Giza Death Star

A Website of Alternative Thinkers & Dr. Joseph P. Farrell

32 Comments

THE FITZGERALD AND MCCAIN INCIDENTS, APPLE, GOOGLE, & CHINA

Before we get to today's blog topic, I want to extend some remarks of thanks to all of you who've been so patient as this never-ending saga of delays never ends. This has played havoc with my ability to schedule anything for almost a year and a half, and hence this month I have not yet scheduled any vidchats nor been able to schedule any interviews. Needless to say, this is not easy to deal with, and I truly appreciate everyone's patience. I am exhausted and dog tired from constantly getting things ready, and then having the schedule collapse once again. So thank you for understanding and for your patience.  This means, also, that blogs and News and Views are up in the air this week as well, but I will try to keep everyone apprised.  Some components have arrived, which now sit uselessly in big boxes in my living room.

In any case, by way of context to introduce today's blog, regular readers here will recall that when the USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain had their respective collisions off the coasts of Japan and Singapore, I was suspicious. The US Navy wanted us, at the time, to write this all off to incompetence and poor training. Indeed, a few military or former military that I am familiar with, also tried to convince me that this was, indeed, the reason. I remain, however, skeptical of it. At the time, it seemed to me that perhaps some sort of exotic hacking - remote or otherwise - might have occurred, not only to the American ships, but also to the ships which collided with them. My suspicions fell on Russia, even though regular readers here know I'm not a "blame-Russia-for-everything" person. The reason for that was the two suspicious incidents involving Russian aircraft, and the shutdown of electrical systems on the USS Donald Cook, first in the Black Sea, then again in the Baltic. The Russians demonstrated similar electronic warfare capability when they first intervened in Syria, so it was a reasonable guess to make at the time.

But there is another story that has recently come to light that may have some bearing on all of this, and indeed, so many people sent versions of it that I was positively overwhelmed; almost the entire list of people - and then some - who share articles on a regular basis did so here. If I were to make a simple "guesstimate" of the percentage of that list who did so, I'd say it was easily around 80 percent. In any case, it was a record, and thank you to all of you who passed along various versions of the story.

The story is that the Chinese have been planting tiny microchips, in effect, hacking the hardware, and that this hardware has infected major American corporations such as Apple, Google, and even the Central Intelligence Agency. (Gee, go figure! Who would have thought the Chinese would do that after farming out the tech industry to them?) Here are two versions of the story:

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Explosive Report Details Chinese Infiltration Of Apple, Amazon And The CIA

There's something in the Zero Hedge article that caught my eye, as it did the many people who passed it along:

One week ago, President Trump stood up at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council and accused China of attempting to tamper with US elections - mimicking some of the same allegations that had first been levied against Russia nearly two years prior. In his speech, Trump claimed that China was working to undermine Republicans, and even the president himself, warning that "it's not just Russia, it's China and Russia." While the media largely shrugged off this proclamation as more presidential bombast probably inspired by the burgeoning US-China trade beef, the administration continued to insist that it was taking a harder line against Chinese efforts to subvert American companies to aide the Communist Party's sprawling intelligence apparatus. As if to underline Trump's point, the FBI had arrested a Taiwanese national in Chicago the day before Trump's speech, accusing the 27-year-old suspect of trying to help China flip eight defense contractors who could have provided crucial intelligence on sensitive defense-related technology.

But in a game-changing report published Thursday morning, Bloomberg Businessweek exposed a sprawling multi-year investigation into China's infiltration of US corporate and defense infrastructure.Most notably, it confirmed that, in addition to efforts designed to sway US elections, China's intelligence community orchestrated a pervasive infiltration of servers used to power everything from MRI machines to the drones used by the CIA and army. They accomplished this using a tiny microchip no bigger than a grain of rice.

BBG published the report just hours before Vice President Mike Pence was expected to "string together a narrative of Chinese aggression" during a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington. According to excerpts leaked to the New York Times, his speech was expected to focus on examples of China's "aggressive moves against American warships, of predatory behavior against their neighbors, and of a sophisticated influence campaign to tilt the midterms and 2020 elections against President Trump". His speech is also expected to focus on how China leverages debt and its capital markets to force foreign governments to submit to its will (something that has happened in Bangladesh and the Czech Republic.  (Italicized emphasis added, boldface emphasis in the original)

Let that sink in for a moment: small computer chips hidden in hardware that is used by major American corporations, American intelligence, and military equipment from drones to warships, giving the Chinese the ability to monitor, and one may presume, alter or direct remotely the behavior of American equipment, from warships to voting machines.

Now, anyone with common sense could have predicted (and did predict) that this would be the result of farming out the American technical industry to China. The key here is that this story may be, and I suspect is, the real context for the rapid efforts being made to "reshore" American industry, and particularly its technical industry, to North America, and particular, to the region in and around Silicon Valley. That will not, of course, make American systems one hundred percent secure, but it will at least close a very open door and set of windows. What soldier, pilot, or warship skipper wants to go into battle thinking that at any moment his decisions and equipment can be overridden by Beijing? What broker or banker wants to place orders for trades, again, knowing that the systems which execute them could be overridden by Beijing? The temporary answer is to reshore, but even with reshoring however, the problem is not solved, because America has also been hollowing out its education while awarding "gender studies" degrees at home to create a cadre of truly useless idiots whose only talent seems to be that they can scream well. Reshoring only goes so far to address the problem. The other problem is stepping up information and engineering education, and making both it and the chip industry "native" once again. It is, in short, now a major national security issue. By sheer numbers, China can produce much more engineering and technology graduates than can the USA, and has been investing mightily in its human capital, while the USA has been... well, need I mention the screaming "gender studies" graduates again?

The bottom line here is that while everyone has been focused on Russia as "the big problem," the real "big problem" has been China. As the USA has been pushing ipads and cell phones and Apple trade and so on world wide to shore up the dollar's reserve status, China has been piggybacking on that effort, since the vast majority of those platforms is made in - you guessed it - China.

The story thus puts the USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain incidents into stark relief, and gives a bit more credence to those of you out there who speculated that they were the result of faulty equipment and Chinese cyber-warfare capability.

But there's another implication here, and it's going to have the midnight oil burning not just in Washington, but in Moscow, Berlin, Rome, Paris, London, New Delhi and Madrid and any other major capital as well, because the implication of this story is that those nation's military equipment, trading markets, and intelligence communities are also infiltrated, and it means, like it or not, that they too will have to massively expand their own independent capability in computer chip production.

The world just changed, because this story has massive and seismic geopolitical implications. And in the long term, it does not benefit China, whom no one really trusts to begin with. The fallout from this story will be with us, and China, for years, if not decades.  And in the midterm, it benefits certain other countries who are a bit "higher" on the trust list...

... Japan, and South Korea, for example...

Already some nations are having second thoughts about China's "one belt, one road initiative," and this story is not going to help China, at least, not as currently configured under Emperor Xi Jinping. Everyone will now have to rethink everything, including China...

See you on the flip side...

 

POTHOLES IN THE NEW SILK ROAD PROJECT

So far, it has seemed like China's New Silk Road initiative has been progressing more or less uniformly. The first freight trains between London and China have already run (an eleven day journey), and all seems good.

Except...

...some potholes are beginning to emerge, and they are probably only going to get bigger. Mr. B.G. shared this story, plus his own high octane speculation which I'm going to pass along, and add to it my own:

Malaysia's Mahathir cancels China-backed rail, pipeline projects

You read that correctly, Malaysia has unilaterally cancelled its part of the Silk Road railroad pipeline project. And it's instructive to note why:

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Tuesday that the Chinese-funded $20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project and a natural gas pipeline project in Sabah will be canceled for now, according to media reports.

Mahathir made the comments while addressing the media in Beijing during his five-day trip to China. He said the projects, would be canceled until such time as Malaysia can afford it.

The Prime Minister's office confirmed the comments Mahathir made to reporters in Beijing.

Prior to his China visit, Mahathir had vowed repeatedly to discuss what he called "unfair" Chinese infrastructure deals authorized by his predecessor Najib Razak, whose near-decade long rule ended in electoral defeat in May amid a massive financial scandal. (Emphasis added)

In other words, Malaysia wants a "better deal", and this comes in the wake of similar behavior from Pakistan, and I suspect there's a simple reason why, and that can be summed up in three words: "Donald Trump", and "tariffs". With America wanting to "level the playing field" with China, it was only a matter of time until others would as well. Whether or not this is a thought-out strategy against the Silk Road project or not matters little, for the result is the same: as more nations abandon their original deals with China, and re-negotiate them under better terms, this puts even more economic pressure on China as this will put a dent into the liquidity and investment capital that China can offer. In effect, the potholes are driving up the realization and maintenance costs, so to speak. This was the essence of Mr. B.G.'s speculation to me when he sent me this article, and I strongly suspect he is correct.

But we might extend that scenario a bit and assume that so many nations renegotiate their terms with China that extreme pressure is put on it. Does that mean the end of the Silk Road? Not necessarily, for Russia will continue its own version. Theoretically, even before China came along, it was already possible to travel from London all the way across Asia to Vladivostok via Russia's massive trans-Siberian railway. Mr. Putin will not abandon that aspect of the Silk Road, and has already signaled that he intends to expand the trans-Siberian lines and trunk lines in order to serve the expansion of Russian agriculture. Take China out of the Silk Road equation, and one is left with Russia. But how will Russia expand (and upgrade) existing lines without an influx of Chinese capital?

Three words: "Shinzo Abe", and "sanctions." Inevitably, Russia would have to turn to the West, and in particular the European powers, and Japan, for capital. One may predict that the former would only expand their capital investments and lift the sanctions in return for Russia capitulating to the West's, that is to say, to Washington's, demands, unless the unthinkable happens, and Europe grows a pair and and removes the whole sanctions regime from the table to begin with. Mr. Putin shows no signs of "capitulation" nor does Europe show any signs of entering puberty any time soon.

But then there's Mr. Abe, who has already shown a certain "independence" from the West with the deals he has already concluded with Mr. Putin. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it is a fact that Mr. Abe's Japan had quietly wished for a more vigorous American response to Mr. Putin's re-occupation of the Crimea in the wake of the referendum in that province to return to Russia. America's response was perceived as weak in Japan, and was met with more Japanese defense spending, and the extension of diplomatic feelers to Russia. The logic is simple: if the USA would not stand up to Mr. Putin in the Crimea, how could Japan rely on it in case of a conflict with China? Those deals already inked between Tokyo and Moscow run into the billions, and one can expect more of the same.

The lesson of all of this is that China's glorious project is showing more and more signs of potholes, and with it, the geopolitical order predicted as a result of the Silk Road project just a decade ago is changing already. And the key emerging player is Japan...

See you on the flip side...

RFK JR: THE CDC IS A VACCINE COMPANY

This story is so important that, when I saw it and read it after Mr. G.F. passed it along to me, I knew I had to blog about it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the murdered Senator from New York, has, as most readers here are aware, raised concerns about the safety of vaccines. Indeed, at one point it was rumored that President Trump was thinking about appointing him to some position to oversee a study of vaccines. (See https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-meet-with-proponent-of-debunked-tie-between-vaccines-and-autism/2017/01/10/4a5d03c0-d752-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html?noredirect=on). Kennedy has continued to be outspoken on the subject, and this article on his most recent claim is well worth your consideration, especially if you're concerned about vaccine safety and good old-fashioned "conflicts of interest":

Robert Kennedy Jr.: CDC Is A Privately Owned Vaccine Company

The essence of Mr. Kennedy's claim is simple:

According to RFK Jr., the CDC is not an independent government agency but is actually a subsidiary of Big Pharma.

Greenmedinfo.com reports: Mr. Kennedy told EcoWatch, “The CDC is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry. The agency owns more than 20 vaccine patents and purchases and sells $4.1 billion in vaccines annually.”  Again, no source.

Of course, if that is true, then the CDC is involved in a massive conflict of interest. So the article's author went looking to find if Mr. Kennedy's claims could be substantiated, which they were, and in spades:

I am fortunate to have, as one of my partners in advocacy, fellow autism parent Mark Blaxill, an Intellectual Property expert who has been employed by billion dollar corporations to manage their patents.  Blaxill was the man who found out that HHS, through NIH, owns patents on all HPV vaccines, and receives a percentage of the profits for each dose of Gardasil and Cervarix administered anywhere in the world.  He published the stunning revelation in a detailed three part expose entitled, “A License to Kill? Part 1: How A Public-Private Partnership Made the Government Merck’s Gardasil Partner.”

When I contacted Blaxill to ask how to run a patent search, he was kind enough to do it for me.  He found 57 granted US patents with the CDC listed as an assignee.  You can see the search results here.

Upon cursory review of the patents, I found that one did not seem applicable to vaccination, but merely referenced an article on vaccination.  That leaves us with 56 CDC patents to scrutinize.

I don't know about you, but that seems like a clear conflict of interest, and if one's been paying attention, the same type of pattern that one encounters when examining the whole GMO issue and the revolving door of personnel from the agribusiness industry and federal "regulatory" agencies which more often than not have simply exhibited the same pattern of co--option by the very corporations they are supposed to regulate.

The article reaches this conclusion:

Nowhere on the CDC’s web site can I find the disclosure that the agency is a profit partner with the vaccine makers for whom it is supposed to be providing safety oversight.

Mr. Kennedy is in very safe territory by reporting that the CDC has over 20 patents that create vast, undisclosed conflicts of interests in vaccine safety. He is understating the problem by more than half.

This brief look at current patents held by the CDC deserves an in-depth review to determine exactly what current financial relationships with vaccine makers now exist and what the current impact those revenue streams are likely having on vaccine safety positions. Furthermore, one must closely look at the financial relationships between the CDC and vaccine makers it is currently courting, to include the potential exploitation of new patents for financial gain. These are merely a few lines of inquiry, among hundreds, needing to be examined and why the potential RFK commission on vaccine safety must be impaneled.

No wonder the vaccine industry (and let’s not kid ourselves, CDC IS the vaccine industry) and their media outlets are fighting with such a fury to prevent the #RFKcommission from being formed.

Fortunately, Mr. Kennedy has already said he will fight this corruption against our children until his last breath, and we seem to have a new president who doesn’t care what Pharma and the mainstream media throw at him. There is more than 20 years’ worth of documented abuse and corruption in the vaccine program that, if properly examined, would at the very least force reforms that would drastically reduce the profits of the industry.

Well, count me in on that with a hearty "hear hear." Enough is enough. It's time to impanel a commission to oversee the whole issue, and while we're at it, we might entertain the idea of expanding its brief to the whole GMO issue, and I don't know about you but as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Kennedy should be the one to lead it.  "We must continue to press the Trump administration," the article concludes, "for comprehensive vaccine safety review and reform, including the universal right to forgo any and all vaccines without coercion."

No need for high octane speculation here. All I can say is "hear hear," and the sooner the better. Mr. Trump has reached out to Mr. Kennedy before on this issue, and it's time to do so again.

And as far as the CDC and a bit of high octane speculation goes, perhaps Mr. Kennedy has uncovered the reason for the mysterious death of Dr. Timothy Cunningham.

See you on the flip side...

RUSSIA, PIPELINES, AND KOREAN UNIFICATION

During our last quarterly wrap-up, Catherine Austin Fitts and I briefly discussed the Korean situation, and I advanced the hypothesis that what we were watching unfold was a complete remaking of the geopolitics and financial politics of northeastern Asia and Siberia. I advanced the idea that North Korea would advance along this agenda in fits and starts, two steps forward, one back. Nor could one expect otherwise. I also argued that a non-nuclear North was a win-win situation for everyone.

Moreover, central to my speculations were two key factors: South Korea, and Japan, both of which shoulder enormous industrial plants, and have virtually no internal energy sources that are not nuclear in nature. And for both countries in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, conventional fission energy technologies in the earthquake prone region do not look as "inviting" as they once did. China, too, faces a similar dilemma, for although it does have large rivers and hydrodynamic energy sources available, these will simply not meet its energy needs for its growing industrial plant. And Iran - one of China's close allies - is currently unstable as popular resistance grows to its Islamist regime. (And frankly, I don't think for a moment that Russia or China would be sorry to see that regime go, save only if it was replaced by an American puppet, and given their influence in the region, that may be somewhat, though not entirely, unlikely).

But back to Korea: both Korea's need energy, China needs energy, Japan needs energy. And there's one country, close by to all, that has energy - and lots of it - and it needs trade, markets for that energy and other products, and money: Russia. Oddly enough, China, South Korea, and Japan have lots of money, too. On this basis, I advanced the hypothesis for Ms. Fitts' Solari quarterly wrap- up that what we may be witnessing is the creation of a special kind of "neutral zone", where the Korea's would reunify under strict conditions. In a way, I suspect, given the realities of this situation, that there is little any American administration could do to prevent this from happening in the long run, short of a military intervention in the North. That intervention, given the confluence of interests by the other major powers in the region, could damage American relationships with them for the long term, and drive South Korea and Japan further away.

With that in mind, Mr. E.O. sent along this article, which basically is arguing the same thing:

EurasiaHeadline News South Korea ready for ‘unification’ with North through Russian pipeline

I suspect, however, that there's more high octane speculation to be had here, than my original "read" of the geopolitical situation. Much has been made of Mr. Trump's visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing, the first western head of state (supposedly) accorded the privilege and honor. According to some internet analysts, Mr. Trump there secretly met with Mr. Kim and, with Mr. Xi's cooperation, Mr. Trump arranged the current deal subsequently revealed in Singapore. The upshot of these analyses is that Mr. Trump is a genius deal-broker and that Mr. Xi and the other players in the area were just along for the ride. Indeed, he may be a genius deal-maker.

But given that coalescence of geopolitical interests between China, Russia, Japan, and the two Korea's, I have to wonder if, rather, Mr. Trump was simply presented with a fait accompli.

The truth probably lies somewhere between "genius" and fait accompli, but what that truth is we have yet to see, but my wager is that it involves the upcoming summit with Mr. Putin, and how Russia, China, and the USA are going to deal with the situation in Iran...

...just a guess, pure speculation, but as always, time will tell...

...see you on the flip side...

NEVER FEAR! MACRON HAS A PLAN TO “FIX” THE EU…

Well, no sooner said than done, it appears.

In the latest Solari quarterly wrap up with Catherine Austin Fitts, we had a bit of a discussion about Mad Madam Merkel, her lap poodle Emanuel Macron, and their plans to "fix" the E.U. Catherine drove over, and we talked a bit about this on Friday night and then again on Saturday during the recording session. We both had the impression that the European powers-that-be were a bit "anxious" and in a hurry to "fix" things. We all know who those powers really are; they're certain banking families and dynasties that are looking at the EU fall apart (due to their own disastrous policies), while the world moves on and Mr. Abe, Mr. Xi, Mr. Putin, and Mr. Trump are reordering the geopolitical-financial world. Meanwhile, the world's biggest market - Europe - is beset with disunity and lots of problems. And Italy, home to some of those "old families" has suddenly gone off script and isn't playing ball for the same team any more.

Catherine and I discussed the idea that the EU was going to have to restructure itself. The Common Market was one thing, the common currency is quite another, and it's playing havoc in the southern tier countries. Greece we know about. But Italy and now Spain are where the action is now, and accordingly we advanced the idea that the EU may stay the same on the outside, but that it will look very different on the inside. I've been of the opinion, for some time, that some sort of revival of the old "Exchange Rate Mechanism" would perhaps eventually be restored, centering again on currency pegs to the Deutschmark, i.e., to Germany, with the smaller nations of northern and central Europe - oh gee, look, there's Bettmann-Hollweg's Mitteleuropa again! - becoming part of that, with perhaps some similar arrangement in southern Europe, with France left in the middle.

And in the midst of all that speculative prognostication, I advanced the idea for a new "Euro-prize." Currently, Europe has the annual "Charlemagne Prize" to the European leader who advances the idea of European Union. Needless to say, Frau Merkel has worn the imperial crown many times, and more recently, M. Macron has had the pleasure. I advanced the idea that what Europe needs is a "Richelieu Prize", for the European leader who most successfully stands up to Berlin and Brussels. We might envision a "Bonaparte Prize" for the European leader who most effectively - but without any foresight but a continental-sized ego - plays into the hands of Germany for a German hegemon in Europe.

But I digress, because the following article, shared by many people, indicates that perhaps our speculations and prognostications may be coming true faster than we imagined, and that the Richelieu Prize currently has several strong contenders:

12 European States Revolt Against Merkel, Macron Plan To Reform Europe

The plan, as one can gather, is to "fix" the problem by having a common European budget, which effectively means that Madrid, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, The Hague, Copenhagen, and just about everyone else, now have to kowtow even more to Brussels, meaning in reality, to Paris and Berlin, meaning in even deeper reality, to Berlin, and yet deeper, to Frankfurt. To the growing demands in the rest of Europe for policies that represent the genuine will of the people of those countries, including in Germany and France, the Eurocrats have shown once again their profound deafness, and called for even more centralization in an already unresponsive bureaucratic mess:

We did not have to wait long for confirmation, because just two days later, Europe's two self-proclaimed leaders were facing an unexpected backlash from most other European governments against the German and French plans for a common eurozone budget, dealing a blow to the two countries’ ambitions for a big overhaul of the single currency area.

As the FT reports, the rest of Europe's "core", including the Netherlands, Austria and Finland are among 12 governments questioning the need for any joint eurozone “fiscal capacity”, challenging a central tenet of French President Emmanuel Macron’s vision for the eurozone that he has successfully pressed Berlin to endorse.

As we reported on Wednesday, increasingly unpopular French president Macron and the politically embattled Merkel tried to restart their close collaboration this week ahead of a wider summit of EU leaders. They agreed that a new common pot of eurozone money could be funded by a mixture of national contributions and new EU levies, such as a financial transactions tax.

Ironically, while their agreement supposedly forms part of a broader deal between Paris and Berlin on how to strengthen the currency bloc, the rest of Europe generally disagreed, which incidentally is also the reason why any attempt at "Federalizing" Europe is doomed to failure: Europeans tend to frown upon self-declared "master states" who tends to decide for everyone else, even if these states end up paying for much of the outlays (largely thanks to the presence of the EUR and the absence of the DEM).

As a result, EU diplomats said Merkel’s concession to Macron - as a reminder, having found herself isolated at home, Merkel has been forced to see support abroad - had emboldened other countries to resist the blueprint, out of concern that it would leave their taxpayers too exposed to problems in crisis-hit member states.  And, as the FT writes, the splits were observable at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, with increasing signs that governments have formed competing camps with distinct visions on the direction of further integration.

Now, it's that last paragraph that's the key, for what it is saying is that the Eurocrats will continue to flood Europe with refugees, Merkel and Macron will continue to support open borders, Italy and Spain will continue to be flooded, and Spanish, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Austrian, Czech, Finnish, Danish et al. taxpayers will continue to foot the bill. Presumably, M. Macron's "plan" simply means the Brusselscrats will simply decide who gets to foot most of the bill, and given the French and German "weight", it's fairly easy to guess that the bill will fall the heaviest on everyone else. The revolt against this nonsense has named itself...well, I'll let you read it for yourself:

According to a letter seen by the Financial Times, Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra has written to Mário Centeno, the president of the eurogroup, to underline that there is “wide divergence” on the need for any budget, with a number of countries concerned about “moral hazard risks” and questions of “fiscal neutrality” posed by the plan.

The letter insisted that the lack of the agreement on the budget be clearly communicated to leaders at next week’s summit.

"There was clearly no consensus on starting to explore options" at Thursday’s meeting of finance ministers, the Dutch finance minister said in the letter, adding there was also no agreement to start exploring the use of a financial transactions tax to finance it.

And the punchline: the letter was written by the Dutch finance minister on behalf of Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ireland and Malta.

The simple math: 2 vs 12, and it is safe to say that the rest of the eurozone is not aligned with France and Germany either.

It gets better: according to the FT, the 12 countries expands a coalition called the “Hanseatic League” (a reference to the commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe, which in the late 1100s, grew from a few North German towns to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coast of Northern Europe), an initial group of eight smaller fiscally conservative countries, which have insisted on more national responsibility to solve economic problems in the eurozone.

The Hanseatic League? Really? National responsibility? Horrors! Fie the outrage!

Yes, really... and it's that name that invites my high octane speculation today, for that league obviously included the port cities of - here it comes - northern Germany. So what do I suspect? What's my speculation? With Mad Madam Merkel's government near collapse, there is every possibility that German businessmen and state and local politicians are also quietly (very quietly) in contact with the "new Hanseatic League". We've already seen the "revolt of the ministers" with Herr Seehofer openly defying his own chancellor, and coordinating ministerial policy with Austria and Italy.

In short, that "new Hanseatic League" looks a lot like that "restructuring" of the EU around a "northern zone" headed by Germany, and a "southern zone"... and like the old Hanseatic league, the new one is saying no to more centralization in Brussels.

And that puts the pressure on France. And that in turn means M. Macron's government is far weaker than it appears, for no matter which way he jumps - north with Germany or south with Italy and Spain - he's going to upset someone, and if he sticks to the current course, people are already upset, and his plan will no go through. And if he returns to the "unthinkable", i.e., a policy that is good for France, no one will believe him. (And look, who's that smiling up there in the Pas de Calais? Why, it's Marine le Pen. Bon chance M. Macron. Je ne voudrais vraiment pas être à votre place.)

So, sorry M. Macron, you won't be receiving this years Richelieu Prize. In fact, you're not even on the list, because so many others now are. (And, being part French myself, I had so hoped that someone from France would be the first winner.)

See you on the flip side...

 

 

 

A PUTIN-TRUMP SUMMIT IS IN THE WORKS…

Well, it's official: a Putin-Trump summit meeting is in the works. The real question is, what are they going to talk about? So many people sent me this article I have to comment about it, but again, what are they going to talk about? Some things are, of course, obvious:

1) Sanctions

2) The Ukraine (and with it, possibly, the Crimea)

3) Space militarization and commercialization.

With respect to the latter point, Russia has recently issued yet another caution about the militarization of space. This is predictable, since Russia has nowhere near the West's private space corporations. In fact, to my knowledge, it has none at all, and as we have noted elsewhere on this site, Mr. Putin recently curtailed Russian defense spending to focus on building up Russia's domestic infrastructure, particularly in Siberia. Such a step is necessary with the dramatic expansion of Russian agriculture, which demands a dramatic expansion of Russia's rail and road transportation infrastructure.

So what's the story? This article, as noted, was shared by many people:

Britain in panic as Trump-Putin summit looms

From one point of view, Britain's alarm over the approaching summit is perfectly understandable, for it has long been a goal of British geopolitics to contain Russia, and to prevent "the two unthinkable nightmares", i.e., (1) a Russo-German understanding or alliance, and (2) a Russo-American understanding or alliance. The latter possibility was starkly dramatized during the American War Between the States, when France and Britain were both considering an intervention on the side of the Confederacy. British officers, for example, were present with General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Gettysburg as observers. The failure of that campaign, plus the Russian Tsar Alexander II, who sent his fleet to Union ports, made the message clear; France and Britian backed off, and the American Civil War remained an American affair.

The article makes it clear that the summit could upend NATO plans to "deter Russian aggression":

Mr Trump called for Russia to be readmitted to the G8 this month, wrecking Mrs May’s efforts to further isolate Mr Putin after the Salisbury poisonings. Mr Trump then linked US funding of Nato to the trade dispute with the EU, singling out Germany for special criticism.

The prospect of a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin appals British officials. “It’s unclear if this meeting is after or before Nato and the UK visit,” a Whitehall official said. “Obviously after would be better for us. It adds another dynamic to an already colourful week.”….

A senior western diplomatic source said that a Trump-Putin meeting before the Nato summit would cause “dismay and alarm”, adding: “It would be a highly negative thing to do.”

Nato is due to discuss an escalation of measures to deter Russian aggression. “Everyone is perturbed by what is going on and is fearing for the future of the alliance,” a Whitehall source said.

From the Trump Administration's perspective, however, little is to be gained by listening to the weak and indecisive May Government. And on the continent of Europe, Mad Madam Merkel's government is in an even more precarious state.

But I suspect there is one more item on the Putin-Trump summit agenda, and it has nothing to do with NATO, Europe, or the two Mad Madams of Europe, Merkel and May. In last Thursday's News and Views from the Nefarium, I advanced two hypotheses about the recent Kim-Trump summit, namely, that the memorandum of understanding that was signed was really either the product of a three power pressure working behind the scenes, coming from Russia, the USA, and Japan, or it was the result of four power pressure, with China being added to the list. Mr. Xi is in a weaker position than most may think, for China does not want a trade war at this time with the USA. I advanced the idea in that News and Views, and also at greater length in the forthcoming Solari quarterly wrap-up with Catherine Fitts, that what we may be seeing are the first steps in the creation of a Korean "neutral zone", with all for powers creating an economic trade zone where their interests are spelled out and protected. Behind this there lurks the recent North Korean discovery of a bonanza of Rare Earth Elements that, with Russian, American, Japanese (and possibly Chinese) money, could develop the country. If such a neutral trade zone is in the works, then none of the four powers will want the destabilizing presence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the North Koreans.

So I strongly suspect as my high octane speculation of the day that the most important item on the Trump-Putin summit agenda will be some frank and perhaps prolonged discussions of the Korean situation, and the ironing out of the details of such a venture. Let me be clear: the USA probably cannot completely lock Russian or Chinese influence out of North Korea. That influence is there now. What needs to be gained is a foothold of American influence in Pyongyang. Time, of course, will tell if either of my two hypotheses have any merit at all. If they do, then there will be the usual two steps forward one step back dance along the way; the pattern, if any, confirming either of those two hypotheses will only emerge over the next few years.

But... if we hear that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump did discuss Korea, then that's an indicator that the cat, while not wholly out of the bag, may at least be partially so.

See you on the flip side...

WATCHING ITALY… AND AUSTRIA… AND GERMANY

I don't know about you, but for me watching events in Europe these days is putting quite a dent in my budget, as my popcorn is now being delivered on pallets. And the problem is that there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to it. For one thing, Germany, or at least some segments of its media, appear to be taking a "tough" position vis-a-vis the new coalition in Rome by referring to the "moochers" of Rome, according to this article shared by Mr. H.B.:

Germany Points Finger At "Moochers Of Rome"

And in an unprecedented move, one story even has German troops moving up to the Brenner pass to help Austria police the border and prevent(!) refugees from streaming across the pass from Italy(article shared by Mr. T.L.):

Deutschland und Österreich verstärken Grenzkontrollen

And all this while the government of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is planning to expel some imams and close down some mosques in Austria for promoting radical Islam, and notably, the mosques have been tied to financing from ottomaniac Mr. Erdogan's Turkey(article shared by Ms. K.M.):

Austria's right-wing government plans to shut down seven mosques and expel up to 40 foreign-funded imams in crackdown against Islamist ideology

This of course isn't the first time that Austria has had some words about ottomania and Turkey; consider this to-the-point rant from the Austrian parliament a few years ago:

Well, they ignored this gentleman and his concerns, and now, Herr Kurz is Chancellor of Austria.

Now, you might be scratching your head while you're eating your popcorn, wondering, "Wait a minute, isn't Herr Kurz's government the same sort of 'right wing" and 'populist' disaster that Mad Madam Merkel was crowing about during her last election campaign? What, then, is Germany doing supporting the Austrian policy when the whole European refugee crisis can be laid squarely at the feet of Mad Madam Merkel and her lap poodles in Brussels? Apparently Germany can close the borders, particularly if they're next to Italy and even though they're Austria's borders and not Germany's. Is this Anschluss 2.0 or something? Apparently what's good for the German goose is not good for the Italian gander."

Well, if you're wondering that while you're eating your popcorn and watching the wonderful entertainment and soap opera that is the E.U., then join the club, because I am too.

But wait, there's more!

While Der Spiegel is complaining about the moochers of Rome, Mad Madam Merkel (according to this article shared by Mr. H.B.) is all kumbaya over M. Macron's proposals for a joint European military (which is what they've both wanted all along anyway):

Merkel Backs Macron's European Army Initiative

Oh how wunderbar! Perhaps Ms. Merkel will be the recipient of the Charlemagne Prize once again. (And, the idea occurs to me, that the E.U. needs a "Cardinal Richelieu Prize" for the European leader most successfully opposing Germany and/or the technocrats in Brussels. Perhaps M. Macron might consider Signor Conte, the new Italian prime minister, for the first award, or, as alternatives, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, or Geert Wilders? But I digress.)

Oh, and speaking of Italy, I told you this was going to be fun, because the Italians, noting that the whole E.U. and euro serves the economic interests of Germany best, have come up with a novel proposal and, lest one think this is part of an opera in the amphitheater at Verona, they're entirely serious about it too. What's the proposal? Germany should leave the E.U., a "GEREXIT" so to speak, since the European Central Bank (conveniently located in Frankfurt) has been caught red-handed fiddling with Italian bonds(shared by Mr. L.G.R.), as in, not buying them:

Italians Angry After ECB Admits It Slashed Purchases Of Italian Debt During Latest Cris

Well, so much for quantitative easing. Apparently if one challenges the cultural suicide agenda of Mr. Globaloney, there won't be any "easing." Well, two can play that game, because Italy can either leave the eurozone, or, suggests Italian politician Paolo Savona, Germany can:

What Goes Around Comes Around In Spain

Now, if you're in Switzerland watching this crazy soap opera (Libretto by A. Merkel, music by A. Schoenberg, A. Berg, and I. Stravinsky), you might be suspecting that this disaster could all be laid at the feet of central banksters, and crony finance crapitalists like Darth Soros, and you'd be wondering what to do about it. You'd be right about your diagnosis of the vector of the disease, but that still leaves what to do about it? Well, one thing you might be thinking about is changing your whole world-famous banking system, and getting rid of the banksters' power to create money out of thin air, and nationizing that power and requiring a 100% reserve(article shared by Ms. K.M.):

Is Switzerland About To Create A New Banking System?

There's a lesson in here somewhere, and I suspect that it boils down to this: financial geopolitics and "central bankism", as we've seen it practiced by Mr. Globaloney, cannot afford to ignore culture. Perhaps that's why the Bilderbergers have invited a papal representative to their meeting this year.  Sadly, the papacy represents a hollowed out institution, and the rest of the churches of Europe, the same. Archbishop Welby of Canterbury, for example, has recently chattered in florescent rainbow colors about how lovely the whole E.U. idea was, comparing it favorably to the Roman empire, and of course dropping the favorite buzzwords of the Gramscian, "diversity" and "peace" &c &c &c:

Archbishop Justin Welby criticised over praise for EU

Perhaps all the E.U. really needs is a Fuehr...  er... Emperor to preside over restored gladitorial games, which can be televised on European television, and social status points can be awarded Chinese-style for watching them. Perhaps a few Christians and "Populists" can be sacrificed in those games in order to set the cultural suicide agenda back on course. Or perhaps what is needed is a restoration of that power still residing in Rome that claims a supremacy over it all to this day and that used to wear tiaras instead of pointed hats, which they lately adopted to reassure us all that they were no longer interested in their "past agendas", even while retaining all the language of the same as they were running as fast as possible form other signs and symbols of Roman Catholic tradition. Just think of the possibilities: an infallible, supreme and universal jurisdictional claim in the hands of Marxists and progressivists and banksters. It's got to bring a tear to Darth Soros' eye... oh, and lest we forget, there are some that believe that the current occupant of said spurious claims was, in fact, a "regime change" operation to bring about precisely that, an operation launched by... oh never mind.

Then there's the other possibility: perhaps the current roster of mediocrity in Europe's globaloney leadership simply needs to go.

See you on the flip side...

 

 

 

 

 

 

“OH JERUSALEM JERUSALEM…”: LOCKHEED MARTIN OPENS ...

That didn't take long...

... Just a few days after President Trump announced that the USA was moving its embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Lockheed-Martin announced that it is opening a "pre-school" in that city.

Yes, you read that correctly. Lockheed-Martin is opening a kindergarten in Jerusalem, and, according to this article shared by Ms. K.W., it is footing the bill, to the tune of $250,000 per annum:

Lockheed Martin Is Opening a Preschool in Jerusalem

And according to the article, it is not the only such school the US arms manufacturer is running in Israel:

The company known worldwide for developing state of the art killing machines has several schools in Israeli cities. But the new school will be the first in Jerusalem. It is due to open during the 2018/2019 school year and is said to be quite unique. Israeli sources say that the “facility will seek to foster and boost advanced technology” apparently “from the earliest age possible”.

The purpose of the pre-schools? Apparently, they serve as "early sorting and slotting mechanisms" to identify potential talent in the fine arts of high technology killing:

Kids as early as five or six will be provided with computers and state of the art technology to develop what one presumes will be the finest minds in the art of killing.

Now, before we get to today's trademark high octane speculationTM, I have to give a bit of personal information. Normally, when I run across articles like this, I tend to be quite skeptical. There's a lot of Palestinian-bashing, or Israel-bashing, that goes on in the "alternative media", depending on which source one cites. Don't get me wrong: I've no doubt that in the pressure-cooker of the Middle East, that virtually all the "players" have some sort of version of the radicalized madrasa, where "talent" is identified early on, and groomed appropriately to be suicide bombers or pilots, or whatever particular version of cannon fodder one has in mind. That Israel, surrounded by enemies that want to do it in, would do otherwise, is to stretch the imagination too much. From the strictly Realpolitik and national security point of view, it would be almost suicidal if it did not do more or less the same thing, and develop institutions and mechanisms to "spot talent" and "groom and recruit." One may criticize Israeli policy, or Palestinian policy, and debate those issues endlessly. That's not what interests me here.

What interests me is that bit about supplying computers and "state of the art technology to develop what one presumes will be the finest minds in the art of killing." There is, I suppose, an element or group of people out there that would view that statement as yet another example of "Israel bashing." Whether that is the intention of its author or authors, I do not know. But I do think that they are on to a huge story, because of these articles:

Air Force Reserve sponsors League of Legends gaming team, Cloud9

The US Air Force hopes to recruit you with a virtual reality game

Note that these roll-playing wargames are very popular, and there are literally scores of such games available for play "in the cloud." I long suspected that because of this feature of being "in the cloud" rather than the old-fashioned, purchase-a-game and load-the-disk into your computer, that they could be used for multiple purposes, boiling down to two major ones: (1) accustom the youth to an essentially amoral world of violence and "high-tech killing" utterly lacking in any beauty or transcendence, in other words, to socially engineer a "war culture" that would have made the Teutonic Knights or ancient Sparta green with envy; and (2) to gather data, identify, and profile potential recruits for military and/or intelligence service.

The US Air Force has now confirmed my speculation, and DARPA has similar programs in mind. Doubtless, one will witness the application of the idea not just to roll-playing types of wargames, but to wargames proper, i.e., to games that are operational and strategic in nature - in other words, General Staff types of Kriegspielen, and which require tactical, operational, and strategic military-type skills of organizing, equipping, supplying units, working out logistics, and developing operational strategies for achieving objectives. These types of games have been in use by the military staffs of all major powers since before the beginning of World War One, to test their mobilization plans, and to game out scenarios of what to do in certain situations. Between the World Wars, all the powers developed war plans based on these gamed-out scenarios. Both Britain and the USA, for example, had war plans covering the possibility that the two countries would go to war with each other in the post-World War One world. That seems wildly fanciful now, but it was a potential reality then.

Now couple that idea to the "Gaming recruitment" schemes outlined in these three articles, and you get the idea where today's trademark high octane speculation is going: eventually the idea will be extended to these types of games. For the real wargame afficionado (or "gorgnard" as they are called), this means one can expect classic non-roll-playing wargame platforms such as The Operational Art of War going "in the cloud" and being used to "spot talent" for "recruitment." This is already being done in virtually every service branch of every power, so the only thing that remains is to take the idea "public."

Which brings us back to Lockheed-Martin and Israel, for the implication of this story is clear, and frighteningly simple: preparations are underway for the "possibility" of a general Middle East War.

And as I've been constantly warning, "the fulfillment is the deception."

See you on the flip side...

ADIOS SENOR! RAJOY OUT…

Well, it has happened. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is the first Spanish premier in history to lose a vote of no confidence. And for a Madrid that seemed to be successfully emulating the Swampy Corruption Policies of Washington, D.C., that's something. Indeed, according to this Zero Hedge article shared by Mr. H.B., kickbacks, or pay to play, seemingly are at the heart of Senor Rajoy's downfall:

Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy Ousted From Power; Sanchez Is New Socialist Prime Minister

As the article notes, however, the new premier is the Socialist Pedro Sanchez, leading a rag-tag coalition that was hastily thrown together for the simple purpose of ousting Senor Rajoy. In short, on the surface, nothing much has changed, because what is socialism but a swampy pay-to-play scheme,  dressed up in the glowing utopian language of Marxism which, somehow, manages always to weave a spell so powerful that it convinces people to ignore the glaring hypocrisies of it all: Bernie Sanders is a millionaire, Lenin sleeps in a dacha and is chauffeured in a limo, Congress "persons" from poor districts of LA somehow end up being multi-millionaires and somehow avoid being investigated, all the while virtue signaling everyone how very concerned and compassionate they all are. Power to the people, er, the proletariate, er... whatever.

There is, as the article notes, not much by way of a common platform for the new government, unlike the situation in Italy, where the thoughts of the new coalition government of Signor Conte are more or less spelled out in the various party platforms of the parties comprising the coalition:

Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez, who becomes prime minister immediately, told lawmakers that his policy goals include bolstering social policies to address problems such as unemployment and poverty levels, both of which remain high despite Spain’s strong growth. Among Sanchez' challenges will be managing the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy and dealing with internal problems such as the crisis in Catalonia.

For once, I am rather mystified at Zero Hedge's reporting here, for beneath those two lapidary sentences lies a mountain of discontent in Spain. The article does reference the nationalist aspirations of Catalonia and the Basques, and hints at one of the real issues driving politics in Spain when it mentions that Senor Sanchez wants to bolster "social policies to address problems such as unemployment and poverty levels, both of which remain high despite Spain's strong growth." Such statements seem to me to be a rather watered-down Quixotic attempt to tilt at windmills while avoiding the obvious issue that Spaniards feel: their country, like others in M. Juncker's and Mad Madam Merkel's Europe, is being overrun with "immigrants" and "refugees", from the completely different Mohammedan culture, and they refuse to assimilate (just ask Germans in Cologne, or Swedes in Malmo, or Britons in Lincolnshire, or Hungarians in Budapest, or...well, you get the idea). The consequence is that Spain's own youth cannot find jobs, and youth unemployment remains staggeringly high. The progressivist assault - if one may call it that - on the Spanish middle class actually footing the bill for all this madness has been horrendous.  And of course, Spaniards, like everyone else in Europe, have been sermonized endlessly about how they cannot complain of these policies lest they be labeled "populist" or "nationalist" or "ultra-right wing".

We all know the game plan, because it's pretty much the same everywhere.

Add to this the "underground economy" of drug-running and so on - one of the real stories behind the Catalonia nationalist aspirations - and one has a first class mess that in its major points resembles the policies of The Swamp's D.C. franchise. And that's the point: the game plan is the same everywhere: assault on the middle class, because that's the class that carries the culture and that consciously identifies with it, be that culture American, British, German, Swedish, or Spanish. Mr. Globaloney doesn't want that, because that culture is a constant reminder to him that his actions are immoral, or rather, amoral, and Italy's new coalition government is already sending that message, loud and clear, as the following article shared by Ms. K.M. indicates:

War Erupts Between Italy's Government And Soros: "You Profited From The Death Of Hundreds Of People"

Lest it be skimmed over lightly, Matteo Salvini, Italy's new Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister behind Florentine lawyer Giuseppi Conte, has announced his intentions to deport some of Italy's refugees, and Darth Soros was quick to respond with his own accusations and pay-to-play scheme:

In response, George Soros flipped out, openly suggesting that Salvini might be financed by Vladimir Putin, saying he is "very worried about Russia's influence on Europe in general and on the new Italian government."

Soros also admits in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper that the League's growing influence is a reflection on "Europe's flawed migration policies that imposed an unfair burden on Italy." His solution? Instead of resettling the migrants, the EU needs to pay Italy.

“It follows from the voluntary principle that the problem ... cannot be addressed by forced resettlement, but only by the EU financially compensating Italy for the migrants that land there,” wrote Soros, who also warned “There is a strong inclination in Europe to use the occasion [of the new government] to teach Italy a lesson ... If the EU follows this line, it will dig its own grave by provoking a negative response from the Italian electorate, which would then re-elect Movimento 5 Stelle and Lega Nord with an increased majority.”

No clearer statement of Mr. Gobaloney's agendas could be had for why it hates Mr. Putin so much, for the latter has made it clear, in statement after statement, that the Russian government does not accept a global order of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, nor does it or will it accept the rape of Russia either economically or culturally by western technocrats. Mr. Putin's government may be oligarchical, but it is a Russian oligarchy running the show, not one based in the Harvard Endowment. The globaloney plan, on the other hand, so far, has produced chaos, because in typical technocratic fashion it completely ignores the influence and importance of culture as the coherent matrix molding and guiding policy. Indeed, such a scheme of technocratic and corporate governance could only emerge in Western culture for specific historical reasons, and thus it is as if the Globaloneyists want it both ways: they want to export that culture abroad while tearing it down at home.  Nothing could illustrate the self-contradictory narcissistic and psychopathic insanity of people like Soros than this.

Darth Soros' comments did not go unanswered either, for they were met with a salvo from a leading economist with links to Italy's new coalition government, Claudio Borghi, who pulled no punches:

"Soros worried by the Italian government? Then it means that we are going in the right direction... We understand that those who have speculated for years on the skin of immigrants, financing NGOs and smugglers to invade Italy (sic).

"The wind has changed for [Soros] and for all those who have profited from the deaths of hundreds of people."

Indeed the wind has changed, and now Mr. Globaloney must tack against it, as Soros, with his new version of pay-to-play, appears to be attempting to do with his "we'll pay you money for the suicide of your culture" scheme. Now you can add Spain to the mix, for while it no longer commands a global empire, Spain is Europe's fourth largest economy, behind Italy's third, and that means Mad Madam Merkel's and M. Juncker's technocratic non-national vision of Europe is crumbling. The issue is cultural, and that means that while these new coalition governments in Madrid and Rome may fall, the issue will not go away.

As I said, watch Italy... and Spain.

See you on the flip side...

 

WATCHING ITALY… AGAIN

See? I told you watching Italy would be fun!

But just in case you haven't been watching, there's been another hiccup in the process of forming a new coalition government in Italy.  And this one may mean that Italians will be headed for another election. And as one might imagine, my "inbox" was deluged with articles about this story, but here's two takes of the recent shenanigans:

Italy's Giuseppe Conte gives up trying to form government

Italy In Chaos: Country To Vote Again After President Blocks Government; "Unclear What Happens Next"

As you'll recall, just this last week I blogged about Italy, and the selection of Mr. Conte, a Florentine lawyer, to lead the new coalition government. Behind this move, I suspect - and still suspect - a great deal of politicking was taking place between "old Italian money" and the new technocrats of the EU, the European Central Bank, and, of course, various German interests from Deutsche Bank to Mad Madam Merkel. According to the first article, we read this by way of some confirmation of that speculation:

"Giuseppe Conte has given up the mandate to form a government, given to him on May 23," an official from the presidential palace said.

Initial reports suggest right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini had refused to accept a presidential veto on his choice for economy minister, the 81-year-old euroskeptic economist Paolo Savona.

Talking to reporters after he informed President Sergio Mattarella of his decision, Conte said he "gave the maximum effort, attention, to carry out this task with the full collaboration" of would-be coalition partners — the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and far-right League.

Earlier in the day, Conte met Mattarella with his list of ministers in a bid to end the country's political stalemate. But the two could not agree on Savona's role in what would have been Western Europe's first populist government. Mattarella is staunchly pro-Europe.

Even before the two had finished with their meeting, League's Salvini said the only option now was to hold another election, probably later this year.

"In a democracy, if we are still in democracy, there's only one thing to do, let the Italians have their say," Salvini told his supporters in central Italy. (Emphasis added)

So in other words, the message from the EU via Mattarella was "We'll let you have a government, but it will have to agree with us," and the response was "Then what was the point?"

The interpretation of Zero Hedge is similar to mine, but much more elegantly stated:

In what may have been the worst possible outcome of this weekend's events in Italy, Rome finds itself on the verge of a Europe-sponsored constitutional crisis.

Recall that when we previewing the possible outcomes of Italy's government stalemate, in which president Mattarella had threatened to veto the choice of Paolo Savona as economy minister due to his anti-Euro/establishment sentiment, we said that the most likely - and market friendly - outcome, was for President Mattarella to give in to public pressure and the threat of a new election, averting a potential constitutional crisis. We also said that the second most likely outcome, and potentially far worse for markets, was that "if Mattarella and the coalition partners hold firm, we may be set for new elections, with M5S likely to repeat April’s success and Lega likely to increase its share of the votes, eating up Berlusconi’s party."

Moments ago that's precisely what happened, when Italy's premier designate, Giuseppe Conte, 53, told reporters after meeting the head of state Sunday evening that he had handed back his mandate for forming “the government of change" to president Mattarella. "I can assure you that I did my utmost to try to fulfill this task" he added.

...

As we reported earlier, Mattarella, who is supposed to be impartial but appears to have been anything but in this case, and was tasked with naming the premier and ministers, earlier rejected the candidacy of economist Paolo Savona, 81, who has repeatedly urged the Italian government to plan for a euro-exit, and who has criticized what he says is German dominance over Europe.

In other words, Mattarella sided with Europe over Italy's own choice.

...

There is still some hope for clarity and the avoidance of a constitutional crisis...

  • *ITALY'S MATTARELLA SAYS WILL TAKE A DECISION SOON ON NEXT STEP

... Which means the president will now wait for his marching orders straight from Brussels before deciding what to do next. Meanwhile, the Italian people can't be delighted that their own president has hijacked the political process to the benefit of Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker.

So, while we wait to see who will get to occupy the Quirinal, or if there will be other elections, the behind the scenes games will continue. The EU clearly isn't listening, and isn't going to. But that's not the real question.

The real question is, who is watching those games? Clearly, a significant segment of the Italian population is fed up with low employment, the diktats from Brussels a.k.a. Berlin, and fed up with the EU-Mr. Globaloney immigration agenda. Recall also from a few years ago in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, that Italian businessmen were also chafing under Washington's sanctions regime, to the extent that the then Italian agriculture minister went to Moscow to see what could be done. The discontent even grew in Italy to the extent that in Venezia there was talk of secession.

So who else in Europe has a large economy, is a technologically sophisticated country, is suffering from unemployment numbers - especially among the youth - that boggle the imagination, has suffered its own immigration crisis, and is also overstuffed with EU technocrats and Globaloney, to the extent it has see its own secession movement, and even sponsored votes on secession of one of its major and most prosperous provinces?  Who is watching Italy very closely?

Spain.

When one throws Greece into this volatile mix, its almost as if we're watching a more covert agenda playing out, namely, to stamp out any cultural connection to the great Roman, and Orthodox, Catholic traditions that are so much at the heart of southern and eastern European culture, and "convert" those countries to the technocratic straight jacket and cultural hell that the Eurocrat "progressives" seem to want to impose everywhere on the continent. There is, I suspect, yet another very hidden and covert agenda behind these moves, and those involve the drug trade, which I suspect is strongly tied to the immigration agenda.

Whatever one makes of those high octane speculations, I think one thing is certainly in the cards for the future in Europe, and that is simply these movements will not go away. In fact, what I suspect the recent Italian elections - and any future ones - will mean for the future is that these movements will now begin to coordinate their efforts at the "European" level in addition to the national level of their various nations.  We already saw hints of this prior to the French and German elections, when Ms Le Pen of France, Mr. Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, and various leaders of the Alternativ fur Deutschland party shared the stage at various conferences. In other words, expect to see the Italians becoming involved in those efforts in a major way, and not far behind them, will be the Spanish.

And the more the Brusselscrats and Merkeltards refuse to listen or compromise, the more those movements will grow.  Very soon, I suspect, it will not be just Nigel Farage or Marine le Pen challenging the Eurocrats in the European "Parliament", but some new voices from Italy and Spain as well.

See you on the flip side...

 

WE INTERRUPT THIS WEEK’S THEME OF SCIENCE SUBJECTS TO WATCH ...

Well, if you're an Italy-watcher, this past week and a half has certainly been entertaining.

And all of it has taken place in the context of Mr. Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Now, as I've said before, I had mixed thoughts about that deal. On the one hand, the regime in Tehran is as nutty as the one in Riyadh, or the current occupant of the premiership in Tel Aviv. But on the other hand, I did have to give Mr. Obama one-half-a-cheer for resisting the pressures he was under to pull the trigger on Iran. While I didn't like the high cost of doing so nor the general terms under which he did so, and did not agree with his lack of any support for the Iranian uprisings against the regime some years ago, at least he resisted the pressure. One would like to think that Mr. Obama may have been motivated in part by some humanitarian feeling to the Iranian people, the vast majority of whom, I suspect, despise the nuts in Tehran running (or is that ruining?) their country. So, similarly, I have mixed and ambivalent thoughts about ending the deal. On the one hand, good riddance to a bad deal; on the other, it's a very bad idea to piss off, in one fell swoop, all the major European powers, and drive Iran further into the hands of China and the always-Byzantine-and-never-to-be-trusted-Russians-and-their-evil-super-genius-criminal-mastermind, Vladimir Putin, and to drive Germany in a similar direction, as Mad Madam Merkel was off to Sochi yet again for private talks with The Evil Criminal Genius Mastermind on what to do about Washington's sanctions regime.

(Hint: It's simple, Angela. Pull up your pants, re-arm, and tell Washington to take a hike. It's been done in the past, but those two times your country wasn't so chummy with Russia.)

Which brings us to Italy, which - thanks to the colossal bungling in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, and pretty much everywhere else in Europe except Budapest and Warsaw - is now sitting in the driver's seat. Well, if I may toot my own horn for a moment, I told you so years ago.

So what's going on in Italy? Well, those coalition negotiations have occurred, and a platform has been agreed upon, and it's a veritable minefield for a tiptoeing globaloneyist (these articles courtesy of Mr G.L.R. and Mr. A.F. who passed them along):

It's Now Clear: Five Star Lega Deal is a Commitment to Leave the Eurozone

Five Star And Lega Ask ECB To Cancel €250 Billion In Debt!

If one reads the eight points as summarized in the Zero Hedge article(actually, it's only seven point), one can easily keep a kind of score card of who won't like it, and who will:

  1. Five Star and the League expect the ECB to forgive 250 billion euros in Italian bonds bought via quantitative easing, in order to bring down Italy's debt
  2. The two parties want to re-open European Treaties and to "radically reform" the stability and growth pact. The coalition would also want to reconsider Italy's contribution to the EU budget.
  3. According to @HuffPostItalia, the 5 Star/League draft agreement would include an opt-out mechanism to leave the euro in an "agreed manner" were there to be a "clear popular will" to do so.
  4. The draft document says Italy should stay in Nato, but asks for an immediate withdrawal of sanctions vs Russia, so that Moscow can return to be a "strategic partner" in conflict zones
  5. According to @HuffPostItalia, the 5 Star/League draft document says there would be a "flat tax"... but with several tax rates and deductions
  6. Italy's pension reform would be dismantled: workers would be able to retire when the sum of their retirement age and years of contribution is at least 100.
  7. The draft coalition agreement of a 5 Star/Lega government leaked to @HuffPostItalia calls for a revision of the Dublin regulation on immigration and for compulsory relocation of asylum seekers across the EU

Now, as the Zero Hedge article puts it: "this cannot possibly fly." Now, before we get to the repeated suggestions that all this is "radicalism" - which it is - let's note what the first article states about the problems this poses for the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella:

The only line of defence against the constitutional recklessness of the two parties is President Sergio Mattarella, who left no doubt about his intention to uphold the constitution. But history has shown that this formal power matters little in practice when the radical parties have sufficient majorities - as is quite possibly the case here. While the president has the power to call new elections if the talks fail, he could inadvertently trigger an even more radical counter-reaction if the radical parties were to win more votes at the next elections. We would at this stage consider new elections riskier than allowing the two parties to form a government, especially since their majority in the Senate may not be sufficiently large for some of the more radical proposals.

What's Next?

The comment above, in bold, is precisely what I said days ago.

Mattarella can call for new elections, but he cannot control the outcome.

I strongly suspect that if Mattarella were to force new elections, the results would be even more radical.

Pragmatically speaking, the best approach for Mattarella is to hope this situation dies down.

As we saw in Greece, countless times, the "exiteers" eventually throw in the towel.

Then again, Italy is not Greece. Whereas Greece could not realistically blow the entire Eurozone to smithereens, Italy easily can.(Bold and italicized emphasis here is added)

And that, I suspect, is exactly what is going on here: it's less radicalism, than it is political brinksmanship to drive negotiations. Consider those eight points, and who they piss off, and who are made happy:

Who it Pisses off                                                                                                                    Who is Happy                                      Who is Quietly Happy, but too Smart to Say So

Point 1:                               Pretty much every mandarin of the Eurozone, lots of bankers, Tehran                     Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping                Shinzo Abe, Bibi Netanyahu

Paint 2:                               Angela Merkel, the Juncker guy, Emanuel what's-his-name                                        As above                                                As above

Point 3:                              As Above                                                                                                                                    As above, plus Nigel Farage/UKIP As above

Point 4:                               As above, plus Bibi, the Washington swamp, &c                                                             Vladimir Putin                                     Did I mention Shinzo Abe?

Point 5:                              Everybody ...........................................................................................except............ Vladimir Putin                                      Lots of "common people"

Point 6:                              Everybody running banks and watching the pension crisis                                           Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping                Shinzo's not happy about this one, but isn't saying

Point 7:                              Anti-populists, you know, people who hate national and western culture                  As above                                                Shinzo's really happy about this one, but isn't

saying anything, because Japan's immigration

policy is some of the strictest on the planet.

Now, my humorous review has a serious side, for it's this implied list that I think indicates what is going on, and what's going on  - if I may be somewhat bold and brazen about it - is a revival of full scale Italian Realpolitik the likes of which we haven't seen since, oh, say, the heyday of the Italian city-state republics. In particular, think The Most Serene Republic of Venice here. This is not, in my opinion, about some corny and half-baked western progressivist-press notion of 1930s Italian fascism or revivals of the Mussolini cult.

In other words, I'm going way out on the end of the twig of high octane speculation here. Forget about the hysteria about Italy you might be hearing from the BBC, CNN, Deutschewelle, Agence France or whatever, because this this is not about the hysteria of looming Fascism. Certainly there are Fascist-socialist elements here But so what? There are Fascist-socialist elements in every European country, and in Canada and the USSA. It's rather that list of pissed off, versus pleased, people and interests that tells the real political story: Italy is playing the old Venetian game, and playing it very well (they have a history and culture after all, that is at stake, and that is operating here). The game is that peculiar blend of domestic and financial politics and geopolitics that Venice, Florence, Genoa, Milan, and yes, the Papal States, knew and played very well, sustaining their power and influence in the face of much larger forces, for a very long time.

To put my end-of-the-twig speculation in "country simple" terms: this list is not the random act of the "radicalization of Italian domestic politics" or some such other nonsense on hears from television talking heads or progressivist quackademics.

In my opinion, it's very carefully thought out, because it contains that implicit threat of blowing up the EU. "And that's ok, if we have to do so, because we can always turn to Mr. Putin, and Mr. Xi, and they'd be only too happy to accomodate. It's up to you if we do. (In Joan Rivers voice): Can we talk? (In Don Corleone voice): We have an offer you can't refuse."

You're watching Venice at work, folks. Sit back, and enjoy your popcorn, because this is going to be fun because we haven't seen this sort display of diplomatic brinksmanship and prowess since the War of the League of Cambrai, and the people in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, and yes, Washington and London, are probably going to be lapped several times.

After all, they already have been.

A final geopolitical note, as we turn back to consider the rest of Europe: in the ongoing decline from a unipolar world, the power of the European powers grows commensurately, and almost by default. Thus, if the European union is to survive, some mechanism for the expression of those genuine and real national and cultural interests will have to be devised. Thus, if the EU survives, it will not simply be Berlin and Brussels running the show in the future. And that, too, is what the last Italian elections, and this platform, is all about.

See you on the flip side.

 

AIRBUS TO GERMANY: DON’T BUY THE F-35

Mr. S.S. sent the following article to me, and it's an article that I think is disclosing a new development that cannot be good news for the USA. But first, a wider context: recall that yesterday I blogged about Japan's rearmament, and its nascent stealth aircraft development. Recall that a recent offer by Lockheed Martin to help Japan develop such an aircraft was, in my opinion, designed to forestall the growth of an independent Japanese stealth aircraft technology and industry. I also speculated that Japan was in a rather strong bargaining position, and that somehow, some way, it would acquire stealth aircraft technology, if not from the United States, then from someone else, or by developing it on its own.

In the larger scheme of things, what Japanese rearmament really represents is a blow against one of the USA's only remaining manufactured exports: arms.

Now Mr. S.S. sends this article which indicates a similar nasty development is under way in Europe:

Germany shouldn’t buy the F-35, Europe needs military independence – Airbus Defense CEO

The crucial part of the story:

The CEO of Airbus Defense urged Europe to keep its military independence and warned Germany not to procure F-35s from the US, arguing it would kill the Franco-German effort to build their own fifth-generation jet.

“As soon as Germany becomes an F-35 nation, cooperation on all combat aircraft issues with France is dead,” Dirk Hoke, the CEO of Airbus Defense and Space at Airbus Group, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“Europe needs to define its sovereignty more clearly and state that we need to remain independent in defense and space,” Hoke said, referring to the joint Franco-German project to develop a fifth-generation fighter, according to the newspaper.

France and Germany unveiled plans to develop a next-generation European fighter jet in July of last year. While little is known about the new plane’s layout and features, it is understood the jet would replace the Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon, rival fourth-generation jets that compete on international markets.

If one has been following the F-35 boondoggle, one only hopes that Germany won't jump on the bandwagon. But there are other indicators that the USA's long dominance of the arms export industry, particularly in Europe, may be coming to an end. Germany, along with Italy, did not join France and the UK in the recent missile bombardment of Syria. In fact, there are stories that elements of the Bundestag concluded the Franco-British-American action was a violation of international law. That's the public story.

But behind the closed doors in the corridors of power in Berlin, I suspect that many German defense mandarins are coming to the same conclusion that I suspect that Japan came to a few years ago prior to launching its own rearmament: the USA is a rogue empire, and Germany simply can no longer rely upon it for its defense or rely upon it to act responsibly on the world stage. Buying the F-35 under these circumstances would, at best, be a stopgap measure, but as the CEO of Airbus Defense also points out, it would deal a severe setback to growing Franco-German military technology and defense coordination. Under such circumstances, it would be better to continue to cooperate with France in the development of an independent and European technology, than become reliant upon the USA.

That means not only dwindling arms export markets for American technology in Europe, but a real test for Europe, namely, whether a coordinated military will result in a coordinated foreign policy. The recent British and French participation in the Rothschild Crypto-State's strikes against Syria, and the German and Italian rejection of participation, suggests that the glorious plans for an EU military and coordinated policy dictated in Paris and London, might not pan out either. For the moment, Germany and France will continue to cooperate on military technological development. But as long as Paris continues to function as a lap-poodle for London and Washington, don't expect Germany's large defense contractors to sit idly by and wait for more "euro-solutions."

And gee, isn't it interesting that Japan may be in the market for some defense contract and licensing agreements. Watch for it: Mitsubishi in talks with Rheinmetall A.G. and Airbus...

See you on the flip side...