Haircut

“What is woman that you forsake her
And the hearth and the home acre
To go with the old gray widowmaker?”

Well, here we go now, “the ignorant armies clash by night” bit, lots of gore and mindless violence.

If you wish for confirmation, I suggest two items. (1) Mr. Cheney's expressed interest in the scheme to build replicas of Iranian vessels, crew them with Navy Seals dressed in Iranian Quds uniforms, and have them attack US vessels, to provide a clear cause for military attack on Iran. (2) The strange instructions to Mr. Obama's entourage on his recent trip abroad that no one was ever to wear anything green. (It's a good job the trip did not fall on St. Patrick's Day.)

I'm just transfixed by the haircut I'm watching Uncle Sam take, Georgia for the latest lightning fast one, the Georgian troops still in South Ossetia from the invasion, including US and Ukrainian mercenaries, now surrendering to the Russians.

What actually happened there?

Well, Georgia, where Stalin came from, has long been a best buddy of the west, wants to join NATO, though that can’t quite be managed yet, has 2000 troops in Iraq, arms supplies and $1 billion of Israeli investment, and US Marine Corps “military advisors,” is given the green light by the US – it certainly couldn’t have been done without that - to attack two separatist enclaves, (composed mainly of Russian citizens) first South Ossetia, attack to be coordinated with Beijing Olympics Grand Opening.

Georgian attack on South Ossetia rolls forward, much carnage, etcetera. Russians mobilize not only “Peacekeeper” force but also a massive military counter-attack. More carnage etcetera. US Marine Corps “military advisors” are withdrawn, also Israeli arms deliveries. Russians not only re-take South Ossetia, but drive forward into Georgia, start taking towns and drive towards Tibilisi, the Georgian capital, Mr. Saakashvili in charge. That’s it as of 11th of August, 2008.

The printing of a trillion dollars for the Freddie bailout is still drifting down on us. Ah, well, interesting times, as you would no doubt say. Or stock up during an election year as I'd say[1].

NATO and the Americans have kindly dropped their Georgian dupes under the bus, together with a billion dollar Israeli investment in Georgia, and agreed, yes, there’s really no NATO or American involvement. So what does Ms. Rice get to say next?

Note: India/Pakistan is blowing up again, but at least Pakistanis can read details of the proposed impeachment of President Musharraf. Audiences of the western "news" conglomerate are confined to footage from the Olympic Panda House.

Interesting, though, to see Condi Rice pleading for a cease fire. The last time major mayhem broke out, the Israeli attack on Lebanon, Condy, in concert with Toxic Tony, was saying "No, no, no ceasefire, let the cleaning out of the rat's nest be completed" giving the Israelis a couple extra days, used to sow a million cluster bombs in southern Lebanon.

That alone sums up the situation, please let's have a ceasefire, rather than "No, no, let's get it settled." See [url=http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/11-08-2008/106054-georgia_usa-0]”Stratfor acknowledges Russia defeated US, not Georgian army in South Ossetia”[/url]

You may remember the Americans pulled the same stunt on the Kurds, encouraging them to revolt against Saddam after the first Gulf War, and when they did, and Saddam moved to crush them, washing their hands of the whole affair. “Ah well, better luck next time.”

One is irresistibly reminded of John Laughland’s comment “Washington is unforgiving towards people who think loyalty is a two-way street, and the Uzbek president is about to learn the lesson learned by Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Eduard Shevardnadze and scores of others: that it is better to be an enemy of the Americans than their friend. If you are their enemy, they might try to buy you; but if you are their friend they will definitely sell you.” (John Laughland, The Guardian, 5/19/05)

Welcome to the New World Order (NWO) where the Russians are about to give the Georgians a very bloody nose in retribution for the failed invasion attempt, the Ceyhan pipeline, the only one into Europe not already owned by Russia, does not seem likely to last very long, and no one listens to the noises coming out of the West, who openly admit their irrelevance. Any questions?

What about the Money?

“In the case at hand, by the year 2007, the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie were earning salaries that would have been respectable, even on Wall Street. Fannie’s main man, Daniel Mudd took home $13.4 million in 2007, a year in which the firm lost $2.1 billion. While the Freddie Kruger of mortgage finance, Dick Syron, pocketed $18.3 for helping Freddie Mac to a $3 billion loss and a 33% trim for the shareholders.

“As recently as May of this year, Mr. Mudd told the New York Times that he was “seeing the best opportunities since I’ve been in this business.” Two months later, both Fannie and Freddie are “insolvent,” says former Fed governor William Poole.

“In a better world, Mudd and Syron would be hanged...and the bondholders would be wiped out along with the shareholders. But last Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a bailout. And on Monday, an auction of Freddie Mac debt was oversubscribed. The Russians were right; the deck was stacked from the very beginning.” Bonner – The Daily Reckoning – July 18, 2008

Ah yes, tried and trusted strategies have been employed here too, with equally negligible mid term effect.

"Yes, the surge in the dollar, and the stock markets, is surprising, equally now in 2008, but apart from perhaps leading one to the relaxed Buddhist attitude of Mr. Meklai’s article “Making God laugh.” [url=http://wahyusamputra.blogspot.com/2008/08/making-god-laugh.html][b]”Making God laugh”[/b][/url], there are also some much more traditional mechanical devices, tried and trusted, but temporary and fortunately not effective even in the medium term, whose levers are sticking out. Here are some of the “levers of power” sticking out of the “Amazing Dollar Rally.”

One is Germany’s decision to implement the proposed Iran sanctions before they’re even passed. Another is Jean Claude Trichet’s decision to hold EU interest rates where they are, and even speak dismissively of future rate rises.

One of the clues, perhaps, lies in the EU’s decision, under strong American pressure, it said on the TV news banner, to get moving pre-emptively on implementing the anti-Iran sanctions. This is surprising in a way because Teheran’s enriching to three or four per cent, rigorously surprise inspected by Mohammaed El Barradei, and the IAEA and found to be in compliance, sufficient to run power stations but nowhere near the 98 per cent enrichment needed for atomic weapons, and this is precisely the kind of solid evidence that Teheran had done no wrong that would normally encourage the Europeans to resist American pressure to ratchet up the tension, so the Americans must have been wielding a very big stick. The net effect is that “America is still in charge,” (and the neocons still call the shots) temporary though that might be. The very intensity of the pressure suggests lack of certainty that the opportunity will last as a possible rationale.

A similar example may perhaps be found in Trichet’s (Head of EU Central Bank’s) decision to hang tight on interest rates, even in his language, helping the Euro to lose strength against the dollar, a very helpful move in helping propel the dollar upwards. (That doesn't mean it wasn't very convenient for Trichet for other reasons also, of course. A nice drop in the Euro would make things easier for him on a number of fronts.)

They don’t usually get up to these sort of games at this time of the year, says my patchy memory; it’s usually in the run up to Christmas that the fat cats start enormous run ups, the “pump” before the “dump,” before the inevitable dreary hung over slump in January.

Both might have some basis in the recently revealed secret treaty forced on the Germans after World War Two, whereby the US has total control of a number of areas, see [url=http://www.rpmonitor.ru/en/en/detail.php?ID=8857]"Secret Vassal Treaty"[/url] . With Germany leading, the others would probably go along. So therefore, I guess, we’ve done the “pump” bit of the operation, masterminded by the bald Wall Street guy currently running the Treasury, though at an unusual time of year for it.

The fact remains that nothing has changed. Freddie duly reported a set of results at least as dismal as Fannie had a few days ago, Senator Dunning remains the only member of the Senate (“The world’s premier debating forum,” hahahaha) who understands, or is willing to point out, perhaps, the calamitous results the bailout will have on the final remaining foundation of everything, the marketability of sovereign scrip issued by the US government. Such as T bills.

And they're still going to print a trillion dollars to pay for the bailout. But the dutiful confederation of US News channels invariably puts the thing out as help for struggling home owners. So it goes.

Some interesting new names have been created, though, for example “Demand Destruction ‘ for the fact that if no one has any money, people don’t buy things, all orchestrated by that marketing master, the Wall Street guy who’s running the treasury, no doubt.

Ah, well, lie back and enjoy it, I guess.

If you need something ominous to get your juices flowing on this fine day, try South Ossetia. In response to an all out Georgian military attack on the breakaway province, containing mostly Russian citizens, timed for the Olympic Games opening ceremonies as a surprise attack, Russia moved massive troops into South Ossetia, and the Russian president, Medvedvev, announced it was his constitutional duty to protect Russian citizens. Most ominous, 1,000 Georgian troops withdrawn from Iraq and sent to South Ossetia. And Rice has of course told Russia that South Ossetia is “important to American interests in the region,” and he’s therefore been told to back off. Russia close to taking Georgian capital at last reports.

(If we say it’s important to us, ya gotta to just hand it over. Those are the rules!)

Hmmm. So we now have a border (in South Ossetia, in or around the northern parts of Georgia), where Russian troops are facing a little squirt of an army, not military likely to swing any balances, with “American advisors.” Now where have I heard that before?

[1] The mushroom system (“Keep ‘em in the dark and feed them lots of bullsh**”) as described by a senior language teacher in Saudi Arabia as his teaching methodology for Saudis, is hardly new. The most extreme example of it is the United States of America, where it has been relentlessly and successfully employed over centuries. There are very few countries indeed where two bills for impeachment of the president, presented for many hours in the Upper House, the Senate, could successfully avoid all mention as a news item in the conglomerate of “News” channels, or any reference at all by any of the candidates in the ongoing year-long carnival of the coming election. Just like “Songbird” McCain as a news item. Tight - like a mouse’s ear hole.