by Pepe Escobar

© Photo: Public domain

The Talmudic psychos not only obsessed on breathing fire against the Axis of Resistance but now also going after Russian national interests.

A case could be made that Iran’s Ballistic Retaliation Night, a measured response to Israel’s serial provocations, is less consequential when it comes to the efficacy of the Axis of Resistance than the decapitation of Hezbollah’s leadership.

Still, the message was enough to send the Talmudic psychopathologicals into a frenzy; for all their hysterical denials and massive spin, Iron Toilet Paper and the Arrow system were de facto rendered useless.

The IRGC made it known that the volley of missiles was inaugurated by a single hypersonic Fatteh 2 which took out the Arrow 3 air defense system’s radar – capable of intercepting missiles in the atmosphere.

And well-informed Iranian military sources stated that hackers went on heavy cyberattack mode to disrupt the Iron Dome system just before the start of the operation.

The IRGC finally confirmed that just about 90% of the intended targets were hit; the implication was that each target was supposed to be visited by several missiles, with some getting intercepted.

It’s open to wide speculation how many F-35s and F-15s were ultimately destroyed or damaged on two air bases, one of which, Nevatim, in the Negev, becoming literally inoperable.

The Iran-Russia military entente – part of their soon to be signed comprehensive strategic partnership – was in effect. The IRGC used the recently supplied Russian electromagnetic jammer to blind Israel-NATO GPS systems – including those of U.S. aircrafts. That explains the Iron Dome far off hitting the empty night skies.

Framing Iran’s retaliation as a casus belli

None of that substantially changed the deterrence equation. Israel continues to bomb southern Beirut. The pattern remains the same: whenever they’re hit, the genocidals cry out in pain or whine like annoying babies even as their killing machine keeps going – with unarmed civilians as privileged targets.

The bombing never stops – and it won’t, from Palestine to Lebanon and Syria, across West Asia, and leading to the “response” to Iran’s Ballistic Night.

Iran is in an extremely tough geopolitical and military position – not to mention geoeconomic, still under a tsunami of sanctions. Obviously the leadership in Tehran is fully aware of the trap being set by the Talmudic-American Zionist combo – which want to lure Iran into a major war.

Jake Sullivan, one of the stalwarts of the Biden combo which is really dictating U.S. policy (on behalf of their sponsors), considering the pathetic condition of the zombie in the White House, all but spelled it out:

“We have made clear that there will be consequences – severe consequences – for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make sure that’s the case.”

Translation: Retaliation Night is being spun as a casus belli. U.S.-Israel are already blaming Iran for the possibly incoming Mega-War in West Asia.

This war is the Holy of the Holies since at least the Cheney regime days – two decades ago. And yet Tehran, if it so decided, already has what it takes to raze Israel to the ground. They won’t do it because the price to pay would be unbearable.

Even if the Talmudic psychos and the Zio-cons finally got their wish, a remote possibility, this war, after a devastating bombing campaign, could only be won with massive U.S. boots on the ground. Whatever the spin rolling on Zio-con controlled Think Tankland/ media swamp, that won’t happen.

And still the March of Folly proceeds uninterrupted: the Zionist Project, a U.S./Israel deadly embrace, against Iran. But with a potent diferential: the back up of Russia and, further behind, China. These three are the key BRICS triad. They are at the vanguard of trying to build a new, fair multinodal world. And not by accident they happen to be the top three existential “threats” to the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder.

With Project Ukraine going down the drain of History, as well as burying for good the “rules-based international order” in the black soil of Novorossiya, the real major front of the One War, the new incarnation of Forever Wars, is Iran.

In parallel, Moscow and Beijing fully realize that the more Exceptionalistan gets bogged down in West Asia, the more room of maneuver they have to accelerate the draining of the wobbly Leviathan.

Gaza-on-the-Litani

Hezbollah has a seriously though spell ahead. Resources – especially supply of weapons and military equipment, through Syria and by air from Iran to Lebanon – will become increasingly scarce. Compare it to Israel’s unlimited supply chain from Exceptionalistan – not to mention tons of money.

Israel intel is far from shabby – as commandos went deep, in secret, into Hezbollah territory collecting info on the fortification network. When – in fact if – they reach populated areas in Southern Lebanon, then it will be bombing dementia plus heavy artillery against residential areas.

That operation might well be called Gaza-on-the Litani. It will happen only if Hezbollah’s complex network in southern Lebanon is cracked – a major “if”.

Jeffrey Sachs, for all his good intentions, went as far as he could to characterize Israelis as judeo supremacist extremist terrorists. Virtually the whole Global Majority is now aware of it.

What comes next in Talmudic-Zio-con planning may include a ghastly false flag, possibly after the U.S. presidential election, for instance on a NATO vessel or on U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf, to lock up the new administration into the long-planned U.S. war on Iran. Dick Cheney will have an orgasm – and croak.

The BRICS summit in Kazan under the Russian presidency is less than three weeks away. In sharp contrast to genocide and serial wars in West Asia, Putin and Xi will be standing by the – open – door on behalf of BRICS+, welcoming scores of nations that are fleeing the collective West like the plague.

Russia is now fully behind Iran – and as much as in floundering Ukraine, that means Russia at war with the U.S./Israel; after all the Pentagon is directly shooting down Iranian missiles, while Israel is the U.S.’s de facto pre-eminent state, fully, fiscally supported by U.S. taxpayers.

It gets trickier by the minute. Immediately after a very important meeting between Alexander Lavrentiev, Putin’s special envoy to Syria, and Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Tel Aviv went Full Dementia – what else – and targeted warehouses of Russian forces in Syria.

There was a joint Russia-Syria air defense response. What that shows is the Talmudic psychos not only obsessed on breathing fire against the Axis of Resistance but now also going after Russian national interests. This can get very ugly for them in a flash – and is yet one more illustration that the name of the (new, deadly) game is U.S./Israel vs. Russia/Iran.

Original article: Strategic Culture Fundation

• For the last few centuries states have been the primary actors in global affairs. But when we look at the US we can’t assess its foreign policy on the basis of its supposed national interest – the US has imperial interests and these interests often coincide with the interests of nonstate actors, with finance and technology companies in the lead. These are not merely large multinational corporations; they have taken control of aspects of society, the economy, and national security that were once the exclusive preserve of the state. It’s a form of Ultra-imperialism that demands a new strategy of contrast and resistance.
• These companies exercise a form of sovereignty over an expanding realm: finance and digital space. Although this isn’t the first time that private corporations and banking giants have played a major role in geopolitics—consider the East India Company, Big Oil, the Rothschilds etc. — but earlier giants could never match the pervasive global presence of today’s finance and technology firms. They do not operate or wield power exclusively in physical space. They have created a new dimension in geopolitics, digital space, over which they exercise primary influence as people are increasingly living out their lives in this vast territory, where the digital and the physical are enmeshed. Political scientists still rely on a classification system that has become obsolete: “democracies,” “autocracies,” and “hybrid regimes,” which combine elements of both.
• Techno-feudalism has been suggested as a new category, though it doesn’t fully account for the totalitarian and opaque nature of this new form of government. Even as feudal subjects were separated through distinctions of class, guild, and estate, medieval vertical social relations and duties remained holistic. Economic obligations were derived from hierarchical bonds of political authority. While those bonds were unfree, they provided transparent recognition that one’s social position was embedded within the web of relations connecting the individual to the community.
• US nonstate actors penetrate virtually all aspects of civic, economic, and private life. A generation ago, the Internet accelerated globalization. Now, in the context of great powers rivalry and the formation of a new multipolar world, the fragmentation of the digital landscape makes operating on a truly global scale increasingly difficult for these US companies. And they have only themselves to blame – the weaponization of information, culture, social media, finance etc. to wage a hybrid war and advance US imperial interests has backfired. @LauraRuHK

by Serghey Markov (translated by Algora)

In October, cardinal decisions on Russia may be made. This will happen at a meeting of the leaders of the main Western countries, the USA, Britain, France, Germany. Perhaps they will decide to offer Russia a truce – before the elections, so that Harris wins.

Most likely, they will accept Russia’s ultimatum: agree to its terms of a truce. Or they will begin missile strikes on Moscow. Apparently, first in November, strikes on the Moscow region. And in January, strikes on Moscow.

Biden is flying to Germany especially for this meeting.

Another point of the negotiations is Europe’s support for the falsification of the elections in favor of Harris.

The UN General Assembly voted almost unanimously for the Future Pact, which contains humanity’s plans to solve climate problems, end wars and combat inequality.
A wonderful pact. But Russia did not support it. Together with Belarus, Iran, the DPRK, Syria and Sudan.

Russia demanded that the UN Future Pact not violate the sovereignty of countries. So that it does not happen like this: the UN Secretary General tells some country that the organizing committee of the Future Pact is very unhappy with how the country’s government is fighting against Global Warming, so it was decided that now this country will be represented in all international organizations not by government representatives, but by special commissioners appointed by the US and the EU at the request of the UN Secretary General. And if they object, they will be bombed – for too much carbon dioxide emissions.

Besides, Russia really didn’t like that this entire Future Pact was developed under the complete control of the West. Give the West the future as well? – Russia definitely doesn’t want that.

The presumed first assassin shows up on top of the adjacent building within eyesight of the podium. And nobody notices him. OK, the security personnel were corrupt, working for the democrats, for Biden. So, our poor Trump is out there by himself, nobody cared about his safety. Not even Netanyahu, his friend, and his Mossad apparatus. It was just Trump by himself heroically taking his stand against the Establishment as a people’s candidate. 

Now the “assassin” pulls the trigger and just as he does that, Trump turns his head… Wait a minute – he turned to his left, exposing his head in full view of the crosshairs, in other words perpendicular to the direction from which the assassin was shooting.

No matter. He, Trump, ducks right after the shooting, apparently in full control of himself, and spends a few long seconds under the rostrum, out of everybody’s view, surrounded by his aides… And then he emerges with his face smeared by a red-colored substance on his cheek and ear. No flowing blood. No shredded ear. Nothing. We could barely see some kind of darker point in the middle of his ear. Smaller than a BB-gun pellet. But most importantly, his ear was fully intact.

Now let’s compare the size of the smallest BB to a sharp-shooter’s bullet. I admit I am not an arms expert, it just that I’ve seen a real gun bullet and it is one of these

But what we’ve seen in the video following Trump’s reappearance was a dark spot half the size of a BB gun pellet.

Imagine what a real gunshot would have done to his ear. Completely blown it away. Yes, completely blown it away.

So, the most likely explanation of the attempted assassination is that the guy, the “assassin”, was set up with the full knowledge of Trump’s security personnel and had some blanks in his gun. He pulled the trigger, it made a ‘pop,’ Trump ducked and he had some red substance smeared on his face.

… As for the second shooter, don’t waste your time. It’s even more a fabrication.

When will the US approve long-range missile strikes on targets deep inside Russia? This does not depend at all on Zelensky’s visits and requests. And not even on the situation at the front – everything is stable there.
The main priority of the US presidential administration is Kamala Harris’s victory in the presidential election. Therefore, everything is subordinated to this victory. And decisions on strikes on Russia will also be made taking into account Harris’s campaign. How exactly?
1. If Harris wins in election surveys, then the decision on escalation of the conflict in Ukraine will be announced by Washington after the elections. For a simple reason – so as not to present Harris as a “candidate for nuclear war”. And 83% of Americans are afraid of the hybrid war in Ukraine escalating into a nuclear war. That is, the White House will try not to create acute crises so as not to disrupt the successful campaign.
2. If Harris is clearly losing, then the decision on escalation will be announced in October – in order to disrupt the course of the election campaign. An acute crisis will be created to try to unite voters around Harris on the principle of “around the flag”.
3. Therefore, it is already necessary to look at election surveys in the USA, taking into account the corrections, and on this basis confidently predict the moment of the “Ukrainian missile crisis”.

Serghey Markov

The topic of Israel became the most important in the discussion of foreign policy in the debates between Harris and Trump. There are several important points.
1. Trump is firmly for Israel.
2. Trump directly accuses Harris of handing Israel over to the Islamists if she becomes president.
3. Harris has a Jewish husband and adopted children.
4. But being Jews, they have always been for the Palestinians. They actively participated in rallies.
5. Harris, also being on the left side of the Democratic Party, was generally pro-Palestinian.
6. But having become part of the White House, Harris became for Israel.
7. But many believe that this is very insincere. And that she is really against the right-wing government of Israel. That is why Trump accuses her. And if the Americans think that she is against Israel, then she may lose the election.
8. But if Harris is tough on Israel, the left-wing activists of the Democratic Party, who are strongly on the side of the Palestinians, will turn away from her. And she could lose because of that.
9. That’s why Harris is spinning around on the topic of Israel like an eel in a frying pan.
10. And Trump is still trying to catch Harris on this “Israeli frying pan” and pin her to some edge. And “fry her”.
11. And the MSM is trying to help Harris wriggle out of it and leave her sitting on two chairs on the Israeli topic.

via Sergey Markov

China’s global economic juggernaut status could get major boost through power of petroyuan

Saudi Arabia is ready to “do what’s in its best interest” and “try new things,” including as far as the possible use of the yuan in settlements for crude oil is concerned, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef told media this week.

The comments, made on the eve of Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to discuss expanded cooperation with the oil rich Gulf kingdoms, signal a “new dawn” in relations between China and the Gulf, Dr. Wang Zhimin, director of the Institute of Globalization at China’s University of International Business and Economics, told Sputnik.

“In energy cooperation between China and the Middle East, settlements using the yuan have become an important topic. The expansion of the use of the currency in settlements for energy transactions is a gradual and long-term process that requires step-by-step reforms, opening up, and natural market selection. In addition, given the relationship with the United States, the process of using the yuan to settle cross-border oil transactions by countries such as Saudi Arabia may encounter certain difficulties,” Wang said.

Commenting on the broader trend of “dedollarization” in China-Middle East trade, Wang cited the currency swap agreement reached between Beijing and Riyadh last year, and cited interest in the yuan for oil payments as a reflection of a “growing trend of diversification of the international monetary system, including the decline of the dollar’s share in international payments.”

Russian economist Nikita Maslennikov says the petroyuan has good prospects as a major alternative to the petrodollar, despite “strong pressure, including political pressure, from other market players.”

by Claudiu A. Secara

How to interpret the latest re-configuration of U.S. electoral groupies vs. the stalemate in Ukraine? Well, apparently there is a recognition by the governing Globalists that their anti-Russian policies failed, in the short term, to cause Russia to capitulate. In the long term, this will generate a new chapter in the Cold War containment policy. But Russia is prepared to go back to closing itself up within its own shell. That would mean another generation or two of Cold War, at best (for the U.S.), that would give the U.S. some breathing space. But the U.S. is no longer in the same position as in its youthful days. Now it is an aging, sclerotic, dysfunctional state – so that the most likely scenario is that the dollar’s dominance cannot survive for another generation or two.

This is what Trump’s people see, and they are flipping from their “Make America Great Again” slogan to “Let’s not lose the dollar as the world’s currency and become a third-world country overnight.”

Interestingly, the Democrats have seized on that very real possibility and are dumping the extra-bellicose Biden for Kamala. The difference? She has now embraced Trump’s position, which is, “let’s save the dollar (and focus less on Ukraine).”

On the Russian side, the options are not much better. In Ukraine they could start a Gaza-like offensive, a scorched-earth military campaign, maybe even using tactical nukes. But that would definitely give NATO a casus belli, to intervene directly. And as Putin has emphasized several times, 150 million Russians cannot succeed against an 800-million NATO+ alliance of a total of 57 nations in an all-out total war.

Without a quick, decisive military victory, Russia will be confronted with diminishing economic options. The sanctions are starting to bite pretty deeply into Russia’s real economy. Despite President Putin’s up-beat presentation at the Far East Economic Forum in Vladivostok, and the grandiose future plans for development especially in the Far East, Russia’s economic situation is becoming quite difficult. The Power of Siberia II gas pipeline to China has been cancelled by the Chinese. The big Chinese bank Sinopec has stopped doing business with Russia. And worst of all, as revealed by Izvestia, as of August 15 the bank-to-bank window of foreign exchange with China has been torpedoed by the sanctions. Down by 98%, it is mostly relegated to the cumbersome route of Russian central bank to China’s Central bank. This has already caused a significant (3%) decline in imports to Russia. More Western sanctions against Chinese entities will further impair Russia’s economy. After only two and a half years of war in Ukraine, the Russian economy is starting to suffer. Imagine another ten years on this course of sanctions extended to third-party countries. That would really damage Russia.

The two giants are definitely hurting, and more sickness lies ahead for both of them. Meanwhile China, India, even Iran are continuing to flourish. Not a good perspective for the two giants. The question is: Who is going to blink first? The odds are that Kamala will win the Presidency, according to Alan Lichtman – who claims he’s accurately predicted the US Presidents for the last 40 years.

Are we going to have a Kamala presidency with a Trumpian platform? Quite possibly.

by Sergey Markov

The Russian army’s offensive in the direction of Pokrovsk can be said to be on pause, after a long success. In Selidovo, even the Ukrainian Armed Forces counterattacked and the Russian army retreated from the outskirts of Selidovo.

That is, after the entire August of a relatively rapid retreat, the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to stabilize the situation a little.

The Russian army is more active in the direction of Ugledar. And it is developing in the direction of Ukrainsk and Kurakhovo.

But in general, the Russian army’s offensive is less active in this entire section of the Donetsk front. That is, the collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ front did not occur.

Meanwhile, Zelensky is knocking out new arms deliveries at the Ramstein base. Meetings with European leaders. 77 Leopard tanks have already been announced, they will be handed over to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

But Zelensky’s main goal is to get a lot of long-range missiles and permission to fire them at Moscow. He names 250 military targets, that will happen too.

But the main thing is to fire missiles at Moscow. Zelensky is confident and is persuading the US and Europe that this will lead to a turning point in the war. That after this, Russia will accept the demands of the West. And that there is no need to fear Russia’s nuclear weapons, since Russia does not have the political will to use them.

There is a discussion going on in the Western elites on this issue. Zelensky wants to influence this discussion.