China will invest $400 billion in Iran energy and infrastructure but nothing in strategic pact allows for a Chinese troop presence or island handover By Pepe Escobar – republished from Asia Times by permission of author Two of the US’s top “strategic threats” are getting closer and closer within the scope of the New Silk Roads – the leading 21st century project of economic integration across Eurasia. The Deep State
by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; and from these proceed debt and taxes; and armies, and debts, are taxes of the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few … no nation could reserve
by Saker’s Johnny-on-the-spot in Serbia for The Saker Blog The regime of one of Europe’s last two tyrants (guess where the other one is, hint: also in the Balkans) has been convulsed by massive outbursts of popular discontent and disobedience during the last two days. For all his fabled manipulative skills, Alexander Vučić, the tyrant here in question, made the foolish miscalculation by taking himself and his ability to intimidate
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog I wonder if Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will ever understand the real truth about why his play is so popular…? Miranda probably believes that if he had written a play about Eugene V. Debs (America’s greatest socialist) his talents, approach and techniques would have produced a spectacle of similarly spectacular success, LOL…. The believers of Broadway are nothing if not wilfully naive (i.e.
Submitted by Pepe Escobar – source Asia Times The no holds barred US-China strategic competition may be leading us to the complete fragmentation of the current “world-system” – as Wallerstein defined it. Yet compared to the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula, the Taiwan Straits, India-China’s Himalayan border, and selected latitudes of the Greater Middle East, Central Asia shines as a portrait of stability. That’s quite intriguing, when we consider
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog During the recent wave of rebellions in the US I was reminded of just how woefully, woefully inadequate the US nationwide media truly is. I only foresee one solution to ferret out what is truly going on in the United States during the 2020 summer & fall of discontent – going local, nationwide. (However, I do please need help with this solution –
by Eric Zuesse for the Saker Blog On Friday, July 3rd, the judge in the Netherlands court case against Russia as having fired a Buk missile that brought down the Malaysian Airlines plane that Ukrainian Air Traffic Control had instructed to fly over Ukraine’s civil-war zone on 17 July 2014 ruled out any consideration of evidence from Russia. Judge Hendrik Steenhuis “refused to allow Russian military intelligence to reveal where
By Ken Leslie for the Saker Blog 1. How to be progressive in America As some readers of my previous essays recall, I devoted quite a lot of space to one (possibly principal) agent of imperialism and genocide, namely, Roman Catholicism. Although I made my views clear, I’ll repeat—I am not discussing the RC religious dogma, its theological foundations or the honesty of its followers but its (geo)political dimension which
by Straight-Bat for the Saker Blog This will be presented in 3 parts and in 3 different blog posts Part 1 Part 2 PART – 3 2008 ONWARDS – PREPARATION FOR FINAL ACT The financial crisis that started in USA in 2007 became global by 2008 which impacted countries and societies across the world. The year 2008 has already been identified as watershed moment for world economy. However, I would
By Matthew Ehret for the Saker Blog As a Canadian author associated with a Canadian geopolitical magazine and a book series rooted in the thesis that Canada is still under the dominance of the British Empire to this very day, the July 1st holiday known as “Canada Day” is a bit of a strange thing to celebrate. As I have recently written in my articles The Missed Chance of 1867
Paul Schmutz Schaller for The Saker Blog Introduction From a global point of view, the most important political question is certainly whether you stay on the side of the USA/Western hegemonism or whether you stay on the side of China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, or, in short, of a post-Western world. Once this question is decided, the next problem today is obviously – as I see
Reviewed by Francis Lee for The Saker Blog It would be true to say that in official or mainstream ‘left’ political circles the economic theories of J.M.Keynes (1883-1946) enjoy a dominant and in my view somewhat privileged position. He was a life-long Liberal and member of the fashionable ‘Bloomsbury Group’. *(see below). He joined H.M.Treasury and in due course became the UK’s chief negotiator during the Bretton Woods conference in
by Mansoureh Tajik for the Saker Blog Three precious decades were squandered by a handful of people bound together by a school of thought that has greed, selfishness, and arrogance as its pillars. They built systems that were founded on injustice, sustained by greed, adorned by arrogance, and re-fashioned and revised constantly by ever new versions of deceit. They chose unjust ways to acquire offensive means to do some very
by Straight-Bat for the Saker Blog This will be presented in 3 parts and in 3 different blog posts Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 PART – 2 5. POST-DENG CHINA Post-Deng China witnessed three variants of socio-economic trajectories associated with three different Leaders. Even though the economic programme of reform initiated by Deng went on unhindered, there were significantly different style of implementation of the same. A brief recapitulation
by Chris Faure for the Saker Blog Reserve currency, backing of a currency and value of the financial systems that distribute a currency. Its going to take years for the US dollar as reserve currency to fully reduce in importance and of course, the US should continue to use their currency as their own even when it changes into a normal currency. Yet there are financial technologies (FinTech) which may
By Jimmy Moglia for the Saker Blog Whatever busies the mind without corrupting it has at least this use, that it rescues the day from idleness, and he that is never idle will not often be vicious. The previous unnecessary remark is intended as a pre-emptive application for absolution from the reader whose views expressed hereafter may not mirror his. We live in explosive times and some believe that diseases
By Ken Leslie for The Saker Blog 1. The making of a demon Remember the days of your childhood—especially if you are German. If you even dream of being naughty or disobeying your elders and betters, Krampus will put you in his basket and take you to some swampy Germanic hell. Nothing will be heard from you ever again. Krampus is a leftover from ancient pre-Christian times when he (and
by Straight-Bat for the Saker Blog This will be presented in 3 parts and in 3 different blog posts Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 PART – 1 1. INTRODUCTION The world is tottering under the omnipresent virus covid19. Since January’2020, economic and sociological parameters went into a tailspin in one after another country across the globe. By end of year 2020, when the corona pandemic would be under control
by Francis Lee for The Saker Blog The open support given by the entire western media and political establishments to the regime now ensconced in Kiev should give cause for concern, but of course it doesn’t. After all it would not do to profess open backing for a staged coup by neo-nazi militants orchestrated and paid for by EU and US through non-government channels. Of course the CIA was involved
Submitted by Pepe Escobar – source Asia Times So what’s goin’ on in Iran? How did the Islamic Republic really respond to Covid-19? How is it coping with Washington’s relentless “maximum pressure”? These questions were the subject of a long phone call I placed to Prof. Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran – one of Iran’s premier, globally recognized analysts. As Marandi explains, “Iran after the revolution was all
