The Orchestration of Russiaphobia Is The Prelude To War

The Russian Embassy in Washington has prepared an accurate 121-page report, THE RUSSIAGATE HYSTERIA: A CASE OF SEVERE RUSSOPHOBIA. https://washington.mid.ru/upload/iblock/3c3/3c3d1e3b69a4c228e99bfaeb5491ecd7.pdf 

Everyone should read this report. It documents the fake news, lies, violations of diplomatic standards and international law, and gratuitous aggressive actions taken against Russia during the period beginning May 18, 2016 and continuing through the issuance of the Mueller Report.

Without explicitly saying so, the report shows that neither the US government nor the American media has a nanoparticle of integrity. Both are criminal organizations that are willing to risk war with Russia in their pursuit of narrow policitized agendas.

This is important information for Americans and the rest of the world to have. Every person, every government and every private organization that supports Washington’s Russiaphobic policies is contributing to the growing threat of nuclear war.

One hopes also that the entirety of the Russian government, media, and population also read the report as it has equally powerful messages for Russia. The messages are no doubt unintended, but they nevertheless emerge from the embassy’s report.

 For 121 pages the report lists transgression against Russia followed by transgression and lie followed by lie; yet the Russian government continued to send diplomatic notes that are never answered, requests for meetings that are never answered, requests for evidence that are never answered. One would think that month after month of abuse would have caused the Russian government to wonder where was the intelligence, “cooperative spirit,” reason, and “common interest in global security” that Russia’s responses to Washington assumed were present in Russia’s “partner.”

By responding to Washington’s orchestrated Russiaphobia as if it were some kind of mistake based on bad information, the Russian government allowed Washington to keep the process of demonization alive and thereby contributed to the ongoing demonization of Russia. If, instead, the Russian government had denounced the demonization of Russia as Washington’s act of preparing Americans for war with Russia and had taken a belligerant rather than a complaining stance, the realization that Washington’s policy had serious cost would have spread throughout the US and Europe and voices would have arisen against Washington’s dangerous and reckless policy. Today in place of the uniformity of voice against Russia, there would be dissent opposing Washington’s irresponsible provocations.

The danger of Russian self-delusion is not over. The embassy’s report expresses the hope that now that the Mueller report has concluded that the much heralded collusion has no basis in fact, relations between Washington and Russia can be normalized and cooperation achieved.

There is no such possibility. The Democrats are screaming “coverup” and demanding the resignation of attorney general Barr and Trump’s impeachment. The presstitutes are claiming that the Mueller report vindicates their reporting. Trump continues to use US foreign policy to commit criminal acts. He has declared that the president of Venezuela is the person he picked, not the one Venezuelans elected. He has given to Israel part of Syria as if Syrian territory is his to give. He threatens Iran with war as Israel requires. In other words, American arrogance rises to ever higher heights.

At some point the Russian government and Russian people are going to have to accept the fact that to reach an understanding with Washington Russia must either surrender her sovereignty or become as belligerent as Washington and replace Russia’s useless refutations of Washington’s accusations with accusations of her own. Otherwise, Washington is going to keep pushing until war is the only possible outcome.

As China's Belt and Road forum kicks off this week, Arab nation attendance provides a strong confirmation to end of Petrodollar

As China’s Belt and Road forum kicks off this week, Arab nation attendance provides a strong confirmation to end of Petrodollar by Ken Schortgen for Shotgun Economics

With China’s Belt and Road confab set to kick off this coming week in Beijing, an astounding number of Middle Eastern nations are expected to attend.

And with representatives from 17 Arab countries confirmed to be participating in the new Silk Road project, it all but validates that the long-standing Petrodollar system is at an end.

Beijing has inked cooperation deals on its multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with 17 Arab countries, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the results of a joint Sino-Arab forum.

The second China-Arab Forum on Reform and Development, which was held in Shanghai on Tuesday, attracted more than a hundred businessmen, politicians, and academics from China and Arab states, including Egypt, Lebanon, Djibouti, and Oman. This year’s meeting, dubbed ‘Build the Belt and Road, Share Development and Prosperity’, was dedicated to boosting the project. – Russia Today

All in all, representatives from 37 countries will be attending this forum between April 22-25.  And what makes this trade project a real threat to the U.S. and dollar hegemony is that much of it will be done bilaterally, and in currencies that are outside the global reserve.

Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), or the yuan, has gained a bigger popularity overseas, especially in countries along the Belt and Road as the B&R construction advances smoothly. The use of Chinese currency sees a huge development potential in the B&R countries with further rise of cross-border trade, which can be settled in RMB since 2009.

According to data released by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), 3.71 trillion yuan worth of cross-border trade was settled in RMB in the first three quarters of 2018, and a growing number of countries and regions have accepted the settlement of cross-border transactions in RMB.

International demand for RMB is increasing. The thirst for RMB may be found in the booming currency swap between China and foreign countries and hot selling of Panda bonds in B&R countries. – yidaiyilu.gov

While President Trump continues to try to break apart global trade through the use of tariffs and economic sanctions, China appears to be focusing on new markets where competitive advantages are being tied to the strength of each nation’s own money, and not within the restrictions formed on them through the Petrodollar.

Philippines earthquake: 6.1-magnitude earthquake leaves 11 dead and 30 trapped

A second major quake has rattled the Philippines after an earlier 6.1-magnitude earthquake that left 11 people dead and 30 still feared trapped in the rubble.

The magnitude 6.3 earthquake with a depth of 53.6 miles (83.3km) was registered on the island of Samar in central Philippines on Tuesday afternoon local time, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). There is no tsunami warning and no immediate reports of damage.

Tuesday's earthquake follows a large earthquake on Monday which struck near the town of Bodega on the Philippine island of Luzon on Monday, according to USGS.

The death toll from Monday's earthquake climbed to 11 on Tuesday, CNN Philippines reported. Around 30 people are still believed to be trapped after a supermarket collapsed in Porac, Pampanga, a province northwest of the capital Manila.

Authorities have put in place a state of calamity, which results in automatic price controls on necessities, and allows local government units to appropriate calamity funds, CNN Philippines reported.

Monday's earthquake was felt in the capital of Manila as well as other parts of Luzon. CNN Philippines said that at least 52 aftershocks have been recorded.

Powerful earthquake hits the Philippines just day after another killed 16

A new powerful earthquake hit the central Philippines on Tuesday, a day after a magnitude 6.1 quake rattled the country's north and left at least 16 people dead.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of Tuesday's quake at 6.4, while the local seismology agency said it was 6.5. The quake was centered near San Julian town in Eastern Samar province and prompted residents to dash out of houses and office workers to scamper to safety.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage from the new quake.

Meanwhile, rescuers worked overnight to recover bodies in the rubble of a supermarket that crashed down in Monday's quake, which damaged other buildings and an airport in the northern Philippines.

The bodies of five victims were pulled from Chuzon Supermarket while seven other people died in hard-hit Porac town in Pampanga province, north of Manila, said Ricardo Jalad, who heads the government's disaster-response agency.

An Associated Press photographer saw seven people, including at least one dead, being pulled out by rescuers from the pile of concrete, twisted metal and wood overnight. Red Cross volunteers, army troops, police and villagers used four cranes, crow bars and sniffer dogs to look for the missing, some of whom were still yelling for help Monday night.

Philippine seismologists said the back-to-back quakes in the last two days were unrelated and caused by different local faults.

New Concerns As Ring of Fire Coming To Life In Heavily Populated Areas

When skyscrapers start moving back and forth, that definitely is not a a good sign.  In recent months, there has been a tremendous amount of seismic activity along the "Ring of Fire", and a couple of significant earthquakes on Monday got a lot of attention because they happened in very heavily populated areas.  

Fortunately the damage was fairly limited and only a few people died, but scientists assure us that it is only a matter of time before a killer quake hits a major city.  And considering the fact that hundreds of millions of people live along the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean, when a killer quake does strike we could potentially be talking about a disaster unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Let's start our discussion by talking about the large quake that just hit southern Mexico...

An earthquake in southern Mexico caused tall buildings to sway in the Mexican capital Monday, prompting hundreds of office workers to evacuate along a central avenue temporarily. There were no initial reports of damage or injury.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 and its epicenter was in southern Mexico near the border between Chiapas and Guerrero states. It struck at a depth of about 11 miles (18 kilometers).

Mexico City was literally built on a former lakebed, and the unique geology of the area means that Mexico City feels earthquakes more acutely than other major cities would.

Scientists tell us that one day Mexico City is likely to be absolutely flattened by an extremely large earthquake, and let us hope that day doesn't come any time soon.

On Monday an even larger earthquake hit the central Philippines.  The following comes from the Express...

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the central Philippines on Monday, sparking evacuations from offices in Manila. Frightening footage shows skyscrapers swaying back and forth as debris falls nearby. The video was posted on Twitter captioned: "Buildings swaying in Manila after a 6.3 earthquake strikes in the Philippines." The earthquake struck 60km northwest of Manila, at a depth of 40km.

The Governor of Pampanga province told a radio station that several people had been killed. Media reported some structures had collapsed and the Clark International Airport, a former U.S. military base, had suffered some damage and had closed.

So we should be very thankful that all of this shaking didn't cause more damage, but we should also be alarmed by how active the Ring of Fire is becoming.

For example, over the weekend there were four substantial earthquakes in Alaska, and the largest of the four was a magnitude 5.1 quake...

At 10:31 p.m. Saturday, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit the Andreanof Islands region of Alaska, which is about 11,200 miles west of Anchorage. This earthquake had a depth of about 8 miles (13 kilometers).

And just as I have been writing this article, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit the Cascadia Subduction Zone just off the coast of Vancouver.  You can find more information about this quake right here.

Any large earthquakes that happen along the Cascadia Subduction Zone are of particular concern, because the Cascadia Subduction Zone is capable of producing a seismic event that could kill millions of people in the Pacific Northwest.

Back in the year 1700, an enormous earthquake alone the Cascadia Subduction Zone triggered a tsunami so massive that it crossed the Pacific Ocean and damaged coastal towns in Japan.  FEMA has warned that if such a thing happened today, "everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast".  The following is an excerpt from one of my previous articles about the Cascadia Subduction Zone...

One day it will happen.  With little or no warning, the Cascadia Subduction Zone will produce a catastrophic earthquake and accompanying tsunami that will essentially destroy everything west of Interstate 5 in the Pacific Northwest.  It will be the worst natural disaster up to that point in American history, and as you will see below, the experts are saying that we are completely and utterly unprepared for it.  

Of course the San Andreas Fault gets more publicity, but the truth is that the Cascadia Subduction Zone is capable of producing a quake "almost 30 times more energetic" than anything the San Andreas Fault can produce.  The Cascadia Subduction Zone stretches from northern Vancouver Island all the way down to northern California, and one expert recently told CBN News that all of the major cities in the region are essentially "built on a time bomb"...

US severs Iran’s oil export lifeline. A hawkish new Revolutionary Guards chief prepares payback

The US placed its Middle East forces on high alert on Monday, April 22, before announcing the cancellation of waivers that allowed 8 countries to buy embargoed Iranian oil. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an unprecedentedly tough statement. “We are going to zero across the board. 

We’ll continue to enforce sanctions and monitor compliance and any nation or entity interacting with Iran should do its diligence and err on the side of caution; the risks are simply not going to be worth the benefits.” He went on to say: “How long we’ll remain there at zero depends solely on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s senior leaders.”

The countries who will no longer benefit from the waivers are China, India, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, Greece and Turkey. They collectively imported a million barrels a day of Iranian oil. Prior to sanctions, Iran was exporting 2.1 million barrels per day. That figure had already dropped to 700,000 barrels. Since oil is Iran’s single export commodity, its cutoff to zero is a virtual death blow to its economy. 

Before the latest tightening of US sanctions, the first round had been devastatingly effective. The official inflation rate had soared past 50 pc to stand at an annual rate of 30.6pc. Basic foods, water and tobacco were priced 85.3p higher than the corresponding period the year before. Whereas in 2018, the US dollar went for 40,000 rial, today the rate has sunk further to 140,000 rial. Therefore, the zero-oil sales level projected by the US is tantamount to zero revenue for the Iranian revolutionary treasury.

 “The goal remains simple,” as defined by Pompeo: “To deprive the outlaw regime of the funds it has used to destabilize the Middle East for four decades and incentivize Iran to behave like a normal country.” He calculated that the sanctions will divert “well north of $10 billion” away from the Iranian regime.

This monumental and unprecedented US pressure on Tehran is compounded by the cruel effects on the population of the most severe weather disasters the Islamic republic has known for many years. Weeks of incessant rainfall have caused widespread flooding  in 25 of the country’s 31 provinces, forcing more than 2 million people to flee their homes. More than 150 homes were destroyed, crops amounting to 14pc of Iran’s annual national product were destroyed, roads, bridges, and installations worth $2.5m for drinking and irrigation water were washed away.

The Trump administration is also turning the screw on Tehran’s allies in the violent propagation of its influence, including Syria and proxies such as the Lebanese Hizballah and Iraqi Shiite militias. 

Hizballah, whose fund-raising methods have long been targeted by Western law enforcement, was this week treated by Washington in the style of a wanted miscreant with the offer of a $10bn reward for information leading to the disruption of its finances. The State Department said the money would be paid to anyone who provides intelligence in such areas as Hizballah’s donors, financial institutions that assist its transactions and businesses controlled by the movement. Hizballah is already feeling the pinch from the slowdown of its regular subsidy from sanctions-bound Iran and is appealing for donors.

US financial pressure on Iran is so deep that even if China, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and some West European countries try to bypass or defy the Trump administration by buying Iranian oil, regardless of sanctions, the quantities will be too negligible to affect the overall calamity.

It has placed the Islamic Republic of Iran face to face with two options: to knuckle under to US demands, or resort to military measures to force Washington to ease the grip on its windpipe. Tehran has often warned that if its oil exports are choked off, the Arab oil nations of the Gulf will be equally prevented from sending their product to market, either by a partial or total blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s daily consumption of fuel passes, or disruption of the oil tanker routes through the Red Sea.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Iran lacks sufficient military strength to totally blockade Hormuz or the Red Sea oil routes. However, a single attack on tanker traffic would send oil prices shooting skyward past $100 the barrel, creating market pressure on Washington. Other offensive options for Tehran would be attacks on US military bases in the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, the Gulf and the Red Sea. Local Shiite militias or Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) special units would be activated to strike targets belonging to US allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 

With his mind focused on belligerency, Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, April 21, replaced the veteran IRGC chief, Gen. Ali Jafari, with a younger, more radical and dynamic figure, deputy Guards chief Brig. Gen, Hossein Salami.  According to our sources, Salami, who stands out even among the radical IRGC officers as a hawk, was selected by the supreme leader to prepare a military campaign against the United States and its allies in the region for the purpose of breaking the back of American sanctions. He is being closely watched not just in Washington, but also in Riyadh and Jerusalem.