S. has taught North Korea and anybody else about fire and fury. The U.S. has committed military aggression against approximately 20 countries in the past 30 years, (not including covert operations and support of proxies) and none of those countries had a nuclear deterrent. The North Koreans especially observed Libya, as Bush advised them to. The North Koreans saw what happened to Muammar Gaddafi when he gave up his nuclear project. They saw the glee it brought Hillary. U.S. agreements are meaningless. How could they have missed George W. Bush’s message to listen up? It was specifically addressed to them: “If a country like Libya was to show transparency and active cooperation, that can open the doors, a complete change of face, it is a lesson for North Korea to observe.”–Bush 2003 The mainstream media cannot stop saying that Kim Jong-un is “irrational, unstable, unpredictable and paranoid”. And that he refuses to come to the negotiation table. Many experts say that the former is not so, and the U.S. State Department confirms that it is the U.S. that refuses to negotiate. On August 15, 2017 a press conference at the State Department must be a record for insanity. Here is a partial transcript of one of the strangest press conferences at the State Department, August 15, 2017. The spokesperson for the State Department is Heather Nauert: Answer: I think so. I mean, the Secretary, I think, was pretty clear about that today. Just a couple days ago he spoke about this as well. He said, look, we’ll talk, but they have to take some serious steps. Susan Thornton, our acting assistant secretary for East Asia Pacific, who’s been very engaged with the Secretary on this issue, has said the same thing. Look, we’re willing to sit down and talk with them, but it appears that that’s not — that’s not going to happen imminently. They have to take some serious steps before we get there. — So just to be clear, not launching ballistic missiles towards Guam is not enough— the Secretary has been clear about we will see it — they know what they need to do to get us to come to the negotiating table Answer: I think they would have to do quite a bit more Amazing! Outrageous! It shows how low the public is held in the U.S. government’s esteem. It also shows how the mainstream does not report inconvenient facts. It is called contempt for the public. North Korea is willing to negotiate. They have negotiated in the past. They have made offers to negotiate. They have no preconditions. They want a peace treaty. The U.S. knows it. The mainstream media knows it. They are lying. Kim Jong-un is not the insane one, Trump may be, but it is too soon to say. We will know for sure that he is if he uses the military option, which is called aggression and war. Realistically, the most that the U.S. can hope for in negotiations is that North Korea agrees to freeze its nuclear program, accepts inspection, and signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The holdup is that the U.S. does not know what it is willing to give up in return, and is holding out for as little as possible. Or they do not know. If Trump is sane, which nobody is sure about, then all the outrageous rhetoric is to gain time so that the U.S. can negotiate from maximum strength. Trump’s top advisors know that North Korea will not agree to give up their nukes. Donald Gregg is one of the best experts America has on North Korea (bio here). According to an interview reported in Time Magazine July 24, 2017 he said, “We can’t deal with them if we don’t understand them, and we won’t understand them if we aren’t talking to each other”. He says to forget preconditions. Gregg also says that Kim Jong-un is “smart, tough, and a risk taker” who sees his nuclear arsenal as protection against a U.S. attack. “The North Koreans aren’t suicidal. They don’t want a war—North Korea’s leaders are “thoughtful, well-educated pragmatists.” Like Coats, Gregg does not believe that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons. The other alternative to negotiations, the military option, “fire and fury”; that would be insane. If the U.S. tries to wipe North Korea off the face of the earth with “fire and furry” not only will it kill tens of millions of North Koreans, but before they go they will take millions of South Koreans, hundreds of thousands of U.S. expats living in Seoul, and 25,000 U.S. troops with them. It could also lead to war with China, Russia and a nuclear holocaust which will take us all. Whether the U.S. agrees to negotiations or not, North Korea is keeping its nukes. The old Cold War policy of mutually assured destruction is now Mutually Assured Madness. Selected References: , Bruce Cumings. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, David Halberstam. The Hidden History of the Korean War: 1950-1951 (Forbidden Bookshelf), I. F. Stone. Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, Ha-Joon Chang. The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War, James Bradley. [premium_newsticker id=”154171″] CARE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT DAVID? www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005615508769&view |
This came up:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-saudi-fm-allegedly-sacked-regime/
Posted by: arbetet | Dec 8, 2017 3:02:14 PM | 1