The Fall and decline of the American Empire

Israel slams Russia decision to lift Iran missile ban

Israel on Monday denounced Russia’s decision to lift a ban on supplying Iran with sophisticated S-300 air defence missile systems as proof of Tehran’s newfound “legitimacy” following nuclear talks.”This is a direct result of the legitimacy that Iran is receiving from the nuclear deal that is being prepared, and proof that the Iranian economic growth which follows the lifting of sanctions will be exploited for arming itself and not for the welfare of the Iranian people,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement.

“As Iran disavows clause after clause of the framework agreement… the international community has already begun implementing easing measures,” he railed.

“Instead of demanding that Iran stops its terrorist activity in the Middle East and the world, it is being allowed to arm itself with advanced weaponry that will only increase its aggression.” Russia is a key supplier of weapons to the Arab world, including governments which do not recognise the Jewish state, and its weapons exports have long been of concern to Israeli leaders who have sought to persuade Moscow to scale down its cooperation Iran and Syria.

The S-300 batteries are advanced ground-to-air weapons that can take out aircraft or guided missiles. Full

In the last update, we made the following statement under the news section

“What this is coming down to is an indirect war between, Russia and China and in this game the USA cannot win. If Israel continues to push Iran and Syria, they might find themselves facing a very tough Russian bear. When the bear is ticked off, it does not back down; it would be in Israel’s best interest not to push Russia too far. Russia has strategic interests in the Region. The story below indicates how the situation is escalating” Market Update March 31, 2014

Cry baby Bibi does not want to relent so this is the response from Russia. Next expect Russia to supply Iran and Syria with even more sophisticated defensive and offensive weapons. The wars are about to escalate. Israel should now realise that they are dealing with a man that is deadly serious; he will not back down. He has the military power, the brains and the backing (from China) to be more assertive. A unyielding response is going to come from Russia or China that will shock the world; this will be the final signal for the world to see that the USA is no longer the 800-pound gorilla. Israel still has time to mend its ties with Russia, but it should move fast. Russians are slow to anger, but once they see red, it is very hard to calm them down.

Elder care costs keep climbing; nursing home bill now $91K

The steep cost of caring for the elderly continues to climb. The median bill for a private room in a nursing home is now $91,250 a year, according to an industry survey out Thursday.The annual “Cost of Care” report from Genworth Financial tracks the staggering rise in expenses for long-term care, a growing financial burden for families, governments and insurers like Genworth. The cost of staying in a nursing home has increased 4 percent every year over the last five years, the report says. Last year, the median bill was $87,600.

“Most people don’t realise how expensive this care can be until a parent or family member needs it,” said Joe Caldwell, director of long-term services at the National Council on Aging. “And then it’s a real shock.”

The annual report from Genworth, which sells policies to cover long-term care, looks at costs for a variety of services, including adult daycare, and home health aides. And nursing home bills are rising at the fastest pace, twice the rate of U.S. inflation over the last five years. One year in a nursing home now costs nearly as much as three years of tuition at a private college. Full Story

Are they kidding? What exactly are they feeding these people, caviar and $1000 bottles of wine? Things are going out of control; the next step will be the offshoring of nursing homes. Every service in the world will eventually be off-shored; the only way this phenomenon will stop is when countries start to set up blocks to free trade. Free trade is essentially one country bleeding another. There is nothing free about; it should be termed expensive trade or death deal, for one nation always losses while the other gains. A day will dawn when free trade deals will be viewed as something equivalent to the bubonic plague.

Subscribers with the foresight should start looking into the option of opening up managed nursing homes overseas. Not only will you be able to offer better food, better medicine and an overly better experience, but you will be able to do so at a fraction of the cost and still make a good profit.

Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank gambit has the US on edge

China’s big foray into global finance is causing nervousness on Wall Street while helping to exemplify how dysfunctional Washington has become.The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is positioning itself as an Asia-centric alternative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, even though the head of the World Bank on Tuesday tried to cast the AIIB as a partner, not a rival.

However, some prominent U.S. voices recently have been expressing alarm both at the AIIB’s growth, and its ability to attract U.S. allies even though the Obama administration has been seeking to discourage membership. The U.S. holds the largest voting bloc in the IMF/World Bank structure but has not signed on to the China effort.

With the addition of Iran and the United Arab Emirates, the roster of prospective AIIB members has grown to 35, according to the Xinhua News Agency. In addition to multiple Asian countries—Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam to name three—the amount of European countries is on the rise. Germany, France and Italy are on board for when the bank is officially chartered later in the year, and outside the region, Australia just joined as a high-profile partner, despite the White House’s wishes.

If the situation is starting to create an outside-looking-in scenario for the U.S., then the country has no one but its policymakers to blame, according to a widely circulated blog post-Monday from former White House economic advisor Larry Summers. Full Story

This is the just the first shot; the next shot will be more painful, and from there the momentum will b gather until US dominance is peeled layer by layer by the Patient Chinese and the cool minded Russians.

Russia and Iran just showed how ‘they can do whatever they like’ right now

On April 13th, the Kremlin retracted its hold on the transfer of S-300 missiles to Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported. Iran and Russia had inked a contract to deliver the weapons in 2007, but the deal was shelved under international pressure and the embargo on arms transfers to Iran that the UN Security Council passed in 2010.Russia is now announcing its intention to send one of the world’s most advanced anti-aircraft systems to Iran, notwithstanding that embargo — and against mounting evidence that the nuclear issue is far from resolved.

The Pentagon has already slammed the move, while Israel is already framing it as an unsavoury result of apparent diplomatic progress on the nuclear front. US Secretary of State John Kerry has also raised a complaint with Moscow. Tom Nichols, a professor at the Naval War College and an expert on Russian affairs, told Business Insider that the announcement and its timing both show just how little of an impact US policy is currently having on global affairs — and on Russia and Iran in particular.

“That deal represents a lot of money to Russia and a system Iran wants,” says Nichols. “From their perspective, why bother waiting? What price would be paid if they do it? This is what happens when other countries in the world feel they can act as if the United States doesn’t exist.” For Nichols, the transfer of the S-300s is “yet another moment where Russia and Iran underscore the reality that they can do whatever they like, unconstrained by a disengaged United States.”

So before the world powers and Iran have even agreed on a sanctions removal timetable or limits on Iranian nuclear research and development, Russia is ready to give Iran a weapons system that experts have likened to Russia’s version of the US’s Patriot missile system. The S-300 has a range of about 93 miles, while a single battery can fire at multiple targets flying at up to almost 90,000 feet. Full Story

It looks like Tom Nichols is in the wrong profession; a sanitation/sewage engineer would be a more suitable option for him, as he is so apt with dishing out sewage. He makes it looks like we have done nothing to warrant such a response. Okay, Mr Penguin who attacked Iraq and based on a fraudulent set of reasons? Who destroyed Libya? Who caused chaos in Afghanistan? Who created the Taliban? Who is supplying the murderous thugs in Syria (the Syrian rebels) with weapons? Who helped destabilise Ukraine (a peaceful country) and has now created a zone of war and carnage. The list goes on. What is occurring now is that what we have been proclaiming for some time. Russia no longer recognises the USA as a force to reckon with. The bear is angry, and an angry bear never backs down. Russia and China are working in sync now, to systematically thwart US hegemony and soon a plethora of nations will join the party. The good old days are over forever. For the record (just in case you are not sure), we do not wish this nor are we glad it’s happening, but we are smart enough to understand that when a trend is in motion, nothing can stop it. So rather than resist and hope for another outcome, we have decided to follow the trend. Hope is for fools who have plenty of time to waste on silly notions.

LARRY SUMMERS: The US may have lost its role as the world’s economic leader

This past month may be remembered as the moment the United States lost its capacity as the underwriter of the global economic system.True, there have been any number of periods of frustration for the United States before and multiple times when U.S. behavior was hardly multilateralist, such as the 1971 Nixon shock ending the convertibility of the dollar into gold. But I can think of no event since Bretton Woods comparable to the combination of China’s effort to establish a major new institution and the failure of the United States to persuade dozens of its traditional allies, starting with Britain, to stay out.

This failure of strategy and tactics was a long time coming, and it should lead to a comprehensive review of the U.S. approach to global economics. With China’s economic size rivaling that of the United States and emerging markets accounting for at least half of world output, the global economic architecture needs substantial adjustment. Political pressures from all sides in the United States have rendered the architecture increasingly dysfunctional.

Largely because of resistance from the right, the United States stands alone in the world in failing to approve International Monetary Fund governance reforms that Washington itself pushed for in 2009. By supplementing IMF resources, this change would have bolstered confidence in the global economy. More important, it would come closer to giving countries such as China and India a share of IMF votes commensurate with their increased economic heft. At the same time, pressures from the left have led to pervasive restrictions on the infrastructure projects financed through the existing development banks — which consequently have receded as infrastructure funders, even as many developing countries have come to see infrastructure finance as their principal external funding need. Full Story

Partially true: the formation o f the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is not the reason; it is just the symptom. The main reason is that America foolishly pushed the top emerging leaders into each other’s arms. The biggest mistake was to force Russia and China towards each other; this new alliance is unbeatable, and now all the nations with a grudge will join the new party. That is why Britain Jumped ship and joined the AIIB first before any other European country. They fully understand that an alliance between China and Russia is just unstoppable.

Here’s How The Ukraine Crisis Is Deepening Military Ties Between China And Russia

US-led economic sanctions against technology exports to Russia might have the unintended consequence of pushing Russian and Chinese technological industries into close cooperation, Russia-based security expert Vasily Kashin writes for The Moscow Times.

Kashin notes that China has developed full-scale mass production of two reconnaissance drones — which means China is starting to master defense technologies that are a relative Russian weakness. China has military and technical cooperation experience with other geopolitically difficult countries as well: In the past, China has developed military relationships with Pakistan and Iran. Full Story

Read the full story for it shows how closely these two chaps are working together. They will now use their military and technical expertise to completely bypass the need to do business with the US and most of Europe. Europe needs to break away fast from its foolish stance of engaging Russia. The ultimate plan for China and Russia is to build a network that will lock out US jets and Reconnaissance planes from a swath of landmass. When this is achieved, the US will have lost its superpower status. Russia’s S-400 system is a beast, but it’s nothing compared to the S-500 which should be completed soon. This system will be able to engage 10 targets simultaneously.

In 2016, the Russian military will start deploying the long-range surface-to-air missile systems S-500, chief of the Russian Air Forces said August 10, 2014. Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev gave an outline of his branch’s modernization plans, including the build-up of Arctic infrastructure, in a radio interview with the Russian News Service station. The S-500, a state-of-the-art long-range air defence system developed by Almaz Antei, Bondarev said. The producer is finalizing new missiles for the system, which would have advanced homing electronics.

“The missiles will have a build-in intelligence system, which will analyze the aerial and radar environment and take decisions about its altitude, speed and direction of the flight,” the general said. The S-500 is an advanced version of S-400 with dedicated components designed to intercept ballistic missiles at a height of up to 200 km. The system is expected to be able to shut down up to 10 incoming ballistic missiles simultaneously. It also has an extended radar range compared to S-400. Full story

But that is not all the Russians are already working on the S-1000, which should be even more formidable. So you combine China’s expertise in building satellites and drones with Russians advanced Jet, missile and missile defence technology and you have the making of a new Iron Curtain. Only this time the Iron’s curtains sole function will be to keep the US out while allowing a host of other nations in.