2500 US marines to Australia

The first rotation of about 200 US marines has arrived in Australia on a six-month training deployment. A total of 2,500 troops are expected to arrive over the next few years in Darwin to enhance the US’s military presence in the Asia-Pacific. Despite the fact that the US’s final military presence in the country is […]

Will Iran Kill the Petrodollar?

The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles. The […]

Perspective on the decline of America by Noam Chomsky

American decline is real, though despite piteous laments, the U.S. remains the world dominant power by a large margin. China and India have recorded rapid (though highly inegalitarian) growth, but remain very poor countries, with enormous internal problems not faced by the West. China is the world’s major manufacturing center, but largely as an assembly […]

Iran bartering Gold for Food directed at US Reserve Currency

Much has been made of Reuters story how “Iran turns to barter for food as sanctions cripple imports” in which we learn that “Iran is turning to barter – offering gold bullion in overseas vaults or tankerloads of oil – in return for food”, and whose purpose no doubt is to demonstrate just how crippled […]

US Drones and Special Ops ending national sovereignty

Make no mistake: we’re entering a new world of military planning. Despite the talk of massive cuts, the Pentagon budget is actually slated to increase through 2017: in the name of Washington’s needs, it will offer a direct challenge to national sovereignty. There will be no more land wars on the Eurasian continent. Instead, greater […]

Russia and China drawing a line in the sand in Syria

Russia will offer Washington no explanation for arms deliveries to Syria, and together with China, will prevent the U.N. Security Council from approving any military intervention in the conflict-torn nation, its foreign minister said on Wednesday. Using his annual news conference to draw lines in the sand on Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said veto-holding […]

Why the US is no longer the Land of the Free

Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, in the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The list of […]

Why Washington wants Putin out

Washington clearly wants Russia’s Vladimir Putin out! Hillary Clinton and friends have apparently decided Russia’s prospective next president, Vladimir Putin, is a major obstacle to their plans. Few however understand why. Russia today, in tandem with China and to a significant degree Iran, form the spine, however shaky, of the only effective global axis of […]

The Straits of Hormuz and a new Reserve Currency to challenge the Dollar

An unintended consequence of QE had been to spur several countries to think very seriously of how they could replace the dollar as their settlement currency for international deals. The list of countries accumulating gold (Russia, China, India) is similar to the list of countries that were reported to be talking about the need for […]

US Defense Department the world’s largest employer

According to a study by The Economist, America’s defense department had 3.2m people on its payroll last year, equivalent to 1% of the U.S. population. Historically, Americans have always been more concerned about big government than big business or big labor in response to this trend question dating back to 1965. Today, Americans’ concerns about […]