How the West won . . .

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996)

Will the American Oligarchy Accept Limits or Choose World War Three?

"The US is a market state that is dominated by and run for transnational capital. Its foreign policy and the military are a tool of the American oligarchy. Therefore, any serious policy discussion needs to deal with the fact that national interests as they’re expressed today are not in any real sense national but representative of the interests of a small cohort of the super wealthy."

Link here.

Sanctions on Moscow have hurt European economies while Russia's has GROWN

"Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Dr. Ksenia Kirkham, a specialist in economic warfare at King's College London, said Europe is 'shooting itself in the foot' with its sanctions strategy and has pushed Russia to 'escape Western mechanisms of control' and become more self-reliant.

And Alan W. Cafruny, professor of international affairs at the US' Hamilton College, argued Europe's decision to cut off Russian oil and gas imports has done nothing but damage their own economies and line the pockets of US corporations - all while Russia continues to export its hydrocarbons out east unperturbed."

Link here.

Moshe Dayan: 'What cause have we to complain about their hatred of us?'

"Dayan recognized what had been done to create the state of Israel. He understood, therefore, what it would take to defend it.

An Undoable Act

This theft of land is, in Arab eyes, an act that cannot be undone. It should be seen that way in Israeli eyes as well, because of its consequences.

In many ways, this is like Henry VIII’s theft of the wealth of the Catholic Church in England. Once taken and distributed, the act could not be undone, much like a murdered man cannot be brought back. In the time of Shakespeare, England was as Catholic as France; only the government and its dependents were Protestant. It took war to settle the dispute, several in fact.

So with this. It seems to me there must a war, or barring that, a return to the status quo ante, in which people in the occupied land are continuously tortured until they die or decide to leave."

Link here.

Visualizing 60 Years of Stock Market Cycles

How Can Investors Prepare for a Bear Market?

No one knows when a bear market will begin, but there are strategies that investors can use to build a more resilient portfolio.

Diversifying across sectors is one approach. Consider how cyclical sectors, such as tech and real estate tend to rise when the market is on the upswing. By contrast, when the market takes a turn, traditionally more defensive sectors like consumer staples outperform.

Asset class diversification is another tactic. Including bonds in a portfolio typically reduces risk given their stable cash flows and historically low correlation to stocks. International stocks also have a lower correlation to U.S. equities which means that when U.S. stocks are down, these types of assets can help buffer the loss.

The good news is that the S&P 500 has seen +11.5% average historical returns since 1928. Overall, the majority of stock market cycles take place in bull territory both in terms of net return appreciation and length of time by a wide margin.

Link here.

The Credibility Mirage

Moreover, both Republican and Democratic administrations have helped turn Moscow hostile with an aggressive, expansionist military policy. Washington treated the Soviet Union and then Russia as defeated foes with the expansion of NATO, despite multiple assurances to the contrary. The U.S. also inverted the Monroe Doctrine, insisting that everything up to Russia’s border was in America’s sphere of interest, and promoted “color revolutions” and street uprisings within Moscow’s neighbors. Washington also invaded and dismantled Yugoslavia/Serbia with nary even a nod to Russia’s historic interests in the Balkans.

Unsurprisingly, members of the blob, as the foreign policy establishment has been called, insist that they are virginal public servants dedicated to all that is good and wonderful in the world. Most Washington policymakers deny the obvious: that their militaristic policies encouraged Putin to invade. Although he remains responsible for plunging Europe into war, he almost certainly would not have done so without the succession of U.S. and European decisions flouting Moscow’s security interests. After all, who imagines Washington policymakers accepting what they attempted to impose on Russia—expanding the Warsaw Pact northward through Latin America, promoting a street putsch against Mexico’s elected, pro-American government, and promising Mexico membership in the Soviet-dominated military alliance. The result in Washington would be wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments on a Biblical scale, and likely a modern Cuban Missile Crisis.

Link here.

War Budget Leaves Netanyahu Caught Between Markets and Politics

So the U.S. wants to give taxpayer money to Israel for a war, all while Israel continues to fund religious schools and land theft in the West Bank. Brilliant.

"Built into Israel’s expenditure program are so-called 'coalition funds,' or discretionary spending earmarked to the five parties comprising Netanyahu’s government, the most religious in Israel’s history. A record 14 billion shekels ($3.6 billion) in transfers approved last May will partly go toward religious schools — some exempt from teaching subjects like English and math. Other favored projects include the development of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

While the special allotments are a fraction of the total budget for 2023-2024, they have become a marker of competing priorities at a time when Israel confronts its worst armed conflict in half a century."

Link here.