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Chess

Last minute smear? Tillerson reportedly worked with Iran while Exxon CEO

Rex Tillerson
© Daniel Kramer / ReutersRex Tillerson, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be Secretary of State
US oil major ExxonMobil led by the future secretary of state Rex Tillerson did business with sanctioned Iran as well as Syria and Sudan through a European subsidiary, USA Today reports, quoting Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

The sales were made in 2003 to 2005 by Infineum, Exxon's European joint venture with Shell. The US oil company had a 50 percent share in the enterprise, according to SEC documents revealed by a research group American Bridge.

Tillerson, who has was chosen by US President-elect Donald Trump for the post of secretary of state, was ExxonMobil's president and director at the time before becoming CEO in 2006.

According to ExxonMobil, these deals were legal, as they were made by a European company without involving US employees. The company had $53.2 million in sales to Iran, $600,000 in sales to Sudan and $1.1 million in sales to Syria during the three years.

Question

Paul Craig Roberts: Is Trump ceding control to Goldman Sachs or choosing his enemies wisely?

Goldman Sachs
© Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Is Goldman Sachs Taking Control of the Trump Presidency?

Pam and Russ Martens have compiled an amazing roster of present and former Goldman Sachs executives ensconced in the Trump transition team and announced as Trump appointees.

This is discouraging.

On the other hand, the Senate is unlikely to refuse confirmation to Goldman Sachs personnel.

Many people have worked for Goldman Sachs, including Nomi Prins, and Pam Martens worked on Wall Street. Both are effective critics of the big banks.

Some of Trump's most important appointments—State, Defense, and National Security
Advisor—are supportive of his intentions to restore normal relations with Russia, reorganize the CIA, and get the US out of pointless wars. If he can achieve these things or even one of them, it is a victory regardless if he fails to take on the banks.

Comment:


Che Guevara

The Many Victories of Maduro in 2016

maduro
In early 2016,Venezuela's authorities had very difficult problems to solve. Namely, 1) the neoliberal opposition had won the legislative elections of 2015 and controlled the National Assembly, 2) the price of oil, the main export of Venezuela, had fallen to its lowest point in decades, and 3) US President Barack Obama had signed an executive order that declared Venezuela to be an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the US national security and foreign policy".

That is, in three decisive areas (political, economic and geopolitical), the Bolivarian revolution seemed to be playing defensively. Meanwhile, the counter-revolution, both internal and external, seemed to have power at its fingertips.

Furthermore, Chavism had been under media attack since Hugo Chávez had arrived to power in 1999. The negative propaganda had intensified since April 2013 and reached unseen levels of violence after the election of President Nicolás Maduro.

This permanent aggression by the media created and propagated such a level of disinformation about Venezuela that it even confused many friends of the Bolivarian revolution. In particular because, in this "post-truth era", lies, intellectual fraud and deceit aren't sanctioned with any sort of negative consequence, not even in terms of credibility or image. Anything goes, everything that's useful to achieve an end is valid in this era of post-factual relativism, and sometimes not even the most objective facts or pieces of data are enough to disprove false statements. Denounces against this strategy are ridiculed by media as "conspiracy theories", and an obsolete element of an "old narrative" that has no basis.

Stock Up

Defying Obama's pre-Brexit warning, Boris Johnson says Britain 'first in line' for US trade deal

Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
© Peter Nicholls / ReutersBritain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Britain will be "first in line" to negotiate a new trade deal with the US, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said after talks with President-elect Donald Trump's team and senior Republicans.

Johnson, who once quipped he would not visit parts of New York because there was a "real risk of meeting Donald Trump," has been in the city talking to the Trump team this week before meeting top Republicans in Washington, DC.


Comment: Johnson did not actually meet with Trump, who snubbed Boris in favor of others including Asian investors. That does not bode well for Johnson's idea that the UK will be first in line to negotiate a new trade deal.


On his return to London, Johnson told MPs there was a "huge fund of goodwill for the UK on Capitol Hill."

He said there was "a very large measure of understanding that now is the time to do a free trade deal," and said "they want to do it, they want to do it fast."

Info

Daniel Ellsberg hopes Trump and Putin can avoid doomsday scenario

Daniel Ellsberg
© Lance Iversen, The ChronicleDaniel Ellsberg: “I’m against conflict with Russia, so on this one issue, I’m on Trump’s side.”
The freak show that is American politics got even freakier last week. Mercury was definitely in retrograde, as Sean Hannity got up close and personal with Julian Assange, Sarah Palin hailed him as a national hero (and urged people to see Oliver Stone's "Snowden") and Donald Trump, who once called for the "death penalty or something" for Assange, suddenly embraced the WikiLeaks founder as a trusted source.

On Friday, Trump had a sit-down with top intelligence chiefs at Trump Tower, which he proclaimed as "constructive" — the same way a president describes a meeting with an enemy power. But he made it clear he still wasn't buying the spooks' story about foreign interference in an election that he won fair and square, not counting those 3 million or so votes.

The source of all this madness, of course, was the alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election. On Thursday, James Clapper, the director of national "intelligence" — as President-"elect" Trump air-quotes it — appeared before a Senate committee to confirm his belief in Moscow's nefarious interference. Yes, this is the same Clapper who once lied bald-faced to Congress about NSA surveillance of the public. But the Senate, in rare bipartisan frenzy, declared the intelligence chief totally credible this time.

Snakes in Suits

France courts US for top NATO job after UK isolated by Brexit

French soldier with flag
© Massoud Hossaini / AFP
France has been trying to muscle its way into a senior NATO position traditionally held by the UK since Britain voted to leave the European Union last year.

In the most recent chapter in a centuries old history of feuds between the two rival states, France is seeking to prevent a British general from becoming deputy supreme allied commander, a role that has been held by Britain almost continually since World War II.

The move comes as Britain seeks to boost its influence in NATO in a bid to reassure the world that it is still a global player despite voting to leave the European Union.

Comment: France seems to be equating NATO and EU as one in the same.


Info

Britain admits selling 500 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in 1989, some used in Yemen

Cluster bomb
© Reuters
Britain exported 500 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s which may have been used in the current war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, an official report shows. The munitions are now banned under international law.

It is the first time the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed how many of the British-made devices have been exported to Saudi Arabia.

In a letter to the Conservative MP Philip Hollobone, seen by the Press Association, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "The UK delivered 500 BL755 cluster munitions under a government-to-government agreement signed in 1986. The final delivery was made in 1989."

Fallon said the UK had not been able to carry out any surveillance of the weapons until 2008.

Comment: The release of this information isn't damaging to the UK since the reported sale of the cluster bombs occurred well before the Oslo Treaty.


Eiffel Tower

France's Marine Le Pen wants repatriation of car plants a-la Trump

Marine Le Pen
© Jean-Paul Pelissier / ReutersFrench National Front (FN) political party leader Marine Le Pen.
Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been inspired by US President-elect Donald Trump's initiative to repatriate car production. She wants to see manufacturing back in France.

Speaking about Trump's policy on France 2 television, Le Pen said it was "economic patriotism, (and) intelligent protectionism."

"I don't mind explaining to French companies that they can not escape tax that they should be paying in France, that they cannot go offshore without suffering the consequences... A choice has to be made, a choice of patriotism," she said, as quoted by Reuters.

French car makers Renault and Peugeot have big plants in Spain, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Trump has pledged to dramatically hike tariffs on US cars made abroad, as moving production out of the country costs American jobs. The president-elect also praised Ford for scrapping a plan to build a plant in Mexico and Fiat-Chrysler's announcement to create 2,000 jobs in the US.

Socialist Arnaud Montebourg and left-wing independent Jean-Luc Melenchon also praised Trump's policy.

Wall Street

Bank of America warns US-China tension could become major threat to global economy

China US flags
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
An escalation of trade tension between the world's two biggest economies - the US and China - could become one of the major threats to the global economy this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML).

In a report, the bank said the relationship is crucial for the world economy as the two countries have the most power to move global markets. This relationship could be tested in the coming months, depending on US President-elect Donald Trump's agenda, BofAML added.

"It remains to be seen whether the incoming US administration will name China a currency manipulator," analysts at BofAML said.

Trump has repeatedly argued many Chinese policies are unfair, pointing to Beijing's currency manipulation, theft of trade secrets, hacking, lax labor and environmental regulations. He accused China of taking American jobs and depressing wages.

During his election campaign, Trump accused China of manipulating its currency to give its exports an advantage over US-made goods. He threatened to slap a tariff of up to 45 percent on Chinese imports.

In December, President-elect Trump established the White House National Trade Council, to be led by Peter Navarro, who's a hard-line critic of China.

Comment: Open sesame? Trump met with Alibaba CEO Jack Ma to discuss creating 1mn US jobs


USA

Glenn Greenwald rejects the idea that questioning intelligence community makes you unpatriotic, better to use conventional wisdom

Greenwald
During an appearance on CNN's Reliable Sources today, Glenn Greenwald told Brian Stelter that he believes it's "certainly plausible" that Russia may have intervened in the election as a recent intelligence report indicates, "we absolutely have not seen" enough proof that it happened.

He went on to say that the idea that pushing back on the intelligence community's report isn't "unpatriotic." He said that it was once seen as a pretty normal thing to do.

Comment: See also: Glenn Greenwald: Washington Post & CNN are producing Fake News on Russia and Putin