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The Unz Review •�An Alternative Media Selection$
A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media
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There have been many revolutions in the technology and the geography of global cargo transportation. The Portuguese design of caravels to cross the Atlantic and Indian Oceans from the 15th century; the replacement of wind with coal-fired steam in the shipping of the British empire which followed; and the invention of the petroleum engine for... Read More
https://twitter.com/IranObserver0/status/1751218224367116518
Here's the question that every American should be asking himself: Is Israel's war in Gaza strengthening or weakening America's position in the world? If there is some material benefit for the United States, then there might be a reasonable argument for continuing to support the policy. But if there is no benefit whatsoever, then the... Read More
For the time being, there are no official photographs of the meeting in Moscow on Thursday evening at the Russian Foreign Ministry between Mikhail Bogdanov, the deputy foreign minister and chief Russian negotiator in the Middle East and Africa, and Mohammed (Mukhameddov) Abdelsalam leading a delegation of the Ansarallah government of Yemen, known as the... Read More
The extensive menu I prepared for readers today can wait until tomorrow. The interview with Michael Hudson brilliantly explains the past, present, and future. Read it three times. PCR Washington Has Decided that a Dominant US Presence in the Middle East Is the Key to US Hegemony and Much More Important than Palestinian Lives “To... Read More
Who now controls inflation in the U.S.: A trapped Fed, or the new commodity king?
A quiet ‘watershed’ moment has passed. It was nothing ‘splashy’; many perhaps barely noticed; yet significant it truly was. The G20 did not descend into the expected sordid confrontation, with the G7 states (which Jake Sullivan has called the ‘steering committee of the free world’) demanding explicit condemnation of Russia over Ukraine, versus the Rest... Read More
DANNY HAIPHONG: As you can see, it’s your host, Danny Haiphong, and I’m joined by two very special guests, friends of each other and friends of this show. We have the renowned economist Michael Hudson, author of The Collapse of Antiquity, his recent book. Welcome, Michael. Thanks for joining again. And we have Pepe Escobar,... Read More
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Almost twenty years to the day after Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote his op-ed “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” about his visit to Niger to confirm if the country was supplying Saddam Hussein with uranium yellowcake, the U.S. found itself again focused on the African country. On 26 July, Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, was ousted... Read More
U.S. consumers are showing significantly less concern about the U.S. energy situation than they did one year ago. The U.S. House of Representatives may once again consider a piece of legislation to pressure the OPEC oil producers’ group to stop making output cuts. The bill may be retaliation against the Arab OPEC countries, and a... Read More
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It is now established that the US dollar’s status as a global reserve currency is eroding. When corporate western media begins to attack the multipolar world’s de-dollarization narrative in earnest, you know the panic in Washington has fully set in. The numbers: the dollar share of global reserves was 73 percent in 2001, 55 percent... Read More
Future historians may say that the most significant event of 2023 had nothing to do with Donald Trump, other 2024 presidential candidates, or even the war in Ukraine. Instead, the event with the most long-term significance may be one that received little attention in the mainstream media — Saudi Arabia’s movement toward accepting currencies other... Read More
Since the end of World War II, the US has taken the position that it has an absolute right to bully the entire world. Following the lunatic sanctions against Russia last year, most of the world, led by China, has begun questioning this assertion, and claiming that the US does not have this right. We... Read More
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It would be so tempting to qualify Chinese President Xi Jinping landing in Riyadh a week ago, welcomed with royal pomp and circumstance, as Xi of Arabia proclaiming the dawn of the petroyuan era. But it’s more complicated than that. As much as the seismic shift implied by the petroyuan move applies, Chinese diplomacy is... Read More
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Saudi Arabia isn’t obligated to produce more oil because the US told them they wanted them to produce more oil. Saudi, at least in theory, is an independent country that can make their own decisions. Moreover, there are various reasons why Saudi would not want to produce more oil. Maybe they like the price being... Read More
It’s easy to see why, according to a new Harris poll, 71 percent of Americans said they do not want Joe Biden to run for re-election. As Americans face record gas prices and the highest inflation in 40 years, President Biden admits he could not care less. His Administration is committed to fight a proxy... Read More
Dementia characterizes the entirety of Western “leadership.” The Group of Seven is going to fix the price of Russian Oil by forbidding it to be sold or shipped unless the price is cut in half. It is unclear how the Group of Seven are going to stop China, India, and others from buying Russian oil.... Read More
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Do you know why Henry Kissinger's speech at the World Economic Forum touched-off such a furor? Kissinger didn't criticize the way the war in Ukraine is being conducted or the lack of progress on the ground. No. What Kissinger criticized was the policy itself, that's what triggered the firestorm. He was throwing a bucket of... Read More
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Peter Scott, RT anchor: Joining us now is Michael Hudson, economist and author of "Super-Imperialism" and the recently-published "Destiny of Civilization”. Welcome to the programme, Michael. Michael Hudson: It’s good to be back. PS: Let’s say all these European programmes like the REPOWER Programme come into effect, how do you expect the EU standing to... Read More
I know it’s difficult to keep track of all of these different sanctions that the US is putting on Russia. But this is a new one which is intended to make it impossible for them to trade oil, or for citizens to use dollars for other forms of trade. This is something that has never... Read More
transhumansis
Let’s begin with good news. Resplendent August, the last summer month, has blessed the North! The sun is shining, the lakes are still warm enough for swimming, the mushrooms are ready for picking, the wild raspberries are crimson and sweet, the ginger Bambi fawns frolic in the forest as it reaches up to our summer... Read More
President Donald Trump is cock-a-hoop over the United Arab Emirates becoming the first Arab Gulf state to normalise its relations with Israel. He needs all the good news he can get in the months before the US presidential election. “HUGE breakthrough today! Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends, Israel and the United Arab... Read More
The shadowy figures of well-armed Isis gunmen can be seen making an attack in the plains of northern Iraq on an outpost held by paramilitary fighters loyal to the Iraqi government. Some four of the latter are killed by a roadside bomb. Isis specialises in publicising its successful military actions online to show that it... Read More
“God damn America, not God bless America!” “If we can’t sell our oil,” the Iranians said, “you won’t be able to sell your oil [either]!” This turned out to be more of a prayer than a threat that was actually implemented. The same prayer could be extrapolated for the economy: “If you want to destroy... Read More
The Russia-Saudi oil-price war is a fabrication concocted by the media. There's not a word of truth to any of it. Yes, there was a dust up at an OPEC meeting in early March that led to production increases and plunging prices. That part is true. But Saudi Arabia's oil-dumping strategy wasn't aimed at Russia,... Read More
PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS CLAIMED THAT THE U.S. NO LONGER NEEDS FOREIGN OIL AND IS “ENERGY INDEPENDENT.” YET, NOW THE U.S. SHALE OIL INDUSTRY FACES NEAR TOTAL RUIN, MEANING THAT ANOTHER “WAR FOR OIL” COULD BE IN OUR FUTURE. WITH TRUMP AGAIN TAKING AIM AT VENEZUELA, WE MAY BE CLOSER TO WAR THAN WE THINK. On... Read More
The Kremlin held a winning hand in oil negotiations and did not play it. Washington and Saudi Arabia desperately needed Russian agreement to their plan to raise the price of oil by cutting production and reducing the supply of oil. Russia can tolerate $20 or $25 barrel of oil, but the highly leveraged and bankrupt... Read More
Donald Trump called Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss plunging oil prices that are wreaking havoc on America's shale oil industry. The two leaders talked briefly about the coronavirus pandemic but quickly switched to Trump's real concern which is oil production. For the last month, Saudi Arabia has been flooding the market with... Read More
The media has decided that the reason oil prices are plunging, is not because the impulsive Saudis want to bully Russia into output cuts that aren't in Russia's best interests, but because sinister Mastermind, Vladimir Putin, wants to obliterate America's domestic oil industry so he can rule the world. For brainwashed Americans, who believe that... Read More
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Is the planet under the spell of a pair of black swans – a Wall Street meltdown, caused by an alleged oil war between Russia and the House of Saud, plus the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 – leading to an all-out “cross-asset pandemonium” as billed by Nomura? Or, as German analyst Peter Spengler suggests, whatever... Read More
Last week, OPEC called on Russian oil companies to lower production in response to reduced demand from China and a Eurozone bound for recession. They said no. Just like that, oil took a nosedive, losing 25% of its value on Monday. The price of a barrel of oil closed at $33 dollars, compared to $45... Read More
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Oil Prices – Syria – Refugee Invasion
Turbulence rising, we are in for a choppy ride, - that’s what our captain should announce. After some fake turbulence supplied by the overblown coronavirus media hype, real things began to add up. They all add up to a great uncertainty and to a deep recession; to a war substitute, from the financial point of... Read More
The Trump administration is threatening to destroy Iraq's economy by withholding a critical source of money that is controlled by the Federal Reserve. The threat is a response to the Iraqi parliament's unanimous decision to end Washington's 17 year-long military occupation. The Iraqi people and their representatives in parliament are incensed by the recent assassination... Read More
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The U.S. is adamant that its assassination of Qassem Soleimani and refusal to leave Iraq is about protecting Americans, but a little known Iraqi parliamentary session reveals how China increasingly strong ties to Baghdad may be shaping America’s new Mideast strategy. Since the U.S. killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi... Read More
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The Saker: Trump has been accused of not thinking forward, of not having a long-term strategy regarding the consequences of assassinating General Soleimani. Does the United States in fact have a strategy in the Near East, or is it only ad hoc? Michael Hudson: Of course American strategists will deny that the recent actions do... Read More
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The mainstream media are carefully sidestepping the method behind America’s seeming madness in assassinating Islamic Revolutionary Guard general Qassim Suleimani to start the New Year. The logic behind the assassination this was a long-standing application of U.S. global policy, not just a personality quirk of Donald Trump’s impulsive action. His assassination of Iranian military leader... Read More
Feature photo | Graphic by Claudio Cabrera
The outsized role of U.S. Israel lobby operatives in abetting the theft of Syrian and Iraqi oil reveals how this powerful lobby also facilitates more covert aspects of U.S.-Israeli cooperation and the implementation of policies that favor Israel. Kirkuk, Iraq — “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re... Read More
The resignation of Sigal Mandelker, an Israeli operative in the US Treasury who designed the Trump administration's Iran sanctions, is a sign of retreat. Mnuchin, Mandelker, Sheldon Adelson and other Trump-handlers wanted "maximum pressure." The goal of this policy was to blind side the Iranians by randomly withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear agreement in hopes... Read More
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Control of oil has long been a key aim of U.S. foreign policy. The Paris climate agreements and any other Green programs to reduce the pace of global warming are viewed as threatening the aim of dominating world energy markets by keeping economies dependent on oil under U.S. control. Also blocking U.S. willingness to help... Read More
Back in May 2013, a word came to mind that I wanted to see in all our vocabularies. It wasn’t the ever-present “terrorist” but “terrarist” and I meant it to describe people intent on destroying the planetary environment that had welcomed and nurtured so many species, including our own, for so long; in other words,... Read More
Will the Trump Administration Take Down the Arctic Refuge?
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t just stay up north. It affects the world, as that region is the integrator of our planet’s climate systems, atmospheric and oceanic. At the moment, the northernmost places on Earth are warming at more than twice the global average, a phenomenon whose impact is already being felt planetwide. Welcome... Read More
Trump’s Carbon-Obsessed Energy Policy and the Planetary Nightmare to Come
Scroll through Donald Trump’s campaign promises or listen to his speeches and you could easily conclude that his energy policy consists of little more than a wish list drawn up by the major fossil fuel companies: lift environmental restrictions on oil and natural gas extraction, build the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, open more... Read More
The 2016 Version of an Old Story on a New Planet
Cowboys and Indians are at it again. Americans who don’t live in the West may think that the historic clash of Native Americans and pioneering settlers is long past because the Indians were, after all, defeated and now drive cars, watch television, and shop at Walmart. Not so. That classic American narrative is back big... Read More
In our new political world, the phrase "follow the money" has real meaning. Consider the $1,530,000 that, according to OpenSecrets.org, billionaire Kelcy Warren has personally given away in the 2016 election cycle to influence your vote (or someone’s vote anyway). One hundred percent of his dollars, just in case you were curious, have gone to... Read More
There’s a blue hole in the South China Sea. Longdong («Dragon Hole») is an astonishing 300,89 meters deep, in deep blue waters around Yongle, a major coral reef in the Paracel islands (or Xisha, in their Chinese denomination). Cynics may argue that after the recent ruling in The Hague largely against China’s «nine-dash line», the... Read More
With a Busted Business Model, Oil Economies Head for the Unknown
Pity the poor petro-states. Once so wealthy from oil sales that they could finance wars, mega-projects, and domestic social peace simultaneously, some of them are now beset by internal strife or are on the brink of collapse as oil prices remain at ruinously low levels. Unlike other countries, which largely finance their governments through taxation,... Read More
The Collapse of the Old Oil Order
Sunday, April 17th was the designated moment. The world’s leading oil producers were expected to bring fresh discipline to the chaotic petroleum market and spark a return to high prices. Meeting in Doha, the glittering capital of petroleum-rich Qatar, the oil ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with such key... Read More
In a Greater Middle East in which one country after another has been plunged into chaos and possible failed statehood, two rival nations, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have been bedrock exceptions to the rule. Iran, at the moment, remains so, but the Saudi royals, increasingly unnerved, have been steering their country erratically into the region’s... Read More
So much that matters in our world and on our planet happens in and remains in the shadows. This website is dedicated to shining at least a small light into some of those shadows. Commenting recently on the failure of the U.S. war on terror as well as the war against the Islamic State, Andrew... Read More
Or How Texaco Supported Fascism
[This piece has been adapted from Adam Hochschild's new book, Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.] “Merchants have no country,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1814. “The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.” The former president was... Read More
The Irony of Oil Abundance
Three and a half years ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) triggered headlines around the world by predicting that the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia to become the world’s leading oil producer by 2020 and, together with Canada, would become a net exporter of oil around 2030. Overnight, a new strain of American energy... Read More
It’s evident that we’re still on a planet where oil rules. The question increasingly is: What exactly does it rule over? After all, every barrel of oil that’s burned contributes to a fast-approaching future in which the weather grows hotter and more extreme, droughts andwildfires spread, sea levels rise precipitously, ice continues to melt away... Read More