*NOTE— I figured out the Audio around the 1:50 mark.
Show Notes
Topic 1: Saudia Arabia is a Problem
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday he plans to approve the sale of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, speaking a day before he hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a day of diplomacy.
“I will say that we will be doing that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ll be selling the F-35s.”
The Saudis have long been interested in Lockheed Martin’s (LMT.N) fighter. A senior White House official told Reuters before Trump spoke that the president wanted to talk to the crown prince about the jets, “then we’ll make a determination.”
Washington weighs weapons sales to the Middle East in a way that ensures Israel maintains a “qualitative military edge”. This guarantees that Israel gets more advanced U.S. weapons than regional Arab states.
The F-35, built with stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy detection, is considered the world’s most advanced fighter jet. Israel has operated the aircraft for nearly a decade, building multiple squadrons, and remains the only Middle Eastern country to possess the weapons system.
The potential sale also comes as Saudi Arabia pursues ambitious economic and military modernization plans under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda. The kingdom has sought to diversify its defense partnerships in recent years while maintaining its decades-long security relationship with Washington.
Saudi Arabia made a direct appeal earlier this year to U.S. President Donald Trump and has long been interested in Lockheed Martin’s (LMT.N) fighter, one of the people and a U.S. official said. The Pentagon is now weighing a potential sale of 48 of the advanced aircraft, the U.S. official and the person familiar with the talks told Reuters. The size of the request and its status have not been previously reported.
Thoughts… Mohammed Bin Salman is a very concerning figure. Saudi Arabia can be linked to so many different aspects of Trump and his circle’s financial schemes. Whether it is WLFI, Affinity Partners, or recent investments in including the sale of EA. The relationships date back to Trump’s first term. The amount of money moving in parallel with Trump-aligned interests is massive. The country is positioning more accurately. MBS is utilizing a substantial amount of capital from its PIF fund to meet the needs of the regime. MBS has stepped in personally at one point, securing a 2 billion investment in Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. The relationship is blurring; we see JPMorgan providing capital to facilitate the EA deal.
The amount of foreign money that is moving courtesy of MBS is a sign that the regime is selling America to the highest bidder, at the very least, callously doing favors for its financiers. This may be a slight to Israel, as they have not helped facilitate the ceasefire in Gaza that Kushner and Trump want to develop the city into New Gaza.
Topic 2: Chile elections likely to be a win for the oligarchy.
SANTIAGO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast is favored to clinch a runoff victory next month despite lagging slightly behind governing coalition candidate Jeannette Jara in Chile’s first-round presidential vote on Sunday.
With nearly all ballots tallied, Jara, the first Communist Party member to be a finalist for the Chilean presidency, was holding 27% of the vote versus 24% for Kast, a tight margin that underscored deep political divisions.
A December 14 runoff will pit those two ideological extremes against each other, as many voters signaled that they were prioritizing crime and immigration over the progressive reforms that defined the last election.
“Change will come,” Kast told supporters on Sunday evening, adding that a “real victory” would come when authorities defeat organized crime, close the borders to undocumented migrants and fix an overburdened healthcare system.
Chile’s rightward tilt would mirror recent leftist defeats across Latin America and it signals growing momentum for right-wing candidates in Colombia, Peru and Brazil, where security fears also loom as key issues. It may also offer the Trump administration an opportunity to build upon the alliances it has forged with rightist governments in Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador.
Parisi was supported by working-class men from Chile’s mining-heavy north - many of them leery of elites and traditional political parties who will likely now opt for Kast given security and employment concerns - and they may push Chile closer to U.S. President Donald Trump, said Claudio Fuentes, a political science expert at Chile’s Diego Portales University.
“Kast will move closer to the right-wing axis of the region and probably establish a close relationship with Trump,” Fuentes said.
Chile is the world’s largest copper miner and a major provider of lithium, a key metal in electric batteries, making it a potentially useful ally for the U.S., though China remains its dominant trading partner.
“If you add up the votes for Kast, Matthei, and Kaiser ... it’s very difficult for Jara to really make a comeback in the second round,” said Claudia Heiss, a government expert at the Universidad de Chile.
The dominance of law-and-order issues has marked a drastic change from the wave of left-wing optimism and hopes of drafting a new constitution that brought current President Gabriel Boric, who isn’t allowed to run for reelection, to power.
Kast, 59, won a second chance with many voters who rejected him in 2021 for being too extreme. He has proposed building a border wall with trenches, expelling all undocumented migrants and deploying the military to high-crime neighborhoods.
“You can ask all the neighbors, even in a small town ... whether they feel safe or not. And most people will tell you they are afraid,” he said after voting in his hometown of Paine, south of Santiago.
Thoughts… The trend of right-wing conservatism across South America follows a key development on the global stage. The control that China has over Rare Earth Minerals is very limiting to the United States tech industry’s growth, particularly in regard to the construction of Data Centers. Chile is a major provider of copper and lithium, and a favorable relationship or a yes man in power in Chile would allow US interests to further leverage another Latin American country to extract resources. This trend is concerning. I am still unsure if this is due to copying the successful method demonstrated in the US to push these groups towards conservatism through immigration fears, and suggesting that loosely regulated markets will somehow make them rich. Even so, I have serious concerns that corporate and United States interests are manipulating elections. Should these elections not go favorably, the United States, Trump, and the Oligarchy would be strangled due to a lack of resources. Furthermore, the crypto market and recent moves by WLFI to tokenize resources like Timber, Oil, etc., need a test market. Willing Latin American Leaders would make the perfect avenue to back these coins with tangible assets.
I have a hard time believing that steps would not be taken to ensure the success of these favorable candidates. This should also put the aggression in Venezuela into perspective.
Topic 3: Head of FEMA stepping down.
Nov 17 (Reuters) - David Richardson, the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is stepping down, according to the Department of Homeland Security, ending a troubled tenure just six months into the job and while the Atlantic hurricane season is still underway.
Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer, is the second FEMA head to leave or be fired since May. He departs amid criticism that he kept a low profile during deadly Texas floods in July that killed 130 people and baffled staff in June when he said he was unaware the country had a hurricane season.
The DHS spokesperson said in a statement that FEMA chief of staff Karen Evans will replace Richardson, and that FEMA and DHS appreciate Richardson’s service.
Richardson’s predecessor was fired in May, after pushing back against Trump administration efforts to dismantle the agency. President Donald Trump has said he wants to greatly reduce the size of FEMA - the federal agency responsible for preparing for and responding to natural disasters - saying state governments can handle many of its functions.
Richardson’s abrupt departure is an ignominious end for an official who told staff when he first arrived in May that he would “run right over” anyone who resists changes and that all decisions must now go through him.
“I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA,” he said at the time.
FEMA has lost about 2,500 employees since January through buyouts, firings and other incentives for staff to quit, reducing its overall size to about 23,350, according to a September Government Accountability Office report.
Thoughts… This is a curious development. I am not sure what it means. The state of FEMA is still a significant concern; the floods in Texas were just an example of what the likely outcome will be in the future. Constant leadership changes further weaken the agency, jobs are being cut, and funding is being diverted to build concentration camps.
The reality is that natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense. We need only look at what happened in Jamaica with Hurricane Melissa. The next disaster is inevitable, and it will make the floods in Texas look mild, of that I am certain.
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