Lifelines in Danger

Credit: URDEE IMAGE/ZUMA WIRE/ALAMY LIVE NEWS Jun 4 2020 (IPS) – The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling the economies of rich and poor countries alike. Yet for many low-income and fragile states, the economic shock will be magnified by the loss of remittances—money sent home by migrant and guest workers employed in foreign countries. Remittance flows […]

On Maintaining Perspective In The Year 20 Fucking 20

As Jane looked around her, she felt that dissatisfied feeling she often experienced when she was somewhere new and lovely. She couldn’t quite articulate it, except with the words: if only I was here. This little beachside cafe was so exquisite she longed to really be there, except of course, she was there, so it […]

Why India-China border dispute will continue to be shaped by mutual distrust

The tense stand-off between Chinese and Indian troops at the Himalayan frontier, which began in early May, continues to play out following high-level military and diplomatic talks. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Wednesday said Beijing had reached a “positive consensus” with New Delhi over resolving the situation, while India on Sunday said the […]

India-China border tensions

Indian troops again crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley region and purposefully launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes and casualties: China’s Global Times quoting PLA 18:05 (IST), Jun 16 CDS General Bipin Rawat at defence minister’s residence Delhi: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat arrives at the […]

The War For Libya’s Oil

Last week, the Turks were still celebrating a presumed victory in Libya after General Haftar lost territory in and around Tripoli and the National Oil Company (NOC) went as far as to restart production at two giant oilfields–Sharara and El Feel. It was an endeavor that lasted a day, with Haftar immediately responding through his […]

Kunstler: The Party of Chaos and Falsehood

The USA has gone so batshit crazy in these months of the corona virus freak-out that an orgy of looting, arson, and murder, on top of epic job loss and business failure, propelled the stock markets up-up-and-away back to near-record highs — until it finally puked yesterday in a rare moment of self-revulsion, like a […]

United States: An Obituary

The United States of America was problematic from the start. It was founded on genocide and slavery, and, while frequently congratulating itself on the rights and freedoms it granted its citizens, never managed to confront the demons in its past. The question would arise repeatedly, generation after generation: rights and freedoms for whom? Nevertheless, the […]

The Systemic Collapse Of The US Society Has Begun

I have lived in the United States for a total of 24 years and I have witnessed many crises over this long period, but what is taking place today is truly unique and much more serious than any previous crisis I can recall. And to explain my point, I would like to begin by saying […]

Kunstler: Guess What — It’s a Hustle

Of course, George Floyd didn’t deserve to die with a cop’s knee on his neck and his face mashed into the pavement, but after yesterday’s first of what will be several funerals for the now revered former armed robber and convict, you’d think he was the second coming (and going) of George Washington. Uh, check […]

Uprisings: The Week After George Floyd

In the week following the murder of George Floyd by four cops, uprisings have sprung up across america, and solidarity actions have taken part around the world. From Minneapolis to Miami, Berlin to Toronto, people have taken the streets in outrage over the situation. One week in, tensions are still high and the struggle has […]

Everything You Know About Global Order Is Wrong

Klaus Schwab, impresario of the World Economic Forum, released a manifesto in the run-up to this year’s annual meeting at Davos, Switzerland, in which he called for a contemporary equivalent to the postwar conferences that established the liberal international order. “After the Second World War, leaders from across the globe came together to design a […]

2010 Future Scenarios

“In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems—from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty—leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power. At first, the notion of a more controlled world gained wide acceptance and approval. Citizens willingly gave up some of their sovereignty—and their privacy—to […]

Kunstler: That Change You Requested…?

All the previous incidents of white cops killing blacks were just too ambiguous to seal the deal. Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (a murky business); Tamir Rice in Cleveland (waving the BB gun that looked like a .45 automatic); Trayvon Martin (his killer George Zimmerman was not a cop and was not “white”); Eric Garner, […]

PsyWar Unleashed On Americans

Rogue elements of the United States government have launched a psychological warfare operation using an artificial intelligence system first deployed overseas against ISIS. From COVID-19 to the current race war crisis, Americans are facing an unprecedented onslaught of psychological operations and manipulation. The following are just a few examples: Military AI propaganda system deployed by rogue […]

Chris Martenson: As The World Burns

Decades of unfairness are now boiling over in the United States in the form of protests, riots, burning buildings and violence. Minneapolis is on fire – literally – and the unrest has spread to numerous other major cities. Last year (2019) The Yellow Vest protesters in France dealt with enormous amount of police violence and […]

Oil and gas geopolitics and its end

Let us see how oil barrel prices have really fluctuated in recent weeks: in April, in fact, the European and Asian Brent benchmark, in parallel with the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI), decreased by about 1 U.S. dollar per barrel a day. The WTI, however, is a mixture of different light and sweet American crude […]

Poor Countries Borrowed Billions Using Their Oil As Collateral And Are Now Struggling To Pay

Smaller countries that have taken out billions of dollars in loans that they have promised to pay back in oil are starting to fall behind on their payments. The deals are structured so that countries are advanced money from trading houses that will be paid back in future oil shipments. These types of loans have […]

During Pandemic, A Transatlantic Divide Emerges On Energy Policy

Carbon emissions have been down in recent weeks because of the pandemic because far fewer people are driving or flying. But that has also meant less demand for fuel, and less revenue for oil and gas companies. As a result, some European-based companies are investing more of their resources into renewable energy production. But American […]

How To Understand All This China Stuff

China is in the news every day now. Today here in Australia we’re pretending to be offended because a Chinese tabloid published the accusation that our nation is a “giant kangaroo that serves as a dog of the US”, even though we all know that’s completely true and we should be flattered that at least they […]

Saudi Arabia loses its wealth

On Monday, Saudi authorities announced unprecedented measures to salvage its finances from an imminent meltdown, caused by mismanagement rather than simply the coronavirus pandemic or the collapse of oil prices, Middle East Eye writes in the article Saudi financial crisis will spark resistance to plundering of state. From July, an increase in VAT from five percent […]

Michael Klare: The Beginning of the End for Oil?

Energy analysts have long assumed that, given time, growing international concern over climate change would result in a vast restructuring of the global energy enterprise. The result: a greener, less climate-degrading system. In this future, fossil fuels would be overtaken by renewables, while oil, gas, and coal would be relegated to an increasingly marginal role […]

Michael T. Klare: The Global Food Crisis

In San Antonio, 10,000 families began arriving before dawn on April 9 to receive free boxes of food at a shuttered mall; in a normal week, 200–400 families might show up. In Nairobi, Kenya, thousands of desperately poor people seeking government food aid on April 10 were beaten back by the police, causing multiple injuries. […]

Massive Face Off Erupts Between Indian and Chinese Troops, Several Injured

The two countries, India and China, share a 2,400-mile long demarcated border. As per official data by the Indian Defence Ministry, Chinese troops have transgressed into Indian territory as many as 752 times in the last two years. The two nations have been blaming each other for entering each other’s territories. Several soldiers were injured […]

From Overstretch to Collapse

In less than three decades, a mere blink of the eye in historical terms, the United States has gone from the world’s sole superpower to a massive foundering wreck that is helpless before the coronavirus and intent on blaming the rest of the world for its own shortcomings. As the journalist Fintan O’Toole noted recently […]

The downfall of ‘Professor Lockdown”: triumphs and failure of science based policies

  Scientists normally think that a scientific theory can be good or bad independently of the moral status of the person who proposes it. But in politics, the messenger can be blamed. That was the probable reason for the downfall of Dr. Neil Ferguson, nicknamed “Professor Lockdown,” whose moral position was destroyed by a petty […]

Is Trump Kicking The Saudis To The Curb The Beginning Of Something Not Terrible?

More than anything else in Saudi Arabia, that thing you smell is fear. Everything is coming unglued for the royal family there all at once. If we all weren’t so distracted by the Coronapocalypse these things would all be front page news. In the past week there have been three major stories concerning Saudi Arabia, […]

Saudi Arabia, Hit With Oil Collapse and Coronavirus, Tosses Lifelines

Saudi Arabia is taking unprecedented measures to cushion the blow of rock-bottom oil prices and the new coronavirus pandemic, as the monarchy seeks to extricate the kingdom from its worst financial predicament in decades. Oil prices have crashed since early March in part because Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched an oil-price war with Russia, […]

U.S. Treasury To Borrow $3 Trillion In 3 Months To Pay For Pandemic

The U.S. Treasury Department plans to borrow nearly $3 trillion between April and June to bankroll the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s an unprecedented level of deficit financing to match the historic economic hit caused by the virus. In a single quarter, the government will borrow more than twice as much as it […]

The Green New Deal and Beyond: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can

A leakproof, declining cap on fossil fuels is a necessary step to constrain global warming and stabilize the ecosphere, but doing so will have huge economic repercussions, and it’s hard to imagine Big Petroleum, Big Coal, or private utility companies going along with anything like it. As they have throughout their history, they will use […]

Kunstler: Slouching Toward Resolution

The people of this land have enough trouble in mind — what with livelihoods, careers, businesses, marriages, hopes and dreams circling the drain in the new insta-depression — but let’s hope they have just a little attention left over for the whirlwind denouement of the odious RussiaGate affair, now finally shredding the last defenses of […]

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