The Great Game just keeps churning with ever more players and pieces. This summer we've seen Africa and the Global South reject western dominance and bullying. This week we saw the contrast of west and east. The western leaders (who over their citizens' objections) support the genocide of the Palestinians (really other than the advancement in weaponry, it's no different than the genocide the US carried out on first nations peoples), versus the global belt and road conference taking place in China to promote trade and construction projects for mutual economic benefit. BRICS pay, a blockchain based exchange is going to continue to accelerate de-dollarization. Also this week, it is clear that Ukraine has been displaced by Israel in the media, as the Ukrainian conflict looks to be almost over. None the less, Joementia isn't willing to let go of his 10% cut and wants more money for Ukraine and other wars all over the world.

Never enough war?
White House Seeks $105 Billion To Arm Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan

On Friday, the White House rolled out its proposed $105 billion bill to arm Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The legislation also includes funding for the border and humanitarian assistance. US officials say over $50 billion will go to American weapons manufacturers.

And the grift goes on...Despite massive protests in the States, London, Paris, and across the world.

What arrogance. Don't TPTB remember we had to leave Afghanistan with our tail between our legs (not to mention Vietnam), nor recognize what looks like certain defeat in our Ukraine proxy war.

RJ does a deep dive into the bellicose, belligerent, and lie filled Biden Oval office speech this week.
Hearing Biden's Speech Line by Line is TERRIFYING & infuriating (40 min)

Biden’s ‘Weak’ Speech Tying Ukraine, Israel Funding Reflects ‘Bankrupt’ US Policy in Mideast
In his address to the American people, US President Joe Biden announced he would be sending a budget request to Congress to “fund America’s national security needs.” By that, POTUS meant dishing out further support to the ongoing NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and aiding Israel in its fight against Hamas.

Middle Easterners Have Words For The Western Press Who've Been Lying About Them

Hundreds of US congressional staffers are passing around a letter urging their bosses to call for a ceasefire, there’s a silent mutiny brewing in the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza actions, mainstream reporters have been refusing to parrot Israel narratives, and the streets are full of pro-Palestine demonstrators.
This is different. What we are seeing right now is a deviation from the usual script.
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Israel had been trucking along at the same status quo for so long, people assume there was a state of peace when Hamas attacked it, which was why the western political/media class were able to frame it as an “unprovoked” attack. But in reality the status quo in Israel has been one of continually escalating violence, tyranny and abuse for generations, not one of peace.
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After 9/11 it was “they hate us for our freedom” and all the US aggressions in the middle east which provoked Al Qaeda were swept under the carpet. When Russia invaded Ukraine the well-documented NATO provocations and violence in the Donbass which gave rise to it were written out of the history books, and history began on February 24, 2022. If China ever reacts to the US military surrounding it with war machinery and its aggressive provocations in Taiwan, that will be framed as a completely unprovoked attack which came completely out of nowhere as well.

I hope it is different this time around, but I'm not holding my breath. AIPAC still owns most US politicians, and their lobbying efforts are kicking into high gear.

The Fog of War...
During active conflicts it is difficult to ascertain what is really happening. This week the big controversy has been if Israel bombed the Palestinian Hospital in southern Gaza or if it was a misfired Hamas rocket. No need to investigate, Uncle Joe declared it was Hamas, which makes me suspect Israel.

Was the Gaza hospital attack caused by a failed rocket launch? (3.5 min)

An Al Jazeera digital investigation found no grounds to the Israeli army claim that the strike on the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza was caused by a failed rocket launch.

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Culture of Deceit

Israel, which always seeks to blame Palestinians for the atrocities it carries out, is the least trustworthy source about the bombing of the hospital in Gaza.
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The whistling sound, audible on the video moments before the explosion, appears to comes from the high velocity of a missile. This sound gives it away. No Palestinian rocket makes this noise. And then there is the speed of the missile. Palestinian rockets are slow and lumbering, clearly visible as they arch in the sky and then tumble in free fall towards their targets. They do not strike with precision or travel at close to supersonic speed. They are incapable of killing hundreds of people.
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The brazenness of Israeli lies stunned those of us who reported from Gaza. It did not matter if we had seen the Israeli attack, including the shooting of unarmed Palestinians. It did not matter how many witnesses we interviewed. It did not matter what photographic and forensic evidence we obtained. Israel lied. Small lies. Big lies. Huge lies. These lies came reflexively and instantly from the Israeli military, Israeli politicians and Israeli media. They were amplified by Israel’s well-oiled propaganda machine and repeated with a cloying sincerity on international news outlets.

Hey, Israel must have taken lessons from US. Project, project, blame.

Scott asks, "Does it matter? Civilians are still being killed by Israel."

Israel Intends to Make Gaza Uninhabitable by Cutting Power Permanently
“Humanitarian crisis” winds up being inadequate since it averts attention from the deliberate steps Israel is taking to make living in Gaza untenable. “Genocide” is more apt but without describing the clear program Israel is launching, it can be depicted as overwrought.

Perhaps the most interesting hypothesis about the Israel Palestinian conflict came from Paul Craig Roberts, who suggests Israel allowed this to happen (like our 9/11) to provide for the genocide of the Palestinians and the incorporation of both Gaza and the West Bank. (54 min)

Paul Craig Roberts (PCR) has had careers in scholarship and academia, journalism, public service, and business. He is chairman of The Institute for Political Economy.
President Reagan appointed Dr. Roberts Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and he was confirmed in office by the U.S. Senate. From 1975 to 1978, Dr. Roberts served on the congressional staff where he drafted the Kemp-Roth bill and played a leading role in developing bipartisan support for a supply-side economic policy. After leaving the Treasury, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Hamas’s offensive military operation has granted Israel its reason to commit genocide on and ethnically cleanse what is left of the Palestinian people.

We had friends over last night.
They asked, "Do you really think Israel was caught off guard considering they have the best spy organization in the world, the best cell phone tapping software, and have informants directly integrated into Hamas?"
I said,"Good question."

Col. Larry Wilkerson wonders if Israel can manage a multi-front war. (45 min)

Col. (ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson's last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army. During that time, he was a member of the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College (1987 to 1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired in 1997 and began work as an advisor to General Powell. He has also taught national security affairs at the George Washington University and is currently working on a book about the first George W. Bush administration.
Larry suggests a one democratic state solution claiming theocracies never work because God is invoked whenever there is no justification otherwise.
What About a One State Solution With an Equal Vote for Every Palestinian and Israeli?

Ray McGovern thinks we are Navigating Towards Ruin (1.1 hour)

Ray came to Washington from his native Bronx in the early Sixties as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985.
https://raymcgovern.com
During this interview he tells the story of the USS Liberty.

The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship (spy ship), USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian NSA employee), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula...

The attack was designed as a false flag in order to blame Egypt for the attack and draw the US into the conflict.

Israel's long war on Gaza with Norman Finkelstein on The Chris Hedges Report (53 min)
Israel has unleashed a horrific war of collective punishment against the people of Gaza, the latest in a long history of anti-Palestinian oppression. As corporate media shamelessly provides cover for what is undoubtedly a genocide unfolding in real time, the need to ground our understanding of the conflict in its proper history is more important than ever. Norman Finkelstein joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss Israel's 17 year blockade of Gaza and its crucial significance to understanding the events of the past two weeks.

Max and Aaron, both Jewish, describe the horrors in Gaza.
Nobody is safe - The Grayzone live (1.6 hrs)
The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate cover the global explosion of outrage in response to Israel's rising atrocities against the Gaza Strip and the threat it poses to American imperium.

Are we not sure? - MEP Clare Daly- speech from 19 Oct (1.1 min)

EU will never live down this shame - MEP Clare Daly

EU has been complicit with the war crimes - MEP Mick Wallace- speech from 19 Oct (1 min)

Why do our EU leaders find it so difficult to call out the activities of Israel as terrorism? Why are they so reluctant to actually say that Israel is a terrorist State? Why are they so reluctant to say that Israel behaves like an apartheid state and refuses to respect international law? Why does the EU still call Israel its like-minded partner? How can this brutal Lawless regime be our like-minded partner?

From Adam Shatz, Vengeful Pathologies

The inescapable truth is that Israel cannot extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence, any more than the Palestinians can win an Algerian-style liberation war: Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs are stuck with each other, unless Israel, the far stronger party, drives the Palestinians into exile for good. The only thing that can save the people of Israel and Palestine, and prevent another Nakba – a real possibility, while another Holocaust remains a traumatic hallucination – is a political solution that recognises both as equal citizens, and allows them to live in peace and freedom, whether in a single democratic state, two states, or a federation. So long as this solution is avoided, a continuing degradation, and an even greater catastrophe, are all but guaranteed.

Courtesy of MOA

What about Ukraine?
The Duran addressed the conflict a bit this week...
Zelensky panics as attention and resources shift to Israel (20 min)
and
Budanov admits Ukraine big counter-offensive is over (21 min)

Ukraine’s leaders are controlled by US – German ex-chancellor
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has argued in a newspaper interview that the US government didn’t “allow” any compromises that could have brought an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict just weeks after Moscow’s military offensive began in February 2022.

Pentagon's Crafty Plan: Ukraine to Receive 'Frankenstein' Air Defenses From US
The Pentagon has greenlit a new air defense project custom-made for Kiev. According to US media reports, Ukraine will receive anti-aircraft missile systems produced in an unusual manner by the US defense industry. Sputnik examines what Washington has in mind.

Bankers Wars...or It's the economy stupid
If you missed the film, All Wars are Banker's Wars?, it is worth your 40 min.
Article for those who prefer reading.
Greg Mannarino warns of coming economic crisis being engineered by the central banks. (20 min)

I found the following conversation on the Duran with Alex of reporterfy quite interesting. He is a derivatives trader with a unique perspective.
Derivatives and the coming collapse with Alex at Reporterfy (2 hours)

"I Have REAL FEARS That The Gold Market Will Triple" - Rick Rule w/ Mike Maloney (33 min)
We're in the midst of a pivotal moment in the financial world... Treasury yields are surging to levels we haven't seen since the 2008 crash. While this could spell trouble for the broader market, it just might be incredible news for precious metals investors.
Today, we bring you a conversation that's not only timely, but critically important. Mike Maloney sits down with the legendary Rick Rule. Together, they dive deep into the implications of these rising yields, the potential aftershocks in the market, and the bright prospects for gold and silver investors.

This is the Worst Nightmare Scenario for People Who Run Money Warns Danielle DiMartino Booth (11 min)
“I think that the 60% probability of one rate hike between now and January will probably get revised away, but it doesn't matter,” says Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for research and analytics firm QI Research. She emphasizes that Fed Chair Jerome Powell is looking for a reason to maintain higher interest rates so that he can eventually break the Fed put. Danielle says, “I am on board with his mission of breaking the Fed put... [but] don’t actually think that that’s going to happen.” She explains that even though JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned investors against today's economic instability, she doesn’t believe it’s “hyperbolic” given his vantage point. “He's seeing from the front lines, and he's seeing in his credit card data that the consumer's finally slowing down…he's really got a good view on the confluence of events,” Danielle concludes.

Big US banks quietly cutting thousands of employees, and more layoffs coming
The deepest reductions have been at Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, institutions that are wrestling with revenue declines in key businesses. They each have cut roughly 5% of their workforce so far this year.

Belt and Road Conference...

China Belt and Road influence (12 min) ... and Middle East policy @ the 10 min mark) . The Duran with Sofia Midkiff.

Belt and Road int'l cooperation gets off ground, grows rapidly over past decade: Xi

The cooperation has extended from the Eurasian continent to Africa and Latin America, and more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations have signed Belt and Road cooperation documents.
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"The BRI represents humanity's joint pursuit of development for all," Xi said.
Belt and Road cooperation transcends differences between civilizations, cultures, social systems, and stages of development. It has opened up a new path for exchanges among countries, and established a new framework for international cooperation, Xi said.

So construction and development from the East, destruction and war from the West.

BRI forum makes solid progress

The Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing resulted in a total of 458 practical outcomes, significantly surpassing the achievements of the second forum, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday.
Several cooperation initiatives and agreements were agreed, including improvements in connectivity, green development, the digital economy, and on high-level principles for building integrity within the Belt and Road Initiative, said Wang.
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The two-day forum was attended by representatives from 151 countries and 41 international organizations, showcasing the appeal and global influence of BRI cooperation, said Wang.
The forum sent a clear message to the world: unity, cooperation, openness, and mutual benefit are necessary, while division, confrontation, isolation, and zero-sum games should be rejected, he said.

Of course the western powers are doing everything in their power to disrupt the global cooperative project.

There are many moving parts in today's geopolitics. No way I can cover them all in one column, but I think there's plenty here to mull. I hope you all are having a nice fall and can escape into nature on a regular basis. That's my way of grasping at sanity in an insane world. Over and over again my friends.

Neil Oliver: We must maintain the courage to stand against all evil, perpetrated by anyone (10 min)

Watch your hands, feet, and hair...and don't get caught in the matrix!

I look forward to your thoughts, stories, and insights in the comments below!