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Pepe Escobar

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Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of "Globalistan" (2007), "Red Zone Blues" (2007), "Obama does Globalistan" (2009) and "Empire of Chaos" (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is "2030", also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.

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From ImagesAttr
(30 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 16, 2015
You Want War? Russia is Ready for War Russia has placed ships and submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles in case Turkey under the cover of NATO decides to strike out against the Russian position. President Putin has been clear; Russia will use nuclear weapons if necessary if conventional forces are threatened. And that's why Erdogan's erratic behavior actually terrifies quite a few real players from Washington to Brussels.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 9, 2012
Why Putin is driving Washington nuts Putin will be an ultra-tough negotiator on all fronts. They know Moscow will apply increasingly closer coordination with China; on thwarting permanent NATO bases in Afghanistan; on facilitating Pakistan's strategic autonomy; on opposing missile defense; on ensuring Iran is not attacked.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 16, 2012
All aboard the New Silk Road(s) Washington, of course, has its own New Silk Road ideas, linking Central to South Asia. But that's a mirage in the desert without incorporating Iran -- linked to both Pakistan and India (which imports 12 percent of its oil -- and rising -- from Iran, increasingly paid for in Indian rupees).
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 27, 2012
Why Qatar wants to invade Syria In the words of the Emir, "It is better for the Arab countries themselves to interfere out of their national, humanitarian, political and military duties, and to do what is necessary to stop the bloodshed in Syria." He stressed Arab countries had a "military duty" to invade.
From ImagesAttr
(32 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 19, 2014
It was Putin's missile? Washington, of course, does profit. What the Empire of Chaos gets in this case is a ceasefire (so the disorganized, battered Kiev militias may be resupplied); the branding of eastern Ukrainians as de facto "terrorists" (as Kiev, Dick Cheney-style, always wanted); and unlimited mud thrown over Russia, and Putin in particular, until Kingdom Come. Not bad for a few minutes' work. As for NATO, that's Christmas in July.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Where is Prince Bandar? Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud may have pulled off operation "Damascus Volcano" on July 18. He was definitely promoted to head of Saudi intelligence on July 19. And he might have been killed in a bomb attack on the Saudi General Intelligence HQ in Riyadh on July 22.
Here's the real reason the US must talk to Russia, From GoogleImages
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 23, 2018
Here's the real reason the US must talk to Russia The United States' industrial-military-intel-security complex profits from a compounded annual budget of roughly US$1 trillion. The only justification for such whopping expenditure is to manufacture a lethal external threat: Russia. That's the key reason the complex will not allow US President Donald Trump even to try to normalize relations with Russia.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 7, 2014
The IMF goes to war in Ukraine We're back to the Ukrainian tragedy. Moscow won't "invade." What for? The IMF's structural adjustment will devastate Ukraine more than a war; most Ukrainians may even end up begging Russia for help. Berlin won't antagonize Moscow. So Washington's rhetoric of "isolating" Russia is just revealed for what it is: juvenile delinquency.
Angry Crowd, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 15, 2021
9/11 Was the Prelude. 1/6 Is the Holy Grail 9/11 opened the gates to the Patriot Act, whose core had already been written way back in 1994. 1/6 opens the gate to the War on Domestic Terror and the Patriot Act from Hell, 2.0, on steroids.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, From FlickrPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 7, 2015
What is Erdogan's Game in Syria and Iraq? With his back against the wall in Syria, Erdogan -- what else -- changed the subject and made a play in Iraq, via the now famous "incursion" of alleged 150 Turkish troops along with 20-25 tanks. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu swears Ankara had been "invited" in by the Nineveh provincial government, with Baghdad's approval (a bald-faced lie).
Poppy Walk through Afghanistan's heroin fields, From FlickrPhotos
(27 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 27, 2017
Afghanistan and the CIA Heroin Ratline The Russian Foreign Ministry is tracking how tons of chemicals are being illegally imported into Afghanistan from, among others, "Italy, France and the Netherlands," and how the US and NATO are doing absolutely nothing to contain the heroin ratline.
Vladimir Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 3, 2015
How Russia is Smashing the Turkish Game in Syria Make no mistake that Moscow will inflict as much pain on Sultan Erdogan as possible. No matter which way we look, Turkey and Russia are on a serious collision course in Syria. Moscow will support Syrian Kurds no holds barred as they push to link the three major Kurdish cantons in northern Syria into a unified Rojava.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Syria: Ultimate Pipelineistan War Washington's strategy so far is injecting the proverbial Empire of Chaos logic into Syria; feeding the flames of internal chaos, a pre-planned op by the CIA, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with the endgame being regime change in Damascus. An Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline is unacceptable in the Beltway not only because US vassals lose, but most of all because in currency war terms it would bypass the petrodollar.
Putin meets Iran's Supreme Leader envoy, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Attack on Iran would be an attack on Russia The inevitable conclusion is that major SCO stakeholders Russia, China, India, Pakistan and, in the near future, Iran and Turkey will be major influencers on regional stability. The Pentagon will not be amused.
White House, From FlickrPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 20, 2017
Here's How the Trump Presidency Will Play Out Russia has always wanted peace. But they are not going to play a game with the Masters of the Universe that has Trump as the good guy and the Congress, CIA, etc., as the bad guy as a negotiating ploy. That is how they see it. They do not regard this circus as real.
From gma.yahoo.com/fbi-director-james-comey-face-questions-clinton-investigation-083304338--abc-news-topstories.html: FBI Director James Comey, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 8, 2016
It's All a Russia/Al-Qaeda/WikiLeaks/"Rogue" FBI Plot A case could be made that the first Comey letter to Congress was a response to an FBI internal revolt. Agents that were part of the insurgency are not likely to quit the long game -- even after the election. They have made sure that the real deal is with the Clinton Foundation, not Hillary's emails.
President Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, From YouTubeVideos
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 27, 2015
Why Turkey Stabbed Russia in the Back The stakes for Russia couldn't be heavier because by using Turkmen tribals, Turkey is already planted deep inside northern Syria. Expect Russia to substantially increase bombing of Turkmen areas -- way beyond just a reprisal for the killing of the Russian pilot. The bottom line is Turkey and Russia simply cannot be part of the same coalition fighting the Islamic State group because their objectives are diametrically opposed.
Michael Flynn, From YouTubeVideos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 16, 2017
The Swamp Strikes Back the fratricide war between the Trump administration and the most powerful Deep State factions will be beyond vicious. Team Trump only stands a chance if they are able to weaponize allies from within the Deep State. Iran is momentarily relieved; Russia harbors no illusions; and China knows for sure that the China-Russia strategic partnership will become even stronger. Advantage swamp.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 24, 2015
Meet the Sultan of Civil War This new civil war chapter offers a window of opportunity for a really serious power player -- as Erdogan, foolishly, now fights on two fronts, internal (Kurds) and external (Moscow). Sooner or later Moscow's support for the YPG Syrian Kurds may translate into decisive support for the PKK inside Turkey. Erdogan's civil war strategy leads to a dead end.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 17, 2015
Syria Shatters Pentagon Dream Amidst all the current shadow play, the true test of the Obama administration's intentions is whether the US coalition will really fight Daesh, al-Nusra and Ahrar ash-Sham (which harbors a lot of jihadists from Chechnya, Dagestan and Uzbekistan), with no reservations.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 21, 2017
China plans to break petrodollar stranglehold China is making a move to break the United States petrodollar stranglehold. The plan is to set up oil-futures trading in the yuan, which will be fully convertible into gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong foreign exchange markets.
A  mask-wearing French citizen in Paris., From Uploaded
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 28, 2020
Why France is hiding a cheap and tested virus cure What's going on in the fifth largest economy in the world arguably points to a major collusion scandal in which the French government is helping Big Pharma to profit from the expansion of Covid-19. Informed French citizens are absolutely furious about it.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 26, 2015
Sultan Erdogan's War on...Russia Erdogan's desperate gambit reveals that the last thing Ankara wants is a Vienna-conducted peace process in Syria. "Assad must go" is non-negotiable -- for an array of geopolitical reasons. Erdogan is on a mission from Allah -- at least his version of Allah. The downing of the Su-24 is just the preamble. Get ready, because 2016 promises an even bigger bang.
From ImagesAttr
(37 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 4, 2016
What Does it Take to Bring Hillary Clinton to Justice? Virtually the whole planet holds its collective breath at the prospect of Hillary Clinton possibly becoming the next President of the United States. The FBI has been on the Clinton Foundation for over a year. Now, arguably, they are loaded with evidence -- and they won't quit. Winning the presidency now seems to be the least of Hillary Clinton's Bonfire of Scandals' problems.
From Uploaded
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 2, 2020
Ground Control to Planet Lockdown: This Is Only a Test - Strategic Culture Ground Control to Planet Lockdown: This Is Only a Test - Escobar lists some of the agendas that are being floated in preparation for future clampdowns.
Turkey's Erdogan Lashes Out against the recent killings of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza-Israel border and the US embassy move to Jerusalem., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 20, 2018
Letter from Iran: Mr. Trump, you have been served The letter signatories make a direct connection about Israeli actions that may trigger "and escalate American military actions against Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Russia since these nations are opposed to the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem; and rising tensions already exacerbated by the US withdrawal from the JCPOA."
There are concerns that the political turmoil will further embolden North Korea's Kim Jong Un, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 24, 2017
North Korea: The really serious options on the table Team Trump -- just like the previous US administration of Barack Obama -- assumes that Pyongyang, under pressure, must relinquish its nuclear-weapons program before the negotiations start. Wishful thinking, as anyone who has been to North Korea knows. North Korea is for all practical purposes a nuclear power.
Snowden/Obama - Double Focus Prism, From FlickrPhotos
(43 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 28, 2016
Russia Calls the War Party's Bluff Well-informed Western analysts know that Moscow never brags about military buildups -- and has mastered to a fault the element of surprise. Much more than calling a bluff, it's Moscow's Sun Tzu tactics that are really rattling loudmouth Washington.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 28, 2012
Welcome to the Kurdish Spring When a formerly "zero problem" foreign policy evolves into housing the weaponized opposition to a neighboring government, you're bound to be in trouble. An increasingly erratic Erdogan has invoked a "natural right" to fight "terrorists." But first they must produce an ID; if they are Sunni Arab, they get away with it. If they are Kurdish, they eat lead.
Big Brother is Watching, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 11, 2017
Oh, that traitorous WikiTrump Vast corporate media sectors embedded with the neocon/neoliberal galaxy are spinning that Vault 7 benefits Trump by changing the subject from alleged Russian hacking interference in the US elections and possible Obama administration-ordered hacks of Team Trump's communications. So, if anyone hasn't got the message, the song remains the same. WikiLeaks + Snowden + Russia + Trump = the bad guys.
Hashed al-Shaabi soldier in war with DAESH, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 27, 2017
Daesh, Creature of the West It's easy to dismiss Daesh as the apex of barbarian cultural idiosyncrasies. Even wallowing in gruesomeness, Daesh has been able to project a universalist dimension beyond its Sunni Arab Middle Eastern base. It's like the clash of civilizations playing in a wilderness of mirrors.
Obama speaking with reporters at the conclusion of the G7 summit in Germany, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 12, 2015
American dreaming, from G1 to Bilderberg Neocons -- with Obama in tow - knock themselves out dreaming that Russia has become "isolated" from the rest of the world because of their sanctions. Since then Moscow has signed major economic/strategic contracts with at least 20 nations. Next month, Russia will host the BRICS summit -- 45 percent of the world's population.
Russian Military Power - The Bear Is Awakened, From ImagesAttr
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 2, 2014
Western plutocracy goes bear hunting In the US, and a great deal of the EU, a monstrous grotesquerie has developed, packaging Putin as the new Stalinist Osama bin Laden. So far, his strategy on Ukraine was to be patient -- what I called Vlad Lao Tzu -- watching the Kiev gang hang themselves while trying to sit down with the EU in a civilized manner working for a political solution.
From ImagesAttr
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 16, 2012
Bomb Iran? No. Bomb Gaza? Yes! Launching a war, for the IDF, is child's play. Tel Aviv just had to kill a few Palestinian civilians like the dangerous soccer terrorist -- and send in some extra tanks. Gaza factions had to respond -- and they targeted Israeli soldiers (not civilians). That was the perfect excuse for Tel Aviv to go on a rampage.
(75 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 28, 2017
When in doubt, nuke China What Admiral Swift actually said, in code, is, if a civilian order comes, the US military will start WWIII (or WWIV, if one counts the Cold War), duly applying the Pentagon's first-strike doctrine. What Swift did not say is that President Trump also has the power to pull a Truman and fire any run-amok, aspiring MacArthur clone.
From flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/25349622004/: Hillary Clinton, From Images
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Hillary Clinton, The FBI and November Surprise It's possible Comey had to do it because the rot goes way beyond the Clinton "pay to play" racket and involves virtually the whole system, from the deep recesses of the Obama administration to the War Party scam, the Department of Justice, the CIA and the FBI itself. What next? Brace for impact; it may well be the ultimate November Surprise.
Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad, From ImagesAttr
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 18, 2015
Peace in Syria? It's Putin's fault Moscow's is the only diplomatic game in town because Washington's Plan A continues to be regime change, and there's no coherent "Western" road map which simultaneously guarantees smashing ISIS/ISIL/Daesh while preventing the catastrophic dismemberment of the Syrian state.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 9, 2017
"The time to invest in Iran is now" The real secret in reference to incipient trade is that Russia and Iran do not have much to exchange at globally competitive rates. Russia exports mainly metals, wood, electrical machines, paper, grain, floating structures, mechanically engineered products and weapons. Iran exports agricultural and seafood products.
Game of Oil, From YouTubeVideos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 29, 2016
The Calm Before the Coming Global Storm Beijing is advancing on all fronts; spreading influence/commercial deals all across Eurasia, which the New Silk Roads will shape into a mass emporium; modernizing its military; buying strategic foreign assets; building up global trust in the yuan as a stable reserve currency; allowing Chinese elites to diversify their enormous wealth by buying foreign assets. There's serious blood on the tracks ahead.
SWIFT ban could bankrupt European banks who have been buying Russian debt, warns economist Global energy economist Jan Stuart discusses the economic ramifications of the latest round of sanctions against Russia., From YouTubeVideos
(27 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 5, 2022
How Russia Will Counterpunch the U.S./EU Declaration of War Only self-sufficiency affords total independence. And the Big Picture has also been keenly understood by the Global South.
From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 11, 2016
Kill List: Smashing the "B" in BRICS Exceptionalistan's project for Brazil is no less than the imposition of a remixed Monroe doctrine. The main target of a planned neoliberal restoration is to cut off South America from the BRICS -- as in, essentially, the Russia-China strategic partnership. Getting rid of Dilma, Lula, the Workers' Party, by all means available, is only the start.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 2, 2017
Letter from Tehran: Trump "the bazaari" As with most conferences, what matters are the sidelines. Leonid Savin, a Russian geopolitical analyst, claimed that Russian airspace is now all but sealed with multiple deployments of the S-500 missile defense system against anything the US might unleash.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 19, 2017
The "Birth Pangs" of a New Middle East, Remixed Team Trump members might entertain the wishful thinking notion that Moscow will ditch Tehran -- not only in Syria but in terms of Eurasia integration. Not a chance. Yet tell that to the House of Saud. Moscow might be able, with time, to instill some geopolitical sense into Riyadh. Once again, not a chance. Because the House of Saud is now convinced their best ally is President Trump.
Hillary Clinton, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 5, 2016
Hillary, Queen of War: The Road Map Ahead Tehran has myriad reasons to be on red alert if the Full Spectrum Dominatrix gets her hands on the nuclear codes (how's that not scarier than Trump?) She will act as a surefire faithful servant of the Saudi/Israeli alliance. The road map is ready. And neocons and neoliberalcons alike can hardly contain their excitement at seeing in action "a force that can flex across several different mission sets and prevail."
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 29, 2014
How Russia and Germany may save Europe from war Still assuming those NATO clowns would insist on playing war, Moscow has already made it very clear Russia would use their awesome arsenal of 5,000-plus tactical nuclear weapons -- and whatever else it takes -- to defend the nation against a NATO conventional attack. Moreover, a few thousand S-400 and S-500 systems are enough to block a US nuclear attack.
Vladimir Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Dance to the Panama Papers "Limited Hangout" Leak And that leads us to the cherry in the corruption cake; how come there are no Americans in this limited hangout leak? Of course there are none. Panama is for suckers. Too obvious. Too rakish. Too crude. Ergo, forget about The Cayman Papers. Make America great again? It already is -- as the top tax shelter for hardcore dodgy money had to be...a monster Panama.
France's Macron holds 'frank exchange' with Putin - BBC News French President Emmanuel Macron says he held a .frank exchange. with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in their first face-to-face talks., From YouTubeVideos
(27 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 1, 2017
Putin, Trump and 'my guy' Macron The three-hour face-off between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron in Versailles offered some fascinating geopolitical shadow play.
Ayatollah Hassan Rouhani, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 4, 2015
The Real Story on Iran, US, Russia and China What's at stake at the highest level has been known to all major players for ages. Tehran won't settle for anything less than a swift end to the current nasty, illegal package of sanctions. Yet Washington, under the cloud of the self-described "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" Obama administration, keeps changing the goal posts as negotiations advance.
BILDERBERG 2019: FULL AGENDA AND PARTICIPANTS LIST, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 8, 2019
Why Trump Now Wants Talks With Iran The great Bilderberg secret of 2019 had to do with why, suddenly, the Trump administration has decided that it wants to talk to Iran "with no preconditions." In the case of the Strait of Hormuz being shut down, whatever the reason, Iran has the power to hammer the world financial system, by causing global trade in derivatives to be blown apart.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 28, 2013
Qatar's love affair with Syria It's unclear whether Qatar's influence in Syria will continue to be prominent. The proxy war is bound to become even more horrific. And there's no guarantee Assad will go. The "young and modern" emir of the Muslim Brotherhood Spring may soon reach the conclusion he is caught in a trap of his, and his father's making.
Francois Hollande and Vladimir Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 28, 2015
Putin and Hollande go after Erdogan's racket The main priority -- as reiterated by the declaration of war inbuilt in UNSC resolution 2249 -- is to smash ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. And then the clincher, as Putin and Hollande reached a consensus: there will be a barrage of air strikes against the fuel tanker truck convoys transporting stolen Syrian oil across Daesh-controlled territory on the way to Turkey.
Sunset in Istanbul, From GoogleImages
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 21, 2017
How Turkey, Iran, Russia and India are playing the New Silk Roads Away from intractable war and peace issues, it's even more enlightening to observe how Turkey, Iran and Russia are playing their overlapping versions of Eurasia economic integration and/or BRI-related business.
Malaysia Airlines -- The conspiracy theories of MH370 and MH17, From ImagesAttr
(38 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 16, 2014
Vanishing point ... So as MH370 totally vanished, the MH17 story must also totally vanish. The Dutch and the British might eventually come out and hold a high-profile press conference telling the world what His Master's Voice finally redacted. Still, one may count on certified, residual outrage, if not puzzlement, by a large number of grieving Dutch families.
Trump Merkel, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Eurasian integration meets America First Crucial developments in Washington, Brussels, Virginia and St. Petersburg these last few days may offer us serious clues on where we are now heading -- geopolitically and geoeconomically.
The Russia-China-Iran alliance is the future., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 2, 2015
2015 Will Be All About Iran, China and Russia The upcoming 2015 year will be all about further moves towards the integration of Eurasia as the US is progressively squeezed out of Eurasia. We will see a complex geostrategic interplay progressively undermining the hegemony of the US dollar as a reserve currency and, most of all, the petrodollar.
Hillary Clinton, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 27, 2016
Hillary Clinton: A Major Gold-Digging Liability Following the money reveals an endless run of profitable deals. Since 1997, when the original William J. Clinton Foundation came to light, the family business raised a whopping $2 billion, with an annual budget of $223 million and some 2,000 global staffers receiving significant salaries and benefits. A President Hillary would convert the whole U.S.A. into a giant Wal-Mart.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 1, 2015
Why NATO is terrified of Russia While the Pentagon was mired in the Afghanistan and Iraq quagmires, they completely missed Russia's technological jump ahead. The same applies to China's ability to hit US satellites and thus pulverize American ICBM satellite guidance systems. The current privileged scenario is Russia playing for time until it has totally sealed Russia's air space to American ICBMs, stealth aircraft and cruise missiles via the S-500 system.
Argentine President Maurcio Macri, From YouTubeVideos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 11, 2016
The Real Target of the Panama Papers The heart of the matter is that the Panama Papers disclosure didn't disturb the global financial casino one bit, because the (transnational) system badly needs fiscal paradises to evade national laws. What the Panama Papers may succeed in is to eliminate competition. From now on, your fiscal paradise of choice must be in U.S., U.K. and Dutch jurisdictions. We control every global financial flow--legal or otherwise.
China troops take part in an anti-terrorism oath-taking rally, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 16, 2017
Could Great Wall of Iron become New Silk Roadblock? All bets are off on how Xi's Great Wall of Iron will smash separatism and/or jihadism combined with the "grid" implemented on the ground by Chen Quanguo. Beijing does not have much time to strike a fine, right balance; too much iron applied against the Uyghurs might just as well mortally wound the biggest infrastructure project of the 21st century.
Blood and Oil, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Russia, China mock divide and rule There's no real "government" in Kiev; the US ambassador is in charge. An anti-Russia doctrine has been hatched in Washington to foment war in Europe -- and European politicians are its collaborators. Washington wants a war in Europe because it is losing the competition with China.
China's New .Silk Road.: Future MEGAPROJECTS China's $1 trillion One Belt One Road (New Silk Road) initiative is unprecedented in size and scope. President Xi Jinping has sealed megaproject deals with 65 countries to construct ports,..., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 1, 2017
From the Caucasus to the Balkans, China's Silk Roads are rising Chen Gang's analysis touches on what, by now, is obvious: "The international game around BRI has just begun." And it goes almost without saying that Beijing's BRI-driven foreign policy strategy, by turbo-charging China's cooperation with the "Global South," is leaving the US, at best, marginalized.
Hillary Clinton, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Hillary's "I'm Not a Crook" Moment There will be, essentially, two answers to the key question. Either Hillary Clinton ignored the rules of the secrecy game. Or she willfully breached the rules. The undisputed top reason for the existence of the subterranean private server was for Hillary Clinton to keep her emails, well, secret, and thus not subjected to freedom of information laws.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Back to the Future: From the USSR to the Eurasian Century As we wait for the dawn of the Trump era -- an almost intergalactic geopolitical question mark -- what's certain is that the War Party US deep state won't admit defeat. And the key geopolitical riddle to be answered is how strident internal American tensions will deal with the hub of progressive Eurasia integration: Russia, China and Iran.
The last summit of UNASUR, which was also the BRICS bloc, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 1, 2015
What the BRICS plus Germany are really up to? The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) -- a key alternative to the IMF enabling developing nations to get rid of the US dollar as a reserve currency -- will be operative by the end of this year. The NDB will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects not only in the BRICS nations but other developing nations.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 26, 2016
The Real Secret of the South China Sea The US, for its part, is all about Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny. As it stands, more than Russia's western borderlands, the Baltics or "Syraq," this is where the hegemon "rules" are really being contested. And the stakes couldn't be higher. That'll be the day when the US Navy is "denied" from the South China Sea; and that'll be the end of its imperial hegemony.
JeSuis Charlie, From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 8, 2015
Who profits from killing Charlie? French intel at least has concluded that this is no underwear bomber stunt. This is a pro job. That happens to take place just a few days after France recognizes Palestinian statehood. And just a few days after General Hollande demanded the lifting of sanctions against the Russian "threat."
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 7, 2017
The New Great Game moves from Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific Indo-Pacific includes South Asia and the Indian Ocean. So, from an American point of view, that does imply elevating India to the status of a rising global superpower able to "contain" China.
From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 2, 2013
Our Man In Moscow So what is the "extremely disappointed" Obama administration, the Orwellian/Panopticon complex and the discredited US Congress to do? Send a Navy Seal Team 6 to snatch him or to target assassinate him -- turning Moscow into Abbottabad 2.0? Drone him? Poison his borscht? Shower his new house with depleted uranium? Install a no-fly zone over Russia?
The Roman Empire, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 20, 2018
Rome: A Eulogy Italy's debt is at 130 percent of GDP -- the second highest in the eurozone after Greece. Non-performing bank loans are the stuff of legend. The economy will grow by only 1.3 percent in 2018 -- nearly half of the EU average (2.1 percent). Polls show voters are so angry there's a strong possibility of an anti-euro coalition taking power.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Go post-West, young man The best Western political elites could come up with at their huddle that ended February 19 is this pearl of self-pity: "Donald Trump's comments about NATO being 'obsolete' have caused great uncertainty among America's allies, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
US Army solder on a Poppy Field in Afghanistan, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 2, 2016
Afghanistan; It's the Heroin, Stupid Deep in the shades, contractors keep moving the CIA heroin to the West. The US-NATO combo has just pledged to help fund Afghan security forces to the tune of around $1 billion annually over the next three years. Few will be aware that offers splendorous extra incentive to CIA-run heroin traders plying their wares across the EU.
From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 18, 2016
Welcome to the Brave New (Trumpolitical/Trumponomic) World We will be living among the myriad debris originated by the Trumpolitics IED. America invented the politically correct. Trump bombed politically correct. America is proud of corporate media. Trump bombed corporate media. These are already two important victories.
Cossack commanders - featured in the first part of the column., From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Donbass: "The war has not started yet" Neither side -- Kiev or the Donbass armies -- is about to launch a full offensive anytime soon. Meanwhile, the People's Republic of Donetsk is turbo-charging the political front. Foreign Minister Alexander Kofman -- who confirms he's having political discussions with members of some EU countries -- says there are plans for a wide-ranging meeting in May.
From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Age of Anger It's impossible to summarize all the intellectual crossfire deployed by Age of Anger. What's clear is that to understand the current global civil war, archeological reinterpretation of the West's hegemonic narrative of the past 250 years is essential. Otherwise we will be condemned, like puny Sisyphean specks, to endure not only the recurrent nightmare of history but also its recurrent blowback.
From youtube.com: Jean Paul Sartre was a French thinker, dramatist, storyteller, political protester, biographer, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 26, 2017
In an age of Hollow Men and existential angst, re-read Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the last towering giants of a Renaissance pantheon concerned with the whole spectrum of human existence. Sharp, independent minds have always enjoyed the Sartrean glow that permeates Western culture (or at least those particles of it not fossilized by academia).
From flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/25861478672/: Hillary Clinton, From Images
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 29, 2016
Why Hillary won't unleash WWIII Russia has all the natural resources it needs; unlike the US government, which believes it needs an empire of bases overseas and 10 aircraft carrier task forces to secure the resources it lacks. Hot war? Hillary Clinton may have pulled a Julius Caesar over Gaddafi. But she's realist enough to not pull a (nuclear) Hitler over Moscow. Or is she?
Victoria Nuland Assistant Secretary State of Ukraine passes out cookies., From ImagesAttr
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Why the US is Finally Talking to Russia The US still retains PGS (Prompt Global Strike) capability. Ukraine is just a detail. The real game-changer will happen when Russia is able to seal its whole territory, via the S-500s, against PGS. That will happen sooner than anyone thinks. And that's why the real Masters of the Universe -- via their emissaries -- feel compelled to talk.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 26, 2017
Eurasia Integration: A Three-Speed Affair The US angle in Kazakhstan may turn out to be key during the Trump administration. Exxon has been doing business in Kazakhstan for over 20 years now. US Secretary of State T. Rex Tillerson has a previous history of trying to stall selling Exxon's stake in state oil company KazMunayGas below the price he wanted. In the end he gave in. But should oil prices rise, Exxon will inevitably be back in Kashagan in a flash.
Mariupol, Ukraine, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 25, 2022
Make Nazism Great Again Azov was sent a last ultimatum: surrender until midnight - or else, as in a take no prisoners highway to hell. That implies a major game-changer in the Ukrainian battlefield; Mariupol is finally about to be thoroughly denazified - as the Azov contingent long entrenched in the city and using civilians as human shields were their most hardened fighting force.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 17, 2012
Drone Me Down On The Killing Floor Any self-respecting jurist would have to draw the inevitable conclusion; the United States of America is now outside international law -- as rogue a state as they come, with The Drone Empire enshrined as the ultimate expression of shadow war.
Aircraft Fighter Jet MiG-29, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 22, 2016
Beware what you wish for: Russia is ready for war The basic thrust behind the Pentagon's moves under neocon Ash Carter continues to be to draw Russia ever further into Syria and Ukraine (as if Moscow actually was involved in, or wanted, a Ukrainian quagmire); trap Russia in proxy wars; and economically bleed Russia to death while crippling the bulk of oil and natural gas income to the Russian state.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual press conference, addressing the economy, ruble and impact of sanctions from the U.S. and Europe., From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 18, 2014
What Putin is not telling us This is a chess game. The raid on the ruble was supposed to be a checkmate. It's not. Not when deployed by amateur scrabble players. And don't forget the Russia-China strategic partnership. The storm may be abating, but the match continues.
From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 9, 2016
Fear And Loathing in the House of Saud Team Rouhani perfectly understands the developing Southwest Asia chapter of the New Great Game, featuring the re-emergence of Iran as a regional superpower; all of the House of Saud's moves, from hopelessly inept to major strategic blunder, betray utter desperation with the end of the old order. Will the House of Saud be left to its own -- puny -- devices among the shark-infested waters of hardcore geopolitics?
Saudi crown prince ousts top officials, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 6, 2017
The inside story of the Saudi night of long knives The House of Saud's King Salman devises an high-powered "anti-corruption" commission and appoints his son, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS, as chairman. Rumors have been swirling for months about a coup against MBS in the making. Instead, what just happened is yet another MBS pre-emptive coup.
Multi-purpose four-engine strategic airlifter, Tupolev Tu-95, From YouTubeVideos
(29 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 20, 2015
In the fight against ISIS, Russia ain't taking no prisoners The so-called Islamic State should have learned by now: they've picked a fight against the wrong guys. We have entered "take no prisoners" territory. For Russia, now all the gloves are off. Paris 2015 -- as well as Sinai 2015 -- essentially is a side effect of Baghdad 2003. Putin knows it. For now, the task is to smash those mongrel imperial offspring once and for all.
Civil War Breeding in Saudi Arabia over Oil, From ImagesAttr
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 16, 2014
The Saudi oil war against Russia, Iran and the US Central to the House of Saud strategy is to stick it to Washington for not fulfilling its "Assad must go" promise, as well as the neo-con obsession in bombing Iran. The House of Saud believes it can dump a tsunami of oil in the market and back it up with a tsunami of spin -- creating the illusion the Saudis control oil prices. They don't.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 23, 2015
BRICS trample US in South America The long-term Big Picture remains inexorable; BRICS and South American nations -- which converge in the Unasur (The Union of South American Nations) -- are betting on a multipolar world order, and a continental process of independence. It's easy to see how that is oceans away from a Monroe doctrine.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 12, 2018
China will not fall into the "Thucydides Trap" with India Geopolitically, in Beijing, China-India relations are regarded very seriously, second only in importance to China's relations with the US. Lately, China-Russia relations have been in the ascendant -- mutually exhorted as a "strategic partnership." But, don't count on India and the Quad to play along.
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 18, 2016
The Russian ultimate lethal weapon Russia is further moving east while simultaneously moving to extricate itself from most of the West's institutional architecture. The merger of the China-driven New Silk Roads, a.k.a. One Belt, One Road and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, although slow and full of pitfalls, is irreversible. It's in their mutual interest to invest and develop a pan-Eurasian emporium.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 20, 2017
A coup in the House of Saud? What has been an open secret across the Arab world is not a secret anymore even in the US: What happened last month in the deep recesses of the House of Saud with the ascension of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aka MBS, was in fact a white coup.
US President Donald Trump receives a figurine of a sheriff during a meeting with county sheriffs at the White House on February 7., From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Lots of shouting, tiny stick Everyone who's been to Iran -- neocons haven't -- knows Tehran won't be subdued with angry threats. Iran has been under US sanctions for no fewer than 38 years. Absolutely nothing across Southwest Asia can be accomplished, geopolitically, without Iranian participation.
NATO Claims Russian War Games Could Spur More Violence in UKRAINE, From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 8, 2014
NATO is desperate for war For the US government, "there might be a humanitarian catastrophe" in Mount Sinjar in Iraq, involving 40,000 people. As for at least 730,000 eastern Ukrainians, they have the solemn right to be shelled, bombed, air-stricken and turned into refugees.
Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 24, 2017
Syria war, Sochi peace Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministries and defense departments are tasked to "gather delegates from various political parties, internal and external opposition, ethnic and confessional groups at the negotiating table."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the annual Astana Club meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, earlier this month., From InText
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Iran's "Only Crime Is We Decided Not to Fold" Pepe Escobar reports on a searing account by Iran's foreign minister of his country's relations with the U.S.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 30, 2016
American Dream, Revisited We keep slouching towards a single future language -- the language of algorithms, as designed across the Wall Street/Silicon Valley axis -- that would represent a real anthropological catastrophe, just like the globalist/New World Order dream of One Thought and One Culture. That's where the American dream seems to be heading. It's time to take the next exit ramp.
The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - met, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 4, 2017
Against all odds, BRICS nations get their act together What the proverbial Cassandras don't understand is that the BRICS group aims to work with a different template, as an "aggregating platform," something that is being discussed at the highest levels, especially in the framework of the Russia-China strategic partnership.
From ImagesAttr
(24 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Assad talks, Russia walks And NATO Partners with Al Qaeda Syria Comment blogger Joshua Landis drew the necessary conclusions; "Whoever gets their hands on the oil, water and agriculture, holds Sunni Syria by the throat. At the moment, that's al-Nusra. Europe opening up the market for oil forced this issue. So the logical conclusion from this craziness is that Europe will be funding al-Qaeda."
PM Narendra Modi welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, From YouTubeVideos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 7, 2017
The real BRICS bombshell "To overcome the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies" is the politest way of stating what the BRICS have been discussing for years now; how to bypass the US dollar, as well as the petrodollar. Russia -- as well as Iran, the other key node of Eurasia integration -- may bypass US sanctions by trading energy in their own currencies, or in yuan.
Hillary Clinton, From GoogleImages
(30 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Hillary Clinton's Axis of Evil The deafening talk about Washington now advancing a Plan C in Syria is nonsense. There has never been a Plan C; only Plan A, which was to draw Russia into another Afghanistan. It did not work with the controlled demolition of Ukraine. And it will not work in Syria, as Moscow is willing to supply plenty of air and missile power but no boots on the ground of any consequence.
World Economic Crash, From YouTubeVideos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 23, 2016
The Secret Behind the Next Global Crash In the current, extremely volatile situation oil is down, stocks are down and oil stocks are down. Still the House of Saud has not understood that the Masters of the Universe are getting them to destroy themselves many times over, including flooding the oil market with their shut-in capacity. And all that to fatally wound Russia, Iran and... Saudi Arabia itself.
Black Lives Matter protesters occupy Seattle City Hall, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 13, 2020
Syria in Seattle: Commune Defies the U.S. Regime When will "regime forces" strike -- in this case without Russian air cover? After all, as dictated by Secretary Esper, it's up to the Pentagon to "dominate the battlefield."
PM Narendra Modi shakes hands with China's Prez Xi Jinping, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 26, 2017
China and India torn between silk roads and cocked guns The current stand-off at Doklam, or Donglang, is little more than a sideshow in the bigger picture as South Asia's tectonic plates shift in a direction that makes New Delhi's resistance to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) look increasingly futile.
Donald Trump and Iran, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 19, 2017
Why Trump Has Gone Nuclear on Iran Iran will continue to do solid business with the rest of Asia -- especially Japan and South Korea. Iran and Qatar may eventually become natural gas providers to Europe in the next decade. And Iran will continue to be -- alongside Russia and China -- at the forefront of bypassing the US dollar in energy trade.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 11, 2017
The pivot to China Trump may have already understood that a trade war is a lose-lose proposition. In the absence of an Asian economic version of NATO (the dead-in-the water Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal), the emphasis will be on "vigilant" allies/semi-disguised vassals such as Japan, South Korea and Australia.
ISIS ISIL DAESH, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 7, 2015
And the winner of the Jihad World Cup is... The fiction remains that the coalition is supporting remaining "moderate rebels" of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). There are no "moderate" rebels left; they all migrated to al-Nusra or ISIS/ISIL/Daesh because that's where the action is -- from tons of weapons to actual military prowess on the ground.
Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte threatens to quit United Nations, From GoogleImages
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 26, 2016
"America Has Lost" in the Philippines The neocon/neoliberalcon industrial-military complex fury against unhinged Duterte's game-changer is that containing China and ruling over the First Island Chain has been at the core of US naval strategy since the beginning of the Cold War.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 6, 2012
Syria's Pipelineistan war Assuming the Assad regime is toppled but beats a strategic retreat towards the mountains, the possibilities for guerrilla sabotage of pipelines multiply. As it stands, no one knows how a post-Assad Damascus will reconfigure its relations with Ankara, Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan -- not to mention Tehran. Syria, though, will keep playing the Pipelineistan game.
At least 21 killed in Iran protests, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Why there won't be a revolution in Iran What is happening now in Iran is that legitimate protests related to economic hardships have been hijacked by the usual suspects in a move to influence the minority. After all, Rouhani's administration is comparatively liberal compared to the populist Ahmadinejad government.
EU Flags, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 19, 2015
EU Reeling Between US and Russia The Empire of Chaos does not want a lasting agreement on Ukraine -- and will do everything to torpedo Minsk 2.0. NATO's strategic imperative remains clear; force Moscow into a war in Ukraine to exhaust it economically, prevent a EU-Russia economic/trade partnership, and eliminate Russia as a global competitor to the US.
9/11 Anniversary 'Waves of Flags' at Pepperdine University, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 23, 2017
Empire of Whiners It gets curiouser and curiouser when it comes to Iran and North Korea -- both also demonized non-stop by media and US Think Tankland. The problem is not that they pose a nuclear threat; the problem is they are obstacles to the smooth expansion of the "US-led order."
IMG_4314 St. Petersburg, Russia, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 20, 2022
St. Petersburg Sets the Stage for the War of Economic Corridors The contrast between the St. Petersburg debates on a possible re-wiring of our world and the Three Stooges Taking a Train to Nowhere to tell a mediocre Ukrainian comedian to calm down and negotiate his surrender as confirmed by German intelligence could not be starker.
From ImagesAttr
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Will Trump hop on an American Silk Road? Absent a trade war, the new US trade strategy will be perfect for Beijing, as China will accelerate the expansion of its New Silk Roads/One Belt, One Road project, especially across the Southeast Asian mainland, as in high-speed rail lines linking Yunnan province to Singapore via Laos, Thailand and Malaysia.
Syrian destruction, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 6, 2016
Why the "Sultan of Chaos" is freaking out The bulk of the Syrian "opposition" used to be armchair warriors co-opted by the CIA for years, as well as CIA Muslim Brotherhood patsies/vassals. Now the "opposition" is basically warlords answering to the House of Saud even for bottles of water -- regardless of the suit-and-tie former Ba'ath Party ministers handpicked to be the face of the opposition for the gullible Western corporate media.
Chess master Putin, From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 10, 2014
Putin displays Ukraine chess mastery Putin does not need to "invade" anything. He knows this is not the way to "rescue" eastern and southern Ukraine. Nobody will want to rescue a failed state. And Kiev will have to beg, once again, for Moscow's help, the lender of first and last resort.
John Kerry, From ImagesAttr
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 7, 2015
That Didn't Take Long: The First Lie about Moscow Meeting Predictably, Western corporate media is spinning this whole debacle is now due to FEAR OF THE DEVIL -- as in Vlad. The fears apparently rampant in Brussels and assorted European capitals (among pol clowns, for sure; NOT in the streets). The rhetoric is beyond ominous.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews troops from a car during a military parade in Hong Kong, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 7, 2019
Chinese scholar offers insight into Beijing's strategic mindset The top story of 2019 and the years ahead will continue to revolve around the myriad, dangerous permutations of the economic ascent of China, the resurgence of nuclear superpower Russia and the decline of the US's global hegemony.
Gulf countries cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of promoting regional instability., From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Blood on the tracks of the New Silk Roads China and Iran have been doing serious business. For over a year now, direct China-Iran cargo trains have been crossing Central Asia in only 12 days. That's just the appetizer for high-speed rail connectivity spanning the arc from China to Turkey via Iran in the early 2020s.
King salman, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 5, 2015
What's the big deal between Russia and the Saudis? The Saudis can't intellectually understand the see-saw of incoherent Beltway policies due to the power struggle between Zionist neocons and the old establishment. No wonder they might be tempted to move to the Russian side of the fence. But for that to happen there will be many a price to pay. There's much more pointing to a possible Russia-Saudi deal than meets the eye.
Russian President welcomes Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 7, 2020
Putin saves Erdogan from himself A predictable feature of the new ceasefire is that both Moscow and Ankara part of the Astana peace process, alongside Tehran remain committed to maintaining the "territorial integrity and sovereignty" of Syria. Once again, there's no guarantee that Erdogan will abide.
Russia and China, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 15, 2015
U.S. wakes up to New (Silk) World Order Once again, the real Masters of the Universe seem to have done the math. Can't reduce Russia to ashes. Can't win in the New (Silk) World Order. Might as well sit down and talk. But hold your (geopolitical) horses; they might still change their mind.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 8, 2015
NATO Invades Spain Adding to Pentagon freak out, Russia has sent missile systems to Syria, on top of fighter jets, bombers and helicopters. The Pentagon assumes they are the deadly accurate S-300 surface-to-air missile systems. Better scrap that Pentagon no-fly zone. It's easy to see why the Pentagon and NATO are so dejected. It's safer to keep looking for those elusive tapas of mass destruction (TMDs). And then go for a deterrence siesta.
Russia's late ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov flown home after airport ceremony, From YouTubeVideos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Who profits from Turkey's "Sarajevo moment"? Timing is crucial. The hit happened only one day before the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran were scheduled to meet in Moscow for a key Syria strategic discussion. They were already closely in touch for the past few weeks on how to strike a comprehensive deal on Aleppo -- and beyond.
Chabahar_Port -- Iran Extending Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 13, 2017
China and India sail into choppy waters in New Great Game This is a heady vortex churning with power projections, spheres of influence, security and commerce. In the end, the only certainty is this shadow play involving China, India, Iran and Pakistan, with the US as an active third party, is at the heart of the New Great Game in Eurasia.
BOEING F18 SUPER HORNET, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 25, 2015
Empire of Chaos preparing for more fireworks in 2016 Imperial despair over the irreversible Chinese ascent won't abate. As the New Great Game picks up speed, and Russia supplies Eurasian powers Iran, China and India with missile defense systems beyond anything the West has, get used to the new normal; Cold War 2.0 between Washington and Beijing-Moscow.
U.S. vs China, From YouTubeVideos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 22, 2020
No Weapon Left Behind: The American Hybrid War on China Inexorably, year after year since the start of the millennium, the U.S. share of the global economy shrinks while China's increases. China is already the key hub of the global economy and the leading trade partner of nearly 130 nations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 19, 2016
China "Marco Polo" Xi Jinping starts jockeying in post-Obama world An eventual US-Russia deal in Syria would ultimately benefit -- who else -- China. Mirroring the original Silk Road, China sees Syria as a crucial node of the New Silk Roads, currently cut off. Picture the day in a not too distant future when Xi will be stopping in Damascus to do trade deals. And to call for a stimulus package of Chinese tourists to visit a restored Palmyra.
Gen. James
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 5, 2016
The Rules of the (Trump) Game Mad Dog James Mattis may indeed be seen by the real world as, well, a mad dog; he was on the front line of the 2001 assault on Afghanistan; led the Marine assault on Baghdad during Shock and Awe in 2003; and masterminded the horrendous American destruction of Fallujah in late 2004. Widely hailed as a fine strategist, he retired as chief of CENTCOM in 2013.
Microbes as biological weapons for terror, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 13, 2022
Empire of Bioweapon Lies An ongoing U.S. bioweapons program in Ukraine was one of the Top Three reasons that led to the launch of Operation Z side by side with preventing an imminent NATO managed blitzkrieg against Donbass and Kiev's desire to restart a nuclear weapons program.
Kim Jong-un, From FlickrPhotos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 10, 2017
North Korea: fire, fury and fear Western corporate media would hardly refrain from metastasizing pure speculation into a "North Korea has miniaturized nuclear weapons" frenzy consuming the cable news cycle/ newspaper headlines. Talk about hearts and minds comfortably numbed by the fear factor.
USA - CHINA - RUSSIA, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 18, 2015
Eurasia as we (and the U.S.) knew it is dead It will be fascinating to watch. How will Moscow and Beijing stare down the West -- politically, commercially and ideologically -- without risking a war? How will they cope with so much pressure? How will they sell their strategy to great swathes of the Global South, across multiple Asian latitudes?
President Barack Obama, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 24, 2015
The Imperial Designs on Iran Washington will do whatever it takes to sabotage Turk Stream and prevent austerity-devastated Greece from linking to the pipeline. Astonishing as it may seem, Iran is now back in Washington's favor as the only possible, future Pipelineistan star.
Chinese guardian lion in Beijing, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 13, 2019
All under Heaven, China's challenge to the Westphalian system The Chinese challenge is unprecedented and no wonder Washington, in tandem with other Western elites, is stunned. In the end, it's a matter of positioning Tianxia as a superior promoter of "dynamic equilibrium" in international relations in comparison with the Westphalian system.
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 29, 2012
War porn: The new safe sex Like porn, war porn cannot exist without being based on a lie -- a crude representation. But unlike porn, war porn is the real thing; unlike crude, cheap snuff movies, people in war porn actually die -- in droves.
From ImagesAttr
(33 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Power Play Behind Regime Change in Russia The Empire of Chaos dream of regime change in Russia has always hinged on controlling large swathes of Eurasia. A puppet in Moscow -- a carbon copy of the drunken stooge Yeltsin -- would free up Russia's immense natural resources for the West, with those from the contiguous Central Asian "stans" as a bonus.
The New Silk Road, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 23, 2015
Westward ho on China's Eurasia BRIC road China's new drive may be interpreted as the stirrings of a new tributary system, ordered and centered in Beijing. At the same time, many in the U.S. are uncomfortable that the New Silk Road may be a geopolitical, "peaceful development," "win-win" answer to the Obama administration's Pentagon-driven pivoting to Asia.
From famousbirthdays.com/people/barack-obama.html: Barack Obama, From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 12, 2016
Obama Out Not With a Bang, But a Whimper The whimpering Obama administration is not over yet. Expect more sensational CIA exploits; more demonization of Russia; more weaponizing of "moderate" Syrian "rebels"; and even the odd false flag.
President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 30, 2018
MBS feted in the US despite war atrocities in Yemen MBS is racing against the clock. For the moment, he wins his PR war in the US even as he miserably loses his war on Yemen. But all bets are off on how he handles Wahhabi intolerance, Riyadh's dependence on oil and, most of all, Moscow and Beijing.
US forced to consider new options, From GoogleImages
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 8, 2016
Why the New Silk Roads terrify Washington Beijing is betting that the overwhelming majority of nations across Eurasia would rather invest in, and profit from, a "win-win" economic development project than be bogged down in a lose-lose strategic game between the US and China. And that, for the Empire of Chaos, is absolute anathema. How to possibly accept that China is winning the 21st century/New Great Game in Eurasia by building the New Silk Roads?
The Silent Buildup To the next Cold War., From ImagesAttr
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 21, 2014
Washington plays Russian roulette The logic of escalation is on. The economically devastated EU is a joke; the only thing that counts for the US is NATO -- and the overwhelming majority of its members are in the bag, sharing the prevailing mood in Washington of treating Putin as if he were Milosevic, Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi. There are no signs whatsoever Team Obama is willing to de-escalate.
King  Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 29, 2017
Wheels and deals: trouble brewing in the House of Saud The Islamic State project was conceived as the ideal tool to force Iraq to implode. It's now public domain that the organization's funding came mostly from Saudi Arabia. Even the former imam of Mecca has publicly admitted ISIS' leadership "draw their ideas from what is written in our own books, our own principles."
China, Russia and India agree to strengthen trilateral cooperation, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 29, 2019
Russia-India-China will be the big G20 hit Putin has excelled as a go-between. He invited Modi to be the guest of honor at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in early September. The thrust of the relationship is to show to Modi the benefits for India to actively join the larger Eurasia integration process instead of playing a supporting role in a Made in USA production.
Macron-Trump Handshake, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 17, 2017
The Sun King and The American Friend It's unclear whether Macron has imprinted on the mind of The American Friend that having Syria jihadi-free, together, makes total business sense -- and opens the way to further business deals, on all fronts. Of course, assuming the current and future ceasefires hold, and rogue deep-state elements do not disrupt the scenario.
Turkey Army tanks, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 27, 2018
Turkey plays its latest card in the New Great Game President Tayyip Erdogan's "Olive Branch" operation appears to have support at home and in Moscow, but failure would spell problems. Internally, Operation Olive Branch is a shrewd move for Erdogan. Turkish nationalism is at fever pitch, so public opinion is largely behind the operation. For the Turkish president, this is an electoral bonanza.
Turkish troop deployment to Iraq, From YouTubeVideos
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 12, 2015
Crippled in Syria, Turkey goes for a "Sunnistan" in Iraq What we have here is the Pentagon fully protected by plausible deniability. And Islamic State duly weaponized as a proxy/regime change army in Syria. A perfect chaos-provoking tool aligned with the strategic objective of the "Empire of Chaos" in Syria. Oh, but the Pentagon would never engage in such practices, would they?
Obama and Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 1, 2016
Vladimir Putin Fights the War Party on All Fronts The bottom line is that in 2016 the option will continue to be stark; it's either the hegemony of the War Party -- with the subtext of a Washington "willfully" condoned Salafi-jihadi "offer" to young, disaffected Muslims; or the vision of a full, prosperous trade/commerce/communication network for the whole of Eurasia.
Brexit suicide, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 1, 2016
Dead Brexit Walking as UK banks and financial services contemplate moving to the EU post-Brexit (HSBC, for instance, already announced that 1,000 jobs are moving to Paris), the real story is that China can start contemplating further "win-win" scenarios also with Paris, Frankfurt and Milan. As a backup, there'll always be that Dead Brexit Walking.
South Korean Soldiers at the Joint Security Area (JSA) facing the North Korean side of the border., From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 16, 2017
Mr Trump, tear down this (Korean) wall In the larger geopolitical chessboard, those US "nuclear capabilities" threats voiced by Trump and his generals are not just aimed at Pyongyang. The real, long-term, ultimate target is "RC" (Russia-/China). THAAD missile radars are able -- at least in theory -- to "see" up to 3,000km into "RC" territory. For "RC," this is an absolute no-no.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 13, 2013
China stitches up (SCO) Silk Road The SCO may go a long way before becoming a sort of Eastern NATO. But it's increasingly carving its territory as a direct counterpunch to NATO -- not to mention Washington's Central/South Asian chapter of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the push for "color revolutions."
NATO Military Power -- Message to Russia, China, Iran, From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 30, 2015
The Pentagon's "Long War" Pits NATO Against China, Russia and Iran Washington's Maidan adventure has yielded not only a crystallization of a new Iron Curtain deployed from the Baltics to the Black Sea. This is NATO's visible game. What's not so visible is that the target is not only Russia, but also Iran and China. The battlefield is now clearly drawn between NATO and Russia/China/Iran. So no wonder they are getting closer.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 2, 2017
Game-changers ahead on the (long) Maritime Silk Road the proverbial "concern" with this Chinese win-win was registered in both Delhi and Washington. The possibility that China will eventually acquire a permanent naval military base in the Indian Ocean is a full-time obsession of US Think Tankland. Colombo, though, has always been adamant: Chinese-financed infrastructure does not imply basing rights for the Chinese Navy.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 10, 2019
Tracking foreign interference in Hong Kong Amid so much gloom, there may be a silver lining. And that concerns the Greater Bay Area project. My interlocutors tend to believe that after the storm ends and after carefully studying the situation for some months, Beijing will soon come up with a new plan to tighten Hong Kong's integration to the mainland's economy even more.
Turkish security forces patrolled the shores of MuÄŸla, finding the bodies of several refugees, including a child, who drowned and were washed ashore., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 5, 2015
Blowback on a NATO beach The Pentagon/NATO "liberation by bombing" campaign all across the "arc of instability" shows no sign of losing steam, helped by wealthy Wahhabis and dodgy players such as the government in Ankara. We've had it coming from the beginning. There will be more blowback. An immensely sad, solitary form of blowback -- washing ashore, in silence, on a NATO beach.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 20, 2016
Will Trumpolitics Erase Clintonism? As much as 47% of Americans eligible to vote did not bother to on November 8. Trump had roughly 25.5% of the eligible electorate vote, in fact less than Hillary Clinton's 25.6%. That translates into a de facto mandate of roughly one-fourth of Americans. Overwhelmingly popular it is not. The key question is whether Trumponomics will be able to stare down and at least subdue the most savage aspects of unbridled neoliberalism.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 28, 2017
Who's top rooster in the South China Sea? The recent diplomatic charm offensive by China spells out the absurdity of any military offensive against an ASEAN member: it's bad for business. The environment after The Hague's ruling -- as the Laos summit proved -- points toward long-term diplomatic solutions for all South China Sea disputes.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 20, 2017
China shows its green roots on road to contradictions Beijing is targeting an upgrade of the real estate market and the environment. Then there are projections that by 2027, China could be the global leader on research and development when it comes to eco-friendly vehicles. This will boost the manufacture of de-carbonized vehicles, which is part of the Made in China 2025 initiative. For five years now, state subsidies have helped fund extensive battery charging networks.
Silk Road--or Silk Route will go through Syria, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 13, 2017
The New Silk Road will go through Syria The key question from now on seems to be whether Washington will follow the deep state "Syraq" policy -- as in "Assad must go" mixed with support or weaponizing of non-existent "moderate rebels"; or whether Trump's priority -- to eliminate Daesh/ISIS for good -- will prevail.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 22, 2012
War fever as seen from Iran For Moscow, "a new wave of the world order has been initiated by the United States in order to create a new version of the past unipolar world system. The main targets of this wave, Moscow maintains, include North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, Eurasia, and finally China and Russia." Forget about the famous "reset" between Washington and Moscow.
Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump, From GoogleImages
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 22, 2016
So Russia Won't Elect the Next POTUS What about the (silent) Big Red Dragon in the midst of this appalling circus? The final cage match in Vegas yielded no further demonization of China. Beijing anyway is ready -- confident that no Pivoting Darth Vader in a White Pantsuit will be able to derail the Eurasian Century.
Currency war, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 14, 2015
What the Latest Currency "War" is All About When the US embarks on perennial quantitative easing, that's OK. When the EU does QE as well, that's OK. But when the Bank of China decides it's in the best interest of the nation to let the yuan go down a bit instead of infinitely up, that's Armageddon.
President Obama, From Images
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 21, 2016
Fear and Loathing in the Arabian Nights the 28 pages were being paraded around in Western corporate media before the OPEC meeting to keep the Saudis in line on the oil war against Russia. That may have been yet another Mafia-style "offer you can't refuse"; if the House of Saud cuts oil production, then it will be destroyed by the release of the 28 pages.
Russia's Oil Drilling At Sea, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 14, 2017
Silk Road fever grips the Russian Far East and boosts economy This is just the latest example of Russian and Chinese cooperation geared around the New Silk Roads or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Beijing is the world's largest importer of copper and iron ore, and virtually the entire output from Bystrinsky will go to the world's second largest economy.
Cold War 2.0, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 7, 2016
The New Normal: Cold War 2.0 Relentless rhetorical hysteria masks the real high-stakes game in play. And that's where US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton fits in. Throughout her campaign, Clinton has extolled "a major strategic objective of our transatlantic alliance." The major "strategic objective" is none other than the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 17, 2015
Russia's ultimate lethal weapon Currently the only products that the West needs from Russia are oil and natural gas. A possible Russian default on its debt would have no effect on that demand in the short-term; and most probably in the long-term as well, unless it would contribute to a new financial crisis in the West, something that nearly happened in 1998.
NATO, Russia, Turkey and the New Cold War., From ImagesAttr
(31 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 2, 2014
NATO's soft war on Russia The bottom line: global Robocop NATO can only survive if it faces a mortal threat. US Think Tankland is frantically downgrading NATO hysteria about "aggressive Russia" as a "measured response." That fools only the hopelessly misinformed. After creating a failed state in Libya and the Afghanistan fiasco, global Robocop NATO, in its quest for "purpose" and meaning, cannot stop from fabricating an enemy.
Vladimir Putin, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 24, 2015
Live from New York, it's "Putin the Great" Putin is bound to deliver a showstopper at the UN. Spare a thought for the Obama administration's foreign policy "muppets," including the neocon cell at the State Department. Putin, under the glare of global public opinion, will frame the absolute defeat of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh as the key geopolitical issue of these times; he will commit Russia to it; and he will propose for the "West" to join in.
Jack Ma's offer to create 1 million US jobs is an offer Donald Trump cannot possibly refuse., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 15, 2017
Trump, Kissinger and Ma playing on a crowded chessboard Trump will do business and clinch deals with China, while his deep state-tinged cabinet barks the usually explosive national security rhetoric, dalang Kissinger plots a Russia-China split, and Moscow-Beijing secretly concoct concerted moves. Place your bets on who will be the major partner in the Trump, Kissinger and Ma law firm.
China USA Japan Game in Asia over South China Sea, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 3, 2015
The South China Sea word war There's no mistake Washington is allowing the remilitarization of Japan. So it's time to launch a South China/East China Sea Watch. As in monitoring them for any dangerous pretext for a casus belli between the declining hegemon and the no longer "keep a low profile" re-emerging power.
Russian oil tankers parked at a rail station, From FlickrPhotos
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 10, 2022
The Total War to Cancel Russia Vast swathes of NATOstan have been corralled into behaving like a Russophobic lynch mob. No dissent is tolerated.
From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Putin and the Saudi Caravan Putin and King Salman -- very discreetly -- had been in touch over the phone for weeks. The King's son invited Putin to Riyadh. Accepted. Putin invited the King to Moscow. Accepted. No question, the suspense is already killing everybody. But is this real life? Or smoke and mirrors?
Hillary Clinton, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Hillary: Wall Street's Golden Girl In the spring of 2014, top Clinton Foundation donors discussed a bright future together inside Goldman Sachs' corporate HQ. Gary Gensler, formerly from Goldman Sachs and also former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is the Hillary Clinton campaign's chief financial officer. The record shows that for the Clinton system, Goldman Sachs is a sacred cow.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_and_Hillary_Clinton_during_United_States_presidential_election_2016.jp, From Images
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 31, 2016
Full Spectrum Dominatrix vs. Off Spectrum Narcissus The CIA did not take down WikiLeaks. Hillary Clinton will make sure someone does. She will make sure "Russian aggression" is enshrined as some sort of national motto. When Hillary Clinton went for a "reset" in US-Russia relations, in both English and Russian, it was translated as "overload" -- a Freudian slip that elicited a smile from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov but a thousand jokes all across Russia.
From commons.wikimedia.org: Afghanistan rubble, From Images
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Fear and loathing on the Afghan Silk Road ISIS is already shipping out jihadis in retreat in both Iraq and Syria to the Hindu Kush. At the same time, it is actively enrolling scores of Pashtuns with lots of cash and weapons -- a workforce including tens of thousands of potential suicide bombers.
From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 24, 2017
Korea, Afghanistan and the Never Ending War trap That "plan for an enveloping fire" around Guam remains on Kim Jong-un's table. It is essential to remember the plan was North Korea's response to Trump's "fire and fury" volley. Kim has stated that for diplomacy to work again, "it is necessary for the US to make a proper option first."
BRICS Military Capabilities, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 26, 2016
The Empire of Chaos Strikes Back The CIA is also keen on Saudi Arabia destroying the Russian economy through an oil price war -- and they do not want that to stop; thus holding over the Saudis those famous 28 pages on 9/11 to keep the oil price war going. The CIA has also been trying like mad to lure Moscow into a Syrian trap as in 1980s Afghanistan. The problem is that the Kremlin did not bite the poisoned apple.
Russia and China, From GoogleImages
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 29, 2016
The Whole Game is About Containing Russia-China Compared to Russia's superior high-tech weaponry, NATO is a kindergarten mess; not to mention that soon Russian territory will be inviolable to any Star Wars-derived scheme. China will soon have all the submarines and "carrier-killer" missiles necessary to make life for the US Navy hell in case the Pentagon harbors funny ideas.
U.S. President Trump (Ph, Russian President Vladamir Putin,  Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, From InText
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 15, 2019
How Tehran Fits into Russia-China Strategy What the past few months have made crystal clear is how Russia-China's magnetic pull is attracting key Eurasia players Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. And make no mistake: As much as Tehran may be extremely proud of its political independence, it is reassuring to know that Iran is, and will continue to be, a definitive red line for Russia-China.
Damages after 2020 Beirut explosions, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 9, 2020
Who profits from the Beirut blast? Making the case that the explosion resulted from an attack.
BRICS Leaders Pose for Family Photo before Closed Door Session, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 29, 2018
How BRICS Plus clashes with the US economic war on Iran In a not too veiled allusion to the Trump administration's unilateral pullout from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), Xi called all parties to "abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations and to settle disputes through dialogue and differences through consultation," adding that the BRICS are inevitably working for "a new type of international relations."
Brazilian Congress Opens Impeachment Proceedings Against President Dilma Rousseff, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 15, 2016
Why the Coup in Brazil Should Fail The nation remains deeply polarized -- even with Rousseff not charged with any wrongdoing, unlike the lot in Congress who wants to bring down her government. Of the 65 members of the sham congressional committee who voted on impeachment, 35 of the 38 who voted in favor are being investigated for corruption.
King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 10, 2017
Saudi Crown Prince poised to take over as King: sources The Saudi "anti-corruption" crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, initially netted 11 princes and a few dozen ministers and former ministers, has caught up with hundreds of businessmen, who are being detained in the luxurious Ritz Carlton and other hotels in Riyadh. The Wall Street Journal reports the Crown Prince is targeting an astonishing $800 BILLION in assets believed to be held in 1,700 frozen bank accounts.
President Vladimir Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 17, 2017
Vladimir Putin takes spotlight as Eurasia connector At his trademark annual year-end press conference in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again let drop selected foreign-policy nuggets essential to understanding what lies ahead on the turbulent Eurasian geopolitical chessboard.
Rey shrine in south Tehran, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Pure War in Tehran Weaponizing the "new" Free Syrian Army in Saudi Arabia, of all places, amounts "to train another group of terrorists and send them to Syria to fight." And Washington's "strategy" is further enabling hardcore Sunni dictators who've made their careers demonizing Shi'ites.
Chinese President Xi Jinping Welcomes Russian Counterpart's Visit, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 14, 2017
The Russia-China plan for North Korea: stability, connectivity The crucial point is that both Seoul and Pyongyang went to Vladivostok, and talked to Moscow. Arguably the key question -- the armistice that did not end the Korean War -- has to be broached by Putin and the Koreans, without the Americans. The larger strategy of "RC" is clear -- a drive aimed at Eurasian connectivity. The question is how to convince the DPRK to play along.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 24, 2020
What Did U.S. Intel Really Know About the 'Chinese' Virus? - Strategic Culture The burning question is inevitable: how could the NCMI possibly know all about a viral pandemic, still in November, when Chinese doctors positively identified the first cases of a new type of pneumonia only on December 26? U.S. Senators dumping stocks after a CDC briefing; more than 1,300 CEOs abandoning their cushy perches in 2019, "forecasting" total market collapse; the Fed pouring helicopter money already in Sept.
Stephen Bannon and Donald Trump, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 20, 2017
Bannon The Barbarian Goes "Thermonuclear" The narrative that the US deep state -- which now de facto controls the Trump presidency -- banished Bannon forever to the "deplorables" badlands tells only part of the story. The Swamp may decide on policy -- but the Breitbart guerrilla surge will take no prisoners.
G-20, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 8, 2017
Putin and Trump stage-manage a win-win meeting Trump did not make any substantial concessions in Hamburg, at least according to what both Tillerson and Lavrov volunteered to disclose. The Beltway is barking that Trump gave Putin a win. As usual, they're wrong; Putin and Trump stage-managed a win-win.
Intense Clashes In The Battle For Donetsk, From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Pepe Escobar in eastern Ukraine: Howling in Donetsk I've just been to the struggling Donetsk People's Republic. Now I'm back in the splendid arrogance and insolence of NATOstan. After all, they are Western "civilization"-enabled cowards who would never dare to show their manicured faces to the people of Donbass. So this is my gift to them. Just a howl of anger and unbounded contempt.
From ImagesAttr
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 8, 2012
Why Hugo Rules Venezuela will grow 5 percent in 2012 -- way beyond Argentina (2 percent) and Brazil (1.5 percent). This is a partially socialized economy that is producing more jobs, more credit, more state investment -- and the result is steady economic growth.
K-141 Kursk Russian submarine., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 5, 2019
The un-submersible US-Iran stalemate Iran continues to export crude, by all means available, especially to Asia, with the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) predictably shutting off satellite tracking on its fleet. But, ominously, the deadline set by Tehran for the EU-3 to actively support the sale of Iranian crude expires this coming Sunday. That's a major cliffhanger. After that, the stalemate won't be submersible anymore.
It all starts with Hong Kong as a major BRI financing hub., From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 22, 2017
Xi's road map to the Chinese Dream Xi has clearly understood that global leadership implies being a top provider, mostly to the global South, of connectivity, infrastructure financing, comprehensive technical assistance, construction hardware and myriad other trappings of "modernization." It does not hurt that this trade/commerce/investment onslaught helps to internationalize the yuan.
Living in a digital forest: immersive art debuts in China, From YouTubeVideos
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 31, 2018
The long profitable march of digital China A concerted Washington attack on Chinese trade policies may be all but inevitable. Complex global supply chains will suffer, while prices inflate. Naturally, Beijing will move key pieces in its global asset chessboard, which could affect US bonds and equities.
From thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/donald-trump-still-a-miser-628931: Donald Trump, From Images
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 13, 2016
Is Trump ready to go nuclear? for all the 24/7 scandal time of non-stop groping and kissing and lewd locker room misbehaving, Trump seems to be ready to limp toward the finish line just as he began; an all-out populist/nativist/nationalist fighting open borders (a Clinton mantra, as revealed by the latest WikiLeaks Podesta email dump); "free" trade; neoliberal globalization; and regime change/bomb them into democracy/"humanitarian" imperialism.
Gen. Philip Breedlove, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Dr. Strangelove is naked Next week comes the crucial announcement of the next Chinese five-year plan. No, China is not crashing, as much as the China-Russia strategic partnership keeps expanding. Expect many a naked lunch between Dr. Strangelove and his masters in the Beltway.
Valley near Kangan, Kashmir., From Uploaded
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 27, 2020
PEPE ESCOBAR: The India-China, Himalayan Puzzle The Indo-China border is a strategic chessboard and it's gotten way more complex.
U.S and Russia Ceasefire in Syria, From YouTubeVideos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 19, 2016
Is There a US-Russia Grand Bargain in Syria? In Syria, Moscow accomplished the outstanding feat of making Team Obama see the light beyond the fog of neo-con-instilled war, leading to a solution involving Syria's chemical arsenal after Obama ensnared himself in his own red line. Obama owes it to Putin and Lavrov, who literally saved him not only from tremendous embarrassment but from yet another massive Middle East quagmire.
Russian-China versus President Trump, From GoogleImages
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 19, 2018
What sanctions on Russia and China really mean A crucial Pentagon report on the US defense industrial base and "supply chain resiliency" bluntly accuses China of "military expansion" and "a strategy of economic aggression," mostly because Beijing is the only source for "a number of chemical products used in munitions and missiles."
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 26, 2019
US and Iran Stuck on Negotiation Ground Zero Donald Trump says he's "okay either way," whether there's war with Iran and Tehran seems to be okay with that too, warns Pepe Escobar.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 30, 2012
Say hello to a yuan world The decline of the US dollar happens in parallel to the rise of the yuan. The yuan will become fully convertible even before the usually brandished deadline of 2020. This means that within the next five years, most if not all of East Asia will be part of the yuan bloc. Inevitably, China will be the top trading partner of every nation in East Asia.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 23, 2013
War against Iran, Iraq AND Syria? Attesting to the appalling average IQ involved in foreign policy debate in the Beltway, information had to be spun to justify yet another military adventure on the horizon -- especially after President Barack "Assad must go" Obama declared he would authorize the "light" weaponizing of "good" rebels only. As if the harsh rules of war obeyed some Weapon Fairy Godmother high up in the sky.
HORROR: 295 Dead as Missile at  Shoots down Malaysia Boeing MH17, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 23, 2014
A chessboard drenched in blood Moscow, in building its case on the MH17 tragedy, will bide its time to debunk Kiev's claims and maximize its own credibility. The game now moves to the black boxes and the cockpit voice recorder. Still Ukraine will remain the do-or-die battlefield -- a chessboard drenched in blood.
President Donald Trump and Angela Merkel, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Washington and Berlin on a Collision Course Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel will definitely be on a collision course at the G-20, with Merkel emphasizing discussions on climate change, refugees and no trade protectionism, much to Trump's disgust. The Russia sanctions bill just adds to the unholy mess. Expect a lot of fireworks "celebrating" those bilaterals in Hamburg.
Prince Charles donned traditional Saudi robes for the cultural celebration, From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 21, 2014
Warning: Saudi Mayhem Ahead Expect major House of Saud-provoked mayhem ahead. Even in Tehran, they are worried about Saudi sanity -- as the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei knows all there is to know about the cosmic paranoia, aging King Abdullah (89) riding into the sunset, the fierce succession war to follow, and, meanwhile, Bandar Bush's warmongering offensive.
Saudi Arabia seeks to ween country of oil, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the oil thriller In the end, our oil thriller will be all about China; Beijing will need to buy all the energy it needs to pursue the completion of the New Silk Roads. Meanwhile, the House of Saud faces a stark choice. Its "post-oil economy" plan will fail, as others before failed. The Warrior Prince must decide which of the superpowers to ally with.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 18, 2016
How Donald Trump will follow the money Here's how the playing field is shaping up: the neocon/neoliberal/Wall Street candidate, Hillary Clinton, featuring The Three Harpies itching for a war, against the wall-to-wall multibillionaire Four Amigos -- Trump, Charles and David Koch, and Adelson. This, in the US, is what passes for "democracy." Those who are about to die of despair -- we salute you.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 28, 2016
Is war inevitable in the South China Sea? The environment after The Hague's ruling -- as the Laos summit proved -- points toward long-term diplomatic solutions. But make no mistake; at some point in the future, there will be a serious confrontation between the US and China over "access" to the South China Sea.
Oil Terminal in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 2, 2018
Oil and gas geopolitics: no shelter from the storm What the potential loss of over 20% of the world's oil supply would mean is terrifying; the implosion, with unforeseen consequences, of the quadrillion derivatives pyramid, and consequentially of the entire Western financial casino superstructure. Compared to that, the 2008 financial crisis would be little more than a walk in an ecologically friendly park.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 24, 2016
Why the UK Said Bye Bye to the EU What started as a gamble by David Cameron on an outlet for domestic British discontent, to be used as a lever to bargain with Brussels for a few more favors, has metastasized into an astonishing political earthquake about the dis-integration of the European Union. Brexit proved that it's immigration, stupid. And once again, it's the economy, stupid.
Syria War, From GoogleImages
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 22, 2016
The US road map to balkanize Syria This continues to be about the Qatar to Turkey -- via Syria -- natural gas pipeline versus the proposed $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, for which there is already a memorandum of understanding. Lavrov is too much of a stellar diplomat to leak it -- but after Deir Ezzor, Moscow has definitive proof any possible ceasefire bargained with Washington will be smashed.
Russian jets in Syria, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 2, 2015
A Syria/Berliner ensemble Imagine the EU eventually supporting Russia in Syria -- if there is clear, substantial progress on the ground -- and on top of it relaxing or ending those painfully counter-productive Ukraine-related sanctions; cue to inter-galactic fear and loathing trespassing the neocon, neoliberal, "humanitarian" imperialist combo.
Stop the TPP, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 4, 2016
NATO on trade, in Europe and Asia, is doomed This is a sophisticated, toxic US-led corporate racket, a concerted assault across the spectrum, from the environment and animal welfare to labor rights and internet privacy. In a nutshell; it's all about the US corporate galaxy pushing the EU to lower -- or abase -- a range of consumer protections.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 14, 2016
China Ups the Game in the South China Sea Washington must factor the delicate political equation before the extremely complex royal succession, with the power of the Thai army solidified by a new constitution as it expands trade and political relations with both Russia and China. The only discourse emanating from Washington boils down to Pentagon obsession with confrontation in the South China Sea and White House obsession with TPP, the trade arm of the pivot.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 5, 2019
Trials & Tribulations of Central Asia Pepe Escobar reports on the pros and cons of being the "Heartland" in the 21st century.
Global Civil War, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 10, 2015
Civil war up, humanism down In our current pitiful condition the least we could do is to heed the lessons of Spinoza -- for whom reason was sovereign; not "a cold, glacial reason, but a profoundly compassionate reason." Spinoza was a spirit as independent as Montaigne -- another one of our inspiring models.
President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 13, 2018
Don't expect Trump to send in the cavalry if MBS has to circle wagons MBS will simply be unable to deliver on the promise of an Israel-Palestine-Arab world Grand Deal, which looks certain to have been discussed in Washington and Riyadh. That is virtually impossible after the president's formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Chris Kyle Navy Seal, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 27, 2015
American Sniper vs. Baghdad Sniper The Baghdad sniper may survive only as the ghost of a faded urban legend. Baghdad itself changed its status from mostly Sunni to mostly Shi'ite -- and its new fears center on the fake ISIS/ISIL/Daesh Caliphate. American Sniper, on the other hand, is touring the planet as a digital celebrity hero, even as US right-wingers loudly complained neither Clint Eastwood's movie nor Bradley Cooper got any Oscars.
Wakhan corridor Afghanistan., From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 9, 2018
China's latest move in the graveyard of empires Beijing's strategic priority is to prevent Uyghur fighters of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), who have been exiled in Afghanistan, crossing the Wakhan Corridor to carry out operations across Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in northwest China. There is also the fear that ISIS or Daesh jihadis from Syria and Iraq may also use Afghanistan as a springboard to reach the country.
China New Silk Road, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 15, 2018
China's "New Silk Roads" reach Latin America Washington will need to invest in a much more sophisticated game if it is to compete economically against China. That would turn out to be the ideal trade and investment scenario which would profit Latin America the most. Public opinion seems to have made up its mind. Across Latin America, approval of US foreign policy has dropped from 49% in 2016 to 24% last year. Approval of President Trump stands at a dismal 16%.
From ImagesAttr
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 22, 2013
The FBI Boston-Chechnya charade There are absolutely no witnesses saying the brothers dropped the bombs. They did it because the FBI says so. Washington is about to join the glittering ranks of Mubarak-era Egypt, Bahrain and Uganda. As that nasty little piece of work, Senator Lindsay Graham, put it, now ''the homeland is the battlefield.'' And you're an enemy combatant if we say so.
Obama vs. Putin, From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Obama's "strategy" against "pariah" Russia For all of US Think Tankland talking and theorizing, breathlessly, about "containment" of a "rogue state" -- which in itself is laughable, as if Russia was Somalia -- the Obama administration's overarching "strategy" is really in a class by itself. This masterpiece of juvenile delinquent diplomacy boils down to "ignore Putin."
Hillary Clinton, From FlickrPhotos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 30, 2016
The Three Harpies are Back! On Orlando, Hillary Clinton was keen to note, "this is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States and it reminds us once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets." Of course there's no problem if those "weapons of war," manned or "advised" by US personnel, kill innocent civilians across what the Pentagon calls MENA (Middle East, Northern Africa).
Vladimir Putin, Russia and the West, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 21, 2016
US Think Tanks Dream Up Russian Collapse, Aggression Despite the Facts A solid case can be made that Moscow does not need mountains of Western investment; credit can be created in Russia. Most of all, there is rather less productive investment money in the West than wild speculative funds; it's largely a matter of fiat money and credit, and Moscow does not need to go to the West for that.
Greece migrants drown as boat runs aground off the Greek island of Rhodes, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 23, 2015
How NATO Kills Africans in the Club Med Humanitarian imperialism as applied to what the Pentagon loves to define as MENA (Middle East-Northern Africa) has led, according to Amnesty International, "to the largest refugee disaster since the Second World War." Amnesty estimates that no less than 57 million people have been turned into refugees by 2014.
Golden Eagle Silk Road, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 14, 2015
New Silk Road Meets Eurasian Union The always-evolving Russia-China strategic partnership is not only about energy -- including the possibility of Chinese-controlled stakes in crucial Russian oil and gas projects -- as well as the defense industry; it's increasingly about investment, banking, finance and high technology.
Syrian Refugee crisis., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 11, 2015
Migrants, Refugees, Clandestines and ... Jihadis The Obama administration and dodgy allies such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and in-the-shade Israel have invested heavily in a proxy war in Syria. The proxy war is against Iran and Russia -- but it's Syria that's being destroyed.
DPRK, trade top Trump's agenda in Japan, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 7, 2017
How the DPRK Riddle is Freaking out the US Establishment Asia-Pacific is where the real action is -- geopolitically and geo-economically. And once again, the number one issue in the intractability stakes will be the DPRK. At a recent meeting with top US military and intelligence chiefs Trump, referring to the DPRK, asked to be provided "with a broad range of military options, when needed, at a much faster pace."
Anti-Trump demonstrators gather in Zurich to protest the US President's visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 25, 2018
Davos: Inequality Rocks the Magic Mountain As inequality reigns supreme, Davos 2018 preaches the necessity of striving towards a common future in a fractured world; a poor euphemism for the stark fact of a wealthy happy few getting much wealthier while untold masses of poor veer toward dirt poor.
With an F-16 fighter in the background, U.S. President Barack Obama makes remarks upon his arrival in Warsaw June 3, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 5, 2014
Obama's Europe doctrine: Too much stupid, not enough serious With American imperial hubris so perversely warped, newspeak becomes a Hall of Mirrors just reflecting itself. Even in the face of daily Kiev bombing of civilians in Eastern Ukraine, Obama insists that Russia is trying to destabilize Ukraine; thus inevitably there will be more "punishment," as in sanctions.
Successful nuclear talks between Iran and the P-five-plus-one group of countries, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Historic Iran nuke deal resets Eurasia's "Great Game" What's certain is that Iran will become a magnet for foreign investment. Major western and Asian multinationals are already positioned to start cracking this practically virgin market with over 70 million people, including a very well educated middle class. There will be a boom in sectors such as consumer electronics, the auto industry and hospitality and leisure.
Inside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, Iraq, a few days before Arba'een., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Tikrit and Najaf: Agony and Ecstasy in Iraq Millions of souls -- Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans, Pakistanis, northern Africans, Central Asians, Persian Gulf nationals -- are being soothed via the massive, cathartic walk from Najaf to Karbala. A pilgrim captured the spell -- spiritual redemption merging with political statement -- as he told me, with the flicker of a smile, the walk is also "a protest against terrorism."
Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoan, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 22, 2018
Erdogan, MBS, Islamic leadership and the price of silence The House of Saud's ties to the Khashoggi slaying are being milked by the Turkish President for maximum benefit amid debate on leadership of the Islamic world and how the crisis may affect US and Saudi strategy in the Middle East
China and Russia are two important major countries in the world., From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 16, 2020
Battle of the Ages to Stop Eurasian Integration Everyone needs and wants Iran connectivity. For obvious reasons, since the Persian empire, this is the privileged hub for all Central Asian trade routes.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 6, 2015
A Trojan Horse in the Home of Austerity Grexit will be just the start of a whole new Sophocles-inspired tragedy. Once one nation breaks with the single currency, the monetary union itself is totally exposed. The (Neoliberal) Goddess of the Market will be eagerly looking for the next victim -- Spain, Italy, Ireland. The democracy Trojan horse now lies, in silence, in the home of austerity. The battle is about to begin.
Trump says Islamic State leader dead after US raid in Syria, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Caliph Closure: "He Died Like a Dog" Trump's victory-lap movie version buries the embarrassing story of deploying tanks to "protect" Syrian oilfields, writes Pepe Escobar.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 28, 2012
The Iranian oil embargo blowback All across Eurasia trade is fast moving away from the US dollar. The Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, crucially, also means that Asia is slowly disengaging itself from Western banks. The movement may be led by China -- but it's irreversibly transnational. Once again, follow the money.
Russian attack helicopters sighted at Syrian airbase, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 7, 2015
The NATO-Russia face off in Syria So, the hysterical/apoplectic/paroxystic rage enveloping the "Empire of Chaos" betrays the utter failure, once again, of the same old "policy" (remember Afghanistan) of using jihadis as geopolitical tools. Fake "Caliphate" or "rebels," they are all NATO-GCC's bitches.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 2, 2018
The Xi Silk Road is here to stay Xi has all but announced his major moves. The Chinese Dream -- or China as a stable, middle-income nation. BRI as a connectivity vector integrating not only Eurasia but also Africa and Latin America. Securing the South China Sea as well as increasing a presence not only across the Indian Ocean but all the way to the Third Island -- a matter of protecting China's connectivity/supply lines.
Panama Papers scandal, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 9, 2016
Hybrid War, From Palmyra to Panama Forget about British "responsible journalism" gatekeepers getting into the heart of it. It's much more popular to blame Putin as guilty by association than to examine how David Cameron's father, Ian, chose to keep the family money (and the future Prime Minister's inheritance) away from the tax man.
Amazon fire satellite image., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 2, 2019
Amazon Burns Amid Brazil's Incendiary Politics Fires rage in the Amazon as Brazilian President Bolsonaro becomes a target of global indignation, writes Pepe Escobar.
Taliban representatives in peace talks with the US, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 26, 2020
The Afghanistan "peace deal" riddle As far as Afghanistan is concerned, with or without a deal, the US military have no intention to go anywhere. They want to stay whatever it takes. Afghanistan is a priceless Greater Middle East base to deploy hybrid war techniques.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Obama's Weapons-For-Peace Program Putin knows Obama would even give up playing basketball if he could find a way to sneak out of getting bogged in Syria's civil war. Putin knows Obama simply cannot order a no-fly zone over Syria by decree -- as much as he may be under pressure by the usual warmonger senators, armchair warrior think tankers, corporate media and weapons manufacturers.
Are the US and China locked in a hybrid war?, From Uploaded
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 18, 2020
China locked in hybrid war with US For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping's reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the US as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference during the peak of the fight against coronavirus.
Vladimir Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 5, 2018
Popular Putin Prepares for Cold War 2.0 Back in February 1945, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin met in Yalta to design the post-World War II world -- which ended up being framed by the Cold War. Now, in a Cold War 2.0 environment, Russia is repositioning Crimea as a debate hub on global cooperation -- complete with a brand-new, billion-dollar international airport and the Crimean Bridge.
Steve Bannon, Breitbart, Lenin, the Alt-right, White Supremacy ..., From GoogleImages
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Lenin Comes to the White House? "America First" -- but for whom? The key question is who will end up defining America's real national interest; true nationalists embedded in Team Trump, plus the proletariat "elite," or the usual -- globalist -- suspects able to infect and corrupt any notion of nationalism? Politics is war -- what else? And "revolution" is still the biggest show in town.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 26, 2016
Hot off Brexit, Vladimir Putin goes to China Beijing has as much as a $4 trillion pile of cash to be used at the discretion of Xi and the collective leadership. This is the reality--not the usual US "Think Tankland" blabbering about China's imminent implosion. Compare it with the Fed printing many new US dollars, about $60 billion a month, as the US would have a really hard time committing to any possible financial investment (apart from war) in the $100 billion range.
Saudi Arabia has an incredible oil price war with Russia., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 15, 2020
How black swans are shaping planet panic China has gone full Nietzsche about to prove that whatever does not kill you makes you stronger when it comes to a "people's war" against Covid-19. On the US front, there's scant hope that the gleaming Black "helicopter money" Hawk will crash down for good.
Zacarias Moussaoui The man known as the 20th 9/11 hijacker, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 8, 2015
The Dirtiest Secret of the War on Terror There is no evidence the "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" (Obama's own words) administration has the capability to seriously review US-Saudi relations. What is certain is that the dirtiest secret of the war on terror will remain off-limits. All the "terror" we face, real or manufactured, springs out from just one source; not "Islam," but intolerant, demented Wahhabism.
China President Xi Jinping, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Is China a House of Cards? The word in Beijing is that an assembly line of editors is now compiling a book of Xi thought (sixiang) that would make him as crucial as Mao as a contributor to Sino-Marxist theory. So what? Xi is a man in a rush, on a roll and with a mission -- and 2021 is just around the corner. House of Cards? No; this looks more like a case of Xi landing a Full House on the table.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 16, 2016
What is BRICS member India really up to? Modi's priority is to solidify India as the top South Asian power. So he cannot afford to antagonize Washington. Naturally, US corporations -- heavy supporters of TPP -- are salivating at the lucrative prospects. The drive is similar to what China did decades ago, but now with emphasis on "protection of intellectual property" to attract the TPP-obsessed crowd.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (front) addresses the audience during a rally and concert called ''We are together'' to support the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea to Russia, with Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov and parliamentary speaker Vladimir, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Asia Will Not "Isolate" Russia Asia will not "isolate" Russia -- and Asians and Russians know it, as much as The White House is in denial. Oh, to have been an EU-regulated fly on the wall in that Hague room where Obama and Xi were talking; cool Xi meets Obama pivoting around himself.
Pentagon, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 27, 2015
The Myth of a Russian "Threat" Not a week goes by without the Pentagon carping about an ominous Russian "threat." The connection's wet dreams -- shared, incidentally, by the neo-cons -- would be a glorious return to the looting phase of Russia in the 1990s, when the Russian industrial-military complex had collapsed and the West was plundering natural resources to Kingdom Come.
Dawn comes to Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 28, 2018
Iran diary: bracing for all-out economic war A group of us -- including American friends, whose visas were approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government -- have gathered in Mashhad for the New Horizon Conference of independent thinkers.
SPIEF 2015, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 21, 2015
SPIEF -- St. Petersburg in the heart of the action No caravanserai could possibly compete with the 19th edition of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Thousands of global business leaders -- including Europeans, but not Americans; after all, President Putin is "the new Hitler" -- representing over 1,000 international companies/corporations, including the CEOs of BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total, hit town in style.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 14, 2019
US-China: the hardcore is yet to come The current hysteria over tariffs, the trade offensive, the demonization of BRI, Made in China 2025 and Huawei's 5G dominance, and all manner of disruptive Hybrid War tactics such as repeatedly claiming "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea to progressive weaponizing of Taiwan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the concluding news conference in Ankara., From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 4, 2014
Exit South Stream, enter Turk Stream Russia still gets to build a pipeline under the Black Sea -- but now redirected to Turkey and, crucially, pumping the same amount of gas South Stream would. Not to mention Russia gets to build a new LNG (liquefied natural gas) central hub in the Mediterranean. The redirection makes total business sense. Turkey is Gazprom's second biggest customer after Germany.
Turkish soldiers on a self-propelled howitzer at the border between Turkey and Syria, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 20, 2015
Syria: The break for the border The Sultan will go no holds barred to prevent it. ISIS was never an "existential threat" to Ankara. On the contrary; it was always a very useful indirect "ally." Ankara will continue to plug the myth that the road to Daesh's defeat goes through Assad regime change.
The burgeoning crisis in Ukraine and its relationship with Russia are set to take center stage at the NATO summit that starts in Wales on Thursday., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 4, 2014
NATO attacks! Ukraine is all about Germany now. Berlin wants a political solution. Fast. Berlin wants Russian gas flowing via Ukraine again. Fast. Berlin does not want US missile defense in Eastern Europe -- no matter what the Baltic states scream. That's why Poroshenko's latest "Invasion! Invasion! Invasion!" craze is nothing but pure desperation by a lowly, bankrupt vassal of the Empire of Chaos.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 21, 2011
Exposed: US Press "Freedom" This is how the much-lauded "freedom of the press" myth in the US actually works. If you perform the job of an actual journalist, telling truth to power, forget about attending press conferences at the White House, Pentagon or State Department. You won't even be admitted in the building.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Unmasked: Trump Doctrine vows carnage for new axis of evil This script runs as follows: Iran must be isolated (by the West, only now that won't fly with the Europeans); Iran is "destabilizing" the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, the ideological foundry of all strands of Salafi-jihadism, gets a free pass); and Iran, because it's developing ballistic that could -- allegedly -- carry nuclear warheads, is the new North Korea.
The National Flag of Kurdistan, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Unravelling the riddle of the Kurds' Iraqi pipedream Baghdad is actually getting stronger -- as part of the "4+1" (Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq plus Hezbollah) that for all practical purposes has won the war in Syria. None of these actors -- or Turkey, which is involved in the Astana negotiations -- wants partition of either Syria or Iraq. Moreover, Russia is also back as Iraq's partner on the military front, selling it a "large batch" of T-90 tanks for US$1 billion.
Why India is ignoring US Sanctions and sticking with Iran, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 4, 2018
Why India is ignoring US sanctions and sticking with Iran The Holy Grail for India is Iran-related: the so far $500 million investment in Chabahar port in the Indian Ocean, as well as completing the Chabahar-Zahedan railway. Chabahar is the starting point of the Indian version of the New Silk Roads, linking India to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.
New pipeline starts pumping gas to Europe, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 7, 2022
Nord Stream 2 Offers Germany a Date with Destiny Whatever the modus operandi of Pipeline Terror, incompetence was part of the package. No explosive charges were placed or detonated on Line B of NS2.
A Saudi-led aerial bombing campaign has entered its second day in Yemen., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Bomb Iran? Not now: bomb Yemen Royally paid Saudi lobby hagiographers are once again frantically spinning the Sunni versus Shi'ite sectarian narrative -- which totally ignores the mind-boggling tribal/class complexity of Yemeni society. In a nutshell, this laughable Saudi defense of democracy is paving the way for a ground war; a long, bloody and horribly expensive ground war.
Alexander The Great was the Macedonian King, unrivalled military genius and conqueror of the Ancient World., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Barbarism Begins at Home Greeks thought it was morally uplifting to help friends and repel enemies, and in the latter case Greeks had to enslave them. So Greeks should by definition rule barbarians.
Hillary Clinton, From YouTubeVideos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 12, 2016
Hillary Clinton, the Conveniently Negligent Queen So here we're right into gross negligence territory -- which is a minefield compare to mere convenience. The vast, powerful Clintonista army has gone full convenience mode. So it will be up to the FBI -- and the Department of Justice -- to prove intent and motive, as in establishing, without a shadow of a doubt, that the subterranean server enabled substantial political dividends/profiteering.
Russia's Putin, Ukraine's Poroshenko Shake Hands At Minsk Talks, From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 28, 2014
From Minsk to Wales, Germany is the key Taxes -- and budget cuts -- are up. The currency, the hryvnya, has plunged 40 percent since early 2014. The banking system is a joke. The notion that the EU will pay Ukraine's humongous bills is a myth. Germany (which runs the EU) wants a deal. Fast.
From flickr.com/photos/121483302@N02/14880794601/: Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, From Images
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Checkmate Washington never joins a coalition that it cannot control at will. Thus a possible road map of what may lie ahead -- as debated by Obama and Putin, face to face, for 90 minutes in New York; a two-headed coalition, one led by the US, the other led by Russia, but "coordinating" on the ground.
From wgntv.com/2016/09/06/donald-trump-tops-hillary-clinton-by-2-points-in-new-poll/: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, From Images
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 24, 2016
Les Deplorables Trump will push to organize an immediate rapprochement with Russia in case he's elected, so the US industrial-military-surveillance complex can catch up and at least try to remedy the danger of losing the next war Hillary and her own neocon bag of deplorables are so bullish on.
The Power of Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 16, 2018
It's all Putin's fault... but still he wins Putin detailed how MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is now back with a vengeance -- implying that the whole US missile defense apparatus may be, by now, useless. And this had absolutely nothing to do with "Russian aggression," as the usual suspects spin it. This was Moscow's response to over two decades of NATO encroaching on Russia's borders.
Artillery for Kirkuk, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Kirkuk redux was a bloodless offensive. Here's why What we have just witnessed is the near breakout of warfare between two alleged US "clients" in Southwest Asia. And yet civil war -- along with the balkanization of Iraq -- was prevented. The facts on the ground speak for themselves.
An anti-goverment fighter holds his gun towards the Ukrainian army position at a checkpoint near the front line in the northern outskirts of city of Donetsk, on July 22, 2014, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 28, 2014
Ready, Reset, Go! ...to Cold War 2.0 The real, no-holds-barred reason for the Empire of Chaos's obsessive economic war on Russia is that Moscow, as a BRICS member, alongside especially China and Brazil, is at the leading edge of emerging powers challenging the global financial/political (dis)order -- wallowing in the mire of casino capitalism -- dictated by the Empire of Chaos.
Former Brazilian president Lula defiant after detention, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lula and the BRICS in a fight to the death "BRICS" is the dirtiest of acronyms in the Beltway/Wall Street axis, and for a solid reason: the consolidation of the BRICS is the only organic, global-reach project with the potential to derail Exceptionalistan's grip over the so-called "international community." Hell hath no fury like Exceptionalistan scorned. Like the Mob, it never forgives; Lula one day would have to pay.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 11, 2013
Fear and loathing in House of Saud The House of Saud's nightmare is amplified by paranoia. After all those warnings by King Abdullah for Washington to cut "the head of the snake" (Iran), after all those supplications for the US to bomb Syria, install a no-fly zone and/or weaponize the "rebels" to kingdom come, this is what the House of Saud gets: Washington and Tehran on their way to reaching a deal at the expense of Riyadh.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment., From YouTubeVideos
(44 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Hybrid war hyenas tearing Brazil apart So Wall Street, US Big Oil and the proverbial "American interests" win this round at the circus -- thanks to the, once again proverbial, vassal/comprador elites. Chevron execs are already salivating with the prospect of laying their hands on the pre-salt oil deposits; that was already promised by a trusted vassal in the Brazilian opposition.
Wayang kulit puppets in Java, Indonesia., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Shadow play: the New Great Game in Eurasia The "urbane," "cerebral," "legendary" Kissinger is now advising Trump. The long-term strategy might be characterized as classic Divide and Rule, but slightly remixed: in this case an attempt to break the Russia-China strategic partnership by allying with the -- theoretically -- weaker node, Russia, to better contain the stronger node, China.
Chinese veteran hands out face masks for free amid coronavirus outbreak, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 3, 2020
China rolls out the Health Silk Road In the Belt and Road framework, China is supplying much of the world -- including virus-hit Europe --with medicine and healthcare items
Pronouncement of former President Lula after testifying in PF, From YouTubeVideos
(29 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 6, 2016
The Brazilian Earthquake A top priority of the Empire of Chaos is to prevent the emergence of regional powers fueled by abundant natural resources, from oil to strategic minerals. Brazil amply fits the bill. Washington of course feels entitled to "defend" these resources. Thus the need to quash not only regional integration associations such as Mercosur and Unasur but most of all the global reach of the BRICS.
Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince's new book
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 7, 2013
A bunch of sexy, badass patriots Prince had me howling with laughter when he stresses that Blackwater maintained "the highest ethics while dealing with these contacts"; I pictured a Bunuel-esque Discreet Charm of the Afghan Bourgeoisie shot by Scorsese. Or Tarantino. Still one favor led to another, and by 2002 an incorporated offshoot, Blackwater Security Consulting, was tasked to provide security for the CIA headquarters in Kabul.
Korea, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 19, 2017
The Korean Matrix A minimally competent US "attack" would requires a lot of infiltrated US Special Forces, as in boots on the ground, with no guarantee of success. In a nutshell; Washington, realistically, is incapable of eliminating North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 4, 2019
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) Must Shelve His Vicious War in Yemen After Abqaiq and Operation Nasrallah, to say that MBS is wallowing in a vicious blowback swamp is an understatement. The relentless bombing of Yemen for over four years during his term as minister of defense is his Frankenstein baby.
Immanuel Kant, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 5, 2020
The deeper roots of Chinese demonization The US hybrid war against China is bound to go on frenetic overdrive, as economic reports are already identifying Covid-19 as the tipping point when the Asian -- actually Eurasian -- century truly began.
Battle of the Milvian Bridge, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 21, 2019
"Clash of civilizations" or crisis of civilization? What we're living now is not a clash of civilizations; it's a crisis of civilization. If the paradigm under which most of humanity barely survives is not changed -- and there's precious little evidence it will -- there won't be any civilizations left to clash.
Chinese Navy Warship, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 19, 2016
While Beijing and Manila talk, Washington spoiling for a fight The RAND report is just one more piece of evidence adding to what the Beijing leadership already takes for granted -- even before the Clinton-announced pivoting to Asia; the Empire of Chaos, in despair, will revert to war no matter what.
South Korean Army Soldier assists a U.S. Army soldier in donning protective equipment before sanitizing a COVID-19 infected area during a joint disinfecting operation in Daegu, South Korea, March 13, 2020., From Uploaded
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 17, 2020
COVID-19: Confucius is Winning the Coronavirus War Compare hundreds of millions of Asians' serene response to the coronavirus crisis with the West's fear, panic and hysteria, writes Pepe Escobar.
China's Belt and Road initiative China is working to revive the ancient Silk Road trade routes from Asia to Europe, From YouTubeVideos
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 18, 2018
"Make Trade, Not War" is China's daring plan in the Middle East Beijing's strategy is to avoid a geopolitical collision in the Middle East. Its aim is to: Make Trade, Not War. From the United States' point of view, the National Security Strategy document highlighted how China and Russia are trying to shape a new geopolitical environment in the region, which contrasts sharply from Washington's aims and interests.
Italian engineers plan an offshore facility to take cargo from large ships from China for relay to an onshore facility and transported to destinations around Europe., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 12, 2018
Marco Polo in reverse: how Italy fits in the New Silk Roads The fact is 85% of trade between Europe and Asia is maritime trade. And as far as Beijing is concerned, the Maritime Silk Road, via the Suez Canal, keeps a special focus on the ports of Piraeus and Venice. No wonder the smart money on the peninsula has already mapped how BRI offers Italy a unique position in the complex web of Chinese global supply routes.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Why Obama is bombing the Caliph This is an electoral year. Obama is absolutely terrified of another Benghazi -- which Republicans have been trying non-stop to blame on his administration's incompetence. The last thing Obama needs is the Caliph's goons killing "diplomats" in Erbil.
Bombed out Aleppo, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Make bombs, not refugees the current US-led-from-behind bombing campaign is a worthless videogame -- with futility reaching Walhalla dimensions with Britain and France now merrily joining the bombing. The only realistic way this beheading-demented motley crew of Salafi-jihadi takfiris may be soundly defeated, on the ground, is by an alliance of Syrian, Hezbollah, Iran and Iraq forces coordinating with precision bombing.
From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 13, 2015
Germany "Saves" the Euro by Humiliating Greece In the end it was up to France (President Hollande) vs. Germany (Chancellor Merkel) -- two minions history placed at this fateful juncture -- to decide the future of the EU deep into the night. Germany won -- with France hardly sweetening the bitter pill for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Bandar Bush, "Liberator" Of Syria Bandar Bush's visit to Moscow simply could not have happened without a green light from Washington. So what's the (muddled) master plan? They're letting the Saudis do the heavy lifting. The first step was to eliminate Qatar from the picture. It's astonishing how fast the emirate, up to two months ago a prospective mini-superpower, now has been reduced to less than an afterthought.
Syria Destruction, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Syria, Iran and "chaos in international relations" Moscow, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad are showing a united front even as the alleged chemical attack in Douma -- the reason for the strikes -- is being forcefully debunked. Additionally, pesky questions remain unanswered on why more than 100 missiles were necessary to destroy only three largely empty state-run scientific centers in Damascus and Homs.
From ImagesAttr
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 29, 2013
"War On Chemical Weapons": Obama Traps Himself Into Syrian Combat If we take the Obama administration at their word -- at our own peril -- they couldn't care less about who deployed chemical weapons. Yet at the same time they don't want regime change. They want a bombing to fulfill a "moral obligation," and to boost Washington's horrendously shattered "credibility."
Small diplomatic incident in Japan for Barack Obama. Invited by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo sushi restaurant is considered the best in the world, a tiny and exclusive local with just 24 seats., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 24, 2014
US "pivots," China reaps dividends How's China reacting to the hysteria? Simple -- by reaping dividends. Beijing wins with the US offensive trying to alienate Moscow from Western markets by getting a better pricing deal on the supply of Eastern Siberian gas. Beijing wins from the European Union's fear of losing trade with Russia by negotiating a free-trade agreement with its largest trading partner, which happens to the be the EU.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 30, 2016
Target Russia. Target China. Target Iran It's all hands on deck all over Exceptionalistan to counter Russia, China and prevent any real normalization with Iran. These localized offensives -- practical and rhetorical -- on all fronts always mean one thing, and one thing only; splitting and fracturing, by all means necessary, the OBOR Eurasian integration. Bets can be made that Moscow, Beijing and Tehran simply won't be fooled.
Stone statue of Confucius, From GoogleImages
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 25, 2018
Will the Putin-Xi era supersede the Western liberal (dis)order? The Chinese constitutional amendment allowing Xi Jinping the possibility of further presidential terms -- staying in power long enough to bring "national rejuvenation" combined with the Russian election re-confirming Vladimir Putin in the presidency have assured consistency and continuity for the Russia-China strategic partnership way into the next decade.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 1, 2014
A Tectonic Shift in Eurasion -- How the New Great Game Will be Played Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin see it in their interest to "protect" peacemaker Obama. Yet everyone remains on slippery territory; Obama as peacemaker -- this time really honoring his Nobel Prize -- may be just a mirror image. And Washington could always march towards regime change in Tehran led by the next White House tenant after 2016. For 2014 though, plenty of signs point to a tectonic shift in the geopolitical map.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 9, 2019
On the Road to Interview Lula, Into a Brazilian Black Hole From Cambodia to Brazil and Argentina and back to Bangkok gave Pepe Escobar insights into the disastrous course his native land is taking.
Ashton Carter, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 4, 2014
Obama's Defense Nominee: Here Comes Trouble Ashton Carter is the typical Beltway apparatchik -- profiting from the revolving door between the military, heavy industry and academia. He was and remains a key actor in the ever evolving "policy" of demonization of Russia. And here's the icing on the weaponized cake: he advised Obama on the "pivoting to Asia." Run for cover, everybody.
Barack Obama Meet Saudi Arabia's New King Salman after death of King Abdullah, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 27, 2015
"Empire of Chaos" in the House Russia is not Iran -- with all due respect to Iran. If the House of Saud really believes they are talking to the head of a superpower rather than a ventriloquist's puppet -- which is Obama's role -- they are effectively doomed. Nothing Obama says means a thing. The Saudi-launched oil price war is bound to destroy the US oil industry -- against US national interests.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 3, 2017
The future of the EU at stake in Catalonia Crimea was part of a legitimate reunification drive to rectify Nikita Khrushchev's idiocy of separating it from Russia. London did not send goons to prevent the referendum in Scotland; an amicable negotiation is in effect. No set rules apply. Neocons screamed in vain when Crimea was reunited with Russia after shedding tears of joy when Kosovo was carved out of Serbia.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 17, 2013
Hi, I'm Your New Axis Of Evil As for Sisi, he was clever enough to seize the "terror" theme and pre-emptively equate MB with al-Qaeda in Egypt, thus setting the scene for the bloodbath that is not a bloodbath. The bottom line is that a case can be made that the Obama administration has in fact subcontracted most of its Middle East policy to the House of Saud.
Ideal middlemen, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 29, 2014
The future visible in St Petersburg The facts on the ground speak for themselves. China is buying at least half of Iraq's oil production -- and is investing heavily in its energy infrastructure. China has invested heavily in Afghanistan's mining industry - especially lithium and cobalt. And obviously both China and Russia keep doing business in Iran.
Angela Merkel et Francois Hollande, From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 13, 2015
From Minsk to Brussels, it's all about Germany It's up to Germany to clean up its act on Greece. The choice is stark. The EU may embark on a quadruple-dip recession as the ECB further destroys what is left of the European middle class. Or Germany, reflecting the thinking among its captains of industry, may tell the EU -- Troika included -- that the way to go is to shift the strategic, trade and political focus from West to the East.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 6, 2016
No, Italy is not about to leave the euro Italy is now firmly concentrated on trying to get a new -- functional -- government, not abandon the euro. But that still entails a fascinating sub-plot; none other than Angela Merkel will have to step up and lend a hand to "save" the EU by saving the future of Renzi's Democratic Party. Now that's what an opera buffa is all about.
USA  Vs Russia and China Simulation, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 6, 2015
Eurasian emporium or nuclear war? We're back to the EU, Russia and China, and everyone in between, all joining the greatest trade emporium in history across the whole of Eurasia. That's what Putin proposed in Germany a few years ago, and that's what the Chinese are already doing. And what do the neo-cons propose? A nuclear war on European soil.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 21, 2019
Brazil-gate is Turning into Russia-gate 2.0 WikiLeaks had already revealed it from the start, when the NSA started spying on energy giant Petrobras and even Rousseff's smart phone. In parallel, countless nations and individuals have learned how the DOJ's self-attributed extra-territoriality allows it to go after anyone, anyhow, anywhere. It has never been about anti-corruption. This is American "justice" interfering in the full geopolitical and geo-economic spheres.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 18, 2016
Trump does Taiwan China accounts for only 16 percent of the US deficit, slightly ahead of Japan and Germany. So a Trump trade war on China "would be a war against all participants in the global supply chain, including US companies." Trump may throw Taiwan at the table, but Beijing is already playing another game entirely.
From flickr.com: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, From Images
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 25, 2018
"Quad" version of Belt and Road feels like a South China Sea Watch What we have here is essentially Tokyo -- and the ADB -- competing head-on against Beijing and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to extend loans around the world, including to an array of African nations (already Beijing's clients) and even to Russia.
The rise of China as an economic superpower was the most read news story of the past decade, surpassing the Iraq War and the attacks of Sept. 11, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 18, 2013
China vs US "Sea-to-Shining-Sea" Let's say China is now in the stage of creating facts on the sea. For the moment, a kind of uneasy accommodation seems to prevail involving the Americans and also the Japanese. Beijing knows that the US Navy and the Japanese navy have better training -- and more experience -- than the Chinese navy. Once again, for now.
China Indusry, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 1, 2020
Can You Smell What the Chinese Are Cooking? Less than a week before the game-changing U.S. presidential election, the real heart of the geopolitical and geoeconomic action is virtually invisible to the outside world. We're talking about the fifth plenum of the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee, which started this past Monday in Beijing.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 25, 2015
Pakistan enters the New Silk Road It will be absolutely fascinating to watch how China and Pakistan, simultaneously, may be able to keep the peace in both Xinjiang and Balochistan to assure booming trade along the corridor. Shanghai is twice more distant from Urumqi than Karachi. So no wonder Beijing thinks of Pakistan as a sort of Hong Kong West.
Wall Street, From GoogleImages
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 29, 2016
Wall Street: The Trump-China missing link To recover US manufacturing jobs -- as Trump has been forcefully promising -- he will have to stare down the whole Wall Street finance oligarchy. So no wonder these oligarchs -- responsible for shipping all those US manufacturing jobs to Asia and lavishly profiting from bailouts to the "Too Big To Fail" racket -- hate him with all their golden-plated guts.
bear, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 25, 2022
From the Black Sea to the East Med, do not poke The Russian Bear This is what happens when a bunch of ragged hyenas, jackals and tiny rodents poke The Bear: a new geopolitical order is born in breathtaking speed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 15, 2018
The myth of a neo-imperial China During the Tang Dynasty in the 8th and 9th centuries, China also had projected influence across Central Asia all the way to northeastern Iran. And that explains why Iran, now, is such a key node of the BRI and why the leadership in Tehran wants the New Silk Roads solidified. A China-Russia-Iran alliance of -- Eurasia integration -- interests that cannot but rattle Washington.
Goldman Sachs, From ImagesAttr
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 18, 2015
What game is the House of Saud playing? What is troubling is that the current bunch in Washington does not seem to be defending US national and industrial interests. If humongous trade deficits based on currency rigging were not enough, now virtually the entire US oil industry runs the risk of being destroyed by an oil price racket. Any sane analyst would interpret it as contrary to US national interests.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 3, 2017
HK's role for next 20 years? Silk Road "super-connector" At the 12th G-20, Xi will once again stress globalization 2.0, the ongoing revolution in intelligent industries and sustainable development. This is all music to the ears of German industrialists, who want solid, expanding trade relations all across Eurasia.
French President Francois Hollande led world leaders and French citizens for a massive rally for unity and freedom of expression in Paris, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Hypocrites Shine on Paris Catwalk In the counter-terrorism front, the post-Charlie circus will be a gift that will keep on giving -- in full "war on terra" mode. All the alleged perpetrators are conveniently dead -- so there are zero chances of piecing together the real story. Up next: a Guantanamo made in France sponsored by Dior. Thank the Lord we have so many bright politicians to protect us.
ISIS Beheading of Journalist James Foley Captures World's Attention, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 22, 2014
The killer on the (Saudi) king's highway Why did Islamic State, formerly ISIS, become winners? Because the "West" regimented, schooled, trained, logistically helped and weaponized most of IS's Takfiri goons with a mission at hand: to destroy Syria. The "West" lauded them as "Syrian rebels." Freedom fighters.
White House, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 1, 2016
All Quiet in the Eurasian Front What's left for the Empire of Chaos in the Eurasian front is the wishful thinking of attempting to encircle both Russia and China, while both keep actually expanding all across the Eurasian Heartland, shedding US dollars and buying gold, signing a flurry of contracts in yuan and selling oil and gas to all and sundry.
From InText
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Intel Sources Predict Trump will De-Escalate Iran Confrontation Iran responded to Trump's assassination of their general with a precision bombing of an American base in Iraq. The response at once demonstrates Iran's technical capability and resolve to retaliate, but also demonstrates restraint. No one was killed. A "top US intel source" says that Trump is looking for ways to de-escalate the confrontation.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The Myth of Global "Free" Trade TTIP, TTP and TiSA are in fact a Hydra-like head; they follow the same geostrategic logic of NATO on trade -- transatlantic and trans-Pacific; the "West against the Rest." Not accidentally, the BRICS are excluded. And no wonder the negotiations are secret; global corporate "governance" is not exactly a pop hit in any latitude.
From inventariandochina.com/2016/06/23/namibia-eyes-chinese-fur-market/: G20 in China ends, From Images
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 5, 2016
Made in China G20 and its geoeconomic significance The G20 in Hangzhou showed China is ready to show off its economic clout and to exercise a much more active role in geoeconomics. It's clear that Beijing prefers to play the game in a multilateral trade system based around the WTO. Washington, instead, has been trying to rig the game with new "rules"; TPP and TTIP.
Gold Bars, From PixabayPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 18, 2022
All That Glitters Is Not Necessarily Russian Gold The "rules-based international order" - as in "our way or the highway" - is unraveling much faster than anyone could have predicted.
BRICS group picture in Benaulim, in the western state of Goa, India, October 16, 2016., From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 20, 2016
BRICS continues its advance, one step at a time The annual BRICS meeting held this past weekend in India. Apparently there's not much that meets the eye. Yet President Putin once again stressed the context; this is a long-term project, a "key element" in the embryonic multipolar world, driven by nations that don't accept "power pressure" and attempted "targeting of sovereignty" by the usual suspects.
Lavrov: Nuclear deal with Iran 'reached on all key aspects', From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 21, 2015
Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran with lies, lies, lies AP, an American news agency whose dispatches are reproduced in full by countless newspapers and magazines all across the world, once again is being used as a crude propaganda vehicle -- just like US corporate media as a whole was used as a crude propaganda vehicle in the run-up towards the invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq.
Xi Jinping - Caricature, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 8, 2021
The Shape of Things to Come in China On foreign policy, Li could not draw a sharper contrast with the Hegemon: "China will pursue an independent foreign policy of peace" and will "promote the building of a new type of international relations."
Vladimir Putin, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Follow the Money - How Russia Will Bypass Western Economic Warfare A number of Russian banks are already connected to China's CIPS system. For instance if someone wants to buy Russian oil and gas with CIPS payment must be in the Chinese yuan currency. CIPS is independent of SWIFT.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers keynote speech at World Economic Forum opening ceremony, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Global helmsman Xi Jinping steps up with charm offensive In a wide-ranging speech that went from global angst to China's new normal, Chinese President Xi Jinping sounded all the right notes that global capital needed to hear; protectionism is like "locking oneself in a dark room," and "no one is a winner in a trade war." He delved into the necessity of peace in Syria, and the perverse effects of the absence of financial regulation.
China's One Belt One Road, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 21, 2019
China's road to a win-win ahead of BRI forum Beijing clinched a proverbial showering of BRI deals with 17 Arab nations, including Egypt, Lebanon and Oman. Not by accident, the forum this year was called Build the Belt and Road, Share Development and Prosperity. Up to 2018, 21 Arab nations had signed BRI memoranda of understanding. The US is the cracked outer shell.
Bangkok bomber in yellow shirt, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Who profits from the Bangkok bombing? We don't know who employed The Guy in the Yellow T-shirt. Is he a red shirt? Is he a jihadi-to-be indoctrinated and trained by the usual suspects? Is he -- oh, the sweet smell of conspiracy! -- a CIA black ops in cahoots with the new US ambassador in Thailand, Glyn Davies, a specialist in "non-military force" to advance regime change options.
Putin to reveal sanctions list, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 22, 2014
Russian sanctions as war and farce Moscow is playing it cool because it may choose among a staggering array of counterpunches. It enjoys the support of the BRICS group of emerging powers, the non-aligned movement (NAM) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Composing with the US, Moscow agreed to impose sanctions on Iran, and is a key player in the P5+1 nuclear negotiations.
Ayatollah Khomeini, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 21, 2020
The Roots of American Demonization of Shi'a Islam The role of the politician in democracies seems not to be to try to understand anything but simply carry out the agenda of the elites who own them." Calling all informed souls: the debate is on.
Hong Kong holds a flag-raising ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of the founding of China., From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 12, 2020
Will Confucius marry Marx? Shedding light on the limits of Chinese power II China is widely accused by the West of lack of democratic legitimacy exactly as it enjoys a four-decade, sustainable, history-making economic boom.
Pak Iran Gas Pipeline, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Energy ballet-2: Syria, Ukraine and "Pipelineistan" Dual Israeli-Ukraine citizen and appointed governor of Dnepropetrovsk, shady billionaire Igor Kolomoisky -- who also deploys his own private militia -- is in bed with no less than VP Biden. Joe Biden's son was appointed a director of oil and gas concern Burisma Holdings, the largest fracking company in Ukraine.
Russian airstrikes restore Syrian military balance of power., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 27, 2016
The European Jihadi Union The fact that ISIS/ISIL/Daesh is blowing up citizens from the EU and many other nationalities right under NATO's noses cannot but raise eyebrows. Especially when we know that for NATO and its sorry gallery of Strangeloves, Breedloves and Breedhates, the "enemy" is not Salafi-jihadism, but "evil" Russia.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Scores Decisive Victory, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Turkey's European dream may be over -- is the Sultan ready for Eurasia? So, "illiberal" or otherwise, the fact is a majority of Turkish voters prefer Erdogan. The European dream may be over -- for good. Relations with NATO are fractious. Neo-Ottomanism is a minefield. So Eurasian integration seems the sensible way to go.
King Salman's palace coup and the Saudi royal politics, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 8, 2015
Rejoice with the "new" House of Saud Whatever the scope of the shake-up, the "new" House of Saud -- with the Obama administration "leading from behind" -- will keep selling the fiction that it's freeing Yemen from a bunch of terrorists, when it's actually empowering al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula (AQAP). It's AQAP's fierce enemies -- the Houthis -- which have been bombed under the orders of the Royal Youthful.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (in red) smiles at the start of a quadrilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (3rd L) and Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia (3rd R) in Geneva, as representatives of the U.S, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 19, 2014
On Nazis, Jews and Ukraine "De-escalation" The Kremlin does have a vision, the will and the means to pursue it, perseverance, and a carefully calibrated method. Don't provoke; wait. Be patient, but not inactive. Accrue your potential. Then retake the initiative. the "tactician" on the other side, already blinded because he does not respect you, will be left clueless, wondering what hit him.
Guangzhou Cityscape, From GoogleImages
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 29, 2016
The Pearl River Delta showcases the Chinese Dream the Pearl River Delta -- China's number one hub of labor-intensive manufacturing -- is in the process of replacing workers with robots on a large scale, a further sign that China is about to take off technologically, big time. And that's all part of a "Made in China 2025" strategy announced only two months ago by Beijing, centered on relentless innovation -- and commercialization.
The glorious view of the Hunza Valley and snow-capped mountains from the top of Baltit Fort., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 20, 2018
The new Great Game on the Roof of the World We are at the heart of Gilgit-Baltistan, in Pakistan's Northern Areas, or -- as legend rules, the Roof of the World. This is an area about 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles) crammed with spectacular mountain ranges and amidst them, secluded pristine valleys and the largest glaciers outside of the Polar region.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 11, 2013
Vlad the Hammer vs Obama the Wimp In this larger scheme of things, drifting towards a post-Post Cold War environment, the Snowden affair is just a piece of the puzzle. And here's where the personal perfectly mirrors the political. Vlad the Hammer knows exactly what he's doing -- while Obama the wimp looks like a deer caught in a Trans-Siberian locomotive's headlights.
Umberto Eco, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 22, 2016
Umberto Eco: the Professor Who Knew Everything Eco caused a media storm by deriding social networks, saying they "give the right of expression to legions of imbeciles which beforehand only talked in the bar after a glass of wine, without disturbing their social environment. Now they have the same right of expression of a Nobel Prize. It's the invasion of the imbeciles."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 5, 2020
US Kick-Starts Raging '20s Declaring War on Iran Iraq is the preferred battleground of a proxy war against Iran that may now metastasize into hot war, with devastating consequences.
Trump: .I Learned A Lot From Richard Nixon.., From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 20, 2020
Nixon-Trump vs. the Strategy of Tension What we have is a do-or-die clash of models: MAGA against an exclusivist Fed/Wall Street/Silicon Valley-controlled system. Teflon Trump should never be underestimated. The Deep State may even realize he's more useful than they think.
Military parade on Red Square, From GoogleImages
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 25, 2018
Who profits from the end of the mid-range nuclear treaty? US president Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, secretary-general of the USSR, signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987. Three decades later, the Trump administration wants to unilaterally pull out of the INF Treaty. Earlier this week President Trump sent his national security adviser John Bolton to officially break the news to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 17, 2014
Ukraine and the grand chessboard The Obama administration keeps applying instances of "divide and rule" to scare minor players, as in spinning to the max the specter of an evil, militaristic China to reinforce the still crawling "pivoting to Asia." The whole game harks back to what Dr Zbig Brzezinski conceptualized way back in his 1997 opus -- The Grand Chessboard -- and fine-tuned for his disciple Obama: the US ruling over Eurasia.
Buzz Saw, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 16, 2022
Death by a Thousand Cuts - Where Is the West's Ukraine Strategy? Moscow is spending way less than the NATO contingent in the Ukrainian theater. NATO has already wasted $50 billion - and counting - while the Russians spent $4 billion, give or take.
Greek and EU flags, From ImagesAttr
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 31, 2015
Europe slouching towards anxiety and war We all know, this current non-elected Eurocrat-ravaged EU -- which despises Greece, antagonizes Russia, wallows in the mire of Empire of Chaos vassalage, and treats most of its citizens as heavily-taxed garbage -- could hardly be described as "superb."
Computer school with IBM-PC., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 5, 2020
No escape from our techno-feudal world The Digital Age was crucially associated with right-wing ideology from the very start. To break down Control, we must be able to hack into and disrupt its core programs.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 31, 2016
Iran: The New China? The most probable scenario spells out an Islamic Republic of Iran engaged in a Chinese-style economic development program. Sort of a Persian "get rich is glorious" remix, under strict political control. This begs the question: are we ready for the new Supreme Leader role as the Iranian Deng Xiaoping?
'Working Hard' on Iran Nuclear Talks, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 3, 2015
Iran nuke deal -- What's cookin' at the Vienna table On the key access issue, even though the 24-day period for resolving an access to a particular site inside Iran was already agreed at by the Lausanne framework, French Foreign Minister Fabius has spun it as "Iran wants 24 days" -- making it look like this was a new demand by Iran to change the framework agreement.
President Trump delivering a speech at the United Nations, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 22, 2017
Brute isolation: Trump and the art of unraveling the Iran deal Trump's fateful decision in fact conditions and frames how he will deal with North Korea. Pulling out of the JCPOA will send an unmistakable message to Pyongyang and also complicate the efforts of "RC" to defuse the situation. The DPRK will never bother to even consider negotiating with a "compassionate nation" that refuses to live up to multilateral commitments.
President Donald Trump meeting with China's President Xi Jinping., From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Finding the answer to a riddle shrouded in a mystery Beijing's position is in favor of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This would start with a "double freeze" mechanism, allowing for dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang. Beijing is acutely aware that containing the North's nuclear program will have a direct effect on the military upgrading of Japan and South Korea. China is also keen to improve relations with Seoul.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 17, 2014
We are all living Pasolini's Theorem Pasolini could only reach for the stars after graduating in literature from Bologna University -- the oldest in the world - in 1943. Today, a Pasolini is utterly unthinkable. He would be something like an UFIO (unidentified flying intellectual object); the total intellectual -- poet, dramatist, painter, musician, fiction writer, literary theorist, filmmaker and political analyst.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 4, 2016
Say hello to Southeast Asia's New Silk Roads China will not desist from building a first-class blue water navy with global reach. That's the rationale for the sophisticated submarine base in Hainan Island and those ultra-controversial land reclamations in the Spratly Islands. Beijing's overall strategy is to fully control security in the South China Sea -- considering whatever the hegemon may come up with.
Marine Le Pen, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Welcome to the Fillon-Le Pen cage match As it stands, everything points to a Fillon-Marine cage match next spring. President Francois Hollande would be barely able to beat a frog (literally) if he runs for a second term. Even lackluster current Prime Minister Manuel Valls would be more popular.
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 30, 2015
The Caliph at the gates of Vienna The Obama administration is essentially fighting -- sort of -- ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in Iraq, where Washington lost a multi-trillion dollar war. Team Obama never bothered to fight the fake "Caliphate" in Syria--because they were contributing to the "Assad must go" agenda. This is what passes for Obama's policy in Syria, as the Caliph's roaring laughter can be heard all the way to Vienna.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Chinese President Xi Jinping., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 13, 2020
Iran and China Turbo-Charge the New Silk Roads Two of the US's top "strategic threats" are getting closer and closer within the scope of the New Silk Roads -- the leading 21st century project of economic integration across Eurasia. The Deep State will not be amused.
USA vs Russia, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 28, 2014
Why The EU Can't "Isolate" Russia Obama couldn't behave otherwise. The constitutional law expert knows nothing about Russia, in his (meager) political career never had to understand how Russia works, and may even fear Russia -- surrounded as he is by a coterie of spectacularly mediocre aides. If Putin persists in his "aggression" Obama will have no choice but to unroll a much stiffer sanction package.
BRICS establish $100bn Development Bank to cut out Western dominance, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 15, 2014
BRICS against Washington consensus One might view the BRICS's strategy as a sort of running, constructive critique of capitalism; how to purge the system from perennially financing the US fiscal deficit as well as a global militarization syndrome--related to the Orwellian/Panopticon complex--subordinated to Washington.
Attack in the sky over Syria, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 15, 2015
NATO's got a brand new (Syrian) bag The NATO master plan for northern Syria in the next few weeks and months essentially features US, UK and Turkey fighter jets, with the French still in the balance (are we de facto collaborating with the Russians, or is it just posture?) This is being sold to global public opinion as a "coalition" effort -- with Russia barely mentioned.
Dr. Henry Kissinger, From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 14, 2021
The Tragedy of the U.S. Deep State At a recent forum in Arizona, referring to the festering, larger than life Sino-American clash, Henry the K. said, "It's the biggest problem for America; it's the biggest problem for the world. Because if we can't solve that, then the risk is that all over the world a kind of cold war will develop between China and the United States."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (2nd L), European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (C ) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (2ndR) wait prior to a meeting on November 9, 2013, on the third day of talks on Iran's nuclear program, From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 15, 2013
Pivotal moment: Why US wants deal with Iran Imagine Washington-Tehran fighting jihadism together. The US corporate world is already deep into wet dreams of investing in Iran's energy industry and market. As Tehran's number one priority is to get rid of the sanctions, it will be fascinating to watch how Washington will deploy its carrots.
z Is Dead, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 8, 2022
Megalopolis x Russia: Total War After careful evaluation, the Kremlin is rearranging the geopolitical chessboard to end the unipolar hegemony of the "indispensable nation". History may eventually register, 77 years after the end of WWII, that neocon/neoliberalcon psychos in Washington silos instigating an inter-Slavic war by ordering Kiev to launch a blitzkrieg against Donbass was the spark that led to the Fall of the U.S. Empire.
Chinese cargo truck coming from the Kyrgiz-China border., From InText
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 3, 2020
In the Footsteps of Xuanzang in Kyrgyzstan This journey into the past also reaches the heart of 21st century China's New Silk Roads strategy, says Pepe Escobar in this photo and text reportage from Central Asia.
THEY WILL BE HEARD -- Syrians support Assad, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 23, 2015
The Empire of Chaos is in a Jam the USS Think Tankland is advising the creation of a NATO-enforced no-fly zone along the Turkish-Syria border, supported by American, Turkish, British and French troops. Beltway, now we do have a problem. This no-fly zone is already in effect. And it's run by Russia. And you won't be able to jam it.
VLS_9142 copy, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 20, 2022
Russia Rewrites The Art of Hybrid War Hybrid War is being fought predominantly in the economic/financial battleground and the pain dial for the collective West will only go up.
Aleppo, Syria, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 12, 2015
How Iran and the US intersect in "Syraq" "Assad must go" will never completely vanish from the road map. A real detente with Iran depends on whether a nuclear deal is arrived at this summer -- and Obama has been ratcheting up the pressure with demand after demand. The demonization of Russia is bound only to get more vociferous.
Sergey Lavrov's Remarks at Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 17, 2018
Afghanistan takes center stage in the New Great Game Lavrov is quite concerned by the expansion of Daesh, known regionally as ISIS-Khorasan. He warned, correctly, that "foreign sponsors" are allowing ISIS-K to "turn Afghanistan into a springboard for its expansion in Central Asia." Beijing agrees.
Saudi Arabia reportedly acquiring Nuclear Weapons from Pakistan to counter Iran., From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 22, 2015
Wahhabis go nuclear -- literally The proverbial "former Pentagon official" has leaked to a Rupert Murdoch paper that the House of Saud is bound to buy a ready-made nuclear bomb from Pakistan. The choice of media already offers a clue; Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is one of News Corporation's leading shareholders.
UN Security Council in session., From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 13, 2014
The new European "arc of instability" Why is Russia buying so much gold? With the US dollar forced upward and gold downward, it makes total business sense to sell gas for inflated dollars and then buy cheap depressed gold; that's what the Chinese call a "win-win." And of course on both counts, the West loses.
Donald Trump in Republican debate, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 8, 2015
Trump trumps them all in Republican debates this was a reality TV spectacular generating huge ratings -- and not a real "debate" -- it was micromanaged to the millimeter by Fox News. Some of the questions unveiled Fox's real agenda; dress down Trump a notch and give a chance to the other Muppets to say something, anything, mildly respectable.
From Images
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 3, 2012
Could a state for Greater Kurdistan be on the horizon? Washington and Tel Aviv are on board; this implies that Brussels sooner or later will follow. BRICS members Russia and China are not exactly against it. There are two possibilities here. A Greater Kurdistan forged as a model for the Middle East -- in terms of a secular, dynamic, progressive entity respectful of religious minorities. Or yet another Western stooge.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussing Syria, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 26, 2015
Battle of Aleppo is a must-win for Russia What is shaping up is a kind of southern offensive. These forces will all be converging not only towards Aleppo but, in a second stage, will have to clear the terrain all the way to the Turkish-Syrian border, which is now a de facto Russian-controlled no-fly zone. For all practical purposes the whole Syria campaign is now under Russian operational, tactical and strategic management--of course with key Iranian strategic input.
Xi Jinping - Caricature, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 13, 2020
US Hits "Search and Destroy" Against China's New Silk Roads Seven years after being launched by President Xi Jinping, first in Astana and then in Jakarta, the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increasingly drive the American plutocratic oligarchy completely nuts.
Syrian civil war gallery, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 5, 2018
Eagle-meets-Bear and the Syria tug-of-war The US does not "have" southern Syria. What the US does have is roughly 2,000 Special Forces embedded with the Kurdish YPG in the landlocked northeast and eastern Syria near the Turkish and Iraqi borders. Absolutely no one wants them there, except the YPG.
Gazprom headquarters, From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 22, 2015
The EU-Gazprom war The argument that Gazprom is "dominant" and prevents competition is bogus; there's no competition because there are no other viable energy sources for the European market. The Europeans should blame the US instead, for keeping a nasty package of sanctions on Iran for so long. But of course EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager would never do that.
The author greets Lula in prison., From Uploaded
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Released Lula in Greatest Fight of His Life The predicament of the former Brazilian president shows how incendiary Brazil is at the moment, writes Pepe Escobar. And the Western mainstream media will make no effort whatsoever to explain the nasty, convoluted plot for a global audience.
Mariupol, Ukraine, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 29, 2022
How Mariupol Will Become a Key Hub of Eurasia Integration Mariupol should expect to become one of the key hubs of a boom in north-south routes - INSTC across Russia and linking with the 'stans' - as well as major BRI upgrades east-west as well as sub-BRI corridors.
Anti-government protesters are seen at the barricades in Kiev in Ukraine standoff February 11, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 4, 2014
The US-Russia Ukrainian deal The Obama administration has no clue what it wants in Ukraine. A "constitutional democracy"? Moscow might even agree with that, while knowing, based on rows and rows of historical/cultural reasons, it's bound to be a failure. The red line though has been spelled out over and over again: no NATO bases in Ukraine.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 27, 2016
Brazil's Banana Scoundrels Will Now Win Their Olympics The multi-layered coup, with modified Hybrid War elements, comes with a prearranged finale. It does not matter that even Brazilian Public Ministry experts have repeatedly admitted there's no juridical basis for Rousseff's impeachment. Even the federal prosecutor on the case concluded a few weeks ago that she did not commit a crime -- responsibility or otherwise.
Vladimir Putin, From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 25, 2015
War and Peace -- revisited Even John Kerry has been uncharacteristically reasonable, stressing all countries with an interest in Syria, including Russia and Iran, agree on the need for a unified, secular and pluralistic Syria governed with the consent of its people. This is where war and peace stand at the moment. But this is a mad, mad world where peace is war.
Chinese President Xi concluded his state visit to France on March 26, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 29, 2019
The EU bows to "systemic rival" China Political Eurocrats are starting to realize that Europe cannot afford to become a battlefield in Cold War 2.0 between the US and Russia, cannot afford to become a hostage of Washington tearing up international law see, for instance, the destruction of the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel and cannot afford to become a victim of Washington's trade whims.
Strait of Hormuz, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 25, 2019
War on Iran And Calling America's Bluff Vast swathes of the West seem not to realize that if the Strait of Hormuz is shut down a global depression will follow, writes Pepe Escobar.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, watching 'Saudi Arabia Vs Russia' Soccer FIFA world cup 2018 with FIFA President and Putin., From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 15, 2018
From Russia with love, as Putin kicks off soft power Games Much to the distress of the usual suspects, the fact is "Russian elites" are already winning the soft power war embedded in the World Cup. And Russia may even win the love war as well. So feel the love, and let the Putin Games roll. But, just in case, keep an eye out for another "chemical attack" in Syria, Ukraine trying to invade Donetsk and Lugansk, the odd false flag; and -- last but not least -- more sanctions.
US Capitol tour guide demonstrating that John Trumbull's 'Declaration of Independence' painting appears on the back of the two-dollar bill, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 2, 2022
Meet the New Resource-Based Global Reserve Currency A new reality is being formed - the unipolar world is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past, a multipolar one is taking shape.
US NAVY FEARS China's DF 21D missile -- a two-stage, solid-propellant, single-warhead ..., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 3, 2015
Say hello to China's new toys China's V-Day parade specifically celebrated "the 70th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression." None of Japan's TV networks -- NHK included -- showed the parade live. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, officially invited, snubbed it -- in line with the White House and what the State Department ordered the European minions.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 12, 2016
NATO Paranoia Versus Eurasia Integration In the end it all comes down -- predictably -- to a Dr. Strangelove scenario. NATO's new "projecting stability" normal, as stated in Warsaw, is just one more pointless P.R. exercise masking the real agenda; the Pentagon bent on planning for the dire possibility of a hot war with Russia.
US and UK hit Russia with new sanctions ? a recap, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 31, 2022
The Sanctioned Ones - How Iran-Russia Are Setting New Rules It is clear that Washington decision makers want no negotiation but an endless war to the last Ukrainian.
Iran Today - Criticism of new Iran oil contracts, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 1, 2018
How the Iran sanctions drama intersects with OPEC-plus Iran -- and Russia -- may sit on an astonishing $45 trillion worth in oil and gas reserves. US fracking is largely a myth. Saudi Arabia may have at best 20 years of oil supply left. It's all about energy -- all the time. Only one thing is certain; the future spells out brutal, covert resource wars.
From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 17, 2015
Obama & Gulf States summit: Party time with Wahhabi Atlanticists Absurdity is added by Qatar and Saudi Arabia supporting their own, not necessarily conflicting, networks of Salafi-jihadis in Syria. The House of Saud also unleashed the Pentagon-style "Decisive Storm," an illegal war/bombing/ "kinetic operation" on Yemen -- which Beltway myth, in pure Orwellian fashion, rules is an "effort" Washington merely "assists."
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 23, 2013
All in play in the New Great Game From now on, if the House of Saud sees Iran as a threat, it will have to come up with its own strategy. And if Israel insists on seeing Iran as an "existential threat" -- which is a joke -- it will have to deal with it as a strategic problem. If a real consequence of the current shift is that Washington will not fight wars for Saudi's or Israeli's sake anymore, that's already a monumental game changer.
Will handle differences bearing overall ties in mind, says Li Keqiang The Chinese premier., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 19, 2019
EU dilemma: how to deal with China Beijing is praised for its support for the Iran nuclear deal, its role in the denuclearization of North Korea, its upcoming role in the peace process in Afghanistan and tackling the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. The real problem, predictably, is China's maritime claims in the South China Sea.
From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 3, 2016
Europe's Slow Motion Debacle The refugee flood was not a spontaneous creation, as Syrians, Iraqis and/or Afghans suddenly decided to flee to the EU; it was directly instigated by Ankara. And Erdogan from the start was already contemplating the Big Prize; to bribe the EU, especially Merkel, to pay -- at least 3 billion euros -- so most refuges remain not on Turkish soil, but on one of his own neo-Ottoman sub-plots.
The littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth patrols in international waters of the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands as the Chinese guided-missile frigate Yancheng follows in the distance, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 17, 2016
Beijing goes mobile in the South China Sea The Pentagon has never been accused of being geopolitically savvy. Their planners after all fail -- or prefer to fail -- to see that China's island building, in the long run, is all about finding enough oil and gas to perform an "escape from Malacca," a central plank of Beijing's energy strategy. Count on the Pentagon to continue its meddling.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 29, 2018
The Syria connection to Iran, Afghanistan and China The 18th SCO summit will be held in Qingdao on June 9. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be there. India and Pakistan will be there. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will be there, representing Iran as an observer, and will meet face to face with Putin and Xi. That's where all Syria-Afghanistan connections will converge.
Rescuers evacuate an injured person near the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris, early on Nov. 14, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Paris terror attacks -- who profits? The fake "Caliphate" goons warned this is just the "beginning of a storm." To be the riders on the storm against this very small, extremely mobile and "invisible" army, one would need another concept of federal Europe, with a radically different common defense and foreign policy. Not gonna happen, anytime soon. Let's see how long it takes for NATO boots on the ground. THIS is what Daesh is aiming at.
South China Sea patrol Fleet., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 7, 2016
The Pentagon's Great Wall of Impotence The Chinese could not give a damn to the New World Order (NWO) dreamed up by selected "Masters of the Universe." Beijing is engaged in building a new, multipolar order. No wonder -- alongside with strategic partner Russia -- they are and will continue to be the Pentagon's top twin threat.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recounts the night of coup attempt., From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 24, 2016
The Sultan of (Emergency) Swing As much as Erdogan is an absolutely unreliable player and a loose geopolitical cannon, an invitation from Moscow-Beijing in a not too distant future may be forthcoming. Putin and Erdogan will have an absolutely crucial meeting in early August. Erdogan has been on the phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Hillary Clinton, From TwitterPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 10, 2016
All Hail the Queen of Exceptionalistan Hillary Clinton's record shows that she fully supported Bubba's military adventures in the Balkans, Dubya's disastrous wars on Afghanistan and Iraq and Obama's Afghan surge. But her masterpiece as Secretary of State was of course the destruction of Libya -- followed by her enthusiastic support for weaponizing "moderate rebels," a.k.a hardcore jihadis, in Syria.
Foggy, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 11, 2022
Cutting through the fog masking 'a new page in the art of war' Neo-Nazis are doing exactly what ISIS/Daesh did in Syria - hiding behind civilians taken as hostages.
The countdown to G20, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 2, 2016
The Ultimate 21st Century Choice; OBOR or War At the G20 China once again is announcing it is taking the lead. And not only taking the lead -- but also planning to overstretch its abilities to make the hyper-ambitious OBOR Eurasia integration masterplan work. Call it a monster PR exercise or a soft power win-win; the fact that humanitarian imperialism as embodied by the Pentagon considers China a major "threat" is all the Global South--and the G20--need to know.
PM Shri Narendra Modi, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 7, 2019
Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): The RCEP Train Left the Station, and India, Behind Summits come and go. But what just happened in Thailand will remain as another graphic illustration of myriad, concerted moves leading towards progressive, irreversible Asia and Eurasia integration. It's up to Modi to decide when and if to hop on the train.
Luigi Di Maio, leader of Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 6, 2018
The Italian Job: "unlikely" alliance could become reality Italy's latest elections were a roller coaster featuring plenty of thrills. Yet the top political nugget is unmistakable: Only one coalition may aspire to an absolute majority, an -- unlikely -- alliance between the populist Five Star Movement and the extreme-right League, led by Matteo Salvini.
A crowd of angry pro-Russian demonstrators, as well as police and media, accompany Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko as he walks through the streets of the Crimean city of Simferopol., From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 1, 2014
Carnival in Crimea For the foreseeable future, we will be drowning in a white sea of platitudes. As in Pentagon supremo Chuck Hagel "warning" Russia to stay out of the turmoil, while NATO's defense ministers issue the requisite pile of statements that no one reads "showing support" for the new leadership, and corporate shills reassure the populace this is not a new Cold War.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 7, 2017
Iraqi Kurdistan the fly to regional spiders Turkey, Iraq, Iran It's easy to forget that even when Ankara was denouncing Tehran as a "state sponsor of terrorism," at the height of the war in Syria, the two countries kept diplomatic relations. Moreover, the liberation of Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) only happened with the relative speed that it did because Ankara ordered its proxies to back off.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The US-EU-Russia sanctions puzzle No one ever lost money betting on the stupidity of the usual, unknown "senior US officials" -- who are now spinning the latest sanction package is to force Moscow to "respect international law and state sovereignty." A cursory examination of the historical record allows this paragraph to be accompanied by roaring laughter.
China's Xi meets with Germany's Merkel, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 30, 2020
Definitive Eurasian alliance is closer than you think China is meticulously planning all its crucial geopolitical and geoeconomic moves all the way to 2030 and beyond.
Arab States of the Persian Gulf, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Planet of Fear All across the spectrum, driven by fear, the toxic mix of political and economic instability continues to spread, leading quite a few insiders to wonder whether both the Fed and the Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing don't really know what's happening.
Fade Away, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 23, 2022
Exile on Main Street - The Sound of the Unipolar World Fading Away The future world order already in progress will be formed by strong sovereign states. The ship has sailed. There's no turning back.
From Images
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 15, 2013
"Bloodbath That Is Not A Bloodbath": Why Egypt Is Doomed Stop. Look at the photos. Linger on dozens of bodies lined up in a makeshift morgue. How can the appalling bloodbath in Egypt be justified? Take your pick. Either it's Egypt's remix of Tiananmen Square, or it's the bloodbath that is not a bloodbath, conducted by the leaders of the coup that is not a coup, with the aim of fighting "terror."
US President Barack Obama during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Who Wants a Third World War? Those days of the Cultural Revolution are long gone. China is slowly but surely shifting towards a spectacular new paradigm of integrating the whole of Eurasia into a booming industrial renaissance. Every change in China points towards this transition. Does this feel like a state/civilization that craves a Third World War?
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 3, 2012
Visions make it all seem so cruel I started at the Four Corners -- where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. Utah and Arizona will vote Romney; New Mexico will vote Obama. Colorado is a swing state, but Obama's chances of winning stand at 63% and rising, according to Nate Silver's projections.
The Caspian Sea is an important hub in a Eurasia-wide system of gas pipelines and trade corridors., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 21, 2018
Caspian games: Central Asian "stans" vie for connectivity market Much has to do with the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, facilitated by the late Zbigniew "Grand Chessboard" Brzezinski during the first Bill Clinton administration to bypass Iran. Baku is harboring great hopes for its new port at the desert wasteland of Alat ("Your hub in Eurasia!"), simultaneously connected to the West (Turkey and the European Union), the South (Iran and India) and the North (Russia).
China West-East Gas Pipeline, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 15, 2015
Pipelineistan -- the Iran-Pak-China connection Even after sanctions are lifted, Iran will need to find an ocean of investment--at least $180 billion--to upgrade its energy infrastructure and be able to start exporting natural gas to Europe, in competition with Gazprom. So Iran's privileged Pipelineistan play for the near future will be Asia--with China ready to instantly capitalize on every surge of Iran's natural gas production.
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura., From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 30, 2016
You have now landed in Geneva, Syria A desperate Erdogan may be foolish enough to confront the Russian Air Force during his purported "invasion." Putin is on the record saying response to any provocation will be immediate, and lethal. To top it off, the Russians and Americans are actually coordinating airspace action in northern Syria. Geneva? That's for tourists; the capital of the Syrian horror show is now Jarabulus.
Xi Jinping - Caricature, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 16, 2022
The 'New G8' Meets China's 'Three Rings' The coming of the new G8 points to the inevitable advent of BRICS +, one of the key themes to be discussed in the upcoming BRICS summit in China.
Capitol Hill, Washington, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 30, 2015
"Bomb Iran" plan simply won't go away The US/Iran Wall of Mistrust seems destined to remain in place -- far beyond the nuclear agreement. Multiple Washington factions, not to mention the Pentagon, continue to regard Iran as a "threat," a rogue nation, or evil incarnate, while Tehran sees Washington as "the heart of global arrogance."
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 24, 2013
Our Man In Quito the final third of "The Snowden Adventure" is being played out--after he leaves his small capsule hotel room in Sheremetyevo airport's terminal E and embarks towards political asylum in Ecuador via Havana. WikiLeaks gleefully tweeting the key moments of the saga: "He is bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from WikiLeaks."
China Rising, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 13, 2015
China? Have Grandmaster, will travel China has a culture 4,000 years old with 1.3 billion people, many of great talent -- a huge and very talented pool to draw from. How could they not aspire to be number 1 in Asia, and in time the world? The reawakened sense of destiny is an overpowering force.
Middle East Oil, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 18, 2015
The Middle East oil/nuclear puzzle The oil price war essentially unleashed by Saudi Arabia has hit Iran with a bang. The country may be down, but not out. The bottom line: the House of Saud does not trust the American nuclear umbrella anymore. They are making their own nuclear power play with the help of nuclear power Pakistan. The connection does exist, but remains extremely mysterious.
ISIS, Daash -- The killing of innocent people without any guilt I, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Can you smell what The Caliph is cooking? The Caliph is making roughly $2 million a day, and everything paid for in cash or bartered goods. No one knows who's buying from the Islamic State's complex distribution network of middlemen, but the fact is the oil flows from Caliph-controlled "Syraq" to Turkey and Jordan.
Buildings damaged near Damascus, From FlickrPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 27, 2016
Midnight in Damascus The vague terms of the "cessation of hostilities" do not explicitly specify that Washington, London and other members of the US-led-from-behind "coalition" should stop bombing Syrian territory. And there's nothing about suicide bombs and chemical weapons routinely used by any outfit, from ISIS/ISIL/Daesh to "moderate rebels," against the civilian Syrian population.
From Uploaded
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 24, 2022
The birth of the baby twins: Russia's strategic swing drives NATOstan nuts (Written this morning in Istanbul, BEFORE Putin buried the Minsk agreements. Everything else - and beyond - stands.) History will register that the birth of the baby twins - Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics - only a few hours before 2/22/22, was simultaneous to the birth of the real, 21st century multipolar world.
President Dilma Rousseff, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Brazil: The Provisional Banana Scoundrel Republic As much as the Car Wash investigation was revealed to be a totally politicized drive -- where fighting corruption was just a convenient cover -- the PBSR gang and their allies will do everything to get rid of the 2018 direct presidential elections. So here's the sorry Brazilian road map up to 2018; total political, economic, social and juridical chaos.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 13, 2014
New Axis in the House? There's a real strategic geopolitical axis in the house -- Moscow-Beijing-Tehran -- and the whole developing world has already noticed that's where the real action is. But as far as Ukraine is concerned, the stark fact is this is all about the US and Russia.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Al-Qaeda's Air Force Still On Stand-By Any serious, comprehensive UN resolution on chemical weapons across the Middle East would have to include Israel's chemical weapons. Note that nobody, absolutely nobody, is talking about Israel's vast arsenal of chemical, not to mention nuclear weapons. The sound path, though, will not be followed -- because Washington and its barking poodles afflicted with Sykes-Picot wet dreams, London and Paris, are already blocking it.
Iranians burn an image of President Donald Trump during an anti-US demonstration, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 24, 2018
"Tweet of Mass Destruction" ratchets up tension on Iran The Trump administration ditched a UN-sponsored multilateral treaty and has now launched serious covert ops with the ultimate goal of regime change in Iran. Trump's explosion of rage, coupled with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's touting of the interests of "the long-ignored voice of the Iranian people" has been met with derision and scorn all across Iran.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 25, 2011
Playing Chess in Eurasia There's a never-ending thriller floating downstream: Pipelineistan. That's the chessboard where the half-hidden twin of the Pentagon's "long war" is played out. Virtually all current geopolitical developments are energy-related. So fasten your seat belts, it's time to revisit Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski's "grand chessboard" in Eurasia to find out who's winning the Pipelineistan wars.
Russia Ukraine War, From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 25, 2022
NATO vs Russia - What Happens Next Three months after the start of Russia's Operation Z in Ukraine, the battle of The West (12 percent) against The Rest (88 percent) keeps metastasizing yet the narrative oddly remains the same.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry deliver remarks on Ukraine at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC on April 24, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 26, 2014
"Mr. Kerry, let's talk about Fox News, BBC and Al-Jazeera bullhorns" Secretary of State John Kerry criticized RT for its coverage of the Ukraine crisis on Thursday, calling it a "propaganda bullhorn," adding that Russia was behind the unrest in Ukraine without providing any evidence. This is information war, Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar told RT, commenting on John Kerry's attack against RT. If you have an alternative script like RT you are banned, because they are afraid, he added.
Iran's Hassan Rouhani, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's Vladimir Putin after a summit on Syria on April 4., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 6, 2018
From Ankara to Moscow, Eurasia integration is on the move With the prospect of Syrian reconstruction finally at hand, Beijing will turbo-charge its plans to turn Syria into a key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) node. On the Russian front, Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak has confirmed that energy giants Lukoil and Gazprom Neft are already focused on rebuilding -- and developing -- Syria's badly damaged energy infrastructure, following a cooperation roadmap signed last February.
From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 22, 2012
Obama the Pivot You could almost hear the rush of faraway drones during President Barack Obama's defense of Israel on his whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia. Wise heads won't get fooled by the inherent hypocrisy, while it's clear that no amount of presidential spin on the Asian "pivot" can hide the sacrificial offshoring of American jobs to contain China's rise.
Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador to China, announces a new trade and investment initiative between the U.S. and China..., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 30, 2015
Welcome to the trade deal wars It's still a very open game. It's about connectivity. It's about global production chains. It's about harmonized rules of trade. But most of all it's a tremendously high-stakes power play; who -- the US or China -- will eventually set the global rules on trade and investment.
Book, From Uploaded
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 16, 2021
PEPE ESCOBAR: The Raging Twenties: A New Map of Dystopia Pepe Escobar's new book "Raging Twenties: Great Power Politics Meets Techno-Feudalism" tells the story of a new phase of the U.S. empire.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 31, 2013
Pipelineistan and the New Silk Road(s) Faced with a Eurasian integration frenzy stirred by China's relentless westward-ho strategic and trade expansion, the US response is essentially a military bid to control all routes for Chinese energy imports. Yet Washington cannot escape the great escape from Atlanticist-dominated trade, commerce and finance. The New Silk Road(s) will be built by emerging Asia -- not by a fearful, declining West.
John Kerry: War and Sanctions for Russia over Ukraine, From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 17, 2014
Russia 1, Regime Changers 0 The Obama administration's "strategic" gambit to subcontract the State Department's "Khaganate of Nulands" to extricate Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence -- and ultimately annex it to NATO -- by instrumentalizing a coalition of willing neo-nazis and fascists with a central bank veneer (prime minister "Yats"), is in utter shambles.
Xi and Putin, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 26, 2015
Putin and Xi rock da house Putin's speech on Monday at the UN General Assembly will be about "the joint struggle against terrorism" (as branded by TASS). One should expect abundant apoplexy, much more than perplexity, all across the Washington/New York axis.
Dilma Rousseff re-elected president of Brazil, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Re-elected Dilma wins in a Brazil broken in two Brazil is slowly but surely moving from the semi-periphery to being closer to the center of the action in international relations; because of its own regional geopolitical relevance and mostly because of its leading role among the BRICS. This is happening even as Washington could not give a damn about Brazil -- or Latin America for that matter.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with French President Emmanuel Macron, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 26, 2018
Why Europe is afraid of the New Silk Roads Macron has been very vocal in prodding the European Commission bureaucracy to toughen anti-dumping rules against Chinese steel imports and forcing EU-wide screening of takeovers in strategic sectors, especially from China. In parallel, virtually every EU nation -- not only France -- wants more access to the Chinese market.
Chinese propaganda posters during the cold war, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 21, 2020
China updates its "Art of (Hybrid) War" A toxic racism-meets-anti-communism matrix is responsible for the predominant anti-Chinese sentiment across the US, encompassing at least 66% of the whole population. Trump instinctively seized it - and repackaged it as his re-election campaign theme, fully approved by Steve Bannon.
Wolfgang Ischinger - Munich Security Conference, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Munich did nothing to appease Cold War 2.0 fears Munich did absolutely nothing to center the discussion on the frightening prospect of the latest Israel versus Iran crescendo degenerating almost by inertia into a Hot War. Voltaire, the 18th-century French philosopher and writer, liked to quip that those who make you believe absurdities make you commit atrocities.
Hamza bin Laden, son of Osama, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 25, 2019
Empire of Chaos in Hybrid War Overdrive The Trump administration's foreign policy may be easily deconstructed as a crossover between The Sopranos and late-night comedy, writes Pepe Escobar.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, second right, and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Chief of General Intelligence and Secretary-General of the National Security Council of Saudi Arabia, second left, during a meeting in Novo-Ogaryovo , From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 14, 2013
It's Putin vs Bandar Bush on the Syrian chessboard No matter who will remain in control of those weapons -- Bandar Bush's brigades, the al-Qaeda-style International Jihad, or both -- what's certain is that these lethal facts on the ground will make a mockery of anything transpiring out of Geneva-2 next month. Washington knows it, Bandar Bush knows it, and Putin knows it. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 14, 2015
And here's the top 10 terrorist list Selected sound minds in the Pentagon -- they do exist -- must have been forced to admit that facing the recent advances of "4+1," Erdogan's dream is now a no-go. Or not. Take this hallucinatory, straight from the Cheney regime-era spin that the US needs boots on the ground to "occupy" and even "govern" parts of Syria.
Vladimir Putin - Caricature, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 2, 2022
What Putin Really Told Biden The root cause of all this drama, absent from any NATO narrative, is straightforward - Kiev simply refuses to respect the February 2015 Minsk Agreement.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 12, 2016
The Syrian Sea of Hostility The Syrian charade now proceeds under a vague "cessation of hostilities" -- which is not a ceasefire -- to be implemented within a week. Further on down the road, as this is the real world, "hostilities" will inevitably resume. So keep an eye on this "cessation of hostilities." Because the real hostilities may be just about to begin.
Vladimir Putin   and Chinese President Xi Jinping, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 10, 2018
Putin and Xi top the G6+1 President Trump was the predictable star of the show in Canada. He came late. He left early. He skipped a working breakfast. He disagreed with everybody. He issued a "free trade proclamation," as in no barriers and tariffs whatsoever, everywhere, after imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on Europe and Canada. He signed the final communique and then he didn't.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress over the company's use and protection of user data in Washington on April 11, 2018., From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 15, 2018
Draining the data swamp: who owns the "virtual you"? Zuckerberg dodged extremely serious questions. Who owns "the virtual you?" Zuckerberg's response was that you own all the "content" you upload, and can delete that content any time you want. Yet the heart of the matter is the advertising profile Facebook builds on each user. That simply cannot be deleted. And the user cannot alter it in any way.
Russian Warships Fire Cruise Missiles Into Syria, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Say hello to my cruise missiles Pentagon supremo Ash Carter swore Washington would not cooperate with Moscow in Syria because the Kremlin's strategy is "tragically flawed." We should read "flawed" as Russia in a few days killing more assorted Salafi-jihadi goons than the US-led Coalition of the Dodgy Opportunists (CDO) in over a year.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 24, 2018
Tehran eyes path ahead after US withdrawal from nuclear pact The Trump administration's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has monopolized the highest levels of government in Tehran around the clock since the decision was announced on May 9. The JCPOA joint commission meets in Vienna this coming Friday to analyze all options ahead.
From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 20, 2014
Burn, Men in Black, burn ISIS will keep getting loads of cash from wealthy Saudi "donors." The US government will keep weaponizing Sunnis in Syria against Shi'ites and (perhaps) conducting soft "targeted military strikes" for Shi'ites against Sunnis in Iraq. Welcome to Divide and Rule run amok.
Muammar Gaddafi and Nicolas Sarkozy, From YouTubeVideos
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 22, 2018
Gaddafi's ghost haunts walking-dead King Sarko The evidence, in this case, does exist. Among other explosive pieces, an official Libyan document, obtained through an investigation conducted by the French website Mediapart, proves Gaddafi handed over no less than 50 million euros to Sarkozy's campaign.
It's not too late !, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Behind the Tin Curtain - BRICS+ vs NATO/G7 It would be misguided to expect those G7 luminaries gathered in Bavaria to understand the absurdity of imposing a price cap on Russian oil and gas exports for instance. Were that to really happen Moscow will have no problems fully cutting energy supply to the G7 and if other nations are excluded the price of the oil and gas they import would drastically increase.
Russian ruble in a nosedive under pressure of Western sanctions and slumping oil prices, From YouTubeVideos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Rumble in the ruble, fire in the markets The Russian Central Bank did not intervene to prop up the ruble. And they should not. The best course of action would be to let the ruble go, ending almost all imports, thus forcing self-sufficiency. Or introduce capital controls, with only approved transactions involving foreign currencies. It did work for Malaysia, for instance, after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The New Great Game Round-Up, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 8, 2014
Russia, Turkey pivot across Eurasia And as if it was needed, Russia gets yet another graphic proof that its real growth market in the future is Asia, especially China -- not a fearful, stagnated, austerity-devastated, politically paralyzed EU. The evolving Russia-China strategic partnership implies Russia as complementary to China, excelling in major infrastructure projects from building of dams to laying out pipelines.
US-China trade battle, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 6, 2018
Tariffs "kick off 50-year trade war" with China Implicit in the curtain-raiser is that the Chinese leadership seem to interpret this first midnight salvo as the revving up of what's described in the US National Security Strategy. The conclusion, for Beijing, is inescapable; the US is now threatening the Chinese dream. No wonder the stage is set for major, inevitable turbulence.
US ships in South China Sea., From FlickrPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Between a Rock and a Hard (South China) Place once again the South China Sea is all about energy -- much more than the roughly $4.5 trillion of shipping trade that traverses it every year; "freedom of navigation" has always been more than assured for all. For Beijing, the South China Sea is an all-out energy must have, as it would constitute, in the long run, another key factor in the "escape from Malacca" plan of diversifying energy sources away from a bottleneck.
Anti-government protesters carry an injured man on a stretcher in Independence Square in Kiev February 20, 2014, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Will NATO annex Ukraine? Ukraine cannot survive without Russian gas, and the Ukrainian industry cannot survive without the Russian market. One can mix all shades of Orange, Tangerine, Campari or Tequila Sunrise revolution, and throw in the requisite IMF "structural adjustment" correction -- these facts are not going to change. And forget about the EU "buying Ukrainian."
Iran Bazaar, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 18, 2018
The other art of the deal, Tehran-style Every time I'm back in Tehran I'm impressed with the open avenues for serious intellectual discussion. Once again Tehran proved to be unrivaled all across Asia as a theater to debate all crosscurrents involving post or counter-Enlightenment, or both.
From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 6, 2014
Spring fails in Ukrainian plunderland It has always been about the Empire of Bases -- just like the encirclement of Iran; just like the "pivot" to Asia translating into encirclement of China; just like encircling Russia with bases and "missile defense." Over the Kremlin's collective dead body, of course.
High voltage: Putin & Obama address UN, From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 1, 2015
Are you ready for the two-headed coalition? Even while getting no satisfaction on stage Obama was forced to practice realpolitik; Washington is "prepared to work with any nation -- including Russia and Iran" -- on Syria. One wonders how prepared it is to work with the House of Saud/"Sultan Erdogan" regime change freaks.
Espen Egil Hansen is editor of Aftenposten, Norway's largest newspaper., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Playing Algorithm'n Blues Facebook actually determines, according to its own interests, what everyone sees -- and learns -- in the social network. No less than two-thirds of American adults have a Facebook profile. Nearly half, according to a Pew Research Center report, rely on Facebook for at least some of their news.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Birth Of The "De-Americanized" World Beijing has listened to Dylan (with Mandarin subtitles?) and concluded yes, the times they-are-a-changing. With no foreseeable social, economic and political progress -- the shutdown is just another graphic illustration, if any was needed -- the US slide is as inexorable as China, bit by bit, spreading its wings to master 21st century post-modernity.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 1, 2013
Why Vladimir rules and Obama bombs Nobody can stand US exceptionalism anymore. Yet another example; the duly spied-upon UN General Assembly has voted -- overwhelmingly -- to condemn the US commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba for the 22nd year in a row. The vote was 188-2, with three abstentions. Only the US and Israel voted against it.
From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Crime (Israel) and Punishment (Russia) Let's follow the facts. Washington from the get-go said it was Putin's missile that downed MH17. They swore they had evidence. Like in "We know. Trust us." The historical record for the past 60 years at least shows they cannot be trusted. There was never any evidence. Just spin.
Brazil's Dilma Rousseff defends her record in marathon impeachment trial, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, a woman of honor, confronts Senate of scoundrels Rousseff is on the way to be stripped from the presidency of the world's 8th largest economy by a bunch of scoundrel-cum-coward politicos. Her impeachment means in practice that democratic voting in one of the world's largest democracies will be cancelled by a parliamentary coup remote-controlled by oligarchic interests. This is not, and never was, about justice; it's about dirty, nasty politics.
Dragon bridge, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 7, 2019
The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon The eagle has conveniently forgotten that the original, Ancient Silk Road linked the dragon with the Roman empire for centuries -- with no interlopers outside of Eurasia, muses Pepe Escobar.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Bomb Iran Fever Cutting through the fog enveloping the 33-year-long wall of mistrust between Washington and Tehran, we need regime change, we need a Persian satrapy like we had before, we need all that oil and gas in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea for the West, and not for the East, we need to control this vital strategic node in Eurasia. For this fever, there seems to be no cure.
Donbas october 2017, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 22, 2022
The Birth of the Baby Twins - Russia's Strategic Swing Drives NATOstan Nuts "You don't believe in the principle of indivisible security? Fine. Now we dictate the security rhythm".
TAPI gas pipeline, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Afghanistan ready to play connector role in Eurasian integration The key piece of the puzzle is public recognition that Afghanistan, slowly but surely, may now be positioning itself -- finally -- as a connector between Central Asia and South Asia. The next piece will come from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) -- with Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Iran making sure the war in Afghanistan is over for good.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's maiden visit to China aimed at CPEC talks, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Pakistan in the middle of Saudi, Iran and rival pipeline plans The Iran-Pakistan pipeline could finally be sorted out, much to the benefit of energy-starved Pakistan. The Iranian stretch was finished long ago while the Pakistani sector has been derailed by relentless pressure from Washington.
Trump and Clinton, From Images
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 18, 2016
Could Trump Pull Off a Post-Party Coalition? There's no evidence Trump's ambitious -- and contentious -- agenda can be sold to movers and shakers from JP Morgan to the Koch brothers. Trump creating a cross-party, trans-party or even post-party movement will only succeed if substantial players in the Power Elite are behind it, and there are no signs of this happening.
John Kerry, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 29, 2015
Iran nuclear deadline: Showdown in Vienna Iran will increase production from 800 million to 1.2 billion cubic meters a day up to 2020. But for that to happen, it needs at least $100 billion in investment from European energy majors. It's all there, tantalizingly, on the horizon, a Chinese-style "win-win" for both Iran and Europe. But first, the showdown in Vienna.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 31, 2015
China's 2020 vision A five-year plan may be seen as a relic from China's Soviet-style economy. The first five-year plan was indeed penned in 1953, a straight copy from the USSR. Yet CCP conservatives insist strong state control is a must, given notorious Western market disasters such as the 2008 sub-prime mortgage-induced financial crisis. The CCP is terrified of unemployment and social instability.
Dilma Rousseff, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 13, 2016
Dilma out: Brazilian plutocracy sets 54mn votes on fire Rousseff may be accused of serious economic mismanagement, and of being incapable of political articulation among the shark pool that is Brazilian politics. But she is not corrupt. She made a serious mistake in fighting inflation, allowing interest rates to rise to an unsustainable level; so demand in Brazil dramatically dropped, and recession became the norm. She is the (convenient) scapegoat for Brazil's recession.
BRICS leaders in Brazil, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 18, 2014
G20 in Australia: Buffoons v the Global South Countries representing over 85 percent of the world economy get together to (in theory) discuss some really heavy economic/financial issues, and virtually the only thing pitiful Western corporate media blabbers about is Russian President Vladimir Putin cutting an "isolated figure."
SilkRoadPeoples, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 19, 2014
Do the Trans-Siberian shuffle Both Russia and China are seen as pariahs by the unipolar, imperial elite. It's as if we were still frozen in those early1990s days. Russia and China may have changed almost beyond recognition -- but for the Empire of Chaos the priorities are to tear Russia apart, starting with Ukraine, and "pivot to Asia" via an anti-China military/economic axis in the Western Pacific.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 2, 2015
Crossing the Bridge From Eurasia to NATOstan Turk Stream has graphically demonstrated how Turkey is well on its way to become the ultimate crossroads between Eurasia and NATOstan -- on its own terms. And the City of Cities is bound to remain -- what else -- the jewel in the neo-Ottoman crown.
From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 6, 2013
Dogs of war versus the emerging caravan While the Xi and Putin caravan reenacts the spirit of the Silk Road, the dogs of war keep barking; and informed public opinion everywhere starts to consider the possibility that Obama, by not assuming full responsibility for what he said, and blaming "the world," may also be a coward. So, the dogs of war bark and the emerging-powers caravan ... keeps on trucking.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 28, 2016
Silk Dragon Takes Persian Road There is no fulfillment of the New Silk Road vision without a comprehensive Iran-China strategic partnership. Xi and the Beijing leadership not only solidified it; in a sweeping move, they sort of upgraded what some Iranian analysts define as Khamenei's defensive realism theory of international relations to a de facto protection ring of China's geostrategic interests.
shanghai night, From ImagesAttr
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 20, 2015
China pivots everywhere There's plenty to be excited about as the Year of the Sheep (or Goat) starts. What's certain is that the Chinese caravan, much in contrast with the dogs of war -- and austerity -- pivoting across the West, has already pivoted towards "win-win" pan-Eurasia integration.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Energy ballet: Iran, Russia and "Pipelineistan" It's a tragicomedy, really. Washington plays The Great Pretender, faking it full-time that Israel is not a nuclear-armed power while trying to convince the whole planet Israel is entitled to amass as many weapons as it wants while Iran is not allowed to even have conventional means to defend itself.
Smoke billowing from buildings following an Israeli air strike as a projectile falls in the background in Gaza City., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 14, 2014
Blood for gas: Why Bibi is punishing Gaza here's the "secret" of Operation Protect the Zionists, sorry, Protective Edge: without smashing Hamas, which controls Gaza, Israel cannot drill off the Gaza coast. For Bibi as well as the Knesset, the possibility that the Palestinians could have access to their own gas-generated wealth is an absolute red line. Israel lords over all Palestinian natural resources -- land, water and energy.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 3, 2015
Reshuffling Eurasia's energy deck -- Iran, China and Pipelineistan China is as much interested in buying more gas from Turkmenistan -- the Pipelineistan way -- as from Iran. Pipelineistan fits right into China's privileged "escape from Malacca" strategy; to buy a maximum of energy as far away from the U.S. Navy as possible.
A THAAD missile system intercepts ballistic missiles during a test near the US in Sept 2013., From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Sexy metal: the missing element in the Korean puzzle Since key discussions at the Far East Summit in Vladivostok in September 2017, the roadmap is set for South Korea, China and Russia to attach the DPRK to Eurasia integration, developing its agriculture, hydropower and -- crucially -- mineral wealth.
Jair Bolsonaro, From WikimediaPhotos
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 29, 2018
Welcome to the Jungle A troubling new era has begun in Brazil with the election on Sunday of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro as president, writes Pepe Escobar.
The Outlook For Brazil in 2016, From YouTubeVideos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Brazil's revolution starting to reveal its true colors Call it white coup. Call it regime change. Call it the Brazilian color revolution. Without NATO. Without "humanitarian" imperialism. Without blood and zillions of US dollars lost, like in Iraq, Libya or Syria. So "clean." So "lawful." How come Empire of Chaos's theoreticians never thought about this before? And forget about reading any of this on Western corporate media.
A still photo from a video that the IS claims is for their leader Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 11, 2014
Watch this caliph rip Now that he's announced himself as the new Osama, The Caliph had better watch his back. Most probably he's a one-trick camel. He might realize he's got a better shot at stardom by branding himself as the second coming of Michael Jackson and start doing the Moonwalk (the jihadi remix). What he will certain realize is that Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Arab Army is the only game in town on the Syrian side.
China seeking to gain control of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 30, 2015
Patrolling the hood from (China) sea to shining sea As the Pentagon huffs and puffs, Beijing releases its no-nonsense military doctrine; the Russians and Chinese finesse their strategic partnership; and they get their act together for the crucial, upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Urfa this summer.
Macron Upstaged! Focus of World NOT on WWI Ceremony, But on Trump and Putin Meeting, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Decoding the hyper-sonic Putin on a day of remembrance Assuming the dialogue continues at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of November, Putin might be able to impress on Trump that just as Serbia catalyzed a chain of events that led great powers to sleepwalk into World War I, the same could happen with Iran leading to the terrifying prospect of World War III.
Free Julian Assange, now!, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 19, 2020
Empire's mask slips at Julian Assange trial Julian Assange is being condemned for revealing imperial war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US soldiers stand guard near the site of a suicide attack in Maidan Shar, the capital city of Wardak province south of Kabul on September 8, 2013. , From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 15, 2014
Afghanistan: The USSR left, the US wants to stay Throughout 2014, expect Iran, Russia, China and India to weigh heavily toward an Afghan solution without the Americans. Yet the "residual force" will remain the Pentagon's wet dream. If they can't have Full Spectrum Dominance, even partial spectrum will do. That certainly beats crossing the Amu Darya back to Uzbekistan with a Saigon taste in their mouths.
USA vs China: The new cold war on the horizon, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 27, 2020
Everything going according to plan in China The contours of China's long-term strategy for the new Cold War are quickly coming into view.
New .Silk Road. Rail Route between Asia & Europe, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 14, 2018
How the New Silk Roads are merging into Greater Eurasia The concept of Greater Eurasia has been discussed at the highest levels of Russian academia and policy-making for some time. This week the policy was presented at the Council of Ministers and looks set to be enshrined, without fanfare, as the main guideline of Russian foreign policy for the foreseeable future.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 13, 2016
It takes a Greek to save Europa Varoufakis could not but be attracted to a remix of the Minotaur metaphor; a periodic one-sided tribute -- in US dollars -- from the whole planet enabling the hegemonic "Exceptionalists" to project power across the seas. This Minotaur is now dying, the world is still encumbered with its rotting carcass, and no one knows what beast is to rise next.
Xi and Trump at G20., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 4, 2018
On The Road to a Post-G20 World The ascendence of China and multilateral trading blocks could eventually spell the doom of the G20 and U.S. global dominance, as Pepe Escobar explains.
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), From YouTubeVideos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 23, 2016
Non-Aligned to... Nowhere? It will be a long and winding road. NAM may not have much except a Jakarta-based Center for South-South Technical Cooperation, and a number of joint committees with the Group of 77 developing nations. But they do hold the moral high ground in the fight for a more equal, balanced and decent world.
Biohazard Warning Label, From FlickrPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 15, 2022
Empire of Bioweapon Lies - Strategic Culture An ongoing U.S. bioweapons program in Ukraine was one of the Top Three reasons that led to the launch of Operation Z,
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 15, 2012
Brother Obama, Where Art Thou? What is Obama to do? The cosmically mediocre Mitt Romney accused him of being weak in the face of "terra-rists", but Romney is a foreign-policy pigmy, whose neocon-instilled agenda boils down to treating both Russia and China as enemies and bombing Iran. The Republican Party simply has no clue of what's going on in MENA.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 11, 2015
The Iran nuke stalemate in one tweet Every analyst not blinded by ideology knows that Iran's nuclear program was never the problem for Washington. Only neo-con nut jobs believe in their own fantasy that Iran's nuclear enrichment at 5% for its nuclear program masks a 95+% nuclear weapons program.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 23, 2019
Why Nazarbayev's Legacy Will Remain Intact At first, it sounded like a geopolitical bombshell: Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 78, in power since 1991, dramatically announced his resignation. The whole drama in fact walks and talks like a Central Asian remix of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's notorious motto in the film The Leopard: "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 20, 2016
A dose of Dadaism to call the Sultan/Saudi bluff In a flash, we might even glimpse the possibility of the big powers, Russia and the US, reaching an ersatz of symbiosis in Syria, which may eventually translate into that "peace process" Kerry and Lavrov are so fond of. Who wants WWIII if not the mentally disabled?
Installation of natural gas pipelines, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 4, 2022
'Rublegas' - The World's New Resource-Based Reserve Currency This gas-for-rubles mechanism - call it Rublegas - is just the first concrete building block in the construction of an alternative financial/monetary system in tandem with many other mechanisms.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 25, 2012
What is Iran's Supreme Leader's game? Saudi Arabia has been tethered to the United States since its foundation as a modern state in the 1930s. The "Catholic marriage", as the relationship was described in its heyday, has broken, replaced in the view of the exasperated Saudis as an "Islamic marriage" that increasing elevates China and will likely define the power dynamic in the Middle East over the next decade.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 13, 2013
See You On The Dark Side Former NSA and DNI director Mike McConnell now happens to be vice chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton -- Snowden's employer up to this week. Talk about revolving door; from the NSA to Booz Allen to DNI and back to Booz Allen. Only this year McConnell has already raked in US$1.8 million by selling Booz Allen shares and options.[3] Clapper, the current DNI, is a former Booz Allen executive.
Airstrikes hit Kobani, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Turks, Kurds, Americans: the Kobani riddle Washington for its part is manipulating Kobani to completely legitimize its crusade against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh (we should always remember how the whole thing started with a barrage of spin about the bogus, ghostly Khorasan group preparing a new 9/11).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 29, 2022
The Eurasian Economic Union Steps Up The Eurasian Economic Forum has shown once again that this high-speed - economic integration - train has already left the station.
Barn owls, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 13, 2022
Sun Tzu Walks Into A Kherson Bar... The announcement of the Kherson Retreat may have signaled one of the gloomiest days of the Russian Federation since 1991.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Nuke deal inches ahead as US-Iran play information war What if there's no deal? Zarif said, on the record, it won't be the end of the world. That's because Iran -- and Iranians -- worked steadily on building a "resistance economy." The U.S. knows that sanctions did not affect Iran. So we're back to the media centrifuges madly spinning.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 10, 2012
There will be hell to pay for NATO's Holy War US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is running out of rhetorical ammunition in the US's Holy War against Syria. Perhaps it's the strain of launching a NATO war bypassing the UN Security Council. Perhaps it's the strain of being eaten for breakfast routinely by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 19, 2012
USS Romney goes Titanic USS Romney's plutocratic base will always believe that he was "on message" -- no matter what happens; they despise most Americans anyway. But when one examines a smattering of US polls, the inevitable conclusion is that only 30% or so of voters believe in the interwoven right-wing myths concerning Obama's unelectability.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 6, 2013
El comandante has left the building El Comandante may have left the building -- his body defeated by cancer -- but the post-mortem demonization will go on forever. One key reason stands out. Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world.in Venezuela El Comandante came up with the subversive idea of using oil wealth to at least alleviate the problems of most of his people.
Prince Saud Al Faisal, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 17, 2014
The new US-Russia Cold War Meet the new (cold) war, same as the old (cold) war. Same same, but different. One day, it's the myriad implications of Washington's "pivoting" to Asia -- as in the containment of China. The next day, it's the perennial attempt to box Russia in. Never a dull moment in the New Great Game in Eurasia.
Officers and soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army hold a flag and weapons during a training session for a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War Two, at a military base in Beijing, China, August 22, 2015., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 31, 2015
Dogs of Western resentment bark as Chinese WWII parade passes Once again, the West--displaying trademark cultural/historical insensitivity--has blown it. Beijing is carefully scrutinizing the diplomatic ramifications of shows and no-shows. Symbolically, absences speak volumes. President Vladimir Putin will be in Beijing, as well as leaders of the four Central Asian "stans" that are part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Ash Carter, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 9, 2015
The Pentagon's Empire of Whining After eight days traveling in Asia, Ash hit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California sounding like a stray ballistic whining missile. And he hit where it hurts: the Russia-China strategic partnership. How dare they? Don't you step on my blue Pentagon shoes. Gotta keep the global war on terror (GWOT) as much an endless war (remember Rumsfeld?) as possible.
Foreign Currency and Coins, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 20, 2023
Sergey Glazyev: "The Road To Financial Multipolarity Will Be Long & Rocky" Russia's top macroeconomics strategist criticizes Moscow's slow pace of financial reform and warns there will be no new global currency without Beijing...
Julian Assange and the future of WikiLeaks, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The Deep State vs. WikiLeaks If Julian Assange is ever to be extradited to the US, twothings for the moment are already crystal clear. The USG is obsessed to shut down WikiLeaks once and for all. And because of that, Julian Assange will never get a fair trial in the "so-called 'Espionage Court'" of the Eastern District of Virginia, as detailed by former CIA counter-terrorism officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou.
China's President Xi Jinping, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 11, 2018
China's silky charming of Arabia The eighth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), established in 2004, sailed on in Beijing, hosted by President Xi Jinping. China committed to invest right across the Arab world in transportation infrastructure, oil and gas, finance, digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 29, 2018
It's BRI against Indo-Pacific all over again China, Russia and India have clearly identified how Iran relinquished practically 90% of its nuclear program and in the end was "rewarded" by increased US sanctions. As for Iran's ballistic missile program -- which was never part of the JCPOA -- that's much less advanced compared to Russia, India or Pakistan.
Donald Trump speaking with journalists at the NATO summit in Brussels, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 16, 2018
Trump, NATO and "Russian aggression" The key factor remains that Trump's Brussels blitzkrieg did make his case. Russia cannot be a "threat" and a reliable energy partner at the same time. As much as NATO poodles may be terrified of "Russian aggression," the facts spell out they won't put their money where their rhetorical hysteria is.
Follow the money, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 27, 2021
Pepe Escobar: Afghanistan? Follow the Money With the fall of Kabul, Pepe Escobar says it's becoming clear that financial soft power tactics may be even more deadly than a NATO occupation.
The Iraq War -- Regime Change, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 27, 2014
Fear and loathing at Hotel Babylon "Don't Do Stupid sh*t," applied to Syria and Iraq, means that the Obama administration has gone (almost) no holds barred in its "Assad must go" policy, by the way a Ba'ath government; what's implied is that Washington is an ally of ISIS in Syria, while a (determined?) foe of ISIS in Iraq.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Saudi-Iranian spat: Another skirmish in the oil war The US government strategy has metastasized into trying to destroy the Russian economy before the oil price inevitably recovers. How this could have been pulled off so far is a testament, once again, to the irresistible force of Wall Street manipulators using cash settlement; they are able to create a crash where there is hardly any surplus oil at all.
Sad Obama, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 8, 2014
Lame-duck Obama's brave new world Since 2002, the Pentagon has been saying to anyone who has bothered to listen that Endless War is the only deal in town -- or the universe, for that matter. The lame duck might even fraternize about it with his Republican nemeses over the odd round of golf. What a wonderful (lame duck) world this would be.
Japanese P.M. Shinzo Abe (R) in parliament as it rejects a no-confidence resolution against his Cabinet., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 10, 2013
So many secrets in the East China Sea The whole drama is far from being just about a few islets and rocks that China calls Diaoyu and Japan Senkaku, or the crucial access to the precious waters that surround them, harboring untold riches in oil and natural gas; it concerns no less than the future of China as a sea power rivaling the US.
European flag on the Acropolis: The EU can not drop the country, From ImagesAttr
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 6, 2015
Troika Trojan horse: Will Syriza capitulate in Greece? There is no evidence as it stands that a complex negotiation of at least a few months will ensue, as Athens tries to restructure how to deal with the troika. The ECB is now tacitly playing the game that Greece is essentially doomed. Ergo, the ECB is voting down Syriza, and actually supporting fascist Golden Dawn. That's central bank "democracy" for you.
Joe Biden, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 14, 2022
This Is How the U.S. Does 'Dialogue' Washington will not consider Russian proposals on no expansion of NATO and has no intention of even discussing the idea. So much for "dialogue".
Raisi, Iran's new president, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Iran embraces its Eurasian future Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the eightth president of Iran this Thursday at the Majlis (Parliament), two days after being formally endorsed by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei.
Ukraine Crimea Rival rallies confront one another, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 7, 2014
C'mon baby, light my (Crimean) fire The Kremlin may always decide not to annex, and use the all but certain result of the referendum as a key pawn in a complex negotiation with, not the EU, but fundamentally Germany. The EU is a mess. The "government" in Kiev is a mess. What matters is what Vladimir Putin is discussing over the phone with Angela Merkel.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 27, 2014
Iran nuclear deal enters the danger zone Seven more months leave the negotiations exposed to open fire from the usual (radicalized) suspects, which in Washington are a formidable warmongering lot (Republicans en masse, most Democrats, neo-cons, the Israel and Saudi lobbies, and key sectors of the industrial-military complex).
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 19, 2013
"Our" weaponized Wahhabi bastards The House of Saud is livid facing the possibility of a negotiated solution for the Iran nuclear dossier -- immediately after the Russian-US deal on Syria's chemical weapons. Yet now the House of Saud has even managed to find a pulpit to voice its anger; Saudi Arabia has just won a two-year, rotating UN Security Council seat for the first time -- taking over from Pakistan as an Asia-Pacific representative.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The deadly Israeli and the mad Turk Tel Aviv may be inches away from turning the already declared economic war on Iran into a hot war. Take a look at this madness: The Bibi-Barak warmongering duo (Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak) may be about to go for broke on an Iran strike -- against the advice of Israel's top defense and intelligence experts.
1968 In France - A year of revolution, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 14, 2018
How May 1968 shaped our world Across the West, changing the system could spring up not from elite universities, but from young masses of immigrant sons and daughters left to rot in dystopian peripheries. What they need is political leadership and a roadmap -- as it's always possible to let the chaos raging inside oneself bloom and generate one, two, a million dancing stars.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Manning guilty; war criminals on the loose So who's helping the enemy? The US government destroyed Iraq and enabled al-Qaeda. The US government is enabling al-Qaeda in Syria. Manning may die behind bars. Meanwhile Dubya, Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie -- certifiable war criminals -- remain at large. If karma applies, the Angel of History may grant them a future in some realm of sub-zoology.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, From YouTubeVideos
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 13, 2019
You have the right to always remain silent Julian Assange is not a US citizen, he's an Australian. WikiLeaks is not a US-based media organization. If the US government gets Assange extradited, prosecuted and incarcerated, it will legitimize its right to go after anyone, anyhow, anywhere, anytime. Call it The Killing of Journalism.
Trump and Biden, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 24, 2020
Make America Jeffersonian Again The whole planet has every reason to be terminally puzzled at how all those lofty Enlightenment ideals Thomas Jefferson embedded in the 1776 Declaration of Independence ended up with...Trump vs. Biden.
Mighty, Brave, And Beautiful Kurdish Women, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 24, 2014
The Kobani riddle Washington for its part is manipulating Kobani to completely legitimize -- on a "humanitarian," R2P vein -- its crusade against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. It's never enough to remember this whole thing started with a barrage of Washington spin about the bogus, ghostly Khorasan group preparing a new 9-11. Khorasan, predictably, entirely vanished from the news cycle.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 16, 2012
US wants SWIFT war on Iran The vultures, jackals and hyenas of regime change/war can never be appeased in their sanction lust. The US is now forcing the EU to cut off Iran from Brussels-based SWIFT -- the independent telecom mechanism/clearinghouse used by every bank in the world to exchange financial data (its official name is Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications).
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Welcome to 'Democraship' Over 10 days ago a new brand of coup d'etat took place in Paraguay against elected president Fernando Lugo. It was virtually unnoticed by global corporate media. Lugo was evicted by a coup disguised as an impeachment, processed in only 24 hours. Regime change practitioners in Washington must have been ecstatic; if only we could do that in Syria ...
US President Barack Obama., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Obama 2013: How low can you go? So after so many lows and one certified high, this is the big question for 2014; will the 0.0001 percent, the Western financial Masters of the Universe, allow a sovereign, independent Iran in the same league of Russia and China, thus further solidifying Asian integration in the New Great Game in Eurasia?
The fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2016., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 31, 2016
China Is Already Living in 2020 China's anti-access/area denial strategy is a go. And Xi is right behind it -- now widely regarded even at the provincial level as the nucleus (hexin) of all these reforms. Talk about a lightning-fast consolidation of power. And talk about a lot to talk about when China hosts the next G20 summit, in Hangzhou, in September. The 13th Five-Year-Plan has been approved, but China is already thinking, and mentally living, in 2020.
The Crimean bridge. The Crimean Bridge was built to simplify Taman and Kerch Peninsula. It is an automobile and railway bridge., From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Drama in the Kerch Strait: teasing the Russian bear Kiev announced this past summer it would build a naval base in the Sea of Azov by the end of 2018. That's an absolute red line for Moscow. Kiev may have to trade access to Mariupol, which, incidentally, also trades closely with the People's Republic of Donetsk. But forget about military access.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Snowden: towards an endgame New revelations about the extent of the NSA-centric Orwellian Panopticon keep on coming, but they have been totally downgraded by US corporate media; it's all Egypt all the time. After all, the Pentagon -- to which the NSA is attached -- owns the Egyptian military, something that even the New York Times had to acknowledge.
The speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, broke with the government of President Dilma Rousseff, From YouTubeVideos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 30, 2016
The Whole World Is Watching Brazil's Hollow Men The alleged case against Rousseff totally collapses when one learns that in fiscal year 2015 -- the only one that could be taken into account in an impeachment drive -- the administration actually provided for a contingency fund of almost US$19 billion; that's more like foresight than playing with public finances.
Paris riots -- anti labor reform protest, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 27, 2016
France paralyzed by the "War of the Lefts" France is semi-paralyzed -- the cataclysmically unpopular, nominally "socialist" Hollande administration has introduced a draft law that drastically modifies the French labor code and essentially adopts Anglo-Saxon neoliberal "hire and fire" in a deeply regulated, regimented nation where workers' rights and protections are taken extremely seriously.
Vladimir Putin Brings Soccer Ball for Barron Trump As they faced the world's media, From YouTubeVideos
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 19, 2018
A walk on the wild side as Trump meets Putin at Finland station Trump treats the EU with undisguised disdain. He would love nothing better than for the EU to dissolve. His Arab "partners" can be easily controlled by fear. He has all but declared economic war on China and is on tariff overdrive -- even as the IMF warns that the global economy runs the risk of losing around $500 billion in the process.
The New Silk Road, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 15, 2014
China's silky road to glory Imagine the paralyzed terror of the Washington/Wall Street elites as they stare at Beijing interlinking Xi's "Asia-Pacific Dream" way beyond East Asia towards all-out, pan-Eurasia trade -- with the center being, what else, the Middle Kingdom; a near future Eurasia as a massive Chinese Silk Belt with, in selected latitudes, a sort of development condominium with Russia.
First Presidential Debate 2016 - Trump vs Hillary, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Mother Superior VS Ranting Schoolboy The temptation is irresistible to conceptualize the Clinton Machine's strategy going into the first US presidential debate; let Donald Trump metastasize into a pretzel. Mission not impossible; in fact, accomplished. While Secretary Clinton controlled the debate, Donald could not even control his temper; but this being The Donald, it did not prevent him from launching an out of left field self-elegy to his "temperament."
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Skyfall, starring David Petraeus It remains to be seen whether anyone in Washington will dare asking the pertinent questions. It remains to be seen whether Petraeus's relentless, hyper-counterproductive (not to mention collateral damage-laden) drone wars will be reevaluated. It remains to be seen whether Obama 2.0 will decide to practice diplomacy -- and not shadow war -- in the intersection between Central and South Asia.
The New Silk Road, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Go west, young Han The Maritime Silk Road will start in Guangdong province en route to the Malacca Strait, the Indian Ocean, the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, ending essentially in Venice, which would be poetic justice indeed. Think of it as Marco Polo in reverse.
Pakistan army soldiers., From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 22, 2014
China, Crimea and Pashtunistan There's no question Pashtuns on both sides of the border are paying immense attention to Crimea. A similar secession would result in their long-life dream -- Pashtunistan. Their problem is that they would have to be fighting two central governments at the same time -- Kabul and Islamabad.
Kurdish Led Sdf Launches Offensive On Syria's Raqqa, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 1, 2016
On the Road to Raqqa Assuming an -- unlikely -- scenario of Syrian Kurds managing somehow to conquer Raqqa, it's not hard to forecast the follow-up, whoever wins in November. Washington will make Raqqa its own satrapy and invest -- once again -- in Divide and Rule; creating a joint Kurd/Sunni Arab vassal state within Syria, along the Euphrates.
Protesters remove part of a barricade as they attempt to occupy the Government House on Sunday, December 1., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 5, 2013
Thai protests turn a darker color ome very interesting developments may lie ahead in the whole US "pivoting to Asia" drama. With Thailand polarized and the government in Bangkok paralyzed, Washington is paying more attention to the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, not to mention the spectacular strategic opening of Myanmar, just as the Yingluck administration was turbo-charging its ties with China.
Evening With Speaker Nancy Pelosi, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 5, 2022
How a Missile in Kabul Connects to a Speaker in Taipei The Speaker's escapade was concomitant to the definitive burial of the "war on terror" cycle and its metastasis into the "war on Eurasia" era. It may have unwittingly provided the last missing cog to turbo-charge the complex machinery of the Russia-China strategic partnership.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 20, 2015
Bangkok bombing -- beyond the usual suspects Thai investigators have concluded Chinese tourists were not the prime targets of the Bangkok Bomber -- even though they make up the largest demographic holidaying in Thailand. After all several other foreign tourists -- mostly Asians -- were at the Erawan shrine as the bomb went off, not to mention Thais.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 14, 2016
Does China hold key to the Afghan puzzle? The Taliban wants the UN -- not to mention the US -- to remove the Taliban from its "most wanted" list. They want all Taliban prisoners released from Afghan jails. Will that happen? Of course not. So now it's up to Beijing to come up with a win-win scenario.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 2, 2016
A Hellfire from Heaven won't Smash the Taliban The new Taliban supremo will now have a handy window of opportunity to consolidate power. By early 2017 there will be a new US president, a new Pakistani army chief but the same Afghan so-called National Unity Government still disunited. It will fall eventually to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) -- as in Russia-China joint leadership -- to solve the Taliban riddle.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 14, 2011
NATO dreams of civil war in Syria NATO in Syria is now actively diversifying into an Iraq-in-the-1990s strategy; to submit Syria to a prolonged state of siege before eventually going for the kill.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 26, 2012
Iran and Europe, "Till Death Do Us Part" Who's suffering with the sanctions? Not the suspected "regime change" target -- the Tehran leadership. Tehran is selling energy in every currency from yuan to Indian rupees, and is engaged in wholesale barter with its customers -- especially Asian. The bottom line is clear; the EU will have to scrap its absurd Iranian oil blockade to avoid badly hurting itself and also, by extension, the US economy.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 22, 2013
The Chimerica Dream The dream and nationalism are proving uncomfortable bedfellows abroad as well as at home. Beijing sees the US pivot as a not-so-veiled declaration of the coming of a new Cold War in the Asia-Pacific region, and a dangerous add-on to the Pentagon's Air-Sea Battle concept, a militarized approach to China's Pacific ambitions as the (presumed) next rising power on the planet.
US soldiers stand guard near the site of a suicide attack in Maidan Shar, the capital city of Wardak province south of Kabul on September 8, 2013. , From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 22, 2013
Digging in: Why US won't leave Afghanistan The occupation, for all practical purposes, will continue. This has nothing to do with the War on Terror or jihad. There's no Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The few remnants are in Waziristan, in Pakistani territory. The US is--and will remain--essentially at war with Afghan Pashtuns who are members of the Taliban. The Taliban will keep staging spring and summer offensives as long as there are foreign occupiers on Afghan soil.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 26, 2013
And The Oscar Goes To...The CIA Academy voters simply could not resist a plot loosely based in facts in which a patriotic and resourceful Hollywood saves the CIA. And with a certified Hollywood ending as a bonus. Thus, predictably, this was Hollywood awarding an Oscar to itself, to hyper-nationalism, to American heroes and of course to good (Americans) over evil (Iranians).
Vladimir Putin: .Belt and Road Forum. in Peking, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 29, 2019
The New Silk Roads reach the next level The Belt and Road Forum in Beijing was a graphic demonstration of how tactical adjustments are essential to enhance the appeal of a complex overall strategy. Talk about a turbo-charged 4.0 version of the legendary Deng Xiaoping maxim "crossing the river while feeling the stones."
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Al-Qaeda To The Rescue Instantly, we also have US and Western corporate media falling in love with the Terra Terra Terra meme all over again. And woe to those who think this has anything to do with Islamophobia. You thought that Terra was gone? No, Terra is omnipresent, omniscient, lurking everywhere. Terra Wants You. Trains and boats and planes -- you're nowhere safe.
Vienna talks continue, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Why there is still no Iran nuke deal in Vienna Although always careful to point out they were not pressed for time, a measure of frustration regarding the real intentions of their American counterparts started to seep in among Iranian diplomats; "If they cannot translate political intention into political decisions we will have to close down these negotiations."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 17, 2012
All (War) Roads Lead to Mecca Tehran has invited the "Custodian" for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit later this month. Let's see whether the House of Saud, the GCC and Iran are really interested in ending fitna way beyond a photo-op. There's still no evidence the "leaders" of 1.5 billion Muslims will EVER get their act together. Not even Allah himself would make them see the light.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 13, 2012
Mr Blowback rising in Benghazi So what now? Who're you gonna bomb? Who're you gonna drone to death? What about bombing Benghazi a year after condemning Gaddafi to death because he might have threatened to ... bomb Benghazi? This time Mr Blowback reared its ugly head in only a few months. And that's just the beginning.
Donald Trump met Kim Jong-un, what's next?, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 13, 2018
The key word in the Trump-Kim show South and North Korea agreed to actively seek the support and cooperation of the international community for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." That's the commitment. "International community," as everyone knows, is code for the US as The Great Decider. If Washington does not bring back its military from South Korea, there will be no denuclearization.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 16, 2014
A Caliph in a wilderness of mirrors Once again, it's Tehran to the rescue. The Foreign Ministry has duly announced Iran is ready to liberate Kobani from The Caliph's goons (and they can do it) if Bashar Al-Assad says the word. Now that's how you work the chessboard; NATO is left with zero excuses to mount an invasion of Syria, whatever Mob Boss Erdogan comes up with.
War and violence in Syria, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 18, 2014
Obama's "stupid stuff" turned upside down There are at least 1,600 US military already on the ground in Iraq. That's how Vietnam started. The CIA, supported by unmatched ground intel, swears there are exactly 31,785 jihadis fighting for The Caliph. Well, roughly. Two-thirds of these are supposed to be in Syria. So the new war, in fact, is all across "Syraq." Or what The Caliph calls IS, Islamic State, his own private emirate.
From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 23, 2012
Realpolitik blurs US red line on Syria This is a titanic battle between NATO-GCC and BRICS members Russia and China. At stake is nothing less than the rule of international law, which has been steadily going down the drain since at least Agent Orange being sprayed all over Vietnam, through Dubya's invasion of Iraq in 2003, and with the Libyan "humanitarian bombing" reaching an abysmal low.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 1, 2013
Bradley Manning lynched by the US government Assange is confined to an embassy, Snowden to an airport and Manning to a jail cell. But make no mistake; it's the Masters of the Universe who are afraid, very much afraid. Afraid of anyone with a conscience; afraid of you; afraid of the whole wide world.
Crimea: Warning shots fired to block monitors, amid claims of further Russian troop movements, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 14, 2014
Crimea and Western "Values" This is always about NATO encroaching on Ukraine and the regime changers trying some ruse to deprive Russia from its naval base in Sevastopol. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, is already on a charm offensive plugging "treaty obligations with our NATO allies," under the (false) premise that Moscow is about to invade Ukraine (which is not even part of NATO -- yet).
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Search and Destroy: The Rape Of Iraq what about lessons learned by the US out of one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in history? Nothing. Nada. We will have to wait for Nick Turse to come up, in a few years, with an Iraqi equivalent of his masterful book on Vietnam, Kill Anything That Moves. Iraq's catalog of horrors was the inevitable result of not only official Pentagon policy, but also official White House policy.
Beijing rolls out red carpet for Apec leaders, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 13, 2014
Lame duck out of the Silk Road caravan Russia and China may not be proposing an alternative system -- yet. Still, as the dogs of war, of hate, of inequality -- bark, the China-Russia caravan passes. The caravan is selling Eurasia economic integration -- not bombs. Real Asia-Pacific integration may still be a long dream away.
Notre Dame, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Bamiyan, Babylon, Palmyra, Notre-Dame Notre-Dame basically survives on donations which pay the salaries of only 70 employees who need not only to supervise the masses of tourists but also to organize eight masses a day. The French state's proposal to minimize the ordeal; organize a beneficent lottery. That is; privatize what is a state commitment and obligation.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Why France Is Playing "Stupid" On Iran John Kerry has famously stated the US "is not blind" or "stupid" in its push to clinch a historic deal over the Iranian nuclear program. So who is really blocking it? the axis of fear and loathing composed by the Likudniks in Israel, the House of Saud, and the Francois Hollande administration in France.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 8, 2012
Iran won't crack Every informed observer and participant knows this interminable geopolitical drama goes way beyond Iran's nuclear dossier. But a solution has to start somewhere -- and the "somewhere" is the recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium, and then the progressive easing of sanctions.
President Obama Says Don't Do Stupid Stuff., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Obama's "stupid stuff" legacy But then Obama launched a Cold War 2.0 that could easily turn hot. He destroyed the relationship with chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany and amplified the strategic embrace between the Bear and the Dragon, with the result that Beijing started paying less attention to the "pivoting to Asia" because now it enjoys even more backing from Moscow. Meanwhile, Moscow further stalls Washington's advances in Central Asia.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 27, 2012
A history of the world, BRIC by BRIC China, for instance, continues to informally advance the yuan as a globalizing, if not global, currency. It's already trading in yuan with Russia and Australia, not to mention across Latin America and in the Middle East. Increasingly, the BRICS are betting on the yuan as their monetary alternative to a devalued US dollar.
Paris tragedy, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 20, 2015
La Guerre en Rose The Paris carnage did change everything. At the G-20 in Antalya, during a by now iconic 35 minutes face-to-face with President Putin, President Obama finally seemed to have gotten the message; yes, there will be war. But the enemy is not "Russian aggression"; it's Daesh.
Iran nuclear talks enter new phase, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 11, 2014
What's the deal between Iran and the US? The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, has stressed that Iran "needs the stockpile." A possible solution in this case would be to ship the stockpile to Russia -- something that the Iranians are not opposed to, and the Russians had already proposed years ago.
The Best Documentary Ever - Historian Eric Hobsbawm, From InText
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 7, 2019
Eric Hobsbawm, the Joy of History and All That Jazz Hobsbawm's "Age of Extremes" turned him into a global superstar. But there are flaws. Essentially, the point of view is centered on Vienna, Berlin and London. There is no comprehensive analysis of the ascension of the American bourgeoisie, or the turbulence across East Asia. The book actually revolves around the history of the decline of a Western civilization that totally betrayed the 19th-century promise.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 19, 2013
Burn, Burn -- Africa's Afghanistan Anyone who thinks "bomb al-Qaeda" is all there is to Mali must be living in Oz. To start with, using hardcore Islamists to suffocate an indigenous independence movement comes straight from the historic CIA/Pentagon playbook. Moreover, Mali is crucial to AFRICOM and to the Pentagon's overall MENA (Middle East-Northern Africa) outlook.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani listens to WEF founder Klaus Schwab (not pictured) during a meeting at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2014 in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 25, 2014
Rouhani and the 1914 remix Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stressed that Iran has the potential to become one of the world's Top Ten economies before 2040. His strategy to achieve it is extremely sound. It starts with a definitive deal with the P5+1 - the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany - until the end of 2014; the lifting of all sanctions; and then a steady flow of investment by the West.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Return of the living (neo-con) dead The neo-con bunch -- the "conceptual" architects of the 9/11 wars, are Hobbesians gone mad -- wallowing in their psychotic sense of perennial entitlement -- will stop at nothing to prevent the emergence of a multipolar world. It's Exceptionalist Empire with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as global Robocop...or hell.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 5, 2013
G20 hijacked by scan/drone/bomb Obama Doctrine The Obama Doctrine has bombed not only the current G20 but in fact any possibility of a diplomatic solution for the Syrian tragedy. Now the "slap" is morphing into an iron glove, hijacked by the war lobby in Capitol Hill via the Orwellian rhetoric of "change the momentum in the battlefield" -- code for what this has always been about from the beginning: regime change.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 15, 2012
How sexy is Benghazi? The notion that the now disgraced General will come clean regarding the current CIA modus operandi is as fanciful as Paula Broadwell playing Snow White. Since Petraeus was appointed director of the CIA by Obama, the agency has morphed into a full-blown paramilitary killing machine. It's all about secret, shadowy black ops, unmonitored by the Executive, the Legislative, the Judiciary, the media--virtually out of control.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 28, 2016
Brazil, like Russia, under attack by Hybrid War Color revolutions would never be enough; Exceptionalistan is always on the lookout for major strategic upgrades capable of ensuring perpetual Empire of Chaos hegemony. The ideological matrix and the modus operandi of color revolutions by now are a matter of public domain. Not so much the concept of Unconventional War (UW). UW was spelled out by the 2010 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare manual.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 29, 2013
How the US is enabling Syriastan The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is ramping up car bombing and suicide bombing in Iraq itself -- because the "apostate" Shi'ite-led al-Maliki government is as much a target as the secular Bashar al-Assad. Now it's clear how "invisible" al-Zawahiri and wily Bandar Bush have appropriated Washington's "strategy" to really get what they want.
Joint CIA-Mossad Terrorist Attack in Beirut Aimed at Destabilizing Lebanon and Framing Assad The powerful terrorist bombing in Beirut's Christian quarter of Ashrafiyeh, which occurred yesterday (Oct 19, 2012) and which led to the death of 8 people an..., From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 20, 2013
The Wahhabi-Likudnik war of terror Whether carried out by a hazy al-Qaeda-linked brigade or by Saudi spy chief Bandar bin Sultan's (aka Bandar Bush's) goons, the Beirut terror attack is essentially configured as a major, Saudi-enabled provocation. The larger Saudi agenda in Syria implies getting both Hezbollah and Iran to be pinned down inside Lebanon as well. If that happens, Israel also wins.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Welcome to Saigonistan The 11-year-old Afghan war is now virtually invisible in the US, even during a drawdown of 33,000 US troops ordered by President Obama by the end of the month (still 68,000 will remain). A majority of Americans want the war over by... yesterday -- as in proclaim victory, cut our losses, and leave.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 9, 2012
The road map to the Afghan endgame Afghan president Hamid Karzai wanted the office to be either in Turkey or Saudi Arabia. The Obama administration applied some screws -- Karzai had to accept Qatar. So much for the "sovereignty" of the man informally known as the mayor of Kabul.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 20, 2013
Magic Carpet Ride Whenever we fall in love with a carpet we try to imagine its own road trip. Badkhen details it. From the loom room in Oqa, Thawra's carpet would be sold to a dealer in the larger village of Dawlatabad. The dealer will call one of the Carpet Row merchants in Mazar-e-Sharif, beside the Blue Mosque.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 10, 2012
American (jihadi) Idol Syria proves once again that the West loves defectors. Still, our Islamist defector is careful to cover all bases, adding, "the unspoken political calculation among policymakers is to get rid of Assad first -- weakening Iran's position in the region -- and then deal with al-Qaeda later."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 2, 2013
The Syria-Iran Red Line Show The current chemical weapons hysteria is a total fabrication by the CIA, MI6 and Israeli intelligence -- corroborated by zero evidence. Still, the prevailing Washington "wisdom" is that a "red line" must be enforced over Syria so a "red line" must be enforced on Iran.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 3, 2013
US: The indispensable (bombing) nation By now, any decent lawyer would be asking cui bono? What would be Assad's motive -- to cross the "red line" and launch a chemical weapons attack on the day UN inspectors arrive in Damascus, just 15 kilometers away from their hotel?
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Exceptional America Rules Forget about statecraft. Forget about diplomatic nuance. The Bushobama continuum rules supreme; Iran is nothing but a bunch of criminal mullahs -- and they will go down, one way or another. This is a Modern Republic in action. Make my day, punk.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 26, 2013
Al-Qaeda unleashed against Syria and Iraq with acceptance of the West With Syria as the new magnet of global jihad -- once again a direct consequence of a US power play, via Barack "Assad must go" Obama -- al-Qaeda is resurgent on both fronts. Washington has already destroyed the social fabric of Iraq. Now it's helping to destroy Syria's. If Abu Ghraib was the new normal in 2004, the jailbreak cannot but be the new new normal of 2013.
Xi Jinping, painted portrait, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 23, 2015
Will Chess, Not "Battleship," Be the Game of the Future in Eurasia? A case can be made -- and Xi's ready to make it -- that Washington, which, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to Syria, has gained something of a reputation for "strategic miscalculation" in the twenty-first century, might be doing it again. After all, U.S. military strategy documents and top Pentagon figures have quite publicly started to label China (like Russia) as an official "threat."
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Blood on the (Bain) tracks Mitt Romney the unaccountable corporate cyborg couldn't be a more graphic representation of the Masters of the Universe -- the key financial engineers of the destruction of the US economy and the American middle class, while the wealthy are lavishly sheltered from every storm. Welcome to the land of the un-free, home of the bravely unaccountable.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 11, 2013
The China-US "Brotherhood" The problem is Washington has absolutely nothing to offer the Taliban. The Taliban, on the other hand, will keep their summer offensive schedule, knowing full well they will be free to do whatever they please after President Hamid Karzai slides into oblivion.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 17, 2013
Catfight -- and it's US vs EU All bets are off on the winner of this monstrous catfight. EU member-states may vote against their own interests; but another thing entirely would be an overwhelming eruption of anger by already beleaguered European citizens. This new saga of Western turbo-capitalism has all the elements to be, well, quite revolutionary.
President Barack Obama speaks at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., on May 28, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 30, 2014
Brave old (exceptionalist) world Beijing gets a seat at privileged tables of the current unipolar, exceptionalist order. Yet it aims, self-confidently, not to simply indulge in the banquet, but to undermine it, little by little, from within. The exceptionalist crowd is clever enough to acknowledge the evolving Russia-China alliance and the push towards an alternative order are slowly dissolving its brave old world dream. No wonder they're so scared.
Syrian War Plane Crashes Near Islamic State-held City, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The coalition show, from Afghanistan to "Syraq" Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made it clear that any strategy that undermines the Syrian government "will be a recipe for defeat." And Russia's ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin demolished US President Barack Obama's strategy to train and weaponize Washington's mythical "moderate" Syrian rebels. The Pentagon commanding the Pentagon. What could possibly go wrong?
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 24, 2013
A crash course in Somalization, from Syria to Kenya Whenever jihadi blowback happens, that's perfect to ramp up Western hysteria -- and demonization of Muslims in general. Moreover, the Westgate mall attack will be the perfect pretext to ramp up US and UK "efforts" inside Somalia. Shady "foreign assistance teams" from the US, UK and Israel, after all, are already in place and crucially deploying from bases in Kenya.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 20, 2012
The US-GCC Fatal Attraction For Russia, regime change in Iran is a no-no. Russia's deputy prime minister and former envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has already stated, unequivocally, "Iran is our close neighbor, just south of the Caucasus. Should anything happen to Iran, should Iran get drawn into any political or military hardships, this will be a direct threat to our national security."
ISIL jihadists brutal, ambitious and well-funded, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Arab Spring, Jihad Summer Being such a courageous bunch, the House of Saud is now tempted to accept that imposing regime change on Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq is a bad idea. That puts them in direct conflict with the Obama administration, whose plan A, B and C is regime change. If anyone thinks this whole racket is part of a new live Monty Python sketch ahead of their reunion gig this month in London, that's because it is.
War and violence in Syria, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 31, 2014
The Caliph fit to join OPEC As for the Empire of Chaos "solution" to intercept The Caliph's oil profits, the only decision so far has been to bomb oil pipelines that belong to the Syrian Arab Republic; that is, ultimately, the Syrian people. Never underestimate the capacity of US President Barack Obama's "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" foreign policy doctrine to soar towards unreachable stupidity heights.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall! Israel and the House of Saud -- are extremely influential in Washington. And they know full well how American exceptionalism is obsessed with "credibility." So they won't stop inflating the"credibility" balloon. The question is whether, with his "credibility" in tatters after the "red line" fiasco, a zig-zagging Obama will muster the diplomatic courage to really start tearing down the Wall of Mistrust.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 22, 2013
War On Terror Forever The Oscar for Best Hypocritical Scenario certainly goes to the current French-Anglo-American concern about Mali being the new al-Qaeda playground, when the major playgrounds are actually NATO-supported northern Syria (as far as the Turkish border), north Lebanon and most parts of Libya.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Time is tight to produce a worthy US dream Tax rates for the 1/10th of the 1% are lower than ever; so let's party like it's...2007. At least in California, the overwhelming majority -- following Hollywood's dictate -- votes Obama. we wait -- not for death, which is a certainty, but for Obama and Mitt to show us at least the glimpse of a worthy vision, a palpable dream. Forget it; a Hollywood lie is all we're gonna get.
China President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying jeou, From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 13, 2015
Asia fast forward, Pentagon back to the future The relentless droning in US corporate media which for the moment totally ignores every "4+1" success on the ground; dismisses them as irrelevant; or bets on their absolute failure. So the outcome of the extremely high-stakes game in Syria is of unprecedented strategic importance for the Global South.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The fast and furious Sunni revenge The unruly waves of that noxious Arab Spring never had a chance of disturbing the placid waters of the Gulf. The arrival of the Fast White Man Formula 1 circus -- a spectacular public relations operation -- proves that the GCC is as "normal" as an Arab prince swinging through Monte Carlo with a blonde babe in a Ferrari 458.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 12, 2012
Surrender now or we'll bomb you later US corporate media has already pre-empted the negotiations with the usual rhetorical missiles -- to the delight of armchair warmongers in the US Congress and vast sectors of the industrial-military complex. The "Bomb Iran" crowd will do everything in its power to merge Obama's "last chance" into the deafening drums of war.
Families fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul wait at a checkpoint in outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, June 10, 2014, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Why Israel is in love with Kurdistan What Big Oil in the US -- and also Israel -- sees, most of all, is the mirage of a Western-friendly major oil exporter in the long run. That's why Balkanization sounds so juicy. This has nothing to do with the welfare of the historically wronged Kurdish people. It's hardcore business. And yet another Divide and Rule power play. Expect plenty of hardcore moves ahead.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Obama set for holy Tomahawk war The Obama administration has ruled that Assad allowed UN chemical weapons inspectors into Syria, and to celebrate their arrival unleashed a chemical weapons attack mostly against women and children only 15 kilometers away from the inspectors' hotel. If you don't believe it, you subscribe to a conspiracy theory.
Tony Blair, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Tony Blair, Phantom of the Opera The fact that the Phantom (Tony Blair) keeps getting away with his vast desert of convoluted lies -- instead of languishing in some rotten, extraordinary rendition hotel -- spells out all we need to know about so-called Western "elites," of which he's been a faithful, and handsomely rewarded, servant.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 6, 2013
Hezbollah Don't Take No Mess Even the Washington establishment admits all options are noxious. To top it off, Turkey has been plunged into the Taksim/Occupy Gezi/Down with the Dictator maelstrom -- and the last thing an embattled Erdogan will be thinking about is to further empower a bunch of "rebel" losers.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (R) makes a speach during the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, on July 15, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 18, 2014
Listen to the sound of the Global South The choice presented to the Global South is very simple, really. Pick your model; one is characterized by integration, cooperation, mutual respect. The other orders you to bow to His Master's Voice; if you disobey, the model sanctions you to death, targets your energy industry, your access to financial markets, your well-being and, pushed to the limit, bombs you back to medieval times.
A street busker throws a soccer ball in the air outside the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the 2014 World Cup, June 6, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 9, 2014
Brazil countdown: Get me to the World Cup on time! Brazil is like a soft Empire of Chaos -- without the Empire's heavy weapons. Moreover, historically, memory is in short shrift in Brazil. As long as they reach the World Cup final and win (preferably against Messi & Co.), all will be forgiven. Otherwise, the world should fasten its seat belts, because all (tropical) hell will break loose.
US-EU Free Trade Agreement, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Breaking bad in southern NATOstan The main emotion enveloping southern NATOstan, as I witnessed since the start of 2014 successively in Italy, Spain and France, is fear. Fear of The Other - as in the poor interloper, black or brown; fear of perennial unemployment; fear for the end of middle-class privileges until recently taken for granted; and fear of economic NATO - as virtually no average European trusts those hordes of Brussels bureaucrats.
Brazil, Argentina, Germany or Spain - who will win the World Cup?, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 12, 2014
The geopolitics of the World Cup This whole drama is not simply about "anti-neoliberal" or "anti-capitalist" stirrings. It goes way beyond nationalism. And it could be way more transcending than the textbook for a revolution using football as a pretext. Whatever the final result of this war revolving around a football, Brazil could yet teach a lesson to the whole Global South.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Got war if you want it Even in the -- unlikely -- possibility that the leadership in Tehran suddenly decided to stop all uranium enrichment, and kill the whole nuclear program on the spot, Iran would still be under US sanctions. The sanctions have practically nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program. It's all about regime change.
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 27, 2013
A post-history strip tease For Marx the end of history was a classless society. How romantic. Instead, in the second half of the 20th century, capitalism married Western liberal democracy till death do them part. Well, death is now upon them both. The Red Dragon, as in China, has joined the party and come up with a new toy; single-party neoliberalism.
John Kerry's comments in Israel Thursday raised concerns there., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 15, 2013
France Clueless On Iran Make no mistake. Kerry -- following President Barack Obama's brief -- badly wants a deal. But as this is a P5+1 affair, he simply cannot out the French as spoilers. Thus the subsequent tactic earlier this week of "blaming" Iran -- as in "they were not ready for a deal yet."
Machiavelli, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Reliving Machiavelli in Florence In that fateful day in May 1498, Machiavelli saw in Savonarola's burning how religious fundamentalism is incompatible with a successfully commercial and politically viable society (House of Saud princes never read The Prince). And then he displayed to us the wall of mistrust between ethics and the science of government -- as if drawing an abridged road map for the future global hegemony of Western civilization.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Syrian blood etches a new line in the sand For all its production values, NATO's jihad--in conjunction with al-Qaeda affiliates and copycats--still has not delivered regime change. UN Security Council sanctions won't be forthcoming, as Beijing and Moscow have already stressed three times. So Plan B's keep surfacing all the time. The latest is straight from the Iraq playbook; Damascus will attack civilians with chemical weapons. This lasted only for a few news cycles.
A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber from the United States Air Force, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 28, 2013
B-52s sing the "pivot to Asia" song When it comes to the Pentagon's Full Spectrum Dominance and its offshoot, the "pivot to Asia," there's no room for soft power and diplomacy, not to mention the alleged superpower's "responsibility." The B-52s splendid adventure is the equivalent of the NSA snooping on the mobile phones of political leaders around the world.
Former Brazilian president Lula da Silva, From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 16, 2016
"Prime Minister" Lula: The Brazilian game-changer Judge Moro, Car Wash's Elliot Ness, allied with the Globo media empire, will go no holds barred to prevent any possibility of a political agreement in Brasilia brokered by Lula. Because this would mean Lula not only as Prime Minister, but as President -- again -- in 2018. Total war starts now.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 10, 2012
The return of the Keyboard Warriors From Republican chicken hawks to public intellectuals, right-wing America is erupting in renewed neo-conservative revolt. The year 2012 is the new 2002; Iran is the new Iraq. Whatever the highway -- real men go to Tehran via Damascus, or real men go to Tehran non-stop -- they want a war, and they want it now.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 27, 2013
Zero Dark Mali In this Folies de Pigalle in the desert, Washington will be "leading from behind." Wise move; shadow wars bypass quagmires. It's the French -- with typical Gallic grandeur -- who will remain infatuated with the illusion of soon ruling the Mali desert. In fact they won't even rule algae in the Niger river, because this will be a protracted nomad war.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 11, 2012
Romney sings Da Doo War War For Mitt, "the route to more war -- and to potential attacks here are home" is...to wage endless war. None of this nonsense of a "politically timed retreat that abandons the Afghan people to the same extremists who ravaged their country and used it to launch the attacks of 9/11."
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 25, 2013
Will the House of Saud pivot to China? Aware that Saudi Arabia cannot export more of its heavy, high sulfur oil -- because few customers can refine it -- China is building a massive new refining/export complex. So, long-term, what we have is essentially a US-China confrontation (with Russia and Iran also weighing in) over the petrodollar.
drone, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Confessions Of An Angry Young Drone Dr. Puant may claim a world first; he managed to put a drone on the divan. No one would ever be aware of the contents of their sensitive conversation had the Central Intelligence Agency -- which had Dr Puant under surveillance -- not intervened. But then the file was conveniently leaked to Medialand as an effort by the embattled Nicolas Sarkozy campaign to discredit the heavily politicized drone. The tactic may yet backfire.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 6, 2012
The US-Iran economic war The regime in Tehran will keep selling oil, will keep enriching uranium and, most of all, won't fall. Like a Hellfire missile hitting a Pashtun wedding party, these Western sanctions will miserably fail. But not without collecting a lot of collateral damage -- in the West itself.
March 4, 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks about the conflict in Ukraine., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The new Great (Threat) Game in Eurasia As the Kremlin refuses to deal with this bunch and the upcoming March 16 referendum in Crimea is practically a done deal, Team "Yats" is fully legitimized, with honors, by Team Obama, leader included, in Washington. To quote Lenin, what is to be done? A close reading of President Putin's moves would suggest an answer: nothing. A close reading of President Putin's moves would suggest an answer: nothing.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 9, 2013
The (farcical) emperor is naked "Evil" as a political category is something worthy of the brain dead. The key question now revolves around the axis of warmongers -- Washington, Israel and the House of Saud. Will the Israel lobby, the more discreet but no less powerful Saudi lobby, and the Return of the Living Dead neo-cons convince the US Congress to fight their war?
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 4, 2012
Obama does Syriana The Obama administration's foreign policy makers must be on (lousy) crack. Just because they are engaged on an all-out war against not only Iran, but also Shi'ites all around, how could they possibly bet on a Somalization of Syria profiting Wahhabi intolerance? A grinning Grim Reaper awaits in the wings.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Politburo uber alles What the Gang of Eight is truly after is essentially a rich man's EU. Get ready because from now on, the euro won't unify Europe; it will spearhead its balkanization.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 25, 2012
Russia rules Pipelineistan BP--of Gulf of Mexico polluting fame--happens to be the major stockholder of Shah Deniz 2. Azerbaijan--mired in corruption--can be reasonably described as BP country. Even his close ally Washington knows Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is something of a Mafia boss. The Azeris, by the way, happen to be very popular in Washington courtesy of the Israeli lobby.
Iran elections, From YouTubeVideos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Why the Iranian elections were a huge success All seems to be on track for Iran to get all the foreign investment it needs; to reemerge as the top geopolitical power in Southwest Asia; to progressively advance on Eurasian integration, alongside Russia, China and Central Asia; and to fulfill what Iranians across the spectrum want: a better quality of life, and peace with their neighbors.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 30, 2012
China takes over Bryce Canyon That other storm approaching -- the fiscal cliffhanger -- when the Bush-era tax cuts will be gone by January 1, with the predictable follow-up of more Washington gridlock, another downgrade of US debt, panic on global stock markets, etc. There was hardly any signs of a "recovery" in Salt Lake, even with house prices now (relatively) stable and a few added jobs every month.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 6, 2012
Still in search of the American dream The bottom line -- despite all the soaring heights reached by Michelle and Bubba; Obama won't be the new Roosevelt. There won't be any New Deal -- among other reasons because Republicans have done the impossible to sabotage it. Michelle and Bubba, at least rhetorically, have relieved the American dream. But how equipped is Obama -- the man and the leader, not the myth -- to deliver the real deal?
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Meet the "Friends of Jihad" Who cares what the "Syrian people" might think? The Western "Friends of Syria" could not have found a more willing golden patsy to promote their usual, self-fulfilling Divide and Rule gambit -- the Sunni-Shi'ite divide. It's always handy to have dysfunctional GCC petro-monarchies posing as "liberators" so the West once again may conduct a proxy war "leading from behind."
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 12, 2012
A Hydra in Damascus Kofi Annan looks increasingly like Austin Powers these days, minus the purple suits; an international man of mystery shuttling between world capitals trying to prevent a vicious war. Dr Evil, of course, is played by Syria's Bashar al-Assad. Swingin', baby!
US fires Tomahawk missiles, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 25, 2014
Operation Tomahawk The Caliph The Pentagon calls it just the beginning of a "sustained campaign" -- code for Long War, which is one of the original denominations of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) anyway. And yes, for all practical purposes this is a coalition of one. Let's call it Operation Tomahawk The Caliph.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Meet a moderate Syrian insurgent Your President Mr Obama told the Blessed King of Saudi Arabia last Friday that he is committed to providing more support for us. Your Secretary of State Mr Kerry said on Saturday there must be more support for us "in order to have an impact on the ground." Your CIA said they will make sure only moderate insurgents get the weapons, and not the bad guys.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Syria and Turkey's phantom war As predictably as England being kicked out of Euro 2012, the usual European warmongering poodles of the William Hague kind have already stepped in, blaming Syria because Turkey violated Syrian airspace. Yet there's no evidence -- so far -- that Ankara warned the Syrian government and military they would be conducting some sort of reconnaissance very close to a by now very explosive border.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 18, 2011
The War is Pronounced Dead In the end, the Pentagon had to be dragged kicking and screaming to handing bases over to the Iraqi government. Across the country, the closing of precious outposts in the sprawling US Empire of Bases has been marked by a quiet closed-door meeting where American and Iraqi military officials signed documents that legally gave the Iraqis control of the bases, exchanged handshakes and barely disguised their mutual contempt.
Ukraine unrest while playing the waiting game., From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Ukraine: The waiting game Once again, there's concrete proof that the NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta does not want to negotiate anything. Farcical "acting" President Oleksandr Turchynov labeled the exercise in direct democracy a "farce, which terrorists call the referendum"; and Washington and Brussels branded it "illegal."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 23, 2012
For whom the Syrian bell tolls With NATOGCC on one side and Iran-Russia on the other side, ordinary Syrians caught in the crossfire have nowhere to go. NATOGCC will stop at nothing to carve -- in blood -- any dubious entity ranging from a pro-US emirate to a pro-US "democracy" run by the MB. It's not hard to see for whom the bell tolls in Syria; it tolls not for thee, as in John Donne, but for doom, gloom, death and destruction.
NATO false flags in Ukraine, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 5, 2014
Will NATO liberate Jihadistan? NATO liberating Jihadistan? The Pentagon couldn't care less. The Pentagon wants eternal GWOT. US Think Tankland is ecstatic at NATO finding a "renewed purpose" and its long-term survival now assured by a "unifying threat." Translation: Russia.
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 27, 2013
China: The Bo factor It's absolutely impossible to understand what's happening to Bo without following his complex family interactions with current Chinese President Xi Jinping, former president Hu Jintao and former premier Wen Jiabao. The specter of Bo will not go away. He did turn Chinese politics upside down, while revealing a lot about its extremely shady practices.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 2, 2011
The Shadow War in Syria When the Assad regime insists the current Syrian tragedy is to a great extent incited by well-paid and well-armed elements -- not to mention mercenaries -- at the service of foreign powers, it is essentially correct.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 17, 2013
Will China "De-Americanize" The World? Beijing's game, in a nutshell, is to bypass the US dollar by all means available. That's the idea behind setting up currency swaps with over 20 of its top trading partners -- from BRICS countries to African commodity producers and strategic energy partner Iran. China is slowly but surely driving the progressive global flight from the US dollar.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 26, 2013
We Are All Qataris now Everybody wants to go to Qatar. The population has doubled in six years -- now at 1.9 million and growing. Life expectancy is 78 years -- on a par with the US. It boasts the highest GDP per capita in the world, at over US$102,000 (2012 figure, and growing). There's no income tax. Democracy? No; the end of history 2.0. If only the whole planet was an immense Qatar.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 30, 2014
The Real State Of The Union Whether Obama played ball -- small or otherwise -- at the SOTU is irrelevant. Apart from flagrant absurdities on Iran, Syria and Israel-Palestine, and not a word on Russia and China, no wonder the climatic Hollywood tear-jerker sequence involved an Army Ranger almost killed by an improvized explosive device in Afghanistan. He was Obama's living metaphor of "Yes We Can," the 2014 remix.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 22, 2013
Zero Dark Oscar The beauty of it is that Hollywood, the way it works, does not even need the CIA -- or the Pentagon -- as sponsors. Hollywood does His Master's Voice by default. Argo may get Best Picture and Spielberg may get Best Director. But make no mistake; as the supreme representative of the post-modern military-industrial-security-Hollywood complex, nothing beats ZD30.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 24, 2013
US And Pakistan Locked In A "Drone Marriage" In a nutshell; Mr. Sharif goes to Washington to talk about no drones, less aid and more trade -- as in an open door especially for Pakistani textiles (it's not gonna happen). Obama only wants to talk about terrorism and a vague "stability" following the 2014 US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 20, 2013
And now, a message from our (Saudi) sponsors The New York Times struggled hard to give the impression that Washington had any sway in influencing glorious Sisi -- and the producers -- against launching the coup that is not a coup. That is eminently laughable. The only nugget in the report is that the House of Saud, the UAE and Israel frantically incited, supported and lobbied for the coup that is not a coup.
Welcome to New York frame from Abel Ferrara, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 22, 2014
Sex, lies and a bunch of lawyers What a raw nerve Abel Ferrara, of King of New York and Bad Lieutenant fame, has now been able to strike. An "outraged" Dominique Strauss-Kahn, aka DSK, is going to sue the producers of Welcome to New York, the movie inspired by the epic 2011 scandal that effectively terminated his career as head of the International Monetary Fund and possible future president of France.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 21, 2012
War and cheeseburgers A specter haunts Europe. No, it's not communism; it's US rating agencies. Greece is bankrupt; the eurozone is about to crack; JP Morgan makes billion-dollar "mistakes"; there's no (jobs) future for the new generations. And yet the weaponized arm of the Western 0.1% elites occupies Chicago -- turned into an Orwellian police city-state -- to discuss "smart defense."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 30, 2012
Morsi delivers his calling card All global South eyes are on Morsi. They way things are moving, it's not far-fetched to imagine the Muslim Brotherhood playing the Camp David card sooner or later. In that case, expect Washington to go ballistic -- and even time-travel to 1970s Latin America, as in promoting (yet another) military coup. The bottom line is the warmongering Bibi-Barak duo had better get real.
From Images
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 26, 2013
It's Inequality, Stupid Cameron, essentially, craves the social hell that engulfed Greece, Spain and Italy; social conquests and benefits sacrificed to satiate the God of the Market. There's no question this neoliberal European "union" needs to be hauled upside down to really start representing most of its citizens.
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Digital Blackwater Rules When it comes to how a 29-year old IT wizard with little formal education has been able to access a batch of ultra-sensitive secrets of the US intelligence-national security complex, that's a no-brainer; it's all about the gung-ho privatization of spying -- referred to by a mountain of euphemisms of the "contractor reliance" kind.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Art of War, With a Glass of Wine Bernard-Henri Levy - philosopher, nonpareil regime changer and Cannes red-carpet star - devotes his latest self-promoting opus to Syria, liberated Libya already being safely stashed in his trophy cabinet. The world may not have long to wait before he looks across the Arabian sands for his next Qatar-financed war target. Iran sounds nice for a start.
Worshippers burn incense and pray at the Wong Tai Sin Temple to welcome the Chinese New Year of the horse in Hong Kong on January 30, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 1, 2014
Hot to trot: China and the world in the Year of the Horse 2014 may be very tricky for US President Barack Obama -- born in the Year of the Ox in 1961. This implies hell between the Obama administration and Republicans; not only in terms of Obamacare, minimum wage and a new immigration policy, but also what is the key geopolitical story of 2014; the possibility of a definitive nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 -- a possible détente between Washington and Tehran.
Doc Brown, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 7, 2014
The NSA does the 1980s Some questions still remain unanswered; for instance, if our race does not fit anymore the society it built, who'd guarantee that its machines are properly engineered? It would be a long time, up to the Snowden revelations in 2013, for most of the planet to have a clearer idea of how the NSA orchestrates the Orwellian-Panopticon complex.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Netanyahu's UN speech: Sounds like a sociopath? The Israel lobby in Washington and the US Congress imposed a financial blockade on Iran, which for all practical purposes is a declaration of war. In his meeting with Obama this Monday, Netanyahu not only asked for more sanctions, he said Israel will unilaterally attack Iran if Rouhani's words are not followed by "action." Bibi won't accept even Iran's right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Rouhani surfs the new WAVE It all comes back to the same drama; will Obama and his team have enough balls to stare down the Israel lobby, the House of Saud, the neo-cons and assorted armchair warmongers across the Beltway? If not, the War Party victory will mirror the anti-Rouhani hardline victory in Tehran -- with devastating consequences. What the world needs now, is WAVE after WAVE after WAVE.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 11, 2011
Do the Bomb Iran Shuffle The enticing possibility of a successful attack on Iran as the ultimate creative destruction move, reshuffling all the cards from the Middle East to Central Asia. The ''arc of instability'' terminally destabilized.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 1, 2014
The Kerry-Lavrov Chess Match We should never forget the Big Picture; as with the NSA Orwellian-panopticon complex, this is most of all about the application of the Pentagon's Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine, which implies encirclement of Russia (via NATO), coupled with the pivot-style encirclement of China. And the overarching logic remains the same; this is The Empire of Chaos in action.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 18, 2012
Mitt the Binder Way beyond the meme cycle, the problem is actually Mitt's Binders Full of Baloney. How could any sentient US being believe in Mitt's "plan" for a New American Dream featuring less taxes, an even freer hand to the very wealthy and a currency and trade war against China starting on "day one"?
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 27, 2012
Hawk, dove, butterfly, bee What's that unheard-of political specimen spreading its wings over the geopolitical spectrum? It is aggressive as a hawk, compromising as a dove; it dances like a butterfly and stings like a bee. What kind of plumed composite is that? A hawdovebutterbee (HDBB)? Get used to it. The HDBB happens to be no other than the President of the United States (POTUS), Barack Obama. Yet the question is inevitable. Will it fly?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 27, 2011
How The West Won Libya Change the world can believe in will be the day NATO enforces a no-fly one over Saudi Arabia to protect the Shi'ites in the eastern province, with the Pentagon launching a Hellfire carpet over those thousands of medieval, corrupt House of Saud princes. It won't happen. Meanwhile, this is the way the West ends; with a NATO bang, and a thousand barbaric, lawless whimpers. Disgusted? Get a Guy Fawkes mask and raise hell.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 21, 2013
The Boston blowback Chechnya's strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, apart from displaying his trademark truculence on his favorite media platform, Instagram, has made a (crucial) point; "Any attempt to make a link between Chechnya and the Tsarnaevs, if they are guilty, is pointless. They grew up in the US, their views and beliefs were formed there. The roots of evil must be searched for in America."
From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 10, 2013
Syria: A Jihadi Paradise Russia drew the red line and NATO won't dare to bomb; Russians and Americans are now discussing details. Assad saw The Big Picture -- clearly, thus his "confident" speech. It's now Assad against the jihadis. Unless, or until, the new CIA under Terminator John Brennan drones itself into the (shadow war) picture with a vengeance.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Austerity Not a Greek Goal The notion that the Greek vote is a good step for Europe is as far-fetched as the notion of a military coup in Egypt right before a presidential election won by the Muslim Brotherhood opening a gradual transition towards democracy. Essentially, Germany wants a political union -- a federalization -- before discussing anything else, while France wants a progressive road map to be followed over the next 10 years.
Speaker of the House U.S. Rep. John Boehner (2ndL) leaves from the Capitol building with his security detail on February 11, 2014 in Washington, DC., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 13, 2014
American Hustle: The debt ceiling version This is essentially Angry Old Male territory. No wonder they're doomed. They know they're doomed. Yet they simply can't stop looking back in anger at everything. Still, with luck, the inevitable humongous funds, hardcore media manipulation and systematic peddling of lies, they have a chance of grabbing a Senate majority in the November mid-term elections.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 6, 2013
"Israel is Obama's fall-back plan for Syria" Those who think Israel carried out strikes against Syria without consulting the US should "go back to kindergarten." Obama's strategy of different tactics only has one aim -- which is not peace in Syria, Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar says.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 31, 2013
It's Still Inequality, Stupid Billionaire speculator George Soros was certainly the gloomiest. In a sweeping generalization, he predicted the world is entering a period of "evil." The US will face "riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Breaking American exceptionalism So call Breaking Bad, this warped western, a masterful depiction of American exceptionalism. And mirror it with the soft pull of a dying, lone superpower which is still capable of turning the whole planet into junkies, addicted to the cinematically sumptuous spectacle of its own demise.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 4, 2013
China: We don't do shutdowns The top cheerleader of the US pivoting is Japan -- and Japan is widely regarded, in different shades of gray all across Southeast Asia, as a US puppet. What is certain is that the Obama no-show only reinforces the predominant perception that current US foreign policy is an absolute mess. And that while the US does shutdowns, China does business.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Korea: B2 bombers offering a path to peace? The young Kim Jong-un, 30, is matchless in the boys with toys department; he can play with loads of missiles, the fourth largest army in the world at 1.1 million (75 percent of them stationed within 100km of the DMZ) and, to top it off, a whole country. But as much as the real military powers behind the throne, he is not suicidal.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 4, 2012
Exposed: The Arab agenda in Syria The report points to shady armed gangs as responsible for hundreds of deaths among Syrian civilians, and over 1,000 among the Syrian army, using lethal tactics such as bombing of civilian buses, bombing of trains carrying diesel oil, bombing of police buses and bombing of bridges and pipelines.
sarkozy, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 5, 2012
Off With King Sarko's Head The Economist -- that is, the financial interests of the City of London -- has been so sorry for King Sarko, who was trying to "save" not only France but also Europe. That's nonsense. Bye bye bling-bling guy -- and good riddance.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 23, 2013
Welcome to the Hotel Bo Xilai Bo's new digs will be at Qincheng prison, in the hills north of Beijing (no barbed wire, no watchtowers). Bao Tong, a former secretary to the Politburo Standing Committee who spent seven years in Qincheng because he was against the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen, has been having a ball telling Western media it's "like a five-star hotel."
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Shootout at the APEC free-trade corral While the verdict in this Shootout at the Free Trade Corral remains open, workaholic China proceeds. After its spectacular New Silk Road successes in Central Asia, Beijing has just proposed a -- what else is new -- Maritime Silk Road (MSR) in Southeast Asia, boosting trade between China and ASEAN.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 6, 2013
The South also rises The Global South's intellectual liberation from the North is finally on. And it's irreversible. There's no turning back to the old order. If this was a movie, it would be 1968 replayed all over again -- full time, all the time; let's be realists, and demand, and implement, the impossible.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 20, 2012
NATO Occupies Sweet Home Chicago So Chicago is just a test run -- an advanced stage, compared to Gaza or Sadr City in Baghdad, of what the RAND corporation used to call MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain). NATO after all has seen the future -- and is immersing itself body and soul in the "war of the drones."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 21, 2012
Suicide Bombers of the World, Unite What seems to be certain is that Assad's inner circle won't fold. On the contrary; it will respond with all guns -- and tanks -- blazing. It has already threatened to "confront all forms of terrorism and chop any hand that harms national security."
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 23, 2013
Real Liars Go To Tehran It's double tragedy, and double farce, all over again. Yet even Nepalis building glitzy towers in Dubai know that the ''Bomb Iran'' hysteria is Tel Aviv's tactic to change the subject from the relentless land confiscation/ethnic cleansing in slow motion in Palestine and consequently the de facto total impossibility of a two-state solution.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 10, 2013
The "Fall of the House of Europe" The "Fall of the House of Europe" might turn into a horror story beyond anything imagined by Poe -- displaying elements of fascism, neo-Dickensian worker exploitation and a wide-ranging social, civil war. In this context, the slow reconstruction of a socially based Europe may be no more than a pipe dream.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Israel Rescues Mujahid Obama after much huff and puff, Obama ended up with something way more comfortable than a no-fly zone: targeted strikes -- with jets and/or missiles, conducted by the Israelis. The blueprint could be Operation Desert Fox (the Bill Clinton-ordered bombing of Iraq in 1998.) The objective, to "send a clear message" to Syria. This is just the beginning. Mini-Shock and Awes await.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 16, 2012
The "Rocket Man" rocks in the DPRK As far as Jong-un style is concerned, what really matters is for the new installment of the Kim dynasty to mark its territory. With the successful launch of the "object," Young Kim keeps the immense North Korean military establishment smiling and the population proud -- irrespective of what happens in the South Korean elections next Wednesday. Better get used to Rocket Man. He may even become a YouTube sensation.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 8, 2012
Barry Obama rides again what next? In a perfect world, wishful thinking rules; Obama should give all he's got to build a US geared towards more tolerance, social justice and equality. That is far from given. As for the world at large, will Obama finally have the cojones to really address the Palestinian tragedy; carry a stick -- and not carrots. Well, Barry, now there's no excuse; get your cojones in gear.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Erdogan Risks The "Must Go" Path History keeps warning us it takes just a spark to light a political bonfire. The recent spark in Istanbul was provided by a small group of very young environmentalists organizing a peaceful sit-in, Occupy-style, in Taksim Square to protest the planned destruction of one of the city center's few remaining public green spaces, Gezi park.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Self-Beheading House of Saud As much as the House of Saud is completely paranoid regarding the Obama administration's latest moves, throwing a fit will not change the way the geopolitical winds are blowing. Iran's geopolitical ascent is inevitable. A Syrian solution is on the horizon. No one wants batshit crazy jihadis roaming free from Syria to Iraq to the wider Middle East.
A man is reflected in a stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo January 28, 2014., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Why Japan is dreaming of 1914 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a keynote speech to the Masters of the Universe crowd of billionaires, bankers, CEOs and politicos at Davos, went from his "Abenomics" mish-mash to basically demonizing China as the prime instigator of a new 1914. Abe said that the "world" -- as in the Masters of the Universe running the show -- must stand up to Beijing or, essentially, there will be blood.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 6, 2014
Taliban talks: What is Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai really up to? Omar and his mullahs may -- or may not -- hold the pleasure of playing Karzai like a violin. Still, any way they play, they can't lose. They know that as much as Karzai badly needs to buy some protection, Mob-style, he may also insert them -- in a totally legit way -- inside the Afghan political scene. What's not to like?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 9, 2012
World powers rush to plunge Syria into war The new 24-hour Arabic-language channel, Sky News Arabia, a joint venture between Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahayan, owner of the English football club Manchester City, and British broadcaster BSkyB, owned by phone-hacking enabler Rupert Murdoch, described the events in Syria as "a hopeful precedent towards regime change."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Europe at war with Iran We have a post-surrealist situation of Britain's Big Oil -- via BP -- imploring for the US to exempt it from sanctions, otherwise European energy security will be at risk. Britain also happens to be an implacable foe of Tehran's regime, but still relies on Iran to "save" Europe from the claws of Gazprom. You can't make this stuff up.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Islamic Emirate of Syriastan It's as if the brand new Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant cannot wait for Iraq to be back to that sinister, gruesome period between 2004 and 2008, when the body count could make Bruce Willis cringe. So what's a Pentagon in retreat to do? Shock and awe them all over again? Oh, no; this option is not for Iraq or the Islamic Emirate of Syriastan; it's only on the table for Iran.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C-front) applauding at a concert in Pyongyang as his uncle, Jang Song Thaek (front L), looks on, April 15, 2013., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 13, 2013
Little Kim does Pulp Fiction As for what happens next, Little Kim could even add a twist, like rattling the whole planet by launching a nuclear missile or setting up another nuclear test to foment "internal cohesion." North Koreans -- not to mention South Koreans, Japanese and Americans -- will certainly get the message; don't mess with him or he'll go medieval on your ass.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 5, 2012
Election kicks on Route 66 Obama has put on quite a show dangling the promise of immigration reform. Romney for his part never fooled anyone because Latinos know he's always been an immigration mullah. Still, a poll by Latino Decisions shows that Latinos all across the US support Obama by a whopping 73%, compared with Romney's 21%.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 29, 2013
Operation Tomahawk With Cheese The Pentagon could always go for Plan B. A single Tomahawk costs at least US$1.5 million. Multiply that for 384. That's not a great bang for your buck -- because even if they all go humanitarian, the Bashar al-Assad government would still remain in place.
From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 5, 2012
I love the sound of a drone in the morning The US -- as usual, as always -- denies everything regarding the missing ScanEagle, as in a spokesman for the US Naval Forces Central Command in that sublime paragon of democracy, Bahrain, stressing, "The US Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region."
gulf, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 11, 2012
Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards Just as the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty in power in Bahrain is vowing, publicly, to keep arresting, tear-gassing, raiding their homes, confiscating their jobs and forcing pro-democracy protesters to live in non-stop fear, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is being hosted in Washington by the Barack Obama administration.
Iran Nuclear Talks...Just Say No to Iran..., From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Iran's real "nuclear" revolution Today, 35 years after the Islamic revolution, what Iranians seek is the end of Western sanctions and the end of the West perennially treating the country as a bunch of religious "fanatics." If only the US establishment would finally get over it, and deal -- realistically -- with what happened in Tehran 35 years ago. Then these talks in Vienna will go somewhere, and we may have a final nuclear deal in 2014.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 27, 2013
News From Kyrzakhstan The international community was thrown into disarray after US Secretary of State John Kerry inadvertently outed the country of Kyrzakhstan. Analysts from the Arctic to Oceania, scrambling for answers, still have not been able to pinpoint the exact geographical location of the mysterious country.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Syria through a glass, darkly The usual, unnamed "government officials" have already leaked to CNN that the White House has asked the Pentagon to simulate game scenarios for a direct US military intervention in favor of the rebels. So a NATOGCC intervention bypassing the UN remains a solid possibility; a false-flag operation blamed on the Assad regime might be the perfect casus belli.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 18, 2013
How Bowiemania buries Thatcherism In 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher came to power, David Bowie foretold the zeitgeist she came to embody. Today, as the British muster pomp and circumstance to mark her departure, the old order that stole - and steals - the world still dominates. Inspired by Bowie, we can be heroes ...
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Do warmongers dream of playing chess? Considering Washington won't abandon its real agenda -- regime change -- Obama might eventually be represented with his full Emperor hand to "supervise" the chemical weapons handover and "punish" any infringement, real or otherwise, by Damascus, facilitated by the usual spies infiltrated into the inspectors mechanism. As in, "If you complain, we bomb."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Syria Peace Process: The Ten Year (Shock and Awe) Itch In early March the proverbial "US official" leaked that the CIA has been training "rebels" in Jordan since 2012. The notion that the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department are successfully "vetting" militias in Jordan and Turkey and only supporting "friendly" incarnations of "freedom fighters" is ludicrous.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 22, 2013
And the winner is -- Khamenei The post-Ahmadinejad incumbent will inherit an ultra-fragmented political landscape; a lot of people blaming the government's appalling management as well as international sanctions for their plight; and the same hardcore hostility displayed by the US, Israel and the Sunni axis. Hangin' on in quiet desperation seems to be the popular Iranian way.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 5, 2012
We Want War, and We Want it Now A full-fledged mercenary army paid for by autocrat Arabs to overthrow an Arab government is pure and simple regime change -- US rhetoric about "democracy" and "freedom" notwithstanding. It's all about classic, imperial divide and rule, profiting from pitting Sunnis against Shi'ites.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 4, 2012
The $5 Trillion Question This may be part of a long, give-him-enough-rope strategy. Concede a battle to win the war. One just has to wait and see when those independent, undecided middle-class voters in swing states -- especially Ohio and Florida -- do fact check Mitt's $5 trillion game and realize he's going to do what he swears he won't. By then he will have more than enough rope to conduct his own extinction.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 26, 2013
The entire globe is a battlefield for Pentagon The "Drone Wars" are Western terrorism inflicted on civilian populations from Yemen to Pakistan's tribal areas. The sanctions packages imposed for years on Iraq and later on Iran are slow-motion Western terrorism inflicted on civilian populations to "prepare" them for regime change.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 13, 2012
The Kim Dynasty's Satellite of Love Even if additional UN sanctions are applied over North Korea, those who will really suffer--just like in Iran--will be the bulk of the population, not the leadership. It has not escaped the attention of virtually the whole developing world that because of its nuclear status, no NATO or selective "international community" is threatening North Korea with military strikes, bunker buster bombs, or regime change.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (C) opens the so-called Geneva II peace talks next to UN-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi (L) on January 22, 2014 in Montreux., From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Syria and the Geneva 2 charade Geneva 2 won't "solve" anything. Iran and Russia will keep supporting Damascus. The desert wasteland from Syria to Iraq will keep being occupied by Bandar Bush-supported and Gulf-supported hardcore sectarian jihadis. The war will keep spreading deeper into Lebanon. The government in Damascus won't collapse. The refugee crisis will soar. And the West will keep striking a pose of being concerned with "terror."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 28, 2011
That Rocky Road to Damascus The trillion-dollar question in the "Arab Winter" is who will blink first in the West's screenplay of slouching towards Tehran via Damascus.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Hong Kong Wants To Ditch The Joker HONG KONG -- This is Asia's Gotham City. And the people of Gotham have had enough. They want real democracy, one person, one vote. As for the current CEO of Gotham, Leung Chun-ying, aka C Y Leung, aka The Joker, he is no more than, well, a joke.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 9, 2011
The Dead Drone sketch Amusing "take" on imagined coverage of questioning the CIA on the recently downed spy drone in Iran.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 13, 2013
China's market enigma It's hard to see the CCP allowing the caprices of the Goddess of the Market to shake, rattle and roll the Chinese economy at will. More "market," Western-style, will inevitably accentuate regional inequality to prohibitive levels -- exactly when the CCP is trying very hard to ramp up the development of the poorer interior provinces.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Pentagon-Arab Spring Love Story Anyone who hoped the Arab Spring might eventually take over the Persian Gulf and those lands once known as Arabia Felix has enough reason to drown in sadness. The Arab counter-revolution is stronger than ever -- led by the House of Saud and its monarchy minions at the Gulf Counter-revolution Club (GCC), officially known as Gulf Cooperation Council. And their most precious ally is the Pentagon.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 26, 2013
BRICS Go Over The Wall The huge political and economic differences among BRICS members are self-evident. But as they evolve as a group, the point is not whether they should be protecting the global economy from the now non-stop crisis of advanced casino capitalism. The point is that, beyond measures to facilitate mutual trade, their actions are indeed becoming increasingly political.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Illusory State Of The Empire Obama's legacy may be in the process of being forged. We might call it Shadow War Forever -- coupled with the noxious permanence of Guantanamo. The Pentagon for its part will never abandon its "full spectrum" dream of military hegemony, ideally controlling the future of the world in all those shades of grey zones between Russia and China, the lands of Islam and India, and Africa and Asia.
euro, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Will "Onshela" save Europe? The technocrats are finally freaking out because if Greece, for instance, nationalizes its banks, the Spanish and French financial systems will go bust, and Germany's will be in deep trouble. Once more this is a graphic illustration of how countries across Europe are -- in the public as well as the private sector -- totally dependent on the financial system of other countries.
Nelson Mandela, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 8, 2013
The Hijacking Of Mandela's Legacy The fascinating complexity of Mandela is that he was essentially a democratic socialist. Certainly not a capitalist. And not a pacifist either; on the contrary, he would accept violence as a means to an end. In his books and countless speeches, he always admitted his flaws. His soul must be smirking now at all the adulation.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 28, 2012
O brother, where art thou? From Washington's point of view, whatever happens must not rock the regal dhow; blind support for whatever Israel does; barely disguised support for whatever the House of Saud and the GCC do (including harsh suppression/repression of Arab Spring installments in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman); and if anyone defies us, we'll bomb you or drone you to death.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 1, 2013
All That Pivots Is Gold What Beijing actually wants is to get rid of the US dollar peg. For that to happen, it needs vast gold reserves. So here's Beijing pivoting from the US dollar to the yuan -- and trying to sway vast swathes of the global economy to follow the path. This golden rule is Beijing's Maltese Falcon: "The stuff dreams are made of."
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 18, 2012
War, Pipelineistan-style So as Washington has been impotent to disrupt Pipelineistan moves in Central Asia -- by isolating Iran and bypassing Russia -- it's now going ballistic to prevent by all means the crucial integration of Southwest Asia and South Asia, from Iran's giant South Pars gas field to Pakistan's Balochistan and Sindh provinces.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 24, 2013
The Fall of the House of Bo The -- micromanaged -- show must go on. All signs point to a (conviction) endgame before the third plenum of the 18th Central Committee (possibly to be held in October), which will crystallize the next Chinese economic drive. Framed or not, The Man Who Would be President won't be in the picture.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 11, 2012
Ready for your close-up, Mr Xi? All eyes are now on Xi. Chinese hardliners want more neoliberalism and a whiff of political opening. True communists want, well, respect to the tenets of the faith. And then there's the Hu position -- which has been a cautious application of Deng Xiaoping's famous "crossing the river while feeling the stones" maxim. The problem is now Xi faces more of a stone avalanche.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 4, 2011
Fear And Loathing In The Cannes Debt Festival The Chinese know well enough that two-bit European governments simply cannot appease the God of the Market. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao actually told Van Rompuy that Europe needs a structural reform. Two weeks ago, China's vice finance minister Zhu Guangyao was more lenient, saying that China shelling out cash was "under discussion," but Beijing wanted to know what the EU was really up to.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 25, 2013
US-Iran: The ever-spinning deal The deal carved out in Geneva at the weekend between international powers and Iran is far from definitive, but gets the ball rolling for the "real deal" to end the oil and banking blockade of Iran. That's if the brigades of assorted hysterics don't manage to succeed in pushing the ball back uphill.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 25, 2012
China's riders on the storm Bo, wily and media-savvy, was sort of a pop star in China as the top promoter of the so-called Chongqing Model: a back-to-the-past, partly Maoist-inspired push for more state control of the economy, better social services, a harsh crackdown on the local mafia and an effort to promote wealth redistribution, thus alleviating social inequality.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Syria and those 'disgusting' BRICS United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the double veto on Syria by Russia and China a "travesty", while US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice says it was "disgusting". Now it's time to get on with Plan B - to plunge Syria into civil war.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Real cowards go to Tehran Goldman Sachs has just placed Iran as one of the "Next 11" in the developing world after the BRICS, only one among five developing nations with above average "productivity and sustainability of growth." Perhaps a Persian Britney Spears should be singing "Baby, sanction me one more time."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Is Bibi the Bully wagging the American dog? According to a recent poll in Israel, 34% are against bombing Iran. But 42% are in favor if the US is at least supporting it. How sweet it is to enroll a superpower to fight your fictional "existential threats."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 11, 2012
What's goin' on at the Turkish-Syrian border? As for the Assad police state/military apparatus, it just has to be wily enough not to be provoked into an orgy of torture, summary executions and artillery bombardment -- the necessary condition to maintain the key diplomatic support of BRICS members Russia and China. Once again, it's average Syrians, caught in the middle, who will be the tragic losers.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 28, 2011
Real Wimps Go To Tehran Via Baghdad Those same nullities who in 2002, in the run-up to the attack on Iraq, were bragging that "real men go to Tehran," now want to use Americans as bait for an Israeli attack -- and this while US sanctions on Iran are about to become a de facto blockade, which international law still deems as an act of war.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 19, 2012
The Ultimate Chinese Opera Gu, at first the Black Spider who shook the Party to its core, now can even be cast--again, by the Party--in the role of "martyr." The new official narrative emphasizes her "mental problems" and her drama as a caring mother trying to protect her son Guagua from evil foreigner Heywood. At least she won't have to face a firing squad.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 12, 2012
NATO aims for a Nobel war prize The European Union (EU) received the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights. The EU's foreign policy may be a joke, as in 27 headless chickens shooting at random--and at each other--on everything from Palestine to the admission of Turkey. But one thing the EU does really well is to produce, market and sell weapons to everyone involved in the business of war.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 1, 2012
Let's party like it's ... 1997 As far as Beijing is concerned, it all comes down to "crossing the river while feeling the stones." The motherland has its own ideas on reviving the Silk Road -- and perhaps Hong Kong could be part of it, a least on the financial services side. Maybe it's time to party like it's 1997 and hit the Taklamakan again. Well, you can take the boy our of the Silk Road, but you can't take the Silk Road out of the boy.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 27, 2012
Six degrees of (Iranian) separation Iranian Ashgar Farhadi's A Separation was a shoe-in for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category, even though it should have been the best movie of 2011 in any language. The director's acceptance speech also provides food for thought for US neo-con and Israel lobby warmongers.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 6, 2012
Mr. President, Tear Down This Wall The Iranian nuclear "threat" would disappear for good if Obama 2.0 ever decided to push for making the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. Iran and the GCC have endorsed the idea in the past. Israel -- a de facto (if never officially acknowledged) nuclear power with an arsenal of up to 300 warheads -- has rejected it.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 1, 2012
What's at stake in Iran's elections Parliamentary elections this Friday in Iran are far from being free and fair. Well, at least that's a step beyond those paragons of democracy--the election-free Persian Gulf monarchies. In Iran, this time the problem is there's no opposition; it's cons (conservatives) against neo-cons.

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