Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, March 18, 2021

• 💥Vaccine Passports and Medical Martial Law by Jesse Smith from his weblog Truth Unmuted. This is a best post.

• Our Digital Gulag on The Last American Vagabond posted on Corbett's website (if you haven't already, listen to the same discussion on this "best post" a few days ago from The Last American Vagabond's website.)
  

• Money Is Made Up And We Can Change The Rules Whenever We Want by Caitlin Johnston, an independent Australian blogger, from her website. 

• Britain’s Secret Political Police by Asa Winstanley from Internationalist 360°. 

• Journalists, Illustrating How They Operate, Yesterday Spread a Significant Lie All Over Twitter by Glenn Greenwald from his weblog in Substack. My commentary follows: 

Although Greenwald lambasts the journalist profession with a "holier than thou" tone, he only lamely examines the reasons why most of the profession has been corrupted. It is the corruption of this profession that is the root of so much ignorance among ordinary Americans about what their ruling class and its government are doing. 

 

The corruption of government is another subject that needs exploring by brave (suicidal) people, and a few are doing this. Many members of the legal profession, of which Greenwald is a member, collude in government with liars in the secret services, corporation execs, and the whole fascist Deep State. Maybe he should stick to his own profession with his lofty principles. It is the story that needs to be reported, but a relatively few people are doing it, and mostly in alternative media. These few courageous people are constantly faced with innumerable difficulties such as begging for funding from the public, lack of resources to do their job, constantly labeled by mainstream journalists as engaging in "conspiracy theories", and under constant attack by ruling class censors posing as "fact-checkers", etc.

 

The major problem is the overwhelming power of the capitalist leviathan that has grown to the fascist monster that it is during the past several hundred years. Oh, it was cute as an infant and few people saw that it had the potential to become the bête noire that it is today. Nowadays, it is in control of an empire, all institutions therein, control of nearly all jobs and careers, and in control of resources, wealth, and power that could only be dreamed about by earlier ruling classes.

• AOC Theatrically Gaslights Working People Over Stimulus Bill featuring Jimmy Dore (with Ron Placone) via his YouTube channel (18:32m) showing how a "progressive" member of the workingman's Democratic Party gaslights the general public.

• House Hearing Provides a Message to Robinhood Traders: Retail Investors Lose Consistently When They Actively Trade their Own Account by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. 

• For Leviathan, it’s so cold in Alaska by Pepe Escobar from "The Saker" weblog. (Note: Escobar, a Brazilian journalist, brings his great geopolitical expertise to focus on two meetings between two top antagonists--the super-aggressive US/Anglo/Zionist Empire versus those nations (Russia-China-Iran alliance) which insist on a multipolar world. You will need to know what he means when he references "the Quad"; also here are the lyrics to Caroline Says II.)
  

• DISCUSS: President Magufuli dead at 61 from Off-Guardian. My reaction: This is what invariably happens to those leaders who oppose the Empire's policies and actions. The leaders don't even have to be from a foreign country. The assassination of the Kennedy brothers demonstrates this.
  

• ‘Independent’ report claiming Uyghur genocide brought to you by sham university, neocon ideologues lobbying to ‘punish’ China by Ajit Singh from The Grayzone. 

• British policy in Syria is a vindictive campaign to crush Syrian/Russian relations by Vanessa Beeley from her weblog The Wall Will Fall. My reaction: Britain is, of course, part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and as such this policy applies to all of the Empire.

• Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop #2, Climate-Change Summary by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson from his YouTube channel (2:43m).
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, March 7, 2021

• What’s Not Being Said About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine. “Human Guinea Pigs”? by F. William Engdahl from Global Research. (Note: NIAID refers to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.)
  

• The Problem with Conspiracy Theories by Kevin Ryan from his weblog Dig Within. My reaction: the ruling classes' governments can only issue conspiracy theories, not citizens (sarcasm).
  

• Corporate ‘Mindfulness’ Programs Are an Abomination by Thom James Carter from Current Affairs. 

• Bioethics and the New Eugenics featuring James Corbett from his weblog focusing on "death panels" passed under the "Obamacare" law and similar laws in Canada in a 39:33m video. My reaction: This is a good way to get rid of "useless eaters" (sarcasm). Unfortunately, true to his commitment to anarchism, he points to governments, and occasionally, billionaires, or in this video academic eugenicists, but never to the capitalist ruling classes who control governments or, indirectly, academic appointments.
  

• Democrats Kill Minimum Wage In Senate featuring Jimmy Dore on his Rokfin channel.
  

• US Continues Crusade Against Nord Stream 2 by Brian Berletic from Land Destroyer Report. 

• How Did the Life Insurance Industry Survive the Pandemic? by Robert E. Wright from American Institute for Economic Research.
  

• Approaching a Risky 1.5°C Global Overshoot by Robert Hunziker from CommonCurrents.

• Confirm Methane's Importance from Arctic News.
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, November 23, 2019

• Trump Is Appeasing the Wrong People by Steve Brown from The Duran. (Note: The author demonstrates an insightful understanding of the well-hidden forces (the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's Deep State) at work to shape the world's most important economic and political events.)

• Americans Usually Support Ethnic Cleansing When Their Government Does by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note: As usual Zuesse offers an insightful and well documented analysis of US foreign policies.)

• Bolivia’s Coup Gov’t Targets Alternative Media as Crackdown Turns Increasingly Violent by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.

• US occupying Syria oil wells, looting resources: Damascus envoy to UN from PressTV (Iran). 

• Why The Hong Kong Riots Are Coming To An End by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.

• Climate emergency (2): The scientific case by David Spratt from Climate Code Red (based in Australia).

Posts I especially recommend for today: Monday, November 18, 2019

• America’s enforcer in the Middle East. Paul Graham interviews (36:35m) Stephen Gowans who in my opinion is a leading political analyst in the world.

• The US and Iran in Iraq: Protestors take over the streets, demanding government reforms “or else” by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog.

• China, USA and the Geopolitics of Lithium by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

• Bolivia – A Color Revolution – or a New Surge for Latin American Independence? by Peter Koenig from The Greanville Post.

• Is the Middle East Beginning a Self-Correction? by Alistair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• The Hugely Important OPCW Scandal Keeps Unfolding. Here’s Why No One’s Talking About It. By Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• Scientists’ climate gap is narrowing by Alex Kirby from Climate News Network. 

• Wall Street Journal investigation confirms Google operates censorship blacklist by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. (Note: WSWS and other websites are not all that is being censored by Google and YouTube which is owned by Google. Looking last night I ran into countless videos that were blocked by YouTube or its "owners" or the Deep State: see this, this, or any of these films: Money As Debt 2: Promises Unleashed; The Money Masters; Creature from Jekyll Island; 1929- The Great Wall St Crash & Depression; Fiat Empire- Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution; War By Deception: The shadow government and shadow economy; etc. (scroll down to see all these blocked films)

Israel’s Attack on The USS Liberty: An Act of War, A False Flag, A Gross Betrayal

Click here to access article by Craig McKee from Global Research.

Stephen Gowans' excellent new book entitled Israel: A beachhead in the Middle East reveals the context of the wider post WWII by the European nations and the USA to resist the efforts of the more independent Arab countries to possess and manage their own valuable oil and gas resources for the benefit of their countries instead of serving the British, American, and other European investors.

This Six-Day War was a crucial war that led to the decisive crushing of the influence of Gamal Nasser, President of Egypt, who became a hero to the Arabs who struggled to gain control of their oil from the colonial powers and the Americans. As such, the brief war also cemented the support by US capitalists in the emerging US Empire for Zionist Israel. 

As Gowans revealed in his heavily documented book:

In March 1967, tensions grew between Syria and Israel over their demilitarized zone separating the two states. The Soviets warned Nasser that Israel was preparing an attack on his ally. In April, the Jordanians and Saudis, taking their instruction from the CIA, accused Nasser of cowardice. He talked big, they said, but his inaction belied his words. He was nothing but a paper tiger. Their intention was to goad the Arab leader into attacking Israel, or lose face before his adoring Arab supporters if the didn't. 

Nasser built up his troops near the border between Israel and Egypt, and the Israelis went on the attack. The USS Liberty, equipped with power intelligence capabilities, was stationed near the battle-zone to monitor what was going. When the Israeli Army, equipped by the Western powers, launched their attack on nearby Arab countries and were decisive in their quick victory over the poorly equipped Arab nations like Egypt and Syria, the USS Liberty was a liability--they knew too much--and had to be destroyed by Israel. The directors of the emerging US Empire immediately recognized the value of Israel in helping to put down any resistance to their control of the valuable resources of the Middle East. And, as they say, the rest is history.

For an accurate description of the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force, I recommend my post from 2017 entitled Remembering the USS Liberty.

US is about to sanction the world if they don't stop purchasing Russian arms

Click here to access article by Andrew Korybko from InfoRos (Russia).

This American geopolitical analyst based in Moscow examines the latest economic warfare launched by the US administration to counter the influence of the Russians and Chinese who wish to break the dominance of power in the hands of ruling class capitalists and their US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. He focuses on the purchase of weapons in this geopolitical struggle.

... military relationships aren't the same as most trading ones where the customer simply purchases a product and that's usually the end of the exchange. Rather, they usually imply long-term partnerships where the seller agrees to maintain the military wares for an agreed-upon length of time and train the end user in how to properly operate them, which lays the basis for more comprehensive and strategic relations between the two parties as a result of these trustful ties.

There are also billions of dollars to be made these deals too, to say nothing of any others that result from this exercise of "military diplomacy". In addition, countries that have established these close "deep state" relations with Russia and China are generally more aligned with those two multipolar Great Powers and not as easily manipulated by the US, which is of course concerning from an American standpoint.

The New Silk Roads reach the next level

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, speaks eloquently about the respect shown to other nations participating in the BRI projects. His words are reinforced with deeds shown to participating members, and that is the key to the success of recruiting members which now number more than the G20.

BRI is now supported by no less than 126 states and territories, plus a host of international organizations. This is the new, truthful, realistic face of the “international community” – way bigger, diversified and more representative than the G20.

The Beijing leadership seems to be aware that transparency is key for the global success of BRI.

This style contrasts sharply with the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's strategies to engage in economic warfare on various countries, destabilize countries, like Venezuela, which want to pursue a more independent path, sponsor terrorist armies to attack independent countries (like Syria), and continue to threaten nations with both economic sanctions and NATO. 

It appears to me that the capitalist directors of the Empire are seeing their control of their Empire and dominant influence in the world slipping away to the increasing achievements of the independent nations, and are upping their aggressive responses which likely will end in a backlash that will either destroy the Empire or will result in catastrophic nuclear war. While this scene is rapidly unfolding and threatening further crises, most ordinary Americans are blithely ignoring such developments and focusing their efforts on the micro-issues of their insular lives. They have been so confused by the 24/7 (def.) deceptions and distractions of their capitalist masters over the decades since WWII that they cannot function mentally to counteract such developments.

Kurds in Fateful Triangle as US Moves to Redeploy IS Terror Groups

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation. (If you have difficulty like I had in accessing this article, you may find it also posted here.) (This commentary was edited for greater clarity at 7:30 AM CT.)

The Kurds have once again demonstrated (like in Iraq) that they know very little about the ventures they enter in, especially seeking an alliance with, and the protection of, US Forces. Their dream of establishing their own state carved out of Syria and Iraq is going nowhere fast. However, there is increasing evidence that their use by US Forces is another deception imposed upon the American public who are confused by the 24/7 bombardment of fake news. The author who is based in the Middle East offers more evidence that US actions in Syria are creating more mischief.

Kurdish fighters have been used by the US to ostensibly defeat the remaining Islamic State holdouts in eastern Syria. But what is emerging is not a final defeat of the terrorists, more a redeployment to further destabilize the Arab country.

Potentially, the Kurds could wind up not with the regional autonomy they desire, but as part of a rebranded American dirty war army whose ranks include the very terrorist the Kurdish militias have been successfully battling against.

President Donald Trump has been lately crowing about how US-backed Kurdish forces have wiped out the IS self-proclaimed caliphate around Baghouz in eastern Syria. “They’re losers… they’re gone tonight,” he boasted about supposedly vanquishing the jihadists.

However, things are not that clear-cut.

I have a hunch (only a hunch) that the US Deep State (read my commentary to this post) has leaned on (mostly by ignoring his policy decisions) Trump so much that he, in self-defense, has compromised away his nationalist policy decisions to approach those of the Deep State's neoliberal (transnational) policies. The appointments to key offices like Pompeo and Bolton are examples of this. I now consider Trump to be something like a "useful idiot" who has been forced to serve the neoliberal and imperial policies of the Deep State. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter doesn't mind his reelection in 2020.

Belt and Road Initiative in Full Swing in Europe

Click here to access article by Federico Pieraccini from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The author writes about his take on the recent visit by top Chinese officials to Europe to confer with the top European officials. China poses a threat to the Empire's uni-polar world as they dangle economic rewards that the Belt and Road Initiative offers to European capitalists. He writes:

No European capital – whether it be Paris, Rome, Berlin or London – intends to break the Atlantic pact with Washington. This is confirmed at every possible formal occasion. However, as Beijing becomes more and more central to questions concerning technology or the supply of liquid capital for investments or business expansion, the changes to the global order seem unstoppable.

The author reaches this conclusion:

It is no coincidence that for US strategists the two greatest dangers lie in the possibility of Moscow and Beijing, or Moscow and Berlin, cooperating and coordinating their efforts. The Berlin-Moscow-Beijing triangle, with the addition of Rome and Paris, represents a scenario for Washington that is unprecedented in terms of its challenge to US hegemony in Europe. 

An Iran-Syria ‘Belt & Road’: A Far-Reaching Geopolitical Strategy Unfolds

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. (I've had difficulties with this link and if you do also, I advise accessing the article via ZeroHedge.)

I encountered this article on Monday the 25th of March, but I didn't realize the full significance that it had. It appears to me that Crooke sees a series of bumbling attempts by the Trump administration that risks calamitous consequences for the Empire in their strategy to weaken Iran. Poised against this strategy is the China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Characterizing BRI as a "far-reaching geopolitical strategy" is perhaps an understatement as to its ultimate effects.

As we saw yesterday in Escobar's article and commentary I posted yesterday, President Xi of China is in meetings with the presidents of France and Germany to clear away their objections to BRI.  It is also very clear that both Macron and Merkel are very concerned about the tempting incentives presented by BRI for their own European capitalists. Thus, the meetings are critically important in this giant struggle for the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire to maintain their dominant position in the world. (See also an article by Deena Stryker.)

If President Xi should succeed, it will have a number of very adverse consequences for the Empire's anti-Iran strategies. Iran, as Crooke points out, is a key participant in China's BRI. Thus the Empire's transnational capitalist class would not only incur a devastating setback in its project to punish Iran, but far worse. China's BRI would link up Asia, Russia, and Europe and thus consolidate a victory for a multipolar world. Keep in mind that the Empire has already suffered a defeat in its Syrian campaign which struggle was really against Russian efforts to link Europe's economy with that of Russia.

Muddying this picture is the US Deep State's concern about their long favorable relationship with Saudi Arabia following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an important Saudi citizen employed by the Washington Post, a key Empire newspaper. As Crooke points out, there is a section of the Deep State that is very worried about their longstanding relationship with Saudi Arabia which has been essential to supporting the US dollar as the primary world's currency following the Vietnam War when USA went off the gold standard.

Thus, Crooke concludes his article with this insightful statement:

Well, the pivot for countering this unfavourable US conjuncture rests on one man: MbS. America’s entire foreign policy, and that of its ally, Israel, has pivoted around this erratic, highly-flawed, psychologically-impaired figure. The NYT leak from CIA officials, with its unqualified endorsement through a NYT board editorial, suggest that the CIA and MI6 have concluded that US global interests cannot be left in such unreliable, unsafe hands.

What this ultimately might mean is unclear, but such a leak would suggest that it stems from a concerted CIA professional assessment (i.e. that it is not just a partisan party warfare). Trump may not concur, or like it much, but the CIA when it does form such a definitive view, is no force to be lightly trifled with.

Venezuela — Interview with Stalin Pérez Borges: “It will be very difficult to defeat us.”

Click here to access the interview posted by Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. 
(Because the interview was first posted in Spanish on February 7, it must have occurred before then.)

A representative from this website interviewed an important union leader from Valencia, an important industrial center in Venezuela. I believe he offers an important analysis of the Empire's latest effort at "regime change" against the government of Venezuela together with the internal problems and possibilities of resistance from the Chavista forces which have grown over the past 20 years. (Having said that, I think you can skip Borges' rather confusing and lengthy answer to the question "What did you think of the recent meeting of members of the Citizens’ Platform for the Defence of the Constitution with Juan Guaidó?") 

Before commenting on the current political crisis, how would you describe the social and economic crisis in Venezuela today?

This question leads to a very long answer, so I apologise if it gets tiresome. The economic and social crisis has grown exponentially for about five years now, and has got to this rotten state of hyper-inflation that we’re barely coping with, and which is breaking world records. This is the cause for the huge discontent that we have at this stage and for the important change in the correlation of political power in this juncture. In my opinion this is a consequence of three fundamental facts: two of them circumstantial, and one structural. 

Venezuela: Let’s Cut to the Chase

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

Escobar adds his own knowledgeable insights to the meaning of the latest Empire's effort to appoint a new regime in Venezuela. Having obviously failed in Syria, the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is licking its wounds and determined that this won't happen in their own backyard.

... now it’s firmly established what happened [recently] in Caracas was not a color revolution but an old-school US-promoted regime change coup using local comprador elites, installing as “interim president” an unknown quantity, Juan Guaido, with his Obama choirboy looks masking extreme right-wing credentials. [my insertion]

Everyone remembers “Assad must go”. The first stage in the Syrian color revolution was the instigation of civil war, followed by a war by proxy via multinational jihadi mercenaries. As Thierry Meyssan has noted, the role of the Arab League then is performed by the OAS now. And the role of Friends of Syria – now lying in the dustbin of history – is now performed by the Lima group, the club of Washington’s vassals. Instead of al-Nusra “moderate rebels”, we may have Colombian – or assorted Emirati-trained – “moderate rebel” mercenaries.

US-Led Efforts to Overthrow Maduro Spurred by Business Interests, Not Democracy

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left. 

Gowans places the astonishingly arrogant recognition of another figure as President of Venezuela in the context of the US past history of interventions throughout Latin America: in order to restore a government that is favorable to US commercial interests. But I think it is much more than that.

As I have argued in the recent past, the directors of the transnational capitalists aligned with the US-led Empire are seeing a reverse in their domination of the nations on our planet, and they feel very threatened. The the threats they are coming from several directions: domestic opposition, international opposition led by Russia and China, and the threat that global warming poses for their system that has brought so much wealth and power to them. Like a wounded beast, they are becoming more irrational about slashing out at their imagined and real enemies. In short, they are now very dangerous with their control of vast armies, weapons, and most especially, nuclear weapons. 

Never before has it been necessary for ordinary people of the lands that the evil Empire controls to oppose their actions in order to save all of humanity from even more desperate actions that could lead to a nuclear war catastrophe in the short run and to the ultimate destruction of our biosphere on which all human life (and many other species) depends.

Recommended articles for Thursday, January 24, 2019

• An Unholy Alliance: The Use of Terrorism According to John Bolton by Thierry Meyssan from Mint Press News.

I recommend this piece by Meyssan for those who track rather closely the details of the Empire's highly secret and deceitful strategies to control the fossil fuel rich Middle East and their vendetta against Iran for opposing these strategies. Meyssan, a French geopolitical analyst, normally writes on this own website, Voltaire Network, but the owners of Mint Press News out of Minneapolis has close kinship relations with the Middle East and apparently trust his judgement. I don't always agree with his analyses, but I feel that he is sincerely trying to understand events.

• Distribution and redistribution of wealth in USA by the editor of Real-World Economics Review Blog.

Economists love graphs, a statistical image that portrays some data, and this piece offers many graphs that point to some striking features of a capitalist system: it promotes the formation of a tiny class of rich/powerful, private owners of socially produced wealth.

• Scientists: Climate change causing heatwaves, droughts and floods from Climate & Capitalism.

• Hicks vs. Globalists by Linh Dinh from The Unz Review. (This is a very different kind of post which I found so enthralling (def.).)

To see the world--and he appears to have traveled the world--through his eyes and expressed so well in his inimitable prose is a very unique experience. 

• Trump Recognition of Rival Venezuelan Government Will Set Off a Diplomatic Avalanche by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Wow!)

Recommended articles for Wednesday, January 23, 2019

• Putin-Erdogan Summit: Idlib and al-Hasaka strongly present and the Kurds are the biggest losers by Elijah J Magnier from his blog.

• US Military Apologizes For Posting Uncomfortably Honest Tweet by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

• Another Defeat for Imperialist Feminism in Nicaragua by Nora McCurdy and Stephen Sefton from Tortilla con Sal.

• The Smile of Class Privilege by Kenn Orphan from CounterPunch. 

Yes, I recognize the smile in the picture. I've seen it occasionally over my long adult life, but never in a grossly intimidating situation as in the picture largely because I'm white.

• How Liberal Media 'Operates as Propaganda System for State Power' by Kit Klarenberg from Sputnik.

The founders of Media Lens (a British alternative website) David Cromwell and David Edwards, are interviewed by Klarenberg. Much of the discussion centers on "liberal media" which I admit I no longer understand. The political spectrum of what some people call the Anglo-American Empire has so shifted to the right that I am quite confused about the distinctions. Because liberals and conservatives served the same capitalist ruling class, such distinctions logically moved to the right following the events of the last 40 years. I am referring to the stark contradiction of the system of capitalism and a habitat that could be sustainable for human beings to live in. I am also referring to the dramatic challenges to the capitalist Empire (4th Reich?) that emerging nations such as Russia and China have posed for the directors of the dominant capitalist Empire. Therefore, separating liberal from conservative is no longer valid. It is now corporate media, under the control of the capitalist ruling class, versus alternative media which are increasingly questioning the narratives of corporate media.

Anyway, the questions pose to the founders of Media Lens draws out much very interesting material about how our masters of the Empire are flooding the media with self-serving propaganda in an attempt to shape our views and values and see the world through their lens, which is that of power and profits.

Why Trump Decided To Remove U.S. Troops From Syria

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

This German expert geopolitical analyst offer his broader view on why Trump decided to withdraw US troops from bases in eastern Syria in spite of neoconservative opposition.

Trump knows that the United States' 'unilateral moment' after the demise of the Soviet Union, which left the U.S. was the sole superpower, is over. Russia is back and China is rising. Trump's policy to adopt [adapt?] to the decreasing U.S. power is to end the 'globalization' that allowed for China's rapid rise. He wants to geopolitical[ly] split this world into two influence spheres. These will be separate from each other in the political, economic, technological and military realms. [my insertions]

....

Trump decided that to prevent Turkey from leaving NATO, and from joining a deeper alliance with Russia, China and Iran, was more important than to further fool around at the margins of the Middle East. It is the right decision.

US withdrawal from Syria is ‘major blow’ to Kurdish forces: envoy

Click here to access article from AMN (Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi--The Arab Source).

My esteem for the investigative reporting of Pepe Escobar just grew greater after the news that Trump ordered US troops out of Syria and abandoning the Syrian Kurds. Back in 2014 he warned that the USA was merely using these people for their own geopolitical interests and would likely abandon them when the Kurds no longer served the Empire's interests. That day has come. However, Escobar was also caught up in the well-touted progressive nature of the Syrian Kurds like many other leftists. Also, Eric Draitser warned about the cynical nature of US intervention to help the Kurds when they were in danger of being wiped out by ISIS. (Unfortunately, Draitser seems no longer to be publishing much of significance.)

But following these warnings we saw various sources extolling the "progressive nature" of the Syrian Kurds. For some examples, read articles by David Graeber and Marcel Cartier who uncritically and consistently accepted the entire progressive themes of the Syrian Kurds. Graeber now appears on the board of The Region which to me smells like a Zionist propaganda operation.

One website, Reflections on a Revolution, vigorously promoted the progressive nature of the Syrian Kurds. ROAR which was founded by Jerome Roos 2011 and sold it a few years ago to a Dutch based "equity fund" by the name of "Democracy and Media Education Foundation". Jerome remained as editor. Now I notice that it is referred to as "Dutch Foundation for Autonomous Media". Whether Roos is some Israeli agent running a propaganda organization or a misguided "progressive" who genuinely believes the progressive narrative cannot be determined. I do know that he never posted or published articles by independent journalists who saw indications that suggested there were also narrower Kurdish aims involved as well as the geopolitical aims of the US Empire: establishing a Kurdish nation by linking up with the Iraqi Kurds and the Syrian Kurds being used as a pawn by the US Empire to justify their military incursion. I am referring to articles I posted by Thierry Meyssan, Marwa Osman, Alison Banville, Brandon Turbeville, Sarah Abed, Stephen Gowans, etc.

Pakistan in the middle of Saudi, Iran and rival pipeline plans

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

The master of pipeline politics describes the complex nature of the two oil/gas pipeline systems that are in competition in the Middle East and Eurasia, and that the forces promoting these two systems might experience a tectonic shift affecting the power struggle between the US Empire versus the emerging and powerful Chinese-Russian coalition. Now stir the analysis provided in the previous post into the stew of geopolitical interests described in this article to see what you get. Could the Khashoggi incident along with the sanctions be the catalyst that could produce such a tectonic shift? Although Escobar does not factor in the Khashoggi incident, he sees one possibility:

... an irresistible geopolitical pull – heavily influenced by Washington’s sanctions obsession – would drive Turkey-Iran-Pakistan closer to BRI [China's Belt and Road Initiative] and trading in their own currencies or in yuan.

Saudi Regime Survives but Enters the Time of Troubles

Click here to access article by Melkulangara Bhadrakumar from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

In a sensational disclosure quoting “intelligence sources”, former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer wrote in the Financial Review newspaper on Sunday that the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered on October 2 in Turkey was far from a “bleeding heart liberal” but was a seasoned intelligence agent and a sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood working on regime change in his country.

Downer wrote: “To add to the complexity of the story, the Brotherhood is supported by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Qataris… So Jamal Khashoggi – a former Saudi intelligence agent, a man who was close to the Muslim Brotherhood and a sworn opponent of (Saudi Crown Prince) MBS' reform program – was in the process of setting up a centre to promote the ideology of the MB. He was setting it up in Turkey with Qatari money. The Saudis wanted to stop him. In September they offered him $9 million to return to Saudi Arabia and to live there unhindered. They wanted him out of play. Khashoggi refused and the rest you know. The Saudis killed him.”

I don't often post speculative articles like this one regarding the future of Saudi Arabia after the murder of Washington Post's journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the acting king of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). However, there are exceptions when an article rises to a high standard of plausibility based on reliability of sources. This article meets this standard of mine. 

After all, because news and information is carefully monitored and managed by ruling elites, we ordinary humans must test out geopolitical analyses and theories of conspiracies in an attempt to get at the truth. See if you agree with me and the reasoning of the author. His analysis certainly adds a great deal of complexity to the already complex nature of geopolitical affairs involving major players in the world. The murder of Khashoggi may be a watershed event that could have major ramifications in the geopolitical future of the world.

The bottom line is that the explosive anger and fury of the “Deep State” in America over the death of Khashoggi can only be understood with Downer’s intelligence input – namely, that Khashoggi was a priceless “asset” of the US intelligence establishment and the Saudis simply eliminated him.

Settling The Khashoggi Case Is A Difficult Matter

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama. 

This expert geopolitical analyst admits that the political situation regarding the assassination of Saudi journalist Kashoggi is more complicated than first meets the eye.

While I earlier thought that the case would be settled rather sooner than later, I now expect the conflict to go on for weeks or months while collateral damage will accumulate around it.

This is because the Middle East power situation is very unstable, and such an incident could tip its re-orientation in any direction.

The real problem is that both sides, Erdogan and MbS, are extremely headstrong. For both men the issue is much bigger than the Khashoggi case. The conflict has historic, strategic and very personal dimensions. That makes it difficult to find a deal. 

Another article entitled "Did Saudis, CIA Fear Khashoggi 9/11 Bombshell?" by Finian Cunningham offers some insightful speculation as to why this assassination is generating so much concern among politicos of the US Empire and beyond.