85 Comments

1. Word from an Israeli friend, Israel has told the population to prepare for war. Many have no shelters and have not been allowed to build them at their own expense.

   1. https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/special-bulletin-israel-launches?publication_id=1351274&post_id=165832167&isFreemail

   2. wow, that is awful.

2. Also head of Centcom will be flying there this weekend.

   1. Correction. Someone here told me the head of Centcom is flying to Qatar, someone who worked with Centcom.

   2. Someone here told me the head of Centcom is flying to Qatar, someone who worked with Centcom.

3. I am in LA, and I was also living in Los Angeles for the Rodney King Riots. There was no real riot. I think they were trying to spark something like BLM protest or the Rodney King riots, but the Mexican community is very different from the black community here. None of it really made sense. It was somehow supposed to be about police brutality, except there wasn’t brutality. Having lived in the city during the real riots, these just seemed completely faked from the outset. Anyone who lives here also recognizes where the riots were held. It was part of downtown where no one lives, and frankly no one visits unless you have some business with an obscure city department. They did a good job burning up some of the annoying Waymo drones. No one cares, my liberal friends don’t care. It was really obvious that it wasn’t real.

   However, what I did see was my conservative friends bite that side of the propaganda hook line, and sinker, reposting videos of the Mexican flag being waved etc. That part seemed to work.

   1. Likewise, live in LA, went down there on Tuesday. Actually drove right through where they had closed the 101 and all the protests were. Empty.

      1. Not surprising.

   2. Jonathan,

      I live in Los Angeles too. I agree, the Mexican Flag waving set off a couple of white conservative neighbors but the Mexican/American and Salvadorian/American conservatives knew immediately it was a con job.

      People I talked to in the grocery store out here in the San Fernando Valley were very happy to see those stupid WAYMO cars get burned down. Some of them wondered if it was a plan to remove Google companies and possible get other driverless car companies like Palantir in place? They also think Kristi Noem should get a better plastic surgeon and wear less makeup. It was a fun group in line at the Gelson’s Supermarket. ; )

      No one thinks the riots were real. Our close friend who owns a taco truck company who parks his rigs around DTLA said he could spot all the trouble makers, they were well equipped and had ear pieces in ready to take orders. They also noticed some out of place pink & purples colored sweatshirts the first few days.

      The only thing that bothered me was the 101 freeway shutdown at downtown, it happened to be right where I drive to care for a few people and where I usually change freeways to get to my elderly Uncle’s house.

      Other than bad traffic on the first few days if you wanted to go to certain parts of Los Angeles, it wasn’t a problem.

      I think it was a total flop.

      Have a great weekend!
      Jennifer

      1. I was thinking about this more one they are never going to get the ICE raid protests off the ground. Most all the Latin Americans come from places where the government is far more brutal and corrupt. So why are they going to complain about corruption or government brutality in the Trump regime etc. I was working an engineer contract several years ago in LA and the foreman from El Salvador had a few days during the job where his son, who was still in El Salvador, had been kidnapped by a Cartel, and then luckily managed to get free. The money that foreman, who was here legally, was allowing his family to buy large plantations back in his home country. The idea that these people are going to protest is so completely oblivious to the actual socioeconomic realities. It has to be some young ivy leaguers in Washington coming up with this BS and who think it is going to work.

         It reminds me of the complete failure of the Pussy Riot scheme in Moscow years back where the state department thought they could stir up descent in Russia by the desecration of an Othrodox church.

         What they may find now is people really showing up on behalf of Palestine.

         1. There is little energy left for astroturf in its many forms. We are being overrun by real needs, real problems. No time for anything else.

4. I LOVE the photo!!! I just want to poke at it to see it jiggle.

   1. Agreed!

5. It’s no surprise that the “riots” took place where they did. Trump needed a legal foothold to send in protections, i.e. National Guard, etc and he got it when these actions occurred at a Federal building location in LA. Federal buildings are Federal jurisdiction. Verified this with a relative who has 25 years in law enforcement and 5 years following as a Federal Guard in a Northern California Federal building. In Oakland for example, there are two Federal locations near the court house and the Feds have jurisdiction in the outside space between the two buildings as well. I wish Newsome luck on his lawsuits against the Trump Admin as far as the Fed. call of the Guard and troops into CA but essentially Trump’s argument is that the Fed. Government is protecting a Federal building and Federal employees. So, I think Newsome might not get the result he’s hoping for from the CA State Courts. Some one on the Federal level did their legal homework. This might be why Newsome appears on the verge of tears these days. As you say often Catherine, “jurisdiction matters” and you are so right.

6. Israel strikes Iran.
   https://www.rt.com/news/619057-israel-strikes-iran-reports/
   https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/special-bulletin-israel-launches?publication_id=1351274&post_id=165832167&isFreemail=
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvmHRW39kwA

   1. An interesting comment to Simplicius:

      Once again, I see internet addicts chomping at the bit for some immediate response.

      But this is bigger than just Iran and Israel, or even the USA and Israel. At some point, there’s going to be a tipover where the global community no longer thinks of the general “West” as the good guys. At some point, the nations of the world are going to say the hell with the UN and the IAEA and the IMF and all the rest of the multilateral institutions, including all those insurance and metal and oil trading markets in London. And when that happens, byebye fiscal and political dominance.

      Forget about Iranian missiles for a minute and ask – when are China and Turkey going to stop selling goods to Israel? That happens and Israel vaporizes overnight purely from economic reasons. And how many phone calls are going on right now between Tehran and Moscow and Moscow and Beijing? A lot is my guess. Same across the Arab world. The blowback from this is going to be a lot bigger than the number of dead bodies.

      1. Yes. We are in the early stage of a very deep and major move.

      2. Why are most of us primerely following MM? I am here because CAF & team not only give opinions, but back those up with lots of realities from various sources, many scientific and dot connect thru many charts and clearly state when speculating. It is hard to find simple objective news with no opinionated inserts. Next to all that they bring many solutions to the table. It doesn’t even stop there, also many handles are offered to better ourselves.

         I agree with you, what is the purpose of the UN, IMF, IAEA ect. All current physical and economic wars could have been stopped easely. The old gods are back and playing same old biblical games. Same playbook under constant changing names so humanity can’t piece together the same historic scenario playing out paused via thousands of years. Logic, empathy and intuition and thus integrity is at an all time low, worldwide and not just our leaders!

         1. I am afraid you misunderstand my post. I copied a comment to Simplicius. It is not my statement. I agree on MM. Pure propaganda.

7. On the subject of rare earth minerals market.

   China has cornered the market on processing capacity as John noted. Rare earth processing was a high priority on China’s industrial policy pathway years ago, received the normal extensive government support, much patient capital, etc. Which of course led to overbuilding capacity, predatory pricing export practices and more as is typical.

   The US already has ample rare earth resources in the ground. So raw material supply is not the issue and in my view is a bright red herring in Trump admin narratives. What is mined in the US has for years been sent to China for refining because the process, especially for heavy rare earths, is extremely nasty in environmental impact. Building a clean enough process to meet US environmental standards/to address NIMBYs is very costly and thus would be uncompetitive with the existing Chinese installed production base absent some form of sizable sustainable subsidy/financial guarantees.

   On that last point, given the total lack of any consistency in the government position on most all economic and defense matters thus far, who in their right mind would deploy private capital (regardless of cost of capital) on domestic rare earth processing plant in the US? The same was true in the last Trump admin and it remains even more emphatically so this time around.

   1. Yes, agreed.

Comments are closed.