Connecting the Dots: The Axis of Evil Steps on the Bear's Tail Under a Nuclear Fallout

©Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images

"Take the pawn and I'll take your knight." "Yeah, but the Middle East will be open for check." "We'll see about that. Nice ceremony."

While the world slept through the month-long cyclic dream of the Olympic Games, the Axis of Evil took the opportunity to move its pieces onto Russia's doorstep. The Eastern bear responded, and the US/UK/Israeli propaganda machine went into overdrive.

As usual, ordinary people paid a heavy price for this deadly game of global chess.

Who Wants To Be CEO of a Red, White and Blue Kakistocracy*?

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*Kakistocracy is government by the very worst, least principled, and most incompetent people. You will be forgiven for thinking that the word, kakistocracy, perhaps derives from the word, "caca", itself derived from the Latin, "cacare". In fact, kakistocracy derives from the Greek, kakos, meaning "bad".)

Let me make myself clear from the outset: I am not running for President of the United States, I just am *not doing* it, though I am constitutionally fully qualified, and, truth to tell, would be much better for the country in many ways, on many levels, than the current, thug occupant of the White House (notice that I do not refer to him as "President"). But, no, I really and truly do not aspire to be President of this godforsaken Kakistan masquerading as the USA.

Now that that crucial non-announcement is out of the way, permit me to set forth a couple of the many reasons for my subdued, cyberspace non-campaign for the Oval Office.

Anti-semitism, British Academia and the Israel Lobby

Every year since 2002 the University and College Union (UCU), the largest trade union and professional association for academics working in further and higher education throughout the UK, has attempted to implement some form of boycott of Israeli academic institutions that have been shown to be complicit in the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people. And each year, amid much acrimony and cries of "anti-semitism", boycotters meet with significant resistance from pro-Israeli members of British academia, and other institutions.

This year however, lowly Sott.net has inadvertently become involved in the melee.

Signs Economic Commentary for 18 August 2008

Summary: The fall of gold accelerated last week with gold falling 9% against the dollar last week and 16% over the past two week. Commodities in general have been falling. We seem to be seeing the bursting of the commodities bubble due to the view that the world economy has not yet "decoupled" from the United States.

No doubt the easing of commodity inflation and the increase in industrial production in the U.S. is good news. The problem is that the root cause of the recent distress, the collapse of the housing market, shows no sign of letting up.

Signs Economic Commentary for 4 August 2008

Summary: A comment on last week's SOTT Economic Commentary pointed out that four more U.S. banks had failed since the IndyMac run. I missed that news. Events get so strange and alarming that they become the new normal. Ho-hum another bank failure. Apparently I wasn't the only one because the mainstream media has been keeping this as quiet as possible.

And then, sure enough, on Friday night, the FDIC announced another bank failure.

While all the events in the banking crisis and the next Great Depression unfold, multinational corporations have quietly taken over core government functions in the United States, most alarmingly in the areas of war and intelligence. This may be one of the most important trends of the new century and probably has more ramifications than we can imagine - and we are probably past the point of no return...