a War and Peace Report on Iran
…both figuratively, as in ‘necessarily longish’, and literally ‘who needs operations like mockingbird when we have SoS arranging a CIA-aided putsch in plain sight? and as Pepe Escobar reminds us again:
“…Iran is an even more crucial hub of the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – in conjunction to the new connectivity drive between Russia and Iran signed at the landmark Caspian Sea Convention.”
‘US creates Iran Action Group to ‘change regime’s behavior’, 16 Aug, 2018, RT
“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – a fierce critic of the Tehran leadership – has announced the creation of a so-called Iran Action Group. It comes amid Washington’s campaign of economic pressure against Iran and its allies.
Speaking at the Thursday State Department briefing, Pompeo launched another verbal assault on the Islamic Republic. He claimed that the people of Iran and the world demand that the Iranian government “finally acts like a normal nation.” Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook will lead the Iran Action Group to counter the Iranian government’s “malign activity and support Iranian voices.”
Hook was a State Department official who served as an adviser to John Bolton in 2006.
“Hook, who also serves as a senior policy advisor to Pompeo, adopted the same harsh rhetoric as his boss. Delivering a scathing speech against Tehran, he stressed that the US wants to “promote a brighter future for the Iranian people,” while insisting the “Iran regime has been a force for instability and violence.”
The official went on to speak from America’s 12-point ultimatum, which Pompeo unleashed back in May this year after the US withdrew from the landmark nuclear accord. Hook believes that US President Donald Trump is “prepared to talk to the regime,” if Tehran “changes its behavior” in those 12 areas. Pompeo added that the US wants to see “major” changes in Iran’s behavior “both inside and outside of its borders.”
When it comes to other countries continuing to do business with Iran, Hook said the US is “prepared to impose secondary sanctions on other governments.” The US “certainly hopes for full compliance by all nations,” Hook stressed, while noting that Washington’s goal is to “reduce every country’s imports of Iranian oil to zero by November 4.”
“When AP’s Matt Lee noted that the announcement of the Iran Action Group was taking place on the anniversary of the 1953 US-backed coup, and asked if this suggested a desire for “regime change,” Hook responded that the timing is “pure coincidence” and that the IAG is aimed at “changing the Iranian regime’s behavior.” [snip]
“While the US repeatedly claimed that it’s not aiming for regime change in the Islamic Republic, former US diplomat Jim Jatras believes that, from what Pompeo describes, Washington wants “an entire different mode of governance in Iran.”
“I think he is basically saying that we want to support a popular movement to bring down the Ayatollah’s regime,” Jatras told RT back in July.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in July that the other signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal agree that US sanctions on countries doing business with Iran “is an absolutely illegal and unacceptable policy, but, of course, this can hardly be changed and there will be enough struggle in trade, economic and political spheres.” The minister also urged the remaining signatories to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to develop ways to keep commercial and economic ties with Iran that “would not depend on US whims.”
Aug. 16 Tweetie by >@SecPompeo
‘Countering the #Iran regime’s malign activity is a key @POTUS foreign policy priority. The Iran Action Group, led by Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, will ensure a coordinated, unified approach to address the regime’s hostile activity and support the Iranian people’
July 31 Tweetie> @SecPompeo
“Last week I spoke to the Iranian-American community to let them know that the Trump Administration supports Iranians yearning for freedom. Here are a few voices expressing their hopes for the proud people of #Iran after nearly 40 years of oppression.”
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo delivers remarks on “Supporting Iranian Voices”, at the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Library, in Simi Valley, California, July 22, 2018. A transcript is available at https://www.state.gov/secretary/remar…
This is the Iranian Voices…shmaltz-tastic video on youtube. Pompeo may be slightly easier to listening to than His President…but it’s small wonder some folks call him a Mafia don; the ‘voices’ seem to be pretty well-heeled folks./s
“Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and members of the Iranian diaspora express hopes that the next 40 years of Iran’s history will not be marked by repression but by fr… [freeedom?]- U.S. Department of State”
Tweet link > @Naghmeh Replying to @SecPompeo
“Mr Secretary, #IranProtests all over the country Iranian Call4 #RezaPahlavi Thank you for your support #IranRegimeChange #IranRegimeMustGo #WeStandWithPahlavi
(Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran: Wikipedia; alleged foreign support: CIA)
‘Iran Action Group’ a new US tool of regime change, but Tehran’s resilience is ‘strong’ – researcher’, 17 Aug, 2018, RT
“Announcing the creation of the IAG on Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said its goal is to address Iran’s “hostile activity and support the Iranian people.” He had earlier pledged to support the opposition in Tehran while meeting with Iranian diaspora. Similar ideas were expressed by Rudy Giuliani, New York’s former mayor, as well as a lawyer and confidant of Donald Trump, when he attended an Iranian opposition rally in Paris.
Iranian diaspora protest rally in Los Angeles, California. January, 2018 © Monica Almeida / Reuters
“Washington has indeed stepped up its efforts to stoke unrest in Iran by emboldening local protests, which are chiefly sparked by economic grievances – but it’s not guaranteed that the US would be able to convert these demonstrations into political action, Pankratenko says.” [Igor Pankratenko, who is a Middle East researcher, journalist and deputy director of the Center for Strategic Assessment and Forecasts]
“Iran sees protests almost every month. The rallies have been occurring for more than a year now, but the socially themed protests don’t put forward the anti-regime agenda,” the researcher argues. “The regime’s resilience and fortitude turned out to be higher than the US experts thought. Plus, when the outside pressure kicks in, the society consolidates. Iran’s resistance to outside pressure is quite strong.”
Pankratenko believes that if the US follows through with its threats to clamp down on Iranian trade with full force, the Iranian economy could suffer more than it did from the Obama-era restrictions. But it is highly unlikely that the government will collapse, or that Iran will cave in to US demands and change its policy, the expert warns.
The historian also compared the 12-point ultimatum that Pompeo issued back in May to “twelve daggers shoved into Iran’s back,” adding that “if Iran submits to them, we can say that the Islamic Republic is defunct. Iran won’t do it.”
Yeah, but choking off their oil, laying on more and more sanctions will certainly cause more protests likely aided by USAID CIA, et.al., which is a part of regime change ops. Add in ‘warnings to Iran: ‘don’t block the straits of hormuz or kaboom!’ bellicosity, psyop or not.
Now as to the scheme to ‘reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero’, this from F. Wm. Engdahl at NEO.org’s ‘Washington’s Silent Weapon for Not-so-quiet Wars’ August 20:
“Despite all efforts of Russia, China, Iran and other countries to shift away from US dollar dependence for international trade and finance, the dollar remains still unchallenged as world central bank reserve currency, some 63% of all BIS central bank reserves. Moreover almost 88% of daily foreign currency trades are in US dollars. Most all oil trade, gold and commodity trades are denominated in dollars.”
His sections From QE to QT… and A 2019 New Global Crisis? (further weaponizing of the US dollar) are worth reading for the financially aware among you.
“If Washington succeeds on November 4 in cutting all Iran oil exports, world (dollar) oil prices could soar above 100 dollars, adding dramatically to the developing world dollar shortage. This is war by other means. The Fed dollar strategy is acting now as a “silent weapon” for not so quiet wars. If it continues it could deal a serious setback to the growing independence of Eurasian countries around the China New Silk Road and the Russia-China-Iran alternative to the dollar system. The role of the dollar as lead global reserve currency and the ability of the Federal Reserve to control it, is a weapon of massive destruction and a strategic pillar of American superpower control. Are the nations of Eurasia or even the ECB ready to deal effectively?”
Also see ‘VIPS to Trump: Intel on Iran Could be CATASTROPHIC’, August 1, 2018, consortium news
“Mr. President, we do not know whether a fresh National Intelligence Estimate has been produced on Iran and nuclear weapons — or, if one has been produced, whether it is as honest as the NIE of Nov. 2007, which helped prevent the launch of another unnecessary war the following year. We stand on our record. In sum, if you believe that there is credible evidence that Iran has an active secret nuclear weapons program, we believe you have been misled. And if you base decisions on misleading “intelligence” on Iran, the inevitable result will be a great deal worse than the Bush/Cheney debacle in Iraq.”
Now this long essay just might give you the willies, at least it did me: ‘Russiagate conceals Israeli Meddling and Coming War with Iran’, Max Parry, August 22nd, 2018 dissidentvoice.org
It’s wide-ranging, and covers not only the epic power of the American Israeli Affairs Committee (AIPAC), thus the IDF acting with impunity in the Gaza Strip, etc., but loads of history I was wholly unfamiliar with. There isn’t any way to short-hand the rest, but I’ll paste in some of the illuminating parts of the following in trust that they’re so:
“It was Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, who as Secretary of State delisted the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (People’s Mujahideen of Iran) from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations in 2012. The militant organization (abbreviated MEK, MKO or PMOI) is a cult-like group in exile which advocates the violent overthrow of the Iranian government and was officially designated a terror group for 15 years by the U.S. It was removed by the Obama administration after aggressive lobbying by its political wing based in France, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Two of Trump’s top associates — war hawk National Security Advisor John Bolton and his lawyer representing him in the Mueller probe, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — have repeatedly met with the MEK in recent years giving highly paid speeches at their events advocating regime change in Iran.
Founded in 1965, the MEK committed terrorist attacks throughout the Shah’s reign which killed thousands of Iranians and also included several plots that took the lives of U.S. personnel. The group today claims the attacks which killed Americans were committed by a breakaway Marxist faction of the group during a period when the Shah imprisoned its founder, Massoud Rajavi, but the evidence of its violent past (and present) is overwhelming. This is yet another instance of the U.S. re-branding terrorism when it suits its interests while simultaneously conducting a vaguely defined war against it. The decision to remove the group from the blacklist was a politicized move as the criminal activity of the MEK has never ceased. Another motive has been the group’s close ties with Israel, whose intelligence agency Mossad has trained MEK operatives in committing assassinations against Iranian nuclear scientists.” [snip]
“Another motive has been the group’s close ties with Israel, whose intelligence agency Mossad has trained MEK operatives in committing assassinations against Iranian nuclear scientists.
In 1979, the MEK participated in the Islamic Revolution which overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah. Persian royalty had been in power for more than 2,000 years, but the Pahlavi monarchy had been re-installed as a U.S. puppet following a CIA/MI6 coup d’etat in 1953 green-lighted by Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration.”
Again: Tweet link > @Naghmeh Replying to @SecPompeo, and Igor Pankratenko above.
“Mr Secretary, #IranProtests all over the country Iranian Call4 #RezaPahlavi Thank you for your support #IranRegimeChange #IranRegimeMustGo #WeStandWithPahlavi
Parry gets into some speculative territory, but this I’ll include for its threat possibilities:
“The group is also known by the CIA to have aligned itself with ISIS against the Iranian-backed government in Iraq that expelled them. ISIS and MEK even likely coordinated terrorist attacks in June 2017 in Iran just as the Trump administration increased the economic sanctions. In addition to Ashraf 3, the MEK is allegedly being trained at the NATO military base in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteel, possibly for a regime change operation in Iran. Concurrently, Trump is reported to be preparing to strike Tehran as early as this month [his link says ‘may be’] according to the Australian Geo-Spatial Intelligence Organization, just as he tweeted threats at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The decision to use Kosovo as a base of operations for the MEK is consistent with the protectorate’s history — it was established after seceding from Serbia when the Clinton administration supported another de-listed Islamist terror group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), in NATO’s bombing campaign against Belgrade in 1999.”
Meanwhile, from that panglossian world traveler and journalist Andre Vltchek: ‘Hello – They Lied to You About Iran!’, Aug. 17, 2018, NEO.org
“I have just left Tehran, a city with a tremendous history and culture, overflowing with museums, theatres, wonderfully kept parks dotted with modern art sculptures. It is a city with modern and fully subsidized public transportation, consisting of high-tech metro, ecological bus ways, as well as suburban trains. A city of tall trees, and quiet squares, of elegant cafes, and extremely educated and kind people.
A city that could easily be part of the ‘top ten’ cities on Earth, were it not be the capital of a country that the West is trying to ruin, first with unjust and draconian sanctions, and then, who knows, even by a militarily invasion.
What do most Westerners know about Iran; what were they told? I think the image the mass media outlets want to project is of “Iran – a radical Muslim country, some sort of Shia Saudi Arabia”, or perhaps worse. Much worse, as Saudi Arabia, the closest Arab ally of London and Washington, cannot be touched in the West, no matter what barbarity and terror it spreads all around the world.” [snip]
“You are also expected to remain ignorant about Iran’s social system, clearly socialist. Free education and medical care, greatly subsidized public transportation and culture, huge public spaces and to some extent, strong government and at least partially, central planning.
Despite those absolutely unjust, terrible sanctions imposed, with some interruptions, from Washington and its allies, Iran is standing tall, trying as much as it can to take care of its people. And despite the terrible ordeal Iranian people are being put through, they do not cheat and do not steal. The exchange rate collapsed after Washington imposed another round of bizarre sanctions, triggering frustration, even protests. But the majority of Iranians understands who the real culprit is. And it is no secret that the so-called opposition is often financed from the West.”
Iran is bleeding, suffering, but it is strong. Not everyone agrees with government policies here (although most of them do support their government), but everybody is determined to fight and defend his or her country, if it is attacked militarily or by other means.
Perhaps that is why the West wants to first ruin, and then to totally destroy this country. For the West, Iran is ‘dangerous’. Iran is dangerous, even deadly, for the imperialist arrangement of the world, as China is dangerous, as Russia is, as Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Bolivia are.”
#HandsOffIran on Twitter; one image from Aug 19:
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
from #handsoffiran on twitter:
‘Dangerous Confrontation in The Middle East; Will Trump choose “the mother of all wars” or the “mother of all peace”?’, Dr. Elias Akleh, August 19, 2018, veteranstoday.com
and just for fun, cuz james risen had also hit wm. binney hard at the intercept earlier:
aaaaand the Intercept had hit julian assange four times in the past year. pfffft on the intercept. but at least they Luv the white helmets psyop.
Thanks for all the research
I will have to read this is bits as it is too upsetting. Much rather be upset about Climate Change.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
iran:
axis of evil, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...
even if you didn't read it, thanks being the only comment after five hours. i'll pass on commenting about runaway climate change cuz i think we...disagree (smile), and i may already have burned too many bridges here.
hope you don't mind, but i'll leave these here. our corporate social networking masters have been working overtime, it seems, against the Evil Iranians trying to...do...whatever nefarious things they're doing. see? proof that pompeo, bolton, and hook are correct!
Secretary Pompeo Retweeted
Twitter SafetyVerified account @TwitterSafety Aug 21
“Working with our industry peers today, we have suspended 284 accounts from Twitter for engaging in coordinated manipulation. Based on our existing analysis, it appears many of these accounts originated from Iran.”
on edit:
‘Facebook removes 652 fake accounts and pages meant to influence world politics; Firm announces removal of pages, groups and accounts linked to Russia and Iran, citing ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/21/facebook-pages-accoun...
“The cybersecurity company FireEye, which first identified the campaign and flagged the campaign to Facebook, said the intent behind the activity appeared to be to “promote Iranian political interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as promote support for specific US policies favorable to Iran, such as the US-Iran nuclear deal”. There was also significant anti-Trump messaging and the creation of sock puppet accounts masquerading as liberal Americans.
[the nerve!]
FireEye noted that the activity did not appear to have been specifically designed to influence the US midterm elections as the content extended beyond US audiences and politics.”
lol: fireeye.com: ‘inauthentic behavior’; they even offer their 28 page report (pdf)! get em while they're hot!
and doggonnit, magiamma: i've asked you before to not use my photo as your avatar!
No, I read part of it and will read more later...
I like to savor my depressing news. All the better to understand it. We are probably not as far apart on Climate Change as you think. I just want to get the info out to folks so I don't have to digest it alone. We certainly have front row seats in a revolving theater. Thanks again for all your research and info. Keep it coming.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
ta for correcting me;
of course you said you' need to read it in pieces. both subjects can be depressing, but or me, i find both more infuriating, because neither had to be this way, except (as trudell says) 'we were this way'.
i take a lot of jive here and there for my advocacy of the indigenous and their visions and credos, but they've had it right on climate protocols for a long time. in 2012 they weren't invited to the g-8 climate 'sustainability' conference in rio, but they came in caravans to create their own side meetings and to bring very lengthy documents w/ them (cochabamba peoples accords, for one). i was blown away that they were so well-informed on capitalism, false programs like REDD, the crap 'green revolution' of bill gates and friends, thus seed sovereignty, and actual sustainable farming methods. let me know if you'd like to read them, but blog whore that i do be, i won't link them here w/o a request; last time i looked, shadowproof still had a couple.
on edit: i loved 'i like to savor my depressing news'; kinda reminded me of your clever 'cognitive dissidence' at your art website.
@wendy davis I am interested
I am interested in those documents.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i do hope you'll
love them; i got jazzed again by their activism, the texts, the videos, and the photos. for some reason the link to the cochabamba accords goes nowhere really in either of these, but i think i pasted enough in to make it clear.
brenda norell had even helped to make a hip hop version of the kari-oca II declaration, lol. and there are others, esp. in part II.
‘Green Capitalism and the ‘Peoples Summit’ at Rio+20’, june 14, shadowproof.com
that includes the preedicted failure of the summit going into it, omg.
‘This Is What Indigenous Activism for Mother Earth Looks Like: The Shadow People’s Summit at Rio+20’, june 21, 2012, shadowproof.com
@wendy davis I don't think you've
I don't think you've burned any bridges here.
People tend to respond less readily to essays that are deep, complex, and long. It takes more energy to respond to such work.
My essays are not particularly deep or complex, but the length of them, and the kinds of issues they bring up, often get me fewer responses than people whose essays are short and require an easier response. For instance, essays detailing the corruption of the Clintons require only a very easy response.
I'm not disrespecting those essays, nor yours, nor mine; all of them are worthy parts of this site. I simply don't want you to misunderstand the lack of response. Most people are spiritually and mentally exhausted from simply living under the current conditions. Essays that require more of them will probably receive a smaller response. I've decided that the work is worth doing anyway, and I hope you do too.
I also think there are things we could do to improve this situation a bit. I've got an idea and I'm going to PM you and a few others.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i look forward to your DM,
and while i know it’s hard for me to comment here much given my slo-mo
RL situation as well as blogging priorities (including researching and building new content), you’re much more understanding than i am about the low-hanging fruit, quick hit, venting, repetitive diaries here. as in: you’re a more kindly and understanding person than i yam. but then i’ve been blogging for over a dozen years, and since i can’t get into the streets any longer....this is what i have to work w/ to make a difference now, so i attempt to bring light, even when complex, to issues, even if necessarily by pasting in others’ words at this point.
but yeah, i’ve pissed plenty of people off here, lol, as i do swim against the tide in my heterodoxy and iconoclasm (smile).
but even after your kind invitation to your open thread, i read, but didn’t have to time to comment even semi-coherently given all that is/was on my plate. thanks, miz signal.
Time to read, time to write - I’m short on both right now
My job has been unusually busy and demanding lately, and I’ve had limited time to read much, and mostly after I get home, in the evening. Catching up with the essays and writers who I enjoy here is something I look forward to — but I’m often way too late, days late even, getting to them. I rarely add comments when I’m that late to the party. And it’s true, I can’t think of anything pertinent to add anyway. I still very much appreciate the work and effort and quality of your essays. (talking to both Wendy and CStMS here).
I’m also just too tired to write anything. I’ve been writing and editing all day... except when I have to stop to deal with fixing computer problems while trying not to miss deadlines. Pressed for time, exhausted... hum, yes. Sometimes just reading and listening is what I need. I’m sorry if that seems like lack of interest.
of course it doesn't
seem like lack of interest, and you sound exhausted from your day job; my best to you, and thanks for the explanation.
@wendy davis Well, well. Finally,
Well, well. Finally, the Saudis come out of the closet:
“The cybersecurity company FireEye, which first identified the campaign and flagged the campaign to Facebook, said the intent behind the activity appeared to be to “promote Iranian political interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as promote support for specific US policies favorable to Iran, such as the US-Iran nuclear deal”. T
Now the Saudis are in the same privileged group as the Israelis: the people with whom it is not possible to disagree (or you are a bad person).
The Israelis occupy that position because of the Holocaust. Black people occupy that position in the United States because of brutal, systemic racism. How did the Saudis become perfect people?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
a few offerings:
first yes, criticizing israel’s zionist likud g’ment has been conflated with anti-semitism, sadly. but as some israel jews for peace note, the holocuast is only a second-hand horror to millenials and younger, and they’re a outraged as any of us by what their gummint’s doing, so...there’s that helpful current pushback.
now i’d had to go look for the causes of the origin of the split between sunnis (wahabbiists, salafists) lest i say it wrong:
“The divide is traced to 632 A.D., when the Islamic Prophet Muhammad died and a debate emerged about who should be his successor.
Both sides agreed that Allah is the one true God and that Muhammad was his messenger, but one group (which eventually became the Shiites) felt Muhammad's successor should be someone in his bloodline, while the other (which became the Sunnis) felt a pious individual who would follow the Prophet's customs was acceptable.
"The original schism between Islam's two largest sects was not over religious doctrine. It was over political leadership," Robin Wright, a joint fellow at the non-partisan U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson Center, said.”
now as to why the west seems to love the sauds and sunnis more, part of it’s to do w/ oil wealth, of course, but also they’d long ago hired the best PR firms or their charm offensives. as to a de facto israeli/saudi alliance, according to robert parry, the sauds wanted to own enough wealth to rival israel’s power, and in april 2015 he’d asked ‘Did Money Seal Israeli-Saudi Alliance?’ [oh good he covers PR at length]
“The odd-couple relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel may have been sealed with more than a mutual desire to kiss-off Iran. According to an intelligence source, there was a dowry involved, too, with the Saudis reportedly giving Israel some $16 billion.”
For more than half a century, Saudi Arabia has tried to use its vast oil wealth to build a lobby in the United States that could rival the imposing Israel Lobby. At top dollar, the Saudis hired law firms and PR specialists and exploited personal connections to powerful families like the Bushes but the Saudis never could build the kind of grassroots political organization that has given Israel and its American backers such extraordinary clout.
Indeed, Americans who did take Saudi money including academic institutions and non-governmental organizations were often pilloried as tools of the Arabs, with the Israel Lobby and its propagandists raising the political cost of accepting Saudi largesse so high that many people and institutions shied away.
But Saudi Arabia may have found another way to buy influence inside the United States by giving money to Israel and currying favor with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Over the past several years, as both Saudi Arabia and Israel have identified Iran and the so-called “Shiite crescent” as their principal enemies, this once-unthinkable alliance has become possible and the Saudis, as they are wont to do, may have thrown lots of money into the deal.
According to a source briefed by U.S. intelligence analysts, the Saudis have given Israel at least $16 billion over the past 2 ½ years, funneling the money through a third-country Arab state and into an Israeli “development” account in Europe to help finance infrastructure inside Israel. The source first called the account “a Netanyahu slush fund,” but later refined that characterization, saying the money was used for public projects such as building settlements in the West Bank.” it's long, but has a great photo of obomba, michelle, and king salman in saudi arabia.
but think: in bahrain, iirc, a nation of 85% shi'ia is ruled by the sunni ruling class. when the shi'a rebelled a few years ago, most of the world seemed to think it was okey dokey to have additional troops from KSA and the UAE kill them outright. heh: the US fifth fleet is harbored in bahrain. argh, it was in 2011, and yes, iran objected, but the coverage is all the ugly snark from the MSM, not worth bringing.
@wendy davis Wow, that was a
Wow, that was a much more serious response than my comment warranted--all I really meant is, where are the Saudis' victim bonafides? They've got none. Unless you're talking about the Saudi people in relation to their own horrible government.
The experience of entrenched prejudice, with its comprehensive effect on individual lives, and its tendency to warp human civilization into something awful, gives the people caught within its trap a moral standing in the eyes of those who perceive the wrongness of that prejudice. That moral standing has been extrapolated to mean that people who have been oppressed are automatically always right (except when they criticize the actually powerful). This is currently the most powerful weapon in the elite's propaganda arsenal.
But I don't see how the Saudis got into this special club. They haven't been oppressed.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i provided a long answer
because i don't subscribe to your thesis, so i figured that i'd need to back it up. it's not oppression that gives saudi arabia so much power: it's money, or 'purchased loyalty'. with israel, it's much the same: AIPAC rules! do we know who gave nukes to israel?
but the most baffling part of your thesis was this: "Black people occupy that [privileged] position in the United States because of brutal, systemic racism." that sentence is an enigma wrapped in a riddle...well, you get the drift (smile). what privilege?
but i threw in some of parry's theories about the sunni/shi'a 'glow' (yes, i'm thinking of the magic orb) differential as well. that's all. and this a.m from wikileaks' twit account:
the power of the ksa purse w/ news coverage, esp. canada and australia.
money is power.
@wendy davis I'm talking
I'm talking about credibility. I'm talking about how the propaganda works, and justifies itself--not about where the power actually comes from.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Heya, remember the war and piece report
from where, can't recall. Too bad we don't entertain the same standards, these days. Would love to see some actual face discuss the relative value of war and peace to the programed masses. Might upset the ship of state a bit, tho. Getting a bit topsy turvey.
question everything
well, you may be thinking of
democracy now, but they're busy impeaching trump. the similar report at the Café is usually: the war and more war report'.
we'd been discussing 'beliefs' an various permutations at the café recently, and not only are most manufactured, but they're seldom acted upon, most esp. by the political class, as in: pay no attention to what they say, but watch what they do, how they vote, and er...what they Tweet. USians are pretty easy to schmooze as long as you give enemies a poisonous spider veneer, then: R2P is applauded!
what's the old saw? close to: 'it's hard to convince someone of something...when it's in their economic interest NOT to believe it? but yeah, amerikans *poll* about 50-50 on the use of torture, but so many films and teevee shows glorify it as sometimes *neccessary*. but war on russia, or détente, we keep hearing polls that amerikans favor détente.
Heya, you are damn close on that shot kid...
Like you know, see it as being an advantage, twisted for rational minds to be persuaded to not become part of the 'conditioning madness' choices limited. Think you are close to the stupid madness. Keep yaw ahead afloat . Hard to make sense of this form of changing our minds for the benefit of some other perception. Ya know?
question everything
one other issue
we'd been discussing was the crazy ease with which many radical leftists later became members of the D team, where most great social movements of course go to die. angela davis: fancy her loving obomba as being imbued with black radical tradition (even by 2012), and spike lee calling him 'black jesus'.
@wendy davis Horrible about
Horrible about Angela Davis. I don't care tuppence for Spike Lee.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i did kinda like him
until he began griftin' for the nypd, and listened to boots' riley's crique of spike's new #copaganda-esque film blackkkkclansman. what two great commenters at the café also taught me was that he's been doing ads for high$ athletic shoes w/michael jordan, and a commenter at the gothamist said he'd been selling tony vodka. it was absolute vodka in 2010, i just discovered, and he got trashed by a group of teens in bed-stuy and brooklyn for doing so; good on them.
and yes, it appears he's able to make black radicalism acceptable to whites...and to capital.
"*poll* about 50-50 on the use of torture"
"Like hounds, people have to be blooded. They have to be given the taste for savagery", says Anis Shivani
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
what a fascinating quote;
anis is unfamiliar to me. come to think about it, reporting on torture even third hand...is exceedingly depressing. when i do and have done so, i need/ed constant breaks to try to restore my soul and spirit. the worst part is how fucking enjoyable those who torture...find it. oh, crap, now the images in my mind are depressing me; sorry...if i've done it to you as well.
Executing Israel's foreign policy just gets better and better
Just think, someday it will be the wealthy Americans, living in protected enclaves in Switzerland and on the French Rivera, who will be Tweeting their thanks to the #RestoftheWorld™ for levying sanctions against the #US for #RegimeChange. Meanwhile, the US Protests over food shortages are mistaken as a signal from the Americans People, indicating that they welcome the casualties of famine if it means the #USRegimeMustGo. So brave. Tweeting the American Elite in their luxury retreats, the #RestoftheWorld™ boasts that their goal is to “reduce every country’s trade with the US to zero by November 4th,” collapsing what's left of the US economy.... #Wait! #Wut?
Good times.
You know what, Pluto?
I admire you as being a free thinking, intelligent human being. I'm more than glad to be on your side of this attempt to make sense of all this stuff. I have your back, if there is anything I can help you with, I will. Trying to make this a better place.
question everything
Thanks for the kind words, QMS.
I could easily have said the same to you; we are generally on the same side of issues, and of humor, too, both coming from channels once thought to be metaphysical.
I always feel lucky to hang out with the smart kids at lunch — the evolving ones. Sure, the standards are set high, but there is a generosity of spirit. Constantly I am surprised by something both profound and obvious that I have overlooked. I'm learning at a deeper level, where reality is much simpler than one would expect.
It's too bad we are stuck in this pit of corruption that stands in our way when we were clearly given the talents and resources to design a conscious utopia. Cleaning it up is made more difficult because the people being rescued are little more than dead weight, fearful and misinformed. Conversely, I'd jump at the chance to explore a real-world commune with any of this community.
thanks for the chuckles,
i needed them. your hashtags are great, but i hear the amerikan 5% are buying up land in new zealand, whole buildings in ♪abu dhabi♫, ♪abu-dhabeeee♫.
cryo-freezing elites is big bidness again, yanno, 'wake me in 500 years when...(something)'. ooopsie, sorry, the power supply just got et!
but oy and veh: #CrownPrinceRezaPahlavi's wiki is sincerely awesome. ya think he'd marry me?
wait a minute Wendy
the soul spirit humor you share is way good. Ain't kidding me. Those blouses without reason. We got to share a developing reaction. Cain't kill us if we are strong together. Let's try to develop a mature reaction to those attempts at robbing us from our earned rights. OK? With you.
question everything
my apologies,
but i'm not twigging to the meaning of your comment: once a thick-wit, often a thick-wit. explain please?
yeh sorry too
being too vague. Comment meant to respond to the idea of having a say in our future. Kinda shot wide on that one.
question everything
No you didn't.
We just need to teach each other our epigenetic language. It's part of the process of conscious evolution. I already happen to know yours.
Acts like "a normal nation?"
Any American politician demanding this of others is kind of like Jeffrey Dahlmer demanding that others eat a normal diet.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
'normal nation'
must be in the eye of the beholder, yes? is the US empire 'normal'? sadly, 'our' normality and exceptionalism has been reified for all but a few dissidents.
but a lovely two-point buck in velvet just wandered thru our place close on the heels of a doe who can't possibly be in season yet. the abundance of the natural world here we've created as an oasis, and a house strewn w/ party lights, most of them featuring every other light a green chile..and the many jars of flowers mr. wd. brings me from the garden every a.m. to arrange...seems to lighten my spirits here and there.
oof, TMI? sorry; most days in RL suck, than ya die, but they won't say when...
@wendy davis No, not TMI. Just fine.
No, not TMI. Just fine.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
That description just lets us love you more.
I wonder...
When will the United States finally start acting like a normal nation? A nation that doesn't have troops stationed in 1/3rd of the world's countries. A nation that doesn't engage in coups and regime changes. A nation that doesn't enact sanctions for purely political or economic purposes instead of for actual criminal behavior. A nation that participates in the World Court, that doesn't veto every UN resolution against Israel's egregious behavior, a nation that leads the world by example rather than brutish force. I wonder when that'll happen?
yeh man, wondering if that can happen
agree the Usedta beya dream AKA knotted states of Marrakesh is lacking in moral strength, trying to take us down with it. As to the when, best guess is after we all see it happened.
question everything
some fine wonderings,
and i'd add that under clinton and obomba, created 'to big to fail' banks w/ their policies (delete glass-steagall, enact the 'commodity futures modernization act', 'deferred bankster prosecutions' under O's lanny breuer, hold a three day
faux 'pecora (televised)angelides commission', grand bargain away the social safety net, jobs to the point there IS no living wage, make workers beg for the laughable $15'hr., massive personal debt (trillion?) bubbles, many one health care crisis away from either streets or bankruptcy if they can even manage that...hunger, homelessness pandemic, as are overdose deaths, esp. among the young...well, this is Amerikkka! (i know i left out lot...) endless wars on the wrong nations, no, no, not KSA! they were permitted to evacuate the area on 9/!@, remember? 'not quite silent skies'... a mind-bogglingly huge military budget, more than T even wanted, engineered by the D team: because russia. okay, i'll STFU now....
@edg A nation that doesn't out
A nation that doesn't out its own undercover agents because their family members put the truth in print?
A nation that doesn't continuously engineer the increasing poverty of all its people except the billionaires?
A nation that doesn't protect the poisoners of its own water, while firehosing those who want to protect it?
I could go on and on.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'm old and must be losing it
what was it again that Iran did to amerika?
Me thinks it was always KSA that caused the
twin towers
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
What?
You think killing Americans is a concern for leaders? How quick were they to go after Iraq. It was massive polling that made them make a half-hearted effort at Afghanistan before Iraq. The whole time lying about the reasons.
And at no time did anyone in the media or either party suggest we do something about the source...Saudi Wahabi leaders.
So after Libya and attempt at Syria we are think the Arab World is either compliant (Saudi Arabia) or weak so it is time to attack Iran and finally not only get our oil back but make sure those damn smart alecks don't try to sell oil in a currency other than the dollar.
In the petrodollar we trust.
What where why
No surprise. Top level administrators do not either morally object to or take responsibility for the death and destruction of their collective agenda. Your concept of an oil driven dollar is not too far away from the idea of the war driven dollar. Somehow, without our consent, our country is being driven into total consumption of the earth's resources. The war machine and extraction industries do not ask for permission. Not taken in my name.
question everything
@QMS The oil driven dollar
The oil driven dollar and the war driven dollar are one and the same.
I don't talk about this much because I assume everybody on here knows it, but what we've got is oil barons, weapons makers, financiers, and agencies like the CIA working a racket together. The CIA provides the muscle to protect the racket, as well as the propaganda, with the help of other agencies and some private security firms. The oil men and weapons makers make money off each other in an ugly symbiosis where weapons makers create weapons that rely on oil and oil men not only provide the oil for the weapons but also provide the wars for those weapons to be used in, to get more oil. Bankers and brokers invest in all of it, and everybody involved makes piles of money.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
ha and ha.
there are a thousand things that's made iran an enemy of the hegemon, but mot all of them start w/ obeisance to israel. i finally had time to scan the veterans today link i'd stuck in up yonder, and although the author overly focuses on trump given the present, and may have not mentiononed afghanistan, the graveyard of empires the hegemon knew better than the roosians, pipelinestan energy corridors, iranian oil bourse, etc., this:
To protect the Israeli colony, successive American administrations had adopted foreign policies of dividing the Arab World into smaller states, creating chaos and rivalries among them, creating religious and sectarian conflicts, and destroying some strong states while neutralizing and crippling others.
One state in the region; Iran, was able to renew itself and stood strong as a major stumbling block to the Zionist project. Israel and the US have recently refocused their aggression on Iran again. Thus, we witness the recent escalating confrontation that could devastate the whole world, not just the region, if it develops into a military action.
The focus on Iran started with the discovery of its vast oil fields in 1908. During WWII an Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran led to the installation of puppet Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the shah and the Iranian oil was used to power the Allied forces. After the war, Soviet Union withdrew from Iran but British forces remained."
@ggersh What Iran did to America:
What Iran did to America: became Russia's satellite instead of ours.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
it's time for me to close down for the night.
the world was poorer the day john trudell's 'ride came for him' as he'd said. santee sioux, AIM prez for years, occupied alcatraz and wounded knee..no one ever turned poison into medicine as magnificently as he did.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igvhvsj7oKg]
'maybe we take turns dreaming about some kind of life
we say could have been different
but it wasn't, cuz we weren't...
g' night all.
“Resistance” that doesn’t resist Israel and those devoted to her
is no resistance at all.
“Progressives” or “reformers” who cannot move the needle away from “What Israel wants, it’s our duty to deliver” will never be able to deliver — if indeed they ever had any real interest in delivering — genuine progress and reform.
Even a figure like Trump will succeed to the extent that he acts independently of and contrary to Israel, and will fail to the extent that he acts as a mere tool of Israel.
that's an excellent observation,
and john bolton just returned from a visit w/ bibi, and 'productive conversations'. yes, i'll be they were 'productive'. would they have shared smirks over the new 'nation state' law as well? and would bibi have bragged again that it was he who'd convinced herr hair to pull out of the JCPOA? 'it's not a treaty...it's just some agreement...'. the one good thing obomba had helped arrange.
When Iran and Russian supplies are embargoed, KSA makes
its long-delayed IPO of Aramco, but not before the spot market price of a barrel of oil doubles. This strategy of course requires that you go on out and buy that 3-ton luxury SUV and a long-bed pickup truck. Bargains are waiting, suckers.
i hadn't known that,
about the ksa and aramco. but additionally, wasn't subsidized oil designed to keep the pp barrel low enough to spur little boxes on wheels consumption? what would reliable and convenient subsidized public transportation have looked like as an alternative?
i admit i have no earthly idea how OPEC figures in, but likely in various ways over the decades since its creation.
epic lulz! now google, 2!
[news from @FearDept 21h21 hours ago
U.S. Dept. of Fear Retweeted POLITICO
Our tech partner announced today that it had terminated some YouTube accounts and blogs that appeared to present an Tehran-approved, Iranian perspective on world affairs. #BestPractices]
@politico 21h21 hours ago
"This is the latest sign that foreign agents are continuing to exploit U.S. tech companies in information warfare"
@politico 21h21 hours ago
"Google also announced that it detected and removed 42 YouTube accounts associated with Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency"
and from b at moon of alabama aug. 21: 'Microsoft Promotes Russia Scare To Gain Insider Access To Campaign Information'
stop the world! i wanna get off!
In some ways, I am glad this is happening.
It is delusional and entangles Google with dumb low-hanging phantom fruit that has them running down the wrong avenues to silence American discussions about the corporate state.
Oppression speeds up the learning processes of the American people.
thank you all for the good conversation.
i'm closing down for the night, and want to remind you that sunday la luna bella will be full.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFxGBB4UGU]
a late but noteworthy addendum:
‘Anti-Iran cranks over at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’, John Wight, Aug. 25, RT
“One such think tank in particular – the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) – constitutes an extreme example of the monster hatched when you throw a group of fanatical neocons into a room and let them loose on computers. It is the adult equivalent of leaving a group of five-year-old children unsupervised in a room with matches and gasoline.
On the FDD website, you are regaled with the customary hot air about 'promoting pluralism,' 'defending democratic values,' and 'fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism.' Reading this verbiage, it is incumbent upon us to ponder when the FDD will declare war on America, given Washington's own sordid legacy and record as the world's primary violator of all of the above.
“The Twitter feed of FDD Chief Executive Mark Dubowitz is the work of an anti-Iran obsessive. In fact, so splenetic is his invective against the Islamic Republic, arch neocon John Bolton seems like Dr Martin Luther King by comparison.
https://twitter.com/mdubowitz
https://twitter.com/FDD
“That Mr Dubowitz has been described as the "the architect of many of the [US] sanctions against Iran" is no surprise. Neither is his advocacy of the sanctioning of European companies that dare continue to abide by the multilaterally agreed terms of the JCPOA and continue to do business in and with Iran. The announcement by French energy corporation Total that they are pulling out of a $5-billion deal with Iran to develop one of its gas fields, doing so in response to the threat of incurring US penalties, confirms that Washington is our Rome – as in Roman Empire, as in Pax Americana, as in, per Tacitus, 'They make a desert and call it peace.'
Overall, the upsurge in anti-Iran propaganda emanating from Washington since Trump entered the White House in January 2017, culminating with his administration's unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) in May 2018, is consistent with the decision to align his administration with the regional agendas of Israel and Saudi Arabia to an even greater extent than his predecessors.”
“In recent comments, UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy condemned the role of the sanctions in driving "millions of people into poverty."
glad you can see beyond the ruse wen D
This episode in the never ending 'Obscure the Fax' and 'Hammer the Lies' space opera created to manufacture still more false support for yet another dreadful war has passed beyond reasonable scrutiny. Between the distraction of orange hair and the threats of mad dogs, we may be better inclined to blow their ugly cover. Seriously believe people are not that easily fooled. Anymore.
question everything
wish i had your hope that
people aren't that easily fooled. but of course some aren't, but the PTB war-mongers either are or claim to be.
i've been in idlib the past day and a half, speaking of ruses, and tomorrow's (i hope) report might prove threat prescient. i/m so burned out i can't even offer lullaby; mr. wd said dr. blake mysteries (australia) are about to come on on pbs, and better the 60's crime and mayhem than this empire's. #SillySolace.