Biden Is Not Ending The 'Forever Wars'. He Is Preparing The Path To New Ones.
Daniel Larison writes that Joe Biden's foreign policies are probably worse than Trump's:
Joe Biden’s foreign policy record as president in his first six months has been as bad as his non-interventionist and antiwar critics feared it would be. Biden has made one significant and correct decision that he appears to be following through on, and that is the withdrawal of the last remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but even here there is reason to worry that US forces may be relocated to other nearby countries and the war against the Taliban will continue from afar. On almost every other front, Biden has not only failed to undo some of his predecessor’s worst and most destructive policies, but in many cases he has entrenched and reinforced them.
Biden has failed to stop the U.S./Saudi war on Yemen. He is keeping troops in Iraq and Syria. His retreat from Afghanistan turns out to be fake. He is sabotaging a return to the nuclear with Iran.
The U.S. has, in contradiction to its Doha agreement with the Taliban, restarted its bombing campaign against them and is likely to continue it for years to come:
The top American general overseeing operations in Afghanistan declined to say Sunday night whether U.S. airstrikes against the Taliban would end Aug. 31, the date previously given by officials as a cutoff for such attacks.Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of United States Central Command, refused to commit to ending the United States last remaining military leverage over the Taliban: airstrikes.
...
The Taliban reacted furiously to the strikes, saying they were in breach of the 2020 agreement negotiated between the militant group and the United States.The concentration of strikes against the Taliban reflected a new sense of urgency in Washington about the imperiled Afghan government.
“I’m just not going to be able to comment about the future of U.S. airstrikes after Aug. 31,” General McKenzie told reporters after meeting with Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, and his aides earlier in the day.
The Taliban have recently done a lot of diplomacy with visits to Moscow, Beijing and Tehran. Together, with Pakistan, which continues to supply the Taliban with weapons and manpower, those countries are planing for a future where the Taliban will have total control of, or at least a significant role in. the Afghan government. They have promised to invest in a Taliban led Afghanistan.
But the U.S. will not allow a rebuilding of the silk road between China and Iran. It will not allow for safe 'Belt & Road' investments in Afghanistan. Instead of controlling Afghanistan for its own purpose, as it did with its occupation, the U.S. will, from now on, do its best to deny others to benefit from the country.
After first pressing the Afghan president to make room for an interim government, Biden is now again backing him. In a phone call last Friday Biden pledged full support for Ghani's continued hardline:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan. President Biden and President Ghani discussed the situation in Afghanistan and reaffirmed their commitment to an enduring bilateral partnership. President Biden emphasized continued U.S. support, including development and humanitarian aid, for the Afghan people, including women, girls, and minorities. President Biden and President Ghani agreed that the Taliban’s current offensive is in direct contradiction to the movement’s claim to support a negotiated settlement of the conflict. President Biden also reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to continue supporting the Afghan security forces to defend themselves.
But Ghani's government has no way to survive. The Taliban control Afghanistan's borders and can finance themselves with customs duties and taxes. Ghani thereby lacks the income to run the state. Now Biden is promising him to give $4 billion per year to the Afghan army while having few control over how that money will be spent. Ghani and his circle will do their best to loot the stash.
Instead of leaving Afghanistan alone and letting it find a new balance Biden is revamping the Great Game in which Afghanistan will be again the foremost casualty.
During his campaign Biden had promised to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran. But no action has followed. Talks with Tehran started too late and were filled with new demands that Iran can not accept without diminishing is military defenses.
The arrogance of the Biden administration is at full display in its believe that it can dictate the terms to Tehran:
If the U.S. determines that Iran is not prepared to return to full implementation, or that Iran’s nuclear program has advanced to the point that the non-proliferation limits in the deal cannot be recaptured, it will explore options, including for tightening enforcement of economic sanctions, but he hopes it does not come to that, he said.“We will see whether they are prepared to come back,” the senior US diplomat said.
It is not Iran that left the UN endorsed JCPOA deal. It was the U.S. which went back on it and re-introduced a 'maximum pressure' sanctions campaign against Iran. Iran has said it is willing to again reduce its nuclear program to the limits of the JCPOA deal if the U.S. removes all sanctions. It is the Biden administration that is unwilling to do so while making new demands. That is obviously not going to work.
Today Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei met with the outgoing government of President Rohani and warned the incoming government against any hope that the U.S. will change its unreasonable position:
Khamenei.ir @khamenei_ir - 9:20 UTC · Jul 28, 2021Others should use the experience of Mr. Rouhani’s govt. One experience is distrusting the West. In this administration it became clear that trusting the West isn’t helpful. They don’t help and they strike a blow wherever they can. When they didn’t, it was because they couldn’t.
Administrations should utterly avoid tying their plans to negotiations with the West, for they’ll certainly fail.
This administration too, wherever it relied on negotiations with the West & the US, they were unsuccessful, & when they relied on domestic potential, they succeeded.In the recent nuclear talks, the Americans staunchly insisted on their obstinate stance. When making promises & on paper they say they’ll remove sanctions, but in practice they didn’t & won’t. Then they say new articles should be added to the deal that already exists.
The West & the US are totally unjust & malicious in their negotiations. They have no hesitation in breaching their commitments at all. In the previous agreement, they breached their commitments & they give no guarantee they will abide by their commitments in the future either.
If the U.S. does not come back into the JCPOA deal, without any further conditions, Iran will eventually leave the deal and proceed with its nuclear program as it wants. That would be an utter failure of Biden's hardline tactics. One wonders what the Biden administration has planned to do when that happens.
As Larison summarizes:
Biden’s foreign policy so far is largely made up of failures to achieve his stated goals and failures to overturn the worst policies that he inherited from Trump. In some cases, Biden has not even made the effort to overturn them. The Biden administration likes to use the phrase "America is back" as its foreign policy motto. Judging from Biden’s first six months this just means that America is back to more of the same destructive and inhumane policies that we have had for decades.
Instead of ending the 'forever wars', as Biden promised during his campaign, he is prolonging old ones while preparing the path for new ones.
That is a path that will not go well for the U.S. of A.
Posted by b on July 28, 2021 at 16:16 UTC | Permalink
next page »Seeing as Biden has also reneged on virtually every one of his domestic policy promises, I guess one has to appreciate the fact that he's at least consistent in his mendacity.
Posted by: corvo | Jul 28 2021 16:29 utc | 2
Great read, thanks.
USA! USA!
But many of us have spoken for years how the US Foreign Policy is fully bi-partisan in a monopoly two party system, and as far as foreign policy is concerned it doesn't matter a twit who is President of the United States. The facts (lies) are fixed around the policy (conquest/profit.)
Posted by: gottlieb | Jul 28 2021 16:29 utc | 3
I used to call Obama, "President Head Fake".
What to do with Biden, though? He is a faux prez with no head.
Posted by: librul | Jul 28 2021 16:34 utc | 4
Where is the U.S. launching these strikes from?
The only viable places I see are Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, carriers in the Arabian sea, or maybe one of the Persian Gulf states.
Turkmenistan - The Russians have influence there and can boot out the U.S. if we really misbehave.
Carriers / Persian Gulf States - We can irritate the Taliban, I don't think we can stop OBR.
------------------------
Biden is mini-me-Trump
You are correct. The only difference is that I do not believe Biden would have have assassinated Gen Soleimani because Biden is less driven by photo-ops. Our Foreign Policy establishment is insane and manipulates Presidents by threatening to call them 'weak' on cable TV (shudder).
The best case scenario for the U.S. and the world is that we waste all of our resources chasing too many shiny objects and collapse like 1990's Russia before getting into a big war.
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Jul 28 2021 16:45 utc | 5
I would like to say "I told you so!", but the posters who need most to hear it are not here, and won't be back until it is time to shill for Democrats again in the next US election.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 28 2021 16:49 utc | 6
b's summary is my understanding as well.
Two things, though:
- Focusing on Biden is misleading. He is a figurehead/spokesperson like all recent Presidents;
- Turkey's intentions in Afghanistan (with USA blessing) deserves a mention here.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 28 2021 16:50 utc | 7
I have seen recent footage showing local Afghanis taking up arms in preparation for what they expect is to be a takeover by force by the Taliban. I had been under the impression the Taliban takeover was proceeding without much opposition. Like many, I hoped the bloodshed would come to an end. As hard as I try, I just can't get good information out of my media.
Posted by: UnionHorse | Jul 28 2021 16:55 utc | 8
I would like to say "I told you so!", but the posters who need most to hear it are not here, and won't be back until it is time to shill for Democrats again in the next US election.
William Gruff | Jul 28 2021 16:49 utc | 6:
Yep. I wonder where Circe and friends went? LOL
Posted by: Ian2 | Jul 28 2021 17:06 utc | 9
librul @4
That head is a prosthesis. Bondo sculpted over some old oily rags and some greasepaint skillfully applied to make it look lifelike from the right camera angles.
Of course, it is the camerawork and the editing that really make our animatronic President come alive! This could never have been done without the commitment of the imagineers in the American mass media.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 28 2021 17:09 utc | 10
Mr. Precedent
His rheumy eyes are mesmerized
by the pint-sized lady at her mother's side
He maneuvers himself to stand behind
this little pre-woman he has in mind
and as he bends to sniff her hair
he touches the breast that's almost there
The cameras roll but he dont care
He's suave he's rich he's debonaire
He's Joe O'Biden and he's not all there
this empty suit follows suit
he wears jusa's jackboot
Posted by: ld | Jul 28 2021 17:14 utc | 11
Judging from Biden’s first six months this just means that America is back to more of the same destructive and inhumane policies that we have had for decades.
Yep, continuity of policy as many of us anticipated.
Christian J. Chuba @5--
Turkmenistan has declared itself a Neutral Nation and won't host any foreign forces, not even Russia's. The SCO's Defense Ministers are having their annual meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and I linked to the PR synopsis of Shoigu's speech there on the previous thread. It seems they're anticipating an exodus of NATO's Terrorist Foreign Legion from Afghanistan to neighboring nations as the Taliban has pledged to drive them out in their talks with Russia and China. With its air defense systems, Russia could establish a no fly zone over Afghanistan aimed at negating NATO drones from entering Afghan airspace. But without basing in a neighboring nation, any NATO drone would need to fly through one of those nation's airspace, and I seriously doubt any of them would allow that to happen. So continuing to destabilize the region once gone will be very difficult for the Outlaw US Empire.
There's been some sort of misinterpretation, it was supposed to be: "Forever War."
Posted by: Seer | Jul 28 2021 17:32 utc | 13
corvo @2
He was honest about one thing: "Nothing will fundamentally change." Which leads us to one answer for
librul @4
How about "Status Quo Joe"?
Posted by: The Space Wanderer | Jul 28 2021 17:41 utc | 14
Shoigu made the following points in his speech:
"Speaking to the participants of the meeting, the Russian Defence Minister stressed that today long-term hotbeds of tension are forming around the SCO countries with a difficult-to-predict scenario for the development of events.
"'Aggressive economic pressure, all kinds of sanctions, provoking conflicts, conducting disinformation campaigns of the population have become characteristic methods of achieving goals. The instability is most acute in Southeast Asia,' Sergei Shoigu said, noting that 'Washington is imposing the creation of structures similar to NATO on the states of the region.'" [My Emphasis]
"The defense minister asked whether it was possible to 'find a place where good things came of the US moving in and staying for a long time.' According to him, the chaos and bloodshed seen in Afghanistan have been seen elsewhere. 'It is the same in Syria. It is the same in Libya. When non-regional players intervene, this is what happens.'"
I see his comments aimed at developments occurring in the South China Sea where NATO vassals are now sticking their noses.
Here Tom Fowdy writes about the Thucydides Trap:
"Beijing says it wants to be treated with respect and laid out a number of demands. But when it comes down to the details, fulfilling those would mean enormous compromises in how the US operates its foreign policy interests, and vice versa for anything the US demands of China. Would either side give up, for example, their stake on Taiwan?
"Herein lies the problem. This reduced room for compromise means the two sides inevitably become locked in a cycle of mutual responses and hostility, and suspicion that their opponent is pursuing malign intent against them and must be dealt with. We just saw an example of that as before the Sherman meeting, China unleashed a series of counter-sanctions against the US for sanctions over Hong Kong last week. China argues it is responding in kind to America; the US predictably replies this is unacceptable....
"China may not seek to become the global hegemon, but nonetheless its rise as an increasingly prosperous country is being threatened by the US. Therefore, as Xie Feng said this week, China will push for its interests regardless of what the US wants. So where does that leave us? What’s the answer to the question posed in the Thucydides Trap: is war between the existing superpower and the emerging one inevitable, as it was between Athens and Sparta?"
China has stated it will force the Outlaw US Empire to become a "respectful" nation, one that obeys the UN Charter its violated daily since its inception. I've already argued China's geoeconomic position is unassailable and the Outlaw US Empire is economically dependent on China. But it appears the mucky-muck 1%ers driving Imperial policy are clueless regarding those and other realities.
I doubt very much that the Taliban will be able to finance themselves.
First of all they don`t look like skilfull and efficient administrators. At all. But more importantly "taxes and custom duties", in Afghanistan? Come on! The Afghan economy is virually non-excistent. How much tax revenue can they possibly extract from Afghanistan, especially during war time? I think the opposite is true. Having to administer huge territories with millions of inhabitants places an enormeous burden on the Taliban. That might very well turn out to much for them.
As of the recognized government of Afghanistan, they are going to last as long as the internationally recognized Najibullah government of Afghanistan did. That is, as long as their overlord is willing and able to give them a lot of money in order to distribute it among the Afghans. Remember the US withdrawel from Bagram? The first who knew about it where not the Afghan army or the Taliban but the looters.
Posted by: m | Jul 28 2021 17:51 utc | 16
Biden is a puppet of the Empire’s Imperial Council.
U$A’s fiscal, financial and foreign policies are defined by the Global Financial SYNDICATE and its OWNERS. Majority (100%?) of the Biden administration comes from the Bilderberg, CFR, Pilgrims,... groups. It was same in the Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan... administrations. What changed? Only theatrics changed?
Imperialist Biden is the Financial Empire first, just as Trump and Obama and GWBush and Clinton and ... Elections are a charade. It is a kabuki system, governed from behind the curtains by the Global Financial Syndicate who preselects all the candidates which the "people" can choose from. "We" don't hold elections. The elections are required to buy the deep state & RULERS legitimacy to do its thing. It is an Imperialist Fascist system. A government for the people and by the people? If you believe that, you are purely DELUSIONAL.
The Dollar Empire is going after Non-$ countries (China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Germany?...) and not💲countries (nations selling their resources in USD such as Saudi Arabia,..). Non-$ Bloc need to be captured so they can be controlled for the dream of a global financial empire. What are the key characteristics of modern Monetary IMPERIALISM led by the U$A? Reserve Currency Colonialism, Payment Control, Resource control, foreign military bases...
Name a democracy that isn’t a suzerainty. The Financial Empire is on autopilot towards its end. It is time to de-dollarize, decouple, deconstruct,... to DISMANTLE the Dollar Empire.
"The true equation is ‘democracy’ = government by world financiers.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien
Why would Empire’s policies and plan change under Biden?
Posted by: Max | Jul 28 2021 17:55 utc | 17
what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law;
- Obama, May 28, 2014, United States Military Academy Commencement Ceremony
Obama really said that.
Obama, the Head-fake President.
----
Definition: "A head fake is a type of feint in which someone moves the head to fake an intended change"
"Try" is a good synonym for head fake, "strive", also.
Like when you ask a friend if they will come over on Saturday and help you clean out your garage.
When they reply,
"I'll try to be there",
you know 1000% that they won't be there.
You might have a friend that will do something lame and instead of just not showing up ("try")
will pile on an excuse.
Cell Text: "I am on my way!"
(ten minutes later)
"Having car troubles. Sorry"
He didn't just say he would "try" (a simple form of head fake)
he will assert or affirm that he "tried" with an apparent action (exceptional head fake)
----
Obama really and truly said this:
what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law;
- Obama, May 28, 2014, United States Military Academy Commencement Ceremony
No, Obama tells us, what makes us exceptional is our head-fakes.
Obama, the Exceptional Head-faker.
Here he calls head-fakes
"affirmations through action" (fancy footwork, there, Obama).
what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law;
it is our willingness to affirm them through our actions.
And what "actions" did Obama then cite?
1) And why I will continue to push
to close Gitmo -- because American values and legal traditions
do not permit the indefinite detention of people beyond our borders.
He didn't say close Gitmo he said push ("try") (a head-fake).
(Obama never closed Gitmo)
2) That’s why we’re putting in place new restrictions on how America collects and uses intelligence --
because we will have fewer partners and be less effective
if a perception takes hold that we’re conducting surveillance against ordinary citizens.
"if a perception takes hold".
It's all about perception (head-fakes).
The above was from May 2014;
on the Jay Leno show, Aug 2013, Obama had tried to create this head-fake:
"There is no spying on Americans, we don't have a domestic spying program,"
Actually, it was an out and out lie.
We now know a lot more about President Head-fake
and his spying on Americans and Presidential campaigns.
---
---
Obama the Hope and Change President
"a cruel world"
"oppression will always be with us"
"We can admit the intractability of deprivation"
"there will be war"
- The above are the fitting words Obama used in his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize (/S)
Real change is but a dream, it isn't real, but it is fake.
Obama in his Nobel speech:
But...there is "a place for a child's dreams".
So we can Hope. And Hope according to Obama means to "strive";
but actually Change? - not so much.
"a cruel world"
"oppression will always be with us"
"We can admit the intractability of deprivation"
"there will be war"
To think otherwise is "a child's dream".
Seven days after the above words
Obama slaughtered dozens of women and children in Yemen.
Going "hands on and taking the GWOT to another country - Yemen" (ABC broadcast, Dec 2009).
He used a sledge hammer to kill an ant. Targeting one "terrorist"
he sprayed civilians with cluster bombs.
Obama signed off on the use of Tomahawk missiles carrying cluster munitions.
You can view the use of cluster munitions at the 35 second mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sa7ZX58Kk4
The "terrorist" was not even a member of an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization),
so Obama was legally exposed and thus went into coverup mode.
(they missed the "terrorist" but not the civilians)
Seven days before the Yemen slaughter Obama had been in Oslo (December 10, 2009) accepting his Nobel Peace Prize:
"Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty
still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what
few coins she has to send that child to school -- because she
believes that a cruel world still has a place for that child's dreams.
Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will
always be with us, and still strive [try] for justice. We can admit the
intractability of deprivation, and still strive [try] for dignity. Clear-eyed,
we can understand that there will be war, and still strive [try] for peace.
We can do that [head fakes]-- for that is the story of human progress; that's the
hope
of all the world; and at this moment of challenge,
that must be our work here on Earth.
Thank you very much.
(Applause.)"
Posted by: librul | Jul 28 2021 18:04 utc | 18
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 28 2021 16:49 utc | 6
the posters that needed to hear this were trolls to begin with and that's why they are no longer here.
The US, and much of the West, is run by a globalist criminal financial syndicate. Unless/until the scum is skimmed off the top, nothing will change.
Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Jul 28 2021 18:05 utc | 19
"for the Afghan people, including women, girls, and minorities"
i mean, who reads this and not laugh? it reads like a list of talking points for the new interns at WP/NYT/BBC, since established 'journalists' know these all well.
Posted by: howaboutism | Jul 28 2021 18:11 utc | 20
What we are seeing is the amazing shrinking 'superpower'...now in its running around like a chicken with its head cut off phase.
There is no chance that the visibly declining US can maintain its influence in any of these places, much less call the shots.
There is no coherent, much less workable, plan in place---and no support forthcoming from important regional players.
Today the Taliban was welcomed warmly in Tianjin [scene of the recent dressing down of the US mini-diplomats], by FM Wang Yi.
Earlier this month Lavrov extended the welcome mat. Today, Global Times reports:
The meeting came after a Taliban delegation visited Moscow at the beginning of July.Analysts said instead of visiting other regional countries, the Taliban chose to first visit Russia and China, which shows it has recognized the two countries' previous efforts in promoting the peace process in Afghanistan and eyed a bigger role for them in future reconstruction of the war-torn country.
There is zero chance for the US to get bases in the Central Asian states, from which it can continue some kind of 'hybrid' war in Afghanistan, the purpose of which would be to prop up puppets like the current Ghani regime [which can't even hold onto its own soldiers from switching sides, or simply going home].
This is simply more disneyland delusion from the Ponzi on the Potomac!
It's obvious that the Russia-China 'double-helix' has got all the stans on board [including Pakistan] in a unified and comprehensive game plan for an Afghanistan road map.
It is a Central Asian future completely US-free, and tightly integrated into the double helix Eurasian integration. This includes a peaceful Afghanistan, and of course Iran. Everyone is on the same page on this.
There is only one possible position for the now indispensable nation---on the outside, looking in!
Posted by: Gordog | Jul 28 2021 18:14 utc | 21
US trying to take root in Central Asia after Afghanistan fiasco, says defense chief
Sergey Shoigu noted that it is hard to find a place on the planet "where the US came and stayed for a long time with good consequences"
DUSHANBE, July 28. /TASS/. The US is trying to take root in Central Asia while leaving Afghanistan, where they have lost everything that could possibly be lost, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told reporters on Wednesday."The US declared far and wide that they are leaving Afghanistan. And this is true. But at the same time, they are holding talks with all the countries neighboring Afghanistan on creating some logistical centers and bases for pulling out equipment from there, and of course, establishing centers that could admit refugees from Afghanistan, people who the US cooperated with for many years over there," Shoigu specified.
According to him, it is no secret that these talks "are rather assertive and intrusive." "I can say one thing here, and it’s simply logical: why are you withdrawing if you basically stand there behind the fence, trying to look through the gaps to see what is going on over there? Why leave then? To literally remain on the border? The answer is absolutely clear: this is an attempt to take root in the Central Asian region. Naturally, after losing everything that can be lost in Afghanistan."
At the same time, Shoigu noted that it is hard to find a place on the planet "where the US came and stayed for a long time with good consequences." ...
Max@17 - Your comments are tiresome. Do you cut and paste from one thread to the next? You are worse than a top 40 radio station.
Posted by: David F | Jul 28 2021 18:17 utc | 23
Imagine the next "meeting" between China and the U.S.... whether its Hillary fangirl Wendy or Biden fanboy Anthony... China's first question: "Did you read our list?" inaudible stuttering and mumbling... China: "You are dismissed."
Hardball from now on. We will feel it here in the U.S.
Posted by: migueljose | Jul 28 2021 18:21 utc | 24
@Posted by: The Space Wanderer | Jul 28 2021 17:41 utc | 14
I see The Status Quo as a synonym for The Deep State.
So, yeah, agree, with one edit:
"The Status Quo Joe"
Posted by: librul | Jul 28 2021 18:21 utc | 25
Escobar's in top form as he ridicules the Outlaw US Empire and those that serve as its "mindless" brain. Chew on this:
"Meanwhile, in a script worthy of Dylan’s Desolation Row rewritten by The Three Stooges, proverbial Atlanticist chihuahuas are raving that the Pentagon ordered the partition of NATO: Western Europe will contain China, and Eastern Europe will contain Russia.
"Yet what’s actually happening in those corridors of European power that really matter – no, baby, that ain’t Warsaw – is that not only Berlin and Paris refuse to antagonize Beijing, but mull how to get closer to Moscow without enraging the Hegemon.
"So much for microwaved, Kissingerian Divide and Rule. One of the few things the notorious war criminal really got [right] was when he noted, after the implosion of the USSR, that without Europe 'the US would become a distant island in the coastline of Eurasia': it would dwell 'in solitude, a minor status'.
"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. Not anymore."
As you read further, you'll see that our discussions here are frontrunning Pepe's writing, but the thanks for that goes to him for previewing his material at his VK site. IMO, the Outlaw US Empire's policy continuity will cause it massive trouble. I'm going to ask Pepe what he thinks about all the Thucydides Trap talk given his conclusion:
"Yet what really matters, in our realpolitik realm, is that Beijing doesn’t even care. 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.'
"Now that’s the start of a brave new geopolitical world – and a prequel to an imperial requiem. Many a sequel will follow."
Pepe Escobar has another good one on the end of U.S. empire and the rise of the resistance. He speculates that Germany will switch sides. bottom line, China is roaring (actually, so is Russia)
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/07/28/requiem-for-an-empire-a-prequel/
Wang Yi’s three bottom lines to Washington. In a nutshell:
“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.”
“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 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.”
Posted by: migueljose | Jul 28 2021 18:27 utc | 27
Who creates money (currency & credit) in Afghanistan?
It is a mistake to state, “Ghani thereby lacks the income to run the state,” or how Afghanistan “will be able to finance themselves.” One can never make any more progress than what they can IMAGINE...
Afghanistan can create its SOVEREIGN MONEY and invest it in the best interest of the nation to enable its people to make a transition to a better life, build good infrastructure and economy. Its challenges are lack of infrastructure, goods, and security. However, it is rich in minerals, a key transport route for China, an untapped market,...
Afghanistan needs to do CURRENCY SWAPS with China, Iran, EU, Russia,... It can offer China and other nation an investment opportunity in its resource sectors, telecom & transport infrastructure,... It needs to demand damages from NATO, Australia,... All Afghans accounts in the foreign banks need to be moved to its treasury and finance department. Afghanistan has money.
Can Afghanistan allocate its money and resources to build a good nation? This is the important question and challenge.
Who creates money (currency & credit) in your nation? Are you using PRIVATE Money?
“Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.”
How did you get monetarily ENSLAVED in your nation?
Posted by: Max | Jul 28 2021 18:28 utc | 28
m @16: "...they [Taliban] don`t look like skilfull and efficient administrators."
Just curious what a "skilfull and efficient administrator" looks like to you? Would that be Biden? Or perhaps Trump?
In my travels skillful administrators don't happen to always wear business suits.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 28 2021 18:37 utc | 29
@ m | Jul 28 2021 17:51 utc | 16
"I doubt very much that the Taliban will be able to finance themselves.
First of all they don`t look like skilfull and efficient administrators. At all. But more importantly "taxes and custom duties", in Afghanistan? Come on! The Afghan economy is virually non-excistent. How much tax revenue can they possibly extract from Afghanistan, especially during war time?"
This is where China really shines. The Chinese have become experts at loaning money, building infrastructure, and signing contracts with undeveloped nations for raw materials.
Afghanistan reportedly sits on TRILLIONS of untouched hydrocarbons and minerals. The Taliban need only sign some papers allowing China to build infrastructure to extract, provide a politically stable environment and security for such operations and then they can collect billions.
Oh, and since Afghanistan is planned to be part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is ready and waiting right now to start construction.
"At stake in US military efforts to stabilize Afghanistan: At least $3 trillion in natural resources"
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/18/trumps-afghanistan-strategy-may-unlock-3-trillion-in-natural-resources.html
"China Has a BIG Plan for Post-U.S. Afghanistan—and It’s Worth Billions"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-has-a-big-plan-for-post-us-afghanistan-and-its-worth-billions
Posted by: Mar man | Jul 28 2021 18:44 utc | 30
Posted by: m | Jul 28 2021 17:51 utc | 16
I doubt very much that the Taliban will be able to finance themselves.
First of all they don`t look like skilfull and efficient administrators. At all.
What do - in your eyes - skilfull and efficient administrators look like?
Posted by: Azghadi | Jul 28 2021 18:49 utc | 31
Shoigu today:
"At a time when there are increasing uncertainties in the regional security situation, Russia pays close attention to the new developments in Afghanistan and Central Asia, and attaches great importance to China's position on the Afghan issue, he said.
Russia is ready to coordinate and cooperate with China and other countries in the region to make positive efforts to safeguard regional peace and stability, he added."
http://english.www.gov.cn/statecouncil/weifenghe/202107/28/content_WS61014a99c6d0df57f98ddbc9.html
Posted by: jayc | Jul 28 2021 19:03 utc | 32
President Biden emphasized continued U.S. support, including development and humanitarian aid, for the Afghan people, including women, girls, and minorities.
There was a joke I once read, it was a long time ago, hopefully I remember it well.
A few years after the invasion of Afghanistan by the US this liberal interventionist lands in Afghanistan. He walks around and sees Afghan women walking 3 metres ahead of the men. He looks at his interpreter and says” look how a force for good the US presence has been. Before we came here the women walked 2 metres behind their husbands. Now thanks to the US they now walk 3 metres ahead of their husbands.
An old man nearby shakes his head with a wry smile and says “they walk 3 metres ahead of their husbands for the land mines”.
Posted by: Down South | Jul 28 2021 19:17 utc | 33
karlof1
I have always taken the Thucydides Trap in the broad sense of the term. A ruling power trying to keep down a rising power that usually results in war. China is well aware of that, though if China was ignorant of history like the US, both countries rather than just the US would have stepped into the trap.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 28 2021 19:19 utc | 34
OK, assuming that the US "leaving" Afghanistan is a fraud to get better PR propaganda in the US itself, the question is how are they going to supply those mercenaries and the CIA who are still there?
One possible route stands out; That is following the "Lapis Lazuli corridor". Ie through Turkmenistan, Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, Georgia (or via Turkey) and then the Black Sea (=> EU). and/or Using the TAPI pipeline as bait for Turkmenistan. (Goes on to the EU naturally and would allow the massive reserves to become a viable substitute to Ukraine and its problems).
Politically Erdogan could already see himself as an influential new Muslim Brotherhood Khan (He wants his empire to stretch as far as Ubekistan!)
"Georgia is a transit route for Azerbaijani oil and gas to reach Turkey. Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey are focusing on the connectivity among themselves, like South Caucasus Pipeline (a gas pipeline), the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway."
I am not sure that Turkmenistan would allow US Drones to operate from its territory, but maybe overfly it? You would definitely get massive US transport planes flying in on various excuses.
****
The area is full of prospective oil/gas pipelines ;
1) Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, a project suggested by the United States with a construction agreement signed in 1999.
2) Nabucco gas pipeline project, which would carry gas from the Caspian and Middle East to Austria in Central Europe..
Of course this would be planned to screw China, who might have wanted the Gas to flow in the opposite direction.
Making Turkmenistan a forward base and by using it as a profitable bait to later integrate it into the plans of US Oil majors and Turkey. It would have a definite attraction for the Gahni or Taliban Governments purses.
*****
The base
Turkmenistan is aware of the risks associated with its heavy reliance on the hydrocarbon industry and has been planning to diversify the economy. As part of its economic diversification agenda under the strategic national priorities as outlined in the National Program for Socioeconomic Development 2011-2030, it has embarked on an ambitious objective to become a transnational transit corridor, including Black Sea and Caspian Sea connections. As such, Turkmenistan has heavily invested in transport infrastructure. In this context, the Lapis Lazuli Corridor agreement is in line with country’s strategic priorities. It will integrate the country more strongly with the South Caucasus and provide access to a world of economic opportunities.
****
PS
I don't see the US using other countries as supply corridors at the moment.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 28 2021 19:21 utc | 35
Mr. Precedent
His rheumy eyes are mesmerized
by the pint-sized lady at her mother's side
He maneuvers himself to stand behind
this little pre-woman he has in mind
and as he bends to sniff her hair
he touches the breast that's almost there
The cameras roll but he dont care
He's suave he's rich he's debonaire
He's Joe O'Biden and he's not all there
this empty suit follows suit
he wears jusa's jackboot
Posted by: ld | Jul 28 2021 17:14 utc | 11
Excellent.
I find it curiously amusing to see all the older females fall for Joe. Maybe they are remembering the carnal summer they had (or fantasised about) with that lifeguard, long ago.
Posted by: tucenz | Jul 28 2021 19:31 utc | 36
Oh how the mighty have fallen! The Anglo-American Empire, the United States of America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is now the Land of the Slave and the Home of the Coward! The degenerate Americans, bereft of their ancestors’ virtues, have allowed, even welcomed, their own demise. Their government, now thoroughly corrupt, is easily purchased by domestic and foreign powers.
The checks and balances created by the Founding Fathers failed long ago. The Executive Branch writes its own laws and refuses to enforce those laws passed by the Legislature that it dislikes. It even ignores rulings by the courts that displease it. The Judicial Branch interprets law to give it meanings that the authors never intended. The Legislative Branch is reduced to passing bloated budgets, non-binding resolutions, and laws that do exactly the opposite of what they claim to do. Representatives represent any and everyone except their own citizens.
The degenerate Americans ignore the Founding Fathers’ advice and warnings. No entangling alliances warned the Founding Fathers – yet NATO, founded in need but maintained in pride long after that need ended, consumes our honor, our lives, and our treasure while distracting from far more pressing needs at home. Keep no standing army warned the Founding Fathers – today our military numbers in the millions to maintain an empire and to oppress our citizens (just as our Founding Fathers feared). Maintain eternal vigilance advised the Founding Fathers – yet our citizens abdicated their indispensable role in government so long ago that they don’t even remember what that role was. In fact, most Americans are so ignorant of their own history that they believe fantasies and fictions that their ancestors would have laughed at.
Freaks and perverts who were once relegated to circuses, mental institutions, and prisons now command admiration, power, and respect among the degenerate Americans. Their “men” are raised by Feminists and Marxist media, and educated in Marxist schools to hate themselves and everything masculine. “Conflict resolution” has replaced victory and right and wrong have been replaced by “tolerance”. Men’s roles as protector and provider have been ceded to the government. One cannot promote feminine men and masculine women and still produce masculine men. No wonder that our “Patriots” hesitate to act.
And as the traitors of America continue to acquire and consolidate ever more power, the so called “Patriots” refuse to use what rapidly dwindling power that they still have to curb and eliminate the threat. Instead, they wait patiently and appeal to authority that has either long been void of power or is already in the hands of their enemies. They desperately cling to false hopes fearing that they might actually have to imitate their namesakes and fight and die for their freedom. In denial that such a fate could actually happen to their beloved America, they’re blind to the coups and revolutions openly executed by the traitors of America. As opportunity after opportunity passes for the “Patriots” to arrest, try, convict, and execute America’s traitors, the “Patriots” still continue appeal to authority void of power or already in the hands of the enemy. And so the power of the “Patriots” evaporates away.
Don’t look to God for America’s salvation either. After so many blessings, America has forsaken God and He has returned the favor. All but a very few pastors, priests, and congregations have put man’s law far above God’s law. His church has become Laodicean and He spits it out! The innocent blood of tens of millions of murdered mutilated unborn children cry out for vengeance – vengeance is the Lord’s. American “Christians” are cowards and Satan rules America’s rulers. America’s judgment is at hand – as a country it is damned! Seek only your own personal salvation from God. Pray that He has mercy on your soul.
So it is. It is done. The only question is whether or not there is enough of a remnant left to carve out some small niche amongst America’s ruins where a few people and their descendents may still live free.
Posted by: Barbarossa | Jul 28 2021 19:36 utc | 37
Barbarossa | Jul 28 2021 19:36 utc | 36
Nah, it's not as bad as all that, they still have Nancy Pelosi as chief pin-up.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 28 2021 19:50 utc | 39
US access to Afghanistan?
Take a look at the dotted line borders where Pakistan, India and China meet.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@35.1125646,75.9604893,7.25z
Might be an area where India and now US focus attention. The great game there is all about keeping China out of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 28 2021 19:51 utc | 40
Barbarossa "Instead, they wait patiently and appeal to authority that has either long been void of power or is already in the hands of their enemies. They desperately cling to false hopes fearing that they might actually have to imitate their namesakes and fight and die for their freedom."
The power of western 'democracy'. The Brits invented the greatest tool ever to control the peasants and prevent revolution.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 28 2021 20:04 utc | 41
Stonebird @34--
As I explained @12, Turkmenistan has declared itself a Neutral Nation and as such can't base or allow the over flight of another nation's military, otherwise it loses that status. CSTO members won't be accommodating, and I very much doubt any SCO nation will either--Uzbekistan being the only potential nation. And the Caspian Sea Treaty will require 100% consensus to allow any NATO overflight. As such, there really isn't any near-by "fence" for the Outlaw US Empire to peer over and continue its destabilization efforts. Looking at the map, the only way remaining is via India Kashmir, which could easily be interdicted by Russian air defense systems
Terrific piece. Joe Biden oversees an American Empire- 1) mired in astronomically expensive strategic debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen; the Pentagon is incapable of extricating itself from these conflicts, as doing so is an admission of failure and by extension military weakness, 2) in terminal economic decline, accelerated by the Covid19 pandemic- since Mar, 2020 US government debt has ballooned to $8 trillion; total government debt exceeds $28 trillion; obviously unsustainable, and 3) confronted with a rising global south and a Russia-China-Iran alliance that has attained military/economic parity with the US. The decline of late-stage American capitalism has progressed to the point where its very survival is contingent upon constant debt monetization (aka money printing) to prop up financial markets and the military. This is becoming increasingly tenuous as this orgy of money printing and debt has increased inflation and threatening to derail the dollars role as the world reserve currency. The US has nothing left but issuing constant bellicose threats and economic warfare against Russia, China, Iran and any other country deemed an obstacle to US global power. It appears that Biden has persuaded US vassals- Japan and India to prepare for the upcoming war with China. This will lead to WWIII. See- Japan “Preparing to Fight” China Over Taiwan by Alexander Mercouris July 8, 2021; Link: https://theduran.com/japan-preparing-to-fight-china-over-taiwan
I doubt very much that the Taliban will be able to finance themselves.
First of all they don`t look like skilfull and efficient administrators. At all.
...
...
Posted by: m | Jul 28 2021 17:51 utc | 16
They may not look like skillful and efficient administrators but the people who approved the Taliban Statement re Turkey, featured in b's July 13 post, were certainly NOT ignorant bumpkins - unlike the people lying about them, aka the Yankee bumpkins.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 28 2021 20:12 utc | 44
Paul @42--
If Japan fights China, it can forget reconciliation with Russia. Indeed, I see Japan's leaders being as much on the wrong side of history as those of NATO. Japan's national interest lies in joining with Russia and China in developing Eurasia. For the life of me I can't understand why the Japanese are so completely blind to this quite obvious fact. And the same can be said of the Koreans. The rest of Asia seems to understand well where their interests lay.
Paul @Jul28 20:10 #42
I don't think they are unaware of the cost. Changes are being made: replacing USA with NATO and/or other proxies (which cost much less than Western troops). Although not yet complete, USA has been marshaling NATO and other allies to join in the effort to prevail over the 'upstarts'.
We can expect proxy fighting to intensify across the board now that Russia, China, and Iran appear to have all reached the conclusion that there's nothing to be gained from any further accommodation.
<> <> <> <> <>
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, my parents made serious plans to leave NYC. We may revisit that level of tension at some point in the coming years.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 28 2021 20:30 utc | 46
@ karlof1 | Jul 28 2021 20:20 utc | 44:
For the life of me I can't understand why the Japanese are so completely blind to this quite obvious fact.
Senkaku, Kunashir, Iturup . . .
Posted by: corvo | Jul 28 2021 20:35 utc | 47
karlof1 | Jul 28 2021 20:09 utc | 41
I agree that the "outside realms" for the US are minimum, but they must have SOME plan?!? Don't they? Just a little one? a teeny bit of one?
I simply looked at the maps of the area to try to work out what their possibilities were.
The Turkmenistan Lapis Lazuli has the advantage of being a "financial" trap, that might, in the wild imagination of ........Status quo Joe's handlers ........, be used to keep some sort of eye on the area. I just don't beleive that the US will leave and look through the fence as Shoigu said.
The military part has already been shot down by neighbouring countries.
****
PS.
I note that the four stans have a major water problem. Drought. Which can really only be sorted out by collective action, and the elimination of corrupt local Emirs, who want to keep their perogatives. Trouble ahead if nothing is done. The US will surely try to take advantage by "regimeing".
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 28 2021 20:38 utc | 48
@ Posted by: m | Jul 28 2021 17:51 utc | 16
Here's the magic of the real world: the Taliban don't need to be skillful or even efficient administrators; they just need to be decent ones and it will make all the difference for Afghanistan.
Perfection doesn't exist in the real world. The USA is full of defects and nobody contests its legitimacy when it invades and destroys another country.
@Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 28 2021 20:30 utc | 45
"During the Cuban Missile Crisis, my parents made serious plans..."
The bomb shelter salesman was not permitted to come over until
us kids had gone to bed. We sneaked a listen anyways.
My mother asked, "what do we do when the neighbors come knocking on the
bomb shelter door begging to be let it?".
His answer was, "you don't let them in".
No sale
Posted by: librul | Jul 28 2021 20:45 utc | 50
What one word would describe the trajectory of innovations that have been introduced since 1971?
Answer to this question will reveal the majestic and magical force that is taking the Empire DOWN🕯
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Empire’s subjects are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and its operative Orcs from Tonya Harding Syndrome. All the Empire’s evil plans and infrastructure need to be exposed before its end.
Who are the leaders with moral courage in the Empire?
Posted by: Max | Jul 28 2021 20:49 utc | 51
karlof1 41
Unless Russian forces were being targeted I doubt Russia would use air defenses to interdict US aircraft over northern India or Pakistan. Not sure what Pakistan have in the way of air defenses.
When it comes to it, all US has to do is push India into a war with Pakistan in that region to keep China out which is reliant on land transport corridors.
Modi seems smart enough to hold back until he is sure US will join in rather than 'leading from behind', but how long that will last for is another thing. The Indian elite are even crazier than the Americans.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 28 2021 20:53 utc | 52
karlof1 @44
Japan showing ANY aggression towards China would be extremely unwise. The brutality of the Japanese invasion of China and occupation of northeastern China in the last century is still very fresh in the minds of the Chinese people. If the Chinese have to fight Japan they will definitely not feel inclined to pull their punches like they would with the USA. It isn't so much that the Chinese would be out for revenge, but rather Japan has an enormous debt to pay, and China will not hesitate to make them pay. For example, in a naval conflict where the Chinese might shoot to disable an American ship, they will instead shoot to sink a Japanese one.
The Japanese can act a bit clueless sometimes, but they are not stupid. They know China is not going to give them any free shots in a fight.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 28 2021 20:55 utc | 53
@Posted by: librul | Jul 28 2021 20:45 utc | 49
[edit]
begging to be let it in
Posted by: librul | Jul 28 2021 20:56 utc | 54
Yesterday in the China thread was a link to a Kishore Mahbubani video and I ended up watching a few of them. This one is Indian or about India. Comments when it was live streamed come up alongside the video and the woman interviewing Mahbubani hits him with some of the comments as they come in.
Western propaganda like to make out Iranian or North Korean leadership are crazies but India sure tops the list if any country other than the US is to be called crazy.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 28 2021 21:02 utc | 55
karlof1 @Jul28 20:20 #44: ... Japan's national interest lies in ...
One might lodge similar complaints about a number of other countries whose leadership/elites are not incompetent but partner with the Empire, even (especially) as doing so disadvantages their people.
<> <> <> <> <>
Allow me to expand (not directed at karlof1):
There are many among the anti-Empire crowd that just can't come to grips with the fact that what is obviously bad policy (to them) is not abundantly clear to the people of those countries and quickly altered/changed/reversed.
This leads to erroneous thinking like the inevitability of the Empire's collapse. In fact, Empire elites are not incompetent. They have made some mistakes but they are actively working to make their 'new world order' into reality. This can't be stopped simply with good intentions or wishful thinking.
Identifying problems are not the same as solving them. Propaganda and intimidation mean that 'bad' and 'unsustainable' policies can last much longer than any of us think possible.
The elites can be very clever about how they compromise dissent. Denouncing Russian interference in democratic elections, for example, allows them to demonize dissenters as Putin puppets.
This is why Caitlin Johnstone's anti-propaganda commentary is so important.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 28 2021 21:11 utc | 56
The U$A, India, Japan,...democracies are suzerainties of the Financial Empire.
India’s central bank, RBI was founded on April fool’s day in 1935 and was PRIVATE then. Who were its OWNERS then? The Empire fooled India’s people big time. Fake independence.
Similarly, U$A’s first central bank, the First Bank of the United States was private. Who were its owners? Who were the financiers of the American revolution? What do you see?
Japan’s central bank, BOJ, is private. Who are the owners? Japan is a suzerainty of the Financial Empire like the U$A & India.
Please name a democracy that isn’t a suzerainty. Follow the money and the central banking construct.
What happens to India, if it doesn’t follow Empire’s order?
Posted by: Max | Jul 28 2021 21:23 utc | 57
Jackrabbit @55--
Your link to Caitlin's website didn't go to a specific essay. Was "Consciousness And Dysfunction Cannot Coexist" the one you were referring to?
Biden does nothing...his puppetmasters are in control.
Posted by: Realist | Jul 28 2021 21:52 utc | 59
karlof1 @Jul28 21:38 #57
I was just linking to her site's homepage.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 28 2021 21:58 utc | 60
Stonebird @47--
Thanks for your reply! Central Asia has suffered water issues for centuries, and the cotton growing Soviet experiment in Uzbekistan severely depleted the Aral Sea to the point where fertilizers used long ago are now toxic aerosols blown about by the wind. Reversing the flows of Russian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean has been discussed many times over the past @200 years, most recently in the early 2000s, but never get very far. One of the Sea-changes in attitudes of most Eurasian politicians regards acceptance of the severity of the Climate Crisis, which is predicted to hit the Central Asian region harder than most even if the temp change is limited to 2C. And the arbitrary borders drawn by Stalin exacerbate the problem in the Fergana Valley region where most food crops are grown.
Interesting that Pepe speculated that Germany might/could/will flip. I too have wondered if this could happen, and who would follow if it did. France very probably. They never really had their heart in Altlanticism. Italy, Austria, maybe. Brussels would have a seizure. The collapse of the EU and NATO is almost too seismic to contemplate, but surely anyone with their eyes open can see one superpower very quickly on the way up, and another very quickly on the way down. Who wants to be be backing the wrong horse?
Even the Russophobes in Europe don't really have any beef with China. The Empire could shrink to the Five Eyes plus Poland, the Balts and a few others.
Posted by: Ash Naz | Jul 28 2021 22:19 utc | 62
Re: Paul, karlofi, and William Gruff
I would also point out that Japan is likely a "virtual" nuclear weapon state, as previously indicated by (then) Vice President Biden in 2016, who stated that Japan could become a nuclear weapon state "virtually overnight"
In other words, Japan has likely already manufactured all the components necessary to assemble nuclear weapons, including the fissile plutonium "pits". Japan has a huge inventory of plutonium -- about 9 tons in Japan and 37 tons in the UK and France, where it was "reprocessed" (chemically separated) from the massive amounts of "spent" (used) uranium nuclear fuel rods that come from its "peaceful" use of nuclear energy at its 54 nuclear reactors.
When Japan passed its State Secrets Law in late 2013, which created a mandatory 10 year prison sentence and $100,000 dollar fine for passing any state secrets, many assumed this had to do with the Fukushima disaster. However, in my opinion, the State Secrets Law was also designed to prevent any information about a clandestine nuclear weapons program from being made public.
Japan is, of course, under the US "nuclear umbrella", but many militarists in Japan want nuclear weapons. Former Prime Minister Abe reportedly was one. He did make a pitch for Japan to get the ability to launch "preemptive strikes" against an enemy who was preparing to attack.
Posted by: Perimetr | Jul 28 2021 22:26 utc | 63
corvo #46
"Senkaku, Kunashir, Iturup . . ."
YES that plus a totally controlled media that blathers propaganda day and night (just like the USA).
The nationalist drumbeat drives people to support and do insane things - as always.
By the way those islands are truly beautiful from the brief searches I have done following your post. I will look for more stories and panoramas, thank you.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 28 2021 22:40 utc | 65
Peter AU1 #54
Thank you for the tip, I will take a peek at that as I appreciate sane analysis of India - another truly fractured state in desperate need of a people focused socialist government.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 28 2021 22:44 utc | 66
The recent series of articles IMO beg the following question: What's the genuine goal of the Outlaw US Empire's Imperial Policy? To answer that, I turned to the author of Super Imperialism Michael Hudson. In this essay published in April 2021, Hudson provides a succinct answer, although it's not very short:
"After reducing Germany and Japan to vassalage after defeating them in World War II, U.S. diplomacy quickly reduced the Britain and its imperial sterling area to vassalage by 1946, followed in due course by the rest of Western Europe and its former colonies. The next step was to isolate Russia and China, while keeping 'the barbarians from coming together.' If they were to join up, warned Mr. Brzezinski, 'the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power.'[4]
"By 2016, Brzezinski saw Pax Americana unravelling from its failure to achieve these aims. He acknowledged that the United States 'is no longer the globally imperial power.'[5] That is what has motivated its increasing antagonism toward China and Russia, along with Iran and Venezuela.
"The problem was not Russia, whose Communist nomenklatura let their country be ruled by a Western-oriented kleptocracy, but China. The U.S.-China confrontation is not simply a national rivalry, but a conflict of economic and social systems. The reason why today’s world is being plunged into an economic and near-military Cold War 2.0 is to be found in the prospect of socialist control of what Western economies since classical antiquity have treated as privately owned rent-yielding assets: money and banking (along with the rules governing debt and foreclosure), land and natural resources, and infrastructure monopolies.
"This contrast in whether money and credit, land and natural monopolies will be privatized and duly concentrated in the hands of a rentier oligarchy or used to promote general prosperity and growth has basically become one of finance capitalism and socialism. Yet in its broadest terms this conflict existed already 2500 years ago in the contrast between Near Eastern kingship and the Greek and Roman oligarchies. These oligarchies, ostensibly democratic in superficial political form and sanctimonious ideology, fought against the concept of kingship. The source of that opposition was that royal power – or that of domestic 'tyrants' – might sponsor what Greek and Roman democratic reformers were advocating: cancellation of debts to save populations from being reduced to debt bondage and dependency (and ultimately to serfdom), and redistribution of lands to prevent its ownership from becoming polarized and concentrated in the hands of creditors and-landlords.
"From today’s U.S. vantage point, that polarization is the basic dynamic of today’s U.S.-sponsored neoliberalism. China and Russia are existential threats to the global expansion of financialized rentier wealth. Today’s Cold War 2.0 aims to deter China and potentially other counties from socializing their financial systems, land and natural resources, and keeping infrastructure utilities public to prevent their being monopolized in private hands to siphon off economic rents at the expense of productive investment in economic growth." [My Emphasis]
The bolded portions IMO are the essential aims of the Outlaw US Empire's Imperial policy--a policy that's existed in some form since the Mexican Revolution when the Empire invaded Mexico again to control its customs office in Veracruz to ensure prompt payment of Mexican debt owed to US banks--a policy that became known as Dollar Diplomacy enforced by Smedly Butler and his Marines. So, here again we have continuity of policy for over 100 years, albeit interrupted during the 1930s.
Ending Dollar Hegemony as the best tool to reduce the Outlaw US Empire was recognized by Hudson long ago and many have written about doing do since. Our newest and rather vociferous barfly Max is clearly an advocate of such action. However, he fails to get much traction since that action's been recognized as required by us barflies for many years now. So Max, your entreaties aren't falling on deaf ears; rather, they're merely an echo of many previous discussions. The necessity was recognized back in the 1970s when debtor countries and raw-materials exporters sought to create a New International Economic Order that Hudson described in his Global Fracture: The New International Economic Order which was his sequel to Super Imperialism. The most recent paper Hudson wrote and published about moving beyond Dollar Hegemony was submitted to the Valdai Club earlier this month, and I link to it yet again.
However, Hudson's also quite clear that to really change the policy direction of the Outlaw US Empire requires drastic systemic political change in the USA. And since that's not going to be allowed via the ballot box, that means a Revolution's required.
The goal of Russia, China, and most of the world is to make the UN Charter a reality, specifically the equality of all nations regardless of size or resources and lack of interference in their chosen development path. Those are the key points Imperial planners sought to quash once the UN Charter came into force in October 1945 through the creation of a Manichean conflict between West and East aimed at keeping the existing financial oligarchy in control as Hudson described.
The clash of systems Hudson describes can be seen materializing in the controversy described in this article, a situation where the FIRE sector clearly saw the possibility of infiltrating China via stock exchanges. IMO, China has become or been made aware of this possibility and is acting to defend its system.
Biden on Putin: “He’s sitting on top of an economy that has nuclear weapons and oil wells and nothing else. Nothing else.” Funnily enough, his assessment of Russia is very close to many bullshit claims about Russia and Putin that were made in the previous thread. “Putin is a neoliberal!” “Russia will fall to Navalnyites, China must prepare to nuke Novgorod!” etc.
In reality, Russian economy has been steadily diversifying. As of 2020, oil & gas accounts for 15.2% of Russia’s GDP (down from 16.9% in 2017) and 28% of Russia’s federal budget (down from 46% in 2010). Russia is leading the world in nuclear energy technologies. Russia is the top wheat producer in the world. Russia is exporting the most cost-effective weapons systems in the world. Russia is producing its own passenger planes, ships. Russia has its own search engine, its own social networks. Lately, Russia has become known for its pharmaceutical R&D. What else do you want Russia to do? I’m happy with our direction. There is lots of work to be done, sure, but we’re moving in the right direction.
Posted by: S | Jul 28 2021 23:46 utc | 69
Russian weapons strike the dollar monopoly (Vzglyad, Olga Samofalova, July 23, 2021 — in Russian)
…
So, in [Russia’s] trade with the EU from 2013 to 2020, the share of the dollar fell from 50% to 30%, and the share of the ruble rose noticeably from 7% to 19%. And in trade with China, the share of the dollar fell from 93% to 41%.In the structure of export transactions, according to data for 2020, the dollar still dominates with a share of 55.8%. However, from 2013 to 2020, the share of the dollar in Russia’s international income fell by 23.7 percentage points, while the share of the ruble increased by 4.5 percentage points to 14.7%, Voronkova notes. In the structure of import transactions, the difference between the shares of the dollar and the ruble is less noticeable. Here the share of the dollar is 35.2%, and the share of the ruble is 28.2%. There is also a significant increase in the share of the euro since 2013, to 30%.
…
Russia is leading the world in de-dollarization: it has dropped the dollar completely from its foreign exchange reserves and its sovereign wealth fund and is actively de-dollarizing its international trade, even going as far as using barter deals (see the article above). So much for Putin being a “neo-liberal”.
Posted by: S | Jul 29 2021 0:08 utc | 70
Agree, Russia is putting it together.
Its size, resources, literate population, technology etc are impressive.
One of the Nation States that have the greatest chance of survival.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jul 29 2021 0:13 utc | 71
S @68--
Thanks very much for your report! As per the Kremlin website, I see Putin continues to be very active in a manner that buries Biden. I see the damage to the Trans-Siberian line was quickly repaired and service restored plus the BAM has new tunnels that will eventually quadruple the line's traffic. I see Kazan's been quite active and is hosting the 12th International Economic Summit Russia–-Islamic World. Лето is always a dynamic time within Russia. Do you think the developmental pace has accelerated?
@ karlof1 | Jul 28 2021 22:59 utc | 66
My problem with the posts of the newcomer you refer to is his reduction of everything to one issue -- a kind of obsessive monism, if you will. Oh, and the evangelistic intensity of expression. It's like the last paragraph of every news article at WSWS -- not incorrect, but the eye does glaze over awfully easily after a while.
Posted by: corvo | Jul 29 2021 0:18 utc | 73
Posted by: S | Jul 29 2021 0:08 utc | 69
Thank you S for your insights and comments. We will be learning more from you and your fellow citizens as we go forward.
Posted by: migueljose | Jul 29 2021 1:02 utc | 74
corvo @72--
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! You may have seen my initial attempts at discourse; unfortunately, it is as you note. But then our opponents express their zealotry in different fashions, once known as conspicuous consumption. The bottom line is the need to eliminate economic rent and those existing from it, not the dollar for it's only a symbol and nothing tangible. Reestablishing a genuine School of Political-Economics aimed at showing/teaching the fraud of Neoliberalism at all major universities also must become a part of that project.
Max #56
Please name a democracy that isn’t a suzerainty. Follow the money and the central banking construct.What happens to India, if it doesn’t follow Empire’s order?
Thank you Max, you nailed it - and India is mostly subservient to global capitalist coercion. However I am not sure that a colour revolution from the Congress team would succeed rather an assassination would likely be the first ploy of the global bankster elite. That way it would be rather tidy and you can bet they would find a passport nearby to accuse someone among India's neighbours or internal party groupings.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 29 2021 1:57 utc | 76
Netanyahu is out of the door and suddenly Israel can't land an air strike on Syria without having all its missiles shot down. What a curious coincidence...
Posted by: grundsatz | Jul 29 2021 2:02 utc | 77
Thanks all for a great discussion on the 'clash of systems' - I guess the Outlaw USAi empire will build up their colour revolution assaults on Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in attempt to lock out those nations from China alliance. They likely won't succeed bit it is what they do. The empire has no compassion, no sense of community betterment or political empathy for the masses and so it will instigate a full on assault with every dirty trick in the book to prevent the consolidation of Asian economy and robust trade relations. Flapping about in the South China Sea is just the beginning of their idiot mendacity. The Thailand people have had the audacity to throw their colour revolution cadres out followed by Myanmar, it is now looking like the flailing of a drowning man to me.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 29 2021 3:10 utc | 78
Here is a good article on Russian import substitution for oil and gas infrastructure (perhaps a bit optimistic):
https://www.energyintel.com/pages/eig_article.aspx?DocID=1082508
Russia has however struggled in some other areas if import substitution but are- net - likely holding their own after years of losing industry and as mentioned above has made good strides in agriculture.
Posted by: schmoe | Jul 29 2021 3:19 utc | 79
@ uncle tungsten | Jul 29 2021 3:10 utc | 77:
I don't know enough about the Malaysian situation to comment, except to say that the USA will use all available means to make sure that someone like Matahir Mohamad will never happen again. That much said --
Indonesia? We've done it before and we can do it again, I suppose, if we have powerful supporters in the military.
Thailand? Unlikely. The current coup government is wildly unpopular, with its bungling of the COVID crisis just the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, but it's safe as houses. If things go really south, the coup leader/prime minister Prayuth can easily be sacrificed; he's only the third or fourth most powerful man in the country anyway (ahead of him: the King, who unlike his predecessor isn't shy about wielding power; General Prawit, who actually calls the shots when it comes to cabinet appointments; and maybe convicted cocaine importer Thammanat, who is only a deputy minister but herds all the parliamentary cats. So I imagine Thailand will keep playing China against the USA and vice versa, just as Thailand did with England and France not that long ago.
And you didn't mention the Philippines! Betcha anything that Manny Pacquiao is our guy . . .
Posted by: corvo | Jul 29 2021 3:39 utc | 80
Max @ 56
Thanks for your insights, it helps us view things a little bit clearer.
Just the other day another bit of info on Youtube stuck in my mind. Someone was saying that it is no longer useful to define the Capitalist and Socialist tendencies in terms of how the Means of Production are owned. Instead he says it is better to look if their financial structures/central banks are privately owned, or owned by the state.
In this light perhaps the terms "Capitalist" and "Socialist" are themselves becoming less relevant to us. Instead the two competing tendencies can be thought of as Private Global Finance and Sovereign State Finance. These are just a cloud ideas mulling about in my mind, thanks for shining a light of clarity on a part of it.
Posted by: Littlereddot | Jul 29 2021 3:48 utc | 81
I doubt very much that the Taliban will be able to finance themselves.
First of all they don`t look like skilfull and efficient administrators. At all.
Posted by: m | Jul 28 2021 17:51 utc
What do - in your eyes - skilfull and efficient administrators look like?
Posted by: Azghadi | Jul 28 2021 18:49 utc
m is indeed "overlooking" certain realities. On finances, one has to consider the size of the revenue, what one wants to accomplish AND the cost structure. A militarily equivalent army for the current (still) government of Afghanistan costs many times more than for Taliban. American trained army have pretty bad record, be it Afghanistan, Iraq or Mali, probably they excel at fictitious payrolls, selling weapons to opponents and other graft. About other services, there were no reports about successes of the current "administrators". Of course, it depends how we measure their skills. If this is by the size of the bank accounts in Dubai, they could be a bunch of Einsteins, Edisons, Teslas...
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 29 2021 3:52 utc | 82
Michael Hudson = Rockefeller’s Chicago Plan
@ karlof1 (#66), glad to know my “entreaties aren't falling on deaf ears.” I cover the SUPERSET of the global construct resulting from the Monetary Imperialism and its enslavement. We have 360 degree global coverage and familiar with the work of American Monetary Institute (AMI), Public Banking, Positive Money of UK, Swiss, Germany, INET,...
Michael Hudson (MH) only covers the subset of the problems that will enable the Chicago plan of the Chicago University (Rockefeller Institute). He has admitted that he supports the Chicago plan. Most of MH’s solutions were proposed by Irving Fisher, a member of Skull & Bones society. MH worked at Chase (Rockefeller bank) and had a frontal seat in 1970s. MH in his work doesn’t cover the key elements such as power players, POWER, central bank history, key global drivers, the control system, its structure... I share geostrategic construct which is much broader and deeper. Most commentators here don’t define reality clearly in right WORDS. Suzerainty not democracy, Imperial policies not Biden’s policies...
@ karlof1, you will benefit from broadening your horizon to look at works of others. I have shared their names here such as Nikolay Starikov, Guido Perparata, Richard Werner (good work on BOJ), Damon Vrabel, Ellen Brown, William Engdahl, Norbert Haering,... If you have a particular topic, will be happy to guide you. MH, Dennis Kuccinch, Stephen Zarlenga,... are from AMI (Rockefeller funding). You might want to attend their monetary conference to understand them better.
Many of the statements of MH that you shared are MISLEADING.
“U.S. diplomacy quickly reduced the Britain and its imperial sterling area to vassalage by 1946, followed in due course by the rest of Western Europe and its former colonies.”
Where is the Eurodollar market? Which is the #1 place for currency trading? Where were derivatives invented and good majority transacted? Where does the regulatory arbitrage happens in the financial arena? The answer to these questions will reveal reality and debunk MH’s assertion. MH has consistently put all blame on the Dollar Empire, ignoring its parent the Financial Empire. The control, dominance and rent seeking plan existed before “the Mexican Revolution.” The monetary fraud started with the creation of the first CENTRAL BANK and the rent-seeking even before that during Babylon.
The next step was to isolate Russia and China, while keeping 'the barbarians from coming together.
Why isolate communists? What was the real plan? What happened in 1950s, 1960s.... 1990s? Who backed and banked the concept of communism?
“"By 2016, Brzezinski saw Pax Americana unravelling from its failure to achieve these aims. He acknowledged that the United States 'is no longer the globally imperial power.'[5] That is what has motivated its increasing antagonism toward China and Russia, along with Iran and Venezuela.”
Nope. Antagonism towards Russia started in 2007. Why? Even today the Empire thinks it can succeed.
Disagree with MH’s characterization of socialism and rent-seeking being the key drivers. MH does have good insights on some problems and his overview of 1970s petrodollars and the development of the financialization is good.
To understand the effort required to create change in the United States please familiarize yourself with how the Fed bill was passed, monetary events after the closer of the Second Bank of the United States. We’re dealing with deceitful, ruthless and evil Saruman and Sauron.
If you were one of the Powerful Rulers of the present times, knowing the existing reality, what would you preserve?
Posted by: Max | Jul 29 2021 4:01 utc | 83
S 68
The one country that has its own supply of raw materials, its own civilian tech and its own military tech, the last two thanks to its own education system. Reliant on no other nation. For what is coming, or I guess already here, it is a good starting point. China for many things is reliant on importing raw materials but Russia has the raw materials and China the manufacturing power along with its own tech. Quite a strategic partnership.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 29 2021 4:12 utc | 84
@ uncle tungsten (#75), agree “India is mostly subservient to global capitalist coercion.” It is like Poland in Europe. Unfortunately, it suffers from the cancer of corruption. We couldn’t do business there.
@ Littlereddot (#80), thanks for your kind words. Very much appreciate it.
To understand any nation, learn about its central bank (Banking) history. Also, list nation’s top 10 richest kleptocrats and their international bankers. One will get closer to reality!
Posted by: Max | Jul 29 2021 4:23 utc | 85
Ash Naz
Five-eyes plus the nazis. Imperial Japan may or may not be included in that group. I suspect US will be delivered a major military put down by Russia in the not too distant future.
US holds its empire or hegemony together through military dominance.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 29 2021 4:28 utc | 86
@76 grundsatz
Yes, very odd, although still early days. What do you think could be driving it and where do you see it ending?
TEP.
Posted by: TEP | Jul 29 2021 4:39 utc | 87
And so it seems that Afghanistan is where we will actually watch the multipolar world strive to create a newly sovereign nation, another independent country liberated from colonialism.
My money's on the multipolar world.
The US has quit Afghanistan. It made the cardinal error of announcing this. There's no way back for the US. All it can do is bomb from afar, and force the end of the Kabul regime all the sooner. It cannot return in force to Afghanistan, and all the proxies it sends there are fated to death.
Not that any of the details will be easy to achieve. But they are all achievable, and I'm rooting for the Taliban to have learned, and to be intensely learning still, from the formidable Demonstration Effects of the major powers interested in Afghanistan's stability.
From a dispassionate stance, it will be fascinating to watch all the maneuvers of the shifting correlation of forces. From a human place, it's tragic that there will be the usual massacre of the innocents, death and fruitless bombing. How, one wonders, will the Taliban act to compel the US to stop the bombing? What would China do? What will China advise?
It seems to me the fastest way to stop the bombing is to change the government as a first priority. With a fait accompli, the US will have very slender footing in terms of justification before the world. Not that the US cares, one might argue (and the US will believe).
But as said, we are watching the new multipolar world throw down the old colonial world. The US has some surprises in store as the opinion of the world turns very mightily in its face.
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 29 2021 4:51 utc | 88
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 28 2021 19:21 utc | 34
Search for this:
"Central Asia–China gas pipeline"
The available gas, current and future, has already been sold.
Posted by: OhO | Jul 29 2021 5:04 utc | 89
US access to Afghanistan?
Take a look at the dotted line borders where Pakistan, India and China meet.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@35.1125646,75.9604893,7.25z
Might be an area where India and now US focus attention. The great game there is all about keeping China out of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 28 2021 19:51 utc | 39
-------------------------------------------------
Dotted Line is division of states, recently Indian Government divided Jammu & Kashmir into three divisions: the Jammu Division, the Kashmir Division and Ladakh.
But I do agree America will propel India to fight for Pakistan occupied Kashmir. America will get proximity to Afghanistan through that area and Modi will beat his own trumpet to his audience.
Posted by: AB17 | Jul 29 2021 5:10 utc | 90
Max @ 82--
Thanks for mentioning Hudson and the Chicago Plan. He just happens to discuss that in his latest interview posted at his website. Its discussion begins about 2/3s of the way down the transcript. The excerpt:
"Hudson: Here’s how it is done in China, and basically what the Chicago plan is supposed to do, subject to the principle of hundred percent reserves: You would do just what you do now. You would go to the bank and ask for a loan. The problem is, in order to make the loan to you, if the bank doesn’t already have the deposits available, it will need money in order to create the credit for you. If you’re borrowing for a productive purpose – not to take over a company, but for a productive purpose – the government will simply create the reserves for the bank to lend you the money. The government creates the money, but it will create money only for banks to make particular kinds of loans. If you want to borrow to buy a house, the government will provide the money for it via the banking system – as if it were a depositor in the bank. If you want to start a business that the bank finds credit-worthy, the banks will be able to judge your credit-worthiness and you get the loan. But they cannot create credit out of thin air. They need government deposit backing."
That elicited an excellent question:
"QA2: Thank you very much, I really appreciate your analysis. My question is this: The Chicago Plan evolved into the Kucinich bill in the United States, the NEED Act, which does set up essentially the government as a creator of money and makes banks essentially like other non-banks, that is it lends pre-existing money. One of the questions that has come up and you’re undoubtedly aware of was raised by the authors of “The End of Banking.” If you just impose the regulation of the NEED Act, that limits essentially what banks can do. It won’t stop the shadow banking industry. So my question to you is: What would happen in terms of shadow banking as we know it, as a result of simply ending bank creation of money and shifting money creation to the government?
"Hudson: That’s what 100 reserves means. There will still be rich people with money to lend, especially foreign investors. But financial reform needs tax reform to go with it. You have to tax away the existing economic rent, so that it will not be available to pay as interest. Also, it is necessary to wipe out the overburden of debt that now exists. You cannot re-stabilize the economy and get out of today’s austerity and debt deflation without writing down the debts, cancelling many of them. But you can’t cancel mortgage debts of absentee owners without replacing former debt service with a land-rent tax, so as not to make an absentee real estate sector debt-free. These reforms would end a lot of the assets on which the shadow banking industry is based. A proper tax policy and with a debt cancellation would create an environment in which new money creation will work.
"What if China let many billionaires begin buying out companies and creating monopolies? It wouldn’t happen there, and it didn’t used to happen in the United States under the anti-monopoly laws here. You can’t reform only one part of the economy, like finance, without reform the rest of the system. So you need systemic reform: Monetary and financial reform have to go together with fiscal reform, policy reform and legal reform."
And then we get one final question related to the Chicago Plan:
"QA5: Thank you very much Michael for your talk! My question is this: I was thinking that if we really had a Chicago plan-based economy, where reserves were in place. There should be some way, which is not exactly clear in the Chicago plan, of how to increase the money supply. This is usually by the debt deficit spending of the government. But this does not say that this deficit would not go to the FIRE sector, or that financialization would be over. So the only two things that would be different, in my understanding, is that we would not have any account of how much of this money goes there. That would only be in the government’s books. Is there any other difference? How would we beat financialization? It would not be only by changing the banking system. It would require other kinds of laws.
"Hudson: Yes, you are right. That is why I said the economy is a system, and there have to be other changes. Of course, if the government wanted to keep spending on the military-industrial complex, or to go to war or subsidize corrupt privatizers and financiers, you would have to change the government as well as the banking system. But you are right: Stopping the banks from creating credit solves the problem of bank credit, but it does not solve the rest of the problems that you just brought up.
"There has to be overall political reform. That was called socialism in the 19th century. We could still call socialism today. You would need socialist reform and a thoroughgoing political reform to restructure what the government is all about. So, it is not only what money and the financial sector are all about, it is about the role of government. And its role to help society? Is it to help the 99 Percent, or to help the One Percent? Is it to help clean up the world’s environment? Is it to promote peace? Or is it to promote a New Cold War, like the governments today in Europe and America?" [My Emphasis]
AB17
Dotted lines exist on India China borders and a small section on India Pakistan border. Create a war in their and that cuts China's access through to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
US will fight Russia to the last European and the last nazi. It will fight China to the last Indian, the last Japanese and the last Australian. That area of dotted lines is a good area for US to kick off a war if it can. Modi would like to but he's been smart enough so far to wait until US commits itself. Perhaps US will try and regime him for someone who's stupid enough to launch a war with China without first ensuring US are committed.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 29 2021 6:10 utc | 92
uncle tungsten
The missing link from 54.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lpfi2FVpQY
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 29 2021 6:17 utc | 93
Grieved@87:
How, one wonders, will the Taliban act to compel the US to stop the bombing? What would China do? What will China advise?
When the price of carrying out the 'bomb from afar' shenanigan exceeds the strategic benefits, the US would know to stop. It happened in Vietnam during Nixon, Lebanon during Reagan, Somalia during Clinton, etc. etc. All Taliban needs is decently effective air defense weaponry which China/Russia can easily supply, at fraction of costs that Empire's lackeys usually have to dole out to acquire like kind stuff. China's advise? you guys sat in patience for 20 years, sit a little longer while aim them high and shoot them down. They'll leave you alone sooner than later.
I agree with you that here is one chance that China/Russia can demonstrate how multipolarity can trump the unipolar savage. Let egg yolks splatter all over that unipolar face, man!
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 29 2021 6:20 utc | 94
Grieved 87
In the link I forgot to post @54 Kishore Mahbubani Talks a bit about the way ASEAN do things. Very similar to what is happening now re Russia, China, and Afganistan.
In general though, watching him talk about relations between states makes a lot of sense to me.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 29 2021 6:24 utc | 95
Karfloff #66 & S #68
USA is scrambling for resources, for the dollar domination, for putting off debt reckoning, for trade tracks, one sided resource-trade deals, all while acting as 'spoiler' to Russia and China.
USA has chosen confrontation over cooperation. Is that the 'right' choice to secure an unfair share of world resources? At this point, probably.
Pres. Bidens recent speech to his intel community is indicative of some of his thinking:
"...we have to work in cooperation with nations like China and Russia that are our competitors — and possibly mortal competitors down the road — in the context of there’s — to meet the existential threats, for example, of climate change...I’ll never forget the first time I went down in the tank as Vice President, after I got elected. The Defense Department said what the greatest threat facing America: climate change.
If, in fact, the seas’ level rises another two and half feet, you’re going to have millions of people migrating, fighting over arable land. You saw what happened in North Africa. What makes us think this doesn’t matter? People who were Muslim, and the only difference was Black and/or Arab, killing each other by the thousands for arable — a piece of arable — arable land in North Central Africa. But what happens — what happens in Indonesia if the projections are correct that, in the next 10 years, they may have to move their capital because they’re going to be underwater?""Talked about changes. What’s going to happen as we move on and we’re able to develop around the world pathogens that can be transmitted to societies and communities? It may not be a nuclear weapon. It may not be a hypersonic missile. It may not be any of the things we think of.
But think about it. Just think about what’s happened with one — I’m not suggesting it was intended — a lot more we need to know — but think what’s happened: More people have been killed in the United States of America because of COVID than in every single major war we fought combined. Every single one. What’s next? What is intended? There’s a lot of research going on.""The world is changing so rapidly — technologically and in terms of alliances and human intercourse — that war is going to change across the board in the next 10 years [more] than in the last 50 years. That’s not hyperbole; that’s a fact.
If I talked to you 15 years ago about hypersonic flight, you’d look at me like I was crazy. So much is going to change...It’s really going to get tougher......"So much is going to change...cyber threats, including ransomware attacks, increasingly are able to cause damage and disruption to the real world..if we end up in a war, a real shooting war with a major power, it’s going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach of great consequence."
Here I take it that he references an effort by a foreign power, probably USA, "attempts to use the Internet to influence weapons control systems." mentioned by Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov. The day after Pres. Biden's speech on 27 July 2021...
Pres. Biden on June 28th returned to the theme of meeting peoples needs in a changing world:
"Because when I arrived in office, we had a long time — it’s been a long time since the federal government had worked hard for working people. Things had been great for big corporations, great for the very wealthy, folks at the top. Those 55 major corporations for the past three years paid zero in federal taxes, making over $40 billion. They had no complaints.But when I put my hand on that Bible on January 20th and took the Oath of Office, I made a commitment to the American people: We’re going to change the paradigm so working people could have a fighting chance again to get a good education, to get a good job and a raise, to take care of that elderly parent and afford to take care of their children, and stop losing hours of their lives stuck in traffic because the streets are crumbling, or waiting for slow, spotty Internet to connect them to the world."
Increasingly educated and connected, Governments everywhere are in place with the tacit permission of the population - so long as the governments meet their needs.
Now Governments everywhere are defining a reasonable life in terms of domestic industrial production, well trained workforces, security, a future. And the 'right' direction for peoples betterment, mainly via education.
Russia, China, Europe, India, USA and everyone else want a population of highly trained STEM people. China and Russia are doing well in that regard. USA, and Pres biden in particular, know they are falling behind.
Trained people vote with their feet, Will they leave the polluted air of Beijing for the shitty streets of San Franscisco?
Not everything is money.
High ground.
And 60-70% of people are service workers on basic wages. Are ordinary peoples needs being met in USA. India, Russia, China?
This is the essence. And things are going to fall apart under climate change, let alone anything else.
Who has the culture & recent history to cope with privation, change, swingeing Govt diktat?
Posted by: powerandpeople | Jul 29 2021 7:12 utc | 96
Littlereddot | Jul 29 2021 3:48 utc |
"In this light perhaps the terms "Capitalist" and "Socialist" are themselves becoming less relevant to us. Instead the two competing tendencies can be thought of as Private Global Finance and Sovereign State Finance. These are just a cloud ideas mulling about in my mind, thanks for shining a light of clarity on a part of it."
Interesting concept. We do need a new definition of the underlying forces at work. The Capitalist and Communist/Socialist are too semantically loaded to be used generally. ie. Without bringing up propaganda induced reactions to confuse things. (Gut reactions)
****
OhO | Jul 29 2021 5:04 utc | 88
While Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also considering selling their gas to China, Chinese government already made new moves to penetrate deeper into Central Asian energy sector by lending $3 billion to Turkmenistan to develop the South Iolotan field in 2009 and $10 billion to Kazakhstan to pay for future oil supplies." Wikip.
So we can assume there is an equivalent "GOE *" part of the BRI. (* Gas and Oil Energy => Pipelines). I note that they are already up to four parallel pipes from Turkmenistan to China. Makes me wonder what the total needs of China will be in a few more years. The Chinese have probably worked it out already.
Not much room for the US to wriggle into the area. So, will they try to ruin it as usual?
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 29 2021 7:19 utc | 97
@ karlof1 (#90), thanks for acknowledging Michael Hudson’s connection to Rockefeller’s Chicago plan.
The Global Financial Syndicate, its owners and lackeys are very smart and fully aware that their financial system is failing and they have strong opposition. Even George Soros has acknowledged this. They are hedging on multiple levels to regain the control back. They have hired multiple economists and other professionals to promote their propaganda and build a new control system. Norbert Haering from Germany has taken the lead in exposing this reality. I would encourage you to check his videos and articles. Unfortunately, this arena is filled with vipers & traitors. Just focus on the inside scoops and mechanism they’re sharing about the fraud. It is essential that many focus on understanding the reality and think critically on their own. Many Americans need to wake up to build a better nation.
Let’s discuss the ideas about economic problems and solutions in an open thread or when the topic is about the financial/monetary system.
Posted by: Max | Jul 29 2021 7:23 utc | 98
Netanyahu is out of the door and suddenly Israel can't land an air strike on Syria without having all its missiles shot down. What a curious coincidence...
Posted by: grundsatz | Jul 29 2021 2:02 utc | 76
I read a suggestion that Russia may be testing its S500 in Syria ...
Posted by: BM | Jul 29 2021 7:41 utc | 99
How did you get monetarily ENSLAVED in your nation state [cell]? by: Max @ 27
I listened to big brother, to the enslavers own TV news, to my teachers in all levels at all schools, to my preacher, to my family particularly my mother's side of things, and to my friends; each and all of whom followed the same leader. These life long procters taught me what they wanted me to know.. about things which they knew very little-to-near-nothing about .. but the things they taught me, were, with them, force of habit, adaptations, they claimed, necessary, they said, to getting along in the cruel and miserable life the nation state divided, oligarch dominated world had in store for me. They learned through the school of propaganda, that which keeps them locked in the dark nation state dungeons on cell block Kansas, in the Topeka sector. Their only regret was that they were not allowed to use their personal genius except when it was directed by the owners of the prison to invent something the owners could patent and use to make more money to build darker prisons and to buy bigger private aircraft and boats with.
My life-time Procters were so smart, they knew so much because their mental decision systems were based, not in fact, but in the wisdom of their private beliefs, which beliefs, were derivatives of their life-long commitment to extracting the knowledge from the propaganda handed to them, for the price of but listening to inserted advertisements, the entire knowledge of the world. That knowledge, they said, was invaluable, because it came to them over TV and Internet; complete, they said, with a book that makes life in the cell easy, the book, they said, defines and classifies all behaviors as either allowed or criminal.
Posted by: snake | Jul 29 2021 9:30 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
biden is just a figurehead for a place in the middle of an accident at this point... you can't make a deal with those who speak with a forked tongue.... watch the financial dynamics as that is where the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan as we move forward.... watching biden is like watching a puppet on a string... entertaining, or not - but not central to what is happening or to what one needs to watch here...
Posted by: james | Jul 28 2021 16:28 utc | 1