- Saudi Prince Alwaleed's Net Worth Down 60% From 2014 Peak
After being arrested and imprisoned by Saudi police during Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s
corruption crackdowncash grab late last year, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Saudi Arabia’s richest man, was finally released (after reportedly being tortured and beaten) in January, having signed an agreement that would allow him to do more about freely.But his freedom didn’t come cheap.
As we reported at the time, Saudi authorities reportedly demanded $6 billion in cash from the prince in exchange for his freedom. When he resisted, he was reportedly beaten and tortured at the Riyadh Ritz Carlton, where he was being held along with dozens of other royals and wealthy Saudi businessmen.
While negotiations were ongoing, WSJ reported at the time that Alwaleed had reportedly offered a piece of his holding company, Kingdom Holding Co., and that the Saudi government was considering accepting this as payment.
Prince al-Waleed is talking with the government about instead accepting as payment for his release a large piece of his conglomerate, Kingdom Holding Co., people familiar with the matter said. The Riyadh-listed company’s market value is $8.7 billion, down about 14% since the prince’s arrest. Kingdom Holding said in November that it retained the support of the Saudi government and that its strategy “remains intact.”
The terms of Alwaleed’s release were never disclosed, so we can’t say for certain what, if anything, he surrendered in exchange for his freedom. But in it’s latest update to its “billionaire’s list” Bloomberg has provided a few clues. According to Bloomberg, Prince Al-Waleed’s fortune has decreased by more than $3 billion over the past year – and more than $20 billion since 2014.
While most of this decline can be attributed to a drop in Kingdom Holding shares (the stock, which trades on the Tadawul, took a hit on news that Alwaleed had been imprisoned), Al-Waleed’s family office said his personal holdings of real-estate, stocks and other assets took a nearly $800 million hit, which they blamed on “minor adjustments”.
The fortune of Saudi Arabia’s richest person, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, has dropped to $15.2 billion, its lowest level since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index began tracking him in April 2012.
The value of his portfolio of public equities, stakes in closely held companies and Saudi real estate fell by $760 million in the first three quarters of the year, according to an emailed document from his private office. The decline was due to “minor adjustments” in the valuation of assets and some disposals, including the sale last month of his stake in U.S. ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. to his investment company, Kingdom Holding Co.
Meanwhile, Al-Waleed’s stake in Kingdom has lost 70% of its value since 2014.
Alwaleed’s most valuable asset, a 95 percent stake in Kingdom Holding, has dropped 70 percent of its value since hitting a record high in 2014. The firm’s shares fell more than 20 percent following Alwaleed’s sudden detention in an anticorruption crackdown last November and have never fully recovered.
While $800 million is a hefty fine, it appears Alwaleed did a decent job of advocating for himself: He managed to talk MbS and his cronies down from $6 billion to just under $1 billion.
- S-300 Vs. F-35: Stealth And Invincible Are Not Exactly Synonyms
Authored by Andrei Akulov via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
How effective is the S-300 PMU-2 “Favorit” that Russia has just delivered to Syria? Especially when employed against the F-35 stealth fighters that Israel intends to make more use of when attacking targets in Syria? Who has the edge?
This is truly a hot topic for the press right now. It would be better, of course, to avoid the military hostilities and leave this as a theoretical, unanswered question, because no definite answer is possible until a real shootout takes place. Stealth technology includes both active and passive measures that reduce visibility and the chance of detection. Some of those are classified, as are the specifications and capabilities of the S-300. This makes it much more complicated to offer predictions or conclusions. But the known facts can be considered impartially and objectively.
Israeli officials play down the significance of the shipment of the S-300 to Syrian government forces.
“The operational abilities of the air force are such that those (S-300) batteries really do not constrain the air force’s abilities to act,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s regional cooperation minister.
“You know that we have stealth fighters, the best planes in the world. These batteries are not even able to detect them.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in April that “if anyone attacks us, we will retaliate, regardless of S-300, S-700 or any anything else’s presence there”.
The Pentagon has also cast doubt on the S-300’s effectiveness.
Let’s give the devil his due. The F-35 is a fine example of low observable aircraft with extraordinary capabilities. It’s a formidable weapon, but so is the S-300. If the worst happens, Israel’s high-end F-35I Adir aircraft will be checkmated by this Russian-made, state-of-the-art air-defense system.
A stealth aircraft is not invincible. It has its strengths and weaknesses. In Syria, Israeli F-35s will be up against a tight, integrated air-defense network with multiple radars trying to detect and track the target from different directions.
Excessive use of stealth technology restricts the combat capabilities of an aircraft like the F-35. A plane based on stealth technology does not perform exceptionally well in combat. It cannot carry many weapons because everything is hidden inside the body. Its ability to remain invisible is reduced as soon as the radar is turned on. Low frequencies can detect a stealth aircraft. A bomb bay that has been opened to launch weapons will also give the plane away.
The S-300’s 48N6E2 missiles boast single-shot kill probability of 80% to 93% for an aerial target, 40% to 85% for cruise missiles. and 50% to 77% for theater ballistic missiles. The Russian system uses the 96L6 all-altitude detector and acquisition radar, which works in L-band. It has a 300 km range and enhanced resolution. The S-300 PMU-2 version can detect and track 100 targets. The radar is said to be able to detect stealth targets.
Large wavelength radiations are reflected by “invisible” aircraft. Radar that operates in the VHF, UHF, L and S bands can detect and even track the F-35 without transmitting weapons-quality track. It is true that no accurate targeting is possible, but at least you can tell where the plane is.
The S-300’s vertically launched missiles can be re-targeted during flight. The explosion is so powerful that no kinetic kill is needed. Multiple killing elements will strike targets throughout the vicinity.
The IAF F-35s still need to be integrated with other assets in order to enhance their chances of carrying out missions. Just to be on the safe side, they will probably be escorted by electronic warfare aircraft, which are not stealth, thus giving away their position and providing the enemy with enough time to take countermeasures. Israel has only 12 F-35s, with 50 more arriving by 2024. The price tag for each is about $100 million. It’ll be a long time before they are in place and integrated into the Air Force. And twelve are simply not enough.
Besides, the aircraft still needs to be upgraded with the full operational capability of Block 3F and subsequent Block 4 software and hardware configurations.
Once the S-300s are operational, all other Israeli non-stealth planes will face huge risks any time they fly an offensive mission into Syria. It should also be taken into account that Russia will jam the radar, navigation, and communications systems on any aircraft attacking targets in Syria via the Mediterranean Sea, as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned on Sept. 24, 2018.
Israel boasts a broad repertoire of standoff weapons, along with highly advanced electronic warfare systems and enhanced cyber capabilities. It also has very experienced and well trained personnel. Nevertheless, the S-300 in Syria is a deterrent to be reckoned with. Hopefully, the peace process in that war-torn country will move forward and there will be no escalation to provoke an S-300 vs. F-35 fight.
- Imminent Trial Flights Expected Of Chinese Stealth Bomber – "Deterrence To Our Enemies"
Earlier this year, state-run Aviation Industry Corporation of China teased audiences worldwide with a promotional video offering the first official glimpse of the country’s first stealth bomber.
Now, it seems a popular daily Chinese tabloid newspaper has confirmed that the Hong-20, or H-20 is ready for trial flights.
Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday that trial flights of China’s next-generation stealth bomber would be immient. He said disclosing the new plane is a potential deterrence to our enemies.
“Usually the development of equipment and weaponry of the People’s Liberation Army is highly confidential,” he said.
Shanghai-based news site thepaper.cn said, revealing the bomber’s name before trials show strength in the Chinese aviation industry.
In August, state broadcaster China Central Television reported in a documentary that “the development of new long-distance strategic bomber, Hong-20, had made great progress.” The bomber marked the 91st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, which Chinese officials see the stealth plane as a “game changer,” could enter series production much sooner than estimated.
The documentary was the first time “Hong-20” appeared officially in the public domain. “Hong” is the first character of Honghaji, “bomber aircraft” in Chinese.
The public unveiling of the bomber suggested that Aviation Industry Corp. might have concluded testing of hydraulic pressure, electricity supply, and avionics systems, said song.
“The trial flight will come soon,” he added.
Specifications of the new bomber are unknown, but it seems the Chinese did a great job copying the profile of the American Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, both look pretty similar.
“Observers say the design objective is for the long-range H-20 to remain airborne for some 8,000 kilometers to jet away beyond the second island china – formed by Japan’s Ogasawara and Volcano Islands as well as Guam and the US Mariana Islands in the middle portion of the Pacific — without aerial refueling,” said Asia Times.
News Corp. Australia Network speculated earlier this year that the stealth bomber could reach northern regions of Australia, after taking off from Chinese militarized islands in the South China Sea.
The Global Times quoted Fu Qianshao as saying the ultimate goal for the H-20 is to boost operational range to 12,000 kilometers with 20-tons of payload.
Asia Times pitched the idea that the stealth bomber could be the solution for China to fire missiles at American mainland targets.
Add next-generation stealth bombers to the list of military might that China is acquiring before a military conflict with the US breaks out.
- The U.S. Is "Morphing" Into The U.S.S.A. – The United States Of Soviet America
We are experiencing an ever-increasing level of surveillance over the citizenry, government censorship and closed-door policies, control and manipulation of the media, and a “hardline” shift of all institutions to the left. The institutions I’m referring to specifically are the educational system (better termed a system of indoctrination), the courts, the religious institutions…every one of them are all “leaning” toward (if not striving toward) full blown socialism. Let us recall a key quote:
“The goal of Socialism is Communism.” – Lenin
Just as recently as Tuesday, 10/2/18, we have this stunning announcement as quoted by the Washington Examiner by none other than the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Here’s the excerpt:
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen warned Tuesday the public should steer clear of Russian-owned entities that pose as legitimate news outlets. “I encourage everybody, if you are reading something … and it suddenly takes you to RT and Sputnik, be aware. I mean, those are state-sponsored news outlets. They’re not independent,” Nielsen said at a cybersecurity summit in Washington, D.C.
Yeah, can you imagine that? Those Russian news sources are “state-sponsored,” and “not independent.” So ABC, CBS, and the New York Times are independent? Freedom of the press, right?
And how many White House press briefings would tolerate one person… one reporter from the Independent News Media? If it isn’t AP (Associated Press) sanctioned with a card, credentials, and lip balm, nobody is getting into those briefings. And how about all of the “Presidential Debates,” such as those modified by Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, and the like? The ones with the questions and their answers figured out a month in advance…with phony people and actors pretending to ask the questions spontaneously. The show must go on, right?
What about the media bias and slant away from the President right now? We are not talking about policies instituted by the President. We are discussing policies of censorship and watered-down propaganda that eclipses Pravda and Isvestia of the Soviet Union for its Hollywood polish and panache.
We have become as the Soviet Union, and worse: there is no freedom of speech, freedom of the press. We are in a “soft time” right now prior to the massive clamping-down that will occur when the globalists have their clawed-fingered control over the White House and all of Congress again. The clamping will be nothing more than the final evisceration of the Constitution and complete restrictions, martial law, and open enslavement being in place and out in the open.
Now, once again, let me remind everybody that this is the DHS Secretary we’re talking about…so whoever writes about what she said or about the DHS will be scrutinized by that agency. Bradford Betz of Fox News wrote an article 4/7/18 titled Homeland Security database would track journalists, ‘media influencers’: report. I wrote an article about the spokesperson for the DHS subsequently. Here’s an excerpt from Betz’s piece:
The Department of Homeland Security is seeking contractors for the creation of a database that would monitor news outlets around the world and collect information on journalists, bloggers and “media influencers.” The plan comes amid concerns of so-called “fake news” and its effect on U.S. elections, the Chicago-Sun Times reported. A DHS solicitation for bids on the project appears on the website FedBizOpps.gov. Prospective contractors are invited to contact two DHS staffers, whose email addresses appear in the post. DHS spokesman Todd Houlton tweeted Friday that despite what some reporters may suggest, the solicitation is nothing more than the standard practice of monitoring current events in the media. “Any suggestion otherwise is fit for tin foil hat wearing, black helicopter conspiracy theorists,” he said.
The DHS Media Monitoring plan would grant the chosen company “24/7 access to a password protected, media influencer database, including journalist, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc.,” for the purpose of identifying “any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.” According to the document, the public activities of media members and influencers would be monitored by location and beat.
As I explained in the earlier article, this would be for the DHS to carry out activities that would normally come under fire from an arm or agency of the government by “subbing” out the work to a subcontractor. The subcontractor would monitor with all of the sneaky secrecy as outlined in the paragraph and report their findings to the DHS. The contractor would have carte blanche protection from DHS and immunity from prosecution.
This is the same method used by the “Five Eyes” to spy on their respective citizens: one nation “subs” out the tasks to another by “authorizing” it to do such things…and then the foreign “partner” feeds the information to that nation…effectively bypassing Constitutional protections for the citizens under the nation’s laws.
All of the Congressional sessions and hearings are closed-door, just as the closed-door tribunals of the Soviet Union (read the Gulag Archipelago, all volumes). The President is fighting a completely uphill battle and is pitted against the pit-vipers remaining from the Obama regime. The world situation is still a mess. Has North Korea “de-nuclearized” yet? I think not.
Check out the news that the U.S. may have a biological weapons facility in Georgia (the nation), and may be responsible for dozens of deaths. Check out the fact that we are slapping more sanctions on Iran, and China has just ceased buying our crude oil…the same oil we ourselves do not use domestically because of the Jones Act, and the lack of refineries.
In the meanwhile, characters such as Soros and the other leftists are fomenting dissension between Americans on all fronts. Remember what Che Guevara said:
“It is not necessary to wait until all conditions for making a revolution exist; the insurrection can create them.”
You’re seeing it now, in the form of Antifa, and in the form of leftists and communists masquerading behind the label of “progressives.” You are seeing threats being made against members of Congress and their families. You are seeing a level of racial discord being pushed to its limits, and the laws being either flagrantly disobeyed (by Communist governors and oligarchs) or circumvented (through the puppet court system, improperly named the “Justice system.”).
On a daily basis, the United States is “reshaping” itself, shifting the paradigm and molding the public consciousness to accept socialism…that final step prior to a full-blown totalitarian state. Surveillance on every citizen and control of every citizen is the key. Then they’ll bypass that “archaic” Constitution with its “pesky” 2nd Amendment, and come for the guns. Once they have the guns, the control, and the surveillance? The killing will begin. Just take a long look at Diane Feinstein, at Lisa Murkowski, at Schumer, Soros, Zuckerberg… just look at them and then ask yourself how you could doubt that they will all make the attempt. What attempt? The attempt to make the U.S. into an American version of the U.S.S.R. They are fighting that fight incrementally, and they are winning it.
- Asian Markets Crushed By Capitulation Carnage
No “National Team”… No “Plunge Protection Team”… No RRR Cuts… and not a word from Powell. The US equity market massacre is extending overnight as the liquidation crisis smashes into Asia…
The initial red box is the after-hours drop and the second drop is as Asian cash markets opened… (Nasdaq is now down over 6%)
Nasdaq’s plunge led by a bloodbath in FANGs (NFLX -10% now)…
From yesterday’s cash close at 26,449, Dow futures are now down almost 1300 points…
AsiaPac markets are a sea of red…
MSCI AsiaPac is plunging almost 4% to its lowest since May 2017…
Taiwan is getting monkey-hammered…
China is opening in freefall…
And it’s not just equity markets.
Currencies are tumbling…led by the Won and Taiwanese Dollar…
Yuan is back near cycle lows…
And cryptocurrencies are crashing too…
There is some green in the world, however…
US Treasuries are bid with 10Y now down 12bps from Tuesday’s highs…
It’s going to be a long night.
- "Nearly All" The Pentagon's Expensive New Toys Are Embarrassingly Easy To Hack, GAO Audit Finds
The Pentagon’s next-gen weapons systems currently under development by the Department of Defense (DoD) are woefully vulnerable to cyberattacks, according to a Tuesday report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
GAO testers “playing the role of adversary” discovered “mission critical cyber vulnerabilities in nearly all weapon systems that were under development.“
“Using relatively simple tools and techniques, testers were able to take control of systems and largely operate undetected, due in part to basic issues such as poor password management and unencrypted communications,” said GAO officials.
In one case, it took a two-person test team just one hour to gain initial access to a weapon system and one day to gain full control of the system they were testing.
Some programs fared better than others. For example, one assessment found that the weapon system satisfactorily prevented unauthorized access by remote users, but not insiders and near-siders. Once they gained initial access, test teams were often able to move throughout a system, escalating their privileges until they had taken full or partial control of a system.
In one case, the test team took control of the operators’ terminals. They could see, in real-time, what the operators were seeing on their screens and could manipulate the system. They were able to disrupt the system and observe how the operators responded.
Another test team reported that they caused a pop-up message to appear on users’ terminals instructing them to insert two quarters to continue operating.
Multiple test teams reported that they were able to copy, change, or delete system data including one team that downloaded 100 gigabytes, approximately 142 compact discs, of data.
Warnings ignored
Despite years of repeated warnings, cybersecurity surrounding weapons systems has been surprisingly ignored. In 1991, the National Research Council reported “as computer systems become more prevalent, sophisticated, embedded in physical processes, and interconnected, society becomes more vulnerable to poor system design, accidents that disable systems, and attacks on computer systems. Without more responsible design and use, system disruptions will increase, with harmful consequences for society. “
The warnings by the GAO began in 1996, when the auditing agency warned that the internet could provide enemies with a cheap and easy method to cause catastrophic damage to connected systems. In 2013, the Defense Science Board warned that “in today’s world of hyper-connectivity and automation, any device with electronic processing, storage, or software is a potential attack point and every system is a potential victim – including our own weapons systems.”
Perhaps worst of all; the GAO claims that despite documented instances of “mission-critical cyber vulnerabilities,” Pentagon officials who met with the GAO testers brushed off their concerns – insisting that their systems were secure, and “discounted some test results as unrealistic.”
The GAO acknowledge that the tests were performed on computerized weapons systems that are still under development – and that hackers are unable to infiltrate current weapons systems in the field. If and when the next-gen weapons are deployed, however, the threat becomes real according to the GAO.
“It looks grim unless they see this as a wake-up call and they start taking action in a serious manner,” said GAO employee and co-author of the report, Christina Chaplin.
Answering questions in a podcast, Chaplin said that one of the reasons these new computerized weapons systems are so vulnerable to hacks is because, until recently, the DOD didn’t prioritize “cyber” as part of the development process, “but it has begun to grasp the magnitude of the problem and taken a way of action.”
One way was by instituting better testing procedures, and the second was by setting “cyber” as a focus during the acquisition process of the many components part of these new systems.
But despite this, the GAO report warns that if the DOD doesn’t act on its own findings to patch the vulnerabilities its employees discover in their own software, then all their internal testing procedures are useless. –ZDNet
The GAO report goes on to call out the DoD for their shoddy response to the vulnerabilities.
For example, one test report indicated that only 1 of 20 cyber vulnerabilities identified in a previous assessment had been corrected. The test team exploited the same vulnerabilities to gain control of the system. When asked why vulnerabilities had not been addressed, program officials said they had identified a solution, but for some reason it had not been implemented. They attributed it to contractor error.
“There’s also a culture right now at the DOD were we feel like the extent of the problem isn’t really appreciated at the program level,” Chaplin said. “The DOD has a lot of work ahead of it to overcome some cultural issues.”
While the GAO doesn’t specify the weapons systems involved out of national security concerns, they did say that the systems are heavily computerized and many of them networked together – making them attractive targets for enemies of the United States after they are deployed in the field.
“Nearly every conceivable component in DOD is networked,” the report reads. “Weapon systems connect to DOD’s extensive set of networks–called the DOD Information Network–and sometimes to external networks, such as those of defense contractors. Technology systems, logistics, personnel, and other business-related systems sometimes connect to the same networks as weapon systems. Furthermore, some weapon systems may not connect directly to a network, but connect to other systems, such as electrical systems, that may connect directly to the public Internet.”
We wonder how vulnerable China or Russia’s next-gen weapons systems are?
- Paul Craig Roberts: Erasing History, Diplomacy, Truth, & Life On Earth
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
One of the reasons that countries fail is that collective memory is continually destroyed as older generations pass away and are replaced by new ones who are disconnected from what came before.
Initially, the disconnect was handled by history and by discussions around family tables. For example, when I was a kid there were still grandparents whose fathers had fought for the Confederacy. They had no slaves and owned no plantations. They fought because their land was invaded by Lincoln’s armies. Today if Southern families still know the facts, they would protect their children by not telling them. Can you imagine what would happen to a child in a public school that took this position?
Frustrated by the inability of the Union Army to defeat the Army of Northern Virginia led by West Point graduate Robert E. Lee, Lincoln resorted to war criminals. Generals Sherman and Sherridan, operating under the drunken General Grant, were the first modern war criminals who conducted war against civilian women and children, their homes and food supply. Lincoln was so out of step with common morality that he had to arrest and detain 300 Northern newspaper editors and exile a US Congressman in order to conduct his War for Empire.
Today this history is largely erased. The court historians buried the truth with the fable that Lincoln went to war to free the slaves. This ignorant nonsense is today the official history of the “civil war,” which most certainly was not a civil war.
A civil war is when two sides fight for control of the government. The Confederacy was a new country consisting of those states that seceded. Most certainly, the Confederate soldiers were no more fighting for control over the government in Washington than they were fighting to protect the investment of plantation owners.
Memory is lost when historical facts are cast down the memory hole
So, what does this have to do with the lesson for today? More than history can be erased by the passage of time. Culture can be erased. Morality can be erased. Common sense can disappear with the diplomacy that depends on it.
The younger generation which experiences threats shouted all around it at Confederate war memorials and street names – Atlanta has just struck historic Confederate Avenue out of existence and replaced it with United Avenue – at white males who, if they are heterosexual, have been redefined by Identity Politics as rapists, racists, and misogynists, at distinguished scientists who state, factually, that there are innate differences between the male and the female, and so on, might think that it is natural for high officials in the US government to issue a never-ending stream of war threats to Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela.
A person of my generation knows that such threats are unprecedented, not only for the US Government but also in world history. President Trump’s crazed NATO Ambassador, Kay Bailey Hutchison, threatened to “take out Russian missiles.” President Trump’s crazed UN Ambassador Nikki Hailey issues endless threats as fast as she can run her mouth against America’s allies as well as against the powerful countries that she designates as enemies. Trump’s crazed National Security Advisor John Bolten rivals the insane Haley with his wide-ranging threats. Trump’s Secretary of State Pompeo spews out threats with the best of them. So do the inane New York Times and Washington Post. Even a lowly Secretary of the Interior assumes the prerogative of telling Russia that the US will interdict Russian navy ships.
What do you think would be the consequences if the Russians, the Chinese, and the Iranians took these threats seriously? World Wars have started on far less. Yet there is no protest against these deranged US government officials who are doing everything in their power to convince Russia and China that they are without any question America’s worst enemies. If you were Russia or China, how would you respond to this?
Professor Stephen Cohen, who, like myself, remembers when the United States government had a diplomatic tradition, is as disturbed as I am that Washington’s decision to chuck diplomacy down the memory hole and replace it with war threats is going to get us all killed.
More Cold War Extremism and Crises
Overshadowed by the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, US-Russian relations grow ever more perilous.
By Stephen F. Cohen (via The Nation)
October 3, 2018
Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton University, and John Batchelor continue their discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.)
Emphasizing growing Cold War extremism in Washington and war-like crises in US-Russian relations elsewhere, Cohen comments on the following examples:
Russiagate, even though none of its core allegations have been proven, is now a central part of the new Cold War, severely limiting President Trump’s ability to conduct crisis-negotiations with Moscow and further vilifying Russian President Putin for having ordered “an attack on America” during the 2016 presidential election. The New York Times and The Washington Post have been leading promoters of the Russiagate narrative, even though several of its foundational elements have been seriously challenged, even discredited.
Nonetheless, both papers recently devoted thousands of words to retelling the same narrative—on September 20 and 23, respectively—along with its obvious fallacies. For example, Paul Manafort, during the crucial time he was advising then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was not “pro-Russian” but pro–European Union. And contrary to insinuations, General Michael Flynn did nothing wrong or unprecedented in having conversations with a representative of the Kremlin on behalf of President-elect Trump. Many other presidents-elect had instructed top aides to do the same. The epic retellings of the Russiagate narrative by both papers, at extraordinary length, were riddled with similar mistakes and unproven allegations. (Nonetheless, a prominent historian, albeit one seemingly little informed both about Russiagate documents and about Kremlin leadership, characterized the widely discredited anti-Trump Steele dossier—the source of many such allegations—as “increasingly plausible.”)
Astonishingly, neither the Times nor the Post give any credence to the emphatic statement made at least one week before by Bob Woodward—normally considered the most authoritative chronicler of Washington’s political secrets—that after two years of research he had found “no evidence of collusion” between Trump and Russia.
For the Times and Post and other mainstream media outlets, Russiagate has become, it seems, a kind of cult journalism that no counter-evidence or analysis can dint, and thus itself is a major contributing factor to the new and more dangerous Cold War. Still worse, what began nearly two years ago as complaints about Russian “meddling” in the US presidential campaign has become for The New Yorker and other publications an accusation that the Kremlin actually put Trump in the White House. For this reckless charge, with its inherent contempt for the good sense of American voters, there is no convincing evidence—nor any precedent in American history.
Meanwhile, current and former US officials are making unprecedented threats against Moscow. NATO ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchinson threatened to “take out” any Russian missiles she thought violated a 1987 arms treaty, a step that would risk nuclear war. The secretary of the interior threatened a “naval blockade” of Russia. In an unprecedented, undiplomatic Russophobic outburst, UN ambassador Nikki Haley declared that “lying, cheating and rogue behavior” are a “norm of Russian culture.”
These may be outlandish statements by untutored appointed political figures, though they inescapably raise the question: Who is making Russia policy in Washington—President Trump with his avowed policy of “cooperating with Russia,” or someone else?
But how to explain, other than as unbridled extremism, statements by a former US ambassador to Moscow and longtime professor of Russian politics, who appears to be the mainstream media’s leading authority on Russia? According to him, Russia today is “a rogue state,” its policies “criminal actions,” and the “world’s worst threat.” It must be countered by “preemptive sanctions that would go into effect automatically”—indeed, “every day,” if deemed necessary. [These are the words of Michael McFaul, who has appointments at Stanford University which has become a friendly home for warmongers.]
Considering the “crippling” sanctions now being prepared by a bipartisan group of US senators—their actual reason and purpose apparently unknown even to them—this would be nothing less than a declaration of war against Russia; economic war, but war nonetheless.
Several other new Cold War fronts are also fraught with hot war, but today none more than Syria.
Another reminder occurred on September 17, when Syria accidentally shot down an allied Russian surveillance plane, killing all 15 crew members. The cause, as is known, was subterfuge by Israeli F-15s supplied by Washington that used the larger radar image of the Russian airplane to cloak their illegal attack on Syria. The reaction in Moscow was highly indicative—potentially ominous.
At first, Putin, who had developed good relations with Israel’s political leadership, said the incident was an accident, an example of the fog of war. His own Ministry of Defense, however, loudly protested, blaming Israel. Putin quickly retreated, adopting a much more hard-line position, and in the end vowed to send to Syria Russia’s highly effective S-300 surface-to-air defense system, a prize both Syria and Iran have requested in vain for years. [Actually, Russia has now supplied both Iran and Syria the S-300.]
Second, if the S-300s are installed in Syria (they will be operated by Russians, not Syrians), Putin can in effect impose a “no-fly zone” over that country, which has been torn by war due, in no small part, to the presence of several major foreign powers. (Russia and Iran are there legally; the United States and Israel are not.) If so, it will be a new “red line” that Washington and Tel Aviv must decide whether or not to cross. Considering the mania in Washington, it’s hard to be confident that wisdom will prevail. [Actually, it is likely that Putin will shift the responsibility of using the air defense system to Syria.]
All of this unfolded on approximately the third anniversary of Russia’s military intervention in Syria, in September 2015. At that time, Washington pundits denounced Putin’s “adventure” and were sure it would “fail.” Three years later, “Putin’s Kremlin” has destroyed the vicious Islamic State’s grip on large parts of Syria, all but restored President Assad’s control over most of the country, and has become the ultimate arbiter of Syria’s future. President Trump would do best by joining Moscow’s peace process, though it is unlikely Washington’s mostly Democratic Russiagate party will permit him to do so. (For perspective, recall that, in 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton promised to impose a US no-fly zone over Syria to defy Russia.)
There is also this. As the US-led “liberal world order” disintegrates, not only in Syria, a new alliance is emerging between Russia, China, Iran, and possibly NATO member Turkey. It will be a real “threat” only if Washington makes it one, as it has Russia in recent years.
Finally, the US-Russian proxy war in Ukraine has recently acquired a new dimension. In addition to the civil war in Donbass, Moscow and Kiev have begun to challenge each other’s ships in the Sea of Azov, near the vital Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Trump is being pressured to supply Kiev with naval and other weapons to wage this evolving war, yet another potential tripwire. Here too President Trump would do best by putting his administration’s weight behind the long-stalled Minsk peace accords. Here, too, this seemed to be his original intention, but it has proven to be yet another approach, it now seems, thwarted by Russiagate.
- Half Of American Renters Struggle With Unaffordable Housing Costs, Study Finds
With economists expecting another frothy core-CPI print north of 2% when the BLS releases its September update on consumer prices later this week, shelters costs – and particularly rent – are expected to be a major contributor to these gains (particularly since the price impact from the Trump administration tariffs hasn’t materialized yet). As we pointed out over the weekend, home prices, according to at least one study, have reached peak unaffordability, as a lack of supply (and already exorbitant household debt) inflates prices and constrains consumers’ ability to buy.
As more members of the middle class have chosen to rent instead of becoming homeowners, the average national rent has soared, with housing costs rising across the US, particularly in costly urban markets clustered along the coasts. One consequence of this renting boom is that households that rent have become increasingly burdened by these higher costs. And in a report published this week, Apartment List analyzed publicly available Census data to determine how the cost burden of rents has shifted over the past decade.
What it found is that, while the percentage of US renters who qualify as “cost burdened” – ie those who spend more than 30% of their total income on rent – has ticked lower since peaking in 2014 (it currently stands at 49.5%), a trend that was largely the result of higher-income professionals choosing to rent instead of buy, the total number of cost-burdened renters has increased by more than 3 million since 2007.
Despite this meager improvement, roughly half of US renters are spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs, while nearly one in four are spending more than half their income on rent.
Renters’ median income increased more quickly than the median rent last year for the sixth year running. But just like with the drop in the percentage of “cost-burdened” renters, Apartment List found that this improvement was primarily driven by an influx of more affluent renters. Those toward the lower end of the income spectrum continued to struggle.
While poorer consumers in markets like New York City have been especially squeezed by rising rents driven by the uninterrupted upward trajectory in home prices since the crisis, the median renter qualifies for cost-burdened status in 20 of the 25 largest metro areas.
And nearly one in three cost burdened renters lives in California, New York, or Florida (interestingly, Florida has the highest percentage of cost-burdened renters, with Miami among the worst cities for rental affordability relative to income).
Apartment List also charted the relationship between housing affordability and renter incomes in the largest metro areas.
The shortage of affordable housing in areas of economic opportunity remains one of the most pressing economic struggles facing US renters. And while signs of softness are beginning to emerge in the housing market (evidenced by a slump in home sales data) many middle-class renters, burdened as they are by an aggregate $1.5 trillion in student loans, one constituent of the record household debt burden facing Americans, are already drowning in debt, and unwilling – or unable – to take out a mortgage, particularly in an environment where interest rates are expected to rise.
- John Whitehead Demands "Gimme Some Truth" – John Lennon Tells It Like It Is
Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“You gotta remember, establishment, it’s just a name for evil. The monster doesn’t care whether it kills all the students or whether there’s a revolution. It’s not thinking logically, it’s out of control.” – John Lennon (1969)
Long before Bette Midler was roundly condemned for tweeting “Women, are the n-word of the world,” John Lennon – never one to pull his punches – proclaimed in song “Woman Is the Nigger of the World.”
Unlike Midler and the rest of the politically correct world, which refuses to say, let alone print, the word “nigger” lest they be accused of racism, Lennon didn’t just use the “n” word – he wrote a whole song about it and included it on his 1972 album Some Time In New York City.
Titled “Woman Is the Nigger of the World,” the song – with lyrics inspired and co-written by Yoko Ono – has Lennon’s brand of truth-telling stamped all over it:
Woman is the nigger of the world
Yes she is, think about it
Woman is the nigger of the world
Think about it, do something about itWe make her paint her face and dance
If she won’t be a slave, we say that she don’t love us
If she’s real, we say she’s trying to be a man
While putting her down we pretend that she is above us
Woman is the nigger of the world, yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slaves
Ah yeah, better scream about it.Blackballed by most radio stations, the controversial song was widely condemned as racist and anti-woman.
The song was neither.
Initially released as a single in April 1972, a month after Congress voted to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, “Woman Is the Nigger of the World” was Lennon’s way of calling out the hypocrisy of a world that claimed to recognized women as equals while treating them as less worthy of equal rights.
That hypocrisy is still playing out today.
As African-American civil rights activist Congressman Ron Dellums noted in his defense of the song, “If you define ‘nigger’ as someone whose lifestyle is defined by others, whose opportunities are defined by others, whose role in society is defined by others, the good news is that you don’t have to be black to be a nigger in this society. Most of the people in America are niggers.”
All these years later, not much has changed.
Women are still treated like the niggers of the world: used, abused and conveniently discarded.
And in the eyes of the American police state, most of the citizenry – black, white, brown and every shade in between—are still treated like slaves: brutalized, dehumanized, branded, chained, bought and sold like chattel, and stripped of their basic rights and human dignity.
Truth is rarely comfortable. Nor is it palatable, or polite, or politically correct.
For that matter, John Lennon, born on October 9, 1940, was rarely polite or politically correct.
Lennon was a musical genius and pop cultural icon who also happened to be a vocal peace protester and anti-war activist and a high-profile example of the lengths to which the U.S. government will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority.
Lennon never shied away from telling it like it is, and neither should we.
Lennon dared to speak truth to power about the government’s warmongering, and as a result, he became enemy number one in the eyes of the U.S. government, his phone calls monitored and data files collected on his activities and associations.
Until the day he died, Lennon continued to speak up and speak out.
In honor of what would have been Lennon’s 78th birthday, here are some uncomfortable truths about life in the American police state:
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The government is not our friend. Nor does it work for “we the people.”
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We no longer have a government that is “of the people, for the people and by the people.” For that matter, our so-called government representatives do not actually represent us, the citizenry. We are now ruled by an oligarchic elite of governmental and corporate interests whose main interest is in perpetuating power and control.
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The U.S. is on the brink of bankruptcy, as many economists have been warning for some time now, with more than $21 trillion in debt owned by foreign nationals and corporations.
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Elections are not exercises in self-government. They are merely manufactured illusions conjured up in order to keep the populace compliant and convinced that their vote counts and that they still have some influence over the political process. No matter which party is in control, the police state will continue to grow. In other words, it will win and “we the people” will lose.
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Twenty years ago, a newspaper headline asked the question: “What’s the difference between a politician and a psychopath?” The answer, then and now, remains the same: None. There is virtually no difference between psychopaths and politicians.
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Far from being a benevolent entity concerned with the well-being of its citizens, whether in matters of health, safety or security, the government is concerned with three things only: power, control and money.
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More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the U.S. government has become a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to protect us.
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Not only does the U.S. government perpetrate organized, systematic violence on its own citizens, especially those who challenge its authority nonviolently, in the form of SWAT team raids, militarized police, and roaming VIPR checkpoints, but it gets away with these clear violations of the Fourth Amendment because the courts grant them immunity from wrongdoing.
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America’s shadow government—which is comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes right now and operates beyond the reach of the Constitution with no real accountability to the citizenry—is the real reason why “we the people” have no control over our government.
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You no longer have to be poor, black or guilty to be treated like a criminal in America. All that is required is that you belong to the suspect class—that is, the citizenry—of the American police state. As a de facto member of this so-called criminal class, every U.S. citizen is now guilty until proven innocent.
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By gradually whittling away at our freedoms—free speech, assembly, due process, privacy, etc.—the government has, in effect, liberated itself from its contractual agreement to respect our constitutional rights while resetting the calendar back to a time when we had no Bill of Rights to protect us from the long arm of the government.
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Private property means nothing if the government can take your home, car or money under the flimsiest of pretexts, whether it be asset forfeiture schemes, eminent domain or overdue property taxes. Likewise, private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family.
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If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off.
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Americans are powerless in the face of militarized police.
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Our freedoms—especially the Fourth Amendment—continue to be choked out by a prevailing view among government bureaucrats that they have the right to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation.
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The U.S. is following the Nazi blueprint to a “t,” whether through its storm trooper-like police in the form of heavily armed government agents to its erection of an electronic concentration camp that not only threatens to engulf America but the rest of the world as well.
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The United States of America has become the new battlefield. In fact, the only real war being fought by the U.S. government today is the war on the American people, and it is being waged with deadly weapons, militarized police, surveillance technology, laws that criminalize otherwise lawful behavior, private prisons that operate on quota systems, and government officials who are no longer accountable to the rule of law.
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And finally, as Lennon shared in a 1968 interview: “I think all our society is run by insane people for insane objectives… I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal means. If anybody can put on paper what our government and the American government and the Russian… Chinese… what they are actually trying to do, and what they think they’re doing, I’d be very pleased to know what they think they’re doing. I think they’re all insane. But I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”
These are truths about looming problems that cannot be glibly dismissed by political spin.
These problems will continue to plague our nation unless and until Americans wake up to the fact that we’re the only ones who can change things for the better and then do something about it.
After all, the Constitution opens with those three vital words, “We the people.”
What this means is there is no government without us—our sheer numbers, our muscle, our economy, our physical presence in this land. There can also be no police state—no tyranny—no routine violations of our rights without our complicity and collusion—without our turning a blind eye, shrugging our shoulders, allowing ourselves to be distracted and our civic awareness diluted.
While Lennon believed in the power of the people, he also understood the danger of a power-hungry government. “The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn’t represent the people,” observed Lennon. “It controls them.”
Stop being controlled.
For the moment, the power, as Lennon recognized, is still in our hands.
“The people have the power, all we have to do is awaken that power in the people,” concluded Lennon. “The people are unaware. They’re not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government.”
For the moment, the choice is still ours: slavery or freedom, war or peace, death or life.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the point at which we no longer have any choice is the point at which the monsters—the maniacs, the powers-that-be, the establishment, the Police State, the Deep State—win.
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