Risk! - Capitalism v Kleptocracy

It's Putin v. Khamenei v. Netanyahu v. Jinping v. bin Salman v. Trump for whatever's left at the end!

by Shawn K. Inlow Two kinds of authoritarianism have been overtly pitted against one another this week when the United States joined Israel in a surprise attack against Iran. One is a kind of fascist capitalism that represents the U.S. and its enablers and the other is a kind of kleptocratic totalitarianism that represents Russia and Iran and their set of enablers. The Trumpist Wile-E-Coyote style of chaos theory could yet wind up with him being crushed somehow beneath a mammoth boulder. But it could just as well result in the capture of that pesky road runner. It's just a roll of the dice. In one world, Iran could manage to enact global economic chaos because of its strategic position and draw the U.S. into another one of those "pre-emptive wars" that we got so tired of during the Bush Jr. administration. In another, if Iran folds rather than fights, Russia loses a key ally in the middle-east and loses its edge in Ukraine. In one of many other possible futures, it may clarify the entire Trump / Russia thing. Then again, it could begin a nuclear war, something the prior four U.S. presidents have been wary of. In all, it's a war among a few madmen all of whom are taking a big swing at becoming globally dominant. And it matters to the entire world who wins. China might be the best placed, working both sides of the aisle and watching from a safe distance behind the Himalayas.

Let's begin today with an old idiom: All war is about wealth. Natural resources. Who owns what. War is never about "freedom." It's not about "peace," although I had to laugh when Trump demanded that, "Iran must now make peace."

No... War is about economy. That is the capitalist end-game always. The machine wants war. And war is not possible without ... oil. Here are the top ten producers of oil in the world: 1. The U.S. 11.6 million barrels per day 2. Russia 10.5

3. Saudi Arabia. 10.2

4 Canada. 5.2

5. Iraq. 4.4

6. China. 5

7. U.A.E. 3.8

8. Brazil. 3.5

9. Kuwait. 2.9

10. Iran. 2.8

Now here are the top ten producers of natural gas in the world:

1. U.S. 1,350 billion cubic meters annually

2. Russia. 586

3. Iran 252

4. China 234

5. Canada 190

6. Quatar 181

7. Australia. 152

8. Norway. 117

9. Saudi Arabia. 114

10. Algeria. 101

I am thinking about this conflict in terms of who owns how much of what and what that means for the world. Understand that the way a country states its reserves in the petro-chemical world is equivalent to that country's buying power. And many countries lie about thier reserves. That's raw, vulgar, capital friends. And when that capital becomes nationalized, such as in roughly half the countries listed above, you have vast power in the hands of, often, one person. Think of your house as the sum totals of oil and natural gas resources between, say China+Russia+Iran. My, my! That's a pretty big house! Now add up, say just the U.S. + Saudi Arabia alone. The bigger the house, the more you can borrow. Never mind that the sure loser in a war for oil riches is The Planet Earth. Ok? We are destroying the Earth for human habitation. But still, here we are, in a big dick contest. It's all about winning at the old game of Risk! There are, since Russia invaded Ukraine, crushing sanctions against the purchase of Russian oil and gas, which devalues Russia's assets and diminishes Vladimir Putin's power and he's stuck now in Ukraine just like the Soviets were stuck for ten years in Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Putin has been an ally of Iran, which the U.S. has listed as a state sponsor of terrorism (along with Cuba, North Korea and Syria) since Ronald Reagan. (Currently, the U.S. is easing sanctions on the new Syrian government.). And Iran has been the source of drone imports that Putin has used to reign terror on Ukraine. Well, Iran quickly turned to Putin for help in this last fortnite and it turned out that Russia just doesn't have the jack right now to do anything about it. Putin had been propping up the dictator in Syria for years, complicating the Israel / Gaza situation, but even that sinew of control has evaporated for the Kremlin.

See, the thing that Vladimir Putin and Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei and Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un and Mohammed bin Salman and all the other tin-pot dictators want most of all is to stay in power so that they can keep all the money. The problem I have in this game of Risk? Trump doesn't care who wins as long as it is him. And he doesn't care about the consequences. Trump couldn't care about the Palestinian genocide because the Palestinians don't have anything. They are just in the way. And Israel? Israel already has the nukes, baby. So whose side you gonna be on? Meanwhile, I'm betting that before the bombs started flying over there, a bunch of Trump family members went to the market and bet big on higher oil prices. Graft aside, if this all goes sideways, I'm very afraid that the next nuke that falls will be thrown by Netanyahu as all hell breaks loose. And if that happens, Trump will likely be the least of our worries. Friends, no matter which sociopath wins, this is gonna suck for everyone else.