Forgotten About Libya? Short Answer: Gaddafi's Winning..

So Much For Libyan Rebel Oil Exports: Gaddafi Forces Destroy Last Fuel Tanks Under Rebel Control; NATO Land Offensive Now Unavoidable

And so the badly thought out experiment to supply Libyan rebels with a central bank, to be used to fund an "alternative" fuel industry comes to a prompt and fiery end. Reuters reports that "Libyan government forces destroyed four fuel storage tanks and set several others ablaze in rebel-held Misrata, dealing a blow to the port city's ability to withstand a government siege, rebels said on Saturday." Not surprisingly this fits in perfectly with the assumption first postulated by Zero Hedge that Gaddafi will destroy his entire oil infrastructure before letting it fall into "enemy" hands. This likely marks the end of the Libyan rebellion and will force NATO to launch a land offensive or suffer a crushing blow to its already shaky reputation as globocop, especially now that the US is in theory at least, out of the air campaign against Gaddafi. Which means that the boots on the ground are soon coming.
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And while NATO ponders how to best break to the world that it has failed in Phase 1 of the Libyan offensive, it appears that 1.6 million of barrels of oil will be out of the supply system for a long time. Furthermore, with developments in Syria and Yemen getting worse by the day, we are confident that geopolitical worries will once again trump margin hikes, and crude will promptly return in the triple digits within a week.

Tunisia warns Libya over shelling of border town

Tunisia warned Libya that it considered the shelling of a border town Saturday "extremely dangerous" and said it would take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

Close to 100 shells or mortar rounds fell on or near the Tunisian border town of Dehiba Saturday, causing no injuries but doing damage to one house, a Reuters witness said. The shelling sent residents scurrying for safety.

The town has been hit repeatedly by stray shells in recent weeks as forces loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi battle rebels for control of the Dehiba-Wazzin border crossing.

Just because the news isn't covering Libya anymore doesn't mean the Libyan rebels themselves aren't forgetting their countrymen, because they are..

Iran not behind Mideast protests: Mullen

From SpaceWar. And no, Mike Mullen's no lefty freak Iran apologist.  He's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Excerpts:

Iran foments instability in the Middle East but is not behind popular protests in Bahrain and other countries in the region, top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said Monday in Qatar.

"Iran, I still believe, is a country that continues to foment instability in the region, take advantage of every opportunity," But "from my perspective that has not been the principal focus of what happened in Egypt or what happened in Bahrain or any of these other countries,"

"Those are by and large internal issues, as opposed to issues fomented by some external forces," Mullen said, although "there's always concerns in this region with Iran and certainly the US has them as well as all the regional players."
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"As far as Fifth Fleet operations, no, the demonstrations have not had any impact here -- we're continuing to conduct our regular business out here," a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet told AFP on Monday.

In the Qatari capital Doha, Mullen met with Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and army chief of staff General Hamad al-Attiyah.

He's right. Say what you want about Iran, but they didn't provide/provoke the tipping-point influence needed for either uprising in Tunisia or Egypt.  Tunisia fell after years of combination economic hardship, no jobs, a corrupt, nepotistic regime, and no future prospects for its citizens.  Tunisia reached its flash point when a 26 year old self-immolated(who was no revolutionary himself), frustration morphed into rage, and Revolution took hold within the Tunisian collective consciousness.

Egypt's revolution was not only a response to Mubarak's authoritarianism, but it was mostly a food riot extrapolated out to governmental overthrow, brought on by Ben Bernanke.  Thanks Ben!  The Washington Post's analysis is about half right:  Let's do some excerpts:

DOES BEN S. BERNANKE, the Federal Reserve chairman, deserve the blame - or the credit, depending on your point of view - for Hosni Mubarak's plight? Some seem to think so. Last August, Mr. Bernanke announced further Fed asset purchases known colloquially as "quantitative easing II," or "QEII" for short. The goal was to ease monetary conditions in the United States and fuel growth. But cheaper money lowered the costs and raised the rewards of speculating on food and energy, relative to some other investments. The latest rise in commodity prices began around the time of Mr. Bernanke's announcement; expensive food triggered unrest first in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Ergo, Mr. Bernanke undermined Mr. Mubarak - or so the argument goes.

Here's where The Post doesn't go far enough..

Still, Mr. Bernanke was probably right to deny that the Fed is "primarily responsible" for the current price run-up. The spike in wheat prices, which determines the price of bread in Cairo, began before QEII, when drought destroyed Russian crops. (Yes, but QEII exacerbated the crisis to boiling point. The absence of a single(or two, for that matter..)crop/commodity, even wheat, won't necessarily throw a society into chaos.  17 percent yearly inflation on people who make 2 dollars a day?  Now the promise of inevitable starvation, that's the kind of thing that freaks societies out.)  Subsequent floods in Australia have destroyed more wheat. As for other foodstuffs and oil, the continuing rapid growth of investment and middle-class consumption in China and India probably explains much recent inflation - just as it will probably drive future price increases in those goods. (Damn China and India for growing.  Just because their economy's are growing does not mean they're eating That Much More food to cause a significant Global agricultural distortion that would cause double digit inflation.  Yes, their populations are growing, but this cause/effect is too rapid for population increase to be a primary factor.).  Ugh.  Not a mention here as to how commodities traders influence global food prices, so when disaster does strike a crop, traders make much more money while doubling the effects of drought or flood on those who couldn't afford prices BEFORE said drought or flood happened..)

Reforming those misbegotten programs(Involving Sugar and Cotton--my clarification) would probably improve global commodity markets more than abolishing QEII, which ends in a few months anyway. (Bullshit.  The damage is done.  After QEII, will prices magically decrease, or will they stay at the same level/continue to rise as they do during inflationary periods?  My Unicorn says prices will decrease.)

Higher food prices do, indeed, hurt the poor. But the focus should be on alleviating their suffering - not on alleged political effects(Overthrowing their corrupt, misery causing governments IS Alleviating Their Suffering, ya big dumb douche!  Put differently:  Focus on the political effects of food inflation again, led to governmental overthrow, thereby alleviating the people's suffering.  Hey!  We ended up in the same place..). Costlier food all by itself is not destabilizing; there are no food riots in democratic India or the Philippines(Yet.  Yet.).  As Egypt and Tunisia prove, it's the combination of misery and tyranny that's combustible(At present.  Let's check back in December).

Bahrain might be the likeliest candidate for Iranian influence, or it might be the Shia majority is sick of the Sunni minority's oppressive rule.  This might be why:

"In Bahrain, you have the majority Shia, who are oppressed, and the minority Sunnis, who have all the money and all the power. That's a pretty volatile combination."



The extent of the economic divide between the Sunni ruling class and the Shiite majority is shocking, said Toby Jones, an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University and an editor at the Middle East Report political journal, who lived in Bahrain for several years in the mid-2000s.

"Nationally, Bahrain is a very poor country and the wealth that does get created is concentrated in the hands of the rulers and the influential," he said. "… I’ve never seen wretched poverty like I’ve seen in Bahrain."

Factors that spurred Libya's current bloodbath?  Inertia, and Gaddafi as mass murderer are two good guesses, for the moment..  Again, Iran just isn't a factor.  Iran's own protests have been squelched for the moment, so whether Revolution Inertia ultimately spread to Tehran remains to be seen. 

Until any credible evidence actually surfaces regarding Iran's influence on any effected country's problems, all narratives regarding factors should be assumed Internal, not due to External pressures from anyone in Iran.  If evidence points otherwise, I'll revisit my stance.  But right now, no such evidence seems to exist.  

 

Astrology: The Beginning of A Widespread 21st Century Revolution

From Aquarius Papers. Robert Wilkinson breaks down the astrological energies in place during the initial events that sparked the revolutionary movement taking hold in the Mid-East, which began in Tunisia as an altercation between a street vendor and a policeman. Wilkinson uses Dane Rudyhar's Sabian symbols to illustrate more clearly the meaning of not only the house location of individual planets, but the different aspects those planets make to each other, fully fleshing out the implications and meaning of the astrological forces at work. Excerpts:

It is generally known that the beginning of the revolutionary spark began in Tunisia, when police seized a fruit and vegetable cart run by a vendor who then set himself on fire. After that, within 48 hours of the initial incident, crowds gathered, riots broke out, things got out of hand, and a revolution broke out in short order.
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What follows is an examination of the astrological factors in play during the critical moments the morning of December 17 that set up a spark that lit a revolution.
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The initial confrontation occurred "less than an hour" before his self-immolation at 11:30 am. At 10:45 am we see 19 Aquarius (the "forest fire"!) on the Ascendant, so we can assume that the Ascendant of the initial incident was somewhere between 17 and 22 Aquarius.
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The act of self-immolation at 11:30 am shows us 4 Pisces on the Ascendant and 15 Sagittarius on the MC. The ruler of the Ascendant is Jupiter in the 1st conjunct revolutionary Uranus. Jupiter also rules the Sun in the 10th at 26 Sagittarius, a degree of "the flag bearer," a symbol of selfless dedication to a greater collective ideal.
..the Solar degree is where things of "enduring significance... overshadow the more immediate interests or wholely selfish concerns of man, and the emphasis... on the natural supremacy of common ideals over mere individual ambitions." He says this degrees "is the call for a high self-sacrifice... (to) permit the self to realize its transcendental aspirations." The keyword is NOBILITY, and he states "the degree is spiritual exaltation through some dramatic or vital service to all."
..One major revolutionary indicator is the Sun just off the square to Jupiter while still forming one to Uranus. This would definitely indicate things evolving at breakneck speed, where change can happen in a heartbeat.
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It's interesting to note that at the inception of this revolution, Mercury was retrograde at 2 Capricorn, a degree of seeing how violence or wrong use of force damages compassion. This was certainly the case with the policewoman who confiscated the vendor's food, spit on him, and insulted his dead father.
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He goes on to say that 8 Taurus is about "using knowledge and skill" to meet a future event, and "independence of the will of the self from outer circumstances," and the "power to mould life upon the pioneer's prophetic vision." 9 Taurus is a "symbol of the promise which outer life offers to the pure in heart; of immortality through giving of self to the race." We are told it offers us the chance to create "inner happiness in dark hours" through sounding a counter-tone to harshness or barrenness in the outer world. Sounds like Tunisia before and during these events!

And no, Wilkinson is not implying that astrological forces caused the unrest or the revolution in the Mid-East, these were the energies in place at the time of the initial event in Tunisia. They could have been just as easily not acted upon. After all, Free Will is still the most important factor in human events. These energies are part of the Cardinal Crisis and Grand Irrationality, subtle planetary forces that have been around for several years now. This is simply his analysis of those energies at work in relation to recent events, through the event's ending in 2012. Remember, the forces that facillitate great change can also cause great instability. What we just witnessed were examples of both.. Welcome to the birth pangs of the Age of Aquarius!