Puppet Masters
Low export means low production, which means all sorts of problems with regards to the labour and the factories. With factories not working/shutting down and the labourer not able to earn their wages, a labour unrest can take place and spread across the country, causing a massive political crisis and/or an uprising against the Iranian regime. This is the essence of US policies vis-à-vis Iran: regime change. The US withdrawal from the Iran nuke-deal; imposition of sanctions and declaration of the revolutionary guards as a 'terrorist force' have all produced conditions for yet another military conflict in the Middle East.
Reports that China may resort to the embargo have been circulating for weeks. If implemented, the move could be really harmful to Washington as there are almost no alternative sources for the elements that are used in a wide range of industries from high-tech to the military.
"Based on what I know, China is seriously considering restricting rare earth exports to the US. China may also take other countermeasures in the future," Hu Xijin tweeted on Tuesday.
He explained that he'd been "detained with the wording 'threat to national security'" and "banned from entering the country for five years."
Following the incident at Vilnius Airport, Russia's Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that the detention of Sputnik Lithuania editor-in-chief Marat Kasem in Vilnius airport was a gross violation of media rights.
Comment: Sputnik Lithuania is probably the only outlet broadcasting reality-based information in that statelet.
NATO approves!

Heinz-Christian Strache and party member Johann Gudenus meet with the woman in Ibiza
Austria's government collapsed on Monday after a no-confidence motion in parliament ousted Chancellor Sebastian Kurz from power. The scandal began two weeks earlier, however, when German media published a secretly recorded video showing former vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache discussing an illicit deal with a woman purporting to be the niece of a Russian tycoon.

Nearly every government on our third rock from the sun despises the man for bringing transparency to the process of ruling the unwashed masses.
Assange and WikiLeaks revealed the American military's war crimes, the American government's corruption and the American corporate media's pathetic servile flattery to the power elite. So, if you're a member of our ruling class, you would view those as textbook examples of dickery.
In a moment I'm going to list all the ways Julian Assange changed the world by being a dick.
In an evolved and fully realized society, the oligarchy would see Assange as a dangerous criminal (which they do), and the average working men and women would view him as justice personified (which they don't). We would celebrate him even as the mass media told us to hope for his downfall-like a Batman or a Robin Hood or an Ozzy Osbourne (the early years, not the cleaning-dog-turds-off-his-carpet years).
But we are not evolved and this is not Gotham City and average Americans don't root for the truth. Many Americans cheer for Assange's imprisonment. They believe the corporate plutocratic talking points and yearn for the days when we no longer have to hear about our country's crimes against humanity or our bankers' crimes against the economy. Subconsciously they must believe that a life in which we're tirelessly exploited by rich villains and know all about it thanks to the exhaustive efforts of an eccentric Australian is worse than one in which we're tirelessly exploited by rich villains yet know nothing about it.
"Ignorance is bliss" is the meditative mantra of the United States of America.

Noting Iran's proposal for signing a non-aggression pact with regional countries, FM spokesman Mousavi said there is currently no prospect for talks with US.
"Iran does not want to be in an insecure and stressful region," he underlined.
Iran, in the past years, has always reiterated its readiness to sign a non-aggression pact with regional countries in a bid to build trust and confidence, and help eliminate concerns originating from other countries' fear-inducing tactics. Most recently, Foreign Minister Zarif in a meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih in Baghdad on Saturday repeated the suggestion to Persian Gulf states to sign a non-aggression pact. The move was praised by Russian FM Sergey Lavrov as the first step to reduce regional tensions.
Vessels carrying food "were sabotaged and did not leave the ports where they were going to leave," said Maduro during Monday's meeting with party leaders in Caracas. He added that ten boats carrying fuel were also sabotaged.
At a meeting of the United Socialist Party which leads, Maduro also drew a link between the alleged acts of sabotage at sea and the international sanctions against Venezuela, spearheaded by US administration.
During the last 5 months of imperial aggression, we have endured financial persecutions, sabotage and coup skirmishes," Maduro tweeted from his English-language Twitter account.
Comment: Sabotage of a targeted country's infrastructure is a classic tactic made by the CIA, especially in Venezuela:
- At 58th anniversary speech in honor of failed CIA coup in Cuba, Bolton threatens Venezuela, Cuba & Nicaragua with idiotic verbiage
- What we can learn from the CIA's archives on Venezuela
- Venezuela releases video confession of revolting Colonel admitting ties to CIA coup attempt
- Dirty CIA front: The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Venezuela
- The Truth Perspective: Interview with Douglas Valentine: The CIA As Organized Crime
- The CIA As Organized Crime: NGOs, Media Shills, and the Subversion of Foreign Nations Like Ukraine
- Douglas Valentine: The CIA and 70 years of organized crime
Government guidelines allowing authorities to treat such migrants as adults if their physical appearance and/or demeanour "very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18 years of age" are not legitimate and risk "children being unlawfully detained", according to a new ruling.
Asserting that assessing the age of a person based on their appearance and demeanour was "an inexact science", judges ruled by two to one on Thursday that the Home Office guidelines should be scrapped.
Lord Justice Underhill said: "In the absence of guidance as to the width of the margin of error there is inevitably a real risk that immigration officers will place too much trust in their own assessment that a particular young person is 'significantly' over 18."
Comment: So, adult migrants can identify as children and be accepted as such just because they say so. This will no doubt stir resentment and distrust among UK citizens, which seems to be the underlying purpose.
The decisions indicated that Trump will ultimately lose the fights: Both judges in the subpoena cases issued their rulings swiftly and decisively, underscoring the weakness of Trump's legal arguments.
The lawsuits were likely intended as Trump's attempt to delay Congress from being able to obtain the documents, taking advantage of the slow pace of the court system while keeping an eye on getting the cases up to the Supreme Court.
He told Xinhua News that Huawei is keen to boost environmental sustainability on the continent. African cities can adopt modern technology in the area of water and energy use, communications, security and safety improvement, explained Lane.
"Huawei is currently in talks with a number of African cities to promote the concept of smart cities," he said during the Business Leaders Dialogue in Nairobi, Kenya.












Comment: Are Rare Earth Metals China's Ultimate Weapon?