We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
Been cleaning up all the bull-shit trolls that creep in my lesser-policed feeds. Same MO though. Almost all are first-timers, with join dates five or more years ago. All are not active anywhere else. Just land on MM, and shit on it.
I do a purge. Erase, block, and delete.
Move on to the next. Ugh. What a pain in the ass.
♫WE ARE The 2000’s♫ (Mashup By Blanter Co)
How can the U.S. counter BRICS?
BRICS is based on China’s huge infrastructure projects for last 30yrs and something that the USA cannot do unless it completely remodel itself as an economy that relies on the real economy, ie infrastructure and manufacturing. And cuts current reliance on military production, Tbills/usd printing and Wall St finance that creates wealth from trading equities. Highly difficulty given the laws and structure of the USA, and the West are already skewed to compete in those industries.
By end 2000s, Chinese construction companies had nearly completed China’s massive infrastructure building program and had huge amounts of surplus infrastructure building capacities and expertise. At the same time, Chinese economy needed lots of resources to fuel growth and Chinese trade surpluses accumulated so much capital, they needed to recycle the capital. Xi’s team realised that the clever way to solve all these problems were to build infrastructure along the ancient Silk Road. And it resonated with countries in those lands because they needed the capital and infrastructure to fuel their own growth and ship their produce to China and the world to better the lives of their people.
The way the scheme works, these countries proposes their own infrastructure needs to China and its companies, and they work out the feasibility of these projects based on the resources and produce that can be sold to ultimately fund these projects. If corruption does not interfere, the process should be sensible and feasible. This is actually a simple HP contract with China providing the capital and infrastructure, and getting paid over time with goods and resources sold by client countries. There is good economic logic to the whole process. Of course, there will be ruffians that will try to profit from corruption but by and large, the projects do increase trade in the entire BRI belt.
China BRI trade with 140 countries tops $9.2 trillion
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is “a public road open to all” and is not “ideologically biased” according to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing a conference on future plans for the programme.
Wang was speaking at the Asia and Pacific High Level Video Conference on Belt and Road, which took place on June 23. He gave an update on China’s Belt and Road Initiative and called on nations to join and support the use of the BRI as a superhighway for vaccine roll-outs, sustainable development and building digital connectivity.
According to a statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, political leaders from 29 countries, including Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez, were present via video-link.
The conference was organised to “enhance anti-pandemic cooperation and boost economic recovery”.
140 partner countries Wang said that from its inception in 2013, the “important initiative” has shown strong vigour and vitality.
“Over the past eight years, the BRI has evolved from a concept and vision into real actions and reality, and brought about enormous opportunities and benefits to countries around the world.
To date, up to 140 partner countries have signed documents on Belt and Road cooperation with China.
Trade between China and BRI partners has exceeded $9.2 trillion. Direct investment by Chinese companies in countries along the Belt and Road has surpassed $130 billion.
The BRI has truly become the world’s broadest-based and largest platform for international cooperation.” Wang Yi added that even through the COVID-19 outbreak , Belt and Road cooperation did not come to a halt.
“It braved the headwinds and continued to move forward, showing remarkable resilience and vitality.
Together, we have put up an international firewall of cooperation against COVID-19, provided a stabiliser for the world economy, and built new bridges for global connectivity.”
This “fruitful” Belt and Road cooperation was as a result of the solidarity and cooperation among BRI partners, guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, he said, adding that BRI practices the concept of open, green and clean development, aimed at high-standard, people-centred and sustainable growth.
“All cooperation partners, regardless of economic size, are equal members of the BRI family.
None of our cooperation programs are attached with political strings.
We never impose our will on others from a so-called position of strength. Neither do we pose a threat to any country. “We are always committed to mutual benefit and win-win.
The BRI came from China, but it creates opportunities and good results for all countries, and benefits the whole world.
We have strengthened policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity to pursue economic integration, achieve interconnected development, and deliver benefits to all.
“The BRI is a public road open to all, and has no backyard or high walls.
As the countries trade and projects grew, these BRI trade and projects are now defining China’s role with the rest of the world. And they are now a principle reason China can afford to reduce reliance on West markets.
And as these countries grow their capital, China is now encouraging them to use rmb and bilateral currencies to trade, and this will further erode the powers of the West’s financial systems. In fact, the more the West struggles to smear it and to attack it, the more these countries will wean themselves away from the euro/usd world and move the world towards a multi currency system.
West has no ability to propose alternatives because they do not have the massive infrastructural capacity and expertise of China at this point. And years of backing US wars and the 2008 Wall Street subprime collapse have also weaken US/EU financial systems and govt debts to point they have not much capital to spare on building the developing world’s infrastructure. The world knows that USA is fully reliant on the usd reserves status to print endless amounts of Tbills/usd to sustain only.
EU should adopt a different strategy from US, Chinese infrastructural capacity and expertise will be boosted if they join these projects, and China will gladly welcome them to boost growth of markets everywhere.
After all, these roads, rails and ports link up the great EurAsia Africa continents and can be one super economic massive continental group.
Even the USA can benefit if they drop an aggressive US hegemonic model that benefits only the US MIC billionaires.
A super huge market can drive many US companies too. So silly to cling onto a model that relies on endless wars, endless arms sales, endless printing of Tbills that is actually robbing monies from American taxpayers to pay US MIC billionaires.
Blinken, rogue and ignored
China is refusing to let US secretary of state Antony Blinken visit Beijing
Four people familiar with the negotiations said China had told the US it was not prepared to reschedule a trip that Blinken cancelled in February
countries of the world are sick of the continuous toxic diatribe, lies and lectures spew by the Americans
In this case, China was concerned that the FBI would deliberately release manufactured lies regarding the results of an investigation into the downed suspected Chinese “spy balloon”.
This Is How They’re Going To CONTROL You!
Neua Yang (Charcoal Broiled Beef
in a Hot/Sweet Sauce – Thai)
Yang dishes are the Thai equivalent of Thai barbecue food. The most common is undoubtedly kai yang (chicken) where a chicken is split open, beaten flat, and gripped in a cleft stick to grill over the brazier.
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This version – neua yang or barbecued beef – has a more assertive sauce to go with the stronger flavor of the beef. It is best accompanied with a bottle of strong beer, especially when eaten as lunch during a break from working in the paddy fields. At dinner a good Italian red wine is I think the best choice.
And of course if you don’t have a charcoal brazier, or the weather is a shade cooler than here (it’s 38 degrees C (100 degrees F) outside as I type this…) then you could just as easily prepare this dish on a griddle or broil it in the oven (but it *does* taste best if it can absorb the flavor of the charcoal smoke).
For an evening meal I would suggest serving it with a salad such as the yam polamai (that I will post next), and a soup such as tam kha kai (chicken soup with a coconut milk stock).
Ingredients
Sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon dark sweet soy sauce
3 tablespoons shallots (purple onions), sliced very thinly
1/2 tablespoon palm sugar (or honey)
1/2 tablespoon prik phom (powdered dried red chiles)
1 tablespoon sliced spring onion/scallion/green onion, including tops
1 teaspoon bai chi (coriander/cilantro leaf), chopped
Instructions
First prepare a serving platter, lined with lettuce leaves, and decorated with sliced cucumber.
Combine the ingredients to make the sauce. taste and if required add extra sugar/honey, lime juice and/or prik phom.
Barbecue half a pound of steak to whatever “doneness” you prefer, then slice into slices an eighth of an inch thick, and then cut the slices into bite sized pieces. Place on the lettuce, and pour the sauce over the steak.
Accompany with the usual Thai table condiments (prik phom, sugar, and prik dong (red chiles in vinegar)).
You can substitute sautéed onion for the shallots if they are unavailable.
Also, remember when using prik phom (and sugar) in sauce preparation that the diners can always add more at the table, but they can’t remove it if you put too much in!
Served as a one-plate dinner, this serves one fairly hungry diner, but with the soup and salad should be adequate for four people.
US March Toward War – Ukraine Offensive, War Over Taiwan (w/Danny Haiphong)
The world needs more diplomats like Russia's Sergey Larov and China's Wang Yi. not American "diplomats" (if they can even be called such) like Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken, John Kirby, etc.
Anonymous Artist Is Photoshopping Kids Books, And The Result Is Hilarious
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Mark March 11th on your calendar, for it is a day that will go down in history as the founding date of Paperback Paradise, “The world’s #1 used book store.” After the Berenst(E)ain Bears Conspiracy of 2015, it should come as no surprise that many of the books that you read in your childhood are not as you remember them. In particular, that their titles are radically different.
Renzo Gracie, a Brazilian jujitsu fighter, was in a New York underground station, accompanied by a friend after training at the gym. The two were speaking in Portuguese.
Suddenly, an American approached shouting ‘Speak English here! ‘ and pushed his way towards the duo. Not knowing that he was attacking a professional wrestler, the man was choked and restrained until he apologised.
The case is reverberating internationally and Renzo has already given his opinion: ‘There was no fight… an educational moment’.
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2023.04.16 Poisoning The Well
The "people of the ziggurat."
ABC Television Guest: “Can’t see the difference between the Christian Right and the Taliban”
ABC Television in the United States has a show called “The View” wherein ignorant, kackling, women say really stupid things. Most recently, guest Patti LuPone said “I don’t know what the difference between our Christian Right and the Taliban is.”
She went on to say “What’s happening in this country right now in the name of religion is just so dangerous.”
What is she talking about?
Is it Abortion?
Killing babies inside their mother’s womb is somehow “good?” Stopping that is somehow “bad?”
As to the difference between the Christian Right and the Taliban, we in the Christian Right aren’t cutting people’s heads off. That’s kind of a major difference, but what do I know . . .
Where does ABC Television come up with people like this whose opinions are shear idiocy?
Yet, THIS is what’s on American TV:
This is yet another example of why people must beware what they see and hear on TV. The people you are seeing and hearing may very well be actual idiots!
Portugal tells the U.S. to STAY OUT of its business with China
Green Curry Beef
If you’ve never cooked Thai before, start with this one. It introduces you to many ingredients and flavors at once, is spicy but not too fiery, and is simple to make. Look for the best quality commercial curry paste you can. The first time you make this dish, start with half the curry paste and taste after combining with the coconut milk; you can increase the intensity at this point if desired. Be sure to use unsweetened coconut milk.
thai green beef curry 100362 1
Ingredients
1 pound (450 g) lean beef steak
2 tablespoons (25 mL) peanut oil
3 tablespoons (50 mL) green curry paste, or to taste
1 (14 ounce) (400 mL) can coconut milk
4 fresh red chile peppers, seeded, ribbed and sliced
Cut the beef into thin slices about two inches long (you may want to partially freeze the beef to make cutting easier). Set aside.
Heat a wok or large skillet until hot. Add the oil, and when hot stir in the curry paste. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
Drizzle in the coconut milk, stirring constantly.
Add the sliced chiles, fish sauce, salt, sugar, lime leaves and stock. Bring to a boil.
Add the beef slices and green onions. Turn the heat to low and simmer the dish uncovered for 15 minutes until the beef is tender and the sauce slightly thickened.
A US Air Force B-52 nuclear bomber flies over Canberra’s parliament house in a fly past that seemed, to some at least, to be a darkly ominous message about who holds deep power in the nation’s capital. Media at the time referred to it as ‘a symbol of the enduring friendship between Australia and the United States of America’. (Photo: Supplied.)
Amajority of Australians want Australia to adopt a policy of neutrality when it comes to considering a US war against China, according to the latest polling
by the Lowy Institute think tank.
The poll, conducted in 2022, found 51% of Australians said they’d prefer Australia to remain ‘neutral’ in any US military conflict with China over Taiwan, down from 57% in 2020. [Fig: 1]
This runs so contrary to mainstream media representations of such polling that it’s worth stating again: The majority of Australians (51%) say they want Australia to maintain ‘neutrality’ in any US military conflict with China over Taiwan.
by the Lowy Institute that found most Australians, while happy to support our military involvement in humanitarian interventions or peacekeeping, do not want the country to ‘support US military action’ in a war against China – and the number of Australians saying this is increasing
each year polled (2020 63%, up from 2013 60%). [Fig: 2]
At a time of hysterical pro-war reporting in many of Australia’s major mainstream news outlets
, the views of the Australian public against the US alliance and the US push for confrontation with China, should gain some higher prominence; if our media was interested in balance. Media’s ignoring the majority view is undemocratic and not in Australia’s national interest.
Support for a US war with China low
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The earlier poll conducted in 2020 found 63% of Australians do not support Australian military joining US military action in a conflict between China and Taiwan. The opposition to US military action against China has increased
] by 9% from 2019, when 54% were against such military action.
Since that remarkable result, Lowy Institute changed the polling question slightly in 2021 and 2022, but despite that they still found that most Australians want the country to remain neutral in any US military conflict with China over Taiwan.
different question about if China ‘invaded Taiwan’. This saw Australian opposition to sending military forces that was at a majority of 54% in 2019, dropping to 47% in 2022. This near repetition of an earlier question in the same poll may seem odd, but it may be a case of asking varying versions of a question until finding the ‘right’ answer.
The Lowy pollsters seem to talk down the notable result on neutrality when they state
: ‘A bare majority say Australia should remain neutral… almost half say Australia should support the US in this conflict.’ The last time I looked, a majority is still a majority in most democracies.
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Figure 1: The 2022 Lowy Institute Poll has shown what Australians think of prospects of war between US and China:
Australians want a policy of neutrality. (Image: Lowy Institute)
What is fundamentally clear from this polling, however, is that in most polling the majority of the Australian public has made it known they do not want Australia to join a US war against China over Taiwan.
Support for ANZUS Alliance low
Australian ‘support’ for joining the US in any conflict under the ANZUS military alliance is also waning, the 2020 Lowy polling
also shows. [Fig: 2]
A minority (40%) of Australians in 2020 agree with Australia supporting the US under the ANZUS alliance in a war in the Middle East, a reduction from 2013 when 48% supported such action under the Alliance. And that prior to the debacle in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s victory and Australia’s hasty retreat in 2021.
Even fewer Australians support Alliance action in our own region. In 2020 a smaller minority of just 34% of Australians agree with supporting the US under the ANZUS alliance in a war in Asia, a decrease from 2013 when 37% supported it.
The clear majority of Australians (68%) in 2020 say Australia ‘should only support US military action if it is authorised by the United Nations’.
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Figure 2: The 2022 Lowy Institute Poll has shown what Australians think of prospects of military action under ANZUS:
Australians don’t want to be a part of it. (Image: Lowy Institute)
However, with all statistics, it depends on what questions are asked, and what answers are publicised. The Lowy report emphasises an obvious truism when it asks a different question
in the 2022 poll, showing a majority of Australians generally consider the US alliance as ‘important’.
This ‘motherhood’ question allows pro-war media to shout: ‘Most Australians say Alliance is important.’ But while they may say it’s important, Australians don’t actually support it being used for Australia to join US wars.
: ‘There is persistent reluctance to support military action under ANZUS. The majority of Australians (68% ) say “despite the alliance, Australia should only support US military action if it is authorised by the United Nations”.’
Clearly most Australians would rather support the UN-based ‘international legal order’, than the US-designed ‘rules-based order’.
supports this finding. A 2022 poll by the US Studies Centre shows that a large majority of Australians (76%) believe Australia should ‘develop a foreign policy that was independent of the global powers’.
Most say a US China war not in national interest
A further question in the Lowy poll shows that Australians, despite their antiwar majority, do well understand the current state of Australian democracy. They know that their wishes face headwinds in being translated into actual policy, and that, as with the Iraq war, it is probable they will be ignored and be dragged against their will into the next conflict.
77%, the large majority of Australians, acknowledge the grim fact that ‘Australia’s alliance with the United States makes it more likely Australia will be drawn
into a war in Asia that would not be in Australia’s interests’.
They call it democracy but know they have little input to any decision to commit the nation to war. That’s because the decision lays solely in the hands of the Prime Minister of the day, not in the elected parliament. A majority
of Australians would like to see that changed too.
The sceptical public has decided. After 20 years of illegal and failed wars led by the United States, Australians are increasingly making it clear they have had enough. The collapse of all the dubious rationales for war have been noted by most of the population.
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An estimated 240,000 were killed during the 20-year failed allied occupation of Afghanistan – most of them Afghan citizens. Here the body of one Australian soldier, Sgt Blaine Diddams of SASR, is returned home to his family and friends waiting at RAAF Base Pearce, Western Australia, on 9 July 2012, after being killed in a clash the Chorah region of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. (Photo: Cpl Chris Moore, Department of Defence)
Australians have seen through the lies over the non-existent Iraqi ‘weapons of mass destruction’, the dismal failure of the ‘nation building’ experiment in Afghanistan, and the thin arguments for our secretive war against Syria. And now, that well-founded scepticism has affected their views of a prospective war with China – the majority don’t want any part of it.
Fear-mongering up, fear up
Polling has seen Australians’ overall perception of safety drop, and fear levels jump. Is it little wonder? The high media prominence in 2022 of the new war between Ukraine and Russia, and repeated confrontations
with China by US and Australian military ships and planes, has guaranteed that.
Over the past year, Lowy polling shows fear levels
rose of China becoming ‘a military threat in the next 20 years’ with 32% now seeing in as ‘very likely’, up from an average of 16% with that view over the past decade. [‘Somewhat likely’ rose 31% to 43%.]
The Lowy Institute’s head of polling, Natasha Kassam, says
“Anxiety about China has characterised Australian public opinion for the past three years, and now the vast majority of Australians believe China will pose a military threat to Australia in the next two decades.”
But that growing fear of the prospect of war with China is tied up in Australians’ overall wariness of the United States, and has not translated into a belligerent attitude against China.
Despite all the voices of the pro-war lobby on China, the scare-mongering by think tanks, the spruiking by the weapons merchants, the malign leaks to journalists, the assurances by defence officials, and dubious assertions of their political leaders – it seems the public is awake to them.
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Cracking a smile after being given a birthday cupcake and a can of Coca Cola, Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 2022. (Photo: Defence Department)
It is perhaps surprising to see that, in the face of all this, the public’s support for a US war against China is actually persistently dropping.
Those pro-war voices may not have adequately considered that Australians live in a democracy. They could start to acknowledge this by reflecting the public’s view in statements and reporting, and in policy.
The singularly pro-war stance of most mainstream media outlets has not convinced the majority. So we should expect a boost to the fear-mongering, more tales of spy cells, strange cyber hits, media embeds with military forces, smiling US Generals, new ‘cool
’ attack warplanes, a rise in the US cultural push, and more empathy-building stories of nice Americans surviving terrible storms in Texas.
, published by Nine/SMH-Age, titled ‘Red Alert’ is an example of the biased reporting. The series would have been better titled ‘Red Scare’.
The large three-day special report relies on five ‘experts’, but the article fails to say four of them are connected to a highly controversial think tank, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI
), as staff, board member or contributor. Nowhere are the pro-war stance, foreign government funding, and weapons industry connections
of ASPI mentioned.
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The alarmist ‘Red Alert’ reports in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on 7 March 2023 gave an increasingly common biased ‘red scare’ line that is driving many readers to more independent media carrying a range of views, such as Declassified Australia, Pearls and Irritations, and Michael West Media.
Despite such media abuse, the public remains consistently opposed to US wars. The inability of the mainstream media to convince the majority is in fact driving their readers and viewers away. And they are heading to the internet and serious independent
There are other messages that the majority of Australians can take away from the Lowy polling.
While the majority of Australians oppose war, they overwhelmingly support the use of Australian military forces for humanitarian operations, and in peacemaking and peacekeeping roles. Between 75 and 80% of Australians expressed support
for such military operations in the 2019 and 2022 polls.
But there is danger here. Those pushing us to war may be guided by this polling result and therefore dress up their arguments in words about ‘humanitarian war’ and ‘peacekeeping’. The overwhelming public goodwill towards the peacekeeping and humanitarian missions to assist the people of East Timor (1999-2007) and Bougainville (1998-2004), is open to being abused by the pro-war lobby.
The public should be on the lookout for pro-war voices using humanitarian justifications to advocate for Australia to join the US in their next war against China, as the Lowy poll put it, ‘to stop a government from committing genocide and killing large numbers of its own people’.
The pro-war voices may have an increasingly difficult task, however, as they face being washed away by a generational tsunami. Polling shows that support for the United States is lowest, and declining, amongst young Australians. This is an amazing ‘fact on the ground’.
While 43% of people aged over 45 say Australia should remain neutral in a military conflict between the US and China, a whopping 60% of Australians aged 18-44 prefer neutrality, according
to the Lowy’s 2022 polls. [Fig: 1, text]
We can expect the pro-war voices to increasingly target younger audiences.
Pushing the polling
“Australia’s new government will find support [in the polling results] for more defence spending, tough policies towards China and Russia, and stronger engagement in our region and on the world stage,” claims
the Lowy Institute.
However what it won’t find is a high level of support for US wars, including against China.
The Lowy Institute polling is an important measure of Australian opinion towards the United States. It is watched closely by foreign affairs and defence officials in Canberra, and in Washington.
The polling each year contains a grab-bag of information, with something for everyone. The actual results showing a drift from the US alliance and a favouring of neutrality, have been de-emphasised in much of the news reporting which has been dominated by the war in Ukraine and the fanning of a war with China.
The particular poll results preferred by the pro-war lobby will be wheeled out, and will be so-gleefully repeated in much of the media. But this present examination of the polling results show there is a hopeful message to be had in the actual attitudes of Australian, if only we are told of them.
Peter Cronau
Douglas Macgregor: “Ukraine IS FALLING, THIS IS IT!” in Exclusive Interview
https://youtu.be/lfUU8981v80
Whats life like in China compared to Western countries?
Trust me it’s like going to 2050 if you lived in a US City and are moving to Shanghai or Hangzhou
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There is ALMOST NO PAPER anywhere
Everything is QR Code, QR Code and QR Code
Everything is Digital
You want to book a train ticket?
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It’s Digital all the way into the Train Station and into the Coach. You walk to a machine and get your paper ticket by scanning the QR Code but even that’s becoming obsolete
Most Young Gen Z simply scan their QR Codes and enter directly bypassing the paper ticket
Movie Ticket?
QR Codes all the way
Taxi?
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QR Codes all the way
Banking?
These guys have an App where you can literally issue Electronic Cheques with QR Code
If you pay in paper money, they glance at you in a strange manner. Every payment is Digital.
Doctors Office?
Again Digital.
Your Insurance Profile has a QR Code. Just Scan it and that’s all it takes.
Visitation – 90 Yuan
State Insurance – 52 Yuan
Employers Insurance – 38 Yuan
You pay – NOTHING
Just walk in meet the Doctor and come
The Doctor will use your QR Code to order medicines which you collect by scanning your QR Code
It’s like a Land of the Future literally
Even India is moving there and has more digital stuff than a US City today
I now asked a question – What if your Smartphone runs out of Charge? What is you lose your smartphone?
No Problems
They have Online Backup and using a username and password you can change your registered mobile number in exactly 60 seconds
Sadly India doesn’t have this facility and we struggle to get things corrected
The only small flaw I noticed was
MANY OF THEM STILL GO TO FOOT REFLEXOLOGISTS AND ACCUPUNTURISTS for Medical Health
Even People in their 40s prefer going to a Foot Reflexologist Or Accupunturist and getting their foot poked with sticks or needles as a cure for many ills
I am serious
Unlike India where most of these practitioners are regarded quacks, in China they are deemed eminently respectable and have huge crowds
There is some mind magic at work because many people actually claim it works wonderfully
The Guy who showed us homes said his mother had gallstones cured by foot reflexology. I hope to God the woman doesn’t think poking your feet can cure Gallstones
Nonetheless this is a part of Culture there and it’s the only blip I found in an otherwise futuristic city
BRICS to surpass G7 in share of global economic growth
Members of the BRICS group – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – are expected to outpace the US-led G7 in terms of their contribution to the world’s economic growth, from this year, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
According to the outlet’s calculations – based on the latest IMF data –the BRICS countries will contribute 32.1% of the world’s growth, compared to the G7’s 29.9%.
The Group of Seven nations (G7) – consisting of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan – has long been considered the most advanced economic bloc of countries on the planet. Russia was a member, until 2014, when it was expelled due to the fallout from the Western-backed Maidan coup in Ukraine.
The report indicated that in 2020, the contributions from BRICS countries and the G7 to global economic growth were equal. Since then the performance of the Western-led bloc has been declining. By 2028, the G7’s contribution to the world economy is predicted to decrease to 27.8%, while the BRICS will account for 35%.
Bloomberg calculations show that China will be the top contributor to global growth over the next five years, with its share set to be double that of the US. China’s share of global GDP expansion is expected to represent 22.6% of total world growth by 2028, the outlet wrote. India is projected to contribute 12.9% of global GDP.
“In total, 75% of global growth is expected to be concentrated in 20 countries and over half in the top four: China, India, the US and Indonesia. While Group of Seven countries will comprise a smaller share, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and France are seen among the top 10 contributors,” the outlet wrote.
A recent study by a UK-based macroeconomics research firm has also found that the gap between the two groups in terms of global economic weight is expected to continue to grow. The analysts noted that China and India have been experiencing robust economic growth, and more countries are interested in joining BRICS.
Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “more than a dozen” nations have expressed interest in joining BRICS, including Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bangladesh have acquired equity in the New Development Bank, the funding organization of BRICS.
Last year, BRICS countries proposed the creation of their own currency in order to move away from the US dollar and the euro in mutual transactions.
HAL TURNER ANALYSIS
This fact – CREATION OF THEIR OWN CURRENCY – is the single greatest problem for the USA because it will render US “economic sanctions” utterly useless. Countries around the world won’t need to comply with US Sanctions because they will have another reliable currency to utilize in place of the dollar.
This is taking place because the US government has abused countries all over the world, for decades, with economic sanctions, and the world has grown tired of our meddling in their affairs.
As country after country changes from using the US dollar to using other currencies, all the “Dollars” presently held in foreign central banks, will come flooding back to America. This will cause the value of the US Dollar to plummet against foreign currencies.
As the value of the US Dollar plummets, it will cost more and more and more for Americans to buy goods; especially since the US does not manufacture many things anymore. The inflation that Americans will suffer will be reminiscent of the Weimar Republic.
All this, because our US government refuses to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries with economic sanctions. The rest of the world is now telling us to stick our Dollars where the sun doesn’t shine. In the end, it is AMERICANS who will suffer the most through hyper-inflation, which will literally break the country.
“The whole world hates America”- Turkey says and America using Europe as a pawn
Filipinos Told “Leave Taiwan” – Return to Philippines
Today I received an email from a Filipino source who has family working in Taiwan. The Philippines are telling anyone from that country working in Taiwan to “Leave Taiwan and return home immediately; war is developing.”
I also got a SECOND email today from another source who told me:
Hal,
I just got a message from a filipina who works overseas that all citizens of the Philippines who work in Taiwan are being called home.
She said it had something to do with the United States.
(NAME REDACTED TO PROTECT IDENTITY)
It appears that China is going to reunify Taiwan and may use force to do so. It also appears the US may try to interfere with that and war between the US and China may result.
.
Russia Launches at least SIX Akula Fast-Attack Subs into Pacific
Within the past 72 Hours, Russia sortied at least SIX (6) nuclear-powered “Akula” and other model fast-attack submarines into the Pacific Ocean. It is now believed they are enroute to the U.S. west coast.
The Russian Ministry of Defense even published an official video showing the vessels all leaving port at the same time:
Clearly visible are several Akula-class and even one ultra-modern YASEN-class ballistic missile submarines.
The YASEN-class are cruise missile subs that are designed to attack Carrier Battle Groups and can destroy hostile ballistic missile submarines, attack submarines, and ships. They can also be land-attack submarines.
To strike enemy Carriers, the YASEN’s carry the (3M55) “Onik” missiles with a range of 320 nautical miles or 592.64km. In their land-attack role, the submarines carry the (3M14K) “Kalibr” cruise missile with a range of 1600 nautical miles or 2963.2km.
Each YASEN has eight (8) (CM-346) complex (3p-14B) vertical launch tubes that can fire either Onik or Kalibr missiles, and can launch either surfaced or submerged.
The upgraded YASEN-M can also fire the hypersonic “Zircon” missile at either ships or land targets.
According to Michael Peterson of the Russia Maritime Studies Institute, for the first time in its history, Russia can now lay off the coasts of either Europe or even the United States, and present a persistent land-attack threat with very highly precise weapons.
This new ability concerns NATO leaders as a threat to physical infrastructure such as ports which would be critical during wartime.
A 2009 report by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) says the YASEN is “the quietist of Russian-made submarines.”
Moscow has “significantly modernized its submarine force in recent years,” with 11 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and 17 nuclear-powered attack submarines. By this data count, Russia also has nine nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines and 21 diesel-electric attack submarines.
The fact that all these submarines are now in the Pacific Ocean and heading toward the US west coast OUGHT TO BE a signal to the US to knock off its interference in the Russia-Ukraine situation. Sadly, it appears no one in the US is listening or even looking for messages from Russia.
It seems the US will only acknowledge the cost of our meddling in Ukraine when bright, white, flashes start appearing over US cities from Russian submarines and ICBM’s.
BREAKING! The UNTHINKABLE is About to Happen: A 2023 Timeline of Nuclear War
I just spoke this morning with a Russian friend in Moscow. He is more optimistic about the future of Russia than I have ever heard him to be in the past.
He says good riddance to all the U.S. companies, and sees this as a real opportunity for Russia to further develop their economy and restore their culture from Western cultural imperialism.
The devaluation of the Ruble has little effect on the economy except for imported goods.
Since 2014 Russia has been becoming self-sufficient.
The lower Ruble will protect home industries and be a defacto tariff against imports.
He and others are talking about a welcome return to an economy similar of the Soviet Union.
I hope he is right because for the past 20 years that I have been going to Russia I saw a troubling trend to neoliberalism and austerity.
Many Russians did to and were not happy about it.
It cost Putin a lot of lost popularity including from my friend who I spoke to today. My wife and I are hearing similar stories from others inside Russia.
-David
Good news if you are Russian. Good news if you are Chinese. Bad news if you are part of the collapsing United States Empire. But you would never know this by reading the daily “news” feeds.
By gosh! The propiganda is thick.
Really. It’s thick like tar.
I need waders to trudge through the muck. It is think, stinky and relentless. And then interspersed in all the grime are the oily “experts” who have a thing or two to say about everything. You pretty much can tell from which basket of USD they are paid from. How can you sort everything out? Well, this article is my attempt.
I’m a simple guy and I look at things simply. So let’s look at the big-picture overview.
Major Geo-political realignments happen every 70 to 85 years.
This one is on time and on schedule.
It’s always the same template; the same pattern. Oh, there might be some new twists; mostly technology, but it’s pretty much a well understood process.
In this Geopolitical shake-up it’s a new beast of sorts. It has a new “twist” to the old template. And this new feature is critical to understanding what is going on.
Russia is not alone. It is not “isolated”.
China is not alone.
Russia and China have created a unified block; an “Asia”.
And now, India has joined this block officially (and distanced themselves from QUAD).
Asia = Russia + China + India.
.
So, what are we witnessing? What is all the “hubbub” on the Internet and in the “news” all about? Is it about Ukraine?
No. It’s not. It’s about something else.
Keep your focus.
It’s all about a much larger Geo-Political realignment. And the wars, color revolutions, strife, inflation, battles, wars, revolutions, and all the rest are just confusion and smoke during this period of change.
Keep focused.
The former global leader; The United States is collapsing.
A united Asia is rising (Russia plus China with India).
Normal expected death thrashing by the USA is in process.
The death throes are at all levels. This includes International as well as domestic. Big changes at all levels.
But, people say, “it seems so spontaneous and out of control”. To which I argue. “No it isn’t”.
Instead the collapse is being managed.
The collapse of the West is being MANAGED.
It is being managed by Russia and China, with some help by our friends (wink – wink).
None of this managment is being written about. None of it can be seen, as the dying empire has flooded all “news” with complex and detailed lies, and nonsense. And if you get caught up in the lies, and fabrications you will read about the failure of Russia to take over the Ukraine, and how Putin is on the way out, and how China is going to collapse any day now, and so on and so forth.
It’s just noise. Tune it out.
In this article, I will take some hand-picked articles to help direct the reader through the swampy muck of lies. Each article has strengths and weaknesses, and I will do my best to help describe what’s going on through them.
In these articles, read them not for the specific points that they are trying to point out, but rather for how they fit within the much larger picture. Keep in mind that larger picture.
The death of the existing world power results in…
High inflation resulting in money becoming worthless (within the dying empire).
A retraction of actual military action, but an uptick in military threatenings.
A change in the dominant global reserve currency.
Economic, social, and other “bubbles” all popping in the dying empire.
A confused state of Geo-political alignments as the empire dies.
We begin with some excellent stuff from MoA. In this article, “b” argues that the dying United States empire is impotent. That both Russia and China (Asia) have played the Geopolitical chess game, and has the empire “boxed in”. No matter what it does, it will make losing (no-win) moves…
[1] To Punish Russia The ‘Liberal Order’ Attempts To Suicide Itself
Russia understood Zelensky's remark in Munich as a threat by Ukraine to acquire nuclear weapons. It already has the expertise, materials and means to do that.A fascist controlled government with nukes on Russia's border? This is not about Putin at all. No Russian government of any kind could ever condone that.I believe that this credible threat, together with the artillery preparations for a new war on Donbas, was what convinced Russia's government to intervene by force.
The ‘west’ had failed to understand Russia’s need to act. It has failed to make the necessary commitments, and accept Russia’s reasonable demands, to avoid the struggle. In consequence it will now fall apart. The knee-jerk reaction to Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine will, as Alastair Crooke writes, lead to the end of the ‘liberal order’:
So Biden, finally, has his foreign policy ‘success’: Europe is walling itself off from Russia, China, and the emerging integrated Asian market. It has sanctioned itself from ‘dependency’ on Russian natural gas (without prospect of any immediate alternatives) and it has thrown itself in with the Biden project. Next up, the EU pivot to sanctioning China?Will this last? It seems improbable. German industry has a long history for staging its own mercantile interests before wider geo-political ambitions – before, even, EU interests. And in Germany, the business class effectively is the political class and needs competitively-priced energy.Whilst the rest of the world shows little or no enthusiasm to join with sanctions on Russia (China has ruled out sanctions on Russia), Europe is in hysteria. This will not fade quickly. The new ‘Iron Curtain’ erected in Brussels may last years.But what of the unintended consequences to last Saturday’s ‘sanctions Blitzkrieg’: the ‘unknowable unknowns’ in Rumsfeld’s famous mantra? The unprecedented switch-off affecting a key part of the Globalist system did not download into a neutral, inert context – It developed into an emotionally hyper-charged atmosphere of Russophobia.
Now reality comes back to bite the inept minions who attempt to rule over us.
In sum, the changes set out by von der Leyen and the EU, with surging crude oil costs, could potentially tip global markets into crisis, and set off spiraling inflation. Cost inflation created by energy costs spiraling higher and food disruptions are not so easily susceptible to monetary remedies. If the daily drama of the war in Ukraine starts to fade from public view, and inflation persists, the political cost of von der Leyen’s Saturday drama is likely to be European-wide recession.“Since well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europeans have been struggling under the weight of runaway energy bills”, OilPrice.com notes. In Germany, for some, one month’s energy costs the same as they used to pay for a whole year; in the UK the government has raised the price cap for energy bills by a whopping 54%, and in Italy a recent 40% domestic energy cost hike could now nearly double.The New York Times describes this impact on local businesses and industries as nothing short of “frightening”, as all kinds of small businesses across Europe (prior to last week’s events) have been forced to cease their operations as energy costs outweigh profits. Large industries have not been immune to sticker shock either. “Almost two-thirds of the 28,000 companies surveyed by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry this month rated energy prices as one of their biggest business risks … For those in the industrial sector, the figure was as high as 85 percent.”
And it is not only Europe. Energy prices are based on global markets. As are the prices for many other minerals and metals which have suddenly become rare:
2022 03 14 10 44
The U.S. will be hit just as much as Europe. Early today oil prices in Europe hit $139 per barrel, well above last week’s market close. They will increase further. Gasoline prices in the U.S. will soon hit $6-7-8 per gallon.
The attempt by the U.S. to rush towards a new Iran deal to get Iranian oil flooding the markets has failed. Russia, together with Iran, has successfully blocked that move. Sanctions on Russia mean that Iran can not export its enriched uranium to Russia to be turned into nuclear fuel. No Iranian export of enriched uranium means no JCPOA deal. Secretary of State Blinken has failed to understand that. The supposedly ready to be signed return to the nuclear deal is now in jeopardy.
Some U.S. refineries at the south coast are designed to only process heavy oil variants. Since 2019 the U.S. has blockaded heavy oil imports from Venezuela and replaced them with imports of heavy Ural variants from Russia. It has now send too officials to Caracas to try to get Venezuela’s oil flowing again. That would of course require to lift all sanctions off Venezuela and to return all confiscated companies and the gold that is owned by that country. It is not going to happen anytime soon.
High end German cars are build with aluminum from Russia. Boeing needs Russian titanium to build planes. These manufacturers will soon start to lay off people. All this while food, heating and mobility costs will increase dramatically. A deep recession combined with strong inflation will rip social cohesion apart. I do expect strong anger in the streets of Europe and the U.S. There will be riots and in consequence a strong political move to the right. The mid-term elections will destroy the Russophobic Democrats.
Michael Hudson notes the immense strategic damage the U.S. has done to itself:
The recent escalation of U.S. sanctions blocking Europe, Asia and other countries from trade and investment with Russia, Iran and China has imposed enormous opportunity costs – the cost of lost opportunities – on U.S. allies. And the recent confiscation of the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Russia, along the targeted grabbing of bank accounts of wealthy foreigners (hoping to win their hearts and minds, along with recovery of their sequestered accounts), has ended the idea that dollar holdings or those in its sterling and euro NATO satellites are a safe investment haven when world economic conditions become shaky.So I am somewhat chagrined as I watch the speed at which this U.S.-centered financialized system has de-dollarized over the span of just a year or two. The basic theme of my Super Imperialism has been how, for the past fifty years, the U.S. Treasury-bill standard has channeled foreign savings to U.S. financial markets and banks, giving dollar diplomacy a free ride. I thought that de-dollarization would be led by China and Russia moving to take control of their economies to avoid the kind of financial polarization that is imposing austerity on the United States. But U.S. officials are forcing them to overcome whatever hesitancy they had to de-dollarize.
This will not just happen with China or Russia but the whole world will over the next years turn away from the dollarized U.S. system:
Nobody thought that the postwar 1945-2020 world order would give way this fast. A truly new international economic order is emerging, although it is not yet clear just what form it will take. But “prodding the Bear” with the U.S./NATO confrontation with Russia has passed critical-mass level. It no longer is just about Ukraine. That is merely the trigger, a catalyst for driving much of the world away from the US/NATO orbit.The next showdown may come within Europe itself as nationalist politicians seek to lead a break-away from the over-reaching U.S. power-grab over its European and other Allies to keep them dependent on U.S.-based trade and investment. The price of their continuing obedience is to impose cost-inflation on their industry while relinquishing their democratic electoral politics to subordination to America’s NATO proconsuls.These consequences cannot really be deemed “unintended.”
All the consequences of the ‘west’s’ reaction to Russia’s move were foreseeable. It is pure recklessness and stupidity that have allowed them to take place. The ‘west’ will now get punished for the bad movie it has launched.
Too bad that I don’t speak Russian … It is now the place to be.
Jimmy Salford @1Fubar - 7:06 UTC · Mar 6, 2022Russia has already been cut off from CNN, Pornhub and Facebook. The US is now working on depriving Russians of MacDonalds and CocaCola. If they keep going with these sanctions, Russians will soon be among the healthiest, well adjusted and best informed people on the planet.
…
Next up is this piece from the UK tabloid “Dailymail.com”.
Now this tabloid is all gung-ho about how great the West is, and all of that. They have written tons of articles that are a just lies. And that includes starvation in Shenzhen, slave trade in Xinjiang and all the rest. fun reading science fiction, but not actual reporting.
This here is it’s the first “reasonable” article that isn’t full of lies and fantasies. The comments in the article are interesting, and the vast bulk of it’s readership must welcome a more “level-headed” viewpoint.
Read this article, and note the idea that Russia is managing a threat vector from the West. Not tht an evil Putin dictator is going to invade Europe. What is so surprising is that this article is from the shrill-mills of the UK.
[2] Putin is NOT crazy and the Russian invasion is NOT failing.
The West’s delusions about this war – and its failure to understand the enemy – will prevent it from saving Ukraine, writes military analyst BILL ROGGIO
Wishful thinking has the upper hand in the battle to shape Western perceptions of the war in Ukraine.
Sympathy for the outnumbered and outgunned defenders of Kyiv has led to the exaggeration of Russian setbacks, misunderstanding of Russian strategy, and even baseless claims from amateur psychoanalysts that Putin has lost his mind.
A more sober analysis shows that Russia may have sought a knockout blow, but always had well-laid plans for follow-on assaults if its initial moves proved insufficient.
The world has underestimated Putin before and those mistakes have led, in part, to this tragedy in Ukraine.
We must be clear-eyed now that the war is underway.
Yet even the professionals at the Pentagon are letting sympathy cloud their judgement.
Just two days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Department of Defense briefers were quick to claim that failing to take Kyiv in the opening days of the war amounted to a serious setback.
DoD briefers implied that Russia’s offensive was well behind schedule or had even failed because the capital had not fallen.
But U.S. leaders should have learned to restrain their hopes after their catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Once again, U.S. and Western officials are falling into the trap of failing to understand the enemy and his objectives.
2022 03 05 09 00
Allegedly, Putin believed that the Ukrainian government would collapse once Russian troops crossed the frontier and pushed to Kyiv, and that the operation has failed because the Ukrainian government remains in place.
Putin certainly hoped for a swift victory, but he clearly was not relying on his opening salvo as the only plan for success.
Rather, the Russian military was prepared to take the country by force if a swift decapitation strike fell short.
This kind of plan should be familiar to Americans who remember the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In the first hours of the war, the U.S. Air Force launched its ‘shock and awe’ campaign in an attempt to kill Saddam Hussein and other key leaders and bring down the government. Saddam survived, but the U.S. military was fully prepared to follow up with a ground assault.
A look at the Russian military offensive demonstrates there was a plan for a full-scale invasion, which Russia is now executing.
Conventional, mechanized warfare is a time and resource consuming enterprise, and an operation of this scope isn’t cobbled together in days.
The Russian offensive is taking place on four separate fronts. On a fifth front, in eastern Ukraine, which Putin declared independent last week, Russian forces are tying down Ukrainian troops that are needed elsewhere.
The bulk of the Russian forces are advancing southward from Belarus to Kyiv.
Russian advance forces, including air, mobile and reconnaissance troops, have been engaged with Ukrainian troops outside of Kyiv since the start of the war.
A massive column of Russian troops, estimated at over 40 miles long, is just 20 miles north of Kyiv, and is likely assembling to surround the capital.
If Russian forces can take Kyiv and push southward to link up with forces on the Crimean front, thus splitting Ukraine in two, it would be a major blow to the Zelensky government.
What matters more than a handful of setbacks is that Russian forces have pushed 70 miles into contested terrain in less than a week and are on the outskirts of the capital.
2022 03 05 09 01
This is not a sign of a disorganized, poorly assembled, and failed offensive.
The southward push from Belarus to Kyiv is supported by another Russian column, launched from the east in the vicinity of Kursk.
If this column can link up with Russian troops near Kyiv, it will envelop Ukrainian forces in most of Chernihiv and Sumy provinces, depriving the Ukrainian military of much needed soldiers and war material needed elsewhere, and cutting off the government from two northern provinces.
Further east, Russian forces have launched a broad offensive aimed at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, which is now under siege.
In the south, Russian forces, supported by amphibious assaults from the Sea of Azov, have poured into Ukraine from Crimea.
On this front, Russian forces have branched out along two main axes, one northwest along the Pivdennyi Buh River, and another northeast along the coast and inland towards the Donbas region, which Russia declared independent shortly before the invasion.
If Russian columns from either southern front can link up with forces further north, they would cut off many Ukrainian troops from reinforcement—one of the two columns has already advanced roughly 160 miles.
Russian generals have often chosen to bypass towns and cities that are putting up stiff opposition and isolating them to deal with later.
There are reports that Russian forces have escalated attacks on civilians, particularly in Kharkiv.
At the moment, the artillery and rocket attacks there have been limited, perhaps to send a message to the citizens as a warning of what may come.
Putin appears to want to take Ukraine intact, but will not hesitate to increase the level of brutality if needed.
The systematic nature of the Russian assault is at odds with speculation that Putin has lost control of his senses.
Nobody knows for sure, but Putin’s actions appear to be that of a cold and calculating adversary.
Dismissing his decision to invade Ukraine as a form of madness is effectively an excuse to ignore Putin’s likely motivations and future actions.
Strategically, Putin’s advance on Ukraine began well over a decade ago, when he invaded and Balkanized Georgia by recognizing the Kremlin’s puppet regimes in the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
2022 03 05 09 05
In 2014, Putin occupied and annexed the strategic Ukrainian region of Crimea, which served as a launchpad for the current invasion.
Putin paid little price for either action.
The United States and Europe imposed limited sanctions but continued to engage with him on the Iranian nuclear deal and other top issues.
Today, Putin has calculated that taking Ukraine by force is in his and Russia’s interest.
He no doubt anticipated that the West would impose diplomatic and economic sanctions, which U.S. and European leaders threatened beforehand.
Putin may have miscalculated Ukrainian resistance and the intensity of the West’s opposition, but it doesn’t mean he is crazy, or didn’t consider the possibilities and chose to invade regardless.
It remains to be seen if Putin’s plan will succeed or fail, but what is clear is that there was a plan to invade Ukraine in force, and that plan has been executed since day one.
Ukrainian troops are putting up a valiant fight facing long odds and difficult conditions. Russia holds most if not all of the advantages.
It can, and has, attacked Ukraine from three different directions. The Russian military holds a decided advantage in manpower, as well as air, naval and armor superiority.
It has vast resources to draw on. While Ukraine has the support of much of the international community, which is providing weapons, Ukraine is fighting alone.
Believing Russia’s assault is going poorly may make us feel better but is at odds with the facts.
We cannot help Ukraine if we cannot be honest about its predicament.
…
I suppose that the author is trying to say to his fellow journalists;
"look, guys, our propaganda must be subtle. Not so obviously false, and easily disproved. Tone it down some"...
Next up is this item. Here, we see that all the “news” onslaught is just that. Nonsense, and that the truth is that very little that the United States, and NATO does has any effect on Russia.
It’s like a screaming child having a tantrum, and the adult closes the door and locks it. Meanwhile the child has a fit. Louder and louder it cries. But the adults, go eat a nice dinner, drink some wine. Sing, dance and have sex. And the child still has the tantrum oblivious to the reality going on…
[3] Russians don’t care what American opinions are
It would be childish to assume that ‘when we are beaten, we get stronger.’ Although we have indeed strengthened our national sovereignty in the economic sphere under the influence of American sanctions, but not to such an extent that we do not pay attention to them at all. The damage from sanctions, of course, is there and it is significantly enhanced by the passive policy of the monetary authorities.
Permanent intimidation of Russia with new ‘sanctions from hell’ has long ceased to excite Russian public opinion. I remember how in 2014, like others in the first list subjected to US sanctions, I was interviewed and we all assured journalists that we were proud of such recognition of our services to Russia. Since then, the number of individuals and legal entities sanctioned by the United States and its satellites has increased many times and has not had any noticeable impact on our country. On the contrary, the retaliatory measures introduced by our Government in terms of restricting food imports from these countries significantly contributed to the growth of domestic agricultural production, which has almost completely replaced the import of poultry and meat.
Defense and energy industry enterprises have learned to circumvent these sanctions by refusing to use the dollar, and at the same time American banks, in favour of national currencies and banks of partner countries. The next step is the development of digital currency instruments that can be used without resorting to the services of banks which are afraid of falling under sanctions. The Russian people are following with interest the return to the country of the capital exported by the oligarchs and themselves, who are afraid of confiscation and arrest in NATO countries.
American sanctions have affected not so much Russia as third countries which have been subjected to pressure from Washington. First of all, our European neighbours, who have curtailed most of the cooperation projects in the scientific, technical and energy spheres. They also affected Chinese commercial banks operating in the dollar zone, which preferred to stop servicing Russian customers. Russia’s trade turnover with the EU and the United States has naturally decreased, while with China it has grown. In the period 2014-2020, in monetary terms, Russia’s trade turnover with China increased by 17.8% from $88.4 billion to $104.1 billion. The share of APEC [Asia Pacific Economic Conference] and SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation] countries in the external trade turnover of the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union] increased during this period from 29.6% to 36.4% and from 16.3% to 24.1%, respectively. The share of the EU in the external trade turnover of the EAEU, on the contrary, decreased from 46.2% in 2015 to 36.7% in 2020. Trade turnover with the United States during the period under review decreased by 18.1% from $29.1 billion to $23.9 billion.
In fact, with the help of sanctions, the United States is trying to oust Russian goods from the markets of its satellites, replacing its own. This was most clearly manifested in the European natural gas market, where the US share has increased sharply, although it has not yet been possible to displace Russia in the European natural gas market.
The main result of the US-European sanctions was a change in the geographical structure of Russian foreign economic relations in favor of China, the expansion of cooperation with which fully compensates for the curtailment of trade and economic relations with the EU. European consumers have to switch to more expensive American energy carriers, and their producers simply lose the Russian market. The total losses of the EU from anti-Russian sanctions are estimated at $ 250 billion.
Another important result of the US sanctions was the fall in the share of the dollar in international settlements. For Russia, as for other countries which have been subjected to US sanctions, the dollar has become a toxic currency. By tracing all dollar transactions, the US punitive authorities can block payments, freeze, or even confiscate assets at any time. For 8 years after the sanctions were imposed, the dollar’s share in international settlements decreased by 13.5 percentage points (from 60.2% in 2014 to 46.7% in 2020).
Sanctions have become a powerful incentive for the transition to settlements in national currencies and the development of national payment systems. Thus, in the mutual trade of the EAEU states, the share of the dollar decreased by more than 6 percentage points (from 26.3% in 2014 to 20.0% at the end of 2020).
I remember how ten years ago, when considering the risks to the Russian banking system at the National Banking Council, I asked the then head of the Central Bank: ‘Is the risk of disconnecting Russian banks from the international SWIFT banking transmission system being considered, as Western partners did in relation to Iran?’
To which I received the answer: ‘We cannot consider the risk of an atomic bomb hitting the Bank of Russia.’
However, the management of the Central Bank has taken measures — today Russia has its own system for transmitting electronic messages between banks — the Bank of Russia’s Financial Message Transmission System (SPFS), as well as its own payment system for Mir bank cards, which is interfaced with the Chinese Union Pay system and can be used for cross-border payments and transfers.
Both of them are open to foreign partners and are already widely used not only in domestic, but also in international settlements.
Disabling SWIFT is no longer seen as a large-scale threat — it will benefit the development of our payment and financial information systems.
However, it would be childish to assume that ‘when we are beaten, we get stronger.’ Although we have indeed strengthened our national sovereignty in the economic sphere under the influence of American sanctions, but not to such an extent that we do not pay attention to them at all. The damage from sanctions, of course, is there and it is significantly enhanced by the passive policy of the monetary authorities.
Since 2014, when, with the connivance of the regulator, currency speculators brought down the ruble exchange rate by manipulating the market, the latter has been used by sanctions as a fail-safe fuse of macroeconomic stability. At the same time, it was in 2014, on the eve of the already announced US sanctions, that the Bank of Russia switched to a free-floating exchange rate regime.
And only after that, the United States introduced their sanctions, being sure that speculators would multiply their negative effect.
When the ruble fell by almost half, Obama was pleased to say that ‘the Russian economy is torn to shreds.’ As a result of this manipulation of the Russian currency market, ruble incomes and savings depreciated, and speculators received over 35 billion rubles.in profit. But this happened not because of sanctions, but rather because of the complicity of the Bank of Russia, which left the exchange rate formation at the mercy of international speculators on the recommendation of Washington financial organizations.
Only very naive people can believe in the formation of an equilibrium ruble exchange rate in the free-float mode. The Bank of Russia’s exclusion of itself from ruble exchange rate regulation means that international currency speculators are engaged in this. On the rocking of the ruble exchange rate, which has become one of the most unstable currencies in the world with a threefold provision of foreign exchange reserves, international speculators receive multibillion dollar profits, and Russians, the depreciation of their ruble savings and income together with bursts of inflation. At the same time, the investment climate is hopelessly deteriorating — the instability of the ruble exchange rate creates uncertainty about the main parameters of investment projects using imported equipment and export-oriented products.
Thus, the damage caused by US financial sanctions is inextricably linked to the monetary policy of the Bank of Russia which is the ideal one for them. Its essence boils down to a tight binding of the ruble issue to export earnings, and the ruble exchange rate to the dollar. In fact, an artificial shortage of money is being created in the economy, and the strict policy of the Central Bank leads to an increase in the cost of lending, which kills business activity and hinders the development of infrastructure in the country.
Sanctions restrictions have caused an extremely high demand for corporate financing in the domestic market. Against the background of a relatively low key rate and access to cheaper funding, large banks consistently keep a net interest margin above the average market level, 5.4% to 6%; whereas for the largest banks in China, the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan, the net interest margin ranges from 0.8% to 2.3%.
However, these windfalls are not directed to financing infrastructure projects, but to the acquisition of disparate non-core businesses that are combined into ecosystems. Most of these businesses remain unprofitable even at the EBITDA [earnings] level. Despite this, billions of rubles are still spent on their development.
These figures are quite comparable to the volume of investments in a major infrastructure project in the real sector of the economy, which can bring both job growth and contribution to the development of the economy. But such projects (as well as filling the budget) are still left to the raw materials companies, while the largest financial corporations prefer to direct their income to the creation of chimeras.
In fact, it was the connivance of the Central Bank which led to the fact that Russia and its industry were drained of blood and unable to develop.
If the Central Bank fulfilled its constitutional duty to ensure the stability of the ruble — and it has all the possibilities for this due to the threefold surplus of the currency reserves of the monetary base — then financial sanctions would be nothing to us. They could even be turned, as in other sectors of the economy, to the benefit of the banking sector, if the Central Bank replaced the loans withdrawn by Western partners with its own special refinancing instruments. This would increase the capacity of the Russian credit and banking system by more than 10 trillion rubles.
Also, it would fully compensate for the outflow of foreign financing of investments, preventing a decline in investment and economic activity without any inflationary consequences. Thus, it would be possible to avoid a long period of decline in real incomes of the population caused solely by the peculiarities of the monetary policy pursued in Russia, which ensured the effectiveness of sanctions in the monetary and financial sphere.
Assessing the consequences of anti-Russian sanctions, it is impossible to ignore the consequences of severing economic ties with Ukraine. The mutual abolition of the free trade regime and the imposition of an embargo on a wide range of goods led to the rupture of cooperative ties that ensured the reproduction of many types of high-tech products. Blocking the work of Russian banks led to the depreciation of multibillion-dollar Russian investments. The refusal of the Ukrainian authorities to service the debt to Russia caused several billion dollars’ more losses. In total, their volume is estimated at about $100 billion for each of the parties. This is really significant and in many ways irreparable real damage, which we ourselves have aggravated with retaliatory sanctions.
To date, the outcome of the economic consequences of anti-Russian sanctions is as follows. Ukraine suffered the biggest losses relative to GDP, in absolute terms — the European Union. Russian losses of potential GDP, since 2014, amount to about 50 trillion rubles. But only 10% of them can be explained by sanctions, while 80% of them were the result of monetary policy. The United States benefits from anti-Russian sanctions, replacing the export of Russian hydrocarbons to the EU, as well as China; replacing the import of European goods by Russia. We could completely offset the negative consequences of financial sanctions if the Bank of Russia fulfilled its constitutional duty to ensure a stable ruble exchange rate, and not the recommendations of Washington financial organizations.
Consider the threats of American and European Russophobes against the new ‘sanctions from hell’. It has already been mentioned above that the threat of disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT system, widely discussed in the media today, although it will interfere with international settlements at first, will benefit the Russian banking and payment system in the medium term.
The threat to ban transactions with Russian bonds will also benefit us, since their issue in a budget surplus is nothing more than a source of profit for foreign speculators.
And their profitability is overestimated three times in relation to the market assessment of their riskiness. The termination of the self-serving [самоедской] policy of the monetary authorities, who are borrowing money which is objectively unnecessary to the budget at exorbitant prices, will allow us to save billions of dollars. If the sanctioneers try to prohibit the purchase of the foreign currency bonds of Russian corporations, then it will be possible to compensate for the missing financing for the purchase of imported equipment by buying them out at the expense of part of the excess foreign exchange reserves. If foreign loans are cut off to them, then the risk of their default will fall on the European and American banks themselves.
There is also a potential risk of seizure of Russian state assets. But we can respond to this symmetrically by imposing an embargo on servicing debt obligations to Western creditors and also arresting their assets. The losses of the parties will be approximately equal.
There remains, in fact, one threat – to take away foreign assets from Russian oligarchs. For all its popularity among the common people, this will stimulate the return of capital exported from the country, which will also have a positive effect for the Russian economy.
At the same time, we need to protect ourselves as much as possible from the expected escalation of US-European sanctions.
The most vulnerable place for our economy is its excessive offshoring.
Up to half of the assets of the Russian industry belong to non-residents. There are more than a trillion dollars of capital exported from the country abroad, half of which is involved in the reproduction of the Russian economy.
The simultaneous freezing of these assets can really dramatically worsen the situation of a number of strategically important enterprises dependent on the external market.
The Americans showed how this is done using the example of Rusal, establishing their control over it under the threat of stopping foreign trade activities. We could respond to this by nationalizing at least the giant hydroelectric power plants transferred to this corporation for a song and on dubious grounds, on the operation of which the lion’s share of its profits is based. But for some reason, they did not protect this one of the structural branches of our economy from the raider seizure by the US Treasury.
…
So, then Russia is cautious, aware and has plans in place. The harsh slap of American sanctions fell like a wisp of a feather on a pillow. Now, let’s see how it will actually happen.
Next up… what REALLY going to happen…
[4] Follow the money: how Russia will bypass western economic warfare
The US and EU are over-reaching on Russian sanctions. The end result could be the de-dollarization of the global economy and massive commodity shortages worldwide.
So a congregation of NATO’s top brass ensconced in their echo chambers target the Russian Central Bank with sanctions and expect what?
Cookies?
What they got instead was Russia’s deterrence forces bumped up to “a special regime of duty” – which means the Northern and Pacific fleets, the Long-Range Aviation Command, strategic bombers and the entire Russian nuclear apparatus on maximum alert.
One Pentagon general very quickly did the basic math on that, and mere minutes later, a Ukrainian delegation was dispatched to conduct negotiations with Russia in an undisclosed location in Gomel, Belarus.
BOOM!
Expecting to lay economic warfare with Russia's Central Bank, Russia responded with the full force of hard, physical nuclear weaponary. Oh, so you want to play "hard ball" eh? You want to deal with us? You want to see what the flash or light, and hard gooey blood on your chest looks like? Do you?
Meanwhile, in the vassal realms, the German government was busy “setting limits to warmongers like Putin” – quite a rich undertaking considering that Berlin never set any such limits for the western warmongers who bombed Yugoslavia, invaded Iraq, or destroyed Libya in complete violation of international law.
While openly proclaiming their desire to “stop the development of Russian industry,” damage its economy, and “ruin Russia” – echoing American edicts on Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Cuba, Venezuela and others in the Global South – the Germans could not possibly recognize a new categorical imperative.
They were finally liberated from their WWII culpability complex by none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Germany is finally free to support and weaponize neo-Nazis out in the open all over again – now of the Ukrainian Azov battalion variety.
To get the hang of how these NATO sanctions will “ruin Russia,” I asked for the succinct analysis of one of the most competent economic minds on the planet, Michael Hudson, author, among others, of a revised edition of the must-read Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire.
Hudson remarked how he is
“simply numbed over the near-atomic escalation of the US.”
On the confiscation of Russian foreign reserves and cut-off from SWIFT, the main point is “it will take some time for Russia to put in a new system, with China.
The result will end dollarization for good, as countries threatened with ‘democracy™’ or displaying diplomatic independence will be afraid to use US banks.”
This, Hudson says, leads us to “the great question: whether Europe and the Dollar Bloc can buy Russian raw materials – cobalt, palladium, etc, and whether China will join Russia in a minerals boycott.”
Hudson is adamant that “Russia’s Central Bank, of course, has foreign bank assets in order to intervene in exchange markets to defend its currency from fluctuations.
The ruble has plunged.
There will be new exchange rates.
Yet it’s up to Russia to decide whether to sell its wheat to West Asia, that needs it; or to stop selling gas to Europe via Ukraine, now that the US can grab it.”
About the possible introduction of a new Russia-China payment system bypassing SWIFT, and combining the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) with the Chinese CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System), Hudson has no doubts “the Russian-China system will be implemented.
The Global South will seek to join and at the same time keep SWIFT – moving their reserves into the new system.”
I’m going to de-dollarize myself
So the US itself, in another massive strategic blunder, will speed up de-dollarization. As the managing director of Bocom International Hong Hao told the Global Times, with energy trade between Europe and Russia de-dollarized, “that will be the beginning of the disintegration of dollar hegemony.”
It’s a refrain the US administration was quietly hearing last week from some of its own largest multinational banks, including notables like JPMorgan and Citigroup.
A Bloomberg article sums up their collective fears:
“Booting Russia from the critical global system – which handles 42 million messages a day and serves as a lifeline to some of the world’s biggest financial institutions – could backfire, sending inflation higher, pushing Russia closer to China, and shielding financial transactions from scrutiny by the west. It might also encourage the development of a SWIFT alternative that could eventually damage the supremacy of the US dollar.”
Those with IQs over 50 in the European Union (EU) must have understood that Russia simply could not be totally excluded from SWIFT, but maybe only a few of its banks: after all, European traders depend on Russian energy.
From Moscow’s point of view, that’s a minor issue. A number of Russian banks are already connected to China’s CIPS system. For instance, if someone wants to buy Russian oil and gas with CIPS, payment must be in the Chinese yuan currency. CIPS is independent of SWIFT.
Additionally, Moscow already linked its SPFS payment system not only to China but also to India and member nations of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). SPFS already links to approximately 400 banks.
With more Russian companies using SPFS and CIPS, even before they merge, and other maneuvers to bypass SWIFT, such as barter trade – largely used by sanctioned Iran – and agent banks, Russia could make up for at least 50 percent in trade losses.
The key fact is that the flight from the US-dominated western financial system is now irreversible across Eurasia – and that will proceed in tandem with the internationalization of the yuan.
Russia has its own bag of tricks
Meanwhile, we’re not even talking yet about Russian retaliation for these sanctions. Former President Dmitry Medvedev already gave a hint: everything, from exiting all nuclear arms deals with the US to freezing the assets of western companies in Russia, is on the table.
So what does the “Empire of Lies” want? (Putin terminology, on Monday’s meeting in Moscow to discuss the response to sanctions.)
In an essay published this morning, deliciously titled America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century: the MIC, OGAM and FIRE conquer NATO, Michael Hudson makes a series of crucial points, starting with how
“NATO has become Europe’s foreign policy-making body, even to the point of dominating domestic economic interests.”
He outlines the three oligarchies in control of US foreign policy:
First is the military-industrial complex, which Ray McGovern memorably coined as MICIMATT (military industrial Congressional intelligence media academia think tank). Hudson defines their economy base as
“monopoly rent, obtained above all from its arms sales to NATO, to West Asian oil exporters and to other countries with a balance-of-payments surplus.”
Second is the oil and gas sector, joined by mining (OGAM). Their aim is
“to maximize the price of energy and raw materials so as to maximize natural resource rent. Monopolizing the Dollar Area’s oil market and isolating it from Russian oil and gas has been a major US priority for over a year now, as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany threatened to link the western European and Russian economies together.”
Third is the “symbiotic” Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector, which Hudson defines as
“the counterpart to Europe’s old post-feudal landed aristocracy living by land rents.”
As he describes these three rentier sectors that completely dominate post-industrial finance capitalism at the heart of the western system, Hudson notes how
“Wall Street always has been closely merged with the oil and gas industry (namely, the Citigroup and Chase Manhattan banking conglomerates).”
Hudson shows how
“the most pressing US strategic aim of NATO confrontation with Russia is soaring oil and gas prices. In addition to creating profits and stock market gains for US companies, higher energy prices will take much of the steam out of the German economy.”
He warns how food prices will rise “headed by wheat.” (Russia and Ukraine account for 25 percent of world wheat exports.)
From a Global South perspective, that’s a disaster:
“This will squeeze many West Asian and Global South food-deficient countries, worsening their balance of payments and threatening foreign debt defaults.”
As for blocking Russian raw materials exports,
“this threatens to cause breaks in supply chains for key materials, including cobalt, palladium, nickel, aluminum.”
And that leads us, once again, to the heart of the matter:
“The long-term dream of the US new Cold Warriors is to break up Russia, or at least to restore its managerial kleptocracy seeking to cash in their privatizations in western stock markets.”
That’s not going to happen.
Hudson clearly sees how
“the most enormous unintended consequence of US foreign policy has been to drive Russia and China together, along with Iran, Central Asia and countries along the Belt and Road initiative.”
Let’s confiscate some technology
Now compare all of the above with the perspective of a central European business tycoon with vast interests, east and west, and who treasures his discretion.
In an email exchange, the business tycoon posed serious questions about the Russian Central Bank support for its national currency, the ruble,
“which according to US planning is being destroyed by the west through sanctions and currency wolf packs who are exposing themselves by selling rubles short. There is really almost no amount of money that can beat the dollar manipulators against the ruble. A 20 percent interest rate will kill the Russian economy unnecessarily.”
The businessman argues that the chief effect of the rate hike
“would be to support imports that should not be imported. The fall of the ruble is thus favorable to Russia in terms of self-sufficiency. As import prices rise, these goods should start to be produced domestically. I would just let the ruble fall to find its own level which will for a while be lower than natural forces would permit as the US will be driving it lower through sanctions and short selling manipulation in this form of economic war against Russia.”
But that seems to tell only part of the story.
Arguably, the lethal weapon in Russia’s arsenal of responses has been identified by the head of the Center for Economic Research of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO), Vasily Koltashov: the key is to confiscate technology – as in Russia ceasing to recognize US rights to patents.
In what he qualifies as “liberating American intellectual property,”
Koltashov calls for passing a Russian law on
“friendly and unfriendly states. If a country turns out to be on the unfriendly list, then we can start copying its technologies in pharmaceuticals, industry, manufacturing, electronics, medicine. It can be anything – from simple details to chemical compositions.”
This would require amendments to the Russian constitution.
Koltashov maintains that
“one of the foundations of success of American industry was copying of foreign patents for inventions.”
Now, Russia could use
“China’s extensive know-how with its latest technological production processes for copying western products: the release of American intellectual property will cause damage to the United States to the amount of $10 trillion, only in the first stage. It will be a disaster for them.”
As it stands, the strategic stupidity of the EU beggars belief.
China is ready to grab all Russian natural resources – with Europe left as a pitiful hostage of the oceans and of wild speculators. It looks like a total EU-Russia split is ahead – with little trade left and zero diplomacy.
Now listen to the sound of champagne popping all across the MICIMATT.
…
And you all must see how this collapse of the USD will fit into the big picture with what is happening inside of the United States right now…
[5] WILL THERE BE A 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.”― George Orwell
The smell of tyranny is in the air.
The level of propaganda, disinformation, and mistruth has reached astounding heights, as the ruling oligarchy/Deep State/globalist cabal are thrashing about violently because their frauds are being exposed on a daily basis.
This shift to the tyranny of force has massive implications for everyone on the planet.
When every quote from Orwell’s 1984 applies every day to everything swirling around us, you begin to realize we are in the midst of a dystopian nightmare which gets more ghoulish by the day.
The last two years have been a fraud of epic proportions, conducted by a cadre of evil money titans, their financial, media, and medical apparatchiks, with the objective of tearing down our existing social and economic structure…
…and “resetting” the world where they own everything and you own nothing, eat bugs, and provide the slave labor needed to keep society functioning.
Of course, this will be after they dispose of tens of millions of useless eaters through their Covid/Vaxx scheme, global war, and mass starvation.
The past two weeks have denoted a remarkable transformation in the pushing of the fraudulent fearmongering narrative about a relatively non-lethal flu…
vaccine mandates,
masking and shaming those with the common sense to rely on their immune systems,
to trying to provoke a world war over a border dispute with absolutely no relevance or strategic value to our country, other than to further enrich the military industrial complex and
the parasites and leeches in government, finance, media and war making industry who live for and love war.
The shift has been effortless because the ruling Party, over the last two years, learned they could make the willfully ignorant and indoctrinated masses believe the most absurd story-lines with broadcast propaganda, social media influencing, and using highly compensated “experts” to lie, obfuscate, and say whatever they were paid to say.
And just like that, the pandemic was over and a war the U.S. and NATO provoked has shifted the focus of the willfully ignorant to a new boogeyman – Vladimir Putin (aka the unhinged madman Hitler reincarnation).
Again, the plotline is eerily reminiscent of Orwell’s Two Minutes of Hate.
The members of the Party participated in a public setting to watch the enemy of the state (Emmanuel Goldstein) on a film screen and loudly express their hate for the enemy du jour.
I can’t help but recognize the similarities to the last six years here in our very own dystopian empire of lies and propaganda.
From 2016 through 2020 the face of Trump was on that screen, with the hatred of Hillary, her Deep State coup co-conspirators, the fake news media outlets, and the brain-dead liberal sycophants reaching historic levels of vitriol.
Once Trump was eradicated, the Covid virus became the enemy on the screen, but the masses were infused with fear and incited to hate those who refused to fear this Fauci created flu.
“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary.
A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. A
nd yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.”– Orwell – 1984
The Party needed a human face to hate.
Once they began to rollout their Big Pharma clot shots, after falsifying their safety trial data and suppressing proven safe therapeutics like ivermectin and hydroxychloquine, the face of hate became everyone who refused to be the research in this despicable medical experiment which has been an epic failure thus far, with the long-term deadly consequences only beginning to be revealed.
The un-vaxxed (aka pure bloods) have been treated like dirt, hated, de-platformed, banned, fired, and ridiculed.
The two minutes of hate has extended for a year.
But our overlords have decided the time has come to change the channel of hate towards Putin, Russia, Alex Ovechkin, Russian vodka, Russian dressing and anyone who points out the U.S. and their NATO lapdogs have provoked this conflict by surrounding Russia with military bases and missiles.
A simple map shows why Putin felt it necessary to make a stand and confront his adversaries with a punch in the mouth.
NATO signed a treaty with Russia pledging NO WESTWARD expansion. They violated it 14 times, as the map clearly shows.
Thus far the sanctions are toothless because neither Europe nor the U.S. can stomach the pain of being cut-off from Russian gas and oil.
So, for the time being they will settle for their media mouthpieces conducting two minutes of hate on a grand scale until someone does something stupid and hell on earth is unleashed across the globe.
The timing of this Ukraine conflict has been impeccable for Biden, his Covidian Cultists, their hapless discredited media lapdogs, and all the authoritarian state and local politicians whose destruction of lives and businesses has been complete.
Now that everything the “conspiracy theorists” have been saying for two years has been proven right, these soulless goblins must distract from their criminal acts by using their power of media propaganda to lead the same clueless low IQ saps who believed their bullshit about masks, lockdowns, social distancing, vaccines, and vaccine mandates into believing we should go to war with Russia over an historical border dispute 5,000 miles from our shores.
The same dumbasses riding alone in the car with a mask on are the ones calling for the banning of Russia vodka as a patriotic gesture to support those brave neo-Nazi Ukrainians.
I find it endlessly amusing to see Maddow and the rest of the MSNBC left wing loonies supporting people they would classify as red neck white supremacist Trump supporters if they lived in the U.S.
They wear their hypocrisy and imbecility proudly, while foaming at the mouth at whoever they are paid to attack.
It’s as plain as the vacant look on Biden’s face during a press conference that Biden, his handlers, and his pollsters decided two weeks ago to Wag the Dog, scrap the covid farce, rally the country around the flag, and pretend their policies have not unleashed raging inflation, destroyed our economy, shattered the lives of millions, and unleashed an ongoing and long-term death sentence for the millions of trusting souls who believed their safe & effective narrative – injecting themselves with a DNA altering experimental drug which has already killed and maimed millions.
Amazingly, even though Covid cases have plummeted, they are still at the same levels as November 2021 – when mandatory masking, vaccine mandates, and heavy restrictions were in full effect, with Biden and his cronies committing un-Constitutional acts, in coordination with mega-corporations and mass media, to force supposedly free Americans to participate in their warped failed experiment.
2022 03 05 09 33
It’s funny that Walensky and her corrupt CDC cohorts now are sure it is safe to go maskless, even though, according to their own statistics, covid deaths are now 65% higher than they were in November 2021.
If I recall, senile Joe was warning us about the dark winter ahead for the unvaccinated.
Another bogus narrative proven false.
After witnessing his brilliant prediction, I’m a little worried about his judgement on matters of nuclear war.
Fauci told us to trust the science, and he was the science.
But now he is completely on-board with rolling back everything he said was essential for society to function just a month ago.
His profile is being quickly diminished.
He has proven to be a Big Pharma hack, who sold his soul to Satan, and will go down in history as a sociopath mass murder.
Let’s face it, this was never about medical science, but political science.
Masks have never worked. Social distancing was a farce.
Lockdowns did not stop the virus.
The vaccines have failed on an epic scale.
The vaccines are killing and maiming people.
Vaccine mandates and passports are nothing more than a control and punishment mechanism.
The critical thinking resisters have been proven right on every front. Even the gullible masses began to realize they were lied to and manipulated for political purposes.
This is where political science overrode the faux medical science sold by Fauci and his Big Pharma puppeteers.
The polls show Biden and his party of far-left wingnuts are going to experience YUGE losses in the November midterms.
And just like that, Democrat governors and mayors are lifting mask mandates and vaccine mandates faster than the Biden vote count increase at 3:00 am.
They are reversing everything they never had the authority to implement in the first place.
They want you to forget how they destroyed the lives of millions, bankrupting hundreds of thousands of small businesses, demolishing our civil liberties, and permanently wrecking the lives of our children.
Their plan is to switch the narrative to Russia hate and expect the ignorant masses to forget what they have done and how they severely damaged the social fabric of our society.
They have supreme confidence in the foolishness and witlessness of the suckers who swallowed their scamdemic scheme, and after a week of observing the complete transformation of the fearful mask/mandate brigade to the “I Hate Putin” army, it appears the Bernays’ propaganda machine is running like a finely tuned fake news propagator for the globalist new world order cabal.
Orwell’s observation that every war needs to be sold as self-defense against a homicidal maniac has been duly noted by those pulling the strings of society, as they have enlisted Vladimir Putin to be that “homicidal maniac” in their ongoing quest to destroy the world and reinvent and reset it as a techno-gulag.
Once they can force everyone into a cashless society, we will all be wearing digital slave chains, enabling them to control our behavior by cutting us off from the ability to conduct commerce, eat, or have opinions contrary to the government narrative.
Does the daily ebb and flow of one crisis after another, requiring greater government control of every aspect of our existence, have a Truman Showfeel to you?
The usurpation of our civil liberties, human rights, freedoms, and liberties had been gradual and almost undetectable to the indoctrinated sheep who have been distracted by their iGadgets, counting their likes and followers on social media, professional sports bread and circuses, and the filth that passes for Hollywood entertainment over the last couple decades.
The last two years have seen a precipitous acceleration in the lawless disregard for any and all Constitutional rights, bodily rights, and human rights.
The illegal and heavy-handed enforcement of lockdowns and vaccine mandates reveals a desperation in the actions of our globalist oligarch controllers.
The question is whether this acceleration is part of the master plan, or an acknowledgement the endgame is approaching, and they need to gamble it all in an effort to reconfigure and reset the world to make it great for oligarchs and hell on earth for the rest of us.
I’m convinced Orwell and Huxley were the two most prescient minds of the 20th Century when it came to understanding the human condition and how power-seeking psychopaths would always rise to the top of society and inflict their psychosis upon the masses.
The mass formation psychosis (aka madness of crowds), which has overtaken a large swath of the population over the last two years, did not happen naturally, but was purposely initiated by propagandists who know how to manipulate the minds of the already willfully ignorant masses using mass media, social media, and parading of paid “experts” and “influencers” to sell their narrative.
The power of groupthink is overwhelming when it is driven by fear, hatred, and the power of psychopaths like Fauci willing to lie, mislead and cover-up facts that do not support the narrative. Huxley’s description of “herd poisoning” perfectly fits how the mindless, frantic, lunacy of the Covidian Cult overrode all of the critical thinking rational non-sheep in a stampede of idiocy, engineered by those pulling the strings of society.
“Groups are capable of being as moral and intelligent as the individuals who form them; a crowd is chaotic, has no purpose of its own and is capable of anything except intelligent action and realistic thinking.
Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice.
Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgment or will of their own.
They become very excitable, they lose all sense of individual or collective responsibility, they are subject to sudden accesses of rage, enthusiasm and panic.
In a word, a man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose of some powerful intoxicant.
He is a victim of what I have called “herd-poisoning.” Like alcohol, herd-poison is an active, extraverted drug.
The crowd-intoxicated individual escapes from responsibility, intelligence and morality into a kind of frantic, animal mindlessness.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
The same men who engineered the covid plandemic hysteria, are now making a segue directly into provoking a World War 3 scenario and urging the Covidian Cultists to rally around the Ukrainian flag and their brave patriot army to fight off the evil psychopath despot of Russia.
It doesn’t matter that a week ago these dupes couldn’t find Ukraine on a map, had never seen their flag, didn’t know the comedian president of Ukraine’s name, and had no idea about the CIA coup that overthrew the actual president of Ukraine in 2014.
Animal mindlessness is their specialty.
And those trying to cause global destruction in order to build back better are wallowing in the apparent success of their plan thus far.
Global disorder and chaos are proceeding with reckless abandon, as an already teetering, debt saturated, global economy was in danger of spinning out of control with raging inflation, rapidly decelerating GDP, and stock markets which peaked in early January and had begun to fall.
Now you add the first real war in Europe in 77 years into the mix and you have a combustible environment threatening to blow our modern world back to the stone age.
The world continues to spiral towards the bloody climax that mark all Fourth Turnings.
What happens between now and then is guaranteed to be tumultuous, try men’s souls, test the mettle of freedom minded patriots, push the world to the brink, and clearly demarcate the frontier between good and evil.
Current events related to this confusing conflict in the Ukraine may seem confined for now, but as the sanctions and countermeasures are inflicted by all sides, the unintended consequences will begin to rear their ugly head.
The current heads of state and their trusted advisors are not intellectually competent, morally superior, or capable of analyzing the long-term impact of their emotionally driven actions, which will lead to a much broader conflict and disastrous consequences for the citizens of this world, who are nothing more than pawns in this global game of chess being played by shadowy oligarchs attempting to checkmate our freedoms, livelihoods, and ability to live our lives free from their authoritarian mandates.
Everything we’ve been put through over the last two years has been pre-planned by Schwab, Soros, Gates, the Davos World Economic Forum crowd, and their acolytes positioned in governments across the world.
They have been testing how far they could push their citizens before getting pushback. Lockdowns, masks, vaccines, electronic vaccine passports, social credit scoring, and conspiring with Big Pharma, Big Media, and Big Corporations to force a fake vaccine into the veins of hundreds of millions has all been part of the plan.
Trudeau’s totalitarian crackdown on peaceful protestors, declaring dictatorial emergency powers, stealing their donated funds, freezing their bank accounts, beating them, imprisoning them, seizing their property, and trying to ruin their lives by publicly releasing their names and addresses, was just another test run by one of Schwab’s young global leader graduates.
The same has been done in New Zealand and Australia. These actions are a prelude to what comes next. Orwell was right.
Once they have seized power, they have no plans of relinquishing it and the object of power is power.
The next chapter in this dystopian Truman Show is how this conflict in the Ukraine will be used to further the aims of Schwab’s Great Reset.
You can be absolutely sure it will be used to further restrict our freedoms, rights, and free speech.
Anyone not participating in the daily two minutes of hate will be declared a Russian asset.
Anyone not toeing the anti-Russia narrative will be penalized financially, just as they were for not getting the jab.
Joe Biden was a low IQ angry gaffe machine as senator and vice president. He is now a dementia ridden husk, who can barely read what his handlers tell him to say on his teleprompter.
His weakness has led to emboldening Putin in pushing back against the US and NATO placing missiles on his border, by attacking Ukraine.
Economic sanctions are acts of war.
Cyber-attacks are acts of war.
Sending arms to participants in a conflict are acts of war.
It was economic sanctions which led to the rise of Hitler.
It was oil sanctions by FDR that created the desperation of Japan’s leadership, leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
If this conflict drags on, the measures and countermeasures are likely ignite a wider conflagration.
With real inflation already at 15%, GDP at 0.0%, oil now up 20% in the last two weeks, the Fed backed into a corner and about to end QE and raise rates, and the supply chain in a shambles, these economic sanctions are going to create havoc and extreme economic pain for billions across the globe.
Incompetent leaders, with mediocre minds, who have been installed because they will do as they are told by the globalist puppeteers, are steering the world into World War 3.
At this point virtually no one believes we will not have a presidential election in 2024.
Candidates are positioning themselves, pundits are calculating odds, pollsters are taking the temperature of the populace, and the media is spinning their web of lies.
But there are multiple scenarios which could result in no presidential election in 2024. With inflation already at 40-year highs, these accelerating levels of sanctions will surely give inflation a further boost, making it impossible for Powell and his cronies to pretend it is transitory.
They will be increasing rates and withdrawing liquidity as we enter recession, making the chances of a depression the highest in decades. This will absolutely cause the stock market and housing market to crash.
A large swath of the population is already outraged and irate at being abused and victimized by their leaders for the last two years and told it was for the common good.
Trucker convoys are converging on DC. to voice their displeasure. Seeing their 401ks vaporized once again and going back underwater on their recent mortgages will not be accepted without a violent reaction.
Civil unrest has been purposely generated by the controllers over the last few years but is poised to go kinetic in the near future.
The party that weaponized the flu to complete the coup they started in 2016 against a duly elected president and stole the 2020 election through mail-in ballot fraud and voting machine rigging, is not going to willingly relinquish power by losing the 2022 mid-terms and 2024 presidential election.
Will they roll-out the next variant in the fall, just in time to force mail-in voting once again, so they can steal enough seats to retain power? Seems unlikely.
If the GOP takes Congress in November, that essentially leaves Biden with executive orders to force his left-wing agenda down our throats.
An attempt at using illegal means to enforce his agenda could meet violent resistance.
They have already gated off their Swamp and posted the military to protect the vermin crawling around the halls of Congress.
They have already thrown the selfie-insurrectionists into their dungeons with no due process for their “crimes”.
What makes you think Biden and his Obama handlers will not use some excuse or false flag to declare martial law and suspend the elections?
The more likely scenario will be driven by war scenarios. As already documented, with inflation raging across the globe, the supply chain disintegrating, the world retreating into competing camps, a declining American empire desperately trying to fend off China, and a nuclear power run by a ruthless, serious, intelligent, “Russia First” dictator, the chances of the current level of global disorder to spiral out of control are high.
Politicians, when confronted with domestic issues they cannot solve by PR and throwing money at it, need a foreign confrontation to distract the masses from their failures.
Biden and his bevy of like-minded EU political hacks have gladly jumped on the anti-Russia bandwagon like a pack of rabid wolves.
Watching corporations and the media likewise go on the attack is eerily reminiscent of their extreme reaction to the un-vaxxed.
Covid has disappeared from the daily lexicon just in time for Biden’s State of the Union and the fast-approaching November elections.
Revisionist history is in process by the left-wing media. It was Trump’s fault.
Someone somewhere is bound to do something stupid, whether it be a dictator, president, prime minister, general, assassin, soldier, or just a pissed off parent, which sets off the fuse for the bloody portion of this Fourth Turning.
Once this war goes global and countries choose sides, anything can happen, and it will. Picture the domino scene in V for Vendetta.
Once it starts it can’t be contained until there are clear victors and clear winners. The difference between this Fourth Turning and previous Fourth Turnings is the ability of several countries to initiate thermonuclear war which would end life as we know it.
Even use of tactical nukes, EMPs, or cyber-attacks taking down crucial systems could transform our modern world into the 3rd world.
So, a global conflict could also create an atmosphere where our ruling junta couldn’t possibly allow Donald Trump to be re-elected president.
This, of course, would lead to civil war in the streets. It’s almost as if an orange fireball rising up above the Swamp would be preferable.
Just remember, the current scenario was placed into motion by Schwab, Soros, Gates, and the Great Reset billionaire cabal. If we get out of this alive, you know who to hang from the lampposts.
“Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
…
So, we now know that the United States is ripe for revolution or Civil War. It’s ready. It’s ripe, and it’s amazing to me that it hasn’t yet ignited.
All five articles so far has absolutely indicated clearly that the United States, as well as it’s “allies” are in late-stage collapse. It’s looking like any day now a switch will be flicked and a new day will begin…
Ukraine may be many things … but a ‘gospel of democracy’?
We all know that the western media’s Ukraine coverage has been highly charged, playing on western feelings of sympathy for (some) underdog ‘victims’, and directing feelings towards a moral outrage that insists – even demands – retribution and punishment for the perceived perpetrators.
David Brooks in the New York Times elevates this feeling of guilt to higher planes:
“The creed of liberalism is getting a second wind [and has] reminded us not only what it looks like to believe in democracy, the liberal order and national honour; but also to act bravely on behalf of these things. They’ve reminded us how the setbacks [may] have caused us to doubt and be passive about the gospel of democracy. But despite all our failings, the gospel is still glowingly true”.
Ukraine may be many things … but a ‘gospel of democracy’?
Every serious crisis, of course, is also an opportunity for mythopoesis – especially at a time of anomie, when a dispirited less than half of a society believes that their country is notinvested in them and “that the economic and political systems (and the people who run them), are stacked against [them] – no matter what you do”.
The Anglo-American Establishment has proved adept at intuiting: that owing to such anomie and erosion of our ‘sacred canopy’, a ‘noble lie’ can be used to give a rules-based order a last gasp.
Its’ inherent power can be harnessed to generate the outrage as casus belli for global liberalism.
After all, what better unifying force than the ‘grand American project’ of war to energise one’s desire for a reappropriated national significance.
The West has taken dominance of the ‘information space’ to new heights: consolidating the media; tightening its hold on information; marginalising the few investigative journalists that remain; and nullifying scepticism as examples of appeasement, or of “Putinism”.
Freedom of online thought is disallowed; selective broadcast perspectives are removed or allowed (for example, pro neo-Nazi sympathies and politically-charged violence against Russians and Russia); and a monopoly over truth is established.
So that when caught in falsehoods, any errant intrusion simply is algorithmically ‘disappeared’.
There is no doubt that the West has refined this mode of battle-scape to the highest degree, but its very success also diffuses its own pathogens throughout the western capillaries.
Once set in motion, it possesses all the addictive power of online gaming.
Write the script for a new scenario; direct its production; and then stage it on video.
Many may disbelieve the resulting piece, but there is nothing for them to do, except to watch it in mute, frustrated silence.
Game over.
You have ‘won’.
Except you don’t.
This game generates its own momentum.
There is always another, at hand, to trump the last player’s taunt at Putin; to hail the victim’s new act of selfless bravery; to speculate about yet more foul deeds planned against him.
And so the demand for retribution and punishment is invested with unstoppable momentum. The logic to its structure makes it almost impossible for any political leader to stand against the swelling tide.
That’s where we are: Three realities that are so severed from each other that they do not touch at any point.
There is the reality of PsyOps that bears almost no resemblance to the reality of the military situation on the ground.
“News” of the Ukraine conflict = PsyOps
Actual events and battles in the conflict.
Indeed, they manifest as polar inversions of each other. PsyOps: A heroic resistance versus a failing, demoralised and hobbled Russian army.
Whereas the reality is that “Putin is NOT crazy and the Russian invasion is NOT failing”.
Then there is the clashing realities of a Europe and U.S. conjoined in ‘an economic, moral enterprise of social power and fighting morale’ (albeit at certain self-sacrifice/self-flagellation to themselves) to punish Russia.
And the other reality that a ‘world at war’ – whether kinetic or financial – will be a disaster for Europe (and America).
War is inflationary.
War is contractionary (and inflationary too).
Everything – oil, gas, metals – the lot – are going up vertically, and the whole production chain for food is under pressure from every side.
But this situation clearly is less disastrous for a super food and commodity supplier like Russia.
The third set of severed realities are, on the one hand, the contextless, exclusive focus on the Ukraine events, which effaces this moment of global political and economic inflection, and – on the other – the elephant-in-the room which is the Russia-China mega project to force a withdrawal and containment of the entire ‘rules-based’ hegemonic order.
There are other severed realities out there (such as the one about Russia isolated and shunned versus the reality that much of the planet does not support U.S. and European punitive sanctions) – but never mind that.
The point here is not just what happens when these realities collide, but what happens when one or other ‘reality’ that already holds a hyper emotional, moralising charge is forced into full consciousness as having been WRONG?
This is the pathogen inherent in taking the battle-scape of information dominance to an extreme: It begs the question: in what way will emotions turn if all the hype falls flat, and the ‘bad guy’ wins the game?
Will people turn against their present leaderships, or opt to double-down, demanding more ‘war’ as instincts rebel against any the realisation of failure inflicted upon settled quasi-religious convictions?
The outcome to this psychic dilemma may determine whether we are heading to escalation and extended war, or not.
U.S. intelligence officials claimed on Tuesday that Putin is ‘desperate’ to end the conflict over Ukraine, with some privately suggesting he could even set off a tactical nuclear weapon in a Ukrainian city to get the job done.
Fuelled by his disappointments, Putin could resort to using a small nuke:
“You know, Russian doctrine holds that you escalate to de-escalate, and so I think the risk would rise, according to the doctrine,”
-CIA Director, and former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow
There it is … the next stage of escalation.
This now is being attributed to Putin, but the point is that it has been put ‘out there’ very publicly by the CIA.
Is this ground preparation?
An escalation to this level is likely not on the cards, so long, and only so long, as the option of sticking Russia into a Ukrainian quagmire remains firmly on the cards.
If the PsyOps narrative – on which so much hangs – doesn’t stand up to the ground reality, the public will demand answers.
The setback to the ‘sacred canopy’ would be immense.
Biological labs have been found in Ukraine that reportedly have a U.S. connection:
When asked about them, Victoria Nuland surprisingly admitted their existence, but said “she’s worried Russia might get them and that she’s 100% sure if there is a biological attack – it’s Russia”.
On Thursday, the UK media led with the headline, “Putin plotting chemical weapons attack in Ukraine”.
Plainly, the fear factor is being ramped to sustain a long-term insurgency/quagmire strategy for Russia in western Ukraine. It is, as David Brooks hinted, the last gasp in the defence of the liberal world order.
Can all this hype – small nukes, bio and chemical weapons – really take us to war? James Carden, in his piece says it can – and has. He quotes one instance:
“In a private letter written in 1918, the recently deposed German chancellor admitted that in the run-up to the Great War, “there were special circumstances that militated in favour of war, including those in which Germany in 1870-71 entered the circle of great powers” and became “the object of vengeful envy on the part of the other Great Powers, largely though not entirely by her own fault.”“Yet Bethmann saw another crucial factor at work: that of public opinion. “How else,” he asked, “[to] explain the senseless and impassioned zeal which allowed countries like Italy, Rumania, and even America, not originally involved in the war, no rest until they too had immersed themselves in the bloodbath? Surely this is the immediate, tangible expression of a general disposition toward war in the world.”
Against the prospect that Putin may achieve his aims, short of general war, how might Europe and America react? They might react very differently.
Firstly, we must recall that one object of this ‘war fever’ always was to bind Europe to the U.S., and into NATO, and to prevent Russia-China co-opting Europe into the Great Asian Heartland economic integration project – thus leaving the U.S. as an isolated maritime ‘island’, strategically speaking.
The hardcore Neo-cons have had positive results: Nordstream 2 is cancelled – leaving Europe without a cheap secure source of energy.
From the outset, the European project was conceived as a marriage of Russian resources to European manufacturing capacity.
This option is now over.
The EU has fully bound itself into the ‘fever’, and into U.S. sphere.
And it has erected an ‘iron curtain’ against Russia (and by extension China).
It has ‘sanctioned itself’ into a high-cost energy and commodity paradigm and made itself a captive market for the U.S. energy majors and American technology.
The EU has been fond of imagining itself as a liberal imperium.
But that surely is gone now.
Its’ Davos-style ‘re-set’, designed to steal a march on America, is defunct.
The four key ‘transitions’ on which Brussels was depending to lift its reach from the national-level, to the global supra-national level, are defunct: Global ‘green pass’ health regulations, Climate, automation and monetary regulatory frameworks – for one reason or another – have failed and are off the agenda.
The EU was counting on these transitions as the peg to print a huge amount of money.
They need it in order to liquefy an over-indebted system. Absent this peg, they are mulling a (highly inflationary) slush fund (ostensibly for defence and Russian energy substitution), financed by euro-bonds. (It will be interesting to see whether the so-called ‘frugal four’ EU states buy into this ploy for mutualised debt).
Yet inflation – already high and accelerating – is at the root of the crisis Brussels is facing. There is little to be done about this in light of the sanctions which the EU has enacted on Russia – with prices of everything going up vertically.
And as for the other lacuna, there’s no way Europe can find 200 billion cubic meters of gas anywhere else to replace Russia, be it in Algeria, Qatar or Turkmenistan – not to mention the EU’s lack of necessary LNG terminals.
Europeans face a bleak future of soaring prices and economic contraction. For now, they can offer little political dissent to the controlling élites. The frameworks for genuine (as opposed to token) opposition in Europe, largely have been dismantled in the zeal of Brussels to suppress ‘populism’. EU citizens will bear the prospect in sullen anger (until the pain becomes unbearable).
‘Populism’ in the U.S. however, is not dead. Some 30 GOP Congressmen have opted to retire at the coming midterms.
We may well witness an upsurge in the American populist sentiment in November.
The point here, is that American populism traditionally is fiscally conservative.
And it seems that Wall Street is shifting in that direction too: i.e. they may be getting ready to ditch Biden, and to support more fiscal rigour.
This potentially is huge. This week the Federal Reserve head said that whilst a part of the record U.S. inflation may be put down to Fed responsibility, Congress however was responsible too.
This translates roughly as ‘stop the Big Spend, Biden!’.
The Fed needs the space to raise interest rates. The head of Citibank spoke in a similar vein.
Will Wall Street swap horses (they backed Biden at the last election), and thus magnify the margin to the likely Republican majority in Congress? If so, with a big enough majority – anything may (politically) become possible. Republican conservatism traditionally (i.e. before the flirt with neo-con hawks) is highly cautious of foreign adventurism.
‘Whether it be BLM, Coronavirus, or now Ukraine, every single issue is talked about in apocalyptic terms and with gargantuan fear. But, as for all these frights:“The deplorables are done”’. (paraphrased)
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Next up…
[7] The Great Decoupling: How Western Sanctions Are Pushing Moscow East
By seeking an economic divorce from Russia, US President Joe Biden and his European allies ignored the time-tested saying, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” In doing so, they have enabled the complete economic decoupling of Russia from the West. The resulting Russian economic union with China will transform global geopolitical reality, to the detriment of those who sought these sanctions in the first place.
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has had a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with the US and the West. In the dire economic reality of post-Soviet Russia, many in the West believed the Soviet ghost could best be exorcised through a crash program of democratization, which would accompany the transformation of the ruined, centrally controlled Soviet economy into a vibrant free market built along Western capitalist lines.
The result was a disaster.
Post-Soviet Russia President Boris Yeltsin proved unsuited for the task, and what passed for democracy in Russia was quickly quashed in October 1993, when Yeltsin ordered the Russian Army to open fire on the Russian legislature. The strangulation of democracy was completed when Yeltsin won re-election in 1996 in a heavily tainted contest.
Rise of the Oligarchs
The Russian economy, meanwhile, had been taken over by Western carpetbaggers looking for a quick profit and unethical Russian entrepreneurs, who shaped domestic laws and policies that enabled them to acquire former state enterprises at rock-bottom prices.
The resulting oligarch class of billionaires began an incestuous relationship with their Western benefactors, trading access to Russian resources for help in transferring billions of dollars to offshore shelters, in the form of prime real estate, bank accounts out of reach of Russian authority, and prestige investments such as sports teams.
Left in the wake of this unscrupulous acquisition of wealth were average Russian citizens, who got only the meloch(loose change) of Russia’s experiment in capitalism, the stores and services that constitute the trappings of an ostensibly better life. Russia struggled, but survived. And the end of the 1990s, as Yeltsin turned over the sickly body of post-Soviet Russia to his hand-picked successor, Vladimir Putin, there was a class of people in Russia who had tied their fortune and livelihood to the promise of Western-style capitalism.
Putin undoubtedly saw the promise of a Russian economy guided by the principles of capitalism. But he faced the reality that, under Yeltsin, Russia had sold itself to outside interests which, in concert with an increasingly corrupt oligarch class, was throttling Russia’s economic potential. Putin also brought to the Russian presidency a strongly held belief that Russia needed to restore its position as a great power — not fully elevated to the status of the former Soviet Union, but at least equal to other world powers as part of a multilateral approach to global geopolitics.
All Except Russia
Putin’s efforts put him at odds with the US and Western Europe, which had taken advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites to create a new European security framework that sought to unify all of Europe under a single economic, political and military umbrella — all of Europe, that is, except Russia.
Russia’s role in this great transformation was to remain militarily weak and politically compliant. Putin’s efforts at restoring Russia as a great power threw a wrench into this plan, and Russia found itself increasingly viewed as a threat by both the US and Europe. Putin’s suppression of the oligarchs, where he allowed them to retain their wealth and assets in exchange for their retreat from politics, weakened Western access to and control of Russian domestic affairs.
Moreover, Russian pushback against the expansion of Nato into Eastern Europe, when combined with the US-initiated termination of some core Cold War arms control treaty relationships, transformed Russia from a political nuisance into a geopolitical rival.
Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014 opened the door to US-led economic sanctions designed to punish Russia for its actions. These sanctions, when coupled with similar US sanctioning of Iran, forced Russia to confront the reality that the era of unconstrained economic association with the West was ending.
Pivoting East
Russia, together with China, began looking for alternatives to the US dollar-dominated model of global economic interaction. In doing so, they began to find common cause in crafting a geopolitical alternative to the US-led “rules-based international order,” which had dominated the global political and economic scaffolding constructed at the end of World War II.
Any Russian pivot to the East, however, was constrained by the reality that the Russian economy remained inextricably intertwined with the West. Not only was the Russian oligarchs’ wealth squirreled away in offshore shelters, but there was an entire class of Russian citizens whose daily livelihood was woven into the fabric of an economy that had absorbed Western businesses and practices. Any attempt at a divorce from the West would transform what had been a largely pro-Western Russian middle class into a politically active constituency that, if coupled to a hobbled but still powerful oligarch class, could challenge Putin’s hold on power.
Strategic Error
But Biden and his European allies decided to drop their “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” approach in favor of the opposite.
The mistake was to believe that bringing enough pain to bear on the Russian people would prompt a political backlash that could lead to Putin’s removal from power. But for this pain to bring meaningful domestic political change, Russia would need to retain some economic connectivity with the West. Otherwise, the pain would be intense, but short-lived.
Left to his own devices, Putin would never have been able to divorce Russia from the West, and thus insulate Russian society — and, by extension, his ability to govern — from Western sanctions. Here, the US and Europe are doing Putin a huge favor, with current sweeping sanctions giving him the ability to separate Russia from its economic association with the West without the politically fatal consequences of being seen to do this on his own volition.
Thanks to the US-led sanctions, Putin will now be able to neuter the Russian oligarch class for good. The sanctions have likewise politically neutralized that portion of the Russian middle class that was economically married to Western businesses, goods, services — and mystique.
Putin has been granted his divorce without so far paying any meaningful political price. While the US and Europe may claim that Putin brought this on by invading Ukraine, to the Russian people, US and European actions led to the divorce. The demonization of everything Russia-related by many in the West only helps the Russian government deflect blame from itself, and onto the West. The West made it personal.
“I assure you,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the press on Mar. 10, “we will overcome adversity, and we will do everything to no longer depend on the West in any strategic sectors of our life that are of decisive importance for our people.” Russia, Lavrov said, “will no longer depend on any Western companies.”
As Lavrov delivered his remarks, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitri Medvedev announced that the government was considering the possibility of nationalizing or bankrupting the property of foreign companies leaving Russia. The decoupling has begun.
…
What we have here are just a few of the many, many articles describing this particular snapshot in time.
What we can see from all these writings is that all the elements for late-stage collapse of the dominant United States empire are in place, and that the rising Asia (Russia, India and China combined) are more than capable in displacing it.
During the inflexion point, anything can happen…
American hyper-inflation
American civil war
Numerous wars throughout the globe
A major war, maybe nuclear or bioweapon
Change of the reserve currency
Mass famine, discord or die-offs
Note that during this period of inflexion and change, you want to stay FAR away from the strife, and be in a place where you can handle the changes adroitly. You might want to stay in a safe location in the receeding empire, or move to the growing empire. You could also move to a safe isolated third nation well out of the fray.
But what nation?
Use history as a guide.
During the last period of change, when the European Empires (a collective group) was displaced by the United States, we learned that…
The collapsing world power (Europe) was completely destroyed and in ruins
All of Germany, France, Italy, and all of Eastern Europe.
Much of the UKs overseas colonies; India, Africa.
France was a mess.
Poland was in rubble.
Western Europe, Hungary and all the rest absolutey rubbled.
The rising world power (The United States) remained intact
The emerging powers (Russia, China) were broken and in turmoil
In this current bout of change, we should take note that…
The collapsing world power = Is now the United States.
The rising world power = Is Asia (Russia, India and China together)
The emerging powers = Korea, Japan, Australia, Pakastan, Brazil will experience change, and possible turmoil.
Take note of history and plan accordingly.
Go to either a Rising World Power, or one of the Emerging Powers.
Try to bail out and leave the Collapsing World Power.
Remember that during a cycle-based change…
The collapsing world powerbecomes absolutely destroyed, and in ruins.
The rising world power is unscathed and left intact.
The emerging powers undergo social, economic, military, and structural change. A well prepaired family can adjust to the opportunites afforded in this changing environment and profit from them.
The destruction comes in many forms…
“In two weeks, China, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan will reveal an independent international monetary and financial system. It will be based on a new international currency, calculated from an index of national currencies of the participating countries and international commodity prices”
-Sputnik News, Mar. 14, 2022.
Along with the new currency, Russia and China will also reveal their Unfriendly Nation Lists.
The reports about the Russians losing a million tanks, soldiers, missiles and men are gradually being replaced with more sober assessments and the maps produced by western outlets are gradually starting to look more or less similar to the maps produced by the various “Putin propaganda outlets”.
I see two things coming next:
The much announced “Russian atrocity” false flag (several have failed over the past few days, including one chemical one which was thwarted when the wind blew in the “wrong” direction – that is away from the targeted town.
Poland will try to convince the USA to allow it to hide behind Uncle Shmuel’s back and conduct a “peacekeeping operation” to create a mini-Banderastan in western Ukraine.
Now there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the USA want three things:
A war lasting as long as possible
As many civilian victims as possible
To flood the Ukraine with weapons to then direct a “stay-behind” insurgency
I am not at all convinced that the USA will go along with the Polish plan. Why? Because I believe that a Russian Iskander strike INSIDE POLAND (similar to the ones we saw in Iavorovo, the ammo dump in Kiev and in Novaia Liubomirka) is a quasi-certitude (remember: Russia IS ready to fight both NATO and the US together!). BTW – the one in Iavorovo blew up a huge ammo dump which was buried under 60 meters of rock. I have no explanation for how that was achieved. Does anybody?
Bottom line is that if the Polaks organize another little “peacekeeping training camp” and think that the Russians won’t dare to strike a NATO country they are quite wrong. They are probably too dumb/delusional to realize that, but the folks at the US DoD probably do and don’t need this. Why, well precisely because NATO member or not, Article 5 or not, nobody will come to aid the Polaks against the wrath of the entire Russian military, the manpower and resources needed a not there anyway…
Unless the Russians and the US Americans agree to a partition of the Ukraine. Not likely, but always possible. It is going to almost certainly happen anyway, the only way to prevent that is Russian tanks at the Polish border, and not just for a quick visit, but to create something like the 201 base in Tajikistan.
Anyway, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this is all still in the future.
…
What about the events on the front line?
I won’t into details here but I will offer a few bullet points
Very heavy combats near Avdeevka and Mariupol.
Combat pretty much everywhere the line of contact, which result in slow positional warfare with artillery exchanges and very careful mopping up building by building and even room by room.
On average Russian forces advance between 5 and 20 kilometers per day, which is rather fast against a defense in depth prepared for years.
The key cities of Kiev and Odessa are almost completely blocked, but not fully surrounded yet.
The Black Sea fleet basically controls the entire Ukie coast and all of the Black Sea itself.
The Black Sea fleet also prevents any resupply of Odessa from Romania.
Russia has full air superiority over the entire Ukie airspace
The Ukies are STILL firing both Tochka-U and Grad/Smrech missiles in the general direction of liberated cities just to create as many casualties as possible, but the Russians have become very skilled at not only shooting down these missiles (the destruction ratio has gone up very sharply) but also a destroying the key Ukrainian ammo dumps were they hide those missiles (this is what happened with the big building in downtown Kiev which the Russians totally vaporized with one perfectly aimed Iskander missile. If you have not seen this amazing video, you can quickly re-watch it here:
Lordy! That is an AMAZING FUCKING Video!
.
And here is a video of what the Ukies were hiding under this commercial building (photo from a local resident since disappeared by the Ukie SBU:
2022 03 23 10 19
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And, finally, I want to share something very important with you: the Ukronazi forces cannot resupply or rotate themselves. Why?
Because moving around when the air is full of Mi-24/35s, Mi-28Ns, and Ka-52s in “free hunting” mode requires a type of courage very few people have.
Because most roads are carefully monitored by multi-sensor Russian reconnaissance/intelligence capabilities
Because more big roads (you cannot use small dirt roads to resupply or rotate effectively) are either already physically controlled by the Russians or are “shot through”, which in Russian indicate that while Russian soldiers have reached each other and hugged they can shoot at any location from these roads from any side.
So it does not matter how motivated the Ukrainians are. Even with we assume 100% of the Ukrainians are well trained, well-armed and would rather die than retreat or surrender, they still need many TONS of stuff (food, ammo, water, MRE, medicine, batteries, petroleum, diesel, lubricants, oil and many more things!) EVERY DAY. Just to give you an idea, read this pretty decent discussion of some aspects of logistics by the US military.
So once the Ukies are blocked by Russians, it is essentially over for them. Anybody with a basic understanding of modern warfare can confirm that to you.
Add to this in the very first day Russia destroyed all the Ukie communication centers and capabilities in the first few hours of the operation, and you will see that while the Ukrainian side has “brigades” and “battalions” these are all undermanned and, crucially, cannot cooperate with each other. In other words, they cannot jointly maneuver to support each other.
To put it in the simplest terms, the Ukrainians are not able to conduct any operations, and that is why all their so-called “counter-attacks” always fail and mostly never even materialized. At best, they can destroy a Russian checkpoint, blow up a truck or even shoot down a helicopter, but none of that solves their real problem which is that they are now mostly reduced to WWI type of warfare against a 21st-century ultra-modern military which has the total control of the situation.
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PS: found a very decent map of the situation on Telegram (the place to go for good info!).
2022 03 23 10 22
The most important video of this article
All of these articles lead up to the final purpose of this article.
It is to calm the reader to see that everything that is going on is [1] being managed and [2] following a well-known and well-established process.
Do not freak out. No matter what bullshit is present in the “news” onslaught.
The following is an exceptionally well done video that explains a theory of Geo-political cycles. This in many ways resembles the Fourth Turning theory of generational changes. It is presented simply, and brilliantly.
I personally believe that true information can be conveyed by others in simple terms, and this video is one excellent example of this.
Now, this video differs from my personal view. In that it claimed that the UK was the single dominant nation displaced by the United States in the 1940s. They view this by reserve currency only. Where I claim that it was the totality of Europe (Germany, the UK, France, Poland, and all the rest) that were displaced by the United States. Reserve currency is but one aspect of the totality of issues involved in change. But aside from this difference, it’s never the less a great video.
Here we end this article with this great video. Please watch it.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Only people with SHIT FOR BRAINS would ever think of sanctioning China. What are you? A moron, an idiot, a deranged sadist? An ignorant doo-doo head (Bill Crosby reference) a psychopath with delusions of grandeur? What?
Just fucking stupid. That’s what.
You must be in some kind of absolute echo-chamber talking over and over again just how God-damn great you are to believe such horse manure.
You’re not great.
You are not exceptional.
You are a piece of shit that is farmed for your labor. That’s it and the ONLY reason that you don’t revolt is because you are too fat and happy with the crumbs that the government gives you to sustain your pitiful existence.
Still here?
Paint me “surprised”.
I tried posting this article a couple of times, and found it automatically blocked, shadowbanned, and de-listed from Google. I then rewrote it to includes food, and other items. Ai yah. But, you know, personal MM experience has shown this methodology to be very effective in getting around the Google censorship engines, and the NSA troll armies.
What do you know, eh?
Who would figure?
It works. If you are so childish that you cannot handle multible subjects in a singular article, you can leave. Go. No skin off my back. I don’t give a fuck.
Before we get to the “meat” of the article; Chinese reverse sanctions on American sanctions, we will talk about something fun. That will throw off the American censor engines.
We start with food.
For those of you who are new to MM, please let it be understood that MM content is banned in the West. If you can find it, you are truly lucky. And our workaround here is to mix politically-charged subjects with other common everyday subjects that tend to confuse the censorship engines.
Oh, man. Do they hate it.
It just messes with the algorithms. It cannot handle it.
Maybe you might not like it, but it does work. It works spectacularly.
Actually.
We are going to really freak out the gung-ho American “ready to die” for freedom™ cadre with a Russian dish of quite delicious food. Buckle up. This post is gonna be FUN.
Russian posikunchiki
Can you pronounce it? I can’t.
Look at this. Come on. Doesn’t it look delicious? You eat it with whipped creme cheese. And wash it down with vodka. Good tasty vodka. Or beer. Icy, frosty, cold beer. Good stuff too. Nothing less than 5% (which you cannot get in the USA. Banned “for the children, don’t you know”)…
Most Americans cannot drink alcohol. If they are in a corporate environment, and their diversity officer, or HR, finds out that they smoked or drank at home, they could easily lose their job.
Fact.
Jack.
It’s called “American freedom” don’t you know. Woo Woo!
Freedom™.
Russian posikunchiki
Yum.
Smunch. Crunch. Eat ’em all up. Happiness and tummy satisfaction.
.
These small juicy meat pies are the first thing tourists are advised to try in the Perm Region around the Urals. But you can make them wherever you are.
The region of the Ural is well-known for its harsh, cold winters and continental climate. Traditionally, meat, thick solid soups, and nourishing pies were cooked there. One of the most outstanding dishes is posikunchiki.
Posikunchiki are an old dish of the Ural cuisine, mainly of the Perm and the north-west of the Sverdlovsk regions. The name was given to small fried pies, whose size is approximately equal to a luscious fat dumpling. They are made from unleavened dough and fried in a large amount of oil.
The key thing that distinguishes posikunchiki from other pastries is an incredibly juicy filling. In many ways, this notable trait and the cooking method makes them similar to chebureki.
Posikunchiki comes from the Russian verb “sicat’” (“to splash”) – because the pie splashes juice while you take a bite of it. They are also called posekunchiki – from the Russian verb “sech’” (“to dice/slice/shred”), because the filling for them is finely chopped, but not mixed in a meat grinder. But whatever the etymology, the popularity of these little cute pies has long transcended the boundaries of their historical homeland, and spread to other Russian regions.
The stuffing consists of lamb, beef or pork.
In general, there are a lot of different variations. At the same time, in every Ural city or village, you will surely be told that their posikunchiki represent the most authentic and correct variant, and all the other recipes are fake or just new.
Maybe.
I’ll just have to go visit a bunch of them and try for myself.
No one can remember exactly when this dish appeared. But many people remember that their grandmothers often cooked these mini-pies. And who, really who, can doubt a darn kindly old grandmother? Eh?
The locals remember the peculiar taste of fresh meat (often of wild animals, such as elks) grinded in a mincer from childhood, but many residents of Russia can’t even imagine what it is.
Today, I suggest we cook this dish with minced meat from a local shop. It will take us about four hours.
If you are an American, you use “hamburger”. If you are British or Australian, you use “mince”.
Ingredients (for eight portions):
Ingredients (for eight portions).
Yeah.
For the dough:
Flour – 600-700 g
Milk – 250 ml
Egg – 1 piece
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – 1 tbsp
For the filling:
Minced meat (pork and beef)- 600 g
Onion – 1 piece
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Black pepper – 1/2 teaspoon
Water – 200 ml
Vegetable oil for frying
Preparation:
1. To begin, we’ll prepare the dough, as it needs to rest 30 minutes before we start working with it. Combine the egg with sugar and salt. Mix well.
Make the dough.
2. Gradually add warm milk to that mass and mix again.
Add milk gradually.
3. Portionwise, add flour to the mass and knead the dough carefully and meticulously with your hands until it turns into an elastic ball. Knead it at least for 10 minutes, then put in a bag for 20-30 minutes, and into the refrigerator.
Make the dough.
4. While the dough is resting, we’ll prepare the filling. Chop the onion into small cubes, then add to the minced meat.
Dough Ball.
5. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Mix well. Add some water. Minced meat should resemble thick sour cream in consistency, but it shouldn’t be liquid. Note that the minced meat must be juicy so that there is broth in the posikunchiki. During the preparation, the minced meat gradually thickens, so if necessary, add water and salt to the minced meat to taste.
Season the meat with salt and pepper.
6. Roll the dough and cut it into 28-30 pieces. Roll each into a small bun, and then roll out into a diameter of 10 cm. Put 1 tablespoon of the filling on one half of the rolled-out bun, cover with the other half.
Mostly meat inside a thin shell.
7. Pinch well with a fork on one side so that the broth does not leak while frying.
Pinch with a fork.
Fry in a skillet.
Fry.
8. Fry each posikunchik on each side for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
Fry in a skillet.
9. Posikunchiki are ready to be served at the festive table.
10. Enjoy!
Ural posikunchiki.
Oh, and lets not forget the alcohol.
Beer. Wine. Vodka.
It’s all GOOD!
A time for smunch! is a time to eat!
Now let’s talk about Chinese anti-sanction systems designed to counter American sanctions
I watched a FOX “news” segment this morning. There, an “expert” was advocating that America (United States) put sanctions on China for being friends with Russia. And in reading the comments, the vast majority agreed with him.
…”fools”, you all deserve what will happen. China is really, really READY for this. They have been for over a year now. They say, “let it happen”, and I agree with them.
Go for it, you idiotic morons.
Although it contains only 16 articles, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law establishes, for the first time, a wide-ranging legal infrastructure and legislative base aimed at retaliating against sanctions imposed by foreign governments.
Specifically the United States.
However, even before the enactment of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law as legal basis, the Ministry of Commerce (hereinafter “MOFCOM”) inter alia issued two measures as tools against possible effects by foreign laws and sanctions.
These are;
[1] The MOFCOM Decree No. 4 [2020] on Provisions on the List of Unreliable Entities and
[2] The MOFCOM Decree No. 1 [2021] on Rules on Counteracting Unjustified Extraterritorial Application of Foreign Legislation and Other Measures (hereinafter “Blocking Statute”).
Thus, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law confirms the legislative authority for existing measures and creates room for expanded measures in the future.
Background: I watched a short clip from FOX “news”.
As above.
In that clip, “experts”, “political pundits” and “knowledgeable advisers” are strongly urging that President Biden enact sanctions against China for being friendly to Russia. While many Americans agree with this point of view, the consequences are never addressed. Here, we will address the consequences of such a move.
Let it be well understood that China has long prepared for this moment.
Two to three years ago, they passed the anti-sanction retaliation law. It is directly custom tailored to addressing the day when the United States starts sanctioning China (for one reason or the other).
Specifically, it is designed to inflict the most [1] economic damage, [2] social damage, [3] personal damage, and [4] Geopolitical damage possible upon the United States and it’s (poor excuse) for “leadership”.
The most damage.
Economic.
Personal.
Social.
Geopolitical.
Upon the United States, and the individuals involved in the sanction effort against China.
What most people do not realize is how absolutely economically tethered to China, that the United States is.
They think, erroneously, that American can trade, instead, with Germany, Korea, Japan, or any other nation. Forgetting, of course, that those nations simply take Chinese products and slap their name-brands on them.
But if they sanction China, all that trade will end.
Not just trade with the USA, but all the trade with it’s alternative sources of supply.
No more manufactured products.
None.
Bye bye.
…
No more electonics.
None. Bye bye.
…
No more medicine.
None. Bye bye.
…
The Chinese anti-sanction law is specifically designed to counter AMERICAN sanctions. It is designed to automatically go, and be engaged immediate upon the implementation of sanctions, and noone, not even Xi Peng, can stop the tidal wave of repercussions.
You can read the details here, but really, I’m just going to lay out the visceral facts.
Yeah. It's dry with translations of wordly Chinese leagalese, and all that. But just skim over the presentation.
Learn something for a change.
On a Personal Level… on individuals
You all had best hope to NEVER leave the United States. Once you cross the protected shores, the Chinese will fucking hunt you down.
They will, with client nation help, extract you from your aircraft, and haul you into China for justice and punishment.
Sentencing is a foregone conclusion and the judicial process is mostly a formality.
Punishment will consist of [1] dealing with organ harvesting, and [2] hard labor in deep, dark salt mines.
They are not evil. You will be able to have at least a six-hour rest a night, and be able to eat basic(but healthy) meals of rice, and chicken-feet if you work hard enough.
Sentencing involves death or life in this environment.
This includes you and everyone in your family as well. Including little children. They go to kiddie labor camps.
On June 10, 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China enacted the Anti-foreign Sanctions Law (“AFSL”), which came into effect as of the date of enactment.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These guys are from Indonesia.
As China’s latest legislative countermeasure against economic sanctions of the U.S., E.U., U.K, and other jurisdictions, AFSL will have significant impact on Chinese subsidiaries and branches of foreign enterprises.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from Mexico.
As well as foreign persons (entities and individuals) doing business in China or with Chinese individuals and companies.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This man is from Scotland.
I. Overview of the AFSL
A. Who will be listed in the Countermeasures List?
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This man is from Bolivia. He must have spilt some taco sauce on his shirt. Careless fellow.
The relevant departments of the State Council may decide to include in the Countermeasures List (the “List”) the individuals and organizations that have directly or indirectly participated in the formulation, decision on or implementation of discriminatory restrictive measures of foreign governments.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This man is from England. Billionaire oligarch.
In addition, the relating parties of persons in the List may also face countermeasures, including:
The spouse and lineal relatives of the individuals included in the List
Senior executives or actual controllers of the organizations included in the List;
Organizations that have individuals included in the List acting as senior executives; and
Organizations actually controlled by individuals or organizations that are included in the List or have participated in the establishment and operation thereof.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This chick is from France. She doesn’t look too happy. But she should be. She’s alive, isn’t she?
B. What are the countermeasures?
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from Australia.
The relevant departments of the State Council of China may, depending on the actual situation, take one or more of the following measures against persons included in the List.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from the Phillippines.
Here’s a selection of just some of the measures;
Denial of visa issuance, denial of entry, deregistration of visa or deportation;
Seizure, distraining or freezing of movable property, immovable property and other types of property within the territory of China;
Prohibiting or restricting the organizations or individuals within the territory of China from conducting relevant transactions, cooperation or other activities with them; and
Other necessary measures not listed.
For the last fifteen years, China has been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This guy is from America.
China does not play. They will track you down, and they will work with the regional authorties to secure you and haul ou to China for organ harvesting, rehabilitation, and hard labor punishment.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from Brazil.
C. What are the legal consequences for violating the AFSL?
The organizations and individuals within the territory of China shall carry out the countermeasures taken by the relevant departments of the State Council.
Organ harvesting is a mature procedure in Chinese prisons. It’s fast, quick, and routine.
Any organization or individual failing to do so will be punished by the relevant departments of the State Council in accordance with the law, and such organization or individual will be restricted or prohibited from engaging in the relevant activities.
If a Chinese entity fails to enforce these laws, they will be punished harshly.
For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. Unknown where these guys were from.
Where any organization or individual implements or assists in implementing the discriminatory restrictive measures taken by any foreign state against Chinese citizens or organizations and infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of any citizen or organization of China, the Chinese citizen or organization may bring a lawsuit, seeking cessation of the infringement and compensation for the losses.
Any Chinese citizen can, under any pretense, ask for compensation against any person or their family targeted by this law.
Where any organization or individual fails to implement or cooperate in implementing the countermeasures, it/he will be subject to legal liability in accordance with the law.
Captured in Cambodia, these criminals are going back to China for organ harvesting and hard labor. They are just happy to be alive.
Oh, and in case you think that you can avoid the long-arm of China if you patiently hide long enough. Think again.
II. The Impact of the AFSL on Foreign Companies
A. Foreign companies participating in sanctions against China might endure countermeasures imposed by the Chinese government.
Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death. He accepts his fate as a man. This is the Chinese way.
Foreign companies directly or indirectly involved in the formulation, decision on, or implementation of discriminatory sanctions against Chinese persons may be added to the List. The main effects on foreign companies on the List will be as follows:
Firstly, senior executives or actual controllers of foreign companies on the List may not be allowed to enter China for business trips to perform their duties.
Secondly, assets of foreign companies on the List and foreign companies with individuals on the List acting as their senior executives or actual controllers will likely be blocked.
Thirdly, foreign companies on the List and foreign companies with individuals on the List acting as their senior executives or actual controllers might be prohibited from dealing with individuals and entities in China.
Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death. Secured from his office, he is not permitted to have a tie or a suit jacket.
B. Foreign companies might be caught in a compliance dilemma between AFSL and foreign sanctions.
After the implementation of the AFSL, foreign companies are subject to both the obligation to comply with discriminatory sanctions imposed by other countries, and the requirement not to enforce foreign discriminatory sanctions and to enforce China’s countermeasures under the AFSL.
Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death.
Complying with the discriminatory sanctions against China may violate the AFSL, while complying with the AFSL may violate the discriminatory sanction regulations of other countries as well.
Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death.
This will probably put foreign companies in a compliance dilemma and substantially increase their compliance difficulties and costs.
EU Blocking Statute
The aim of the EU Blocking Statute is to counteract the unlawful effects of extraterritorial sanctions of third countries on ‘EU persons’, which term is generally understood to include EU nationals, EU-incorporated companies (including EU subsidiaries of U.S. companies but not branches of U.S. companies as these have no distinct legal personality) and non-EU nationals residing or doing business in the EU.
It's not just the United States that is targeted, bt the European Union is targeted specifically as well.
The list of extraterritorial legislation to which the EU Blocking Statute applies is given in the Annex and currently consists of U.S. measures concerning Cuba and Iran.
No one is immune. This man was living in Laos.
Article 2 of the EU Blocking Statute requires EU persons to notify the European Commission of any effect on their economic and/or financial interests caused by a measure that is listed as blocked in the Annex. Article 4 of the EU Blocking Statute prevents any judgment or administrative decision outside the EU which gives effect, directly or indirectly, to a blocked measure from being recognised or enforced in the EU in any manner.
Money won’t protect you. Nor will your “connections” to the US government. Here’s Jimmy Lai after being sentenced to hard labor. The USA just stood by and watched him be sentenced to organ harvesting and hard labor. So much for his connection to the US Senate. LOL!
Article 5 of the EU Blocking Statute prohibits EU persons (either directly or through a subsidiary or other intermediary) from complying with any requirement or prohibition based on or resulting, directly or indirectly, from a blocked measure.
If the United States places sanctions on China, and a European nation obeys the sanctions, the entire body of the law would then also apply to the aforesaid nation.
However, pursuant to articles 7 and 8 of the EU Blocking Statute, EU persons may apply for authorisation from the European Commission to comply with such requirement or prohibition if non-compliance would seriously damage their interests or the wider interests of the EU.
You can apply.
You can.
But whether or not mercy will be granted will depend on your association with the United States government.
Here’s an arrest in the EU. The EU are cowards and would do absolutely nothing and they have a long history of allowing the Chinese to come and seize anyone they fucking want out of the EU.
If an EU person has suffered any damages caused by the application of a blocked measure or by actions based thereon or resulting therefrom, article 6 of the EU Blocking Statute allows such EU person to recover the damages, including legal costs.
Provided that there are no sanctions on China.
Get it?
CEOs and other businessmen will be hunted down by the Chinese, and incarcerated in a humane, but uncomfortable period, as per the law.
A basic understanding of the EU Blocking Statute sheds some light on the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, since both laws are aimed at counteracting the impact of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of foreign sanctions on persons within their territory.
CEOs and other businessmen will be hunted down by the Chinese, and incarcerated in a humane, but uncomfortable period, as per the law.
Scope of application
Unlike the EU Blocking Statute, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law does not currently provide a list of extraterritorial legislation which is subject to the application of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.
CEOs and other businessmen will be hunted down by the Chinese, and incarcerated in a humane, but uncomfortable period, as per the law.
However, the second paragraph of article 3 states that if any foreign country acts in violation of international law and basic norms of international relations and, on the basis of their domestic laws or any other pretext, contains or suppresses the PRC, takes discriminatory or restrictive measures against PRC citizens or interferes with the PRC’s internal affairs, the PRC has the right to take corresponding countermeasures.
Things can escalate quickly and broadly. Once initiated, a caustious EU should be "walking on egg shells".
As regards the application of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, article 11 requires organisations and individuals within the territory of the PRC to comply with the countermeasures imposed by the relevant departments of the State Council.
Any Chinese entity that fails to abide by the counter sanctions will be punished in the harshest manner possible.
The departments can restrict or prohibit any organisation or individual found to be in violation of the countermeasures from engaging in the activities concerned. It is important to note that there is no definition of ‘organisations and individuals within the territory of the PRC’ in the text of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, so whether branches of foreign companies in the PRC which have no distinct legal personality are also subject to the law is arguably unclear pending further provisions or clarifications from the relevant departments of the State Council.
China’s rules are tough but fair. After fourty years in the salt mines, industry greats like Bill Gates and Elon Musk can start again a new.
Further, there is no express provision regarding an authorisation or licence regime under the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law that may entitle such organisations or individuals to seek an exemption allowing for compliance with the extraterritorial legislation.
Although the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law does not appear to have extraterritorial effect on non-PRC persons, it is also relevant to non-PRC persons. Under article 4, the relevant departments of the State Council may decide to put any persons or organisations that directly or indirectly participate in drafting, approving or implementing any of the discriminatory or restrictive measures set out in article 3 in a countermeasure list (反制清单).
China’s rules are tough but fair. After fourty years in the salt mines, industry greats like Bill Gates and Elon Musk can start again a new.
In addition, article 5 subjects the following persons to the countermeasures imposed by the PRC government:
the spouse and immediate family members of individuals targeted in the countermeasure list;
the senior managers or actual controllers of organisations targeted in the countermeasure list;
organisations in which individuals targeted in the countermeasure list serve in senior management positions; and
organisations actually controlled by individuals targeted in the countermeasure list or in whose establishment and operations any such individuals participate.
As such, it is important to keep an eye on the countermeasure list to ensure that there are no dealings with individuals and organisations targeted by the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law which may constitute breaches of the law. A suitable screening process should be put in place to minimise the risk of non-compliance.
Scope of countermeasures
As mentioned above, the State Council has the power to create the countermeasure list and determine the applicable countermeasures. In accordance with article 7, decisions made by the relevant departments of the State Council are final. As mentioned, there is no authorisation or licence regime in place so prima facie one must comply with the decisions in order to avoid breaching the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. Article 10 mentions that a procedure will be established to coordinate the work of counteracting foreign sanctions and oversee the overall coordination, with the relevant departments of the State Council being required to raise the level of coordination, cooperation and information sharing.
China’s rules are tough but fair. After fourty years in the salt mines, industry greats like Bill Gates and Elon Musk can start again a new.
In accordance with article 6, the State Council may decide to take one or more of the following measures against individuals or organisations that are sanctioned pursuant to articles 4 and 5:
refusal to issue visas, denial of entry, cancellation of visas or deportation;
sealing up, seizing or freezing of movable and immovable property, or other types of property, within the territory of the PRC;
prohibiting or restricting organisations or individuals within the territory of the PRC from conducting transactions, cooperating, or engaging in any other activities with the targeted individuals or organisations; and
any other measures considered necessary.
As such, anyone who has a presence or assets in the PRC should pay due attention to the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law as non-compliance may result in serious consequences for their activities or assets in the PRC.
China for as harsh as it seems, does have a degree of humanity. Inmates are permitted one phone call a year to family, loved ones or lawyer. They can say anything they want up to ten minutes. Longer than that, they will suffer punishment.
Civil recovery
Article 12 prohibits organisations and individuals from implementing or assisting in implementing discriminatory or restrictive measures imposed by foreign countries against the PRC individuals or organisations.
PRC individuals or organisations may file a lawsuit against such organisations or individuals with the Supreme People’s Court in accordance with PRC law, requiring them to cease the infringement and compensate for any losses incurred.
The duration of prison terms in China is much less than in America. This woman only has to serve three years. Most people under sanction rules will probably serve less than thirty years at hard labor.
This is similar to the EU Blocking Statute in the sense that only PRC persons are entitled to take legal action to recover losses.
Nonetheless, it is not specifically stated whom the PRC persons may take action against, and so it is perhaps best to assume that any foreign persons or companies that implement or assist in implementing discriminatory or restrictive measures imposed by foreign countries against PRC individuals or organisations may be subject to a PRC lawsuit.
Chinese prisons feed the inmates with generous portions of rice, vegetables, fish and chicken feet.
2. Navigating conflicts of law and their implications for PRC and foreign companies
It is unsurprising that the implementation of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law will create additional compliance obligations for companies engaging in cross-border transactions, in particular banks in the PRC, which inevitably engage in U.S. dollar transactions but are at the same time subject to PRC laws and regulations.
On the one hand, they may have to comply with the U.S. sanctions regime to avoid being denied access to the U.S. market or U.S. dollar transactions. On the other, they may be obliged to comply with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law if they have a substantive presence or assets in the PRC.
PRC companies – discrimination against other PRC companies?
The Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law does not resolve the dilemma that many PRC companies may have to face. Access to the U.S. dollar system remains a fundamental feature of the business of many PRC companies and simply disregarding the long-arm jurisdiction of U.S. secondary sanctions may lead to adverse consequences for their business operations.
This inevitably leads to a situation where many PRC companies may try to avoid doing business with other PRC entities or persons that are currently subject to U.S. sanctions.
Chinese prison.
It is also standard practice to include sanction-related provisions in a contract to give a party a way to terminate the contract should the counterparty become a person or organisation sanctioned by the U.S. government.
The dilemma can best be illustrated by an example, albeit in a different context. The International Criminal Justice Assistance Law, enacted by the PRC government in October 2018, requires companies or individuals in the PRC to seek government approval before providing evidence or information to foreign prosecutors in support of criminal proceedings in overseas jurisdictions.
Compliance with the capture of one or two wanted fugitives is of no consequence when billions of dollars in trade are at stake.
As a result, companies must choose whether to disregard the PRC law (if no government approval is given) and cooperate with foreign prosecutors or to abide by the PRC law and risk the consequences of being held in contempt of the foreign court or even being found guilty of obstruction of justice by the foreign court.
Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere, surroundings.
While it is often a commercial decision as to with whom to do business, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law creates some room for PRC persons who have suffered from discriminatory or restrictive measures under foreign sanctions laws to take retaliatory measures.
The legal implications of this cannot be ignored and it is vital for PRC companies to carefully consider sanctions-related provisions in contracts to avoid a situation where they risk being caught by either of the sanction regimes and suffering huge losses as a result.
Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere surroundings.
For example, if there is a U.S. sanctions clause in a contract giving a party the option to terminate the contract if the PRC counterparty becomes a sanctions target of the United States, would it constitute a breach of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law if the party exercises the option to terminate the contract thereby causing losses to the PRC counterparty?
The situation is perhaps less clear when U.S. sanctions have already been imposed on the PRC counterparty and the party chooses not to deal with the PRC counterparty for other, commercial reasons. Of course, how the law will be enforced in practice is a question that only time will answer.
Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere surroundings.
With that in mind, while the practical implications of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law remain to be seen, we see no benefit in PRC companies, and indeed foreign companies having a presence or assets in the PRC, failing to give due weight to this PRC ‘blocking statute’; otherwise, there may be serious consequences for their business operations and assets in the PRC.
Chinese prisons are very calm and orderly.
Some may have thought up ways to get around the dilemma – for example, by using non-U.S. dollars in transactions so as to minimise the risk of being caught by the U.S. secondary sanctions regime – but in practice, aside from the practical concern that many parties doing international business still prefer to use U.S. dollars in transactions, it is also difficult to completely eliminate such risk in large, cross-border transactions involving many parties.
Foreign companies
Life is supposed to be easier for foreign companies that do not have a substantive presence or assets in the PRC or deal with the PRC counterparty, but the opposite is often the case.
As explained above, given that the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law has not clearly defined ‘organisations and individuals within the territory of the PRC’, the more precautionary approach is to assume that the law also extends to the PRC subsidiaries of foreign companies as well as the branches (which have no distinct legal personality) of foreign companies in the PRC.
Reeducation to fit into society is a staple of Chinese prisons.
It is therefore inevitable that foreign companies will have to face the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law squarely and consider its impact on their business operations.
If you are a United States, EU, or foreign corportation, you could be directly targetted by the anti-sanction law.
This includes seizure of all of your facilities (McDonalds, Pizza Hut), seizure of your logos and product pacment (iphone, Microsoft, Ford), and arrest of your corporate leaders (President, Vice PResidents, COO, and all middle mangers).
Unlike the USA, judical proceedings are not debated. If you break a law, you pay the penalty. If the penalty is death, then you die.
Strictly speaking, where a foreign company does not have a presence or assets in the PRC, even if a PRC person can file a lawsuit against the company (which is unclear based on the current text of the law), there are still practical obstacles to serving court documents and enforcing judgments obtained against the foreign company pursuant to the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.
The company doesn't even have to be present in China. Safe-way™ can be targetted. Pep Boys™ can be targetted.
Inmates in China are processed just like in America.
It is also highly uncertain whether foreign courts (especially U.S. courts) will give effect to and assist in the enforcement of PRC judgments.
Meaning that enforcement will be up to the Chinese military.
Relevance to Hong Kong
In addition, an interesting question remains as to whether the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law will also be enacted under the laws of Hong Kong, for example, by way of incorporation of the law into Annex III of the Basic Law or the passing of local laws to achieve the same effect. We consider that the consequences can be potentially more far-reaching as Hong Kong is well established as an international commercial hub where many foreign companies have branches or assets.
Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere surroundings.
At the same time, U.S. dollar transactions play a dominant role in Hong Kong’s economic activities and it is almost impossible for companies in Hong Kong to disregard the extensive impact of U.S. sanctions.
The dilemma could become even thornier if the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law is extended to apply in Hong Kong as well.
China gets a bad rap for organ harvesting. But the real truth is that the felon is sedated prior to extraction of the organs, and they really don’t feel a thing during the procedure. It just happens so quickly and then they wake up and are given hot chicken broth before they have to go back to laboring in the mines.
3. Key takeaways
There is no denying that the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, a national law which has been enacted by the highest legislative body in the PRC, has established a sweeping legal basis for the PRC government to counteract the long-arm jurisdiction of foreign sanctions.
The daily cavity check is a staple in Chinese prisons. It’s a daily routine.
While the countermeasure list is yet to be finalised and it is yet to be seen how the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law will be applied in practice, for now, it is safe to conclude that no one can disregard the potentially profound consequences of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, and both PRC and foreign (especially those with a presence or assets in the PRC) companies should carefully assess the risks of this recently enacted national law.
Mass sentencing to death. China does not provide special privileges to companies or corporations. It doesn’t matter the magnitude of your guilt. Even borderline guilt is punishable by torture.
We recommend that PRC and foreign companies consider taking the following actions:
seeking legal advice on the implications of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law for their business operations in the PRC or when dealing with a PRC counterparty;
reviewing and improving their compliance systems to take into account the countermeasures imposed by the PRC – for example, taking note of and refraining from dealing with individuals and organisations named in the countermeasure list by the relevant departments of the State Council;
considering the incorporation of appropriate clauses into contracts to allow for a situation where the company may be subject to both U.S. and PRC sanctions; and
identifying practical options to minimise the legal risks of doing business in the PRC and foreign countries – for example, increasing use of non-U.S. dollars in transactions where possible.
Harsh Realities
Almost ALL of the companies that export from China to America are American companies. Under the Chinese anti-sanction law, they will now become Chinese companies and will be forbidden to export to the United States.
How bad will this be?
100% of cell phones are made (one way or the other) in China.
90% of medicines are made in China.
85% of automotive parts are made in China.
98% of all appliances are made in China.
65% of all furniture are made in China.
85% of all batteries are made in China.
All of the major restaurants and retailers (Walmart) operate inside of China, and the vast majority of their incomes comes from China.
Not only will Chinese exports to America go to zero, but American companies, facing losses from 50% to 90% of their tangibale assets will experience massive slide in the stock market.
No wonder China is saying “bring it on!”.
What can you all expect?
Hyper inflation will become hyper-hyper inflation.
Movement of American business owners outside of the USA will risk imprisonment.
International Trade to the USA will end.
Store shelves will be bare except for high-priced military weapons systems and their accessories.
Many manufacturing companies will have to close and lay off workers because they will not have the materials need to make their products.
Gas and products that use gas will go stratospheric.
But, you know, it’s all for a “good cause” , you know; to “punish Russia”.
Conclusion
Actually, I found this article a bit boring. But, you know, I had to pump it out. No one else on the planet is doing anything about this, so I have to.
Lazy fucks.
Why are you still here?
America is “exceptional”, and the Ukraine is kicking Russian butt. And everything is peachy, only there’s some inflation… pesky thing. But it’s all good. It’s Russia’s fault.
Don’t you know.
It’s all over the “news”.
So you know that any day now that the Ukraine will take over and march over Moscow. After all, you read the daily reports on Drudge, FOX, CNN and all the rest.
I read that the Russian solders are so fed up with Putin that they are throwing up, abandoning their weapons and running toward democracy™ as fast as their legs can carry them. Don’t you know!
Now leave. This will offend your world-view.
For you that stick around, ah… Here’s some sunny stuff to keep you all grounded on reality about China, life, and your part in it.
Chinese girl. These are PEOPLE that you God-damn people are talking about. Not some pile of french fries, you God-damn idiots. video
Here’s another one. These are people. Not things. video
Of course, if you are an American, you get a daily dose of “evil communist” this and that. Why they are the cause of all the problems in the United States. Oh, no. Not the goverment. Yeah. The communists!!!!!!!
Sheech!
Go ahead now. Run towards your next election, and then you can vote to make everything perfect!
It will work. Right?
Communist.
What the fuck is that. Most Americans coudn’t tell a communist from a dead armadillo at the side of the highway.
Here’s more. After all, you would never see this in America or the European Union.
Fact.
This is what China is today. Do you honestly think that the “West” can compete? video
But the West has “diversity”!
And it has freedom™…
I don’t know what it means. I guess when the ATF was established to infringe on the second amendment, freedom ceased to exist.
And let’s be real.
The Chinee population is 1.4 billion people; over five times the population of the United States, and every single one of them can fire a fully automatic assault gun, throw hand grenades, assault tanks and perform small platoon level operations. video. First grade.
I’d take Chinese elementary school against any American high schoolers any day. The Chinese are smart, talented, organized and trained. They operate by merit and they are hungry.
In America, the Military has to be able to do five entire push ups to qualify. The Chinese have to do one hundred. And tehy had best do it when they are in first grade. Video
Of course, this means nothing. America is the home of Rambo®. Freedom™ and democracy™. So of course it is exceptional™.
Bottom line.
If you want to fuck with China, China will FUCK with you. This is a front, that you do NOT want to get involved in. Capisce?
Capisce?
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Jesus. American Senators are actively discussing United States military fighting one-on-one against the Russians in the Ukraine. I swear. The United States is ruled by fools, ignorant lunatics, and psychopathic evil demons. It is. Seriously. I do not know which rock these people crawled out of, but they have no fucking idea what they are dealing with.
War with Russia is not going to be anything like the US Senate assumes it will be like.
And I have to tell you all, after watching the video that I am presenting below, if you are not getting sweat on your brow then something is wrong with you.
This is a very, very dangerous situation that the United States is playing around with. They are NOT taking it seriously.
They are not listening.
The are ignoring every single warning sign.
2022 03 18 09 19
No one in the United States media; it’s leadership, and it’s public is taking Russia and China seriously.
I am talking about stable, thoughtful and reasonable discussions designed to reduce tensions, and create mutually agreeable solutions for everyone involved.
That is not happening.
Asia has no problem with reducing the United States into a glowing ember.
And anyone, anyone at all who cannot see the dangerous folly in this, deserves to suffer the fate that they are creating.
Here we are going to use history to predict what will come next in the world of Geo-politics.
Washington needs to be on the front-lines. Not Ukraine.
And, if we use historical trends, then that is exactly what will happen.
2022 03 17 23 t44
We begin with this to set the pace.
Tucker seems to be the only voice of reason amongst a lot of warmongers. If the US start fighting Russian aircraft over Ukraine this act will mean WWIII, the next devastating war in Europe but this time with nuclear weapons. Tucker is the only one who sees this imminent danger and dares to speak out against it. I really do hope he will continue to do so.
-Joe Fairdin
Please watch this video. It is critical that you watch this short video because this entire article is a reaction to this particular video.
It’s horrific.
Tucker Carlson reports that the United States Senate is completely willing to go to war against Russia. And all the neocon senators (Republican and Democrat) believe that it will be [1] conventional, and [2] limited to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a televised address today, and basically spoke to the world regarding the events taking place in Ukraine and the economic fallout being blamed on it.
Putin said Moscow offered the Ukrainian authorities not to engage in hostilities, if they withdrew troops from the Donbass, but they did not want to.
He went on to say the special military operation is going well and according to plan.
Here is a machine translation from Boris Rozhin (aka Colonel Cassad): (only partial extracts from the full transcript, slight English editing by MM.)
The operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine is developing successfully, strictly in accordance with plans.The tactics of the Russian Defense Ministry in Ukraine have fully justified themselves, everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties.
Before the operation began, Moscow offered Kiev to withdraw troops from Donbass, but they refused.
All the tasks necessary will certainly be solved.If Russian troops had stopped at the borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, this would not have been the final solution, it would not have removed the threat to Russia.Russia is not going to occupy Ukraine.There was no necessitated need to storm the major cities.The strike on Donetsk on March 14 is a bloody terrorist attack.Russia will not allow Ukraine to remain a springboard for anti-Russian actions.The whole planet has to pay for the ambitions of the West, the myth of the “golden billion” is collapsing.
The “golden billion” is Russian slang. золотой миллиард. It means the relatively wealthy people found in the Western nations. It refers to the “middle class” that live in nice homes, drive nice cars, and are affluent.
The West is trying to convince its citizens that their difficulties are the result of Russia’s actions, but this is a lie.Sanctions against the Russian Federation are hitting the Europeans and Americans themselves, “it is not necessary to shift from a sick head to a healthy one.”
The Russian President pointed out that Western patrons are pushing Kyiv to continue the bloodshed, by supplying weapons, intelligence, and sending mercenaries.
Не стоит переходить от больной головы к здоровой is an idiom that translates to “it is not necessary to shift from a sick head to a healthy one.”
Many people have the bad habit of blaming others for their own faults. As a result, they do not know how to accept their own mistakes and are accustomed to blaming others for their troubles. The Russian idiom “to fall from a sick head to a healthy one.” refers to this behavioral aberration.
The US and the EU actually defaulted on their obligations to Russia, freezing its reserves – now everyone knows that the state’s reserves can simply be stolen.Russia – unlike Western countries – will respect the right of ownership.Arrests of foreign assets of the Russian Federation and business – a lesson for Russian entrepreneurs, there is nothing more reliable than investments at homeWe now know who cowardly betrayed their partners and failed to fulfill their obligations to employees.Trying to “cancel” Russia, the West has torn off all the masks of decency.I am sure that after blocking the accounts of the Russian Federation in the West, many countries will convert their reserves into goods, which will increase the deficit.It is obvious that the current events draw a line under the global dominance of Western countries, both in politics and in the economy.Moreover, they themselves question the economic model that has been imposed on developing countries in recent decades. Yes, in general, the whole world.
The actions of the United States are being viewed by the rest of the world. That in turn will influence their decisions on using the USD, adopting American “protections” and placing their systems under the umbrella of the United States government.
I emphasize that the sanctions obsession of the United States and its supporters is not shared by countries where more than half of the world’s population lives. It is these states that represent the fastest growing, most promising part of the global economy, including Russia.The “empire of lies” of the West is powerless against truth and justice, Russia will continue to bring its position to the whole worldThe West relies on the fifth column, national traitors, such mentally are there, in the West, and not in Russia. The West is trying to split our society, speculating on combat losses, on the consequences of sanctions. The people will be able to distinguish patriots from scum and traitors and just spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew in. The natural self-purification of society will strengthen our country.
Most interestingly, Putin pointed out a network of a dozen laboratories operated in Ukraine, where military biological programs were carried out with the financial support of the United States Military.
These included experiments with samples of coronavirus, anthrax, cholera, African swine fever. He went on to say authorities in Ukraine are now strenuously trying to cover up traces of these programs.
Speaking to the world, he said
"I want ordinary citizens of Western states to hear me too.
They are now trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions of Russia; That from your wallet you need to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat.
It's all a lie!
And the truth is that the problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of years of actions by the ruling elites in the West.
Their mistakes, myopia and ambitions.
These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens, they are obsessed with their selfish interests and super profits."
Putin also spoke about his future plans for Ukraine, saying
"The appearance of Russian troops near Kiev and other Ukrainian cities is not connected with a desire to occupy Ukraine, Russia has no such goal.All tasks assigned in the special military operation will certainly be completed;
We had no other option to ensure the security of Russia."
He laid out what is going on and why. He identified who started the war and why. He elaborated on the extent of Russian involvement and narrated the need for the West to stop now before things get bad.
In short. Russia is ready for war.
Economic. Military. Social. Financial. Scientific. In every way.
I would just add “better late than never”!
Now, let me be perfectly clear. It will NOT be limited to Ukraine. Both Putin and Xi Peng know where all the warmongering originates. They will not allow proxy wars on their borders.
Many still do not understand that we are already deeply in decay. Two groups immediately spring up once we realize we are in decay: the standard lazy-stupid human “wow it’s all doomed, no point in doing anything” response, and the “we must cling to what we still have” group. The latter sort of get it, but not fully.
If you have a garden and are sent out of town for a few months, you will return to a ruin. Overgrown with weeds, ridden with rotted plants, layered in dead leaves, and possibly now inhabited by wild animals, your garden is a working model of nature (which itself models a fully complex system fairly well, so you can draw parallels to any situation of sufficient complexity via this model).
In all situations, your approach is the same: remove parasites and unwanted plants, remove the sick, clean up the mess, and nurture the health of those plants you want.
Weeding is, if viewed properly, a tragedy. Here I am on my hands and knees, yanking out grasses, clover, dandelion, and broadleaf that I would otherwise be very happy to see on the edge of a forest where I could selectively harvest them, dandelion for tea, clover for poultice, and broadleaf for salad.
And yet, if I want the tomatoes, eggplant, onions, peppers, chives, garlic, stringbeans, cabbage, and mustard to thrive, I need to yank out these otherwise functional plants — now categorized as “weeds” — and allow the plants I need to take up the sunlight, water, space, and fertilizer that otherwise would be siphoned off by the others.
Weeds, by the way, show us economics in action. Even a five percent loss of inputs — the sunlight, water, dirt, and nutrition mentioned above — to weeds or bad plant placement can reduce a crop by half. That may not matter so much for ornamental gardens, but if you plan to feed your family with those plants, it is instantly a very big deal.
Gardens separate humanity into two groups, much as society does. On one side you have the realists, who recognize that whatever must be done to make the garden grow to the maximum should be done; this is a morality of realism, or reality first.
The other side consists of both liberals and religious conservatives. They talk about what should be done, and from that list, want to select the methods that can be used in the garden. This is classic Control: exclude any methods that are unwanted, and then by managing the methods used by others, create an external situation designed to manage human inner mental state. Instead of self-control and positive motivation, you have negative motivation (political correctness, Biblical morality, social disapproval, shareholder revolt) paired to external control, with the idea that you will have no inner structure whatsoever because you have given it all up for the mental comfort of the group.
In this way, our morality comes down to two forms. The realists figure for ends-over-means, signifying that what should be done is what is functional; the humanists look toward means-over-ends, proclaiming what should be done and then trying to shoehorn function into what is left. All humanist groups eventually become narcissistic, solipsistic, and egotistic like the Communists and, by catering to every human, provide for none, and self-destruct.
Democracy just takes a slightly slower boat especially when mediated by capitalism as it has been in America. Europe has doomed itself by neutering itself; as the Russian military struggles through Ukraine, we might all reflect that this shows us Europe before Genghis Khan’s Mongols arrived: so accustomed to our own battles that we downgraded to an efficient optimum and equilibrium, we were unprepared for anyone using other tactics, even if these were widely known. Contemporary Europe, like the Russian army, has downgraded itself to meet the threats it likely faces, all of whom are sickened by the same weeds of socialism and diversity, not the Black Swan threat it should prepare for since that will be its test of survival.
This means that democracy has reached its endgame. The weeds have won; a third of the garden is growing random plants that serve none of our purposes, and the others have accepted a life of taking less and producing less, year after year, hastening our inevitable Soviet-style decline when our system can no longer produce what we need.
The result of the USA-China meeting in Italy
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, warned Beijing it would “absolutely” face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sweeping sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Unnamed US “Officials” stated that “Russia asked China for military equipment after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine”. This report was catagorically denied by the Chinese government.
Personally, I can’t figure out (for the life of me) what military weapons that China could possibly provide Russia. Only the ignorant would believe that Russia and China use the same weapons.
But a lie, is a lie, is a lie. And since it is coming out of Washington DC, you can expect it to be a BIG lie.
Jake Sullivan (according to the United States “news” media), started mapping out the consequences and growing isolation China would face globally if it maintains its support of Russia.
Jake Sullivan
Or so the media narrative went.
The purpose, supposedly, for the meeting is that the United States was to warn China not to support, help, or trade with Russia. If it does, then bad things will result.
“Bad things”.
After the meeting, the United States media hardly said a peep about what transpired. All it said is that the meeting lasted seven hours. Nothing else.
The Chinese media, however, was very clear.
China said no.
Then no again.
Then again, no, and then No, get out of my face.
Followed by no, and know who the fuck you are dealing with.
The USA failed, and China would not be intimated. Here’s the best summary that I could find on the Internet. You-Tube. Great video.
2022 03 17 11 39
Curious Coincidence
Immediately after the failed USA-China negotiations in Italy, China was hit with a very lethal strain of Coronavirus.
Shenzhen is under full and absolute lockdown.Same with a number of other cities including Shanghai, Danguang, and Wenzhou.
No one is moving. HK has hospitals overflowing, and the entire nation is swabbing the population multiple times. I myself, have already had three swabs in the last 48 hours.
It’s a good thing that China is still at DEFCON 2.
Major coronavirus outbreaks in multiple locations at ports and entry cities. All coordinated at the same time, all after failed negotiations with the United States. What a coincidence.
Imagine that!
Chinese aide to Russia
Here’s a comparison between facts, and the resulting distortions.
Note:
To China, the relations between China and Russia is absolute and necessary.
Where Russia is like the teeth. And China is like the lip.
If the lip is damaged, the teeth will be exposed to the harsh world without protection.
Thus, the wellbeing of Russia is a life and death issue for China.
I am in no doubt that China will stand side by side with Russia in the 21st century facing off against the dying United States military empire.
9 x propaganda :
What China Can and Cannot Do for Russia Amid Sanctions
Spokesperson for Chinese mission to the EU answers a question about NATO leader’s remarks about China
Question:
According to reports, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that any Russian support, military support or any other support, will actually help Russia wage a brutal war.
A war against an independent sovereign state, Ukraine, and help them continue to wage a war that brings death, suffering and great destruction.
He also stated that China, as a member of the UN Security Council, has an obligation to actually uphold and abide by international law and join the rest of the world in condemning the Russian invasion.
What is your comment?
Answer:
We have taken note of the relevant comments.
The Chinese can fully understand the pain and suffering of other countries because we will never forget who blew up our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
We don't need lectures on justice from a violator of international law.
As a remnant of the Cold War and the world's largest military alliance, NATO continues to expand its geography and range of operations.
What role has it played in bringing peace and stability to the world?
NATO needs to think carefully.
Deleted Web Page Shows Obama Plan to Build BioLab for ‘Especially Dangerous Pathogens’ in Ukraine
Former President Barack Obama was a part of an agreement that allowed for the construction of Biolabs in Ukraine that handle “especially dangerous pathogens.”
The discovery was made after a deleted web page was discovered by The National Pulse.
This discovery comes on the same day that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the US Senate that the Biden Administration was worried about potential bioweapon research facilities being taken by Russian troops as the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate following Russia’s invasion.
The article, titled “Biolab Opens in Ukraine” goes into how Obama helped negotiate the construction of a level-3 biosafety lab in Odessa, a city that has already seen conflict. Obama did so during his time serving as an Illinois Senator.
The article reads:
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar applauded the opening of the Interim Central Reference Laboratory in Odesa, Ukraine, this week, announcing that it will be instrumental in researching dangerous pathogens used by bioterrorists.The level-3 bio-safety lab, which is the first built under the expanded authority of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, will be used to study anthrax, tularemia and Q fever as well as other dangerous pathogens. “The continuing cooperation of Nunn-Lugar partners has improved safety for all people against weapons of mass destruction and potential terrorist use, in addition to advancements in the prevention of pandemics and public health consequences,” Lugar said.Lugar said plans for the facility began in 2005 when he and then-Senator Barack Obama entered a partnership with Ukrainian officials. Lugar and Obama also helped coordinate efforts between the U.S and Ukrainian researchers that year in an effort to study and help prevent avian flu.The Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, was established in 1991. Since that time it has provided funding and assistance to help the former Soviet Union dismantle and safeguard large stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The program has also been responsible for destroying chemical weapons in Albania, Lugar said.
Another document by the BioWeapons Prevention Project breaks down in detail which pathogens are in the bio lab. Ebola and other “viruses of pathogenicity group II by using of virology, molecular, serological and express methods” are listed.
Victoria Nuland
[1] Responsible for the bioweapons in the Ukraine. [2] Admitted that they are in the Ukraine. [3] Agrees that the Ukraine is a war zone, but any problems with them are Russias fault.
Weak-wristed loser pointing fingers at others for her very own actions.
Victoria Nuland.
The Burning Platform on the madness that has gripped the United States
When Machiavelli wrote The Prince he had Vladimir Putin in mind. The president of Russia has adroitly sought, maintained, and used power, the theme of Machiavelli’s masterpiece (see “The Black Belt Strategist,” Robert Gore. SLL, July 19, 2018). That he is an amoral snake is both true and laughable as a criticism coming from the amoral snakes who populate Western power structures. Nobody who slithers to the top of those pits is anything other than an amoral snake. Western snakes hate Putin because he’s repeatedly outsnaked them.
Call Putin a rattlesnake for he clearly rattled before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
That he was ignored is a worrisome indication of the epistemological breakdown that grips the West.
Its leaders are unable to grasp that Putin meant what he said.
That is because those in the West rarely mean what they say.
Facts are not facts and the truth is whatever narrative they’re promoting at the moment. It’s become axiomatic that power flows from control of the narrative.
Until it doesn’t.
Power flows from understanding reality and making use of what it can offer.
If narratives were power, Ukraine’s army would be in Moscow by now.
We haven’t seen this kind of excessive excrement from governments and their media minions since . . . Covid. Narratives are for simple-minded sheep and the wolves who devour them.
The propaganda is devoid of any mention of:
The 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup against a democratically elected government;
rampant corruption within the Ukrainian oligarchy;
Ukranian payola to American political figures (e.g., the Bidens and Clintons);
widespread neo-Nazi infestation of Ukraine’s military and government;
their eight-year war on its Russian-heritage citizens in eastern Ukraine;
the government’s willful failure to adhere to the Minsk accords that were meant to resolve that conflict, or the latest—
U.S. built, funded, and staffed, bioresearch labs in Ukraine.
Simply trying to find accurate information about the military situation in Ukraine is virtually impossible amidst the propaganda onslaught and the censoring or shutting down of Russian information sources.
Previous wars have featured regular press updates and maps that detailed the situation on the ground, that is, reality.
Not this one.
No matter how loathsome the opponents, it’s always a good idea to know what they’re doing and saying, even when its demonstrably untrue.
During the first Cold War the West had armies of analysts studying every scrap of information that came from the Soviet Union.
Now Western leaders and most of the populace are flying blind.
They’re children sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming over anyone saying anything they don’t want to hear.
It’s yet another sign of epistemological breakdown and reflects a terrifying feedback loop. Mental chaos leads to chaos in reality, which leads to more mental chaos and so on.
Trying to explain the Russian position on Ukraine, even when the explanation is festooned with disclaimers that it’s not a justification of the invasion or Putin, is as useless as trying to explain the dangers of Covid vaccines. This is true, even by doctors and scientists who have promoted vaccines their entire careers and who have had the Covid vaccines themselves. The children have their masks jabs, and boosters, they’re waving the blue and gold. You’re antivax, pro-Putin, and must be canceled immediately—that’s it, end of story.
This childishness can only lead to disaster.
Which has arrived on multiple fronts.
Russia is a net exporter of grain, minerals, metals, oil, and natural gas. The U.S. and non-Russia Europe are net exporters of debt.
The former are exchanged for the latter via the SWIFT inter-bank messaging network, fiat currency and debt’s global circulatory system.
Some Russian banks’ access has been cut off, stopping the flow of debt and the counter flow of Russian exports. Although payments for gas and oil exports have been exempted, Russian oil and gas still trades at a steep discount on fears the exemption will be lifted if the war gets worse.
The exemption reflects Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas.
However, Germany canceled approval for the completed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia.
The energy situation in Europe was already strained, with natural gas trading at a large premium to the rest of the world.
Renewable energy is meant to replace fossil fuels and nuclear, but solar and wind are intermittent. The stopgap is coal, ironically the dirtiest fuel.
European energy’s shortages and high price hurt the competitiveness of its industries, particularly Germany’s. Stopping Nord Stream 2 exacerbates the problem.
Biden administration energy policies have shifted towards the same delusory green agenda, making the U.S. an importer again after it had achieved energy self-sufficiency during the Trump years.
Although it’s not a huge percentage of total energy used, the U.S. has been importing Russian oil, gas, and coal, giving Russia additional wherewithal to make war on Ukraine.
Recognizing that awkward fact, the administration banned those imports by executive decree (now the favored form of rule), which will put more pressure on prices from non-Russian energy sources.
Ascending gas prices are not helping the administration politically, notwithstanding its blatant lies that they are due solely to Russia’s invasion. (Prices had almost doubled prior to the invasion.)
The U.S. and Europe’s energy miscues are matched by their financial folly, which amount to children holding their breath until they suffocate and die.
Stopping Russia’s exports via the SWIFT cutoff is severe.
The price of nickel, a big Russian export, recently jumped 250 percent in one day.
Tsingshan Holding Group, a Chinese stainless steel giant whose largest creditor is J.P. Morgan Chase, has a huge short position in nickel. The London Metals Exchange, caught between its own Chinese owners, Tsingshan, and one of the world’s systemically important banks, shut itself down and is trying to undo some trades.
A tentative settlement has been reached, but this kind of mess can reverberate quickly throughout the world’s financial daisy chain, sparking globalized financial meltdown. It certainly doesn’t increase faith in financial clearinghouses.
That’s not the worst of it.
Curtailed access to SWIFT hinders Russian companies’ ability to service their debts.
As with most of the sanctions regime, this hurts Europe the most.
Several of its banks have large exposures to Russia debt, and its banking system was dangerously over-leveraged pre-Ukraine war, much more so than the U.S.’s. Bank insolvencies in Europe could also reverberate across the planet, as mortgage and mortgage-security insolvencies did in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
Even that’s not the worst of it.
The U.S. and Europe crossed a monumentally important red line when they froze the Russian central bank’s foreign exchange reserves.
The U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status has given the U.S. what’s been called an exorbitant privilege—the world sends it goods in exchange for its fiat currency, of which it can produce unlimited amounts.
Freezing the Russian central bank’s dollar reserves tells the world the reserve currency is no longer a safe haven.
The move is not entirely unprecedented—the U.S. has frozen the Afghanistan and Venezuelan central banks’ reserves—but freezing the reserves of a nuclear power is an order of magnitude greater breach of global financial arrangements and contracts.
Joining Canadian dollar deposits, some of which Justin Trudeau recently froze, U.S. dollar deposits can now be frozen and potentially expropriated on a political whim.
Of course dollars have been stealth-expropriated on political whim via monetary inflation since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, but this crystalizes the threat that nations who don’t toe the U.S. line will have their dollar reserves stolen.
Russia and China have been reducing their dollar holdings—which they often invested in U.S. Treasury debt—for years, switching to euros, yuan, yen, and gold.
They’ve also created alternatives to SWIFT.
Now that the U.S. government has demonstrated that holding dollar deposits is like caching stores of food in a wolves’ den, this move is sure to accelerate until their dollar holdings are the bare minimum required for international trade.
The Russians have a financial nuclear option.
As exporters of oil, gas, crucial raw materials and industrial goods, they can demand payment in gold rather than in the fiat currencies the U.S. and Europe have now rendered worthless to them.
The reserve currency will no longer be a fake money whose value is only maintained by political promises not to produce too much of it.
Gold—real money (see “Real Money,” Robert Gore, SLL, September 9, 2015)—will be restored to the place it has held for centuries as countless government-issued fiat currencies went to their ultimate value: zero.
The current crop of fiat currencies is headed to the same destination, but the Russian nuclear option would bring down the curtain on them once and for all.
Russia and China are both large producers of gold and both their governments have been stockpiling it for years.
The U.S. government reportedly owns 8,000 tons of gold (Russia has a known 2,000 tons and Macleod estimates the Chinese government has 20,000 tons), but those holdings have never been audited and calls to do so have been fiercely resisted. Unknown as well is how much of the U.S. government’s physical gold has been collateralized, leased, or is otherwise tied into derivatives in the paper gold market. Tellingly, the U.S. has discouraged other countries for whom it acts as custodian of their gold reserves from withdrawing them.
War is the ultimate chaos and the Ukraine-Russia war has sparked another upside breakout.
To say [1] that the military situation favors Russia, or that [2] the sanctions against it will end up hurting the U.S. and Europe more than Russia, or that [3] Russia can bring down the global financial system is only to say that one way or another the situation adds to the chaos.
Assuming Russia eventually achieves its military objectives in Ukraine, the U.S. will undoubtedly foment an insurgency by feeding weapons and the usual unacknowledged mix of intelligence spooks, covert military advisors, and private mercenaries into an Ukrainian resistance.
The goal is a long-running and enervating guerrilla war that drains Putin’s support and leads to his ouster.
Cheap Stinger missiles will take out expensive Russian aircraft and cheap Javelin missiles will take out expensive Russian tanks.
The template is the successful mujahideen-led and U.S.-aided war against the Soviet Union from 1979 to 1989 in Afghanistan, often credited with helping bring down the Soviet government two years after its military withdrawal.
Syria may end up as the actual template, an effort by U.S.-aided jihadist groups to regime change that nation’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, which failed after Russia came to Syria’s defense.
Even were that the case, if Putin thinks he can invade Ukraine, impose his objectives, and then withdraw with the country pacified and compliant, he’s as deluded as American schemers have been with all their surgical strikes, covert operations, limited wars, and regime changes since World War II.
Insurgencies are always messy regardless of who “wins.” Ukraine has become another theater for the uncontrollable chaos engulfing the world.
It's a good thing then, that Russia has no plans to stay in the Ukraine. -MM
It’s not hard to imagine what forms further amplification of that chaos might take. Modern agriculture is dependent on energy and fertilizers are made from minerals of which Ukraine and Russia are significant suppliers. Both countries also export grains.
Skyrocketing food prices and famine in some areas loom, and food riots and other forms of civil unrest are sure to follow.
There is no limit to the pandemonium either centralized actors—governments and globalist institutions—or decentralized actors can wreak.
Infrastructure is never completely protected. Electrical grids can be short-circuited, water supplies poisoned, transport and logistics disrupted or destroyed, and the internet sabotaged.
Controlling chaos requires energy, resources, and production. While there is no way to determine the mathematical relationship between chaos and control (remember Get Smart?), that it is direct and exponential seems a reasonable hypothesis. Herein lies the contradiction at the heart of the globalist design.
They are fomenting ever-increasing chaos while destroying the energy, resources, and production necessary to control it.
Alexander Putin
Not a happy man. Making hard and difficult decisions while being harrased by a lunitic, out of control, evil psychopathic United States “leadership” cabal. I know what he’s thinking.
Do you?
Alexander Putin
You May Want To Figure Out Where You Want To Spend Your Days When World War 3 Fully Erupts
The growing desire for war that we are witnessing in Washington D.C. right now should greatly alarm all of us.
In this environment, voices of reason such as Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard are being accused of “treason” just because they are calling for peace. Well, you can add me to that list because I am calling for peace too.
I don’t want nuclear war.
I don’t want billions of people to die.
You would think that we should all be able to agree on those things, but unfortunately the warmongers in Washington seem absolutely determined to keep escalating matters.
That is a very dangerous game, and it is going to be way too easy for someone to make a huge mistake.
Before that day arrives, you may want to figure out where you want to spend your days when global war fully erupts.
At some point, the shooting in Ukraine will end.
Either Russia will achieve total victory, or more likely there will be some sort of a ceasefire agreement.
But when the shooting in Ukraine stops, don’t be fooled into thinking that everything is okay. The truth is that a much bigger conflict between the United States and Russia has now begun, and both sides are beginning to realize that this is ultimately a struggle for all the marbles.
World War 3 is here, and now we must hope that we can keep both parties from “going nuclear” for as long as possible.
Of course there are some that would like to see the U.S. and Russia shooting at each other very soon. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begged Congress to establish a “humanitarian no-fly zone” over Ukraine…
The t-shirt-attired Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress by video on Wednesday and asked for the United States to send warplanes into the sky over Ukraine to create a “humanitarian no-fly zone” or, failing that, to provide Ukraine itself with warplanes.“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky told Congress.
Zelensky knows very well that the establishment of a “humanitarian no-fly zone” would require U.S. forces to shoot down Russian jets.
And he also understands that this would spark a shooting war between the United States and Russia.
But you can’t blame Zelensky for trying.
He is trying to save his own skin, and the best way to do that is to drag the United States into the war.
Needless to say, the establishment media in the western world absolutely adored Zelensky’s speech. The following example comes from CNN…
Zelensky’s words are not only destined for the history books. They will likely energize support for Ukraine’s defense against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine and reverberate across the US.When America’s top Democrats and Republicans rose side by side to give Zelensky a standing ovation, we knew the Ukrainian President had made his mark. Zelensky, reminding Americans what freedom really means after the country has spent years devaluing it in petty political battles, proves there is a new seriousness in the nation.
And most members of Congress ate it up as well. Following the speech, Senator Jeanne Shaheen boldly declared that “more must be done to assist Ukraine”…
“It is clear that more must be done to assist Ukraine and hold Putin to account,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, said in a statement following Zelenskeyy’s virtual address. “The images we watched today underscore the horrific violence – the war crimes – being committed by Putin. He will pay for what he has done.”
And Senator Joni Ernst said that Zelensky’s speech made her want to put on a uniform and “go help”…
‘It’s hurtful to see anything like, you know, thinking about if it were my child, if that were my family, that were my people. You know, I’d be doing the exact same thing that President Zelensky is,’ Ernst said.‘I would be appealing to every nation possible to get whatever it takes to defeat the Russians and get them the heck out of my country. You know, it makes me want to throw on my uniform, you know, and go help.’
Actually, I would love to see that.
In fact, I would love to see U.S., Ukrainian and Russian politicians all flown to an island where they would resolve this conflict “Battle Royale” style.
But instead, all of the politicians are safe and warm while millions upon millions of Ukrainians deeply suffer.
One of the biggest warmongers in the U.S. Senate, Lindsey Graham, has decided that it is time to start calling Vladimir Putin “a war criminal”…
“It’s time for him to go. He’s a war criminal,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an erstwhile standard bearer for the Republican Party’s Reagan-era foreign policies, told reporters shortly after Zelenskeyy’s address. “I am asking the Russian people to rise up and end his rein of terror.”
Joe Biden also referred to Putin as a “war criminal” on Wednesday, and he announced that an additional 800 million dollars in military aid would be given to the Ukrainian government.
Over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds
25,000 sets of body armor
25,000 helmets
But of course this is not nearly enough for some of the warmongers in Congress.
In fact, 40 Republican senators just signed a letter “in which they strongly disagreed with the decision to not transfer aircraft and air defense systems to Ukraine from Poland”.
Biden was hesitant to take such a step because it might start a shooting war with Russia, but apparently that is a risk that most Republican senators are willing to take.
Thankfully, most Americans do not actually want a shooting war with Russia.
But according to one new survey, more than a third of all Americans “would favor military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia”…
However, most Americans (62%) say they would oppose the U.S. “taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.” About a third (35%) of Americans say they would favor military action in this scenario. Comparable shares in both parties (36% of Republicans, 35% of Democrats) say they would favor military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia.
Those of us in the majority need to be much louder than those in the minority, because if the warmongers get their way we could eventually find ourselves in the middle of a nuclear conflict.
And if that happens, there won’t be a future for our country.
The Pentagon is to deploy over two thousand troops to Australia by September to join an established rotational force of 200 in anticipation of a conflict with China, according to reports.The Daily Mail notes that “The contingent is part of an ongoing US initiative in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan in coming years.”The report notes that 1000 marines have already arrived in the country.
If Americans truly understood what was at stake, there would be massive demonstrations in the streets of every major U.S. city right now.
But the general population just doesn’t get it.
They just assume that war is something that happens on the other side of the globe and that our leaders have everything under control.
Unfortunately, our leaders most definitely do not have everything under control, and when World War 3 fully erupts the death and destruction that we will witness will be absolutely unimaginable.
Timing
Let’s talk a little about the timing for disaster.
The following is taken from a post that I wrote three years ago. I reprinted a section of it here, and made some minor alterations.
For just about everything that I predicted has come to pass, or are developing in such an obvious way that I look like a real accurate fortune-teller.
If I made any mistakes (so far) is that my predictions were one to two years late. Or, in other words I was too optimistic. Which points to a rot, and decay far deeper than which I was aware of.
Historical records clearly point out the the United States will go through a severe and harsh change in society. This has been building up for some time. The worst and most catastrophic elements of that change has already been set in motion. Anything that will occur will occur during the ten-year span from 2020 though 2030.
The worst time should be 2023 through 2024.
With 2025 being a “harsh reality“.
By 2026, my guess is that the kenetic phase might be over, but people will still be dealing with turmoil at various levels.
Serious upheaval in America will occur from 2020 though to 2030. This is a ten year period of time. It is now the first quarter of 2022. My previous predictions were on track. I was in slight error when I predicted that the events would transpire one year later than they are now transpiring.
I predicted a major military event in 2023. It seems that it occurred in 2022 with the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the United States Senate driving a war-machine full-throttle.
Points and information
I’m going to lay out some points and some information. I’ve covered the background elsewhere in great detail. However, here we are just going to throw it all out for purposes of review.
Generational Turnings are a historically accurate methodology for predictive behaviors.
America; the United States, will go through the following in the next ten years;
Domestic unrest resulting in American death(s).
A complete change in the Federal Government.
The value of the USD will collapse.
A very serious “Hot War” on American soil.
Cultural, and societal collapse.
Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.
Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.
The normalcy bias causes many people to not adequately prepare for natural disasters, pandemics, and calamities caused by human error.
About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster.
-Wikipedia
Let’s go one by one on these points.
[1] Domestic unrest resulting in death(s).
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with domestic unrest. Not only that but people die. Yes. There is an entire sub-culture of Americans that believe that domestic unrest will occur. All you need to do is google SHTF and “prepper”. And you know that many Americans expect this. Gun stores are empty of guns and ammo.
Everyone is expecting societal unrest. And they plan on defending themselves and their family. In fact, for the last three months the top MM posts are those devoted to the SHTF Index.
And sure… nothing is guaranteed. This fear might just be a passing fad. Or the absolute result of American media going “off the rails”. Or some kind of mass psychosis due to being locked inside all 2020. It could be anything.
I am of the opinion …
Most Americans are unhappy.
Most Americans are locked inside of a class structure with little upward movement.
There are terrible and systematic problems regarding American society.
Government “solutions” are insufficient, meager and viewed as an insult.
There are groups who desire to capitalize on domestic discord to promote their own agendas.
There are elements inside of the Federal Government that have the power and plans to come down aggressively to any disruption of society.
None of the above should come as any surprise to most Americans. And thus I conclude…
There is a higher than average chance that there will be domestic revolt / upset. This is not a continuation of BLM, Antifa “riots”, or a Trump Supporter “frat party” style takeover of Congress.
This will be something far more serious, sinister and deadly. It will not be reported, or if it is, it will be reported in such a way as to minimize what is actually going on.
Historically, these kinds of events are preceded by the government trying to take preemptive actions. That could be [1] “false flag” events, [2] a banning of weapons or one or more Rights / freedoms, and [3] a call to fight some kind of “enemy” or “threat”.
If any of the above occurs to any serious degree, you can well expect domestic discord to follow promptly.
Historically, all Democrat Presidents have had a major "Gun-related mass-killing event" within the first nine months of their Presidency. That includes Trump who was supposed to lose to Hillary Clinton.
[2] A complete change in the Federal Government.
The United States government WILL change. And, it will not be voluntary.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with a serious and large change in the Government.
The current American government is an enormous behemoth, it is sluggish, inefficient, lazy, and is out of control. To believe that it is working fine or that it could be improved is to ignore the facts. Both sides of the political divide demand a restructuring.
Democrats are looking towards a Socialist and Marxist solution.
Republicans are looking for a return to the 1776 Republic.
Both are looking to create a major war of distraction.
The compass is all over the place on this. One thing is for certain, the wealthy oligarchy loves the status quo and do not want to change anything. To make the changes that are necessary, a real revolution must occur.
The Federal Government will change substantially. I can offer no insight into what it will change into. Needless to say, the nation is completely divided and polarized and no matter who obtains the reins of power, large segments of the population will be unhappy. The only way that I can see any kind of satisfaction is by an overwhelmingly exhausted citizenry that is ready to accept change, no matter how radical it is.
Nor can I offer insight as to how this will happen. What I do know is that unless it happens, there will be no ‘Crisis Event”.
[3] The value of the USD will collapse.
The USD is presently losing its status as a global reserve currency.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with economic changes. I see an exponential increase in the value of the stock market with zero connection to the lives of actual American citizenry. I also see an exponential increase in the national debt. It doesn’t take a genius to see that both of these things are not sustainable.
People have been predicting the eventual collapse of the American economy for decades. Yet it still hums along. The only way that this will change is if the international medium of exchange changes. And there is evidence that this is exactly what is going on. I do not see this as a sudden, precipitous event, but rather a trend that continues over a long swath of time before the USD stabilizes.
The USD will significantly change in value negatively. This will occur over a period of time. The end result will be generalized discomfort for Americans on many levels.
What we are seeing RIGHT NOW is a movment to the discarding of the USD as a reserve currency and the adoption of the e-yuan instead.
[4] A very serious “Hot War” on American soil.
No, there will not be another Iraq, Afganastan, Yemen, or Syria in Ukraine. There will be a major, big and very nasty short war.
It WILL result in much damages, destruction and death on American soil.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with “hot wars”; shooting wars that occurring using the most advanced technology available, and they always occur on the soil of the leading economic power.
This Fourth Turning event is an American driven cycle. Not an Asian cycle.
Even if the nation stays together, its geography could be fundamentally changed, its party structure altered, its Constitution and Bill of Rights amended beyond recognition. History offers even more sobering warnings: Armed confrontation usually occurs around the climax of Crisis. If there is confrontation, it is likely to lead to war. This could be any kind of war—class war, sectional war, war against global anarchists or terrorists, or superpower war. If there is war, it is likely to culminate in total war, fought until the losing side has been rendered nil—its will broken, territory taken, and leaders captured. And if there is total war, it is likely that the most destructive weapons available will be deployed.
There is no avoiding this.
Russia will not allow a war near or on it’s borders. Anyone who thinks that they can “poke the bear” is going to be in for a rude, and horrifc shock. The same goes for China. Anyone who thinks that China will allow another Yemen, Afghanistan or Syria to occur in Taiwan, on the South China Sea is delusional.
War will happen fast and be over fast.
Within a month.
That’s FAST.
These nations do not play, are peer-capable, or superior in training and weaponry, and work together. The idea that America can take on China or Russia independently is a fantasy. Any war with either will result in a war with both simultaneously.
It’s a suicide move.
So forget the illusions that America has the biggest, the baddest, and the best military. It might get by trying twenty years to fight goat-herders with AK-47’s, but is no match for merit-based, well-trained, superior-armed, and a pissed-off Asia.
From 2017 through 2020, the United States “carpet bombed” China with bio-weapons. This effort affected Russia, and Iran. And of course, China, Iran and Russia knows who was involved, why and how.
But China, Russia and Iran didn’t take any obvious retaliatory action.
That should make every single Americans hair stand on end.
We should expect a major hot war. This war will be instigated though American actions and international activities.
Neither China, nor Russia are stupid. They will strike first. They will use full-spectrum nuclear weapons, and America will resemble one of the nations that it “bombed the shit out of” for democracy™.
[5] Cultural, and societal collapse.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with severe changes to society and the individuals who live inside America. In the past, Americans have been resilient enough, independent enough, and hardy enough to rebuild any collapsed society.
But today, I am not so sure.
With or without war, American society will be transformed into something different. The emergent society may be something better, a nation that sustains its Framers' visions with a robust new pride. Or it may be something unspeakably worse. The Fourth Turning will be a time of glory or ruin.
Most Americans are terribly overweight, and while many are functional with technology, during a period of societal collapse most technology will not operate in an optimal manner during a full scale Crisis Event.
During 2020 large segments of the American population failed to work together and wear masks during the pandemic. I just cannot imagine that Americans would rebuild radioactive cities, start planting vegetables in their suburban lawns, and working together for free.
Americans have been a historically resilient people, but whether or not they will be able to come together during the Crisis Event is unlikely. It is not a politically attractive position, but it is a realistic expectation.
Let’s combine everything together.
Well, there is nothing that I have said here that I have not covered elsewhere. But let’s see if we can compile some knowns to help us make a substantive predictive engine for our use.
In 2019, I created the following map which I extrapolated from Fourth Turning cycles and the Deagal (Remote Viewing) Report.
Keep in mind that this is just a predictive map. It may or may not happen.
.
Recent events suggest that things have accelerated somewhat, and are pushing the dates ahead by 1.5 years.
Uh Oh!
My argument is that the COVID-19 fiasco in the United States is not part of this collapse crisis vector. It is only a contributor.
Whether the future occurs as predicted will depend on the actions or inaction’s of the American Presidency. Any of the following events will probably unleash a particular singular element of the Crisis event.
Passage of restrictive laws that infringe on cherished Rights.
Freedom of Speech.
Gun control.
Travel / banking.
Ability to be employed.
A military action that involves either China, Russia or Iran. Perhaps all three.
No attempts at financial, banking or economic restructuring.
A trigger event being either “false flag” event of any purpose, or a major provication such as crossing a “red line”.
WMD (nuclear, biological, and chemical / EM) will be used.
These are all historical trendlines.
Knowing that these are exactly the same kind of modus operandi that Washington has used over the last fifty years, you can well expect that some or all of them will precipitate the Crisis event.
Year by Year expectations
The graphic above is pretty complex. Let’s look at it like you would a newspaper horoscope.
The key point representative of the year are in bold red.
Items that have been predicted correctly, that has already happened are in blue.
2021
The pandemic continues all year.
Posturing of various political and special interests organized by various oligarchies.
Internet freedoms curtailed.
Urban riots.
Submarines / US Naval vessels damaged or sunk.
Continued (minor) unrest on many levels.
A somewhat stabilization of the overall economic consideration.
An event that will force one of the major Asian powers to take action.
2022 Shit breaks out.
The pandemic continues.
Domestic unrest starts to manifest. Maybe shootings or some kind of organized behavior.
Asian powers threaten nuclear retaliation.
FEMA, NSA, FBI or other domestic agencies activated.
Rule by Executive Orders continue.
Major domestic crime.
Producted goods become harder and harder to obtain.
Some unpopular laws or regulations are implemented.
United States bioweapon activity starts to get public attention.
Inflation in the world grows to an unmanagable level.
Sides in a geopolitical conflict are established; Us vs. Them.
The mid-tem elections generate an electorial sweep.
The USA starts to get involved in some strong covert (not visible) international military actions.
American Congress start talking about fighting either Russia, China, Iran or North Korea directly.
Events force Russia or China to initiate hot kinetic wars.
2023 Crisis Deepens.
People are adapting to the Pandemic and it seems to be subsiding.
People refuse to mask up even when bioweapons are used in America.
Domestic unrest continues and gets more violent.
United States debt is beyond comprehension, and items become unobtainable.
The economy and the USD starts to falter.
Ambushes and attacks on American police.
The United States starts to have shortages in gasoline / heating fuel.
Economic Balloons start to “pop”.
The Internet starts to falter in many nations.
Rural communities starting to band together for protection.
American trade with China is decreased sharply.
Some states discuss leaving the Untied States.
The USD is no longer a major reserve currency.
The United States government starts seizing assets, energy, and finances from its enemies.
The Federal Government initiates a hot war with a major power as a desirable technique of distraction and unification.
The USA starts to engage in International Military Actions of some visible type. American soldiers are shooting at Asian powers and forces.
Risk of a HOT WAR is very high. It may or may not hit American soil.
2024 Insanity
Still a pandemic, but is seemingly under control.
Domestic unrest breaks out in open conflict in numerous areas.
The Federal Government starts to decentralize, or change in some significant manner.
The United States starts to have shortages in food.
The United States starts to have shortages in medicine.
Brown-outs roll throughout the United States.
The US government plans / talks about a draft and forced civilian enlistment.
The 2024 election is a crazy turmoil, and no one is happy with the results.
The economy starts a long sequence of contractions and mini-collapses.
The USD starts to have it’s value erode significantly.
SEVERE HOT WAR! Americans on American soil are affected. It’s not a “police action” in a far away land or sea.
The health system, inefficient and expensive, collapses completely.
Society is disrupted. Communication, transport, food, and electricity are all unreliable and disrupted.
The Election is a landslide for one political party who promises massive change.
2025 “Everything but the kitchen sink”
2025 will be like 2024, only crazier, and more intense.
American contractions at every level continue.
The Federal, and the States governments show complete incompetence.
Bad moves, and bad decisions result in numerous fiascos for the United States.
Discord and disruptions are commonplace and are no longer isolated to certain geographic regions. Everyone “feels the pinch”.
Some states start to actually leave the Untied States and restructure themselves.
Americans start to hunt, fish and eat pets in certain areas.
May people start to die of illnesses that could have been prevented or cured.
New illnesses and viruses start to appear all over America. These are far worse than the COVID-19. Americans treat them like the “seasonal flu”.
Everyone is in “survival mode”.
Americans start to turn to non-American news for information.
Most of the Hot War is over.
2026 “The Kitchen Sink gets included”
Anything that was good about 2025, is now gone.
FIASCO!
Normal lifestyles are permanently disrupted.
Urban areas are hotbeds of contentious activity.
The United States starts to put people in FEMA camps.
The United States start to shoot fellow Americans.
Woods and forests are flooded with urban refugees.
Hot war officially ends.
2027
Things are still crazy, but groups of people are working together to sort out the craziness.
The United States is largly gone.
A new type of government emerges.
Domestic discord and fighting continues, but it’s mostly “turf wars”.
The USD has substantially collapsed.
US economy is in ruins.
The government begins to discuss reconstruction efforts and mobilization of work forces for a common good.
2028
A new normal has arrived in America.
There is a new government, new people, new ideas, and new systems.
The USA is shattered and a real mess, but people are starting to band together in small groups to make things right in their little area of control.
People can see the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
2029
Reconstruction efforts begin.
Rehabilitation efforts begin.
New policies and lifestyles start to manifest.
A brighter future lies ahead for everyone still left alive.
Conclusion
I wrote this article after I watched the horrific section on Tucker Carlson FOX “news”.
He’s right.
War is bad, but not as bad as having United States Senators openly advocating war with nuclear armed Russia over a flat of bland terration that has zero strategic importance for America.
It just confirms my worst fears.
Here’s pretty much the future that most everyone in the collective West can look forward to.
Historically, the rising nations pretty much survives the Fourth Turning unscathed. I don’t think that they will remain as pristine as the USA did during World War II, but they will pretty much be in far better shape than the West.
There’s a lot of bullshit on the “news” sites.
But, I can positively say the following…
The United States caused the Ukraine-Russia war.
This is becuase they violated Russian“Red Lines”.
Now the United States wants to get involved in it directly.
Russia warned that it will destroy the USA if they don’t stop.
And for China, irregardless as to the absolute failure of the Italy talks…
The USA push towards war / sanctions with China is continuing.
China has repeatedly warned that it is a dragon that DOES bite.
The USA government is ignoring the warnings.
The USA government is proceeding with the violation of Chinese“Red Lines”.
2022 03 18 09 24
The article describes the actions. It’s crossing the Chinese “Red Lines”.
Internally, domestically…
Americans are happy for no more mask mandates.
Mass crime continues.
Inflation is absurd.
Washington DC is oblivious.
Supply Lines / trade is a complete fiasco.
The American “news” media is on overdrive and the propaganda is outrageous.
As far as Russia is concerned…
Leading Russian leadership personnel have evacuated Moscow and all the major cities. This and the very wealthy in Russia…
A large exodus of private jets out of Moscow towards Dubai this morning too. Looks like the uber-rich Arab oil Billionaires are high-tailing-it out of Moscow too.
From a source within the Diplomatic corps . . .
For the past three days, Russia has been pulling one of a kind, proprietary, machine dyes and templates, and putting into deep storage, along with items of cultural value.
On Thursday, 17MAR22, at 4:02pm EST, the formal message from Russia to the United States read…
"U.S. USED NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN JAPAN AFTER WORLD WAR II AND HAS NO RIGHT TO PREACH TO US REGARDING OUR USE OF THEM."
Please plan to avoid the high risk areas. Note that I am conservative in my predicitons, and anumerous elements are proceeding in advance to what I predicted.
Good luck.
2022 03 17 23 44
This information is compiled from other sources.
To see the methodology in these other sources, please go to the Theories of Collapse Index here…
What this means is that the defense intelligence organizations represented by Deagel believe that there will be some kind of event or series of events that will result in a major population drop by 2025.
Deagel site projections.
From the chart above we can clearly see a number of conclusions or extrapolations that they have made.
I have an index that collects various observations regarding the internal collapse of the United States. That is in a sub-Index known as “Front Row Seat”.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Putin and Xi Peng has made some HUGE decisions, and the “leadership” in the West are very, very worried. This is the best summary of the current state of Geo-political affairs; United States centered, that describes what is going on and why. It’s amazing in its simplicity and depth of understanding. Andrei has outdone himself here.
I discovered this video via email. Which read…
This is one of the more powerful presentations I have seen. I commented as follows:
Andre, many of us who have watched helplessly as all these crimes have been committed IN OUR NAME, would feel --as Martin Luther King said--the Arc of Justice is long,-- relieved of the karmic burden.
When all these people are finally held accountable, after decades (centuries?) of horror they perpetrated. I am sure that many Germans felt the same way after WWII.
https://youtu.be/JbNVIbAgJ1Q
Putin raises hackles when he talks about genocide in relation to the Donbass crisis.
It’s a very great video, and it covers some points that are omitted by the American “news” media, and overlooked by alternative media, and he ties it all together, thus effectively painting a picture of what the China-Russian alliance end-game actually is.
Watch it on you-tube. Click to open up in a new tab.
Think about what he has to say.
I think that many, many MM readers will easily see how the reported articles in “New Beginnings” are all tied together. After watching this video, this is how I actually feel…
New changes, and new alignments.
But that’s just me.
It’s not that I am not happy about it. In fact, I see this future as long in coming. And, as you all are aware, welcome it. But still, like a serious drunk psychopath driving a bus-load of children on a twisty and turny highway going as fast as they can; the American “leadership” are going to hurt a lot of good, kind, and just Americans.
I lament that.
And thus, the shocking reality, and the slap in the face of what is coming down the pipe for everyone involved will not be pleasant. Such as this…
Lament for America.
It’s a good summary of what is going on and why certain words were used.
But even though, you have strengths.
Never forget that. The crazy drunk psychopaths are driving the car left and right on and off the road, but you don’t need to grab the steering wheel. You can buckle up your seatbelt. You can tell the driver to pull over so that you can vomit, and then once he does, you run for the hills.
There are many things that you can do.
You are not helpless.
Find an ally. Someone like you. Don’t try to deal with the changes all alone.
Find an ally. Someone like you.
There’s this big plan, and it is unfolding. Sit tight. Conduct your basic strategies to ride out this period of turmoil, and most especially if you are in the West….
Have a skill that you can use in your community.
Have a larder and supplies.
Network in your community. Be known.
Be kind, helpful and a Rufus.
Conduct prayer affirmation campaigns.
Make sure that you have a formal Fate Forecast prepared for you and follow it.
Center your mind with Hemi-Sync.
You will be just fine.
Remember; do not be alone. There is strength in numbers.
Do not be alone.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Go to the sewer pit of zerohedge and check the comments on any China article, or to Unz and its China article comments, or for that matter to Kunstler where antiChina accusations seem to be mandatory once per article.
You could also try any YouTube video on China's space agency's stunning successes and check the comments.
The oozing racism, ignorance and hatred shown by some - in the case of zerohedge most - replies is a signal lesson on why their regimes think the way they do.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 20 2021 22:37 utc | 54
We will start our little exploration in China “stuff” with…
Chinese Robots
All of this is “flying under the radar screen”. No one is interested in it. But China is leading in robotic technology. Sorry Boston Dynamics. But it is true. I have a small zipped up file that has a few videos of some of the more personable robots being developed in China these days.
While I was writing this post, my daughter went to my computer and published it. Before, I could flush it out 68 people read the article. Sigh. I guess that I am committed. It’s like bacon and eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.
“Chinese astronauts floated into the country’s new Tiangong space station Thursday, becoming the first people to board China’s outpost in orbit after a successful launch from a military base in the Gobi Desert to start a three-month mission.”
Chinese Astronauts Enter Space Station.
When the International Space Station was being fomented, the Chinese wanted to take part. The US blocked them. So they built their own. The ISS is to be decommissioned in a few years, presumably leaving China as having the only functioning space station. It is notable that all of these off-earth efforts, to include the placing of a lander on the dark side of the moon, have worked.
Some Chinese Girls
Some technology, huh?
You can see a nice little collection of a cross section in this zip file HERE. I think that if a woman is “built like a battleship” that they deserve to be placed in the technology section. Don’t you?
I have been in the Shanghai Maglev train - it's elevated and banked and is very smooth and quiet, taking under 10mins to go 50km. The digital readout in the carriage got up to 432 kmh on my journey.
Posted by: anonymous | Jul 21 2021 2:54 utc | 77
China begins construction of its fifth rocket launch site
“BEIJING (Reuters) – A port city in eastern China has launched an ambitious plan to build the country’s fifth rocket launch site, under a longer-term goal to ramp up space infrastructure to meet the demands of an expected boom in commercial missions.”
Why can the Chinese do all of these things at once? Because they have money and many smart engineers.
Why do they have money? Because they make stuff and sell it.
America doesn’t have money because it spends it all on aircraft carriers, and doesn’t make stuff because it sent its factories to…
…China.
Why doesn’t America have more and better engineers? Because it has a far smaller base of STEM-capable young and because it is dumbing down its schools and universities for the gratification of unproductive minorities.
Whose fault is all of this?
Why…
China’s. Who could doubt it?
On GDP, the Outlaw US Empire's is grossly overstated by trillions such that GDP has actually shrunk over the last 30 years. So doing any sort of comparative analysis using GDP as a metric will yield a false result. Trillions of dollars that amount to the Fraudulent Financial Free Lunch are actually negatives that must be subtracted from overall GDP, which we've discussed here rather often. Again, the closest depiction is Shadowstats GDP chart whose blue line would look even worse if all the Enron Accounting was eliminated.
As I wrote @59, China has the Outlaw US/Anglo Empire by the balls--dependent upon China--geoeconomically as Trump's failed Trade War proved beyond doubt. There is a solution, but it will never be implemented by the Neoliberal Duopoly, which will never be overcome by the popular vote.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 20 2021 23:36 utc | 60
“Linglong One is a pressurized water reactor with a capacity of 125 MW – the first small commercial onshore modular reactor or SMR to be constructed in the world. After being launched, the SMR will be able to generate enough power to meet the energy demands of approximately 526,000 households annually.”
Dutch Boy says:
July 15, 2021 at 10:53 pm GMT • 5.3 days ago • 100 Words ↑
Not only were the lower-paying assembly-type scutwork jobs sent to China but also the technical design and engineering that goes with the manufacturing (at the insistence of the Chinese and with the cooperation of the American corporations).
There are plenty of clever young people who could do those jobs here (most STEM grads here must find work in other fields) but the jobs are in China.
Physics.org: Chinese achieve new milestone with 56 qubit computer
“A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China, working at the University of Science and Technology of China, has achieved another milestone in the development of a usable quantum computer.”
The world’s first 100,000-ton deep-sea semi-submersible oil production and storage platform, China’s self-developed “Deep Sea No 1” energy station, has successfully completed installation of all equipment and is expected to start production at the end of June, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) said on Saturday.
China maintains ‘artificial sun’ at 120 million Celsius for over 100 seconds, setting new world record
Another step in the quest for fusion power. Other countries, inclusing America, are working on this, but there was a time when the US would have been the clear leader. Times change.
Geez people,
China has had maglev trains connecting shanghai to its airport, its been running for years and cuts the usual 1.5hr road travel to 30 our so minutes. I've been on it numerous times.
This 600kph model is just a further development.
I don't know if you've all noticed, the recent Chinese tech development model has been rapid iterations instead of spending years or decades to design the perfect mouse trap. It plays well into their strengths and it's the only to find out if there's some gating tech they haven't figured out yet. They've learnt that hard lesson with semiconductors and jet engines.
For example with the aircraft carrier, everyone was pissing on China for relaunching an old soviet hull, before the laughter died out they've already built a second, improved one with what they've learnt. Then the same people laughed at the ski jump deck, and soon an EM catapult flattop will be launched.
Same with civil projects, space flight, aviation, submarines etc etc.
Keep on laughing.
Posted by: A.L. | Jul 20 2021 21:45 utc | 47
Lunar Return Mission
BBC: China’s Chang-e Five Mission returns lunar samples
This was a sophisticated, automated endeavor involving a lunar orbiter, a lander that collected samples, a unit that took the samples back to the orbiter, and a return vehicle that parachuted into Mongolia. It was nontrivial engineering. And: It worked. Note how quickly this and the achievements mentioned in the following have come.
Tunneling Machine in a Panda outfit
China Launches Largest Self-Built Shield tunneling machine with adorable ‘panda’ outfit
The machine has a diameter of 12.79 meters and weighs 3,000 tons. It will be used in the construction of Jinxiu Tunnel, an essential component of the highspeed railway from Chengdu to Zigong in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, which is known for being a home to pandas.”
Roving Mars
Chinese Mars Rover Begins Roaming the Red Planet
“China’s Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet.”
Very impressive, like beating Murphy’s Law in straight sets. First, it was an orbiter, circling Mars and doing orbiter things. Second, a lander. Third, a rover. Americans are ahead still in some respexts, but not by much. The riveting thing is how fast the Chinese are catching up.
Meanwhile in America…
Death throes…
“City Journal: “Identity politics has engulfed the humanities and social sciences on American campuses; now it is taking over the hard sciences.
"The STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and math—are under attack for being insufficiently “diverse.” The pressure to increase the representation of females, blacks, and Hispanics comes from the federal government, university administrators, and scientific societies themselves. That pressure is changing how science is taught and how scientific qualifications are evaluated. The results will be disastrous for scientific innovation and for American competitiveness”
”Such an effort would involve faculty holding well-performing students back, even while pushing their less intellectual peers forward (as if they were all indeed equal in abilities). Potentially stranding a group of gifted individuals in a situation where they are held back by a single child who simply can’t get a problem right and needs endless special instruction is hardly something to be proud of….”
Stupidity beyond a certain point becomes entertaining.
Bayviking says:July 15, 2021 at 11:34 pm GMT • 5.3 days ago↑
Holy crap, this does not look good for the arrogant Americans. I understand that 5G in the US will never operate up to specs because the US defense department refuses to surrender the bandwidth it controls necessary to function properly.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have long argued that the reason why the West; and yeah that means America, wants the fierce anti-China propaganda campaign about the poor Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang is to prevent the BRI.
.
You see, the BRI originates in Xinjiang, and this fact, and the completion of the BRI offers a land trade route to Europe and Africa that completely bypasses the threat of American naval blockade.
.
As shown in this map…
The BRI passes right through XinJiang, and it is the home of the Uighur Muslims who are ready to enjoy the fruits of their association with China. And the USA does not like this one bit.
.
I have argued that once the BRI is fully operational, those in XinJiang would become wealthy. Simply because they sit on the major trade route between the Chinese manufacturing sites, and Europe. Just like Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and other similar cities do.
.
I further argue that they would all become filthy rich in the process. Not just Singapore rich, but Dubai rich.
Big News Everyone!
Guess what?
It turns out the Xinjiang is just loaded with huge and vast deposits of oil. It’s of a quality, and a quantity that makes the Middle East look small in comparison. And what’s more, it’s easy to extract. No need to get involved an the use of any fracking technologies.
Of course you won’t hear about this in the MSM (Western Main Stream Media). Americans are to be kept stupid, ignorant, and ready to go to war at any moment!
Check out the video.
Pretty cool huh?
China in Space….
China is doing a lot right now, and it’s really worthy to take note.
One of my favorite websites is MoA and it’s run by a singular guy who has a passion like myself. I have to admit that many of the articles tend to be boring to me personally. They deal with obscure issues that I am not interested in, but when one comes across my desk that I am interested it, it shines like a beacon.
Such as this one.
This is a full reprint. All credit to the MoA, edited to fit this venue, and disseminated as found. Also I am including a host of comments as they really flush out the subjects in an interesting manner.
Since the U.S. Excluded China From International Space Projects – It Built Its Own
There was a time when the U.S. was open to international cooperation in space. It gained prestige and influence from these projects. But fear of competition from China and Russia have led to attempts to exclude these countries from international projects.
A two-sentence clause included in the U.S. spending bill approved by Congress a few weeks ago threatens to reverse more than three decades of constructive U.S. engagement with the People's Republic of China.
...
Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), a long-time critic of the Chinese government who chairs a House spending committee that oversees several science agencies, inserted the language into the spending legislation to prevent NASA or the Office of Science and Technology Policy from using federal funds "to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company."
The European Space Agency as well as NASA were at that time favoring future cooperation with China on the International Space Station and on a planned Mars mission.
Since then other laws and sanctions have made the continuing cooperation with Russia on the International Space Station more difficult.
Banned from international space projects in which the U.S. is involved China went its own way. Ten years later it put a lander on the far side of the moon where the rover Yutu, the jade rabbit, is now pounding moon stones in his mortar to look for the elixir of life.
Last year China sent Tianwen, Heavenly Questions, and another rover named Zhurong, a god of fire, to Mars. It landed there in February:
"Tianwen-1 is going to orbit, land and release a rover all on the very first try, and coordinate observations with an orbiter," mission managers wrote before launch in the journal Nature Astronomy. "No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way. If successful, it would signify a major technical breakthrough."
A week ago Zhurong, the fire god, took a selfie and sent it back to earth:
The camera, originally fitted to the rover bottom, was released by the rover at 10 meters south of the platform and captured the video footage of the rover returning to the platform and took the selfie. The camera then used a wireless signal to transmit the pictures and videos to the rover, which beamed them back to Earth via the orbiter.
“China will publish the related scientific data in a timely manner to let humankind share in the fruits of the country’s space exploration development,” said Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA.
.
That is the best FU selfie I have seen. I showed it to a 15 year old and was told at first glance that it was China saying FU to the USA. Plus they pointed out the three China flags.
I like the virtual grin on the camera head.
Well done China. This has dramatically liberated the space exploration science and simultaneously stated the east's equivalence with all nations.
Posted by: uncle tungsten
Yesterday China’s space agency announced another success as three astronauts arrived at Tianhe, the Harmony of Heavens, which is the first module of Tiangong, the Heavenly Palace space station:
Three Chinese astronauts have entered the core module of China's permanent space station to embark on their three-month mission, becoming the module's first occupants and pioneers in one of the nation's grandest space endeavors.
...
Tianhe, the biggest and heaviest spacecraft China has constructed, is 16.6 meters long and has a diameter of 4.2 meters. The craft's weight, at 22.5 tons, is equal to the combined weight of 15 standard size automobiles. It has three parts－a connecting section, a life-support and control section and a resources section.
Meanwhile the International Space Station develops more and more technical problems and is becoming obsolete. Russia is now thinking of building its own one. It may alternatively add its own modules to the Chinese station.
Russia and China will also cooperate to build a permanent station on the moon:
China and Russia have agreed to jointly construct a lunar space station that will be "open to all countries," the China National Space Administration said in a statement on Tuesday.
...
A statement from Russian space agency Roscosmos said the two organizations planned to "promote cooperation on the creation of an open-access ILRS for all interested countries and international partners, with the goal of strengthening research cooperation and promoting the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes in the interests of all mankind."
The attempts to keep China and increasingly also Russia away from international space projects have only led to them starting competing projects. These are likely to gain more countries to cooperate with them.
The exclusionary policy of the U.S. has not been successful. In the end it resulted in a loss of influence over future projects for which China and Russia are inviting everyone but the U.S.
Humanity would be better off if we avoided such splits.
American nationalists hate this rise of China
It is a purely racist reaction to the rise of China. Even now, go to sites like zerohedge and you'll find foaming mouthed rants against China, belittlement of Chinese achievements, and openly racist desires to eradicate the Chinese.
Given the relative competence of China and America, China is much better off with Amerikastani sanctions that forced it to develop its own capabilities.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast
Criticism from America really hurts the feelings of the Chinese people. They used to really look up to America. It is not so much that they take America's malicious criticism to heart, but more that it pains them to see their hero turn into a petty and whiny little bitch.
At least that is the way it seemed to me last time I was there.
Posted by: William Gruff
But America went to the moon!
Big deal! So what if China is doing this. America mastered that a half a century ago.
A common comment I see over and over again on UToob and other such fora is "Yeah? Well we went to the Moon in... well, a long time ago!"
What these slack-faced, degenerate, devolved, chest-beating baboons in America ignore is that nobody like them has ever gone to the Moon, and none ever will.
The people who went to the Moon were scientists and engineers.
And real ones at that.
It has been mentioned many times, and I suspect the seriousness of the issue eludes many people, but China is producing nearly 5 million STEM graduates each year! Before the pandemic the United States was producing little more than half a million STEM grads per year, and if the scale of this workforce disaster for the US isn't already apparent to you then just remember that MORE than half of all graduate students in the STEM fields in the US are international students. The US would be lucky to be producing a quarter million domestic STEM grads per year... around one twentieth of what China is producing.
China produces 20 times the number of STEM graduates than America does.
If that hasn't given exceptional American readers a chill yet, then you need to pay closer attention to efforts being made by so-called "liberals" in the US to improve "diversity" in American STEM studies.
Are they addressing the harsh economic realities that lumpenize and discourage large sections of America's youth so that they might aspire to be more than a street thug? Of course not! They are dumbing down STEM studies so that a lumpenized street thug with no real academic foundations can "succeed" in those programs!
"You're racist!" exclaims the woke liberal.
"You don't have to know Calculus to be an engineer! That's what calculators are for!"
Let me tell you a little story.
I once taught a bridge program at a state feeder college for the big universities. The objective of this program was to shepherd students with "weak" (as in none) math backgrounds through freshman Calc so that they could go on to enter a STEM field at one of the big state universities. Obviously that ambitious project failed. The gulf between what the students needed to succeed even just in first year Calculus and what knowledge and skills they came to class on day one equipped with was just too great.
Taking a step back, the calculation aid from little over half a century ago would be the slide rule. It's useless for addition and subtraction. The student had to master arithmetic before a slide rule even became useful to them, and then using the slide rule would help build, at a gut level, an understanding of logarithmic, trigonometric, and other relationships. Students then would develop an ever more complex intellectual ability that math teachers refer to as "number sense". The student with "number sense" would be able to look at a mathematical expression and see meaning in it. At the lowest level they can tell that one number is larger or smaller than another number, and at a slightly higher level they can visualize curves from a polynomial, and at a slightly higher level again they can visualize things like the rate of change of a curve and so on. More importantly, they could visualize what these polynomials and curves and such represented back in the real world.
But to get to this level the student has to internalize arithmetic. All of the higher levels of number sense have as their foundations all of the lower levels. You cannot skip the basics and jump straight to "the good stuff" like Calculus. Or rather, you can memorize formulas and also memorize a number of different situations in which certain numbers get plugged into certain locations in the formula, and then be trained to know how to punch that into a calculator, but without the acquired number sense it is all just meaningless busy work.
Sadly, few of the disadvantaged students in the STEM bridge program that I worked in for a while had even the most basic of number sense. Teachers all through their primary and secondary educations had developed countless clever little tricks to get the students through the current math lesson plan without having to require the student know any arithmetic. The students become good at punching keys on a keypad in accordance with instructions on a worksheet, but then promptly forget the procedure after the lesson because all they were doing was hitting keys in a certain sequence and writing down whatever appeared on the screen. If they hit a wrong key or the calculator malfunctioned and gave them an answer of 2 million instead of 2, they lacked the number sense to suspect that the calculator is wrong and would just write whatever was on the screen no matter what.
You simply cannot make up for twelve years of lost learning time in a few hours in a college classroom. I eventually gave up and went to teach at one of the big universities where supposedly the incoming students would not have blown off their previous twelve years of education. Few of my students there were domestic students.
The point that I am making here is that not only is there no talent in the academic pipeline to fix things in America, but that pipeline itself is broken. There is all of this talk about a new space race, but America is like the obese couch potato in this race, and the Chinese have been training for running space race marathons for a generation. There is not going to be any race. There cannot be. When the US did its "space race" against the Soviet Union that happened at a very unique time when the American labor market was flooded with a wave of demobilized service personnel who eagerly took advantage of the GI Bill to get themselves educated, and that in a period of US history when scientists and engineers had something like rockstar status, motivating students in their STEM studies. None of these conditions exist today.
All of the carping you hear from Americans about China's space program successes is nothing more than the bitter bitching of the fat kid hurling abuse at athletes as they pass him by. It is impotent and cannot amount to anything.
Posted by: William Gruff
When the US did its "space race" against the Soviet Union that happened at a very unique time when the American labor market was flooded with a wave of demobilized service personnel who eagerly took advantage of the GI Bill to get themselves educated, and that in a period of US history when scientists and engineers had something like rockstar status, motivating students in their STEM studies. None of these conditions exist today.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 18 2021 20:06 utc | 20
I was lucky enough to graduate from the school of mechanical and aerospace engineering that produced the founder of the company, the project manager and all the engineering team leaders that created the Apollo Lunar Lander (LEM).
Which if you think about it was the most amazing part of landing man on the moon.
It is the part that has not been replicated by the U.S. or anyone else in the last 50 years.
It could not be tested in actual conditions, and had to work perfectly the first time.
The tiniest flaw, bad gasket, bent landing leg or hose leak and two astronauts would have crashed in to the surface or been left on the surface of the moon to die a slow agonizing death.
It worked perfectly the first time, and every time after that.
Musk blows every third rocket he tries out despite radically better control technology, computers and knowledge from the past.
That is what makes this achievement so improbable, and leads some to believe it was faked.
But what it took was dedication, a quest for perfection, and 650 of the best engineers the world has ever produced. I had many of the same profs these pioneers did ( several years later) and can attest to the mastery and perfection they demanded.
ziu`Current US stem students would go crying to their Mama if they had to face the hair shirt rigor these Apollo era engineers did.
Our time has passed as we now turn out financial husksters, shoe designers and people who write code to post cat videos instead of first rate engineers.
Good luck to the Chinese as perhaps they have the dedication we did back in the day.
Posted by: Seneca’s Cliff
But America leads in Intellectual property
'If you take IPs literally, the USA still is light-years ahead of China and Russia.'
Not all ‘technology’ carries the same weight. ‘IP’ applies only to commercial products. Consumer electronics like smartphones, chips, software etc is all well and fine but has nothing to do with national strength, which is strictly a function of two technology domains: aerospace and nuclear.
Capabilities in these two areas are what separates the handful of major powers from the rest. Those are also the two most challenging technologies, and in both of them the US is losing ground quickly, without any direction from the top, while China is making big strides [with plenty of direction from the top], and Russia has got back into its Soviet-era stride.
Things like the physics-defying Avangard intercontinental boost-glide vehicle that skips along the top of the atmosphere at Mach 25 are not going to be found in any published IP. Nor is the scramjet engine in the Tsirkon hypersonic missile. Nor any of SpaceX’s secrets.
We still live in a world where force is the ultimate decider. Making lots of smartphones like Korea does, may mean a good standard of living. But if you are a major power, with major rivals [aka sworn enemies], you first have to LIVE, before you can think about living well.
It all comes down to the higher educational output like Mr Gruff mentioned above. China is graduating a lot of engineers and scientists. Only a few out of any group will do anything notable, so the bigger your pool, the more game-changing people you will produce.
I cried when Skylab was abandoned to just crash into Australia, but that period was still far more optimistic than today, even with all of the backsliding that America was doing after the Apollo program. American kids have no brightness in the future that they can see today.
On the other hand, Chinese kids today are on fire. Their optimism and enthusiasm for the future is palpable and pours out of them like a kind of psychic Cherenkov radiation. It is difficult not to develop sympathetic excitement when working with them. A year teaching there, or even just a single term, is highly recommended if one can spare the time. It refreshes the hope for humanity even of cynics like me.
Posted by: William Gruff
Some people still keep up the belief that China is backwards.
Both China and Russia are significantly behind overall. However, both are gaining with critical technologies which will help both leapfrog in the coming years. And, for the Lunar Missions, China and Russia are coordinating their major Lunar Base project.
Posted by: Red Ryder
Where are China and Russia “significantly behind overall”?
Does the Outlaw US Empire or ESA have a heavy lift rocket?
If not, how will it return to the moon?
Then we have the realm of Atomics–fission and fusion–where the Empire lags very far behind as my recent commentary and discussion of that topic have shown.
Most significantly, where will NASA find the funds to return to the moon or build another space station–the privateers are mere glory hounds that aren’t really going anywhere.
Perhaps the biggest constraint on the Outlaw US Empire is its Neoliberal ideology. This ideology doesn’t do any long term planning. And long term planning is precisely what must be done with a space program.
Thus the issue of funding for NASA were trashed with Neoliberalism’s ascendency over industrial capitalism. And that began the downward slide of its political-economy that’s resulted in the ongoing crisis that began in 2007.
As b’s article shows, the main problem resides within the Outlaw US Empire’s Congress.
Where very damaging language can be slipped into massive budget legislation that’s never completely read and goes unpurged. The same is true with illegal sanctions on Iran that must be removed if the JCPOA is ever to be revived.
Congressional zealots like Frank Wolf do more damage to the nation in their fanatical attempts they believe are made in its defense. And thanks to the Anti-Communist and Anti-Iranian Crusades, it’s extremely difficult politically to attempt to get such idiocy removed from the books where they’ll remain and damage the domestic economy as well as international relations.
A Red Ryder #1 who says: 'Both China and Russia are significantly behind overall.'
This is exactly opposite of the facts. It is the US that is far behind Russia in crucial space technologies like engines and space station tech. China has now surpassed the US in engines [more on that in a moment] and space stations.
It is easy to understand why the layman would draw the conclusion you have done---due to massive hype in the US media about SpaceX. But consider this: the current US mars mission with the impressive Perseverance Rover got there with Russian engines on the Atlas V rocket. So did the previous US mars mission in 2011 which carried the Curiosity rover, and also the mars mission before that, plus ALL of the high-profile Nasa missions in the last couple of decades.
Despite all of Musk's lip-flapping about Mars, his spacecraft have never been chosen by Nasa for any mars mission.
The same is true for the US Space Force, which includes the National Security Space Launch program. The Russian-powered Atlas V has flown nearly all of these critical missions, which include the X37 spaceplane, high tech spysats, and even missile early warning sats. Nearly 90 successful flights in all.
SpaceX has been given just three NSSL launches, for only the fairly pedestrian GPS sats. It also launched one out of the six X37 missions. That's it.
Quite clearly the advanced Russian rocket engine technology is the workhorse for both Nasa and the Space Force, with SpaceX nothing more than a sideshow!
And let's not forget that the US was unable to fly humans into space for nearly an entire decade! A big Nasa technology contribution finally resulted in the SpaceX Crew Dragon, which has now made three flights---but Nasa is still booking seats on Soyuz, just in case!
And as for the ISS, that is in actuality a Russian space station. From the wikipedia entry on the Russian Orbital Segment ROS:
'The ROS handles Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the entire Station.'
That is the space station. The American and ESA modules are completely superfluous add-ons. The ROS is in fact MIR2, which was built already by the time the US abandoned its own effort to build a MIR knockoff, called the Freedom space station---which was killed on the drawing board due to serious technical shortcomings.
The US simply bought its way into MIR2 at the time that Russia was in dire straits in the 1990s. China also benefited greatly from the Russian space tech fire sale. Look up the Shenzhou program: they Chinese bought their entire manned program from Russia, lock stock and barrel---including the Soyuz spacecraft, life support systems, astronaut training, even space suits.
The Chinese also bought an advanced Russian rocket engine at that time, the RD120, which they developed into their own YF100. It first flew in 2015 and is an advanced, staged combustion cycle engine that the Russians invented and have been perfecting since the 1960s.
The US has yet to fly a staged-combustion engine, despite getting ten key technologies, plus a license to manufacture their own RD180s. Supposedly, the SpaceX Raptor engine is a staged design, also known as closed-cycle due to its high efficiency. But this engine has yet to fly into space. It is also a much smaller engine, about half the thrust of the RD180. And btw, the RD180 is one half the thrust of its bigger brother the RD170/171, which has been flying for decades, and puts out a monstrous 1.8 million pounds of thrust---the most powerful [and most advanced] engine ever built.
Engines are the heart of space technology, just as they are in aviation or even automobiles. The US is nowhere in this game. A lot of hype, but nothing to show yet. The SpaceX workhorse is the Merlin engine which is only 200,000 pounds of thrust, not even one quarter the RD180, and one-eighth the RD170.
And what about the reusability factor, which is supposed to be a game-changer? Well, nothing in engineering is free. It takes lots of propellant to land that rocket back down---propellant which could have been used to launch a much bigger payload. Go to wikipedia and look up Falcon 9. The expendable payload is 22.8 tons for the latest version, versus just 15.5 tons when landed back. That's a 46 percent increase in payload for the non-reusable version. And that's when the booster is landed downrange on a sea barge. If it has to come back to the launch site, the penalty is much higher yet.
Plus those engines must be torn down and rebuilt anyway, so there is little to be gained, except in certain situations where you don't need the full payload. But this is wasteful in other ways. It does result in lower costs, which is a real advantage---but if you have very valuable payloads that are worth several hundred million dollars, like advanced sats, then your main priority is reliability, not saving a little on launch cost. The Russian engines have an unbelievable 100 percent reliability record in 87 launches.
The bottom line is that the US capability, when examined from a professional perspective, has huge gaps in core technologies. That's not to write off SpaceX---they have a decent small, old-technology [gas generator cycle] engine in the Merlin and the Falcon 9 has made 121 flights, with only a few failures. It's a pretty good step up from where the US was after those two Shuttle disasters.
But it's still a long way from the technology that Russia has. And yes, even China has built on the Russian tech to now surpass the US in both engines and space stations.
Posted by: Gordog
A video showing the new Chinese spacestation
Nice. It doesn’t look like the ISS. Maybe China should have copied the USA ISS Space station so that the MSM (main stream media) can say that China is copying space technology.
Perhaps one of those alumni was Thomas J. Kelly, who wrote a great little book called 'Moon Lander' about the Grumman team that built the LEM.
My favourite bit:
A story about the challenges of building space technology in the Jim Crow-Era South. Once the LEM program advanced to the testing stage it was necessary for Grumman to assemble a staff at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The problem?
Grumman was based in Bethpage, NY, and a sizeable chunk of their engineering and technical workforce was Black.
Hotels in Florida were very enthusiastic about helping to stick it to the Ruskies in space until this fact was mentioned. After being turned down everywhere, they had to fall back on NASA's political connections to secure rooms in Florida's 'Whites Only' hotels.
Westerners usually take such a condescending attitude to Russian and Chinese space technology: "I guess it's quite impressive what they achieved in their totalitarian hell-hole" etc.
I like to remember that story every time I hear sentiments like that.
Posted by: S.P. Korolev
Here’s another video…
And yet another…
And still another. Why with so many videos of the Chinese space station, why is the Western Media (MSM) not providing anything?
Why China is building it’s own systems…
The U$A wants to protect its technological comparative advantage. However, where there is a will there’s a way! Necessity is the mother of innovation. China is determined to develop its technological competencies. BeiDou’s launch marked China’s rise to ‘major space power’ and military independence.
“In 1996, during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, China fired three missiles to locations on the Taiwan Strait as a warning signal against Taiwan’s moves for independence and full internationally recognized statehood. While the first missile hit about 18.5 kilometers from Taiwan’s Keelung military base as a warning, China lost track of the other two missiles. China asserts that the United States had cut off the GPS signal to the Pacific, on which China was dependent at that time for missile tracking. Consequently, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) woke up to the strategic vulnerability of having such critical military space infrastructure in the hands of a foreign power.
On June 23, 2020, China completed construction of its BeiDou Positioning and Navigation System (BDS) by launching the 55th and final satellite for its BDS3 navigation constellation. With this launch, China now enjoys a fully independent self-reliant global navigation satellite system (GNSS) as an alternative to the U.S. Space Force-maintained Global Positioning System (GPS). An independent BeiDou offers China augmented precision navigation and timing (PNT) for its military space forces.”
BeiDou’s completion does signal a new phase for China’s space capabilities. Also, it is a declaration of technical independence. Having a sovereign GNSS eliminates the problem of relying on the U$A or Europe for satellite navigation. China has incorporated state of the art anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities in it. It gains a technological edge by developing its platforms.
Posted by: Max
Robotic AI automation to ferry supplies to and from the space station
Also not being reported in that China has mastered the full automation process of ferrying supplies to and from the space station. Here is a video. Also not being shown in the MSM.
The videos of the Chinese space station are really nice. It’s pretty big, and resembles the interior of the ISS in many ways. But it’s completely different, and the Chinese took different developmental paths in the design and it shows.
America must stop China at all costs!!!!
Thanks for articulating what is assumed in my analysis of the situation--there must be money and minds, as neither goes far solo. And that's present in most other areas related to a MAGA-type policy proposal.
I don't know if you viewed any of the video related to the construction of the Amur Gas facility I posted, but the entire process was the results of billions of engineering calculations given the project's immensity.
What new innovation is being built within the Outlaw US Empire? Can you think of any cause I can't?
Oh wait, I completely forgot the wave energy project that just started being implemented @ 10 miles up the highway from me based on technologies designed 15+ years ago but never allowed to leave the lab. And yes, the chief engineer/scientist in charge is a female immigrant from Eastern Europe.
After 1970, NASA lacked a vision that would keep the budget flush and the public--particularly youth--curious and eager about the next phase. You'll recall those years and the resulting clusterfuck that was Skylab, although the drama of its salvage into something useful was a bright spot for awhile.
Maybe it's all for the best; if the Outlaw US Empire had established a lunar base, we'd certainly have space-based weapons now and a host of related problems--we might not even have made it this far given the Empire's First Strike mindset.
Posted by: karlof1
Well, that is what the neocon narrative is. And they are so ignorant and deluded that it’s a joke. Here is an American movie; a comedy that makes fun of this belief. Check it out…
The problem with the USA is that it can't put those designs to work anymore. It simply doesn't have the industrial capacity to put all those designs into practice.
There's an interview with a retired Chinese PLAAF general for Dangdai, from 2009, which I linked in this blog last year, in which he explains why China would easily win a war against the USA over the retake of Taiwan. His explanation is exactly that. Grandiose plans and designs are worthless in warfare if you can't mass produce them.
Now you would think: but then let's just restore Trump's "bring manufacture back"/"Made in America" policy and all is well.
That's not the case: the USA is a capitalist country, and capitalism only decides to put something for mass production if its profitable.
But thanks to Karl Marx, we know that, the more advanced the technology, the less profitable it is (Law of the Tendency of the Profit Rate to Fall). Capitalism has a historical period of ascension where technology marries perfectly with profitability, but, after that, a deleterious period commences (financialization period).
And profit rates in the USA have been falling for well over 100 years: in fact, if it wasn't for the money injected by the Fed, profit rates in the USA would've fallen by 35% during the first year of the pandemic (2020).
Manufacturing is never coming back to America, with or without the threat of communism.
Posted by: vk
Debunking A ‘Chinese Defector’ Story
It is sad to see how much Col. Pat Lang’s intelligence judgment has deteriorated.
Here he goes crazy over a story of an alleged Chinese high level defector who allegedly brought all kinds of materials with him:
This man, as Chinese counter-intelligence boss looked around the IC and decided that he was most likely to survive an internal leak if he defected to DIA. That means that in spite of the fact that DIA had an internal Chinese mole (recently arrested at DIA request by the FBI), the rest of the agencies are worse in the level in Chinese intelligence penetration not only of their analytic people but also of their operations staff. How do I know that? Material from the defector (Dong) would not normally be shared with analysts if it had his name in it. His identity would be held in operational channels.
Clearly, this man believes that; CIA. army intelligence, naval intelligence, USAF intelligence and all the rest are heavily penetrated. pl.
Lang took the defector story from Zerohedge.com which took it from Redstate.com where managing editor Jennifer Van Laar made it up by mixing her fantasies, a Freebacon report about Chinese students returning to The U.S. and a rumor about a defection reported by Spytalk:
Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei (董经纬) defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.
Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.
The rumor is false.
How do I know?
I copied “vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei” into Google Translate with the output language set to Chinese (simplified). That results in this string: “国家安全部副部长董经纬”. The big Chinese search engine is Baidu.com. After pasting the string into Baidu it delivered these results:
The first search result is from September 2020 but the second on is from yesterday. As is the third.
The second result goes to a Baidu news report. I copied the story from there and back into Google Translate – this time from Chinese to English. Here is the outcome:
Ministry of National Security: It is necessary to catch spies as well as "traitors" and "behind the scenes."
China Changan Net
Release time: 06-1815:29 China Changan Net
On the morning of June 18, 2021, Vice Minister Dong Jingwei of the Ministry of National Security presided over a symposium to study and implement the "Regulations on Anti-espionage Security Work" that came into effect on April 26 this year, and make arrangements for anti-rape and anti-espionage work.
The symposium pointed out that the Party Central Committee attaches great importance to national security work and has made a series of important decisions and arrangements for counter-espionage work. As the competent authority for counter-espionage work, the Ministry of National Security has formulated and promulgated regulations that are a realistic need to prevent, stop, and crack down on illegal and criminal activities that endanger national security in accordance with the law, which are conducive to further consolidating the responsibility of counter-espionage security prevention and better organizing and mobilizing all social forces. Fight the "People's War" against espionage. ...
The expression “anti-rape” seems to be a machine translation artifact and probably means “anti-infiltration”.
The third Baidu result has the same report from a different news outlet though the video attached to it is not of Dong Jingwei. A Chinese government site also carries the same story.
So the guy who allegedly defected to the Defense Intelligence Agency apparently just talked about counterespionage at a symposium in presumably Beijing.
On December 14, 2020, the China-Belarus Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee met in Beijing. Dong Jingwei (middle), the Vice Minister of the Ministry of National Security and the Chinese Chairman of the Security Cooperation Sub-Committee, also participated in the meeting. The Minister and the Chinese Chairman of the Cultural Cooperation Sub-Committee Zhang Xu sat together. (Image source: Internet)
The Dong Jingwei and his public activities are regular news. Still some will claim that the Chinese report about the symposium is false and was only launched to divert from the defection which therefore must be real.
Well, consider all the stuff the defector, according to Redstate ‘sources’, allegedly brought with him:
In addition, Dong has provided DIA with the following information:
Early pathogenic studies of the virus we now know as SARS-CoV-2
Models of predicted COVID-19 spread and damage to the US and the world
Financial records detailing which exact organizations and governments funded the research on SARS-CoV-2 and other biological warfare research
Names of US citizens who provide intel to China
Names of Chinese spies working in the US or attending US universities
Financial records showing US businessmen and public officials who’ve received money from the Chinese government
Details of meetings US government officials had (perhaps unwittingly) with Chinese spies and members of Russia’s SVR
How the Chinese government gained access to a CIA communications system, leading to the death of dozens of Chinese people who were working with the CIA
Dong also has provided DIA with copies of the contents of the hard drive on Hunter Biden’s laptop, showing the information the Chinese government has about Hunter’s pornography problem and about his (and Joe’s) business dealings with Chinese entities.
That sounds as much like a wet dream for Republicans as the pee-tape Steele Dossier was a wet dream for Democrats.
How would a Chinese counter-espionage guy, who’s job it is to catch U.S. spies in China, have access to all those claimed materials, especially to the names of Chinese spies in the U.S.? What would be his need to know those? Spying and counter spying are always compartmentalized from each other. They don’t know each others secrets.
How could Pat Lang fall for this nonsense?
Think People! Think!
I read this story somewhere, too, and I had the same thoughts. A super secret Chinese defector to the USA who knows everything. In fact so super secret that not even the CIA knew his name. Hmm. Sure.
But what`s even more amazing than people taking such claims at face value is how easy it is possible to fact-check them in the age of internet. Good job!
Posted by: m
What we're witnessing is a slow motion picture of the demise of an empire. No worries.
Posted by: Steve
Anything will do at this point, these boomers are desperate for any news at all to sink China.
Posted by: Smith
The thing that immediately jumped out at me when I read the zerohedge story was the idea that a Chinese counter-intelligence official had access to the names of Chinese spies in the USA.
Say Whaaaaaaaat?
Does the Director of the FBI have access to the names of all CIA assets inside China?
I.Think.Not.
Posted by: Yeah, Right
I knew immediately something was amiss when I read the reports on different sites and it used the word "defector".
That is old Cold War language that reeks of McCarthyism.
Then in a report was this quote:
"Again, according to sources, Dong told DIA debriefers that at least a third of Chinese students attending US universities are PLA assets or part of the Thousand Talents Plan and that many of the students are here under pseudonyms. One reason for using pseudonyms is that many of these students are the children of high-ranking military and party leaders."
First, that seems unlikely to me. One third of Chinese students being spies sounds absurdly high, yet right inline with accusations thrown about on far-right conspiracy websites.
Second, so many spies being children of high ranking CCP leaders also sounds unlikely. Why put their own children at risk overseas?
I attended a world class engineering school with many Chinese students. They are a force to be reckoned with academically. They were all, as a rule, quiet introverts. They always studied together and made straight A's.
They were there to learn and that is all they did. They never seemed to assimilate or ingratiate themselves with authorities or do anything other than study. They were fantastic students and would certainly make outstanding professors at home. Why waste all that time and effort becoming spies when they could legitimately serve China better as engineers and scientists?
Maybe a few were CCP intelligence, but one third of them? Doubtful.
In short, only consorting with each other, never being overly friendly and never asking questions, I think they would have made terrible spies.
Posted by: Mar man
Lots of supposition all the way around. But what a story! So inscrutable! So many wet dreams! I certainly hope when I pick-up at the local Chinese, and they give such a generous portion of WonTon they are grooming me for recruitment into the "communist" way of life. Because frankly, for years I tried to get on Putin's payroll, dutifully offering the best counter-narrative to Empire I could muster, but nada, zilch.
Qualifications? I love Chinese Food, and admire the accomplishment of the Great Wall. Another wet dream of so many. And Bruce Lee. What's not to love? Call me maybe.
Posted by: gottlieb
I think the success of China's space station blastoff made another fake story attacking China necessary.
You know, to kill the buzz.
Posted by: Bemildred
This is one more for the "I don't know how to read Chinese, therefore China is a totalitarian State with a history of complete secrecy and brutal censorship" Western collection.
China (PRC) is one of the most transparent and open-minded States that have ever existed. I know what the CPC will do for the next five, ten, twenty and even fifty years in advance because they publish everything. I also know the reason why they want to do everything, because they open the debate in their due channels (many of which are translated to English directly from the source).
The PRC is transparent because their predecessor - the RKP (B) (Bolsheviks) - were also very transparent. The history of the RSFSR/USSR from 1917-1929 is one of the most well-documented periods we have because the Bolsheviks were very honest and very open about their policy. We could fill an entire book just telling three months of Soviet History. It was just after the consolidation of Stalin to power and the Cold War that documentation ceased to reach the West.
Communist parties are very transparent because they need to be. Their power, by definition, rests on the supremacy of the proletariat or the alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry, therefore every policy - no matter if it was decided from the top, by the Politburo - must be put to the discussion in some kind of conference and put to ratification by some kind of congress (even if just to be approved by acclamation). Both processes presuppose the publication of the policy in at least one official communication vehicle, which then reaches the historian.
China's history - old and contemporary - and Chinese daily politics are mysterious to the West simply because Westerners don't know how to read and write in Chinese (and the few ones who do are paid to ignore and distort them). This is sold by the Western MSM as evidence China is totalitarian, but the reality is the polar opposite: China is the democratic State, the West is the totalitarian State. In History we call this evidence/archaeology bias (e.g. Roman History that survived to us essentially portrays the point of view of the Senate).
Posted by: vk
vk @16: "This is one more for the "I don't know how to read Chinese, therefore China is a totalitarian State with a history of complete secrecy and brutal censorship" Western collection."
I laughed hard at that because it is so true.
Remember early in the pandemic last year all of the news reports based upon satellite imagery of Wuhan? I was stunned by the ignorance, incompetence, and provincialism that displayed. These "journalists" need satellite imagery to guess what is going on in a major first-tier city of 11 million people? Can't these impostor syndrome victim media people just pick up a phone and call someone there? You'd think from the way these "journalists" handled the stories that Wuhan was a city on Mars, or secluded in the heart of the Dark Continent or something similarly silly. Could anyone imagine using satellite imagery to concoct sensationalist speculative stories about happenings in London or Paris? It is pure lunacy.
Posted by: William Gruff
Strange kind of morons you are. Beneath that none of you speaks much less reads the language, I bet you never were in China. I felt less harrassed by the government there, and orders less scared of the police in your "democratic states". The Chinese police don't shoot dead over 1000 compatriots every year, in fact, deadly incidents inflicting police are in the low double digits per year, with their 1.4b pppl.
And during the pandemic, ppl were quarantined for weeks, no more. The authoritharian "health" regime here goes into the second year, with doctor's clinics searched, even a judge's house and office because he ruled against the government. Democrazy, my ass.
Posted by: aquadraht
I had the same impression as you, B. This is the same nonsense, just as delusional and impossible, as the Russiagate / Steelde dossier was for Trump. In both cases, it's people unable to understand why their Chosen One managed to lose the election.
The Dong bogus affair makes no sense because the "China made Covid on purpose as a biological weapon against the US" is just ridiculous on its face: had the Chinese be crazy enough to launch a pandemic on their own country first (for plausible deniability reasons), then there's no fucking way they would've done it in Wuhan; having the pandemic starting in the city the virus had been designed is supremely idiotic if you want plausible deniability that you definitely didn't engineer it - people were going to make a link, imagined or real. If China really wanted to launch a self-engineered virus from China, they would've picked Chongqing, Chengdu or some other major city that would be far closer to the bat reservoir of coronavirus, a major city without a biolab that would raise suspicions.
What's also funny is the alleged list of Wuhan scientists who got "covid" back in 2019: if they became ill with covid, then it's definitely proof the leak was accidental and not deliberate, not some kind of bio-economic warfare but just shitty management of lab security. Though even then odds would still greatly favor an accidental release of a naturally-evolved virus, and not a human-designed one. In fact, iff these few scientists genuinely got our SARS-2 back in late 2019, odds would be that some guy working in bat caves to find new viruses accidentally got infected with a version that could hit humans, and then spread it to his lab buddies back in Wuhan. Though at the end of the day, odds are even higher that some random Chinese dude caught it near Yunnan and a couple of infected people later, it found its way in Wuhan...
Posted by: Clueless Joe
I hear ya, but logic and reason is not what this is about.
This wishlist is just a forward staging of their fake news ammo chest. The contents will be metered out in due course to bury and trump any bad news domestically like record inflation or good news from China like the recent space launch.
If this defection was true, which it is not by the looks of things, do you think the largest intelligence coup of the century will not be hushed away and used for leverage and counter intelligence purposes? D notices have been issued on much, much less.
Its all just diversionary BS and consensus manufacturing by a bunch of delusional wannabe hacks having a circle jerk over their collective wet dream of a resurgent US.
Posted by: A.L.
Despite their hysterical "partisan politics," the Republicans and Democrats are mirror images of each other and share a lot more in common than they want to admit.
Democrats: Russia, Russia, Russia!
Republicans: China, China, China!
Or as Prof. Richard Wolff recently stated,
"Hillary Clinton focused blame on Russia as the external enemy. Trump chose China instead. Biden blames them both.Blame games serve to distract us from a declining US capitalism, its problems and tensions. Blaming others is now a truly bi-partisan effort."https://twitter.com/profwolff/status/1405709097064935431
The mighty American super-duper power and self-styled Indispensable Nation and "Leader of the Free World" is now reduced to the moral equivalent of a guy babbling to himself on a street corner carrying "The End is Nigh" sign.
America is truly a lunatic asylum.
Or as Donald Trump might say, sad.
Posted by: ak74
This may be nothing more than a trivial affair, but I'll tell it anyway: I have been visiting China often (up until the pandemic broke out) for a number of years on the heels of academic conferences.
Following a Shanghai conference around August 20th in 2014, I took a tour of the typical Chinese tourist sites in a number of cities.
During our Beijing excursion, I noticed that our guide (a youngish fellow) had engaged a few tourists about political matters.
From his conversation I derived that he was sympathetic to the Tiananmen square protests.
I drew closer and listened to him speak glowingly of the United States, while parroting all the propaganda one would expect he might get from something like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
I joined the conversation which soon turned towards the recent armed conflict in the Donbas region.
Sure enough, he voiced antipathy towards the Russians and had bought the propaganda that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine, hook, line and sinker.
I had been following those developments on my lap-top, particularly from Pat Lang's blog since it miraculously was one of the few sites which wasn't blocked in China.
I had read Lang's documented rebuttal of the propaganda concerning the Russian "invasion" of Ukraine. So... I became irritated at our Chinese guide's parroting of the "NED propaganda" about Russia so I countered him: I said that Russia had not invaded Ukraine, which of course intrigued him.
Incredulous, he asked me where I got my information.
You can imagine his surprise when I said I got it from a United States colonel, who held high-level posts in military US intelligence.
He asked to see the source and I gave him Lang's URL.
Now this is where it gets interesting: At that time, Lang had added a neat little feature (an app.) to his blog site. It was one of those world maps which registers a "dot" from the location of anyone who accesses it.
Since my entry to China more than a week earlier, there were no "dots" on mainland China. Hence one could conclude that despite the availability of his blog in China, nobody was accessing it.
That changed the afternoon I gave the URL to my inquisitive tour guide.
Dots started appearing all over the place, and not only in Beijing. Maybe the guy passed it on to friends he had in other cities. Maybe he was being surveilled by the government (which at some level was undoubtedly following developments in the Donbas).
Just an intriguing story of mine.
Posted by: Maracatu
My guess is that it is neither of the above. You might be well surprised at the AI controlled monitoring of the intranet in China. And the training these “guides” get and what their real purposes are.
Is America capable?
Well, America has changed substantially over the years. So many things that are a common sight would be repugnant and disgusting a mere two or three decades ago. This is America today…
A treasured, and valuable member of the community.
Many Americans have become slothful and lazy. They just pretty much have given up. And they live their lives as the winds blow. There was a time when you would rarely come across a slovenly person. But today in America you can find these individuals everywhere. What happened?
I don't get the impression that they (the Chinese) spend nearly as much time thinking about the US as Americans spend thinking...
... and griping,
... and spitting about China.
Posted by: Billb
A mobile garbage car.
I used to liken AmeriKKKa's PTB to spiteful 10 year-old schoolgirls. But that modus operandi has been superceded by devotion to acting like tantrum-throwing 2 1/2 year-olds in a supermarket.
Smart Mums just keep walking to the end of the isle, turn right, and wait for the kid to re-connect with reality and Humble Pie.
Keep it up, Yankees! Nobody cares!
-Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer
America is out of control in every area, and by every measure. And you can see it. Even if you are too stupid to read the signs right in front of your face…
An irresponsible non-representative government that is totally focused on making money for the oligarchy and waging wars is a dangerous government.
China is showing everyone that there is an alternative.
And the American oligarchy trembles in fear over this.
Still don’t get it? Think! People. Think!
It took 200 years, but finally America used up it’s natural resources and was forced to steal from the rest of the world. The last fifty years America has been a very bad Military Empire seizing resources from the rest of the world to exist.
The oligarchy created a system of debt serfs from which to fund the Empire, but when it outsourced all manufacturing and abused the few STEM graduates by treating them to “Office Space” environments and abusing them, eventually the “house of cards” would have to collapse.
They do not understand that they changed the American people. No longer are Americans the rough and sturdy folk that forged America from the wilderness. Americans are now a new kind of person.
China surpassed "the USSR-level" long ago.
In regards to alleviating poverty, China has surpassed all nations that have ever existed.
Yes.
Exactly. The next decades and hopefully centuries belong to those that have the civility and maturity to follow that path.
Posted by: uncle tungsten
America is a real mess.
It really is, and the entire rest of the globe can see this. Though most Americans cannot.
I think Americans care about other countries when their Government tells them they must care about them, e.g. the Invasion of Iraq, Invasion of Afghanistan, Destruction of Libya, Invasion of Syria, Destruction of the Ukraine.
In all of those cases, the factor in common is imperialism: Americans tend to believe and rally behind their Central Government against other nations (Federal Government) when they associate the need of subjugation of said nations with the maintenance of their way of life (American Dream, American Way of Life). For example, the direct association between destroying Iraq with vengeance against 9/11 AND ("while we're at it...") lowering the price of the gallon of gas to less than USD 0.90 (therefore, restoring American purchase power). That those adventures ended up fueling anti-Muslim hate and fundamentalist Christianism is just the inevitable collateral effects of such kind of operations, the small price to pay to keep the vibrancy of the Empire.
A clear parallel of this phenomenon can be observed through Bernie Sanders' last tweet on China: in just one paragraph, he associated the need 1) to effectively destroy China through economic sanctions because of the fake Xinjiang Uighur genocide, 2) fight slave/forced labor worldwide and 3) the promotion of the typical trade-unionist/social-democratic agenda within the USA. He went from your bread-and-butter labor rights activism to an outright imperialist agenda against China (and every other nation that dares to get into the way of the Empire). No mention, of course, of slave children labor in cocoa extraction in Ivory Coast - one of the oldest worst kept secret of post-war capitalism.
Now, it's true that the degeneration of the Empire resulted has started to manifest itself into the fragmentation of that method. Americans are now polarized between liberal leftists (Democrats) and fascist rightists (GOP), and each side is using this same method of association to advance not the interests of the Empire per se, but of their own faction - each of which claim to embody the true essence of the Empire as a whole. That means that, in the name of the whole Empire, each of the two factions are using their own carefully crafted imperialist narrative to advance their own factional interests, and not the Empire's. Examples of this are Russiagate and, during Trump, Anti-China hysteria.
So, my take is this: Americans don't see - and can't see - any distinction between foreign and domestic policy. To them, domestic policy is foreign policy, and foreign policy is domestic policy. They're an empire after all, and to a hammer everything smaller is a nail.
Posted by: vk
I think at this juncture Americans are having a hard time distinguishing much of anything, a condition symptomatic of detachment and ignorance.
I can no longer tell how resourceful they are.
Posted by: john
The Strength of China
If you have been following MM you will be aware that on numerous occasions that China has intercepted American advanced aircraft in Chinese airspace and completely rendered them inoperable. As was described in many articles. This comment here on MM is typical. (from Bo Chen)
In the early morning of June 4, Japan’s TBS TV station suddenly interrupted the broadcast situation, saying: “Yesterday (3rd) early morning, an RC-135U electronic reconnaissance plane of the U.S. Air Force took off from Kadena Base in Okinawa, Japan, and proceeded to the southeast coast of China.
Before dawn, near the northern mouth of the Taiwan Strait, in the airspace less than 55 nautical miles from Fujian Xiapu Air Force Base in the Eastern Theater of China, he was suddenly intercepted and rounded up by three electronic counter-reconnaissance aircraft “Falcon 1” of the Chinese Air Force. This is the Chinese Air Force’s first appearance in the war.
The Japanese media were really dedicated, as if they were on the scene, reporting the whole process as eye-catching and clear as their own military exercises: “The situation was very urgent at the time. The U.S. Air Force’s RC-135U reconnaissance plane was in China. Under the pursuit and interception of the Air Force “Falcon 1”, a very real aerial “cat and mouse game” was staged.
The RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft was “throated” time and time again.
All reconnaissance equipment on the aircraft failed; several times The aircraft was unable to control and fell into the sea out of control; several times it fell into a state of collapse of the navigation system.
Japanese media exclaimed: “If the Taiwan Strait really does, the US military’s RC-135U reconnaissance plane has only two options, either to be captured or shot down to the sea.”
In this regard, the only official source of our “South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness” think tank stated: “In the early morning of June 3, there was indeed a U.S. Air Force RC-135U electronic reconnaissance plane that took off from Kadena Base in Okinawa, Japan, and secretly entered Fujian. The electronic reconnaissance in the East China Sea airspace near Xiapu Air Force Base was promptly and resolutely expelled by our Air Force fighters. As for what type of fighter planes the People’s Liberation Army dispatched to expel them, I officially kept silent.”
At the same time, China’s official media has been very low-key, with almost no reports about the US RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft invading the airspace of the air defense identification zone near the military sensitive area of Fujian. It’s just that the World Wide Web reprinted the “South China Sea Strategic Situation Awareness” news:
However, overseas media have responded strongly to this. In the past few days, media in Japan, the United States, South Korea, and the French and German media in Europe have all reported and commented on it.
Especially for the first time that the Chinese Air Force deployed the mysterious anti-electronic reconnaissance aircraft “Falcon 1”, and the sword was used for the first time, it severely frustrated the most advanced U.S. military RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft, which caused a shock from the Western media.
On the morning of the 4th, the US military’s Global Air Defense media platform stated: “RC-135U is the most advanced reconnaissance aircraft currently in service in the US military. The biggest weapon and “housekeeper” to seize air supremacy.
However, when facing China’s “Falcon 1″ yesterday, it was suddenly completely electronically suppressed. The entire aircraft was completely out of control, but the Kadena base camp, which was close at hand, did not know it.”
On the evening of the 3rd, Major Rodriguez, a spokesman for the US military at Kadena Base, reluctantly said to the media, “Before, we had almost no knowledge of China’s Falcon 1.
Our intelligence agency was actually the best in China. In front of advanced weapons, he became blind and deaf.
This time it was only when it flew in front of us that he suddenly knew its existence.” He added: “Even the name’Falcon 1′, our intelligence department It also took a huge price to find out. As for its specific aviation technical information, we know very little.”
Major Rodriguez said at the briefing: “According to the specific introduction of the pilot flying the RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft, we learned what happened in the early hours of yesterday.
Our RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft, as usual, was at 3 Taking off in the early morning of the day, from Kadena Base to the high seas airspace near Xiapu Air Force Base in Fujian, China, for routine electronic reconnaissance flights. Their main task on this trip is still to detect the deployment of the Chinese military in the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang and to detect them The deployment situation and combat performance of weapons and equipment, the frequency of collecting their electronic communication signals, and so on.
“After about an hour of flying, our RC-135U reconnaissance plane arrived in the established airspace and was preparing to carry out reconnaissance work.
At this time, the pilot suddenly perceived with his naked eyes that there were three moving flying objects in the air from the top, front, and back directions. Outflank it.
But what is surprising is the advent of such a serious air strike, the eyes can see, and the RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft’s own anti-electronic jamming system and reconnaissance system did not respond. Everything is too late, because the other party The RC-135U has been surrounded and locked, the reconnaissance equipment has failed, the communication system has failed, the aircraft is out of control, can’t move at all, the communication system has failed, the aircraft has lost control of navigation, and can’t move at all. It feels like being stifled by the throat.
This way. In the next flight, the situation of danger was continuously staged and appeared three times. In desperation, we followed international practice and repeatedly expressed goodwill to the Chinese military aircraft several times before the other party finally allowed our aircraft to fly out of the dangerous airspace quickly. “.
Major Rodriguez finally emphasized: “I feel like we are being teased by the other side again and again in the air like mice. At the same time, it also shows that the Chinese Air Force’s Falcon 1 is very terrible. We ate a complete one. Lost in the air. This is an extremely rare humiliation and humiliation that the U.S. Air Force has suffered since World War II.”
Major Rodriguez’s briefing was quickly spread to many media around the world, and aroused international public opinion in exclamation and shock. According to the comment from the web client of South Korea’s “Seoul Arms”:
“In the past 20 years, China’s weapons and equipment have seen rapid development, just like its national strength. Especially this time, the mysterious weapon “Falcon 1″ has been revealed, which is low-key. There will certainly be many weapons like the Chinese military.”
The South Korean intelligence agency also issued a statement on the same day: “According to what we know, the Chinese Air Force “Falcon 1″ is the world’s newest and most advanced anti-electronic reconnaissance aircraft. Its main task is to target the US military’s frequent attacks on China’s coastal areas and Taiwan Electronic reconnaissance in the sea and the South China Sea is used for aerial countermeasures.
In addition to electronic countermeasures and intelligence collection, it also has powerful anti-electronic reconnaissance functions. The most frightening thing is that it not only has the most advanced stealth and protection It also has powerful electronic coverage, electronic blocking, and electronic destruction capabilities.
This is the most advanced electronic countermeasure technology in the world that has surpassed the United States and the West. This technology will directly destroy all electronic communication systems of the target aircraft. The opponent’s high-altitude aircraft completely turned into a headless fly out of control.”
In the afternoon of the same day, Professor Kudur Riffert from the Munich Army Military Academy, Germany, commented through the media: “According to the current technical assessment of China’s air force, the flight range and combat radius of the Falcon 1 are expected to reach 3800-4500. Kilometers. If air refueling is implemented, the farthest may exceed 8000 to 12000 kilometers. It can easily fly over the US military base in Hawaii, and even directly reach Los Angeles or San Francisco on the west coast of the US, and the US military’s existing radar cannot detect it at all. It can be said to be A stealthy and proud intercontinental aircraft.”
“What a terrible weapon. China has mastered this weapon manufacturing technology before the United States and put it into combat before the United States. The United States and the United States Air Force have become the targets of China’s advanced weapons testing. And the proving ground.” Finally, Professor Liffeyt pointed out: “The United States and the West must admit that China will soon be strong if it blocks China; if it challenges China, China will quickly defeat what; and if it suppresses China, China Soon to surpass something; China’s strength and rise, the United States and the West can no longer stop it.
But you know what. It’s pretty much well understood throughout China. Though inside America and “The West” no one knows “Jack Shit”. Because the MSA (American main stream media) won’t report anything good about China. Never the less the Chinese joke about this.
Have you ever watched the Tom Cruse movie “Top Gun”? In it is this iconic scene where Tom Cruse the fighter pilot Ace does an inverted flyover a Russian MIG and takes a picture of the cockpit.
Well, if you do, and you also been following MM, then you will find this Chinese short video hilarious!
What’s next for America?
Well, it seems that America wants to provoke and engage in a full scale war with the rest of the world. In an earlier post HERE, I argue that this war would have the reverse effect than what the elites plan. Instead of unifying Americans against a common enemy, it will accelerate the fragmentation of America and the results would be a Second American Civil War. It would be horrific. As this short video clip illustrates…
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
About eight weeks ago, I got a contact request from one of my literary connections. He said that there was this guy who was pestering him to get in contact with me. This guy apparently runs hundreds of You-Tube video channels and wanted to interview me. So I connected to him and wanted to find out more about what he wanted.
He said that he had a “big network” of You-tube channels and he wanted to get me on because exposure would bring a lot of visitors to my MM site, and would help me become famous…
Obviously, he wasn’t a regular or even a cursory reader to the site. Fame, or a lot of traffic is low on my agenda.
But, I went along with him. I actually like having interviews. And if the subject is a good one, I do love to prepare for it, and say my piece. So I said, “OK. Please send me a list of questions so that I can organize up a script, and then we can establish a time and place for the interview.”
A few weeks passed. Nothing.
Then out of the blue he sends a very brief email. He said that he was sorry, but that he was so busy.
But he still wanted to interview me.
He said that he didn’t have any questions to ask me. That we would just “wing it”, and I should be prepared. He wanted to talk about the origins of the Coronavirus.
Hum.
No questions.
No time to prep.
No narrative, nor dialog.
Sounds squirmy.
OK. So I told him, lets talk face to face over Zoom or SkyPE before hand to get a flavor of what to expect. Let’s talk before hand and see what he has in mind and what I could do to facilitate it.
Two more weeks passed.
He sends me an e-mail. “Oh”, he says “no need for a pre-interview meeting. Let’s do it during his operation hours New York time, between 9am and 3pm.”
Which is my 9 at night, a time for me to drink, rest and relax. And there is no fucking way that I am going to provide him free “cannon fodder” at my 3 am without a pre-screening.
Yet another two weeks pass.
He sends me another e-mail. He said he was really busy. Jesus! He thinks he’s busy? But wants to just call me at HIS convenience, and have the interview on the spot when HE is ready.
What nerve!
What’s the matter with Americans these days? Is this what goes for a business connection, a dialog, or a discussion?
Anyways. Fuck him. He blew it. I really have many more things on my plate, and I really do not need the DISRESPECT, and amateurish behaviors, no matter what this beta-cluck intends.
Let’s talk about what is going on in America to create such losers. Because if he is typical…
…and I think he is…
… China will eat his lunch. And that’s a fact, Jack.
Dmitry Orlov
Dmitry Orlov is an immigrant from Russia who moved to the United States. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has written a host of articles about the United States based on his experiences, his knowledge of history, and what he sees around him. Aside from being well-written, easy to read, they are “spot on” and tend to pre-date events that the rest of us are only starting to notice.
He is one of the better-known thinkers The New Yorker has dubbed ‘The Dystopians’ in an excellent 2009 profile, along with James Howard Kunstler, another regular contributor to RI (archive). These theorists believe that modern society is headed for a jarring and painful crack-up.
Personally I think Biden Administration was stunned at almost having instigated WW3 within 100 days of taking office. They looked fairly like amateur idiots even to the unwashed such as myself. Then they realized that it would be difficult and given their evident ineptness they chose the well proven political tactic of taking the loss and making it a win. Voila they are genious - why didnt Trump think of that?We in the US must accept that our government is craven incompetents and have to hope that they might accidentally do something good by virtue of being so incompetent.Posted by: jared | May 20 2021 17:10 utc | 8
He is best known for his 2011 book comparing Soviet and American collapse and in it, he thinks America’s collapse will be much worse. He is a prolific author on a wide array of subjects, and you can see his work by searching him on Amazon.
This article is a collection of his most recent musings, and I find most of them to be valuable. You can access his archive HERE. Of course, all credit to him, his hosting organization, Articles were edited to fit this venue, and the usual disclaimers apply.
We will start with this article which was written two years into the Donald Trump Presidency, which was about three years ago. And unlike most Americans he had no hopes or belief that Donald Trump would turn the massive ship of America around. Instead he viewed it as a continuation of a nation’s death throes…
The Suicidal American Empire Is Collapsing Fast, But Its Death Now Would Cause Unacceptable Collateral Damage
Which is why its vassals and even rivals are forced, for now, to try and keep it afloat
There are a lot of behaviors being exhibited by those in positions of power in the US that seem disparate and odd.
We watch Trump who is imposing sanctions on country after country, dreaming of eradicating his country’s structural trade deficit with the rest of the world.
We watch pretty much all of US Congress falling over each other in their attempt to impose the harshest possible sanctions on Russia.
People in Turkey, a key NATO country, are literally burning US dollars and smashing iPhones in a fit of pique.
Confronted with a new suite of Russian and Chinese weapons systems that largely neutralize the ability of the US to dominate the world militarily, the US is setting new records in the size of its already outrageously bloated yet manifestly ineffectual defense spending.
As a backdrop to this military contractor feeding frenzy, the Taliban are making steady gains in Afghanistan, now control over half the territory, and are getting ready to stamp “null and void,” in a repeat of Vietnam, on America’s longest war.
A lengthening list of countries are set to ignore or compensate for US sanctions, especially sanctions against Iranian oil exports.
In a signal moment, Russia’s finance minister has recently pronounced the US dollar “unreliable.”
Meanwhile, US debt keeps galloping upwards, with its largest buyer being reported as a mysterious, possibly entirely nonexistent “Other.”
Although these may seem like manifestations of many different trends in the world, I believe that a case can be made that these are all one thing:
The US—the world’s imperial overlord—standing on a ledge and threatening to jump, while its imperial vassals—too many to mention—are standing down below and shouting “Please, don’t jump!”
To be sure, most of them would be perfectly happy to watch the overlord plummet and jelly up the sidewalk.
But here is the key point: if this were to happen today, it would cause unacceptable levels of political and economic collateral damage around the world.
Does this mean that the US is indispensable?
No, of course not, nobody is.
But dispensing with it will take time and energy, and while that process runs its course the rest of the world is forced to keep it on life support no matter how counterproductive, stupid and demeaning that feels.
What the world needs to do, as quickly as possible, is to dismantle the imperial center.
Which is in Washington politically and militarily and in New York and London financially, while somehow salvaging the principle of empire.
“What?!” you might exclaim, “Isn’t imperialism evil.”
Well, sure it is, whatever, but empires make possible efficient, specialized production and efficient, unhindered trade over large distances.
Empires do all sorts of evil things—up to and including genocide—but they also provide a level playing field and a method for preventing petty grievances from escalating into tribal conflicts.
The Roman Empire, then Byzantium, then the Tatar/Mongol Golden Horde, then the Ottoman Sublime Porte all provided these two essential services…
…unhindered trade and security…
…in exchange for some amount of constant rapine and plunder and a few memorable incidents of genocide.
The Tatar/Mongol Empire was by far the most streamlined: it simply demanded “yarlyk”—tribute—and smashed anyone who attempted to rise above a level at which they were easy to smash.
The American empire is a bit more nuanced: it uses the US dollar as a weapon for periodically expropriating savings from around the world by exporting inflation while annihilating anyone who tries to wiggle out from under the US dollar system.
All empires follow a certain trajectory.
Over time they become corrupt, decadent and enfeebled, and then they collapse.
When they collapse, there are two (possibly three) ways to go.
One is to slog through a millennium-long dark age—as Western Europe did after the Western Roman Empire collapsed.
Another is for a different empire, or a cooperating set of empires, to take over, as happened after the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
You may think that a third way exists: of small nations cooperating sweetly and collaborating successfully on international infrastructure projects that serve the common good. Such a scheme may be possible, but I tend to take a jaundiced view of our simian natures.
We come equipped with MonkeyBrain 2.0, which has some very useful built-in functions for imperialism, along with some ancillary support for nationalism and organized religion.
These we can rely on; everything else would be either a repeat of a failed experiment or an untested innovation.
Sure, let’s innovate, but innovation takes time and resources, and those are the exact two things that are currently lacking.
What we have in permanent surplus is revolutionaries: if they have their way, look out for a Reign of Terror, followed by the rise of a Bonaparte. That’s what happens every time.
Lest you think that the US isn’t an empire—a collapsing one—consider the following.
The US defense budget is larger than that of the next ten countries combined, yet the US can’t prevail even in militarily puny Afghanistan. (That’s because much of its defense budget is trivially stolen.)
The US has something like a thousand military bases, essentially garrisoning the entire planet, but to unknown effect.
It claims the entire planet as its dominion: no matter where you go, you still have to pay US income taxes and are still subject to US laws.
It controls and manipulates governments in numerous countries around the world, always aiming to turn them into satrapies governed from the US embassy compound, but with results that range from unprofitable to embarrassing to lethal.
It is now failing at virtually all of these things, threatening the entire planet with its untimely demise.
What we are observing, at every level, is a sort of blackmail:
“Do as we say, or no more empire for you!” The US dollar will vanish, international trade will stop and a dark age will descend, forcing everyone to toil in the dirt for a millennium while mired in futile, interminable conflicts with neighboring tribes.
MM comment. This was written three years before the March 2021 Alaska summit with the "obey our rules-based order" or suffer the consequences meeting.
None of the old methods of maintaining imperial dominance are working; all that remains is the threat of falling down and leaving a huge mess for the rest of the world to deal with.
The rest of the world is now tasked with rapidly creating a situation where the US empire can be dealt a coup de grâce safely, without causing any collateral damage—and that’s a huge task, so everyone is forced to play for time.
MM comment. And this is exactly the case, and why Russia, China and Iran have all teamed up. The EU is trying to sit on the fence. And the Asian nations are paying "lip service".
There is a lot of military posturing and there are political provocations happening all the time, but these are sideshows that are becoming an unaffordable luxury: there is nothing to be won through these methods and plenty to be lost.
Essentially, all the arguments are over money.
There is a lot of money to be lost.
The total trade surplus of the BRICS countries with the West (US+EU, essentially) is over a trillion dollars a year.
SCO—another grouping of non-Western countries—comes up with almost the same numbers.
That’s the amount of products these countries produce for which they currently have no internal market.
Should the West evaporate overnight, nobody will buy these products.
Russia alone had a 2017 trade surplus of $116 billion, and in 2018 so far it grew by 28.5%.
China alone, in its trade just with the US, generated $275 billion in surplus. Throw in another $16 billion for its trade with the EU.
Those are big numbers, but they are nowhere near enough if the project is to build a turnkey global empire to replace US+EU in a timely manner.
Also, there are no takers.
Russia is rather happy to have shed its former Soviet dependents and is currently invested in building a multilateral, international system of governance based on international institutions such as SCO, BRICS and EAEU.
Numerous other countries are very interested in joining together in such organizations: most recently, Turkey has expressed interest in turning BRICS into BRICTS.
Essentially, all of the post-colonial nations around the world are now forced to trade away some measure of their recently won independence, essentially snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The job vacancy of Supreme Global Overlord is unlikely to attract any qualified candidates.
What everyone seems to want is a humble, low-budget, cooperative global empire, without all of the corruption and with a lot less life-threatening militarism.
MM comment. Sounds good to me, and the world is turning to China for this.
It will take time to build, and the resources to build it can only come from one place: from gradually bleeding US+EU dry.
In order to do this, the wheels of international commerce must continue to spin.
But this is exactly what all of the new tariffs and sanctions, the saber-rattling and the political provocations, are attempting to prevent: a ship laden with soya is now doing circles in the Pacific off the coast of China; steel I-beams are rusting at the dock in Turkey…
But it is doubtful that these attempts will work.
The EU has been too slow in recognizing just how pernicious its dependence on Washington has become, and will take even more time to find ways to free itself, but the process has clearly started.
For its part, Washington runs on money, and since its current antics will tend to make money grow scarce even faster than it otherwise would, those who stand to lose the most will make the Washingtonians feel their pain and will force a change of course.
As a result, everyone will be pushing in the same direction: toward a slow, steady, controllable imperial collapse.
All we can hope for is that the rest of the world manages to come together and build at least the scaffolding of a functional imperial replacement in time to avoid collapsing into a new post-imperial dark age.
MM Comment; This article is "spot on" and was written three years ago, pre-pandemic, and pre-USA collapse.
Since then, China has shown superiority in just about every arena, and the USA reactions to that has been hysterical.
You will not see Dmitry Orlov write about China because he has no direct experience with China, and what he sees and hears comes from the USA government microphone.
Here’s another article…
Killing for the Sake of It: The Grisly Reality of the Failing US Empire
Mired in financial collapse, moral decay, and lack of leadership & direction, the last sole superpower is lashing out in every direction, spreading brutal destruction throughout the world for nothing more than its own depraved sake
This article from our archives was first published on RI in April 2015. Dmitry Orlov(Club Orlov)Fri, Apr 30 2021|1230 words 29,386Comments
The story is the same every time: some nation, due to a confluence of lucky circumstances, becomes powerful — much more powerful than the rest — and, for a time, is dominant.
But the lucky circumstances, which often amount to no more than a few advantageous quirks of geology, be it Welsh coal or West Texas oil, in due course come to an end.
In the meantime, the erstwhile superpower becomes corrupted by its own power.
As the endgame approaches, those still nominally in charge of the collapsing empire resort to all sorts of desperate measures.
All, that is, except one:
They will refuse to ever consider the fact that their imperial superpower is at an end and that they should change their ways accordingly.
George Orwell once offered an excellent explanation for this phenomenon: as the imperial end-game approaches, it becomes a matter of imperial self-preservation to breed a special-purpose ruling class — one that is incapable of understanding that the end-game is approaching.
Because, you see, if they had an inkling of what’s going on, they wouldn’t take their jobs seriously enough to keep the game going for as long as possible.
The approaching imperial collapse can be seen in the ever-worsening results the empire gets for its imperial efforts.
After World War II, the U.S. was able to do a respectable job helping to rebuild Germany, along with the rest of Western Europe.
Japan also did rather well under U.S. tutelage, as did South Korea after the end of fighting on the Korean peninsula.
With Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, all of which were badly damaged by the U.S., the results were significantly worse: Vietnam was an outright defeat, Cambodia lived through a period of genocide, while amazingly resilient Laos — the most heavily bombed country on the planet — recovered on its own.
The first Gulf War went even more badly: fearful of undertaking a ground offensive in Iraq, the U.S. stopped short of its regular practice of toppling the government and installing a puppet regime there and left it in limbo for a decade.
When the U.S. did eventually invade, it succeeded — after killing countless civilians and destroying much of the infrastructure — in leaving behind a dismembered corpse of a country.
Similar results have been achieved in other places where the U.S. saw fit to get involved: Somalia, Libya and, most recently, Yemen.
Let’s not even mention Afghanistan, since all empires have failed to achieve good results there.
So the trend is unmistakable: whereas at its height the empire destroyed in order to rebuild the world in its own image, as it nears its end it destroys simply for the sake of destruction, leaving piles of corpses and smoldering ruins in its wake.
Another unmistakable trend has to do with the efficacy of spending money on “defense” (which, in the case of the U.S., should be redefined as “offense”).
Having a lavishly endowed military can sometimes lead to success, but here too something has shifted over time.
The famous American can-do spirit that was evident to all during World War II, when the U.S. dwarfed the rest of the world with its industrial might, is no more.
Now, more and more, military spending itself is the goal — never mind what it achieves.
And what it achieves is …
The latest F-35 jet fighter that can’t fly;
The latest aircraft carrier that can’t launch planes without destroying them if they are fitted with the auxiliary tanks they need to fly combat missions;
The most technologically advanced AEGIS destroyer that can be taken out of commission by a single unarmed Russian jet carrying a basket of electronic warfare equipment;
And another aircraft carrier that can be frightened out of deep water and forced to anchor by a few Russian submarines out on routine patrol.
But the Americans like their weapons, and they like handing them out as a show of support.
But more often than not these weapons end up in the wrong hands:
The ones they gave to Iraq are now in the hands of ISIS;
The ones they gave to the Ukrainian nationalists have been sold to the Syrian government;
The ones they gave to the government in Yemen is now in the hands of the Houthis who recently overthrew it.
And so the efficacy of lavish military spending has dwindled too.
At some point it may become more efficient to modify the U.S. Treasury printing presses to blast bundles of U.S. dollars in the general direction of the enemy.
With the strategy of “destroying in order to create” no longer viable, but with the blind ambition to still try to prevail everywhere in the world somehow still part of the political culture, all that remains is murder.
The main tool of foreign policy becomes political assassination: be it Saddam Hussein, or Muammar Qaddafi, or Slobodan Milošević, or Osama bin Laden, or any number of lesser targets, the idea is to simply kill them.
MM Comment. This was written before the USA assassinated an Iranian general in his car, and was involved in other take-downs in Russia. As well as the pronounced desire to decapitate the entire leadership of China.
While aiming for the head of an organization is a favorite technique, the general populace gets its share of murder too.
How many funerals and wedding parties have been taken out by drone strikes?
I don’t know that anyone in the U.S. really knows, but I am sure that those whose relatives were killed do remember, and will remember for the next few centuries at least.
This tactic is generally not conducive to creating a durable peace, but it is a good tactic for perpetuating and escalating conflict.
But that’s now an acceptable goal, because it creates the rationale for increased military spending, making it possible to breed more chaos.
Recently a retired U.S. general went on television to declare that what’s needed to turn around the situation in the Ukraine is to simply “start killing Russians.”
The Russians listened to that, marveled at his idiocy, and then went ahead and opened a criminal case against him.
Now this general will be unable to travel to an ever-increasing number of countries around the world for fear of getting arrested and deported to Russia to stand trial.
MM Comment. As what happened to those war-mongering anti-China neocons that wanted to attack China. Try stepping out of the USA, you Jackasses.
This is largely a symbolic gesture, but non-symbolic non-gestures of a preventive nature are sure to follow.
You see, my fellow space travelers, murder happens to be illegal.
In most jurisdictions, inciting others to murder also happens to be illegal.
Americans have granted themselves the license to kill without checking to see whether perhaps they might be exceeding their authority.
We should expect, then, that as their power trickles away, their license to kill will be revoked, and they will find themselves reclassified from global hegemons to mere murderers.
As empires collapse, they turn inward, and subject their own populations to the same ill treatment to which they subjected others.
Here, America is unexceptional: the number of Americans being murdered by their own police, with minimal repercussions for those doing the killing, is quite stunning.
When Americans wonder who their enemy really is, they need look no further.
But that is only the beginning: the precedent has already been set for deploying U.S. troops on U.S. soil.
As law and order break down in more and more places, we will see more and more U.S. troops on the streets of cities in the U.S., spreading death and destruction just like they did in Iraq or in Afghanistan.
The last license to kill to be revoked will be the license to kill ourselves.
The West Resembles a Decapitated Rooster, Wings Still Flapping, Barely Flying
“Democratic elections are but a recent innovation, and a most uncertain one. For instance, during the 2016 election in the US, the establishment trotted out an entire array of craven, feckless, corrupt opportunists, and Trump knocked them all out with a feather …”
This article from our archives was first published on RI in November 2018. Dmitry OrlovTue, Apr 13 2021|1900 words 9,773Comments
When I was five and spending the summer in a small village a couple of time zones east of Moscow I witnessed the execution of a rooster.
My brother and I walked over to a neighbor’s house to pick up some eggs.
Just as we arrived the neighbor finally caught the rooster and chopped his head of.
The now headless rooster then put on quite an aerobatic performance that was quite amazing.
After doing an unlimited takeoff he repeatedly soared and plummeted, executed several touch-and-gos (more like crash-and-goes, actually) and was undeterred by what previously would have been head-on collisions.
I was by then quite familiar with the poor aerodynamic qualities of barnyard fowl and was duly impressed with the energetic and breathtakingly erratic behavior of a bird liberated from the mental straitjacket of its brain.
Unfortunately, the performance only lasted for a minute or so.
A word to the wise: I later learned that it is possible to prolong the show, should the need ever arise, by heating up the hatchet so as to cauterize the severed neck. More recently, I have learned that such sans-têteaerobatics are not restricted to chickens.
Figurative birds, of the mechanical variety, can exhibit something similar.
A prime example is the greatest boondoggle in the history of military aviation, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
It too is liable to losing its head, in the sense of the pilot blacking out.
In addition to being ridiculously expensive (over $1.5 trillion in projected project costs)…
…and plagued with problems, only half of the built planes are considered ready for any sort of mission…
… there are over a thousand known defects that haven’t been fixed.
Including ones that make it useless for air-to-air combat or ground support F-35 pilots often report feeling sick and there have been many incidents where they lost consciousness, probably due to oxygen starvation and circulation problems.
In response, the fatally flawed jet’s maker Lockheed Martin, whose motto seems to be “One boondoggle deserves another,” has decided to add a subsystem.
Called Auto-GCAS (for Ground Collision Avoidance System), it takes over automatically if it detects the danger of ground collision and the pilot fails to respond to the alarm and take corrective action.
Auto-GCAS then throttles up and directs the plane upward, pulling a maximum of five g’s.
What does that do to a pilot who is already feeling sick or is unconscious?
Once a safe altitude is reached, the plane levels out and Auto-GCAS shuts off.
If the pilot happens to be offline for good, the process repeats until the plane runs out of fuel and crashes.
I hope that you are impressed with the sheer brilliance of the plan.
A show designed to impress was recently staged at an airfield in Utah, where 35 F-35s took off, one right after the other.
It has not been independently verified how many of them landed.
Auto-GCAS is slated to be ready for use by 2024, but Pentagon’s planners are hoping to accelerate the process.
All of this made me wonder about the general behavior to be expected of hierarchically organized, centrally controlled systems once they are deprived of their control module.
Auto-GCAS is by no means the worst case.
For instance, there is the Russian Perimetr system, a.k.a. Dead Hand.
If it detects that the Russian military leadership has been incapacitated by a nuclear strike, it will launch an all-out nuclear attack, obliterating the aggressor.
This may seem like a really bad plan, but then attacking Russia is a really bad plan too, and one bad plan deserves another.
What makes this plan bad is that it doesn’t elicit the right response.
The right response is: “Oh, we see, attacking Russia is sheer suicide, so let’s not do that.”
But where’s the money in not planning to attack Russia?
And so instead the “One boondoggle deserves another” crew sets forth to build anti-ballistic missile systems (which don’t work) and deep underground bomb shelters stocked with years’ worth of supplies (which is gold-plating; a large shallow grave to jump into when the time comes would work just as well).
And yet as far as planning for decapitation goes, Dead Hand is state of the art.
Most other large-scale centrally controlled systems are woefully unprepared for the loss of their command modules.
For instance, look at finance.
After the financial collapse of 2008 it quickly became obvious that nobody competent or responsible was in charge.
The “solution” was for central banks to start blowing financial bubbles by zeroing out interest rates and flooding the world with new debt.
Debt that expands much faster than the economy is garbage debt, and it gave rise to various other kinds of garbage:
Garbage energy from shale and tar sands,
Garbage money in the form of cryptocurrencies,
Garbage real estate investment schemes,
Garbage corporate balance sheets bloated with debt used up in stock buybacks,
A large crop of garbage oligarchs gorging themselves on all of this garbage “wealth” and much else.
Things look good while all this garbage is packaged up in financial bubbles, but once they pop…
…and as all children know all bubbles pop eventually…
… everyone will end up wearing the garbage.
There are plenty of examples of political auto-decapitation as well.
In the US, Trump realized that he can become president simply by insulting all of his competitors (who richly deserved such treatment) and so he did.
But now the hive mind of Washington is deeply at odds with the bumblebee-mind of Trump, and neither qualifies as any sort of a head, except perhaps in a strictly symbolic sense.
Things are no better in Europe.
In the UK, an anti-Brexit team is in charge of negotiating Brexit, struggling to make it as anti-Brexit a Brexit as possible.
That doesn’t seem like any sort of “headedness.”
In Germany, Merkel is on her way out, and her replacement has the unenviable task of hammering together a governing coalition out of parties that are too busy knocking heads with each other.
The multi-headed bureaucratic hydra in Brussels is not exactly popular with anyone.
What is the recourse?
Emperor Macron of France, perhaps?
Is Europe ready to be headed by a diacritical character? (A macron is a horizontal line you place over vowel letters to represent a long vowel: Mācron.)
There are systems that are properly headless: flocks of birds, schools of fish, communes of anarchists, etc.
They are anarchically structured and individuals within them take on temporary, task-based leadership roles as the situation demands and can only expect to be obeyed in accordance with their competence in executing the tasks.
But most of the human systems we have are hierarchically structured and require to be headed by someone.
Democratic elections are but a recent innovation, and a most uncertain one.
For instance, during the 2016 election in the US, the establishment trotted out an entire array of craven, feckless, corrupt opportunists, and Trump knocked them all out with a feather, not because he is any sort of proper leader, but because it was so easy.
For an even more amazing example of democratic failure, look at today’s Ukraine—the most recent experiment in Western democracy.
There, a constitutionally elected, though remarkably corrupt and indecisive president was violently overthrown in 2014 in a US-managed coup.
And replaced with an American puppet.
A puppet so unpopular that yesterday he was forced to introduce martial law.
Just in order to be able to cancel the elections scheduled in three months and to remain in office de facto.
To produce a rationale for declaring martial law he sent some small boats on a truly idiotic mission.
The boats sailed into a Russian-controlled high traffic zone in the Black Sea, refused to respond when hailed and then pointed weapons at Russian border patrol.
For this they were duly arrested and hauled off to jail, and their boats confiscated.
Previously, an ongoing civil war instigated by this same president resulted in some fifty thousand casualties, but no martial law was ever deemed necessary.
What’s different now?
Oh, the elections, of course!
If these are the fruits of democracy, perhaps the Ukrainians should consider going back to a monarchy.
Dynastic succession has worked much better and for much longer periods of time.
For instance, at the time of its annexation by Russia in 1783, Crimea was ruled by Shahin Girei, a descendant of Genghis Khan who was born around 1155.
That one dynasty, spanning 628 years, ruled the largest empire that ever was.
At one point it included all of China, most of Russia, Korea, Persia and India, plus many lands in between.
Genghis had decreed that no part of the Mongol Empire could be ruled by anyone who wasn’t a direct descendant of his, and so it was.
The Mongol Empire ended peacefully, with Shahin Girei abdicating his throne and accepting protection from Catherine the Great.
Maybe that’s the plan, then: install a Ukrainian Emperor and immediately have him abdicate his throne and accept protection from Putin the Great.
Then Putin will turn the heat and the hot water back on, the armed thugs will be marched off to someplace safe for disarming and de-thugging, and the nuke plants will stop breaking down.
Since we seem to be headed (no pun intended) for unstable and disrupted times, it bears pointing out that while democracy may be very nice when everything is going along according to plan…
… it is not particularly resilient in the face of severe disruption.
And what is the plan now—in the US, or in the EU (or what will be left of it)?
We have some truly ghastly examples of the fruits of democracy in the form of the Weimar Republic in Germany or the Interim Government between February and October of 1917 in Russia.
If you don’t fancy being ruled by headless chickens, consider picking a leader using whatever ad hoc procedure that works.
The idea is to avoid any more Robespierrian Reigns of Terror, Reichstag fires or October Revolutions—because we already know what those are like.
Russia’s New Nukes Check-Mate a War-Happy US, and Make the World Safer
Now that its aircraft carrier fleet, global ABM systems, and NATO has been rendered useless, the US can get on with dismantling its entire bloated, over-stretched, global network of military bases.
This article from our archives was first published on RI in March 2018 . Dmitry Orlov(Club Orlov)Sun, Apr 11 2021|3400 words 14,816Comments
A lot of people seem to have lost the thread when it comes to nuclear weapons.
They think that nuclear weapons are like other weapons, and are designed to be used in war.
But this is pure mental inertia.
According to all the evidence available, nuclear weapons are anti-weapons, designed to prevent weapons, nuclear or otherwise, from being used.
In essence, if used correctly, nuclear weapons are war suppression devices.
Of course, if used incorrectly, they pose a grave risk to all life on Earth.
There are other risks to all life on Earth as well, such as runaway global warming from unconstrained burning of hydrocarbons; perhaps we need to invent a weapon or two to prevent that as well.
Some people feel that the mere existence of nuclear weapons guarantees that they will be used as various nuclear-armed countries find themselves financially, economically and politically in extremis.
As “proof” of this, they trot out the dramaturgical principle of Chekhov’s Gun.
Anton Chekhov wrote:
“Если вы говорите в первой главе, что на стене висит ружье, во второй или третьей главе оно должно непременно выстрелить. А если не будет стрелять, не должно и висеть.»”
[“If you say in Act I that there is a gun hanging on the wall, then it is a must that in Act II or III it be fired. And if it won’t be fired, it shouldn’t have been hung there in the first place.”]
And if you point out that we are talking about military strategy and geopolitics, not theater, they then quote Shakespeare’s
“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances…”
and believe that it is QED.
Now, I happen to agree wholeheartedly with Chekhov, when it comes to dramaturgy, and I agree with the Bard as well, provided we define “the world” as “the world of theater,” from which the worlds of geopolitics and nuclear physics are both dramatically different.
Let me explain it in terms that a drama major would understand.
If there is a nuclear bomb hanging on the wall in Act I, then, chances are, it will still be hanging on that wall during the final curtain call.
In the meantime, no matter how many other weapons are present on stage during the play, you can be sure that none of them would be used.
Or maybe they will be, but then the entire audience would be dead, in which case you should definitely ask for your money back because this was billed as a family-friendly show.
Back in the real world, it is hard to argue that nukes haven’t been useful as deterrents against both conventional and nuclear war.
When the Americans dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they only did this because they could do so with complete impunity.
Had Japan, or an ally of Japan, possessed nuclear weapons at the time, these attacks would not have taken place.
There is a considerable body of opinion that the Americans didn’t nuke Japan in order to secure a victory (the Japanese would have surrendered regardless) but to send a message to Joseph Stalin.
Stalin got the message, and Soviet scientists and engineers got cracking.
There was an uncomfortable period, before the USSR successfully tested their first atomic bomb…
… when the Americans were seriously planning to destroy all major Soviet cities using a nuclear strike…
… but they set these plans aside…
…because they calculated that they didn’t have enough nukes at the time to keep the Red Army from conquering all of Western Europe in retaliation.
But in August 29, 1949, when the USSR tested its first atomic bomb, these plans were set aside…
…not quite permanently, it would later turn out…
…because even a singular nuclear detonation as a result of a Soviet response to an American first strike…
…. wiping out, say, New York or Washington, would have been too high a price to pay for destroying Russia.
Since then—continuously except for a period between 2002 and two days ago—the ability of nuclear weapons to deter military aggression has remained unquestioned.
There were some challenges along the way, but they were dealt with.
The Americans saw it fit to threaten the USSR by placing nuclear missiles in Turkey; in response, the USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba.
The Americans didn’t think that was fair, and the result was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Eventually the Americans were prevailed upon to stand down in Turkey, and the Soviets stood down in Cuba.
Another threat to the deterrent power of nuclear weapons was the development of anti-ballistic weapons that could shoot down nuclear-tipped missiles (just the ballistic ones; more on that later).
But this was widely recognized to be a bad thing, and a major breakthrough came in 1972, when the USA and the USSR signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Over this entire period, the principle that kept the peace was Mutual Assured Destruction: neither side would provoke the other to the point of launching a nuclear strike, because such a move was guaranteed to be suicidal.
The two sides were reduced to fighting a series of proxy wars in various countries around the world…
… which were so much the worse for it…
… but there was no danger of these proxy conflicts erupting into a full-scale nuclear conflagration.
In the meantime, everybody tried to oppose nuclear proliferation, preventing more countries from obtaining access to nuclear weapons technology—with limited success.
The cases where these efforts failed testify to the effective deterrent value of nuclear weapons.
Saddam Hussein of Iraq didn’t have any “weapons of mass destruction” and ended up hung.
Muammar Qaddafi of Libya voluntarily gave up his nuclear program, and ended up tortured to death.
But Pakistan managed to acquire nuclear weapons, and as a result its relations with its traditional nemesis India have become much more polite and cooperative.
To the point that in June of 2017 both became full members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, along with China, Russia and other Eurasian nations.
And then North Korea has made some breakthroughs with regard to nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles.
As a result of that the US has been reduced to posturing and futile threats against it while South Korea has expressed some newfound respect for its northern neighbor and is now seeking rapprochement.
In 2002 the prospect of continued nuclear deterrence was set a major setback when the US pulled out of the ABM treaty.
Russia protested this move, and promised an asymmetrical response.
American officials ignored this protest, incorrectly thinking that Russia was finished as a nuclear power.
Since then, the Americans spent prodigious amounts of money—well into the trillions of dollars—building a ballistic missile defense system.
Their goal was simple: make it possible to launch a first strike on Russia, destroying much of its nuclear arsenal; then use the new American ABM systems to destroy whatever Russia does manage to launch in response.
On February 2, 2018 the Americans decided that they were ready, and issued a Nuclear Posture Review in which they explicitly reserved the right to use nuclear weapons to prevent Russia from using its nuclear deterrent.
And then, two days ago, all of that came to a happy end when Vladimir Putin gave a speech in which he unveiled several new weapons systems that completely negate the value of US missile defense shield.
…among other things.
That was the response the Russians promised to deliver when the US pulled out of the ABM treaty in 2002.
Now, 16 years later, they are done.
Russia has rearmed with new weapons that have rendered the ABM treaty entirely irrelevant.
The ABM treaty was about ballistic missiles—once that are propelled by rockets that boost the missile to close to escape velocity.
After that the missile follows a ballistic trajectory—just like an artillery shell or a bullet.
That makes its path easy to calculate and the missile easy to intercept.
The US missile defense systems rely on the ability to see the missile on radar, calculate its position, direction and velocity, and to launch a missile in response in such a way that the two trajectories intersect.
When they cross, the interceptor missile is detonated, knocking out the attacking missile.
None of the new Russian weapons follow ballistic trajectories.
The new Sarmat is an ICBM minus the “B”—it maneuvers throughout its flight path and can fly through the atmosphere rather than popping up above it.
It has a short boost phase, making it difficult to intercept after launch.
It has the range to fly arbitrary paths around the planet—over the south pole, for instance—to reach any point on Earth.
And it carries multiple maneuverable hypersonic nuclear-armed reentry vehicles which no existing or planned missile defense system can intercept.
Among other new weapons unveiled two days ago was a nuclear-powered cruise missile which has virtually unlimited range and goes faster than Mach 10.
And a nuclear-powered drone submarine which can descend to much larger depths than any existing submarine and moves faster than any existing vessel.
There was also a mobile laser cannon in the show, of which very little is known, but they are likely to come in handy when it comes to frying military satellites.
All of these are based on physical principles that have never been used before.
All of these have passed testing and are going into production; one of them is already being used on active combat duty in the Russian armed forces.
The Russians are now duly proud of their scientists, engineers and soldiers.
Their country is safe again; Americans have been stopped in their tracks, their new Nuclear Posture now looking like a severe case of lordosis.
This sort of pride is more important than it would seem.
Advanced nuclear weapons systems are a bit like secondary sexual characteristics of animals: like the peacock’s tail or the deer’s antlers or the lion’s mane, they are indicative of the health and vigor of a specimen that has plenty of spare energy to expend on showy accessories.
In order to be able to field a hypersonic nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range, a country has to have a healthy scientific community.
This means lots of high-powered engineers, a highly trained professional military and a competent security establishment that can keep the whole thing secret, along with an industrial economy powerful and diverse enough to supply all of the necessary materials, processes and components with zero reliance on imports. Now that the arms race is over, this new confidence and competence can be turned to civilian purposes.
So far, the Western reaction to Putin’s speech has closely followed the illogic of dreams which Sigmund Freud explained using the following joke:
1. I never borrowed a kettle from you
2. I returned it to you unbroken
3. It was already broken when I borrowed it from you.
A more common example is a child’s excuse for not having done her homework: I lost it; my dog ate it; I didn’t know it was assigned.
In this case, Western commentators have offered us the following:
1. There are no such weapons; Putin is bluffing
2. These weapons exist but they don’t really work
3. These weapons work and this is the beginning of a new nuclear arms race
Taking these one at a time:
1. Putin is not known to bluff; he is known for doing exactly what he says he will do. He announced that Russia will deliver an asymmetric response to the US pulling out of the ABM treaty; and now it has.
2. “They don’t work”. These weapons are a continuation of developments that already existed in the USSR 30 years ago but had been mothballed until 2002. What has changed since then was the development of new materials, which make it possible to build vehicles that fly at above Mach 10, with their skin heating up to 2000ºC, and, of course, dramatic improvements in microelectronics, communications and artificial intelligence. Putin’s statement that the new weapons systems are going into production is an order: they are going into production.
3. “It’s all political talk”. Most of Putin’s speech wasn’t about military matters at all. It was about such things as pay increases, roads, hospitals and clinics, kindergartens, nurseries, boosting retirements, providing housing to young families, streamlining the regulation of small businesses, etc. That is the focus of the Russian government for the next six years: dramatically improving the standard of living of the population. The military problem has already been resolved, the arms race has been won, and Russia’s defense budget is being reduced, not increased.
Another line of thought in the West was that Putin unveiled these new weapons, which have been in development for 16 years at least, as part of his reelection campaign (the vote is on March 18).
This is absurd.
Putin is assured of victory because the vast majority of Russians approve of his leadership.
The elections have been about jockeying for a second place position between the Liberal Democrats, led by the old war horse Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and the Communists.
The Communists have nominated a non-communist oligarch businessman Pavel Grudinin, who has promptly disqualified himself by failing to disclose foreign bank accounts and other improprieties and now appears to have gone into hiding.
Thus, the Communists, who were previously slated for second place, have burned themselves down and Zhirinovsky will probably come in second.
If Americans don’t like Putin, then they definitely wouldn’t like Zhirinovsky.
Putin is practical and ambivalent about “our Western partners,” as he likes to call them.
Zhirinovsky, on the other hand, is rather revenge-minded, and seems to want to inflict pain on them.
At the same time, there is now a committee, composed of very serious-looking men and women, who are charged with monitoring and thwarting American meddling in Russian politics.
It seems unlikely that the CIA, the US State Department and the usual culprits will be able to get away with much in Russia.
The age of color revolutions is over, and the regime change train has sailed… all the way back to Washington, where Trump stands a chance of getting dethroned Ukrainian-style.
Another way to look at the Western reaction to Russia’s new weapons is using Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief.
We already saw denial (Putin is bluffing; weapons don’t work) and the start of anger (new arms race).
We should expect a bit more anger before moving on to bargaining (you can have the Ukraine if you stop building Sarmat).
Once the response comes back (“You broke the Ukraine; you pay to get it fixed”) we move on to depression (“The Russians just don’t love us any more!”) and, finally, acceptance.
Once the stage of acceptance is reached, here is what the Americans can usefully do in response to Russia’s new weapons systems.
First of all, Americans can scrap their ABM systems because they are now useless.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had this to say about it:
«То, что сегодня создаётся в Польше и Румынии, создаётся на Аляске и предполагается к созданию в Южной Корее и Японии — этот "зонтик" противоракетной обороны, получается, "дырявый". И не знаю, зачем за такие деньги теперь этот "зонтик" им приобретать.»
[“What is being built in Poland and Romania, and in Alaska, and is planned in South Korea and Japan—this missile defense ‘umbrella’—turns out to be riddled with holes. I don’t know why they should now buy this ‘umbrella’ for so much money.”]
Secondly, Americans can scrap their aircraft carrier fleet.
All it’s useful now for now is threatening defenseless nations, but there are much cheaper ways to threaten defenseless nations.
If Americans are still planning to use them to dominate sea lanes and control world trade…
…then the existence of hypersonic cruise missiles with unlimited range and drone submarines that can lurk at great ocean depths for years…
…make the world’s oceans off-limits for American navy’s battle groups…
…in the event of any major (non-nuclear) escalation…
…because now Russia can destroy them from an arbitrary distance without putting any of their assets or personnel at risk.
Lastly, Americans can pull out of NATO, which has now been shown to be completely useless, dismantle their thousand military bases around the world, and repatriate the troops stationed there.
It’s not as if, in light of these new developments, American security guarantees are going to be worth much to anyone, and America’s “allies” will be quick to realize that.
As far as Russian security guarantees, there is a lot on offer:
…unlike the US, which is increasingly seen as a rogue state…
…and an ineffectual and blundering one at that…
…Russia has been scrupulous in adhering to its international agreements and international law.
In developing and deploying its new weapons systems, Russia has not violated any international agreements, treaties or laws.
And Russia has no aggressive plans towards anyone except terrorists.
As Putin put it during his speech,
«Мы ни на кого не собираемся нападать и что-то отнимать. У нас у самих всё есть.»
[“We are not planning to attack anyone or take over anywhere. We have everything we need.”]
I hope that the US doesn’t plan to attack anyone either, because, given its recent history, this won’t work.
Threatening the whole planet and forcing it to use the US dollar in international trade …
…and destroying countries, such as Iraq and Libya, when they refuse…
… running huge trade deficits with virtually the entire world…
…and forcing reserve banks around the world to buy up US government debt…
… leveraging that debt to run up colossal budget deficits…
…now around a trillion dollars a year…
… and robbing the entire planet by printing money…
…and spending it on various corrupt schemes…
…that, my friends, has been America’s business plan since around the 1970s.
And it is unraveling before our eyes.
I have the audacity to hope that the dismantling of the American Empire will proceed as copacetically as the dismantling of the Soviet Empire did.
(This is not to say that it won’t be humiliating or impoverishing, or that it won’t be accompanied by a huge increase in morbidity and mortality.)
One of my greatest fears over the past decade was that Russia wouldn’t take the US and NATO seriously enough and just try to wait them out.
After all, what is there to really to fear from a nation that has over a 100 trillion dollars in unfunded entitlements…
… that’s full of opioid addicts…
… with 100 million working-age people permanently out of work…
… with decrepit infrastructure and poisoned national politics?
And as far as NATO, there is, of course, Germany, which is busy rewriting “Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles” to be gender-neutral.
What are they supposed to do next?
March on Moscow under a rainbow banner and hope that the Russians die laughing?
Oh, and there’s also NATO’s largest Eurasian asset, Turkey, which is currently busy slaughtering America’s Kurdish assets in Northern Syria.
But simply waiting them out would have been a gamble, because in its death throes the American Empire could lashout in unpredictable ways.
I am glad that Russia chose not to gamble with its national security.
Now that the US has been safely checkmated using the new Russian weapons systems, I feel that the world is in a much better place.
If you like peace, then it seems like your best option is to also like nukes—the best ones possible, ones against which no deterrent exists, and wielded by peaceful, law-abiding nations that have no evil designs on the rest of the planet.
The USA is Cracking Up Just Like the USSR Did – In Fact, They Are Related
“You see, ideology is a product of intellectuals, and intellectuals tend to be idiots, … We are born equipped with MonkeyBrain 2.0 that can handle abstraction only too well but always fails when attempting to reconcile it with messy physical reality.”
“And so it would be a grave error to think that, just because communist ideology is idiotic, capitalist ideology is any less so.”
This article from our archives was first published on RI in November 2017. Dmitry OrlovSat, Mar 27 2021|1440 words 27,999Comments
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It caused a lot of death and destruction, which I won’t go into because you can read all about it elsewhere. It also caused a great outpouring of new art, literature, architecture and culture in general, putting the previously somewhat stodgy Russia securely in the world’s avant-garde.
It also resulted in a tremendous surge of industrialization, rapidly transforming a previously mostly agrarian, though gradually industrializing nation into a global industrial powerhouse (at great human cost).
But perhaps most importantly, the revolution destroyed all of the previously dominant institutions of privilege based on heredity, class and wealth and replaced them with an egalitarian social model centered on the working class.
And it demonstrated (as much through propaganda as by actual example) how this new model was more competitive: while the West wallowed in the Great Depression, the USSR surged ahead both economically and socially.
For all of its many failings, the USSR did serve as a shining city on the hill to the downtrodden millions around the world, including in the USA, fermenting rebellion, so that even there the one-percent ownership class eventually had to stop and think.
Reluctantly, they decided to stop trying to destroy organized labor movements, introduced state old-age pensions (misnamed “Social Security”) and declared a euphemistic “war on poverty.”
And with that a “middle class” was created—so called because it was literally in the middle, having risen out of poverty but still safely walled off from the one-percent ownership class.
But as we shall see this effect was temporary.
Eventually the USSR evaporated, as artificial, synthetic political entities often do.
The reasons for this disappearing act are too numerous to mention, but one of the main ones was that the Soviet political elite turned itself into a much-hated, privileged caste, and then failed to reproduce, turning into a moribund gerontocracy.
MM Comment. Sounds like the USA today, eh?
When the old cadres finally started dying out, the new generation that came in included plenty of traitors who did their best to destroy the system and grab a piece for themselves.
This effect was plain to see, but was it the root cause?
When a complex system collapses, every part of it is touched to one extent or another, and it becomes impossible to say which one played the key role in precipitating the collapse.
With the USSR gone, the owners of the USA had no one to compete against and were no longer under any sort of pressure to maintain the illusion of an equitable and egalitarian society.
Instead, they concentrated on two projects, one [1] ideological, the other [2] economic.
[1] The ideological project involved wrecking what was left of the USSR to the greatest extent possible. And to do so in order to paint a convincing picture of the horrible consequences of communism or socialism. It’s intention was to herd everyone toward wholeheartedly embracing unfettered capitalism.
[2] The economic project involved eviscerating the American middle class—a process that by now has largely run its course.
Since the creation of the middle class was a multigenerational project, so is its destruction.
But the effects of this process on society are already plain to see: there is an overhang of still relatively well-off retirees while their children and grandchildren have greatly diminished economic and social prospects.
Meanwhile, the hastily erected scaffolding that created the appearance of egalitarianism has been knocked out.
Organized labor is all but finished.
Borders have been thrown open to foreign labor and cheap imports.
Entry into the middle class has been blocked through a variety of measures.
These measures include [1] the relentless dumbing down of public education, [2] the equally relentless overpricing of higher education, [3] the health care extortion scheme, [4] the rationing of justice based on wealth and privilege, [5] wealth confiscation using a succession of artificial real estate market bubbles and so on.
Overall, the former middle class is being whittled down to nothing the same way that the Chinese “coolies” were dealt with once the railroads had been built…
…don’t feed them much but give them plenty of opium (now being grown in Afghanistan under the watchful eye of Western troops).
To sum it up: if you aren’t happy with the way things are going in the US, you have a choice.
You can of course blame Russia and / or China.
Or you can blame your owners—your one percent—who have owned you ever since the King of England appointed the Lords Proprietors.
Within Russia itself the commemoration of the October Revolution is no longer a public holiday.
But there was a sort of commemoration held on the vast Palace Square in St. Petersburg, which I attended with my five-year-old son on my shoulders.
It was his first time in a crowd of 35,000, and he was duly impressed.
It was a light-and-sound extravaganza consisting of two shows which played in alternation.
On the vast semicircular facade of the General Staff building was broadcast a multimedia retrospective of the October Revolution that included the reading of historical documents (such as the abdication of Nicholas II) and works of poetry.
It ended on an upbeat note—yes, many horrible events took place, but Russia is now reborn—with the General Staff’s façade painted in the Russian tricolor.
A different show was presented on the façade of the Winter Palace across the square.
Here, multimedia artists from across Europe (including France, Italy, Spain and Poland) used projected light to decorate and transform the palace to music that sung praises to the beauty of St. Petersburg.
The audience was invited to use their phones to vote for the best one.
After the show, as we filtered out of the Palace Square and walked home along the Palace Embankment, my five-year-old son asked some good questions that he had formulated while watching the show.
“Did a lot of people die?” (Yes.)
“But Russia was then and is now?” (Yes, Russia has been around for a 1000 years and will probably be around for 1000 years more.)
“Why do people have to die?” (Because otherwise we we would be full-up with useless old people and there wouldn’t be enough room for young people.)
And then the obvious follow-up: “Why are we full-up with useless old people anyway?” (???)
And finally: “Why do we bury dead people?” (Because they smell really bad.) “Ah…”
A rather unsentimental youth, wouldn’t you say?
But he was only one of the thousands of quite similar-minded ones who were in attendance that day, riding on their fathers’ shoulders or marching along.
Welcome to Russia…
One of the reasons why the USSR failed was because the idiocy of the ideology of Soviet communism became too painful to tolerate.
In a sense, this was inevitable.
You see, ideology is a product of intellectuals, and intellectuals tend to be idiots, making “intellectual idiocy” something of an oxymoron.
We are born equipped with MonkeyBrain 2.0 that can handle abstraction only too well but always fails when attempting to reconcile it with messy physical reality.
And so it would be a grave error to think that, just because communist ideology is idiotic, capitalist ideology is any less so.
By now most thinking people realize that capitalism has failed just has communism had.
We can only hope that one day the US will do with its capitalist legacy what Russia has done with its communist one: turn it into a festive art installation that both children and adults can enjoy.
Dear America – You Are Delusional, and Failing at Everything You Undertake
Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia sanctions – “All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly.”
“Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.”
This article from our archives was first published on RI in November 2017. Dmitry OrlovMon, Mar 22 2021|1610 words 46,492Comments
Back in the days when I was still trying to do the corporate thing, I regularly found myself in a bit of a tight spot simply by failing to keep my mouth shut.
I seem to carry some sort of gene that makes me naturally irrepressible.
I can keep my mouth shut for only so long before I have to blurt out what I really think, and in a corporate setting, where thinking isn’t really allowed, this causes no end of trouble.
It didn’t matter that I often turned out to be right.
It didn’t matter what I thought; it only mattered that I thought.
American involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
Of all the thoughts you aren’t allowed to think, perhaps the most offensive one is adequately expressed by a single short phrase: “That’s not gonna work.”
Suppose there is a meeting to unveil a great new initiative, with PowerPoint presentations complete with fancy graphics, org charts, timelines, proposed budgets, yadda-yadda, and everything is going great until this curmudgeonly Russian opens his mouth and says…
“That’s not gonna work.”
And when it is patiently explained to him (doing one’s best to hide one’s extreme irritation) that it absolutely has to work because Senior Management would like it to…
… that furthermore it is his job to make it work and that failure is not an option…
… he opens his mouth again and says “That’s not gonna work either.”
And then it’s time to avoid acting flustered while ignoring him and to think up some face-saving excuse to adjourn the meeting early and regroup.
I lasted for as long as I did in that world because once in a while I would instead say “Sure, that’ll work, let’s do it.”
And then, sure enough, it did work, the company had a banner year or two, with lots of bonuses and atta-boy (and atta-girl) certificates handed out to those not at all responsible for any of it.
Flushed with victory, they, in turn, would think up more harebrained schemes for me to rain on, and the cycle would repeat.
America seems to be blissfully unaware of how it comes across to the rest of the world
It is probably one of the main saving graces of corporations that they do sometimes (mainly by mistake) allow some thought to leak through. The mistake in question is a staffing error in promoting those constitutionally incapable of keeping their mouths shut or shutting off their brains. Such errors create chinks in the monolithic phalanxes of corporate yes-men and yes-women.
Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged prostates.
The likelihood of such mistakes increases with the agony of defeat, which causes attrition among the ranks of qualified yes-sayers, creating holes that can only be plugged by promoting a few non-yes-sayers.
However, this only seems to work in the smaller, hungrier corporations; the larger, better-fed ones seem to be able to avoid experiencing the agony of defeat for a very long time by moving the goal posts, outlawing any discussion of said defeat or other similar tactics.
Eventually the entire organization goes over the cliff, but by then it is of no benefit to anyone to attempt to inform them of their folly.
It is much the same with governments, except here the situation is even worse.
While the smaller, hungrier governments, and those blessed with a fresh institutional memory of extreme pain, do not have the luxury of lying to themselves.
The larger political agglomerations—the USSR, the EU, the USA—have the ability to keep themselves completely immunized against the truth for historically significant periods of time.
The USSR clung to the fiction of great socialist progress even when it was clear to all that the cupboard was bare and there were rats gnawing through the rafters.
The EU has been able to ignore the fact that its entire scheme is one of enriching Germany while impoverishing and depopulating eastern and southern Europe, neglecting the interests of the native populations throughout.
And the amount of self-delusion that is still currently in effect in the USA makes it a rather large subject.
Regardless of how great the lies are and how forcefully they are defended, a moment always comes when the phalanx of truth-blocking yes-men and yes-women stops marching, turns and runs.
This event results in a tremendous loss of face and confidence for all involved.
It is the crisis of confidence, more than anything else, that precipitates the going-off-a-cliff phenomenon that we could so readily observe in the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s.
I have a very strong hunch that similar cliff-diving exercises are coming up for the EU and the USA.
But for the time being I am just another disembodied voice on the internet, watching from the sidelines and periodically saying the unfashionable thing, which is: “This isn’t gonna work.”
However, I’ve said this a number of times over the years, on the record and more or less forcefully, and I feel vindicated most of the time.
Internationally, for example:
• Carving the Ukraine away from Russia, having it join the EU and NATO and building a NATO naval base in Crimea “wasn’t gonna work.” The Ukraine is a part of Russia, the Ukrainians are Russian, and the Ukrainian ethnic identity is a Bolshevik concoction. Look for a reversion to norm in a decade or two.
• Destroying and partitioning Syria with the help of Wahhabi extremists and foreign mercenaries supported by the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel while Russia, Iran, Turkey and China stand idly by “wasn’t gonna work”; and so it hasn’t.
• Giving Afghanistan “freedom and democracy” and turning it into a stable pro-Western regime with the help of invading NATO troops “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. Western involvement in Afghanistan can go on, but the results it can achieve are limited to further enhancing the heroin trade.
• Destroying the Russian economy using sanctions “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. The sanctions have helped Russia regroup internally and achieve a great deal of self-sufficiency in energy production and other forms of technology, in food and in numerous other sectors.
All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly. Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.
In the meantime, the world isn’t waiting for the US to shake itself out of its stupor.
The fulcrum of American influence in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia and the petrodollar. In turn, Saudi Arabia rests on three pillars: the Saudi monarchy, Wahhabi Islam and the petrodollar.
As I write this, the next king, Mohammed bin Salman, is busy hacking away at all three: robbing, imprisoning and torturing his fellow-princes, working to replace the Wahhabi clerics with moderate ones and embracing the petro-yuan instead of the now very tired petrodollar.
Not that any of these three pillars were in good shape in any case: the defeat of ISIS in Syria was a defeat for the Saudi monarchy which supported it, for the Wahhabi clerics who inspired it and, consequently, for the petrodollar as well, because Saudi Arabia was until now its greatest defender.
The new guarantors of peace in the region are Russia, Iran and Turkey, with China watching carefully in the wings. American involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
And so here’s my latest prediction: Trump’s goal of “making America great” “isn’t gonna work” either.
The country is so far gone that just taking the first step—of allowing the truth of its condition to leak through the media filters—will undermine public confidence to such an extent that a subsequent cliff-dive will become unavoidable.
It’s a nice slogan as slogans go, but Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged prostates.
Perhaps he will succeed in making America great… big piles of feces, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that.
MM Conclusion
Of course, these articles were written by a Russian inside the USA, and his observations at times seem dated. Things have certainly advanced in the last year or so. All of the articles here pre-dates the Coronavirus, the Biden Presidency, and the March 2021 meeting in Anchorage. they are also Russian centric.
Taken as a whole, we can see other elements in the global struggle that is is bracing for the collapse of America. And in hindsight it looks like the world is trying to let the United States suffer slowly and calmly. Some, like Dmitry here, argue that it is best to put the thrashing wounded old animal to bed with a short quick bullet to the head, but I remain guarded in regards to that.
There could well be a considerable amount of collateral damage.
Keep in mind that things are now moving into place and alliances and black operations forming. The USA is doing it’s best to entangle the rest of the world with it’s madness, like a schizophrenic lunatic who cannot see the absurdity of their actions, and the rest of the would holding a “clothespin to their noses” and trying to say out of arm’s reach. With the sole exception of Australia for reasons that are not disclosed publicly lest the government leaderships be hung from the rafters.
In any event this is pretty good stuff, and I do hope that you all enjoyed it.
Let this stuff sit a spell in the back of your mind. I have a follow up article that I will release later on this week concerning exactly where we are, precisely, in regards to the Fourth Turning.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
This article / post is going to be all over the place. The theme behind it is that the largest and most powerful nation of the planet is thrashing about and imploding, and we all are watching it happen in real time.
We will cover various aspects through some other articles that I have dredged up from the internet. The first article discusses how China and Russia now view the Untied States and it is not flattering. In fact, both are accusing the United States fro waging wars, assassinations, and attacks against them. From the NGO “color revolutions”, to the bio-weapons carpet bombing of China, to the black operations in Russia, both nations are starting to get really irritated.
Diplomacy is a way that nations work and interact with each other. To fail in diplomacy is to risk war.
With this understood, just how capable is the United States in dealing with other nations on a diplomatic level?
American Diplomats Are Outclassed
“Butting Heads with China and Russia” with a sub heading of “American Diplomats Are Outclassed” written by Philip Giraldi on May 13, 2021. Edited to fit this venue, all credit to the author, and the usual disclaimers retain.
With the exception of the impending departure of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan, if it occurs, the White House seems to prefer to use aggression to deter adversaries rather than finesse.
The recent exchanges between Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a meeting in Alaska demonstrate how Beijing has a clear view of its interests which Washington seems to lack.
Blinken initiated the acrimonious exchange when he cited…
“deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion toward our allies. Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability. That’s why they’re not merely internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today.”
He then threatened …
“I said that the United States relationship with China will be competitive where it should be, collaborative where it can be, adversarial where it must be”
“I’m hearing deep satisfaction that the United States is back, that we’re reengaged with our allies and partners. I’m also hearing deep concern about some of the actions your government is taking.”
The Chinese Foreign Minister responded sharply, rejecting U.S. suggestions that it has a right to interfere in another country’s domestic policies,
“I think we thought too well of the United States, we thought that the U.S. side will follow the necessary diplomatic protocols.
The United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength.
We believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image, and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world.”
In another more recent interview Blinken has accused the Chinese of acting “more aggressively abroad” while President Biden has claimed that Beijing has a plan to replace America as the world’s leading economic and military power.
U.S. United Nations envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield has also delivered the same message that Washington is preparing to take no prisoners, pledging to push back against what she called China’s “authoritarian agenda” through the various agencies that make up the UN bureaucracy.
Indeed, the United States seems trapped in its own rhetoric, finding itself in the middle of a situation with China and Taiwan where warnings that Beijing is preparing to use force to recover its former province leave Washington with few options to support a de facto ally.
Peter Beinart in a recent op-ed observes how the White House has been incrementally increasing its diplomatic ties with Taiwan even as it both declares itself “rock solid” on defending while also maintaining “strategic ambiguity.”
China understands its interests while the U.S. continues to be bewildered by Beijing’s successful building of trade alliances worldwide.
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin, reputedly an excellent chess player, is able to think about genuine issues in three dimensions and is always at least four moves ahead of where Biden and his advisers are at any time.
Biden public and video appearances frequently seem to be improvisations as he goes along guided by his teleprompter while Putin is able to explain issues clearly, apparently even in English.
A large part of Biden’s problem vis-à-vis both China and Russia is that he has inherited a U.S. Establishment view of foreign and national security policy options.
It is based on three basic principles.
First, that America is the only superpower and can either ignore or comfortably overcome the objections of other nations to what it is doing.
Second, an all-powerful and fully resourced United States can apply “extreme pressure” to recalcitrant foreign governments and those regimes will eventually submit and comply with Washington’s wishes.
And third, America has a widely accepted leadership role of the so-called “free world” which will mean that any decision made in Washington will immediately be endorsed by a large number of other nations, giving legitimacy to U.S. actions worldwide.
What Joe Biden actually thinks is, of course, unknown though he has a history of reflexively supporting an assertive and even belligerent foreign policy during his many years in Congress.
Kamala Harris, who many believe will be succeeding Biden before too long, appears to have no definitive views at all beyond the usual Democratic Party cant of spreading “democracy” and being strong on Israel.
That suggests that the real shaping of policy is coming from the apparatchik and donor levels in the party.
These include the neocon-lite Zionist triumvirate at the State Department consisting of Tony Blinken, Wendy Sherman and Victoria Kagan.
As well as the upper-level bureaucracies at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.
All of which all support an assertive and also interventionist foreign policy to keep Americans “safe” while also increasing their budgets annually.
Such thinking leaves little room for genuine national interests to surface.
Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken is, for example, the perfect conformist bureaucrat, shaping his own views around established thinking and creating caveats to provide the Democratic Party leadership with some, though limited, options.
Witness for example the current White House attitude towards Iran, which is regarded, along with Russia, as a permanent enemy of the United States.
President Biden has expressed his interest in renegotiating a non-nuclear proliferation treaty with the Iranians, now being discussed by diplomats without direct contact in Austria.
But Blinken undercuts that intention by wrapping the talks in with other issues that are intended to satisfy the Israelis and their friends in Congress that will make progress unlikely if not impossible.
They include eliminating Iran’s alleged role as a regional trouble maker and also ending the ballistic missile development programs currently engaged in by the regime.
The downside to all of this is that having a multilateral agreement to limit Iranian enhancement of uranium up to a bomb-making level is very much in the U.S. interest, but it appears to be secondary to other politically motivated side discussions which will derail the process.
A foreign and national security policy based on political dogma rather than genuine interests can obviously generate some disconnects.
Which is unlike either Russia or China, where red-lines and national interests are clearly understood and acted upon.
To cite yet another dangerous example of playing with fire that one is witnessing in Eastern Europe, the simple understanding that for Russia Belarus and Ukraine are front-line states.
States that could pose existential threats to Moscow if they were to move closer to the west and join NATO appears to be lacking.
The U.S. prefers to stand the question on its head and claims that the real issue is “spreading democracy,” which it is not.
Policy makers in Washington might consider what Washington would likely do if Mexico and Canada were to be threatened with foreign interference that might bring about their joining a military alliance hostile to the United States.
The American Establishment-driven foreign policy thinking clearly has trouble in accommodating the obvious understanding that the U.S. actually becomes more vulnerable…
…every time it interferes in China’s trade practices …
…or gives the green light for alliances like NATO to expand.
Expansion of the national security policy components often brings in another client state. And it is a client state that rarely has anything whatsoever to contribute and which, on the contrary, becomes a burden.
This client state ends up relying for their own security on overstretched American military resources.
In return, the expansion itself guarantees that a hostile and genuinely threatened Russia will take steps of its own to counter what it sees as a potential grave threat to its own security and national identity.
Quite simply, America’s national security should dictate that the United States treat China as a competitor rather than an enemy…
…while also disengaging from support and encouragement of Ukraine’s irredentist ambitions as quickly as possible.
A recent shipment of offensive weapons to Kiev should become the last such initiative and speeches by American politicians pledging “unwavering support” for Ukraine should be considered unacceptable.
Washington should meanwhile reject any clandestine attempts to overthrow Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus and make clear to Vladimir Putin that it will not support any NATO expansion into Eastern Europe…
… which admittedly was a pledge already made when the Soviet Union collapsed that was subsequently ignored by President Bill Clinton.
Thanks to Bill, America is now obligated to defend not only Western Europe but also Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, the Baltic States and tiny little Montenegro.
In short, United State engagement in complicated overseas quarrels should be limited to areas where genuine vital interests are at stake.
In fact, by that standard one should begin to emphasize the security impact of the crisis on America’s southern border, which has a completely different genesis and is being driven by politics.
As British statesman Lord Palmerston said in 1848 …
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
The United States government would be very wise to be guided by that advice.
And Russia and China are taking notice and standing up to the US Bully
This article goes on, and on as many do. But please pay attention to the interesting dynamic here.
America, the United States, is out of control. There is a deeply embedded oligarchy group that is running amok and pushing all the buttons that are saying “WE DEMAND WAR!” And there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can stop them, control them, or mitigate them. They are out of control.
And the rest of the world are taking notice and deciding to work together, far away outside the clutches of the American military empire.
So in order to reason with these psychopathic entities, both the Soviet Union and China have established “red-lines” that will result in ferocious military action.
All in all, I think that both Russia and China have been very tolerant so far. But they cannot keep this situation stable for long. The United States is flailing about wildly with no control. It’s only a matter of time when things will go from dangerous to…
…death.
Consider this article, and when you do, keep in mind how the rest of the world view the insanity that is now the United States.
Only indirectly, or via a delightful metaphor, Kipling’s Jungle Book. Foreign policy was addressed only at the end, almost as an afterthought.
For the best part of an hour and a half, Putin concentrated on domestic issues, detailing a series of policies that amount to the Russian state helping those in need – low income families, children, single mothers, young professionals, the underprivileged – with, for instance, free health checks all the way to the possibility of an universal income in the near future.
Of course he would also need to address the current, highly volatile state of international relations.
The concise manner he chose to do it, counter-acting the prevailing Russophobia in the Atlanticist sphere, was quite striking.
First, the essentials.
Russia’s policy…
“is to ensure peace and security for the well-being of our citizens and for the stable development of our country.”
Yet if …
“someone does not want to ...
...engage in dialogue...
... but chooses an egoistic and arrogant tone, Russia will always find a way to stand up for its position.”
He singled out …
“the practice of politically motivated, illegal economic sanctions”
…to connect it to…
“something much more dangerous”,
…and actually rendered invisible in the Western narrative:
“the recent attempt to organize a coup d’etat in Belarus and the assassination of that country’s president.”
Putin made sure to stress,
“all boundaries have been crossed”.
The plot to kill Lukashenko was unveiled by Russian and Belarusian intel – which detained several bad actors…
…who were backed, by who else, yes, the US intel.
The US State Department predictably denied any involvement.
Putin:
“It is worth pointing to the confessions of the detained participants in the conspiracy...
...that a blockade of Minsk was being prepared...
... including its city infrastructure and communications, the complete shutdown of the entire power grid of the Belarusian capital.
This, incidentally means preparations for a massive cyber-attack.”
And that leads to a very uncomfortable truth:
“Apparently, it’s not for no reason that our Western colleagues have stubbornly rejected numerous proposals by the Russian side to establish an international dialogue in the field of information and cyber-security.”
“Asymmetric, swift and harsh”
Putin remarked how to…
“attack Russia”
…has become…
“a sport, a new sport, who makes the loudest statements.”
And then he went full Kipling:
“Russia is attacked here and there for no reason.
And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis [jackals] are running around like Tabaqui ran around Shere Khan [the tiger]
– everything is like in Kipling’s book –
...howling along and ready to serve their sovereign. Kipling was a great writer”.
The – layered – metaphor is even more startling as it echoes the late 19th century geopolitical Great Game between the British and Russian empires, of which Kipling was a protagonist.
Once again Putin had to stress that…
"we really don’t want to burn any bridges.
But if someone perceives our good intentions as indifference or weakness and intends to burn those bridges completely or even blow them up, he should know that Russia’s response will be asymmetric, swift and harsh”.
So here’s the new law of the geopolitical jungle – backed by Mr. Iskander, Mr. Kalibr, Mr. Avangard, Mr. Peresvet, Mr. Khinzal, Mr. Sarmat, Mr. Zircon and other well-respected gentlemen, hypersonic and otherwise, later complimented on the record.
Those who poke the Bear to the point of threatening …
“the fundamental interests of our security will regret what has been done, as they have regretted nothing for a very long time.”
All now… now coalesce into a stark new reality: the era of a unilateral Leviathan imposing its iron will is over.
The era of the Powerful Leviathan United States imposing it’s will is over.
For those Russophobes who still haven’t got the message, a cool, calm and collected Putin was compelled to add…
"clearly, we have enough patience, responsibility, professionalism, self-confidence, self-assurance in the correctness of our position...
... and common sense when it comes to making any decisions.
But I hope that no one will think about crossing Russia’s so-called red lines.
And where they run, we determine ourselves in each specific case.”
Back to realpolitik, Putin once again had to stress the…
“special responsibility”
of the
“five nuclear states”
to seriously discuss
“issues related to strategic armament”.
It’s an open question whether the Biden-Harris administration…
… behind which stand a toxic cocktail of neo-cons and humanitarian imperialists…
… will agree.
Putin:
“The goal of such negotiations could be to create an environment of conflict-free coexistence...
... based on equal security, covering not only strategic weapons such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, heavy bombers and submarines, but also...
... I would like to emphasize...
... all offensive and defensive systems capable of solving strategic tasks, regardless of their equipment.”
As much as Xi’s address to the Boao forum was mostly directed to the Global South, Putin highlighted how
“we are expanding contacts with our closest partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BRICS, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the allies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization”,
and extolled
“joint projects in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union”,
billed as
“practical tools for solving the problems of national development.”
In a nutshell: integration in effect, following the Russian concept of a
… actually the combo telling him what to do, complete with earpiece and teleprompter…
… promising Ukraine’s President Zelensky that Washington would …
“take measures”
…to support Kiev’s wishful thinking of retaking Donbass and Crimea.
There are several eyebrow-raising issues with this EO.
It denies, de facto, to any Russian national the full rights to their US property.
Any US resident may be accused of being a Russian agent engaged in undermining US security.
A sub-sub paragraph (C), detailing “actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the United States or abroad”, is vague enough to be used to eliminate any journalism that supports Russia’s positions in international affairs.
Purchases of Russian OFZ bonds have been sanctioned.
As well as one of the companies involved in the production of the Sputnik V vaccine.
Yet the icing on this sanction cake may well be that from now on all Russian citizens, including dual citizens, may be barred from entering US territory except via a rare special authorization on top of the ordinary visa.
Which is very similar to the EO that made the same demands on Chinese citizenry that have toes to the Chinese government.
The Russian paper Vedomosti has noted that in such paranoid atmosphere the risks for large companies such as Yandex or Kaspersky Lab are significantly increasing.
Still, these sanctions have not been met with surprise in Moscow.
The worst is yet to come, according to Beltway insiders: two packages of sanctions against Nord Stream 2 already approved by the US Department of Justice.
The crucial point is that this EO de facto places anyone reporting on Russia’s political positions as potentially threatening
“American democracy”.
As top political analyst Alastair Crooke has remarked, this is a
“procedure usually reserved for citizens of enemy states during times of war”.
Crooke adds,
“US hawks are upping the ante fiercely against Moscow. Tensions and rhetoric are skirting wartime levels.”
It’s an open question whether Putin’s State of the Nation will be seriously examined by the toxic lunatic combo of neocons and humanitarian imperialists bent on simultaneously harassing Russia and China.
But the fact is something extraordinary has already started to happen: a “de-escalation” of sorts.
Even before Putin’s address, Kiev, NATO and the Pentagon apparently got the message implicit in Russia moving two armies, massive artillery batteries and airborne divisions to the borders of Donbass and to Crimea…
… not to mention top naval assets moved from the Caspian to the Black Sea.
NATO could not even dream of matching that.
Facts on different grounds speak volumes.
Both Paris and Berlin were terrified of a possible Kiev clash directly against Russia, and lobbied furiously against it, bypassing the EU and NATO.
Then someone – it might have been Jake Sullivan – must have whispered on Crash Test Dummy’s earpiece that you don’t go around insulting the head of a nuclear state and expect to keep your global “credibility”.
So after that by now famous “Biden” phone call to Putin came the invitation to the climate change summit, in which any lofty promises are largely rhetorical, as the Pentagon will continue to be the largest polluting entity on planet Earth.
So Washington may have found a way to keep at least one avenue of dialogue open with Moscow.
At the same time Moscow has no illusions whatsoever that the Ukraine/Donbass/Crimea drama is over.
Even if Putin did not mention it in the State of the Nation.
And even if Defense Minister Shoigu has ordered a de-escalation.
The always inestimable Andrei Martyanov has gleefully noted the
“cultural shock when Brussels and D.C. started to suspect that Russia doesn’t ‘want’ Ukraine.
What Russia wants is for this country (Ukraine) to rot and implode without excrement from this implosion hitting Russia.
West’s paying for the clean up of this clusterf**k is also in Russian plans for Ukrainian Bantustan.”
The fact that Putin did not even mention Bantustan in his speech corroborates this analysis.
As far as “red lines” are concerned, Putin’s implicit message remains the same: a NATO base on Russia’s western flank simply won’t be tolerated.
Paris and Berlin know it.
The EU is in denial.
NATO will always refuse to admit it.
We always come back to the same crucial issue: whether Putin will be able, against all odds, to pull a combined Bismarck-Sun Tzu move and build a lasting German-Russian entente cordiale (and that’s quite far from an “alliance’).
Nord Stream 2 is an essential cog in the wheel – and that’s what’s driving Washington hawks crazy.
Whatever happens next, for all practical purposes Iron Curtain 2.0 is now on, and it simply won’t go away.
There will be more sanctions.
Everything was thrown at the Bear short of a hot war.
It will be immensely entertaining to watch how, and via which steps, Washington will engage on a “de-escalation and diplomatic process” with Russia.
The Hegemon may always find a way to deploy a massive P.R. campaign and ultimately claim a diplomatic success in “dissolving” the impasse.
Well, that certainly beats a hot war.
Otherwise, lowly Jungle Book adventurers have been advised: try anything funny and be ready to meet “asymmetric, swift and harsh”.
What about American allies?
What do the American allies think? Here we look at the new rabid anti-China neocon Oz-land; a new American territory filled with people who are willing to die for “freedom”, “democracy”, and Washington DC!
I know, I know.
But apparently the Morrison government believes that having a war with China will be great for the people. Which surprises me. I always thought that Australians were hard-scrabble folk, with good heads on their shoulders and a easy-going fair-dink um’ attitude.
I guess that I need to readjust my thinking.
Like I said, I am often wrong about things. A good 50% of the time.
Once was a hegemon: Australia and the decline of the US
All credit to the author, and the usual disclaimers.
Australia’s Indo-Pacific obsession hides a radical global geopolitical shift. Australian policymakers will persist in making poor choices unless they accept that the US hegemony has passed a tipping point, and America has already become just one great power among others.
Australia’s policy community has become comfortable with the familiar, distinctive, and acceptable pattern of world order the Americans established. The universalist claims of the US’s order are now internalised and any alternative seems unthinkable.
Unthinkable!
Ah. Many things in Australia are unthinkable!
Ian Clark maintains “that hegemons are much more than dominant powers”. Denis Florig writes hegemony
“requires not only the hard military and economic power to enforce dominance when necessary, but also the ideological, political, and institutional power to persuade others to accept the rules and norms of a system largely designed and operated by the hegemon and its allies.”
This is the rules-based order over which Australia is nostalgic.
Hegemony is deep and pervasive.
Michael Mazarr refers to indirect power, which “involves influencing how people think—how they conceive their interests and very identities—rather than trying to coerce or bribe them into making a specific choice. It shapes what others believe they want, and why”.
This has been the flavour of American hegemony since the middle of last century.
A very typical Australian Summer.
America has shaped a weltanschauung and embed norms and values among other political cultures, and its hegemony has come to be seen as a legitimate, and an appropriate and rightful, use of its power. Any other organising framework for politics, society, or international relations other than the US promoted market-based capitalism and its evangelising democracy has become unimaginable. Life in the American hegemony has seemed natural and ordained, especially for Australians.
However, the democracy and capitalism America promoted have lost their lustre and Americans themselves have lost the passion for promoting democracy abroad. Now majorities or very substantial minorities in the US, France, Germany, and the UK believe their political systems need a major overhaul. In addition, half of all Americans, Germans, and British believe their economic system requires major reform. That figure is 70% in France. The ideological engine of the hegemony is spluttering.
America now displays a seemingly irredeemable racism and growing anti-democratic illiberalism, in a violent and divided nation where wealth is over-concentrated and poverty entrenched. Externally America has established a record of military overreach and failed adventures, and is increasingly reduced to using the coercive power of the dollar and sanctions where once it could have persuaded and relied on shared views. However, whether consciously or not, the slogans “Make America Great Again” and “Build Back Better” are admissions of loss.
Europeans doubts have grown about the US’s willingness and capacity to come to their aid in a crisis following the Trump interregnum and the American obsession with the Indo-Pacific. The US cannot commit to the security of Europe and confront China at the same time, this will necessitate a significant reshaping of the strategic environment. This unease is pronounced among both experts and the public; as seen in the recent increase in publications on European strategic autonomy (see here, here, here, here, and here for example) and opinion polls. These concerns haven’t been alleviated by Joe Biden’s election.
That the US is no longer the hegemon doesn’t mean it won’t be an important actor for a long time to come, although history shows economic and military prominence can collapse relatively quickly. However, America remains rich and powerful with enormous economic, military, and social capital. But its loss of capacity to shape world events, deliver security and democracy, and determine the global order is on show on Ukraine’s borders, and in the Black and Azov Seas, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Yemen, and Tigray, where its influence is marginal.
Most tellingly has been the inability of the US to take a multilateral leadership role over the illegal Israeli actions against Gaza, which will set back Middle East politics a generation, or to resolve the egregious human rights abuses and destruction of democracy in Myanmar, a part of the ASEAN purported to be at the centre of the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy. Multilateralism, democracy, and human rights are the banners of the Biden Administration.
The understanding of hegemony put forward by Clark, Florig, and Mazarr effectively excludes a succession of hegemony to China.
Certainly China aims for international pre-eminence and seeks the diminution of America’s dominant role in world affairs. Many of the norms, values and institutions America has spread will outlast its hegemony. Even where China’s ambition to succeed it, which it’s not, the US would be capable of stifling its prospects.
The waning of a hegemony is an unpredictably complex matter and it presents new and difficult foreign policy challenges.
There is a cognitive dissonance about the power shift in the current US Administration, and a sense that replicating past actions and behaviors will restore the former situation.
A mistaken belief that the hegemony can be rehabilitated and that legitimacy can be regained.
Cleaving too close to America will find Australia in awkward or irretrievable positions.
The state capitalist model might out compete, or at least match, the US in technology, trade, and investment across the globe. Not only the Europeans, but nations generally will act in the interests of their own populations and seek benefits from great powers opportunistically in the absence of a hegemon.
Increasingly Australia will have to navigate a world where there are multiple versions of events and differences over right and wrong, and where states will line up in accord with their interests as they interpret them. The decisive great power actor(s) in any situation will be context specific. The delineation of spheres of influence and shifting balance of power arrangements among powers will require Australia to be nimble, smart, and independent.
A hegemon free environment will be more fluid and offer more chances for middle powers to play-off great powers and engage in temporary alliances to advantage.
It’s about time Australia lifted it’s vision and saw the bigger picture.
What’s the worst that could happen?
And there is the effort to “contain” China using Australia and NGO efforts…
And so we have this article. Written on May 9, 2021, Found HERE, and all the regular disclaimers apply.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing are not merely the recent results of former US President Donald Trump’s time in office – but rather just the latest chapter in US efforts to contain China that stretch back decades.
Indeed, US foreign policy has for decades admittedly aimed at encircling and containing China’s rise and maintaining primacy over the Indo-Pacific region.
The “Pentagon Papers” leaked in 1969 would admit in regards to the ongoing US war against Vietnam that:
…the February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only if they are in support of a long-run United States policy to contain China.
The papers also admitted that China, “looms as a major power threatening to undercut [American] importance and effectiveness in the world and, more remotely but more menacingly, to organize all of Asia against [America].
The papers also made it clear that there were (and still are), “three fronts to a long-run effort to contain China: (a) the Japan-Korea front; (b) the India-Pakistan front; and (c) the Southeast Asia front.”
Since then, it is clear that from the continued US military presence in both Japan and South Korea, the now two decades-long US occupation of Afghanistan on both Pakistan’s and China’s borders, and the emergence of the so-called “Milk Tea Alliance” aimed at overthrowing Southeast Asian governments friendly with China and replacing them with US-backed client regimes – this policy to contain China endures up to today.
Assessing US activity along these three fronts reveals the progress and setbacks Washington faces – and various dangers to global peace and stability Washington’s continued belligerence pose.
The Japan-Korea Front
Military.com in their article, “Here’s What It Costs to Keep US Troops in Japan and South Korea,” reports:
In all, more than 80,000 U.S. troops are deployed to Japan and South Korea. In Japan alone, the U.S. maintains more than 55,000 deployed troops — the largest forward-deployed U.S. force anywhere in the world.
The article notes that according to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the US spent “$34 billion to maintain military presences in Japan and South Korea between 2016 and 2019.”
The article cites the GAO providing an explanation as to why this massive US military presence is maintained in East Asia:
“…U.S. forces help strengthen alliances, promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region, provide quick response to emergencies and are essential for U.S. national security.”
“Alliances” that are “strengthened” by the physical presence of what are essentially occupying US forces suggests the “alliance” is hardly voluntary and claims of promoting a “free and open Indo-Pacific region” is highly subjective – begging the question of to whom the Indo-Pacific is “free and open” to.
And as US power wanes both regionally in the Indo-Pacific as well as globally, Washington has placed increasing pressure on both Japan and South Korea to not only help shoulder this financial burden, but to also become more proactive within Washington’s containment strategy toward China.
Japan is one of three other nations (the US itself, Australia, and India) drafted into the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – also know as the “Quad.”
Rather than the US solely depending on its own military forces based within Japanese territory or supported by its Japan-based forces, Japan’s military along with India’s and Australia’s are also being recruited to take part in military exercises and operations in and around the South China Sea.
India’s inclusion in the Quad also fits well into the US 3-front strategy that made up Washington’s containment policy toward China as early as the 1960s.
The India-Pakistan Front
In addition to recruiting India into the Quad alliance, the US helps encourage escalation through political support and media campaigning of India’s various territorial disputes with China.
The US also targets Pakistan’s close and ongoing relationship with China – including the support of armed insurgents in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
Recently, a bombing at a hotel in Quetta, Baluchistan appears to have targeted China’s ambassador to Pakistan, Ambassador Nong Rong.
The BBC in its article, “Pakistan hotel bomb: Deadly blast hits luxury venue in Quetta,” would claim:
Initial reports had suggested the target was China’s ambassador. Ambassador Nong Rong is understood to be in Quetta but was not present at the hotel at the time of the attack on Wednesday.
The article also noted:
Balochistan province, near the Afghan border, is home to several armed groups, including separatists. Separatists in the region want independence from the rest of Pakistan and accuse the government and China of exploiting Balochistan, one of Pakistan’s poorest provinces, for its gas and mineral wealth.
Absent from the BBC’s reporting is the extensive and open support the US government has provided these separatists over the years and how – clearly – this is more than just a local uprising against perceived injustice, but yet another example of armed conflict-by-proxy waged by Washington against China.
As far back as 2011 publications like The National Interest in articles like, “Free Baluchistan” would openly advocate expanding US support for separatism in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
The article was written by the late Selig Harrison – who was a senior fellow at the US-based corporate-financier funded Center for International Policy – and would claim:
Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar in the heart of Baluch territory. So an independent Baluchistan would serve U.S. strategic interests in addition to the immediate goal of countering Islamist forces.
Of course, “Islamist forces” is a euphemism for US-Persian Gulf state sponsored militants used to both fight Western proxy wars as well as serve as a pretext for Western intervention. Citing “Islamist forces” in Baluchistan, Pakistan clearly serves as an example of the latter.
In addition to op-eds published by influential policy think tanks, US legislators like US Representative Dana Rohrabacher had proposed resolutions such as (emphasis added), “US House of Representatives Concurrent Resolution 104 (112th): Expressing the sense of Congress that the people of Baluchistan, currently divided between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country.”
There is also funding provided to adjacent, political groups supporting separatism in Baluchistan, Pakistan as listed by the US government’s own National Endowment for Democracy (NED) website under “Pakistan.” Organizations like the “Association for Integrated Development Balochistan” are funded by the US government and used to mobilize people politically, constituting clear interference by the US in Pakistan’s internal political affairs.
The Gwadar Port project is a key juncture within China’s growing global network of infrastructure projects as part of its One Belt, One Road initiative. The US clearly opposes China’s rise and has articulated robust strategies to counter it; everything up to and including open war as seen in the Pentagon Papers regarding the Vietnam War.
The recent bombing in Baluchistan, Pakistan demonstrates that this strategy continues in regards to utilizing local militants to target Chinese-Pakistani cooperation and is one part of the much wider, region-wide strategy of encircling and containing China.
The Southeast Asia Front
Of course the US war against Vietnam was part of a wider effort to reassert Western primacy over Southeast Asia and deny the region from fueling China’s inevitable rise.
The US having lost the war and almost completely retreating from the Southeast Asia region saw Southeast Asia itself repair relations amongst themselves and with China.
Today, the nations of Southeast Asia count China as their largest trade partner, investor, a key partner in infrastructure development, a key supplier for the region’s armed forces, as well as providing the majority of tourism arrivals throughout the region. For countries like Thailand, more tourists arrive from China than from all Western nations combined.
Because existing governments in Southeast Asia have nothing to benefit from by participating in American belligerence toward China, the US has found it necessary to cultivate and attempt to install into power various client regimes. This has been an ongoing process since the Vietnam War.
The US has targeted each nation individually for years. In 2009 and 2010, US-backed opposition leader-in-exile Thaksin Shinawatra deployed his “red shirt” protesters in back-to-back riots – the latter of which included some 300 armed militants and culminated in city-wide arson across Bangkok and the death of over 90 police, soldiers, protesters, and bystanders.
In 2018, US-backed opposition groups took power in Malaysia after the US poured millions of dollars for over a decade in building up the opposition.
Daniel Twining of the US National Endowment for Democracy subsidiary – the International Republican Institute – admitted during a talk (starting at 56 minutes) by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that same year that:
… for 15 years working with NED resources, we worked to strengthen Malaysian opposition parties and guess what happened two months ago after 61 years? They won.
He would elaborate on how the NED’s network played a direct role in placing US-backed opposition figures into power within the Malaysian government, stating:
I visited and I was sitting there with many of the leaders the new leaders of this government, many of whom were just our partners we had been working with for 15 years and one of the most senior of them who’s now one of the people running the government said to me, ‘gosh IRI you never gave up on us even when we were ready to give up on ourselves.’
Far from “promoting freedom” in Malaysia – Twining would make clear the ultimate objective of interfering in Malaysia’s internal political affairs was to serve US interests not only in regards to Malaysia, but in regards to the entire region and specifically toward encircling and containing China.
Twining would boast:
…guess what one of the first steps the new government took? It froze Chinese infrastructure investments.
And that:
[Malaysia] is not a hugely pro-American country. It’s probably never going to be an actual US ally, but this is going to redound to our benefit, and and that’s an example of the long game.
It is a pattern that has repeated itself in Myanmar over the decades with NED money building a parallel political system within the nation and eventually leading to Aung San Suu Kyi and her US-backed National League for Democracy (NLD) party taking power in 2016.
For Myanmar, so deep and extensive is US backing for opposition groups there that elections virtually guarantee US-backed candidates win every single time. The US National Endowment for Democracy’s own website alone lists over 80 programs and organizations receiving US government money for everything from election polling and building up political parties, to funding media networks and “environmental” groups used to block Chinese-initiated infrastructure projects
The move by Myanmar’s military in February this year, ousting Aung Sang Suu Kyi and the NLD was meant to correct this.
However, in addition to backing political groups protesting in the streets, the US has – for many decades – backed and armed ethnic rebels across the country. These rebels have now linked up with the US-backed NLD and are repeating US-backed regime change tactics used against the Arab World in 2011 in nations like Libya, Yemen, and Syria – including explicit calls for “international intervention.”
Watch the following clip from CSIS panel discussion where DC policy operatives admit how the US use ‘democracy promotion’ front organizations like the NED and USAID in order to meddle and gain covert influence over politics in key strategic countries like Malaysia:
A US-Engineered “Asia Spring”
Just as the US did during the 2011 “Arab Spring” – the US State Department, in a bid to create synergies across various regime change campaigns in Asia, has introduced the “Milk Tea Alliance” to transform individual US-backed regime change efforts in Asia into a region-wide crisis.
The BBC itself admits in articles like, “Milk Tea Alliance: Twitter creates emoji for pro-democracy activists,” that:
The alliance has brought together anti-Beijing protesters in Hong Kong and Taiwan with pro-democracy campaigners in Thailand and Myanmar.
Omitted from the BBC’s coverage of the “Milk Tea Alliance” (intentionally) is the actual common denominators that unite it – US funding through fronts like the National Endowment for Democracy and a unifying hatred of China based exclusively on talking points pushed by the US State Department itself.
Circling back to the Pentagon Papers and recalling the coordinated, regional campaign the US sought to encircle China with – we can then look at more recent US government policy papers like the “Indo-Pacific Framework” published in the White House archives from the Trump administration.
The policy paper’s first bullet point asks:
How to maintain US strategic primacy in the Indo-Pacific region and promote a liberal economic order while preventing China from establishing new, illiberal spheres of influence, and cultivating areas of cooperation to promote regional peace and prosperity?
The paper also discusses information campaigns designed to “educate” the world about “China’s coercive behaviour and influence operations around the globe.” These campaigns have materialized in a propaganda war fabricating accusations of “Chinese genocide” in Xinjiang, China, claims that Chinese telecom company Huawei is a global security threat, and that China – not the US – is the single largest threat to global peace and stability today.
In reality US policy aimed at encircling China is predicated upon Washington’s desire to continue its own decades-long impunity upon the global stage and the continuation of all the wars, humanitarian crises, and abuses that have stemmed from it.
Understanding the full scope of Washington’s “competition” with China helps unlock the confusion surrounding unfolding individual crises like the trade war, the ongoing violence and turmoil in Myanmar, bombings in southwest Pakistan, students mobs in Thailand, riots in Hong Kong, and attempts by the US to transform the South China Sea into an international conflict.
Understanding that these events are all connected – then assessing the success or failure of US efforts gives us a clearer picture of the overall success Washington in encircling China. It also gives governments and regional blocs a clearer picture of how to manage policy in protecting against US subversion that threatens national, regional, and global peace and stability.
And inside of the United States what do the sheeple think?
Indeed, the rest of the world is starting to put it’s collective feet down, and they are turning to the combined might of Russia and China which now together is a massive and formidable force to put America in it’s place.
But the dumb-asses don’t quite get it.
They are that fucking stupid.
Of course, Joe and Suzy average in the United States know none of this. They are all lost in some kind of Twilight Zone adventure that they are living. But as the United States thrashes about, certainly the people; the citizenry must be aware of what is going on. Right?
It’s difficult to tell from what constitutes “news” these days…
They keep telling us that economic conditions are improving, but if that is true why are the shortages worse than ever?
For a moment, I would like to take you all the way back to 2019.
Before the pandemic came along, we didn’t have any shortages.
If you wanted something, you just went to the store and got it or you ordered it online. Prices were low, global supply chains were functioning smoothly, and to most people it seemed like it would stay that way for the foreseeable future.
But then the pandemic hit, and “panic buying” caused short-term shortages of certain items such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
It was understandable that people would want to hoard those things, because there was a lot of fear in the air. But we also knew that those shortages were only going to be temporary.
Now here we are in 2021, and we were told that things would be getting back to normal by now.
But instead, there are severe shortages everywhere around us.
In fact, the shortages are far worse than anything that we experienced in 2020.
For example, did you know that dozens of important drugs are in short supply?
According to the official FDA website, there are shortages of more than 100 drugs in the United States right now…
Right now there are currently about 120 drugs listed as having a shortage.
On the website, if you type in a drug name in the database search field you can see if and why it’s in short supply. You can also see whether it is scheduled to be discontinued, and when the supply may start flowing again.
“Builders are delaying starting new construction because of the marked increase in costs for lumber and other inputs,” said Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a report Tuesday.
He added that supply shortages for appliances are also putting a damper on new home building activity.
Just over our northern border, the shortages have gotten really severe. In some cases, the construction of homes “is months behind schedule” because the shortages have gotten so bad…
Home builders across Canada are getting hit by a string of supply-chain disruptions, resulting in widespread product shortages and explosive costs for the industry.
In some cases, home construction is months behind schedule as developers struggle to source everything from lumber to PVC pipes, insulation to windows. Builders are also holding back on presales, unable to accurately price their homes too far in advance, given that material costs can fluctuate wildly on a daily basis.
“The whole supply chain is out of whack,” said Matt McCurrach, president of Homex Development Corp. in Kamloops, B.C.
“It’s getting worse and worse every day,” added Sue Wastell, president of Wastell Homes in London, Ont. “Literally every day, we’re finding out something else is not arriving when it was scheduled to. … We’ve never seen anything like this.”
Of even greater concern is the global shortage of computer chips.
Just about every industry that you can name is extremely dependent on equipment that uses computer chips, and CNN is telling us that this shortage “is going from bad to worse”…
The shortage is going from bad to worse, spreading from cars to consumer electronics. With the bulk of chip production concentrated in a handful of suppliers, analysts warn that the crunch is likely to last through 2021.
According to Goldman Sachs, 169 US industries embed semiconductors in their products. The bank is forecasting a 20% average shortfall of computer chips among affected industries, with some of the components used to make chips in short supply until at least this fall and possibly into 2022.
Actually, as I pointed out the other day, many executives now expect the computer chip shortage to extend into 2023.
For automakers, this is rapidly becoming a complete and total nightmare.
During the first quarter, global auto production was down by about 10 percent due to the chip shortage, but Ford has announced that production in the second quarter will be down by about 50 percent…
Investors have heard plenty about the current state of capacity problems for months. Roughly 2 million cars—or about 10% of quarterly global automotive production—weren’t built in the first quarter because of no chips. Ford Motor (ticker: F), one of the auto makers feeling the shortage most acutely, said in late April that it expects to lose about 50% of planned second-quarter production.
A 50 percent decline in production?
That is nuts!
If automakers can’t make vehicles, then they will have to start laying off workers.
Unfortunately, that is precisely what just happened at one factory in northern Illinois…
Some 1,600 jobs are being cut at a Jeep Cherokee factory in northern Illinois as automakers continue being plagued by the global shortage of semiconductors.
The U.S. arm of Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, said Friday it was cutting one of the two work shifts at its Belvidere Assembly Plant as of July 26. That could result in the layoffs of 1,641 workers, company spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said.
The economic optimists keep telling us that better days are right around the corner, but those better days never seem to materialize.
Instead, employment is still way below pre-pandemic levels, global supply chains are in a state of complete and utter chaos, and we are facing severe shortages of just about everything…
Copper, iron ore and steel. Corn, coffee, wheat and soybeans. Lumber, semiconductors, plastic and cardboard for packaging. The world is seemingly low on all of it. “You name it, and we have a shortage on it,” Tom Linebarger, chairman and chief executive of engine and generator manufacturer Cummins Inc., said on a call this month. Clients are “trying to get everything they can because they see high demand,” Jennifer Rumsey, the Columbus, Indiana-based company’s president, said. “They think it’s going to extend into next year.”
The difference between the big crunch of 2021 and past supply disruptions is the sheer magnitude of it, and the fact that there is — as far as anyone can tell — no clear end in sight. Big or small, few businesses are spared. Europe’s largest fleet of trucks, Girteka Logistics, says there’s been a struggle to find enough capacity. Monster Beverage Corp. of Corona, California, is dealing with an aluminum can scarcity. Hong Kong’s MOMAX Technology Ltd. is delaying production of a new product because of a dearth of semiconductors.
In my entire lifetime, I have never seen such widespread shortages.
Those that are running things keep insisting that they have everything totally under control and that things will eventually get back to normal.
You can believe them if you want, but millions of others are preparing for a future in which their optimistic assessments of the future turn out to be very, very wrong.
Do You Get The Feeling That Events Happening Now Are Leading Us Into An Endless Global Nightmare?
2021 was supposed to be the year that life went back to normal.
Obviously that is not happening, and so a lot of prominent voices out there are going to be forced to update their narratives.
Global events have really started to accelerate, and so many of the things that the “doom and gloomers” have been warning about are starting to happen right in front of our eyes.
For example, on my websites I have been talking about Israel a lot in recent months, and now it appears that the region is on the brink of war.
So far, more than 700 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, but by the time you read this article that number will probably be even higher. In response, the IDF has conducted a series of dramatic strikes inside Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising “to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks”…
‘Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,’ Netanyahu said. ‘We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.’
Joe Biden and other world leaders are begging for peace, but neither side appears to be inclined to back down.
Every time Israel retaliates, Hamas just launches even more rockets at Israeli cities, and they are insisting that this is their “right”…
“We have the right to respond to the Israeli offensive and protect the interests of our people as long as the Israeli occupation continues the escalation,” Hamas said in a statement.
So here we go.
As I discussed yesterday, this situation has the potential to get wildly out of control very rapidly.
If that was happening in this country, millions of Americans would be screaming for Biden to nuke somebody.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack has caused massive gasoline shortages up and down the east coast of the United States. On Tuesday evening, the Drudge Report breathlessly declared that more than 1,000 gas stations had run out of gasoline, and Zero Hedge was reporting that some people were waiting in line for up to five hours in a desperate attempt to fill up their vehicles.
Up until recently, just about the only thing that we were missing from the economy of the 1970s was the long gas lines, but now here we are.
North America’s largest petroleum pipeline has been shut down for just a few days, and now much of the southeastern quadrant of the country is absolutely paralyzed.
Do you think that there is a lesson to be learned here?
Of course there is. Once again we see how incredibly vulnerable we are to any sort of a major disruption. If the unprecedented power grid failure in Texas a few months ago was not enough of a wake up call for you, this definitely should be.
At this point, we are being told it is uncertain whether or not the Colonial Pipeline will be able to restore operations by this weekend…
If the Colonial Pipeline is not back in business by the weekend, prices could continue to rise at the pump and there will be broader localized fuel shortages across the southeast and mid-Atlantic regions.
Eventually, the flow of gasoline will be restored and everyone along the east coast will be able to fill up their vehicles again.
But the crazy inflation that we are witnessing right is not going to go away.
For years, economic “doom and gloomers” have been warning that if we kept recklessly creating, borrowing and spending money that really bad things would happen.
How many times have we heard about “the death of the dollar” and the dangers of wildly inflating our currency?
Well, it turns out that the “doom and gloomers” were dead on accurate. Inflation is one of the biggest stories of 2021 so far, and we just got another confirmation of how bad things are getting out there…
The median price for a single-family home in the U.S. rose the most on record in the first quarter, as buyers fought over a dearth of inventory, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Prices jumped 16.2% from a year earlier to a record high of $319,200. The growth eclipsed the 14.8% rate in the fourth quarter, which was the highest in data going back to 1989, the group said in a report Tuesday.
But at least home prices are not rising as fast as the price of cotton is.
If you can believe it, the price of cotton is up more than 50 percent over the past year.
Of course the price of corn is rising even more rapidly. As I discussed the other day, the price of corn is up about 50 percent just since the turn of the year.
Needless to say, lumber still has everyone else beat. The price of lumber has actually risen more than 200 percent over the past 12 months.
A lot of comparisons have been made to the horrible inflation that the U.S. experienced during the 1970s, but really I think that we need to go all the way back to the 1930s for a more accurate parallel to our current situation.
At this point, we are becoming more like the Weimar Republic with each passing day.
Everywhere you look, systems are failing, society is crumbling and evil is growing. Even the Secret Service, who are supposed to be the best of the best, are now plagued by endless scandals and widespread incompetence.
This is not a drill. A widespread societal collapse is now underway, and it is going to get progressively worse.
This is the time of our endless nightmare, but nobody is going to ever be allowed to wake up from it.
It Took Just A Couple Of Days For Madness To Descend Upon America Once Gas Shortages Began
Did you react calmly when you learned that a cyberattack against one of our most important pipelines was causing thousands of gas stations to run out of gasoline?
Sadly, lots of Americans didn’t.
There was yelling, there was screaming, there was lots of hoarding, vehicles were waiting in line for hours at stations that still had gas, and there were reports that brawls were even breaking out between frustrated motorists.
Even though we knew that the shortages were just going to be temporary, people were “panic buying” gasoline as if the apocalypse had arrived.
“This is the worst panic buying for gasoline since the Carter Administration,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service.
Kloza said outages at more than 10,000 gas stations are spreading “like a bad rash” on the East Coast. Much of the problem is people are buying gasoline at twice the normal rate in the Florida peninsula, as well as in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
For some individuals, just filling up their tanks with gasoline was not enough. Motorists began to fill up any containers that they had on hand with gasoline, and some of the things we witnessed were incredibly stupid. For example, you should never, ever try to fill up plastic bags with gasoline.
I know that sounds obvious, but apparently so many people were doing this that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission felt that it had to send out a tweet telling people to stop.
The more gas stations that ran dry, the worse the panic buying frenzy became.
In certain major cities, nearly all of the gas stations have run dry. Just check out these numbers…
The supply crunch appears to be much worse in some major metro areas. GasBuddy reported outages Wednesday morning impacting 71% of the stations in metro Charlotte, nearly 60% in Atlanta, 72% in Raleigh and 73% in Pensacola.
All of this happened because a single pipeline got shut down by a cyberattack.
The Colonial Pipeline is 5,500 miles long, and it supples approximately half of the gasoline for the east coast. On Wednesday evening, the company finally announced that operations were restarting, but they warned that it is going to take several days for things to “return to normal”…
Colonial Pipeline initiated the restart of pipeline operations today at approximately 5 p.m. ET.
Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal. Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.
But something doesn’t add up here. The pipeline is being restarted, but the company has announced that it has absolutely no plans to pay the ransom to the hackers…
Colonial Pipeline reportedly has no plans to pay rumored $5 million-plus ransom to Russian hackers who have paralyzed the key gas pipeline, as President Joe Biden vows to get the fuel crisis ‘under control’ with pressure mounting on his administration to do more.
Do the hackers no longer pose a threat to the pipeline?
I don’t understand.
Either the pipeline never needed to be shut down in the first place, or the hackers are still in a position to cause major damage if they carry through on their threats.
Someone needs to explain which of those alternatives is true.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer says Enbridge Inc. has until Wednesday to shut a huge crude pipeline that crosses the Great Lakes. The Canadian company says it’s got the law on its side, and the oil will keep flowing.
The standoff is the latest milepost in the increasingly tense dispute over Line 5, a 540,000 barrel-a-day line that supplies half of the oil and propane used by parts of the U.S. Midwest and Ontario.
Is she crazy?
Needless to say, we have had the answer to that question for quite some time.
But what she is trying to do now is beyond insane. Why in the world would anyone try to shut down a pipeline when there are gas shortages happening all over the country?
Whitmer argues the pipeline, built in 1953, is too exposed to potential accidents where it crosses at the Straits of Mackinac in the northern part of the state. But the two sides are in a court-ordered mediation, and Enbridge plans to keep the line running while that plays out — prompting Whitmer to threaten to sue to take any profits it makes.
Are you kidding me?
She could have waited until this current crisis has passed, but Whitmer has decided that action must be taken immediately before any “potential accidents” are allowed to happen.
Is Whitmer really this incompetent, or is another agenda at work?
We really don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. We are told that a “ransomware gang” attacked the Colonial Pipeline, but it actually could have been anyone.
It could have been terrorists, it could have been another county, it could have been an attack from inside our own country, or it could have been the work of some smelly overweight guy chomping down Oreo cookies in his mother’s basement.
We just don’t know.
But this just shows us how deeply vulnerable we are.
If disrupting a single pipeline for just a few days can cause this much chaos, what in the world is going to happen when we are facing multiple long-term national emergencies?
To me, this is another major league wake up call.
Global events are starting to spiral out of control, our enemies know where our weak spots are, and this crisis has once again shown how easy it is to push American citizens into a state of utter madness.
What does all this mean?
Here’s my MM executive summary.
The United States is a corrupt oligarchy-ruled military empire.
Those at the functional leadership level are impotent at a number of levels.
The entire government mechanism is careening out of control.
Other nations are observing this.
The USA solution to domestic unrest is to engage in a major war.
Russia, and China have established “red lines” that are fixed and which will result in terrible consequences if crossed.
America is prepping for a major war anyways.
If you were Russia or China, what would you do? I argue that much of what they are doing is not being publicized, and are hidden from most people. And common sense dictates that proper thought and careful measures be taken.
Work at a frenzied pace to fortify all defensive measures. Militarily, socially, electronically, technologically, and politically.
Put military leadership in both command centers, and work together.
Test your offensive and defensive capabilities.
But what else?
Strengthen and enlarge intel collection operations.
Enlarge and expand black operations targeting regional threats.
Prepare a “first strike” doomsday plan.
And as far as the sheeple inside of America, what is going on?
Keep them ignorant.
Have them “chasing their tail” regarding vaccinations, politics, and social re-engineering.
Create a frenzy of hate towards both China and Russia so that many Americans want to go to war.
Make life difficult for Americans so that they will get very angry.
Provide a scapegoat of China / Russia to blame all the discomfort upon.
Meanwhile inflation is starting to eat everything, and prices are rising.
The trade war has been a fiasco for American industry and the American consumer.
Unemployment levels already high are going to increase.
Now, with all that being stated on the global politics side of things, let’s take a look at this article…
…because there is a “wild card” at play here that is not being reported.
Several years ago, one thing became clear — that if Keshe technology was real, the world would change, and hydrocarbons would be a thing of the past as fuel, and that our world economy, an energy slave economy, was dead. It goes further.
What Is Keshe Plasma Technology?
Keshe plasma technology gives us access to the uncontrollable open source technology that builds our universe, and is transforming our lives.
Click to download KESHE_TECH_SUMMARY_v10.pdf
Governments, the US, Israel and Britain, have been contacted about “sharing” technology that would, if Keshe is right, make the planes, missiles and even the billion dollar cradle to grave surveillance nightmare useless.
Now we can share what we do know, the basis for Keshe theory.
For the Keshe machines…
… for Keshe’s irritating language of “magravs” and “plasma” is very real.
His “crap” actually makes electricity “out of thin air” just like he said and, if that is true…
… and it is…
… then the whole thing is going to burn to the ground, the whole sick mess.
As of today, we can categorically state that Keshe tech is very real, that physics we are taught in school, physics the US publicly espouses as valid, is not.
We had known that several major aerospace companies were involved in projects, not only outside conventional science but much further, including time travel, thought inducement and deep space exploration, all using capabilities beyond conventional reality.
We now know that though it all may not be true, much of it is now “probably” true and some of the “impossible” is certainly true.
We begin:
Iranian nuclear physicist and peace activist, Mehran Keshe, has officially announced that it was his technology that brought down an American RQ170 Sentinel drone over Iran and disabled the AEGIS destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, in the Black Sea.
The US has given no plausible explanation for the downing of the RQ 170:
We have, during the past few weeks, been able to verify that Keshe energy units do actually work. We had test results from other sources, but we did our own:
Veterans Today began investigating Mehran Keshe several years ago.
Some of this story we have told before, so please be patient.
Keeping it short as possible, I assigned Colonel Hanke, who works with DARPA on energy projects, along with Mike Harris, to work with the Keshe group.
Then I sent Dr. Riccardo Maggiore of MIT to visit Keshe in Italy.
We then went further and there was a good reason.
Iran had captured an American RQ170 stealth drone, something impossible.
Moreover, Keshe had two groups of painfully inept detractors, a pair of cabals from the “free energy community,” a group that makes the new “truther” groups seem impressive. For those unaware, there is a huge online community of fraudsters who haunt the anti-vacc and natural medicine websites.
To learn about these folks, simply google “keshe” and you can list them.
One in Morocco was picked up and questioned last week about missing children and another, in Belgium (and Netherlands, depending on day of the week) showed up on an INTERPOL notice tied to a “trafficking and slavery” complaint.
Our partnerships with ECIPS, DESI and Center for Counter Terrorism have been very useful. They have given us full access to agencies across Europe. This has been a nasty business with some very nasty people and, quite frankly, dealing with this kind of thing is child’s play for the VT gang.
Where my notice was tweaked was when MI 6 started to trip over themselves in their usual delightfully “oh so British” fashion, as Michael Shrimpton puts it.
We knew this…
Keshe had worked in Iran with a massive budget on projects unrelated to anything arms inspectors have looked at.
Keshe doesn’t do missiles or bombs.
We also know that China has taken a strong interest in Keshe.
Our concern is how China is volunteering to throw endless funding to move Keshe medical and “other” tech from the “imaginary physics” stage to operation.
Either we all trust China, something I am not totally averse to doing, or begin playing with governments we long ago discovered can’t be trusted.
There is no easy way out of this.
Trust China/Iran/Russia or Trust America
Let’s move on to something less dark, something more fun to talk about, and I will turn this over to Ian Greenhalgh:
We suspect that the Keshe technology is…
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[1] The result of reverse-engineering Alien hardware;
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We further suspect that…
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[2] The Iranians found this hardware during archaeological exploration and it is millenia old.
Sharing this technology with Russia may have been a case of Iran lacking the resources to reverse-engineer whatever they found and the Russians are the acknowledged experts at reverse-engineering.
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Sources indicate that Gordon Duff had been briefed on ancient “technology dumps” in both Iran and Ukraine but he is unwilling to discuss this.
A little over two years ago, Preston James wrote an article that seems almost prescient in light of recent intelligence:
Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be walking with a prideful swagger in his step lately.
“Unsubstantiated rumors have been seeping out of deep contacts inside Russian Space Command the last few weeks that, not only does the new Putin’s Russia have a well developed Secret Space war Program, but that this Program provides substantial ultra-high-tech back-engineered offensive and defensive weaponry.
And that such advanced weaponry can and will be deployed if Israel is able to once again deploy their hijacked American War Machine to start another Proxy War, this time in the Ukraine against Putin’s New Russia.”
This advanced weaponry appears to have been deployed against the USS Sitting Duck in the Black Sea, an event that sent very real shivers down the spines of American and Israeli military and political leaders (if they possess spines, that is). Preston goes on to ask:
“Do Russians now have access to Space War Weapons based on back-engineered Alien ET technology gained through a new treaty negotiated between Putin and a certain group of Alien ETs who are enemies of the group controlling the World Zionists (WZs) and the International Zionist Crime Syndicate (IZCS)?”
The answer to this appears to be a definite ‘maybe’;
It would certainly explain why Russia has stood firm against the Zionists and the criminal operations in Ukraine and Syria, despite wide-ranging sanctions that, despite denials, have undoubtedly damaged their economy and the ruble and an ever-growing belligerence on the part of certain figures in NATO such as Gen. Breedlove. In short, maybe Putin is standing up to the criminals because someone does have his back.
Preston also made a good guess at what some of the offensive weapons that have resulted from back-engineering might be:
The actual state of back-engineered Alien ET technology for Russian weapons systems is not known by American Intel at this time.
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But estimates are constructed using advanced algorithms on advanced computers to make estimates.
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And the latest version of the Russian Sunburn Missile System is a good example of an advanced weapons system that can be used to project what could be considered a fairly good estimate of the current state of Russian Secret Space war weaponry that has been deployed.
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Some military technology experts believe that the Sunburn is based on Alien ET back-engineered technology.
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Why would they think this?
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Because the latest versions of the Sunburn are believed to have hiving capability and the ability to travel at speeds up to 7,000 to 9,000 miles per hour.
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That is a lot more than the officially released figures of Mach 2.1.
“Hiving” is the ability of these missiles when launched in mass to remain in constant communication with one another on special scrambled frequencies which constantly change.
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If one or more Sunburn missile is shot down or interfered with, the rest adjust in response to the threat, re-target, and resort to random defensive maneuvers to make sure every target is still covered and attacked by priority of importance. .
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Some of these maneuvers are so gravity-defying, it is suspected that anti-gravity technology has been utilized in the latest model of the Sunburn missiles.
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It is also suspected that new anti-matter light and time warping technologies are used to provide advanced “cloaking” for these Sunburns.
If these rumors are even close to accurate it means that any USN ships within range of these Sunburns (which may be substantially greater than the claimed 1200 miles), could be sunk within mere minutes.
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Some experts believe that the USAF (or the USN) has nothing that can adequately respond to the Sunburn.
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Even the Rail guns and high-powered particle beams which have been secretly deployed on some carriers and destroyers and kept under wraps until needed, or on special Space war orbital platforms, cannot respond fast or accurately enough to stop all of a hive of Sunburns that are launched.
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“Now here is the grim truth. No matter how good American Intel has been about the Russian’s Secret Space War Program and the level of advanced back-engineered Alien ET technology, which now has been deployed, it is limited.
And it is unlikely that the full story has been gained by American Intel, due to the various levels of secrecy and “need to know” installed around the Russian’s secret Space War Program.
Of course this kind of layered secrecy has been installed around America’s Secret Space War Program. America’s secret Space War program is unfortunately now run by foreign offshore-controlled, private defense Contractors, most of whom are deeply infiltrated by Israeli Intel, some of whom are actually deep cover spies who report directly to Russian Intel, unbeknownst to the Israelis who are cocky and getting quite careless lately.”
Part Two
Hi, this is Gordon back again. Figure it is spring here, half a foot of snow on the ground, and we are trying to find a way to lead where this will go, where it must go. I have friends in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere without electricity half the time, often without water, and we now know we can produce electricity not quite out of nothing but genuinely free energy.
What is unique about Keshe’s program is its direction.
When he talks about peace, he means it.
You know, what has irritated so many about Iran and China is their unwillingness to, despite their burgeoning military spending, threaten neighbors or build offensive capabilities.
Yes, Iran has missiles but Israel and Saudi Arabia, not the best neighbors for anyone, have nuclear weapons and a reputation for bad behavior.
If Keshe tech can take down an RQ170, what would it do with an F18 or even an F35 as Keshe reminds us in Video 2?
(Video was taken down on you-tube and is no longer available. Which is why I always tell people, set up your own website and install your own videos there, or similar systems.)
The key is going to be, based on the assumption that we are dealing with something real, how we can make this something more than a military game or, worse still and a scenario we are prepared to deal with as best possible, how long do we wait until defense contracting firms and the secret society types move from “trolling” to poisoning or let’s say shooting at Keshe and his wife Carolyn while they are in their car.
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No, wait…
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…that’s already been done.
I am not “at home” around Keshe people but what are “Keshe people?” There is an article out there accusing me and the CIA (funny?) of running the upcoming Keshe “event” later this month. I did, however, review applicants to attend, a list that was carefully screened based on the requirement of the hosting country, one that has very strong policies on things like terrorism and crime.
I found lots of engineers, world experts on nanotechnology, more than a couple, but curiously, oil and chemical company execs who seem to really want to be there.
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What this can be, and maybe what it is, above all things is a way for people to find each other and, without government handouts and permission from the Wizard of Oz, take control of their lives, their future and their way of life.
I don’t see room for what we have learned to recognize as “government” in this scenario. I will cry when the last one is shut down.
So what is the “wild card” and how does it play out?
Well, whether it is this technology or something else, or whether it is reverse engineered or home-gown, or whether it is an invention by a mad scientist does not matter.
What does matter is that there is a very high likelihood that the Chinese / Russians and Iranians are in possession of technologies that the United States / UK, and Israel do not have. This gives them advantage.
As we have seen during the 2020 Naval flotilla fiasco in the South China Sea.
Those that run the United States oligarchy and it’s minions are not technology, nor military people. They are of a different disposition. And they are flailing wildly about. The American people are caught up in a vice and they will be the ones who will pay the prices that these maniac oligarchy generate.
While times are certainly testy, they are never the less, still following the fourth turning predictions.
…
If you can believe this; we are just building up to the event. There is still a couple of years to go yet.
The danger period is approaching; 2023 through 2026, centered around 2025.
Hold on to your britches boys and girls. Dicy times are a coming.
Taking note of “The Fourth Turning” and the Strauss and Howe generational theory of predictive behavior in America, we note that they predicted a Crisis Catalyst in 2005 and a Climax in 2020.
If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026. What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning? History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.
Indeed, the dates are close but seem to be off by a few years.
In our case, it appears that the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle.
That is three years later.
What does Mr. Howe say?
Below is a brief essay originally published on 3/11/19 by Neil Howe discussing the typical progression of each “Turning”. It remains more relevant than ever amidst our current zeitgeist. It was written nearly a year before 2020 showed it’s ugly, ugly face.
NH: We live in a tumultuous time in American history.
The 2008 financial crisis and all its hardships, was the catalyst that tipped us into this age of uncertainty. It marked the start of a generation-long era of secular upheaval that will continue to run its course over the next decade or so. This is the generational theory I laid out in “The Fourth Turning,” a book I co-authored with William Strauss in 1997.
The Fourth Turning explains the rise of a figure like President Trump. In Trump’s Inauguration Day speech, he painted a bleak picture of “American carnage,” of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation” with “mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities.”
Looking abroad, it’s unclear whether America will turn inward and fall prey to nativism or maintain it’s nearly seventy year role as leader of the Free World. Other countries are becoming similarly insular. Britain voted to exit the European Union and we’ve heard anti-E.U. rumblings echoed throughout Europe from France to the Netherlands.
Other nations and peoples around the world are looking to either fill the vacuum in global leadership or exploit it to advance their own ambitions. We’ve seen the thunderous rise of Chinese economic clout, the calculating geopolitical maneuvering of a resurgent Russia, and the barbarous chaos wrought by the so-called Islamic State.
In many ways, this era of uncertainty follows the natural order of things. Like Nature’s four seasons, the cycles of history follow a natural rhythm or pattern. Over the past five centuries, Anglo-American society has entered a new era – a new turning – every two decades or so.
At the start of each turning, people change how they feel about themselves, the culture, the nation, and the future. Turnings come in cycles of four. Each cycle spans the length of a long human life, roughly eighty to one hundred years, or a unit of time the ancients called the saeculum.
The First Turning is called a High.
This is an era when institutions are strong and individualism is weak. Society is confident about where it wants to go collectively, even if those outside the majoritarian center feel stifled by the conformity.
America’s most recent First Turning was the post-World War II American High, beginning in 1946 and ending with the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963, a key lifecycle marker for today’s older Americans.
The Second Turningis an Awakening.
This is an era when institutions are attacked in the name of personal and spiritual autonomy. Just when society is reaching its high tide of public progress, people suddenly tire of social discipline and want to recapture a sense of personal authenticity. Young activists and spiritualists look back at the previous High as an era of cultural poverty.
America’s most recent Awakening was the “Consciousness Revolution,” which spanned from the campus and inner-city revolts of the mid 1960s to the tax revolts of the early ‘80s.
The Third Turning is an Unravelling.
The mood of this era is in many ways the opposite of a High. Institutions are weak and distrusted, while individualism is strong and flourishing. Highs follow Crises, which teach the lesson that society must coalesce and build. Unravelings follow Awakenings, which teach the lesson that society must atomize and enjoy.
America’s most recent Unraveling was the Long Boom and Culture Wars, beginning in the early 1980s and probably ending in 2008. The era opened with triumphant “Morning in America” individualism and drifted toward a pervasive distrust of institutions and leaders, an edgy popular culture, and the splitting of national consensus into competing “values” camps.
And finally we enter the Fourth Turning, which is a Crisis.
This is an era in which America’s institutional life is torn down and rebuilt from the ground up—always in response to a perceived threat to the nation’s very survival. Civic authority revives, cultural expression finds a community purpose, and people begin to locate themselves as members of a larger group.
In every instance, Fourth Turnings have eventually become new “founding moments” in America’s history, refreshing and redefining the national identity. Currently, this period began in 2008, with the Global Financial Crisis and the deepening of the War on Terror, and will extend to around 2030.
If the past is any prelude to what is to come, as we contend, consider the prior Fourth Turning which was kicked off by the stock market crash of 1929 and climaxed with World War II.
Just as a Second Turning reshapes our inner world (of values, culture and religion), a Fourth Turning reshapes our outer world (of politics, economy and empire).
To be clear, the road ahead for America will be rough. But I take comfort in the idea that history cycles back and that the past offers us a guide to what we can expect in the future. Like Nature’s four seasons, the cycles of history follow a natural rhythm or pattern.
Make no mistake. Winter is coming. How mild or harsh it will be is anyone’s guess but the basic progression is as natural as counting down the days, weeks and months until Spring.
Exerpts from the book The Fourth Turning
In 1860-1861 southern states took the Lincoln victory as a de-facto proof that the North would increasingly seek to impose its will upon the south (they were right, but losing the war actually made it happen faster and more completely).
What people generally forget is that all states had large militias that were beholden ONLY to the states, and people had much more belief and legal adherence to the individual states, than now.
Terrorist actions do not start a war, because you cannot really go to war conventionally against terrorism. What happened in the 1860's is that state governments formed a new nation in rebellion.
Personally I don't think the Left or the Right, as a whole, have the balls to do this today. But I guess we'll see. Eventually the threats become real enough that it's hard to ignore them and just hope everything goes back to normal.
-Aerindel, SoJ_51 and Observer
This is straight from the book …
“Something happened to America at that time,” recalled U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye on V-J Day in 1995, the last of the 50-year commemoratives of World War II. “I’m not wise enough to know what it was. But it was the strange, strange power that our founding fathers experienced in those early, uncertain days. Let’s call it the spirit of America, a spirit that united and galvanized our people.” Inouye went on to reflect wistfully on an era when the nation considered no obstacle too big, no challenge too great, no goal too distant, no sacrifice too deep. A half-century later, that old spirit had long since dissipated, and nobody under age 70 remembered what it felt like. When Joe Dawson reenacted his D-Day parachute drop over Normandy, he said he did it “to show our country that there was a time when our nation moved forward as one unit.”
The Eternal Return
On the earthen floors of their rounded hogans, Navajo artists sift colored sand to depict the four seasons of life and time. Their ancestors have been doing this for centuries. They draw these sand circles in a counter-clockwise progression, one quadrant at a time, with decorative icons for the challenges of each age and season. When they near the end of the fourth season, they stop the circle, leaving a small gap just to the right of its top. This signifies the moment of death and rebirth, what the Hellenics called ekpyrosis. By Navajo custom, this moment can be provided (and the circle closed) only by God, never by mortal man. All the artist can do is rub out the painting, in reverse seasonal order, after which a new circle can be begun. Thus, in the Navajo tradition, does seasonal time stage its eternal return.
Like most traditional peoples, the Navaho accept not just the circularity of life, but also its perpetuity. Each generation knows its ancestors have drawn similar circles in the sand—and each expects its heirs to keep drawing them. The Navaho ritually reenact the past while anticipating the future. Thus do they transcend time.
Modern societies too often reject circles for straight lines between starts and finishes. Believers in linear progress, we feel the need to keep moving forward. The more we endeavor to defeat nature, the more profoundly we land at the mercy of its deeper rhythms. Unlike the Navajo, we cannot withstand the temptation to try closing the circle ourselves and in the manner of our own liking. Yet we cannot avoid history’s last quadrant. We cannot avoid the Fourth Turning, nor its ekpyrosis. Whether we welcome him or not, the Gray Champion will command our duty and sacrifice at a moment of Crisis. Whether we prepare wisely or not, we will complete the Millennial Saeculum. The epoch that began with V.J.-Day will reach a natural climax—and come to an end.
An end of what?
The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. But this end, while possible, is not likely. Human life is not so easily extinguishable. One conceit of linear thinking is the confidence that we possess such godlike power that—at the mere push of a button—we can obliterate nature, destroy our own seed, and make ourselves the final generations of our species. Civilized (post-Neolithic) man has endured some 500 generations, prehistoric (fire-using) man perhaps 5,000 generations, Homo Erectus ten times that. For the next Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection, and bad luck. Only the worst pessimist can imagine that.
The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm—which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance—could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. The “Western Civilization” of Toynbee and the “Faustian Culture” of Spengler would come to the inexorable close their prophesiers foresaw. A new dark ages would settle in, until some new civilization could be cobbled together from the ruins. The cycle of generations would also end, replaced by an ancient cycle of tradition (and fixed social roles for each phase of life) that would not allow progress. As with an omnicide, such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.
The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. This nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, Etruria ten, the Soviet Union (perhaps) only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a threat in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most horrible war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.
Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.
The new saeculum could find America a worse place. As Paul Kennedy has warned, it might no longer be a “great power.” Its global stature might be eclipsed by foreign rivals. Its geography might be smaller, its culture less dominant, its military less effective, its government less democratic, its Constitution less inspiring. Emerging from its millennial chrysalis, it might evoke nothing like the hope and respect of its “American Century” forbear. Abroad, people of goodwill and civilized taste might perceive this society as a newly dangerous place. Or they might see it as decayed, antiquated, an Old New World less central to human progress than we now are. All this is plausible, and possible, in the natural turning of saecular time.
Alternatively, the new saeculum could find America, and the world, a much better place. Like England in the Reformation Saeculum, the Superpower America of the Millennial Saeculum might merely be a prelude to a higher plane of civilization. Its new civic life might more nearly resemble that “shining city on a hill” to which its colonial ancestors aspired. Its ecology might be freshly repaired and newly sustainable, its economy rejuvenated, its politics functional and fair, its media elevated in tone, its culture creative and uplifting, its gender and race relations improved, its commonalities embraced and differences accepted, its institutions free of the corruptions that today seem entrenched beyond correction. People might enjoy new realms of personal, family, community, and national fulfillment. America’s borders might be redrawn around an altered but more cogent geography of public community. Its influence on world peace could be more potent, on world culture more uplifting. All this is achievable as well.
Conclusion
2020 was not the Climax; the Crisis of the Forth Turning in America. That still lies ahead of us.
I hope it never comes to this. In lieu, I can see the Balkinization of the country take place, sides would move to designated areas and set up permanent camp. There may be 2, 3 or more countries within the US before the dust settles.
-Survivalist Boards
A climax is a major event. It is typically marked by full-scale discord and absolute totality of full-scale war. That did not occur in 2020. That is not occurring now.
2020 was marked by a “pandemic”.
It was actually an intentionally released bio-weapon on China to “suppress it”, while unleashing a mild strain on Americans to inoculate them.
Most Americans (through their media) believe that either [1] it is a hoax, or [2] it is a new strain of flu that is sweeping the globe.
It is neither.
It is a bio-weapon attack on China by the neocon Trump administration, lead by John Bolton, gone terribly wrong.
Xi Peng and Putin do not get their intel from Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and CNN. They get it from their Intel divisions. And both nations have a full picture of what is going on, has gone on and will go on further.
Both nations (China and Russia) filed a formal complaint against the United States for launching this bio-weapon (and all the others that it launched in late 2020). And while Americans ignored this complaint, pretending that it is meaningless, it did do something.
It marked the start of Russia and China teaming up militarily against the United States.
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United States. (With the UK, Canada, Israel, and Australia.) Today there is isolated America. Confused. Arrogant. Thrashing and moaning. Demanding all sorts of things.
The Rest of the World. And the rest of the world, lead by Russia, and China, that are very carefully and very precisely planning to stop all this nonsense once and for all.
Adjusting the dates
“It seems I always underestimate the ability of sociopathic central bankers and their willingness to destroy the lives of hundreds of millions to benefit their oligarch masters. I always underestimate the rampant corruption that permeates Washington DC and the executive suites in mega-corporations across the land. And I always overestimate the intelligence, civic mindedness, and ability to understand math of the ignorant masses that pass for citizens in this country. It seems that issuing trillions of new debt to pay off trillions of bad debt, government sanctioned accounting fraud, mainstream media propaganda, government data manipulation and a populace blinded by mass delusion can stave off the inevitable consequences of an unsustainable economic system.”
-The Burning Platform
Adjusting the Strauss and Howe dates to account for the delay in the catalyst, messes things up a bit.
There is a nice graphic that I composed for your purposes of planning out the next few years. I hope that it is helpful. Adding three years, gives us…
“Crisis catalyst” in 2008.
Climax in 2023.
Resolution in 2029.
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Of course, you could argue the 2020 was the “climax” simply because it was one Hell of a shitty year. But you all know, it was a shitty year for everyone on the globe. Not just Americans. I argue that it was just foreplay for bigger stuff to come.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
And America, well, it’s somewhere else. I mean. Really. It’s off somewhere in La-La-Land.
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You know, today I want to talk about discoveries.
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Discoveries like this note that was found taped to the back of a heating duct that the homeowner removed so that he could paint the grill…
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It’s beautiful outside.
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It used to be that I was always looked inside on beautiful days. It would be a beautiful day at elementary school, and sure as shit, I found myself locked inside. I would only look out the windows in wonder and day dream.
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Same was true in High school. Only it just seemed that I spent a lot of time in Study Hall, and there I just sat doodling on paper and looking out the windows.
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Then at work. Sure enough. it would be a beautiful day and I would be stuck inside.
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Here’s a view from my office right now.
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I don’t have to stay inside. I can get up and go out and walk about.
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But I am not.
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My oomph hasn’t got the push.
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I cannot express how tired I am right now. I just don’t feel like doing anything. At most, all I want to do is go sit on a chair and veg-out. I’ve gotten to this state where I could just use a beer, a bowl of chili and some crackers.
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I mean, don’t you know, like what I used to do when I worked in the steel mills. When the lunch whistle blew, we would all gather ourselves together and troop off to the bars across the street and get a fine bowl of chili, a couple of slices of Italian bread, and a beer or two. We all did that.
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A fine bowl of chili.
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Or, maybe a nice creamy bowl of cream of asparagus soup, and a club sandwich. And with a nice tall iced tea… and a beer.
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And what’s wrong with that? Did you know that when I worked at Delco Electronics (It’s who we are), which was a division of General Motors, that they had all sorts of rules on behaviors. And one of which was zero alcohol on your free time. If someone “snitched” on you for drinking a beer after work, or anything like that, you could lose your job.
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Yeah. I really did live “The Office Space” experience.
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A club sandwich…
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Now, reminiscing about beer… crackers… soups, and sandwiches sounds so trivial. But I can assure you that it is not trivial at all. If you take away these elements that make our lives important, and makes our lives precious, then what remains?
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Seriously. What remains if you take away all the small pleasures in your life? What if you cannot drink alcohol, smoke, walk around barefoot? What if you cannot take your dog with you when you go out for a stroll, and want to stop in at a diner for a cup of coffee and a monte cristo sandwich? What then?
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You start to miss out discovering the few precious things about life. That’s what.
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Monte Cristo sandwich.
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As I get older, I am starting to come to the realization that the most important things to me are the very simple little things that I have always taken for granted.
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It’s the free newspaper at the end of the counter in the diner.
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It’s the way that a well balanced screwdriver feels in your hand.
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It’s a cloth handkerchief in your pocket, and your favorite shirt that fits you like a well worn glove.
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And it’s those little discoveries that make your day.
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When I was younger, I was always in a rush. To go here, to go there. To do this, and to do that. And so I ate fast. I drank fast. I walked fast. I drove fast. It was always go, go, go.
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I didn’t savor anything.
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I consumed.
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For I was an American consumer….
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Now I wish to savor life. Live it in big gulps. Take it in. Splash it all over, and relish in it’s glory. I want to sing, and dance, eat, and cavort. And I mean to do so with gusto!.
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I am talking about serious cavorting, you all.
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Oh, were I to still have my orange GTO, I would pop some Boston in the 8-track player, and go out cruising. The trunk would be filled with Bud, Miller (pony bottles), Michelob, and Iron City beer. Two bags of ice to chill it all out, and a well used frisbee in the back with a library card to sort the wheat from the chaff.
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I miss my orange “goat”.
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But those days are gone.
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And they just evaporated. And in the rush (at the time) to build a life, make a career, and dream the big dreams it all sort of passed on like some kind of hazy dream. We were all living this weird state of mind. Life was some kind of Peter Frampton song “Do you feel like we do”, and we were all there. Living it.
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We didn’t savor.
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We didn’t appreciate.
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And life did move on.
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I do like my life now, but there are things that are gone and I probably will never experience them again. Like piling into a van at a keg-party when it started to rain at night. About thirty of us all jammed in the back. Led Zepplin cranked up loud and Alice Cooper singing that “School’s Out for Summer”.
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Party like it’s 1976!
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Our life is precious.
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Living it is important.
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Relishing in what we have… AT THAT VERY MOMENT… is of extreme importance. And if you see an opportunity to make your life better, or someone else’s life better, the go for it. Don’t be a “wall flower”.
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Note handed to a woman.
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Live life.
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Live it well.
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And discover what lies around you.
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And relish in the uniqueness of the moments presented to you. Like this…
Whassup?
Let’s face it: Budweiser was absolutely on fire when it came to advertising in the 90s. I still think about those three delightfully laconic frogs “Bud”, “Weis,” and “Er,” and even their less-popular frenemy the chameleons.
Then in 1999, Anheuser-Busch rolled out the “Whassup?” ad, which took their advertising dominance to new levels. The commercial won a Clio, the Oscars of advertising, and was even inducted into the Clio hall of fame. And everyone saw this commercial.
You know they did because everyone started saying whassup constantly, always making it raspier, longer, and more unintelligible.
I was a preteen at the time, and this meant that every person in my school said “whassup” every day—in the hallway, in the cafeteria, at recess. Then I would come home and my dad’s friends would be saying it.
It was the type of cultural wildfire that forced news anchors to learn the word ‘memetic’—a decade before they learned the word ‘meme.’
-Listverse
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Here, I discovered a precious comment. And I want to place it here. It’s… well… precious. It’s something you will never find in the United States media, but it ACCURATELY reflects how the rest of the world views China.
Comment by Ahino Wolf Sushanti
I’m from Malaysia.
China has traded with Malaysia for 2000 years. In those years, they had been the world’s biggest powers many times. Never once they sent troops to take our land. Admiral Zhenghe came to Malacca five times, in gigantic fleets, and a flagship eight times the size of Christopher Columbus’ flagship, Santa Maria. He could have seized Malacca easily, but he did not. In 1511, the Portuguese came. In 1642, the Dutch came. In the 18th century the British came. We were colonized by each, one after another.
When China wanted spices from India, they traded with the Indians. When they wanted gems, they traded with the Persian. They didn’t take lands.
The only time China expanded beyond their current borders was in Yuan Dynasty, when Genghis and his descendants Ogedei Khan, Guyuk Khan & Kublai Khan concurred China, Mid Asia and Eastern Europe. But Yuan Dynasty, although being based in China, was a part of the Mongolian Empire.
Then came the Century of Humiliation. Britain smuggled opium into China to dope the population, a strategy to turn the trade deficit around, after the British could not find enough silver to pay the Qing Dynasty in their tea and porcelain trades. After the opium warehouses were burned down and ports were closed by the Chinese in ordered to curb opium, the British started the Opium War I, which China lost. Hong Kong was forced to be surrendered to the British in a peace talk (Nanjing Treaty). The British owned 90% of the opium market in China, during that time, Queen Victoria was the world’s biggest drug baron. The remaining 10% was owned by American merchants from Boston. Many of Boston’s institutions were built with profit from opium.
After 12 years of Nanjing Treaty, the West started getting really really greedy. The British wanted the Qing government:
To open the borders of China to allow goods coming in and out freely, and tax free.
Make opium legal in China.
Insane requests, Qing government said no.
The British and French, with supports from the US and Russia from behind, started Opium War II with China, which again, China lost.
The Anglo-French military raided the Summer Palace, and threatened to burn down the Imperial Palace, the Qing government was forced to pay with ports, free business zones, 300,000 kilograms of silver and Kowloon was taken.
Since then, China’s resources flew out freely through these business zones and ports. In the subsequent amendment to the treaties, Chinese people were sold overseas to serve as labor.
In 1900, China suffered attacks by the 8-National Alliance (Japan, Russia, Britain, France, USA, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary). Innocent Chinese civilians in Peking (Beijing now) were murdered, buildings were destroyed & women were raped. The Imperial Palace was raided, and treasures ended up in museums like the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.
In late 1930’s China was occupied by the Japanese in WWII. Millions of Chinese died during the occupancy. 300,000 Chinese died in Nanjing Massacre alone.
Mao brought China together again from the shambles. There were peace and unity for some time. But Mao’s later reign saw sufferings and deaths from famine and power struggles.
Then came Deng Xiao Ping and his infamous “black-cat and white-cat” story. His preference in pragmatism than ideologies has transformed China. This thinking allowed China to evolve all the time to adapt to the actual needs in the country, instead of rigidly bounded to ideologies. It also signified the death of Communism in actually practice in China. The current Socialism+Meritocracy+Market Economy model fits the Chinese like gloves, and it propels the uprise of China. Singapore has a similar model, and has been arguably more successful than Hong Kong, because Hong Kong being gateway to China, was riding on the economic boom in China, while Singapore had no one to gain from.
In just 30 years, the CPC have moved 800 millions of people out from poverty. The rate of growth is unprecedented in human history. They have built the biggest mobile network, by far the biggest high speed rail network in the world, and they have become a behemoth in infrastructure.
They made a fishing village called Shenzhen into the world’s second largest technological center after the Silicon Valley. They are growing into a technological power house. It has the most elaborate e-commerce and cashless payment system in the world.
They have launched exploration to Mars. The Chinese are living a good life and China has become one of the safest countries in the world. The level of patriotism in the country has reached an unprecedented height.
For all of the achievements, the West has nothing good to say about it. China suffers from intense anti-China propaganda from the West. Western Media used the keyword “Communist” to instill fear and hatred towards China.
Everything China does is negatively reported.
They claimed China used slave labor in making iPhones. The truth was, Apple was the most profitable company in the world, it took most of the profit, leave some to Foxconn (a Taiwanese company) and little to the labor.
They claimed China was inhuman with one-child policy. By the way absolutely recommended by the UN-Health-Organization at that time. At the same time, they accused China of polluting the earth with its huge population. The fact is the Chinese consume just 30% of energy per capita compared to the US.
They claimed China underwent ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang. The fact is China has a policy which priorities ethnic minorities. For a long time, the ethnic minorities were allowed to have two children and the majority Han only allowed one. The minorities are allowed a lower score for university intakes. There are 39,000 mosques in China, and 2100 in the US.
China has about 3 times more mosque per Muslim than the US.
When terrorist attacks happened in Xinjiang, China had two choices:
Re-educate the Uighur extremists before they turned terrorists.
Let them be, after they launch attacks and killed innocent people, bomb their homes.
China chose option 1 to solve problem from the root and not to do killing. How the US solve terrorism? Fire missiles from battleships, drop bombs from the sky.
During the pandemic, when China took extreme measures to lock-down the people, they were accused of being inhuman.
When China recovered swiftly because of the extreme measures, they were accused of lying about the actual numbers.
When China’s cases became so low that they could provide medical support to other countries, they were accused of politically motivated.
Western Media always have reasons to bash China.
Just like any country, there are irresponsible individuals from China which do bad and dirty things, but the China government overall has done very well. But I hear this comment over and over by people from the West: I like Chinese people, but the CPC is “evil”\’. What they really want is the Chinese to change the government, because the current one is too good.
Fortunately China is not a multi-party democratic country, otherwise the opposition party in China will be supported by notorious NGOs (Non-Government Organization) of the USA, like the NED (National Endowment for Democracy), to topple the ruling party.
The US and the British couldn’t crack Mainland China, so they focus on Hong Kong.
Of all the ex-British colonial countries, only the Hong Kongers were offered BNOs by the British.
Because the UK would like the Hong Kongers to think they are British citizens, not Chinese.
It’s a divide-and-conquer strategy, which they often used in their “Color Revolutions” around the world.
They resort to low dirty tricks like detaining Huawei’s CFO & banning Huawei.
They raised a silly trade war which benefits no one.
Trade deficit always exist between a developing and a developed country.
The USA is like a luxury car seller who ask a farmer: why am I always buying your vegetables and you haven’t bought any of my cars?
When the Chinese were making socks for the world 30 years ago, the world let it be. But when Chinese started to make high technology products, like Huawei and DJI, it caused a red-alert.
Because when Western and Japanese products are equal to Chinese in technologies, they could never match the Chinese in prices. First world countries want China to continue in making socks.
Instead of stepping up themselves, they want to pull China down.
The recent movement by the US against China has a very important background story.
When Libya, Iran, and China decided to ditch the US dollar in oil trades, Gaddafi’s was killed by the US, Iran was being sanctioned by the US, and now it’s China’s turn.
The US has been printing money out of nothing.
The only reason why the US Dollar is still widely accepted, is because it’s the only currency which oil is allowed to be traded with.
The US has an agreement with Saudi that oil must be traded in US dollar ONLY.
Without the petrol-dollar status, the US dollars will sink, and America will fall.
Therefore anyone trying to disobey this order will be eliminated.
China will soon use a gold-backed crypto-currency, and the alarms in the White House are going off like mad.
China’s achievement has been by hard work. Not buy looting the world.
I have deep sympathy for China for all the suffering, but now I feel happy for them.
China is not rising, they are going back to where they belong.
Good luck China.
Conclusion
My life today is quite different than it was fifty years ago, but there are charms all around us. You just need to take the time to appreciate them. Maybe I’m not jammin’ to Roy Buchanan, or Listening to the Alan Parson’s Project, Genesis, Peter Gabriel or quaffing GeneseeCreamAle (in the green cans), but I am loving what I have right now.
I’m going out.
I’m gonna eat some delicious Chinese food, and have some TsingtaoBeer.
And it might not sound exciting, but it will fill my belly, put a smile on my face, and make the day right.
This comment that I read was precious. And it’s unique for this moment in time. I just wanted to share it with you all, and remember that everyone contributes to make the world what it is today.
Be good you all.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I mean absolutely, and positively surreal. China has decided to move at “warp speed”, and the insane level of advancement and building all throughout China has been stepped up to near frantic pace. It’s no longer just “fast”, it’s gone “hyper velocity”. Factories are all expanding, and international investors, flush with cash, and pouring into China to invest and get a “piece of the action” while the opportunity to do so exists.
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None of this is being reported in the Western media. It’s all “just the same song and dance”, and “dog and pony show”.
A songanddance.Alongandelaborate explanation or presentation. PrimarilyheardinUS.
Dog And Pony ShowMeaning of Idiom ‘Dog and Pony Show’ A dog and pony show is a presentation, marketing event, or any other event which has a lot of style and seems very polished and professional, but which has no real content. In a dog and pony show, no real information is presented, and nothing much is accomplished.
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And you can SEE the changes. You really can.
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And for me, who is used to the enormous tidal-waves of change within China, I find it nearly incomprehensible.
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I had a discussion with a friend of mine this afternoon. We shared a few smokes and talked about business over tea. He told me that one of our mutual friends is married to a woman who is now living in America.
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As is the case with many business owners. Once their business gets "off the ground", they send their families off to other nations "for a better life". I guess she thought that the USA would somehow be better. - I don't. I attribute this belief to be an emotional reaction due to a massively funded pro-America propaganda campaign that has been in place for decades.
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Anyways, she said that monthly checks are being cut by the US government every month, and handfuls of money are being handed out by the Biden administration to anyone who owns or runs a factory.
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I find that hard to believe. America is many things, but generous with money is not one of them. If any American MM readers can confirm or deny this impression, I would be very grateful.
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Never the less, there’s this belief that American companies are being given nearly “blank checks” for expansion, innovation and for hiring people. And since America is the same size as China, it means (in the minds of the Chinese) that “finally” America has decided to gear-up, and start trying to be really competitive on the global stage. And thus, here in China, the factory bosses, and owners are taking this very seriously.
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Their attitude is “OK, so America wants to compete. We will COMPETE.”.
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And everyone seems to be doing this.
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At least it just seems that way. And maybe there are other reasons for the expansion, for after all there are all sorts of directives regarding technology development, green energy, and domestic expansion that is going on right now.
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And as I mentioned earlier; you can see the growth, the changes, and all the many, many improvements.
Pollution
China as described by Western media.
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For instance. I have ranted on about pollution in my other posts. Most it is about how China is depicted as this smoggy filthy cesspool, and then I show pictures of what it is actually like. The narrative is not even remotely close.
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Did you know that the Chinese have the cleanest Coal-fired power plants in the world? Here’s a comparison between American coil-fired power-plants and Chinese ones.
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To better understand where China’s coal fleet is going, CAP compared the top 100 most efficient coal-fired power units in the United States with the top 100 in China. The difference is astounding.
Compared with the Chinese coal fleet, even the best U.S. plants are running older, less efficient technologies. Coal-fired power plants can generally be broken down into three categories:
Subcritical: In these conventional power plants, coal is ignited to boil water, the water creates steam, and the steam rotates a turbine to generate electricity. The term “subcritical” indicates that internal steam pressure and temperature do not exceed the critical point of water—705 degrees Fahrenheit and 3,208 pounds per square inch.
Supercritical: These plants use high-tech materials to achieve internal steam temperatures in the 1,000–1,050 degrees Fahrenheit range and internal pressure levels that are higher than the critical point of water, thus spinning the turbines much faster and generating more electricity with less coal.
Ultra-supercritical: These plants use additional technology innovations to bring temperatures to more than 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and pressure levels to more than 5,000 pounds per square inch, thus further improving efficiency.
The U.S. coal fleet is much older than China’s: The average age of operating U.S. coal plants is 39 years, with 88 percent built between 1950 and 1990. Among the top 100 most efficient plants in the United States, the initial operating years range from 1967 to 2012. In China, the oldest plant on the top 100 list was commissioned in 2006, and the youngest was commissioned in 2015.
The United States only has one ultra-supercritical power plant. Everything else is subcritical or, at best, supercritical.
In contrast, China is retiring its older plants and replacing them with ultra-supercritical facilities that produce more energy with less coal and generate less emissions as well. Out of China’s top 100 units, 90 are ultra-supercritical plants.
Coal is one of my passions. I used to work in the mines in my youth, and I have numerous projects involving this most interesting of ores.
Anyways…
Here, I discovered another precious comment. And I want to place it here. It’s… well… precious.
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It’s something you will never find in the United States media, but it ACCURATELY reflects how the rest of the world views China.
Comment by FromSerbia
Thank you for clearly explaining the parallels between Euromaidan and the current upheaval in the USA.
Since very few Americans paid attention to what their government did across the globe, they cannot recognize the whole “what goes around comes around” now happening to them.
Donald Trump will not suffer from any of this.
He is obscenely rich, and the worst thing that can happen to him is that he won’t be president anymore. All this anti-Trump talk will disappear the moment he is gone. Who truly suffers from this new American helscape?
From the looks of it, small business owners and low paid employees. Poor and middle class folk. Their business and places of employment are getting looted and torched.
Not Mar-a-Lago (or w/e the spelling of it may be) nor Microsoft, nor Facebook or Twitter HQ. Not Ford plants or Boeing and Lockheed assembly lines.
Here’s an observation from my years in the USA.
I lived there long enough to gain a clear understand of the depth of depravity of its power structures.
I moved to Chicago circa 2007 and made many friends. I lived in a suburb, surrounded almost exclusively by white people.
Before learning how to drive over poor people’s heads by using the highway to get downtown, I drove from the suburb to downtown in a straight line almost, through the city.
The scenes along the way and the neighborhoods were surreal.
I started in a rich neighborhood, eventually entering a middle class neighborhood.
I can tell because houses get smaller along the way.
They still looked fancy and well kept.
Then into a neighborhood where poor white people live.
The state of their infrastructure made it clear that this is such a place. The faces I saw where mostly white.
Then comes the Mexican neighborhood. The state of their infrastructure was even worse, but they seemed to make the best of it. They decorated everything with colorful lights, there were street vendors and other people all over the street. Kids were playing everywhere and the atmosphere was generally positive. I had no qualms about stopping, parking the car and grabbing a bite to eat at local mom & pop restaurant.
Then come the black neighborhoods. I could not believe my eyes that people live like that in the USA. Their infrastructure looked worse than 1995 Bosnia. Most of you probably do not understand what that means, and I hope you never have to learn from personal experience. I believe that the correct term for their state of infrastructure is dilapidated. As in, all of it. Falling apart. There were no valuable businesses in these neighborhoods, save for an occasional McDonalds or Taco Bell, and a post office, free clinic and other such absolutely necessary establishments.
There were liquor stores *everywhere* and crowds in front of every one of them.
I’m not exactly sure what is the point of concealing a bottle of liquor in a paper bag anymore, but that tragically classic scene was on display throughout these neighborhoods. People, sitting on the curb, wasted, or getting there before nightfall.
The only word that can accurately summarize the state of Chicago’s black neighborhoods is “depression.” Total, permanent, and seemingly irreversible depression.
The solution to this catastrophe?
If we are to believe the current news cycle, the solution is to make the rest of USA look like those parts of Chicago.
I can’t tell you how many times I heard…
”Obama is in charge now, he’ll fix everything. My president is black, my lambo is blue, if you say anything against Obama, you’re not cool.”
This was before cancel culture swept across USA and I could still speak my mind freely.
I suppose the results are in and Obama didn’t fix anything.
I still read about Chicago war zones, 20 dead, 50 wounded every other weekend. This was common news in the years preceding the current upheaval.
There is something a friend of mine said back then that stayed with me to this day.
We were driving back home from a bar one evening and all of us were legally drunk. He was very careful to drive the speed limit. He was complaining about cops.
He said how even a few years ago, if cops caught you drunk driving, they wouldn’t make an arrest. They would drive you home, or, at least, have you call someone to come get you.
In a worst case scenario, you sober up in a local precinct and then you can go.
Sure, your car might get taken to a pound lot, but that was a low price to pay (about $150 to get your car back) for committing a felony.
I don’t know if this same treatment was afforded to minorities, but I can’t imagine that most cops wanted to cause a situation like what happened at that Wendy’s in Atlanta recently.
What happened Americans?
How did you get to the point where even rich white people now dislike cops? Well, I lived in Illinois long enough to gain some insights.
Simple answer – “politics”.
Democrats rule Illinois, and they have total control of Chicago.
For decades, they maintained this rule through sheer bribery. Of course, not in a classic sense.
They enacted laws and agreements where every state employee has privileges and benefits that most common folk can only dream to have.
High salaries, early and very generous retirements, top notch healthcare, and the works.
That whole mantra, repeated on every Hollywood cop show and movie, how it’s tough living on a cop salary – it is a massive load of bullshit.
Maybe, just maybe, grunts who just joined the force don’t have it that good. They will, eventually.
This was promised to everybody across the board.
Cops, firefighters, post office employees, clerks, politicians and their mistresses, etc.
Massive spending of monies they did not have.
By year 2000, USA was more or less completely de-industrialized.
Northern Illinois, once a prime target for a Soviet nuclear strike due to its high industrial production capacity, resembled scenes from apocalyptic movies and video games by the time I saw it.
The situation is the following: politicians made promises to gain power.
In order to maintain power, they kept those promises, spending money they don’t have.
So, they issued bonds and borrowed senseless amounts of cash.
Borrowed more than they needed to pay off all those promises.
Because, why wouldn’t they take some of that sweet sweet cash?
Sure, they didn’t pay it directly into their bank accounts. They took it by giving public and city contracts, totaling large sums of money, to their buddies and family business.
Some of these companies were formed, what, a day before they got the city contract?
My family left Serbia only to find the *exact same* method of political corruption permeating the USA.
Don’t take this as an indictment of Democrats only. I have no doubt that this is how Republicans also work. At least, most of them.
Eventually, the debts built up to the point where they could not service them with tax revenue.
So, they raised taxes on everything and invented new taxes.
However, that didn’t work.
What’s left to tax?
Walmart and McDonalds employees making $7 an hour? They certainly were not going to tax WalMart and McDonalds corporate profits.
The situation was growing dire.
So, the solution was to sic the police on the people. To squeeze every $ they could from poor folks.
$100 ticket for not wearing a seat belt.
Why?
If I want to risk my own life, what business is it of yours?
I say this as a person who needs no convincing to wear a belt. But why must you force me to do it?
DUI became a nightmare.
Instead of friendly neighborhood officer who wants to help you get home safe, we now have stalkers who want to ruin your life.
DUI arrest, jail, lawyer, court, trial, plea deal, maybe more jail.
All in all, a nightmare, a criminal record, lots of $$ spent on nothing.
I understand the dangers of drunk driving, but I also understood that the politicians were not thinking about the safety and well being of their communities when they enacted such laws.
I can only guess that there are many more such laws that flay the poor while the rich simply do not care.
It’s not like extra police patrols will be deployed to rich neighborhoods to catch drunk drivers or those not wearing seat belts.
So, what you have in the end is a mess made by corrupt and absolutely incompetent politicians, where the police force was used akin to how mafia bosses use enforcers to collect “protection” rackets.
Except, with the mafia, at least you can point the finger and say “that’s the bad guy.”
Of course, the police went along with it.
(It’s) Not like they were threatened.
And its not like they are wiling to risk their salaries, health benefits, and large retirement funds (either).
If people had to be flayed for $100 every time they didn’t put on a seat belt for a cop to guarantee his salary, so be it.
Why, I was even told by my peers that cops had quotas to keep!
As in, each of them had to issue at least $2000 worth of tickets and citations per month, or week, or whatever.
Now, when the situation reached a boiling point (with no small help from Soros & Co.) the politicians do what they do best. Lie, cheat, and steal.
They just blame the cops and story finished.
Media says it is so and the idiots on the streets eat it up.
They literally cannot see past that which is right in front of them.
Cop writes ticket = cop bad.
No matter the fact that cops enforce laws made by elected politicians.
The paid mercenaries revel in this orgy of stupidity as they lead those idiots into looting, burning, fighting, and generally destroying their own infrastructure and job opportunities.
I apologize for cursing again.
The system in the state of Illinois is such a tangled clusterfuck that there is no untangling it without changing the system.
The politicians in power will never allow this.
They will sooner disband the police and enact law of the jungle.
The survival of the fittest.
After all, Darwin’s teachings are now gospel in the USA. Why not live like that? Disbanding the police will also (possibly?) wipe off all of those enormous salaries, pensions, healthcare, and other obligations.
It’s a good thing American forefathers had the foresight to enshrine the 2nd amendment in the bill of rights.
One more observation, about the police.
I had interacted with police on numerous occasions. Most cops are decent folk, working a tough job in a terrible system.
The jerks among them are of all colors, not just white. There is one very common theme among cops, though.
Most are not well-educated.
I watched and worked with a lot of high-schoolers in the USA.
Also younger kids at times. I noticed a pattern.
Simply put, there are kids at these schools (I worked at public schools only) who are just bullies.
Violent for the sake of violent gratification.
I suspect that this is a result of decades-long indoctrination.
Back in 50s and 60s, kids watched as cowboys slaughtered “Indians” a word which makes me feel dirty every time I use it.
Then they watched war movies.
Then came the violence of 80s television and movies.
As the society went into 90s, violent video games were added to the mix, alongside increasingly violent depictions of fighting on TV and in movies. The tech allowed for portrayal of incredibly graphic violence. Guts and brains and alike.
I am not claiming that movies and video games incite violence.
I am claiming that such graphic depictions of violence make a bad situation worse.
Bullies became ever more violent.
I also noticed that these bullies were generally not intelligent. After free high school education, there was nothing left for them. What are they to do?
Three choices: work $7 an hour job; join the army; become a cop.
Joining the army is out of question. Them A-rabs shoot back. Hell, sometimes you don’t even see them coming. A bomb just blows up near you.
So, it’s either $7 an hour at WalMart or become a cop.
So, they join the police forces.
It is a job tailor made for a bully.
You can dish out abuse all you want, and if somebody dares fight back, shoot them dead.
No consequences.
If not shot dead, ruin someone’s life through arrest, criminal record, constant harassment.
Why not?
The politicians gave such power to them. Add to this mix the fact that they have to meet quotas for issuing tickets and a bully is in paradise.
Derek Chauvin certainly seems like a textbook example of this. I generally reserve my judgment. Not in this case. I can’t tell you how many Derek Chauvin’s passed before my eyes in USA high schools, planning to become cops.
I would also add racists to this mix. Being a cop in the USA is a perfect job for a creature scraping the barrel of human intellect.
A racist is given a free reign to do as he/she pleases.
I have no solution to offer to Americans. I am no genius. However, I do not wish to see the country disintegrate.
The worst case scenario is nukes falling into hands of green-haired, 16 piercings on face, gender-less lunatics. They will have no qualms about nuking those “like terrible racist privileged” people all across the USA, before they threaten the rest of humanity.
American people were pious folk once long ago, both blacks and whites and just about every color in between. The weight of our sins can never be greater than Father’s love and willingness to forgive.
Remember that before it is too late.
Conclusion
He had a lot to say. Perhaps the one thing that snagged my attention was this statement;
"Since very few Americans paid attention to what their government did across the globe, they cannot recognize the whole “what goes around comes around” now happening to them."
Well, it hasn’t even started yet.
America has been VERY, VERY BAD. And for things and karma to be just and fair, the real pain has yet to be felt.
I don’t know what is going on in the USA. Not really. I just get bit’s and pieces. Like this.
Would you believe that I actually used to stay glued to the “news” to absorb all this garbage. How many beers could I have drank? How many dates could I have shared with an attractive lady? How many pizza could I have eaten? How many parks and hiking trails could I have walked on? How many adventures could I have had? How many fish could I have caught? And how many new and exciting friends could I have made?
But…no.
I was seduced by the “dark side” and instead I was addicted to the “news” that colored the life that I would lead. And that “news” was always saying the same thing; America is great. the rest of the world is evil.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
This is another reprint. This one from RT. I suppose you can agree with the American media that it is Russian propaganda. But after all, isn’t that what American “news” is to begin with? Ugh. All this is a royal PAIN IN THE ASS, I’ll tell you what.
The American “news” has become the largest pile of steaming dog shit that I have ever had the unfortunate experience to encounter. There is absolutely ZERO redeeming qualities remaining in what passes for “news” out of America these days.
But you all know that, now, don’t you?
When I was a boy, maybe 13 or 14 years old, I went with my family to Florida to go to Disney Land. It was quite the adventure for me. And yes, on numerous levels. It was my first experience with real science fiction. As we rode int he long, long drive to central Florida, my father gave me a paperback book full of short science fiction stories, and I read away. I was amazed and loved every moment of it. The car ride passed by so quickly, and by the time we arrived at the park, I was refreshed and changed… ever so slightly.
Books can do that to a person.
Don’t you know.
While the ride was long, hot and boring, I was engrossed in a world that I did not know existed. I voraciously read every story, and after each one, I would put the book down and glance upwards and think about the twisty ending and what it meant to me. It was all so very profound.
You know, I did not expect to be so influenced, or changed by what I read. It was just a paper book that my father carelessly handed over to me to occupy my time in the car. He also provided me with a small puzzle game, and a game of dice and equations, both of which that I didn’t really do much of anything with. But it was the book that made all the difference in the world to me.
Sometimes the apparently non-essential aspects of our experiences can have the greatest impact in our lives.
The following is a reprint from RT. All the usual disclaimers follow. Please enjoy and contemplate.
The West has created an imaginary, evil China for its people to hate and fear – and it’s working
Maitreya Bhakal is an Indian commentator who writes about China, India, the US, and global issues. Follow him on Twitter @MaitreyaBhakal
Western regimes are brainwashing their people with Sinophobia.
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They want them to both hate and fear China to manufacture consent for anti-China aggression. A fictional, Mordor-like China has been created to achieve this aim.
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If an alien landed on Earth today and read Western media reports on China, they would reach an unambiguous conclusion: China is a comprehensively and uniquely evil nation.
It [1] jails and kills civilians for no reason, [2] commits all sorts of atrocities on its people (who are apparently also filthy and spread diseases), [3] commits genocide on ethnic minorities, [4] obsessively controls people’s thoughts, [5] unleashes deadly plagues upon the world, [6] bullies other nations and traps them in debt, and [7] is a nation whose evil leaders are all fanatics, obsessed with power and bent on destroying the world.
The aliens could be forgiven for assuming that all evil on this planet is because of China…
…(and perhaps Russia and Iran thrown in for good measure)…
… and the US, while not perfect, is nevertheless a force for good, a global guardian angel, the benevolent superpower keeping the world together.
It is the sole driver of world peace and international solidarity, the solitary bulwark against the evil Chinese communist hordes.
Manufacturing powerhouse vs manufacturing consent
Ever since Chinese economic reforms began and China started ‘rising’, Western media has unleashed a massive propaganda campaign against it.
Every single Chinese action is scrutinized to death, every wrong deed or mistake criticized endlessly, and every achievement mostly ignored or downplayed.
Two factors help explain this Sinophobic hate campaign.
The first is the standard policy to ‘manufacture consent’ and manufacture hatred – the purpose of Western journalism, especially against the only nation on Earth that can counter US hegemony.
The second is plain-old racism – the core pillar of Western culture.
The middle kingdom
The US sees itself as the center of the universe, with other nations merely orbiting around it and paying homage.
America treats many of them like its minions, or “allies” and “partners”, to use the popular – if inaccurate – terminology.
Maintaining global and racial hegemony remains central to US foreign policy.
Any successful development model that doesn’t obey Western norms cannot be tolerated.
Thus, today, when the US sees another successful power center emerging, its Pavlovian response is to violently push back.
Since China is too successful, it has to be suppressed.
A non-allied nation that is not a Western-style “democracy” cannot be allowed to develop – whether technologically or financially, and certainly not militarily.
And since China is not even a white-majority nation, it needs to be crushed even more.
However, there is one small problem: China is not like America.
It [1] does not kill millions on false pretexts, it [2] does not bomb nations and their hospitals and schools, [3] it does not launch drone strikes against civilians, [4] it does not violate international law repeatedly while lecturing others to follow it, [5] it does not have an imperial empire for stealing and hoarding other nations’ wealth…
… it does none of the things that has made the West rich and prosperous.
China became rich largely without doing any of the above.
Dr. China and Mr. Hyde
Since China is not as evil as the West, an alternate, evil version of China has to be created – a mirror image in an alternate reality.
The West can then project anything they want into this imaginary China.
It can be accused of any evil in the world – based on equally imaginary evidence.
This alternate China requires massive doses of propaganda and lies to construct – and the lapdog Western media is all too willing to oblige.
After all, the US can’t openly say that it wants to destroy China in order to maintain US hegemony.
Thus, they lie through their teeth and spread conspiracy theories.
People can then be successfully brainwashed to hate and fear China.
In America, we refer to these manipulated people as "sheeple".
For example, when the US regime sanctions Chinese companies, it does so with the aim of preserving the dominance of Western companies that are unable to compete fairly.
However, this cannot be said out loud, since it goes against “free market” principles the US regularly espouses.
Thus, a strawman needs to be manufactured: that Chinese companies are a “threat to national security” or have “backdoors” in them that allow the evil Chinese to snoop on you.
Of course, this needs no evidence; the media will amplify US rhetoric without proof.
After all, in the West, freedom of the press includes the freedom to lie.
Freedom of the press includes the freedom to lie.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is another glaring example.
Western loans from the IMF or World Bank are brutal and predatory in nature, and frequently impose tough repayment terms and severe austerity measures on host nations, often causing downright bankruptcy.
Recipient nations are required to privatize parts of their economy and surrender natural resources.
Thus, in the topsy-turvy, Catch-22 world of Western propaganda, China is accused of predatory lending and ‘debt-trap diplomacy’.
Even human lives are not spared.
Pfizer, a wicked US pharma firm, allegedly demanded that South American nations surrender their sovereign assets as collateral in exchange for life-saving Covid-19 vaccines.
Thus, as if on cue, China is accused of deploying “vaccine diplomacy” and taking advantage of smaller nations.
A superpower race – with a different race
Once a justification is created that China is evil…
…and that every action China commits is an act of evil …
… the US can paint itself as the good, benevolent superpower acting in the world’s best interests.
This ‘Good v Evil’ binary is constantly reinforced through stereotypical Sinophobic tropes.
The template is applied to every single story about China, from Hong Kong to Huawei.
Enter racism.
The way the West sees it, China is the proverbial “Other” – essentially a different civilization with different standards – almost a different type of human.
As the bigoted Rudy Giuliani, “America’s mayor” and a former Trump adviser once said, human life “doesn’t mean the same thing” to the Chinese as it does to the West.
Few Americans criticized his remarks.
Many agreed with him, secretly pleased that he said out loud what they couldn’t.
This is not an aberration.
Racism is central to US society, and Sinophobia is deeply ingrained in US culture and policy-making.
The former US president himself kept dog whistling “China virus” endlessly to anyone who would listen.
His cronies were no better.
Kiron Skinner (who is ironically black; Sinophobia in America transcends racial boundaries), the then-director of policy planning at the State Department, said openly that this is “the first time that we will have a great-power competitor that is not Caucasian,” and that the previous Cold War with the Soviet Union was at least “a fight within the Western family.”
Unsurprisingly, the Western corporate media largely ignored her remarks.
FBI Director Christopher Wray recently declared China a threat that requires a “whole-of-society” response.
This was an almost exact replication of 19th-century propaganda portraying Chinese people as evil hordes coming over to infiltrate and destroy the pure, innocent Western societies.
When COVID-19 stuck, western media openly blamed China for the disease.
The more conservative outlets pounced at the ‘lab-leak theory’ and defended the use of the phrase “China virus”, while the more liberal ones focused on the tried-and-trusted ‘Chinese authoritarianism’ trope.
The New York Times accused China’s “old habits” of “secrecy” and “controlling the narrative” of slowing the response.
It pinned the blame on China and tried to deflect from western countries’ own criminal neglect in controlling their outbreaks.
Yet, had the ‘democratic’ West adopted China’s ‘authoritarian’ methods, they wouldn’t have been on their knees today, struggling with recurrent waves.
Blaming China was a coping mechanism; today, more people have died from COVID-19 just in Orange county in California, US than in the whole of China.
So much for democracy.
Combine all this with the regular Sinophobic reporting, and a steady picture begins to emerge: Barbaric China is an existential threat to our enlightened Western civilization. The Communist Party of China is just a modern-day Fu Manchu, that will stop at nothing to take our “freedoms.”
After the Soviets and Muslims, it is now China’s turn to fill the role of the villain.
Such imaginary rogues are useful to the US regime to distract the proles from domestic problems.
A world without war
And herein lies the real reason why they hate China.
The West is prosperous today not because of hard work or perseverance, but because of centuries of imperialism, colonialism, and wealth hoarding.
China, though, is on the path to becoming a superpower without committing such atrocities.
This is what really riles them up; after all, jealousy is the root of most hatred.
China’s rise shows that an alternative, multi-polar world is possible, a world not besieged by endless wars and genocidal sanctions, a world where poverty and hunger are distant memories – a world where people can live happily without being afraid that a superpower from across the planet may bomb them into oblivion because they have something it wants.
And the US cannot allow that.
Conclusion
Ai!
I know you all realize this. Most MM readers are of the intelligence to be receptive to narratives that lie outside the normal government channels; Alt-Right, Alt-Let and mainstream. that’s not to say that any of us are perfect, we are all learning, and our thoughts and opinions change daily. So let’s not get too caught up on new ideas or different ways of doing things.
Just accept the differences. Relish in them, and move on.
Just what ever you do, don’t believe anything that the American media says. It’s all lies.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I remember when I used fffound, before I discovered Tumblr.
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And then, abandoned it when Yahoo! bought it out, promising never to change it.
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Yeah. Right. Like that happened! Yeah NOT!
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And still reading the “news” on the Free Republic feeds. As if they were full of precious information that mattered in my life.
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Nope.
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It didn’t matter at all.
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It’s tough knowing one thing, and knowing how things really work, and then reading what passes for “news” out of the West. Especially the nonsense spewing forth out of America. Jeeze!
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Louise!
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Honestly, the American “news” is like a dog chasing it’s tail. And those that follow it seem dumber with each passing day. I will tell you all the truth, the longer that I am out of the United States and away, the more idiotic the American public appears to me. I am so sorry guys, and especially for many of the American MM readers, but I am just getting floored at the level of ignorance that exists inside of America today.
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You have John Bolton… hard-core neocon… known for his quote where he compared the Chinese to cockroaches that needed to be repeatedly stepped on to show them the superiority of “the American way”…
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…being put in charge of the US Military strategic bio-weapon agency in 2016.
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It’s just a coincidence!
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And then from 2016 through 2019 China experienced eight crop and livestock viruses, with the swine flu propagated by drones with parts manufactured using American tooling.
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Why, it’s just a coincidence!
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Ah, and then in 2020, the COVID20 appears on CNY eve (what a coincidence!), in the most populous area in China (what a coincidence!) that hit all of the nations living in the same dorm as the American troops at the Wuhan Olympic games (what a coincidence!)…
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…and all of the “enemies” of the United States getting hit with the COVID-19B, the super deadly R0=20%, while America and it’s allies getting the (cold and sniffle) version R0=0.01%…
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…and we’re expected to believe that it’s China’s fault? That they were clumsy to steal an American bio-weapon and mishandle it, at a facility that is open to the public on a major thoroughfare and unguarded too boot. Why, it’s just a coincidence!
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Ugh. Only a FUCKING MORON would believe anything promoted out of Washington DC these days. But you know, most American believe. And I must tell you all, MAJestic leadership was absolutely correct.
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Most Americans are corralled sheep with the brains of a potato.
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So imagine my pleasant surprise when I read this article by Fred Reed. He’s become one of my favorite writers, don’t you know, and this one had me waving my hands, spilling my precious alcohol on the desktop, and banging on the keyboard! Shouting Yes!
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Right!, That’s right!
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Over and over.
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You all have to understand. Here in China… you can actually SEE the changes… and if you have any association at all with industry, robotics, aircraft design, AI, or international finance you will see…
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…irregardless of what the American “news” prints, the rest of the world is turning towards China. It’s where the future of the human species resides.
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Here’s a reprint, shared using the regular disclaimers.
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A Dolorous Imbalance
America Makes Aircraft Carriers, China Makes Money
First, America increasingly relies on strong-arm tactics instead of competence.
For example, in the de facto 5G competition, Washington cannot offer Europe a better product at a better price, so it forbids European countries to buy from China.
The US cannot compete with China in manufacturing, so it resorts to a trade war.
The US cannot make the crucial EUV lithography equipment to make advanced semiconductors, as neither can China, but it can forbid ASML, the Dutch company, from selling to China.
Similarly, the US cannot compete with Russia in the price of natural gas to Europe, so by means of sanctions it seeks to keep Europe from buying from Russia.
This is not reassuring.
Second, the Chinese are a commercial people, agile, fast to market, cutthroat, known for this throughout Asia.
America is a bureaucratized military empire, torpid by comparison.
America has legacy control over a few important technologies, most notably the crucial semiconductor field and the international financial system.
Washington is using these to try to cripple China’s advance.
A consequence has been a realization by the Chinese that America is not a competitor but an enemy, and (this realization has resulted in) a subsequent explosion of investment and R&D aimed at reducing dependence on American technology.
There is the well-known 1.4 trillion-dollar five-year plan to this end.
One now encounters a flood of stories about advances in tech “to which China has intellectual-property rights” or similar wording.
They seem deadly serious about this.
Given that Biden couldn’t tell a transistor from an ox cart, I wonder whether he realizes that every time the US pushes China to become independent in x, American firms lose the Chinese market for X, and later get to compete with Chinese X in the international market.
The above beast, developed entirely in China, is the first to use high-temperature superconducting magnets to keep the train floating just above the rails.
HTSC magnets are a Big Deal because they can achieve superconductivity using liquid nitrogen as coolant instead of liquid helium for classic superconductivity, this costing, say the Chinese, a fiftieth of the price of using helium.
The use of HTSC is very, very slick.
The train will extensively use carbon-fiber materials to keep weight down, suggesting that the Chinese cannot distinguish between a train and an airplane.
Asia Times “China’s Hydrogen Dream is taking Shape in Shandong”
“A detailed pilot plan being worked out to transform Shandong, a regional industrial powerhouse, into a “hydrogen society” holds out much hope of delivering on the green promise.”
The article, hard to summarize in a sentence, is worth reading.
As so often, the Chinese do things, try things, while the US talks, riots, imposes sanctions, sucks its thumb, and spends grimly on intercontinental nuclear bombers.
The American budget. After all, America is a Military Empire.
“Huawei is Developing Smart Roads Instead of Smart Cars”
Keep that in mind when the American news reports on Huawei phones. The phone business is but a small part of the Huawei industrial segment.
“Multiple sensors, cameras, and radars embedded in the road, traffic lights, and street signs help the bus to drive safely, while it in turn transmits information back to this network-“
China read Ed Snowden’s book on NSA’s snooping, realized it had a problem, and set out to correct it. If this spreads to other countries—see below—much of the world could go black to American intel agencies.
Ed Snowden
The Chinese may have thought of this.
“…colleagues will further expand the network by working with partners in Austria, Italy, Russia and Canada. The team is also developing low-cost satellites and ground stations for QKD.”
The last sentence is interesting. If China begins selling genuinely secure commo gear abroad, it is going to make a lot of Western intel agencies very unhappy.
Did I mention that the Chinese are a commercial people?
Further:
“Chinese scientists achieve quantum information masking, paving way for encrypted communication application.”
My knowledge of this might rise to the level of blank ignorance after a good night’s sleep and three cups of coffee. However, the achievement made the American technical press, and suggests Chinese seriousness about gaining privacy.
The video below shows how China constructs high-speed rail lines as if painting a stripe on a highway. <sarcasm>Since they can’t innovate, they have to get by with inventing things. </sarcasm>
“Over 10,000 trains and 927,000 containers were forwarded via the China-EU-China route in 2020, China Railways has announced. The current volume of traffic has grown by 98.3% year-to-year, covering 21 countries and 92 cities in Europe.”
America makes aircraft carriers. China sells stuff.
NikkeiAsia: “What China’s Rapidly Expanding Nuclear Industry Means for the West”
One Chinese reactor in Pakistan just went live, with another expected in a few months.
Says Nikkei,
“The Karachi reactor is just the latest of these to come onstream, with the World Nuclear Organization listing a dozen different projects at the development or planning stage across a dozen countries from Argentina to Egypt in its recent survey. Many more are under discussion.”
In addition, says Nikkei, China intends to have the whole industry from technology to materials indigenous to China and outside of American sanctions.
See above, about forcing China to make things themselves.
“Summary. China is quickly closing the once formidable lead the U.S. maintained on AI research.
Chinese researchers now publish more papers on AI and secure more patents than U.S. researchers do.
The country seems poised to become a leader in AI-empowered…”
Some argue that Chinese patents are of low quality.
Maybe so…
But don’t bet the college funds on it.
“China begins construction of world’s longest superconducting cable project”
“China’s first 35 kV high-temperature superconducting cable demonstration project has started construction by State Grid in Shanghai and it is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
This is the world’s largest transmission capacity, the longest distance, 2000A current the highest commercial 35 kV superconducting cable project.”
Regarding the 5G War;
Trump could have bought 5G from Huawei, gotten a sweetheart deal, great prices, factories in America, and so on.
Instead he banned Huawei from the US and then twisted arms of the vassal states of Europe.
Thus neither America or Europe has the service, but China is rolling it out fast.
Brilliant, Don.
This gives China a running start on smart factories, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and the like. As well as the rest of the world, while American allies are stuck with rapidly aging technology and substandard service.
“An almost entirely automated port in China, during unload of a container ship. “
“The port is an example of how operator China Merchants Group has been working to automate and mechanize more operations using ultrafast fifth-generation wireless technology.
By developing innovative ways to run the port as efficiently as possible, the company aims to accelerate overseas expansion.”
Aviation Week “Face It: The J-20 is a Fifth Generation Fighter”
Says AvWeek:
“Clearly, Chengdu’s engineers understand the foundation of fifth-generation design: the ability to attain situational awareness through advanced fused sensors while denying situational awareness to the adversary through stealth and electronic warfare.
The J-20 features an ambitious integrated avionics suite consisting of multispectral sensors that provide 360-deg. coverage.
This includes a large active, electronically scanned array radar designed by the 14th Research Institute, electro-optical distributed aperture system, electro-optical targeting system, electronic support measures system and possibly side-array radars.
“In a 2017 CNTV interview, J-20 pilot Zhang Hao said: “Thanks to the multiple sensors onboard the aircraft and the very advanced data fusion, the level of automation of J-20 is very high. . . . The battlefield has become more and more transparent for us.”
Most of the story is visible only if you have a subscription to AvWeek.
Asia Times: Tesla loses lead to local upstart in China’s EV market
The headline is kidding.
The car that is outselling Tesla is a $4,200 el cheapo for short-haul shopping and picking up the kids in the city.
Sexy as a truss ad, but…rather useful.
I’m telling you, put the college funds in this company, not truss ads. Made by an SAIC-GM partnership, majority owned by China, where it was designed and made.
It will be sold internationally.
“Unlike Tesla, which requires purpose-built charging stations, the Mini can be plugged into a home power system to charge, which takes about nine hours. It has a range of about 120 kilometers and a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour, according to the carmaker’s promotional materials.”
Designed and put into production in one year. (Did I mention that the Chinese are a commercial people?)
Reports Chinese design. How close it is to being ready for prime time is not clear, but it is flying. An inability to make high-end engines has been a problem for China.
China’s Y-20 strategic transport aircraft.
The WS’20 is a high-bypass turbofan of Chinese design.
Finally,
Global Times”, Beijing’s news site: “China’s trade volume increases 37% y-o-y in April, marking 11 consecutive months of positive growth”
Nuff said.
Conclusion
It’s difficult being an American in China. I see what is going on, and then I read the “news” out of America and its like some kind of parody of “Captain Hook”. It’s La-La-Land where everyone is in this real God-forsaken reality that just doesn’t exist.
People, the future belongs to China.
Do you know how easy it would be for me to make my children American citizens? Yup, I fill out a bunch of forms, show proof that I lived int eh USA for five years, provide documentation that my kids are genetically mine and then wait for Washington to approve after I pay the application fee. And Boom!
My kids are American citizens. All now subject to taxation no matter where they live, what they do, and tied to the the American government.
In twenty years…
…which nation will be healthier, stronger, and provide more opportunities in a safer environment?
The USA? Or China?
Do you really think so?
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Most people have never heard of the term “Rules Based Order” until the March 2021 meeting in Alaska between the United States and China. It was at that meeting where the United States demanded that China abide to American led, “Rules Based Order”, or suffer the consequences.
Well, up until that point in time, it was well understood that the world should follow the United Nations in global disputes. Every nation in the world would have their say at this one-world government body, and avoid conflicts, trade disputes and cultural errors.
The single outlier to this system has been the United States which has, since the 1970’s violated the UN charter at will. It has done so in the following manner;
If the UN agrees with American actions, then the USA will observe UN protocols.
If the UN disagrees with American actions, then America will ignore the UN.
This is known as “rubber stamping” in the United States. After a while it becomes the expected way of conducting business.
Rubber Stamp
A person or organizationthatautomaticallyapproves or endorses a policywithoutassessingitsmerit;also,such an approval or endorsement.Forexample,Thenominatingcommittee is merely a rubberstamp;theyapproveanyonethechairmannames , or Thedeangavehisrubberstamp to therecommendations of thetenurecommittee. Thismetaphorictermalludes to therubberprintingdeviceused to imprintthesamewordsoverandover.[Early1900s]
-The Free Dictionary
Which has been increasingly the case over the last few decades, accumulating to the Donald Trump administration which pretty much said that the UN was worthless and America will do what it it feels like, and the UN be damned.
The brash harshness of this reality was codified in American policy and made public at the March 2021 Alaska summit. Where as a “Rules Based Order” was demanded of China.
A Rules Based Order states…
America makes the rules.
You will follow and obey American rules.
You will not listen to the United Nations.
If you fail to obey American demands, America reserves the right to obliterate you.
…
Yikes!
It sounds so harsh.
Well… that’s because it is.
It is harsh.
But that’s EXACTLY what is going on, and thus it is no wonder why China, and Russia and the rest of the global community reacted so harshly to the fiasco that was the Alaska meeting.
A few weeks have passed, and people around the world are “getting their heads” around this situation. They have pretty much determined that the United States has decides to act on it’s own, and not follow the United Nations. This is known as “unilateralism“, and is very very dangerous. It is the thing that started World War I, World War II, and all genocides that has ever occurred in history.
Unilateralism
Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action.
Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which otherparties may find disagreeable.
As a word, unilateralism is attested from 1926, specifically relating to unilateral disarmament.
Thecurrent, broader meaning emerges in 1964. It stands in contrast with multilateralism, the pursuit of foreign policy goals alongside allies.
-Wikipedia
The following are three articles that describe what the rest of the world thinks of this posture by the Biden Administration in America today.
First Article.
This is a very timely and well written editorial that is “spot on” and demands reprinting. It’s one of those clear-as-day, and simple-as-shit, articles that takes a complex issue and spells it out in black and white as plain as day.
I enjoyed reading this, and couldn’t wait to post on MM. It was forwarded to me by a dear friend and it is truly worth every consideration. Of course, it comes from here, all credit to the author and please take note that it was modified to fit this venue for editing purposes. So without much fanfare, here’s the article…
Rules-Based Order’ Is Cover for Destructive Western Hegemonic Ambitions
Hegemony
...ascendancy or domination of one power or state within a league, confederation, etc., or of one social class over others
Editorial
The future of world peace and security depends on the vast majority of nations succeeding in upholding the UN against Western malign efforts.
Since Joe Biden became U.S. president, the new administration in Washington has made repeated references to “rules-based order” in international relations, accusing Russia and China of undermining this putative order.
This is as audacious as a poacher appointing himself to be the gamekeeper. For there is no power as rogue and reckless as the United States and its Western minions when it comes to eviscerating international law. The litany of illegal wars, destroyed nations, and inhumane economic sanctions is testimony to that.
However, what is going on here is a daring cosmetic facelift for the same old ugly conduct. The Biden administration’s lofty rhetoric is meant to distinguish the new administration from the previous Trump White House and its “America First” mantra.
President Biden and his aides are trying to project a seeming return to multilateralism as opposed to Trump’s in-your-face nationalism. And so we hear a lot about the U.S. vowing to uphold the rules-based order.
The difference is merely rhetorical.
The consistent reality is that the United States and its Western allies are seeking to pursue a unilateral approach to international relations. The Biden administration is just a little more adept compared with Team Trump at public relations and media spin to cover this reality of American hegemonic ambitions.
Lest we forget, hegemonic ambitions are anathema to a democratic world order based on equality among nations and universal respect for international law.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov nailed the charade this week in public comments following a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow.
“We noted that Russia sees some Western countries’ attempts to promote unilateral approaches in circumvention of the established collective mechanisms for developing international law-based solutions as one of today’s key challenges. We consider developing certain rules behind the back of the greater part of the international community and then imposing them on others as universal norms unacceptable and dangerous practice.”
Lavrov went on with more biting comments:
“We are witnessing situational coalitions and partnerships being created outside the UN, which arrogate to themselves the right to speak and act on behalf of everyone else”.
This was a veiled reference to the United States trying to deploy the G7, NATO, the Quad, Five Eyes, and so on, as hostile geopolitical instruments to hamper Russia and China.
What is happening at an accelerated rate under the Biden administration is highly corrosive to international law and threatening global security.
The United Nations and the global architecture of international relations established after the Second World War are being substituted by Western ad hoc definition of rules.
The so-called “rules-based order” is in reality rules defined by the U.S. and its allies which make others conform to their desired order.
As Lavrov points out, this is tantamount to usurping the United Nations, the UN Charter and the already existing body of international law by a wholly new Western-defined regimen which is then imposed on others.
Such an outcome would be a complete negation of the postwar order that has existed.
Far from “order”, it is a dive into disorder and confrontation, the like of which preceded the UN in the 1930s leading to world war.
Russia, China and other nations are well aware of the deception being perpetrated by the United States and its European and other Western allies.
Last week in an address to the United Nations Security Council, Lavrov elucidated further the bankrupt rationale of the Western powers.
It is worth quoting him at length. He said:
“Realizing that it is impossible to impose their unilateral or bloc priorities on other states within the framework of the UN, the leading Western countries have tried to reverse the process of forming a polycentric world and slow down the course of history…
“Toward this end, the concept of the rules-based order is advanced as a substitute for international law. It should be noted that international law already is a body of rules, but rules agreed at universal platforms and reflecting consensus or broad agreement. The West’s goal is to oppose the collective efforts of all members of the world community with other rules developed in closed, non-inclusive formats, and then imposed on everyone else. We only see harm in such actions that bypass the UN and seek to usurp the only decision-making process that can claim global relevance.”
The supreme irony is that virtue-signaling Western powers are accusing Russia and China of undermining international “order” when they are the ones who are wielding an axe at the only truly universal system of multilateralism – the United Nations and the UN Charter.
The Charter, established after the war in 1945, mandates all nations to respect equal sovereignty, to repudiate illegal military force without the authorization of the UN Security Council, and to desist from interfering in the internal affairs of other states.
The unilateral use of military force and imposition of economic sanctions against other nations has become a routine, egregious violation of the UN Charter by the United States and its Western allies.
If the United States and others really did believe in upholding rules and order then they would abide by the only universally recognized rules of international law that already exist as enshrined in the UN Charter.
It is because Russia and China are strong enough to insist on the UN Charter and international law…
…that the rogue states of the U.S. and its Western accomplices are compelled to make up other rules in order to satisfy their dictatorial hegemonic desires.
In attempting such a de facto coup against the United Nations, the Western powers are endangering global security. They are trying to turn the clock back to a law of the jungle era akin to the 1930s.
The future of world peace and security depends on Russia, China and the vast majority of nations succeeding in upholding the UN against Western malign efforts.
How paradoxical is arrogant Western propaganda.
Second Article
There’s a lot of nonsense on Zero Hedge, with a lot of “doom porn”, but many of the contributors have very good things to say. Many were refugees from the Free Republic platform that kicked them off for not touting a pro-America-always line in their articles.
The rapidly shifting international distribution of power creates problems that can only be resolved with real diplomacy. The great powers must recognize competing national interests, followed by efforts to reach compromises and find common solutions.
Over the past week the Biden administration has intensively reached out to Europe to revitalize the transatlantic alliance.
In the following on-topic interview, Professor Glenn Diesen explains how the United States is opposed to the emerging reality of a multipolar world because of its winner-takes-all ideology. In doing so, Washington is predisposed to antagonize and militarize relations, primarily with Russia and China.
The confrontational policy is aimed at driving a wedge between Europe on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other.
The problem for Washington is that such a confrontational policy is unfeasible in a multipolar world.
European allies are pressured to align with the U.S., but geoeconomic realities inevitably mean there is a practical limit to the American strategy.
Using rhetoric about “values” and “human rights” is just a ploy to gain a false moral authority over rivals.
The West’s unilateral use of sanctions is the corollary.
But such a strategy is only further forging multipolar reality which is leading to weakness and self-isolation for the United States – and the European Union if the latter chooses to go down that futile route.
Professor Diesen contends that without compromise and mutual respect among world powers, the ultimate risk could be catastrophic war.
And he says the onus is on the United States and Europe to recognize competing national interests beyond their own, followed by efforts to reach compromises and find common solutions.
Glenn Diesen is a professor at University of South-Eastern Norway. He is also editor of ‘Russia in Global Affairs’ and is a contributing expert at the Valdai Discussion Club. His research focus is the geoeconomics of Greater Eurasia and the crisis of liberalism. He specializes in Russia’s approach to European and Eurasian integration, as well as West-China dynamics. He is the author of several books: ‘The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia: Between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft’ (2018); ‘Russia’s Geoeconomic Strategy for a Greater Eurasia’ (2017); and ‘EU and NATO relations with Russia: After the collapse of the Soviet Union’ (2015).
His latest two books are ‘Russian Conservatism’ (January 2021, see this link); and ‘Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (March 2021, see this link).
* * *
Interview
Question: The Biden administration is making strenuous efforts at rallying Europe and NATO to take a more adversarial position toward Russia and China: what are Washington’s geopolitical objectives?
Glenn Diesen: Biden’s “America is back” and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” both aim to reverse the relative decline of the United States in the international system. While Trump believed that providing collective goods to its allies as the cost of a hegemon was making the U.S. lose its competitiveness, Biden believes the U.S. must rally its allies against rising adversaries. The geopolitical objectives remain constant: preserving a dominant position for the U.S. in the international system.
The main challenge to U.S. leadership position is geoeconomic as its rivals are developing alternative technologies, strategic industries, transportation corridors and financial instruments.
However, the U.S. has not been successful in converting the security dependence of allies into geoeconomic loyalty.
This is evident as the European Union uses Chinese technologies and capital, and Germany is working with Russia to construct the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
There are strong incentives for the U.S. to militarize a geoeconomic rivalry as it strengthens solidarity and loyalty among allies.
NATO is therefore a good instrument even though Russian tanks are not heading towards Warsaw and Chinese troops are not about to invade Paris.
Question: Will Washington succeed in pushing what appears to be a new Cold War drive?
Glenn Diesen: Washington is certainly worsening relations with both Moscow and Beijing, although it is not clear that they will get the Europeans to follow their lead.
The Europeans share many of America’s concerns, although they do not wish to retreat under U.S. protection in a new U.S.-China bipolar system.
The EU has defined its interest as pursuing “strategic autonomy” to develop “European sovereignty”.
U.S. efforts to rally the Europeans against Russia and China rely on rhetoric over security challenges or human rights issues, although it is meant to translate into reducing economic connectivity with the two Eurasian giants.
However, the interests of the Europeans and the U.S. diverge over China, and the Europeans are also growing more concerned over pushing Russia towards China.
Question: You’ve mentioned before how the United States’ goals are: a) to prevent Europe from partnering with Russia for energy trade; and b) to prevent Europe partnering with China for new technology, trade and investment. Is such a divisive U.S. aim possible to achieve in a multipolar, integrated global economy?
Glenn Diesen: U.S. policies aim to prevent the emergence of a multipolar order.
In my opinion, this is a misguided objective as Washington must adjust to the changing international distribution of power.
I have argued that the U.S. is confronted with a dilemma – it can either facilitate and shape a multipolar system where the U.S. is the “first among equals”, or it can aim to contain rising powers to extend its hegemonic position although then a multipolar system will emerge in direct opposition to the U.S.
By containing the rise of both Russia and China, the U.S. encourages Moscow and Beijing to define their partnership often in opposition to the U.S.
The global economy is subsequently fragmenting.
The geoeconomic dominance of the U.S. has rested on [1] its leading technologies that buttress its strategic industries, [2] control over the maritime corridors of the world, and [3] control over the main development banks and the world’s trade/reserve currency.
Russia and China have therefore developed a strategic partnership [1] to develop their own technological ecosystems, [2] new Eurasian transportation corridors by land and sea, and [3] new financial instruments such as banks, payment systems and de-dollarizing their trade.
The U.S. will therefore discover that the effort to isolate China and Russia will result in the U.S. isolating itself.
Question: You’ve also mentioned that the United States may be trying a re-run of the Nixon-era policy from the 1970s of forcing a division between China and Russia. Is such a U.S. objective possible today?
Glenn Diesen: It seems highly unlikely. Nixon was able to split the Soviet Union and China by reaching out to the weaker part, China, based on mutual misgivings towards the power of the Soviet Union. The U.S. therefore accommodated the weaker adversary to balance the stronger adversary.
Today, the stronger adversary is China and the U.S. would therefore have to reach out to Russia. Beijing has no reason to turn against Moscow as Russia does not pose a threat to the Chinese, and Russia’s partnership is vital for China’s geoeconomic rise.
Much can be gained from reaching out to Moscow, although it will be very difficult, and Russia will not turn against China.
The U.S. leading role in Europe is reliant on excluding Russia from the continent, and the anti-Russian sentiments in the U.S. make it impossible to find common ground. Also, it is hard to overstate the resentment in Moscow over relentless NATO expansionism towards its borders.
Future historians will likely recognize the historical blunder of not accommodating Russia in Europe. After the Cold War, Russia’s principal foreign policy objective was to be included in a Greater Europe. The remaining hopes for incremental integration with Europe ended in 2014, when the West supported the coup in Ukraine.
Russia is now pursuing the Greater Eurasia Initiative and its leading partner toward that end is China.
Reaching out to Moscow will enable Russia to diversify its economic relations and avoid excessive reliance on China, although Russia will not join any partnership aimed against China.
Question: The Biden administration’s overtures for a stronger transatlantic alliance and a more unified NATO appear to be lapped up by various European leaders. For example at the NATO summit of foreign ministers in Brussels on March 23-24, the French top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian gushed about a renewed alliance under Biden, declaring that NATO had “rediscovered” itself. Why are European politicians seemingly so ready to appease Washington even when it is at the cost of undermining their own relations with Russia and China?
Glenn Diesen: The Europeans only developed unity after the Second World War under U.S. leadership.
Europe has thus only existed as a cohesive sub-region within the larger transatlantic region.
During the Cold War this partnership was directed towards balancing the Soviet Union, and after the Cold War the trans-Atlantic partnership enabled collective hegemony. The Europeans have prospered under U.S. leadership and been able to develop regional European autonomy.
The multipolar system challenges the foundation for the internal cohesion of both Europe and the trans-Atlantic region.
On one hand, the Europeans want to align their policies with the U.S. to preserve solidarity within Europe and the West.
On the other hand, the Europeans desire “strategic autonomy” as they recognize that U.S. and EU interests diverge in a multipolar world.
Confronting Russia and China weakens the economic competitiveness of Europe and increases its dependence on the U.S.
Question: Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking during a visit to China this week, remarked that the European Union had unilaterally destroyed relations with Russia due to recent actions, presumably imposing sanctions. Would you agree that the EU has taken unprecedented harmful steps against Russia?
Glenn Diesen: Yes. The sanctions do not provide a solution, rather they undermine the possibility for a partnership to find common solutions. Sanctions are designed to force Russia to make unilateral concessions as opposed to finding mutually acceptable solutions through compromise.
It must be recognized that every conflict has two sides, yet Brussels tends to treat all conflicts as transgressions by Russia that must be punished and corrected by the EU.
I often make the argument that Russia is largely a status-quo power in Europe that reacts to Western revisionism.
Russia intervened in Crimea in response to the West’s support for the coup, and Russia intervened in Syria in response to Western efforts to topple the government.
The problem behind these conflicts is that Russian security interests were never included, and the sanctions are a mere extension of this hegemonic mentality.
The sanctions are condemning Europe to reduced relevance in the multipolar world. A divided Europe creates systemic pressures for the EU to retreat under U.S. protection, and Russia must similarly diversify its economy away from Europe and instead align itself closer with China.
Question: Do you see any prospect of the European Union waking up to the realization that the bloc needs to repair relations with Russia, and China for that matter? Presumably that would require the EU asserting geopolitical independence from the United States, and the question is: has Europe’s political class got the will or even the imagination for this?
Glenn Diesen: How can relations be repaired?
The source of all problems with Russia was the failure to reach a mutually acceptable post-Cold War settlement. Efforts to create a Europe-without-Russia inevitably became a Europe-against-Russia.
Initially, Russian apprehensions could be ignored as Russia was weak and did not have anywhere else to go. This is no longer the case.
The EU can either treat the underlying problem of excluding the largest state in Europe from Europe, or it can aim to treat the symptoms that include Russia’s pivot to the east – primarily China.
Both France and Germany have become more vocal about the folly of continuing to push Russia towards China. France has been more ambitious in terms of rethinking relations with Russia to resolve the underlying problems, while Germany has been more focused on treating the symptoms by maintaining economic connectivity with Russia.
What can the EU do?
Suspending NATO expansion towards Russian borders or ending anti-Russian sanctions would undermine both EU and NATO solidarity as it is opposed by the U.S. and certain Central and Eastern European countries. The EU and the West were not designed for a multipolar world and so risk its internal cohesion no matter what is done.
The EU is not demonstrating any intentions of altering its subject-object relationship with Russia, and seeking solutions through mutual compromise. When the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell went to Moscow last month, the effort to improve relations with Russia was therefore limited to lecturing Russia about its domestic affairs and transgressions in international affairs, which, it was inferred, Russia should correct in order to earn the EU’s forgiveness and improve relations.
Question: Finally, are you concerned that deteriorating international tensions could lead to war?
Glenn Diesen: Yes, we should all be concerned.
Tensions keep escalating and there are increasing conflicts that could spark a major war. A war could break out over Syria, Ukraine, the Black Sea, the Arctic, the South China Sea and other regions.
What makes all of these conflicts dangerous is that they are informed by a winner-takes-all logic.
Wishful thinking or active push towards a collapse of Russia, China, the EU or the U.S. is also an indication of the winner-takes-all mentality.
Under these conditions, the large powers are more prepared to accept greater risks at a time when the international system is transforming.
The rhetoric of upholding liberal democratic values also has clear zero-sum undertones as it implies that Russia and China must accept the moral authority of the West and commit to unilateral concessions.
The rapidly shifting international distribution of power creates problems that can only be resolved with real diplomacy. The great powers must recognize competing national interests, followed by efforts to reach compromises and find common solutions.
The only solution for this coming fiasco is for the rest of the world to come together and isolate the dangerous elements; the unilateral American nationalists from destroying the world.
Thus, now for this gem…
Centuries-old Washington’s ‘Rules-Based Order’ is COVER for Deceptive, Destructive, & Hypocritical Hegemonic Ambitions
SCFon
The future of world peace and security depends on the vast majority of nations succeeding in upholding the UN against Western malign efforts.
Since Joe Biden became U.S. president, the new administration in Washington has made repeated references to “rules-based order” in international relations, accusing Russia and China of undermining this putative order.
This is as audacious as a poacher appointing himself to be the gamekeeper.
For there is no power as rogue and reckless as the United States and its Western minions when it comes to eviscerating international law.
The litany of illegal wars, destroyed nations, and inhumane economic sanctions is testimony to that.
However, what is going on here is a daring cosmetic facelift for the same old ugly conduct.
The Biden administration’s lofty rhetoric is meant to distinguish the new administration from the previous Trump White House and its “America First” mantra.
President Biden and his aides are trying to project a seeming return to multilateralism as opposed to Trump’s in-your-face nationalism.
And so we hear a lot about the U.S. vowing to uphold the rules-based order.
The difference is merely rhetorical.
The consistent reality is that the United States and its Western allies are seeking to pursue a unilateral approach to international relations.
The Biden administration is just a little more adept compared with Team Trump at public relations and media spin to cover this reality of American hegemonic ambitions.
Lest we forget, hegemonic ambitions are anathema to a democratic world order based on equality among nations and universal respect for international law.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov nailed the charade this week in public comments following a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow.
“We noted that Russia sees some Western countries’ attempts to promote unilateral approaches in circumvention of the established collective mechanisms for developing international law-based solutions as one of today’s key challenges. We consider developing certain rules behind the back of the greater part of the international community and then imposing them on others as universal norms unacceptable and dangerous practice.”
Lavrov went on with more biting comments:
“We are witnessing situational coalitions and partnerships being created outside the UN, which arrogate to themselves the right to speak and act on behalf of everyone else”.
This was a veiled reference to the United States trying to deploy the G7, NATO, the Quad, Five Eyes, and so on, as hostile geopolitical instruments to hamper Russia and China.
What is happening at an accelerated rate under the Biden administration is highly corrosive to international law and threatening global security.
The United Nations and the global architecture of international relations established after the Second World War are being substituted by Western ad hoc definition of rules.
The so-called “rules-based order” is in reality rules defined by the U.S. and its allies which make others conform to their desired order.
As Lavrov points out, this is tantamount to usurping the United Nations, the UN Charter and the already existing body of international law by a wholly new Western-defined regimen which is then imposed on others.
Such an outcome would be a complete negation of the postwar order that has existed.
Far from “order”, it is a dive into disorder and confrontation, the like of which preceded the UN in the 1930s leading to world war.
Russia, China and other nations are well aware of the deception being perpetrated by the United States and its European and other Western allies.
Last week in an address to the United Nations Security Council, Lavrov elucidated further the bankrupt rationale of the Western powers.
It is worth quoting him at length.
He said:
“Realizing that it is impossible to impose their unilateral or bloc priorities on other states within the framework of the UN, the leading Western countries have tried to reverse the process of forming a polycentric world and slow down the course of history…”
“Toward this end, the concept of the rules-based order is advanced as a substitute for international law. It should be noted that international law already is a body of rules, but rules agreed at universal platforms and reflecting consensus or broad agreement. The West’s goal is to oppose the collective efforts of all members of the world community with other rules developed in closed, non-inclusive formats, and then imposed on everyone else. We only see harm in such actions that bypass the UN and seek to usurp the only decision-making process that can claim global relevance.”
The supreme irony is that virtue-signaling Western powers are accusing Russia and China of undermining international “order” when they are the ones who are wielding an axe at the only truly universal system of multilateralism – the United Nations and the UN Charter.
The Charter, established after the war in 1945, mandates all nations to respect equal sovereignty, to repudiate illegal military force without the authorization of the UN Security Council, and to desist from interfering in the internal affairs of other states.
The unilateral use of military force and imposition of economic sanctions against other nations has become a routine, egregious violation of the UN Charter by the United States and its Western allies.
If the United States and others really did believe in upholding rules and order then they would abide by the only universally recognized rules of international law that already exist as enshrined in the UN Charter.
It is because Russia and China are strong enough to insist on the UN Charter and international law that the rogue states of the U.S. and its Western accomplices are compelled to make up other rules in order to satisfy their dictatorial hegemonic desires. In attempting such a de facto coup against the United Nations, the Western powers are endangering global security.
They are trying to turn the clock back to a law of the jungle era akin to the 1930s.
The future of world peace and security depends on Russia, China and the vast majority of nations succeeding in upholding the UN against Western malign efforts.
How paradoxical is arrogant Western propaganda.
***
Conclusion
And there you have it. The United States has decided to act aggressively as the sole remaining Military Empire. It demands that the rest of the world do as it demands or it will devastate the targeted nation with it’s large and enormous military.
The rest of the world are rightly afraid.
They are waiting, apparently for some sanity to return to Washington DC, or barring that internal discord that will force the American government to focus on domestic matters at home.
But, the major governments are not taking any chances. You can rest assured that if the “mad dog” of the neighborhood breaks from it’s chain and starts biting the neighborhood children that the local “dog catcher” will be called in to put the rabid dog down. (Kill him completely.)
It’s a testy time for certain.
Do you want more?
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have decided to devote some time to a new series of posts / articles. These articles discuss the transition from a United States Military Empire led world reality, to a world governed by merit out of Asia. This is one such post.
In this post, we tear down one of the fundamental lies that the ginormous American propaganda machine spews out; That America is the machine, and the driver for all the success in the rest of the world, and that without America the rest of the world would be one big “shit hole”.
And along with this narrative comes the belief that Germany is nothing without American “rebuilding”.
Japan is nothing without American “rebuilding”.
That Korea is nothing without American “rebuilding”…
… and that any success that China has… is the result of American “rebuilding” in one form or the other.
This is false.
This is a lie.
The following article tears apart this lie, and discusses from whence the Chinese technological, and engineering success came from. It’s a good read. And whether or not you want to continue to believe the lies issued forth out of the American lie machine or not, it does give one pause to think… to contemplate… and to ponder.
Because…
The Chinese nuclear bomb technology was not stolen or copied. It was all home-grown. The American Congress made the technology top secret and prevented anyone from getting it. In fact, America executed two people for giving the technology to Russia.
The “Great Firewall of China” isn’t what you would think. China has opted out of the American dominated internet, and has created it’s very own intranet inside of the nation. It’s completely and absolutely and wholly Chinese homegrown internet technology.
And with a nation that is capable of all this home-grown independent research, development and engineering, is most certainly capable of many more great things.
For after all 5G is a wholly Chinese invention, and the USA is trying to play “catch up”. The same goes for AI, and while there are American innovations in robotics, the primary groundwork has been developed by Chinese researchers on American visas. Hyper-glide technology, swarm drone technology, digital financial transactions, and room-temperature vaccines for Covid are all Chinese innovations.
"I understand now why the Chinese like to travel to Western countries. It's so that they can travel back to the stone age."
The biggest lie obstructing Chinese-American repatriation to China is that Chinese somehow owe America for their success.
Chinese haven’t even gotten all that much from America.
Sure, some Chinese studied in America, including in STEM, before 1949. People like Qian Xuesen. Also humanities people like Hu Shih and Soong Mei-ling (Chiang’s wife) and Hsiang-Hsi Kung.
That class of humanities graduated people from Ivy League who entered higher echelons of KMT eventually lost the war and fled to Taiwan or America.
Also, for STEM, Europe was much better (to learn from and be educated in) than America especially in the early 1900s.
Chinese students would have benefited much more from studying STEM in Europe at that time. Unfortunately, it was the situation that arose after the suppression of the Boxer Uprising in 1900 (by Eight-Nation Alliance) that resulted in the Chinese studying in America over studying in Europe.
Modern China, especially the practical aspect of it, was far more influenced by USSR and Japan.
PRC had its industrial base in it’s Northeast region simply because the invading colonized Japanese colonized and industrialized it. It did so during it’s over 14 years of occupation.
As far as the military goes, the PRC’s military technology is based upon the very generous Soviet transfers in 1950s. And then again by the Russian ones in 1990s.
China also acquired some basic high speed rail technology from Japan and Germany in 2000s.
And most of the Chinese chemical industry technology came from Western Europe back in the 1970s.
There is little in terms of concrete practical high tech that China has gotten from America.
I think it’s without doubt that even though people like Qian Xuesen, Guo Yonghuai, and Deng Jiaxian (who were leaders of PRC’s nuclear and missile programs) had American PhDs, the Soviet influence on technology was substantially greater.
After all, USSR transferred to the PRC a missile that was an upgrade of V-2 in the late 1950s.
Without that, even with all those top talents in aerodynamics who had been professors or postdocs in America, it would have taken much much longer for PRC to develop its own missile program.
In contrast, if not for those top American returnees…
… as long as Soviets transferred the base technology…
… the other smart people in China, who never set foot in America, would have sooner or later figured it out too.
Provided, of course that the Chinese government made the decision to invest in that technology, (which I believe Qian influenced substantially).
I believe Qian after returning to China did not actually directly work at the “nuts and bolts” details level.
He was more of a strategist and administrator.
As well as the primary decision maker with respect to the PRC missile/rocket/space program.
He convinced the PRC political elites to invest in missiles instead of fighter aircraft.
And in hindsight, was an extremely important and correct decision.
And done at a time when the future of China was still uncertain.
The guy who actually most qualifies as the pure technical leader of PRC missile/rocket/space program goes by the name of Sun Jiadong. And he graduated from a Soviet university in the 1950s.
The thing is that those Chinese educated in America would have been just as good had they done their PhD or masters in Europe or Soviet Union.
Only that pre-1949 at that time, American graduate schools had more spots for Chinese students than European schools.
What China needed the most then was practical technology, and in this area, America did not really have any direct effect.
Actually, it was more like a negative effect.
This is because of the American embargo after the Korean War.
There were a few Chinese who studied in America who had actually did serious work in the American industry.
There were few Chinese who did not settle in America, and who ended up returning to China. And these precious few did not make any major contributions to Chinese technology. The historical record is quite clear on this.
However, after they returned to China, they obviously had to work from a much lower technology base to work with. And as such they ended up adapting their expertise and experience obtained in America for China.
There were certain things that could easily be done in America…
… a much richer country then…
… that was not really practically feasible in China due to lack of resources.
The Chinese who studied in Europe and USSR pretty much all returned.
While perhaps most of the Chinese who studied STEM in America pre-1949 stayed there instead of returning back to China.
China at that time, when STEM human capital was very important and needed, the government basically wasted a bunch of money and resources giving those “best and brightest” a higher education. They left China. They went to America. they learned technical skills. They obtained work, and they stayed there.
So I have a good reason to believe that America’s net effect on China in 20th century was rather negative.
I won’t even go into all the ideological and cultural “garbage” that America exports to the world.
Modern America.
Also, doing a higher degree abroad is not necessarily to great work in STEM in China.
Even during WWII, China already had some top or at least very good theoretical mathematicians, fluid dynamicists, or theoretical physicists.
The guy most responsible for PRC’s hydrogen bomb, Yu Min, never went abroad until he was pretty much retired.
As I’ve said, what China needed most then was the practical, industrial technology.
The difference between theoretical and practical uses in technology.
There were many top-notch theoretical brains. For the theoretical stuff, you need a top brain, access to books and journals, and an environment that let’s you concentrate on that stuff.
The practical stuff, on the other hand, despite being less g-loaded, is in practice much harder.
For China, America was more of an obstruction in that regard.
The difference between theoretical and practical uses in technology.
America enforced the embargo on PRC the most after the Korean War.
In contrast, in the 1950s and 1960s, while China could not get any help or technology from America, they were still able to obtain technology from Japan and Europe.
Unfortunately, so many people see the American PhD as a symbol of being technically top-notch.
It’s a fallacy.
It’s a legacy of America’s having been default destination for study abroad from 1900s on.
Many also studied in Japan, and there were good number of Japanese educated people who made it to the elite of CPC.
But, take particular note, there were no American educated ones.
The CPC simply cannot trust any American educated Chinese to any position of political decision making power.
They are considered to be contaminated by far too much cultural and ideological toxin.
Conclusion
And what is America right now? What happens when there is no longer any nations to loot? Any people to subjugate? What happens when the “house of cards” all falls down?
Ahouse of cards is a structure created by stacking playing cards on topof each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary element is removed. Structures built by layering in this way, such as Stonehenge, are referred to as "house of cards architecture", which dates back to the Cyclopean and Megalithic ages.
-House of Cards, Wikipedia
What we are all witnessing in America today is the exact opposite from what is happening in China. And thus, it is no wonder that the American oligarchy-ruled Military Empire wants to cripple, suppress or otherwise destroy the Chinese rise.
It is nice to believe the lie, the fantasy that the rest of the world is nothing without American guidance, American culture, American technology, and American “know how”. But it’s not true.
And the rest of the world is growing up.
They no longer believe in the Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus, or in other fabled childhood dreams.
And while it was nice to occasionally get a present or two under the tree, the rest of the world has realized that they are far better off with making their own way in the world unencumbered by the thousands of tiny American government hands in their wallets, and the millions of rules and regulations that limit their access to self determination. It’s not normal, and they are saying enough is enough.
As the world slowly adapts to the new reality of a sun-setted America, the sky looks clearer, better and frostier. There’s a feeling in the air. There is a lightness of being and a kind of anything is possible excitement that wasn’t possible under the oppressive yoke of the American oligarchy ruled military empire.
Obviously the United States is not taking this change in roles quietly, and there are all sorts of subterfuge and behind the scenes efforts going on to sabotage the global future so that the 0.0001 who rule the West can stay relevant.
But that too is doomed to fail.
Meanwhile, in the West…
They publish a “report” that the USA leads the world in innovation, and that China cannot innovate, which is total rubbish, but is targeted for the uneducated population to read.
Here’s a rebuttal to the technology growth in China, with a “Innovation index”. Which claims that there are so many western countries still ahead of China! What a rubbish.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Russians are chess masters and the Chinese have Go, while the U.S.of A has Monopoly. Simple really.Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:46 utc | 25
This is perhaps the best article that I have read in a while…
I really liked this:
"Socialism versus capitalism? No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today. It has become, more and more, a rentier economy ..."
Looking at the stock markets and asset prices in general, they are completely disconnected from fundamentals – so much for “market efficiency” and “price discovery” under US-led “capitalism”.
The U.S. “democracy” is also not much of a democracy, but more of a corporatocracy and corrupt plutocracy.
You know, the world doesn’t have to be an either or between socialism/capitalism, and that we can take the key ingredients from both – perhaps what Professor Hudson means by a mixed economy, perhaps something along the lines of what China is trying.
"the U.S.of A has Monopoly" - like that, very apt! That simple analogy encompasses the American plutocracy's mindset of non-productive rent extraction, seeking to control every part of the world, and goal of winner-takes-all hegemony.
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Apr 6 2021 21:11 utc | 27
There can be other flavors and variations.
Delicious Chinese flavors and food.
Alastair Crooke
April 5, 2021
The U.S. will ignore the message from Anchorage. It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia.
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (c. 500 BCE) advises that:
“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands; yet the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself … Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will; and does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him”.
This is the essence of the Chinese resistance economy – a strategy which has been fully unveiled in the wake of the Anchorage talks; talks that silenced any lingering thoughts in Beijing that America might somehow find some modus vivendi with Beijing in its headlong pursuit of primacy over China.
Although earlier there had been tantalising glimpses of déshabillé, the full reveal to China’s tough stance and rhetoric has only been permitted now – post-Anchorage – and the talks’ confirmation that the U.S. intends to block China’s ascent.
If it is assumed that this ‘resistance’ initiative constitutes some tit-for-tat ‘jab’ at Washington – through sinking Biden’s Iran ambitions, as revenge for America loudly crying ‘war crimes’ (‘genocide’ in Xingjian) – then we miss wholly its full import.
The new great Eurasian partnership.
The scope of the Iran pact by far transcends trade and investment, as one commentator in the Chinese state media made plain:
“As it stands, this deal (the Iran pact) will totally upend the prevailing geopolitical landscape in the West Asian region that has for so long been subject to U.S. hegemony”.
So here is the essence to ‘a clever combatant moving to impose his will’ – there is no need for China or Russia or Iran to go to war to do this; they just implement ‘it’.
They can do ‘it’ – quite simply. They don’t need a revolution to do it, because they have no vested interest in fighting America.
What is ‘it’?
It is not just a trade and investment pact with Tehran; neither is it simply allies helping each other. The ‘resistance’ lies precisely with the way they’re trying to help each other.
It is a mode of economic development.
It represents the notion that any rent-yielding resource – banking, land, natural resources and natural infrastructure monopolies – should be in the public domain to provide basic needs to everybody – freely.
This new way of governance is one where any rent-yielding resource should be public domain, and given to the people for free.
The alternative way simply is to privatise these ‘public goods’ (as in the West), where they are provided at a financialized maximum cost – including interest rates, dividends, management fees, and corporate manipulations for financial gain.
‘It’ is then a truly different economic approach.
To give one example:
New York’s Second Avenue Subway extension cost $6 billion, or $2 billion per mile – the most expensive urban mass transit ever built.
The average cost of underground subway lines outside the U.S. is $350 million a mile, or a sixth of New York’s cost.
How does this ‘it’ change everything?
Well, just imagine for a moment: the biggest element in anyone’s budget today is housing at 40%, which simply reflects high house prices, based on a debt-fuelled market.
Instead, imagine that proportion at 10% (as in China).
Suppose too, you have low-cost public education.
Well then, you are rid of education-led debt, and its interest cost.
Suppose you have public healthcare, and low priced transport infrastructure.
Then you would have the capacity to spend – It becomes a low-cost economy, and consequently it would grow.
Another example:
The cost of hiring R&D staff in China is a third to half the comparable cost in the U.S., so China’s tech spend is closer to $1 trillion a year (in terms of purchasing power parity), whereas the U.S. spends just 0.6% of GDP, or about $130 billion, on federal R&D.
At one level therefore, this ‘it’ is a strategic challenge to the western eco-system.
In one corner, the debt-driven, hyper-financialised, yet stagnant economies of Europe and the EU – in which strategic direction and economic ‘winners and losers’ are set by the Big Oligarchs, and in which the 60% struggle, and 0.1% thrive.
And, in the far corner, a very mixed economy in which the Party sets a strategic course for state enterprises, whilst others are encouraged to innovate, and to be entrepreneurial in the mold of a state-directed economy (albeit, with Taoist and Confucian characteristics).
Socialism versus capitalism?
No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today.
It has become, more and more, a rentier economy since leaving the gold standard (in 1971).
This forced U.S. exit from the ‘gold window’ facilitated the U.S. via the resultant global demand for U.S. debt instruments, (Treasury bonds), to finance itself for free (from out of the entire world’s economic surplus).
To all my sisters and brothers I say drastic change is in the air as Nature is informing us on many levels of our standing on the precipice of annihilation (not in 30 years but currently), and the only hope for humanity is a quantum leap in consciousness. There is no time to waste. On the world stage, “Us versus Them” is becoming obsolete while “united we stand, divided we fall” increasingly will be forced upon us by momentous forces infinitely more powerful than our illusive technology and weapons that only threaten self destruction while delaying action to save us from our follies and foibles. If we are to survive as a species, we must all strive to develop a cooperative and holistic view of life encompassing all other beings and species, the ecosystem and its vulnerabilities, and the stability of the climate system. We must refrain from conflict resolved through violence, otherwise we are finished. Any discussion of geopolitics must be framed by that awareness.Posted by: norecovery | Apr 7 2021 4:36 utc | 67
The Washington Consensus ensured additionally that the inflows of dollars to Wall Street from around the globe would never be subject capital controls, nor would states be able to create their own currency, but would have to borrow in dollars from the World Bank and the IMF.
And that essentially meant borrowing from the Pentagon and the State Department in U.S. dollars, who ultimately were the system ‘enforcers’, as Professor Hudson notes.
The shift in the U.S. financial system to being an entity that that prioritises ‘real’ assets, such as mortgages and real estate that offer a certain ‘rent’, rather than to invest directly in speculative business ventures, also means that debt jubilees are verboten. (The Greeks can recount the experience of what that entails, in grim detail).
The point is that – at the economic plane – the U.S., hyper-financialised sphere is fast shrinking, as China, Russia and much of the ‘World Island’ turn to trading in their own currencies (and do not buy U.S. Treasuries).
In a ‘war’ of economic systems, America therefore starts on the back foot.
Halford Mackinder argued a century ago that control of the ‘Heartland’, which stretched from the Volga to the Yangtze, would control the ‘World Island’, which was his term for all Europe, Asia and Africa.
Over a century later, Mackinder’s theory resonates as the two leading nations behind the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) transform this into a system of inter-relations from one Eurasian end to another.
It is not so new, of course.
It is simply the revival of the ancient trade-based economy of the Eurasian heartland, which finally was collapsed in the 17th century.
Alastair Macleod notes that commentators usually fail to understand ‘why’ this flourishing in West Asia is happening:
“It is not due to military superiority, but down to simple economics.
While the U.S. economy suffers a post-lockdown inflationary outcome and an existential crisis for the dollar – China’s economy will boom on the back of increasing domestic consumption … and increasing exports, the consequence of America’s stimulation of consumer demand and a soaring budget deficit”.
There, explicitly said, is Sun Tzu’s point!
“Opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”.
There is in Washington (and to an extent in Europe too), a faction entertaining a pathological emotional desire for war with Russia, largely stemming from a conviction that the Tzars (and later Stalin), were anti-Semitic.
Their emotion is one of hatred and anger, yet it is they who largely are responsible for bringing Russia and China together.
This, and America’s proclivity to sanction the world, has given China and Russia their opportunity.
The underlying point however, is that – even for the EU – the Rimland periphery is less important than Mackinder’s World Island.
There was a time when British and then American primacy outweighed its importance – but this may no longer be true.
What is actualizing here is the greatest challenge yet mounted to American economic power and technological supremacy.
Yet this economic Realpolitik is but half the story to China and Russia’s launch of a ‘global resistance economy’. It has a parallel geo-political frame, too.
It is to this latter aspect, most probably, that the Chinese official referred when he said that the Iran deal would…
“totally upend the prevailing geopolitical landscape in the West Asian region that has for so long been subject to U.S. hegemony”.
Note that he did not say that it would upend Iran’s relations with U.S. or Europe – he said the whole region. He implied too, that China’s initiatives would free West Asia from American hegemony.
“The Middle East was a highland of brilliant civilizations in human history. Yet, due to protracted conflicts and turmoil in the more recent history, the region descended into a security lowland … For the region to emerge from chaos and enjoy stability, it must break free from the shadows of big-power geopolitical rivalry, and independently explore development paths suited to its regional realities.
It must stay impervious to external pressure and interference, and follow an inclusive and reconciliatory approach to build a security architecture that accommodates the legitimate concerns of all sides …
Against this backdrop, China wishes to propose a five-point initiative on achieving security and stability in the Middle East:“Firstly, advocating mutual respect …
Both sides should uphold the international norm of non-interference in others’ internal affairs.
… it is particularly important for China and Arab states to stand together against slandering, defamation, interference and pressurizing in the name of human rights … [the EU should take note]
“Second, upholding equity and justice, opposing unilateralism, and defending international justice …
China will encourage the Security Council to fully deliberate on the question of Palestine to reaffirm the two-state solution …
We should uphold the UN-centred international system, as well as the international order underpinned by international law – and jointly promote a new type of international relations. We should share governance experience … and oppose arrogance and prejudice.“Third, achieving non-proliferation …
Parties need to … discuss and formulate the roadmap and timeframe for the United States and Iran to resume compliance with the JCPOA.
The pressing task is for the U.S. to take substantive measures to lift its unilateral sanctions on Iran, and long-arm jurisdiction on third parties, and for Iran to resume reciprocal compliance with its nuclear commitments.
At the same time, the international community should support efforts by regional countries in establishing a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.“Fourth, jointly fostering collective security …
We propose holding in China a multilateral dialogue conference for regional security in the Gulf (Persian Gulf) …“And fifthly, accelerating development cooperation …”.
Well, China has spectacularly made its entrance in the Middle East, and is challenging the U.S. with a resistance agenda.
FM Wang, when he met with Ali Larijani, special adviser to the Supreme Leader Khamenei, framed it all in a single sentence:
“Iran decides independently on its relations with other countries, and is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call”.
This single comment encapsulates the new ‘wolf warrior’ ethos: states should stick with their autonomy and sovereignty.
China is advocating a sovereigntist multilateralism to shake off “the western yoke”.
Wang did not confine this political message to Iran.
He had just said the same in Saudi Arabia, before arriving in Tehran.
It was well received in Riyadh.
In economic development terms, China earlier had linked Turkey and Pakistan into the ‘corridor’ plan – and now Iran.
How will the U.S. react?
Will There Be A Global Resistance Economy?
Wrong question, imo.
If China is nattering about it then it's a fact on the ground.
The question now is "What will the Totalitarian Capitalist do to nip it in the bud?"
One of the reasons advanced for the Iraq Fake War was that Saddam had declared his intention to side-step the US$ in conducting Iraq's oil transactions.
The trouble with China is that it plans ahead in 5-year & 10-year chunks so the idea of a GRE isn't something Xi dreamt up yesterday afternoon.
If he's nattering about it; it means that all the physical and bureaucratic infrastructure is in place, and is probably already processing transactions.
I wondered why Scum Mo panicked by chopping CGTN off at the socks after hearing about China's 13th People's Congress in early March and assumed it was because his idea of a long-range plan is "Who are we going to screw tomorrow?" or "No, sorry, we're discussing the future and the meeting is Top Secret so you voters/shitkickers aren't invited!"
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 6 2021 20:33 utc | 23
How will the USA react?
It will ignore the message from Anchorage.
It will likely press on.
It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia.
For the EU, the Chinese entry into global politics is more problematic.
It was trying to leverage its own ‘strategic autonomy’ by erecting European values as the gateway to inclusion into its market and trade partnership.
China effectively is telling the world to reject any such hegemonic imposition of alien values and rights.
The EU is stranded in the midst.
Unlike the U.S., it is precluded from printing the money with which to resurrect its virus-blighted economy.
It desperately needs trade and investment.
Its biggest trading partner, and its tech well-spring, however, has just told the EU (as the U.S.), to give up on its moralising discourse.
At the same time, Europe’s ‘security partner’ has just demanded the opposite – that the EU strengthens it.
What’s to be done?
Sit back, and watch … (with fingers crossed that no one does something extremely stupid).
China, in turn, was definitely 3rd world when the Qing dynasty fell. 40 years of "capitalism" did nothing whatsoever to improve China's economy. And even at the beginning of Deng's "market" reforms, China was a very different place - economically and infrastructurally - than it was in 1949.What Crooke writes about is exactly what Hudson has repeatedly spoken to: the original goal for economists was reform. Reform of economies away from the stranglehold of feudal/aristocratic rentiers towards economic goals that benefit everyone. The feudal/aristocratic interests have only been replaced by banksters - and thus the Russia/China/Iran response is as much defensive as it is reform. They're being attacked politically and economically by the bankster classes because all 3 of those nations have, in the recent past, booted out their oligarchs.Russia booted out its aristocrats in 1917 then Putin brought the "privatization" oligarchs to heel 2000-2006.China booted out its capitalist/warlord oligarchs in 1949, then booted out the socialist bureaucrats in the 1980s.Iran booted out both its king and British American oil interests in 1979.Is it any wonder these nations are hated and feared by the banksters worldwide? And their existence gleefully used to justify outrageous sums spent on "defense" by the MIC profiteers?Posted by: c1ue | Apr 7 2021 16:56 utc | 91
Conclusions and some thoughts
What is going on now is historic. It’s not a matter of one nation fighting another. Instead an entire way of doing things is being up-ended. China has shown the way, and it is no wonder that the United States is blocking videos out of China, and news out of China, and whenever it discusses anything about China it is so darn negative.
Look at America today.
EVERYTHING is for profit. Everything. From drinking water, to getting arrested for having too much money inside your wallet. Even Adobe has changed from…
"Save PDF as..."
to
"Save PDF as long as you have a "membership" just pay this monthly fee...
For a fee, don’t you know.
People! This is all FUCKED UP!
China’s way of doing things is WORKING.
America is nearly 30 trillion dollars in debt. That’s an impossible number. If you mined all the gold on the entire planet, you would never have this kind of money.
How can this situation arise?
But creating debt out of “thin air”; out of nothing. And that has been the pyramid scheme for all these many, many decades. People who make nothing, and provides no services end up being fantastically engorged with wealth, while those who make and create things, and provide tangible services end up in poverty or as debt slaves.
It’s not a sustainable model.
In the mean time we must re-organize our societies and get rid of the parasites that try to end our world even before the next big asteroid. What China and Russia is doing is clearly the way forward.I think however "capitalism" and "socialism" is 20th century vocabulary of limited relevance in the present situation. It is not "left" vs. "right" anymore (if it ever was).Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2021 20:43 utc | 24
China, a nation of meritocracy understands this.
And so you are seeing the result…
The wealthy oligarchy, sitting on top of their big imaginary fortunes are demanding that the world engage in a hot (probably nuclear) war rather than they succumb to the ultimate reality that is approaching “on the tracks”. Indeed it’s going to be one fuck of a “train wreck”.
Is the greater public ever going to get a clear view of the difference behind the "rules based order" of the West (we own the money system and make the rules) and the negotiated International law based order?Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 20 2021 17:05 utc | 4
And the rest of the world is starting to jump on the “bandwagon” and trade in their own currencies backed in solid tangible items. Those nations that will refuse to do so will see their piles of money evaporate in value. And thus a great economic explosion is looming in the future, and the ONLY means to prevent it is for the Untied States to nuke the fuck out of Asia.
We will see what will happen.
That is my take as well. Plus the message that China possesses an incredible sense of social solidarity and flexibility. The switches in production to meet emergency pandemic components from masks to complex ventilators to food distribution chains - that is an extraordinary tale of a great civilisation facing an immense stress test and emerging wiser and stronger.Most interesting is the synchronicity between the small and large capitalist sector with the public sector. THAT is the economy that the west was deluded into abandoning and still detests and undermines with every ounce of its effort.Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 5:40 utc | 72
I for one welcome a world without all those psychopathic leeches charging fees and taxes and regulations on everything that you do. It was totally refreshing when I moved to China, and those who have never had this experience is in for an amazing ride!
Good for Iran; and China, Russia, and Asia will benefit as well.
My main fear is a wounded USA over reacting itself into a war...
A bully usually needs a good whupping to stop bullying; in the case of the US, it may bring out the worst, to avoid losing face on the world's stage....and yes; they're that sick, IMHO...
The positive in all this is that, I believe, both Russia and China know the US better than the US knows them...Posted by: V | Apr 7 2021 6:06 utc | 76
Picture Time
For all of you don’t have a clue as to what I am talking about, and instead drink the “electric Kool Aide” from the American media, and who are fearful of living like those “dirty, filthy Chinese” here’s some pictures that I took with my Metallic-Camera.
The main objective of China’s Government is the rejuvenation of China.
In part demonstrably evidenced by the determined efforts made for the betterment and the well-being of its population.
Which is reflected in the credibility and high level of trust the Chinese people place in their government.
These concepts don’t exist in the west.
In the US, the “world’s model for everything”, a virus epidemic is seen through lenses of profiteering by large corporations.
With sick people not being humans in need of assistance but merely a new lucrative “market” – for those with money to pay.
An American hospital is not a place for healing the sick but a kind of barnyard filled with cash cows to milk.
This is one fundamental reason underlying America’s chaotic and hopeless approach to dealing with the epidemic.
Zhuhai. A view from my front yard.
But don’t you all worry. According to this article written in 2016, China is going to collapse any day now (LOL)!
And we can clearly see this from a MM point of view, like here…
A pretty typical Chinese factory. This is a brake operation. Note the slave and child labor that you hear so much about in the American and UK media. Oh, and don’t forget the nets that are used to prevent people from jumping off the tops of the buildings! LOL!
But…
For some years now I've been looking for a decent currency to live my life with. We seem much closer now with the Digital Yuan. And as you say, if somehow it were banned by the world and refused exchange in other currencies (which seems impossible even to imagine), I'd be happy to cash it all in within China.Bitcoin never became a currency - it may or may not end up highly priced at a collector's value but it seems improbable that it could settle enough to become a usable mainstream currency. It could be a wealthy person's trading counter, perhaps. But like all such tokens, it remains vulnerable to fads.But I don't want to leave my last word with bitcoin. The last word, quite possibly for the entire world, may well rest with the Yuan.Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 1:57 utc | 55
Let’s take a look at just what is actually going on in China today. You know when the cost of housing is less than 10% of your income, and the TOTAL taxes and fees for being a citizen is less than 3%, you have the ability to save and live a stress free life.
It manifests like this…
When your rent or housing cost is less than 10% of your income, it’s easy to save money; and as a result life isn’t all that stressful.
AH.
Socialism does not mean the government owns everything.
It means the government owns the things that everybody NEEDS to have work well. Those things you don't want some needy jerk exploiting to make themselves rich or powerful with.
And those socialized things should be at nominal cost or free, to enable EVERYBODY to do their best in life.
If you want your culture and society (as a whole) to do well, you have to enable them with all the necessities.
You can have either "unproductive parasites" or you can have "a healthy body politic", not both.
Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 6 2021 20:32 utc | 22
But there’s more than what meets the eye. Instead of a “live your life as you see fit as a lone wolf” in America, the Chinese look hard and expect their children to grow up to be useful productive members of society. Here’s a pre-Kindergarden where infants are learning social interaction, basic spelling and language skills and proper social manners.
This is quite different from what American Public Education provides.
This is a Chinese pre-Kindergarden. Here’ the kids learn to socialize and learn their language skills early on.
There’s change in the air.
You can feel it.
To all the others who have read or are interested in the summation by Larry Romanoff over at the Saker called, Dealing With Demons.It's a lengthy review of the coronavirus as it hit China and the world. It's basically a forensic report on 2020, with about 160 footnotes to media and authority sources - the piece itself is a reference to bookmark, and the stories linked are probably a world of fascination.For those of us intensely following the situation, many of the facts and summaries presented are not new, but everyone will find something previously unknown in Romanoff's magisterial story.And it is a story, immensely readable, merely long - so make coffee or pour a drink and find a quiet hour, and there in that mere one hour you will have the real story of 2020, and the true picture of China.~~One thing - I had originally heard the translation of Xi's rallying call to action as the virus being a "Devil", not a Demon. The obvious connection seemed compelling with the "foreign devils" that plundered China of old and that still at every opportunity now attempt to exploit it. Maybe it's a nothing, maybe it's everything, in China's response of total mobilization, as if under attack. Romanoff doesn't go there, although he may have in earlier reports of this pandemic that he has dealt with so well (he's had great articles on the pandemic at Unz).~~For me, the venality and mean-spiritedness of the US establishment becomes so clear that I have to correct a previous speculation I made recently. I wondered - here in these threads, I think - if the hardening of Chinese diplomatic language was somewhat calculated and aimed at preparing its own nation for military conflict with the US.But I see now from Romanoff's report the extraordinary effort made by the Chinese people to help the US, in the spirit of goodness, even as the US media was being fed the lies to demonize China, and to turn the US populace into a majority population that hates China.And the Chinese people are well aware of this. And now that the dust has settled for them, it is a clear picture for them to reflect on regarding the US and say, "fuck 'em - never again will we help those people."So the real change came first, as the Chinese nation opened its heart to the US, and was trashed and slandered in return.
And the Chinese diplomatic language is simply reflecting the overall feeling of 1.4 billion citizens of this planet who now understand with great finality that the US is beyond the pale.Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 4:38 utc | 68
And you know, nothing says it’s time to close out this article than a movie. Here’s one that I took while I was on a trip to a factory the other week.
The movie…
Do you want more?
Ok, then.
Here’s a MV in Cantonese.
I have more posts in my International America Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
The world is moving ever forward. Such as this notice on MoA. This and these kinds of things are becoming more and more common in the West these days…
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
Maintenance mode
Temporary Blog Closure
March 24, 2021 in Uncategorized by craig
In view of our understanding that the High Court has found some articles on this blog to be in contempt of court, and in view of the fact that the Crown Office had sought to censor such a large range of articles, this blog has no choice but to go dark from 15.00 today until some time after tomorrow’s court hearing, when it will be specified to us precisely how much of the truth we have to expunge before we can bring the blog back up.
This is a dark day for the entire team here. We will be looking to appeal this to the Supreme Court and if required (though we very much doubt it will be) to the European Court of Human Rights.
-Posted by: Bluedotterel | Mar 24 2021 16:46 utc | 1
Bang, bang, and then bang. One after another things have started to happen faster and faster. It began in Alaska with a stunning, just stunning insulting display of ignorance and rudeness from the United States. Followed quickly by the military, social, industrial, and cultural realignments between Russia and China. With then Iran getting on board, creating the combined enormous Asian block.
Belt and Road isn’t going away. China is making more rigorous lending decisions while focusing somewhat less on heavy-duty construction and more on digital technology, says a Council on Foreign Relations task force report released on March 23. The 190-page report, titled China’s Belt and Road: Implications for the United States, was written by Jennifer Hillman and David Sacks of the CFR based on the findings of an independent task force chaired by former Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and retired Admiral Gary Roughead.For the U.S., calibrating an effective response to Belt and Road is tricky. The Obama administration pursued constructive engagement with China. As Belt and Road ramped up and became more of a threat, the Trump administration was more confrontational, but without allies’ support. The Biden administration aims to build more of a united front of nations to counter Chinese influence. Reflecting the difficulty of striking the right balance, the Council on Foreign Relations report says the U.S. response “has been too little, too late,” but also says “its blanket condemnation risks alienating partners.”
The American leviathan has set up the pieces, and is going full bore toward international global conflict. All stops have been pulled. All fail-safes have been removed. And now, it’s a matter of getting the minions and toadies in line so that the wars can be fought on their national geography instead of inside of America.
Um…
It’s not going to happen that way, but you just cannot reason with idiots.
I always knew there was something fundamentally wrong with the world.
-Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 24 2021 19:57 utc | 36
The Article
This is a great article. Just great.
As Patrice says…
It's clear from the tone of the author, which mirrors much of independent, assaulted and outraged humanity, that many observers are waiting with bated breath...
...for the emergence of a powerful and invincible countervailing alliance...
...(one that is) capable of finally stopping the reign of brutal violence and disgusting hypocrisy imposed by the US empire.
And that alliance, perforce, as to be the sinorussian alliance.
The blood-curdling hypocrisy of the West leaves truly decent and sovereign nations no choice.
As Pepe Escobar puts it in this remarkable and indispensable dispatch:
One has to applaud the gall of the “Western partners”. It’s 18 years since Shock and Awe – the start of the bombing, invasion and destruction of Iraq. It’s 10 years since the start of the total destruction of Libya by NATO and its GCC minions, with Obama-Biden “leading from behind”. It’s 10 years since the start of the savage destruction of Syria by proxy – complete with jihadis disguised as “moderate rebels”. Yet now the “Western partners” are so mortified by the plight of Muslims in Western China!
This is a complete reprint of a most excellent article from Pepe, and reproduced from HERE. All credit to the author. Please kindly note that it was reformatted to fit this venue but aside from that left intact in all of it’s glory.
With a Russia-China-Iran triple bitch slap on the hegemon, we now have a brand new geopolitical chessboard
It took 18 years after Shock and Awe unleashed on Iraq for the Hegemon to be mercilessly shocked and awed by a virtually simultaneous, diplomatic Russia-China one-two.
March 2021: The FMs of the two greatest powers defying Washington meet for close strategic consultation.
How this is a real game-changing moment cannot be emphasized enough; 21st century geopolitics will never be the same again.
Yet it was the Hegemon who first crossed the diplomatic Rubicon. The handlers behind hologram Joe “I’ll do whatever you want me to do, Nance” Biden had whispered in his earpiece to brand Russian President Vladimir Putin as a soulless “killer” in the middle of a softball interview. [Conducted by ABC News maggot, George Stephanopoulos, although media stenographers and propagandists in the Western bloc are all fully interchangeable. —Ed]
Not even at the height of the Cold War the superpowers resorted to ad hominem attacks. The result of such an astonishing blunder was to regiment virtually the whole Russian population behind Putin – because that was perceived as an attack against the Russian state.
Then came Putin’s cool, calm, collected – and quite diplomatic – response, which needs to be carefully pondered. These sharp as a dagger words are arguably the most devastatingly powerful five minutes in the history of post-truth international relations.
In For Leviathan, it’s so cold in Alaska, we forecasted what could take place in the US-China 2+2 summit at a shabby hotel in Anchorage, with cheap bowls of instant noodles thrown in as extra bonus.
China’s millennial diplomatic protocol establishes that discussions start around common ground – which are then extolled as being more important than disagreements between negotiating parties. That’s at the heart of the concept of “no loss of face”. Only afterwards the parties discuss their differences.
Yet it was totally predictable that a bunch of amateurish, tactless and clueless Americans would smash those basic diplomatic rules to show “strength” to their home crowd, distilling the proverbial litany on Taiwan, Hong Kong, South China Sea, “genocide” of Uighurs.
Oh dear. There was not a single State Dept. hack with minimal knowledge of East Asia to warn the amateurs you don’t mess with the formidable head of the Foreign Affairs Commission at the CCP’s Central Committee, Yang Jiechi, with impunity.
Visibly startled, but controlling his exasperation, Yang Jiechi struck back. And the rhetorical shots were heard around the whole Global South.
They had to include a basic lesson in manners: “If you want to deal with us properly, let’s have some mutual respect and do things the right way”. But what stood out was a stinging, concise diagnostic blending history and politics:
The United States is not qualified to talk to China in a condescending manner. The Chinese people will not accept that. It must be based on mutual respect to deal with China, and history will prove that those who seek to strangle China will suffer in the end.
And all that translated in real time by young, attractive and ultra-skilled Zhang Jing – who inevitably became an overnight superstar in China, reaping an astonishing 400 million plus hits on Weibo.
The incompetence of the “diplomatic” arm of the Biden-Harris administration beggars belief. Using a basic Sun Tzu maneuver, Yang Jiechi turned the tables and voiced the predominant sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the planet.Stuff your unilateral “rules-based order”. We, the nations of the world, privilege the UN charter and the primacy of international law.
So this is what the Russia-China one-two achieved almost instantaneously: from now on, the Hegemon should be treated, all across the Global South with, at best, disdain.
An inevitable historical process
Pre-Alaska, the Americans went on a charming offensive in Japan and South Korea for “consultations”. That’s irrelevant. What matters is post-Alaska, and the crucial Sergey Lavrov-Wang Yi meeting of Foreign Ministers in Guilin.
Lavrov, always unflappable, clarified in an interview with Chinese media how the Russia-China strategic partnership sees the current US diplomatic train wreck:
As a matter of fact, they have largely lost the skill of classical diplomacy. Diplomacy is about relations between people, the ability to listen to each other, to hear one another and to strike a balance between competing interests. These are exactly the values that Russia and China are promoting in diplomacy.
The inevitable consequence is that Russia-China must “consolidate our independence: “The United States has declared limiting the advance of technology in Russia and China as its goal. So, we must reduce our exposure to sanctions by strengthening our technological independence and switching to settlements in national and international currencies other than the dollar. We need to move away from using Western-controlled international payment systems.”
Russia-China have clearly identified, as Lavrov pointed out, how the “Western partners” are “promoting their ideology-driven agenda aimed at preserving their dominance by holding back progress in other countries. Their policies run counter to the objective international developments and, as they used to say at some point, are on the wrong side of history. The historical process will come into its own, no matter what happens.”
As a stark presentation of an inevitable “historical process”, it doesn’t get more crystal clear than that. And predictably, it didn’t take time for the “Western partners” to fall back into – what else – their same old sanction bag of tricks.
Here we go again: a US, UK, EU, Canada “alliance” sanctioning selected Chinese officials because, in Blinken’s words, “the PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.” [sic]
The EU, UK, and Canada didn’t have the guts to sanction a key player: Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo, who’s a Politburo member. The Chinese response would have been – economically – devastating.
Still, Beijing counterpunched with its own sanctions – targeting, crucially, the German far-right evangelical nut posing as “scholar” who produced the bulk of the completely debunked “proof” of a million Uighurs held in concentration camps.
Once again, the “Western partners” are impermeable to logic. Adding to the already appalling state of EU-Russia relations, Brussels chooses to also antagonize China based on a single fake dossier, playing right into the Hegemon’s not exactly secret Divide and Rule agenda.
Mission (nearly) accomplished: Brussels diplomats tell me the EU Parliament is all but set to refuse to ratify the China-EU trade deal painstakingly negotiated by Merkel and Macron. The consequences will be immense.
So Blinken will have reasons to be cheerful when he meets assorted eurocrats and NATO bureaucrats this week, ahead of the NATO summit.
One has to applaud the gall of the “Western partners”. It’s 18 years since Shock and Awe – the start of the bombing, invasion and destruction of Iraq. It’s 10 years since the start of the total destruction of Libya by NATO and its GCC minions, with Obama-Biden “leading from behind”. It’s 10 years since the start of the savage destruction of Syria by proxy – complete with jihadis disguised as “moderate rebels”.
Yet now the “Western partners” are so mortified by the plight of Muslims in Western China.
At least there are some cracks within the EU illusionist circus. Last week, the French Armed Forces Joint Reflection Circle (CRI) – in fact an independent think tank of former high officers – wrote a startling open letter to cardboard NATO secretary-general Stoltenberg de facto accusing him of behaving as an American stooge with the implementation of NATO 2030 plan. The French officers drew the correct conclusion: the US/NATO combo is the main cause of appalling relations with Russia.
These Ides of March
Meanwhile, sanctions hysteria advance like a runaway train. Biden-Harris has already threatened to impose extra sanctions on Chinese oil imports from Iran. And there’s more in the pipeline – on manufacturing, technology, 5G, supply chains, semiconductors.
And yet nobody is trembling in their boots. Right on cue with Russia-China, Iran has stepped up the game, with Ayatollah Khamenei issuing the guidelines for Tehran’s return to the JCPOA.
1. The US regime is in no position to make new demands or changes regarding the nuclear deal.
2. The US is weaker today than when the JCPOA was signed.
3. Iran is in a stronger position now. If anyone can impose new demands it’s Iran and not the US.
And with that we have a Russia-China-Iran triple bitch slap on the Hegemon.
In our latest conversation/interview, to be released soon in a video + transcript package, Michael Hudson – arguably the world’s top economist – hit the heart of the matter:
The fight against China, the fear of China is that you can’t do to China, what you did to Russia. America would love for there to be a Yeltsin figure in China to say, let’s just give all of the railroads that you’ve built, the high-speed rail, let’s give the wealth, let’s give all the factories to individuals and let the individuals run everything and, then we’ll lend them the money, or we’ll buy them out and then we can control them financially. And China’s not letting that happen. And Russia stopped that from happening. And the fury in the West is that somehow, the American financial system is unable to take over foreign resources, foreign agriculture. It is left only with military means of grabbing them as we are seeing in the near East. And you’re seeing in the Ukraine right now.
To be continued. As it stands, we should all make sure that the Ides of March – the 2021 version – have already configured a brand new geopolitical chessboard. The Russia-China Double Helix on high-speed rail has left the station – and there’s no turning back.
Conclusion
Oh, Pepe said it so clearly and so wonderfully. Today there is a massive new Geo-political alignment, and it is the direct result of insanity and poor leadership from the West. And they are so very incompetent that they have no idea with the kind of “fire” that they are playing with.
Even with an enormous military, control of all media and communication, and some hidden ultra-powerful technology, the leadership is so seriously incompetent, the systems so hopelessly flawed, and the participants so absolutely corrupted that a catastrophic collapse of their government is imminent.
I hope and pray that I am wrong.
That all this will “blow over” and just go away, and I can fall into the “dust bin” with the rest of the “doom and gloom” predictors throughout history. Let’s hope the MM is wrong.
Meanwhile, the insanity of what the West is today is gearing up. It’s the same-old, same-old. Only on a bigger scale. So the carpet bombing of China by biological weapons dis not work. So the aggressive attacks on trade and technology did not work. So the enormous armada of ships to the South China Sea did not work. So the riots and revolution in Hong Kong did not work…
…and neither will “boots on the ground” in Xinjiang either.
…nor “saving” Taiwan from China.
…nor a strong QUAD.
But they still have dreams of conducting “the rape of Nanjing” in modern Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. They still have dreams of invading and seizing Chinese held islands. They still have the dreams of sinking all cargo ships on the high seas. They still believe that all this can be ignored…
…as long as they control the American media.
EXCEPT…
Only Americans read American media.
They do not control the thoughts of the world. And the world is getting mightily pissed. Gosh! It’s going to be one fuck of a year.
As a reminder. This is what a “double tap” looks like. As this video from Boston, Massachusetts clearly shows…
Be careful of your neighbors when you shovel your driveway.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
In this article we look at the place that China has carved out for itself in the world. Rather than repeating the American mainstream press narratives, we just present the charts, facts and figures and let them do all the talking. China is more than a growing nation. Today it is a predominant nation that is in the process of successfully eclipsing the United States as a global leader.
What I want to do is just present the facts, and let the reader come to their own conclusions.
Reichert and Bognar are clearly on the side of the workers, both American and Chinese, yet their film is no Michael Moore polemic. It's an old-school observational documentary in the very best sense of the term. They don't approach the Fuyao story with a thesis, don't dehumanize the Chinese, don't tell us what to think. Working with 1,200 hours of footage — heroically edited by Lindsay Utz — they have amazing access to a complex economic reality that is touchingly hard on workers.
- Work Cultures Clash When A Chinese Company Reopens An 'American Factory'
I am posting this on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Communist Chinese nation. It’s a really, really big event out here. To quote one of my favorite presidents; “It’s bigly great!“.
Introduction
A vast majority of Americans have absolutely no clue how advanced China has become.
You don’t need to take my word for it. All you need to do is take a gander at the comments on social media. It’s a recycled bunch of “off the cuff”, dismissive nonsense that has been spewing forth from the mainstream media outlets for the last thirty years.
Many of the comments are all “boiler plate” smug nonsense. A quick word here, a phrase there, a snide comment. No serious discussion aside from “I have an engineering friend that visited China a few years ago and he reported it was a dump.“
If you hop on to any of the American social media platforms, especially (for some reason) the conservative platforms, you will discover such comments as…
“China is 100 years behind”
“All Chinese products are crap”
“China can’t innovate”
“It’s a communist, poor, polluted country”
“It’s infrastructure is collapsing”
…not to forget the specific “issues” that are all boilerplate responses…
“…cross removal on churches…”
“…eating dogs and cats…”
“…Tiananmen square massacre…”
“…ghost cities…”
“…One child policy…”
“…Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps!”
“…Chinese people long for democracy…”
… and, of course, the most popular theme is…
“China’s economy is about to collapse.”
It’s hard to change these opinions, since those people reinforce their biases by gleefully consuming and sharing only anti-China articles.
Anything even remotely positive about China is attacked as “Chinese propaganda.”
CNN reports on killer hornets in China. Yikes! But also places Hong Kong in South America. What is the funniest thing about this is that not one American noticed the geographical error. They were all far too busy worrying about giant zombie-like killer hornets! If I ever come across giant zombie killer hornets, I will write about it. I promise!
The truth is that America media has created an echo chamber that boxes Americans in. It holds them in a state of near constant fear, so that others (often powerful multinational corporations) can manipulate them for profit and personal gain. This is not good. This is quite awful. The reason that this is dangerous, and awful is because…
The American government requires an alert and well-informed citizenry to function properly.
Do a picture / image search for “dogs in china”. One is a United States search engine; Bing. The other is a Chinese search engine; Baidu.
Now look at the difference in the photos found. Big difference indeed.
If you search using American search engines, and American web sites you
will get the idea that the Chinese hates dogs. You would get the idea
that they eat them and treat them brutally.
The
photo results when using an American search engine (Bing) for the term
“Dogs in China”. Pretty terrible. Eh? The Chinese must really HATE dogs.
Don’t you think?
When the real truth is that the Chinese love dogs like their very own
children. They dress them up in clothes, including socks and shoes.
(Even my dog Shao Pi has sock, shoes, a coat, underwear, sunglasses, a
cap and his very own backpack.) They have hairstyles and perms that they
give the dogs. They groom them in pet salons, and offer them high-end
doggie hotel accommodations, complete with dog-friendly television
shows. It is a completely stark mind-blowing difference.
Yet, you know you would think that the US media would WANT to show
this bizarre behavior to the American public. It is, after all,
newsworthy. But they don’t. Anything that shows China in a positive
light is suppressed.
The
photo results when you use a Chinese search engine (Baidu) for the
search term “Dogs in China”. You know, the Chinese really love their
dogs and treat them as children.
This ignorance is dangerous
This potent mix of ignorance and hubris is also precisely why western corporations acted like they have towards China. They gladly and voluntarily shared their intellectual property (IP) with their Chinese joint-venture partners. They had nothing to fear from a “back-woods”, “third-rate”, “third world”, “shit hole” country.
So they just gave away their intellectual secrets. The Chinese were “too backward”, “not progressive enough”, a “third world shithole” and would never grow to be competitive.
It's like a 12 year old boy being "edged on" to wrestle with a grizzly bear. He doesn't know any better, and all his "friends" are telling him to "go ahead, you can do it".
But, you know, the grizzly bear won't play. And the boy, in his ignorance, will be literally eaten alive. And the friends, the very ones that edged him on, will scurry for the hills in fear and terror.
Ah. American industry was so strong, so powerful, so invincible. There was nothing that they couldn’t do, and nothing that they were afraid of.
So they gleefully shared American technology and “know how” with their Chinese counterparts.
The American government requires an alert and well-informed citizenry to function properly.
It’s silly in hindsight. The term “forced technology transfer” was invented retroactively, and only after Chinese corporations started threatening western profits.
Huawei has overtaken Apple, Nokia and Ericsson in smartphones, 5G and telecom infrastructure.
BYD manufactures more electric vehicles than Tesla.
Alibaba and Tencent process 50x more mobile payments than the US.
The most valuable (ByteDance) and the most innovative (Meituan) startups are Chinese.
But all this is disguised, camouflaged, hidden or obfuscated by ignorance and a lack of useful comparative measurements. For instance, if you judge the usefulness of a automobile steering wheel by the same characteristics as a buggy-whip, you will end up being misinformed as towards utility, usefulness, and quality.
We are often deceived by our ignorance.
Let’s look at where China is today, where it is heading, and what it means. For ease of convenience, I have grouped the charts by utility and usefulness.
Group [A] Economic Advantage
Here we try to gauge a measure of economic advantage a normal and typical person might have in a given nation. Can people live, eat have babies and families in the nation without undue hardship? This can (potentially) be measured by a nation’s GDP.
In general, the greater the GDP, the greater the advantage the family might have relative to the rest of the world. It’s a reasonably fine general gauge.
In general, the greater the GDP, the greater the advantage the family might have relative to the rest of the world.
It is not, nor should it ever be, a comprehensive indicator of how successful a given nation might be in providing “opportunity” for it’s citizenry. Rather it is a general indicator for predicting relative average familial prosperity geographically on a national basis.
I argue that it is easy to misinterpret the values that the GDP represents. Therefore, it should be considered not as an absolute, but rather as a guideline as to the success of any given nation.
In this regard, it is clear that China is near equals with the United States in GDP ratios with some "wiggle room" in allowances for methodology considerations.
[A1] GDP per capita
We start with the GDP per capita. The good news here for Americans is that the American GDP per capita is untouchable. America has the largest GDP per capita in the world.
PercapitaGDP is a measure of the total output of a country that takes gross domestic product (GDP) and divides it by the number of people in the country. The percapitaGDP is especially useful when comparing one country to another, because it shows the relative performance of the countries.With the income approach, the GDP of a country is calculated as its national income plus its indirect business taxes and depreciation, as well as its net foreign factor income.
-Investipedia
It’s a measure of the NET AVERAGE success of the net average citizen in a specific nation.
It is computed using United States dollars. The rating is based on the amount of United States dollars a nation uses.
Thus, the United States, being the world’s largest user of United States dollars, would of course, have the highest GDP per capita in the world.
GDP per capita is a measure of the NET AVERAGE success of the net average citizen in a given nation. If a nation has a good GDP then the citizens are afforded the ability to start and launch their own business with the resources that they might have on hand.
Of course, this is a general indicator. Some people will be rich and some people will be poor. But the net average person in the target nation would be adequately described by this measurable.
Nations that have very rich individuals and very poor individuals might have a GDP-per-capita somewhere in the middle.
Nations that have an overall good standard of living for everyone (rich and poor) might have a GDP-per-capita somewhere at the top.
Nations that have a generally poor standard of living for the vast bulk of the population would have a GDP-per capita somewhere at the bottom.
The bad news about this indicator is that can be deceiving.
A nation can have a top GDP-per capita rating and still have most of it’s people living in poverty. This can happen when a handful of the ultra-rich controls the vast bulk of the wealth.
In itself, it’s not really useful simply because no nation (aside from the tiniest nations) are truly homogeneous. What is useful, however, is to use it in conjunction with other measurables. Then it becomes a useful tool to help predict future economics of nations.
When it comes to the top national economies globally, although the order may shift around slightly from one year to the next, the key players are usually the same. At the top of the list is the United States of America, which according to Investopedia, has been at the head of the table going all the way back to 1871.
However, as has been the case for a good few years now, China is gaining on the U.S., with some even claiming that China has already overtaken the U.S. as the world’s Number 1 economy.
Some things to watch out for in an over-reliance on the GDP-per-capita charts and tracking…
Calculations on GDP/capita are only valid for nations trading solely in US dollars.
Nations that trade in other currencies (either fully or partially) will pull their GDP-per-capita rating lower than their actual value calculated.
In 2012, nearly eight years ago, China conducted trade with 20% being in the Yuan, and 80% in the USD.
Presently we can expect that the percentage of international trade in the yuan / USD to be much higher in 2019. Thus, this fact alone will render any GDP-per-capita calculation meaningless for a nation such as China that trades in other currencies and commodities.
The GDP-per-capita value assigned for China is deceptively low. It assumes that 100% of national trade is conducted in United States Dollars. When in actuality, China trades in USD, yuan, petrol-dollars, and commodities.
[A2] PPP GDP
China is #1 in PPP GDP. It is been so since 2014 when it surpassed the US). PPP GDP is another indicator that is useful in measuring geographical “advantage” for families.
United States and China are the two largest economies of the world in both Nominal and PPP method. US is at top in nominal whereas China is at top in PPP since 2014 after overtaking US. Both country together share 40.75% and 34.27% of total world’s GDP in nominal and PPP terms, respectively in 2019. GDP of both country is higher than 3rd ranked country Japan (nominal) and India (PPP) by a huge margin. Therefore, only these two are in competition to become first.
[A3] Nominal GDP
America is #1 in nominal GDP.
China is #2 in nominal GDP ($13.5 trillion in 2018). And it’s as big as the next 4 countries combined! This nominal GDP, as long as it is associated with people who manufacture goods within a nation, can also be a useful indicator.
GDP is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year. In Nominal method, market exchange rates are used for conversion.
United States is largest economy of world at nominal (exchange rate) basis. With economy of around $17.4 trillion, United States holds a 22.53 percent share of global GDP in nominal terms.
GDP of United states is $7039 billion more than second ranked China.
China contributes 13.43% of total world economic output.
Despite loosing $303 billion in 2014, Japan is still at number 3. Japan is now ahead of Germany by $757 billion. Top ten countries are : United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Brazil, Italy, Russia and India.
-Statistic Times
United States and China contributes 35.96% of world’s GDP. Top 3 countries contributes 41.93% of world’s GDP. Top 5 countries shares 50.74% of world’s GDP. Top 10 countries contributes 65.3% of world’s GDP.
However, this can be deceiving. The rebranding of imported products can artificially inflate this value. Which, is exactly what has happened in the United States.
According to this indicator, every iPhone in the United States is manufactured in the United States simply because it is listed as a final good. But, this is not true. Every iPhone is actually manufactured in China. It is then shipped to the USA, stored in warehouses, and sold. The American company profits from this. But no American worker does. The Chinese worker does.
Remember…
GDP is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year.
I argue that if you were to subtract the imported final goods from this equation, that the nominal GDP for America would be half of what it is currently listed as. Thus, making China #1 in nominal GDP actual.
Group [B] Exports & Exported Products
A nation that manufactures things is able to provide labor and purpose for it’s citizenry. When people are safe, secure and providing a meaningful role in their community, they tend to be happy and satisfied with their social-economic position.
The export of products and manufactured items is an indicator of the value of the parts so made. This value can fall under one of three characteristics. Either it is of high quality, it is cheap, or it is made quickly.
On every level, China is superior in the manufacture, export, shipping and supply chain management of parts, things and assemblies all over the globe.
[B1] Exports
China is #1 in exports (been so since 2009 when it overtook Germany). This should not be a surprise to anyone.
China’s dominance in trade has been a key driver of this trade metamorphosis and economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have put out a report outlining the progress as well as some of the challenges confronting China as the economy continues to evolve.
[B2] Container Traffic
China is #1 in container traffic (40% of global market). This should not be a surprise to anyone.
Infographic on shipping container traffic from China compared to the United States.
[B3] Importation of products
America is the #1 importer of products.
China is the #2 importer of products. ($2.1 trillion) It is behind the United States in this role. Most of the products that China imports originate out of the United States.
This is a measure of the relative health of the consumer market. When people are buying things, the consumer market is healthy. As many raw materials are imported, such as metals, and oil, it is also a reflection of the health of a nations industrial might.
China is the #2 importer of products. ($2.1 trillion) It is behind the United States in this role.
China imports precious metals from Africa, oil and gas from the Middle East, and recyclable trash from the United States.
[B4] Manufacturing Value Added
China is #1 in manufacturing value added (been so since 2010 when China overtook it from the US, which had been #1 for the previous 110 years).
China is the world’s leader in the manufacture of value added parts, components and assemblies.
In layman’s terms, “value added” is the relative value of what you get for your money.
High value added; Movie + fresh buttered popcorn + icy cold soda + wide comfortable reclining seats + VIP discount coupons.
Low value added; Discount matinee movie in an non- air-conditioned theater.
Life is too short for cheap beer.
When a nation starts selling things that are low value added, they will offer generic products, discount products, and reduced value items. Conversely, when a nation sells high value things, they would rely on high quality and brand names to sell the products.
Value AddedInbusiness, thedifferencebetweenthesalepriceandtheproductioncostofaproductistheunitprofit. Ineconomics, thesumoftheunitprofit, theunitdepreciationcost, andtheunitlaborcostistheunitvalueadded. Summingvalueaddedperunitoverallunitssoldistotalvalueadded. Totalvalueaddedisequivalenttorevenuelessoutsidepurchases (ofmaterialsandservices).
- Wikipedia
Group [C] The Health of the National Currency
A healthy currency is one that goes a long way in purchasing things. Gold is considered a healthy currency for just this reason. It tends to always go up in value. Likewise, an unhealthy currency is one that loses value over time. Such as being subject to inflation.
China's currency is healthy. The Chinese government has taken great care in the husbanding of the currency and unlike the United States, did not hand over the financial management of the nations' economy to bankers (like the United States did with the Federal Reserve).
[C1] Foreign Exchange Reserves
China is #1 in foreign exchange reserves (>$3 trillion).
The more foreign exchange reserves a nation has, the greater the stability of it’s currency and it’s banking industry is. A strong forex means it is difficult for the nation to suffer through depressions, downturns and recessions.
Maybe President Trump should of thought about this before he tried to press the tariff issue with the Chinese. Eh?
China has the healthiest forex reserves in the world. The United States has the weakest (and most dangerous levels) of forex reserves, followed by the UK.
Foreign exchange reserves take the form of banknotes, deposits, bonds, treasury bills, and other government securities. Foreign exchange reserves are a nation’s backup funds in case of an emergency, such as a rapid devaluation of its currency.
Foreignexchangereserves (alsocalledforexreservesorFXreserves) arecashandotherreserveassetsheldbyacentralbankorothermonetaryauthoritythatareprimarilyavailabletobalancepaymentsofthecountry, influencetheforeignexchangerateofitscurrency, andtomaintainconfidenceinfinancialmarkets. Reservesareheldinoneormorereservecurrencies, nowadaysmostlytheUnitedStatesdollarandtoalesserextenttheeuro.
- Wikipedia
When you hold the debt of the United States, the USA government must pay you the interest on that debt. It’s a source of income for you.
Holding the debit of an other nation provides numerous benefits for the person holding the debt. One [1] your economy can ride out any fluctuation in the market by the success of another nation. [2] You can control the economy of another nation by buying or selling off your debt.
One of the most common concerns of the government is to earn lots of funds to be able to make everything in the vicinity of their country in its proper order. Due to these, governments are seen typically to have their debt from other countries that they are paying either through the use of their current income as well as the issuance of new bonds. When a country will be doing their debt monetization there is a possibility that the presence of inflation would appear. It is a process wherein the issuance of the debt to be able to finance all its spending and the printing of the money by the central back are observed.
Inflation is greatly connected with the so called quantitative easing in other countries to lessen the governments’ burdens when it comes to their debts. The highest scale of this particular type of condition was seen to be common in the US. They have the so called Federal balance sheet to determine the quantity of their debts from other countries. Federal Reserve will be the one in charge of handling and holding the of every US debt of the country.
-Brandon Gialle
China reclaims title as biggest foreign holder of US debt. The two countries account for more than a third of the total foreign ownership of US Treasury securities. Investors have been closely scrutinizing China’s ownership of Treasuries after the country spent a portion of its foreign exchange reserves last year to defend the renminbi.
Group [D] Global Partner to other Nations
A nation that is friends and supportive to other nations is one that can be relied upon when things go wrong. While the USA has been involved in wars all over the globe, China has been trying to build bridges, assist in economic development and offering educations to the poor around the world.
BeltandRoadInitiative (BRI) China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) isanambitiousprogrammetoconnectAsiawithAfricaandEuropevialandandmaritimenetworksalongsixcorridorswiththeaimofimprovingregionalintegration, increasingtradeandstimulatingeconomicgrowth.
- Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
The Belt and Road Initiative is a grand plan to connect Asia with Europe and Africa in a monumental trade and infrastructure network. Aimed at promoting prosperity for countries across the world, it was proposed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.
China calls it a “modern Silk Road” with plans to build six major economic corridors generating hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Apart from free trade, the plan would provide opportunities for peace and inclusiveness, said President Xi at the forum, adding that old models based on rivalry and diplomatic power games should be abandoned, reported Reuters.
There are various measures of being a good “global neighbor”. Here are some of them…
Rather than fight an endless stream of wars, China has decided that it would be a far better friend than an enemy to other nations. As such they are openly conducting relationships, trade and establishing trade routes so that the world within their sphere can prosper together.
[D1] Primary trading partner with most of the world.
China is the #1 trade partnerfor 130 countries (trade = exports + imports). And for 37 countries, China is also their #1 export destination (meaning, they sell the most goods to China).
In 2017, China major trading partner countries for exports were United States, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, Rep. and Vietnam and for imports they were Korea, Rep., Japan, Other Asia, nes, United States and China.
[D2] Contribution to Global Growth
China is the #1 leader in contribution to global GDP growth for the past decade (25-35%, which is twice that of the US). That is, if the world GDP grows by $100, then $25-$35 comes from China.
China is expected to account for fully 73% of total growth of the so-called BRICS grouping of large developing economies.
[D3] Production of Construction Materials
China is by far, #1 in steel, cement, aluminum production (link, link, link). In three years (2012 – 2015), China used more cement than the US did in the entire 20th century (link)!
Check out these graphs that shows just how dominant China is in all these fields…
China dominates the world in the production of steel. No other nation or region of nations comes close.China dominates the world in the production of steel. No other nation or region of nations comes close.China dominates the world in the production of aluminum. No other nation or region of nations comes close.China currently produces over half of the world’s cement. Global cement production is expected to increase from 3.27 billion metric tons in 2010 to 4.83 billion metric tons in 2030. In China, the cement production in 2015 amounted to some 2.31 million tons.If you remember just one thing from this article, it would probably be this infographic.
[D4] China leads the world in the manufacture of automobiles.
China is #1 in manufacture of conventional cars (>26 million per year). In manufacturing, it is always the “large players” that will dominate the industry. They will set the trends, the styles, and the regulations.
How has China become such a dominant economic power? Part of the reason is its booming auto industry. To illustrate, the total number of autos sold last year in China was 24.6 million. This dwarfs total auto sales in the U.S. last year, which hit a record 17.5 million cars and trucks. In addition, SUV sales in China increased a whopping 52% in 2015. China’s auto industry is thriving and should provide stiff competition for U.S. auto manufacturers in the years ahead.
- Forbes
The Chinese automobile sector has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, with China recently becoming the world’s largest producer of automobiles. Given the steel-intensive nature of automobile production, the expansion of China’s automobile sector has seen it become an important end-user of steel. With the number of cars in China still very low relative to its large population, car sales are likely to remain at a high level for the foreseeable future; accordingly, Chinese car makers should remain a significant (and growing) source of demand for steel.
[D5] High-Technology manufacture
China is #2 in hi-tech manufacturing (Yeah, China isn’t just making rubber duckies anymore).
The narrative from the American mainstream media has always been that China can only copy. They cannot innovate.
This should be considered a specious argument as China has fully invented and implemented 5G technology, while American industry is still struggling on developing it.
People! You cannot copy something that hasn’t been invented yet.
5G3GPP's5GlogoIntroduced Late 2018 by the Chinese Huawei, 5Gisthefifthgenerationcellularnetworktechnology. Theindustryassociation3GPPdefinesanysystemusing "5GNR" softwareas "5G", adefinitionthatcameintogeneralusebylate 2018. OthersmayreservethetermforsystemsthatmeettherequirementsoftheITUIMT-2020. 3GPPwillsubmittheir5GNRtotheITU. Itfollows2G, 3Gand4Gandtheirrespectiveassociatedtechnologies.
A global power shift in the technology sector is underway. Decades ago, China was viewed as a mere imitator in the technology world. The international tech community regarded Chinese companies as more likely to copy western products than develop their own innovative ideas.
Group [E] Personal Success
It is the internal yearning of man to improve his lot. That includes his children and the lifestyle of his family. We look at ability to grow as a family in success as well as the ability for companies to grow and succeed. How does China stack up in this regard…
China is catching up fast, and has eclipsed the United States on various levels.
[E1] Billionaires
China is a close #2 in billionaires (about 400 billionaires). But that gap is closing fast.
When it is possible to go from “rags to riches” there is the ability to greatly improve one’s status in life.
China is a close #2 in billionaires (about 400 billionaires). But that gap is closing fast.
[E2] Millionaires
China is #1 in millionaires.
Step aside, American millionaires. Your Asian counterparts are now wealthier than you are. Asian millionaires now control more wealth than their peers in North America, Europe and other regions, according to a new World Wealth Report from Capgemini, a consulting group.
Asian millionaires saw their wealth jump by 9.9% in 2015, while poor performance in the equity markets in the United States and Canada slowed growth in North America to a sluggish 2.3% last year.
Step aside, American millionaires.
Your Asian counterparts are now wealthier than you are.
Asian millionaires now control more wealth than their peers in North America, Europe and other regions, according to a new World Wealth Report from Capgemini, a consulting group.
Asian millionaires saw their wealth jump by 9.9% in 2015, while poor performance in the equity markets in the United States and Canada slowed growth in North America to a sluggish 2.3% last year.
Of course, it is useful to be deceptive in this matter.
If you consider wealth to ONLY be measured in United States Dollars, and not in other currencies, gold, bitcoin, or in property, it would be Americans that would be the wealthiest. For they have the largest piles of money in the USD currency.
Of course, it is useful to be deceptive in this matter. If you consider wealth to ONLY be measured in United States Dollars, and not in other currencies, gold, bitcoin, or in property, it would be Americans that would be the wealthiest. For they have the largest piles of money in the USD currency.
It's sort of like saying that Americans eat the most delicious food in the world simply because America makes the most hamburgers. While not taking into account that there are other kinds of food.
When you try to judge the world on an American scale... USD, your results will be skewed in favor of the United States.
[E3] Stock Market
China is #2 stock market, by market cap (overtook Japan in 2014). Obviously the United States stock market is a major player in stock value and worth.
In 2003, even tiny Switzerland and sparsely populated Canada had larger stock markets than China. And India is coming on strong. It’s now home to 2.6 percent of the world’s total stock market value.
[E4] Fortune 500 Companies
China is #2 in representation in Global Fortune 500 companies. (And, it is actually #1 if Taiwan is included)
TheFortuneGlobal 500, alsoknownasGlobal 500, isanannualrankingofthetop 500 corporationsworldwideasmeasuredbyrevenue. ThelistiscompiledandpublishedannuallybyFortunemagazine. Until 1989, itlistedonlynon-USindustrialcorporationsunderthetitle "International 500" whiletheFortune 500 containedandstillcontainsexclusivelyUScorporations.
- Wikipedia
China is #2 in representation in Global Fortune 500 companies. (And, it is actually #1 if Taiwan is included)
[E5] Agriculture
China is #1 in most agricultural products — production of rice, wheat, potato, beer(!), tea, apple, strawberry, grapes and numerous other grains, vegetables and fruits. (link)
China leads the world in the production of rice.China leads the world in the production of beer.China leads the world in the production of wheat.China leads the world in the production of pork.China leads the world in the production of tea. Sorry Arkansas. You are going to have to tear down all your signs.
Group [F] Poverty and Middle Class
A good indicator on the general health of a nation is the size of it’s middle class. Nations that are stratified with a rich class, and a poor class but have a very small middle class will produce raw data that on the surface looks great, but in reality does not reflect the nation as a whole.
China's middle class is growing and dwarfs that of the West. They are also affluent, tech-savvy and travel internationally.
[F1] The Middle Class Population
China is #1 in Middle Class population (350 million in 2018; and it overtook the US in 2015).
Chinese middle class is huge and growing. It’s already far larger than what is found in the United States.China’s middle class is large and growing.The global pyramid of wealth. It’s all going to Asia. While the middle class in North America shrinks substantially.China has an enormous and growing middle class.The nineteenth century industrial revolution created a substantial Western European and American middle class. Today the same is happening in emerging markets. Over the next two decades, the global middle class is expected to expand by another three billion, from 1.8 billion to 4.9 billion, coming almost exclusively from the emerging world. In Asia alone, 575 million people can already count themselves among the middle class — more than the European Union’s total population,
[F2] Elimination of poverty
=> #1 in poverty elimination (800 million lifted out of extreme poverty)
[F3] On-line and electronic sales
China is #1 in online/e-commerce retail sales (In 2019 it was three times (3x) that of the US).
In the retailing business, it’s fairly common knowledge that China is home to the world’s most prolific online shoppers. Last year almost 419 million mainlanders made purchases via the Web, more than any other country, and they spent more online than consumers elsewhere by a wide margin ($672 billion, nearly twice U.S. online spending in 2015).
If these facts suggest to you that e-commerce in China has matured and growth is running out of steam as the country’s economy slows, think again. China retail consumption in general continues to increase briskly and online shopping in particular continues to boom. Analysts reckon this is due to a combination of potent demographic and cultural trends that show no signs of abating: the growing spending power of upper middle class and affluent households; the coming of age of a generation of college-educated consumers; rising aspirations among hundreds of millions of people in China’s less-developed cities and rural areas; a powerful shift away from shopping at brick-and-mortar stores to mobile e-commerce driven by widespread smartphone adoption.
Will China still be on top at the close of the decade? A recent forecast on worldwide e-commerce sales through 2019 by independent research firm eMarketer says yes, emphatically so.
-China will completely dominate e-commerce.
e-commerce transactions between China and other countries increased 32% to 2.3 trillion yuan ($375.8 billion) in 2012 and accounted for 9.6% of China’s total international trade. In 2013, Alibaba had an e-commerce market share of 80% in China.China dominates retail e-commerce sales by a significant factor.
[F4] Retail Market
China is #1 in the retail market of the world by 2019 ($5.6 trillion)
By 2018, the Chinese online fashion market is forecast to be larger than that of the USA and Europe combined. This according to the latest report from the Statista Digital Market Outlook. The analysis reveals, with turnover of 126 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, China is already by far the leader for online fashion but by 2018 this turnover is expected to reach 194 billion – eclipsing that of the USA and Europe. The biggest players in China are currently Tmall, JD and VIP.com.
China’s overall share of global luxury goods purchases declined slightly from 31% to 30%. Longer term, China remains an engine of growth for luxury goods as the country’s middle class continues to grow in size and purchasing power. The behavior of Chinese consumers epitomizes a larger global trend: the re-localization of luxury. In 2016, the growth of local luxury purchases exceeded that of tourist purchases by 5 percentage points, the first time that has happened since 2001.The luxury market value on the Chinese mainland is expected to hit 113 billion yuan ($18.07 billion) by the end of the year. Watches are expected to be among the hardest hit categories with a 5 percent drop in market value.
However, Chinese purchases worldwide reached 306 billion yuan with spending abroad rocketing by 31 percent.
More than 60 percent of consumption took place in overseas markets, driven by the depreciation of major foreign currencies, and dynamic overseas travel.
[F6] Luxury Automotive Market
China is #1 in the luxury car market (Example: 400,000 BMW’s manufactured and sold in China in 2017). Any one visiting China can attest to this. Bentley’s and Lamborghini’s are all pretty common in China. But, very rare in the United States.
China represents a significant proportion of market share for luxury brand automobiles.German automakers Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz maintained their lead as the top performers in China’s luxury car market in the first half of 2014 as Mercedes-Benz continues to try to play catch-up to its two main rivals.
[F7] International Tourism
China is #1 in international tourism spending (In 2010, Chinese tourists spent half as much as Americans; and by 2017, China was spending twice as much as the US)
Revenue generated by outbound tourism from China continues to grow in 2018. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) found that spending from Chinese tourists abroad now makes up 21% of all tourism spending. In addition, each Chinese traveler spends on average more per trip than tourists from any other country. The impact of Chinese tourists on the luxury industry is thus remarkable. Retailers, hotels, restaurants and travel brands all need to adapt their products and services if they want to appeal to this new market segment.China’s outbound tourism boom is expected to remain the largest force in the global travel market over the next decade, with Chinese spending reaching US$255.4 billion by 2025.
This was the prediction of a recent report by economic forecasting firm Oxford Economics and credit card company Visa called “Mapping the Future of Global Travel and Tourism,” which says that this number will be the result of an 86 percent increase in Chinese travel spending in the next 10 years. The 2025 prediction will be up from $137 billion spent in 2015, keeping China far at the top of the list as the number one source of cross-border travel spending in the world. The staggering amount is expected to be almost double that of the United States’ second-place $134.1 billion spent by tourists abroad and larger than that of Germany, the UK, and Russia combined.
Group [G] Technology
The future of the world belongs to the nation that can harness, control and wield new and advanced technology. Increasingly it appears that China will wear this mantle.
China is investing in technology, spending money, time and effort towards AI, robotics, space exploration, and medical research. Meanwhile the United States is pushing for diversity improvements, Muslim outreach, and social programs.
China’s startup market had a good year in 2018, with close to 100 technology companies garnering a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Known as unicorns, the companies were led by eCommerce and video streaming services, the Financial Times reported, citing data from Hurun’s ranking of China’s top tech companies.
China’s startup market had a good year in 2018, with close to 100 technology companies garnering a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Known as unicorns, the companies were led by eCommerce and video streaming services, the Financial Times reported, citing data from Hurun’s ranking of China’s top tech companies. According to the report, Hurun, which also produces the annual rich list for China, found there are 186 Chinese tech startups that have valuations of more than $1 billion. In first place is Ant Financial, the digital payments affiliate of Alibaba. Among the video streaming startups, the Financial Times said ByteDance made the list. It runs the Toutiao news video and short video streaming company Douyin.
ByteDance, Tencent-backed short-video app Kuaishou, and Meicai, an online platform for farmers selling vegetables, were ranked the fastest-growing startups, with valuations that jumped 400 percent in 2018, reported the Financial Times. The report noted that internet services, medical and health companies, and education were the fastest growing sectors from a valuation perspective.
-PYMNTS
Beijing topped the list of cities with the most “unicorn” companies, with 54 startups according to the Hurun Greater China Unicorn Index 2017 released Dec 21.
A unicorn, by definition, is a startup company valued at more than $1 billion. The list surveyed 120 unicorn companies with a total estimated value of more than 3 trillion yuan ($458 billion) in China.
Shanghai took second position with 28 unicorns, and Hangzhou followed Shanghai with 13 unicorns.
Notably, the 13 unicorn companies in Hangzhou have a higher total estimated value than the 28 unicorns in Shanghai combined.
While investors in the West have carefully trimmed their stakes in startups and announced the end of the golden age of unicorns, China’s government-backed venture capital funds have amassed the world’s biggest startup pool, reports Bloomberg.
And it’s enormous—reaching almost 10 times the amount spent by venture capital firms on Chinese startups in 2015: $32.2 billion.
In bid to ease the slowing Chinese economy into a consumer-based rather than heavy industry-focused one, the country reportedly raised about 1.5 trillion yuan, or $231 billion, in state-backed venture funds through 2015, according to Zero2IPO.
That tripled its assets under management to $338 billion. The money, which is almost five times the amount raised by any other venture firm in the world in 2015, comes mostly from tax revenues or state backed loans, and is funneled into some 780 funds across the country.
China's 4G users touches 836 million. China hastheworld'slargest 4G network andisaimingtoadd 2 million 4G basestations, mainlyfortownshipsandvillages, by 2018. Alsobytheendofthefirstquarter, China had 310 millionusersof fixed-line broadband network, andnearly 80 percentofthemusedfiberbroadbandproducts.
-Economic Times
One of the main reasons China is ahead of the US is because of proactive government policies. The CTIA feels so strongly about this it even commissioned another research firm to further investigate the importance of winning at 5G.
“When countries lose global leadership in a generation of wireless, jobs are shed and technology innovation gets exported overseas... Conversely, leading the world in wireless brings significant economic benefits, as the U.S. has seen with its 4G leadership. These are the serious stakes that face American policymakers in the escalating global race to 5G.”
-Roger Entner, Founder of Recon Analytics.
Well you can’t argue with that can you? Here’s the 5G readiness chart according to whatever criteria they used.
Research commissioned by US wireless trade association CTIA reckons China is a bit ahead of Korea, the US and Japan when it comes to 5G readiness. The report, compiled by Analysis Mason, frames 5G as a global race – the implication being that whoever starts doing it in real life first will have a big advantage over everyone else.
China has the highest number of internet users in the world, with over 746 million users. China has a population of over one billion, and a vast internet network that has been expanded in recent years. Chinese internet users have nearly doubled in numbers over the past decade. The strongest increase has been among mobile internet users, who access the internet on smartphones, which is very popular in China.China owns the internet. Compared to the Chinese software companies, Google and Facebook, Twitter and all the rest are all small potatoes
[G5] Smartphone use
China is #1 in smartphones (Chinese brands have 40% of the global market)
China has the largest smartphone penetration in the world.
[G6] Use of solar, wind and hydro power.
China is #1 in solar, wind and hydroelectric power (link)
China has invested heavily in alternative energy sources. This includes solar, wind and hydro technologies.
[G7] Use of electric cars
China is #1 in electric cars – manufacturing and sales (link)
There’s no comparison. China is by far, the world leader in electric vehicles.
[G8] Drones
China is #1 in consumer drones (70% of global market). This is pretty much obvious when you just scan through the names and logos of those people making the drones. Heck! They are mostly Chinese.
China is #1 in consumer drones (70% of global market).
China is #1 in supercomputers (227 out of the 500 supercomputers are Chinese)
China has pulled way ahead of the US in the supercomputers. The share of TOP500 installations in China continues to rise, with the country now claiming 227 systems (45 percent of the total). The number of supercomputers that call the US home continues to decline.
I was talking the other day to a colleague about the phenomenon in Asia, India, Africa and South America taking place with mobile payments and the lack of take-up in the USA. Why is this, I wondered? Then got my answer, although it isn’t a singular factor but a combination of factors.
First, there are many payment methods already deployed and available for most American consumers including cash, check, credit or debit card, PayPal and more. Second, it is not just the choice of payment methods but also the breadth and depth of acceptance. For most US stores, their preferred payment method is cash or card, and that’s pretty much the same in Europe; whilst China’s stores all take QR codes. Third, there has to be a reason for consumers to change their payments behavior and the US has not created any yet; China’s red letter days made the difference when Tencent and Alibaba went head-to-head, and Singles Days and other events since have created the behavioral change. Finally, there has to be scale and support for change, and the USA doesn’t have it as there are too many financial providers with too many different interests. If the USA had Facebook and Amazon offering simple payments in apps, it might have taken off far faster than it has; but the fact that Tencent (800 million users) and Alibaba (540 million) pushed mobile payments hard into the Chinese consumers hands made the transformation easy.
This is why it surprises me that after all the hoo-hah razzamatazz announcements of Apple Pay that it turned out to be such a damp fizz. In fact, I claim it’s one of Apple’s failures. I don’t use it. I have no incentive to use it. I don’t like it. I don’t find it functional. In fact, I hate it.
I realized how much I dislike it when the new iPhone keeps bringing up Siri and Apple Pay rather than opening my apps when I press the home button. Then, when I want Apple Pay to come up, I have no idea how to get it. Then I realized it’s in my wallet, and then I realized the wallet is now just a digital representation of my card.
-Skinners Blog
China leads the world, by far…far… far in command of mobile payments.
Group [H] Infrastructure
A measure of how healthy a nation is can be determined by it’s infrastructure. How many new parks are made? What is the condition of bridges? How is the ease and availability of public transportation? High speed rail, the prices and extent of the lines? Here we can see that China outshines the world in these areas.
Compared to the United States, China has invested such an enormous amount of money and resources into infrastructure that simply dwarfs any efforts by the United States. They are so minuscule that they hardly seem worth mentioning in comparison with China.
[H1] Skyscraper construction
China is #1 in skyscrapers – more than half of all skyscrapers are in China (link)
China is the world leader in skyscraper construction.
China is #1 in high-speed railways or bullet trains (30,000 Km or 18,000 miles)
China leads the world in high speed rail. The value listed for the United States is an estimate. As of 1OCT19, only 15 miles of HST track has been laid down in the United States.
[H3] Global Infrastructure Projects
China is #1 in global infrastructure projects. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) involves 152 countries and international organizations. (link)
Globally, China has been steadily increasing its official finance investments in other countries, but these flows are less concessional than that of other large players like the US. Consistent with speculation in popular media and policy circles, China is making big bets in the infrastructure sector, as the lion’s share of its investments globally between 2000 and 2014 were in energy (US$134.1 billion), transportation and storage (US$88.8 billion), telecommunications projects (US$16.9 billion) and mining, construction and industry (US$ 30.3 billion).
Seven of the top 10 recipients of Chinese “aid” (ODA) were in Africa, but its other official flows (OOF) are more geographically dispersed. Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana collectively received US$23.3 billion in official development assistance from China between 2000 and 2014. Africa is less of a priority for China when it comes to its more commercial or diplomatically focused other official financing: Angola is the lone African country in the top ten recipients of Chinese OOF, receiving $13.4 billion.
- China’s financial statecraft: Winning Africa one Yuan at a time?
These survey results tell us that the substantial investments made by China in the infrastructure sector are indeed paying off in increased influence with world leaders. In comparing survey responses from 2014 and 2017, China is rapidly gaining ground when it comes to agenda-setting influence with policymakers in low- and middle-income countries. More on this is still to come, with AidData’s forthcoming publication analyzing the full survey results slated for April 2018.
So, how might we explain China’s rising influence? Money may not buy love, but it does give donors a seat at the table with policymakers in low- and middle-income countries. China holds most sway with leaders from countries that are heavily dependent on its grants and loans.
Beyond money, public diplomacy tools can work together with development assistance to amplify influence with African leaders. For example, China has more influence in countries where leaders had greater interaction with the Chinese Communist Party and less influence in countries that had more leaders educated in the US and a higher number of Fulbright scholars.
In addition to becoming the biggest produced of steel and aluminum, among many other things, the PRC has launched a number of huge infrastructure projects—topped by $25 billion Three Gorges Dam (a project originally dreamed of since imperial days).
But China still remains deeply conservative politically—it remains the only one of the ten major global economies not to be a multi-party democracy.
Under Mao, China sought to export revolution. Today it looks to deploy its massive cash reserves, spreading “soft power” around the globe. Throughout, the PRC insists that it’s pursuing a “peaceful rise” in search of a “harmonious world”.
-China in the 21st Century
Group [I] Science, Research & Development
Scientific development is how a nation can obtain a leadership role in the global economy. When ever a nation has technological leadership, it’s people prosper. This was true for Germany, Japan, and the Untied States. It is now true for China.
[I1] STEM field participation
China is #1 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) college graduates (4x as many as the US)
With regard to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates, however, according to the OECD, in 2030, if the proportions of STEM graduates continue at 2012 levels, China and India will account for more than 60% of the OECD and G20 STEM graduates. Considering the BRIICS countries as a whole (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa), it is estimated that they will produce three-quarters of the global STEM graduates by 2030. This is a significant shift away from the traditional aerospace manufacturing hubs in North America and Europe.
According to 2018 Science & Engineering Indicators, a report published by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), China has left the U.S. behind to become the largest producer of scientific articles. In 2016, China published more than 426,000 studies, which amounted to 18.6% of the publications indexed in Scopus (Elsevier’s database). The U.S., with 409,000 studies, is now positioned after China.
Over the last few years, the volume of publications in China has increased exponentially; China had been trailing the U.S. with regard to the number of publications. In June 2017, the Chinese National Center for Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE) and Clarivate Analytics, announced that China ranks third in the world in publishing academic papers that are a result of international collaboration.
-Editage Insights
China’s Scientific dominance is a done deal – Business Insider.
“The US continues to be the global leader in science and technology, but the world is changing,” says Maria Zuber, a geophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. As other nations increase their output, the United States’ relative share of global science activity is declining, says Zuber, who chairs the National Science Board, which oversees the NSF and produced the report. “We can’t be asleep at the wheel.”
The shifting landscape is already evident in terms of the sheer volume of publications: China published more than 426,000 studies in 2016, or 18.6% of the total documented in Elsevier’s Scopus database. That compares with nearly 409,000 by the United States. India surpassed Japan, and the rest of the developing world continued its upward trend.
-Nature
The international authorities overseeing the creation of a unified standard for 5G mobile technologies are expected to release its initial phase next year and the final phase in 2019, paving the way for a broad roll-out of 5G services by mobile network operators from 2020.
China’s bid to gain a greater share of the intellectual property behind the universal 5G standard would not only increase its global influence, but improve its bargaining power with foreign patent holders and help lower costs for mainland telecoms equipment makers, chip companies and other enterprises in the supply chain.
China is on the cusp of recasting itself as a leading technology innovator from a mere follower in the telecommunications industry, as efforts to develop a global 5G mobile standard near the final stage. “While China has the world’s largest mobile market by subscriber and network size, other countries have dominated mobile technology innovation,” said Jefferies equity analyst Edison Lee. “5G is the opportunity of the century for China.”
China is #1 in Artificial Intelligence (AI) funding, startups and publications (link, link)
Xu runs SenseTime Group Ltd., which makes artificial intelligence software that recognizes objects and faces, and counts China’s biggest smartphone brands as customers. In July, SenseTime raised $410 million, a sum it said was the largest single round for an AI company to date. That feat may soon be topped, probably by another startup in China. The nation is betting heavily on AI.
Money is pouring in from China’s investors, big internet companies and its government, driven by a belief that the technology can remake entire sectors of the economy, as well as national security.
A similar effort is underway in the U.S., but in this new global arms race, China has three advantages: A vast pool of engineers to write the software, a massive base of 751 million internet users to test it on, and most importantly staunch government support that includes handing over gobs of citizens’ data –- something that makes Western officials squirm.
“…Historically, the country has been a lightweight in those regards. It’s suffered through a “brain drain,” a flight of academics and specialists out of the country. “China currently has a talent shortage when it comes to top tier AI experts,” said Connie Chan, a partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
“While there have been more deep learning papers published in China than the U.S. since 2016, those papers have not been as influential as those from the U.S. and U.K.” But China is gaining ground.
The country is producing more top engineers, who craft AI algorithms for U.S. companies and, increasingly, Chinese ones. Chinese universities and private firms are actively wooing AI researchers from across the globe. Juo, the University of Rochester professor, said top researchers can get offers of $500,000 or more in annual compensation from U.S. tech companies, while Chinese companies will often double that.
Meanwhile, China’s homegrown talent is starting to shine. A popular benchmark in AI research is the ImageNet competition, an annual challenge to devise a visual recognition system with the lowest error rate. Like last year, this year’s top winners were dominated by researchers from China, including a team from the Ministry of Public Security’s Third Research Institute.”
China has shot far ahead of the US on deep-learning patents, 2018 China wants to become a country of innovation, and lead the world in artificial intelligence in 2030 .
China, still derided by many in the West as the “Great Imitator,” is set to become the world’s leading research and development (R&D) spender within about 10 years, according to a report by advisory firm KPMG, which notes that in 2013, China committed $220bn in R&D spending, second globally only to the United States, which is estimated to have spent $424bn. This year, research firm Battelle and R&D Magazine predict in their 2014 Global R&D Funding Forecast that China will spend $284bn, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%, far eclipsing the US’s same-period increase of just one percent.
[I7] Satellites in Orbit / Space
China is #2 in number of satellites in orbit/space (280 satellites as of 2018). In 2018, China became the first country to land on the far side of the moon.
The UCS Satellite Database, compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy group, shows that the United States, as of November 2018, had 830 registered units in orbit. That number almost exceeds the combined total of the rest of the top ten. China follows with 280, and Russia is third with 147.
Conclusion
Just skimming through this article, taking note of the size of China and the sheer number of leadership spots would be enough to make the most skeptical nitwit pause and think.
China is a serious, serious nation that deserves respect.
Those that want to bury their head in the sand and pretend that China is not anything to worry about… that the “Trump Tariffs sent China back 20 years”… and that efforts to “contain” China will work… need to rethink their strategies.
I argue one very simple point. It is a point and theme that I have made time and time again, and I will conclude with it here…
The American government requires an alert and well-informed citizenry to function properly.
Otherwise, the American government (and by extension, the proud American people) will just end up as a footnote in the history books. Heed my words.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
America seems to be blissfully unaware of how it comes across to the rest of the world
