OASIS FORUM Post by the Golden Rule. GoldTent Oasis is not responsible for content or accuracy of posts. DYODD.

Any American influence left in Iraq should focus on rebuilding the credibility of national institutions.

– Editorial, The New York Times

Gosh, isn’t that what we spent eight years, 4,500 lives, and $1.7 trillion doing? And how did that work out? The Iraq war is just like the US financial system. The people in charge can’t imagine writing off their losses. Which, from the policy standpoint, leaves the USA pounding sand down so many rat holes that there may be no ground left to stand on anywhere. We’ll be lucky if our national life doesn’t soon resemble The Revenge of the Mole People.

The arc of this story points to at least one likely conclusion: the dreadful day that ISIS (shorthand for whatever they call themselves) overruns the US Green Zone in Baghdad. Won’t that be a nauseating spectacle? Perhaps just in time for the 2014 US elections. And what do you suppose the policy meeting will be like in the White House war room the day after?

Will anyone argue that the USA just take a break from further operations in the entire Middle East / North Africa region? My recommendation would be to stand back, do nothing, and see what happens — since everything we’ve done so far just leaves things and lives shattered. Let’s even say that ISIS ends up consolidating power in Iraq, Syria, and some other places. The whole region will get a very colorful demonstration of what it is like to live under an 11^th century style psychopathic despotism, and then the people left after the orgy of beheading and crucifixion can decide if they like it. The experience might be clarifying.

In any case, what we’re witnessing in the Middle East — apparently unbeknownst to the newspapers and the cable news orgs — is what happens in extreme population overshoot: chaos, murder, economic collapse. The human population in this desolate corner of the world has expanded on the artificial nutriment of oil profits, which have allowed governments to keep feeding their people, and maintaining an artificial middle class to work in meaningless bureaucratic offices where, at best, they do nothing and, at worst, hassle their fellow citizens for bribes and payoffs.

There is not a nation on earth that is preparing intelligently for the end of oil — and by that I mean 1) the end of cheap, affordable oil, and 2) the permanent destabilization of existing oil supply lines. Both of these conditions should be visible now in the evolving geopolitical dynamic, but nobody is paying attention, for instance, in the hubbub over Ukraine. That feckless, unfortunate, and tragic would-be nation, prompted by EU and US puppeteers, just replied to the latest trade sanction salvo from Russia by declaring it would block the delivery of Russian gas to Europe through pipelines on its territory. I hope everybody west of Dnepropetrovsk is getting ready to burn the furniture come November. But that just shows how completely irrational the situation has become… and I stray from my point.

Which is that in the worst case that ISIS succeeds in establishing a sprawling caliphate, they will never be able to govern it successfully, only preside over an awesome episode of bloodletting and social collapse. This is especially true in what is now called Saudi Arabia, with its sclerotic ruling elite clinging to power. If and when the ISIS maniacs come rolling in on a cavalcade of You-Tube beheading videos, what are the chances that the technicians running the oil infrastructure there will stick around on the job? And could ISIS run all that machinery themselves? I wouldn’t count on it. And I wouldn’t count on global oil supply lines continuing to function in the way the world requires them to. If you’re looking for the near-future spark of World War Three, start there.

By the way, the US is no less idiotic than Ukraine. We’ve sold ourselves the story that shale oil will insulate us from all the woes and conflicts breaking out elsewhere in the world over the dissolving oil economy paradigm. The shale oil story is false. By my reckoning we have about a year left of the drive-to-Walmart-economy before the public broadly gets what trouble we’re in. The amazing thing is that the public might get to that realization even before its political leadership does. That dynamic leads straight to the previously unthinkable (not for 150 years, anyway) breakup of the United States.

the chances of that pair of arch grifters “paying” ANY rent at all is less than zero. Those types never pay for anything and they normally wreck the joint.

We had our Prime Minister Blair and his hag wife, who are best friends with Bubba and his hag….Well one time Cherie was invited down to Melbourne in Australia to speak at a Cancer charity do…..she charged more than they raised !!!!!

The next morning before her flight home, she had arranged to have some large store open early for her especially……she ran round the store and loaded up a cart with all goods she could get in, then went straight to the door to leave, a very embarrassed manager tried to ask her to pay….where upon she exploded saying she didn’t have to pay for anything etc etc…….

If being “dead broke” means dropping $100k on a 3-week rental in the Hamptons, then I’d like to be dead broke too.

In case you aren’t aware of what I’m referring to, recall that:

Clinton told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in a June interview, “We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.” The former first lady cited legal fees that she and her husband had to pay during his White House tenure.

Of course, this is total nonsense. The only true part about that statement is they were indeed “dead broke” compared to the oligarch level of wealth they have attained since. After all, delivering speeches to very wealthy, bailed out financial criminals pays extraordinarily well. 

So what’s a dead broke couple to do? Spend six figures on a Hamptons rental naturally.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-11/dead-broke-%E2%80%93-meet-clintons-100000-3-week-hampton-rental

It seems pretty cheap down there at $.97 for a solid producer, unless I’m missing something.

It is hard to believe that the “elite”, who don’t know how to tie their own shoelaces, will be able to control their “slaves” that will outnumber them and their “guards”, and who will clean the toilets ?

But I cant wait to be as ‘Broke’ as Hillary and a few other politicians.

They really do think they could survive it. I believe their plans include living in underground bases for a couple of years until the dust settles. They are definitely a bunch of nutbags.

but did find the Obama Spicy Chili Recipe. I guess for those who think getting burned just once aint enough.

http://herbsspices.about.com/od/vegetarianmaindishes/r/Obama_Chile.htm

actually believe they will survive a “N” war ? Even if they did, what kind of world would they be living in ? Reminds me of when I was a kid and we were all going to die from poison gas……….

I kind of lost track of goro lately. I see by the chart they’ve been doing well. I made a bunch on that one once upon a time. Always did like their dividend policy.

Well if anyone has any ideas about going nuclear and ending life on earth it’s the psychopath neocons in D.C. that actually believe they could win a first strike nuclear war.

Have you been watching GORO at all lately? Really strong.

it tells me that everything is gonna be wonderful…..Obummer and Pootie Poot as Barry calls him, are gonna marry and we’ll all live happily ever after and the SM will go up 0.5 % every day forever as well.

Oh and don’t feel sorry for Michelle….she’s gonna run off with Merkel.

Wondering why AXU is under a buck and near its’ 52 week low. I think that was a $10 stock at one point?

I guess we’ll see how it develops. A fascinating situation … I’d like it more if the worst case scenario wasn’t the end of all life on Earth.

If Putin does come in it’ll be in a very limited fashion and won’t penetrate far into Ukraine. Just coming in will scare the bejeezus out of everyone and put him in a strong bargaining position. For sure he’ll be keeping Crimea and maybe be able to get some sort of semi-sovereignty for the Russian speaking areas.

“one card monty”

One Card Pootie. 🙂

So you think Merkel is sexy … hmmm I don’t think I’ll go there. Each man to his own.

R640 – yep, everything is all better now. Buy the SM dip!

Ipso – If Putin were to invade, I don’t think we’d do anything. NATO is not equipped nor would they have the support of Europe. I just think we’re trying to bog him down into a quagmire in Ukraine. Putin is too smart, he’s playing financial chess instead and he’s winning.

PM shares looking good again today but still begging the metals to bust a move. Looks to me like silver might try to get back above $20. We’ll see.

Iraq president asks Abadi to form new government

Analysis: Jim Muir, BBC Middle East correspondent

Although he has fought long and hard to hold on to his job as prime minister, it is hard to see how Nouri al-Maliki can continue to cling on.

For the past four years, Mr Maliki has held the defence, interior and intelligence portfolios, building up a powerful network of personal patronage among the security forces, estimated at more than a million strong, as well as setting up elite units directly responsive to him alone.

The question now is whether he will try to use the army and police forces to keep himself in power through an in situ coup, despite his lack of political support virtually across the board.

His State of Law coalition came out ahead in the April elections, but far short of an outright majority.

Having broadly alienated the Kurds and Sunnis, he now finds that even the Shia majority has concluded that he is not the man to weld the country together against the radical Islamist threat.

more http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28739975

“Looks like the US is going to have to figure out another way to draw Putin into war.”

I have to disagree with you there my friend. In this circumstance I think the US would rather have Putin stay on his own side of the border and not invade Ukraine. If he invaded we’d be forced to respond and this makes a nuclear war too possible.

… but maybe Putin is a bigger gambler than I think. I hope not.

Earnings of U.S. corporations are excellent–they are “lean and mean”…and spread all over the world…who could ask for anything more!

I’m afraid we’re all doomed to prosperity…got a problem? Just print up another trillion dollar batch-O-dollars!!!!!

When I first heard that Ukraine was threatening to cut off gas transit my immediate thought was the west was trying really hard to get Putin to attack. No way could he allow transit to get cut off. Apparently there’s a big split between the US and Europe when it comes to energy in Ukraine.

Looks like the US is going to have to figure out another way to draw Putin into war.

LONDON (Mineweb) –

When a highly respected, and heretofore basically neutral on gold, financial commentator, such as Dennis Gartman, reckons that ‘The Force’ which has been keeping the gold price down, presumably through massive paper gold interventions in the futures markets may well be near defeat, this could be a signal for the big investors and fund managers to get back in to precious metals. And if that does happen then all bets on where gold may end the year are off.

Gartman, whose opinions are much sought after in the mainstream investment sector, reportedly says in his latest newsletter to clients that gold has already breached the key Euro resistance level of €975 and if it should continue its latest upwards move in the Dollar next week and breaches $1,325, ‘The Force’ may have to beat a strategic retreat and let gold find its own level rather than the mostly manipulated one it has been running at for much of the past three years. While he does not mention manipulation per se, it is very much implied in his Star Wars ‘The Force’ terminology

more http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-gold-news?oid=249740&sn=Detail

Syria 2.0: US Starts Sending Arms To Kurdish Fighters

Tyler Durden’s pictureSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 08/11/2014 08:33 -0400

While Einstein defined insanity as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results, it appears President Obama’s administration defines that action as US foreign policy. Just as they did in Syria (where the US ‘trained’ moderate Al Qaeda terrorists, instead of “sending troops” – ensuring no ‘boots on the ground’ blowback), AP reports that the US is sending arms to the Kurds as their new proxy mercenary force in Northern Iraq. We are sure the result will be different this time?

Until now, the U.S. had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, but the Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State militants in recent weeks. As AP reports,

The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday.

The officials wouldn’t say which U.S. agency is providing the arms or what weapons are being sent, but one official said it isn’t the Pentagon. The CIA has historically done similar quiet arming operations.

The move to directly aid the Kurds underscores the level of U.S. concern about the Islamic State militants’ gains in the north, and reflects the persistent administration view that the Iraqis must take the necessary steps to solve their own security problems.

In recent days, the U.S. military has been helping facilitate weapons deliveries from the Iraqis to the Kurds, providing logistic assistance and transportation to the north.

more http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-11/syria-20-us-starts-sending-arms-kurdish-fighters

Ukraine Quickly Backs Off Threat Of Halting Russian Gas Transit After Europe Screams

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-11/ukraine-quickly-backs-threat-halting-russian-gas-transit-after-europe-screams

Building America!
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=491876

SilverCrest Announces Completion of Mill Commissioning Major Milestone Achieved as Growth Continues

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/silvercrest-announces-completion-mill-commissioning-131652508.html