Speculation on what the false flag will be to launch a war against China

"... if they (the psychopaths) keep playing "chicken" with Russia & China, they'll get it-sooner, rather than later"

This is going to be a pretty harsh article. We are not going to “dance around” any of the issues. Instead we are going to spell (or spit) it out directly. If you aren’t ready for it you can leave.

First of all, the Untied States has spent a good portion of the last twelve years building up a narrative towards a major global-wide war with China. The last four years (2016 through 2020) has really placed the Targeting Reticule on China, and you have to be delusional not to notice it.

And let’s be real about it, as well.

You can pretend that it’s a “cold war”, or it’s a “hybrid war”, or perhaps a simple “trade war”. But that’s just dancing around the raw and harsh facts. It’s a build up to a “hot shooting war” and you just simply cannot avoid that reality.

Most people avoid the harsh reality because [1] they don’t want to believe it, and [2] they are not given all the information of what if going on.

How many Americans know about the American drones spraying swine flu to devastate the pig industry in 2018? How many Americans know about the tit-for-tat attacks on the VTOL aircraft carriers in 2020? How many Americans are aware of the differences between the COVID-19A and the COVID-19B strains.

Very, very few.

It’s been exceptionally hot. And the only way that you can keep abreast of the latest run of attacks is to read the neocon publications out of the K-street military-industrial network in Washington DC.

Propaganda campaigns, and hybrid wars ALWAYS end up in a hot shooting war. There is not one single instance where it did not. Not once.

And people (!) all hot wars that America initiates requires an ignition event to launch. And if one cannot be found, then a fake event is created. These events are called “false flags”.

What is a “False Flag”?

A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term is popular amongst conspiracy theory promoters in referring to covert operations of various governments and cabals.

-Wikipedia

The following is from History.com, All credit to the author.

On the night of the 31st of August 1939, several covert Nazi operatives dressed as Polish soldiers stormed the Gleiwitz radio tower on the Germany-Poland border. They broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish before leaving. The soldiers left behind the bodies of a pro-Polish German farmer and several unidentifiable Dachau concentration camp prisoners. The farmer and the prisoners had been murdered and dressed up in German uniforms.

The attack was part of a series of covert actions along the Polish border that the Nazis would use to justify Germany’s attack on Poland the following day. Gleiwitz was a classic ‘false flag’ operation.

So, what is meant by the term ‘false flag’? Originally, the phrase was coined for the practice of pirate ships flying the colors of other nations to deceive merchant ships into thinking they were dealing with a friendly vessel. While the pirates would usually unfurl their true colors just before attacking, the wrong flag would sometimes continue to be flown throughout an attack, hence the term ‘attacking under a false flag’. Over time, the term ‘false flag’ came to be applied to any covert operation that sought to shift the responsibility on to a different party from the one carrying it out, as was the case with the Nazis at Gleiwitz.

One of the most famous incidents considered by many to be a false flag operation is the Reichstag fire, which took place on the night of the 27th of February 1933. A lone communist sympathizer called Marinus van de Lubbe was arrested and charged with setting fire to the German parliament building. This gave Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, the excuse they needed to purge Germany of opposition, especially the communists. The sweeping emergency powers Hitler and the Nazi Party grabbed for themselves after the fire are the reason many people think the Reichstag was burned not by a lone communist protesting Germany’s treatment of the working classes (as van de Lubbe himself claimed while in custody), but by the Nazis themselves.

Of course, it isn’t just the Americans and the Europeans who have been accused of participating in false flag operations over the years. Between 1979 and 1983, the Israeli secret services stand accused of instigating a series of car bomb attacks in Lebanon that killed hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians. Though the bombings were claimed by the terrorist organization, the Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners, many believe the bombs were set off by the Israelis to sew dissent throughout the region and justify an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Though an Israeli general has admitted the attacks were carried out by his country, the official line is still that Israel was not involved.

In the modern era, things become a little murkier. Whether a modern-day false flag operation is real or not is now a matter to be bitterly fought over on the Internet.

To many online conspiracy theorists, the biggest false flag operation of all time was the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many believe that these attacks were deliberately carried out by the US government as a way to justify the subsequent attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, which they believe were carried out to install a gas pipeline across Afghanistan and to seize the oil wealth of Iraq.

Many ‘9/11 Truthers’ point out discrepancies in the official report into the destruction of the World Trade Center, focusing primarily on the collapse of the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center. They argue that the towers could not have been brought down by plane strike and fire alone, be must instead have been brought down by another means, such as by controlled demolition. The claims that 9/11 was an inside job have been vigorously disputed both by the US government and various experts many times, but it is highly unlikely the myriad of conspiracy theories swirling around 9/11 will ever go away.

Accusations of false flag operations have continued right up to the present day. One of the most widely-disputed and discussed is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings of 2012, which has been laid at the door of the US Government.

People who refuse to believe the shootings were the act of a lone gunman allege twenty students and six staff were deliberately murdered so stricter gun controls could be imposed on the US population. Skeptics point to the attack coinciding with President Barack Obama’s announcement that he would sign restrictive small arms legislation. The convenient timing of the attack could then be used by the president as the excuse he needed to impose new restrictions, hence why it must have been a false flag operation. Again, like 9/11, it is highly unlikely that the theories surrounding the tragic attack will ever die down.

We now live in an age where, to some at least, nothing is as it seems, everything can be labelled a conspiracy and no amount of evidence to the contrary will change people’s minds.

There have been several documented false flag operations throughout history, and the existence of them goes some way to explaining why thousands upon thousands of people all around the world believe many more covert operations have been carried out regardless of government claims to the contrary.

Why does the United States want to start a war with China?

The following is from Global Research. Reprinted as found, all credit to the author and edited to fit this venue. The original title of the article is: "China-US Relations and Biden’s “Global Death Trap”: The World Is Facing Another Cold War Which May Become Hot, Even Very Hot" by Prof. Joseph H. Chung Global Research, April 09, 2021.

In Anchorage, Alaska, on 18-19 March 2021, top diplomats of China and the U.S. met and declared the new Cold War. The U.S. side was represented by Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, while China was represented, by Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister and Yang Jiechi, top diplomat of China. 

Anthony Blinken said ” China’s actions pose a threat to a rule-based order designed to maintain global stability:”

Translation: “You unthankful China, listen carefully! Do not dare challenge the world in which Washington feels comfortable. Otherwise!” This is the declaration of the cold war.

On his part, Wang Yi said: “Beijing is firmly against US interference in domestic affairs. We will take firm actions in our response.”  “Most countries in the world do not recognize US values as global values.”

Translation: “Listen You Washington,. China has done a lot for you. China has something to tell you! China has had enough of your bullying. If Washington wants to fight, well, China is ready! 

Two days later…

On March 22, Wang Yi, foreign minister of China and Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister of Russia met to protest against Washington’s sanction imposed on Russia and China.

The very next day, on March 23, Xi Jinping, president of China and Kim Jong-un, president of North Korea exchanged letters for mutual cooperation. This is the beginning of China’s recruiting of cold war alliances.

All these events mean one thing. The Global Cold War has begun and the world will be divided once again between the West and the East and the Cold War is likely to become Global Hot War and we will be all dead.

Before I begin, I would like tell this to Beijing and Washington!

In 2020, the combined GDP of China and the U.S. was 35 trillion USD, or 42% of the global GDP of 84 trillion USD.

You China and the U.S. listen! You have become rich and powerful, because the world has worked hard for you. The world has provided low-cost labor, high quality raw materials and people’s precious savings; the world has bought your products.

Remember! The world belongs to every human being and every country.

Please behave like responsible global super powers. You have no right to ruin the world with your hegemonic fight.

So, China and the U.S. please stop the dreadful cold war and take responsibility of assuring global peace, safety and prosperity.

*

In this paper, I am asking these questions.

  • Why does Washington declare the new cold war now?
  • What are the American objectives of the cold war?
  • What are the cold war Strategies of the U.S. and China?
  • Can Washington win the cold war?
  • Can the hot war happen?
  • What will be the impact of the Sino-American war on the humanity?

Why does Washington declare the New Cold War Now?

When it comes to the economy, the language betrays the reality all too clearly. The Trump administration’s economic struggle with China is regularly described, openly and without qualification, as a “war.” And there’s no doubt that senior White House officials, beginning with the president and his chief trade representative, Robert Lighthizer (image on the right), see it just that way: as a means of pulverizing the Chinese economy and so curtailing that country’s ability to compete with the United States in all other measures of power.

-Global Research

There are two possible reasons for Washington’s decision to declare the Cold war against China, a war which actually began since Barack Obama’s Asia Pivot.

The first reason is that Joe Biden needs an enemy dangerous enough to unify the American people and to deal with [1] the impossible task of restoring the economy and [2] justify the raison d’être of the existence of the government.

The Pearl Harbor attack was devastating enough to wake up the sleeping Americans to unite and follow the Washington’s leadership. But I wonder if the Chinese challenge is grave enough to unify the Americans and trust Washington and cooperate for the policy of restoring the economy.

The second reason is more convincing. It is matter of coping with the Chinese economic threat when China’s military challenge is still manageable. The Chinese economy is catching up with the U.S. economy at a threatening rate, while the Chinese military capability is still far weaker than American military capacity. In other words, Washington has decided to hit hard Beijing when it is still a weak attacker and get rid of the economic threat.

I have done some calculations to see the evolution of economic and military power of the two super powers. I have assumed that the Chinese GDP will increase per year, at a compound growth rate of 5 %, from US$ 15.42 trillion in 2020 to $ 24.98 trillion in 2031, or a accumulated increase of 62%. As for the United States, it is assumed that its GDP will increase by 2% a year from $20.93 trillion in 2020 to $25.32 trillion in 2031, or accumulated increase of 21%.

This means that, in 2020, the Chinese GDP was 73.6% of the U.S. GDP to reach 98.7% in 2031. This is surely threatening to Washington.

Thus, the Chinese GDP is expected to catch up with the U.S. economy in ten years. But, we have a different picture as far as military strength is concerned.

We have examined the 10-year evolution of national defense budget of the two countries. It is assumed that the share of the defense budget in the GDP will remain the same throughout the 10 year period. The Chinese 2020 national defense share was 1.15% of GDP yielding $ 178 billion. In 2031.The Chinese defense budget will be $287 billion. Now, for the U.S. in 2020, the national defense budget was $730 billion, or 3.6% of GDP, this rate is applied for 2031 to get $911 billion.

This means that despite rapid rise, the Chinese catching up for the defense budget is much slower than the case of GDP. In fact, in 2020, the amount of Chinese national defense expenditures was 24.5% of that of the American national defense budget to increase only to 30.2% in 2031. This may allow Washington to feel safe as far as the Chinese military threat is concerned.

So, Washington’s strategy is to strike China before the Chinese economy catches up with the U.S. economy while Beijing’s is still “militarily weak”. 

What are the Objectives of the U.S. initiated Cold War?

An examination of the demands submitted to Chinese negotiators by the U.S. trade delegation last May suggests, however, that Washington’s primary intent hasn’t been to rectify that trade imbalance but to impede China’s economic growth. Among the stipulations Beijing must acquiesce to before receiving tariff relief, according to leaked documents from U.S. negotiators that were spread on Chinese social media:

[1] halting all government subsidies to advanced manufacturing industries in its Made in China 2025 program, an endeavor that covers 10 key economic sectors, including aircraft manufacturing, electric cars, robotics, computer microchips, and artificial intelligence;

[2] accepting American restrictions on investments in sensitive technologies without retaliating;

[3] opening up its service and agricultural sectors — areas where Chinese firms have an inherent advantage — to full American competition.

In fact, this should be considered a straightforward declaration of economic war. Acquiescing to such demands would mean accepting a permanent subordinate status vis-à-vis the United States in hopes of continuing a profitable trade relationship with this country. 

“The list reads like the terms for a surrender rather than a basis for negotiation,” was the way Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, accurately described these developments.

The principal objectives of the Cold War is to prevent China from becoming a Global Power threatening the accumulated interests of the U.S. and its allies.

-Global Resource

What are the Cold War Strategies of the U.S. and China?

The weapons of the New Cold War are likely to include the following:

  • Security Alliance War
  • Ideological War
  • Economic War
  • Security War

Security Alliance War

The security alliance is designed to maximize the “friendly supports” for the country’s war efforts. On this ground, the U.S. has a definite upper hand. Actually, China has only a few alliances; its potential alliances would include North Korea, Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Pakistan. But, there is no guarantee that these potential alliances will help China in a  Sino-American war. On the other hand, Washington has a lot of alliances.

The U.S. has many security alliances in the East Asian region: the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance, the U.S.-South Korea Security Alliance, the U.S.-Australia Security Alliance, the U.S.-the Philippines Security Alliance. The U.S. has security partnership with Singapore and Taiwan.

The U.S. has the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) composed of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S.

Moreover, there was the TPP (Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership) led by Washington. It had 12 member countries. Since Trump withdrew, it has become CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership) with 11 member countries. But, Biden might rejoin it, because it is supposed to be a free-trade alliance, but, in reality, it is a part of China-containment alliance. It includes five East Asian countries: Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. In addition, most of the East Asian countries have some sorts of security cooperation with Washington. Thus, the U.S. has a lot of countries with which it has security related relations.

But, the question is whether these security alliances will join the U.S.-initiated anti-China war. They may cooperate with Washington as long as the cold war remains cold. However, what they should do is to persuade Washington to end the cold war, for it is the best way to keep their economy going in peace.

This is suggested by Graham Allison, the author of his famous book, “Destined for War: Can America and China escape Thucydides Trap?” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston-New York, 2017) 

Ideological War

The purpose of the ideological war is to demonize the rival country in order to justify the country’s war on the one hand, and on the other, to maximize global support for the war.

The ideological war relies on the following weapons:

  • Human Right Violations
  • Freedom of the Press
  • Violation of law-Based Rules
  • Authoritarianism
  • Assertiveness
  • Violation of the UNCLOS

Human Right Violations:

The U.S. accuses China for violating minority groups’ rights to maintain autonomous values and political system. But, Beijing argues that it upholds the rights of minority groups. China would say that it has to intervene in order to prevent minority regions from becoming independent, thus threatening the sovereignty of China.

China may ask Washington how it would react, if the State of Alaska fights for its separation from the United States. Moreover, China openly criticises widespread human right violations in the U.S. against minority groups including the Black Africans, Native Indians and other minority groups.

The Canadian Human Right Commission defines human rights as the fundamental right of all human beings for a life of dignity, respect and equality. Hence, all human beings have rights to enjoy public goods such as health, education, housing, racial equality, physical safety on the street. These rights may be violated not only by the government but also by individuals and institutions. Any government which fails to protect these rights is violator of human rights.

In the mainstream media, the perception of human rights violation is limited to the harsh measures taken by the government. The human rights issue has become a political tool in international relations. The debate on human rights issue should, on the contrary, focus on a solution to human rights violations rather than political gain.

In regards to Washington’s policy of China’s human rights violations, I am quite puzzled by its lack of consistency. In fact, for decades since the time of Richard Nixon to the era of Barack Obama, human rights violations in China was not a major issue.

Joe Biden makes human right the key issues in Sino-American relations. Why? Is it because he considers China as a threat to U.S. hegemony?

Freedom of the Press:

The American media criticizes China for lack of the freedom of press. It is true that the press in China is closely managed by the State in order to minimize criticism of government policies. China may react by asking if there is freedom of press in the U.S. China may ask if the American press is free to criticize large corporations which finance the media.

Here, I may ask one question which may interest both China and the U.S.

Is the freedom of the press the raison d’être of the press? What happens, if the free press is biased and behaves in such a way that it is harmful to the welfare of the ordinary people? The Korean press is the freest press in the world, owing to the liberal policies of the government of Moon Jae-in.

Unfortunately 98% of the press present biased report, fabricate stories, publish lies in order to protect the corrupted vested interests of the conservatives accumulated for 70 years; the press is the integral part of the corruption; its sole purpose is to destroy the liberal government and retake the power so that it could enjoy the privileges and wealth provided by the corruption culture. The freedom of press is important, but without political neutrality, it can hurt the nation.

In fact, in the context of the Sino-U.S. cold war, one of the most dangerous weapons is the press. Unfortunately, the press gives itself the mission of demonizing the enemy through lies, biased reports, presenting prepared horror pictures. In a way, the outcome of the New Cold War depends largely on the “press war”. So, my humble wish is that the press in the U.S. and China give itself the mission of stopping the Sino-American cold war and not intensifying it.

Law-Based Rules:

If there is any universal consensus in the West, it is the belief that China does not respect law-based rules. But, we seldom find any concrete incidences where China violates such rules.

The trouble is that rules cannot cover all things and all behaviors. Besides, rules must evolve in function of the need of the time. There are hundreds of reports and research papers which give the impression that China does not respect the international rules. But seldom do they point out which laws are violated. If China is such a violator of international laws, how could it trade with other countries and how could it realize the economic miracle without respecting international laws? Have any international institutions including IMF, WTO, WHO and other international institutions complained about China’s not respecting international laws?

China would react. First, it may ask Washington to provide the actual cases of China’s rule violation. In addition, China may add that most of the international rules being conceived and imposed by the U.S., they may not be suitable for countries of different cultures and judicial traditions. Therefore, China might suggest a reform of the international laws more flexible and inclusive.

Authoritarianism:

Another favorite pass time topic in Washington elite circle and media is the sins of China’s authoritarian regime. This is rather amazing, because the U.S. is a lover of authoritarian regimes in numerous countries, provided these regimes are good boys obeying Washington’s command.

Washington loved General Park Chung-hee and General Jun Doo-hwan for their oppressive authoritarian regime, because they were obedient to Washington.

Chiang Kai-sek was a more than an authoritarian dictator in Taiwan, but he was an asset for America’s China policy.

China may tell the U.S. not to worry about the authoritarian character of the Chinese political regime. China may tell Americans that the authoritarianism has been the core of Chinese values and culture. Besides, as a country of 1.5 billion people with more than a hundred dialects and constant threats of [US supported] independence of minority regions, China needs a strong top-down authoritarian decision-making process.

China’s Assertiveness:

China is accused also for its being assertive with its BRI project, its relations with ASEAN countries and, especially, its militarization of the South China Sea.

China is accused for its assertiveness in connection with its Belt-Road Initiative (BRI). The often quoted incident of such assertiveness is the China’s debt-trap applied to Sri Lanka. However, according to studies by Sri Lankans, the story of debt trap is a lie or misunderstanding by so-called China haters. The project of the Hambantato Port was initiated by current prime minister (former president) in the early 2000s.

It was a purely commercial project and managed by a Chinese government-owned enterprise (GOE). Sri Lanka excessively borrowed money from Western financial institutions including the IMF. Sri Lanka’s debt was so high that the cost of servicing the debts represents 44% of government revenue; this is the debt trap which has nothing to do with the BRI. In fact, Chinese loans represent mere 9% of Sri Lankan government debt. The Hambantato Port is leased for 99 years managed by a Chinese enterprise, CMPort. Sri Lanka has to pay the debt to China for the loans. By the way, the port cannot be used by Chinese navy.

China is accused also for bullying South East Asian countries. This is contentious, according to several studies, these countries do not experience Chinese political assertiveness. On the contrary, Chinese soft business diplomacy is greatly appreciated.

Moreover, China’s productive participation in the activities of ASEAN, APT (ASEAN plus Three), ARF (Asia Regional Forum), EAS (East Asia Summits), RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) Shangri-La Dialogue, and numerous FTAs is highly valued. Even those countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam which have security cooperation with Washington do not feel the pressure of apparent Chinese assertiveness.

Chinese assertiveness which is the most criticized is its alleged military assertiveness. To see more clearly the nature of China’s military assertiveness, we need to study its evolution, which shows that China’s assertiveness was the reaction to American assertiveness.

In 2008, The U.S. joined the TPSEP (Trans-pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) which became later the TPP (Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership) which was more a security alliances than FTA (Free Trade Agreement).

In March 2009, China was under surveillance by an American vessel’s surveillance activities near Hainan Island, the key Chinese navy port.

In September, 2009, the U.S. adopted the Air and Sea Battle (ASB) which was another threat to Chinese A2/AD (Anti-Air/Area-Denied) strategy.

In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the U.S. had interests in the South China Sea, meaning the strong military presence in Asia.

In 2012, Barack Obama announced the Asia-Pivot or “Rebalancing” of American military might in favour of the Asia-Pacific region. It is important to point out here that this series of Washington’s assertive activities hostile to China inevitably invited China’s assertive actions.

In fact, in the period, 2013-2014, China extended its ADIZ (Air-Defence Identification Zone) to as far as the region of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Island.

In September 2013, China started its Island-Building operations in the South China Sea.

In 2013, a Chinese navy vessel dangerously approached USS Cowpens, U.S. navy guided-missile destroyer.

Thus, Chinese assertiveness was, largely, the counter defensive actions to the American assertiveness. In short, so called, Chinese assertiveness, cannot not be used for China denunciation.

The building of the South China Sea islands and the militarization of these islands have been the principal object of China demonization. In fact, this operation started in 2013 and completed in 2016. Several reefs including the Mischief Reef, the Subi Reef and the Fiery Reef all became islands armed with missile launch facilities and airstrips for jet fighters. The reason behind this operation may be the fear of blockade of the South China Sea by the U.S. and its allies, a military operation which will make China to starve to death.

Unfortunately, the American assertive actions followed by Chinese counter actions have inevitably led to the deterioration of the Washington-Beijing relations.

In 2014, Barack Obama visited Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore in order to strengthen the China containment operations. What is disturbing is the fact that Barack Obama promised Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, that the U.S. would be ready to intervene, if  a Japan-China conflict took the form of military confrontation. Obama did not, however, commit himself to US military intervention. In contrast, Biden’s Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, promised, during his recent visit to Japan, US military intervention in case of China-Japan confrontation involving the Diaoyu/Senkaku Island. This is indeed a dangerous decision on the part of the U.S.

Violation of UNCCLOS:

Another item on the China demonization menu is the theory that China does not respect the UNCLOS (UN Convention of the Law of Sea) and that China prevents free maritime traffic in the South China Sea. But, there is no actual evidence of China’s violation of free maritime traffic in the South China Sea.

To sum up, the Sino-U.S. ideological war has failed to make China’s regime to deserve global suspicion and denunciation.

Washington has no assurance that the region’s neighbouring countries would rally behind the U.S. because of China’s regime and ideology. This does not mean, however, that China is the winner. . 

Economic War 

As suggested by America’s trade demands, Washington’s intent is not only to hobble China’s economy today and tomorrow but for decades to come. This has led to an intense, far-ranging campaign to deprive it of access to advanced technologies and to cripple its leading technology firms.

Chinese leaders have long realized that, for their country to achieve economic and military parity with the United States, they must master the cutting-edge technologies that will dominate the twenty-first-century global economy,

-Global Research

As I pointed out above, in ten years, Chinese economy will catch up with the U.S. economy assuming that the American GDP will increase by 2% per year, while the Chinese GDP will rise by 5% per year. My assumptions may be wrong, but one thing which is certain is that China’s GDP will soon catch up with that of the US.

There are several reasons:

First, the Chinese per capita is about $11,000 meaning that there is a lot of room for further growth, while in the U.S. where the per capita GDP is $63,000 the potential growth is approaching its limit.

Second, under the intensification of the trade war, the diversification of trade partners becomes strategic. The American trade partners being highly developed countries, the diversification of trade partners will not be a great help, whereas, China’s trade partners being Asian countries with high growth rate, its trade partner diversification will be an advantage.

Third, the U.S., the economy being dependent on high technology, economic growth is unable to create jobs and it creates unequal income distribution at the expense of ordinary Americans, which in the long run, it will slow down the growth of the American economy.

Fourth, the U.S. economy is excessively dependent on the domestic market, the strength of which is the consumer demand. Remember that, in the U.S., the consumer demand accounts for as much as 70% of GDP as against 50% in China. The consumer demand requires strong middle-income class. Unfortunately, in the U.S. the rising inequality of income distribution has almost destroyed the middle class, which will make it difficult to sustain the domestic market.

The COVID-19 crisis has worsened the problem. In short, it will be difficult to stop the Chinese economy from catching up with the American economy.

Security War

As we saw above, it is more than possible that by 2031, Chinese GDP will have caught up with the U.S. GDP. Moreover, if China allocates 3% of its GDP, instead of the present 1.15 %, its military spending will be $ 749 billion, or 82% of Washington’s military expenditures.

The U.S. may beef up its striking force by deploying its 3rd fleet to strengthen the power of its Sea Air Battle (ASB). China will be able to improve its 2A/AD strategy. So, there will be no clear cut winner.

Under such circumstance, God knows what will happen, if China and the U.S. start to “shoot one another”. The message is clear. The shooting war will bring the dooms day for us all. The dooms day will come, if bloody cold war continues.

Can Washington win the Cold War?

The answer is: “it cannot.”

There are several reasons for this.

First, it seems clear that none of the anti-China strategies will give clear upper hand to Washington. In fact, none of the China demonization tactics, the economic war and the military confrontation promises Washington’s victory.

Second, since the fall of the Berlin Wall of 1989, the ideological difference has been much diluted. Hence, the anti-China antagonism is much weaker than it was during the Soviet-U.S. cold war. The implication is that Washington will have difficulties in ganging up its supporters, which will make American offensive uncertain victory.

Third, China being the world’s factory and the world’s consumer market, most of the U.S. allies will be reluctant to support the cold war.

Fourth, the decadence of the U.S.-led neo-liberal economic system and the world wide corruption of the American version of democracy will make it difficult to attract U.S. sympathizers.

In short, neither the U.S. nor China can be the winner. In their cold war, there will be no winner. If there is one, it will be the suffering of all humanity.

If the U.S. cannot win the cold war, that is, if it cannot prevent China from catching up the U.S. economy and the U.S. power, it means that Washington has failed to attain its objectives.

Then, Washington might decide to declare a hot war.

But, American generals and admirals know very well that China is not the (former) Soviet Union and that China is much stronger and richer than the Soviet Union. Moreover, there will be few allies including the UK which will join Washington’s shooting war fight.

However, misguided political leaders might make dangerous decisions to venture into a “shooting war with China” to save the honor and the glory of the U.S. At any rate, we must all try to stop the shooting war, because it will destroy what the humanity has built so far.

Thus, neither the U.S. nor China can win the cold war.

The hot war will kill us all.

So, the only way out for Washington is to admit China as co-leader of the world and cooperate for the global security, safety, peace and prosperity.

There are so many areas where they should cooperate and lead including public health, climate change, natural disasters and terrorism. There are so many global enemies that we need the U.S. and China to deal with these enemies.

Can the Hot War happen?

As Admiral Davidson suggests, one possible outcome of the ongoing cold war with China could be armed conflict of the traditional sort. Such an encounter, in turn, could escalate to the nuclear level, resulting in mutual annihilation. A war involving only “conventional” forces would itself undoubtedly be devastating and lead to widespread suffering, not to mention the collapse of the global economy.

-Global Research

The hot war should not happen, but it can.

The possible flash points of shooting war are the South China Sea, the East China Sea, Taiwan, North Korea especially the Dioayu/Senkaku Island. But, none of these flashpoint countries is likely to lead to shooting war with one exception, namely the Dioayu/Senkaku Island.

Major wars are often sparked by allies of major powers. Graham Allison in his Book (pp 34-38) tells us that the Peloponnesian war between Athena and Sparta, started because of the conflict between Corinth, alley of Sparta and Megara, alley of Athena. In fact, for this reason, Allison is saying that Washington’s plan of expanding security alliances is a very risky game.

If there is any Washington’s ally  which might ignite war with China, it will be Japan. (Graham Allison, pp.178-179) There are many reasons. But, I may point out two of them. First, Japan is a military might; its Self Defence Force (SDF) is the third most powerful military force in Asia and it will be much more strengthened by Washington, if the Cold War continues. Incidentally, despite the Peace Constitution, the SDF can go to war and assist the U.S. forces. That is, Japan can participate in the Sino-American war.

The second reason is Japan’s ambition to rule the world. For last 70 years, Japan has been ruled by far-right imperial nationalist conservatives who dream of reviving the Japan of the pre-WWII era.

This extreme right-wing of Japanese politics is inspired by the Japan Conference, led by imperialist symbolized by Shinzo Abe and encouraged by Washington, The Sino-American war provides a golden opportunity for Japan to rearm and realize its dream.

There are four psychic elements which might induce Japan to get into a war against China. These elements are the Hak-Ko-Ichi-U, the Tanaka Memorial of 1929, Shintoism and Bushido.

The Hak-ko-Ichi-U means that the single roof (Japan) should rule the eight corners (the world). This psychic was well represented by the Tanaka Memorial which argued that it was Japan’s sacred destiny to conquer Manchuria for raw materials using Korea as the royal high way to Manchuria, then conquer China for slave labour, then the rest of Asia, and then the U.S.(Pearl Harbour).

Shintoism is back and the Japanese accept the Emperor as God. Bushido has returned and the Japanese people seek redemption by dying for the Emperor. True, many of ordinary Japanese are free from such psychic, but they have no power to participate in Japan’s national policy.

What could happen is Japan’s provocation of military confrontation in the Dioayu/Senkaku Island. Japan could be tempted to provoke war against China just like it did in Manchuria in 1930 and Nanking in 1937.

Moreover, Washington might welcome the Sino-Japan war, not only because it can ruin China and but also the fight between Asian powers would weaken Asia facilitating Washington’s control of Asia. This is something the world should be concerned with. To avoid this, the U.S. should dissolve its security alliance with Japan. For that matter, to avoid shooting war, the U.S. should dissolve all its security alliances.

What we need is huge anti-war alliances including Japan, South Korea and other Washington’s alliances. The same goes for Chinese alliances, although it has few alliances. The ultimate mission of the anti-war alliances is to prevent the super powers from getting into war so that humanity can be saved from total annihilation.

What would be the Impact of the Sino-American War on humanity?

There is no point of talking about the consequences of a hot war, because it is bound to lead to nuclear war and the end of human civilization.

So we will not talk about it…

If Nuclear War is avoided…

Even if a shooting war doesn’t erupt, however, a long-term geopolitical war of attrition between the U.S. and China will, in the end, have debilitating and possibly catastrophic consequences for both sides. Take the trade war, for example. If that’s not resolved soon in a positive manner, continuing high U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports will severely curb Chinese economic growth and so weaken the world economy as a whole, punishing every nation on Earth, including this one. High tariffs will also increase costs for American consumers and endanger the prosperity and survival of manyfirms that rely on Chinese raw materials and components.

This new brand of war will also ensure that already sky-high defense expenditures will continue to rise, diverting funds from vital needs like education, health, infrastructure, and the environment.  Meanwhile, preparations for a future war with China have already become the number one priority at the Pentagon, crowding out all other considerations. “While we’re focused on ongoing operations,” acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan reportedly told his senior staff on his first day in office this January, “remember China, China, China.”

Perhaps the greatest victim of this ongoing conflict will be planet Earth itself and all the creatures, humans included, who inhabit it. As the world’s top two emitters of climate-altering greenhouse gases, the U.S. and China must work together to halt global warming or all of us are doomed to a hellish future. With a war under way, even a non-shooting one, the chance for such collaboration is essentially zero. The only way to save civilization is for the U.S. and China to declare peace and focus together on human salvation.

-Global Research

What interests us is the consequence of the cold war. One thing sure is that the longer it lasts, greater become its negative impact. The cold war is likely to have the following impacts.

  • Globalization impact
  • Political and ideological Impact
  • Economic Impact

Globalization impact: the world will be de-globalized and decoupled. There will be Washington-led bloc and China-led bloc. There will be regional globalization led by Washington and Beijing.

Political and Ideological Impact: there will be emergence of two political and ideological blocs. The China bloc will have varying types of political regimes including hybrid regimes, while the U.S. bloc will maintain liberal democracy. Washington’s ambition of evangelical propagation of its democracy will be compromised.

Economic Impact: there will be China-led free trade bloc in which member countries’ sovereignty is respected and trade negotiations will allow accommodations for member countries specific needs. On the other hand, there will be Washington-led free trade bloc in which member countries sovereignty is minimized and the trade negotiations are likely to be controlled by large corporations.

It is difficult to estimate the cost of the cold war. The Rand Corporation is reported to suggest that the American GDP will fall by 30% because of the cold war. It could be more than that because of the pronounced interdependence of national economies. One thing sure is that the longer the cold war lasts, the greater will become the cost.

To conclude, we have to stop, at all costs, the Sino-American Cold War which will surely throw  humanity into the deep and dark bottom of the Thucydides Trap.

It is not too late for academics, research centers, thin-tanks, social movements, decent media and, above all, people’s organizations at the grassroots to launch anti-cold war movements throughout the world.

So what is the ignition going to be?

Well, I do disagree with the author above. I believe that we NEED to discuss the very real and very strong possibility of a hot war between the USA and China / Russia. After all, that is what the neocon publications and the military-industrial think tanks on “K-street” and Washington DC beltway have all been chattering about these last few years.

We just cannot ignore it.

Pretend that it will go away if we don’t mention it. Like in the article above.

So, seriously, what kinds of “false flags” can we expect to get the American population all hot and bothered and ready to march off and attack China?

Nuclear Detonation on American soil.

No. China is not going to randomly launch a nuclear weapon on a “sacrificial” city in America. They are not idiots. But the American population might believe the narrative, and thus it is a real possibility of a pending false flag. All it takes is an American made nuke detonated on American soil, and then unleash the dogs of propaganda blaming China, then immediately gear-up Congress into a war footing.

Japan
This is the kind of thing that launched World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Middle East War on Terror
As well as the eight wars in the Middle East against terror by the plane attacks on the World Trade Center on 9-11.

Syria
Reasons for War "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger." –George W. Bush,

Blaming China for the Global Pandemic and having a “smoking gun”.

You get Americans all upset about some aspect of their life, then you “prove” that it was caused by the Chinese. For instance the inconvenience of the Coronavirus pandemic, is a good target to direct anger towards.

Bosnia
This is one of the more complex reasons to start a war. An event, often beyond anyone's control sparks a breakup of society, and the changes are often uncomfortable. Such as the pandemic. Certain forces use this period of societal upset to initiate war. Such is the case with Bosnia.  

In 1990, as Yugoslavia collapsed, the first multiparty elections were held. These elections created nationalist parties intent on perpetuating ethno-national identities and causes. By 1992, war was being imposed through Serbian and Croatian nationalists seeking to expanded into greaternational territory. 

In the coming years the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing,displacement, mass atrocity, and genocide, were rewarded by the international community at the Dayton Accords in 1995. Dayton ended the war, but then imposed an ethno-nationalistic portioned Bosnia. A tycoon classof nationalist leaders continues to enrich themselves through corruption supported by poverty, fear, insecurity, and the promotion of divisive ethnic identities. 

"The hate didn’t exist before; it was artificially installed. It was all so unbelievable that at first, it seemed funny...The emphasis on ethnicity and exclusion was so strong that ethnic hatred became normalized...There is also the ideology of religion and nationality...Never has there been more religion and less faith...National and religious identities are openly used as weapons in the political arsenal.

–Vedran Grahovac, Prijedor"

An assassination of an American Politician inside Washington DC.

This is a very common technique, and there have been numerous Hollywood movies based on this theme.

World War I
This was the kind of event that started World War I. World War 1 started when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914. This was the immediate cause but there were a series of events which triggered the war. 

Rwanda
It's also the kind of thing that started the civil war in Rwanda. The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.

The need to rescue or save people

Maybe the people in Xinjiang, those “poor Muslims”, or Tibet, or Taiwan, or Hong Kong. So many areas that the United States has been prepping for actionable “color revolution”.

Panama
The United States invades Panama in an attempt to overthrow military dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges and was accused of suppressing democracy in Panama and endangering U.S. nationals. Noriegas Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) were promptly crushed, forcing the dictator to seek asylum with the Vatican anuncio in Panama City, where he surrendered on January 3, 1990.

When American is attacked by military forces

As unlikely as it appears, there is nothing to prevent the US government to stage a “false flag” to make it look like some military attacked America. That’s what it did to pull America into the war in Vietnam.

The American Civil War
The bloodiest four years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”

Vietnam War
The false flag that started the Vietnam War There was no torpedo attack in the Gulf of Tonkin How Lyndon Johnson lied us into a catastrophe On this day in 1964, Congress passed the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” which began massive escalation of the US war and occupation of Viet Nam.The false flag that started the Vietnam War | 

Conclusion

America has decided to wage a war against Asia. There are aspects of both China, Russia and Iran involved. Right now, it is considered to be “trade”, “Hybrid”, “ideological”, “propaganda”, and …

…it’s intended to go hot.

Whether or not it will be limited to conventional weapons is a silly argument. Of course it will go nuclear.

This article looks at the kinds of false flags that are being set in place for the ignition for the war. And while the planners in K-street and the Washington DC beltway are looking towards a very long generational war, I don’t see that their planning will come to fruition. Instead I picture an unholy terror unleashed upon the USA if any action is attempted. And the result will be a very, very bad and nasty war. And no matter what damage that America wrecks China with, the end result will be the complete and utter devastation of America by the combined forces of Russia and China acting in unison.

To pretend otherwise is foolish.

It’s and entirely uncomfortable subject, but fits exactly with the predictions for the Fiuth Turning generational theory.

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A pretty nice summary of a possible next phase of the collapse of America. It makes a heck of a lot of sense.

A soft landing for America 20 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that by 2025, it could all be over except for the shouting.

The screaming.

The writhing, and…

…the dying.

Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed.

It’s typically a long, long, looonnnggg build up.

And then, something snaps.

And it all unravels…

Like an over-wound spring.

We know this from history: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood quite soon for the United States, ending within the next few years.

It’s all going to go “belly up”…

  • Economic (Health of the Economy)
  • Social (Social unrest, and a collapse of norms.)
  • Military (Attempts at creating large wars.)
  • Industrial (Jump starting the manufacturing base.)
  • Technology (Investments in R&D, NPD and innovation.)
  • Financial (Value of the USD)

The following is from the Kuntsler Blog also known as “Cluster-fuck nation”. He usually have some nice and pointed points, but this is a crown jewel. In this observation he talks about the major miscalculation(s) in economic policy inside the Washington DC beltway and how it will manifest in “heartland America” when the entire “deck of cards” come tumbling down.

This is a full reprint, all credit to the author. Reprinted to fit this venue with only minor editing as necessary.

We will start with this article, and the follow up with a second one, back to back…

…and then some MM discussions.

Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays


A nation literally falling apart certainly might want to Build Back Better, but it also might want to consider building back differently, consistent with the signals that reality is sending to humankind these days.

For instance, the signals that the old industrial paradigm is coming to an end, and that the furnishings and accessories of it may not be the ones that humankind actually requires going forward.

Alas, the psychology of previous investment tends to dictate that societies pound their capital — if they still have any —down a rat-hole in the vain and desperate attempt to keep old rackets going.

And this is the essence of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill;  a colossal confection of government over-reach with its thin cake layers, cloyingly thick “social justice” frosting, and its giant cherry-on-top of drawing on “capital” that doesn’t exist.

The main racket is the ongoing effort to replace a transactional economy of individual enterprise with the managerial state (that attempts to allocate all resources and direct markets).

We’ve seen that movie before.

It beats a path directly to totalitarian tyranny, and that is already sickeningly visible in the pre-production activities for the new movie.

With social media assisting government to set up total control of its citizens lives — actually copying the techniques already operating in China.

Some pieces of the bill are just plain tragic.

Like the effort to prop up mass motoring by switching out electric cars for the old gasoline-powered cars that have ruled the land for a century.

It’s an appealing fantasy, of course…

…but the electric car thing ain’t a’gonna happen.

Not at the scale envisioned, not unless the government plans to buy the electric cars and give them away to everybody, and that’s rather a stretch.

First, the whole mass motoring racket is falling apart more on its financial model than on whether the cars move by gasoline or electricity.

Americans are used to buying cars on installment loans, and, with the middle-class withering away, there are ever-fewer credit-worthy borrowers for those loans (for ever more expensive cars).

Soon, as the debt markets wobble, there will also be even less hallucinated capital (“money”) to loan out to this shrinking pool of borrowers.

Second, the decrepit US electric grid can’t handle the charging needs of such a gigantic electric car fleet (and fixing the grid alone would be a trillion-dollar project).

Third, the manufacturing of electric cars depends on scarce rare mineral resources that are not readily available in the US, but controlled by foreign nations.

Fourth, car-making utterly depends on far-flung international supply lines for parts and electronics.

This is occurring at a time when the integrated global economy is cracking up under the strain of desperate competition for dwindling resources and the ill-will generated by that.

More… There are yet more kinks in the electric car scheme but those are enough.

MM Comments.

Of course he's talking about the Untied States. The rest of the world doesn't really have this problem. In China, for instance, most public transportation is electric, as is a sizable portion of the private automobile market.

Of course, this whole initiative is in the service of preserving a set of living arrangements that is going obsolete…

… namely, suburbia.

The previous investment represented by all the housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, malls, office parks, and super-highways pretty much drove the American economy since the Second World War.

It’s understandable that we would be desperate to keep it all running.

As well as fix the pieces that are falling apart, because it’s where we put most of our national wealth.

It’s the whole American Dream in one nifty package.

And, it sure seemed like a good idea at the time, in such a big country, with so much cheap land, and all that oil.

But now things have changed and reality is sending us clear signals that we have to live differently.

The effort to oppose reality is apt to be ruinous for us.

A thumping sense of triumph attended the roll-out of the Build Back Better infrastructure bill…

… at least on the Democrats’ side, especially with all the chocolate Easter eggs for “social justice”…

…lodged in the $1.9 trillion basket.

I imagine it will mark the Biden regime’s high point of esprit.

By the time Congress churns through it all, the financial markets will be sending florid distress signals of deepening instability…

And, with Covid lockdowns ending (or even if they resume), warm weather will bring out people angry about one thing or another into the streets.

And a number of pending legal matters — the Derek Chauvin verdict, the Durham investigation, the Hunter Biden case at DOJ, and perhaps the burgeoning and rather sinister new Matt Gaetz melodrama…

… will stir the pot that the American zeitgeist is brewing in.

With plumes of chaos wafting over the land.

By fall, Build Back Better might transmogrify into the ominous question: build back anything?

Do You Believe in Magic?

Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays


The people pretending to run the world’s financial affairs do.

The more layers of abstract game-playing they add to the existing armatures of unreality they’ve already constructed…

…the more certain it becomes that they will blow up all the support systems…

…support systems of a sunsetting hyper-tech economy that now has no safe lane to continue running in.

Virtually all the big nations are doing this now in desperation.

This is because they don’t understand that the hyper-tech economy is hostage to the deteriorating economics of energy.

Basically fossil fuels, and oil especially.

The macro mega-system can’t grow anymore.

We’re now in the de-growth phase of a dynamic that pulsates through history, as everything in the universe pulsates.

We attempted to compensate for de-growth with debt, borrowing from the future.

But debt only works in the youthful growth phases of economic pulsation, when the prospect of being paid back is statistically favorable.

Now in the elder de-growth phase, the prospect of paying back debts, or even servicing the interest, is statistically dismal.

The amount of racked-up debt worldwide has entered the realm of the laughable.

So, the roughly twenty-year experiment in Central Bank credit magic, as a replacement for true capital formation, has come to its grievous end.

Hence, America under the pretend leadership of Joe Biden ventures into the final act of this melodrama, which will end badly and probably pretty quickly.

They are about to call in the financial four horsemen of apocalypse:

  1. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT),
  2. A “command” economy,
  3. Universal Basic Income (UBI, “helicopter” money for the people), and
  4. the “Build Back Better” infrastructure scheme.

MMT

MMT is the idea that a nation which claims a monopoly on issuing money can “create” new money ad infinitum with no negative consequences.

That is, we can “lend” ourselves money (borrow it into existence) without having to worry about paying it back.

The theory caught on only because that’s what we’ve done for two decades and, so far, it hasn’t destroyed the banking system…

…though debt turned exponential, which is to say ruinous, only recently…

… so we won’t have to stand by long to see how this experiment works out.

Note this: MMT completes the divorce between productive activity and capital formation, that is, prosperity without wealth.

A “command” economy

A “command” economy means that government increasingly attempts to take over economic enterprise.

It does so to replace x-million individual economic choices of freely-acting people in a society with bureaucratic central planning.

MM Comments.

It is usually a complete and absolute failure. The sole lone exception is China, and it really isn't a "command" economy at all. Just a "top driven" one.

UBI

UBI is the primary feature of that because, in a command economy, production is mostly pretend, so you just have to give people money (for nothing).

Remember the old basic operating system of the Soviet Union, stated succinctly as: We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.

Got that?

Build Back Better

The idea behind “Build Back Better” is to renovate the infrastructure of a hyper-tech economy that actually no longer exists.

Why?

Because we are in the contraction phase of an historic pulsation or cycle.

It is leaving us with lots of tech and less production, trending toward zero.

Nobody flogging this slogan actually knows what it ought to mean under the circumstances, which is to go with the flow of the reality of this contraction:

To downsize, downscale, and re-localize all our activities to bring them back into sync with actual productivity…

… that is, raising food, making real stuff, and trading it. Again, it’s the energy dynamic, stupid.

To get to that point, we’re going to shed the massive over-burden of financial game-playing that has pretended to represent our economy.

That means stock valuations and bond prices will vaporize along with the derivative activities concocted for trading gainfully in these now-phantom representations of capital.

If that happens sooner rather than later, we won’t even be able to pretend to Build Back Better the interstate highways, the electric grid, airports, and all the other stuff in the “infrastructure” folder.

Indeed, a lot of that would be malinvestment folly now because we’re nearing the end of mass motoring and commercial aviation as we’ve known them.

If we even have electricity twenty-five years from now, it will come from much-reduced grids on a much more regional basis.

The bottom line for all this is that pretty soon every corner of the country will be on its own amid quite a bit of social disorder and financial wreckage.

So, whatever energy you actually can marshal to Build Back Better, save it for your town or your local community.

And remember, all of the attempts by a national government to control these events…

… and coerce its citizens in the service of that…

… will only lead to a more ineffectual and impotent national government that nobody has faith in…

… confirming the fact…

…that you are on your own.

Yikes!

All things end…

Have no doubt: when Washington’s global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life.

Even when the American government tries to distract from the collapse by launching a war.

This little quote was written over a decade ago, in 2010, in Salon…

By 2020, according to current plans, the Pentagon will throw a military Hail Mary pass for a dying empire. 

It will launch a lethal triple canopy of advanced aerospace robotics that represents Washington's last best hope of retaining global power despite its waning economic influence. 

By that year, however, China's global network of communications satellites, backed by the world's most powerful supercomputers, will also be fully operational, providing Beijing with an independent platform for the weaponization of space and a powerful communications system for missile- or cyber-strikes into every quadrant of the globe.

-Salon 2010

As a half-dozen European nations have discovered, imperial decline tends to have a remarkably demoralizing impact on a society…

…regularly bringing at least a generation of economic privation.

As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest.

Available economic, educational, and military data indicate that, when it comes to U.S. global power, negative trends has aggregated rapidly and are likely to reach a critical mass no later than 2025.

The American Century, proclaimed so triumphantly at the start of World War II, is already tattered and fading and by 2025, its eighth decade, and could (very probably) end up being history.

But don’t worry!

Here’s a number of articles that make the point that there is a significant difference between a collapse and a crisis.

And while not explicitly spelled out directly, it is implied that the worst possible thing that might happen is yet another economic crisis, not an economic collapse.

Economic Depressions vs Collapse

To begin with, I think it’s important to differentiate between economic collapse and economic depression.

A depression is a rather normal part of the market cycle.

As Adam Smith points out in Wealth of Nations, these occasionally happen as the market corrects imbalances within itself.

Maybe there’s some form of bubble akin to the Dutch Tulip Bubble of the 1600s where the price of rare tulip bulbs increased to preposterous levels before people lost entire fortunes when the market corrected itself.

Who knew?

The point is that economic depression is rather normal.

We all witnessed the effects of the crash of 2009.

Thousands of the “well heeled” lost millions of dollars to the “bigger fish in the economic ocean”.

Yet, if they had kept their money in those sinking stocks rather than withdraw, they would now have exponential returns for their initial investments.

Why?

Because markets do actually fluctuate.

I also don’t believe that events as bad as The Great Depression can truly be called a collapse in any sense of the word.

When I say collapse, I’m referring to situations such as post-WW2 Germany, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and the like.

When you literally have to pay for a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of bills because of hyperinflation, THEN you have economic collapse.

US Economy Collapse: What Would Happen?

There's a difference between crisis and collapse

The U.S. economy’s size makes it resilient.

It is highly unlikely that even the most dire events would lead to a collapse.

If the U.S. economy were to collapse, it would happen quickly, because the surprise factor is a one of the likely causes of a potential collapse.

The signs of imminent failure are difficult for most people to see.

Most recently, the U.S. economy almost collapsed on September 16, 2008.

That’s the day the Reserve Primary Fund “broke the buck”—the value of the fund’s holdings dropped below $1 per share.

Panicked investors withdrew billions from money market accounts where businesses keep cash to fund day-to-day operations. 

If withdrawals had gone on for even a week, and if the Fed and the U.S. government had not stepped in to shore up the financial sector, the entire economy would likely have ground to a halt.

Trucks would have stopped rolling.

Grocery stores would have run out of food, and businesses would have been forced to shut down.

That’s how close the U.S. economy came to a real collapse—and how vulnerable it is to another one.

Will the U.S Economy Collapse?

A U.S. economy collapse is unlikely. When necessary, the government can act quickly to avoid a total collapse.

MM Comment

Nonsense. Compare the US Economy with the Chinese economy.

Most of the CCP government debts are infrastructure = investment. If they need cash, they can simply privatised.

China have a lot of high quality SOEs, they not only make money and contributed to government tax revenue, but their stocks can be used by government to fund social services such as 10% of selected SOEs share are used for age care in China without the need to increase tax. 

China Economy benefited from government infrastructure and water redirection strategies, as a result  there are new growing opportunities to the economy. Government revenues are healthy with big potential to growth further. 

So, no worries with the current china debt level. Beside, the CCP does not give tax Payer money to too big to fail private businesses. when they billed out a private business , they took over the ownership. Last year, there is a private bank become state own. 

However, Western debts are given to wall street for speculative activities from real estate to stock markets. These businesses don't pay tax, they only bribe the politicians with campaign money, and enrich those most corrupt politicians with speech fees, book deals etc. 

The super rich in the West  keep taking from the tax payers by bribing the politicians and not giving back to the society. 

So sources of western government revenue become narrower, national and household debt keep rising at radicurous speed. these are real debt with no ability to repay. 

So western governmen keep taxing the 99% with yearly rising service fees, council rate, all kind of fines. These policies affect the average people buying power, hence affecting the people buying power. Thus, domestic consumption  as one of the major pillars of Western GDP contracted, the economy in trouble. 

As rich people don't pay tax, the 99% running out of money. As a result, small and medium sized businesses suffered, tax revenue for government reduced. So trump think that trade war is easy to win, he can raise tax from China, but he failed miserably.

US will collapsed once RMB successfully replace the dollar as world trading currency, when the ability to continue print money without inflation in US is gone, US dollar will collapse, economy will collapse. 

Hope the above make sense.

Cheers

<redacted>

For example, the Federal Reserve can use its contractionary monetary tools to tame hyperinflation…

…or…

…it can work with the Treasury to provide liquidity (as during the 2008 financial crisis).

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures banks, so there is little chance of a banking collapse similar to that in the 1930s.

The president can release Strategic Oil Reserves to offset an oil embargo.

Homeland Security can address a cyber threat.

The U.S. military can respond to a terrorist attack, transportation stoppage, or rioting and civic unrest.

In other words, the federal government has many tools and resources to prevent an economic collapse.

MM Comment.

Sure it can try. But does it still have the actual ability to do so?

What Would Happen If the U.S. Economy Collapses?

If the U.S. economy collapses, you would likely lose access to credit.

Banks would close.

Demand would outstrip supply of food, gas, and other necessities.

If the collapse affected local governments and utilities, then water and electricity might no longer be available.

A U.S. economic collapse would create global panic.

MM Comment

Most of the world has expected this collapse for decades and have put in place systems to mitigate any American-centrist collapse. Certainly the five-eyes nations of Canada, UK, NZ and Australia will be negatively affected, but the rest of the world will not be so directly affected.

The USA does not own, run or dictate to the world.

Demand for the dollar and U.S. Treasury’s would plummet.

Interest rates would skyrocket.

Investors would rush to other currencies, such as the yuan, euro, or even gold. It would create not just inflation, but hyperinflation, as the dollar lost value to other currencies.

If you want to understand what life is like during a collapse, think back to the Great Depression. The stock market crashed on Black Thursday. By the following Tuesday, it was down 25%.

Many investors lost their life savings that weekend.

By 1932, one out of four people was unemployed.

Wages for those who still had jobs fell precipitously—manufacturing wages dropped 32% from 1929 to 1932.

U.S. gross domestic product was cut nearly in half.

Thousands of farmers and other unemployed workers moved to California and elsewhere in search of work.

Two-and-a-half million people left the Midwestern Dust Bowl states.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t rebound to its pre-Crash level until 1954.

MM Comment

Everything in America today is an illusion. The GDP is artificially skewed in favor of the fantastic wealth held by the 1%. Were they to lose 30% of their wealth, the GDP for the nation could possibly drop to a mere tiny fraction of it's value.

When the curtain comes falling down everything that is fake and an illusion becomes clear for the world to see.

Collapse Versus Crisis

An economic crisis is not the same as an economic collapse. As painful as it was, the 2008 financial crisis was not a collapse. Millions of people lost jobs and homes, but basic services were still provided.

Other past financial crises seemed like a collapse at the time, but are barely remembered now.

1970s Stagflation

The OPEC oil embargo and President Richard Nixon’s abolishment of the gold standard triggered double-digit inflation. The government responded to this economic downturn by freezing wages and labor rates to curb inflation.7 The result was a high unemployment rate. Businesses, hampered by low prices, could not afford to keep workers at unprofitable wage rates.

1981 Recession

The Fed raised interest rates in a bid to end double-digit inflation.

That created the worst recession since the Great Depression. President Ronald Reagan cut taxes and increased government spending to end it.

1989 Savings and Loan Crisis

One thousand banks closed after improper real estate investments turned sour. Charles Keating and other Savings & Loan bankers had mis-used bank depositor’s funds. The consequent recession triggered an unemployment rate as high as 7.5%. The government was forced to bail out some banks to the tune of $124 billion.

Post-9/11 Recession

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 sowed nationwide apprehension and prolonged the 2001 recession—and unemployment of greater than 10%—through 2003. The United States’ response, the War on Terror, has cost the nation $6.4 trillion, and counting.

2008 Financial Crisis

The early warning signs of the 2008 Financial Crisis were rapidly falling housing prices and increasing mortgage defaults in 2006. Left untended, the resulting subprime mortgage crisis, which panicked investors and led to massive bank withdrawals, spread like wildfire across the financial community. The U.S. government had no choice but to bail out “too big to fail” banks and insurance companies, like Bear Stearns and AIG, or face both national and global financial catastrophes.

2020 Recession

It is too soon to tally up the total costs of the 2020 global health crisisCoronavirus pandemic—the crisis is still ongoing. Already we have seen worldwide supply-chain interruptions, heightened volatility and steep losses in financial markets, and sharp slowdowns in the travel and hospitality industries.

How much economic cost should we expect? According to the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development, the global economic hit could reduce global growth rates to 0.5% and cost the global economy as much as $2 trillion for 2020.

So what is going to happen?

I am not really all that good in predicting future events. You know, it’s all a very personal event that lies upon your world-line template. But regardless as to what your template map looks like we can make a couple of basic and reasonable statements…

  • America is deep, deep in debt.
  • There are no efforts to control this debt, or slow down spending.
  • This is not sustainable.

Since it is not sustainable, there will come a time when this kind of behavior will end. It might be gradual, or sudden. But it will have to end.

How the nation handles this change in economic policy will depend on may, many factors. Knowing human nature, humans do not like change, and those accustomed to doing things a certain way will have a difficult time adapting.

Gradual Change

If the change is gradual, and those managing the economy are talented, capable and willing…

… the United States economy can contract in a very controlled implosion, will little radical change, and managed in such as way that the United States might experience a simple minor recession.

Significantly, in 2008, the U.S. National Intelligence Council admitted for the first time that America's global power was indeed on a declining trajectory. In one of its periodic futuristic reports, Global Trends 2025, the Council cited "the transfer of global wealth and economic power now under way, roughly from West to East" and "without precedent in modern history," as the primary factor in the decline of the "United States' relative strength -- even in the military realm." 

Like many in Washington, however, the Council’s analysts anticipated a very long, very soft landing for American global preeminence, and harbored the hope that somehow...

... the U.S. would long "retain unique military capabilities… to project military power globally" for decades to come.

Sure…

What ever you say.

Wrapped in imperial hubris, like Whitehall or Quai d'Orsay before it, the White House still seems to imagine that American decline will be gradual, gentle, and partial. In his State of the Union address last January, President Obama offered the reassurance that "I do not accept second place for the United States of America." 

A few days later, Vice President Biden ridiculed the very idea that "we are destined to fulfill [historian Paul] Kennedy's prophecy that we are going to be a great nation that has failed because we lost control of our economy and overextended." 

Similarly, writing in the November issue of the establishment journal Foreign Affairs, neo-liberal foreign policy guru Joseph Nye waved away talk of China's economic and military rise, dismissing "misleading metaphors of organic decline" and denying that any deterioration in U.S. global power was underway.

Ordinary Americans, watching their jobs head overseas, have a more realistic view than their cosseted leaders. An opinion poll in August 2010 found that 65 percent of Americans believed the country was now "in a state of decline."  Already, Australia and Turkey, traditional U.S. military allies, are using their American-manufactured weapons for joint air and naval maneuvers with China. 

Already, America's closest economic partners are backing away from Washington's opposition to China's rigged currency rates. As the president flew back from his Asian tour last month, a gloomy New York Times headline  summed the moment up this way: "Obama's Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage, China, Britain and Germany Challenge U.S., Trade Talks With Seoul Fail, Too."

-Salon 2010

Sudden Change

If those in Washington DC, have been living in isolation bubbles, echo chambers, and have selfish, self-interests at heart rather than what is good for the nation, it is highly likely that there could be a very sudden change. Perhaps one that reaches the limits  and boundaries of a catastrophe.

There are far too many variables involved to make accurate predictions. But that doesn’t stop people. And you can find these predictions all over the internet.

But what will actually happen?

No one knows.

The Elites have their ideas…

Here’s a ten year old article from Salon, and they pretty much nailed it in regards to what is going on. If anything, they were too optimistic.

From Salon 2010…

Viewed historically, the question is not whether the United States will lose its unchallenged global power, but just how precipitous and wrenching the decline will be.

In place of Washington’s wishful thinking, let’s use the National Intelligence Council’s own futuristic methodology.

Here we suggest four realistic scenarios for how, whether with a bang or a whimper, U.S. global power could reach its end in the 2020s (along with four accompanying assessments of just where we are today).

The future scenarios include:

  • Economic decline,
  • Oil shock,
  • Military misadventure, and…
  • World War III.

While these are hardly the only possibilities when it comes to American decline or even collapse, they offer a window into an onrushing future.

Economic Decline: Scenario 2020

After years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands, in 2020, as long expected, the U.S. dollar finally loses its special status as the world’s reserve currency.

Hasn't happened... yet. But that is currently in process.

For many reasons, the Chinese authorities will probably someday stop pegging the yuan to a basket of currencies, and shift to a modern inflation-targeting regime under which they allow the exchange rate to fluctuate much more freely, especially against the dollar.

When that happens, expect most of Asia to follow China. In due time, the dollar, currently the anchor currency for roughly two-thirds of world GDP, could lose nearly half its weight.

Considering how much the United States relies on the dollar’s special status – or what then-French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing famously called America’s “exorbitant privilege” – to fund massive public and private borrowing, the impact of such a shift could be significant.

Suddenly, the cost of imports soars.

This did happen. From the "Trump Tariffs" of 25%, to the costs of shipping in 2021, importing products into the United States is factually much more costly than before.

Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated military budget. Under pressure at home and abroad, Washington slowly pulls U.S. forces back from hundreds of overseas bases to a continental perimeter. By now, however, it is far too late.

Did not happen. The United States military instead got much larger.

Faced with a fading superpower incapable of paying the bills, China, India, Iran, Russia, and other powers, great and regional, provocatively challenge U.S. dominion over the oceans, space, and cyberspace.

True, and in process.

Meanwhile, amid soaring prices, ever-rising unemployment, and a continuing decline in real wages, domestic divisions widen into violent clashes and divisive debates, often over remarkably irrelevant issues.

True and in process.

Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal.

Good call. Donald Trump became President, and Biden continues his neocon ambitions.

The world pays next to no attention as the American Century ends in silence.

Oh, the world is paying attention. It's just that America is viewed as a declining and unstable nation.

Oil Shock: Scenario 2025

The United States remains so dependent upon foreign oil that a few adverse developments in the global energy market in 2025 spark an oil shock.

By comparison, it makes the 1973 oil shock (when prices quadrupled in just months) look like the proverbial molehill.

Angered at the dollar’s plummeting value, OPEC oil ministers, meeting in Riyadh, demand future energy payments in a “basket” of Yen, Yuan, and Euros.

This is in process.

That only hikes the cost of U.S. oil imports further.

At the same moment, while signing a new series of long-term delivery contracts with China, the Saudis stabilize their own foreign exchange reserves by switching to the Yuan.

In process.

Meanwhile, China pours countless billions into building a massive trans-Asia pipeline and funding Iran’s exploitation of the world largest percent natural gas field at South Pars in the Persian Gulf.

In process.

Concerned that the U.S. Navy might no longer be able to protect the oil tankers traveling from the Persian Gulf to fuel East Asia, a coalition of Tehran, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi form an unexpected new Gulf alliance and affirm that China’s new fleet of swift aircraft carriers will henceforth patrol the Persian Gulf from a base on the Gulf of Oman.

Not happened, and there are no plans for this. What is happening is that China and Iran, with Russia have formed a joint military block.

Under heavy economic pressure, London agrees to cancel the U.S. lease on its Indian Ocean island base of Diego Garcia, while Canberra, pressured by the Chinese, informs Washington that the Seventh Fleet is no longer welcome to use Fremantle as a homeport, effectively evicting the U.S. Navy from the Indian Ocean.

Did not happen. In fact, the United States is pushing for even stronger military presence, and few other nations are enthusiastic about joining the QUAD.

With just a few strokes of the pen and some terse announcements, the “Carter Doctrine,” by which U.S. military power was to eternally protect the Persian Gulf, is laid to rest in 2025. All the elements that long assured the United States limitless supplies of low-cost oil from that region — logistics, exchange rates, and naval power — evaporate. At this point, the U.S. can still cover only an insignificant 12 percent of its energy needs from its nascent alternative energy industry, and remains dependent on imported oil for half of its energy consumption.

Did not happen. Instead, the USA is heavily involved militarily in the entire Middle East region.

The oil shock that follows hits the country like a hurricane, sending prices to startling heights, making travel a staggeringly expensive proposition, putting real wages (which had long been declining) into freefall, and rendering non-competitive whatever American exports remained.

Not happened yet, but 2025 is still four years away.

With thermostats dropping, gas prices climbing through the roof, and dollars flowing overseas in return for costly oil, the American economy is paralyzed. With long-fraying alliances at an end and fiscal pressures mounting, U.S. military forces finally begin a staged withdrawal from their overseas bases.

I would highly doubt it. If anything the last few years has been a nearly insane level of pro-military anti-China, anti-Russia and anti-Iran war-mongering.

Within a few years, the U.S. is functionally bankrupt and the clock is ticking toward midnight on the American Century.

Military Misadventure: Scenario 2014

Counterintuitively, as their power wanes, empires often plunge into ill-advised military misadventures. This phenomenon is known among historians of empire as “micro-militarism” and seems to involve psychologically compensatory efforts to salve the sting of retreat or defeat by occupying new territories, however briefly and catastrophically.

These operations, irrational even from an imperial point of view, often yield hemorrhaging expenditures or humiliating defeats that only accelerate the loss of power.

Embattled empires through the ages suffer an arrogance that drives them to plunge ever deeper into military misadventures until defeat becomes debacle.

  • In 413 BCE, a weakened Athens sent 200 ships to be slaughtered in Sicily.
  • In 1921, a dying imperial Spain dispatched 20,000 soldiers to be massacred by Berber guerrillas in Morocco.
  • In 1956, a fading British Empire destroyed its prestige by attacking Suez.
  • And in 2001 and 2003, the U.S. occupied Afghanistan and invaded Iraq.

With the hubris that marks empires over the millennia, Washington has increased its troops in Afghanistan to 100,000, expanded the war into Pakistan, and extended its commitment to 2014 and beyond, courting disasters large and small in this guerilla-infested, nuclear-armed graveyard of empires.

So irrational, so unpredictable is “micro-militarism” that seemingly fanciful scenarios are soon outdone by actual events. With the U.S. military stretched thin from Somalia to the Philippines and tensions rising in Israel, Iran, and Korea, possible combinations for a disastrous military crisis abroad are multifold.

Washington makes its move, sending in Special Operations forces to seize oil ports in the Persian Gulf. This, in turn, sparks a rash of suicide attacks and the sabotage of pipelines and oil wells. As black clouds billow skyward and diplomats rise at the U.N. to bitterly denounce American actions, commentators worldwide reach back into history to brand this “America’s Suez,” a telling reference to the 1956 debacle that marked the end of the British Empire.

Well things are going on. Most are not reported. There is the enormous Beirut explosion, as well as various other oil related military Mal-adventures.

World War III: Present Situation

In the summer of 2010, military tensions between the U.S. and China began to rise in the western Pacific, once considered an American “lake.” Even a year earlier no one would have predicted such a development. As Washington played upon its alliance with London to appropriate much of Britain’s global power after World War II, so China is now using the profits from its export trade with the U.S. to fund what is likely to become a military challenge to American dominion over the waterways of Asia and the Pacific.

With its growing resources, Beijing is claiming a vast maritime arc from Korea to Indonesia long dominated by the U.S. Navy.

In August, after Washington expressed a “national interest” in the South China Sea and conducted naval exercises there to reinforce that claim, Beijing’s official Global Times responded angrily, saying, “The U.S.-China wrestling match over the South China Sea issue has raised the stakes in deciding who the real future ruler of the planet will be.”

Amid growing tensions, the Pentagon reported that Beijing now holds “the capability to attack… [U.S.] aircraft carriers in the western Pacific Ocean” and target “nuclear forces throughout… the continental United States.” By developing “offensive nuclear, space, and cyber warfare capabilities,”

China seems determined to vie for dominance of what the Pentagon calls “the information spectrum in all dimensions of the modern battlespace.” With ongoing development of the powerful Long March V booster rocket, as well as the launch of two satellites in January 2010 and another in July, for a total of five, Beijing signaled that the country was making rapid strides toward an “independent” network of 35 satellites for global positioning, communications, and reconnaissance capabilities by 2020.

To check China and extend its military position globally, Washington is intent on building a new digital network of air and space robotics, advanced cyberwarfare capabilities, and electronic surveillance. Military planners expect this integrated system to envelop the Earth in a cyber-grid capable of blinding entire armies on the battlefield or taking out a single terrorist in field or favela.

By 2020, if all goes according to plan, the Pentagon will launch a three-tiered shield of space drones — reaching from stratosphere to exosphere, armed with agile missiles, linked by a resilient modular satellite system, and operated through total telescopic surveillance.

Last April, the Pentagon made history. It extended drone operations into the exosphere by quietly launching the X-37B unmanned space shuttle into a low orbit 255 miles above the planet.  The X-37B is the first in a new generation of unmanned vehicles that will mark the full weaponization of space, creating an arena for future warfare unlike anything that has gone before.

From 2008 through 2016, American military forces were training to invade islands in the South China Sea, and moneys were spent enlarging military bases in the Pacific.

From 2017 through 2020, it's been war. Mostly "hybrid", but there has been a major biological warfare effort involved against China with 7 strains attacking livestock, and three attacking people. All have failed.

Leaving and resulting a March 2021 Alaskan meeting where the USA told China to "roll over and die", or be destroyed. China responded back with "Fuck you".

World War III: Scenario 2025

The technology of space and cyberwarfare is so new and untested that even the most outlandish scenarios may soon be superseded by a reality still hard to conceive. If we simply employ the sort of scenarios that the Air Force itself used in its 2009 Future Capabilities Game, however, we can gain “a better understanding of how air, space and cyberspace overlap in warfare,” and so begin to imagine how the next world war might actually be fought.

It’s 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday in 2025. While cyber-shoppers pound the portals of Best Buy for deep discounts on the latest home electronics from China, U.S. Air Force technicians at the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) on Maui choke on their coffee as their panoramic screens suddenly blip to black. Thousands of miles away at the U.S. CyberCommand’s operations center in Texas, cyberwarriors soon detect malicious binaries that, though fired anonymously, show the distinctive digital fingerprints of China’s People’s Liberation Army.

The first overt strike is one nobody predicted. Chinese “malware” seizes control of the robotics aboard an unmanned solar-powered U.S. “Vulture” drone as it flies at 70,000 feet over the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan. It suddenly fires all the rocket pods beneath its enormous 400-foot wingspan, sending dozens of lethal missiles plunging harmlessly into the Yellow Sea, effectively disarming this formidable weapon.

Determined to fight fire with fire, the White House authorizes a retaliatory strike. Confident that its F-6 “Fractionated, Free-Flying” satellite system is impenetrable, Air Force commanders in California transmit robotic codes to the flotilla of X-37B space drones orbiting 250 miles above the Earth, ordering them to launch their “Triple Terminator” missiles at China’s 35 satellites. Zero response. In near panic, the Air Force launches its Falcon Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle into an arc 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and then, just 20 minutes later, sends the computer codes to fire missiles at seven Chinese satellites in nearby orbits. The launch codes are suddenly inoperative.

As the Chinese virus spreads uncontrollably through the F-6 satellite architecture, while those second-rate U.S. supercomputers fail to crack the malware’s devilishly complex code, GPS signals crucial to the navigation of U.S. ships and aircraft worldwide are compromised. Carrier fleets begin steaming in circles in the mid-Pacific. Fighter squadrons are grounded. Reaper drones fly aimlessly toward the horizon, crashing when their fuel is exhausted. Suddenly, the United States loses what the U.S. Air Force has long called “the ultimate high ground”: space. Within hours, the military power that had dominated the globe for nearly a century has been defeated in World War III without a single human casualty.

A New World Order?

Even if future events prove duller than these scenarios suggest, every significant trend points toward a far more striking decline in American global power by 2025 than anything Washington now seems to be envisioning.

As allies worldwide begin to realign their policies to take cognizance of rising Asian powers, the cost of maintaining 800 or more overseas military bases will simply become unsustainable…

finally forcing a staged withdrawal on a still-unwilling Washington.

With both the U.S. and China in a race to weaponize space and cyberspace, tensions between the two powers are bound to rise, making military conflict by 2025 at least feasible, if hardly guaranteed.

Complicating matters even more, the economic, military, and technological trends outlined above will not operate in tidy isolation.

As happened to European empires after World War II, such negative forces will undoubtedly prove synergistic.

They will combine in thoroughly unexpected ways, create crises for which Americans are remarkably unprepared, and threaten to spin the economy into a sudden downward spiral, consigning this country to a generation or more of economic misery.

As U.S. power recedes, the past offers a spectrum of possibilities for a future world order.

At one end of this spectrum, the rise of a new global superpower, however unlikely, cannot be ruled out.

Yet both China and Russia evince self-referential cultures, recondite non-roman scripts, regional defense strategies, and underdeveloped legal systems, denying them key instruments for global dominion. At the moment then, no single superpower seems to be on the horizon likely to succeed the U.S.

Nonsense. As of 2021, Russia, China and Iran have combined for a unified Asia.

In a dark, dystopian version of our global future, a coalition of transnational corporations, multilateral forces like NATO, and an international financial elite could conceivably forge a single, possibly unstable, supra-national nexus that would make it no longer meaningful to speak of national empires at all.

As stated by an American inside of America over ten years ago. Such dated ignorance.

While denationalized corporations and multinational elites would assumedly rule such a world from secure urban enclaves, the multitudes would be relegated to urban and rural wastelands.

In “Planet of Slums,” Mike Davis offers at least a partial vision of such a world from the bottom up. He argues that the billion people already packed into fetid favela-style slums worldwide (rising to two billion by 2030) will make “the ‘feral, failed cities’ of the Third World… the distinctive battlespace of the twenty-first century.”

As darkness settles over some future super-favela, “the empire can deploy Orwellian technologies of repression” as “hornet-like helicopter gun-ships stalk enigmatic enemies in the narrow streets of the slum districts… Every morning the slums reply with suicide bombers and eloquent explosions.”

At a midpoint on the spectrum of possible futures, a new global oligopoly might emerge between 2020 and 2040, with rising powers China, Russia, India, and Brazil collaborating with receding powers like Britain, Germany, Japan, and the United States to enforce an ad hoc global dominion, akin to the loose alliance of European empires that ruled half of humanity circa 1900.

Another possibility: the rise of regional hegemons in a return to something reminiscent of the international system that operated before modern empires took shape.

In this neo-Westphalian world order, with its endless vistas of micro-violence and unchecked exploitation, each hegemon would dominate its immediate region — Brasilia in South America, Washington in North America, Pretoria in southern Africa, and so on. Space, cyberspace, and the maritime deeps, removed from the control of the former planetary “policeman,” the United States, might even become a new global commons, controlled through an expanded U.N. Security Council or some ad hoc body.

All of these scenarios extrapolate existing trends into the future on the assumption that Americans, blinded by the arrogance of decades of historically unparalleled power, cannot or will not take steps to manage the unchecked erosion of their global position.

If America’s decline is in fact on a 22-year trajectory from 2003 to 2025, then we have already frittered away most of the first decade of that decline with wars that distracted us from long-term problems and, like water tossed onto desert sands, wasted trillions of desperately needed dollars.

Duh. It's pretty fucking obvious.

If only 15 years remain, the odds of frittering them all away still remain high. Congress and the president are now in gridlock; the American system is flooded with corporate money meant to jam up the works; and there is little suggestion that any issues of significance, including our wars, our bloated national security state, our starved education system, and our antiquated energy supplies, will be addressed with sufficient seriousness to assure the sort of soft landing that might maximize our country’s role and prosperity in a changing world.

Yup. Forget about a "soft landing". The psychopaths in Washington DC will have none of that.

Europe’s empires are gone and America’s imperium is going.

It seems increasingly doubtful that the United States will have anything like Britain’s success in shaping a succeeding world order that protects its interests, preserves its prosperity, and bears the imprint of its best values.

This was written a decade ago in 2010.

The “knee jerk” reaction is for America to start a war.

Don’t.

China. Does. Not. Play.

The Oligarchy have their ideas…

Certainly the PTB, and the oligarchy skedaddled to their hidy-holes in remote areas of NZ, Canada, and Europe. So that tells me that the oligarchy believe that a collapse is imminent.

So, taking their lead and some common sense, we can take note and prepare…

How Do We Prepare for Economic Collapse?

From the SHTFblog…

Thankfully, history can give us some advice here.

As Ayn Rand points out throughout her books (particularly in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), it is production which is true wealth. The person who produces, whether that be food, shoes, holsters, or some other form of tangible good, is the one who holds true wealth. They’re adding something to society, creating something that others need or want.

In the same spirit, I would argue that the person who can provide a tangible service as well also has true wealth. An electrician who can provide light to a building, a plumber who can ensure personal hygiene is a diminished issue, and a doctor who can repair a wound are all examples of people who may not necessarily produce tangible goods (such as in the case of farmers, leatherworkers, and blacksmiths), but they still are able to produce a service that is both wanted and needed.

So, one of the first things that we can do to prepare ourselves for economic collapse is to become capable of producing.

This can be done in two primary ways: by the learning of a new skill or by getting into the business of producing merchandise.

Learning a New Skill

This is part of the reason that I went and became a locksmith. I have more than one job but wanted to have something of a backup plan perchance something should happen to my primary income. Tradesmen are both necessary and (typically) in short supply. Learning a concrete skill seemed to be something that would provide a fairly decent insurance policy should I need to fall back on something else. I’m glad I did, too. We’re a ‘key’ business.

Whether it be plumbing, carpentry, farrier work, or any other kind of trade for that matter, the point is that becoming proficient in a trade is to make yourself proficient in something that is likely to always be necessary. To look at a rather morbid example of such, we can analyze what the Germans did to the Jews throughout the Holocaust. Whether you are reading Schindler’s List, Maus, or The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz, you can see that it was the Jews who knew a trade such as metal polishing, mechanical work, or machining were (at least for a while) kept alive. (Of course, I’m by no means saying that pianists, teachers, and shopkeepers had no value.)

Learning to Produce Products

The second aspect would be investment in a particular merchandise. It involves producing products, starting a side business of some sort, perhaps. True, this often requires increasing one’s knowledge in a particular field, but there are some regions where it is simply the investment that allows a man to produce. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.

This is where a shopkeeper would fit in. It is because such a man has invested capital into supplies that he is able to produce wealth for himself. Post-economic collapse though, which supplies will help one to produce wealth, however? Well, that leads me to the next topic: bartering.

Barter Society

I think that one of the first things that people need to realize when it comes to economic collapse is that things revert to a BARTER society. Look throughout history, and you’ll see that this is the case. The world doesn’t go to pot and a day later people are walking around and trading gold coins with one another. (I believe Joe Nobody illustrates this point rather well in his Holding Their Own series).

No, people start with trading goods and services for other needed/desired goods and services. Greece proved this with their recent economic collapse within the past five years or so. People traded eggs, milk, and meat for what they needed. I think it’s important to note that the farmer – a producer – was the one that was able to provide this for people as well. HE had true wealth throughout the collapse.

Again, in Venezuela we saw the same thing. People resorted to trading bananas for haircuts. The FIRST thing that becomes of value during an economic collapse is goods and services. True, there will be a very short window in which cash is king until people realize that the paper they have trusted all those years is now truly worthless in every sense of the word, but that window is short.

Barterable Goods and Services

So, after the brief cash window closes, after your world resorts to barter, the question becomes: “Okay, so what do I barter with? How do I get the things that my family needs?”

Regarding goods, I believe that the following is a good list to begin with. These are the things that people are going to need, and that are going to hold intrinsic value post-economic collapse:

  • Water – Particularly water bottles. These are readily portable, and not so value dense as to be unpractical for trade.
  • Water Filters – The majority of Americans have less than 3 days of food in their home. That includes water. If people can’t afford their electric bill, post-economic collapse, they are going to need access to safe water, and a water filter provides that.
  • Ammo – I truly believe that this will be one of the most practical and widely accepted forms of currency. It’s been used before as a currency, and it’ll be used again.
  • Guns – Value-dense, but there are going to be people who want them to protect their families from post-collapse violence. The demand for guns skyrocketed this year thanks to the riots and government action. What do you think the demand will look like post-collapse?
  • Gasoline Containers – Everybody will need them, and very few have them.
  • Food – There will always be a need for food, and – as witnessed by food bank lines – one of the first indicators of economic downturns.
  • Diapers – Parents go through thousands of these per year and will not have an adequate supply for their kids post-collapse. I believe reusable cloth diapers will be important.
  • Body Armor – Value-dense, but people will want it. There are record sales of it this year, and that desire will continue in a violent, post-collapse economy.
  • Coffee – It creates an addiction, and the withdrawal effects SUCK. People are going to want coffee, and there are ways to store it for a long time.
  • Boots – There will be an increase in the amount of walking the average man does thanks to the unavailability of gasoline. Shoes will wear out and need to be replaced.
  • Coats – Clothing wears out, new people are always being created, people constantly change size, and people always need it.
  • Gloves – There will be an increase in outdoor work, and gloves wear out.
  • Alcohol – Another thing that mankind can’t seem to get enough of. I just wouldn’t broadcast how much of this stuff that you have. People kill for it.
  • Tobacco – Another addiction that I wouldn’t broadcast you have a lot of. Cigarettes were routinely used as currency among POWs in WW2, and still are used in prisons throughout the world as currency.
  • Baby Formula – If breastfeeding is no longer an option, people are going to need formula to feed their babies. Parents WILL feed their babies, and there will be a dire need for such. Once again, not something I would advertise that I have a stockpile of.
  • Gasoline – This will always be needed for vehicles and generators.
  • Salt – Needed for meat storage since it is very unlikely that people will have access to constant electricity for refrigeration.
  • Medical Supplies – Crutches, slings, gauze, various first aid equipment and more will be in short supply. People always hurt themselves, and very few of much stored for their own first aid.
  • Medicine – There will always be a need for medication.
  • Spare Gun Parts – Guns break, and few have spare parts stored.
  • Condoms – People are going to realize that now is probably not the best time to get pregnant. If you staple three of them together and sell them in multi-packs, you can create a market for your baby formula as well! (I’m kidding, I’m kidding.)
  • Eye Glasses – Maybe it’s difficult to get replacement glasses, but reading glasses can be bought in bulk cheaply. It’s one of the most difficult things to get in prison, as the “state issue” glasses make you look like a retired mob boss.
  • Holsters – The thousands of people who bought pistols to keep in their nightstand will come to realize that they need a way to carry their weapon around with them. Things will be too dangerous to do otherwise, and many forget to buy a holster ahead of time.

When it comes to services, these are the skills that I believe will be in great demand post-economic collapse. It would be wise to learn at least some degree of proficiency in one of them.

  • Farming – Food production will be vital, and the man with beehives, fields, a garden, chickens, or dairy animals will be able to produce an item that people need on a daily basis.
  • Ranching – Much different than farming. Whether you know how to manage cattle for somebody else, or have the knowledge to raise them of your own accord, cattle, sheep, goats, and so on are going to need to be cared for to provide meat, leather, hides, and more for people.
  • Mechanical Work – Vehicles, generators, and more will break down and people will need them to be fixed.
  • Electrical Work – Wiring solar, pumps for wells, and more will always be needed.
  • Machining – It is likely that there will still be factories producing, and machinists will be needed for such.
  • Gunsmithing – Accidents happen, and few trust their own abilities to fix a firearm. Gunsmiths will be needed for such events.
  • Leatherwork – Primarily for holsters, gun straps, and clothing.
  • Medical Work – There will be a dire need for such workers post-economic collapse. People will be unable to afford their medications, or regular healthcare services, and thus there will be a drastic increase in acute conditions. Medical workers will be needed to address such, even if it is on the individual barter basis.
  • Protection – Herds, businesses, neighborhoods, and residences are going to want permanent protection, and will be willing to hire experienced armed men to do so. Knowing how to patrol, set up a perimeter, and dispose of threats will be in demand.
  • Baking – Knowledge of how to make bread will allow you to produce an item that everyone will need and want post-collapse.
  • Textile Creation – Whether this comes in the form of knitting, crocheting, tailoring, or so on, there will be a need for items of cloth as clothing gradually wears out, is lost, soiled, or stolen.

Keep in mind that all the above are general lists. Undoubtedly, you will be able to think of both goods and services that will have post-economic collapse value that are not included above. These are simply given to get your mind thinking about some sure-fire ways to be able to barter for what you need in the event of an economic collapse.

What About Precious Metals?

There are two reasons gold and silver have been omitted:

First, the use of precious metals doesn’t seem to come into common use until well after the period of barter transactions.

Second, I believe that precious metals are much more important for wealth evacuation. Let’s take a look at both of these in more detail.

To begin with, seldom throughout history do we see precious metals instantly being reverted to as currency post-economic collapse. Why? You can’t eat them, you can’t drink them, and few understand their inherent value (ask a friend what the current price of gold is to find see). Even fewer can tell if the gold/silver that you are offering them is the real deal or a fake.

Stocking precious metals is now how to survive an economic collapse. People don’t want gold and silver after an economic collapse. They want to be able to feed their families. Gold and silver will not be a readily used means of exchange in such an event.

To further complicate matters, gold is incredibly value dense. As of this writing, gold is a little over $2000 an ounce. That’s a lot of value wrapped up in that little coin. If you need ammunition, and go to buy it from some small-time reloader, do you think he’ll be able to honor the equivalent of an ounce of gold’s worth of ammo? Odds are he won’t even have that much in stock. If we really want to examine the issue, I think that silver would be a better form of currency, precious-metals wise.

Silver is currently around $25/ounce. That’s a much more useable value amount on a daily basis. (If you want to read more, read about the best silver for preppers.) However, what we see throughout history is the reversion to barter, not to the gold standard.

Gold Exception – Wealth Evacuation

If you’ve got to get the heck out of somewhere, and fast, then I believe that gold is where it’s at. Silver is too bulky. A pocket full of gold coins would allow you to “start fresh” somewhere a bit more stable (if you can find such a place). Shoot, we can even look at the US post-Civil War here. Southern money was worth nothing after the war. However, those with gold and silver were able to have something with inherent value that would be redeemable for the new currency.

Again, we can look to the German Jews of the late 1930s. This was a very scary time to be a Jew in Europe. The persecution was very real, and things were heating up. The man who was able to sew gold coins up into the hem of his jacket, and get the heck out of Dodge ASAP was able to arrive at a new and politically friendlier climate with at least some of his wealth intact and under the radar. Baggage is lost and stolen. Clothing seldom is. Thus, I believe that one of the best purposes of gold is wealth evacuation.

How to Survive an Economic Collapse Summary

If you had asked people a year ago if they ever thought the entire world would enact lockdowns and throw refuse people for not wearing a surgical mask at Kroger, they would have said you were nuts. Yet, here we are. Why is it so improbable to think an economic collapse couldn’t be next? All of the warning signs are there? Is it foolish to just ignore them, and pretend that things will always continue on as “normal”?

I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.

Conclusion

So, let’s simplify things.

  • The statists argue that nothing really bad will happen in the future. At worst will be a recession, but Washington DC will have everything under control.
  • The “doom and gloomers” are forecasting a complete melt-down of the American society, and it will happen regardless of an American involvement in World War III.
  • Preppers are fearful for the worst of the worst.
  • Fourth Turning followers are also fearful for the worst of the worst.
  • Media Shrills are mindless automatons. They just regurgitate their programming.
  • Sheeple are oblivious. They know that things are going to shit, but they believe what ever they read. The the “news” says that everything is under control.
  • Neocons believe that everything will be fixed and turn around once the USA wins World War III.

So what is going to happen?

I cannot tell you all because everyone’s future is different. We all have our own MWI topography maps, and our futures depend on our thoughts, and affirmations.

Would it be too strange for me to allude that the members of each of the groups above will have their own futures play out exactly as their thoughts and actions dictate…

…Yup. That is what it’s gonna be (more or less).

No one is going to be unscathed. We will all experience changes. It’s just that the magnitude of the changes will differ from person to person. The best advice that I can give is to make your immediate environment safe, secure and as stable as possible.

There is no way to predict what will happen for the vast bulk of humanity. All you can do is prepare for your own family and your own region.

The best way to prepare is to be prudent. Be cautious. Be positive, and conduct prayer affirmations that include a GENEROUS listing of affirmations that describe safety and isolation from any looming catastrophes as a result of American mismanagement, evil behaviors, or insanity of one level or the other.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my SHTF Index here…

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What would the founders think of America today?

Earlier today I was musing about life. I thought about the craziness on the news, or at least what passes for news these days. I thought about life, and my grandparents. I thought about buying my first hamburger when I was six years old; my father gave me a few dollars and pointed me in the direction of the local diner. I was on my own. I wonder if you could do that today, in the hyper-PC culture that America has become.

All of these thoughts jumbled together when a commercial came on promoting an “in depth” study on how bad Trump is. With this and the latest local news, I suddenly came to the thought; What would the founders of the United States think about the nation as it is today? What would they think?

Obviously they wouldn’t be happy.

I've told this story a thousand times...

I once made a pot of chili. It was on a lazy Saturday afternoon. It was something that I had been looking forward to having all week long, and Saturday was just perfect for making it.

I added the ground beef, the peppers, the tomatoes, the onions, and let it cook for hours on the stove. I then lifted up the lid and added some salt and pepper.

I reached for the parsley container. I wanted to add small amount for flavoring.

When the entire lid fell off the container. 

There, in a nano-second was a huge pile of green parsley slowly sinking into the chili.

I knew that I had to take action and fast. So, I reached in and with a ladle, I managed to remove about 80% of the parsley. Yet, as successful as I was, it was too late. The chili was far too polluted, and all you could do when you tasted it was the strong and noticeable taste of parsley.

What to do? What to do?

I didn't want to throw away the chili. There was good ground beef in it. It took time to cut up all the vegetables, and I had the beans all ready and added. I did not want to toss it all away when the house still held the wonderful aroma of cooking chili.

So my plan was to keep on adding things.

I figured that if the pot of chili was larger, by adding more and more things, eventually the effect of the parsley would be so diluted to be unnoticeable. As a result I would have double or triple the amount of chili, at no negative consequence to the taste, I believed.

So...

I made and added more sauce. No change.
I cooked and added more meat. No change.
I added more tomatoes. No change.
I added more beans. No change.
I added more garlic, leeks, onions. No change.
I added more salt, and more pepper. No change.

By the end of the day, I had a much larger pot of chili. Of which was just as uneatable due to the pollution of the parsley.

------

Sometimes, small changes greatly alter content. You end up with something completely different. Often, it is not what you intended, but "the cat is out of the bag, and there is no way to put it back." Further changes and alterations do not help. You end up with a "Frankenstein monster".

What I should have done was scrapped the chili. Started all over again. I should have stuck to the original recipe, as explicitly stated to me by my grandmother, and avoided such embellishments such as parsley that a well-meaning friend insisted upon.

When I look at the mess that the United States is today, a scene from the movie “Aliens” come to mind. Do you know which one that I am referring to?

You know, they just discovered a “nest” of horrible alien insect-like killing machines that almost completely wiped out the military platoon of Space Marines. They are all there in the APC, and wondering what to do about this horrible situation. And then Ripley suggests…

nuke-from-orbit-meme
Sometimes, when things are so bad, you just don’t take any chances. You get far, far away from the danger, and then you eliminate it completely. This scene has long since became a meme that is used in many different situations. It is not intended to be taken literally, but rather suggestive of how to handle a particular issue.

In the case of the United States, the “well meaning” (and not so well-meaning) changes has resulted in a real mess for us citizens that have to live inside it. This is a truth, whether you want to believe it or not. The only people that thrive in the United States today is the wealthy elite class. For they enjoy their own laws, their own communities, and their very own protections.

Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton emboides what America is today. It is a land where the rich and wealthy live as they please and lord over everyone else. They have their own rules, laws, and behaviors and they are untouchable. They are the elite; the 1%, or the 1% of the 1%.

In my mind, I would like to revert America way back to the Constitution AS WRITTEN, and include ONLY the first ten amendments. Personally, I see an uneducated populace, that even when they attend university, remain under-educated. They behave in group-think, or better yet a “mob mentality” where popularity, as defined by news, polls and tweets define action.

I know that it is intended to be this way. I know that total control over a population is best served when they devolve into emotional-laden mob physiology. I wish that we could revert to more traditional ways of living, and one in which the rich and powerful were held in check.

But, ah, that’s just me.

Parable about America

So anyways, musing about life and my “Rights”, has got me to thinking. I wonder, what would the founders think about specific issues? You know about “LGBT rights”, illegal aliens as opposed to citizens, and a moral-less society based on social constructs as opposed to natural biology. What would they think?

What, if you could teleport one (or more) of the founders here, somehow erase the shock of modern-day life, and query them in a calm and safe environment. What would they think? What would their views be?

Bill and Ted making their appearance.
The 1980’s comedy “Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure” was all about carting famous historical figures back from the past to the present so that we could benefit from their teachings and knowledge. What would they have to say about life today?

Here, I try to address those thoughts.

Let’s start with elections. It’s one of those things that we are all taught back in grade school. Oh, you know “Our nation is great because we have popular elections. It is what makes our democracy so great and wonderful.” Um, yeah, but we are not a “democracy”, at least we weren’t ever intended to be one.

Democracy Lessons

[1] Popular Elections

When the United States was first founded, it was intended that ONLY the heads of a family would be able to vote. They would vote for their local governance, and they would also vote for their national representative. Aside from that, no one else would be able to vote.

Thus the profile of a voter was…

  • Male head of a family.
  • Educated.
  • Member of a local church.
  • Responsible for the welfare of his family.

This was from a practical perspective. The heads of families were responsible for others. It was a huge burden that (at that time) was taken quite seriously. Therefore, only those people that had others that relied on them, could be permitted to vote.

This, of course, ended with the passage of the various amendments 11 – 27, which almost all expanded the voting pool while making no changes in the representation structure. Thus, diluting the individual voter influence.

Link

What would the founders think?

I believe that they would think something like this…

Without governance under the control of people with a “stake in the game”, the entire government can be gamed in favor of mob rule. Thus the idea of a pure Republic becomes meaningless.

Instead, you have a democracy by mob rule. This is a fundamental principle that must be adhered to, in order to maintain consistency and quality in governance. Otherwise, under “mob rule” an oligarchy can take over and manipulate the people to fit their desires.

It is easy to control mobs, as mob psychology is a very mature subject. You just control the news media. You control public discourse by popularity, and control polls, tweets, and fashion. All of which lie within reach and within the domain of the wealthy. NOT in the domain of the general population.

[2] Taxation

Today, in America taxation is broken down into four classes.

  1. Federal taxation,
  2. State taxation,
  3. Local taxation,
  4. Fees, and other charges, that originate from the government.

Any mechanism that extracts money from citizens to a governmental body, no matter the form or name is a tax. Additionally, you have the ObamaCARE which is a mandated item that MUST be purchased by citizens.

What would the founders think?

We made it very and specifically clear. There shall be NO taxation on any American citizen in any way, shape or form. There is no excuse or reason what-so-ever that can justify the taxation of Americans.

The moment that Americans are taxed is the moment that they lose their freedom and become slave and serfs for someone else.

Taxiation without representation.

[3] First Amendment

Today the freedom of speech and religion are under constant assault. There is something called “PC, which stand for “Political Correctness”, which means that there are limits what you can say and what you cannot say. This means that there are limits on your thoughts and what you can or cannot believe. It all must be approved by others.

What would the founders say?

We were very explicit in this. We specifically explained in the preamble to the Bill of Rights that the government shall have NO (that means zero) ability in altering or changing, or influencing a persons’ thoughts, religion or beliefs. Nor shall they place any limits on it, for any reason what so ever.

People, you need to read the PREAMBLE to the Bill of Rights. You need to read the Federalist Papers. It explains everything so plainly. Anyone who is trying to limit your ability to speak your mind is a tyrant in sheeps’ clothing.

Feinstein on the freedom of speech.
There’s a reason Feinstein appears on Reason ‘s list of ” enemies of freedom.” Ultimately, Feinstein’s objection to protecting controversial speech is that of the bureaucrat disguised as the concerned nanny. When people intent on violence show up at protests, other people can get hurt.

Second Amendment

Today, we see a nearly unending media hype on banning guns and all sort of ways and means to restrict it’s usage. Every day, it seems that there is some sort of “event” involving gun. From the mob abuse in Chicago to the latest in “false flag” mass slaughter events.

I am sure that the founders would have some very serious and harsh words to say on this subject.

What would the founders say..

We specifically put the words “shall not be infringed” in the specification. It is very clear. This is as clear as night and day.

The people; the citizens of the United States WILL have the ability to procure and operate any and all sorts of weapons. And, yes, that means the latest in military technology. It is the ONLY way that people can control their government. Take that away and the people cannot redress their government. They just cannot.

America was founded on one basic premise. That is that man is created by God, and given Rights. Governments are made by men. For a government to be long-lasting, it must recognize that it can NEVER replace God.

Gun control is tyranny.
If the Constitution was being followed as intended, every person in the USA would have access to fully automatic Stoner weapons.

Third Amendment

The third amendment is very clear. The government shall not use your property for their purposes. In worst case, even in times of war, your property is yours. The government shall not infringe on your property.

Today, of course, your property can be taken away if you owe taxes. It can be seized by the police. It can be utilized as needed, and it can be occupied. What would the founders have to say about this?

Property is owned by citizens. The government shall have no say what so ever in using it, renting it, taxing it, or anything else. Including banning it. The moment when you need to discuss your “property” with the government is the moment that you are a slave. For you have no property.

Link

Fourth Amendment

The fourth amendment prohibits The United States government from going into people’s private lives, collecting their personal papers and documents, and using that against them. It’s what it says.

However, that is pretty much how it is done today.

Oh, there are of course, “excuses”, and alterations in methodology, but the fact is pretty plain. There are no longer any fourth amendment protections for Americans today. Zero.

After all, if the Fourth Amendment was being followed there wouldn’t be anything called the “Utah Data Collection Center”.

The Utah Data Collection Center.
Utah Data Center. The National Security Agency (NSA) leads operations at the facility as the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence. It is located at Camp Williams near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake and was completed in May 2014 at a cost of $1.5 billion. The highly-classified project is responsible for intercepting, storing and analyzing intelligence data as it zips through both domestic and international networks. The data may come in all forms: private e-mails, cell phone calls, Google searches – even parking lot tickets or shop purchases.

This is more than just a data center,” an official source close to the project told the online magazine Wired.com. The source says the center will actually focus on deciphering the accumulated data, essentially code-breaking. This means not only exposing Facebook activities or Wikipedia requests, but compromising “the invisible” Internet, or the “deepnet.” Legal and business deals, financial transactions, password-protected files and inter-governmental communications will all become vulnerable. Once communication data is stored, a process known as data-mining will begin. Everything a person does – from traveling to buying groceries – is to be displayed on a graph, allowing the NSA to paint a detailed picture of any given individual’s life.

What would the founders of the nation have to say about this?

One of the fundamental characteristics of being a free man is the idea of having privacy. That is you can have your thoughts, you documents, you life, and your family private and free from scrutiny. The failure in having this most basic of needs is to live the life of a slave.

We are not going to put it any other way. Only SLAVES have their personal papers, business and privacy invaded by governments. Nor violated by private companies who operate as proxies for the government.

Well, you do need to protect yourself from the government. Here’s a good way to do it…

Link

Fifth Amendment

You know that the things that you do, your habits, and your lifestyle cannot be used against you. Funny, apparently the United States government has forgotten this most basic of rights.

The United States was founded under British common law. Which means that there can be no crime without a victim.

You steal an apple from someone, you have a victim.
You kill someone. That dead SOB is a victim.
You slander someone, you have a victim.

There is no such thing as a "victim-less" crime. 

Thus, all the crimes against drugs, vices, personal behaviors, and the sort that are often promoted by progressives "to make the world a better place", and to do things "for the children" would NEVER be permitted if the Constitution was being followed as written.

This amendment requires that procedure be followed in bringing a person to trial. It mandates that the government cannot seize land and property from citizens without “due cause” and compensation. Thought today, this happens pretty darn regularly.

Not to mention their wanton abuse of access to social media.

People need to be protected from the government. In our view, the government was constructed to be a rather weak entity. One that had little power aside from organization, and could in no way interfere in the lives and property of the citizens. A government that is TOO POWERFUL is one that can take away things and lifestyle from it’s citizens.

In a free society, vices are not banned, taxed, suppressed or prohibited. A “vice” is simply something that a busybody wants to limit YOUR access to, so that they have power and control over you.

SJW

Sixth Amendment

The sixth amendment is in regard to fair, and speedy trials. Yet we know that today, most criminal prosecutions do not go to trial. ” and that way are resolved outside the court system.

In doing so, the entire protections of the Bill of Rights are circumvented. Those accused are faced with either fighting an enormous bureaucratic entity with an unlimited funding source, or accept a minor charge by pleading guilty.

Unfortunately, most accused people are set in the situation where they would rather than go through the “grinder” of the legal justice system in favor of a light or lighter sentence.

The judicial system was set up to be fair. There should be ZERO opportunities for a person to avoid the criminal prosecution system. The system was set up to be fair. It protected those who were wrongfully accused, and punished those who did wrong.

Abuses of this is evidence in that either [1] Criminals are in charge of the justice system, or [2] The laws are unrealistic and do not reflect the needs of society as a whole.

Seventh Amendment

The idea behind that the seventh amendment is that a person’s peers would determine what to do with a person who exists within their circle of associations. While, over the years, society has expanded and communication methods have greatly expanded, the need still persists.

People need to be judged by their peers. Their behavior outside of their social constraints could be misconstrued. People who live in urban areas shouldn’t be judged by people who live in rural areas. Everything should be handled at the local level. The entire concept of this resides in the fundamental idea that everything must be resolved at the local level.

Eighth Amendment

Well, Americans are protected from “excessive” punishment, and “excessive” bail. Though I would be hard pressed (in my case) to equate that 300x my bank savings for bail is within these guidelines.

But that is just me. Obviously I am a “unique” case. No one else had this problem. Eh?

The Government should remain small and manageable. The idea behind the eighth amendment was to offer a “level playing field” between the accused and the government. All too often, though out history, the government had the power an resources to overwhelm the average citizen. This amendment was a way to prevent the government from being far too powerful.

Ninth Amendment

The Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. 

It is part of the Bill of Rights. The Ninth Amendment has generally been regarded by the courts as negating any expansion of governmental power on account of the enumeration of rights in the Constitution.

-Wikipedia.

Many people are confused by this amendment.

Let’s say this plainly. The govern CANNOT lay claim to any ability, right or process that lies outside of the Bill of Rights. They cannot expand up statutes for “the public good” or any such nonsense.

People have a large number of Rights that the government should never infringe upon. This was intended to a be protection of the people. It was intended to be a protection from the citizens from their government. It specifically states quite clearly that American citizens have RIGHTS that are not specified within the Constitution. Therefore, any new law, or policy from the government extracts from the Rights of Citizens.

Like, perhaps, the right to drink from a straw…

The Tenth Amendment

People. Know your history.

Powell
On the night of April 14, Powell and another conspirator, David Herold, made their way to the Secretary of State’s residence. Seward was inside, recovering from a concussion, broken jaw, and other injuries following a recent carriage accident.

Powell entered Seward’s house pretending to deliver medicine while Herold waited out front. Powell pushed his way past Seward’s butler, who ran into the night to get help. This frightened Herold, who immediately took off.

Once inside, Powell attempted to shoot Seward’s son Frederick, but his revolver misfired. Powell beat him to the floor and made his way to the room where Seward was recovering. The Secretary of State was being tended to by his daughter and by Sergeant George F. Robinson, an army nurse. Powell slashed Robinson and punched Seward’s daughter in the face. He then climbed atop Seward and stabbed and slashed at his head and neck.

Because of his injuries from the carriage accident, Seward was wearing a metal splint around his jaw. This protected him from any would-be fatal blows, but Powell managed to slash his cheek and face. Though he survived the attack, the scars would remain with Seward for life.

Seward’s other son Augustus burst into the room and wrestled with Powell. Powell slashed at Augustus and got away, but not before encountering a messenger in the hallway (who Powell stabbed, as well).

Powell escaped, but he was a stranger on the run in Washington, D.C. Helpless without Herold, he disappeared for three days, wandering the streets or hiding alone. Finally, he returned to the boarding house where Booth and the other conspirators rendezvoused before the assassination. As he got there, police were taking the owner of the house and others away for questioning. Powell claimed he was just a laborer there to dig a gutter, but the police were suspicious because he was wearing expensive clothing, so they took him into custody when he was positively identified.

Yeah. I know. Tenth amendment. “States Rights”.

Anything not specified in the Constitution is reserved for the States. At least that is what it says. Of course, we all know that this is just nothing; it’s all just meaningless words. The Civil War pretty much settled this issue.

It’s a hard sell.

The issue of “Federalism” pretty much was killed in favor of a centralized government operating out of Washington D.C..

Abe Lincoln - the bad guy
To really understand a person, their motivations, and the issues of the day, you need to look closer. When you do, you start to see things that you were not aware of, and how all the pieces start to fit together. It becomes frightening and a tad horrific.

We can parse this trivial issue or that one, all by carefully waltzing around the elephant in the room; you know which one. Don’t you?

Let me spell it out to you. If States have no ability to dissolve their bonds with Washington, they have zero power in anything substantive.

How they get away with it

But going beyond that. Let’s look at the issue in more depth, shall we. Well, people, where does it explicitly state that there should be a FCC, a FDA, or a ATF in the Constitution? According to the tenth amendment, these are state’s issues.

And even more perplexing, is that these are issues that infringe on the inherent Rights of citizens within the states where they reside. Since when can the federal government create an agency that places limits on the freedoms of any citizen in any of the states? Well?

 The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. It expresses the principle of federalism and states' rights, which strictly supports the entire plan of the original Constitution for the United States of America, by stating that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated to it by the United States Constitution. All remaining powers are reserved for the states or the people. 

-Wikipedia

It doesn’t matter though.

Today, we have an American empire run by an oligarchy. Many of who’s members aren’t even Americans. (You can see who they are by looking at all the non-American interests being funded in the yearly federal budget.) They engage in endless wars around the globe, and treat American citizens as ignorant sheep to be fleeced every April.

What would the founders have to say about all this…

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The truths…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Then, men create governments to make sure that people RETAIN these God-given Rights…

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

However, take note and warning…

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

This should not be taken lightly…

Accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

How much can people take before they start to yell “STOP!”?

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these citizens; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations… all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the citizens.

Conclusion

The United States today in zero ways resembles what it was established to be in 1776. It has changed.

America has changed.
America has changed substantially in many, many ways from what it was first established as. Traditionalists, and conservatives lament these changes. While progressive socialists embrace the changes.

It is no longer a Republic.

It was altered from a Republic to a Democracy, to an Empire, and now exists as a oligarchy that serves the interests of the richest people on the globe. Many of whom aren’t even Americans in the first place.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants America to fight a war with Iran. To this end he is very active in providing financial enticements (bribes) to leading American Senators and Congressmen to support yet another military action, only this time in Iran.

The only way that we can change America from what it has become is …

Make America Great Again.

Posts Regarding Life and Contentment

Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.

Why no High-Speed rail in the USA?
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Tomatos
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Mad scientist
Gorilla Cage in the basement
The two family types and how they work.
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Pleasures
Work in the 1960's
School in the 1970s
Cat Heaven
Corporate life
Corporate life - part 2
Build up your life
Grow and play - 1
Grow and play - 2
Asshole
Baby's got back
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A womanly vanity
SJW
Army and Navy Store
Playground Comparisons
Excuses that we use that keep us enslaved.

Posts about the Changes in America

America is going through a period of change. Change is good… that is, after it occurs. Often however, there are large periods of discomfort as the period of adjustment takes place. Here are some posts that discuss this issue.

Parable about America
What is planned for American Conservatives - Part 2
What is going to happen to conservatives - Part 3.
What is planned for conservatives - part 4
What is in store for Conservatives - part 5
What is in store for conservatives - part 6
Civil War
The Warning Signs
r/K selection theory
Line in the sand
A second passport
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Make America Great Again.

More Posts about Life

I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.

Being older
Things I wish I knew.
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Travel
PT-141
Bronco Billy
How they get away with it
Paper Airplanes
Snopes
Taxiation without representation.
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1960's and 1970's link
Democracy Lessons
A polarized world.
The Rule of Eight
Types of American conservatives.

Stories that Inspired Me

Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.

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Space Cadet (Full Text) by Robert Heinlein
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The Last Night
The Flying Machine
A story of escape.
All Summer in a day.
The Smile by Ray Bradbury
The menace from Earth
Delilah and the Space Rigger
Life-Line
The Tax-payer
The Pedestrian
Time for the stars.
Glory Road by Robert Heinlein

Articles & Links

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