http://www.jrnyquist.com nyquistprod@sbcglobal.net Nyquist Media Sun, 12 May 2007 02:43:21 GMT Tue, Oct 14 2008 03:09:53 GMT webutil 0.5 http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/1010.html Jeff Nyquist In an October 6 article titled The German Question, STRATFOR's George Friedman poured a pitcher of cold logic on America's plan for NATO's future. It appears that Germany is determined to block NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. The long-term implications of this decision are stunning. "Since NATO operates on the basis of consensus," wrote Friedman, "any member nation can effectively block any candidate from NATO membership." The Russian invasion of Georgia has forced Germany into this position. The conflict in Georgia has forced the Germans to clarify their geopolitical thinking. What we see now, quite clearly, is Germany turning away from NATO. They can call it whatever they like. They are thinking as Germans. Russia's thrust into Georgia was a masterstroke because it successfully redirected Germany's political sensibility from a NATO-centered view to a German-centered view. In Europe there is one question that stands above all others, and the Germans must give the answer. Either Europe will confront Russia in a new Cold War, or Europe will become Russia's partner. According to Friedman's logic, Germany has already decided on partnership with Russia. Fri, 10 October 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/1010.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/1003.html Jeff Nyquist It frightens me to hear politicians play the "blame game." Those who blame others for national problems are attempting to focus the hatred of their listeners against a particular person. Most often the person targeted is already unpopular. It is therefore safe to lay everything at this person's door, saying that he is at fault, that he should be punished, that a particular odium should attach to his name. The salvation of the country, therefore, is promoted by vilification. Such is an absurd course which prepares the way for disastrous policies. At the moment we see that President Bush or Vice President Cheney are the scapegoats of the hour. When the Great Depression was underway, several decades ago, President Herbert Hoover was singled out for blame. In Germany the Nazis liked to blame the Jews, who are still blamed for the world's ills by Islamic leaders. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin likes to blame the United States for the world's economic problems, though the Kremlin has always embraced economic stupidity as a matter of state principle. Fri, 3 October 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/1003.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0926.html Jeff Nyquist Our wretched economy of false valuations cannot continue much longer. It is the domestic counterpart of President Bush's past friendship with Vladimir Putin. It is the fantasy world of an everlasting bull market and "successful" government bailouts. The political leadership in America has demonstrated that it doesn't understand economics. They cannot solve the present crisis unless they go back to school and consult the wisdom they have so long neglected. They have built their post-Cold War world on a false boom, on false "partnerships" with enemies. They have permitted a policy of credit expansion without end. Fri, 26 September 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0926.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0919.html Jeff Nyquist I took a break while working on this column and read an email which contained the following phrase: "several U.S. Treasury charts are not unlike what you see before a country goes into default." The email writer noted, "That really would be 'game over' for the United States." If the United States went bankrupt the following sequence would occur: The U.S. government would lose its credibility, the country's currency would fail and imports could not be maintained – especially oil imports. There would be shortages. But the sequence doesn't end with shortages. It doesn't end with mere economic loss. When the financial structure collapses, the national security structure collapses. Then nothing will restrain the military power of Russia and China. Fri, 19 September 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0919.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0912.html Jeff Nyquist Since the end of the Second World War two countries have been referred to as "superpowers": The United States and Soviet Russia. Since the Soviet Union broke apart, America was said to be the "lone superpower." Moscow's power had collapsed. Such was the West's perception in late 1991. Seventeen years later the Cold War rears its ugly head, and many are caught off guard. The defeated Kremlin has put together a new anti-American bloc, including China and Venezuela. This has been long in the making, ignored by a culture of strategic denial in Washington. Fri, 12 September 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0912.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0829.html Jeff Nyquist At least two writers in the 19th century foresaw the advent of totalitarianism. The first was Dostoevsky and the second was Nietzsche. Both writers grasped the intellectual trend of their day. As education advanced, as the human spirit was given new opportunities for understanding, the result was intellectual radicalism. In the 18th century Edmund Burke warned his contemporaries that education without religion or aristocratic principles would turn against mankind. Burke wrote: "Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude." Burke added, "In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but gallows." Overwhelmed with a similar insight, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche updated Burke's lament. In Dostoevsky's novel, "The Possessed", a radical young intellectual advocated a world in which Cicero would have his tongue cut out, Copernicus would have his eyes put out, and Shakespeare would be stoned to death -- in the name of universal equality. Dostoevsky predicted that the radical mentality -- emerging in the 19th century -- would kill 100 million people in the 20th century. Those without vision, without a sense of where the world was headed, disbelieved Dostoevsky's prophecy. Such a calamity could never happen, because the world is not a madhouse. Fri, 29 August 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0829.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0822.html Jeff Nyquist When a civilization begins to unravel, the first action is always internal. It is hidden, spiritual, and unobserved by the public. Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho recently pointed out that Western Civilization has produced more "educated" people than we have positions for. In fact, we've educated them beyond their intelligence, giving them tools too advanced for their character, putting a simple life of contented drudgery out of their reach. In other words, we've mass-produced a horde of impotent wits, angry because their princely education cannot produce for them a princely sum or a kingdom. Fri, 22 August 2008 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/0822.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/radek.html Radek Galis South Bohemian criminologists investigate a group of three professional soldiers of the Tabor based Brigade accused of several crimes. The accused are nevertheless still left at liberty. On the night of 25th-26th April three servicemen from a mechanized battallion of the Brigade of Fast Deployment Forces brutally bashed and cut a young man. Furthemore, they kidnapped him and under death threats they forced him to confess he was a drug and firearms dealer. "Three accused men joined a private party in a Drazice restaurant near Tabor to which they were not invited though," said the spokesperson for South Bohemian Police CR, Jana Kamenikova. Fri, 6 June 2008 23:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/radek.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2007/0914.html Jeff Nyquist Cinematographer Robert Buchar is attempting to put together a documentary feature film about the end of the Cold War and the collapse of Communism in Europe. Its working title is "The Grand Deception — Uncertain History." Based on interviews with former Communist Bloc intelligence officers, CIA officials and scholars, the documentary shows that Communism did not collapse spontaneously. The directive for change came from Moscow. "People power" had nothing to do with it. According to Buchar, "For the last three years I couldn't find any media interested in this topic." Pundits and news anchors told us, again and again, that the revolutions in Eastern Europe were caused by popular discontent. According to conservative partisans, the Soviet Union fell because Ronald Reagan pushed it over. Not so, says Buchar: "The version of events presented to the public is very different from what actually happened." Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2007/0914.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/oilstorm.html Gordon Frisch In the face of rising oil prices the world's largest oil consumer and its biggest economy, is whistling past the economic graveyard. Although latest figures indicate the US economy is growing at a brisk rate, the sheer weight of financial and economic realities can no longer be ignored. The OPEC pipers must be paid. Wed, 09 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/oilstorm.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/navrozov.html Andrei Navrozov The geopolitical history of the last century, in the course of which totalitarianism emerged, developed, and evolved to become the ineluctable lot of mankind that it is today, may be encapsulated in three short sentences. One: Stalin created Hitler. Two: Stalin sicked Hitler on the West. Three: Stalin got the West to become his ally in order to defeat Hitler. Wed, 09 May 2007 21:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/navrozov.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/yellowstone.html Greg Nyquist There may exist, somewhere in the world, a more stunning individual mountain or peak, as there may exist more stunning mountain scenery, but there is no single mountain range that can equal, let alone surpass, the magnificence of the Teton Range.This chain of lofty granite clad peaks rises nearly 7,000 feet from the surrounding plains on the east side of the range, providing a jagged grayish-purple backdrop against the western horizon of awe-inspiring dimensions.The highest peak in the rage, Grand Teton, its summit reaching the lofty elevation of 13,770 feet in elevation, ascends into the heavens like an immense spire or obelisk. Thu, 6 Dec 2007 23:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/yellowstone.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/tetons.html Greg Nyquist There may exist, somewhere in the world, a more stunning individual mountain or peak, as there may exist more stunning mountain scenery, but there is no single mountain range that can equal, let alone surpass, the magnificence of the Teton Range.This chain of lofty granite clad peaks rises nearly 7,000 feet from the surrounding plains on the east side of the range, providing a jagged grayish-purple backdrop against the western horizon of awe-inspiring dimensions.The highest peak in the rage, Grand Teton, its summit reaching the lofty elevation of 13,770 feet in elevation, ascends into the heavens like an immense spire or obelisk. Tue, 8 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/tetons.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/idaho.html Greg Nyquist Although rather hot in the summer and cold in the winter, Idaho can nonetheless be described, in terms of the look of the place, as, in the main, a rather lukewarm state, neither especially beautiful nor especially ugly, but somewhere in between; pleasant, though hardly awe-inspiring. Oh, to be sure, in this corner or that, the landscape may veer off into the striking. Those mountain ranges in the middle of the state, the Sawtooth Range and what not, are rumored to have their share of the picturesque. Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/idaho.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/nevada.html Greg Nyquist For most people heading east out of central or northern California, Reno becomes the inevitable portal through which they must pass. Not a bad city, as cities go, is Reno; not particularly a great city, either: more of a middling metropolis, to tell the truth about it. As Nevada's second largest city, Reno enjoys some distinction as a casino-orientated tourist trap. Between Second and Sixth streets in the downtown area there are ten casinos featuring some 4,000 rooms. For the yokels of northern California, Oregon, Idaho, and northern Nevada, Reno makes sense as the place to go to gamble away one's earnings. What other compelling reason could possibly exist to come to Reno, unless as a stopover on the way to someplace else, I couldn't say. Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/nevada.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/northeastca.html Greg Nyquist The southern Cascades have a trick of sneaking up on you. The terrain gradually and unobtrusively sneaks up toward them. You hardly notice the rise in elevation. One moment, you are passing miles of grassland; the next moment, you find yourself ensconced in an immense forest. Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:00:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/northeastca.html http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/northwestca.html Greg Nyquist A tour of the Northwest America's most splendid National Parks provides an opportunity to get a glimpse of some of the less travelled areas of the country, and take stock at what they may happen to suggest to the passing tourist. In a series of articles, Greg Nyquist provides a series of random, impressionistic observations of what is to be found in the northwestern portion of the lower 48, beginning along California's northcoast. Sun, 5 Aug 2007 17:30:00 GMT http://www.jrnyquist.com/text/northwestca.html http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2007/0713.html Jeff Nyquist It is 1999. You work in an office. It is the office of Russia's FSB (KGB). Your co-workers share a special comradeship, and a special history. Some of the agency's top bosses are linked to organized crime, kidnapping and murder. The kidnappings are a means for siphoning money from Westerners in order to finance Russian-speaking Arab terrorists in Chechnya. The kidnappings are also used to keep certain political players in line. The murders have to do with maintaining the position of hidden structures that supersede the Russian legislature, the national executive and the armed forces. There is nothing unusual in this, because conspiracy is a matter of FSB tradition. Back in 1917, when the organization was first formed, it was called the Cheka, deriving its name from the acronym VChK (Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage). The Cheka was founded by a communist ideologue named Felix Dzerzinsky shortly after the Bolshevik coup of Lenin and Trotsky. In those days, the office had two assignments: (1) to investigate counterrevolutionary elements, (2) to liquidate counterrevolutionaries and saboteurs. In 1917 this mission was out in the open. In 1999 this mission was hidden behind a democratic government headed by an ailing alcoholic named Boris Yeltsin. Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2007/0713.html