Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
U.S. Government Bullies Weak Nations
Rankings of the Nations that have the Richest and the Poorest Inhabitants
The World’s Richest Person Is the Saudi King Salman, at around $2 Trillion
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https://theduran.com/u-s-government-bullies-weak-nations/
U.S. Government Bullies Weak Nations
Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)
Weak nations have long been terrified at the power that the U.S. regime has to destroy them such as has happened most recently with the CIA’s and U.S. military’s efforts ever since 2012 to grab control over Syria’s Government, and such as what the U.S. regime did to Iraq in 2003 and in its ever-continuing military occupation there (all on the basis of lies), and such as it did to Libya, and to so many other weak nations.
All weak nations have been waiting decades for a day to come when they could finally tell American occupying troops in the 900 military bases that the U.S. Government has installed abroad (in addition to the 749 domestically inside the U.S. — an armed camp) to leave their country — to get out. Now that this day increasingly appears to have arrived, both because of Russia’s increasingly likely victory against the U.S. stooge regime in Ukraine that the U.S. Government installed there in February 2014, a larger and larger number of weak countries are doing just that, and are telling the U.S. Government to withdraw its troops from their territory.
One of the reasons why the U.S. Government is becoming increasingly isolated in votes at the U.N. General Assembly is that Russia is winning its war against NATO. Russia’s much-delayed invasion of Ukraine in order to reverse the February 2014 U.S. coup against Ukraine that had forced Ukraine to install an anti-Russia government so as for Ukraine to become a member of America’s anti-Russia military alliance NATO and accept the placement on its territory of a U.S. nuclear missile that would destroy the Kremlin — only 317 miles (5 minutes of flying-time) away from Ukraine, and thus beheading Russia’s central command much too fast for Russia to be able to launch Russia’s retaliatory weapons — will now clearly be won by Russia against America and its colonies (‘allies’). That’s called a “proxy war” because it is actually between Russia and the U.S.’s NATO anti-Russian alliance (which supplies to Ukraine the weapons, intelligence, and command, while Ukraine itself supplies the soldiers and the battlefield). Another of the reasons why weak counries are starting to resist the U.S. empire is that despite the efforts now by Israel’s soldiers and America’s weapons, ammunition, bombs, and intelligence assistance, to either ethnically cleanse all 2.3 million Gazans out of Gaza, or to else exterminate all of them, it is now clear that the reputational damage that this will do, to the U.S. regime in Washington, will be compared increasingly to what the Nazi German regime had been doing to the Jews during WW2; and, so, the global outrage and contempt against the U.S. regime that will result from this will become indelibly stamped upon future history at so deep a psychological level that the U.S. regime will find itself no likelier to propagandize it away than the numerous U.S. empire admirers of Hitler have been able to resuscitate Hitler’s reputation (as having been a German ‘patriot’ whose reputation is bad only because of ‘Jewish and Bolshevik propaganda’ — which Hitler’s regime always claimed to be its enemies).
So, now, increasingly in Africa and other places where billions of poor people are still not yet free of the imperialists and the exploitation that is imposed upon them by the imperialist regime (now America’s alone) internationally, there is a popular movement to “kick the Yankees out” and to free their nation’s Government to become sovereign over its territory, in order to create the basis upon which authentic democracy can develop there. Sometimes this national freedom movement is actually being led by dissident native generals who are so popular among the public, on account of their resistance to the imperialists, as to be able to take over the Government and to order out the U.S. and its ‘allied’ (i.e., colonial) military forces. The most-prominent recent example of this is in the very poor nation of Niger, which is the world’s 7th-poorest on per-capita GDP at $585 annual income per person, and the world’s 6th-poorest on GDP PPP annual income at $1,505 annual income per person. Niger is far poorer even than the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, which is Haiti (which is at $1,748 and $3,306, respectively).
Niger until recently was still under the French boot (France being now itself a U.S. colony), and the first thing that the generals’ revolution did there was to order all French troops to leave. Nigerans were ebullient about it, and marched and celebrated the command against the exploiting foreign aristocracy, to get rid of the foreign aristocracy’s control over Niger. And then, on 15 April 2024, Russia’s RT News bannered “West African nation stages protests against US military presence: Organizers praised Niger’s rulers for diversifying ties with nations, including Russia, that respect the state’s sovereignty”, and reported:
Thousands of demonstrators, including government officials, rallied in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Saturday, demanding the withdrawal of the US Army from the West African nation, which kicked French troops out last year.
The protests took place in support of the Nigerien military government’s decision on March 16 to terminate a military accord with Washington, accusing it of attempting to deny Niamey the right to choose its partners and the types of cooperation that can help in its fight against terrorism. The decade-long cooperation deal had authorized some 1,000 American troops and civilian contractors to operate in the landlocked country.
“We said no to the French; they ended up packing up and going. Today, we say no to the American military presence; they will leave too,” Colonel Ibro Amadou, a member of the military government, told the crowd of protesters, according to state outlet Le Sahel.
Since President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a coup last July, the former French colony’s new leadership has been reviewing cooperation with Western partners that were previously engaged by the overthrown civilian government. Former colonial power France completed its troop withdrawal in December on the orders of Niamey’s military rulers, citing alleged internal interference and a failure to combat Islamic terrorists in the Sahel region. …
It’s interesting that on RT’s Odysee channel, their phrase was “Hundreds of locals demand that U.S. troops leave Niger.” However, what their video showed looked like at least approximately as large a crowd as the one that RT had earlier shown at the successful rally to get the French troops to leave:
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https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/niamey-protest-french-troops:b
'We will be resilient' | Thousands demand departure of French troops from Niger
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https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/niger:5
Thousands demand French troops leave Niger
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https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/niger-rally:9?src=embed&t=20.745462
Hundreds of locals demand that US troops leave Niger
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Apparently, at neither rally was any video taken from the air above the rally, but these ground-level images, at both rallies, are likelier “thousands,” or perhaps tens of thousands, than “hundreds.”
The break-up of the U.S. empire is no longer unimaginable — not only because of Asia’s economies, including both China’s and Russia’s, growing at a much faster annual clip for the past 25 years than America’s and any of its colonies (with the possible exception of South Korea), but because of the clear shamefulness of the U.S. regime’s supplying the bombs and ammunition, and weapons, by which its Israeli colony is now ethnically cleansing (if not totally exterminating) all of the 2.3 million Gazans. That will be a reputational damage which exceeds in its blatancy any of the U.S. regime’s previous evils.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/rankings-of-the-nations-that-have
Rankings of the Nations that have the Richest and the Poorest Inhabitants
Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)
These rankings are not published anywhere, but the data from which these rankings can be calculated are published by the World Bank; and, so, for the first time anywhere, these rankings are being published now, by me, here; and they can easily be confirmed by linking onto the URLs that I provide from the World Bank, from which two pages on the Web, I have calculated and produced these rankings, based on the World Bank’s latest available data:
For each named nation here, the rank will be shown, then the latest year for which the World Bank has data on that nation, and then the dollar amount at the current value of the U.S. dollar.
The two calculations are for GDP in dollars not adjusted for purchasing power in the given nation (this being what investors are interested in); and then GDP in dollars that are adjusted for purchasing power (or Purchasing Power Parity) by the workers and consumers in (all of the residents of) that nation.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
https://web.archive.org/web/20240406095922/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
“GDP Per-Capita (for investors who live there and elsewhere”
HIGHEST
1. Monaco 2022=240,862
2. Liechtenstein 2021=197,504
3. Luxembourg 2022=125,006
4. Bermuda 2022=118,774
5. Norway 2022=108,729
6. Ireland 2022=103,983
7. Cayman Islands 2022=99,624
8. Switzerland 2022=93,259
9. Qatar 2022=87,661
10. Singapore 2022=82,807
11. Isle of Man 2020=79,530
12. U.S. 2022=76,329
LOWEST
1. Burundi 2022=259
2. Syria 2021=420
3. Central African Republic 2022=427
4. Sierra Leone 2022=475
5. Madagascar 2022=516
6. Mozambique 2022=558
7. Niger 2022=585
8. Somalia 2022=592
9. Eritrea 2011=643
10. Yemen 2022=650
11. Liberia 2022=745
12. Gunea-Bissau 2022=775
13. Gambia 2022=808
14. Mali 2022=833
15. Togo 2022=942
16. Uganda 2022=964
17. Rwanda 2022=966
18. Lesotho 2022=969
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https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD
https://web.archive.org/web/20240406195952/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD
“GDP Per-Capita PPP (for workers and consumers who live there”
HIGHEST
[Monaco NOT SHOWN]
[Liechtenstein NOT SHOWN]
1. Luxembourg 2022=146,457
2. Ireland 2022=133,822
3. Singapore 2022=127,606
4. Norway 2022=121,259
5. Qatar 2022=114,049
6. Bermuda 2022 =95,868
7. Switzerland 2022 90,746
8. UAE 2022=88,489
9. Cayman Islands 2022=84,279
10. Denmark 2022=77,953
11. U.S. 2022=76,329
LOWEST
[Syria NOT SHOWN]
[New Caledonia NOT SHOWN]
1. Burundi 2022=836
2. C.A.R. 2022=973
ALL OTHERS ARE ABOVE 1,000, such as (but not here ranked):
Sierra Leone 2022=1,930
Madagascar 2022=1,774
Mozambique 2022=1,477
Niger 2022=1,505
Somalia 2022=1,711
Eritrea 2011=1,628
Yemen 2013=3437
Liberia 2021=1,570
Guinea-Bissau 2022=2,191
Gambia 2022=2,496
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
https://theduran.com/the-worlds-richest-person-is-the-saudi-king-salman-at-around-2-trillion/
The World’s Richest Person Is the Saudi King Salman, at around $2 Trillion
Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)
The Saudi King owns the Saudi Government, which includes the world’s 4th-largest market-capitalization corporation, Aramco, which, as-of 1 April 2024, had a market capitalization of $1.98 trillion, so that if he were to have sold Aramco on that date, then he would have received around $2T for it, and could do anything he wants with that money.
The fact that that corporation is fully controlled by him as being the owner — the absolute monarch — of Saudi Arabia, which includes that asset, does not in any way negate the fact that he owns the entity that owns this $2T asset, and that he therefore is fully in control over it.
As-of today, 15 April 2024, that corporation is worth $1.955T.
Furthermore: None of this is actually news, but no one has published it before, except myself on 16 October 2015, when I reported:
The richest person in the world isn’t anyone in the Forbes list, which excludes calculations for any heads-of-state, but is instead King Salman of Saudi Arabia, whose net worth is in the trillions of dollars. He virtually owns the Saudi Government, which owns the world’s largest oil company, Aramco, among other assets. Aramco alone is worth “anywhere between US$1.25 trillion[7] and US$7 trillion,[8] making it the world’s most valuable company.” The company’s website says: “1980: Saudi Arabian government acquires 100 percent participation interest in Aramco,” most of which it had already owned.
At that time, TIME magazine published on 1 June 2015, “These Are the 10 Richest Royals in the World”, and reported none of them having more than $30B, and among them was:
3. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Former King of Saudi Arabia — $18 billion
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the late King of Saudia Arabia, had an estimated wealth of $18 billion in 2011, according him to Forbes, making him the third richest royal in the world before his death on Jan. 23, 2015. When Abdullah took the throne in 2005, the oil-rich country soon began a $26 billion construction project of a city named in his honor.
Nothing was said about the then-current King, the still-current one, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Nor was Aramco even mentioned, at all.
Moreover, Aramco is only one of the many assets that the King of Saudi Arabia owns. Might his wealth actually exceed $3T? Perhaps — but my 2015 article about his wealth was ignored by all mainstream ‘news’-media, including the ones that focused on billionaires.
On 17 July 2019, Business Insider headlined “Meet the 10 richest billionaire royals in the world right now”, and reported:
3. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia
Net worth:$18 billion
The source of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's wealth comes from his family's ownership of a media group that includes the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat and Al Eqtisadiah.
Now, on 15 April 2024, Forbes online headlines “The World’s Real-Time Billionaires”, and, at the top of it, as being the world’s richest people, are:
RANK NAME NET WORTH CHANGE AGE SOURCE COUNTRY/TERRITORY
1
Bernard Arnault & family
$209.5 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
75
LVMH
France
2
Jeff Bezos
$203.8 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
60
Amazon
United States
3
Elon Musk
$192.7 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
52
Tesla, SpaceX
United States
4
Mark Zuckerberg
$179.4 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
39
United States
5
Larry Ellison
$150.1 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
79
Oracle
United States
6
Warren Buffett
$132.8 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
93
Berkshire Hathaway
United States
7
Larry Page
$131.3 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
51
United States
8
Bill Gates
$129.9 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
68
Microsoft
United States
9
Sergey Brin
$126.1 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
50
United States
10
Steve Ballmer
$124.8 B
▶ $0M | 0.00%
68
Microsoft
United States
Also on April 15th, is the “Bloomberg Billionaires Index”, at the top of which are:
Rank Name Total net worth $ Last change $ YTD change Country / Region
1 Bernard Arnault $215B -$4.03B +$7.18B France
2 Jeff Bezos $208B -$2.69B +$31.4B United States
3 Elon Musk $185B -$2.54B -$44.0B United States
4 Mark Zuckerberg $182B -$3.86B +$53.5B United States
5 Bill Gates $152B -$847M +$10.8B United States
6 Steve Ballmer $146B -$1.92B +$15.0B United States
7 Larry Page $142B -$1.23B +$15.3B United States
8 Sergey Brin $135B -$1.15B +$14.6B United States
9 Larry Ellison $135B -$1.88B +$11.6B United States
10 Warren Buffett $133B -$1.74B +$13.4B United States
All of these articles (except for mine) are from mainstream U.S. media, the same group that constantly claim that what they call “fake news” comes from only non-mainstream media, such as I am — because the billionaires who control the U.S. Government and their agents such as NewsGuard and such as the U.S. Government and such as all of the Web-browsers, hide and suppress my articles, and suppress likewise the works of other rigorously truth-focused jouralists and bloggers such as I, as much as they want the laws (that they are indirectly resonsible for being written and interpreted in the way that they are) allow to be suppressed. But there is nothing illegal about me, nor about anything that I have ever written.
Some truths are simply prohibited by the powers-that-be; and, evidently, the fact that the wealthiest person in the world is a king who is approximately ten times richer than any of the billionaires (and perhaps is the world’s only trillionaire) is something that the powers-that-be never publicize but alway ignore, or else contradict as being even among the ten richest persons — all of whom, taken together, are less wealthy than that one person is.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
