Is War Inevitable In The South China Sea? | Zero Hedge

Is War Inevitable In The South China Sea?

Authored by Pepe Escobar, originally posted Op-Ed via RT.com,

Since the recent ruling by The Hague in favor of the Philippines and against China over the South China Sea, Southeast Asia has been engulfed on how to respond. They dithered. They haggled. They were plunged into despair.

It was a graphic demonstration of how “win-win” business is done in Asia. At least in theory.

In the end, at a summit in Vientiane, Laos, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China finallysettled for that household mantra - “defusing tensions”.

They agreed to stop sending people to currently uninhabited “islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features” after ASEAN declared itself worried about land reclamation and “escalations of activities in the area”.

And all this without even naming China - or referring to the ruling in The Hague.

China and ASEAN also pledged to respect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea (which Washington insists is in danger); solve territorial disputes peacefully, through negotiations (that happens to be the official Chinese position), also taking into consideration the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and work hard to come up with a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (that’s been going on for years; optimistically, a binding text will be ready by the first half of 2017).

So, problem solved? Not really. At first, it was Deadlock City. Things only started moving when the Philippines desisted to mention The Hague in the final statement; Cambodia – allied with China – had prevented it from the start.

And that’s the heart of the matter when it comes to ASEAN negotiating with China. It’s a Sisyphean task to reach consensus among the 10 members – even as ASEAN spins its role as the perfect negotiation conduit. China for its part prefers bilaterals – and has applied Divide and Rule to get what it wants, seducing mostly Laos and Cambodia as allies.

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What If? | Zero Hedge

What If?

Presented with no comment...

Source: Townhall.com

Whistleblower's Stunning Claim: "NSA Has All Of Hillary's Deleted Emails, It May Be The Leak" | Zero Hedge

Whistleblower's Stunning Claim: "NSA Has All Of Hillary's Deleted Emails, It May Be The Leak"

Over a year before Edward Snowden shocked the world in the summer of 2013 with revelations that have since changed everything from domestic to foreign US policy but most of all, provided everyone  a glimpse into just what the NSA truly does on a daily basis, a former NSA staffer, and now famous whistleblower, William Binney, gave excruciating detail to Wired magazine about all that Snowden would substantiate the following summer.

We covered it in a 2012 post titled “We Are This Far From A Turnkey Totalitarian State" - Big Brother Goes Live September 2013."Not surprisingly, Binney received little attention in 2012 - his suggestions at the time were seen as preposterous and ridiculously conspiratorial. Only after the fact, did it become obvious that he was right. More importantly, in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, what Binney has to say has become gospel.

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Seven Places Where WW3 Could Start At Any Time | Zero Hedge

Seven Places Where WW3 Could Start At Any Time

Submitted by Joshua Krause via ReadyNutrition.com,

It seems like you can’t watch the news anymore without stumbling onto a story that contains terrifying global implications. Not since the Cold War have tensions been so high among the nations of the world. You can strike sparks just about anywhere. The threat of another global war is downright palpable.

Most people shrug at the thought of World War Three, either because they’re ignorant or because they don’t think there would be any chance of surviving it, so why bother? But preppers know better. Just about anything can be survived under the right conditions and with the right preparations. And when it comes to World War Three, your best chance at survival rests in your ability to see it coming. And to do that, you need only pay attention to world events, and keep an eye on the following places:

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Thousands Of Germans Demand Merkel's Resignation; Protest "Open Door" Immigration Policy | Zero Hedge

Thousands Of Germans Demand Merkel's Resignation; Protest "Open Door" Immigration Policy

With Germany having gone through a surge of seemingly daily killings in the past two weeks when 15 people have died, including four assailants, leaving dozens injured since July 18, the result of two terror attacks and a third killing carried out by men who entered the country as refugees, no one has seen their reputation impacted as much as Angela Merkel. And yet, despite admitting several weeks ago that "terrorists were smuggled in Europe's refugee flow", Merkel has been unrelenting on her immigration policy. 

Seaking at an annual summer press conference in Berlin on July 28, a defiant Merkel ignored critics of her refugee policies and insisted there would be no change to her open-door migration stance. She also said she bears no responsibility for a recent spate of violent attacks in Germany. "We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure security in Germany," she recently said but added, "Anxiety and fear cannot guide our political decisions." Merkel said the goal of jihadists was to "divide our unity and undermine our way of life. They want to prevent our openness to welcoming people. They want to sow hate and fear between cultures and also among religions." The chancellor said she knows that Germans are worried about their personal safety: "We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure security in Germany," she noted, but added, "Anxiety and fear cannot guide our political decisions."

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Whose Lives Matter? | Zero Hedge

Whose Lives Matter?

Submitted by Salil Mehta via Statitiscal Ideas blog,

In our prior article we exposed that a murdered Black had a 90% chance of being killed by another Black (8x the rate of Whites being killed by another White).  And a murdered Black had a 10% chance of being killed by police (usually Black police, and anyway it is at a high 2.5x the rate of Whites).  We integrated recent popular academic research (some of which I peer-reviewed), and lastly we noted that for every 10 Blacks killed by police, 1 police was killed by a Black.  We intend to explore these trends further, since after that article we saw more shooting deaths of police in Baton Rouge (and less covered by the media were deaths in Kansas City and Austin and just now in San Diego, plus this week near-deaths of multiple officers in both Indianapolis and Jefferson Parish). The debate about the 'killings' statistics between predominantly Blacks and police has brought up in the recent political conventions.  It’s also worth noting from the onset that this all appears to be a system that has gotten out of control. 

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DoD Admits US Global Hegemony Threatened By China, Russia In "Persistently Disordered World" | Zero Hedge

DoD Admits US Global Hegemony Threatened By China, Russia In "Persistently Disordered World"

By 2035, the US could find itself in an environment where Russia or China may match or even exceed the West's military and economic might in some areas, taking advantage of a “disordered and contested world,” the Pentagon’s research unit said...

Conflict and war in 2035 cannot be understood by the simple identification of a set of individual trends and conditions. Instead, the intersection and interaction of many discrete trends and conditions will ultimately change the character of future conflict and illuminate the reasons why the Joint Force may be called on to address threats to U.S. national interests. In fact, conflict in 2035 is likely to be driven by six specific and unique combinations of trends and conditions.

Each of these Contexts of Future Conflict creates a troubling problem space for the Joint Force. They include:

1. Violent Ideological Competition. Irreconcilable ideas communicated and promoted by identity networks through violence.

2. Threatened U.S. Territory and Sovereignty. Encroachment, erosion, or disregard of U.S. sovereignty and the freedom of its citizens from coercion.

3. Antagonistic Geopolitical Balancing. Increasingly ambitious adversaries maximizing their own influence while actively limiting U.S. influence.

4. Disrupted Global Commons. Denial or compulsion in spaces and places available to all but owned by none.

5. A Contest for Cyberspace. A struggle to define and credibly protect sovereignty in cyberspace.

6. Shattered and Reordered Regions. States unable to cope with internal political fractures, environmental stressors, or deliberate external interference.

Each context includes elements of both contested norms and persistent disorder. However, their relative importance will vary depending on the objectives of potential adversaries and the capabilities available to them. Dissatisfaction with the current set of international rules, norms, and agreements will cause revisionist actors to make their own – and attempt to enforce them. Meanwhile, the loss of legitimacy or strength by governing authorities will permit other actors to effectively employ coercion and violence in pursuit of power or to further their beliefs.

As RT reports, a new foresight report from The Pentagon’s research division, the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), warns that within just 20 years, the US and its allies will live in a world where shaping a global order the way they have since the end of the Cold War would be increasingly difficult, if not impossible.

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Waiting For The Other Shoe... | Zero Hedge

Waiting For The Other Shoe...

...to Drop.

"If a shoe drops in a forest of liberal media, will anyone hear it?"

Source: Townhall.com

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NO LONGER EXISTS - PaulCraigRoberts.org

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NO LONGER EXISTS

Paul Craig Roberts

The Democratic Party that once was concerned with workers’ rights, the elderly, civil rights, and the constitutional protections of America liberty no longer exists. As the just completed Democratic presidential primaries and the Democratic presidential convention have clearly demonstrated, the United States now has two Republican parties in service to the One Percent.

The organized Democrats–the Democratic National Committee–have shown themselves to be even more venal and corrupt than the Republicans. Leaked emails document that the Democratic National Committee conspired with the Hillary campaign in order to steal the nomination from Bernie Sanders. It is clear that Sanders was the choice of Democratic Party voters for president, but the nomination was stolen from him by vote fraud and dirty tricks.

The DNC and the media whores have tried to discredit the incriminating emails by alleging that the leaked emails resulted from a plot by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in behalf of “Putin’s American agent,” Donald Trump. “A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin,” as the presstitute scum put it.

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Doug Casey on Why Hillary Could Trigger World War III | Casey Research

Why Hillary Could Trigger World War III

Editor’s note: 

Today, we wrap up our two-part interview series between Nick Giambruno, editor of Crisis Investing, and Casey Research founder Doug Casey. Yesterday, Doug told Nick why he thinks Donald Trump will destroy the Republican Party.

Today, Doug goes after Hillary Clinton. As you might expect, Doug's appraisal of Hillary is unapologetic, unfiltered, and thoroughly entertaining…

---

Nick Giambruno: 

Speaking of all this, I have to ask you about the Clintons. Bill Clinton was your former classmate in college. What was your impression?

Doug Casey: 

He’s one of the most charming people you could ever meet. When you talk to him, even if the room is full of people trying to get his attention, when he looks at you and talks to you, he makes you feel like you’re the only person in existence. He’s that good. He’s got a lot of interpersonal skills.

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Doug Casey: With Some Luck, Trump Will Destroy the Republican Party | Casey Research

With Some Luck, Trump Will Destroy the Republican Party

Editor’s note: 

We have something special to share with you over the next couple days. Instead of our usual market commentary, we're featuring a recent interview between Nick Giambruno, editor of Crisis Investing, and Casey Research founder Doug Casey. Today, in part one of the interview, Doug tells Nick why he thinks Donald Trump will destroy the Republican Party…and why that’s a good thing.

Tomorrow, Doug tells us what could happen if Hillary Clinton wins. As usual, Doug doesn’t hold back and ignores any notion of political correctness. Enjoy…

---

Nick Giambruno:

There is a popular conception that only the “best and brightest” go into government. I think this is a sacred cow that needs to be slaughtered. What’s your take, Doug?

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Michael Bloomberg Calls Trump a “Dangerous Demagogue” | Armstrong Economics

Michael Bloomberg Calls Trump a “Dangerous Demagogue”

Former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg had the audacity to deliver a speech at the Democratic Convention saying, “There are times when I disagree with Hillary Clinton. But let me tell you, whatever our disagreements may be, I’ve come here to say: We must put them aside for the good of our country. And we must unite around the candidate who can defeat a dangerous demagogue.” Bloomberg began at Salomon Brothers, the notorious firm that was shut down for manipulating the US government bond auctions. It was Bloomberg who defended Wall Street against the protest “Occupy Wall Street” and arrested people for exercising their First Amendment Rights.

Bloomberg Politics’ Washington News director Kathy Kiely resigned because Michael Bloomberg will not allow freedom of the press. She said when she resigned in January 2016, “I think that Michael Bloomberg has built a terrific news organization but that he needs to liberate it to cover all the news, even the news about him.“

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THE RUSSIANS DID IT – The Burning Platform

THE RUSSIANS DID IT

Via Townhall

Hillary Clinton and Her Hawks, by Gareth Porter | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC

Hillary Clinton and Her Hawks, by Gareth Porter

Not much mystery what kind of foreign policy a President Hillary Clinton would pursue: neoconservatism with a Democratic face. From Gareth Porter at antiwar.com:

Focusing on domestic issues, Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech sidestepped the deep concerns antiwar Democrats have about her hawkish foreign policy, which is already taking shape in the shadows

As Hillary Clinton begins her final charge for the White House, her advisers are already recommending air strikes and other new military measures against the Assad regime in Syria.

The clear signals of Clinton’s readiness to go to war appears to be aimed at influencing the course of the war in Syria as well as U.S. policy over the remaining six months of the Obama administration. (She also may be hoping to corral the votes of Republican neoconservatives concerned about Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.)

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The Olympics As A Tool Of The New Cold War | Zero Hedge

The Olympics As A Tool Of The New Cold War

Via Oriental Review,

The 6th Fundamental Principle of Olympism (non-discrimination of any kind, including nationality and political opinion) seems to be forgotten long ago.  In ancient Greece the competition of best athletes was able to halt a war and serve as a bridge of understanding between two recent foes.  But in the twentieth century the Olympics have become a political weapon.  Back in 1980 the US and its allies boycotted the games in Moscow as a protest against the Soviet troops that entered Afghanistan at the request of that country’s legitimate government (in contrast, the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany were held as usual, to the applause of the “civilized” world).

On May 8, 2016 the CBS program 60 Minutes aired a broadcast about doping in Russia.  The interviews featured recorded conversations between a former staffer with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), Vitaly Stepanov, and the ex-director of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, Grigory Rodchenkov.  That program was just the fourth installment in a lengthy seriesabout the alleged existence of a system to support doping in Russian sports.

A few days later the New York Times published an interview with Rodchenkov.  There that former official claims that a state-supported doping program was active at the Sochi Olympics, and that the orders for that program had come almost directly from the Russian president.

One important fact that escaped most international observers was that a media campaign, which had begun shortly after the 2014 deep freeze in Russian-Western relations, was constructed around the “testimonies” of three Russian citizens who were all interconnected and complicit in a string of doping scandals, and who later left Russia and are trying to make new lives in the West.

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The FDA's Cigar Fascism | Zero Hedge

The FDA's Cigar Fascism

Submitted by Christopher Westley via The Mises Institute,

Consider this sequence of events. 

During the Cold War, the Cuban government becomes communist and aligns with the Soviet Union, and many of that country's productive citizens flee to the United States where property rights are more secure and government is more constrained. Cuba's economy predictably fails and is kept afloat for years by foreign aid provided mostly by the Soviets. Meanwhile, Cuban businesses first take root, then flourish in the US, particularly in Miami, including a cigar industry based in Little Havana.

Ironically, many of these cigar manufacturers succeed due to government intervention in the form of the Cuban trade embargo, enforced by the US government. Meanwhile, American demand for Cuban-grown and rolled cigars remains high, and many purchase them in extra-legal markets or on trips abroad — often when "abroad" translates to Mexico or Canada. I once met a man who smoked a Cuban cigar in the 1980s. It was such a profoundly pleasurable experience that he vowed to never smoke another cigar again.

So it went until the Cuban embargo was lifted by the US government last year and questions arose about whether Miami-based cigar manufacturers would survive competition from los cigarros cubanos. Unfortunately, a threat bigger than competition emerged in the form of new rules for cigar manufacturers announced last week by the Food and Drug Administration.

Based on the "duty to protect public health," the FDA is requiring cigar manufacturers to comply with rules drawn up last year for the electronic cigarette market. These include the requirement of so-called "pre-authorization" applications and fees before being allowed to sell their product. These aren't one-time tariffs either, as any decision to change tobacco blends in the future — a common practice in a premium cigar market responsive to consumer tastes and preferences — requires FDA permission involving new rounds of applications and fees.

The costs are enormous and they especially affect the small business, as explained in a recent Miami Herald article:

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The Cyberwars Begin: NSA Hackers Target Russian Cyber Spies As Kremlin Says It Is Being Attacked | Zero Hedge

The Cyberwars Begin: NSA Hackers Target Russian Cyber Spies As Kremlin Says It Is Being Attacked



Several days ago, half jokingly, Edward Snowden gave the best advice on how to determine whether Russia was indeed, as the media has already decided, behind the hack of first the Democratic National Committee, then the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and, as of last night, the Hillary presidential campaign itself. This is what Snowden said in a July 25 tweet: "Evidence that could publicly attribute responsibility for the DNC hack certainly exists at #NSA, but DNI traditionally objects to sharing. The aversion to sharing #NSA evidence is fear of revealing "sources and methods" of intel collection, but #XKEYSCORE is now publicly known."



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Barack Obama Will Be The Only President In History To Never Have A Year Of 3% GDP Growth | Zero Hedge

Barack Obama Will Be The Only President In History To Never Have A Year Of 3% GDP Growth

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

We just got another extremely disappointing GDP number.  It was being projected that U.S. GDP would grow by 2.5 percentduring the second quarter of 2016, but instead it only grew by just 1.2 percent.  In addition, the Census Bureau announced that GDP growth for the first quarter of 2016 had been revised down from 1.1 percent to 0.8 percent.  What this means is that the U.S. economy is just barely hanging on by its fingernails from falling into a recession.   As Zero Hedge has pointed out, the “average annual growth rate during the current business cycle remains the weakest of any expansion since at least 1949″.  This is not what a recovery looks like.

In addition, Barack Obama remains solidly on track to be the only president in all of U.S. history to never have a single year when the economy grew by at least 3 percent.  Every other president in American history, even the really bad ones, had at least one year when U.S. GDP grew by at least 3 percent.  But this has not happened under Obama even though he has had two terms in the White House.

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The DNC Summarized (In 1 Simple Cartoon) | Zero Hedge

The DNC Summarized (In 1 Simple Cartoon)

"Finish 'er off..."

Source: Townhall.com