Can’t find enough reading material on the internet? I can help! That is, if your interests coincide with mine. For example, if you’re wondering, how in the world did we get involved in Yemen, or did this just pop up out of the blue? This article will give you some background. It’s a good illustration of the dangers of thinking that the world needs us to run it, and of how getting involved in regional disputes can and will come back to bite us in all sorts of unexpected ways:
The review of the book titled The Palestine Laboratory is really a curate's egg isn't it, hard to judge the book itself without cracking the cover. I thought you captured the key points of the review very well.
This quote implies that surveillance tech (see Shoshana Zuboff: The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism) is somehow rather a benign thing:
<<Loewenstein quotes an Israeli human rights lawyer who says, “Because of surveillance tech, a country can avoid massacring protestors now. Today, we’re able to identify and stop surveillance of the next Nelson Mandela before he even knows he’s Nelson Mandela.”>>
Recent real-world practise suggests that blind vengeance used as a very blunt instrument is some way away from being abandoned as a tactic. And the supposed failure of all that clever tech on 07/10 was hardly a great advertisement either, unless you believe (and I do) that it was an example of LIHOP.
Thinking back to Cronyvirus and the responses, Canada and New Zealand being very salient but not forgetting Sweden (or even Tanzania), there were a whole series of Beta Tests tried in various jurisdictions. Here in the UK, for a while, we had the bizarre Law of Six which permitted small gatherings of five or fewer people due to these being less risky, apparently. Our last Prime Minister but two is still being pilloried for saying "Let the bodies pile high" which no one dares to suggest was not mere 'uncaring' flippancy but full knowledge of the vanishingly small likelihood of that scenario ever unfolding. This was seemingly after he had had things explained to him during his stay in the drying-out clinic, er, the Covid Ward that is. He knew full well the whole thing was a Scam.
I found the John Helmer piece very interesting too. The notion that no-one in Yemen can follow a few links on t'internet to uncover the beneficial owner of a dirty great container ship is patronizing. But then again containers can disappear forever in a port through jinxing the software - c.f. The Wire, Series 2.
I didn't say no one in Yemen CAN do it or COULD do it, but constructing and maintaining a comprehensive database of that sort for the purpose of being able to target a specific subset of shipping like that is definitely time consuming, not as easy as it may seem, and not something undertaken in an idle moment. I continue to believe that it's likely that a highly competent intel service like Iran's undertook that job and is sharing the info.
At best this is commercially sensitive info rather than the domain of intelligence services. What's in the containers and where they are ultimately bound... now that's a whole other game, as my reference to _The Wire_ was supposed to convey.
Helmer provides examples to show that further digging is required to explain some of the targeting than simply running a check at Lloyds' site. For example, while I haven't checked, I would be surprised to learn that Lloyds includes information regarding ethnicity/religion of owners and relations of owners, of shareholders, whatever. I'd even be surprised to learn that they include citizenship info for the above, and especially in the case of multiple citizenships. I'm willing to be corrected. I'm presuming that, while destination of cargo is the proximate aim, the ultimate aim probably includes attacking commercial interests more generally, since that provides the support infrastructure. Helmer's examples suggest that. At least they do to me.
Speaking of "Stuff To Read", a man named Leo Hohmann has an article on his substack called "The Takedown of America." While on one hand some of it may seem over the top scare mongering, it is sobering to read.
Care to provide an actual link? Having corrected the URL manually https://leohohmann.substack.com/ I still can't find a piece with that title, having scrolled down the list as far as June 2023 . . .
An interesting selection of predictions for 2024. I'm not sure how many of them make full sense. Predicting World War III for 2025 is plausible, sadly, but let's not delude ourselves that it broke out already two years ago, now getting to simmering point.
I take issue with this statement of Hohmann:
<< the U.S. will at some point abandon Israel and maybe that will be the best thing that ever happened to Israel, as it will finally be freed up to fight without one hand tied behind its back.>>
A crass mischaracterisation of the IOF's clumsy brutality IMHO and the tell that the author is a Christian Zionist.
An interesting article but not an author I'll be bookmarking any time soon ;-)
"The Houthis have an old score to settle with Israel on account of the latter’s repeated covert interventions in the civil war in Yemen dating back to the 1960s on account of that country’s great importance in the eyes of Israeli strategists as Israel’s outlet to the Indian Ocean and the Far East, which is today compounded by Houthis’ support for the rights of Palestinians and refusal to normalise with Israel.
In April 2018, the UAE, taking advantage of the instability and the lack of a central government in Yemen, simply occupied that country’s Socotra island, backed by tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery. UAE has since annexed the Socotra island and in a joint project with Israel is trying to build a military base there which would be hosting Israeli soldiers, officers, and other military experts and personnel in a project to exercise military control over maritime routes and intelligence operations against Iran.
"To be sure, insecure conditions affecting maritime traffic to the Suez Canal will be hugely consequential to the world economy in multiple ways — international trade and supply chains, oil market and so on. But behind the barrage of propaganda, the actual American intentions may go well beyond that. The demonisation of the Houthis provides a cloud cover to obfuscate what is in reality an incredibly complex matrix.
"According to an analysis in the American think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Israel has plans to deploy submarines east of Suez. Clearly, the military base in Socotra will be ideal for Israeli submarines for force projection in the Arabian Sea. Unsurprisngly, the Houthis are furious about their country’s loss of sovereignty over Socotra and the island’s transformation as an Israeli outpost with tacit American support."
But here's the thing, and it shows how stupid it is to get too involved in these places--back in the 60s the Israelis were actually helping the Houthis. That was because Egypt was involved in Yemen (their "Vietnam") and at the time Egypt was Israel's Main Enemy. By 2015 Israel decided that the Houthis were the proxy of Iran, the Main Enemy, and so they turned on the Houthis. Exactly where were US interests in all this?
A tactic of various agencies is to fragment any opposition. Infiltration and false accusations. Lots of this seemed to have happened with the freedom convoy. Jan 6th is another example of infiltration. Or the Mi Whitmer kidnapping case.
Which makes me wonder, why are the Israelis so involved with Americas Frontline Doctors?
They seem to have access to all the donor information. Just coincidence, or a honey trap to collect wrong thinker information? Seem to be the same group as targeted the freedom convoy.
Ugh. Yuck. Thank you, I guess (regarding the article on The Wellness Company). The obvious question to me is if there is also a connection to The Daily Clout through the husband of the (apparently) lovely, amazing, incredible Naomi Wolf.
The review of the book titled The Palestine Laboratory is really a curate's egg isn't it, hard to judge the book itself without cracking the cover. I thought you captured the key points of the review very well.
This quote implies that surveillance tech (see Shoshana Zuboff: The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism) is somehow rather a benign thing:
<<Loewenstein quotes an Israeli human rights lawyer who says, “Because of surveillance tech, a country can avoid massacring protestors now. Today, we’re able to identify and stop surveillance of the next Nelson Mandela before he even knows he’s Nelson Mandela.”>>
Recent real-world practise suggests that blind vengeance used as a very blunt instrument is some way away from being abandoned as a tactic. And the supposed failure of all that clever tech on 07/10 was hardly a great advertisement either, unless you believe (and I do) that it was an example of LIHOP.
Thinking back to Cronyvirus and the responses, Canada and New Zealand being very salient but not forgetting Sweden (or even Tanzania), there were a whole series of Beta Tests tried in various jurisdictions. Here in the UK, for a while, we had the bizarre Law of Six which permitted small gatherings of five or fewer people due to these being less risky, apparently. Our last Prime Minister but two is still being pilloried for saying "Let the bodies pile high" which no one dares to suggest was not mere 'uncaring' flippancy but full knowledge of the vanishingly small likelihood of that scenario ever unfolding. This was seemingly after he had had things explained to him during his stay in the drying-out clinic, er, the Covid Ward that is. He knew full well the whole thing was a Scam.
I found the John Helmer piece very interesting too. The notion that no-one in Yemen can follow a few links on t'internet to uncover the beneficial owner of a dirty great container ship is patronizing. But then again containers can disappear forever in a port through jinxing the software - c.f. The Wire, Series 2.
I didn't say no one in Yemen CAN do it or COULD do it, but constructing and maintaining a comprehensive database of that sort for the purpose of being able to target a specific subset of shipping like that is definitely time consuming, not as easy as it may seem, and not something undertaken in an idle moment. I continue to believe that it's likely that a highly competent intel service like Iran's undertook that job and is sharing the info.
Oh come on Mark. Lloyds of London would have a firm grip on who owns what. See also
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/products/ship-and-port-data.html
At best this is commercially sensitive info rather than the domain of intelligence services. What's in the containers and where they are ultimately bound... now that's a whole other game, as my reference to _The Wire_ was supposed to convey.
"Oh come on Mark."
Helmer provides examples to show that further digging is required to explain some of the targeting than simply running a check at Lloyds' site. For example, while I haven't checked, I would be surprised to learn that Lloyds includes information regarding ethnicity/religion of owners and relations of owners, of shareholders, whatever. I'd even be surprised to learn that they include citizenship info for the above, and especially in the case of multiple citizenships. I'm willing to be corrected. I'm presuming that, while destination of cargo is the proximate aim, the ultimate aim probably includes attacking commercial interests more generally, since that provides the support infrastructure. Helmer's examples suggest that. At least they do to me.
https://leohohmann.substck.com/
oops. I meant substack.
Speaking of "Stuff To Read", a man named Leo Hohmann has an article on his substack called "The Takedown of America." While on one hand some of it may seem over the top scare mongering, it is sobering to read.
Care to provide an actual link? Having corrected the URL manually https://leohohmann.substack.com/ I still can't find a piece with that title, having scrolled down the list as far as June 2023 . . .
So sorry Karen. It is leohohmann.com.
Gotcha, thanks BFH. The article itself is at this address: https://leohohmann.com/2023/12/29/10-predictions-for-2024-get-ready-for-tough-times-with-war-and-economic-collapse-on-the-horizon/
An interesting selection of predictions for 2024. I'm not sure how many of them make full sense. Predicting World War III for 2025 is plausible, sadly, but let's not delude ourselves that it broke out already two years ago, now getting to simmering point.
I take issue with this statement of Hohmann:
<< the U.S. will at some point abandon Israel and maybe that will be the best thing that ever happened to Israel, as it will finally be freed up to fight without one hand tied behind its back.>>
A crass mischaracterisation of the IOF's clumsy brutality IMHO and the tell that the author is a Christian Zionist.
An interesting article but not an author I'll be bookmarking any time soon ;-)
More from MKB on Yemen: https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-war-on-terror-against-houthis-is-smoke-and-mirrors/
"The Houthis have an old score to settle with Israel on account of the latter’s repeated covert interventions in the civil war in Yemen dating back to the 1960s on account of that country’s great importance in the eyes of Israeli strategists as Israel’s outlet to the Indian Ocean and the Far East, which is today compounded by Houthis’ support for the rights of Palestinians and refusal to normalise with Israel.
In April 2018, the UAE, taking advantage of the instability and the lack of a central government in Yemen, simply occupied that country’s Socotra island, backed by tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery. UAE has since annexed the Socotra island and in a joint project with Israel is trying to build a military base there which would be hosting Israeli soldiers, officers, and other military experts and personnel in a project to exercise military control over maritime routes and intelligence operations against Iran.
"To be sure, insecure conditions affecting maritime traffic to the Suez Canal will be hugely consequential to the world economy in multiple ways — international trade and supply chains, oil market and so on. But behind the barrage of propaganda, the actual American intentions may go well beyond that. The demonisation of the Houthis provides a cloud cover to obfuscate what is in reality an incredibly complex matrix.
"According to an analysis in the American think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Israel has plans to deploy submarines east of Suez. Clearly, the military base in Socotra will be ideal for Israeli submarines for force projection in the Arabian Sea. Unsurprisngly, the Houthis are furious about their country’s loss of sovereignty over Socotra and the island’s transformation as an Israeli outpost with tacit American support."
But here's the thing, and it shows how stupid it is to get too involved in these places--back in the 60s the Israelis were actually helping the Houthis. That was because Egypt was involved in Yemen (their "Vietnam") and at the time Egypt was Israel's Main Enemy. By 2015 Israel decided that the Houthis were the proxy of Iran, the Main Enemy, and so they turned on the Houthis. Exactly where were US interests in all this?
I’m not sure how true this article is, but it’s strange and note the Israeli connection.
I started here:
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/who-are-drs-john-mascola-barney-graham
A tactic of various agencies is to fragment any opposition. Infiltration and false accusations. Lots of this seemed to have happened with the freedom convoy. Jan 6th is another example of infiltration. Or the Mi Whitmer kidnapping case.
Then got to this link:
https://mestuff.substack.com/p/delving-deeper-down-into-the-rabbit
https://mestuff.substack.com/p/down-down-down-we-go
And then:
https://beyondthemaze.substack.com/p/the-wellness-company
And I noticed another article by him:
https://beyondthemaze.substack.com/p/the-wellness-company
Which makes me wonder, why are the Israelis so involved with Americas Frontline Doctors?
They seem to have access to all the donor information. Just coincidence, or a honey trap to collect wrong thinker information? Seem to be the same group as targeted the freedom convoy.
Or am I being paranoid?
Ugh. Yuck. Thank you, I guess (regarding the article on The Wellness Company). The obvious question to me is if there is also a connection to The Daily Clout through the husband of the (apparently) lovely, amazing, incredible Naomi Wolf.
Coincidentally, Dr. Wolf just published a glimpse into her life. What a battle. https://open.substack.com/pub/naomiwolf/p/glimpses-from-a-season-in-my-life?r=1mko6&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post