The Real Reason for the Sanctions on Iran

On  October 10, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order that carries out new sanctions against Iran that Congress approved this summer, according to a statement by the National Security Council published on on the White House website. 

The stated reason for the increased sanctions is "to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program." 

That is patently false.

The real reason for the increasingly onerous economic sanctions directed against Iran has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with its nuclear energy program. 

All sixteen American intelligence agencies [yeah, there really are 16 of them--your tax dollars at work!] as well as Israeli intelligence--are unanimous in attesting and stating publicly that the Iranians are not building nuclear weapons. Source, New York Times:  U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb

The Iranian leaders themselves have respeatedly stated that atomic weapons  are "un-Islamic."  In April 2012, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa (religious edict) declaring the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are to be haram (prohibited in Islam).  Source: Tehran Times: Ayatollah: production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are prohibited in Islam

Iinstead, the Iranians have repeatedly called for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, which would mean that Israeli [which, unlilke Iran, has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]  would have to dispose of or disarm all of the atomic bombs and warheads in their arsenal.

The inarguably real reason for the sanctions is to foment regime change in Tehran.

The Obama Administration has convinced or browbeaten their supine allies into imposing economic sanctions, whose direct impact is to inflict misery and hardship on 74 milion ordinary Iranians.  And then, their Machiavellian plan is that those unhappy Iranians will revolt and overthrow the mullahs and ayatollas.

Well, there's no doubt that the first part of the plan is working.  The Iranian currency is hyperinflating--according to Forbes, it collapsed 40% in value last week alone.  Ordinary Iranian citizens are protesting in the streets that they can't even afford the basic necessities of life such as rice.

But there is no cause-and-effect relationship between the real suffering of the Iranian people and a wished-for revolt against the government.

Instead, it's just possible that the sanctions can backfire and result in a hardening of Iranian resolve to resist the pressure from America by reinforcing Iran's ties with its close neighbors, especailly China and India, whose combined population of two and a half billion people are big customers of Iranian oil.  

In fact, Iran's oil: Iran's oil exports increased +10% in September 2012 on higher sales to China, according to Dow-Jones.

The Iraian people are tough: they fought a war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq [which was supported by the United States] that lasted from 1980 to 1988 and in which Iran lost between 320,000 and 720,000 soldiers and militamen killed and in which more than 100,000 civilians were killed on both sides.

Don't Kill Big Bird--Kill the Flying White Elephant!

What I fail to understand is why there is so much sound and fury emanating from the Republicans--not the least of whom is Mitt Romney--about PBS, which receives only around 15% of its budget from the federal government--a modest $444 million--and most of its funds from private corporations and endowments.

What the American people should be discussing is not why Big Bird should be strangled, but why the taxpayers are going to squander $1.5 trillion dollars on a Flying White Elepant known as the F-35.

What is the F-35?  It's a fifth-generation jet fighter.  Now let's think a little bit--when was the last time the U.S. Air Force actually engaged in an aerial dogfight using our jet fighters in combat against an enemy's jet fighters?  As far as I can see, that was in the Korean War [1950-1953], when our F-86 Sabre jets fought North Korea's MiG-15's over Mig Alley.  That was over half a century ago! And yet, these imbeciles are planning to squander one and a half trillion dollars of precious taxpayer money on what should be called the Flying White Elephant.

Are the American people going to summon the courage to say "Stop!" to this insanity?

Are the American people going to demand that their taxes be used to benefit the citizens of the United States through investments in health care, education, research and infrastructure instead of on the Flying White Elephant that has no purpose whatsoever except to fatten the coffers of the defense contractors and the plutocrats by another $1.5 trillion?

That's one of the the real issues facing America--yet no politician dares mention it.  Why not?

What I say is: Don't Kill Big Bird--Kill the Flying White Elephant!

Is Apple's Next Product the iZune?

With the introduction of Apple's iPhone 5 nothing less than a debacle, this might be the time to entertain the heretical thought of shorting AAPL.

 

Here's my reasoning:

First of all, Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs--he lacks the humanism, the vision and the poetry Jobs had.

Second, the iPhone 5 could have been made by Microsoft--it was nothing revolutionary, just a facelift.

Third, there's now too much competition in the smartphone market and the competitors' hadnsets are not only better than the iPhone, they are outselling the iPhones.

Fourth, as everybody knows, the iPhone 5 has been a disaster on many counts.  The smaller port is going to force iPhone customers who have iPhone accessories such as docks, charging cords and clock radios into purchasing a lot of outrageously and needlessly expensive adaptors.  The new map feature is so bad that it's  driving people crazy and the forums are full of the worst errors: my pick of the worst of the worst is that the map shows a new airport for Dublin, Ireland, in a place that is actually a farm!  And the revised Siri has troubles, too: it can't distinguish between towns with the same name, confusing New York, TX with New York, NY.  And sales of the new iPhone fell below expectations.

Fifth, Apple continues to manufacture its products in Communist China adding $1.9 billlion to the U.S. trade deficit with that country. The Foxconn factories making the Apple products employ virtual slave workers being paid around $315 per month.  On the other hand, according to Reuters, in November 2011, Apple  announced that it gave six of its top executives bonus of $60 million each in company stock in the form of 150,000 restricted Apple shares that would fully vest in 2016.

And finally, as financial commentator Reggie Middleton pointed out recently on his BoomBustBlog, with all the lawsuits against Samsung [one of which, in Korea, Apple lost], Apple has shifted from innovation into litigation.  Accoridng to Middleton in an interview with Max Keiser, "Apple no longer out-innovates the competition, but out-litigates the competition. And that is a sign of decline."

My own view is that the days of spectacular growth at Apple are over.  We all know how how Microsoft stock stagnated between 25 and 30 for a decade or so; this could happen to Apple, too. No stock--just like no real estate--can go up forever. We learned that in 2008.  AAPL took a hit yesterday and may never see 700 again.

It looks as if Apple may now be entering its "Microsoft" phase of development i. e. making trouble-prone, user-unfriendly products.

What will Apple call its next device, the iZune?

Jagor

[Full disclosure: I own an iPhone 3GS and have no intention whatsoever of trading it in on an iPhone 5.]

More than two-thirds in U.S. live paycheck to paycheck

From Reuters, an article dated September 19, 2012.

More than two-thirds of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the American Payroll Association. The survey of 30,600 people found that 68 percent said it would be somewhat difficult or very difficult if their paychecks were delayed for a week. These results show Americans are still struggling with the recession's effects, the association said..

The main reason Kowalik's clients live paycheck to paycheck is that they have come to see luxuries as essential expenses, she said.

"Cable used to be a luxury. Now it's expected," she said. "People have an expectation that they should have a mobile phone, you should be able to have the Internet. People are going to have to change their outlook and put things into perspective."

The American Payroll Association, a trade group for more than 20,000 people who prepare checks, said it conducted the online survey between May and Sept. 7. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent.  Source 

Jagor's comment: It would appear that financial gadfly and former Wall Strate trader Max Keiser was right when he commented on his television program a couple of days ago that "The United States is a third-world country pretending to be a first-world country."  [e.g. Considering luxuries as neccessities.]

What happened? What is causing America to topple into third-world status?  The main culprit is the bogus doctrine of Reaganomics, whose main consequence was to accelerate the acquisition of wealth by the top 1% and accelerate the pauperization and improverishment of the ever-shrinking middle class.

So now, American society is starting to resemble those of Central Ameridan banana republics like Honduras or Guatemala or African petro-kleptocracies like Equatorial Guinea or Gabon, where most of the country's wealth and political power are concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, while the overwhelming majority of the people strugle day-to-day in abject poverty.

We're not quite there yet, but when 68% of the American people are struggling to live from paycheck to paycheck, that's a sure sign that we're well on the way.


Jagor

A Third of Americans Now Say They Are in the Lower Classes

The percentage of Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower class has risen from a quarter of the adult population to about a third in the past four years, according to a national survey of 2,508 adults by the Pew Research Center.

 

Not only has the lower class grown, but its demographic profile also has shifted. People younger than 30 are disproportionately swelling the ranks of the self-defined lower classes. The shares of Hispanics and whites who place themselves in the lower class also are growing.

The survey finds that hard times have been particularly hard on the lower class. Eight-in-ten adults (84%) in the lower classes say they had to cut back spending in the past year because money was tight, compared with 62% who say they are middle class and 41% who say they are in the upper classes.
Those in the lower classes also say they are less happy and less healthy, and the stress they report experiencing is more than other adults.

About three-quarters (77%) say it's harder now to get ahead than it was 10 years ago.

Commenting on this study, gadfly Max Keiser put it succinctly on his television program, the Keiser Report, yesterday: "The United States is a third-world country pretending to be a first-world country."

It looks as if the United States has joined the ranks of the Latain American banana republics and the African kleptocracies.  Just ask the nefarious Koch brothers!

Jagor