Egypt – Well Mubarak dealt the people a hand from the bottom of the deck. What is going on now is pretty clever on the part of Mubarak. He never resigned officially and still considers himself President. The military aware of this abolished the constitution to make sure they had power to issue decrees and pass laws without Mubaraks signature. There was no real pledge to hold elections in six months although Mubarak opposition leaders say there is. The military council said that the Mubarak appointed cabinet is to stay in office for six months or until elections. Elections cannot be held until a new constitution is enacted since the old one was abolished. Now things are under martial law and there is no obligation for an election. There are 25 generals that are heavily invested in Egyptian private industry and business and it is suspected that they got their money the same way Mubarak did. The message is do not expect much of an investigation into corruption. Mubarak apparently shifted his wealth from EU banks to Saudi Banks. Saudi Arabia while a member of the G-20 and demanding other countries have Tax Information Exchange Agreements as per the OECD refuses to sign one themselves. Saudi Arabia also has no Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties. In a word they are like a criminal haven. They are a dictatorship and a monarchy yet the USA treats them as a legitimate country. No blacklist for them. So Mubarak fuddled around stalling until he could transfer his wealth to a safe harbor. The Saudis are now complicit is ripping off the people of Egypt and they are not only an ally of the USA but we have troops there to protect them so their dictatorship and corruption can march on freely. Obama is not even embarrassed by these events. Did he warn the Saudis to send the money back to Egypt? No. The Egyptian people apparently got played for chumps. Let's see what they do next. First they will try to reason with the cabinet and military. That is not going to work so let's see what happens next. Curiously Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled with his family to Saudi Arabia. I expect he also sent his billions to Saudi banks as well.

Egyptian workers have staged a general strike on feb. 14 and 15. This has brought Egypt oil and gas pipelines to a standstill. Workers at the Suez Canal are also striking. The media is not reporting this correctly probably to downplay a spike in oil prices if word gets out. There was a Feb. 5th sabotage on a gas pipeline supplying Jordan and Israel. This has not yet been repaired and is costing Israel and Jordan extra millions of dollars a week in excess fuel replacement costs.

House Extends Patriot Act – So much for the Tea Party. Re. Michele Bachmann of Minn. Acts like a patriot and yet she voted to extend the constitution defying Patriot Act. Bachmann is a Tea Party Caucus leader. Once again promise them anything to get elected and give them the same old Federal Reserve Bankster garbage.