Monday, September 29, 2008

THE DEMOCRATS ARE DEAD

This will be a very brief entry, one I could not resist.

I could not stop laughing, today, as irony upon irony played itself out before my eyes.

The $700 billion financial bailout bill was defeated in the House, today, NOT by Democrats, but, by Republicans, instead. When they went into session, today, the Congressional House of Representatives and their bi-partisan Congressional leadership and Administration thought they had the necessary numbers of votes to pass the bill with a majority Democrat and a very small minority, a handful of Republicans voting yes.

So, why did the vote go down the tubes, today?
What happened at the last minute to defeat it?

Basically, apparently, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi suffers from a severe case of foot in mouth disease.

Just prior to the House votes, Pelosi couldn't resist some public partisan posturing and made statements attributing the present crisis to failed Bush policies.
This was just enough to anger a small handful of Republicans who ALREADY were opposed to the bill and push them over the edge to switch their votes at the last minute!
I don't recall the exact count, but, it was a slim margin. Somewhere between 12 and 20, I think.
Thus, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi's few words and irresistible partisan posturing cost $700 billion and the entire stock market plunged 700 points!

I love it.
And, I could not stop laughing.

Poetic justice. Divine retribution.

It could not happen to a nicer Party and person, except, of course, the phony Obummer mafia campaign.

I can assure everyone, however, a bill WILL finally pass, at some point in the very near future. They will just rework it.

Of course, none of the solutions I offered in my blog, below, for example, and NO nationalization will ever happen, here, BECAUSE NO ORGANIZED resistance exists thanks to the Democratic stranglehold and their collaborative partners in class crime and betrayal, our Fascist union leadership.

May they all rest in peace.
The Democratic Party is dead!
Long live the King!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

PREDICTIONS FULFILLED, NEWS OF OUR DEATH IS PREMATURE


Following from my previous blogs, first, Morgan Stanley always comes out on top.
So, Morgan Stanley has consolidated and expanded its private ownership in the banking industry, literally overnight, by government fiat.
Morgan Stanley acquired a major banking institution, Washington Mutual, WaMu, whose liabilities and assets were peremptorily seized by the government in anticipation of bad debts and a deal was negotiated with Morgan Stanley to purchase WaMu assets and liquidate their debt.
Morgan Stanley, of course, is constantly expanding its presence in the Middle East/North Africa speculative, privatizing bubble, as well:

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080928105335/lok105300080928

In addition, our second, major financial, global, private octopus, Citigroup, appears, at the moment, to be in negotiations to consolidate with the nation's fourth largest bank, Wachovia.

So, as usual, both Citigroup and Morgan Stanley come out on top of the heap, both here and abroad, furthering private capital accumulation and concentration.

In addition, an expected tentative financial bailout plan was reached, one McCain helped to negotiate and the Vichy Dems want to use or abuse for political cover.

The sticking point and necessity for McCain's involvement emanates from the fact that rank and file House Republicans continue to balk at cooperating either with the Vichy Dems or their own Republican leadership to approve this plan.


The Vichy Dems do not want to sign off on legislation by themselves, which they could, but, they want/need the coverage of a bipartisan agreement. And, the rank and file House Republicans are obstinate in their continued, principled resistance, opposition, and objections to this plan.

The political fallout and backlash from this legislation will be enormous. This will force out the Vichy Dems onto a political limb, which is why they need McCain's involvement.

So, other than partisan posturing, what will the rest of us get from the legislation finally put forward?

Here's a SHORT, by no means comprehensive, list of what we will NOT get from ANY of the twin Fascist Parties.

NO universal, single payer health care, whatsoever.

NO expansion, nationalization and public ownership of ANY of our worthwhile productive assets, heavy industries and natural resources.

NO guaranteed, expanded, universal, free, comprehensive lower and higher education program.

NO small tax, (.0001, that's 4 digits after the decimal point, for example), on every single financial transaction of private stocks and shares sold and bought on any and all stock markets throughout the US. (This, alone, would generate ENORMOUS monies based on volume traded every day).

NO guarantee of a full employment economy, based on all of the above and a reduced work week plus early, voluntary retirement.

NO guaranteed annual income.

NO guarantee of our limited, Social (in)Security quasi-retirement insurance system, it's expansion and monetarization beyond it's present pauper status, and, correspondingly,

NO diminution or end to our Fascist union/labor policies to recycle and invest their workers pension monies into private, multinational, profit making, corporations.

NO nationalization of ALL industries related to defense and certainly, in conjunction,

NO decrease in our privatized, highly, lucrative, profitable Defense Industry, completely, 100% financed by working class taxpayer monies.

NO comparable decrease, withdrawal of global, military bases and expenditures throughout the globe, whose sole purpose is to expand and defend private capital, such as Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, et.al.

NO elimination of all personal income tax for individuals, couples, families, with combined incomes less than $50,000 and a GRADUATED, FLAT tax rate on combined income over $50,000. NO deductions, NO itemization.

NO nationalization of our money supply and elimination of our PRIVATIZED, Federal Reserve system.

NO increase in the minimum wage to a decent living standard.

NO permanent elimination and prohibition of the many and numerously flavored, speculative, manipulative, abstract, exotic financial tools, such as short selling, derivatives, hedge funds, etc., which is one of the main reasons for our present liquidity crisis. As a matter of fact, they will be expanded throughout the globe and particularly the Middle East.

NO offshore funds, corporations, ownership and tax havens.

I repeat, the above is just for starters.

Whenever and wherever you see "NO," above, substitute the reverse policy and you will have a good idea of what we presently have and will continue to get.

Instead, however, the Vichy Dems with a very small handful of collaborative Republicans will nationalize a lot of bad, useless collateral and lousy debt from some ticky-tacky, overpriced houses that nobody wants or needs. It's not simply the underlying cost of the overpriced, overvalued houses and mortgages which created the current liquidity crisis and speculative bubble. It's the secondary, tertiary, speculative bonanza created around the underlying mortgages, pieces of bundled paper debt, and utilized as collateral for these exotic and manipulative financial tools. The underlying debt obligations were flipped, manipulated, gambled and leveraged exponentially. That's why nationalization of this debt is absurd and its underlying collateral is relative junk.

And, of course, as I have had on previous blogs, in our revolving, manipulated financial door, depressed real estate assets, here, will be privately purchased at bargain basement prices from abroad from the same financial interests represented above, such as Investcorp, which I previously highlighted.

Next, on a related issue, the Iraq war front and the Middle East speculative bubble. In the ongoing saga of regime change and congruency with Iraq/Iran/the US, more significant developments.

A new UN agreement, including Russia and China, reaffirming their unanimous commitment and agreement surrounding Iran's nuke program.

And, coincident with the above development, another very significant, telltale sign surrounding "regime change and congruency" in both Iraq/Iran/US, besides the indefinite postponement of celebrations for the opening of Kurdistan's "Gas City" and Iraq's upcoming provincial elections in January, 2009.

Kurdistan's Heritage Oil, partnered with the mysterious Eagle Group of Iraq and whom I've speculated might be Talabani, and/or Barzani, themselves, apparently, either will be sold outright, or, "some" assets sold. It is speculated those assets will be in Kurdistan. From their own corporate website, a terse, September 18 Press Release on the subject. Note, JP Morgan Cazenove, advisor:

www.heritageoilltd.com/resource/fzxrtqdn2eo8z89xslscp62r.pdf

Seems to me like rats leaving a sinking ship.

I've had much in previous blogs about the nefarious role of Heritage, etc. But, a good reminder, to which I've linked before, and, especially in recent connection between the Obummer mafia campaign and mafioso extraordinaire, Tony Buckingham, current owner of Heritage Oil, the following:

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m41015

Also, Russia is reaffirming Iraq's territorial integrity:

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=47542

Apparently, some private Russian companies are being offered the potential to invest in Iraq.
And, of course, further UN and NATO/international forces being planned for intervention and "peace keeping" in Iraq.

And, Iran's privatization is moving forward inexorably, which, of necessity, will terminate Iran's present, Fascist clerical regime and their militias monopoly on power, the major force propping up the clerical regime at the moment.
Iran's Neanderthal clerics have outlived their usefulness. They have become an impediment to regional progress. Time for them to go.

Enter, instead, Morgan Stanley, friends and associates at the First Persia Fund, which, by the way, is interconnected with Egypt's EFG-Hermes.

And, finally, in view of all the above, I thought, this time, I would end with a very simple message, an open-ended invitation from Ralph Nader to join with him in a club that requires nothing of you, absolutely nothing whatsoever:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf81_iwCbbY

Thursday, September 25, 2008

FINANCIAL BAILOUT ASSURED, THE SPINELESS OPPOSITION


Continuing from yesterday's blog, below, I'm amused at the flood of hand wringing, post mortem, pontifications, dissertations and dissections regarding America's current financial bailout and liquidity crisis and the evils of the "system" as if we don't all know this, already.

So, what else is new?
Haven't you all been around for the past 100 to 200 years or so?

But, just WHAT are you planning to do about it?
What, where, whose, which organized POWER do you represent and how will you manifest this organized/unorganized power?
What is your program? What is your organization?
Rhetorical questions all.

Answer.
NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

For all the many reasons I have enumerated on my previous blogs.

A few measly demonstrations, while, in practice, every single opportunity both here and abroad to significantly change and challenge the balance of power equation was missed, squandered, spent, ignored, opposed, sabotaged, betrayed from within, AND IT CONTINUES.

So, my answer.

You deserve what you get, which is nothing.
And, what you are going to get, just like the predetermined financial bailout.


Here's some SIMPLE, elementary, basic, unspun, unvarnished, uncomplicated truths, facts.

McCain went to Washington simply to give Congressional cover to a bi-partisan financial bailout package which has already been decided.
They need this infusion of "liquidity" to keep the system afloat, the money-go-round.
If you do not want to fundamentally change, challenge, alter the system as it exists, then, this is what you must do.
Pure and simple.
That's it folks.
The rest is theatre and posturing, by all and everyone concerned, including, first and foremost, the hypocritical, totally impotent, fake class opposition, Left and their Fascist unions.


The Vichy Democrats, that is, the legislative part of the fake Opposition, needed McCain to lead the Republican Party in this "compromise."
They did not want to go out on a limb on their own, for political purposes. So, it will be presented as bipartisan operation, with some irrelevant conditions thrown in to look like a "hard" deal, a compromise.


And, McCain will go to the first Presidential debates, tomorrow, as scheduled, having saved the country.

And, our completely, utterly useless, totally impotent, orchestrated, fake "Left" and opposition will continue to confuse and confound people with irrelevant arguments, issues, factual omissions and commissions, as they have been doing for at least 50 or so more years and will continue to play the role of handmaidens and collaborators in deconstructing any unified, united, militant, class based, opposition, resistance or Party organization, and thus, de facto, they serve as handmaidens assisting a renascent, global Fascist program.

For example, in addition to the above financial deal occurring today, it defies credulity that there are domestic religious morons actually meeting with Ahmadimidget.
If they could resuscitate Hitler, no doubt, they would meet with him, as well.
And, they will say, dear Hitler, Ahmidimidget, let's talk. Be a nice guy and stop killing all those folks, the ones in Iraq, the Jews and other people in Germany and elsewhere.
Oh, by the way, dear Ahmadimidget, please, can you cooperate with us alittle more and leave Iraq now that your Nazi militias have systematically cleansed, killed, intimidated, threatened, raped, robbed, tortured half or more of the country and occupied it?


But, they, including Ahmadimidget, are irrelevant, anyway.

They represent nothing and nobody but themselves.
They are powerless.


It will not make any difference what they do and all they accomplish is to expose themselves to total and complete ridicule. They help give the fake Opposition no credulity whatsoever.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, death, killing, destruction continues unabated, altho, living in the US, you would hardly know any of what is happening elsewhere or in Iraq.

All the elements contributing to further escalation and military conflict and confrontation surrounding Iraq are very much in place, from Kirkuk, to Iraq's postponed provincial elections, to the still, unsettled, enormous opposition to Turkey's AKP, etc.

This list goes on.
And, of course, the Middle East speculative privatization bubble continues onwards.

The World Economic Forum on the Middle East is scheduled to meet next year, May 2009 in Jordan,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidGN_17092008_10245482/lok0000000080917

But, American's live in blissful ignorance of all, much, most of the above and more, thanks to their complicit corporate media AND collaborative fake Opposition, the same people who previously helped along the dissolution of the USSR, then, presently, could not find Russia on the map before the Georgia explosion, could not locate JBANC and Kucinich, could not find Turkey's enormous, gigantic opposition, cannot find the Middle East speculative Bubble, cannot locate Iran in Iraq, and on and on, as well, their own domestic betrayals, their Fascist unions, the SEIU, Obummer and so on.

No excuses. No apologies, please. I am NOT interested.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND..."


The above, of course, an identifiable refrain repeated in a song from Liza Minnelli's movie version of "Cabaret,"


www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q&feature=related

If one were to ask most people in the US, what is money's purpose, how does money function, what does it do, how is it's value defined, they certainly could not answer.
Some would give the shibboleth about gold.
Others, nothing at all.
Those who PRIVATELY own the country, understand perfectly well.


Lina Wertmuller did an interesting little movie sometime ago, 1975, "Swept Away," in which she inverted and stripped naked the socially maintained fictions behind the interrelated categories of money, power and private property.
For those who have not seen the movie and might like to do so, I will say nothing more about it.
Here's one simple link which reveals not much,

www.1worldfilms.com/Italy/sweptaway.htm

But, one can do a similar thought experiment on one's own by simply utilizing the same proverbial deserted island shipwreck with two or more individuals and a stack of "money."
If you prefer, you can make the money gold, silver or any other "precious metal" instead of paper.

Well, as is everything else, money is a privatized commodity, controlled, here, by our private, Federal Reserve banking system and borrowed by the US government's Treasury Department, backed by US taxpayers, i.e, the working class.
Of course, money is borrowed, loaned, traded, and speculated, as is any other commodity.
And, then, there is cross country currency speculation and manipulation, as well.
And, debt, of any kind, no matter in what form, represents money due. Debt is a recognized, legal claim to money.
Take one's own, individual, private bank account, as an example.
One can put one's money under the proverbial mattress, as they say. Instead, one lends/deposits one's own principal in a bank and receives interest for the cash loan.
The bank is in debt to you for borrowing your principal and dividends accrued, presumably, for investing your money and ostensibly making a profit on your invested, borrowed money.
But, what happens when the bank goes bust, does not make a profit, investments sour, does not have enough cash to pay everybody, or, some people, at the same time, etc.?
That's a liquidity crisis.
The Federal Reserve insures personal, individual bank accounts for just such a possibility.
The maximum is $100,000.
Of course, the liquidity problem multiplies and amplifies when it extends beyond a few banks.
What happens when the private insurance agency is overwhelmed?
And, so it goes.
A snowball effect.


So, when the private profiteers assert a "liquidity crisis" exists and it can/will have enormous negative repercussions and ripples throughout the system, they are not exactly lying.
Money is the measure, the medium, the currency of exchange, for everyone, everybody and every economically defined transaction in our society.
Without money, i.e., liquidity, our economic transactions grind to a halt, a standstill.
Everybody, like an addict on a drug habit, is financially and economically tethered into the money-go-round system.
So, everybody needs their fix, their medium of exchange, to keep the system afloat.


So, let me assure everyone, an agreement, a "deal" has already been decided in principal behind closed doors about the current US financial bailout.
Our legislative government, Congress, and, the President, are simply the hired help, paid employees, representatives of the very private interests they are supposedly attempting to regulate.
Mind you, not own, but, regulate.
Everything done and said publicly is all for purposes of political posturing.


So, the "deal" must appear to be the product of hard bargaining.
Thus, Congressional hearings, the dance macabre, some delays, tinkering, modifications, a little give and take, some compromising, etc.


But, if they/we were serious about "change," they/we would immediately seize this opportunity to demand compensation and collateral damage by shifting real, worthwhile, tangible assets, national resources and industries, away from the private to the public sector and, thus, create an equal and corresponding diminution and liquidation of the realm of possible private financial manipulation and capital.
Nationalized, public assets cannot be privately purchased, exchanged or traded.
No shares held, whatsoever.
That would immediately help shift, tip the balance of the equation.
Without that, nothing changes fundamentally.
There are other, additional steps. But, they never do that or any others. Instead, they maintain the length, breadth, width, depth and scope of private ownership through working class tax subsidies, without ever demanding an equal and compensatory growth of the public sector or any additional corresponding class actions.
They still can't even demand a universal, single payer health care insurance system in this country, let alone much of anything else.


Of course, our foreign policy corresponds with the above.
More on that another time.

Monday, September 22, 2008

THE MONEY-GO-ROUND BUBBLE


As I said, some time back, the US speculative bubble has experienced its orchestrated demise with a Big Bang for the finish.


Now, it moves on, elsewhere, to bigger, better, more fertile ground, the Middle East.

In addition to all else I have had on my blogs regarding an orchestrated, speculative, GCC Middle East privatization Bubble, NOW, at this very moment, "Short Selling to Debut in Egypt As the West Moves to Curb It,"

www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID
=16624

Further, US assets will CONTINUE to be purchased at bargain basement, depressed prices by the same monies recycled thru Middle East conduits in the money-go-round.

So, here's a new Middle East fund launched to do just that, "Investcorp Launches $1 Billion Investment Vehicle," regarding US property and real estate,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080922105119/lok105100080922

Investcorp is a very interesting company.
More on Investcorp, momentarily.


First, in addition to the above, on Investcorp, for the Arab speaking world, including the left hand sidebar, the following link.
It would be nice if I understood what they are saying, aside from the English language caption below the video,


www.zawya.com/video/default.cfm/sidVID20080922123550

I dearly welcome anyone who wishes to add any substantive commentary to the subject matter, above, at the bottom of this blog or thru personal e-mail in English from any Arab language sources.


Now, as promised, for more on Investcorp's background and its CEO, Nemir Kirdar, founder of Investcorp, from English language sources.

First, Investcorp Board of Directors.

Note, Saudi Prince Turki, who has an overlapping directorate with Abraaj, and Nemir Kirdar's prominent, extensive background and role as CEO and founder of Investcorp.
Altho the summary, below, does not mention it, Kirdar is Iraqi born and previous CEO of Chase Manhattan.

But, more on Kirdar, again, momentarily, below,

www.investcorp.com/getDoc.aspx?Doccd=Board
%20of%20Directors%20i&Appcd=Pgir2.6

I believe, if other sources I read are correct, Management and a "few" unnamed investors own 80% of Investcorp.


Now, for more on Nemir Kirdar, a most interesting fellow.

Here are some of the SIMPLEST links I could find to flush out his background and role in all this. If you do some searches, there is much more information available,

www.gcf2008.org/pages/bio_kirdar.html

and

www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/03/nemirKirdar.html

and, this from 1993,


www.iht.com/articles/1993/02/17/corp_0.php

By the way, I can't help but mentioning, since I am on the subject of interlocking, incestuous directorates, Dana Gas, with its interlocking directorate to Abraaj, mentioned above, (and Hamid Jafar/Jaffar), just received an award for "Best Company of the Year,"

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080921110457/lok110400080921

Now, there's alot more I would like to say linking our present, preplanned, US financial meltdown and depressed economy with the developments in the Gulf/Middle East represented above.
But, I have run out of time at the computer.

Basically, in a few very rushed remarks, I can only say, as usual, despite much hand wringing, no significant, fundamental or systemic changes will occur because no organized labor, class opposition exists, as I have shown on many, many previous blogs, and, thus, NO challenges or demands for compensation in the form of nationalization and ownership of our natural resources, industrial production, or liquidation and replacement of private finance and their holdings.
It's not more regulation that is needed, but, nationalization.

Nationalization of real, tangible assets, not private debt.

Instead, there will be a few token legislative reforms, after the barn door has been left wide open and it does not really matter, anyway, because the speculative US economic bubble has outlived its preplanned obsolescence and the speculative bubble has shifted offshore to "emerging" economies, such as those represented above.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

IRAN, TURKEY, NABUCCO, BILLIONAIRES CLUB EXPANDS


In the following article from the Turkish press, what I have claimed in past blogs is stated clearly as to who, potentially, will supply the Western backed Nabucco pipeline with gas, namely, Iraq and Iran, which, in my opinion, will come after or concomitant to Iran's "regime change,"

www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid
=115824

It is my personal belief, also, that Turkey is considered a transit state as they say in the above article, because it's pipeline company, BOTAS, remains state owned.

Assuming it privatizes, then, all of a sudden, Turkey's status will fall into a "possible" hub category.

On that point and somewhat in continuation of my previous blog, below, I happened to come across another outfit which measures and defines "freedom" related to private poperty rights throughout the world.
You can peruse their website for your country, state, region to see just how "free" you are, (there is an Arab section),

www.freetheworld.com/2008/091608_EFW-International.pdf

Now, in addition, the billionaire club is expanding.

In the following BRIEF article which I chose primarily because of its heading about the Samena Fund are names with which you should already be familiar in this tightknit, cozy, little world of interlocking and overlapping billionaire directorates and institutional shareholders,
"Billionaire's Group Launches Samena Fund,"

www.business24-7.ae/articles/2008/9/Pages/09162008_da9ccf8d831347469ea91b278c086c06
.aspx

To add more specifics to the above, be sure to check the Biographies of Directors in Samena at the bottom of the following link,

www.jetfinvestments.blogspot.com/2008/09/samena-capital-launched-to-exploit.html

And, finally, interlocking and overlapping directorates, from December, I believe, of last year, (the year is not given) between BMA Capital, Pakistan and Abraaj, including the usual list of familiar names of investors and institutional shareholders such as Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, etc.,


www.bmacapital.com/newver/aboutus/bmaJVpartner.html

I hate to end on the above note.

So, instead, here's another small historical reminder of why developments represented above are so nauseatingly, sickeningly obscene and then a brief musical counterbalancing note on which to end,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-bBXNq5nRY&NR=1

and


www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_A7Hu0uKNw&NR=1

Friday, September 19, 2008

EXPANDING PRIVATIZED HEALTH CARE AND MORE


Before adding anything to the cacophony of voices on our current predetermined financial meltdown, and equally predetermined Presidential s-election campaign, I want to update a very much interwoven and related subject matter, emblematic, at the core, at the heart of the other matters, privatizing health care here and abroad.


As a reminder, in a previous blog, I linked to an article about a partnership between the now infamous Abraaj Capital, (Hamid Jafar's interlocking directorates and his expanding empire of Dana Gas, Crescent Oil, etc,) with Turkey's AKP privatizing project, a Turkish medical firm, Acibadem.
The following link from my previous blog on the preceding subject about Acibadem and Abraaj,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080914105019/lok105000080914

Now, in a further, updated and related even more obscene, regional development, a government proposal for privatizing Egypt's health care system, DELAYED, according to the following article, but, I'm afraid, not stopped permanently, despite what they say at the moment,

www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID
=16572

Anyone, anywhere, in this region, throughout the globe MUST unite to stop this process!
Now.
Immediately!
Before it is too late.
Before it goes any further--the purpose of destroying Iraq's Baath Arab Socialist Party.
That is done...but...rising from the ashes!


In previous entries, I highlighted one of THE, single, most important domestic battles in the current US Presidential campaign and previous Democratic primaries, as well, was replacement, abolishment, of the current, private, for-profit health care insurance system in the US with an expanded, universal, SINGLE PAYER, non-profit, government sponsored insurance system.

Neither Democrat nor Republican supports single payer.
The reason. Obvious. Private, for-profit medical, health care insurance industry is extraordinarily lucrative.
A real bonanza.

And an equally, extraordinarily abysmal system.
A captive, macabre nation of "consumers," i.e., patients, to say the very least.

Now, I don't expect the Republicans to support single-payer.

But, the issue amply exposes the total, complete and utter hypocrisy of any so-called organized opposition in the US, the Vichy Democrats and why nobody in their right minds supports them, why no opposition, no Left exists and into this Unorganised class vacuum of perpetual betrayal can step someone like Sarah Palin.

The main labor union supporting the Obummer campaign, SEIU, "Change to Win," led by Andy Stern, is completely, 100% mafia, corrupt, Fascist led and in total and complete collaboration with private capital and it's international expansion, as well.
And, this is not a new development.
I have had background information on the challenges to SEIU in previous blogs, but, I will post more, here, for a little flavor of what I'm saying.
You can at least get a sense of SOME, by no means, all of the subject matter involved,


http://www.seiuvoice.org/

The above represents the tip of the iceberg, the culmination of a long background, regarding mafia penetration, corruption, pension fund investment, assassinations and replacement of Communist led labor unions and class collaboration in the US since the beginning of the 1950s McCarthy period up to and including the present.

I repeat, THIS is the reason why a Left political vacuum exists in the US.

This is why someone like Sarah Palin can step in and represent the working class in this country.
What ought to be the voice of the organized labor does NOT exist.

Organized class unity has been constantly, consistently, destroyed, divided, paralyzed, and betrayed, over and over again seemingly by their OWN representatives.

So, in one of those extraordinary cultural and political ironies, and an obvious backlash, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin from Alaska becomes a de facto working class hero, a representative, simply by virtue of the history and vacuum above and who or what she is or is not, her family background, her reasonably capable performance in Alaska and the fact that she has NOT been vetted by the customary, elite power institutions, she is not a seasoned, groomed, professional career politician nor does she represent the hypocritical, cynical, two faced, Establishment organizations, etc.

Thus, when she speaks, even if it sounds extraordinarily, remarkably, jaw dropping, ignorant, naive, innocent, stupid, misguided to me/us in foreign affairs, she is genuinely believed unlike ALL the sophisticated, jaded, cynical, hypocritical, two faced mouthpieces of the power elite and all their many stuffed orifices in this country.

From that point of view, she is useful TO THEM, and, at the same time, generates the POSSIBILITY to others that she might actually DO something alittle different from the purchased pimps, whores, prostitutes, etc. of the official power structure elites and institutions.

So, she actually represents hope and change more than the elusive candidate of change and hope, Obummer, who, in turn, is supported by the corrupt, mafia style Fascist union of "Change to Win," i.e, SEIU and Andy Stern.
Slogan coincidence accidental?


In that sense, Palin represents difference, change, hope, domestically, despite her seemingly contradictory, reactionary or simplistic outlook regarding international and foreign affairs.

Now, what will happen to Palin in the future, I cannot say.
I do not know if she will grow with her job, become jaded, cyncial and hypocritical, become marginalized or shielded precisely because of her innocence, and so on.
These are all open questions.
After all, because she is not two-faced, they cannot trust her to collaborate "in the power disinformation loop."


I firmly believe, for instance, she has absolutely no idea her own government colluded in 9/11.
I do not think she could even conceive of such a notion.


HOWEVER, she is not stupid.
She is ignorant.
She can learn.
So, IF and when at some future point in her career she becomes confronted with ever greater realities, facts, contradictions, evidence, experiences about which she was completely oblivious previously, I do not know how she will react.


In Alaska, she resigned from her WELL PAID job from 2003-04 as Ethics Supervisor for Alaska's Oil and Gas Commission when she encountered what she deemed impediments, obstructionist tactics, corruption and a lack of cooperation that she could not change.
Instead, she chose a path of resistance, not least resistance.
She openly exposed it/them and ran for Governor, which is why and how she became so popular.
So, IF past is prelude, it could be quite interesting.
But, that is idle speculation.


Now, personally, I will NOT vote for ANY political candidate who does not support single-payer health care.
Of course, other issues exist.
But, all are related to the fundamental premise of expanding privatization, here and abroad.
This issue happens to be a no-brainer, the bottom line, a starter, the beginner.
If any party or candidate and/or those supporting or apologizing for them cannot act on this one issue, they cannot act in a principled manner on anything else.


Now, I will conclude with just a few brief additional comments to the otherwise voluminous amount of information available on the internet and everywhere else regarding our current, totally foreseen and anticipated, manufactured, speculative bubble and financial crisis.

I have had much on previous blogs about what I labelled, "Marx on Steroids," financial products abstracted to the Nth degree, multiplied so many times over that nobody really understands the value of the underlying products, anymore.
Derivatives, short selling, hedge funds, etc.

Such speculative bubbles coming to the greater Middle East transformation project.

I will add only this to the many voices.

Our federal government financial bailout represents, for the most part, a transfer of working class money to unearned income.
Taxpayer money, in a disproportionately high percentage, comes from EARNED income exchanged for labor which, in turn, is calculated, evaluated by time.
There is no such equivalency between monies received by the propertied class and and any exchange of their time or labor.
Their disproportionately high income, money, or subsidies is justified by a codified, abstract, legal fiction of private property rights, investment paper, ownership, enforced, codified and upheld via the long arm of legal, state coercion.


That is, was the primary purpose of the US Constitution, including, at the time, of course, when it was first written, human property in the form of slaves, in addition to monetary debt and land.

All subsequent additions and modifications to the Constitution came through hard, bitter, protracted struggles, resistance, etc., altho, the underlying, basic purpose of our Constitution, political and legislative organizational structure, fundamentally remains unchanged.

If you do not understand how the system works, I suggest you go out immediately and begin reading Marx, all 3 volumes of Capital.
I cannot possibly explain more in a blog.

Again, not to overdo the cacophony of voices, I will emphasize only two points--ones I've had many times over on my previous blogs, because they are related, as well, to the Middle East.

Remember, a few blogs ago, I highlighted JP Morgan Chase and the "First Persia Fund" as to who will dominate regarding regime change, congruency and policy in Iran, JP Morgan and friends or Ahmadimidget's clerical regime and friends.

Both Morgan Stanley, or, JP Morgan Chase and/or the Citigroup, Citibank, octopus ALWAYS win.
They come out on top of the heap, victorious, including their Nazi dealings, during and after WWII, altho Citigroup did not exist then.

It helps to know something about their insidious history and role.
So, now matter what you hear and see, consolidation will inevitably work for, not against them. Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase are heavyweights. They practically ARE the US.
Their vast, intertwined domestic and global holdings, power, connections and influence cannot be underestimated or overstated.


So, here's alittle help, a statistical snippet on Morgan highlighted in the context of Morgan's recent Bahrain association,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080919064320/lok64300080919

And, as well, if you SKIM DOWN TOWARDS THE BOTTOM of the following link, there is a nice little chart, with a few more helpful informative details about Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

The only reason I picked the article below is/was both for its very simple chart towards the bottom/end, AND, as well, a few explanatory sentences, paragraphs just above, preceding the chart referring both to Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid
=10268

But, to end on a contrasting, upbeat note, the antidote and reminder of past tumultuous events and future earthquakes always possible,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTMQJi_wDi8

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

"MID EAST BRIGHT SPOT FOR INT'L INVESTORS"


While US capital markets experience their predetermined "Big Bang," in contrast, the above, following headline sums it up neatly,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080917081036/lok081000080917

Regarding SWF investment,


www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080917103803/lok103800080917

From one of my other favorites, EFG-Hermes,

"Time to Enter..."

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080917054807/lok54800080917

This is the Middle East speculative Bubble and transformation I've been following for so long, orchestrated primarily from the so-called GCC states.

Another one of those numerous open secrets, right in front of everyone's nose.

The first and primary sacrificial lamb in the above "transformative" process has been Iraq, Hussein and the Baath Arab SOCIALIST Party.

For an alternative, eloquent, subjective refraction of the consequences of this process, above,

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m47275

Another key development and direction of the winds of change blowing down the regime change and congruency Iraq/Iran/US corridor, the following delay in the Kurdistan Gas City opening celebrations,

www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/refid/E2F-16-09-2008/article/36561

Too many developments, too numerous for me to itemize and follow.
Consider the above representative of the canary in the coalmine.

Now, I have absolutely NO problem with any forthcoming regime change from Iran in Iraq to something or someone else.
Within the American power vacuum, the Palin-McCain candidacy does represent a change of sorts, change to an old time, classical notion of nationalism, which will be comparable to that of Putin-Russia at the moment.
They will balance out each other.
And, this will affect policy abroad, including Iran and Russia.


Since any possibility of a viable, organized Left alternative in the US is sabotaged by our fake Left, Vichy Democrats and Fascist unions, whenever it arises, McCain-Palin fills the void by default and design.

Putin's Russia is certainly not defending and projecting socialism either at home or throughout the globe.
The Russian economy remains highly privatized, with the one notable exception of Gazprom, 51% state owned, and the source of much power projection, export, leverage and income.

For some excellent reporting on the intricacies of Russia's oligarchs/capitalists, John Helmer is always the man.

I will link to 3 of his most recent articles, in case anyone is interested,

www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page39?oid=62712&sn=Detail

www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JI16Ag01.html

www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JI17Ag01.html

So, basically, the US will do something similar, a la Teddy Roosevelt, someone to which both McCain and Palin like to refer.

As for Palin's candidacy, here, it continues to cause much commentary. Much, most of the commentary I see, hear, read about her person or candidacy is sophomoric.
Lots of knee jerk reactions, jargon, name calling, caricature and arguments reductio ad absurdum.


I do not know even how to get a handle on this sort of logic.

It's most curious to me that she is singled out as the embodiment of Evil, Danger, Ignorance, Threat, Stupidity, whatever, incarnate.

The most dangerous woman in the US or the world, according to some of the hyperbole.

In reality, both her person and her career pale in comparison to all and everyone else that I could name who actually have made their careers and policies in ways that disastrously impact the world, globally and locally.
In comparison, her career is a benign one, even stellar, in the sense that she negotiated deals with the major energy companies in behalf of the public far better than many others.
That is the bulk of her public service record.

Those are just facts, her legislative and political record.

Since she has not been on the national scene and she is not a CEO or representative of any major power broker, corporation, etc., one can not really say much else about her policies or record other than Alaska, where, basically, she functioned as a manager, an administrator, or, if you prefer, a CEO, in her job as the Governor of Alaska, and, as such, she did a more than reasonably decent and competent job representing her constituents.

It is alot more valuable and instructive to understand WHY she is/was popular amongst more or less working class constituents and why such a vacuum exists in the first place.
The problem is NOT her.
She did NOT create the vacuum.

The fault, dear Brutus, lay within, which is why those most opposing her are not about to dissect their own role.
Much better to cast aspersions and throw stones.

Monday, September 15, 2008

ENTER NATO/EU

Following up from my previous blog, "Regime Change Update," below, first, regarding Finland, Scandinavia and NATO expansion, from the misnomer Democratic "peace" candidate's group, the Baltic Caucus,

www.jbanc.org/geo69.html

Then, coincident with the above, regarding Finnish investment into Turkey, including, of course, Akbank, i.e., Citigroup-Akbank-Parsian,


www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?
enewsid=114946

More on NATO and Turkey,


www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?
enewsid=115317

Further on the Nabucco pipeline and its "alternative gas sources," like Iraq,


www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?
enewsid=115294

And, on that same point, alternative to Russian gas supplies to Europe from Iran,


www.payvand.com/news/08/sep/1174.html

Then, "Oil Giants Flock to Iraq Auction," which, they say, includes Gazprom, but, I would imagine Gazprom will not be included.
Perhaps, Lukoil.

Still, PRESENTLY it is a fee-based arrangement,

www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/refid/E2F-15-09-2008/article/36490

And, for those of you who have already forgotten the most recent lovely little war in Gaza, recall, who was victorious and why it was initiated, "Egypt Resumes Pumping Gas to Israel," and the EMG versus the PA-BG gas deal,

www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?
ArticleID=16278

As for the US, it's a done deal. What's happens here, economically, does not matter.
Designed collapse so they can reorganize themselves, concentrate economically, move capital offshore and repurchase American assets at bargain basement prices, including cheap labor.


The future speculative economic bubble, privatization transformation, PROFITABILITY, lies above.

And, the American working class, thanks to their Fascist led unions and fake Left collaborators, have allowed themselves to become totally irrelevant in this bargain.

They've demanded NOTHING and will get nothing in return.

They are simply collateral damage in this story.

And, McCain will win, of course.
That's a given.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

REGIME CHANGE UPDATE

So, where are we now according to my previous script on the aforementioned subject, congruity and regime change between Iran, Iraq, US, etc?
Regime change coming in the US.
Enter, McCain-Palin, or, Palin-McCain.
Take that to the bank.

Palin MAY have been an early "October Surprise" this time.
Don't imagine much else will be necessary, at this point.
But, could be wrong on that last point.

Ahmadimidget's, clerical, Fascist regime and its/his barbaric militias and Republican Guards, OUT.
Instead, NATO IN.

Regarding NATO and Iraq,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080912074641/lok7460080912

And, two related highlights out of many more on the theme of congruent regime change in Iran, Iraq, US, etc,


www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidANA208258133626/lok113600080914

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidANA175258121421/lok101400080914

Of course, related with Iran regime change, Maliki out,


www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/refid/E2F-13-09-2008/article/36406

The above reported in numerous sources with details, specifics and narratives varying abit.


Reports "denying" secret meetings between Cheney and Iranian representatives in Italy on Cheney's latest, recent European trip.
I don't believe the denials.

As the expression goes, if I were a fly on the wall when they met, wonder what I would hear?
Something like, maybe, mafia Godfather, Cheney, says to his son, Iran/Iraq's Al-Rubiae, named in the article above about NATO, and whose function ought to be familiar to everyone, by now,

"We had a good deal while it lasted, old buddy, Al-Rubaie.
Nice collaborating with you, but, new crowd coming into Washington.
So, we need you to get with the new program.
You know what is your job, now. "


So, no war with Iran.
Just regime change.
Iran and Ahmadimidget's Fascist militias and Revolutionary Guard OUT. They, like Sadr, may not go quietly into the sunset, altho, Sadr's militias are finished.
Still unresolved.
The status of Kirkuk, the KRG, the Peshmerga forces, provincial elections and an oil law.
And, of course, the partnership between Heritage Oil and the Eagle Group of Iraq, whom I believe to be Talabani until proven wrong.


Now, for another truly sickening "congruency" chapter in the greater Middle East privatization project, the infamous Abraaj Capital (Hamid Jafar's interlocking Dana Gas, Crescent Oil, etc., directorate and empire) now extends its dirty tentacles and reach into Turkey's PRIVATIZING health care system, with, of course, help from our own wunderkind of privatized health care, Harvard University, from whence Obummer graduated,

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080914105019/lok105000080914

After being totally screwed and betrayed by the Vichy Democrats and our collaborative, Fascist unions, here, the same shit is being foisted upon others.
Welcome to the dysfunctional wonders of a privatized, health care Disneyland world.


And, once again, for the Arabic speaking world, I am including another video link, with more on the left hand sidebar,

www.zawya.com/video/default.cfm/sidVID20080914114909

Even though I have NO idea what is being said, nonetheless it is enjoyable to listen to the sound and allow my imagination to run wild as to content. For the most part, I inhabit a world of fiction and denial, anyway.
So, methodologically, it is consistent to imagine what is being said.
Facts are merely an impediment, an obstruction to be overcome.


As for the Western backed Nabucco gas pipeline, that's happening.
The "other gas sources" alluded to in the following article, no doubt, are privatized ones from Iraq/Iran, Dana, Shell, etc.,


www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid
=114950

And, while on the subject of multiple energy pipelines and Turkey, the following caught my attention mostly because Erdogan's son is a senior executive in the project,

www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?
enewsid=115199

That leaves just Russia and Putin, who will do nothing, absolutely nothing, to inhibit or impede the privatization process in the Middle East, nor regime change in Iran.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

PALIN AND ALASKA'S GAS PIPELINE CONTINUED

While the bullshit flies about "Hurricane," as she has been dubbed, Palin's personal life, her religion, family, etc., the Alaska natural gas pipeline she negotiated remains THE dominant factor in her meteoric rise, career and popularity in Alaska and studying exactly what happened, its terms, etc., is very illustrative and revealing.

I realize this is not as "sexy" a subject as others and some might regard this as arcane.
That's fine with me.
No obligation to buy.
Just skip this blog.
But, if you are interested, here goes.


First of all, start with the fact that NO nationalization of industry exists in the US.

So, following are all the many exquisite, convoluted machinations, gyrations and manipulations of competing private interests and profitability to get anything done, rather than proceeding forward on a straight line and trajectory and allocation of resources, labor, etc.

In previous blogs, I provided some material, as best I could hurriedly muster up, on Palin's Alaska natural gas pipeline Transcanada negotiations.

In the following additional links, my previous central thesis seems to me reaffirmed, the distinguishing factor of Palin's Transcanada gas deal from others was that she circumvented, circumnavigated, challenged the monopoly of the big 3 major private, gas "lease" owners, ConocoPhillips, BP and ExxonMobil.

Here is another clear statement of the obvious, above,

www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080110-1217-alaskagaspipeline.html

In the following are details of her negotiations for a separate, additional pipeline to supply Alaska state with inexpensive gas.

Again, she continues circumventing the absolute control and dictate of terms by introducing the possibility of tax-exempt, state bond financing in a public/private partnership with a local, investor owned, delivery firm, Enstar,

www.bondbuyer.com/article.html?id=
20080717LMBSOEMP

And, here's alittle something about Enstar,

www.enstarnaturalgas.com/CompanyInfo/AboutUs.htm

Altho philosophically identifying herself as a free-marketeer, she applies her notion of "competition" to BALANCE, or, redress, what she deems a lopsided power equation favoring multinational monopoly control over resources, delivery, terms and pricing.

Whatever she wishes to call it, she winds up shifting the balance of power in a more favorable direction towards the public in the public/private partnership.
She winds up with a more equitable, balanced 'partnership" and one that is a more POTENTIALLY socialized/public form of ownership.


The situation, however, still remains unsure.

Enter, the Federal government.

In order for her/Alaska state's Transcanada pipeline deal to go through, it must get approval from FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And, it is said, FERC, who most assuredly represents the big 3 interests above, will not approve two competing pipelines, Denali, which is the BP-Conoco-Exxon consortium and Transcanada.
Further, it is claimed, the 3 majors must ultimately agree to supply Transcanada with gas.


Now, just to give one a thumbnail sketch of all the many complex, competing and conflicting economic factors that I have not considered, above, in our dysfunctional, private, energy supply system, consider the following roundup, which I was surprised to notice happened to mention my own blog.
I did not choose it for that reason.

http://www.arcticgaspipeline.com/

The Hurricane Palin saga to be continued at a later date.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

THE SARAH PALIN CONUNDRUM AND CONTRADICTION


While the international and domestic chattering class is busy scribbling away, working overtime on the internet analyzing, critiquing, debating, squabbling over foreign policy and the US Presidential race--I certainly appreciate international affairs and spent most of my blog discussing it--it seems NOBODY extends domestic policy into foreign policy and visa-versa.


Working class people and issues simply are invisible.
A non-factor.
They do not exist.


Enter Sarah Palin's candidacy, which exactly highlights the conundrum and contradiction into which the fake Left, the Vichy Democrats, our collaborative Fascist unions and just about everyone else, the pundits, politicians, here and abroad, have put themselves.

For example, presently, machinists at one of the largest US aircraft firms on the West Coast, Boeing, are on strike.
What will happen next?
What will they get?
Probably, nothing, or, next to nothing.
They will settle after a few weeks.
Why?
If for no other reason than their health care insurance will EXPIRE after a few weeks.
They will have NO health care after that point.


That's a result of our miserable, patchwork, for-profit medical, health care insurance system which BOTH our totally bankrupt, corrupt, collaborative Fascist unions and the Vichy Democrats continue to support, together, in unison.

Ironically, one the issues over which they are striking, increased cost of their medical premiums!

My advice to the machinists on strike, go home and eat your health care benefit plan.

Then, complete your indigestible and unpalatable meal by voting for the Vichy Democrats whom your automatic union dues deduction supports, along with your corporate pension fund investment plan.
Maybe, they will choke, regurgitate and/or expire on the above meal.

I won't even bother discussing or mentioning our anti-labor Taft-Hartley law on the books since the McCarthy period, which restricts sympathy strikes.

The ONLY Presidential candidate who supports repeal of Taft-Hartley is Nader.
The others, including the unions, do not even bother mentioning it.
Nor, of course, do they support Nader.
The machinist Boeing strike also concerns out-sourcing and job insecurity. Maybe they should propose nationalizing their industry.
But, we are not allowed to mention the N word.
And, certainly, they don't.


Of course, our collaborators, Fascist led, anti-communist, labor unions represent only 13% or so of the work force.
And, the bulk of this meagre 13% or so unionized work force, again, ironically, is in the ever diminishing, under attack, underfunded public sector, the ones who fare the best precisely because they are in the public sector and who recycle their pensions into private corporations.


Internal contradictions and ironies multiply and multiply.

It's a heck of a lot easier and safer for the chattering class and their careers to dissect the abstract cadaver of our OBVIOUSLY Fascist foreign policy than it is to actually do something concrete to change this balance of power relationship, to organize the unorganized, confront their own union leadership, support the militant rank and file opposition and international unity when it does emerge.
This is where the dialectical opposition emanates from.
But, that is dangerous, hard work and an unsafe career.


Let's get at least one simple fact straight for all the working class charlatans dismissive of Sarah Palin.
First and foremost, Sarah Palin and her family are REAL.
They are not papier mache, cookie cutter version politicians and career ideologues.

They, her family ARE very, very representative and typical of the values, (hard work, religion, patriotism, FAIR PLAY, competition, honesty, etc,) and situation of many, many working class, middle class, middle American families.
They/she are believers, of course, in my opinion, naively so, in these "American" values, as opposed to the cynical manipulations of the above for purposes of control by ruling, propertied class circles and their opportunistic, bought and paid for, mouthpiece politicians, ideologues, apologists and collaborators.


Thus, all the smear campaigns, spin, distortions, stereotyping and denigration of Palin by the Obama crowd, their surrogates, etc., have all backfired and will continue to do so.
Real people identify with her and will continue to do so.
They will not be convinced otherwise.
Palin is NOT a career, professional politician and opportunist who knowingly and cynically speaks out of all sides of her mouth and somewhere else in between.
That does NOT mean she is totally virtuous and correct about everything. But, it does nobody any good to caricature, demean, misrepresent, and categorize her into the tabloid sensationalism of gutter politics.
All it does is demean those utilizing such tactics and in no way facilitates critical understanding.


If a principled, organized, militant, working class movement and opposition existed in this country, they would embrace her and encourage her to join them, instead of denigrating her and her family.
She is testimony to the existence of such a vacuum.
There is nowhere for these folks to go but to someone like Sarah Palin, who represents them more than the above cynical, hypocritical manipulations of stereotypical, simplistic "identity" politics that they themselves have created and manipulate for their own purposes.


Now, what will happen to Palin and her policies AFTER she is elected is an unknown.

Someone offered me a cynical, and, therefore, to me, plausible hypothesis that her nomination was a win-win both for corrupt Alaska politics and McCain's election victory.
She was at one and the same time removed from being a thorn in the side of Alaska's corrupt politics and the 3 dominant oil/energy companies and a major strategic plus, a gain for McCain's election.


Then, come many more questions as to what will be her role after they are elected.

Will she be sidelined?
Will the Transcanada pipeline have a friend in the White House?
What transformations will happen to her, her career, her family, her/their values, beliefs as they/she begin to confront the profoundly sleazy shit and compromises she can not even conceive or imagine at the moment.

She is a work in progress.

After what I deemed a necessary caveat, above, on domestic American politics and Sarah Palin, back to the international arena, which I do prefer simply because American politics is so totally and completely bankrupt--a thorough, complete Fascist dictatorship.

Regarding what I had previously said about supplying private gas from southern Iraq/Iran and the Basra region to Europe via Nabucco and/or additional pipelines, thus, circumventing Gazprom, the following, regarding Shell, but, clearly, related to Dana Gas as well, "Iraq Approves Gas Deal with Dutch-Shell," (numerous sources available for this story),

www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080908044929/lok044900080907

And, as for the ongoing Iranian nuke problem, an excellent possible solution.
A high growth industry.
Convert the entire Middle East and countries surrounding Iran and Russia into a high powered nuclear zone to counter Iran.
Watch for that one.
It fits nicely into NATO expansion, Missile Defense, and a militarized ring zone around Russia.


Reminder.
"Iran's" nuke plant is a RUSSIAN project.


The following succinct article, as usual, from the Turkish press, neatly sums up the obvious, regarding Russia, Georgia, the US,

www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?
enewsid=114734

Under the above circumstances, Iran's continued nuke project may be useful as an excuse to further militarize the region and encircle Russia, whereas its demise would be counterproductive towards these ends.

Thank you Iran.
As usual, you do a great job for all the reactionaries of the world.


And, of course, the GCC Bubble, related to all of the above, continues merrily forward, Dana Gas expansion, Basra, Turkey, Abraaj, etc.
Too much to itemize.
But, as you may recall, hopefully, from my previous blogs, the latest from Abraaj ( Abraaj's Hamid Jafar interlocking directorates with Dana, Crescent, Pakistan, et.al),


www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080908104136/lok104100080908

And, for my Arab speaking friends, I TRY to accommodate alittle with my very limited resources.
Clearly, you can follow these sources yourself on al-arabiya much better than I, since I depend on the English language captions, ONLY, underneath and have NO idea what they are saying.


If I could access Arabic, it would certainly be helpful.

Anyway, here is a sample about "Algebra Capital," a PRIVATE investment firm.
You can go to the Algebra Capital website, but, you will not be able to find out who are Algebra's major investors.
And, if you look on the left hand sidebar, you will see more featured videos with the heading, "Gulf Markets Remain the Best for Investments" in a multi part series.
So, here's the Algebra Capital video link.
( I must say, an ingenious name. A play on words and homage to the region in which algebra was developed. Have to give credit where credit is due--the name.)


www.zawya.com/video/default.cfm/sidVID20080908073129

Reinforcement, as if it were needed, "Investment Banks Target Middle East,"


www.gulfnews.com/articles/08/09/07/10243191.html

And, EFG-Hermes also continues merrily along, expanding with all the other financial interconnections I have been following,


www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080909085145/lok085100080909

Saturday, September 6, 2008

MCCAIN IN, IRAN OUT, ABIOTIC OIL AND GAS


A few ecclectic notes.


First of all, as I said awhile back on my blogs, from the inception of the Presidential primaries, McCain is going to win.
The Presidential race and primaries were a setup from the get-go.
There are/were two Republican candidates in the Presidential primaries, McCain and Obummer.
One was scheduled to lose.
A throwaway candidate, O'Bummer.
The race is fixed.


To Hillary, once again, you "coulda been somebody" to paraphrase Brando in the movie, "On the Waterfront," if only you had the guts and chutzpah to lead your troops OUT of the Vichy Democratic Party, which is destined to go down.
DOA, Dead on Arrival.

Enter, Sarah Palin.
The wild card.
I wonder who in McCain's campaign actually selected her and when they/he made that decision.
Just my own ruminations.


Meanwhile, STILL NO discussion about the SPECIFICS of Palin's Transcanada gas deal versus Exxon, ConocoPhilips, BP Denali pipeline.
The Transcanada deal is WHY she has an 85% approval rating in Alaska.
Not because of her personal or social life.
And, why she has some big time enemies.


The Transcanada Alaskan gas pipeline project which Palin negotiated represents the single largest private project development in US history.
In the following link some more substance is provided on the two proposed, competing gas pipeline projects, Transcanada and Denali.


The Transcanada pipeline will NOT be limited to BP, Exxon, Conoco, who presently owns/leases the bulk of "known" Alaskan gas tracts. Transcanada will be open to other, as yet, unknown gas suppliers.
Further, one can immediately see the enormous difference in market capitalization between the two, $26 Billion versus $360 Billion. One can only wish for one step further from Palin.
Reassert national ownership/control of all gas/energy supplies and throw out the 3 major owners, above.
And/or, make the pipeline a state owned one.
That would solve the whole problem immediately and alot more.

But, Palin would be dead either before or immediately after that happened.

www.alaskaalliance.com/pdf/602_gas_pipeline_bids_comp.pdf

Anyway, the Transcanada gas deal is far from a fait accompli.
It remains to be seen what happens next after she gets elected.
But, Palin represents no small town gal and no small town Governor.

Far from it.

For some additional considerations in all these equations.

It is NOT the source or supply of gas/oil about which everybody is competing, both here and abroad.
That's Competition with a "C" but NOT for Cooperation, alas, which is THE problem.

Anyway, the a-biotic theory of gas and oil generation means one can theoretically drill anywhere on the globe and come up with gas and oil.
A glut of gas and oil.
Abundance.
The only question--how deep is it necessary to drill.
Not everywhere on the globe is equal.


So, why isn't everyone doing this and declaring energy independence?
Oil and gas are in abundant supply.
A renewing source bubbling up from deep below the earth's mantel, if the theory holds.


Instead, an artificial global division and equilibrium is maintained between exporting energy countries/states and their importing client countries/states.

Everybody, including the financial institutions, participates in and perpetuates this illusory fiction.

Nobody wants to break the huge, enormous, high stakes, global profitability bubble of this delicate, economic balancing act, including Gazprom.

According to the abiotic gas and oil theory, however, such long, extended pipelines and delivery systems do not make sense.
Why not drill much closer to home, to the intended market?
Not to mention safety factors.
How much is necessary?
For what, which, whose purposes?
More consumption?
Industrial production?
What about conserving, recycling and alternative energy forms, in which I include government sponsored and owned hydropower, the TVA, here, for example, clean coal technologies, etc?

These are all rhetorical questions, obviously.

Anyway, with McCain's pre-selection will come the end of the special Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Iranian dalliance, collaboration and military dominance in Iraq.
This is the real meaning of "change," to which everybody is referring.


And, the end of Ahmadimidget's clerical dominance and militias both in Iraq and Iran.

Not the end of Dana Gas, or, Iran AND Iraq's PRIVATE commercial relations.
Far from it.
Just the opposite.
A new day will be dawning on that one.


Iran's NEW government will probably supply privatized gas to the Nabucco pipeline and onto Europe.
Iraq will have a new government.
Maliki will be gone.
Perhaps, Allawi will return.
A recent assassination attempt was made on Chalabi.
A whole new power sharing arrangement will be in order in Iraq.
Enter, as well, international "peacekeepers."
And, Talabani will also be demoted from his present position.


Meanwhile, on the other side of the world from Alaska, an additional BP centered power struggle, factors impacting events in Georgia.
Russia's TNK-BP.
As usual, John Helmer does a great analysis.
Most interesting to me is the part where he speculates on reassertion of possible Russian state ownership in TNK-BP,

www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=61707&sn=Detail

Friday, September 5, 2008

NATO AND 'CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE...'


First, a word on NATO, whose acronym should be retitled, Nazi Terror or Treaty Organization, or, North Atlantic Terror Organization.
But, North Atlantic isn't an adequate description, since it is much larger and global in its alliances.


Anyway, for something about the"ties that bind," above, you can go to the following website for a conference held this past Wednesday, September 3. I had hoped there would be a transcript and/or video link available at their website, but, apparently, it is not yet provided.
I assume it will be, shortly.

There are two links featured at the following which I suggest you access and peruse to see both who is/was in attendance and their subject matter,

www.ideea.com/comdef08/index.htm

While the above did not have video or transcript available, yet, there is a video of the appx 4 hour conference available on C-Span.

Once at C-Span's website, to which I will link, momentarily, simply search the lower left hand corner of C-Span's homepage under a box headed, "Recent Programs" on their homepage.
Then, once at the "Recent Programs" box, scroll BACKWARDS, DOWN until you come across a program entitled, "ComDef 2008 Forum on Defense Priorities in an Age of Persistent Conflict," from Wednesday, Sept 3.
Presently, it is on page 5 of C-Span's website under their "Recent Programs" listings.
As more programs are added, it will be bumped from page 5 further backwards.
So, depending on when you read this and look for it, the page number for the program listing will probably be different from that presently,

http://www.c-span.org/

Next, I parodied a pop melody, above, in my heading, that began with the words, "Change..change...change," since this is the tune that everybody keeps singing in our fake, Presidential s-election race.

Well, Palin is getting viciously attacked by the Party of the Vichy Democrats of Fake Change or Our Lady (Party) of Perpetual Change.

Of course, none of them, including Palin, has so far mentioned the specifics of her Transcanada gas contract and the role of the oil majors, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, and BP and their competitive pipeline, Denali.

Instead, they are all focused on social issues, babies, religion, sex, gossip and god.

Never mind contradictory support by the fake Left, Liberals, Vichy Democrats, for the oppressive, reactionary, fundamentalist, pseudo-Islamic religious regimes of Iran and Turkey's AKP, for example.
Apparently, what's good for the goose is not good for the gander.
Hey, folks, why are you complaining ?
Join the crowd, above, the great, maligned, progressive, Ahmadimidget and his Islamic followers and Turkey's great reformers, their AKP!
And, while I'm at it, related to the above hypocrisy, Obama's career happens also to be tied in with pseudo-religious Fundamentalism.
He has affiliations with comparable, bogus, criminal, oppressive, misogynist, fake, Islamic cult groupings, here, in the US, namely, Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam,

www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66167

They have somewhat similar, overlapping functions as Islamic Fundamentalists elsewhere, but, with a corresponding American flavor to make them fit into the specifics of our culture and political milieu.

Still, they are nothing but bogus, reactionary, criminal, mafia like operations.
As such, they are far more reactionary and oppressive than anything Palin could possibly represent.
They are the ones who assassinated Malcolm X.
I like to refer to them as what they are, the Black Mafia.
So, where's the hue and cry about them?
Alittle consistency and less self-serving hypocrisy, please.

Well, that's how the fake opportunistic political divide is manufactured in our society.

But, of course, with Palin, now, they are caught in contradictions of their own making, created by superficial, arbitrary and opportunistically generated categories and divisions, like those above.

And, it's great fun and entertainment to watch them all squirm and squeal around like stuffed pigs to reconcile the irreconcilable.

Those folks, above, have an internal dilemma.

Palin and her hubbie REALLY ARE working class.
They are the real deal.
But, then, IF one's unions and working class are reactionary arms of an equally fake opposition, the Vichy Democratic Party, what can they say?
These/they ARE YOUR people.
Why are you chastising, belittling, criticizing, demeaning and alienating them?

Another hypocritical double standard.

As I have repeated and highlighted on this blog, ad nauseum, American and other Western unions invest their workers pension funds into private, multinational corporations.
This makes the "success" of the former, their pension funds, dependant upon the latter.
They are economically, inextricably intertwined. Married together.

And, here's one of many illustrations on the above pattern about the Calif State Retirement Fund and Giza Venture Capital,

www.globes-online.com/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000378562

This represents a BASIC, FUNDAMENTAL class contradiction.
First and foremost, to solve it requires acknowledging and CONFRONTING IT and decoupling labor unions from their role as pension fund investors.
The corollary.
Expand our already existing national pension system, Social Security, which is thoroughly underfunded, inadequate, and constantly threatened.


Our present day unions are merely profitable businesses with CEO's who exist to "control and manage" the working class by recycling, ironically, mostly publicly earned pension monies into private investment instruments as well as make sure labor never combines together militantly for wages, working conditions, nationalization of industry, an independent foreign policy, or anything of anything else along these lines.
In this way is class managed and controlled in this country.

This is made abundantly clear by our current Presidential campaign.
Neither the Vichy Democrats nor their partners in crime, our Fascist labor unions, put forward the one, simple, most basic universal demand, a SINGLE PAYER, government sponsored, not for profit, health care insurance system in this country.
They simply all collaborated, once again, not to threaten the interest of the private health care insurers.
Of course, in addition, their pension funds are either directly or indirectly invested in the for-profit health care insurance industry.

For those of you on the rest of the planet who already possess government sponsored health care, just imagine what you would do if your politicians and labor leaders suddenly announced they were ending it, unilaterally.
Do you think it would be an inconsequential issue?

So, why should we, in the US, accept this as a fait accompli?
Yet, it is so, by virtue of consistent class collaboration and betrayal combining all the above.

Given all this and an awful lot more that I cannot itemize in a short blog, what difference does it make to me, to us, to the American working class, if McCain and Palin versus the other two throw away candidates, "Uncle Tom" O'Bummer and his sidekick, Biden, come into office?

About what, which, whose fundamental "change" are we talking?