I really don’t understand our pre-occupation with North Korea, other than to support the Neo Con/Lib folks in the military industrial complex.
The countries that border North Korea (China, Russia and South Korea) certainly aren’t as obsessed as we are, and they live right next door. Does North Korea “want” to be able to hurt the US? Probably. Can they? Certainly not.
…
What’s really going on in Saudi Arabia right now? To the average American who knows nothing about foreign affairs (and doesn’t really care), what’s going on right now, goes back to strategies used over and over again for decades in coordination with the US.
We’ve “used” the Saudis to manipulate the price of oil in attempt to “influence” foreign policy. It worked for decades. In 2014 it was tried one more time to punish Russia. It failed miserably for the Saudis, to the point where in the past few years they’ve had to dip into their reserves just to exist.
They’ve had to fight off foreign invasions from the north. They invaded Yemen and are losing. They lost in their efforts in Syria. They hate the idea that Iran could become the influential player in the region. And they are going broke.
Right now they are fighting for the future of their country.…
A long and detailed analysis of what is going on in Saudi Arabia. It looks like the Prince is either a genius or a fool.
The round-up of Saudi Princes which took place on 5th November 2017 is simply the latest in a succession of purges initiated by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Deputy Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman, as he tries to consolidate his position by getting his hands on all of Saudi Arabia’s levers of power.
As is often the case in purges of this kind, a large number of people have been rounded up on ‘corruption charges’ (the standard pretext used to conceal power struggles of this sort) in order to conceal the identity of the true target of the purge.…
At the end of the day, it appeared that Saudi is politically less stable than Lebanon, something that has hardly ever been the case in modern history, let alone at a time when one would assume it is Lebanon that is about to be plunged into new chaos, not the formerly predictable Wahhabi regime.
This is a very good analysis of both the Saudi Arabia and Lebanon actions in the past few days. As is all too often the case in the Middle East, the US has its fingerprints all over it.
The authors present some possible outcomes.
…
The Neos heads are going to explode (we can only hope).
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is hosting its 25th annual meeting in Vietnam this week. President Trump and President Putin are scheduled to attend.
The “leaked” story of the day is that the two of them actually plan to meet face to face and discuss some mutual issues, like North Korea.
Imagine how the Neos feel to find out that we might resolve an issue with diplomatic relations instead of at the point of a gun.…
Senator Joe McCarthy was correct that our federal government was overrun with active Communists. His tactics of indentifying them offended even his anti-communist supporters. Eventually, his detractors used these tactics to destroy his message.
How ironic in 2017 that the liberals who denounced McCarthy’s tactics actually learned from them and are adopting them today.
…
We’re seeing a lot of “liberalism” in Iran lately, particularly regarding woman’s rights.
I don’t know if they are really liberalizing, or doing this for good optics with the west. If it’s “real” then it’s a very good thing. If it’s merely optics, it’s a dangerous move that will backfire.
…
Saudi Arabia has many of the same problems that the US has. They have the money to try and influence its enemies with military force, yet they haven’t been successful.
Most westerners don’t realize that Saudi Arabia has enemies along its borders and that they’ve been subject to invasions in recent years. They’ve built a “wall” on the border with Iraq. They’ve funded and coerced the US to topple Syria’s leader. They invaded Yemen and are still fighting there. Despite having a huge technological and military equipment advantage they aren’t winning.
They are actually hiring soldiers from foreign countries to serve in their military in Yemen.
…
Being from the South, I don’t normally consider college football outside of the SEC to be “real” college football, but the Penn State coach this past weekend was impressive.
Penn State was upset this past weekend by Michigan State. Ok, upsets happen. In the post game interview, Coach James Franklin abruptly left his interview and started running towards the tunnel where his players were going back to the locker room. Of course the sports media immediately started to make fun of Franklin for being a “sore loser”.
Well, imagine everyone’s surprise to discover that he was running after his players who were poor sports and failing to shake hands with the opposing team. He was making them return to the field to be good sportsmen.
Values, folks. What sports competition at the amateur level used to be about.
Of course, it needs to be pointed out that Coach Franklin last coached in the SEC at Vanderbilt! …
Well, 4 November came and went. America still exists. Trump is still the President. And there is no coverage of the riots in the main stream media. Even the so called conservative Fox News gives it little coverage.
The 487s didn’t show!
We discussed last week the cities they planned their protests for. All but one were 487s. Their updated list before this weekend cancelled the one none 487 and added a few more. Ohio must be a hotbed of sedition. They have seven 487s, and had three riots planned.
Austin, Texas had 36 protestors. Seattle had 50. New York had 300. Portland a mere 100.
The real “news” here is that there is no coverage. Type “November 4 Antifa” into a search engine and be amazed that there is incredibly little coverage.
Imagine if millions had showed up to riot. Today’s headlines would read about how Trump scheduled his Asia trip in order to be out of the country while the riots happened.
Breitbart is the only place that I found actual videos of the riots.…
