Not since Russia put nuclear weapons in Cuba mere miles from Florida has the world been as close to being inhabited by only plant life and cockroaches (after mankind has killed themselves down to the last man leaving nothing else) until America did the same thing to Russia in the name of fighting terror. Putin is the big bad wolf in the eyes of the world but there exists also a Chinese threat that the world would prove wise to watch more closely. Proof of this can be shown now that China is blatantly preparing for a pre-emptive strike on America.
Satellite data is showing that China is trying to mask their military bases as merely testing grounds, transporting weapons that can target United States bases and interests in Japan and throughout the Orient, and they have been including the DF-16 missile, which can reach areas that are now contested, into the mix.
All Chinese tests have been mocks and practice runs for eliminating American destroyers, carriers, and even Asian airfields. If China were to prove both foolish and reckless enough to use such weapons against the Philippines, Okinawa, Japan where U.S. troops reside, or even the quasi-succeded “nation” of Taiwan, then all bets are off. At that point, the actions and reactions could range from a few threatening words to skirmishes to all-out nuclear Armageddon.
Weapons like the DF-16 can evade the U.S. Patriot anti-missile systems that became so pivotal in protecting Israel against the rockets sent by Saddam Hussein in Gulf War One. A lot of years have come and gone since those days and this matters because Taiwan relies on Patriot’s to keep them safe, mostly from China.
The DF-16 is one of the most accurate missiles ever created and can hit with a precision that is equated to be within about 16 feet. Moreover, no one is producing missiles like the Chinese, something that is seen as quite alarming when one considers that China has frequently been talking about war – even nuclear war – with America.
Not only is China angry about the islands in the South China Sea that that are both real and Chinese made, but they are also angry that Trump is willing to rethink the notion of the “One China Policy” that America currently obeys. This is because the rather inconsiderate policy does not recognize Taiwan as a rightful independent nation from China. Like history has seen from most communist nations where the people want freedom, China has been adamant that they are going to force Taiwan into being Chinese, even if it leads to the battlefield to do so.
The most woeful part in all of this is that China could very easily decide that risking war with the U.S. is an option since America has most of their manufacturing and production factories IN China, willfully no less. Fair trade with all is the libertarian solution to the problem of war, but “trade” does not mean sending the nation’s ability to make anything to another nation, as the United States had done with China.
China makes even components for U.S. weapons systems while America can not even make electric power grid units without Chinese help at this point. If China was to simply start war and envelope all of our factories, there is not a lot that we could do about it. Even nuking China would not get our plants home allowing us to actually make or manufacture anything.
As protests continue to break out all around the nation over President Donald Trump’s desire to scrap Obamacare, Politico reported Tuesday that many politicians are beginning to worry about their own personal safety — to the point where some are having private sessions to discuss the matter.
“House Republicans during a closed-door meeting Tuesday discussed how to protect themselves and their staffs from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare.”Some of the suggestions, the news outlet reports, include “having a physical exit strategy at town halls, or a backdoor at congressional offices to slip out of, in case demonstrations turn violent; having local police monitor town halls; replacing any glass office-door entrances with heavy doors and deadbolts; and setting up intercoms to ensure those entering congressional offices are there for appointments, not to cause chaos.”
While protests are popping up all over, the Republicans’ private session was no doubt prompted by events that happened over the weekend. While speaking before a raucous crowd in Roseville, California, Representative Tom McClintock had to be escorted from the stage and away from the event by local police officers.
McClintock, who held town hall meetings during the politically volatile days of both the Tea Party and Occupy movements, told The Hill he’s never seen anything like it:
“This was something very different. After an hour, the incident commander for the Roseville Police Department advised us the situation was deteriorating and felt it necessary to get me out of the venue.That’s never happened before.”
Sources told Politico that the potential for violence is serious enough, in fact, that the House sergeant-at-arms has asked congressional offices to report any threat. That office is also passing out manuals on best practices to keep staffers safe.
Ironically, the backlash over the possible repeal of Obamacare that Republicans are facing now is similar to the backlash faced by Democrats years back as they were trying to force Obamacare into law.
“It’s not that you run from protesters,” Representative David Reichert of Washington said during an interview after the meeting, “but if someone presents some sort of physical threat or are espousing a verbal threat that could lead to a physical threat, if you feel that you’re in danger and your staff is in danger, call 911 and leave and go out the back door.”
In December, Grant Williams, author of "Things That Make You Go Hmm..." offered the most comprehensive analysis yet of the rise and inevitable fall of the petrodollar (and implicitly US hegemony). In the following presentation, from Mines & Money Conference in London in December 2016, Williams focuses on gold's performance in 2016, the reaction to Donald Trump's election and joins a series of dots that may lead to the end of the petrodollar system and a new place for gold in the global monetary system.
The story begins in the 1970s when Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon struck a deal with the House of Saud — a deal which gave birth to the petrodollar system.
The terms were simple The Saudis agreed to ONLY accept U.S. Dollars in return for their oil and that they would reinvest their surplus dollars into U.S. treasuries.
In return, the U.S. would provide arms and a security guarantee to the Saudis who, it has to be said, were living in a pretty rough neighbourhood. As you can see, things went swimmingly (chart below)
China has supplanted the U.S to become the world’s biggest importer of oil, which serves to increase both its importance in the oil markets and the likelihood of it launching its own yuan-denominated contract at some point in time:
So, the world’s largest exporter of oil is now dealing with the largest importer directly in yuan and it has the ability to convert those yuan proceeds into physical gold through the Shanghai exchange— which the data suggest it is doing as fast as possible.
Currently, the bilateral oil for gold trade is only available to what the U.S. would no doubt consider a 'basket of deplorables' in Iran and Russia...but just think what happens once that fully convertible oil contract is up and running...?
Suddenly, the availability to price oil in gold is available to everybody and, given rising Saudi/U.S. tensions and the Middle East nation’s recent rededication to providing “political and strategic support” to China it’s easy to see why this would be attractive to the Saudis, for example.
Whatever happens, opening that contract creates a market-wide arbitrage opportunity which affords anybody with oil to sell the ability to exchange said oil for gold and anybody wanting oil to acquire it cheaply by buying cheap gold in the West and shipping it to Shanghai or HK where it can be sold for yuan.
Already, places like Tokyo, Seoul and Dubai are opening physical gold markets and discussing linking their nascent markets for bullion to the Shanghai exchange which has rapidly become the largest physical delivery market in the world.
The recent move in the oil price looks to me suspiciously like a sign that a move has started to return to pricing oil in gold.
That move, if indeed it is happening beneath the surface, allied with the endless possibilities enabled by the potential full convertibility of the yuan under the Shanghai-based oil contract leaves oil producing nations with a rather obvious choice for the first time in almost half a century—a choice made perfectly clear by the two charts on the next page:
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