~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL
Truth is Gold had a really excellent post up on Friday called Lest We Pay the Price Too Dear…Learn From History!
An excerpt, with permission:
I cross post today an urgent message, gleaned from three very well informed journalists who know their history well. Urgency dictates that I introduce them and furnish you with the links from which to read their messages in entirety.
The first, by Eric Margolis, reminds us of Afghanistan’s solid history of making mincemeat out of its invaders, from Alexander the Great in 327–325 BC, to the Soviets in 1989, disasters all.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis138.htmlIn the second, Kevin Barrett reveals in OpEdNews’s “Obama: Political Messiah, or Just Another Third World Dictator?” the facts behind the most recent resident of our White House and cites Webster Tarpley’s work in detail, Tarpley being among the foremost political and historical researchers of our time. Further research has substantiated the fact that indeed, Tarpley’s work is almost faultless in terms of his list of players and the historical context in which they exist.
The third of this terrifying trilogy is Christopher Bollyn’s work on Obama’s new budget director Peter R. Orszag.SNIP
Orszag, for example, could start by explaining exactly what happened to the Icelandic economy. Orszag was, after all, the founder and president of the economic consultancy firm which advised the Central Bank of Iceland – before it went bankrupt. How did Icelandic banks become so indebted? Ask Peter Orszag.
MORE
Read the whole post. Read about his links to Robert E. Rubin, Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury and recently resigned head of Citigroup. It isn’t looking good…
By the way, the Central Bank of Iceland just hired an interim governor, an economist from Norway. One of the former governors of the CBI who was asked to resign has been offered a job at….the Norwegian Central Bank. And, a possible snag?
“Law professor Sigurdur Líndal told Fréttabladid that he doubts a foreign citizen can be hired to the position, explaining that the constitution states that no one can become a public official in Iceland without holding the Icelandic citizenship.”
Central Bank of Iceland
There’s that “citizenship thing” again…
***
Here’s some more news that will cheer you up…not. Let’s catch up with some of China’s latest moves. How will this play out?
First, China is on the prowl, looking to buy foreign oil companies. From The Telegraph:
CHINA PREPARES TO BUY UP FOREIGN OIL COMPANIES
China is preparing to open a new phase in its race for the world’s resources by using its huge currency reserves to buy foreign oil and gas companies.
SNIPA conference of officials from the National Energy Administration has agreed to consider establishing a special fund for China’s state-owned companies to buy oil and gas firms overseas. The beneficiaries would be the Beijing’s three giant energy companies – Petrochina, Sinopec and CNOOC.
SNIP
The possibility of a Chinese state subsidy for overseas acquisitions may ring alarm bells in Western economies. Four years ago, CNOOC tried to buy an American oil company, Unocal, and succeeded in outbidding its main US rival. But the Chinese firm eventually withdrew its offer amid opposition from American Congressmen. They opposed the idea of a private US firm falling into the lap of a state-owned company, bankrolled by the Chinese Communist Party.
This time, China may calculate that Western governments are in a weaker position to object. They are, after all, spending billions on taking over their own companies, notably the banking sector.
MORE
More background on China’s increasingly bold investments abroad.
***
And what’s this? SPIKING DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN??
***
While visiting RBO, I happened to see this ANNOUNCEMENT about America’s new name, Barackistan.
Any questions?
***
Signing off from Free America…where we’re still “thinking freely”…
THE PAST WEEK
*By Kenosha Marge
Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness–the Garden Waking Up! (Pic Heavy)
Obama Energy Plan Includes Nano-Generators That Bite
Canadian Banks On the Move Buying U.S. Banks While Bailout Recipient AIG Sells Canadian Life Insurance Business to Bank of Montreal (”Picking over the Carcasses”)
A Giant White Rabbit in Britain Reminds Us How “Logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead”…
The SCANNER–International/Political Edition, 2/24/09 (Which Deficit is Obama “Halving”?; Canada Rubs U.S. Nose into Its Stable Banking System; GM/Chrysler Beg for Bailout Help in Canada, Too; Half of Foreign Criminals in Canada Are Fleeing to the U.S. [???])
*Maudlin Mawkishness in the Age of the Gush
The Past Week: February 15-21, 2009 (”Efficiency” Experts Michelle and “3-Card Monte” Barack Obama…Michelle’s Legacy at U of Chicago Hospital Under Fire by ER Physicians; Hubby Plans to Halve the Deficit via “Efficiency” (Among Other Things…); Spring Garden Prep!
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: Barackistan, Barackistan HQ, Barackistanis, Baracus Hubris Maximus, Central Bank of Iceland, China, China buying gas companies, China buying oil companies, China's currency reserves, China's National Energy Administration, Christopher Bollyn, Cinie's World, Citigroup, CNNOOC, Erico Morgolis, Grail Guardian, InsightAnalytical, Kevin Barrett, Laura Bush, Lew Rockwell, MIchelle Obama, Peter R. Orszag, Petrochina, Public service announcements, RBO, Real Barack Obama, Robert E. Rubin, Sinopec, SNIPA, Truth is Gold, Unlocal, Webster Tarpley |
InsightAnalytical -- Watching Our World 
Good Morning, GRL!
Oh, how I want to believe! Both that the usurper will be removed and jailed for his crimes, and that Spring is really on its way. Alas, I fear both are still a ways off despite the signs starting to show in various areas to indicate both are an inevitability. Has everyone noticed all the bad media coverage Obama has been getting this week?
As far as China goes, to me the most disturbing news this week was this:
http://patriotroom.com/article/be-prepared-to-learn-chinese
Basic summary: our new Secretary of State has delivered to the Chinese an offer of Eminent Domain in exchange for continuing to buy the Obama/Pelosi/gReid debt. What that means to you? If the US defaults on the loans (nah, not much chance of defaulting on trillion$ we don’t have…), the Chinese have the right to claim American land without the owner’s permission or consent. The landowners must simply be compensated at a rate the Chinese government determines is fair and reasonable. Isn’t that nifty????
Sorry to rant again in the morning. I’m off to read Truth is Gold’s article.
Grail, I’ve read about this at two other sites, and it really worries and infuriates me. I think it was at LiveLeak.com, that Hillary brought the agreement to Beijing and it was formulated and agreed to during her recent visit.
Put simply, if true “the feds have now actually mortgaged the physical land and property of all citizens in the U.S. They have given a foreign power, their Constitutional Powers to “take” all of our property, as actual collateral for continued Chinese funding of U.S. deficit spending and the continued carrying of U.S. National Debt”
This could explain, if true, why Hillary back-tracked from her stance on human rights. When she was in Beijing as first lady, she was very adamant about human rights. But then, at that time the U.S. was not in devt to China.
But if Obama is proven not to be a legal president, then this, and any thing else he does, or orders to be done will not be legal.
Rant on, Grail. If enough voices like yours are lifted, then the truth will out and “we the people” will surely start a revolution. If he and Hillary have indeed sold us down the river this way they both need to tarred and feathered. And I don’t want to hear that Hillary was only doing what she was forced to do. During the Watergate hearings Nixon ordered Eliot Richardson, who was the then Atty General? to fire Archibald Cox, the special counsel, and Richardson resigned rather than to do what he felt was the wrong thing.
These go alongs to get along make me sick.
LOL! My thoughts turned to Hillary and speculating about her trip to China, but I didn’t have the time to review it all and didn’t want to speculate without re-reading stuff on her trip to Asia. Thanks, GG, for doing some sniffing…
But, great minds think alike…isn’t this like following a MURDER MYSTERY?????? And we’re the victims…
and LEE…check your email!!!!!
Remember that movie DOA, where the victim of irradiation soends his last few hours tracking down who killed him? Of course, no one believes him because he’s still technically alive, so he has to do his own detective work. Right after he figures out who killed him, he dies of radiation poisoning.
Kinda sounds like us, doesn’t it?
I haven’t had any confirmation on the Eminent Domain Deal..so far just a rumor. However, it really won’t matter.
When the banks went belly up here and in Europe in the Panic of 1873, those that still had cash bought everything else for a song. That meant concentration of wealth and power in the hands of even fewer people. The Obscene Wealth of the Gilded Age had begun.
What one can learn from history is to see who or what entity is best positioned to buy everything up now.
IBM is laying off 4 thousand American and Canadian workers. However, it is willing to send these workers to their oversees divisions if they are productive enough and are willing to work within the local community/customs of such places as Nigeria. There is nothing like taking the most productive worker on earth and placing him or her where the company only needs to provide one tenth of the salary for the same amount of production output. Nigeria is beautiful this time of year…just ignore the bodies in the streets.
Linda,
Now that’s a deep rabbit hole. Seems there are quite a few contenders:
It seems the country of Abu Dhabi is poised to own quite a bit of Citibank
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52012320090301?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
The Federal Reserve is getting a chunk of AIG
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5200MB20090301
The Pakistani Foreign Minister wants us to transfer the technology for drone plane attacks on al Qaeda to them
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52017G20090301
There’s a pipeline from the Caspian Basin planned to across Afghanistan into Pakistan
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis138.html
And that’s just from today’s news. So many threads to this web, so little time to research…
I went to the Truth is Gold sight, read the article and each of the links. Very good in. I tried to post a coment, but it wouldn’t take. Something about an illegal URL, I think. Beats me. I AM very stupid when it comes to the computer.
I can’t sign into some WordPress sites I used to be able to. Something about creating a password for them, but it louses up other stuff.
I have to be careful about which “name” I used before, because that confuses the issue.
Can be a mess!
Thursday or Friday morning, I was listening to NPR. There was a report about the “real estate junkets” Chinese citizens are taking to buy homes in the US.
They come in from China by the busloads to visit housing developments looking for real estate for personal gain.
They find the $500k houses that are in the suburbs (50 miles from the cities) appealing and affordable. In the interview I heard, a woman was saying that she would be purchasing a house (3 bedrooms) so that when her kids were ready for college, they would have a place to live in the US – near the university. In the meantime, she’ll rent out the house.
The interview and report were benign enough, but I had a sinking feeling in my gut that this was no small thing – this buying up of our real estate by the people who “own” us. I couldn’t put my finger on it. But there it was. It was the same sick to my stomach feeling I get when I hear a “commercial” on NPR – no less – about Muslim businesses (usually banks and other financial type businesses).
Am I r@cist? I didn’t think so. But I am feeling quite insecure these days.
US banks are going under (so are others, it is clear this is a global crisis), people are losing their homes. More of my income is being spent on food than when my children were growing up (they are all adults now, and don’t live at home). What’s that about? And, I am finding that I need to tap into my 401k to pay my real estate taxes (if I even have anything left there).
This story about the Chinese being offered Eminent Domain just doesn’t seem right. Are we certain it is real?
Leslie,
Of course there’s no way to be certain since we won’t be shown a copy of the mortgage on our future, but at this point I’m with Lee. I have no reason to disbelieve it based on the other crazy moves Congress and the administration are making.
Perhaps more importantly, would you lend the US more money if you were China without some guarantees? Apparently the Chinese wanting some sort of guarantee was independently confirmed. The Eminent Domain issue went really quiet really fast, so you do the math…
IA – I just sent you another email. I had sent the info that you requested at about noon your time today, but it must have gotten lost in space. I forwarded it again, and then sent a note to check if you got it.
Leslie,
That NPR report you wrote about is scary. Coupled with the other weird stuff that I’ve been hearing lately, I’m beginning to think we are REALLY down the rabbit hole with Alice and Logistics Monster.
Seriously, I’m trying to keep an open mind about the Eminent Domain thing, but I’m inclined to believe it, in view of all the other things Obama has done.