A bit less than a week ago I did a post titled: With Ukraine Lost, What's The Latest Neocon Strategery? The idea behind the post was that, while the Neocons have slowly come to the realization that their war on Russia will not be won in Ukraine, they’re not about to give up on the concept. And so they’re flipping around, looking for some new strategy. But because Russia’s position continues to strengthen, the Neocons are pretty much winging it—flying by the seat of their pants. In discussing this, and to illustrate that the geopolitical landscape continues to shift against the American Empire, I quoted a retweet by Tom Luongo:
The US is not represented by Uncle Sam but by Uncle Scrooge, who always turns the screws on other countries that seek to be sovereign and refuses to treat them as equals.
Lazy. Tired old neocon thinking. A bunch of conformists amongst themselves that can’t or won’t think outside of their tired old failure of a playbook. They become predictable and belligerent. And thus slowly and patiently they are undermined.
Biden was big on the Jamal Khashoggi using it to smear Saudi Arabia, and their ruler. As well as being all end on ending use of oil.
Biden, or whomever is the Democratic nominee needs low gas prices for the 2024 election.
And the sanctions against Russia, seizing of foreign reserves, throwing out of Swift have many countries wondering - are we next? So countries are reducing the capacity of the U.S. to wage economic warfare.
Plus the continued inflation in the U.S. due to out of control government spending devalues the dollar.
We could say many unkind things about MbS, but I'll give credit where it is due: he's no dummy. He learns from his mistakes, everyone else's and adapts quickly in a changing scenario. I was happy to see talks begin in his war on Yemen and a cease fire start. But, I was under no illusion it was because MbS really cared about starving Yemini children - it wasn't a war he was going to win and it was a PR black eye, but more likely it was a giant money suck. That certainly didn't help the KSA debt situation Tom talks about.
“KSA has no intention of returning to the American orbit.” I think you'll get your chance to say "told you so" in the not too distant future to anybody who doubts you were 100% correct.
As far as the Dollar goes (and the time is quickly coming when it won't go nearly as far is it used to) the "horse is out of the barn." The global south is incentivized to do everything they can to get out of the clutches of the Dollar, the IMF, the World Bank, and every other European and American institution and mechanism used to impose tyranny over them. Why should they not want to escape? Especially when they have people (like the Russians and Chinese) who apparently will help them to do so and will seemingly treat them like human beings instead of chattel?
Indeed, the strong $ horse is out of the barn, one dark and stormy night that handsome young stallion broke out of his stall, jumped the fence, ran the old stud off and took over the harem of mares. In other words the times have changed permanently, never to return.
Prediction: This always happens BTW, attacks on oil prices damages the US oil and gas industry, results in higher prices with the passage of time. Green energy idiocy will be promoted as the solution by the usual suspects. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam . . .
Mark, if I remember correctly almost right after The Rake (vegetable in the White House) pulled out of Afghanistan, KSA signed military contract with Russia.
Any more evidence we needed to know how fast MbS wanted to move from the U.S.?
It costing the “Davos Crowd” big bugs to manipulate oil & gold markets. Let’s see for how long.
"Biden offering to bribe the mullahs to stay out of the Gaza conflagration"
It sure looks like that could be happening. Too many balls in the air. And asymmetric warfare challenges the usefulness of the retaliatory strike model.
Mark, you are making the big time again.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/what-are-saudis-really-preparing?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2035
What is KSA?
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
Yes. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This is huge. Well done thanks
The US is not represented by Uncle Sam but by Uncle Scrooge, who always turns the screws on other countries that seek to be sovereign and refuses to treat them as equals.
Lazy. Tired old neocon thinking. A bunch of conformists amongst themselves that can’t or won’t think outside of their tired old failure of a playbook. They become predictable and belligerent. And thus slowly and patiently they are undermined.
Hmm. How does it go diversifying your oil sales out of USD? Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi thought it was a good idea back in the day.
Biden was big on the Jamal Khashoggi using it to smear Saudi Arabia, and their ruler. As well as being all end on ending use of oil.
Biden, or whomever is the Democratic nominee needs low gas prices for the 2024 election.
And the sanctions against Russia, seizing of foreign reserves, throwing out of Swift have many countries wondering - are we next? So countries are reducing the capacity of the U.S. to wage economic warfare.
Plus the continued inflation in the U.S. due to out of control government spending devalues the dollar.
We could say many unkind things about MbS, but I'll give credit where it is due: he's no dummy. He learns from his mistakes, everyone else's and adapts quickly in a changing scenario. I was happy to see talks begin in his war on Yemen and a cease fire start. But, I was under no illusion it was because MbS really cared about starving Yemini children - it wasn't a war he was going to win and it was a PR black eye, but more likely it was a giant money suck. That certainly didn't help the KSA debt situation Tom talks about.
“KSA has no intention of returning to the American orbit.” I think you'll get your chance to say "told you so" in the not too distant future to anybody who doubts you were 100% correct.
As far as the Dollar goes (and the time is quickly coming when it won't go nearly as far is it used to) the "horse is out of the barn." The global south is incentivized to do everything they can to get out of the clutches of the Dollar, the IMF, the World Bank, and every other European and American institution and mechanism used to impose tyranny over them. Why should they not want to escape? Especially when they have people (like the Russians and Chinese) who apparently will help them to do so and will seemingly treat them like human beings instead of chattel?
Indeed, the strong $ horse is out of the barn, one dark and stormy night that handsome young stallion broke out of his stall, jumped the fence, ran the old stud off and took over the harem of mares. In other words the times have changed permanently, never to return.
Prediction: This always happens BTW, attacks on oil prices damages the US oil and gas industry, results in higher prices with the passage of time. Green energy idiocy will be promoted as the solution by the usual suspects. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam . . .
Great piece, Mark.
Mark, if I remember correctly almost right after The Rake (vegetable in the White House) pulled out of Afghanistan, KSA signed military contract with Russia.
Any more evidence we needed to know how fast MbS wanted to move from the U.S.?
It costing the “Davos Crowd” big bugs to manipulate oil & gold markets. Let’s see for how long.
"Biden offering to bribe the mullahs to stay out of the Gaza conflagration"
It sure looks like that could be happening. Too many balls in the air. And asymmetric warfare challenges the usefulness of the retaliatory strike model.
Minus 10% for the Big Guy, of course.
100% agree!!!