Tag: trade

Russia and China has become one nation

Not reported that way in the West, eh? But, yeah. That’s exactly what has happened.

This article is VERY IMPORTANT.

I am configuring it using my MM "huge smorgasbord technique". Thus, it includes food, girls, and other things. It's fun, interesting, and it absolutely stops Trolls and 'Bots.  You will find these little green comment boxes throughout the article, and I welcome you all to comment using them. Because if you wait until the end of the article, you will have forgotten much of the various, diverse content provided.

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Warning: A lot of videos here. To watch them either reload the embedded video (most are under one minute long) or click on the link above the video. They are well worth the time to watch.

I came across this excellent TASS article summarizing the 4 February 2022 Russia/China Joint Declaration.  It’s a helpful reminder, on  just how far-reaching the Declaration is and the principles it’s based upon.

These are some the many, many key paragraphs, although there are more:

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China. We have been talking a great deal about strategic interaction. This is a real embodiment of this interaction," Maslov said.

Given the rejection by the West of everything Russian and Chinese, it actually seems probable that the Declaration went unread by American “high officials”, meaning Blinken, Austin and Sullivan, since they already had formalized their escalation plans.

The American “leadership” are still following their check-lists and scripts.

But the reality is something very different. Russia and China have unified. They are as one singular nation, and they coordinate as one singular nation.

It’s not just a treaty. It is the de facto union of Russia and China together.

It is the formation of a new POWER BLOCK.

It is equivalent to when the 13 American states formed the “United States” of America in 1776. It is equivalent to when the European Union was formed, and NATO was created. It is really, really BIG news.

Yet…

The entire West is pretending, or unaware, of the reality. They still are treating Asia as separate nations. They think there’s Russia. They deal deal with Russia. Then once dealt with, they “pivot” to China. Then they deal with China. Then once, Russia and China are done with, they take on India. Then, once India is finished, the “mop up” with Iran.

That’s the plan.

And it relies on a world that does not exist any longer.

Let’s look at how important this unification of Asia is. We will do so through the lens of history.

The formation of the United States

The 13 colonies were the group of colonies that rebelled against Great Britain, fought in the Revolutionary War, and founded the United States of America. Here’s the 13 colonies list:

      • Connecticut
      • Delaware
      • Georgia
      • Maryland
      • Massachusetts Bay
      • New Hampshire
      • New Jersey
      • New York
      • North Carolina
      • Pennsylvania
      • Rhode Island
      • South Carolina
      • Virginia

In late 1774, a group of Patriot leaders at the Continental Congress meeting set up their own government to resist Great Britain, and, on April 19, 1775, the first battles of the Revolutionary War were fought at Lexington and Concord. During the war, each of the 13 colonies formed a Provincial Congress to lead them, now that they no longer accepted the laws of Great Britain.

On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies declared themselves free and independent states at the Second Continental Congress by signing the Declaration of Independence. This document unified the thirteen colonies into one nation known as “The United States of America”.

In many ways, this is exactly what has just occurred in Asia.

There are two nations;

      • Russia
      • China

On February 4, 2022, a very signifigant document was signed that unified the two nations into one solid singular nation. The treaty and agreements are tighter and stronger, and more substantive that the US Constitution that binds the United States together. The agreement if far stronger than the EU that bonds Europe together. It is a new kind of agreement. Better. Stronger. More detailed, than anything ever seen on this planet previously.

Russia-China Partnership Agreement

On February 4, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have signed a joint statement in Beijing before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony held in China.

This statement was accepted as a bold declaration of the “New World Order” and the partnership between the two states without any limitations.

The statement can be divided into four parts:

      • the manifest on the new world order,
      • Grand Eurasian Partnership,
      • the United States (US) aggression, and
      • cooperation against US aggression.

It should be noted that it is much more than just an inclusive agreement and it will change the balance of power in world politics.

The content of the contract can be summarized as in the following:

  • About the New World Order, the sides believed that a new period has started in international relations, and global society demands a new international order based on development in a multi-polar world. Also, the sides suggested that multi-lateral ties have been quite significant in foreign policy and aimed at developing global governance. In addition to that, they offered a powerful United Nations is needed to provide multi-polar in international relations. In addition to that, the G20 format was supported instead of G7 since it is much more inclusive. Also, China and Russia believed that they played and will play an active role in the WTO.
  • On Grand Eurasian Partnership, the sides have declared that the relations between the two countries are much stronger than it was in the Cold War Period. Also, China’s continuing economic and political project is known as the “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI). In the statement, it was claimed that following the BRI, a new Grand Eurasian Partnership would be established, contributing to cultural, economic, political, and historical relations of the region.
  • Russa and China against NATO. China and Russia have declared that they are against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as it approached the Black Sea region and started to try to contain Russia in the latest Ukraine-Russia conflict. The sides believe that NATO is following the mentality of the Cold War period; however, as mentioned before, the world order is changing, as they suggested. Besides NATO, the sides indicated that the policies of the US in the India-Pacific region are dangerous and threatening the peace-building attempts in the Asia-Pacific region. They claimed that Russia and China are concerned about the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom (AUKUS), which provides for deeper cooperation between its members in areas involving strategic stability, in particular their decision to initiate collaboration in the field of nuclear-powered submarines.
  • Against the United States. On the other hand, the most crucial element of the joint declaration was the alliance against the US. The sides declared that the US could escalate the colorful revolutions in the region and stand against that. Also, the sides have put their views on contrasting against terrorism, that they will not let politicization of terrorism, and using terrorism as a tool of interrupting the domestic politics of any country. The two countries highlighted that they would stand against the sanctions of the US by struggling with economic inequality.

Responses

Some responses were given after the declaration of that Joint Statement.

United States. It says (paraphrasing) “It’s a trivial attempt to circumvent our power and influence.” The US officials stated that, with the Joint Statement, that it was of no real consequence. They said that, China’s Xi Jinping could not protect Russia from sanctions. That, in their mind, was the sole purpose of the agreement.

Australia. The Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne criticized the Agreement. Australia stated,

“The joint statement lays out a vision of the world that differs from Australia’s and our allies’ and partners’, and I’m convinced it includes all of our Quad partners.”

Also, in an interview with the ABC on Wednesday, she claimed that the tight security situation at the Russia-Ukraine border did not overshadow the importance the US places on the Indo-Pacific region. Further, Russia and China have slammed the United States’ Indo-Pacific Strategy, rejecting the establishment of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region. She said Australia is very worried about the Russian military build-up along the Ukraine border and called for a reciprocal conversation to de-escalate the situation.

United Kingdom. The chair of the UK’s parliamentary defense committee, Tobias Ellwood, also claimed that “Russia provides oil, gas and military hardware. China, in return, provides advanced technology,” he wrote, adding that:

“Today, we are seeing the birth of a potent anti-democratic alliance. It is on track to see the world shear into two spheres of competing influence. And we have let it happen.”

Which has me scratching my head. has this Bozo Tobias Ellwood actually read the document. It actually clearly states…

"The sides believe that democracy is a means of citizens' participation in the government of their country with the view to improving the well-being of population and implementing the principle of popular government."

Joint statement by Russia, China formalizes bilateral alliance — analyst

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov
In their joint statement two countries described the principles they would rely on in developing global cooperation, Alexey Maslov notes

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. The joint statement Russia and China adopted on Friday outlines the principles of new global cooperation and formalizes their bilateral alliance, the director of the Moscow State University’s Asia and Africa Institute, expert of the discussion club Valdai, Alexey Maslov, told TASS on Friday.

“This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China. We have been talking a great deal about strategic interaction. This is a real embodiment of this interaction,” Maslov said.

He stressed that in their joint statement Russia and China described the principles they would rely on in developing global cooperation.

“These principles are absolutely not new ones,” he remarked. “In fact, the statement heralds a return to the original UN principles that were laid down back in the 1940s and 1950s.”

The expert believes that the document is a clear sign the countries “share common values, a common understanding of democracy and the idea of the national nature of this democracy, pool together many international projects, the EAEU and the One Belt-One Road and also discuss interaction in the Arctic.”

Maslov stressed that the security issues mentioned in the statement were the most important of all. “A whole list of new types of security was determined there, including cybersecurity, on which the countries will cooperate,” he said.

The analyst stressed that the countries respected each other’s positions. “China does not threaten the interests of Russia and avoids intervention in Russian affairs. Likewise, Russia does not meddle in China’s affairs,” Maslov said.

New era of international relations

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

Maslov explained that the “new era” of cooperation was characterized by the need to restore trust in the broadest sense: in world trade, in the military field, in the economy and so on.

“The countries propose if not a program, then at least a declaration of principles a future world is to be based on,” he added.

The expert stressed that this statement “formalizes polarization of forces, and not a confrontation,” because the countries merely declare the principles they rely upon. Maslov stated that other countries were free to join in.

“If some other countries, not necessarily Western ones, for instance, countries in Southeast Asia are prepared for joining the statement or beginning discussions, they will find that this declaration as such is not a closed one for the simple reason other countries may pledge to adhere to the same principles,” he stated.

Maslov sees no risk this statement might cause an escalation of tensions in relations with the West, because it concerns an absolutely parallel process.

“In this respect the document will by no means trigger an escalation. On the contrary, it will rather show that the issue has another side to it. At least, the fact that Russia and China adhere to a different stance,” Maslov concluded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday arrived in Beijing and held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. This is Putin’s first visit to China since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Russian-Chinese summit level negotiations ended with the adoption of a joint statement on international relations that were entering a new era and on global sustainable development…

…

This massive document outlines a framework for unity between Russia and China. It does the EXACT SAME THING as what the document which unified the thirteen colonies into one nation known as “The United States of America”.

Old-Fashioned Patty Melts

Sure everyone has eaten a thousand hamburgers, but how many patty melts have you eaten?
2022 03 28 09 18
Patty Melt done properly.

Everything about these Old-Fashioned Patty Melts is perfect, from the beef patty smothered in cheesy, oniony goodness, to the toasted and buttery rye bread. This sandwich is sure to have you saying “Ooh, it’s so GOUDA!”

What You’ll Need

  • 2 tablespoons butter, divided
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 3/4 pound ground beef
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 4 slices rye bread
  • 4 slices Gouda cheese
  • 1/4 cup Thousand Island salad dressing

What to Do

  1. In a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter; saute onion 6 to 8 minutes, or until it starts to brown. Remove to a bowl and cover.
  2. Shape beef into 2 oval patties; sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
  3. In the same skillet over medium heat, cook patties 5 to 7 minutes per side, or until no longer pink in center. Remove from skillet and keep warm.
  4. Spread remaining butter over one side of each slice of bread. Place in skillet buttered side down, and toast until lightly browned.
  5. To assemble a sandwich, place a slice of cheese on a piece of toast, top with a beef patty, half the onion slices, and half the salad dressing. Top with another slice of cheese and piece of toast; repeat with second sandwich, then serve immediately.

Notes

We love some coleslaw as a go-along to this delicious sandwich, so why not make your own by whipping up a batch of some delicious Country Coleslaw!

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Read this. This is the actual document and translated…

Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development

February 4, 2022

Background

At the invitation of President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin visited China on 4 February 2022. The Heads of State held talks in Beijing and took part in the opening ceremony of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games.

The Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, hereinafter referred to as the sides, state as follows.

The Statement on the New Union

Today, the world is going through momentous changes, and humanity is entering a new era of rapid development and profound transformation.

It sees the development of such processes and phenomena as

  • multipolarity,
  • economic globalization,
  • the advent of information society,
  • cultural diversity,
  • transformation of the global governance architecture
  • and world order;
    • there is increasing interrelation and interdependence between the States;
    • a trend has emerged towards redistribution of power in the world;
    • and the international community is showing a growing demand for the leadership aiming at peaceful and gradual development.

At the same time, as the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection continues, the international and regional security situation is complicating and the number of global challenges and threats is growing from day to day.

Some actors representing but the minority (on the international scale) continue to advocate unilateral approaches to addressing international issues and resort to force;

  • they interfere in the internal affairs of other states,
  • infringing their legitimate rights and interests,
  • and incite contradictions, differences and confrontation,
  • thus hampering the development and progress of mankind, against the opposition from the international community.

The sides call on all States to pursue well-being for all and, with these ends, to

  • build dialogue and mutual trust,
  • strengthen mutual understanding,
  • champion such universal human values as
    • peace,
    • development,
    • equality,
    • justice,
    • democracy and freedom,
    • respect the rights of peoples to independently determine the development paths of their countries
    • and the sovereignty and the security and development interests of States,
      • to protect the United Nations-driven international architecture
      • and the international law-based world order,
      • seek genuine multipolarity with the United Nations
      • and its Security Council playing a central and coordinating role,
      • promote more democratic international relations,
      • and ensure peace, stability and sustainable development across the world.

I

The sides share the understanding that democracy is a universal human value, rather than a privilege of a limited number of States, and that its promotion and protection is a common responsibility of the entire world community.

The sides believe that democracy is a means of citizens’ participation in the government of their country with the view to improving the well-being of population and implementing the principle of popular government.

Democracy is exercised in all spheres of public life as part of a nation-wide process and reflects the interests of all the people, its will, guarantees its rights, meets its needs and protects its interests.

There is no one-size-fits-all template to guide countries in establishing democracy.

A nation can choose such forms and methods of implementing democracy that would best suit its particular state, based on

        • its social and political system,
        • its historical background,
        • traditions and unique cultural characteristics.
        • It is only up to the people of the country to decide whether their State is a democratic one.

The sides note that Russia and China as world powers with rich cultural and historical heritage have long-standing traditions of democracy, which rely on

        • thousand-years of experience of development,
        • broad popular support and
        • consideration of the needs and interests of citizens.

Russia and China guarantee their people the right to take part through various means and in various forms in the administration of the State and public life in accordance with the law.

The people of both countries are certain of the way they have chosen and respect the democratic systems and traditions of other States.

The sides note that democratic principles are implemented at the global level, as well as in administration of State.

Certain States’ attempts to impose their own ”democratic standards“ on other countries,

      • to monopolize the right to assess the level of compliance with democratic criteria,
      • to draw dividing lines based on the grounds of ideology,
        • including by establishing exclusive blocs and alliances of convenience,

prove to be nothing but flouting of democracy and go against the spirit and true values of democracy.

Such attempts at hegemony pose serious threats to global and regional peace and stability and undermine the stability of the world order.

The sides believe that the advocacy of democracy and human rights must not be used to put pressure on other countries.

      • They oppose the abuse of democratic values and interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states under the pretext of protecting democracy and human rights, and any attempts to incite divisions and confrontation in the world.
      • The sides call on the international community to respect cultural and civilizational diversity and the rights of peoples of different countries to self-determination.
      • They stand ready to work together with all the interested partners to promote genuine democracy.

The sides note that the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set noble goals in the area of universal human rights, set forth fundamental principles, which all the States must comply with and observe in deeds.

At the same time, as every nation has its own unique national features, history, culture, social system and level of social and economic development, universal nature of human rights should be seen through the prism of the real situation in every particular country, and human rights should be protected in accordance with the specific situation in each country and the needs of its population.

Promotion and protection of human rights is a shared responsibility of the international community.

The states should equally prioritize all categories of human rights and promote them in a systemic manner.

The international human rights cooperation should be carried out as a dialogue between the equals involving all countries.

All States must have equal access to the right to development. Interaction and cooperation on human rights matters should be based on the principle of equality of all countries and mutual respect for the sake of strengthening the international human rights architecture.

II

The sides believe that peace, development and cooperation lie at the core of the modern international system.

Development is a key driver in ensuring the prosperity of the nations.

The ongoing pandemic of the new coronavirus infection poses a serious challenge to the fulfilment of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It is vital to enhance partnership relations for the sake of global development and make sure that the new stage of global development is defined by balance, harmony and inclusiveness.

The sides are seeking to advance their work to link the development plans for the Eurasian Economic Union and the Belt and Road Initiative with a view to intensifying practical cooperation between the EAEU and China in various areas and promoting greater interconnectedness between the Asia Pacific and Eurasian regions.

The sides reaffirm their focus on building the Greater Eurasian Partnership in parallel and in coordination with the Belt and Road construction to foster the development of regional associations as well as bilateral and multilateral integration processes for the benefit of the peoples on the Eurasian continent.

The sides agreed to continue consistently intensifying practical cooperation for the sustainable development of the Arctic.

The sides will strengthen cooperation within multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations, and encourage the international community to prioritize development issues in the global macro-policy coordination.

They call on the developed countries to implement in good faith their formal commitments on

      • development assistance,
      • provide more resources to developing countries,
      • address the uneven development of States,
      • work to offset such imbalances within States, and advance global and international development cooperation.

The Russian side confirms its readiness to continue working on the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, including participation in the activities of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative under the UN auspices.

In order to accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the sides call on the international community to take practical steps in key areas of

      • cooperation such as poverty reduction,
      • food security,
      • vaccines and epidemics control,
      • financing for development,
      • climate change,
      • sustainable development,
      • including green development,
      • industrialization,
      • digital economy, and
      • infrastructure connectivity.

The sides call on the international community to

      • create open, equal, fair and non-discriminatory conditions for scientific and technological development,
      • to step up practical implementation of scientific and technological advances in order to identify new drivers of economic growth.

The sides call upon all countries to strengthen cooperation in

      • sustainable transport,
      • actively build contacts and share knowledge in the construction of transport facilities,
      • including smart transport and sustainable transport,
      • development and use of Arctic routes,
      • as well as to develop other areas to support global post-epidemic recovery.

The sides are taking serious action and making an important contribution to the fight against climate change.

Jointly celebrating the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, they reaffirm their commitment to this Convention as well as to the goals, principles and provisions of the Paris Agreement, including the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

The sides work together to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, remain committed to fulfilling the obligations they have undertaken and expect that developed countries will actually ensure the annual provision of $100 billion of climate finance to developing states. The sides oppose setting up new barriers in international trade under the pretext of fighting climate change.

The sides strongly support the development of international cooperation and exchanges in the field of biological diversity, actively participating in the relevant global governance process, and intend to jointly promote the harmonious development of humankind and nature as well as green transformation to ensure sustainable global development.

The Heads of State positively assess the effective interaction between Russia and China in the bilateral and multilateral formats focusing on

      • the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,
      • protection of life and health of the population of the two countries and the peoples of the world.
      • They will further increase cooperation in the development and manufacture of vaccines against the new coronavirus infection,
      • as well as medical drugs for its treatment,
      • and enhance collaboration in public health and modern medicine.

The sides plan to strengthen coordination on epidemiological measures to ensure strong protection of health, safety and order in contacts between citizens of the two countries.

The sides have commended the work of the competent authorities and regions of the two countries on implementing quarantine measures in the border areas and ensuring the stable operation of the border crossing points, and intend to consider establishing a joint mechanism for epidemic control and prevention in the border areas to jointly plan anti-epidemic measures to be taken at the border checkpoints, share information, build infrastructure and improve the efficiency of customs clearance of goods.

The sides emphasize that ascertaining the origin of the new coronavirus infection is a matter of science.

Research on this topic must be based on global knowledge, and that requires cooperation among scientists from all over the world.

The sides oppose politicization of this issue. The Russian side welcomes the work carried out jointly by China and WHO to identify the source of the new coronavirus infection and supports the China – WHO joint report on the matter. The sides call on the global community to jointly promote a serious scientific approach to the study of the coronavirus origin.

The Russian side supports a successful hosting by the Chinese side of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2022.

The sides highly appreciate the level of bilateral cooperation in sports and the Olympic movement and express their readiness to contribute to its further progressive development.

III

The sides are gravely concerned about serious international security challenges and believe that the fates of all nations are interconnected.

No State can or should ensure its own security separately from the security of the rest of the world and at the expense of the security of other States. The international community should actively engage in global governance to ensure universal, comprehensive, indivisible and lasting security.

The sides reaffirm their strong mutual support for the protection

      • of their core interests,
      • state sovereignty and territorial integrity,
      • and oppose interference by external forces in their internal affairs.

The Russian side reaffirms its support for the One-China principle, confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.

Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to

      • undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions,
      • intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext,
      • oppose colour revolutions, and
      • will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas.

The sides condemn terrorism in all its manifestations, promote the idea of creating a single global anti-terrorism front, with the United Nations playing a central role, advocate stronger political coordination and constructive engagement in multilateral counterterrorism efforts.

The sides oppose politicization of the issues of combating terrorism and their use as instruments of policy of double standards, condemn the practice of interference in the internal affairs of other States for geopolitical purposes through the use of terrorist and extremist groups as well as under the guise of combating international terrorism and extremism.

The sides believe that certain States, military and political alliances and coalitions seek to obtain, directly or indirectly, unilateral military advantages to the detriment of the security of others, including

      • by employing unfair competition practices,
      • intensify geopolitical rivalry,
      • fuel antagonism and confrontation, and
      • seriously undermine the international security order and global strategic stability.

The sides oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized cold war approaches, to respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries, the diversity of their civilizational, cultural and historical backgrounds, and to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards the peaceful development of other States.

The sides stand against the formation of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region and remain highly vigilant about the negative impact of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy on peace and stability in the region. Russia and China have made consistent efforts to build an equitable, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) that is not directed against third countries and that promotes peace, stability and prosperity.

The sides welcome the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapons States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races.

And believe that all nuclear-weapons States should abandon the cold war mentality and zero-sum games, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies, withdraw nuclear weapons deployed abroad, eliminate the unrestricted development of global anti-ballistic missile defense (ABM) system, and take effective steps to reduce the risks of nuclear wars and any armed conflicts between countries with military nuclear capabilities.

The sides reaffirm that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is the cornerstone of the international disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation system, an important part of the post-war international security system, and plays an indispensable role in world peace and development. The international community should promote the balanced implementation of the three pillars of the Treaty and work together to protect the credibility, effectiveness and the universal nature of the instrument.

The sides are seriously concerned about the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom (AUKUS), which provides for deeper cooperation between its members in areas involving strategic stability, in particular their decision to initiate cooperation in the field of nuclear-powered submarines.

Russia and China believe that such actions are

      • contrary to the objectives of security and sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific region,
      • increase the danger of an arms race in the region, and
      • pose serious risks of nuclear proliferation.

The sides strongly condemn such moves and call on AUKUS participants to fulfil their nuclear and missile non-proliferation commitments in good faith and to work together to safeguard peace, stability, and development in the region.

Japan’s plans to release nuclear contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean and the potential environmental impact of such actions are of deep concern to the sides.

The sides emphasize that the disposal of nuclear contaminated water should be handled with responsibility and carried out in a proper manner based on arrangements between the Japanese side and neighbouring States, other interested parties, and relevant international agencies while ensuring transparency, scientific reasoning, and in accordance with international law.

The sides believe that

      • the U.S. withdrawal from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles,
      • the acceleration of research and the development of intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-based missiles
      • and the desire to deploy them in the Asia-Pacific and European regions,
      • as well as their transfer to the allies,

…entail an increase in tension and distrust, increase risks to international and regional security, lead to the weakening of international non-proliferation and arms control system, undermining global strategic stability.

The sides call on the United States to respond positively to the Russian initiative and abandon its plans to deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-based missiles in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

The sides will continue to maintain contacts and strengthen coordination on this issue.

The Chinese side is sympathetic to and supports the proposals put forward by the Russian Federation to create long-term legally binding security guarantees in Europe.

The sides note that the denunciation by the United States of a number of important international arms control agreements has an extremely negative impact on international and regional security and stability.

The sides express concern over the advancement of U.S. plans to develop global missile defence and deploy its elements in various regions of the world, combined with capacity building of high-precision non-nuclear weapons for disarming strikes and other strategic objectives.

The sides stress the importance of the peaceful uses of outer space, strongly support the central role of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in promoting international cooperation, maintaining and developing international space law and regulation in the field of space activities. Russia and China will continue to increase cooperation on such matters of mutual interest as the long-term sustainability of space activities and the development and use of space resources.

The sides oppose attempts by some States to turn outer space into an arena of armed confrontation and reiterate their intention to make all necessary efforts to prevent the weaponization of space and an arms race in outer space. They will counteract activities aimed at achieving military superiority in space and using it for combat operations.

The sides affirm the need for the early launch of negotiations to conclude a legally binding multilateral instrument based on the Russian-Chinese draft treaty on the prevention of placement of weapons in outer space and the use or threat of force against space objects that would provide fundamental and reliable guarantees against an arms race and the weaponization of outer space.

Russia and China emphasize that appropriate transparency and confidence-building measures, including an international initiative/political commitment not to be the first to place weapons in space, can also contribute to the goal of preventing an arms race in outer space, but such measures should complement and not substitute the effective legally binding regime governing space activities.

The sides reaffirm their belief that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC) is an essential pillar of international peace and security. Russia and China underscore their determination to preserve the credibility and effectiveness of the Convention.

The sides affirm the need to fully respect and further strengthen the BWC, including by institutionalizing it, strengthening its mechanisms, and adopting a legally binding Protocol to the Convention with an effective verification mechanism, as well as through regular consultation and cooperation in addressing any issues related to the implementation of the Convention.

The sides emphasize that domestic and foreign bioweapons activities by the United States and its allies raise serious concerns and questions for the international community regarding their compliance with the BWC.

The sides share the view that such activities pose a serious threat to the national security of the Russian Federation and China and are detrimental to the security of the respective regions.

The sides call on the U.S. and its allies to act in an open, transparent, and responsible manner by properly reporting on their military biological activities conducted overseas and on their national territory, and by supporting the resumption of negotiations on a legally binding BWC Protocol with an effective verification mechanism.

The sides, reaffirming their commitment to the goal of a world free of chemical weapons, call upon all parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention to work together to uphold its credibility and effectiveness.

Russia and China are deeply concerned about the politicization of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and call on all of its members to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and protect the tradition of consensual decision-making.

Russia and China insist that the United States, as the sole State Party to the Convention that has not yet completed the process of eliminating chemical weapons, accelerate the elimination of its stockpiles of chemical weapons.

The sides emphasize the importance of balancing the non-proliferation obligations of states with the interests of legitimate international cooperation in the use of advanced technology and related materials and equipment for peaceful purposes.

The sides note the resolution entitled ”Promoting international Cooperation on Peaceful Uses in the Context of International Security“ adopted at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on the initiative of China and co‑sponsored by Russia, and look forward to its consistent implementation in accordance with the goals set forth therein.

The sides attach great importance to the issues of governance in the field of artificial intelligence. The sides are ready to strengthen dialogue and contacts on artificial intelligence.

The sides reiterate their readiness to deepen cooperation in the field of international information security and to contribute to building an open, secure, sustainable and accessible ICT environment.

The sides emphasize that the principles of the non-use of force, respect for national sovereignty and fundamental human rights and freedoms, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, as enshrined in the UN Charter, are applicable to the information space.

Russia and China reaffirm the key role of the UN in responding to threats to international information security and express their support for the Organization in developing new norms of conduct of states in this area.

The sides welcome the implementation of the global negotiation process on international information security within a single mechanism and support in this context the work of the UN Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) 2021–2025 (OEWG) and express their willingness to speak with one voice within it.

The sides consider it necessary to consolidate the efforts of the international community to develop new norms of responsible behaviour of States, including legal ones, as well as a universal international legal instrument regulating the activities of States in the field of ICT.

The sides believe that the Global Initiative on Data Security, proposed by the Chinese side and supported, in principle, by the Russian side, provides a basis for the Working Group to discuss and elaborate responses to data security threats and other threats to international information security.

The sides reiterate their support of United Nations General Assembly resolutions 74/247 and 75/282, support the work of the relevant Ad Hoc Committee of Governmental Experts, facilitate the negotiations within the United Nations for the elaboration of an international convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes.

The sides encourage constructive participation of all sides in the negotiations in order to agree as soon as possible on a credible, universal, and comprehensive convention and provide it to the United Nations General Assembly at its 78th session in strict compliance with resolution 75/282. For these purposes, Russia and China have presented a joint draft convention as a basis for negotiations.

The sides support the internationalization of Internet governance, advocate equal rights to its governance, believe that any attempts to limit their sovereign right to regulate national segments of the Internet and ensure their security are unacceptable, are interested in greater participation of the International Telecommunication Union in addressing these issues.

The sides intend to deepen bilateral cooperation in international information security on the basis of the relevant 2015 intergovernmental agreement. To this end, the sides have agreed to adopt in the near future a plan for cooperation between Russia and China in this area.

IV

The sides underline that Russia and China, as world powers and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, intend to

      • firmly adhere to moral principles and accept their responsibility,
      • strongly advocate the international system with the central coordinating role of the United Nations in international affairs,
      • defend the world order based on international law,
      • including the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
      • advance multipolarity and
      • promote the democratization of international relations, together create an even more prospering, stable, and just world, jointly build international relations of a new type.

The Russian side notes the significance of the concept of constructing a ”community of common destiny for mankind“ proposed by the Chinese side to ensure greater solidarity of the international community and consolidation of efforts in responding to common challenges.

The Chinese side notes the significance of the efforts taken by the Russian side to establish a just multipolar system of international relations.

The sides intend to strongly uphold the outcomes of the Second World War and the existing post-war world order, defend the authority of the United Nations and justice in international relations, resist attempts to deny, distort, and falsify the history of the Second World War.

In order to prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of the world war, the sides will strongly condemn actions aimed at denying the responsibility for atrocities of Nazi aggressors, militarist invaders, and their accomplices, besmirch and tarnish the honour of the victorious countries.

The sides call for the establishment of a new kind of relationships between world powers on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.

They reaffirm that the new inter-State relations between Russia and China are superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era.

Friendship between the two States has no limits.

There are no ”forbidden“ areas of cooperation, strengthening of bilateral strategic cooperation is neither aimed against third countries nor affected by the changing international environment and circumstantial changes in third countries.

The sides reiterate the need for consolidation, not division of the international community, the need for cooperation, not confrontation.

The sides oppose the return of international relations to the state of confrontation between major powers, when the weak fall prey to the strong.

The sides intend to resist attempts to substitute universally recognized formats and mechanisms that are consistent with international law for rules elaborated in private by certain nations or blocs of nations, and are against addressing international problems indirectly and without consensus, oppose power politics, bullying, unilateral sanctions, and extraterritorial application of jurisdiction, as well as the abuse of export control policies, and support trade facilitation in line with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The sides reaffirmed their intention to strengthen foreign policy coordination, pursue true multilateralism, strengthen cooperation on multilateral platforms, defend common interests, support the international and regional balance of power, and improve global governance.

The sides support and defend the multilateral trade system based on the central role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), take an active part in the WTO reform, opposing unilateral approaches and protectionism. The sides are ready to strengthen dialogue between partners and coordinate positions on trade and economic issues of common concern, contribute to ensuring the sustainable and stable operation of global and regional value chains, promote a more open, inclusive, transparent, non-discriminatory system of international trade and economic rules.

The sides support the G20 format as an important forum for discussing international economic cooperation issues and anti-crisis response measures, jointly promote the invigorated spirit of solidarity and cooperation within the G20, support the leading role of the association in such areas as the international fight against epidemics, world economic recovery, inclusive sustainable development, improving the global economic governance system in a fair and rational manner to collectively address global challenges.

The sides support the deepened strategic partnership within BRICS, promote the expanded cooperation in three main areas: politics and security, economy and finance, and humanitarian exchanges.

In particular, Russia and China intend to encourage interaction in the fields of

      • public health,
      • digital economy,
      • science,
      • innovation and technology,
      • including artificial intelligence technologies,
      • as well as the increased coordination between BRICS countries on international platforms.

The sides strive to further strengthen the BRICS Plus/Outreach format as an effective mechanism of dialogue with regional integration associations and organizations of developing countries and States with emerging markets.

The Russian side will fully support the Chinese side chairing the association in 2022, and assist in the fruitful holding of the XIV BRICS summit.

Russia and China aim to comprehensively strengthen the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and further enhance its role in shaping a polycentric world order based on the universally recognized principles of international law, multilateralism, equal, joint, indivisible, comprehensive and sustainable security.

They consider it important to consistently implement the agreements on improved mechanisms to counter challenges and threats to the security of SCO member states and, in the context of addressing this task, advocate expanded functionality of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.

The sides will contribute to imparting a new quality and dynamics to the economic interaction between the SCO member States in the fields of

      • trade,
      • manufacturing,
      • transport,
      • energy,
      • finance,
      • investment,
      • agriculture,
      • customs,
      • telecommunications,
      • innovation and
      • other areas of mutual interest, including through the use of advanced, resource-saving, energy efficient and ”green“ technologies.

The sides note the fruitful interaction within the SCO under the 2009 Agreement between the Governments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member States on cooperation in the field of international information security, as well as within the specialized Group of Experts. In this context, they welcome the adoption of the SCO Joint Action Plan on Ensuring International Information Security for 2022–2023 by the Council of Heads of State of SCO Member States on September 17, 2021 in Dushanbe.

Russia and China proceed from the ever-increasing importance of cultural and humanitarian cooperation for the progressive development of the SCO. In order to strengthen mutual understanding between the people of the SCO member States, they will continue to effectively foster interaction in such areas as cultural ties, education, science and technology, healthcare, environmental protection, tourism, people-to-people contacts, sports.

Russia and China will continue to work to strengthen the role of APEC as the leading platform for multilateral dialogue on economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

The sides intend to step up coordinated action to successfully implement the ”Putrajaya guidelines for the development of APEC until 2040“ with a focus on creating a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment in the region. Particular emphasis will be placed on the fight against the novel coronavirus infection pandemic and economic recovery, digitalization of a wide range of different spheres of life, economic growth in remote territories and the establishment of interaction between APEC and other regional multilateral associations with a similar agenda.

The sides intend to develop cooperation within the ”Russia-India-China“ format, as well as to

      • strengthen interaction on such venues as the East Asia Summit,
      • ASEAN Regional Forum on Security,
      • Meeting of Defense Ministers of the ASEAN Member States and Dialogue Partners.

Russia and China support ASEAN’s central role in developing cooperation in East Asia, continue to increase coordination on deepened cooperation with ASEAN, and jointly promote cooperation in the areas of public health, sustainable development, combating terrorism and countering transnational crime.

The sides intend to continue to work in the interest of a strengthened role of ASEAN as a key element of the regional architecture.

…

It’s very straight-forward. This document lays out the actions and behaviors of the two nations (Russia and China), their interaction with the rest of the work, how the two nations interact with each other, and areas where they will jointly work together.

It is, a de facto. constitution for a unified Asia.

Now, let’s see how this document was presented to Americans. My guess is that they are far too stupid to understand what is going on.

  • My guess is that they will interject the article with boilerplate negatives, distortions of the text, and gloss over the actual content and meaning behind it.
  • They will also include disparaging comments, and attempt to detrail the content.

Russia and China Unveil a Pact Against America and the West

In a sweeping long-term agreement, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the two most powerful autocrats, challenge the current political and military order.

By Robin Wright

.

In their matching mauve ties, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping last week declared a “new era” in the global order and, at least in the short term, endorsed their respective territorial ambitions in Ukraine and Taiwan. The world’s two most powerful autocrats unveiled a sweeping long-term agreement that also challenges the United States as a global power, NATO as a cornerstone of international security, and liberal democracy as a model for the world. “Friendship between the two States has no limits,” they vowed in the communiqué, released after the two leaders met on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics. “There are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”

Agreements between Moscow and Beijing, including the Treaty of Friendship of 2001, have traditionally been laden with lofty, if vague, rhetoric that faded into forgotten history. But the new and detailed five-thousand-word agreement is more than a collection of the usual tropes, Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, at the Wilson Center, in Washington, told me.

Although it falls short of a formal alliance, like NATO, the agreement reflects a more elaborate show of solidarity than anytime in the past. “This is a pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder against America and the West, ideologically as well as militarily,” Daly said. “This statement might be looked back on as the beginning of Cold War Two.” The timing and clarity of the communiqué—amid tensions on Russia’s border with Europe and China’s aggression around Taiwan—will “give historians the kind of specific event that they often focus on.”

Beyond security, the declaration also pledged collaboration on space, climate change, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. Politically, the document claimed that there is “no one-size-fits-all” type of democracy, and heralded both forms of authoritarian rule in Moscow and Beijing as successful democracies. “It’s a pretty striking step closer to an alliance and shows that they’re very much aligned in their vision of the world order in the twenty-first century,” Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, told me.

Putin described the broader strategic partnership with China as “unprecedented.”

Xi said that their joint strategy would have a “far-reaching influence on China, Russia, and the world.”

U.S. experts described the lengthy statement, which was riddled with false and accusatory language, as startling. “I’ve never seen a joint statement from both leaders using this kind of language.

They’ve joined forces,” Angela Stent, a Russia expert who served at the National Intelligence Council and wrote “Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest,” told me.

She described the communiqué as “quite Orwellian” and called it an “inflection point” in which Russia and China are challenging the balance of power that has defined the global order since the Cold War ended, three decades ago. “We could be at the beginning of a new era as the Russian relationship with the West deteriorates and China’s does as well.”

The agreement puts Washington and its key allies “in a terrible bind,” she added. “The fact is, whatever we do to counter what Russia is doing only reinforces its reliance on China.”

The joint statement is, at least for the moment, a diplomatic boon for Putin amid his showdown with the United States and Europe over Ukraine. For the first time in any of Russia’s recent aggressions, Putin has won the open support of China’s leader. China did not back Russia’s war in Georgia in 2008, or its invasion of Ukraine in 2014, nor has it recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Now Moscow and Beijing, which both have the ability to veto any resolution at the United Nations, have declared their opposition to further enlargement of NATO and to the formation of other regional security alliances. “Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose colour revolutions, and will increase cooperation,” the often unwieldy statement declared. “This is where they pledge their troth,” Daly said.

Washington had been pressuring Beijing, including in a call last month between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in an attempt to keep China neutral or out of the Ukraine crisis. Now, at least on paper and in public voice, it has budged, Andrew Weiss, a former National Security Council official who is currently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me. “Russia now has China as an endorser of the egregious and inflammatory position that Putin has staked out on Ukraine.”

Hints of China’s shift have been emerging in the past two weeks, as the Ukraine crisis began spilling over onto already tense U.S.-China relations. President Biden’s foreign policy had hoped to steer relations with Beijing toward stable and manageable competition.

Instead, China, which is normally discreet in its diplomacy, is visibly pushing back.

After his conversation with Blinken last month, the Chinese foreign minister said publicly that Russia’s security concern about NATO expansion is legitimate and must be addressed. The Biden Administration countered last week with an admonition. The State Department warned that the West has “an array of tools” to deploy against foreign companies—including in China—that help Russia evade punitive sanctions.

In the new agreement, Russia, in turn, reaffirmed its support for Beijing’s One China policy that Taiwan is “an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence.” The joint communiqué also supported Beijing’s ruthless crackdown on dissidents in Hong Kong in the past two years. The bold assertions in the joint statement follow deepening military ties between the two nations in the past decade, Weiss noted. Russia and China have conducted dozens of joint exercises and war games that have involved as many as ten thousand troops to hone tactical and operational capabilities.

Russian officials have boasted that the growing defense partnership was designed to warn the United States and NATO not to pressure Moscow. The naval operations have included mock seizures of islands, patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, and surface-to-air missile targeting.

Last summer, Putin and Xi both witnessed military exercises in China. In October, they held joint naval exercises off Russia’s far-eastern coast. “The frequency, complexity, and geographic scope has steadily increased, reflecting the growth in the overall bilateral defense relationship,” the U.S. Naval Institute reported last year. As two nuclear-armed countries that span Europe and Asia, the more muscular alignment between Russia and China could be a game changer militarily and diplomatically. “They want this to be as threatening as a formal alliance to the West, but don’t want to formally commit to mutual defense,” Daly said. “They don’t have to. The spectre of their mutual aid will serve as a deterrent.”

The joint announcement reflects a shift in the balance of power between Russia and China as well. “The Russians for the longest time were condescending in their view of China as an uninteresting rural society,” Weiss said. “Now China looks at Russia and says, ‘What are you good for?’

China’s ambitions do not run through Moscow.” China has become “canny” in exploiting Russia’s neediness, he said. “It uses Russia as a cat’s paw to disrupt the U.S. pivot to Asia. The fact that we have to keep coming back to Putin, as the neighborhood bully, is beneficial to China.”

Putin was the highest-profile leader to show up for the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. and other major powers opted not to send high-profile delegations, to protest China’s human-rights abuses, particularly against its Uyghur minority. Russia had received a two-year ban from officially sending teams to the Olympics after conducting a years-long, state-sponsored doping scheme. Russian athletes—who are not supposed to carry their nation’s flag, wear the Russian insignia, or play the national anthem—instead compete as part of the Russian Olympic Committee. After his meeting with Xi, Putin applauded the team during the opening ceremony’s Parade of Nations on Friday. But his visit clearly had another purpose.

The question now is how far Russia and China will take their agreement. “Words are one thing,” Vershbow, the former Ambassador, said. “We still have to see if the statement will translate into greater tangible Chinese support for Russia’s aggressive behavior—or whether they’ll say, ‘We’re with you, good luck,’ and then turn the other way.” The Chinese have different and sometimes more pragmatic interests in their relations with the U.S. and Europe, which are vital to their economy. “They don’t want to burn all bridges for the sake of a relationship with Russia.”

Oh, fine and dandy, but…

Let’s stop playing around.

  • The United States set up identical conditions for war in both Ukraine and Taiwan simultaneously.
  • This began in 2014 under President Obama.
  • This action was planned long before that. Perhaps as early as 2004.
  • The USA set up pro-United States governments in 2014 by NED sponsored activity.
  • The USA has since poured billions of dollars in weapons to those areas.
  • And has established bioweapons labs in both areas.
  • Both governments possess a hatred of their larger neighbor.
  • And both will try to provoke their neighbor according to the RAND directions.

The United States WILL create a contexual reason to drag China into a terrible and long-duration conventional war on the border of China identically to what has occurred in Ukraine.

So stop pretending.

Right now Russia is in complete control of the Ukraine situation, no matter what the Western “news” says, and a “false flag” event is scheduled to drag the USA and NATO into the conflict. With NATO being a light-weight serrogate for the USA battle forces.

Then the USA will “pivot to Asia” and take out China.

So the conflict in Taiwan will be similiar.

It is planned to be a long drawn out conventional war, and a “false flag” will be a justification for invasion by Japanese, Australian and United States forces.

…

Now, I’m not too swift a Geo-Political strategist. However, if I can see this, then you can well expect that China and Russia see this as well.

Do you think that they have plans, and are aware of the big and larger plans that are in place and the systems that are set in motion?

.

And with that understood, please keep in mind that…

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

With this understood, now let’s see what is going on today.

The United States demands that China sever economic ties with Russia or else!

Now, consider the reality about the domestic situation inside of America right now…

From here “Joe Biden warns Xi Jinping of ‘consequences’ if China backs Russia“

A White House account of the call on Friday said that the US president “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”.

A senior administration official said there would be consequences “not just for China’s relationship with the United States, but for the wider world”, but would not give more details on whether Biden had gone into specifics on possible sanctions, other than to point out what had happened to Russia as an example.

There was nothing specific. Just warnings of “serious consequences” if China and Russia maintain their close relationship.

Obviously, the United States is acting like a pentulant child that is hold his ears and shutting his eyes and screaming as he tries to force the world to go away.

It appears that the United States does not recognize the agreement just forged last month between Russia and China.

Just a reminder to the reader that you now understand thngs far better than the American “leadership” does;

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

China is READY

China and Russia are BOTH aware what is going on. They know that the United States plans to destroy both nations and then pick over the carcass like vultures. It’s very clear. It’s very plain. So let’s stop playing games. Let’s stop pretending.

The United States and its allies are getting ready to go full-spectrum war when they are ready to “pivot to Asia”.

It will begin [1] with crossing one of China’s “RED LINES”, just like the USA did with Ukraine. [2] China will react, then [3] a “False Flag” will be tripped, and (of course, to plan, [4] the United States will use it as an excuse to engage in a full war on Chinese soil. Becuase, after all, Taiwan is de facto Chinese soil. No matter what propagandized narrative the West wishes to create.

But… you know…

China is ready.

Video 1 – China knows that America wants a war. – Adults

The pretext will be Taiwan. Just like it was with Ukraine. And  China considers it an American invasion of it’s land. They will fight to the death, and employ great weapons of mass, mass, destruction.

You all had wish you were not on the recieving side of this onslaught of rage. I can tell you, and so can other expats inside of China, the Chinese are very quiet and studious, but when they get angry… when they get angry… they will unleash a rage that is indescribable. They will unleash… slaughter.

video 10MB

Video 2 -First grade military training – 5 / 6 year olds

Inside of China, very first grade, and many Kindergardens begin their day with roll-call, and reporting. Such as this. video 5 MB

Video 3 – Elementary school training – 9 year olds

Hey! Do you notice that these are not cheap AK-47 clones. They do not exist in China. REAL GUNS exist in China.

These are real deal full-auto Chinese military weapons. These are fourth grade kids. Nope. They probably couldn’t take on American SEALs or Green Berets.  But that is not the point. The point is everyone in China is trained to fight. It is the law. And they are merit driven and they work together as one. Everyone in a town or villiage acts as a fully managed army unit. Let that soak in. All 1.4 billion of them.

That’s 1,400,000,000,000,000 people.

How many military forces do you think that the United States can throw together to invade China? 60,000? 90,000? Even including Japan and Australia? Watch the video. This is all over China. video 31MB

Video 4 – EVERYONE in China has combat training  – 17 year olds

Oh, you don’t beleive me, eh?  What, you think that this is basic training, huh? No. It isn’t. It’s High School drills. High School drills. Let that sink in.

While the United States has “pepe rallies”, diversity training, ebonics, and soft subjects like fund-raising, China teaches basics, drills and trains over and over and over. They train with real weapons with real live ammo. video a must watch. Know the context. Filmed at their High School complex. video 11MB

Video 5 – Middle School exercises. 14 year old kids

Every Summer, the middle school students go on training exercises. Some resemble “Boot Camp”, while others are “actual maneuvres” and “War Games”. Here’s one such event.

Sure, they cannot take an American Green Beret one-on-one or an SAS fighter. But what about 20-to-1, or 200-to-1, or maybe 2000-to-1. How do you think the United States invasion of Taiwan will work out?

video 11MB

Video 6 – Middle school (14 year old) target practice

Using real government issued weapons, and ammo. Tell me about the firearm training that the United States, the UK, or Australia provides in middle school. I would like to hear it.

Video 6MB

Video 7 – China hasn’t forgotten, and they haven’t forgiven.

All of China remembers the “great humiliation” inflicted on them by Europe and America, and they well remember the atrocities of Japan, as this video clearly show.

I can tell you truthfully, if Japan engages China, Japan will become radioactive waste.

video 3MB

Video 8 – What the start of world war III might look like

You know, Hollywood has been glorifying war for decades. And China is always considered an enemy and an easy target. Ever watch the latest “Red Dawn” remake?

Here we see a mashup with Hollywood movies, and Chinese movies trying to suggest what the start of world war III looks like when the United States places a Naval Battle Group between the mainland and Taiwan.

video 50MB

Americans Are In So Much Trouble

by

.

What we are witnessing is truly the beginning of the end.  In recent months I have focused a lot on the economic implosion that is now taking place, but what we are facing is so much broader than that.

Our society is literally falling to pieces all around us, and now World War 3 has begun.  Many regard the war that has erupted on the other side of the globe as just a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, but the truth is that it is really a proxy war between the United States and Russia.  And since neither side seems much interested in diplomacy at this point, this proxy war could eventually become a shooting war between the two greatest nuclear powers on the entire planet.

Before the war started, events were already starting to accelerate substantially.  Inflation was out of control, a new energy crisis had flared up, and global food supplies were getting tighter and tighter.  But now we are truly in unprecedented territory.  If you doubt this, just look at what is happening to the price of fertilizer.

2022 03 28 09 47
2022 03 28 09 47

That chart should chill you to the core, because it clearly tells us that food shortages are coming.

In fact, even Joe Biden is now publicly admitting that food shortages are coming.  On his show the other night, Tucker Carlson broke this down in a way that only Tucker Carlson can…

 

Before the war, some fertilizers had doubled in price and some had tripled in price.

In the video that you just watched, we are told that some fertilizer prices are now four to five times higher than they were a year ago.

Here in the western world, most farmers will simply bite the bullet and pay the higher prices.  In turn, we will pay higher prices for food at the grocery store.

But in poorer parts of the globe, many farmers will use a whole lot less fertilizer or none at all.  As a result, global food production will be way down in the months ahead.

To turn this crisis around, what we really need is for the proxy war in Ukraine to end.  Unfortunately, both sides just continue to escalate matters instead.

For example, on Saturday Joe Biden shocked the entire world when he stated that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”…

President Joe Biden on Saturday said Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” ratcheting up international pressure and further uniting NATO allies against Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

“A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people’s love for liberty,” Biden said at the end of a sweeping speech in Poland. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.”

That was a call for regime change in Russia.

Russian leaders were already paranoid about western intentions before, and now their paranoia is going to be off the charts.

Biden administration officials are trying to walk back Biden’s comments, but the damage has already been done.

Meanwhile, we just learned that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have not spoken at all since February 15th…

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have not spoken since February 15, over a week before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the State Department told Antiwar.com on Friday.

Earlier this week The Washington Post cited US officials who said Blinken hasn’t attempted to speak with Lavrov since the start of the conflict. When asked to confirm the story, a State Department spokesperson said, “We can confirm that the last time Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke was on February 15.”

Even during the darkest days of the Cuban missile crisis, U.S. officials always kept talking to the Russians.

So this is something that should alarm all of us greatly.

On top of everything else, Joe Biden just told U.S. troops in Poland that they will see what conditions in Ukraine are like “when you’re there”…

According to The Associated Press, Biden’s remarks were given in front of U.S. troops who “had been sent near Poland’s border [with Ukraine] to assist with the humanitarian emergency and to bolster the U.S. military presence on the eastern flank of NATO.” The words, “and you’re gonna see when you’re there,” were spoken right after the president mentioned the bravery of Ukrainian citizens. Later, the White House once again told reporters that U.S. troops would not be deployed to fight in the war in Ukraine.

Every time Biden opens his mouth, he makes things even worse.

If he isn’t careful, he could drag the entire world into a global war.  Earlier today, I was horrified to learn that Biden has decided to reaffirm “America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario” at such a tense moment…

President Joe Biden is abandoning a campaign vow to alter longstanding US nuclear doctrine, and will instead embrace existing policy that reserves America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario, according to multiple reports.

As Russian forces continue their bloody assault on Ukraine, Biden is under pressure from NATO allies not to abandon the right to use nuclear weapons to deter conventional attacks.

Many had thought that the war in Ukraine would help to unite America and would provide a boost to Biden’s extremely poor approval ratings.

And in the initial days of the war, that seemed to happen.

But now Biden’s approval ratings are falling once again…

President Joe Biden’s job approval ratings keep falling in his second year in the White House, with just 40% of Americans approving of the job that he is doing, a new NBC News survey finds.

That is the lowest rating Biden has seen in his presidency.

We were warned that 2022 would be a very troubled year, and we are still in the very early chapters.

If the Biden administration continues with all of this insanity, things are going to get a whole lot worse.  I really like how Gerald Celente summarized matters during his recent interview with Greg Hunter…

“We are headed for an economic calamity the likes of which we have never seen in our lifetime. They are getting our minds off it with the war in Ukraine. . . . You know, I wrote in the magazine in the beginning of the year, we said that the Covid war would wind down by late March and mid-April. It’s winding down. . . . So, now, as we said in the magazine, we went from the Covid war to the Ukraine war, and now to world war. We are headed to World War III. . . . There is not a peep about a cease-fire. Biden is only bragging about more weapons being sent in. Biden says we are going to defeat the Russians. We are not backing down. No one is talking about a cease-fire, and no one is talking about peace. If we don’t unite for peace, we are all going to die in war.”

A thermonuclear war with Russia would be more horrible than most people could possibly imagine, and our leaders should be doing all that they can to prevent that from happening.

But right now Biden administration officials apparently don’t even see any point in talking with the Russians.

We are steamrolling down a road that leads to nuclear war, and meanwhile the global economy is starting to implode at frightening speed.

If you are still delusional enough to believe that everything will work out “just fine” somehow, then I really feel sorry for you.

Taiwan

Keep in mind again…

Taiwan is part of China. China thinks so, The UN thinks so, and even Taiwan thinks so.

But that does not matter.

The Untied States NEEDS a war and is going to have one. They are going to “pull a Ukraine” on China, and they are almost ready. And you know what? Just like Russia, China is going to move befor the United States can “make its move”. It’s probably going to be undercover, and hidden, but I’m not sure.

One thing that we are learning right now is that the “government” of the Ukraine is just a robot entity. It is a bought-for, and paid-for actor that the Untied State put in charge of things so that it could move it’s military, and it’s forces, and it’s systems onto the border of Russia. It is NOT an independent, democratically elected, goverment. It is a proxy puppet; bought and owned by the United States.

We have to assume that that exact thing is going on in Taiwan.

There is no “government in Taiwan”. There are instead American robots who do whatever Washington DC tells them to do.

So stop all the nonsense and fact the facts.

And China knows this.

Maybe not exactly as I have described, but yeah, they get the picture. In fact, I would arge that they understand the nuiances far better than MM here.

Of course, you would NEVER hear about this in the Western “news” media. China has a military force that is peer-capable, and lethal. And if you are Japanese or a cocky Australian American-lover they will decapitate you. The Chinese DO NOT PLAY.

video 2MB

More Chinese youth

The Chinese have two things that are found nowhere else in the world; [1] Social unity. They work in groups together as one organism, and [2] They are merit-dren and always do their best.

If you take those two things, and then organize it towards military action. From an early age, then the formation of military actions; defensive actions all become automatic. That is China.

Video – More Chinese elementary schools students video 8MB

Video – Rifle disipline.

Taught with “training weapons”. Lighter, and firing a low recoil projectile instead of a full cartridge. Second and third grade students. China. video 6MB

Video -They fight for family. They fight for survival.

Unlike the American and British “soy-boys” that went to the Ukraine to plink at Russians, and ran home crying after one simple missile barriage, the youth of China are disiplined, and prepared. They will fight to the death. All for their family; their parents and their friends. video 4MB

Video – Chinese youth training

Resembles American Green Beret and SEAL training. Yeah. They get it starting in first grade.

video 2MB

Video -Why am I so fixiated on Chinese Youth?

Because the flat slobs in the West, in their easy-chairs, coffered hair, riding their nice cars, and making royal decrees like some kind of bloted evil and corrupt spoiled brat are planning on causing hardship, hurt, turmoil to THESE PEOPLE. And I am here to tell you that is will not work. Instead, it will make them very, very, VERY angry.

There is a reason why China is considered THE DRAGON. And no, it’s not just public relations. China will slice you up and spit you all out. Do not poke the dragon. video 7MB

Video – But it’s the military that China has that is peer capable and lethal

You do not want to fuck with them. All state of the art. Peer capable, or better than what the United States fields, and they love, just love their AI-guided missiles and rockets. Do NOT FUCK with them. video 3MB

Video – 2MB

Video – 3MB

Video – 3MB

Now keep in mind that if it comes down to the Chinese having to use these systems, they will do so with their enemies cites in radioactive rubble. The Chinese do not play around. They are lethal and they will go after enemies with everything they have.

You don’t want to poke the dragon.

Why does the United States want to anger the dragon?

Why?

Because the American “leadership” are psychopaths. They have no understanding of the world, and ideological monsters that are following a dangerous script that will eventually result in the absolute shredding of the Untied States, and a tumble into poverty for all the the West. video 7MB

Ok. Enough of this. Let’s calm down a tad.

Cute Chinese Girl

I think that she is pretty. Nice girl with an umbrella. Video 2MB

Fake UFO video

It’s fun to check out UFO videos. You find them all over the internet, and many are very interesting, but most have no context and thus provide zero information.

The following video is filmed near the “fisher girl” statue here in Zhuhai next to my house where I live. It takes me about seven minutes to walk to it from my front door.

I can positively tell you all that it is a fake.

video 1MB

Let’s talk about food.

Old-Fashioned Roast Beef

2022 03 28 09 20
Yummy roast beef sandwich.

Nothing beats Old-Fashioned Roast Beef the way mama used to make it!

With this roast beef recipe you can bet there’ll be lots of good eatin’. Just remember to let it rest, slice it thinly across the grain, and finish it off with the pan drippings – that’s what makes it absolutely perfect. Oh, and add some potatoes and gravy.

What You’ll Need

  • 1 (4-pound) beef bottom round roast
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
R.90f580e455ca44c8d4965c4077a28773
A beef bottom round roast.

What to Do

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place roasting rack in large roasting pan and coat with cooking spray. Place roast on rack, fat side up.
  2. In small bowl, combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Rub spice mixture over entire roast, covering completely.
  3. Roast 30 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees and continue roasting beef 70 to 75 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 135 degrees for medium-rare, or until desired doneness beyond that. Let stand 15 to 20 minutes before slicing.

Notes

To make a tasty sauce for your roast beef, just add 1 cup beef broth to roasting pan and heat over high heat, scraping the bottom to loosen any brown bits.

And sandwiches…

Open Faced Reuben Sandwiches

2022 03 28 09 25
It’s an awfully delicious sandwich.

Ever find yourself wondering how to make a Reuben sandwich with some style? Some of the biggest and best delis serve their Reubens open-faced, just like in this recipe that we got from a deli in Central New York. We loved these Open Faced Reuben Sandwiches  and we had to pass along the recipe for you to enjoy! There’s something about this sandwich that just makes your mouth water.

What You’ll Need

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 8 slices rye bread
  • 1 pound sliced deli corned beef
  • 2 (14-ounce) cans sauerkraut, rinsed and well drained
  • 8 slices (6 ounces) Swiss cheese

What to Do

  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; mix well.
  3. Arrange the bread on two baking sheets. Spread dressing mixture on each slice. Top each with corned beef, sauerkraut, and a slice of Swiss cheese.
  4. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until heated through, and the cheese is melted. Place 2 pieces on each plate and serve open-faced.

Test Kitchen Tips

  • You might want to use only half of the Thousand Island dressing on the sandwiches before baking them. Then just top each slice with a dollop of dressing before serving. Our mouths are already watering!

China is a major force

If you are in the West, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in the lies and bullshit about China.

China is advanced, a manufacturing powerhouse, run on merit and disipline. They are successful and they “ain’t stopping for shit”. If you take them on, they WILL FUCKING SLAUGHTER YOU.

Remember that word.

Slaughter.

video. High Speed Trains. 4MB

The rest of the world appears lazy in comparison. Chinese are hard drivers. video 4MB

China military. Don’t be so sure that they would be an easy nation to conquer. video 4MB

And this fool, in Hong Kong, obviously influenced by the Pro-Democracy NED “color revolution” decided to harass the Chinese guards. The Chinese DON’T PLAY. Down and drawn in 1.5 seconds.  video 3MB

China is fighting to exist. Just like Russia. And if you think , and believe that they are not taking the THREATs from the United States seriously, you are deluded. It’s no mistake that they have a mass production of hyper-velocity nuclear missiles all with the United States targets plastered on them.

Listen up. video 25MB

Wrap up

Oh, you think that I am kidding? Oh, you think that I am being alarmist? Look at this quote out of the Kremlin directly from President Putin…

PUTIN: 

"I am now instructing our 4 combat regions that if USA and NATO dare to provoke us (around the Black Sea) and try to hit us with even ONE guided missile then you must hit them back as hard as possible. 

Hit them fiercely until they kneel down for mercy. 

If they retaliate, I command you to use nuclear weapons to hit their countries. 

No need to think about the consequences. 

I will be solely responsible. 

Your duty is just to hit them hard until they kneel down begging for mercy. 

Once the war has started I expect you to subdue Europe within 5 days. 

No need to think... just take over the 8 capitals of Europe. 

From now on our Air, Land and Navy armed forces are on full alert. 

I want the world to know who is the leader of the world. 

What is USA... I am telling them they will be trembling in front of us. 

They have been belittling and making fun of many countries but don't they dare to try us. 

Go to hell. 

My view is that if the Russians have to live under USA's mercy then what good is there left in this world!!"

-Kremlin

[This link is blocked in the usa, france, hungary, serbia, moldova, switzerland, and singapore. Heck, even the russian language website is blocked.]
.

In June 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree stating,

“The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies… 

...and also in the case of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is put under threat.”

Clearly, the United States has pushed Russia to a state where they beleive this is the case.

Clearly, though not reported in the Western media, both Russia and China are at a high state of military readiness.

  • Russia is at the highest state; DEFCON 1. (Open Warfare)
  • China is at second highest state DEFCON 2. (Full readiness; no open warfare).
  • USA is at DEFCON 3. (Alert for orders.)

No American pre-emptive nuclear strikes are possible without immediate unleashing of MAD upon the entirety of the West.

Out of necessity, Russia and China have banded together and created a new nation. It’s a United Asia. Other nations are drifiting towards it. For now, you can consider it to be similiar to the USA, or the EU in unity.

Presently, the comprehensive document is only between Russia and China. However, Iran is interested in generating similiar agreements, and India is working towards joining the block as well.

      • That’s 70% of the world’s population.
      • 85% of the world’s manufacturing.
      • 65-70% of the world’s energy resources.

All of the rest of the nations in Asia are moving towards this group.

It’s a new nation.

And the Untied States (and it’s proxy nations) are pretending that this is not the case. They are pretending that they can treat China separately from Russia, India from Russia, Iran from China, and so on and so forth.

They  cannot face the reality; the truth.

So, without plans and “expert” guidance from RAND, the United States (leading the West) are still following the same tired-old “take over the world” script written decades ago, and implementing the plans set forth. (Follow the links for the RAND plans to initiate war. When you read them, you will discover that the US government has been following them to the letter.)

Russia suppression via a RED LINE tripwire event (Ukraine), and a false flag for involvement. The RAND operational plan for war via Ukraine.

Then, a “pivot to Asia” with a …

China suppression via a RED LINE tripwire event (Taiwan), and a false flag for involvement. The RAND operational plan for war via Taiwan.

These plans have been telegraphed, and well understood by the Russian and Chinese leadership. And since the United States is following that old script, they are easy to anticipate and handle.

However, the unifed Russia and China block was unexpected, and it doesn not fit in with the plan. So the way that the United States has decided to handle this issue is to IGNORE IT and pretend that this reality does not exist.

They will continue their assaults and probing actions.

Now it’s Russia. Russia has issued strike orders, and telegraphed them to the West, but you know, eventually they will engage China, and when that happens, China WILL ENGAGE THEM RIGHT BACK. Unlike Russia, China will not telegraph any warning.

It will be on American soil, by the way. It will not be so nice.

It will be a slaughter.

Goodnight from MM

View from my home. Goodnight. video 3MB

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 3

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
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The specific Chinese counter-sanctions (that will occur) as a result of American sanctions against China

Yeah. So America is debating sanctioning China.

Good luck Fuckers!

Only people with SHIT FOR BRAINS would ever think of sanctioning China. What are you? A moron, an idiot, a deranged sadist? An ignorant doo-doo head (Bill Crosby reference) a psychopath with delusions of grandeur? What?

Just fucking stupid. That’s what.

You must be in some kind of absolute echo-chamber talking over and over again just how God-damn great you are to believe such horse manure.

You’re not great.

You are not exceptional.

You are a piece of shit that is farmed for your labor. That’s it and the ONLY reason that you don’t revolt is because you are too fat and happy with the crumbs that the government gives you to sustain your pitiful existence.

Still here?

Paint me “surprised”.

I tried posting this article a couple of times, and found it automatically blocked, shadowbanned, and de-listed from Google. I then rewrote it to includes food, and other items. Ai yah. But,  you know, personal MM experience has shown this methodology to be very effective in getting around the Google censorship engines, and the NSA troll armies.

What do you know, eh?

Who would figure?

It works. If you are so childish that you cannot handle multible subjects in a singular article, you can leave. Go. No skin off my back. I don’t give a fuck.

Before we get to the “meat” of the article; Chinese reverse sanctions on American sanctions, we will talk about something fun. That will throw off the American censor engines.

We start with food.

For those of you who are new to MM, please let it be understood that MM content is banned in the West. If you can find it, you are truly lucky. And our workaround here is to mix politically-charged subjects with other common everyday subjects that tend to confuse the censorship engines.

Oh, man. Do they hate it.

It just messes with the algorithms. It cannot handle it.

Maybe you might not like it, but it does work. It works spectacularly.

Actually.

We are going to really freak out the gung-ho American “ready to die” for freedom™ cadre with a Russian dish of quite delicious food. Buckle up. This post is gonna be FUN.

Russian posikunchiki

Can you pronounce it? I can’t.

Look at this. Come on. Doesn’t it look delicious? You eat it with whipped creme cheese. And wash it down with vodka. Good tasty vodka. Or beer. Icy, frosty, cold beer. Good stuff too. Nothing less than 5% (which you cannot get in the USA. Banned “for the children, don’t you know”)…

Most Americans cannot drink alcohol. If they are in a corporate environment, and their diversity officer, or HR, finds out that they smoked or drank at home, they could easily lose their job.

Fact.

Jack.

It’s called “American freedom” don’t you know. Woo Woo!

Freedom™.

2022 03 19 18 00
Russian posikunchiki

Yum.

Smunch. Crunch. Eat ’em all up. Happiness and tummy satisfaction.
.
These small juicy meat pies are the first thing tourists are advised to try in the Perm Region around the Urals. But you can make them wherever you are.
The region of the Ural is well-known for its harsh, cold winters and continental climate. Traditionally, meat, thick solid soups, and nourishing pies were cooked there. One of the most outstanding dishes is posikunchiki.

Posikunchiki are an old dish of the Ural cuisine, mainly of the Perm and the north-west of the Sverdlovsk regions. The name was given to small fried pies, whose size is approximately equal to a luscious fat dumpling. They are made from unleavened dough and fried in a large amount of oil.

The key thing that distinguishes posikunchiki from other pastries is an incredibly juicy filling. In many ways, this notable trait and the cooking method makes them similar to chebureki.

Posikunchiki comes from the Russian verb “sicat’” (“to splash”) – because the pie splashes juice while you take a bite of it. They are also called posekunchiki – from the Russian verb “sech’” (“to dice/slice/shred”), because the filling for them is finely chopped, but not mixed in a meat grinder. But whatever the etymology, the popularity of these little cute pies has long transcended the boundaries of their historical homeland, and spread to other Russian regions.

The stuffing consists of lamb, beef or pork.

In general, there are a lot of different variations. At the same time, in every Ural city or village, you will surely be told that their posikunchiki represent the most authentic and correct variant, and all the other recipes are fake or just new.

Maybe.

I’ll just have to go visit a bunch of them and try for myself.

No one can remember exactly when this dish appeared. But many people remember that their grandmothers often cooked these mini-pies. And who, really who, can doubt a darn kindly old grandmother? Eh?

The locals remember the peculiar taste of fresh meat (often of wild animals, such as elks) grinded in a mincer from childhood, but many residents of Russia can’t even imagine what it is.

Today, I suggest we cook this dish with minced meat from a local shop. It will take us about four hours.

If you are an American, you use “hamburger”. If you are British or Australian, you use “mince”.

Ingredients (for eight portions):

2022 03 19 18 04
Ingredients (for eight portions).

Yeah.

For the dough:

  • Flour – 600-700 g
  • Milk – 250 ml
  • Egg – 1 piece
  • Salt – 1 teaspoon
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp

For the filling:

  • Minced meat (pork and beef)- 600 g
  • Onion – 1 piece
  • Salt – 1 teaspoon
  • Black pepper – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Water – 200 ml
  • Vegetable oil for frying

Preparation:

1. To begin, we’ll prepare the dough, as it needs to rest 30 minutes before we start working with it. Combine the egg with sugar and salt. Mix well.

2022 03 19 18 15
Make the dough.

2. Gradually add warm milk to that mass and mix again.

2022 03 19 18 1dd4
Add milk gradually.

3. Portionwise, add flour to the mass and knead the dough carefully and meticulously with your hands until it turns into an elastic ball. Knead it at least for 10 minutes, then put in a bag for 20-30 minutes, and into the refrigerator.

2022 03 19 18 14
Make the dough.

4. While the dough is resting, we’ll prepare the filling. Chop the onion into small cubes, then add to the minced meat.

2022 03 19 18 1x2 1
Dough Ball.

5. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Mix well. Add some water. Minced meat should resemble thick sour cream in consistency, but it shouldn’t be liquid. Note that the minced meat must be juicy so that there is broth in the posikunchiki. During the preparation, the minced meat gradually thickens, so if necessary, add water and salt to the minced meat to taste.

2022 03 19 18 12
Season the meat with salt and pepper.

6. Roll the dough and cut it into 28-30 pieces. Roll each into a small bun, and then roll out into a diameter of 10 cm. Put 1 tablespoon of the filling on one half of the rolled-out bun, cover with the other half.

2022 03 19 18 11
Mostly meat inside a thin shell.

7. Pinch well with a fork on one side so that the broth does not leak while frying.

2022 03 19 18 10
Pinch with a fork.

Fry in a skillet.

2022 03 19 18 09
Fry.

8. Fry each posikunchik on each side for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

2022 03 19 18 08
Fry in a skillet.

9. Posikunchiki are ready to be served at the festive table.

10. Enjoy!

2022 03 19 18 17
Ural posikunchiki.

Oh, and lets not forget the alcohol.

Beer. Wine. Vodka.

It’s all GOOD!

OIP C.h6a9uuW0xj24Iqp MSNOggHaEK
A time for smunch! is a time to eat!

Now let’s talk about Chinese anti-sanction systems designed to counter American sanctions

I watched a FOX “news” segment this morning. There, an “expert” was advocating that America (United States) put sanctions on China for being friends with Russia. And in reading the comments, the vast majority agreed with him.

“We ought to make China pay for this relationship with Russia...”

2022 03 19 22 08
2022 03 19 22 08

All the time, I am thinking…

…”fools”, you all deserve what will happen. China is really, really READY for this. They have been for over a year now. They say, “let it happen”, and I agree with them.

Go for it, you idiotic morons.

Although it contains only 16 articles, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law establishes, for the first time, a wide-ranging legal infrastructure and legislative base aimed at retaliating against sanctions imposed by foreign governments. 

Specifically the United States.

However, even before the enactment of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law as legal basis, the Ministry of Commerce (hereinafter “MOFCOM”) inter alia issued two measures as tools against possible effects by foreign laws and sanctions.

These are;

[1] The MOFCOM Decree No. 4 [2020] on Provisions on the List of Unreliable Entities and 

[2] The MOFCOM Decree No. 1 [2021] on Rules on Counteracting Unjustified Extraterritorial Application of Foreign Legislation and Other Measures (hereinafter “Blocking Statute”). 

Thus, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law confirms the legislative authority for existing measures and creates room for expanded measures in the future.

Background: I watched a short clip from FOX “news”.

As above.

In that clip, “experts”, “political pundits” and “knowledgeable advisers” are strongly urging that President Biden enact sanctions against China for being friendly to Russia. While many Americans agree with this point of view, the consequences are never addressed. Here, we will address the consequences of such a move.

Let it be well understood that China has long prepared for this moment.

Two to three years ago, they passed the anti-sanction retaliation law. It is directly custom tailored to addressing the day when the United States starts sanctioning China (for one reason or the other).

Specifically, it is designed to inflict the most [1] economic damage, [2] social damage, [3] personal damage, and [4] Geopolitical damage possible upon the United States and it’s (poor excuse) for “leadership”.

The most damage.

      • Economic.
      • Personal.
      • Social.
      • Geopolitical.

Upon the United States, and the individuals involved in the sanction effort against China.

What most people do not realize is how absolutely economically tethered to China, that the United States is.

They think, erroneously, that American can trade, instead, with Germany, Korea, Japan, or any other nation. Forgetting, of course, that those nations simply take Chinese products and slap their name-brands on them.

But if they sanction China, all that trade will end.

Not just trade with the USA, but all the trade with it’s alternative sources of supply.

No more manufactured products.

None.

Bye bye.

…

No more electonics.

None. Bye bye.

…

No more medicine.

None. Bye bye.

…

The Chinese anti-sanction law is specifically designed to counter AMERICAN sanctions. It is designed to automatically go, and be engaged immediate upon the implementation of sanctions, and noone, not even Xi Peng, can stop the tidal wave of repercussions.

You can read the details here, but really, I’m just going to lay out the visceral facts.

Yeah. It's dry with translations of wordly Chinese leagalese, and all that. But just skim over the presentation. 

Learn something for a change.

On a Personal Level… on individuals

You all had best hope to NEVER leave the United States. Once you cross the protected shores, the  Chinese will fucking hunt you down. 

They will, with client nation help, extract you from your aircraft, and haul you into China for justice and punishment. 

Sentencing is a foregone conclusion and the judicial process is mostly a formality. 

Punishment will consist of [1] dealing with organ harvesting, and [2] hard labor in deep, dark salt mines. 

They are not evil. You will be able to have at least a six-hour rest a night, and be able to eat basic(but healthy) meals of rice, and chicken-feet if you work hard enough. 

Sentencing involves death or life in this environment. 

This includes you and everyone in your family as well. Including little children. They go to kiddie labor camps.

On June 10, 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China enacted the Anti-foreign Sanctions Law (“AFSL”), which came into effect as of the date of enactment.

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These guys are from Indonesia.

As China’s latest legislative countermeasure against economic sanctions of the U.S., E.U., U.K, and other jurisdictions, AFSL will have significant impact on Chinese subsidiaries and branches of foreign enterprises.

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from Mexico.

As well as foreign persons (entities and individuals) doing business in China or with Chinese individuals and companies.

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This man is from Scotland.

I. Overview of the AFSL

A. Who will be listed in the Countermeasures List?

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This man is from Bolivia. He must have spilt some taco sauce on his shirt. Careless fellow.

The relevant departments of the State Council may decide to include in the Countermeasures List (the “List”) the individuals and organizations that have directly or indirectly participated in the formulation, decision on or implementation of discriminatory restrictive measures of foreign governments.

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This man is from England. Billionaire oligarch.

In addition, the relating parties of persons in the List may also face countermeasures, including:

  • The spouse and lineal relatives of the individuals included in the List
  •  Senior executives or actual controllers of the organizations included in the List;
  • Organizations that have individuals included in the List acting as senior executives; and
  • Organizations actually controlled by individuals or organizations that are included in the List or have participated in the establishment and operation thereof.
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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This chick is from France. She doesn’t look too happy. But she should be. She’s alive, isn’t she?

B. What are the countermeasures?

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from Australia.

The relevant departments of the State Council of China may, depending on the actual situation, take one or more of the following measures against persons included in the List.

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from the Phillippines.

Here’s a selection of just some of the measures;

  • Denial of visa issuance, denial of entry, deregistration of visa or deportation;
  • Seizure, distraining or freezing of movable property, immovable property and other types of property within the territory of China;
  • Prohibiting or restricting the organizations or individuals within the territory of China from conducting relevant transactions, cooperation or other activities with them; and
  • Other necessary measures not listed.
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For the last fifteen years, China has been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. This guy is from America.

China does not play. They will track you down, and they will work with the regional authorties to secure you and haul ou to China for organ harvesting, rehabilitation, and hard labor punishment.

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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. These people are from Brazil.

C. What are the legal consequences for violating the AFSL?

The organizations and individuals within the territory of China shall carry out the countermeasures taken by the relevant departments of the State Council.

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Organ harvesting is a mature procedure in Chinese prisons. It’s fast, quick, and routine.

Any organization or individual failing to do so will be punished by the relevant departments of the State Council in accordance with the law, and such organization or individual will be restricted or prohibited from engaging in the relevant activities.

If a Chinese entity fails to enforce these laws, they will be punished harshly.
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For the last fifteen years, they have been tracking down criminals all over the world. No one is immune. Unknown where these guys were from.

Where any organization or individual implements or assists in implementing the discriminatory restrictive measures taken by any foreign state against Chinese citizens or organizations and infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of any citizen or organization of China, the Chinese citizen or organization may bring a lawsuit, seeking cessation of the infringement and compensation for the losses.

Any Chinese citizen can, under any pretense, ask for compensation against any person or their family targeted by this law.

Where any organization or individual fails to implement or cooperate in implementing the countermeasures, it/he will be subject to legal liability in accordance with the law.

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Captured in Cambodia, these criminals are going back to China for organ harvesting and hard labor. They are just happy to be alive.

Oh, and in case you think that you can avoid the long-arm of China if you patiently hide long enough. Think again.

II. The Impact of the AFSL on Foreign Companies

A. Foreign companies participating in sanctions against China might endure countermeasures imposed by the Chinese government.

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Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death. He accepts his fate as a man. This is the Chinese way.

Foreign companies directly or indirectly involved in the formulation, decision on, or implementation of discriminatory sanctions against Chinese persons may be added to the List. The main effects on foreign companies on the List will be as follows:

Firstly, senior executives or actual controllers of foreign companies on the List may not be allowed to enter China for business trips to perform their duties.

Secondly, assets of foreign companies on the List and foreign companies with individuals on the List acting as their senior executives or actual controllers will likely be blocked.

Thirdly, foreign companies on the List and foreign companies with individuals on the List acting as their senior executives or actual controllers might be prohibited from dealing with individuals and entities in China.

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Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death. Secured from his office, he is not permitted to have a tie or a suit jacket.

B. Foreign companies might be caught in a compliance dilemma between AFSL and foreign sanctions.

After the implementation of the AFSL, foreign companies are subject to both the obligation to comply with discriminatory sanctions imposed by other countries, and the requirement not to enforce foreign discriminatory sanctions and to enforce China’s countermeasures under the AFSL.

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Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death.

Complying with the discriminatory sanctions against China may violate the AFSL, while complying with the AFSL may violate the discriminatory sanction regulations of other countries as well.

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Boss of a multi-billion dollar company, arrested, and sentenced to hard labor and then death.

This will probably put foreign companies in a compliance dilemma and substantially increase their compliance difficulties and costs.

EU Blocking Statute

The aim of the EU Blocking Statute is to counteract the unlawful effects of extraterritorial sanctions of third countries on ‘EU persons’, which term is generally understood to include EU nationals, EU-incorporated companies (including EU subsidiaries of U.S. companies but not branches of U.S. companies as these have no distinct legal personality) and non-EU nationals residing or doing business in the EU.

It's not just the United States that is targeted, bt the European Union is targeted specifically as well.

The list of extraterritorial legislation to which the EU Blocking Statute applies is given in the Annex and currently consists of U.S. measures concerning Cuba and Iran.

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No one is immune. This man was living in Laos.

Article 2 of the EU Blocking Statute requires EU persons to notify the European Commission of any effect on their economic and/or financial interests caused by a measure that is listed as blocked in the Annex. Article 4 of the EU Blocking Statute prevents any judgment or administrative decision outside the EU which gives effect, directly or indirectly, to a blocked measure from being recognised or enforced in the EU in any manner.

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Money won’t protect you. Nor will your “connections” to the US government. Here’s Jimmy Lai after being sentenced to hard labor. The USA just stood by and watched him be sentenced to organ harvesting and hard labor. So much for his connection to the US Senate. LOL!

Article 5 of the EU Blocking Statute prohibits EU persons (either directly or through a subsidiary or other intermediary) from complying with any requirement or prohibition based on or resulting, directly or indirectly, from a blocked measure.

If the United States places sanctions on China, and a European nation obeys the sanctions, the entire body of the law would then also apply to the aforesaid nation.

However, pursuant to articles 7 and 8 of the EU Blocking Statute, EU persons may apply for authorisation from the European Commission to comply with such requirement or prohibition if non-compliance would seriously damage their interests or the wider interests of the EU.

You can apply.

You can.

But whether or not mercy will be granted will depend on your association with the United States government.

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Here’s an arrest in the EU. The EU are cowards and would do absolutely nothing and they have a long history of allowing the Chinese to come and seize anyone they fucking want out of the EU.

If an EU person has suffered any damages caused by the application of a blocked measure or by actions based thereon or resulting therefrom, article 6 of the EU Blocking Statute allows such EU person to recover the damages, including legal costs.

Provided that there are no sanctions on China.

Get it?

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CEOs and other businessmen will be hunted down by the Chinese, and incarcerated in a humane, but uncomfortable period, as per the law.

A basic understanding of the EU Blocking Statute sheds some light on the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, since both laws are aimed at counteracting the impact of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of foreign sanctions on persons within their territory.

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CEOs and other businessmen will be hunted down by the Chinese, and incarcerated in a humane, but uncomfortable period, as per the law.

Scope of application

Unlike the EU Blocking Statute, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law does not currently provide a list of extraterritorial legislation which is subject to the application of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.

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CEOs and other businessmen will be hunted down by the Chinese, and incarcerated in a humane, but uncomfortable period, as per the law.

However, the second paragraph of article 3 states that if any foreign country acts in violation of international law and basic norms of international relations and, on the basis of their domestic laws or any other pretext, contains or suppresses the PRC, takes discriminatory or restrictive measures against PRC citizens or interferes with the PRC’s internal affairs, the PRC has the right to take corresponding countermeasures.

Things can escalate quickly and broadly. Once initiated, a caustious EU should be "walking on egg shells".

As regards the application of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, article 11 requires organisations and individuals within the territory of the PRC to comply with the countermeasures imposed by the relevant departments of the State Council.

Any Chinese entity that fails to abide by the counter sanctions will be punished in the harshest manner possible.

The departments can restrict or prohibit any organisation or individual found to be in violation of the countermeasures from engaging in the activities concerned. It is important to note that there is no definition of ‘organisations and individuals within the territory of the PRC’ in the text of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, so whether branches of foreign companies in the PRC which have no distinct legal personality are also subject to the law is arguably unclear pending further provisions or clarifications from the relevant departments of the State Council.

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China’s rules are tough but fair. After fourty years in the salt mines, industry greats like Bill Gates and Elon Musk can start again a new.

Further, there is no express provision regarding an authorisation or licence regime under the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law that may entitle such organisations or individuals to seek an exemption allowing for compliance with the extraterritorial legislation.

Although the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law does not appear to have extraterritorial effect on non-PRC persons, it is also relevant to non-PRC persons. Under article 4, the relevant departments of the State Council may decide to put any persons or organisations that directly or indirectly participate in drafting, approving or implementing any of the discriminatory or restrictive measures set out in article 3 in a countermeasure list (反制清单).

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China’s rules are tough but fair. After fourty years in the salt mines, industry greats like Bill Gates and Elon Musk can start again a new.

In addition, article 5 subjects the following persons to the countermeasures imposed by the PRC government:

  1. the spouse and immediate family members of individuals targeted in the countermeasure list;
  2. the senior managers or actual controllers of organisations targeted in the countermeasure list;
  3. organisations in which individuals targeted in the countermeasure list serve in senior management positions; and
  4. organisations actually controlled by individuals targeted in the countermeasure list or in whose establishment and operations any such individuals participate.

As such, it is important to keep an eye on the countermeasure list to ensure that there are no dealings with individuals and organisations targeted by the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law which may constitute breaches of the law. A suitable screening process should be put in place to minimise the risk of non-compliance.

Scope of countermeasures

As mentioned above, the State Council has the power to create the countermeasure list and determine the applicable countermeasures. In accordance with article 7, decisions made by the relevant departments of the State Council are final. As mentioned, there is no authorisation or licence regime in place so prima facie one must comply with the decisions in order to avoid breaching the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. Article 10 mentions that a procedure will be established to coordinate the work of counteracting foreign sanctions and oversee the overall coordination, with the relevant departments of the State Council being required to raise the level of coordination, cooperation and information sharing.

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China’s rules are tough but fair. After fourty years in the salt mines, industry greats like Bill Gates and Elon Musk can start again a new.

In accordance with article 6, the State Council may decide to take one or more of the following measures against individuals or organisations that are sanctioned pursuant to articles 4 and 5:

  1. refusal to issue visas, denial of entry, cancellation of visas or deportation;
  2. sealing up, seizing or freezing of movable and immovable property, or other types of property, within the territory of the PRC;
  3. prohibiting or restricting organisations or individuals within the territory of the PRC from conducting transactions, cooperating, or engaging in any other activities with the targeted individuals or organisations; and
  4. any other measures considered necessary.

As such, anyone who has a presence or assets in the PRC should pay due attention to the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law as non-compliance may result in serious consequences for their activities or assets in the PRC.

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China for as harsh as it seems, does have a degree of humanity. Inmates are permitted one phone call a year to family, loved ones or lawyer. They can say anything they want up to ten minutes. Longer than that, they will suffer punishment.

Civil recovery

Article 12 prohibits organisations and individuals from implementing or assisting in implementing discriminatory or restrictive measures imposed by foreign countries against the PRC individuals or organisations.

PRC individuals or organisations may file a lawsuit against such organisations or individuals with the Supreme People’s Court in accordance with PRC law, requiring them to cease the infringement and compensate for any losses incurred.

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The duration of prison terms in China is much less than in America. This woman only has to serve three years. Most people under sanction rules will probably serve less than thirty years at hard labor.

This is similar to the EU Blocking Statute in the sense that only PRC persons are entitled to take legal action to recover losses.

Nonetheless, it is not specifically stated whom the PRC persons may take action against, and so it is perhaps best to assume that any foreign persons or companies that implement or assist in implementing discriminatory or restrictive measures imposed by foreign countries against PRC individuals or organisations may be subject to a PRC lawsuit.

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Chinese prisons feed the inmates with generous portions of rice, vegetables, fish and chicken feet.

2. Navigating conflicts of law and their implications for PRC and foreign companies

It is unsurprising that the implementation of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law will create additional compliance obligations for companies engaging in cross-border transactions, in particular banks in the PRC, which inevitably engage in U.S. dollar transactions but are at the same time subject to PRC laws and regulations.

On the one hand, they may have to comply with the U.S. sanctions regime to avoid being denied access to the U.S. market or U.S. dollar transactions. On the other, they may be obliged to comply with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law if they have a substantive presence or assets in the PRC.

PRC companies – discrimination against other PRC companies?

The Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law does not resolve the dilemma that many PRC companies may have to face. Access to the U.S. dollar system remains a fundamental feature of the business of many PRC companies and simply disregarding the long-arm jurisdiction of U.S. secondary sanctions may lead to adverse consequences for their business operations.

This inevitably leads to a situation where many PRC companies may try to avoid doing business with other PRC entities or persons that are currently subject to U.S. sanctions.

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Chinese prison.

It is also standard practice to include sanction-related provisions in a contract to give a party a way to terminate the contract should the counterparty become a person or organisation sanctioned by the U.S. government.

The dilemma can best be illustrated by an example, albeit in a different context. The International Criminal Justice Assistance Law, enacted by the PRC government in October 2018,  requires companies or individuals in the PRC to seek government approval before providing evidence or information to foreign prosecutors in support of criminal proceedings in overseas jurisdictions.

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Compliance with the capture of one or two wanted fugitives is of no consequence when billions of dollars in trade are at stake.

As a result, companies must choose whether to disregard the PRC law (if no government approval is given) and cooperate with foreign prosecutors or to abide by the PRC law and risk the consequences of being held in contempt of the foreign court or even being found guilty of obstruction of justice by the foreign court.

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Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere, surroundings.

While it is often a commercial decision as to with whom to do business, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law creates some room for PRC persons who have suffered from discriminatory or restrictive measures under foreign sanctions laws to take retaliatory measures.

The legal implications of this cannot be ignored and it is vital for PRC companies to carefully consider sanctions-related provisions in contracts to avoid a situation where they risk being caught by either of the sanction regimes and suffering huge losses as a result.

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Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere surroundings.

For example, if there is a U.S. sanctions clause in a contract giving a party the option to terminate the contract if the PRC counterparty becomes a sanctions target of the United States, would it constitute a breach of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law if the party exercises the option to terminate the contract thereby causing losses to the PRC counterparty?

The situation is perhaps less clear when U.S. sanctions have already been imposed on the PRC counterparty and the party chooses not to deal with the PRC counterparty for other, commercial reasons. Of course, how the law will be enforced in practice is a question that only time will answer.

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Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere surroundings.

With that in mind, while the practical implications of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law remain to be seen, we see no benefit in PRC companies, and indeed foreign companies having a presence or assets in the PRC, failing to give due weight to this PRC ‘blocking statute’; otherwise, there may be serious consequences for their business operations and assets in the PRC.

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Chinese prisons are very calm and orderly.

Some may have thought up ways to get around the dilemma – for example, by using non-U.S. dollars in transactions so as to minimise the risk of being caught by the U.S. secondary sanctions regime – but in practice, aside from the practical concern that many parties doing international business still prefer to use U.S. dollars in transactions, it is also difficult to completely eliminate such risk in large, cross-border transactions involving many parties.

Foreign companies

Life is supposed to be easier for foreign companies that do not have a substantive presence or assets in the PRC or deal with the PRC counterparty, but the opposite is often the case.

As explained above, given that the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law has not clearly defined ‘organisations and individuals within the territory of the PRC’, the more precautionary approach is to assume that the law also extends to the PRC subsidiaries of foreign companies as well as the branches (which have no distinct legal personality) of foreign companies in the PRC.

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Reeducation to fit into society is a staple of Chinese prisons.

It is therefore inevitable that foreign companies will have to face the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law squarely and consider its impact on their business operations.

If you are a United States, EU, or foreign corportation, you could be directly targetted by the anti-sanction law. 

This includes seizure of all of your facilities (McDonalds, Pizza Hut), seizure of your logos and product pacment (iphone, Microsoft, Ford), and arrest of your corporate leaders (President, Vice PResidents, COO, and all middle mangers).
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Unlike the USA, judical proceedings are not debated. If you break a law, you pay the penalty. If the penalty is death, then you die.

Strictly speaking, where a foreign company does not have a presence or assets in the PRC, even if a PRC person can file a lawsuit against the company (which is unclear based on the current text of the law), there are still practical obstacles to serving court documents and enforcing judgments obtained against the foreign company pursuant to the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.

The company doesn't even have to be present in China. Safe-way™ can be targetted. Pep Boys™ can be targetted.
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Inmates in China are processed just like in America.

It is also highly uncertain whether foreign courts (especially U.S. courts) will give effect to and assist in the enforcement of PRC judgments.

Meaning that enforcement will be up to the Chinese military.

Relevance to Hong Kong

In addition, an interesting question remains as to whether the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law will also be enacted under the laws of Hong Kong, for example, by way of incorporation of the law into Annex III of the Basic Law or the passing of local laws to achieve the same effect. We consider that the consequences can be potentially more far-reaching as Hong Kong is well established as an international commercial hub where many foreign companies have branches or assets.

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Chinese prisons are not joyful places, but neither are they the rat-filled slums tha tthe Western media makes them out to be. I’m sure that many American officials would be comfortable in these clean, but austere surroundings.

At the same time, U.S. dollar transactions play a dominant role in Hong Kong’s economic activities and it is almost impossible for companies in Hong Kong to disregard the extensive impact of U.S. sanctions.

The dilemma could become even thornier if the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law is extended to apply in Hong Kong as well.

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China gets a bad rap for organ harvesting. But the real truth is that the felon is sedated prior to extraction of the organs, and they really don’t feel a thing during the procedure. It just happens so quickly and then they wake up and are given hot chicken broth before they have to go back to laboring in the mines.

3. Key takeaways

There is no denying that the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, a national law which has been enacted by the highest legislative body in the PRC, has established a sweeping legal basis for the PRC government to counteract the long-arm jurisdiction of foreign sanctions.

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The daily cavity check is a staple in Chinese prisons. It’s a daily routine.

While the countermeasure list is yet to be finalised and it is yet to be seen how the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law will be applied in practice, for now, it is safe to conclude that no one can disregard the potentially profound consequences of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, and both PRC and foreign (especially those with a presence or assets in the PRC) companies should carefully assess the risks of this recently enacted national law.

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Mass sentencing to death. China does not provide special privileges to companies or corporations. It doesn’t matter the magnitude of your guilt. Even borderline guilt is punishable by torture.

We recommend that PRC and foreign companies consider taking the following actions:

  1. seeking legal advice on the implications of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law for their business operations in the PRC or when dealing with a PRC counterparty;
  2. reviewing and improving their compliance systems to take into account the countermeasures imposed by the PRC – for example, taking note of and refraining from dealing with individuals and organisations named in the countermeasure list by the relevant departments of the State Council;
  3. considering the incorporation of appropriate clauses into contracts to allow for a situation where the company may be subject to both U.S. and PRC sanctions; and
  4. identifying practical options to minimise the legal risks of doing business in the PRC and foreign countries – for example, increasing use of non-U.S. dollars in transactions where possible.

Harsh Realities

Almost ALL of the companies that export from China to America are American companies.  Under the Chinese anti-sanction law, they will now become Chinese companies and will be forbidden to export to the United States.

How bad will this be?

  • 100% of cell phones are made (one way or the other) in China.
  • 90% of medicines are made in China.
  • 85% of automotive parts are made in China.
  • 98% of all appliances are made in China.
  • 65% of all furniture are made in China.
  • 85% of all batteries are made in China.
  • All of the major restaurants and retailers (Walmart) operate inside of China, and the vast majority of their incomes comes from China.

Not only will Chinese exports to America go to zero, but American companies, facing losses from 50% to 90% of their tangibale assets will experience massive slide in the stock market.

No wonder China is saying “bring it on!”.

What can you all expect?

  • Hyper inflation will become hyper-hyper inflation.
  • Movement of American business owners outside of the USA will risk imprisonment.
  • International Trade to the USA will end.
  • Store shelves will be bare except for high-priced military weapons systems and their accessories.
  • Many manufacturing companies will have to close and lay off workers because they will not have the materials need to make their products.
  • Gas  and products that use gas will go stratospheric.

But, you know, it’s all for a “good cause” , you know; to “punish Russia”.

Conclusion

Actually, I found this article a bit boring. But, you know, I had to pump it out. No one else on the planet is doing anything about this, so I have to.

Lazy fucks.

Why are you still here?

America is “exceptional”, and the Ukraine is kicking Russian butt. And everything is peachy, only there’s some inflation… pesky thing. But it’s all good. It’s Russia’s fault.

Don’t you know.

It’s all over the “news”.

So you know that any day now that the Ukraine will take over and march over Moscow. After all, you read the daily reports on Drudge, FOX, CNN and all the rest.

I read that the Russian solders are so fed up with Putin that they are throwing up, abandoning their weapons and running toward democracy™ as fast as their legs can carry them. Don’t you know!

Now leave. This will offend your world-view.

For you that stick around, ah… Here’s some sunny stuff to keep you all grounded on reality about China, life, and your part in it.

Chinese girl. These are PEOPLE that you God-damn people are talking about. Not some pile of french fries, you God-damn idiots. video

Here’s another one. These are people. Not things. video

Of course, if you are an American, you get a daily dose of “evil communist” this and that. Why they are the cause of all the problems in the United States. Oh, no. Not the goverment. Yeah. The communists!!!!!!!

Sheech!

Go ahead now. Run towards your next election, and then you can vote to make everything perfect!

It will work. Right?

Communist.

What the fuck is that. Most Americans coudn’t tell a communist from a dead armadillo at the side of the highway.

Remember, boys and girls, China is organized.

Here’s how the Chinese start first grade. video…

Here’s more. After all, you would never see this in America or the European Union.

Fact.

This is what China is today. Do you honestly think that the “West” can compete? video

But the West has “diversity”!

And it has freedom™…

I don’t know what it means. I guess when the ATF was established to infringe on the second amendment, freedom ceased to exist.

And let’s be real.

The Chinee population is 1.4 billion people; over five times the population of the United States, and every single one of them can fire a fully automatic assault gun, throw hand grenades, assault tanks and perform small platoon level operations. video. First grade.

I’d take Chinese elementary school against any American high schoolers any day. The Chinese are smart, talented, organized and trained. They operate by merit and they are hungry.

In America, the Military has to be able to do five entire push ups to qualify. The Chinese have to do one hundred. And tehy had best do it when they are in first grade. Video

Of course, this means nothing. America is the home of Rambo®. Freedom™ and democracy™. So of course it is exceptional™.

Bottom line.

If you want to fuck with China, China will FUCK with you. This is a front, that you do NOT want to get involved in. Capisce?

Capisce?

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 3

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
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MM observations and thoughts about the war in the Ukraine – Part 2

Any nation that does not manufacture things, or have resources to exploit, cannot be a nation for long.

Here we continue on thoughts about the war in the Ukraine and the resulting Geo-Political realignments.

What is so significant about this time is that the massive build-up to the final death of America and the rise of Asia has begun.

This is part 2. Part one is HERE.

The first part went out, and I was deluged by a bunch of gung-ho ‘Merica types accusing me of all sorts of things. Sheech! My thoughts are what is going on between Russia and the Ukraine / USA / NATO is very simple;

Obey the agreements that you signed. 
If you don't, you risk war.

It’s not just me who believe this.

It’s EVERY FUCKING NATION on the planet except for the USA, UK, Australia, and NATO believes it.

And you cannot talk your way out of it, not matter how solidly you control the narrative. Your narrative is restricted to a very small “echo chamber” centered in the United States.

It is meaningless outside of it.

Ah.

2022 03 08 08 27
2022 03 08 08 27 From Moon Over Alabama.

Sigh. The sheeple have been vault 7 programmed to NPC status. Angry; very, VERY angry. Mindless. Devoid of the ability to understand fundamentals. Sigh.

2022 03 08 23 01
2022 03 08 23 01

About this article

Like the earlier article, we are going to go bullet point by bullet point in this one. Only the points will be a little better flushed out. But first; a map. This is day ten of the “invasion” (if you use the terminology of the United States), or the “special operation” (if you use the terminology of Asia.).

2022 03 08 09 45
2022 03 08 09 45

Now for the points…

[1] Ukraine / Russia conflict is a different kind of war

The "gloves are off". No playing nice. Fight Russia at your own risk.

The Russians are calling this a “special operation”. This is in opposition to the United States and Western termonology. They refer to it as an invasion.

I would argue that this is a type of operation which has never been seen before.  Ever.  

Andrei Martyanov coined a very good term, he called it a “combined arms police operation”.  

The term “combined arms” is, in the Russian military terminology, the “the main form of combat of modern armies, in which the efforts of formations, units and units of various types of ground forces are combined and coordinated with the actions of other types of armed forces“.  

This type of warfare can only be conducted by combined arms units and implies an operational-level dimension.  In other words, a combined arms operation has nothing in common with a police operation.

In this case, Andrei Martyanov is right.  

What we are seeing here is a police operation whose aim is to disarm and apprehend/neutralize a criminal force, which itself is so big that it is capable of operational-level warfare. But not strategic nor tactical level warfare. 

Normally, police operations are always on the low end of the tactical level spectrum (division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon) and rarely involve more than maybe a few APCs.  This is clearly not the case today in the Ukraine where combat operations are clearly reaching operational and even strategic levels.

The United States set up a puppet government in Ukraine with the CIA / NGO “color revolution” of 2014. They gained support from nationalists who adopted a fierce neo-Nazi stance, and who even reactivated the Asov SS Division. The official AZOV emblem is the ‘Wolfsangel‘.

During World War II, various units of the German Nazi army used this symbol, including the SS Panzer Division.

The USA then funded the Ukraine president lavishly with nearly 2 billion dollars in off-shore accounts. He, in return for that enormous wealth, allowed the USA to dictate his actions. NATO was set up operationally, and in every manner, bioweapons facilities and nuclear launch sites were all set in motion.

Ukraine became the fourth largest recipient of American military weapons and equipment. Russia found this unacceptable.

And, as such, demanded the expansion of NATO stop, and the removal of nuclear systems for its borders. Russia, after the resounding “no” from both NATO and the United States carried out it’s ultimatum.

Right now, what we are witnessing is a total gutting of the United States puppet government and neo-Nazi elements, and a return to Ukraine independence and sovereignty.

This differs from an invasion. Where one nation invades another to seize it’s cities, land, people and resources.

[2] Incorrigable Criminal Elements 

Taking point [1] to heart, the Nazi elements wearing Ukrainian uniforms, and firing American produced heavy weapons are considered to be criminal elements. 

Those that join and support this band of criminals will be considered incorrigible foreign proxies desirous of prolonging criminal activity and will be hunted and killed. 

It's not just me pointing out this fact. 

Any one helping these criminals will themselves be treated as criminals.

Russia warns pro-Ukraine foreign fighters will be treated as criminals, not prisoner of war.  And are treated appropiately. 

Ukrainian President Zelensky says that already 16,000 foreigners have volunteered to fight for Ukraine against Russia. Websites are up to recruit, and the United States has set up training camps in Poland for them.

I hope that they made their peace with their families. This is not going to be a Yemen, Afganastan, Libya, or Syria.

The soldiers of the Chechen special forces have an order not to take mercenaries prisoner. 

They WILL be killed after information is extracted.

You may disagree with their decision process, and operational orders, but you have to face reality. You must accept things as they are, not as you want them to be.

[3] NATO Planned to Launch a “first strike” Against Russia

The movement of nuclear forces on the Russian border was intended to zero out the advantage of Russia’s hyper-velocity nuclear arment. That’s what this entire conflict is all about.

And Russia said NO!

"The Russian government decided to stop this situation and restore order in Ukraine,” wrote Nikolai Azarov, who served as Ukrainian Prime Minister three times.  

Through a message posted on Facebook on Friday, Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov claimed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planned a nuclear attack against Russia, taking advantage of the existence of geopolitical problems with Ukraine. And that Russia was forced to preempt that attack.

This was necessitated as a means to offset the offensive nuclear hyper-missile and SAM capability of Russia.

Anyone who cannot see that Russia was forced to lay down their "red lines", and respond to them being crossed, is an ignorant fool.

[4] Offensive Nuclear Warfare So… why piss around using conventional warfare in Ukraine?

Russia and China have formidable nuclear, city destroying capabilities.

Both the Russians and the Chinese possess hyper-velocity weapons that are able to [1] fly independently using AI, [2] evade and change course, [3] fire projectiles and vehicles, [4] are undetectable by radar, and [5] carry nuclear weapons. 

These are generations beyond anything that the United States (and the West) have. It will take decades for the United States to reach parity.

[5] Defensive Nuclear Warfare So what? The United States Military Empire is the largest in history, and armed with massive impressive weapons. There should be nothing to be afraid of.

Right?

America and its allies lie defenseless.

Both the Russians and the Chinese possess advanced ABM shields that are able to [1] track, [2] decloak, [3] intercept, and [4] render inert / destroy incoming missiles, systems, or aircraft. 

These systems are perfected and generations in advance of anything that the United States possess.

[6] Bioweapons What about other forms of weapons? Such as bioweapons…

They were put in play in 2017 under John Bolton, and backfired.

The United States is the undisputed leader in the development and manufacture of biological weapons. This continues in defiance of UN treaties. In fact, all of the new and novel viruses that plagued the world since the 1970s have been patented by the United States.

[5.1] Further, both the Chinese and the Russians have accused the United States for unleashing the Coronavirus B in China, Iran and North Korea in 2020. While inoculating the US and it's allies with Coronavirus A.

[5.2] China has accused the United States of using drones to destroy food and livestock from 2017 though 2021.

[5.3] Russia has accused the United States of setting up 15 bioweapons facilities on the Ukraine to Russian border.

[5.4] "Fact Checker" Snopes says that Bioweapons in use is a lie, that the United States would never do such a thing. Of course, they have been proven to be a propiganda outlet for the US government.

[5.5] Russia has acquired documents and supporting evidence from the captured bioweapons labs inside of the Ukraine. It's all over Chiense and Russian media. Nothing in Western Media.

This discovery of a laptop “smoking gun”, coupled by the likely shipment of Turkish drones modified for the delivery of toxic aerosols or other bio-toxins (identical to those that spread the swine flu to devistate the Chinese pork industy in 2017)  immediately prior to the launch of the Special Operation serves to explain the RF attack.

The modified drones are unconfirmed as of yet, but two Turkish Airbus freighters were tracked landing in Ukraine immediately prior to the attack.

The laptop is physical evidence of a close association between NATO and the Nazis. This association pre-dates the Special Operation and indicates NATO complicity in an attack on both Donbass and Crimea. Ref HERE.

[7] Russia is not isolated and alone

The full spectrum propaganda onslaught consists of article after article about how isolated Russia is becoming. The average ill-informed person would easily come to the conclusion that Russia is a pariah and isolated and alone. 

This is the desired effect, but not what is actually happening.

There is NOT one single thing that Europe, or America, or any of its allies provide to Russia that cannot be acquired from China. And China and Russia are joined at the hip. They are, and act as one.

Or, haven't you all been paying attention. Remember the massive document that they both signed during the Beijing Olmpics last month? You know the one; where MSNBC, Politico, and FOX "news" refered to it as "wordy gibberish".

In the future months or years, the American war-machine will ontinue to try to separte the two nations. They will propigandize a "mistake" and "fractures in the alliance".  It will fail. They will then steer directly towards China, and try to isolate a united Russia and China alliance.

[8] China

The USA (and it's Western pawns) are decoupling from a world that will not accept its leadership. 

Decoupling is not the end goal. It is the first step in establishing a return to a unipolar status quo.

The interm goal (in this process) is to destroy the rest of the world and have the United States be the sole remaining power. In effect, the lone "superpower" once again.

It sounds really bad. That is becuase it is.

To this end, the plan is for China to be isolated, and then destroyed. Leaving only the United States and it's proxies remaining. 

This is a pretty obvious plan. Again, it's only the ignorant who see otherwise. All the scattered "puzzle pieces" fit into a picture that describes this agenda.

[9] Chinese “Red Lines”

This action, to initiate a war with China, will necessitate that the Chinese "red lines" be crossed. China clearly defined those "red lines". Just like Russia did.

When that happens,  there will be a short and very nasty war.

"Red Lines" are absolute.

When the smoke clears, Taiwan will be integrated with the mainland, all American naval bases in the Pacific will be gone, as will be any carrier flotillas as well. You can expect the Hawaiian islands, and all the stateside naval facilities erased. 

I recon that it will probably be the "spark" that launches nuclear destruction of the United States mainland.

There will be mass casualties on both sides. 

The magnitude of which will depend on the skills of the leadership of the nations involved. Biden and NATO vs. Xi Peng and Putin. 

It is up to the reader to determine, for themselves, who are stronger and better leaders. Then come to your own opinions.

[10] The United States is NOT READY for a defeat

Most of the Western people; Americans, Europeans, Australians, and Japanese are of the strong belief that America (as the greatest military force in all history) can never be defeated. 

Never, as in absolutely, positively inconceivable.

The loss of every carrier in the Navy, the nuclear destruction of the top thirty American cites, and the ensuing chaos will absolutely crush the United States psyche. It's so absoltuely weak now that a feather could push it over. Imagine what would happen when the largest remaining intact American city would be Des Moines, Iowa.

Both Russia or China could do it right now, and the United States could not stop it at all. The only thing that the USA can do is to try to launch it's SLBMs from the remaining active boomer submarines.

To quote a scene from the movie "The Princess Bride"; It's inconceivable.
200
It’s inconceivable.

[11] The anti-Russia narrative of “a big Russian mistake” will end 

The current US PSYOP narrative about the Russians being defeated and on full retreat will not survive this weekend.

It will now change. It will now shift to “Putin’s rape camps and torture of poor suffering Ukraine”.  

Remember all the accusations of genocide against the Serbs in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo?  This is what will happen to Russia next – a massive wave of accusations of atrocities and genocide.  

The (so-called) “free and democratic press” will now switch to the fabricated lies pushing the American people towards more War! War! War!

[12] The United States is running Ukraine 

[11.1] Former Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is living in the United States embassy in Poland. 

[11.2] The orders for the remaining Ukrainian military forces come out of the American Embassy in Ukraine.

These two points clearly show that the United States is "running the show" and is in charge of everything in the Ukraine right now.

[13] New Global Transaction System 

Discussed earlier. SWIFT is obsolete. But what does that mean?

Gold is an alternative. Both Russia and China barter directly in raw materials, physical products or gold / precious metals.

Any nation not able to do so, whether they have no factories, no resources, or no valuable metals, will be forced to rely on coercion to manage their trade. Already, much of the world is unwilling to accept this state much longer.

Keep in mind that not only is China the manufacturer for the world, China’s $3.2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves is greater than the $2.3 trillion value of ALL the world’s central bank gold reserves. 

The ability for nations to conduct trade will be polarized. Either [12.1] continue to use SWIFT backed with worthless paper, or [12.2] deal with a united Russia-China alliance backed by gold, material resources, and manufactured products. 

There are no other options. The choice will depend on the level of independence over coercion by the United States.

It's not just CIPS. It's not just a switch from one system to the other. The exchange rate in the system is tied to the value of the monetary unit in use. If most of the world transacts in gold, and the remaining few  transacts in American-backed paper, the exchange rate will reflect that.

Expect a plunge in the value of the USD globally, and with that will come geometric and even exponential increases in American (but not global) inflation. 

The inflation will be directly tied to the nations that continue to use the USD. 

So, in the future, inflation will NOT be a global experience, as all the alternative websites out of the USA are predicting. No. it will be a localized one based on the form of financial transfer.

[14] Putin’s popularity is not collapsing 

The Western narrative is that the war in Ukraine is going to bring about the "fall of Putin". That's just PSYOPS. 

The truth is that his popularity is soaring. Western readers will be unaware of that, as all news from Russia and China are banned.

I have tons of videos that refect this. All you need to do is crawl out from the isolation net of the West.

[15] First World vs. Third World 

I have documented the severe disconnect between what the West (especially Americans) believe and what is actually occurring. 

For instance, the term "First World" is used to describe the United States and Europe, while "Third World" is used to describe Russia, China and Africa.

That is wildly innacurate.

China is definitely, and certainly, First World. 

This is not simply my personal opinion, it's backed by just every measurable statistic. While the United States has fallen way, way, WAY  behind. It is approaching third class world. 

No new parks, infrastructure, advanced crime control. No energy friendly infrastructure, nor merit driven initatives. No high-speed public transportation, and crime and homelessness abound. Heck! Americans still use paper money. I'm not at all exaggerating.

[16] Sweden and Finland 

The idea that either Sweden or Finland would enter the fray by joining NATO should send shivers up everyone's spine.

Russia's "red lines" are fixed and immovable. 

Thus, were Sweden or Finland opt to become members of NATO, they would be crossing the Russian "Red Lines". The Russian reaction to it will be harsh and direct. 

From the point of view of Russia these are non-negotiable "red lines" and crossing them is an act of war.

If forced, Russia will take on any country, including any NATO member country, which will assist the Ukrainians militarily.  

If forced, Russia will even fight all of NATO and the USA together and, if forced, she will use all her weapons, including nuclear ones.  

And if that means that the entire planet is nuked then, as Putin said, “we have no need for a planet without Russia”.  

All this is to say that Russia is not bluffing, Putin will not back down and that there is no price which Russia would not be willing to pay to prevail in this existential war.

Russia will not stop until her existence is made safe again.

[17] Nazi hardliners in Ukraine 

You just cannot make this stuff up, but hard-line Ukraine nationalists have adopted the Nazi Germany regalia, systems, history and organization from the former Nazi Germany. And they are fanatic and radical in their beliefs. 

HERE and HERE.

For instance, they killed one of their own negotiators with the Russians for not taking an absolute to-the-death stance.

[18] Why defend the United States?

My personal opinions. But sheech! people. When you live in a place where the streets are clean, radicals of every kind (SJW, BLM, and KKK) are put in mental hospitals, the people are happy, and parks are everywhere… the USA really, REALLY looks like a steaming pile of dog shit.

In watching all the "news" and opinions flying about, I am just stunned. The individuals all talk that it is necessary to defend the values and democracy-based freedoms of the United States and those of Western Europe.

What freedoms?

What democracy?

The mere fact that American and Western access to Russian and Chinese news is banned is a sign FOR CERTAIN that there is no freedom. In both China and RUssia you can easily get Western news. Not so, the other way around. 

In fact, you cannot name one Right (in the Bill of Rights) that does not have exceptions. 

For instance, the second amendment has an entire agency (the ATF) whose entire purpose is to infringe on it and limit its use and application. The ninth amendment has the FDA. The first amendment has the FCC, and technocrats. But I will stop here. I have written many an article on this.

The USA is an oligarchy-ruled Military Empire. It is not a "democracy".
2022 03 08 09 02
2022 03 08 09 02

[19] The Ukraine war has already resulted in thousands of money-making for-profit corportations 

Wow. That was quick! Eh?
2022 03 07 09 00
2022 03 07 09 00

[20] The United States “approves” or “will …” 

I read articles all of the world, and they are disturbing to me.

US Tells Germany To Stop Using Huawei Equipment Or
US allows S. Korea
US allows NATO allies ...
US has allowed Poland to supply jets...

Let me remind everyone, that in a true democratically led world, no one nation would be able to tell another what to do. All nations would be souvern. But that is not so under a unipolar global kingdom such as the United States demands.

People should really reflect on the reality. 

The United States is a Military Empire and all those "Western democracies" are but proxy governments for use by the USA to do with as it pleases. And it chooses them to fight the wars it starts, while the war-mongering neocons sit safe and sound inside their plush mansions in the United States.

[21] Russia has already switched to Chinese banking 

Instead of thinking that it "might happen", remember that you are dealing with a unified Russia / Chinese alliance. It "has happened".

Russian banks are fully on board with CIPS.

It has been confirmed that Russia is switching its whole system to China's UnionPay. 

UnionPay, an international payment system founded in 2002, received international status in 2005. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company reportedly operates in more than 180 countries across the globe, including Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Cyprus, Thailand, India, Israel, Portugal, Croatia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary and Austria.

In the future, you will see more and more of these "well, it could, but..." things changed to "...is in place.".

[22] India has joined the Russian / China alliance. 

It's not well publicized. But the alliance is really firming up. The majority of the world is sticking with Asia. 

Andrei has a very good video on this subject HERE.

[23] ASEAN nations

SE Asia/ASEAN: No on sanctions (outside of Singapore)

Aside from the casting of diplomatic votes, however, the response from Southeast Asian governments has been diverse — and, some say, muted. Singapore made the rare decision to impose sanctions on Russia, and Indonesia quickly criticized the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Philippines, a US treaty ally, flip-flopped and described itself as neutral. Meanwhile, Thailand and Malaysia have remained quiet.

[24] Gas to Europe has been cut

Sure you all know that. Right?

Westbound gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped on Thursday, while bids remained for supplies in both directions, according to data tracked by the pipeline operator Gascade. Russia covers nearly 40% of European gas demand with the Yamal-Europe route accounting for nearly 15% of the country’s westbound supply.

This will SUBSTANTIALLY affect the quality of life, and manufacturing inside of Europe. You cannot put a good spin on this. It will cause an increase in all prices for everything, as well as factory shutdowns and slow downs with will result in layoffs and unemployment.

[25] American and European PSYOPS have fled Russia 

All the standard "news" media operations have fled Russia.

Why? Well, Russia passed a law that if you publish provable fake or false information, you WILL be held personally responsible and you WILL be treated as a military combatant, in disguise; fighting Russia.

All those desk-jockeys regurgitating NSA psyops informtion for the five-eyes are now looking at capture, torture and death. No wonder they are scared shitless and scurrying off like rats off a sinking ship.

Interesting, but I believe that this is a policy that is a copy of what Xi Peng implemented in China. 

That Chinese policy sure as fuck cleaned out the various CIA and NGO "rats nests" and stopped all the color revolutions in HK, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Shanghai. I've got tons of vieos showing the CIA assets rounded up. It's impressive as all Hell.

On a somber note. Most of the captured were interrogated and then killed. China does not play.

[26] This is a REAL war 

Listen up people!

This is not Vietnam, or Afganastan, or Syria. This is a serious war; being conducted by serious, serious people. They have serious objectives and are fighting for their very existence.

Russia is fighting against a United States backed, proxy, Nazi fanatical organization that is well armed, and who's role is to prolong the fighting until death.

This is not a sports event.

Russia is trying to avoid mass destruction and civilian casualities. However, if that is not possible, then cities will be absolutely and positively flattened to rubble.

[27] Outside of the United States and NATO, billions of people root for Russia

Not the impression that you would get from Western "news" eh? 

Well it is true. China, and India are both cheering for Russia. Together that is 2 billion people. 

As well as almost all of Africa. That's another 2 billion people. 

All told, just by that rough estimation we are looking at 4 billion people in favor of Russians action, and perhaps a half a billion from the USA and Europe.

HERE and HERE.
.
And I might add the enormous Middle East. Who do you think that they are rooting for?

[28] Consequences of Sanctioning Russia 

In the big scheme of things, everything will adjust to a "new normal". However, many Western corporations will be adversely affected.
.
For example, the EU demanded that all Russian leases on Airbus jets—over 500 of them—be cancelled. It also blocked the sale of Airbus parts to Russia and forbade Russian planes from being serviced. It also closed its airspace to Russian planes and Russia closed its airspace to EU planes in response. The EU also blocked the SWIFT payment system. This means the following things:

• The European leasing companies will have to pay Russia huge fines for canceling the leases but can’t because SWIFT isn’t working.

• The European leasing companies have to get their planes out of Russian territory but can’t because their flight crews can’t get into Russia and once they take possession of the planes the planes won’t be allowed to take off (airspace is closed).

• The planes can no longer be serviced according to the maintenance schedule, which means that in a couple of months they won’t be able to fly at all.

• Given that this is a force majeur circumstance, the Russian government can very easily nationalize these planes, including all of the intellectual property and patent rights contained therein, and start making their own parts and providing their own service.

• There are around 600 airplanes and helicopters stranded in Russia. Stock price of both Boing and Eurobus is not reflecting this fact. One leased plane makes between 50k to 100k per month. On top of that loss, these planes can be confiscated in case Russian property is taken.

• Given all of the above, the obvious choice for the European leasing companies to declare bankruptcy and cease operations. Company representatives have said as much.

[29] Numerous “War Hawk” American neocons want direct military conflict with Russia

A true “Death wish” fueled by ego and ignorance.

It's true, and very dangerous.
.
The Russians have the capability to launch an absolutely devastating first strike from their super quiet “black hole” nuclear submarines.

From positions just off the American coasts, those submarines could potentially reduce much of the United States defenses to ashes in just a matter of minutes.

Most Americans don’t understand how serious this threat is.

A nuclear war with Russia must be avoided, because the consequences would be unimaginable.

Thankfully, the federal government has issued some updated guidelines for how ordinary Americans should respond if a nuclear attack does actually happen…

Stay inside for 24 hours unless local authorities provide other instructions. Continue to practice social distancing by wearing a mask and by keeping a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who not part of your household.

Family should stay where they are inside. Reunite later to avoid exposure to dangerous radiation.

Keep your pets inside.

You may not last very long after such an attack happens, but at least you can help prevent the spread of COVID by practicing social distancing and by wearing a mask.

[30] Fertilizer catastrophie

Russia stopped all it's exports of fertilizer to the West. The West will now be forced to acquire it from secondary sources. Such as Bolivia.

Ollie Vargas reports from Bolivia: 

Bolivia was exporting fertilizer (urea) for $300 per tonne until last week. International price is now $900 per tonne since sanctions on Russia started and Russia stopped loading fertilizer for export.  Bolivia built its own nationalized fertilizer factory.  Brazil closed theirs after the neoliberal turn. Now, the price of urea and ammonium is going through the roof due to Ukraine conflict. Those who import it will be hit with severe inflation on foodstuffs.  

I argue that it might result in a combination of inflation plus scarcity.

[31] An interesting video on a Urkaine Military Base 

The narrator walks around the hastily abandoned based. It was an obvious rout. They discuss that routs tend to happen when the operational leadership flees, leaving the rank and file soldiers to fend for themselves.
RT vid on abandon ukraine army camp. They left everything. .

[32] Nice summary about the Geo-political ramifications

Decent enough video. I watched it a second time and noticed that it had zero audio. I don't know if it is my side or theirs.
This Clif High video is about the predicament the world is in. .

[33] Peter Hitchens forcasted this event sequence…

He visited the Ukraine and could easily see a build up of events. A very interesting read.
Peter Hitchens says: “I saw what was coming. " .

[34] A decent SITREP channel for your reference

Best Sitrep channel with on map analysis I have seen so far. 

Frequent updates, and long impartial, detailed and accurate analyses of the situation. Definitely deserve much more publicity. Some gentleman from Singapore as I understand. Well worth it:

Defence Politics Asia .

[35] The goal is a long-duration war

This Video exposes the provocations of neo-Nazis who, by bombing and killing their own people, create a "pretty" picture for the Western media. 

This is once again showing the fact that the main goal of the West in Ukraine is to turn it into a second Afghanistan. 

https://youtu.be/yIS5Wik2r0E .

[36] British BBC instructs how everyone can attack Russan armor

BBC personnel now posting on Twitter how and where to throw a Molotov cocktail for Ukrainians who want to attack Russian vehicles. The BBC employee is telling them to throw the Molotov cocktails through the viewing hatches, and the air inlets of Russian military vehicles.

 https://twitter.com/BowenBBC/status/1499668674940133378?cxt=HHwWhICzqdut8s8pAAAA .

[37] Pakastan

Pakistan actually has a real leader, not afraid to speak the truth. So refreshing... if I was a Pakistani, I would be very proud... HERE. .

[38] The real story behind the scenes

This short video deserves a wide circulation.

https://dissidentvoice.org/2022/03/what-you-dont-know-about-the-war-in-ukraine/

[39] EuroUnion runs amok

Latvia citizens would see fines up to 700 EUR for "using illegal content services". "Not only rights of protected service providers [may be violated by use of illegal systems] but also customers might obtain services, which are illegal in Latvia". So, in other words, don't read any news out of Russia. 

EuroUnion runs amok...HERE.

[40] NATO evidence seized

The Ukraine was acting as a NATO member and taking orders fromt he United States, even though not formally part of NATO. This came just in from a german journalist living in Donezk, needs verification. Quick translation via Deepl:

Premier of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin gives emergency press conference. Detailed explanation and translation will follow tonight by Thomas Röper. The content of the speech in brief:

🔺A laptop was found on a hastily abandoned military base in Ukraine - which is registered with NATO

🔺 On it are data of American reconnaissance flights carried out over the Donbass and Crimea with unmanned drones in recent years (officially confirmed)

🔺This means that the Americans have passed on their data to the Ukrainian army, i.e. they support them.

🔺 Military strategic objects of Russia and the Donbass were marked on the maps created with these data

🔺 AND THERE ARE SAID TO BE NATO ATTACK PLANS INTO RUSSIA FOR MARCH 8 ON THE LAPTOP.

If this is true, then this is proof that NATO is supporting Ukraine in taking back the Donbass and Crimea by force.

NATO Laptop is now on sputniknews.com

NATO-Labelled Laptop With Intelligence Found at Ukrainian Nationalists' HQ, DPR Head Says

[41] Ukraine was a de-facto NATO military state 

Not officially, of course. But militairily yes.

The fact is that the Ukrainian army is already de facto NATO army in everything related to Command and Control.

[42] News machines creating an illusion

The illusions created by the American (Western “news”) are off the charts. And yet, you know, people believe these lies. Meanwhile the United States is going to shit. Check out these screen captures…

  • First one…

Putin continues with the deaths of many a Russion while the valiant Ukrainians hold on bravely. 1000 Russians dead per day! Russian victory is NOT INEVITABLE! Don’t you know. And of course, the Russians hate him. That’s why protests are everywhere. Uh huh…

2022 03 08 08 13
2022 03 08 08 13
  • Second one…

Russian mistakes. Ukraine is “decimating” the invading Russians! Russian officer pleads for mercy! Russia now faces a quagmire… Uh huh.

2022 03 08 08 1a3
2022 03 08 08 1a3
  • Third one…

“Shows Putin is on the way out…” Yah. The Russian Ruble is on the way out, it’s collapsing every which way… Uh huh.

2022 03 08 08 1ww3
2022 03 08 08 1ww3
  • Fourth one…

Oh, and let’s not forget about the evil Chinese! the outright fantasies that Ukraine is really, really, really, really resisting well. The post is here: https://voxday.net/2022/03/07/russia-defeated-glory-to-ukraine/

If you read this post, Russia should be about finished and USA and NATO can just take a leisurely drive to Moscow to remove the current management and install new management.

I really don’t know who would believe this, because the actions the RF is currently undertaking does not even remotely match what is being said (i.e. not much escalation or change in plan of the RF nor new weapons systems coming on board at the moment)

2022 03 08 08 15
2022 03 08 08 15

. [43] Enemies of Russia The Russians have now officially declared all the following countries as “hostile”: from HERE.

  • All EU member States,
  • The USA
  • Australia
  • Albania
  • Andorra
  • Czech Republic
  • Great Britain (including Jersey, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar)
  • Iceland
  • Canada
  • Liechtenstein
  • Micronesia
  • Monaco
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Republic of Korea
  • San Marino
  • North Macedonia
  • Singapore
  • Taiwan
  • Ukraine
  • Montenegro
  • Switzerland
  • Japan

What does this mean? At the time of writing (14:00 EST) all the Russians are saying is that there will be “financial and diplomatic consequences”.

I expect both diplomatic and economic sanctions to be announced in the coming days.  And they will hurt like hell. The two geo-political blocs are shaping up. These nations seem to be all part of the “uni-polar, United States led, Western block”. Those highlighted in red are the most signifigant members.

[44] Andrei predictions Here is how I see it and PLEASE tell me I am wrong!

  • The Ukraine has lost the war, she will be disarmed and denazified
  • The West is waging total informational and economic war against Russia and believing much of its own propaganda (which is fantastically dangerous!)
  • The western public has been sold nonsense about the Ukies being at the gates of Moscow and Russia being ready to surrender.  Which means that when the reality will become undeniable there will be A LOT of VERY butthurt folks out there pointing fingers.
  • Economically speaking, Zerohedge put it best: “Carnage everywhere“!
  • Even much worse will be the folks who will try to still overturn this outcome.  I am talking about the true nutcases in NATO (and in some sections of the USA ruling elites) which simply cannot even *imagine* that Russia holds all the cards, including the military one.
  • I can easily imagine, say, a Polish column with weapons and mercenaries crossing into the Ukraine and being wiped out by Russian missiles.  I ask you this: what will NATO do next?

In fact, let me rephrase my question this way:

Is it at all possible that this war can end without a direct military confrontation between NATO and Russia, keeping in mind that NATO cannot win and NATO cannot accept defeat?

Sadly, I don’t think so anymore, that kind of folly is a direct consequence of the Western PSYOPs which have convinced the folks in the West of two crucial things:

  • 1) Russia cannot win and
  • 2) Putin is bluffing.

I think that the folks in the Pentagon are smart enough to know that this is all bull, but what of the Eurorodents inside NATO and the EU?

[45] Details on the fighting As a reminder…

    • The Ukronazi armed forces are down to less than 25% of its original size.
    • Almost all the remaining forces are in some type or another of cauldrons.
    • Russia has full air supremacy
    • The Ukronazi fleet does not exist anymore
    • In spite of all the propaganda, no help from abroad will affect the outcome of this war
    • It appears that Russia will surround Odessa and eventually take control of the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast

In other words, what seems to be shaping up is that Russia will soon have control over the entire Ukraine except for the western provinces (west of Vinnitsa and Zhitomir). In other words, the war is over, at least militarily.

[46] The FINAL “nail in the coffin” of Russian use of the USD 

I really like Putin:

https://www.barrons.com/news/moscow-allows-russians-to-repay-debts-to-hostile-nations-in-rubles-01646655607

[47] China has made it formal 

China will NOT participate in the American lead sanctions against Russia. Period. So stop asking. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-03/china-rules-out-imposing-sanctions-on-russia/100877396

[48]  Australia formally demounces China and is building a military base to house forces to fight China 

Australian PM denounces China and announces $10 billion nuclear submarine base

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday exploited the Russian invasion of Ukraine to launch another major military buildup, starting with building a $10 billion base for US, UK and Australian nuclear-powered submarines on Australia’s east coast, clearly directed at preparing for war against China.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/08/morr-m08.html

[49] No resistence from Bandera 

According to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, the special forces of the republic, which are taking part in the operation on the territory of Ukraine, continue to move into the country without meeting resistance from Bandera.

Kadyrov explained that the fighters regularly send him video reports on the execution of the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

"The cleansing of the territory from the criminal elements of Bandera is proceeding according to the schedule. Our soldiers are not meeting fierce resistance from Bandera," Kadyrov said.

https://www.mk.ru/politics/2022/03/08/kadyrov-chechenskiy-specnaz-ne-vstrechaet-soprotivleniya-banderovcev.html?from=article_mi_b

[50]  Italy seizes $156 million worth of yachts and villas belonging to Russian oligarchs 

Looting civilisation in action across Europe, this time Italy and France 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/italy-seizes-156-million-worth-of-yachts-and-villas-belonging-to-russian-oligarchs-01646510893

[51] Guidance on how to write Hit-Pieces against Russia 

Support and resources for journalists covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine | International Journalists' Network.

Another gov funded propaganda machine against Russia.

https://ijnet.org/en/story/support-and-resources-journalists-covering-russian-invasion-ukraine

[52] Guidance on how to write Hit-Pieces against China 

Global business journalism program in China open [Worldwide] | International Journalists' Network

Each and everyone of your are super qualify for the program, is an opportunity to experience first hand how this western propaganda machine operating inside China work,

https://ijnet.org/en/opportunity/global-business-journalism-program-china-open-worldwide

[53] China – Russia alliance is ROCK SOLID 

China says friendship with Russia is ‘rock solid’

https://kathmandupost.com/world/2022/03/07/china-says-friendship-with-russia-is-rock-solid

[54] Venezuela

US officials fly to Venezuela for talks in apparent bid to further isolate Russia | Venezuela | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/06/us-officials-venezuela-talks-apparent-bid-further-isolate-russia

[55] America is now at war with Russia

Jesus! And Yikes! It’s true.

Listen to the thought process. It’s spot on.

Yes. The USA is at war with Russia.

A most excellent FOX “news” opinion section. Video HERE.

2022 03 08 22 41
2022 03 08 22 41

[56] Bye bye McDonald’s

McDonald’s has announced it is temporarily closing all of its 850 restaurants in Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-war-mcdonalds-to-close-850-stores-in-russia/aa4f51e5-de7e-4354-8372-d73eb616aaea?ocid=edm-nine.com.au-ninedaily--220309&mktg_scr=edm-ninedaily 

Note that if they announced or implied an open ended withdrawal from the Russian market they would be declared bankrupt and under new laws forfeit their assets. They might want to announce when they will be opening again.

[57] Blinkedin had a meeting with the Chinese

He told the Chinese deligation that the USA had talked with Taiwan. They had changed their position from "Go ahead and be independent, we will support you", to "No, do not even try to break away".

The Chinese reaction was "Thank you, but your words have zero value. You repeatedly lie and break treaties.".

[58] A captured “Russian Officer”

From MoA.

Russian soldiers are CLEAN SHAVEN.

2022 03 09 08 12
2022 03 09 08 12

[59]  Others are finally starting to agree with MM…

America Shoots Its Own Dollar Empire in Economic Attack on Russia

Posted on by
.

Yves here. The US is waking up to the blowback cost of its sanctions against Russia. You have to go well into Efforts to decimate Russian economy threaten to boomerang in The Hill to get to the part about US vulnerability:

Efforts to decimate Russia’s economy to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine could have serious and unpredictable implications at home for the U.S. and its allies….

Energy and food prices are the quickest way Americans could feel shockwaves from Russia’s decline, particularly if Biden takes action against Russian oil imports.

Crude oil prices are up roughly 20 percent over the past two weeks, enough to knock 0.2 percentage points from U.S. gross domestic product, according to economists at Goldman Sachs.

They also expect inflation as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index to 0.2 percentage points thanks to “higher food prices, increased production costs due to rising commodity prices and increased transport costs due to shipping disruptions.”

[Rachel] Ziemba [founder of macroeconomic advisory firm Ziemba Insights] said a ban on Russian oil imports would largely be “symbolic” and simply send barrels to other markets.

“When we’re thinking of the cost-benefit analysis, it’s not clear to me that the pain here justifies the pain to Russia,” she said.

Michael Hudson gives an overview of the broader implications for the US.

By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.

Empires often follow the course of a Greek tragedy, bringing about precisely the fate that they sought to avoid. That certainly is the case with the American Empire as it dismantles itself in not-so-slow motion.

The basic of assumption of economic and diplomatic forecasting is that every country will act in its own self-interest.

Such reasoning is of no help in today’s world.

Observers across the political spectrum are using phrases like “shooting themselves in their own foot” to describe U.S. diplomatic confrontation with Russia and allies alike.

For more than a generation the most prominent U.S. diplomats have warned about what they thought would represent the ultimate external threat: an alliance of Russia and China dominating Eurasia.

America’s economic sanctions and military confrontation has driven them together, and is driving other countries into their emerging Eurasian orbit. American economic and financial power was expected to avert this fate.

During the half-century since the United States went off gold in 1971, the world’s central banks have operated on the dollar standard, holding their international monetary reserves in the form of U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. bank deposits and U.S. stocks and bonds.

The resulting Treasury-bill standard has enabled America to finance its foreign military spending and support its deindustrialization-driven chronic trade deficits  by creating dollar IOUs that other countries accept. U.S. balance-of-payments deficits end up in the central banks of payments-surplus countries as their reserves, while Global South debtors need dollars to pay their bondholders and conduct their foreign trade.

This monetary privilege – dollar seignorage – has enabled U.S. diplomacy to impose neoliberal policies on the rest of the world, without having to use much military force of its own except to grab Middle Eastern oil.

The recent escalation of U.S. sanctions blocking Europe, Asia and other countries from trade and investment with Russia, Iran and China has imposed enormous opportunity costs – the cost of lost opportunities – on U.S. allies.

And the recent confiscation of the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Russia, along the targeted grabbing of bank accounts of wealthy foreigners (hoping to win their hearts and minds, along with recovery of their sequestered accounts), has ended the idea that dollar holdings or those in its sterling and euro NATO satellites are a safe investment haven when world economic conditions become shaky.

So I am somewhat chagrined as I watch the speed at which this U.S.-centered financialized system has de-dollarized over the span of just a year or two.

The basic theme of my Super Imperialism has been how, for the past fifty years, the U.S. Treasury-bill standard has channeled foreign savings to U.S. financial markets and banks, giving dollar diplomacy a free ride.

I thought that de-dollarization would be led by China and Russia moving to take control of their economies to avoid the kind of financial polarization that is imposing austerity on the United States.

But U.S. officials are forcing them to overcome whatever hesitancy they had to de-dollarize.

I had expected that the end of the dollarized imperial economy would come about by other countries breaking away.

But that is not what has happened. U.S. diplomats themselves have chosen to end international dollarization themselves, while helping Russia build up its own means of self-reliant agricultural and industrial production.

This global fracture process actually has been going on for some years now, starting with the sanctions blocking America’s NATO allies and other economic satellites from trading with Russia.

For Russia, these sanctions had the same effect that protective tariffs would have had. Russia had remained too enthralled by free-market ideology to take steps to protect its own agriculture or industry.

The United States provided the help that was needed by imposing domestic self-reliance on Russia.

When the Baltic states lost the Russian market for cheese and other farm products, Russia quickly created its own cheese and dairy sector – while becoming the world’s leading grain exporter.

Russia is discovering (or is on the verge of discovering) that it does not need U.S. dollars as backing for the ruble’s exchange rate.

Its central bank can create the rubles needed to pay domestic wages and finance capital formation.

The U.S. confiscations thus may finally lead Russia to end of neoliberal monetary philosophy, as Sergei Glaziev has long been advocating in favor of MMT.

The same dynamic undercutting ostensible U.S aims has occurred with U.S. sanctions against the leading Russian billionaires.

The neoliberal shock therapy and privatizations of the 1990s left Russian kleptocrats with only one way to cash out on the assets they had grabbed from the public domain.

That was to incorporate their takings and sell their shares in London and New York. As a result, domestic savings had been wiped out, and U.S. advisors persuaded Russia’s central bank not to create its own ruble money.

The final result was that Russia’s national oil, gas and mineral patrimony was not used to finance a rationalization of Russian industry and housing.

Instead of the revenue from privatization being invested to create new Russian means of protection, it was burned up on nouveau-riche acquisitions of luxury British real estate, yachts and other global flight-capital assets.

But the effect of making Russian dollar, sterling and euro holdings hostage has been to make the City of London too risky a venue in which to hold their assets.

By imposing sanctions on richest Russians closest to Putin, U.S. officials hoped to induce them to oppose his breakaway from the West, and thus to serve effectively as NATO agents-of-influence.

But for the Russian billionaires, their own country is starting to look safest.

For many decades now, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have fought against gold recovering its role in international reserves.

But how will India and Saudi Arabia view their dollar holdings as Biden and Blinken try to strong-arm them into following the U.S. “rules-based order” instead of their own national self-interest?

The recent U.S. dictates have left little alternative but to start protecting their own political autonomy by converting dollar and euro holdings into gold as an asset free of political liability of being held hostage to the increasingly costly and disruptive U.S. demands.

U.S. diplomacy has rubbed Europe’s nose in its abject subservience by telling its governments to have their companies dump the Russian assets for pennies on the dollar after Russia’s foreign reserves were blocked and the ruble’s exchange rate plunged.

Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and other U.S. investors moved quickly to buy up what Shell Oil and other foreign companies were unloading.

Nobody thought that the postwar 1945-2020 world order would give way this fast. A truly new international economic order is emerging, although it is not yet clear just what form it will take.

But “prodding the Bear” with the U.S./NATO confrontation with Russia has passed critical-mass level.

It no longer is just about Ukraine.

That is merely the trigger, a catalyst for driving much of the world away from the US/NATO orbit.

The next showdown may come within Europe itself as nationalist politicians seek to lead a break-away from the over-reaching U.S. power-grab over its European and other Allies to keep them dependent on U.S.-based trade and investment.

The price of their continuing obedience is to impose cost-inflation on their industry while relinquishing their democratic electoral politics to subordination to America’s NATO proconsuls.

These consequences cannot really be deemed “unintended.” Too many observers have pointed out exactly what would happen – headed by President Putin and Foreign Secretary Lavrov explaining just what their response would be if NATO insisted in backing them into a corner while attacking Eastern Ukrainian Russian-speakers and moving heavy weaponry to Russia’s Western border.

The consequences were anticipated.

The neocons in control of U.S. foreign policy simply didn’t care.

Recognizing its concerns was deemed to make one a Putinversteher. What foreign countries have not done for themselves to replace the IMF, World Bank and other arms of U.S. diplomacy, American politicians are forcing them to do.

Instead of European, Near Eastern and Global South countries breaking away out of their own calculation of their long-term economic interests, America is driving them away, as it has done with Russia and China.

More politicians are seeking voter support by asking whether they would be better served by new monetary arrangements to replace dollarized trade, investment and even foreign debt service.

The energy and food price squeeze is hitting Global South countries especially hard, coinciding with their own Covid-19 problems and the looming dollarized debt service coming due. Something must give.

How long will these countries impose austerity to pay foreign bondholders? Well? How will the U.S. and European economies cope in the face of their sanctions against imports of Russian gas and oil, cobalt, aluminum, palladium and other basic materials?

Any ideas?

American diplomats have made a list of raw materials that their economy desperately needs and which therefore are exempt from the trade sanctions being imposed.

This provides Mr. Putin a handy list of our pressure points to use in reshaping world diplomacy and help European and other countries break away from the Iron Curtain that America has imposed to lock its satellites into dependence on high-priced U.S. supplies.

But the final breakaway from NATO’s adventurism must come from within the United States itself.

As this year’s midterm elections approach,

Republicans are likely  to harp on  price inflation led by gasoline and energy as a Biden failure.

It’s not clear if the pro-Ukraine propaganda will have lost its effectiveness due to over-exposure.

But if Russia wins the war in short order, the Republicans could hammer on Biden for relying on costly, arguably ill thought out, and ineffective economic sanctions  America needs  Russian oil and gas exports.

Gas is necessary not only for heating and energy production, but to make fertilizer, of which there already is a world shortage.

That has been exacerbated by blocking Russian and Ukrainian grain exports to send U.S. and European food prices soaring.

Trying to force Russia to respond militarily and thereby look bad to the rest of the world is turning out to be a stunt aimed simply at demonstrating Europe’s need to contribute more to NATO, buy more U.S. military hardware and lock itself deeper into trade and monetary dependence on the United States.

The instability that this has caused could have the effect of making the United States look as threatening as Russia used to be.

European officials did not feel uncomfortable in telling the world about their worries that Donald Trump was crazy and upsetting the apple cart of international diplomacy.

But they seem to have been blindsided at the Biden Administration’s resurgence of visceral Russia-hatred by Secretary of State Blinken and Victoria Nuland-Kagan.

Trump’s mode of expression and mannerisms may have been uncouth, but America’s neocon gang has much more globally threatening confrontation obsessions.

For them, it was a question of whose reality would emerge victorious:

  • The “reality” that they believed they could create,

or,

  • The actual economic reality that lies outside of U.S. control.

Conclusion

It’s what it is.

It’s the start of the big pivot to a new global order; one where the United States is a minor “player”, and it’s proxy nations (NATO, the QUAD), become third world, poverty stricken, cesspools.

More changes to come, however the end result will be the same. There is no fucking way in Hell that American can maintain a unipolar command status. No bloody way.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 3

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
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So you all wanted a trade war, eh?

Above image. Nothing quite captures the rot inside the United States today than the very foundations of New York City.

Calm cool, accurate, and easy to read. Here’s the reality as we move forward in January 2022.

From Strategic Culture…

China Shows Its ‘Trump’ Card

Eamon McKinney
January 8, 2022
.

In a world of chronic shortages China has realized that commodities hold more value than cash.

The current trade war with China began at the very outset of the Trump administration. Apparently alarmed at America’s dependence on Chinese goods, particularly the extent to which its defense industries are reliant on Chinese components and rare earths, Trump had a point but may have better served to speak softly about this vulnerability. He mentioned only two dependencies, there are thousands of products that America relies on China exclusively for.

In moves that were simply anti-competitive practices he then launched in a “tech war” with China. Banning the sale of chips and semi-conductors, along with bans on Chinese 5G and Huawei the global leader in particular. Not content with that the U.S. launched a global push to pressure its “allies’ to also ban Huawei and its state of the art 5G technology. Not to be taken in isolation, the tech war was just part of an overall strategy to damage and restrain China’s economy. “Decoupling” had arrived into the general lexicon.

To an extent the measures worked, the chip shortage caused a slowdown among many tech dependent sectors, but not for long. China has developed its domestic production at a pace not possible anywhere else. It has also convinced China that it needed to greatly accelerate its self-sufficiency across all sectors.

As it stands today, America has nothing that China needs that it can’t make or buy elsewhere. America conversely needs China desperately, without China’s goods the American economy grinds to a halt. The extent of that dependency has been highlighted by Americaэs ongoing supply chain chaos. Manufacturing, retail, construction and countless other industry sectors have stalled without Chinese goods. No country in the world is as dependent on imports as the U.S. Attempts to find alternatives to China are fruitless, no other country can match the efficiency, infrastructure, economies of scale and cost that China can. American manufacturing only accounts for 20% of the American economy, self-sufficiency for Americans is a fantasy, even in the best case scenario, it is generations away.

Long spoken of is “China’s nuclear option”, dumping its dollar holdings and rendering the dollar worthless. China doesn’t want to do that. Firstly the loss of a trillion of its own dollar holdings is not to be taken lightly, and it would also damage the holdings and economies of its other trading partners around the world. Such a move would be an absolute last resort. China’s real nuclear option is the withholding of essential goods to America.

China has all but monopolised the rare earth industries, now accounting for more than 85% of global production. Without rare earths Americas tech and defence sectors would be paralysed.

Curious how President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, makgin American purchases of anything out of Xinjiang illegal. 

Funny thing though... all of the Chiense "rare earth" minerals come from Xinjiang and are mostly mined by Uighurs. 

Uh oh! (Head slap!)

All the seventeen critical rare earths are mined and refined in China in high volume. Some are mined in other countries in smaller volumes: developing alternative sources to China would a very lengthy process. For the foreseeable future, China decides who gets rare earths, and who doesn’t.

Unknown to many Americans the pharmaceutical industry is among the most heavily dependent of China. 80-85% of its products and precursors come from China, and there are currently few alternatives. I leave it to the reader’s imagination to visualize an America without medications, think Zombie apocalypse.

More than 131 million people — 66 percent of all adults in the United States — use prescription drugs. 

-Health policy institute at Georgetown

Some recent developments in China have given us a glimpse of the future. China is stockpiling food and other commodities at unprecedented levels. It is believed to hold more than half the world’s grain and maize already, other essential food stuffs are also being stockpiled at similar levels.

Iron ore, steel and other industrial raw materials are also being hoarded in previously unforeseen quantities. In a world of chronic shortages China has realised that commodities hold more value than cash.

More significantly, China just published a Governmental “White Paper.” It emphasises the need to conserve natural, finite resources (again think rare earths.) It also addresses the paradox that Trump was concerned about, why is China supplying parts to the U.S. military contractors? These among many other sectors will now require a “special export licence”. Read between the lines. China can apply these principles across any exported product it chooses. If they don’t like where it is headed, or what it will be used for, it isn’t going. Fertilisers, for which China accounts for about 30% of the world’s production are already banned from export. This is already forcing American many American farmers to switch from wheat to less fertiliser-intensive crops like soybeans.

China didn’t start or want this trade war, to date it is has been a one-sided assault on the Chinese economy by an increasingly desperate American government. China has not retaliated or employed any of the measures it could have in response, until now.

America now truly has its trade war, and more decoupling will follow, but from here on in, it will be on China’s terms.

…

From LinkedIN…

WHO WANTS A DOLLAR?
NOT CHINA

Dr Eamon McKinney

But America does need China – it needs the rare earths required for military production, automotive and high–tech manufacturing. All would come to a standstill without the rare earths which China has essentially monopolized.

Additionally, 85% of all Pharmaceutica used in the U.S. and their component chemicals come from China. Imagine what America would look like if supplies of
Pharmaceuticals were stopped. The truth, however unpalatable is that America needs China,

China no longer needs America.

What is now happening in China should alarm all Americans businesses. China no longer wants the dollar, China has too many dollars it doesn’t need any more of what it regards as increasingly worthless currency for tangible products.

Where trade is still being conducted many Chinese companies are no longer pricing their goods in Dollars, they are pricing in RMB and want to paid in
such. For the last 40 years, dollars came in and were exchanged into local currency, now, if you want Chinese goods, first buy RMB with your dollars.

First slide…

Second slide…

Second slide.

Third slide…

Third slide.

And China is not alone, widely unreported is the fact that many countries who are considered allies of America, The U.K, France, Germany, India and Mexico are also moving rapidly away from the Dollar and the institutions that sustain it. The swift payment system, the I.M.F. the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements are all now being replaced by more equitable alternatives.

Trump’s tariffs have not affected China or hurt it any way. The tariffs have been paid by the American consumer. It has just added further inflationary pressure on the economy.

But that is the tip of the iceberg. Biden’s new $1.9 Trillion stimulus (actually a bailout) will plunge the dollar to new lows.

If that is not alarming enough, consider this: 40% of all the $US currently in circulation globally have been created in the last year.

The dollar has plunged in value some 15% over the last few months, and it continues to decline. We can only hope that as inflation inevitably increases
it will be gradual, the consequences of a more rapid decline are unthinkable, yet most certainly possible.

Denial appears to be the prevailing U.S. Government policy, but denial is not a useful strategy for the private sector. Companies must deal with the fact that global supply chains may soon to be a thing of the past for American companies.

As the dollar continues to decline, it’s reduced purchasing power is making foreign products uneconomical. The one positive is that the companies who have recognized these facts are bringing their supply chains home.

Re–shoring makes good economic sense, because it is possible that in the near future, the only people who will accept the US dollar are likely to only be other American companies.

…

Conclusion

You will not read about the collapse, the SHTF, or the various wars and brush fights in the American Government controlled media. But they are still going on. Here’s an insight as to what is going on.

Finance folk, bankers, accountants, and other FIRE industries have looted the United States, and gutted American society. It’s a big boated crusty shell with nothing but dust on the inside. Soon, very soon, there is going to be a mass realization of this reality.

It could be harsh, brash and catastrophic.

Or, it could be a serious of controlled implosions.

But it WILL HAPPEN.

There is no way out of this mess. None. The only thing that a person can do is hunker down in a smaller community away from the larger clusters of dependent citizenry, become active and involved in your respective communities, and be the Rufus; help others will no concern for personal profit.

I will advise you all to use all of the techniques provided on MM here to center your consciousness, and prepare.

Here’s a quick review…

  • Affirmation prayer campaigns.
  • Perform your Fate Forecasting, and monitor it closely.
  • Center your consciousness using Hemi-sync.
  • Conduct world-line travel and slides as necessary.
  • Be part of your community.
  • Be able to provide a service, or volunteer in your community.
  • Tune out the bullshit propaganda off the “news”.
  • Stock up your food larder. Have a garden.
  • Trade and barter with neighbors.
  • Ride a bicycle more often. Use the car less.
  • Surround yourself with cats, or dogs, or other animals.
  • Be kind. Be calm. Be neighborly.

Make your little area a bubble of kind softness. That way, no matter what changes hits your world, your little area will be mostly immune to them. Be great; be the Rufus.

I believe in you.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 2

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

A no nonsense comparison between the USA and China

There’s all sort of idiocy on the internet today, as well as very powerful forces that are trying to convince people of this ideology, or that ideology. Well, here we are going to cut through all the nonsense and spell things out plainly and clearly. And it is going to make some people very upset. But I don’t care. Truth hurts. Deal with it, and move on.

This article deals with things as they are. Not what we want them to be. It also deals with the truth as it manifests, not what we want, but what actually exists today.

This article compares China and the USA. If you cannot handle it, then leave. Your tender sensibilities are of no concern to me.

Governance

China is a meritocracy. America is a kakistocracy.

And that is the way it is. China is not communist “regime”. America is not a “free” republic, nor a democracy “on a shining hill”. And both nations are functionally different from their labels. So let’s look at what they functionally operate as.

The United States

There is a lot of bullshit floating about. When I grew up in the United States, I was taught that America was a republic, but when I asked my teacher why everyone called it a democracy, he told me that it was changed by amendment into a democracy by mandating popular elections. Republics don’t do that. Later on, in university, when studying history, I learned that all democracies evolve.

Here’s the evolutionary stages for a democracy. This is not my opinion. It is history. If you cannot handle history, then leave.

  • Democracy evolves to an oligarchy.
  • And if the oligarchy isn’t destroyed by popular revolt, it evolves into a Military dictatorship.
  • If unchecked, a military dictatorship evolves into a military empire.
  • And all military empires devolve into a kakistocracy.
  • And historically a kakistocracy always collapses one way, or the other.

This is where America is today. There is not a person who is alive who can deny this today.

kakistocracy = a government of a state by its most stupid, ignorant, least qualified and unprincipled citizens in power.

Now, let’s look at China.

China

Contemporaneous China was established by Chairman Mao as a Communist nation.

This changed upon his death, and there were various factions fighting for power. Eventually, under Mr. Deng, China embraced capitalism, and democracy, while maintaining a single party rule. Thus it became a “Social Democracy”.

Over the years, boundaries and limits have been placed on which elements of socialism fit the Chinese culture, as well as which elements of capitalism fit the Chinese culture.

Today, we have a unique government style, very reminiscent of the government described by Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers. (My article on this subject is an important read. Click on the link for more.)

Government participation is voluntary. To join the government (the communist party) you must contribute to society without any profit motives. As they said in Starship Troopers, “Service guarantees citizenship”.

So, if you want to vote in China’s democracy, you must first volunteer for the military, or any other volunteer government agencies. Then you must apply, and your membership is reviewed by your merit. There is a strict grading system, and your sponsor into the communist party is held personally responsible for any failings or errors you may make.

Up the chain of command, every step toward leadership roles are though merit driven avenues. Further there are police; known as the “corruption police” that root out, and punish any communist party members that take bribes, involved in graft, do bad or poor behaviors, and they are punished MOST severely.

There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world. And nothing like this ever in history.

China is an absolute meritocracy.

So to recap;

  • China is a meritocracy; a society governed by people selected according to merit.
  • America is a kakistocracy; government by the least suitable or competent.

Middle Class

Both America and China have different cultures, and different societies. But I like to judge the benefits of one society over the other by the size of it’s middle class.

In this case, we will extract the size of the middle class in a binary fashion. Saying that aside from the top 0.01%, the society can be broken down into two categories.

There is the poor. And there is the middle class.

Where within the middle class are stratified levels or layers.

But as long as you are in this middle range, you are doing well. Sure, you might not own your own private jet, but you won’t be starving either. An idealized nation will have everyone living without want or need; they would all be middle class. They would own their own home, always have enough food, medical care, and a role in society.

Now keeping things real, “Middle class” is not a measure of how many houses, or cars that you own. It’s a measure of whether or not you need the government to assist you in meeting basic needs of food, shelter, and medical care.

Using published information…

Freedom and Responsibility

The “talking heads” on all the media talks up a “great game” about how America has “freedom!” as if it actually existed. Freedom is not just words on a piece of paper that can be taken away by legislation, hello!, it’s something that you live with. And since it is something that you live with, comes responsibility.

America and China differ substantially in this regard.

America is a land of “anything goes” freedom with zero responsibility. The boundaries on the use of that freedom are defined by law. Limitations on what laws can exist is supposed to be met under the terms of the Bill of Rights, but that document has been riddled with so many exceptions that it no longer is a functional document. Thus you have a society where people can do anything, just as long as they are not caught by the police in breaking a law.

China, on the other hand, treats freedom as something precious that is dished out in measured amounts to those who are responsible. This is measured by the “Social Scoring” system. If you are responsible, you are permitted great deal of freedom. If not, then you have your “wings clipped” and live a more restricted life.

  • America = All freedom. No responsibility, can act within the confines of law.
  • China = Freedom and responsibility are intertwined, and measured for compliance.

Community

I also like to measure society buy it’s communities. This measurement comes in many forms, but fundamentally it is a complex mixture of safety, social interaction with others, access to basic transportation, quality of life, costs of groceries, access to parts and public areas, and friendships.

This is all very difficult to measure. So we are going to look at this in a broader sense. We will look at the most popular community structures in China and America and then compare them.

In China, most people live in these housing complexes. These are enormous skyscrapers that are surrounded by a wall, and is secured by security police known as BaoAn’s. Within that complex is at least one park, multiple recreation areas, kindergarten and elementary schools, a police and local government administration office, a post office, and individual parking.

While homes can be rented in these complex’s, most people buy a house. Thus securing a long term residence that allow direct participation with all their neighbors. Additionally, people in the building complexes are all on social media and share thoughts, stories, issues and needs in real time, as they develop.

It is not at all unusual to see evenings filled with children playing in the open areas, the parks and the buildings. Old people walk on the sidewalks and walkways, and BaoAn’s mingle with the residence. This is normal China.

In America, most people yearn for a home. They buy a home in the country, or suburb, and (if they are rich enough) a home / apartment in a city. In all cases, they are isolated from each other. If they want to be part of the community, they must make an effort to do so. It is not automatic, and thus many people tend to stay inside and isolate. The suburbs in America are some of the quietest and loneliest places on the earth.

  • China = An active community of participation.
  • America = A nice home in isolation with little community participation.

Now, I could go on and on…

I can site facts and figures. Like the percentage of people who drive, or the percentage of people who are employed, or the effort it takes in literacy. But that’s an easy and a silly way to measure things. You just cannot take things in isolation and measure them. You need to provide a “level playing field” and then measure from there.

People use GDP, for instance. But GDP is flawed. And I will repeat my often used example…

  • Sally has one dollar and can buy two apples with it.
  • Tom has ten dollars, but can only buy one apple with it.

According to GDP, Tom is more successful than Sally.

We all need to measure our lives by our happiness. As well as by our purpose, and our relationships with the community.

If you are not happy, but instead working for money; if you don’t have a purpose other than to make money; and if you have no sense of community, then you are very likely to be living in the United States.

And of course, if you are happy, and you work as part of a community for the betterment of all, then you are probably living in China.

Reality Check

Of course, not everyone in America lives in suburbs, or in their own homes. And not everyone in China lives in these huge mega apartment complexes. And not everyone in America is isolated, and not everyone in China is part of the community. But the point is that the vast bulk of them are.

And that is what we are talking about here. As America is balkanized, you will have an occasional little oasis of community, and one of prosperity and safety. But those numbers are dwindling. And China is a homogenized nation. Everyone speaks one language, and no one is hyphenated.  You won’t hear any Chinese calling themselves Hunan-Chinese, or Xinjiang Chinese.

As I have said before, we have to see things as they really exist. Not as we want them to be.

Personally

Personally I think it is a good idea to have a choice in how you can live your life in different societies. It’s like being able to choose between steak or dog food for dinner. And if you are tired of dog food, you can smell that delicious steak and eventually go to a place where there is steak every day. Yum!

Some people like to eat dog food. They eat it day in and day out. They are told that dog food is good, and that everyone knows that dog food is the best.

Me; I like steak.

Judging from the billions of pro-America articles out in internet-land, so many people love living inside of America. They have this thing called “democracy” and “freedom”. Though what it actually is, is really hard to nail down. If you ask them if the election systems actually work, most would say no. If you ask them if their representatives will represent them, they would also say no. And if you ask them if the bill of Rights is being followed, they would also say no.

So, perhaps, America is just floating along on this vaporous cloud of ignorance and hope.

Meanwhile China has “been there and done that”. They went through the changes and have arrived at a stable place. They carved out a life and made it stable, and rock solid.

America is the land of the 0.1% of people. If you can become one of them, then this place is for you. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation toils to one day be able to reach that point. Maybe you too can be come a billionaire and fly into space!

China is the land of the 90% of people. Everyone can get a decent life. Some better than others, but all within a fine band of comfort. And you know, it is possible, that one day, you will be able to fly into space. If not you, then your kids. But it is really possible.

Today in the United States, the only think keeping the masses of people from revolting and hanging the government is the free welfare checks, and the television / internet. To me, it reminds me of Rome, where the rulers provided their citizens with bread and circuses.

In China, as I have repeatedly tried to relate, it is calm and peaceful. No stress at all. None. Kids play, people talk. Nothing is frantic. Nothing is fast paced. The skies are blue. The trees are green. Flowers are everywhere. Malls are open, stores are bright and cheerful This is throughout China, not “only on the coast” as one supposed China expat said in a comment.

Now for some videos…

With this in mind, let’s look at a few videos that serve to illustrate these points.

In a MERIT DRIVEN SOCIETY such as CHINA, everyone tries to do their best and excel. They work together. They study hard. They strive. (Video)

video

Yes they do, and this idea to be the best you can be, to be kind and to be helpful comes from how you are raised. Check out this next video. This is a Chinese preschool. (video).

video

In a SOCIETY DRIVEN BY GREED such as AMERICA, it’s every man for himself. And thus you have all sorts of crime and events related to fraud and deception. (Video)

video

“Is that your bike? No.”

And so what does this guy do? He films it and does nothing. Not a community. It is just every man for himself. (Video)

video

But it doesn’t have to be this way…

If you grew up in a land with a thousand tiny hands in your wallet, a leadership that are idiots, and where every person is scrambling for a “piece of the pie”, you can change that.

No. I am not talking about revolution. Nor am I talking about leaving the nation that you are part of for somewhere else. I am instead talking about what you can do to make the world around you a little bit better.

Participate.

Meet your neighbors. Say hi. Smile. Buy coffee for coworkers. Clean up the trash on the street. Feed the dogs and cats. Make your home open, welcome and friendly.

Use the “porch light system” for invitations. Tell everyone you meet in your community that when the porch light is on, that it is a welcome for them to come on over and have a cup of coffee and to chill out with you.

Be the Rufus. (video)

I love this Rufus doggie.

video

Be the Rufus!

You can make the world a better place. Just help others. (Video)

If everyone thought about others, their community, their purpose, and in making their little tiny part better, than we all will live a better life. Stop being alone and isolated. Reach out. Help others. Make friends. You will be surprised how much your quality of life will improve. Just participate in life.

Video

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings

.

Articles & Links

Master Index

.

  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

 

 

 

What it is like living in China the real-life “Twilight Zone” episode

Here, let’s just talk about some odds and ends for a change.

What it is like living in China the real-life “Twilight Zone” episode

I swear the disconnect between what is reported in the “news” in the West and what is actually occurring is so different it is mind blowing. And to underline; to underscore this, I am going to give a few examples on just how much bullshit if being fed to the cattle in the United States and Britain. It’s pretty enormous.

Elections in China

Now, you know, China is a Social Democracy that refers to it’s self as “Communist with Chinese Characteristics”. Just like Americans call themselves a “free Republic”. So anyways, there’s been elections this week. And in China that is a big deal. Wholly automated, Use QR codes and connect to the election system by your cell phone. Of course, it is efficient and quick, but only Communist Party members can vote. Like I said in my article about China being like the movie “Starship Troopers”. Service gives citizenship. So if you want to vote, you must volunteer to participate in society.

So anyways, it’s really different from the clown show of elections in the West.

Is it being reported? No. Not one single American or Western news organization is reporting on the elections inside China. Why?

Banned news item on LinkedIN

Well, the banned comments on LinkedIN tell the entire story. There are certain subjects that the American government FORBIDS to be discussed on any American internet platform. And one of those is elections inside of China.

Which is probably why you won’t find any “news” about this in Western media. It’s erased as if it doesn’t exist, and the readership of those “news” articles continue to believe that China is a single party communist dictatorship. That doesn’t have elections.

…

The United States censors anything that shows China to be a democracy.

WiFi Dongle

Well, long time MM readers will know of my struggles with Microsoft. Finally when I purchased the entire Windows 10 package and installed it complete on my laptop… it stopped working. Told me to purchase yet ANOTHER authentic Microsoft windows OS, and disabled most of my functionality on the system. I said “fuck this”, and installed Lunix on my new computer.

And it is “cherry”. It works beautifully.

Well, only one problem, though. The company that makes the chipset core in my computer is a company owned by Microsoft; Realtek. And they do not have official Microsoft approved drivers to run the wifi. SoI have to manually install third party drivers for the blasted wifi. Which is a real pain in the ass.

I have been Learning Lunix commands and tying all sorts of work-arounds. Finally using a Ethernet dongle connected to my 5G router. And it seems to work, but it is a pain in the ass to be manually wired to systems when you carry a laptop. I need mobility.

So I devised a plan.

I would buy a Ethernet USB adapter and use it. I would use one that would be plug and play compatible with my Lunix system. So I went on the Internet and searched for “best internet wifi adapters 2021”, and ended up HERE after I selected the top pick.

And here’s the item. Cost is $44 USD or 286 RMB.

Amazon.com Wifi adapter for Lunix

Well, the delivery time from the USA is around one to two months, It will arrive in early December, but Customs will need to clear it, and that will be another two weeks easy. So this is what I did…

I went on Alibaba and looked up the factories that make the “guts”; the electronics of these gadgets. As you can see there are a bunch of them.

Factories in China that make Wifi adapters

And then I asked one of my engineers to search for the factory that make this particular “Made in America” product. Because, after all, according to Amazon.com this product is made inside of America with American know-how, American skills, and American everything. But, you know, I have been doing international trade for many decades. Politics aside, it’s all made overseas. So we went a looking.

The bottom line is that we found the manufacturer that makes the guts for this “American product”. They are in Shenzhen.

And we talked directly one-on-one with the engineer there.

They have been manufacturing the inner workings for this “American product” for years now. Generally they started as an OEM supplier, and now they do their own design and their own products.

And he told us that while they could give us the exact product that is sold in America, it would be a mistake for us to use it. The American product has special chipset modifications required by the United States government in the core PCB. He didn’t know what they were, but suspected they were “back door” access of all the signals going to and from the adapter.

So instead, he would sell us the exact module without the American chipset addons. It’s all good, it’s just a different chip and different add on (parts delete) on the board. I said “sounds good to me”.

Cost was $6 USD or under 40 RMB with local shipping.

…

The United States has electronic access via “backdoors” in all American wifi products.

Taiwan

"There is almost no scenario in which the United States can successfully intervene in a war between China and Taiwan that will not leave our country in far worse shape than it is right now; in a worst-case scenario, American territory could be struck by nuclear missiles." 

-Business Insider

US officials who are ready to fight China over Taiwan don’t understand how much is at stake

Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, ret, Defense Priorities
Mar 18, 2021, 9:16 PM

Many of America’s leading military and political figures have issued increasingly alarmist warnings in recent days about the potential for conflict with China, especially related to issues surrounding Taiwan.

But before the US gets into a crisis that brings it to the threshold of war — or finds itself stumbling into one — policymakers and military leaders need to address some hard realities.

There is almost no scenario in which the United States can successfully intervene in a war between China and Taiwan that will not leave our country in far worse shape than it is right now; in a worst-case scenario, American territory could be struck by nuclear missiles.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific, warned that Chinese military developments looked to him like a nation planning for a war.

Davidson added that he believed China would attempt to forcibly reunify Taiwan “in the next six years.” To guard against this possibility, Davidson asked Congress to provide a whopping $27 billion in additional funding over the current defense budget.

One of the featured programs for this increase is the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. Last year Congress allocated $2.1 billion for the initiative. This year Davidson is asking for more than double that amount, to $4.6 billion.

The PDI’s main objectives will be to increase the number of ground-based cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and hypersonic missiles in areas closer to Chinese territory. That effort is already well underway.

In October the US Marine Corps completed construction on its first new permanent base in the Indo-Pacific area since 1952. The Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force have additional plans to establish new bases or expand existing ones at Tinian Island, Palau, Guam, and Australia — all along the so-called “first island chain” near China’s coastline.

The expansion is designed to enhance US’ ability to conduct “island-hopping” operations and create the ability to rapidly construct military airfields in austere environments.

The reason for this expansion, Davidson said, was to reduce or eliminate the time necessary for American military forces to engage Chinese targets.

The admiral said that right now it would take US forces on the West Coast more than three weeks to get within range of China and troops from Alaska 17 days. But the “perfect speed,” Davidson concluded, was “being there.”

Almost entirely absent from the hearing was any explanation of what’s driving the United States to elevate the risk of war by increasing the number of troops near the Chinese coast.

As a freedom-loving democracy, the United States is a strong advocate for the independence and freedom of any people, including those in Taiwan. But to that laudable belief must be added a willingness to assess the world in a realistic way.

Right now, both the United States and China are in a spiral in which one side expands its capabilities for war, citing rising threats from the other — which each then offers as justification for yet more military spending and preparation for war.

China is building infrastructure to project its power westward to the first island chain at the same time US forces are moving infrastructure eastward toward the first island chain and Chinese coast. Every day increases the chance of an accident or miscalculation leading to war.

Both the United States and China say they don’t want war, but both sides are accelerating and expanding their preparation for war.

If the United States were to one day fight China for anything other than an unprovoked attack, we would be choosing a course which would — in the best-case scenario — cause extraordinary harm to our military and markedly degrade our national security; in the worst-case, we could lose a war, putting at risk our very freedom.

It is crucial to understand that for China, the Taiwan issue is not merely a core interest, but an emotionally charged one. They are far more willing to pay extraordinary costs, sacrifice many men, and could risk it all to eventually compel unification with Taiwan.

The issue does not directly affect our national security unless we get involved.

If we eventually choose war with China over Taiwan, we will at best suffer egregious losses in ships, aircraft, and troops; in a worst-case, the war could deteriorate into a nuclear exchange in which American cities are turned into nuclear wastelands, killing millions.

America should never take such risks unless our security and freedom are directly threatened. Fighting China for any reason short of that would be a foolish gamble of the highest order.

…

If the USA gets involved in a war with China over Taiwan, the USA would lose. The magnitude of the loss is the only outcome in question.

Poverty

Two days ago, I received this comment from someone who read my article  “You must leave China now. China is not safe. America will destroy it completely and I will not be able to help you out”…

He said;

You keep pounding on points that no one disputes but which are irrelevant. What are you trying to convince Americans to do? Admire China? Be demoralized? Why would the Chinese care what we think of them? How is insulting America going to make us admire them, anyway? If it is to demoralize, then that, too is foolish — attacking your best potential ally while leaving everyone’s real enemy untouched.

Butt-hurt because America is performing so poorly on all fronts. And all I have to say about this is that America has failed in taking care of the social issues that are fundamental to a functioning society. American is becoming more like Bangladesh than a “free and prosperous” nation.

The MM readership will know that I was homeless for a period of time between when I left the Navy and then obtained my training at NAS China Lake. During this period of time, the general treatment of homeless people all over the country was to escort you out of the town, and if they cannot do that, then lock you up in jail until a social service can take you in.

Do you want to know what they do in China?

Everyone in China has an identity. They have a card, but also biometrics. When ever a beggar is found on the streets or a homeless person, the duty of the citizens are to contact the police who will then come to the beggar / homeless person.

The police will then escort them to the local social services office. They will be immediately provided with a shower, clean clothes, a meal (or two as needed), a physical examination to include mental health, and an interview.

During that interview they will determine if that person can stay or needs to return to their home town. You see, every ID card is associated with a local “home town” government. That government is wholly responsible for that person.

If the person is mentally unstable, looking for work, transient but having difficulties, or whatever the issue, the interviewer will make the necessary arrangements to get the person help.

Typically, in many cases, but not all, the person would be escorted to their home town and handed over to the local government there. They will immediately provide them with long-term housing, food, showers, and a simple but useful job. The person then need not worry about health care, housing, food, or being alone.

This is how China takes care of it’s citizens.

America just locks them up in prison / mental hospital / or allows them to be preyed upon in the wilds of urban streets.

…

America has FAILED in providing to the needs of it’s citizens, while China has been able to handle and take care of it’s citizenry.

Yahoo!

The Internet empire Yahoo! has decided to close off China from all of it’s services. No reason is given, but I cannot help but assume that it is political in nature.

Ah, yet another wall to isolate China from the Western World.

My Grandfather’s House

My fathers’ father lived on “Polish Hill” which is a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is a hilly area, and all the houses are built on the sides of very steep hills, many actually being full cliff faces. Thus, when you enter the house, you would have a “ground floor” which consists of the living room and kitchen, a second floor which has a bathroom and bedrooms, and two to four basements.

In my Grandfather’s house, there were two basements. A “main basement” which opened up to the “laundry room” with the mandatory (middle of the room) commode (ah, it’s a Pittsburgh thing) and his workshop.

Now, tucked away in his workshop was this tiny “broom closet” sized door tucked away in the far corner. His workshop was filled with all sorts of electrical appliances and televisions that he would repair and work on, and old magazines and documents for the electronics world that he was a part of. He also had quite a large collection of pocket watches that he tried to repair, and various mechanisms that he would fix for a few bucks (money) here and there.

But when you opened up that tiny broom closet door, you would find yourself at a old rickety wooden spiral staircase going down into the sub-basement grotto. There was a pile of old hardwood that was too valuable to discard, shelves of very dusty brick-a-brack, and other long forgotten treasures that a boy of ten would find absolutely fascinating.

And I was ten when I discovered all these adventures.

Yes, I would explore those dingy and dark areas with the radio playing “Up, up and away in my beautiful balloon”, wearing bell-bottom pants, while my mother and grandmother watched Laurence Welk on the television show, upstairs.

Now, fast forward from the early 1970’s to 1981. I am living with my grandmother as I worked at a job in one of the steel mills there. I stayed with her for about three months until I could afford my own apartment.

And She was cleaning out that subbasement. She was hauling away everything. Too much junk, worthless garbage and clutter, she said.

I had picked up this dusty old mason jar (an old canning jar for home made preserves) and was looking inside of it. There were a few pennies from the 1920’s, a old faded scrap of paper with some unintelligible writing on it (in Polish no less), two or three old buttons, a few military pins, and a hand made key to some kind of a closet or drawer.

When I showed it to my grandmother, she exclaimed “So THAT’s where that key was!”

Apparently there was a drawer in one of the pieces of furniture in the second bedroom that has been locked for decades! So, my grandmother and I went upstairs and used the key and opened up the drawer.

Inside was a bunch of jewelry / bracelets, and a couple of old coins. There was a couple of combs, a couple of old straight razors for shaving, and some silk handkerchiefs.  As well as a few old letters. There was a a very old and small diary and my grand mother picked it up and started to leaf though it, and then set it aside as we continued our explorations. There were some really old pictures of people that I did not know, and a really cool coin purse.

Now this coin purse was all metal. It was a metal bag like thingy like chain metal armor, with a cool 1920’s era design. And it had this cure little chain and it would open by a clasp. She gave it to me and I actually thought it was really cool. Inside of it, was a few more old coins. Which included pennies with faces of Indians on them, and a nickel with an Indian on the coin!

OK.

Now for part two.

Well, there was a penny in the purse, and I was messing around with my friends one weekend. And my brother had this metal (cast iron, actually) little bank mechanism thingy. You would put this penny in this part of the contraption (a representative of a guy holding a gun) and then press the latch and the mechanism would actuate a spring that would “shoot” the penny into a slot in the metal bank.

And so, on that fateful day, I lost the penny that was in the purse that I found at the grotto under the sub-basement of my grandmother’s house.

I never did get that penny back. I soon moved away after being laid off, and my life took on another direction. And somewhere, someone, took that bank that had perhaps ten or fifteen pennies, and opened it up and obtained that precious memory of when my grandmother and I discovered the key to her memories.

Why China is building more nuclear missiles…

From the article above…

One of the featured programs for this increase is the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. Last year Congress allocated $2.1 billion for the initiative. This year Davidson is asking for more than double that amount, to $4.6 billion.

The PDI's main objectives will be to increase the number of ground-based cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and hypersonic missiles in areas closer to Chinese territory. 

That effort is already well underway...

Well, it should be obvious, for every new location where the USA places it’s missiles to attack China, China now needs to arm a nuclear salvo to rubble and glass-over those weapons sites so that they are impotent in a war scenario.

Good going, Congress!

Do not be under the impression that all the weapons are for the areas right next door to China, you God damn morons. It’s for YOU. It’s for YOUR homes. It’s for YOUR cities. It’s for YOUR country.

China is NOT reactionary. They provide reactions on a event by event basis until it become clear that it is an all or nothing situation. Then, they take the necessary step to extinguish all enemy leadership and their support networks immediately.

Jews! Jews! Jews!

Lordy! One of my posts from 2019 hit the internet recently, and landed in the lap of some hard-right folks.  Aside from slowing my servers to a crawl, MM now came up (yet again) on American “watch lists”. Which is a headache in itself.

Sigh.

I have been getting a lot of comments about how “wrong” I am. And that Jews are the cause of everything! Jews started communism. Jews created Ebola. Jews are the reason homosexuality exists. Jews cause all wars. Jews, Jews, Jews!

Sheech!

I hope all this ruckus dies down soon. Because now a subgroup of “Chinese 5G is a plan to brainwash Americans to take vaccinations for a hoax virus” is starting to make the rounds. Who knows? Maybe the next thing will be “Donald Trump will win the next Presidential Election, and the China issue will be settled once and for all“.

I need a beer.

I am making more enemies than friends, it seems…

You know, in my last Q&A I post an eight part question by a contributor. And the Domain Commander didn’t answer it, and this was at a time where everyone was sending me questions to ask the Commander. So I just took one of the smaller lists and tried to ask it. And the results were posted.

Now the fellow who asked the question is upset, and doesn’t want me to throw him to the cornfield. Understandable, and now he fears that I have ill intent or beliefs about his intent.

Sigh.

Guys, Please understand that I had maybe 15 to 25 people throwing all sorts of multiple part questions at me to ask. I did not realize that I would become so famous. Some were very sincere. But some were just busy work.

Now put yourself in my shoes. You get questions, you cut and paste them into a MS Word file, and the list grows and grows.

Then you start the tasking. And it wears you out.

Imagine ten people asking 15 questions. That’s 150 questions!

Which ones are sincere? Which ones are critical? Which ones are important? Which ones are just busy work? I really don’t know.

So what I did, was I got a group from the top of the question list, and started my “flight plan”, and I printed the result in the Q&A.

Everyone, please I really sincerely want to make a difference in this world, and I sincerely want to answer your questions. If you have something pressing, please send to me at the laobanGBH@163.com email address, along with some background on the one singular question. I need to know why it is important to you personally.

As to those that asked questions that I did not answer, please wait. I am still a human, though I have many faults and cracks in my personality. Do not be offended. I just need to set up systems to handle the huge influx of questions, participants, and “noise” that is being directed at me right now.

Though, I will really get angry if someone sends me a tabulated spreadsheet of 200 multiple part questions like …

“Question 145, part 7, subpart 4, section B”

Which actually DID happen. Jeeze!

I responded back to him, but I guess he used a throw-away email address. I haven’t heard back from him.

Vaxx Stuff

For all youse guys who are into the anti-mRNA vaccination protocols, might find this article of value. The title speaks for itself…

https://www.conservativebeaver.com/2021/11/05/ceo-of-pfizer-arrested-charged-with-fraud-media-blackout/

I don’t know if it is legit or not.

System collapse

All internet traffic to MM reached an unusually huge level and over taxed the system. Points of origination came from inside the United States, and I also received multiple DOS attacks. My system shut down, a secondary group of attacks came out of Hong Kong and overwhelmed my normal local internet as well.

Thus the two locations Metallicman…

  • Hosting Servers inside of America
  • Point of origin servers inside of China.

Have BOTH been simultaneously attacked by numerous DOS attacks. All on top of an abnormally large traffic stream.

My guess that it isn’t about my fine taste in cheeseburgers. I’ll be willing to bet that it is about my predictions, and the Commander’s confirmation, that the USA is planning a first strike nuclear salvo against China. Can’t allow the rest of the world to know. Heh. Heh.

I guess I am big stuff.

You all know that I have been battling with getting the systems up and running, but right now, I am unable to do anything. All internet access is overwhelmed locally, and I am simply helpless.

Well, as my cat taught me, “life is hard, then you nap”.

Well, no need to fret about it all. I’m just going to get some beer and chill out. It’s a nice day out. Blue skies. Pleasant temperatures. Fresh air.

So, as soon as a window of opportunity opens up, I will do what I can to get things back up and running again.

-MM

Have a good day you all and remember…

You, I, we… we all are a community. Never forget that.

We are all part of something much bigger.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

 

 

 

Glimpses of contemporaneous Vietnam. Oh, it is so very different from what you would expect

Here, I continue on my “bender” on taking a look at other nations in our world. In each case, so far, I have shown the reality to be something different from what you would ever read about in the Western (especially the American) press. I have looked at China, Russia, Thailand, Cambodia, the middle East, and now, Vietnam.

Vietnam is a very interesting place full of great beauty, beautiful women, delicious food, and an easy going happy-go-lucky lifestyle.

Enter Donald Trump and his neocon war-mongers

Vietnam continued their easy and laid back lifestyle since the tumultuous 1960’s when America decided to churn up and rape the countryside for freedom™ and democracy™. And it continued that way through the decades, up until Donald Trump took office and started his “War on China”.

He demanded that American companies leave China or face all sorts of consequences. In American “language” this means that “border-line legal” actions might (and probably would) be directed at the company. Such as suspicious hard-line tax audits, and review of OSHA and EPA policies and factory operation shut-downs during the “investigations” as well as mysterious fires in the warehouses, random union uprisings and personal tax audits and random arrests of key corporate executives.

Many, but not all, American companies started to relocate a number of their operations out of China. The vast bulk did not return to America, however. Instead, they went to Mexico and Vietnam.

About Factories

When America switched from manufacturing inside of America to outsourcing to China, they did NOT teach the Chinese how to make factories or build products. Instead, they went to existing factories, handed over the blueprints, and quality specifications, moved their tooling and equipment, and said “make this for us”. And that is pretty much (as harsh as it sounds) what actually happened.

Now, in the thirty to forty years that America has been devoid of solid manufacturing skill, the American companies that manufactured inside of China were in a bind. Just how do you move your factory, when you don’t own it?

Do you start from scratch? Hire new engineers? Try to reverse engineer your systems to fit a Mexican or Vietnamese work force? What do you do?

Well, I can’t say that this is what happened to all of the factories, but I can tell you that a sizable number took this action…

…the Chinese factories that supplied the American companies, set up divisions inside of Vietnam.

Thus, the Donald Trump trade war, as far as bringing manufacturing capability back to the United States failed. Instead, all that happened is the existing Chinese factories continued to supply the American companies. The only difference is that they did so out of Vietnam.

Vietnam Changed.

Of course, all of this movement of Chinese factories into Vietnam, and with it, the Chinese support structures, have made great changes to Vietnam. While it is still a sluggish and rather backward nation, it is growing and expanding. And this has created a rather unique mix of older traditional Vietnam, with modern Chinese industry and support structures. Very few American influences are present. As America is rather a nation of bankers, accountants, lawyers, and diversity experts. Very few have an kind of impact on Vietnamese society.

Here we are going to look at some videos out of Vietnam taken these last two months. It’s a quite interesting mix of color and tradition.

The Videos

Let’s go through these videos.

I suggest you watch them in order to get the full diverse effect. And I hope hope that you enjoy them and get “something out of them”. This group has around 85 (give or take) videos. So to prevent you from getting carpal tunnel syndrome (yikes!) clicking on each individual video, I have clustered the videos into small zip files that you click on, download and then browse through at your leisure.

Group A

  • Cooking some kind of purple Vietnamese food.
  • Foreigner in Vietnam trying to pick up a local butterfly girl.
  • Young love having some fun.
  • Lunch in a Chinese factory located in Vietnam.
  • Dressing up to go out on a date.
  • You ride scooters to get anywhere.
  • Making supper.
  • Loved ones going off to do their mandatory military service.
  • Some girls getting down at a local gathering.
  • Another foreigner trying to pick up some butterfly girls.
  • Night life in one of the bigger cities.
  • Two girls on the way to work (my guess is a massage or restaurant).
  • Bar Life.
  • Home made turbo-generators for local village power needs.
Group A

You can download this entire archive HERE.

Group B

  • Single 20-something girl in her one-room apartment.
  • Hair stylist.
  • Wedding party.
  • Bride’s Maids showing their disdain for the bride for leaving them behind.
  • Pretty Vietnam girl in a tea house.
  • Pretty Vietnam farm girl in the field.
  • Some 20-something’s “hanging out”.
  • Pretty factory girl on the factory campus.
  • Drunk factory girl in her shared dorm room.
  • Classmates cheering up a sad girl.
  • Before a wedding.
  • Prep-cook.
  • Lunch with beer and pigeon eggs.
  • Vietnam government taking guidance from China and fighting COVID.
Group B

You can download this entire archive HERE.

Group C

  • What small-town Vietnam is actually like.
  • A typical highway between towns.
  • Pretty girl doing a Tictok.
  • Wedding tradition.
  • Wedding reception activity.
  • Girls of the night looking for customers.
  • Picnic Vietnamese style.
  • Female Vietnamese kick-boxer.
  • Haircut and a shave.
  • Happy birthday.
  • Handing out money to those wearing masks.
  • Chilled girl stopping by the side to put on a warmer top.
  • One of the many wedding rituals.
  • Butterfly Girl on the prowl in the night-life section.
Group C

You can download this entire archive HERE.

Group D

  • Foreigner interacting with some “ladies of the night”.
  • Not quite sure what is going on.
  • Laundry on the porch.
  • Young love at the factory.
  • A beautiful Vietnamese girl.
  • Leaving his house as he has to go off to work now.
  • Lining up for vaccinations.
  • Household savings.
  • Nothing is sexier than a woman cooking.
  • Working the farm.
  • Washing hair outside.
  • Traditional outfit.
  • [Video messes up on MS systems about 50% of the time.]
  • Traditional family.
Group D

You can download this entire archive HERE.

Group E

  • Butterfly girls (prostitutes) lined up for some customers.
  • making waffles for breakfast.
  • City night ride.
  • China giving away free “dead virus” (traditional) vaccines in Vietnam.
  • Pretty girl 1.
  • Pretty girl 2.
  • A factory lunch.
  • A friend had a little too much to drink.
  • Off to the honeymoon.
  • Night life.
  • A girl of the night.
  • Making products for American consumers in a Chinese factory in Vietnam.
  • Farting at loved ones.
  • I am not too sure what is going on here.
Group E

You can download this entire archive HERE.

Group F

  • Foreigner picking up a butterfly girl.
  • Another butterfly girl scores BIG.
  • Pretty girl in traditional attire.
  • OMG! What a sexy video!!!!!
  • Night time going out to be with friends.
  • Confrontation or something…?
  • It’s hot! HOT!
  • Healthy dinner.
  • China is assisting Vietnam in the construction of hospitals.
  • KTV fun. I wish I was there.
  • Later on at the KTV things are getting a little crazy.
  • You have to wear pants over your miniskirt while riding a scooter.
  • Wedding exchanges.
  • Friends partying.
  • A bit of fun at a Chinese factory inside of Vietnam making products for Americans.
Group F

You can download this entire archive HERE.

On a topical note…

As the Biden administration consolidates its foreign policy, it has predictably turned its attention towards Southeast Asia in a bid to “counter China”.

Just last week, Mid-August 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore in a bid to increase military ties between Washington and the region.

Means… allow American military bases there, American war ships to sail there, and the placement of American offensive missile systems there.

Right on China’s “doorstep”.

Imagine that!

Now, Kamala Harris is also set to visit two of these countries (Vietnam and Singapore), where the reported main message will be ‘America is Back!’ – a sentiment which will no doubt go down a storm in Hanoi.

You know like swallowing bile that rise up in your throat.

The vice president’s aim with this trip is to “call out” China over its maritime claims in the South China Sea.They can’t do it personally face-to-face with China. They will no longer play “that game”. So like cowards, they are trying to undermine all the relationships of all the nations that border on China.

They come with suitcases (no cross that out) pallets, (no cross that out) Shipping containers full of freshly minted US dollars.

Freshly minted.

Hot off the (over worked) printing presses.

For, you know, the leadership to do what ever they want with the nice crisp “green backs”.

This comes amid America’s attempts to militarize the region.

They’ve been really busy, don’t you know.

The anti-China QUAD; those vassal states of the UK and Japan who will be compelled to “die on their swords” at the push of a button from the American Pentagon. To Australia who has only become a vassal state for reasons not so obvious. In my mind, a treasonous Morrison government with many, many skeletons in his closet is willing to sacrifice his people for Washington DC.

As well as continuously sailing aircraft carriers through the sensitive waters in a bid to project American power.

It comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the ASEAN-China ministerial meeting, where he has warned against “external interference” by “extraterritorial powers” in the region.

No prizes here for guessing who he was talking about…

The US says that it’s “back” to Southeast Asian countries.

It’s just bullshit.

The reality is this: apart from all the militaristic “sabre rattling” and pushing a non-stop hate China narrative while convincing everyone (with a pulse) to oppose China, the United States actually doesn’t have a strategy for the region.

But Beijing does.

In many ways, the legacy of recent US policies in this area of the world has been self-defeating.

The “political space” (the room to maneuver and work around is) that Biden has to turn it around is really quite limited.

In other words, it’s essentially still Trump’s ‘America First’ sentiment.

And that is quite telling as the biggest gaping hole in America’s strategy towards Southeast Asian countries is failing to offer them anything in return.

There are no, absolutely zero, economic incentives to oppose China. All they have to offer is personal riches for the rulers. As well as promises to offer them “green cards” and citizenship if the whole plan goes “tits up”.

China, need I remind you, which is right next door to these nations.

On this front, America has isolated itself.

In so many ways too.

Most notably by withdrawing from the mega trade deal which Obama fashioned as an anti-China initiative known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Now rebranded CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) amongst local partners.

On the level of US domestic politics, this is toxic because the consensus is that free trade is bad, especially if it detracts from jobs at home.

Therefore, Biden faces protectionist pressure not to re-join it, thus it has not come back on the Biden agenda.

China, on the other hand, has comprehensively doubled down on its economic ties with the surrounding region and entrenched its presence. Most notably through joining the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which it quickly ratified.

This creates an obvious problem for America.

China is increasingly integrating itself with the region on an economic level.

In which local parties (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, etc.) welcome with open arms gleefully.

But, you know, the United States is not happy with in the least.

China has, in addition, begun to move away from the US dollar in its business with these countries. This includes a local currency trade agreement with Indonesia and the setting up of an RMB bank in the Philippines, amongst other things.

No longer is trade being conducted in the “almighty” US Dollar. It’s local currency to the e-yuan. And as time moves forward, more and more nations are following this lead.

The US doesn’t have an answer to any of this.

Recently, it was reported that Washington wanted to try and propose a ‘digital trade deal’ among the economies of the Asia-Pacific. This “digital trade deal”  is intended to lock China out of trade with any nations that sign that agreement. This is by regulation.

A favorite technique, mind you, well established and mature to crush nations that do not “toe the line” with American Geo-political policy.

This is intended to be done by setting strict rules and regulations on the ‘digital economy’ of the region.

Diplomatic sources dismissed it as a complete non-starter.

Why?

Because it’s absolutely untenable for these countries to lock China out, and it’s not hard to see why.

Yesterday (Mid-August 2021) Huawei announced it would be investing $100 million into over 1,000 software start-ups throughout Southeast Asia. And that’s just one of the many initiatives in bringing manufacturing, development, growth and prosperity to all the nations that surround China.

With a high degree of integration and economic benefits, it is impossible for the US to now shape the region’s initiative while keeping China excluded.

There’s nothing left.

This leaves the military.

And this is where China is increasingly powerful, but the US remains competitive and relevant.

Many countries in the region accept the presence of the United States and its allies militarily, because it gives them strategic space to prevent them from being completely dominated by China.

For a small city state like Singapore, this inclination makes obvious sense, but this is not so much ‘siding’ with America as it is a geopolitical balancing act between both powers.

Walking the “tight rope”; the “fine line” of neutrality.

Here lies the problem: America wants countries to align with it against China in a binary way, but the nations themselves want neutrality.

And ASEAN (The association of South East Asian nations) as an institution officially seeks such.

Singapore’s prime minister stated several days ago that it seeks balance between both powers, and did not want to become torn between them.

Seeks balance.

Seeks neutrality.

Seeks a uni-polar world.

Some of these states of course are formally allied with America, such as the Philippines. Yet, you know, for all intents and purposes they utilize a strategy of ‘hedging’ between both sides.

And for certain, they do not seek confrontation with Beijing.

If Washington pushes too hard on anti-China initiatives, these countries become uncomfortable, and this may have the ‘opposite’ result.

Recognizing what the US is doing, China is now pre-empting it by making diplomatic breakthroughs and concessions on the ‘South China Sea code of conduct’ – a proposal that has been in gridlock for decades.

This aims to ease tensions, and brands the US a ‘troublemaker’.

Duh!

Again, Washington doesn’t have the ability to conduct close diplomacy with these countries as a neighbor, only as a ‘visitor’.

America is an outsider.

China is local.

China is right there.

All in all, geography works against America. China is the neighbor of Southeast Asia, not the US.

Beijing is the largest economy in the region and is irreversibly integrated in terms of trade, technology, and finance.

America is not.

Yet, the US foreign policy strategy seems to pursue the bizarre premise that they can somehow dominate this region…

… push back China…

…and match its growing power…

… despite the fact they physically cannot, simply because they are not based there.

This means that whilst these countries are not necessarily rejecting an American presence, they are never going to adopt any serious anti-China policies or the militarization of the region that Biden hopes for.

Would you start a fight with your much bigger next-door neighbor?

Biden has no economic incentives to offer either.

China is, in many ways, continuing to lead and shape the regional agenda through its own initiatives, and as its own military presence in this area also grows, it has plenty of options to counter US posturing.

And the United States is impotent in the region, no matter what the American media says to the contrary.

Conclusion

Most of the world is still being influenced by the American media in one form or the other. And on subjects that everyone seems to have adjusted to what ever narrative that the American government made, the belief is that what ever Washington DC says is the truth. Nope. It is not.

Vietnam is many things, but an American proxy nation, whether military, commercial or economic, is simply not true.

This article broaches the true and actual state of affairs, and I do hope that it was interesting and meaningful at the same time. I have tried to present a diverse collection of videos showing the great breadth and width of the colorful Vietnamese society, and I hope that I put it in a positive light.

I have many friends how go to Vietnam, as it’s not too far from where I live, and they pretty much confirm what I have listed here. I hope that you all can see that it has a bright future ahead, and some deep and wonderful culture and traditions. I sincerely hope that they hold on to them and not allow them to disappear.

And when the pandemic ends, perhaps a nice visit to Vietnam would be a wonderful trip, and I am sure that you would make some wonderful, maybe even lifelong friends. And isn’t that what we all want out of life?

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Happiness Index here…

Life & Happiness

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

 

The Götterdämmerung of the United States

Definition of Götterdämmerungfc
: a collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder

In the 243 years since American independence in 1776, America has been at war in 225 of those years.

Yet, it’s been centuries since anyone even tried to invade the United States.

So why is America off gallivanting all over the world and fighting in wars if there isn’t a need to defend the territorial integrity of the United States?

No one can provide an answer for this.

Or to put it another way, for 92.5 percent of the time since 1776, the Americans have been at war, either of their own making like the annexation of the Philippines in 1899, as an intervening force in other wars like the Vietnam conflict or simply initiating regime change wars against those they dislike by covertly fermenting insurrections in South America using groups like the Contras.

It's not a record that sits well with the mythology of a peace-loving America upholding the global world order or liberal values. America has been described by former U.S. President Carter and others as the most warlike nation on Earth and it's a description that is backed by the historical record.

No answers are ever provided.

Instead, they say things like freedom™, liberty™, and democracy™. They interject it along with other sentences equally impotent.  Like “Plants love Brando because it’s got electrolytes”. And along with some grunts, and sneers are phrases like “you know…”, and “Wht?”

And then pull off their tops, stand on top of their pickup trucks and wave the United States flag shouting “Exceptionalism!” and “We’re the best!”

Woo Hoo!

It is the American elites who made deals with China at the expense of American workers. It’s not China that has failed to meet its obligations to American people: it has none.

American elites have made these deals. They did so at the expense of standards of living for American workers.

And small business owners. They did so even at the expense of national security and stability.

It is these very elites that failed to modernize the ancient, decrepit infrastructure. They failed to repair the road and bridges, and they ignored the plight of millions of Americans.

Americans as they fell into despair, and all the resulting addictions that result from it.

And they needed help. They cried for help. They pleaded for help. They demanded help.

Real serious help.

They need community. They need leadership. They need meaningful, purposeful employment. they need reasonable costs, abundant food at reasonable prices. Affordable housing, and basic no-frills or politically motivated education. They need their leadership to stop crime. Support them instead of wasting the precious resources that America used to have in abundance.

They need real representation.

They needed people who would do real WORK. People who would demolish the ruined failed systems, and put in brand new, well funded, and expertly run systems.

They need the basics. They need the fundamentals.

  • Affordable and healthy food.
  • Meaningful employment providing goods or services.
  • Affordable housing.
  • Low or no taxes, regulation, or rules.
  • A safe and secure environment free of crime, but not a police state.
  • They need to see a sizable amount of the tax money seized from them reinvested in their own lives.

And they do not see this.

And as a result the entire domestic interior of America is imploding upon itself in spectacular fashion. Today, you cannot tell the difference between Detroit and Damascus. Today, you cannot distinguish between an American “leader” from a poverty stricken banana republic dictator.

Aside from the clothing their actions, attitudes, and behaviors are identical.

Out of touch Government

Just how out of touch are the elites in Washington DC from the people? It’s pretty damn astounding.

Making U.S. Foreign Policy Work Better for the Middle Class is a sort of bipartisan report guiding the current, bewildered Crash Test Dummy administration. 

One of the 11 writers involved is none other than National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. 

The notion that a global imperial strategy and – in this case – a deeply impoverished and enraged middle class share the same interests does not even qualify as a lousy joke. 

With “thinkers” like these, the Hegemon does not even need Eurasian “threats”.

In case you all haven’t been paying attention, most American pay around 30% of their income to the Federal government, and an additional 16% (8 + 8) to it for “Social Security” promises. In exchange for this looting (46% of their paycheck) the American government has done nothing for them.

Not now.

Not in decades.

It’s just been squandering it off in far-away lands, and blowing up mud huts, machine gunning sheep, and loudly proclaiming to be doing it all for freedom™ and democracy™.

Yoo Hoo!

China may be many things, but it was the corruption and misleadership of American leadership (not Chinese) that led to the destruction of the middle-class and the imbalances in bilateral trade.

And there we have it.

At the expense of the American citizenry, the American elites are trying to rule the entire world. Not like before. But this time, they will “Build Back Better” so that no other nation dare opposes their rule.

Their plan is as clear as day, and their demands are astounding in their arrogance.

“Obey us!” they order.

“Follow our ‘rules based order’. The UN is useless and kneel before the great and almighty shining house on the hill.” they sneer.

Of course, after the last debacle in July 2020, I was truly surprised. I was surprised at the calm and composed stoniness of the Chinese.

If it was me, I would have sent the heads of those Jackasses back to the USA in a box. Genghis Khan style.

Washington trying to rule the world!

Are geopolitical analysts in the west seriously delusional enough to believe that Russia and China can be undermined?

It was only one month ago that the world found itself trapped on a fast track to nuclear war between NATO powers and Russia over tensions that had been brought to a boil in Ukraine.

Of course, it wasn’t only a Nazi-ridden Ukraine that was being used as a trigger for a major showdown, as evidence of Belarus regime change and even assassination attempts became publicized and MI6-Bellingcat antics were justifying new waves of anti-Russian sanctions across the trans Atlantic community.

These antics even led to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic, media psyops attempting to lay blame on the Kremlin for cyber attacks on American pipelines.

Additionally, a zero-tolerance policy towards the completion of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline appeared to be a non-negotiable red line for Washington up until recently.

No matter where you looked, the spectre of nuclear war abounded for all to see and only companies specializing in the sale of bomb shelters were content with the direction of world events.

And then something changed.

Life is a drag when the (global) free lunch is over and on top of it you need to face not only the emergence of a “peer competitor” in Eurasia (copyright Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski) but a comprehensive strategic partnership. You fear that China is eating your lunch – and dinner, and nightcap – but still you need Moscow as the designated enemy of choice, because that’s what legitimizes NATO.

Call The Three Stooges! Let’s send the Europeans to patrol the South China Sea! Let’s get those Baltic nullities plus pathetic Poles to enforce the New Iron Curtain! And let’s deploy Russophobic Britannia Rules the Waves on both fronts!

Control Europe – or bust. Hence the Brave New NATO World: white man’s burden revisited – against Russia-China.

So far, Russia-China had been exhibiting infinite Daoist patience in dealing with those clowns. 

But not anymore.

Indeed. Something changed.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that certain power brokers among the Great Resetting crowd of the west realized that a smoldering earth of radioactive decay was not one they wished to rule over (or under).

Perhaps they realized that Russia had no intention of backing down in the game of nuclear chicken then being played.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Russia’s advanced hypersonic nuclear missile delivery systems were not a part of the game theory-based computer models which war game scenario planners had based their military engagements on.

And all that full spectrum dominance encirclement of Russia for the past 20 years was ineffective.

Yeah.

While a “limited nuclear war” sounded like an acceptable risk decades ago, it isn’t so today.

There’s no such thing as this fantasy.

Use one nuclear weapon, and your entire nation is engulfed in nuclear carpet bombing.

It appears, from direct statements made by President Biden and Jan Psaki in July 2021, that the decision to pull back from the precipice of nuclear oblivion was a reappraisal of the situation.

The geniuses in the Washington DC think tanks came up with an alternative method to bring both Russia and China to heel.

This new strategic equation rests on two wildly foolish assumptions:

  • The belief that the foundations of the Russian-Chinese alliance contains fatal fissures which can be exploited by savvy American diplomatic maneuvering. And since everyone in Washington DC are experts, and capable, there wouldn’t be any problem doing this.

And…

  • The belief that Russia somehow really desires to be popular and rejoin the “cool kids” of the G7 leading the international liberal order. After all, everyone in Washington DC is this way. So obviously everyone else int he world is like this. It’s “common sense” don’t you know!

For these two assumptions to shape the calculus of western logicians playing on a “great game”show just out of touch from reality these Washington elites actually are.

After all, it is believed by these ignorant sycophants that Russia, who shares a 2600 mile border with China, must certainly feel threatened by China’s “global ambitions”

Biden stated on June 16:

“Russia is in a very very difficult spot right now. They are being squeezed by China. They want to desperately remain a major power. They desperately want to be relevant.”

It is thus assumed that Russia may yet be swayed into joining a real power block capable of countering China’s imperial Belt and Road Initiative.

Oh…

…brother!

Americans can see though this farce…

They have learned, over the years, decades and even centuries that the American government has little concern for them. For their ideals. For their culture. For their needs.

The key players in the Heartland have clearly seen through the imperial propaganda fog; it will be a long and winding road, but the horizon will eventually unveil a Germany-Russia-China-Iran alliance rebalancing the global chessboard.

This is the ultimate Imperial Night of the Living Dead nightmare – hence these lowly American emissaries frantically scurrying around multiple latitudes trying to keep the satrapies in line.

Americans are ripe to start the lynchings of the elites.

We are QUICKLY going downhill. The state of Florida may be the one that secedes first. There is not one person in my neck of the woods that isn’t seriously SERIOUSLY getting ready. All you hear at night is fully automatic gunfire - not the average - let me practice with my 9mm in the back, but full auto. And I know what it sounds like versus fireworks.

...

The vibe - it’s about to fucking hit the fan - Seriously.

So look at what you have.

A nation ruled by mad-men.

A nation ruled by mad-men.

A pissed off and angry citizenry that are ready to go feral and unleash bloody Hell against the entire nation.

An entrenched group of vampires living inside of Washington DC that act like leeches and who have sucked the life-blood of America dry. And now, like some kind of parasite are looking to start a long war of “distraction” for their personal profit and (possibly) enjoyment.

And…

And…

It’s getting intolerable.

China and Russia are united against the out of control American madness

Ah.

But it won’t be a long, drawn out war of “distraction”. It will not be another Syria. It will not be another Yemen. It will not be another Panama. It will not be another Afghanistan.

As an expat in China. I can tell you that not only is China a serious, serious nation, but Lord Help you if you piss them off…

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, China-Russia build submarines like there’s no tomorrow equipped with state of the art missiles – and Su-57s invite wise guys to a close conversation with a hypersonic Mr. Kinzhal.

Sergey Lavrov, like an aristocratic Grand Seigneur, took the trouble of enlightening the clowns with a between rule of law and their self-defined “rules-based international order”.

That’s too much for their collective IQ. Perhaps what they will register is that the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation, initially signed on July 16, 2001, has just been extended for five years by Presidents Putin and Xi.

Oh…

So far, the Washington elites think of war as some kind of remote video game. They believe that it can be fought remotely with drones, cruse missiles and though use of others. While the America military is used as an occupation force on the conquered lands.

They can’t possibly imagine what the FUCK WOULD HAPPEN if the roles were reversed and both China and Russia would start doing the same thing to America…

  • Paying and having assassination squads against the American leadership.
  • Inciting riots, and blowing up American hospitals, ports, infrastructure, bridges, train stations, and warehouses.
  • Moving battle groups off the coast of New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Newport Beach, Washington DC, Boston, and Miami.

And that’s just for starters…

…don’t even get me fired up about carpet bombing the USA with biological weapons, kidnapping industry leaders, and inciting riots in major cities. Heck! If America can get away with it, then it is “on the table” for Chinese use.

But…

But…

Somehow, the Washington elites think that they can open up “Pandora’s Box” and be completely safe from the consequences.

Metropolis

As I said before…

American “leadership” is bat shit crazy.

Easy sailing in Asia, but the West is a major fuck-up

America today is “ready to pop”. It is ready to explode. And I am not talking about “Black anger”. I am talking about “White fury”. Not at the blacks or other races. But directed at the tier after tier , after tier of corrupted criminal “leadership” of Washington DC.

Only this time, it won’t be a few Trump “patriots” walking into the Whitehouse on a lark. It will be something much darker.

As the Empire of Chaos is incrementally and inexorably expelled from the Heartland, Russia-China are jointly managing Central Asian affairs.

In the Central and South Asia connectivity conference in Tashkent, Lavrov detailed how Russia is driving “the Greater Eurasian Partnership, a unifying and integrational outline between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans that is as free for the movement of goods, capital, labor and services as possible and which is open to every country of the common continent of Eurasia and the integration unions created here.”

Then there’s the updated Russian National Security Strategy, which clearly outlines that building a partnership with the US and hitting win-win cooperation with the EU is an uphill struggle: “The contradictions between Russia and the West are serious and are hard to solve.” 

By contrast, strategic cooperation with China and India will be expanded.

New global realignments are forming. The world is growing and getting better, and that evil military empire; the United States, the scourge of the world for nearly a century is imploding.

How that implosion will occur…

…no one knows.

But it wouldn’t take much to set it off.

We all saw what happened when New Orleans levy collapsed. Imagine that happening in every single city simultaneously, and all transport routes for food, gas, and staples all collapse.

It would be really bad.

So it appears that America is really trying to start a war of “distractions”, and China is viewed to be the villain to demonize.

China said ENOUGH!

Yup.

Any meetings where America comes and continues the same old litany of bullshit will not be fruitful. So China won’t have any part of them. The door is closed. Forgetaboutit.

Yet the defining geopolitical breakthrough in the second year of the  may well be China telling the Empire, “That’s enough”.

It started over two months ago in Anchorage, when the formidable Yang Jiechi out of the helpless American delegation. The piece de resistance came this week in Tianjin, where Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and his boss Wang Yi reduced mediocre imperial bureaucrat Wendy Sherman to stale dumpling status.

This searing analysis by a Chinese think tank reviewed all the key issues. Here are the highlights.

– The Americans wanted to ensure that “guardrails and boundaries” are established to avoid a deterioration of U.S.-China relations in order to “manage” the relationship responsibly. That did not work, because their approach was “terrible”.

– “Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng hit the nail on the head when he said that the U.S. “competition, cooperation and confrontation” triad is a “blindfold” to contain and suppress China. Confrontation and containment are essential, cooperation is expedient, and competition is a discourse trap. The U.S. demands cooperation when it is in need of China, but in areas where it thinks it has an advantage, it decouples and cuts off supplies, blocks and sanctions, and is willing to clash and confront China in order to contain it.”

– Xie Feng “also presented two lists to the U.S. side, a list of 16 items requesting the U.S. side to correct its wrong policies and words and deeds toward China, and a list of 10 priority cases of China’s concern (…) if these anti-China issues caused by the U.S. side’s bent are not resolved, what is there to talk about between China and the U.S.?”

And while all this is going on, Biden wants to drive a wedge between China and Russia so that China can be left alone and vulnerable. And to this end, he treats President Vladimir Putin as “another one of him”.

With Biden stating:

“Russia doesn’t want to be known as the upper Volta with nuclear weapons’. It matters. And I found it matters to almost every world leader-no matter where they’re from- how they’re perceived, their standing in the world. It matters to them.”

To understand the thinking behind this second statement, it must be understood that a fundamental belief among all behaviorists (of which Biden is no exception being ruled by teams of them and being little more than a synthetic shell himself of impulses devoid of any actual substance himself), is that one of the fundamental drives of all soulless/blank-slates is the desire to be popular.

Being popular and adapting to the force of popular opinions works in all anarchist mobs, school yards and especially politics (which is seen as the ultimate game of popularity for any substance-free rhetorician).

The force of popular opinion will thus cause anyone to modify their beliefs, opinions, and behavior in conformity to whatever “norms” shape their environment.

While one would think it obvious that Putin was NOT the sort of individual to fall prey to this shallow definition of “practical” human nature, Biden and his handlers appear to think otherwise.

White House spokeswoman Jan Psaki amplified this view saying:

“I think the president’s view is that Russia is on the outside of the global community in many respects… what the president is offering is a bridge back. And so, certainly he believes its in their interests to take him up on the offer.”

So while the outcome of the Putin-Biden meeting resulted in some inarguably positive steps towards the creation of mechanisms to avoid blowing up the world….

Such as re-activating START, and committing to solid rules of engagement in the Arctic and other Russian border regions.

China has become the new primary target of western ire.

Of course, China is not going to stand for this.

Where Russia is defined as one among many authoritarian regimes capable of abrasive disturbances but ultimately controllable in the long run, the Chinese have been labelled a much greater threat to western unipolar hegemony.

And China is not going to accept this.

Why Russia would feel “squeezed” by this fact is an absurdity beyond belief.

After all, China is not the one who has lit fires across Russia’s underbelly, promoted a decade of shock therapy, Balkanization, NATO expansion, funded color revolutionary tactics, or corralled the world community to impose sanctions onto her.

The fact is that Russia and China enjoy a vastly increasing rate of trade now topping $100 billion annually (compared to the mere $20 billion of US-Russian trade).

Both are de-dollarizing at accelerating speeds.

Both are working on a common strategic philosophical concept of self-interest and economic value,

These facts that unite both great nations in a solid unassailable partnership are what is keeping the oligarchs up at night.

In his NBC Interview with Keir Simmons before meeting Biden, this is what Putin said of the Russian-Chinese relationships:

“Can I be completely honest? 

We can see attempts at destroying the relationship between Russia and China. 

We can see that those attempts are being made in practical policies. 

And your questions, too, have to do with it… 

We (China and Russia) are neighboring countries. 

One does not choose one’s neighbors. 

We are pleased with the unprecedentedly high level of our relationship as it has evolved over the last few decades, and we cherish it, just like our Chinese friends cherish it, which we can see.”

And the message has been clear.

The point has been made: “The Chinese have long had enough of American arrogance, and the time when the U.S. tried to bully the Chinese is long gone.”

Wang Yi’s three bottom lines to Washington. In a nutshell:

The BRI
“The United States must not challenge, denigrate or even attempt to subvert the socialist road and system with Chinese characteristics. China’s road and system are the choice of history and the choice of the people, and they concern the long-term welfare of 1.4 billion Chinese people and the future destiny of the Chinese nation, which is the core interest that China must adhere to.”

[ FYI; in May 2021, the U.S. Senate pledged up to $300 million to spread information on the "negative impact" of China's Belt and Road Initiative, and develop "anti-Chinese influence" programs and a scheme to "train journalists" with the goal of censoring Beijing's successes from world view.]

Chinese domestic growth.
“The United States must not try to obstruct or even interrupt China’s development process. The Chinese people certainly have the right to a better life, and China also has the right to modernization, which is not the monopoly of the United States and involves the basic conscience of mankind and international justice. China urges the U.S. side to expeditiously lift all unilateral sanctions, high tariffs, long-arm jurisdiction and the science and technology blockade imposed on China.”

[The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on a carefully constructed false narrative, something that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and later U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, acknowledged decades later.

It is this consistent background that makes it essential that political leaders pause and independently fully evaluate the claims made by the United States and the secretive intelligence services who advise the U.S. decision makers. America's allies need to acknowledge that it has a history of violence and of the glorification of violence as a means of resolving problems.]

China is a nation. Not a territory of the USA.
“The United States must not infringe on China’s national sovereignty, let alone undermine China’s territorial integrity. The issues related to Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong are never about human rights or democracy, but rather about the major rights and wrongs of fighting against “Xinjiang independence”, “Tibet independence” and “Hong Kong independence”. No country will allow its sovereign security to be compromised. As for the Taiwan issue, it is a top priority (…) If “Taiwan independence” dares to provoke, China has the right to take any means needed to stop it.”

[There is certainly evidence that China wants to protect its borders and maintain its sovereignty. This need has become more urgent as the pace of China threat rhetoric has increased. Despite the constant drip-feed of off-the-record security briefings generating China-scare stories in the Western media, there is scant genuine evidence that China wants to expand its borders. Unlike the United States, there is not a historical record of Chinese expansion or aggression.]

And while all this has been going on in the International sphere, let’s not forget the turmoil that is brewing inside of America right now…

We are the unwitting victims of a system so corrupt that those who stand up for the rule of law and aspire to transparency in government are in the minority.

This corruption is so vast it spans all branches of government: from the power-hungry agencies under the executive branch and the corporate puppets within the legislative branch to a judiciary that is, more often than not, elitist and biased towards government entities and corporations.

We are ruled by an elite class of individuals who are completely out of touch with the travails of the average American.

We are viewed as relatively expendable in the eyes of government: faceless numbers of individuals who serve one purpose, which is to keep the government machine running through our labor and our tax dollars. Those in power aren’t losing any sleep over the indignities we are being made to suffer or the possible risks to our health. All they seem to care about are power and control.

We are being made to suffer countless abuses at the government’s hands.

We have little protection against standing armies (domestic and military), invasive surveillance, marauding SWAT teams, an overwhelming government arsenal of assault vehicles and firepower, and a barrage of laws that criminalize everything from vegetable gardens to lemonade stands.

In the name of national security, we’re being subjected to government agencies such as the NSA, FBI and others listening in on our phone calls, reading our mail, monitoring our emails, and carrying out warrantless “black bag” searches of our homes. Adding to the abuse, we have to deal with surveillance cameras mounted on street corners and in traffic lights, weather satellites co-opted for use as spy cameras from space, and thermal sensory imaging devices that can detect heat and movement through the walls of our homes.

That doesn’t even begin to touch on the many ways in which our Fourth Amendment rights are trampled upon by militarized police and SWAT teams empowered to act as laws unto themselves.

In other words, freedom—or what’s left of it—is threatened from every direction.

The predators of the police state are wreaking havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives. The government doesn’t listen to the citizenry, it refuses to abide by the Constitution, which is our rule of law, and it treats the citizenry as a source of funding and little else. Police officers are shooting unarmed citizens and their household pets. Government agents—including local police—are being armed to the teeth and encouraged to act like soldiers on a battlefield. Bloated government agencies are fleecing taxpayers. Government technicians are spying on our emails and phone calls. Government contractors are making a killing by waging endless wars abroad.

-John Whitehead

Yes.

To all my international readers, you have no idea just how messed up America has become.

Really messed up.

Slow motion train wreck

I think most Americans are either [1] oblivious to what is going on, [2] worried as can be, or [3] just waiting for the “blow to hit”.

And we can gauge this by looking at society.

And that means American movies and media…

Five Films About Post-Modern America

Be forewarned, these five hit hard and cover nearly everything: rape, miscegenation, drugs, abuse, you name it. But they do accurately reflect the Current Year in all its misery.

They are all depressing, disgusting, and upsetting. So I am not posting any links for further investigation. If you want to watch them, then you are on your own. Personally, I think all you need to realize is that there is a sizable Western population who’s lives resemble these expressions of video antagonism.

Climax (2018)

What might happen if you took a bunch of directionless, hedonistic, oversexed twenty-somethings, trapped them in a building, and gave them way too much acid?

Nights and Weekends (2008)

Nights and Weekends (2008)

Long-distance relationships are unbearable, and truly unique to our time. This Joe Swanberg indie hit covers the phenomenon with unbearable accuracy.

Storytelling (2002)

Storytelling (2002)

The best depiction yet of the horror of college and the misery of suburbia.

Ken Park (2002)

Ken Park (2002)

It’s relentless in its depiction of degeneracy, but as critic Lee Marshall noted, “In a weird way this is a moral film.”

The Decline of Western Civilization Part III (1998)

The Decline of Western Civilization Part III (1998)

Wonder what environments birth antifa?

Conclusion

Ok, there’s change going on.

The “West” led by either the USA or the UK, and influenced by banking interests are steering this massive colossal cultural-industrial-military-and-bureaucratic fiefdom towards conflict. The handling of it is so profoundly inept and transparent, that only the most manipulated and ignorant fail to see it.

Stuck on this massive block of rot and ruin are many innocents and good people. And due to their situation, and their knowledge their ability to change things is not really possible…

…except…

…in what they can do in their immediate reality This is their immediate area and zone of control.

Please hang on. There are other forces and interests that see this situation as it has been presented and will not allow this ruin to become the rest of the world, nor will they allow it to continue for too much longer. So hold on tight. perform your centering and prayer campaigns. Be good. Do your best, and help others in your community. You all will get through this.

Have some faith.

Alright?

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings

.

Articles & Links

Master Index

.

  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
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Why the United States Leadership has such crazy ideas about China

Here, in this article I argue that the United States leadership is bat-shit-crazy. And their dealings with China confirms this. With each instance of interaction between the USA and China we see absolute ignorance, rudeness and irritating bluster that makes the entire world cringe. Why is this? Well, we will look at that right now.

Background

From MoA. The article discusses the second group of talks between the USA and China. This time taking place in China in July 2021. It was a second fiasco.

U.S. – China Talks Point To A Longer Conflict

The U.S. wants to slice and dice its approach to China. It will use all means to take advantage of China where it can, while restricting China in those fields were it can no longer compete with it.

The Chinese reject that approach.

The U.S., they say, should not see China as an enemy. It should stop lecturing China, accept it as an equal and cooperate with it in all fields.

The U.S. is unwilling to do that.

The USA is unwilling to accept China as an equal.

Its media-military-industrial complex is already primed for a cold war with China. Trillions of dollars are to be made from it.

China on the other side is ready to play hardball if it must.

Today U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held talks with the Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Feng, She also meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The later meeting, demanded to be the main event by the U.S., had already led to some squabble. Wang Yi is beyond Sherman’s rank and her main discussion, the Chinese insisted, should be with a person on her own level:

The State Department emphasized Sherman will have “senior-level” communications but a statement from China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry emphasized that Sherman “will hold talks” with Xie and after that Foreign Minister Wang will “meet her.”

Let me elaborate…

The Department of State announced that Ms. Sherman is going to meet with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and others in Tianjin. However, a spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry made clear on Friday that Ms. Sherman is to negotiate with Mr. Xie, while Mr. Wang will receive her afterward. ( “会见”）

For anyone who appreciates the richness of the Chinese language, “会见” can mean a meeting, but only in the context of gracing an inferior. This is the approach taken by the Foreign Ministry in the case of Wang’s meeting with Sherman. 

When asked about Sherman’s visit on July 24, H.E. Wang remarked that China and the international community as a whole bear the responsibility to teach the US a lesson if the US has not learned to treat others as equals.

Accenting Sherman’s visit is China’s sanctioning of prominent US figures, including former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. The action serves as both a retaliation in the face of US warnings over Hong Kong and as a heads-up for the upcoming Tianjin talks.

From the Chinese perspective, Sherman’s Asia tour is assertive overall, as it seeks to solidify the encirclement of China. 

But the Tianjin meeting will move ahead in [1] the context of China as an equal to the US; [2] that Chinese are not to be offended, and [3] the US cannot conduct foreign policy from a position of strength. 

Professor Shirley Ze Yu's editors prepared a most insightful commentary ahead of Deputy Secretary of State Sherman's meeting with her counterparts ( or not) in Tianjin.

Please check out their commentary here https://lnkd.in/enBjf4i

On Saturday two ‘senior U.S. administration officials’ gave a preview of the talks:

As Secretary Blinken has said, the U.S. relationship with China will be collaborative where it can be, competitive where it should be, and adversarial where it must be. 

And we expect all dimensions of the relationship will be on the table for discussion during Wendy’s meetings.
...
In Tianjin, [Sherman is] going to make clear while we welcome stiff and sustained competition with the PRC, everyone needs to play by the same rules and on the level – on a level playing field.

She’s going to underscore that we do not want that stiff and sustained competition to veer into conflict. 

This is why the U.S. wants to ensure that there are guard rails and parameters in place to responsibly manage the relationship.

The second official added:

So let me also put this meeting into the context of the administration’s broader China policy effort. 

Since President Biden took office, we’ve put a lot of focus on strengthening our own competitive hand vis-a-vis China through many actions that we’ve taken domestically, investing in ourselves at home. 

We’ve also rallied our allies and partners, including to advance an affirmative vision of the rules-based international order. 

And we’ve confronted China when they’ve acted against our interests and values while working to cooperate with China on areas like climate change and nonproliferation.

We know we’re stronger when we work with our allies. We know this makes us more effective when dealing with Beijing. 

We aren’t seeking an anti-China coalition in our work with allies and partners, but rather trying to work together in a multilateral fashion to uphold the international rules-based order.

...
With all of those actions underway, we’re entering this engagement from a position of strength and of solidarity.
...
Even as we meet with our Chinese counterparts, we will also continue to hold China accountable. 

These things are not mutually exclusive, and it should be clear that we are not afraid to impose costs for China’s behavior that undermines international norms.

Yup.

This describes how the rest of the world views the American position…

My opinion is…

As Peter Lee commented with his usual snark:

chinahand @chinahand - 16:43 UTC · Jul 24, 2021
"We're going to keep kicking your ass. Don't kick back, 'kay?" Our fate now that dime store Machiavellis, excuse me, generational talents, run the FP show.

The emphasized words were not welcome in China.

On Sunday Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded in an interview with an attack on U.S. exceptionalism:

“The United States always wants to exert pressure on other countries by virtue of its own strength, thinking that it is superior to others,” 

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.

“However, I would like to tell the US side clearly that there has never been a country in this world that is superior to others, nor should there be, and China will not accept any country claiming to be superior to others.
“If the United States has not learned how to get along with other countries on an equal footing by now, then it is our responsibility, together with the international community, to give the US a good tutorial in this regard.”

Today, after the talk between Sherman and Xie, the Foreign Ministry published a series of strong response snippets by Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Feng:

I especially like the one about the ‘rules based international order’:

On 26 July, during his talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng made the comment that the U.S. side's so-called “rules-based international order” is an effort by the United States and a few other Western countries to frame their own rules as international rules and impose them on other countries. 

The United States has abandoned the universally-recognized international law and order and damaged the international system it has helped to build. 

And it is trying to replace it with a so-called “rules-based international order”. 

The purpose is to resort to the tactic of changing the rules to make life easy for itself and hard for others.

As well as to introduce “the law of the jungle" where might is right and the big bully the small.

The SCMP summerizes this situation…

China has for the first time given the US a list of red lines and remedial action it must take to repair relations.

Including [1] lifting sanctions and [2] dropping its extradition request for Huawei financial chief Meng Wanzhou.

Chinese foreign vice-minister Xie Feng told US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman on Monday morning that...

... US-China relations had reached a “stalemate”...

... and faced “serious consequences”.

According to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
“The foundational reason is that some people in the US are treating China as an ‘imagined enemy’,” it quoted Xie as saying.
After the meeting, Xie said China gave two lists to the US.

[1] One with one remedial action for Washington to take towards China.
[2] And the other a series of Beijing’s key concerns.
...
Xie said the Chinese side also “expressed its strong dissatisfaction towards the wrong remarks and actions of the US” in relation to...

... investigations into [1] the origins of Covid-19, [2] Taiwan, [3] Xinjiang, [4] Hong Kong and [5] the South China Sea.
“We urge the United States not to underestimate...

...the strong determination, 
...firm will and 
...strong ability 

of the 1.4 billion Chinese people to...

...safeguard national sovereignty, 
...security and 
...development interests,” 

The state news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying.

In its summary of the talks the Associated Press points to the basic difference in the approaches:

High-level face-to-face talks between U.S. and Chinese diplomats on Monday highlighted sharp differences between the sides.

Although the tone appeared somewhat less contentious than at their last meeting.

...

Xie said China wants to [1] seek common ground while [2] shelving differences.

This highlights a divide in the basic approach to their relationship. 

The Biden administration has said it will cooperate in areas [1] such as climate.  But it will [2] confront China in others such as human rights. He described the relationship as collaborative, competitive and adversarial (at the same time).

As the U.S. is for now rejecting the Chinese offer for burying the hatchet…

… China will have to play hardball.

It will not be cooperative in the fields where the U.S. wants it to be cooperative (Iran, North Korea, etc.).

It will also be adversarial in fields where the U.S. has little ability to push back (rare earth exports, Boeing 737MAX re-certification).

The U.S. hopes that it can find and press ‘allies’ into confronting China. But Europe already rejected that. (Not happening.)

To others, especially in Asia, the U.S. looks like a declining power because it is a declining power and the economic interests of most nations now favor China.

Under these circumstances I for one fail to see how the U.S. could win in a longer cold conflict.

How long then will it take until the U.S. recognizes that and steps down from its illusion of supremacy?

You do know…

America has been very public in saying that the Chinese leadership will be assassinated. That military forces are being trained to invade China and the outlying islands. That secret hidden forces are being trained to perform dangerous secretive work to sabotage China. And that every action that China does that is positive, that America will try to undo it.

And somehow, the American people are just fine with this.

Ok! China won’t fight back you know. No worries. No problem.

Right?

Crazy!

From what I see today…

…never.

The entire American leadership suffers from some kind of mental illness. They are so sick that they are beyond repair.

Today, on the Chinese television and in social media everyone is playing the clip with the government authorities have stated that America is no longer reliable, believable and worthy of interaction with.

That means…

…all negotiations from now on are zero-sum efforts. They are not possible and cannot exist.

I argue that this idea of natural superior to the Chinese derives from decades of constant reinforcement of what the Chinese are.  Over time, this reinforcement gets crazier, and crazier, until today it is unrecognizable from reality.

Here is a movie that I believe represents the type of Hollywood movie fare that has shaped the political class in Washington DC today. You might read it and think “oh goodness! No one could possibly be that deluded as to believe such nonsense!”

To which I counter…

…you haven’t been to the USA lately have you?

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

A Chinese general goes berserk and has a system of tunnels dug all the way from China to USA, under the Pacific Ocean. The man who has discovered this is locked up because they think he is insane. US Navy soldiers go underground to repel the invaders.

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH
The picture concerns upon Chinese communists (leader is Martin Benson as general goes berserk and who places atomic bombs) trying to destroy United States via some continued series of underground tunnels , made all the way from China under the Pacific Ocean , but some US Navy soldiers , scientists , military (Kerwin Mathews , Al Mulok , Ed Bishop) and a gorgeous geologist (Vivienne Ventura) discover the scheme and go underground to repel the invaders .

It's a pulp movie of science-fiction genre in which there are noisy action , suspense , intrigue , tension and results to be quite bemusing . 

The history deals with nasty Chinese people and American patriots who fight strongly to vanquish them . 

In spite of lack luster and budget is quite agreeable and fun . 

The plot is almost ridiculous and senseless but it's developed in fast moving and numerous surprises and that's why it is amusing . 

The movie has precedent in those films of the 30s with Fumanchu (by Sax Rohmer) and Boris Karloff as heinous starring and nearest the series of the 60s (produced by Harry Alan Towers with Christopher Lee as the Chinese baddie) in which the ¨yellow danger¨ was a fearful enemy . 

The motion picture takes part of a genre which in the 80s attained splendor , thus : ¨Red Dawn¨ (by John Milius with Patrick Swayze) , ¨Invasion USA ¨ (by Joseph Zito with Chuck Norris) and ¨Amerika¨ (by Donald Wyre with Kris Kristofferson) where the communists -Russkies generally- execute invasion on America . 

Rating : Average but entertaining .
Evil Communist Chinese woman using a powerful mind ray to seduce our young American hero.

The Characters:

  • Cmdr. Shaw – His experimental underwater laboratory imploded, so he is assigned as senior testing official, U.S. Navy Forces Out to Pasture, Ashore.
  • Tila Yung – I bet she gets tired of servicemen asking what a pretty girl like her is doing in a hole like this.
  • Dr. Arnold Kramer – Part anteater, part scientist, and all-American. He’s also mad as a hatter, though I doubt he’s ever worn a felt hat and presumably has enough sense to avoid drinking quicksilver.
  • SgtMaj. Mulberry – “Sir, if you call me ‘sergeant’ one more time, I am going to get Bataan on your a**.”
  • Cmdr. Cassidy – Computer technician who flies a desk. Because this is 1967, his computer is so big that it dwarfs his house.
  • Dr. Kengh Lee – You look just about as Chinese as Tony Randall.
  • Gen. Chan Lu – You look more like Tony Randall than a Chinese person.
So many opportunities to laugh at this film. Where does one begin? European actors in "yellowface" playing the bad guy renegade Chinese army. (Let's see here -- the bad guy in his lair always has an eccentric pet with him -- okay the guy has a parrot! Check that off the list!)

A film obviously made in Britain pretending to be a Hollywood film, which takes place in Las Vegas (unconvincing cardboard set inside a sound stage, plus some actual second unit stock footage), San Diego (England), Oregon (England again) and Hawaii (more stock footage, plus various underground tunnels (more paper mache sets in a sound stage).

Comically fake nuclear bombs. Laser guns mounted on bulldozers. Giant spinning tape reel computer banks...no wait, those were real at that time.

Bad directing, jump cuts, dropped frames, one establishing shot where the camera drops off the tripod. Awkward staging. Hokey dialog. The whole plot totally ridiculous. Well, it is like a live action comic book. So why should I take any bit of it seriously? Well, the characters seem to be dead serious about the whole enterprise. (That's good. True camp does not work if you give a "nod and a wink" to the audience...though that one scene with the slot machines in the mental hospital was perhaps a bit over the line...)

Yes, fans of The Batman or Green Hornet TV shows of this time period will be right at home here. Plenty of bright primary colors, swish pan transitions, and blaring cool-daddyo-jazz soundtrack. It's all here for the fan of 1960's camp and Cold War pop culture kitsch to treasure as an endemic artifact of its time, the likes of which we may never see again.

Thank goodness.
BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

The Plot:

As the film begins, Las Vegas’ finest (meaning the police, not strippers, showgirls, or escorts) are called to the site of a disturbance. They find Dr. Arnold Kramer, eminent scientist, with his ear to the sidewalk, yelling about something digging underneath their feet. Arnold is not half as crazy as he appears to be. There are not giant ants making a nest under Las Vegas, even though I would happily pay money to see a movie about giant ants. What is slowly crawling below the Earth of free America is much more insidous.

Hold on, I’ll tell you what it is in a minute.

What is that sound under the ground? Dastardly Communists destroying the bedrock of society?

Elsewhere, Commander Shaw is not enjoying his reassignment to shore duty following an accident of undetermined nature that destroyed his pet project, SeaLab VII, and killed twenty-seven men. Instead of actual research or having a ship to command, the Commander finds himself testing pipes. It’s not exactly rewarding work for one of the brightest minds in the U.S. Navy, but at least he is not a guest at one of the military’s correctional facilities, peeling potatoes next to mother stabbers and father rapers. Nor is he experiencing the hospitality of a state mental institution, like Mr. Kramer. He goes to visit Arnold, because the two have known each other for years. The visit causes Shaw to think that his old buddy is as crazy as the psychiatrists say.

Later on, a random news report about a tragedy at a deep mine in Oregon gets Shaw to thinking. He takes a trip to personally investigate the mine collapse and discovers something fantastic: a mysterious medallion and an unexplained tunnel with smooth sides. Taking some samples back to the Navy lab only creates more questions. To find out what is really going on, the Commander leads two squads of Marines down into the hole. They discover a room filled with Chinese and atomic bombs! The Marines attack and easily defeat the Chinese in a decidedly one-side battle. The outcome is not surprising, since most of the Chinese are technicians who are only armed with clipboards.

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

What is surprising is that the Marines quickly set to work rendering the atomic weapons unusable. All of the bombs look like stainless steel milk tanks turned on their sides. Making them inert involves uncapping one end and reaching in to remove a small cylinder that is resting in a cradle. The cylinders appear to be 9 oz CO2 tanks. My trouble is knowing what they are, but not what they are supposed to be. They cannot simply be the fuse, because that would be easy to replace. Perhaps the cylinders are supposed to be the plutonium or tritium. If that is the case, then those Marines should not be handling the cylinders with their bare hands.

Deactivating an atomic bomb is not the sort of thing that you should rush. Unfortunately, the return of a Chinese tunnel-making machine means that the Marines are out of luck and out of time. Commander Shaw and his compatriots finish removing the tritium cylinders from the bombs, but then have to deal with the tunnel-making machine. While not a military vehicle, it is not the sort of thing that a Marine wants to run into in a dark tunnel. It does not have a huge drill on the front, because the tunnels are created with a super boring laser thingamajig. So, the Chinese tunneling machines look like armored zambonis. The Marines do what Marines always do when faced with armored vehicles: they throw grenades at it until it explodes.

Actually, that only happens in video games. When Marine infantry is forced to engage enemy armor, we like to use just about everything besides grenades. This makes everybody happy, except the crew of the armored vehicle. Especially thankful are the 0352 TOW gunners who finally get a chance to expend one of the missiles they have always wanted to shoot, but which are too expensive to use for training.

Battle beneath the Earth.

After conducting a tactical retreat from the Chinese tunnel, Commander Shaw returns to the laboratory so he and the other brass can plan their next move against the subterranean red menace. Gentlemen, this is not a matter for discussion. There is a Red Chinese tunnel under the United States! You should divert the Colorado River into it or else send in a lot of Marines to clear the artificial cave system room by room. Imagine how much fun a battalion of Marines would have in the Underdark. Well, except for encountering all sorts of weird creatures that could only be dreamed up by nerds with too much time. Having my skin turned into slime by an aboleth or my brain puréed by an illithid would suck (yea, mightily). On the other hand, a movie about a squad of Marines fighting beholders and cave fishers would be a lot of fun.

I know that the SyFy folks read the site, so consider the suggestion officially submitted. It will probably be made, get turned into a series, become extremely popular with a group of hardcore fans, and then get cancelled after the first season. That’s just the way the SyFy cookie crumbles. To be honest, that’s the way that every SyFy cookie crumbles.

Brave American hero easily takes over the unsuspecting evil Chinese soldiers.

Anyway.

While the Americans scramble to figure out what is going on under the purple mountains and fruited plains, the Chinese continue their tunneling activities. General Lu and Doctor Lee are only mildly concerned that the United States has finally discovered their tunnels. They are nearly ready to proceed with the final phase of their plan. The thermonuclear weapons are, of course, intended to be detonated below every major American city and military installation. I would guess that the Chinese intend to dig upwards and leave their little present inside someone’s basement, then set the timer and retreat to a safe distance until the “All’s Destroyed” signal. After the bombs are detonated, the Chinese are prepared to conduct a military invasion to overpower what is left of America’s military forces.

This tunnel stretches all the way from China to the United States. Where are they getting their fresh air? Heck, where are they getting the genuine imitation Chinese restaurant decor?

The Chinese might be master in technology, but are not a match for the American freedom and democracy!

There is one huge, glaring problem with this movie. No, it is not the general premise. Nor is it the Marines (even the Private) all looking like they reached retirement age ten years ago. It’s not even the idea that the Chinese use big vacuum tube capsules like the ones you see in a bank’s drive-through to get from one end of the tunnel to the other. The biggest problem with “Battle Beneath the Earth” is that the Chinese do not look Chinese; not even by my standards. I am talking about the two main characters, Lee and Lu. The job that makeup did on the two actors makes it appear that they are old men who have had way too much cosmetic surgery. They look more Botox than Chinese.

Battle beneath the earth.

General Lu’s second in command does look Chinese, but the general shoots him for incompetence. Meaning that we’re right back to square one. Hrumpf!

Back at the American lab, Dr. Kramer and the others are making good progress is replicating the Chinese tunneling technology. What they are having a problem doing is finding the existing tunnels. Even using the giant government computer, with its reels of magnetic tape and army of support technicians, proves fruitless. There is too much extra noise going on to pinpoint the relatively silent Chinese tunneling machines. What the scientists finally do is order the entire country to be quiet for ten minutes so the computers can listen for the Chinese moles.

Dangerous underground Communist Chinese cars!

Amazingly, it works. Mass transit grinds to a halt, construction workers stop jackhammering, farmers stop plowing, and rednecks stop fishing with dynamite. The last state to go quiet is Texas, which is probably on account of some idiot out in bumf**k digging out a stump. Stop digging for ten minutes, ya durn fool. The Chinese are coming! Nobody cares about that stupid stump. It’s almost time for supper anyhow.

The moments of silence work. The computer maps out the network of Chinese tunnels under the ocean and the United States. Commander Shaw and Doctor Kramer know where the Chinese are at, meaning that our national foundation has a fighting chance. Hooray for American ingenuity! Hooray for the big-a** computer! Hooray for all the female employees in white blouses and gray skirts!

Brave American soldiers hiding from the evil Chinese army.

Remember when science was all about big rolls of magnetic tape, pretty women in tastefully fitting skirts, and beeps? Man, I miss those beeps.

With the location of the Chinese tunnels mapped out, the Americans are finally ready to go on the offensive. Using a prototype tunneling machine built by Dr. Kramer using bits and pieces of the destroyed Chinese vehicle, the American forces intend to disrupt the tunnel at it’s most vulnerable point near Hawaii. I can hear the Marines now, “What? We have to go TAD to Hawaii? Oh, no!” Unfortunately, once the Americans descend into the tunnels things go terribly wrong. The small strike force is ambushed by Chinese troops and either killed or taken prisoner. In the end, it is up to the main characters to escape from their cell, hijack an underground atomic bomb train, and destroy the Chinese tunnel system.

Oh, and Commander Shaw hooks up with Dr. Yung, because she is hot.

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

Things I Learned From This Movie:

  • Never, ever follow any advice that you get from the sidewalks in Vegas.
  • The Department of the Navy has jurisdiction over all military operations that take place below sea level.
  • Marines are trained to defuse nuclear bombs while they are at Boot Camp.
  • The space race was a Red Chinese herring.
  • Both paper and halogen headlights beat rock.
  • The only tool needed to arm or disarm a nuclear weapon is a 5.5mm allen wrench.
  • If a Chinese person and an elf conceived a child it would look exactly like Mr. Spock.
  • Atomic bombs make a ticking sound when they are about to explode.
  • Radioactive fallout causes the most beautiful sunsets.
BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

Stuff To Watch For:

  • 19 mins – It’s a genuine Fu Manchu belt buckle with decoder ring! I got one of those in a box of Count Chocula cereal when I was a kid.
  • 26 mins – “Oh, don’t shoot them.”
  • 38 mins – Paint cans filled with soy sauce. How diabolical!
  • 47 mins – You’d think that they would have unrolled a spool of comm wire as they went.
  • 56 mins – Ah, back when the Air Force was so poor they couldn’t even afford paint for their aircraft.
  • 61 mins – I would have died laughing if she replied that she had a doctorate in home economics.
  • 68 mins – Their handheld fan technology is years ahead of our own!
  • 82 mins – You just passed those same guys, with that same cart, a few minutes ago.
BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

Sheech!

Where the American Diplomats Learned about China…

All evidence that they picked up their knowledge from either B-grade budget movies made during the “cold war” or they found something stuck up their ass that they pulled out.

This is the university that taught American “diplomats” how to act with the Chinese.

Ok. Ok. I know it’s a bit of a stretch…

But if someone else can posit why the American diplomats are not acting like diplomats, and instead like power-crazed bullies being rude and bellicose, I will listen. Right now I am of the mind that it must be a combination of mass psychosis, insanity, massive quantities of mind altering drugs, greed, and nonsensical illusions of their real power and ability.

Or…

The American government WANTS the Chinese to get angry. They WANT to provoke a conflict. They WANT to have a war.

American illusions are shaped by fantastical notions that have no bearing on reality.

Why would they possible want that?

There are many reasons.

  • There’s no other options available. A war is the only remaining option in the American “playbook” to maintain a hope of survival. The future of America is bleak and an economic bubble is going to pop, and it might be any day now.
  • Maybe the USA has a “secret weapon” that they will engage once China falls and takes the “bait”.
  • Maybe America ACTUALLY IS stronger than it appears to us. Maybe all this weakness domestically and socially will magically end once a full-scale war is initiated.
  • Maybe America is convinced that China can be isolated and alone, and America can gather the rest of the world together and fight it as the leading superpower.
  • Maybe America is ruled by an aged senile passive figurehead, and the powers that control everything wants a war because their days of economic supremacy is over unless the Chinese banking system is extinguished.

I do not know.

What I do know, is that from the “front row seat” it seems like the United States government is just fucking useless, and that the only way for America to survive is to completely and totally scrap it’s form of governance and regress back to state control without a federal government.

China is not weak. Nor is it alone.

The rest of the world is not at all like it is portrayed in the American media.

You only live twice…

Well…

I wish. For most of us, it’s thousands and thousands of recycled events. But that doesn’t refer to us as much to an old 007 James Bond movie. “You only live twice.”

You only live twice.

.

The way that America was able to drag the entire nation into a war with Vietnam, and then again towards fighting country after country was because it maintained an artificial illusion of what the world is / was for the American population to consume.

This is the primary driver why CNN, FOX, BBC and all the rest doctor the pictures to make China look like a dirty shithole, and the “news” always describe China (and the rest of the world as really terrible places to be.).

But all in all, America is so absolutely mind-numbingly incompetent that it just doesn’t realize that it’s “too late”. China surpassed the United States in capability (full spectrum) decades ago.

Decades.

And now, America looks like some mangy old toothless dog snarling and snapping at a sleek, huge panther, that is deciding what to do with this piece of shit.

America is so hopeless.

Meanwhile…

Here’s a delicious Chinese fish.

Appreciate the good things in life.

Delicious fish.

OK, so what…?

Something is seriously WRONG.

I do not know what is wrong, but something is. The United States is treating China as if it is some minor small nation, and that American is going to “kick some ass” and “bust down some doors”. And I know China. China will blast the top 50 American cities into uninhabitable rubble as a result. Why can’t the United States leadership see this?

Are they that stupid. crazy, idiotic, or insane? What is their GOD DAMN MALFUNCTION?

Listen to me. It will not be like before. Everyone has learned.

 

CHINA and Russia will blast the United States into the bronze age.

I mean. They will REALLY do this.

Really.

But first they will collapse the American economy.

Then they will isolate it politically, globally and through trade.

Then they set fire to all the domestic problems, and then…

… then if the results are not satisfactory they will light the fuse to the gunpowder.

We cannot control the crazy.

No we cannot.

We can control our reality.

We can only run our prayers, our affirmations and our campaigns.

Death wishes by police is increasingly common in the United States today.

We can be kind to others and control our immediate reality; our neighborhood.

Never forget there is strength in numbers. Remember the rule of three.

And you will be just fine. And let the crazies try to engage in a world that is increasingly hostile to them and their crazy selfish ideas.

Never forget the rule of three.

It just boggles the mind!

The United States can’t make anything. Aside from some basic fabrication and some high-tech aircraft for military use, that’s about it. (And they source just about everything out of the country.) And yet they want to destroy the world’s factory.

What is their malfunction?

You cannot “bite the hand that feeds you”, nor should you pretend that you can make the parts in West-bumfuck USA at the same price and quality. It ain’t gonna happen.

Maybe…

Just maybe if you set up a plan, and work on the plan… perhaps in five years you can start getting some semblance of a kind of manufacturing capability. But the first products out of that factory will have incoherent quality, and all sorts of problems. I would suggest starting with rubber duckys, then work your way up to consumer appliances.

Really?

America is a nation for the wealthy and their fellow psychopaths.

America is “top heavy” in government “leadership” and severely lacking in manufacturing ability. And yet it really wants to destroy it’s source of products, and yet… and yet… it doesn’t realize that it can’t get that ability back easily. Somehow it believe s that it “grow on trees” and factories and workers are easy to come by.

What kind of deluded folk think like that?

I only met one person like that.

He was in a mental hospital in Rhode Island. He had other strange beliefs. Like he was the king of the world, and that God granted him unlimited power, and that he could not be destroyed or hurt because he was an agent for God. He was a crazy, childish, ignorant son of a bitch.

…

Sigh.

Seriously, I do not know what will happen in the future. I really don’t. But what I do know is that (increasingly) the United State looks like a crazy person that is going to run in front of the police and say “kill me… kill me!” and the police will not want to, but in the end, they will shrug their shoulders and simply shoot the mad man dead.

Sad.

But accurate.

What’s Next

I would brace for some non-violent retaliatory actions designed to suppress some of the bellicose nature that the American leadership seems to possess. If that fails, then expect a serious , SERIOUS “bitch slap” in your backyard. Sometimes the way to deal with a crazy, out of control child, is to paddle it’s butt so that it will never, ever, again “act up”.

China, and Russia both realize this. Do not expect half-baked measures. Brace for well thought-out next actions.

If the American “leadership” (and at this stage who can serious say that America has ANY kind of leadership) doesn’t listen to all the alarm bells, flashing lights, sirens and screaming hysterical people running for their lives…

…then a “kill shot” will be necessary.

One last thought

Never forget.

The rule of three.

The ONLY way that you are going to survive this crazy period of time, and handle an insane world seemly run by imbeciles is to help others, be the best that you can be, and do great works…

Do great works.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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And more and more anti-China propaganda is heading your way. Weee! Here’s how to identify what is going on.

They are all maniacs you see. Maniacs. Pure maniacs.

A propaganda barrage always comes before an American war.

The bigger the target; the enemy is, then the longer and harsher the propaganda barrage.

So, after four and a half long years of HATE – HATE – HATE China related media, only a fool would assume that a war isn’t imminent.

But that is just wishful thinking.

History tells us otherwise…

10 ways to recognize war propaganda in western media

A Handy checklist

The ten rules of war propaganda were set forth by the historian Anne Morelli in her book The Principles of War Propaganda. Well, let’s look at these rules.

In doing so, we will see that our mainstream media follow them exactly.

Anyone who follows the media reports in the West must realize that our German media, free, objective, and critical, are engaged in war propaganda.

There are 10 fundamental well-known rules of American war propaganda that are easy to verify.

Rule 1: We don’t want war

Fun fact: Every war that American has been in for the last seventy five years involved a discussion with the (eventual) enemy where the United States made the statement (word for word) exactly stated "We don't want war". 

It's so obvious that it has become the "Calling Card of America".

The West supposedly never wants wars. Even so, the West wages more wars than all other states put together. Germany is fighting in Mali to supply the French nuclear power plants with uranium (officially against terrorists, of course). Germany fought in Afghanistan for 20 years, so long that most have already forgotten what it was all about. Germany has been militarily active in Kosovo for over 20 years to build democracy, but the Albanian mafia still rules there under the protection of the Bundeswehr. And so on.

All of these – and also the other – wars of the US-dominated West in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and on, all have one thing in common: Of course, the West did not want them at all, but was forced to war by the evil rulers. This is the official reading every time, and none of the “rulers” has ever attacked a country in the West.

It was always the other way around, the West attacked.

“We don’t want war”

If you want a fun activity, read the transcript of the March 2021 meeting in Anchorage Alaska between the United States and China. Look for the announcement statement “We don’t want war” coming from the American side.

That is how the rest of the world knows that American has decided to wage a hot war, soon to become world war III, nuclear style with China.

Look for the specific wording.

That’s exactly how you know that America plans to attack China under some kind of excuse and that a propaganda barrage to justify that attack is being conducted.

Rule 2: The opposing camp is solely responsible for the war

It's all their fault.

See point one.

Assad is allegedly responsible for the war in Syria, although the media in the West consistently keep silent about the CIA operation “Timber Sycamore” with which the CIA started the war. If this is new to you, it’s no wonder. Der Spiegel, for example, has never reported on how you can find the term “Timber Sycamore” when you search the Spiegel archive. The relevant documents of the CIA were published in Washington years ago. If this is new to you, check it out.

It is always done that way. So it was with Iraq, Libya and all other wars in which the West is fighting. The blame was placed on the other side, concealing that the West started the wars itself.

Rule 3: The leader of the opposing camp has the face of the devil

This is the classic. The choice of words is crucial. Putin, Assad and whoever are “potentates”, “autocrats”, “dictators” who commit all the deadly sins of the world. When a war is imminent, the media bring – in order to make the population ready for war – the inevitable formulations of the “Second Hitler”, from whom the world must be saved.

Of course, the enemies do not have “governments”, they are “regimes”. With all these formulations the “enemy” is dehumanized, the public should feel hatred and be ready to overthrow such an evil person, even at the cost of thousands of lives.

Anti-China bullshit from the American media.

This is what is called “hatespeech” in modern German and what the same media, that use this hate propaganda against unloved heads of government, always find very bad.

.

"America doesn't hate the Chinese people, just the Chinese government."

Rule 4: We defend a good cause and not special interests

Of course, the US wanted to bring human rights, democracy and prosperity to Iraq. Of course, it wasn’t about the oil wells that US corporations have secured for themselves. Not even in Libya, where France (one of the driving forces in the war) has secured many oil wells. And Mali is about the fight against terrorism, not the uranium on which the French nuclear industry depends. And of course Syria is not about oil or the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean, it is only about democracy, human rights and prosperity.

Wherever a government is critical of the West and where there are also natural resources (or where one of the main enemies China and Russia can be harmed), the West finds democracy and human rights very important. But if a government is pro-Western and allows the West access to natural resources, such as the absolutist Saudi dictatorship, then democracy and human rights are not so important.

Regime change in China The last major policy shift in China caught many off guard; we are at another such turning point. For the past ten years or so, bad news in China was usually good news. Growth shocks triggered sizable stimuli, leading to asset price rebounds in China, emerging markets and the world more broadly.

-China regime change

Incidentally, this is the key to understanding why Russia, which was a political friend under Yeltsin, has become enemy number one again under Putin: Under Yeltsin, Western corporations had secured control of Russian oil and gas. Putin ended that by 2003, and suddenly he was the number one villain. It doesn’t say that in the “quality media”, but it was actually so banal.

Rule 5: The enemy commits atrocities deliberately; on the other hand, when we cross the line, it is unintentional

We experience this one all the time. If the US is undoubtedly bombing a hospital in Afghanistan, then that is “collateral damage” and it was an accident. Nobody is punished, the “quality media” quickly forget it and do not ask for clarification.

On the other hand, it is enough if someone claims without evidence that Russia or Syria bombed a hospital and the media in the West are reporting not only for days, but also afterwards, so that the public does not forget who it must hate.

.

Rule 6: The enemy uses illegal weapons

That is also a classic.

We have all heard many times that Assad uses “barrel bombs”. Nobody really knows what that actually is, but it sounds pretty nasty. The USA constantly uses barrel bombs, except they are called “cluster bombs” and the “quality media” are almost always shyly silent about them, because these weapons are internationally banned.

Whether Assad uses this weapon has not been proven at all, but as a precaution the media have come up with a separate word for it so that the readers don’t even get the idea that the West could also use such weapons. ‘But he does that all the time.

Rule 7: We suffer only slight losses; the enemy’s losses are enormous

This rule only applies when the war has entered its critical phase. Before the war it was the other way around. Before the war it was reported that the enemy was aggressive and, for example, had killed so many of “our” soldiers again when violating a ceasefire. This is to prepare the public for a war.

We have been seeing this in Ukraine for years. The “quality media” always report when it gets “hotter” there that the rebels have killed so many Ukrainian soldiers. In doing so, they keep silent about the fact that the mostly Ukrainian shelling of residential areas preceded them, in which civilians were killed.

But you don’t find out about that from the “quality media”, you have to read the reports of the OSCE. The “quality media” did not consider the fact that the OSCE presented a report in November 2020 in which it stated that almost 75 percent of civilian casualties in Donbass were due to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Rule 8: The artists and intellectuals support our cause

Notice how often celebrities have their say in the media who think the Western wars are good for moral reasons. Celebs have spoken out against Assad, Gaddafi, and Saddam in recent years. This is particularly evident in the American media.

John Wayne fights the demon heathen communists in Vietnam in the movie The Green Berets.

In 2019 a prominent “benefit concert” for Venezuela took place in the Colombian border town of Cucuta. Famous artists appeared in the middle of the jungle to sing against Maduro. Conveniently right next to the US military base there.

And for Navalny, for example, Western celebrities wrote an open letter to Putin in April 2021. It did not contain any truths and probably hardly anyone has read it. It was just important to be able to name the celebrities in the headlines of the media who are against Putin.

There are innumerable examples of this method of war propaganda.

But none of this has anything to do with politics, after all, what politician is interested in a singer’s opinion? These reports only have the purpose of giving the public the feeling that the position of the West is morally correct and thus the fans of the stars are to be influenced accordingly and to follow their idol. It’s all about emotions, not the actuality.

Rule 9: Our concern is something sacred

Of course, after all, it is supposedly about the “holy” values ​​of the West, that is to say about democracy and human rights. You can also kill people for this.

This is probably the oldest means of war propaganda in world history. In ancient Rome one had to bring civilization to the barbarians, of course it was not about the enrichment of the generals. Caesar moved to Gaul as a practically bankrupt man and came back very rich.

Later the Spaniards had to bring the “savages” in America the right faith so that they would not burn in the hell to which the Spaniards sent them on the occasion. It wasn’t about the gold, of course. And the British Empire wanted to bring civilization back to the “backward” colonies, because the poor, backward people in the colonies couldn’t rule themselves.

What I am writing here so ironically is true. You can read it in the documents from the corresponding periods. There was always a “sacred” reason for urgently going to war.

And today the “holy” concerns are democracy, human rights, women’s rights and so on. It’s still the same principle as in antiquity, only the “sacred” concern changes every now and then.

Rule 10: Anyone who questions our propaganda is a traitor

Today the word “traitor” is out of date.

Today you can choose to say “Putin understanders”, “Kremlin trolls”, “conspiracy theorists”, “anti-Americans” and whatever other names are currently circulating.

Anyone who disagrees is demonized and marginalized.

But all of these terms have one thing in common: They identify the named person as an opponent of “Western values” or democracy.

Ergo: it’s a traitor.

It’s shocking, but the German media is actually doing war propaganda like in the darkest times in history. And not just since yesterday, it happened in 1991 in the First Gulf War with the incubator lie and has not been less since then, on the contrary, it has become more, and the techniques have been refined more and more.

Do you think it is a coincidence that the media works exactly according to the propaganda textbook?

The Conclusion

The United States has already decided to wage war with China.

The initial attempts, have all failed, resulting in (as best as I can determine) five HOT-level Assaults…

  • Carpet bombing using 8 bio-weapons to destroy livestock 2016 through 2020.
  • A hard attack using the COVID19 B-strain “death by brain seizure” during CNY 2020, with herd immunity for US allies using the inoculation A-strain . The “three day sniffles” variant.
  • A follow up (two punch) “desperation” (vindictive) bio-weapon attack(s) targeted on Beijing using the “death by vomiting” virus known as the Jingmen tick virus (JMTV), and the “death by diarrhea” virus. Which is itself being a human version of (ASF version of the H1N1) people transmittable Swine-flu 2020 virus. Also (curiously) disseminated by “criminal elements” using drones to spray the virus all over China. Good thing for China that the CIA assets turned themselves into the authorities.
  • The “tit-for-tat” minor assault carrier fires. China’s first big-deck amphibious assault ship, a type 075; a huge vessel that was built in a miraculously short amount of time, mysteriously caught fire on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. And then the gutting of the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard.
  • And the enormous late Summer US Navy armada that sailed to the South China Sea in 2020. And the return back to the USA with their “tail between their legs”. The USA was unprepared to to deal with the kinds of defensive capabilities that the Chinese had arrayed in the South China Sea.

Additionally, there are failures in collapse of particular cities, and Chinese efforts…

  • Color Revolution in Hong Kong.
  • Color Revolution in Tibet.
  • Turn XinJIang and the Uighur Muslims into a Syria-like battlefield.

The attempts to destabilize Chinese allies are a mixed bag…

  • Myanmar “regime change” to a pro-American anti-China nation.
  • Thailand “regime change” to a pro-American anti-China nation.
  • Chinese BRI construction in the Beirut port (destroyed by missiles).

And so on and so forth.

It’s a big effort, with the blocking the Suez canal, and mysterious fires in IC factories, and the like…

The propaganda is still in full active attack mode.

Which pretty much means that more, and worse events are scheduled to occur.

I think that the United States should realize that China is NOT a nation that is an easy target and that it would be in the best interests for America to work with China rather than try to destroy it. But what else can I say? America is run by idiots.

That’s the only thing that you can conclude.

They are all maniacs you see. Maniacs. Pure maniacs.

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Is it really possible that a hot war, instigated by the US, would occur between China and Taiwan?

I think that is important to address the issue of Taiwan and China. I believe that I need to do so because the USA is trying to start a war there. The drums for war are beating loudly. Really, really loudly. What the HELL is going on?

America is a military empire and it needs a war to exist. It’s always wanted one, two or three, as well well know. Right now the USA is involved in eight simultaneous wars, which could be reduced to seven if the (so called Afghanistan pull out) actually occurs.

But yeah. All evidence is that the United States is “throwing it’s weight around” trying to provoke a mighty World War.

(To) throw one's weight around, to To use one’s wealth or standing to manipulate others; to act officiously. 

This expression dates from the early twentieth century and uses weight in the sense of “authority.” John P. Marquand had it in H. M. Pulham, Esquire (1941): “Bo-jo was a bastard, a big bastard.

-Throw weight around - Idioms by The Free Dictionary

All you need to do is read the slant of the “news” out of America. Such as this piece of reprehensible trash…

Really?

Seriously?

Are you fucking kidding me?

I will admit that the anti-China articles have improved in their “sneakiness”. All you need to do is read the text to pull out the “boiler plate” anti-China screeds. Like this one from my Tech channels…

And the source for all this information? Why it’s the “United States Government”. That’s it. No other information on names or actual validation channels. Jeeze!

So the USA is busily running their anti-China screed, and they are still poking the Panda. But will it result in a hot war over Taiwan?

We should look into this. Here we tie together some most excellent articles and then weave them together for a better, more comprehensive picture about what is going on, why and who the culprits are.

We will start with this, it is one of the better articles on the subject. Edited to fit in this venue and all credit to the author.

Taiwan Strait: A Shooting War Involving China, Taiwan and the US?

Washington’s Arms Sales to Taiwan

By Prof. Joseph H. Chung
Global Research, April 26, 2021

We are witnessing the fourth Cross-Strait Crises. Chinese and American armed forces are undertaking dangerous, spectacular and threatening show of military might. What makes the present crisis different from the previous ones is the fact that it happened during and after the mutual cold-war declaration by Washington and Beijing in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18-19, 2021

The world is wondering how far this military show will go. Many are afraid of a shooting war involving China, Taiwan and the U.S.  Indeed, many are even afraid of the possibility of the third world war which will kill us all.

However, I do not share such pessimistic views. My view is that the inter-China cold war is likely to remain cold, not hot, because none of the three actors involved in the conflict – two Chinas and the U.S.- will gain from the shooting war.

The Sino-American shooting war – if there will be one – will be ignited somewhere else.

Summary

My argument may be summarized as follows.

First, the U.S. does not want the inter-China hot war, because through its ambiguous Taiwan policy, it can continue to sell weapons to Taiwan and, at the same time, keep Taiwan as the primary outpost of its China containment policy.

Second, China is not eager to declare a hot war with Taiwan, because Taiwan has not provided the reasons for China’s Taiwan invasion.

What would force an invasion of Taiwan by China?

There are four reasons for China’s Taiwan invasion including [1] the declaration of Taiwan independence, [2] internal turmoil inside of Taiwan, [2] military alliance with another country, [3] acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and [4] negotiations under the violation of the 1992 Consensus for “one-China”.

None of these conditions are present.

Therefore, China has no reason to invade Taiwan.

Taiwan does not want a war with China

Third, Taiwan does not want the hot war with China for the reason that it will be most likely defeated. As well as the cost of such defeat will be too high in terms of economic development and the loss of its identity. In fact, if and when China wins, it is extremely likely that both of the two China’s will be united under the banner of PRC.

The U.S. does not want inter-China hot War

To understand Washington’s role in the inter-China conflict, it is important to understand its Taiwan policy.

Washington’s Taiwan policy is based on [1] the three joint communiqués, [2] the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (TRA) and [3] the Six Assurances imposed by Ronald Reagan in 1982.

The followings are the contents of the three Communiqués, TRA and the Six Assurances.

The First China-U.S. Communiqué (28 February 1972)

  • The U.S. Government acknowledges (not accept or recognize) that all Chinese in either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but One China
  • Taiwan is a part of China
  • The U.S. Government does not challenge this position
  • . It reaffirms its interest in peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by Chinese themselves
  • With this prospect in mind, it affirms its ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all the U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan.

The Second China-U.S. Communiqué (January 1, 1979)

  • Neither should seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region or any other region of the world.
  • Each is opposed to efforts by any other country or group of countries to establish such hegemony
  • The government of the USA acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China
  • PRC is the sole legal government of China

Third China-U.S. Communiqué (August 17, 1982)

  • The U.S. Government attaches great importance to its relation with China.
  • It has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity or interfering in China’s internal affairs or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan.’
  • The U.S. Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan
  • Its arms sale to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms the level of those supplied in recent years
  • It intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final solution.
  • The U.S. Taiwan policy cannot be changed by the president and requires the consent of the Congress.

The Taiwan Relations Act (enacted by the U.S. Congress on April 10, 1979)

The principal contents of the Act is in Section 2 of the Act

  • Taiwan is treated as a country, a nation or a state as sub sovereign nation
  • Informal diplomatic relations are carried out by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)
  • The U.S. Government normalizes its diplomatic relations with PRC (Beijing) under the condition that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.
  • Any efforts to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means including by boycotts, or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific are grave concern to the U.S.
  • The Sino (Taiwan)-U.S. Mutual Defence Treaty is terminated.
  • The U.S. Government does not intervene in case of invasion by People’s Republic of China (PRC)
  • The U.S. Government provides arms of defensive character and maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan
  • The decision related to the quantity and the quality of defence articles and services is determined by the Congress and the president.

The Six Assurances

The administration of Ronald Reagan unilaterally added in 1982 “Six Assurances” to the TRA and this has become the mains part of the U.S. Taiwan policy

  • The U.S. Government has not agreed to set a date of the termination of its arms sale to Taiwan.
  • The U.S. Government has not agreed to consult with PRC (China) or ROC (Taiwan) for arms sales to Taiwan.
  • The U.S. Government does not perform the mediation role between ROC and PRC
  • The U.S. Government has not agreed to revise the TRA
  • The U.S. Government has not revised its position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan
  • The U.S. Government will not exercise pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiation with PRC.

The positive aspect of Washington’s Taiwan policy is the termination of the bloody civil war between ROC and PRC which caused the two cross-strait crises (1954 and 1958); the civil war lasted until 1979.

But, the end of the inter-China civil war was also desirable for Washington as well, because Washington badly needed China to counter the aggressive assertiveness of the Soviet Union in Asia.

So, Washington and Beijing were strange bed fellows with different dreams. Another possible reason for the U.S. initiative to end the inter-China civil war was the fear of Beijing’s victory over Taipei, which means the loss of a lucrative American arms market and reliable outpost of China containment strategy.

On the other hand, Washington’s Taiwan policy is characterized by the amazing ambiguity of Washington’s perception of the cross-strait problems and tactics which was most likely designed to maximize the American interests at the expense of China’s interests.

What comes out of the three communiqués, the TRA and the six assurances may be summarized in terms of the issue of regional hegemony, the legal status of Taiwan and the American arms sales.

Regional ambiguity

In the second communiqué of 1979, there are items preventing China from becoming a hegemonic power in the region. Neither the U.S. nor China should seek for hegemonic power in Asia. But the U.S was already the hegemonic power there.

The second feature of Washington’s Taiwan policy is its contradictory and ambiguous position regarding the legal status of Taiwan.

In the joint communiqués, the U.S. acknowledges that China is one and Taiwan is a part of China and that Beijing is the sole legal government of China. But this should mean that since Taiwan is a part of China, Beijing should also govern Taiwan.

But, in the Taiwan Relations Act, Taiwan is given the status of a de facto sovereign country.

China can argue that Washington did not respect the contents of the joint communiqués. But Washington can say this: “We have never accepted one-China regime, we said we acknowledged the regime”. Here, we see the strategic political ambiguity of Washington.

In fact, in the TRA, it says that Taiwan is treated as a nation of sub sovereignty. The U.S. has established de facto diplomatic relations with Taiwan conducted through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

Here, Washington’s position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan is not clear. The hidden purpose of the U.S. could be to make the sovereignty issue ambiguous so that it can change its position in function of needs.

Washington’s Arms Sales to Taiwan

Now, as for the issues of arms sales to Taiwan, the U. S. is even more ambiguous.

In the third communiqué, the U.S. says that it has no long-run plan of arms sales to Taiwan.

Yet in the same communiqué, the U.S. says that it will reduce arms sales, which contradicts each other.

In the TRA, the Sino (ROC)-U.S. defence Treaty is terminated.

This is a very, very important point. One that is purposely being left out of all media communication originating out of the United States. The TRA ended Taiwan as a US Protectorate.

Therefore, Washington should not intervene militarily if and when Taiwan is in armed conflict with Beijing.

But, already, in media, the US intervention in case of PRC’s Taiwan invasion is openly discussed.

One wonders what the reliability of the joint communiqués, the TRA and the Six Assurances is. It’s as if the United States simply ignores inconvenient rules, treaties, and agreements that it has signed.

Now, in the Six Assurances, it is written that the U.S. has no date for the ending of its arms sales to Taiwan. The U.S. is not obliged to consult PRC or ROC for its arms sales to Taiwan. So, Washington has absolute freehand in handling the arms sales to Taiwan.

In short, the U.S. Taiwan policy is so confusing and so ambiguous that it has useful flexibility for the sales of arms to Taiwan. The following table shows the pattern of American arms sales to Taiwan.

Table: Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan by U.S. Presidents

The table above allows these observations.

  • Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan has increased over the years, which is contrary to what the U.S. Government had promised.
  • The Trump administration spent as much as US$ 4.45 billion per year which represents as much as 30% of Taiwan’s annual defense budget of $15 billion
  • By and large, the Republican Party sells more than the Democrats.
  • Washington sells more when the anti-Beijing liberal party of Taiwan, the Democratic and Progressive Parry (DPP) is in power, that is, under the DPP government of Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) and under the DPP government of Tsai Ying-wen (2016-2021)

This has an important meaning.

Remember that the DPP is the party which seeks independence of Taiwan.

Hence, the data can be interpreted as Washington’s strategy of encouraging the independence movement leading to ROC-PRC tension and more U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

So the United States is actively encouraging an armed conflict between Taiwan and China. Though everyone realizes that ultimately Taiwan would be absorbed into China as a result of the conflict.

So, Does the USA want a Hot War over the Taiwan strait?

Now, coming back to the question of whether the U.S. wishes hot war over the Taiwan Strait, the answer is that it will not want the hot war.

The USA does not really want a Hot War, even though it is provoking one.

The reason is because, the hot war means the unification of China and Taiwan will no longer be able to play the role of Washington’s primary China-containment outpost and its function of being the lucrative market of American military equipment’s.

Neither PRC (People’s Republic of China) nor ROC (Republic of China-Taiwan) wants the hot War.

Are Taiwan and China enemies as described in the Western media?

When we discuss Taiwan and China, it is important to remember that they once were enemies. This was around fifty years ago.

The army of the ROC was defeated in 1949 and Chiang Kai-sek fled to Taiwan and continued the Republic of China which was created in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen. The civil war between ROC and PRC continued until 1979.

Even though the civil war was terminated, the ROC and PRC relations have not been smooth partly because of the past history and partly because of different political and economic regimes. In other words, there are always the possibilities of hostility in the cross-strait relations.

However, they have established viable relations which have been beneficial to both through political and economic cooperation.

The Risk of full Taiwan Independence from China

Aside from the American and British media harping on the desire for Taiwan to be free of the “oppressive yoke” of the “brutal Communist Dictatorship”,  the real truth is something else entirely.

The evolution of the Taiwanese political orientation may be measured in terms of the way in which its presidents consider the legal status of Taiwan vis-à-vis PRC.

The evolution of Taiwanese political leaders’ perceptions of Taipei-Beijing political relations is shown below. By and large, such relations have evolved by the following periods.

  • The civil war period (1949-1979)
  • The period of good relations (1979-1998)
  • The period of hostility (1998-2008)
  • The resumption of high level dialogue period (2008-2016)
  • The frozen relation period (2016-2021)

The period of civil war (1949-1979) was characterized by two cross-strait crises and never ending armed conflict between two Chinas.

During the friendly relation period (1979-1998), Deng Xiaoping met frequently the head of the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang (KMT) in order to develop cooperative relations.

President Chiang Ching-kuo (1980-1988) of KMT, son of Chiang Kai-shek, declared the three NOs:

      • No declaration of independence,
      • No unification of Chinas and
      • No use of force between the two Chinas.

On July 9, 1999, President Lee Teng-hui (1988-2000) of KMT defined the ROC-PRC relation as “country to country relations.” So, there is no need for the independence declaration.

However, Lee’s visit to the Cornel University Alumni in 1995 alarmed Beijing and it led to the 1996 show of military might of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of  PRC.

This was, in fact, the third Taiwan Strait crisis.

During the period of hostility (1998-2008), President Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) of the anti-PRC party, DPP, changed the name of “Chunghwa Post Co.” to “Taiwan Post Co.” He changed also the name of “China Petroleum Corporation” to “Taiwan Petroleum Corporation.”

But, under KMT president Ma Yong-Jeou (2008-2016), the old names came back. This episode shows how Taiwanese people are sensitive about the identity of Taiwan vis-à-vis China of main land.

In 2008, Ma Ying-Jeou of KMT (2008-2016) took over the power and the friendly relations across the Strait were resumed.

The year 2008 was marked by the efforts of PRCs president Hu Jintao to improve the bilateral relations across the Taiwan Strait. On March 26, 2008, he talked to President G.W. Bush, who endorsed the 1992 consensus on “One China”..

President Hu Jintao also met the Chairman of the KMT, Wu Po-hsing, who also accepted the 1992 Consensus.

As for President Ma, he defined the bilateral relations as “One Country on each side” or “two states in the same nation.”

In 2016 began the current period of contention. The power went back to DPP and Tsai Ying-wen became President. Tsai’s perception of Taiwan’s legal status was not more certain than those of other Taiwan presidents.

Her victory has put Beijing in even uncomfortable position. In 2016, Beijing cut all communications with ROC.

But, in the same year, some leaders in Taiwan being aware of the deteriorating cross-strait relations formed a Taiwanese delegation composed of eight magistrates and city mayors went to Beijing to improve the relations.

However, the cross-strait relations were not peaceful. In 2018, PLA conducted military exercises which surely alarmed Taiwan.

In 2019, Xi Jinping reaffirmed his position in favor of “one China, two systems.”

President Tsai Ying-wen refused Xi Jinping’s idea.

To the surprise of the world, in 2020 Tsai Ying-wen won the election again; the world was expecting that she would take more radical position regarding Taiwan’s independence.

True, her victory has encouraged the independence movement in Taiwan and pro-independence political parties and civic organizations asked for a referendum on independence.

However, Tsai maintained her position that since Taiwan is already independent country, there is no need for the declaration of independence.”

To sum up, none of the presidents of the major parties, the KMT and the DPP, opted for the declaration of Taiwan’s independence.

True, there are some pro-independence parties such as The Taiwan Independence Party, the Taiwan Solidarity and the Formosa Alliance, but they have no electoral support.

Thus, the danger of Taiwan’s declaration of independence seems nonexistent and therefore, Beijing has no reason to invade for now.

Taiwan People’s Perception

What has intrigued me is the Taiwanese people’s perceptions regarding Taiwan’s legal or political status. There are four public opinion polls which are meaningful.

In the poll of 2008 by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) no less than76% of the respondents rejected the idea of “one China, two systems.”

In the 2017 poll by MAC, 85% of the respondents said that the future of Taiwan should be determined by the Taiwanese themselves.

In the 2019 poll by MAC, 75% of the respondents rejected the 1992 Consensus (There is only one China which should be governed by PRC).

In the 2020 poll by the Academia Sinica, one finds very interesting phenomena.

  • 73% of the respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese.
  • 27.5% of them identified themselves as Chinese-Taiwanese
  • 2.4% of them identified themselves as Chinese
  • 52.3% of them would prefer the postponement of the question of Taiwan independence and keep the status quo
  • 35.1% of them prefer immediate independence
  • 5.5% of them would prefer immediate or eventual unification of China.

In the Poll of MAC, 90% of the respondents refused PLA’s military threats.

To sum up, the Taiwanese are eager to greater autonomy, even independence, but they seem to avoid military confrontation by postponing the solution of the independence issue.

In short, Taiwan does not want a shooting war with China.

Economic Cooperation

There is another reason why the ROC-PRC hot war will not take place. It is the cross-strait economic cooperation.

Taiwan has achieved a remarkable success in economic development.

In the 1960s, the per capita GDP was as low as $60. Now, in 2020, its GDP (nominal) was $730 billion USD and the per capita GDP was $32,000. This is, in fact, the miraculous achievements of the Taiwanese people.

The information industries account for 35 % of the country’s industrial production. The semi-conductor producers such as Taiwan Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and the United Microelectronic Corporation (UMC) are world leaders. Taiwan is the 13th largest producer of steel; its steel products are exported to 130 countries. The most spectacular entrepreneurial performance has been shown by the SMEs accounting for 85% of industrial outputs.

Such achievement has been possible because of the courage, the innovative entrepreneurial spirit, the productivity and, especially the hard work of the Taiwanese.

However, Washington’s economic aid, its imports of Taiwanese products and technology transfer have all contributed. In addition, we should not forget the cooperation between Mainland China and Taiwan.

Under President Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-1988), two important semi-official organizations were was established: the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) under ROC’s Mainland Affairs Council and the Association of Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) under PRCs Taiwanese Affairs Office.

These two organizations have been the center of bilateral political and economic cooperation. They have initiated the three links: postal services, transportation and trade.

The Taiwan’s Investment Guidelines and similar measures taken by ROC have led to mutual business investments.

In fact, 40 % of Taiwan’s outbound FDI stock went to Mainland China. Chinese tourists contribute to more than 40% of ROCs tourist industry. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement of 2010 is another mechanism of the bilateral economic relations.

Above all, Taiwan depends heavily on China for trade. In 2020, the value of Taiwan’s total exports was $ 345 billion of which 29.7% went to China. In the same year, the value of Taiwan’s total imports was $ 286 billion of which 22% came from China.

It is true that the RCO-PRC relations are not peaceful. But these economic relations are beneficial enough to keep the status quo as long as possible.

The conclusion of my analysis is that none of the three actors involved in the cross-strait drama wants shooting war.

      • China doesn’t
      • Taiwan doesn’t
      • The United States doesn’t.

The United States. The U.S. does not want the hot war because it will mean [1] the unification of China, [2] the loss of Taiwan as the primary China-containment outpost and [3] the loss of the lucrative arms market.

Taiwan. Taiwan does not want the shooting war, because it will mean the complete destruction of its economy, and the loss of its autonomy becoming one of the Chinese provinces.

China. China does not risk the hot war because [1] Taiwan prefers the status quo; [2] it has no intention of getting weapons of mass destruction; [3] there is no internal turmoil; [4] it does not seek military alliances.

But the United States wants high stress and tension

However, even without the shooting war, as long as the Sino-U.S. cold war continues, the cross-strait tension will continue.

Washington will sell more military equipment and services and Taiwan will have to play the dangerous role of Washington’s the primary outpost of China containment strategy and that of main buyer of American military weapons.

I wish to add this.

The bilateral conflict between two Chinas like all other major bilateral conflicts is an integral part of Washington’s strategy of global hegemony. One of the most productive components of the American global hegemony is the proxy war, that is, some member country of Washington’s alliances will fight for the U.S.

Japan might be asked to play this role, because Japan is the best qualified for such task; it is a world class military power and it has the ambition of dominating Asia again; to do so, Japan has to destroy China. I hope I am wrong in thinking such an awful thing.

Finally, I would like add this too…

Taiwan is a country which has achieved an amazing economic miracle of which all Chinese should be proud. Taiwan has established viable democracy under very challenging conditions; this is a regime which will surely contribute to the further advancement of China’s socio-political system.

…

Well, perhaps it is the Taiwan oligarchy that is pushing this issue. Not the Taiwanese government, and not the American government. Perhaps it is the oligarchy inside of Taiwan, and the greedy evil neocons in America that is driving up the stress levels in the Taiwan strait.

Because if Taiwan, China and the USA doesn’t want a war, then why are we talking about this?

Tanks and Think Tanks: How Taiwanese Cash Is Funding the Push to War with China

By Alan MacLeod
Global Research, April 26, 2021
MintPress News 22 April 2021

 

Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East. Now, a new set of think tanks staffed with many of the same experts and funded by Taiwanese money is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.

At MintPress, we have been at the forefront of exposing how Middle Eastern dictatorships and weapons contractors have been funneling money into think tanks and political action committees, keeping up a steady drumbeat for more war and conflict around the world.

Yet one little-discussed nation that punches well above its weight in spending cash in Washington is Taiwan.

By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States.

This has coincided with a strong upsurge in anti-China rhetoric in Washington, with report after report warning of China’s economic rise and demanding that the U.S. intervene more in China-Taiwan disputes.

These think tanks are filled with prominent figures from both parties and have the ears of the most powerful politicians in Washington.

It is in their offices that specialists draw up papers and incubate ideas that become tomorrow’s policies.

They also churn out experts who appear in agenda-setting media, helping to shape and control the public debate on political and economic issues.

Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks like the Project for a New American Century, funded by foreign governments and weapons manufacturers, used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East.

Now, a new set of think tanks, staffed with many of those same experts who provided the intellectual basis for those invasions, is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.

The Brookings Institute

In 2019, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) — for all intents and purposes, the Taiwanese embassy — donated between $250,000 and $499,999 to the Brookings Institute, commonly identified as the world’s most influential think tank.

Taiwanese tech companies have also given large sums to the organization.

In turn, Brookings Institute staff like Richard C. Bush (a former member of the National Intelligence Council and a U.S. national intelligence officer for East Asia) vociferously champion the cause of Taiwanese nationalists and routinely condemn Beijing’s attempts to bring the island more closely under control.

 

TECRO featured prominently among myriad defense interests on the donor rolls for both the Atlantic Council, left, and Brookings Institute

In mid-April 2021, Brookings held an event called “Taiwan’s quest for security and the good life,” which began with the statement that…

“Taiwan is rightly praised for its democracy. Elections are free, fair, and competitive; civil and political rights are protected.” 

...

“most consequential” challenge to the island’s liberty and prosperity is “China’s ambition to end Taiwan’s separate existence.”

According to another organization’s latest financial disclosure, TECRO also gave a six-figure sum to the Atlantic Council, a think tank closely associated with NATO.

The Atlantic Council

It is unclear what the Atlantic Council did with that money, but what is certain is that they gave a senior fellowship to Chang-Ching Tu, an academic employed by the Taiwanese military to teach at the country’s National Defense University.

In turn, Tu authored Atlantic Council reports describing his country as a “champion [of] global democracy,” and stating that “democracy, freedom and human rights are Taiwan’s core values.”

A menacing China, however, is increasing its military threats, so Taiwan must “accelerate its deterrence forces and strengthen its self-defense capabilities.”

Thus he advises that the U.S. must work far more closely with Taiwan’s military, conducting joint exercises and moving towards a more formal military alliance.

In 2020, the U.S. sold $5.9 billion worth of arms to the island, making it the fifth-largest recipient of American weaponry last year.

Other Taiwan-employed academics have chided the West on the pages of the Council’s website for its insufficient zeal in “deter[ring] Chinese aggression” against the island. “A decision by the United States to back down” — wrote Philip Anstrén, a Swedish recipient of a fellowship from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs — “could damage the credibility of U.S. defense guarantees and signal that Washington’s will to defend its allies is weak.”

Anstrén also insisted that “Europe’s future is on the line in the Taiwan Strait.” “Western democratic nations have moral obligations vis-à-vis Taiwan,” he added on his blog, “and Western democracies have a duty to ensure that [Taiwan] not only survives but also thrives.”

The reason this is important is that the Atlantic Council is an enormously influential think tank.

Its board of directors is a who’s-who in foreign policy statecraft, featuring no fewer than seven former CIA directors.

Also on the board are many of the architects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and James Baker. When organizations like this begin beating the war drums, everybody should take note.

…

The Hudson Institute

Perhaps the most strongly anti-Beijing think tank in Washington is the conservative Hudson Institute, an organization frequented by many of the Republican Party’s most influential figures, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice-President Mike Pence and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.

The words “China” or “Chinese” appear 137 times in Hudson’s latest annual report, so focused on the Asian nation are they. Indeed, reading their output, it often appears they care about little else but ramping up tensions with Beijing, condemning it for its treatment of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Uyghur Muslims, and warning of the economic and military threat of a rising China.

Over the years, Hudson’s efforts have been sustained by huge donations from TECRO.

The Hudson Institute does not disclose the exact donations any sources give, but their annual reports show that TECRO has been on the highest tier of donors ($100,000+) every year since they began divulging their sponsors in 2015. In February, Hudson Senior Fellow Thomas J. Duesterberg wrote an op-ed for Forbes entitled “The Economic Case for Prioritizing a U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement,” in which he extolled Taiwan’s economy as modern and dynamic and portrayed securing closer economic ties with it as a no-brainer. Hudson employees have also traveled to Taiwan to meet and hold events with leading foreign ministry officials there.

The Hudson Institute also recently partnered with the more liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) to host an event with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who took the opportunity to make a great number of inflammatory statements about the “ever more challenging threats to free and democratic societies” China poses; applaud the U.S.’ actions on Hong Kong; and talk about how Taiwan honors and celebrates those who died at the Tiananmen Square massacre. TECRO gave the CAP between $50,000 and $100,000 last year.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

It is the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), however, that appears to receive the most Taiwanese money.

According to its donor list, Taiwan gives as much money to it as the United States does — at least $500,000 last year alone.

Yet all of the Taiwanese government money is put into CSIS’s regional studies (i.e., Asia) program. Like Hudson employees, the CSIS calls for a free trade agreement with Taiwan and has lavished praise on the nation for its approach to tackling disinformation, describing it as a “thriving democracy and a cultural powerhouse.”

Although acknowledging that the reports were paid for by TECRO, CSIS insists that “all opinions expressed herein should be understood to be solely those of the authors and are not influenced in any way by any donation.”

In December, the CSIS also held a debatesuggesting that “[w]ithin the next five years, China will use significant military force against a country on its periphery,” exploring what the U.S. response to such an action should be.

Like the Atlantic Council, the CSIS organization is stacked with senior officials from the national security state. Its president and CEO is former Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, while Henry Kissinger — former secretary of state and the architect of the Vietnam War — also serves on its council.

The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD)

The CSIS accepts money from the Global Taiwan Institute and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) as well. The former is a rather shadowy pro-Taiwanese group that appears not to disclose its funding sources.

The latter is a government-funded organization headed by former Taiwanese President You Si-kun.

Every year, the TFD publishes a human rights report on China, the latest of which claims that “the Chinese Communist Party knows no bounds when it comes to committing serious human rights violations” — accusing it of “taking the initiative” in “promoting a new Cold War over the issue of human rights” and trying to “replace the universal standing of human rights values around the world.”

Ultimately, the report concludes, China “constitutes a major challenge to democracy and freedom in the world.”

 

Joseph Hwang of The War College in Taiwan speaks at a CSIS about how Taiwan acts a buffer to protect US data infrastructure from China

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

The TFD has also been a major funder of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a far-right pressure group that insists that Communism has killed over 100 million people worldwide.

Last year, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation added all global COVID-19 fatalities to the list of Communist-caused deaths on the basis that the virus started in China.

The Foundation also employs Adrian Zenz, a German evangelical theologian who is the unlikely source of many of the most controversial and contested claims about Chinese repression in Xinjiang province.

Other funded anti-China Think-Tanks

In the past 12 months, TECRO has also donated six-figure sums to many other prominent think tanks, including…

MintPress reached out to a number of these think tanks for comment but has not received any response.

“It would be naive to believe that Taiwan’s funding of think tanks is not pushing them to take pro-Taiwan or anti-China positions,” Ben Freeman, the director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, told MintPress, adding:

After all, why would Taiwan keep funding think tanks that are critical of Taiwan? There’s a Darwinian element to foreign funding of think tanks that pushes foreign government funding to think tanks that write what that foreign government wants them to write. Taiwan is no exception to this rule.”

TECRO is not just sponsoring American think tanks, however.

the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)

It has also given funds to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a hawkish and controversial group described as “the think tank behind Australia’s changing view of China.” The country’s former ambassador in Beijing described ASPI as “the architect of the China threat theory in Australia” while Senator Kim Carr of Victoria denounced them as working hand-in-hand with Washington to push “a new Cold War with China.”

ASPI was behind Twitter’s decision last year to purge more than 170,000 accounts sympathetic to Beijing from its platform.

“We must be ready to fight our corner as Taiwan tensions rise,” ASPI wrote in January, having previously castigated the West for being “no longer willing to defend Taiwan.”

Who is behind all this money, ultimately?

ASPI — like Brookings, the Atlantic Council and others — are directly funded by weapons manufacturers, all of whom also have a direct interest in promoting more wars around the world.

Thus, if the public is not careful, certain special interests might be helping move the United States towards yet another international conflict.

While the situation outlined above is concerning enough, the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative’s research has shown that around one-third of think tanks still do not provide any information whatsoever about their funding, and very few are completely open about their finances.

Freeman maintains that, while there is nothing inherently wrong with foreign governments funding Western think tanks, the lack of transparency is seriously problematic, explaining:

This raises a lot of questions about the work they’re doing. Are their secret funders saying what the think tank can do in a pay-for-play scheme? Are the funders buying the think tanks silence on sensitive issues? Without knowing the think tank’s funders, policymakers and the public have no idea if the think tank’s work is objective research or simply the talking points of a foreign government.”

Freeman’s study of the Taiwanese lobby found that seven organizations registered as Taiwan’s foreign agents in the U.S.

Those organizations, in turn, contacted 476 Members of Congress (including almost 90% of the House), as well as five congressional committees.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was their most frequent contact, the Californian being contacted 34 times by Taiwanese agents. Pelosi has been a great supporter of Taiwanese nationalists, successfully promoting pro-Taiwan legislation and proudly announcing that the U.S. “stands with Taiwan.”

Foreign agents working on behalf of Taiwan also made 143 political contributions to U.S. politicians, with former Alabama Senator Doug Jones the lead recipient (Pelosi was third).

Losing China, regaining Taiwan?

The reports listed above understand the dispute as purely a matter of Chinese belligerence against Taiwan and certainly do not consider U.S. military actions in the South China Sea as aggressive in themselves.

That is because the world of think tanks and war planners sees the United States as owning the planet.

America has the right to go and do anything that it desires anywhere on the globe at any time.

To this day, U.S. planners bemoan the “loss of China” in 1949 (a phrase that presupposes the United States owned the country).

After a long and bloody Second World War, Communist resistance forces under Mao Tse-tung managed to both expel the Japanese occupation and overcome the U.S.-backed Kuomintang (nationalist) force led by Chang Kai-shek. The United States actually invaded China in 1945, with 50,000 troops working with the Kuomintang and even Japanese forces in an attempt to suppress the Communists. However, by 1949, Mao’s army was victorious; the United States evacuated and Chang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan.

The Kuomintang ruled the island for 40 years as a one-party state and remains one of the two major political groups to this day.

The war between the Communists and the Kuomintang never formally ended, and Taiwan has now lived through 70 years of estrangement from the mainland. Polls show a majority of Taiwanese now favor full independence, although a large majority still personally identify as Chinese.

While many Taiwanese welcome an increased U.S. presence in the region, Beijing certainly does not.

American military is getting ready for a war

In 2012, President Barack Obama announced the U.S.’ new “Pivot to Asia” strategy, moving forces from the Middle East towards China. Today, over 400 American military bases encircle China.

In recent months, the United States has also taken a number of provocative military actions on China’s doorstep.

In July, it conducted naval exercises in the South China Sea, with warships and naval aircraft spotted just 41 nautical miles from the coastal megacity of Shanghai, intent on probing China’s coastal defenses.

And in December, it flew nuclear bombers over Chinese vessels close to Hainan Island.

Earlier this year, the head of Strategic Command made his intentions clear, stating that there was a “very real possibility” of war against China over a regional conflict like Taiwan.

China, for its part, has also increased its forces in the region, carrying out military exercises and staking claims to a number of disputed islands.

A new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) report notes that China is the U.S.’ “unparalleled priority,” claiming that Beijing is making a “push for global power.” “We expect that friction will grow as Beijing steps up attempts to portray Taipei as internationally isolated and dependent on the mainland for economic prosperity, and as China continues to increase military activity around the island,” it concludes.

In an effort to stop this, Washington has recruited allies into the conflict. Australian media are reporting that their military is currently readying for war in an effort to force China to back down, while in late April 2021 President Joe Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to shore up a united front against Beijing vis-a-vis Taiwan.

In February, the Atlantic Council penned an anonymous 26,000-word report advising Biden to draw a number of red lines around China, beyond which a response — presumably military — is necessary. These included any military action or even a cyber attack against Taiwan. Any backing down from this stance, the council states, would result in national “humiliation” for the United States.

American fantasy dreams

Perhaps most notably, however, the report also envisages what a successful American China policy would look like by 2050:

[T]he United States and its major allies continue to dominate the regional and global balance of power across all the major indices of power;… [and head of state Xi Jinping] has been replaced by a more moderate party leadership; and … the Chinese people themselves have come to question and challenge the Communist Party’s century-long proposition that China’s ancient civilization is forever destined to an authoritarian future.”

In other words, that China has been broken and that some sort of regime change has occurred.

Forked tongue speak

Throughout all this, the United States has been careful to stress that it still does not recognize Taiwan and that their relationship is entirely “unofficial,” despite claiming that its commitment to the island remains “rock solid.”

Indeed, only 14 countries formally recognize Taiwan, the largest and most powerful of which is Paraguay.

Along with a military conflict brewing, Washington has also been prosecuting an information and trade war against China on the world stage.

  • Attempts to block the rise of major Chinese companies like Huawei, TikTok and Xiaomi are examples of this.
  • Others in Washington have advised the Pentagon to carry out an under-the-table culture war against Beijing.
  • This would include commissioning “Taiwanese Tom Clancy” novels that would “weaponize” China’s one-child policy against it.
  • And, bombarding citizens with stories about how their only children will die in a war over Taiwan.

Republicans and Democrats constantly accuse each other of being in President Xi’s pocket, attempting to outdo each other in their jingoistic fervor.

Last year, in 2020, Florida Senator Rick Scottwent so far as to announce that every Chinese national in the U.S. was a Communist spy and should be treated with extreme suspicion.

As a result, the American public’s view of China has crashed to an all-time low.

Only three years ago, the majority of Americans held a positive opinion of China. But today, that number is only 20%. Asian-Americans of all backgrounds have reported a rise in hate crimes against them.

Cash rules everything around me

How much of the United States’ aggressive stance towards China can be attributed to Taiwanese money influencing politics?

It is difficult to say.

Certainly, the United States has its own policy goals in East Asia outside of Taiwan.

But Freeman believes that the answer is not zero. The Taiwan lobby “absolutely has an impact on U.S. foreign policy,” he said, adding:

At one level, it creates an echo-chamber in D.C. that makes it taboo to question U.S. military ties with Taiwan. 

While I, personally, think there are good strategic reasons for the U.S. to support this democratic ally — and it’s clearly in Taiwan’s interest to keep the U.S. fully entangled in their security — it’s troubling that the D.C. policy community can’t have an honest conversation about what U.S. interests are. 

But, Taiwan’s lobby in D.C. and their funding of think tanks both work to stifle this conversation and, frankly, they’ve been highly effective.”

Other national lobbies affect U.S. policy.

The Cuban lobby helps ensure that the American stance towards its southern neighbor remains as antagonistic as possible.

Meanwhile, the Israel lobby helps ensure continuing U.S. support for Israeli actions in the Middle East.

Yet more ominously with Taiwan, its representatives are helping push the U.S. closer towards a confrontation with a nuclear power.

While Taiwanese money appears to have convinced many in Washington, it is doubtful that ordinary Americans will be willing to risk a war over an island barely larger than Hawaii, only 80 miles off the coast of mainland China.

You would think…

But now, I’m not so sure…

US Seeks South China Sea Conflict

By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, April 24, 2021
New Eastern Outlook 20 April 2021

 

Despite hopes by some that with Joe Biden a new US foreign policy will follow – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reaffirmed Washington’s committment to seeking conflict in the South China Sea under the guise of “standing with Southeast Asian claimants.”
Reuters in their article, “US stands with SE Asian countries against China pressure, Blinken say”  would claim:
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Secretary Blinken pledged to stand with Southeast Asian claimants in the face of PRC pressure,” it said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
China claims almost all of the energy-rich South China Sea, which is also a major trade route. The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims.
The United States has accused China of taking advantage of the distraction of the coronavirus pandemic to advance its presence in the South China Sea.

The US announcement confirms that a confrontational posture toward China will continue regardless of who occupies the White House – as US tensions with China are rooted in unelected  Western special interests and their desire to remove China as a competitor and potential usurper in what US policy papers themselves call “US primacy in Asia.”

US Primacy in Asia

One such paper titled, “Revising US Grand Strategy Toward China,”…

…published by the Council on Foreign Relations in 2015…

…not only spelled out the US desire to maintain that primacy in Asia vis-a-vis China…

… but also how it would use overlapping claims in the South China Sea as a pretext to justify….

…an expanded military presence in the region and as a common cause to pressure China’s neighbors into a united front against Beijing.

The paper would note specific US goals of militarizing Southeast Asia and integrating the region into a common US-led defense architecture against China.

It is a policy built upon the US “pivot to Asia” unveiled as early as 2011 and a policy that has been built upon in turn during the last four years under the Trump administration – demonstrating the continuity of agenda that permeates US foreign policy.

Turning Disputes into Conflict 

Maritime disputes are common throughout the world – even in the West.

Just at the end of last year, the Guardian in an article titled, “Four navy ships to help protect fishing waters in case of no-deal Brexit,” would report:

Four Royal Navy patrol ships will be ready from 1 January to help the UK protect its fishing waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a deployment evoking memories of the “cod wars” in the 1970s.

The 80-metre-long armed vessels would have the power to halt, inspect and impound all EU fishing boats operating within the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which can extend 200 miles from shore.

In terms of such disputes, the waters of the South China Sea are no exception.

Not only does China have overlapping claims with the nations mentioned in the Reuters article – each nation listed has overlapping claims with one another.

This results in sporadic disputes between all of these nations – occasionally resulting in the seizing of  vessels and the temporary detaining of boat crews.

However – these disputes are regularly settled through bilateral methods – including disputes between Southeast Asian nations and China itself.

A high-profile example of this unfolded in 2015 where a US-led legal case was brought to the Hague on behalf of the Philippines regarding Chinese claims over the South China Sea.

While the Hague ruled in the Philippines’ favor – Manila declined to use the ruling as leverage against Beijing or to seek Washington’s assistance – and instead pursued bilateral talks with Beijing directly on its own.

It is a case that demonstrates the desire by Washington to escalate what are ordinary maritime disputes, into a regional or even international crisis – not unlike the US’ strategy in the Middle East which it uses to justify its perpetual military occupation there.

More recently the issue of the South China Sea has come up at ASEAN Summits.

Al Jazeera in its article, “ASEAN summit: South China Sea, coronavirus pandemic cast a shadow,” would cite Malaysia’s take on the issue, noting:

“The South China Sea issue must be managed and resolved in a rational manner,” Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told the meeting. “We must all refrain from undertaking activities that would complicate matters in the South China Sea. We have to look at all avenues, all approaches to ensure our region is not complicated further by other powers.”

While the US poses a champion for Southeast Asia – it is clear that its efforts are unwelcome and viewed instead as a source of instability – not a path toward resolution.

It is almost certain that it is Washington the Malaysian foreign minister was referring to when he mentioned “other powers.”

Just as the US nominated itself as protector of European “energy security” in its bid to obstruct the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline – the US has inserted itself into relatively routine maritime disputes in the South China Sea – not to “stand with” the nations of the region, but to serve as an excuse to impose its “primacy” over them.

The nations of Southeast Asia count China among their largest trade partners, sources of tourism, and for several – a key military and infrastructure partner.

The prospect of a regionally destabilizing conflict originating over long-standing disputes in the South China Sea benefits no one actually located in Asia – and only serves the interests of those beyond Asia seeking to divide and reassert their rule over it.

Who are these people?

Who are these Taiwan Oligarchs that want to start World War III? Most are old men. The youngest is in their 60’s. Most are in their mid to late 70’s and much older. What are they trying to do, and why? Are they so fixated in what happened fifty years ago that they cannot see what is going on right now, and what a bright future lies ahead for them?

MM is providing their names right here for you all to see.

Zhang Congyuan shoes
Tsai Hong-tu & Cheng-ta finance
Daniel & Richard Tsai finance
Wei Ing-chou, Ying-chiao, Yin-chun & Yin-heng food
Jason & Richard Chang semiconductors
Terry Gou electronics
Tsai Eng-meng food, beverages
Barry Lam electronics
Pierre Chen electronics
Lin Shu-hong petrochemicals
Samuel Yin retail
Andre Koo, Sr. financial services
Tsai Ming-kai semiconductors
Rudy Ma finance
Morris Chang semiconductors
Douglas Hsu diversified
Tseng Cheng & Sing-ai petrochemicals
Lin Ming-hsiung supermarkets
K.C. Liu manufacturing
Bruce Cheng electronics
T.Y. Tsai finance
Wang Chou-hsiong footwear
Lin Chen-hai real estate
Scott Lin optical components
Chin Jong Hwa auto parts
Chen Tei-fu herbal products
Chao Teng-hsiung real estate
William & Wilfred Wang plastics
Shi Wen-long plastics
Luo Ming-han & Tsai-jen Lo tires
Xie Weitong cobalt
Chen Yung-tai real estate
Tony Chen electronics
Thomas Wu finance
Cho Jyh-jer semiconductors
Archie Hwang semiconductors
Yeh Kuo-I manufacturing
Shirley Kao food & beverage retailing
Eugene Wu finance
Wang Ren-sheng retail
Wu Chung-yi manufacturing
Tsai Chi-jui shoes
Allen Horng & Tien-Szu Hung electronics
Wu Li-gann electronic components
Tsao Ter-fung food
Lee Tien-tsai beverages
Quintin Wu plastic
Yeh Min-yuen cybersecurity
Huang Chung Sheng recycling
Ho Kuang-chi restaurants

Yeah. I wonder how much of a shame it would be for these people to suddenly stop provoking a war beacause of other issues that they need to deal with.

Conclusion to all of this

The governments do not want wars or conflict in the South China Sea, but the oligarchs do.

They are pushing, and pushing, and pushing for a war.

And “red lines” have been established.

  • For China to invade Taiwan.
  • For China to attack American cities.
  • For Taiwan to get involved with the United States.

And the wealthy oligarchy are pushing these limits.

And this is what is going on right now.

How successful will the oligarchy be? It’s a matter up to the government leadership.

A final word…

It’s propaganda that is pushing the world towards world war III. And this propaganda is very devious and very destructive.

The following is from the US defense department. It shows the nuclear delivery systems of American, China and Russia compared. Imagine that, the only nuclear delivery systems that America has according to the media are airborne!

From the US Department of Defense Nuclear Posture Review.

Do you believe it?

You shouldn’t. It’s false; it’s a lie.

But many do believe it. And that why there is an inherent danger in all these oligarchs pushing the world towards world war III.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my China Index here…

USA / China

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Master Index

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How the nations of China, Russia and Iran will be interconnected together

It’s an exciting time. If you can ignore the howls of fright, and fear, from the oligarchy in the United States you can clearly see that the world is uniting and coming together. Roadblocks have been set aside. nations are unifying, sharing resources, and working together for the mutual benefit of all. And it’s long overdue.
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Key to this is the BRI. And all the nations that are connected to the BRI will profit handsomely. But here (in this article) we will concentrate on the main lines or corridors between the big three; Russia, China and Iran. Of course, everyone else near by stands to profit and benefit from all of this. Indeed, it’s a real exciting time.
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Here’s some “meat” as to what the BRI contains. Noting that much is still left out, the roads, the bridges, the tunnels, the high-speed rail lines, and the local community infrastructure. Indeed the scope of the BRI project is vast, just vast. It’s sort of like a major effort to go to the moon, kind of “vast”.
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The following is an article titled “How Eurasia will be interconnected”. I was written by . I edited it to fit this venue, and all credit to the author. You also might want to visit the UNZ where most of his articles reside and where there are many other articles of great interest.
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How Eurasia Will be Interconnected

• April 2, 2021• 21 Comments
An inner-connected Asia.

The extraordinary confluence between the signing of the Iran-China strategic partnership deal and the “Ever Given” saga in the Suez Canal is bound to spawn a renewed drive to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and all interconnected corridors of Eurasia integration.

"Ever Given" saga in the Suez Canal
EverGiven is one of the largest container ships in the world. The ship is owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha, and is time chartered and operated by container transportation and shipping company Evergreen Marine, headquartered in Luzhu District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan. 

In April 2021, it blocked the Suez Canal for days leading onto weeks, and put a halt to most sea-traffic using the canal.
Iran-China strategic partnership
The Iran-China bilateral 25-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was signed in Tehran by foreign ministers Javad Zarif and Wang Yi on 27 March 2021. 

While specific details of the agreement are unknown, the joint statement released on signing refers to strengthening political and parliamentary ties, the recognition and pursuit of mutual strategic interests, increased cooperation in defense training, equipment, technology, and intelligence, increased cooperation in counterterrorism and counter-narcotics, and expanded economic ties, especially in finance, mining, energy, agriculture, and infrastructure. 

Infrastructure includes ports and railway networks and is linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

This is the most important geoeconomic development in Southwest Asia in ages – even more crucial than the geopolitical and military support to Damascus by Russia since 2015.

Multiple overland railway corridors across Eurasia featuring cargo trains crammed with freight (the most iconic of which is arguably Chongqin-Duisburg)  are a key plank of BRI. In a few years, this will all be conducted on high-speed rail.

The chongqing duisburg railway.
ChinaandEurope: Reconnecting Across a New Silk Roaddigitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=facpub
Chongqing Duisburg BELARUS GERMANY POLAND Venice Athens GEORGIA ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN Colombo TRANS-EURASIA RAILROADThe 11,179-kilometre rail line is the most important connection to Europe. 

Launched in 2011 by a joint venture with Germany, China, Kazakhstan, and Russia, the rail goes from the city of Chongqing in southwestern China to Duisburg,Germany.

The key overland corridor is Xinjiang-Kazakhstan. (As shown in the map below.)

And then onwards to Russia and beyond outbound to Europe.

The other overland corridor traverses Central Asia and Iran, all the way to Turkey, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. It may take time – in terms of volume – to compete with maritime routes, but the substantial reduction in shipping time is already propelling a massive cargo surge.

The Iran-China strategic connection is bound to accelerate all interconnected corridors leading to and crisscrossing Southwest Asia.

A visual comparison of maritime travel compared to rail travel.

Crucially, multiple BRI trade connectivity corridors are directly linked to establishing alternative routes to oil and gas transit, controlled or “supervised” by the Hegemon since 1945: Suez, Malacca, Hormuz, Bab al Mandeb.

HegemonyHegemony (UK:, US:) is the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others. 

In ancient Greece (8th century BC – 6th century AD), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of a city-state over other city-states. The dominant state is known as the hegemon. 

In the 19th century, hegemony came to denote the "Social or cultural predominance or ascendancy; predominance by one group within a society or milieu". Later, it could be used to mean "a group or regime which exerts undue influence within a society". 

Also, it could be used for the geopolitical and the cultural predominance of one country over others, from which was derived hegemonism, as in the idea that the Great Powers meant to establish European hegemony over Africa, Asia and Latin America.

-Wikipedia

Black Ops for the Ever Given Blockage in the Suez Canal?

Informal conversations with Persian Gulf traders have revealed huge skepticism about the foremost reason for the Ever Given saga.

The Ever Given, the 200,000-ton cargo ship that became stuck in the Suez Canal on March 23, was finally freed Monday after blocking the waterway for nearly a week, according to the Associated Press. The ship garnered international media attention and has become the subject of online conspiracy theories.

.

Merchant marine pilots agree that winds in a desert storm were not enough to harass a state of the art mega-container ship equipped with very complex navigation systems.

The pilot error scenario, induced or not, is being seriously considered.

Then there’s the predominant shoptalk: stalled Ever Given was…

  1. Japanese owned,
  2. Leased from Taiwan,
  3. UK-insured,
  4. With an all-Indian crew,
  5. Transporting Chinese merchandise to Europe.

No wonder cynics, addressing the whole episode, are asking, Cui Bono?

Cui BonoCui bono? (Classical Latin: [kui̯ ˈbɔnoː]), in English "to whom is it a benefit?", is a Latin phrase about identifying crime suspects. 

Itexpresses the view that crimes are often committed to benefit their perpetrators, especially financially. Which party benefits may not be obvious, and there may be a scapegoat.

-Wikipedia

Persian Gulf traders, in hush hush mode, also drop hints about the project for Haifa to eventually become the main port in the region. This would be in close cooperation with the Emirates. It would connect via a railway to be built between Jabal Ali in Dubai to Haifa, bypassing Suez.

Iranian Oil to XingJiang

Back to facts on the ground, the most interesting short-term development is how Iran’s oil and gas may be shipped to Xinjiang via the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan – using a to-be-built Trans-Caspian pipeline.

Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCP) is a proposed pipeline which would transport gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan across the Caspian sea via an undersea pipeline.[1] It is also known as the South Caucasus Pipeline Future Expansion (SCPFX), due to its connection with the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline. It is similar to the proposed Trans-Caspian 2 Gas Pipeline.

In May 2019 a pre-FEED (front end engineering and design) study began for a plan to build two Trans-Caspian pipelines. The first pipeline would follow an expanded SGC route (South Caucasus Pipeline, Tanap and Tap) to a final destination of Italy. The Trans-Caspian 2 Gas Pipeline would follow the White Stream route from the Georgian coast, entering the EU in Romania and reaching western Europe via existing pipelines in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia and onwards.

- Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor

That falls right into classic BRI territory.

Actually more than that, because Kazakhstan is a partner not only of BRI but also the Russia-led Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).

The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline for Peace-building in the South Caucasus

From Beijing’s point of view, Iran is also absolutely essential for the development of a land corridor from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea and further to Europe via the Danube.

It’s obviously no accident that the Hegemon is on high alert in all points of this trade corridor…

  • “Maximum pressure” sanctions and hybrid war against Iran;
  • An attempt to manipulate the Armenia-Azerbaijan war;
  • The post-color revolution environment in both Georgia and Ukraine – which border the Black Sea;
  • NATO’s overarching shadow over the Balkans;

It’s all part of the plot.

Now get me some Lapis Lazuli

Another fascinating chapter of Iran-China concerns Afghanistan.

According to Tehran sources, part of the strategic agreement deals with Iran’s area of influence in Afghanistan and the evolution of still another connectivity corridor all the way to Xinjiang.

And here we go back to the always intriguing Lapis Lazuli corridor – which was conceptualized in 2012, initially for increased connectivity between Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Lapis Lazuli corridor

LapisLazuliisan international transit route openedin 2018 linking Afghanistan toTurkeyviaTurkmenistan, Azerbaijan andGeorgia. 

The name “Lapis Lazuli” isderived from the historic route that Afghanistan'slapislazuliand other semiprecious stones were exported along, over 2,000 years ago, to the Caucasus, Russia, the Balkans, Europe, and North Africa along the ancient Silk Road. 

The initiative will serve to reinforce the Afghan Government's Infrastructure and Connectivity Development, Energy, and Private Sector Development National Priority Programs. 

The Lapis Lazuli corridor is funded by the Asian Development Bank. Currently, the transit project’s budget is estimated at $2 billion.

-Wikipedia

Lapis Lazuli, wonderfully evocative, harks back to the export of an array of semiprecious stones via the Ancient Silk Roads to the Caucasus, Russia, the Balkans and North Africa.

Now the Afghan government sees the ambitious 21st century remix as…

  • Departing from Herat (a key area of Persian influence),
  • Continuing to the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan,
  • Via a Trans-Caspian pipeline to Baku,
  • Onwards to Tblisi,
  • And through the Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi in the Black Sea,
  • And finally connected to Kars and Istanbul.

This is really serious business; a drive that may potentially link the Eastern Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.

Since Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea in 2018, in the Kazakh port of Aktau…

…what’s interesting is that their major issues are now discussed at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where Russia and Kazakhstan are full members.

  • Iran will soon be;
  • Azerbaijan is a dialogue partner;
  • and Turkmenistan is a permanent guest.
Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea ...

Publish Year: 2019
Author: Rizal Abdul Kadir
Published: Apr 25, 2019

After twenty-two years of negotiations, in Aktau on August 12, 2018, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan signed the Convention onthe Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. The preamble of the Convention stipulates, amongother things, that the Convention, made up of twenty-four articles, was agreed on by the five states based on principles and norms of the Charter of theUnited Nations and International Law.

The Iranian Caspian Sea Canal

Construction of a navigable channel linking the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf is underway. It is expected the project will be completed in the 2020s.

The project is particularly interesting for Russia due to the cold spell with Turkey, but European and post-Soviet states will also benefit from it.

But it seems the US is worried about this alternative to the Suez Channel.

"The West and Turkey have directly or indirectly tried to block the waterway [from being created]. As a matter of fact, the United States imposed sanctions" on companies that have been involved in the project, economic analyst Alexei Chickin wrote.

-Sputnik News

One of the key connectivity problems to be addressed is the viability of building a canal from the Caspian Sea to Iran’s shores in the Persian Gulf.

That would cost at least US$7 billion.

The Iranian Caspian Sea Canal.

Another issue is the imperative transition towards container cargo transport in the Caspian.

In SCO terms, that will…

  1. Increase Russian trade with India via Iran
  2. As well as offering an extra corridor for China trade with Europe.

Now, with Azerbaijan prevailing over Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh flare up…

…while finally sealing a deal with Turkmenistan over their respective status in the Caspian Sea…

… impetus for the western part of Lapis Lazuli is now in the cards.

The eastern part is a much more complicated affair, involving an absolutely crucial issue now on the table not only for Beijing but for the SCO: the integration of Afghanistan to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

And then…

In late 2020, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan agreed to build what analyst Andrew Korybko delightfully described as the PAKAFUZ railway. PAKAFUZ will be a key step to expand CPEC to Central Asia, via Afghanistan. Russia is more than interested.

This can become a classic case of the evolving BRI-EAEU melting pot.

Crunch time – serious decisions included – will happen this summer, when Uzbekistan plans to host a conference called “Central and South Asia: Regional Interconnectedness. Challenges and Opportunities”.

So everything will be proceeding interconnected:

  • A Trans-Caspian link;
  • The expansion of CPEC;
  • Af-Pak connected to Central Asia;
  • An extra Pakistan-Iran corridor (via Balochistan, including the finally possible conclusion of the IP gas pipeline) all the way to Azerbaijan and Turkey;
  • With China deeply involved in all these projects.

Beijing will be building roads and pipelines in Iran, including one to ship Iranian natural gas to Turkey.

Iran-China, in terms of projected investment, is nearly ten times more ambitious than CPEC.

Call it CIEC (China-Iran Economic Corridor).

In a nutshell: the Chinese and Persian civilization-states are on the road to emulate the very close relationship they enjoyed during the Silk Road-era Yuan dynasty in the 13th century.

INSTC or bust

An extra piece of the puzzle concerns how the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) will mix with BRI and the EAEU.

North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

Crucially, INSTC also happens to be an alternative to Suez.

Iran, Russia and India have been discussing the intricacies of this 7,200 km-long ship/rail/road trade corridor since 2002.

INSTC technically starts in Mumbai and goes all the way via the Indian Ocean to Iran, the Caspian Sea, and then to Moscow.

As a measure of its appeal, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Oman, and Syria are all INSTC members.

Much to the delight of Indian analysts, INSTC reduces transit time from West India to Western Russia from 40 to 20 days, while cutting costs by as much as 60%.

It’s already operational.

But not yet as a continuous, free flow sea and rail link.

New Delhi already spent $500 million on a crucial project: the expansion of Chabahar port in Iran, which was supposed to become its entry point for a made in India Silk Road to Afghanistan and onward to Central Asia.

But then it all got derailed by New Delhi’s flirting with the losing United States “Quad” proposition.

Mike Pompeo (USA) with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (India).

.

India also invested $1.6 billion in a railway between Zahedan, the key city in southeast Iran, and the Hajigak iron/steel mining in central Afghanistan.

This all falls into a possible Iran-India free trade agreement which is being negotiated since 2019 (for the moment, on stand-by).

Iran and Russia already clinched a similar agreement.

And India wants the same with the EAEU as a whole.

Following the Iran-China strategic partnership, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Mojtaba Zonnour, has already hinted that the next step should be an Iran-Russia strategic cooperation deal, privileging…

“rail services, roads, refineries, petrochemicals, automobiles, oil, gas, environment and knowledge-based companies”.

Volga–Don Canal

What Moscow is already seriously considering is to build a canal between the Caspian and the Sea of Azov, north of the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the already built Caspian port of Lagan is a certified game-changer.

Thisisbecause one of the twocanals connecting the Caspian Sea to the outside worldistheVolga–Don Canal, which links the Caspian Sea with the Sea of Azov. Russia hasused the Volga–Don Canal to move warships between the Caspian Sea andtheSea of Azov.

-Russian dominancein the Black Sea: TheSeaofAzov
Volga–Don Canal.

Lagan directly connects with multiple BRI nodes.

There’s rail connectivity to the Trans-Siberian all the way to China.

Across the Caspian, connectivity includes Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan and Baku in Azerbaijan, which is the starting point of the BTK railway through to the Black Sea and then all the way from Turkey to Europe.

On the Iranian stretch of the Caspian, Amirabad port links to the INSTC, Chabahar port and further on to India. It’s not an accident that several Iranian companies, as well China’s Poly Group and China Energy Engineering Group International want to invest in Lagan.

What we see in play here is Iran at the center of a maze progressively interconnected with Russia, China and Central Asia.

When the Caspian Sea is finally linked to international waters, we will see a de facto alternative trade/transport corridor to Suez.

Himalaya Silk Road

Post-Iran-China, it’s not far-fetched anymore to even consider the possible emergence in a not too distant future of a Himalaya Silk Road uniting BRICS members China and India (think, for instance, of the power of Himalayan ice converging into a shared Hydropower Tunnel).

Himalaya Silk Road to the BRI.

.

As it stands, Russia is very much focused on limitless possibilities in Southwest Asia, as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made it clear in the 10thMiddle East conference at the Valdai club.

The Hegemon’s treats on multiple fronts – Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Nord Stream 2 – pale in comparison.

21st Century Geopolitics

The new architecture of 21st century geopolitics is already taking shape, with China providing multiple trade corridors for non-stop economic development…

…while Russia is the reliable provider of energy and security goods, as well as the conceptualizer of a Greater Eurasia home…

… with “strategic partnership” Sino/Russian diplomacy playing the very long game.

Southwest Asia and Greater Eurasia have already seen which way the (desert) winds are blowing.

And soon will the masters of international capital. Russia, China, Iran, India, Central Asia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Korean Peninsula, everyone will experience a capital surge – financial vultures included.

Following the Greed is Good gospel, Eurasia is about to become the ultimate Greed frontier.

…if left unencumbered.

The United States has a say…

The problem with the BRI is that it links Europe to Russia, Persia and China and permits local currency use instead of the USD and oceanic maritime trade. Over a period of time, the value of the USD will decrease due to it no longer being the global currency, and in order to maintain it’s value the United States would have to revert back tot he “gold standard”.

Which shouldn’t be a problem. Right?

I’m sure that the United States has 30 trillion dollars worth of gold stashed here and there. Somewhere. <\sarcasm>

Of course, it is in the best interests of the United States to prevent any kind of prosperity, or changes at any level from occurring in Asia. Any and all changes will have a negative effect on America at all levels. The only way that America can maintain it’s “rules based hegemony” (The USA makes the rules, and you either follow them or be destroyed) is for it to be the dominant and preeminent ruling structure on the globe.

Here is a couple of links to thorough, in-depth analysis </sarcasm> of this situation from America;

Nah. They pretty much say the same tired old thing. China is doing this because it is evil and wants to ensnare the world like a spider trapping a fly in it’s web. Yada, yada, yada.

The only way to stop this is militarily

And that, in itself open up a “whole can of worms”.

Rick0Shea  on April 10, 2021  ·  at 5:56 pm EST/EDT 

I watched an excellent documentary on war a fews years ago. They talked about wars going back thousands of years to the present. When an army is going to attack, all the plans and logistics are carefully put in place. Once all the preparations have been made the only thing left is to trigger it off. The instigators do not want to be seen as the aggressors so they fabricate (false flag) something so they claim they were attacked first — and off they go. The war they planned and wanted so bad is underway.

The Russian military would see all this unfolding – it’s on rails. But what could they do? The USA won’t be deterred. The only way this could have been avoided that I can see is that if the USA feared a nuclear war with Russia to the extent they would not take such ridiculously dangerous chance.

Here’s a great article by John Paul Roberts that is certainly worth a read regarding the sum total of military options that the USA has…

The Dictatorship of Numbers

In Continuation of a Conversation with Paul Craig Roberts
 • April 7, 2021
.

Here are few numbers, we’ll start with two: 447 million and 4.67 billion. These two numbers speak volumes, and are in the foundation of the America’s decline and increasingly irrational behavior which may, quoting Bachman Turner Overdrive’s famous hit, get us to the point of a proverbial ain’t seen nothing yet.

The first number is a population of European Union, while the second one is a population of Asia.

Asia’s population constitutes around 60% of all the world’s population.

Second place in this count is taken by Africa, around 1.37 billion, and the third–by Latin America and Caribbean with respectable 659 million which is considerably larger still than the population of the European Union. The Northern America’s population is around 371 million, which in the larger scheme of things doesn’t look that impressive. In fact, it isn’t.

The history of colonialism—I deliberately omit here this qualifier “Western”, there were all kinds of colonialisms—as related to classic capitalism was more than just about exploitation of colonies for the benefit of metropole.

While images of extraction of natural resources from colonies and shipping those to metropoles are correct, they do not form a complete picture.

In the end, colonies were viewed as markets where metropole would sell its products. The larger the colony, the more numerous its population was, the larger was the market for products manufactured in metropole.

This all made a complete, however often bloody, economic sense in the times of a good ol’ industrial capitalism when metropole would get resources from colony and turn them into finished product and then will ship this finished product, with a huge value added, to be sold in colony.

For Native Americans who sold Manhattan to Dutch in 1626 for allegedly, and hotly contested by historians, $24 worth in finished goods, whatever was offered was a huge value for them because they could not produce those items, be that, as mythology states, shiny glass bids or whatever else much more technologically advanced Dutch would offer them.

That is how it worked more or less for centuries.

The more and better items one produced the richer one would become.

That is until FIRE economy and simulacrum of the post-industrialism were revealed to the world by people most of who would have difficulty passing a general contractor exam, not to speak of getting industrial engineering degree.

FIRE economy

A FIRE economy is any economy based primarily on the finance, insurance, and real estate sectors. 

Finance, insurance, and real estate are United States Census Bureau classifications. Barry Popik describes some early uses as far back as 1982. Since 2008, the term has been commonly used by Michael Hudson and Eric Janszen. 

It is New York City's largest industry and a prominent part of the service industry in the United States overall economy and other Western developed countries.

-Wikipedia

Fast forward to May 2000 to the passage of House Resolution 4444 China Trade Bill. In one of the most profoundly mindless and ignorant statements of America’s foreign and economic policy, Bill Clinton proclaimed that:

 “Today the House of Representatives has taken an historic step toward continued prosperity in America, reform in China and peace in the world. If the Senate votes as the House has just done, to extend permanent normal trade relations with China, it will open new doors of trade for America and new hope for change in China. Seven years ago, when I became president, I charted a new course for a new economy—a course of fiscal discipline, investment in our people and open trade. I have always believed that by opening markets abroad we open opportunities at home. We’ve worked hard to advance that goal of more open and more fair trade since 1993, all the way up to the landmark legislation I signed just a few days ago to expand trade with Africa and the Caribbean Basin.”

Cringeworthy in its sheer falsity and insufferable pathos…

…the economic equivalent of Chamberlain’s “Peace in Our Time” 1938 proclamation, after signing the Munich capitulation to Hitler…

…Clinton’s declaration rattled even those who otherwise wouldn’t even pay much attention to the economic affairs of the United States.

China, wasn’t upset; why would it be?

Both NAFTA and China’s accession to the WTO served as a massive vacuum cleaner sucking the life from American industries and, to be sure, these weren’t banking or financial consulting “industries” which were being shipped abroad.

American manufacturing started to leave its own shores.

America started to lose its only tool which was and even today remains the only valid mean to an end of economic prosperity—manufacturing capacity.

A concept which is beyond the grasp of most American economists and political pseudo-scientists most of who today wear Chinese tailored suits, carry iPhones manufactured in China and use laptops and PCs assembled there as well.

To be sure, America still produces some things—civilian aircraft, as an example.

But since the whole Boeing 737 Max affair, which can only be described in strongest profanity, the shining from the polished outward façade of Boeing is largely gone and the stalwart of the American commercial aviation has de facto lost competition to its EU rival Airbus.

Cars?

Sure. America still remains competitive at manufacturing trucks.

The rest?

America’s sedans are not competitive and lose out to Japanese and Korean car makers both domestically and internationally, enough to take a look at Ford losing Russian market to Asian, Russian and EU automakers, with the last Ford Focus plant closed in Russia recently.

In other, rather startling development, America’s main soft power export, Hollywood is losing its piercing power in China and in Russia.

In fact, it is not just losing it, it already lost it.

If such a proposition would have been laughed at 20 years ago, the fact that Russian-made movies dominate today Russia’s box office is accepted as absolutely normal.

Same is true for Chinese movie market, so much so, that Hollywood is forced to pander to China to have a shot at gigantic Chinese movie audience.

Even before the pandemic, Hollywood performance was not impressive and was on decline.

Hollywood’s “values” of a radical feminism, anti-male misogyny and promotion of the sexual deviancy are hardly in demand in largely conservative Chinese and Russian societies.

Sure, there are some items which the United States manufactures today which are in demand, or, if one gets to the reality of it all, forcefully imposed on customers—America’s hugely overpriced and dubiously effective weapon systems.

This is what remains of once America’s mighty industrial plant which could produce anything from socks and kitchen combines to good combat and excellent commercial aircraft.

Today this capacity is no more, since it is China who is the world’s consumer goods main manufacturer, and the only way the United States is capable to secure any market for its weapons is to retain Europe, NATO that is, as its main customer and vassal.

NATO will gladly (if not, color revolutions are a good tool for convincing those who have doubts) “buy” America’s weapons and “defense” of Europe…

… but America needs Europeans to believe that hordes of democracy-hating, only two-gender accepting, backward bearded Russian Ivans are ready to pounce to deny Europe her favorite values of a complete sexual depravity…

… her cities, also known as dirty multicultural cloacae…

…and declining economy for the reasons only Americans know…

… while Russians overwhelmingly, especially Russian youth do not want to identify themselves as Europeans.

So, to convince those 447 million EU’s residents that they need America’s protection and weapons, America needs Russia to get into the war in Ukraine.

And if it will end up with utter destruction, and it will if Russia really decides so, of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and, likely, Ukrainian statehood, so be it.

Americans never really cared how many aborigines die, as long as it works for the US bottom line.

Or, if one may, a condition of American condition…

… which is deteriorating steadily because not only the United States increasingly has very little of substance, that is of high value added, to sell to the world…

… but forming economic and military monster of Eurasia removes the United States from its (grossly exaggerated to start with), self-proclaimed status of global hegemon…

…to the status of, at best, one of the few big shots on the planet.

At worst, the United States is removed from Eurasia as a viable competitor and is relegated to a status of a regional power…

…still powerful relative to its continental neighbors…

…but not having a shot at this second number of 4.67 billion.

This is a big chunk of population and customers.

Now imagine if the United States loses EU.

Suddenly 4.67 billion become 4.67 billion + 447 million = 5.117 billion, it is 65% of Earth’s population.

It is a huge majority of world’s population and, most importantly, population much of which can pay for goods, unlike it is the case with gigantic population of Africa.

Moreover, this population is concentrated within a single continental mass which is insulated from the United States by two oceans.

The United States cannot allow this consolidation of the market to happen and the loss of Europe, Washington’s thinking goes, is tantamount to capitulation.

So, the United States must hold on to EU, or whatever it will become once EU inevitably collapses, and NATO remains the only tool to drive European weaklings into submission.

Making Russia obliterate Ukrainian Armed Forces is a perfect way to scare Europeans into abandoning any attempts to economically compete with the United States and deny them access to Russia’s energy.

Considering an extremely low level of Western scholarship in the field of practical geopolitics and its pseudo-scientific offspring—geoeconomics…

…which failed for the last 30 years to come up with even the fuzziest description of the emerging world…

… it doesn’t matter if the United States “retains” Europe or not anymore.

The reasons for the utter failure of those “academic” predictions and resulting policies are numerous but few of them are worth focusing on.

  1. Europe is not anymore a crucial trade partner for Russia and mutual trade plummeted in the last few years. The trend will continue and it is not only due to America’s pressure, albeit that too, on EU but is a result of Russia steady change of both economic model and her reorientation towards Asia which is now largely complete. Russia simply doesn’t need anymore many goods she used to buy in the EU. The policy of import substitution on average is a success and Russia economically insulating herself from the West will continue.
  2. A much-discussed pipeline of Nord Stream 2 is, actually, not a crucial economic project for Russia anymore. Russia can absorb losses if the project eventually sabotaged by the United States and its European poodles such as Poland, but for Germany, and EU in general, this sabotage will result in catastrophe, due to European greens’ suicidal energy policies which make European goods costs extremely energy-dependent. In realty, America’s attempts to sabotage Nord Stream 2 are primarily directed against EU in general, and Germany in particular, not against Russia per se.
  3. The United States lost the arms race. America’s weapons acquisition process and military doctrine-mongering cannot be viewed anymore as a normal, that is logical and justified, process. While still being able to produce some state-of-the-art platforms and enablers, such as signal processing, combat computer and communications networks, recon assets, in terms of actual weapons the United States begins to lag behind Russia not just in years but in generations. As recent, February 2021, Congressional Budget Office report on missile defense admitted, the United States is defenseless against salvo of combination of new Russia’s cruise missiles and that there is nothing to stop them. There isn’t. US air defense systems lag behind Russian ones dramatically and the gap only grows with Russia’s S-500 getting into serial production and the latest S-350 already being deployed into the first line units.
  4. The United States simply cannot develop modern supersonic anti-shipping missile and the US Navy is forced, incomprehensibly, to buy Norwegian Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile—an underwhelming subsonic missile which is no match for modern high supersonic and hypersonic strike weapons Russia deploys, and is not survivable in modern air defense and ECM environment.
  5. Lastly, the intellectual level and the level of awareness of modern American elites is in a precipitous decline, which inevitably resulted in the embarrassment of America’s last elections, especially scandalous debate between two geriatric candidates in 2020, which paraded the US as Springeresque tawdry TV show. Resultant loss of a legitimacy and yet another confirmation of the America’s position as a non-agreement capable entity hardly serve as boosters for America’s already tarnished reputation as a big-mouth bully and its elites being uncultured and uneducated.

The United States already fails to meet a number criteria imperative for the status of superpower, among which a military one is crucial.

If some American military “strategists” still exercised a suicidal idea of fighting Russia conventionally in Ukraine in 2014, today in 2021 such an idea is downright mad, because the United States cannot win conventional war in Russia’s vicinity and any US force will be annihilated.

This leaves the United States only two options:

  1. Indeed, believing its own propaganda, try to unleash mayhem in Ukraine, provoke Russia into a direct military operation and then introduce whatever the force US and NATO will muster into the theater of operations. Any such plan is bound to fail miserably because not only such a force will be annihilated but participating NATO nations will face the possibility of their military installations destroyed by stand-off weapons. That raises the possibility of US escalating to nuclear threshold which means that the United States may cease to exists as a country. This is an undesirable plan and majority of US policy makers, bar some severe cases of psychological Russophobic disorders which are numerous in the current Administration and America’s elites, understand what it means. So, while not completely impossible, a probability for such a plan being implemented is fairly low. Not to mention the fact that for the US to fight conventionally around Russia will require assembly of the force which will dwarf whatever was assembled for the First Gulf War. There, the United States had almost 6 months to do so.
  2. So, what’s left realistically is to push Ukraine into the suicidal campaign with Russia being designated aggressor before even the first shots are fired. What the United States does not recognize is the fact that this unties Russia’s hands who already has an overwhelming escalation dominance not only over Ukraine, but whatever might be attempted in terms of “support” for irrational regime in Kiev. Russia has many options, the United States has one—it needs war in Donbass, which, Washington’s thinking goes, will allow to drive Europeans into submission, which allegedly should allow the United States to save her hegemonic status. It will not even if Europe is driven into submission.

United States today has the only one resource left which allows it to stay relevant—virtual reality of both money “printing” press and of the media propaganda which is increasingly ineffective.

One could hide America’s decrepit cities, mass riots, destruction of the education system, incompetence of political and military top echelons, suicidal social practices and breakdown of law and order, aggravated by huge lines to food banks for only so long.

Now it is in the open and even subjugation of Europe and, allegedly, opening Europe’s markets to those few items the United States can still provide for its clients there…

… does not change the fact that the United States as it exists today has no future with or without Europe…

…and that it still has to recon with China’s immense manufacturing capacity…

…and Russia’s advanced military might…

…which drive unification of the Eurasian market whether the United States unleashes war in Ukraine or not.

Even without EU this market dwarfs whatever the United States will be able to “salvage” in order to avoid relegation to a lower league.

It cannot stop a process which was ongoing for years now…

…once Russia, after, the bloody coup in Ukraine…

… understood that there is nobody to talk too in the combined West…

…which apart from losing its military and economic power…

… started to disintegrate from the inside due to Western societies becoming increasingly totalitarian…

…and unable to face the reality that we still live in the highly industrialized world which needs energy, industrial plant and weapons which will defend them.

Both China and Russia seem to accumulate all that and with it the fate of the United States is sealed.

Bill Clinton may have thought that he “charted the new course for a new economy” in 2000, too bad for him, and the US, the “new economy” turned out to be an old one.

What?

You didn’t think that jeans, smartphones and rocket engines grow on the trees, did you?

And a final word from Fred…

But let us go back to the collision of warships. Why would a diversity-admit junior officer open fire on China? Proximately, because he is frightened and panicky. A bit more remotely, because he has been told over and over and over that the Chinese are dangerous and aggressive and want to do terrible things, seldom specified. The military tells them this because you cannot prepare the troops for war by telling them that there is no reason for it.

Why would a President allow a war, knowing (if in a lucid moment) that it would produce absolute unshirted havoc in the economy even if it didn’t go nuclear? He wouldn’t. That is, he wouldn’t all at once choose Armageddon. But he couldn’t afford to seem soft on China, not with the midterms looming, so he couldn’t back off. If in the ensuing shootout the Navy got trounced, he most assuredly couldn’t drop the matter, and would have to double down. So, of course, would the Chinese for the same sorts of reasons. Off to the races.

Deeper in the forest of causation is that the pathologically aggressive, amoral, manipulative, and crafty tend to rise to power. We select as rulers those who are least fit to rule. In America this is often done a bit differently, with the unscrupulous and powerful choosing cardboard leaders whose strings they can pull. The effect is the same.

Why would war seem reasonable? Because Americans have never seen one, and believe their forces to be invincible. If you think that you can’t lose a fight, why avoid one? And because those in comfortable circumstances know that a war in Asia would be fought by the lower economic classes, about whom they care nothing and don’t much like. American elites do not fight. Note the list of draft dodgers during Vietnam: Bush II, Cheney, Bolton, Trump, Biden.

These men, knowing almost nothing of the military, war or, very likely, military history, are quickly hijacked mentally by the Pentagon. The firm handshake, the steely gaze, the clean shaven, confident, and patriotic warriors (if only via Powerpoint) are impressive to pols who…well, you know…haven’t done that. They project strength and realism, without necessarily having either. Listening to them, you can easily get a sense of being accepted into a special, manly club. They say that America has the most powerful, invincible, best trained, tra la, tra la, and if you haven’t been there it is easy to believe. The Chinese? A cakewalk. Iran? Coupla weeks.

Another reason for easily blundering into a war poorly understood is the very low quality of American government. Congress and the President are chosen by popularity contests, not according to competence. A congressman who worked his way up the political ladder in Wheeling or Baton Rouge knows state politics. He is unlikely to know anything about the first Island Chain or what a terminally guided ballistic missile is. A friend in a position to know estimates that ninety percent of the Senate do not know where Myanmar is. No one without a grasp of geography has more than a child’s understanding of military, economic, or strategic reality. But they vote on these things.

Sez I, we are well and truly screwed. But there is little we can do about it.

Conclusion

You all can believe what you want. I know full well what is going on. If China is surrounded by peaceful and successful trading partners, then China will be safe and secure from conflict, invasion or NGO-sponsored “color revolutions”. Like Switzerland, like Germany, like Italy, and like Finland are today. Its a belief in the win-win possibilities of long term planning, cooperation and leadership by merit.

And nations that make physical things, that provide physical services, and that partner for joint success for their peoples will invariably be more successful, and longer lasting than ones that retain their existence on supporting a small patricidal oligarchy leadership that makes nothing of substance, but trades in invisible vapor ideas, and numbers on large elaborate spreadsheets.

But, you know, the United States is ruled by idiots.

And no matter how much we can reason, we can pray, or we can justify our actions and ideas and thoughts, the wildcard of an insane morn like Mike Pompeo with his finger on the military operations is a serious and real danger….

…as opined by this commenter…

A. Dane  on April 11, 2021  ·  at 9:24 am EST/EDT 

What will happen next?
In June, During the NATO exercise Defending Europe 21, the Ukro NAZIs or Turkish controlled head-choppers will launch a falls flag attack.

This could be a chemical weapon launched against Ukrainian soldiers, claiming that the attack was launched by the Donbass militia, and that the chemical weapon was supplied by Russia.

The western MSN will blame Russia for the aggression.

While Russia is busy defending itself against the unjust accusations from the so called international community, the NATO exercise will go live and invade Donbass, claimed as humanitarian intervention.

The only way this can be avoided is if the US really fears a nuclear attack on American soil.

As soon as the first falls flag attack occurs in Ukraine, Russia should launch a nuclear weapon on American soil.

A good target will be the HAARP facility located in desolate Alaska. The facility is operated by the private Global Elite, and hated world wide for its clandestine operations.

When the facility is reduced to rubble, and nuclear radiation is traveling the northern hemisphere via the Jet stream, the western MSN will go into hysteria, calling for a ceasefire.

Mass demonstrations against war and COVID Lock Down will quickly turn into Riots and civil war, devastating every major city in Europe and America.

If the NATO do not stop its invasion of Donbass by then:
Russia will send missiles against every NATO Command center located in Ukraine and Poland.

And then hell will break loose:
China will attack US Navy vessels in the South China Sea and invade Taiwan.

North Korea will attack South Korea.

Nationalist in Japan will attack US deployments in Japan.

The Philippines will attack US assets like Al Qaeda in the region and invade Indonesia.

The Taliban will attack US and NATO deployments in Afghanistan.

India will enter into war with Pakistan.

Iraq will attack the US deployment in Bagdad, and northern Iraq.

Iran will attack US-NATO vessels in the Gulf, ending all oil supply to the west.

Yemen will attack Saudi Arabia.

Somalia will attack all ships in the bay of Aden.

Egypt will close the Suez Canal.

Syria will launch an attack against Turkish troops in Northern Syria.

Russia will shoot down every Fighter jet and drone entering Syrian airspace.

Lebanon will attack Israeli forces in the Golan.

Hezbola will attack Israel from Gaza.

Libya will launch attacks against Turkish troops in Libya.

Armenia will launch major attack against Turkish forces in eastern Anatolia.

Greece will attack Turkish transgression of Greek airspace and Turkish vessels near Cyprus.

Civil war will erupt in the Balkan, Serbia will retake Kosovo, and enter war with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Civil war will erupt in Spain, and Catalonia will secede from Madrid.

Paris will enter into chaos, and Macron will flee.

Al-Qaeda will launch a major attack on French troop in West Africa.

Venezuela will attack US navy vessels in the Caribbean sea.

Argentina will invade the Falkland Islands.

American Patriots will storm Washington for real. The National Guard protecting DC will defect.

CIA and FBI Agent will be hunted down by American Patriots. Many states will secede from the US.

Most western government will be forced to step down. The EU and NATO will disintegrate.

All Nordic Nations will enter into a Nordic defense Alliance.

As the American Fascist Empire collapses, the multi polar world will be reborn.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my BRI sub-index within my China index…

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A 2021 comparison of the Fourth Turning predictions and the actual events leading up to now

Things are maturing and advancing steadily on plan. And like I have repeatedly stated, the events will not be reported. Or, if they are, they will not be well reported, or reported in context. Well, here at MM you are going to get a real situation report, a “Sit Rep”. No need to panic. Just be aware.

“The next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium, midway through the Oh-Oh decade. Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. 

Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. 

Political and economic trust will implode. 

Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. 

The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. 

Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” 

– Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning 

The Fourth Turning

I read The Fourth Turning a while ago. I was astounded in their uncannily accurate assessment of American history based upon generational configurations which recur on eighty-year cycles, a long human life.

Strauss and Howe wrote the book in 1997 and used their generational theory to predict the Crisis that would begin in the mid-2000’s and come to an indeterminate climax in the mid-2020’s.

Strauss & Howe identified the core elements of this Crisis as debt, civic decay, and global disorder. No one can argue the severe distress engulfing the nation and the world traces its origins to these core elements, with the catalyst for this Crisis being the 2008 central banker manufactured financial collapse.

Nothing has been normal since 2008.

And 2008’s epic implosion was driven by the disastrous financial, political and military decisions implemented by the puppets of the Deep State from 2000 onward, with the Federal Reserve obligingly creating bubble after bubble as the “solution” to the previous bubble.

And now we are here again, in the midst of the greatest bubble in the history of mankind.

A bubble of willful ignorance.

The obliviousness of most Americans to the danger awaiting them is akin to the day before Fort Sumpter was bombed…

… the day before Pearl Harbor was attacked…

… or the dinosaurs unaware of a giant meteor rushing towards the planet and about to transform their future in a challenging way.

Real hardship has beset the land.

With the notable exception of the 0.1% who rule…

…or Deep State lackeys and toadies who are being rewarded for propagating mistruths, outright lies, fear, and propaganda on behalf of their oligarch benefactors.

These apparatchiks mainly consist of corrupt politicians, central bank lackeys, mainstream media hacks, neocon warmongers, surveillance state traitors, and big pharma captured health “experts”.

All of whom are driving the world towards the “great reset”.

The severe distress does involve class, race, nation and empire, but most of the distress has been artificially created by those pulling the strings – Bernays’ invisible government manipulating the masses.

The four years of the Trump administration set the stage for the rumblings that we hear today.

All over the world, the death shudders of a dying empire can be heard.

It advances towards us, like that of a deadly avalanche crashing down a mountainside towards an unsuspecting village below.

America is in deep trouble

Harvard professor Laurence Kotlikoff has been a lone voice telling the truth about the true level of unfunded promises hidden in the CBO numbers.

The unfunded social welfare liabilities in excess of $200 trillion for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are nothing but a massive future tax increase on younger and unborn generations. Kotlikoff explains what would be required to pay these obligations:

“To honor these obligations we could (a) raise all federal taxes, immediately and permanently, by 57%, (b) cut all federal spending, apart from interest on the debt, by 37%, immediately and permanently, or (c) do some combination of (a) and (b).”

Zero spending on health and social services?

Zero spending on the military?

It’s simply not going to happen.

The level of taxation and/or Federal Reserve created inflation necessary to honor these politician promises is too large to be considered feasible.

Therefore, these promises, made to get corrupt political hacks elected to public office, will be defaulted upon.

It’s all not going to happen.

Every legitimate valuation method used to assess stock market valuations for the last 100 years confirm the stock market being at least 100% overvalued.

There could not be a worse time for margin debt to also reach all-time highs.

The previous peaks in 2000 and 2007 preceded 50% collapses in stocks.

Consumer credit outstanding, despite the false media story-line of austerity,  stands at $14.27 trillion in Q2 of 2020.1. I don’t know what it is today, one year later and after three “stimulus packages”, but it’s just got to be awful.

Feb 05, 2021 · Average consumer debt per capita is approximately $12,596 (total consumer debt as of September 2020/total US population as of September 30, 2020). 

-2021 ConsumerDebtStatistics | LexingtonLaw

Indeed, it’s at an all-time high, as the Federal government took monopoly control of the student loan market in 2009.

(And proceeded to issue $600 billion of subprime loans to University of Phoenix wannabe graduates seeking degrees in Gender Studies.)

The Feds also used their five year control of Ally Financial (after their taxpayer bailout) to rejuvenate the subprime auto loan market…

…by doling out $35,000 seven year car loans to unemployed SNAP recipients.

After all everyone deserves to drive a brand new Cadillac Escalade.

The $250 billion increase in auto loan debt since 2009 has “created” the auto recovery. Loan delinquencies approaching 2009 levels will surely not cause a problem.

Right?

The level of local and state pension and healthcare unfunded liabilities to government workers exceeds $4 trillion.

State and local politicians would have to double real estate, sales, and income taxes in order to fund the gold plated benefits for state and local workers.

As government workers in Stockton, San Bernardino, Jefferson County and Detroit have experienced, these promises will be not be honored.

(Sigh.)

It’s all going down the drain

If you don’t feel the very survival of the nation hangs in the balance, then you are either delusional, willfully ignorant, or unwilling to recognize your own cognitive dissonance.

The next five to ten years will alter the course of history in a profound way.

Whether or not the outcome will be positive for average American citizens is very much in doubt.

At all levels, domestic and international, America is flailing about and it’s tremors, spasms and vomiting are noticed by all but the intentionally and willful blind.

I wish it were not so, but most human beings seem incapable of critical thought regarding how history follows a cyclical path due to human nature retaining its flaws, weaknesses, vulnerabilities and fortes throughout history.

We believe we have advanced because our inventions, discoveries, and technology, but the desire for wealth, power and control over others still consumes a sociopathic portion of mankind who tend to rise to the top through any means necessary.

As Huxley lamented in the 1950’s, technological progress has actually propelled mankind backwards in terms of its humanity and relationship with nature and other human beings.

The very technology we glorify as an example of our advancement is now being used by the totalitarians to imprison us Americans.

We're just victims of the telephone. 

-Tin Lead Hat lyrics

And if that’s not bad enough…

…they demand the rest of the world to accept the chains and shackles that they have enslaved Americans with.

Accept or die!

This is unacceptable to the rest of the world

A "rule based" agreement is one that no longer follows the UN, and recognizes independence of nations with inherent sovereignty. No. Instead it demands that the United States is the leader of the world and that all other regions must bow to it in subservience.

It has happened slowly and methodically over decades as generation after generation have entered the government indoctrination centers (public schools) to be taught ignorance and obedience to the state.

This indoctrination has been reinforced by ceaseless propaganda injected into their brains by media conglomerates doing the bidding of the state.

The dystopian use of disinformation, false narratives, blatant lies and propaganda by the totalitarians constituting the Deep State, has aggravated the crisis situation that America finds itself in today.

An honest truth-seeking press with unbiased journalists would have uncovered this conspiracy and revealed the truthful facts to a concerned public.

Instead, a completely captured corporate media has turned a blind eye to the truth as they have acted as accomplices of the coup culprits.

Just as evil is the suppression of truth through censorship and keeping silent regarding the truth.

Huxley understood how totalitarian propagandists operated decades before the current batch of Silicon Valley authoritarians initiated their national truth repression scheme.

I’m amazed by the extreme level of ignorance exhibited by a vast swath of our population, as they glory in believing comforting mistruths which confirm their preordained belief structure.

They don’t know because they don’t want to know.

They are intoxicated by the endless stream of idiocy emanating from their iGadgets, as they willfully choose [1] ignorance over awareness, [2] servitude over freedom, and [3] captivity over liberty.

As Huxley predicted, the controlling oligarchy has used technology to convince people to love their servitude.

Meanwhile, the sheeple unthinkingly believe what they are told by their government and media mouthpieces.

  • 5G causes cancer.
  • China is evil.
  • GMO’s are good.
  • The SPA killer was not a racist.
  • Trump is going to build a wall.
  • Hillary is going to jail.
  • Jeff Sessions is playing 54D chess.
  • Elections are not rigged.
  • Taxes are good for the economy.
  • Peeing in a cup to get a job is modern and useful.
  • Everyone must pay taxes, and American taxes are the lowest in the world.

Meanwhile, the sheeple blind to their manipulation , go on doing the bidding of the government and oligarchs who control the government.

The goal of the ruling class is to keep people from thinking,.

And therefore most Americans willingly oblige because thinking is hard and the uncomfortable truths are too much to bear for the satiated masses.

But there is a minority who want the truth and are willing and able to deal with the consequences. They realize facts don’t cease to exist because we ignore them. Facts don’t care about your beliefs or feelings.

Facts lead you to the truth.

And the immense coverup of facts boggles the mind of every critical thinking person on the planet.

So let’s look at the “facts” and the truths regarding the Fourth Turning.

“The Grey Champion”

Based on the Fourth Turning generational theory, there is no doubt Donald Trump was the prophet-generation Grey-Champion.

The term Grey Champion does not mean they are a great, noble, humane person. Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were not nice guys. They did whatever they thought necessary to achieve their means during our previous three Fourth Turnings. Millions of Americans hated Lincoln and Roosevelt, just as tens of millions hate Trump.

The Grey Champion’s appearance marks the arrival of a moment of “darkness, and adversity, and peril,” as the violent turmoil climax of the Fourth Turning approaches.

Trump and Pence are from the Prophet (Boomer) Generation, while Biden is from the Silent Generation and Harris is Generation X.

Trump is the lightning rod for a clash that must take place to sweep away the existing corrupted social order and replace it with something new.

And he was swept away…

Every four years we hear the same pablum about this being the most important election of our lifetime. It didn’t matter who won the election, the Deep State, Military Industrial Complex, Wall Street controlled Federal Reserve, Big Business, Big Pharma, Big Media, Silicon Valley Titans, and Billionaires like Soros, Bloomberg and Gates are still running the show.

One man has extraordinarily little chance of confronting these wealthy power-hungry sociopaths and winning.

And thus we see Biden and his cronies follow Trump and his cronies road-map for America.

Sorry to say.

The PTB has successfully convinced a willfully ignorant populace to love their servitude and acquiesce to allowing them unfettered control over their lives.

However, the tyrannical lockdowns, martial law like mandates from bureaucrats, compulsory masking as a requirement to be accepted in society, and the dehumanizing of our daily lives has created a Resistance, peaceful thus far, who are enraged by what is happening.

Domestic turmoil and dangerous International actions

If you read the Alt-Right or the Alt-Left there is little mention about the international chaos that America has created. It’s mostly a regurgitation of the anti-China, or anti-Russia, or anti-Iran narratives.

It’s not a balanced and accurate appraisal of the shit-storm that America has created.

Here’s a typical example from an Alt-Right website. Obviously the author has never visited China. Because his statements are simple regurgitation of the PTB narratives about China and so outlandish that real Chinese expats do more than shake our heads in disbelief, we actually laugh at him!

Check out this nonsense…

China, which has been the driving world economic force for the last decade, is in a precarious position. 

They have been the slave labor manufacturer to the world as the worldwide debt fueled consumption orgy reached its 2008 climax. 

Their level of Keynesian mal-investment since 2008 makes Obama, Bernanke, and Yellen look like pikers. 

The level of corruption, deception, wealth inequality, pollution, censorship and phony economic data has been done on a majestic scale. 

It is now unraveling in a slow motion crash as the global recession has crushed their industrial output and is rapidly deflating their real estate bubble. The 52 million unoccupied housing units in China may not turn out to be great investments after all. 

The absurdity of Chinese economic reports makes the BLS look highly accurate and upstanding. 

Their reported GDP of 7.4% was their slowest in 24 years, but the real figure is closer to 4%. 

The proof of the dramatic slowing in Chinese growth is the collapse in oil prices, copper prices, iron ore prices, and the Baltic Dry Index. 

The index measures world trade and has crashed to its lowest level ever. The potential for social unrest when their mal-investment debt bubbles implode will be great.

-Conspiracy Analysist

Like I said, it’s a regurgitation of the American PTB narrative.

And all FALSE.

And all LIES.

And sheeple believe it, because it makes their pathetic lives seem better.

They aren’t.

And you know Americans believe this, and since they believe everything the PTB tells them to believe, they will also go along with this John Bolton statement…

“A by-no-means-comprehensive list of Beijing’s transgressions that require U.S. attention would include: meddling, blatant and subtle, with U.S. public opinion;

Sure…

We can just tell how successful that interference has been right? How many Americans believe that China is doing better than the United States, eh?

Or check out this line that sheeple can repeat in their sleep…

"...and genocide against Uyghurs"

Gosh, the Chinese must be so fucking incompetent. After all the Uyghur population has grown by a factor of ten times plus over the last few years. Pretty hard to have a genocide where the population increases…

All the Chinese just can’t do anything right!

</sarcasm>

Just sheeple repeating what they have read. Not what they have experienced first hand. Just what they have read about fourth-hand.

Remember boys and girls, the definition of what a sheeple is. 

Sheeple is a person who is very emotional about something they read about, not by something that they have personally experienced first-hand, up front, and personal.

Yuppur. Any day now… China is going to collapse. It’s just like the USA only far, far worse…

Sure….

I read all about it on FOX, Rush Limbaugh, the NYPost, CNN, and Alex Jones. So it must be the truth!

Look at China crumble before our very eyes!

Just Look!

Picture taken inside of China in 2020. People are happy, the life is calm and pleasant, and everyone really admires and respects the Chinese leadership.
According to the American media, China is going to collapse any day now. Communism will show it’s ugly face, and the Chinese people will rise up and yearn for “democracy” and the superior “American way of life!”. Do not hold your breath.

Sure…

It’s falling apart. People are starving, and they are rising up demanding “democracy” and Pepe the frog! And singing the Star Bangled Banner and American flags. They so desperately yearn for the American way of life!

Look at them!

Picture taken inside of China in 2020. People are happy, the life is calm and pleasant, and everyone really admires and respects the Chinese leadership.
According to the American media, China is going to collapse any day now. Communism will show it’s ugly face, and the Chinese people will rise up and yearn for “democracy” and the superior “American way of life!”. Do not hold your breath.

Sure…

Look at all those impoverished and miserable people!

Picture taken inside of China in 2020. People are happy, the life is calm and pleasant, and everyone really admires and respects the Chinese leadership.
According to the American media, China is going to collapse any day now. Communism will show it’s ugly face, and the Chinese people will rise up and yearn for “democracy” and the superior “American way of life!”. Do not hold your breath.

Sure…

China is terribly polluted, dirty, grimy, full of disease and germs. Terrible, terrible germs! Only a moron would want to live in that shit-hole!

Picture taken inside of China in 2020. People are happy, the life is calm and pleasant, and everyone really admires and respects the Chinese leadership.
According to the American media, China is going to collapse any day now. Communism will show it’s ugly face, and the Chinese people will rise up and yearn for “democracy” and the superior “American way of life!”. Do not hold your breath.

Sure…

America needs to put some “boots on the ground” and liberate the poor misguided and brainwashed Chinese. The government must be destroyed because after all, America loves the Chinese, it’s the government that it hates!

Right?

Picture taken inside of China in 2020. People are happy, the life is calm and pleasant, and everyone really admires and respects the Chinese leadership.
According to the American media, China is going to collapse any day now. Communism will show it’s ugly face, and the Chinese people will rise up and yearn for “democracy” and the superior “American way of life!”. Do not hold your breath.

Sure…

</sarcasm>

Ugh!

This is true in what ever form that the PTB controlled government is pushing at the moment. Whether it is COVID, or 5G, or Huawei, or Tiktok, it’s all a echo of what the government wants the sheeple to repeat.

And the sheeple does repeat it, with the worst offenders being those who read the alt-right outlets.

But it doesn’t really matter.

What we do know is Fourth Turnings always accelerate and intensify towards a bloody finale, with clear winners and losers.

    • There will be clear winners.
    • There will be clear losers.

Unconditional surrender will be demanded by those maintaining the upper hand. As was clearly articulated in the March 2021 Alaska meeting between the USA and China.

Whether this coming conflict remains domestic or spreads internationally, the “advancements” in the technology of destruction will endanger every human being on the planet.

You cannot escape the impact of Fourth Turnings, only survive and/or do your part in helping achieve a positive outcome.

There is no predetermined ending.

“The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. 

If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war. 

Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.” 

– Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

When pondering the possible outcomes of this Fourth Turning, we tend to be drawn towards the negative, because a positive outcome seems so unlikely given the current animosity roiling the country.

If you step back and realize all the hate and conflict is being engineered and coordinated by a ruling class of powerful rich men, then average Americans could organize a new paradigm that honors the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, allowing citizens the liberty and freedom to create voluntary associations based upon common interests at a local level.

The ruling oligarchs find this unacceptable, so this freedom must be wrested away from them by any means necessary.

There is a civil war already underway, but only one side is fighting…

… the billionaire class who not only don’t want to relinquish some power, but want total control over every aspect of our lives. It appears that this action will turn this one-sided silent war into a hot war on both the domestic and international fronts.

The Enemy.

Everyone is fighting

The American Empire is clearly in rapid decline and may not survive the trials and tribulations over the coming decade.

The Fourth Turning is not a prophecy, but should be taken as a warning and call to action. Sitting this out and hoping for the best will not help achieve a positive outcome.

Tragedy or triumph – the choices we make will matter.

The climax of this Fourth Turning may be a few years off, but the battle for the soul of America has already engaged.

“History offers no guarantees. 

Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. 

We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. 

Losing in the next Fourth Turning could mean something incomparably worse. 

It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence – perhaps even our nation – might never recover.” 

– Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

Internationally speaking…

We have yet to see how long it will be before the Biden administration realizes its few victories will be unaffordably Pyrrhic.

Indeed, as simple as merely not responding to American provocation the Chinese/Russian partnership will emerge as the victors.

America is truly fucked.

Halford Mackinder’s century-old vision of a Eurasian superstate, based between the Volga and the Yangtse, is becoming reality.

Deal with it.

Embrace it.

Commentators usually fail to understand why; it is not due to military superiority, but down to simple economics.

While the US economy suffers a post-lockdown inflationary outcome and an existential crisis for the dollar, China’s economy will boom on the back of increasing domestic consumption.

This is an official Chinese government objective.

Meanwhile it is increasing exports, the consequence of America’s stimulation of consumer demand and a soaring budget deficit.

For America, it’s a lose – lose.

The Chinese-Russian partnership already dominates or controls Mackinder’s World Island, defined as Eurasia and all Africa.

South-east Asian nations notionally in the US’s sphere of influence are firmly tied to the partnership’s economy.

And the overland and sea silk roads similarly bind the EU and the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans’ states respectively.

Combined, it amounts to over half the world’s population no longer sharing the economic and currency interests of 328 million Americans.

Imagine that!

We are now equipped to ask an important question: the US status quo, with its dollar hegemony is seen by the new Biden administration as an unchallengeable right, and its position as the world’s hegemon is vital for… .

…what?

What it is “vital” for?

The benefit of the world, or the benefit of the US at the world’s expense?

Hum?

To answer this, we must consider it from the point of view of the US military and intelligence complex.

The problem facing us is that the Pentagon became fully institutionalised in managing America’s external security following the second world war.

When the Soviets extended their sphere of influence into the three great undeveloped continents, Asia, Africa and South America, there was a case for defending capitalism and freedom — or at least freedom in an American sense by keeping minor nations on side.

This was done by fair means and often foul for expediency’s sake.

But the fall of the Berlin Wall and the death of Mao Zedong made the American military and intelligence functions largely superfluous, other than matters more directly related to national defense.

But it is in the nature of government departments and their private sector contractors to do everything in their power to retain both influence and budgets, and the argument that new threats will arise is always hard for politicians to resist….

…especially for a military empire.

And what do the statists in a government department do when they have secured their survival?

Their retention of power without real purpose descends into alternative military objectives. And from the first Bush president, they were all firmly on-message.

As we see today with the American military empire.

President Trump was the first president for some time not to start military engagements abroad. His attempts to wind down foreign operations were strongly resisted by defense and intelligence services.

And his efforts to obtain a détente with North Korea were met with disdain — even horror at Langley.

But war-monger he did.

And he left a legacy of the most comprehensive non-hot-war attacks in history.

From the hybrid-wars, to carpet bombing livestock to produce famines inside of China, he was relentless.

And while no one WANTS to talk about the sorry truth, COVID-19 is an American bio-weapons attack upon China.

No.

Not the “inoculation strain” COVID-19A that all the “news” is hyping about. But the strain that was unleashed on China, Iran, North Korea and Russia; the lethal strain, the COVID-19B.

Whatever the truth in these matters, it is highly unlikely that the power conferred by the ability to initiate unchallengeable cover-ups, information management, subversion of foreign states and secret intelligence operations is not abused.

They are.

That’s a fact jack.

And we can see this through the proliferation and traction of “conspiracy theories”. Now, mostly and falsely attributed in their origin to Russian cyber-attacks and disinformation.

It’s all a consequence of one’s own government continually bending the truth to the point where large sections of the population begin to believe it is its own government’s propaganda.

We call them “sheeple.”

And no one is immune. Event the most vehement Alt-Right or alt-left media, who believes that they are independent thinkers, regurgitate the narratives pumped out for them to consume.

This brings us to the change in administration.

As a senator, Biden had interests in foreign affairs dating back to the late 1970s and was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1997 and subsequently became its chairman.

As such a long-standing politician in this field it is almost certain that the Pentagon establishment regards Biden as a safe pair of hands; in other words, a president who is likely to support Langley’s role in setting geopolitical and defence priorities.

Surely, for them this is a welcome change from the off-message President Trump.

Policies to contain the Russian threat

Despite the Navalny affair, Putin is still unchallengeable as Russian leader, having emerged from the post-Soviet turmoil where chaos and organized crime were the order of the day.

No western leader has had such a tough political background and Putin is a survivor, a strongman firmly in control.

Vladimir Putin

This matters for America and NATO with respect to policies in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Syria, Iran and Turkey.

Any attempt by America to complete unfinished business in Ukraine (a triparty scrap involving Russia, Germany/EU and the US over the Nord Stream pipelines depriving Ukraine of transition revenues is already brewing) is likely to lead to confrontations with Russia on the ground.

And Russia signed a military cooperation pact with Iran in 2015.

Like a cat with a mouse, Putin is playing with Turkey, interested in laying pipelines to southern Europe, and getting it to drift out of NATO. Russia’s interest in Syria is to keep it out of America’s sphere of influence, which with Turkey’s help it has managed to do.

For some time, military analysts have been telling us that we are now in a cyber war with Russia, accusing it of interfering in elections and promoting conspiracy theories …

… with the US presidential election last November being the most recent assertion.

As with all these allegations there is no proof offered, just statements from government sources which have a track record of being economical with the truth.

Erp. They lie.

Whatever the truth may be, cyber wars are closely intertwined with propaganda.

Attacks on Russia since the millennium have been by disrupting dollar payments, and less importantly, by sanctioning individuals close to Putin.

The monetary threat was originally justified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, leading to the collapse of the rouble and a hike in interest rates.

The new cold war had taken a financial turn. Russia’s response was to reduce the economy’s dependence on dollars as much as possible, with the central bank selling dollar reserves and adding gold in their place.

It also set up a new payments system to reduce its dependence on the SWIFT interbank payments system.

Russia has survived all financial attacks and is now better insulated against them for the future.

One-zero for the Russians.

But the cost has been hidden, with western investment restricted to being mainly from the EU (particularly directed at the oil and gas industries).

For these and other reasons being pushed by the United States, Russia has turned to China as both a partner and an economic protector. In return, Russia is resource-rich, an energy provider, and therefore of great value to China.

Not to mention militarily, as the demands made by the United States in Alaska clearly pointed to.

The Russian and Chinese geopolitical partnership

One of the first persons to identify the geopolitical importance of Russia’s resources was Halford Mackinder in a paper for the Royal Geographical Society in 1904. He later developed it into his Heartland theory.

Mackinder argued that control of the Heartland, which stretched from the Volga to the Yangtze, would control the “World-Island”, which was his term for all Europe, Asia and Africa. Over a century later, Mackinder’s theory resonates with the two leading nations behind the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

-About SCO | SCO

The underlying point is that North and South America, Britain, Japan and Australasia in the final analysis are peripheral and less important than Mackinder’s World-Island.

And he was correct.

There was a time when British and then American primacy outweighed its importance, but this may no longer be true.

If Mackinder’s vision is valid about the overriding importance of undeveloped resources, Russia is positioned to become with China the most powerful national partnership on earth.

It has happened.

And the BRI is facilitating this.

Which is why there is such a stink about the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. Which is the gateway to the Belt and Road Initiative.

The SCO is the greatest challenge yet mounted to American economic power and technological supremacy.

And Russia and China are clearly determined to ditch the dollar. We don’t yet know what will replace it – officially. Though, the e-yuan has been implemented throughout China, and is taking over Asia as we speak.

However, the fact that the Russian central bank and nearly all the other central banks and governments in the SCO have been increasing their gold reserves for some time could be an important clue as to how the representatives of three billion Euro-Asians — almost half the world’s population — see the future of trans-Asian money.

In terms of GDP per capita the United States is a long way ahead of the field.

But…

GDP is an artificial measure of national wealth. When there becomes a stratification of society, and the riches 0.001% of the population have a stratospheric control of the finances, they skew the measurement beyond useful utility.

As well as the United States is also the most indebted at the national level.

The difference with the SCO is at the purchasing power parity level, making market prices of secondary importance.

While prices regionally vary considerably the costs of goods in the SCO are as an average considerably less than in the US and EU, so that on a PPP basis the SCO’s GDP is significantly greater than that of the US or the EU.

The inclusion of the EU is a post-Brexit nod to the fact that the EU can no longer be automatically regarded as being within the US sphere of influence.And certainly the United States leadership does not like this one bit.

The commercial ties to the SCO, with both energy reliance from Russia and silk road (BRI) rail terminals in various EU states are clearly the trade future for the EU.

The EU is advanced in its plans to bring national forces under its combined flag, which by giving them an EU identity can only loosen NATO ties with America.

While not an active threat to America’s power, one can envisage the EU sitting on the fence in an intensifying cold war.

The SCO started life in 2001 as a security partnership between Russia and China, incorporating the ‘stans to the east of the Caspian Sea. Born out an earlier organization, the Shanghai Five Group, it was set up to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism.

It is still a platform for joint military exercises, but none have taken place since 2007 and it has morphed into a loose economic partnership instead.

Since the founding Shanghai Five, the SCO now includes India and Pakistan.

Observer status includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia. These nations can attend SCO conferences, but their participation is very limited.

Dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. These nations can participate actively in SCO conferences, and this status is seen as a preliminary to full membership.

Egypt and Syria have applied for observer status and Israel, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have applied to be dialog partners.

Apart from South East Asian nations, which are dominated by a Chinese diaspora anyway, SCO members and their influence covers almost all of Halford Mackinder’s World Island, with the exception of the European Union.

This is the reality that faces American hegemony; there are twenty-one nations across Asia in a non-American alliance, or on the cusp of joining it.

All the other European and Asian nations are within the SCO’s sphere of influence through trade, even if not politically affiliated.

It is getting more difficult to define the nations definitely in the US pocket, other than its five-eyes partners (Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand). This simple fact places severe limitations on US action against China, and to a lesser extent Russia.

…

Bet you didn’t know that.

It is an exaggeration to suggest that an attack on one member state is an attack on them all. Their cooperation is fundamentally economic rather than military; except…

… as stated above, the SCO’s original function remains to eliminate terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Indeed, India and Pakistan are at loggerheads over Kashmir, and China and India have border disputes in the Himalayas.

But attempts, by, say, the US to prize India away from the SCO is bound to generate wider issues, and perhaps a response, from the other members.

Who do you go with?

Other Nations around the world have a choice.

Broadly, it is to go with America, to go with China/Russia, or sit on the fence.

We have already concluded that the EU’s economic interests in the wake of Brexit are turning it into being a fence-sitter instead of continuing to be in the US sphere of influence. American cannot count on the WU to join in any partnership that opposes the unified Russian-Chinese-Iranian nexus.

Other nations all seem to have a seemingly insatiable demand for commodities and energy and infrastructure building. America is unable to provide this. Which means that local politicians have been bought through local prosperity and will stay bought. But if America offers more money in bales like in the past, these nations’ politicians will undoubtedly take it. As they have always done in the past.

But that is unlikely to lead to their political allegiance changing from being with China.

This form of American diplomacy was at its height in the fifties and sixties, and the US was able to outgun the Soviets and Chinese in providing “aid”, much of which was trousered by politicians.

This was particularly true of the oil money recycled by American banks into loans to South American governments in the late seventies.

The Chinese are not so careless with money: when they build a bridge on a Caribbean island, they are firmly hands-on providing money, management and some of the labor and local politicians are only rewarded with electoral kudos.

There are, therefore, fundamental differences between attempts to keep a country within a particular sphere of influence sixty years ago and today.

And there can be no doubt that the Chinese are winning the game.

America has no skills, no resources, and no abilities any longer. All America has are buckets of paper money that is rapidly losing value, and an enormous military war machine. It’s guns and money. Guns and money. Guns and money.

Guns and money.

Overland, across the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, the silk roads and associated projects are having a substantial impact on emerging nations in a way not seen before.

China has advanced Mackinder’s World Island concept by embracing most of Africa into its sphere of influence.

As well as the SCO’s control over Asia from Vladivostok to the Mediterranean, as the largest oil consumer China’s influence over the Middle East — which supplies little or no oil to the US — binds nations in that region into the SCO.

The contrast with America’s foreign policy under Trump could not have been greater.

America became autarkic, determined to repatriate production from abroad.

Autarky
Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states and their economic systems. 

Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especially left-wing ideologies like African socialism, mutualism, war communism, council communism, Communalism, Swadeshi, syndicalism and leftist populism, generally in an effort to build alternative economic structures or to control resources against structures a particular movement views as hostile. 

Conservative, centrist and nationalist movements have also adopted autarky in an attempt to preserve part of an existing social order or to develop a particular industry. 

Some fascist and far-right movements occasionally espoused autarky as a goal.

-Wikipedia

It lacked a strategy to counter China’s rapidly growing spheres of influence.

Even the EU integrated major elements of its economy with China and Russia, and now that the US’s only five-eyes representative in the EU has left it, we can expect this integration to increase more rapidly.

Instead, Trump concentrated on attacking China, its technology and Hong Kong.

China faced tariffs, prompting her to respond partly in kind.

Meng Wanzhou, finance officer for Huawei, was detained in Vancouver on a US extradition request, on the pretext of payments involving Iran.

Her arrest was the start of a US campaign to exclude Huawei from G5 mobile contracts in the west, pressure that eventually led the UK to downgrade Huawei’s contracts.

It ended up uniting the five-eyes security partnership against China’s technology on a reds-under-the-bed argument: “Chinese technology embedded in western communications systems gives them the ability to spy on us.”

The UK’s GCHQ changed its position from there being no evidence of embedded spyware in Huawei equipment to it being vulnerable to being used for spying by the Chinese government.

Hong Kong

The build-up of riots against Hong Kong’s proposed extradition treaty with the Mainland started in 2019, supported and driven by anti-Chinese propaganda.

America finally emerged as China’s adversary, no longer just a trading partner worried by the trade imbalances.

And Hong Kong was the pressure point.

This had happened before, in 2014.

The Chinese leadership was certain the riots in Hong Kong at that time reflected the work of American intelligence agencies.

The following is an extract translated from a speech by Major-General Qiao Liang, a leading strategist for the Peoples’ Liberation Army, addressing the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee in 2015:

“Since the Diaoyu Islands conflict and the Huang-yan Island conflict, incidents have kept popping up around China, including the confrontation over China’s 981 oil rigs with Vietnam and Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” event. 

"Can they still be viewed as simply accidental?

“I accompanied General Liu Yazhou, the Political Commissar of the National Defence University, to visit Hong Kong in May 2014. At that time, we heard that the “Occupy Central” movement was being planned and could take place by end of the month. However, it didn’t happen in May, June, July, or August.

“What happened? What were they waiting for?

“Let’s look at another timetable: the U.S. Federal Reserve’s exit from the Quantitative Easing (QE) policy. The U.S. said it would stop QE at the beginning of 2014. But it stayed with the QE policy in April, May, June, July, and August. As long as it was in QE, it kept overprinting dollars, and the dollar‘s price couldn’t go up. Thus, Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” should not happen either.

“At the end of September, the Federal Reserve announced the U.S. would exit from QE. The dollar started going up. Then Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” broke out in early October.

“Actually, the Diaoyu Islands, Huang-yan Island, the 981 rigs, and Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” movement were all bombs. The successful explosion of any one of them would lead to a regional crisis or a worsened investment environment around China. That would force the withdrawal of a large amount of investment from this region, which would then return to the U.S.”

That America organized discontent anew in Hong Kong is still China’s view today.

It’s hard to dispute, as all of Hong Kong is wired with 5G and video. And the videos of American diplomats, and UK NGOS’ training the rioters, and supervising the destruction, and making agreements with the key leaders have been well publicized throughout Asia.

Not in America.

Of course.

Clearly, the Chinese believe America covertly managed “Occupy Central” and therefore were at it again.

Apart from what their spies told them, the protests were too well organized and planned to be spontaneous. This time, the attack appeared to have a better chance of success. The plan was coordinated with American pressure on Hong Kong’s dollar peg in an attempt to destabilize it, principally through the threat to extend tariffs against China to Hong Kong.

This second attempt to collapse Hong Kong was therefore more serious.

Hong Kong is critical, because it is the channel for foreign investment portfolio flows into China.

This was important to the Americans, because the US Treasury could not afford to see global portfolio flows attracted into China at a time when they were needed to invest in increasing quantities of US Treasury stock.

Understand that, and you will have grasped a large part of the urgency behind America’s attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

Qiao Liang makes this point elsewhere in his aforementioned speech, claiming American tactics are the consequence of the ending of Bretton Woods:

“Without the restriction of gold, the US can print dollars at will. 

If they keep a large amount of dollars inside the US, it will certainly create inflation. 

If they export dollars to the world, the whole world is helping the US deal with its inflation. 

That’s why inflation is not high in the US.”

While one can take some minor issues with his simplistic analysis, that is not the point.

What matters is what the Chinese believe.

It was after that second attempt by America to destabilize Hong Kong that the Chinese concluded they must take direct control of the region, isolate and remove the NGO’s and CIA agents involved in this effort, and secure the region to prevent any future disruptions.

China makes mistakes too

China’s strategy in dealing with America has generally been to be slow to respond, and never to provoke. This accords with Sun Tzu’s The Art of War on tactical dispositions:

“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”

Generally, China’s strategy has been to refuse to be provoked.

A possible exception has been Hong Kong, where it was decided it was more important to secure the island against further attack, overriding the terms of the treaty with the UK.

But its greatest mistake was in imposing trade tariffs in a tit-for-tat response to US tariffs.

Economic factors

Before the pandemic and with America targeting Chinese exports, China’s leadership introduced policies to encourage domestic consumption.

For this to work required a drop in the savings rate.

In fact, it has been falling since 2010, when according to the World Bank it peaked at 51% of GDP, to just under 44% in 2019.

It was the difference between Chinese and American savings rates which was the driving factor behind their mutual trade imbalance.

China recognizes that it must move on from an export-driven economic model.

But while the American and other welfare-driven economies are running mounting budget deficits, China will continue to have a growing trade surplus.

While this will continue to be a problem for the Americans, without imported goods from China product shortages would simply fuel higher prices on top of unprecedented monetary expansion.

This is the reality behind the cold war for the next few years.

Unfortunately, being highly Keynesian the new Biden administration is unlikely to accept the twin deficits argument and will think that it can still call the shots on trade without cutting its own spending. But the above showed US government debt to GDP is already over $28 trillion and on Biden’s infrastructure and greening plans alone will likely rise significantly further by this fiscal year.

The combination of increasing consumer demand while exports to America boom gives China a window of economic expansion only enjoyed by its Asian neighbors.

The contrast between China’s prospects can hardly be greater than those for America.

The economics alone militate strongly against the US pursuing a geopolitical objective other than quietly backing off.

But senior US personnel are still acting as if the Chinese should kowtow to America, as evidenced in the proceedings in Alaska in March 2021.

The Chinese were robust and will have calculated their position as strong.

Sun Tzu again:

“Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him”.

What we are facing

The Biden presidency faces significant challenges in the ongoing cold war and America is unlikely to retain its hegemonic status.

During Trump’s presidency, attempts to curtail China’s trade and technological development did not succeed.

Instead it has brought China, Russia and Iran together, as well as emboldened both China and Russia to stand firm and as much as possible to do without America and its dollar.

The American senior advisors are, or should be, acutely aware of the debt and inflation traps facing the US and also the EU.

Following the Fed’s policies of accelerated monetary expansion announced last March, China increased her purchases of commodities and raw materials, in effect signalling she prefers them to dollar liquidity.

As a policy, it is likely to be extended further, given China’s existing stockpile of dollars and dollar-denominated debt.

Her dilemma is not just the fragile state of the US economy, but that of the EU which on any dispassionate analysis is a state failing economically and politically as well.

China will not want to be blamed for triggering a series of events which will get everyone reaching out for their forgotten copy of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom.

F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom is a true classic on political philosophy. Anyone keen on this field and in the practice of policy will be remiss to by-pass this magnum opus.

Hayek is characteristically brilliant in his rendition of an Idea: he can easily walk you through the intricacies of logical and theoretical argument for a case yet combine it masterfully with practical examples in economics and history. He is balanced, impartial and frank.

For classical liberals, this is a timeless jewel worthy of Locke, Acton, Tocqueville et al.

Simply a masterpiece. 

-Amazon

As events take their course, the risk of a dollar collapse and a matching crisis in the euro, though for different reasons, increases.

For Mackinder’s heartland theory to be proved and for the Russian and Chinese partnership to be in control of it, a mega-crisis facing the profligate money-printers must happen.

All history and a priori economic theory confirm it will happen.

The SCO’s Plan B will be a continuance of Plan A, hatched out of the Shanghai Five Group, making the World Island a self-contained unit not dependent on the peripherals — principally, the five eyes.

The Five Eyes
The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.

-Wikipedia

For money, China, Russia and the rest of Asia must give up western ways with unbacked state currencies.

Between them they have enough state-owned declared and undeclared gold to back the yuan, and the rouble.

Give these two currencies free convertibility into gold, and they will be accepted everywhere, so their old cold war enemies can trade their way back to prosperity.

The US has, or says it has, enough gold to put a failing dollar back on a gold standard, but for it to be credible it must [1] radically cut spending, [2] cut back its geopolitical ambitions, and [3] return its budget into balance.

All highly unlikely.

With luck, that is how the new cold war ends.

But don’t hold your breath.

America, and the rest of the nations that it is dragging along with it, are barrelling down towards a great and grand catastrophe.

Situation Report

The election of 2020 did nothing to change the leadership in Washington DC. They are just puppets for their handlers the oligarchy. While Biden is calmer and has swave, compared to Donald Trump,  he is continuing all the polices that his predecessor implemented.

The election made no functional difference in anything.

You can read what ever you want in this realization, but I read it as exactly what it is. “Democracy” is dead. Voting whether actual, or corrupted, makes absolutely no difference in how the nation is run, governed or managed.

This knowledge, by itself is significant. It is one of those check boxes that you have on a sheet of paper when you get ready for a big event, gala or preparation for disaster.

I could go down the long list of alarm bells, flashing lights, elements of growing discontent all of which every single American is viewing in real time. These clamorous alarms have been banging away for decades, but their loudness has become so commonplace that most Americans just accept them as the “new reality”, and assume that things will just worsen in a gradual series of stages…

…not a big thunderous crash.

I beg to differ.

For there are things that most Americans have zero understanding of. And is the state of affairs outside the shores of the Untied States. And what passes for “American news” is anything but actual intel. Americans haven’t a clue as to what is going on “outside”.

Things are building up.

America, the large thrashing out of control elephant, is rampaging about and the rest of the world has armed themselves with tranquilizer guns, large nets, and heavy cages.

Russia, China and Iran are one solid block. They are now a close national entity. Surrounding these nations are allied nations. All working in their best interests, but will align with their large neighbors the sino-block.

Europe wants to sit on the fence, but the USA (through the five eyes) wants them to be pulled into the “us vs. them” USA against the world “rules based order”. They are not budging. Just trying to be as neutral as possible.

What is apparently happening is the isolation of the United States from the rest of the globe internationally.

USA/Canada plus the islands of UK, Australia, and NZ.

What we are watching (on the international scene) is the Asian block… the Sino-block … are holding off as long as possible in putting the thrashing elephant down. But they realize that doing so is a last resort. They do not want to do so, as there will be a backlash on the world.

America, the thrashing elephant has no idea how little it knows, is capable of, and what danger it is in. It is delusional.

…

I could get into the specific details like the strange blockage of all shipping in the Suez Canal, the Beirut explosion, the propaganda narratives, the Coronavirus, etc, etc…

These are just elements of a large game of chess that America is playing…

The timeline that they set up is still in play, though the attacks on China (that were planned) did not happen.

  • No starvation via bio-weapon carpet bombing of livestock.
  • No suppression of trade via propaganda and sanctions.
  • No incited revolutions in Hong Kong.
  • No unrest in Tibet, Xingjiang.
  • No “incident” in the South China Sea

None of that happened, and the attempt at war in the 2019 – 2020 time frame failed.

But we knew that that was would would happen.

Firstly, because China is not what the American (and Western media) thinks it is, and secondly because the date fro the crisis event has not yet hit.

If you can believe this; we are just building up to the event. There is still a couple of years to go yet.

The danger period is approaching; 2023 through 2026, centered around 2025.

Hold on to your britches boys and girls. Dicy times are a coming.

Taking note of “The Fourth Turning” and the Strauss and Howe generational theory of predictive behavior in America, we note that they predicted a Crisis Catalyst in 2005 and a Climax in 2020.

If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the  climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026. 

What will  America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning? History offers no  guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the  possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues,  from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume  that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible  tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary  hardship, but debasement and total ruin. 

Since Vietnam, many Americans  suppose they know what it means to lose a war. 

Losing in the next Fourth  Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could  mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even  our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own  ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of  societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or  beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.

Indeed, the dates are close but seem to be off by a few years.

In our case, it appears that the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle.

That is three years later.

What does Mr. Howe say?

Below is a brief essay originally published on 3/11/19 by Neil Howe discussing the typical progression of each “Turning”. It remains more relevant than ever amidst our current zeitgeist. It was written nearly a year before 2020 showed it’s ugly, ugly face.

NH: We live in a tumultuous time in American history.

 The 2008 financial crisis and all its hardships, was the catalyst  that tipped us into this age of uncertainty. It marked the start of a  generation-long era of secular upheaval that will continue to run its  course over the next decade or so. This is the generational theory I  laid out in “The Fourth Turning,” a book I co-authored with William Strauss in 1997.

 The Fourth Turning explains the rise of a figure like  President Trump. In Trump’s Inauguration Day speech, he painted a bleak  picture of “American carnage,” of “rusted-out factories scattered like  tombstones across the landscape of our nation” with “mothers and  children trapped in poverty in our inner cities.”

 Looking abroad, it’s unclear whether America will turn inward and fall prey to nativism or maintain it’s nearly seventy year role as  leader of the Free World. Other countries are becoming similarly insular. Britain voted to exit the European Union and we’ve heard  anti-E.U. rumblings echoed throughout Europe from France to the  Netherlands.

 Other nations and peoples around the world are looking to either fill  the vacuum in global leadership or exploit it to advance their own ambitions. We’ve seen the thunderous rise of Chinese economic clout, the calculating geopolitical maneuvering of a resurgent Russia, and the barbarous chaos wrought by the so-called Islamic State.

 In many ways, this era of uncertainty follows the natural order of  things. Like Nature’s four seasons, the cycles of history follow a natural rhythm or pattern. Over the past five centuries, Anglo-American society has entered a new era – a new turning – every two decades or so.

 At the start of each turning, people change how they feel about themselves, the culture, the nation, and the future. Turnings come in cycles of four. Each cycle spans the length of a long human life, roughly eighty to one hundred years, or a unit of time the ancients called the saeculum.

 The First Turning is called a High.
 This is an era when institutions are strong and individualism is weak. Society is confident about where it wants to go collectively, even if those outside the majoritarian center feel stifled by the  conformity.

 America’s most recent First Turning was the post-World War II  American High, beginning in 1946 and ending with the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963, a key lifecycle marker for today’s older Americans.

 The Second Turningis an Awakening.
 This is an era when institutions are attacked in the name of personal  and spiritual autonomy. Just when society is reaching its high tide of public progress, people suddenly tire of social discipline and want to recapture a sense of personal authenticity. Young activists and spiritualists look back at the previous High as an era of cultural poverty.

 America’s most recent Awakening was the “Consciousness Revolution,”  which spanned from the campus and inner-city revolts of the mid 1960s to  the tax revolts of the early ‘80s.

 The Third Turning is an Unravelling.
 The mood of this era is in many ways the opposite of a High. Institutions are weak and distrusted, while individualism is strong and  flourishing. Highs follow Crises, which teach the lesson that society  must coalesce and build. Unravelings follow Awakenings, which teach the  lesson that society must atomize and enjoy.

 America’s most recent Unraveling was the Long Boom and Culture Wars,  beginning in the early 1980s and probably ending in 2008. The era opened with triumphant “Morning in America” individualism and drifted toward a pervasive distrust of institutions and leaders, an edgy popular culture, and the splitting of national consensus into competing “values” camps.

 And finally we enter the Fourth Turning, which is a Crisis.

 This is an era in which America’s institutional life is torn down and rebuilt from the ground up—always in response to a perceived threat to the nation’s very survival. Civic authority revives, cultural expression  finds a community purpose, and people begin to locate themselves as members of a larger group.

 In every instance, Fourth Turnings have eventually become new  “founding moments” in America’s history, refreshing and redefining the  national identity. Currently, this period began in 2008, with the Global  Financial Crisis and the deepening of the War on Terror, and will extend to around 2030. 

If the past is any prelude to what is to come, as  we contend, consider the prior Fourth Turning which was kicked off by  the stock market crash of 1929 and climaxed with World War II.

 Just as a Second Turning reshapes our inner world (of values, culture  and religion), a Fourth Turning reshapes our outer world (of politics,  economy and empire).

 To be clear, the road ahead for America will be rough. But I take  comfort in the idea that history cycles back and that the past offers us  a guide to what we can expect in the future. Like Nature’s four  seasons, the cycles of history follow a natural rhythm or pattern.

 Make no mistake. Winter is coming. How mild or harsh it will be is anyone’s guess but the basic progression is as natural as counting down the days, weeks and months until Spring. 

Exerpts from the book The Fourth Turning

In 1860-1861 southern states took the Lincoln victory as a de-facto proof that the North would increasingly seek to impose its will upon the south (they were right, but losing the war actually made it happen faster and more completely). 

What people generally forget is that all states had large militias that were beholden ONLY to the states, and people had much more belief and legal adherence to the individual states, than now. 

Terrorist actions do not start a war, because you cannot really go to war conventionally against terrorism. What happened in the 1860's is that state governments formed a new nation in rebellion. 

Personally I don't think the Left or the Right, as a whole, have the balls to do this today. But I guess we'll see. Eventually the threats become real enough that it's hard to ignore them and just hope everything goes back to normal.

-Aerindel, SoJ_51 and Observer

This is straight from the book …

“Something happened to America at that time,” recalled U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye on V-J Day in 1995, the last of the 50-year commemoratives of World War II.  “I’m not wise enough to know what it was.  But it was the strange, strange power that our founding fathers experienced in those early, uncertain days.  Let’s call it the spirit of America, a spirit that united and galvanized our people.”  Inouye went on to reflect wistfully on an era when the nation considered no obstacle too big, no challenge too great, no goal too distant, no sacrifice too deep.  A half-century later, that old spirit had long since dissipated, and nobody under age 70 remembered what it felt like.  When Joe Dawson reenacted his D-Day parachute drop over Normandy, he said he did it “to show our country that there was a time when our nation moved forward as one unit.”

The Eternal Return

On the earthen floors of their rounded hogans, Navajo artists sift colored sand to depict the four seasons of life and time.  Their ancestors have been doing this for centuries.  They draw these sand circles in a counter-clockwise progression, one quadrant at a time, with decorative icons for the challenges of each age and season.  When they near the end of the fourth season, they stop the circle, leaving a small gap just to the right of its top.  This signifies the moment of death and rebirth, what the Hellenics called ekpyrosis.  By Navajo custom, this moment can be provided (and the circle closed) only by God, never by mortal man.  All the artist can do is rub out the painting, in reverse seasonal order, after which a new circle can be begun.  Thus, in the Navajo tradition, does seasonal time stage its eternal return.

Like most traditional peoples, the Navaho accept not just the circularity of life, but also its perpetuity.  Each generation knows its ancestors have drawn similar circles in the sand—and each expects its heirs to keep drawing them.  The Navaho ritually reenact the past while anticipating the future.  Thus do they transcend time.

Modern societies too often reject circles for straight lines between starts and finishes.  Believers in linear progress, we feel the need to keep moving forward.  The more we endeavor to defeat nature, the more profoundly we land at the mercy of its deeper rhythms.  Unlike the Navajo, we cannot withstand the temptation to try closing the circle ourselves and in the manner of our own liking.  Yet we cannot avoid history’s last quadrant.  We cannot avoid the Fourth Turning, nor its ekpyrosis.  Whether we welcome him or not, the Gray Champion will command our duty and sacrifice at a moment of Crisis.  Whether we prepare wisely or not, we will complete the Millennial Saeculum.  The epoch that began with V.J.-Day will reach a natural climax—and come to an end.

An end of what?

The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man.  It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing.  If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly.  But this end, while possible, is not likely.  Human life is not so easily extinguishable.  One conceit of linear thinking is the confidence that we possess such godlike power that—at the mere push of a button—we can obliterate nature, destroy our own seed, and make ourselves the final generations of our species.  Civilized (post-Neolithic) man has endured some 500 generations, prehistoric (fire-using) man perhaps 5,000 generations, Homo Erectus ten times that.  For the next Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection, and bad luck.  Only the worst pessimist can imagine that.

The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity.  The Western saecular rhythm—which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance—could come to an abrupt terminus.  The seventh modern saeculum would be the last.  This too could come from total war, terrible but not final.  There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society.  The “Western Civilization” of Toynbee and the “Faustian Culture” of Spengler would come to the inexorable close their prophesiers foresaw.  A new dark ages would settle in, until some new civilization could be cobbled together from the ruins.  The cycle of generations would also end, replaced by an ancient cycle of tradition (and fixed social roles for each phase of life) that would not allow progress.  As with an omnicide, such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet.  But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation.  It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify.  This nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, Etruria ten, the Soviet Union (perhaps) only one.  Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival.  Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a threat in more than one battle.  In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most horrible war in history.  In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed.  In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.

Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum.  Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere.  Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum.  America would be reborn.  But, reborn, it would not be the same.

The new saeculum could find America a worse place.  As Paul Kennedy has warned, it might no longer be a “great power.”  Its global stature might be eclipsed by foreign rivals.  Its geography might be smaller, its culture less dominant, its military less effective, its government less democratic, its Constitution less inspiring.  Emerging from its millennial chrysalis, it might evoke nothing like the hope and respect of its “American Century” forbear.  Abroad, people of goodwill and civilized taste might perceive this society as a newly dangerous place.  Or they might see it as decayed, antiquated, an Old New World less central to human progress than we now are.  All this is plausible, and possible, in the natural turning of saecular time.

Alternatively, the new saeculum could find America, and the world, a much better place.  Like England in the Reformation Saeculum, the Superpower America of the Millennial Saeculum might merely be a prelude to a higher plane of civilization.  Its new civic life might more nearly resemble that “shining city on a hill” to which its colonial ancestors aspired.  Its ecology might be freshly repaired and newly sustainable, its economy rejuvenated, its politics functional and fair, its media elevated in tone, its culture creative and uplifting, its gender and race relations improved, its commonalities embraced and differences accepted, its institutions free of the corruptions that today seem entrenched beyond correction.  People might enjoy new realms of personal, family, community, and national fulfillment.  America’s borders might be redrawn around an altered but more cogent geography of public community.  Its influence on world peace could be more potent, on world culture more uplifting.  All this is achievable as well.

Conclusion

2020 was not the Climax; the Crisis of the Forth Turning in America. That still lies ahead of us.

I hope it never comes to this. In lieu, I can see the Balkinization of the country take place, sides would move to designated areas and set up permanent camp. There may be 2, 3 or more countries within the US before the dust settles.

-Survivalist Boards

A climax is a major event. It is typically marked by full-scale discord and absolute totality of full-scale war. That did not occur in 2020. That is not occurring now. 2020 was marked by a “pandemic”. Most Americans (through their media) believe that either [1] it is a hoax, or [2] it is a new strain of flu that is sweeping the globe. It is neither. It is a bio-weapon attack on China by the neocon Trump administration gone terribly wrong.

Xi Peng and Putin do not get their intel from Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and CNN. They get it from their Intel divisions. And both nations have a full picture of what is going on, has gone on and will go on further.

Both nations (China and Russia) filed a formal complaint against the United States for launching this bio-weapon (and all the others that it launched in late 2020). And while Americans ignored this complaint, pretending that it is meaningless, it did do something. It marked the start of Russia and China teaming up militarily against the United States.

…

United States. (With the UK, Canada, Israel, and Australia.) Today there is isolated America. Confused. Arrogant. Thrashing and moaning. Demanding all sorts of things.

The Rest of the World. And the rest of the world, lead by Russia, and China, that are very carefully and very precisely planning to stop all this nonsense once and for all.

Adjusting the dates

“It seems I always underestimate the ability of sociopathic central  bankers and their willingness to destroy the lives of hundreds of  millions to benefit their oligarch masters. I always underestimate the  rampant corruption that permeates Washington DC and the executive suites  in mega-corporations across the land. And I always overestimate the  intelligence, civic mindedness, and ability to understand math of the  ignorant masses that pass for citizens in this country. It seems that  issuing trillions of new debt to pay off trillions of bad debt,  government sanctioned accounting fraud, mainstream media propaganda,  government data manipulation and a populace blinded by mass delusion can  stave off the inevitable consequences of an unsustainable economic  system.”

-The Burning Platform

Adjusting the Strauss and Howe dates to account for the delay in the catalyst, messes things up a bit. They predicted…

There is a nice graphic that I composed for your purposes of planning out the next few years. I hope that it is helpful. Adding three years, gives us…

  • “Crisis catalyst” in 2008.
  • Climax in 2023.
  • Resolution in 2029.

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Of course, you could argue the 2020 was the “climax” simply because it was one Hell of a shitty year. But you all know, it was a shitty year for everyone on the globe. Not just Americans. I argue that it was just foreplay for bigger stuff to come.

Do you want more?

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China and Taiwan are being linked together by high speed train and the American Military Empire is having a fit!

One the most profound realizations that one MUST arrive at is that the American (and Western) “news” is a massive propaganda organ. It’s not that they twist and distort the news. Oh, I wish it was that simple. No. Rather, they lie, and make up fanciful stories towards manipulation. That’s it, and nothing more can be said.
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Now, of course, you can categorize the the lies.
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You can say that the lies fall under categories. And of these, purposes for the manipulation of large groups of people.
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I really don’t think that this is all that difficult to understand.
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All these different organizations are vying for your mind. They want you to think certain ways, and in doing so it gives them advantage. Depending on who is involved, you can then map out the funding, and the then compare with the depth and breadth of the articles that the media bombards you with.
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I’ve posted a lot of articles about the anti-China narrative, and discussed the people behind this screed. Pretty much it’s a mix of religious fundamentalists, neocons, and hard-Right players. And when Donald Trump became President in 2016, the opened the funding floodgates, as well as staffed his administration with neocons, and the result was a “firehose” of anti-China disinformation.
They all are looking forward to getting involved in a hot war with “juicy and wealthy” China. They just want an EXCUSE.
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If you want to read more about this go HERE.
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You will find these articles all over the internet. Such as this one (below) that I pulled off of Free Republic right now…
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China's military is poised to outgun the West after HUGE growth
3/15/2021, 9:34:39 AM · by RomanSoldier19 · 12 replies
Daily Mail via msn ^ | 3/14/2021 | Marco Giannangeli

It follows an ominous warning last week by the commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific that China may launch a military operation against Taiwan "in the next six years". This would likely lead to military reprisals from the US Navy and allies including Britain, which is sending its new carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, to lead a multinational strike force to the Far East in May. China commands the world's largest military, with 2.18 million soldiers, sailors and aviators on active duty. And after a recent 6.8 percent rise it will command a £200billion military budget this year. But it...
Oh, Ah.
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Read the text, of “ominous warning” and “military reprisals”. War in that far-away land is being jinned up, don’t you think? Any day now, some proud American Rambo’s are gonna “kick some slant eyed butt”, don’t you know.
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Not gonna happen.
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Why?
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Well, in the first case the American and UK military excursion into the South China Sea in late Summer 2020 was a disaster, and the seven aircraft carriers steamed back to American (and the UK) with their “tail between their legs”. Trump incensed that his orders were not carried out, fired his military brass as soon as then returned. It was a “Waterloo moment“, and scared the living shit out of the military brass.
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Read about it HERE.
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And in the Second Case, please just keep in mind that Taiwan is part of China. No matter how much this is omitted in the neocon publications and articles. No matter how many times the American “news” talks about the USA “doing something”, nothing is going to happen. You can yell, scream and stamp your feet but that will not change the fact that Taiwan agreed to become part of China, and this union is recognized by the United Nations.
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Taiwan stopped being an independent nation, and became a Chinese client state in 1972 by [1] The Shanghai Communiqué and the 1982 [2] Joint Communiqué and [3] the August 17 Communiqué. It's the 23rd province of China.

All of this his was codified and made permanent on October 1971, when the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2758, which recognized the government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China at the United Nations and established the One-China Principle.
You can read more about this HERE.
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American “news” is a big lie, and people are following it because just about everything in America has been corrupted beyond recognition. No one trusts the government, yet somehow they believe the media. They turn to alternative media in the belief that they have not been corrupted.
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Ah. But they have.
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But anyways,
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Aside from all that “noise” out of the “news”, China is moving on. It is on all fronts. So the USA doesn’t want to partner with China on anything. OK. No problem. But watch out. As I have said before; China does not play.
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Meanwhile check out what is going on with China and Taiwan right now…

China’s railway operator echoes netizens’ call for a high-speed rail route to Taiwan

By Global Times Published: Mar 14, 2021 03:03 PM
Reprinted as found. All credit to the author, and edited to fit this venue.
An aerial photo shows the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge in East China’s Fujian Province. The first of its kind in China, the bridge opened on Saturday, shortening travel time between the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the island county of Pingtan to 35 minutes from around two hours. The bridge will make it more convenient for compatriots in the island of Taiwan to travel to the Chinese mainland. Photo: cnsphoto

China’s top railway operator said on Sunday that it has “taken seriously the building of a railway to the island of Taiwan,” echoing Chinese netizens’ calls as well as the Russian Ambassador to China’s wish to visit the island by train.

China Railways, the country’s top railway construction company, discussed the technical issues and routes of building the high-speed railway from East China’s Fujian Province to the island of Taiwan in an article published in its official WeChat account on Sunday.

No wonder Donald Trump wanted to ban WeChat, you cannot have the anti-China narrative polluted by facts.

In the article, it mentioned China’s National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan, which was rolled out in late February and set the construction goals from 2021 to 2035 with a long-term plan extended. A route from Fuzhou to Taipei, in the island of Taiwan, was also listed in the plan.

China’s HST (High Speed Train) rail network as of 2020.

The plan soon drew heated discussions on Chinese social media platforms. Netizens also expressed a strong wish to “visit Taiwan by train.”

Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov also voiced confidence in China’s capability to build a high-speed railway between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, and stressed that both sides across the Taiwan Straits belong to China.

Close up showing the HST bridge between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

Denisov said he is looking forward to taking a high-speed train to visit the island some day in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV in early March. “If I could have a chance to visit Taiwan Province, of course I prefer to do it by train.”

Responding to such calls, the railway operator giant noted, “The dream that countless Chinese people have dreamt is finally drawing closer,” as the Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail has only “the last part” between the Straits left to be completed.

It further went on to explain that with the completion of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway last December, all of the construction work on the Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail has been completed except for the last section, which will link the mainland across the Straits, referring to “the last part” from Pingtan to Taipei.

The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, the nearest one on the mainland from Taiwan, was put into operation on December 26. Pingtan is only 68 nautical miles away from Taiwan’s Hsinchu, the closest point across the straits.

The Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, a key project of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, has a total length of 16.34 kilometers. It is the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge and the first road-rail bridge in China.

Is this even possible, or is this a “pipe dream”?

Oh yes. It is absolutely possible. Consider that all of the neighboring nations are enthusiastically participating with China in establishing communication and trade routes and upgrading their infrastructure. And consider the a fore mentioned “Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge” which was just completed last year. Which followed the HK – Macao – Zhuhai bridge effort (outside my front door)…

As discussed in this article…

China opens Fuzhou-Pingtan railway to boost cross-strait travel

Updated 14:45, 27-Dec-2020
By Hong Yaobin
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China’s Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.

The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China’s Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.

The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province, which is the nearest place in the Chinese mainland to Taiwan Island, only 68 nautical miles (about 126 km) away from Hsinchu City.

The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province.

Noting that they have been taking the “Strait” ship to travel between Pingtan and Taiwan, Yang Binghao, who is from Taiwan and runs a cultural and creative center in Pingtan, said that with the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, “Taiwan compatriots can now transfer via railway after arriving in Pingtan by sea, and then we can easily travel to Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of the mainland.”

Yang believes that the railway will further promote the opening-up and development of Pingtan and facilitate cross-strait travel and communication, benefiting local residents and people from both sides.

Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute between both places.

Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute between both places. The 16.3-kilometer-long bridge, with a six-lane highway on top and a high-speed railway at bottom, is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge.

The 16.3-km-long Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge. /CFP

The new railway will link the island county with major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen through the transportation hub in Fuzhou, according to Li Fei, an official with the China Railway Nanchang Group Co., Ltd.

In 2009, the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone was launched in the county to facilitate cross-strait exchange and cooperation, aiming to become a “common home for compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits,” which currently houses more than 1,000 Taiwan-invested enterprises.

A young child ride the HST on the way to Taiwan.

Comprised of 126 islands, Pingtan is home to marvelous natural wonders and a number of tourist attractions such as Haitan Island, Tannan Bay, Pingtan Island National Forest Park, and Haitan Ancient City, and has become increasingly popular among visitors from home and abroad in recent years.

From January 20, up to 17 sets of bullet trains will run on the line every day, up from 9.5 sets plying currently, further boosting the development of local tourism.

So what is China doing to quench the anti-unification efforts?

Sure all this is fine and good. China is building bridges, and tunnels and aiding in economic development. However the United States is funding the Taiwan separatist movement. (As well as funding NGO’s such as the NED, and NID for insurgency efforts.) But what is China doing to quench those who want to fight a “hot war” for “American Democracy”?

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday stressed the importance of the one-China principle and 1992 Consensus in addressing the development of cross-strait relations.

The premier made the remarks during a virtual press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing after the closing of the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
The Chinese mainland welcomes dialogue with different parties regarding cross-strait relations to achieve the unification of China, Li said, before stressing opposition to any form of separatist activities or foreign interference in cross-strait affairs.

The central government will continue to enable Taiwan compatriots to share in opportunities on the mainland, he added.

So yeah. Who, as you well know, already have Chinese passports, is still able to buy property and set up businesses but will now be granted easy loans and smooth sailing in new businesses and ventures.  China is “pulling out all the stops” to help integrate the Taiwanese with the mainland Chinese.

Some thoughts

When I was a young boy, the “news” was all about the “War in Vietnam”. Every day were reports on how our “brave young men were saving the world from communism”. And the media was all over it. From Walter Cronkite on television to magazines such as “Popular Mechanics (illustrated)” and “Vanity Fair”. In those days we were all afraid of “The Red Menace”, and the “Domino Effect”, and were terrified of  the “loss of our freedoms”.

Domino theory, also called Domino Effect, theory in U.S. foreign policy after World War II stating that the “fall” of a noncommunist state to communism would precipitate the fall of noncommunist governments in neighbouring states. The theory was first proposed by President Harry S.Truman.

domino theory | international relations | Britannica.com

In those days, as a young boy, I would watch Hollywood movies glorify war.  I would envision myself flying in The B-24 Liberator bombing the shit out the of the evil Nazi’s (12 O’Clock High), or fighting on the front lines with John Wayne in the movie The Green Berets (1968).

John Wayne in the movie The Green Berets (1968).

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It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that were I to follow my boyhood dreams, I would probably have been shipped off to die in some distant land. I would have died a virgin, and forgotten by the rest of the world. But no one else realizes this, and America is still playing the same old games that ended up killing thousands of Americans, and millions of civilians over the last fifty years.

This is just a typical example of how absolutely “off the wall” American media is when it comes to reporting what is going on in China.

  • It omits facts.
  • it omits history.
  • It omits contemporaneous news.
  • It fabricates news.
  • It distorts events.
  • It produces emotion laden articles full of fear.

It is, after all, a reflection of what America stands for.

I will generate more articles along these lines in the future. For now they will all fall under the heading… “America is having a hissy fit.”

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Going through one of the poorer fifth tier cities in China, a video exposé.

Yeah. This is what it is like. I’ve got a video that you’ll all will want to see. It’s pretty good. Almost as good as being here. It’s a pretty much grass-roots view of China in one of the “back water” towns in the “hinterland”. LOL. I think that you will all enjoy it.

But first…

… let’s talk about things that aren’t so serious. I mean, why not? Right? Like Pistachios. And Jarts. And blueberry pop-tarts, and big breakfasts with baked beans, easy over eggs, and lots and lots of bacon. And coffee. Percolated coffee. Thick.

The postman always drinks twice.

Not so serious things.

Or, maybe serious.

And right off the bat I want to discuss some of the odd things that make me scratch my head in thought. Well, actually pet my beard, up and down, and go hummmm.It’s some thoughts that aren’t big enough for a post of their own, but curious enough not to omit.

And the first up is this little critter. Kinda cute. You know.

Cute little creature. I think that he is a really good candidate for an actual dragon. Don’t you?

I always thought that dragons were a creature from fantasy, and the legends of dragons might be from remote memories of dinosaurs in our common shared humanity. But here, it pretty much seems definitive. Here be an actual dragon.

So here I am, minding my own business and I come across this little picture. I look at it, scroll past it. Pause. Stop. Think about the little guy, and go back to him.

He’s sort of cute, eh?

And here’s a group of guys from “Trailer Park Boys”. Not so cute. They remind me of my friends from Arkansas. In fact, their stereotype can pretty much be found all over America.  Not that it’s bad mind you, but that it is not the narrative, its the way people interact with each other at different levels of financial success or distress.

Here’ to “the crew”!

Trailer Park Boys chilling out.

I know that it is supposed to be a comedy, but really I actually know a lot of people like this. It’s the human experience, don’t you know.

The human experience.

You all have a front-row-seat. Don’t you know.

And speaking about the human experience, look at this little tool. It’s advertised to massage the gums. But come on! You aren’t  going to tell me that that’s the real purpose of this little gizmo. Are you?

Designed to massage the gums.

No. The real reason and the real purpose of this little device is to make it easier to pick your nose. Now with this vibrating finger your nose can be really get all clean and worked up.

Next up is a nostalgic picture.

When a government is working, and efficient, and has crime under control, inflation doesn’t exist. All inflation can be traced back to government mismanagement at some level. And sure there are all kinds of excuses justifying it’s existence, I like to believe that it is a measure of government mismanagement.

With that in mind, look at this picture please…

The good old days.

…and then, boom!

We are back to serious things.

Where has Americans’ income gone?

By Ding Gang 

Ten years ago, I went to New York City with the correspondent group of then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's delegation. After we arrived, the Chinese side invited some former US senior officials and entrepreneurs to hold a symposium. At that time, the trade imbalance between China and the US was already prominent.

Wen gave the example of an iPod player, whose price was about $290 in the US at the time, but a Chinese manufacturer can only get $6 from each sale. I remember there was a heated discussion in China at that time - we would exchange 800 million shirts for a Boeing plane.

Do Americans earn more because they make more money? From what I have learned during my visits to the US these years, prices of commodities did not change much, or even become cheaper as production bases have been moved to China and other countries. But wages for middle- and low-income Americans have not risen much, or none at all. Reports show that in a 2015 contract between the United Automobile Workers and the Detroit automakers, senior workers received just a 2 percent annual pay increase, after suffering a 10-year pay freeze.

Where has Americans' income gone?

To answer this question, we need to look at the earnings of the biggest companies in the stock market. Apple, for example, was number one, with a net income of $57.4 billion in 2020, up from $14 billion in 2010. Of course, the growth of income of the senior executives at big companies and the big investors is even more startling. In January, The New York Times reported that "America's richest 10 percent, who own more than 80 percent of US stocks, have seen their wealth more than triple in 30 years, while the bottom 50 percent, relying on their day jobs in real markets to survive, had zero gains." 

Economist Jonathan Rothwell listed an example in his book A Republic of Equals: A Manifesto for a Just Society: In Spain, Sweden and Iceland, doctors earn twice as much as the average worker, but in the US, physicians and surgeons earn nearly five times as much.

Such a huge gap between the rich and poor will bring at least two troubles for the future reforms in the US. First, the large-scale relief measures which aim at helping relieve the pressure of middle- and low-income Americans will actually help big enterprises, the rich and the upper class. In other words, the measures won't address the problem of the rich-poor gap.

Second, the US design of system is based on the principle of "profits first." But the increase of profits for big companies comes more and more at the cost of unemployment of the middle and lower classes. As New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote, "We're in the middle of a pandemic that has crushed jobs and small businesses - but the stock market is soaring. That's not right. That's elephants flying. I always get worried watching elephants fly. It usually doesn't end well."

Both of these issues touch upon the old issue of raising taxes from big companies and from the rich. This will inevitably touch the foundation on which the US is built - competition in the free market economy which aims at improving efficiency. Moreover, getting vested interests to concede benefits is not an easy task.

If money can't be obtained from taxes, there is only one way to go: printing more money. When things get to this point, it is no longer just a question of whether the social divisions can be healed, whether people can be united to move forward.

US economist Stephen Roach recently pointed out that last year, the combined COVID-19 relief packages in the US hit a total of $5 trillion, or 24 percent of GDP in 2020. This far exceeds all records. On March 6, US Senate passed President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. 

Will this destroy the world's confidence in the dollar? After all, green note is the foundation of US hegemony.

Will all this destroy the world’s confidence in the United States dollar? Heck! You bet. It’s already destroyed, and most nations welcome alternatives. Leading the pack is China with Gold Backed digital yuan. And trading directly and electronically.

Which brings up this most timely article from the Economic Collapse Blog;

Brace Yourselves For The Most Dramatic Shift In The Standard Of Living In All Of U.S. History

by

They are assuring us that we don’t have to be concerned about “inflation” because they have everything under control.  Do you believe them?  The value of the U.S. dollar has been steadily declining for a long time, and most Americans have grown accustomed to having the cost of living rise at a faster pace than their paychecks do.  But over the past 12 months an enormous paradigm shift has begun.  Instead of devaluing our currency a little bit at a time, now our leaders are going “full Weimar”.

Our money supply is growing at an exponential rate, and this is becoming a major national crisis.  As I pointed out yesterday, it took from the founding of our county all the way to 2020 for M1 to reach 4 trillion dollars.  But then from the start of the pandemic to today, M1 has gone from 4 trillion dollars to 18 trillion dollars.  To call that “economic malpractice” would be way too kind.

The truth is that it is complete and utter lunacy, and we are all going to literally pay the price for such madness. Sadly, inflation is already starting to show up in a major way all throughout our economy.

For example, most Americans have noticed that the price of gasoline has really started to shoot up over the last several weeks…

Gas prices have been increasing at the pump for the past few weeks, reaching a national average of $2.77 a gallon as of Monday, which is 39 cents higher than the same time in 2020, according to AAA.

A lot of people are alarmed by this, but the Federal Reserve insists that this is completely normal.

Meanwhile, the price of agricultural commodities has risen by 50 percent over the past year…

The price of agricultural commodities traded on the global stage has shot up by 50 percent since the middle of 2020, according to economists at Rabobank.
In a new report, the bank pins the lift in the price of wheat, corn, soy, sugar, and a range of other commodities on the northern La Niña, a weakening US currency, market speculators, and rising demand from importing nations.

As those prices are passed along to the consumer, you will be paying more for groceries at your local supermarket, but authorities assure us that prices will stabilize once the economy returns to “normal”.

The good news is that at least the price of food is not rising as fast as the price of lumber is…

Lumber prices have increased more than 180 percent since last spring, and this price spike has caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $24,386 since April 17, 2020, according to the NAHB standard estimates of lumber used to build the average home.

Now that is some serious inflation!

There are so many people that have had to put their plans to build a home on hold in recent months because the price of lumber has gotten so ridiculously high.

But the experts at the Fed insist that those that are warning of hyperinflation just have wild imaginations. Over the course of the past year, our leaders have pumped trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars into the system, and all of that money has to go somewhere.

In such a highly inflationary environment, this sort of a thing can happen…

A digital collage by American artist Beeple which exists only as a JPG file sold Thursday for a record $69.3 million at Christie’s, fetching more money than physical works by many better-known artists.
‘Everydays: The First 5,000 Days’ became the most expensive ever ‘non-fungible token’ (NFT) – a collectible digital asset that uses blockchain technology to turn virtual work into a unique item – after being listed at the start of the two-week auction for only $100.

The U.S. dollar is being transformed into “toilet paper money”, and we are rapidly approaching the point of no return.

At least if our paychecks were rising as fast as the cost of living was, American families would be able to keep up with the escalating prices. But of course that is not happening, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

In fact, vast numbers of formerly middle class Americans no longer have jobs at all.  Last week another 712,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits, and the number of claims continues to hover around “four times the typical pre-crisis level”…

Weekly jobless claims have remained stubbornly high for months, hovering around four times the typical pre-crisis level, although it’s well below the peak of almost 7 million that was reached when stay-at-home orders were first issued a year ago in March.
There are roughly 10 million fewer jobs than there were last year in February before the crisis began.

This is not what an “economic recovery” looks like.

The truth is that the U.S. economy is broken, and the only solution our leaders have is to print, borrow and spend even more money.  Now Biden and his minions are about to pump another 1.9 trillion dollars into the system. Do you think that will make the inflation crisis better or do you think that it will make it worse?

You don’t need to answer, because the answer is self-evident.

As prices soar into the stratosphere, life is going to become increasingly difficult for most Americans.

If your income does not rise as fast as prices are going up, your standard of living will go down. Of course you will be far from alone.  The vast majority of Americans are about to experience a dramatic shift in the standard of living, and most of the population doesn’t even realize what is happening.

All they know is that more government checks are on the way, and most of them are absolutely thrilled about that. But all of this printing, borrowing and spending has put us on a path to national financial suicide. As we continue to recklessly destroy the value of our currency, other nations will begin to realize that a move to a different reserve currency is needed.

And once the U.S. dollar is no longer the reserve currency of the world, there will never be any going back to the “good old days”.

We are so close to the economic endgame, and the word “collapse” is not nearly strong enough to describe what is eventually going to happen to the United States.

…
Yikes!

It makes me yearn for the good old days.

Well for all the good stuff that I have to say about China, now I am going to vent on some of the bad stuff. It’s not that I want to, but sometimes it’s just so frustrating. You want to eat some olives, and some slices of cheese, maybe Swiss or a fine Lorraine, and the only think that you can find is the pseudo cheese slices. Ugh!

It is difficult to truly enjoy cheese.

Ah. The Chinese enjoy everything, but cheese seems to elude them. Sigh.

Oh sure, you can find it here, but it’s not common and it’s not enjoyed the same way. It is sprinkled on items like you would sprinkle salt and pepper. Not layered and melted into a smooth creamy consistency. Like on Pizza.

It’s treated like a spice. Not as a major food group.

Which brings me to the delicious subject of Fondue. Now, I know it’s not all that popular in America these days, but at least there’s a few Americans get to try it at least once a year or so. And at that, when you pair it with a fine wine, it becomes a wonderful occasion.

Oh, and do not mistakenly believe that you need to buy any expensive fondue pots, pans or utensils to make it. You don’t. All you need is a pan, and the ingredients, and some long stemmed forks. That’s it. So what is stopping you?

Eh?

From HERE…

Fondue is a traditional Swiss dish that is prepared from pieces of cheese, thermally melted with white wine in a special fondue pot – “caquelon”, to a creamy consistency, flavored with cherry rakia or cherry brandy. It’s tasted by dipping hard bread cubes, rolled in the melted cheese with special fondue forks.

 Fondue is a warm dish that can contain one or more types of cheese, usually Gruyere and Vacherine Fribourgeois. It is the main national dish of Switzerland together with с raclette. It is also known in the Eastern French regions Savoie and Franch-Comte since the 1950s where it is prepared with Beaufort cheese or Comte cheese.

Now, maybe the “officially correct” way of making fondue uses the dish, the forks, and the special cheeses. But we are just simple people wanting to have simple pleasures with our friends… RIGHT NOW.

Here’s a hint, you make use of what you have. And you call up your friends, and you add some wine. Some nice music, and you all work together to make that delicious cheesy fondue happen.

Delicious fondue.

And he continues on the narrative…

At the table, the fondue of melted cheeses is served in the so-called “caquelon” (a type of enameled, cast iron or ceramic pot) in which pieces of bread are dipped with a special fork with three prongs (there are also forks with two prongs, but they are mainly associated with the meat fondue – the Bourguignon or the Chinese type). The fondue pot (caquelon) is located on a metal pad (usually made of wrought iron) at the base of which is located the heat source (a heater or candles) that keeps the fondue at the desired temperature throughout the meal.

Fondue forks are long-stemmed with a round handle. A piece of bread or rarely potato slices (traditionally consumed with Fondue fribourgeoise) are dipped into the melted cheese stirring in a circular or a figure-eight motion of the fork. 

When removing the fork from the fondue, it should be rotated continuously in a circle so that the melted cheese doesn’t drip outside the pot. The soaked mouthful is served towards the mouth when the cheese is already cooled to a suitable temperature for consumption and thus a full taste is achieved.

It is a common rule for cheese producers to sell ready-made cheese mixes, especially for fondue preparation, which makes it possible to avoid the difficult choice of the cheese combination. In Switzerland, these cheese mixes can be found in supermarkets.

They are not generally found in the United States, and most certainly not in China.

But that’s the price you pay when you live in different areas. If I lived in Switzerland, I would be in “seventh Heaven” smunching on all that delicious food. I’ll tell you what.

There are many and varied Fondue recipes. For example, before beginning the fondue preparation, several cloves of garlic can be crushed at the bottom of the caquelon, then add the grated or sliced cheese and finally pour the wine.

The specific thin in the Fribourgeoise fondue recipe is that the wine is replaced with water. The fondue set is turned on on a slow fire while stirring periodically until the cheese is completely melted. Then pepper and other supplements are added according to the desired recipe, such as sliced in cubes shallots, morel mushroom, mustard, etc. Corn starch dissolved in a little bit of cherry brandy can be used to thicken and improve consistency in cases where more wine is added, for example, or when the fondue is more liquid.

Sometimes, a little bit of cardamom powder (which improves digestion) or other spices can be poured directly into the plate, where the cheese dipped bite is rolled right before consumption.

Finally, when the fondue is over, it is possible to have dregs or crust of toasted cheese, called “religieuse”, which is removed with a fork, sometimes it is quite difficult.

Also, at the end of the fondue you can add and prepare scrambled eggs.

Main varieties of Swiss cheese fondues

FONDUE CHEESE CONTENT
Moitié–Moitié 50% Gruyére and 50% Vacherin
Fribourgeoise 100% Vacherin Fribourgeois
Appenzelloise 100% Appenzeller
Neuchateloise 50% Gruyére and 50% Emmental
Central Switzerland 1/3 Gruyére, 1/3 Emmental, 1/3 Sbrinz
Savoyard 50% Emmental of Savoy and 50% Beaufort or Comté
Franc-Comtois 100% Comté

Now my deep secret…

I love cheese. Oh I really do. And you know you don’t appreciate things until you live without them. And that is so very true about cheese and China.

Like on hamburgers turning them magically into cheeseburgers. (It’s magical how it works.) You put the cheese on top of the burger after you cooked one side, and then you let the heat from inside the burger melt the cheese on to the paddy. You don’t rely on the heat around the burger to do it. Then you watch the cheese melt. It gets soft at the edges and then starts to wrap around the burger and starts to clutch it like a firm loving embrace.

Ahhh.

Turning hamburgers into cheeseburgers.

And…

As much as the delicious improvements to hamburgers come from cheese, so do improvements in just about anything else. You know like this…

Delicious cheeseburger.

Do you know what is better than thick gooey cheese on top of a cheeseburger? It’s thick gooey cheese inside of a cheeseburger. That’s what.

You know, it’s been years, but I used to make the “pizza burgers”. I would mix pizza sauce with the hamburger meat. Then put a chunk of mozzarella cheese in the middle of the patty and cook it that way. My only problem was that the meat would tend to crumble and resemble a “sloppy Joe” more than a burger. But it tasted oh so good. I’ll tell you what.

What a pizza burger is not…

There are many ideas of what a pizza-burger is. I’m gonna tell you all what it is not…

  • It is not a burger with pizza sauce instead of ketchup.
  • It is not an open bun burger (the top missing) with pepperoni slices.
  • It is not a mini-pizza the size of a hamburger.

And if you try to do an image search on Bing that is what you are going to find.  Sad. So very, very sad.

Not real pizza-burgers.

Nope. A real pizza burger has the burger consisting of meat and pizza sauce, and lots and lots of gooey melted cheese. That’s a pizza burger!

Smunching on a burger, and then enjoying life.

Maybe it’s time to go out and do some shopping. Eh?

Going shopping with Mom.

Moving on

You know that there is one very special thing that would really improve the taste of cheese. Aside from friends, and your favorite pets, and some nice tunes (music). Can you guess what I am thinking about?

Yes. You are right.

Alcohol.

Or, more specifically… wine.

Wine and a cheeseburger. So very delicious.

While I have my thoughts, other people are far better versed in explaining the nuances between the different kinds of wines.

A good hamburger is an indulgence. It is also pretty much always a little decadent, rich and hearty, which makes it a natural match for red wine. Sure, some white wines could work, and lots of sparkling wines too. But come on, let’s drink some red wine with our red meat.

  • A Red wine goes best with a hamburger / cheeseburger. You can tell if it is a red wine by it’s color. Red wine has a red color.

Below are some classic wine styles (and bottle recommendations) that pair with burgers, plus a couple of not-so-classic picks that worked well recently with a variety of burger styles — from a simple Swiss cheeseburger with all-American condiments, to a black-truffle-mayo-and-fried-egg stunner, to a bison burger with cheddar, caramelized onions and wasabi mayo.

I would never suggest a ho-hum wine just because burgers are, at the end of the night, just hot sandwiches with toppings.  With that in mind, only one of these 10 bottles rings up higher than $20. (140 RMB for those of you in China.)

Zinfandel

Not a “white Zinfandel” which is everywhere, but rather a “red Zinfandel”. A red Zinfandel wine is both fruity and spicy. Some fruit aromas such as raspberries, blackberries, cherries, cranberries. And there is a generous sprinkling of cinnamon and black pepper. Depending on the winemaking and ageing methods it undergoes Zinfandel can display a range of secondary and tertiary aromas.

Red Zinfandel Wine Information
The color of a zinfandel wine is deep red, bordering on black. Zinfandel is a spicy, peppery wine, with a hint of fruity flavor – berries or dark cherries are often the taste range. Zinfandel goes well with “typical American” food – pizza, burgers, and steaks. It’s hearty enough to match up with thick red sauces.

Zinfandel is one of the all-time classic burger wines. Big, jammy, juicy and spicy, it’s almost as if it were invented for this most-American of sandwiches.

Cabernet

A Taste of Cabernet Sauvignon | wine.co.za
https://wine.co.za/wine/wine.aspx?WINEID=41057

2021-2-16 · Cabernet Sauvignon is a noble variety red grape - and is usually deep red in colour, full-bodied, with dark fruit flavours. It arose out of an accidental breeding between a red Cabernet Franc and a white Sauvignon Blanc grape plant - which subsequently has become one of the most planted and popular varieties in the red wine world.

There used to be an old television commercial. I forget what was being sold. Maybe it was a Heinz product for “57 Steak Sauce”. Encouraging people to shake a particular steak sauce onto their hamburgers instead of ketchup, the TV advertising campaign went something like this:

"...Is a hamburger made of ground ham? No — it's made of ground steak."

As long as it is not a tannic powerhouse, a California cabernet sauvignon, best friend of the juicy steak, is probably going to be a good match for your burger. It’s got a rich flavor, and when you drink it after a bite of a fine thick, cheesy burger the taste really excels.

Oh, I get goosebumps thinking about it.

A nice Cabernet is my favorite, as well as a fine sweet Shiraz.

Malbec

Taste and Flavor Profile Malbec wines are dry, full-bodied, and exhibit rich, dark fruit nose and flavors like blackberry and red plum. They're juicy and jammy, with notes of vanilla, tobacco, dark chocolate, and oak. With medium acid and moderate levels of tannins, they pair well with food.

What Is Malbec Wine? - The Spruce Eats
www.thespruceeats.com/what-are-malbec-wines-3511186

Argentines love their beef, and they wouldn’t dream of eating one of their famous steaks without a glass of malbec. Naturally, malbec is also a great burger wine, with its velvety plum, blackberry, chocolate and earth.

Rhone varieties

The Rhône, a major river in France, rises in the Alps and flows south to the Mediterranean Sea. This river lends its name to the southern French wine region on its banks, the Rhône Valley, as well as its major AOC, Côtes du Rhône.

The indigenous grape varieties that grow in the region, like Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Viognier and Roussanne, are often referred to as Rhône grapes. So, regardless of their place of origin, wines made from these grapes are said to be Rhône-style wines the world over.

Rhone Blend
https://www.tastemonterey.com/rhone=blend
Definition: The Rhone region of France has a delightful selection of red varieties. There are 22 grapes allowed in the Rhone AOC, about half of them red. Most of these varieties are used as secondary blending partners, often comprising less than 10% of the blend. The primary red players of Rhone blends are Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre.

Can you imagine not seasoning a hamburger patty with a little bit of salt and black pepper? This is where the Rhone grape varieties come into play, especially the powerful and legendary syrah, which can range from floral to leathery, often with a bite of pepper.

Merlot

Most Merlot wines are thick and full-bodies. It’s sort of the “milkshake” of the wine world. It’s considered to be “heavy”, and if you are not used to it, it will get you drunk faster than the lighter wines. Because of this, you will need to drink it slowly and eat it with some fine beef or mutton.

A Taste of Merlot - wine.co.za
https://cellardirect.co.za/a-taste-of-merlot
The Eikendal Merlot 2017 has an attractive nose that reminds one of forest floor, violets, plums, black berries, cherries and peppery spices. On the palate the wine and full and rounded, with soft tannins and a rich taste of black berries and plums.

With richness and a silky mouthfeel, merlot is sort of the wine equivalent of a milkshake in this pairing scenario — if you consider that some people like the fizz and tang of soda with a burger, and others opt for a mouth-coating chocolate shake.

Here’s a picture where someone went into a White Castle fast-food franchise and got some sliders with their wine.

What a better moment than to think of Harold and Kumar…

Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

So, here I am enjoying a home made cheese burger. (And no, I did not skimp on the tomatoes, and yes, I do enjoy a nice onion with my burger) and drinking it with a fine local wine; Great Wall. It’s a very reasonably priced good real wine. Basic. Just the way I like it.

And I thought that I would cruse the internet, like I used to back in the mid 1990’s during the Bill Clinton years. Back then I actually believed the “news”. Now I know better.

The state of American “news”

Let me say a few words about the state of “news” in America today…

It sucks.

Yup, that’s pretty much it.

Tell ’em George.

For Shits and Giggles

So, for shits and giggles I visited Free Republic to check out what narratives are being promoted these days.

I used to frequent it excessively. But it’s become the mouthpiece of the hard-right, and no longer stands for anything resembling free discourse. And my being perma-banned pretty much validated that belief. After all, what is more hypicritical than to promote the idea of a “Free Republic” where you can freely experss ideas, and then perma-ban a member because “your ideas and thoughts are not welcome here.”

No longer searching for truth and providing a medium for free exchange of ideas it has become a money making venue which now maintains a niche market that caters to a mixture of old-world-conservatives, war-mongering neocons, and the religious right.

One of the first things you learn once you've been out of the United States for six months or longer is just how absolutely bad the American "news" actually is. It's horrible. They lie, and they distort and they do everything in their power to make you afraid.

I check up on the American media enclaves from time to time so that I don’t go too far off the deep end. (It’s easy to do.) Hard right. Hard left. Mainstream. I mostly just scan the headlines. It tells me all that I need to know.

I try to give equal time to all the “news” venues. They all have soemthing to say. They all are visited by people who are searching. It’s just that they all manipulate to push their own agendas.

I am NOT saying bad things about liberals or conservatives, or moderates or any other flavor. I am saying that there are some seriously ill people with some very little minds, and very big mouths. If not properly corralled they will end up causing all the rest of us to endure some real pain.

Contemporaneous news…

BUCS Sign Brady To 4-Year Contract... 

Michelle Obama considers 'retiring' from public life... 

Rubio sides with Alabama workers in AMAZON union battle...

Bezos invited by Sanders to hearing on income, wealth inequality... 

Congress Leaning Towards Big Tech Breakup...

What the AT&T Split Teaches About Antitrust... 

GOOGLE Faces 'Very Large' EU Advertising Probe, Vestager Says...

Claims MICROSOFT's Stance on News Is Effort to Distract from Hack... 

'NEWSROOM' actress appears to have plagiarized NYTIMES essay... 

Spring forward forever? Push to keep daylight saving time year-round grows... 

UPDATE: 'Historic' snowstorm to pummel Wyoming, Colorado...

'6 FEET'...

'Impossible travel conditions'... 

USA had coldest February in 30 years... 

ISIS creates 'elite new cell of jihadis to carry out attacks on West'... 

Rioters Set Fire to Federal Courthouse in Portland 1 Day after Fencing Removed... 

MYSTERY: Number of twins being born at 'all-time high', researchers say... 

Two-Thirds of Italians Set For Lockdown as Pandemic Worsens... 

Germany declares 'third wave' has begun... 

LA primed for disaster, but virus took it to another level! 

HALF adults infected with virus have symptoms of depression... 

Mexico czar got infected -- then walked through Mexico City... 

EU Governments Push to Relax Ban on Travel From Rest of World... 

Maskless, boozing JETBLUE passenger faces $14,500 FAA fine... 

Latest hotel amenity: Free test...

And yeah, Free Republic hasn’t changed, it’s still the anti-China crusade running hard and hot, plus the usual fearful articles, and a bunch of shit about anti-vax, anti-5G, anti-social reform, and anti-huawei. It’s anti-everything. Except for guns, walls, and war.

The only thing positive that I can say about it is that the culprits are pretty well brazen. They aren’t hiding their disgust about the rest of the world at all. It’s all pretty open, and well-aired. I’ve got to give them credit for that.

Yeah…

So I went through the first three pages and pulled out a slew of anti-China articles. And guess what? They are all from the same source. I wonder why they are spamming FR so aggressively?

Theyare all from the hard-religious-Right publication The Epoch Times.

What is The Epoch Times?. Dangerous Propaganda ...
https://medium.com/politically-speaking/what-is-the-epoch-times-e8f80d152a6f 

May 15, 2020 · The Epoch Times was started by John Tang in the year 2000 as a Chinese language newspaper. John Tang is a graduate of Georgia Tech who publicly supports the Fulan Gong...

All of the articles came from this singular source.

All of the anti-China articles are from this publication that advocates world war III to bring about global social change. Yeah, not all that different from other dooms-day-cults. Like Heaven’s Gate. Or the Jonestown Massacre in 1978. It’s curious to know that so many American conservatives are willing to listen, follow and fund a lunatic that follows in the same footsteps as the Jim Jones when he lead more than 900  followers to their deaths.

People do not drink the Kool-Aide that is being offered by The Epoch Times. It can lead you down a very dark, and scary, path.

Check out their religious-justified Anti-China war-mongering…

Let’s start here with this one. This one is simple. This article is just a rewording of a Reuters piece to bang-on China. Now the Reuters piece pretty much reports that the FCC is following the already in-place policies of the former Trump Administration. This republishing keeps the narrative alive. Giving the FR readership the idea that the Biden Administration is “keeping the heat on China”.

My comments:

It’s all fun and games for now. Just wait in ten years. When China and Russia tire of all this and the American electronic industry and software industry is under a graduated state of collapse. (Just like every other industry in America over the last few decades.) And then when it is tottering before the big fall, China, Russia and all of Europe pulls the rug out, and performs a “tit for tat” payback.

Oh, you all think that cannot happen?

How about this next article…

This one is a laugh. It’s implying and making statements that the Chinese people are fearful of what is going on and how the government is handing things. At a 93% Chinese approval rating the narrative doesn’t make sense. While I am sure that the local government is very active in Beijing, just as they are here, no one, and I do mean NOBODY is concerned. But the American readership knows none of that.

So they believe these LIES.

  • Beijing Pushes for Door-to-Door COVID-19 Vaccinations, Citizens Worry
3/13/2021, 9:38:12 AM · by SeekAndFind · 11 replies
Epoch Times ^ | 03/12/2021 | Alex Wu

Chinese authorities recently launched a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination program in Chaoyang District, in the capital city of Beijing. Some residents shared their concerns with The Epoch Times over their distrust of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its propaganda about COVID-19 vaccines and the pandemic. Mainland Chinese media reported on March 10 that Beijing’s Chaoyang District began a new door-to-door vaccination program in residential communities and villages. The program is also carried out in five types of places such as government offices, the Central Business District (CBD), industrial parks, business offices, and school campuses. Chaoyang is where international companies, foreign...
    Now of course, all this anti-China narrative makes you think certain things about China. And since there are NO NAMES, and there are NO PICTURES, and there are NO VIDEOS, and no one is willing to provide links to the ACTUAL CHINESE DOCUMENTS, you all just believe what is being told. Yet the actual validity of what you read has as much worth as the ten year old riding the bike down the street.

And this one… it really cracks me up!

  • Nearly Half of Trump Supporters Won’t Take the CCP Virus Vaccine: NPR, PBS, Marist Poll
3/13/2021, 9:35:04 AM · by SeekAndFind · 94 replies
Epoch Times ^ | 03/12/2021 | Samuel Allegri

Almost half of former President Trump’s supporters don’t plan to take a CCP virus vaccine according to a poll by NPR, PBS, and Marist. The poll indicates that 47 percent of people who identified themselves as Trump supporters would not want to be vaccinated when the doses became available to them. Upon widening the demographics, the survey found that 41 percent of Republicans would not take the vaccine, compared to only 11 percent of Democrats saying they wouldn’t take it. In total, about two-thirds of Americans polled said that they’ve already taken a vaccine or would take one when they...
    Do you want something funny? Half the Trump supporters won’t take ANY vaccine, let alone one from China. But it’ll be hard for them to get the Chinese vaccine inside of America because it is not being shipped to America.

Uh Duh!

I’ll tell ya, you’ve got to be a fucking brainless morn to actually believe the bullshit that is being peddled in America today.

Here’s another…

  • 3 Deaths in 9 Days After Hongkongers Get China’s Sinovac Vaccine
3/13/2021, 5:21:07 AM · by SeekAndFind · 12 replies
Epoch Times ^ | 03/12/2021 | Emma Yu

Since Hong Kong began vaccinating the public with the China’s domestically-produced Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac, on Feb. 26, three deaths in nine days have increased anxiety about the vaccine’s safety. On March 8, a 71-year-old man in Hong Kong died four days after receiving his vaccine shot. The patient was reported to be in good health before the vaccination. This was the third death in nine days in Hong Kong following a CoronaVac injection. It’s unclear whether the vaccine contributed to the deaths. Authorities have said they are investigating the causes of death. The first known death in Hong Kong...
    This one is simple. This article is just a rewording of a Jimmy Lai piece to bang-on China. He might be behind bars, and probably getting ready for organ harvesting, but his papers and media empire lives on…

…for now.

Hate. Hate. Hate.

And you all wonder why these sources and editors, and writers are being banned off the min platforms?

And here’s a hate spewing nonsense trying to associate the COVID-19 lite with China. You all want to know what these people look like to me…

  • Florida Gov. DeSantis Cancels All CCP Virus Fines Issued by Local Officials
3/13/2021, 3:15:54 AM · by lightman · 36 replies
epoch times ^ | 12 March A.D. 2021 | Lorenz Duchamps

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order that will eliminate all fines issued by local government officials over the past year to people and businesses in the state who violated restrictions related to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The order (pdf) was signed after the Board of Executive Clemency approved DeSantis’s proposal on March 10 to categorically remit all fines related to local government CCP virus restrictions. “I hereby remit any fines imposed between March 1, 2020, and March 10, 2021, by any political subdivision of Florida related to local government COVID-19 restrictions,” DeSantis confirmed in the order,...

It’s all war-mongering antagonistic bullshit. And if left unchecked it will lead to war. And people are gonna die!

Listen to me.

These NEOCONS are Dangerous.

The History of the Neocon Takeover of the USA

Copied as found with editing to fit this venue. It’s a good read and worth your time. All credit to the author.

This is the interview I just did with authors, Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, who have written a definitive 4-part article on the origins and the  history of the Neocon movement. The influence of the Neoconservatives has been catastrophic to the American government – and to much of the world, yet as they point out, it never seems to end. The authors describe it as an elitist cult; a rabid ideology which doesn’t rely on facts to justify itself.

This is the interview I just did with authors, Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, who have written a definitive 4-part article on the origins and the  history of the Neocon movement. The influence of the Neoconservatives has been catastrophic to the American government – and to much of the world, yet as they point out, it never seems to end. The authors describe it as an elitist cult; a rabid ideology which doesn’t rely on facts to justify itself.

Senator J. William Fulbright identified the Neocons’ irrational system for making endless war in Vietnam 45 years ago, in a New Yorker article titled Reflections in Thrall to Fear: “Cold War psychology is the totally illogical transfer of the burden of proof from those who make charges to those who question them”, leading to “The ultimate illogic: war is the course of prudence and sobriety until the case for peace is proved under impossible rules of evidence [or never] – or until the enemy surrenders. Rational men cannot deal with each other on this basis…But these were not rational men and their need to further their irrational quest only increased with the loss of the Vietnam War.”

This same ideology drove the failed War in Iraq – and now, they’re at it again, with their foolhardy saber-rattling towards Russia.

The birth of the Neocon movement grew out of what had previously been known within the Eastern Establishment as “Team B”, in which official policies were tested by “competitive analysis”. The first Team B was created by George H. W. Bush, while he was Director of the CIA. This brought together very unlikely bedfellows, such as the ex-Trotskyite, James Burnham and Right Wing business interests, both of whom lobbied heavily for big military budgets, advanced weapons systems and aggressive action to confront Soviet Communism.

This Team B/Neocon doomsday cult managed to weather the defeat of the Vietnam War and their non-fact-based analyses continue to maintain a stranglehold on US policy.

James Burnham’s nihilist, elitist vision was criticized by George Orwell in his 1946 essay, Second Thoughts on James Burnham, in which he wrote, “What Burnham is mainly concerned to show [in the latter’s book, The Machiavellians] is that a democratic society has never existed and, so far as we can see, never will exist. Society is of its nature oligarchical, and the power of the oligarchy always rests upon force and fraud… Power can sometimes be won and maintained without violence, but never without fraud.” In fact, George Orwell’s classic book, 1984 was based on Burnham’s vision of the coming totalitarian state, which he described as “A new kind of society, neither Capitalist nor Socialist, and probably based upon slavery.”

There are many well-known godfathers of the Neoconservative agenda of “Endless War”, the guiding principle of America’s foreign policymakers today but Gould and Fitzgerald identify James Burnham as by far its most important figure, although he is little-known today.

Burnham was born in Chicago, the son of an English immigrant father. He attended Princeton University and later Oxford University’s Balliol College. He briefly became a close advisor to Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky, from whom he learned the tactics and strategies of infiltration, political subversion and dirty tricks. Gould and Fitzgerald note that the Right Wing Neocon cult of “Endless War” is ironically rooted in Trotsky’s permanent “Communist Revolution” and they describe how James Burnham helped to turn this into the permanent battle plan for a global Anglo-American empire. They write, “All that was needed to complete Burnham’s dialectic was a permanent enemy and that would require a sophisticated psychological campaign to keep the hatred of Russia alive for generations.”

In 1941, Burnham renounced his allegiance to Trotsky and Marxist idealism and he moved towards a cruel realism, with his belief in the inevitable failure of democracy and the rise of the oligarch. During the following years, he wrote several books and memos, predicting the rise of a technocratic elite. By 1947, Burnham’s transformation from Communist radical to New World Order American Conservative was complete, landing him smack into the loving arms of America’s Right Wing defense establishment during and after World War II.

In my own writings, I’ve noted that the use of the word “Freedom” by the US Government, whether it be “Freedom Fries”, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” or “They hate us for our freedom,” has completely mangled the significance of this F-word, certainly from a Constitutional perspective. Gould and Fitzgerald trace the bastardization of this word to James Burnham:

“Burnham’s Freedom only applied to those intellectuals (the Machiavellians) willing to tell people the hard truth about the unpopular political realities they faced. These were the realities that would usher in a brave new world of the managerial class who would set about denying Americans the very Democracy they thought they already owned. As Orwell observed about Burnham’s Machiavellian beliefs, in his 1946 Second Thoughts, ‘Power can sometimes be won or maintained without violence, but never without fraud, because it is necessary to use the masses.’”

With the CIA’s 1950 founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), Gould and Fitzgerald write, “By its own admission, the CIA’s strategy of promoting the non-Communist Left would become the theoretical foundation of the Agency’s political operations against Communism over the next two decades.”

Today, it appears that this strategy has been a smashing success, where we see the so-called Left in the US playing the role of fulminating, pro-Establishment Statists, a behavior formerly relegated to the Right. Never, in my wildest dreams would I have imagined the “tolerant Left” behaving like an army of Phyllis Schlaflys!

Prior to the catastrophe that was the Vietnam War, the Right was the establishment. The factual defeat of the ideals which drove this war was instrumental to the rise of the 1960s Counterculture movement, which was an even bigger disaster for the Neocons than losing the war. The Counterculture needed to be co-opted by any means necessary and I believe this has been successfully achieved.

Gould and Fitzgerald write that, “CIA’s control over the non-Communist Left and the West’s ‘free’ intellectuals [enabled] the CIA to secretly disenfranchise Europeans and Americans from their own political culture in such a way they would never really know it.”

Gould and Fitzgerald cite historian Christopher Lasch, who wrote in 1969 of the CIA’s co-optation of the American Left: “The modern state… is an engine of propaganda, alternately manufacturing crises and claiming to be the only instrument that can effectively deal with them. This propaganda, in order to be successful, demands the cooperation of writers, teachers, and artists, not as paid propagandists or state-censored time-servers but as ‘free’ intellectuals capable of policing their own jurisdictions and of enforcing acceptable standards of responsibility within the various intellectual professions.”

We see this very much today, in the Late Night comedy of Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah and SNL, the staff writers of which are largely hand-picked from the Harvard Lampoon, where young comedians are trained in a particular brand of comedy that deftly implants a fascist philosophy of extreme elitism and which fuses the ideals of the old Trotskyist left together with those of the right-wing Anglo-American elite, aka the Deep State.

The product of this fusion is called “Neoconservatism” – or its sneaky twin, “Neoliberalism”. The overt mission of this ideology is to roll back Russian influence everywhere. The covert mission is to reassert British cultural dominance over the Anglo-American Empire, maintained through propaganda. Traditionally, comedy has been used as a form of social and political criticism. Today, it cows the hapless consumer into submission to the hegemony.

Gould and Fitzgerald then inform us about the secret Information Research Department of the British and Commonwealth Foreign Office known as the IRD, which was funded by the CIA and served as a covert anti-Communist propaganda unit from 1946 until 1977. Gould and Fitzgerald cite Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, authors of Britain’s Secret Propaganda War, which describes how the IRD spread ceaseless disinformational propaganda (a mixture of lies and distorted facts) among top-ranking journalists working for major news agencies, including Reuters and the BBC and all other available channels. This was but one of many similar initiatives launched by the CIA’s Psychological Strategy Board, including Project Mockingbird and the abovementioned Congress for Cultural Freedom.

The mind is the ultimate battlefield. In my next talk with Gould and Fitzgerald, we will go into how the Deep State has designs on our dream life, in such figures as Robert Moss, a former assassin who now gives New Age workshops on “Active Dreaming.” (Incidentally, the New Age Movement was a CIA subproject of MK Ultra mind control programs). The soon-to-be-released 5G network will enable Virtual Reality, as predicted by Gould and Fitzgerald’s book, ‘The Voice: An Encrypted Monologue’, which takes the reader through the process of reclaiming one’s own narrative from the “noize” of unrelenting psychological warfare that saturates our environment.

Check out their book, ‘The Voice’ here:
https://www.forbiddenmedia.com/product/the-voice/

All this neocon “firehose” of disinformation from the hard-right seriously give me a headache. It’s like this…

(Since we are talking about 1994, and the Bill Clinton years of surfing the “web”.)

Oh, and where was I, oh yeah…

Video on the fifth tier cities in China

Let’s move away from the American “news” and let’s see a taste of what real reality actually is.

Here we just provide a video that is making the rounds in China. A fellow from the UK, who lives in China, has been making various You-tube videos of his experiences in China. And you can come across these kinds of videos all over the internet. But what makes this particular video so special is that it isn’t a first or second tier city. He’s making videos in the smaller “back woods” communities within China. It’s the real deal.

You see, most you-tube videos are of expats exploring Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Cool and big cities most certainly. But they are first-tier enormous urban landscapes.  But those of us, like myself, live in the smaller communities.

Here he is visiting some of the “smaller communities”. To an American, or Brit, it looks like a city. To a Chinese person, it is considered a small village. It’s not big and it doesn’t qualify for high speed rail, or subway access. But it is still vibrant and alive as all of China is these days.

Here’s the video. Click on the picture for the video to open up in a new tab. It’s around 12 minutes or so long, and is narrated by a British expat. Please excuse his accent, and his “squirly” appearance. He’s a typical. Don’t you know.

I do hope that you enjoy it. It’s pretty much what it is like when you enter the Chinese version of “Fly over country”, and a “Red State”.

Now, go and get some cheese, a bottle of wine, some music and call up some friends. Time is too short to waste!

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Egads! This is the BEST summary of the United States and China relations, and what to expect in the near future, ever written. OMG!

There’s this belief (in the West) that China is so God-darn awful that it “need’s to be put in it’s place”, and that a hot war with it is justified.  American ships can sail freely in the South China Sea, and defend “democracy” in Taiwan, and Hong Kong. You know to stop the evil Chinese! It must happen soon! It must happen Now! Freedom is at stake! Now. Now! NOWWW!

It’s all bullshit.

It’s what you can expect for over four years of massively funded anti-China propaganda barraging the “news” with this nonsense. By now, most sheeple are “foaming at the mouth” ready to “kick some slant-eyed butt”. And the neocons are already planning how they will seize and then cart away the loot from a “ripe for the pickings” China.

Um.

MM readers know better.

A war against China over some nameless islands in the South China Sea to defend for “democracy” and “freedom” will result in nuclear destruction of the United States by the combined forces of Russia, China, and Iran. What ever remains standing will be subjugated in the most horrific manner. As in sacked. As in destroyed, enslaved, and subjugated so that English becomes a forgotten language that no one dares utter.

You would think that people would be aware of this. I mean, where does everyone think their electronics comes from? Silicon valley? Nope. It’s all made in China. Not just your iPhone (outsourced now to India, but the key components are still made in China and shipped to India), but all those fancy electronics in the top end military aircraft and missiles that America uses. F-22 key components. Made in China. iPhone internals. Made in China. Tesla car batteries. Made in China.

You would think that Americans would be aware. But they are not. And the neocons are just ready for a fight.

It will be their last.

I can say “watch out“, and the uneducated will respond “oh, let China try“. But all that bravado becomes meaningless when you haven’t eaten in weeks, your body is covered with pustules and sores, and all the water is radioactive. And you are engaged in a street battle between roving bands of urban youths riding brand new Toyota pickups with M134 GAU-17 Gatling Guns. All over some moldy turnips that rumor says that you hoarded before the war.

These neocons are insane and they believe what they tell each other.

The Rapture, in Christianity, the eschatological (concerned with the last things and Endtime) belief that both living and dead believers will ascend into heaven to meet Jesus Christ at the Second Coming (Parousia).

The belief in the Rapture emerged from the anticipation that Jesus would return to redeem all members of the church. The term rapture, however, appears nowhere in the New Testament. In his First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul wrote that the Lord will come down from heaven and that a trumpet call will precede the rise of “the dead in Christ” (4:16). Thereafter, “we who are still alive and are left will be caught up” (in Latin, rapio, the standard translation of Paul’s original Koine Greek) “together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (4:17). The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) mention Jesus’ return to earth from heaven; e.g., The Gospel According to Mark cites Jesus as foretelling a “ ‘coming in clouds’ with great power and glory” (13:26).

Belief in the Rapture is often connected with a belief in the literal coming of the millennium, the 1,000-year rule of Jesus Christ after his return, as mentioned in chapter 20 of The Revelation to John (also known as The Book of Revelation), although there are also amillennial interpretations of the belief that reject that notion. There is also a divide among pre-tribulationists, who believe that the Rapture will occur before a period of tribulation on earth mentioned in Daniel (12:1) and Matthew (24:21) and preceding the End, and post-tribulationists, those who believe that it will come after that period. Finally, dispensationalism, the notion that God periodically enters into a new covenant with his people, has had some influence on the belief, insofar as some believers in the Rapture consider themselves to be dispensationalists.

Along with the epistles of Paul and the Revelation to John, apocalyptic literature and millennialist thinking have long maintained a hold on the Christian imagination, even when they have been variously interpreted or—in the case of millennialism—even rejected by some of the major figures in the history of Christian theology. The 16th-century movement called Futurism, expounded by the Jesuit Francisco Ribera, stressed the future fulfillment of the prophecy of the End as mentioned in scripture with both the rise of the Antichrist and the return of Christ. Another historical event whose ideas may have had some influence on the later evolution of the idea was the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by Puritans seeking to build a “City upon a Hill” in anticipation of the Second Coming. The evangelical fervour of the Great Awakening (early 18th century) and Second Great Awakening (late 18th to early 19th century) in the United States widely promoted ideas about the millennium, about a new dispensation, and about the imminence of Christ’s return. The most famous of such thinkers was William Miller, whose prediction that the Second Coming would occur in 1843 inspired the subsequent formation of Adventist churches.

The idea of the Rapture persisted through the remainder of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, gaining popularity among some evangelical and fundamentalist Christians as well as among some other Christian and even non-Christian new religious movements. During the Cold War, between the United States and the Soviet Union, particularly as the threat of nuclear war grew, prophecies about the Rapture gained currency. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the idea was prominent in popular culture, in part because of the millennialist fervour that arose as the year 2000 approached. The so-called “Chick Pamphlets” (illustrated tracts authored by the evangelist Jack Chick) and the Left Behind (1995–2007) novel and movie franchise were two examples of that phenomenon. Meanwhile, Endtime prophecies promoting a specific date for the Rapture—most notably the two dates in 2011 predicted by the American evangelist Harold Camping—proliferated.

-The Rapture

You see, in their mind, world War III is a win-win.

[1] If they push and successfully create strife in the South China Sea, and it is limited to that region, they can capitalize upon it. Make money off it. And it can turn into a long-drawn out quagmire. Or fine money pipeline into their coffers.

[2] If the strife leaves the predetermined area of conflict, no problem. What’s China gonna do? Eh? They are no match for the Great and Powerful US! They USA could “just sit off the coast and launch cruse missiles and plink at the pitiful Chinese as they run from hidy-hole to hidy-hole”.

[3] Even if the worst came about; No problem, either. God has blessed the United States, and then Jesus will come down from heaven and save all the American believers, and let the rest of the earth cook into a poisonous stew of radioactivity and destruction. Good!

They believe!

With Trump in office, and the appointment of key neocon radical fanatics, Their anti-China crusade went mainstream and has most of the Western allied world’s population hating the Chinese. Yeah, it’s destined to dissipate, but right now the PTB are using everything in their power to keep the hate alive. They are keeping this monster, this nightmare illusion, ALIVE!

Oh, baby! This is extremely dangerous.

This ideology calls on anointed “Christian” leaders to take over the state and make the goals and laws of the nation “biblical.” It seeks to reduce government to organizing little more than defense, internal security and the protection of property rights. 

It fuses with the Christian religion the iconography and language of American imperialism and nationalism, along with the cruelest aspects of corporate capitalism. 

The intellectual and moral hollowness of the ideology, its flagrant distortion and misuse of the Bible, the contradictions that abound within it — its leaders champion small government and a large military, as if the military is not part of government — and its laughable pseudoscience are impervious to reason and fact. And that is why the movement is dangerous. 

-The Radical Christian Right

I cannot stress it enough. This kind of thinking is dangerous. And there are some very important people, in key positions in the American government which believes these insane narratives. They believe. They are real believers.

Yikes!

Now, from time to time, I come across something other than one of the major neocon articles that announce plans for the suppression of China, and how America will remain the dominant superpower in the world. They are few and far between. Seriously. But when you find one, it’s not only refreshing but discusses the reality.

Here is one such rare article. Read it slowly. Absorb it carefully. They are not trying to manipulate sheeple. They are not trying to justify anything. They are telling and stating things AS THEY ARE today. Not what they might be, or what they wish to become.

And while they urge you to participate to “spread the word”, they do so out of concern that America is leading the world towards a new “Dark Ages”; one here the world might never recover from.

And they spell it out clearly…

The U.S. is Set on a Path to War with China. What Is to be Done?

Written By KJ Noh

In this meticulously researched exposé, KJ Noh traces the genealogy of U.S. geopolitical strategy in Asia and the Pacific, giving us an inside view of both the realpolitik of U.S. imperial expansion and the architects behind it. Concluding with an analysis of 21st century U.S. total informational warfare, Noh argues that the path to a kinetic war against China has been decades in the making. Once triggered, it could rapidly turn nuclear.

It was a gripping, stunning testimony. Before Congress, a 15 year old volunteer nurse, Nayirah, struggled to compose her trembling voice, barely holding back tears, as she testified that marauding soldiers had thrown babies out of incubators in a hospital, leaving them to die on the floor.

Later, Amnesty International confirmed authoritatively that 312 babies had been killed this way. [1] All the news agencies ran with the story, and the country and Congress were in a total uproar.

There was only one problem: it was completely, utterly, totally fraudulent. It was engineered, perjured, coached testimony concocted by PR experts, designed to manufacture consent for a U.S. war on Iraq.

At the time, it was also crystal clear that the claims were absurd—Kuwait had a population of less than 1.5 million at the time, and given its birth rate, would have had a few hundred premature babies a year. It’s inconceivable that over 300 of them could have been clustered in a single hospital on a single day.

Nevertheless, this was the story that was sold to the U.S. people. Representative John Porter stated,

“We have never heard…[such] a record of inhumanity and brutality and sadism…I don’t know how the people of the civilized countries of this world can fail to do everything within their power to remove this scourge from the face of the earth.”

Not long afterward, the U.S. went to war with Iraq.  It would wage war again, 12 years later, doubling down with even more monstrous lies about weapons of mass destruction.

Today, we are facing a similar situation: the U.S. is escalating rapidly towards a shooting war with China, and similar absurd, astonishing, and monstrous lies are being spread. In fact, the U.S. is already engaged in “multi-domain” “hybrid warfare” with China. This is warfare just below the threshold of direct military engagement.

On the ground this involves:

  • Economic Warfare: trade sanctions and tariff war, as well as technological warfare: attempted seizure of Chinese companies (TikTok); attacks on China’s international 5G contracts; sanctions on the primary & secondary supply chains of key sectors of Chinese industry (e.g. Huawei’s semiconductor supply chain); attacks on Ant Financial’s IPO.

  • Legal Warfare, or “lawfare,” including over 380 anti-China bills in Congress, and 14 individual and state lawsuits against China for over $30 trillion in “Covid damages”; the long arm “legal” kidnapping of Huawei’s executive

  • Diplomatic Warfare, including consulate shutdowns, harassment of diplomats, breaching of diplomatic pouches and compounds, and calls for regime change.

  • Military Brinksmanship and posturing in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan straits; complete encirclement of China with strategic weapons, surveillance, and 400 offensive bases (“The Pacific Pivot”), the use of air bases in Taiwan for military surveillance, and plans to station intermediate range nuclear missiles all along China’s periphery. [2]

  • Civil Subversion: color revolution, urban terror, destabilization and delegitimation operations in Hong Kong (and other places where China has interests), including millions of dollars of funneled for organization & training, and encrypted communications infrastructure built to coordinate anti-government activities.

  • Academic Warfare: through the FBI’s China Initiative, every 10 hours a case is opened against a Chinese student or researcher in the U.S. (currently 2700 cases) and all Chinese students are considered potential “non-traditional” “collectors” and “spies” involved in a “thousand grains of sand” collection strategy.

  • Information Warfare: last but not least, we are seeing total Information warfare.
    The stories about so-called “massive human rights abuses,” “Chinese concentration camps,” “Chinese-made-and-released Covid,” “China has harmed us economically,” “China has stolen its way to the top,” “China is oppressing independent Hong Kong,” are part of this information warfare.

He left out biological warfare. But we'll give this author a pass on this glaring omission.

This mass propaganda incites people to hate China irrationally and unconditionally, to manufacture consent for war. The U.S. military calls this information warfare, “the firehose of falsehoods” and we are all being drenched with these lies. This is necessary to justify war against an enemy and to curtail any rational discussion or questioning.

Some of the questions that the public are kept from asking are:

    • Are these allegations supported by any facts?

    • Has China threatened us?

    • Is the U.S. at risk from China?

    • Is this war justifiable by any means?

    • Is it legal?

    • Do the citizens of the U.S. want to go to war?

    • Could the U.S. even fight, let alone win a war with China?

A careful, reasoned approach to these questions, would lead one to say, No.

Before we try to play whack-a-mole with the blatant war propaganda, a more useful and clarifying approach is to ask, why is the U.S. telling these lies to go to war?

For this, we have to look at history.

Why The U.S. Is At War: Culture shock and the challenge to supremacy

The earliest European travelers were astonished to discover in China a country, in many ways, far more advanced than the West: a rich, diverse, multi-cultural civilization with sophisticated systems of governance, and vibrant cities built with complex systems of planning and management.

Above all, they marveled at a harmonious multi-religious, multi-ethnic society, free of sectarian strife, and an inclusive merit-based [3] system of political power that selected the most competent people to govern and rule, regardless of creed, color, background, or religion.

[4] This contrasted the Western system of hereditary aristocratic rule within a society torn apart regularly with religious strife.

These ideas of diversity, tolerance, inclusion, and earned—not inherited–privilege, would strongly influence the leaders of the Enlightenment, so much so that Western philosophers such as Voltaire and Leibnitz believed that the Chinese had “perfected moral science,” and that Chinese statecraft was the model for the West to emulate if it wanted to develop into an enlightened civilization.

These discoveries struck a hard blow at Christian and Western supremacy.

Western colonization was built on a foundational belief that the West was more advanced, more evolved—closer to God—than the “barbarous” countries it was invading, subjugating, exploiting, and destroying.

It needed at least the pretense of being more “advanced” to justify its colonial “civilizing mission.”

Reactionary thinkers like Herder—who had never visited China—lashed back rapidly by propagating a theory of the depravity of Chinese: that China was an “immoral land with no honor,” an “embalmed mummy” characterized by stagnation, in contrast with Western “dynamism.”

In addition, the Chinese system of meritocratic government was deeply troubling to a West built on stratified class privilege.

A civilization without hereditary aristocrats was unfathomable and terrifying to the Western ruling class.

Montesquieu, (borrowing from Giovanni Botero) thus concocted the trope that China’s more egalitarian system had to be “despotic”—despotic for him because it threatened the “liberties” (aristocratic privileges) of his class.

Hegel chiseled this canard into the Western consciousness with an armchair theory of “Oriental Despotism,” whereby the Chinese had failed to evolve due to inherent, characterological flaws in its people and its political culture.

Marx chimed in with the “Asiatic mode of production,” and Weber and Wittfogel also reinforced it. These allegations of “despotism”—despite being total distortions of Chinese governance–have infused all Western discourses about China since.

A civilization without hereditary aristocrats was unfathomable and terrifying to the Western ruling class. Montesquieu, (borrowing from Giovanni Botero) thus concocted the trope that China’s more egalitarian system had to be “despotic”—despotic for him because it threatened the “liberties” (aristocratic privileges) of his class. These allegations of “despotism”—despite being total distortions of Chinese governance–have infused all Western discourses about China since.

Enter the Bandits

At the same time, “embalmed” Chinese “inferiority” notwithstanding, the West craved the exquisite consumer goods of China—tea, silk, porcelain—and this created huge trade imbalances.

The Western response to balance the books was narco-trafficking: smuggling in industrial amounts of opium—at its peak, up to 9 million pounds a year.

When China objected and opposed this on sovereign and moral grounds and confiscated the drugs, war was declared.

Reparations were forced, concessions extracted, and the country plundered, looted, and destroyed.

In one show of force to the Chinese, the Summer Palace of the Emperor was sacked by Lord Elgin, which Victor Hugo described thus:

There was, in a corner of the world, a wonder of the world…. All that can be begotten of the imagination…was there…. Build a dream, a dazzling cavern of human fantasy with the face of a temple and palace…. This edifice, as enormous as a city, had been built by the centuries…. This wonder has disappeared.
One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned.
All the treasures of all our cathedrals put together could not equal this formidable and splendid museum of the Orient. It contained not only masterpieces of art, but masses of jewelry…. One of the two victors filled his pockets...the other…filled his coffers. And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away. Such is the story of the two bandits [England & France].

This violence, banditry, and racism, justified by the belief in the subhuman nature of the Chinese, became normalized practice against the Chinese over two centuries, and great American fortunes—Perkins, Astor, Forbes, Cabot, Delano (Roosevelt)—and Ivy league institutions at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia were built on this extraction and narco-trafficking.

Hewing to the belief that the Chinese were less than human, enterprising Euro-American drug barons pushed opium that addicted 10% of the population, essentially “roofie-ing” an entire nation and stealing its wealth.

Just as U.S. Southern wealth had been built on the decimation of black bodies through the slave trade, U.S. East Coast wealth was built on the destruction of Chinese bodies through the drug trade, in what historian John K. Fairbank described as

“the most long-continued and systematic international crime of modern times.”

Dehumanization, humiliation, assault, theft, rape, colonization, appropriation–these became the standard Western approach towards China and the Chinese; the Chinese people were “filthy yellow hordes,” an inferior, subhuman race, lacking agency, fit only to be colonized, exploited, enslaved, lynched, erased, and wherever possible, extinguished through race war.

It would get worse.

Cold and Hot war: A Chinaman’s Chance

Inside U.S. territory itself, the mythology of “yellow peril”—originally a German colonial war trope—became pervasive.

Newspaper editor Horace Greeley, argued that the Chinese were “uncivilized, unclean, and filthy beyond all conception, without any of the higher domestic or social relations; lustful and sensual in their dispositions; every female is a prostitute of the basest order.”

Greeley, a progressive (who employed a young Marx as a reporter), was simply mouthing the platitudes of his day; much worse than rhetoric was the routine violence.

Prefiguring similar present-day fears that Chinese were stealing jobs, wealth, or threatening America, thousands of Chinese were massacred, lynched, set on fire, expelled from their communities in the late 19th Century:

  • In 1871, the LA Chinatown massacre,
  • In 1880, the Denver Yellow Peril pogrom,
  • In 1885 Wyoming Rock Springs massacre,
  • The Issaquah Valley attack,
  • The Arson of Seattle’s Chinatown,
  • The Tacoma riot,
  • In 1886 the Seattle Riot of 1886,
  • The Oregon Hell’s Canyon massacre.

“A Chinaman’s chance” became a common term: to be Chinese was to be subject to sudden death at any time at the whim of white people.

In response, the Chinese hid themselves inside ghettos where they could, fled pogroms, arson, and mass lynchings, and kept their heads down, “eating bitter” and trying to stay alive.

Where they managed to settle down without being killed, they were subjected to cultural erasure, economic blockade, social isolation, a ban on owning property and businesses, and a proscription on marrying and having children, in short, planned elimination.

A minor respite during WWII, when the U.S. allied itself with the Chinese KMT (Kuomintang) against the Japanese gave a small glimmer of reprieve, as local leaders tried to establish breathing space, and the Japanese took on the role of the “bad Asians.”

This lasted until the Chinese communists liberated themselves in 1949, and wrested back their own country.

“China has stood up,” Mao declared, igniting jubilation throughout the third world and sending shockwaves of horror through the colonial west.

This arrant act of self-liberation and self-determination—along with the U.S.’s astonishment that the monstrous KMT fascists they had courted and funded had been trounced–unleashed a hysterical new wave of Sinophobia during the McCarthy era.

High-ranking Congressional committees demanded “Who lost China?”—as if it had been theirs—and purged the State Department of the moderate “China-hands,” who had been sympathetic or informed about China and its political institutions.

A paroxysm of anti-China and anti-Asian hatred would shiver and fester throughout the cold war, burning, stoking and consuming itself through…

  • Ttwo hot wars (the Korean war and the Vietnam war),
  • Counterinsurgencies (Malaya),
  • Politicide (Indonesia), and…

…smoldering on through the Nixon era, and crackling back alive to the flushed, red hot heat of the current moment.

In a country built on settler-colonial racism, this violent, racist, anti-China hatred—one of the most enduring legacies and traditions of the West—is the noxious Petri dish in which this propaganda for war is being cultured and vectored.

To this day, these stereotypes—ideological templates–are readily applied, for example, as regards Covid-19. In the Sinophobic Western press, Covid-19 is allegedly caused by dirty Chinese eating habits, dishonest cover-up, depraved indifference to life, despotic suppression of information, and dangerous intent towards the West.

In a word, the Chinese are dirty, dishonest, depraved, despotic, and dangerous.

Every day, these racist slanders are plastered and repeated, ad nauseam and ad infinitum, in Western outlets like The Guardian, The Washington Post, or The New York Times, and then catapulted into orbit by Twitter and Facebook.

White supremacy and its attendant anti-Asian fear and hatred are some of the oldest, most enduring, most deep-rooted hatreds in the Western mind.

Underneath the shallow topsoil of civility and liberal tolerance, it festers and simmers in angry, molten layers of the subconscious, quick to flare up in white-hot violence at any perceived slight or challenge to white superiority, and rapidly weaponized as political expediency requires.

Realpolitik: Opening And Closure

Miraculously, during the 70’s, a battered and bruised U.S., humbled from defeats in the Vietnam war, and seeking a realpolitik to untangle the quagmire, decided to open relations with China to counterbalance the Soviet Union.

Despite over a century of hatred, and the containment of the Russians for being an “Asiatic Race,” the U.S. normalized relations with Chinese, and thus began a short, temporary, realist honeymoon, a brief respite from this race-baiting and race hatred.

This idyll was not to last.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, two things became readily apparent: 1) there was no further political need to engage with China, since the primary reason (the threat of the Soviet Union) had gone away, and 2) it was clear for anyone understanding history and geography that China could become a challenger to the United States itself, due to its size, capacity, and dynamism.

Thus the long, unabated, and persistent thread of anti-China hatred—red-scare-yellow-peril-thinking, reinvigorated again with the persistent white fragility about new challenges to supremacy—came back with a vengeance.

Despite continued engagement with China from the Nixon to the Clinton era, Sinophobia remained a silent, underground political force with a tremendous gravitational pull.

Two groups were important in giving these forces concrete shape and form.

The Empire Strikes Back: Yoda And His Jedis

Andrew Marshall, who died last year in March, was often referred to as “Yoda.”

He was the Pentagon’s Oracle, directing its secretive internal think tank, the Office of Net Assessment, for 42 years, and was top advisor to 12 Secretaries of Defense.

Originally part of an elite group of econometric thinkers at RAND (Herman “Strangelove” Kahn, James Schlesinger, Daniel Ellsberg, Albert Wohlstetter), they worked on game theoretic & stochastic modeling of complex phenomena, and on how to strategize the unthinkable and the insane: how to win at nuclear Armageddon.

Throughout his long tenure at the inner sanctum, Marshall had two key obsessions: U.S. military supremacy, first against the Soviet Union, then after the fall of the USSR, against China.

Post-1991, he became singularly obsessed with preventing China’s rise to power.

Using a deft mixture of threat inflation (through recondite “net” assessments & heterodox “team B” reviews), classified white papers, cryptic pronouncements to the power elite, and the incessant cultivation of a cult of loyalists, Marshall kept the Pentagon’s gravy train running on time, while instilling in his followers a paranoid, “long durée” mindset of endless and moving threat inflation.

Throughout his long tenure at the inner sanctum, Marshall had two key obsessions: U.S. Military supremacy, first against the Soviet Union, then after the fall of the USSR, against China. Post-1991, he became singularly obsessed with preventing China’s rise to power.

Marshall’s proteges, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Cohen, Krepinevich, Pillsbury, Herman Kahn, Richard Perle, Richard Armitage, Michael O’Hanlon, and countless other neocon heavyweights were graduates of “St. Andrew’s Prep School” or the “Church of St. Andrew,” and mentored into Marshall’s world view and strategies.

These ideologues had suckled at the woozy philosophical teat of Leo Strauss (imagining they were imbibing Plato, Hegel, or Kojeve) and graduated from Ivy institutions funded from Chinese opium smuggling.

Marshall fed them solid food, C-rations, and the bloody red meat that cut and sharpened their fangs for ideological and political battle.

In 1992, a fully teethed group of Marshall’s neocon protegés penned the Defense Guidance Planning (DPG) document that came to be known as the “Wolfowitz Doctrine.”

A preposterous, overweening document, embarrassing upon leakage for its hubris, irrationality, and illegality, it was immediately disavowed but not discarded.

A few years later, it was redacted and upgraded into the PNAC (“The Project for a New American Century”)’s Mein Kampf-like document, “Rebuilding Americas Defenses.”

This was, in essence, an unhinged plan for total world domination (“unipolar global dominance”) in all domains of war (“full spectrum dominance”), unfettered by international law or any sense of proportion, rationality, or morality.

Borrowing from the DPG its call for the unencumbered use of aggressive, pre-emptive war, including the use of nuclear and biological warfare, it postulated a “Pearl Harbor-like” incident to operationalize.

Not long after, this doctrine became realized under Rumsfeld and Cheney, bringing us the chaos, murder, tragedy of Iraq and Afghanistan and the endless catastrophic wars of the post-Bush years.

Contemporaneously, with the Soviet Union dissolved, and the U.S. pressing NATO right up against the flank of Russia, the U.S. also began to cross-hatch the contours of a containment strategy against an emerging China, the next potential challenger to U.S. global domination.

Marshall and his Jedis began explicit, long term countermoves.

Even as the Middle East continued to spiral into chaos, yet more wide-ranging and ambitious plans were hatched against the Middle Kingdom.

A strategy to withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was initially floated (and later, with the blessing of the CFR, circulated, and eventually implemented).

Aggressive forward bases were planned in the early 2000’s, then built in East Asia along the first island chain, placing deadly and destabilizing strategic weaponry right up against China’s throat and belly.

New alliances and strategies were drawn up, and old alliances reinforced and rekindled, and a dangerously empire-nostalgic Japan was enabled in erasing history and remilitarizing to the hilt as the spear tip against China.

Eventually, as all these pieces fell into place, Hillary Clinton would stage the coming out party: the declaration in 2011, of the “Pacific Pivot/Pivot to Asia” in Foreign Policy Magazine.

Clinton’s debutante declaration was a dog-whistle marvel of cant and obfuscation.

A plan to move 60% of U.S. firepower to encircle and contain China through bases, weaponry, and alliances, while engaging in multi-domain hybrid warfare, was sold as a “historical rebalancing.”

With the blessing of Obama’s cabinet, Marshall’s China threat was finally getting policy primetime.

During this time, another of Marshall’s  busy, brainy proteges, military officer Andrew Krepinevich, started to work out the nuts and bolts of actual war with China.

At the CSBA (Center for Strategic Budgetary Assessment), Krepinevich, under Marshall’s guidance and funding, wrote out the details of the war doctrine against China, “AirSea Battle”—a China-directed counterpart to the Soviet-era “AirLand Battle”—involving decapitating and blinding strikes deep into Chinese territory, and instantiating Marshall’s “revolution in military affairs” for U.S. supremacy in the Western Pacific theater of war.

RAND and the CFR chimed in, rendering into granular and global detail the strategies and order of battle.

Another of Andrew’s powerful proteges was Michael Pillsbury.

A serious operator, Pillsbury had assisted in the creation of the regime change “governmental” NGO known as the NED, the weaponization of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the implementation of politicide in Latin America (known as the Reagan Doctrine), but most importantly, he was credited with initiating the idea of the “China card” in 1973.

Under the good offices of Marshall, Pillsbury published a book called “The Hundred Year Marathon,” scripting a fact-free document of paranoid threat inflation, racist scare-mongering, and orientalist slander that is now standard China doctrine.

In an alphabetic royal flush of Sinophobes (Lighthizer-Mnuchin-Navarro-O’Brien-Pillsbury-Pompeo-Pence-Ross), Pillsbury was the most important “China authority” of Everything Under the Heavens in the Trump Kingdom of Sinophobia.

China Syndrome: Blue team, Red Peril

As the original U.S. reason for allying with Beijing—to counterbalance Moscow—became moot, another group of China-bashers, far-right ideologues with sharp axes to grind from the Cold War also began to crawl out of the cracks.

Calling themselves the “blue team” or “panda sluggers,” they derided the U.S. “panda-hugging” business class who wanted continued engagement with China, seeing China only as a mortal and irreconcilable communist threat.

During the Clinton administration, they formed a loose coalition, coming together with funding under PNAC, using the Washington Times and Weekly Standard as their platforms.

Although the “Blue Team” had no official members, published no formal policy statements, and had no offices—initially meeting in a garage, then at the Tabard Inn on N Street—they included key Congress members and staff, think tankers, journalists, and lobbyists.

Among them, former CIA analyst William C. Triplet and congressional staffer Edward Timperlake went on to write a lurid series of conspiracy books alleging quid-pro-quo between Clinton and China (Year of the Rat; Red Dragon Rising).

This was a bizarro world where Taiwanese lobbyists with Chinese Mafia connections were acting as agents for the PRC government and manipulating the White House.

They also alleged Chinese theft of military secrets, slave labor, the proliferation of WMD to Iran and other “rogue” states, and insinuated that Clinton’s “constructive engagement” was knowingly undermining the U.S. for the benefit of the Chinese.

These allegations put into ink a conspiratorial mythology about a dangerous, corrupt, and belligerent China, echoes that fed into an existing subterranean current of paranoid lies about China.

These “blue team” members, cross-pollinating with Marshall’s proteges, were a rogues gallery of high-powered political operators: Michael Ledeen, Frank Gaffney,  Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, Michael Pillsbury, Bill Gertz, Gary Bauer, Peter Navarro, Elliot Abrams, Richard Scaiffe, John Bolton were among those listed as “members.” Dana Rohrabacher, Tom DeLay, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Byrd were also considered to be fellow travelers.

These people built powerful commissions and institutions focused on attacking China, including the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC), the US-China Security Review Commission.

The Taiwan Security Enhancement Act was also written during this time.

In particular, the CECC appointed itself watchdog of Chinese trade, technology, labor and human rights, saturating Congress with an unending “blue team” litany of Chinese “abuses.”

The most virulent and extreme of all these China hawks was Frank Gaffney, who recycled the alarmist Cold War group, “Committee on the Present Danger,” into the current “Committee on the Present Danger: China,” contending that “there is no hope of coexistence with China.”

Gaffney’s ideology and guiding principles coincide with official positions on China and key U.S. foreign policy; moreover, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech and actions on China reflect his close affiliation and affinity with Gaffney.

What the Pivot is: the Geostrategy of China-bashing

Much of the “blue team’s” ideology and theorizing followed pre-existing currents of ideological posturing and hate-speech but have incorporated sharper geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions.

Western history can be seen as having several inflection points: one was 1492, the advent of the “Columbian Era.”

The Columbian era is the era of sea-faring, sea-power-based Western colonial and imperial empires.

The demise of the Columbian era was foreshadowed by an Oxford geographer in 1904 who put forth what is now known as the “Heartland Theory.”

In a nutshell, it is a land-based theory of power that predicts the end of sea-based powers:

“Who rules East Europe (Eurasia) commands the Heartland; 
who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; 
who rules the World-Island commands the world.”

It also concluded that

“Were the Chinese [to] conquer its territory [of the Russian Empire], they might constitute the yellow peril to the world’s freedom.”

This maxim and the anxiety it provoked was red-lined in Brezinski’s “Grand Chess game”: “No Eurasian challenger should emerge that can dominate Eurasia and thus also challenge U.S. global pre-eminence.”

In 1992, Marshall’s protégé, Paul Wolfowitz formulated the above strands into a formal doctrine, in the above mentioned DPG  (Defense Planning guidance) document:

Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival…that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union…to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region to generate global power…. The U.S. must…protect a new order that [convinces] potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. In non-defense areas, we must…discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. We must maintain the mechanism for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.

This can be better understood by looking at a map:

This is a map of the world, drawn from a topologist’s eye. It shows relationships, not distances or area.  From this map you can note the following things:

    • China has more borders than any other country in the world.  This also gives it the possibility of connecting with more countries than any other.

    • Blue lines/corridors are oceans: The top two thirds is the “world island” or “pivot state”–it contains most of the world’s population, resources, and wealth, and it can be connected as a single entity through overland routes or short ocean hops.

    • The bottom is the Americas. It is topologically isolated from the world island. As sea lane control becomes less important, it will also lose prominence and relative power if the world island unifies. It’s clear that unifying power will probably arise in China, whose overland paths using high-speed rail, roads, pipelines, and ports can be easily built and connected, in a “new silk road.”

    • The U.S. needs to fracture the world island to maintain its global power. If you color in the places where China is encircled, or where the US is waging war/fracturing societies/creating chaos, this is exactly where the fault lines of the global conflict are, and reveal what U.S. strategy is.

Here is a second map:

CSBA: Shipping Lanes through the South China Sea.

The U.S. has actually surrounded China with 400 military bases, bristling with strategic and tactical weaponry. It also has war-gamed out China’s key vulnerability: the chokepoint of the South China Sea. War in the South China Sea would disrupt $5.3 Trillion of China’s external trade and 77% of China’s oil imports. In this scenario, the U.S. does not have to win a shooting war with China in the South China Sea. The war just has to happen, and the disruption to trade could crash China’s economy.

The U.S. has actually surrounded China with 400 military bases, bristling with strategic and tactical weaponry.

It also has war-gamed out China’s key vulnerability: the chokepoint of the South China Sea.

War in the South China Sea would disrupt $5.3 Trillion of China’s external trade and 77% of China’s oil imports. [5]

In this scenario, the U.S. does not have to win a shooting war with China in the South China Sea.

The war just has to happen, and the disruption to trade could crash China’s economy.

The map shows the shipping lanes that would be disrupted.

China’s first response to the U.S. pivot and encirclement, especially in the South China Sea—its key choke point—was to build defensive military facilities along some of the islands, to deter U..S incursion and to raise the cost of interference.

Its other, much more ambitious response was the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), which constitutes a long overland escape from the encirclement, similar to its “long march” during its encirclement by the fascist KMT.

The BRI travels through Southeast Asia, then overland through Central Asia, to the Mediterranean, and then Europe and Africa. In particular:

    • CMEC (China-Myanmar Economic Corridor) travels through Rakhine State and exits to the Indian Ocean at Kyaukphyu port (bypassing the Strait of Malacca).

    • CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) to Gwadar port transits directly to the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

    • Xinjiang is the key overland route for BRI to exit China to Central Asia, with Iran also a key node.

    • Djibouti at the horn of Africa is the entry node to Africa (the Sahel, and the South)

As it does this, BRI becomes the physical realization of Mackinder’s “heartland” in Eurasia—the “pivot state” connecting the “world island” into a single economic bloc and raising China to the status of the key regional power, accomplishing exactly what Brezinski and Wolfowitz sought to prevent.

Mercator Institute for China Studies: Belt and Road Initiative.

Mindful of this development, and aware of the rapidly ticking biological clock on U.S. power, the U.S. is currently rapidly escalating hostilities in the South China Sea (SCS), most recently with…

  • War games,
  • U2 incursions,
  • Belligerent passages of aircraft carriers,
  • Belligerent guided missile destroyers,
  • Hunter-killer submarines.

China’s response has been to launch “carrier killer” missiles into the region.

Until recently, the U.S. claimed that it was not an interested party to the SCS, just that it was concerned about “Freedom of Navigation.”

Now it is openly taking about blockade and strangulation of China  and outright piracy against Chinese ships through media proxies.

It has also recently conducted drone war exercises for assaulting islands in the South China Sea, with down-to-the-smallest detail precision and preparation.

The U.S. is also going directly after the BRI.

It is sanctioning the Chinese companies alleged to have done construction in the SCS (all the claimants have done construction, including building airfields; China is not unique).

These companies are also involved in construction of the BRI; for example, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) alone is reportedly involved in 923 projects in 157 countries.

U.S. sanctions are  an explicit attempt to dismantle the BRI.

Likewise, the “Five Eyes” have made moves to block  other “road” of the BRI, its accompanying  “digital silk road” (communications-5G-blockchain infrastructure).

This is yet another of the reasons why Huawei has been targeted for destruction.

The U.S. is also in the process of stationing intermediate range missiles all across the South China Sea, and around the first island chain surrounding China, as well as attempting to press gang South Korea into hosting them.

This is yet another layer of dangerous escalation, and it will prove to be very, very destabilizing.

Twilight of Capitalism

The final dimension to the U.S.-China competition is economic: this is the uncanny fact that China’s “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” works and outclasses Western neoliberal capitalism by leaps and bounds.

In terms of developing an economy, raising living standards, creating public wealth, serving and meeting its people’s needs, and dealing with crises, China beats the capitalist West hands down.

Even as they claimed that such a state-led economy could never compete against the superior free-market economy of the U.S., the Trump administration has insistently demanded that China dismantle their planned economy in trade negotiations, because of its superior advantages over capitalism.

This was not supposed to be: Clintonite “Panda Huggers” had always justified, hubristically, that their engagement with China would result in China’s liberalization and total transformation—the inevitable, inexorable result of engaging with a superior Western political ideology and economic system.

They also insisted that if China continued as it had with its planned economy and ”autocratic“ ways in a modern era, it would simply fail: it would end up like the Soviet Union or North Korea—it had no choice but to become more Western, more neoliberal, more capitalist.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the market.

China built a system that has brought more than 850 million people out of poverty in a few short decades, ended domestic extreme poverty in 2020, and has already surpassed the U.S. in PPP economy size and healthy life expectancy.

China’s thriving, effective Central government—with a 93.1% approval rate—breaks all Western conceptions of development, governance, legitimacy, and of course, superiority.

With 80% of its top leadership scientists or engineers, China also outranks the U.S. in patents filed, top scientific papers published, and is a world leader in fields such as AI, robotics, quantum computing, 5G, highspeed rail, advanced industrial production, next generation IT, materials science, and sustainable energy development, low-carbon eco-cities, and reforestation.

It has also pledged to go carbon neutral by 2060, essentially giving the world an outside chance to still beat global warming—despite being a historical carbon creditor.

With its scientific leadership, whole-of-society public health strategies, and its valuing of every human life, it has also shown that it can organize to defeat a mass pandemic in weeks—and by overriding capitalist markets whenever and wherever it sees fit.

Meanwhile the U.S. still struggles with the largest number of cases and deaths from Covid-19—a death rate 200 times that of China’s—and is incapable of preventing Covid-19 among its own top leadership.

To boot, first in 2008, and then in 2020, the U.S. neoliberal capitalist economy was shown up to be a jacked-up deck of cards, rescued only by massive Chinese debt-purchasing and endless printing of fiat money.

In contrast, China has demonstrated that it has developed an alternative, non-Western, non-capitalist model of development—without war, invasion, colonization, slavery, regime change, primitive accumulation—that the world can emulate and follow.

Once you realize that, you understand why the U.S. ruling classes are so desperate to erase China and its example:

China offers a threatening alternative model of development that is non-capitalist, non-Western, and non-colonial.

As such, it undermines the West’s neocolonial domination of the Third World and its debt-trap-based forced underdevelopment, subservience, and expropriation.

It also offers a model of state-led ecological development.

All this signals new possibilities of hope and transformation for the world.

The ruling classes in the West will go to war to prevent this.

China offers a threatening alternative model of development that is non-capitalist, non-Western, and non-colonial. As such, it undermines the West’s neocolonial domination of the Third World and its debt-trap-based forced underdevelopment, subservience, and expropriation.

Where Does This All End?

Despite China’s assurances that it does not want war, hot or cold, that it seeks win-win cooperation and co-existence with all countries, and that it disdains hegemony, the U.S. continually escalates, provokes, and threatens China, all the while dismantling off-ramps channels of communication and global institutions for cooperation and de-escalation.

The conclusion to draw is hard, but obvious: if things continue as they have, this can only lead to direct military confrontation and kinetic war.

Doubling down on racism, sexism, capitalism, and militarism, the Democratic regime not only silences demands for viable reform and abolition by the Sandernistas, BLM, and Me Too, but also ignores the non-interventionist, peace-demanding wishes of the majority of voters, dismissing their demands for a better system and less violent foreign policy.

Biden’s doctrine toward China will be a continuation of the noxious arc of history and planning begun by Marshall in the late 1970s. The think tank advising Biden on foreign policy, CNAS, a near-rhyming clone to PNAC, has grandfathered in most of existing anti-China doctrine, and has mapped out in obsessive detail, the next steps of a highly destructive and dangerous strategy of confrontation with China.

The key difference is that Biden’s regime  will “unite” countries more skillfully against China, pivot away from Trump’s neomercantilism towards a more “globalist” approach, and likely implement some revised version of the TPP, the 12 nation economic bloc against China.

Here are some key points to understand:

  • Escalation to war is bipartisan: there is no lesser evil here. The racist, capitalist, imperial ruling classes cannot and will not tolerate a rising or equal China in a multi-polar world. They would rather see the end of the world than an end to capitalism or white supremacy.

  • One subset of this group believes that they can actually win a war against China, or at the very least force its subjugation to the U.S. This submission will not happen, given the actual balance of forces and Chinese determination to resist.

  • The U.S. wants global supremacy but if the ruling class can’t have ordered supremacy, they are not averse to global disintegration and chaos. Proteges of Hayek and Leo Strauss, they thrive on “revolutionary disorder.” One fallback model of U.S. supremacy is to plunge the rest of the world back into the dark ages through hybrid warfare—while the U.S. controls the key systems of communication, information, surveillance, finance, rent extraction, along with the corridors of maritime transport.

  • There is a third group of elite hawks who are millenarian Christians. Although a minority, they hold powerful positions. These believe in the salvation and rapture of the faithful as existing “contradictions” are heightened into Armageddon. These are religious zealots with no brakes or constraints on their appetite for war.

  • War, if it happens, would rapidly turn nuclear. The U.S. no longer has “overmatch” in conventional weapons, and no longer subscribes to deterrence. Instead, its declaratory policy allows nuclear weapons to be used against “significant non-nuclear strategic attacks.” [6] Since the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, the U.S. has explicitly prepared for nuclear war with China, and threatens “intolerable damage” in response to “non-nuclear or nuclear aggression.” [7] The Chinese have disavowed nuclear first strike—their nuclear capacity is currently minimal and purely defensive—but in case of war the US military could easily resort to the use of low-yield nuclear weapons[iii] or even decapitating nuclear first strikes [8] to overcome its conventional weaknesses.  China’s deterrence would then have to shift to “hair trigger,” “launch on warning.” This means that war could rapidly escalate to large scale nuclear strikes, which many scientists predict would result in nuclear winter, dooming most forms of organic life on the planet.

  • Modern “democracies” require constant media manipulation and propaganda, to manufacture consent for war. As a result, we are living in time of total deceit, as Orwell put it:  “Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac…. Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” William Casey, CIA director summarized this succinctly: “We’ll know when our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” [9] 

War, if it happens, could rapidly turn nuclear. Since the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, the U.S. has explicitly prepared for nuclear war with China, and threatens “intolerable damage” in response to “non-nuclear or nuclear aggression.”

What Then, Is To Be Done?

Our work is cut out for us: “In war, the first casualty is truth.”

Our task is to prevent the first casualty, challenge the lies; the second, to organize and work for peace.

As we approach elections, the possibility of an October surprise increases. Remember:

  • Information war precedes, justifies, and enables kinetic war, therefore you must think critically and defensively; do not take anything attacking China at face value.

  • Evaluate everything for a) source b) logic, sense, rationality c) bracket & evaluate emotional triggers or trigger words d) look at counter-evidence/arguments

  • Make your own judgments, draw your own conclusions: seek truth from facts

Don’t be fooled by the engineering of “truthiness”:

Stories and lies seem credible when they are 1) repeated incessantly 2) resemble pre-existing stories (especially ones that are projected from our own disowned flaws), 3) have some tiny grain of plausibility mixed in 4) seem coherent or manufacture coherence through multiple sources, and 5) tug at your heartstrings.

This means that we have to:

  • Watch out for memes and repetition: watch out for stories that seem self-replicating, self-distributing, repetitive, and create an echo chamber—qualities that  make them seem real and convincing even when they are lies. Even debunked stories serve as compost for more lies. Remember also that U.S. social media is handmaiden to the war machine—the worst is Twitter [10]—it promotes war propaganda and routinely purges counter-narratives.

  • Distinguish the coherence and validation of a story that has multiple sources of verification from planted-and-echo-chambered-stories (for example, anything about China connected to WUC (World Uyghur Congress)-Adrian Zenz–ASPI-Nathan Ruser-nexus; the Lausan-Jacobin-Nation-DemocracyNow-tendency; or The Guardian-NYTimes-Washington Post-CFR-cabal or other combinations thereof). Outlets like these are not channels of independent verification; they are often a set of single sourced memes skillfully distributed out and repeated through different channels, part of the fire hose [11] strategy of war propaganda.

  • Watch out for emotional trigger words: “genocide,” “slavery,” “concentration camp,” “trafficking,” “sterilization,” “theft/IP theft,” “espionage,” “cyber warfare,” attributed without any proof. These are trigger words designed to bypass critical evaluation, appealing to your emotions: fear, pity, and outrage.

  • Watch out for projection and gaslighting: the U.S. has a long history of slave and prison slave labor [12], of Third World debt-traps, of mistreating/torturing/killing Muslims, of genociding Indigenous peoples, of mass incarceration, of police brutality, of cultural genocide, mass sterilization, medical testing without consent [13]. If you see these words or allegations alleged against China, especially in a context where it makes no sense, evaluate [14] whether it seems real because there is actual proof, or because it is a convenient projection of the U.S./West’s own disowned violence, criminality, and brutality.

  • Speak up and simply call out the propaganda for what it is: lies to enable war and war-profiteering. But don’t get trapped in the weeds of debunking—they will spread a 1000 new lies before you’ve refuted a single one: “Don’t expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth”—cut it off at the root.

  • Do not allow yourself to be silenced. Be prepared to be criticized as a “human rights denier.” Not having truth on their side, this is what the worst human rights abusers will always resort to: shut the f*ck up [or else].  Don’t be intimated, and don’t let them silence you. Make your voice heard!

  • Last but not least, organize! Despair is not an option!  The following are good places to start:

https://peacepivot.org/

https://www.codepink.org/china

https://www.nocoldwar.org/

https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/china/

Endnotes:

[1] Amnesty International Iraq/Occupied Kuwait Human Rights Violations, MDE 14/16/90: p56 https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE140161990ENGLISH.PDF

[2] For a possible missile placement map, see Barrie, Elleman, Nouwens: The End of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty: Implications for Asia, P31 Map 2.2 https://www.iiss.org/-/media/files/publications/rsa-2020/rsa20-chapter-2—the-end-of-the-intermediate-range-nuclear-forces-treaty-implications-for-asia.pdf

[3] For example, the German Jesuit Missionary, Adam Schall was appointed to high bureaucratic office in the court of the Ching Dynasty

[4] Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1741), Brookes, Richard (ed.), The General History of China, 3rd ed., Vols. I, II, III, & IV, London: J. Watts.

& Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1735), Description Geographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique, et Physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise [A Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Empire of China and of Chinese Tartary], Vol. I, II, III, & IV, Paris: P.-G. le Mercier.

[5] Department of Defense China Military Power Report, p133  https://media.defense.gov/2020/Sep/01/2002488689/-1/-1/1/2020-DOD-CHINA-MILITARY-POWER-REPORT-FINAL.PDF

[6] 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review, p21.  https://media.defense.gov/2018/Feb/02/2001872886/-1/-1/1/2018-NUCLEAR-POSTURE-REVIEW-FINAL-REPORT.PDF

[7] 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review, p32.  https://media.defense.gov/2018/Feb/02/2001872886/-1/-1/1/2018-NUCLEAR-POSTURE-REVIEW-FINAL-REPORT.PDF

[8]2018 US Nuclear Posture Review, pp54-55  https://media.defense.gov/2018/Feb/02/2001872886/-1/-1/1/2018-NUCLEAR-POSTURE-REVIEW-FINAL-REPORT.PDF

Also, Chinese PLA assessment: http://www.81.cn/jfjbmap/content/2019-06/20/content_236472.htm

[9] Ray McGovern, Russia Gate’s Last Gasp, Consortium News https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/29/ray-mcgovern-russiagates-last-gasp/

[10] As news of horrific assaults by HK rioters on journalists spread through the mediasphere on June 12th, within hours, Twitter shut down 170,000 accounts on the ground that they were “promoting narratives favorable to the CPC”: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/information-operations-june-2020.html. According to the Guardian, “The major themes of the tweets were that that Hong Kong protesters were violent, and the US was interfering with the protests; accusations about Guo; the Taiwan election; and praise of China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic”—which turned out to be true. Twitter coordinates with ASPI, a key source of anti-China propaganda.

[11] RAND offers a good analysis of this technique here, although it fails to mention that this is what is being used against China by the West: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/perspectives/PE100/PE198/RAND_PE198.pdf

[12] For example, ASPI makes unfounded allegations of Chinese slave labor while being funded by US corporations that are confirmed to use US prison slave labor

[13] For example, the NY Times concocted an article on “non-consensual” Chinese vaccine testing, which doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny.  Among other things, it confounds the risk profiles of Western m-RNA & ADV-vectored vaccines that have never been approved for human use, with the time-tested inactivated vaccines that the Chinese are using.

[14] Some good resources are available at Qiao Collective:

https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang

https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/articles/sinophobia-inc

The Grayzone: https://thegrayzone.com/tag/uighurs/

Popular Resistance: https://popularresistance.org/xinjiang-and-uyghurs-what-youre-not-being-told/

World Affairs Blog:  https://worldaffairs.blog/2020/09/20/uyghur-xinjiang-explained-in-four-minutes/

Roderick Day:  https://threader.app/thread/1287411708374454273

Comments and Conclusions

When I passed this on to some friend to review, they had some interesting things to say. Such as this…

This is a good article, but an important part is missing. China is not the same China, and the world is not the same world anyone. The United States and the West can no longer do what they please anymore. The price they have to pay for a war with China would be more than they or the world can afford. If it is not for that reason, China would have ceased to exist long ago.

-Han Dongping

Well, maybe if if the United States was lead with reason, was led by knowledge and skills, and was led by those with the best interests of the American people in their minds.

But that is not the case, America is lead by different kinds of people. And man, oh man, do they think differently…

To be sure, the world as we know it will have its end (2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:1). But when it ends it will be replaced by a new heaven and new earth. The Noahic covenant seems to rule out universal devastation short of Christ’s coming. 

Thus, nuclear war is the opening salvo to enable the return of Jesus Christ our savior and Lord.

But, let us beware of presuming that the day of the Lord will come with a shower of nuclear warheads only. My own feeling is that the crack at Christ’s coming will make our weapons seem like maypops and firecrackers. 

Woe to us if we fornicate and proselytize prior to invoking his return! 

Even if we succeed, we will be found on the wrong side at his appearing: only the peacemakers are sons of God (Matthew 5:9). There is but one way, and only one way, to “hasten” his appearing: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). 

We must pledge to use nuclear weapons only to hasten the arrival of Heaven on Earth. Not to use it for any other purpose. We must engage in war under the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savor. For according to 1 Timothy 2:1-4, the peace after war makes the best pathway for evangelism, not the war itself.

And they view things quite differently.

And I shake my head in disbelief.

Do you want more?

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How U.S. Financed ‘Human Rights’ Organizations Create Anti-Chinese Headlines

Now that Trump and his cabal of war-mongering neocons have packed their bags and are being ridden on a rail out of Washington, their “machinery of war” is all winding down. In the still quiet, the sheeple blink their eyes and crawl out of the fog. “What?” they ask? Suddenly all the clamorous, 24-7, non-stop noise about the evil Chinese is all ending. It’s just a few trailing articles here and there. The onslaught has stopped, and …

…people notice.

Well, at least the more alert do.

The few remaining articles still exist. You’ve got [1] the “Uighur issue” which is still on “life support” (and will probably be a staple of the “news” for decades to come), and the mainlined China=Bad articles. Usually [2] something about Christian church prosecution (to grab the attention of the Religious Right), and [3] China “covering up” Coronavirus anything (a staple of Mike Pompeo’s CIA).

Like these that were posted on Drudge today (31DEC20) …

And numerous bloggers outside of the alternative media are picking up on this insane anti-china narrative. It doesn’t take much, you know, just a memory greater than a few months, and a remembrance of what life was like prior to Donald Trump.

Remember, boys and girls, all American media is controlled or financed by the US government. And that includes your most beloved "alternative" "news" sites.

None of the government controlled “news” sites are reporting on the idea that the anti-China narrative is an intentional fabrication as a prelude to a world war…

  • Mainstream (FOX, MSNBC, ABC, Yahoo!)
  • Alt-Left (Politico, The Huffington Post)
  • Alt-Right (Hall Turner, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh)

For this brief period of time, before the narrative changes to Russia! Russia! Russia! the political machinery is busy “changing gears”, and it’s a quiet dwell. News about the covid-19 fiasco in the United States dominates, with a distraction about more money being dished out to the sheeple. And, of course, the higher debt load.

Oh, sure…

The sheeple still walk around in a daze. Chanting “China Bad”, “Democracy Good”, “Need to protect American way of life”… yada, yada, yada. But soon that will be redirected to new mantras, followed up with new assaults in the news, and new villains to distract their attention from the terribly corrupt and evil military empire that they inhabit.

In this relatively quiet period, a period where the “fire hose” of disinformation has been turned off for a spell…

… we can notice that others are also paying attention. And they are writing about what they see.

Here’s one such site, and one such article.

MoA is much like MM in that they really are not connected to the “big money” out of Washington DC. Just a few guys writing about what they see, and maintaining a following of like-minded folk. MoA has done a pretty good job on a number of areas, and they are one of the sites that I visit pretty regularly. Some of their articles are timely and the organization of them are pretty sweet. Personally, I like their website design better than MM’s, but that’s all just a matter of aesthetics.

Check it out…

The following is an article titled “The ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ – How U.S. Financed ‘Human Rights’ Organizations Create Anti-Chinese Headlines” it can be found HERE on Moon Over Alabama. Reprinted as found. The only editing is to fit this venue. All credit to the authors.

The ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ – How U.S. Financed ‘Human Rights’ Organizations Create Anti-Chinese Headlines

During my daily skimming of the main stream media I at times detect news items that seem of little public interest but are widely published. These pieces are often suspiciously similar to each other and seem to come from the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’:

In 1967 the magazine "Ramparts" ran an expose revealing that the Central  Intelligence Agency had been secretly funding and managing a wide range of citizen front groups intended to counter communist influence around the world. 
...
CIA official Frank Wisner called the operation his "mighty Wurlitzer," on which he could play any propaganda tune.

Today’s ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ song is played simultaneously by all major outlets:

From the BBC’s version:

A Chinese citizen journalist who covered Wuhan's coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years. Zhang Zhan was found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a frequent charge against activists.

 The 37-year-old former lawyer was detained in May, and has been on  hunger strike for several months. Her lawyers say she is in poor health.
 Ms Zhang is one of several citizen journalists who have run into trouble for reporting on Wuhan. 
...
In  a video interview with an independent filmmaker before her arrest, Ms  Zhang said she decided to travel to Wuhan in February after reading an  online post by a resident about life in the city during the outbreak.

 Once there, she began documenting what she saw on the streets and  hospitals in livestreams and essays, despite threats by authorities, and  her reports were widely shared on social media.

 The rights group Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders  said her reports also covered the detention of other independent  journalists and the harassment of families of victims who were seeking  accountability.

 "Maybe I have a rebellious soul... I'm just documenting the truth. Why can't I show the truth?" she said in a clip of the interview obtained by the BBC.
 "I won't stop what I'm doing because this country can't go backwards."

The “Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders” seems to be the source of much of this reporting.

Who are these people?

The About page of the CHRD’s website does not reveal the people behind the organization nor who is financing it. Curious.

Two years ago a Grayzone report took a deeper look into the organization:

Reuters and other Western outlets have attempted to fill in the gaps  left by McDougall, referring to reports made by so-called “activist  group” the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD). Conveniently left out of the story is that this organization is headquartered in Washington, DC and funded by the US government’s regime-change arm.

 CHRD advocates full-time against the Chinese government, and  has spent years campaigning on behalf of extreme right-wing opposition  figures.

...

CHRD has used its generous funding to provide grants to opposition activists inside China, bankrolling dozens upon dozens of projects in the country.

 On its tax forms, CHRD lists its address as the Washington, DC office of Human Rights Watch. HRW has long been criticized for its revolving door with the US government and its excessively disproportionate focus on designated enemies of Washington like China, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia.

 Human Rights Watch did not respond to an email from The Grayzone inquiring about its relationship with CHRD.

Human Rights Watch’s overpaid permanent leader is of course part of the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’:

Kenneth Roth @KenRoth - 8:22 UTC · Dec 28, 2020

Beijing's selection of the sleepy period between Christmas and New Year's suggests even it is embarrassed to sentence citizen-journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison for having chronicled the uncensored version of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. https://nytimes.com/2020/12/25/wor...

The U.S. government funded CHRD lists Zhang Zhan on its ‘Rights defenders’ page. Its portrait of her includes some interesting details:

A former lawyer, Zhang Zhan, born in the 1980s, has long been active in speaking out about politics and the human rights situation in China. She has been repeatedly harassed and threatened by the authorities. In 2019, she spoke out on the Hong Kong protests by posting comments, writing articles and holding up placards to support the protesters. In  September 2019, she was summoned by Shanghai police and was later  criminally detained and arrested on suspicion of “picking quarrels” for  her support for Hong Kong. Police released her on November 26, 2019. 
...
Zhang  Zhan had travelled to Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, in  early February. She reported numerous stories including the detentions  of other independent reporters and harassment of families of victims  seeking accountability from the epicenter via her Wechat, Twitter, and  YouTube accounts. Pudong procuratorate indicted Zhang Zhan on September 15 and  transfered her case to Pudong New District Court. The indictment accused  Zhang Zhan of traveling to Wuhan on February 3, 2020 and that she “sent a large amount of false information” on WeChat, Twitter, and YouTube and “accepted  interviews with overseas media Radio Free Asia and Epoch Times and  maliciously stirred up the Wuhan epidemic situation.”

(Note: I have found no hint why Zhang Zhan is called a ‘former lawyer’. Was she disbarred? Why?)

ChinaAid, an anti-Chinese Evangelical lobby group which is also financed and awarded prices by the U.S. government’s National Endowment for Democracy, identifies Zhang Zhan as a ‘Christian lawyer’. That is of interest because Chinese authorities are concerned about U.S. financed underground Evangelical groups which defy the requirement to register as social organizations.

ChinaChange, which is another ‘human rights’ outlet in Washington DC, also took note of Zhang Zhan:

Zhang Zhan (张展), a lawyer who practiced in Shanghai, went to Wuhan in  early February, determined to document the coronavirus outbreak in the  city that was the epicenter of what would soon become a pandemic around  the world. In the three months she stayed in the city, she made 122 posts on YouTube. It was not a coincidence that her first post was “My Claim for the Right of Free Speech.”  Zhang Zhan was arrested in May, brought back to Shanghai, indicted in  September on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,”  China’s all-in-one charge for suppressing dissent. She is being tried on  Monday, December 28, in Shanghai.

Wuhan, where the first large outbreak of Covid-19 occurred, was put under lockdown on January 23. One wonders why a ‘former lawyer’ and ‘citizen journalist’ would go there despite official advice to not enter or leave the city.

A video published in late March by the Epoch Times, a right wing U.S. based paper associated with the anti-Chinese Falun Gong cult, gives a hint:

Dissident Protests ‘Animal-Like’ Treatment of Chinese Citizens
 
Zhang Zhan, a female dissident living in Shanghai, put  herself in harm’s way to go to Wuhan after the city was locked down. Her  plan was to investigate and broadcast the local situation as a citizen  journalist. She is outraged that the Chinese government casually  deprives the basic rights and freedom of Wuhan residents in the name of  epidemic control.

In the video Zhang Zhan is standing at a light traffic barrier that blocks access to a quarantined housing block. She is ranting in a weepy voice at white clad guards and passerby. The Epoch Times translated the dialog:

Woman:
 Let me ask you,
 Do you think the government can treat citizens like animals?
 Lock them when the regime is willing to,
 Send them out to work when they need these people to work.
 Aren’t you treating them like you treat cattle and horses?
 When animals need to graze you let them out
 And take them back when they are done eating.
 Is that for real?
 And if they do not obey, whip them.
 Is that how it should be?
 Is it justified to treat civilians like this?
 
Man: What are you doing?
 
Woman: I want to express my protest against the government, persistent protest.

Shortly before the man asked Zhang Zhan what she was doing she had knocked over the traffic barrier.

Holding libertarian rants against pandemic measures and knocking over quarantine barrier while providing videos for anti-Chinese outlets is presumably ‘citizen journalism’.

Wuhan had soon defeated the pandemic. But a few new infections in early May again raised alarm. The U.S. government financed Radio Free Asia reported hearsay of it:

Wuhan Locks Down Residential Compounds Amid Citywide Test Rollout
 
Wuhan, where the virus that causes COVID-19 first emerged,  is also in the process of implementing a city-wide order to carry out  free nucleic acid tests on the entire eleven million population. Wuhan-based citizen journalist Zhang Zhan said six new cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in the city's Sanmin residential compound, home to some 5,000 people.

 "I went there to find out more about the situation, but it has been  placed under quarantine," Zhang told RFA on Thursday, adding that local  news reports said six new cases had been confirmed, with 180 contacts  now in isolation.

 "There are police outside on the street now guarding the place, and  no vehicles are being allowed through," Zhang said. "I asked a nearby  resident how many people were taken away in ambulances, and he told me  that 180 people were taken away for isolation."

 Sanmin residents stranded outside the compound when lockdown was imposed are not being allowed to return.

 A similar lockdown was being imposed at the Sanyanqiao residential compound, also in Wuhan, Zhang said.

 "The barriers have been put back and the place is under lockdown,"  Zhang said. "There is also an online announcement saying that delivery  drivers aren't being allowed to enter certain compounds."

 "There are signs of a resurgence of the epidemic in Wuhan."

There was no resurgence of Covid-19 in Wuhan. Just a few, mostly asymptomatic cases were found during the city-wide testing.

Shortly after her ‘reporting’ for Radio Free Asia the notorious grumbler Zhang Zhan was arrested. As this was not the first time she got herself into trouble she did not receive any clemency.

China did manage the news about the Covid-19 pandemic. It suppressed false reports. That is, according to the World Health Organization, what any government should do. A recent WHO Call to Action explains why:

An infodemic is defined as a tsunami of information—some accurate, some  not—that spreads alongside an epidemic. If it is not managed  accordingly, an infodemic can have direct negative impacts on  the health of populations and the public health response by undermining  the trust in science and interventions. We are also seeing that infodemics hinder the cohesiveness of societies by increasing existing social inequities, stigma, gender disparity and generational rift. 

...

As  outlined in the Resolution on COVID-19 adopted by consensus at the 73rd  World Health Assembly and the G20 Health Ministers’ Declaration at the  Riyadh Summit, we need to provide populations with reliable and  comprehensive information on COVID-19 and take measures to counter misinformation and disinformation. The response to this infodemic demands the support, development, and  application of efficient solutions that equip individuals and their  communities with the knowledge and tools to promote accurate health  information (upstream) and mitigate the harm that misinformation and disinformation causes (downstream).

Zhang Zhan did her best to feed the infodemic with rumors and false outrage. The Chinese government took appropriate measures against the ‘rebellious soul’. It also took the right measures to completely defeat the pandemic.

But the CIA’s congregation of Washington based anti-Chinese ‘human rights’ organizations disagrees with those measures and it is jealous about China’s success.

Thus the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ springs into action and the ‘western’ media dutifully follow its lead by lamenting about the fate of a ‘citizen journalist’ provocateur in China.

Meanwhile the U.S. government has criminalized investigative journalism by its continued torture of Julian Assange and arrested more than 100 journalists this year.

End of Article

While this article is quite interesting, the comments are also full of insight and curiosity.

1

A study done a few years ago showed that over 2/3rds of international affairs stories in major European newspapers were basically reprints of NYT articles, tweaked lightly for localization purposes. The major media outlets all sing from the same hymn sheet and the CIA and other western intel operations knows that any story they feed into the system will be reproduced around the globe and taken as ‘fact’ by most of the newspapers’ readers.

The media’s incestuous nature and its infiltration by the intelligence services really became apparent during the Syrian Civil War and the Trump presidency. It is now clear that the western mainstream media works with the spooks to shape and mold opinion, and manufacture consent, rather than innocently informing its readers about world events.

The rise of the now often used insult “conspiracy theorist”, which is really code for “dissenting opinion”, is closely related to this. The western liberal democracies are going totalitarian in real time as the window of “acceptable” opinion continues to shrink and the establishment finds new ways to censor, ban and stifle heretical thinking.

Posted by: Dork | Dec 28 2020 18:53 utc | 1

2

Kenneth Roth @KenRoth - 8:22 UTC · Dec 28, 2020

Beijing's selection of the sleepy period between Christmas and New Year's suggests even it is embarrassed to sentence citizen-journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison for having chronicled the uncensored version of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

This information is false. China doesn’t celebrate Christmas because it isn’t a Christian country, and its New Year is celebrated according to the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar. As a result, the “Chinese New Year” is celebrate somewhere between the end of January and the first half of February (depending on the year).

In other words, the period between Christmas and (solar) New Year is not a “sleepy period” in China.

—

About the subject in general:

The first thing we should notice is that this Zhang Zhan is not a journalist. Therefore she’s not press. Therefore she’s not free press.

The second thing we should noticed is that, even if she was a journalist, we would have to discover if she’s a journalist or a “journalist”, i.e. a propagandist disguised as a journalist. Propagandists are not journalists in the spirit of the word: they are propagandists. Otherwise, having a Journalism degree would give one license to lie at will. Adding a ridiculous epithet (“citizen”) to the term doesn’t free you from real world consequences.

The third thing is that she’s a lawyer. Her rant is typical of a petit-bourgeois/middle class ideologue: freedom of the individual above the collective good; moral values above social values. The CIA is good in finding those wackos even in nations we don’t think they exist.

Posted by: vk | Dec 28 2020 19:01 utc | 2

4

Looking at her latest YT video, she doesn’t deserve 4 years of jail, but in a mental institution for being an anti-lockdown nutter in Wuhan.

Posted by: J W | Dec 28 2020 19:45 utc | 4

6

This post suggests that she may be involved with the Eastern Lighting cult, also known as the Church of Almighty God.

ZHANG ZHAN’S ABUSE OF SOCIALIST FREEDOM BROUGHT TO AN END! https://supportnewchina.blogspot.com/2020/12/zhang-zhans-abuse-of-socialist-freedom.html

Posted by: LC | Dec 28 2020 19:58 utc | 6

8

Zhang Zhan’s venture into Wuhan, defying lock-down orders for which she should have been punished, reminds me of the stunt pulled by Navalny’s eye doctor groupie Dr Anastasia Vasilyeva in April this year attempting to transport PPE from Moscow region to Novgorod region in a convoy of three cars during lock-downs in those regions.

Vasilyeva, self-styled head of a doctors’ union (which curiously has very few members and no branch offices in other parts of Russia, as far as I could tell from a TV report broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on its channels), disobeyed lock-down orders in both Moscow and Novgorod regions and was arrested and imprisoned in sensational style as recorded by her camera crew and lawyers travelling in the convoy. Curiously there seem to have been no other medically qualified people in the cars and there was a total of 12 people in the convoy so each car was carrying four people. (There goes the social distancing!)

I later saw an article on RT.com that the PPE Vasilyeva attempted to carry to Novgorod region did reach the intended recipient hospitals but they could not use the masks and gloves because … there was no certification in the boxes … so the hospitals had no way of knowing if the equipment had been legally obtained or met required medical standards. I do not know what the hospitals did with the equipment.

I would not be surprised if Zhang Zhan turns out to be a “lawyer” in the same sense that Sergei Magnitsky was a “lawyer” (he was an accountant chef hired by Bill Browder to cook his accounts) and Alexei Navalny is a “lawyer” (he initially qualified in real estate law but does not seem to have practised). No need then to wonder if Zhang had to give up a licence to practise law, if she was a “lawyer” in the loopy stretched-out cartoon definition the US State Department, the CIA and Hollywood would have us believe.

Posted by: Jen | Dec 28 2020 20:02 utc | 8

16

“Human rights” agitprop has long been a staple of US imperialist propaganda. As the Grayzone website pointed out earlier this year, “HRW was founded during the height of the Cold War as Helsinki Watch, an anti-Soviet lobby group closely linked to the US government and funded by the Ford Foundation, which served as a CIA passthrough.”

Billionaire-backed Human Rights Watch lobbies for lethal US sanctions on leftist governments as Covid crisis rages

The hysterical propaganda against communist nations and fighters goes hand in hand with the bombs, torture and assassination that are US/British/French/NATO specialties. The modern version of “human rights” campaigning was born out of the US defeat in Vietnam, and the spate of revelations that came out of that period about US crimes (Pentagon Papers, Church Senate investigations, Winter Soldier, etc.) in an attempt to rebrand the Vietnam war criminals as some sort of humanitarians. The Helsinki Accords were a US propaganda program that the misguided leaders of the USSR, along with Tito, etc. approved with the vain hope of detente and peaceful cooperation between nations. In reality, the US never wanted such peaceful coexistence.

Thanks, b, for bucking the anti-China propaganda campaign. The Pentagon and CIA still lick their wounds from the last time they faced Chinese forces in battle. Their dream of anti-Communist conquest of China and North Korea (assisted by their supposedly docile Japanese assistants) is as dangerous as their dream of dismembering Russia and turning all of the Eurasian landmass into a colony for US (and Japanese) exploitation. There lies the fuse for WW3, and the end deaths of hundreds of millions.

Now is the time for every person of clear mind to oppose these mad dreams of conquest! The lies that have and are being told about Russia and China (only occasionally rooted in some actual injustice) are being churned out daily by the CIA and Pentagon propaganda machine. Their purpose is to rally the population for war. Soon the hammer will drop harder on the US and West Europe/Australian population, as the persecution of Julian Assange suggests, as the ruling elite tighten up the repression needed to pull off their genocidal war.

Posted by: Jeffrey Kaye | Dec 28 2020 21:03 utc | 16

Conclusion

It’s a great article on a great site. I would suggest you all visit it when you get a chance and go through the comments there. They have a higher-order of commenter that frequents the site.

The “fire hose” of disinformation has been drenching everyone with vile hatred towards of China. Now the spigot has been turned off, and the alert sheeple are wondering what is going on. Soon a new flood will begin. It will be against Russia. It will start slowly and after two years it will reach the same kind of crescendo that the Chinese experienced.

I anticipate a balkanized American civil war in the interim period, with scant reporting. Followed by American attempts to start a war for “freedomTM“, “democracyTM“, and all that similar nonsense. The children of the American serf/slave sheeple will march off with gusto to be slaughtered in mass.

And with all of Asia retaliating.

In nuclear fashion.

And I pretty much expect it to be along the lines of what John Titor predicted.

The Climax of the Fourth Turning – 2025

Buckle up.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Trump Trade Wars Index here…

Trump Trade War

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A view from outside the American echo chambers and a glimpse of what the rest of the world thinks of America today.

Here’s some articles that you just will not find in any American media. But they are very descriptive and pretty accurate regarding what the rest of the world thinks about America today. No, you won’t find Rush Limbaugh quoting from these articles, nor will you find a reference to them in Politco or MSNBC. These are the type of articles that the oligarchy; the rulers of the American government do not want the tax-serfs to read.

It’s not so hard to find articles in the American media. They run the gambit from “America is great and the best”, to fear-mongering “the world outside of America looks like a save the children commercial”. But you won’t find anything really critical or persuasive about what America is going through right now. That is the kind of information that Americans MUST NOT SEE.

Well, surprise! You are going to read some of these articles right here and right now, and they are (for the most part) not very flattering.

It’s not that America or Americans are bad. They are not. It is that the entire nation is run by evil psychopaths. 

Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is traditionally a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been used throughout history that are only partly overlapping and may sometimes be contradictory.

-Wikipedia

These leaders possess behaviors are dangerous and will will end up destroying the entire world if they are not suppressed. It’s like the drunk friend who is trying to pick a fight with everyone in the bar, and you and your friends just roll your eyes, and after a spell, you all need to leave early before some “shit goes down”. Damn!

Have any of you been in that situation?

Well, that is America today. And it’s pretty bad, and very dangerous.

That’s why the articles outside of the USA are not finding their way into the “approved” American media.

Yes. The reason why these negative articles about America are not cropping up inside of any of the “approved” American media outlets is because they are more than just unflattering. The psychopaths that run America do not want the serf-slaves to revolt against them. So they deliberately suppress any contrary news related to them or their true personalities.

Psychopathy is a condition characterized by the absence of empathy  and the blunting of other affective states. Callousness, detachment and  a lack of empathy enable psychopaths to be highly manipulative.  Nevertheless, psychopathy is among the most difficult disorders to spot. 
 
Psychopaths can appear normal, even charming. Underneath, they lack any semblance of conscience. Their antisocial nature inclines them often (but by no means always) to criminality.
 
Psychopaths spark popular fascination and clinical anguish:  Adult psychopathy is largely resistant to treatment, though programs  exist to treat callous, unemotional youth in hopes of preventing them  from maturing into psychopaths.
 
Brain anatomy, genetics,  and a person’s environment may all contribute to the development of  psychopathic traits. For more on causes, symptoms, and treatments of the  related condition called antisocial personality disorder, see our Diagnosis Dictionary.

Ol’ Busted Knucke’s said it best when he said that Russia and the USA have a lot to offer each other. Why not work together and concentrate on our similarities, instead of threatening each other about some imaginary differences. And he’s right, but you and I know that that is not going to happen as the USA is run by a bunch of maniacal evil villains.

What are we dealing with here…

Well, what are we dealing with? Am I being glib concerning who is actually running the American nations, or am I being painfully accurate?

President Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump.
The term “con artist” or “conman” comes from one of  American history’s earliest scammers, a man by the name of William  Thompson. In 1849, Thompson was arrested in New York City for a slew of  successful scams during which he duped unassuming passersby on the  street into lending him their valuables before vanishing with them. 

Thompson was consequently known  among local authorities as “the confidence man,” which was eventually  shortened to “con man.” But Thompson was hardly alone in his clever  grifts. According to historian Karen Halttunen, approximately 10 percent  of all criminals in New York City in the 1860s were con artists.
 
Nearly all “confidence men” or scam artists are charming. Take Victor  Lustig, for example. This conman managed to “sell” the Eiffel Tower and  allegedly even swindled notorious mobster Al Capone. He was fittingly dubbed “the Count” by authorities because he was so debonair. 
 
Beyond the smooth talkers, there are also those conmen who play on  people’s biases like Anna Sorokin, who cheated her way into the ranks of  New York City’s elite by pretending to be a rich heiress named Anna  Delvey. The scam artist’s former friends, nearly all of them wealthy  socialites, alleged that she had convinced them to loan her cash for  lavish vacations abroad only to never be repaid.

Today, the term “Ponzi scheme” is used to describe an illegitimate operation. But the term actually came from the real-life Charles Ponzi, whose $15 million investment scheme claimed to turn the average American working man into a multimillionaire overnight. 

-All that's interesting

The Signs of a Psychopath

The following is from Psychology Today.

Psychopathy is a spectrum disorder and can be diagnosed using the 20-item Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which features traits such as lack of empathy, pathological lying, and impulsivity, each scored on a three-point scale based on whether the item does not apply (0), applies to a certain extent (1), or fully applies (2) to the individual. The bar for clinical psychopathy is a score of 30 or higher; serial killer Ted Bundy scored 39.

The checklist was developed in the 1970s by the Canadian researcher Robert Hare. A true assessment should be conducted by a mental health professional.

The revised version of the checklist includes the following characteristics:

The first group really describes Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Mike Pompeo and Barrack Obama, don’t you all think?

  • glibness/superficial charm
  • grandiose sense of self-worth
  • need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
  • pathological lying
  • conning/manipulative
  • lack of remorse or guilt

And these other traits can be applied to the American leadership just as well.

  • shallow affect (i.e., reduced emotional responses)
  • callous/lack of empathy
  • parasitic lifestyle
  • poor behavioral controls
  • promiscuous sexual behavior

The sexual exploits of Bill Clinton are legendary. And do you really think that being a member of the Senate for 60 years isn’t a “parasitic lifestyle”? What about banning coal and sending the citizenry of five states into poverty? Doesn’t that count as a “lack of empathy”?

The list continues…

  • early behavioral problems
  • lack of realistic, long-term goals
  • impulsivity
  • irresponsibility
  • failure to accept responsibility for one’s own actions

And what about Donald Trump. It’s always someone else’s fault isn’t it? And those 70+ tweets per night, isn’t that a sign of impulsivity?

  • many short-term marital relationships
  • juvenile delinquency
  • revocation of conditional release (from prison)
  • criminal versatility (i.e., commits diverse types of crimes)
If this does not describe American leadership, Congressmen and Senators, then I don't know what does.

What percentage of people are psychopaths?

Psychopaths exist across cultures and ethnic groups. It has been estimated that approximately 1 percent of males and 0.3–0.7 percent of females could be classified as psychopaths. An individual may show elevated levels of multiple traits associated with psychopathy without qualifying as a psychopath according to a measure such as the Hare checklist.

When we refer to the oligarchy or the PTB, we often refer to them as the 1%. I find it curious that this is also the same percentage of psychopaths in society. Could it be the natural inclination of psychopaths to rise over others and seize the levers of control of a society, and if so, isn’t that a very, very dangerous situation?

Let’s learn about the American Leadership

From ThoughtCo…

Psychopaths  are incapable of feeling guilt, remorse, or empathy for their actions  or the objects of their actions. They are generally cunning and  manipulative. They know the difference between right and wrong but don't  believe the rules apply to them. 
 
First Encounter With a Psychopath  
On first impression, psychopaths generally appear charming, engaged,  caring, friendly, logical, and reasonable, with well thought-out goals.  They give the impression that they can reason, that they know the  consequences for antisocial and unlawful behavior and will react appropriately. They appear capable of self-examination and will criticize themselves for mistakes. 
 
Under clinical evaluation, psychopaths don't show common symptoms  associated with neurotic behavior: nervousness, high anxiety, hysteria,  mood swings, extreme fatigue, and headaches. In situations that most  normal people would find upsetting, psychopaths appear calm and void of  fear and anxiety. 
 
An About-Face  
Initially, psychopaths appear reliable, devoted, and trustworthy, but,  suddenly and without provocation, become unreliable, with no regard for  how their actions affect the situation, regardless of its importance.  Once viewed as honest and sincere, they do a sudden about-face and begin  lying without concern, even in small matters when there is no benefit  in lying. 
 
Because psychopaths have mastered the art of deception, those around  them are slow to accept the abrupt change. When psychopaths are  confronted with their lack of responsibility, honesty or loyalty, it  generally has no impact on their attitude or future performance. They  are unable to perceive that other people value truthfulness and  integrity. 
 
Can't Accept Responsibility for Failure  
Psychopaths turn into performers who can mimic normal human emotions  that they have never felt. This holds true when they're faced with  failure. If they appear to be humble and own up to their mistakes, their  true goal is to be perceived as the martyr or sacrificial lamb willing  to accept blame so others don't have to. 
 
If the ploy fails and they are blamed, they will emphatically deny any  responsibility and, without feeling shame, turn to lies, manipulation,  and finger-pointing. When psychopaths can't convince others that they  are innocent, they fume and obsess over it, often murmuring sarcastic  comments and plotting revenge. 
 
Risky Behavior With No Gain  
Antisocial behavior—cheating, lying, robbing, stealing, agitating,  fighting, committing adultery, killing—appeals to psychopaths, whether  or not they reap any rewards. They appear drawn to high-risk antisocial  behavior that has no apparent goal. Some experts theorize that  psychopaths like to put themselves into dangerous situations because of  the adrenaline rush they experience. Because psychopaths generally don't  feel many emotions that normal people do, any extreme sensation feels  good. Others believe that they do it to reinforce their sense of  superiority and to prove that they are smarter than everyone, including  the police. 
 
Horrible Judgment  
Although psychopaths are logical thinkers and view themselves as highly  intelligent, they consistently exhibit bad judgment. Faced with two  paths, one to gold and the other to ashes, the psychopath will take the  latter. Because psychopaths can't learn from their experiences, they are  prone to taking the same path again and again. 
 
Egocentric and Unable to Love  
Psychopaths are highly egomaniacal, to the point that a normal person  has difficulty comprehending it. Their self-centeredness is so deeply  rooted that it renders them incapable of loving others, including  parents, spouses, and their own children. 
 
The only time psychopaths show an ordinary response to kindness or  special treatment by others is when it can be used to their advantage.  For example, a psychopathic father still loved by his children despite  the deep suffering he has caused them may put on a show of appreciation  so that they continue to put money into his prison account or pay his  legal fees. 
 
Conventional Treatment Empowers Psychopaths  
Most studies indicate that there are no conventional methods to cure  psychopathic behavior. When conventional methods have been used,  psychopaths become empowered and react by improving their cunning,  manipulative methods and their ability to conceal their true  personality, even from trained eyes. 
 
Difference Between Psychopaths and Sociopaths  
Psychopaths and sociopaths  share a diagnosis as having antisocial personality disorder and similar  traits, but there are significant differences. Psychopaths are more  deceptive and manipulative and maintain more control over their outward  personas. They are able to lead what appear to be normal lives,  sometimes throughout their lifetime. When psychopaths become criminals  they believe they are smarter than the average person and invincible. 
 
Sociopaths often let their inner rage surface with violent episodes,  verbally and physically. They become reckless and spontaneous and have  little control over what they say or how they act. Because they are  impulse driven, they rarely consider the consequences of their actions.  It is difficult for sociopaths to live normal lives, and because of  their imprudence many of them drop out of school, can't hold jobs, turn  to crime, and end up in prison. 
 
Which Is More Dangerous?  
Sociopaths have a difficult time hiding their disorder, while  psychopaths pride themselves on their manipulative abilities.  Psychopaths are masters of disassociation and less likely to feel guilt  or remorse for their actions or for the pain that they cause others.  Because of this, psychopaths are considered to be more dangerous than  sociopaths.

Well, we know that the USA is run by a bunch of crazed lunatics with some severely dangerous tendencies…

What now? Americans, for the most part are unaware of this. And they follow them in the belief that the leaders represent them and their beliefs. But the rest of the world does not see this, and are frankly aghast at the United States for “electing” these people to the levers of power.

And they write articles about this.

The more “mainstream” articles tend to be rather sanitized. But the alternative articles tend to be very spot-on and even vicious. Here we are going to look at some of the articles. It’s a venting of what the world thinks of what America has become and exists as it sits today, in the closing months of 2020.

The US Has Lost Global Power, and Is Now Just Faking It

This article from the Russian Insider archives was first published on RI in April 2018 by Dmitry Orlov . It was republished on Sun, Dec 13 2020 | 1510 words 26,694 Comments

Orlov is one of our favorite essayists on Russia and all sorts of other things. He moved to the US as a child, and lives in the Boston area.
 
Description: https://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/styles/1200xauto/public/webp.net-resizeimage_2.jpg?itok=EAZxA1dL

He is one of the better-known thinkers The New Yorker has dubbed 'The Dystopians' in an excellent 2009 profile, along with James Howard Kunstler, another regular contributor to RI (archive). These theorists believe that modern society is headed for a jarring and painful crack-up.

He is best known for his 2011 book comparing Soviet and American collapse (he thinks America's will be worse). He is a prolific author on a wide array of subjects, and you can see his work by searching him on Amazon. He has a large following on the web, and on Patreon, and we urge you to support him there, as Russia Insider does.
 
If you haven't discovered his work yet, please take a look at his archive of articles on RI. They are a real treasure, full of invaluable insight into both the US and Russia and how they are related.
The US Has Lost Global Power, and Is Now Just Faking It
 
"If the US manages to convince enough people, at home and around the world, that it is still dangerous, then it will be able to hide its increasing enfeeblement for a while longer."
 
It’s a hard job being a global hegemon and the world’s sole superpower.
 
You have to keep the entire planet in line. Every country needs to be taught its place, and kept there, by force if need be. Now and again a country or two has to be conquered or destroyed, just to teach others a lesson. Plus you have to relentlessly meddle in other countries’ politics, rigging elections so that only US-friendly candidates can win, run regime change operations and organize colored revolutions. Stop doing this, and some countries will start ignoring you. And then the rest will quickly realize that you are losing control and go their separate ways while ignoring you.

 Description: https://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/styles/1200xauto/public/1a56c05bbfebfd7630982c5b5740246f.jpg?itok=y_y3vKeO
 
Is the United States still the world’s greatest power, in control of the entire planet, or has that moment in history already come and gone? We are constantly hearing how the situation is becoming dire: relations between the US and NATO countries and Russia are going from bad to worse; there is a trade war going on with China; North Korea remains an intractable problem and an embarrassment.
 
Many people maintain that we are very close to a world war. But does “very close” actually mean anything? It is quite possible to stand for hours with your toes hanging over the edge of a cliff and never jump. Suicide is a big decision: big even for a person, much bigger for a large country.

 Description: https://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/styles/1200xauto/public/DacN3xMXcAAk2bJ.jpg?itok=4d9p_1B7
 
On March 1, 2018 president Putin unveiled Russia’s new weapons systems against which the United States is defenseless and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Previously, the plan was to surround Russia with military bases and missile batteries, then launch a preemptive first strike, destroying its ability to retaliate and forcing it to capitulate.
 
This plan has now conclusively failed, and a US/NATO attack on Russia is once again assured to be an act of suicide. Worse than that, even limited military confrontations are now mostly unthinkable, because Russia can now inflict unacceptable damage on US/NATO forces from a safe distance and without putting any of its own assets at risk. If Russia won’t attack and the US/NATO can’t attack, then how likely is a war?
 
The new weapons systems have made it possible to start ignoring the US. It is still important to maintain a credible military posture, but politically the US is no longer in control, and neither are the global institutions on which it has relied. Instead, what we are seeing is the reemergence of nation states, and even of empires.
 
The political future of Syria is being decided by Russia, Turkey and Iran, with no useful input from the United States at all. 

Significantly, whereas Russia and Iran are in categories of their own as far as the US is concerned, Turkey has been a US ally and the second-largest armed force in NATO. The fact that Turkey is no longer eager to please the Americans is quite telling.
 
Except during the strange and tumultuous twentieth century during which the US briefly flashed across the world stage, these three countries went by different names, which all ended in “empire”: the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire. Of these three, the Russian and the Ottoman empires were heirs to the Holy Roman Empire, whose eastern half, with its capital Constantinople, went on for centuries after Rome had turned into a depopulated ruin and a dark age had descended on Europe.
 
After Constantinople fell to the Turks and Islam took over the region, the center of Orthodox Christianity migrated north to Moscow. Now add China, or the Chinese Empire if you like, which is now aligned with Russia, and complete the picture: all of the greatest and most ancient Eurasian empires have come back and are talking and cooperating, while the has-been upstart on the other side of the planet isn’t even invited.
 
Given this situation, what is the US to do? 

It has three choices. 

The first is to start a major war, thus committing national suicide (while taking other countries with it). It lacks the political will to make this decision, although it could blunder into a major war by accident.
 
The second choice is to basically just fold: give up trying to project power around the world, retreat into its own borders and lick its wounds. It lacks the political will to do this as well; all that remains in the realm of possibility is to pretend that everything is still fine for as long as possible.
 
But how is it possible to pretend that everything is still fine even as everything is falling apart? The answer is to start faking it. 

If the US manages to convince enough people, at home and around the world, that it is still dangerous, then it will be able to hide its increasing enfeeblement for a while longer. It may no longer be capable of achieving any of its aims, but it is still very much capable of mass murder, as was recently demonstrated by the US “coalition” bombings of Mosul and Raqqa, which now lay in ruins. Similar wanton acts of mass murder have been committed America’s Saudi-Arabian proxy in Yemen, and by their Ukrainian proxies in the Donbass.
 
But even the opportunities to commit mindless mass murder with impunity are now becoming fewer and farther between, forcing the US to resort to more boutique acts of violence. To justify these acts, the US (and much of Europe) curtains itself off from the rest of the world using an elaborately constructed wall of complete nonsense.
 
A favorite trope has to do with dreamed-up chemical weapons as the main frightener. Take a look at the recent Israeli rocket attack on Syria. It was justified using obviously fake video footage produced by the White Helmets—a group known for staging fake terror events. At this point, they don’t even care how fake their product looks: this time around, they didn’t bother editing out the clapper (used to sync up video with sound). The setting was obviously a movie set, but production values were rather missing. Instead, we had actors, some wearing white helmets, but no protective gear whatsoever, dumping buckets of water over shivering children. How is that even supposed to make any sense?
 
And then note that the rockets (five which got shot down by the Syrians, with only three making it through) came from Israel. Why Israel? Because the Russians had warned the US that they knew the fake chemical weapons provocation was being organized as a pretext to launch a rocket attack, and that they were going to shoot not just at the rockets but also at those who launch them. Therefore, Americans decided that it would be too risky to launch the attack from navy ships, and instead asked the Israelis to do the honor of lobbing a few missiles at a remote airbase in Syria, correctly thinking that the Russians wouldn’t immediately retaliate against Israel if no Russians would hurt, and knowing that there would be no Russians at that airbase during their attack. This is, on the one hand, quite pathetic, but on the other it shows that the Americans are still capable of a modicum of rational thought.
 
This, then is the strange period of history we are going through. The US is lying nonstop (since truth is not on its side) while pretending to still be dangerous by committing wanton acts of mass murder (small-scale ones, which it can be sure to carry out with impunity).
 
Meanwhile, both national suicide (via large-scale war) and the decision to shut down the whole imperial project both remain politically impossible. How long this strange, unstable period of murderous nonsense can persist isn’t known—your guess is as good as mine—but it obviously can’t go on for ages.
 
Give it a few years, or less.

Perhaps you can understand why Rush Limbaugh is not talking about this kind of analysis, or why Alex Jones isn’t. Or why Politico or the Huffington Post isn’t. Or why MSNBC isn’t.

  • Their calculus uses examples of news articles that are not well-promoted in the USA.
  • Their conclusions are based on unflattering narratives.
  • The key players involved in the decision making process are not glorified.

Thus this kind of opinion will not be promoted in any of the “approved” American media. Neither the mainstream, the Alt-Right or the Alt-Left.

Times have changed all across the board. America is nothing like it was intended to be. Instead it is a prison-nation that enslaves citizens under a service-for-self oligarchy run by psychopaths. And us “Joe Averages” haven’t any say in the matter.

America Has Traded God for Empire, Narcissism, Militarism, Usury, Sodomy

Fr. Joseph Gleason, is editor of the website titled “Russian Faith” . In this article he explains America’s current predicament. This article comes from the Russian Insider archives and was first published on RI in February 2019. It is written by Mark Dankof on Wed, Oct 21 2020 | 1120 words 8,438 Comments . All credit to the author.

America Has Traded God for Empire, Narcissism, Militarism, Usury, Sodomy 
                                                                                                   

It goes without saying that Father Joseph Gleason of Russian Faith is making his mark in the world for the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. His theological journey has finally taken him into the priesthood of the  Russian Orthodox Church. Geographically, the journey he and his family  have embarked upon has taken them from the United States to Russia and a place called Rostov-The-Great.  His is a story worth following on an ongoing basis. I sense his personal odyssey may prove larger in history than he or anyone else imagines right now.

His most recent entry on the Russian Faith website is entitled, “Homosexuals Persecuting Christians in America:  Do You Feel The Walls Closing In?”  

This marvelous piece is 5,050 words long.  My succinct initial response  to his labors before even reading the essay itself was–and is–a simple “Yes.”

I  do not come to this conclusion quickly or without study and  engagement.  Since 9-11, I have set aside most of the rest of my life to  attempt to bring the people of America to an awareness of how late the  hour is, and the perilous state of both individual souls and a  collective people that has turned its back on God in favor of an Empire  built on narcissism, militarism, usury, and sodomy. 
 
But the painful truth is that I have failed.  

I have lost 17  years of my life in the process. I admitted as much some years ago in a  well publicized essay entitled, “Why We’re Finished.”  Later, I found myself being pilloried by the Jerusalem Post and the international Jewish press for telling Press TV Iran the truth after the infamous Obergefell Supreme Court decision of 2015 about who played a pivotally disproportionate  role in bringing this latest advance of Cultural Marxism to pass in the  United States, as was the case in the Roe v Wade decision of January of 1973.  

Joseph Biden said the same thing I did,  only he hailed the development as a new dawning in America. 

I didn’t.   

Thus, I was in the cross-hairs of the usual suspects.  Not one of my  Lutheran colleagues in the United States came to my public defense.  I  was on my own and I knew it, just as I have been for years in these  circles for discussing 9-11, Empire foreign and military policy, the  Kennedy Assassination, and the abortion and LGBTQ issues among many others.
   
Nothing in the last 4 years has changed the equation.  

I said as much in an essay entitled, “A ‘Communist’s’ Thoughts on the 4th of July,” appropriately retitled, “Russia is a Beacon of Promise for a Christian Future” for Russia Faith and Russian Insider readers.   

The thousands of hits on those sites revealed I had struck a chord or a  raw nerve depending on the perspective of the reader, which is why  editors like Charles Bausman and Father Joseph Gleason have increasingly  come under attack by MSM rags in the United States like The Daily Beast as agents of the Kremlin, which assaulted me well before it did these fine people.  I wore that as a badge of honor. I still do.
 
Which brings me back to Father Gleason’s latest post.  His  conclusions about what the LGBTQ movement and the power elite’s goals  are in both the United States and globally in regard to authentic  Christianity and its adherents are no different than what Rod Dreher  wrote in Time Magazine after the Obergefell decision,  only sharper in focus in the implications.  This sharpening of focus  leads the American Christian who prayerfully contemplates the reality of  the homeland advances of the New World Order to examine his or her  position very carefully as the Holy Spirit of God leads and directs.
 
For the record, after examination over time, I humbly conclude personally that:
 
1) Father Joseph Gleason has made the right decision for himself and his family in moving to Russia;
 
2) Recent developments in that country and  elsewhere make it clear to me that Orthodoxy is especially being used of  God in the proclamation of the Gospel in an age of advancing heresy and  apostasy–not declining Lutheranism, Catholicism, or a Protestant  Evangelical movement overcome with worship of Zionism and increasing pop  accommodation to cancerous American and European cultures headed for  absolute shipwreck; 
 
3) For young believers around the world including a  couple I have recently read about in Brazil, and young American  Christians feeling bewildered and embattled as they Feel the Walls Closing In,  examine the Lord’s will very closely in regard to the beckoning of  Father Gleason and his migrating minions to the place that the Triune  God is restoring at this eschatological hour in history to counter the  evil plans of a Western Globalist and Zionist movement bent on using  moral and sexual perversion, mass media manipulation, consumerism,  economic sanctions, and overt military aggression to achieve Satan’s  final victory in this present realm; 
 
4) The latest actions of the United States in the Ukraine in  sewing discord in the Orthodox Church only underscore the depths to  which the political leadership in America will go on behalf the  objectives of the New World Order, along with the entire spectrum of  moves being made by The Empire against Iran, Syria, Russia, and  Venezuela;  

5) When all of this is understood in discernment by the  Christian believer in the West in terms of prophetic developments, those  of us whose circumstances mandate remaining in our earthly homeland in  exile must do so only in the clear understanding that the outcome is not  merely an exilic experience of alienation and marginalization, but one  which promises martyrdom itself.
   
My last public address to  a Lutheran group discussed this.  

I’m still not sure those in the  lecture hall in upstate Wisconsin last year really had the foggiest  notion of what I was trying to say in the Lord to them.  But Father  Joseph Gleason knows of what I speak, and so do most of his readers at Russian Faith. 

There are a few Christian homeschoolers in Texas who  certainly understand. For those in the United States and the West in a  position to make choices for themselves and their families on the basis  of their individual circumstances and Christian witness for the truth in  history, follow him to higher ground.  

Get out of Dodge while you can.
 
I believe God has truly raised this man up at this most  critical and final hour in world and redemptive history. Consider his  witness and his words carefully. That is my best advice to you. The clock is ticking to midnight.
             

Wholesome tradition or degenerate empire, take your pick

His opinion is dire and gloomy. He does not feel that he is free to practice his religious freedom, nor raise his family safely or properly in the United States. There was a time, don’t you know, where this was the measurement by which the “freedom” and “liberty” offered by the United States was measured. But it no longer exists.

You will note that none of the American government controlled media; the mainstream, the Alt-Left and the Alt-Right will cover this subject it’s all the same nonsense. Over and over.

Ugh! When I think about the United States government, I get a headache. I just want to chill out and be left alone.
Ugh! When I think about the United States government, I get a headache. I just want to chill out and be left alone.

American Collapse – Great Podcast About How and When – with James Howard Kunstler

Now, we go to James Howard Kunstler.

“Personally, I expect our collapse to be as sudden and unexpected as the USSR’s … and to express itself first in the financial markets …”

This article from our archives was first published on Russian Insider in April 2018. Written by Mr James Howard Kunstler on Mon, Dec 14 2020 | 1000 words 11,640 Comments . All credit to the author. 

The author is a prominent American social critic, blogger, and podcaster, and one of our all-time favorite pessimists. We carry his articles regularly on RI. His writing on Russia-gate has been highly entertaining.
 
He is one of the better-known thinkers The New Yorker has dubbed 'The Dystopians' in an excellent 2009 profile, along with the brilliant Dmitry Orlov, another regular contributor to RI (archive). These theorists believe that modern society is headed for a jarring and painful crack-up.
 
You can find his popular fiction and novels on this subject, here. To get a sense of how entertaining he is, watch this 2004 TED talk about the cruel misery of American urban design - it is one of the most-viewed on TED. Here is a recent audio interview with him which gives a good overview of his work.

And the article in question…

American Collapse - Great Podcast About How and When - with James Howard Kunstler
                                                                                                   

I had a fellow on my latest podcast, released  Sunday, who insists that the world population will crash 90-plus  percent from the current 7.6 billion to 600 million by the end of this  century. Jack Alpert heads an outfit called the Stanford Knowledge Integration Lab (SKIL) which he started at Stanford University in 1978 and now runs as a private research foundation. Alpert is primarily an engineer.
   
At 600 million, the living standard in the USA would be on a level  with the post-Roman peasantry of Fifth century Europe, but without the  charm, since many of the planet’s linked systems — soils, oceans,  climate, mineral resources — will be in much greater disarray than was  the case 1,500 years ago. 

Anyway, that state-of-life may be a way-station so something more dire. 

Alpert’s optimal case would be a  world human population of 50 million, deployed in three “city-states,”  in the Pacific Northwest, the Uruguay / Paraguay border region, and  China, that could support something close to today’s living standards  for a tiny population, along with science and advanced technology, run  on hydropower. 

The rest of world, he says, would just go back to nature,  or what’s left of it. Alpert’s project aims to engineer a path to that  optimal outcome.
 
I hadn’t encountered quite such an extreme view of the future before,  except for some fictional exercises like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.  (Alpert, too, sees cannibalism as one likely byproduct of the journey  ahead.) 

Obviously, my own venture into the fictionalized future of the World Made by Hand books  depicted a much kinder and gentler re-set to life at the circa-1800  level of living, at least in the USA. Apparently, I’m a sentimental  softie.
 
Both of us are at odds with the more generic techno-optimists who are  waiting patiently for miracle rescue remedies like cold fusion while  enjoying re-runs of The Big Bang Theory. (Alpert doesn’t  completely rule out as-yet-undeveloped energy sources, though he  acknowledges that they’re a low-percentage prospect.) We do agree with  basic premise that the energy supply is mainly what supports the way we  live now, and that it shows every evidence of entering a deep and  destabilizing decline that will halt the activities necessary to keep  our networks of dynamic systems running.
 
A  question of interest to many readers is how soon or how rapid the  unraveling of these systems might be. 

When civilizations crumble, it  tends to fast-track. 

The Roman empire seems to be an exception, but in  many ways it was far more resilient than ours, being a sort of advanced  Flintstones economy, with even its giant-scale activities (e.g. building  the Coliseum) being accomplished by human-powered work. 

In any case,  the outfit really fell apart steadily after the reign of emperor Marcus  Aurelius (180 AD).
 
The Romans had their own version of a financialized economy:  they simply devalued their coins by mixing in less and less silver at  the mint, so they could pretend to pay for the same luxuries they had  grown accustomed to as resources stretched thin. 

Our financialized  economy — like everything else we do — operates at levels of complexity  so baffling that even its supposed managers at the central banks are flying blind through fogs of debt, deception, and moral hazard. When  that vessel of pretense slams into a mountain top, the effects are  likely to be quick and lethal to the economies on the ground below.
 
In our time, the most recent crash of a major socioeconomic system  was the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990-91. 

Of course, it happened  against the backdrop of a global system that was still revving pretty  well outside the USSR, and that softened the blow. Ultimately, the  Russians still had plenty of oil to sell, which allowed them to re-set  well above the Fifth Century peasant level of existence. 

At least for  now. 

The Soviet Union collapsed because it was a thoroughly dishonest  system that ran on pretense and coercion. Apparently, the US Intel  Community completely missed the signs that political collapse was  underway.
 
They seem to be pretty clueless about the fate of the USA these days,  too. 

If you consider the preoccupations of two very recent Intel chiefs  — John Brennan of CIA and James Clapper, DNI — who now inveigh  full-time on CNN as avatars of the Deep State against the wicked Golden  Golem of Greatness.
 
Personally, I expect our collapse to be as sudden and unexpected as  the USSR’s, but probably bloodier because there’s simply more stuff just  lying around to fight over.
 
Of  course, I expect the collapse to express itself first in banking,  finance, and markets — being so deeply faith-based and so subject to  simple failures of faith. But it will become political and social soon  enough, maybe all-at once. And when it happens in the USA, it will  spread through the financial systems the whole world round.

It’s heavy dose of “doom and gloom”, but you know, I am much more optimistic about the future.

There will be an American collapse, and systems are in place to keep it localized to the North American hemisphere. There will be economic global ramifications of course, and no nation will really remain unscathed, but the vast amount of damage and hurt will be in America. And of that, it will be localized. If you are prudent and a member of a local community, you should be able to weather “the storm”, and you and yours will survive to carry on through the 2030’s and 2040’s.

Perhaps is best if Americans believe that the rest of the world is a “shit hole”.

Korcula, Croatia.
The rest of the world is actually quite beautiful.

AMERICA: A Gigantic Clown Car Being Driven Into a Ditch

And another article from James Howard Kunstler. This article from the Russia Insider archives and was first published on RI in September 2017, with a reprint on Sunday, Dec 13 2020 | 900 words 18,995 Comments.

“This homework assignment should be given to the Democratic members of congress, since they are otherwise preoccupied only with hunting for Russian gremlins and discovering new sexual abnormalities to protect and defend.” 

AMERICA: A Gigantic Clown Car Being Driven Into a Ditch
                                                                                                                   
Poor old Karl Marx, tortured by boils and phantoms, was right about one thing: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.  Thus, I give you the Roman Empire and now the United States of America.  Rome surrendered to time and entropy. Our method is to drive a gigantic clown car into a ditch.
 
Is anyone out there interested in redemption? 

I have an idea for the political party out of power, the Democrats, sunk in its special  Okefenokee Swamp of identity politics and Russia paranoia: make an  effort to legislate the Citizens United calamity out of  existence. 

Who knows, a handful of Republicans may be shamed into going along with it. 

For those of you who have been mentally vacationing on  Mars with Elon Musk, Citizens United was a Supreme Court decision — Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission 558  U.S. 310 (2010) — which determined that corporations had the right, as  hypothetical “persons,” to give as much money as they liked to political candidates.
             
...

We've made important contributions to world culture   
 
This “right” devolved from the First Amendment of the constitution,  the 5-4 majority opinion said — giving money to political candidates and  causes amounts to “freedom of speech.” The Citizens United ruling  opened the door for unlimited election spending by corporations and  enormous mischief in our national life. Then-President Obama — a  constitutional law professor before his career in politics — complained  bitterly about the opinion days later in his State of the Union address,  saying that the court had “reversed a century of law to open the  floodgates, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in  our elections.”
 
And for the next seven years he did absolutely nothing about it, nor  did the Democratic Party majority in congress. Rather, they vacuumed in  as much corporate campaign money as possible from every hokey political  action committee (PAC) from sea to shining sea, especially in the 2016  presidential election starring Hillary “It’s My Turn” Clinton. It turned  out to not be her turn in large part because the voters noticed the  stench of corruption wafting off this toxic flow of corporate money,  which Hillary was using to vastly outspend her billionaire opponent,  troll that he was.
             
It's been a heck of a ride, and it's coming to an end ...   
 
Of course, corporations have not always been what they are deemed to  be today. They evolved with the increasingly complex activities of  industrial economies. Along the way — in Great Britain first, actually —  they were deemed to exist as the equivalent of legal persons,  to establish that the liabilities of the company were separate and  distinct from those of its owners. In the USA, forming a corporation  usually required an act of legislation until the late 19th century.  After that, they merely had to register with the states. Then congress  had to sort out the additional problems of giant “trusts” and holding  companies (hence, anti-trust laws, now generally ignored).
 
In short, the definition of what a corporation is and what it  has a right to do is in a pretty constant state of change as economies  evolve. And insofar as the current economy is sinking like the USS  Titanic — and our republic as a mode of governance with it — surely the  time has come to redefine in legislation the role and existential nature  of a corporation in this polity. This homework assignment should be  given to the Democratic members of congress, since they are otherwise  preoccupied only with hunting for Russian gremlins and discovering new sexual abnormalities to protect and defend.
 
The crux of the argument is that corporations cannot be said  to be entirely and altogether the equivalent of persons for all legal  purposes. In law, corporations have duties, obligations, and  responsibilities to their shareholders first, and only after that to the  public interest or the common good, and only then by pretty strict  legal prescription. It may be assumed that the interests of corporations and their shareholders are in opposition to, and in conflict with, the  public interest. And insofar as elections are fundamentally matters of the public interest, corporations must be prohibited from efforts to  influence the outcome of elections.
 
That’s your assignment Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of  the Democratic Party leadership. Get serious. Show a little initiative.  Do something useful. Draw up some legislation. Get behind something real that might make a difference in this decrepitating country.
 
Or get out of the way and let a new party do the job.

Politics are a pin in the ass, but even those outside of the USA can see that the United State is wholly out of control. “What planet do they live on” is a common phrase that I am starting to hear in day to day conversation.

For the rest of us, the craziness of Washington DC doesn’t resemble anything in our normal day-to-day lives…

Dear America – You Are Delusional, and Failing at Everything You Undertake

Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia sanctions –  “All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly.” 

“Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.”

This article from the Russia Insider archives and was first published on RI in November 2017. Written by Dmitry Orlov Fri, Dec 11 2020 | 1610 words 43,193 Comments . 

Dear America - You Are Delusional, and Failing at Everything You Undertake  
                                                                                                                 

Back in the days when I was still trying to do the corporate thing, I  regularly found myself in a bit of a tight spot simply by failing to  keep my mouth shut.
 
I seem to carry some sort of gene that makes me naturally  irrepressible. I can keep my mouth shut for only so long before I have  to blurt out what I really think, and in a corporate setting, where  thinking isn’t really allowed, this causes no end of trouble. It didn’t  matter that I often turned out to be right. It didn’t matter what I thought; it only mattered that I thought.
 
American involvement in the  middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls  to Trump, to keep him updated. 
 
Of all the thoughts you aren’t allowed to think, perhaps the  most offensive one is adequately expressed by a single short phrase:  

“That’s not gonna work.”
             
...

The end is near ...   
 
Suppose there is a meeting to unveil a great new initiative,  with PowerPoint presentations complete with fancy graphics, org charts,  timelines, proposed budgets, yada-yada, and everything is going great  until this curmudgeonly Russian opens his mouth and says “That’s not  gonna work.”

And when it is patiently explained to him (doing one’s best to hide one’s extreme irritation) that it absolutely has to work because Senior Management would like it to, that furthermore it is his job  to make it work and that failure is not an option, he opens his mouth  again and says “That’s not gonna work either.” And then it’s time to  avoid acting flustered while ignoring him and to think up some  face-saving excuse to adjourn the meeting early and regroup.
 
I lasted for as long as I did in that world because once in a while I  would instead say “Sure, that’ll work, let’s do it.” And then, sure  enough, it did work, the company had a banner year or two, with lots of  bonuses and atta-boy (and atta-girl) certificates handed out to those  not at all responsible for any of it. Flushed with victory, they, in  turn, would think up more harebrained schemes for me to rain on, and the  cycle would repeat.
             
America seems to be blissfully unaware of how it comes across to the rest of the world   
 
It is probably one of the main saving graces of corporations that  they do sometimes (mainly by mistake) allow some thought to leak  through. The mistake in question is a staffing error in promoting those  constitutionally incapable of keeping their mouths shut or shutting off  their brains. Such errors create chinks in the monolithic phalanxes of  corporate yes-men and yes-women.
 
Trump is too old to be a reformer or a  revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned  about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts  with their enlarged prostates. 
 
The likelihood of such mistakes increases with the agony of  defeat, which causes attrition among the ranks of qualified yes-sayers,  creating holes that can only be plugged by promoting a few  non-yes-sayers. However, this only seems to work in the smaller,  hungrier corporations; the larger, better-fed ones seem to be able to  avoid experiencing the agony of defeat for a very long time by moving  the goal posts, outlawing any discussion of said defeat or other similar  tactics. Eventually the entire organization goes over the cliff, but by  then it is of no benefit to anyone to attempt to inform them of their  folly.
 
It is much the same with governments, except here the  situation is even worse. While the smaller, hungrier governments, and  those blessed with a fresh institutional memory of extreme pain, do not  have the luxury of lying to themselves, the larger political  agglomerations—the USSR, the EU, the USA—have the ability to keep  themselves completely immunized against the truth for historically  significant periods of time.
   
The USSR clung to the fiction of great socialist progress even when  it was clear to all that the cupboard was bare and there were rats  gnawing through the rafters. The EU has been able to ignore the fact  that its entire scheme is one of enriching Germany while impoverishing  and depopulating eastern and southern Europe, neglecting the interests  of the native populations throughout. And the amount of self-delusion  that is still currently in effect in the USA makes it a rather large  subject.
 
Regardless of how great the lies are and how forcefully they are  defended, a moment always comes when the phalanx of truth-blocking  yes-men and yes-women stops marching, turns and runs. This event results  in a tremendous loss of face and confidence for all involved.
 
It is the crisis of confidence, more than anything else, that  precipitates the going-off-a-cliff phenomenon that we could so readily  observe in the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s. I have a very  strong hunch that similar cliff-diving exercises are coming up for the  EU and the USA.
 
But for the time being I am just another disembodied voice on  the internet, watching from the sidelines and periodically saying the  unfashionable thing, which is: “This isn’t gonna work.” However, I’ve  said this a number of times over the years, on the record and more or  less forcefully, and I feel vindicated most of the time.
 
Internationally, for example:

 • Carving the Ukraine away from Russia, having it  join the EU and NATO and building a NATO naval base in Crimea “wasn’t  gonna work.” The Ukraine is a part of Russia, the Ukrainians are  Russian, and the Ukrainian ethnic identity is a Bolshevik concoction.  Look for a reversion to norm in a decade or two.

 • Destroying and partitioning Syria with the help of  Wahhabi extremists and foreign mercenaries supported by the US, Saudi  Arabia and Israel while Russia, Iran, Turkey and China stand idly by  “wasn’t gonna work”; and so it hasn’t.

 • Giving Afghanistan “freedom and democracy” and  turning it into a stable pro-Western regime with the help of invading  NATO troops “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. Western involvement in  Afghanistan can go on, but the results it can achieve are limited to  further enhancing the heroin trade. 

• Destroying the Russian economy using sanctions  “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. The sanctions have helped Russia  regroup internally and achieve a great deal of self-sufficiency in  energy production and other forms of technology, in food and in numerous  other sectors.
 
All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have  backfired grandly. Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to  just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and  blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.
 
In the meantime, the world isn’t waiting for the US to shake itself out of its stupor.

The fulcrum of American influence in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia  and the petrodollar. In turn, Saudi Arabia rests on three pillars: the  Saudi monarchy, Wahhabi Islam and the petrodollar. As I write this, the  next king, Mohammed bin Salman, is busy hacking away at all three:  robbing, imprisoning and torturing his fellow-princes, working to  replace the Wahhabi clerics with moderate ones and embracing the  petro-yuan instead of the now very tired petrodollar.
 
Not that any of these three pillars were in good shape in any case:  the defeat of ISIS in Syria was a defeat for the Saudi monarchy which  supported it, for the Wahhabi clerics who inspired it and, consequently,  for the petrodollar as well, because Saudi Arabia was until now its  greatest defender.
 
The new guarantors of peace in the region are Russia, Iran and  Turkey, with China watching carefully in the wings. American  involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s  sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
 
And so here’s my latest prediction: Trump’s goal of “making America great” “isn’t gonna work” either.
 
The country is so far gone that just taking the first step—of  allowing the truth of its condition to leak through the media  filters—will undermine public confidence to such an extent that a  subsequent cliff-dive will become unavoidable. It’s a nice slogan as  slogans go, but Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He  is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity  and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged  prostates.
 
Perhaps he will succeed in making America great… big piles of feces, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that.

And time has proven him to be correct.

Remember that the American government controls all mainstream, and Alt-Left and Alt-Right media inside of America.
Remember that the American government controls all mainstream, and Alt-Left and Alt-Right media inside of America.

Now that it is official, and Biden is President, I scan the “news”…

Suddenly all the anti-China narrative has collapsed. the only anti-China article (15DEC20) that I can find is this one…

And this is just “only” a lite narrative with some segmented Chinese political infighting. Nothing about how horrible and awful China is. Not like before. But compared to the average of five to twelve articles per day about how terrible China is, this is really nothing.

But on Russia…

Imagine that! Who would figure?

Russian Missile Tech has Made America’s Trillion Dollar Navy Obsolete

“Times have changed and America can no longer project its military power like it did in Iraq. Those days are over. ”

This article from the archives was first published on RI in April 2018. Written by Dmitry Orlov Fri, Dec 11 2020 | 1400 words 52,084 Comments 

Russian Missile Tech has Made America's Trillion Dollar Navy Obsolete
                                                                                                   
For the past 500 years European nations—Portugal, the Netherlands,  Spain, Britain, France and, briefly, Germany—were able to plunder much  of the planet by projecting their naval power overseas. Since much of  the world’s population lives along the coasts, and much of it trades  over water, armed ships that arrived suddenly out of nowhere were able  to put local populations at their mercy.
             
A financially crippling military brontosaurus   

The armadas could plunder, impose tribute, punish the disobedient,  and then use that plunder and tribute to build more ships, enlarging the  scope of their naval empires. This allowed a small region with few  natural resources and few native advantages beyond extreme orneriness  and a wealth of communicable diseases to dominate the globe for half a  millennium.
 
The ultimate inheritor of this naval imperial project is the  United States, which, with the new addition of air power, and with its  large aircraft carrier fleet and huge network of military bases  throughout the planet, is supposedly able to impose Pax Americana on the  entire world. Or, rather, was able to do so—during the brief  period between the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of Russia and  China as new global powers and their development of new anti-ship and  antiaircraft technologies. But now this imperial project is at an end.
 
Prior to the Soviet collapse, the US military generally did  not dare to directly threaten those countries to which the USSR had  extended its protection. Nevertheless, by using its naval power to  dominate the sea lanes that carried crude oil, and by insisting that oil  be traded in US dollars, it was able to live beyond its means by  issuing dollar-denominated debt instruments and forcing countries around  the world to invest in them. 

It imported whatever it wanted using  borrowed money while exporting inflation, expropriating the savings of  people across the world. In the process, the US has accumulated  absolutely stunning levels of national debt—beyond anything seen before  in either absolute or relative terms. When this debt bomb finally  explodes, it will spread economic devastation far beyond US borders. And  it will explode, once the petrodollar wealth pump, imposed on the world  through American naval and air superiority, stops working.
 
New missile technology has made a naval empire cheap to defeat.  Previously, to fight a naval battle, one had to have ships that  outmatched those of the enemy in their speed and artillery power. The  Spanish Armada was sunk by the British armada. More recently, this meant  that only those countries whose industrial might matched that of the  United States could ever dream of opposing it militarily. 

But this has  now changed: 

Russia’s new missiles can be launched from thousands of  kilometers away, are unstoppable, and it takes just one to sink a  destroyer and just two to sink an aircraft carrier. The American armada  can now be sunk without having an armada of one’s own. The relative  sizes of American and Russian economies or defense budgets are  irrelevant: the Russians can build more hypersonic missiles much more  quickly and cheaply than the Americans would be able to build more  aircraft carriers.  
 
Equally significant is the development of new Russian air defense  capabilities: the S-300 and S-400 systems.  These systems can essentially seal  off a country’s airspace. Wherever these systems are deployed, such as  in Syria, US forces are now forced to stay out of their range. 

With its  naval and air superiority rapidly evaporating, all that the US can fall  back on militarily is the use of large expeditionary forces—an option  that is politically unpalatable and has proven to be ineffective in Iraq  and Afghanistan. 

There is also the nuclear option.

And while its  nuclear arsenal is not likely to be neutralized any time soon, nuclear  weapons are only useful as deterrents. Their special value is in  preventing wars from escalating beyond a certain point.  But that point lies beyond the elimination of their global naval and air dominance.  

Nuclear weapons are much worse than useless in augmenting one’s  aggressive behavior against a nuclear-armed opponent; invariably, it  would be a suicidal move. 

What the US now faces is essentially a  financial problem of unrepayable debt and a failing wealth pump.

It  should be a stunningly obvious point that setting off nuclear explosions  anywhere in the world would not fix the problems of an empire that is  going broke.
 
Events that signal vast, epochal changes in the world often appear minor when viewed in isolation. 

Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon  was just one river crossing. Soviet and American troops meeting and  fraternizing at the Elbe was, relatively speaking, a minor event—nowhere  near the scale of the siege of Leningrad, the battle of Stalingrad or  the fall of Berlin. Yet they signaled a tectonic shift in the historical  landscape. 

And perhaps we have just witnessed something similar with  the recent pathetically tiny Battle of East Gouta in Syria.

Where the US  used a make-believe chemical weapons incident as a pretense to launch  an equally make-believe attack on some airfields and buildings in Syria.  The US foreign policy establishment wanted to show that it still  matters and has a role to play, but what really happened was that US  naval and air power were demonstrated to be almost entirely beside the point.
 
Of course, all of this is terrible news to the US military and foreign policy establishments, as well as to the many US Congressmen (in whose districts military contractors operate or military bases are situated). 

Obviously, this is also bad news for the defense contractors,  for personnel at the military bases, and for many others as well. 

It is  also simply awful news economically, since defense spending is about the  only effective means of economic stimulus of which the US government is  politically capable. 

Obama’s “shovel-ready jobs,” if you recall, did  nothing to forestall the dramatic slide in the labor participation rate,  which is a euphemism for the inverse of the real unemployment rate.  There is also the wonderful plan to throw lots of money at Elon Musk’s  SpaceX (while continuing to buy vitally important rocket engines from the Russians—who are currently discussing blocking their export to the  US in retaliation for more US sanctions). 

In short, take away the  defense stimulus, and the US economy will make a loud popping sound followed by a gradually diminishing hissing noise.
 
Needless to say, all those involved will do their best to deny  or hide for as long as possible the fact that the US foreign policy and  defense establishments have now been neutralized. 

My prediction is that  America’s naval and air empire will not fail because it will be  defeated militarily, nor will it be dismantled once the news sinks in  that it is useless; instead, it will be forced to curtail its operations  due to lack of funds. 

There may still be a few loud bangs before it  gives up, but mostly what we will hear is a whole lot of whimpering.  

That’s how the USSR went; that’s how the USA will go too.

Things are in the process of change. It is my hope that the changes will be calm and peaceful, but those that live off the old systems will fight “tooth and nail” against change.

The United States fields some very impressive and advanced military systems. But [1] are they sustainable against a large and peer-capable, aggressive nations? And if they are, [2] is it worth the risk of mutual global annihilation for the egos of the psychopathic American leadership?

The United States fields some very impressive and advanced military systems.
The United States fields some very impressive and advanced military systems.

.

But you know, I fear that I am not making my point clear. War is not something that you read about in your daily feed. It is something that you endure with heartache and sadness. It is something that destroys relationships, cultures and societies. It destroys civilizations. But the psychopaths don’t care. But you and I should…

War is a horror.
War is horrible. It is nothing that should be taken lightly.

.

War is a horror.

Things are dire.

From my email feed…

We are in a situation bleaker than during the last Cold War, and similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
And  US media is not reporting on any of it.  Most of you know this. But I'm  posting it because it points out things that most people don't know,  because it's suppressed.
 
This interview with Ray  McGovern, who advised US presidents and briefed them daily for many  years talks about the very precarious state of US Russia relations.  Frankly this dwarfs controversy about the election.
 
Please watch this. And share with friends and family.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHaBjdRI-DU
Many people who live outside the United States think that the USA is a corrupt nation that is bound to collapse any day now.
Many people who live outside the United States think that the USA is a corrupt nation that is bound to collapse any day now.

EPIC FAIL: Why Most US Weapons Systems Are Worse than Russia’s

“Two reasons: complexity, and too much money .”

This article from the Russia Insider archives was first published on RI in April 2018. It was written by Jacob Dreizin Wed, Dec 9 2020 | 2300 words 52,407 Comments 

EPIC FAIL: Why Most US Weapons Systems Are Worse than Russia's
                                                                                                   

The F-35: Insanely expensive, its costs keep soaring - and it's worse than Russian planes which cost 20 times less
Lately  we have seen some good analysis on the limits and vulnerabilities of  the American military in light of events in the former Ukraine and  especially Russia’s demonstrated competence in Syria.  
 
So we have the “what” of the issue, but how about the “why”?  
 
As a U.S. Army veteran and a longtime resident of the  Beltway—including four-and-a-half years living on Crystal Drive in  Arlington, Virginia, which has probably the densest concentration of  “defense” contractors anywhere in America — I think I understand what is  fundamentally wrong with the U.S. military-industrial complex (MIC.)
 
First and foremost, the MIC has long been incapable of producing durable, efficient, versatile weapons.  
 
We don’t even have to look to the F-35 on this one.  
 
(America's latest fighter which has turned into a spectacular technical failure and massive  ($1.5 trillion!) expense  - see our super-popular article about how this plane stacks up against the Russian competition- edit)   
 Just consider the most basic item, the M-16. 
 
The M-16 Assault Rifle
 
My field experience with this piece of junk is that it runs into problems in the presence of even a small amount of sand. When  enough sand gets in to the chamber and mixes with the lube oil on the  bolt assembly, the grit thus formed results in up to every second round misloading.
 
God forbid you should brush an oiled open breach against the side of  your foxhole—you are out of commission.  In the absence of air or  artillery support or sheer overwhelming numbers on your side, you are  dead meat against anyone with a gun that functions in a sandy  environment.  

And why?  

Because, as I was told in boot camp (whether  it’s true or not), this thing is perfectly built to have zero fault  tolerance.  
 
Supposedly, just about every metal component in the M-16 is cast and/or machined to perfection rather than stamped.  Contrast this with  Russian or Chinese weapons that are said to be built like can-openers to spray lead under any conditions.  In other words, the M-16 is so  sophisticated that it doesn't work well.
 
It is now acknowledged that the M-16 with its 5.56mm rounds  is insufficiently lethal beyond a couple of hundred meters, making  it unsuited to long-distance firefights over open terrain (again those  deserts, or perhaps shootouts between mountain ridges.)
 
The M-1 Abrams tank

Another great example - this can be a real dog.  The engine is a gas  turbine, like with an aircraft, except that it is being driven around in  deserts and even sandstorms, making it extremely finicky and  high-maintenance.  (Would you fly your Boeing into a sandstorm?)  Of  course, the Abrams was designed to fight in Germany where sand is not an  issue.  But during the Iraq adventure, sand so tore up the turbine fans  (or whatever) that over 1000 of these million-dollar "power packs" had  to be removed and sent up for depot-level maintenance or refurbishment  stateside.  
 
Yes, that’s right—these things cannot even be fixed in the  field.  All you can do is pull them out with a crane and ship them back  to the civilians at enormous expense.  At the height of the Iraq  adventure, around 2007, the maintenance backlog was so bad that even the  national media got wind of it.  
 
Of course, when you have the world’s reserve currency, you can afford  all that and more—the entire world is paying for your wars.  
 
But the waste and inefficiency are a fact.
 
The Basic Problem :  Excessive Complexity
 
I think the problem here is that American war planners and  logisticians prefer originality, complexity, and/or  expense-for-the-hell-of-it over versatility and ease of use and  maintenance.  This is no surprise given America’s wealth and the  longtime generous funding of its armed forces.  After all, every  military reflects its own society. 
 
Unfortunately for Uncle Sam, what he gets is equipment that may work very well in one environment but not another.
 
But so much for American equipment per se.  Let’s talk about  Crystal Drive (a neighborhood in suburban Washington where many defense  contractors have offices - edit.) —or more broadly, the MIC.
 
The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is failing on a massive scale
 
It is clear now that the MIC cannot build anything for less  than 200 percent of its original planned budget (and that’s  being extremely conservative.)  Nor can anything it cranks out nowadays  meet performance or survivability expectations.  Besides the  never-ending supersonic train wreck known as the F-35, we have other  boondoggle failures such as the Littoral Combat Ship, which by all  accounts is less capable and more vulnerable than the 20 to 30  year-old vessels it was supposed to replace.
 
Or, going back a few years, we see the Army’s “Commanche” helicopter,  an intended replacement for the Apache, which blew through $6.9  billion—in 1983-2004 dollars, probably over $10 billion today—before the  entire program was scrapped.  That’s right, over $10 billion  for nothing—not one Commanche was ever delivered for permanent use to an  Army operational unit!  
 
Where did that money go, if they didn’t actually manufacture anything  besides a few prototypes?  Did they spend $10 billion on PowerPoint  presentations?  
 
My brain cannot even wrap around this.  Can you imagine what Russia or China could do for $10 billion?  
 
However, even that pales before the Army's cancelled Future  Combat Systems program, which burned through an estimated (no one knows  exactly) $20 billion from 2003 to somewhere between 2012 and 2014  (depending on what termination milestone you go by), with almost nothing  to show beyond a few prototypes, a lot of concept art, and a 29-pound toy robot made by iRobot of "Roomba" vacuum cleaner fame.   In fact, I can’t think of one big new U.S. weapons system that has  succeeded in the last 25 years, other than perhaps the Stryker armored  car (though some have argued that point, and I just don’t know enough  about it.)
 
As pointed out by many other observers, part of the blame lies  with our political system, where MIC corporations buy politicians and  then receive favors in the form of contracts, whether or not the  contracts make any sense. However, I think this is not the only problem,  nor even necessarily the biggest.  
 
Fundamentally what I think we have is systemic over-complexity resulting in nothing getting done, or done well anyway.
 
US intelligence agencies have the same problem
 
This is akin to the deep systemic crisis in Uncle Sam’s intelligence  agencies, where from 9/11 to the Arab Spring to Crimea to the ISIS  conquest of Mosul to Russia in Syria, the word is always “we didn’t  expect…”  In this case, we have numerous agencies—some of them with  overlapping functions—that are drowning in paperwork and garbage data  (or too much data) and are almost totally useless.  
 
As some readers will remember, it got so bad that in April 2014 the  State Department released a photo collage aiming to prove that (among  other things) a bearded Chechen battalion commander going by the name  Hamza, who appeared in Russian TV footage of the 2008 Olympic War, was  none other than the bearded, overweight Slaviansk militiaman going by  the call-sign “Babai”—in other words, Russian special forces have  invaded the Donbass.  (The New York Times ran with this and was then  oh-so-vaguely and gently reproached by its own ombudsman.)  
 
Shouldn’t this awful joke have been prevented by the Office of the  Director of National Intelligence, which is supposed to promote  info-sharing among agencies and centrally vet all claims and  conclusions—especially those being trumpeted on the State Department’s  website or at its briefings?  Apparently not!
 
Bureaucratic bloat
 
On the other hand, what the U.S. lack-of-intelligence complex is very  good at—besides hiring way too many buxom, flirty young things straight  out of college and with no language skills or any experience at  all (DIA and NGA, you know your ex-military managers like to beautify  their offices)—is providing employment for tens of thousands of its own  staff as well as tens of thousands of grotesquely-overpaid contractors,  including those who build and run billion-dollar eavesdropping centers  that have proven incapable of picking up anything useful, perhaps  because when you try to listen to everything, you end up hearing  nothing. 
 
The lesson here is that the more offices and agencies, the more  managers and political appointees who will seek to justify and expand  their turf and budgets by shoveling out as much money on as many  contracts as possible, as quickly as possible, in many cases even paying  contractors to do little more than just sit around (sometimes at home)  waiting for the next contract.  (I have seen this many times in  Washington.)  
 
Then you get so big that people simply trip over each other and the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
 
The US MIC worked great 50 years ago because less money and people were involved
 
So I think this is what’s going on not only in the intelligence  apparatus, but in the MIC as a whole.  We have hundreds of thousands of  staff and contractors as well as military officers assigned to liaise  with them, all kinds of project managers and “six-sigma black belts” and  other buzzwords, juggling millions of PowerPoints across the river from  Washington and throughout the country, and they can’t field a  helicopter after spending $10 billion on it. 
 
Really?  How did this great country ever defeat the Japanese Empire?
 
Go to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington; you will see  the most amazing things—e.g. generators designed to operate on the  surface of the Moon, drawing electricity from the heat of plutonium  decay—that were developed when there was no Crystal Drive, no Tysons  Corner, etc.  
 
Then go to the museum’s extension near Dulles airport and check out  the SR-71 “Blackbird”, the fastest and highest-flying airplane ever  built (this was about 50 years ago.)  
 
How did they do it?  
 
Although there were more men in uniform back then, the MIC itself (or  should I say the  Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Homeland-Insecurity-Complex (MIIHIC)) -  had but a fraction of today’s civilian workforce.  Luckily, most of  those paper-pushing “systems integrators” and PowerPoint rangers did not  exist.  Blueprints were drafted with pencil and paper.  
 
Today, Uncle Sam can’t even build a heavy rocket engine, not to mention a good helmet or ejection seat for his F-35.
 
No hope for change going forward
 
So it seems that as a technical civilization we are degenerating.  
 
Sure, there are constant advancements in microelectronics (a.k.a.  integrated circuits) and the programs they allow, but in terms of heavy  engineering—of which the MIIHIC and other government initiatives like  the space program were at the forefront since WWII—it seems that the  U.S. is tapped out.  
 
And you know what?  Throwing more money at it is just going to make it worse. 
 
The organizations with their budgets and their perfectly  reasonable-sounding arguments for ever-greater budgets will grow, their  workforces will grow, the contracting sector will grow, more shiny  office buildings will go up, but the result will be an  ever-increasingly-negative marginal return.  
 
John McCain and all the other broken records in and out of the  Pentagon will say we still don't have enough funds to counter a  pointless Russian invasion of parasitic, inconsequential Lithuania  (currently headed by a longtime communist) or any other 1990s-era  speculative wargame training scenario that somehow carried over into the  public consciousness and morphed into the Greatest Threat to World  Peace.
 
Of course, as long as the U.S. has the money to send gazillion-dollar  armies and armadas against illiterate natives armed with sharp sticks  and coconuts, this may not visibly threaten its hegemony.  Almost any  problem or mistake can be papered over with money, for a long time  anyway.  
 
But eventually, even if the money spigot does not constrict, we will  get to the point where the military really can’t be used as anything  more than a façade or a gunboat road-show, hoping no one calls the  bluff, because the stuff just doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, or  else is too vulnerable (witness the evacuation of the U.S. aircraft  carrier from the Persian Gulf after Uncle Sam found out that Russia has  cruise missiles with a range of at least 1500km, or the ridiculous  sail-around of China's little islands which had the sense to infringe  only very slightly and briefly on that country's imaginary territorial  waters), or the natives can devise their own countermeasures. 
 
In fact, I would say we are at that point already.  Not to mention,  the U.S. Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs are still so  tapped-out after Iraq and Afghanistan that another major ground  operation is unthinkable.  (At this point, Washington is more  likely to launch nukes at somebody than risk another ground war.)
 
So you can anticipate a lot of hand-wringing and a lot more money  being thrown into the breach.  That’s simply what the machine does;  there is no chance to reform it, nor will the Hegemony dissipate  willingly (although lately it’s done a good job of  dissipating unwillingly.)  
 
But all that money may as well be flushed down the can. 
 
The threshold has been reached and it's all downhill from here.

This is all pretty much standard knowledge within the defense industry. The MIL-STD-810 (whatever revision it is now) is all about this particular issue. But the things is that the money is NOT in making better weapons systems for use, but rather as a system to make a lot of money to the owners of the military-industrial industry.

And that is already very well known.

Many people who live outside the United States think that the USA is a corrupt nation that is bound to collapse any day now.
Many people who live outside the United States think that the USA is a corrupt nation that is bound to collapse any day now.

Russia’s Airborne Forces Differ Greatly from NATO’s (Cool Video)

Many analysts consider them the best in the world and totally unique.  Why?
They are much bigger (50,000 troops fully combat ready)
They are mechanized (they parachute heavy equipment in with troops)
They are constantly innovating and have legendary esprit de corps
Interesting:  They include a saint among their veterans  
 
-This article from our archives was first published on RI in August 2015

This article originally appeared at The Vineyard of the Saker. The Saker (The Vineyard of the Saker) Wed, Dec 9 2020 | 1100 words 16,197 Comments 

Russia's Airborne Forces Differ Greatly from NATO's  (Cool Video)
                                                                                                   

What I want to share with you today is a promo movie by Zvezda TV,  the semi-official TV channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense, at the  occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Russian Airborne Forces.  So  don’t expect a hard-hitting documentary asking the tough questions and  making critical comments. 
 
However, this is nonetheless a very interesting  video and when I saw it, I begged Alena Scarecrow and Tatzhit to  translate and subtitle it, which they very kindly did.  Before letting  you watch the video, I would like to share with you a few thoughts about  the Russian Airborne Forces (called ‘VDV’ in Russian) and about their  military, social, political and even spiritual role in modern Russia.

The Russian Airborne Forces

The Russian VDV are truly an absolutely unique phenomenon and they should not be confused with any other airborne force.

For one thing, the VDV are fully mechanized.   

Firstly. So while they are ‘paratroopers’, these paratroopers are not just light  infantry (like, say, the US 82nd AB), but a very mobile force, fully  mechanized and with a *lot* of firepower.  In the movie you are about to  watch, you will see some of their armored vehicles and artillery pieces  which, uniquely, can also be delivered by parachute.  What the movie  does not show is the artillery of the VDV which includes such systems as  the 2S9 Nona,  the D-30 howitzer or the 2S25 self-propelled tank destroyer.

Second,  the VDV are a numerically huge force which currently totals 50’000 men  and includes 5 Airborne Divisions and 6 Airborne Brigades (including the  45th Special Forces of the VDV Brigade).  All of them air-deployable  and on a top-level or readiness.

Thirdly, the VDV truly are the  embodiment of military valor and tactical skills and they have played an  absolutely crucial role in many Soviet and Russian battles, but  probably never more so than during the worst tragedy in their long  history: the battle for Ulus-Kert in which the entire 6th Airborne  company perished. 

I don’t have the space and time to  recount in detail what happened on that day of early 2000 but to those  interested by this amazing event I would recommend the article “ULUS-KERT: An Airborne Company’s Last Stand” by Sergeant Michael D. Wilmoth, US Army Reserve, and Lieutenant Colonel Peter G. Tsouras, US Army Reserve, Retired, in the Military Review of July-August 1991, pp 91-96 (click here for  this article reposted on this blog).   Keep in mind that this article  was not written by the promotions department of Zvezda TV, but by two US  military experts who are very critical of many aspects of what took  place that day (and rightly so).

What is absolutely crucial for the understanding of the importance of this battle for Hill 776 in  Ulus-Kert is that the year 2000 marked the absolute rock-bottom of the  “democratic experiment” (aka the American colonization) of Russia.  

Yes,  Putin has just come to power, but the country was absolutely devastated  by a decade of Soviet stagnation followed by another decade of  “democratic reforms” and Putin was just making his very first steps as a  new head of state. 

What the 6th company achieved on Hill 776 was  an immense wake-up call to the entire Russian nation saying “enough is  enough” and “not one single step back”.  

The article by Wilmoth and  Tsouras accurately describes all the failures in command and execution  which resulted in the tragedy of the 6th company, but it is precisely these  failures which made the sacrifice of these men so amazing: the country  had essentially abandoned its own military, but the young men of the VDV  did not hesitate to die, all of them, to resist the face of evil (and, in those days, nothing embodied absolute evil as much as the Chechen  Wahabis and their reign of terror and medieval atrocities). 

It is  hard to over-estimate the contribution which the Russian Airborne  Forces have made to the rebirth of Russia.  But this goes even further.

I  strongly believe that it is not a coincidence that the Russian Airborne  Forces have even produced an Orthodox martyr and saint: Evgenii  Aleksandrovich Rodionov.  You can read a short summary of the life and  death of Rodionov in the Wikipedia article under his name.
  • Evgenii Rodionov, photo and icon
  • Evgenii Rodionov, photo and icon
What  is so important about the case of Rodionov is that died as a martyr  because he refused to abandon his Orthodox faith and that his podvig (spiritual feat) happened away from everybody at a time when, as the sad expression went, “every boy wanted to become a criminal thug and every girl a prostitute” as people used to say in 1996, in the midst of the “democratic hell” Russia had become. 

Though  I cannot prove it, I am personally deeply convinced that the fact that  Rodionov was a solider of the Airborne Forces is not a coincidence.  I  have met enough Airborne officers and soldiers myself and I know that  their level of patriotism and spiritual awareness is exceptionally high  because they live by an honor code, an ideal, which has it roots in the  most ancient Russian military traditions which have always been immersed  in spiritual and moral values far beyond just winning a battle.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying  that all the soldiers of the VDV are some kind of invincible saints or  anything like that.  Far from it.  It is enough to see the footage of  the kind of silly drunken nonsense these guys display each August 2nd  (the day of the Holy Prophet Elijah, Patron of the Russian Airborne  Forces) to lose any such illusions:

And one reality should not overshadow the other one: they are both equally Russian and equally typical of the VDV.
What  I am trying to illustrate by all of the above is that the Russian  Airborne Forces are an absolutely unique, and uniquely Russian,  phenomenon and that they are a truly formidable force by any measure.   Now for a more US-style promo movie, with lot’s of high-tech hardware  and “cool” shots, please see the following video. 

It will show  you that the Russian VDV are also very modern and forward looking  military forces with over 85 years of development behind their back.   And, having watched that video, ask yourself this simple question: how impressed to you think these guys are with the new multi-national NATO “spearhead” and “rapid reaction” forces?
the day of the Holy Prophet Elijah, Patron of the Russian Airborne Forces
The day of the Holy Prophet Elijah, Patron of the Russian Airborne Forces.

You know…

Yeah, you know, that it’s a really cold day in Hell when the American news would say anything good about any other military force, whether it is Russian on Chinese. But here, on MM we try to provide insight.

As I have tried to state elsewhere, if you want to hear about what other narrative is being promoted in the American echo chambers (election fraud, political bribes, mind control, etc) you need not come to MM. This is a completely different type of site. We are not a “me too” of the preferred NSA narrative venue cabal.

Here’s a taste of what the echo chambers in the USA report on Chinese and Russian military forces… America is the best! America is the largest, strongest and best trained. China and Russia military are “push overs”. We are undefeated, and the most powerful military in the history of the world!

American military.
American military in the eyes of American media.

.

The experts have spoken and Americans are ready to die for “their” country…

Russia

Not So Scary: This Is Why Russia's Military Is a Paper Tiger. Certainly Moscow’s military forces will continue to modernize, but Russian military might—other than its nuclear forces—is an ...

-National Interest
Russia banned from using its name, flag at next two Olympics
 
Russia will not be able to use its name, flag and  anthem at the next two Olympics or at any world championships for the  next two years after a ruling Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for  Sport.

In other words: this doping scandal never existed; but it was never  about sports: it is all - and always was - about propaganda. Russian  athletes will continue to compete normally - only without the Russian  symbols.
This is a clear attack against Russia.

China

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Wednesday that while China has  more ships, it'll be a while before it can match the power of the US  Navy.
 
"I want to make clear that China cannot match the United States when it comes to naval power," Esper explained at a RAND Corporation event.

"Even  if we stopped building new ships, it would take the [People's Republic  of China] years to close the gap when it comes to our capability on the  high seas," he said. "Ship numbers are important, but they don't tell  the whole story."

And of course, there is the obligatory bullshit reporting on how strange China is. Uh. Sure….

Anti China news.
Is this a thing? Only inside American newspapers.

.

Meanwhile…

What does all this mean?

Well, I have been promoting the idea that America as it stands today is not sustainable. But I am NOT a “lone voice in the wilderness”. Many others have also made these observations. For instance…

Other opinions.
Other opinions.

.

But you all don’t need to be a reader to follow this. All you need to do is take a casual look around you. Just look.

Fight club.
Fight Club.

.

The stench of decay permeates America at all levels…

America today.
Women offer sex for McDonald’s food.

.

Not yet convinced?

Cheap sex.
I guess that sex comes cheaply in the United States.

.

I guess that if the American leadership are all psychopaths, and that they rigged the elections in their favor so that the serf-slaves serve them, then everything is pretty much following the natural progression of order. It ‘s a stratification of society into a ruler class and a servant class, and that’s just the way it is. If this keeps up, castes will form, and America will resemble the caste system within India.

Any your boys and girls who read this will be in the lower, servant, classes.

If not, then the United States will collapse upon itself. Which is why everyone is writing about this issue, no one wants to face the idea that the USA can continue and be permitted to set up a stratified society. One of the Haves, and the other a “disposable class”.

So, as uncomfortable as it is, let’s all hope for the collapse of the USA.

Difficult.
It’s very difficult to argue otherwise.

.

Let’s trust that the global oligarchy have successfully managed to isolate the USA on the global stage to the extent that any damage during the American meltdown will be limited to the North American region. I sincerely hope that this remains the case.

That is my “gut” feeling. And that is what I am betting on.

But others seem to think that if America collapses, then the entire world will collapse as well. In their minds the USA …IS THE WORLD. And thus it’s collapse will destroy the world (more or less). Nope.

Nope.

Not true.

But you can read for yourself and come to your own conclusions…

That Collapse You Ordered…?

 That Collapse You Ordered…? 
 

I had a fellow on my latest podcast, released  Sunday, who insists that the world population will crash 90-plus  percent from the current 7.6 billion to 600 million by the end of this  century. Jack Alpert heads an outfit called the Stanford Knowledge Integration Lab (SKIL) which he started at Stanford University in 1978 and now runs as a private research foundation. Alpert is primarily an engineer.
 
At 600 million, the living standard in the USA would be on a level  with the post-Roman peasantry of Fifth century Europe, but without the  charm, since many of the planet’s linked systems — soils, oceans,  climate, mineral resources — will be in much greater disarray than was  the case 1,500 years ago. Anyway, that state-of-life may be a  way-station to something more dire. Alpert’s optimal case would be a  world human population of 50 million, deployed in three “city-states,”  in the Pacific Northwest, the Uruguay / Paraguay border region, and  China, that could support something close to today’s living standards  for a tiny population, along with science and advanced technology, run  on hydropower. The rest of world, he says, would just go back to nature,  or what’s left of it. Alpert’s project aims to engineer a path to that  optimal outcome.
 
I hadn’t encountered quite such an extreme view of the future before,  except for some fictional exercises like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.  (Alpert, too, sees cannibalism as one likely byproduct of the journey  ahead.) Obviously, my own venture into the fictionalized future of the World Made by Hand  books depicted a much kinder and gentler re-set to life at the  circa-1800 level of living, at least in the USA. Apparently, I’m a  sentimental softie.
 
Both of us are at odds with the more generic techno-optimists who are  waiting patiently for miracle rescue remedies like cold fusion while  enjoying re-runs of The Big Bang Theory. (Alpert doesn’t  completely rule out as-yet-undeveloped energy sources, though he  acknowledges that they’re a low-percentage prospect.) We do agree with  basic premise that the energy supply is mainly what supports the way we  live now, and that it shows every evidence of entering a deep and  destabilizing decline that will halt the activities necessary to keep  our networks of dynamic systems running.
 
A question of interest to many readers is how soon or how rapid the  unraveling of these systems might be. When civilizations crumble, it  tends to fast-track. The Roman empire seems to be an exception, but in  many ways it was far more resilient than ours, being a sort of advanced  Flintstones economy, with even its giant-scale activities (e.g. building  the Coliseum) being accomplished by human-powered work. In any case,  the outfit really fell apart steadily after the reign of emperor Marcus  Aurelius (180 AD).
 
The Romans had their own version of a financialized economy: they  simply devalued their coins by mixing in less and less silver at the  mint, so they could pretend to pay for the same luxuries they had grown  accustomed to as resources stretched thin. Our financialized economy —  like everything else we do — operates at levels of complexity so  baffling that even its supposed managers at the central banks are flying  blind through fogs of debt, deception, and moral hazard. When that  vessel of pretense slams into a mountain top, the effects are likely to  be quick and lethal to the economies on the ground below.
 
In our time, the most recent crash of a major socioeconomic system  was the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990-91. Of course, it happened  against the backdrop of a global system that was still revving pretty  well outside the USSR, and that softened the blow. Ultimately, the  Russians still had plenty of oil to sell, which allowed them to re-set  well above the Fifth Century peasant level of existence. At least for  now. The Soviet Union collapsed because it was a thoroughly dishonest  system that ran on pretense and coercion. Apparently, the US Intel  Community completely missed the signs that political collapse was  underway.
 
They seem to be pretty clueless about the fate of the USA these days,  too. If you consider the preoccupations of two very recent Intel chiefs  — John Brennan of CIA and James Clapper, DNI — who now inveigh  full-time on CNN as avatars of the Deep State against the wicked Golden  Golem of Greatness. Personally, I expect our collapse to be as sudden  and unexpected as the USSR’s, but probably bloodier because there’s  simply more stuff just lying around to fight over. Of course, I expect  the collapse to express itself first in banking, finance, and markets —  being so deeply faith-based and so subject to simple failures of faith.  But it will become political and social soon enough, maybe all-at once.  And when it happens in the USA, it will spread through the financial  systems the whole world round.

Conclusion

I need a beer.

…

[Result 1] So all evidence points to a massive collapse with the inclusion of civil strife, civil war, and global war set up as distractions that quickly get out of hand.

If this does not happen…

[Restult 2] Then evidence points to a fully enslaved nation of dumbed-down slaves that service the wealthy in a forced stratification system that would resemble the caste system in India.

You will not hear any of this in the American “news” because you are not to know of it. Your rulers are all psychopaths that indeed want either of the two outcomes to manifest. They want either result one or two. Nothing else is acceptable to them.

Some John Titor Stuff…

John Titor visits to our primary world line template, showing the deviation values.
John Titor visits to our primary world line template, showing the deviation values.

A final Thought

And my thoughts…

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The Struggle with China is not a Replay of the Cold War: Remarks to the Asia American Forum

Most of what you read in the Western press is “China = Bad”. And since this is an election year, anything related to China (the evil devil incarnate) association with the opposition party (=Biden) is fabricated and promoted. Oh don’t be too surprised to see all sorts of tweets, videos, and the like on how China has it’s “dirty little hands” in the wallets of Biden and company. It’s pretty much normal this time of year.

Lies.

Distortions.

More lies.

Insane level of howling and screeching of the lies…

Those of us who know better have either stopped reading the “news” or following our feeds, or intentionally point out the ‘bots and other nonsense spewing (and it is truly SPEWING) forth out of the government-owned and controlled Alt-Right, Alt-Left, and mainstream American and Western press.

Fuck that all!

It’s all nonsense and the last thing you want to read when you get up in the morning and check the news is to find out about what ever the calamity of the day is.

OK. Well, then…

Imagine my surprise when I read this piece of sensibility.

It’s penned by a former ambassador and (of course CIA) well experienced in Asian Geo-politics, and well aware of all the shenanigans going on right now. It is long, but gosh and golly is it spot on correct. It’s worth a read.

Reposed as found. All credit to the author. No editing at all simply because the venue it was pulled from was WordPress friendly and devoid of java-script and for-profit advertisements. Obviously this author is like me. Stop making everything for-profit.

The Struggle with China is not a Replay of the Cold War: Remarks to the Asia American Forum

By Chas Freeman | On 4 October 2020

Washington has declared war on China.  The administration and its allies hope that the war will be “cold,” but have no strategy for keeping it so.  I find it noteworthy that the most belligerently anti-Chinese members of the current U.S. Senate are also its youngest. 

They came to adulthood after the end of the post-World War II “Cold War” and have no experience of its anxieties.  They appear to take its sudden end as predestined – something that was so inevitably right ideologically that it can and should be taken for granted.  Their military experience, if any, has been in the contemporary equivalent of the 19th century’s Indian Wars – combat with gun-toting farmers with no air forces, air defenses, navies, guided missiles, or nuclear weapons with which to answer U.S. hostility.  To paraphrase Hilaire Belloc’s riff on Britain’s hubris in its colonial wars:

“Whatever happens, we have got
Close air support and they have not.”

The Cold War was radically different from this.  It was a global struggle between two competing ideological blocs and nuclear-armed power centers capable of destroying not just each other but all life on the planet except maybe the cockroaches.  It began as a series of squabbles over the spoils of a worldwide war.  Each side strove to consolidate spheres of politico-military and economic influence and deny the other access to them.  But each learned to avoid confrontations that might lead to armed combat directly with the other.  Each limited itself to proxy wars aimed at sustaining or imposing its ideology somewhere not in the grip of the other.  Each sought to minimize and contain interaction with the other.  That was not difficult, given the utter lack of interdependence between the two and the blocs of nations they formally and informally commanded.

The struggle we Americans have now initiated with China has none of these characteristics.  To analogize it to the Cold War of 1947 – 1991 is intellectually lazy.  More important, it is profoundly misleading and delusional.  The Sino-American split is not the sequel to a bloody world war.  However politically convenient it may be for Americans to cast antagonism to China in all-encompassing Manichean terms, this is a contest born of contending national self-images and ambitions, not ideologies.  The struggle with China on which Americans have embarked is a bilateral contest in which others may or may not choose to take sides, not one between two committed blocs of nations.  China is both a much less inherently hostile and far more robust rival than the Soviet Union was.

Emulating China’s autocracy by closing America to foreign goods, services, people, and ideas, as the United States is now doing, is self-defeating.  Modeling China policy on Ronald Reagan’s treatment of the USSR before he met Mikhail Gorbachev, as Secretary of State Pompeo has done, is the path to receipt of a national “Darwin award.”  The U.S. contention with a resurgent China cannot be conducted in the same manner as the Cold War.  It will not end, as the Cold War did, with the voluntary resignation of an ideologically disillusioned and exhausted adversary.

Before I discuss China and how our contest with it is likely to proceed, it may be useful to spend a minute or two on what China is not.

In Chinese literature, there is a beast called a 四不像that is satirically defined by the “four things it ain’t.”  The head and face of a “four ain’t[1]” is slender like a horse, but it ain’t a horse.  Its horns are like a deer’s, but different.  Its neck is like a camel’s, but it is no camel.  Its tail is like a donkey’s, but it’s not an ass.  The point is that describing a “four ain’t” by reference to previously encountered animals it does not resemble is worse than no help at all in understanding and dealing with it.

China is the “four ain’t” of today’s geopolitics.  [1] It is ruled by a “Communist Party” but is an overachieving participant in global capitalism, committed to free trade, expanded foreign investment, and a market economy guided by industrial policy, not central planning.  [2] China is armed with nuclear weapons, but it has sized and configured its arsenal for a retaliatory response to an attack on it by other nuclear powers, not for a first strike, which it has abjured and is not equipped to conduct.  [3] China is a threat to American global primacy, but mostly in economic and technological rather than political or military terms, in which it remains decidedly inferior.  [4] China is once again the immovable economic and cultural center of its native region – where the United States has for seventy-five years been the resident overlord – but China seeks no “allies” and has no political satrapies or military dependencies.

Crucially, China is not the Soviet Union:

  • China has no messianic ideology to export. Its appeal derives from its performance, not its ideas.  It is happy to be emulated, but justly charged with callous indifference to how foreign societies govern themselves.
  • China is not engaged in regime change operations to create an ideological sphere of influence. It seeks to prevent the overthrow of its own authoritarian system of governance but does not oppose democracy or promote authoritarianism abroad.  Where tested, as in Korea, it often has a better relationship with democracies than with their undemocratic opponents.
  • China’s relationships with foreign nations are transactional rather than sentimental. It has no “satellites,” “allies,” or entente partners to divert its attention from its own defense.  Beijing has no ideological soul mates, committed followers, or dedicated sycophants abroad.
  • China’s economy dwarfs that of the USSR. It accounts for 30 percent of global manufacturing and continues to grow.  China has an economy that is almost one-third larger than that of the United States in purchasing power terms and that is rapidly approaching parity at nominal exchange rates.
  • China is now the largest consumer market on the planet and the biggest trading partner of three-fourths of the world’s other economies. It is fully integrated into the global capitalist system and cannot be walled off from it.
  • China already possesses one-fourth of the world’s scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematics workforce. It is steadily increasing its ascendancy.
  • China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” is an order-setting geoeconomic strategy with no Soviet parallel that dwarfs the nearest American equivalent – the Marshall Plan.
  • China spends two percent or less of GDP on its military vs. the estimated 9 – 15 percent of the USSR and the current 7.9 percent spent by the United States.[2] Unlike the USSR, if pushed to do so, China has the capacity to more than match any U.S. military spending increases.
  • Despite much wishful thinking on the part of its detractors, premising a policy on China’s collapse from systemic defects, as George Kennan shrewdly did in the case of the USSR in 1947, is – on the evidence – delusional.
  • China has not built a nuclear arsenal to match that of either the United States or Russia. It has instead adopted a “no first use” policy for nuclear weapons backed by a modest force de frappe that can conduct a limited but devastating retaliatory counterstrike to any foreign nuclear attack on it.
  • There are no U.S. arms control agreements, exchanges of information, understandings on mutual restraint, or escalation control mechanisms between the U.S. and Chinese armed forces as there were with the USSR
  • American military intervention in the Russian civil war lasted only two years (1918-1920). Overt U.S. intervention in China’s ongoing civil war, sparked by the Korean War, began in 1950.  Seventy years later, U.S. support for the heirs to Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Chinese regime not only continues but is escalating.
  • The United States backs challenges to China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and islets in its near seas. By contrast, despite rhetorical opposition to its incorporation of the three Baltic states, America never actively contested the USSR’s territorial integrity.
  • The armed forces of the United States aggressively patrol China’s shorelines and test its defenses, as they did those of the Soviet Union. But, so far, unlike the USSR, China has not reciprocated.

Equally important, the United States of the 2020s is not the America of the early Cold War.

  • As the Cold War began, the United States produced one-half or more of the world’s manufactures. It now makes about one-sixth.
  • For the first time in American history, foreigners do not envy American freedoms. Once almost-universal admiration for the United States has been overwritten by repeated displays of racism, gun violence, political venality, xenophobia, and – most recently – executive incompetence and legislative default in the face of national challenges.  No one abroad now seeks to emulate the U.S. political system or believes that the United States illustrates the possibilities of democracy.
  • During the Cold War, the United States was the uncontested leader of a bloc of dependent nations that it called “the free world.” That bloc is now in an advanced state of decay.  America’s international followership is greatly diminished and its capacity to organize coalitions that integrate lesser powers in support of common objectives has atrophied.
  • Legacy U.S. alliances formed to contain the USSR have little relevance to American contention with China:
    • US-European alliances like NATO are withering. Though cautious about China, Europeans do not and will not support an effort to “contain” it.
    • No Asian security partner of the United States wants to choose between America and China.[3] S. “alliances” in Asia embody U.S. undertakings to protect partners rather than commitments by them to come to America’s aid.  Such dependent relationships cannot be repurposed to form a coalition to counter China.
  • The United States is isolated on a widening list of issues of importance to other countries. It has withdrawn or excluded itself from a growing number of multilateral instruments of global and regional governance and is no longer able to lead the international community as it once did.
  • Americans have repeatedly declined to recapitalize or cooperate in reforming international financial institutions to meet new global and regional investment requirements. This has led China, India, and other rising powers to create supplementary lenders like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank.  The United States has chosen to have no voice in these and continues inadvertently to stimulate the creation of still more institutions that can act without reference to American interests or views.
  • Since 1950, the Taiwan issue has been a casus belli between the United States and China. But U.S. allies or security partners see it as a fight among Chinese to be managed rather than joined.  If the U.S. mismanages the Taiwan issue, as it now appears to be doing, it will have no overt allies in the resulting war.
  • No claimant against China in the South China Sea is prepared to join the U.S. in naval conflict with China.
  • U.S. foreign policy is now as partisan as domestic policy. It is often driven by special rather than national interests and is unrealistic, strategically incoherent, divisive, and fickle.
  • Partisan oligopolies have swallowed independent media in the United States and reduced the thousands of U.S. correspondents once reporting on international affairs to mere dozens. S. corporate media now treat the news as an entertainment-based cost center and consumer product rather than as a necessary public service or civic duty.  These developments and the politicization of the U.S. intelligence community diminish and distort American situational awareness, helping spurious narratives to overwrite facts.

In short, this time is different. 

Sino-American relations have a history and dynamic that do not conform to those of the US-Soviet contest.  If you have seen one “communist,” you have not seen them all.  And the United States is much less well equipped to inspire and lead opposition to China than it was to the USSR.

The US-China contention is far broader than that of the Cold War, in part because China, unlike the determinedly autarkic USSR, is part of the same global society as the United States. 

The battlefields include 

  • global governance, 
  • geoeconomics, 
  • trade, 
  • investment, 
  • finance, 
  • currency usage, 
  • supply chain management, 
  • technology standards and systems,
  • and scientific collaboration

In addition to the geopolitical and military domains in which the Cold War played out. 

Short of nuclear war, the struggle the United States has begun with China may not be existential, as the Cold War was, but it cannot avoid being hugely consequential.

Four years ago, the U.S. unilaterally decided that geopolitics are inherently driven by great power military rivalry that precludes cooperation.   

In 2016 when Donald Trump became President and appointed war-hawk neocons to all the international positions in his administration.

The policies derived from this militaristic reconceptualization of international relations are generating a series of zero-sum games between adversaries seemingly as interested in hurting each other as they are in raising their own status.  The newly pugnacious U.S. stance legitimizes xenophobia and justifies bilateral approaches to foreign relations that don’t just ignore issues like global terrorism, pandemic diseases, climate change, migration, nuclear proliferation, or regional tensions but actually cripple the global governance and international coordination needed to tackle them.  The United States is going out of its way to demonstrate its indifference to the interests and sensibilities of its past and potential partners.  It is withdrawing from international organizations it can no longer dominate.  These actions amount to unilateral diplomatic disarmament and the creation of politico-economic vacuums for others – not just China – to fill.

Future historians will puzzle over why Americans have chosen to dismantle and discard the connections and capacities – other than military prowess – that long enabled the United States to direct the trend of events in most global and regional arenas.  When they unravel this mystery, they will also need to explain the simultaneous collapse of the separation of powers structure on which the American republic was founded and on which its liberties were built.  The checks and balances that made America uniquely resilient are now on life support.  A legislative branch that refuses to take a stand on the issues entrusted to it by the plain text of the U.S. Constitution has been sidelined by an increasingly despotic and bellicose presidency.  The American judiciary, once the custodian of constitutional rectitude, is now selected and appointed by reference to political rather than legal criteria.  The result is governance with declining legitimacy at home and next to no appeal abroad.

Fortunately for post-constitutional America, China’s political system, despite the stability and prosperity it has fostered, has even less appeal beyond China’s borders than the degenerate and debased U.S. “model” now does.   Both China and the United States are now repelling other nations rather than attracting them.  If the contest were military and didn’t go nuclear, the United States, with its battle-hardened and uniquely lethal military, would enjoy insuperable advantages.  But politics and armed conflict are not the central elements in the Sino-American confrontation.  And the zero-sum games in other competitive arenas do not look promising for America.

After World War II, the United States made the rules.  American statesmen crafted a world order that expressed American ideals and served American interests.  In the post-Cold War period Washington began to contract its commitments and to disengage from the global institutions and norms it had sponsored.  It also abandoned the effort to lead an expansion of the rule-bound order it had created.  Over three dozen treaties are pending in the U.S. Senate.  The last time it approved one was in 2008.

The United States has failed to ratify international compacts that regulate a widening range of arenas of importance to it.  These include conventions on the law of the sea, nuclear testing, the arms trade, human rights, and crimes against humanity.  Washington has withdrawn from or suspended compliance with conventions on the laws of war and agreements on arms control, combating climate change, and trade and investment.  It has ceased to participate in or sought to sabotage a growing list of United Nations specialized agencies and related institutions.  Notwithstanding the current global pandemic, these include the World Health Organization.  This generation of American politicians does not seem to understand that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.

America’s withdrawal from its traditional role in global rule-setting and enforcement deprives the United States of the dominant influence it long exercised through the institutions it created.  Other great powers remain wedded to the old American-led order expressed in the United Nations Charter.  But America’s exemption of itself from the comity of nations and its spontaneous metamorphosis from world leader to global dropout have left it unable to aggregate the power of other nations to its own.  Washington’s resort to abusive language, threats and coercive measures has grown as its capacity to apply its power non-coercively has declined, further reducing the numbers of foreign allies, partners, and friends willing to bandwagon with America.

The European Union remains impotent and cannot fill the breach created by the United States’ sidelining of itself.  Rising and resurgent great powers – like China, India, Brazil, and Russia – now have a free hand to reshape and supplement legacy institutions to their advantage, and they are doing so.  In some ways, their initiatives are constructive.  Unfortunately, in others they are not.  This is especially true of their reliance on precedents set at Guantánamo that justify “extraordinary rendition,” “enhanced interrogation,” the criminalization of resistance to military occupation, “targeted killings,” and the replacement of the rule of law with ruthless expediency.  Russia saw the example of NATO’s war to separate Kosovo from Serbia as a precedent justifying its separation of Crimea from Ukraine.  As America ceased to set a good example, the world became less civilized.

The decline in U.S. clout internationally is made even more consequential by the fact that China has resources, including money, to offer its partners, and – except for military shock and awe – the United States does not.  The United States’ budget is in chronic deficit.  Even routine government operations must now be funded with debt.  America has spent trillions of borrowed dollars on wars in the Islamic world that it can neither win nor end.  Its so-called “forever wars” siphoned off the funds needed to keep its human and physical infrastructure at levels competitive with those of China and other great economic powers.  They also crippled U.S. statecraft by defunding non-military means to advance or defend American interests abroad and curtailing U.S. contributions to the international institutions charged with assuring global peace and development.

The Asian Infrastructure Development Bank and the New Development Bank and their infant sister institutions affirm American-invented global systems and practices.  They do not challenge legacy lenders like the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.  They supplement such institutions by recreating and recapitalizing them in forms exempt from American veto, sabotage, or stonewalling.  The most recent example of such necessity-driven invention is the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement.  This effectively nullifies a key element of American vandalism of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  It enables the continued orderly resolution of trade and investment disputes between the EU, China, and others without the participation of the United States.  Similarly, current international efforts to craft a multi-currency system for trade settlement and reserve management to replace the dollar do not reflect dissatisfaction with its service in these roles.  They are driven by universal foreign objections to hegemonic American bullying through unilateral dollar sovereignty-based sanctions.

Coercive approaches to statecraft are inherently alienating.  Claims to superiority that are not empirically substantiable are unpersuasive.  Asking countries to choose between China and the United States, when China is clearly rising and America is simultaneously stagnating and declining, practically guarantees the progressive eclipse of American prestige and power.  Advocating democracy abroad while deviating from it at home destroys rather than enhances American credibility.  America’s addiction to debt risks eventual financial collapse even as it limits immediate policy options both at home and abroad.

If the United States succeeds in making its contest with China mainly military, as the military-industrial-congressional complex desires, Americans are less likely to spend the Chinese into national bankruptcy than the Chinese are to bankrupt the United States.  A strategy based on the presumption that Asian and other nations are committed to eternal dependence on U.S. military protection against Washington’s enemy du jour cannot succeed. 

No country wants to be caught in a Sino-American firefight.  If the United States goes to war with China, the outcome is at best uncertain. 

A nuclear exchange cannot be ruled out.

Protectionism and xenophobia promise to reduce American prosperity and retard innovation, not make the United States once again competitive.  Trade and investment policies based on the rejection of comparative advantage promote inefficiency and stagnation rather than growth.  Retreating into the “Five Eyes” technology stockade while barring the gates to Chinese scientists and students is less likely to sustain American international standard setting and scientific primacy than to cede the global commons to China and others.  Withdrawal from multilateral organizations forfeits influence in them and yields it to others more open to diplomatic give and take.  The United States is weakened, not strengthened, by muscular diplomacy-free foreign policy and the incapacitation of every instrument of statecraft other than the military.

For the first time in our history, we Americans must decide how to deal with a country that not only has the capacity to surpass us but is actually doing so.  Unless the United States cures its fiscal feebleness, rebuilds the capacities and competence of its government, upgrades its human and physical infrastructure, and reopens itself to trade, investment, and immigration, America’s roles in global governance, trade, investment, finance, supply chain management, technology standards and systems, and scientific collaboration will continue to contract as those of China and others expand.  The United States’ capacity to innovate will decline, as will American well-being and self-confidence.  This diminishment of the United States is not the consequence of Chinese predation but of American hubris, political ineptitude, and diplomatic decrepitude.  To compete internationally with China, the United States must get its act together at home and, in its foreign relations be everything it claims China is now not – that is: trustworthy, truthful, empathetic, considerate, courteous, and dignified.  Above all, America must itself return to living by the rules – old and new – it expects others to follow.

The essence of any strategy is the efficient linkage of resources and capabilities to feasible objectives.  Current U.S. China policy is strategy-free.  With neither resources nor institutional capabilities to back it, it amounts to puerile fantasy.  Washington is determined to crush the China of its imagination, but China exists whether the United States understands it or not. 

The American turn against China began as neurosis but has now crossed into psychosis…

… evidencing a loss of contact with reality and inability to interact normally with other nations.  This is a product of populism, which habitually disdains facts, embraces politically appealing xenophobic narratives, corrodes discipline and the capacity for self-sacrifice, and rejects expertise…

… in favor of ideologically inspired preconceptions implemented by true believers and untested amateurs.

U.S. China policy at present is a classic example of demonizing a foreign foe to rally support at home and divert attention from festering political, economic, and social problems.  This is an approach that is highly unlikely to result in a Cold War-style victory for the United States or the Enlightenment values that gave birth to it.  Quite the opposite.  All the more so if spurious analogies to a cock-eyed view of the Cold War continue to shape the American approach to competitive interaction with China.

End Notes

[1] The 四不像 [sìbùxiàng] is actually the Père David’s deer or 麋鹿 [mílù], a unique species of elk long extinct in the wild but preserved in the imperial game parks of Beijing and saved from complete extinction by rendition to European zoos before its Chinese remnant herd was slaughtered in the Boxer Rebellion.  In 1985, the 麋鹿 was reintroduced to China from England, where a breeding population had been established.

[2] Proposed U.S. spending on national security in FY-2021 totals $1.21 trillion, about twice the Pentagon “base budget.”  In March 2020, when this budget proposal was put forward, U.S. GDP was $21.535 trillion and falling.  For a breakdown, see https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2020/03/creating-a-national-insecurity-state/

[3] SEATO is dead, as is CENTO.  The Philippines is moving toward strategic neutrality.  Thailand is now closer to China than to America.  Pakistan is estranged from the United States.  Iran and Iraq are both anti-American.  Japan sensibly prioritizes its own defense.  South Korea is appropriately obsessed with North Korea and avoiding Sino-Korean hostility.  Even Australia is torn between its reliance on the China market and its distaste for China’s increasingly hegemonic behavior.

Conclusion

It’s pretty much an accurate appraisal of what is going on in the world today, and regarding China.

I am personally stunned that you will find this in the English-language press. As most of those venues have been co-opted by the USA and UK governments.

This is it.

So don’t get so hot and bothered and twisted up into a pretzel. over the latest ‘news” out of America. This is pretty much everything that you need to know right now. And as you can well guess, American “greatness” is in shambles and the childish neocons running Washington DC are dangerous in their ignorance.

But that’s all gonna change. One way or the other.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Trump Trade War Index here…

Trump Trade War

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What is all this stuff about cryptocurrency and blockchain? And what does it mean to society?

"The US federal budget is on an unsustainable path, has been for some time. But this is not the time to give priority to those concerns."

- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

The world is changing. As I have covered in other posts, the technology that mankind is adopting is causing a great deal of social change. But not like one would expect. It’s not just using a smart phone instead of a rotary dial up phone. It’s not just using a Car Ride APP instead of hailing a taxi. It’s more than that…

It is disrupting many “imprisonment” and “stratification” schemes. Schemes that have become so ingrained into society that we (mistakenly) believe that they are a fundamental part of what our society is.

A stratification scheme is one in which a sentience (or a way of thinking and acting) forces upon society a special system of control. It is a system where they have advantage over other groups of people. And they control the access to this system. They let some people in, and leave others out. It's an exclusive system. As the saying goes in America "they control what will happen, and you ain't a part of it".

The caste system in India is a good example of this. But there are many others.

Most especially in America. 

Think of any system where you need to go through a "gauntlet of approvals" to get something done. And then discover that the ones who "had it easy", and did not need to fight through that gauntlet (such as the wealthy and the "well connected") were sitting here smug when you finally (after many hoop jumps) arrived. These systems have saturated America today.

It is at a point that a "diversity" movement has organized to give others (who normally are restricted from entering these stratified societies) a chance to "break through" those invisible "glass walls".

These schemes…

… such as the Banking System, and the University System, and the Media System are all under stress and being replaced. (There are many others, such as the Judicial system, the Professional Registration System, and the Internet Paywall systems.) These schemes developed over time as a way for one group of people to have benefit over others. It was a way to control others (not overtly) but through quiet manipulation.

Most Americans are aware that corruption exists.

However, they point to some other nation. A nation that they read about in the “news”, and repeat loudly “America is the best nation on the earth!”. “America has problems” they retort, but it is not as bad as the rest of the world.

How do they know this mantra?

The American “news” media told them. That’s how.

Just stay in your little prison you mindless, deplorable debit serfs. Be content with your pathetic way of life. And work! Work! Work! If not, then the system will keep you so drugged up that you will be incapable of rising up and rebelling.

True, to some degree, more or less, the rest of the world engages in petty corruption. A cup of tea here, a few dollars there. However, in America, it is institutionalized and legalized at an enormous wholesale level. All by serious long-time crooks and con-artists.

The Presidential election of 2016 was a choice between two "mafia" bosses;

[1] Democrat - The Clinton Crime Syndicate. Hillary Clinton.
[2] Republican - A New York Casino Owner - Donald Trump.

But, people fought back…

The control of the media was the first battle.

Seemingly overnight, in the 1990’s, all sorts of alternatives to the mainstream media popped up. And the PTB were ending up exhausted trying to fright this “wack a mole” phenomenon. But they eventually won. The alternative media tended to cluster in groups by political extremes. So the PTB, and their government bodies, just simply ended up controlling the multiple media outlets. They now control the narratives for all Alt-Left, Alt-Right, and Mainstream media. And, the battle is not over. They are tightening their control over this medium in all sorts of ways.

The control over who works and who doesn’t is controlled by “the University System”. Over time, now a days, almost all positions except for semi-skilled and unskilled work requires a university degree. It’s pretty bad when a receptionist position needs to have a four year college education to work.

Well, that system is starting to fracture and crash.

And as I see it, it is going down in flames, and very little in the way of alternatives (in America) are replacing it. Overseas, in Europe and China, it’s a completely different matter. I think that I will cover this issue later on in another post, as it is interesting, and very complex.

And the control of the money / Banks is what I just talked about in my latest post. The systems have been set up to permit a small number of people great control over the lives of the rest of us, and it has resulted in ridiculous levels of wealth and poverty. And other nations (better run, stronger, and more capable) are coming up with solutions. Solutions complete with armed police to prevent corruption and abuse of the system.

Key to these new replacements for the paper-backed (not gold backed) banking industry is something called Cryptocurrency.

The following is a complete reprint of the article titled “What is Cryptocurrency?” written by Adam Levy (TMFnCaffeine) on Mar 11, 2018. It was edited to fit this venue. All credit to the author.

What Is Cryptocurrency?

Everything you need to know about this new form of electronic cash.

Cryptocurrency went mainstream in 2017 as the price of bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, soared over 13-fold during the year.

It’s often called “digital gold,” as some of the characteristics of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are similar to the precious metal often used as a store of value. But that comparison doesn’t do it justice.

Cryptocurrency is an electronic cash system that doesn’t rely on central banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions and create new units. Instead, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on a publicly distributed ledger called the blockchain, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments.

That definition might seem downright cryptographic right now, but by the end of this overview, you won’t need a decryption key to understand crypto.

Today we’ll cover:

  1. The creation of bitcoin and the blockchain, the underlying technology of all decentralized cryptocurrency.
  2. How the blockchain solves the problems associated with prior virtual currencies.
  3. How cryptocurrency transactions work without central banks.
  4. The function of cryptocurrency “miners.”
  5. How to buy cryptocurrency.

The early history of cryptocurrency

In 2009, a programmer using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin, the first ever cryptocurrency. Satoshi also created the blockchain technology, which makes all decentralized cryptocurrencies possible.

The blockchain was created as a solution to the “double-spending problem,” which arises in virtual currencies because it’s easy to duplicate digital information. A person could make a copy of his or her digital currency information and send both the original and the copy to separate parties.

Sort of like using a Xerox machine to make extra stacks of dollar bills.

Before bitcoin and blockchain, virtual currency relied on trusted third parties to prevent double spending. But Satoshi wanted to develop a decentralized currency, which meant finding a way for the network of bitcoin users to verify transactions.

“The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work,” Satoshi wrote in the abstract of the white paper announcing bitcoin.

This was the earliest description of the blockchain.

Why is it called a blockchain?

A block is a collection of transaction data on the cryptocurrency network.

It basically says Person A sent this much to Person B.

It also includes important information that allows the rest of the network to verify the validity of the block -- such as the solution to a complex math problem -- called a proof-of-work. While the math problem is hard to solve, it's very easy for others to verify a valid solution.
The Block-Chain Process.

As well as saying Person X sent this much to Person Y.

In a way, it is like the sales receipt that the chick at Burger King gives you when you buy a #1 Whopper Meal.

It also includes important information that allows the rest of the network to verify the validity of the block — such as the solution to a complex math problem — called a proof-of-work. While the math problem is hard to solve, it’s very easy for others to verify a valid solution. New blocks cannot be amended to the blockchain without a valid solution.

A block also includes a reference to the block that immediately precedes it. Thus, the blocks create a chain linking one to another through those references.

New blocks cannot be amended to the blockchain without a valid solution.
A “block chain” is created by linking all the blocks together.

The reference to the preceding block is accomplished through something called a cryptographic hash function. A hash function takes a set of data and maps it to a string of letters and numbers called a digest. If anything in the data changes, the resulting hash digest will change as well.

Chaining blocks together by using a hash function to reference the preceding block adds a great level of security to the system. To change a block in the ledger, a hacker would have to reproduce the entire chain of blocks following it, since it would create a chain of invalid hash values referencing the previous block.

It is sort of like making Xerox copies of your Burger King receipt and sending the copies (marked "copy") to everyone in your city.
GIF of how the block-chain system works.
How block-chain works.

How does a cryptocurrency transaction work?

Cryptocurrency is used for direct peer-to-peer payments anywhere in the world.

The speed of transactions varies based on currency and confirmation requirements, but it’s generally very fast compared with traditional banking systems. Where banks can take days to transfer money, cryptocurrency transfers happen in minutes.

  • Bank transactions = days.
  • Cryptocurrency transactions = minutes.

In general, cryptocurrency transactions go through the following steps before they get added to the blockchain.

  1. A person requests a transaction, and the request is sent to the entire network.
  2. Each computer on the network collects all concurrent transactions into a block, along with a timestamp for each transaction.
  3. Each computer works on solving the difficult math problem to add the block to the blockchain. This process is called “mining.”
  4. Once a computer finds a valid solution, it broadcasts the block to the rest of the network.
  5. The network checks the solution as well as compares transactions in the block against the current blockchain to prevent double spending.
  6. The block is added to the chain, showing the transaction was completed.

Once a block is added to the chain, that block gets hashed and is used to create the next block. The process continually repeats itself.

As such, transactions are practically irreversible, much the same way as if you give someone cash (hence calling it an electronic cash system). As mentioned, the chaining of one block to another means someone would have to edit the entire chain of blocks to change a transaction.

Once a block is added to the chain, that block gets hashed and is used to create the next block. The process continually repeats itself.
How the blockchain process works.

Since blocks are continually added to a chain, it’s extremely unlikely someone will be able to propagate an updated chain of blocks to the network before the rest of the network produces the next block and extends the chain further.

Every transaction needs a signature

Just as credit cards use your signature to verify you authorized a purchase, cryptocurrency uses a signature as well …

… a digital signature.

Transactions are secured through a cryptography system called public key encryption. Each user has both a public key and a private key associated with his or her account.

To authorize a transaction, users must prove they know their private key by using it as an input into a cryptographic hash function similar to the one used to link blocks together in the blockchain. That’s called signing the digest. The private key is used to write that “digital signature,” so it’s very important that the private key remains private.

  • Public Key = Each person in the transaction gets a copy.
  • Private Key = One (and only one) for each person involved.

What do miners do?

With no central banks deciding when to print more money, a cryptocurrency needs to define how to create new units of the currency. Many cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, distribute new units to miners as an incentive for verifying transactions on the blockchain.

  • “Cryptominers” verify transactions on the blockchain.
  • They are paid in bitcoin for their labors.

Miners work to solve the difficult math problem or other proof-of-work systems within every block of the blockchain. They also work to verify the solutions. Running all these calculations have real-world costs, including buying hardware and using electricity.

The difficulty of the math problem for bitcoin blocks is automatically adjusted such that the combined processing power of the network takes about 10 minutes to solve the problem on average. 

When a miner successfully adds a block to the bitcoin blockchain, that miner also earns the right to take a reward. The winning miner’s bitcoin address is recorded in the block.

For instance…

  • The reward started at 50 bitcoins per block.
  • That number is halved every 210,000 blocks (or about every four years).
  • The current reward for adding a block is now 12.5 bitcoins, and that number will fall to 6.25 around June 2020.

At some point, the reward for solving a block in the bitcoin blockchain will become extremely small. By 2140, miners will have mined all 21 million bitcoins that will ever be in circulation. At that point, the incentive for miners to update and verify the blockchain will come from transaction fees. Some cryptocurrencies already rely on relatively high transaction fees to offer miners incentive.

Bitcoin miners (cryptominers) used to make their money in bitcoin for mining. Now, their primary source of income is in (high) transaction fees.

Transaction fees are currently relatively small for bitcoin, but if transaction volume doesn’t climb to compensate for the decrease in block rewards, transaction fees will have to increase to compensate miners.

How to buy cryptocurrency

It’s no longer practical to use your home computer, or even a custom-built bitcoin mining computer, to mine bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies.

Most people will get a better return by buying it through a cryptocurrency exchange.

A cryptocurrency exchange allows consumers to change their fiat currency, like U.S. dollars, into cryptocurrency like bitcoin.

A cryptocurrency exchange works just like any other exchange, such as a stock exchange. It matches buyers and sellers based on a book of orders. As orders are added to the book, the exchange matches buyers willing to pay the same amount (or more) than sellers are requesting.
Cryptocurrency trading process.

A cryptocurrency exchange works just like any other exchange, such as a stock exchange. It matches buyers and sellers based on a book of orders. As orders are added to the book, the exchange matches buyers willing to pay the same amount (or more) than sellers are requesting.

“What is cryptocurrency” revisited

To recap, I defined cryptocurrency as …

"an electronic cash system that doesn't rely on central banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions and create new units. Instead, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on a publicly distributed ledger called the blockchain, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments."

Let’s break that down.

  • “An electronic cash system“: Cryptocurrency has no physical form. Ownership is determined by the digital record found in the blockchain.
  • “Uses cryptography“: Transaction requests are authorized and confirmed through public key encryption. The blockchain also uses encryption to link blocks to one another.
  • “Confirm transactions“: The chain of transaction data in the blocks allows the network to verify that a transaction hasn’t already occurred — the double spending problem — and to add new transactions to the ledger.
  • “A publicly distributed ledger“: The blockchain ledger is available to all the computers on the network. In fact, its publicity is essential to making the entire system work. By keeping an updated transaction ledger on every computer on the network, the system is able to protect against changes to the blockchain and verify transactions and ownership.
  • “Direct peer-to-peer payments“: Payments never go through a central banking system or trusted third party but instead simply move from payer to payee. This process increases the speed of transactions and reduces the fees associated with transferring money.

Cryptocurrency is a complex new form of electronic cash. With no reliance on central banks to confirm transactions or authorize the creation of new units, it can dramatically reduce the fees and time associated with moving money around the world.

Conclusion

People are still coming up with new applications for blockchain technology and new cryptocurrencies every day. With this basic overview of what cryptocurrency is, you can start developing a deeper understanding of the various currencies available.

"The only stable and viable solution for the species to survive is a new eco-civilisation, based on a global non-market economic system, in which the private tyranny of the market – a global plutocratic elite of profit mongers – and anti-democratic oligarchic political systems do no longer rule the destiny of the people," 

-Dieterich

Make no mistake, banking systems, and the way they operate is changing. Whether it will happen soon (with the e-yuan system currently in use) or in the distant future,(if the PTB that control America has their way), it will happen.

I think that it is important to understand that things are changing and the old way of doing things are being supplanted with better, fairer and more complete systems. And those that lived off the corruption of the old systems are not going to go away peacefully in the night. Instead they will fight. They will fight tooth and nail to keep the status quo.

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Why the US is collapsing much faster than you might otherwise expect

Yeah. The title says it all.

Well, the much promoted debates on television between Donald Trump and Biden has finally concluded, and all of us who watched them were disgusted. Very few left feeling better about ourselves, about our nation, and about where the world was heading. Instead, it actually reminded us of something quite different. It reminded us of two dirty old rats fighting for moldy turnip greens on the deck of a sinking ship.

That’s what it was like.

It was disgusting, horrifying, and just awful. But don’t worry. Trump just announced that he has COVID-19. And meanwhile…

Anyone who cannot see that the United States is in a state of decay and collapse is delusional. The USA is a mess, and the best leadership that the two parties can come up with are these two sorry washed-out clowns. It’s… well, pathetic.

Words fail me.

Perhaps, you might well appreciate what is going on through a song, eh?

Conrad Harris – Paradise (Tiny Tim on vocals.)

Yes.

It’s sort of like this.

You, yes you, are sitting in the front row seat to the collapse.

Now, maybe it will be quiet and peaceful. Maybe it will be calumnious and frightening. But, it will be a collapse. It is well beyond the point of recovery. The nation is collapsing in upon itself, and the best thing for the rest of the world to do is… stand back and let the whole thing implode.

Can you imagine Xi Peng acting like Donald Trump did?

Can you imagine Mr. Putin acting like Biden did?

I cannot. I see no leadership in either of the “preferred” candidates. I see just comical satire that has been streamlined into some kind of sick cartoon. It doesn’t matter who started the entire fiasco. Donald Trump appears to be the culprit. But the entire situation reeks of failure.

This is NOT what the world needs right now.

This is NOT what leadership is.

Instead, we were treated to a glimpse on the terrible, and misguided distortions of what some crazy people think is “how you rule the world”. And, people, It is dog-shit frightening.

If the world is to be handed over to these two clowns, then let me off the boat. The world is in for a shit-load of hurt on a mega-scale.

One thing is certain, and should be absolute crystal clear by now, the USA has ceased to be a leader in world governance. Further, it is under a state of collapse that is astounding in it’s magnitude and breadth and scope. And even beyond that, the general collapse of the American society on all levels; social, economic, financial, business, family, religion, morals, ethics, educational, and governance is so profound that no one can deny the truth.

The USA and the illusion of the “Strength and power” of the United States is over and long gone.

Jesus. Watching the debates was like watching two feral dogs in a remote countryside village fight over a leg of maggot infested mutton. It was that bad.

Two dogs fighting.
It was like watching two village dogs fighting.

It was that terrible.

Terrible.

The only thing that could recuse the participants would be either [1] a sudden war or [2] if one of them ended up with a life-threatening illness.

Oh, guess what?

Well, it does looks like it is all theater for the dumbed-down masses…

When Donald Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center in a car this afternoon, he simply had Secret Service agents drive him around the block so he could see his cheering idiot supporters outside the hospital, only to drive him right back into the hospital. If this stunt left a bad taste in your mouth, you’re not the only one.

Dr. James P. Phillips, who works at Walter Reed, tweeted this: “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential “drive-by” just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.

Which brings me to the latest in my SHTF series on the collapse of America.

The following is titled “Why the US is falling – and faster than you may expect: A 40-year-old prediction coming true”. Written by JO (Jan Oberg) on September 30, 2020. Reprinted with minor alterations to fit this venue. All credit to the author.

Why the US is falling – and faster than you may expect: A 40-year-old prediction coming true

The unique, dominating position of the United States in the post-1945 world is well-known. It maintains this position thanks to both a very large historical goodwill capital and former glory in the eyes of generations around the world – and thanks to rampant militarism and imperialism that has destroyed the good ‘America’ that it used to be.

The world’s major division the next few years will be this: Are you on the side of [1] continued US global dominance or [2] do you want to see a new multipolar world with more balance and the US in the role of a partner among equals?

In my view, the US no longer has the capacity to lead itself effectively.

Nor can it find solutions to its own multi-dimensional crisis be it the economy, democracy, climate change, warfare addiction, social polarization, racism and on top of it all the Covid-19 crisis.

Not being able to lead itself, no one should wish that the US should lead the world. Neither does it have any right to.

Reread that sentence. Any nation that cannot handle its own domestic matters, cannot lead the world. It is like putting a pyromaniac in charge of a fire department.

While its allies, friends and admirers are increasingly turning skeptical, others turn away and look for other partners be it China, Russia or Iran.

While the friends of the US should try to help it out of its addiction to its outdated self-image…

… the designated enemies, of course, cannot help the US…

… as it simply would not listen. Strangely, these countries also need the US and have sought and still seek constructive cooperation but in vain.

The fact is that no one threatens the US (and certainly not Russia with less than 8 % of the military expenditures of NATO. The US has become its own worst enemy but blames others for its problems.

Sadly, it seems that there is not one ministry of foreign affairs among the EU /NATO countries that has even thought of developing a strategy for the post-US dominated West.

Countries such as China, other BRICS and many others are building a new world order. Will the West, therefore, loose completely, or will parts of it still be able to save what can be saved and transition into the future multipolar world order?

The chances of a “yes” to that question is diminishing by the day.

The list of twenty points below was written long before the Presidential candidate debate on September 29 (it would be an offense to children to say that they behaved like children). But that debate only confirmed these points – and the simple point that it doesn’t matter much whether the next president of the US will be Trump or Biden.

It’s the system, stupid!

And it is rapidly coming to an end.

It’s a valid intellectual-theoretical point that one cannot apply characteristics from psychology – basically the science of the individual – to much larger aggregates such as people, nations or the global system. That’s the fallacy of levels.

That said, let’s anyhow try to just a bit of such “psychologizing” to make it more familiar to the reader.

  1. All empires go down, sooner or later – the latest was the Soviet Union, and the US/West has not been able to cope since its beloved enemy disappeared. All empires emerge, grow, reach a peak point, climax – and then begins to lose it to move to relative decline (others coming up) and then fall. Rather much like the individual life.
  2. Over-reach or you never get enough – there is no one and nothing you don’t want to try to influence, dominate or control.
  3. Hubris – we can get away with everything, we are big and powerful. May be right for a time, then reality catches up.
  4. Exceptionalism – we can do things nobody else can because we are those we are – and we can tell others not to do what we ourselves do. We are above the law that others must follow, we fight wars for good while others fight for evil and are evil. Because we are good and have God on our side.
  5. The unbearable lightness of routine – it’s all gone so well for so long thanks to our pervasive mind- and lifestyle-shaping influence through the media, film, culture, arts – Hollywood and all that. For as long as the rest of the world sees you as an ideal to imitate, – Americanization – everything goes smoothly.
  6. The Number One problem – meaning that if you are (or believe you are) Number One in a rank order, there is no one to look up to and learn from so you end up becoming a teacher, master, dictator, more or less arrogantly “downwards”. If you are No 37, there are 36 others to learn from – how did they do it better than we did? However, sooner or later, the “pupils” stop listening and obeying the Master – His Master’s Voice, so to speak.
  7. Mission activity or ‘mission civilisatrice’ – you try ad absurdum to shape others in the image of yourself; they shall become like us. Our national thinking is universalizable. The world should adapt to us, not we to the world. Remember who was The First World – (the Second and the Third) earlier?
  8. Legitimacy in the eyes of others slowly disappears – you may get away with some bad acts once or twice, but when it becomes a habit, others begin to think. As time goes by, your normative power is eroded, and you rely increasingly on naked force – the military. My country, right or wrong: Send the marines!
  9. Overmilitarization – the system needs a war more or less regularly; that means you need images of enemies (invented or real) all the time. Like a drug addict needs a fix. The US surely cannot do without enemies. The problem is that that military colossus called the Military-Industrial Media Academic Complex (MIMAC) always wants more – also in times when the economy cannot carry that burden. (Like the Sovjet Union in the 1970s and 1980s couldn’t). And the Coronavirus weakens the economy even further.
  10. Increasing autism, denial of the real world plus Group Think – “everything worked so fine in the past, it cannot be true that we cannot just continue what we used to do. (So, let’s start a new Cold War, this time against China). Group think means that a small group of people over time build a common worldview that repels any new thoughts from the outside and become convinced that it’s right and everybody else wrong. The problem is that they don’t know they sit in that restaurant on US Titanic, the music playing so well…
  11. Socio-political metal fatigue – something has been strong for a long time but suddenly there is a crack, and then comes another. The unthinkable, or at least unlikely and unforseen, suddenly happens repeatedly. And old tools can’t fix the problems.
  12. Lack of vision and lack of the pioneering new dynamics – of the type that makes other want to follow you voluntarily. Little by little, everything signal you send out is negative or destructive.
  13. The old positive life energy ebbs, and paranoia enters – like the increasingly old crumpy person who feels that the world turns its back and become unreasonable. Is there any important country in today’s world that the Trump US is not running some kind of conflict with, even friends and allies? Enters paranoia – “The whole world is against us… we see enemies all around – the world doesn’t understand us anymore. But we shall teach them a lesson…”
  14. Stagnation and anti-intellectualism – you continue to do what worked before, such as solving every problem with the military and increasingly becoming unable to think. To the person who has only a hammer in the toolbox, every problem in the house is about hammering…So, don’t allow anything new, don’t tolerate diversity, and crack down on critical voices.
  15. The normative and cultural power vanish – the perception by others of the Empire’s values as good and fair and as part of a vision crumbles. They embark on a future without the Empire’s diktat and/or protection and build a new world order (that the US will not hear about or let its subordinates participate in).
  16. Over-extension through self-aggrandizement – you engage in conflicts and wars which you don’t stand a chance to win, increasingly losing a sense of reality and of your own strength vis-a-vis others.
  17. Addiction & uni-dimensionality – since the only power scale in which you are “second to none” is the military, you use that where other means would be much more effective and cheaper as well as create respect worldwide. Diplomacy fades – lacking carrots, use the big stick.
  18. Decadence, illusions and lies – the Secretary of State, Pompeo, is on record boasting that it is part of the American tradition to “cheat, steal and lie” – in other words, moral decay. Fake and omission, a struggle about what reality really is mounted.
  19. Psychopaths and kakistocrats increasingly win influence = Pathocracy! Kakistocracy means government by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens. The tempo with which norms and expectations of normal behaviour is broken overwhelms the world. Leader senility may play its role too – remember Breznev? And then, somebody usually turns up in the chaotic developments and declares that s/he is the saviour.
  20. Democracy and people’s participation in it crumbles – most citizens sense what happens but in disbelief. Mobilization of counterforces to save what can be saved, become more difficult by the day.

“And faster than you may expect”?

One should hesitate to appear too sure about predicting the final end. Sometimes terminally ill people live longer than medical expertise predicted. Taking the risk anyhow, I would say within the next presidential term 2021-2026 or at the latest by 2030.

When the cracks are frequent enough and big enough, the decline and breakdown accelerate exponentially. Remember the end of the Cold War in 1989 when border guards just opened the gates and people started moving freely.

In a Danish academic book from 1981 (1) I predicted the fall of the West thus:

“The Western world is on its way down and the present crisis is not just cyclical and also not just a crisis of capitalism (it is not exclusively economic) but a sort of civilizational crisis. The global system that has existed with Europe-US as its center and developed over the last 400-500 years is going through convulsions of a deeper nature than is normally perceived.

Neither liberalism nor Marxism which are both Western thought systems and neither the US nor the Soviet Union appears as attractive models to the rest of the world. They are in deep crisis themselves – socially as well as economically – while Japan, China and a series of new growth centers and regional larger powers are rising, particularly in Asia.

The wealthy, overdeveloped countries are approaching certain ‘objective’ limitations in terms of nature, raw materials, exploitation of human beings, the sheer size of the systems as well as management problems, social pressures, etc.

Armament and the increasing militarization of various types of social structures everywhere is an (attempt at) “rejuvenation treatment” in the old- age phase of the West, a sort of compensation for diminishing power in other areas.”

Perhaps another song is in order…

Conrad Harris – All of me (Tiny Tim on vocals.)

Conclusion

Those governments, businesses, academia and others who (in these years) hold on to the US Empire (as the leader of the “free world”)…

… will become a periphery in the future world order.

…

…

Why chain yourself to the anchor of a sinking ship? But that is what Australia is doing. That is the the United Kingdom is doing. Is that really an intelligent thing to do? Is it in the best interests of the citizens that they are supposed to represent?

A sinking ship.
America is like this big, enormous, and beautiful ship that is sinking into the deep dark oceans. It’s because the interior of the ship has not been maintained. That the hull has rusted out and the engineers and Captain do not have the skills needed to fix it and prevent it from sinking.

The future belongs to the builders, the makers and the contributors.

Not to those who hold on to the old methods, suppress any new methods, and praise themselves for tabulating and monitoring the spreadsheets in support of their activities.

True. You just cannot deny this.

…

Now for a frightening thought.

It’s gonna get far, far worse.

"A majority of Americans are bracing for the possibility of a politically-fired civil war, and more than half are already stockpiling food and other essential items to survive and fight back, according to a new survey shared with Secrets.

In the survey, 61% said that the United States is nearing a second civil war, including a shocking 41% who “strongly agree” with that assessment.

And 52% are so convinced that it is just around the corner, or after Election Day, that they are putting away food and other essentials, an historic expansion of the prepper movement that has been brewing for years, now driven by fear and coronavirus-induced shortages."

And the other 48% who have not prepared at all will now understand the process of natural selection first hand.

-Powder keg: 61% say United States ‘on verge of civil war,’ 52% already preparing

And the final song for this theme shall be…

Conrad Harris、tiny tim – Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear (Remaster)

…

..

.

.

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China sat down and planned to become a manufacturing leader. It was not accidental. This is the result of good national leadership.

If you read the American media, one thing that runs through all the propaganda, and it’s an on-going theme. It’s pretty much this; [1] China is hard-core communist, and thus [2] everything they do is a lie. [3] America must disengage from that lie. And, [4] when the time is right, America destroy China completely.

This is a pretty big departure from the “most favored trading status nation” to “America’s number one enemy”.

I call it the “Trump effect”. Which is pretty much a nation being run upon delusions and fantasy. You all can thank Trump and his “God fearing” neocon advisers who (foolishly) believe that America is Heaven on earth, and it is their God-Given right to rule the world, and remake it into an American vassal state.

For decades, China labored and provided goods to America. Once America could no longer afford those goods, the American leadership wanted to crush China completely and seize everything inside China for their own personal use.

This is really, seriously, all messed up.

This isn’t 1840, don’t you know.

But China is not what the American leadership thinks it is. China is a serious, serious nation. It is run by leadership who where tops in their classes, experienced hardship by working their way from the very bottom of society to where they are now, and who have displayed merit over and over again. It’s a big change from the “clowns” and “misfits” that currently run America.

In this post we will look at what China has been doing over the last few decades while America has gotten, fat, lazy, slothful and rich. We will look at the efforts that they made to become a world-leader in manufacturing. And then, we will look at where this effort has got them, and what China has become as a result of it; indeed, what China is today.

To start off, however, we need to look at how China started out, and what they did to become where they are today.

Hint:

It took [1] real leadership, and [2] structural changes within the government.

We start with a post titled “Just Cheap Labor? How China Became a Manufacturing Powerhouse” by The World Affairs Blog. Posted on 13SEP20. Reprinted as found with only minor alternations to fit this venue. All credit to the writers and editors.

Just Cheap Labor? How China Became a Manufacturing Powerhouse

Many people have simple narratives about China’s rise as a manufacturing powerhouse. And this misunderstanding (ignorance?) is also the reason why the same people believe that multinational corporations are going to quickly move or re-shore factories out of China. The logic behind this narrative mostly boils down to, “China has cheap labor and thus became a manufacturing giant.”

It’s just not true.

For starters, if poverty is the sole requirement to become a manufacturing center, obviously every other developing country would have performed well. Consider this: while China and India have almost the same population, China’s manufacturing is almost 10x India’s. Thus, let’s analyze this phenomenon more closely.

China’s growth in manufacturing over the last forty years has been nothing but astonishing. Consider that, in 1980, US manufacturing output was almost five times as large as China’s. However, just thirty years later — in 2010 — China surpassed the US as the world’s #1 manufacturing country. This was also quite momentous, since the US had been the manufacturing leader for the previous 110 years!

One more astonishing data: in the last one year, China’s trade surplus in manufactured goods was … whopping $1 trillion.

Of course, cheap labor made a big difference in the 1980s, 1990s and even until 2006 or so. However, after that, China’s wages caught up with other middle-income developing countries. Now, Chinese wages are 2.5x higher than in Mexico or 5x higher than in Vietnam.

Thus, while the Chinese wages tripled over a decade (2008-2018), China’s share of global manufacturing value added almost doubled from 15% to 28%!

So, obviously, there’s lot more than cheap labor.

In fact there are dozens of holistic factors that make a country a successful manufacturer. (Not all of them are positive — for example, lax environmental laws — but that’s the dark side of manufacturing). Understanding these will help see what a daunting challenge foreign companies will face in finding new countries to replace China.

There’s no one magic bullet, and all the ten factors listed below are critical:

**1. Skilled, Productive and Disciplined Labor: Yes, more than being cheap, even the lowest paid workers must have all these three qualities. The people making shoes or assembling gadgets still need skills and consistency. Products and requirements change all the time, and the workers should be able to adapt. Moreover, these people must show up for work every day and consistently perform. In many countries, you can’t find such high-quality workers.

**2. Medium and Hi-tech Manufacturing Factories: A plastic toy or a bulb may seem very simple, but there’s a lot of chemistry, metallurgy, materials science and much more behind how to make them from raw materials. Now imagine TVs, car engines etc. Factories need very sophisticated engineers to make the products to specifications at the right cost. There’s a lot of innovation here behind the scene. Here’s a quick note from Tim Cook (Apple’s CEO) on this topic: 

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/re5h9oLH?preloadContent=metadata&hd=1

**3. Producing at Scale: Assembling 100,000 iPhones a day requires a totally different factory from the one that churns out 1,000 smartphones a day — every process will be different from end to end. Automation, smart factories, robots, and 5G will be increasingly crucial in the factories of the future.

**4. Elasticity and Flexibility: Can you handle a sudden extra request for 1 million new gadgets to meet demands for Christmas? Can you quickly switch from one version to another version of a product? For example, China was able to quickly build huge mask factories and COVID19 testing labs within 2-3 weeks.

Is that possible in Vietnam? In Britain? In Canada? In the United States?

**5. Design to Prototypes to Products: Customers just come up with vague or highly complex product designs and then expect the manufacturer to do all the work. Chinese firms have so much talent and experience that they can often create a prototype within a couple of days. And these firms must be creative enough to suggest alternative designs and features. These are invaluable skills that just can’t be developed in a few months.

**6. Logistics: How do you make sure that the parts and raw materials are always available for the factories? How do you manage all the workers? How about testing and shipping out all the products on time? How do you work with customers from all over the world and deal with different languages, legal issues etc.?

**7. Infrastructure: The Chinese government has to make sure that the factories have land, electricity, water, buildings, warehouses, roads, Internet etc. And they must be affordable. These may sound easy to someone in the US, but developing nations like India or Indonesia may struggle to provide high-quality infrastructure. For example, until recently, massive power outages used to be very common in India.

**8. Transportation: Although this falls under infrastructure, it must be spelled out. A bullet train that reduces travel time by 60% … deep sea ports that can handle massive ships and millions of containers … new strategically located airports all over the country … freight trains that can travel thousands of miles (like from Xian, China to Barcelona, Spain) … these are monumental projects in which no country can match China. This is why Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative is truly visionary.

**9. Ecosystem: This is a unique success factor for China. There is an ecosystem for every kind of factory. For example, a clothing factory would greatly benefit if there are dozens of nearby factories that specialize in different kinds of materials — cotton, wool, silk, denim, nylon, polyester etc. Similarly, a smartphone company would like to work closely with other firms that specialize in microphones, speakers, cameras, screens, printed circuit boards etc. Other services experts such as international lawyers, marketing consultants, and designers are also indispensable. Without such 360-degree ecosystems, no country can expect to be a manufacturing superpower. Shenzhen, the electronics capital of the world, is a stellar example of such ecosystems.

**10. Tax Breaks, Subsidies, Incentives, Trade Agreements: Finally, you need a very smart and visionary government that plans 5, 10, 20 years in advance, makes huge investments, knows how to attract and keep foreign and domestic investors, provide tax cuts and subsidies, negotiate smart trade agreements etc. to create a win-win environment.

Elon Musk at Shanghai Tesla factory that was built in just one year!

So, these are the secrets behind China’s success. Other countries can try to replicate this model, but they need to be prepared to invest a lot and plan for the long term.

While low-end manufacturing will move out of China because of high Chinese wages and China’s desire to improve its environment, Americans shouldn’t dream of quick decoupling or re-shoring factories. This is why 75% of US manufacturers in China say they won’t move any production out of China! Moving out of China in any meaningful way will take a decade … if other developing nations execute their manufacturing strategy flawlessly.

And now that you know about how China got to where it is, you can see how this all affects it’s global standing…

The following is also from the World Affairs Blog and it is titled “China’s GDP is now $14.4 trillion. Within ten years …“, it was edited to fit this venue and all credit tothe author.

China’s real GDP growth.

China’s GDP is now $14.4 trillion. Within ten years …

China slowed down a bit, thanks to trade war and tariffs, but didn’t suffer a lot.

The mainstream media gave it a spin as “China’s economy grows at the slowest pace in 29 years!” However, the slowdown in China’s growth is natural at this stage of its development. Nothing can grow at 15% forever.

What is not mentioned by the China-haters is that China grew much faster than the US economy and left other major economies like EU and Japan in the dust.

Here are the numbers for GDP growth in 2019 — China: 6.1%, USA: 2.2%, EU: 1.4% and Japan: 0.7%.

Note that, the official GDP growth are always inflation-adjusted. This is a strange norm that distorts reality. We don’t do this to other stats like stock market or wages. Thus, in real life, China’s GDP actually grew 10% … from Ұ90 trillion to Ұ99 trillion.

Thus, last year, China’s GDP grew by Ұ9 trillion… which translates to $1.4 trillion. For comparison, the US economy grew by $1 trillion. See the difference? This is how China catches up to the US.

Every year from now on, China will reduce the gap with the US by $400 billion or more.

World Beyond the US

How did China achieve this growth? How come the trade war and tariffs didn’t wreck the Chinese economy?

There are two answers:

One, the significance of American economy is shrinking.

In 2019, the US became the third trading partner for China! Not number one. Not number two. Third.

The top two were EU and ASEAN (a group of 10 countries in Asia). The Belt and Road countries also increased their trade with China.

Two, China’s economy is no longer dominated by manufacturing.

Services sector — “tertiary industry” — is now 54% of the economy; and manufacturing is only 40%. Since services depend mostly on domestic consumption, trade war doesn’t have much impact.

Thus the “Trade War” does not affect domestic consumption. Only international trade with China’s third largest trading partner; America.

Future

If you look at the relative size of China to the US over the last 30 years, you can see how China is catching up:

With 4x as many people — who also work very hard —  and a government that surprisingly plans and coordinates the economy very well, it should be no surprise that China will surpass the US by 2030 in nominal GDP. (Don’t forget that China has been #1 in terms of PPP GDP since 2014).

Of course, the trajectory is based on the assumption there won’t be any major financial crisis or hot wars in the coming decade, which are all quite possible…

Conclusion

It should not be any mystery to anyone not drinking the “electric kool-aide” from the American (and Western) media. China is successful precisely because of it’s leadership, planning and hard work.

  • It is not a “democracy” where public opinion can change the leadership on a whim. It is a Socialist Republic run by merit. It doesn’t need to lie. They just tell you what things are, and you can accept it or not.
  • All Chinese leadership worked to get where they are today. They lead China into what it has become.
  • The Chinese people, culture and the Chinese society, along with proper investment and long term planning has created a situation where China is the global leader that America considers so much a threat.
  • China will continue this path that it is on, and the only thing that can slow it down (but not stop it) would be a “hot war” with America.
  • To this end, China is working with other nations. Creating and building long-lasting friendships and relationships. While America is tearing down relationships, ignoring treaties, and generally being a global nuisance.

Do you want more?

I have more posts like this in my China Index here…

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It is in process, the world is disengaging from the United States Dollar as a global unit of trade. What does that mean for America?

“At some point, a crisis of confidence in this so-called money is inevitable. People aren’t going to trust it forever if you continue to create trillions and trillions backed by nothing but a promise from a central bank and a promise from governments. That’s the flaw in all of this. You can’t sustain the perceptions of moneyness forever. 

History has many examples of how money is destroyed by over-issuance, and now we’re watching it in real time.”

Doug Noland
Doug Noland: It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now… I Believe You Should Take Cover!
August 5, 2020

It has begun.

Nations are running away from using the United States dollar. Instead they are choosing to use other methods to pay back their debts and engage in trade. They are using such things a as gold, eyuan, or commodity trading (like oil, wheat or rice).

A new world monetary system is being set up right now which will completely kill the US dollar, which is the world’s reserve currency. At least 23 countries (60% of the world’s GDP) are setting up swap lines which bypass the dollar and SWIFT, which is the dollar-based worldwide financial transaction system. These countries include Russia, China, India, and even Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

Kevin: You know, I think about where the two of them agree. They would both say that we’re past the point of no return, that money turned into credit, and we’re now in a credit expansion. Noland would say kicking the can down the road is ultimately going to end in dystopia. What Duncan would say is, it’s our only chance at utopia. And they both know that credit probably ends badly, but I think Duncan would just like to have it end badly after he passes away.

David: That may be, so if we have a shot at utopia, let’s spend a little bit more. And that’s a little bit like looking at the hair of the dog as the real solution to a problem with alcoholism.

You’re right. It will take away some of the consequence in the short run.

Kevin: Do you remember Ian McAvity said that a doctor told him to not stop smoking because he had smoked so much that it would probably kill him.

David: That’s right. “You quit now and you’re dead.” That’s really what we’re talking about.

Doug Noland
Doug Noland: It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now… I Believe You Should Take Cover!
August 5, 2020

For several years, financial analysts, primarily those outside the mainstream of academia, have been warning that any day could be the black swan event that collapses the dollar. This collapse will end U.S. hegemony as caretaker of the world’s reserve currency.

That day had arrived last year on 18NOV19 when a former head trader for a major financial institution issued a harbinger. He stated that 23 countries, and 60% of the world’s GDP, are or have setting up new swap lines which bypass the dollar. These systems not only bypass the USD, but they bypass SWIFT, and the BIS.

All of this is ushering in a new global currency system. It is a system that will kill the US dollar.

Who’s abandoning the USD?

Countries are growing weary of losing money on the falling dollar. Many of them want to protect their financial interests, and a number of them want to end the US oversight that comes with using the dollar. Although it’s not clear how many of these countries will actually follow through on an abandonment of the dollar, it is clear that its status as a world currency is in trouble.

Obviously, an abandonment of the dollar is bad news for the currency. Simply put, as demand lessens, its value drops. Additionally, the revenue generated from the use of the dollar will be sorely missed if it’s lost. The dollar’s status as a cheaply-produced US export is a vital part of our economy. Losing this status could rock the financial lives of both Americans and the worldwide economy.

Here’s just a few of the numerous nations that are running away from using the United States Dollar…

Saudi Arabia

The Telegraph reports that for the first time, Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates along with the US Federal Reserve.

This is seen as a signal that a break from the dollar currency peg is imminent. The kingdom is taking “appropriate measures” to protect itself from letting the dollar cause problems for their own economy.

They’re concerned about the threat of inflation and don’t want to deal with “recessionary conditions” in the US.

Hans Redeker of BNP Paribas believes this creates a “very dangerous situation for the dollar,” as Saudi Arabia alone has management of $800 billion. Experts fear that a break from the dollar in Saudi Arabia could set off a “stampede” from the dollar in the Middle East, a region that manages $3,500 billion.

Sudan

Sudan is, once again, planning to convert its dollar holdings to the euro and other currencies. Additionally, they’ve recommended to commercial banks, government departments, and private businesses to do the same.

In 1997, the Central Bank of Sudan made a similar recommendation in reaction to US sactions from former President Clinton, but the implementation failed. This time around, 31 Sudanese companies have become subject to sanctions, preventing them from doing trade or financial transactions with the US. Officially, the sanctions are reported to have little effect, but there are indications that the economy is suffering due to these restrictions.

A decision to move Sudan away from the dollar is intended to allow the country to work around these sanctions as well as any implemented in the future. However, a Khartoum committee recently concluded that proposals for a reduced dependence on the dollar are “not feasible.” Regardless, it is clear that Sudan’s intent is to attempt a break from the dollar in the future.

Russia

In 2006, Russian President Vladmir Putin expressed interest in establishing a Russian stock exchange which would allow “oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for in Roubles.”

Russia’s intentions are no secret–in the past, they’ve made it clear that they’re wary of holding too many dollar reserves.

In 2004, Russian central bank First Deputy Chairmain Alexei Ulyukayev remarked, “Most of our reserves are in dollars, and that’s a cause for concern.”

He went on to explain that, after considering the dollar’s rate against the euro, Russia is “discussing the possibility of changing the reserve structure.” Then in 2005, Russia put an end to its dollar peg, opting instead to move towards a euro alignment. They’ve discussed pricing oil in euros, a move that could provide a large shift away from the dollar and towards the euro, as Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter.

South Korea

In 2005, Korea announced its intention to shift its investments to currencies of countries other than the US.

Although they’re simply making plans to diversify for the future, that doesn’t mean a large dollar drop isn’t in the works. There are whispers that the Bank of Korea is planning on selling $1 billion US bonds in the near future, after a $100 million sale this past August.

Switzerland

Iran

China

China just announced that it will stop purchasing our debt (holding dollars in reserve). This will force The Federal Reserve to print even more dollars than the $85 billion it’s currently printing.

A few months ago, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement:

“China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade. The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other. Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.”

Germany

France

France plans currency swap line with China: paper – Reuters

United Kingdom

Japan

Way back in 2016, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement:

“China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade. The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other. Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.”

India

In December 2018, India and the United Arab Emirates sealed a bilateral exchange swap agreement to boost trade and investment in their own currencies.

A swap is an international contract that is sealed off from a stock exchange and states that the two parties agree to exchange one financial instrument for another within a predetermined term and conditions.

Iran

China (in particular) appears determined to risk US sanctions in order to make a huge investment in the Iranian economy.

The US Treasury Department can only sanction firms that trade in dollars with Iran or that also trade with the US.

China intends its projects in Iran to be funded with soft-money currencies it has accumulated through its vast global trade. In accepting those African and other currencies, Iran will suffer a 30% loss, but it will escape the American net. Rendering American sanctions worthless.

Turkey

In 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his plans to end the US dollar monopoly by pursuing a policy aimed at excluding the dollar from trading with its partners. According to the president, Ankara is preparing to carry out commercial transactions with China, Russia and Ukraine using national currencies. In addition, it is possible that Turkey will replace the dollar in trade with Iran.

This decision was prompted by both political and economic reasons. Relations between Ankara and Washington deteriorated after the failed coup attempt of July 2016. That year, several media outlets reported that Erdogan suspected that the US was involved in the coup attempt. The Turkish leader also accused Washington of harboring the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who, according to the Turkish authorities, orchestrated the attempted coup.

Venezuela

Venezuela holds little loyalty to the dollar. In fact, they’ve shown overt disapproval, choosing to establish barter deals for oil.

These barter deals, established under Hugo Chavez, allow Venezuela to trade oil with 12 Latin American countries and Cuba without using the dollar, shorting the US its usual subsidy.

Chavez is not shy about this decision, and has publicly encouraged others to adopt similar arrangements. In 2000, Chavez recommended to OPEC that they “take advantage of high-tech electronic barter and bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country customers,” or in other words, stop using the dollar, or even the euro, for oil transactions.

In September, Chavez instructed Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA to change its dollar investments to euros and other currencies in order to mitigate risk.

Why are they abandoning the USD?

Historically, new world reserve currencies are backed by gold.

China surpassed the US in terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), becoming the largest in the world by this measure, International Monetary Fund data show. In 2014 China reached $17.6 trillion or 16.48 percent of the world’s purchasing-power-adjusted GDP, while the US made slightly less, 16.28 percent or $17.4 trillion, the FT reported citing IMF data.

China is sitting there and wondering why the U.S. dollar should continue to be so preeminent if the Chinese economy is about to become the number one economy on the planet.

It’s an advantage for China. It’s an advantage for the rest of the world, and yes even for the USA it’s an advantage…

And so, China, and other emerging powers such as Russia, have been quietly making agreements to move away from the U.S. dollar in international trade over the past few years [and, as such,] the supremacy of the U.S. dollar is not nearly as solid as most Americans believe it to be.

As most Americans have this fantasy where America is empowered by GOD to exist and lord over the rest of the world. It is what all that “exceptionalism” means and refers to…

But, like the elephant in the room, sooner or later, you have to face up to the facts.

As the U.S. economy continues to fade, it is going to be really hard to argue that the U.S. dollar should continue to function as the primary reserve currency of the world. Things are rapidly changing, and most Americans have no idea where these trends are taking the nation.

Most Americans are in a state of denial.

They cannot believe that any other nation would have a currency as important or as valuable as the vaulted US Dollar.

But you know, all you need to do is sit down and reason it all out. It makes quite a bit of sense when you get down to it…

The Ten Reasons

The following are 10 reasons why the reign of the dollar as the world reserve currency is about to come to an end:

#1: China And Japan To Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade

Way back in 2016, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media.

#2: The BRICS Plan To Use Own Currencies When Trading With Each Other

BRICS is an acronym for the combined economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

-Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) Definition

The BRICS continue to flex their muscles. A new agreement will promote the use of their own national currencies when trading with each other rather than the U.S. dollar. The following is from a news source in India:

“The five major emerging economies of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are set to inject greater economic momentum into their grouping by signing two pacts for promoting intra-BRICS trade…

The two agreements will enable credit facility in local currency for businesses of BRICS countries…[which is] expected to scale up intra-BRICS trade that has been growing at the rate of 28% over the last few years but, at $230 billion, remains much below the potential of the five economic powerhouses.”

#3: China and Russia Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade

Leaders from both Russia and China have been strongly advocating for a new global reserve currency for several years, and both nations seem determined to break the power that the U.S. dollar has over international trade.

In fact, both Russia and China have been using their own national currencies when trading with each other for a couple of years now.

#4: Use Of Chinese Currency Growing In Africa

Who do you think is Africa’s biggest trading partner? It isn’t the United States. In 2009, China became Africa’s biggest trading partner, and China is now aggressively seeking to expand the use of Chinese currency on that continent.

China seems absolutely determined to change the way that international trade is done. At this point, almost all Chinese companies in Africa are using Chinese currency in cross-border transactions.

#5: China and United Arab Emirates To Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade

China and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to ditch the U.S. dollar and use their own currencies in oil transactions with each other.

The UAE is a fairly small player, but this is definitely a threat to the petrodollar system. What will happen to the petrodollar if other oil producing countries in the Middle East follow suit?

#6: India To Use Gold To Buy Oil From Iran

Iran has been one of the most aggressive nations when it comes to moving away from the U.S. dollar in international trade. For example, it has been reported that India will begin to use gold to buy oil from Iran.

#7: Saudi Arabia Likely to Abandon Use of Petrodollar in Dealings With China

Who imports the most oil from Saudi Arabia? It is not the United States, it is China…Saudi Arabia and China have teamed up to construct a massive new oil refinery in Saudi Arabia…so how long is Saudi Arabia going to stick with the petrodollar if China is their most important customer?

#8: The United Nations Continues to Push For A New World Reserve Currency

The United Nations has been issuing reports that openly call for an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world. In particular, one UN report envisions “a new global reserve system…that no longer relies on the United States dollar as the single major reserve currency.”

And this pretty much says it all…

#9: The IMF Has Been Pushing For A New World Reserve Currency

The International Monetary Fund has also published a series of reports calling for the U.S. dollar to be replaced as the reserve currency of the world. In particular, one IMF paper entitled “Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability” actually proposed that a future global currency be named the “Bancor” and that a future global central bank could be put in charge of issuing it….

“A global currency, bancor, issued by a global central bank (see Supplement 1, section V) would be designed as a stable store of value that is not tied exclusively to the conditions of any particular economy. As trade and finance continue to grow rapidly and global integration increases, the importance of this broader perspective is expected to continue growing.”

#10: Most Of The Rest Of The World Hates The United States

Global sentiment toward the United States has dramatically shifted, and this should not be underestimated. Decades ago, we were one of the most loved nations on earth [but] bow we are one of the most hated. 

I've said for decades now that the US needs shut down the CIA and close ALL its foreign military bases and bring the troops, planes, ships, and drones home. The CIA has toppled democratically elected governments all over the globe and as a result created hatred for the US. The CIA is the exact opposite of what we believe the US should stand for and support. We need to stop being an empire and start taking care of business right here at home. If we actually do that, maybe in a few decades the rest of the world might forgive us… might… maybe…

-pimaC Aug 17

If you doubt this, just do some international traveling. Even in Europe (where we are supposed to have friends), Americans are treated like dirt. Many American travelers have resorted to wearing Canadian pins so that they will not be treated like garbage while traveling over there.

If the rest of the world still loved us, they would probably be glad to continue using the U.S. dollar but because we are now so unpopular, that gives other nations even more incentive to dump the dollar in international trade.

An Acceleration of the abandonment of the USD

Well, since Donald Trump became President, his foreign policy has been reckless, ruthless and a complete disaster. Other nations now view the United States as a very unstable nation with many problems, that breaks long-standing treaties and contracts, and tries to imposes it’s own rules and laws in areas where it has no authority. In their mind, it’s best to just be isolated from this “train wreck” of a nation.

Trump’s Six-Point Legacy

  1. Bully Allies 
  2. Belittle Friends 
  3. Break Good Deals
  4. Invoke Disastrous Trade and Sanction Policies
  5. Amplify Racial Hatred
  6. Drive Countries Into Deals With China

In regard to points 4 and 6, Trump’s trade and sanction policies have been a disaster on every front.

Most Americans are unaware of this, and they are myopic and are only concerned with the Donald Trump domestic agenda. The Left hate’s it, and the Right love’s it. Only a very small fraction of Americans care about what goes on outside the confines of the United States.

What to expect…

What will happen if the U.S. dollar’s reign as the world reserve currency comes to an end? The answer is simple, as it is clear. The demise of the dollar will also bring radical changes to the American lifestyle.

When this economic tsunami hits America, it will make the 2008 recession and its aftermath look like no more than a slight bump in the road. It will bring very undesirable changes to the American lifestyle through:

  1. massive inflation,
  2. high interest rates on mortgages and cars,
  3. substantial increases in the cost of food, clothing and gasoline and
  4. a much harder time financing its debt.
    • Right now, there is a huge demand for U.S. dollars and for U.S. government debt since countries around the world have to keep huge reserves of U.S. currency lying around for the sake of international trade but what if… the appetite for U.S. dollars and U.S. debt dried up dramatically? That is something to think about.

What happens when fewer and fewer nations use the USD?

As more of these countries realize how irrelevant we have become, I would imagine Americans are about to find out the hard way about the huge trading advantage we have had all along--the world's reserve currency. When they dump the dollar as the main trading tool…

-Rocky Raccoon
17AUG20

A dollar collapse is when the value of the U.S. dollar plummets.

In that scenario, anyone who holds dollar-denominated assets will sell them at any cost. That includes foreign governments that own U.S. Treasurys. It also affects foreign exchange futures traders. Last but not least, it will hit individual investors.

When the crash occurs, these parties will demand assets denominated in anything other than dollars. The collapse of the dollar means that everyone is trying to sell their dollar-denominated assets, and no one wants to buy them.

This will drive the value of the dollar down to near zero. It would make hyperinflation look like a day in the park.

The conditions that will cause other nations to stop using the USD

There are two conditions that would lead to the crash of the USD;

  • There are alternatives to the USD, whether it is gold, another currency or a commodity such as gold, silver, ore, or food.
  • When the bedrock of the value of the dollar is put in jeopardy by excessive debt.

And make no mistake, then other nations stop using the USD, the currency will “crash” and hyperinflation will be the result.

Right now both conditions are in play in the United States in September 2020.

Explaining how this hyperinflation can occur

The following is compiled from “Explaining How Hyperinflation Could Come To The US” By Andrew Bieszad on August 14, 2020. Reprinted in it’s entirety with very little in the way of editing except to fit this venue.

There are no Americans alive today who remember as older adults the Great Depression. I speak of working men in their thirties or forties already on jobs here. By comparison, the Great Depression was very short, since from the decadence of the 1920s to the crash of 1929, and then twelve years to the entrance of the US in a serious way into World War II, the time from misery to true recovery was twelve years. In fact, the US recovered so well that massive industries grew, people found work, debt was paid down, families were able to settle down, and the country truly grew. The US victory in World War II that followed took the World War II induced economic boom and amplified it many times over, providing a wave of true prosperity that ushered in a small “golden age” in America which lasted until about 1965 if one considers the true effects, and until 2007 if one considers the expansion of credit as a way to prolong the economic effects of World War II through financialization at the expense of the integrity of the dollar.

It is known that around 1965, the post-World War II prosperity boom came to an end. This is also the same time where over the next decade, from 1965 to 1975, there were several major social changes, which for our purposes we will focus on the massive welfare expansions through Johnson’s “great society” reforms and then the subsequent decoupling of the US dollar from the gold standard with the opening up of “free trade” with China in 1973 under the Nixon administration that lead to the decline and death of most US manufacturing alongside the expansion of credit. Since this was all intentional, one can argue that the very towns which the US built up during and after World War II- the famous “mill towns” throughout semi-rural areas that today now are too often defined by drugs, crime, degeneracy, broken families, poverty, and misery compiled upon hopelessness -were manufactured from prosperity to decline per economic policy, knowing this would happen but not caring for the consequences because the economic ability to manipulate trade balances was valued more than the people who would be consuming the traded goods.

As one who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s before the economic crisis, I saw a lot of this decadence and credit spending as a child, but would not have called it such. Rather, I and many others would have called it “life as normal”, for this is what Millennials and some late Gen-Xers, as well as Zoomers, the arguable children of mostly Boomers and early Gen-Xers, knew to be normal. Life had a certain “pattern” to it, and it was one to follow this pattern if one wanted success. Indeed, there is an argument that can be made that such a pattern was not a bad thing for a time because it was based on a Boomer model of prosperity created by the Silent Generation as a result of World War II prosperity- essentially, one could call it exploiting the benefits of the spoils of war for public use.

But this was not normal, and given the generational gap, few could not have been expected to know otherwise. This is a reason why there is so much anger directed towards Boomers, for giving their children material goods and a pattern of life but not explaining how or why things work, and not giving them a way to fend for themselves if the pattern should fail (because they believed that it would not fail) and that life would continue to go on as normal. In a sense, life always does- even in a war torn zone such as Iraq. The problem is that life is very difficult when one does not know what to do if all one knows is one paradigm to be true.

This was violently exposed in 2007 and into 2008 when after six decades and two years since World War II, and four decades and two years since the Great Society Reforms, and thirty-four years after the dropping of the gold standards and the liberalization of free trade with China that the US dollar was exposed as being insolvent. The reasons for this are simple to understand- a combination of lots of bad debt, questionable financial practices that involved taking debt in the form of mortgages regardless of the viability of the owner to pay back his mortgage, “cutting up pieces” of the mortgage, mixing those pieces in with other mortgages “cut up” in the same way, and selling “bundles” as debt made up of untraceable ownership and questionable stability presented just as good as a Treasury bond but with no way to “re-piece” the trail of ownership if one “link” in the “chain” should default, created a crisis of liquidity and ownership. Nobody could get loans because nobody knew what monies went to who for what, and when this is combined with public debt loads on account of simple overspending and bad financial practices, the result is always the same- default and chaos.

At this point, the US had two theoretical options- she could either allow the economy to slow down naturally and in a Japanese-like scenario, see fluctuating prices along with falling wages and decreased purchasing power that could last decades, or she could service the debts as the way that governments throughout history have traditionally done in such a case, which is to create the money that was needed in circulation to keep people spending, but at a cost of lowering, even if only slightly, the value of the currency itself.

This is the reason why ever since the economy was declared “recovered” in 2009, the US has been theoretically in the middle of deflation. Since it is really a global depression, for the last decade one has seen the manipulation of aggregate demand levels and aggregate asset prices as never before arguably in history. In other words, since 2008, the U.S. and world economies have been slowly circling around the proverbial drain waiting to be flushed into the sewer, a process that if played out, would result in a Japan-like scenario that could last for decades.

However, the U.S. government has been continuing to run massive deficits as it seeks to prop up demand levels by way of “stimulus” spending, but this has simply not been enough to offset the fall in consumer spending. Since 2007, the government has become the “supporter” of all things business, and until recently, propping up all assets, including U.S. Treasuries, by way of “quantitative easing”, which is another way of saying “money printing”.

The Federal Reserve Bank- a private corporation not owned by the government but who controls the money the government issues -knows that a deflationary “death-spiral” as defined by a lack of liquidity (no available cash) will cause less spending, which leads to diminished demand, which leads to more unemployment, which leads to lower consumption, to still lower spending, until the economic machine goes to a halt.

In response, the Federal Reserve Bank bought up assets of all kinds in order to inject liquidity into the system and support prices so as to prevent this deflationary deep-freeze. This has been policy since 2010, and is a “one-size-fits-all” approach”. The danger of this is it sort of like a plumber whose only tool is a wrench- and every problem looks like a bolt or a nut to be turned.

Call it what you want- money printing, quantitative easing, price stabilization -it is all the same result, which is turning on the printing presses and printing money as fast as the machines can put it out (theoretically speaking- most of this is done electronically, so it’s more accurate to say “button pressing”).

This is how the Fed has expanded its balance sheet from about $900 billion in Fall 2008, to about $2.3 trillion in Fall 2010 alone- just two years from the “recession” to the “recovery”, and now that it is 2020, to 6.9 trillion

But is this true deflation, where bond yields (interest return) is low, and unemployment continues to grow?

I wish it was. Rather, we need to talk about something I have been warning about for a long time, which is the Weimarian ghost of that horrible word, hyperinflation.

Why? Because the next step down in this world-historical Global Depression which we are experiencing will likely be hyperinflation.

Most people dismiss the idea of hyperinflation occurring in the United States as something only for the mentally ill, conspiracy fantasists, gold bugs, and survivalists. There is a point to this, for there are a lot of foolish ideas who have their own acolytes..

But what I speak of here is not fantasy. This is not about reading “conspiracies”, or projecting a desire onto a situation.

Apart from what happened with the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s, Western economies have no experience modern with hyperinflation. There were plenty of hyperinflationary events in the 19th century and before, but through careful economic management, the “advanced” economies have learned their lessons and so well that it’s been forgotten.

But there are some countries where one can draw experience from. Most talk about Zimbabwe- as so also have I done -but I would like to use a different example, since the case of Zimbabwe is a classic African example of war leading to mismanagement and corruption. I want to turn to Chile, as while in the Hispanic world, it is highly “europeanized” and yet went through a period of hyperinflation during the Allende government in the early 1970s (1970-1973).

In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president by roughly one-third of the nation. A hard-core Socialist who headed a coalition called Unidad Popular (Popular Unity), under his government socialists, Communists, and assorted left-leaning parties took over the administration of the country and began to radically transform Chile on a road to left-wing socialism.

What happened was similar to the Russian and Ukrainian experience under life in the post-revolution days. There were land exproprations, nationalization of companies and mines, and the subsequent failure of them as a combination of corruption and inexperience rendered them unable to be used and just brought to run in the same path that the ZANU followed in Zimbabwe with the confiscation of farms that lead to mass starvation in once the arguably most bountiful food producing nation in Africa.

One of the key policies Allende carried out was wage and price controls. He froze prices of basic goods and services and augmented wages- basically, forcing businesses to pay workers more while refusing to allow them the freedom (in a non-greed oriented sense) to increase prices based on market demand. The most common parallel one can draw in our times to this is the “fifteen dollar” minimum wage laws in certain cities for McDonald’s restaurant workers. Yes, the wages increase, but as one can remember in the American cases (as there are multiple areas in which this has happened), employee hours were significantly cut, a lot of workers were fired or laid off, robotics was brought in to replace workers, and prices for food had to increase to the anger of the customer in order to accommodate the wage increases.

At first, this measure worked, as workers had more money, and goods and services still had the same old low prices. The people loved this, and so did what Americans did with toilet paper leading up to the COVID-19 crisis- they went on a shopping spree and rapidly emptied stores and warehouses of consumer goods and basic products. Meanwhile, Chile’s version of the “McDonalds” experiment detailed above, by forcing private companies to raise worker wages while maintaining their same price structures, caused bankruptcy. Allende then nationalized said companies for “the people” and put them back to work, but with the government spending money to keep them running for the same economic reasons, thus operating at a net loss.

This is where hyperinflation fits in, because Allende printed the money needed to pay for expenses for these state-run companies to cover for his irresponsible policies.

This is how hyperinflation came to Chile. Workers had plenty of cash in hand but it was no better than having Monopoly money, since one could not buy goods with it.

So what followed? Rationing and “ration cards”, with preference given to the friends of Allende. However, with no real economic fix in sight, people did what happens in all countries, which is they started black markets in staple goods, and only accepting American dollars because due to Allende’s policies, the Chilean escudo was worthless.

By 1973, the crisis was so miserable that the stock market and housing market collapsed as people lost everything they had. Nothing was safe from sale on the black market for all practical purposes as people traded very precious things simply for a little food and drink to stay alive. The crisis resulted in the success of the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Allende in September 1973 and installed the dictator Augusto Pinochet.

So having this context, and knowing how serious hyperinflation can be, let’s take a look at deflation and inflation again, and see how the various movements of the economic world differ.

In a deflationary environment, where commodity prices are more or less stable, wages drop, asset prices fall, and credit markets shrink, for in such an environment, there is really no inflation, for one cannot have overvaluing (inflation) if values are dropping. To say such is a contradiction.

Inflation and hyperinflation are thus not merely the same thing. It is not that the latter is on “steroids” but, like the goat and the sheep, two animals that share a similar look but are very distinct.

Inflation is when assets become overvalued because people want them so much. To use car language, it’s when the economy “overheats”. Think people paying one-hundred dollars for a “Beanie Baby” during the Beanie Baby craze of the late 1990s. A Beanie Baby is worth three to five dollars, not one hundred. But, if people will pay one hundred dollars for it, who is to say a business will not charge that? Greed yes, but such is the nature of man. This is inflation as a textbook definition- when an economy’s consumables (labor and commodities) are so “in-demand” because of (theoretical) economic growth and easy access to money (meaning either you are earning a lot, have a lot saved to draw on, or are borrowing the money on credit) that lets people spend money like a sailor in a bar. It is classic “supply and demand”, the “if they build it they will come” mentality.

This mentality should not be considered a modern thing either. It has been seen in Europe with the “Tulip speculation” of the 17th century, and was a main reason for the “boom-bust” economics of the 19th century that would destroy wealth as fast as it would create it, since the cycle, while it can be a brutal thing, is actually a natural process on the sine-wave of economic growth, for there is a start, a demand that grows, followed by a peak, a small decline, then a major decline, then a recovery to normalcy, back to interest again that the cycle continues on. This is found in all countries and peoples, and what the desire of government through “central planning’ has always been is to keep the “highs high and the lows gone”, meaning to always push for stability or growth so that money is made and either to minimize or completely eliminate any downturn in the economy so that money is not lost or that what money is lost is lost on people who are poor and not in the “economic club” of the wealthy.

But hyperinflation? Not so at all, for this is the loss of faith in the currency. Prices rise in a hyperinflationary environment like in an inflationary environment not because people want more money for their labor or for commodities, but because people are trying to get out of the currency -so they will pay anything for a good which is not the currency because the currency is becoming merely worth the paper it is printed on.

Right now, the U.S. government is indebted tremendously, varying from 108% to 159% depending on how it is measured.

Pick the percentage you wish, it does not really matter because it is all bad. The reason for this is because the Federal Reserve is printing money to do all things, from purchasing Treasuries in order to finance the fiscal shortfall existing, to bail out the public, and to keep major corporations from having to cease production due to deficits. The overall purpose of this is to try to maintain aggregate demand levels and support asset prices for the benefit of those invested into them. It is a process of the continued financialization of the economy that has been happening since the 1970s.

A deflationary cycle would last decades, and it would be very economically difficult, but with decreasing prices and the resulting job losses and business closures that would follow, it would overall result in the same thing, which is a recovery in the economy by way of a return to “normalcy”.

But this is not going to happen. Forget talk of “double-dip” recessions and that nonsense because the US is still in the first economic “dip” since 2007. No matter all the stimulus, no matter all the “liquidity” injections for over 10 years not, the economy is going down and both the Federal government and the Federal Reserve are going to use the same- and only tool -they have used to fix it, which is money printing.

This is the paradox. It’s these very fixes that are pulling us closer to the edge of a fiscal cliff because they have undermined faith in the currency itself and the ability of the US to service her debts. Treasury bonds? They are useless, and yet they are literally the only thing(s) holding the whole economy together because it is debt being used to service debt that is merely more debt.

We are talking about a financial “minefield” here- one mistake, and the thing explodes.

So then, how could hyperinflation happen?

First, there needs to be a reality check. It won’t be forever, so forget about Mad Max type scenarios, for those are fantasies of films and not reality.

Second, realize that life will go on, and America will be pretty much like it is today, with more poor people. In reality, at this point, as I have noted, hyperinflation is probably the only way that the economy will (in a practical sense) reset to better times, as a collapse in the currency, just like with a true bankruptcy, abolishes debt.

Third, the same rules of history apply. The famous saying “Buy when there’s blood on the streets” is the literal truth in this point. The best way to prepare for this is, in my personal opinion (and not giving any sort of financial advice, but just observations on the counsel of history) to lower personal debts, purchase useful commodities, and consider tangible assets that preserve value such as metals and even one may also regard land as doing the same.

Fourth, in hyperinflation, asset prices don’t skyrocket save on paper. They collapse, both nominally and in relation to real commodities. To use an example with housing, a $500,000 house falls to $70,000 or less, or better yet, 50 ounces of silver becomes something that can actually buy you expensive stuff you normally could not purchase in “normal” times such as land or heavy machinery.

Likewise, I’m not saying “when” this will happen, and hopefully there may be intervening circumstances that delay or even partially hinder the potential of paying $500 instead of $5 for a Starbucks latte. What happens after is also anyone’s guess, since while there are patterns, it would function in harmony with political changes, which can mean anything from a decline in currency value repegged against the old currency for a buyback (such as “buying back” into the new currency at a 30% discount such as what happened during the Great Depression), or an outright dictatorship with wage-price controls.

My observation is that no matter what happens, the current situation cannot continue. The Global Depression we are in is being exacerbated by the very measures being used to fix it, and in a story like this one cannot have a good ending.

The way that any of such crises will happen will be with an event. Right now, COVID-19 is being blamed for “destroying” the economy, but in reality just exposed the rot that was already there. The printing of money under COVID-19 with an upcoming second stimulus check is also only going to worsen the current scenario.

So let’s take this into consideration- how could this happen, an using COVID-19 as an example?

One word: homes.

Before the emergence of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), most mortgages were issued by a local savings or loan company. The note of debt usually didn’t go anywhere save down the street. But once mortgage loan securitization happened, things fell apart.

Basically, what happened was personal mortgages were sold off in “slices” in bundles with other mortgages. These were “bundled” into special arrangements designed to hold the loans for tax purposes and sold off as bonds with safety equivalent to those issued by the US treasury, backed by the ability of people to pay their mortgages.

But the big question- what happens if people borrow more than they can, or lie on their statements of assets, or lose a job?

Here is the sinister part. When an MBS was first created, all the mortgages were in good standing because they were all brand new loans. Statistically, some would default and some others would be paid back in full, but no one knew which one or how. Yet by the process of “cutting up” these loans into multiple “bundles”, nobody knew anymore who had ownership of what part as there were so many scattered pieces.

To use the example of the Three Stooges (since this is the level of financial mismanagement we are talking about) consider that a man gets a mortgage. His bank sells his mortgage note to Moe, who sells a piece of it to Larry, who chops another part off and sells it to Curly, and all our notarized signatures are actually, physically on the note, one after the other as holding a share of the profits from the same mortgage note. If for whatever reason, the original holder skips any payment, then the chain of title is said to be broken. Therefore, legally, the mortgage note is no longer valid. That is, the person who took out the mortgage loan to pay for the house no longer knows whom to pay. The result? The bank just forecloses on the man who failed to pay in an effort to get money back for the Three Stooges without giving him ever a change to remedy his situation. The Stooges walk away with at least some money back in their pockets, and the common man suffers a debilitating financial loss.

But this is just the start. Expand this to real estate, and rental properties for landlords. If COVID-19 puts people out of work, how can anyone pay? Likewise, what happens if businesses cannot pay their mortgages or rentals on commercial real estate, who are also indebted to banks? Likewise, what happens when multiple mortgages owned by separate people are bundled together?

Do you see the can of worms that’s opening up? We are talking about a chain reaction like a nuclear bomb.

  • No job
  • —> cannot pay rent/mortgage —> forces foreclosure/eviction
  • —> cannot get renter to make up difference —>
  • —> disrupts ability of landlord/company to pay for his mortgage —>
  • —> forces foreclosure —> big real estate goes back to bank —>
  • —> bank tries to sell it —-> nobody wants to buy because no money and too big —>
  • —> real estate falls to disrepair —> now nobody wants it —>
  • —> prices have to go down —> people lose money, including banks —>
  • —> people need money for a bailout like the rest of the country —>
  • —> more bailouts devalues the currency —>
  • —> the devolution of the currency means more poverty and job losses and back to he beginning.

This is not a recovery. This is a death spiral that we are circling.

It is estimated that 33% of renters or 12 million people, to make their full payment in July, meaning that 12 million could be on the cusp of eviction in a matter of months. In total, about 40 million- or about the size of Poland as a nation -are at risk of losing their homes. In addition, landlords are set to lose billions of dollars this year over the inability of tenants to pay rent.

This year alone, tens of millions of Americans were pushed into instant poverty, many face housing insecurity and homelessness as the labor market recovery reserves. This has led to millions of permanent job losses. Many Americans already had insurmountable debts and no savings, because they simply could not due to rising prices and a dead economy.

But this is nothing. Watch as more big corporations are go bankrupt, more businesses fail, more workers are laid off, and the financial dominoes start to fall at lightning speed.

Over the last 4 months, more than 50 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits, mostly with the specter of a permanent job loss looming. As we reported, one survey from USA Today discovered that 47 percent of all unemployed workers now believe that their “job loss is likely to be permanent”.

In April, 78% of those in households experiencing job loss felt that that situation would be temporarily. But now, 47% think that job loss is likely to be permanent, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

This isn’t a joke.

People are really suffering and are going to suffer more in the future, and this is why I have been warning this Christmas there will not be a Christmas “sleigh ride”- such as going through the snow on a horse-drawn sleigh that is popular in American lore -but rather a “slay ride”.

A “slay ride”, implying violence and a sort of butchery found in a horror film, except this time the film is real life.

And the slaughter will be to people’s personal finances and the retail market since being forced to spend money on essentials such as food, water, and utilities, and maybe not even having enough for that.

The retail sector is going to be absolutely decimated since 25% to 40%, as I have noted before is made in the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas. With most likely poor sales for the future, there will inevitably be more layoffs, more job destruction, and more poverty.

If one wants to see what the retail sector is going to look like, one only needs to go to a local mall.

Many of them are dead or dying as evidenced by the ongoing store closures, the proliferation of people “hanging out” but not shopping (as in looking for a warm place to stay, not actually going there for leisure purposes) has continued to grow, and the fact that many of the stores are disorganized, dirty, or just falling apart. The mall, being a creation of the consumerist post-World War II economy is, like the post-World War II world, falling apart at the seams.

So what is the answer from Congress?

Two words, as noted before: money printing.

Consider that in the last few months, the US printed more money than all that was printed in the first two centuries of the US’s existence.

“The United States printed more money in June than in the first two centuries after its founding,” Morehead wrote. “Last month the U.S. budget deficit — $864 billion — was larger than the total debt incurred from 1776 through the end of 1979.” (source)

Buy why continue to print, if it will destroy the economy? As noted above, to question money-printing as the one-size-fits-all solution to every economic problem is to question the power structure of the status quo and the only tool used to manage said problem. Basically, it is telling the plumber with the wrench he needs a different tool, but since he has no other tools, he doubles-down and insists on using the wrench.

But what happens when people cannot pay their bills and still do not have a job? They already are going to get two checks- essentially 2007-type bailouts.

Who is to stop a third?

A fourth?

A fifth?

Money being thrown out of helicopters?

There is nothing. Nothing at all. The people figured out they can print themselves the treasury.

Historically speaking, there is a point in any human society that people can get the idea into their heads that they can “print their way to prosperity”, sometimes also called “voting themselves the treasury” while providing less than what is required to sustain those benefits.

This means in every case death for a society because it destroys the value of the means of exchange in one case, and in a more insidious example, in the name of “fairness” it can create polarizing factions that demand special fiscal handouts, to which other groups form and demand “justice” in the form of equal handouts, until eventually the money runs out, people become angry, and start fighting.

In both cases, the trust needed to sustain a society is destroyed, and chaos results that has to be restored by a new currency and many times, since economics is the predecessor to political change, a new government has to be instituted to restore the loss of order.

For people wondering, the US has already been on this road for decades, beginning with the ponzi scheme of Social Security, for while it was well-intentioned and may have worked in select cases, the philosophy, composition, and size of the US make it very difficult for such a system to successfully function in the US without causing a complete breakdown at some point.

The “Great Society” programs had a similar effect, for while it is true that all societies give welfare, the welfare given was not managed through churches or based upon available resources, but was funded through financialization at which the root was money printing.

It is one thing to help people with money that one has, but an entirely different matter to do the same thing but on credit that one cannot pay back without destroying one’s own finances. This is not even a matter of taxation either, since the taxes collected do not even pay into the actual programs, but rather are interest payments to the Federal Reserve Bank (a private company) on the money that they loan to the US government at her request to run said programs.

Thus the argument of “my money is going to welfare junkies” (as so many will say) is absolutely not true- the problem is not “those people on welfare”, but rather the criminally irresponsible financial policies and practices that “we the people” voted for and have continued to accept because it provides to the public the surface benefit of “extra wealth” by letting the same individuals buy fancy cars, nice homes, take big vacations, and dine luxuriously through borrowed money to be paid at a later time but which mathematically can never be paid off lest the value of the money itself collapse. Welfare is not ultimately paid for by taxes and arguably has not been since 1973, as it has all been paid for by money printing.

But to stay on the topic of “welfare junkies”, the biggest of such are not poor people in apartments in the inner cities or trailers in the woods, but are the very same corporations and their CEOs that are called “captains of industry” and “business leaders” that Americans are told to hail as intelligent and model citizens. These people are largely not leaders or admirable, but criminals in suits and with lots of servants to help them perform their actions (whether those working for them realize the totality of what is happening or not).

The reason for this is because it is they who lobby for either lower taxes for themselves or for increased tax schemes so that they can force average to small business owners out of business through excessive taxes while at the same time through as series of deceptive accounting tricks (like the “Double Irish” or the “Dutch Sandwich”) pay little to no taxes at all.

Thus having the effect of paying less while it appears to the public that these are “responsible corporate citizens” who are encouraging “their fellow businessmen” to “pay their fair share” since they are “good patriotic American citizens”, when the reality is they are just con men peddling dishonesty and criminality for their own gain at the loss of everyone.

Back in 2007, when millions of people had their finances destroyed by the crash, did the public receive a financial bailout? Absolutely not. Instead, it was major corporations who received it in the form of the TARP plan.

Now it should be made very clear that the bailouts were not good, and they should never have happened. However, noting this, if major companies were bailed out at the ostensible taxpayer expense and thus putting the country on a long-term road to either a very painful deflationary depression that would likely persist for decades or the more likely chance of hyperinflation, why should the general public, who was deceived by these same companies and politicians for years, not receive a bailout too?

The only way to fix the financial problems, regardless of now or 2007, was to fix the debt issue, and the only way to do this would be either to pay it back- which is mathematically impossible because of how the Fed system works -or to declare a jubilee, disown the debt, shut down the Federal Reserve Bank, arrest the officers of the bank, and seize control over money creation, which would plunge the US into about a decade of financial disorder but would be long-term healthy for the country as it would reset the currency and allow asset prices to stabilize and permit for real value to be created so that all men and companies, small or big, could benefit for true long term prosperity.

But that is not what has been allowed to happen and is likely not going to be allowed to happen, and especially at the current time. The only way to fix the current problems of the system is either a debt jubilee or to allow it to be run as it is until it naturally and inevitably will collapse. In both cases, such will be at a point when the debt can be disposed of and the economic system rebuilt.

This has been the greatest benefit of COVID-19 and the ensuing first and soon to be second stimulus check that will follow from Congress. Some people complain as to why the government is “giving away taxpayer money”, when not only is the reality that the government is just printing money and handing it out regardless of what the taxpayers give, but if the government will give nearly limitless amounts of welfare to major corporations for decades yet continue to force the common taxpayer to pay ever more money to the government, what reason is there that the taxpayer, who is most likely (based on statistical analyses about debt per person) overloaded with debt, should not be given a financial bailout too? Legally speaking companies are people in the US (“non-human persons”), so if a non-human person can get a bailout, is it not more important that “human persons” receive them, since societies are made of people? There is no real argument, if one supports the bailout of corporations, not to bail out the general public, because the philosophy is the same, and if the government will insist upon bailouts for companies, it is hypocrisy to deny the common man what a company would receive.

The end of the world is coming for the US economy as we understand it through a post-World War II paradigm, and that is something which all must accept but is not necessarily a bad thing, as all things come to an end.

The real trick, however, is to prepare for after the end of the “apocalypse” because life must continue on- it will go on in the middle of chaos (as it does in any war zone) as well -and how one prepares will determine one’s future after the crisis is over, and likely as in the case with World War II for many decades to come, so the impact will last beyond one’s life and extend to family and future generations.

The discussion of how to handle this for specifics is another topic for a different time. But returning to the issue of inflation versus hyperinflation, the concern now is not to fight policies being instituted or to make bold public statements- since these rarely do any good unless there is already an organic or manufactured groundswell of support guiding the end goal that such a public declaration would support to the exact same end -but to focus on the current fiscal path that has been chosen and is going to be chosen.

Hyperinflation is not the choice of most people, but rather it is the choice being forced on the average citizen that he cannot control happening but rather how he deals with in based on the current circumstances.

For example, say that you are placed in front of a massive floodgate. The gate is going to be opened upon you, and you cannot hide from it. 

You are going to get hit by the water and it is going to knock you around, and there is no way to avoid this. 

However, you have twenty-four hours to prepare.What would you do? 

Would you just “show up” to the gates and do nothing? Or instead, would you take some precautions? For example, you could buy a lifejacket. But would you stop there? Would you possibly consider with that lifejacket a helmet to prevent head trauma, and maybe a wetsuit too? If you had the money, would you consider investing in a pair of goggles and even maybe some flippers so you could swim? 

If you had a lot of money and wanted to try to make the best, would you consider purchasing a set of scuba gear so that you could swim with the currents and even explore them?

The choice is for you to make, but at the very least, a good lifejacket is in order because if you have that, you may lose consciousness, you may be cold, you may have a lot of pain to endure, but it is very, very unlikely you will drown. This is something that all people can do for themselves that is very effective.

Take this same example and apply it to the situation of the financial markets with inflation and hyperinflation. Most people are not rich and cannot afford a lot of the expensive measures that those with greater financial means could employ. However, they can take basic measures to protect themselves.

Hyperinflation is not a fun thing to think about.

However, it is real, it is historical, it can happen to anyone, and knowing the principles by which it can come to pass helps one to avoid its effects. Knowing the signs of the times, it would be wise to pay attention, as the signs are becoming too clear.

So what is the USA actually doing to mitigate this situation?

At the moment, the global financial system is centered on the United States but that will not always be the case.

As far as international monetary policy goes the United States under Trump has been radical.

The Trump administration has pursued a unilateralist and bilateralist vision for foreign exchange policy. This policy is vastly different from the multilateralist approach of its predecessors over the prior 25 years.

Treasury secretaries in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations avoided commenting on currency markets, and when forced to do so simply backed a “strong dollar.” This gave administrations the moral high ground to criticize others, especially Japan, when they sought to weaken their currencies. That high ground is gone.

The United States led the G7 and G20 in 2013 in developing new currency commitments—orienting macroeconomic policies toward achieving domestic objectives using domestic instruments; not targeting exchange rates for competitive purposes; and refraining from competitive devaluation.

Now, the president and some advisers tweet to promote dollar weakness, alleging that foreign monetary policy accommodation, for example by the European Central Bank (ECB), is tantamount to currency manipulation. 

Monetary policy transmission works through a number of channels—lending, asset prices, yield compression, and confidence, for example. 

Exchange rates are also a key monetary policy transmission channel.

But the administration disregards that euro-area growth is anemic and inflation persistently well below target, giving the ECB strong internal reasons to pursue accommodation.

U.S. growth performance has been superior to that in Europe and Japan, and thus U.S. rates are higher. The administration’s trade wars and tariff threats reinforce a risk-off market environment, further supporting dollar appreciation. Massive U.S. fiscal deficits also push the U.S. current account deficit higher, while boosting the need for capital inflow. If the president wishes to see a weakening in the dollar, the best way to achieve that is not to tamper with U.S. out-performance but to work with others to boost their performance, while ending trade wars.

In August, as the renminbi (RMB) fell below 7.0 per dollar after an intensification of U.S.-China trade tensions, the president ordered Treasury to designate China for “currency manipulation.” The designation was unwarranted. The RMB is managed, not “manipulated.” China could prevent the RMB from falling by drawing down reserves. But the currency fell in large part because market participants viewed depreciation as offsetting the competitiveness hit from higher tariffs.
The designation contradicted the Treasury’s own criteria for assessing whether “manipulation” and harmful currency practices were being pursued. China’s current account surplus in 2018 was around 0.5 percent of GDP, a relatively small surplus; on a net basis, China sold a small amount of dollars in market intervention. To be sure, China has a large bilateral surplus with the United States, but economists dismiss the relevance of bilateral balances.
A country “manipulating” its currency to gain an unfair competitive advantage in international trade would be expected to purchase dollars to hold its currency down and run large current account surpluses as a share of GDP. China does not fit that bill.

More generally, Treasury is undermining the integrity of its Foreign Exchange Report. It recently cut its current account “monitoring” threshold from 3 to 2 percent of GDP in order to pick up more countries, but this level is too low given economic structures. At one point, it placed India on its monitoring list, even though India ran a current account deficit. Italy and Ireland, too, were placed on the list. Prior to the manipulation designation, China was on the monitoring list, even though it only tripped one (the bilateral balance) trigger, whereas placement on the list requires triggering two criteria. On the plus side, Treasury has acted to expand the report’s country coverage, encompassing a number of smaller Southeast Asian surplus nations.

According to media reports, the administration has debated intervening in currency markets to push the dollar down. For example, the United States could buy euros or RMB, pushing up their values and thus the dollar down.

In the rare instances when the United States intervened in the past two decades, it did so on a concerted basis with G7 partners. There is little reason to believe any current U.S. operation would be concerted. A solo U.S. euro operation would not likely succeed—unless the Fed stood ready to print unlimited dollars to intervene, U.S. resources are highly constrained; the euro/dollar market is vast; the ECB could buy as many dollars as the United States could sell.

Such considerations would pertain to intervention in the Chinese currency. The Chinese authorities can exert a strong influence over banks operating in the on and offshore markets. Even if such an operation occurred, the United States would confront difficult operational issues about investing the currency proceeds.

The administration put forward a Commerce Department rule proposal to treat currency undervaluation as a countervailable subsidy, an idea the Bush administration rejected.

The proposal is problematic. Currency values are determined by balance of payments flows, not just trade accounts, and in turn by monetary and fiscal policies. There is no precise way to assess currency undervaluation. Even if one could, that would not address whether undervaluation was attributable to that country’s policies, or perhaps the flip side of policies in the overvalued currency country. The undervaluation of a country’s multilateral exchange rate also does not tell one the amount of bilateral undervaluation versus the dollar. For example, the subsidy would differ if the optimal bilateral balance deficit between the United States and China were $400 billion or zero.

The administration is aggressively pursuing trade provisions in currency deals, and this trend started under the Obama administration. The Trump administration amped up, pushing welcome side understandings on intervention alongside the revised United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) deal. The United states-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provisions, though, allow certain exchange rate transparency and reporting issues, unrelated to monetary policy, to be included in dispute resolution. While the practical import of the USMCA currency provisions is minor, their inclusion in dispute resolution sets a precedent that could errantly allow trade authorities to stray into macroeconomic policy settings.

Some in the administration have also discussed taxing foreign inflows, consistent with a draft Senate bill of Senators Hawley and Baldwin. Such policies would stand in strong opposition to the longstanding openness of U.S. capital markets.

The administration’s robust unilateral use of financial sanctions could also corrode the dollar’s future global use. Past administrations sought to build multilateral coalitions for deploying financial sanctions. In doing so, officials balanced considerations on using sanctions with the implications for the dollar’s financial and reserve currency roles.

The Trump administration has used financial sanctions far more aggressively and unilaterally. While there is no realistic alternative to the dollar for the foreseeable future, our traditional allies have been put off by the administration’s unilateralism, as best reflected in Europe’s effort to create the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges or INSTEX, a plan to circumvent the dollar’s use to allow Europe to trade with Iran.

The Trump administration’s views on the dollar, foreign exchange policy, and external developments are a major departure from the practices followed by the United States over the past 25 years.

These policies and practices are alienating allies and eroding the multilateral fabric underpinning the international monetary system.

And the largest, and most powerful nation that is able to influence the USD and the international monetary system is China. And President Trump has declared “war” on China. labeling it an “enemy”, conducting a “hybrid war” with it, and engaging it in every way (s0 far) short of a nuclear exchange (aside from the BRI explosion)…

How China Could Crash the US Dollar on a Whim

Over the last 30 years, China’s economy has grown at an average annualized rate of nearly 10%. While this statistic alone is jaw-dropping, what is more impressive is the extent to which the nominally Communist country’s economy has become intertwined in the global economy.

China now exerts enormous influence over the economies of virtually every country in the world, and a slight change in its domestic economic policy has the potential to send shock-waves rippling throughout the world.

Nowhere is this more apparent-and frightening-then in China’s economic relationship with the United States, which is very much at the mercy of China when it comes to prices, wages, interest rates, most importantly, the value of the Dollar.

The precariousness of this relationship is already the subject of significant publicity, redolent of the Japanaphobia of the 1980’s that saw American economists scare-mongering about Japanese control of the US economy. [Of course this later turned out to be unfounded, but that is beyond the scope of our discussion.]

With regard to China, most of the analysis is focused on its growing foreign exchange reserves, the majority of which are held in Dollar-denominated assets. Here, from US house prices to global commodity prices, from interest rates to inflation rates, we will observe how China could cripple the US economy, both willfully and unintentionally, if so desired.

Forex Reserve Diversification

Let’s begin with an examination of China’s forex reserves, which is probably China’s biggest bargaining chip in its economic relationship with the US. Up until a decade ago, China’s currency, the RMB or Yuan, was pegged to the Dollar.

As with any peg, there often develops a discrepancy between the fixed value of the currency and the value that the market would assign if the currency were permitted to float. As China’s economy surged ahead, especially over the last five to ten years, tremendous pressure began to build under the RMB. In order to maintain the peg and hold down the value of the RMB, China began accumulating foreign exchange reserves by withdrawing foreign currency from circulation. Today, China’s foreign exchange reserves are massive, at $1.4 trillion as of September 2007.

In the eyes of American policy-makers, this presents a problem because the majority of these reserves are held in Dollar-denominated assets, namely in the form of US Treasury securities. The US government theoretically could not be happier that foreign Central Banks are willing to finance its perennial budget deficits. However, this borrowing has reached a point where foreigners now control over 40% of the US national debt. Moreover, long-term US interest rates are market-driven, based on the buying and selling of US government bonds. In other words, the US has gradually ceded control of its long-term interest rates to foreign Central Banks, namely China and Japan.

As the Dollar has depreciated, many Central Banks have begun “diversifying” their forex reserves, by switching from Dollar assets to assets denominated in other currencies.

This is problematic for the Dollar for two reasons.

First, switching from US assets to European assets, for example, directly causes the Dollar to depreciate.

Second, the bulk sale of US treasury securities (whether or not they are replaced with other US-assets) causes US bond prices to decline and hence, yields to increase.

Thus, if China suddenly decided to diversify its reserves, for economic and/or political reasons, it could potentially crash the Dollar and send US long-term interest rates skyward.

Since mortgage rates are tied directly to government bond yields, a rise in interest rates would probably also affect US real estate prices. Higher interest rates would make borrowing for a home more difficult, which would lower the demand for houses and thus, the value of American real estate.

In fact, China created the China Investment Co. Ltd., capitalized with almost $300 Billion, charged with investing its vast forex reserves in higher-yielding assets. However, the company’s inaugural investment was a stock purchase in the Blackstone group, an American private equity firm.

Thus, while it seems likely that China will gradually discard some of its stock of US Treasury Securities, the affect on the value of the Dollar will be minimal. Besides, while China would certainly punish US businesses and consumers by unloading US Treasuries on the market, it would punish itself even more, since the value of the government bonds that it didn’t sell would decline.

This is considered “the nuclear option”.

Currency Manipulation

The second aspect of the China-US economic relationship which China could wield to its advantage is the RMB, itself. American public officials enjoy criticizing China for failing to allow its currency to appreciate more quickly. But it’s really all lies and distortions.

What policymakers don’t realize is that a rapid appreciation in the RMB would actually harm the US economy.

Coupled with its growing role as the world’s factory, China’s cheap currency has made Americans wealthier, by increasing their purchasing power. As production of labor-intensive goods was outsourced to China over the last decade, prices for finished products began to fall both in real terms and in nominal terms. While the effect on US employment trends is debatable, its effect on prices has been unambiguous. Thus, even while the American economy boomed, inflation remained relatively modest by historical standards. This allowed the Federal Reserve Board to hold interest rates down and foment economic growth.

As the RMB appreciates, Chinese producers will become ever-more forced to pass along some of the price increase to consumers. Now, if China was to suddenly revalue its currency by the 25%-30% that western policy-makers are demanding, prices on a whole host of Chinese products would jump up overnight.

This would adversely affect American purchasing power and limit consumption to such an extent that the US would be in danger of slipping into recession.

While the trade deficit that is the bane of American politicians’ existence might decrease in the long-term, it would skyrocket in the short-term. Besides, as many analysts have been quick to point out, there is not much overlap between Chinese and American production.

Thus, a more expensive Yuan would send production to other parts of Asia, rather than back to America. As is what is currently going on with some of the cheaper and simpler products.

Direct Competition with US Exporters

A more potent (and plausible) weapon would be to compete more directly with US exporters, by expanding into high-technology products. America currently leads in a handful of high-technology industries.

  • Business
  • Financial
  • IT services
  • Aircraft and spacecraft,
  • Semiconductors,
  • Specialized computers,
  • Pharmaceuticals,
  • Measuring and control instruments.

China has specialized in manufacturing labor-intensive products, which have long since been manufactured outside of the United States. As previously stated, a revaluation of the Chinese Yuan would surely not return production to the US. However, if China were to expand into capital-intensive and/or high-technology products, it could easily steal market-share and jobs from the US.

Key points
Many observers doubt that China can assume global technological leadership, but there are very good reasons to believe it will.

Four factors comprise ‘technology leadership’: 

[1] Research and development (R&D) intensity, 
[2] R&D personnel, 
[3] number of scientific publications, 
[4] The number of patent applications.

Three factors contribute to China’s growing technology capacity and eventual global technology leadership: 

[1] China offers technology innovators a massive domestic market.
[2] China’s government has the authority to shape industrial policy and provide infrastructure.
[3] Globalization has benefited and will continue to benefit China through technology transfer and spillovers.

Limiting the Importation of US Products

Of course, there is also the imports side of the trade equation.

China is one of the United States’ largest export markets. Which isn’t saying much, America just doesn’t manufacture or create much inside of America any more. Never the less, limiting the importation of US goods and services would certainly be felt in the US. Though, truthfully, aside from aircraft and food products like wheat, it doesn’t amount to much.

Some anti-competitive options include tariffs, import taxes, quotas, or a simple ban on the importation of certain types of products.

Raw Material Pricing

In addition, there is the impact that China’s economic growth has exerted on global raw material prices. It has been said that 25% of the world’s construction cranes are currently located in China, to support the country’s building boom. These massive development and infrastructure projects require proportionally massive quantities of raw materials, namely cement and steel. 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists, in a note, point out that the U.S. Department of Defense has termed China’s domination of the rare earth market as potentially dangerous, given the offshoring of manufacturing and vulnerabilities in America’s manufacturing and defense industrial base.

China produced about 78% of rare earths in 2018, and owns about 40% of global resources. Bank of America strategists noted the dominance of China is due to the fact that its government classified them as a strategic resource and has emphasized exploration and extraction of the raw materials for about 100 years.

The analysts said China made the materials available at a low cost in the 1990s, hurting competitors and limiting expansion of rival producers. There are 17 rare earth elements, which are not actually rare but refining them from ore is costly and results in pollution.

— With reporting by CNBC’s Eunice Yoon and Fred Imbert.

Competition for Energy

China was responsible for three quarters of the world’s energy consumption growth, followed by India and Indonesia. The U.S. and Germany posted the largest declines.

-Fossil Fuels Still Supply 84 Percent Of World Energy

China is now the world’s largest consumer of energy, the largest producer and consumer of coal, and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Over the last half century, China’s large manufacturing-based economy has primarily been fueled by coal. From 1990 to 2018, China increased its coal consumption from 0.99 billion tons to 4.64 billion tons.

The nation that consumes the most fuel and raw materials can also control the pricing.

Conclusion

America has been printing money “like it there is no tomorrow”.

This will eventually lead towards hyperinflation of some magnitude.

How bad or severe the influence will be on America, the American economy, and on Americans will depend upon the international relationships that America maintains. Most significantly the relationships that it has with the largest and most influential nations. namely; China.

But there is a problem.

President trump despises China. He has set China up as the big old “boogie man”, the evil villain from which all the woes of American can be blamed upon. You have to be living under a rock not to realize this.

Now, of course, China could respond in kind. And in doing so, the entire American “house of cards” would come tumbling down.

But it hasn’t.

Not yet, at least.

In short, China has several economic “weapons” at its disposal for countering the US, ranging from the manipulation of its currency to the diversification of its burgeoning stock of forex reserves. It also has several less blunt options to choose from, such as enabling Chinese companies to compete more directly and effectively with US companies, and opposing the US in securing a domestic energy supply.

On all of these fronts, the US is essentially “playing with fire”, since it has become so dependent on China as the world’s factory.

Ultimately, it seems unlikely that China will deliberately butt heads with the US unless it is first provoked, but America should nonetheless be respectful to China, since its economy hangs in the balance.

And it is because of this that someone should slap Trump and his neocon advisors at the side of their heads and ask them WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING? Because, like it or not, China is the nation that is holding “all the cards”. Not the United States. And the only reason why Americans are not paying $67 for a gallon of gasoline is because China has decided that the likelihood of Trump remaining in office for eight years is unlikely. And that any replacement would be in the best interests of China at this time.

But that is not how the USA sees things.

The ONLY way that the USA can get out of this future cluster-fuck is to engage in a war with China, and then blame all the subsequent collapsing on China. But, as the events of 2020 has shown, the planned results will not unfold as is desired and expected. Thus we have three very likely scenarios;

[1] Full-on World War III. Whether with China or with Asia. As there is no fucking way that the oligarchy is going to accept an internal revolt of the American peasantry and their eventual torture and beheadings. This is ultimately the most undesirable outcome. The USA will strike first, without Congressional approval. Then after the fact, the Senate will “rubber stamp” the approvals.

[2] A gradual collapse of the United States unfolding with greater and greater alarm. Attempts to distract attention of the American peasantry away from the turmoil has been met successfully. Thus, the oligarchy has decided that an uprising of the surfs is the lesser of two evils. This is the outcome of the more retrospective of the oligarchy who have support networks outside of the area of hostilities. This is, after all, something that they can continue to manage, as complex and ugly as it appears.

[3] An increasing civil war scenario as in scenario #2 (above), only with an attempt to distract the peasantry with an external villain (scenario #1 above). That would mean a few years of gradually increasing Civil War style events. Maybe two to three years worth, followed by a move of desperation to “rally America together to fight some evil”. With the rally a complete failure, and a full on World War III being the result. This is the most probable outcome.

What’s your opinion? One, two or scenario three?

Do you want more?

I have more posts like this in the SHTF and Trump Trade War Indexes…

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Law 20 from The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene; Do not commit to anyone (Full Text)

This is such an important law. This is a law, that if people observed, would mitigate and reduce all the conflicts in the world. This is law 20 from the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. It simply states that you should not commit to anyone. And since I am posting this in September 2020, I wish that that Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison would heed it. It is best if Australia remains neutral in the global affairs rather than cozening up to the likes of Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo. Because when you chain yourself to another, you either rise with them or collapse with them through entanglement.

LAW 20

DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE

JUDGMENT

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others—playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

PART I: DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE, BUT BE COURTED BY ALL

If you allow people to feel they possess you to any degree, you lose all power over them. By not committing your affections, they will only try harder to win you over. Stay aloof and you gain the power that comes from their attention and frustrated desire. Play the Virgin Queen: Give them hope but never satisfaction.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

When Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England, in 1558, there was much to-do about her finding a husband. The issue was debated in Parliament, and was a main topic of conversation among Englishmen of all classes; they often disagreed as to whom she should marry, but everyone thought she should marry as soon as possible, for a queen must have a king, and must bear heirs for the kingdom. The debates raged on for years. Meanwhile the most handsome and eligible bachelors in the realm—Sir Robert Dudley, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh—vied for Elizabeth’s hand. She did not discourage them, but she seemed to be in no hurry, and her hints as to which man might be her favorite often contradicted each other. In 1566, Parliament sent a delegation to Elizabeth urging her to marry before she was too old to bear children. She did not argue, nor did she discourage the delegation, but she remained a virgin nonetheless.

The delicate game that Elizabeth played with her suitors slowly made her the subject of innumerable sexual fantasies and the object of cultish worship. The court physician, Simon Forman, used his diary to describe his dreams of deflowering her. Painters represented her as Diana and other goddesses. The poet Edmund Spenser and others wrote eulogies to the Virgin Queen. She was referred to as “the world’s Empresse,” “that virtuous Virgo” who rules the world and sets the stars in motion. In conversation with her, her many male suitors would employ bold sexual innuendo, a dare that Elizabeth did not discourage. She did all she could to stir their interest and simultaneously keep them at bay.

Throughout Europe, kings and princes knew that a marriage with Elizabeth would seal an alliance between England and any nation. The king of Spain wooed her, as did the prince of Sweden and the archduke of Austria. She politely refused them all.

The great diplomatic issue of Elizabeth’s day was posed by the revolt of the Flemish and Dutch Lowlands, which were then possessions of Spain. Should England break its alliance with Spain and choose France as its main ally on the Continent, thereby encouraging Flemish and Dutch independence ? By 1570 it had come to seem that an alliance with France would be England’s wisest course. France had two eligible men of noble blood, the dukes of Anjou and Alençon, brothers of the French king. Would either of them marry Elizabeth? Both had advantages, and Elizabeth kept the hopes of both alive. The issue simmered for years. The duke of Anjou made several visits to England, kissed Elizabeth in public, even called her by pet names; she appeared to requite his affections. Meanwhile, as she flirted with the two brothers, a treaty was signed that sealed peace between France and England. By 1582 Elizabeth felt she could break off the courtship. In the case of the duke of Anjou in particular, she did so with great relief: For the sake of diplomacy she had allowed herself to be courted by a man whose presence she could not stand and whom she found physically repulsive. Once peace between France and England was secure, she dropped the unctuous duke as politely as she could.

By this time Elizabeth was too old to bear children. She was accordingly able to live the rest of her life as she desired, and she died the Virgin Queen.

She left no direct heir, but ruled through a period of incomparable peace and cultural fertility.

Interpretation

Elizabeth had good reason not to marry: She had witnessed the mistakes of Mary Queen of Scots, her cousin. Resisting the idea of being ruled by a woman, the Scots expected Mary to marry and marry wisely. To wed a foreigner would be unpopular; to favor any particular noble house would open up terrible rivalries. In the end Mary chose Lord Darnley, a Catholic. In doing so she incurred the wrath of Scotland’s Protestants, and endless turmoil ensued.

Elizabeth knew that marriage can often lead to a female ruler’s undoing: By marrying and committing to an alliance with one party or nation, the queen becomes embroiled in conflicts that are not of her choosing, conflicts which may eventually overwhelm her or lead her into a futile war. Also, the husband becomes the de facto ruler, and often tries to do away with his wife the queen, as Darnley tried to get rid of Mary. Elizabeth learned the lesson well. She had two goals as a ruler: to avoid marriage and to avoid war. She managed to combine these goals by dangling the possibility of marriage in order to forge alliances. The moment she committed to any single suitor would have been the moment she lost her power. She had to emanate mystery and desirability, never discouraging anyone’s hopes but never yielding.

Through this lifelong game of flirting and withdrawing, Elizabeth dominated the country and every man who sought to conquer her. As the center of attention, she was in control. Keeping her independence above all, Elizabeth protected her power and made herself an object of worship.

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.

-Queen Elizabeth I, 1533-1603

KEYS TO POWER

Since power depends greatly on appearances, you must learn the tricks that will enhance your image. Refusing to commit to a person or group is one of these. When you hold yourself back, you incur not anger but a kind of respect. You instantly seem powerful because you make yourself ungraspable, rather than succumbing to the group, or to the relationship, as most people do. This aura of power only grows with time: As your reputation for independence grows, more and more people will come to desire you, wanting to be the one who gets you to commit. Desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired by other people, we tend to find this person desirable too.

The moment you commit, the magic is gone. You become like everyone else. People will try all kinds of underhanded methods to get you to commit. They will give you gifts, shower you with favors, all to put you under obligation. Encourage the attention, stimulate their interest, but do not commit at any cost. Accept the gifts and favors if you so desire, but be careful to maintain your inner aloofness. You cannot inadvertently allow yourself to feel obligated to anyone.

Remember, though: The goal is not to put people off, or to make it seem that you are incapable of commitment. Like the Virgin Queen, you need to stir the pot, excite interest, lure people with the possibility of having you. You have to bend to their attention occasionally, then—but never too far.

The Greek soldier and statesman Alcibiades played this game to perfection. It was Alcibiades who inspired and led the massive Athenian armada that invaded Sicily in 414 B.C. When envious Athenians back home tried to bring him down by accusing him of trumped-up charges, he defected to the enemy, the Spartans, instead of facing a trial back home. Then, after the Athenians were defeated at Syracuse, he left Sparta for Persia, even though the power of Sparta was now on the rise. Now, however, both the Athenians and the Spartans courted Alcibiades because of his influence with the Persians; and the Persians showered him with honors because of his power over the Athenians and the Spartans. He made promises to every side but committed to none, and in the end he held all the cards.

If you aspire to power and influence, try the Alcibiades tactic: Put yourself in the middle between competing powers. Lure one side with the promise of your help; the other side, always wanting to outdo its enemy, will pursue you as well. As each side vies for your attention, you will immediately seem a person of great influence and desirability. More power will accrue to you than if you had rashly committed to one side. To perfect this tactic you need to keep yourself inwardly free from emotional entanglements, and to view all those around you as pawns in your rise to the top. You cannot let yourself become the lackey for any cause.

In the midst of the 1968 U.S. presidential election, Henry Kissinger made a phone call to Richard Nixon’s team. Kissinger had been allied with Nelson Rockefeller, who had unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomina tion. Now Kissinger offered to supply the Nixon camp with valuable inside information on the negotiations for peace in Vietnam that were then going on in Paris. He had a man on the negotiating team keeping him informed of the latest developments. The Nixon team gladly accepted his offer.

At the same time, however, Kissinger also approached the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, and offered his aid. The Humphrey people asked him for inside information on Nixon and he supplied it. “Look,” Kissinger told Humphrey’s people, “I’ve hated Nixon for years.” In fact he had no interest in either side. What he really wanted was what he got: the promise of a high-level cabinet post from both Nixon and Humphrey. Whichever man won the election, Kissinger’s career was secure.

The winner, of course, was Nixon, and Kissinger duly went on to his cabinet post. Even so, he was careful never to appear too much of a Nixon man. When Nixon was reelected in 1972, men much more loyal to him than Kissinger were fired. Kissinger was also the only Nixon high official to survive Watergate and serve under the next president, Gerald Ford. By maintaining a little distance he thrived in turbulent times.

Those who use this strategy often notice a strange phenomenon: People who rush to the support of others tend to gain little respect in the process, for their help is so easily obtained, while those who stand back find themselves besieged with supplicants. Their aloofness is powerful, and everyone wants them on their side.

When Picasso, after early years of poverty, had become the most successful artist in the world, he did not commit himself to this dealer or that dealer, although they now besieged him from all sides with attractive offers and grand promises. Instead, he appeared to have no interest in their services; this technique drove them wild, and as they fought over him his prices only rose. When Henry Kissinger, as U.S. secretary of state, wanted to reach detente with the Soviet Union, he made no concessions or conciliatory gestures, but courted China instead. This infuriated and also scared the Soviets—they were already politically isolated and feared further isolation if the United States and China came together. Kissinger’s move pushed them to the negotiating table. The tactic has a parallel in seduction: When you want to seduce a woman, Stendhal advises, court her sister first.

Stay aloof and people will come to you. It will become a challenge for them to win your affections. As long as you imitate the wise Virgin Queen and stimulate their hopes, you will remain a magnet of attention and desire.

Image:

The Virgin Queen. 
The center of attention,desire, and worship. 
Never succumbing to one suitor or the other, 
the Virgin Queen keeps them all revolving around 
her like planets, unable to leave her orbit but never getting any closer
to her.

Authority: 

Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man.... Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations—they are the device of another to get you into his power.... 

-(Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)

PART II: DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE-STAY ABOVE THE FRAY

Do not let people drag you into their petty fights and squabbles. Seem interested and supportive, but find a way to remain neutral; let others do the fighting while you stand back, watch and wait. When the fighting parties are good and tired they will be ripe for the picking. You can make it a practice, in fact, to stir up quarrels between other people, and then offer to mediate, gaining power as the go-between.

THE KITES, THE CROWS, AND THE FOX

The kites and the crows made an agreement among themselves that they should go halves in everything obtained in the forest. One day they saw a fox that had been wounded by hunters lying helpless under a tree, and gathered round it. The crows said, “We will take the upper half of the fox.” “Then we will take the lower half,” said the kites. The fox laughed at this, and said, “I always thought the kites were superior in creation to the crows; as such they must get the upper half of my body, of which my head, with the brain and other delicate things in it, forms a portion. ” “Oh, yes, that is right,” said the kites, “we will have that part of the fox.” “Not at all,” said the crows, “we must have it, as already agreed.” Then a war arose between the rival parties, and a great many fell on both sides, and the remaining few escaped with difficulty. The fox continued there for some days, leisurely feeding on the dead kites and crows, and then left the place hale and hearty, observing, The weak benefit by the quarrels of the mighty. ”

-INDIAN FABLES

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In the late fifteenth century, the strongest city-states in Italy—Venice, Florence, Rome, and Milan—found themselves constantly squabbling. Hovering above their struggles were the nations of France and Spain, ready to grab whatever they could from the weakened Italian powers. And trapped in the middle was the small state of Mantua, ruled by the young Duke Gianfrancesco Gonzaga. Mantua was strategically located in northern Italy, and it seemed only a matter of time before one of the powers swallowed it up and it ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.

Gonzaga was a fierce warrior and a skilled commander of troops, and he became a kind of mercenary general for whatever side paid him best. In the year 1490, he married Isabella d’Este, daughter of the ruler of another small Italian duchy, Ferrara. Since he now spent most of his time away from Mantua, it fell to Isabella to rule in his stead.

Isabella’s first true test as ruler came in 1498, when King Louis XII of France was preparing armies to attack Milan. In their usual perfidious fashion, the Italian states immediately looked for ways to profit from Milan’s difficulties. Pope Alexander VI promised not to intervene, thereby giving the French carte blanche. The Venetians signaled that they would not help Milan, either—and in exchange for this, they hoped the French would give them Mantua. The ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, suddenly found himself alone and abandoned. He turned to Isabella d’Este, one of his closest friends (also rumored to be his lover), and begged her to persuade Duke Gonzaga to come to his aid. Isabella tried, but her husband balked, for he saw Sforza’s cause as hopeless. And so, in 1499, Louis swooped down on Milan and took it with ease.

Isabella now faced a dilemma: If she stayed loyal to Lodovico, the French would now move against her. But if, instead, she allied herself with France, she would make enemies elsewhere in Italy, compromising Mantua once Louis eventually withdrew. And if she looked to Venice or Rome for help, they would simply swallow up Mantua under the cloak of coming to her aid. Yet she had to do something. The mighty king of France was breathing down her neck: She decided to befriend him, as she had befriended Lodovico Sforza before him—with alluring gifts, witty, intelligent letters, and the possibility of her company, for Isabella was famous as a woman of incomparable beauty and charm.

In 1500 Louis invited Isabella to a great party in Milan to celebrate his victory. Leonardo da Vinci built an enormous mechanical lion for the affair: When the lion opened its mouth, it spewed fresh lilies, the symbols of French royalty. At the party Isabella wore one of her celebrated dresses (she had by far the largest wardrobe of any of the Italian princesses), and just as she had hoped, she charmed and captivated Louis, who ignored all the other ladies vying for his attention. She soon became his constant companion, and in exchange for her friendship he pledged to protect Mantua’s independence from Venice.

Men of great abilities are slow to act. for it is easier to avoid occasions for committing yourself than to come well out of a commitment. Such occasions test your judgment; it is safer to avoid them than to emerge victorious from them. One obligation leads to a greater one, and you come very near to the brink of disaster.

-BALTASAR GRACIAN, 1601-1658

As one danger receded, however, another, more worrying one arose, this time from the south, in the form of Cesare Borgia. Starting in 1500, Borgia had marched steadily northward, gobbling up all the small kingdoms in his path in the name of his father, Pope Alexander. Isabella understood Cesare perfectly: He could be neither trusted nor in any way offended. He had to be cajoled and kept at arm’s length. Isabella began by sending him gifts— falcons, prize dogs, perfumes, and dozens of masks, which she knew he always wore when he walked the streets of Rome. She sent messengers with flattering greetings (although these messengers also acted as her spies). At one point Cesare asked if he could house some troops in Mantua; Isabella managed to dissuade him politely, knowing full well that once the troops were quartered in the city, they would never leave.

Even while Isabella was charming Cesare, she convinced everyone around her to take care never to utter a harsh word about him, since he had spies everywhere and would use the slightest pretext for invasion. When Isabella had a child, she asked Cesare to be the godfather. She even dangled in front of him the possibility of a marriage between her family and his. Somehow it all worked, for although elsewhere he seized everything in his path, he spared Mantua.

In 1503 Cesare’s father, Alexander, died, and a few years later the new pope, Julius II, went to war to drive the French troops from Italy. When the ruler of Ferrara—Alfonso, Isabella’s brother—sided with the French, Julius decided to attack and humble him. Once again Isabella found herself in the middle: the pope on one side, the French and her brother on the other. She dared not ally herself with either, but to offend either would be equally disastrous. Again she played the double game at which she had become so expert. On the one hand she got her husband Gonzaga to fight for the pope, knowing he would not fight very hard. On the other she let French troops pass through Mantua to come to Ferrara’s aid. While she publicly complained that the French had “invaded” her territory, she privately supplied them with valuable information. To make the invasion plausible to Julius, she even had the French pretend to plunder Mantua. It worked once again: The pope left Mantua alone.

In 1513, after a lengthy siege, Julius defeated Ferrara, and the French troops withdrew. Worn out by the effort, the pope died a few months later. With his death, the nightmarish cycle of battles and petty squabbles began to repeat itself.

A great deal changed in Italy during Isabella’s reign: Popes came and went, Cesare Borgia rose and then fell, Venice lost its empire, Milan was invaded, Florence fell into decline, and Rome was sacked by the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V Through all this, tiny Mantua not only survived but thrived, its court the envy of Italy. Its wealth and sovereignty would remain intact for a century after Isabella’s death, in 1539.

THE EAGLE AND THE SOW

An eagle built a nest on a tree, and hatched out some eaglets. And a wild sow brought her litter under the tree. The eagle used to fly off after her prey, and bring it back to her young. And the sow rooted around the tree and hunted in the woods, and when night came she would bring her young something to eat.

And the eagle and the sow lived in neighborly fashion. And a grimalkin laid her plans to destroy the eaglets and the little sucking pigs. She went to the eagle, and said: “Eagle, you had better not fly very far away. Beware of the sow; she is planning an evil design. She is going to undermine the roots of the tree. You see she is rooting all the time.”

Then the grimalkin went to the sow and said: “Sow, you have not a good neighbor. Last evening I heard the eagle saying to her eaglets: ‘My dear little eaglets, I am going to treat you to a nice little pig. Just as soon as the sow is gone, I will bring you a little young sucking pig.”’

From that time the eagle ceased to fly out after prey, and the sow did not go any more into the forest. The eaglets and the young pigs perished of starvation, and grimalkin feasted on them.

FABLES, LEO TOLSTOY, 1828-1910

Interpretation

Isabella d’Este understood Italy’s political situation with amazing clarity: Once you took the side of any of the forces in the field, you were doomed. The powerful would take you over, the weak would wear you down. Any new alliance would lead to a new enemy, and as this cycle stirred up more conflict, other forces would be dragged in, until you could no longer extricate yourself. Eventually you would collapse from exhaustion.

Isabella steered her kingdom on the only course that would bring her safely through. She would not allow herself to lose her head through loyalty to a duke or a king. Nor would she try to stop the conflict that raged around her—that would only drag her into it. And in any case the conflict was to her advantage. If the various parties were fighting to the death, and exhausting themselves in the process, they were in no position to gobble up Mantua. The source of Isabella’s power was her clever ability to seem interested in the affairs and interests of each side, while actually committing to no one but herself and her kingdom.

Once you step into a fight that is not of your own choosing, you lose all initiative. The combatants’ interests become your interests; you become their tool. Learn to control yourself, to restrain your natural tendency to take sides and join the fight. Be friendly and charming to each of the combatants, then step back as they collide. With every battle they grow weaker, while you grow stronger with every battle you avoid.

When the snipe and the mussel struggle, the fisherman gets the benefit.

-Ancient Chinese saying

KEYS TO POWER

To succeed in the game of power, you have to master your emotions. But even if you succeed in gaining such self-control, you can never control the temperamental dispositions of those around you. And this presents a great danger. Most people operate in a whirlpool of emotions, constantly reacting, churning up squabbles and conflicts. Your self-control and autonomy will only bother and infuriate them. They will try to draw you into the whirlpool, begging you to take sides in their endless battles, or to make peace for them. If you succumb to their emotional entreaties, little by little you will find your mind and time occupied by their problems. Do not allow whatever compassion and pity you possess to suck you in. You can never win in this game; the conflicts can only multiply.

On the other hand, you cannot completely stand aside, for that would cause needless offense. To play the game properly, you must seem interested in other people’s problems, even sometimes appear to take their side. But while you make outward gestures of support, you must maintain your inner energy and sanity by keeping your emotions disengaged. No matter how hard people try to pull you in, never let your interest in their affairs and petty squabbles go beyond the surface. Give them gifts, listen with a sympathetic look, even occasionally play the charmer—but inwardly keep both the friendly kings and the perfidious Borgias at arm’s length. By refusing to commit and thus maintaining your autonomy you retain the initiative: Your moves stay matters of your own choosing, not defensive reactions to the push-and-pull of those around you.

THE PRICE OF

While a poor woman stood in the market place selling cheeses, a cat came along and carried off a cheese. A dog saw the pilferer and tried to take the cheese away from him. The cat stood up to the dog. So they pitched into each other. The dog barked and snapped; the cat spat and scratched, but they could bring the battle to no decision.

“Let’s go to the fox and have him referee the matter, ” the cat finally suggested. “Agreed, ” said the dog. So they went to the fox. The fox listened to their arguments with a judicious air.

“Foolish animals,” he chided them, “why carry on like that? If both of you are willing, I’ll divide the cheese in two and you’ll both be satisfied. ” “Agreed, ” said the cat and the dog.

So the fox took out his knife and cut the cheese in two, but, instead of cutting it lengthwise, he cut it in the width. “My half is smaller!” protested the dog.

The fox looked judiciously through his spectacles at the dog’s share. “You’re right, quite right!” he decided.

So he went and bit off a piece of the cat’s share. “That will make it even!” he said.

When the cat saw what the fox did she began to yowl: “Just look! My part’s smaller now!”

The fox again put on his spectacles and looked judiciously at the cat’s share.

“Right you are!” said the fox. “Just a moment, and I’ll make it right.”

And he went and bit off a piece from the dog’s cheese This went on so long, with the fox nibbling first at the dog’s and then at the cat’s share. that he finally ate up the whole cheese before their eyes.

-A TREASURY OF JEWISH FOLKLORE, NATHAN AUSUBEL, ED., 1948

Slowness to pick up your weapons can be a weapon itself, especially if you let other people exhaust themselves fighting, then take advantage of their exhaustion. In ancient China, the kingdom of Chin once invaded the kingdom of Hsing. Huan, the ruler of a nearby province, thought he should rush to Hsing’s defense, but his adviser counseled him to wait: “Hsing is not yet going to ruin,” he said, “and Chin is not yet exhausted. If Chin is not exhausted, [we] cannot become very influential. Moreover, the merit of supporting a state in danger is not as great as the virtue of reviving a ruined one.” The adviser’s argument won the day, and as he had predicted, Huan later had the glory both of rescuing Hsing from the brink of destruction and then of conquering an exhausted Chin. He stayed out of the fighting until the forces engaged in it had worn each other down, at which point it was safe for him to intervene.

That is what holding back from the fray allows you: time to position yourself to take advantage of the situation once one side starts to lose. You can also take the game a step further, by promising your support to both sides in a conflict while maneuvering so that the one to come out ahead in the struggle is you. This was what Castruccio Castracani, ruler of the Italian town of Lucca in the fourteenth century, did when he had designs on the town of Pistoia. A siege would have been expensive, costing both lives and money, but Castruccio knew that Pistoia contained two rival factions, the Blacks and the Whites, which hated one another. He negotiated with the Blacks, promising to help them against the Whites; then, without their knowledge, he promised the Whites he would help them against the Blacks. And Castruccio kept his promises—he sent an army to a Black-controlled gate to the city, which the sentries of course welcomed in. Meanwhile another of his armies entered through a White-controlled gate. The two armies united in the middle, occupied the town, killed the leaders of both factions, ended the internal war, and took Pistoia for Castruccio.

Preserving your autonomy gives you options when people come to blows —you can play the mediator, broker the peace, while really securing your own interests. You can pledge support to one side and the other may have to court you with a higher bid. Or, like Castruccio, you can appear to take both sides, then play the antagonists against each other.

Oftentimes when a conflict breaks out, you are tempted to side with the stronger party, or the one that offers you apparent advantages in an alliance. This is risky business. First, it is often difficult to foresee which side will prevail in the long run. But even if you guess right and ally yourself with the stronger party, you may find yourself swallowed up and lost, or conveniently forgotten, when they become victors. Side with the weaker, on the other hand, and you are doomed. But play a waiting game and you cannot lose.

In France’s July Revolution of 1830, after three days of riots, the statesman Talleyrand, now elderly, sat by his Paris window, listening to the pealing bells that signaled the riots were over. Turning to an assistant, he said, “Ah, the bells! We’re winning.” “Who’s ‘we,’ mon prince?” the assistant asked. Gesturing for the man to keep quiet, Talleyrand replied, “Not a word! I’ll tell you who we are tomorrow.” He well knew that only fools rush into a situation—that by committing too quickly you lose your maneuverability. People also respect you less: Perhaps tomorrow, they think, you will commit to another, different cause, since you gave yourself so easily to this one. Good fortune is a fickle god and will often pass from one side to the other. Commitment to one side deprives you of the advantage of time and the luxury of waiting. Let others fall in love with this group or that; for your part don’t rush in, don’t lose your head.

Finally, there are occasions when it is wisest to drop all pretence of appearing supportive and instead to trumpet your independence and self- reliance. The aristocratic pose of independence is particularly important for those who need to gain respect. George Washington recognized this in his work to establish the young American republic on firm ground. As president, Washington avoided the temptation of making an alliance with France or England, despite the pressure on him to do so. He wanted the country to earn the world’s respect through its independence. Although a treaty with France might have helped in the short term, in the long run he knew it would be more effective to establish the nation’s autonomy. Europe would have to see the United States as an equal power.

Remember: You have only so much energy and so much time. Every moment wasted on the affairs of others subtracts from your strength. You may be afraid that people will condemn you as heartless, but in the end, maintaining your independence and self-reliance will gain you more respect and place you in a position of power from which you can choose to help others on your own initiative.

Image: A Thicket of Shrubs. In the forest, one shrub latches on to another, entangling its neighbor with its thorns, the thicket slowly extending its impenetrable domain. Only what keeps its distance and stands apart can grow and rise above the thicket.

Authority: Regard it as more courageous not to become involved in an engagement than to win in battle, and where there is already one interfering fool, take care that there shall not be two. – (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

Both parts of this law will turn against you if you take it too far. The game proposed here is delicate and difficult. If you play too many parties against one another, they will see through the maneuver and will gang up on you. If you keep your growing number of suitors waiting too long, you will inspire not desire but distrust. People will start to lose interest. Eventually you may find it worthwhile to commit to one side—if only for appearances’ sake, to prove you are capable of attachment.

Even then, however, the key will be to maintain your inner independence —to keep yourself from getting emotionally involved. Preserve the unspoken option of being able to leave at any moment and reclaim your freedom if the side you are allied with starts to collapse. The friends you made while you were being courted will give you plenty of places to go once you jump ship.

Conclusion

As the world ends this crazy year of 2020, we see alliances forming. But many of the participants will to remain as neutral as possible. Yet the United States demands obedience. “You are either with us, or you are against us.” Trump and Pompeo demand.

The smart leadership, and the capable leaders realize the folly in following other alliances that would adversely affect their economies.

Those that do not can expect consequences for their alliances. For once you chain yourself to another, what ever happens to that person will happen to you. If that person is healthy and is a hard worker, you will be carried along with them. But if they are weak, or even worse killed, you will be buried with them.

Always establish your own alliances and maintain the flexibility of options.

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The USA has finally admitted that it sponsored, trained and funded the Hong Kong protests of 2019 and 2020

This isn’t a topical post. It’s just historical for those with short memories.

A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.

Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.

The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.

He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."

https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S

This is an article that I wrote at the tail end of 2019, as I was getting ready to leave to my in-laws for the 2020 Chinese New Year. At that time, the news was awash with articles that Donald Trump admitted to being involved in the protests, and that he intended a “color revolution” there. He also admitted to supporting the NED and other adversarial elements.

This was all as a result of getting China to agree to a very watered-down trade agreement at that time. Then after two days, all news went quiet about the United States involvement in trying to destabilize Hong Kong.

Hush…

(Be quiet)

Nothing to see here…

Then COVID-19 hit China hard, and Donald Trump unleashed a most aggressive and nasty anti-China propaganda campaign. Simultaneously. One that continued for at least six months, up until that too… ended. When he himself admitted to sponsoring the anti-Chinese propaganda onslaught as well.

Well, here it is. Around one year later.

All the dust has cleared and settled. We’ve had a near non-stop “hybrid-war” of America against China raging for a year now. We can see the hand of America in just about every “accident”, and “coincidence” that befell China during 2020.

And as America decided to engage in a Lose-lose strategy against China, their calculus was that China would suffer far worse than America would. Because China was fragile, did not have people’s support, made shoddy products, ate disgusting animals, and wore ill fitting clothing, etc…

Well, all 2020 was a “hybrid-war”. It was a lose-lose engagement. And who actually lost more China or the USA? Look at the 2020 Q2 growth rate;

  • USA is -9.1%
  • China is 3.2%

Now, if you are reading this, you all pretty much understand this. The United States is on fire. There are protests in all the cities. There’s an election going on, and it’s a bloody slug-fest between the two candidates and their followers. America is a real mess with defaults, bankruptcy and unemployment rampant on all levels.

And yet…

And yet still…

Americans believe that the Chinese hate their government, and that China is covering up and suppressing the “pro-democracy” movement in Hong Kong. that it’s all a big lie that the Chinese are happy with their government. All news out of China is considered a lie, and all data and figures out of China must be a lie, because there is “no way” that China could be doing better than American. It’s inconceivable!

Well, no it’s not.

The Chinese don’t need to lie. It’s not a “democracy” that depends on public opinion to stay in power. They don’t fuck around. They tell the truth and if you can’t handle it, well tough noodles! Which is pretty much one of the many reasons why the Chinese love their nation, and why they are all hyper-patriotic.

And meanwhile, in the United States…

Yet, somehow the Americans that I have been talking to say that everything about China is a lie, and the polls in America are all a lie, and that President Donald Trump is doing the best job of any President in history. And as such they cannot believe that all that nonsense about Pepe the frog in HK, and the singing the American anthem in HK, and waving American flags were all just props of an American “color revolution effort”.

Well…

Here’s my post for prosperity…

This post was derived from an article titled “US Now Admits it is Funding “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong” written on October 6, 2019 from Mideast Discourse By Tony Cartalucci. The original source of this article is Land Destroyer Report and Global Research. Update 28JUN20. using “Donald Trump decided to stop funding the protests in Hong Kong.“ It was edited to fit this venue, and of course all credit to the original authors.

US Now Admits it is Funding “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong

Just as the US admitted shortly after the so-called “Arab Spring” began spreading chaos across the Middle East that it had fully funded, trained, and equipped both mob leaders and heavily armed terrorists years in advance, it is now admitted that the US State Department through a myriad of organizations and NGOs is behind the so-called “Occupy Central” protests in Hong Kong. 

The Washington Post would report in an article titled, “Hong Kong erupts even as China tightens screws on civil society,” that:

Chinese leaders unnerved by  protests elsewhere this year have been steadily tightening controls over  civic organizations on the mainland suspected of carrying out the work  of foreign powers.

The campaign aims to insulate China from subversive Western ideas such as democracy and freedom of expression, and from the influence, specifically, of U.S. groups that may be trying to promote those values here, experts say.

“Experts” say…

Subversive ideas like “democracy“, and the “freedom of expression“.

How dare China!

That campaign  is long-standing, but it has been prosecuted with renewed vigor under President Xi Jinping, especially after the overthrow of Ukrainian  President Viktor Yanukovych following months of street demonstrations in Kiev that were viewed here as explicitly backed by the West.

The Washington Post would also report:

One foreign policy expert, who  spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said  Putin had called Xi to share his concern about the West’s role in  Ukraine. 

Those concerns appear to have filtered down into conversations  held over cups of tea in China, according to civil society group  members.

So both the Presidents of Russia and China are alarmed, or “concerned” about the Untied States government trying to destabilize their nations.

“They are very concerned about  Color Revolutions, they are very concerned about what is going on in  Ukraine,” said the international NGO manager.

(Whose organization is  partly financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)). 

... blamed  here for supporting the protests in Kiev’s central Maidan square.

“They say, ‘Your money is coming from the same people. Clearly you want to  overthrow China.’ ”

Oh, but you do know that the NED is the CIA.

  • Same funding.
  • Same leadership.
  • Same direction.
  • Same training manuals.
  • Same operational objectives.
Congressionally funded  with the explicit goal of promoting democracy abroad...

... NED has long been  viewed with suspicion or hostility by the authorities here. 

But the net of suspicion has widened to encompass such U.S. groups as

... the Ford Foundation, 
... the International Republican Institute, 
... the Carter Center and,
... the Asia Foundation. 

Of course, NED and its many subsidiaries including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute do no such thing as “promoting democracy.”

Instead they are in the business of constructing a global network of neo-imperial administration termed “civil society” that interlocks with the West’s many so-called “international institutions”…

… which in turn  are completely controlled by interests in Washington, upon Wall Street, and in the cities of London and Brussels.

While the Washington Post would have readers believe NED is in the business of promoting “freedom of expression” and “democracy” the corporate-financier interests represented on NED’s board of directors are anything but champions of such principles, and are instead notorious for principles precisely the opposite. 

The very concept of the United States “promoting democracy” is scandalous when considering it is embroiled in an invasive global surveillance scandal…

… guilty of persecuting one unpopular war after another around the planet against the will of its own people…

… and based on verified lies…

… and brutalizing and abusing its own citizens at home with militarized police cracking down on civilians in towns like Ferguson, Missouri.

All of which makes China’s police actions against “Occupy Central” protesters pale in comparison.

“Promoting democracy” is clearly cover for simply expanding its hegemonic agenda far beyond its borders and at the expense of national sovereignty for all subjected to it, including Americans themselves.

In 2011, similar revelations were made public of the US’ meddling in the so-called “Arab Spring” when the New York Times would report in an article titled, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” that:

A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region...

... including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, 
... the Bahrain Center for Human Rights 
... and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a  youth leader in Yemen...

... received training and financing from groups like...

... the International Republican Institute, 
... the National Democratic Institute and...
... Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based  in Washington.

The article would also add, regarding NED specifically, that:

The Republican and Democratic  institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic  Parties. 

They were created by the United States Congress and are financed through the  National Endowment for Democracy NED.

The NED was set up in 1983 to channel  grants for promoting democracy in developing nations. 

The National  Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress. 

Freedom  House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government,  mainly from the State Department.

Pro-war and interventionist US Senator John McCain had famously taunted both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping’s predecessor in 2011 that the US subversion sweeping the Middle East was soon headed toward Moscow and Beijing.

The Atlantic in a 2011 article titled, “The Arab Spring: ‘A Virus That Will Attack Moscow and Beijing’,” would report that:

He [McCain] said, 

“A year ago,  Ben-Ali and Gaddafi were not in power. Assad won’t be in power this time  next year. This Arab Spring is a virus that will attack Moscow and  Beijing.” 

McCain then walked off the stage.

Considering the overt foreign-funded nature of not only the “Arab Spring,” but now “Occupy Central,”…

… and considering the chaos, death, destabilization, and collapse suffered by victims of previous US subversion…

… “Occupy Central” can be painted in a new light…

…it’s a mob of dupes being used to destroy their own homes…

…all the while abusing the principles of “democracy”…

…. behind which is couched an insidious, diametrically opposed foreign imposed tyranny.

A tyranny driven by immense, global spanning corporate-financier interests that fear and actively destroy competition.

In particular, this global hegemon seeks to suppress the reemergence of Russia as a global power, and prevent the rise of China itself upon the world’s stage.

The regressive agenda of “Occupy Central’s” US-backed leadership, and their shameless exploitation of the good intentions of the many young people ensnared by their gimmicks…

…forever pose a threat in reality that is every bit as dangerous as the “threat” they claim Beijing poses to the island of Hong Kong and its people.

Conclusion

It’s the tail end of 2020. We can look back over the last four years of the Donald Trump administration and the unusual series of events surrounding China with the eyes of experience. No longer can all the events be attributed to “unlucky coincidences”. From day one, and point zero, President Trump and his cabal of neocons went on the “war path” against China and did everything in their power short of an all-out hot shooting war to suppress China’s rise.

They have been largely unsuccessful.

Though, and make no mistake, things are still in process and there are apt to be more terrible surprises in the future.

This post concerns the efforts to destabilize Hong Kong.

In short, and in conclusion, the United States went all-out to destabilize Hong Kong, create unrest and scare away European interests from that region. They supported, trained, and funded “fifth column” agents who trained, and authored, the many violent protests within Hong Kong.

A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. 

The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. 

Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. 

This term is also extended to organized actions by military personnel. 

Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.

-Wikipedia

Make no mistake, all the American “color revolutions” around the globe are “Fifth column” events. It is the preferred option for America to conduct war when the opposing military is too strong, or better organized than American military forces are.

The rest of the world is finally catching up with Metallicman

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Dangerous times ahead; the new global realignments from 2020 through to 2030.

This article was compiled back in 2018. 

It is a "Franken-article" comprising a selection of elements from other articles that I have read, by other authors. I collected the key points, and had annotations linking to the articles, and then suffered a rather catastrophic computer failure, leaving my note in RTF format without links. Anyways, to make a long story short, the following is a Fraken-article compiled  together to make a point. 

Originally it discussed 2018 through 2028. I've updated it to 2020 through 2030.

This article was written before the Trump Trade war onslaught, and before the COVID-19 Bioweapon that Trump unleashed on the Chinese New Year celebrations. It was written before any of the riots and protests in Portland, Chicago or Los Angeles.

This was written in 2018. And I could see that…

There are dangerous times ahead.

Every 80 years, nations often experience colossal events. There are different theories about this cycle – for example, the Fourth Turning theory focuses on the cyclical strengths of institutions versus individuals. Others surmise that four generations after a major crisis, there are no more older people to warn the society, and the younger people take peace and prosperity for granted.

Well, exactly 80 years ago, America was mired in Great Depression, and World War II was about to begin. Yet, predictably, most Americans and Europeans now cannot even fathom such scenarios repeating in their lifetime.

There are two major catalysts that can ignite catastrophic wars in the next decade. They are;

  • The debt/economic crisis in the West.
  • Growinge great-power rivalries (US + EU versus Russia + China).

Geopolitical tensions that are simmering now will reach a crescendo very soon. (I predicted in 2018.) Without extraordinary caution and prudence, we’re destined to become another victim of history’s inexorable cycle of conflict and collapse.

America is #2

Pretty much.

How many American politicians and elites will say, “America is the second largest economy in the world”? How will Americans react when they hear it for the first time?

For certain, there will be shock, anger, denial and a lot of blame and finger-pointing. However, most Americans fail to realize that not only is this scenario almost inevitable, but it will happen within the next 6-10 years.

Consider that China’s nominal GDP grew 200% since 2008, while the US grew only 35%. Even if China slows down a lot and grows only 100% and the US continues at the same pace, China will be #1 before 2028.

Chart of real GDP growth USA (blue) vs. China (red).

What does China’s rise mean to western corporations and the globalists who control them? Loss of power and wealth. And that’s something the globalists aren’t going to just let happen.

There’s more to China’s rise than just GDP.

In late 2017, US News and World Report ranked China’s Tsinghua University as #1 for computer science and engineering, dethroning MIT.

In hi-tech areas such as 5G, driverless vehicles, electric vehicles, passenger drones (“flying cars”), 3D printing, Artificial Intelligence, super computers, quantum computing and numerous other fields, China is #1. America is #2.

Throughout history, an established power has never passively watched a rising power take its spot. As Harvard Professor Graham T. Allison points out, 75% of the time, the established power goes to outright war with the rising power.

I wrote an article about this.

Mother Russia Comes Back to Life

After the fall of the Soviet Union, American intellectuals’ favorite phrase was “the end of history.”

And John Bolton famously claimed that there should be only one country in the UN’s Permanent Security Council: 

USA! America  has the won the Cold War and will stay as the hyper-power forever!  Everyone will embrace America’s exceptionalism and remain submissive.

Alas, Putin came along and resuscitated the Russia.

He[1] thwarted the globalists in Ukraine and [2] Syria, [3] survived a Wall Street-engineered drop in oil price (from $115 to $45 in mere six months), [4] prevented the collapse of the Russian economy in spite of severe sanctions, [5] shored up enormous gold and foreign exchange reserves, and [6] even managed to develop hyper-sonic ICBMs that can evade America’s vaunted missile defense systems.

Worse, Putin is also working with the Chinese on US-independent versions of the Internet, banking system, credit card system etc.

All these have turned Putin into the globalists’ public enemy #1.

In the 1960s, the CIA came up with all sorts of false flag attacks to blame Russia – [1] killing Cuban refugees in Miami, [2] buying Russian planes to attack US military installations etc. Now, it’s the [3] Russia hacking/interference claim and [4] the spy-poisoning drama are just the previews…

… expect much more in the coming months and years.

The Middle East is in play.

In the 1990s, Neocons in Israel and the US (remember PNAC?) dreamed of hegemony over the Middle East.

All you need to do is take out Iraq and Iran, and the domination is complete.

Imagine controlling all that oil and the strategic waterways through which much of global trade passes.

And if western firms can construct oil/gas pipelines from the Middle East to Europe, the latter can say, “Nyet” to Russian oil/gas. Without Europe as the customer, Russia will suffer immensely and surrender.

Controlling the Middle East also means controlling the land and the sea routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A few “moderate rebels” in strategic locations can greatly disrupt China’s Europe-bound trains.

Thus my article on the mini-nuke in Beirut;

The BRI suppression

In response to the belligerent comments by Esper and the Australian report, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said “China is firmly on a path of peaceful development and our national defense policy is defensive in nature”. 

China has gone further by providing a cooperative framework under the Belt and Road Initiative which is built around the brilliant political agenda of providing diplomatic solutions to geopolitical points of tension through economic development strategies that enrich all participants. 

This approach has provided China great payback through the defusing of tensions with other nations claiming territory within the South China Sea- especially under the pro-BRI orientation of Malaysia’s Dr. Mahathir Mohammed and the Philippines’ President Duterte.

-America Loses Asia-Pacific as Full Spectrum Dominance Continues to Fail

Road and Belt. This requires Pakistan agreements and ports in the Mediterranean. Everything has been going well. That is up until a massive explosion that some have referred to as a “mini-nuke” totally and completely gutted the Lebanon port in Beirut. An interesting assessment;

The Port of Beirut poses the biggest geostrategic threat to American power projection because China’s Silk Road is fast creeping towards the docks at Beirut Port. The US, having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa rail contract with China, has dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.

https://thesaker.is/china-newsbrief-sitrep-3/

And then it appears that a great accident destroyed it.

Moreover, the Port of Beirut also poses the biggest geostrategic threat for the US’s eastward-bound power projection where China and its new Silk Road operation is fast creeping westwards and is attempting to land at the eastern coastal strip of the Mediterranean, right where the Beirut Port docks. The US having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa contact with China has somewhat dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.

Evidently, the US has chosen the latter option – with Israel assigned the task of accomplishing the destruction of Beirut Port. After all, for different reasons, both benefit greatly from Beirutshima.

And so very timely is this destruction of the Beirut Port as the Lebanese government has very recently been in official talks with the Chinese over their offer to vastly invest in and develop the Beirut Port: a much needed gateway port and bridge into Europe for China, which represents an absolutely intolerable equation for the US’s hegemony in Europe. The Beirut Port’s rebuilding to its previous standard of activity will be contingent on strict conditions imposed by the US and Israel on the Lebanese government, if the port is allowed to be rebuilt at all, that is. Most certainly, the US is determined not to allow the Chinese any executive, investment or managerial access to it.

...

And this larger US project has everything to do with the current US war on China, albeit presently a non-military war, but a war nevertheless, a war that the Pentagon is militarily preparing for – hence the ever increasing and breathtakingly high defense budget that Congress has been allocating to the US military throughout the terms of the last three Presidents.

The US having lost Pakistan to the China sphere of influence, thus losing an attack dog bordering China, and having recently assigned Turkey as its new enforcer in the middle east, it now behooves the US to use its Mideast allies of both Turkey and Israel, two infamous terrorist states who regularly break international law with impunity: use them as spoilers and saboteurs against an advancing China and against any of Beijing’s Mideast regional allies. 

Beirutshima is clearly an apparent US endeavor to push-back the Chinese advance in the highly strategic eastern Mediterranean, as the US attempts to simultaneously pivot eastwards itself through secured territories wherever China is successfully backtracked by the US and its regional henchmen.
But, can this grand geostrategic plan really work for the benefit of the US? Can the US really succeed at remaining the only superpower in the world by the incessant knee-capping of China’s new Silk Road project?

This is yet to be determined. But judging by the deep budgetary and societal crisis engulfing the US homeland, with no sign whatsoever of its deepening troubles abating, analysts doubt that the US has lungs large enough to last the whole race through with China. Here I will add that the US-China fight over the Beirut Port is not yet over. One wonders what went through the mind of the wily Chinese ambassador in Lebanon to witness the Beirut Port exploding as it shockingly did: to witness his pet project and assignment be destroyed right before his eyes and right before a signed agreement was made between him and the Lebanese government of Diab.

-UR

A War to Contain China

China’s Achilles heel is that it’s surrounded by America’s vassal states – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea for now. 

The Philippines used to  be America’s puppet, but it’s now leaning towards China and Russia,  thanks to Duterte. How North Korea will turn out is yet to be seen.

India, which was colonized by the British for 200 years, is experiencing amnesia and is quickly ceding its sovereignty to the US.

Japanese elites – under pressure from globalists – are trying to change their constitution so that Japan can build up its military again. This is obviously an ominous sign.

Thus globalists have a lot of options to wage a proxy war on China. Asia has been growing rapidly and enjoying unprecedented prosperity, but there’s a good chance they will screw it up by becoming sacrificial pawns in the geopolitical chessboard.

Drawing China and Russia together

China knows what the neocons are doing. China and Russia share intel data, and combined saw that America was an active and real threat. If China collapses, Russia would be next. If Russia collapses, China would be next. So what did they do?

Then at the same time, they started to warn the United States to stop; just stop… please just stop…

Among the myriad, earth-shattering geopolitical effects of coronavirus, one is already graphically evident. China has re-positioned itself. For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the US as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference during the peak of the fight against coronavirus. 

Beijing is carefully, incrementally shaping the narrative that, from the beginning of the coronovirus attack, the leadership knew it was under a hybrid war attack. Xi’s terminology is a major clue. He said, on the record, that this was war. And, as a counter-attack, a “people’s war” had to be launched.

Moreover, he described the virus as a demon or devil. Xi is a Confucianist. Unlike some other ancient Chinese thinkers, Confucius was loath to discuss supernatural forces and judgment in the afterlife. However, in a Chinese cultural context, devil means “white devils” or “foreign devils”: guailo in Mandarin, gweilo in Cantonese. This was Xi delivering a powerful statement in code.

When Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, voiced in an incandescent tweet the possibility that “it might be US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan” – the first blast to this effect to come from a top official – Beijing was sending up a trial balloon signaliing that the gloves were finally off. Zhao Lijian made a direct connection with the Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019, which included a delegation of 300 US military... 

-https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/china-locked-in-hybrid-war-with-us/

They also watch with some degree of hope that the intel information was incorrect, and that the United States would stop. That the United States would end it’s anti-Chinese propaganda campaign, it’s anti-China technology assault, and it’s anti-China biological warfare programs…

…but that is not in the cards. Not yet, anyways.

Financial Wars

If the globalists have mighty military and vassal states to impose their hegemony, they have one tremendous weakness: a fake economy based on debt and money-printing.

America’s enormous strength is based on petrodollar – an unfair system that forces other countries to buy oil and other commodities in US dollar.

Take that away, the American Empire starts to wobble. Without enormous demand for the US dollar and treasuries, interest rates will go up, debt will become expensive, and interest payments on existing debt will skyrocket.

This is why China, the largest importer of oil, just started oil futures that trade in Yuan. China has implemented systems where one can directly buy and sell oil in Yuan. If China were to get out of the globalist hegemony, there’s no better way than to establish petroyuan, especially if it’s backed by gold.

And of course…

US will go to war to stop emergence of petro-yuan !

The introduction of oil trading in yuan is a very bold move by the Chinese, because the US will not give up the basis of its hegemony – the dollar as the world’s reserve currency – without a fight. The Chinese plan to roll out a yuan-denominated oil contract is a very “brave” move, since countries who “tried to exit the oil-dollar matrix have met terrible ends,”.

...

The US financial sector and its military-industrial complex are unlikely to give up the dollar hegemony without a fight, though, as the dollar is both the basis and the main product of America. And the US will use its other favorite tool for it – war…

“Maybe they will start a war between Japan and China, and maybe they will start a war with North Korea. America will do anything to keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” “They will invade the countries, like Afghanistan, they will stop at nothing. Because this is the basis of the US empire. It’s not land-based, it’s not based on material goods, it’s based on rent-seeking. It’s based on landing dollars, getting out income and when countries can’t pay they dismantle the assets and take them over. We saw it in Latin America, South America, this is how America built its empire.”

What’s Next?

America’s military impotence when faced with the new cutting edge technologies unveiled by Russia and China was outlined in a recent report released by the US Studies Center at the University of Sydney which stated that “America no longer enjoys military primacy in the indo Pacific and its capacity to uphold a favorable balance of power is increasingly uncertain.”

Referring to China’s advanced anti-aircraft weapons, the report says “Chinese counter-intervention systems have undermined America’s ability to project power in the Indo-Pacific region” which the authors say, could be rendered impotent within the first 8 hours of conflict.

-America Loses Asia-Pacific as Full Spectrum Dominance Continues to Fail

Thanks to Deep State and the Democrats, US-Russia relations will continue to deteriorate as sanctions pile on. Globalists will also use the anti-Russia hysteria to create an EU army, bolster NATO, and provoke Russia with missile defense systems and military build up on its borders. Russia’s neighbors — Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, Sweden, Poland etc. — will all be used as pawns to needle and threaten Russia.

The US will continue to build its troops to encircle China, saber rattle in the South China Sea, incite Muslim separatists in Western China (Xinjiang), and try to turn Asian countries against China.

I’ve covered all the elements in other posts in far greater detail. There you can see the details. Links are as provided herein.

This is just an overview.

Create strife in HK. The “pro-democracy” protests were implemented by NED / NID insurgents under the guise of being “journalists”. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>

Create strife in Xinjiang. Radicalized and CIA trained Muslim insurgents creating “fifth column“ activities. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>

Forced Starvation. Destruction of the pork industry via drones and aerosol viruses, destruction of the chicken industry, the wheat and rice industries, and multiple waves of germ attacks. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>

African Incentives. This is ongoing. Though lately a number of nations are demanding that China pay billions of dollars to them for COVID-19 damage. I cannot help but see a CIA hand in all this. <HERE><HERE><HERE>

Incentivize American Businesses. Enormous amounts of money has been handed to American companies throughout trumps first term of office, the greatest amounts came during the 2020 “COVID bailout”. However, no companies have shown any interest in returning operations to America. <HERE><HERE><HERE>

Anti-China propaganda campaign. This is hot and heavy. Apparently it’s working a full 30% of Americans hate China and blame it for all the American ills. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>

Anti-China technology campaign. Well the arrest of the Huawei President and the suppression of 5G technology is only the tip of the iceberg. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>

A Pandemic that would suppress China but ignore America. This is the highlight of the plan and really interesting. Three strains. A, B, and C. All unleashed on the world. Lethal strain B is for China. It is dangerous and lethal. However, Americans get the A virus. This virus is mild and safe. It self inoculates (or was intended to). It is designed for Americans to have “Herd Immunity”. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>

An Alliance of other nations. By building a coalition of nations, the entire group could gang up against China in bulk. This includes strong showings by Australia, Canada, and the UK. <HERE>

Establish American Bases on Taiwan. Ongoing and NOT public.

There will also be endless economic, propaganda and hybrid wars against both Russia and China in the coming years.

US, EU, Russia and China will be developing many dangerous and effective weapons in the near future. This will include miniaturized nuclear bombs, weaponized satellites, and possibly a combination of both — satellites armed with nukes. Then there are hypersonic missiles that travel at 20 times the speed of sound, killer robots and fleets of armed drones.

Biological and germ warfare are also being developed by the US in many vassal countries. It’s a multi-dimensional and hybrid arms race that’s more lethal and destructive than ever before.

Conclusion

America is only 5% of the world’s population. It cannot expect to rule the other 95% forever. America’s unipolar dominance is a blip in the history. Americans have to learn to coexist with other great powers and focus on creating a peaceful, prosperous world.

Instead, America’s elites are filled with hubris and hegemonic fantasies of full spectrum dominance. 

Full-spectrum dominance also known as full-spectrum superiority, is a military entity's achievement of control over all dimensions of the battlespace, effectively possessing an overwhelming diversity of resources in such areas as terrestrial, aerial, maritime, subterranean, extraterrestrial, psychological, and bio- or cyber-technological warfare.

-Wikipedia
The US is formally committed to dominating the world by the year 2020. With President Trump’s new Space Directive-4, the production of laser-armed fighter jets as possible precursors to space weapons, and the possibility of nuclear warheads being put into orbit, the clock is ticking…

Back in 1997, the now-re-established US Space Command announced its commitment to “full spectrum dominance.” The Vision for 2020 explains that “full spectrum dominance” means military control over land, sea, air, and space (the so-called fourth dimension of warfare) “to protect US interests and investment.” “Protect” means guarantee operational freedom. “US interest and investment” means corporate profits.

-Countdown to “Full Spectrum Dominance”

Americans – and sadly most Europeans now as well – are ignorant about geopolitics, easily swayed by propaganda, and programmed to accept wild stories without demanding proof or evidence. The combination of ruthless elites and gullible masses is extremely dangerous.

Without great restraint, diplomacy, wisdom and compromises, we will be sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster in the next decade.

2020 to 2030.

All the warning signs and signals are lit up and flashing.

Warning.
Those American military officials promoting the obsolete doctrine of Full Spectrum dominance are dancing to the tune of a song that stopped playing some time ago. Both Russia and China have changed the rules of the game on a multitude of levels, and can respond with fatal force to any attack upon their soil with next generation weaponry beyond the scope of anything imagined by ivory tower game theorists in the west.

-America Loses Asia-Pacific as Full Spectrum Dominance Continues to Fail

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The American thug bully and its shiny military toys; a scary look at dangerous miscalculations

I have been thinking and musing (a lot) about the absolute arrogance of the United States (out of Washington DC) and the myth of “American exceptionalism”, and that “America has never lost a war”. This has really come into mind with the things that President Trump is doing with multiple assault combat carrier fleets sitting right off the Chinese coast right now.

What he is doing is extraordinarily dangerous.

It reminds me of the bully in school. The one that always gets his way. That always behaves erratically, well because he’s a thug, but also because he never came across another “tough guy” that was bigger than him.

(Time for old guy memories…)

When I was growing up back in the hills of Western Pennsylvania, there was this boy who was two or three years older than me. I cannot say that he was a bully, exactly. It’s just that something wasn’t quite right about him. He was a spoiled brat, that’s for certain, that just was oblivious to the world around him. We was, well, a little “off” in the head, don’t you know.

He was an only child, and he attended the “special education” classes at our High School. They were all pretty much frowned upon as being “weak in the mind”. Which is terrible, I know, as I’m sure that wasn’t the actual case, but we were kids, and that was what we thought.

His father owned a local grocery store as well as a tri-county trash pick up service. They had a house in the nicest part of the town where we lived in, and had an indoor pool that was cool and really unique.

Think of a world where Bruce Wayne wasn't really "Batman". But instead was "The Joker". I guess it was sort of like that.

He would be off doing stuff and getting into all kinds of trouble. Just odd-ball stuff. You know how kids would build a tree-house. Well, he built one too…

…In the back yard of a house that was occupied by two little old ladies that were in their 90’s. The local constable had to have him come and tear it down.

While in High School he lobbed this flat steel disk (Lord only knows where he found it) into a crowd of my classmates. He just somehow got on the roof, yelled at us kids, and threw it. Luckily no one was killed by the flying fifty pound UFO.

He was the one that shocked us fifth graders by telling us how babies were made and how a boy puts his penis into a young lady. He even had magazines to help describe this activity. Not only that, but he was willing to demonstrate to the girls how it worked. (Don’t worry, we all left. Nothing became of it.) Never the less, we were scarred for weeks afterwards. We were just not ready.

Anyways, in hindsight, as an adult you can see that this kid had problems, and it would only be a matter of time before something bad would happen.

When I was 16 I started working in the mines, and perform stock duties in the local grocery store. There we would hear all the local gossip of the community. Of course, we called it “scuttlebutt”. Which was just a guys’ way of gossiping. We found out that he had died.

It turned out, that one Friday evening, around 7PM he was riding his bicycle all over the road. Meaning “all over the road in big lazy arc’s and meandering turns”. He was blocking traffic and forcing the cars to move at abnormally slow speeds. Since the roads were all tight and wove in and out of the hills there, the cars were trapped at the mercy of this crazed Joker-like insane young man. (He was maybe 18 years old at the time.)

Riding a bicycle, not driving a car. You see, he couldn't pass the driving tests at 16.

One of the cars (in the long train of cars beeping and honking behind him) was occupied by three United States marines, who in the early 1970’s probably had done some time in Vietnam (at the American war there). And they were not too pleased with this punk.

So…

So, they got out of the car and grabbed him. And Lordy, they beat the living Dejesus out of him. I mean they really fucked him up bad. They beat the snot out of him, and do you know what?

Do you know what happened?

He died.

That’s right. He was killed.

And the Marines, well they went to Prison. It’s a sad story all the way around. I like to think that everyone learned a lesson in all this. I would see the kid’s father from time to time as he did his business, and lived his life in the town. But, he was a now a small pale sort of man. Not the tall strong man that used to be. I guess that the death of your only child, and the turmoil of life, would do that to you. It’s a sad story for certain.

That’s my story and now for my point.

It’s human nature to believe that we are bigger, smarter, stronger, and more intelligent than everyone else. And if we evolved over time when our notions of who we are and what we are, are not tested, then we continue believing these things long after it becomes obvious that they are no longer true.

The childhood kid ended up getting his “ass whooped” because he had never confronted someone who was bigger, stronger and more aggressive than him. For he was the “big fish in a small pond”. And the Marines that he encountered were some very mean and nasty sharks.

I think of this story often, and it comes to my mind every time I see an article about how “invincible” the United States Navy is.

Now while this might make reading for the American civilian population, the truth is that the leadership of the American military machine are not fools. They know it’s strengths and weaknesses, and are not very keen on testing these expensive military machines with a peer-capable rival.

But, unfortunately, they are not the ones that are making the top-level decisions in Washington DC today. It is Donald Trump, and Mike Pompeo and the rest of the Neocon cabal that are running the country, making the decisions and playing with the military as if it was their very own personal army.

Which brings me to this article…

The following is a reprint of “China Sea Blues: A Thing Not to Do” written by Fred Reed on October 30, 2015. It is reprinted as found on the UNZ site and you can read the Comments to it there. All credit to the author, and note that it was edited to fit this venue, but remains as intact to intent.

China Sea Blues: A Thing Not to Do

It appears that Washington, ever a seething cauldron of bright ideas, is looking for a shooting war with China, or perhaps trying to make the Chinese kowtow and back down, the pretext being some rocks in the Pacific in which the United States cannot possibly have a vital national interest. Or, really, any interest. And if the Chinese do not back down?

The Vincennes. The boxy thing up front is the radar. It is not hardened.

Years back I went aboard the USS Vincennes, CG-49, a Tico class Aegis boat, then the leading edge of naval technology. It was a magnificent ship, fast, powered by a pair of airliner turbines, and carrying the SPY-1 phased-array radar, very high-tech for its time. The CIC was dark and air-conditioned, glowing with huge screens—impressive for then—displaying all manner of information on targets in the air. Below were Standard missiles, then on a sort of chain drive but in later ships using the Vertical Launch System. It was, as they say in Laredo, Muy Star Wars. (The Vincennes was the ship that later shot down the Iranian airliner.)

Being something of a technophile, I took all of this in with admiration, but I thought—what if it gets hit?

As a kid in my preteens I had read about the battleships of WWII, the Carolinas but in particular the Iowa class, fast, brutal ships with sixteen-inch belt armor and turrets that an asteroid would bounce off of. The assumption was that ships were going to get hit. They were built to survive and continue fighting.

American hull armor in a Japanese World War II battleship. Showing not only the thickness, but also the type of damage that it could take.

By contrast, the Vincennes was thin-skinned, hulled with aluminum instead of steel, and the radar, crucial to combat, looked perilously fragile. A single hit with anything serious, or perhaps even a cal .50, but certainly by anything resembling a GAU-8, and she would be hors de combat until refitted.

Damage to the thin hull of the USS Cole by improvised munitions on board a terrorist skiff.

The Iowa, BB-61. I went aboard her at Norfolk at the Navy’s invitation. It altered my appreciation of guns. I came away thinking that if you can’t crawl into it, it isn’t really a gun. And solid: There is a reason why no battleship was sunk after Pearl Harbor.

One hit.

I also knew well that the Navy played Red Team-Blue Team war games in which our own submarines—then chiefly 688s—tried to “sink” the surface fleet. The idea was that if the sub could get into firing position, it would send up a green flare. The subs were then running if memory serves the Mk 48 ADCAP torpedo, a wicked wire-guided thing with a long range. Sailors told me that invariably the subs “sank” the surface force.

When I mentioned this at CHINFO, the Navy’s PR operation in the Pentagon, flacks told me that the potential bad guys only had piddling diesel-electric subs, far inferior to our nukey boats, and couldn’t get near the fleet in open seas. Yes, no, maybe, and then. It sounded like happy talk to me. In WWII, diesel-electrics certainly got in range of surface ships, perhaps the most famous example being when Archer Fish sank Shinano.

DF-21D anti-ship (read: anti-carrier) missile. This is not the place for detail, but China has anti-ship ballistic missiles designed to kill carriers, and is working on others, hypersonic glide vehicles, that are not real interceptible. I do not know how well they work. If I were a carrier, I would make a point of not finding out.

The Chinese DF-21D anti-Carrier missile. This missile is mass-produced and is designed to be fired in clusters of multiple groupings designed to saturate the defensive capabilities of an American Carrier battle group.

I do not know a great deal about the Chinese Navy, having been out of that loop for years. I do know that the Chinese are smart, and that they have optimized their forces specifically to take out carrier battle groups near their territory.

They do not try to match the US ship-for-ship in the kind of war America wants to fight. They would lose fast, and they know it.

The key is to swarm the fleet with cruise missiles arriving all at once, accompanied perhaps by large numbers of aircraft. Would this work? I don’t know, but that is certainly the way I would bet.

The United States Navy has not been in a war for seventy years.

It has sat off various shores and launched aircraft, but the fleet has not been engaged. Over decades of inaction, complacency sets in. Unfortunately, wars regularly turn out to be otherwise than expected. Further, the American military’s standard approach to a war is to underestimate the enemy (there is probably a manual on this).

Yet further, great emotional and financial capital resides in a carrier-battle group, one of the most impressive achievements of the human race. (I mean this: the technology, organization, and competence involved in, say, night flight ops are…”astonishing” is too feeble a word.)

This assures reluctance to question the fleet’s effectiveness in the face of changing conditions. Such as high-Mach, stealthed, maneuvering, sea-skimming cruise missiles. Or terminally guided anti-ship ballistic missiles.

America is accustomed to fighting enemies who can’t fight back.

This may NOT include the Chinese.

The carrier Forrestal, 1967. A single Zuni missile was fired accidentally. A huge fire ensued, bombs cooked off, 134 men were killed, and the ship was devastated, out of service for a very long time. One five-inch missile. Something to think about.

There is also the fact that the American military simply doesn’t matter, which reduces concern with whether it can fight and who it can fight.

It doesn’t defend the US, since there is nothing to defend it against. (What country has the remotest possibility of invading America?)

So the military is used for what are essentially hobbyist wars, keeping Israel happy, providing markets for the arms companies, and for social engineering: we have girl crews who would be a disaster at damage control, but we assume that there will never be any damage to control.

Uh…yeah. The evidence is that these ships are fragile:

What would happen if in a shooting war the Chinese crippled the American fleet?

Washington is rampant with large egos, especially that of John McCain, the senator from PTSD. If it were discovered that China could disable the Navy, many other countries might conclude that they could do it too. They most certainly would think of this.

But…

Washington could not accept the discovery: Fear of the carriers is a large element in Washington’s intimidation of the world. To save face, the US would be tempted to go nuclear, or seriously bomb China proper, with unforeseeable results.

USS Stark, 1987. Hit by two Exocet missiles fired by an Iraqi Mirage.

The Air Force and Navy could hurt China badly by conventional means, yes, for example by cutting off oil from the Mideast, or destroying the Three Gorges dam.

For a variety of reasons this would be playing with fire.

The economic results of any of these bright ideas would be godawful.

  • Just about every commercial product sold in America is made in China.
  • Just about every new construction or building project in America is being funded and manufactured by Chinese companies.
  • China holds a “Lion’s share” of American debt and could collapse the American economy if they wanted to.

Washington seems not to realize that it wields far less military power than it thinks it does, and that the power it does wield is ever less useful than before.

As a land power, it is very weak, being unable to defeat Russia, China, or peasants armed with rifles and RPGs. Air power has regularly proved indecisive.

USS Cole, 2000. Blown up by suicide guys in a small boat.

If Washington somehow won a naval war with China, so what?

It would provide the satisfactions of vanity, but China’s danger to the US imperium lies in increasing economic power and commercial expansion through Asia, where it holds the high cards: it is there, Washington isn’t.

Grrr-bowwow-woofery in the far Pacific, even if successful, is not going to stop China’s commercial expansion, and a defeat would end the credibility of the Navy forever.

As I say, Washington is full of bright ideas.

Conclusion

The purpose of war is to resolve differences when ALL OTHER AVENUES have been exhausted.

However, United States history has clearly illustrated that that doctrine has NOT been followed. Wars have been created for other purposes. Purposes devoted to the obtainment of profits, and to manipulate a compliant and ignorant population.

There is evidence that the last 75 years or so of this behavior cannot end. That those that run and rule over the United States are unable to use the military for any other purpose than what it has been used for.

And like the bully from my High School days, America could see itself on the wrong side of a conflict. One that it started. One that it thinks that it will “win”. And one that will FOREVER change it.

Maybe change it for good, and for infinity.

And, maybe, like the Bully from my High School days, it is long overdue and will be a shock to everyone. From the bully himself who (I am sure) lay there with a look of incredulity on his face, to his toadies who thought he was invincible, to the innocent bystanders (such as myself) who was shocked that such a well-known (if not particularly liked) person could be vanquished so quickly and so easily.

War is NOTHING that the United States should get involved in at this time. It is not healthy. It is a mess, and getting worse. The last thing it should get involved in is a fight with a nation THAT DOES NOT PLAY.

Chinese ships test firing two anti-carrier missiles in the South China Sea in August 2020.

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The USA might be going bat-shit crazy, but in China everything is going according to plan

It is late August 2020. The United States is a mess. It really is. Even my Chinese friends who normally don’t bother with the news and international issues can see this. Face it. The United States is collapsing and all the rest of the world can do is hold on, and hope that there are some smart people managing the collapse.

Many of the nouveau riche, the ultra-wealthy, can read the handwriting on the wall. They can see the wheels coming off in America, as a debt-soaked economy, along with violence and pervasive poverty continues to increase, and our national problems have all resisted solutions and resolutions for years.

Federal government has become virtually dysfunctional, as the political extremism has destroyed professionalism and cooperation, and politicians accuse, insult, even curse at each other without ever agreeing on anything.

It is not surprising that they're lining up other countries they can move to when the time comes. And the way things are going, that time is almost now.

-Marketwatch

The following is a well written article that I pulled off the UNZ website. I passed it on to other retired professionals, current analysts, and businessmen in very senior roles within global international companies and asked them for their opinions. These are not the people who make decisions based on what MSN, CNN, Drudge, or Rush Limbaugh has to say. Instead, these are people who have experience in global trade, scientific advancements and technology. They are the people who actually make the decisions (on a working level) regarding international commerce and industry. Of the around two hundred that I queried, about thirty five responded.

All of them that responded pretty much agreed with me that is is a very accurate assessment on what is going on within China, and the world currently. That it makes complete sense, and that they have expected this all to occur and be put into place.

If you want to part the curtains a little bit, and see how things are really working…

…free of all that “noise” from the political, and media machinery within the United States (and their client nations) then read this post.

This is a reprint of “Everything Going According to Plan in China. The contours of China’s long-term strategy for the new Cold War are quickly coming into view” by Pepe Escobar. Found on the UNZ website. Written August 24, 2020. Edited to fit this venue. All credit to the author. With 33 Comments on the original post. (Republished from Asia Times)

Everything Going According to Plan in China. The contours of China’s long-term strategy for the new Cold War are quickly coming into view

Let’s start with the story of an incredibly disappearing summit.

The mysterious secretive BeiDaiHe Meeting

Every August, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) converges to the town of Beidaihe, a seaside resort some two hours away from Beijing. They do so to discuss serious policies that then coalesce into key planning strategies. Strategies that are presented to be approved at the CCP Central Committee plenary session later on in October.

The Beidaihe ritual was established by none other than Great Helmsman Mao, who loved the town where.  It is not by accident, Emperor Qin, the unifier of China in the 3rd century B.C., kept a palace there.

2020 being, so far, a notorious Year of Living Dangerously, it’s no surprise that in the end Beidaihe was nowhere to be seen. 

The Chinese Leadership is a cautious organization.

Yet Beidaihe’s invisibility does not mean it did not happen. It did.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 1 was the fact that Premier Li Keqiang simply disappeared from public view for nearly two weeks.

Curiously, this was after President Xi chaired a crucial Politburo gathering in late July. One where he laid out no less than China’s whole development strategy for the next 15 years.

Premier Li Keqiang resurfaced soon afterwards. Suddenly chairing a special session of the all-powerful State Council.

This was at the same time that (CCP’s top ideologue), Wang Huning (who happens to be number 5 in the Politburo) showed up as the special guest at a meeting of the All China Youth Federation.

What’s even more intriguing is that side by side with Wang, one would find Ding Xuexiang.

Ding Xuexiang is President Xi’s chief of staff.

He wasn’t alone. There were three other Politburo members with him.

In this “now you see them, now you don’t” variation, the fact that they all showed up in unison after an absence of nearly two weeks was more than just curious..

This led sharp Chinese observers to conclude that Beidaihe in fact had taken place. Even if no visible signs of political action by the seaside had been detected.

Curious. The semi-official spin is that no get-together happened at Beidaihe because of Covid-19.

Exhibit 2

Yet it’s Exhibit 2 that may clinch the deal for good.

The by now famous end of July Politburo meeting chaired by Xi in fact sealed the Central Committee plenary session in October.

Translation: the contours of the strategic road map ahead had already been approved by consensus. There was no need to retreat to Beidaihe for further discussions.

Trial balloons or official policy?

The plot thickens when one takes into consideration a series of trial balloons that started to float a few days ago in select Chinese media. Here are some of the key points.

[1] On the trade war…

On the trade war front, Beijing won’t shut down US businesses already operating in China. But companies which want to enter the market in finance, information technology, healthcare and education services will not be approved.

[2] US Treasuries

Beijing won’t dump all its overwhelming mass of US Treasuries in one go, but – as it already happens – divestment will accelerate. Last year, that amounted to $100 billion. Up to the end of 2020, that could reach $300 billion.

[3] The Yuan as a global currency

The internationalization of the yuan, also predictably, will be accelerated. That will include configuring the final parameters for clearing US dollars through the CHIPS Chinese system – foreseeing the incandescent possibility Beijing might be cut off from SWIFT by the Trump administration or whoever will be in power at the White House after January 2021.

[4] America’s “Hybrid War”

On what is largely interpreted across China as the “full spectrum war” front, mostly Hybrid War, the PLA has been put into Stage 3 alert – and all leaves are canceled for the rest of 2020. There will be a concerted drive to increase all-round defense spending to 4% of GDP and accelerate the development of nuclear weapons. Details are bound to emerge during the Central Committee meeting in October.

[5] Chinese Independence and Self-Reliance

The overall emphasis is on a very Chinese spirit of self-reliance, and building what can be defined as a national economic “dual circulation” system: the consolidation of the Eurasian integration project running in parallel to a global yuan settlement mechanism.

Inbuilt in this drive is what has been described as…

 “to firmly abandon all illusions about the United States...

...and conduct war mobilization with our people. We shall vigorously promote the war to resist US aggression...

...We will use a war mindset to steer the national economy...

...Prepare for the complete interruption of relations with the US.”

It’s unclear as it stands if these are only trial balloons disseminated across Chinese public opinion or decisions reached at the “invisible” Beidaihe.

So all eyes will be on what kind of language this alarming configuration will be packaged when the Central Committee presents its strategic planning in October.

Significantly, that will happen only a few weeks before the US election.

It’s all about continuity

All of the above somewhat mirrors a recent debate in Amsterdam on what constitutes the Chinese “threat” to the West.

Here are the key points.

[1] The Chinese Hybrid Economic Model

China constantly reinforces its hybrid economic model – which is an absolute rarity, globally: neither totally publicly owned nor a market economy.

[2] Hyper-Patriotic Nation

The level of patriotism is staggering: once the Chinese face a foreign enemy, 1.4 billion people act as one.

[3] No infighting. Powerful levers of control.

National mechanisms have tremendous force: absolutely nothing blocks the full use of China’s financial, material and manpower resources once a policy is set.

[4] Largest Industrial System on the Planet

China has set up the most comprehensive, back to back industrial system on the planet, without foreign interference if need be (well, there’s always the matter of semiconductors to Huawei to be solved).

[5] Long term planning

China plans not only in years, but in decades. Five year plans are complemented by ten year plans and as the meeting chaired by Xi showed, 15 year plans. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is in fact a nearly 40-year plan, designed in 2013 to be completed in 2049.

[6] Continuity of long-term purpose

And continuity is the name of the game – when one thinks that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, first developed in 1949 and then expanded by Zhou Enlai at the Bandung conference in 1955 are set in stone as China’s foreign policy guidelines.

Conclusion

China is dealing with Chinese issues inside of China using Chinese methods. It is succeeding, and the future (as scary as it appears) seems to be well mapped out by a capable leadership supported by a robust industry, and an enthusiastic populace.

America hasn't a clue. It's still a mish-mash of politics, crime, corruption and distortions. No one inside of America trusts their government, their police or their military. To try to distract attention from domestic issues by having a war with a very robust nations would be national suicide.

The Qiao collective, an independent group that advances the role of qiao (“bridge”) by the strategically important huaqiao (“overseas Chinese”) is on point when they note that Beijing never proclaimed a Chinese model as a solution to global problems.

What they extol is Chinese solutions to specific Chinese conditions.

A forceful point is also made that historical materialism is incompatible with capitalist liberal democracy forcing austerity and regime change on national systems, shaping them towards preconceived models.

That always comes back to the core of the CCP foreign policy: each nation must chart a course fit for its national conditions.

And that reveals the full contours of what can be reasonably described as a Centralized Meritocracy with Confucian, Socialist Characteristics: a different civilization paradigm that the “indispensable nation” still refuses to accept, and certainly won’t abolish by practicing Hybrid War.

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A look at some of the techniques the CIA taught the “pro democracy” demonstrators in Hong Kong in 2019 – 2020.

I tire of all this global politics and political manipulations. It’s really quite tiring and worrisome. The anti-China campaign is geared up to prep the American electorate towards a war with China, and it is really building up to that point. (It really is.) Trump collapsed global trade, unleashed a bio-weapon, and supported the proxy use of a micro-nuke to destroy the BRI facility in the Beirut Port in Lebanon. And I haven’t even started listing the thousands of other efforts. Ugh!

Forget those negotiations with China spearheaded by the man who boasted that he was the maestro of “the art of the deal.” 

Recently, it’s been an all-hands-on-deck assault on that country: from deploying U.S. aircraft carriers in the South China Sea to the sudden and arbitrary closing of a Chinese consulate in Houston. Of all people, Health Secretary Alex Azar was even dispatched to Taiwan, that other China, to meet and greet the country’s president, the highest-ranking official American visitor to do so in four decades. Of course, as with so much in the age of Trump, there was a grimly comic aspect to his trip, since he made a particular point of praising the way a democratic country could handle the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic (a howler, given how Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have each handled that same virus). 

And that’s just to start down a list that, from TikTok bans to criminal charges against four members of the Chinese military, only continues to grow as The Donald and crew become ever more belligerent about that rising power on a falling planet.

Hong Kong

Let’s focus on Hong Kong.

Now that China has pretty much captured, imprisoned, and evicted the NED agitators (who where behind the (so called) “pro democracy” protests), we now have a very detailed picture of the techniques and systems that they used. 

A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.

Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.

The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.

He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."

https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S

We know for certain that the NED was a CIA front. We also know through videos, audio recordings, phone conversations, movies, and confessions how the protestors were trained and directed to cause disruption in Hong Kong. It’s amazing stuff for certain.

Not all protestors were so trained. Just the leadership were.

They leadership ran the mobs. Other individuals (also paid for by the NED) were “recruiters” and collected and organized the mobs. Most of which operated by recruitment in Hong Kong schools and Universities. There is where the millennial youth were collected and inspired to protest.

But, not all protestors were young.

The older protestors were also recruited. But they were recruited differently. We know because they were paid to be agitators. NED recruiters would go into retirement communities, and other venues to collect people and pay them to participate in the protests. Those so paid were issued with a monetary award of a few thousand HKD and were given a stamped tattoo. You can see this tattoo on many of the older protesters during the riots.

Ah…

But such short lived money had some consequences, don’t you know…

Money flowed easily, and some Chinese tried to capitalize in this by "double dipping" and other tactics to claim the money. 

However, months later, many who collected the CIA cash, found that they suddenly lost all of their social security, and their social credit score went to zero and went black. The money was dirty and tracked by Beijing. If you cashed it at a Chinese bank, and the GPS showed that you were at a protest event, you suddenly lost all social standing. Which meant, no buses, no taxi's, no subways, no school, no credit cards, no flying. No parking. Nothing....

... for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

All of this was conducted by the NED. 

Which is the CIA, run by the CIA, and funded by the CIA. But, it is now renamed as a "private NGO" for "humanitarian purposes."

In short, the CIA under the control of Mike Pompeo, and by direction of Donald Trump lead a “Color Revolution” in Hong Kong, following very advanced techniques and supported technology.

Hong Kong billionaire Jimmy Lai under arrest.

A “color revolution” in HK

Using American technology and Langley information, protest venues were precisely mapped out. Cameras were identified and disabled, and targets were selected.

Each protest was like a piece in a very complex puzzle. All directed to force the Hong Kong government to take certain precalculated actions. (As it was compelled by HK democrat law to behave in certain ways and react to crime in certain specific ways.)

This was success for some time.

For a while it was like a “wack a mole”, and the police were running all over the place. Riots were popping up everywhere, stations and buildings were burning, Chinese citizens were getting hurt and killed, and the government appeared impotent. As soon as the protestors were arrested, HK Judges (UK, and Australian citizens within HK) would let them go home free with no punishments or consequences.

This is because the entire system was not set up to combat an invasion by a foreign power. Only to arrest and suppress individual disturbances to the civil order.

The “color revolution” counted on HK maintaining democracy, and they used systems and polices that would work in that environment. As such, the rioters were trained to do as much damage as possible and to provoke as much as possible, but cause no direct confrontation.

And they thrived.

Things were going exactly to plan.

That was, until China decided that it served no purpose to continue to play the game and play by the rules established by Mike Pompeo. 

China recognized that America was behind everything. They had proof and confirmations. They realized that the way the situation was being handled would eventually result in the collapse of the government there. This was unacceptable. And action had to be taken.

China takes action in HK

So they changed the rules of the game. They changed the laws, and immediately went to work collecting, seizing and isolating the CIA elements.

  • The entire faculty at the problematic universities were fired. There were were no exceptions for tenure or other reasons.
  • All foreign journalists and news media were culled for their participation in the riots. many operations were shut down, and the people deported from HK.
  • HK billionaires who partially funded the operations, and produced pamphlets and propaganda were arrested with their entire families and senior staff. They were taken to mainland China and are now being held for treason which will result in serious consequences for them and their families.
  • The COVID-19 served as great cover to clear out the remaining “rats nest” and for the most art, HK is clean of the offenders.

Now, there is a lot of information behind all this. It’s all in China. I couldn’t find anything in the American or British press. Which was strange. You would think that they might at least have one singular article. At least.

Anyways…

In the articles you can see the great deal of depth and discoveries uncovered by the Chinese investigation teams. For they have found chemical weapons labs making both munitions, and chemical weapons. they have found instructive literature (that came from the United States), and secure communication systems that lead straight back to America.

From a technical point of view, I find all this information fascinating.

But that is not what I am going to post here. Instead, I am going to just post one or two videos that have been making their way inside China that well illustrate the great degree of avant-garde control that the CIA has established when trying to force the collapse of Hong Kong and establish billionaire Jimmy Lai as the new dictator.

John Bolton with Jimmy Lai.

All of it is terribly interesting.

Video 1 – Riot control by the NED

Like I said, I won’t spend too much time on this. I really don’t have much interest in the instigation of riots for manipulative gain. But I am interested in “fifth column” activities.

Check this video out…

How instructions were sent by the NED / CIA to the protestors.

This is all very interesting.

Now, China had to stop all of this. Beijing saw that the Hong Kong government was following the standard police riot control methods that usually work for “grass roots” organizations, but this was on another level completely. These protests and riots were well funded, highly organized, and methodical. There was a long term plan and strategy at play.

Video 2 – What was intended to happen to HK.

China bugged the conversation(s) between trumps’ diplomatic aides in Hong Kong and the protest leadership. So everything they said, did, promised and explored was recorded, and analyzed in both Hong Kong and Beijing.

  • China has videos and audio tracks of American leadership directing riots in HK.
  • China has videos of American Leadership making promises and giving money to anti-China (pro-Democracy) terrorists.
  • China has the complete “paper trail” of the money, how it changed hands, and where it originated from, as well as detailed itemized lists of how it was spent.

They knew what was promised, what the funding and supply channels were and what to expect. And they did not like it.

Because it was clearly stated DURING THE CONVERSATIONS with the radical leadership that the intention of President Trump was to turn Hong Kong upside down “and let it burn“. The Trump administration wanted to turn Hong Kong into another fiasco like all the other “color revolutions” were.

Hong Kong – Let it BURN!

This is what the objective was…

Images form a previous NED sponsored “color revolution”.

Today, Hong Kong is quiet.

Everything is back to normal.

There just isn’t any more protests. No one is waving American Flags. No one is singing the American National Anthem. No one is spraying pro-American graffiti on the walls. Pepe-the-frog is no where to be seen.

Imagine that!

Trump is furious!

You can see this. He is completely unhinged. What the heck? Why is he so upset if Hong Kong is calm and peaceful? Why is he so enraged?

Well, we all know the reasons.

But first, let’s be clear…

China was the ONLY nation that has been able to stop a CIA / NED sponsored “color revolution” dead in it’s tracks. It’s the only nation that was able to do so.

That is worth consideration.

Conclusion

This is all pretty obvious if you have been paying attention.

What I find interesting in all of this is the dearth and lack of information about this in the American and Western press. Further, and most importantly, there is ZERO information anywhere about how China stopped a NED sponsored “color revolution” in a city that is four times the size of New York City.

You can come to many conclusions regarding all this.

  • You can pretty much consider all “news” to be nonexistent.
  • The USA is out of control and failed in containing HK via the NED.
  • HK still remains an economic and financial center fro the Pacific basin.

Meanwhile, Overseas Chinese are flocking back to China…

“Hong Kong is and will always be an inseparable part of China. Hong Kong has its own identity, it will always be special, like Shanghai and Beijing are special too. Because of our history, we are fortunate to have choices. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with emigrating to US, Canada or UK. My generation has been there and done that. We have many friends and family happily settled in the US/Canada/UK, albeit they are frustrated because Trump makes their lives miserable too. 

But those who choose to leave Hong Kong now because media and hallucinations lead them to believe that Hong Kong will decline and there will be no more freedom and rights blah blah blah, then I guarantee you, they will miss the best ride ever and regret it for the rest of their lives.

This is the best time in history to be Chinese, and to be in Hong Kong and China.”

As a HK’er myself, I totally agree with her points of view. To be totally open, I know Sandra and her husband. We went through very similar life experience and after a long time in the West, we settled back down in Hong Kong and China. Not only is Hong Kong our home, China is the place to be at. We feel proud because of our own achievement and the prospects going forward are even better.

Do you want more?

I have more posts along this in my Trump Trade War Index here…

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Snapshots of life in China. Surprise! It doesn’t look anything like Alex Jones says it is.

Here are some videos taken around China during the Summer of 2020. During this time, China has pretty much recovered from the Coronavirus, but remains guarded and cautious. The rest of the world is still fighting the virus, and the United States is a “basket case”. The videos are a collection of home movies that I took and Tictok videos from the original platform Douxing, which has always been banned in the United States.

Incidentally, all those laws being made in the United States about banning or changing Tictok or Wechat has absolutely ZERO effect in China. 

American laws end at the American shoreline, and as far as the influence that they will have, it will be minimal. The primary generation of income for all the Chinese companies come from within China itself.

So, as an example, Tictok revenue in the USA is less than 2% of what it makes in China.

Here, I use Alex Jones as an example (in the title) as he is pushing the “China Bad” narrative (generated by the Pompeo CIA / State Department) very rigorously. He, like others of his market segment, (such as Rush Limbaugh and Hall Turner) use China as the scapegoat for all the problems that America is experiencing. It’s a convenient villain.

It’s also absolutely and completely false.

It's like a fight in a school yard between two bullies. The teacher comes out to break it up. And one of the bullies points to the teachers car and yells"Someone is trying to steal your car!"

China does not look anything like these multi-millionaire television and radio personalities say. And because they are so very, very, very far off the “deep end” in their speculative fantasies, those that listen to them, end up making decisions based on bad intel.

They make bad decisions based upon their illusions instead of based on reality.

Such as Donald Trump / Mike Pompeo when they decided to “institute a regime change” in Communist China “for the Chinese people”.

Not realizing that the Communist Government IS the people of China. 

Not just in "flowery words" and "pithy sayings", but really in reality. Their entire society is structured as that of an individual having membership within something greater.

America, is set up the opposite. It is a nation of "lone wolves", or individuals who fight alone and reap all the benefits of their hard labors for themselves alone.

So the Pompeo speed and the Trump public positioning, is of course very silly, and absolutely insane that a (supposedly capable) government would even dare publicly announce such a strategy.


"Ah. I do not like their government. We will do everything to destroy that government. We will build a coalition to enable us to destroy it as a collective group.

We are doing it for democracy, and freedom, and for the people of China."

Now, for the record, I have listened to these television personalities for decades. For the longest time I believed every word that they said, as they provided me with a news and opinion outlet that was not (then) available on the “mainstream American press”. And in so believing everything, I became a rabid nationalist conservative.

Then life happened.

Uh oh.

I saw how “Justice” actually works, and how absolutely out of touch the mainstream conservative narrative actually is with the many facets of American society. Some things just did not add up. (How can a nation be a Republic with the election of Senators? If America is so great, why was I always “treading water” and desperately trying to play “catch up?)

I started to move to the left (politically) and for the longest time I oscillated back and forth between left and right trying to find a “middle ground”. I guess you might say that I was a Libertarian at heart. I just pretty much wanted to be left alone. I wasn’t hurting or harming anyone. I just wanted to be left alone.

If America was the land of the “lone wolf”, then let me take on that role. Leave me alone! As it is my right as an American!

No one in the USA would let me.

There was always something I was doing wrong. From not wearing a seat-belt, to smoking in a restaurant, to drinking beer on Sunday, to not reporting a sale (I made to a friend) to the IRS. It got so bad that I was afraid to do anything. When I was driving, I would always look at my speedometer if I saw a police car. I would only carry just “enough” money in my wallet so that I wouldn’t be questioned “why” I had so much money. It was NOT a life that I wanted to live.

Then I moved to China.

Whoa! Was it nothing like I expected!

I expected something out of a dystopian novel. I expected darkness, pale faces and dour expressions. I expected goose-stepping security guards everywhere. I expected sadness, grey skies and a bleak landscape. I expected third-world hovels, and a remote and impossible to reach ruling class. I expected filth, squalor, bad habits, nasty behaviors, and oppressive regulations and endless lines of bureaucracy.

I expected the “cardboard cut-out” illusion that has been drummed into my head for the last six decades.

I did not see it.

I saw something else.

I saw FREEDOM. Real, honest to goodness, freedom. I saw people who were living life without fear of the police. I saw people who were able to save money. I saw people smoking (gasp!) at their desks at work (gasp!) and pin-up of nude girls on the office walls (gasp!) and buying beer at lunch as if it was nothing. Nothing! I saw people that had hope and dreams and a strong belief that their government would stick by them, and help THEM when they needed it.

Oh….

Let me show you what I saw, and continue to see, in China to this day…

Each picture contains a movie. Please click on the picture to watch a movie that will open up in a new tab that will illustrate the story within the picture shown.

The videos

Here are some videos that I have collected and that provides some sort of “snapshot” of life in China. Good or bad, you can say that [1] it is different from that in the United States, and [2] that it doesn’t at all resemble anything like the news media (on all levels) say it is.

And that is the point.

These videos are a selection of videos that point to how life is within China in various aspects. They are a mix of some “home videos” that I took (like the first one) and videos that I have collected using various Chinese APPs. I suggest you check them all out.

Conclusion

One of the many things you learn when you leave the Untied States (or any of it’s satellite nations, like the UK or Canada) is that the world looks nothing like the American media says it is. In fact, it looks absolutely and stunningly different.

This goes as far as what other nations are like. As in the example of China. To, just how welcome all the Americans are when they are busy “spreading democracy and freedom” to the rest of the world. Like here…

.

Or, being an example for the rest of the world to emulate. Like how the United States has handled the Coronavirus. As shown clearly in this video…

.

The future belongs to people who will work together as a society for the benefit of all. Not to those who take, who demand, and who do not contribute. Their ideas no longer work in this small place that we call the earth. Being selfish is not going to help society as a whole. We will all need to work together.

The best example that I can give is this;

You can be the best basket-ball player in the world. But up against a team of other players, who are all well trained in working together, you will lose. You will fail spectacularly.

Don’t be selfish. Work together to make the world a better place. That is what China is trying to do, and you can see it if you study the culture long enough. The opposite is the United States. Lead by a “self made” man who accumulated piles and piles of riches all by himself.

Be part of something greater. Work as part of a group.

Or die alone.

Do you want more?

I have many more posts along these lines in my China Index. You can see it here…

China

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A report on the COVID-19 Bioweapon from a secondary source.

If you buy into the government “proof” that the coronavirus is natural and that it was just extraordinary bad-luck for it to strike China on the eve of their busiest holiday, then this post is not for you. This post is a link to a comprehensive report that confirms that the United States unleashed a bioweapons attack on China.

Ah. You can believe whatever you want. It’s “no skin off my back”. You can just go ahead and believe whatever makes you live through the day.

Background

I often receive contributions from others in the form of information, links, and other data that are not usually available on the internet. When someone proposes an idea, a concept, or some information, I tend to listen to them. I might not agree with them, but if they have done their research properly and have something of value to contribute, I will provide access to their information on this site.

Thus this post.

Cautions

I do not agree with everything in the article, but the amount of research and the information conveyed is significant. It is worthwhile reading and I suggest you, the reader, give it every consideration.

Content

The following is a link to a PDF file. The author devoted a significant amount of time and effort to the study of the COVID-19 bioweapons attack, and compiled the information within a PDF for ease of reading. I suggest that if the reader has any doubts that this is a natural virus, that they read this detailed summary.

You can access it here, just click on the picture below…

A link to the a comprehensive analysis of the COVID-19 crisis.

Do you want some more?

Here’s a link to my Trump Trade War posts…

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Do you want to see similar posts?

I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…

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You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

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Any war with China will be a nuclear war.

I just had to sit down and write this peace. After one article after the other, all justifying American “intervention” into the affairs of China, it’s just boggles my mind that everyone believes that they have the RIGHT to mess around with another nations’ internal affairs. You don’t. And certainly not with a big enormous, technologically advanced nation.

For Pete’s sake!

America only makes laws for Americans on American soil.

ONLY.

That’s it.

The laws that America makes, the ideas that it professes, is limited geographically to the confines of the nation of the United States. America does NOT have the ability to tell Canada what to do, Chile what to do, France what to do, or South Africa what to do.

And China, like it or not, is not going to sit by and allow the USA to invade it. It’s not going to be another Syria, or another Yemen, or Afghanistan, or Libya, or Panama, or any other nameless nations that America has invaded and occupied over the last fifty years.

So all this nonsense about “suppressing” China, or “containing” it, or “stopping it’s rise” is dangerous. 

Did the efforts to starve China work? The numerous bio-weapons against the chicken, the pork, the wheat, the rice and other industries work out? What about the plagues, the ban on imported Australian and NZ food, and the drones spraying swine flu... did they actually work? Are the Chinese people starving now?

Actually, no.

Did the NED / NID efforts to destabilize Hong Kong work? Are the people of Hong Kong China ready to rise up and revolt? Are they still waving American flags and singing the American national anthem? Is the image of "Pepe the frog" plastered all over the new independent Hong Kong?

No.

How about that trade war? Did all the tariffs bring global trade to an abrupt end? Is China unable to trade right now? What about those huge 25% tariff increases, who's paying for them? Did this entire effort cause the rest of the world to stop trading with China?

No.

What about the suppression of Chinese technology? The capture of the president of Huawei, the anti-5G movement, and the ban on microprocessor technology? Is China on it's knees and sobbing, and begging the United States to let up?

No.

How about India being a military proxy for the United States and having a "hot" war in the Himalayas mountains? Now that soldiers have died on both sides, is China all "bogged down" in a mountainous "quagmire"? Is the BRI impacted? What about international Geo-political relations involving China on the global stage? Is China in trouble?

No.

What about biological warfare by releasing COVID-19 on the Chinese New Year holiday? How is China doing today? How is America today? Did it bring China "to it's knees" and suppress it in the global stage? Or did it back-fire? And end up unleashing all sorts of madness in the United States instead?

...well?

The American conservative movement, and by extension the neocon right-wing movement is living within a very dangerous bubble. Their ideas of what China is, what it represents, how it works, and what it is doing is severely out-of-wack with reality. Which is fundamentally why all the attacks in this “hybrid war” is flailing.

China is not what the American “neocon” publications thinks it is.

And all those publications, “talking heads”, and commentators that endlessly repeat the 1970’s era narrative of what china is, and will be come is advocating some very dangerous ideas. Ideas that all of the advisors (Pomeo, Bolton, etc.) to President Trump actually and earnestly believe.

And they advocate a harsh “hard line” treatment of China. For they earnestly believe that the United States can “grapple” with China; “engage” China in a long multi-faceted “hybrid war” and the America would “win”. For America, they earnestly believe, is empowered by GOD to rule the world…

All of the articles listed are from "The National interest" which is an American neocon publication that supports the Military-Industrial complex, and who is just "foaming at the mouth" for a war with China. They aim to make billions of dollars, if not trillions in the process.

In truth, it’s a bunch of propaganda to gin-up support for the eventual “take down” of China.

But, you see, it’s NOT going to happen like everyone thinks.

What will a war look like?

For the last fifty years, America has defined the geography of war; where it is fought, and by whom. It has defined the technology used, and what was not used. It has defined the narrative and the history books; with thousands of American soldiers dead, the military “intervention” is still considered to be victorious.

And Hollywood enhances this vision.

The movies out of Hollywood are all about the single lone military warrior who takes down hundreds of enemy single handedly. From Rambo, to Schwarzenegger in “Raw Deal” and “Commando”, to the sniper that takes down a complete military base (while people just collapse like rag dolls with single shots to the head.) It’s all a myth. It’s all a lie. It’s all very dangerous thinking of American “invincibility”.

So let me tell you this straight up and brutal…

Any military conflict with China will NOT be limited to the South China Sea. It will be very “up front and personal”. It will occur on American soil. It will be fought on American soil, and many American cities will be devastated to the point where they will be unable to recover. They will not be able to be rebuilt.

Why, do I say this?

Any War With China Will Be a Nuclear War

Accept that fact.

It’s not going to be a conventional war.

It’s going to go nuclear from hour one.

Whether it is Donald Trump launching some “reasonable” “low yield” tactical nuclear armed warheads, or the Chinese keeping their promise that “serious, unimaginable, consequences” will occur…

… it’s is going to be a deadly – radioactive – gut-wrenching – nuclear war.

The only reason why the United States is NOT in a military conflict with China right now, is because it knows it will lose.

America will lose.

Because…

China. Does. Not. Play.

How does it know this? Seriously, why do I make this statement? The answer is clear. Every military simulation from the year 2000 on has had China winning the battles, the global-conflicts in just about every arena.

And that is by conventional means.

Imagine what would happen if the “nuclear guns” came into play…

And they will…

Oh. They really will.

Trump is taking a hard line stance on these matters…

It is a pretty amazing thing to watch. How every day there is a new accusation against China, and more complaints about China, and more blame being heaped upon China.

It is this increased ratcheting up of HATE and ACCUSATIONS against China that I am worried about.

Rather than being a global leader that works with other nations, respects their national sovereignty, and builds relationships. This Trump administration does the exact opposite.

The entire world watches on in stark incredulity…

A prolonged conventional war…

Today, inside the White House, the Trump administration is concerned with suppressing not only China, but the rest of the world as well.

The over-riding objective (initially, and presently) is to suppress the entire world while America gets “it’s house in order”; builds up factories, puts more students into training as STEM engineers and scientists, and invests into Research and Development.

Ah, but none of that is actually going on.

Aside from a few (well publicized) factory start-ups, and some documentaries, nothing is really going on. While China has invested in a number of construction projects, the idea that factories are sprouting up all over America to employ Americans has fallen far-short of the ideal.

Nothing.

The only thing that is going on the the collapse of the global economy.

Clunk!

…

So it is looking like the next step will be military…

But first, America will try a "proxy war". They will use another nation to do the "heavy lifting" and create military tensions.

Like India on 16JUN20.

After that…

…all the generals and the advisers, and the “experts” in Washington DC are talking about a “scaled up” conflict with China. One that would be conventional. It is one that would be fought on the Chinese coast and in the South China sea and it would be conventional and not nuclear. As such, it is considered to be a “prolonged” war that would stifle all trade on the shipping lanes.

Thus rendering China “isolated” from the world completely.

Which is why there are two complete aircraft carrier battle groups, and a complete amphibious landing group right now in the South China Sea. Which is why attack subs are under the water in the South China Sea, and that B-1 Bombers with fighter escorts are flying all over the Pacific.

But people, the idea there could be a prolonged conventional war between the US and China is an misguided view of what such a war would look like.

In this article I will explain why any conventional war with China will trigger, a very short and very savage, nuclear war.

The idea of a “long protracted war” from David Gompert.

The US intelligence guru David Gompert came to Australia in 2017 warning “a war between the US and China would be long, destructive and could erupt if regional disputes already underway overheat.”

He said both sides “have ample forces, technology, industrial might, and personnel to fight across vast expanses of land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. »

“Mr Gompert said the US should make sensible preparations to wage a ‘long and fierce’ war with China but argued it must also develop plans to limit the scope, intensity and duration of such a conflict. He said if such a war broke out today, China’s losses would greatly exceed that of the US.”(2)

Therefore, it would be advisable for Australia to make prudent moves toward allowing the United States military to use their bases and airstrips. Take special precautions regarding China, and be prepared to stop all trade with China.

This was in 2017, shortly after Trump took the helm in Washington DC.

But…

You do realize, don’t you, that…

It’s a war against Asia (Russia and China) not just China alone.

Both Russia and China realize that if America destroys one nation, the other would also eventually fall as well.

Mr Gompert insists the US should “develop plans to limit the scope, intensity and duration of such a conflict.” But can the US limit the intensity and duration of such a war? I mean, once the USA gets involved in a war, it never pulls out.

And, does he even realize that there is a strong and substantive Russian-Chinese military alliance? 

The Chinese are helping the Russians in Syria and it is quite implausible that, during a US war with China, Russia would just sit on its hands.

Yeah…

(As if) Russia would watch with glee as the Untied States would fight with China, and Chinese exports to Russia drop to zero…

Consider this discussion of what could be going on between Russia and China away from the eyes of Western journalists:

“There are certain to be scores of secret agreements between the Chinese and the Russians we know nothing about: to share intelligence (including for example signals intelligence and data from satellites) and to coordinate foreign policy and for defence cooperation including technology sharing.  

We know for example that the Russians and the Chinese have representatives at each others’ command headquarters and that recently they carried out in Moscow a joint command exercise involving joint operation of their respective anti-ballistic missile defences, something the US would never do at such a level with any of its allies.”(3)

Furthermore who can imagine all sides will sit on their nuclear weapons for weeks or months of a prolonged and intense conventional conflict? 

Even if it did not go nuclear from day one…

If the war between the US and China started going badly for one side or the other, how long would they wait to move on from the conventional weapons and bring out the heavy artillery? It is more likely that such a war would be over in a few days as it quickly turned into a full-on nuclear exchange between Russia and China and the US.

Any War With China Will Be a Nuclear War
Any War With China Will Be a Nuclear War

A nuclear war is absolutely impossible. It is inconceivable. As it would destroy both sides.

Since nuclear weapons have not been used for the last 70 years people have come to believe that they could never be used again.

Why?

There are now so many nuclear weapons, if the US and Russia began attacking each other both countries would be destroyed. Starting such a war would destroy your own country. What leader would initiate national suicide?

This is a comforting line of thought. However, a careful look at the development of military thinking about nuclear weapons since they were introduced shows it is just a pleasant fairy story.

In the 1960’s a policy was developed in the US by Henry Kissinger and Herman Kahn which advocated an “active” nuclear strategy for the US.

After WW II the US saw nuclear weapons as a way to stop the USSR from conquering Europe using its much larger conventional forces. The new approach advocated by Kissinger and Kahn was to use nuclear weapons in a surprise attack to destroy the nuclear weapons of the USSR or China before they were used against the US.

The plan was to use a “first strike” to limit or remove the enemy’s ability to retaliate.

This would mean the US could actually win a nuclear war.

Kahn argued that 40 million dead in the US and a 20 years recuperation period could be « acceptable losses » necessary for such a victory.

It is no surprise that such thinking inspired Stanley Kubrick to produce Dr Strangelove.

Doctor Strangeglove.
Doctor Strangeglove.

Eventually cooler heads seemed to prevail.

At least for the last fifty years or so…

The policy known as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) became the dominant policy. Some efforts were made to reduce the number of nuclear weapons held by the US and the USSR.

An article written in 2014 explains that “nuclear war with Russia is still mutually assured destruction. Hopefully, that’s still deterrent enough.”(4)

Mutially assurred destruction has been replaced by an assured first strike policy by Donald Trump.

Russia revoked the pledge of the USSR not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict in 1993.(5)

In 2002 the Bush administration modified US strategic doctrine from a retaliatory role to permit a preemptive nuclear attack. In effect the US has returned to the first-strike policy developed by Kissinger and Kahn in the 1960’s.

Then in 2006 the influential US journal Foreign Affairs featured an article by Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press entitled “The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy”. The article begins as follows:

“Today, for the first time in almost 50 years, the United States stands on the verge of attaining nuclear primacy. It will probably soon be possible for the United States to destroy the long-range nuclear arsenals of Russia or China with a first strike. This dramatic shift in the nuclear balance of power stems from a series of improvements in the United States’ nuclear systems, the precipitous decline of Russia’s arsenal, and the glacial pace of modernization of China’s nuclear forces.”(6)

The US military can plan for a nuclear first strike against Russia or China, and there is a growing belief in official circles that the US is in a position to destroy the ability of its enemies to retaliate with their own nuclear weapons.

To implement this policy the US has established anti-ballistic missile bases around Russia.

As Paul Craig Roberts explains:

“US anti-ballistic missile (ABM) bases have been established in Poland on Russia’s frontier, and other bases are planned. When completed Russia will be ringed with US missile bases.

“Anti-ballistic missiles, known as ‘star wars’, are weapons designed to intercept and destroy ICBMs. In Washington’s war doctrine, the US hits Russia with a first strike, and whatever retaliatory force Russia might have remaining is prevented from reaching the US by the shield of ABMs.”(7)

The US has also located a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic system in South Korea which can be used to destroy missiles fired by China in retaliation for a US first strike.(8)

Remember there is no point in having an anti-ballistic missile system in place if you really believe any nuclear war is simply mutually assured destruction.

As U.S. Pacific Fleet chief says he’d obey President Donald Trump’s order to launch a nuclear strike on China, here’s what would happen if Trump made the call.. With CIA’s recent assessment that China poses the biggest threat to Washington in the long term, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet Admiral Scott Swift says he would launch a nuclear strike against China.
As U.S. Pacific Fleet chief says he’d obey President Donald Trump’s order to launch a nuclear strike on China. With CIA’s recent assessment that China poses the biggest threat to Washington in the long term, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet Admiral Scott Swift says he would launch a “first strike” nuclear attack against China if ordered to do so.

Further, President Trumps public announcements that he approves of first-strike nuclear use has pretty much terrified the rest of the world, and caused both China and Russia to move military forces to an offensive position.

It is the complete ratcheting up of HATE and ACCUSATIONS against China that is dangerous. As the Chinese rightly believe that this is a lead up towards an actual “hot” war, and the best defense is an aggressive offense.

Thus…

While the ANTI-CHINA attacks increase in intensity…

… so does the likelihood of a joint China – Russia preemptive nuclear strike followed by a complete debilitating “double tap”.

But why would China and Russia want to do this?

Preemptive “first strike” thinking and policy makes nuclear war inevitable.

The US military believes it can launch a nuclear war and survive any attempt by its enemies to destroy it.

This makes nuclear war much more likely because the Russians and Chinese both know that the US thinks they can actually make a successful first strike against them.

So…

What better reason do they need for making a first strike themselves?

Again Paul Craig Roberts explains:

“Washington has created a dangerous situation. As Russia and China are clearly threatened with a first strike, they might decide to strike first themselves. Why should Russia and China sit and await the inevitable while their adversary creates the ability to protect itself by developing its ABM shield? Once Washington completes the shield, Russia and China are certain to be attacked, unless they surrender in advance.”(9)

The military planners on both sides use what is called the counterforce strategy which involves attacking their opponent’s weapons nuclear and the their leadership.

“The requirements for the counterforce mission perpetuate the most dangerous characteristics of nuclear forces, with weapons kept at high levels of alert, ready to launch upon warning of an enemy attack, and able to preemptively attack enemy forces.”(10)

As Steven Starr explains, counterforce doctrines emphasize the need for preemptive strikes once a war begins. 

“Both sides would be under immense pressure to launch a preemptive nuclear first-strike once military hostilities had commenced, especially if nuclear weapons had already been used on the battlefield.”(11)

We need to realize that the duty of a nations leaders is to protect their country from its opponents.

The US has publicly adopted a first-strike policy, based on the assumption that a preemptive strike on Russian and China will neutralize their nuclear weapons by either destroying them before they are used, or shooting them down after they are launched with ABMs.

The Russians and Chinese know the US might launch a preemptive strike at any time, and realize that the best way to protect themselves is to launch their own preemptive strike before the US does.

This means that we are now as close to a nuclear war as we were in the worst period of the Cold War in the 1960’s.

This is why I disagree with the “long war” theory of David Gompert.

Once conventional hostilities begin, each side will be sitting with their fingers on the preemptive strike button hoping they can beat the other to a nuclear first-strike. He says the US would “develop plans to limit the scope, intensity and duration of such a conflict”. And the US will assume the Russians or Chinese have no plans for a first strike themselves? Let’s just have a conventional war and see what happens?

If the US says it can win a nuclear war with China or Russia, once conventional hostilities begin the Russians and Chinese would be mad not to expect a US first-strike. And the only way to protect themselves is to be ready themselves to make a first-strike before the US.

As the anti-China hybrid war increases in intensity...

... the likelihood of the United States attacking under some "excuse" or "international incident" grows to an unmanageable level.

It becomes necessary for both China and Russia to perform a lethal "first strike" nuclear event to completely neuter the United States from reaching that point.

What would actually happen if things went nuclear?

Nobody know for sure, of course, but it seems the best possible outcome would be just short of the extermination of the human race.

The Northern Hemisphere would probably be unfit for human habitation.

In the effort to suppress China President Trump unleashed a global biological weapon COVID-19 that put the world in chaos. He also unleashed a trade war that caused the generally collapse of the global world economy, what makes you think that he wouldn't consider a nuclear strike because it's "God's will" that the USA make the first move?
In the effort to suppress China President Trump unleashed a global biological weapon COVID-19 that put the world in chaos. He also unleashed a trade war that caused the generally collapse of the global world economy, what makes you think that he wouldn’t consider a nuclear strike because it’s “God’s will” that the USA make the first move?

Both the US and Russia each have 400 to 500 launch-ready ballistic missiles armed with a total of at least 1800 strategic nuclear warheads, which can be launched with only a few minutes warning.(12)

President Trump is has no doubts about which country is the most important and how its dominance should be maintained.

What Would Russia Do if Attacked?

We can have some answer to this question from an article by three Russians living in the US. They have warned the citizens of the US that nuclear war with Russia will “wipe the USA off the political map”:

“But we are just as certain that if Russia is attacked, or even threatened with attack, she will not back down, and that the Russian leadership will not ‘blink.’ 

With great sadness and a heavy heart they will do their sworn duty and unleash a nuclear barrage from which the United States will never recover. 

Even if the entire Russian leadership is killed in a first strike, the so-called ‘Dead Hand (the ‘Perimetr’ system) will automatically launch enough nukes to wipe the USA off the political map. 

We feel that it is our duty to do all we can to prevent such a catastrophe. »(14)

The Russian Dead Hand or Perimetr System

The Dead Hand or perimetr system guarantees retaliation against the US. Because the Russians don’t trust computers alone to make such decisions.

It has a critical human safeguard, bunkered in an incredibly strange underground chamber. The operators and their equipment are located in a hardened underground bunker in the shape of a sphere, very deep and very hardened, probably the most secure place in the Cold War.

The Russian Dead Hand System.
The Russian Dead Hand System.

In this isolated spheroid room, duty officers sit and wait for three conditions to be met: “predelegation,” decapitation, and active nuclear war.

When these three conditions are met, the officers can issue launch commands to small missiles that would fly the entire width of the Soviet Union and give commands electronically to all the missile silos below to launch.(15)

The Russian SS-18 Satan

No this is not “just another” big nuclear bomb.

This weapon is designed to completely destroy huge state-sized sections of America.

Silo for the biggest and nastiest nuclear weapons on the planet.
Silo for the biggest and nastiest nuclear weapons on the planet.

The RS-28 Sarmat can reportedly hold up to 10 nuclear warheads, enough to effectively decimate an area the size of the entire state of Texas, or even the whole of France. The missile is intended to replace the R-36 Voevoda, dubbed “Satan” by NATO in the 1970s. 

The new weapon can deploy warheads of 40 megatons, or about 2,000 times as powerful as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski in 1945.
Former assistant secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy Dr. Paul Craig Roberts called the atomic bombs that Washington dropped on Japan “popguns” compared to today’s thermo-nuclear weapons.

“One Russian SS-18 wipes out three-fourths of New York state for thousands of years,” he said in a blog post. “Five or six of these ‘Satans’ as they are known by the US military, and the East Coast of the United States disappears.”

To make it even more frightening, the Satan 2 is also capable of evading radar defences and could travel far enough to strike the US East and West Coast.

-https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2016/10/26/russias-new-missile-is-called-satan-2-and-could-destroy-texas-lets-take-a-look-at-it/#ixzz6PUcHSray

Some of the consequences of such a nuclear war are:

Do I really need to enumerate them?

Maybe so, since what passes for education today in the United States is so dolefully inadequate.

Missile Launch.
Missile Launch.

[0] The destruction of all cities

Not just cities, but all water, electricity, transportation, trade, and economic activity. Everything would grind to a halt, and American would be forced to live off the food that they produced themselves, heat their homes with wood that they collected, and coal that they acquired, and travel by foot or bicycle over roads and destroyed bridges.

[1] Nuclear Winter

In a recent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists entitled “Self-assured destruction: The climate impacts of nuclear war” begins as follows:

“A nuclear war between Russia and the United States, even after the arsenal reductions planned under New START, could produce a nuclear winter. Hence, an attack by either side could be suicidal, resulting in self-assured destruction.”(16)

[2] Fire-storms, Falling Temperatures and Destruction of the Ozone Layer
After a nuclear exchange

“nuclear firestorms would produce millions of tons of smoke, which would rise above cloud level and form a global stratospheric smoke layer that would rapidly encircle the Earth. The smoke layer would remain for at least a decade, and it would act to destroy the protective ozone layer (vastly increasing the UV-B reaching Earth) as well as block warming sunlight, thus creating Ice Age weather conditions that would last 10 years or longer.

“Following a US-Russian nuclear war, temperatures in the central US and Eurasia would fall below freezing every day for one to three years; the intense cold would completely eliminate growing seasons for a decade or longer. No crops could be grown, leading to a famine that would kill most humans and large animal populations.”(17)

[3] All Spent Fuel from Nuclear Reactors Released into the Atmosphere

“Electromagnetic pulse from high-altitude nuclear detonations would destroy the integrated circuits in all modern electronic devices, including those in commercial nuclear power plants. Every nuclear reactor would almost instantly meltdown; every nuclear spent fuel pool (which contain many times more radioactivity than found in the reactors) would boil-off, releasing vast amounts of long-lived radioactivity. The fallout would make most of the US and Europe uninhabitable.”(18)

Is anyone surprised that we would never see this explained in our mass media? If such a nuclear war ever does occur, will any of the survivors mourn the loss of the Death Cult called Western Civilization?August 30th

[4] EMP

As a result of just one EMP attack on the U.S., in an instant the nation’s power grid will fail as anything with circuits (including most automobiles built since the early 1960s when computerized components became more standard in automobiles) will cease to work.Trains, buses, subway systems and commercial airlines and other modern planes will cease to work also — even the 4,000 or so commercial flights (think Delta, U.S. Airways, Southwest Airlines, and many others) that are in the sky over America at any given time.

Imagine the world suddenly without TV, radio, phone, internet, refrigeration, microwaves, stoves and ovens, washers and dryers, waste removal, sewage treatment facilities, clean water from the tap (provided by water companies that use industrial equipment to treat water; even water that at a previous time may have been sewage) making it safe to drink; gas companies who provide heat and power gone; or of course the electric company.

Imagine each going offline — permanently.

Imagine the U.S. unable to transport food from farmland in distant states and counties — meat, dairy, eggs, produce, grain products, packaged food.

300,000 million people (the population of the United States) will quickly descend on the packaged food left on store shelves in the initial hours of the realization that an EMP had taken place.

Many will hoard — meaning, get there hands on as much packaged food as possible and then fight tooth and nail to keep it out of the hands of others who may experience panic when they see store shelves emptying and realize they don’t have more than a few days of food at home. They realize now they’re in trouble. Food is disappearing fast. Everyone is taking it.

Too bad those unprepared for disaster didn’t see the signs that America (and other Western nations) are increasingly hated by nations in the world — nations with the desire and growing means to bring our nation (and possibly other Western nations) to collapse.

Now imagine what would happen afterwards…

Most neocons imagine a world pretty much like it is now. Only instead of Yemen, it would be over some nameless islands in the South China Sea.

They never, ever, contemplate America or Americans ever being put into danger. It is beyond their comprehension. After all, they argue, that were the evil Chinese and Russians to come to America, that there would be a “rifle behind every tree”, and a “pistol in every blade of grass”.

Instead…

They envision war being fought remotely in far away distant place, and selected news media reports that always portray America as “winning”. They envision looting the riches of the conquered lands. With huge enormous cargo planes of gold flying back to the leadership in the States, and impressive videos of new, state of the art technology, shooting and blowing up cities, and villages.

But…

Were a war to occur, there will not be any television, nor internet. All American infrastructure will be fried into useless slag.

No body will know what is going on.

There will be strange “rain falls” of radioactive grey soot and dust from the sky. Vehicles will not work, and even the Emergency Broadcast System will not work. GPS will be out, as will be all electricity and water.

Then your immediate worry will be your neighbors and marauding strangers who will form groups of bandits…

… followed by sanitation and medicine for illness and sickness.

It will be a nightmare where an infected cut or scratch can kill you, where COVID-9 will mean a death sentence, and where trading your daughter out (to a platoon of men) for some moldy turnips will be considered a good deal on a good day.

Life as a subjugated people

The Trump neocon leadership isn’t even thinking the “unthinkable”.

What will happen with the dust settles and the war is over?

Even if both sides are completely obliterated, and decimated, it will be China that will survive. These people are “hard scrabble” survivors and are everywhere. With a population four times that of the United States, and the vast bulk of educated people speaking English with solid STEM backgrounds. It will be the Chinese who will define what will happen afterwards.

The Chinese are a disciplined and tough race of people that do not play.
The Chinese are a disciplined and tough race of people that do not play.

Americans. Um, not so.

Modern Americans today.
Modern Americans today.

And the new rulers; the Chinese and the Russians, oh they will NOT be kind.

If you thought that the Civil War was bad, then imagine an angry and pissed off nation that has AI, robotics, and a 5G infrastructure. It will be just like what occurred back in historical times, and it was nasty. You will pray that you will get to live a life as a slave with at least one meal a day between your daily torture sessions.

So…

You think that maybe I am exaggerating, eh?

Well, learns what ALWAYS happens to a subjugated people. Learn some history…

Some History

Perhaps a little taste of what happened in the past might awake the inner zen within you. You need to fully come to grips with the kind of “fire” that Trump and his neocon cohorts are actually playing with. Listen to me closely.

China is a serious, serious nation.

It is run by a leadership that have obtained their positions through merit. They relish in strife, and view soft people as weak. Most of the leadership are STEM graduates and they view the “softer” humanities as recreational endeavors, not something that should be seriously studied.

The Chinese do not play.

They are like the modern embodiment of Genghis Khan…

Genghis Khan had so much power that he could do whatever he wanted. 

For instance, when Genghis occupied some new area, he would kill or enslave all the men and share all the women amongst his tribe. Genghis Khan would even make beauty contests of captured women to decide which woman is the most beautiful one. Yeah, he was having his Miss Universe competition before it was cool. So, the queen of those beauty competitions would win the privilege to become one of many Genghis Khan's women. 

Rest of the Mongolian army would share all the other contestants. 

-The Richest
Incursions into Southeast Asia were largely successful, most factions agreed to pay tribute, and only the Invasions into Vietnam and Java failed. 

Europe was devastated by the Mongols. They destroyed near enough every major Russian city, and invaded Volga Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary. 

If rumours spread that the Mongols were coming, then it would cause a mass panic, and some would run to safety. 

There was no guaranteed way to defeat the Mongol hordes, they continuously defeated much larger armies, so numerical strength couldn’t protect you. 

Mongol conquests would leave once populous and flourishing areas as wastelands, with little to no people, those remaining would be slaves. 

-ESKify
This was one of the most devastating battles in European history. 25% of Hungary’s population was wiped out by after the Mongol incursions. Half of all liveable places had crumbled, smashed to bits by hordes of Mongols. Losses were heavy on both sides, but the Europeans suffered most. This was the most major battle of the war between Hungary and the Mongolians. 

-ESKify
Subutai led an army of 20,000 Mongols against a Russian army 4 times its size. The Mongol rear guard was defeated early in the battle, and so the rest of the horde was forced to retreat. 

Mstislav the Bold chased down the retreating Mongols with victory in his eyes. His army spread out as they attempted to catch them, a chase which lasted many days. 

Mstislav spotted Mongols in formation along the Kalka River, and attacked without waiting for reinforcements. 

With his army in disarray, Mstislav was forced to retreat back to a fortified camp. He had fallen for a feigned retreat. 

Mstislave surrendered to Subutai with the agreement that neither he, nor any of his men would be harmed. 

They were all slaughtered upon leaving the camp. 

Luckily, Mstislav managed to escape. Mstislav the Bold, boldly ran away. 

-ESKify
Worse was to come in 1221 — ‘a year to live in infamy’. While Genghis’s other armies had been busy in the east, threatening Tbilisi in Georgia and terrifying the Christian world, Tolui, one of Genghis’s equally reprehensible sons, took Merv (in modern-day Turkmenistan), one of the largest cities in the world. 

Promised safety, the citizens surrendered and emerged from behind their walls. 

Tolui ‘surveyed the masses dolefully gathered with their possessions, mounted a golden chair and ordered mass executions to commence’. 

They took four days and nights to complete. Genghis’s rotten fruit did not fall far from the tree. Terror — and the certainty of its visitation — was a major weapon in Genghis’s arsenal: decapitated women, children and even cats and dogs were reputedly displayed. 

But while the butchery was indeed immense, it is worth questioning its extent on occasion: a depopulated city had little economic value, and imported colonizers could make up only so much of the shortfall. 

- Was Genghis Khan the cruellest man who ever lived?
Most military historians judge that no European force could have stopped the disciplined and innovative Mongolian armies. “Employed against the Mongol invaders of Europe, knightly warfare failed even more disastrously for the Poles at Legnica and the Hungarians at Mohi in 1241” 

-Stephen Hicks
Genghis Khan was the most feared human of the 13th century, who could destroy dynasties just by moving his little finger. He created the Mongol Empire all by himself and earned his eternal spot in the history books. 

However, a lot of people had to suffer for Genghis Khan to succeed. 

Oh yes, the Mongolians were known for their horrendous torturing techniques. One of the most popular was pouring molten silver down the throat and ears of a victim. 

Genghis Khan also liked bending his enemy's back until the backbone snapped. If that sounds barbaric, skip this next part. 

So, the Mongols once celebrated victory over Russians in a very bizarre way. They picked all the Russian survivors, dropped them on the ground and put a heavy wooden gate on top of them. 

Then, Genghis Khan and the entire Mongol army had a huge banquet on that wooden gate. They ate, drank, and watched how Russians were dying one by one from the suffocation, pressure, and wounds. 

-The Richest
The Mongol were masterful at spreading fear and hate throughout Asia, people feared them, and therefore hated them. 

They would rape and pillage entire villages, and torture their victims for fun. Nobles would get it the worst. 

Spilling noble blood was considered a crime, so they simply crushed them to death, which took many hours. 

Mongols would literally dine on top of them, making merry to the sounds of their screams from underneath. 

The sounds of bodies squelching, and bones snapping didn’t faze them. 

But rumours of this execution method struck terror. Fear made them powerful, as people often chose to surrender and pay tribute rather than risk fighting them. 

-ESKify
“The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.” 

-Genghis Khan.

Conclusion

Currently the United States leadership is run by neocons. They believe that God ordained Americans to rule over the earth and subdue all other peoples, races, and nations. As it is “God’s will”. They do so in the belief that they will be blessed by divine inspiration and profound leadership.

Trump and his followers think that he was given ability and strength by God personally, and that it is his duty to take over the world and rule it with America always being first.
Trump and his followers think that he was given ability and strength by God personally, and that it is his duty to take over the world and rule it with America always being first.

From day one, the Trump campaign and his administration has been run and conducted on a MAGA (Make America Great Again) narrative and slogan. This means that America must remain the sole top major nation in the world. If it cannot do so by ability, then it must destroy all the other nations to make this situation come to fruition.

The neocons are still in control, and they have been waging a non-stop “hybrid war” against China that includes all sort of biological weapons attacks. All attacks, on all fronts, have either failed or boomeranged back to America.

The neocons, however, still believe that they have the “will of God” on their side.

Thus, they are amplifying the narrative that “American must do something” about “The South China Sea”, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It is no mistake that two aircraft carrier groups and one assault group are in the South China Sea now, nor is it a mistake that American hunter-killer subs are stalking the sea trading lanes where all the shipping is conducted.

The Neocons want war and are going to get it one way or the other.

I argue that this kind of thinking is insane, crazy, deluded and is dangerous. I also argue further that anything contemplated with China will end up horribly. Very, very horribly, and could actually result in the complete annihilation of America into balkanized ruined city-states…

…and the people will end up cursing the American leadership for all of eternity.

Footnotes:

1. http://australianvoice.livejournal.com/21217.html
2. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-15/us-china-war-could-erupt-ex-obama-adviser-says/7733996
3. http://theduran.com/putin-china-russian-chinese-alliance/
4. http://theweek.com/articles/449917/what-usrussia-war-look-like
5. http://nationalinterest.org/feature/5-russian-nuclear-weapons-war-the-west-should-fear-12159
6. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2006-03-01/rise-us-nuclear-primacy
7. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/06/03/ready-nuclear-war-paul-craig-roberts/
8. http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/04/10/459985/US-planning-first-strike-China
9. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/06/03/ready-nuclear-war-paul-craig-roberts/
10. http://fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/doctrine/targeting.pdf
11. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/30/lethality-nuclear-weapons/
12. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/30/lethality-nuclear-weapons/
13. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/30/lethality-nuclear-weapons/
14. http://thesaker.is/a-russian-warning/
15. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/a-spherical-bunker-in-russia-was-the-most-secure-place-in-the-entire-cold-war-2015-3?r=US&IR=T
16. http://thebulletin.org/2012/september/self-assured-destruction-climate-impacts-nuclear-war
17. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/30/lethality-nuclear-weapons/
18. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/30/lethality-nuclear-weapons/Tags: archive, australian politics, usa vs russia/chinaSource: http://australianvoice.livejournal.com/ ImprimerFacebook

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Predictions on the collapse of America based upon the theory of the “fourteen contradictions”.

American hegemony is in the decline. Are you listening? Every now and then I meet people from various countries. They make fun of America and the way the US president behaves and talks and, of course, tweets. The country`s  reputation is in doldrums. It is retreating from all parts of the world. It is abandoning many international treaties including the Paris Accord on Environment. We are rapidly entering into a post-American world.  The American decline had started since 9/11. However, the next two presidents tried to slow down the process. But, President Donald Trump has sped up the American decline. Now the world is fast learning to live without America as the sole super power of the world.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey of 37 countries, people around the globe no longer see the US as the sole guarantor of the world peace.  They rightly think that they can do without America. Now the country is increasingly becoming irrelevant in many of the global issues and crises. America is no longer willing to bear the burden of global leadership.

Now the world is looking at China and other emerging powers of the world o fill the vacuum created by the American retreat from so many parts of the world.

-maha Affairs

My God! This is a good read.

In 2004, Johan Galtung predicted that the United States would collapse in 2025. The made this prediction based on trending “contradictions”. These “contradictions” were such that they clearly pointed towards a rapid period of social upheaval in the Untied States. He then, in 2001 after the election of GW Bush, revised the date forward to 2020. There is no way that he could have predicted the coronavirus or COVID-19 global outbreak.

What is so amazing about his predictions is that they have all come to pass. And at that, he should be given every consideration and his writings pondered.

Professor JWC in SF: Johan Galtung, who has been a rather shrewd predictor of historical trends, predicted the US Empire would collapse in 2025. He advanced the date to 2020 with the election of GW Bush. He stands by his date. Would that the Empire had the palindromic good sense of Napoleon.
Professor LCW in SF: It is pretty incredible that Johan Galtung, a Norwegian scholar, made his bold and dire prediction on Dec. 7, 2016 that, with the election of Donald Trump, the decline of U.S. power will speed up and the U.S.. will stop being a global power by 2020. He could not have foreseen the coronavirus and the collapse of the U.S. economy in 2020. Nevertheless, what has been happening since his election and what has been happening since January this year seem to confirm his prediction.

The following article was written a little over two years into the GW Bush Presidency. In it, he accurately predicts what America went through, and has some rather disturbing predictions of what will follow in the following years. It is worth a read.

On the Coming Decline and Fall of the US Empire

By Johan Galtung the Director and Founder of TRANSCEND. Article written and published on January 28, 2004. (Over fifteen years ago.) Reprinted from TFF. With only minor editing to fit this venue.

1. Definitions and Hypotheses: An Overview

Definition:

An empire is a trans-border Center-Periphery system, in macro-space and in macro-time.

With a culture legitimizing a structure of unequal exchange between center and periphery:

  • Economically, between exploiters and exploited, as inequity;
  • Militarily, between killers and victims, as enforcement.
  • Politically, between dominators and dominated, as repression;
  • Culturally, between alienators and alienated, as conditioning.

Empires have different profiles.

The US Empire has a complete configuration, articulated in a statement by a Pentagon planner: 

"The de facto role of the United States Armed Forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing".

In other words, direct violence to protect structural violence legitimized by cultural violence.

The Center is the continental USA and the Periphery much of the world.

Like any system it has a life-cycle reminiscent of an organism, with conception, gestation, birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, senescence and death.

Seeded by the British Empire, the maturing colonies honed their imperial skills on indigenous populations, ventured abroad in military interventions defining zones of interest, took over the Spanish Empire, expanding with world, even space hegemony as goal, now in the aging phase with overwhelming control tasks quickly overtaking the expansion tasks.

Decline and fall is to be expected as for anything human; the question is what-why-how-when-where-by whom-against whom.

Answers:

  • What: the four unequal, non-sustainable, exchange patterns above;
  • Why: because they cause unbearable suffering and resentment;
  • How: through the synergies in the synchronic maturation of 14 contradictions, followed by demoralization of system elites;
  • When: within a time frame of, say, 20 years, counting from Y2000;
  • Where: depending on the maturation level of the contradictions.
  • By Whom: the exploited/bereaved/dominated/alienated, the solidary, and those who fight the US Empire to set up their own.
  • Against Whom: the exploiters/killers/dominators/alienators, and those who support the US Empire because of perceived benefits.

The Hypothesis

The hypothesis is not that the fall and decline of the US Empire implies a fall and decline of the US Republic (continental USA).

To the contrary, relief from the burden of Empire control and maintenance when it outstrips the gains from unequal exchange, and expansion increases rather than decreases the deficit, could lead to a blossoming of the US Republic.

This author admits an anti-Empire bias because of enormous periphery suffering outside and inside the Republic; and a pro-US Republic bias because of the creative genius and generosity of the USA.

“Anti-American” makes no such distinction between the US Republic and the US Empire.

The USA compared to Britain

There is no dearth of predictions of economic disaster for the US Republic in the wake of decline and fall of the system “to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault”, also from Marxists who (still) believe that Empire-building can be reduced to economic greed satisfied by flagrant inequity.

But this is only one component in a complete imperial syndrome with components attracting and repelling different niches in societies and persons…

  • Economists blind to externalities design theories legitimizing inequity,
  • Unrealistic “realists” enforce “order”,
  • Liberals guide and dominate political choices of others, and
  • Missionaries, religious and secular, try to convert anybody.

All together an enormous drain of resources.

The case of England indicates that an empire can be a burden.

The decline of the British Empire started long before, but the fall of the crown jewel, India, due to a combination of nonviolent (Gandhi) and violent struggle, and the incompatibility of imperialism with the Atlantic Charter, was decisive. The Empire unraveled very quickly over a period of 15 years from 1947, obviously unstable.

And England? Today richer than ever in history.

Welcome, USA.

2. The US Empire: A bird’s-eye view

“At some point, America’s short-term Crisis psychology will catch up to the long-term post-Unraveling fundamentals. This might result in a Great Devaluation, a severe drop in the market price of most financial and real assets. This devaluation could be a short but horrific panic, a free-falling price in a market with no buyers. Or it could be a series of downward ratchets linked to political events that sequentially knock the supports out from under the residual popular trust in the system. As assets devalue, trust will further disintegrate, which will cause assets to devalue further, and so on. Every slide in asset prices, employment, and production will give every generation cause to grow more alarmed.” 

– Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

Right after the mass murder in New York and Washington on September 11 2001 Zoltan Grossman circulated a list.

This list was based on Congressional Records and The Library of Congress Congressional Research Service.

There were 133 American military interventions during the111 years, from 1890-2001.

This included everything from the brutal murder of the indigenous population at Wounded Knee in Dakota to the punishment expedition to Afghanistan.

Six of them are the First and Second World Wars, and the Korea, Vietnam, Gulf and Yugoslavian wars.

Democrats started five of them (Bush senior and junior are the exceptions among isolationist Republicans who usually focus more on the exploitation of their own population).

An acceleration in conflict.

  • The average conflicts per year is 1.15 before the second world war, and 1.29 after the Second World War.

Or, in other words, an increase in military intervention.

  • And after the Cold War, from late 1989 on, a heavy increase up to 2.0 conflicts per year.

Which is compatible with the hypothesis that wars increase as empires grow, with more privileges to protect; more unrest to quell, revolts to crush.

Enormous Suffering

William Blum has 300 pages of solid documentation in his Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower (Monroe MA: Common Courage Press, 2000).

The total suffering is enormous:

The victims, the bereaved, the damaged nature, structure (through verticalization)…

… and culture (through brutalization, myths of revenge and honor).

Most of it fits into one single pattern:

Building a US Empire based on economic exploitation of other countries and other peoples. By using direct violence and indirect violence Open violence (Pentagon) and overt indirect violence (CIA). All with open and covert support from US allies.

A polarization of classes and the creation of caste systems

The result is the international class structure with increasing gaps between the poor and rich countries, and between poor and rich people.

Missionary zeal for “democracy”

There is no sign of any clash of civilizations, nor any sign of territorial expansion.

But there is enormous missionary zeal and enormous self-righteousness.

And the rhetoric changes: containment of Soviet expansion, fight against Communism, drugs, intervention for democracy and human rights, against terrorism.

67 Fully Documented Examples

Blum’s list of interventions up to the year 2000 covers 67 cases since 1945 (Grossman has 56, the criteria differ somewhat):

  • China 45-51,
  • France 47,
  • Marshall Islands 46-58,
  • Italy 47-70s,
  • Greece 47-49,
  • Philippines 45-53,
  • Korea 45-53,
  • Albania 49-53,
  • Eastern Europe 48-56,
  • Germany 50s,
  • Iran 53,
  • Guatemala 53-90s,
  • Costa Rica 50s, 70-71,
  • Middle East 56-58,
  • Indonesia 57-58,
  • Haiti 59,
  • Western Europe 50s-60s,
  • British Guiana 53-64,
  • Iraq 58-63,
  • Soviet Union 40s-60s,
  • Vietnam 45-73,
  • Cambodia 55-73,
  • Laos 57-73,
  • Thailand 65-73,
  • Ecuador 60-63,
  • Congo-Zaire 77-78,
  • France-Algeria 60s,
  • Brazil 61-63,
  • Peru 65,
  • Dominican Republic 63-65,
  • Cuba 59-,
  • Indonesia 65,
  • Ghana 66,
  • Uruguay 69-72,
  • Chile 64-73,
  • Greece 67-74,
  • South Africa 60s-80s,
  • Bolivia 64-75,
  • Australia 72-75,
  • Iraq 72-75,
  • Portugal 74-76,
  • East Timor 75-99,
  • Angola 75-80s,
  • Jamaica 76,
  • Honduras 80s,
  • Nicaragua 78-90s,
  • Philippines 70s,
  • Seychelles 79-81,
  • South Yemen 79-84,
  • South Korea 80,
  • Chad 81-2,
  • Grenada 79-83,
  • Suriname 82-84,
  • Libya 81-89,
  • Fiji 87,
  • Panama 89,
  • Afghanistan 79-92,
  • El Salvador 80-92,
  • Haiti 87-94,
  • Bulgaria 90-91,
  • Albania 91-92,
  • Somalia 93,
  • Iraq 90s,
  • Peru 90s,
  • Mexico 90s,
  • Colombia 90s,
  • Yugoslavia 95-99.

There was bombing in 25 cases (for details, read the book):

  • China 45-46,
  • Korea/China 50-53,
  • Guatemala 54,
  • Indonesia 58,
  • Cuba 60-61,
  • Guatemala 60,
  • Vietnam 61-73,
  • Congo 64,
  • Peru 65,
  • Laos 64-73,
  • Cambodia 69-70,
  • Guatemala 67-69,
  • Grenada 83,
  • Lebanon-Syria 83-84,
  • Libya 86,
  • El Salvador 80s,
  • Nicaragua 80s,
  • Iran 87,
  • Panama 89,
  • Iraq 91-,
  • Kuwait 91,
  • Somalia 93,
  • Sudan 98,
  • Afghanistan 98,
  • Yugoslavia 99.

Assassination of foreign leaders, among them heads of state, was attempted in 35 countries, and assistance with torture in 11 countries:

  • Greece,
  • Iran,
  • Germany,
  • Vietnam,
  • Bolivia,
  • Uruguay,
  • Brazil,
  • Guatemala,
  • El Salvador,
  • Honduras,
  • Panama

On top of this come 23 countries where the United States has intervened in elections or has prevented elections:

  • Italy 48-70s,
  • Lebanon 50s,
  • Indonesia 55,
  • Vietnam 55,
  • Guayana 53-64,
  • Japan 58-70s,
  • Nepal 59,
  • Laos 60,
  • Brazil 62,
  • Dominican Republic 62,
  • Guatemala 63,
  • Bolivia 66,
  • Chile 64-70,
  • Portugal 74-5,
  • Australia 74-5,
  • Jamaica 76,
  • Panama 84, 89,
  • Nicaragua 84,90,
  • Haiti 87-88,
  • Bulgaria 91-92,
  • Russia 96,
  • Mongolia 96,
  • Bosnia 98.

161 examples of violence outside the USA

35 (attempted) assassinations + 11 countries with torture + 25 bombings + 67 interventions + 23 interferences with other people’s elections give 161 forms of aggravated political violence only since the Second World War. A world record.

Trends

Increase over time comes with shift in civilization target:

Phase I – Eastern Asia, Confucian-Buddhist
Phase II – Eastern Europe, Orthodox Christian
Phase III – Latin America, Catholic Christian
Phase IV – Western Asia, Islam

The phases overlap, but this is the general picture.

The Phases of Military Empire Excursions

In the first phase the focus was above all on people in Korea, south and north, wanting reunification of their nation, and on poor peasants in Viêt Nam wanting independence.

In the second phase there was the Cold, not Hot, War for containment of communism.

In the third phase the targets were poor people, small and indigenous populations supported by “maoist” students.

And in the fourth phase, which is dominating the picture today, the focus was on Islamic countries and movements, Palestinians being an important example.

American priorities

All the time we find that the USA supports those who favor US business and growth, and works against those who give higher priority to distribution and basic needs of the most needy. They die, 100,000 per day, underfed, underclothed, undersheltered, undercared, underschooled; jobless, hopeless and futureless.

Satisfiers for their needs cannot be bought with the money they do not have, and cannot be bought with labor because that requires jobs or land (seeds, water, manure) they do not have.

A cruel world built on a world trade headed by the USA, supported by US dominated military and allied governments, and often populations who benefit from cheap resources and food products.

Religion

What is new in the fourth phase has something to do with religion. Islam is just as concerned with sin and guilt and expiation, with crime and punishment, as Christianity. But they do not place God and his country, and particularly “God’s Own Country”, the USA, higher than Allah and his countries, particularly not Allah’s own holy country, Saudi Arabia.

A United Nations Security Council with a nucleus of four Christian and one Confucian country have little authority in Islam, as opposed to the authority enjoyed in the Christian countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America. And buddhist, East Asian countries are perhaps more inclined to change a bad joint karma than to issue certificates of guilt to the USA.

In other words, the real resistance had to come in the fourth phase with a new Pearl Harbor that many see as the introduction to a long-lasting Third World War.

The Buildup to World War III

Of that we should not be so certain.

But one thing is clear: Anybody who was the least bit surprised 11 September was ignorant, naive or both.

The bottomless, limitless state terrorism of the United States got a very unsurprising answer: terrorism against the United States.

With an estimated 12-16 million killed, and an average of 10 bereaved for each one, with pain and sorrow, lust for revenge and revanche growing, no act of revenge would be inconceivable. But the deeper roots lie not in the never-ending chain of “blowback” violence. They are in the numerous unresolved conflicts built into the US Empire.

The way to solution for sure passes through US Empire dissolution.

The Pentagon planner’s “to those ends we will do a fair amount of killing” reflects imperial reality. The when-where- against whom has just been explored.

And then what?

3. On the decline and fall of empires: the Soviet Empire case

In a comparative study of the decline (of ten) and fall (of nine, No. 10 is the US Empire) in 1995 , with an economic focus, the conclusion was that no single factor, but a combination of factors in a syndrome was the general cause:

  • A division of labor whereby foreign countries, and/or foreigners inside one’s own country, take over the most challenging and interesting and developing tasks, given the historical situation;
  • A deficit in creativity related to a deficit in technology and good management, including foresight and innovation;
  • One or several sectors of the economy neglected or lagging;
  • And, at the same time, expansionism as ideology/cosmology, exploiting foreign countries and/or one’s own people inviting negative, destructive reactions.

Rome and Russia as examples

The syndrome idea came from an earlier study of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire where many authors have come up with many single factor theories. The idea was then applied to the Soviet Empire in 1980 , focusing on five factors referred to as contradictions, tensions, like the four points above:

In the society:

  • A top-heavy, centralized, non-participatory society run by the Russian nation controlling other nations,
  • The city controlling the countryside,
  • The socialist bourgeoisie the socialist proletariat,
  • The socialist bourgeoisie having nothing to buy because the processing level was too low;

In the world: a confrontational foreign policy run by the Soviet Union controlling and intervening in satellite countries.

The prediction, made many times by this author in 1980, was that the Soviet Empire would crumble not because of any single factor but because of “synchronic maturation of contradictions, followed by demoralization of Center and Periphery elites”, with the Berlin Wall crumbling in an early phase, within 10 years.

The Mechanism.

The mechanism was not the big bang of war, but the whimper of demoralized elites…

… who after lashing out violently become corrupt, alcoholized, overfed, sometimes charming, ego-maniacs.

4. On the contradictions of the US Empire.

The prediction of the decline and fall of the Soviet Empire was based on the synergy of five contradictions, and the time span for the contradictions to work their way through decline to fall was estimated at 10 years in 1980.

1980 Prediction = Fall of Russia in 10 years = 1990.

Sometimes I added a No. 5: between myth, the massive Soviet propaganda, and reality – to some extent dissolved in marvelous jokes.

The prediction of the decline and fall of the US Empire is based on the synergy of 14 contradictions, and the time span for the contradictions to work their way through decline to fall was estimated at 25 years in the year 2000.

2000 Prediction = Fall of the US Empire in 25 years = 2025.

There are more contradictions because the US Empire is more complex, and the time span is longer also because it is more sophisticated.

After the first months of President George W. Bush (selected) the time span was reduced to 20 years because of the way in which he sharpened so many of the contradictions posited the year before, and because his extreme singlemindedness made him blind to the negative, complex synergies. He just continued.

Revised Prediction = Fall of the US Empire in 20 years = 2020

President William J. Clinton (elected, twice) was seen in a different light.

Confronted with a pattern of contradictions, no doubt with significant differences in terminology and numbers, his violence was an intervention in Somalia that he canceled, a war against Serbia of which he evidenced heavy doubts and never any enthusiasm, and a couple of missiles fired in anger.

Being superintelligent, demoralization in high places, and sex in strange places, might have been the consequences.

Hypothesis: they tried to impeach him not so much for the latter as for the former – using the latter as pretext. The effort misfired, but a highly non-demoralized George Bush captured the US Presidency.

Here is the list of 14 contradictions posited in 2000:

I. Economic Contradictions (US led system WB/IMF/WTO NYSE Pentagon)

1. Between growth and distribution: overproduction relative to demand, 1.4 billion below $ 1/day, 100.000 die/day, 1/4 of hunger

2. Between productive and finance economy (currency, stocks,bonds) overvalued, hence crashes, unemployment, contract work

3. Between production/distribution/consumption and nature: ecocrisis, depletion/pollution, global warming

II. Military Contradictions (US led system NATO/TIAP/USA-Japan)

4. Between US state terrorism and terrorism: Blowback

5. Between US and allies (except UK, D, Japan), saying enough

6. Between US hegemony in Eurasia and the Russia India China triangle, with 40% of humanity

7. Between US led NATO and EU army: The Tindemans follow-up

III. Political Contradictions (US exceptionalism under God)

8. Between USA and the UN: The UN hitting back

9. Between USA and the EU: vying for Orthodox/Muslim support

IV. Cultural Contradictions (US triumphant plebeian culture)

10. Between US Judeo-Christianity and Islam (25% of humanity; UNSC nucleus has four Christian and none of the 56 Muslim countries).

11. Between US and the oldest civilizations (Chinese, Indian, Mesopotamian, Aztec/Inca/Maya)

12. Between US and European elite culture: France, Germany, etc.

V. Social Contradictions (US led world elites vs the rest: World Economic Forum, Davos vs World Social Forum, Porto Alegre)

13. Between state corporate elites and working classes of unemployed and contract workers. The middle classes?

14. Between older generation and youth: Seattle, Washington, Praha, Genova and ever younger youth. The middle generation?

15. To this could be added: Between myth and reality.

The list was a simple reading of the US Empire situation. More sophisticated discourses are certainly possible, keeping the key ideas of syndromes, synergies and demoralization.

5. The maturation of contradictions: An update after 3 years

We shall use the same formulations as above, drop the small explanatory remarks in the above list, and add some kind of, hopefully informed, running commentary on contemporary affairs.

Obviously, the US Empire as a functioning, dynamic reality, not as a static structure, with the 14 contradictions in its wake is a very complex system.

In such systems linearities are rare, causal chains split and unite; loops, spirals, any curve shape, are ubiquitous. Quantum jumps when two factors are strongly coupled, one changes and the other remains constant, will be frequent.

But the prediction is that within twenty years the four types of unequal exchange with the USA in the Center will wither away, whether what comes is more equal exchange or less exchange, in other words isolation. Or both.

I. Economic Contradictions

1. Between growth and distribution:

Generally growth is sluggish with the possible exception of China, and the distribution often worsening, both between and within countries.

However, the basic concern is with livelihood at the bottom of world society, the preventable mortality and the suffering due to near-death morbidity from hunger or easily preventable/curable diseases.

That syndrome is with us, and the analysis in terms of overproduction leading to unemployment leading to under-demand leading oversupply leading to more unemployment etc. stands.

At the same time monetization of land/seeds/water/manure impedes the conversion of labor into food by tilling one’s own land.

The US Empire pursues growth but neglects and prevents distribution, thereby undercutting itself since a key aspect of growth in increased demand, meaning increased consumption, all over.

2. between productive and finance economy.

Domestic and global market turnover being high even if the growth is sluggish in the productive economy in many countries, and distribution being low there will be heavy accumulation of liquidity high up searching for an outlet.

Luxury consumption and productive investment being limited the obvious outlet is buying and selling in the finance economy, also known as speculation.

The productive economy responds by putting up bogus, virtual enterprises like ENRON and WORLDCOM that the growth in the finance economy quickly gets out of synch with growth in the productive economy.

Thus, the 2001 sharpening of his contradiction into a crash for some stocks and depreciation of the US dollar was as expected, indicative of a chronic pathology.

One basic cure for that pathology is the distribution that the US Empire, through its use of the WB/IMF/WTO NYSE Pentagon system is impeding. As that cure is at present unavailable the underlying pathology will produce new increases in financial goods values and new crashes.

3. between production/distribution/consumption and nature:

The Bush administration’s unilateral exit from the Kyoto Protocol sharpened this contradiction considerably and was a key factor behind the banner at the 2002 summit in South Africa: Thank you, Mr Bush, you have made the world hate America.

The explanation given was that the Protocol impeded US economic growth (meaning unacceptable to powerful corporations).

This move endangers the planet and is an expression of contempt for global regimes based on negotiating ratifiable treaties.

The USA could have demanded re-negotiation. But the US Empire had other priorities and mobilized millions in the movement for sustainable development against the USA.

II. Military Contradictions

4. Between US state terrorism and terrorism:

This contradiction underwent a quantum jump on 11 September 2001 although the number killed was less than the number killed in the aftermath of the other 11 September, in 1973.

The USA supported coup against the socialist government of Salvador Allende (one of the now 68 interventions after the Second World War, counting Iraq).

Highly predictable, as predictable as its repetition unless the US Empire itself exits from the cycle of violence and decides to understand “that the enemy may be us/US”.

But the US Empire now talks about interventions in more than 60 countries, lasting more than a lifetime. A heavy price for the failure to try to, or the effort to avoid to, solve conflicts/contradictions.

At this point an obvious remark:

An effort to explain 9/11, for instance as a “reaction to the US Empire by hitting two major instruments for economic and military operation”…

…or the short-hand as “revenge” and “unresolved conflict” in no way justifies the gruesome act.

Nor is the US intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq justified.

But like Kosova they can both be partly explained as efforts to maintain and expand the US Empire, for more control of the world oil market, and “to keep the world safe for our economy” by establishing military bases.

Violence hits the Empire at their strongest point, is as wrong, ineffective and counterproductive as the US violence and mobilizes against the perpetrators.

Ruling out explanation as justification runs against Enlightenment rationality: solve problems by identifying causal chains, then removing causes like violence cycles and unresolved conflicts.

But the US Empire stands in the way and will ultimately have to yield.

5. between US and allies:

Very fluid. The US Empire does not want to be seen as the US Empire but as something generally supported by “advanced societies”, “civilized” as against “evil”, “chaotic” and “terrorist”. Washington builds coalitions with Allies in the NATO/TIAP/US-Japan systems, and others.

This contradiction (and many others) has never surfaced so clearly as in connection with the war against Iraq, but there were also tensions budding in connection with the Yugoslavia and Afghanistan operations.

Public opinion is not an important variable here.

Washington deals with governments and for that reason is very concerned with who are the members.

The three ways of exercising power, persuasion, bargaining and threats, are best exercised behind closed doors so as not to be exposed to anything like the German Foreign Minister’s devastating remark to the US Secretary of Defense in München February 2003: 

"In a democracy you have to present arguments for your position, and your arguments are not convincing."

If the public knew what goes on behind closed doors, like supporting an attack on Iraq in return for having somebody inscribed on the US list of terrorist organization, the opposition would increase.

In 2000 UK, Germany and Japan were seen as reliable allies.

This failed to predict the German position, linked to the Social Democratic Party having been pressed already against its inner conviction over Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

Australia, however, was highly predictable as an Anglo-Saxon country , and Japan behaved as predicted.

The cost-benefit analysis of the countries varies, but the trend is against unconditional support for the US Empire. A very sensitive contradiction that will sharpen if people exercise much more pressure on governments.

6. Between US hegemony in Eurasia and Russia India China:

These are enormous countries, unconquerable so the USA has approached them through their fear of Muslim populations, in Chechnya, in Kashmir (and all over) and Xinjiang respectively.

After the NATO expansion eastward and the USA-Japan alliance (with Taiwan and South Korea as de facto members) expansion westward from 1995, the three countries resolved most of their problems, came closer together (although not in a formal alliance).

But those moves were temporarily stopped by the USA aligning them against Islamic terrorism, meaning Muslims fighting for more autonomy/independence in the three places mentioned.

The attack on Iraq seems to have sharpened the contradiction again as they do not participate in the occupation (knowing something about Islamic guerrillas). But the USA still has considerable market access and investment economic clout with all three governments.

7. Between USA led NATO and an EU army:

This is not the same as the two preceding points which are more about abstaining from support, and countries feeling the pincer movement of the US Empire, possibly creating an alliance.

Here we are dealing with a new multinational army of a potential superpower, creating identity problems for some members. 

The question, "why do they need this army when they have NATO?" has an answer in dualist logic: "this shows they are not entirely with us, hence they are against us."

There will be much maneuvering behind closed doors concerning this contradiction.

But the general move will be in the direction of an EU Army for some members, building on the present Eurocorps, with a line of command that does not end in Washington, nor passes through Washington except for some exchange of information. For defensive purposes or a coming EU Empire? To take over the spoils?

III. Political Contradictions

8. Between USA and the UN:

The most powerful country in the world also uses the veto in the Security Council most frequently and has close to a de facto economic veto by withholding or withdrawing support for programs not to their liking.

In addition to the US Empire clout on many UN members, like changing the conditions for loans according to voting pattern.

That this behavior is resented stands to reason and that resentment came out in the open when the Anglo-Saxon USA/UK alliance failed to get their second resolution on Iraq accepted by the UNSC.

However, very energetic US diplomacy and again US Empire clout prevented what Washington was afraid of using the Uniting for Peace resolution to lift an issue that has gotten stuck in the UNSC into the General Assembly.

A UNGA debate and vote would make the limited support for an attack on Iraq rather than the French-German approach of deep UN inspection clear.

9. Between USA and the EU:

This goes far beyond EU army vs NATO.

The EU has today 15 members, by May 2004 there will be 25, with more to come. If the EU, very much in their own interest, decided to bridge the basic fault-lines in the whole European construction, between Orthodox and Catholic/Protestant Christianity, and between Islam and Christianity (from 1054 and 1095 respectively) by opening the EU for Russian and Turkish membership, well, then the USA would be very far behind indeed.

We would be talking of 750 million+ inhabitants.

The process of membership might have to be gradual, like X% increase per year in access to EU labor market against X% increase per year in access to resources.

The relation to East Asia may be problematic, but the EU is also doing good work on this fault-line.And a giant EU could only gain from abstaining from any imitation of the US Empire, signing up for UN support instead.

IV. Cultural Contradictions

10. Between US Judeo-Christianity and Islam:

These are the abrahamitic religions, and the expression Judeo-Christianity, so frequent in the USA, draws a wedge among them.

With the recent fundamentalist alliance based on the idea that Armageddon is near and that the first coming of the Messiah and the second coming of Christ could be the same person, this contradiction has become very sharp indeed.

But Islam is expanding very quickly, Christianity is not and the Jews are a small minority.

This rift will mark clear borders against US Empire penetration.

The young Saudi Wahhabite perpetrators on 9/11 may have acted more than they dreamt of on behalf of 1.3 billion Muslims, and not only 300 million Arabs. And this warlike relation will limit US Empire expansion considerably.

11. Between US and the oldest civilizations:

When people talk of fundamentalism they usually mean the religious articulation of old cultures.

But cultures are many-dimensional, including language and other forms of expression, and sacred times and sacred places in history and geography, anything.

There are awakenings all over the world, seeing ancient non-Western cultures not as exotic museum objects to be observed but not lived.

The destruction of artifacts from Sumer/Babylon in Iraq was seen as an effort to make the Iraqis governable by destroying other foci of identification. A typical example of a contradiction in an early, infant stage, but filled with potential for rapid maturation and powerful articulation.

12. Between US and European elite culture:

The world, or so the West thinks, has four major geo-cultural Centers:

  • The USA.
  • The UK.
  • France.
  • Germany.

Others can learn to imitate or produce exotica. France and Germany continue the struggle for cultural prevalence relative to the USA, with Anglo-Saxon UK being somewhere in between.

V. Social Contradictions

13. Between state corporate elites and working classes of unemployed and contract workers:

The powerful US trade union complex, the AFL/CIO, voted for the first time against a war: Iraq.

But the working classes are today kept in line by the threat of unemployment and the inferiority of contract work relative to that vanishing category, the real position, with security.

The state-corporate elites are better organized and at making themselves insubstitutable. They can make hire and fire become easy, with the ultimate threat of automation (“modernization”) settling issues.

The postmodern economy can do without workers, but not without customers.

Firing workers they fire customers by reducing their acquisitive power.

The world middle classes can join by boycotting the products of the US Empire, like oil from Iraq, Boeing aircraft (one of the major death factories in the world); in general boycotting US consumer goods, capital goods and financial goods, like US dollars, stock and bonds – but keeping personal contacts.

14. Between older generation and youth:

Younger than ever, not only college students against the Viêt Nam war but high school students, easily mobilized through the Internet as long as that lasts.

Maybe an element of myth versus reality in this: they have been served propaganda that seems very remote from reality.

The same may apply to women, but here Washington has played the cards well:`”homeland security” drives the issue home and women into the ranks defending the defenders of the home and the family.

But the other nations in the USA, the Inuits, Hawai’ians, First Nations, Chicanos, African Americans, could be pitted against the Anglo-Saxon, Southern Baptist, militarized Deep South, now in command.

Hopefully they will not create an emergency to cancel elections they may not win.

7. And the decline and fall?

Have a look at the 14 contradictions, and then a look at the definition of an empire. The way of solving these contradictions eating at the heart of the system is very simple:

For the 3 economic contradictions: reduce, even stop exploiting!
For the 4 military contradictions: reduce, even stop killing!
For the 2 political contradictions: reduce, even stop dominating!
For the 3 cultural contradictions: reduce, even stop alienating!
For the 2 social contradictions: reduce, even stop all the above!

For each reduction, the US Empire is, by definition, declining.

For each stop the US Empire is falling.

Stop all four, and the US Empire is gone, although some may survive in residual forms like the Russian Empire in Chechnya and the British Empire in Iraq.

The most dramatic recent example.

The most dramatic recent example is possibly the dissolution of the French Empire: de Gaulle had the incredible personal grandeur to terminate the whole empire (except for the Pacific and some other places) and like for the Soviet and British Empires a number of independent countries were born.

Global capitalism, however, has a tendency to recreate trans-border exploitation, and there are, as mentioned, residuals.

A new world was born, however, in the 1960s from the Western empires, in the 1990s from the Soviet Empire.

Only the naive will assume that new world to be paradise on earth.

New systems emerge with their contradictions.

The tradeoffs

The rulers of the British, French and Soviet empires had concluded that the costs by far outrun the gains.

Some others sometimes come to the conclusion that the costs of the fall, including for the Periphery, by far outrun the gains.

That, of course, depends on the successor system, the alternative.

This author favors United Nations global governance, and not an EU Empire. But that is another story.

Confusions

The British and French empires were based on “overseas” colonies, the Soviet empire on contiguous, Czarist/Bolshevik, “union”, and the US Empire is based on what the Pentagon planner said, with the non-US Periphery being “independent” countries.

This confuses some whose empire concept is linked to “colonies” and not to independent countries; and others whose concept is linked to “overseas”, not to contiguous territory.

Still others got confused because three of these Centers are Western democracies, beyond the suspicion of ever committing major wrongs.

As for the ending…

The definition opening this essay is based on a relation of unequal exchange between Center and Periphery, not on Periphery geography or Center polity.

That unequal exchange, divided into four components, is the root contradiction of the empire as a system.

From the four deep contradictions flow the fourteen surface contradictions, visible to everybody, the subject of journalism. The deep contradictions almost never are.

So the basic model explored so far is: 4 deep contradictions imply 14 surface contradictions.

As the 14 mature, synchronize and synergize the Center may loosen the grip on the Periphery…

  • In one conscious, enlightened act (de Gaulle) or,
  • See the Empire dissolve, slowly (UK) or,
  • Quickly (the Soviet Union).

USA, the choice is yours.

The USA today

But the USA now behaves like a wounded elephant, lashing out in all directions.

This is the boiling stage of demoralization, with emotions impeding rational thinking about is and ought, to be followed by a frozen stage, a “let go”, more like the Soviet Union, or Clinton.

Demoralization is oscillating before it stabilizes.

Like individual pathologies, healing is related to the ability to come on top of the pathology rather than the other way round. Like now, with the USA driven by a conflict mainly of its own making.

The current contradictions

The model above can now be expanded: [4] implies [14] implies Demoralization implies -[4] implies -[14] The 4 deep lead to 14 surface contradictions and demoralization which leads to a let go of Empire and the dissolution of the 14.

However: the 4 may have deeper roots.

Thus, where does the inequity come from? From an unfettered capitalism so inequitable that it needs some military protection.

But where does capitalism come from?

And all that violence?

The cultural superiority complex with missionary right and duty, and no duty to understand other cultures, may be related to the sense of exceptionalism as God’s Chosen People and Country. But where does that idea come from?

And so on and so forth.

The 4 defining the US Empire are not uncaused, not unconditioned.

But the focus here is on their removal and not on removing even deeper, but very evasive causes. This can happen through negative feedback loops via waning faith in the viability of the Empire as a system, in other words demoralization.

The 14 may have other roots. The economic contradictions come from capitalism; the USA was violent before the US Empire; some EU members may hate the US Empire because it stands in the way of their own ambitions; the same applies to competitive cultures such as an Islam that wants an expanding dar-al-Islam, the abode of Islam, as successor to the battlefield, the dar-al-harb.

But the world is better off under USA than under EU or Islam, some say.

There is some truth to all of that. But the problem is not only the US share of the world capitalist pie but how it implies killing, domination and alienation. This has to decline, fall and go, while paying attention to all the other contradictions.

There will be class, generation, gender, nation struggle also without the US Empire. True, but today that is the major problem.

The 14 may strengthen the resolve to maintain the 4. In the beginning, and one at the time, yes. Cosmetics may be applied, bland compromises entered, people articulating the contradictions silenced, ridiculed, persecuted, killed.

It is the synergy of several contradictions that leads to demoralization and ultimate decline.

Contradictions between dominant and dominated nations within a country tend to bounce back and find new outlets. The dominated face brutal force but not nagging doubts about viability.

Their national home is a dream untested by contradictions whereas the empire has been tested and found nonviable at any speed.

Demoralization may not negate the 4.

What we expect to happen…

What we are talking about is decreasing faith in the viability…

… even decreasing faith in the legitimacy, of the Empire.

With boiling anger at first, then a frozen let go.

With the possibility of an autonomous let go.

Either the Center deliberately looses the grip, or the Periphery slips out its clammy, feeble claws.

Either way, decline and fall.

However, after a phase of demoralization a new political class may decide not to let go but just the contrary, to strengthen the grip, like the USA is trying right now.

Given the obvious, the impermanence of everything, this will only postpone the inevitable.

Negating the 4 may not negate the 14.

This is certainly more true than untrue. As explored below, we may even talk about an objective contradiction having lost, or even crushed, its subject in search of a new subject.

There are many other roots for many of the contradictions. That one contradiction (syndrome) may conceal another, the latter blossoming when the former is wilting, is clear.

But that daoist insight will not stop contradictions from maturing.

As to the US Empire, there is light at the end of a long and twisting tunnel. But after that tunnel there are new tunnels.

8. On contradictions in general

The concept itself harbors contradictions in the sense of tensions among meanings. The common factor seems to be a whole, a holon, a system, with at least two forces operating.

The tension is between the forces.

There is no assumption of only two forces, nor that they are exactly opposite, nor that they are of the same size. Newton’s Third Law is written that way, expressing a contradiction. But that is a special case and should not distort our ideas of social systems.

We need a more general discourse.

General discussion on systems

Before two or more forces let us explore the cases of 0 or 1.

Even with the vagueness of “force” it is not unreasonable to attribute the property “dead” to a system with no force, no movement, tendency, inclination. The objection may be that much happens to a buried corpse: “to” yes, but not “in”. The forces are exogenous to the system, not endogenous, like in a live organism.

Introduce one force, like running.

The body spends energy. And the counterforce is not slow in announcing itself as fatigue, trying to change a motion into a non-motion referred to as “rest”. The mechanical analogue brings up the idea of R, a dynamically changing resultant force that reflects magnitude and direction of all forces. The system will move or rest with the resultant. R>0 means move, R=0 means equilibrium, R<0 means rest deficit.

Is a force always accompanied by a counterforce? Is there always a reactio with an actio? And in systems with foresight, could there even be a proactio for any expected actio? And a pro-proactio? I find this a very useful an axiom in the analysis of social and personal systems. But I see no reason to assume that reactio and proactio are necessarily opposed. They could also be aligned with actio and, at least to start with, reinforce actio.

The idea of force-counterforce twins might lead us to an even number of forces as they come in pairs. We do not say that one is producing or generating the other since that leads to an infinite number. Rather, we assume synchronicity; they are “co-arising” as buddhist epistemology will have it rather than one force generating the next, generating the next, etc. And there is no reason to land on an even number. Another metaphor might be a bundle of forces somehow accounting for the tensions in the system.

Practical Discussion

Let us move from general talk about “systems” and “forces” to more specific social and personal systems. In the conceptual neighborhood is the idea of “conflict” as tension in goal-seeking systems because of incompatibility between the goals.

Goals are then associated with life even when attributed metaphorically to non-life as in “mountains striving upward”.

If incompatible goals are in the same system we have a dilemma, if in different systems we have a dispute.

A goal-holder conscious of the goal is an actor, if not conscious a party. And that brings in the major distinction between subjective and objective contradictions.

A subjective contradiction passes through and is reflected by the human brain; as thought/consciousness, as speech/articulation as action/mobilization. But not necessarily in that order, intellectualized like a philosopher who first reflects, then writes and then – maybe does nothing.

We could just as well assume the opposite order, the actor mobilizing for action out of old habit, then saying what he feels he thinks and thinking what he feels. Or any other sequence. But sooner or later there is consciousness.

With two goals we get two goal-seeking forces, A and B, and three possibilities for the resultant: R=A (A wins), R=B (B wins) or R=0, an in-between equilibrium, also known as a compromise.

At that point the mechanical analogy breaks down.

The three cases do not exhaust the possibilities. Moreover, they do not eliminate the contradiction. A or B wins does not mean that the dissatisfied loser no longer has the same or some other goal incompatible with the winner’s goal.

The contradiction is still there, under the lid of the boiling cauldron of a defeat. And a compromise may leave both of them semi-dissatisfied. If we use the term “sharp” to describe the contradiction as it was, “blunt” may apply to a compromise. But how do we transcend the contradiction?

Since the three possibilities exhaust the logic of opposing forces within a system, the answer is “by changing the system”.

Changing the System

This is what Gorbachev faced in the contradiction between the Soviet Empire and the social forces wanting basic change in the DDR: he let the DDR go.

The contradiction now being between people and party elites in the DDR, the latter then yielded to West Germany, BRD, eventually to be absorbed by them. As a result the Soviet Empire declined and fell and BRD absorbed DDR. The contradiction is still there, but finds other articulations.

And this is what Gorbachev’s successors never managed to do with Chechnya. All they could do was to prevent them from winning, not to transcend the contradiction. For that to happen they would have to let Chechnya go, which will happen sooner or later anyhow.

For the contradiction to be transcended, and the tension to be released, system change is needed, and more so the deeper the contradiction is in the system.

An empire is not changed by suppressing, winning, over some party or even actor; that only makes the empire more imperial.

An empire is changed by becoming less imperial. And that is also known as a decline from the empire’s point of view. At the end of that road is its fall.

The stages in the contradiction life-cycle can be summarized:

[0] Objective contradiction independent of consciousness

[1] Consciousness-formation through THOUGHT (intrasubjective)

[2] Articulation through SPEECH (intersubjective)

[3] Mobilization through ACTION (private and/or public)

[4] Struggle among mobilized actors

violent or nonviolent
quick or slow
without or with outside parties mediating
with less or more polarization = decoupling
[5] Outcomes of struggle

[a] prevalence or compromise - back to [0]-[4]
[b] transcendence = a new reality
- negative transcendence under a new actor
- positive transcendence as new coupling

Through the [1]-[2]-[3] sequence a party becomes an actor pursuing goals by more or less adequate tactics chosen from [4].

[5a] does not end the lifecycle of a contradiction, only a lid on it or a blunting of it, as has been argued above.

[5b], transcendence, is the end of that contradiction lifecycle. This does not mean the end/death of the system as it may harbor other contradictions at various lifecycle stages.

Transcendence, going beyond, is the creation of a new reality: -negative transcendence, neither-nor; goals not achieved -positive transcendence, both-and; goals achieved, with a twist.

Ecuador-Peru conflict

Take the Ecuador-Peru conflict over where to draw the border in a contested 500km2 zone up in the Andes, with three wars to settle the issue.

  • Military victory for one of them, annexing the zone to their national territory, is “prevalence”.
  • Drawing a border, for instance along a ceasefire line, is “compromise”. Negative transcendence could be to give the zone to the UN or the OEA, creating a new social reality.
  • And positive transcendence could be a binational zone, owning it together, with the twist that neither country has monopoly. A new reality. And both new realities, systems, would in turn produce their own contradictions.

Time has then come to explore the problematic relations between objective and subjective contradictions.

A social system comes with differences between categories– like genders, generations, races, classes, nations, territories– which then become relations in an interaction system; which then become fault-lines, usually because the interaction is on unequal terms; which then may lead to polarization and a structure of discrimination accompanied by a culture of prejudice. All known societies harbor more or less of these inequalities and inequities.

An empire uses such structures and cultures as building blocks, and can be seen as a two (or multi-)tier system linking domestic and global faultlines. There is a Center and a Periphery in the global system of countries. Inside the Center, and inside the Periphery, there is also a center and a periphery. All three systems may be based on the logic of quadruple inequity (for killers-killed sometimes substitute the softer guards-prisoners).

The linchpin

The linchpin in the system is the harmony between the center in the Center and the center in the Periphery.

The USA is right now (Summer 2003) trying to construct an Iraqi center in harmony of interest with the USA state/corporate center. The Iraqi center must do the four jobs locally and deliver the fruits of unequal exchange such as economic value, wanted terrorists, obedience, conditioning to the center in the (USA/UK) Center, keeping a commission.

They are rewarded with material living standard at a US elite level.

What has just been described is a simple empire linking three systems of unequal exchange, two domestic and one global.

The US empire is complex; being a world hegemon no domestic system is entirely delinked from that empire. The EU empire links 15 (soon 25) Center countries to 100+ Periphery countries, but softly so.

There are also other divisions than the faultlines in domestic and global society, like among political parties in more or less democratic societies, and groups of countries in an undemocratic global system.

Social movements, the subjective contradictions, more or less conscious, articulated and mobilized across some primordial or newly created dividing lines, prepolarize the system, and are ready for [4], struggle. But for what?

Ideally for the objective contradiction, with an unresolved issue at the center which then has to become the cause of the movement. And that gives rise to basic problem of adequacy in the coupling between subjective and objective contradictions, between the causes and the issues. Both are parts of social reality. But the movements may have an inadequate consciousness and cut the issues wrongly. And the issue may be an orphan, waiting to be picked up by a movement with adequate consciousness. There may be a contradiction between movement contradiction and issue contradiction. And the result is bad, derailed politics.

Myanmar/Burma

Thus, the subjective contradiction in Myanmar/Burma between the autocratic military government SLORC and the pro-democracy movement headed by a woman. A woman, identified with one nation in a multi-national society, one upper/middle class in a very poor society. However, married to a Westerner in a country developing its own identity may be inadequate for the objective contradictions of the country.

From a Western point of view the basic contradictions are autocracy vs (Western) democracy and closure vs openness of the country to economic and cultural penetration.

The subjective contradiction is adequate for those issues. But there are other issues. Inadequacy may derail the process. The objective and the subjective must somehow mirror each other.

India

Thus, Gandhi had literally speaking to divest himself of his Westernness and his high caste paraphernalia, become very Hindu and share the living conditions of the lower castes and untouchables before he could lead Indian masses toward freedom and democracy.

The leader of Free India, however, Jawaharlal Nehru, was very Western, very high caste, very secular and steered India exactly in that direction.

Gandhi wanted an India based on the “oceanic circles” of autonomous, self-reliant villages; Nehru a modern, secular, industrial, socialist India. The subjective matters.

Liberals tend to study the subjective movements and Marxists the objective issues. The argument here is for both-and, and more particularly for the contradiction between the two contradictions.

Norway

An example from Norway: the objective contradiction a century ago between the “well conditioned” and the majority “populace”, in steep livelihood gradients, and the subjective contradictions in the party system.

The populace lived on farming, fishing, hunting, and as employees; the well conditioned from fortune, as employers or self-employed.

There were grey zones.

The Labor Party, through an act of political genius, created an alliance of farmers, fishermen and industrial workers, very adequately posited against the well conditioned.

They won the elections, prevailed for two generations, and created a new social reality, the welfare state.

That society had its own objective contradictions, positing a minority of aged-women-frail/handicapped-foreign workers against the rest. Uncarried by adequate subjective contradictions the objective contradiction deepens in the midst of plenty. The Labor Party was totally inadequate. And the issue remains unsolved.

Movements against the US Empire: social reality is complex. Only when cause and issue coincide will the movements be adequate.

Conclusions

Now, this piece was written over fifteen years ago. So it is dated. Issues of the day then seem trivial now, with modern issues and conditions quite different.

Never the less, this individual has a fine track record of predicting global events related to empires.

He uses a unique system of “contradictions” to come to his conclusions. It tends to be wordy and confusing, but it works. And at this stage that is all that matters.

He predicts that the USA will go into a state of upheaval starting in 2020. The duration for this period of change is unknown. What we do know is that the COVID-19 coronavirus has completely changed the global Geo-political situation, and the United States is in a state of chaos as a result. It appears that whether it was the COVID-19 or something else, the United States would still be in this messy situation.

Independent on who would be in the Presidency.

Independent on the particular situations all over the world.

I know that he tended to ramble on, and the post is long. But the fact remains that all the indicators that he listed back in 2000 are still present and worsening in 2020.

Sven Henrich, NorthmanTrader - Reality check: By the time this is all over the poor will be poorer, the middle class smaller, the country horrifically in debt, unemployment much higher than before and the top 1% will be largely fine. Do not underestimate the long term impacts of this ever increasing divide.

Right or wrong. Future prophecy or not, one thing is certain, all Geo-Political indicators are pointing to a collapse of the United States Empire in some form. It depends on who will be at the Presidential Helm during the collapse…

  • Donald Trump and his neocon advisors and their MAGA plan.
  • A weak leader under Biden.
  • A radical progressive / Marxist.
  • An Obama strategy of “managed empire reduction“.

What will happen? A war? Internal domestic conflict? Internal strife resulting from the collapse of established systems? Who knows?

From the Burning Platform Blog…

If you don’t feel the mood of the country turning towards confrontation and civil chaos, you are either a lackey for the establishment, a government paid drone, or propagandized to such an extent you have chosen to be willfully ignorant of your surroundings. 

This Fourth Turning seemed somewhat dormant since 2012, but government, corporate, and consumer debt continued to balloon; the divide between left and right grew as the Deep State conducted a coup against a duly elected president; and global disorder accelerated in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and South America.

The core elements of debt, civic decay, and global disorder are now coalescing into a perfect storm of consequences for a nation and world built upon a teetering edifice of unpayable debt, unfulfilled promises, the unbridled greed of a blood thirsty ruling class, and the unbelievable delusions of people who think a world built upon borrowing to consume is sustainable.

The dichotomy between what is happening in the real world and what is happening in the world of the financiers will lead to violent upheaval on a timeline not anticipated by the ruling class. 

There is a good reason gun stores were overwhelmed with business at the outset of this over-hyped flu pandemic. 

As Strauss and Howe pointed out twenty three years ago, trust in the government, central bankers, the corporate media, and “experts” is disintegrating rapidly. The anger and disillusionment grows by the day and pockets of resistance are propagating throughout the country.

The un-Constitutional destruction of rights and liberties by overbearing governors, mayors and Federal bureaucrats is pushing desperate citizens towards insurrection. The police who carry out the unlawful orders of their superiors for a paycheck should realize they live among those they are bullying and pushing around. 

There is blowback coming and they should act accordingly. 

When people have lost everything they had and any hope for the future, while witnessing the privileged continuing to reap the benefits of a rigged financial system, civil disobedience will increase and blood will begin to be shed. 

This bubble of abnormalcy will be popped.

It is weirdly fascinating to watch a Fourth Turning unfold, while in the midst of it, and knowing we are entering the phase where people have died in numbers that put this pandemic fatality count to shame during the previous two American Crisis periods. 

From 1861 to 1865 almost 5% of the male population of the country were killed. That would equate to about 8 million today. From 1939 to 1945 an estimated 65 million people were killed.

The 100,000 or so who will die in 2020 from this virus is just a prelude to the death and destruction to follow. 

The trigger for the climactic phase of this Fourth Turning is not a virus that will not kill 99.97% of the American population, but the economic consequences of the over-reaction and authoritarian response to the virus. I’ve lost respect for numerous bloggers who desperately try to paint Sweden’s response as disastrous in an effort to support their own narrative of doom.

Sweden’s decision to allow its people and businesses to use reasonable precautions and not lock down their country in the dictatorial Chinese way, has resulted in cases per million being in line with the rest of European countries and lower than the U.S. The louder these bloggers scream, the surer you can be they have been proven wrong.

It is mesmerizing to watch those on the left, along with the Republican “Never Trumpers”, flail about as the Obama/Clinton attempted coup against Trump unravels before their very eyes. The reaction of these people, along with their toadies at CNN, MSNBC and the other left wing media, reveals an unbridgeable chasm between those believing in the rule of law and people who are willing to do anything for power.

The pure hatred from those on the left for Trump and his followers can not be contained. 

They despise the deplorables in flyover country with such a passion, the spittle foaming on their lips as they describe them as gun toting, uneducated, white racists, is an indication of their fury and hate. What these entitled, suit wearing, botox injected, arrogant idiot yet idiot establishment whores fail to realize is we despise them equally and we’re armed and ready. 

While psychopaths in suits, worthless politicians, government errand boys and remote working white collar parasites of the establishment continue to get paid, they continue to prohibit the lowly wage earner from making a living. 

A price will be paid.

Trump is not a nice guy. Grey Champions (Lincoln, FDR) use their power in ways not conducive to making everyone happy. They are leading during a time of crisis and will use any means necessary to win. The coup attempt by Obama, Clinton, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Mueller, and their minions has failed and now the tables will be turned. Trump, Barr, Grennell and Durham have the power to prosecute some of the most powerful left wing politicians and Deep State operatives on the planet.

How this plays out before November will ignite further civil strife and discontent. People have already begun taking to the streets and as this unnecessary shutdown further impoverishes the masses, things will turn nasty. Government attempting to have neighbors rat on neighbors for not obeying the Nanny State commands will backfire on the rats. Animosities and grudges will sway the actions of many, once the gloves come off.

The majority of rule following sheep believe what they are being told by their elected leaders, non-elected self proclaimed medical “experts” and the feckless shills on their boob tube. They do not see what is coming, just over the horizon. 

The divergence of opinion on how we should proceed from this point onward is immense, with biases, delusions, and inability to grasp the unintended consequences of the actions taken thus far, driving the narratives. Listening to Trump bloviate about the tremendous economic boom which will occur when we re-open the country is laughable. He sounds like a carnival barker.

He allowed himself to be bamboozled by medical “expert” hacks and their immensely flawed garbage in-garbage out models into destroying our economy, and he may end up paying the price in November as the economy is mired in a 2nd Great Depression. 

But the Dow should be at 50,000 by then, so he’s got that going for him. Trump thinks you can turn the economy on again and things will be as good as new. 

He evidently has never read Bastiat or Hazlitt. The broken window fallacy now can be called the broken country fallacy. The financial gurus crow about the fantastic job Powell and Mnuchin have done, based upon what they have seen (31% increase in S&P 500), while that which is unseen has yet to reveal itself.

Do you want more?

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Time to appreciate some of the great things in our lives. Let’s give thanks.

I haven’t done a happiness post in a while. Perhaps it’s high time that I dust off the old keyboard, slide all that nonsense and clutter off my desk, open up a window and let some fresh sunny air inside. With that being said, let’s spend a few minutes to talk about some good things; things that matter to me. And, by extension, maybe that matter to you as well. Eh?

These are just some thoughts that I have had. They are my thoughts, and I am sure that not everyone will agree with me. But you can skip the parts you don’t like or agree with. And nod to yourself silently in parts that you do like.

Deep Dark Cool Forests

One of the little pleasures that I have enjoyed are those special moments when I enter the deep dark woods.

As most of you might be aware, there are all kinds of forests. From light sparsely fielded birch groves, to dense pine growths, to scrub and spackle arrangements. Here we are talking about deep, thick and rich old-growth forests. Forests that are populated with century old hard-woods like cherry, maple, oak and mahogany. Forests with bark as thick as your hand and lush deep thick curtains of moss that cover everything.

You can breathe in the cool moistness with your nostrils and feel the fresh air in your lungs.

The cool deep dark forest.
The cool deep dark forest.

When you walk into this environment it is like you are entering another world. It’s cooler. It’s dimmer, and the shade is complete. There might be a very few instances of light that might manage to pierce through the upper canopy, but not often. You might be able to hear a brook bubbling away, or a swish of some deer as they disappear in the distance.

On of my great pleasures is to walk and explore the dark recesses of a midnight dark forest.
On of my great pleasures is to walk and explore the dark recesses of a midnight dark forest.

It’s a treasured place, and a treasured time. As such, I would like to express my belief that if we do not take the time to go forth and visit these treasured places that we are missing out in one of the great joys of life.

Perhaps there is a national park nearby. If so, go there and take a trail that you have never walked before. You will not regret it.

Sunny mid-morning Spring days

As I write this, it is the start of May. Springtime. Just about the entire world is waking up, stretching their arms, and venturing outside.

One of the little pleasures (that I have) is the freshness and coolness of Spring air, most especially when it is associated with a very Sunny day. These are days where the windows are open in the house to let the fresh air in. Where the kids are out in the driveway hosing down and washing the car, and where people are talking about when the local pool will open up.

After I left the ADC once I was retired, everything was "good". It was ll good. And I vowed that I would appreciate life more, enjoy it more and treasure it more. Perhaps that is what many people need today. A lesson to appreciate what you have WHILE YOU HAVE IT.
After I left the ADC once I was retired, everything was “good”. It was all good. And I vowed that I would appreciate life more, enjoy it more and treasure it more. Perhaps that is what many people need today. A lesson to appreciate what you have WHILE YOU HAVE IT.

This is also the time when Winter clothes are packed and stored away. The Winterizing for the house, the car, and just about everything else is set aside. It’s also when the first mowing of the lawn occurs, and if you have a pool, when the pool cover is removed, the leaves are gathered from the water, and you “shock the pool” into health.

Maybe you might even set some chairs out in the yard.

Nighttime on the beach

It’s quiet. All that you can hear is the surf beating up against the shore. The sky is black, and the sea is black, and the sand is dark grey. Yet, strangely once your eyes adjust, the whitecaps on the waves are this light blue color. It’s actually magical.

Nighttime on the beach.
Nighttime on the beach.

It’s a time when you walk, and think. And if you are with a friend, you talk. The waves roll. The air is still with occasional light breezes, the palms sway. There is a pace of life. It is free of the electronic media that are are all tethered to. And that is a good thing.

Then once you return home you can turn on your social media. You can read or hear people literally screaming at you with the latest “issues” of the day. Trump is a Russian spy! China is evil, nasty and eats bats! Your rights are being stolen from you! We need to raise taxes! And on and on and on.

Go outside. Shut that nonsense off.

Warm laundry on an icy cold day

It doesn’t seem like much, but to me it’s special. It’s a time when you pull the clothes out of a dryer on a frigid Winter day. The clothes are warm, toasty and delicious. Meanwhile the house is cold, brisk and icy.

A delicious home-cooked hamburger and an icy beer

You didn’t think that I would ignore this special moment, did you? Nope. All praises to the home-made hamburger and the icy cold beer. Now, when I mean icy-cold, I actually do mean icy cold. In fact, I (myself) prefer a tall glass of ice, and then pour the beer in. That means, boys and girls, that I drink the beer at 32F or 0C. Frosty.

One of the delicious pleasures that I have is the home-made hamburger with a nice frosty beer. It's what I enjoy, and I believe that everyone should try this combination at least once in their life.
One of the delicious pleasures that I have is the home-made hamburger with a nice frosty beer. It’s what I enjoy, and I believe that everyone should try this combination at least once in their life.

Now a frosty mug is nice. But it is the temperature of the beer that makes this special. Not to mention a nice home made hamburger with tomatoes, cheese (glorious cheese!), lettuce, and bun. Oh, and if you were inspired, some nice slabs of bacon would really enhance the overall burger flavor, don’t you know.

Well?

What’s stopping you from doing this right now?

Fixing a busted car and having it roar back to life

Have you ever dealt with a broken piece of machinery? You sit in the car, you fire it up and …clunk! Nothing.

Gagh!

That car is very tired.
That car is very tired.

So then, after some screaming and moaning, you finally figure out what is wrong. You pull out your tools, and start to get to the heart of the matter. But, of course, nothing is easy to get to. You need to tear half the car apart to get to anything. Then, after hours of work, frozen and stuck nuts, icy wind blowing on your knees and your shit wet with water, oil, gasoline and grease, you finally are able to put the replacement part back in.

Then, you climb in and fire that puppy back up…

…barooooom!

It’s “Miller Time!“

It's a real joy to see an engine roar back to life once you fix a few problems. (Oh, and don't you just love the 454, eh?)
It’s a real joy to see an engine roar back to life once you fix a few problems. (Oh, and don’t you just love the 454, eh?) The 1970 LS6 454 cubic-inch V8 that was one of the best street muscle car motors ever produced. Broooom!

Making a pot of Chili

There is a certain joy in making a pot of chili. I really cannot enunciate why it is so special. Maybe it is because I would tend to cook chili on the weekends. Or maybe it’s the smell of the chili as it is cooking all afternoon.

A fine bowl of home-made chili.
A fine bowl of home-made chili.

Or maybe it’s sitting down afterwards watching a movie with the chili in one hand and an icy cold beer in the other. I really don’t know. What ever it is, it’s most certainly a wonderful and special noteworthy time.

I started to make chili when I lived outside “Poison Canyon” in Ridgecrest, California. One day the staff on the base had a “chili cook-off” on a non-base facility. All of us were asked to submit our creations. It was my first attempt at making chili and (yes) I made some mistakes. But then ever since, I kept at it and kept at it.

Now, when I make up a pot, it is my “comfort food”.

I like to eat it over rice. (Though some friends in Louisiana like to eat it over chips.) I know that sour cream is a nice addition, but I never seem to have any around. Instead I opt for lots and lots of yellow cheese (sharp cheddar) is my favorite and some hot peppers.

Oh, and don’t forget the icy cold beer.

Playing with your dog

There’s something about a little playful ritual that I have with my dog “Shao Pi”. You see, a couple of times a day I give him a “dog sausage”. It’s a kind of meat flavored rice filler in the shape of a sausage. It’s pretty darn cheap.

Chinese doggie sausages. You cut holes int he plastic skin and he sucks the liverwurst like meat out of the sausage.
Chinese doggie sausages. You cut holes in the plastic skin and he sucks the liverwurst like meat out of the sausage.

What I do is cut the ends off and punch holes in it. Then I call him.

Now, my game is to pretend that I cannot see him or know where he is. I start looking for him all over the house and outside on the porch. He goes crazy trying to say “I’m here! I’m here!”.

I carry on like this for a few minutes. Eventually he “convinces” me that he’s there, and I hand the treat out to him.

Now, my wife tried this game.

The only thing is that she didn’t play the game. She just handed the sausage to him.

What he did was so funny. He sat on the floor. Looked at the sausage, and then up to her. As if to say “what? You don’t want to play with me? Did I do something wrong?” And then he slunk back to his sleeping bed and ignored the sausage.

LOL.

This time is a little pleasure I have. I guess that it sounds so silly to dog haters or cat lovers, but I swear it is a special time and something that adds meaning to my life.

An after-dinner cigar and a glass of whiskey

Ah. You can tell that I am a man growing old. But you know what? Yup this is a real pleasure of mine. There is something relaxing and soothing to have a fine meal, and then calm down afterwards with a fine cigar and a nice glass of whiskey.

An after dinner cigar and a glass of whiskey.
An after dinner cigar and a glass of whiskey.

I must admit that I am not a connoisseur of cigars. Rather, I take what I can get. Though the Cuban cigars obtained locally are really nice. As far as whiskey goes, I know what bad and fake whiskey is, but my budget will not permit me to have any of those expensive brands that you see in magazines. So I make the best with what is within my budget.

It’s a pleasure of mine and something that you cannot do in any public restaurant in America today. But, it is something that I can do just about anywhere else in the world. It’s what’s called “freedom“.

Picking a ripe heirloom tomato off the vine

When I was growing up we had a little garden. I was the only one who really cared about it. I would tend to it, and weed it all Summer. I would also go ahead and plant tomatoes along with the other vegetables. My favorite plants were, of course, tomatoes. Though secondary favorites included green peppers and zucchini.

A fine tomato sandwich.
A fine tomato sandwich.

I tried to grow them up here in China. No such luck. Zhuhai is way, way too hot for the kinds of tomatoes that I know and love. I wrote a post about this HERE…

Tomatos

Anyways, back to my story.

Growing tomatoes is a real pleasure of mine. I especially like the tomato sandwich that I make from a freshly picked juicy “Big Boy” fresh off the vine. I just cut that sucker into many thin cuts. Layer the cuts one on top of the other. Add some salt and pepper, and slather some sweet mayonnaise (Miracle Whip) on top. Of course, I use plain white bread. It’s the perfect bread for this sandwich.

I just cannot imagine a Summer without a tomato sandwich.
I just cannot imagine a Summer without a tomato sandwich.

And, of course, I always eat it over the sink while the sauce and the tomato dripping fall down. My hands get all messy, but I just rinse them off under the running water.

It’s a great Summer pleasure, I’ll tell you what.

You do not know what your true pleasures are until you cannot have them. The pleasure of a simple tomato sandwich was denied to me in the ADC.
You do not know what your true pleasures are until you cannot have them. The pleasure of a simple tomato sandwich was denied to me in the ADC.

Canoeing on a quiet lake alone

This is a pleasure that most people do not enjoy.

You buy or rent a canoe. You go to a remote area, and there, in the early morning, you paddle out into the lake while the morning mist is rising off the lake. If you get up really early, it’s still very dark out. Like maybe four int he morning.

Ron Swanson understands. This is from season 7, episode 13.
Ron Swanson understands. This is from season 7, episode 13.

It’s quiet. The mist is like a fog and all you can hear are the frogs, the critters, and the sound of the swishing of the water.

Then you just paddle up and down the lake. Maybe find a quiet spot and fish. You pop a top (open up a can of beer), and drink it down. You don’t have a cellphone, or at least no signals. No one can contact you with an “emergency”. Your time. Your place. Your life.

It’s magical.

Soup in a thermos and a home made sandwich

Most people don’t give this any thought. But you all should. There’s something comforting in having a lunch prepared by loved ones for you instead of a McDonald’s #3 meal supersized with a coke.

A home-made meal is healthier, better, cheaper, and often more delicious than one made in a fast-food restaurant. It won’t make you fat, it will be balanced, and it will remind you of your connections to your loved ones. It’s a win-win.

A homemade packed sandwich goes a long way to keep the stomach rumblings down and subdue the ravenous beast inside.
A homemade packed sandwich goes a long way to keep the stomach rumblings down and subdue the ravenous beast inside.

The thermos might contain coffee, but more often than not it would be home made soup. My personal favorites are chicken-noodle, cream of broccoli, and vegetable beef. The sandwich would generally be some kind of “Dagwood” consisting of a few slabs of meat, some tomatoes, lettuce, onions and maybe s “thickener” like peanut butter or a fried egg. Topping it off would be a fruit. Maybe an apple or a banana. Sometimes an orange.

That’s what you get when you have a traditional family. One person works outside, the other person takes care of the domestic issues. They make sure that you eat well and healthy. They put care into that meal. They put love into that meal.

A thermos filled with home-made soup is a very special thing, and it reminds you that you are nothing without your family and their support.
A thermos filled with home-made soup is a very special thing, and it reminds you that you are nothing without your family and their support.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and it is very, very true.

Enjoy an ice cream Sundae

Ice cream is everywhere. Or at least, what we call ice cream, is everywhere. In the West, America I’m talking to you, most “ice cream” is actually a percentage of cream with milk and other fillers. It’s not really “real” and “pure” ice cream at all.

Which is really rather sad.

This little pleasure describes eating real, honest to goodness, ice cream at a dairy that gives you the real thing. And what’s more, you eat a Sundae using it.

A well done ice cream sundae would have multiple scoops of real ice cream, with all sorts of toppings added.
A well done ice cream sundae would have multiple scoops of real ice cream, with all sorts of toppings added.

Now, some history first.

Back in the day, when families still attended churches, and would spend the Sundays together, a “Sundae” was a special treat. It was a time to go traipse off to the local dairy farm and eat or have some fresh ice cream. That was a big event back in the day. It’s so difficult to imagine what the big deal was, because seemingly ice cream is everywhere.

Heck you can get a “ice cream””Sundae” at McDonald’s, for goodness sakes. Which isn’t really a true “ice cream” nor a true “sundae”. It’s a tasty food-like product. Fine for kids, but really below standard for most adults.

Adults deserve real… REAL… ice cream.

In California, back in the 1980’s, ice cream parlors were making a comeback. Though, I have no idea what is going on today. When I was there, they were being displaced by the TCBY frozen yogurt franchises.

Oh, and by the way, any decent Sundae in the United States would be topped with an American flag, don't ya know.
Oh, and by the way, any decent Sundae in the United States would be topped with an American flag, don’t ya know.

Here we are talking about paying the money and eating an enormous ice cream Sundae with your loved ones. We are not talking about some fake ‘soft serve” for a dollar at the local fast food joint. So, what more can I say? Go ahead, and go get a quality ice cream sundae. You won’t regret it.

Finally, here’s a shout out for Hersey’s Fudge. Get some on-line or in a grocery store and use this (instead of Hersey’s chocolate syrup) on your home concoctions.

Hersey's Fudge
Hersey’s Fudge

Playing with your cat

Now I talked about playing with my dog, but I also get an equal amount of satisfaction while playing with my cats. They are hunters and nothing gets them more excited that playing “hunt that critter”.

The best toys are the feathers or snake on a string.

Cats love to play with those feathers.
Cats love to play with those feathers.

I would dangle those feathers in the air and they would spend hours running, chasing, leaping and clawing at them. They would be so caught up in it and it’s a true joy to behold. Ah… good times.

A cup of fresh brewed coffee on a cold winter’s day

Now most Americans appreciate a nice cup of brewed coffee. We go to Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, McDonald’s or Duncan Donuts to get our fix. Of course, we also tend to brew it at home, whether it is in an old-fashioned percolator, a Chemex, or even (gasp) instant coffee.

But here, I want to talk about a different kind of coffee experience.

An "old fashioned" American diner.
An “old fashioned” American diner.

Imagine it’s snowing out, and as cold as a witches tit out. You had spent maybe ten minutes trying to chop the ice off your windshield with the wind howled around you, and icy cold dust flakes of snow burned your skin. Your breath would exhale in white clouds that would frost up your eye glasses and turn your beard white. And finally, after shoveling away the snow you hop into the car, and turn the motor over (you had a oil-dipstick heater, after your reinstalled the battery)…

Gah! You can tell that I used to live in Northern Indiana, eh?

You start driving down the road. It’s around 5:30 in the morning and the sky is just beginning to become a dreary light grey.

Up ahead is a brightly lit diner. It’s one of those old-fashioned stainless steel sausage affairs. It looks something like a mobile home, but is all silver color with warm inviting windows all along the sides.

You pull in, while a truck with a snowplow on it’s front is busy cleaning out the parking lot.

You park, turn off the engine and get out of the car. A few steps later, you pull open the heavy stainless steel and glass door and you are inside this warm, inviting diner filled with the aroma of bacon, eggs and freshly brewing coffee.

Inside of a fine American style diner.
Inside of a fine American style diner.

You go up to the counter.

There’s a guy (or a gal) there who immediately places some silverware on a napkin next to you once they wipe down the table. You, or course, reach over to the free newspapers down the counter to see what the daily news is, and when the waitress comes on over you place your order.

If you are like me, you would order “Country fried steak and eggs” with grits (or hash browns), wheat toast (why I never ordered rye?) and a coffee.

She would say “Just a moment, hon.” Then in short order, she would fill up a fine slam-on-the table white mug filled with fresh coffee…

A vintage heavy ivory white ironstone china coffee mug. This is what coffee was intended to be drunk out of.
A vintage heavy ivory white ironstone china coffee mug. This is what coffee was intended to be drunk out of.

You see, it’s not so much about the coffee as it is about the context… the environment… the feelings and the emotions that you have at that exact moment in time.

I know, I know…

Starbucks fans will argue that that they are just fine with the paper cup that they get from Starbucks. They believe that it is just as good, or maybe better….

I do not.

Please enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and share it at a moment that remains special to you.

A cup of coffee at a diner.
A cup of coffee at a diner.

Thunderstorm at night

Who doesn’t enjoy a nice cozy stay inside during a thunderstorm? The light display, and the booming of the thunder is inspiring. Not to mention the crash of the rain as it beats upon the house, and the gusts of wind that howl and moan in the ptch black night.

It’s a great time to stay inside and cozy up with loved ones under a throw. Don’t you think?

Homemade Iced Tea

I grew up in Western Pennsylvania. There, we pretty much drank Hi-C, or Cool-Aide. My mother would go ahead and pour the granulated mix into pitcher and refrigerate it. Then, when I was in High School, the idea of making “fresh” lemonade or Iced Tea caught on. We would put this big tureen on the stove and cook up a batch of tasty refreshing beverage. Then allow it to cool down.

later, at the end of the day, we might sit on the large shady porch and drink it as the sun would set. Though in those days we called it “watching the street lights turn on”. It was nice, you know.

Of course, then in those days, we might also smoke a joint, a cigarette, or a bowl of something that was illegal at that time. We were pretty much told that it would give us brain damage, and one day we might get confused, and put a baby in the microwave, or try to jump out of the window in an attempt to fly.

It was in all the newspapers and magazines, don’t you know.

Back then, we would sit on a “glider” (which is a metal couch that sways back and forth) or in a “porch swing” which is a wooden bench seat that hung from the ceiling by chains.

Metal glider. This is a long forgotten masterpiece that is fun to sit in and wonderful for wide shady porches.
Metal glider. This is a long forgotten masterpiece that is fun to sit in and wonderful for wide shady porches.

Of course, there would be a blanket or throw or some pillows on the glider. We never sat on the bare metal or wood slats. You know, looking back, many of my first dates were spent on the safety of the porch while the girls’ parents were in the kitchen or living room.

It is that moment that you treasure. The sun has set, the sky is turning into a dark blue color. The air is cooling down and a little breeze is kicking up. House lights are turning on, and the homes looked warm through their windows with yellow and orange colors on the bluish-white exteriors. The crickets come out, and the cicadas. You can even watch the bats fly about in the sky.

Later on in my life, I completely forgot about that.

Delicious Southern style Iced Tea.
Delicious Southern style Iced Tea.

I would go ahead and get this kind of iced tea in fast food restaurants. it would be filled with chemical preservatives, and unsweetened. No lemon. No orange. No mint. And I would be forced to drink this kind of camel piss on my way to and from work.

Then, when I moved to the South, I experienced what “real” iced tea is. It’s called “Southern Ice Tea”, and it’s awesome!

How to Make Perfect Southern Sweet Iced Tea

Iced tea is pretty much a year-round staple here in the south - probably mostly because it's so darned hot down here most all of the year. Besides, tea - unlike soft drinks - is loaded with benefits.

Just like seasoning recipes to taste, you definitely should adjust to your own sweetness level with sweetened iced tea. Some folks like it real sweet, some not quite so sweet and you can certainly exchange sugar for an appropriate sugar substitute, even making the tea completely unsweetened, and adding it per glass.

This recipe makes 2 quarts of sweet tea and I used to use a cup of sugar, but then I switched to making my tea completely unsweetened and using a sugar substitute by the glass, but then I stopped using artificial sweeteners completely, then I went back to them, or I flip flop between a stevia/sugar blend, monk fruit or agave - I've pretty much tried most all of them. When I went back to using regular granulated sugar, I found a cup to be too sweet for me. Eventually I reduced that cup of sugar to 3/4 cup, then 2/3 cup and now I find about 1/2 cup of sugar for the whole pitcher works pretty good for me. In restaurants I always find sweet tea generally far too sweet for me, so I order it "half and half" - half sweet, mixed with half unsweetened, and during the summer I go through so much tea that I now make a full gallon of a diet sweet tea.

Sweetening aside, one thing is for certain. I believe that the perfect iced tea starts with Luzianne brand. {affil link} Period.

Now... I don't say that because I'm trying to impress the folks at Luzianne (who have no idea who I am), or because I'm trying to make myself look more "Southern" by using Luzianne. I use it because, in my opinion, it is the tea for Southern iced tea - whether it's sugared up or made with sugar substitute. Not that other brands don't make a good pitcher of tea. Mama used Lipton and it's a perfectly fine tea. It's just that for what I consider to be the perfect Southern iced tea, I truly believe you need to use Luzianne.

Finding a restaurant, even in the Deep South, that served sweet tea was a challenge there for awhile. Restaurants jumped on the bandwagon of removing sugar from their tea and tried to pass off unsweetened tea to all of their patrons, offering sugar packets at the table. Well, everybody knows that just doesn't work. Warm tea is what you need to dissolve sugar and iced tea just needs to be cold. Not warm. Not at room temperature. But chilled cold and served over ice and for me, with lemon. So, thankfully, they have finally gotten back to offering sweet tea again, and unsweetened for those folks who prefer not to have the sugar. It's true, a lot of folks, myself included, sweeten with sugar substitutes these days, but still… every once in awhile, we all sure enjoy a glass of ice cold, sugared-up tea.

Tea Tips:

1. For perfect tea always start with fresh filtered cool water - never tap water!

2. Cloudiness is often caused by putting hot or still warm tea directly into a cold refrigerator. My method prevents this since you are pouring your steeped tea directly over ice cubes.

2. Bitterness in tea is caused by overcooking and burning the tea leaves - that is why it is important not to boil the teabags and not to steep them too long in boiling water. To counter, a pinch of baking soda - only about 1/8 of a teaspoon - can be added to the hot, steeped tea after you remove the bags. It will not affect the taste of your tea, and provides insurance against bitterness.

3. Use wooden spoons to squeeze your tea bags, a glass container - like a large Pyrex measuring cup - to steep your tea, and store it in a glass pitcher if at all possible. I break this rule myself at times though, especially with my Milo's copycat diet iced tea. And I do love my Tervis cups.

4. If you prefer your sweetened tea more on the sweet side, increase the sugar. Some folks like as much as 1-1/2 cups of sugar, but start lower and increase for the next pitcher.

5. Of course, substitute artificial sweetener by the pitcher or per glass if you don't want to use sugar. I use the granulated Splenda in the large bag, about 3/4ths cup is enough for me.

6. If you like lemon in your tea, try making ice cubes out of lemonade to use in the individual glasses. As they melt, they will infuse the tea with lemon flavor! {a tip from Susan of our Facebook Family!}

Ingredients:
5 to 7 individual tea bags, (Luzianne brand preferred) {affil link}
1 quart of cool filtered or bottled water
Pinch of baking soda, optional
1 (4-cup) glass Pyrex measuring cup for steeping
2 quart glass pitcher filled with ice
1/2 to to 1 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
Fresh lemon, sliced or wedges, and some mint sprigs, optional

Instructions:
Boil one quart of cool filtered or bottled water, bringing to a full, rolling boil then turn off heat. Steep tea bags in the hot water for 9 minutes. Gently squeeze bags of excess water and remove. Whisk in sugar (and baking soda if using) until dissolved and set aside. Fill pitcher with ice, and carefully pour the hot tea concentrate over the ice. Stir well and pour over ice filled glasses, garnishing with a sprig of mint leaves and a nice juicy slice of lemon. Savor. Makes 2 quarts.

Cook's Notes: 
For a milder tea, use 5 bags; for a more robust tea, go with 7. Increase sugar as needed to your sweetness level. Never pour hot tea directly into a glass pitcher without ice in it! To conserve your ice and use the tea per glass, fill the 1/2 gallon pitcher with 1-1/2 quarts of water instead of ice, and top with the steeped tea.

-Deep South Dish

Personally, I always use (a generous amount of) cut up orange slices, along with the lemon. And sometimes even a slice or two of lime or grapefruit to tarten up things a bit.

Sweet + tart = flavorful neutral.

I always use mint, but too much mint is not good and will act medicinally. Your heart will start to race. Yikes! So just use a sprig and no more.

Sweeteners can be sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, and honey. Experiment. You can end up with some very delicious cool Summer drinks for your end of the day porch rest periods.

Iced tea is just perfect for the end of the day rest periods while the wold quiets down.
Iced tea is just perfect for the end of the day rest periods while the wold quiets down. Some of the best Southern Iced Tea that I ever had came from Louisiana and Mississippi.

Nighttime walk in a snowstorm

You have not lived life until you have walked at night in a snowstorm. This is most especially true if it is in the countryside, on a wooded road, and you are alone with only the wind whistling through the trees and the cracking and gnawing of the branches as they sway in the wind.

Night time walk in the Winter snow storm.
Night time walk in the Winter snow storm.

When ever you have an opportunity, whether it is an old-fashioned sled ride, or sleigh ride, a walk, or a ski-mobile trip to the neighboring woods… please do it. Get gout and enjoy “Mother Nature”.

Conclusion

Make what you do matter. Take time to savor every moment. Do not try to be like the actors in the movies. Just try to be you; the best YOU that you can be. Do things your way. Live life your way.

Start doing it now.

Make your life matter. Do the little things that enhance your life. Appreciate them, savor them and enjoy them.
Make your life matter. Do the little things that enhance your life. Appreciate them, savor them and enjoy them.

I do hope that you enjoyed this post. I have similar posts in my Happiness Index…

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I have been using 5G for over a year in my home. This is my experience.

My brother, and a number of friends, have been warning me all about the dangers of 5G. They tell me to “stay away” from it, and avoid any technology that might have it. They do so because they earnestly believe that it is dangerous. They know that it is dangerous ever since there was a flood of articles about how dangerous it is.

The articles are convincing. They have great charts, links to impressively worded scientific studies, and stores that tug at my emotions.

An article written on 26 April 2020 titled "5G Technology is Coming – Linked to Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Death". Yet, it's been in use in China for nearly three years with ZERO problems.
An article written on 26 April 2020 titled “5G Technology is Coming – Linked to Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Death“. Yet, it’s been in use in China for nearly three years with ZERO problems.

The articles talk about cell damage due to radiation. They discuss about how once the cells are damaged, that you can get ill. You can catch diseases, and that you are receptive to such things as cancer, strange and exotic illnesses and even the COVID-19. Yikes!

Nasty stuff for sure.

Except…

Except…

China has been wired for domestic 5G for a couple of years now. It’s NOT coming soon to you and you need to avoid it and stay clear of it. It arrived years ago, been here, been everywhere, and the fear-mongering is three years too late…

…inside of China.

Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.

Like how there was an article in 2019 about how the Chinese were afraid of the implementation of "face recognition" technology. Except that "face recognition" technology was implemented around 2014 and today is considered a mature, and well established technology. 

I guess the point here is that the United States is not leading the world in "cutting edge" technology. It is lagging behind.

So the products and the "innovations" that Americans need to be fearful of are all chimeras. Americans are roughly (right now) approximately 3 to 5 years "behind the ball".

Yes. China is where all of the world’s factories are and where most of the technology development occurs. My 5G Huawei phone is almost two years old, and my Wifi station is a full year and a half old.

And that is the way that it is.

The anti-5G narrative.

Like most of the fear-mongering American media, it only applies to Americans.

When other people, outside of the United States, read the American “news” they end up scratching their head. “WTF?” they ask.

It’s not just China, Europe, Russia and all of Africa. It’s places that Americans consider to be “Third World Shit Holes” like Cambodia and Vietnam…

In Hanoi, Vietnam everyone is using the amazing Huawei 5G phones with amazingly quick speeds and all sorts of abilities and capabilities unheard of in the Untied States. You know like 3D QR purchases, and hologram GPS overlays.
In Hanoi, Vietnam everyone is using the amazing Huawei 5G phones with amazingly quick speeds and all sorts of abilities and capabilities unheard of in the United States. You know like 3D QR purchases, and holographic GPS overlays.

In the United States, 5G is a new, and unobtainable, technology for Americans. It’s a big dark “boogieman” that Americans must fear.

But for China, nah. The first 5G towers domestically are over three years old.

We’ve been using 5G and getting (according to the US media) “dangerously irradiated” for almost three years now…

My theory on why…

So 5G technology came out and started to be disseminated everywhere. It went to China first. Then to Vietnam, Germany, Poland, France, Brazil, and then started to snake into the American markets after the American agencies finished their near-glacial approval process…

The American industry could not compete.

Diversity director being interviewed in how "inclusiveness" and "social realignment" will make their technology company stronger.
Diversity director being interviewed in how “inclusiveness” and “social realignment” will make their technology company stronger.

The 5G technology is so over-the-top better than 4G and it’s predecessors that it is “mind blowing”. It’s like comparing modern CGI animation with 1920’s black and white cartoons. Fast is only part of the story. The first time I turned on my phone, I was actually startled in how fast it turned on and how blazingly quick it worked.

The American industry could not compete.

Over the last decade they laid off American engineers, outsourced to India, and China, and contracted work to China. Meanwhile they spent enormous amount of time, resources and expenditures on “Diversity Directors” and social engineering causes.

Now, do not misunderstand.

It’s not that I do not think that “fairness”, and “corporate responsibility” and the “environment” are not important. They are. Very much so. I believe that we all need to step up to the plate and work together to make the world a far better place to live in.

However…

The point that I am making is that the emphasis on what a company does, it’s “bottom line” and the salaries and the work force do not reflect a healthy working and corporate environment in America. Instead other considerations have taken over. While I use the social re-engingineering as an example, it actually consists of an entire litany of ills. From shareholder desires to human resource policies.

Consider…

  • The salaries of one “Diversity Director” at any of the companies above is around $450,000 / year.
  • The salary for a design engineer is around $50,000 / year.

My argument is that instead of hiring five design engineers to develop 5G technology, the America companies opted, instead to hire social re-engineers. This resulted in a slew of meetings, training, and policies for social justice. While other nations, and other companies, focused on improving their products, their services and their manufacturing.

Instead.

American technology is losing ground and is being eclipsed by hard-working intelligent competitors that reward merit and hard work with wads of cash. Meanwhile American industry clutches on fads, and social restructuring in the belief that their monopolies will always stay intact.
American technology is losing ground and is being eclipsed by hard-working intelligent competitors that reward merit and hard work with wads of cash. Meanwhile American industry clutches on fads, and social restructuring in the belief that their monopolies will always stay intact.

Now, with that understood…

The anti-5G cabal

The anti-5G narrative only came into being when Huawei completely eclipsed their American counterparts in technology leadership, and their CEO’s came to Trump and begged for his help.

It did not materialize in a manner associated with scientific concern or distress. It came about precisely when the political scene narrated an anti-Huawei, and thus anti-5G stance.

The American industry, lead by Cisco approached the Trump administration, latched on his “Make America Great Again”, anti-China screed, and demanded for action. Their arguments were valid. They donated millions to the Republican and Trump campaigns, and now they needed government help and action.

They genuflected in front of Trump. Kissed his signet ring and placed accolades at the feet of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. And then…

…lo and behold, it suddenly became a “national security issue”.

The flood of articles came immediately hard and fast, once President trump declared war on Huawei.

One wonders why America ends up with Trump as president. Trump is just a symptom. He is not the only one doing the non-stop and endless lying. America is an empire of lies and its leader is the emperor of lies. One shouldn't be surprised.

All this talk about US-China conflict is just wishful thinking. All China needs to do is ignore the lying liars and go its own way. America will self immolate. A people so delusional with its own lies will wake up one day to notice that reality and viruses do not care. Nature abhors a moron; it most certainly abhors a moronic and delusional nation. 

There is no news in truth and no truth in news.

-Peter Man

When I point this fact out, they retort, well the President is (after all) looking out for people. He wants to protect them. You know, from the evil dark communists that want to take over the world. We know this, because Trump told us so.

Well. Personally, I think it’s more an economic issue rather than a health issue.

You know, like how GM bought up all the trolley cars in Los Angles, or the way that GM rode Preston Tucker out of business. It’s an American norm. If your company has a monopoly you use everything in your power to crush the opposition.

GM bought up all the streetcars in Los Angles and then sold their buses to a captive market.
GM bought up all the streetcars in Los Angles and then sold their buses to a captive market.

So…

An American company is being eclipsed by a Chinese company that spent money on scientists and engineers. While the American company spent money on social engineering programs, diversity, and diversity officers (all very, very well paid for, of course).

This is the result.

The result of all this.

Well, all these events have created a very interesting situation.

  • People in Vietnam have access to 5G, and Americans do not.
  • People in Burma, Cambodia, and Japan have access to 5G. Americans do not.
  • People in China, Russia and Poland have access to state-of-the-art 5G technology. Americans do not.

Don’t you think that there is something wrong about this picture?

But, you know, Americans are just fine and dandy with that. You see, 5G is bad. It is terrible. It’s evil communist technology. Not the pure, free and wonderful “democratic technology” constructed through “American exceptionalism”, don’t you know. Just google it. It’s outrageous.

So Americans can live without that terrible, icky, nasty technology.

How do I know?

I’ve been using 5G phones and a base station in my house for years now.

I have a 5G router in my living room, and another on the nightstand beside my bed. (You see, the 5G technology cannot penetrate walls that well. You need to have multiple wifi stations to use it effectively.)

My two year old, 5G router inside my living room. Sorry for the dust.
My two year old, 5G router inside my living room. The normal 2.4G is the low flat rectangular box to the right, and the 5G is the big white cube to the left. Sorry for the dust.

Now I am not sick, I haven’t been sick and none of the problems that all those articles profess that should happen to me are no where to be found.

Now the reader should not be confused.

Just because the radiation has not affected me, my family, those around me, the city that I live in, or my nearby business associates, does not mean that the American narrative is a fiction. It could be that we are all the exception rather than the rule.

Perhaps.

I've been using 5G for a while now, and I don't see anything wrong.
I’ve been using 5G for a while now, and I don’t see anything wrong.

Tab soda drink

I well remember the 1970’s. My father was trying to keep his weight down, and so he switched from drinking Coke-cola to “Tab”.

He would go to the local “beer distributor” and pick up cases of the stuff. And he ended up guzzling that soda just like it was water.

In a world filled with sugary drinks, the Tab product was one of the first to offer a non-sugar beverage.
In a world filled with sugary drinks, the Tab product was one of the first to offer a non-sugar beverage.

Tab was similar to Coke except that it didn’t use sugar.

Tab is a diet cola soft drink created and produced by The Coca-Cola Company, introduced in 1963. Coca-Cola's first diet drink, Tab was notably popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and several variations were made, including a number of fruit-flavored, root beer, and ginger ale versions. Caffeine-free and clear variations were released in the late-1980s and early-1990s.

-Wikipedia

And it really started to take a big bite into the Pepsi-cola franchise. They started to lose money, and their competitor (the one who manufactured Tab) started to gobble up Pepsi market-share.

So what do you think happened?

Suddenly sugar-fee substitutes were "dangerous" and had to be banned. Otherwise people would get brain damage and cancer!
Suddenly sugar-fee substitutes were “dangerous” and had to be banned. Otherwise people would get brain damage and cancer!

That’s right!

All of a sudden, studies “proved” that the sugar substitute in Tab was dangerous. As I recall, lab mice started to die.

Of course, it came out later that they were given near-lethal does of sugar-substitute to begin with. I think it was an equivalent to a human ingesting a 50lb sack of chemicals every day until they died. It was pretty gosh-darn horrific, I’ll tell you what.

The studies proved that mice feed enormous doses of sugar substitute got fat and died.
The studies proved that mice feed enormous doses of sugar substitute got fat, ended up with cancer and died.

Anyways, this is all “ancient” history. Those that have a monopoly do everything in their power to keep and hold market-share. This was true of GM, Coke-cola, and is very true with Microsoft and Cisco.

So I am not at all surprised that they decided to create an exclusive market for their products. 

You WILL use American made cell-phones! You will use what ever technology we say, and we will make it a law to punish you if you refuse!

Just like how the American military-industrial market has forced the DoD to purchase inadequate, outdated, and very expensive products with questionable utility and dangerous application.

The problem is, it’s only a short-lived phenomenon.

Soon, they will lose ground in the market unless they develop innovation, product design and development. But that is not what I am seeing. Instead, I am seeing more of the “same oh, same oh”. With no real aggressive technical efforts.

Conclusion

I use 5G technology. I haven’t had any problems with it. I like it’s speed and the amazing things that it can do. It is revolutionizing technology outside of America and while the rest of the world are advancing in leaps and bounds, the United States is hunkering down and entrenching.

If this keeps up, the prognosis will not be good for America and Americans.

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USA Admits COVID-19 was a “live exercise” biological weapon on China.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said  that the U.S. sees the Communist Party of China as the “central threat  of our times” and that the U.S. must “ensure that the next century is  governed by … Western democratic principles.”  

- Coronavirus panic stoked by anti-China media, politicians: Myth vs. fact

Well, it was bound to come out sooner or later. Though, I pretty much expected it to come out in 70 years, like the JFK assassination did.

The facts involved here are all pretty straight forward;

At the White-house, the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo admitted that the COVID-19 event was a biological weapon “exercise”. The moment that he made the statement, Trump took a double take and responds “I wish you would have told us”.

Pompeo stated;

“This is not about retribution, this matter is going forward — we are in a live exercise here to get this right.”

For those of you who are confused what this simple sentence means, check out the English meanings…

"Exercises" mean military weapons, training, events, and systems.
 
"COVID-19" is a currently out-of-control biological virus that is lethal and disrupting national economies. This is the subject subject matter that Pompeo was discussing at the time of the conference.

"Live" means being active, engaged, and in-process.

"Retribution" means punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act. When Pompeo refers to vengeance on someone or something, he is referring to China. As, after all, that is WHY he refers to the COVID-19 as "Wuhan Virus", and "China Virus".

"Get Right" means to correct something in error. To win in a conflict. Or in the case of United States geopolitics, to keep America as the dominant global leader over the rest of the world.

"Going Forward" means something that is in process presently and on a time-line.

So to rephrase the sentence into a form that non-American English speakers can understand, without idiomatic confusion, he said this…

This action we have taken, is not about punishment of China. The COVID-19 bioweapon event is continuing and unfolding. – We are currently in an active military operation to set the United States as the supreme dominant sole powerful government in the world.

So it appears that the “deep state” neocons inside the Trump Administration unleashed a biological weapon, the COVID-19, as a “live exercise” intentionally.

For after all, military exercises are always planned, and never accidental. 

If he did not mean this, he chose an outrageously poor selection of words.

For, if he was referring to the governments action regarding a pandemic, we would use phrases such as "dealing with", "handling", allocating resources", "supporting", "adjusting", "reacting", "handling" and "controlling".

The phrase "live exercise" is only used in military and para-military operations.

For those paying attention, they did this against China, who is a economic rival to the United States to suppress it.

The “live exercise” using bio-warfare backfired terribly, and is now tearing the United States apart, brick by brick.

This excerpt is from “Mike Pompeo Admits COVID-19 Is a “Live Exercise,” Trump Retorts “I Wish You Would Have Told Us”” By Shepard Ambellas Global Research, March 23, 2020 Intellihub 21 March 2020. Edited to fit this venue and all credit to the authors.

Can someone please explain exactly what is going on here?

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a slip of the tongue while addressing the American people from the White House when he stated that COVID-19 is a live military exercise.

“This is not about retribution,” Pompeo explained. “This matter is going forward — we are in a live exercise here to get this right.”

@realDonaldTrump is mad that the deep state took control through Continuity of Government, there has been a coup? pic.twitter.com/GcrjNNvVsc #Covid_19 #CoronavirusPandemic #MartialLaw

— Shepard Ambellas (@ShepardAmbellas) March 21, 2020

With a disgusted look on his face, President Trump replied: “You should have let us know.”

Well, Pompeo obviously has a higher security clearance than the president does.

For those of you who are confused…

Military Exercise meaning (from Wikipedia): 

“A military exercise or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat. This also serves the purpose of ensuring the combat readiness of garrisoned or deployable forces prior to deployment from a home base.”

Other Links

Commentary and Conclusions

Walk-Back. Expect a “walk back” from this statement. It will be mitigated as a minor “misunderstanding” and nothing more, and the mainstream media will bury it in a flood of other news. The Alt-Right, bombarded by months of anti-China narrative will twist this to mean something along the line of “oh, he’s just referring to China and their lies…etc, etc.” Then the statement will have zero coverage and the media narrative will continue unabated against China.

Geopolitical Implications. Meanwhile, Russia and China knew this information all along. They do recognize that the USA is quite dangerous and out of control. This will reinforce this belief and they will begin to look at the USA like a chaotic mess that it is. Instead of a sane economic rival with a different culture.

People, what do you do if there is a rabid, out of control dog, in your neighborhood?

What do you think that proactive nations, and nations run on merit, would do and plan on doing regarding the United States being the governmental equivalent of a "mad dog"?

Personal Implications. What this means to you (dear readers) is that the American government is completely out of control. The “deep state” is running amok and risking world war III while they operate as mindless zombies on the levers of power. People (!) this cannot be good by any stretch of the imagination.

Just keep in mind that Pompeo admitted that the COVID-19 Coronavirus was a “Live Exercise” at the White-house. It’s not a reaction to an event. Reactions are never “exercises”. It’s also not an event in itself.

As such, we know what it is not…

  • It was NOT a natural virus.
  • It was NOT an accidental release of the plague from a facility.
  • It was NOT a Chinese-developed and deployed bio-weapon.
  • It was NOT a stolen bio-weapon used by China on it’s people.

What it is…

  • It was an American “system” that was deployed as a “Live Exercise” by the American neocons inside the American “Deep State”. Furthermore, President Trump was unaware of any of this.

You will discover that this most news-worthy report will get very little traction in the mainstream and Alt-Right, Hard-Right propaganda outlets.

If you see Rush Limbaugh, or Townhall.com, or Hal Turner, or Alex Jones talking about this please tell me. My guess is that if they do, they will defend it as a “slip of the tongue” as the USA can do no wrong in their eyes.

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The Amazing Differences in Mortality Rates for the COVID-19 Coronavirus.

Today, I read a couple of posts that discussed the unusually low mortality numbers for the COVID-19 coronavirus in America. While the American mainstream media was all “doom and gloom”, and doing their usual propagandized “reporting”, others were looking at the more substantive portions of this event; the numbers, the preparation, the response (failures and successes) as well as the human-events stories.

Ech! It’s all over the place.

Opinions and Biased “Reporting”

In general, in regards to the “numbers”, the “reporters” (article writers – no one ever truly reports things these days) were pretty much equally divided on this issue.

On one hand, they said that the COVID-19 mortality rate would, of course, be lower in the United States. As America is an “exceptional” nation, with exceptional healthcare, and has freedom and liberties in a wonderful democratic utopia. They argue that for most Americans this coronavirus would only be a “blip on the radar screen”. They still maintain the argument that “mostly older folk will get sick”, “the influenza is far worse”, and “it’s just like a mild cold”. This is pretty much the American politically conservative narrative. (Alt-Right). (Rush Limbaugh, and Townhall, etc)

On the other hand, the other authors argued that the virus cannot discriminate between races or geographic location. So something is amiss, and they suggest that the United States is lying. They claim that the Chinese “invented” this virus, and that the Chinese has been lying about everything from day one. That they cover up and hide the “real” numbers. Strangely enough, this narrative is also from the American politically conservative “echo chamber”. Only this is the “Hard-Right” narrative. (Alex Jones, Hal Turner, etc.)

The American left-wing is pretty much silent on all this. At most, they go along with the American mainstream media and don’t really question anything. In their mind, the global human utopia of a one-world has a “cold” and this will shape up world governance for decades to come…

So what is actually going on?

What is going on?

Here’s a chart that I compiled from data obtained by MSN on 29 March 2020…

COVID-19 Mortality Calculations 29MAR20
COVID-19 Mortality Calculations 29MAR20

Aside from the really large values (Iran), and the really low values (USA, Germany and Switzerland), the confirmed mortality of this virus apparently varies from 4 to 8% or best described as 6% +/- 2%. I like to attribute this variance to social behaviors, and the healthcare operations within a given nation.

Keeping in mind that the influenza (the flu) has a mortality rate of 0.1%, every nation is experiencing the COVID-19 at a rate at least ten times higher, and in many cases, many many times higher.

Strange Conclusions

The issue is not really just how high the COVID-19 mortality rate is compared to the influenza, but rather WHY the mortality rate is not similar between different races, and different geographical areas and national borders.

Truthfully, the mortality rate should be identical for each and every nation, and only deviate in the event that the medical care system in a nation collapses.

All things being the same, we can come up with some interesting conclusions regarding the COVID-19 at this snapshot in time.

It favors people of one geographic nation over another.

Strange, eh? But that is the conclusion that you MUST come to if you assume that every nation is telling the truth and every nation is reporting accurate numbers to the WHO.

This thus implies that there is some sort of geographic or regional variable that provides some people with advantage over others.

Nations with the highest percentage of ethnic Germanic Whites have the lowest deaths to COVID-19.

The top three nations (with the smallest number of deaths) listed in the table above, all have significant populations of Germanic Caucasian people. That would imply that this virus is race-specific, or in other words, favors one race over another.

These Conclusions cannot be correct!

These findings are preposterous…

Which leads me to the final conclusion;

  1. The different nations are using different criteria to determine who has the virus and who does not.
  2. As well as why a person dies and does not.
  3. As well as reporting methodology on those following variables.

If this is the case then, the situation becomes very simple.

Nations are obscuring their COVID-19 reporting to some extent. The degree of which varies from government to government.

Conclusion

None of this should be a surprise. However, a good solid look at the numbers (above) indicate some rather frightening potential possibilities.

  • To keep the mortality number low, the nation can either provide ICU’s for all the patients inflicted, or outright lie and be deceptive about the true numbers.
  • To keep the number of infected people low, and thus skew the mortality numbers, the nation can either retard (or delay) the testing for the illness or lie.

My “gut feeling” is that the United States is doing exactly this. (Whether intentionally or accidentally, I do not know.) And, I would not be surprised if Germany is also taking part in this type of action.

To believe otherwise…

… is to believe that this COVID-19 virus is [1] race specific, and [2] geographic specific in it’s behavior. Which then, of course, implies all sorts of other Frankenstein concoctions, that we won’t bother with now.

Be safe everyone.

That night I woke up in the middle of the night with chills, vomiting,  and shortness of breath. By Monday, I could barely speak more than a few  words without feeling like I was gasping for air. I couldn’t walk to the bathroom without panting as if I’d run a mile. On Monday evening, I tried to eat, but found I couldn’t get enough oxygen while doing so. Any task that was at all anxiety-producing — even resetting my MyChart  password to communicate with my doctor — left me desperate for oxygen. 

- 26-year-old Fiona Lowenstein 

A Welshman who caught the coronavirus in China has  described how the deadly disease hit him “like a train” leaving him  “suffocating” and in blinding pain for weeks. Connor Reed, from Llandudno, got ill while working as an English teacher in Wuhan.The 25-year-old described how it started as “just a sniffle” on  November 25 – a month before authorities officially announced the virus –  but over the next three-and-a-half weeks he got increasingly ill and  was unable to move. 

- 25-year-old Connor Reed

Update 5APR20

The mortality rate is climbing.

Mortality rate 5APR20.
Mortality rate 5APR20.

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How long will the COVID-19 outbreak last? History indicates that it could last for over a year.

Donald Trump, in late march 2020, announced that he expects that “things will be back to normal by Easter”. That’s pretty much a three week time period.

I am sorry to say that that probably will not happen.

The United States is not China. The United States cannot replicate China’s success in controlling the outbreak. China mastered the COVID-19 outbreak by the implementation of extremely drastic measures, and even at that, it took a three month-long national lock-down to do so.

America, unorganized, corrupt, rife with fraud and incompetence is not going to be able to handle this event like the Chinese did. As I write this, many Americans are not wearing masks outside, and just last week everyone was partying (without a care) during Spring Break.

Nah. It’s not going to end in three weeks.

Not for Americans. Anyways.

For America, and for other “free” democracies, the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak will be felt for a long time. How long? No one knows for certain, all we have is what we know from history. And, at that, history tells us that the Influenza outbreak in 1918 lasted for a solid year until well into 2019.

Here we review that event. We look at what happened and perhaps learn a little bit about history in the process.

The following information comes from the most excellent internet resource; Britannia which is an on-line encyclopedia. I find that it is better than most other internet resources and not as heavily propagandized as Wikipedia and other venues. It’s a resource worth bookmarking. Edited to fit this venue, and all credit to the author(s).

Influenza pandemic of 1918–19

Influenza pandemic of 1918–19, also called Spanish influenza pandemic or Spanish flu, the most severe influenza outbreak of the 20th century and, in terms of total numbers of deaths, among the most devastating pandemics in human history.

influenza pandemic of 1918–19: temporary hospital
influenza pandemic of 1918–19: temporary hospital A temporary hospital in Camp Funston, Kansas, during the 1918–19 influenza pandemic.Courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C

Influenza is caused by a virus that is transmitted from person to person through airborne respiratory secretions. An outbreak can occur if a new strain of influenza virus emerges against which the population has no immunity.

The influenza pandemic of 1918–19 resulted from such an occurrence and affected populations throughout the world.

An influenza virus called influenza type A subtype H1N1 is now known to have been the cause of the extreme mortality of this pandemic, which resulted in an estimated 25 million deaths, though some researchers have projected that it caused as many as 40–50 million deaths.

influenza A H1N1 virus
influenza A H1N1 virusTransmission electron micrograph of recreated 1918 influenza A H1N1 virus.Cynthia Goldsmith/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Image Number: 8160)

Three Waves

The pandemic occurred in three waves.

The first apparently originated in early March 1918, during World War I. Although it remains uncertain where the virus first emerged, it quickly spread through western Europe, and by July it had spread to Poland. The first wave of influenza was comparatively mild.

However, during the summer a more lethal type of disease was recognized, and this form fully emerged in August 1918. Pneumonia often developed quickly, with death usually coming two days after the first indications of the flu. 

For example, at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, U.S., six days after the first case of influenza was reported, there were 6,674 cases. The third wave of the pandemic occurred in the following winter, and by the spring the virus had run its course.

In the two later waves about half the deaths were among 20- to 40-year-olds, an unusual mortality age pattern for influenza.

Walter Reed Hospital
Walter Reed HospitalThe influenza ward at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C., during the 1918–19 epidemic.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (cph 3a39569)

Outbreaks of the flu occurred in nearly every inhabited part of the world, first in ports, then spreading from city to city along the main transportation routes.

India is believed to have suffered at least 12.5 million deaths during the pandemic, and the disease reached distant islands in the South Pacific, including New Zealand and Samoa.

In the United States about 550,000 people died.

Most deaths worldwide occurred during the brutal second and third waves. Other outbreaks of Spanish influenza occurred in the 1920s but with declining virulence.

Conclusion

What does this mean?

We can expect that authoritarian governments will have a much better success in controlling the disease than the “freedom loving” democracies would. They are far better equipped in handling crisis events, emergencies and the mobilization of the citizenry.

We can expect that authoritarian governments should be able to resume “somewhat normal” life within a half year from the first onset of the sickness. China is leading the way, and showing that it can be done.

Other nations would have a longer duration of illness and it could easily move in multiple waves. The influenza of 1918 ran in three (four) waves, and each wave became successively more dangerous. It is possible that the COVID-19 would be able to suspend “normal” life in a non-authoritarian government for up to two years (worst case).

I cannot predict the future.

However, I feel reasonably confident that America will be dealing with this illness through the Fall of 2020 and into the Winter of 2021. It is unlikely that the United States could alter the path that it is firmly set upon. 

An emergency spending bill was passed in late March 2020 that was so loaded down with "pork projects" that it is a wonder that the people do not rise up and lynch the entire lot of Washington politicians on the spot.

It's politics as usual. And that can be fatal for many Americans. As in this latest bow-down to big-Pharma...
 
Michigan’s Democrat Governor THREATENS All  Doctors and Pharmacists who Prescribe or Dispense Hydroxychloroquine for  Coronavirus Patients

Meanwhile China, and the rest of Asia will be able to suppress the illness by late Spring 2020.

Meanwhile…

Please be prudent, take reasonable precautions, and ignore the American media advice that…

  • It is only lethal to older people.
  • It is just a kind of flu.
  • You do not need to wear a mask.

All of which are false.

People this is a SHTF event. You are either ready for it, or your aren’t. Please make the best of it, in your own way, with those that you care about. God Bless.

Please make the best of it, in your own way, with those that you care about. God Bless.
Please make the best of it, in your own way, with those that you care about. God Bless.

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China Is Poised to Win Big From COVID-19 in More Ways than One

Sometimes you come across a great article that puts things into perspective that you are unable to voice. This is one such article. For China has identified who “Patient Zero” is in Wuhan.

And it’s not only that.

Pompeo wanted the Chinese not to publicize what they had discovered.

Yang’s reply: 

“We await your solemn explanation, especially about Patient Zero.”

This is a great article from Godfree Roberts. It is titled “China Is Poised to Win Big From COVID in More Ways than One“. I discovered it on Russia Insider, but it is also available on the UNZ Review under the title” Last Man Standing”. I am posting it in it’s entirety, with only minor editing to fit this venue. All credit to the author.

Last Man Standing

China Wins Big With Covid-19. What Were We Thinking?

China suffered through the H1N1 coronavirus epidemic in 2008 largely because the CDC took 6 months to identify it and, as a result, 300,000 died prematurely. SARS (774 deaths) was the clincher. They (China) created a hair-trigger alarm system, mandated post-mortem pneumonia DNA testing nationwide, and promoted the CDC head, Dr. George F. Gao[1], to Demigod.

Their Covid-19 emergency has now passed and must give Dr. Gao a B+ because, though his system contained a potential epidemic it suffered from a weakness: local politicians could delay, (but not stop) the alarm sounding. Doubtless for sound bureaucratic reasons, Wuhan officials delayed notifying Beijing for a few weeks but, after Beijing pried the information from the Wuhan Director of Public Health[2], the system swung into action, everyone pitched in, and they literally killed it.

National cohesion and coordination were amazing, thanks to the Communist Party.

They coordinated everything and filled all the gaps, no questions asked. Ninety percent of the frontline volunteer medical staff–of whom 18 died–were Party members sworn to ‘bear the people’s burden first and enjoy their pleasures last.’

Zhang Wenhong, a prominent Party member and Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Shanghai’s Huashan Hospital, became a local hero for his pep-talk to Party members : 

The first-aid team put themselves in great  danger. They are tired and need to rest. We shouldn’t take advantage of  good people. From now on, I’ll replace all the frontline medics with  Party members from different sectors. When we joined the Party, we vowed  that we would always prioritize people’s interests and press forward in  the face of difficulties. This is the moment we live up to the pledge.  All CPC members must rush to the front line. 

I don’t care what you  were actually thinking when you joined the party. Now it’s time to live  up to what you promised. I don’t care if you personally agree or not:  it’s non-negotiable.

Altogether, 40,000 volunteers self-organized and showed up to help Wuhan.

The storm has passed.

Now the storm has passed and China has become the world’s Santa Claus, giving out goodies and turning a potential disaster into a real triumph.

Nothing would make that triumph sweeter than the public revelation that our (American) CDC knew about Covid-19 last September.

Like many national public health systems, the CDC ignores novel Coronaviruses every ‘flu season and blends their effects in with the immense, fluctuating number of annual deaths.

That’s why, back in 2008, the CDC took so long to detect H1N1: they weren’t looking.

It was the same old, same old until January 1.

January 1, 2020

That is when China identified a nasty Coronavirus and the US went ballistic and blamed them for starting a pandemic and insulted their culture and their government.

But they handled Covid-19 so competently that they won the world’s admiration[3] and made the American attacks on them look mean.

But no big deal.

People will forget about the huge fuss we made and just remember vaguely that China is filthy and its leaders are liars.

Except for two things:

  1. Their society’s health policies are more compassionate than ours, as older readers will realize. They have always placed a higher societal value on eighty year-olds than we do. So when they were threatened with premature, painful deaths, they put their entire economy on hold for two months and cooperatively saved their parents and grandparents, to worldwide applause (at least from my age-group). Now China is competing to have the lowest per capita Covid-19 death rate of any major country.
  2. The world suspected that Covid-19 was circulating outside China last year when they recalled this: First Vaping Death Reported by USA Health Officials. August 2019, “Amid the lack of information, investigators scrambled to find shared links to the respiratory problems. Officials said earlier this week that many patients, most of whom were adolescents or young adults, had described difficulty breathing, chest pain, vomiting and fatigue.” Covid-19 symptoms. If that’s too speculative, here’s what NPR turned up: Other Countries can Learn Important Lessons from Italy, says Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzi, co-author of a recent paper in The Lancet about the country’s dire situation. The takeaways include how to swiftly convert a general hospital into a coronavirus care unit with specially trained doctors and nurses. “We had dermatologists, eye doctors, pathologists, learning how to assist a person with a ventilator,” Remuzzi says. Some question why Italy was caught off guard when the virus outbreak was revealed on Feb. 21. Remuzzi says he is now hearing information about it from general practitioners. 
“They remember  having seen very strange pneumonia, very severe, particularly in old  people in December and even November. This means that the virus was  circulating, at least in northern Lombardy before we were aware of this  outbreak occurring in China.“

The WHO has not requested the data from CDC because the US has been attacking the WHO daily and Dr. Ghebreyesus knows the US can get him fired. But Dr. Ghebreyesus and Dr. Gao and every Health Minister on earth know the truth. Dr. Remuzzi’s Italian DNA is traceable. So is China’s.

The world is very good at tracing Coronaviruses back through their generations and China has done so and now it seems the shit is about to hit the fan.

Here’s what happened in Chinese cyberspace today (Thomas Hon Wing Polin, Facebook):

WUHAN OUTBREAK: CHINA DEMANDS AN HONEST ACCOUNTING

  • It is now virtually certain that COVID-19 was brought to Wuhan by American troops taking part in the city’s World Military Games last Oct. 18-27.
  • The 300-strong US contingent stayed 300 meters from the Huanan Seafood Market where China’s outbreak began (see map below) at the Wuhan Oriental Hotel.
  • Five of the US troops developed a fever on Oct. 25 and were taken to an infectious-diseases hospital for treatment.
  • 42 employees of the Oriental Hotel were diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the first cluster in Wuhan. At the time only 7 people from the market had been thus diagnosed (and treated before the hotel staff). All 7 had contact with the 42 from the hotel. From this source, the virus spread to the rest of China.
  • The American Military Games team trained at a location near Fort Detrick, the military’s viral lab closed down by the CDC in July for various deficiencies.
  • The big question now is whether the transmission was planned, or accidental.
  • Chinese authorities are awaiting an explanation from US authorities.
Outbreak source location within Wuhan, China.
Outbreak source location within Wuhan, China.
  • A few days ago, Mike Pompeo phoned Yang Jiechi, Chinese State Councillor for Foreign Affairs. Pompeo’s counterpart is actually Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Yang is Wang’s boss, so Pompeo wanted to talk about something urgent and important.
  • Pompeo wanted the Chinese not to publicize what they had found.
  • Yang’s reply: “We await your solemn explanation, especially about Patient Zero.”

China’s leaders have long suspected US military involvement in the Wuhan outbreak but were determined to stop the disease before pursuing the Americans for an honest accounting.

Notes

[1] Dr. Gao has made contributions to the study of inter-species pathogen transmission. He organized the first World Flu Day on November 1 2018, commemorating the centenary of the Spanish flu. It was also the 15-year commemoration of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, SARS, which led to China prioritising investment in the public health system. He is a virologist and immunologist. He has served as Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention since 2017 and Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2015. Gao is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences, as well as a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine. He was awarded the TWAS Prize in Medical Science in 2012 and the Nikkei Asia Prize in 2014.

[2] They fired him the next day. Henceforth local politicians will be out of the loop and everyone will have a CDC hotline number.

[3] Dr Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO International Mission said,“In the face of a previously unknown disease, China has taken one of the most ancient approaches for infectious disease control and rolled out probably the most ambitious, and I would say, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history. China took old-fashioned measures, like the national approach to hand-washing, the mask-wearing, the social distancing, the universal temperature monitoring. But then very quickly, as it started to evolve, the response started to change . . . So they refined the strategy as they moved forward, and this is an important aspect as we look to how we might use this going forward. WHO has been here from the start of this crisis, an epidemic, working every single day with the government of China… WHO was here from the beginning and never left. What’s different about this mission is it’s complementing a lot of other external experts.”

Conclusion

China is holding all the cards now.

Many of the events precipitated by the Trump Administration are beginning to become obvious. Manipulations, trade disputes, germ warfare against grains and wheat, and germ warfare against poultry and pork, as well as the onslaught of anti-Chinese rhetoric are all out in the open and clear for everyone to see. The propaganda machine is running in full swing, but it cannot continue like this forever.

I do not anticipate serious troubles unless the United States decides to “double down”, however this information while not public knowledge to Americans, is widely known to the rest of the government leadership throughout the world.

It certainly knocks the standing of the United States down more than a few notches in the overall scheme of things.

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War Cheerleaders – Anti-Russia and Anti-China neocons have hijacked American media.

I am appalled at the anti-China rhetoric that is spewing out from the United States these days. It is horrific and truly frightening.

This level of propaganda historically precedes a hot war with a major power.

And somehow, the American leadership thinks that they can use “small” nuclear weapons, germ-warfare, and start putting “boots on the ground” inside of China without having Chicago, Los Angles, San Francisco, and New York City vaporized within a nuclear fireball. They point out that America outnumbers the number of Chinese nuclear weapons by a huge margin, and that no one would ever risk using them against the USA.

Yes, the actually do believe that.

The mass-produced Chinese DF-41. The new weapon delivery system is reportedly designed to be launched as the final stage of China’s intercontinental ballistic missile, which would approach its target at a velocity of up to 10 times the speed of sound. Hypersonic speed range lies between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,840 to 7,680 miles per hour.
The mass-produced Chinese DF-41. The new weapon delivery system is reportedly designed to be launched as the final stage of China’s intercontinental ballistic missile, which would approach its target at a velocity of up to 10 times the speed of sound. It carries a warhead that is 1000 times more devastating than what was used on Hiroshima. Hypersonic speed range lies between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,840 to 7,680 miles per hour.

Given the fact that geographically China is much larger than the United States, has a population four times of America, and over 40-times the number of factories, were there to be a devastating nuclear Armageddon between the United States and China…

… it would be China that would survive.

The United States would end up being transformed to pre-medeaval England. America without electricity, gasoline, water, or medicine is Somalia.

Even though much of China would be in ruin, the enormous number of factories, all spread out everywhere, and the insane level of “get back on your feet” attitude that the Chinese possess, would be formidable. The Chinese would pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get right to work.

And it’s not just that.

China and Russia are military partners.

If you attack one, the other would chime in. Combined, any attack on either Russia or China would result in both coming for the American jugular vein. And there would be no mercy. Both would conduct “double taps”, and America would become a radioactive agrarian society… without electricity or running fresh water.

It’s not just myself that understand this. This has been the continuous, steady state response to all the simulations conducted by the RAND group, the pentagon, and other NGO’s.

Yet, the anti-China narrative has ramped up. It’s fucking insanity.

Here we talk about this…

The following article is from Caitlin Johnstone. com It’s titled “Liberal NPCs Hate Russia, Conservative NPCs Hate China“, and a really good read. It has been edited to fit this venue. All credit to the author. And please take a moment to visit the website when you get a chance. It’s pretty good, eh?

Liberal NPCs Hate Russia, Conservative NPCs Hate China

Americans are manipulated by both sides of the political spectrum.
Americans are manipulated by both sides of the political spectrum.

The hashtag #ChinaLiedPeopleDied was recently sent trending on Twitter by “new right” pundit Michael Courdrey.

With the amplification of all the usual Trump bootlickers and their sheep-like followers.

Further feeding into the anti-China cold war hysteria conservatives have been aggressively pushing with increasingly frenetic urgency lately.

Which is hilarious, since these are the same people who’ve spent the last three years making fun of liberals and calling them NPCs for doing the exact same thing with Russia.

The Same Propaganda Technique.

And when I say the exact same thing, I mean literally the exact same thing.

The frenzied, shrieking hysteria I’m witnessing right now among Trump’s base regarding China looks and moves in the exact same way…

… the mental zombification of Russia hysteria looked and moved…

… when it began tearing through rank-and-file Democrats in late 2016 and early 2017.

The seething, screaming vitriol I get from the MAGA crowd on social media when I talk about this…

… is identical to what I got during that period from Democrats: just as irrational, just as vituperative, and just as emotion-driven.

The 2020 outbreak of China hysteria is so identical to the 2016/2017 outbreak of Russia hysteria…

…. that as of this writing if you do a Twitter live search right now for the word “wumao” or “CCP paying you”…

… you’ll see an endless stream of Trump supporters running around bleating accusations of being a paid troll for the Chinese Communist Party at anyone who disputes their hysterical China narratives.

Same  with the word "wumao". Trump bootlickers are bleating accusations of  being a Chinese propagandist in exactly the same way liberals have been  bleating "How's the weather in St Petersburg, Ivan?" at anyone who  questions establishment narratives.https://t.co/UCVrVV9I63

— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) March 19, 2020

It’s Obvious.

Anyone who’s ever shared anti-establishment ideas on social media will immediately recognize this.

It is identical to accusations which come from the pussyhatted #Resistance crowd of brainwashed MSNBC liberals.

Liberals who accuse anyone who questions establishment narratives of being a paid troll conducting propaganda for the Russian government.

These “How much is the CCP paying you for this?” accusations which have been cluttering up my social media notifications for the last 24 hours are indistinguishable…

… from the “How’s the weather in St Petersburg, Ivan?”

McCarthyite accusations I’ve been receiving from rank-and-file Democrats for the last three years.

It’s just like the froth-mouthed victims of media-induced Russia hysteria.

The victims of media-induced China hysteria are always unable to justify their sudden Beijing anxiety in a way that makes any coherent sense.

I’ve spent the last few days debating these poor wretches online.

It’s what I do whenever a new sociopathic establishment narrative surfaces.

I do it to gain an understanding of how it works.

And I have yet to encounter a single one which can coherently reconcile the sudden uptick in shrieking China hysteria with the thing that China has always been throughout its historical existence.

Excuses and Justifications

They’ll tell me it’s because China lied about the virus and made errors in the early days of the outbreak.

But can’t lucidly explain how screaming about this helps fix any problem.

They can’t justify the fact that lying about the virus and making errors is exactly what president Trump just spent weeks doing.

They’ll tell me it’s because China is authoritarian.

Yet, they can’t explain the sudden uptick in outrage over this.

For after all, China has always had an authoritarian government and that has nothing to do with the virus.

They’ll parrot establishment narratives about Uighurs and organ harvesting, but, again, can’t explain how this has any connection to the virus.

Manipulation of American Citizenry.

When I point out that there are extremely powerful government agencies which stand much to gain from all this.

That they tend to gain from manufacturing consent for new escalations against America’s primary geostrategic rival.

I mostly get more outraged, incoherent sputtering.

But you know, once in a while a more thoughtful China Derangement Syndrome victim will say they don’t want any escalations against China.

The truth is that they just want to end an economic relationship between China and the US which they perceive as unfair.

But, again, this has nothing to do with the virus, and also it’s a mighty interesting coincidence that they’ve formed this opinion about the one nation who just so happens to be America’s primary geopolitical foe.

Emotionally driven, not rational.

This inability to draw a rational straight line from the facts in evidence to their hysterical anti-China bleating tells you everything you need to know.

They are not rending their garments over China because of facts in evidence. Instead, they’re reacting emotionally to recent propaganda narratives. Narratives that they’ve been spoon fed. Then, they begin listing off the things they’ve heard about China in an attempt to justify their irrational behavior.

In reality these people are rallying behind the campaign to blame China for the health crisis they’re now facing. This is simply because they understand that otherwise the blame will land squarely on the shoulders of their president, who’s running for re-election this year.

Deep down they know full well that this isn’t really about China, but about protecting their president.

But what they are actually doing, unwittingly, is manufacturing consent for an agenda which is far bigger and far more consequential than who wins the election in November.

And it’s no accident that they’re being shepherded in this direction with the help of right-wing establishment narrative managers.

Russiagate Isn't About Trump, And It Isn't Even Ultimately About Russia #China #Russiagate #TrumpRussiahttps://t.co/6QhzZGNPfX

— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) January 28, 2018

Russia! Russia! Russia!

More than two years ago I wrote an article titled “Russiagate Isn’t About Trump, And It Isn’t Even Ultimately About Russia“, about how all these Russia escalations (and the propaganda used to justify them) are ultimately not really about Russia at all, but China.

Here’s an excerpt:

This is what Russiagate is  ultimately about. Democrats think it’s about impeaching Trump and  protecting the world from a nigh-omnipotent supervillain in Vladimir  Putin, Trump’s supporters think it’s a “deep state coup” to try and oust their president, but in reality this has nothing to do with Trump, and ultimately not a whole lot to do with Russia either. 

When all is said  and done, Russiagate is about China.

In an essay titled “Russia-China Tandem Changes the World”, US-Russia relations analyst Gilbert Doctorow explains how the surging economic power China depends upon Russia’s willingness to go head-to-head with America and its extensive experience with US attempts to undermine the USSR during the Cold War. 

Alone both nations  are very vulnerable, but together their strengths are complementary in a way that poses a direct threat to America’s self-appointed role as world leader.

And now we’re seeing one of America’s two mainstream factions cheerleading for increased hostility toward America’s primary rival.

While the other faction cheerleads for increased hostility against that rival’s right arm.

This two-pronged propaganda campaign has enabled the establishment via the Trump administration to escalate tensions not just with China but with Russia as well.

America is a nation of manipulated sheep.

This tracks with something I’ve been pointing to for a while now, which I described in an article from last year titled “37 Tips For Navigating A Society That Is Full Of Propaganda And Manipulation“:

Notice  how the manipulators like to split the population in two and then get  them arguing over how they should serve the establishment. 

Arguing over  whether it’s better to vote Democrat or Republican, arguing over whether it’s better to increase hostilities with Iran and Venezuela or with  Syria and Russia, over whether you should support the US president or  the FBI, arguing over how internet censorship should happen and whom should be censored rather than if censorship  should happen in the first place. 

The longer they can keep us arguing over the best way to lick the imperial boot, the longer they keep us from talking about whether we want to lick it at all.

37 Tips For Navigating A Society That Is Full Of Propaganda And Manipulation

Added  some more tips to this article from last year in order to help navigate  through the haze of narrative manipulation in these confusing times. https://t.co/Z05RH16IlB

— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) March 18, 2020

I wrote more about the way the establishment manipulators get the mainstream factions arguing over which nation should be targeted with aggression, rather than if any nations should be targeted at all, in a January 2020 article titled “On The Idiotic Partisan Debate Over Regime Change In Iran Or Syria“:

It  is truly, deeply and profoundly stupid because the agenda to topple  Iran’s government and the agenda to topple Syria’s government are not  two separate agendas. 

They are the same. 

Supporting one while opposing  the other is like wanting to shoot someone in the head but being morally  opposed to shooting them in the heart.Syria and Iran are  allies. 

Eliminating one government necessarily hurts the other. Iran  has been helping Syria to win the war against foreign-backed extremist proxy fighters who nearly succeeded in toppling Damascus before its allies stepped in, and should Syria  succeed in rebuilding itself (something the Trump administration is actively preventing it from doing) we can be sure it would return the favor when called upon.

We are now seeing this exact same two-pronged approach used with Russia and China.

We’ve actually been seeing it for years, like in this affectionate debate between former CIA Director James Woolsey and Fox News’ Laura Ingraham over which of the two nations America should be more aggressive toward, but it’s kicked into high gear now.

The End Result

The end result being that you have America’s two mainstream parties arguing over which establishment agenda should be advanced.

  • War with Russia.
  • War with China.

As well as how establishment interests should be served.

  • More money for the military-establishment.
  • More money for studies.
  • More money and more regulations.

Hardly anyone in mainstream circles ever questioning if the establishment should be served at all.

Which is just how the establishment likes it.

America has two war parties.

  • Anti-Russia
  • Anti-China

The Overton window of acceptable mainstream debate has been ripped away from those who simply want peace and a healthy planet altogether, and now the only permitted arguments are about which wars should occur first.

This is gravely disordered, and it cannot continue.

The war will not play out like anyone expects. Both Russia and China are serious, serious nations that do not fuck around. It’s not gonna be another Yemen. It’s not gonna be another “police action”. It’s going to be lethal and on YOUR front door.

Chinese ICBMs.
Chinese ICBMs.

Conclusion

War clouds are brewing. Perhaps it would be be best to start reading some of my posts on SHTF events. The Washington establishment wants war and no… it will not be televised.

If things continue along this path…

If people don’t start to put their “foot down” and demand this neocon nonsense stop…

…most Americans will notice that they suddenly have no electricity and no internet.

No phones.

No gas.

No food.

And the skies over the hills will glow red all night.

Then, and then, things will start to get really strange…

…

…

Go ahead and check out my SHTF Index.

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American foreign policy is a complete and absolute failure and it will generate hardships for Americans in the future.

I read that Donald Trump wants the COVID-19 vaccine that is being developed in Germany. He wants it to be patented as an American product and limit it’s utilization to Americans only.

Personally, I find this reprehensible.

Meanwhile, China is sending supplies and resources to any nation that needs it. Planes, boats and transports have been dispatched and are busy trying to help other nations during time of need.

America - Selfish, self-serving, and demanding.
China - Helpful, compassionate, offering help.

What in the world is going on?

Perhaps it’s time to step back and look at the bigger picture.

It’s a picture of what lies outside the shores of the United States. It’s a picture that does not resemble anything that any American media reports. This is true whether it is the Alt-Left, the Mainstream Media or the Alt-Right neocon publications.

Instead, take a look at what’s really going on, in the bigger picture…

The following is a reprint of an article found on the Global Research website. All credit to the authors.

Washington elites can’t recognize that a multi-polar world is already here. Worse, the Trump administration keeps constantly stumbling in foreign policy, thus showing the entire world that the USA may not be the almighty superpower.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the US is turning into Rodney Dangerfield of geopolitics.

Here are some recent examples of embarrassing US foreign policy:

EU & Russia

USA openly tries to block Nord Stream, the gas pipeline that links Russia to Europe. And the US-led propaganda campaign was non-stop & intense.

In the end, Germany & others went ahead with the Russian pipeline anyways.

Nord Stream
Nord Stream

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

India and Turkey

India and Turkey ignore America’s public bullying and buy Russian missile defense systems (S-400).

Then the US threatens to retaliate by blocking the sale of F-35 to Turkey.

Turkey now says it may buy Russian Su-57 instead.

Russian missile defense system (S-400).
Russian missile defense system (S-400).

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

India

India — America’s strategic partner to “contain” China — buys oil from Iran & Venezuela, ignoring US sanctions.

India and Iran have made many trade agreements.
India and Iran have made many trade agreements.

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

Venezuela

Having failed in Syria & Iran, the bloodthirsty Neocons wanted at least one damn regime change. So they targeted Venezuela and used all the standard strategies — choosing a puppet leader (Guaido), trying to bribe/blackmail military leaders, obvious sabotage of electricity across the whole nation etc.

John Bolton, Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo spend enormous time tweeting sensational propaganda.

Yet, Maduro has survived.

Now, to rub it in, Putin is flying Russian military and aid to Venezuela; and China has sent medical supplies. The Monroe Doctrine is openly challenged for the first time since the Cuban Crisis.

Maduro and Xi Peng.
Maduro and Xi Peng.

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

Huawei

US bans Huawei & dictates all its allies into doing the same! 

“Chinese spies are out to get you!!.”

What happened?

Even the UK — a key member of the Five Eyes alliance (five spies alliance) — refuses to ban Huawei and says there’s no evidence of spying by Huawei!

Ouch!

Then Germany refuses to ban Huawei!

Then New Zealand backtracks as well and its Prime Minister is flying to China to meet with Xi Jinping.

To really rub it in, Saudi Arabia and UAE — hosts of huuuge US troops — invite Huawei to build their 5G networks.

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone (UK) have publicly warned that banning Huawei will setback Europe’s 5G plans.

Huawei
Huawei

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

Belt and Road

USA tries to sabotage China’s New Silk Road (a.k.a Belt and Road Initiative — “BRI”).

Pompeo and Pence  go around the world warning everyone from Africa to Latin America how evil and conniving China is.

The propagandists come up with clever phrases: 

“Debt Trap!” … 
“Predatory Economics” … 
“Made by China, Made for China” … 
“Constricting Belt and One-Way Road.”

Hello! Do the Washington elites and their Presstitutes have any self-awareness?

First of all, other countries know what they’re doing.

Second, the US should make a counter offer or keep quiet.

If you can’t build highways, railways, airports, dams etc … keep moving along, nobody wants your lectures. Last year, 6,000+ freight trains carried goods between China & 40 European cities.

This clock cannot be turned back.

Belt and Road Initiative — “BRI”
Belt and Road Initiative — “BRI”

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

Panama

Most embarrassing: the US makes all its demands in public forums, rather than using quiet diplomacy behind doors.

Pompeo threatens Panama publicly…

… and what does the tiny country do?

Panama ignores US threats, welcomes Xi Jinping, joins Belt and Road, and signs 40 bilateral agreements with China.

Xi Peng in Panama.
Xi Peng in Panama.

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

Italy

Similarly, the US government publicly threatened Italy about joining the BRI…

How idiotic! 

The rest of the world does not subscribe to American Alt-Right neocon publications. This type of rhetoric is fine within the American echo chamber, but looks absolutely ridiculous to the rest of the world.

Maybe Washington doesn’t know that many EU countries are already formal members of BRI — Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland, Portugal etc.

Well, Xi Jinping visited Italy in March, got a royal welcome and signed huge deals.

Italy ignored the US and signed on to Belt and Road. Plus, Italian PM Conte visited China in April for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Summit (where representatives from 150 countries, including 37 Prime Ministers and Presidents, attended).

As Italian leaders put it, “BRI creates a circle of virtuous growth” and “BRI is a train that Italy cannot afford to miss.”

Also please note, that during the COVID-19 crisis, the United States refused to help Italy in any way. 

Yet China not only sent supplies, but sent doctors and medical staff to assist the already stressed Italian medical staff.

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

France

Then Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again (including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy 300 French Airbus planes!

Not the American planes that they had discussed with Obama.
Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again (including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy 300 French Airbus planes!
Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again (including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy 300 French Airbus planes!

Two days earlier, Macron had warned that Europe shouldn’t be naive about China’s influence.

But now he claims “China is EU’s strategic partner!!!”

China is EU’s strategic partner!
China is EU’s strategic partner!

What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?

Germany

Even Germany’s Merkel endorsed the Belt and Road Initiative by saying…

“It’s an important project and Europeans want to participate in it.”
Germany has become strategic partners with China.
Germany has become strategic partners with China.

Everyone around the world realizes the power of China’s economy. And they ignore America’s hysterical reaction.

The entire saga is like that “Distracted Boyfriend” meme.

“Distracted Boyfriend” meme.
“Distracted Boyfriend” meme.

America needs a proactive, constructive, positive foreign policy in this multi-polar world. And the US should stop being so insecure, paranoid and negative.

Trump should join the Belt and Road Initiative and work with 126 other member countries to build infrastructure, increase connectivity and boost trade. Also, stop demonizing Russia & picking fights with Venezuela, Iran, Syria etc.

We need to get out of the zero-sum attitude & focus on a win-win strategy.

Conclusion

It doesn’t take a “Rocket Scientist” to figure out where the world is moving towards.

America possesses 10% of the world’s factories. China possesses nearly 70% of the factories. China hasn’t fought a war since 1977, and they offer grants and loans with “no strings attached”. They seek harmony and a “win – win” arrangement. They view global relationships as “give and take” in a way that both parties benefit.

They keep their “noses out of” other nations internal affairs.

Hard manufacturing industry as part of a nation's GDP world-wide.
Hard manufacturing industry as part of a nation’s GDP world-wide. America is on par with Burma. Even tiny Sri Lanka, and Paraguay have better ratios.

Meanwhile the United States, like a big lumbering aged dinosaur is trying to clutch and claw itself back into global significance. It has to. For if it doesn’t, that enormous mountain of debt, based on the inflated petrol-dollars, will totally devastate what remains of America.

The only options left for America are to [1] get with “the program” and work together with the rest of the world, or [2] engage China (and by extension, Russia) in World War III.

No other options are “on the table”.

Let’s see what happens. Pay strict attention to the American mainstream and Alt-Right media. The nature of the articles will inform you as to which path America has embarked upon.

If the anti-China rhetoric keeps on increasing in intensity, a move to Iceland might be prudent.

I hope that you enjoyed this post. I have many others in my Trump Trade Wars Index, here…

Trump Trade War

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

To go to the MAIN Index;

Master Index

.

  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE .
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.

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Was the COVID-19 Coronavirus already present in the United States in August 2019, and simply misdiagnosed?

I have no clear answers. Just many questions. 

CDC director Redfield admits there were unreported Covid "events" in US, in which case predated outbreak in China. 

-The Hill

Functionally, the COVID-19 viral form is American. Not Asian. America has five viral archetypes, China has one. If it is natural, it must come from that regional archetype. And the COVID-19 archetype is one of the five American types. It’s not the Asian archetype.

It cannot naturally arise in Asia. 

(Which is of course the argument that the Chinese stole bio-weapon technology from America.)

Only thing is, though, why would the Chinese want to subject their own people to a lethal virus…

You need to be a tin-foil-hat-wearing-Alt-Right- conspiracy-nut to follow the sort of twisted logic that is being bantered about to fit that narrative. Most of the Chinese I know are hyper-patriotic and are tickled pink proud of their nation, their people and their struggles.

So what’s going on?

Is the COVID-19 an American bio-weapon used by Trump in his latest incarnations of Chinese rise suppression…

…or, is it something else entirely.

This post considers the idea that it might have rose naturally, or at least, semi-naturally, from the Americas.

The Argument

Could this COVID-19 virus been in the Americas for most of 2019? Could it been floating around, getting people sick and killing people? Could it be misdiagnosed as other things?

As other things…

The e-vaping “crisis” of August 2019.

Perhaps all those vaping lung problems attributed to e-cigarettes back in August 2019 were really due to COVID-19. Funny thing. Everyone has a low dry cough, a fever, and then their lungs filled up with fluid.

Dominican Republic – Mysterious Deaths.

Do you remember what had happened to the more than a few American tourists who suddenly collapsed and mysteriously died in the Dominican Republic? Funny thing. Everyone has a low dry cough, a fever, and then their lungs filled up with fluid.

Remember they thought the tourists were being poisoned.

They had respiratory failure and their lungs were filled with fluid!

See the following article about the mysterious American deaths in the Dominican Republic:

Not to worry though, the American tourists died officially of “natural causes”.

Misdiagnosed as the flu

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu season is really bad this year, with almost a 100,000 people reporting symptoms in the U.S. and upwards of 30 flu-related deaths. 

- Here's why flu season is so bad this year

Prior to the news out of Wuhan, America was rocked with “an unusually bad flu season”. Now it seems that this “flu” was actually COVID-19. Funny thing, the “flu symptoms” this year were a little different. Everyone has a low dry cough, a fever, and then their lungs filled up with fluid.

Conclusion

This COVID-19 is a terrible virus. Whether it is a bio-weapon or not, whether it originated in America, China or some other place does not matter. What really matters is that we fully understand what we are dealing with.

Instead of point fingers, let’s just look at what was going on over the world leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak in China.

If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy others in my Trump Trade War Index, here…

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Seven myths about the COVID-19 coronavirus.

No one can know the severity and consequences of this epidemic until  it's over. The present reaction may be needlessly excessive,  pathetically inadequate or wise and prudent. We can't know now what will  be self-evident in hindsight. 

We do know we're being misled,  kept in the dark and lied to by lunatics with credentials. We just don't know which ones are the lunatics.  

-Woodpile Report

When I read American media, and listen to people like Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh say how this coronavirus is a big nothing; that’s it’s not as bad as the flu. That everyone can relax and just ride it out and rest, I shudder.

Nothing to see here ... carry on ... it's less to worry about then the common flu  

- C D

I scene from the movie “Aliens” comes to mind. Here, the Marines are called up on deck. There is a pre-battle briefing. During it, Ripley is trying to warn everyone about the xenomorphs. Unfortunately, no one takes her seriously, and the cocky Space Marines joke and laugh about it…

“Oh, it’s just another bug hunt.”

 Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley stands in front of the squad of ten cocky,  poised space marines. They laugh and joke, oozing bravado and  testosterone—even the women. As the shavetail lieutenant lays out the  situation, Bill Paxton’s mouthy PFC Hudson interrupts: "Is this going to  be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"

 "All we know is that there’s still no contact with the colony,"  replies the lieutenant, Gorman, "and that a xenomorph may be involved."

 "Excuse me, sir," interjects PFC Frost from the back row, "—a what?"

 "A xenomorph," repeats Gorman, emphasizing the syllables. 

-ARS Technica
"Oh, it's just another bug hunt."
“Oh, it’s just another bug hunt.”

Yeah. It’s like that.

Then they get their asses handed to them on a platter.

Lots of famous people are peddling fairy tales that will collapse in the face of reality within 90 days

Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Drew and Elon Musk are all spinning delusional fairy tales, by the way. So is President Trump. If you ask them the simple question above — by what mechanism does the virus stop replication? — they can’t provide any rational answer.

Rush Limbaugh says “98% of the people survive,” which is an admission that 2% die. If half the U.S. population gets infected, a 2% fatality rate is about 3.3 million people, or 100 times more fatalities than the flu. But since Rush can’t do math, you can’t walk him through this simple equation. Rush has become the propaganda broadcast hub for Mike Pence, who knows nothing about virology or epidemiology. When Mike Pence talks about the coronavirus, it makes about as much sense as Joe Biden talking about firearms.

Dr. Drew is a celebrity doctor who says it’s, “no worse than the flu.” Yet unless he’s been lobotomized, he must know that the mortality rate of seasonal influenza is only around 0.1% (CDC.gov), while the mortality rate among those infected with the coronavirus is, according to the WHO, 3.4%. That means the coronavirus mortality rate is 34 times higher than the season flu. Surely Dr. Drew can follow this simple math, unless he’s gone the route of Brian Williams on MSNBC who thinks 327 million multiplied by one million is only 500 million. (Hint: The correct answer is 327 trillion.)

Elon Musk is a high-tech huckster and hype artist whose entire financial existence depends on fluffing falsehoods and denying financial reality. He’s been able to sucker millions of investors into his soon-to-fail “Tesla” fiasco, but the virus can’t be bamboozled by billionaires. The virus doesn’t care if Elon Musk is loved by millions of deluded, ignorant youth who literally think he’s Iron Man. The virus can’t be reasoned with or threatened on twitter. It just replicates.

Similarly, President Trump now repeats propaganda lines from Dr. Anthony Fauci, uttering shockingly uninformed things like, “One day it will just magically disappear” (or some similar paraphrased statement). Yet the virus doesn’t respond to magic. It only responds to biochemistry and physiology. The virus can’t even hear President Trump since the virus has no ears. So it offers no consideration to the spin of Mike Pence or Trump himself. Their words are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is stopping the replication of the virus.

 President Trump's comments on the COVID-19 coronavirus diverge slightly from other officials.

 During a Tuesday press conference, Trump sought to reassure the  public, saying everything from "it will go away, just stay calm," to  stating the U.S. has done a "very good job" in testing for the virus,  reports CNN's Daniel Dale. 

-The Week

So we ask you, dear reader, by what mechanism will the replication of this virus be stopped?

Here’s seven lies that everyone with a microphone are promoting…

[1] It’s not as bad as the flu.

If flu has killed ~300,000 worldwide this year, and coronavirus has killed 3,000, then flu is …. 100 x worse. 

-WMBriggs

I see this all over the American blogsphere.

Yeah. I get this.

 Can we put the Wu-flu into perspective? 
  
 It is something serious.  But like I stated in another thread, it's not an end-of-the-world serious. 
  
 We're nearing the end of the regular flu season. 
  
 A season where 18,000 people died WITH an available vaccine. 
  
 And no one bats an eye.  
  
 Hell, many threads on anti-vaccinations are on this site.  I don't get the vaccine. 
  
 This is a novel virus.  There is no vaccine. 
  
 So wash your hands, cough into your sleeve.  If you're sick?  Stay at home. 
  
 The last few days I've been working from home because I've caught a  nasty cold and I work in a hospital so I didn't want to freak people  out.
  
 Now I'll be in work tomorrow to check on Power Charting and time change  issues because of Daylight Savings Time, but I'm also feeling a little better. 
  
 This is the flu.  A new flu, but the flu all the same. 
  
 I am not stockpiling on water, toilet paper, or rice and canned meat. 
  
 I did stock up on scotch, vodka, wine, and beer but that's because I'm an aging booze hound and it was a Friday.  
  
 I won't tell people not to stock up, but you're wasting a perfectly good worry on what (in my opinion) is a minor issue.  

-DBCowboy

Go ahead.

Don’t wear a mask.

Try to self-heal in bed at home…

A healthy comparison between the COVID-19 and other illnesses.
A healthy comparison between the COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Look at the graph and read this conservative bloggers opinion…

 “Oh, but this is not the ‘flu, this is the KUNG KILLER WUHAN DESTROY  US ALL ‘FLU™”, we hear from usually sane sources. Yes. A ‘flu with about  the same infection parameters, symptoms and slightly higher mortality  than the regular ‘flu which has, last we checked, so far failed to End  the World As We Know It™ after Dis even knows how many regularly  scheduled outbreaks ever since we came up with a name for it. It’s so  regular now that we even have the name “flu season” in the vocabulary.  It’s more regular than a newborn’s bowel movements. Heck, even the  seriously dangerous Spanish ‘Flu of WWI fame failed to make much of a  mess of civilization, and that was back when we had absolutely no  flipping clue what we were dealing with.

 Not to mention SARS, MERS and H1N1, every single one of which were  more lethal by orders of magnitude than this one. Quickly, everybody  tell us about the MERS Panic™. No? Didn’t happen? Civilization didn’t  end? Well colour us surprised, because by current levels of hysteria, it  certainly should have, considering that it was every bit as infectious and 36, that’s thirty-six, times as lethal.

 Yet this one, THIS one is definitely, DEFINITELY at least one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse! THIS time it will get us!
 Listen, we’re not saying to not use your brains here, like washing  your hands, not hanging around people coughing and hacking their lungs  out without covering their mouthes, but perhaps a little bit of  perspective is in order? 

-Nice Doggie
 Further perspective:

 In the US-alone flu season, we saw at LEAST 220,690 new cases per day, on average. Over TWO-HUNDRED THOUSAND.

 The peak day WORLDWIDE for COVID-19 was 15,100. Just 6.8% of the US  AVERAGE for flu. (That day was an extreme outlier, because it  represented China changing reporting standards from confirmed-by-testing to diagnosed-by-symptoms.)

 As of 3/5/2020, new COVID-19 cases WORLDWIDE: 2,800. 1.3% of the average US flu cases.

 If you truly believe you’re going to die from COVID-19, you either 1)  have some extremely high risk factors like being an 80 year old man  with diabetes and a bum ticker, who’s been french-kissing your  girlfriend from Wuhan; or 2) you already died from the frickin’ flu.

 Sure things could change. The virus could mutate again. We could  import a bunch more infected people and turn them loose. But as things  stand…

 1. Eat decent food.
 2. Wash your hands often.
 3. Avoid sick people.

 Sound familiar? Yes, it’s the same basic precautions you be be taking  to avoid the flu and common cold (which I’ll remind you is often yet  another coronavirus, too; and for most people COVID-19 is amounting to a common cold).

 People need to stop losing their shit. 

-Bear Buss

Yeah. It’s just like the flu. Right?

Just like the “common cold” right?

 The disease  is certainly a handful. It has caused and will cause tragic deaths,  economic damage, and social disruption and uncertainty that always  attend a serious pandemic. Its R –∅ rate (the rate at which the virus  spreads) seems to be high, close to seasonal flu.

But I’m getting more optimistic about the actual public health impact of the virus  because its virulence appears to be much lower than the 3.4  percent mortality rate claimed by the World Health Organization. 

The New York Times spoke with “a number of experts in epidemiology, and they  all agreed that 1 percent was probably more realistic.” 

-Jim talent on FOX News

Sure… whatever those un-named “experts”, have to say…

FOX is the same as CNN. They just have a different audience, but they spout the same narrative.

What ever you say…

"People! You can read Ripley's report."
“People! You can read Ripley’s report.”

If you are talking about number of people who die, well no one knows that answer as this is a new virus. We know that statistically the influenza tends to kill a lot of the older and infirm people in large quantities. However, to assume that it will always be in the top spot is foolish.

Coronavirus is far deadlier than the flu. Thus far, the  mortality rate for coronavirus (the number of reported cases divided by  the number of deaths) is around 3% to 4%, although it’s likely to be  lower because many cases have not yet been reported. The flu’s rate is  0.1%.  

-LinkedIN Pulse

This virus is certainly appearing to be quite the contender. It looks like it will displace the influenza for that top ranked spot.

Incidentally, If you have a chance to to an old cemetery. One from around the time of the American Civil War. You will find entire families wiped out by the flu. In those days, they just were not able to handle viruses like we can today.

Now, if you are looking at the need to go to a hospital to get better, the COVID-19 is far worse. With the flu, you can have it and stay at home and nurse yourself back to health. Not so with the coronavirus. If you have it, you MUST go to a hospital, and be observed. If you have the more serious strain, it will attack your central nervous system and you will go into convulsions, followed by complete and absolute organ failure, while your lungs fill up with water.

By the criteria of mobility, the COVID-19 is far more contagious than the flu. I have seen values ranging from 8x to 20x more contagious.

By the criteria of mortality, the COVID-19 if far more lethal than the flu. The R0 version of 4.5 – 6.6 that is from Wuhan is only after the entire nation went DEFCON ONE and all the medical doctors for the entire nation converged on to that city. Before that happened, the R0 value was 14%. 

A Los Alamos National Laboratory analysis of the outbreak in China in December 2019 and January 2020 puts the unrestrained R0  of Covid-19 at between 4.5 and 6.6. (The R-naught figure indicates the  contagiousness of a disease in a given environment. If the number is  above one, it’s spreading.)

The R0 for the flu is 0.1%.

Under every criteria, the COVID-19 is far worse than the influenza.

[2] Only old people die from it.

Once the hospitals were set up (two brand new hospitals in Wuhan built within ten days), and everyone who was ill went to the hospital and immediately went into ICU… the situation improved dramatically. Only the older folk and those with preexisting conditions were dying for the most part.

China built two complete 1000-bed hospitals in Wuhan within a ten day period.
China built two complete 1000-bed hospitals in Wuhan within a ten day period.

So, yes. The data clearly says that the old and those with previous health conditions are dying from this COVID-19 virus.

What is not being said is that tens of thousands of people are in ICU, and getting around-the-clock care. These people have a high likelihood of surviving. And only the sickest do not survive.

"They completely wiped out my entire crew in less than twelve hours."
“They completely wiped out my entire crew in less than twelve hours.”

Which means, that if you have access to a month in the ICU, you will pretty much be able to survive the COVID-19 virus.

That’s the good thing.

And hospitals that can handle maybe 30 in an ICU at any given time, will now be forced to deal with hundreds. There will be those that will not be permitted to stay in the ICU.

That’s the bad thing.

If you cannot make it to the ICU, cannot afford a month in the ICU, or have preexisting issues that you might not be aware of, the lethality of this illness increases exponentially.

So… Your chances of surviving from this virus is very high if you can afford a month in the ICU and get a spot in an already saturated hospital. Aside from that, survival is not guaranteed.

 — Coronavirus appears to spread more slowly than the flu. This is probably the biggest difference between the two. The flu has a shorter incubation period (the time it takes for an infected person to show symptoms) and a shorter serial interval (or  the time between successive cases). Coronavirus’s serial interval is  around five to six days, while the flu’s gap between cases is more like  three days, the WHO says. So flu still spreads more quickly.

— Shedding: Viral  shedding is what happens when a virus has infected a host, has  reproduced, and is now being released into the environment. It is what  makes a patient infectious. Some people start shedding the coronavirus  within two days of contracting it, and before they show symptoms,  although this probably isn’t the main way it is spreading, the WHO says.  (However, one non-peer-reviewed article this  week also suggests that coronavirus patients are shedding huge amounts  of the virus in these early stages when they have either no symptoms or  just mild ones.) The flu virus typically sheds in the first two days after symptoms start, and this can last for up to a week. But a study in the Lancet this week,  which looked at patients in China, showed that survivors were still  shedding the coronavirus for around 20 days (or until death). One was  still shedding at 37 days, while the shortest time detected was eight  days. This suggests coronavirus patients remain contagious for much  longer than those with flu.


— Secondary infections. As  if contracting coronavirus wasn’t bad enough, it leads to about two  more secondary infections on average. The flu can sometimes cause a secondary infection, usually pneumonia, but it’s rare for a flu patient to get two infections  after the flu. The WHO warned that context is key (someone who  contracts coronavirus might already have been fighting another  condition, for example).

— Don’t blame snotty kids—adults are passing coronavirus around. While  kids are the primary culprits for flu transmission, this coronavirus  seems to be passed between adults. That also means adults are getting  hit hardest—especially those who are older and have underlying medical  conditions. Experts are baffled as to why kids seem protected from  the worst effects of the coronavirus, according to the Washington Post.  Some say they might already have some immunity from other versions of  the coronavirus that appear in the common cold; another theory is that  kids’ immune systems are always on high alert and might simply be faster  than adults’ in battling Covid-19.

[3] It originated from a Wuhan seafood market.

 
But when the time came, the bastards were prepared: The  Weird Animal Market! The bat soup-slurping Chinese! 

And hey, if that  didn’t work: ‘The Wuhan Level 4 Biolab!’, which was conveniently minutes  away from the designated ground (or patient) zero, at the Market. 

(Talk  about convenient! As is the coincidence that the outbreak occurred in  the midst of the ultimate Chinese travel week, the Lunar New Year. Yes,  the better to spread not only The Bug, but the panic; and to make sure  both spread world-wide, via air travel.)   

But blaming the bio-lab would be a fall-back position; ever the  optimists, the real perps were hoping mother nature as patsy would hold  water, at least for a few months.    

–Bandito

The idea that it originated from a seafood market in Wuhan has been disseminated throughout the internet with such relish that it is taken for granted that this is the truth.

It isn’t.

Aliens is among other things a Vietnam war allegory, pitting military arrogance against the implacability of an enemy unshackled by conventional definitions of combat. All the technology in the world, even these giant guns, won't save our heroes. If they really are supposed to be our heroes.
Aliens is among other things a Vietnam war allegory, pitting military arrogance against the implacability of an enemy unshackled by conventional definitions of combat. All the technology in the world, even these giant guns, won’t save our heroes.

When the outbreak occurred XiPeng ordered his scientists to find out the top two questions about the coronavirus;

  • Where it it originate from?
  • What was the underlying cause that created this virus?

After one month of study, the scientist came back and made their determinations…

The virus broke out all over Wuhan in widely divergent locations. At the same time, within hours, the virus broke out in the North of Wuhan, the East of Wuhan, the South of Wuhan, and the Western sections of Wuhan. One of the virus carriers, ended up infecting the seafood market.

From that point, the virus propagated the most rapidly throughout Wuhan.

The COVID-19 coronavirus brokeout on one day in widely separate regions within Wuhan. Then, one of the infected persons, apparently made their way to the seafood market, where many subsequent people were infected.
The COVID-19 coronavirus brokeout on one day in widely separate regions within Wuhan. Then, one of the infected persons, apparently made their way to the seafood market, where many subsequent people were infected.

The COVID-19 coronavirus brokeout on one day in widely separate regions within Wuhan. Then, one of the infected persons, apparently made their way to the seafood market, where many subsequent people were infected.

[4] It’s a natural virus.

 I’ve been reading lots of stuff about this thing – none of it clearly  definitive or trust worthy.  Hype aside, it seems there are about equal  cases to be made for the extremal “it’s nothing” and “the world is  ending” views.

 I’d opt for what I hope is true: that this isn’t a big deal, except that there are some weird things going on. Two examples:

 1 – china’s apparent over reaction. Their view of human life is rather  different from ours and I can’t see them shutting down whole cities over  a few hundred, or even a few thousand, deaths; and,

 2 – the apparent death rate among senior government people affected in Iran. 

- Paul Murphy

This narrative is one where it originated naturally by eating bat soup. This narrative is so absolutely preposterous, it is amazing just how gullible people are.

Then it is bolstered with pictures of Asians in Indonesia and Papal New Guinea eating bat soup. While the Chinese do actually eat bat soup, they don't do it in Wuhan. They do it in the smaller more rural sections of China.

One of the questions that XiPeng asked his scientists was…

  • What caused this virus?

After studying this issue, they came back and in February had their answer.

This virus was man-made.

Even before the toll in China reached the current 3,045 dead and  80,711 infected, the Chinese Communist Party had called the pandemic a  biological weapon of the USA following the revelations of Asian  scientists on the anomalous “modeling” of the S protein.  

As reported first by Veterans Today and then by Gospa News, the  American journalist Jeff Brown, founder with other international journalists and authors of the Bioweapon Truth Commission, an independent research organization on the history and innovations of biological weapons, has supported this thesis, that with the passing of the hours finds more and more supporters.  

-Veterans Today

Officially, and yes… OFFICIALLY, the Chinese government considers this virus to be of human manufacture.

If there is a way to cripple a country without warfare, this is how  it's done. 

I don't doubt there is a pandemic occurring, but the sheeple  will buy into this more than what actually occurs from a health  standpoint. Don't get me wrong, people will die from this, but it will  absolutely cripple our economy.  God help us and continue stocking up.  

-  Bill Krejci

Officially the Chinese government considers this virus to be of human manufacture.

It is the American mainstream press that promotes the idea that this is natural. Not the Chinese media.

[5] It has the same symptoms as the flu.

 The  Chinese are so scared of it they shut down their industrial base to  keep it from spreading.  And Commies aren’t know for being overly  worried about deaths.

 The problem we still know very little of what happened in China since they are not letting in CDC virologists.

 And nothing is getting shipped from China to the U.S. I live near a  rail line that brings in Chinese made goods from Long Beach Harbor to  the rest of the U.S. and those big freight trains used to run by me  every hour or so. They haven’t for over a week.

 This is no flu. 

-  Rwc1963

No it does not have all the same symptoms as the flu does.

Here’s a comparison for your enjoyment.

Comparison between the COVID-19, the common cold, and the influenza.
Comparison between the COVID-19, the common cold, and the influenza.

The big give away is the “dry cough”. It will be like there is a little tickle in your throat. You won’t be coughing up white or green mucus. It will just be like you need a glass of water.

Also, do not look at all the symptoms, and assume that they are all of equal weight. diarrhea and a runny nose can happen, but are not typical. The typical “give aways” for this illness is the dry cough, the soreness in your body as it tries to fight the virus, and the fever.

"Bug Stomper" nose art on the first of the Sulaco's two UD-4 Cheyenne gunships.
“Bug Stomper” nose art on the first of the Sulaco’s two UD-4 Cheyenne gunships.

The COVID-19 has different symptoms than the Flu. The most common are a dry throat, a fever and general tiredness.

[6] You do not need to wear a mask.

China found that one of the best preventions for all citizens was to  always wear face masks. This is a lesson for the world. Everyone  deserves to have an adequate supply of masks. 

-LinkedIN Pulse

In China, they made it a law that you must wear a mask at all times until this DEFCONE ONE emergency is over. You cannot ride public transportation, enter buildings, enter complexes, do anything without a mask. It is fundamental. They enforce it with police, drones, and volunteers. Everyone must wear a mask. No exceptions.

Why is China being so gosh-darn anal about this?

Because this COVID-19 can be transmitted by the air.

Federally  funded tests conducted by scientists from several major institutions  indicated that the novel form of coronavirus behind a worldwide outbreak  can survive in the air for several hours.

A study  awaiting peer review from scientists at Princeton University, the  University of California-Los Angeles and the National Institutes of  Health (NIH) posted online Wednesday indicated that the COVID-19 virus  could remain viable in the air "up to 3 hours post aerosolization,"  while remaining alive on plastic and other surfaces for up to  three days.

"Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite  transmission of HCoV-19 is plausible, as the virus can remain viable in  aerosols for 42 multiple hours and on surfaces up to days," reads the  study's abstract.

The test results suggest that humans could be  infected by the disease simply carried through the air or on a solid  surface, even if direct contact with an infected person does not occur.  That finding, if accepted, would come in stark contrast to previous  media reports that suggested the virus was not easily transmittable  outside of direct human contact. 

-The Hill

The idea that you do not need to wear a mask came from the American media that insists that the flu is far worse, and that people shouldn’t buy up all the masks, but instead, leave the masks for the hospital staff to use.

Worst Case: It's some bio-engineered frankenvirus, with who-knows what lethality, r-naught, and incubation time. 

 -Woodpile Report

People!, you all need to start wearing masks, NOW!

Writer and director Cameron takes pains to set Gorman up as the embodiment of Vietnam-era military officer hubris and jargon-veiled incompetence, and the lieutenant holds himself above and entirely separate from the squad under his command. Dropping a fancy college word like "xenomorph" is just another way to lord rank and position over the jarheads—people whose names he hasn’t even really bothered to learn.
I guess just because you’ve done 38 simulated drops doesn’t really mean you’re ready for command. Writer and director Cameron takes pains to set Gorman up as the embodiment of Vietnam-era military officer hubris and jargon-veiled incompetence, and the lieutenant holds himself above and entirely separate from the squad under his command. Dropping a fancy college word like “xenomorph” is just another way to lord rank and position over the jarheads—people whose names he hasn’t even really bothered to learn.

You need to wear a mask and perform extra-careful sanitary procedures outside of your home.

[7] China seriously bungled the coronavirus outbreak through sheer incompetence.

You might get this impression by reading the absolutely insane level of Anti-China rhetoric that came from Washington DC, and the American media. They couldn’t do anything right.

Well, that was a lie.

The early work found that infections were doubling roughly every six  days, and that for every three to four rounds of transmission—or once  every 20 to 30 days—one minor mutation was occurring, Bedford said in a  Feb. 13 interview. “We are watching very carefully for more local  transmission,” he said at the time. 

-MSN

They locked down the entire nation under DEFCON ONE after the first person died by the COVID-19 virus. They built up two hospitals from scratch in ten days, and mobilized the entire nation to fight this illness.

They also took these other steps…

  • COVID-19 medical care was free.
  • Medicines no longer need a doctor prescription.
  • Orders for medicines are now of three month duration, not one.
  • Quarantines, at every level with road blocks are everywhere.
  • Military decontamination units sweep the cities.
  • Suspect patients are held in isolation wards and monitored.
  • APPs are available for news, help, assistance and police that everyone in China can access.
  • Self-quarantine was advised for everyone for three weeks.
  • Food delivery was mandated to continue, hoarding was prohibited, as well as price gouging.
  • Decontamination robots were designed and put into use.
  • Robots deliver food.
  • Drones scan the people for sickness.
  • Drone monitor and make sure that everyone is wearing a mask.
  • Every business is checked by the regional community centers for compliance, and get free face masks by the government.

There’s many more things going on, but that is just a thumb-nail sketch. Now, compare that to the foolish and comical farce of the American response…

When a country is run by engineers, things get built to solve problems.  

When a country is run by lawyers, laws get passed to solve problems. 

And  when bankers are in charge of countries, more loans are issued to solve  problems. 

Yet, sound finances are necessary to run a country. And  indebtedness is not a sound financial state. 

Put lawyers appointed by  bankers in charge, and nothing good happens. Oh, at first it does. A  sound system can take a lot of abuse before breaking. You are drawing  down the capital built up. 

- James Dakin talks of the epidemic of stupidity.

Anyone that still thinks that America is handling this COVID-19 out-break better than China needs to have their head adjusted. Especially now that Trump has appointed a committee to look into this matter and report it’s findings, instead of taking direct and immediate action.

What is he thinking?

You can believe what ever you want. I know that China has taken deadly serious action against this virus. They identified it as a biological weapon, that was made in the United States and they went DEFCON ONE on CNY, of all times! But you can listen to CNN and Rush Limbaugh if you wanna. It's your life.
You can believe what ever you want. I know that China has taken deadly serious action against this virus. They identified it as a biological weapon, that was made in the United States and they went DEFCON ONE on CNY, of all times! But you can listen to CNN and Rush Limbaugh if you wanna. It’s your life.

Some Videos

This is a serious illness, and nothing like the Flu. Check out some videos…

Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.

Taking the kids shopping.
Riding the elevator
Going home from work.
Checking into the hospital.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 virus is a very nasty illness. It is being handled expertly with the authoritarian Chinese government, and hopelessly bungled by the inept American government. To best survive, you need to self quarantine and practice rigid and absolute cleanliness measures immediately. Make ZERO exceptions.

Thank you for reading this. I have more articles in the Trump Trade War Index, here…

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Who Made the Coronavirus COVID-19 virus?

I have been quite clear that the United States has been conducting biological warfare with China for the last four years. But others refuse to believe the train of evidence. They cannot reconcile the idea that the USA would wage covert germ warfare on a nuclear armed nation. But things are changing. Here’s an article by a detractor to this belief that begrudgingly admits that just maybe the USA is that reckless in risking World War III.

And that maybe I am right.

That the USA has been conducting germ warfare against China, and does not care if there is some “leakage” of the virus out of China. The goal is to suppress China at whatever the cost.

This is a reprint of the article titled ” Who Made Coronavirus? Was It the U.S., Israel or China?”, it was published on March 6, 2020 by Enrique Suarez for the Strategic Culture Foundation. It has been edited to fit this venue. All credit to the author.

Who Made Coronavirus? Was It the U.S., Israel or China?

It might be possible that Washington has created and unleashed the virus in a bid to bring Beijing’s growing economy and military might down a few notches.

I’ve had to delete YouTube off my phone to avoid all the anti China stuff since the virus kicked off. 

There is a massive offensive happening to try poison people’s minds against China. 

Reality is I’ve actually never had a bad experience in China and I’m going in and out 10 years.  

-Derek Kenny

The most commonly reported mainstream media account of the creation of the Coronavirus suggests that it was derived from an animal-borne microorganism found in a wild bat that was consumed by an ethnic Chinese resident of Wuhan. But there appears to be some evidence to dispute that in that adjacent provinces in China, where wild bats are more numerous, have not experienced major outbreaks of the disease. Because of that and other factors, there has also been considerable speculation that the Coronavirus did not occur naturally through mutation but rather was produced in a laboratory, possibly as a biological warfare agent.

Where did it originate?

I got the insight today that this global crisis makes one thing very clear.   

To everyone's probable disbelief in the Western world, China and other Asian countries opted for drastic measures to save the people's lives, regardless of economic impact. 

The West is so concerned about economic and consequent political fall out that they compromise lives .. ultimately it will shoot in their own feet...but meanwhile unnecessary lives will be lost. And who will take the responsibility? 

-Peter Buytaert

Several reports suggest that there are components of the virus that are related to HIV that could not have occurred naturally. If it is correct that the virus had either been developed or even produced to be weaponized it would further suggest that its escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab and into the animal and human population could have been accidental. Technicians who work in such environments are aware that “leaks” from laboratories occur frequently.

Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab.
Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab .

There is, of course, and inevitably, another theory.

There has been some speculation that as the Trump Administration has been constantly raising the issue of growing Chinese global competitiveness as a direct threat to American national security and economic dominance.

It might be possible that Washington has created and unleashed the virus in a bid to bring Beijing’s growing economy and military might down a few notches. 

If there is a way to cripple a country without warfare, this is how  it's done. I don't doubt there is a pandemic occurring, but the sheeple  will buy into this more than what actually occurs from a health  standpoint. Don't get me wrong, people will die from this, but it will  absolutely cripple our economy.  God help us and continue stocking up. 

-  Bill Krejci

It is, to be sure, hard to believe that even the Trump White House would do something so reckless, but there are precedents for that type of behavior. 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo switches disease name to ‘Wuhan virus’ opposed by World Health Organization (WHO) and Beijing to encourage racism towards Chinese, Chinese Americans and China as it spreads in the US, expect more hate crimes in the coming days and month against Asian.

Stuxnet.

In 2005-9 the American and Israeli governments secretly developed a computer virus called Stuxnet, which was intended to damage the control and operating systems of Iranian computers being used in that country’s nuclear research program. Admittedly Stuxnet was intended to damage computers, not to infect or kill human beings, but concerns that it would propagate and move to infect computers outside Iran proved to be accurate as it spread to thousands of PCs outside Iran, in countries as far-flung as China, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia.

American and Israel designed Stuxnet was intended to take out the computers of Iran, but "leaked" and took down half of the global internet.
American and Israel designed Stuxnet was intended to take out the computers of Iran, but “leaked” and took down half of the global internet.

Inevitably there is an Israeli story that just might shed some light on what has been going on in China. 

Israel has a vaccine!

Scientists at Israel’s Galilee Research Institute are now claiming that they will have a vaccine against coronavirus in a few weeks which will be ready for distribution and use within 90 days. 

The institute is claiming that it has been engaged in four years of research on avian coronavirus funded by Israel’s Ministries of Science & Technology and Agriculture.

Israel’s Ministries of Science & Technology and Agriculture.
Israel’s Ministries of Science & Technology and Agriculture.

They are claiming that the virus is similar to the version that has infected humans, which has led to breakthroughs in development through genetic manipulation, but some scientists are skeptical that a new vaccine could be produced so quickly to prevent a virus that existed only recently.

They also have warned that even if a vaccine is developed it would normally have to be tested for side effects, a process that normally takes over a year and includes using it on infected humans.

If one even considers it possible that the United States had a hand in creating the coronavirus at what remains of its once extensive biological weapons research center in Ft Detrick Maryland, it is very likely that Israel was a partner in the project. Helping to develop the virus would also explain how Israeli scientists have been able to claim success at creating a vaccine so quickly, possibly because the virus and treatment for it was developed simultaneously.

The biological weapons research center in Ft Detrick Maryland.
The biological weapons research center in Ft Detrick Maryland.

In any event, there are definite political ramifications to the appearance of the coronavirus, and not only in China.

American Political Ramifications

In the United States, President Donald Trump is already being blamed for lying about the virus and there are various scenarios in mainstream publications speculating over the possible impact on the election in 2020.

If the economy sinks together with the stock market, it will reflect badly on Trump whether or not he is actually at fault. If containment and treatment of the disease itself in the United States do not go well, there could also be a considerable backlash, particularly as the Democrats have been promoting improving health care.

One pundit argues, however, that disease and a sinking economy will not matter as long as there is a turnaround before the election, but a lot can happen in the next eight months.

National Security and Iran.

And then there is the national security/foreign policy issue as seen from both Jerusalem and Washington.

It is difficult to explain why coronavirus has hit one country in particular other than China very severely. That country is Iran, the often-cited enemy of both the U.S. and Israel.

The number of Iran’s coronavirus cases continues to increase, with more positive tests confirmed among government officials last Saturday. There were 205 new coronavirus cases, bringing the government claimed total to 593 with 43 fatalities, though unofficial hospital reports suggest that the deaths are actually well over 100.

That’s the highest number of deaths from the virus outside of China.

No less than five Iranian Members of Parliament have also tested positive amid a growing number of officials that have contracted the disease. Iran’s vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar and deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi had also previously been confirmed with the virus.

The usual suspects in the United States are delighted to learn of the Iranian deaths.

Mark Dubowitz, a Washington DC neocon and his Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is active in pounding the drums of war against Iran.
Mark Dubowitz, a Washington DC neocon and his Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is active in pounding the drums of war against Iran.

Mark Dubowitz, Executive Director of the Washington-based but Israeli government-connected Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) boasted on twitter Tuesday that… 

“Coronavirus has done what American economic sanctions  could not: shut down non-oil exports.”

An Iranian government spokesman responded that…

“It’s shameful and downright inhuman to cheer for a  deadly Virus to spread – and enjoy seeing people suffer for it…”

Dubowitz followed up with an additional taunt, that Tehran has “spread terrorism” in the Middle East and “now it’s spreading the coronavirus.”

 The US сould be the prime  culprit behind Covid-2019 outbreak that hit China and then Iran, head of  its elite Revolutionary Guards claimed, threatening that the virus will  eventually be turned against those who unleashed it.
 
“It is possible that this virus is a product of a  biological attack by America which initially spread to China and then to  Iran and the rest of the world,” Hossein Salami said on Thursday.
 
He vowed that Iran would “fight” the virus and cautioned that the illness “will return” to the United States, if Washington was indeed responsible for the outbreak.

 Though such conspiracy theories have been circulating for a while, there’s still no official proof it could be true.

 The Head of Iran’s Civil Defense Organization, General Gholam Reza Jalali,  said earlier on Tuesday that media fear-mongering over the new  corornavirus in the country bolsters claims that the virus is a  biological attack on China and Iran. He said that some reports indicate  that it could be a hostile state, but added that his suspicion requires  laboratorial investigation and a study of the virus genome.

 Iran has been one of the countries hit hardest by Covid-19 outside of  mainland China where it originated. As of Thursday, the Islamic  Republic has reported 3,513 confirmed cases and 107 deaths attributed to  the virus. Some 15 of those who have succumbed to the coronavirus died  in the last 24 hours, according to Iran’s Health Minister Saeed Namaki.

 The country has shuttered all schools and universities until the end  of the country’s calendar year on March 20 in an effort to stop the  spread of the virus.

 On Tuesday, state media announced that the head of Iran’s emergency  medical services was being treated for coronavirus. Numerous high-level  Iranian officials have fallen ill to the virus. Recently, 23 lawmakers  tested positive for the illness in the Islamic Republic.

 Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of a council that  advises the supreme leader, died after falling sick from the disease.  His death follows those of two other high-profile Iranians who  contracted the virus – a former ambassador and a newly-elected member of  parliament.
 
- Сoronavirus May be a Product of US ‘Biological Attack’ Aimed at Iran and China, IRGC Chief Claims -  RT News

Who made the COVID-19?

 Even before the toll in China reached the current 3,045 dead and  80,711 infected, the Chinese Communist Party had called the pandemic a  biological weapon of the USA following the revelations of Asian  scientists on the anomalous “modeling” of the S protein.

 As reported first by Veterans Today and then by Gospa News, the  American journalist Jeff Brown, founder with other international  journalists and authors of the Bioweapon Truth Commission, an  independent research organization on the history and innovations of  biological weapons, has supported this thesis, that with the passing of  the hours finds more and more supporters. 

-Veterans Today

So, you have your choice.

[1] Coronavirus occurred naturally, or [2] it came out of a lab in China itself or [3] even from Israel or [4] the United States.

If one suspects Israel and/or the United States, the intent clearly would have been to create a biological weapon that would damage two nations that have been designated as enemies.

But the coronavirus cannot be contained easily and it is clear that many thousands of people will die from it. Unfortunately, as with Stuxnet, once the genie is out of the bottled it is devilishly hard to induce it to go back in.

Back to America…

Nothing to see here ... carry on ... it's less to worry about then the common flu 

- C D

Now it appears that it has boomeranged back to America. 

The Post I’m stationed at told us today they’ve been briefed today and  it’s just like the flu and to wash our hands and not worry. 75K is a  huge number that would get out. I’m sure some have it but I have trouble  buying that number. Anyone else on active duty please chime in if  you’ve heard or seen otherwise.

-  Jonathan Weaver

The United States government, being what it is, is actively lying to the people, covering up events and trying to tell everyone that the flu is much, much worse.

Meanwhile, the United States is unraveling. 

I work maintenance for an intercity apartments had the cops called and  they were talking amongst them selves saying Kroger and several others are paying off duty cops for security. I mentioned corona virus they shut up after that. The stores know.

- Shawn May

And finally this, from a conservative blogger who bought into the Trump narrative hook-line-and-sinker…

 Further perspective:

 In the US-alone flu season, we saw at LEAST 220,690 new cases per day, on average. Over TWO-HUNDRED THOUSAND.

 The peak day WORLDWIDE for COVID-19 was 15,100. Just 6.8% of the US  AVERAGE for flu. (That day was an extreme outlier, because it  represented China changing reporting standards from confirmed-by-testing to diagnosed-by-symptoms.)

 As of 3/5/2020, new COVID-19 cases WORLDWIDE: 2,800. 1.3% of the average US flu cases.

 If you truly believe you’re going to die from COVID-19, you either 1)  have some extremely high risk factors like being an 80 year old man  with diabetes and a bum ticker, who’s been french-kissing your  girlfriend from Wuhan; or 2) you already died from the frickin’ flu.

 Sure things could change. The virus could mutate again. We could  import a bunch more infected people and turn them loose. But as things  stand…

 1. Eat decent food.
 2. Wash your hands often.
 3. Avoid sick people.

 Sound familiar? Yes, it’s the same basic precautions you be be taking  to avoid the flu and common cold (which I’ll remind you is often yet  another coronavirus, too; and for most people COVID-19 is amounting to a common cold).

 People need to stop losing their shit. 

-Bear Buss

Yeah. It’s just like the flu. Right?

Just like the “common cold” right?

Nothing to worry about.

You don’t need to wear a mask.

Right…

Author

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

I have other posts on this subject. You can view them in my Trump Trade War Index, here…

Trump Trade War

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

To go to the MAIN Index;

Master Index

.

  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
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COVID-19 Coronavirus: The Virus Originated in the United States, Not in Wuhan.

Executive Summary

When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred, and Beijing got involved, one of the first things that he ordered was that people find out the origin of the coronavirus. The scientists did just that. Their results were published in February 2020.

The COVID-19 virus did not originate in Wuhan, China. It originated in the United States.

As people start digging into the causes and history behind this COVID-19 viral agent, it becomes clear that the agent did not “spontaneously” erupt in Wuhan by people eating bats. The etymology lineage has been traced, and it leads to a place outside of China. In fact, it points straight, and clear directly at the United States. This report is interesting and supports the notion that I have made that this is just the latest escalation of the Trump Trade Wars to suppress China’s rise.

Please read it with an open mind, and take special note that you will have a very difficult time finding this information inside America. Or on any of the regular American media channels. America will not EVER allow it’s citizens to know that it has been conducting surreptitious germ warfare against China.

Quick note before we begin…

Guys, I am so sorry for the flood of COVID-19 related posts. I have all kinds of other things that are in my stack of stuff that I really want to get to, but this is all just taking up my precious time. After all, it’s not everyday that you are at ground zero during a biological warfare attack.

I have stuff that I want to cover on soul construction, and consciousness partitioning, as well as some things regarding the the happiness of dogs, and some positive things to say about people. Please bear with me. Thank you.

 Even before the toll in China reached the current 3,045 dead and  80,711 infected, the Chinese Communist Party had called the pandemic a  biological weapon of the USA following the revelations of Asian  scientists on the anomalous “modeling” of the S protein.

 As reported first by Veterans Today and then by Gospa News, the  American journalist Jeff Brown, founder with other international  journalists and authors of the Bioweapon Truth Commission, an  independent research organization on the history and innovations of  biological weapons, has supported this thesis, that with the passing of  the hours finds more and more supporters. 

-Veterans Today

China’s Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did The Virus Originate in the US?

This article was originally titled “China’s Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did The Virus Originate in the US?” with a subheading of “Japan, China and Taiwan Reports on the Origin of the Virus”. It was written by Larry Romanoff for Global Research on March 04, 2020. It is copied as written with the only editing was to fit within this venue. All credit to the author.

Japan, China and Taiwan Reports on the Origin of the Virus.

The Western media quickly took the stage and laid out the official narrative for the outbreak of the new coronavirus which appeared to have begun in China. They have been claiming that it has originated with animals at a wet market in Wuhan.

The American Mainstream Narrative
This is a natural virus - it originated in a Wuhan seafood market from people eating bats.

The American Alt-Right Narrative
It is a Chinese biological weapon, accidentally released by a germ weapons center that is located in Wuhan - a city twice the size of New York City.

The American HARD-Right Narrative
It is a stolen American biological weapon, intentionally released within Wuhan in order to kill Chinese people to ease population and starvation pressures.

In fact the origin was for a long time unknown but it appears likely now, according to Chinese and Japanese reports, that the virus originated elsewhere, from multiple locations, but began to spread widely only after being introduced to the market.

More to the point, it appears that the virus did not originate in China and, according to reports in Japanese and other media, may have originated in the US.

Chinese Researchers Conclude the Virus Originated Outside of China

After collecting samples of the genome in China, medical researchers first conclusively demonstrated that the virus did not originate at the seafood market.

Instead, it had multiple unidentified sources.

After which it was eventually exposed at the seafood market from where it spread everywhere. (1) (2) (3)

New Chinese study indicates the novel coronavirus did not originate in Huanan seafood market.
New Chinese study indicates the novel coronavirus did not originate in Huanan seafood market.

According to the Global Times:

A new study by Chinese researchers indicates the  novel coronavirus may have begun human-to-human transmission in late  November from a place other than the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.

 The study published on ChinaXiv, a Chinese open repository for scientific researchers, reveals the  new coronavirus was introduced to the seafood market from another location(s), and then spread rapidly from the market due to the large  number of close contacts. 

The findings were the result of  analyses of the genome data, sources of infection, and the route of  spread of variations of the novel coronavirus collected throughout China. 

 The study believes that patient(s) zero transmitted the  virus to workers or sellers at the Huanan seafood market, the crowded  market easily facilitating further transmission of the virus to buyers,  which caused a wider spread in early December 2019. 

(Global Times,  February 22, 2020, emphasis added (2)

Chinese medical authorities – and “intelligence agencies” – then conducted a rapid and wide-ranging search for the origin of the virus. Thus, collecting nearly 100 samples of the genome from 12 different countries on 4 continents, identifying all the varieties and mutations.

During this research, they determined the virus outbreak had begun much earlier, probably in November, shortly after the Wuhan Military Games.

They then came to the same independent conclusions as the Japanese researchers – that the virus did not begin in China but was introduced there from the outside.

China’s top respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan  said on January 27, 2020;

“Though the COVID-19 was first discovered in China, it does not mean that it originated from China”

“But that is Chinese for “it originated someplace else, in another country”. (4)

This of course raises questions as to the actual location of origin.

If the authorities pursued their analysis through 100 genome samples from 12 countries, they must have had a compelling reason to be searching for the original source outside China.

This would explain why there was such difficulty in locating and identifying a ‘patient zero’.

Japan’s Media: The Coronavirus May Have Originated in the US

In February of 2020, the Japanese Asahi news report (print and TV) claimed the coronavirus originated in the US, not in China, and that some (or many) of the 14,000 American deaths attributed to influenza may have in fact have resulted from the coronavirus. (5)

Japanese Television Report sparks speculations in China that COVID-19 may have originated in the United States.
Japanese Television Report sparks speculations in China that COVID-19 may have originated in the United States.
A report from a Japanese TV station disclosing a  suspicion that some of those Americans may have unknowningly contracted  the coronavirus has gone viral on Chinese social media, stoking fears and speculations in China that the novel coronavirus may have originated in the US.
The report, by TV Asahi Corporation of Japan, suggested that the US government may have failed to grasp how rampant the virus has gone on US soil.
However, it is unknown whether Americans who have already  died of the influenza had contracted the coronavirus, as reported by TV  Asahi. (People’s Daily, English, February 23, 2020, emphasis added)

On February 14, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they will begin to test individuals with influenza-like-illness for the novel coronavirus at public health labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City.

The TV Asahi network presented scientific documentation for their claims, raising the issue that no one would know the cause of death because the US either neglected to test or failed to release the results.

Japan avoided the questions of natural vs. man-made and accidental vs. deliberate, simply stating that the virus outbreak may first have occurred in the US. The Western Internet appears to have been scrubbed of this information, but the Chinese media still reference it.

These claims stirred up a hornet’s nest not only in Japan but in China, immediately going viral on Chinese social media, especially since the Military World Games were held in Wuhan in October, and it had already been widely discussed that the virus could have been transmitted at that time – from a foreign source.

“Perhaps the US delegates (to the Wuhan Military World Games) brought the coronavirus to  Wuhan, and some mutation occurred to the virus, making it more deadly  and contagious, and causing a widespread outbreak this year.” 

(People’s Daily, February 23, 2020) (1)

Shen Yi, an international relations professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, stated that global virologists “including the intelligence agencies” were tracking the origin of the virus. Also of interest, the Chinese government did not shut the door on this.

The news report stated:

“Netizens are encouraged to actively partake in discussions, but preferably in a rational fashion.”

In China, that is meaningful. If the reports were rubbish, the government would clearly state that, and tell people to not spread false rumors.

Taiwan Virologist Suggests the Coronavirus Originated in the US

Then, Taiwan ran a TV news program on February,27,(click here to access video (Chinese), that presented diagrams and flow charts suggesting the coronavirus originated in the US. (6)

Taiwan ran a TV news program on February,27, that presented diagrams and flow charts suggesting the coronavirus originated in the US.

Below is a rough translation, summary and analysis of selected content of that newscast. (see map below)

The man in the video is a top virologist and pharmacologist who 
performed a long and detailed search for the source of the virus. 

He spends the first part of the video explaining the various haplotypes 
(varieties, if you will), and explains how they are related to each 
other, how one must have come before another, and how one type derived 
from another. 

He explains this is merely elementary science and nothing 
to do with geopolitical issues, describing how, just as with numbers in 
order, 3 must always follow 2.
He spends the first part of the video explaining the various haplotypes (varieties, if you will), and explains how they are related to each other, how one must have come before another, and how one type derived from another.
He spends the first part of the video explaining the various haplotypes (varieties, if you will), and explains how they are related to each other, how one must have come before another, and how one type derived from another. 
One of his main points is that the type infecting Taiwan exists only  in Australia and the US and, since Taiwan was not infected by  Australians, the infection in Taiwan could have come only from the United States.

…

The basic logic is that the geographical location with the greatest diversity of virus strains must be the original source because  a single strain cannot emerge from nothing. 
He demonstrated that only  the United States has all the five known strains of the virus (while Wuhan and most  of China have only one, as do Taiwan and South Korea, Thailand and  Vietnam, Singapore, and England, Belgium and Germany), constituting a  thesis that the haplotypes in other nations may have originated in the  United States.

Korea and Taiwan have a different haplotype of the virus than China, perhaps more infective but much less deadly, which would account for a death rate only 1/3 that of China.

Neither Iran nor Italy were included in the above tests, but both countries have now deciphered the locally prevalent genome and have declared them of different varieties from those in China, which means they did not originate in China but were of necessity introduced from another source.

It is worth noting that the variety in Italy has approximately the same fatality rate as that of China, three times as great as other nations, while the haplotype in Iran appears to be the deadliest with a fatality rate of between 10% and 25%. (7) (8) (9)

Due to the enormous amount of Western media coverage focused on China, much of the world believes the coronavirus spread to all other nations from China, but this now appears to have been proven wrong.

With about 50 nations scattered throughout the world having identified at least one case at the time of writing, it would be very interesting to examine virus samples from each of those nations to determine their location of origin and the worldwide sources and patterns of spread.

The Virologist further stated that the United States has recently had more than  200 “pulmonary fibrosis” cases that resulted in death due to patients’  inability to breathe, but whose conditions and symptoms could not be  explained by pulmonary fibrosis. 

He said he wrote articles informing the  US health authorities to consider seriously those deaths as resulting  from the coronavirus, but they responded by blaming the deaths on  e-cigarettes, then silenced further discussion. …

The Taiwanese doctor then stated the virus outbreak began earlier than assumed, saying, “We must look to September of 2019”.

He stated the case in September of 2019 where some Japanese traveled  to Hawaii and returned home infected, people who had never been to  China. 

This was two months prior to the infections in China and just  after the CDC suddenly and totally shut down the Fort Detrick  bio-weapons lab claiming the facilities were insufficient to prevent  loss of pathogens. (10) (11)

He said he personally investigated those cases very carefully (as did  the Japanese virologists who came to the same conclusion)..

This might indicate the coronavirus had already spread in the US but where the symptoms were being officially attributed to other diseases, and thus possibly masked.

The prominent Chinese news website Huanqiu related one case in the US where a woman’s relative was told by physicians he died of the flu, but where the death certificate listed the coronavirus as the cause of death.

Just for information

In the past two years (during the trade war) China has suffered several pandemics:

  • February 15, 2018: H7N4 bird flu. Sickened at least 1,600 people in China and killed more than 600. Many chickens killed.

China needs to purchase US poultry products.

  • June, 2018: H7N9 bird flu. Many chickens killed.

China needs to purchase US poultry products.

  • August, 2018: outbreak of African swine flu. Same strain as Russia, from Georgia. Millions of pigs killed.

China needs to purchase US pork products.

  • May 24, 2019: massive infestation of armyworms in 14 province-level regions in China, which destroy most food crops. Quickly spread to more than 8,500 hectares of China’s grain production. They produce astonishing numbers of eggs.

China needs to purchase US agricultural products – corn, soybeans.

  • December, 2019: Coronavirus appearance puts China’s economy on hold.

China’s entire economy comes to a complete halt. American leadership boasts that American businesses will benefit from this “tragedy”.

  • January, 2020: China is hit by a “highly pathogenic” strain of bird flu in Hunan province. Many chickens died, many others killed.

China needs to purchase US poultry products.

The standard adage is that bad luck happens in threes, not sixes.

Conclusion

Just because you do not believe this, does not mean that others agree with you. The Chinese leadership gets their reports from their scientists directly, not from FOX News or CNN.

The Chinese leadership (and the Russian leadership) [1] has this information, and [2] they are “taking it in” and [3] are making the necessary long-term responses on [4] their terms, at [5] the time of their choosing.

Be advised.

Author

Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Notes

  1. https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1180429.shtml
  2. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-23/New-study-shows-Wuhan-seafood-market-not-the-source-of-COVID-19-OjhaHnwdnG/index.html
  3. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930183-5
  4. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/27/c_138824145.htm
  5. http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0223/c90000-9661026.html
  6. https://m.weibo.cn/status/4477008216030027#&video
  7. http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0301/c90000-9663473.html
  8. http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2020/02/27/coronavirus-italian-strain-isolated-at-sacco-hospital_986ff0c2-7bd6-49fe-bbef-b3a0c1ebd6f4.html
  9. Coronavirus has Mutated, Iran attacked by a Different Strain from Wuhan
  10. https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/fort-detrick-lab-shut-down-after-failed-safety-inspection-all/article_767f3459-59c2-510f-9067-bb215db4396d.html
  11. https://www.unz.com/wwebb/bats-gene-editing-and-bioweapons-recent-darpa-experiments-raise-concerns-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/

This was a very interesting post, and I have many others in my Trump Trade Wars Index. You can access it here…

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COVID-19 coronavirus videos collected by 1MAR20 – 3

Here’s a bunch of videos that I collected during the (so far) six week long quarantine that everyone in China experienced. The videos are a selection of virus related subjects but generally relate to how China handled the biological weapons attack, and how society adapted to it. As of this writing, things have stabilized and people and companies are cautious and careful in their actions and movements.

Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.

Western media about China: 

Xi Jinping is not the president but the "paramount leader" of China. Chinese media don't bring news because they're the "mouthpiece" of the Party  

China doesn't fire officials, it "purges" them 

China doesn't requisition private hospitals during a health emergency by passing laws, it "seizes" them 

Chinese leaders don't strengthen laws, they "concentrate power" 

China doesn't give out loans, they "trap" countries in debt. 

China doesn't punish corrupt officials, they "net" them 

Chinese media doesn't report news, it reports "propaganda" 

China doesn't revise counting methodologies, it "under-reports" cases 

Chinese companies don't innovate, they "steal IP" 

Chinese people are not patriotic, they're "brainwashed" 

Chinese provinces don't win PISA tests, they "selectively nominate the best schools".  

-Maitreya Bhakal on Twitter @MaitreyaBhakal Feb 13. 2020

Video 1 – Virus strikes a motorcycle rider.

The thing is that this virus comes with a one-two punch. It is light and you seem to get over this minor cold, and then it goes into remission. It borrows deep. Then out of the blue, while you are feeling just fine and normal, it will suddenly strike you. It will be sudden and you can be doing anything. From walking, to riding a motorcycle to driving a car.

Once the virus hit, there was an increase in vehicular accidents on the highways and roads. Some of them seemed strange. Like the woman who was just pulling out of the driveway and crashed into the wall unconscious. Or the truck driver that ran over the car ahead of him, or the delivery truck that ran through a red light and crashed into the trees. Or, the truck that drove clear off the die of a tall bridge. These stories are horrifying.

Like this motorcycle rider…

Video 2 – What it is like when you are tested as positive at a road block.

My brother asked me what it was like if you went through a road-block and you were tested positive for the illness. Well, it’s like this. They just cannot test for the illness, but they can test to see if you are having any symptoms of an illness, and if you are, they will sequester you and pull you aside and take you into to quarantine. Like this…

Video 3 – When it strikes it is sudden and swift.

WHen the second phase of the illness kits, it’s a Knock-out punch and it is sudden. This video says it all. It is frightening and alarming. 

 I keep hearing that this isn’t as bad as all the hype makes it look.

 I would like to remind the people saying this that this particular virus was CUSTOMIZED IN A LABORATORY.

 Who knows what it will mutate into now that is out in the world FOREVER? 

-Busted Knuckles

I just cannot grapple in my mind how anyone can possibly say that the flu is worse than this. Obviously they are back-seat drivers who are just paper-pushers living within their own sweet bubble. Well, you all had best wake up. The reality can get to be pretty harsh. I’ll tell you what.

Video 4 – Medical staff collapsing from the KO punch when the illness strikes

I’ve presented many such videos of hospital workers collapsing during this emergency. Sometimes it due to exhaustion, but more often than not, they contract the COVID-19 illness and succumb to it. It’s a very sad and tragic situation, indeed.

Sadly, many hospitals are experiencing this event and watching their staff succumb to this frightening illness; this evil horror.

Video 5 – Remote temperature and vitals check on quarantine housing.

The Chinese have been very proactive in using drones to check on the health of the people under quarantine. As can be easily seen in this video.

Video 6 – Collecting some infected people that refuse to stay in quarantine.

here we have a family of people that are infected. They know that they are infected. So they were put under house quarantine, and they broke quarantine. Thus they became a risk to the community. So the police came to seize them an put them into more secure quarantine facilities.

Video 7 – Road block

This is what a road block looks like on a highway off-ramp. It is pretty much the same all over China.

These roadblocks are covered in other posts as they are both interesting and come in all sorts of sizes and shapes.

Video 8 – Going back to work.

Now that most of the Chinese factories have reopened, new procedures are in place. The factory, as a closed eco-system must maintain the strictest health guidelines for safety and control of this serious COVID-19 virus. Here is a video that pretty much shows what it is like throughout China today…

Video 9 – Some closeups of the Chinese decontamination vehicles.

Here’s a video that shows a decontamination vehicle close up. It gives you a great idea of what it is like and it’s design. These vehicles are handed out to the local communities but they are military vehicles. The Chinese have a complete army of them, and they are now in all the top tier cities.

Unlike most military vehicles, they are not painted green or grey. They are used during public DEFCON ONE emergencies so they are treated as part of the hospital units. So they are painted white like the ambulances are.

Conclusion

This is a very unique time in this world. Yes, not just for China but for the world. This event is unheard of, or at least the modern incarnation of it is. It’s a horror movie right out of “12 monkeys” where an evil man tries to kill a huge swath of the global population by releasing a virus on Christmas eve. Funny how this hit stride during CNY eve.

I have hundreds of videos to post, and I will get to them as time permits. In the mean time please be safe.

Continued-graphic-arrow

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Chimeric virus – “Combining two pathogenic viruses increases the lethality of the new virus”.

As the weeks go by, I’ve grown accustomed to a new normal here in  Beijing. In my neighborhood, the whirring of passing cars has been  replaced by wind whispering through alleyways. Without the loud honking  of delivery scooters, I can hear birds chirping for the first time. Many  stores and restaurants remain closed, but life is slowly coming back to  many of Beijing’s major areas.

Residents are used to constantly  wearing masks, sanitizing, and going through multiple temperature  checks. Parks have been one of the few distractions that are still open  to the public, and on a rare blue-sky day last week, I saw groups of  families walking through the park and elderly folks resuming their  outdoor exercise and ping pong tournaments (all with masks on, of  course. Watch a video here). 

Some  locals I’ve talked to in Beijing have cautiously started to return to  work, taking comfort in strict health checks across the city and the  slowdown in reported cases across China. Others are more skeptical of  the official numbers and concerned that infections will spike again as  more people come back to the city, so they continue to self-quarantine.  

- Coronavirus Edges Closer to Pandemic

I tire of the narrative that this COVID-19 is just “another everyday flu” and that I am being “irresponsible” in saying that it is a biological weapon.

Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.

The trail of “coincidences” in favor of it being so is so outrageously obvious and stunning in it’s implications, it is a crime to consider anything else.

I made the statement "It's like a Horror Movie".  

Online comment: "No it's not."

-A response on LinkedIN when I reported that China went to DEFCON ONE on CNY eve and drones were telling everyone to say inside and quarantine roadblocks were being set up everywhere.

That's the arrogance of Americans. If you do not experience it yourself, it does not exist.

Couple that with China going into a war-footing DEFCON ONE on Chinese New Years Eve is quite telling. 

It is equivalent to having the 9-11 event on Christmas eve. There while you and your family are drinking egg nog and hanging out by the Christmas tree, the TV and cellphones all light up showing the planes crash into the skyscrapers.

Then, when the government declares the military go onto high alert. It goes to DEFCON ONE and all the reservists are called to duty...

But...

...the news media repeats the mantra 'It's only one or two planes, World War I was much worse.".

You do not do this with “the flu”. Couple that with the “on the street” Tiktok videos – videos that the military has forbidden American soldiers from viewing…

…really makes a thinking-person ponder.

Time will tell if I am correct, or if I am wrong.

Time will tell.

I would suggest that everyone take the necessary preparations and follow strict safety protocols at this time. Be safe, and let’s all be optimistic.

Be like the Chinese during this emergency.

I would suggest that everyone take the necessary preparations and follow strict safety protocols at this time. Be safe, and let's all be optimistic.
The Chinese are taking COVID-19 very seriously. I would suggest that everyone take the necessary preparations and follow strict safety protocols at this time. Be safe, and let’s all be optimistic.

Anyways…

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 is a very interesting pathogen. That’s because it has a double whammy punch, and no one is talking about this.

Well, we will do so here.

This is an interesting article pulled from HERE. It’s titled ” Chimeric virus – “Combining two pathogenic viruses increases the lethality of the new virus”. as well as the follow up article “I told you so” And while it is short, it is really interesting. I edited to fit within this venue, and all credit should go to the author.

I told you so.

So, what’s the story of this virus? It consistently bypasses conventional wisdom.  

The R0 was obviously greater than 2.6 from the start, my original estimate was 8.  

[1] Asymptomatic transmission, [2] unusually long length of incubation, [3] surface survival duration, [4] numerous modes of transmission including airborne…

…the virus smells like “intent”.

In other words, it’s a hack; it was designed by a hacker mentality. It was designed to do exactly what it’s doing, circumventing the normal channel of control.

Authorities claim a 3% mortality rate but that’s a lie.  

That 3% is only achievable with extreme methods that won’t scale up in an epidemic.  

The real rate will probably fall into the 10-15% range for the initial pneumonia phase.  

But…

But… NOBODY is talking about the secondary phase after a victim heals from the flu, the heart attack (“drop dead in your tracks”) phase.  

There’s no numbers on this at all.  

Gee, I wonder why.

Combining two pathogenic viruses increases the lethality of the new virus

This chart shows diseases according to their mortality (deadliness) and mobility (contagiousness). The COVID-19 coronavrus is shown in green.
This chart shows diseases according to their mortality (deadliness) and mobility (contagiousness). The COVID-19 coronavrus (the Wu Flu) is shown in green.

This chart shows diseases according to their mortality (deadliness) and mobility (contagiousness).    This is a classic  X * Y = K  graph depicting an environmental constraint.   High mortality reduces mobility and vice versa.

If you’re a bioweapon designer, though, your goal is that empty upper right quadrant, i.e. maximum mortality AND mobility.  

How can you reach that goal?

From an algebraic view, assume X * Y = 100:

Maximum mobility would be (2 * 50 = 100)

OR 

Maximum mortality would be (50 * 2 = 100)

Assume a typical virus at  10 * 10 = 100

Now assume we can design the behavior by separating it into two phases:

Phase 1, maximum mobility:   2 * 25 = 50
Phase 2, maximum mortality:  25 * 2 = 50

So we’re still within the original constraint (100) but increased mortality from 10 to 25 and mobility from 10 to 25.   In other words, traditional virologists are now dealing with something TOTALLY outside of their models.

Let’s look at one ramification of the new model.

COVID-19 mortality over time.
COVID-19 mortality over time.

To maximize mobility, the weapon should minimize mortality at first.  It will look deceptively innocuous for most of its life.  

But mortality will rise drastically at the end.  

The average virologist could be baffled by its behavior because it violates the well-known viral model.

Right now, the COVID-19’s rate is reported as 3%, 15% or 55% mortality rate, depending on when its measured and who is measuring it.

Think about that.

Behavior is not natural.

A natural virus does TWO things poorly ALL the time, mobility and mortality.

  • This virus does ONE thing well for MOST of the time…   mobility.
  • And then it switches and does a DIFFERENT thing well…  mortality.

If this is a chimeric virus, I’d expect the final rate to be closer to 55% than 3%.

Which is why the Chinese government made wearing masks MANDATORY all over China. You cannot enter a building, ride in a car, or purchase anything unless you are wearing a mask. They are taking this very, very seriously.

What do they know?

The Chinese government is taking this COVID-19 coronavirus very seriously and has made it a law that everyone must wear masks if they go in public.
The Chinese government is taking this COVID-19 coronavirus very seriously and has made it a law that everyone must wear masks if they go in public.

Now for something truly frightening…

I read this and yes, things are frightening. If you are not petrified, then you are NOT paying attention.

The World Health Organization says the coronavirus has the potential  to become a pandemic and is now at a "decisive stage". But some health  experts say that the markings of a pandemic are already clear, and  containment is not possible anymore. 

 - Coronavirus Edges Closer to Pandemic
Man gets stricken by the COVID-19 virus while riding a bus.

So much for this not being as serious as “the flu”…

Marc Lipsitch, an infectious  disease epidemiologist from Harvard, predicts that within the coming  year, some 40-70%  of the global population will be infected with the coronavirus - though  most will likely have mild disease or no symptoms. A growing number of  epidemiologists say that the coronavirus could become a regular part of  the cold and flu season.

 - Coronavirus Edges Closer to Pandemic

All of this is very, very serious.

Especially so when I see Americans being so nonchalant about this virus. They are acting as if they are immune and that the stuff in China is just a communist nation over-reacting…

Americans are not at all worried about COVID-19. They are just going about their normal day-to-day activities. No one is wearing a mask. No one is stocking up on supplies. No one is taking this seriously. "It's not as bad as the flu", don't you know.
Americans are not at all worried about COVID-19. They are just going about their normal day-to-day activities. No one is wearing a mask. No one is stocking up on supplies. No one is taking this seriously. “It’s not as bad as the flu”, don’t you know.

The following is from “COVID-19″ What you’re NOT Being Told by Officials or Media: This will be Survival of the Fittest. The rest will die.” It’s a bit sensational, but maybe that’s what we need right now. While China is taking this all very seriously, America is off in la-la-land. It’s reprinted but edited to fit this venue. My alterations are in [brackets]. All credit to the authors.

COVID-19; What you’re NOT Being Told by Officials or Media: This will be Survival of the Fittest. The rest will die.

Since the outbreak of a “novel coronavirus” in Wuhan, China in Mid-December, the disease has spread wildly, killing many who become infected.  A LOT has been learned about this illness, but YOU [if you are an American] are not being told. 

Here’s what YOU need to know . . .  because your LIFE depends on you knowing:

  • This coronavirus, now named COVID-19, is the worst public health crisis since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.   
  • Almost no one alive today has lived through anything like this.
  • [It is a possibility that] literally MILLIONS worldwide, will NOT LIVE through this. 

DISEASE FACTS:

This disease has an eighty-three percent (83%) infection rate.  This means that if 100 people are merely EXPOSED to it, 83 will get sick.

  • Of those who get sick, about half will get so sick, they will need hospital care. [This is debatable. It’s a substantial number, but varies from 20% to 50%.]
  • Of those who need a hospital, about half will end up needing INTENSIVE CARE due to fluid build-up in their lungs (Pneumonia). [Of those that go into a hospital, a substantial will need to go into intensive care. Figures on this are hard to come by.]
  • Of those who need INTENSIVE CARE, and who GET THAT CARE, fifteen percent (15%) will die. [Also difficult to come up with a decent percentage.]

So, using the example above of 100 people exposed, we get 83 who get sick, about half (40) need a hospital,  half of those (20), need ICU, and of those, 3 die.

Woman thought that she could handle this sickness at home like she would the flu. Not so. This is a very dangerous and lethal sickness. That is why the Chinese set up complete quarantine centers for people to go to, and be monitored.

ULTRA CONTAGIOUS

This new disease is an absolute NIGHTMARE in its ability to spread.   It’s horrifying.

It spreads the way other diseases can, through coughing, sneezing, and the like. So if you are walking down the street, and an infected person a block away sneezes or coughs, the wind can carry that virus right to . . . YOU.   

Similarly, if you’re in a store shopping, and an infected person coughed or sneezed minutes earlier, and several store aisles away, the heating and air conditioning system can blow that virus all over the store, and as you are minding your business, it blow onto YOU. 

This virus can live OUTSIDE A PERSON, in the air or on surfaces, for upwards of nine days!

That means the counter at a store cashier, or in a restaurant, or at a bank teller, or at an ATM can be contaminated as well.  Worse still, door handles.   You’re out doing business and pull open the door to a company or store, and you have no way on knowing that an infected person grabbed that same handle a day earlier.  Now, his virus is on YOUR hand.  When you touch your face, blow your nose, grab a hamburger, hot dog or sandwich and eat it without washing your hands, POW, you’re infected.

INFECTING OTHERS WITHOUT SYMPTOMS

A number of people who contract this virus start shedding it to others BEFORE THEY GET SYMPTOMS.  So the infected person DOES NOT KNOW he’s sick, but begins spreading it to other people!!!

Doctors measure how many people are typically infected by one sick person, and they record that as R0 (pronounced “R naught”).   The R naught for this virus is between R4 and R6.   So one infected person can be expected to infect between four and six other people! That is a catastrophic level of contagiousness. 

Here’s where things get absolutely nuts:

This disease also “sheds” from infected people via urine and feces.  So, when an infected person goes to the bathroom and flushes, the swirling toilet water thrusts a small torrent of tiny mist all over the place and in that mist . . . . is virus!  You walk into the bathroom and smell another person’s “stink” and POW, you’re infected.

As the toilet contents go down into the sewers and head out to the sewer treatment plant, some of the water evaporates and comes out the holes in manhole covers across town.  In that water vapor . . .  is virus.   So people on ONE side of town, can get a blast of virus because another person on the OTHER side of town, took a dump while infected, and flushed, and the virus comes out of the sewer!   

In one apartment building in Hong Kong, a sewer vent pipe in a wall had a crack in it.  Virus went up that vent pipe, got out a crack, and infected people in apartments several floors away from an infected family! (STORY HERE)

Here is where things get REALLY UGLY . . .

Military decontamination squad going building by building to eradicate the virus.

HOSPITAL FACTS:

In the United States, there are only 2.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people. (SOURCE)

So, using the numbers above about the 83% infection rate, if 1,000 people get exposed, 830 will get sick.  About half, 400, will need hospital, and half of those, 200, will need ICU.  But there are only 2.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

Now, you’re a smart person.  How many people can the 2.4 hospital beds hold?   Yep, 2.4.

So when we have 400 people sick with this COVID-19 virus who need hospital, and the 2.4 beds are full, that leaves 398 who CANNOT GET HOSPITAL CARE.

In Wuhan, China, the epicenter of this outbreak, people who needed hospital care, but who could not get it because the hospitals were full, suffered a death rate of 61.5%  (Source)

If that just sent shivers up your spine, it should have.  This is a terrible reality.  And it’s here; in America,  now.

Because when you apply the fatality rate for those who died in Wuhan because they could not get care, the numbers then look like this per 1,000:

  • 1000 exposed = 830 Infected.
  • Half need hospital = 400
  • Half of those need ICU = 200
  • Only 2.4 beds = 397 WITHOUT CARE

of the 397 who need care but cannot get it because hospitals are full, 61.5% die = 244 DEAD, per 1,000 infected.

This is why a LEAKED Government document in the United Kingdom, shows the UK government making plans for MASS GRAVES!

This is also why China recently bought — and deployed — forty (40) portable cremation furnaces for Wuhan.   Each furnace can cremate 50 people per day.  Times forty furnaces equals 2,000 bodies PER DAY.

Chinese military decontamination trucks in action.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS:

Since the outbreak began, scientists have studied this virus like no other, and what they’re finding is that the virus appears to be “bi-phasic.”   

  • It happens in TWO phases, similar to the way ANTHRAX happens.  (STORY)

The first phase causes fever, cough, congestion in the lungs, and myalgia (muscle twitches and pain).   Then, it **** seems **** to go away….

… But it doesn’t go away.  

People who have been released from hospitals, showing NO TRACE of active virus, suddenly drop dead on the streets from heart failure.   

That’s the SECOND phase of the virus. 

It attacks the vital organs, kidneys mostly.  The person feels achy again, feels tired again, figures it will pass and keeps on about their daily life.  But what’s actually taking place inside them is the disease is sending them into Sepsis, and they drop dead from Septic Shock and organ failure.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

We are in for a terrible, life altering, situation.   Many, many, people are going to get terribly sick and DIE.   Almost none of us has ever lived through a real pandemic like this before.   It’s going to be heart-breaking to see the level of suffering and death.

We will see, firsthand, with our own eyes, nature’s primary law: Survival of the fittest.

Not just the physically fittest, but the mentally fittest as well.   A lot of people in America are going to die because mentally, they cannot or will not see the facts as they are.   They will REFUSE to plan with emergency food and water.  They will refuse to wear filter masks.  They will refuse to comply with Quarantines.   The mentally unfit will likely die-off at larger levels than the physically unfit.  Their tombstones should read “Died because he was stupid.” 

Government is not telling you this because they don’t want you to panic.   Noble goal, but misplaced.   

We’re adults.  We not only have a right to know the facts, we MUST know in order to make informed decisions about our own safety.

Conclusion

Some basic math skills and deductive reasoning can clearly show that this COVID-19 is a serious virus. It is also deceptive. It masquerades as something innocuous, and then hits with a sudden ferocity.

Please take note of all the videos taken in China of the sudden onset of this illness. And also take note of the car accidents that just happened suddenly when the driver collapsed at the steering wheel.

Contrary to the seemingly popular narrative in the United States, that the Chinese are stupid, dirty, and over-reacting for this virus the opposite is true. They are taking serious immediate steps to control it.

We can only see just how successful the United States is when it strikes. Let’s watch how the “talented” leadership in the USA handles it…

Take note;

This just came in on my WeChat. Translated from Chinese. It states that the ground zero carrier for the COVID-19 virus was found and identified. He got the virus from an American while in Hawaii.

Funny thing. According to the US Government, no one in Hawaii has the COVID-19.

New Italian coronavirus carrier found
  
According to the latest reports from the Italian media, patient number 1 has now been found in Italy.  The large-scale outbreak of the new crown in Italy is directly related to the trajectory of patient No. 1. Prior to the diagnosis, the patient had participated in many sporting events, such as the 10,000-people marathon and the football match, and had breakfast with friends many times.  .  

Within half a month, patient No. 1 affected 50,000 people and 10 cities.  It is worth noting that the Italian patient No. 1 was infected with the new coronavirus after taking a vacation in Hawaii, USA, and had no history of residency in China.  So, from this perspective, the outbreak of the Italian epidemic has nothing to do with China.
  
Not only does the epidemic in Italy have nothing to do with China, but other infected countries do not have a direct relationship with China.  

Researchers in the United States have re-investigated people who died from the flu, and most have died from the new coronavirus.  An elderly person infected with the new coronavirus has never contacted strangers in rural Japan, and there are also cases in Spain and Iran.  Then the origin of the new coronavirus is not China!  !!  .

One last thing…

Oh, and you can get COVID-19 from a mosquito bite. Think about that, will you.

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Modern American Geopolitical Doctrine; Submit or be Extinguished.

Everyone seems to be confused with the role that America has in the world. Is it a force of stability, and a leader offering geopolitical guidance (and inspiration), or is it something else?

Long since President Trump came on the picture, these questions have been swirling around in people’s minds, and “muddying up” their opinions of the United States.

  • Just what kind of “neighbor” is America?
  • Is America a partner, or is it a threat?
  • Can America be counted on to contribute to the stability of the world?
  • Is America a destabilizing factor that might become a large problem in the future?

Here is an article that sorts this entire situation out.

It explains the military doctrine that was established during the Bush Administration, and how it has evolved into the totalitarian Military Empire America is today.

This is a reprint of an article titled “The Pentagon’s New Map: How to Know if America Is Your Enemy”. It was published on February 27, 2020 by Enrique Suarez and printed within “Global Research” on February 26, 2020. It was initially released on the “Strategic Culture Foundation” on the 24 February 2020. All credit to the authors. Please kindly note that it was edited to fit this venue, but every effort has been made to keep the content as pristine as possible.

The Pentagon’s New Map: How to Know if America Is Your Enemy

If your country is friendly toward Russia, China, or Iran, then today’s American Government is probably applying subversion, economic sanctions, or maybe even planning a coup …

… or (if none of those will succeed) probably is war-gaming now for a possible military invasion and permanent military occupation, of your country.

These things have been done to Russia, Iran, China, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Ukraine, Georgia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and some other countries.

A Second Justification for war…

However, after the 9/11 attacks in America, the U.S. Government has added another system for selecting countries to immiserate…

… and those are mainly [1] the countries that already suffer the most misery, some of them are countries that were listed above…

… but others (many others) are not, and are selected instead largely because they are [2] already in misery, and also because America…

.... that is, the Deep State which controls it, America’s hundreds  of billionaires, who control international corporations and the press in  America and not just control the politicians who win public offices...

…. wants to [3] control the given target country in order to extract its natural resources …

…. or [4] simply in order to place some of U.S. military bases there so as to be better able to invade other countries.

The New Category for war…

This relatively new category of America’s targeted enemies was invented, mainly, in 2003 and 2004, by Thomas P. M. Barnett.

Thomas P. M. Barnett is a professor at the U.S. Naval College and columnist and writer for various popular magazines, as well as of best-selling books.

His 2004 book The Pentagon’s New Map, presents that map, to show the areas, mainly around the Equator and including all of Central America; plus all of South America except Chile, Argentina, and Brazil; plus all of Africa except South Africa, all countries of which are supposedly not connected to globalization…

 i.e., they are Third World instead of First World.

…and he says that they are unstable and therefore need to be policed by the world’s policeman, which is the U.S. Government.

The United States, to serve there as the judge, jury, and executioner, of anyone who lives there.

And those who resists that judge, jury, and executioner.

His key statement is on page 227, 

“A  country’s potential to warrant a U.S. military response is inversely  related to its globalization connectivity.”

Here is the map, which shows which countries are supposedly high globalization connectivity and therefore inappropriate for America to sanction, coup, or invade and occupy; and which countries are supposedly low globalization connectivity and therefore appropriate for America to sanction, coup, or invade and occupy:

Map of American Control freedom.
Map of American Control freedom.

As can be seen there, the following countries are not to be policed by the U.S. Government: Canada, U.S., Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, UK, Greenland, Iceland, EU, Switzerland, Ukraine, Georgia, South Africa, Russia, Mongolia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, N.Z.

He calls those the “Globalized Functioning Core.”

All others are “the Non-Integrated Gap” countries, America’s virtual free-fire zones, to control (at will) so as to ‘prevent terrorism’.

America makes the rules.

Instead of international law being what the United Nations says it is, this “new map” theory says that international law in the “Non-Integrated Gap” countries should be what the U.S. Government says it is.

The Reasoning.

According to Barnett’s theory, as he expressed it in its original version in an Esquire magazine article titled “Why the Pentagon Changes Its Maps: And why we’ll keep going to war,”.

He listed these countries as “THE GAP” or third-world countries, “My list of real trouble for the world in the 1990s, today, and tomorrow, starting in our own backyard”.

And these are listed here by the names that he gave to them:

  • Haiti,
  • Colombia,
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Former Yugoslavia
  • Congo
  • Rwanda/Burundi
  • Angola
  • South Africa
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Iraq
  • Somalia
  • Iran
  • Afghanistan
  • Pakistan
  • North Korea
  • Indonesia. 

Then he listed “CORE MEMBERS I WORRY WE MAY LOSE:”;

  • China
  • Russia
  • India.

So, if you live in any of those countries, then [1] Barnett, and [2] the many U.S. generals who respect his theory, and [3] the U.S. billionaires, who want the resources in those countries or else just want military bases there…

…view you as an enemy, not as a citizen of a sovereign foreign country.

This is very DANGEROUS thinking.

His Esquire article says, 

“it is always possible to fall off  this bandwagon called globalization. And when you do, bloodshed will  follow. If you are lucky, so will American troops.”

He assumes that you need a “policeman” from America because what your own country provides is too primitive.

And, 

“Conversely, if a country is largely functioning  within globalization, we tend not to have to send our forces there to  restore order or eradicate threats.”

On 22 August 2017, Thierry Meyssan at Voltairenet headlined “The US military project for the world” and gave his progressive critical interpretation of Barnett’s theory by placing it into the long-term evolution of U.S. geostrategy.

On 26 September 2004, Razib Khan gave his admiring racist-fascist or ideologically nazi interpretation of it, under the headline “IQ And The Non-Integrating Gap”.

He assumed there that lower-income countries are “lower IQ” and therefore need to be directed according to the master’s whip, not as sovereign countries.

The book’s publisher places online an informative excerpt from the work. under the headline “An Operating Theory of the World” and Barnett says there:

As the “vision guy,” my job was to generate and deliver a compelling brief that would mobilize the Defense Department toward generating the future fighting force demanded by the post-9/11 strategic environment. 

Over the next two years, I gave that brief well over a hundred times to several thousand Defense Department officials. 

Through this intense give-and-take, my material grew far beyond my original inputs to include the insider logic driving all of the major policy decisions promulgated by the department’s senior leadership. 

Over time, senior military officials began citing the brief as a Rosetta stone for the Bush Administration’s new national security strategy.

The strategy remains in force, though there now is a return to focusing on the main enemies being Russia, China, and Iran.

The “gap” countries are currently viewed not only according to the “gap” but also according to their relationships to Russia, China, and Iran.

Conclusions and Thoughts

As with most policy papers and briefs, they are written with long run-on sentences, and jargon. They remain ensconced within an elite and tight circle of leadership due to the often impenetrability of their writings. But if you take the time to look into their ideas, their narratives, and their beliefs, the picture becomes quite clear.

Frighteningly clear.

America is not a nation that wants to work with other nations.

America does not trade on a “win – win” relationship. America intends to rule, and it will devote all of it’s energies to rule the world and stomp on and extinguish any person, nation or organization that stands in it’s way.

You might be ok with this if you are a 20-something gung-ho American cannon fodder type… Or if you are living inside the bubble of “American Greatness”….

While I find Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump enjoyable as entertainment, the extent of my beliefs on their abilities end there. Seriously, the idea that other people, children and families need to be killed so that “American Democracy” prevails is an idea that is dangerously sick.

I am not alone.

The rest of the world agrees with me.

The American military ARE NOT considered “freedom fighters”. They are considered to be the “strongmen for the local dictator”.

That includes the billions and billions of people in India, China, and China. All who are holding on to nuclear weapons and all of which see the behaviors of America with great ALARM.

What do you do?

When you have a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, what do you do?

You call the dog catcher, and he utilizes the best equipment and techniques at his disposal to control the dangerous beast.

But…

What if he cannot control the beast…

…then what?

Well…

…sometimes they just simply have to put it down.

America has become the rabid dog.
America has become the rabid dog.

Do you want to see similar posts?

I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…

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The American demands of China during the 2016-2019 trade negotiations (war). The arrogance is astounding.

The world is well aware of the 2016 through 2019 trade negotiations between America (the United States) and China. It lasted three years, and was marked by a seemingly endless set of stops and false starts. Finally culminating with a “phase one” agreement immediately prior to the the COVID-19 (coronavirus outbreak). What many people are not aware of is the list of demands placed upon China by the (neocon) negotiation team. Here, we look at the impossible demands, and record them for prosperity.

Remember this well kids; this is NOT how you negotiate.

Negotiation is a matter of give and take, where both sides have the belief that they “won” the negotiation. You do not enter into negotiations with the idea that “you will do as I say, or I will destroy you!“.

The American Advantage.

What many people, especially Americans (locked up within their propagandized bubble) do not understand is that America doesn’t have much clout to negotiate with.

America has little to offer China.

While it might seem like “China needs America, more than America needs China”, the truth is that is actually the other way around.

The exports to America, from China, are a very small percentage of the Chinese export market.

The imports from America to China are also tiny. With aircraft and cotton being the leading exports.

Thus, the “Trump trade war” has very little impact on China.

This is not the world of the 1980’s. The rest of the globe has grown, and they have vibrant middle classes, malls and cities. China services the world. Not only America. In fact, over the years, it appears that the bulk of products exported to America from China are increasingly the cheapest and easiest to make.

Meanwhile the rest of the world opts for better to best quality, and higher priced consumer products. All provided by China.

I’ve covered this in another post here…

The actual trade imports that China obtains from the United States. One of the often cited misconceptions that many Americans have is that China would collapse if the United States were to stop trading with her. The idea is that "China needs us more than we need them". It's not true, and it's not even remotely true. Here, is the actual import data that China imports from the United States. Take a good long hard look at it.

You see, there really isn’t much of an advantage that America has. It can only negotiate from a point of military strength.

The John Bolton strategy… “do as we say or we will erase you from the surface of the earth”.

American Negotiation Team

The Negotiation team set up by President Trump was filled and staffed by hard-line neocons. These war-mongering dinosaurs are the reason why the entire world economy was riding a “roller coaster” for the last three years.

They entered the negotiations with “strong demands“, and “hard lists“. Then when things would apparently be going well, the American team backed out and left the table.

This continued for three long years, and threw the world economy into a tail spin.

List of American Demands

The negotiation strategy was one of strength. From the American side it was “do this, or face the consequences”.

American strategy: Do as I say, or face the consequences.

This is well known throughout the American news media, though they didn’t say it as brutally or bluntly as I did.

It’s all described as “reasonable”, “fair” and “common sense”. You know, “…for the children”.

All lies.

Just like “common sense gun control”. Just like “reasonable sentencing guidelines”, and “zero tolerance rules for the school children.”

It’s all just propaganda.

That’s all it is.

For most Americans, reading the news, they are mistakenly under the impression that the “trade wars” was all about trade. It wasn’t. It was about global power, and how America can retard the growth of China long enough to recover it’s former standing.

Here’s the list of demands that the American (neocon) trade negotiation team placed upon China…

Now to be clear and certain, this is not ALL of the demands, nor the thousands of bullet lists that the trade negotiations encompass. I am not the mainstream press.

The American media would report on a Thanksgiving dinner in the following manner...

"There was a Thanksgiving dinner. People were upset about the tooth pick selection. The toothpicks were too wooden, too few, and not the proper size. Anonymous sources within the dinner party has referred to the dinner as "catastrophic" and desiring strong toothpick discipline..."

Selective reporting is NOT reporting. It is propaganda.

Thus here, I am going to concentrate on the general omissions in American coverage of the trade war events. Here we look at some of the American demands that only warranted a mere sentence or two in a multi-page report.

[1] Independence for Tibet

If you read the American media you might be inclined to say that this is not unreasonable. The Western media is saturated with news about unhappy Tibetans and the need for “freedom” and “democracy”. That’s the story. That’s the propaganda.

Here’s a selection of some readings to give you all an idea of what is going on in Tibet and what America is up to…

What you don’t read is any thing positive about China and Tibet.

That’s right. All Western media is all about the unhappiness and “unrest” in Tibet. Americans read this while never setting a foot there, knowing people there, or getting news from other areas.

The fact is that Tibet is not riddled with unrest, strife and unhappiness. It’s quite the contrary.

Modern Tibet. It just doesn't fit the American propagandized narratives.
Modern Tibet. It just doesn’t fit the American propagandized narratives.

Just go and see for yourself. Do not take my word for it.

In the meantime, realize that by removing the Tibet region from China, it takes a sizable geographic bite out of China. It’s roughly equivalent to removing California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas from America.

NOT . GOING . TO . HAPPEN .

China without Tibet.
China without Tibet.

[2] Independence for Xinjiang Muslims

This is a “much to do about nothing” narrative. The entire Uyghur Muslim independence movement is a CIA fabrication.

Oh, how I hate to use the letters "CIA" in anything. It makes me sound like some kind of conspiracy kook. 

Yet.

The CIA does exist. They do launch revolutions, and they ARE involved in trying to destabilize China.

Likewise the narrative continues for the independence for Xinjiang. Oh, you don’t know what I’m talking about? I am talking about the Uyghur Muslims. Oh, I’m sure you read about the millions and millions of poor harmless Muslims in re-education camps.

Uyghurs in Xinjiang

What’s the latest figure? Eleven million people in concentration camps. OK. I’ll bite. Point the camps out to me using Google Maps. After all New York City is six million people, so any camps that are double that size should be easy to see…

Anyways.

The reason to cause unrest and strife in Xinjiang is to stop the Road and Belt initiative from taking place there. For those “poor Muslims” are going to become filthy Dubai-rich within the next ten years. Oh, no! That will not help the United States one bit, and must be stopped.

Don’t you know.

“For the children”.

As I have stated before, the idea that China would discard the Road and Belt initiative, and isolate themselves to an over reliance on sea shipment of goods is a “pipe dream”.

NOT . GOING . TO . HAPPEN .

China without Tibet and Xinjiang.
China without Tibet and Xinjiang.

[3] Independence for Taiwan

Taiwan is populated with Han Chinese. But maintains it’s own government structure. It’s the one nation, two systems philosophy that China maintains. Well, that does not sit well with the negotiation team. They want Taiwan to sever ALL TIES with China, and instead make Taiwan a client nation with the United States.

Here’s a mixture of links to help you all flush out the situation…

Taiwan is like a nice big juicy aircraft carrier right off the Chinese mainland.

Anyone who even thinks that China would even consider this is smoking too much of that wacky weed. China is a nation of merit. Their leadership ranks are filled with the best and the brightest. They will not even contemplate such an abomination.

NOT . GOING . TO . HAPPEN .

China without Tibet and Xinjiang and Taiwan.
China without Tibet and Xinjiang and Taiwan.

[4] Freedom for Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a tiny nation. It too is part of the one nation, two systems set of governance.

The US involvement in the HK "Democracy Now" movement.

However, it is important. This is because it is the second portal to the Road and Belt initiative.

This is who is funding the Hong Kong protests, and no, they are not organic. Here we look at the protests in Hong Kong and who is funding and training them. For they are using sophisticated urban combat techniques, as well as creating very sophisticated bombs, and handmade weapons. Obviously, some agent wants this group to cause damage and trouble in Hong Kong.

By freezing egress from that portal, American can retard trade routes and isolate China effectively.

By controlling Hong Kong and Taiwan, and arranging for military bases in both those areas, America can easily place military forces in close proximity to the Chinese mainland.

NOT . GOING . TO . HAPPEN .

[5] Adopt a two party democracy

There is nothing so rude, so arrogant as to tell someone that you don’t like their hair style, their clothing, and the way they sign their name. Well, that’s American industry today. All of which happened to me.

Well, these jackasses in Washington, don’t even give a seconds thought to applying this level of rudeness to other nations.

That’s like China telling Washington DC to disband all political parties and adopt Communism.

ITS. NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN.

China today is a single party, traditional conservative nation. Much like the United States was initially setup up as. Then after the 12th amendment the formation of two parties came into being with "democracy". This is what Trump is demanding of China. To allow a second opposition group to embrace "democracy".
China today is a single party, traditional conservative nation. Much like the United States was initially setup up as. Then after the 12th amendment the formation of two parties came into being with “democracy”. This is what Trump is demanding of China. To allow a second opposition group to embrace “democracy”.

Perspective

If the roles were reversed. And China demanded these similar kinds of demands on the United States, the nation would look something like this…

What America would look like if the Chinese made the same kinds of demands that the American neocon negotiation team are making.
What America would look like if the Chinese made the same kinds of demands that the American neocon negotiation team are making.

Conclusions

The five major structural demands that the American negotiation team placed on China did not occur. They will not occur. They never will occur.

  • Independence for Tibet. (US client state.)
  • Independence for Xinjiang. (US client state.)
  • Independence for Taiwan. (US client state.)
  • Independence for Hong Kong. (US client state.)
  • Change the Chinese government into a two-party “democracy”.

China has spent the last two decades trying to be come functionally independent from the rest of the world, but tied to the global economic reality. You will [1] not be able to successfully instigate famine in China via trade restrictions, even if you use biological warfare on both the chicken and pork industries. You will [2] not get them to sever their ties with their neighbors, and [3] you will not get them to embrace the failed American “democracy” model.

NOT . GOING . TO . HAPPEN .

I do hope that you enjoyed this post. You can see similar posts in my Trump Trade War index…

Trump Trade War

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You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

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Is the American mainstream media narrative correct? That the Wuhan coronavirus isn’t anywhere as bad as the seasonal flu?

The virus is proving to be far more contagious than the flu, having  spread from 300 people in mid-January to more than 75,700 as of Thursday  morning. 

-CDC

That’s the American mainstream narrative; that the Wuhan coronavirus isn’t serious. It isn’t as bad as the flu, and the flu kills thousands of people each and every year. So that there is nothing to be worried about.

I strongly disagree. However, you shouldn’t take my word for it. You just need to watch some movies of what is going on in China today, and come to your own conclusions. Right?

Look, see, watch.

Think for yourself. Come to your own conclusions.

Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.

Video 1 – Almost too late.

You are not feeling well. So you finally decide to go to the hospital. You’ve been putting it off. It’s just a sore throat you thought. But, now you are feeling dizzy and getting tunnel vision. You should have went earlier. You know that now.

You look at your cell phone but the sweating in your hands make scrolling and pushing the buttons really difficult. So you ask your friend to help. They help you and get you in the car.

Just like the flu, right? Only the flu is much worse, right? The American media has all this pegged. Do not worry. The flu is far worse.

Here’s from USA Today…

 So far, there have been an estimated 19 million cases of flu,  180,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths in the U.S. this influenza  season – including 68 children, according to the Centers for Disease  Control and Prevention.

Worldwide, seasonal  influenza epidemics cause 3 million to 5 million severe cases every year  and kill up to 650,000 people a year, according to the World Health  Organization.

"That just far surpasses the  amount of cases compared to the novel coronavirus," Colburn said. "If  you didn’t travel specifically to Wuhan, China, or have contact with a  person with suspected or known coronavirus, your chance of contracting  this is extremely low." 

-USA Today

Now, this advise and write-up seems rather silly when you look at it. If you were in China, and were to read this, you would shake your head in pure disbelief. Because what this news “report” is saying DOES NOT AGREE with what you are witnessing.

This is what the Chinese people are starting to notice…

Almost too late.

Video 2 – Registering people at a clinic.

So you are sitting there at the table talking with people, helping them with the paperwork and interviewing them… then you don’t feel so hot. Just like the Flu, right? You’ve seen policemen and doctors collapsing in front of you with the flu, right?

Well… actually no. You don’t see them collapsing. Nor do you ever see American police inside American emergency tent-clinics registering sick people, either. But somehow, yes somehow, the flu is worse.

You know the WHO data on the seasonal flu includes deaths from impoverished areas, where people live in primitive homes and huts, do not have adequate sanitation and medical care. And we are all supposed to believe that that data is representative of a modern, civilized and state-of-the-art nation.

It’s illusionary, and deceptive. As this propaganda from USA Today proves…

 There’s a deadly virus spreading from state to  state. It preys on the most vulnerable, striking the sick and the old  without mercy. In just the past few months, it has claimed the lives of at least 39 children.

The virus is influenza, and it poses a far greater threat to Americans than the coronavirus from China that has made headlines around the world.

“When  we think about the relative danger of this new coronavirus and  influenza, there’s just no comparison,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a  professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt  University Medical Center. “Coronavirus will be a blip on the horizon in  comparison. The risk is trivial.” 

-USA Today

Have you EVER seen ANY American policeman collapse from the flu in the line of duty?

Passing out at a clinic.

Video 3 – Another casualty at the hospital.

Don’t wait until the last moment. If you are not feeling well, rush to the hospital. You see this kind of stuff all the time with the flu, right? It’s common knowledge, right? Every flu is like this, Right?

Screenshot 7FEB20.
Screenshot 7FEB20.

While it is true that people with the flu try to get better at home, and serious cases are sent off to the hospital, no one ever collapses at the front door or in the car-port. But this is what is happening with this virus.

This kind of thing amazes me.

How can anyone see scenes like this, and still have the audacity to claim that the flu is worse? That it’s all just hype?

 Influenza rarely gets this sort of attention, even  though it kills more Americans each year than any other virus, said Dr.  Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and  microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Influenza  has already sickened at least 13 million Americans this winter,  hospitalizing 120,000 and killing 6,600, according to the CDC. And flu  season hasn’t even peaked. In a bad year, the flu kills up to 61,000 Americans.

Worldwide, the flu causes up to 5 million cases of severe illness worldwide and kills up to 650,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization.

And yet, Americans aren’t particularly concerned. 

 -USA Today
Hospital problem.

People, this is what is called propaganda.

Now, propaganda only works when the audience is kept ignorant of the true state of affairs. If you control all the news, in all the various forms, you can control the actions of the people.

This is why the American propaganda controls three branches of news;

  • Mainstream news
  • Alt-left news.
  • Alt-right news.

And make no mistake, the Alt-Right news is just as manipulated as the mainstream media news is. What’s the Alt-Right news saying?

“This is a biological weapon. Stolen by China. Used on their own people for eugenics purposes.”

Yes. Absolute nonsense.

OK. Let’s go back to the mainstream news propaganda;

“This is a natural virus. Harmless, but with a scary name.”

Video 4 – Policeman getting sick at his station.

The problem with this virus is that it is stealthy and fast acting. You can get it, and then it sits inside your body making you super contagious, and you will feel just fine and wonderful. Then, it will hit you suddenly. You know…like the flu! NOT!

Sick people in China are handing over their phones to the police and medical teams. They use the GPS tracking information to compare who they might be in contact with. They are quickly discovering chance encounters with infected people, and that the virus “jumps” from the infected (but feeling normal) person in a matter of seconds.

Like this…

 Infected in 15 seconds while he bought vegetables at the market.
 GIC Team GICexpat 6FEB20

 A 56-year-old man in Ningbo was recently confirmed as a newly found case to have contracted the novel coronavirus after visiting a food market in the city’s Jiang Bei district on January 23. The confirmation was released to the public on February 4 by the district’s official social media account.

 What’s especially surprising about this case is how fast the man contracted the virus.

 Video surveillance revealed that it only took 15 seconds for him to be fully exposed, as neither he nor the 61-year-old woman standing next to him while picking out vegetables at the same stall were wearing protective masks.

 The woman is believed to have had contracted the virus a few days prior while attending a blessing ceremony.

 The man and woman, now both affected by the 2019-nCoV, did not know each other before crossing paths at the Shuang Dongfang market.

 Unfortunately, 19 people who subsequently came into close contact with the newly-infected 56-year-old patient have already shown positive signs of infection. All of them have been put under isolated medical observation for further examination.

Meanwhile, the mainstream American news is still on the “don’t worry, be happy” narrative.

 Fewer than half of adults  got a flu shot last season, according to the CDC. Even among children,  who can be especially vulnerable to respiratory illnesses, only 62%  received the vaccine.

 If Americans aren’t afraid of the flu, perhaps that’s because they  are inured to yearly warnings. For them, the flu is old news. Yet  viruses named after foreign places — such as Ebola, Zika and Wuhan —  inspire terror. 

-KHN

And the Alt-Right conservative news is also parroting this more or less. They argue that this is all nonsense. That it isn’t all that contagious. Here’s from the Moon of Alabama blog…

... We had documented in an earlier post that neither the infectiousness nor the mortality of the novel Cornoavirus are especially severe. This New York Times graphic also explains that.

The ONLY reason that the virus is being contained is because the entire fucking nation went DEFCON ONE.

This is not the flu…

Video 5 – Woman is not feeling well.

So you go outside to run an errand, then suddenly you don’t feel right. You feel dizzy. So you stand there puzzled, and then you pass out. Just like everyone does every flu season. Right?

That’s the American mainstream media narrative…

 Some doctors joke that the flu needs to be rebranded.

 “We should rename influenza; call it XZ-47 virus, or something  scarier,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center  at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

 Measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 5,000 people in the past year — more than twice as many as Ebola. Yet UNICEF officials  have noted that the measles, which many Americans no longer fear, has  gotten little attention. Nearly all the measles victims were children  under 5. 

 -KHN
Screenshot 7FEB20.
Screenshot 7FEB20.

Personally, I think that Selco said it best…

I know now that bad things can happen, and one more important thing, actually I believe it is most  important:  

I no longer believe government and authority, not at all.   

When they really doing their best to assure you that everything going   to be fine, you can be sure that something bad is happening.

Video 6 – Truck driver passes out at the wheel.

My take on things is that this Wuhan corona virus has a potential to become Apocalyptic. I don't like what I am seeing now.
 
Posted by: blues | Feb  5 2020 16:36 utc

Every flu season you always hear about truck drivers unable to drive because of the flu, right? They just pull over and die at the side of the highway, right? It’s an every year occurrence. Right?

 Some people may worry less about the flu because there’s a vaccine, whose protection has ranged from 19% to 60%  in recent years. Simply having the choice about whether or not to  receive a flu shot can give people an illusion of control, Schaffner  said.
 
But people often feel powerless to fight novel viruses. The fact that an airplane passenger spread SARS to other passengers and flight crew made people feel especially vulnerable. 

  -KHN  
The “Virus Hunter”, world renowned Columbia University Professor, Walter Ian Lipkin came to  China and met with Zhong NanShan, China’s lead epidemiologist in fight against #CoronaVirus.   

A few points are of significance:  

1. Lipkin said he spoke for hours with Zhong, and exchanged different views. But ultimately he trusts Zhong, because Zhong is a humanitarian.  

2. The infection ratio of the CoronaVirus is probably Underestimated. The fatality ratio is probably Overestimated.  

3. I repeat, America’s top scientist already came to China. Lipkin also fought alongside Zhong and China during SARS in 2003.  

These perspectives are very important! Please remember!  

Most sobering of all, 35-year-old Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, the CoronaVirus whistleblower who was charged with spreading rumors of virus last month, died of CoronaVirus himself hours earlier.

Video 7 – Doctors pass out.

Ignoring the reported 2019-nCoV  #s for China (which are suspect) but taking into account reported #s only for countries outside  China (and assumed to be reasonably accurate), the calculated death  rate (1/212) as of this morning is (rounded up) .5%.  Hardly  Apocalyptic.
 
Posted by: Trisha | Feb  5 2020 17:02 utc

And another thing about the flu is how it completely shuts down hospitals, and causes the doctors and nursing staff to pass out and stop working. Right? After all, the flu is far worse. Right?

 Hotez, who is working to develop vaccines against neglected diseases,  said he worries about unvaccinated children. Most kids who die from the  flu haven’t been immunized against it, he said. And many were previously healthy.

 “If you’re worried about your health, get your flu vaccination,” Hotez said. “It’s not too late.” 

   -KHN

Video 8 – Police take you away.

This morning on Canadian TV: Worldwide infected 24,0000, death toll in China 450, let's say 500
 
Here https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00154-w
 
I found:
 
4 February 11:00 GMT — Cases in China pass 20,000, so 25,000 seems reasonable.
  
Then from CNN, 17 min ago (they are hardly conservative  with numbers):
 
What we're covering here
 
The virus: The coronavirus outbreak has killed 492 people worldwide, the  majority of which are in China, and infected more than 24,500 people  across 25 countries over 30 days.
 
Some math:
 
fatality percent:  500/24500*100 = 2.04 % => really high mortality rate, almost as much as common flu.
 
Population infected in China: 20000/16 billion =  0.002 % which proves that this is a horrible horrible unstoppable virus
 
In other countries a bit less, per this site https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/countries-confirmed-cases-coronavirus-200125070959786.html
 
Australia 14, Germany 12, India 3, Malaysia 12, Singapore 28, South  Korea 19, USA 11, Vietnam 10, Canada 4, Russia 2, UK 2, in total over 25  countries. 
 
Percent countries where at least 1 case discovered: 25/195 = 13%,  => really world wide spread.

Of course, since the flu is so deadly, the police will come to your house if you have the flu. They will break down the door, and they will haul you away to the hospital for your own good. Right? That’s what always happens with the flu. Right?

Forcefully removed from their home.

Video 9 – Military biological decontamination units.

Screen shot of the graph of contaminated cases over time. 7FEB20.
Screen shot of the graph of contaminated cases over time. 7FEB20.
I'm not so sure that the Coronavirus is so innocuous as some would  have us think, simply because of the way China has reacted to it.  Why  quarantine tens of millions if it is no big deal?   Do you trust China  to provide accurate statistics if they are seeing a huge fatality rate  with a highly infections organism?
 
Zerohedge  has posted an article showing that there was a "mistaken" post showing  much more serious numbers, which indicated a 16% fatality rate.  With a  high R0 value and an airborne pathogen, that reportedly has shown  transmission via fomites (spreads through touching of contaminated  surfaces), this would be approach the lethality of the organism  portrayed in the movie "Contagion". 
 
Posted by: Perimetr | Feb  5 2020 17:32 utc | 15

Of course, every flu season has the local national guard, and military forces performing vehicle sweeps and decontamination procedures using truck mounted machines and chemicals. They scrub the air and make sure that everyone is safe. It’s normal, every flu season, right?

Military mass decontamination of entire cities.

Video 10 – Containment centers.

The one thing that would scare China the most, I think, is if the  virus was infectious before symptoms appear. A virus able to spread  wholly undetected can be a nasty piece of work, specially one that's  seemingly a new addition to our species' ills, because we don't have any  innate immunity around for the time being - if things go badly, a big  chunk of the total population can get infected.
 
 Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb  5 2020 17:44 utc | 19

And, of course, the yearly flu containment centers are always active. Right? After all, since the flu is so much worse, and far more dangerous, there is nothing to worry about. Right?

The virus is contagious at least 5 days before symptoms appear, I  have read some reports that say 9-14 days before symptoms appear. Which  is why it is out of control. Taking temperatures to screen is like  pissing in the wind
 
Posted by: Per   | Feb  5 2020 17:48 utc | 22

On the Alt-Right is the narrative that China is lying, and that hundreds of dead are piling up. Well, I’m not seeing that. Not first hand, not second hand. It’s all nonsense.

And people (!) nonsense = propaganda.

This situation is serious. No doubt. The Chinese are treating it as a DEFCON ONE event, and that shows how serious it is. However, it is contained and things are adjusting.

Here is a comment on MoA that speaks some sanity…

Now crematorium nonsense is back, only being applied to China. The  only people who buy this ridiculous story are ones who haven't ventured  into the sunlight from their parents' basement in years, and have for  certain never further from their trailer park than the local Walmart.  How else is it that anyone can imagine that the big problem with  covering up a large number of deaths is just the problem of disposing of  the bodies? What about family, friends, and coworkers of the deceased?  How about creditors? Who thinks they will just shrug and forget about it  if the person who owes them money disappears?
 
The only people who can seriously consider the narrative of cremating  bodies to hide deaths are ones who cannot conceptualize people on the  other side of the planet who speak a weird language as actual human  beings with full lives. Delusional Americans for whom the world is just  another TV show, and Chinese people are just extras in that show with no  backstory or future whom nobody would notice if they died unless their  body blocked the sidewalk or something.
 
If you, dear reader, are leaning towards believing the crematorium  narrative, ask yourself if simply disposing of the body would work at  erasing anyone you know, like one of your parents or children? Kinda  silly to think that would make you forget them, huh? 

So why imagine it  would work in Russia or China? 

Answer: The only way you could believe that is if your understanding of those places was just a shallow caricature; a cartoon.
 
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb  5 2020 21:19 utc | 65
Containment barracks.

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China

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The coronvirus outbreak was suspiciously timed to coincide with the Chinese New Year mass migration.

Perhaps the first thing that triggered my thoughts that the cronovirus attack in Wuhan was a biological weapon event was the suspicious timing of it…

… and the absolutely absurd complete shutdown of the 2020 CNY holiday.

Have you the reader ever heard of an entire nation canceling Christmas and ordering everyone to stay at home and not go out? It’s amazing, unique and horrifying.

Well…

…that’s what happened.

Of course, those in America and out West haven’t a clue as to what this means. Perhaps this graph will illustrate my point.

Plot of cronovirus infections over time overlayed with the yearly Chinese New Year mass migration.
Plot of cronovirus infections over time overlayed with the yearly Chinese New Year mass migration.

This is a graph showing the trajectory when only a precious few people were infected.

Imagine what would have happened if the Chinese government would have not taken direct and immediate action.

What if…

Here’s what it looks like if they delayed action by two days, and all of China are having parties, drinking, eating and having fun with each other…

This scenario is what would have happened if China delayed going to DEFCON ONE by two days. The infection trajectory goes ballistic.
This scenario is what would have happened if China delayed going to DEFCON ONE by two days. The infection trajectory goes ballistic.

So, people, my argument is that there is no such thing as a coincidence.

This illness was intentionally timed to exert maximum damage on China.

If that is not bad enough…

… were China to delay their response by a mere two days, the nation would have been completely devastated and neutered by this illness.

What it is like.

This is what it is like…

Your read the news reports, and suddenly you aren’t feeling good. You report it to the 119 (9-1-1 emergency line) and an ambulance comes to pick you up.

You are a little nervous after all that you read…

…and then you see the hospital reception for you…

What it is like.

My Interview on the cronovirus Wuhan outbreak.

Anyways, you can watch it here…

You can visit the site directly HERE.

And, you can visit my portal to that site;

My very first interview. I had it on 2-2-2020. How about that for a date, eh? It’s about what I experienced during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and my sleuthing on the entire box of puzzle pieces regarding the biological weapon attack.

I was interviewed to speak on my thoughts of the CNY Wuhan Coronavirus emergency. I accepted, as after all, we are all locked up inside our isolated and quarantined areas, and have nothing better to do, eh? It's my very first interview and I do not think that it is all that great, but others think that it is interesting. Oh, I don't know.

If you enjoyed this, you can see other posts in some of my other Indexes…

China

And of course my Shit Hit The Fan Index, here…

SHTF Articles

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The actual trade imports that China obtains from the United States.

One of the often cited misconceptions that many Americans have is that China would collapse if the United States were to stop trading with her. The idea is that “China needs us more than we need them”. It’s not true, and it’s not even remotely true. Here, is the actual import data that China imports from the United States. Take a good long hard look at it.

China could very well have an embargo of the United States, and would do just fine.

The items that China imports from the United States.

Here’s a graphical summary.

While most Americans, and certainly most Alt-Right conservative Americans are under the impression that China imports an enormous amount of good from the United States, this is not the case.

Import data on what China imports broken down by type and classification.
Import data on what China imports broken down by type and classification.

Key Points

By looking at the graph above, the only manufactured items that are of significance to China (from the United States) are aircraft. Other manufactured products actually represent a very tiny percentage of imports by type. For instance, American-made machines represent only 5% of the total machines imported by China.

Conclusion

In the global sphere of things, the United States is not a dominant supplier of things that China wants or needs. Therefore, America has very little leverage to influence China to do its’ bidding.

In order to cajole or manipulate the Chinese government to take on positions that America wants, there has to be other systems in play. These manipulations and adjustments of global power projection such as [1] the threat of war, [2] famine, [3] sickness, or [4] regional revolt are the tools that the United States is, and has been, using to force China to bend to it’s will.

It is not at all outlandish to believe that the CIA, NED, the NID and other arms of the enormous United States bureaucracy has a “dark hand” at play at this time. It’s the only “cards” that America can play.

If you enjoyed this, you might want to see other posts on this subject in my China general index here…

China

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Some thoughts of the collapse of the American Empire and how it will manifest.

Nope, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill “doom porn”. Instead, most everyone realizes that the Untied States is in the process of some changes. Some predict that the changes are merely “adjustments” towards a better, more improved, society. While others stand outside holding a sign saying “The End of the World is Near!”. Here are my thoughts on the changes that America will go through during the decade of the 2020’s.

It could be anything from a whimper to a bang…

The Sky is Falling!

Not so very long ago, societal collapse was a big topic of conversation. Most critics of the current world order wrote in screeching big bold letters that the entire financial “house of cards” was going to fall apart. Usually they centered on economics, as the financial system has become so complex that no one can explain it, let alone predict it. It became a monster, a hydra, that was careening out of control.

Indeed, the run-up to the mortgage crisis had tons of people promoting economic collapse theories.

A decade earlier, the Y2K panic ushered in theories of technological collapse. Of course, the zombie apocalypse movies and TV shows are a regular part of the pop media rotation.

Scene from the ever-popular "Walking Dead" television show.
Scene from the ever-popular “Walking Dead” television show.

Societal collapse, however, is probably not in the cards.

Tainter comments.

The best known treatment of the issue is by Joseph Tainter.

In his Collapse of Complex Societies, Tainter makes the point that collapse in the modern age is unlikely. He states this belief under the assumption that all complex societies are dependent on one another.

Normaly or Normacy bias.
Normalcy bias. The belief that things are never changing, that they have always been that way and will always continue to stay that way.

Therefore, when one society begins to fail, the rest will provide support to prevent the rapid disintegration of the failing society.

In other words, the modern age is a network of reciprocal relationships between complex societies.

In the case of America, the rest of the world needs America in order to remain intact. Some nations more than others. Thus, a crisis in America will be met with a response from Europe, Asia and even South America. 

In 2018, China shipped 18% of its exports to the United States. That contributed to a $419 billion trade deficit. China's trade with Hong Kong, at 14%, was almost as much. Its trade with Japan, which was at 6%, and South Korea, at 4.5%, was much less. 

- China Economy: Facts, Effect on US Economy

The internal response to crisis will include global support for repairing the internal problems of America.

Of course, this network of relationships may not arrest the decline, but it will prevent complete collapse. The rest of the complex societies will ease America into the autumn of its existence, thus buying themselves time to adjust.

They will “decouple” from the USA. They will no longer being so closely tied to the economic, financial, social, military and political networks established int he United States.

There is evidence that this is already in process.

U.S. Decoupling From China Forces Others To Decouple From U.S. 

The U.S. is decoupling itself from China. The effects of that process hurt all global economies. To avoid damage other countries have no choice but to decouple themselves from the U.S..

-MoA

An alternative view.

An alternative to this analysis comes from John Michael Greer. He wrote a paper on what he termed catabolic collapse.

The general theory is that all human societies create complex institutions and social structures that require maintenance. Over time, the cost of maintaining them begins to exceed capacity. The solution is a deliberate downsizing where these complex systems are abandoned in order to focus resources on the core functions of society.

Complex societies don’t collapse. They downsize.

The Global Elites do not see what is coming. They believe that they can hide away in NZ or inside the bunkers far away from the areas of conflict and strife. Nope. That is not going to happen.
The Global Elites do not see what is coming. They believe that they can hide away in NZ or inside the bunkers far away from the areas of conflict and strife. Nope. That is not going to happen. Know your history, and recognize that now things are different and the game is going to be tortuously lethal.

Greer’s idea is a variation of the Tainter theory, in that it focuses on the material aspects of society.

In the Tainter view, collapse is like bankruptcy that ends in a liquidation of the society. Greer’s view is a bankruptcy that leads to a reorganization of society going through bankruptcy, so it can reemerge simpler and more viable.

In reality, both ideas are working from the same assumption. That is, human societies grow inefficient over time and that inefficiency eventually reaches a tipping point.

Cycles in America.
KaLa cycle lineup for a span of time since 2000 into the middle of the new century. The tipping point is the period from around 2010 to around 2027.

The Collapse Event

One issue that is a problem when discussing these theories of societal collapse is we tend to think of collapse as something that happens relatively quickly.

That is, it happens not just in our lifetime, but overnight.

One day things are going along just fine and the next day the wheels are coming off the cart. It is the image of Rome at its peak compared to the image of hairy barbarians scaling the walls. We naturally want to think of collapse as the sudden, unexpected death of society.

Collapse is most likely experienced in fits and starts, with those fits and starts spanning lifetimes. For example, the men who founded the American empire in the early 20th century passed out of this world seeing their creation in the throes of the cultural revolution of the 60’s and 70’s. The so-called greatest generation that inherited the empire from the founders, were re-engineering American society so their rotten kids would stop rioting in the street and burning the college campus.

The generation that founded the empire probably thought it was headed for collapse, but by that point they were too old to care. It did not collapse. American society stabilized, regained its footing and started to recover in the 1980’s and 1990’s, with the great economic and technological boom.

Scene from the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street". The 1980's and 1990's were a period of time when money flew abundantly to the "power players".
Scene from the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”. The 1980’s and 1990’s were a period of time when money flew abundantly to the “power players”.

Ironically, the baby boomers are experiencing what their grandparents experienced as they head for the void. They are seeing what appears to be the collapse of American society in a spasm of multicultural rage.

A half century ago, California was the epicenter of the cultural revolution that threatened to collapse society. It is the test bed for the multicultural favela the rage heads in the ruling class have planned for the nation. 

Today, they have rolling blackouts in a third world effort to keep from setting the state on fire. Their efforts to manage air pollution, a great crusade in the 1860’s and 1970’s, is beginning to fail. Their pension system is effectively bankrupt, just waiting to collapse in the next decade.

In other words, the spasm of decline and near collapse of a half century ago was part of a cycle of decline.

An interregnum

This crisis will probably be followed by some correction, where things settle for a while, but never return to the prior normal. Just as the 1980’s never reached the level of social accomplishment of the post-war years, the next period of tranquility will fall far short of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

It will simply be an interregnum between one period of crisis and the next, another step down the ladder of collapse.

At some point, the old social capital of the prior greatness is exhausted. The Romans were a spent people for over century before the collapse. In fact, they were arguably done in the third century.

The real question about the late Roman Empire is how it managed to stagger on for so long.

Fall of the Roman Empire.
Fall of the Roman Empire.

That may be where we are now in present day America. The next step down the ladder of decline may be so unstable that the weight of past error crashed society through to the bottom.

The case for this theory of collapse is the rapidly shrinking white middle-class.

Shrinking of the White Class

It’s not just shrinking as an economic institution, but as a cultural one. The dominant culture today is one that celebrates degeneracy and barbarism. Bourgeois culture remains, but unlike the 1980’s, it is not front and center, offering a stabilizing point to arrest the cultural turmoil of the day.

The antidote to what’s happening today is not a man in a sundress demanding the rest of us pretend he is a girl.

Facing the fall…

In addition to the shrinking influence of bourgeois white culture, there is the growing sense that what’s left of America is not worth saving.

Everyday, more and more white people come to the conclusion that the people they see in politics, the media and popular culture are incompatible with the world they want for themselves and their decedents.

That old bourgeois white culture is looking at America like the family exhausted by an alcoholic relative. It’s time to cut our losses.

Conclusions

America is collapsing. It will collapse in a long, slow drawn out manner. It will not be fast, though there will be some very spectacular events that will stun the viewing audience. Many people who have the knowledge and ability to retard the collapse are quietly scurrying to protective safe havens and enclaves.

Perhaps, you the reader, should also take heed.

America is not afraid of the consequences of using Nuclear Weapons. They do not think that any nation would use nuclear weapons in retaliation. Nor do they believe that American cities might be affected. They are living in a dangerous and crazy illusion.
America is not afraid of the consequences of using Nuclear Weapons. They do not think that any nation would use nuclear weapons in retaliation. Nor do they believe that American cities might be affected. They are living in a dangerous and crazy illusion.

SHTF and Related Index

The Tale of the Killdozer.
The use of technicals for genocide.
The Climax of the Fourth Turning in 2025.
2025 - the Fourth Turning Crisis - A nuclear response
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
The grim future.
Is it clear enough for you?
SJW
r/K selection theory
Pictures of a gun-free utopia.
Link
Historically, how preppers failed during periods of turmoil.
Universal Background Checks
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
Line in the sand
A second passport
Link
Make America Great Again.
What would the founders think?
The Ninth Amendment
How they get away with it
Snopes
Taxiation without representation.
Link
Parable about America
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Democracy Lessons
We can no longer build. As we enter the Fourth Turning.
A polarized world.
America's sunset.
Asshole
Types of American conservatives.
America is no longer a nation. When you cannot enforce a border, enforce laws, and prosecute criminals, you no longer have a nation. America is no longer a nation. It might still be the remains of a once great empire, sort of like Rome was after the Vandals sacked it, but as a functioning nation, it is no longer. When you cannot enforce a border, enforce laws, and prosecute criminals, you no longer have a nation. I argue that the United States is no longer a nation. Forget about being a nation that follows the Constitution. Rather, I argue that it is not longer a nation in the crudest, simplest, and most primitive terms. What it is is up for debate. But, a nation... no it is not.
Lawless Nation.
A reassessment of American republican democracy.
A warning to the oligarchy.
Why neocons are so adamant on maintaining proxy wars all over the globe. This article connects hawkish neocons with outrageous theft of enormous amounts of money. They sponsor a war, people die, and they cart away pallet loads of money. This has happened time and time again, but few talk about it. But it's a real thing, and it's a real problem. Here we talk about it.
Kala Rhythms as an adjunct to the Fourth Turning generational cycles theory. How everything all fits together. What is the world coming to? Is everyone crazy? Are all the governments corrupt? Is all that we have to look forward to is yet another war? Well, there are answers to these questions. Here we postulate that the “generational turnings” that are described in the “Fourth Turning” are similar to other methods of societal evolution. We observe that numerous people and organizations have noticed that history tends to repeat. Thus, as such, tried to map out these events to identify future events. In particular, we will take a look at the KaLa Rhythms as being similar to that of the generational turnings as described in the Strauss-Howe generational theory.

Some prepper humor…

Nuke from orbit.

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

This is who is funding the Hong Kong protests, and no, they are not organic.

Here we look at the protests in Hong Kong and who is funding and training them. For they are using sophisticated urban combat techniques, as well as creating very sophisticated bombs, and handmade weapons. Obviously, some agent wants this group to cause damage and trouble in Hong Kong.

Who are they, and who funds them?

I pretty much sat down and wrote most of this after reading the onslaught of negative news reporting out of the USA after the Senate passed an anti-China resolution regarding HK and American businesses operating inside of China.

U.S. Senate Passes Hong Kong Democracy Bill, Drawing … 

I don't like lies and characterizations in general, but this affects me personally, and it thus pisses me off.

To quote Q;

Control of narrative = control of public opinion
Control of public opinion = power
How do you control the narrative?
Information warfare.
Q

Well for starters, for the most part, the most radical instigators are not Hong Kong citizens. The instigators are NOT the “figureheads”, they are educated agitators, with knowledge in urban warfare, and close combat strategies.

Those “leaders”, “trainers” and “agitators” that have been captured by police are neither students, nor (in most cases) Hong Kong residents. While the vast bulk of the protestors are indeed, HK residents, their leadership is not.

What’s going on?

The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. So, as such, what are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit?

Who?

Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.
Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.

The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported by the United States government, including Donald Trump, the US Congress and the Senate. The American news media is having a near feeding frenzy over all this news, and the U.S. corporate media is eating it all up.

This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral. It’s always for a objective. 

The protesters now use the same violent methods that were used in the Maidan protests in the Ukraine. The U.S. seems to hope that China will intervene and create a second Tianamen scene. 

That U.S. color revolution attempt  failed but was an excellent instrument to demonize China. 

A repeat in  Hong Kong would allow the U.S. to declare a "clash of civilization" and  increase 'western' hostility against China. But while China is prepared to intervene it is unlikely to do the U.S. that favor. Its government expressed confidence that the local authorities will be able to handle the issue. 

-Moon Over Alabama

That objective is almost always to institute a “puppet government” taking the form of a dictatorship under the disguise of “fighting for democracy”. It’s a model that has worked for many decades, and should be so well known by now to everyone…

  • The Vietnam war was for democracy.
  • The Kuwait war was for democracy.
  • The Iraq war was for democracy.
  • The Grenada war was for democracy.
  • The Panama war was for democracy.
  • The Libyan war was for democracy.
  • The Yemen war was for democracy.

Now, the war drums are for what? Democracy?

  • A war in Hong Kong for democracy…

Only this time it isn’t against a long tiny third-world back-water nation. It will not be Libya, Yemen, Syria, or Grenada. This would be a war against China, on Chinese soil.

And China will fight back…

…in a nuclear fashion.

Why does China want Hong Kong?  

Well, Hong Kong was always a part of  China.  The English seized the city during the Opium Wars, as part of a  treaty that put an end to one of the steps of English aggression against  China.  Even then, the English only got a 99 year lease.  That expired  towards the end of the 20th century.  

China was of course happy to see a  part of their country that had been stolen by the English returned to  them.  

Can't really think of an example where the USA has had a portion  of its nation stolen from them, but it isn't hard to imagine that they'd  want it back.  They were certainly willing to kill a lot of people just  to get back a part of America that seceded and tried to tell the  Yankees that they weren't all that into them anyways.
 
-Posted by: Who Dat | Aug 14 2019 15:51 utc | MOA

And make no mistake about it, parsing the details to confuse Americans will not work on the global audience. You would be dealing against a nuclear-armed global super-power. How do you seriously think it’s going to pan out? Are you willing to engage in nuclear war with Russia and China simultaneously? Because, that’s what’s going to happen…

China and Russia will share their resources.

And make no mistake about this either, China (even if alone) is no slouch in the ICBM, MIRV nuclear arena. They would “kick some ass” and have enough left over…

For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid. In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.
For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid.

In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.

Nothing is what it appears. It’s all manipulations and lies to mask the true purposes.

Those that want confrontation with Beijing are delusional, and you are, in a few short years, going to pay the price of their idiocy.

The official statement of the Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation regarding the events in Hong Kong (in Russian).
 
The words at the end of the statement are very revealing, given the  recent intentional provocations and riots of a bunch of marginals (aka  "Russian liberal opposition") in Moscow:
 
A comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction have been  established between China and the Russian Federation in a new era. Both  countries have been unjustly charged for their level of freedom,  democracy, and human rights. We are confident that we will meet the same  attitude among the general public of the Russian Federation on the  issues of Xiangang. We are confident in the understanding by the  Russians of the determination and perseverance of China in protecting  state prestige and sovereignty.

- Posted by: alaff | Aug 14 2019 16:23 utc | MoA

Manipulation in Hong Kong

One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. 

The aim is to provoke China  into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western  perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian.  

China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just  across the water from Hong Kong. 

It is possible that another US  objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent  of China. There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a  grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of  these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference  (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference). 

Here is a very telling  comment about the Hong Kong protests found under the article Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage on the MoonOfAlabama.org website.

 “The Extradition Law revision that started this was  only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos.  The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who  started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with  operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the  Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot  strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the  carnage. 

Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because  HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex  against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and  churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s  economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the  Extradition Law is all about …”

 “The instigators, however, are well versed in all the  intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do  violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business  … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their  foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”

 “By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an  estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents).  That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land  (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you  think? What are they all there for?” 

-The Freedom Articles

The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns.

HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.

Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag. As well as burning down a university campus.

U.S., British and Hong Kong’s colonial flags are prominent in these confrontations, along with defaced flags and other symbols of People’s China.

HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
A man inspects a Bestmart store which was vandalised during Sunday’s anti-government protest in Hong Kong, China, October 21, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

The New York Times described the airport shutdown: 

“The protests at  the airport have been deeply tactical, as the largely leaderless  movement strikes at a vital economic artery. Hong Kong International  Airport, which opened in 1998, the year after China reclaimed the  territory from Britain, serves as a gateway to the rest of Asia. Sleek  and well run, the airport accommodates nearly 75 million passengers a  year and handles more than 5.1 million metric tons of cargo.” (Aug. 14)

U.S. media have consistently labeled these violent actions “pro-democracy.”

But are they?

HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.

Even if the leaders of these reactionary actions decide to pull back from the brink and re-calibrate their tactics, there is pause for concern. For based on the Chinese government’s unequivocally strong warnings, it is important to understand a movement that has such strong U.S. support.

The protestors want “freedom”

This is a rally cry that evokes strong emotions with Americans.

Though it shouldn’t. Most Americans haven’t tasted freedom for at least one hundred years, and have no concept of what it actually is. 

The cognitive dissonance has been overwhelming these past months.  "Pro-democracy protesters" who use black bloc tactics of arson and  vandalism. "Students yearning for freedom" who organize Molotov cocktail  factories. Complaints of excessive "police brutality" when by objective  international standards the police were remarkably constrained. 

"Hong  Kong is a repressive police state" says Joshua Wong, and yet it is  consistently near the top of the list in the Cato Institute world  freedom index. 

The protesters are "fighting for democracy" even though  Hong Kong is democratic, and demand a "universal suffrage" that in  practice very few jurisdictions, least of all their beloved US/UK,  enjoy. 

Add a dollop of uninformed virtue-signalling from the usual  clueless western cheerleaders, and it has been a festival of delusion  which somehow ends with the image of a petrol-bomb-wielding black bloc  protester as the new face of "freedom" (as seen on twitter).
 
-Posted by: jayc | Nov 22 2019 21:14 utc | 19

People, freedom is being able to drink booze, and smoke, and plop your dog Fido next to you in a public restaurant. It means that you can ride in a car without a seat-belt, drink large size coke’s and have sunny-side up eggs whenever you want. It means that you can hunt and fish without a permit, and buy most medicines without a prescription.

America had freedoms, but when FDR and Wilson removed the SCOUS defense of the ninth amendment, American became a nice, safe, gulag.

The Ninth Amendment

Today, most Americans can only have small brief glimpses on what freedom used to be like…

The Fitzgeralds arrived in New York in the early autumn of 1922—after a rocky start working as an ad man in his bachelor days, Scott was finally making headway as a celebrated author. They checked into the Plaza and began partying, not even sobering up to go house hunting, but then what was the point, they weren’t going to be sober while they lived there. Zelda was an incorrigible flirt when drunk and she also had a habit of taking her clothes off and dancing naked in fountains or parading down railway tracks. Scott, although less of an exhibitionist, was equally out of control. In December of the same year the couple’s ‘house rules’ for weekend guests at their home in Great Neck, Long Island included a polite directive “not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by their host and hostess,” and warned that “the invitation to stay over Monday, issued by the host and hostess during the small hours of Sunday morning, must not be taken seriously.” They needed the occasional sober Monday, if only to write the letters of apology they constantly had to send excusing their drunken antics and bad behavior, but in many ways the Fitzgeralds could do no wrong. They were young, beautiful—Dorothy Parker described them as looking “as though they had stepped out of the sun”—and fast. In a complex case of life imitating art, and vice versa, they both typified and immortalized the Jazz Age—their extravagant lifestyle funded by the handsome payments Scott received from the magazines that published his flapper fictions and the publishers who bought his novels. That he plundered his and Zelda’s lives for his work is old news, so too is the fact that he’s widely acknowledged as the chronicler of the period, but in her new study of the Jazz Age couple, the Jazz Age novel, and the historical moment, American-born, British-based academic Sarah Churchwell proves herself a master mixologist combining meticulously researched historical detail, equally tantalizing biographical tidbits and a subtle reading of Gatsby—the resulting cocktail is an intoxicating biography of a novel.
The Fitzgeralds arrived in New York in the early autumn of 1922—after a rocky start working as an ad man in his bachelor days, Scott was finally making headway as a celebrated author. They checked into the Plaza and began partying, not even sobering up to go house hunting, but then what was the point, they weren’t going to be sober while they lived there. Zelda was an incorrigible flirt when drunk and she also had a habit of taking her clothes off and dancing naked in fountains or parading down railway tracks. Scott, although less of an exhibitionist, was equally out of control. In December of the same year the couple’s ‘house rules’ for weekend guests at their home in Great Neck, Long Island included a polite directive “not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by their host and hostess,” and warned that “the invitation to stay over Monday, issued by the host and hostess during the small hours of Sunday morning, must not be taken seriously.”

They needed the occasional sober Monday, if only to write the letters of apology they constantly had to send excusing their drunken antics and bad behavior, but in many ways the Fitzgeralds could do no wrong. They were young, beautiful—Dorothy Parker described them as looking “as though they had stepped out of the sun”—and fast. In a complex case of life imitating art, and vice versa, they both typified and immortalized the Jazz Age—their extravagant lifestyle funded by the handsome payments Scott received from the magazines that published his flapper fictions and the publishers who bought his novels.

So, I find it very curious, and you the reader should as well, that a nation-state that is #1 in personal and economic freedom would want to be more like a nation that is #25 at best in the same category.

For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—​meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking.

Why do the HK protestors want less democracy and freedom? The answer is that this is not really their goal. It is instead the mechanism from which they can instigate disruptions.
Why do the HK protestors want less democracy and freedom? The answer is that this is not really their goal. It is instead the mechanism from which they can instigate disruptions.

Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”

That has not changed. No where has the mainland placed new laws, regulations or changes to that model of governance. When the HK local government wanted to open up extradition to other nations, the protests erupted, and the government backed down.

So what the heck is going on? The protestors are not asking for more. They are demanding less.

WTF?

China has a right to intervene

It must be strongly stated that China is not invading Hong Kong if it moves against these violent disruptions. Hong Kong is part of China. This is an internal matter, and the call for independence for Hong Kong is an open attack on China’s national sovereignty.

  • Hong Kong is a part of China.
  • The idea that any American military force will come to “liberate” or “save” Hong Kong is an invasion of China.
  • Any attempted invasion of China will result in the nuclear destruction of most major United States cities.

As it stands today, and what is NOT being reported in the United States media, is that under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution for the city, the government is legally allowed to request help from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

China is not Syria.

China is not Bolivia.

China is not Venezuela.

China will fight back. They will not permit this, and frankly, I am quite surprised that they have permitted this to go on so long. They have been very polite and have kept causalities to a minimum. Were this kind and level of damage to have taken place in the United States, people would have been killed.

Here is an article that explains one key way that Washington is meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong:
 
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-washington-is-meddling-in-affairs.html
 
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington's  version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a  system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
 
-Posted by: Sally Snyder | Aug 14 2019 16:10 utc | MoA

China has announced that it will take action if things escalate.

The Chinese government has announced that it will intervene militarily to defend China’s sovereignty.

  • Top government officials have labeled the most extreme acts as “terrorism” and denounced U.S. support.
  • Several times officials raised the analogy to the Western “color revolutions” that violently overturned governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Libya and Haiti and were attempted in Venezuela and Syria.

China is aware of what is going on and they will take appropriate and measured action. the problem is that the United States people, haven’t seen measured and appropriate responses since the 1940’s.

Americans are not expecting military push-back. For if they were, they would be terrified of all the war-drum beating by the American press.

“The ideologues in Western governments never cease in their efforts 
to engineer unrest against governments that are not to their liking, even though their actions have caused misery and chaos in country after country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. 

Now they are trying the same trick in China,” 

-China Daily explained on July 3rd, 2019

Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, told reporters that their country was still acting as Hong Kong’s colonial master. (nbcnews.com, July 4)

“A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed Tuesday that 
recent comments from American lawmakers [Nancy] Pelosi (D-Ca.) and 
[Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.) demonstrate that Washington’s real goal is to incite chaos in the city,” according to CNBC. 

“By neglecting and distorting the truth, they whitewashed violent crimes as a struggle for human rights and freedom.” (Aug. 14)

Where is U.S. support for other resistance?

Hong Kong police are denounced in the U.S. media for violence, but actually have shown great restraint. Despite months of violent confrontations, with flaming bottles constantly thrown, no one has been killed by the police.

That is NOT going to last for long.

There are rumors that some Hong Kong oligarchs were originally behind  the protests to prevent their extradition for shady deals they made in  China. There may be some truth to that. 

China's president Xi Jingpin is  waging a fierce campaign against corruption and Hong Kong is a target  rich environment for fighting that crime.

The former British colony is ruled by a handful of oligarchs who have monopolies in the housing, electricity, trade and transport markets:

The book to read is Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong  (2010) by Alice Poon, which explains how the lack of competition law  created outrageous wealth for the tycoons. It’s a complex subject but  the key point is that in Hong Kong all land is leasehold and ultimately  owned by the government, which uses it as a means of raising revenue.  

This goes back to the days of empire when British policy required  colonies to be self-funding. The system kept taxes down and attracted  business – but one side-effect was that it gave the government an  interest in rationing land to keep it expensive. That didn’t matter much  when the local economy comprised a few traders but, in the modern  technological world of 2012, it puts the government at odds with every  person and business wanting affordable space. 

Indeed, it induces the  government to distort and damage the economy, and indeed society. This system paved the way for a handful of Hong Kong families to  become unimaginably wealthy by getting their hands on cheap land back in  the days before the city started to boom. 

Rents and apartment prices in Hong Kong are high. People from the  mainland who buy up apartments with probably illegally gained money only  increase the scarcity. This is one reason why the Cantonese speaking  Hong Kong protesters spray slurs against the Mandarin speaking people  from the mainland. The people in Hong Kong also grieve over their  declining importance. Hong Kong lost its once important economical  position. In 1993 Hong Kong's share of China's GDP was 27%. It is now  less than a tenths of that and the city is now more or less irrelevant  to mainland China. 

-Moon over Alabama
Demonstrations in Honduras. Americans haven't a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Demonstrations in Honduras. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.

There is no such favorable media coverage or support from U.S. politicians for demonstrations of desperate workers and peasants in Honduras, Haiti or the Philippines, or for the Yellow Vest movement in France.

There is never an official condemnation when demonstrators are killed in Yemen or Kashmir or in weekly demonstrations in Gaza against Israeli occupation.

Demonstrations in Haiti. Americans haven't a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Demonstrations in Haiti. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.

These struggles receive barely a mention, although in every case scores of people have been killed by police, targeted for assassination or simply just disappeared.

Demonstrations in the Philippines. Americans haven't a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Demonstrations in the Philippines. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else. 
Hong Kong has always been part of China. It was seized by the British  in order to facilitate the illegal drug traffic of the East India  Company. The Chinese government, concerned at the social and economic  mayhem caused by imported opium, paid for in silver, banned its import.  The British government, which relied on the revenues it got from  exporting cheap Indian opium, grown on stolen land, insisted that China  allow the trade to continue. And enforced its demands militarily-the  Opium Wars. Within fifty years of these wars and Hong Kong's occupation  by the British on a 99 year lease, a significant proportion, close to  20% of China's men were addicted to opium.

 That is why China wanted to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong. As to  the assertion that the local people don't want Chinese rule but long for  the British-now under US rule- to return, that is simply untrue.

As b has been pointing out the troubles in Hong Kong are almost certainly organised by the US government.  
  
Laguerre suspects that the same is true of the gilets jaunes. Does  anyone else believe that Macron is being attacked by the US government? 
  
-Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2019 16:18 utc | MoA
Demonstrations in Malawi. Americans haven't a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Demonstrations in Malawi. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.

While Hong Kong protests receive widespread attention, there is no similar coverage of or political support for Antifa, Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the U.S. or the masses protesting racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and roundups of migrants.

It seems to be a narrow focus on China, and only on China.

U.S. pressure continues

Months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong have US dirty hands all over them.

 Orchestrated by the CIA in cahoots with other anti-democratic US  agencies and anti-government Chinese hooligans, there’s nothing  spontaneous about what’s going on endlessly.

 Days earlier, the Trump regime’s State Department (up to its ears in  what’s happening) expressed phony grave concern about violence and chaos  in the city — ignoring US responsibility for what’s ongoing.

 Pompeo threatened China, saying all options are on the table,  including direct US intervention, if Beijing’s military intervenes to  quell what’s unacceptable and must be stopped.

 Over the weekend, masked hooligans clashed with police at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University.

 On Sunday, police surrounded the campus, warning elements involved in rioting and vandalism to leave or be dealt with harshly.

 The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a “sedan without  license plates tried to ram a group of police officers,” a live round  and rubber bullet fired at the vehicle.

 “(M)asked radicals” occupying the campus clashed violently with police, dozens arrested, hundreds more involved.

 Highly inflammable “dangerous materials” that can be used for  explosives were seized from elements arrested — “stolen” from the  university’s labs, adding:

 “(R)adicals shot arrows and hurled petrol bombs and  bricks (at police) – sometimes from catapults mounted on the roof of  campus buildings.”
 “Police fired a large quantity of tear gas and deployed two water cannons and armored vehicles.”

 Clashes raged for hours, a police statement saying: “Anyone who  enters or stays on the campus and assists the rioters in any way will  risk committing the offense of ‘taking part in a riot.’ ”

 Hooligans arrested were not university students.Police called them  outsiders. On Monday, classes at all Hong Kong universities were  suspended — a Polytechnic Univ. statement saying in part:

 “All classes have been forced to be suspended and all operations on the campus have been halted,” adding:

 “The University is gravely concerned that the spiraling radical  illicit activities will cause not only a tremendous safety threat on  campus, but also class suspension over an indefinite period of time.”

 “They are concerned about the safety on the campus, and they do not want to see the campus being destroyed further.”

 A commentary published by Beijing’s official People’s Daily  broadsheet on Monday said ending months of violence and chaos in Hong  Kong “is a critical matter,” adding:

 In multiple parts of the city, “rioters have been rampantly  committing acts of vandalism and arson, paralyzing public transport,  trashing rail tracks, hurling petrol bombs at running trains,  indiscriminately causing bodily harm to civilians and even turning  campuses into battlefields.”

 If what’s going on isn’t stopped and the rule of law restored, “there  would be no guarantee for the peaceful life of residents, to say  nothing of Hong Kong’s future development.”

 On Monday, SCMP’s deputy executive editor Zuraidah Ibrahim said the following:

 “Hardcore mobs upped their violent game when they took  over tertiary campuses last week, as bureaucrats came under fire for  doing little and the police warned the city was on the brink of total  breakdown,” adding:
 “In the north, radicals occupying Chinese University took over the  Tolo Highway. At Polytechnic University, they have shut down the  Cross-Harbour Tunnel for five days, the longest forced closure ever.”

 “The mobs broke into the campuses’ chemical laboratories and set up  petrol bomb mills overnight and practiced throwing fire bombs with  catapults and arrows.”

 “Fiery battles between protesters and police spread across several  universities, as mainland and international students evacuated.”

 “The radicals finally withdrew, except at PolyU where a stand-off  continues as I write this. Last week, the People’s Liberation Army  soldiers took to the streets with brooms – not guns – to clean up, as  did volunteers fed-up with the violence and their pockmarked streets. We  still don’t see an end in sight.”

 US dirty hands are all over months of violence, vandalism, chaos in  the city, attacking China’s soft underbelly, trying to destabilize and  weaken the country.

 Beijing knows what it’s up against — US imperial rage challenging China’s sovereign independence. 

- US Dirty Hands Escalate Hong Kong Violence

Despite China’s warnings of possible martial law, strict curfews and military intervention to restore order, protesters have shown no signs of retreat.

The U.S. and Britain are determined to propel forward those hostile political forces they have cultivated over the past two decades.

This is really, really dangerous.

What a fucking mess the Empire has made over the last century. 
 
Trying to reconcile my belief in democracy with non-intervention  makes this one tricky. I have no desire to support the fascist United  States in attempting to subvert another country's government. 

The  cultural gap (and therefore lack of knowledge and understanding) between  the west and China is so vast it makes attempting to separate genuine  journalism from McCarthy-ist era style propaganda about the country very  difficult, thus making a merits based comparison between the 2 spheres  of power almost impossible. 

Most of the stories I hear about Chinese  repression are obvious pro-western propaganda, which makes it tempting  to dismiss other pieces of information out of hand. 
 
I can only wish the best for the people of Hong Kong and China, whatever they decide that may be. 

Laguerre hints at an interesting point I'd not considered with  regards to the yellow vests in France - are they US aided? I'm still  inclined to lean towards it being a more genuine grass roots movement  from the limited bits I've seen, though I'd be intrigued to see what  connections could be verified there. US state department attempting to  push Frexit would certainly be a new angle to think about for a lot of  us. 

-Posted by: Northern | Aug 14 2019 16:22 utc | MoA

Methodology

The escalating demonstrations are linked to [1] the U.S. trade war, [2] tariffs and [3] military encirclement of China.

Four hundred—​half—​of the 800 U.S. overseas military bases surround China. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile batteries, and satellite surveillance infrastructures are positioned in the South China Sea, close to Hong Kong.

John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”
John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”

Media demonization is needed to justify and intensify this military presence. And it is ongoing and ruthless.

 John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”

 The U.S. military is encircling China with a chain of air  bases and military ports. The latest link: a small airstrip on the tiny  Pacific island of Saipan. The U.S. Air Force is planning to lease 33  acres of land on the island for the next 50 years to build a “divert  airfield” on an old World War II airbase there. But the residents don’t want it. And the Chinese are in no mood to be surrounded by Americans.

 …In addition to the site on Saipan, the Air Force plans to send  aircraft on regular deployments to bases ranging from Australia to India  as part of its bulked up force in the Pacific. These plans include  regular deployments to Royal Australian Air Force bases at Darwin and  Tindal, Changi East air base in Singapore, Korat air base in Thailand,  Trivandrum in India, and possibly bases at Cubi Point and Puerto  Princesa in the Philippines and airfields in Indonesia and Malaysia, a  top U.S. Air Force general revealed last month.

 As I’ve written in the past, these Pentagon plans are part of the  Air-Sea Battle strategy. The idea is to have enough US bases and Air  Force capabilities peppered throughout the region so that China would be  too surrounded to safely attack in the event of a conflict.

 “Stealthy American bombers and submarines would knock out China’s  long-range surveillance radar and precision missile systems located deep  inside the country,” reports the Washington Post.  ”The initial ‘blinding campaign’ would be followed by a larger air and naval assault.”

 Not surprisingly, Beijing is none-too-pleased with the fact that  Washington is planning contingencies to “battle” China, and militarily  encircling China in the Pacific. Imagine the calls for war in Washington  if China was backing various Latin American countries with money and  weapons and building air and naval bases in the Caribbean with the  explicit aim of bombing United States to smithereens.

I haven’t seen such demonization since World War II against the Nazi Germans.

Encouraging the demonstrations goes hand-in-hand with international efforts to bar Huawei 5G technology, the cancellation of a joint study of cancer and the arrest of Chinese corporate officers.

All these belligerent acts are designed to exert maximum pressure on China, divide the leadership, destabilize economic development and weaken China’s resolve to maintain any socialist planning.

The Trump Admin has come out with all guns blazing against Huawei,  China’s telecommunications giant, which is now the 2nd biggest  smartphone producer in the world, second only to Apple and within  striking distance of them.  

The USG has accused Huawei of assisting  Chinese Intelligence by placing backdoors in its software and hardware  that allow surveillance by Chinese authorities (but not the NSA). 

Trump has even pressured  allies like the UK to stop using Huawei altogether, despite the fact  that Britain relies heavily of Huawei for its infrastructure. 

The  attacks against Huawei escalated on December 1st 2018, when the US  orchestrated a totally illegal kidnapping and illegal detention of Meng  Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Wanzhou is still being  held against her will in Canada on US orders. 

-The Freedom Articles

Martial law in Hong Kong, a major financial center, especially for international investment funds coming into China, would impact China’s development.

And that, my friends, is the objective.

Capitalist economic “freedom”

British imperialism, in the 155 years it ruled Hong Kong, denied rights to millions of workers. There was no elected government, no right to a minimum wage, unions, decent housing or health care, and certainly no freedom of the press or freedom of speech. These basic democratic rights were not even on the books in colonial Hong Kong.

The British were ruthless when they owned Hong Kong, and treated the native Chinese there with scorn and dismay.
The British were ruthless when they owned Hong Kong, and treated the native Chinese there with scorn and dismay.

For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—​meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking. Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”

For this Hong Kong is well considered the “freest society in the world.”

This “freedom” means the world’s highest rents and the greatest gap between the super-rich and the desperately poor and homeless. This is what Hong Kong youth face today. But the youth are consciously being misdirected to blame the city administration for the conditions Hong Kong is locked into under the “One Country, Two Systems agreement.”

Ah, if only HK was independent, free of China, would everything become equal, fair and just. Only if...

An unequal colonial treaty

Hong Kong is stolen land.

This spectacular deep water port in the South China Sea at the mouth of the Pearl River, a major waterway in south China, was seized by Britain in the 1842 Opium Wars. 

Hong Kong was seized by Britain, and used as a staging platform to get the Chinese addicted to Opium so that the wealthy in Britain could profit.

After negotiations with Britain had dragged on through the 1980s, the British imposed another unequal treaty on the People’s Republic of China.

Hong Kong under British rule in the 1970's.
Hong Kong under British rule in the 1970’s.

Under the 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement that officially returned Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories to the PRC, Britain and China agreed to leave “the previous capitalist system” in place for 50 years.

China, determined to reassert its sovereignty over land stolen by the British, also needed funds for development.

Most money in Asia moved through the Hong Kong banking system. So in 1997 China was anxious to reach a smooth transition that would not destabilize the transfer of investment funds into the 99.5 percent of China that had previously been denied development funds.

To understand this situation, you must realize that ever since the Chinese Revolution in 1949, China had been sanctioned and blockaded from accessing Western investment and technology.

China had been denied development funds for many years. The plan was to keep them backwards and primitive. So that they could continue to be a low-cost resource for the Western nations.

U.S. and British imperialism took full advantage of the 1997 concession that maintained their economic control of the former colony. Their hope was that Hong Kong could serve, as it had in the past, as an economic battering ram into China.

Their hopes were not realized.

In 1997 Hong Kong’s gross domestic product was 27 percent of China’s gross domestic product. Today it’s a mere 3 percent and falling. Much to U.S. and British frustration, the world’s largest banks are now in China and they are state-owned banks.

What confounds the capitalist class, far more than China’s incredible growth, is that the top 12 Chinese companies on U.S. Fortune 500 list are all state-owned and state-subsidized. They include massive oil, solar energy, telecommunications, engineering and construction companies, banks and the auto industry.
 
-Fortune.com, July 22, 2015

U.S. corporate power is deeply threatened by China’s level of development through the Belt and Road Initiative and its growing position in international trade and investment.

U.S., Britain built a network of collaborators

When Britain and China signed the One Country, Two Systems agreement, all foreign intervention and colonial claims on Hong Kong were supposed to end. Full sovereignty was to return to China.

However, U.S. and British efforts to undercut Hong Kong’s return began in advance of the signing.

Just before the transfer of sovereignty, Britain hastily set up, after 150 years of appointed officials, a partially elected, although still mainly appointed, government. They quickly established and funded political parties, composed of their loyal collaborators.

Millions of dollars were openly and secretly funneled into a whole network of protected social service organizations, political parties, media and social media, student and youth organizations, and labor unions established to undercut support for China and the Communist Party of China.

Think about it. Of course this would happen. Neither the USA nor the UK were stupid.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) receives U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding, along with British support. It promotes “pro-democracy, independent unions” throughout China. The HKCTU was established in 1990 to counter and undercut the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions founded in 1948, which is still the largest union organization with 410,000 members.

The HKFTU suffered years of brutal repression under British colonial rule as it fought for basic protection of workers’ rights. A strike organized by the HKFTU shook British colonial rule in 1967. The strike became a citywide rebellion sparked by mass layoffs of workers from the plastic flower factory. 

 "They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success." 
 
The Tiananmen Square outcome was–media accounts to the contrary–that  the kids all left the square safely by 7:20 am, just as all the HK  demonstrators are unharmed. 

 There was a riot led by professional thugs elsewhere in  Beijing, in Chang'An Avenue, but that was a different matter entirely  and one with an interesting sequel. The leader of that riot was  exfiltrated to the UK by MI6 and subsequently convicted of robbing and  murdering an elderly Londoner. Sweet.

- Posted by: Godfree Roberts | Nov 22 2019 23:23 utc | 34

British colonial authorities harshly suppressed the uprising, resulting in 51 deaths and hundreds injured and disappeared. The HKFTU supports China and opposes the reactionary demonstrations.

NED funding = CIA support

Allen Weinstein, a founder of the NED, told the Washington Post in 1991; 

“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the  CIA.” (Sept. 21, 1991)

The NED funds, coordinates and weaponizes nongovernmental organizations and social organizations with the capacity to put tens of thousands of misdirected, idealistic and alienated youth on the streets.

Why neocons are so adamant on maintaining proxy wars all over the globe. This article connects hawkish neocons with outrageous theft of enormous amounts of money. They sponsor a war, people die, and they cart away pallet loads of money. This has happened time and time again, but few talk about it. But it's a real thing, and it's a real problem. Here we talk about it.

Funding from the NED, the Ford, Rockefeller, Soros and numerous other corporate foundations, Christian churches of every denomination, and generous British funding, is behind this hostile, subversive network orchestrating the Hong Kong protests today.

While you would NEVER hear about this in the mainstream American media, it of course makes sense. All you need to do is follow the money trail. 

In HK, for instance, when the protestors receive payments through the NED, or NID, they get a tattoo on their arm (to prevent multiple payouts),a nd you can see this clearly on the exposed skin of rioters.

The NED bankrolls the Hong Kong Human Rights Movement, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Civic Party, Labor Party and Democratic Party. They are members of the Civil Human Rights Front that coordinates the demonstrations.

This role of the NED in China is increasingly harder to obscure.

Alexander Rubinstein reported in “American Gov’t, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests” (mintpressnews.com, June 13): 

“It  is inconceivable that the organizers of the protests are unaware of the  NED ties to some of its members.” (tinyurl.com/y6nhmapz)

The goal is to promote a hostile and suspicious attitude toward China and toward communism and to foster the false concept of a past democratic Hong Kong with a distinct identity.

China Daily warns: 

“In  recent years, there have been warnings that color revolutions are  emerging as a new form of warfare employed by the West to destabilize  certain countries.” (Aug. 12)

Which system works better?

The Aug. 13 New York Times refers to Hong Kong as a “bastion of civil liberties” to counter “Beijing’s brand of authoritarianism.”

British colonial past is deeply mythologized. Twenty-two years of constant nostalgia for this past, supposedly glorious time has influenced increasingly impoverished youth.

The most violent rioters, amongst them those who hold the US flag,  have obviously the order or to kill somebody, better a policeman ( as  the clear intend on the GT journalist shows... ) or to provoke some  killing of a protester, or by accident of a journalist ( who, btw,  astonishingly, remain in the middle of the melee always...

I find this  very suspicious, which is their insurance company? I want it for my  travels...Most probably not journalists themselves but rioters in  disguise ), as these intends of assassination happened very timely,  almost simultaneously with or consecutive to Trump´s Twitter on that he  expected nobody will result with any harm.... obviously from his  terrorists side...

BTW, this behavior have time ago passed from ghastly to straight criminal, under any country´s law.

In the US, none of these terrorists would still remain alive, they  would never had been able to get so close to any policeman so as to grab  his batton leaving him unarmed. They would had been shot in place, the  whole bunch of them...as we so usually watch happens with black people  there....

Why The Donald ( and Bannon, the Pepe Frog exposes him all the  way, they already do not even try to conceal anymore...) thinks any  country in the world would have to allow this?

I posted some of these videos yesterday in the week review thread (  and I am glad "b" gave them some greater visibility..) and to my view,  some of these rioters, especially those who talk with the travelers seem  to be on drugs....

It´s an appreciation on how their tongue slide so  much plus the slowness with which they talk, in such stressant  situation, very contrasting with, for example, the elder summoning the  rioter in the subway. See the very thin guy talking with the Australian  businessman in the video i posted in the week and review thread....

I wonder whether these could be people taken from  jail or  correstionals, as they were part of the ISIS recruits who flew to Turkey  to be tarinned and then to Syria, their behavior is clearly antisocial,  no wonder any real complaint they could have ...

In the video on "strangers" supplying the rioters, there are two  totally masked and covered women ( all the way the ISIS handlers  style...) who, by their physical complexion and hair, seem to not be  Chinese women at all, but Westerners...at 2:21 footage....Most probably  NED/CIA operatives...

-Posted by: Sasha | Aug 14 2019 16:06 utc | MoA

Listen up. Much of what you read is a myth.

Despite decades of multimillion-dollar Western funding, Hong Kong has a poverty rate of 20 percent (23.1 percent for children) compared to less than 1 percent in mainland China. In the past 20 years, mainland China has lifted countless millions of people out of poverty.

  • Poverty rate in HK = 20%
  • Poverty rate in mainland China <1%

Just across the river from Hong Kong sits the city of Shenzhen.

It is one of the Special Economic Zones established to lure Western technology. These zones, originally with thousands of labor-intensive factories and millions of workers earning low wages, were centers of capitalist exploitation and enormous profits for U.S. and other global capitalists.

Shenzhen grew from a city of 30,000 in 1979 to a megacity of 20 million, with the largest migrant population in China.

Shenzhen had a population three times the size of Hong Kong. With investments via Hong Kong, this new city became a massive polluted factory town with sweatshops spewing out clouds of dark toxic smoke.

In the past five years, through city and national urban planning, Shenzhen is today one of the most livable cities in China, with extensive parks, tree-lined streets and the largest fleet of electric buses in the world (16,000), along with all-electric cabs.

Shenzhen aims to have 80 percent of its new buildings green-certified by 2020. It is full of apartment blocks, office towers and modern factories with advanced equipment manufacturing, robotics, automation and giant tech startups.

America's sunset.

For the last 10 years wages have been stagnant in Hong Kong while rents have increased 300 percent; it is the most expensive city in the world. In Shenzhen, wages have increased 8 percent every year, and more than 1 million new, public, green housing units at low rates are nearing completion.

United States Demands

The U.S. is demanding that China abandon state support of its industries, the ownership of its banks and national planning. But contrasting the decay, growing poverty and intense alienation in Hong Kong with the green vibrant city of Shenzhen across the river shows that there are two choices for China today, including the angry forces mobilized in Hong Kong: modern socialist planning or a return to the super-exploitation and imperialist domination of the colonial past.

For decades Britain and the U.S. used the people of Hong Kong for cheap labor. Now they are using the same population for cheap political propaganda. This cynical maneuver is just one more weapon in a desperate effort to disrupt China’s further development.

U.S. corporate power is incapable of meeting any of the desperate needs for housing, health care, education and a healthy environment for people here. Instead, in a relentless drive for profits, enormous resources are squandered on militarism to threaten countries around the world.

Today…

The Hong Kong protests are escalating, just as the US-China trade war is also escalating. None of this is out of the blue.

For quite some time now, the US has been shifting the focus of its hegemonic and imperial ambitions towards China, recognizing it – even more than Russia – as its main rival superpower.

Author Graham Allen published his 2017 book entitled Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? addressing growing US-China tension and the potential for a future US-China war.

James Corbett also offered his analysis. 

The term Thucydides trap is derived from ancient  Greece to describe a situation when a rising power gains enough  strength to challenge and disturb the existing ruling power. With this  phenomenon in mind, let’s take a look at the background to the current US-China trade war (which is becoming more bitter and intense by the week) and the Hong Kong Protests.

Identifying the Enemy

Quotes from top US officials, military and non-military alike, show that China has gradually been replacing Russia as the #1 enemy, although this is not clear cut; there is still a lot of hatred towards and fear of Russia. 

In 2018, the USA changed its official defense strategy.

Terrorism was no longer the #1 threat and was replaced by Russia and China.

The DoD report accused China of wielding predatory economics and building fake islands in the South China Sea to intimidate nearby countries. 

“China remains our biggest long-term challenge.  Without focused involvement and engagement by the United States, and our  allies and partners, China will realize its dream of hegemony in Asia.”

- Admiral Harry Harris, former commander of the US Pacific Command, said this about China in 2018.

He also said this:

“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our  peril. I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international  rules-based order … China’s impressive military build-up could soon  challenge the United States across almost every domain.”

Earlier this year, DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:

“[The] rule of law, international norms, and fairness  in trade and international engagements is not the Chinese model …  Chinese leaders will increasingly seek to assert China’s model of  authoritarian capitalism as an alternative—and implicitly  superior—development path abroad, exacerbating great-power competition  that could threaten international support for democracy, human rights,  and the rule of law.”

- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:

Previously in 2018 Coats had followed Trump’s lead by blaming China for interfering in US elections (where have I heard that one before?). He stated:

“[China is targeting] state and local governments and officials … It  is trying to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on  policy, and uses investments and other incentives to expand its  influence.”

- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:

All this rhetoric comes against a backdrop of intertwined economies, where many US companies have outsourced and offshored their labor to China.

Targeting Chinese Institutions, Initiatives and Projects

The US has taken a dim view of practically every Chinese effort to develop itself in the last decade.

  • The US has opposed China’s gigantic OBR (One Belt, One Road) Initiative which has been dubbed the New Silk Road.
  • The US has directed propaganda against BRICS, China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), its development bank and many other trade initiatives.

The US accuses China of trying to control the world, yet such accusations must be difficult to receive with a straight face given that the US routinely threatens both its allies and enemies with economic warfare, sanctions, trade wars, governmental overthrow, invasion or even nuclear annihilation if they don’t toe the American line.

Funding and Training Muslim Uyghurs – Sometimes as Part of ISIS

You may not have heard of them, but there is a Chinese minority group known as the Uyghurs or Uighurs. Many are Muslim and of Turkic ethnicity. They live in the semi-autonomous region of north-west China in a province called Xinjiang.

Well, guess what?

The United States government has been funding them to aggressively fight against the Chinese government.

The funny thing is that a little bit of effort and the whole thing  becomes apparent even through the traditional media reports.  Recall  that early media reports said there were 1.7 million protesters  "according to the organiser's estimates". Once you remember that, then  every time you hear millions is a hint to look up the Police estimate  (150k) and estimates of maximum numbers in space available - also 150k  or thereabouts.

 More stories hint of high protester numbers but don't mention numbers  -so check the accompanying pictures and videos - we a few thousand (ie  well down on ever factual early numbers) and more recently just a few  hundred.  Police violence - yet every picture or video show large  numbers of police acting very very peaceably (compare Paris).  HK  democracy - yet all the pictures recently have been exclusively of  masked blackshirts and if you dig deep most of the violence has been  blackshirt on passers by.

 There must be picture editors who are stunned by the reports they run.

 And obviously the story they are all looking for is the China overreaction that was never going to happen.

 The whole thing runs in parallel with the obvious Ujghur 1 million in  prison lie (it would be equivalent to every male aged 16-29) where the  only witnesses to speak to western journalists have been fed to the  press in Istanbul.  We all know that Chinese muslims in Istanbul are  going to or already in ISIS.  James Le Mesurier doing a little extra  press feeding in his spare time.

- Posted by: Michael Droy | Nov 22 2019 22:17 utc | 29

So when ever you hear, or read about the Chinese concentration camps and the imprisonment of those “poor” Uyghur Muslims, keep in mind that it is the Untied States that has the largest prison population in the world. China doesn’t even come close.

The United States is THE prison nation, and locks up more citizens than any other nation on the surface of the earth, and has put more people in prison behind bars than Hitler did in Nazi Germany, Stalin did in the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Compared to China, it's not even on the "radar screen".
The United States is THE prison nation, and locks up more citizens than any other nation on the surface of the earth, and has put more people in prison behind bars than Hitler did in Nazi Germany, Stalin did in the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Compared to China, it’s not even on the “radar screen”.

So America is great because of “freedom” and “liberty” and protections afforded by the “Bill of Rights”, Eh?

The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to  place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so  that the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans without  charge is reaffirmed immediately.

On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest  made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the  federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in  the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA.  

Judge Forrest ruled that  a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens  suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without  due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be  stripped of that ability immediately. 

- White House demands military prisons for Americans under NDAA

The bullshit is amazing to me!

In America, you can get incarcerated for the tiniest of reasons, or commit enormous crimes and be totally immune from prosecution.
In America, you can get incarcerated for the tiniest of reasons, or commit enormous crimes and be totally immune from prosecution.

We all need to look at things objectively and at the “big picture”. Just why is the United States government pushing the anti-China narrative? Why are they making a big deal of “concentration camps for Muslim terrorists” when the largest number of inmates are in the USA itself? What is going on?

Follow the money trail…

Neocon Marco Rubio, and warhawk, sponsored this 2018 bill pushing the US to get involved.

Rubio, for those who don’t recall, was the very same guy itching for war with Venezuela earlier this year in 2019. War is so great with these people. They think that America will forever be isolated and protected and war can never come to roost inside the United States.

"I think China needs to stop interfering in the internal affairs of  the United States because our treatment of Hong Kong is an internal  matter," says @MarcoRubio.

 https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1197511188092985345

He was also the one who mysteriously happened to find out before almost anyone else that Venezuelans’ power grid has been taken down.

Hmmm. 

Hong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the US’s own political and economic interests’ 
 
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong  Kong opposition leaders are collaborating with regime-change  neoconservatives in Washington to “preserve the US’s own political and  economic interests.” A new DC lobbying front has become their base of  operations.

The Grayzone piece linked above misses the real man behind the  lobbying. Andrew Duncan who is a main sponsor of Senator Marco Rubio who  is the main promoter on the hill for "activist" and U.S. darling Joshua  Wong. Duncan is also one of the producers (financiers) of a film about Wong.

Watchdog group files complaint in shadowy gift to super PAC aiding Marco Rubio

An  election watchdog organization filed a complaint Friday with the  Federal Election Commission over a $500,000 donation to a super  political action committee aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed  by a New York investor.

 ...

The complaint from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in  Washington, or CREW, seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the  donation and to determine whether the Conservative Solutions PAC was  aware of the origins of the contribution. The actual donor, Andrew  Duncan, of Brooklyn, New York, acknowledged to the Associated Press  earlier this month that he had routed his contribution through IGX, a  business entity registered last year in Delaware. 

- Posted by: b | Nov 22 2019 20:17 utc | 12

However, much of the funding is done under-the-table by the soft power network of NGOs, illustrious among them the National Endowment for Democracy of NWO (New World Order) insider George Soros.

Uyghurs in Xinjiang

The UHRP (Uyghur Human Rights Project) admits on its website that it was “founded by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 2004 with a supporting grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).”

 Got the following email today from my "representative" U.S. Senator  Jeff Merkley (for whom I have never voted) on the reason for his vote:  "The world is watching, and we must step up to hold the Chinese  government accountable. Please know that I will continue to fight for an  America that brings moral leadership to the international stage."

 Merkley remains the darling of self-styled Oregon "progressives", who  have no clue about the real meaning of moral leadership.  He pulled a  stunt a year ago trying to get into an immigration gulag and was refused  entry.  He conveniently forgot to mention that privatized corporate  immigration gulags were established by Democrats under President Obama. 

 I used to call his office to express my opinion, but no longer bother, he's just another war party flack.

- Posted by: Trisha | Nov 22 2019 22:22 utc | 31

Since when does the USG deeply care about oppressed minorities in other nations? It’s a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it this time: if – and only if – US interests are aligned with that minority, and for the (usually short) time period the interests are aligned.

In his article Turkish-Uyghur Terror Inc. – America’s Other Al Qaeda, geopolitical author Tony Cartalucci writes:

“The alleged “struggle” by the Uyghur people in  Xinjiang, referred to by the terrorists and their foreign sponsors as  “East Turkistan,” consists of two essential components – a foreign  harbored political front including the Washington D.C. and Munich-based  World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a militant front clearly backed by the  US and NATO through intermediary groups like Turkey’s Grey Wolves …  Encouraging separatism in China’s western Xinjiang region, if  successful, would carve off a substantial amount of territory. In  conjunction with US-backed separatism in China’s Tibet region, an  immense buffer region stands to be created that would virtually isolate  China from Central Asia.”

So, just as the US funded and trained Operation Gladio warriors to fight communism in Europe, Mujahideen fighters to battle the USSR, ISIS to battle Syria, it is also preparing for war with China by funding and training the ‘separatists’, whoever they may be, in this case the Uyghurs.

In another article, all the way back in 2014, Cartalucci quoted a Reuters article that admitted that ISIS was training the Uyghurs:

“Chinese militants from the  western region of Xinjiang have fled from the country to get “terrorist  training” from Islamic State group fighters for attacks at home, state  media reported on Monday.”

Initiating a Trade War

There is no doubt that it was the US under Trump who initiated the US-China trade war. As such, these series of HK protests are part of the negotiating strategy.

The U.S. does not understand China.  In addition to little Marco's bill We support HK rioters there is shoot them in the foot conflict on policy.

Over the last 4 days

Ban Huawei. 
No, we won't. 
Yes, we will.
No. License Granted to Microsoft to Export 'Mass-Market Software' to Huawei
Yes, Ban Huawei: FCC Votes 5-0 To Ban China's Huawei, ZTE From Gov't Subsidy Program

- Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 22 2019 22:32 utc | 32

Even before he took office, Trump took to twitter bashing China for its supposed economic exploitation of the US. Trump says the objective is a better trade deal with China to benefit all Americans, but this trade war is producing a massive fallout and host of negative effects for American consumers, farmers and manufacturers.

Chris Kanthan writes:

“How about China’s economy? Are Trump’s tariffs  crushing the Chinese economy? Not really. During Jan-May 2019, China’s  exports to the US fell about 5%, but China’s exports to the EU rose more  than 14%. And, guess what, EU is China’s #1 trading partner (and ASEAN  is the #2 trade partner), while the US is #3. So, China keeps growing at  a healthy pace — even the IMF predicts a healthy 6.2% real GDP growth  for China this year!
But here’s the kicker. While China’s exports to the US fell 4.8%,  the reverse — US exports to China — fell by a whopping 24% (for the  first five months of 2019). So, US exporters and farmers are hurting  real bad. And Trump cannot win re-election without the support of those  “great soybean/corn/pork farmers.””

Instigating a Color Revolution by way of the Hong Kong Protests

One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian.

China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. But, you know what, they are going to hold back. They will not give the USA what it so obviously wants.

The idea behind the protests and the rioters In Hong Kong was all along to provoke another Tian An Men incident. This was quite obvious since the start of the protest. It now gets publicly acknowledged:

 BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight - 11:00 UTC · Nov 19, 2019 “Some of the protesters seem to have an objective to provoke a  military confrontation with China. They seem to want a Tiananmen Square  outcome as success.”

 Fmr Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt says he is “concerned with the tactics” with some of #HongKong’s protesters.
 
 Had China moved troops to Hong Kong, or allowed more force to be used  against the protesters, the U.S. would have used that to press its  allies to put strong sanctions on China. The protesters' violence was  designed to achieve that outcome. The plan was part of the larger U.S.  strategy of decoupling from China.

 The plan failed because China was too smart to give the U.S. what it  wanted. Now it is Trump who is under pressure. He needs the trade deal  with China because the current trade war is doing harm to the U.S.  economy and endangers his reelection.

 Which is probably the real reason why the protests have died down.

- Posted by b on November 22, 2019 at 19:02 UTC | Permalink

There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference).

Here is a very telling comment about the Hong Kong protests found under the article Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage on the MoonOfAlabama.org website:

“The Extradition Law revision that started this was  only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos.  The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who  started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with  operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the  Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot  strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the  carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because  HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex  against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and  churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s  economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the  Extradition Law is all about …”
“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the  intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do  violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business  … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their  foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”
“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an  estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents).  That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land  (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you  think? What are they all there for?”

And yes, there is proof. The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.

The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law. 
Remember – the NED now does overtly what the CIA did covertly decades ago. Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, confessed that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

Update

Update 28JUN20. Donald Trump decided to stop funding the protests in Hong Kong.

Conclusion

NED has been equipping the HK protestors out of CIA enclaves inside of Hong Kong.
NED has been equipping the HK protestors out of CIA enclaves inside of Hong Kong.

To an American, I sound like some kind of Chinese lover / Communist sympathizer. But the difference between myself and Joe and Suzy average is that I LIVE HERE. I see the changes and the differences FIRST HAND.

I can compare things directly, and I don’t need to be told what to believe by an actor playing a newscaster on television.

I'm a Hongkonger, so allow me to inject some perspectives here as a  very concerned onlooker to what is happening.  I'd admit my views are in  the slim minority among fellow Hongkongers, and likely be laughed off  as a conspiracy-theory monger or a Commie groupie.  
 
The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient  proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos.  The instigators  behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy  Central five years ago.  They are the ones who huddle with operatives  from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the  Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot  strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the  carnage.  Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because  HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex  against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and  churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK's  economic realities. Most of the protesters don't even know what the  Extradition Law is all about, but what the heck, it seemed like a good  party to participate in, no?
 
The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies.   They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence; they  know the Basic Law and its fuzzy edges; they know the influences of  clergy/university,high-school teachers; they know the fifth column  within the government and business; they know HKers' irrational  sensitivity towards so-called world opinions; they know that the foreign  judges (which consist of 95% of the court) and foreign press are  solidly behind them.  Thus, they wanted to sock it to China; the more  direly the better.  If large casualties result what do they care?  None  of their own children were among the crowd and casualties would surely  enlarge that blackeye they were to deliver. And they know their foreign  backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese.
 
Like someone said in posts before mine, this incident is more similar  to Maidan than any other color revolution prior.  US/UK/Taiwan/Oz/Japan  are enjoying their 5-minutes of glory and celebration at this point.   The blowback, however, will come years and decades later.
 
By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an  estimated 200 CIA agents), UK's is over 500 (among them MI6 agents).   That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land  (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anormaly, wouldn't you  think?  What are they all there for?
 
-Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 14 2019 19:22 utc | MoA

The USA is collapsing, and like a snarling, rabid dog is snapping and thrashing about as it plummets further and further into the black, black abyss. The idea that somehow, the USA can wrestle back some of it’s old “greatness” by stalling the rise of China is a chimera.

America the ntation that was founded as a republic no longer exists.
America the nation that was founded as a republic no longer exists. it has been replaced with something different. First a “democracy”. Then after untold number of amendments, “mob rule”. Then with the consolidation of the mainstream press, an oligarchy.

It’s just an illusion. It’s not going to happen.

Evil Outlaw US Empire planners in their hubristic zeal to decouple  from China's economy erred massively in thinking China would be the one  harmed and come begging for a trade deal. Instead, China's geoeconomic  strategy is clearly working and is more potent than what the Empire can  bring to the table--Oops! China can now play Trump. 
  
- Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 22 2019 21:16 utc | 20

But in the meantime, these are dangerous times we live in, and Nuclear warfare is nothing to trifle with.

A reassessment of American republican democracy.

What the American media is showing are distortions and lies. They are dangerous.

To understand what is going on you need to see the FULL picture. Not only what the “deep state” wants you to see to the exclusion of all else.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

Fats about China
The US involvement in the HK "Democracy Now" movement.
Uyghurs in Xinjiang
How the USA can win a trade war.
Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.
China's Global Leadership
When foreign interventionism goes terribly wrong; how the CIA botched up the integration of China into the USA sphere of influence. Here we discuss the plan that the American empire had to ensnare the globe under the yoke of "democracy" which was really just serfdom under global oligarchy. We look at what went wrong and steps being taken to take control of the situation.
Popular Music of China
The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.
Hong Kong and the NED CIA operations.
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year
Trade Wars
How to get work in China if you have HIV.

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions
A polarized world.
America's sunset.
Trump trade wars - Phase One
Asshole

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Wolf Disco
Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Some fun videos of China - 1
Fun Videos of Asia - 2
Fun videos of Asia - 3
Fun videos of Asia - 4
Fun Videos of Asia - 5
Fun videos of Asia - 6
Fun videos of Asia - 7
Fun videos of Asia - 8
Fun videos of Asia - 9
Fun videos of Asia - 10
Fun videos of Asia - 11
Fun videos of Asia - 12
Fun videos of Asia - 13
Fun videos of Asia - 14
Fun Videos of Asia - 15
Fun videos of Asia -16
The best way to cook marshmallows.

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

  • You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

The sunset of the United States Empire, it’s not going quietly into the night, and it could get ugly.

This is a pretty decent article that I found on the Sign Of The Times network. It pretty much enunciates what I have been observing for some time. It’s well written and as such.

I am reprinting this directly as published. All credit to the author, and I would suggest that the reader click on the link and honor all their effort in writing this article.

It’s got a terrible title, but (shrug) what can you do?

This article discusses how America (and by extension, Americans) hold on to the title and respect that they inherited from their forefathers. America inherited being the world’s leader militarily, socially, economically, culturally, and spiritually.

However, those that took over, during the last 60 years, squandered what they were given. In many cases destroyed what was built up, created, and established. And replaced it with something else. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, look up “culture wars”.)

As America crumbles, people naturally try to hold on to what is no longer healthy and viable. That is what we are witnessing today. With China being the rising competitor.

Thus this article.

Technical note: When the author refers to typical American / UK statements (well known to all us expats), the background is set as light grey. My comments are in raw format.

Yellow Peril, Sinophobia and Red Scare – USA is on a Dangerous Path 

C.K. Voltaire
Sott.net
Sat, 12 Oct 2019 08:58 UTC

In the 1980s, American elites feared the rise of economic powerhouse Japan, but managed to contain its competitor because Japan was at root a vassal state occupied by the US military. 

Fair enough.

However, China’s rise today is a different story altogether. With 1.4 billion people, the largest economy in the world (by GDP at purchasing power parity – PPP), and an independent foreign policy, China’s rise heralds the beginning of a multi-polar world. 

Obvious to most of the world, if not Americans.

The ‘American Century’ is over, but Americans cannot accept the fact that they – 5% of the world’s population – cannot rule the other 95% forever. American entitlement and hubris are causing many to lash out and embark on a path that is perilous both to themselves and the world. 

Yes. It's the "Fourth Turning" baby, and it's gonna get nasty.

Incongruent Fear and Loathing

Let’s take a look at some illogical American talking points used in the smear campaign against China:

“China is going to collapse soon!”

If Americans really believed this, they would sit back, smile and ignore China.

“China is going to take over the world!”

This paranoid warning usually follows the delusional, “China will collapse” claim. Make up your mind!

“Our free market is the best and China is communist!”

Americans conveniently forget that the US government subsidizes farmers, Big Pharma and the military-industrial-complex with hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Also, when developing nations subsidize Western corporations, it’s applauded as smart business; but when developing nations help their domestic firms, it’s vilified as socialism or communism.

What’s even more interesting is that China now has more publicly traded companies than the US!

There’s more competition in “communist” China than in the “capitalist” US. For example, the US has only one smartphone company (Apple), while China has Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, ZTE, OnePlus, Transsion, etc.

Finally, comparing the economic growth of the US and China over the last four decades, no one can reasonably say that the US is superior to the China model:

comparing the economic growth of the US and China over the last four decades, no one can reasonably say that the US is superior to the China model
Comparing the economic growth of the US and China over the last four decades, no one can reasonably say that the US is superior to the China model.

“China isn’t open! It discriminates against US corporations!”

This is often accompanied by, “We should decouple from China!” This ‘logic’ hurts the brain.

Also, while demanding that China treat American companies just like Chinese companies, the US has placed 140 Chinese companies under the “entity list,” meaning they can’t do business with US corporations or the government.

“China censors Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc.”

This is followed by, “OMG! There are Chinese bots and trolls flooding our social media. Ban them, please!”

“China steals everything”

China has been #1 in both scientific publications and patents for the last few years. Why?

  • Answer; China spends $300 billion a year on R&D and graduates 8 times as many STEM graduates as the US.
  • Chinese companies like Huawei, Alibaba and SenseTime are leapfrogging over the US in AI software, AI chips, database software, 5G etc.
  • And young Chinese people have the “9-9-6” work ethic – they work 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week.

Well, it’s like sports where partisan supporters are certain that the other team won only by cheating.

“China forced US corporations into technology transfer”

In exchange for technology, China offered generous subsidies and tax cuts that allowed US corporations to make trillions of dollars over the last 40 years.

To put it succinctly: China bought the technology from American, European, Japanese and Korean companies. Americans didn’t mind the technology transfer, because they never thought that China could compete – after all, China merely employs slave labor to make crappy products, right?

“China is a totalitarian government! We are so amazing because we have Democracy!”

Democracy in America is a joke.

As Joseph Stiglitz, former Chief Economist of the World Bank said, “America is of the 1%, by the 1% and for the 1%.”

The Chinese government is based on meritocracy and has a 90% approval rate. While it’s not perfect, it has done a remarkable job in the last 40 years by lifting 800 million people out of poverty and creating the world’s largest middle class.

Also, note that the US never tries to spread democracy in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, etc.

‘Freedom and democracy’ propaganda is a selective tool, not anchored to any consistent values or principles worthy of being called such.

Atrocity Propaganda

Like “Saddam threw babies out of incubators” or “Assad uses chemical weapons,” the US started the “1 million Chinese Muslims in concentration camps” narrative in early 2018.

While hundreds of diplomats and journalists from all over the world have visited these re-education camps in Xinjiang, the US establishment sticks to its pathetic atrocity propaganda.

It’s not even remotely true. Not in the least.

When that desperate narrative fizzled out, whoever is responsible for conducting psy-ops in Washington DC restarted the “organ-harvesting” fake news with the help of Falun Gong and the World Uyghur Congress, both of which are funded by the US.

No matter how absurd or sensationalist, it’s never a “conspiracy theory” when it’s about China, Russia, Iran or any other geopolitical competitor.

Racism and Yellow Peril

Behind all this anti-China propaganda is deep-seated racism in Americans that cannot accept the Chinese as equals.

If confronted about racism, Americans would say, “I only hate the Chinese government, not the people.”

However, this is clearly disproved by how Americans behave on social media, where any article that’s negative about China instantly goes viral; and positive news about China gets ignored or even down-voted.

‘Yellow Peril syndrome’ is deeper among those in the US establishment.

The right-wing is more blatant and sensational: 

"The Chinese aren't smarter. They CHEAT," tweeted Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. 

A US State Department official said, "It's the first time that we will have a great power competitor that is not Caucasian." 

The FBI Director upped the ante and called China a "whole-of-society threat."

Like George Orwell’s ‘Two Minutes Hate‘, the US media and social media influencers — Kyle Bass, Gordon Chang, Charlie Kirk, General Rob Spalding etc. — spew insane anti-Chinese hatred every day to rile up the mob.

Censorship

As Rania Khalek pointed out, corporate media is filled with spooks and US government officials acting as “analysts.”

Sadly, social media giants are also acting as state propaganda outlets. Google, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Medium etc. are all actively purging pro-China voices, while tolerating what amounts to hate speech.

Nathan Rich – an American living in China – illustrated how YouTube actively worked against him. 

For example, his subscriber  numbers would go down substantially, people could only dislike his  videos but could not like them, his videos wouldn't show up in searches,  etc. 

Twitter also purges pro-China people, but if there's a huge outcry  - like when they deleted Carl Zha's account - the thought police would quietly reinstate a handful of the victims.

Anyone who’s remotely pro-China on social media is vilified as a Chinese bot or a “Wumao” – a person who supposedly works for 50 cents/hour to spread Chinese propaganda. 

This is where the "fifty-center" meme came from.

On Reddit, there’s a sub-group called “r/China” with 120,000 members. But you won’t find anything positive or neutral about China in that group — it’s a sewer of racism and hatred. And people who post positive news about China also get banned or attacked by online mobs. 

As an aside, I (Metallicman) was banned on Free Republic in October 2019 because I posted a positive article reporting on Hong Kong events. That is amazing as I was a long time member (20+ years!) to Free Republic with over 8,000+ posted articles. No warning. No email. No excuse or reasons given. Just erased me and my my history. Zilch!

That is what Jim Robinson has become. Just another Software mogul in the United States.Snubbing his nose at us "little guys" that made FR popular.

From corporate media to social media, only one-sided sensational claims are allowed.

The concept of ‘freedom of speech and expression’ in the US is a farce.

Conclusion

The USA is exhibiting all the symptoms of late-stage capitalism or a dying empire — deep internal divisions, extreme wealth inequality, exploding debt, brainwashed masses, overextended military, and paranoia about geopolitical competition.

Meanwhile, China has a lot of room to grow, since its GDP-per-capita is still only $10,000 overall and $20,000 in big cities. China’s strategy is to keep calm, maintain growth, expand trade, and become technologically independent by 2025 — especially in semiconductors. By 2030, China’s nominal GDP will be larger than that of the US; and Asia will account for 40% of global GDP.

If China can successfully navigate all the proxy and hybrid wars waged by a belligerent America in the next decade, then China and Eurasia will be the shining stars of this century.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

The US involvement in the HK "Democracy Now" movement.
How the USA can win a trade war.
Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.
China's Global Leadership
Popular Music of China
The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.
Hong Kong and the NED CIA operations.
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year
Trade Wars
How to get work in China if you have HIV.

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Some fun videos of China - 1
Fun Videos of Asia - 2
Fun videos of Asia - 3
Fun videos of Asia - 4
Fun Videos of Asia - 5
Fun videos of Asia - 6
Fun videos of Asia - 7
Fun videos of Asia - 8
Fun videos of Asia - 9
Fun videos of Asia - 10
Fun videos of Asia - 11
Fun videos of Asia - 12
Fun videos of Asia - 13
Fun videos of Asia - 14
Fun Videos of Asia - 15
Fun videos of Asia -16
The best way to cook marshmallows.

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

  • You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

How the USA can win a Trade War with China

As I write this, the “Trump trade war with China” in on it’s third year. It has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride, and today I can definitely say that, contrary to what the mainstream American media reports, China is just happy as can be waiting the “trade war” out.

  • China is not starving, ready to collapse towards famine.
  • There aren’t layoffs of millions of people
  • Huawei hasn’t collapsed, and sitting by waiting for America to develop 5G technology

Here, we review the current state of affairs between the USA and China in the building “cold economic war”, and then investigate options that can move the trade war as a positive win for America. Because right now, it is just floundering. And the only ones really getting “dinged” by it are the Americans that have to pay higher prices for their manufactured products.

This article is all about making America #1.

But first, we need to see things as they actually are. Not as how we want them to be. In many cases that means that we must erase some preconceived notions that we might hold dearly.

To help a person that has collapsed in the street, you need to know WHY he collapsed. Was it heat stroke? A heart attack? A gun shot wound? Or, was he just sleepy. You need to know the TRUE situation in order to provide the proper assistance.

Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.

The Lose-Lose scenario

At the start of the Donald Trump presidency, myself and others sincerely believed that the trade disagreements between the USA and China could be resolved. We believed in a win-win scenario. One in which both side so the table came back with something resembling success. A win-win for everyone.

But, unfortunately, that did not happen.

Instead, what developed was a policy of “lose – lose”. That is to say, that both sides would lose. However, the idea was for Chinese to lose much more than America would. Thus it would be a positive gain for America, and thus provide the USA with a greater amount of bargaining power.

  • The USA would lose a little bit, but recover quickly.
  • The Chinese would lose a lot, and maybe not recover for decades.

Personally, there is no doubt in my mind that this lose-lose strategy is a NeoCon strategy.

Because it is complete and utter nonsense, and has no bearing what so ever on reality.

As such, it is no surprise that it would be enforced, embraced and cultivated by Neocons within the trump administration. For every time it looked like the trade issues would be resolved, there would be some kind of problem. And each and every problem resolved around a Neocon-related issue.

I like to point my fingers at war-monger extraordinaire John Bolton, but I could be wrong.

To Bolton, the support of allies is proof of US military weakness, not diplomatic strength and he is yet to meet an arms control agreement he likes. The latest casualty amidst their wreckage of the pillars of the US-crafted global order is the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
To Bolton, the support of allies is proof of US military weakness, not diplomatic strength and he is yet to meet an arms control agreement he likes. The latest casualty amidst their wreckage of the pillars of the US-crafted global order is the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

How and Why

Why in the heck would anyone really want a lose-lose situation? Really, it’s crazy right? I mean, why go to a restaurant that has discount week-old meals for a cheap price when you know that you are going to get sick afterwards? Why do it?

Maybe on the HOPE that there is a CHANCE that you won’t get sick.

The understanding on how anyone would possibly want a lose-lose trade agreement is clear once you see the distortions of reality that neocons live under.

  • China is forever a third-world nation.
  • America is a long-term first-world nation.
  • China is dependent on the United States for labor, food, and status.
  • America doesn’t need China, and we can reopen all our factories again easily.

Each and everyone of these assumptions parrot the American mainstream press. And, as such, each and everyone is completely and absolutely wrong. It’s what Americans WANT to believe, not what is really going on.

PHOTO---China is not what the American mainstream press says it is. Instead it is something else. The mainstream American press produces "news" and "reports" that appeal to American emotions. Not to provide them facts and information. Remember, the only way that America can operate efficiently is with a just and well-informed populace.
China is not what the American mainstream press says it is. Instead it is something else. The mainstream American press produces “news” and “reports” that appeal to American emotions. Not to provide them facts and information. Remember, the only way that America can operate efficiently is with a just and well-informed populace.

People!

A healthy America requires an educated and well-informed populace. Otherwise, America is doomed to suffer through the mistakes of the mass-mob, as well as the manipulations by those that control them.

Changing things around.

Right now, the trade situation is at a standstill.

  • China is waiting everything out. They will let events play out. For they play “the long game’.
  • America is willing to suffer though events as they transpire. They believe that China is feeling the same kinds of pressures that Americana feel. For Americans believe that the Chinese, just like Americans, play the “short game”.

The only thing is… China just isn’t experiencing any kind of serious pressures.

In reality, for the Chinese owned businesses, it’s all just a slight down-tick in trade and a very slight increase in prices on imported goods. The ones that are hurting are the American businesses that operate within China. They are feeling the vast brunt of the trade-wars, as well as their support networks. Most of which are HK based.

 "The Trump administration made a very serious miscalculation in launching the ‘trade war’ with China. It believed that either, or both, the leadership of China would submit to the Trump administrations threats or the Chinese population would not be prepared for a serious struggle with the US. Both calculations have proved entirely wrong. China’s leadership did not surrender to but hit back against the US attacks. Furthermore anyone who follows China’s domestic discussion, on what is now by far the world’s largest internet community, knows that this line was strongly supported by the Chinese population." 

- China prepares for economic ‘prolonged war’ with Trump

The big issue in China today, and I can tell you this personally, is that there is a global slowdown going on. This slowdown was triggered by the Trump Tariff wars, but was not caused by them. The global slowdown was forecast for years, and China has long prepared for it.

The Chinese play the "long game" and plan in terms of centuries. American play the "short game" and plan on quarterly results (once ever three months).

Thus, as far as the tariff situation is concerned, they are just content to let things play out and allow America to eat itself alive…

Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.

China is playing the “long game”. America is playing the “short game” (quarter by quarter). In this situation, the “long game” favors China. The “short game” harms America.

One of the reasons why these authoritarian regimes like China are much  more popular in the eyes of millennials around the world than among  older generations, is that the younger people feel at least China  focuses on the future, invests a huge part of their economic product  into the future, and have a plan. 

Look at the United States. Look at  these countries today. They’re unable to focus on anything beyond next  month. They can’t even formulate a budget. They can’t get anything  through Congress. And all they’re doing is embarrassing themselves. 

-McAlvanay

In the long run, the United States can be harmed immensely unless this situation does not turn around.

First Steps

The very first thing that needs to happen is to do a deep purge of the neocons in the White-house.

President Trump's agenda is at odds at the neocon agenda. In many ways they are direct opposites.

These people do not want any kinds of win-win trade situation. Instead, their world view is one of “us vs. them”. They believe that there can only be two types of people in the world; The “hammers” and the “anvils”.

Neocons hold a mid-1850s midset.
Neocons hold a mid-1850s mindset. They think in terms of nations, wars, and geographical conquest. They do so at the expense of understanding the Earth as a living (kind of) organism that we all inhabit.

Here’s my narrative on one of these neocons. Open it up, as it will open up in a new tab. Read it. All neocons are the same. They do not love America, American conservatism or tradition. They love power and empire building.

Asshole

They believe that there can only be one leader in the world, and that is the United States. They believe this because we have “democracy!” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean). The rest of the world is to live under our subjugation.

No other relationship is possible.

Now, Donald Trump did actually purge neocon John Bolton from his staff, and then immediately contacted Xi Peng in China wanting to resume trade talks.

The American media of course does not associate the firing of Bolton with China. To them, it's all just a coincidence. Bolton was fired for other reasons, like Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and Syria.

According to the mainstream American press, calling China and Bolton’s firing within minutes of each other was just a coincidence. Nothing more.

What China is

The way that Donald Trump tells it, China’s manufacturing sector is  close to collapse, fatally wounded by Washington’s tariffs on Chinese  imports.

 Last month the American president was celebrating how China’s supply  chain was “breaking up like a toy because companies are moving out”. A  few days later he talked again about how Beijing was desperate to call a  halt to the trade row. “You know why they want to make a deal?” he  crowed. “Because they’re losing their jobs, because their supply chain  is going to hell and companies are moving out of China and they’re  moving to lots of other places, including the United States.”

 But if Trump’s tariffs really are designed to torpedo China’s manufacturing base, he may have to think again.

 Washington will have announced levies on about $550 billion of  Chinese goods, when the full tariff quotas come into effect at the end  of this year. That could affect up to 5% of China’s manufacturing  capacity, according to calculations from Qu Hongbin and Jingyang Chen,  two economists at HSBC.

 But the impact of the tariffs isn’t going to be the same across the  manufacturing sector at large. Much depends on the type of goods being  made. Lower-end, more labour intensive industries such as furniture and  textile production are taking the biggest hit, with companies shifting  their factory lines to countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh.  

-Week in China

China is many things. One thing it is not is what the neocons think. China has leap-frogged the USA in so many areas that it’s just too tiring to elaborate upon. Maybe one or two videos might help add some perspective in this matter.

Some facts. (Opens up in a separate tab.)

China's Global Leadership

But maybe we can ignore the charts, tables and figures. Not everyone can follow them. (Given the really poor state of education in the United States today.)

Rather than the charts of facts and figures that I have in other posts, some informal quick peeks into what is going on in China might be refreshing. Here are things that are EVERYDAY sights in China, but that you will not see in the United States.

For starters…

One of the first things that people are beginning to see when they cross into China and go through Chinese customs is a robotic customs officer. They will instruct you to input your biometics into the Chinese data base.

The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception technology and are able to listen, speak, learn, see and walk. Ten robots have started working as customs officers at three ports in China’s Guangdong province, authorities said. They were the first batch of intelligent robots, to be used by Chinese customs at the ports of Gongbei, Hengqin and Zhongshan, Xinhua news agency reported. The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception technology and are able to listen, speak, learn, see and walk. Based on a specialized customs database, the robots can answer questions in 28 languages and dialects, including Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Japanese. There are some particular problems they cannot solve, and customs officials said they will link the robots to their customer service hotline in the future. With face recognition technology, the robots can detect suspicious people and raise an alarm, according to Zhao Min, director of Gongbei customs.
The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception technology and are able to listen, speak, learn, see and walk. Ten robots have started working as customs officers at three ports in China’s Guangdong province, authorities said. They were the first batch of intelligent robots, to be used by Chinese customs at the ports of Gongbei, Hengqin and Zhongshan, Xinhua news agency reported.
The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception technology  and are able to listen, speak, learn, see and walk. Based on a  specialized customs database, the robots can answer questions in 28  languages and dialects, including Cantonese, Mandarin, English and  Japanese.  

There are some particular problems they cannot solve, and  customs officials said they will link the robots to their customer  service hotline in the future. With face recognition technology, the  robots can detect suspicious people and raise an alarm, according to  Zhao Min, director of Gongbei customs.

Then, once you leave customs, you walk out into the bright daylight and confront traffic. China has traffic galore as they are a very populous nation.

Check out this MICRO VIDEO of the amazing traffic technology being implemented in Chinese cities this year…

Chinese traffic lights. As 3D holographic laser light presentations. Meanwhile the USA is still using 1960’s technology in traffic control.

It’s not even funny how much the Chinese have pushed ahead of American technology. While American industry has been hiring “Diversity officers” to hire employees based on minority “disadvantage”, China doubled down and only hires and promotes on merit.

The Chinese are a serious people. They do not play around.

Their products are excellent. For instance, when President Trump shut off all the Huawei 5G products and development in the United States, China said fine. You see most of the Apple, Motorola, and LG products are all designed in China. (Aside from some leadership positions.) Not in the United States.

There will be a retreat in technological, educational, and manufacturing leadership. The attempts by Donald Trump to thwart the global strategic trade supply chain has not been successful, and only aggravates an already dire situation.
There will be a retreat in technological, educational, and manufacturing leadership. The attempts by Donald Trump to thwart the global strategic trade supply chain has not been successful, and only aggravates an already dire situation.

So all the Chinese workers, the engineers, the developers and the designers, they are all inside China. They live in China. They are Chinese, and are paid Chinese wages and salaries. So when the United States government started to crack down on this outsourcing, they politely bowed, and left. They left the American owned companies. They walked across the street. And then they joined the Chinese owned companies. No problem.

With this influx of American-trained talent, China just took off.

They sprinted ahead and are now galloping forward at a healthy clip. The American companies are now in a kind of funky planning stage on how to react to the disruptions in their supply chains.

Check out this MICRO VIDEO of the latest wrap-around visual technology in the new Huawei phones. Pretty darn impressive.

Almost all communication products are designed in China. So if American companies cannot hire the Chinese engineers to make the products, the Chinese companies would instead,

And of course, there is there growing drone and robotics industries. Both of which has dwarfed anything in the United States.

For instance, today all public fireworks displays in China come along with these lighted drone formations. These make an enormous three dimensional visual canvas. This is, I must admit, quite visually stunning. When I first saw this in 2014 I was stunned. And today, it is so very commonplace that no one seems to give it a second thought.

Check out the impressive swarm drones in this MICRO VIDEO below…

Chinese swarm drones.

It’s like those super modern high-speed trains everywhere. “Oh that thing? What you’ve never ridden in one before?”

High speed rail is fast, cheap, clean, economically and ecologically friendly. It is accessible, and a great way for getting from one point to another. There are no long TSA lines. The seats are big, roomy, and the ride is comfortable and smooth. And the cost. Well, the cost is about 1/6 the cost of an airline ticket.

Read more (opens in a separate tab) here…

Why no High-Speed rail in the USA?

People! Seriously, China got started about four decades ago, and kept on running. They are moving forward, and perhaps (from their point of view) it’s a good thing that people are oblivious just how quickly and far that they are advancing.

So you know they are advancing in robotics, and in synthetic memory and minds. How about sex toys? Are you aware of the quality and scope of the Chinese sex toy industry? It’s taking the world by storm, I’ll tell you what.

PHOTO-- Off the shelf standard sex doll. This one is warm to the touch, can talk and converse (in multiple languages) and has some limited mobility circuits.
Off the shelf standard sex doll. This one is warm to the touch, can talk and converse (in multiple languages) and has some limited mobility circuits.

Here’s another sex doll.

They come in a wide range of styles, shapes, weights and performance. Personally, if you are desirous of purchasing a sex robot, I would advise getting the premium model. They come with additional features that help mitigate the price tag amount.

PHOTO--This sex doll has limited functionality, being more a doll rather than a robot. However, it is totally and completely customizable. You can select anything from eye color, skin tone, body softwness, height, check size, and many other attributes.
This sex doll has limited functionality, being more a doll rather than a robot. However, it is totally and completely customizable. You can select anything from eye color, skin tone, body softness, height, check size, and many other attributes.

The point here is that everything from custom genetic designed pets, electric vehicles, to yes, even sex dolls are made in China and they are made well in China.

No one in America is apparently aware of this.

Go ahead, ask an American “China expert” on [1] the gongbei robotic customs officers, the [2] holographic traffic gates at cross-walks, the [3] 5G integration of Shenzhen, or [4] to name all the different makes and models of electric cars debuting out of China this year. He can’t.

And thus… he’s no “expert”.

Just an actor, pretending. He found a nitch a few years back and has been milking it over the years. But, you know, China is not America it’s rate of change is about 20x that of America’s. You need to really pay attention to keep up with all the changes.

Or else you will just be regurgitating “sound box” echo chamber narratives from like-minded individuals.

One of the many, many new housing subdivisions in China.

John Bolton actually stated in late September 2019 that (I am paraphrasing) “… the tariff wars has sent China back twenty years…”.

Twenty years, eh?

Ah, the ignorance is great in this one. Either that, or he has a tumor in his head. It’s a typical characteristic of neocons, don’t you know.

 Most of the companies in the US–China Business Council (an  organisation of about 200 American firms that trade with China) think  that investment will continue to flow. A full 97% of the council’s  members say their operations in China are profitable, and 87% report  that they have no plans to relocate any of their activities to other  countries.

 Some of the difficulties of ‘reshoring’ manufacturing jobs back to  the US were brilliantly revealed by the recent Netflix documentary American Factory too (see WiC464).

 In the meantime there is little sign that the Chinese supply chain is  being eroded, because of the tariff pressure from Washington.

 “Trump’s claim that an exodus of foreign firms will force China to  capitulate to US demands to settle the trade war is wishful thinking at  best,” Lardy concludes. 

-Week in China

Knowing the trade situation as it is, what can be done to salvage it?

That’s what this article is all about.

It’s about us taking a pragmatic, realistic look at the way things are, not at how we wish them to be, and planning on implementation of changes for our own personal benefit.

Let’s look at each issue and figure out how we can reduce or ameliorate the situation successfully. In so doing, let’s tackle the American mainstream (conservative & liberal) narratives. Let’s do it one, by one, and see how we can migrate things into “our” favor.

It sure beats sitting in a dark closet and trying to shoot darts at a target that we cannot see. Eh? Or, to put it another way. We don’t want to go around to tree after tree, pissing indiscriminately.

American mainstream media reporting on the trade wars.
American mainstream media reporting on the trade wars.

Here’s some Mainstream media issues, and what the “informed” American populace thinks about China. Let’s take each one, dissect it, and see what we can do about it. OK.

  • $500 B trade deficit.
  • Global Supply Chain.
  • Made in China is bad.
  • China is ripping the USA off!
  • Chinese are unable to buy American products.
  • Chinese products are poor quality, simple and break down.
  • Chinese workers are slaves that labor for nothing.
  • Fair Trade
  • Dumping products
  • Stealing IP
  • They are dirty Commies!
  • Tariffs will bring back jobs.

For starters let’s tackle the A-#1 reason why the trump Tariff Wars exist in the first place. It is because America is losing $500 billion dollars every year to China, and we (pretty much) need to reduce that amount in order for America to be vibrant, healthy and prosperous.

[Issue 1] We are losing $500 billion every year to China

This is based on the fact that we have a trade deficit in goods for about $500B. This is a fact, Jack.

But, what is the composition of that deficit? Where within that composition can we move things to our advantage, and what parts should we ignore as hopeless?

Well, when we study the deficit we note that it is only based on products. It doesn’t include services. And in this area we have a surplus with China. We export those services to China. There are things that they cannot do, but we can. It’s our strength.

I propose that we increase our strength in this area. Work on our strengths, not play to our weaknesses. No matter how good it sounds politically. Give and take.

We provide services. They give us products.

Why not put a tax on the services that we supply to China? That tax can then be used to offset the tariffs that Americans must pay in imported products.

Play on our strengths. It’s a win-win for Americans.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 2] The Global Supply chain.

Then there’s the global supply chain.

Today we have a global business environment, and no wishing for the “good old days” is going to put that “Genie back into the lamp”. That “train has left the station”.

China imports a lot of natural resources and components from other countries to manufacture and assemble the finished goods. China buys chromium from Africa, and that goes into the metal alloys in cell-phones, drone motors and automobile electronic chip-sets.

Now, China does import other raw materials.

And yes, they do import a lot of raw materials out of the United States. And, no, I’m not talking about wheat, rice, and barley. I’m talking about uranium, and other precious metals that we have. Not to mention coal. China wants our coal. China wants our natural gas. Why not give it to them?

…at a price, don’t you know.

Again, that little bit of extra cost to buy from Americans can be used to offset the imbalance in tariffs. It would be a win-win for the American consumer.

Continue our exports to China, only raise the prices on them. Not prohibitively high, but gradually over time. Another win – win for Americans. Be smart. Think long term.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 3] Made in China.

Not every product made in China is Chinese.

It’s not. Many Japanese, British, German, French, and yes… American products are made in China. Actually 40% of “Chinese” exports are actually products of foreign (multi-national) corporations based in China. Many of which are American owned.

You’d never hear that in the American mainstream media.

Like Apple and their iphone. Like all those hobby drones that you can buy in the stores. Like the automobile electronics found in all the Fords, General Motors and other American cars. They are all American, but manufactured in China.

They are all American products, manufactured, designed and built in China.

Check out this graph…

Chart of the Chinese exports of goods, broken down by resource type, over athe last ten years.
Chart of the Chinese exports of goods, broken down by resource type, over the last ten years.

Thus, all these “Chinese” goods, aren’t really Chinese at all. They may be American, Japanese, South Korean, German etc.

You see, it’s easy to consider trade as products from one nation to another. But the fact is that the way business, and manufacturing is conducted today does not resemble in any way the old “made here, stays here” formula.

We need to take that into account.

We could by law, force American companies to make their products in America. That is, forbidding them to manufacture parts and components outside of America. It would be a law specifically targeting “supply chain management” outside of the USA.

American products should be made in America. We can still buy from China, but those products that are made by American companies need to be made in America.

No tariffs that Americans need to pay. More jobs for Americans. Yet another win-win.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 4] China is ripping us off!

This is pretty much the narrative. It doesn’t matter if you are an American Conservative, a liberal, or a member of the American mainstream media, this is the mantra.

  • Cheap junk in Walmart – China’s fault!
  • High prices for iPhones – China’s fault!
  • Power tool breaks – China’s fault!

US oligarchs and corporations decided to move American jobs abroad not China.

China smiled and took the business. But, seriously, their attitude was "Meh, whatever!". You see, everyone was coming to China to manufacture their products. America had to stand in line.

They raked in the profits, and gave the American consumers some benefit in being able to purchase inexpensive goods.

They came to China with bucket loads of cash. They promised the Chinese the world and gave them blueprints, technical specifications and trained them how to make their products. Then they sat back, drank their chardonnay while the money poured in.

US oligarchs and corporations decided to move American jobs abroad not China. They raked in the profits, and gave the American consumers some benefit in being able to purchase inexpensive goods.
US oligarchs and corporations decided to move American jobs abroad not China. They raked in the profits, and gave the American consumers some benefit in being able to purchase inexpensive goods.

Yes.

Never forget, US consumers and businesses benefit from inexpensive Chinese goods and labor. So, let’s not blame China for the lost manufacturing jobs. If you want to do something about it instead of eternally complaining then…

…ONLY BUY AMERICAN.

What’s so darn hard about that?

So stop your moaning and groaning. Start today. Stop buying anything that even resembles something imported. Period. You cannot change the world, but you can change your little part of it. Begin now. Begin today.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 5] They don’t buy our products!

This is another outright lie that is somehow broadcast in the United States. The actual reality is quite different. The Chinese place a high value on American products. In fact, in terms of personal value, to a Chinese person, owning a Buick is about equal to owning a Lamborghini. Yes!

It’s one of those jaw-dropping things that boggles the mind of most Americans. For in America, a Buick is considered a robust typical family car. While in China, it is considered the height of luxury, good taste, while at the same time being fiercely loyal to one’s family.

  • In China, the Mary Kay company gives her top saleswomen pink Buicks.
  • Perhaps that’s all part of the reason why GM sells more cars in China than in the US.
  • Not to mention that Apple sells more iPhones in China than in the US.
  • For United States semiconductor giant, Qualcomm, 65% of their revenues come from China.
  • Boeing sold 1000 planes to China in the last five years. 

In fact, most major US corporations consider China as their #1 or #2 market. 

So, yes, China has a very open market and it buys a lot of American services and goods, but a lot of them happen to be made in China. Similarly, corporations such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC etc. profit enormously from their thousands of branches in China.

Starbucks continues to open thousands of new stores each year, mainly outside of the North American market. The company has a five-year plan with several goals to continue driving growth. Starbucks wants to be the employer of choice and invest in those employees who continue to deliver superior customer service. Starbucks has always been on the forefront of valuing employees, especially its part-time staff. The company has stated it will grow to 30,000 locations globally and work on creating new reasons for customers to visit its stores throughout the day.
Starbucks continues to open thousands of new stores each year, mainly outside of the North American market. The company has a five-year plan with several goals to continue driving growth. Starbucks wants to be the employer of choice and invest in those employees who continue to deliver superior customer service. Starbucks has always been on the forefront of valuing employees, especially its part-time staff. The company has stated it will grow to 30,000 locations globally and work on creating new reasons for customers to visit its stores throughout the day.

The Chinese love, just love American products. If you really want to offset the trade imbalance between the two nations, then sell more products to China. This means a retail presence inside of China and far greater social and industrial brands than what is presently established.

The Chinese end up buying more American products (especially if they are made in America) and the Americans take home more money. The Chinese are willing to PAY MORE money for an American product just by virtue of it’s reputation. Don’t squander this advantage.

Sell more products to China, they will be happy, and the Americans will be raking in the money. It’s a win – win for America.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 6] Chinese products are crap

If Chinese products are crap, why do Americans keep spending $500 billion a year on buying crappy things?

Are Americans stupid, or powerless to change things? Is it that the deplorable Americans are just uneducated simpletons. Not hip to the wily ways of the Chinese?

Is that the narrative?

This narrative makes no sense. Not really. Everyone seems to think that all China makes is the cheapest toys in Walmart, but it’s only Americans that makes the computers, iphones and drones that fly in the sky.

Wrong! The roles are actually the reverse.

Don’t forget that BMW manufactures most of their cars in China.

BMW debuted its Vision Future Interaction Concept, a Mirrorless i8 Concept and its Internet of Things concept. It’s a very large suite of new technologies and it’s all extremely impressive. However, BMW wants to make it disappear into the background and make it invisible to customers.
BMW debuted its Vision Future Interaction Concept, a Mirrorless i8 Concept and its Internet of Things concept. It’s a very large suite of new technologies and it’s all extremely impressive. However, BMW wants to make it disappear into the background and make it invisible to customers.

Also, iPhones, Nike shoes and Prada bags are all made in China.

And Chinese brands like Huawei and OnePlus are actually beating Apple. So it’s not as if Chinese can’t make high-end, high-quality products.

They can, and they do.

We need to recognize the true and real state of things. That way we can best be able to decide on courses of action that actually work.

Instead of the progressive liberal Marxist "feel good" legislation.
A polarized world.

That said, if you pay someone $1 an hour, don’t expect amazing products that will last for a lifetime. You get what you pay for.

You can only pick two.
You can only pick two.

Also, Chinese corporations are working their way up the value chain. Chinese high-end smartphones (Xiaomi and OnePlus) are already #1 in large consumer markets such as India; and, within five years, Chinese electric cars will be globally popular as well.

Chinese electric vehicles dominate. More Chinese electric vehiles are made in China than the rest of the world combined.
Chinese electric vehicles dominate. More Chinese electric vehicles are made in China than in the rest of the world combined.

To understand how to take advantage of the global situation, you must first understand it as it exists. We need to see things as they are. Not as we want them to be. That way, we can leverage the situation towards our very own benefit. It will be a win-win for Americans.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

A win-win for Americans.

LeEco announced its investment in a joint venture between Aston Martin and Faraday Future, a direct competitor of Tesla, further signalling its intentions in the space. The front of the car features an LED loop that can be lit in different spots such as indicators or fog lights. The rear passenger doors, known as ‘suicide doors’ open from a hinge at the rear, as opposed to the front. They’ve also waived a previous law that protected home-grown companies from being gutted by foreign competition, as long as they invest in electric technology.

That’s led to a boom in EV startups such as NextEV and CH-Auto who, along with LeEco, could turn the car industry on its head. Especially given the size of China’s domestic market has now surged past America’s to become the largest economy in the world. Chinese EV companies have also been poaching talent from the likes of BMW to help make China the electric car center of the world.

[Issue 7] Everything in China is made by slave labor

It’s not.

The Chinese have a much stronger work-ethic than Americans have. We might not want to hear it, but it is true.

There is nothing good or bad about it. It has do do with society. The higher percentage that Americans have for leisure transmits in more time to attend church, more time for personal education, and more time to spend with the family and making the best of the life that one has. Let the Chinese work themselves to the bone. Americans don’t need to as we have what is known as work-life-balance. It’s a good thing… for us.

Let others live their lives as they want. If they want to work 12 hour days and on Saturdays, let them. Live and let live.

They also have different laws, different customs, and different culture. Thus comparing labor in China to that of the USA is like comparing apples to oranges.

Here is a brief comparison between three factories. One is an American non-union factory. One is a union American factory. One is a Chinese factory. One of the first things that the astute reader will notice that, aside from the pay, there is little else of value that the union provides the employees.

The second thing that you will notice is that the Chinese employee is granted all kinds of things that an American would never, ever be provided with. Like free housing (as in a personal apartment), free internet, three free meals a day, and many other things unheard of in the United States.

Factory comparision spreadsheet
This is a quick generalized comparison between factories in the United States compared to factories in China. It is a gross simplification on many levels. However there are some things that need to be taken into account. firstly, the Chinese make far less money than their American counterparts. On the other hand, they get many perks and things that Americans can only dream about.

If you want to buy a product at Walmart, and you like it’s price, then go for it.

Sears tried to compete against Walmart, and lost. They offered better quality, warranties, and (for a spell) better working conditions in the factories that supplied the products to them.

It didn’t work.

When I buy something made in Wisconsin, I do not know about the working conditions that the product was created under. What I do know is that I liked the product and so I bought it.

China’s electric vehicle start-up Nio launched its first mass-produced model over the weekend, in a home market marked by competition with companies such as Tesla. The ES8, which starts at 448,000 Chinese yuan ($67,765) is half the starting price of Tesla’s 836,000 yuan ($126,470) Model X in China.
China’s electric vehicle start-up Nio launched its first mass-produced model over the weekend, in a home market marked by competition with companies such as Tesla. The ES8, which starts at 448,000 Chinese yuan ($67,765) is half the starting price of Tesla’s 836,000 yuan ($126,470) Model X in China.

Complaining about situations beyond your control, outside of your understanding, and trying to moan and groan about it is fruitless. If you think that the Chinese labor like slaves, then DON’T BUY CHINESE PRODUCTS, and shut the heck up.

It’s a win win.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 8] We want Fair Trade and China must lower their tariffs

It’s not as if the only thing that stands in the way of US progress is China’s tariffs. Consider that we imported 8 million cars last year.

We imported Eight Million cars.

Eight / Million / Cars.

Maybe we should buy American goods, before we demand that others buy American products. Eh?

Imported vehicles to the United States. Most of the vehicle imports to the USA come from Canada and Mexico. While China is certainly the leader in automotive manufacture by volume, type, and differentiation, it hardly exports any vehicles to the United States.
Imported vehicles to the United States. Most of the vehicle imports to the USA come from Canada and Mexico. While China is certainly the leader in automotive manufacture by volume, type, and differentiation, it hardly exports any vehicles to the United States.

Also, even if China eliminates their tariffs on our exports, US corporations will find that it’s still cheaper to manufacture goods in China, rather than making them here and shipping them over.

It’s not about nations. It’s about the oligarchy and the companies that they control.

Let’s not forget that the US already has a lot of protectionist tariffs, quotas, barriers and subsidies for various products and business sectors. Every government in the world has to cater to its people and special interest groups.

Finally, since WWII, the US has enjoyed an extraordinary privilege of being able to easily print the global reserve currency and wantonly borrow from the rest of the world.

Be careful what you wish for.

For a true “level playing field,” all currencies must be equal, which Americans won’t easily accept. Yeah. Can you just imagine if China could sanction western countries and arrest western CEOs for violating Chinese sanctions! Like the USA does.

Be careful what you wish for.

Most Americans, American companies, and the company stockholders would be most unhappy if China began to play to the same rules that the United States have implemented over the last four decades.

I would advise that we get on the good side of China. With China as a friend we can merge with shared benefit. Treating them as an enemy does the opposite. Work together for the betterment of all. It’s a win – win for everyone.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 9] They operate at losses and dump products

It is true. There are some state-operated Chinese entities that keep operating while losing money and simply rolling over their debt. China allows that to create employment for its people and also, sometimes, to capture the global market.

However, US corporations such as Amazon, Uber, Netflix and others do the same as well.

Nothing new here.

Moneys flow toward utility. The Chinese fund factories. The USA funds institutions.

China is a nation that values work, labor and production. America is a nation that values medicine, social reconstruction and government, As such, China will make the products that Americans will use under regulation.

It’s just the way things are.

China is a nation that values work, labor and production. America is a nation that values medicine, social reconstruction and government. You can easily see where all the money is going in America. Just look at the top three items. As such, China will make the products that Americans will use under regulation.

Truthfully, the only difference being that the US corporations are subsidized by commercial banks and the Federal Reserve Bank. While the Chinese factories are subsidized by the Bank of China.

We need to recognize that within the framework of utility. When we do, and grasp the true nature of things, it becomes easier to accept the truth. China makes the things that Americans use. Embrace that reality. It will be a win – win for Americans.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 10] They steal our IP

IP = Intellectual Property.

Most of these accusations are unwarranted.

It makes for great arguments, and a pretty decent media platform from which to espouse upon, but really, it’s just nonsensical. No one is sneaking around “stealing things”.

The Chinese company just buys an American company fair and square. Then , since they own the patents and the equipment and the intellectual property, they can do with it as they wish.

Carpetbaggers     

In general, the term  “carpetbagger” refers to a traveler who arrives in a new region with  only a satchel (or carpetbag) of possessions, and who attempts to profit  from or gain control over his new surroundings, often against the will  or consent of the original inhabitants. After 1865, a number of  northerners moved to the South to purchase land, lease plantations or  partner with down-and-out planters in the hopes of making money from  cotton. At first they were welcomed, as southerners saw the need for  northern capital and investment to get the devastated region back on its  feet. They later became an object of much scorn, as many southerners  saw them as low-class and opportunistic newcomers seeking to get rich on  their misfortune.

If China is stealing our IP, how come Tesla just opened a new plant in Shanghai and Boeing just announced a new factory in China?

If China is a thief, how come Intel Corp. has funded Horizon Robotics, a Chinese startup?

If China is a threat, why does Warren Buffet own 10% of BYD, China’s biggest electric car manufacturer?

Every western hi-tech firm — Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell etc. — has branches in China and they wouldn’t do it if China is just stealing their IP. They are not stupid. Are they?

Yes, China required transfer of technology in many industries, but it was a voluntary, consensual business transaction. Driven by greed to conquer the Chinese consumer market, western corporations obliged. Also, arrogance made the West assume that Chinese copycats will never be good enough.

Fast-food giant McDonald's is selling a controlling stake in its China business to a group of investors led by state-owned Chinese conglomerate Citic in a deal worth up to $2.1 billion, the companies said Monday. The transaction is part of a global business overhaul being carried out by the American company to keep up with changing tastes that have resulted in declining sales. Under the terms of the deal, Citic Ltd. and its investment management unit Citic Capital will acquire 52 percent of the business while another partner, Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group, will own 28 percent. McDonald's will retain a 20 percent stake. About two-thirds of the China operation's 2,640 outlets, including 240 in Hong Kong, that are now owned by McDonald's will be refranchised. The China business, which employs more than 120,000 people, is valued at up to $2.1 billion, according to the agreement. Under McDonald CEO Steve Easterbook's restructuring plan launched in 2015, the company wants franchisees to take over more company-owned outlets, giving local managers more decision-making power to respond to Asian customers.
Fast-food giant McDonald’s is selling a controlling stake in its China business to a group of investors led by state-owned Chinese conglomerate Citic in a deal worth up to $2.1 billion, the companies said Monday. The transaction is part of a global business overhaul being carried out by the American company to keep up with changing tastes that have resulted in declining sales. Under the terms of the deal, Citic Ltd. and its investment management unit Citic Capital will acquire 52 percent of the business while another partner, Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group, will own 28 percent.

There are definitely problems with Chinese espionage and those must be opposed and stopped. However, most people confuse blatant theft of intellectual property with it being given away. And for the last couple of decades, the American companies did just that. They gave the technology away so that the American company owner can make enormous profits in the transaction.

America lost it’s technical edge, so that a hand-full of individuals could profit from it. These Americans sold out America so that they could become filthy, filthy, rich.

For America to become great again, we need to arrest and imprison those that gave away our strengths, our knowledge, our technologies, our resources for their own personal profit. They should be in jail instead of drinking chardonnay in one of their many mansions. It’ll be a win – win for Americans.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 11] But they’re commies!

In spite of China’s “communist” party, CCP, what they have is a unique mix of socialism, capitalism and Confucianism. Don’t treat them as a cardboard cutout, a cartoon of something evil. They are not, and you should be ashamed to fall for the 1930’s-era propaganda template.

Chinese communism is NOT the same kind of communism that we Americans have come to think of. It is something all together different.

The private sector is vibrant — [1] 90% of new jobs are created by private enterprises, [2] venture capitalists are investing more in Chinese startups than in American counterparts, [3] the upper middle class is growing rapidly (200 million), [4] there are 3.5 million millionaires and [5] two new billionaires were created every week last year.

Two new millionaires every week!

China is not your textbook “communist” country.

While the Chinese government is certainly authoritarian, relative to western democracies, it has accomplished an economic miracle over the last four decades that’s unprecedented in human history.

800 million people were lifted out of poverty and the GDP grew 40-fold in 40 years.

That’s why 84% of Chinese trust their government and 68% say that the government is the best institution to lead the country to a better future.

To understand how we can “beat the other team”, we need to understand who they really are, what their tactics are, how they call their plays, and their strengths and weaknesses. It will be a win – win for Americans.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

[Issue 12] Tariffs will bring back jobs

Tariffs can only bring back jobs if there are American alternatives to the Chinese products. That way the tariffs will price the Chinese products at a disadvantage to American products. And the consumers will want to buy American products.

But…

  • The vast majority of products under the Trump tariff schedule has no comparative American-made alternative.
  • Thus it will be the American consumer that will be paying the tariffs, as they will have no other alternatives.

This is a real big problem, and perhaps the real heart of the problem with the “trade wars” today. We need to realize how legislative actions produce unintended consequences…

In the 1990's Bill Clinton and his Democrat controlled Congress, single-handedly devastated the American ship-building industry. You see, they laid a "wealth tax" on boats. As they (incorrectly as it turned out) that only wealthy people could afford yachts, and small boats.

What happened, is that everyone stopped buying boats. As a result the entire ship-building industry collapsed. It took decades to recover, and even today it is just limping along.

You see, most of the products that Americans buy comes from China, and that there are zero alternatives. This is a problem. This is a really big problem.

Factories do not grow on trees.

You cannot snap your fingers and immediately start making televisions sets, drones, robots, kitchen appliances and shoes from nothing. You need talent, knowledge, machinery and a skilled and talented work force.

But, you do know, that most of the American work force does not have this background. Their background is in the service industries.

Thus creating a factory, or even moving it from China to the USA is a very difficult thing to do. Check out this link (opens up in another tab).

The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.

You see, Trump’s 10% or 25% tariff on Chinese goods won’t create enough incentive for most manufacturers to start building products in the US. At the most, US companies will simply move the manufacturing to other developing nations such as Vietnam, Thaliand etc. Moreover, Chinese Yuan has already fallen 10%, thus largely neutralizing the first round of tariffs.

Considering that every major business/lobbying group, corporation and economist is against tariffs and trade wars, it’s highly unlikely that jobs are going return from Asia, Mexico and elsewhere.

Tariffs and retaliatory tariffs can also lead to a big loss of jobs or even a recession. There have already been endless stream of stories about layoffs and lost sales.

While it’s true that some Japanese and German automakers who want to avoid confrontations may build new assembly plants in the US, others may be forced to relocate some existing factories from the US to Europe and China to avoid the cross-border tariffs.

  • Make a favorable environment for other nations to put their factories in America.
  • Reduce regulations so that the factories will want to move to America.
  • Limit the taxes on employers, and on workers so that the American factory worker has a chance to compete.

It will be a win-win for Americans.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

Conclusion

There won’t be any winner in the trade war. China in 2019 isn’t China in 1990. We should stop treating it as such. That is crazy.

At the same time, the West should be mindful of history — the Opium Wars and the following Century of Humiliation are etched in the Chinese national psyche. China has worked very hard and sacrificed a lot in the last forty years; and they’re not going to give up their dreams. They are a nation of achievers.

The Chinese are a serious nation and do not play around. If this trade situation is not handled carefully, things can turn really bad for America. It’s not going to be anything like Americans expect.

(Aside from the total collapse of America at every level...) I think there are two other options. 

One would be a crisis and defeat.  That is something we have not experienced in America. What that would  look like we can only speculate by looking at other examples of defeated  nations, what has happened to them, and how they have adjusted to their  post-defeat role. 

You might look at the defeated Axis powers after  World War II as an interesting test case, and we have written a little  bit about that. One thing that might even be most disturbing of all, is  that no real crisis ever ultimately expresses itself, which actually,  oddly enough, may be the worst outcome of all. 

That is to say,  everything we see about our world today, the rich getting richer, the  poor getting poorer, democracy sort of ebbing away, people feeling  powerless over their political lives, people feeling less and less a  sense of civic participation or belonging, and we have kind of turned  that up. 

There is an interesting book by Tyler Cohen. He is a very  popular writer now, he wrote Average is Over and The Great Stagnation. He wrote a recent book called The Complacent Class.  If you want to read a book about America’s future in the absence of a  fourth turning, read that book. 

The real rate of return gets lower and  lower, we kind of approach the stationary state, productivity growth  kind of ebbs to nothing, we become a kind of nominal market society, but  one in which all the markets are dominated by a few very large  companies with enormous market power and concentration. 

In that kind of  society, highly stratified, not feeling at all like what we think of as  being America, is, I think, the scariest one, one in which global  problems, problems of global order are not rectified. And it is one that  disturbs me the most. 

-McAlvany

So, let’s get rid of the zero-sum mentality, drop the aggressive posture, come up with tangible goals, and negotiate with respect and a smile.

The tariffs have slowed China’s economy, which grew 6.6 percent in 2018, its slowest rate in almost three decades.
The tariffs have slowed China’s economy, which grew 6.6 percent in 2018, its slowest rate in almost three decades. Meanwhile the United States grew an amazing 1.7 percent. The most astounding growth in decades.

For goodness sakes. Everyone can win. We just need to stop playing the neocon war – war -war game. It’s going to really… REALLY harm the United States. And I do mean BIGLY.

So, let’s think smart. Address things as they really are, and work for a win-win for everyone. Now is the time to do it.

PHOTO---This is a big win for Americans!

12OCT19 Update

 Trump said the U.S. and China have "agreed in  principle" on a preliminary trade agreement. Trump acknowledged that  differences remain on major issues on which the two countries are  divided, but the White House still decided not to push ahead with a  planned increased to tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods next week.
The move would have raised those tariffs to 30% from 25%.

"There's  too many factors at play for him to just issue threats to governments,  China's or anybody else's, to just follow along with what he says," said  Wang, referring to the U.S. president's previous threats to slap  additional penalties on Chinese goods.

-USA Today;  Senior China adviser: Trump to blame for delays in securing final trade deal, says China has been 'accommodating'

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

The US involvement in the HK "Democracy Now" movement.
Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.
China's Global Leadership
Popular Music of China
The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.
Hong Kong and the NED CIA operations.
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year
Trade Wars

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Some fun videos of China - 1
Fun Videos of Asia - 2
Fun videos of Asia - 3
Fun videos of Asia - 4
Fun Videos of Asia - 5
Fun videos of Asia - 6
Fun videos of Asia - 7
Fun videos of Asia - 8
Fun videos of Asia - 9
Fun videos of Asia - 10
Fun videos of Asia - 11
Fun videos of Asia - 12
Fun videos of Asia - 13
Fun videos of Asia - 14
Fun Videos of Asia - 15
Fun videos of Asia -16
The best way to cook marshmallows.

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

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What a full-on surveillance state looks like; Hong Kong and the USA funded NED insurgency.

We often talk (and complain) about the bad side of the new Orwellian police state that all nations are morphing into. Yet, with all of our moaning, groaning, and complaining we neglect to look at the more positive aspects. No, this is not an article in praise of the Orwellian Police State. Instead, we look at how intense monitoring of enormous populations, using high resolution cameras and 5G networks enable full “real time” tracking of agitators and hooligans. Especially those from another nation. Ones that are intended to destabilize, and cause strife, for global political ends.

In particular, we will look at the tracking (by China) of the United States agitation in the (so called) “Free Democracy” movement in Hong Kong during the Summer of 2019.

Quick Review

The United States under President Donald Trump has been involved in difficult negotiations with China over trade. These negotiations began in 2017, and “heated up” in early Summer of 2019. During the Summer of 2019 mass “Pro Democracy” protests broke out in Hong Kong. The idea, of course, has been to put every type and means of “pressure” on China so that the trade negotiations would fall in favor of the United States.

I covered the Chinese reaction to all this here. The link below opens up into a separate tab so as not to interrupt your viewing pleasure in this article.

Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.

These “pressures” included such things as…

  • Increasing Tariffs on Chinese made products.
  • Protests and disruptions in Hong Kong.
  • Asking European Nations to stop or break trade with China.
  • Financial incentives to other nations.
  • Pressure on American companies to move back to the USA.

Time will tell just how effective they will all be.

What I do know, as of the time of this writing, at the tail-end of September moving forward into the 70th anniversary of China, the following is true…

[1] International Trade

  • There is a GLOBAL slowing of all international trade.
  • International trade, across the board is reduced by 30%.
  • Companies located in strong pro-USA nations (Australia, NZ, and the UK) are looking for alternative off-shore supply chain operations outside of China. But there just aren’t any.

[2] American Trade With China

China has also surprised Americans with the most complete supply chains  in the world. "You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory  next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You  need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours,"  one former high-ranking Apple executive was quoted as saying in a New  York Times report. 

- Smaller US companies depend on Chinese supply chain
  • The clear majority of American companies are staying inside of China. This is out of financial necessity. They do not have the financial means to take on the enormous financial risks to relocate back to the USA.
  • Those American companies are passing on the tariffs directly to the American consumer (25% direct) or (10% through a “pass through” arrangement).
  • But all accounts, the tariff situation is hurting American consumers much more than it is hurting China.

Read about the reasons here. Opens in a separate tab.

The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.

[3] Cut in American Food Items for Export

  • The cut in importation of American foodstuffs has resulted in the increase in the price of food. But not in the availability of food. China has food galore and a-plenty.
  • This goes absolutely against the American media narrative. Which on some websites are even suggesting famine! It’s insane. Ah, but, it’s easy enough to check.
  • China has spent the last thirty years building up their self-sufficiency in food, technology and vital products. They have not forgotten the mistakes made under Communism under Mr. Mao.
Food prices in China in January 2019.

Now, of course, there are all kinds of different cuts of pork. It would be like comparing apples and watermelons if we use different cuts of pork. But, you know what, we work with what we have to work with.

Here is a flier showing one of the more expensive cuts of pork (it’s the Chinese national holiday, after all, ) Never the less, you can clearly see that a pork roast costs 17.8 RMB / half a Kg in October. Where in January (before the trade embargoes) a cheap cut of pork shoulder costs 12.8 RMB / half a Kg.

At which I would like to remind the reader that China is a bacon-loving nation. They love their pork and out-produces pork products that makes America look like teeny-boppers.

China, with it’s enormous population, does not need food imports to exist. China is an enormous breadbasket. Farms exist everywhere. For instance, did you know that China has more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.

Yeah. America is a light-weight in pork production.

Pork in China.
The Chinese love pork. This is a nation that loves bacon. They love pork chops, and all sorts of pork products.

China does not need any imports of food to feed it’s people. It is self-sufficient.

China feeds 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet's arable land. Land is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.

China is the world's top consumer of meat and grain. As it becomes more affluent people consume more meat and cooking oil and this has lead to increased demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock. China also uses more fertilizer that any other country.

According to United Nations statistics, China's cereal production is the largest in the world. In 2003 China produced 377 million tons, or 18.1 percent of total world production. Its plant oil crops---at 15 million tons in 2003---are a close second to those of the United States and amounted to 12.6 percent of total world production.

Lauren Keane wrote in the Washington Post, “China has a long-standing policy of food self-sufficiency, growing 95 percent of the grain required to feed its people. The country's sheer size means that a major crop failure or other food emergency here could have international ramifications, overwhelming world food markets with sudden demand. "Were China to need to import a large amount of grain, it would have a very dramatic impact on world food prices," said Anthea Webb, director of World Food Program China. [Source:Lauren Keane, Washington Post, May 31, 2010]

-Facts and Details

The idea that China cannot feed it’s people comes from the late 1960’s when the Communist central government failed in the implementation of policy. Taking advantage of that situation was a SJW moment known as the Cultural Revolution. It collapsed when the military had to be called into to restore order and control.

[4] Discarding of the United States Dollar

For a full half a century, the world used the USD to conduct international business and trade. This was advantageous for the United States. As the value of the dollar could be artificially propped up as the entire world was using this currency, and it was able to “float” upon the stability of the economies of multiple nations.

Not so any longer. Each time a nation stops using the USD as a currency for international trade, the stability of the USD decreases.

  • Numerous nations are starting to conduct trade in the Yuan instead of the US Dollar.
  • Numerous nations are buying up gold and increasing their gold reserves.
  • America has countered to this by printing more money, and taking on more debt.

Maybe these nations know something that many Americans aren’t.

Anyways…

In the forefront of all these various issues, we have the (so called) “Pro Democracy” movement in HK. This is an effort that is designed to destabilize the region as a way to put pressure on China. 

Indeed, Donald Trump himself tweeted to Xi Peng in September that all the protests in HK would end abruptly if China agreed to the USA trade concessions. 

How could Donald Trump say that if he wasn't able to make that happen?

The “Pro Democracy Movement”

I covered this subject in great deal elsewhere. If you want to find out who the players are, the stakes involved, the money that changes hands, and the interests of the American “deep state” swamp you can clink on this link below. It opens up in a separate tab so as not to interrupt your reading pleasure here.

The US involvement in the HK "Democracy Now" movement.

In order to put pressure on China, Donald Trump utilized a branch of the CIA known as the National Endowment for Democracy or NED.

This is all well known as the “paper trail” for the funding is public knowledge. Indeed, groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.

You know… for “democracy” around the world.

While US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
While US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.

And the people used to [1] instigate the riots, [2] train the protestors, arrange and [3] organize the newsmen and cameras and [4] teach and instruct the rioters for “soft conflicts” used to [5] provoke violent actions by the HK Police all have LinkedIN profiles.

Don’t you know.

So, even a dweeb like myself can [1] track the funding, [2] see the names and addresses of the agitators, and [3] view where they are and what they are doing in Hong Kong.

Just imagine what the Chinese government can do.

But Hong Kong is not America. It is part of China.

As Americans, especially those who have never stepped foot outside of America, think of other nations, other people and other cities from our point of view. That is to say, we imagine the WORST outside the USA. And never give the other nations any credit for doing certain things well. We just assume that they are all blunder-head nincompoops.

When we think of Hong Kong, we think of New York city.

Night meal in Hong Kong. Yup. It's pretty much like this. And, yes, I do love it. It's glorious.
Night meal in Hong Kong. Yup. It’s pretty much like this. And, yes, I do love it. It’s glorious.

Which is sad.

We should be thinking of Tokyo. We should be thinking of High-Tech (though not nearly as high-tech as Shenzhen), and state of the art. China is advancing in so, so , SO many ways and NONE of it is being reported by the mainstream American media.

We think, maybe that there are a few cameras here and there. We think that maybe the video feeds are being monitored, or that the traffic police are checking things out.

We don’t realize that the entire city is under constant advanced surveillance. And that China knows exactly what is going on in great detail.

Here, we are going to talk about this.

5G networks in all the Chinese cities

In the USA, there is an active program to justify why America is still using obsolete technology. “We don’t want to be irradiated with that dangerous 5G radio waves”, we say to ourselves. “We don’t want our brains cooked”.

Yeah. We heard it all before.

We Americans don’t want or need High Speed Rail. We are just happy with boarding our cattle-car-airlines, and paying the enormous ticket prices. We like doing it. HST has no place in America. Besides we have Amtrak!

Why no High-Speed rail in the USA?

Who cares about fluoride in the water? It’s a great way to get rid of the by-products of aluminum production. Fluoride is good for us. It’s modern, don’t you know.

America is great!

And a wall on the border of the USA and Mexico. It’s been three years and America can’t even construct a simple, singular wall. You know you have a problem when illiterate goat-herders in Afghanistan can make a half-decent wall and the great United States can’t even start…

Well, while Americans are justifying living in a nation that is increasingly becoming a “time portal” back to the last century, the rest of the world is advancing at break-neck speed.

Most of Africa has a growing and vibrant middle class, with malls, toll booths, and high speed (5G) internet. The Middle East (outside of the American-sponsored war zones) are all prospering. Check out the photos, for goodness sakes!

America is still stuck in the 1970’s I guess.

You can tell.

  • People still write checks instead of scan QR codes.
  • AM radio has the largest listening audience.
  • Everything comes with a price tag. Nothing is free, including water.
  • Software still has the same functionality as it did in the 1990’s, only now it has a nicer interface, but you must pay for updates and it auto copies your work “to the cloud” for governmental purposes.

China is different.

They have implemented 5G everywhere. There are cameras everywhere. And instead of paying people to collect welfare, have free healthcare, and protest for more goodies, China puts them to work. They are employed. They build things, clean things, work on things and monitor things.

Yes, and Hong Kong is constantly being monitored.

China is aware of everything.

One of the mysteries that I had was why didn’t the Chinese just “take out” the agitators? I mean, it was public knowledge who they were.

The HK populace are getting increasingly pissed off with the Antifa-style interruptions, and they are actively unmasking (literally) the protester participants. And, of course, everyone knows that everything you do is tracked in China. HK is NOT an exception.

So why not “take out the agitators”?

And then they actually did…

On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:

“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a  great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a  good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi  wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it.  Personal meeting? ”

-Donald Trump

So what is Donald Trump saying?

  • That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
  • Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.

So.. the Chinese went forth and rounded up all the CIA related NED operatives in Hong Kong.

The video footage was pretty darn dramatic.

It’s all in 5G. You can even count the eyebrow hair on the American CIA agents. The Chinese had everything. From complete transcripts of the CIA instructing the rioters in “soft conflict” designed to provoke a military reaction, to a second by second, “walk through” where Trump advisors worked out planning with the protest leadership.

It’s all there.

Not televised in the USA, though.

Man! The Chinese knew everything!

People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!

Check out the photo below. Notice the angle of the photo. Taken by an object on a dining room table. (Below belt level.)
People, it's pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing.  Julie Eadeh, a  US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders.  It  would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were  meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump  protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq 

— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019

Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.

The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US …

“to immediately make a  clean break from  anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong,  stop sending out  wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from  meddling with Hong  Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong  path.”

The Chinese knew everything.

Everything. And they expected the United States to realize (and expect it).

They didn’t.

From the moment that Julie Eadeh stepped foot in Hong Kong, to how many steps she took to the elevator. They knew her heart-beat as she rode in the elevator in the Marriott. They even knew the color of the bra and panties that she wore. (Well, at least that is the current joke on Chinese social media…)

They know everything she said with the young protestors.

Everything.

Everything. From, promises, various “guarantees”, words of support and hope for assistance. As well as implications and guarantees of a cushy future and financial support in all sorts of ways. Any outsider can clearly see the implied promises under the veneer of political jargon.

  • Promises of free high-end university schooling .
  • Promises that they will be backed politically and that they will become the future leaders of HK.
  • Promises of houses, cars, and lifestyle,
  • Promises of money, lots and lots of money.

As well as who they are, and what they told her. Then they used “Minority Report” style technology to back-track and see who all the connections and phone calls that the confederates made. They had full conversation records, don’t you know.

The Chinese knew everything.

Of Course the CIA instructed the protestors.

It’s all on video. It’s all recorded in audio, and transcribed in English, Cantonese and Chinese. And then, then… then, plastered all over social media for the Chinese to see. Woo woo. What ever the American media is saying, the videos that the rest of the world watch clearly show that the United States is LYING.

It makes the United States look like some kind of Keystone Kops.

The protestors were instructed by NED to take out cameras and video systems. They were told to use black cans of spray paint.

  • Yes, but every can of black spray paint purchased in Hong Kong is recorded with a video of the person buying the paint. The Chinese government knows the person who bought the paint, and can make reasonable assumptions on it’s use. (The Chinese do not need to prove intent in a court of law.)

They were instructed to post flyers on the walls, use glue to hold them in place, and make banners.

  • But, every printer shop is under surveillance. Every one has video cameras installed. They know who ordered the flyers. They even have the PDF artwork in digital file from which the flyers were made. They know who ordered the fliers, when they ordered, who they paid and from which bank account. They also know the moneys that went into that bank account and who deposited the money.

They were instructed to leave their phones at home. And, I am sure that this helped. Maybe.

  • However, every person in China has a profile of “normal” behavior. If you take your phone with you every day, and then suddenly on a day of protest, you phone is at you house of residence, when the video cameras show you leaving the house, the police pretty much assumes what you are up to.

They were instructed in what to do by the CIA under the assumption that the Chinese are a growing third-world nation. Maybe like Libya or Syria.

They are not treating China like a high-technology version of Japan. They are not treating China like a serious, serious, SERIOUS nation that does not play around.

Conclusion

All of China is wired as a high-technology surveillance center. The larger cities are all wired. The Western cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) pretty much follow the “London model” of domestic surveillance.

While America has been busy throwing money away …

  • In “NASA educational programs for elementary schools in the Sudan”.
  • War after war. Now, eight simultaneous wars.
  • And 15 miles of rail for a High Speed Train that was never intended to be anything other than a political slush fund to pay off people.

… the Chinese have been spending their money on their nation. Improving the roads, public transport, lines and means of communication, public works, buildings, and public health. Not to mention, planting trees, making parks, and increasing the amount of farmland.

And they are dead serious about it. These Chinese are very, very serious people. Those that oppose or try to siphon away money are seized, arrested and imprisoned by the corruption police.

The Chinese do not mess around.

Thus when the United States tried to use the same “play book” to agitate protests in Hong Kong in the Summer of 2019, the Chinese observed and leveraged that information. Then when the time was ready, they pounced.

  • Round #1 – China win. USA media oblivious.

I anticipate another series of protests that the Chinese will observe, and then quietly (behind the scenes) squelch. Maybe in the first week of October 2019.

They will do so and the American television viewing public will be confused. They will wonder “what is going on”? Why doesn’t China relent and allow HK to be just like America?

  • Round #2 – TBD

It’s because the main-steam media (both conservative and progressive) provides a skewed nonsensical narrative. One that has no bearing on the true and actual state of affairs. And that ignorance… will be what ultimately hurts and harms America.

People! Listen up!

America NEEDS a well-informed electorate to function properly. To think that the vast bulk of Chinese citizens, both on the mainland, and in Hong Kong want America “to save them” is ludicrous. Absolutely bovine excrement!

Looking at the big picture, it looks silly…

The truth about the HK pro-democracy movement and the tariff wars.
The truth about the HK pro-democracy movement and the tariff wars.

Just silly. It make the United States look… well… awful.

Predictions

I cannot predict the future. It has been my experience that the future will always certainly surprise. Anything can happen.

Anything.

Anything.

  • Donald Trump could be impeached.
  • Joe Biden or some other Marxist could become President.
  • Anti-gun house-to-house collection efforts might begin in earnest.
  • The USA could start a war with Iran.
  • Bacon could be banned all over America so not to offend Muslims.
  • Taxes could be raised 50% to fight global-warming.
  • Gender-neutral operations could be mandated in all American elementary schools.

I do not know what is going to happen. I am always taken by surprise, and I haven’t a clue as to what is going to happen in the future. Maybe some more of the old same-old same-old, eh?

The future will surprise…

I never expected "Joe Camel" to be banned in the United States "for the children".
I never expected “Joe Camel” to be banned in the United States “for the children”. Heck, by law, you had to be at least 16 years old just to be able to buy the cigarettes.

It has certainly surprised me. Time and time again, what I expected to happen, never came true…

I expected the United States to have a full colony on the moon by the year 2000. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that the money would befunneled away for infrastructure investments in Russia!
I expected the United States to have a full colony on the moon by the year 2000. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that the money would be funneled away for infrastructure investments in Russia! As well as some social re-engineering initiatives in Baltimore, Detroit and San Francisco.

Not just objectively, but socially as well, and on so many levels at that. Don’t you know.

I never expected that 007 James Bond would be replaced with a black woman. Never, in my wildest nightmares.
I never expected that 007 James Bond would be replaced with a black woman. Never, in my wildest nightmares. It’s not yet released. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is some kind of transgender LGBT thingy.

The future cannot be predicted. Not by myself. Not by anyone.

I never, in my wildest dreams, expected companies to do away with free coffee and coffee services. That they would expect the employees to "chip in" and pay for the coffee that they would drink at work. Amazing, and completely unexpected!
I never, in my wildest dreams, expected companies to do away with free coffee and coffee services. That they would expect the employees to “chip in” and pay for the coffee that they would drink at work. Amazing, and completely unexpected!

The future will always surprise.

In the trade front, it’s all in flux. What I really hope for is a strengthening of relationships. I hope for balanced trade without influence by the greedy in Washington D.C. and a chance for American industry to recover from the devastation of the Marxist globalist agenda. I can see it being a win-win for both the USA and China.

Seriously! China is an enormous market. They would pay a premium (+50% more) for “Made in America” products. But that is never going to happen if China matches the Trump tariff scheme. It just will close American companies to the enormous Chinese consumer market.

Right now, and for the last three years, the tariff negotiations have been driven by the Neocon advisors to Trump. They have asked the impossible and set up road-blocks at every turn.

Jimmy Lai (HK billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence.
Jimmy Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and America.

This is actionable disruption, and while it might make some political “hay” in the short term, it will result in some real serious problems in America in the long term.

Donald Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not "on the same page" in resolving the issues with China at this time.
Donald Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not “on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.

As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.

He’s wrong. Donald Trump is what America needs right now, but those neocon ideas of his are dangerous and are from another generation. They have no pace in the world today.

Understand that the rest of the world does not think like Americans. They do not watch American media and do not care what Americans think. They will follow nations that seemingly benefit THEM in the future.

They will be selfish. They will work with nations that provide them with benefit.

That being stated, do not make dated assumptions on the inflated capabilities of the United States, and upon the out-of-date ideas about China. I said it once, I said it twice. I will say it again. China is a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. We had best start treating them as such.

Finally.

Do not think that China is not afraid to kill a few people for the greater public good. They will do so in a heart-beat.

Do not judge China under the same criteria that you might judge America. It is like comparing apples to an oak tree.

Chinese Social Media

You do not need to rely on CNN, Fox or Rush Limbaugh for your news. You can [1] watch the videos of the CIA agents getting arrested yourselves. You can [2] read what the “Joe on the streets” thinks about the protests. You can [3] see what is going on in the other side of the world with your own two eyes.

America needs an informed electorate to function properly.

Here’s some links to Chinese social media. Warning, most are banned in the United States. You might need to use a VPN to use them. You do know that the Software moguls in California does not like competition.

10-10-2019 Update.

I posted this article under “bloggers” in the Free Republic website, and was subsequently banned. I guess they do not like my opinions.

Never the less, immediately afterwards, it turned out the the United States government admitted that everything in this post is true, and that was posted on the well-known Washington Post.

Then they totally blocked me. Erased my 20+ years of articles and comments, and I became a non-person. That’s what “freedom of speech” is on Free Republic. You will conform to the Alt-Right narrative out of Washington DC, or you get destroyed.

Well, I was “killed”, but…

..everything I wrote was accurate, and real. And thus…

28JUN20 Update.

Update 28JUN20. Donald Trump decided to stop funding the protests in Hong Kong.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

The US involvement in the HK "Democracy Now" movement.
Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.
Popular Music of China
The logistics of relocating a facotry from China back to the USA.
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Some fun videos of China - 1
Fun Videos of Asia - 2
Fun videos of Asia - 3
Fun videos of Asia - 4
Fun Videos of Asia - 5
Fun videos of Asia - 6
Fun videos of Asia - 7
Fun videos of Asia - 8
Fun videos of Asia - 9
Fun videos of Asia - 10
Fun videos of Asia - 11
Fun videos of Asia - 12
Fun videos of Asia - 13
Fun videos of Asia - 14
Fun Videos of Asia - 15
Fun videos of Asia -16
The best way to cook marshmallows.

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

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The logistics of relocating a factory from China back to the United States.

"A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that  41% of the respondents considered relocating or had relocated  manufacturing facilities outside of China, but only 6% were considering  moving back to the United States. Southeast Asia was the top  destination. "

-Townhall

This is an overview of the complexities and issues that a company must deal with in order to relocate their factory out of China and place it back in the United States. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and we discuss the issues involved independently outside of the contentious American political scene.

We discuss the functional and practical issues with relocating a factory back to the United States from China. Not, the political issues, nor the need for America to reclaim it's manufacturing base. Those are other issues that will not be addressed here.

Though, let it be clearly understood, that I stand with Donald Trump in that there is a serious need to restart the American industrial machine and fire it up back to a level of productivity in order for the USA to maintain a global leadership role.
Donald Trump is going to bring American jobs back to America.

This entire issue came to a head when President Trump “ordered” American factories currently in China to “uproot” and Return back to the United States. It made all the headlines, don’t ya know?

All in all, it sounds so easy.

However, the truth is that is it is extraordinarily difficult thing to do. And no, as much as I would like all of youse guys to hire me, you just can’t hire an “expert” to handle things and expect them to be done to your satisfaction. It doesn’t work that way.

Sorry.

American progressive greed killed the little guy.

While there are ways to accomplish this task, there will be a hit in quality, price, and delivery time. All of these issues will affect the market share of the companies that agree to relocate. This damage to the market share for the companies involved should not be discounted. For many, it will manifest as a dance with death.

Here we discuss the most important issues that a company CEO, or owner would need to consider when contemplating relocating his company out of China.

Full Disclosure

For starters, I must make the full disclosure. Please take note that I was one of those “evil” Americans who relocated factories out of America and placed them in China. It was my job and maintained this role for a solid fifteen years if not longer.

Call me an a$$hole if you like.

It's difficult being the person that everyone hates.
It’s difficult being the person that everyone hates.

It’s not like I wanted to do it, so much as starving in a food-stamp line really sucked. I followed the money. You take what work is available and you do not question the person cutting you a paycheck. Sure beats scrubbing toilets, hauling manure, or judging the sex of chickens. Truth this.

It was difficult scraping by in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. I was just happy to get a job any job when unemployment (actual) was in the double figures. 

For decades, people like Trump’s trade director Peter Navarro have warned us that something like this would happen someday. But we were condescendingly told, This is capital seeking the most efficient market! And, anyway, if China screws with us, we’ll just make it ourselves.

Really? With broken-down buildings, a dispossessed workforce and no machinery? Unfashionable working-class people in the industrial Midwest were discarded long ago. They may as well have had “obsolete” stamped on their foreheads.

-Ann Coulter

Ah. Maybe you the reader are unaware of the existence of the “rust belt” and us sorry sacks that lived there.

Unemployment line.
Unemployment line. In this June 23, 2014 photo, people wait in line to meet with recruiters during a job fair in Philadelphia. The Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

I was hired for that task and did it to the best of my ability for numerous companies throughout the late 1980’s into the new century. Once Bill Clinton came to office, it just seemed like the “flood gates” opened up and just about everyone wanted to uproot and move their operations to China.

So, I do know what I am talking about.

A map showing the location of United States manufacturing plants in China as of 2008. As today is 2019, you can well appreciate that tall these plants are joint-ventures, and not WOFE and thus the American ownership of these companies are at 49% or less, with the Chinese partner owning a 51% controlling stake in the factory.
A map showing the location of United States manufacturing plants in China as of 2008. As today is 2019, you can well appreciate that all these plants are joint-ventures, and not organized as WOFE and thus the American ownership of these companies are at 49% or less, with the Chinese partner owning a 51% controlling stake in the factory.

And no, moving American factories back to America from China is not as simple as Donald Trump, Fox news, CNN, WaPo and the Drudge Report makes it out to be. It’s complicated. If handled poorly the entire American industry segment can be wiped out completely (rather than just simply outsourced).

Listen up!

Let it also be clearly understood that it was much easier to relocate a factory to China than it would be to reverse the effort, and relocate it to the United States. Yes. It’s like eating a delicious pizza. Once you eat it, you cannot regurgitate it up and present the vomit for resale. Now, can you? Nope you cannot.

We will cover some of these points in this article.

China makes everything

Most Americans are under the impression that the only things that China makes is cheap and useless junk. That is because of three things. [1] Ego, [2] Mainstream American media, and [3] Walmart.

The truth is that China is the manufacturer for the world.

  • Most computers are made in China.
  • Most clothes washers are made in China.
  • Most cell phones are made in China.
  • Most automobile engines are made in China.
  • Most transmissions are made in China.
  • Most tires are made in China.

So do not be under the erroneous assumption that it’s easy to relocate a factory back to the USA. These are, for the most part, not low-technology factories. (The low-technology factories have long since moved to even cheaper nations with less regulation, like Vietnam and Cambodia.)

Today, most American owned factories in China are much more advanced, than what is assumed. They are far more automated than the American mainstream news media lets on.

Take a look at what these factories make…

Trade between the USA and China.
Trade between the USA and China.

ACME Widget Technology Inc.

To better help understand the issues involved, we will use a fictitious American company. This company is based on a number of actual companies that I worked at where I relocated the factories to China. It is an amalgamation of numerous actual companies that I am sorry that I'd rather not announce publicly. As I did sign NDA's at all the companies.

This fictitious company is called ACME Widget Technology Inc. This company was a very prosperous consumer appliance company that was established in the 1950’s and was a major player in the consumer market during the 1960’s into the 1970’s.

They manufactured a wide selection of consumer appliances ranging from “white goods” (washing machines, stoves, and other large appliances), to “kitchen appliances” (microwave ovens, toasters, coffee makers) to “Lawn and Garden” appliances (weed-wackers, lawn-mowers and chainsaws).

White goods and other large appliances on display in a well known appliance store.
White goods and other large appliances on display in a well known appliance store.

At their peak they employed over 10,000 American workers.

They operated numerous individual specialized factories, each one customized for a specific product line. As such there was one factory for personal scales, a different factory for heated cooking appliances, a factory for outdoor grills, and another one for washing machines. For all the various product lines, there was, perhaps, 30 to 45 factories at the middle of the 1990’s.

Most of these factories were in the Southern states, with the bulk of the factories in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. 

(They were initially in the North in the Great Lakes region, but relocated during the 1970's to the South East. They did so for lower wages (1/4 the rate) and the ability to skirt the onerous regulatory and union requirements.)
The ACME Catalog.
The ACME Catalog.

While the factories were in the Southern states to take advantage of the low labor rates, and “friendly” (at that time) business climate, the corporate offices were elsewhere. Marketing, Sales and the Commercial management offices were located in a suburb of Chicago. Perhaps you heard of it, Schaumburg Illinois?

While Engineering, Quality, Tooling and Test facilities were located within a days drive of any of the specialized factories in the deep South. Their offices were in the town center of one of the many numerous small Southern towns. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, perhaps you have heard of it?

Local engineering and related quality offices in small town America in the Deep South.
Local engineering and related quality offices in small town America in the Deep South.

A 1980’s Hostile Takeover

In the 1980’s a group of investors seized control of the company. It was hostile, and thus the term “hostile takeover” become commonly used. (Remember the movies “The secret of my success”, and “Other people’s money”.) They laid off a significant percentage of the workers, shut down and sold off various factories and divisions (Remember the movie “Pretty Woman”?) and “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap?

It was a “bloodbath”.

Their goal was to strip-mine the company for personal profit. They felt that they could do with the company as they wished as they held controlling interest in it. And, since no one was doing anything to stop them from this (terribly unethical) activity, they were correct.

Without enforcement of the laws, or the selective application of laws... they functionally do not exist.

Given the crimes of the Washington oligarchy, this should be painfully obvious to everyone in America today.
After laying off thousands of people, Al Dunlap retired to a life of luxary and ease, playing golf and smoking cigars.
After laying off thousands of people, Al Dunlap retired to a life of luxury and ease, playing golf and smoking cigars. Meanwhile the workers that he laid off ended up destitute, many lost their homes, and went into bankruptcy. Today, many live in mobile homes, and are employed in low-paying unskilled labor employment.

I was hired to move companies to China.

Within this contentious environment, where the wealthy and successful were guzzling XO and cavorting with high-paid hookers, (while us working “normals” were discarded as “useless riff raff”), they hired me to do three things;

  • Relocate specific factories to China
  • Create Joint Ventures with existing Chinese factories
  • “Farm out” specific product lines to existing Chinese factories and create a partnership whereas we would purchase complete products from them though our Purchasing organization.

They wanted to move the plants to China for the simple reason that the wages were far less, the rate of exchange USD to Yuan was in the favor of the United States ownership, and that regulations, laws, and controls were lax, or in many cases, not present at all.

The operational costs American facility vs Chinese facility + Logistics costs were like "night and day". It was absolutely mind blowing how much cheaper it was to manufacture products in China compared to the USA.

Not to mention, of course, that the Chinese were actively courting American businessmen to “sell their soul”, “sell out their countrymen”, for a life of ease, prostitutes and a never-ending supply of recreational drugs.

 First, they hired slick American marketing firms and convinced giant  U.S. companies to relocate manufacturing to China by providing $1 leases  for comparable plants and abundant cheap labor. Wall Street fell for  it.

Secondly, state-subsidized Chinese companies flooded U.S.  markets with products at one-third the prevailing price. The result: In  short order, most American manufacturers had to file for bankruptcy.  Then, these same Chinese firms shamelessly swept in and bought up our  manufacturers’ now-unused equipment for pennies on the dollar.We were asleep.  Sure, it cost China some money in the early stages, but per their  long-term plan, China became the world’s top manufacturer and resource  for such fire-sale buy-outs at the same time. The plan was masterful,  the U.S. and American stakeholders fell for it hook, line and sinker.

I personally observed this wholesale takeover up close from 1990 to 2010. 

-Townhall

Note on the quote above: No American citizen can lease under the terms mentioned in the quote. Only the Chinese partner can take advantage of that lease arrangement. While the quote is a good one, it is very deceptive.

But moving into China was not as straight forward as it appeared. You just don’t hop on a plane with a suitcase full of cash, point to a factory and say “I want that one”. To operate in China (up until around 2008 or so) you needed to create a joint-venture partnership with an existing Chinese factory. So that is what ACME did. They partnered up with existing Chinese factories.

The primary advantages in having a joint venture in china was labor rates, regulations, and favorable trade terms. Anything else is speculative.

A comparison in hourly wages for manufacturing workers in the United States as compared to China.
A comparison in hourly wages for manufacturing workers in the United States as compared to China.

The Dismantling of American Industry

These actions took place throughout the 1990’s and by the tail end of the decade, almost the entire product line for ACME was manufactured in China.

All in all, it took nearly a decade to move operations off shore without seriously affecting market share and the confidence of our customers. Our name brands remained intact. Commercial campaigns for the sales of ACME products were given top spots on television and through newspapers.

The Design, and Quality staff remained in the United States.

However, that too began to be outsourced as well. With Engineers from India, and China working alongside American Engineers. Eventually, the complete Engineering and Quality groups were wholly outsourced to China.

None remained in America.

Customer Service Staff at a CS operations room in India.
Customer Service Staff at a CS operations room in India.

Customer Service activity was outsourced to India. None remained in America.

This remained true even after a flood of complaints about the quality of the customer service. They worked for a fraction of the cost of Americans, and with that pittance lived a upper-middle class lifestyle in India. The company savings went directly into the pockets of the owners of ACME.

Thus the resultant reorganization of the company resulted in very competitive prices that appealed to the major retailers. Walmart, Target, Sears, Home Depot, Walgreens and others all placed ACME Widget products in key SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) locations in their stores. 

In other words, displayed predominantly, at eye-level on shelves, and in high visibility locations within stores.
A graph of the decline in American manufacturing employment (and conversely ability) in order to meet the profit targets of Wall Street, the globalst cabal that runs Washington, DC, and the progressive political leadership in America.
A graph of the decline in American manufacturing employment (and conversely ability) in order to meet the profit targets of Wall Street, the globalist cabal that runs Washington, DC, and the progressive political leadership in America.

Product Placement in Stores

The complexity of product placement in stores is unknown to most Americans, but it shouldn’t be. The largest profits from the sale of ACME products went to the “Box Retailers”, not to the manufacturer. They made a profit margin of around 30% on each appliance, compared to the paltry 2-3% that the factory earned for making it.

  • Walmart
  • Sears
  • Target
  • JC Penny
  • Walgreens
  • K-Mart

Additionally, these stores placed pricing pressure on ACME to lower the price every year. Walmart had a policy of price reduction that equated to 1.5% off each model, each year.

Now this price reduction was not passed on to the consumers. Nope. The store kept the savings.

Though the price to the “Box Store” would decrease, the sales price would not. Thus resulting in a net gain in profits for the local stores of 1.5% each year for each existing product. This was important, as Walmart maintained a solid 30% mark-up over the factory cost. (The the factory cost mark-up was rarely more than 3%.)

That $100 vacuum cleaner cost $67 to make and ship. The store that you bought it from made $30, the factory made $3.

Globalism was fantastic for the wealthy. Their profits were never larger.

Though, not so good for the local, “Joe Blow” who had a family and needed to work to earn enough to meet the basics of a roof from the rain, cheap food to feed the family, and some beer to dull the senses.

Power Tool Isle in Home Depot in the United States.
Power Tool Isle in Home Depot in the United States. All of which are made in China and rebranded with American-friendly names.

As such, the profits were enormous for the company, and the owners (the ones that conducted the “hostile takeover”) rolled in the cash in mind-boggling amounts.

The amounts of profits were truly mind-boggling.

They used that money to “diversify” their company portfolio. They bought hotels, cruise liners, travel agencies, and were getting involved in Savings and Loan banking. Such was the high-flying life in the 1990’s. (Anyone remember the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”.)

President Obama represented the Global Interests of a global socialistic community. He did not care for local Americans, as he viewed them as a part of an "old order" that must be discarded in favor of a new, more "enlightened" progressive way of doing things.
President Obama represented the Global Interests of a global socialistic community. He did not care for local Americans, as he viewed them as a part of an “old order” that must be discarded in favor of a new, more “enlightened” progressive way of doing things.

Unfortunately, many of these side ventures failed. Thus additional rounds of layoffs, and downsizing’s continued a pace.

This continued to be the story throughout the industry as the competition to ACME also implemented their modus operandi.

Then came the election of Donald Trump.

President Trump starts a “Trade War”

Donald Trump and Xi Peng.
Donald Trump and Xi Peng.

In 2016 though 2019 he raised tariffs on Chinese made products. With the percentage of tariffs constantly increasing. This continued until late Summer of 2019 when he demanded that American companies working and trading with China return their operations back to America.

It most certainly shook the will of most nations around the world.

I know it shook Wall Street, and afterwards, globally all consumers and manufacturers started to slow down operations to take a slower more conservative bent on the matters at hand. They slowed everything way… way down.

It started in 2016, and over the next three years, the global economy started to slow down and cool off. Orders out of America limped forward hesitantly, while orders from Europe kept pace, but were more cautious than before.

Nothing “crashed” as predicted by the “screeching heads” on the “blue panel” debates on television. (All actors reading scripts, and playing roles, don’t ya know.) But things slowed down. Things cooled off. Investors became cautious.

I get a phone call.

Walking the dog on the beach.
Walking the dog on the beach.

In September 2019, I was walking my dog along the beach near my house when my cell phone rang. 

I normally don't keep my cell phone with me. But, for reasons related to habit, I had it in my satchel with me.

An old boss of mine, from my ACME days, tracked me down (How he was able to do so, I do not know.) and wanted to know if I would be willing to help them sort out the issues related to relocating their factories back to the United States.

I should have said no.

After all, our history was contentious. For, as soon as I completed my tasks with ACME, they immediately fired me, and made me sign a NDA in order to guarantee that I could get food stamps. No back pay, no severance package nothing. I couldn’t even go back to my office to get my personal effects. Pretty harsh, especially when you consider my very own personal situation…

… I had a wife with a very serious mental illness. And I was splitting my time between dealing with insanity of work issues and visiting her at the hospital. The layoff, at a time when my wife was suicidal, was a severe hardship. Well, for me at least.

Maybe you can handle an hysterical deranged wife painting the bathroom mirror with fingernail polish, while you are trying to “hit the streets” looking for new employment. I could not.

But that’s life. No one gives a rat’s ass about you.

Dilbert comic. It's so funny because it is (sort of) true. LOL.
Dilbert comic. It’s so funny because it is (sort of) true. LOL

It’s (as they say in America) “just business”. It’s the “American Way”, don’t you know. And you, as an American, should know. This is the truth, and this is the way it is. This is the real deal.

In America… it’s “just” business.

Being laid off without notice, or severence really blows. But that's the story of being an American worker during the last three decades.
Being laid off without notice, or severance really blows. But that’s the story of being an American worker during the last three decades. It’s the American way.

As was true through most of the 1990’s, treating employees as disposable paper cups often resulted in some bloody events.

But, in this case I said “yes” to my old boss. I asked a (relatively) enormous sum of money (expecting them to decline), and they agreed. Imagine that! I guess they were desperate.

After about two weeks of sorting out my personal affairs, we had a meeting in the conference room in one of their plush offices. It was on the 16th floor in this really nice (curtain wall) glass and steel structure that resided in Florida. What a life. They had really been doing well. Everything was new, and polished. It was a big change from the “hand me down” desks and cubicle walls that I dealt with back in the 1990’s.

Yeah. It looked something a little like this…

Corporate Headquarters
Corporate Headquarters

After the initial pleasantries and handshakes (You know, how was the flight, and did I like the hotel, etc.) , they asked me what was involved in moving the factories back to the United States, and so I put together some bullet points and made a PPT presentation to the upper management.

Making a PPT presentation.
Making a PPT presentation.

Capital Expenditures

The first point raised, of course, was costs. If you are going to move operations from one physical location to another, you will incur costs. What would those costs be?

The costs incurred would fall under numerous general categories;

  • Relocating heavy machinery and equipment (or the purchase of the replacements thereof).
  • Rules, fees, taxes and the costs associated with agency regulations that one must pay in the United States to operate a factory there. Do not be under the impression that you can just cut down a tree, install a power line, pave a road, and start putting up a pole building without having American government regulation at all levels involved.
  • Fees, charges, and associated bribes that you must pay when you are dealing with local American government. Make no mistake this is a very real issue and one that is kept quite hidden. After all it is quite illegal, and you all don’t want the pristine agencies of the FBI and DOJ putting their retainers on your efforts.
  • Rent or construction of new facilities.
  • The hiring of new staff to replace the Chinese staff. This will include all benefits as well as the various associated taxes, fees and social security benefits.
  • Associated relocation costs.
  • Associated tariffs in moving product inventory, and equipment from China to the USA.

It’s not so simple.

If you want to do something, it will cost money. Imagine that you are moving your house from Illinois to Los Angles. There will be costs. There will be the costs for the movers, the gas, the rental of the vehicle and the employment of the moving crew. The same is true for a business. There will be costs.

Some Key Points

Now, I would like to make some relatively important key points regarding moving a factory to China as compared to moving it back to China.

Firstly, consider what ACME did when the relocated the factory from America to China.

  • In the mid 1990’s, ACME formed a joint partnership / joint-venture with a Chinese company. ACME would take 70% of the profits, and the Chinese partner would take 30% of the profits.
  • ACME then shipped all their heavy manufacturing equipment from America to China. They physically removed it from the American factories, and shipped it to China. Then at the factory, they utilized both American and Chinese labor to set the equipment up, debug it, and shim the mechanisms into working condition.
  • However, it was well understood that once you set up a factory within China, you MUST have partial Chinese ownership. You absolutely cannot operate any factory in China without significant Chinese ownership. At that, let it be well understood that the Chinese co-owners MUST have at least 51% ownership in the company. The American owners will NEVER have more than 49% ownership of anything that they own and bring to China. It is Chinese Law (at least back in the 1990’s it was).
Also, let it be well understood that the upper management at ACME knew full well that this was the case. But they did not care. 

Their focus was on the short term profits, as was their charge. They fully expected that the company would eventually collapse long before there would ever be the need to relocate the factories back to the United States.
Semi-automated production line typically used in appliance assembly.
Semi-automated production line typically used in the appliance assembly. Picture is of a Bosch line prior to export to a Chinese assembly line.
  • Thus, any equipment brought into China will now require the co-owner’s (Chinese national) approval to remove from the Chinese factory and ship elsewhere.
  • In practice, this is often a big “NO!” There are some cases where the Chinese owner will permit the removal of old or antiquated equipment at a price. Often the price will be at market value or higher.
  • So, when ACME moved the equipment into China it was very simple. They moved it, and used their inherent labor to set it up and debug.

Yes, so when ACME relocated entire factories to China, it was a simple matter of firing all the American employees, boxing up the equipment, and handing it over to a Chinese partner. They, in turn, would own the equipment, train and staff the Chinese workers to use the equipment and ship the products back to America.

It was a model that worked well from the 1990’s up to around 2019. Everyone was doing it. American industry, as was Wall-Street, were all focused on quarterly profits. They could not see further than a few years in the future. The Chinese, on the other hand, think in terms of centuries.

  • However, to remove the equipment, they will NOW need the Chinese co-owner’s approval. This will often not be easy and it will come at a price. For they will be asking permission from their (now wealthy) Chinese partner to give up all of the capital equipment that resides in his factory. (And make no mistake, at 51% ownership, it is his factory.)
  • Please keep in mind that the cost of these manufacturing and assembly machinery are in the millions of dollars. As an example, an automated “brake” used to cut and bend aluminum sheet will equal the cost of a Lamborghini. Now, figure that each factory might have ten such machines at minimum. That is a lot of money.
Factories utilize so many different types of automation, that it is difficult to quantify exacly which ones are critial to the production end line goal, and which ones can be replaced by American manual labor.
Factories utilize so many different types of automation, that it is difficult to quantify exactly which ones are critical to the production end line goal, and which ones can be replaced by American manual labor. Photo is of an actual American joint-venture factory within China.

In short, what all this means is that American ownership of a Chinese factory is, at best, at 49%. As such removal of the equipment to America is problematic and will probably NOT occur. The Chinese business partner would keep the equipment, dissolve the partnership once the sales dissolve (easy enough under Chinese law) and end up owning the complete factory himself.

Thus the American partner is then forced to purchase all brand new assembly equipment from scratch and start off all over again. Only this time, due to the ravaging effects of inflation, the cost of the equipment is much more expensive than the initial purchase in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Thus capital equipment expenditures would seriously end up in the hundreds of millions of dollars alone.

Relocating a factory from China back to the United States is a prohibitively expensive exercise that costs an enormous amount of money. The only way around these costs are to emply Americans in an entirely manual assembly role and cut out all automation, quality checks and basic assembly standards.
Relocating a factory from China back to the United States is a prohibitively expensive exercise that costs an enormous amount of money. The only way around these costs are to employ Americans in an entirely manual assembly role and cut out all automation, quality checks and basic assembly standards.
Quick summary;
American manufacturing capital equipment is 100% American company owned when shipped to China.

American manufacturing capital equipment is only 49% American owned when shipping out of China. 

The difference in ownership will result in serious costs regarding the purchase of new capital equipment equipment for use within a factory in the United States. 

If the American management wants to go the legal route to resolve any issues with the Chinese partner, the Chinese legal system will rule in favor of the Chinese national. They ALWAYS rule in favor of the Chinese national. This is the way it works.

To put this in another way; to purchase new automation equipment for an American factory will entail enormous costs.

The only way that a business can purchase replacement capital equipment is with favorable banking and loan arrangements, but even with that, the amortization costs on most typical appliances will be on the order of an increase in 30% to 55% increase in the costs of the appliance.

Bill Clinton was quite satisfied with the trade arrangments with China, and supported it whole heartedly.
Bill Clinton was quite satisfied with the trade arrangements with China, and supported it whole heartedly.

Is it fair? No. But that is the situation that President’s Clinton, Bush and Obama were all quite satisfied with.

Technically Skilled Leadership

Another issue is the technical staff.

This is something that is given quite a bit of “lip service” in the industry, but is actually just a big smoke screen. If talented technical staff were actually important they would never be laid off. Right?

Well… Right?

Right?

Yet we know, by salary and HR surveys that the average duration for a technical (American) degreed professional (in America) at a singular job is less than two years. And, at that, the vast reason for their egress from the company was through firings, layoffs, right-sizing or what ever euphemism that might be popular at the time of the layoff.

Like I said. It’s a lot of words with no substance.

How to fire someone in America. Soften the blow so they don't go postal on you.
How to fire someone in America. Soften the blow so they don’t go postal on you.

Well, that is all just fine and day, except when you are talking about relocating a factory.

For you NEED these people, and you NEED their expertise. Otherwise, you will have all sorts of problems in production, resulting in quality disasters, and severe production delays.

Production Engineers are critical to the smooth operation of the production lines in a factory.
Production Engineers are critical to the smooth operation of the production lines in a factory.

No we are not talking about line supervisors, and accounting clerks. We are talking about the engineers that maintain and operate the complex automated machinery. We are talking about the design, industrial, manufacturing, and mechanical engineers that make the production lines hum efficiently.

Oh, yeah.

They used to be plentiful in the United States, but over the last three decades they have become a dying breed. Most, once laid off, could not find other similar work and so they migrated into other occupations. 

When our nation’s coal miners found themselves out of work, the  left-media gleefully told them that they need to “learn to code.”  After  all, they were dinosaurs working, literally, with dinosaur fuels and  needed to be reeducated for the global, technological economy.  

The condescending chant that rained down from the privileged ivory towers of the leftist elite:  Learn. To. Code. 

-Legal Insurrection

Some became bakers, while other ended up delivering mail for the Post Office. Some became teachers, while others became Bus Drivers. Maybe some even “learned to code”, as the Mainstream News Media laughingly taunted the unemployed professionals.

Design, production, manufacturing, industrial, quality and maintenance engineers are key talents that all factories require. Though over the last three decades, most of them have been Chinse, not American.
Design, production, manufacturing, industrial, quality and maintenance engineers are key talents that all factories require. Though over the last three decades, most of them have been Chinese, not American.

They, like myself, were forced to migrate to where the work is. If you are lucky, you never need to change and swap jobs. But during the 1990’s this was a near impossibility.

There are very few active technical factory experts in the United States today that are able and willing to relocate to a new post-China startup. They exist, but are decidedly no longer as plentiful as they once were. As such, once you find them, you will need to pay them a premium salary for their knowledge and experience.

Manufacturing engineers make sure that the process is set in place and the the workers can best manufacture complex and high quality products. WIthout them, the facotry will be plagued with all sort os quality problems, arguments, failures and delays.
Manufacturing engineers make sure that the process is set in place and the the workers can best manufacture complex and high quality products. Without them, the factory will be plagued with all sort of quality problems, arguments, failures and delays.

Now, that does not mean that they cannot be found.

They exist and are available in America. However you will need to pay them American salaries, and American benefits. Often with a benefit package that is ten times that of what the companies have been accustomed to paying their Chinese technical staff.

Process Engineers have an important role in the successful operation of any factory, especially those involving chemical and treatment processes.
Process Engineers have an important role in the successful operation of any factory, especially those involving chemical and treatment processes.

So ,yes there are technical staff that can be hired within America to work and maintain the factories. However, the cost to employ them will require a budget at lest ten times larger than the budget that is already allocated for the staff at a comparative Chinese factory. This cost will be added on to the cost of the product manufactured at the factory.

Training of staff

Compared to the two previous issues, this one is not as serious. It simply means that all those American workers that ACME must hire to work in the newly relocated factory must be trained. You would think that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. We have been training workers to work in factories in America for many, many decades.

Only one problem though.

Factory manufacturing techniques have changed drastically since the mid 1990s. The Chinese staff will need to train unskilled American workers to operate the relocated equipment, and learn the process parameters.
Factory manufacturing techniques have changed drastically since the mid 1990s. The Chinese staff will need to train unskilled American workers to operate the relocated equipment, and learn the process parameters.

The people who know how to make the specialized products that ACME makes no longer exist in the USA. The Americans that used to know are all gone. Either they found new work when they were fired back in the 1990’s, or are now retired.

The ones that know how to operate the (new and improved) machinery, check the quality of the product, and are knowledgeable to quickly debug the process when things go wrong are all Chinese.

Which means, of course, to train your new workers, you must use existing skilled Chinese workers to do so.

Chinese supervisory staff training an American worker on site in America.
Chinese supervisory staff training an American worker on site in America.

You have two options;

  • Obtain a H1-B visa for the Chinese staff and use them to train and supervise the new American workers.
  • Ship all the new American workers to China for hands-on training at the Chinese factory prior to shipping the equipment back to the United States.

Both options have been used by various companies over the last few years. Each option has some pros and cons associated with it.

Chinese management training Americans on site in the factory inside China.
Chinese management training Americans on site in the factory inside China.

However, the reader should note that due to the availability of the H1-B visa in the United States, the ACME leadership discovered that they would have to wait a year to apply for new visas, as all the existing visas were taken by software engineers out of India. Thus forcing the more expensive route to ship Americans to China to train how to use the equipment.

Training of Americans to work in the returned factory from China will necessitate the training by Chinese nationals. This will be conducted either in China or in the United States depending on the availability of visa access.

Breakup of Global Relationships

Of course, in order to return an American factory out of China and back to the United States, there will have to be a period of contentious negotiation between the owners.

PPT on the key points in negotiating with the Chinese.
PPT on the key points in negotiating with the Chinese.

After all, and I hope that I made this clear, an “American” company residing in China is NOT 100% American owned. No. Instead it is a joint venture / partnership with the Chinese partner owning controlling interest of the entire factory, technical skills, intellectual property and capital equipment.

For any American company to do this will create a period of discomfort and strife, as most Chinese owners will not want to relinquish any controlling interest, nor deplete their internal resource pool. He would fight, aggressively, any attempts to dissolve the relationship, ship components back to the United States and have access to stock and supplier interests.

Trade negotiations between Xi Peng and Donald Trump. The Chinese are tough negotiators. Do not think for a minute that they will not take full advantage of any situation.
Trade negotiations between Xi Peng and Donald Trump. The Chinese are tough negotiators. Do not think for a minute that they will not take full advantage of any situation.

This entire matter would be contentious. As a result, most American corporate executives would refer the entire matter to their American legal branch to handle. But, and you all should know and realize this, American law has no jurisdiction in China. Chinese law is what is followed, and the courts will almost always rule in favor of the Chinese nationals.

The Chinese legal system will ALWAYS rule in favor of the Chinese national.

When ACME tried to dissolve their partnership with the joint venture, and went the Chinese legal route, the courts ruled that not only did the American firm not have any legal standing, but they then awarded the American 49% legal controlling interest to the Chinese factory owner as punitive punishment.

Thus as a result, the ACME American company ended up with 0% ownership of the company, with their Chinese partner ended up with 100% ownership.

China is a serious, serious nation. They do not fool around, and they have laws that protect Chinese nationals. Americans should realize this and consider alternative solutions to any legal issues instead of going through the “proper” legal avenues.

Loss of Market Share in China

How things have changed. I’ve since returned to China many times, and  I’ve watched its economy grow to become the second-largest in the world.  

Based on purchasing power parity (PPP), it’s the largest. And according to Credit Suisse,  the size of China’s middle class has for the first time overtaken the  U.S. to become the world’s most populous—109 million Chinese compared to  92 million Americans. 

-Frank Talk

It might surprise many typical Americans, but China is a POTENTIALLY much larger consumer market than America is.

Presently the United States is the world leader in consumer product purchases, but that will change in the future. Most projections place China in the leadership role in the early to middle 2030’s.

China is growing, and the amount of growth just boggles the mind, and Americans are absolutely oblivious to this fact.
China is growing, and the amount of growth just boggles the mind, and Americans are absolutely oblivious to this fact.

Thus, if you want to have a global “slice of the pie” for what ever products you make, you will need to sell them in China.

Now, in order to sell products in China, you will need a Chinese “presence”. This can be a regional headquarters, a partner factory, or some other kind of legal entity to “open the door” for your products to be sold in China.

China is a huge market that can be exploited by American factories and businesses. However, they must be free to be able to sell their products to Chiese consumers. Were China to implement Trump-style tariffs, this will not occur, and Germany, Japan and Korea will capture those markets.
China is a huge market that can be exploited by American factories and businesses. However, they must be free to be able to sell their products to Chinese consumers. Were China to implement Trump-style tariffs, this will not occur, and Germany, Japan and Korea will capture those markets.

Do not be under the erroneous assumption that you can just carry some of your products to China and then just sell them openly. Nope.

All products must meet Chinese regulatory requirements.

It is similar to that in the USA. (Remember the Billionaire Boys Club where they were having a difficult time importing Mercedes Benz automobiles into the USA because they would not meet the emissions requirements?)

Now, it is far, far easier to sell American made, or American sourced (out of a Chinese joint-venture, or a WOFE) than trying to exporting the product directly to China. There is already a legal presence within China.

An opportunity exists for American companies to sell to China. However, they must do so carefully and maintain their name recognition.
An opportunity exists for American companies to sell to China. However, they must do so carefully and maintain their name recognition.

Corporate Identity

What ever you do, you must maintain your logo and trademark or else you would no longer have any kind of “product identity” associated with your products. However, if you have partnered with a Chinese factory to make your products, then THEY, not you, own the registration and trademarks within China.

By relocating the “American” factory to America out of China, ACME ran the risk of totally closing off the Chinese Market. This is because their Chinese partner OWNED all royalties, Logos, Copyright, and trademarks for the ACME brand. Under Chinese law, as practiced, the Chinese person who first manufactures a logo, or uses a symbol automatically owns the rights to it. Once ACME leaves, they can never return back to China and use their brand. If they did so they would be in violation of Chinese law.

Long Term Consequences

 I long ago concluded that the world will eventually essentially  divide into two spheres: China and the United States. But what I have  not been able to figure out is what that will mean overall nor what that  will mean for particular regions and countries. In particular, I get  stuck when trying to figure out which countries will go to which side.

 I have always believed some countries will essentially be required to  choose between the United States and China, some countries will want to  choose between the United States and China, and some countries will  want to straddle between the United States and China. 

-China Law Blog

China is growing and it appears that the United States does not appreciate competition. The USA wants to maintain it’s role as a global superpower, fighting and policing the globe by taxation of it’s citizenry. While China is looking for economic dominance through cooperation with national partnerships.

Non-American Factory Sites

You know, you do not need to relocate the factory back to America. you can relocate it to another nation with similar conditions to China. Here, you can make a joint venture partnership between the Chinese factory and a local factory, say in Cambodia, Vietnam, or Laos.

Pass-Through Trade Logistics

There are work-arounds. Products made in China, can be shipped to a nation that does not have Trump-level tariffs against it. The shipping container would then go to this second “pass through” nation, the documents would then specify that it was made and originated out of the third nation. Then shipped to the United States.

 Of course, it is possible that the economic pain China is feeling  from the trade war has been mitigated by some businesses trying to “work  around” the tariffs. This is typically done by exporting to an  unsanctioned country where some “value added” is created before being  shipped onto the final destination – thus avoiding the tariff.

 This is a tried and tested formula with one of the more extreme  examples being Russia. It takes time to find alternative suppliers from  different countries or to develop domestic ones. When sanctions were  first imposed on imports from the EU, Russia companies used business  relationships to import EU products via 3rd party countries, including  Belarus. This put up costs, but ensured supply chains could continue  functioning until alternatives were found.

 If that has indeed been happening as a result of the US-China  stand-off, the most likely avenue is Vietnam. While US imports from  Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan have certainly increased, it is from Vietnam  that they have surged. ...

... It is difficult for an economy to build extra production capacity and  related supply chains in a short period of time to substitute even part  of the production from China. Vietnam’s manufacturing production growth  was quite flat at around 10% year-on-year in 2019. It was even slower  in 2018. It is hard to believe that the surge in Vietnam’s exports to  the US (in US dollar terms, remember) has all come from production  within Vietnam.
 The obvious response is that it hasn't. Chinese exports to Vietnam  have displayed a strong upward growth trend in 2019, which is in  contrast to the slowdown in 2018, and also in contrast to the moderately  flattish growth of Vietnam’s production. 

-ING

This is a mature solution. Many of the products that American believe are made in Germany, Japan and Korea are actually made in China. They are made in China and then shipped and stored in the respective warehouses for later shipment to the United States.

Pass-through trade option.
Pass-through trade option.

This option might increase the price of the products from 1% to 5%. This is a viable solution as opposed to the 30% to 40% tariffs that Donald Trump is talking about.

Some Really Good Links

Conclusion

"The Trump administration made a very serious miscalculation in launching the ‘trade war’ with China. It believed that either, or both, the leadership of China would submit to the Trump administrations threats or the Chinese population would not be prepared for a serious struggle with the US. Both calculations have proved entirely wrong. China’s leadership did not surrender to but hit back against the US attacks. Furthermore anyone who follows China’s domestic discussion, on what is now by far the world’s largest internet community, knows that this line was strongly supported by the Chinese population."

- China prepares for economic ‘prolonged war’ with Trump

There are many considerations that a company must take into account when faced with a Presidential decree that the company relocate from China to the United States. It’s a complex issue with many facets.

When discussing relocation of American factories back to America you must also include the contentious corporate history over the last four decades that led up to the situation that exists today. Nothing happens in isolation. It is all the result of society, and corporate behaviors that are nurtured by the political class in Washington D.C..

In any event, it is up to each individual company to determine what actions would be in their own corporate interests. I would advise obtaining knowledgeable legal representation, and employment of experienced “old hand” expats residing in China, rather than some “expert” out of an “ivory tower” in Los Angles.

Other great articles

Here’s some articles by others in the business. They pretty much say the same things as what I am presenting here. Only they are better written. LOL.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

Chinese reaction to the Trump Tariff Wars.
Popular Music of China
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Some fun videos of China - 1
Fun Videos of Asia - 2
Fun videos of Asia - 3
Fun videos of Asia - 4
Fun Videos of Asia - 5
Fun videos of Asia - 6
Fun videos of Asia - 7
Fun videos of Asia - 8
Fun videos of Asia - 9
Fun videos of Asia - 10
Fun videos of Asia - 11
Fun videos of Asia - 12
Fun videos of Asia - 13
Fun videos of Asia - 14
Fun Videos of Asia - 15
Fun videos of Asia -16
The best way to cook marshmallows.

Articles & Links

You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

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Chinese reaction to Donald Trump tariff wars…

Not, that I want to get too political, but this video that is playing all across China pretty much says it all. It’s all about the Trump Trade War. And it shows how the Chinese feel about it.

This post is about a movie that is playing all over China this Summer. It is allegorical. While it is a story about a British Boxing champion, and his involvement within China, there are very CLEAR parallels about what is going on in the Trump Tariff situation.

China has this alligorical movie about the Trump USA trade war with China that has been playing all over CHina during the Summer of 2019.
China has this allegorical movie about the Trump USA trade war with China that has been playing all over China during the Summer of 2019. It’s well worth the watch, and it says quite a bit if you only just listen.

Viewing it garners mixed feelings from the precious few Americans who have watched it. There are two types of reactions;

  • [1] On one hand, Yeah! They don’t like the tariffs and trade situation. Great! Well, tough cookies! Suffer! See what we care. We can wait this out. You must play by our rules. If you don’t like it, well then too bad! We can always find other trading partners.
  • [2] On the other hand, well… um… maybe China would be a far better friend than an enemy. Who knows what they are really capable of or have planned.

Rush Limbaugh comments

To understand the situation let’s look at Rush Limbaugh. He’s a major voice in Conservative circles in America, and perhaps one of the few Republicans that haven’t sold out the American people for some song and dance. You know, like Jeff Sessions, Jeb Bush, and John McCain has. He’s still a trooper, slogging through the Washington swamp, and enduring the slings and missiles from the American mainstream media.

Here’s what Rush (El’ Rush-bo) has to say on the “Trump Chinese Tariff issue”…

RUSH: 
So the president started here with China. He is dead set on winning  this trade war with the ChiComs. 

Now, the thing about this that I think will go over a lot of people’s heads unless there’s somebody like me  explaining this, is he takes what to most people is a complex issue: The China trade deals. 

I mean, it is a miasma to a lot of people. 

It’s so  convoluted and confusing that nobody knows really what the stakes are.  

Why is it happening? 

What’s it all about? 

Trump takes this complex issue that nobody has even paid attention to for decades and does his best to make it understandable and important, and here is how that sounded.
THE PRESIDENT: 
We’re talking to China. We’re not ready to make a  deal. But we’ll see what happens. 

But, you know, we’ve been hurt by  China for 25, 30 years. Nobody’s done anything about it, and we have no choice but to do what we’re doing. 

We called them on manipulation, and they brought their numbers back, and they brought ’em back rapidly. 

We have an open dialogue. 

We’ll see whether or not we keep our meeting in September. If we do, that’s fine; if we don’t, that’s fine. But it’s time that somebody does what we are doing.
RUSH: 
When he talks about “the numbers,” he’s talking about their  currency manipulation. They tried to deflate their currency on  Wednesday, and it worked to the point of rocking our stock market down  900-some-odd points, and then Trump had some harsh words for ’em and  they revalued the next night, and the stock market rebounded. 

Of course,  the panic that ensued on that one day when the market dropped 900  points was typical of the kind of reporting we get in the media today.

Rush is correct. This is exactly what has happened. (More or less.)

Though, the truth is closer to the fact that China has been keeping the USD-to-Yuan rate artificial for the last twenty years or so. Not, as you might have the impression, naturally at 6.3:1 and then suddenly changed. So yes. They stopped propping up the rate, and it fell like a brick and messed up the USA stocks.

However, how it is being reported is a bit of a lie and a manipulation.

As reported; The USD to Yuan rate has been normal for the last twenty years. Suddenly China manipulated it’s currency to hurt the USD.

But that is a partial truth, equating to an outright lie. The last twenty years has been anything but normal. Here’s a better picture…

The True Situation: China has been artificially propping up the USD – Yuan exchange rate to slow down it’s hyper-active business section for the last twenty years. It has done this for selfish reasons, and the USA has benefited with this exchange rate. When the Trump Tariff wars hit a “road bump” the Chinese stopped propping up the exchange rate. They did so purposefully, (I personally believe) in order to aid in their tariff negotiations with President Trump. They did this to achieve negotiation advantage.

The trade wars initiated by Donald Trump has had an effect on China, though it is not as severe as the mainstream America makes it out to be.
The trade wars initiated by Donald Trump has had an effect on China, though it is not as severe as the mainstream America makes it out to be.

So yeah. The exchange rate was artificial.

And yeah, China affected it, causing a drop in the USA stock exchange.

However, the details on this event and this exchange are not being reported accurately at all. Instead it is being reported in such a way as to make it appear that China is manipulating the currency exchange rate for their benefit. When the exact opposite occurred. They STOPPED manipulating their currency rate.

Want to know more?

Confusion in America.

So even El’ Rush-bo is confused. He’s sitting pretty in the USA. He’s never been to China. Knows nothing about China except what he’s read from “experts”. Most of whom haven’t been to China in years.

Hey! If I am going to talk about golfing (for example). I sure as heck better know the difference between a driver and a putter. What a slice is, and how it differs from a hook. As well as to know what a "slow green" is.

I just can't watch a baseball game, eat a hotdog and chat about golf, when I have never been on a golf course. Played a round. Or owned any clubs.

Rush calls them “Chi-Coms”, Chinese Communists. Which they actually call themselves, but which means something totally different when heard by a Chinese compared to an American.

American Person;
"Chinese Communism" means hard-core tyrannical Marxist government. Similar to what is present in North Korea, and Cuba.
Chinese Person;
"Chinese Communism" is socialism with Chinese characteristics. 

There are no political parties as all of the Chinese people want the same thing; a traditional life that is safe from interference. Free Market Reaganomics implemented by Mr. Deng in the 1980's led to the "great recovery" resulting in what China is today.

I would say that the problem with American media is that no one ever really … I mean… really reports. They just put their own individual “spin” on the day’s events. Their popularity within America is determined whether their audience agrees or disagrees with what they have to say.

Even if it is completely and totally wrong.

How the American mainstream media reports the effect of the Trump Tariffs on China as a while. Absolutely not accurate at all. Bloodied, but in no way knocked out of the going.
How the American mainstream media reports the effect of the Trump Tariffs on China as a whole. Absolutely not accurate at all. Bloodied, but in no way knocked out of the going.

The goal of the American mainstream media is to manipulate the people. This manipulation serves a purpose. It keeps Americans living in a constant state of fear and anxiety, from which they can be easily manipulated. Much like sheep, cattle, or chickens. They have been doing so for decades.

American mainstream media manipulation of reported content to invoke fear and mob-behaviors in the public by controlling the dialog.
American mainstream media manipulation of reported content to invoke fear and mob-behaviors in the public by controlling the dialog.

The Movie

Now, this here is the Chinese response to the Donald Trump “Trade War” with China. It is a (sort of) friendly warning (China to President Trump) that is playing in all the movie theaters in China this Summer.

Bet you all weren’t aware of that!

I wonder why? Where’s all those “Chinese experts” and “China policy planners”, aren’t they aware of this? What about all those “talking heads” on the mainstream news, and the conservative political commentators?

No where to be found.

That is simply because they are all actors playing a role. Which, of course, is to manipulate. They tell you what YOU WANT TO HEAR, or arouse a fear to manipulate you to take some kind of action.

Nah. They have about as much awareness about China, as you the reader does about the block buster Pop hit 芒种. Which is absolutely zilch.

News reporting in America is dead. It only took about twenty years for the people to start realizing it. Today, it’s all just actors and actresses reading scripted lines. Those rare few that remain genuine to their beliefs, such as Rush Limbaugh, are only as good as their experiences. Without personal first-hand experiences, they are just fellow strangers espousing opinions.

Anyways…

This micro video runs for 1.47 minutes. It’s short but sweet and is a message straight from Beijing to Washington. I do think that it is worth a watch, even if you don’t like China, Chinese people, or Chinese food.

Watch it for the reasons why other Americans have watched it… to either gloat and feel superior, or to sit back and ponder the enormity of the situation.

I think it is well worth the watch, and so here it is…

Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.

—– Video Start

—- Video End

WISE UP!

The “old rules” of global politics will no longer work.

Oh, you don’t think that it has anything to do with trade? Watch the clip again, and pay attention to the English dialog…

Who do you think you are?

You collect money from me. You don't share it.

Do as I say.

You are not qualified to make deals with me.

And the discussion continues…

If you quit, you can take this business too. I can get anybody to take care of it.

And then, the sheer arrogance of the Westerners reaches an explosion point when he says…

Will somebody get this yellow piece of fat to get out of here!

After that we see how the Westerner battles and demolishes the Chinese man. It’s strong. It’s vicious, and he dies.

He’s dead. The Westerner has won.

Then, it’s payback time.

That's the clip and that's the message. The point is that Westerners misunderstand politeness for strength and advantage. It takes merit, skill and ability to defeat arrogance, bravado and strength.

Now, let me tell you my take…

America is a global power on the decline.

China is a rising global power.

China would prefer to work with America for their own benefit. While America would like to use China to advance their social-economical standing.

Well… duh!

You might not want to hear this, but it is true. Compare the stats. How many new parks were built in the USA compared to China? How many skyscrapers? How many bridges? How many High Speed Trains? How many hospitals? How many new schools.

Of course, the statist would simply point and say “ah, well… China is a third world nation, it doesn’t take much to move it forward“. Except that it isn’t, and wasn’t. The tyranny of communism devastated it. It took up until 1976 until it was finally vanquished, and Reaganomics was instituted by Mr. Deng that turned the nation around. 

Don't thank Mr. Deng. Yes, he introduced it, but it was the Great Ronald Reagan that introduced the technique to the world. Too bad that the Bush dynasty made fun of it, and allowed progressive politics under the guise of RINO activists to force America to become what it is today.

Meanwhile, [1] China is growing. That is simply not mistakable.

And [2] America, held down with the burden of progressive Marxism, a swamp-like government filled with crooks and swindlers, is on the decline.

But don’t believe me. Look at the charts why don’t ya…

Why there is a trade tariff war between the USA and China now.
Whether you believe me or not, this chart tells the entire story quite succinctly. The “trade wars” is happening and reaching a peak in 2019 simply because the United States wants to remain the dominant economic leader in the world. It’s all really that simple.

These kind of charts abound, and while they might differ by a few months one way or the other, the message is all quite clear. The USA is in decline, and China is ascendant.

Chart of real GDP comparing the United States with China. Check out the dates. Now compare the dates with the implementation of the Trump Tariff Wars.
Chart of real GDP comparing the United States with China. Check out the dates. Now compare the dates with the implementation of the Trump Tariff Wars.

Americans don’t want either of these two things to occur. They want the status quo. They want inflation to stop, and for the march of progressiveness to end, and for them to get back just a few of the freedoms that they have lost over the years. Nothing too demanding. Just a few things…

Some things to ponder

It’s pretty difficult to “bring back American industry” to America when all the manufacturing talent is Chinese. Yeah. That’s right. Who the heck do you all think has been making those products that you have been buying for the last 20 to 30 years? Elves? Dwarfs?

Here, Manufacturing Talent represents skilled and educated factory professionals. Process engineers, manufacturing engineers, build planners, tool and die makers, test and quality experts and other similarly skilled people.

America used to have them. But spending twenty years in soup kitchen lines has caused many of them to change careers and take up other occupations. Most especially during the Obama presidency.

It’s going to be pretty difficult to disassemble the manufacturing equipment, and process tanks when they are now the property of Chinese nationals. When a non-Chinese company wants to operate in China they must create a joint-venture with a Chinese national. This person will, by law, own 51% of the company and if forbidden by law to give controlling interest to a non-Chinese person. (Which is why WOFE business structures were created in China.)

Just to put this in perspective, a single automated "break"... the machine that cuts and folds sheet metal panels is the cost of an Lamborghini. A company is not going to start from scratch and order up five or six of these units without passing on the costs to the consumer.

It’s going to be pretty difficult to train American workers to work in the (brought back) factories. American can do the work. Though it will be at roughly 10x the rate of the Chinese worker, and maybe 20x if it is a union factory.

You see the only people that can train them will be denied the required H1-B or Q1 visas (as all are now in the hands of software engineers out of India).

Even if everything went well, it will take a minimum of two years to “bring a factory back” to the United States. There are regulations to meet, people to pay off (and yes, boys and girls, capital-project bribery is common in the United States), and agency approvals to meet. After all, consider the difficulties and hurtles one must go through to make sure that the tiger-striped bo-bo fly isn’t endangered.

These are all HARD and REAL issues that no one is addressing.

At that, the company owners will need to make a strong business decision.

China does not mess around. They are a serious, serious nation that deserves respect.
China does not mess around. They are a serious, serious nation that deserves respect. Do not poke the dragon. They have read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, and they well know Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally .

This decision is, “what is the easiest and most cost effective solution to the Trump Tariff Wars with China?”

  • Leave the factory in China. Allow the USD-Yuan exchange rate to plummet, and charge American consumers for the difference.
  • Relocate the factory to the United States. Retrain staff from scratch. Order brand new processing equipment all over again, from non-Chinese sources. Have the equipment paid for out of the capital budget (somehow). Wait until it is made, debugged, and then start trial production in two years. In the mean time, work out other temporary “work around” solutions.
  • Relocate the factory to a cheap labor nation other than China. Here there would be the same issues as with relocating the factory to the United States. However, it will cost less to do, have far less regulation to deal with, and will have substantially reduced labor costs.

The answer is clear.

So, if American companies start to do this, how will it benefit America and Americans?

The Bigger Picture

Both the IMF and the World Bank now rate China as the world’s largest economy  based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), a measure that adjusts  countries’ GDPs for differences in prices. In simple terms, this means  that because your money stretches further in China than it would in the  US, China’s GDP is adjusted upwards. 
 
And it won’t be too long before China’s economy surpasses the  US’s by other measures, too. The Centre for Economics and Business  Research (Cebr) predicts it will happen in 2029. 

- The World Economic Forum

Every world leader can see the trends and using the forecasts as a kind of crystal ball, they can see where to “place their bets” for long term trading and economic policy. It’s not with the United States.

Ah. You don’t believe me? Well, check out the data…

Europe views China as the world's leading economic partner. Not the USA, and long term strategies and alliances will increasingly indicate that fact.
Europe views China as the world’s leading economic partner. Not the USA, and long term strategies and alliances will increasingly indicate that fact.

And while there are all sort of other factors that might enter the picture, and alter the outcome to some degree or the other, the fact is quite clear…

The USA can no longer afford to conduct business as usual. The world is changing. And like the contentious business climate (1980’s through 2010) that forced companies to down-size, up-size, re-size, re-structure and go though all sorts of gyrations (while the bloated US government just got bigger and bigger), the US government will have to go through that as well.

  • Requires a serious downsizing of the military and the scope of it’s use. America can no longer afford fighting eight nations simultaneously, policing the globe, operating thousands of military bases on foreign lands and being the proxy fighting force for the global oligarchy.
  • America requires a serious downsizing, or elimination, of numerous agencies. They are too large. Far too bloated. Filled and staffed with inefficient workers that take in far too much operational costs compared to their output.
  • Requires “Business Level” staff cuts, and budget cuts all across the Federal Government.
  • Requires a serious replacement for the Federal Reserve. (Of course!)

None of this will be easy, and it will be fought aggressively by the progressive cabal.

Group photo of the American Senate in 2019.
Group photo of the American Senate in 2019.

Knowing this, and the reader must agree, these steps must be taken immediately to sustain and continued American economic dominance in the global arena.

Oh, and about 芒种…

Now, here’s your opportunity to “get a leg up” on all those “experts” pontificating on China and the Trump “trade war”. Learns something that these “experts” haven’t a clue about, why don’t ya.

Yeah, 芒种 is a very popular song all over China, and everyone is singing and dancing to it. It’s sort of a Austin, Texas version of a Korean pop song, done to Chinese traditional beat.

Look, all that I am saying is that unless you open your eyes to see things AS THEY REALLY ARE, and stop listen to the news that tells you what you want to hear you will follow the pied piper to a very dark place.

Most Americans haven’t a clue as to what China is, how it operates, and how formidable it is. They think it is a backward, but huge, version of Mexico, North Korea, or Cuba.

They are convinced that the ONLY things China makes is cheap and inexpensive junk products. Not realizing that China has been supplying most of the world’s electronics for decades and designing and manufacturing the engines, mechanisms, and equipment used in high end cars and jet aircraft for years as well.

Americans pontificate on this false narrative, carrying on and on about the “junk” that “China floods” the USA with. Not at all giving credit to the American retailers that are actually the ones doing it. Factually, China manufactures just about everything. But most of the low-quality and cheap products end up in the USA simply because the American retailers want it that way.

Which is really strange when you think about it. The disconnect between reality and perception is so amazing and so stark that it is mind-blowing to me.

"OMG! What my friends and family think about China is so... so... off the wall, and nonsensical that it blows my mind. China is really, really, REALLY not what everyone thinks. They seriously have no idea, and they are wrong... really wrong about everything."

-My intern Aijia (from London) discussing the perceptions her friends have of China compared to her experiences after spending one month in China.

As far as all that “freedom” that everyone talks about having in America…

The USA hasn’t been a Republic since the 12th amendment.

It hasn’t been for small government since the American Civil War, and the citizens haven’t had any Rights since President Wilson and FDR changed the Constitution. Not to mention given Congressional power to the Judicial courts, and Federal agencies.

What Rights do you have if you have to pee in a cup to work?

Today America is a progressive Marxist “utopia” and it is only a few short years away from full implementation of hard-line Stalinist controls. Yes. It is. It really, really is.

How democracy ends.
How democracy ends.

Just follow all the “bread crumbs” from President Wilson , through FDR up to and including Clinton and Obama. America today looks nothing like the 1789 Constitution. (1776 Constitution + 1789 Bill of Rights.)

Point of no return.
Point of no return.

America is not what everyone thinks it is.

With that being plainly understood take note. China is not what everyone thinks it is either.

The fastest trains are in China.
The fastest trains are in China.

Ya all, best open up your eyes before it’s too late.

Trade wars are dangerous things to get involved in.
Trade wars are dangerous things to get involved in. Ultimately you want a win-win situation where every party gets some advantage.

While I do appreciate what Donald Trump is trying to do with the Chinese, he’d best stop listening to the moron (deep state RINO plants) that are advising him. They are only going to get the USA backed into situations that will be very uncomfortable.

Tariff wars with China.

How America handles this ascendancy of China at this time, will determine the future relationship with the largest and (will be) the most important nation on the planet. I do think it would be a very good idea to keep on their good side.

For our children.

Just sayin’ you all.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

Popular Music of China
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Why are Americans so angry?
Evolution of the USA and China.
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Some fun videos of China - 1
Fun Videos of Asia - 2
Fun videos of Asia - 3
Fun videos of Asia - 4
Fun Videos of Asia - 5
Fun videos of Asia - 6
Fun videos of Asia - 7
Fun videos of Asia - 8
Fun videos of Asia - 9
Fun videos of Asia - 10
Fun videos of Asia - 11
Fun videos of Asia - 12
Fun videos of Asia - 13
Fun videos of Asia - 14
Fun Videos of Asia - 15
Fun videos of Asia -16
The best way to cook marshmallows.

Articles & Links

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The evolution of America and China; they both no longer resemble their stereotypes

America has evolved. China has changed. But the mainstream media reporting has not. This post discusses how both China and the United States have changed. We look at how they have migrated away from the form of government they were first established as. We look at how they both started, how they both changed, and where they both are today.

  • For the United States, we study how it was first set up as a Constitutional Republic. We look at how it was changed through “progressive” alterations by President Wilson. We track the train of progressive change through FDR, to Clinton, and Obama. Finally, we follow the changes to the totalitarian police-state oligarchy America is today.
  • For China, we study how it was set up as a Marxist utopia, and how it failed miserably. We look at who orchastrated the movement away from hard-line communism, and what they replaced it with. For, surprisingly, it was replaced by a single-party traditional Chinese-conservative government. We discuss how Mr. Deng brought this transformation through the implementation of Reganomics in the 1980’s.

Of course, we use facts and history to support this history. But, it’s not a popular history. It’s a stealth history.

The Stereotypes of China and America

The actual history lies hidden. We never see it behind the paid actors and actresses that pretend to be reporters. We never watch the actors pretending to be “experts” on televised discussion boards. We never see the entire picture, ever. All we see are actors reading scripted lines. Lines that are cultivated to evoke emotional reactions from us.

All we see is what is being “reported” to us.

American news 18AUG19
American news 18AUG19. This is a screen capture of CNN taken on 18August 2019. Our view of life and news is all colored by the news selectively presented to us, and how it is presented.

That’s because the mainstream American media is a propaganda arm for others who desire Americans live in a “fake reality”. It’s a reality where Americans can be easily manipulated, emotionally tugged upon, and cajoled to perform the bidding of others.

Have you ever wondered why some people think the way that they do? I mean, why is it “common knowledge” that Trump followers are  “Deplorable” Nazi “Red-Necks” who are High School dropouts and  uneducated bumbletons?  Why is it “common knowledge” that Universities  and Colleges are the perfect routes for success in today’s’ modern  world? Why is it “common knowledge” that we need to pay income taxes or  else our bridges would collapse and our telephones would explode?

  
 The News Media told us.

The following link opens up in a separate tab…

Link

I argue that in order to have a peaceful life, you need to tune out and turn off that screaming, screeching noise-maker. You need to divorce yourself from the news. Oh, and yes this means all news. Most especially the news that YOU WANT TO BELIEVE. For that is the most dangerous manipulations. For they have successfully tapped into your emotional tug-points.

Dog Shit

Because of all this manipulation, Americans have a distorted view of the world, and their place in it.

American media is nothing but lies.
American media is just propaganda. Nothing that you see is real and truthful. It is all distorted lies and partial-truths.

That is why many young people today feel that America is a horrible place, and needs to be replaced with a soft and kind socialist utopia. While, older Americans hold on to the belief that America is still the greatest nation in the world, and that it is full of “free” people living a life in liberty. Both points of view are framed upon the lies fed to them by the media.

With this there are two “camps” of belief;

  • Conservative. America is still a free republic. Liberty, while under assault, still exists. Any problems that America has are short-lived, and as long as a Conservative representative is elected, everything will be fixed, and people will once again be left alone as the normal order of things.
  • Progressive. America has problems because it is not progressive enough. It needs a strong leader to move to the “enlightened despotic” utopia. A utopia where the intellectually superior would tend to the rest of humanity much like a Shepard tends a flock of sheep. A Shepard sort of like a militarized Obama.

Let’s look at these two nations (USA and China) and two societies and compare them, shall we? Let’s start with America.

America Today

Liberty does not thrive when you must pee in a cup to get a job.

Here we are going to start with America. For simplicity, I have broken apart the various details into other posts. (All the statements made can be expanded upon in much greater detail by clicking on the links shown.)

An American.
Ron Swanson. I am an American. Know what this is all about.

How America was Changed.

How America was changed. It was changed purposefully. The America that we see today is what is the result of 100 years of progressive alteration in the hopes of achieving a utopia. Which is, on top of an earlier period of 100 years of evolution where those in government centralized power and control.

  • Wilson started the path towards progressive implementation. He turned Americans into serfs, and put bankers in charge of America’s economy.
  • FDR expanded upon it and had to rewrite and redefine the interpretation of key aspects of the Constitution. He pretty much started down the path to shredding the Bill of Rights.
  • Clinton altered the Justice department. Implemented forceful elements of social change and started the balkanization of America.
  • Obama radicalized all of the many agencies in Government. He armed them and made them a force to control the American people. He was the one who implemented the decisiveness and radical element of the progressive cause.

Freedom is never having to ask permission to eat, drink or do something with your own body.

This migration, the players who implemented this migration, as well as certain key changes to the American Constitution is covered in this link (it opens up in a separate tab);

Why are Americans so angry?

Here is a little graph that I made about these changes, and no it is not precise. It is reflective of my own biases and not to scale. The horizontal axis represents time, the vertical axis represents the social-political organization of America.

Though, not completely accurate does not mean that it is nonsense. It does include the destruction of the tenth amendment during the civil war, and the progressive changes wrought on Americans by Wilson, FDR, Clinton and Obama.

Chart of how America has changed over the years toward a progressive liberal socialist marxist oligarchy from a constitutional republic.

Tracking the Changes that altered America.

Tracking how small changes made America what it is today. America has been under the assault of progressives, busy-bodies, fraudsters, and the evil for over two centuries. It's difficult to document and get the "big picture" without getting bogged down in the details.

Here we use a parable to show how well-meaning changes can severely alter what something is. It’s a fun parable. It is also directly applicable to America today. It also opens up in a separate link. And yes, that’s exactly what happened to America…

Parable about America

Ah… talking about the big picture…

The Big Picture

The Big Picture. Information overload. When dealing with a complex issue like two centuries of change in a large nation, such as America it becomes easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the big picture. Let's take a quick look at human nature, won't we?
Democracy Lessons

But, again, now that you (the reader) can see the big picture, let’s get into some of the “nitty gritty”. First off, let’s look at the very first “showdown”. This was the American Civil War.

You see, back then the Federalists wanted a central government (like we have today), and those who read the constitution realized that the nation was founded on small government, locally governed. They used the issues of the day (which progressives want to politically realign to slavery) in order to battle with the big government folk. They fought and lost.

Today the elements of such a “showdown” are popping up here and there, and there are very close parallels to the American civil war. Let’s look at this…

The First Rupture

The first rupture. While the Constitution migrated away from a Republic in the first twenty years after ratification, the first signs that America did not represent it's people on a local level was evidenced by the first American Civil War. Here we look at this, and study how the exact same process is used contemporaneously to control American citizens.
Civil War

Now, what is the nature of the people who want to discard liberty and freedom? What makes them tick, and why are they so “Hell bent” on changing things…

Who Changed America

Who changed it. We ask what the nature of people who want to implement change is, and look at specific examples. In this post we look at the personality aberrations that cause this kind of behaviors and why they despise the concept of liberty and freedom. Again, the link will open up in a separate tab for your reading clarity.
SJW

One of the problems that Americans have with this entire bout of change is that they are unable to categorize the absolute mind-blowing array of changes. And since they are unable to follow the entire wide breadth and scope of all the efforts that the progressives are doing, they fail to grasp the enormity of all the intent.

Yet, it need not be so complex.

  • America changed from a Republic to a Democracy early on.
  • Once a Democracy, evil and wealthy men used mob rule to get into positions of power.
  • They centralized the power in Washington D.C..
  • When the people revolted there was a Civil War and the powerful and wealthy won.
  • But, that power was not enough.
  • They wanted more. They wanted to live like Kings over serfs.
  • Thus progressive politics was implemented.
  • Subsequent Presidents expanded upon this and it changed society.
  • America changed from a K-strategy majority rule to a r-strategy control center.

Here we talk about this.

How the changes affect society

Americans have become so accustomed to the progressive onslaught that they do not realize what the assaults on liberty are.

How the changes affect society. Here we look at how the changes in the government structure results in how people behave. This tracking and association of behavior with environment is well known and quite remarkable in it's consistency. What people are loathe to associate is how exactly it is following the American model.
r/K selection theory

To put it clearer… 

The state doesn't get to put up a hoop - not any hoop - for anyone to  jump through before deciding their constitutional rights will be  granted. 

- Aesop at Raconteur Report

The assault on Liberty

The Bill of Rights has been ignored. It’s not limited to the first and second amendments either. It’s everything. From “Red Light Cameras” that violate the 6th Amendment confrontation clause, to the 9th and 10th amendments. It’s all selective enforcement, and encroachment at will.

The Assault on Liberty. America has been dying a long slow death through million of tiny little cuts. Here we try to document just some of the many ways that America is being attacked. For each time you ban something, the government takes away a freedom. Freedom is the opposite of a ban. Here we look at this...
Link

The cultivation of ignorance. In order to subjugate a people, you need to keep them ignorant, disarmed, drugged or otherwise helpless. There are many techniques, and many are being used on Americans today. Here we look at this aspect…

How they get away with it

A looted America. Over the last 100 years, with the implementation of a progressive reality, America went from a nation of strong independence, to a dependent society that must ask permission from the government to function.

Since them, Americans have been treated as money-making machines, and fleeced over and over again.

Everything in the United States is monetized, taxed, regulated and utilized. The people are serfs serving the global ultra-wealthy. Here we study the American HST program as a perfect example of this…

Why no High-Speed rail in the USA?

Culture Wars. There is a fundamental clash between the very two disparate cultures in America.

One is the “nationalism” movement. They want [1] to be left alone, [2] a much smaller government, and [3] a return to the Constitution as written back in 1776.

The other is the “modern progressive” movement. It has elements that are desirous of [1] “enlightened despotism” and is [2] implementing Marxism to achieve their preferred utopia. It is a King and slave relationship.

Here we discuss this… “the culture wars”…

What is going on in Hollywood?

Hyper regulation of everything. In America you have expensive medical care, that if you track it back to it’s source, you will find that all the costs (in one way or the other) originated in various ways by government programs.

For instance, you have expensive cars that in one way or the other requires testing, and registration of all of the millions of components that make up the vehicle.

You have to ask an agency for permission to do anything. It wasn’t always this way.

It is this way because FDR scrapped out the SCOTUS who ruled that the 9th amendment will not permit the formation of any federal agencies. He did not like this. So he overhauled the SCOTUS and staffed it with closet Marxist wanna-bes. They then started ruling in favor of rolling waves of Marxism.

The Ninth Amendment

How Americans are controlled. Americans are the most manipulated, regulated, taxed and regulated people on the planet. Of course, many don’t think so.

They look at the shiny newness of their shackles and view that as a sign of freedom. Here we look at how Americans are manipulated and kept in a state of fear.

Freedom - American style.
Under a progressive liberal agenda, Americans have come to accept the cleanness and newness of their shackles as a sign of advancement and modern enlightenment. It is what was intended by President Wilson when he rewrote the Constitution to implement enlightened despotism as a prelude to full-on Marxist control by the richest people in society. You can see how this works with the two tiered justice system, and the rampant abuse of young girls by the richest elite.
Link

Some long over due changes. Here we discuss some of the key things that MUST be changed to have America move back to the Constitution as it was intended to be.

These are not a comprehensive list of items, it’s just some of the many, many problems that MUST be radically changed or else the United States will be no longer in the near future…

Make America Great Again.

Personally, I would erase EVERYTHING, and start all over again, but with the Constitution as originally written. I would undo all the alterations, scrap the current crop of players, and start fresh and new.

I would put everything in the hands of the individual states. I would pull the federal government out of everything except the most limited and necessary functions.

I would defang every government entity, and then implement a fourth branch – the OVERSIGHT branch of corruption police constantly keeping the officials transparent and honest. This group would be very powerful and have it’s own court system, police, prisons, and torture rooms.

And yes, I would follow the Chinese model and implement torture for abuse by leadership. They will not be given a free pass. After all, if they want their own laws, they will have to have their own punishments as well.

I would nuke the progressive government from orbit, and set up corruption police to make sure that these monsters never raise their ugly heads ever again. I would do exactly the same thing that the Chinese do to their SJW problem.

But that is just me.

Today America is so far removed from what it once was that Americans have NO IDEA what freedom actually is. Hey! Wake up! These are CRITICAL characteristics of a FREE SOCIETY, how many exist in America today? Eh?

  • No taxes on anything.
  • No regulations except the most critical infrastructure.
  • No agencies.
  • Property means “YOURS.”
  • Privacy is absolute.
  • One set of laws that are applied equally.

In a free land, you can smoke and kill yourself with drugs and drink. No one will stop you.

In a free land, your property is yours, and no one can seize it, tax it, regulate it or claim it from you.

In a free land there are no laws against “vices” and no laws on behavior.

Starting all over from scratch is the only way to be sure.

How different America is today from the founding? It is terribly different from what the Constitution was originally set up as.

In fact, aside from keeping the same names and titles, the nation resembles the exact opposite as what it was set up as. Here, we go Right by Right (in the Bill of Rights) and look at the tattered remains of what exists.

What would the founders think?

What America is today. Finally, we conclude with a study of what America actually is. We look at the organization, the history, the changes and the functional rearrangements that made America what it is. Then we come to conclusions as to what it functionally is.

Spoiler alert: It’s an oligarchy run by non-Americans.

Link

Which pretty much explains this comment…

According to the experts, America is a country whose most fearsome enemy  is not only the majority of its people—the majority of its people are  also the nation’s biggest threat and its ultimate outsiders. 

-Jim Goad at Taki's Magazine

China

Lets look at China.

It’s common knowledge that China is communist. We know this, because the progressive American mainstream media has told us this. We know this because this was the case as recent as the 1980’s. We know this because Mr. Mao proudly committed to communist ideals back in the 1940’s. We know this because his picture is still on the Chinese currency.

And… and, we believe this is still the case, well because, we don’t know any better.

The failure of communism

However, that has all changed. You know, there have been many, many changes since Richard Nixon was in office. A lot has happened since the 1960’s. First, communist China collapsed in the 1970’s. (Though, it didn’t get the American media attention that it deserved. It’s almost like the American media were pining away for the success of communism.) Communist Cambodia collapsed shortly afterwards, followed by the collapse of the communist Soviet Union.

In the tail half of the last century, just about every communist nation imploded in upon itself. With the exception of Cuba and North Korea.

Of course, the American mainstream media wouldn’t like to admit any of this. In their minds, it is still useful (for distraction purposes) to manipulate the more mainstream and conservative members of their (shrinking) audience. They do this by treating Americans as fools and playing Don Quixote chasing “communist” windmills.

It serves their “Neocon” audiences.

What they have left out, in their news casts and discussion panels, was that communism in China was a terrible failure. When communism was implemented in China, it caused devastation, deaths, starvation, and the destruction of centuries of culture and society. Not just a few deaths, mind you. But whole-scale mass starvation. Not just the destruction of one or two museums, but most of the history of China. Not just the unwritten traditions, but really all aspects of Chinese life was adversely corrupted.

Fall of the Former Soviet Union.
We well know about how the Soviet Union and that brand of communism fell. What was little reported was how the Chinese were able to avert a similar catastrophe. In China, they had heroes who experimented with non-Communist methods to bring about economic success. Mr. Deng and his Chinese version of Reaganomics was the most successful.

China, due to Mr. Mao and his advisors, was riding the bullet train towards catastrophic collapse.

In the 1970’s serious and drastic action needed to be taken to undo the ravages of communism. So numerous leaders “stepped up to the plate”. Each one acted as a hero in an attempt to stop the collapse of the Chinese government, and the resulting foreign intervention.

(You all know, don’t you, that once the Chinese nation collapsed, that rich and wealthy American elite would offer to “rebuild” the nation. You know, out of kindness…)

Implementation of Reaganomics in China in the 1980’s

So the Chinese all stepped up. One of the most famous was Mr. Deng. He and his stunning successes are known all over China. He implemented wide-scale Ronald Reagan economic policies. Only this time, he didn’t have Mr. Bush Sr. snapping at his heels. He didn’t have a media making fun of his actions calling it “Zombie Economics”, and he didn’t have Beijing reverse his polices as soon as they started to bear fruit.

All of which happened in the United States.

You see, back then, China was in a state of an emergency. It was a serious and a dangerous time. Thus, anyone trying to play political games for their own personal benefit, did so at the peril of the entire nation and race.

When the SJW movement took control of China

So, Mr. Deng was permitted to implement a Chinese-version of Reaganomics. He was given a small and tiny fishing village. He was given the tiny hamlet of Shenzhen to use as a “test bed”. And, it took off. The growth was astounding.

Shenzhen
Downtown Shenzhen China when Mr. Deng took over, and what it looks like today. This is what the “miracle” of Reaganomics does, and it was this force that was used to completely transform China. However, in doing so, they HAD to move away from communism. For Reaganomics is wholly incompatible with communism.

Today, Shenzhen is populated by 14 million busy inhabitants. To put that in perspective, New York has pretty much had a constant population of 4 million people over the last three decades.

Seeing the success of this, and other initiatives, too numerous to mention here, we have seen an evolution of China.

China moved from hard-line communist to something else.

China still calls itself “communist”

The Chinese refer to this new way of doing things as “Socialist with Chinese characteristics“, but what it really and functionally is is something quite different. It’s much the same way that Americans still claim that America is a Republic.

We, as Americans, can easily recognize the policy positions as near identical clones to Mr. Ronald Reagan’s “free market” policies. The most that you would ever… ever… ever, hear this reported is when the media begrudgingly admits that China is capitalist.

Evolution of China from a Marxist Communist Republic established by Chairman Mao, to a single-party authoritarian traditional Chinese-conservative nation by Mr. Deng.

Though, the progressive mainstream media would NEVER admit to it. Though the hard-line Neo-cons would never say anything positive to their “dog and pony” show that narrates a communist enemy that needs to be opposed at every turn.

Freedom & Liberty in China

Ignorance about China

Yes. You can tell just how knowledgeable any “talking head” is in America when they refer to China as “Chicom’s” (Chinese communist), when in all actuality they are HARD-LINE CONSERVATIVE, and that they INSIST on tradition, and merit.

You know that Americans are manipulated when a Conservative American frets about…

China doing things…

  • China imprisoning and reeducating radical Uighar Muslims.
  • Cracking down on “free democracy” movements by SJW folk.
  • Worrying about “junk” products made in China.

To which, I must say that China’s stance is very American Conservative on these issues…

America doing things…

  • Radical Muslims must be vetted and kept out of America.
  • Antifa, BLM, and other SJW’s are not permitted to disrupt day to day life.
  • Make the products in America instead of importing them.

So, when I see and hear an American conservative take the “talking points” right out of FOX, or CNN, I know that they are just regurgitating the nonsense programming that is used to keep Americans dumb, stupid and living in fear.

If the American government was truly functional, they would have taken immediate steps to control the Antifa, and BLM riots, and mass SJW attacks and disruptions. They would have identified the leaders of the movement and arrested and detained them. They would have isolated the riots and attacks with trained forces and collected the agitators and sent them off to discover what their malfunction was.

  • Preventing ambulances from helping people.
  • Damaging stores and public works.
  • Looting stores and communities.
  • Throwing chemical milkshakes and beating innocents with bikelocks.

People! This is what a functional and responsible government looks like; Pay attention!

Pay attention!

Today, China is [1] a single-party government. One single party often means totalitarian. But, in my mind it sure as heck beats “pretend democracy” with is mob rule manipulation.

Oh, and by the way, the Chinese do not mess around. They are a serious, serious nation that is run as a meritocracy. Their leaders got there through merit, not by a popularity contest, or through political placement. This is a serious cold-hard fact that many Westerners need to grasp their heads around.

China is not what you think.

The government is [2] nationalist with [3] “China First” objectives. The government is set up to support the Chinese people. Not a global one-world order. As such they know that they must police their leadership. From 1997 though to 2013, the local government leaderships as well as the wealthy business owners started to take advantage and corruption became rife and problematic.

So the president Xi Peng implemented the “Corruption Police”.

This group is as powerful as the IRS in America and answers to no one except the President. No 9th circuit court or judge in Hawaii is going to block or postpone any actions that they take. As such, the bad guys in China are scared shitless. You either come clean with transparency or you WILL suffer the consequences. And believe you me, you don’t want to do Hard Time in China.

The Chinese “Corruption Police”…

The Chinese “Corruption Police”.

They [4] believe in free-market economics, and [5] vigorously defend the traditionally conservative Chinese social way of life. That being said, the Chinese culture is “Chinese conservative”, not “American conservative”. They are similar, but NOT identical.

Statue of Mr. Deng Xiaoping.
Statue of Deng Xiaoping at Lianhuashan Park. Mr Deng brought Reaganomics to China., and single handedly helped to move China away from rigid formal communism to the nation that it is today.

China is a traditional conservative nation.

Not, American conservative, mind you. They are Chinese conservative. Which means that they hold many of the same beliefs and ways of doing things that an American Conservative would agree with. But not all of them.

  • Mother and Father are parents.
  • Father works and supports the family.
  • Mother takes care of the home and children.
  • Education is important, and merit based.
  • Success is achieved through hard work, and merit.
  • Vices are normal and need social outlets.
  • Any person who does not agree to the above are ill and need to be medically corrected and isolated from society.

As such, the Chinese family and relationships look like they came right out of the American 1950’s. The man goes out and works hard, has a beer or two with his buddies after work, and then comes home to his family.

Yes. It’s Fred Flintstone style. Yes. Wally and the Beaver style. Yes. The Brady Bunch style.

And when the man comes home from a hard day’s work, he will give 100% of his pay to his wife. She will use this money to take care of the household, invest in the education of the children, and maintain the social standing of their family with the rest of society.

She in turn, will have his house clothes washed and laid out on the bed for him. His slippers will be ready for him when he gets inside, and after he takes his after work shower, he will find a nicely laid out dinner waiting for him. Often (depending on the person) with a alcoholic libation waiting for him.

China is a Traditional Nation.

Here is a handy chart that I composed describing the differences between American Progressive Liberal belief, and Chinese beliefs. It goes a long way to illustrate how close modern China is to the traditional American Conservatism. As well as how far removed it is from the progressive reality of America today, and the communist ideal that China came from.

A comparison between the United States and China.
A comparison between the United States and China. Here we compare various elements of culture, society, with the way that things are conducted in China as compared to the United States.

While most of America is enjoying the progressive themed Hollywood movies (women in leadership roles, people with superpowers granted to them through luck, and diversity in every scene), the Chinese produce movies and videos around more traditional themes. The music, even the more up-beat, aren’t as harsh. The women are sweeter, and they aren’t wagging their enormous trashcan jugged assess at the screen.

Culture and society are a reflection of what the nation is. In a like vein, Hollywood is a reflection of what America is today. To understand what China is like, all you need do is pay attention to their culture…

What does this mean

The traditional notions of America being the land of “Democracy” against the evil Communists is wholly outdated. The “cold war” ended with Ronald Reagan. He finished off the success and rule of communism.

Yet, the oligarchs would have none of this. They argue that it wasn’t implemented properly. Maybe Pol Pot wasn’t harsh enough. Maybe they weren’t diverse enough. Maybe they weren’t ruthless enough. They write about this, and announce their intentions quite openly.

For instance…

Make no mistake, the globe is forming into two sides. Sides, mind you, that are so diametrically opposed in fundamental belief systems that the ability to coexist will not be possible.

Here is a map of the world today. The conservative traditionalist nations are colored in RED, and the “enlightened” progressive globalist oligarchy are in BLUE. Most other nations are unknown in this regard, and are left bare and uncolored.

Partial color coded map
This is a partial map showing known polarization around the globe. Traditional conservative nations are colored in red and progressive socialist nations controlled by an oligarchy are in blue. There is evidence that many Muslim nations are also traditional, and conservative, but they differ in some fundamental ways and deviate in such a way that they are not included in this calculus. In short, if you look at the map, you can easily see that the former “free world” of “democracy” have all devolved into mob-ruled oligarchies under the progressive socialist banner.

The Implications

The implications of such a realization are astounding. By looking at the globe in this manner, we can clearly see that philosophy and ideologies are what frame the way that the globe operates today.

  • Almost every democracy has devolved into mob-rule controlled by a rich oligarchy.
  • Almost every former communist nation has evolved into a traditional conservative nation.
  • The oligarchy owns the media in the regions they control. As such they try to keep the “cold war” alive through fear to control their people.
  • Oligarchies help each other out. It is almost like they share the same blood-lines or something.
  • Conservative nations tend to be populist and nationalistic. They only make agreements that serve their own interests.

Important Note

These are only my opinions. Perhaps, you the reader, have other ideas. That is fine. This is nothing more than a very simplistic overview of but one equation of a very complex calculus. For all that I did was simply map out conservative belief structures against progressive belief structures globally.

The reader should note that there are cultural differences that also come into play. For instance, a conservative American would believe that everyone should own firearms, while a conservative Chinese would believe that civilian ownership of firearms should be banned.

To the American, it might seem that it really isn’t conservative at all.

After all, the right to self-defense is a role liberty enshrined in the Bill of Rights. But to the Chinese that seems strange, as in China, all children are given basic military training at an early age. By the time they are 16 they know how to work together as a team, and how to perform the most basic of military disciplines. When the time comes to undergo more rigorous training, they can opt out with parental consent. However, with consent, they are able to learn the more martial skills expected of a soldier.

While the implementation of the right of self-preservation differs, both conservatives maintain the importance given in this liberty. How it is implemented is different, that’s all.

In American conservatism, the individual has the Right to exercise that right and train on his own dime. In Chinese conservatism, everyone must learn how to protect themselves and the nation if called upon to do so.

A polarized world.

Here is a handy dandy chart of the comparisons between Chinese and American Conservatism. As I have repeatedly stated, Chinese conservatism is similar to, but not identical to American conservatism. (Remember, however, that the Chinese government operates under Chinese Conservative rules, while the American government operates under progressive Marxist rules.)

A comparison between American conservatism and Chinese conservatism.
A comparison between American conservatism and Chinese conservatism. They are similar, but not identical. Never the less American conservatism has much more in common with Chinese conservatism than with the progressive reality that America is today.

The effect of these changes on America…

All of the progressive changes has come at a price for Americans. It has lowered so many of the attributes that made America the fore-most leader in the world…

The United States enjoys the highest degree of personal freedom in the world 

Once again, a variety of indicators  are used by various study groups to determine the level of personal  freedom enjoyed by citizens across the world, including economic freedom  (the ability to earn a living wage, and retain it for personal use),  political freedom, access to education, religious freedom, and many  others. 

The evaluation is then compared between nations,  and in the final comparison the United States routinely ranks in the  second ten. America’s neighbor to the north, Canada, invariably finishes  with a higher ranking of personal freedom than the United States. So do  New Zealand (consistently first among numerous rankings), Taiwan, and  the United Kingdom.

The all too frequent response from  Americans ill-disposed to accept such rankings is to huff “If you don’t  like it leave,” or some similar retort, as well as denial of the  accuracy of the ratings. 

After all, the phrase “land of the free” is  included in the national anthem, and is far more accurate than any  intellectual studies. As with many facts which are in conflict with  accepted myths, they are inconvenient, and thus to many must be  considered inaccurate. 

Nonetheless, the rankings, some of which are far  less laudatory of American freedom, exist, there existence is a fact,  and whether or not one agrees with their findings they are easily  available for study. 

The rest of the world may see them as well, and a  student in Wellington may well wonder why American leaders claim to live  in the greatest degree of freedom in the world, when the facts before  their eyes indicate otherwise. 

-TopTenz

As well as..

The United States is the richest country in the world 

Besides the belief that the United  States is the best educated country in the world enjoying the highest  standard of living in the history of humanity is the belief that America  is the richest nation in the world, evidenced by the vast reserves of  minerals still untapped within its borders and off its shores. 

Again,  the ranking of nations by wealth is subject to the variations of the  means used for evaluation, but the United States again does not crack  the top five in many rankings. Using the standard of Gross Domestic  Product per capita, or GDP by individual, the United States ranked seventh in 2018, trailing international leader Luxembourg by almost half. It also trailed Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, and Qatar.

Fox Business used another mix of  criteria to list what it called the world’s wealthiest countries in May  2019, but even by its standard, which gave Monaco the top spot, the  United States did not crack the top five. 

When using privately held  wealth as the standard of measure, as did Visual Capitalist in May 2019,  the United States jumped all the way to number one, a piece of data  which offers a meaty bone of contention for those prone to enter into  spirited discussions of what it means for society. 

Fortune Magazine  listed the fifteen richest countries in the world in November 2017, and  in its list it included the United States, ranking it above Iceland, the  Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia in 12th.  

The argument over which nation is the richest in the world can be made  using a variety of data as the facts for supporting it, but by most  objective evaluations the United States is not in the top five. 
 
-TopTenz

Not to omit…

The United States has the highest standard of education in the world 

The United States has the admiration  and respect of the civilized world for the availability and quality of  education it offers all of its citizens. Such is a belief held by many  to the point that it is an irrefutable fact of the modern world. It is  incorrect. 

Though the United States ranks near the top in expenditures  for education, at all levels, when compared to other civilized nations  it is quickly apparent that money spent does not equal education  achieved. In the percentage of students completing primary education the  United States does not make the top five (Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Israel,  Saudi Arabia, and Mexico). 

For secondary education (that is, completing  high school) the USA again does not make the top five. Nor does the  United States rank in the top five for completion of post high school  degrees, though in fairness such degrees mean different things in  different parts of the world.

The World Top Twenty Project looked  at post education success as well as other indicators to rank civilized  nations by education in 2018, with the United States absent from the  resulting list of the top twenty, which was led by South Korea. 

The  United States own Center on International Education Benchmarking, a  project of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), lists the top performing nations of the world in terms of education  and does not include the United States among the top ten, instead  reporting on the progress made in the listed nations and the changes  which could be adaptable to American education systems. 

When CNBC listed  the top ten most educated nations of the world in February, 2018, it  listed the United States as sixth, a ranking bolstered to some extent by  the number of foreign students completing advanced degrees at American  institutions. 

-TopTenz

Conclusion

The last fifty years has seen an absolute role reversal for both the United States and China. The United States today is an oligarchy that treats it’s citizens as serfs in a land with a two-tiered justice system.

Anyone who does not see this is a FUCKING IDIOT.

When you have some poor sop getting 70 years in prison for having a picture of a single nude 14 year old girl on his computer, and a serial pedophile rapist who has repeatedly raped over 1000 children under 14 (Epstein), who got the most lenient sentence in the history of law, should be obvious to everyone except the most partisan hack.

And, let’s not even talk about Hillary Clinton, and Lois Learner. Eh?

Meanwhile, China is a meritocracy. It is advancing forward using the exact same formula that made America the strongest nation in the world in the 1700’s.

To pretend that contemporaneous China, and the United States fit the tired old stereotypical narrative as portrayed by the mainstream media is to play the village idiot. It’s not the same, and does not, in any way, resemble that narrative.

SHTF and Related Index

The Tale of the Killdozer.
Why are Americans so angry?
SJW
r/K selection theory
Link
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
Line in the sand
A second passport
Link
Make America Great Again.
What would the founders think?
The Ninth Amendment
How they get away with it
Snopes
Taxiation without representation.
Link
Parable about America
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Link
Democracy Lessons
A polarized world.
Asshole
Types of American conservatives.

Articles & Links

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Some fun videos of Asia; to include China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. (Part 16)

We continue in our video exploration of Asia. This episode has some really great and noteworthy entries. Especially the Chinese reaction to the Trump Trade War.

Before we get moving on to the videos, let’s talk a little about the screen splash above. It is from the music video by Kid Rock called “First Kiss”. It is a tribute to the care-free and easy life of the 1970’s when people would go about and have fun and drink together.

Scenes from the Kid Rock song tribute to the 1970's lifestyle in the song "First Kiss".
Scenes from the Kid Rock song tribute to the 1970’s lifestyle in the song “First Kiss”.

Morning & Evening group exercises are still a common sight

When the Chinese government co-opted the “Dancing Grandmother” network, no one knew what to expect. They thought that at the bare minimum that it would tone down all the noise and obstreperous racket that infested the Chinese cities. Well, by making it part of the “healthy China” initiative, it has become very popular.

Read about this program, and why it exists here; (Don’t fret the link will open up into another tab. It’s a good read, I’ll tell you what.)

Fat China

Anyways, it is just as popular as ever and everyone from elementary and middle school ages to 90-year old grandmothers participate in the group dances (and learn a few dance moves in the process).

China responds to the Trump Trade War

China wants and desires very much to be on friendly and peaceful relations with the USA. In many ways, traditional conservative Chinese are very much like their American counterparts. They understand why Trump is doing what he is doing and feel that he is a formidable businessman. Not the “joke” that CNN, and the UK Guardian make him out as.

That being said, the attitude in China is that if you want to have some competition (say in sports, or in this case) in business, then they will fight to win. The Chinese will unleash everything, and they do fight to win.

So While Trump is instigating the “tariff wars”, exerting influences on up-and-growing tech companies (like Huawei), negotiating with other nations to stop doing business with China, and using CIA dirty tricks in Hong Kong, the Chinese are not sitting back. They released the brakes on the yuan-USD conversion and let the market decide. So far, the value of the yuan is falling relative to the USD, and now everything made in China is 30% cheaper relative to what it was before Trump.

But it’s more than that.

You might not like China. You might be under the impression that China is hard-core Marxist (it’s not), or you might be under other misconceptions as spread by the Western media. But one thing is very clear to anyone who has had any dealings with the Chinese; they don’t play around, and they fight to win.

The Chinese fight to win.

Here’s one of the more popular movies this Summer and you should look at it from the point of view of the Chinese in a “trade war” with the West…

Look at it as a friendly, but serious, message to Trump from Beijing.

Oh, you don’t think that it has anything to do with trade? Watch the clip again, and pay attention to the English dialog…

Who do you think you are?

You collect money from me. You don't share it.

Do as I say.

You are not qualified to make deals with me.

And the discussion continues…

If you quit, you can take this business too. I can get anybody to take care of it.

And then, the sheer arrogance of the Westerners reaches an explosion point when he says…

Will somebody get this yellow piece of fat to get out of here!

After that we see how the Westerner battles and demolishes the Chinese man. It’s strong. It’s vicious, and he dies.

He’s dead. The Westerner has won.

Then, it’s payback time.

Get together in Thailand

In the United States, at least during the 1960’s, the 1970’s, and well into the 1980’s mu friends and I would go cruising in our cars up and down the town streets. We would then go to specific spots. Much like the “Moon Tower” in the movie “Dazed and Confused” where we would party.

Which always involved beer, and often some kinds of other libation.

Hanging out
Hanging out. During the 1970’s we would all hang out together with friends and go drinking, singing, and dancing together in the countryside. At that time we would listen to Led Zep, and other classics of the 1970’s.

I don’t know if this is still an activity in the Untied States.

For some reason, I don’t think so. Simply because it would be one of the first things that busy-body democrats would try to regulate, fine, fee or make laws against.

Yah. You know this is true.

First Kiss by Kid Rock
Screen shot from the song “First Kiss” by Kid Rock. It’s a tribute to the days when young folk would go riding around the town and hanging out with each other. While many Americans wish and yearn for those day again, they are not gone. They might be banned or difficult int he USA, but the rest of the world still celebrates those times…everyday.

Well, it’s still a popular pastime in the rest of the world. Here’s what it’s like to gather with your 20-something friends and play around with along the Thailand-Cambodian border…

Everyday China

This next video takes place in Shanghai at night. yeah it’s super-typical. But what I would like to point out is some of the very common elements that are found all over China, that you might miss if you were not aware of it all.

When you watch the video, please pay attention to the painted road markings on the road. Notice that they have incorporated solar powered LED lighting that flashes to alert people. Notice the body cameras, radios, and lighting on the police officers. Notice the streets how clean they are and devoid of trash, as well as notice that there isn’t any graffiti anywhere.

You will also notice the raised walkway surfaces on the sidewalk. This is common all through China. It is for blind people so that they can make their way around town.

Watch the video and look for those things…

Hiphi – The Chinese Tesla

Of course, the vast bulk of storage batteries, electric motors, automotive controls, and complex wiring systems are all made out of China. (Outsourced from the USA since the mid 1990’s.) Therefore, it should not be any surprise that China is leading the world in the production of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Bet ya didn’t know that.

Not only are there more vehicles (on a quantitative basis) made in China, but there are far more models, types and variations. Heck, here in tiny Zhuhai, almost all the buses have been fully “green” (all electric) for two years now.

I like them that way. So quiet.

Big difference from the noisy gas-powered behemoths that lumber along.

Here’s one of the car brands. I place it here not because it’s the best or anything like that. I just like the design and the style. Oh, by the way, you can’t buy it in the USA. It’s going to be another ten or so years before the automotive regulations catch up with the innovations out of China. (That’s why the implementation of LED’s on American cars took 15 years, don’t you know. And, only five years in Germany and the UK.)

We become conditions to accept our chains.

This video is addressed to my fellow Americans, not all of them, but rather to the trolls who don’t read anything that I post. Those that don’t study the issues. Those that refuse to look at things from a third-person point of view and are not listening to my warnings.

– Warnings –

  • China is growing and it is not what you think it is.
  • China is a serious nation, run by serious people who got into positions of power through merit, not popularity.
  • China plays to win.
  • America was established as a Republic. But, today it is an Oligarchy.
  • We have grown used to the loss of liberty and freedom that America now represents. We do not realize that America today is the absolute opposite of what it was first established as.

Most Americans live a life in ignorance and fear. They don’t realize just how far down into tyranny they have fallen.

For instance, we pay taxes, and watch as the government overspends it. That is NOT in the benefit of the citizenry.

We believe that we own houses and cars, yet both are subject to confiscation by the government. That is NOT ownership.

We must submit to regulations, pay various fees for the most simple tasks and ask permission to do anything from selling lemonade in your front yard, to fishing.

People that is NOT freedom.

Americans do not realize how conditioned they are to their life as a serf. They have no idea that all these things are all chains and bindings that restrict their freedom.

Like this video aptly illustrates…

I have many more videos, but I just cannot put them into a single post. It will bog down your computer terribly. So to watch the rest of the videos in this post, please continue…

Continued-graphic-arrow

If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

Popular Music of China
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

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Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Summer Snapshots 1
Summer Snapshots 2
Summer Snapshots 3
Summer Snapshots 4
Snapshots Summer 5
Summer Snapshots 6
Summer Snapshot 7
Summer Snapshots 8
Summer Snapshots 9
Summer Snapshots 10
Summer Snapshots 11
Summer Snapshot 12

Articles & Links

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