The Israeli government is now saying that the United States is preparing to deploy THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems in Israel, a major development which will possibly put troops in the directly in harm’s way amid the tense showdown with Iran. 

Times of Israel writes that “according to reports by Channel 12 news and Army Radio that describe the move as part of preparations for the expected Israeli response to Iran’s recent missile attack.” Importantly, “Channel 12 news says the advanced missile defense system will be operated by American troops on Israeli soil,” TOI continues. However, there have been some initial contradictory reports.

The THAAD is an anti-ballistic missile defense system capable of shooting down short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. There has been no formal US vote or Congressional authorization for this, but it marks yet another escalation in the Biden White House’s ongoing multi-billion dollar military aid program for Israel – a high risk one at that.

Any potential new exchange of ballistic missiles with the Islamic Republic is likely to involve direct attempts to target anti-air batteries positioned in Israel.

Other Israeli media reports say the same:

The U.S. is set to deploy THAAD air defense batteries in Israel, according to a report on the Ynet website on Saturday. The move, set to reinforce the Jewish state’s defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles, and is another sign that Washington believes Israeli action in Iran likely to be very forceful and trigger a response.

Even though US special forces and commanders have previously been in Tel Aviv and probably near Gaza in an “advisory” role, if the THAAD is indeed deployed in Israel utilizing US Army operators, this without doubt constitutes American boots on the ground.

Axios’ Barak Ravid observes the following based on the latest reports:

Deployment of US missile defense systems in Israel with operators (“boots on the ground”) would be a departure from Netanyuahu’s principle that “Israel defends itself by itself”.

It will demonstrate the strength of the alliance, but also the depth of the dependence on the US.

As for whether the decision has been ‘finalized’ – there appears to be contradictory reports as of Saturday afternoon.

Propaganda or fact? Iranian state media has claimed that Iran took out anti-air systems in Israel during the Oct.1 strike…

Here is the moment when Iran successfully targeted a transportable Raytheon X-band radar belonging to the THAAD Air Defense System in occupied Palestine, followed by strikes with ballistic missiles on several areas within occupied territories. pic.twitter.com/MZVXbBPYnw

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) October 12, 2024

A separate Times of Israel story and headlines reads: “The US has yet to make a final decision on whether to deploy the THAAD anti-missile defense system in Israel, according to reporters for the Walla news site and Kan public broadcaster, who cite American officials.”

So clearly the US has been mulling it, but whether the administration has pulled the trigger on the plan is likely to become more clear in the coming days. We are likely witnessing a premature leak from the Israeli side, sending US officials scrambling to manage the narrative. Israel is still vowing to hit Iran hard in retaliation for the Oct.1st attack on Israel, which involved some 200 Iranian ballistic missiles fired, and resulted in damage to Israeli airbases.

Authored by Fred Fleitz via American Greatness,

Iran has made enormous progress in its nuclear weapons program during the Biden/Harris administration and reportedly can now enrich enough weapons-grade uranium to fuel nine nuclear bombs in one month. Although Iran may be nine months to a year away from having an operational nuclear weapon, recent attacks by Iran and Israel against each other’s territory have raised concerns that Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program could lead to a nuclear war in the Middle East.

Biden/Harris administration officials have tried to blame President Trump for the advances in Iran’s nuclear program because he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the JCPOA. Democratic Governor Tim Walz made this claim during the October 1 vice presidential debate when he said, “There had been a coalition of nations that had boxed Iran’s nuclear program in . . . Donald Trump pulled that program and put nothing else in its place.”

This is absolutely false. The huge advances in Iran’s nuclear weapons program are the result of major flaws in the JCPOA and a series of terrible national security policy decisions, including repeated attempts to appease Iran, by the Obama and Biden administrations.

The first of these bad policy decisions was when the Obama administration conceded to Iran the “right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, such as nuclear medicine and nuclear reactor fuel.

This decision reversed the positions of prior Republican and Democratic administrations who believed Iran could not be trusted to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes because of covert Iranian efforts to establish a nuclear weapons program and because it is easy to reconfigure uranium centrifuges supposedly constructed for peaceful purposes to produce weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

Allowing Iran to enrich its own uranium for peaceful purposes has never made economic sense due to a glut of reactor fuel and nuclear medicine on the world market. Iran also does not need nuclear power due to its vast oil and natural gas reserves.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained this to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in an October 2014 interview when he said Iran’s centrifuges “are only good for one thing: to make bomb-grade material.”

The JCPOA Was a Dangerous Fraud

The Obama administration’s dangerous uranium enrichment concession to Iran was enshrined in the flawed 2015 JCPOA agreement which, allowed Iran to enrich uranium to reactor-grade and develop advanced centrifuges. In effect, this gave Iran the world’s blessing to continue to develop a uranium enrichment program whose only practical purpose was to make nuclear weapons fuel.

But it gets worse. The JCPOA lifted sanctions on Iran and provided it with $150 billion in sanctions relief. This included $1.7 billion in “pallets of cash” that the U.S. secretly flew to Iran in small planes as ransom to release five innocent Americans being held in Iranian prisons. A related UN resolution imposed limited, short-lived sanctions against Iranian conventional arms transfers, which expired in 2020, and missile transfers, which expired in 2023.

The JCPOA has a weak inspection regime that Iran did not cooperate with. This inspection regime was further weakened by secret side deals, discovered by then-Rep. Mike Pompeo and Senator Tom Cotton, that allowed Iran to evade inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Obama officials reportedly wrote the secret side deals and refused to share them with Congress.

And to top off this all off, there was substantial cheating on the JCPOA by Iran.  This included clandestine efforts to acquire illicit nuclear technology and equipment, violating JCPOA restrictions on advanced centrifuge development, and excess production of heavy water.

In 2018, a huge cache of documents on Iran’s nuclear weapons program stolen by Israel provided evidence of massive Iranian cheating on the JCPOA, including several undeclared sites where nuclear weapons work had been conducted since 2015. IAEA inspection of two of these sites found evidence of enriched uranium particles, which proved covert nuclear weapons work had occurred at these locations.

In addition, Iran quietly worked to develop advanced centrifuge designs and parts in violation of the JCPOA between 2015 and 2020. This allowed Iran to start deploying advanced centrifuges in 2021. This included completing a factory in July 2018 to make carbon fiber rotors for advanced centrifuge machines.

These and other extremely serious weaknesses of the JCPOA are why Donald Trump justifiably called it “the worst deal ever” and why he withdrew the United States from this agreement in 2018.

Iran said it would no longer honor its JCPOA commitments after Trump withdrew from the agreement and began to slowly back out of JCPOA limits in 2019 and 2020. However, Iran did little to ramp up its uranium enrichment program until January 2021—weeks before Joe Biden’s inauguration.

The reason why there was not a surge in Iran’s nuclear weapons program during President Trump’s term after he withdrew from the JCPOA was because Iranian leaders were afraid of how Trump would respond. The global American deterrence Trump established helped keep Iran and other U.S. adversaries in check during his presidency.

Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program Takes Off Under Biden/Harris Administration

It is clear that Iran’s leaders were not afraid of Joe Biden. They saw a new American president desperate to revive the JCPOA and who would resume the Obama administration’s appeasement policies. The results have been a catastrophe for global security, with huge advances in Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Iran also gained at least $100 billion in additional revenue during the Biden administration because it refused to enforce U.S. oil sanctions. Most of this oil has been sold to China. Iran spent this windfall on its military, nuclear, and missile programs as well as to fund its terrorist proxy groups: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq.

The Biden administration took office in January 2021 determined to renegotiate the JCPOA to make it “longer and stronger.” Iranian officials repeatedly said they would not agree to changes to the JCPOA, but they participated in fruitless talks in Vienna to restore the JCPOA until March 2022. Not only did Iran refuse to negotiate in good faith in these talks, a Russian ambassador, with the assistance of a Chinese ambassador, ran the Vienna talks because Iranian diplomats refused to meet in the same room with their U.S. counterparts.

Iran significantly stepped up its nuclear weapons program while multilateral talks to revive the JCPOA were underway between April 2021 and March 2022.  This included deploying advanced centrifuges in February and April 2021 and producing uranium metal in February 2021.

The most serious development was when Iran announced in November 2021 that it had enriched uranium to the 60% U-235 level for the first time. 60%-enriched uranium can be further enriched to 90% (weapons-grade) in about a week.

Biden officials worked hard to convince Iran to agree to a new nuclear deal by offering a series of dangerous concessions. This included proposing to take Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps off the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. Several members of the U.S. negotiating team resigned in late 2021 because they believed the concessions being offered to Iran were excessive and would lead to a bad nuclear agreement.

Multilateral talks with Iran to revive the JCPOA broke down in March 2022 after Russia threatened to block a new nuclear deal unless its trade with Iran was exempted from U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Russia due to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

After the multilateral talks broke down, the Biden/Harris administration used Oman as an intermediary to negotiate a secret, oral, and unwritten agreement with Iran. Biden Administration critics claimed this was done to evade Congress’s oversight of this agreement.

The secret deal was described as an interim agreement with major U.S. concessions. These reportedly included freezing Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 60%. This concession meant the Biden/Harris administration agreed to accept Iran enriching to the dangerous 60% level. Iran was also allowed to keep its nuclear infrastructure, including advanced uranium centrifuges, and permitted to continue to develop this technology.

Iran reportedly agreed under the deal to stop its proxy groups from attacking U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq and to cooperate with IAEA investigations of its nuclear program. Iran never abided by either of these provisions.

In exchange for agreeing to the above requirements, Iran was to receive over $20 billion in sanctions relief. The U.S. also reportedly agreed not to impose new sanctions on Iran.

In addition, this agreement included a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange and a U.S. ransom payment to Iran of $5 billion. This payment was frozen in October 2023 after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran engaged in other malign activities during the Biden/Harris administration, such as selling attack drones and missiles to Russia for its use in the Ukraine War and working with Russia, China, and North Korea to form a new anti-West “axis.”

There also were significant advances in Iran’s missile program, including a possible hypersonic missile launch, advanced cruise missiles, space launches (which were believed to be ICBM test launches), and new missiles designed to evade missile defenses.  It is unclear whether Iran fired its newest missiles during two missile attacks on Israel this year.

The Biden/Harris Administration’s Appeasement of Iran Caused the Middle East to Explode

The breakdown in security and stability in the Middle East since the October 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis by Hamas is a consequence of the Biden/Harris administration’s incompetent Iran policies. Their appeasement of Iran emboldened Iran and its terrorist proxies to attack Israel and U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. Iran also attacked Israel twice in 2024 with missiles and drones.

There have been conflicting press reports of Iran’s involvement in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 8, 2023, that Iran helped develop and fund the Hamas attack and gave Hamas the green light to launch it. A Hamas spokesman told the BBC on October 8 that Hamas had direct support from Iran. However, although Iranian leaders praised the attack, they claimed that Iran was uninvolved in it. A senior Hamas official backed up this claim on October 9 by saying that Iran and Hezbollah were not involved in the Hamas terrorist attack.

Although Iran’s exact role in the horrendous October 7 Hamas terrorist attack is unclear, I also believe it will at least be proved that Hamas could not have conducted the attack without arms and funding from Iran.

Iran is Much Closer to Becoming a Nuclear Weapons State Because of the Biden/Harris Administration’s Incompetent Iran Policies

This article provides a summary of the profoundly incompetent and naïve Iran policies by the Biden/Harris administration that did enormous damage to Middle East and global security. Because of these deeply flawed policies, Iran today is enriching uranium at the 60% level, just below weapons-grade.  It can enrich enough uranium to fuel nine nuclear weapons a month. Iran has installed advanced centrifuges that will significantly increase the amount and speed of the production of weapons-grade uranium if Iran’s leaders decide to do so.

Iran is at least $100 billion richer today than it was when President Trump left office because of unwise concessions by the Biden administration, especially its failure to enforce U.S. oil sanctions. Iran used this additional revenue to fund its military, nuclear, and missile programs, terrorist proxies, and meddle in regional conflicts.

There is no question that the Biden/Harris administration’s Iran policies have been a spectacular failure.

Obviously, attempts by Biden/Harris officials and their allies to blame the surge in Iran’s nuclear program and its belligerent behavior on President Trump are absurd.  The greatly increased threat from Iran occurred during the Biden/Harris administration due to their weakness and incompetence. The JCPOA has also been proven to be a deeply flawed agreement that actually facilitated Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. President Trump made the right decision to withdraw from this terrible deal and kept Iran in check with enhanced American deterrence and his maximum pressure policy, which almost bankrupted Iran.

America and the world desperately need a strong and decisive U.S. president to undo the enormous damage done to American and global security by the Biden/Harris administration’s disastrous Iran policies. Although there is a lot of damage to repair, I am confident that if Donald Trump wins the 2024 U.S.  presidential election, he will quickly do this with a capable and experienced national security team that will halt Iran’s belligerence by restoring American deterrence and peace through strength.

As it turns out, when you have a far-left mayor in a city that has been under Democratic control since 1931, within a state dominated by radical progressives for decades, criminals become emboldened and live out their lives as if every day was a scene from the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ video game. 

NEW: Man shot and killed during a “street takeover” in Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood last night

The driver of the sedan involved was pronounced dead at the scene, with gunshot wounds to his face, chest, and arms

The preliminary investigation by the CPD confirmed that a… pic.twitter.com/oZOmIGbI9B

— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) May 5, 2024

“grand theft auto chicago…..” pic.twitter.com/PGG4lIw9bF

— Donald J. Trump the real President 2020-2024. (@thewholetruth87) January 20, 2023

The defund the police movement, ushered in by Marxist Democrats, continues to wreak havoc on the streets of Chicago. Lawlessness and crime are unbearable for many residents in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chaotic metro area as the latest ‘holy shit’ moment that all law-abiding Americans need to see and understand this could be coming to a town near you …

Just in: Groups of people broke into a freight train on the west side of Chicago and brazenly looted during the middle of the day. @Chicago_Police struggled to respond and the looters simply ran or drove away. pic.twitter.com/umiIfVUYRk

— Andy Ngo 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 12, 2024

🚨#BREAKING: Dozens of people are actively looting and breaking into a cargo train ⁰⁰📌#Chicago | #illinois⁰⁰At this time, an estimated 50 to 150 people or more are actively looting and breaking into a cargo train on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. Police have been… pic.twitter.com/SwDIOnSE90

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) October 11, 2024

… was a giant mob of people on Friday involved in an apparent train heist at a rail yard on the city’s West Side. 

Take an extra 100 percent off sale. pic.twitter.com/OmWRl2oX50

— Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) October 12, 2024

Evidently, it wasn’t just flat-screen TVs stolen during today’s Great Train Robbery. pic.twitter.com/q3A2pIUGXO

— Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) October 12, 2024

Local media NBC Chicago sheds more color on the shocking incident that shows folks looting the freight train full of flat-screen TVs and kitchen appliances. 

Video from NBC’s Sky 5 chopper showed what appeared to be nearly a dozen people taking boxes off freight trains in the area of Lake Street and Lockwood Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. Groups were seen carrying boxes from the trains, loading the items into vans and cars and driving away from the scene. Debris was seen strewn across the tracks as the incident unfolded. What was inside the trains wasn’t immediately clear.

According to Chicago police, at around 2:40 p.m., officers responded to the 4700 block of West Kinzie regarding a theft in progress at a railroad. One person attempted to flee after taking property from a train car, police said. That person and a second individual were taken into custody, authorities said.

Here’s more footage:  

West side of Chicago: Lockwood Ave & W Lake St. ….. brazen theft from a freight train car ..in broad daylight. How lovely 🤬 pic.twitter.com/A8mcTCweAV

— Geminigirl 🇺🇸 (@desertlife88) October 11, 2024

Chicago Austin: CPD dispatched that several freight trains were being burglarized between Cicero and Lockwood. Lots of merchandise taken off trains and loaded into vehicles NBCSky5 has witnessed this. @metra and CPD in the area. Also @Metra delays. Live #NBCSky5 @nbcchicago pic.twitter.com/8zJQhQonqc

— Mike Lorber (@NBCSky5) October 11, 2024

A spokesperson with Union Pacific told the media outlet:

“The train was stopped, awaiting an interchange with a partner railroad, when thieves began opening containers. Rail burglaries are not victimless crimes, and they pose a safety threat to the public, our employees and local law enforcement officers.”

What’s the excuse this time AoC? These folks just needed ‘some bread’? 

AOC on why people loot (2020):

“They are put in a position where they feel like they need to shoplift some bread or go hungry that night.” pic.twitter.com/Brv8OsjJ5X

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 14, 2023

Or new TVs? 

A recent viral X post from actor Kevin Sorbo noted the many reasons he is voting for Trump, including:

• “I’m voting for the First Amendment and freedom of speech.”

• “I’m voting for the Second Amendment and my right to defend my life and my family.”

• “I’m voting for the next Supreme Court Justice(s) to protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

And this…

• “I’m voting for the Police to be respected once again and to ensure Law & Order. I am tired of all the criminals having a revolving door and being put back in the street.” 

That moment when someone says, “I can’t believe you would vote for Trump.”
I simply reply, “I’m not voting for Trump.”

I’m voting for the First Amendment and freedom of speech.

I’m voting for the Second Amendment and my right to defend my life and my family.

I’m voting for…

— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) October 8, 2024

It’s time to restore America to a ‘First World’ status with law and order. Democrats have deprived the America people of this – and many believe this is intentional.

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

For the entire lives of anyone under the age of seventy-five, the US has been at the top of the heap in almost every way. For decades, it had greater freedom, greater prosperity and higher production than any other country in the world.

America was a cornucopia – the centre for innovation and trends in technology, the arts and social development. And today, many Americans, even if they complain about changes for the worse in their country, come back quickly to say, “This is still the greatest country in the world.” Or, “Everybody is still trying to come here.”

Well, truth be told, neither of these knee-jerk comments is accurate any longer. But even those who have come to that realisation tend to resort to the inevitable fall-back comment: “Well, whattaya gonna do? It’s just as bad everyplace else.”

And yet, this is also inaccurate. Throughout the history of the world, whenever a country had entered its decline stage, others were in the process of rising up.

And this is just as true today. There are countries where prosperity and production are far greater than in the US and, increasingly, countries where the key ingredient that made America great – Liberty – is present to a far greater degree.

In fact, this is the one characteristic of America that’s most rapidly in decline. This was especially true in 2020, when a virus was used as a justification to dramatically increase governmental dominance of the populace.

It matters little whether the US had a hand in creating the virus, or whether it was merely co-opted as an opportunity to expand control.

The result has been heavy-handed governmental meddling in medicine, business and personal freedoms.

As regards the latter concern, the odd halfway measure of personal movement control is not great enough to keep a virus from spreading, but it has been sufficient to collapse businesses, create record unemployment and make it impossible for some people to feed themselves.

In the bargain, it has served as an ideal cover story for an economic collapse that had been inevitable. The government can say, “Don’t blame us for the collapse; it was those naughty Chinese and their pesky virus that did it.”

The decline is not an accident. It’s a planned demolition. And it’s going well. For those who actually pull the strings, profit will be made from the crisis. Not for everyone, of course, but most certainly for those few who are creating it.

But many say that the US is waking up, that its citizenry are coming to the conclusion that the Deep State – that corporatist ruling class that are made up of governmental and big-business leaders – has increasingly destroyed the prosperity, production and liberty that once existed and replaced them with massive debt, an exit of production to other countries and a vanishing middle class.

And they’d be entirely correct. The endgame for the once-great US Empire is now underway, and over the next few years, we shall bear witness as it tumbles downhill.

So, what are Americans to do?

Well, my belief is that – as is always the case when a country declines – the populace will divide into several groups.

The first group, which will be by far the largest, will increasingly grumble, but ultimately do little or nothing to save themselves.

They will go down with the ship.

The second group will say, “We don’t have to accept this.”

They’re the preppers, the ones who have a store of food and have been stashing away guns and ammunition. They’re the folks who are seen at the corner bar, saying, “If they come for me, I’m locked and loaded.”

Their friends nod in agreement, but in fact, if a trained and outfitted SWAT team were to arrive on their porch, there would be very few who would succeed in getting off a single shot, and for those who did, their remaining life would be brief.

On the more thoughtful side of this group would be the third group. They would also say, “We don’t have to accept this,” but their choice of a solution will be to “work within the system.”

This is a much larger group – the ones who wait for each election as though it holds a solution. Each time, they’re disappointed. If the party they supported is elected, the winners somehow fail to return the country to the free society it had once been. If the other party is elected, the decline only accelerates.

Incredibly, the lightbulb never seems to go on for this group. They never get to the point of realisation that, “Oh, I get it: neither party has any intention of returning the country to a state of liberty. The only question is which group of pretenders gets to be in charge of the decline this time around. Either way, I lose.”

It could be said that this is the most tragic group. They’re sincere and dedicated. They endlessly hope that a solution is just around the corner, without there being any actual substance for their hope.

The commonality in all three of these groups is that they all end up as casualties. They may differ in their approach to the decline, but they’ll share in the loss of their wealth (however large or small) and their liberty.

But there’s also a fourth group – those who leave. Their numbers are small and they tend not to make a large impact on the consciousness of the other three. In fact, they’re never even mentioned by the media. It’s as though they don’t exist.

So, let’s step back a few centuries. America was founded by a hardworking assortment of settlers who came from several countries in Europe. In their home countries they witnessed oppression – limitations to both their liberty and their ability to create a good life for themselves and their families.

They were independent-minded and self-reliant. They carved out lives in the wilderness and later built towns, then cities. But all the while, they hung on to their core belief of independence and liberty.

Today, they’re still revered as being the backbone of what made America great. And this view is accurate. Yet, today’s Americans are nothing like them. None of the three groups above thinks like them, although the middle group would like to believe they do, merely by owning guns. They’re not independent-minded. They’re not self-reliant.

The key here is that the founders of America recognised that there was no chance that they could change the corrupt and controlling systems they were born into in Europe.

So they left Europe and started over elsewhere.

The fourth group are following a similar path: Seek out a destination where the government does not yet have the power to rob you of your wealth and freedoms.

The choice is a simple one. If you value your liberty – the ability to make your own decisions and to keep more of what you’ve earned – pack your bags and go.

*  *  *

Unfortunately most people have no idea what really happens when a government goes out of control, let alone how to prepare… The coming economic and political crisis is going to be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we’ve seen in the past. That’s exactly why New York Times best-selling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent video. Click here to watch it now.

Authored by James Durso via RealClearWorld,

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently declared, “Israel is trapping Iran and America.”

If that is true, perhaps the U.S. and Iran should cooperate to extricate themselves from that trap.

In the wake of the most recent exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, the region is on the cusp of more violence and instability, but who benefits from the chaos?

Previously, the Arab Gulf states may have been happy to see Iran distracted from fighting an American ally, but that’s not likely anymore. First came the  China-brokered deal in 2023 that restarted diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Then last week the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members declared their neutrality in the new round Iran-Israel fighting, and at the Doha meeting between the Saudi foreign minister and Iran’s president the minister stated, “We aim to permanently close the chapter on our differences and focus on resolving issues, developing relations as two friendly and brotherly countries.”

Who’s left? The U.S., Israel, and the defense contractors.

The defense contractors will do as they’re told, and Israel appears locked on a path of escalation, partly to restore deterrence vis-à-vis Iran but also to keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of jail.

That leaves the Americans to reassert stability as only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu benefits from the fragmentation of the region. Regional chaos encourages Jerusalem to appeal to Washington for even more subventions of cash and transfers of weapons, the latter of which may be reducing the U.S. inventories to a dangerously low level. Unrest will also motivate Israel’s American confederates to press Washington for policies that are good for Israel (so they think) but that erode U.S. influence abroad.

Netanyahu recently spoke to the Iranian people, “Iran will be free soon…” and regime-changey talk like that should be all Washington needs to back away from any association with a coup in Tehran as it made that mistake once before and is still living with the result.

In 1953, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Britain’s MI-6 sponsored a coup to depose Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, an idiosyncratic politician with authoritarian tendencies, the concern being the possibility of Communist influence on his government. The concern about the influence of the communist Tudeh Party was exaggerated, but the Americans also probably wanted to help Britain retain control of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and reverse the 1951 nationalization of Iran’s oil industry.

The Americans installed another idiosyncratic authoritarian, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as the Shah and he showed his gratitude in 1973 when he convinced the other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to double the price of a barrel of oil from $5.11 to $11.65.

The foreign imposition of an absolutist monarch stirred popular discontent that contributed to the successful 1979 Iranian Revolution (and 444-day hostage crisis) and arrival of an even more absolutist theocracy that promptly used Iran’s oil and natural gas resources to fund its aggressive designs at home and abroad.

So, Washington tried to stop communist influence in an oil-producing state on the Soviet Union’s border and help its British ally that was seeing its empire dissolve, and ended up losing two times: the West lost control of Iran’s energy resources and set the stage for the overthrow of the Shah.

Fool me once…

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the Islamic Republic considers nuclear weapons un-Islamic but we are only a revised fatwa away from a new policy if Israel pursues escalation and regime change. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman declared, “…without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we would follow suit as soon as possible.”

Saudi Arabia is a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and a move to develop nuclear weapons would incur sanctions, though it will be a grand opportunity for the world to ask Washington why it lets Jews (Israel) and Hindus (India) slide, but sanctions Muslims (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia.)

Iran’s vice president, and former foreign minister, Javad Zarif, agrees with Haaretz and says Iran will not fall into the Israeli trap, and that “[Israel] thrives on tension, on conflict, and we will not provide it to them.” Zarif also says that Hamas will not be defeated which aligns with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert who declared the destruction of Hamas “will not be achieved.”

Netanyahu is bringing people together but not the way he hoped.

And Israel’s indifference to civilian casualties in Gaza and Lebanon may rebound to America’s disadvantage. The Pentagon’s lawyers and spokesmen have spent two decades since 9/11 hand-waving away criticism of excess civilian deaths by piously declaring that bombing that wedding party was a real shame but it was “collateral damage” and is “in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict.”

In the future it may be harder to dismiss tragic follies like the U.S. trying five times to kill Qari Hussain, a deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban, before getting lucky the sixth time, but in the process killing 128 unlucky people, 13 of them children. The West’s power has allowed it to take advantage of the “double standard of terrorism and state violence” where terrorism is what you call the other guy’s weapon of choice. But the reaction to Israel’s careless targeting and its American patron’s likewise unenviable track record in Iraq and Afghanistan (and its indulgence of Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemeni civilians), may erode the “distinction between state violence and terrorism,” and expose civilian officials and military commander to legal jeopardy.  

If the U.S. decides to work with Iran to lessen tensions it will then be pressured to restart the nuclear deal with Tehran. In that case, it will have to craft an entirely new arrangement as Iran has steamed ahead with nuclear research and development after Washington scrapped its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, and Europe maintained the restrictive measures that were to have expired in 2023 (though Iran didn’t help its case by expelling inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.)

There is a lot of bad faith to go around.

If the U.S. can start talking to Iran and avert Israeli escalation that will kick off a region-wide war, it will have to get used to a greater role for Russia and China have declared their interest in supporting peace in the region, and conveniently undercutting the U.S. in the process. Iran will continue to follow a multi-vector foreign policy and privilege relations with Russia, China, and the BRICS countries, and eschew the diplomatic monogamy demanded by Washington which views diplomatic relations as a reward for complaint behavior instead of a way to pursue the national interest.

And would U.S. forces be ready and able to attack Iran? No. Ammunition transfers to Ukraine and Israel and the attacks on Houthi forces in Yemen have depleted U.S. inventories; the only ship that can replenish aviation fuel for aircraft carriers ran aground and is out of service, and the U.S. Navy recently sidelined 17 supply ships over a crew shortage.; the GCC declaration of neutrality may mean its airspace is  closed to U.S. forces poised to attack Iran (Tehran has called “unacceptable” the use of GCC airspace or military bases against Iran); and local suppliers of military-grade aviation fuel may not provision U.S. forces.

Another year to remember is 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran (Iraq received extensive  U.S. support after 1982.) The invasion was seen as a direct threat to Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and fostered a sense of national unity and solidarity among Iranians. The war, which lasted until 1988, became a rallying point for the Iranian population, who mobilized in defense of their country and the Islamic Revolution. The conflict also helped consolidate the power of the clerical leadership in Iran, as they framed the war as a defense of Islam and the revolution. 

A U.S. attack on Iran, especially if it is seen in the service of Israel, will be a godsend for Ayatollah Khamenei who will be spoiled for choice: America will be not just the “Great Satan” but also the “New Saddam.”

William Burns, the director of the CIA reported this week, “…we do not see evidence today that the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has reversed the decision that he took at the end of 2003 to suspend the weaponization program.” If that is the case, Israel is not in extremis and there is no need for the U.S. to spearhead an attack on Iran. 

And on top of all that, a recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found, “Whether attacked by its neighbors or Tehran, majorities of Americans oppose using US troops to come to Israel’s defense.” In the wake of two decades of war, a ruinous bout of inflation, and the destruction of Hurricane Helene, Americans may be in the mood for what former president Barack Obama called “nation-building here at home.”   

They say, “Cash rules everything around me,” and Israel’s intentions for Iran are no exception. Iran has proven skills in nuclear technology, and rockets and missiles (as Israel understands after 1 October.) Iran and Israel are the two key native sources of technology in the Middle East and it is important to the recovery of Israel’s post-war economy that Iran remain isolated and unable to be an economic competitor. And Iran has over 90 million potential consumers and employees to Israel’s nine million, and may be a more attractive target for investors.

The Jerusalem Post reports, “The US has reportedly offered Israel a “compensation package” if it refrains from attacking certain targets in Iran,” which is an admission of Washington’s inability to halt escalation. If true, Jerusalem will continue to demand more compensation to prevent its next move, and then the move after that… Extortionists do not stop after the first payment.

Without a moment’s delay, Washington and Tehran should put aside their differences and work today to avert what Ehud Olmert calls “a war for his [Netanyahu’s] personal gains.”

James Durso (@james_durso) is a regular commentator on foreign policy and national security matters. Mr. Durso served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years and has worked in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

Elon Musk may be riding high after Thursday night’s long-awaited robotaxi unveil event (though TSLA shares dumped 9% on Friday) and this momentum may continue through the weekend with the possibility that SpaceX could launch its Starship mega-rocket as soon as Sunday—despite suspicious regulatory delays from the Biden-Harris’ Federal Aviation Administration. 

“Starship stacked ahead of its fifth flight test. We expect regulatory approval in time to fly on October 13,” SpaceX wrote on X on Friday afternoon. 

Musk quoted SpaceX’s Xpost, noting, “Looks like Starship might fly on Sunday!” 

He continued, “This the largest & most powerful flying object ever made at more than double the thrust of the Saturn V Moon rocket. We will try to catch it upon return to launch site using the Mechazilla arms like giant chopsticks (like Karate Kid)!” 

Looks like Starship might fly on Sunday!

This the largest & most powerful flying object ever made at more than double the thrust of the Saturn V Moon rocket.

We will try to catch it upon return to launch site using the Mechazilla arms like giant chopsticks (like Karate Kid)! https://t.co/8g7mLaTCRK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2024

Like this…

Starship 5 is happening on Sunday. This is the largest and most powerful rocket exert built. @SpaceX will attempt to catch the Booster with Chop sticks like this pic.twitter.com/3Kcn7WfKnG

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 12, 2024

SpaceX provided more details about the upcoming Starship test flight:

Starship’s fifth flight test could launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval.

A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The launch window will open as early as 7:00 a.m. CT. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.

Flight 4 was a tremendous success. A fully successful ascent was followed by the first ever booster soft-landing in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship making it through a brilliant reentry, before its own landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

The fifth flight test of Starship will aim to take another step towards full and rapid reusability. The primary objectives will be attempting the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean.

Extensive upgrades ahead of this flight test have been made to hardware and software across Super Heavy, Starship, and the launch and catch tower infrastructure at Starbase. SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success. We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only be attempted if conditions are right.

Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch attempt of the Super Heavy booster, which will require healthy systems on the booster and tower and a manual command from the mission’s Flight Director. If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.

Starship will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled reentry and soft water landing of Starship.

One of the key upgrades on Starship ahead of flight was a complete rework of its heatshield, with SpaceX technicians spending more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer, and additional protections between the flap structures. This massive effort, along with updates to the ship’s operations and software for reentry and landing burn, will look to improve upon the previous flight and bring Starship to a soft splashdown at the target area in the Indian Ocean.

With each flight building on the learnings from the last, testing improvements in hardware and operations across every facet of Starship, we’re on the verge of demonstrating techniques fundamental to Starship’s fully and rapidly reusable design. By continuing to push our hardware in a flight environment, and doing so as safely and frequently as possible, we’ll rapidly bring Starship online and revolutionize humanity’s ability to access space.

Musk has been particularly vocal about the Biden-Harris team weaponizing federal agencies against his companies, such as SpaceX, slowing rocket launches.

🚨 MUSK: “The next fight of Starship is ready to fly. We are waiting on regulatory approval 🤦‍♂️. It shouldn’t be possible to build a giant rocket faster than the paper can move from one desk to another.” 😂 💀 pic.twitter.com/O5mx71nAqr

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) September 10, 2024

Biden-Harris’ lawfare against SpaceX’s Starlink before the hurricane that decimated parts of western North Carolina likely cost lives. 

Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina.

Lawfare costs lives. https://t.co/FF0ugexP2g

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2024

Musk called out the fed’s “lawfare” on Tucker Carlson. 

Elon Musk warns that if Kamala Harris somehow wins the election, she will go after free speech, noting “They’ll try to prosecute X, they’ll try to prosecute me. The amount of lawfare we see taking place is outrageous.” Report here: https://t.co/4YqtxAQEcY pic.twitter.com/mM3VLcfKz1

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) October 8, 2024

All of this gov’t lawfare against Musk and his companies is because Democrats hate X’s free speech. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry said the quiet part out loud in recent days and weeks. 

Some folks are still trying to get over Robotaxi Day… Now a giant Starship could be launched within the next day. 

Authored by Duggan Flanakin via RealClearEnergy,

Major shifts have been taking place in the race to commercialize nuclear fusion, but one high school senior has shaken the fusion world by building a nuclear fusion reactor as a high school science project.

Cesare Mencarini, an Italian studying in the United Kingdom, taught himself to code and how to work with electrical systems. He searched YouTube and the Internet and built a custom-made reactor that was controlled and hosted from a Raspberry Pi system. His reactor achieved plasma, the fourth state of matter, a crucial step in the fusion process, by effectively using high voltage to heat atoms to the required temperatures.

His work has earned him a college scholarship, where he will be working on larger reactors. Mencarini explains that “I had to adapt the design to fit in with the budget and my aim is to encourage other young people to develop ideas and think about how we can improve our world and be innovative.”

Mencarini’s success should be an inspiration to the thousands of scientists affiliated with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CERN Council in June 2022 decided to end cooperation with Russia, affecting 500 scientists affiliated with Russian institutions.

While about 100 of the Russian-affiliated scientists have found other sponsorship and will continue working with CERN, the Russian government withdrew US$46.8 million from the financing of the upgrading of CERN’s large hadron collider and will no longer supply 4.6% of the LHC’s experimental budget.

On another front, CERN last November signed an agreement with members of EUROfusion, a European consortium of fusion research laboratories, to facilitate collaboration on development of innovative technologies for future colliders and nuclear fusion reactors. EUROfusion’s laboratories are creating a technical design of a fusion demonstration power plant (DEMO) to succeed ITER (the International Fusion Reactor).

ITER, one may recall, was launched in 1985 by a consortium including China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, the United States, and the European Union and supported by the European Atomic Energy Community (which itself was created by the Euratom Treaty in 1957). Its mission was to bring fusion to a point where a demonstration fusion reactor could be designed.

Construction of the ITER tokamak began in 2010, and in May 200 the 1,250-tonne cryostat base was installed at the 42-hectare site. The latest news from ITER is a plan to build a more complete machine than was initially planned, with achievement of full magnetic energy by 2036 and the start of the deuterium-tritium operation phase by 2039. Expect new information at the ITER Council meeting this November.

While the European efforts are slowing down, the hunt for nuclear fusion is escalating in the United States, and notably in Wisconsin.

At the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, a significant advancement in fusion ignition was achieved in December 2022 using 192 lasers concentrated on a minuscule gold cylinder consisting of a diamond capsule loaded with deuterium and tritium. At one moment, hydrogen atoms integrated into helium, emitting energy of 3.15Mj that exceeded the 2.05Mj contribution from the lasers.

The success of this experiment symbolized a model change in the nuclear energy segment. It also prompted renewed curiosity as well as financing in fusion energy, which promises practically unlimited power with no safety hazards with little if any waste issues. The challenge remains to sustain the fragile balance of conditions essential to fusion.

On another front, MIT researchers just published results of a study that addressed the problem of building tokamats that can withstand the incredibly hot plasma. Senior researcher Ju Li described the method for drawing away problematic helium atoms that can wreak havoc on the tokamak’s inner walls by dispersing iron silicate into the bulk metal.

A July survey by the Fusion Industry Association reported that among 45 private fusion companies worldwide, 25 were headquartered in the United States. Perhaps the biggest news on the U.S. fusion front is emerging from three of these firms that were spun out of the University of Wisconsin at Madison – Realta Fusion, Type One Energy, and SHINE Technologies.

On July 15, Realta Fusion scientist Elliot Claveau reported that his team had generated a beam of superheated plasma for the first time at the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM) project being conducted at the University of Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory in Stoughton.

WHAM was created in 2020 as a partnership between UW-Madison, MIT, and the company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, who had received $10 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as funding support from UW-Madison. WHAM is now operating as a public-private partnership between UW-Madison and Realta Fusion, which was spun out of the university.

Just one week later, scientists at SHINE Technologies in Janesville showcased their FLARE™, billed as the world’s most powerful continuous fusion neutron system at the IEEE Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects Conference and at the Technology of Fusion Energy Meeting (TOFE). FLARE™, an acronym for Fusion Linear Accelerator for Radiation Effects, produced 50 trillion nuclear fusion neutrons per second.

FLARE™ can complete tests in hours that heretofore took weeks. This allows for shorter development cycles and faster iteration in developing radiation-hardened components. As a result, the Department of Defense will be able to much more quickly determine how much radiation our defense systems and withstand before they are disrupted or destroyed.

The third ring came on July 30, when Wisconsin-born Type One Energy, which recently relocated to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, announced it had raised over $82 million in seed funding for a fusion prototype based on work of scientists at its Madison office. Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures led the extension, with Australia-based Foxglove Ventures and New Zealand-based GD1 also contributing.

Type One’s reactor is a stellarator, whose shape has been called a cronut – a circle that is warped and bulging. The shape is defined by magnets that exert the specially shaped field that confines the superheated plasma necessary for fusion reactions. The stellarator requires a tremendous amount of computing power to fine-tune the design to make it work. Type One was spun out of the University of Wisconsin, which is also operating a stellarator.

CEO Christofer Mowry says the next step is finalizing the core reactor design, then building a prototype reactor called Infinity One as well as designing a pilot reactor by 2030. According to Mowry, “When Infinity One operates and we test it, it’s actually verifying the key design aspects of the pilot plant.”

Wisconsin’s presence in the nuclear fusion industry began with the founding in 1971 of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Realta’s Furlong says, “There’s this huge potential to marry Wisconsin’s manufacturing capabilities with its research capabilities and create this new industry which could just generate a huge economic engine for the state.”

Furlong added, “What Detroit was for the global automobile industry in the 1950s, what Houston is today in the global oil and gas sector … I can see Wisconsin being the global hub for the fusion industry in the 21st Century.” And SHINE CEO Greg Piefer says, “I think the thing we all agree on … is that an advanced society will make its energy from fusion.”

Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.

On Saturday Lebanese Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel, resulting in emergency warning sirens blaring in Israeli cities throughout the day, including even in Tel Aviv at times.

The constant rocket and drone launches are happening throughout this weekend’s Yom Kippur holiday. The country is on ‘high alert’ – and local media has noted it is the first Yom Kippur that Israel has spent at war on multiple fronts since the 1970s.

“Israel shut down late on Friday afternoon for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, with the country embroiled in an active war on the Holy Day for the first time since 1973,” Times of Israel describes. The emergency situation has left many streets throughout the country empty – but this is also due to the ‘high holy day’.

“The country was on high alert, with troops continuing combat operations in Lebanon and Gaza and special alert systems in place to warn the population amid near-constant rocket fire and spiraling tensions with Iran,” the report continues. “More than 120 rockets were fired at Israel in the first hours of the holiday.”

For a review of the historic “Yom Kippur War”:

On October 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar (and during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) — Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. The equivalent of the total forces of NATO in Europe was mobilized on Israel’s borders. On the Golan Heights, approximately 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez Canal, fewer than 500 Israeli defenders with only three tanks were attacked by 600,000 Egyptian soldiers, backed by 2,000 tanks and 550 aircraft.

Not only is Hezbollah vowing more rockets, but it has even begun issuing new ‘warnings’ to Israeli civilians. This also as Iran and Israel are on the brink of a direct shooting war, and paramilitaries in Iraq and the Houthis of Yemen have also vowed to attack.

On Saturday the Iran-linked Lebanese paramilitary group said that it will target residential buildings and bases in northern Israel which are believed used by the Israeli military.

Here’s what the group said on Telegram:

“The ‘Israeli’ enemy army is using the homes of settlers in some settlements in northern occupied Palestine as gathering points for its officers and soldiers, and its military bases that manage the aggression against Lebanon are located within settlement neighborhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tabaraya [Tiberias], and Acre [Akka]. These homes and military bases are targets for the rocket and air forces of the Islamic Resistance, and we warn settlers against being near these military gatherings for their safety until further notice.”

It seems a mirror warning of the type of statements the IDF has issued for weeks. Israel has told Lebanese civilians to flee areas of south Beirut, including residential buildings, alleging that Hezbollah uses them for operations.

Israel has also accused Hezbollah of storing weapons in Lebanese civilian homes, including in the south of the country. Recent weeks have seen a high civilian casualty count as the IDF bombs several areas of Lebanon.

Hezbollah drone passes by a balcony in Tel Aviv👀 pic.twitter.com/Ur2aVNCO80

— روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) October 11, 2024

All of this strongly suggests the war in Lebanon will not end anytime soon, despite the Israeli army previously saying its offensive would only last a few weeks. Israel could unleash a major attack on Iranian oil or even nuclear and military sites at any moment.

Authored by James Rickards via Daily Reckoning,

Over the past century, monetary systems change about every 30–40 years on average. Before 1914, the global monetary system was based on the classical gold standard.

Then in 1944, a new monetary system emerged at Bretton Woods. Under that system, the dollar became the global reserve currency, linked to gold at $35 per ounce. In 1971 Nixon ended the direct convertibility of the dollar to gold. For the first time, the monetary system had no gold backing.

Today, the existing monetary system is over 50 years old, so the world is long overdue for a change.

I’ve written for years about different nations’ persistent efforts to dethrone the U.S. dollar as the leading global reserve currency and the main medium of exchange.

At the same time, I’ve said that such processes don’t happen overnight; instead, they happen slowly and incrementally over decades.

While that’s true, the process is accelerating in ways no one could have anticipated before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In response, the U.S. initiated the most aggressive sanctions regime ever in its efforts to punish Russia for invading Ukraine.

The first round of financial targets included obvious attacks such as freezing the U.S. dollar accounts of Russian banks and oligarchs. The second round raised the ante by freezing the dollar accounts of the Central Bank of Russia itself. This was unprecedented except in the case of rogue states such as Iran, North Korea and Syria.

Suddenly the central bank of the world’s ninth-largest economy and third-largest oil producer with over $2.1 trillion in GDP found itself shut out of the global payments and banking systems.

The sanctions went beyond finance and banking to include bans on Russian exports, freezing Russia out of insurance markets (as a way to effectively prohibit oil shipments) and bans on critical exports to Russia including high-tech equipment, semiconductors and popular consumer goods.

Major U.S. and other Western companies from Shell Oil to McDonald’s were pressured to shut down operations in Russia, and many did.

But a large part of the world refused to join the U.S./EU/NATO financial sanctions. It’s not that countries around the world necessarily supported Russia’s invasion. It’s just that they didn’t want U.S. sanctions to disrupt their trading relationships with Russia, which they depend on.

They weren’t willing to harm their economies over a conflict that has no bearing on them, on the other side of the world in many instances.

Look at India and China. They’re the biggest buyers of the oil that Russia might otherwise have sold to Europe. China itself is selling automobiles, semiconductors and machinery to Russia.

Meanwhile, Turkey has greatly expanded its exports to Russia, while Iran is selling weapons to Russia including “kamikaze” drones that act like slow-motion cruise missiles that can linger over targets.

And importantly, the more other economies trade with Russia, the less any of them will need U.S. dollars as a medium of exchange. So the U.S. sanctions have not only failed, they’ve contributed to the long-term decline of the dollar as the world’s leading payment currency.

They’re also driving countries away from using dollars in international transactions for fear that they could become the next target of U.S. displeasure.

I’ve been warning about this for years. Almost 10 years ago, I sat in a secure conference room at the Pentagon and explained to a group of U.S. national security officials from the military, CIA, Treasury and other agencies that the overuse of the U.S. dollar in financial warfare would eventually compel nations to seek dollar alternatives.

Some took note, some ignored the warning and one Treasury official slammed the table and said, “The dollar has been the global reserve currency, it is the global reserve currency now and it always will be the global reserve currency!”

I told him I felt like I was in Whitehall in London in 1913 listening to John Bull say the same thing about sterling. Sterling would begin to be pushed aside by the dollar just one year later with the start of World War I.

More recently, I taught a seminar at the U.S. Army War College on financial warfare in which I explained that U.S. financial sanctions would not have a material impact on Russia, that Russia would not change its behavior in Ukraine based on the sanctions and that the U.S. would suffer more from its own sanctions than Russia because adversaries and neutral countries would create alternative payment platforms that did not use dollars.

I’ve also said to the military and intelligence community, “I don’t think other countries can destroy the dollar, but we can do it ourselves. We are our own worst enemy.”

As I warned, we’re destroying the dollar with the sanctions (and through other misguided policies). The U.S. is doing more to destroy the dollar than our enemies.

Efforts to establish a dollar alternative will see major advances made at the BRICS leaders’ summit in Kazan, Russian Federation on Oct. 22–24. The BRICS summit will announce new members, which is important because expanding membership is the key predicate to launching a viable payment currency. It’ll drive the group closer to the critical mass needed to launch a currency union.

The process will unfold over time, and the dollar won’t be displaced in the immediate future. But the trend away from the dollar is definitely underway. The building de-dollarization movement represents a global sea change, which will only accelerate in the coming years.

But as I said at the outset, it’s long overdue. If you want a historical parallel to how the dollar will fall, look to the U.K. pound sterling.

Many observers assume the 1944 Bretton Woods conference was the moment the U.S. dollar replaced sterling as the world’s leading reserve currency. But that replacement of sterling by the dollar as the world’s leading reserve currency was a process that took 30 years, from 1914–1944.

The 1944 Bretton Woods conference was merely recognition of a process of dollar reserve dominance that was decades in the making.

As with the pound sterling, slippage in the dollar’s role as the leading global reserve currency is not necessarily something that will happen overnight.

But the unprecedented dollar sanctions against Russia have hastened the process. So after 80 years under the Bretton Woods arrangements, 53 years since Nixon closed the gold window and 50 years since the petrodollar agreement with Saudi Arabia, the reign of King Dollar as the world’s leading payment currency is coming to an end.

And although the process will likely be relatively gradual, no investor should be surprised if it happens sooner rather than later.

It’s like the quote from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. One of the characters asks, “How did you go bankrupt?”

“Two ways,” the other character says. “Gradually and then suddenly.” The dollar could lose its reserve status gradually — then suddenly.

Indepedent journalist Michael Tracey, working with Glenn Greenwald, has uncovered a remarkable scandal at a recent Kamala Harris townhall hosted by Univision, one of the largest hispanic news organizations in the world. The event was ostensibly for “undecided latino voters” but Tracey quickly revealed that to be fradulent… The following is from his Substack (subcribe here):

Authored by Michael Tracey,

Last night’s Univision “town hall” with Kamala Harris was billed as an exciting opportunity for “undecided Latino voters” to question and evaluate the potential next President of the United States. The corporate press release from Univision advertises it explicitly as such:

But viewers at home would have been wholly unaware that this billing was false. As I discovered, having been granted the sacred opportunity to view the event from an adjacent room on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, the carefully curated “town hall” audience was actually comprised of avowed Harris supporters.

“I already knew I was going to go for Kamala,” one town hall participant told me. “Part of the reason why I wanted to go was just, like, to also fully support her.”

“So you were already decided, before you came?” I asked another. “Yes,” she replied, declaring her support for Kamala.

The audience members I spoke to were selected with the help of a company called FansOnQ, according to the company’s founder, Conny Quintanilla, whose title for yesterday’s event was “Audience Manager.” The company puts out “casting calls” for events like the Latin Grammy Awards, which have been previously held in Las Vegas. It’s a type of company that you might not be consciously aware exists, but once you’re told of its existence, it makes perfect intuitive sense: people who want to dance at award shows are “vetted” by this particular company, perhaps for good looks and rhythmic skills. That’s the same company which filled the seats at Kamala’s town hall.

Another person told me he was able to attend because he “knows people” at an unnamed “progressive organization,” which somehow granted him the ability to get in the town hall audience. The person said he works as an intern for Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada. I’m not naming the person because he was wary of attribution. Others quoted here also didn’t want to be identified.

These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions. Those audience members were flown in from around the country at Univision’s expense. Which is a bit odd, because there would certainly have been plenty of genuine “undecided Latino voters” in Clark County, Nevada who I’m sure would’ve been more than happy to ask Kamala Harris a question.

NOTE: The non-question-asking attendees were still integral to the televisual production of the event, hence their recruitment. Uninformed viewers at home were under the false impression that the people they were watching react to Kamala’s answers were “undecided voters,” when numerous of them were in fact pre-committed Harris voters who sought to attend for the specific purpose of demonstrating their support for Kamala.

Naturally, I wanted to interview the actual question-asking attendees. However, a corporate dictate apparently came down prohibiting this. “We won’t be making them available,” Anna Negron, Director of Corporate Communications at TelevisaUnivision, told me when I asked if there would be an opportunity to interview said audience members. She would not elaborate on the reason for this strange secrecy. Reporter Mark Kellner of the New York Post asked Negron the same question, and was similarly dismissed.

So the sum total of the authorized journalistic acts that we were permitted to carry out at this event was to sit in a side room and politely view a generously provided video feed of the “town hall,” which was taped several hours before it aired yesterday. For the record, I don’t think she actually used a teleprompter, despite social media allegations to that effect. I can verify that the event was already contrived enough as it is — no need to embellish any phony stories.

Of course, most journalists covering the event simply repeated the conceit that Kamala was empathetically taking questions from “undecided Latino voters.” In other words, they simply regurgitated the corporate press release:

Her actual remarks were bereft of any real substance. The only amusing part was when she name-dropped Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General under George W. Bush, as one of her cherished Republican endorsements — adding him to the esteemed roster of Dick and Liz Cheney and myriad “national security officials” affiliated with Mitt Romney and John McCain. Perhaps Kamala calculated that the surname “Gonzales” would be extraordinarily appealing to these allegedly “undecided Latino voters.”

It’s worth briefly reminiscing about what the purpose of a “town hall” has traditionally been: for ‘townspeople’ to gather and air their concerns about issues that most affect them. (“Town halls” are actually how some small New England towns are governed — the town halls effectively become temporary citizen-led legislatures to decide questions around zoning and so forth.) Now, though, they’re just glitzy TV productions that accomplish the polar opposite of the free-flowing dialogue and debate with which the term was once associated. Indeed, these events now more resemble the production values of the Latin Grammy Awards — literally — than a forum to scrutinize candidates for public office.