shoebat--2020-08-05--Hezbollah Said That They Wanted To Blow Up Israel With The Same Chemical That Caused The Explosion I

Hezbollah Said That They Wanted To Blow Up Israel With The Same Chemical That Caused The Explosion In Lebanon

The leader of Hezbollah , Hassan Nasrallah , said in the past that he wanted to use ammonium nitrate to attack Israel , the same chemical that caused the catastrophic explosion in Beirut .
As we read in a report from the Jerusalem Post : Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened in the past to destroy Israel by causing a massive explosion in the port of Haifa using ammonia tanks that he said would be like a “ nuclear ” explosion .
In addition Hezbollah allegedly sought to acquire ammonium nitrate via Syria since 2009 and tried to infiltrate the agriculture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to leaked diplomatic cables .
The archival footage has been circulating in the wake of the massive explosion in Lebanon that killed more than 100 and injured 4,000 and has left hundreds missing .
It illustrates Hezbollah ’ s terrorist strategy of targeting civilians for mass murder , despite the organization ’ s claim that it is “ resisting ” Israel by defending Lebanon .
A source quoted in a cache of leaked diplomatic cables and other reports noted that Hezbollah ’ s supply of some explosive material had been cut off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allegedly sought to get the ammonium nitrate via Syria , bringing in thousands of tons of it from Homs .
Hezbollah sought to dominate the agriculture ministry in Lebanon since 2009 to get a hold of the material .
In February 16 , 2016 Nasrallah also said that ammonia is stored in Haifa and that there are 15,000 tonnes of gas Haifa and that explosions there might cause the deaths of tens of thousands of people .
“ the expert added that this is exactly like a nuclear bomb .
In other words @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not an exaggeration.
” Nasrallah laughs as he says this in the video , noting that Hezbollah refrained from striking the ammonia in the 2006 war .

By Theodore Shoebat
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said in the past that he wanted to use ammonium nitrate to attack Israel, the same chemical that caused the catastrophic explosion in Beirut. As we read in a report from the Jerusalem Post:
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened in the past to destroy Israel by causing a massive explosion in the port of Haifa using ammonia tanks that he said would be like a “nuclear” explosion. In addition Hezbollah allegedly sought to acquire ammonium nitrate via Syria since 2009 and tried to infiltrate the agriculture ministry in Lebanon to do so, according to leaked diplomatic cables.
The archival footage has been circulating in the wake of the massive explosion in Lebanon that killed more than 100 and injured 4,000 and has left hundreds missing. It illustrates Hezbollah’s terrorist strategy of targeting civilians for mass murder, despite the organization’s claim that it is “resisting” Israel by defending Lebanon.
A source quoted in a cache of leaked diplomatic cables and other reports noted that Hezbollah’s supply of some explosive material had been cut off over the last decade. Hezbollah also allegedly sought to get the ammonium nitrate via Syria, bringing in thousands of tons of it from Homs. Hezbollah sought to dominate the agriculture ministry in Lebanon since 2009 to get a hold of the material.
In February 16, 2016 Nasrallah also said that ammonia is stored in Haifa and that there are 15,000 tonnes of gas Haifa and that explosions there might cause the deaths of tens of thousands of people. “the expert added that this is exactly like a nuclear bomb. In other words Lebanon has a nuclear bomb. This is not an exaggeration.” Nasrallah laughs as he says this in the video, noting that Hezbollah refrained from striking the ammonia in the 2006 war.


shoebat--2020-08-05--Lebanese Officials Knew For Years That Tons Of Ammonium Nitrate Was Present In The Beirut Port. This

Lebanese Officials Knew For Years That Tons Of Ammonium Nitrate Was Present In The Beirut Port. This Is Only Going To Intensify Anti-Government Sentiment In Lebanon

Lebanese officials knew that the ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion in Lebanon was in the Beirut port , yet nothing was done to remove the explosive material .
There were a series of warnings made by two different Director Generals of Customs , warning about the presence of the ammonium nitrate .
These warnings were made from 2014 all the way to 2017 .
One of the letters reads : “ We had desired at your side to kindly request the relevant marine agency to re-export a quantity of ammonium nitrate which was discharged from the ship RHOSUS ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made about the explosive material and yet nothing was done about it .
Salim Aoum , a member of the Lebanese Parliament , presented two letters — from 2016 and 2017 — on the complaints that were made , on Twitter and commented in outrage on how the Beirut Port Administration decided to keep the ammonium nitrate “ for this period despite its seriousness ?
” He also asked why the letters were ignored .
Lebanon has been having a tremendous amount of anti-government uproar since 2019 .
There were massive protests against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
What will this explosion do , but further exasperate anti-government sentiment ?

By Theodore Shoebat
Lebanese officials knew that the ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion in Lebanon was in the Beirut port, yet nothing was done to remove the explosive material. There were a series of warnings made by two different Director Generals of Customs, warning about the presence of the ammonium nitrate. These warnings were made from 2014 all the way to 2017. One of the letters reads: “We had desired at your side to kindly request the relevant marine agency to re-export a quantity of ammonium nitrate which was discharged from the ship RHOSUS”. The warnings specified how complaints were made about the explosive material and yet nothing was done about it. Salim Aoum, a member of the Lebanese Parliament, presented two letters — from 2016 and 2017 — on the complaints that were made, on Twitter and commented in outrage on how the Beirut Port Administration decided to keep the ammonium nitrate “for this period despite its seriousness?” He also asked why the letters were ignored.
على التحقيق أن يظهر وخلال ٥ أيام، لماذا طلب القاضي إفراغ هذه المواد الخطرة في #مرفأ_بيروت، ولماذا حجزها وبطلب ممن؟ ولماذا ايضاً وافقت إدارة مرفأ بيروت على تفريغها وإبقائها طول هذه الفترة بالرغم من خطورتها؟ ولماذا لم يتجاوب أو يجاوب القاضي على الكتب المتتالية له من إدارة الجمارك؟ https://t.co/6dG6vrQ4y9 — Salim Aoun (@SalimAoun) August 5, 2020
Lebanon has been having a tremendous amount of anti-government uproar since 2019. There were massive protests against government corruption, taxation, government incompetence. What will this explosion do, but further exasperate anti-government sentiment?
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shoebat--2020-08-05--What Is Going On With Microsoft And TikTok?

It seems as though every election , when real issues are troubling the public and need to be discussed , there always appears a series of “ side issues ” that distract the public from any matter of real importance .
This election cycle , while there are several matters drawing attention from the failing economy , the remilitarization of Germany , the rise of Japan , and the fact that the US dollar is basically running as fast as it can down the road to hyperinflation , the issue of TikTok and “ national security ” has risen to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seriously as it has been presented .
I have discussed this before , but TikTok is NOT a national security issue .
Yet , it is likely the Chinese are using it to spy , but most likely no different than what Facebook , Twitter , and other apps in the US do to people all the time .
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy any more , and given the political conflict between the US and China , TikTok is right now being used , so it seems , as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more of a political show for the public to keep them distracted from real issues .
Think the Iran-Contra affair , when Reagan was in talks with Iranian officials to keep the American hostages in prison until he was elected , so that way he could take political credit for having the hostages released and write himself into history as a hero .
As President Trump talks about banning TikTok , I found it very interesting that CNBC reports on how Microsoft has stepped in to offer to buy the platform for $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its acquisition talks with TikTok within the next three weeks , ahead of the Sept. 15 deadline , CNBC ’ s David Faber reported Wednesday .
The deal could be worth up to $ 30 billion .
If the deal goes through , Microsoft has already agreed with the U.S. government to bring TikTok ’ s code from China to the U.S. within one year .
Faber also reported that the two sides haven ’ t landed on a price for TikTok yet , but it could be between $ 10 billion and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mnuchin is “ deeply involved ” in process , according to Faber .
President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. Treasury should get a cut of the acquisition , but it ’ s unclear how that would work or if it ’ s even legal .
Very few American companies have the bandwidth to transfer large amounts of data over to its own systems within a year , let alone afford the billions TikTok will cost .
Microsoft checks both those boxes though .
Microsoft could likely transfer TikTok ’ s software @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 15 million lines of artificial intelligence , helping cement its position as the leading contender to acquire the company , Faber reported .
Microsoft confirmed in a blog post Sunday it has held talks with TikTok ’ s China-based parent company ByteDance to buy its business in the U.S. , Canada , Australia and New Zealand .
It ’ s currently the only apparent , leading bidder .
( source ) Why do I find this so interesting ?
It has nothing to do with the recent discussions of Bill Gates and COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between Amazon and Microsoft taking place right now .
Rather , it has to do with an open secret in how Microsoft seems to be promoting the sexual abuse of children and helping other people to do this as well .
There are several major search engines on the Internet .
The largest and most frequently used one is Google , but Microsoft launched a competitor to it some years ago called Bing .
This search engine , as people noted on message boards such as Reddit and 4Chan , was different because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people does quite a detailed job of scrubbing results and getting rid of material related to child sexual abuse , the opposite was with Bing .
In fact , some on these message boards have said that Bing is a practical dream search engine for pedophiles because with a few keywords one can easily pull up content of such a nature .
This is not just a speculation either .
It is so bad that major news sites such as the technology news source CNET and even the New York Times reported that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seem , in spite of talk about getting rid of them , to never go away .
Microsoft had long been at the forefront of combating abuse imagery , even creating the PhotoDNA detection tool a decade ago .
But many criminals have turned to Bing as a reliable tool of their own .
A report in January commissioned by TechCrunch found explicit images of children on Bing using search terms like “ porn kids.
” In response to the report , Microsoft said it would ban results using that term and similar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ program that scoured Bing and other search engines .
The automated script repeatedly found images — dozens in all — that Microsoft ’ s own PhotoDNA service flagged as known illicit content .
Bing even recommended other search terms when a known child abuse website was entered into the search box .
( source ) We know for a fact that TikTok : ( a ) is app used frequently by Zoomers , many who are under the age of 18 ( b ) has a lot of videos of underage girls making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or with skimpy clothing .
The prevalence of such videos is so open it has become a joke that comedians talk about .
If you put these two things together , does it not seem very suspicious that Microsoft , whose search engine seems to encourage as per public investigations from major news outlets , the proliferation of material related to or is outright abuse , and the fact that the company is publicly moving to purchase a very popular application whose prime platform is dominated by underage girls conducting themselves with while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the worst impulses of a pedophile or other abuser ?
I have no proof of any “ conspiracy ” at all , or evidence that could clearly indicate that there is indeed a plot to this at the current time , or any person who could be tied to this .
Rather , what we can say at most is that there is a very curious overlap between these two things , and because of this it should not be casually ignored , but watched to see what happens .
First , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through on the deal in question , and then if it does happen , what , if any , effects this will have on material placed on TikTok .
Donate now to help support the work of this site .
When you donate , you are not donating to just any commentary group , but one that is endlessly observing the news , reading between the lines and separating hysteria and perception from reality .
In shoebat.com , we are working every day , tirelessly investigating global trends and providing data and analysis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future .
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It seems as though every election, when real issues are troubling the public and need to be discussed, there always appears a series of “side issues” that distract the public from any matter of real importance. This election cycle, while there are several matters drawing attention from the failing economy, the remilitarization of Germany, the rise of Japan, and the fact that the US dollar is basically running as fast as it can down the road to hyperinflation, the issue of TikTok and “national security” has risen to public discourse as something people should take seriously as it has been presented.
I have discussed this before, but TikTok is NOT a national security issue. Yet, it is likely the Chinese are using it to spy, but most likely no different than what Facebook, Twitter, and other apps in the US do to people all the time. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy any more, and given the political conflict between the US and China, TikTok is right now being used, so it seems, as an extension of this argument, and perhaps more of a political show for the public to keep them distracted from real issues. Think the Iran-Contra affair, when Reagan was in talks with Iranian officials to keep the American hostages in prison until he was elected, so that way he could take political credit for having the hostages released and write himself into history as a hero.
As President Trump talks about banning TikTok, I found it very interesting that CNBC reports on how Microsoft has stepped in to offer to buy the platform for $30 billion dollars
Microsoft plans to finish its acquisition talks with TikTok within the next three weeks, ahead of the Sept. 15 deadline, CNBC’s David Faber reported Wednesday. The deal could be worth up to $30 billion. If the deal goes through, Microsoft has already agreed with the U.S. government to bring TikTok’s code from China to the U.S. within one year. Faber also reported that the two sides haven’t landed on a price for TikTok yet, but it could be between $10 billion and $30 billion. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is “deeply involved” in process, according to Faber. President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. Treasury should get a cut of the acquisition, but it’s unclear how that would work or if it’s even legal. Very few American companies have the bandwidth to transfer large amounts of data over to its own systems within a year, let alone afford the billions TikTok will cost. Microsoft checks both those boxes though. Microsoft could likely transfer TikTok’s software code, which could be up to 15 million lines of artificial intelligence, helping cement its position as the leading contender to acquire the company, Faber reported. Microsoft confirmed in a blog post Sunday it has held talks with TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to buy its business in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It’s currently the only apparent, leading bidder. (source)
Why do I find this so interesting? It has nothing to do with the recent discussions of Bill Gates and COVID-19, or even about the economic conflicts between Amazon and Microsoft taking place right now. Rather, it has to do with an open secret in how Microsoft seems to be promoting the sexual abuse of children and helping other people to do this as well.
There are several major search engines on the Internet. The largest and most frequently used one is Google, but Microsoft launched a competitor to it some years ago called Bing. This search engine, as people noted on message boards such as Reddit and 4Chan, was different because unlike Google, which according to these people does quite a detailed job of scrubbing results and getting rid of material related to child sexual abuse, the opposite was with Bing. In fact, some on these message boards have said that Bing is a practical dream search engine for pedophiles because with a few keywords one can easily pull up content of such a nature.
This is not just a speculation either. It is so bad that major news sites such as the technology news source CNET and even the New York Times reported that Bing is filled with such images that seem, in spite of talk about getting rid of them, to never go away.
Microsoft had long been at the forefront of combating abuse imagery, even creating the PhotoDNA detection tool a decade ago. But many criminals have turned to Bing as a reliable tool of their own. A report in January commissioned by TechCrunch found explicit images of children on Bing using search terms like “porn kids.” In response to the report, Microsoft said it would ban results using that term and similar ones. The Times created a computer program that scoured Bing and other search engines. The automated script repeatedly found images — dozens in all — that Microsoft’s own PhotoDNA service flagged as known illicit content. Bing even recommended other search terms when a known child abuse website was entered into the search box. (source)
We know for a fact that TikTok:
(a) is app used frequently by Zoomers, many who are under the age of 18
(b) has a lot of videos of underage girls making videos of themselves gyrating in sexual ways or with skimpy clothing.
The prevalence of such videos is so open it has become a joke that comedians talk about.
If you put these two things together, does it not seem very suspicious that Microsoft, whose search engine seems to encourage as per public investigations from major news outlets, the proliferation of material related to or is outright abuse, and the fact that the company is publicly moving to purchase a very popular application whose prime platform is dominated by underage girls conducting themselves with while legally permitted, behavior that would incite the worst impulses of a pedophile or other abuser?
I have no proof of any “conspiracy” at all, or evidence that could clearly indicate that there is indeed a plot to this at the current time, or any person who could be tied to this. Rather, what we can say at most is that there is a very curious overlap between these two things, and because of this it should not be casually ignored, but watched to see what happens. First, it is to be seen if Microsoft follows through on the deal in question, and then if it does happen, what, if any, effects this will have on material placed on TikTok.
print


shoebat--2020-08-06--Saudi Arabia Runs Scared To China As Turkey Gingerly Sharpens The Tip Of Her Khazouk

Saudi Arabia has been in and out of the news cycle with the exception of discussion about Mecca and the spread of COVID-19 .
But while the world is worried about the spread of disease , financial instability , and the growing problems of nationalism in Europe , the Wall Street Journal reports that the Saudis have turned to their would-be friends , the Chinese , for help with building nuclear plants and nuclear weapons .
Saudi Arabia has constructed with Chinese help a facility for extracting uranium yellowcake from uranium ore , an advance in the oil-rich kingdom ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to Western officials with knowledge of the site .
The facility , which hasn ’ t been publicly disclosed , is in a sparsely populated area in Saudi Arabia ’ s northwest and has raised concern among U.S. and allied officials that the kingdom ’ s nascent nuclear program is moving ahead and that Riyadh is keeping open the option of developing nuclear weapons .
Even though Riyadh is still far from that point , the facility ’ s exposure appears certain to draw concern in the U.S. Congress , where a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Saudi nuclear energy plans and about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ’ s 2018 vow that “ if Iran developed a nuclear bomb , we will follow suit as soon as possible.
” It is also likely to cause consternation in Israel , where officials have warily monitored Saudi Arabia ’ s nuclear work .
( source ) On a side note , when I hear about “ yellowcake uranium ” , it reminds me of Colin Powell ’ s famous “ yellowcake uranium ” speech accusing Iraq of making nuclear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used in part to justify the American invasion of Iraq and the destruction of that nation in fourteen years to such an extreme that even fourteen centuries of continual Islamic invasions could not achieve .
Some people might say they are scared- what would happen if Saudi Arabia did acquire nuclear weapons ?
Who would they use it on ?
Some say Israel , and some say “ the US ” - and of course , many of these are the same ones who believe that North Korea may have a chance at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her questionable and poorly-functioning missiles that can barely fly over Japan ) .
Some say they might use it against Iran because , for the more historically aware , Iran is a historical enemy of Saudi Arabia .
However , the real reason for this is most likely because of Turkey .
Shoebat.com has discussed Turkey many times , and how Saudi Arabia is terrified of her for many reasons .
To review ( full discussions can be found in the Shoebat archives ) , Turkey is to the Middle East what Germany @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Asia .
She is the major power with a long history of imperialism , conquest , and the use of horrible violence against her neighbors .
Turks have also served as guardians to the Muslim Caliphs , and since the fifteenth century with the Conquest of Constantinople ( what the Turks call the “ Fatih ” ) or the sixteenth century and the fall of the Mamluk Dynasty in Egypt ( depending on which event one regards as the decisive historical marker ) , Turkey was the seat of the Sunni Muslim “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sultan .
This persisted until the death of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924 , ending at the time thirteen centuries of the chair passed from Mohammed to his followers in Islamic history , which was then followed by the establishment of the secular Turkish republic .
Shoebat.com has followed carefully how President Erdogan of Turkey fancies himself as another Sultan aspirant and like Putin with the Tsars , Erdogan is modeling his own rule after the Ottoman Empire in a seeming attempt to revive the Turkish Ottoman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is this , as Turkish troops are already occupying Syrian territory and the Turkish military is becoming more independent , this apart from the fact that Turkey has the eighth strongest military in the world and the second largest military by size in all of Europe .
We have also noted that Turkey has a special hatred of Saudi Arabia because she views the House of Saud as blasphemous infidels who usurped what is “ legal ” Turkish control as guardians over the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina and is using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any care for the religious significance save to justify their own rule .
In 2017 , Walid noted that Saudi Arabia is toast because the country can talk a lot , but she has no real way of protecting herself because her army is ineffective , and save for the US and Israel , she has no allies , and the Turks are moving thousands of troops close to the Saudi border .
As I noted in February 2018 , Saudi Arabia ( as well as her other ally Pakistan ) are cooked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turkey with the support of her neighbors .
Turkey hates Saudi Arabia and believes that by divine right she is the protector of Islam , and sees the Saudi corruption as a symptom of the past century ’ s decline in Islamic influence and so as part of her goal of empire wants to re-take control as custodian of Mecca and Medina .
Iran , due to the fact that she is Shia , has holy sites in different locations and owing to the Sunni-Shiite hatred so has no problem with Turkey ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can make all of the circuses she wants and try to remake herself as many ways as she pleases .
The reality is that Saudi Arabia knows that she most likely does not have a future except as a vassal to her historical Turkish overlord .
( source ) This is why , as I pointed out in February 2019 , Saudi Arabia continues to grovel at the feet of Chinese atheists , even while ignoring the persecution of fellow Muslim Uighurs .
It is because the House of Saud knows that her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day is soon coming- not immediately , but in the historical sense -of a major conflict between her and Turkey , and that she is completely unprepared , and that were it not for the continued American influence , Saudi Arabia would already be overrun and the entire Saud family put to horrendous deaths at the hands of neo-Ottoman soldiers .
It ’ s not an accident- or just an act of anti-Christianity -that Erdogan converted the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque , because he wants to signal that he is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few Muslim nations are disputing .
Likewise , there is also a reason that Saudi Arabia is encouraging people to avoid doing business with Turkey , because she is trying to hold on to her place that Turkey is taking back .
Indeed , Turkey is still angry about the murders of Jamal Khashoggi , Saudi Arabia is building this nuclear plant because she knows what is happening .
It has already been noted back in 2019 that Turkey and Saudi Arabia may attempt proxy wars with each other , but this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ desperately trying to create a nuclear deterrent most likely against Turkey , who is already a nuclear power and continues to become stronger , and most assuredly , sits back comfortably as she continues to gingerly sharpen her khazouk that she plans to firmly insert into the Turkish backside and leave hanging in the desert for the sun to torment and the vultures to feast on as she marches to relive the Islamic historical dream in the footsteps of Mohammed by marching as a victor of war into the cities of Mecca and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their rightful place as the guardians of Islam and the custodians of the Islamic sacred sites .
Donate now to help support the work of this site .
When you donate , you are not donating to just any commentary group , but one that is endlessly observing the news , reading between the lines and separating hysteria and perception from reality .
In shoebat.com , we are working every day , tirelessly investigating global trends and providing data and analysis to tell you what lies for the future .
CLICK HERE TO @ @ @ @ @ @

Saudi Arabia has been in and out of the news cycle with the exception of discussion about Mecca and the spread of COVID-19. But while the world is worried about the spread of disease, financial instability, and the growing problems of nationalism in Europe, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Saudis have turned to their would-be friends, the Chinese, for help with building nuclear plants and nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia has constructed with Chinese help a facility for extracting uranium yellowcake from uranium ore, an advance in the oil-rich kingdom’s drive to master nuclear technology, according to Western officials with knowledge of the site. The facility, which hasn’t been publicly disclosed, is in a sparsely populated area in Saudi Arabia’s northwest and has raised concern among U.S. and allied officials that the kingdom’s nascent nuclear program is moving ahead and that Riyadh is keeping open the option of developing nuclear weapons. Even though Riyadh is still far from that point, the facility’s exposure appears certain to draw concern in the U.S. Congress, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers has expressed alarm about Saudi nuclear energy plans and about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2018 vow that “if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.” It is also likely to cause consternation in Israel, where officials have warily monitored Saudi Arabia’s nuclear work. (source)
On a side note, when I hear about “yellowcake uranium”, it reminds me of Colin Powell’s famous “yellowcake uranium” speech accusing Iraq of making nuclear weapons, which was a fraud but used in part to justify the American invasion of Iraq and the destruction of that nation in fourteen years to such an extreme that even fourteen centuries of continual Islamic invasions could not achieve.
Some people might say they are scared- what would happen if Saudi Arabia did acquire nuclear weapons? Who would they use it on?
Some say Israel, and some say “the US”- and of course, many of these are the same ones who believe that North Korea may have a chance at winning a war against the US with her questionable and poorly-functioning missiles that can barely fly over Japan). Some say they might use it against Iran because, for the more historically aware, Iran is a historical enemy of Saudi Arabia. However, the real reason for this is most likely because of Turkey.
Shoebat.com has discussed Turkey many times, and how Saudi Arabia is terrified of her for many reasons. To review (full discussions can be found in the Shoebat archives), Turkey is to the Middle East what Germany is to Europe and Japan is to Asia. She is the major power with a long history of imperialism, conquest, and the use of horrible violence against her neighbors. Turks have also served as guardians to the Muslim Caliphs, and since the fifteenth century with the Conquest of Constantinople (what the Turks call the “Fatih”) or the sixteenth century and the fall of the Mamluk Dynasty in Egypt (depending on which event one regards as the decisive historical marker), Turkey was the seat of the Sunni Muslim “Caliphate” as embodied by the Turkish Sultan. This persisted until the death of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, ending at the time thirteen centuries of the chair passed from Mohammed to his followers in Islamic history, which was then followed by the establishment of the secular Turkish republic.
Shoebat.com has followed carefully how President Erdogan of Turkey fancies himself as another Sultan aspirant and like Putin with the Tsars, Erdogan is modeling his own rule after the Ottoman Empire in a seeming attempt to revive the Turkish Ottoman past. he has made considerable advances is this, as Turkish troops are already occupying Syrian territory and the Turkish military is becoming more independent, this apart from the fact that Turkey has the eighth strongest military in the world and the second largest military by size in all of Europe. We have also noted that Turkey has a special hatred of Saudi Arabia because she views the House of Saud as blasphemous infidels who usurped what is “legal” Turkish control as guardians over the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina and is using them for their own personal gain without any care for the religious significance save to justify their own rule.
In 2017, Walid noted that Saudi Arabia is toast because the country can talk a lot, but she has no real way of protecting herself because her army is ineffective, and save for the US and Israel, she has no allies, and the Turks are moving thousands of troops close to the Saudi border. As I noted in February 2018, Saudi Arabia (as well as her other ally Pakistan) are cooked geese waiting to be feasted upon by Turkey with the support of her neighbors.
Turkey hates Saudi Arabia and believes that by divine right she is the protector of Islam, and sees the Saudi corruption as a symptom of the past century’s decline in Islamic influence and so as part of her goal of empire wants to re-take control as custodian of Mecca and Medina. Iran, due to the fact that she is Shia, has holy sites in different locations and owing to the Sunni-Shiite hatred so has no problem with Turkey’s desires towards Saudi. Saudi Arabia can make all of the circuses she wants and try to remake herself as many ways as she pleases. The reality is that Saudi Arabia knows that she most likely does not have a future except as a vassal to her historical Turkish overlord. (source)
This is why, as I pointed out in February 2019, Saudi Arabia continues to grovel at the feet of Chinese atheists, even while ignoring the persecution of fellow Muslim Uighurs. It is because the House of Saud knows that her time is limited, and that the day is soon coming- not immediately, but in the historical sense -of a major conflict between her and Turkey, and that she is completely unprepared, and that were it not for the continued American influence, Saudi Arabia would already be overrun and the entire Saud family put to horrendous deaths at the hands of neo-Ottoman soldiers.
It’s not an accident- or just an act of anti-Christianity -that Erdogan converted the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, because he wants to signal that he is the leader of the Islamic world, which few Muslim nations are disputing. Likewise, there is also a reason that Saudi Arabia is encouraging people to avoid doing business with Turkey, because she is trying to hold on to her place that Turkey is taking back. Indeed, Turkey is still angry about the murders of Jamal Khashoggi,
Saudi Arabia is building this nuclear plant because she knows what is happening. It has already been noted back in 2019 that Turkey and Saudi Arabia may attempt proxy wars with each other, but this is just a start. Saudi Arabia is desperately trying to create a nuclear deterrent most likely against Turkey, who is already a nuclear power and continues to become stronger, and most assuredly, sits back comfortably as she continues to gingerly sharpen her khazouk that she plans to firmly insert into the Turkish backside and leave hanging in the desert for the sun to torment and the vultures to feast on as she marches to relive the Islamic historical dream in the footsteps of Mohammed by marching as a victor of war into the cities of Mecca and Medina and re-take what they believe is their rightful place as the guardians of Islam and the custodians of the Islamic sacred sites.
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shoebat--2020-08-06--Report: 81% Of Stocks Will Show Negative Returns In The Next Decade

When it pertains to economic matters , I generally do not like to discuss stock prices because stocks are largely useless unless one is playing with large sums of money , and even with that , stocks always have been an “ old boys ” club where old , monied interests support each other for their benefit .
Anyone who doesn ’ t believe that insider trading does not take place is clearly one who lacks experience with stocks , since Insider trading is the name of the game and anything else is arguably for suckers .
Something that stocks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is where general economic trends are headed , and so it is always good to pay attention to them .
Noting this , Zero Hedge reports by way of Pervalle Global that stocks could see an 81 % chance of earning negative returns- economics talk for losing money -as the economy continues to worsen .
The biggest beneficiary of this interplay has been the US equity market , which is evident in return profiles , as over the past 10 years US equities have compounded at 14.2 % per year ( as of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after analyzing the best-performing assets of the decade ’ s past , we find forward returns over the next decade are quite poor , compounding at negative 4.8 % per year , with 95 % of the annual returns following the decade high also negative .
We see this scenario playing out in the US over the next 10 years , as lower growth and lower rates fail to lead to lower volatility and thus higher risk assets .
This is primarily due to the recent multiple sigma move in growth , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the past 10 years , as it forces the excess out of the system .
Additionally , we can envision an environment where the confines of the lower bound force Central Banks to get creative , which as a result would lead to higher rates and higher vol , creating a difficult environment for equities .
While it ’ s been a good decade for US stocks , we can not say the same for the next .
We find additional evidence of this view based on a combination of our forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the past 10 years the market cap of the Wilshire 5000 has grown from $ 7T to $ 31T , which equates to roughly 40 % of total US household assets .
With such a large portion of household wealth tied up in the equity market , the incremental dollars to power the market higher dry up , resulting in a period of very poor returns , as shown below .
We come to the same conclusion on a valuation basis , as the price of the S & P 500 relative to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earnings stream indicates forward returns will also be negative .
Given this backdrop , investors will be forced to turn to the bond market to provide a positive return on capital .
Unfortunately , that too will produce a negative rate of return , as shown by our breakdown of the global corporate and sovereign bond market below .
This would imply that over the next 10 years , 81 % of all tradeable assets ( $ 180T ) produce a negative return for investors , leaving only the commodity and currency markets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( source ) His analysis is very good , and this is all rooted in fundamentals that I have noted before , which is that as income decreases and people can spend less , the flow of money slows , and if the flow of money slows , then less money can be reinvested for people to spend , and so people buy less and stock prices go down as business debt builds and the ability to pay their bills becomes much more difficult .
Indeed , it is very hard to pay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the money coming in to pay them nor can one borrow the money needed to pay them .
As he noted and I highlighted above , the only things that are going to really get any return are either bonds- selling and trading debt -or currencies- selling and trading money -for investment .
But even those are not safe because they assume value being preserved in them for the latter and the ability to service the debts in the case of the former .
What happens when one can not pay debts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
The only way that such an event could happen would be by way of money printing for a long time and a lot of people , resulting in the destruction of the currency but very high stock prices , so good for stocks ?
How could this be good for stocks ?
If one assumes that a higher paper-listed value is good- which many investors do -then in a case of a hyperinflating currency , the values of a stock could rise to millions or billions of dollars .
However , one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at some level , to reflect the prices of real goods , that the goods themselves have also inflated that high .
Thus a stock for Wonder Bread might be a billion dollars , but if a single small loaf costs $ 100,000 dollars , what good is it for the common man , since he can not afford it ?
This is the paradox of the stock market- a currency losing value will artificially drive stock prices high in an attempt to reflect the value of the institution , but only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if nobody can afford the product , it makes no matter what the value is because it is not tied to reality at all .
Not only do such cases clearly lead to ultimate loss long-term for investors , but in the name of “ stability ” , the same governments who set up the conditions for such to happen will often nationalize companies to try and bring civil stability by making them produce goods at a state-subsidized cost .
In other words , it ’ s a repeat of what happened in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same in principle , under the Allende government , except whereas Allende printed money to pay nationalized industries selling goods at a loss that lead to the destruction of the currency , this would be seizing a company after currency destruction to try and distribute goods to ultimately control civil order while also instituting prices controls .
What should be taken from this is that as the economy gets worse , there is a strong chance that stocks , which are already an unstable investment , will become much more unstable and most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any possible gain that one could get from them .
Donate now to help support the work of this site .
When you donate , you are not donating to just any commentary group , but one that is endlessly observing the news , reading between the lines and separating hysteria and perception from reality .
In shoebat.com , we are working every day , tirelessly investigating global trends and providing data and analysis to tell you what lies for the future .
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When it pertains to economic matters, I generally do not like to discuss stock prices because stocks are largely useless unless one is playing with large sums of money, and even with that, stocks always have been an “old boys” club where old, monied interests support each other for their benefit. Anyone who doesn’t believe that insider trading does not take place is clearly one who lacks experience with stocks, since Insider trading is the name of the game and anything else is arguably for suckers.
Something that stocks can teach a person, however, is where general economic trends are headed, and so it is always good to pay attention to them. Noting this, Zero Hedge reports by way of Pervalle Global that stocks could see an 81% chance of earning negative returns- economics talk for losing money -as the economy continues to worsen.
The biggest beneficiary of this interplay has been the US equity market, which is evident in return profiles, as over the past 10 years US equities have compounded at 14.2% per year (as of the recent high). However, after analyzing the best-performing assets of the decade’s past, we find forward returns over the next decade are quite poor, compounding at negative 4.8% per year, with 95% of the annual returns following the decade high also negative. We see this scenario playing out in the US over the next 10 years, as lower growth and lower rates fail to lead to lower volatility and thus higher risk assets. This is primarily due to the recent multiple sigma move in growth, which destroys the foundation for the feedback loop of the past 10 years, as it forces the excess out of the system. Additionally, we can envision an environment where the confines of the lower bound force Central Banks to get creative, which as a result would lead to higher rates and higher vol, creating a difficult environment for equities. While it’s been a good decade for US stocks, we can not say the same for the next. We find additional evidence of this view based on a combination of our forward return models. For example, over the past 10 years the market cap of the Wilshire 5000 has grown from $7T to $31T, which equates to roughly 40% of total US household assets. With such a large portion of household wealth tied up in the equity market, the incremental dollars to power the market higher dry up, resulting in a period of very poor returns, as shown below. We come to the same conclusion on a valuation basis, as the price of the S&P 500 relative to the S&P’s 10-year earnings stream indicates forward returns will also be negative. …. Given this backdrop, investors will be forced to turn to the bond market to provide a positive return on capital. Unfortunately, that too will produce a negative rate of return, as shown by our breakdown of the global corporate and sovereign bond market below. This would imply that over the next 10 years, 81% of all tradeable assets ($180T) produce a negative return for investors, leaving only the commodity and currency markets for some form of capital appreciation. (source)
His analysis is very good, and this is all rooted in fundamentals that I have noted before, which is that as income decreases and people can spend less, the flow of money slows, and if the flow of money slows, then less money can be reinvested for people to spend, and so people buy less and stock prices go down as business debt builds and the ability to pay their bills becomes much more difficult. Indeed, it is very hard to pay a dividend when one does not have the money coming in to pay them nor can one borrow the money needed to pay them.
As he noted and I highlighted above, the only things that are going to really get any return are either bonds- selling and trading debt -or currencies- selling and trading money -for investment. But even those are not safe because they assume value being preserved in them for the latter and the ability to service the debts in the case of the former.
What happens when one cannot pay debts and faith in the currency itself is lost? The only way that such an event could happen would be by way of money printing for a long time and a lot of people, resulting in the destruction of the currency but very high stock prices, so good for stocks?
How could this be good for stocks? If one assumes that a higher paper-listed value is good- which many investors do -then in a case of a hyperinflating currency, the values of a stock could rise to millions or billions of dollars. However, one also remembers since stock prices are intended, at some level, to reflect the prices of real goods, that the goods themselves have also inflated that high. Thus a stock for Wonder Bread might be a billion dollars, but if a single small loaf costs $100,000 dollars, what good is it for the common man, since he cannot afford it?
This is the paradox of the stock market- a currency losing value will artificially drive stock prices high in an attempt to reflect the value of the institution, but only because the money is worthless, and if nobody can afford the product, it makes no matter what the value is because it is not tied to reality at all. Not only do such cases clearly lead to ultimate loss long-term for investors, but in the name of “stability”, the same governments who set up the conditions for such to happen will often nationalize companies to try and bring civil stability by making them produce goods at a state-subsidized cost. In other words, it’s a repeat of what happened in Chile, with some variations but the same in principle, under the Allende government, except whereas Allende printed money to pay nationalized industries selling goods at a loss that lead to the destruction of the currency, this would be seizing a company after currency destruction to try and distribute goods to ultimately control civil order while also instituting prices controls.
What should be taken from this is that as the economy gets worse, there is a strong chance that stocks, which are already an unstable investment, will become much more unstable and most likely, pose far more risk than any possible gain that one could get from them.
print


shoebat--2020-08-06--New Reports From Lebanon Question Official Story On Lebanon Explosion, And Observe That It Was Not C

New Reports From Lebanon Question Official Story On Lebanon Explosion, And Observe That It Was Not Caused By Just Chemicals But By An Ignited Explosive

Military and strategic expert , Elias Farhat , said that the magnitude of the explosion and the shape of the cloud that formed from it , which resemble mushrooms , in addition to the pink color that filled the site , indicates that the explosion “ came as a result of a very large packaging that contains chemicals.
” With regard to the reports that talked about the presence of “ TNT ” explosives at the site of the explosion , the military and strategic expert said : “ The import of explosives in Lebanon is subject to the approval @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noting that the gunpowder and dynamite factories that import such a substance are already in Lebanon , but Under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense .
He explained that if there is a warehouse for such material , it must be in the Ministry of Defense , and the Customs Administration will be aware of its presence in that region .
Farhat noted that the white cloud resembling the mushroom left behind by the explosion means the presence of a large amount of explosives , which exploded at one time .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Farhat , is “ strange ” in this explosion .
He added : “ All the previous explosions in Lebanon resulted in black or white smoke .
As for the pink color , it definitely means that there were chemicals that exploded , as if there were 10 tons of NT , for example.
” The director of the Mashreq Institute for Strategic Affairs , Sami Nader , told Sky News Arabia described the explosion that we saw was “ unparalleled ” .
He added : “ I witnessed many explosions … @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in my life … This is something completely new for Lebanon.
” Nader questioned the preliminary statements of officials that indicated that the explosion was caused by a container containing chemicals .

Military and strategic expert, Elias Farhat, said that the magnitude of the explosion and the shape of the cloud that formed from it, which resemble mushrooms, in addition to the pink color that filled the site, indicates that the explosion “came as a result of a very large packaging that contains chemicals.”
With regard to the reports that talked about the presence of “TNT” explosives at the site of the explosion, the military and strategic expert said: “The import of explosives in Lebanon is subject to the approval of the Ministry of Defense,” noting that the gunpowder and dynamite factories that import such a substance are already in Lebanon, but Under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense.
He explained that if there is a warehouse for such material, it must be in the Ministry of Defense, and the Customs Administration will be aware of its presence in that region. Farhat noted that the white cloud resembling the mushroom left behind by the explosion means the presence of a large amount of explosives, which exploded at one time.
A strange color The pink color, according to Farhat, is “strange” in this explosion. He added: “All the previous explosions in Lebanon resulted in black or white smoke. As for the pink color, it definitely means that there were chemicals that exploded, as if there were 10 tons of NT, for example.”
The director of the Mashreq Institute for Strategic Affairs, Sami Nader, told Sky News Arabia described the explosion that we saw was “unparalleled”.
He added: “I witnessed many explosions … I have never seen such an explosion in my life … This is something completely new for Lebanon.”
Nader questioned the preliminary statements of officials that indicated that the explosion was caused by a container containing chemicals.


shoebat--2020-08-06--Professors Are Cowards And Control Freaks

My thoughts on most professors :

Pakistani Government Signs Law That Would Put People In Prison For Life For "Blaspheming" Muhammad The government of Pakistan just signed a law that could...


shoebat--2020-08-06--Study: More Job Losses And Money Printing Are Coming, And The Stock Market May See A Major Collapse

For those who have been paying attention to the economic numbers and the reports coming out from the US Department of Labor , various independent studies from non-profits , economic data produced by major banks , and the speculations of investors , one may recall that as early as April 2020 there were signs of not just the first round of job losses from COVID-19 , but a second round of layoffs and furloughs .
This fear loomed for about two months amid talk of an economic recovery , and then by June , a significant volume of data on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coming from sources tied to the government ( and far less from private investment houses ) suggested the so-called “ recovery ” reversed as state governors were forced to pause reopenings due to increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths .
It was a major hit to businesses , who were hoping to get back to “ normal ” in order to continue earning profits and to make up for the losses caused by the disruptions from the virus .
Since July , initial and continuing unemployment claims have risen significantly and with no end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I have repeated over and over , that the US is in not the worst employment crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s , but the worst ever in her history for which there is none to compare it against .
Proof of this is found in a study published Tuesday by Cornell Law School Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor , Daniel Alpert , where he reveals the second round of layoffs is becoming more severe as the fiscal cliff begins .
This study , conducted from July 23 to August 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Corporation , shows that 31 % of all employees initially laid off or furloughed because of the virus-induced recession were just recently laid off a second time .
Of workers who were placed back on payrolls after being initially laid off/furloughed as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis , 31 % report that they have been laid off a second time , and another 26 % of those placed back on payrolls report being told by their employer that they may be laid off again .
37 % of respondents employed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) have been laid off/furloughed – at least once – since March 1 , 2020 .
57 % of those initially laid off/furloughed reported being put back on payroll sometime after their initial dismissal , but 39 % of such respondents say they were put back on payroll yet were not asked to return to actual work .
“ The COVID19 Crisis is extremely fast moving – both in terms of the virus and the economy .
RIWI ’ s unique technology has enabled us to obtain a real-time assessment of the impact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Protection Program funds being exhausted and other factors that are critical for markets and policy makers to understand – without waiting for the publication of official data , ” said Daniel Alpert , co-creator of the U.S .
Private Sector Job Quality Index .
“ The RIWI dataset output clearly shows that a substantial portion of the job growth experienced in May and June resulted from anomalies associated with PPP requirements , as opposed to underlying economic strength.
” ( source ) The survey revealed a highly disturbing trend , but one which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is the obvious that I have been warning about is coming , and that is how the second round of layoffs are happening “ in states that have not been experiencing recent COVID-19 surges , relative to those in surging states.
” In other words , if your state is not seeing a notable increase in COVID-19 cases , it is in these states where jobs are being eliminated and people are finding themselves turning to the government for assistance .
One may note the study was conducted over the course of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the study show that it was done quickly but with a wide sampling of respondents , speaking with 10,719 adult respondents in the US and asking a broad variety of questions about layoffs , being on payroll , and who was told various types of information from their employer .
Since most people do not complete these studies fully , it iss of note that almost five-eighths , or a total of 6,383 respondents fully completed form .
So what does all of this data mean ?
As I have been warning , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US labor market amid years of problems .
As the labor market falters and the so-called “ recovery ” hastily declared by state governments “ reverses , ” or perhaps just exposes what always was present , and in combination with government bills and the ability to pay coming to full public realization , how the recent moratorium on rent collection and home evictions ( in the case of mortgages ) expires , until Congress does another round of money printing and sends out another check , August is going to be a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ households .
But the most significant data one can take away from the survey is that there ’ s no “ V-shaped economic recovery ” as some economists have been talking about that will happen in the back half of the year .
In fact , it is arguable , as I have noted before , that round 2 of money printing ( “ stimulus ” ) is just the early stage of the current fiscal fighting match to the death .
Rather , it is very likely that the Trump administration and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dollars more in direct payments to tens of millions of broke Americans lest the economy face a crash in consumption , as the economy is based on consumption and the failure to consume will destroy the US economic machine .
If you are in the top , perhaps ten percent of households income-wise , which is about $ 118,000 or higher , you are going to be fine .
However , anybody below that number- the bottom ninety percent of people- have been financially destroyed .
Now the study found that “ additional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases and deaths will exacerbate the second round of layoffs , but how is this going to be stopped if another wave happens , which is very likely .
One can talk all that one wants , but Wall Street is not Main Streets , and as permanent job losses increase , while stocks continue to ride high , it may be worth looking at pulling out of stocks , since there is the potential for a 1930s-style decline in the stock market .
We are in the worst employment crisis ever , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better .
Donate now to help support the work of this site .
When you donate , you are not donating to just any commentary group , but one that is endlessly observing the news , reading between the lines and separating hysteria and perception from reality .
In shoebat.com , we are working every day , tirelessly investigating global trends and providing data and analysis to tell you what lies for the future .
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW OUR NEW SHOEBAT FACEBOOK PAGE

For those who have been paying attention to the economic numbers and the reports coming out from the US Department of Labor, various independent studies from non-profits, economic data produced by major banks, and the speculations of investors, one may recall that as early as April 2020 there were signs of not just the first round of job losses from COVID-19, but a second round of layoffs and furloughs. This fear loomed for about two months amid talk of an economic recovery, and then by June, a significant volume of data on the U.S. economy, much of it coming from sources tied to the government (and far less from private investment houses) suggested the so-called “recovery” reversed as state governors were forced to pause reopenings due to increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths. It was a major hit to businesses, who were hoping to get back to “normal” in order to continue earning profits and to make up for the losses caused by the disruptions from the virus.
Since July, initial and continuing unemployment claims have risen significantly and with no end in sight, suggesting again, as I have repeated over and over, that the US is in not the worst employment crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but the worst ever in her history for which there is none to compare it against.
Proof of this is found in a study published Tuesday by Cornell Law School Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor, Daniel Alpert, where he reveals the second round of layoffs is becoming more severe as the fiscal cliff begins. This study, conducted from July 23 to August 1 under the supervision of Alpert and RIWI Corporation, shows that 31% of all employees initially laid off or furloughed because of the virus-induced recession were just recently laid off a second time.
…the survey determined three salient points: Of workers who were placed back on payrolls after being initially laid off/furloughed as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis, 31% report that they have been laid off a second time, and another 26% of those placed back on payrolls report being told by their employer that they may be laid off again. 37% of respondents employed by third-party employers (i.e. not self-employed) have been laid off/furloughed – at least once – since March 1, 2020. 57% of those initially laid off/furloughed reported being put back on payroll sometime after their initial dismissal, but 39% of such respondents say they were put back on payroll yet were not asked to return to actual work. “The COVID19 Crisis is extremely fast moving – both in terms of the virus and the economy. RIWI’s unique technology has enabled us to obtain a real-time assessment of the impact on the US employment situation of Payroll Protection Program funds being exhausted and other factors that are critical for markets and policy makers to understand – without waiting for the publication of official data,” said Daniel Alpert, co-creator of the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index. “The RIWI dataset output clearly shows that a substantial portion of the job growth experienced in May and June resulted from anomalies associated with PPP requirements, as opposed to underlying economic strength.” (source)
The survey revealed a highly disturbing trend, but one which I am not surprised to see, which is the obvious that I have been warning about is coming, and that is how the second round of layoffs are happening “in states that have not been experiencing recent COVID-19 surges, relative to those in surging states.” In other words, if your state is not seeing a notable increase in COVID-19 cases, it is in these states where jobs are being eliminated and people are finding themselves turning to the government for assistance.
One may note the study was conducted over the course of a week, but the details on the study show that it was done quickly but with a wide sampling of respondents, speaking with 10,719 adult respondents in the US and asking a broad variety of questions about layoffs, being on payroll, and who was told various types of information from their employer. Since most people do not complete these studies fully, it iss of note that almost five-eighths, or a total of 6,383 respondents fully completed form.
So what does all of this data mean? As I have been warning, we are seeing the collapse of the US labor market amid years of problems. As the labor market falters and the so-called “recovery” hastily declared by state governments “reverses,” or perhaps just exposes what always was present, and in combination with government bills and the ability to pay coming to full public realization, how the recent moratorium on rent collection and home evictions (in the case of mortgages) expires, until Congress does another round of money printing and sends out another check, August is going to be a very financially difficult month for many American households.
But the most significant data one can take away from the survey is that there’s no “V-shaped economic recovery” as some economists have been talking about that will happen in the back half of the year. In fact, it is arguable, as I have noted before, that round 2 of money printing (“stimulus”) is just the early stage of the current fiscal fighting match to the death. Rather, it is very likely that the Trump administration and Congress will need to pass trillions of dollars more in direct payments to tens of millions of broke Americans lest the economy face a crash in consumption, as the economy is based on consumption and the failure to consume will destroy the US economic machine.
If you are in the top, perhaps ten percent of households income-wise, which is about $118,000 or higher, you are going to be fine. However, anybody below that number- the bottom ninety percent of people- have been financially destroyed.
Now the study found that “additional economic shutdowns” due to rising virus cases and deaths will exacerbate the second round of layoffs, but how is this going to be stopped if another wave happens, which is very likely. One can talk all that one wants, but Wall Street is not Main Streets, and as permanent job losses increase, while stocks continue to ride high, it may be worth looking at pulling out of stocks, since there is the potential for a 1930s-style decline in the stock market.
We are in the worst employment crisis ever, and it is not going to get better.
print


shoebat--2020-08-07--Yes, There Are Traditionalist Catholics Who Are Nazis

Some of my experiences with trad Catholics who are Nazis :


shoebat--2020-08-07--The Explosion In Lebanon Is Only Pushing The Country Further Into A Revolution That Has Been Going O

The Explosion In Lebanon Is Only Pushing The Country Further Into A Revolution That Has Been Going On Since October

Since October of 2019 , the political atmosphere of Lebanon has been one of revolution .
The Beirut explosion has been the tipping point in favor of anti-government emotions and revolt .
Half of Beirut has been destroyed or damaged .
300,000 people are now homeless .
Lebanon ’ s main grain silo was also destroyed , and that means that the country only has a month ’ s worth of grain left and will have to rely on foreign imports of grain .
The country is an extremely devastated state .
And this means that it is in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were protests outside of parliament buildings in Lebanon in which demonstrators cried “ Revolution !
” As we read from Fox News : The French ( a people whose history is most famous for revolution ) visited Lebanon , with Macron being met with the cries of “ Revolution ” from the Lebanese people who want France to intervene in their country .
As we read in a report from Yahoo !
News : “ Macron , wearing a black tie in mourning and flanked by security guards , promised to send more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while those around him chanted “ Revolution ” ” .
A high school student even asked Macron to intervene in Lebanese politics : “ Please mandate or reverse this political system that ’ s closed on itself .
We don ’ t know how to topple it .
You have the power to do it .
Please help us.
” The explosion has served as the final straw , pushing the country closer to the brink of violent revolution .
Since 2013 , the Lebanese government knew that there were 2,750 tons ammonium @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet nothing was done .
This fact is only fueling the fires of revolution .
The masses in Lebanon see the explosion as — in the words of the New York Times , “ the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by the country ’ s politicians.
” You can see these sentiments in the streets of Lebanon .
Nada Chemali , a business owner whose home was destroyed in the blast , exhorted her countrymen to get right in the faces of the “ big ones ” she accused of pushing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their homes !
” she shouted .
“ Who from the big ones is going to help us ?
” she yelled .
“ Who is going to reimburse us ?
” To further demonstrate how lacking and diminished Lebanon is , there is a shortage of medical supplies , making it even more difficult to help the victims of this horrendous blast .
“ We need everything to hospitalize the victims , and there is an acute shortage of everything , ” said Hamad Hassan , Lebanon ’ s health minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hospital was devastated by the explosion .
The blast pushed patients from their beds , took the life of a nurse and broke the legs of another nurse who was in charge of the operating room , according Dr. Joseph Elias , the head of the cardiology department .
He estimated that the hospital has more than $ 5 million in damages .
“ All the elevators are broken , all the respirators , all the monitors , all the doors — everything is destroyed , ” he said .
“ It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are still here.
” “ We aren ’ t expecting any support because there is no state , ” said Tony Toufic , a hospital engineer .
Saint George Hospital University Medical Center , which had been operating in Lebanon for more than a century , including throughout the civil war , was also forced to shut down .
According to Dr. Alexandre Nehme , four of the hospital ’ s nurses and at least 13 patients were killed in the blast .
Survivors had to be evacuated in the pitch dark due @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while new patients wounded in the blast were coming to the hospital and hoping for treatment .
“ This is as bad as Sept. 11 , ” said Dr. Raja Ashou , head of radiology .
“ For us , it is like that.
” The greatest destruction was on the Mediterranean waterfront and in the residential districts near the port .
The impact of the explosion sparked rippling shockwaves that blasted windows miles away overlooking the hills above Beirut .
Adjacent to Beirut ’ s downtown area , windows of prized hotels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the wind .
These hotels were esteemed as the prize of Lebanon , a demonstration of the country rising above the ashes of its civil-war .
Now they lie diminished and ruined .
People have been picking up debris and rubble , cleaning out the dirt , and the blood .
Roger Matar , whose family ’ s apartment was devastated in the blast , expressed the anger of the city against the country ’ s officials : The revolution began in 2019 , when protestors — angry about corruption and taxes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Saad Hariri .
But the rage was not abated ; it has only gotten worse .
Lebanon ’ s currency lost over 80 % of its value , and to make things worse , Coronavirus invaded the earth , and lockdown measures were imposed , making the economy even worse .
Anger against the government was over corruption and the lack of financial help for citizens .
This explosion — which erupted from over 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate sitting in a port , ignored by officials — is serving as the greatest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of its people .
The thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate came to Lebanon in 2013 by way of a Russian owned ship called the MV Rhosus .
The ship was heading towards Mozambique from Batumi , Georgia , but it was going to stop at Greece for supplies .
But the owner of the ship , Igor Grechushkin , did not have enough funds to pay the toll at the Suez Canal .
The Rhosus stopped at the Beirut port on November of 2013 and was deemed unseaworthy by the port ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forbidden to set sail .
A Lebanese court ordered that cargo be confiscated , and the nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate were parked into the port in November of 2014 .
For the next six years , port officials repeatedly asked the judge to find a way to get rid of the chemical .
In a 2016 letter , they cited “ the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate ” and asked that it be dealt with “ to preserve the safety of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defense , the director general of the port of Beirut , Hassan Kraytem , explained : “ We knew they were hazardous materials , but not to that extent ” .
The unrest in Lebanon begins in October of 2019 , in what is known as the October Revolution .
The protests and unrest began over government taxation on gasoline ( like what happened in France with the Yellow Vest movement ) , tobacco and Whatsapp calls .
But the cause of the protest movement shifted against things like Lebanon ’ s sectarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 46 % in 2018 ) terrible economy and immense government corruption .
Lebanon ’ s infrastructure is also very poor .
You don ’ t get guaranteed 24 hour electricity in Lebanon , which means that the people have had to rely on the “ generator mafia ” .
Lebanon also has not had access to drinkable tap water since the civil war ( which lasted from 1975-1990 ) and has had to drink only from bottled water .
Moreover , the country has a terrible problem with sewage and garbage , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” that sparked the 2015-16 protests .
At the heart of Lebanon ’ s unrest is the heavily sectarian character of its society , and the loyalties to foreign powers coming out of the major sects of the country .
You have the Sunnis who love Turkey , the Shiites who love Iran and the Maronite Christians who love France .
Each of these religious groups serve as almost like satellites towards the foreign power they revere .
Lebanon is under a sectarian form of government in which political authority is given based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Lebanese protests has been traced to a number of fires that hit the regions of Chouf and Saadiyat .
The fires devastated homes and burned to crisp black beautiful greenery that the Lebanese people have taken pride in .
The Lebanese government did not send planes to extinguish the fires and had to rely on aid from Cyprus , Turkey , Jordan , and Greece .
The decade of the 2010s saw Lebanon ’ s economy go through continual decline .
By 2019 , Lebanon ’ s GDP reached its lowest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt-to-GDP ratio of 151 % , its highest since 2008 .
2019 saw Lebanon go through a dollar shortage , leading the coalition government of Saad Hariri to impose an austerity program consisting of a general tax increase and spending reductions .
The goal in mind was to reduce the government deficit while maintaining the peg against the US dollar .
Reducing its national deficit was a stipulation that Lebanon had to agree upon in order to get a package of USD 10.2 billion of loans and USD 860 million of grants agreed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ European Bank for Reconstruction and Development , and Saudi Arabia .
October 17th of 2019 , there was a cabinet session held in which the government proposed methods to increase state revenue for 2020 .
The media reported something that sparked the protests that we have been seeing to today : the government wanted to do a $ 0.20 tax on phone calls made through online platforms such as Facebook , FaceTime and WhatsApp , which are the main means of calling Lebanese citizens .
This was a major spark that fueled the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests began on the day the reforms were reported on .
It began with just about one hundred protestors in downtown Beirut , who began blocking streets .
The Minister of Higher Education , Akram Chehayeb , and his convoy , passed by the area when protestors surrounded his car .
His bodyguards responded by firing rounds in the air , which only exasperated the crowd ’ s anger .
Larger crowds appeared in Martyrs Square , Nejmeh Square and Hamra Street , as well as other regions in Lebanon .
The Minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the “ WhatsApp tax ” idea had been trashed .
But this did not abate the masses .
Political offices started to get attacked .
On October 18th , the day after the WhatsApp Tax was reported and subsequently scrapped , protestors in Nabatiyeh and Tripoli attacked the offices of Hezbollah ( Shiite ) , Amal Movement ( Shiite ) and the Free Patriotic Movement ( Christian nationalist ) .
A mob of protestors wanted to stampede through the Parliament building , but were repulsed by tear grass .
Protestors set up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on fire to block access as an expression of outrage against government corruption .
On October 19th , Hassan Nasrallah , the General Secretary of Hezbollah , addressed the country by expressing disapproval of the taxes but at the same time encouraging the people to not be angry with the Hariri government , but rather the previous administration .
A Christian party called Lebanese Forces ( formerly a militia during the Lebanese Civil War ) , which held several positions in the government , announced its resignation from the cabinet .
On October @ @ @ @ @ @ @ press conference announcing multiple reforms such as cutting the politicians ’ salaries by half , reducing the deficit by half in 2020 , giving financial help to families in poverty and giving $ 160 million in housing loans .
None of these were able to quell the mob .
That evening , numerous men in motorcycles holding up the flags of Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal Movement began heading towards the protests , but were stopped by Lebanese soldiers .
Hezbollah and Amal denied having any involvement in this .
The protestors were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point that they refused to have any dialogue with the state until the whole government resigned .
President Aoun asked for dialogue , but this was met with more road blocks .
Hezbollah militants , in support of the government , began to have scuffles on the streets with protestors .
These fighters also began to exclaim their support for Hezbollah in the streets .
Nasrallah made a speech in the meeting calling for his supporters to leave the streets.In the same speech Nasrallah praised the protestors for getting the government to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the protestors were being used by local and foreign agents as part of a strategy of tension to spark a civil war .
“ In view of the difficult financial , economic and living situation in the country , in view of security and political tensions that are prevailing in the region … a vacuum will lead to chaos , to collapse , ” Nasrallah said .
He went on to explain : “ I am afraid that there are those who want to take our country and generate social , security and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civil war ” .
On October 29th , Hezbollah and Amal militants attacked protestors in Beirut , overrunning and chasing them away , as we read in a report from N World : A group of men shouting Hezbollah and Amal Movement slogans attacked protesters and overrun a sit-in blocking a major highway before chasing the demonstrators down the hill to Martyrs ’ Square and destroying the 13 day-old sit-in .
The group of a few hundred men charged and attacked protesters on the ring-road that connects east and west Beirut before breaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Square where they pulled down tents , smashed chairs and tore down stages at the centre of the national protest against the government .
As their numbers swelled , the army was deployed to push them out of downtown but hundreds headed down the road towards the prime minister ’ s office at Riad Al Solh where a few hundred protesters were still gathered.
” On October 31st , President Aoun did a speech expressing his commitment to fighting corruption .
This did not abate the crowd , as demonstrators blocked roads in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tires and huge numbers of people .
Thousands of people gathered together to protest in Al-Nour Square in Beirut .
The Lebanese Army and riot police had to be deployed across the country in order to maintain peace .
These protests have been taking place for months .
This explosion just made everything a lot worse and is tipping the country further and further into revolt and revolution , and possible violence .
If protests have gone on for this long over taxes and unemployment , imagine what this explosion will be a @ @ @

By Theodore Shoebat
Since October of 2019, the political atmosphere of Lebanon has been one of revolution. The Beirut explosion has been the tipping point in favor of anti-government emotions and revolt. Half of Beirut has been destroyed or damaged. 300,000 people are now homeless. Lebanon’s main grain silo was also destroyed, and that means that the country only has a month’s worth of grain left and will have to rely on foreign imports of grain. The country is an extremely devastated state. And this means that it is in the atmosphere of revolution.
Just recently there were protests outside of parliament buildings in Lebanon in which demonstrators cried “Revolution!” As we read from Fox News:
“Anti-government demonstrators clashed with police outside of parliament buildings Thursday, shouting “revolution” as residents blamed the devastating blast in Beirut’s port Tuesday on government negligence. The protests were reminiscent of previous anti-corruption demonstrations that took place in October 2019. … Lebanese forces deployed tear gas and pepper on crowds of demonstrators while protesters threw rocks and set small fires throughout the city.”
The French (a people whose history is most famous for revolution) visited Lebanon, with Macron being met with the cries of “Revolution” from the Lebanese people who want France to intervene in their country. As we read in a report from Yahoo! News: “Macron, wearing a black tie in mourning and flanked by security guards, promised to send more medical and other aid to Lebanon, while those around him chanted “Revolution””. A high school student even asked Macron to intervene in Lebanese politics: “Please mandate or reverse this political system that’s closed on itself. We don’t know how to topple it. You have the power to do it. Please help us.”
The explosion has served as the final straw, pushing the country closer to the brink of violent revolution.
Since 2013, the Lebanese government knew that there were 2,750 tons ammonium nitrate in the Beirut port, and yet nothing was done. This fact is only fueling the fires of revolution. The masses in Lebanon see the explosion as — in the words of the New York Times, “the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by the country’s politicians.” You can see these sentiments in the streets of Lebanon. Nada Chemali, a business owner whose home was destroyed in the blast, exhorted her countrymen to get right in the faces of the “big ones” she accused of pushing her country to ruin. “Go to their homes!” she shouted. “Who from the big ones is going to help us?” she yelled. “Who is going to reimburse us?” To further demonstrate how lacking and diminished Lebanon is, there is a shortage of medical supplies, making it even more difficult to help the victims of this horrendous blast. “We need everything to hospitalize the victims, and there is an acute shortage of everything,” said Hamad Hassan, Lebanon’s health minister.
A small Catholic hospital called Rosary Hospital was devastated by the explosion. The blast pushed patients from their beds, took the life of a nurse and broke the legs of another nurse who was in charge of the operating room, according Dr. Joseph Elias, the head of the cardiology department. He estimated that the hospital has more than $5 million in damages. “All the elevators are broken, all the respirators, all the monitors, all the doors — everything is destroyed,” he said. “It is just the walls of the hospital that are still here.” “We aren’t expecting any support because there is no state,” said Tony Toufic, a hospital engineer.
Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, which had been operating in Lebanon for more than a century, including throughout the civil war, was also forced to shut down. According to Dr. Alexandre Nehme, four of the hospital’s nurses and at least 13 patients were killed in the blast. Survivors had to be evacuated in the pitch dark due to the electricity being cut off, while new patients wounded in the blast were coming to the hospital and hoping for treatment. “This is as bad as Sept. 11,” said Dr. Raja Ashou, head of radiology. “For us, it is like that.”
The greatest destruction was on the Mediterranean waterfront and in the residential districts near the port. The impact of the explosion sparked rippling shockwaves that blasted windows miles away overlooking the hills above Beirut. Adjacent to Beirut’s downtown area, windows of prized hotels are seen shattered, their curtains waving in the wind. These hotels were esteemed as the prize of Lebanon, a demonstration of the country rising above the ashes of its civil-war. Now they lie diminished and ruined. People have been picking up debris and rubble, cleaning out the dirt, and the blood. Roger Matar, whose family’s apartment was devastated in the blast, expressed the anger of the city against the country’s officials:
“The banks are holding our money, and if you need to pay workers, you need cash … It should be the government that helps, but they are bankrupt. The country is broken.”
The revolution began in 2019, when protestors — angry about corruption and taxes — eventually toppled the prime minister, Saad Hariri. But the rage was not abated; it has only gotten worse. Lebanon’s currency lost over 80% of its value, and to make things worse, Coronavirus invaded the earth, and lockdown measures were imposed, making the economy even worse. Anger against the government was over corruption and the lack of financial help for citizens. This explosion — which erupted from over 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate sitting in a port, ignored by officials — is serving as the greatest manifestation of government indifference for the safety of its people.
The thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate came to Lebanon in 2013 by way of a Russian owned ship called the MV Rhosus. The ship was heading towards Mozambique from Batumi, Georgia, but it was going to stop at Greece for supplies. But the owner of the ship, Igor Grechushkin, did not have enough funds to pay the toll at the Suez Canal. The Rhosus stopped at the Beirut port on November of 2013 and was deemed unseaworthy by the port’s state control, and it was forbidden to set sail. A Lebanese court ordered that cargo be confiscated, and the nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate were parked into the port in November of 2014. For the next six years, port officials repeatedly asked the judge to find a way to get rid of the chemical. In a 2016 letter, they cited “the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate” and asked that it be dealt with “to preserve the safety of the port and its workers.” In his defense, the director general of the port of Beirut, Hassan Kraytem, explained: “We knew they were hazardous materials, but not to that extent”.
The unrest in Lebanon begins in October of 2019, in what is known as the October Revolution. The protests and unrest began over government taxation on gasoline (like what happened in France with the Yellow Vest movement), tobacco and Whatsapp calls. But the cause of the protest movement shifted against things like Lebanon’s sectarian rule, unemployment (which was at 46% in 2018) terrible economy and immense government corruption. Lebanon’s infrastructure is also very poor. You don’t get guaranteed 24 hour electricity in Lebanon, which means that the people have had to rely on the “generator mafia”. Lebanon also has not had access to drinkable tap water since the civil war (which lasted from 1975-1990) and has had to drink only from bottled water. Moreover, the country has a terrible problem with sewage and garbage, which led to the 2015 “garbage crises” that sparked the 2015-16 protests.
At the heart of Lebanon’s unrest is the heavily sectarian character of its society, and the loyalties to foreign powers coming out of the major sects of the country. You have the Sunnis who love Turkey, the Shiites who love Iran and the Maronite Christians who love France. Each of these religious groups serve as almost like satellites towards the foreign power they revere. Lebanon is under a sectarian form of government in which political authority is given based on religious affiliation.
The origins story of the Lebanese protests has been traced to a number of fires that hit the regions of Chouf and Saadiyat. The fires devastated homes and burned to crisp black beautiful greenery that the Lebanese people have taken pride in. The Lebanese government did not send planes to extinguish the fires and had to rely on aid from Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan, and Greece.
The decade of the 2010s saw Lebanon’s economy go through continual decline. By 2019, Lebanon’s GDP reached its lowest point since 2008, and had a debt-to-GDP ratio of 151%, its highest since 2008. 2019 saw Lebanon go through a dollar shortage, leading the coalition government of Saad Hariri to impose an austerity program consisting of a general tax increase and spending reductions. The goal in mind was to reduce the government deficit while maintaining the peg against the US dollar. Reducing its national deficit was a stipulation that Lebanon had to agree upon in order to get a package of USD 10.2 billion of loans and USD 860 million of grants agreed in 2018 with the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Saudi Arabia.
October 17th of 2019, there was a cabinet session held in which the government proposed methods to increase state revenue for 2020. The media reported something that sparked the protests that we have been seeing to today: the government wanted to do a $0.20 tax on phone calls made through online platforms such as Facebook, FaceTime and WhatsApp, which are the main means of calling Lebanese citizens. This was a major spark that fueled the fumes that were already smoldering.
The protests began on the day the reforms were reported on. It began with just about one hundred protestors in downtown Beirut, who began blocking streets. The Minister of Higher Education, Akram Chehayeb, and his convoy, passed by the area when protestors surrounded his car. His bodyguards responded by firing rounds in the air, which only exasperated the crowd’s anger. Larger crowds appeared in Martyrs Square, Nejmeh Square and Hamra Street, as well as other regions in Lebanon. The Minister of Telecommunications, Mohamad Choucair, announced that the “WhatsApp tax” idea had been trashed. But this did not abate the masses. Political offices started to get attacked. On October 18th, the day after the WhatsApp Tax was reported and subsequently scrapped, protestors in Nabatiyeh and Tripoli attacked the offices of Hezbollah (Shiite), Amal Movement (Shiite) and the Free Patriotic Movement (Christian nationalist). A mob of protestors wanted to stampede through the Parliament building, but were repulsed by tear grass. Protestors set up roadblocks and set tires and trash cans on fire to block access as an expression of outrage against government corruption.
On October 19th, Hassan Nasrallah, the General Secretary of Hezbollah, addressed the country by expressing disapproval of the taxes but at the same time encouraging the people to not be angry with the Hariri government, but rather the previous administration. A Christian party called Lebanese Forces (formerly a militia during the Lebanese Civil War), which held several positions in the government, announced its resignation from the cabinet. On October 21st, Prime Minister Hariri convened a press conference announcing multiple reforms such as cutting the politicians’ salaries by half, reducing the deficit by half in 2020, giving financial help to families in poverty and giving $160 million in housing loans. None of these were able to quell the mob. That evening, numerous men in motorcycles holding up the flags of Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal Movement began heading towards the protests, but were stopped by Lebanese soldiers. Hezbollah and Amal denied having any involvement in this.
The protestors were enraged at the government, to the point that they refused to have any dialogue with the state until the whole government resigned. President Aoun asked for dialogue, but this was met with more road blocks. Hezbollah militants, in support of the government, began to have scuffles on the streets with protestors. These fighters also began to exclaim their support for Hezbollah in the streets. Nasrallah made a speech in the meeting calling for his supporters to leave the streets.In the same speech Nasrallah praised the protestors for getting the government to make economic reforms, but he warned that the protestors were being used by local and foreign agents as part of a strategy of tension to spark a civil war. “In view of the difficult financial, economic and living situation in the country, in view of security and political tensions that are prevailing in the region … a vacuum will lead to chaos, to collapse,” Nasrallah said. He went on to explain: “I am afraid that there are those who want to take our country and generate social, security and political tensions and to take it to civil war”. On October 29th, Hezbollah and Amal militants attacked protestors in Beirut, overrunning and chasing them away, as we read in a report from N World:
“The tension Tuesday comes on the 13th day of anti-government protests. AP
A group of men shouting Hezbollah and Amal Movement slogans attacked protesters and overrun a sit-in blocking a major highway before chasing the demonstrators down the hill to Martyrs’ Square and destroying the 13 day-old sit-in.
The group of a few hundred men charged and attacked protesters on the ring-road that connects east and west Beirut before breaking through and running down towards Martyrs’ Square where they pulled down tents, smashed chairs and tore down stages at the centre of the national protest against the government. As their numbers swelled, the army was deployed to push them out of downtown but hundreds headed down the road towards the prime minister’s office at Riad Al Solh where a few hundred protesters were still gathered.”
On October 31st, President Aoun did a speech expressing his commitment to fighting corruption. This did not abate the crowd, as demonstrators blocked roads in Sidon, Bekaa and Khaldeh with burning tires and huge numbers of people. Thousands of people gathered together to protest in Al-Nour Square in Beirut. The Lebanese Army and riot police had to be deployed across the country in order to maintain peace.
These protests have been taking place for months. This explosion just made everything a lot worse and is tipping the country further and further into revolt and revolution, and possible violence. If protests have gone on for this long over taxes and unemployment, imagine what this explosion will be a catalyst towards.
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