By Ramin Mazaheri – for The Saker Blog Looking back, why was there such a huge, swift economic collapse after 9/11? Doesn’t it seem to have been totally unjustified? After all, there was no drastic global reordering, no Armageddon, no World War III. The biggest consequence was the legalisation of the 21st century Western security state, which dwarfs anything the KGB could have waged, but from an economic point of
by Gary Littlejohn for The Saker Blog The recent rapid decline in oil prices may now be coming to a halt as Trump and Putin agreed in a recent phone call that their oil industry ministers should talk to each other about the oil standoff that began when Russia refused to agree to participate in a cut in oil output proposed by OPEC. This proposed cut was then effectively reversed
By Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog Germany and their moral poses… a century of Europe cries, “Enough!” It’s hard for those living outside of Europe to understand the resentment towards Germany; Germans themselves often seem totally oblivious – the “German professor” only ever sees bad, unruly students, after all. When I first moved to Paris in 2009 I remarked how all the Germans I met were so very nice.
by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker blog I have deliberated for some time before deciding to write a Saker article about the COVID-19 outbreak. Firstly, because this is not a forum to write about such issues, and secondly because I am not a medic. But given that this is all that people want to talk and hear about right now, given that COVID-19 articles have already been published on The
Note by the Saker: today I am posting an article written by a good and trusted friend of mine. That does *not* mean that I agree with the logic of his argument. For one thing, I am wholly incompetent to even have much of an opinion on this topic. The little I do think about what is taking place disagrees with the conclusions of my friend. But since I don’t
By GH Eliason for The Saker Blog Recently, I had a chance to meet one of my favorite journalists in Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), Christelle Neant. Of all the English speaking journalists in the conflict, she consistently stands out for her courage and dedication to facts and evidence-based journalism. Originally, this was meant to be a written article with video follow-up questions, but due to technical difficulties (always blame the
By Pepe Escobar – Posted with permission Like a shot ricocheting at Heaven’s Door, Bob Dylan has released a masterpiece dissecting JFK’s assassination What spectacular timing. Like a shot ricocheting at Heaven’s Door as a virus pandemic rages and Planet Lockdown is the new normal, Bob Dylan has produced a stunning 17-minute masterpiece dissecting the November 22, 1963, assassination of JFK – releasing it at midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Thursday.
by Mansoureh Tajik for The Saker Blog In an essay published on the Saker blog at the beginning of March, I wrote with a restrained skepticism about the novel coronavirus, the narratives surrounding the severity of its adverse health impacts compared to its cousins causing other influenza epidemics, and its reported mortality rates both in Iran and elsewhere. Now, towards the end of March some three weeks, five continents, one
by Ramin Mazaheri exclusive for The Saker Blog So when did you become an epidemiologist? You seem quite willing to shame anyone not sterilising every square inch of every square inch. And when did you become an economist? “The economy is not important now” must have been a pretty unusual PhD thesis. We have likely all heard of “internet tough guys” – people who make bold claims or threats online,
By Pepe Escobar – Posted with permission The French government is arguably helping Big Pharma profit from the Covid-19 pandemic What’s going on in the fifth largest economy in the world arguably points to a major collusion scandal in which the French government is helping Big Pharma to profit from the expansion of Covid-19. Informed French citizens are absolutely furious about it. My initial question to a serious, unimpeachable Paris
By Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog The Chicago Tribune – seemingly the only major newspaper which did not endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016 (they endorsed Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson) – has reported that price gouging in Chicago has skyrocketed a spectacular 9,000% since March 1. What’s worse, that figure only includes complaints to the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Department from March 1, excluding the first two
Jimmie Moglia for The Saker Blog In all mass phenomena it is uncertain whether to believe the scientists as the infallible voices of truth, or if, in their explanation of some events, we see but the dimming of the light of reason. For in the current currents of the world, science is often an improper verbal expression, used by sundry technocratic dictatorships to suggest unquestionable infallibility, leading to the imposition
Allen Yu for The Saker Blog Despite strong rebukes from the WHO, President Trump and his Administration officials in recent days have made an emphatic point of calling the COVID-19 virus the “Chinese Virus” or “China Virus.” When pushed on the racist overtone of his rhetoric, Trump retorted, “Cause [the virus] comes from China. It’s not racist at all, no, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. I
by Ramin Mazaheri exclusive for The Saker Blog So there I was again on the “Job Creator’s Red-Eye” (NYC to Silicon Valley) – the typical route for us bigwig CEOs – and I got to wondering: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? I’m not prepared for something like this. But after the stock market crashed – the fastest 30% sell-off ever – and I survived my suicide attempt, I decided
by Ramin Mazaheri exclusive for the Saker Blog In any sane, modern nation a financial crisis combined with a (due to sub-standard) health care crisis would almost certainly produce election victories for progressive, big-government candidates. Few call the US sane, and many say it’s not even modern. Iranian relatives of mine visit they US and say: that place is a falling-down dump – and it’s not like the TV show
by Ramin Mazaheri, exclusive for the Saker Blog In the UK an average of just 600 people die from influenza every year, a testament to the major socialist concept the incredibly rich island has tolerated – the National Health Service. In the US, where the biggest socialist concept they have tolerated is Social Security – to prevent mass elder-class starvation – the lack of health care annually kills 11 times
By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission The Philosophical Silk Road as celebrated at an Italian airport: a meeting of Chinese and Greek/Latin stoicism Earlier this week a delegation of Chinese medics arrived at Malpensa airport near Milan from Shanghai on a special China Eastern flight carrying 400,000 masks and 17 tons of equipment. The salutation banner the visitors rolled out on the tarmac, in red and white, read, “We’re
By Susan Babbitt for The Saker Blog Antonio Gramsci said optimism is lazy. It is because optimists believe in the result they want, regardless of evidence. More useful, Gramsci suggested, is seeing things as they are, even if bad, and starting there. It’s more interesting. Bertoldt Brecht agreed. He learned from ancient Chinese theatre: The “thinking man” sees the storm and crouches down, becoming small.[1] In European theatre, Brecht noticed,
By GH Eliason for The Saker Blog Server, server, who has the Trump-Ukraine server? The answers won’t leave room for doubt on this question. This is part one of a 3 part series showing the FBI and US Intel agency heads are complicit in the DNC hack after the fact and 2016 election interference. Early on, the FBI and Mueller found the real hackers and worked to hide them from
By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission Fallout from Covid-19 outbreak puts Beijing and Washington on a collision course Among the myriad, earth-shattering geopolitical effects of coronavirus, one is already graphically evident. China has re-positioned itself. For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the US as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich
