Global South

Iran’s ‘New Equation’ Soars Beyond The Holy Land

‘Anything that was good and true about Western civilization is preserved and thriving in Russia.’ And after a millennium of playing catch-up, she now has the dominant military heft and osmotic alliance with Iran and China to help craft new civilizational calculations.

By Pepe Escobar at Sputnik International.

A Holy of the Holies was shattered in the Holy Land as Iran staged a quite measured, heavily choreographed response to the Israeli terror attack against its consulate/ambassador residence in Damascus, a de facto evisceration of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity.

This game-changer will directly interfere on how the Anglo-American system manages its simultaneous conflagration with Russia, China and Iran – three top BRICS members.

The key problem is escalations are already built in – and will be hard to remove. The Total Cancel War against Russia; the genocide in Gaza – with its explicit policy masterfully decoded by Prof. Michael Hudson; and the decoupling/shaping the terrain against China won’t simply vanish – as all communication bridges with the Global Majority keep being torched.

Yet the Iranian message indeed establishes a “New Equation” – as Tehran christened it, and prefigures many other surprises to come from West Asia.

Iran wanted to – and did send – a clear message. New equation: if the biblical psychopathic entity keeps attacking Iranian interests, from henceforth it will be counter-attacked inside Israel. All that in a matter of “seconds” – as the Security Council in Tehran has already cleared all the procedures.

Escalation though seems inevitable. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak: “Netanyahu is influenced by his [fundamentalist] political partners to go into an escalation so he can hold onto power and accelerate the coming of the Messiah.”

Compare it to Iranian President Raisi: “The smallest act against Tehran’s interests will be met with a massive, extensive, and painful response against all its operations.”

Goodbye to Your ‘Invincible’ Defense Maze

For Tehran, regulating the intensity of the clash in West Asia between Israel and the Axis of Resistance while simultaneously establishing strategic deterrence to replace “strategic patience” was a matter of launching a triple wave: a drone swarm opening the path for cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

The performance of the much-vaunted Iron Dome, Arrow-3 and David’s Sling – aided by F-35 fighter jets and the US and the UK naval force – was not exactly stellar. There’s no video of the “outer-layer” Arrow-3 system shooting down anything in space.

At least 9 ballistic missiles penetrated the dense Israeli defense network and hit the Nevatim and Ramon bases. Israel is absolutely mum on the fate of its Golan Heights intel installation – hit by cruise missiles.

Amidst classic fog of war, it’s irrelevant whether Tehran launched hundreds or dozens of drones and missiles. Regardless of NATOstan media hype, what’s proven beyond the shadow of a doubt is that the supposedly “invincible” Israeli defense maze – ranging from US-made AD/ABM systems to Israeli knockoffs – is helpless in real war against a technologically advanced adversary.

What was accomplished by a single operation did raise quite a few professional eyebrows. Iran forced Israel to furiously deplete its stock of interceptors and spend at least $1.35 billion – while having its escalatory dominance and deterrence strategy completely shattered.

The psychological blow was even fiercer.

What if Iran had unleashed a series of strikes without a generous previous warning lasting several days? What if US, UK, France and – traitorous – Jordan were not ready for coordinated defense? (The – startling – fact they were all directly dispensing firepower on Tel Aviv’s behalf was not analyzed at all). What if Iran had hit serious industrial and infrastructural targets?

Establishing an Equation Without Disturbing a Pivot

Predictably, there has been less than zero debate across NATOstan about the sudden collapse of the Fortress Israel Myth – which underpins the larger myth of Zionism offering Impregnable Security for those living in Israel. No more. This narrative spin is D.O.A.

Iran, for its part, could not care less about what NATOstan spins. The shift towards the New Equation in fact was generous enough to offer Tel Aviv a de-escalation escape route – which will not be taken, at Israel’s peril.

For Tel Aviv, everything that happened so far spells out Strategic Defeat across the spectrum: in Gaza, in Lebanon, with the economy tanking, totally losing legitimacy around the world, and now with the added painful loss of deterrence.

All eyes are now on what may happen next: will it finally become clear whether the Hegemon prevails or whether Israel runs the “wag the dog” show?

It’s essential to consider the Russia-China strategic partnership view. The consensus among Chinese scholars is that the Hegemon prefers not to commit too many resources to West Asia, as this would affect the – already collapsing – Project Ukraine and the strategic planning to counter China in the Asia-Pacific.

When it comes to Russia, President Raisi personally called President Putin and they discussed all relevant details over the phone. Cool, calm and collected.

Additionally, later this week Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani – who said Iran will respond “within seconds” to any new Israeli attack – visits Moscow for the Conference on Nonproliferation and will also meet with the top echelons of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It’s quite remarkable that Iran managed to establish the New Equation without disturbing its own pivot to Eurasia – after the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal – while protecting the complex framework engaged in the defense of Palestine.

The Hegemon’s options are dire. They run from being eventually expelled from West Asia and the Persian Gulf to an unwinnable existential clash against three civilization-states – Russia, China, Iran.

What’s left as the number one feasible scenario is a carefully calculated retreat to an easily controlled backyard: Latin America, especially South America, manipulating new, convenient, sovereign-deprived asset Argentina.

And of course maintaining control over a de-industrialized and sovereignty-deprived Europe.

That does not change the fact that US power projection on the wane, globally, is the way the wind is blowing. The Straussian neocon psycho-dementia is unsustainable. The question is whether they can be progressively purged from the US power structure before they attempt to plunge the Global Majority into their irrational depths of doom.

And Don’t Forget the New BRICS Equation

By contrast, on the Global Majority front, over 40 nations want to join BRICS – and counting, according to the head of the Russian Council Committee on International Affairs, Grigory Karasin.

After a meeting of the chairmen of the international affairs committees of BRICS Parliaments last week in Moscow, Karasin noted how many BRICS member-nations understand that they should not rush to create a rigid charter, “seeing how counterproductive and even provocative the European Union is acting.” The name of the game is flexibility.

Alastair Crooke has touched on a key theme that runs through my new book, Eurasia v. NATOstan: “Anything that was good and true about Western civilization is preserved and thriving in Russia. This is the unspoken insight that so infuriates the western elites. And it is also why, in part, BRICS states so evidently look to Russia for leadership.”

The New Equation established by Iran, a sovereign BRICS member, will do wonders to solidify this – multilateral, multicultural – state of cooperation as the Empire and its “aircraft carrier” in West Asia, except in the covert ops department, are increasingly reduced to the role of a paper tiger.

Global South

Iran Strikes Israel

Garland Nixon interviews Laith Marouf — West Asia update — on a seismic week which changed our world. Le roi est mort, vive le roi!

Iran’s retaliation is historic for Palestine, the region, our world. Zio-USUK suffered a strategic defeat, on top of moral defeat of Gaza
the regional war has moved from non-state actors to state-on-state [with the implications of aligned alliances a la 1914]
Iran forced Anglo-Zionist-NATO alliance to reveal their air defenses (AD), including radars, locations, capabilities, occult allies (GCC), tactics, etc.  It made clear Franco-Brits are vassals; the combined West is a totalitarian Empire under a single diktat, for those oblivious the last six months of Genocide…
Iran has started bleeding both their budgets/treasure ($3+ BILLION cost in a few hours!) and air defense interceptors/warjets wear & tear/munitions through massive unprecedented swarm of cheap drones
Iran demonstrated, in addition to precision of its older drones/missiles (! Thx Comrades BeiDou & GLONASS), significant deterrence
Israel demonstrated its survival is dependent on combined West – demoted to abject vassal like Bahrain from its former optical strut
even this western defense is proven worthless, as in 404. US funded and part-built air defenses were thoroughly exposed.
as they proved they could take down western AD using older drones and Scuds, in real war they would rapidly degrade airbases and hardware required for the sole remaining advantage of Anglo-Zionists – air power; Hamas has exposed ground war inadequacy and Houthis the lost naval force projection.
Everything in Israel today exists by Grace of Iran (!!!). It can be leveled
Hezbollah today salted the wounded by blasting another “Iron” Dome AD complex in north occupied Palestine
during the Iranian aerial slap, Netanyahoo hid in the Jerusalem bunker of the messianic Jewish billionaire funding the Red Heifer sacrifice, destruction of Al Aqsa Masjid and building of the Third Temple on its ruins. The crazed want Armageddon. The Danger remains
A lesson learned by multipolar Global Majority during this measured & mild Iranian deterrence action: the US will need to bring all its forces for zionazi proxy to have a chance! Thus dominoes will quickly fall everywhere else, whether 404, Korea, etc.. [unfortunately, this INCREASES risk of total West Asian war.. all now have a vested interest in finishing off the Last Satanic Empire in such a distant and predictable weak theater, also given its tenuous logistics and abject emotional messianic devotion. iow, an emotional albatross]
As Houthis have same weaponry as Iran, they are shown to have pulled their punches in Red Sea.. more proof of imperial lunacy to keep fighting a lost war, merely for optics
if USUK persist, they will end up third world countries at the end of this mad devotion to Zion [AHH: actually, a best case scenario at this point]
Jordanian compradore regime will soon cease to exist; its fate is linked to zionism now
the Arab region now plans for the day after collapse of Zion, and eviction of USUK (provided we’re still alive); this is not merely Greater Syria but other natural agglomerations which used to exist prior to arrival of West or even Turks
Garland: the strike on Israel was an Exclamation Point of the [arrival] of the Multipolar World

Global South

Iran’s ‘Strategic Patience’ lifts to Serious Deterrence

Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel were not conducted alone. Strategic partners Russia and China have Tehran’s back, and their role in West Asia’s conflict will only grow if the US doesn’t keep Israel in check.

By Pepe Escobar at The Cradle.

Global South

Iran’s Retaliation: Early Implications

Iran’s Retaliation: Implications of the Attack on Israel | Syriana Analysis W/ Mohammad Marandi

Join us as we explore the recent unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel, which consisted of a wave of drones and missiles launched in retaliation for an attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria. Dr. Mohammad Marandi, a Professor at the University of Tehran, provides insights on the implications of this attack.

“The era of strategic patience is over.” As with Bears forced to awaken over Genocide in Novorossiya, it is active deterrence from now on.

Global South

Gaza Genocide is Anglo-Zionist Policy

Israel, Gaza and West Bank should be seen as the global blueprint for basically how to financialize genocide and destruction. Palestinians will either emigrate or be killed. Exodus or Annihilation. 

By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture Foundation. 

In what can be considered the most crucial podcast of 2024 so far, Professor Michael Hudson – the author of seminal works such as Super-Imperialism and the recent The Collapse of Antiquity , among others – clinically lays down the essential background to understand the unthinkable: a 21^st century genocide broadcast live 24/7 to the whole planet.

In an email exchange, Prof. Hudson detailed he’s now essentially “spilling the beans” about how, “50 years ago when I worked at the Hudson Institute with Herman Kahn [the model for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove], Israeli Mossad members were being trained, including Uzi Arad. I made two international trips with him, and he outlined to me pretty much what has happened today. He became head of Mossad and is now Netanhayu’s advisor.”

Prof. Hudson shows how “the basic Gaza plan is how Kahn designed the Vietnam War’s division into sectors, with canals cutting off each village, as the Israelis are doing to Palestinians. Also already at time, Kahn pinpointed Balochistan as the area to foment disruption in Iran and the rest of the region.”

It’s not by accident that Balochistan has been CIA jewel territory for decades, and recently with the added incentive of the disruption by any means necessary of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a key connectivity node of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Prof. Hudson then connects the major dots: “As I understand it, what the U.S. is doing with Israel is a dress rehearsal for it to move on to Iran and the South China Sea. As you know, there is no Plan B in American strategy for a very good reason: If anyone criticize Plan A, they’re considered not to be a team player (or even Putin’s Puppet), so critics have to leave when they see that they won’t be promoted. That’s why U.S. strategists won’t stop and re-think what they’re doing.”

Isolate them in strategic hamlets, then kill them

In our email exchange, Prof. Hudson remarked “this is basically what I said” in reference to the podcast with Ania K, drawing on his notes (here is the full, revised transcript). Fasten your seat belts: unvarnished truth is more lethal than a hypersonic missile hit.

On the Zionist military strategy in Gaza:

“My background in the 1970s at Hudson Institute with Uzi Arad and other Mossad trainees. My field was BoP, but I sat in on many meetings discussing military strategy, and I flew to Asia twice with Uzi and got to know him.

The U.S./Israeli strategy in Gaza is based in many ways on Herman Kahn’s plan that was carried out in Vietnam in the 1960s.

Herman’s focus was systems analysis. Start by defining the overall aim and then, how do we achieve it?

First, isolate them in Strategic Hamlets. Gaza has been carved up into districts, requiring electronic passes for entry from one sector to another, or into Jewish Israel to work.

First thing: kill them. Ideally by bombing, because that minimizes domestic casualties for your army.

The genocide that we are seeing today is the explicit policy of Israel’s founders: the idea of “a land without a people” means a land without non-Jewish people. They were to be driven out – starting even before the official founding of Israel, in the first Nakba, the Arab holocaust.

Two Israeli Prime Ministers were members of the Stern Gang of terrorists. They escaped from their British jail and joined to found Israel.

What we are seeing today is the Final Solution to this plan. It also dovetails into U.S. desires to control the Middle East and its oil reserves. For U.S. diplomacy, the Middle East IS (in caps) oil. And ISIS is part of America’s foreign legion since it was first organized in Afghanistan to fight the Russians.

That is why Israeli policy has been coordinated with the U.S.. Israel is the main U.S. client oligarchy in the Middle East. Mossad does most handling of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and wherever else the U.S. may send ISIS terrorists. Terrorism and even the present genocide is central to U.S. geopolitics.

But as the U.S. learned in the Vietnam War, populations protest and vote against the President who supervises this war. Lyndon Johnson couldn’t make a public appearance without crowds chanting. He had to sneak out the side entrance of hotels where he was speaking.

To prevent an embarrassment such as Seymour Hersh describing the My Lai massacre, you block journalists from the battlefield. If they are there, you kill them. The Biden-Netanyahu team has targeted journalists in particular.

So the ideal is to kill the population passively, to minimize visible bombing. And the line of least resistance is to starve the population. That has been Israeli policy since 2008.”

And don’t forget to starve them

Prof. Hudson makes a direct reference to a Sara Roy piece in The New York Review of Books, citing a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State on November 3rd, 2008. The cable reads, “As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to [embassy officials] on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge.”

That has led, according to Prof. Hudson, to Israel “destroying fishing boats and greenhouses of Gaza to deprive it from feeding itself.

Next, it has joined with the United States to block United Nations food aid and that of other countries. The U.S. quickly withdrew from the UN relief agency as soon as hostilities began, doing so immediately after the ICJ finding of plausible genocide. It was the major funder of this agency. The hope was that this would set back its activities.

Israel simply stopped letting food aid in. It set up long, long lines of inspections, that is, an excuse to slow the trucks to just 20% of their pre-Oct. 7 rate – from a normal rate of 500 a day to just 112. In addition to blocking trucks, Israel has targeted aid workers – about one a day.

The United States sought to avoid being condemned by pretending to build a wharf to unload food by sea. The intention was that by the time the wharf was built, Gaza’s population would be starved out.”

Biden and Netanyahu as war criminals

Prof. Hudson succinctly draws the key connection in the whole tragedy: “The U.S. is trying to blame one person, Netanyahu. But that has been Israeli policy since 1947. And it is U.S. policy. Everything that is occurring since October 2, when the Al-Aqsa mosque was raided by Israeli settlers, leading to Hamas’s [Al-Aqsa Flood] retaliation on October 7, was closely coordinated with the Biden administration. All the bombs that have been dropped, month after month, as well as blocking United Nations aid.

The U.S. aim is to prevent Gaza from having the offshore gas rights that would help finance their own prosperity and that of other Islamic groups that the United States views as enemies. And to show the neighboring countries what will be done to them, just as the U.S. has done to Libya just before Gaza. The bottom line is that Biden and his advisors are just as much war criminals as is Netanyahu.”

Prof. Hudson stresses how “the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Blinken and other U.S. officials have said the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of genocide and calling for it to stop is Non-Binding. Then, Blinken has just said that no genocide is taking place.

The U.S. aim of all this is to end the rule of international law as represented by the UN. It is to be replaced by the U.S. ‘rules-based order,’ with no rules published.

The intention is to make the U.S. immune to any opposition to its policies based on legal principles of international law or local laws. A totally free hand – chaos.

U.S. diplomats have looked forward and seen that the rest of the world is seeing to withdraw from the U.S. and European NATO orbit.

To cope with this irreversible movement, the U.S. is trying to de-tooth it by wiping away all remaining traces of the international rules that underlay the UN’s founding, and indeed the Westphalian principle back in 1648 of non-interference in the affairs of other countries.

The actual effect, as usual, is just the opposite of what the U.S. intended. The rest of the world is being forced to create its own New UN, along with a new IMF, new World Bank, new International Court at the Hague and other organizations controlled by the U.S..

So the world’s protest against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank – don’t forget the West Bank – is the emotional and moral catalyst to creating a new multipolar geopolitical order for the Global Majority.”

Disappear or die

The key question remains: what will happen to Gaza and the Palestinians. Prof. Hudson’s judgement is ominously realistic: “As Alastair Crooke has explained, there now cannot be any two-state solution in Israel. It has to be either all Israeli or all Palestinian. And the way it looks now is all-Israeli – the dream from the outset in 1947 of a land without non-Jewish people.

Gaza will still be there geographically, along with its gas rights in the Mediterranean. But it will be emptied out, and occupied by the Israelis.”

On who would “help” to rebuild Gaza, there are a few solid takers already: “Turkish building companies, Saudi Arabia financing developments, UAE, American investors – maybe Blackstone. It will be foreign investment. If you look at the fact that the foreign investors of all these countries are looking for what they can get out of the genocide against Palestinians, you realize why there’s no opposition to the genocide.”

Prof. Hudson’s final verdict on “the great benefit to the U.S.” is that “no claims can be brought against the U.S. – and against any of the warfare and regime change that it is planning for Iran, China, Russia and for what has been done in Africa and Latin America.

Israel, Gaza and West Bank should be seen as an opening of the New Cold War. A plan for basically how to financialize genocide and destruction. Palestinians will either emigrate or be killed. That has been the announced policy for over a decade.”

Global South

Iran on the Rise

Peter Koenig
14 April 2024

The warning was on the wall. Ever since Israel attacked “out of the blue” on 1 April 2024 the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 7, including two generals, an Iranian retaliation was to be expected.

The New York Times (NYT) reports “Iran mounted an immense aerial attack on Israel on Saturday night, launching more than 200 drones [other sources talk about 300 drones] and missiles in retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike in Syria two weeks ago, and marking a significant escalation in hostilities between the two regional foes.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say there were over 300 aerial threats, including some 200 drones, 100 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles. See this.

Israel and her western friends claim that many of the drones were intercepted by IDF and the help from allied military support. The latter apparently include the UK, France, and Jordan – and most likely also US-NATO forces that have long been stationed in the region.

Nevertheless, according to several RT reports, a large-scale missile and drone attack against Israel has been a success, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said in a statement published by IRNA news agency. The Islamic Republic’s military managed to “hit and destroy” some “important military targets,” it added, without providing any further details.

Short video clips published by Iranian media on social networks, viewing Islamic Republic’s missiles hitting their targets in Israel. Several missiles appeared to have been striking targets in a settlement, RT reports, however without being able to confirm the veracity of the clips.

The Guardian informs, that it was the Islamic Republic’s first-ever direct attack on the Jewish State, a development that brings the two countries to the brink of all-out conflict after more than a decade of shadow war and soaring stress six months into Israel’s war in Gaza, following the Hamas attack last October.

It was reported on Israeli television that Iran had launched more than 100 drones as well as cruise missiles towards Israel, and Iran later said it had fired a “first wave” of ballistic missiles. See this.

This latest war theatre is in full development. At this point it is unclear what exactly happened and to what level the conflict may escalate. A regional war – that could expand to a WW-scenario is a real danger. It depends largely to what extent foreign – non regional – players, will get involved. Arab states have already warned against any “foreign”, meaning non-regional, intervention. Specifically, that means the US / NATO. The latter would include of course almost all of the spineless European nations.

—–

Iran has many reasons for retaliation. Other than the Syrian Consulate event, the killing of General Qasem Soleimani with a targeted US drone attack on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad. This assassination was still carried out under President Trump, but the question remains, did he act on behalf of Israel – as many analysts suspect?

After a public mourning of Major General Soleimani, Iran launched missiles against US military bases in Iraq wounding at least 110 troops. Deaths were not officially reported.

Over the past several decades Israeli provocations on Iran abounded no end. Israel’s intent is to wipe out Iran as part of its “master plan” towards “Greater Israel”, and control of the Gulf of Hormuz with access to the Arabian Sea – and ultimately Asia. And in the north, where Israel is currently attempting to brutally genociding Palestinians – evicting them from their homeland, an atrocious slaughter supported by most western un-human leaders (sic).

This is not only Apartheid “social cleansing” – it is also taking possession – stealing – of tens or hundreds of billions worth of Gazan off-shore gas reserves.

To be sure, Israel is an illegal state, on Palestinian land stolen through the 1917 UK-sponsored Zionist-initiated Balfour Declaration, with the support in 1948 of the then 52-member young US-dominated United Nations. See this.

——–

For the past 100 years or so, Washington was – and still is – tacitly as well as openly manipulated by a strong worldwide Zionist movement. Zionists control the world’s – at least the western world’s – financial system, Big Finance, Wall Street, and not least the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), in Basle Switzerland, also called the Central Bank of all central banks, controlling about 90% of the worldwide monetary flow. All in Zionists command.

There is a strong symbiotic relationship, an interdependence between the Zionists, today’s Israel, and the US. The Zionists, the self-declared Chosen People, wield the scepter of Big Finance, aspiring for world domination through Greater Israel (see provisional map, below), with the might of military power by the United States.

Iran is the major stumbling block for Israel’s Zionists to achieve their goal. Once Iran is conquered, they dream, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States will fall in place.

Zionist-Israel has been allowed by the discreet influence of the US and UK secret services to become a “clandestine” nuclear power. They know they can count not only on the US tax-payers financial support, but more importantly, also with the Pentagon’s military might. By the way, US tax-payers have been footing a considerable portion of Israel’s budget for its 75-year existence.

Sounds controversial, doesn’t it – with the Zionists in control of worldwide Big Finance.

Israel’s provocations on Iran are openly or tacitly supported or even encouraged by Washington. The Washington war-mongers would love to go to war with Iran, a military and economic heavy weight, way beyond the Middle East.

And now, as a new BRICS member (BRICS-plus 5 [the sixth nation, Argentina, dropped out]), Iran’s strength has expanded almost exponentially, with such heavy-weight allies like China and Russia.

——

Israel’s assault on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, may have been the spark that lit the fire. The extent of the “fire” cannot be assessed yet, as it will depend on clear-thinking and levelheadedness – or not – of western decision makers – specifically NATO countries.

President Biden has been clear, so western media: “Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.”

How serious is this American promise? – There is more at stake than words, especially considering Israel’s ever deeper falling within the world’s sympathy for her non-stop onslaught against Gaza and Palestine in general – having killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, about 70% of whom are women and children.

Strategically speaking, can the US afford this “unwavering” support for an outright genocide nation? And secondly, Washington knows that Iran has full support from Russia and China, Iran’s BRICS allies. BRICS association has similar meaning to that of NATO’s: Attack one country means you attack them all – and retaliation may be massive.

Are there still a few clear-thinking western political human strategists left, not to risk total destruction of civilization as we know it? – As President Putin has warned on several occasions, A Third World War, turning nuclear has no winner.

Let us hope reason and the sense for Peace will prevail.

————

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

 

Global South

Swine Lake

A Brief History of Bullshit in America – Everything, that is EVERYTHING, is presented counter to reality. There aint NO Money for nothin’ and NO chicks for free. And that’s the whole enchilada …

with thanks from FiveGunsWest and penned by Bones!

Judge Napolitano: “I told Trump, ‘you promised you would release the records of the JFK assassination.’ He said to me ‘If they showed you what they showed me, you wouldn’t have released it either.’ I said ‘Who’s they? What did they show you?’ Trump said “Someday when we’re not on the phone and there aren’t 15 people listening to the call, I’ll tell you.'”

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: “It has been said that after the Kennedy assassination, there has been no president. They have only been factotums of the system since then.”

Lake Flaccid

Notes on the Magic Christian

Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire prankster, is rich enough to do whatever he likes. And what he likes is to carefully execute projects where he can cauterize by ridicule what the rest of the world ignores: complacency, greed, corruption, and idiocy.

Determined to “make it hot for people,” Grand spends his billions staging a series of hilarious, sometimes bewildering stunts, lampooning along the way the American holy cows of money, status, power, beauty, media, and stardom.

Concocting deliciously perverse mayhem, he throws a million one-hundred-dollar bills into an enormous vat of steaming offal, proving just what people will do for money, and he promotes a new silky shampoo that turns hair to wire and a deodorant that becomes a time-released stench-bomb.

He inserts subliminally suggestive and perverse images into well-loved classic films, takes a howitzer on safari, and brings a panther to a kennel club dog show.

His most elaborate adventure is an ultra-exclusive cruise aboard the S.S. Magic Christian, where elite passengers are treated to a series of madcap indignities.

The Jackal Gargles With Plasma

A Brief Review of ‘A Brief History of Bullshit in America’

Bullshit can be so many things. It could be anything from a degree in Gender Studies to something simple as a three-word campaign slogan, or even something as complicated as our nation’s 6,550-page tax code.

Political speeches, self-help books, marketing, press conferences, tax code, song lyrics, conspiracy theories, many college majors, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the multi-billion-dollar diet industry, medicine, and even the Constitution of the United States itself are all some form of bullshit in one way or another.

Bullshit is everywhere all around us. It influences the clothes we wear, shapes our political views, and even determines what food we eat.

Bullshitters are beautiful highly intelligent individuals, and they play a vital role in our world.

They start almost all of our wars, make our drugs, sell us our cars, raise and lower our taxes, regulate our economy, they tell us what to wear, and in many instances what to believe. You should develop some basic bullshit strategies that you can use in your own life as well.

April is Confederate History Month.

‘Good Foot in Heaven, Bad Foot in Hell’

Musings of a Crippled Writer Concerning Post-Modern Mesmerism with our hero James LaFond

Lori, a physical therapist of 30 years, choked back tears as she told me, “You are strong, but you have a serious injury. We can’t have you do anymore work then you are doing until the spinal specialist examines you… In the mean time, when taking the stairs, remember this, ‘Good foot in heaven, bad foot in Hell.’ It’s easy to remember that way. Put the weight on the good foot.”

In the week since then, as I have crawled, shrimped, crab walked, crutched, used a walker, wall walked and counter crawled around the Brickmouse House, and out at my mother’s house whom I visited in Whitebreadistan, I had a prawn’s eye view of the world passing bye. The news is all positively delusional and has the same exact messages as the ball games, the TV dramas, the movies and the commercials.

Everything, that is EVERYTHING, is presented counter to reality.

Worried about crime?

The news profiles dangerous white supremacists being brought to justice on hate crime charges. The news paints a picture of the last likely type of American violence, Ghost on Gawd, as the most likely.

Back to school shopping?

Well, the commercials depict the most common concerned parent, a black man shopping for his son. Would you like to vacation on a ranch in your four-wheel drive vehicle? Black cowboys will be there wrangling cattle.

Is there a threat to world peace?

No, it is not the nation that has 931 military bases in other countries. It is the nation that is the largest exporter of fuel and grain to less well off nations, ruled by a cartoon dictator, who makes all military decisions based on how mean and cruel the result would be for enemy civilians.

The news broadcast to the people of Goodland, is full of images of tyrannical nations that are utterly evil threatening world peace. Materialism, or utility, having the best most recent gadget, serves as a great handle for inculcating falsehoods, such as most cowboys, combat soldiers, and truck drivers are black and most violent criminals are white.

The Magic Christian is a 1969 British satirical black comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with appearances by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Raquel Welch, Spike Milligan, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same name by American author Terry Southern, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with McGrath.

Here’s the whole enchilada …

James continued …

… WWII was so expensive, that it cost so much valuable time and material to be spent on wiping out not enough working class Аrуаns to achieve hive stability, that the Plutocrats decided that war on human flesh and artifacts would only be a stage prop in the real war waged to control the human mind.

When I see the ridiculous news that Doctor Evil is targeting, not tanks and soldiers with his missiles, but “blood banks” “hospitals” and “civilians,” it is clear that the phony war is the one where Eastern Europeans are actually getting killed, and the real war is on the TV and the Smartphone.

 

STRATPOL

Le président finlandais appelle l’OTAN à cesser sa rhétorique “belliqueuse” envers la Russie

Le président finlandais Alexander Stubb, récemment investi, a appelé l’Europe à abandonner ses propos belliqueux à l’égard de la Russie

L’article Le président finlandais appelle l’OTAN à cesser sa rhétorique “belliqueuse” envers la Russie est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.

STRATPOL

Repentance pour le Rwanda: Macron joue encore contre la France

A l’occasion du 30ème anniversaire de l’attentat du 06 avril 1994 contre l’avion des présidents rwandais et burundais qui a

L’article Repentance pour le Rwanda: Macron joue encore contre la France est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.

Global South

Echolalia in Western Echochambers

A sweet & succinct debunking of perennial Anglo-Zionist wetdream meme of the “irreplaceability of Russian/Iranian generals” — as rationale for engaging in self-defeating terrorism against potent civilizational-states. Meanwhile, the latter remain focused and busy burying the sinking Legion.

by Julian Macfarlane at News Forensics

Ritter? Wrong?
When experience and training trip you up

I read Scott Ritter a lot and regard him as an intelligent and well-informed reporter of events. On occasion, however, his analyses are somewhat lacking – not that my own aren’t also.

Most recently, he was interviewed by Danny Haiphong about the Israel strike on the Iranian embassy— as well as the WCK humanitarian convoy atrocity.

The American military is an authoritarian top-down system with great emphasis on seniority rather than competence. If Lloyd Austin were assassinated, things might actually improve with the US military! But he will be protected at all costs. And keep on doing stupid stuff.

In other countries, military leadership is different. Russia has lost a lot of generals who are expected to lead from the front, exposing themselves to risk – something that does not happen with Western militaries.

When a Russian general is killed, he is replaced by either his second-in-command which is often an improvement because these people are used to handling the details of command rather than executing policy as it’s handed down from above—or a younger commander who may not have years but has demonstrated real ability. The leadership in either case often turns out to be pragmatic, practicable, and innovative.

Ritter is wrong about the Iranian generals being “irreplaceable”.

Command will shift to capable leaders who may not have been drinking tea with Hezbollah leaders for 20 years—but are knowledgeable, flexible and motivated— and can cooperate tactically and think strategically. That’s what the Quds Force is all about.

The Americans may be sending the Israelis long-range F-15 fighters to threaten Iran —but these aircraft cannot change the military balance in a conventional war between Iran and Israel, given Iran’s rapidly developing air defense system and its strategic position.

It’s a bit like sending F-16s to Ukraine. Good for the US defense industry – but nothing else.

In a worst-case scenario, the Iranians will close down Persian Gulf—which could precipitate an economic crisis that would sink the American economy already dog paddling frantically.

As I said before, Israel is surrounded. Its economy is already tanking and it’s managing its two-front war with Hamas and Hezbollah very badly.

So far, the Russians do not use their air defense systems – such as the S 400 – in Syria except to protect their own bases. But their attitudes towards the Israelis are hardening— as we can see with the new treaty between Russia and Iran. The Russians can use proxies, too.

Sorry Scott – this aint 1995.

As for the attack on the humanitarian convoy, Larry Johnson has the best take on that! It’s obvious that Israeli commanders knew what they were doing. It is also unlikely that they shared this information with the US – any more than they would share information on other atrocities.

As I and many others have pointed out, the faux mea culpa of Israel rings quite hollow because this kind of criminal behavior has been a Standard Operating Procedure of Israel since the start of hostilities on October 7. The following video is quite good. Looks like some key Brits are now pissed off enough that they will pressure the Rishi Sunak’s Government to cut off aid to Israel.

The US will keep on doing what it’s doing – or rather what is not doing. Because it really doesn’t allow itself any options. The Israelis will keep on doubling down on stupid.

The Axis of Resistance will continue doing what it’s doing. But with an up side.

Yes, a lot of Palestinians are dying and things may get worse before they get better. But Palestinians have been dying since 1948. They have nothing to lose – and everything to gain through resistance. At some point, the international community will step in and there will be elections in Palestine – which will confirm the will of the Palestinian people 20 years ago – that Hamas is the rightful government.

Israel is by definition a rogue state—determined not to abide by the UN’s 1967 resolutions. But, by the time Palestine achieves statehood – which appears inevitable – it will also be a failed state.

Maybe the US will give Israel Rhode Island.

Global South

Ticking Anglo-Zionist Timebombs

O Mockers, ‘Ask not for whom the Bell tolls, it tolls for thee!’

Pepe begins ~38th min; Prof Marandi at ~1:19 min.

The entire is worthwhile, especially the introduction putting Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital barbarity into perspective.

Rubicons were crossed on one-way paths…. The absolutely shocking events of last week harken and were last seen during the open Drang of the Third Reich against mankind; Pax Judaica presented its calling card back-to-back-to-back with the annihilation of historic Al Shifa Hospital, the missiling of the sacrosanct Iranian Embassy of Damascus, immediately followed by the measured triple-tap droning of the caravan of the western aid workers. Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi? Urbi et Orbi on Pax Judaica? We are all guilty of lèse-majesté, or are we? We shall see. The Fat Lady hasn’t sung.

Regardless, it is the End of the Line for the Old Order — in every way on every theater of confrontation, internal and external. Note Pepe’s sense of indignities suffered by all BRICS and the SCO through the savage attack on the Iranian Embassy in Syria. Responses are now due from the Axes of Civilization of this joined Global-SMO.

Global South

The US War Against Tik-Tok is 100% Jewish

It’s about hiding planned years-long Genocide in Gaza. The current war against Tik-Tok has nothing to do with the US or Americans. It is the Jews who want Tik-Tok either dead or under their control.

By Larry Romanoff at Blue Moon of Shanghai.

THIS ARTICLE IN PDF

I will explain, but first let me back up a step.In 2023, there was a first war launched against Tik-Tok, and that war was American. The reason was simple:China was eating America’s lunch, and the Americans were infuriated. The French news site Le Monde published an interesting article titled, How Chinese apps have conquered the planet, [1] noting that “three of the four most downloaded apps on Android phones in the US are Chinese”, with Tik-Tok having more than 170 million Americans logged onto it. That is more than 50% of all Americans, and of course this made the Americans crazy.

It’s bad enough that China’s EV cars are flooding the world while the Americans can’t seem to build one, that China has engineered and repeatedly tested hypersonic missiles while the American hapless versions keep exploding.It’s bad enough that Huawei can suddenly make its own high-powered chips without copying American technology, that China has mastered the basics of quantum computing while the Americans fail, that China leads the world in solar energy, that DJI has taken over the world for small drones, and so many other cutting-edge technologies, but now all of America is running to a cute Chinese video app.

This was the last straw. The American government was livid. No “fourth-rate country” like China could be permitted to challenge the Americans who are #1 in the Universe for everything, so something had to be done. The result was the first Tik-Tok war, and the push to make ByteDance sell it to an American. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post told us, “America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States”. [2] That attempt failed and, although supported by a lot of media hype, eventually the matter was dropped because forcing a sale of a foreign company for no reason, was legally complicated.

But then we had the war between the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine, and everything changed. The reason is that the Jews were committing the most horrid and inhuman crimes against the Palestinian people and they didn’t want the world to know. You will have read much of this in your local media, but there is much more that hasn’t reached it.

For one thing, the Jews bombed all the hospitals in Palestine to rubble, and prohibited any medical supplies or staff from reaching the wounded. During the Vietnam war, Jews at the RAND Corporation advised the US military that American soldiers should not shoot to kill, but should shoot Vietnamese in the abdomen or the bowels so as to strain the enemy’s medical resources. This does the greatest damage to an enemy; dead bodies are relatively easy to dispose of, but millions of severely wounded will place such a strain on the nation that society itself will collapse. The Jews (or their US puppet-military) did the same in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and other nations, and they are following the same pattern for Gaza.

Sidebar —
Middle East Eye: “Former Israel general says ‘severe epidemics’ in Gaza would help Israel win the war”
WSWS: ““Slow death”: Israel weaponizes disease in the Gaza genocide“

One result was that hundreds of small children who had been severely injured and required amputation of one or more of their limbs,had to undergo those amputations without anesthetic because the Jews destroyed all the medical supplies and wouldn’t permit any to be delivered. Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said, “I’ve never seen so many amputees in my life, including among children.” [3] [4] [5] [6]. There is much more, even more horrid, that is well-documented but that hasn’t reached your media.

Source

To ensure that these atrocities would never reach the world’s people, the Jews began killing all the journalists, not only the Palestinians but all foreign journalists as well. The UK Guardian told us “Almost 100 journalists killed and 400 imprisoned in 2023 alone”, [7] and it’s become worse in 2024. And of course, Jews own or control virtually all of the Western mass media, and also in much else of the world, and they also control Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and others, so there was an effective “news embargo” on what was really happening in Palestine and especially in Gaza.

But then along came Tik-Tok. And not only journalists but Palestinian and other foreign citizens were able to film many of the Jews’ atrocities and post them for the entire world to see. Tik-Tok hasbypassed the Jewish-owned mass media and brought much of this immense tragedy to the attention of the whole world, and that is the reason for the new intense war against Tik-Tok.

Palestinian and foreign reporters posted photos and videos of the atrocities committed by the Jews in Gaza, and people from all around the world picked them up and re-posted them on Tik-Tok. So, there was no way to hide what was happening.

The Wall Street Journal began this with an article titled, How TikTok Brings War Home to Your Child. [8] The Jewish Forward was there with, Young Americans are turning against Israel — and you can thank TikTok. New analyses show that pro-Palestinian content dwarfs all others on the app, and China is likely making it worse. [9] The Jewish Chronicle told us, How TikTok is turning young minds against Israel and the West. Older people have little conception of the influence of the platform – and through it the toxic Chinese Communist Party – on a younger generation. [10] The Jewish Forward asked, How fast does TikTok send users down the antisemitic rabbit hole? A new report out today from the National Contagion Research Institute, which studies the spread of online hate, reveals substantial evidence that content on TikTok is “promoted or muted” depending on “whether it is aligned or opposed to the interests of the Chinese government.” [11]

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency published an article saying “(US) House set to vote on bill that could trigger TikTok ban, with support from major Jewish group.” [12] The Times of Israel tells us, “Major US Jewish group backs bipartisan bill that could see TikTok banned.” The Jewish Federations of North America says it supports the proposed law due to concerns of antisemitism proliferating on the platform. [13] And it isn’t that Jewish groups in the US are “supporting” the ban against Tik-Tok; they are leading the charge. A Florida Congresswoman blamed the Israel lobby for the vote to ban TikTok. “This is AIPAC at work”, she said. [14] This is partly what is responsible for the recent flood of retaliatory accusations against China for “human rights violations”; it is all coming from the same source: the Jews. [15] China has been prominent among all the nations in the world in calling for a cease-fire in Palestine and the creation of a real Palestinian state – and that makes China a bitter enemy of Israel and the Jews because they will never permit such a thing to happen. All their plans for a World Government controlled by the Jews would be destroyed if Palestine becomes a state.

And where is this leading? You should already have guessed. The Jews want to force ByteDance to sell Tik-Tok to an American, but who is the “American” who is planning to buy it? Not an American, but a Jew, Steven Mnuchin. [16] He says, since he cannot tell the truth, that a platform like Tik-Tok “should belong to an American”, not to a Chinese. [17][18]

And that’s the whole story.

*

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 32 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chapt. 2 — Dealing with Demons).

His full archive can be seen at
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ and https://www.moonofshanghai.com/

He can be contacted at:
2186604556@qq.com

*

NOTES

[1] How Chinese apps have conquered the planet
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2024/03/15/how-chinese-apps-have-conquered-the-planet_6620317_19.html

[2] TikTok told to break with China’s Communist Party or lose access to US users
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3254303/us-lawmakers-seek-force-chinas-bytedance-divest-tiktok-or-face-ban

[3] ‘Never seen so many amputees in my life’
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/1/9/israel-war-on-gaza-blinken-arrives-in-israel-as-fighting-continues?update=2606470

[4] As a Gazan doctor, I’m having to amputate children’s legs without anaesthetic

[5] “Absolutely Unimaginable”: Children in Gaza Face Amputations Without Anesthesia
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/28/palestinian_children_gaza

[6] A kitchen table amputation without anesthetic in Gaza is one of many
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/20/gaza-healthcare-crisis-amputation-anesthesia/

[7] Almost 100 journalists killed and 400 imprisoned in 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/08/journalists-killed-imprisoned-2023-ifj

[8] How TikTok Brings War Home to Your Child
https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-israel-gaza-hamas-war-a5dfa0ee

[9] Young Americans are turning against Israel — and you can thank TikTok
https://forward.com/opinion/574346/freepalestine-tiktok-israel-china/

[10] How TikTok is turning young minds against Israel and the West
https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/analysis/how-tiktok-is-turning-young-minds-against-israel-and-the-west-q21dxrb3

[11] How fast does TikTok send users down the antisemitic rabbit hole?https://forward.com/culture/577326/tiktok-antisemitic-hate-speech-rabbit-hole-experiment/

[12] (US) House set to vote on bill that could trigger TikTok ban, with support from major Jewish group

[13] Major US Jewish group backs bipartisan bill that could see TikTok banned
https://www.timesofisrael.com/major-us-jewish-group-backs-bipartisan-bill-that-could-see-tiktok-banned/

[14] Florida congresswoman blames Israel lobby for Democrat vote to ban TikTok. ‘This is Aipac at work,’ wrote Keith
https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/florida-congresswoman-blames-israel-lobby-for-democrat-vote-to-ban-tiktok-lbek8s6l

[15] Commentary: Israel’s bizarre human rights accusations
http://en.people.cn/n3/2024/0125/c90000-20126634.html

[16] Steven Mnuchin Says He Is Putting Together a Group to Buy TikTok
https://www.wsj.com/tech/steven-mnuchin-says-he-is-putting-together-a-group-to-buy-tiktok-3aac4a33

[17] Ex-US treasury secretary Mnuchin says he’s putting together investors to buy TikTok
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-us-treasury-secretary-mnuchin-says-hes-putting-together-investors-to-buy-tiktok/

[18] As TikTok faces possible U.S. ban, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin looks to buy the company
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/steve-mnuchin-looks-to-buy-tiktok

Global South

Anglo-Zionists attack Iran

Garland Nixon interviews Laith Marouf — West Asia update: ISRAEL ATTACKS IRANIAN CONSULATE – RUSSIA FURIOUS

wide ranging talk includes:
Anglo-Zionist terrorism on sovereign diplomatic territory of Iran in Damascus
— use of F-35 and weaponry just delivered by the US to attack Iran [a double provocation, carrying imprimatur of Anglo-Americans]
— the calculated savagery in holy time, at time of breaking fast, among top military cadre of Iran in a protected establishment [the banner photo on right is of the martyred General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, assassinated yesterday in Damascus, with future Leader Ayatollah Khamenei during Iran-Iraq war frontline in the 1980s. This was the highest ranking general killed since Soleimani, and a personal friend of Khamenei]
— Iran directly blames the USA
— Israel admitted they obtained permission from USA for the terrorism (!!)
— Likely retaliation at either Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan or Jordan [this is debatable. I disagree. If so, Jordan, to speed along the fall of its odious regime, would be more likely. No need to stir up the gung-ho Azeris tied at the hip to the Sultan in the fragile Transcaucasia as well]

Jordan is tottering and not for long in current condition and regime; Iraq is mobilizing Jordanian Resistance with arms for initial 12,000 cadre as well as severing the “Abraham Accords” land bridge running through the kept GCC concubines
Israel has lost the battles in both Gaza and Lebanon; all this is a provocation to draw in USA, directly against Iran. They are losing the attrition war and are on precipice of Collapse. Lunatics count on dramatic war expansion to the entire region, involving the equally sinking USUK, to save them
Zionism will be conclusively defeated, having already morally defeated itself. A global civilizational siege is on
The occupied Golan height is a front that has been shaped by Hezbollah, Iraqis and Syrian resistances. They degraded much of the installations and hardened military sites. In major upcoming war expansion, these critical height will be an objective, and to deny Israel its tremendous water resources.
Iraqis, like Yemenis, have upgraded missiles and drones which now overcome Jordanian, US, and Israeli air defenses, hitting the most sensitive sites in occupied Palestine with pinpoint precision! The building of the naval commander in Eilat was struck a night ago..
Zionists appear to hit targets in civilian areas within Lebanon due to lack of up-to-date knowledge. Some are Hezbollah offices abandoned since 2006! They just lash out for the optical value, and to harm civilians, focusing on first responders and civil defense teams, due to the usual viciousness
ISIS, Zionists, UkroNazis — rabid imperial tools, are thoroughly exposed, and condemn their USUK patron
ISIS in Syria is on last legs — why Idleb largely ignored, to focus on Damascus and major population centers; and for depleted Syria to regain strength. Russia is also busy on so many other fronts, chiefly 404 but also Sahel, Transcaucasia, Asia-Pacific, etc..
Erdogan: punished at local elections due to anger over his two-faced Palestine policy, which no longer fools Turks…
the sheer satanism of Al Shifa Hospital
the purposeful targeting of medical and humanitarian aid (food delivery) workers in Gaza
the shelf life of the Zionist project: sayonara! Put a fork in the bastards
the future consolidation of region around Greater Syria — with the end of the zionist project, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Palestine (and northern KSA) will disappear to return into the historic Greater Syria of the Holy Land, connectivity center of the Afro-Asian World Island.
the moral midget Little Blinkie returns to Saudi today to push them to normalize with the Zionists (!) And zionazi-controlled western media also is pushing Saudi normalization with Zionists. Unbelievable. You can’t fix Stupid
The West is fatally sucked into West Asia — as its last gasp and energy is fully devoted to zionism– other regions such as the Sahel, 404, slip through the dripping claws…
the contraction of Empire began at Syria, with the loss of that war during [official] Obama days
the loss of Israel will mean the loss of this Empire’s crown jewels, as with the Brits losing India.. a retreat across the Pond..
China is an active member of the Axes of Resistance — backstopping Russia, Iran, the Sahel, and others through its hefty wallets and protecting them from vicious imperial sanctions tool. There is a Global-Resistance. The two major civilizational states built up Iran, Yemen, other middlings to serve as firebreaks of Armageddon. The delusional Empire will exhaust and shatter itself long before it can get to a direct contest..
within the next two weeks, the messianic madmen will try to engineer Armageddon through ritual sacrificing of a Texan GMO red heifer, demolishing the Al Aqsa Mosque and turbo-charging a contrived civilizational war
mankind will come to appreciate and thank the 1.5+ century anti-imperialist sacrifice of the Palestinian nation. Being part of Greater Syria, they were simply the rock that could not be budged from the middle of the road

Global South

Iran in the Multipolar World

Today, we are joined by Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, to dispel the Western myths surrounding the Islamic Republic and examine its rise to power, foreign policy, and leadership in the axis of resistance.

STRATPOL

Dette souveraine de la France : appelons un chat, un chat !

La dette chronique L’objectif de la loi de finances pour 2024 était de ramener le déficit à 4,4% du PIB

L’article Dette souveraine de la France : appelons un chat, un chat ! est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.

Global South

The Nuland – Budanov – Tajik – Crocus connection

The Russian population has handed to the Kremlin total carte blanche to exercise brutal, maximum punishment – whatever and wherever it takes.

By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture Foundation.

Let’s start with the possible chain of events that may have led to the Crocus terror attack. This is as explosive as it gets. Intel sources in Moscow discreetly confirm this is one of the FSB’s prime lines of investigation.

December 4, 2023. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, only 3 months after his retirement, tells CIA mouthpiece The Washington Post: “There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night (…) You gotta get back there and create a campaign behind the lines.”

January 4, 2024: In an interview with ABC News, “spy chief” Kyrylo Budanov lays down the road map: strikes “deeper and deeper” into Russia.

January 31: Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev and meets Budanov. Then, in a dodgy press conference at night in the middle of an empty street, she promises “nasty surprises” to Putin: code for asymmetric war.

February 22: Nuland shows up at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event and doubles down on the “nasty surprises” and asymmetric war. That may be interpreted as the definitive signal for Budanov to start deploying dirty ops.

February 25: The New York Times publishes a story about CIA cells in Ukraine: nothing that Russian intel does not already know.

Then, a lull until March 5 – when crucial shadow play may have been in effect. Privileged scenario: Nuland was a key dirty ops plotter alongside the CIA and the Ukrainian GUR (Budanov). Rival Deep State factions got hold of it and maneuvered to “terminate” her one way or another – because Russian intel would have inevitably connected the dots.

Yet Nuland, in fact, is not “retired” yet; she’s still presented as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and showed up recently in Rome for a G7-related meeting, although her new job, in theory, seems to be at Columbia University (a Hillary Clinton maneuver).

Meanwhile, the assets for a major “nasty surprise” are already in place, in the dark, and totally off radar. The op cannot be called off.

March 5: Little Blinken formally announces Nuland’s “retirement”.

March 7: At least one Tajik among the four-member terror commando visits the Crocus venue and has his photo taken.

March 7-8 at night: U.S. and British embassies simultaneously announce a possible terror attack on Moscow, telling their nationals to avoid “concerts” and gatherings within the next two days.

March 9: Massively popular Russian patriotic singer Shaman performs at Crocus. That may have been the carefully chosen occasion targeted for the “nasty surprise” – as it falls only a few days before the presidential elections, from March 15 to 17. But security at Crocus was massive, so the op is postponed.

March 22: The Crocus City Hall terror attack.

ISIS-K: the ultimate can of worms

The Budanov connection is betrayed by the modus operandi– similar to previous Ukraine intel terror attacks against Daria Dugina and Vladimir Tatarsky: close reconnaissance for days, even weeks; the hit; and then a dash for the border.

And that brings us to the Tajik connection.

There seem to be holes aplenty in the narrative concocted by the ragged bunch turned mass killers: following an Islamist preacher on Telegram; offered what was later established as a puny 500 thousand rubles (roughly $4,500) for the four of them to shoot random people in a concert hall; sent half of the funds via Telegram; directed to a weapons cache where they find AK-12s and hand grenades.

The videos show that they used the machine guns like pros; shots were accurate, short bursts or single fire; no panic whatsoever; effective use of hand grenades; fleeing the scene in a flash, just melting away, almost in time to catch the “window” that would take them across the border to Ukraine.

All that takes training. And that also applies to facing nasty counter-interrogation. Still, the FSB seems to have broken them all – quite literally.

A potential handler has surfaced, named Abdullo Buriyev. Turkish intel had earlier identified him as a handler for ISIS-K, or Wilayat Khorasan in Afghanistan. One of the members of the Crocus commando told the FSB their “acquaintance” Abdullo helped them to buy the car for the op.

And that leads us to the massive can of worms to end them all: ISIS-K.

The alleged emir of ISIS-K, since 2020, is an Afghan Tajik, Sanaullah Ghafari. He was not killed in Afghanistan in June 2023, as the Americans were spinning: he may be currently holed up in Balochistan in Pakistan.

Yet the real person of interest here is not Tajik Ghafari but Chechen Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, the former leader of the jihadi outfit Ajnad al-Kavkaz (“Soldiers of the Caucasus”), who was fighting against the government in Damascus in Idlib and then escaped to Ukraine because of a crackdown by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – in another one of those classic inter-jihadi squabbles.

Shishani was spotted on the border near Belgorod during the recent attack concocted by Ukrainian intel inside Russia. Call it another vector of the “nasty surprises”.

Shishani had been in Ukraine for over two years and has acquired citizenship. He is in fact the sterling connection between the nasty motley crue Idlib gangs in Syria and GUR in Kiev – as his Chechens worked closely with Jabhat al-Nusra, which was virtually indistinguishable from ISIS.

Shishani, fiercely anti-Assad, anti-Putin and anti-Kadyrov, is the classic “moderate rebel” advertised for years as a “freedom fighter” by the CIA and the Pentagon.

Some of the four hapless Tajiks seem to have followed ideological/religious indoctrination on the internet dispensed by Wilayat Khorasan, or ISIS-K, in a chat room called Rahnamo ba Khuroson.

The indoctrination game happened to be supervised by a Tajik, Salmon Khurosoni. He’s the guy who made the first move to recruit the commando. Khurosoni is arguably a messenger between ISIS-K and the CIA.

The problem is the ISIS-K modus operandi for any attack never features a fistful of dollars: the promise is Paradise via martyrdom. Yet in this case it seems it’s Khurosoni himself who has approved the 500 thousand ruble reward.

After handler Buriyev relayed the instructions, the commando sent the bayat – the ISIS pledge of allegiance – to Khurosoni. Ukraine may not have been their final destination. Another foreign intel connection – not identified by FSB sources – would have sent them to Turkey, and then Afghanistan.

That’s exactly where Khurosoni is to be found. Khurosoni may have been the ideological mastermind of Crocus. But, crucially, he’s not the client.

The Ukrainian love affair with terror gangs

Ukrainian intel, SBU and GUR, have been using the “Islamic” terror galaxy as they please since the first Chechnya war in the mid-1990s. Milley and Nuland of course knew it, as there were serious rifts in the past, for instance, between GUR and the CIA.

Following the symbiosis of any Ukrainian government post-1991 with assorted terror/jihadi outfits, Kiev post-Maidan turbo-charged these connections especially with Idlib gangs, as well as north Caucasus outfits, from the Chechen Shishani to ISIS in Syria and then ISIS-K. GUR routinely aims to recruit ISIS and ISIS-K denizens via online chat rooms. Exactly the modus operandi that led to Crocus.

One “Azan” association, founded in 2017 by Anvar Derkach, a member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir, actually facilitates terrorist life in Ukraine, Tatars from Crimea included – from lodging to juridical assistance.

The FSB investigation is establishing a trail: Crocus was planned by pros – and certainly not by a bunch of low-IQ Tajik dregs. Not by ISIS-K, but by GUR. A classic false flag, with the clueless Tajiks under the impression that they were working for ISIS-K.

The FSB investigation is also unveiling the standard modus operandi of online terror, everywhere. A recruiter focuses on a specific profile; adapts himself to the candidate, especially his – low – IQ; provides him with the minimum necessary for a job; then the candidate/executor become disposable.

Everyone in Russia remembers that during the first attack on the Crimea bridge, the driver of the kamikaze truck was blissfully unaware of what he was carrying,

As for ISIS, everyone seriously following West Asia knows that’s a gigantic diversionist scam, complete with the Americans transferring ISIS operatives from the Al-Tanf base to the eastern Euphrates, and then to Afghanistan after the Hegemon’s humiliating “withdrawal”. Project ISIS-K actually started in 2021, after it became pointless to use ISIS goons imported from Syria to block the relentless progress of the Taliban.

Ace Russian war correspondent Marat Khairullin has added another juicy morsel to this funky salad: he convincingly unveils the MI6 angle in the Crocus City Hall terror attack (in English here, in two parts, posted by “S”).

The FSB is right in the middle of the painstaking process of cracking most, if not all ISIS-K-CIA/MI6 connections. Once it’s all established, there will be hell to pay.

But that won’t be the end of the story. Countless terror networks are not controlled by Western intel – although they will work with Western intel via middlemen, usually Salafist “preachers” who deal with Saudi/Gulf intel agencies.

The case of the CIA flying “black” helicopters to extract jihadists from Syria and drop them in Afghanistan is more like an exception – in terms of direct contact – than the norm. So the FSB and the Kremlin will be very careful when it comes to directly accusing the CIA and MI6 of managing these networks.

But even with plausible deniability, the Crocus investigation seems to be leading exactly to where Moscow wants it: uncovering the crucial middleman. And everything seems to be pointing to Budanov and his goons.

Ramzan Kadyrov dropped an extra clue. He said the Crocus “curators” chose on purpose to instrumentalize elements of an ethnic minority – Tajiks – who barely speak Russian to open up new wounds in a multinational nation where dozens of ethnicities live side by side for centuries.

In the end, it didn’t work. The Russian population has handed to the Kremlin total carte blanche to exercise brutal, maximum punishment – whatever and wherever it takes.

Global South

Turkey takes its Seat in Rules-based Terrorism Inc.

Turkey starts to drift into view, as NATO becomes officially activated in Europe.. Turkish elites, in spite of antipathy of its working peoples for post-modern western values, remain at the heart of NATO.

To woo Washington, Erdogan will sell out Palestine

After Ankara and Washington successfully swapped Sweden’s NATO accession for an F-16 fighter jet deal, Turkiye is focused on accelerating that rapprochement and is willing to sweep divisive issues – like genocide in Gaza – under the rug.

By Mohamad Hasan Sweidan at The Cradle.

On 7–8 March, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin visited Washington. The trip garnered attention as it marked Turkiye’s first official visit to the US following the conclusion of the ‘Sweden for F-16’ deal, whereby Ankara accepted Stockholm’s accession to NATO in exchange for US Congressional approval of the sale of 40 F-16s to Turkiye.

During the visit, the two Turkish officials met with their US counterparts Antony Blinken and William Burns, along with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and their respective foreign ministers chaired the seventh meeting of the US–Turkiye Strategic Mechanism.

US–Turkish rapprochement

The thaw in US–Turkish relations has been palpable, as noted by Jeff Flake, the US Ambassador to Ankara, during a televised interview: “Especially in recent months, the two countries have developed shared areas. We observe improvements in defense, trade, and interpersonal relations.”

A closer examination of the joint statement released following the meeting illustrates the transition of Turkish–American relations into a more favorable and cooperative phase.

Established in 2021 and inaugurated on 4 April 2021 amidst escalating discord between Turkiye and the US, the strategic mechanism was conceived to address and improve the strained bilateral relations.

The joint statement issued by the Strategic Mechanism this month included several crucial points, each carrying significant implications:

Both parties addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine, condemning Russia’s actions as ‘unacceptable’ while emphasizing the importance of upholding Ukraine’s unity and sovereignty. However, it is worth noting that Ankara’s endorsement of the statement’s rhetoric aligns more closely with Kiev’s perspective, a deviation from Turkiye’s previous neutral stance. This marked shift will undermine President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aspirations to mediate the conflict impartially.

Playing to the audience

On Israel’s brutal military assault in Gaza, the statement merely referred to an “ongoing crisis” and “underlined the importance of finding a path towards ending the conflict and addressing the humanitarian crisis immediately.” This is a war that Erdogan has, on the record, framed as a “genocide” and called its aggressors in Tel Aviv “war criminals.”

While both parties expressed support for the “two-state solution” as an end goal to the war, the statement’s release coincided with a fiery speech by Erdogan in Istanbul in which he attacked Israel, calling it “the Nazis of our time.” The contrast between the two statements is a real-time reflection of how Turkiye addresses its different target audiences.

On the issue of combating terrorism, the statement endorses joint US–Turkish efforts against organizations like the PKK, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda across regions spanning from Africa to Central Asia. They also recommitted to counterterrorism consultations and discussions on the Syria file, including the adherence to UN Resolution 2254 and supporting a “Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political process.”

The two parties addressed a multitude of regional issues in West Asia and Africa in alignment with the broader US strategy outlined by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, which focuses on partnership-building, deterrence, diplomacy, regional integration, and “democracy promotion” in these geographies.

This includes cooperation in military industry, energy, and trade development, reflecting the existing $30 billion trade volume between Washington and Ankara.

Significantly, the parties discussed leveraging financing opportunities under the Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership – a western initiative intended to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This partnership includes the controversial India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), aimed at enhancing regional connectivity and economic development very much to the benefit of Israel.

New Turkish military action in Syria and Iraq?

As the municipal elections in Turkiye draw near – with Erdogan seeking to reclaim his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) control of Istanbul and Ankara after notable previous losses – there’s a tangible resurgence in Turkish rhetoric advocating for military action in northern Syria and Iraq.

According to reports from the Turkish news agency T24, the Turkish armed forces are gearing up for an operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside its neighboring states following local elections on 31 March.

After a 4 March cabinet meeting, Erdogan spoke of Turkiye’s readiness for a comprehensive operation against the Kurdish separatist groups and reiterated Ankara’s objective of establishing a security corridor spanning 30 to 40 kilometers along the Turkish–Syrian border.

Although the military rhetoric is undoubtedly influenced by Erdogan’s bid to attract nationalist voters in the upcoming elections, it is also connected to the recent Turkish–Iraqi diplomatic breakthrough following a high-level Turkish delegation’s visit to Baghdad.

The meeting in the Iraqi capital led to a security deal in which both countries committed to take action against the PKK. A joint statement read:

Both sides stressed that the PKK organization represents a security threat to both Turkiye and Iraq, and it is certain that the presence of the organization on Iraqi territory represents a violation of the Iraqi constitution … Turkiye welcomed the decision taken by the Iraqi National Security Council to list the PKK as a banned organization in Iraq. The two sides consulted on the measures that must be taken against the organization and its banned extensions [PKK’s alleged offshoots] that target Turkiye from within Iraq’s territory.

Fidan’s senior adviser, Nuh Yilmaz, praised the move, saying, “Turkiye and Iraq decided for the first time to fight jointly against PKK terrorism.” In a post on platform X, he added: “A decision that will mark a turning point! We will see results gradually!”

Strategic interests come first 

According to a well-informed Turkish source:

Turkey’s main purpose is very clear. The presence of the PKK in Metina and Gara [in northern Iraq] has the potential to seriously threaten the Iraq Development Road Project … We both would like to remove PKK from these two areas as well as secure the area for the construction of the project, reaching both objectives in one step.

Ankara and Baghdad seek to counter any threat to this development road project, a land corridor linking the port of Faw in Basra to the Turkish border and from there to Europe.

In this context, Erdogan is expected to visit Baghdad for the first time since 2012, where, some speculate, he will try to conclude a border control security agreement with the Iraqi government and seek to convince Baghdad to support future Turkish military operations against the PKK.

Despite Turkiye and Erdogan’s vocal criticism of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, recent interactions between Ankara and Washington indicate a pragmatic approach in their dealings, through which Turkiye hopes to be reinstated as an important US strategic partner.

While the Turkish president is stepping up anti-Zionist rhetoric on his domestic front, his administration maintains substantial economic ties with Israel, exporting various vital goods and services to the occupation state.

Although a Washington–Ankara rapprochement is still in its nascent stage, recent developments reveal the old allies are on a positive trajectory to repair bilateral relations after a period of strained diplomatic ties.

Erdogan’s foreign policy approach – as exemplified by his rhetorical Gaza stance and material support for Israel – makes clear Turkiye’s shift toward prioritizing strategic interests over ideological ones.

≈≈≈

Nuclear Threat, World War III and Turkey: Balance Policy or a Game?

Is Turkey’s rhetorical stance of “balancing” a genuine attempt at strategic equilibrium, or merely an endeavor to occupy multiple positions simultaneously?

By Erkin Öncan at Strategic Culture Foundation.

Alexander Stubb, the newly elected president of Finland, has made several noteworthy statements regarding the current geopolitical climate. He emphasized the escalating tensions amidst discussions of a World War III. Stubb, representing the center-right National Coalition Party, expressed openness to the possibility of allowing the transportation and storage of U.S. nuclear weapons in Finnish territory, branding them as a “guarantee of peace.” This stance remained consistent throughout his election campaign and was reiterated upon assuming office. Stubb underscored the necessity for Finland to possess a tangible nuclear deterrent force, citing NATO membership as pivotal in providing multiple layers of deterrence, including military, munitions, and nuclear deterrence from the USA. He further asserted that Finland’s alignment with NATO signifies a definitive step towards embracing Western values, a sentiment echoed by the inclusion of Turkey as an enthusiastic participant in the anticipated third major conflict.

However, Finland’s enthusiasm for NATO membership has not gone unnoticed by Russia, which shares a significant border with the country. In response to Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO, Russian President Putin announced plans to bolster military presence along the Western borders to counteract perceived threats stemming from NATO’s eastward expansion. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov conveyed Moscow’s acknowledgment of the democratic choice made by the Finnish people but indicated pessimism regarding potential improvements in Russo-Finnish relations.

The most explicit reaction to Stubb’s nuclear policy came from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariya Zakharova. Addressing the issue during a weekly press conference at the World Youth Festival in Sochi, Zakharova outlined Russia’s stance on the placement of U.S. nuclear weapons in Northern Europe. She asserted that such deployments would be considered a direct threat and would consequently be designated as legitimate targets in the event of a direct military conflict between Russia and NATO. Zakharova underscored Russia’s awareness of the desires of the United States and its allies in this regard.

The primary source of concern regarding nuclear capabilities is now widely recognized to stem from the potential for World War III to be nuclear in nature. When discussing nuclear power, the focus often turns to Russia, acknowledged as the “world’s largest nuclear power”.

Western media consistently highlights the perceived “nuclear threat emanating from the authoritarian Kremlin”. However, to truly address the concept of a “nuclear danger”, it is essential to consider the United States, which has transformed Europe into a depot for nuclear weapons, rather than Russia, which does not maintain nuclear forces beyond its borders, apart from the neighboring Belarus.

The United States and its NATO allies do not disclose precise figures regarding the stockpiles deployed in Europe. Nevertheless, estimates from the U.S.-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in 2021 suggest that around 100 U.S. nuclear weapons are stored across six bases in five NATO member countries.

These weapons are kept in inactive states within underground vaults at national air bases. Notably, the “permissive action link” (PAL) codes required to activate these weapons are under American control. In the event of their use, the weapons would be loaded onto warplanes designated by NATO.

This situation is intricately tied to the “modernization” efforts undertaken by nations operating F-35A, F-18 Super Hornet, or Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

U.S. nuclear weapons have been stationed in Europe since the mid-1950s, authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for storage at NATO bases on the continent as a deterrent against the Soviet Union.

Stored in warehouses across Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries, these weapons are maintained for potential deployment when required. Additionally, countries such as Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland, and Romania participate in SNOWCAT operations, facilitating NATO partner involvement in nuclear missions.

Meanwhile, Finland, under the leadership of Stubb, is positioning itself as a significant player in the ongoing ’nuclear preparedness’ measures originally aimed at countering the USSR and persisting in response to Russia.

This dynamic persists alongside ongoing military actions initiated by NATO against Russia. Notably, the commencement of Steadfast Defender-24, hailed as NATO’s largest military exercise since the Cold War, marks a significant development. This exercise aims to test the transfer of military forces to Eastern Europe and beyond, encompassing regions where Russia’s influence is perceived as encroaching.

This exercise constitutes a series of 15 maneuvers rather than a singular major military operation.

Steadfast Defender encompasses various other exercises conducted at national or regional levels, including Joint Warrior, Solid Approach, Arctic Dolphin, Northern Response, Immediate Response, Brilliant Jump, Movable Defender, Slovak Shield, Saber Strike, Trojan Trail-24, and Spring Storm.

Turkey actively participates in these exercises, with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) playing a pivotal role in Brilliant Jump, Nordic Response, Saber Strike, and Immediate Response exercises.

Turkey’s involvement extends beyond military participation; it also hosts one of NATO’s most crucial commands. The permanent headquarters of NATO Land Forces, known as Allied Land Command (LANDCOM), is situated in Izmir.

Decisions regarding NATO’s land maneuvers are made at the command post within the General Vecihi Akın Barracks in Buca, Izmir. Given its historical significance, Izmir, where the first shot was fired against invaders a century ago, could potentially be remembered as the site where the decision to initiate the first shot of a world-engulfing war was made if a new global conflict were to erupt on Russia’s borders.

This prompts consideration of Turkey’s rhetorical stance of “balancing”. Is it a genuine attempt at strategic equilibrium, or merely an endeavor to occupy multiple positions simultaneously?

Global South

Yemen’s Indian Ocean Checkmate

Ansarallah has single-handedly disrupted global shipping power dynamics. Yemen is launching attacks against Israeli-linked vessels deep into the Indian Ocean to cut off the last waterway route to the occupation state.

By Khalil Harb at The Cradle.

Our people are ready to send hundreds of thousands of mujahideen to Palestine. Okay, geography might pose a problem. It could be a problem for our people to go there in large numbers. Nevertheless, and despite all the obstacles, we will not hesitate to do whatever we can. We are completely coordinated with our brothers in the Jihad and resistance front to do anything and everything that we can do.  — Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, 10 October 2023

Since Abdul-Malik al-Houthi’s proclamation three days after the launch of the Palestinian resistance’s 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, Yemen’s Ansarallah movement, under his leadership, has undergone a remarkable transformation.

Ansarallah’s maritime reach has surpassed all initial expectations, now extending to the distant shores of the Indian Ocean in its ambitious plan to besiege Israel by targeting the occupation state’s shipping interests.

Yemen’s strategic position not only serves as a beacon of hope for Palestinians enduring Israel’s brutal military assault on their lives, homes, and livelihoods but has also become a crucial pillar in the Axis of Resistance’s fight against US hegemonic machinations in West Asia.

In late February, al-Houthi vowed to expand the scope of attacks against Israel-linked vessels, stating, “We have surprises that the enemies do not expect at all,” before announcing the successful testing of a new hypersonic missile.

This stands in stark contradiction to western narratives trumpeting their own containment efforts to encircle Yemen and thwart its ability to intercept Israel-bound vessels. If anything, the naval operations undertaken by the Ansarallah-aligned armed forces are instead rippling outward, spanning a remarkable distance of over 6,000 kilometers from the Yemeni coast to the Indian Ocean.

Failure of ‘Prosperity Guardian’

Crucially, Yemen’s defiance has drawn widespread, popular support from its once-warring nationals, not just in support of Gaza and the Israeli blockade but also against the relentless US and British airstrikes launched under the fig leaf of Operation ‘Prosperity Guardian‘ – an extrajudicial imperial project which aims to cripple Ansarallah’s military capabilities under the guise of securing international shipping and trade routes.

Yet al-Houthi’s unequivocal declaration on barring the passage of ships associated with Israel, or those engaged in commercial ties with it, from traversing the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope shows that Washington and London have been dealt a resounding strategic defeat.

By targeting these two new critical waterway passages, Yemen imposes a new reality on global shipping routes. This phase of the naval battle presents a significant threat to the world’s established maritime corridors, compelling commercial vessels traveling to and from Southeast Asia to navigate lengthier and more costly routes around the southern tip of Africa to reach the Mediterranean Sea.

Iran’s partner, not a proxy

Al-Houthi’s message is clear: “Do the Americans, British, and the Zionists expect that any aggressive act against Yemen will distract us from defending Gaza?” Ansarallah recently announced the targeting of over 70 commercial ships with ties to Israel, alongside military battleships across the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean.

Moreover, Yemen’s stance challenges western reports of secret talks brokered by Oman between the US and Iran, purportedly aimed at containing the conflict, preventing it from spreading further from the ‘Yemeni front.’

Despite Washington’s announcement that it has released $10 billion in frozen Iranian funds and its ferocious intimidation and enticement maneuvers behind the scenes, Sanaa’s strategic move towards the Indian Ocean should dismiss any rumors about an impending ‘US–Iran deal.’

Instead of acquiescing to US pressure, Tehran is working to maintain stability and avert all-out war through its ‘support fronts’ in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. The escalation in Yemen poses a greater regional challenge, overshadowing any temporary truces in Iraq by some factions.

While the Biden administration attempts to portray its diplomatic efforts as successes, particularly through indirect negotiations with Tehran and plans to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, the situation in Yemen remains a humiliating inconvenience for a White House heading into an election cycle. This comes against the backdrop of a White House also frantically trying to manage the Iraqi and Lebanese arenas, which are equally pushing back against US hegemonic interests.

As the spokesman for the Iraqi resistance Al-Nujaba movement, Dr Hussein al-Musawi, tells The Cradle:

Our principles are clear and firm regarding the American presence on Iraqi soil, which is a complete exit without any interference in our political, economic, and other affairs; ending its control over the aspects of Iraq’s politics; and liberating its land and wealth; and political and economic independence.

Economic ramifications for Israel 

Sanaa’s strategic maneuvering in the Red Sea–Gulf of Aden–Indian Ocean corridor not only poses a distraction for US and British naval forces but also presents unforeseen challenges. While US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Israel after announcing his ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ operation, the Yemeni resistance was busy adding millions of square kilometers to their area of missile confrontation.

The 12 percent of global trade passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait has already suffered a blow to the core. The resulting disruptions, including increased shipping costs and insurance premiums, are anticipated to fuel inflation and potentially paralyze Israeli ports such as Eilat and decrease traffic in Haifa.

While the full extent of damage to Israel’s foreign trade remains unclear, initial estimates suggested losses exceeding $180 billion, considering pre-existing trade figures from 2022.

Yemen’s growing naval capabilities

Simultaneously, the question arises: how will the ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ forces, previously tasked with monitoring just the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to counter Yemeni missile threats, manage the vast expansion required to monitor the thousands of ships traversing to and from the Cape of Good Hope across the Indian Ocean?

While the US and UK do not reveal the number of naval vessels assigned to their almost impossible mission, numbers circulating claim the participation of several US battleships, including the USS Laboon, USS Carney, and USS Mason – and from the British, the destroyer HM Diamond. Greece is estimated to have one frigate involved, France contributes naval vessels under US command, and Italy claims to have a frigate that operates outside the operation’s banner. Although the coalition publicly announced the inclusion of more than twenty countries in its mission, the actual naval commitment from its members appears negligible.

Furthermore, it’s hard not to notice the fundamental inefficiencies inherent to the western naval operation: the US “is launching $2 million defense missiles to stop $2,000 Houthi drones.” It was no surprise then when a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged a few days ago that despite ongoing western strikes on Yemen, Ansarallah’s capabilities have not been undermined.

And then Abdul-Malik al-Houthi comes along and adds the Indian Ocean to the US’ horror scenario with an area exceeding 70 million square kilometers.

Ali al-Qahum of Ansarallah’s Political Bureau characterizes this expansion as a “shocking and unexpected surprise” for the resistance’s adversaries. At the same time, it amplifies Yemen’s globally strategic significance as a military force – one that can successfully execute a comprehensive siege on Israel.

It is not clear whether the announcement of including the Indian Ocean in the Yemeni naval operations is related to the tests of the hypersonic missile. It would make Yemen one of only a small handful of nations to possess this unique military capability – Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.

Regardless, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi’s ability to take the enemy by surprise showcases Yemen’s capacity to disrupt established power dynamics, particularly in the West Asian region. By supporting Gaza unequivocally, the Yemeni front within the Resistance Axis is further diminishing US influence amid the waves of the Indian Ocean, unless a lasting ceasefire is imposed in Gaza.

Global South

Why the West cannot stomach Russians

In the west, they don’t like those who defend themselves, who fight against them, and especially those who win.

By Andre Vltchek via The Greanville Post.

When it comes to Russia or the Soviet Union, reports and historical accounts do get blurry; in the West they do, and consequently in all of its ‘client states’. Fairytales get intermingled with reality, while fabrications are masterfully injected into the sub consciousness of billions of people worldwide. Russia is an enormous country, in fact the largest country on Earth in terms of territory. It is scarcely inhabited. It is deep, and as a classic writer once wrote: “It is impossible to understand Russia with one’s brain. One could only believe in it.”

The Western mind generally doesn’t like things unknown, spiritual and complex. Since the ‘old days’, especially since the crusades and monstrous colonialist expeditions to all corners of the world, the Westerners were told fables about their own “noble deeds” performed in the plundered lands. Everything had to be clear and simple: “Virtuous Europeans were civilizing savages and spreading Christianity, therefore, in fact, saving those dark poor primitive souls.”

Of course, tens of millions were dying in the process, while further tens of millions were shackled and brought to the “New Worlds” as slaves. Gold, silver, and other loot, as well as slave labor had been (and still are) paying for all those European palaces, railroads, universities and theatres, but that did not matter, as the bloodshed was most of the time something abstract and far away from those over-sensitive eyes of the Western public.

Westerners like simplicity, particularly when it comes to moral definitions of “good and evil”. It matters nothing if the truth gets systematically ‘massaged’, or even if the reality is fully fabricated. What matters is that there is no deep guilt and no soul-searching. Western rulers and their opinion makers know their people – their ‘subjects’ – perfectly well, and most of the time, they give them what they are asking for. The rulers and the reigned are generally living in symbiosis. They keep bitching about each other, but mostly they have similar goals: to live well, to live extremely well, as long as the others are forced to pay for it; with their riches, with their labor and often with their blood.

Culturally, most of the citizens of Europe and North America hate to pay the bill for their high life; they even detest to admit that their life is extremely ‘high’. They like to feel like victims. They like to feel that they are ‘used’. They like to imagine that they are sacrificing themselves for the rest of the world.

And above all, they hate real victims: those they have been murdering, raping, plundering and insulting, for decades and centuries.

Recent ‘refugee crises’ showed the spite Europeans feel for their prey. People who made them rich and who lost everything in the process are humiliated, despised and insulted. Be they Afghans or Africans, the Middle Easterners or South Asians. Or Russians, although Russians fall into their own, unique category.

Many Russians look white. Most of them eat with knife and fork, they drink alcohol, excel at Western classical music, poetry, literature, science and philosophy.

To Western eyes they look ‘normal’, but actually, they are not.

Russians always want ‘something else’; they refuse to play by Western rules.

They are stubbornly demanding to remain different, and to be left alone.

When confronted, when attacked, they fight.

They rarely strike first, almost never invade.

But when threatened, when assaulted, they fight with tremendous determination and force, and they never lose. Villages and cities get converted into invader’s graves. Millions die while defending their Motherland, but the country survives. And it happens again and again and again, as the Western hordes have been, for centuries, assaulting and burning Russian lands, never learning the lesson and never giving up on their sinister dream of conquering and controlling that proud and determined colossus.

In the West, they don’t like those who defend themselves, who fight against them, and especially those who win.

It gets much worse than that.
Russia has this terrible habit… not only it defends itself and its people, but it also fights for others, protecting colonized and pillaged nations, as well as those that are unjustly assaulted.

It saved the world from Nazism. It did it at a horrific price of 27 million men, women and children, but it did it; courageously, proudly and altruistically. The West never forgave the Soviet Union for this epic victory either, because all that is unselfish and self-sacrificing, is always in direct conflict with its own principles, and therefore ‘extremely dangerous’.

The Russian people had risen; had fought and won in the 1917 Revolution; an event which terrified the West more than anything else in history, as it had attempted to create a fully egalitarian, classless and racially color-blind society. It also gave birth to Internationalism, an occurrence that I recently described in my book The Great October Socialist Revolution: Impact on the World and the Birth of Internationalism.

Soviet Internationalism, right after the victory in WWII, helped greatly, directly and indirectly, dozens of countries on all continents, to stand up and to confront the European colonialism and the North American imperialism. The West and especially Europe never forgave the Soviet people in general and Russians in particular, for helping to liberate its slaves.

That is when the greatest wave of propaganda in human history really began to roll. From London to New York, from Paris to Toronto, an elaborate web of anti-Soviet and covertly anti-Russian hysteria was unleashed with monstrously destructive force. Tens of thousands of ‘journalists’, intelligence officers, psychologists, historians, as well as academics, were employed. Nothing Soviet, nothing Russian (except those glorified and often ‘manufactured’ Russian dissidents) was spared.

The excesses or contextual errors of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the pre-WWII era were systematically fabricated, exaggerated, and then engraved into the Western history textbooks and mass media narrative. In those tales, there was nothing about the vicious invasions and attacks coming from the West, aimed at destroying the young Bolshevik state. Naturally, there was no space for mentioning the British, French, U.S., Czech, Polish, Japanese, German and other’s monstrous cruelties.

Soviet and Russian views were hardly ever allowed to penetrate the monolithic and one-sided Western propaganda narrative.

Like obedient sheep, the Western public accepted the disinformation it was fed. Eventually, many people living in the Western colonies and ‘client states’, did the same. A great number of colonized people were taught how to blame themselves for their misery.

The most absurd but somehow logical occurrence then took place: many men, women and even children living in the USSR, succumbed to Western propaganda. Instead of trying to reform their imperfect but still greatly progressive country, they gave up, became cynical, aggressively ‘disillusioned’, corrupt and naively but staunchly pro-Western.

It was the first and most likely the last time in the history, Russia got defeated by the West. It happened through deceit, through shameless lies, through Western propaganda.

What followed could be easily described as genocide.

The Soviet Union was first lulled into Afghanistan, then it was mortally injured by the war there, by an arms race with the United States, and by the final stage of propaganda that was literally flowing like lava from various hostile Western state-sponsored radio stations. Of course, local ‘dissidents’ also played an important role.

Under Gorbachev, a ‘useful idiot’ of the West, things got extremely bizarre. I don’t believe that he was paid to ruin his own country, but he did almost everything to run it into the ground; precisely what Washington wanted him to do. Then, in front of the entire world, a mighty and proud Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics suddenly shook in agony, then uttered a loud cry, and collapsed; died painfully but swiftly.

A new turbo-capitalist, bandit, pro-oligarch and confusedly pro-Western Russia was born. Russia which was governed by an alcoholic Boris Yeltsin; a man loved and supported by Washington, London and other Western centers of power.

It was a totally unnatural, sick Russia – cynical and compassionless, built with someone else’s ideas – Russia of Radio Liberty and Voice of America, of the BBC, of black marketers, of oligarchs and multi-national corporations.

Is the West now daring to say that Russians are ‘interfering’ in something in Washington? Are they out of their minds?

Washington and other Western capitals did not only ‘interfere’, they openly broke the Soviet Union into pieces and then they began kicking Russia which was at that point half-alive. Is it all forgotten, or is Western public again fully ‘unaware’ of what took place during those dark days?

The West kept spitting at the impoverished and injured country, refused to honor international agreements and treaties. It offered no help. Multi-nationals were unleashed, and began ‘privatizing’ Russian state companies, basically stealing what was built by the sweat and blood of Soviet workers, during long decades.

Interference? Let me repeat: it was direct intervention, invasion, a grab of resources, shameless theft! I want to read and write about it, but we don’t hear much about it, anymore, do we?

Now we are told that Russia is paranoid, that its President is paranoid! With straight face, the West is lying; pretending that it has not been trying to murder Russia.

Those years… Those pro-Western years when Russia became a semi-client state of the West, or call it a semi-colony! There was no mercy, no compassion coming from abroad. Many of those idiots – kitchen intellectuals from Moscow and provinces – suddenly woke up but it was too late. Many of them had suddenly nothing to eat. They got what they were told to ask for: their Western ‘freedom and democracy’, and Western-style capitalism or in summary: total collapse.

I remember well how it was ‘then’. I began returning to Russia, horrified, working in Moscow, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Leningrad. Academics from Akadem Gorodok outside Novosibirsk were selling their libraries in the bitter cold, in dark metro underpasses of Novosibirsk… Runs on the banks… Old retired people dying from hunger and cold behind massive doors of concrete blocks… unpaid salaries and starving miners, teachers…

Russia under the deadly embrace of the West, for the first and hopefully last time! Russia whose life expectancy suddenly dropped to African Sub-Saharan levels. Russia humiliated, wild, in terrible pain.

But that nightmare did not last long.

And what happened – those short but horrible years under both Gorbachev and Yeltsin, but above all under the Western diktat – will never be forgotten, not forgiven.

Russians know perfectly well what they do not want, anymore!

Russia stood up again. Huge, indignant and determined to live its own life, its own way. From an impoverished, humiliated and robbed nation, subservient to the West, the country evolved and within a few years, the free and independent Russia once again joined the ranks of the most developed and powerful countries on Earth.

And as before Gorbachev, Russia is once again able to help those nations which are under unjust and vicious attacks by the Western empire.

A man who is leading this renaissance, President Vladimir Putin, is tough, but Russia is under great threat and so is the world – this is no time for weaklings.

President Putin is not perfect (who is, really?), but he is a true patriot, and I dare say, an internationalist.

Now the West, once again, hates both Russia and its leader. No wonder; undefeated, strong and free Russia is the worst imaginable foe of Washington and its lieutenants.

That’s how the West feels, not Russia. Despite all that was done to it, despite tens of millions of lost and ruined lives, Russia has always been ready to compromise, even to forgive, if not forget.

There is something deeply pathological in the psyche of the west. It cannot accept anything less than full and unconditional submission. It has to control, to be in charge, and on top of everything; it has to feel exceptional. Even when it murders and ruins the entire Planet, it insists on feeling superior to the rest of the world.

This faith in exceptionalism is the true Western religion, much more than even Christianity, which for decades has not really played any important role there. Exceptionalism is fanatical, it is fundamentalist and unquestionable.

It also insists that its narrative is the only one available anywhere in the World. That the West is seen as a moral leader, as a beacon of progress, as the only competent judge and guru.

Lies are piling on top of lies. As in all religions, the more absurd the pseudo-reality is, the more brutal and extreme are the methods used to uphold it. The more laughable the fabrications are, the more powerful the techniques used to suppress the truth are.

Today, hundreds of thousands of ‘academics’, teachers, journalists, artists, psychologists and other highly paid professionals, in all parts of the world, are employed by the Empire, for two goals only – to glorify the Western narrative and to discredit all that is standing in its way; daring to challenge it.

Russia is the most hated adversary of the West, with China, Russia’s close ally being near second.

The propaganda war unleashed by the West is so insane, so intense, that even some of the European and North American citizens are beginning to question tales coming from Washington, London and elsewhere.

Wherever one turns, there is a tremendous medley of lies, of semi-lies, half-truths; a complex and unnavigable swamp of conspiracy theories. Russia is being attacked for interfering in U.S. domestic affairs, for defending Syria, for standing by defenseless and intimidated nations, for having its own powerful media, for doping its athletes, for still being Communist, for not being socialist anymore; in brief: for everything imaginable and unimaginable.

Criticism of the country is so thorough and ludicrous, that one begins to ask very legitimate questions: “what about the past? What about the Western narrative regarding the Soviet past, particularly the post-Revolutionary period, and the period between two world wars?”

The more I analyze this present-day Western anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda, the more determined I am to study and write about the Western narrative regarding Soviet history. I’m definitely planning to investigate these matters in the future, together with my friends – Russian and Ukrainian historians.

In the eyes of the West, Russians are ‘traitors’.

Instead of joining the looters, they have been standing by the ‘wretched of the world’, in the past, as well as now. They refused to sell their Motherland, and to enslave their own people. Their government is doing all it can to make Russia self-sufficient, fully independent, prosperous, proud and free.

Remember that ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’ and many other terms, mean totally different things in distinctive parts of the world. What is happening in the West could never be described as ‘freedom’ in Russia or in China, and vice versa.

Frustrated, collapsing, atomized and egotistic societies of Europe and North America do not inspire even their own people, anymore. They are escaping by millions annually, to Asia, Latin America, and even to Africa. Escaping from emptiness, meaninglessness and emotional cold. But it is not Russia’s or China’s business to tell them how to live or not to live!

In the meantime, great cultures like Russia and China do not need, and do not want to be told by the Westerners, what freedom is, and what democracy is.

They do not attack the West, and expect the same in return.

It is truly embarrassing that the countries responsible for hundreds of genocides, for hundreds of millions of murdered people on all continents, still dare to lecture others.

Many victims are too scared to speak.

Russia is not.

It is composed, gracious, but fully determined to defend itself if necessary; itself as well as many other human beings living on this beautiful but deeply scarred Planet.

Russian culture is enormous: from poetry and literature, to music, ballet, philosophy… Russian hearts are soft, they easily melt when approached with love and kindness. But when millions of lives of innocent people are threatened, both the hearts and muscles of Russians quickly turn to stone and steel. During such moments, when only victory could save the world, Russian fists are hard, and the same is true about Russian armor.

There is no match to Russian courage in the sadistic but cowardly West.

Irreversibly, both hope and future are moving towards the east.

And that is why Russia is desperately hated by the West.

Global South

Yemen Ends Thalassocratic Rule

Garland Nixon interviews Laith Marouf — West Asia update: Yemen and the beginning of the end of imperial naval force projection;

wide ranging talk includes:
Zionist attempt to break the Syrian landbridge to Hezbollah again (after ISIS a decade ago);
the Vichy regime of the Palestinian Authority;
Prof Ali Kadri: the role of directed Genocide in western Capitalism; for more see:
— https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/palestine-war-occupation-and-proletarianization-w-ali-kadri
— http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue91/Kadri91.pdf
the European lunch of the Empire
COVID and Deagleian depopulation of the Golden Billion…

Global South

WHAT?! Yemen Just Closed the Indian Ocean to USUK Ships too

“… and all linked to zionists…”

Richard connects a terrible dot on the back of my mind! Yemen didn’t merely extend the Gauntlet to the Indian Ocean for the zionists, but to the same western parties they currently fight in the Red Sea. They closed the South Africa route to USUK and those of the combined West that partake of the aggression against Palestine and/or themselves in the Red Sea or hinder the Gauntlet in the Red Sea! They emphasized this on day one by droning or missiling two US ships in the Indian Ocean………..

Let’s see if they can carry it off. Assuming they will be as resourceful as only motivated Yemenis can be.. and that several civilizational-states work to ensure they get accurate targeting and manifests of cargo ships to be targetted, what would be the consequences for severing the India/China sea trade to Europe and to the eastern US seaboard?? The US has the Pacific coast option, but Europe.. would be reduced to railroads, mostly through.. Russia as they helped torch West Asia, the Ukraine, and currently stoke Transcaucasia. This is unliveable

Global South

What is China’s Economic Future?

Political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are joined by Beijing-based scholar Mick Dunford to discuss what is actually happening in China’s economy, explaining its technological development and transition toward a new industrial revolution.

Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson at The Geopolitical Economy Hour.

Video:

Podcast:

Transcript:

RADHIKA DESAI: Hello and welcome to the 24th Geopolitical Economy Hour, the show that examines the fast-changing political and geopolitical economy of our time. I’m Radhika Desai.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I’m Michael Hudson.

RADHIKA DESAI: And working behind the scenes to bring you our show every fortnight are our host, Ben Norton; our videographer, Paul Graham; and our transcriber, Zach Weiser.

And with us today we have, once again, Professor Mick Dunford, professor emeritus of geography at Sussex University and now working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, keeping a close watch, among other things, on China’s economy. So welcome, Mick.

MICK DUNFORD:  Thank you very much.

RADHIKA DESAI: So, China’s economy is what we’re going to talk about today. Where is it at after decades of breakneck growth, after executing the greatest industrial revolution ever? Where is it headed?

Trying to understand this is not easy. The disinformation that is fake news and even what I often call fake scholarship that distorts the view that any honest person may be trying to take on China’s economy is simply overwhelming. It’s absolutely wall-to-wall propaganda, no matter which Western publication or website you open.

If we are to believe the Western press and the leading scholarly lights of the West, who are the major generators of the Western discourse on China, we are at peak China. That is to say, they claim that China has reached a point, reached the highest point, that is, that it ever can. And from here on, it’s only going to be downhill, more or less rapidly.

They say that China has, in recent years, inflated a huge property bubble to compensate for the West’s inability to keep up imports. And this bubble is about to burst. And when it does, it will subject China to a 1980s and 1990s Japan-style long-term deflation or secular stagnation. They have even invented a word to talk about this: “Japanification”. We are told that the Japanification of China’s economy is impending.

They say that the U.S.’s trade and technology wars are hitting China where it hurts the most, at its export and its reliance on inward foreign investment. They are saying that China has grown only by stealing technology. And now that the U.S. is making it harder for it to do so, its technological development can only stall. They are saying that China followed disastrous COVID-19 policies, leading to mass death, draconian lockdowns, and economic disaster.

They are saying that China over-invests, and its growth will not pick up unless China now permits higher consumption levels. They are saying that China has a serious unemployment crisis, that the CPC, the Communist Party of China, is losing legitimacy, because it is failing to deliver ever-higher living standards. And they are saying that Xi Jinping’s authoritarian leadership is ensuring that the private sector will stall, and with it, so will China’s growth.

All this, they say, before even beginning to talk about China’s foreign policy. And there, of course, lie another long litany of alleged disasters and misdemeanors that China is responsible for, beginning with debt-trap diplomacy and China’s allegedly voracious appetite for the world’s resources.

The only reason why Western experts ever stress the strength of China’s economy is when they want to argue that the West must redouble its efforts to contain China and to stall its rise.

So today, we’re going to take a closer look at China’s economy, and in doing so, we’re going to bust a lot of these myths. We’re going to show you that, sadly, for the purveyors of the fake news and fake scholarship about China, no amount of their huffing and puffing has been able to blow down China’s house, because, like the good, the smart little pig, China is actually building its house with bricks.

So, we have a number of topics to discuss in this show. Here they are:

1.    Characterising China’s Economy: Capitalist? Socialist?

2.    Growth Story

3.    Covid Response

4.    The Alleged Debt and Property Bubble? And Japanification?

5.    Restricted Consumption? Stagnant living standards?

6.    Exports in the China Story

7.    China’s new growth strategy

8.    China’s foreign policy

So, these are the topics that we hope to discuss. We want to begin by talking about how to characterize China’s economy. Is it capitalist? Is it socialist? Then we will do the most important and primary basic thing, we will look at the growth story with some statistics. We will then look at China’s Covid response. We will look at the alleged debt and property bubble and whether China is being Japanified.

Then we will look at the issue of whether China is overinvesting and neglecting consumption and living standards, etc. How reliant is China on exports? What is China’s growth strategy? And what is China’s foreign policy? And are those myths about it true? So, this is what we hope to discuss.

So, Mick, why don’t you start us off with your thoughts on exactly how to characterize China’s economy?

MICK DUNFORD: Ok, the way I would characterize China is as a planned rational state. I mean, right the way through, it has maintained a system of national five-year planning, and it also produces longer-term plans. But it’s a planned rational state that uses market instruments.

China has a very large state sector. And of course, some people have claimed that this state sector is, in a sense, an impediment to growth. And we’ve seen a resurrection of this idea, guo jin min tui (国进民退), which is used to refer to the idea that the state sector is advancing and the private sector is retreating.

It’s a very, very strange concept, in fact, because the third word is min (民), and min refers to people. So, what they are actually, in a sense, saying – these ideas were invented by neoliberal economists in 2002 – the private sector is equated with the people, which I find absolutely astonishing. But, I mean, the country does have a very significant public sector.

What I find striking is that one can actually turn it around and say, what is it that these Western economists seem to think China should do? And they seem to think that China should privatize all assets into the hands of domestic and foreign capitalists. It should remove capital controls. It should open the door to foreign finance capital. It should transfer governance to liberal capitalist political parties that are actually controlled by capital.

I think one of the most fundamental features of the China system is actually that it’s the state that controls capital, rather than capital that controls the state. And it’s, in fact, this aspect of the Chinese model, and in particular, the rule of the Communist Party of China that has basically transformed China from what was, effectively one of the poorest countries in the world into one of its largest industrial powers.

So, in a way, it’s a planned rational state in which the CPC has played an absolutely fundamental role. And without it, I mean, China would never have established the national sovereignty that permitted it to choose a path that suited its conditions and to radically transform the lives and livelihoods of its people.

RADHIKA DESAI: Michael, do you want to [speak]?

MICHAEL HUDSON: The question is, what is the state? There are two aspects of the state with China. One is public infrastructure. And the purpose of China’s public infrastructure is to lower the cost of doing business because infrastructure is a monopoly.

That’s what really upsets the American investors. They wanted to buy the phone system, the transportation system, so that they could benefit from charging monopoly rents, just like under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

The most important sector that China’s treated in the public is money creation and banks. Americans hope that American banks would come over and they would be making all the loans in China and benefiting from China’s growth and turning it into interest. And instead, the government’s doing that. And the government is deciding what to lend to.

And there’s a third aspect of what people think of when they say state. That’s a centralized economy, centralized planning, Soviet style.

China is one of the least centralized economies in the world because the central government has left the localities to go their own way. That’s part of the Hundred Flowers Bloom. Let’s see how each locality is going to maneuver on a pragmatic, ad hoc basis.

Well, the pragmatic ad hoc basis meant how are localities, villages, and small towns going to finance their budgets? Well, they financed it by real estate sales, and that’s going to be what we’re discussing later.

But once you realize that the state sector is so different from what a state sector is in America, centralized planning and the control of Wall Street for financial purposes, finance capitalism, hyper-centralized planning, you realize that China is the antithesis of what the usual view is.

RADHIKA DESAI: Absolutely. And I’d just like to add a few points, which dovetail very nicely with what both of you have said.

The fact of the matter is that this was also true of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries when they were still ruled by communist parties. We generally refer to them as socialist or communist, but in reality, they themselves never claimed to be socialist or communist. They only said they were building socialism, especially in a country that was as poor as China was in 1949.

The leadership of the Communist Party of China has always understood that there has to be a long period of transition in which there will be a complex set of compromises that will have to be made in order to steer the economy in the direction of socialism, in order to build socialism.

So, from its beginnings, the revolutionary state in China was a multi-class state and a multi-party state. People don’t realize very often that while the Communist Party of China is the overwhelmingly most powerful party in China, there are other parties that exist as well, which reflect the originally multi-class character of China.

Now, it’s true that since 1978, the government has loosened much of its control over the economy. But the important thing here is that the Communist Party retains control of the Chinese state.

The way I like to put it is, yes, there are lots of capitalists in China. Yes, those capitalists are very powerful. They are at the head of some of the biggest corporations in the world, and they are quite influential within the Communist Party. But what makes China meaningfully socialist or meaningfully treading the path to socialism, let’s put it that way, is the fact that ultimately the reins of power are held in the hands of the Communist Party of China leadership, which owes its legitimacy to the people of China.

So, the reigns of power, the reigns of state power are not held by the capitalists; they are held by the Communist Party leadership.

So, in that sense, I would say that China is meaningfully socialist. Although, as Mick pointed out, there is a fairly large private sector in China, but so too is the state sector very large. And the extent of state ownership means that even though the private sector is very large, the state retains control over the overall pace and pattern of growth and development in the country.

And I just add one final thing here, which is going to become quite important as we discuss the various other points, and that is that the financial sector in China remains very heavily controlled by the state.

China has capital controls, China practices a fair degree of financial repression, and China’s financial system is geared to providing money for long-term investments that improve the productive capacities of the economy and the material welfare of the people. And this is completely different from the kind of financial sector we have today.

So, Mick or Michael, did you want to add anything?

MICK DUNFORD: Just to reiterate, I mean, the point is, the government sets strategic targets that relate to raising the quality of the life of all the Chinese people. And it has strategic autonomy, which gives China the opportunity or the possibility of actually choosing its own development path.

And I think that’s something that very strikingly marks China out from other parts of the Global South that have had much greater difficulty, in a sense, in accelerating their growth, partly because of debt and their subordination to the Washington financial institutions.

So I think that is critically important, the role of sovereignty and autonomy in enabling China to make choices that suited its conditions, and at the same time making choices that are driven by a long-term strategic goal to transform the quality of the lives of all Chinese people.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I want to put in one word about sovereignty. You put your finger on it. That’s really what makes it different.

What makes other countries lose their sovereignty is when they let go, how are they going to finance their investment? If they let foreign banks come in to finance their investment, if they let American and European banks come in, what do they do? They fund a real estate bubble, a different kind of a real estate bubble. They fund takeover loans. They fund privatization.

Banks don’t make loans for new investment. China makes great money to finance new tangible investment. Banks make money so you can buy a public utility or a railroad and then just load it down with debt, and you can borrow and borrow and use the money that you borrow to pay a special dividend if you’re a private capital company. Pretty soon, the country that follows this dependency on foreign credit ends up losing its sovereignty.

The way in which China has protected its sovereignty is to keep money in the public domain and to create money for actual tangible capital investment, not to take your property into a property-owning rentier class, largely foreign-owned.

RADHIKA DESAI: Thank you. Those are very important points. Thank you.

I’d just like to add one final point on the matter of how to characterize the Chinese economy and the Chinese state. At the end of the day, it’s not just important to say that the state controls the economy, but whose state is it?

The way to look at it as well is that in the United States, essentially we have a state that is controlled by the big corporations, which in our time have become exceedingly financialized corporations, so that they are directing the United States economy essentially towards ever more debt and ever less production, whereas that is not the case in China.

And the question of whose state it is makes use of the word autonomy. The autonomy refers to the fact that it is not subservient to any one section of society, but seeks to achieve the welfare of society as a whole and increase its productive capacity.

MICK DUNFORD: If I may just add, I think also it’s important that you pay attention to the policy-making process in China. It’s an example of what one might call substantive democracy. It delivers substantive results for the whole of the Chinese population.

In that sense, it delivers improvements in the quality of the lives of all the people, and therefore, in a sense, it’s a democratic system. But it’s also a country that actually has procedures of policy-making, experimentation, design, and choice and so on that are extremely important and that have fundamental aspects of democracy about them.

When Western countries characterize China as authoritarian, they’re actually fundamentally misrepresenting the character of the Chinese system and the way in which it works, because they, in a sense, merely equate democracy with a system, whereas China, of course, does have multiple political parties, but a system with competitive elections between different political parties. There are other models of democracy, and China is another model of democracy.

RADHIKA DESAI: Mick, you’re absolutely right to talk about the substantive democracy. Indeed, in China, they have recently developed a new term for it. They call it a “whole process democracy”, and it really involves multiple levels of consultation with the people, going down to the most basic village and township levels, and then all the way up the chain.

And I think this process does work, because the other remarkable thing about the CPC leadership is its ability to change direction pragmatically. If something does not work, then it assesses what it has attempted, why it has failed, and then it revises course. So, I think we will see several instances of this as we talk as well.

Michael, you want to add something?

MICHAEL HUDSON: One thing about democracy. The definition of a democracy traditionally is to prevent an oligarchy from developing. There’s only one way to prevent an oligarchy from developing as people get richer and richer, and that’s to have a strong state.

The role of a strong state is to prevent an oligarchy from developing. That’s why the oligarchy in America and Europe are libertarian, meaning get rid of government, because a government is strong enough to prevent us from gouging the economy, to prevent us from taking it over.

So, you need a strong central state in order to have a democracy. Americans call that socialism, and they say that’s the antithesis of democracy, which means a state that is loyal to the United States and follows U.S. policy and lets the U.S. banks financialize the economy. So, just to clarify the definitions here.

RADHIKA DESAI: Very, very true, Michael. But let’s not go, I mean, maybe we should do a separate show on political theory of the state, because that’s equally important.

But for now, let’s look at our next topic. We hope, of course, that everybody understands how we characterize China’s state. But now, let’s look at China’s GDP growth.

So, here you have a chart, and we have several charts on this matter, but we’ll take them one by one and comment on them:

So, here we have a chart showing the annual rate of GDP growth from 1980 to 2028. Of course, post-2023 are their projections, which are shown by the dotted lines. And I’ve only taken a few selected countries from the Our World in Data website, and anybody can go there and look at this data, by the way.

So, you can see China and then a handful of the most important Western countries. And you can see that going back to 1980, essentially China’s growth rate, which is here, the top red line here, has absolutely been massively higher on practically any year than the other countries.

In fact, you see I left Russia in here. I should probably have taken it out. It’s a bit of a distraction, because here you see Russia’s growth rate massively bouncing up from the late 90s financial crisis. But let’s leave that aside.

All the other major countries, which you see here, they are all showing considerably lower growth. So, the United States here is this orangish line. And essentially, they’re all showing much lower growth.

And more recently as well, this is the Covid-19 pandemic. And you can see that China, again, like all the other countries, it experienced a fairly sharp decline in the growth rate, but it still remained positive, unlike all the other countries.

And it remains substantially above that of the rest of the economies that constantly are telling China how to improve its economic policy. So, that’s what I want to say about this chart.

But Mick, go ahead.

MICK DUNFORD: Can you show that table that I sent?

RADHIKA DESAI: Yeah, sure. Yes, here we go:

MICK DUNFORD: These are more recent growth rates for China, for the world, and for the G7. And I mean, first of all, they show absolutely clearly that China’s growth rate is still a long way in excess of the average growth rates of all G7 countries, many of which have actually performed abysmally. I mean, Germany is now in recession, it declined 0.3% per year this year. I mean, Italy has had extremely low rates of growth, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, all had extremely low rates of growth.

China last year achieved a growth rate of 5.2%. It itself expects to grow at 5% next year. The IMF forecast 4.6%. Even that 4.6% target is quite close to the average growth rate that China needs to achieve to meet its 2035 target. It has a 2035 target of doubling its GDP, its 2020 GDP by 2035. I think that that goal is perfectly realizable. And in that sense, I strongly disagree with people who argue that China has in a sense peaked.

But I do find it, really quite astonishing, that Western countries, whose economies have performed extremely poorly, feel in a position to lecture China about how it should address what is said to be an unsatisfactory rate of growth. That’s the first point I want to make.

I just want to say something else, if I may. When we talk about, I mean, China’s growth has slowed. And, there’s no doubt that in terms of people’s everyday lives, there are many difficulties. And I just want to quote something.

At New Year, Xi Jinping gave a speech. I wanted to cite his actual words. He recognised that in these years, China faces what he called the tests of the winds and rains. And then he said, when I see people rising to the occasion, reaching out to each other in adversity, meeting challenges head on and overcoming difficulties, I am deeply moved.

So, the leadership and all Chinese people are well aware that there are many, many difficulties and challenges confronted, because China is actually undergoing a major structural transformation about which we shall speak later. But China is also in the short term undertaking a lot of important actions that are actually designed to cope with some of the real difficulties that people confront.

So, if you listen to Li Qiang’s government work report, he addressed the problem of short-term employment generation. And there are proposals for 12 million new urban jobs to increase employment, especially for college graduates and other young people, because for young people, the unemployment rate, including college students, is in the region of 21 percent. Urban unemployment is 5 percent. So, there are issues to do with the generation of employment.

Government expenditure this year will target a whole series of strategic issues, but also livelihoods. So, affordable housing, youth unemployment, job security, insurance, pensions, preschool education, the living conditions in older communities. So, I’m just saying that, in the current context, difficult economic situation and a particularly turbulent global situation. I mean, China, as every other country in the world, faces challenges, and it is in many ways directly addressing them in very important ways.

RADHIKA DESAI: Great. Thanks, Mick. Michael, do you want to add anything?

MICHAEL HUDSON: No, I think that’s it. The question is, what is the GDP that is growing? There are a number of ways of looking at GDP. And when I went to school 60 years ago, economists usually thought of GDP as something industrial. They’d look at energy production. They’d look at railway cargo transportation.

If you look at the industrial component of what most economists used to look at, electricity is the power for industry, electricity is productivity growth for labor. If you look at these, what is the component of GDP, you realize that these differences in Mick’s charts are even wider than what he showed, because the American GDP, very largely interest, overdraft fees of credit card companies, as we’ve said, is providing a financial service. 7% of American GDP is the increase in homeowners’ view of what their rental value of their property is. That’s 7%.

Now, I doubt that China includes a measure like this in its GDP. But if it did, with all of its rise in real estate prices, its GDP would be even higher in a reality-based basis.

So real GDP, as we think of it, and the public thinks of it, is something useful and productive. Actually, China’s doing a much more efficient job in minimizing the kind of financial and rentier overhead that you have in the United States.

RADHIKA DESAI: Exactly, Michael. What I was going to point out as well is that these figures of U.S. GDP growth and the absolute level of U.S. GDP are heavily financialized.

The financial sector, which actually is not a force for good in general in the U.S. economy, it is out of which the indebtedness comes, out of which the productive weakening comes. The growth of the financial sector is counted as GDP in the United States and massively inflates U.S. GDP, which would not be as high as this.

And this is particularly important given that President Biden, for example, is congratulating himself now for having the strongest economy in the world or the Western world or whatever it is. Well, that’s what the U.S.’s boast is based on.

And China does not do that, nor does it have the kind of financial sector which creates, which destroys the productive economy. Rather, as we were saying, it has the kind of financial sector that supports it.

So, just another general point I want to make. We were talking about this chart:

This shows from 1980 to 2028, and the projections remain, by the way, even from conservative sources, that China’s growth is going to remain higher than the rest of the world, particularly the Western countries, for a long time to come.

And I also decided to show you this chart:

This is the chart of growth, which is just a more focused version of the previous one, which shows growth rates from 2008 to 2028.

So 2008 is when we had what Michael and I call the North Atlantic Financial Crisis. And since then, what we’ve seen is, yes, of course, all countries have seen a sort of a reduction in their growth rate, and certainly China has. But even since then, you can see that China’s growth remains high and stable. So, that’s another thing that we wanted to show.

And this is a chart showing the rise of per capita GDP:

That is to say, you can have a higher GDP, but if your population is expanding, then to what extent is per capita GDP rising? So, you can see here that, again, even in terms of per capita GDP, and this only again goes to 2021, but in terms of per capita GDP, China has remained head and shoulders above all the major Western countries.

And this bounce here that you see in the case of the US and the UK here, it is only a dead cat bounce from the absolute depths to which their economies had sunk during Covid, and so they came to some sort of normalcy.

Mick, you may want to say something about this chart, because you sent it to me. So, please go ahead:

MICK DUNFORD: It’s correct, of course, that China’s growth slowed. Now, in 2013, China entered what is called the New Era. At that time, China decided that its growth rate should slow. It chose slower growth. It spoke of 6 or 7 percent per year, and it more or less achieved that, until the Covid pandemic. So, China chose slower growth for very particular reasons, and I think in this discussion, we shall come to some of these reasons later on.

But in a sense, what they want is what they call high-quality growth. And what China is seeking to do is undertake a profound structural transformation of its economy, establishing new growth drivers by directing finance towards high-productivity sectors and directing finance towards the use of digital and green technologies in order to transform its traditional industries. So, in a sense, it’s undergoing a profound process of structural transformation.

And I mean, if you, for example, look at Li Qiang’s speech, the major tasks include invigorating China through science and education, so to strengthen the education, science and technology system, to improve the capabilities of the workforce, or promote innovation, industrial investment and skills, and another, striving to modernize the industrial system and accelerate the development of new productive forces, bearing in mind that we’re on the verge of a new industrial revolution. But these are very important issues, fundamentally important issues.

RADHIKA DESAI: And I would say just, and I know we’ll talk about it at greater length later on, but it is really important to bear in mind that really, when the world stands at the cusp of being able to exploit new technologies like quantum computing or nanotechnology or artificial intelligence or what have you, a relatively centralized decision-making process about how to allocate resources, for what purposes, for what social benefits, etc., is likely to prove far superior, that is to say, China’s method is likely to prove far superior than the Western tactic of leaving private corporate capital in charge of the process.

And just to give you a couple of instances of this, the fact that private corporate capital is in charge of the development of digital technologies is already creating all sorts of social harms in our Western societies, whether it is harms to children’s mental health or even adults’ mental health, to political division that the algorithms sow and so on.

And also, it is leading to a situation where even these mega-corporations, these giant corporations, actually do not have the resources to invest, the scale of resources that will be needed to invest. So, for example, you hear in the Financial Times that Sam Altman is looking for people to invest in his artificial intelligence ventures, which will require trillions of dollars, and he cannot find private investors for it. So, this is really quite interesting.

Okay, so if we’re done with the growth rate story, oh, and I just want to say one other thing about this, which is, this is a GDP per capita in purchasing power parity, and China, in the space of a few decades, essentially, has experienced the biggest spurt in per capita well-being, etc., which includes important achievements like eliminating extreme poverty.

The Communist Party has brought China to essentially per capita GDP in purchasing power terms of next to nothing in 1980 to about $20,000 per annum in 2020. This is really quite an important achievement. And to do this for a country of 5 to 10 million people would be laudable, but to do this for a country of 1.3 billion people is a massive, historic achievement, and I think that’s something to remember.

MICK DUNFORD: I just, if you just go back for one minute, I mean, I absolutely agree with what you’ve just said, Radhika.

I’ll just make a comment about this chart. It’s because we were probably going to speak about Japanification:

It basically shows that the GDP per capita of Japan, and indeed of Germany, closed in on the United States, and actually Germany overtook it in the 1980s. But after that point in time, I mean, after the revaluation of their two respective currencies, and after the, the bubble, the stock market and property market bubble in Japan, you saw stagnation set in. And there’s a question as to whether that will happen with China.

But I mean, I think that one thing that’s striking in this diagram is that China is still at a much lower level of GDP per capita than Japan, or indeed Germany was at that time. And those economies, because, they were at the technological frontier to some extent, had to innovate, move into new technologies.

China, because there is still a technological gap, has enormous opportunities to accelerate its growth in a way in which, well, Japan failed because it chose not to take up opportunities, and it gave up semiconductors manufacture. But China has enormous opportunities, and that’s one reason why we must anticipate China’s growth as continuing.

RADHIKA DESAI: Absolutely. Thank you, Mick. Okay, so if we’re done with the growth story, let’s go to our next topic, which is what happened in China under Covid-19. Now, of course, there is just so much dispute about and controversy around Covid and Covid strategies, etc. So we don’t want to get into all of them, but I just want to emphasize two things.

We’ve already looked at the growth figures, we looked at the growth figures around Covid:

So you can see here that in 2020, all economies had a big dip thanks to Covid in their economies, but China is alone among the major economies to have remained in positive growth territory, and to have, of course, remained much higher than the rest of the other major world economies. So essentially, China, whatever China did, it did not sacrifice growth.

Now, this is very ironical, because in the Western countries, we were told that we need to, in order to continue growing, we need to, so in order to preserve livelihoods, which was the euphemism for preserving the profits of big corporations, in order to preserve livelihoods, we may have to sacrifice some lives. And the Western economies went through an absolutely excruciating process of lockdown here, and opening there, and lockdown again, and opening again, and so on.

But all of this had devastating impacts on Western economies, whereas China prioritized the preservation of life above all. And it imposed a lockdown knowing that, okay, even if we are going to develop vaccines, and remember, China developed its own vaccines, and effectively inoculated over 70 percent of the population by the time they began reopening.

China prioritized the saving of lives, and it was accused of essentially creating world shortages by shutting down its economy, etc. But in reality, China’s strategy, which focused before the availability of vaccines, on essentially physical distancing, isolation, etc., as was necessary, but China managed to do it in a way as to keep up a relatively robust growth rate, and very importantly, lose very few lives.

This is a chart, again from Our World In Data, of cumulative Covid-19 deaths per million of population:

So here we have all these countries, the United States and United Kingdom are these top two lines, Germany, Canada, Japan, even though we are told that East Asian economies did well because they had experience with SARS, etc., even then, compared to China, which is down here with a cumulative Covid death rate per million of about 149 or something people dying per million, and these numbers are over 3,000, almost 4,000 per million at this point in the United States and the UK, and then you have these other economies.

So China actually managed to avoid the worst of Covid, both in terms of lives and in terms of livelihood, and it did so because it did not compromise the saving of lives.

Does anyone else want to add anything? Mick? You were there.

MICK DUNFORD: Well, I mean, obviously, there were difficulties for some people in some places at some times. I was here right through it. All I can say is the impact personally on me was extremely limited.

It was a very effective system for protecting life. And if you lived in some places, then in fact the impact on your life, apart from having frequent nucleic acid tests and so on and ensuring that your health code was up to date, the impact on one’s life was relatively limited.

But in some places, obviously, in Wuhan at the outset, in Shanghai later on, the impact was very considerable.

But I think it’s an indication of the importance of a kind of collectivism, and the priority given to the protection of human life. And as you said, it is quite striking that actually through it, China’s economy actually kept ticking over.

And of course, China produces so many important intermediate goods that obviously it was also very important in providing things that were needed in many, many other parts of the world.

It also shared its drugs, its vaccines, which is really quite different, in a sense, from the conduct of the United States. And to some extent, the Western pharmaceutical companies.

RADHIKA DESAI: Absolutely. Michael, go ahead.

MICHAEL HUDSON: In the United States, that would be considered a failure of policy. The United States used Covid as an opportunity to kill.

For instance, the governor of New York, Cuomo, took the Covid patients and he moved them into all of the assisted living and old people’s homes. And that had a great increase in productivity. It resulted in enormous death rates for the elderly.

That helped save New York’s pension plan system. It helped save other pension plans. It helped save Social Security because the dead people were no longer what America called “the dead weight”.

The American policy was to indeed infect as many people over the age of 65 as you could. And that helped balance state, local budgets, pension plan budgets.

The increase in the death rate is now the official policy of the Center for Disease Control in the United States. They say do not wear masks. They’ve blocked any kind of mask wearing. They’ve done everything they could to prevent the use of HIPAA filters or airborne disease. The Disease Control Center says that Covid is not an airborne disease. Therefore, do not protect yourself.

Well, the result is many children have been getting Covid and that weakens their resistance system. And they’re getting measles and all sorts of other things. And all of that is greatly increasing GDP in America. The health care costs of America’s destructive policy.

I think Marx made a joke about this in Capital. He said when more people get sick, the doctors and the economic output goes up. Are you really going to consider sickness and destruction and fires rebuilding and cleanup costs? Are you going to count all of this there?

RADHIKA DESAI: But the irony is Michael, even with all of that, America’s GDP plunged so deeply down.

Well, I think we should move on to the next topic, but I will just say one thing. It is generally said that China is in a panic, the Chinese government reversed its draconian Covid policies because there were popular protests, and blah blah and so on. I would not agree with that.

Certainly, there were some popular protests. It also seems as though at least some of them were being pushed by the National Endowment for Democracy with the typical color revolution style. They have one symbol that symbolizes it. So, they decided to put up blank pieces of paper, etc. So, there’s no doubt that there was some of this going on. And as Mick said, undoubtedly, there were local difficulties in many places.

But what becomes very clear is that China decided to lift Covid restrictions towards the end of 2022 only after it has satisfied itself that the risk. And I should also add one thing. It was under pressure to lift these restrictions a great deal because the fact was that the rest of the world was not following China’s footsteps apart from a handful of other countries. And they were socialist countries. They were not following China’s footsteps.

So, it’s very hard to be the only country that’s doing it. But nevertheless, despite all those pressures, China had a very deliberate policy. It lifted Covid restrictions after assuring itself that enough of the population had been vaccinated, as to achieve something close to herd immunity.

And these figures of deaths per million demonstrate that China’s bet proved right, and China continues to monitor the situation. Covid hasn’t gone away.

And so, in all of these ways, I think that it’s important for us to understand that China’s policy has actually been above all about protecting people’s lives.

MICK DUNFORD: Just from my recollection, the demonstrations of which you spoke, where the slogans were written in English, I wonder who they were talking to, were on the 1st of December. China had, on the 11th of November, already announced the steps of, in a sense, removing restrictions. And then they were finalized in early December. So, the change was already underway.

RADHIKA DESAI: Exactly. Great. So, I think we are at almost, I think, 50 minutes or so. So, let’s do the next topic, which is the property bubble. And then we will stop this episode and we will do a part two of this episode, and do the other four topics that remain in part two.

So, Mick, do you want to start us off about the property bubble and the alleged Japanification, impending Japanification of China’s economy?

MICK DUNFORD: Okay. Well, if you want, you can just show the chart:

Basically, you can see that throughout this period, Chinese house prices have risen quite substantially. You know, in a sense, the story started, with housing reform, after 1988, when China moved from a welfare to a commodity system. And then, in 1998, it actually privatized Danwei housing, and it adopted the view that housing should be provided, as a commodity by developers.

And in 2003, that course of action was confirmed. And from that point in time, one saw very, very substantial growth in the number of developers, many of which, the overwhelming majority of which were private developers. So, in a sense, they moved towards a fundamentally market system.

And they very quickly had to make certain adjustments because they found that while the quality of housing and the amount of housing space per person was going up, these developers were orienting their houses towards more affluent groups. So, there was an under-provision of housing for middle-income groups and for low-income groups.

And so, there were progressively, you saw over the years, increasing attention paid to the provision of low-cost housing and of low-cost rented housing. And in fact, in the current five-year plan, 25% of all housing is meant to be basically low-cost housing.

So, the important point is that this problem emerged in a system that was liberalized, actually, I mean, in line with recommendations that were made in 1993 by the World Bank.

So, in other words, it’s an example of a liberalized, predominantly market-led, private-led system, in which these difficulties and these problems have emerged.

So, that’s the first thing I want to say. And I mean, obviously, to address housing needs, China has had, over the course of time, to considerably move back in the direction of providing low-cost housing in order to meet the housing needs of the Chinese people.

But basically, in August 2020, the government got very, very deeply concerned about, on the one hand, increasing house prices and, on the other hand, the explosion of borrowing and the fact that the liabilities of many of these developers substantially exceeded their assets.

And of course, the other line on that chart is a line indicating house prices in the United States. And of course, it was the crash of prices in the subprime market that, in a sense, precipitated the financial crisis. So, China, in the first place, is absolutely determined that it should not confront that kind of problem that was generated by the liberalized housing system in the United States.

So, I mean, that’s the first thing I basically want to say.

If you want, I can say something about the case of Evergrande. But basically, what China did in 2020 was it introduced what it called Three Red Lines, which were basically designed to reduce financial risks.

But it had a number of consequences because it, to some extent, deflated the housing market. Housing prices started to fall. Some of these developers found themselves in a situation where their liabilities substantially exceeded their assets. There was a decline in housing investment.

But to some extent, I think this is a part of a deliberate goal of basically diverting capital towards, as I said earlier, high productivity activities and away from activities, especially the speculative side of the housing market. So, I’ll just say that for the moment, but I can come back and say something about Evergrande, if you wish, in a few minutes.

RADHIKA DESAI: Okay, great. Michael, do you want to add anything?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, what I’d like to know as the background for this is what is the, how much of this housing is owner-occupied and how much is rental housing? That’s one question. The other question is how much is the ratio of housing costs to personal income? In America, it’s over 40% of personal income for housing. What’s the ratio in China?

I’d want to know the debt-equity ratio. How much debt, on the average, for different income groups? Debt relative to the value of housing. In America, for the real estate sector as a whole, debt is, the banker owns more of the house than the nominal house owner, whose equity ratio for the whole economy is under 50%.

These are the depth dimensions that I’d want to ask for these charts, if you know anything about them.

RADHIKA DESAI: Okay, thanks for that. And so, I just want to add one thing, which is that, this graph actually really says it all, and in some ways implicitly answers Michael’s questions:

Because the blue line, which shows the United States property prices, you can see that they reached a certain peak at 150% of the value of its 2010 values in 2008. Then it went down to below the level of 2010.

But U.S. monetary policy, Federal Reserve policy, its continuing deregulated financial sector, the easy money policy that was applied in a big way with zero interest rate policies, with quantitative easing, etc., etc., has simply led to a new property boom, where the prices of property prices have reached a peak, which is even higher than that of 2007-8, which was such a disaster. And this was all made possible precisely by the, by increasing housing debt, etc.

Whereas in China, a big driver of the housing boom has actually been that people are investing their savings in it. So, by logically, it means that the extent of a debt in the housing market will be comparatively lower. The entities that are indebted are actually the developers.

And that’s a very different kind of problem than, than the, than the owners being indebted. So that’s the main thing I want to say.

And Mick, you wanted to come back about, about Evergrande, so please do. And then remember also that we want to talk about this chart in particular, and deal with the question of Japanification:

So, please go ahead, Mick. Let’s talk about that.

MICK DUNFORD: Okay, well, I mean, as Radhika just said, the problem is, the indebtedness of developers, and the existence of debts that considerably exceed the value of their assets.

And the way in which this situation has come about, and I mean, as I said, the Chinese government, in a sense, wants to address the financial risks associated with that situation, and did so by introducing these so-called Three Red Lines.

It also is interested in reducing house prices, and it’s also interested in redirecting finance towards productivity-increasing activities.

So, Evergrande is an enormous real estate giant. It has debt of 300 billion dollars. It has 20 billion of overseas debt, and its assets, according to its accounts at the end of the last quarter of last year, are 242 billion. And 90 percent of those assets are in mainland China. So, its liability asset ratio was 84.7 percent, and the Three Red Lines set a limit of 70, 70 percent. So, it’s substantially in excess of the red line.

In 2021, it defaulted. And then, in January this year, it was told to liquidate after international creditors and the company failed to agree on a restructuring plan. In September, by the way, last year, its chair, Su Jiayin, was placed under mandatory measures, on suspicion of unspecified crimes. Basically, it was a Hong Kong court that called in the liquidators.

And the reason was that, in a way, outside China, Evergrande looked as a massively profitable distressed debt trade opportunity. There were 19 billion in defaulted offshore bonds with very substantial assets and, initially, a view that the Chinese government might prop up the property market.

So, large numbers of U.S. and European hedge funds basically piled into the debt, and they expected quite large payouts. But it seems as if this negotiation was, to some extent, controlled by a Guangdong risk management committee. And the authorities, basically, were very, very reluctant to allow offshore claimants to secure onshore revenues and onshore assets.

And, in fact, to stop the misuse of funds, I think about 10 Chinese local provinces actually took control of pre-sales revenues. They put it into custodial accounts, and the idea was that this money should basically—the priority is to ensure that the houses of people who’ve paid deposits on houses are actually built, and people who’ve undertaken work in building houses, are basically paid. So, that, then saw the value of these offshore bonds collapse very rapidly, indeed.

And I think that, to some extent, explains the concerns of the international financial market about the difficulties of this particular case. But I think, it’s clear that China intends, basically, to deflate this sector and to put an end to this speculative housing market as much as it possibly can, and to direct capital, towards productivity increasing, essentially, the industrial sector. And we shall talk about this direction of finance later on.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Evergrande debt, and other real estate debt, is to domestic Chinese banks and lenders. Certainly, many Chinese home buyers did not borrow internationally.

So, I want to find out how much the domestic Chinese banking system, or near banking system — not the Bank of China itself, but the near banks intermediaries who lent — to what extent have the banks given guarantees for the loans for Evergrande and others?

I understand that there are some guarantees domestically, and if the banks have to pay them, the banks will go under, just as occurring here in New York City. Do you have any information on that?

MICK DUNFORD: No, I don’t really have any information, except, I mean, some of the literature that I’ve read suggests that these creditors, bondholders and also other creditors, basically shareholders, are going to take a very, very major haircut.

RADHIKA DESAI: Exactly. I think that this is the key, that there will be an imposition of haircuts on the rich and the powerful, not just subjecting ordinary people to repossession of their homes, which they should have access to.

So, as Mick has already said, the Chinese government is doing everything possible to make sure that the ordinary buyers who have bought these houses do not lose out, which is the opposite of what was done in trying to resolve the housing and credit bubble in the United States.

So, I just want to say a couple of things. I mean, the Chinese government is quite aware, as Mick pointed out, the whole thing has begun by, this whole property bubble is in good part a product of the fact that when relations between China and the West were much better, China accepted some World Bank advice, and this is partly a result of that and the kind of deregulation that the World Bank had suggested.

But very clearly, now relations between China and the West are not good. In fact, they’re anything but good. China is unlikely, once bitten, twice shy, to accept such bad advice again, even if they were good. And now that they’re not good, there will be, and China is clearly looking at distinctively pragmatic, socialistic ways out.

And you see in the new address to the NPC by the Premier [Li Qiang], that social housing has become a major priority, not building houses for private ownership, but rather building houses which will be kept in the public sector and rented out at affordable rates. And I think this is really an important thing, really the way to go.

And finally, I would say that, the property bubble in Japan and the property bubble in the United States were bound to have very different consequences, partly because, well, for two reasons, mainly. Number one, the nature of their financial systems were very different.

In the case of Japan, the financial system was being transformed from one that resembles China’s financial system to something that resembles much more the US financial system. And Japan has continued this transformation and has suffered as a result. I would say in short, really, Japan has paid the price of keeping its economy capitalist. So in many ways is the United States.

And the second reason, of course, is that, funnily enough, one of the effects of the Plaza Accord was that, by the time the Plaza Accord came around, Japan was no longer interested in buying US treasuries. And as a result, the United States essentially restricted its access to US markets in a much bigger way. And so, essentially, Japan lost those export markets.

And it did not do what China is able to do. It perhaps could not do what China is able to do, being a capitalist country, which is massively reorient the stimulus for production away from exports and towards the domestic market, including the market for investment.

So I think that we are, maybe this is the cue at which we can talk about Japanification. So maybe you can start us off by commenting on this chart, and then Michael and I can jump in as well:

MICK DUNFORD: Ok, the blue line, of course, is the flow of loans to different sectors. So the blue line is the flow of loans to the real estate sector.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Only the Bank of China or by?

MICK DUNFORD:  All the banks. You can see from 2016, the share going to real estate has diminished very significantly, whereas, where it says industrial MLT, that’s medium and long term loans for industrial investment, you can see a very, very strong, steady increase in the share of loans going to industrial investment. In agriculture, it declines. And then also, that has actually increased since 2016. So this is a directing of investment towards manufacturing and towards the industrial sector of the economy.

So why is that? Well, I think the first thing one can say is that, in the past, basically, the growth drivers of the Chinese economy were, to some extent, export manufactures. But China was predominantly involved in processing activities, employing very unskilled labor and associated with very low levels of labor productivity.

So one of China’s goals is to significantly, basically, strengthen, upgrade the quality of these traditional industries, to make them digital, to make them green, and to radically increase productivity through a large-scale investment wave.

And then, secondly, we’re on the verge of a new industrial revolution, which Radhika has spoken about. So the aim in this case is, basically, to divert investment towards the industries that are associated with the next industrial revolution.

The other main growth drivers in the past, alongside this export sector, were obviously real estate, which, I mean, if you look at GDP by expenditure, was accounting probably with household appliances and furniture and household goods and so on, about 26, 27 percent of the economy.

But it’s a sector that’s associated with relatively low productivity, and of course, it was associated with very substantial speculation and generated very considerable financial instability.

So, as Radhika said, there will be, in dealing with this financial crisis, basically an underwriting of existing, of obligations to existing home buyers, and in the future, an attempt to establish a more sustainable housing market.

The other area of the economy was basically this sort of platform economy. But this platform economy was associated with very, very strong tendencies towards monopoly, and in the, about four or five years ago, a series of measures were adopted, basically, to restrict, some aspects of this platform economy, and other areas, like private tutoring, which was generating large disparities in the educational system, and is associated with the fact, that the cost of raising children in China is extremely high. I mean, it’s the second highest in the world after South Korea, actually.

So, these growth drivers, these old growth drivers, are basically seen as not offering potential to sustain the growth of the Chinese economy into the years ahead, and so there’s this attempt to look for new growth drivers. And basically, for that reason, you’ve seen this redirection of investment.

And I think one can distinguish that, from what happened to Japan, because basically, in Japan, industrial investment did not increase, largely, I think, because the profitability of investment was not sufficiently high. And also Japan, in a sense, adopted a neoliberal program. It didn’t implement industrial policies.

Whereas China is seeking to undertake this transformation, basically, through, it’s a kind of supply-side restructuring, driven by industrial policy, and driven by financial policies, providing strategic funding for industrial transformation.

Then linking that also to the transformation of education, to try to ensure that the output of the education system, in terms of skill profiles, and so on, corresponds much, much more closely with the profile of work and employment, with much more emphasis upon STEM, in the context of this new industrial revolution, radically raising productivity, and by radically raising productivity, you increase income, and ultimately, you’ll increase consumption, and so on.

So I think that the Japanification course is not one that China will follow, that China will actually address this need to innovate and transform its industrial system, in order to, in a sense, address the problems that are associated with the earlier drivers of Chinese development.

MICHAEL HUDSON: We probably need a whole other program to talk about the difference in structure. Real estate is the largest sector of every economy, and China is so different from Japan.

The Ginza district in Japan, right around the palace, that small district, was larger than all of the real estate value in California. So, we’re dealing with a huge debt finance explosion there, and then you have the largest collapse of property prices in Japan, everywhere, anywhere in the world.

In a way, what you’ve described brings us back to what we were talking about at the beginning of the show, about China’s structure. The effect of the real estate slowdown and falling in prices has a disastrous effect on localities, small villages and towns in China, who are dependent on real estate sales as funding their budget.

So, the real estate crash in China, if we’re talking about what policy is China going to take, how is it going to solve the problem of local budgets without solving it by creating a booming real estate market for towns to sell off their property to developers, and developers to make a profit selling off a property to private buyers, mainly.

I assume they’re not just selling it to the government to make a profit. I think there’s a lot of structure that I’d like to know. I don’t know what it is now, but it’s so different from what you have everywhere else.

I think that really is what I hope will be the focus of our show, the geopolitics of different real estate structures and the real estate tax that goes with it.

RADHIKA DESAI: That’s a really interesting question, and much of that we will be discussing in the second part of this show, which we’ll be recording in a week or so, I think.

But let me maybe then just bring this to a conclusion by simply agreeing with what both of you have said, which is that China has a very good chance, in fact, very likely, China is not going to follow the Japanification model because, as Michael is emphasizing, the structure of China’s economy and the imperatives generated by that structure are very different.

To name just one, if something is not profitable in a capitalist economy, it will not get done. Whereas in the case of the Chinese economy, the Chinese government can always say, well, if it’s necessary, we’ll do it even if it isn’t profitable, because it is necessary for the welfare of the people or the productive capacity of the economy, etc. So, profitability just does not play the role of a brake in the same way as it does in capitalist societies.

Secondly, the role of the state, both in terms of initiating new projects and taking responsibility for new projects, and we can already see in the current NPC and the discussions there that the role of the state is already once again expanding again in China, and it can continue to do so. And I think that’s a very good thing.

And remember also that, Mick, you emphasized in the case of when you were discussing one of the graphs, that the per capita GDP of China today is considerably lower than what it was in Japan, even in the late 80s and early 90s.

And that means that, number one, domestic consumption can be a big stimulus for further economic expansion. And secondly, of course, the industrial opportunities, the opportunities for a new industrial revolution are many, and China in particular, because of the important state role in the Chinese economy, the centrality of the state role in the Chinese economy, and the aim of the Chinese economy and the Chinese economy’s managers to develop China’s productive capacity in whatever way that works, not necessarily through private ownership.

These elements are actually going to ensure that China will exploit the opportunities of the new technologies much more effectively and execute a transition to the next industrial revolution much more successfully, and that will be an important road to avoiding what’s called Japanification.

MICK DUNFORD: You know, I think the difference is that Japan, I thought, in the 1980s was at the technological frontier, and China is not. But just, what Michael was referring to is the fact that in China, local government revenue came to depend to a very considerable extent on what is called land revenue.

You know, basically all land is state-owned, is either state-owned or owned by the rural collectives. But what happened was that if land was converted for use for urbanization, was converted for use for urbanization, for housing, then basically the local government could in effect sell leases, 90-year leases, or depending on the activity, different lengths of lease. They could sell these leases to developers. And then that revenue was used by local government to fund infrastructure.

To some extent that model has come up against limits. And I think, the issue Michael raised really concerns how in future will local government be funded, and will there be a reform in the system of taxation?

Will a property tax be introduced in order to generate government revenue rather than relying upon this land tax? Because of course that did encourage local government to allocate that land to people who are going to build housing for upper-income groups, because the implications for land value were under that situation, they would actually be higher rather than providing that land to construct housing for low income groups.

So, this issue of land revenue is one that has to be addressed basically by someone who’s an expert in public finance.

MICHAEL HUDSON: That should be what we talk about in the next show, I think.

RADHIKA DESAI: Great. So I think that we should bring this part of the show, the first part of this show to an end. And let me just do that by going back to our list of topics.

So just to conclude, we managed to cover the first four, although the question of Japanification and the alleged property bubble will resonate into all the rest of the topics, certainly the question of consumption, exports and China’s new growth strategy. So we will return to it.

But in the next [Geopolitical Economy] Hour, we will be talking about these topics, restricted consumption, exports, new growth strategy, and of course, China’s foreign economic policy.

So thanks very much both. Thanks to all the listeners. And we look forward to seeing you in another week or two. Thank you and goodbye.

Vu du Droit

Libération en mode « Je suis partout ».

On pensait que la liberté d’expression procédait de l’application de l’article 11 de la Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme. Qui prévoit que l’on peut dire ce que l’on veut, sauf si pour des raisons d’intérêt général la Loi a prévu… Lire la suite →

Global South

Will BRICS launch a new world in 2024?

Ryabkov, Ushakov and Glazyev foresee a quickening of the Russian river after Putin’s spring reelection: the BRICS will create payment and settlement systems that do not depend upon the shifty “rules-based international order.”

By Pepe Escobar at The Cradle.

“BRICS doubled its membership at the start of 2024, and faces huge tasks ahead: integrating its newest members, developing future admission criteria, deepening the institution’s groundings, and most importantly, launching the mechanisms for bypassing the US dollar in international finance.”

MOSCOW – Across the Global South, countries are lining up to join the multipolar BRICS and the Hegemon-free future it promises. The onslaught of interest has become an unavoidable theme of discussion during this crucial year of the Russian presidency of what, for the moment, is BRICS-10.

Indonesia and Nigeria are among the top tiers of candidates likely to join. The same applies to Pakistan and Vietnam. Mexico is in a very complex bind: how to join without summoning the ire of the Hegemon.

And then there’s the new candidacy on a roll: Yemen, which enjoys plenty of support from Russia, China, and Iran.

It’s been up to Russia’s top BRICS sherpa, the immensely capable Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, to clarify what’s ahead. He tells TASS:

We must provide a platform for the countries interested in rapprochement with the BRICS, where they will be able to work practically without feeling left behind and joining this cooperation rhythm. And as to how the further expansion will be decided upon – this should be postponed at least until the leaders convene in Kazan to decide.

The key decision on BRICS+ expansion will only come out of the Kazan summit next October. Ryabkov stresses that the order of the day is first “to integrate those who have just joined.” This means that “as a ‘ten,’ we work at least as efficiently, or, rather, more efficiently than we did within the initial ‘five.'”

Only then will the BRICS-10 “develop the category of partner states,” which, in fact, means creating a consensus-based list out of the dozens of nations that are literally itching to join the club.

Ryabkov always makes a point to note, in public and in private, that the twofold increase of BRICS members starting on 1 January 2024 is “an unprecedented event for any international structure.”

It isn’t an easy task, Ryabkov says:

Last year, it took an entire year to develop the admission, expansion criteria at the level of top officials. Many reasonable things were developed. And many of the things that were formulated back then got reflected in the list of countries that joined. But it would probably be improper to formalize the requirements. At the end of the day, an admission to the association is a subject of political decision.

What happens after Russia’s presidential elections

In a private meeting with a few select individuals on the sidelines of the recent multipolar conference in Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke effusively of BRICS, with particular emphasis on his counterparts Wang Yi of China and S. Jaishankar of India.

Lavrov holds great expectations for BRICS-10 this year – at the same time, reminding everyone that this is still a club; it must eventually go deeper in institutional terms, for instance, by appointing a secretariat-general, just like its cousin-style organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The Russian presidency will have its hands full for the next few months, not only navigating the geopolitical spectrum of current crises but, most of all, geoeconomics. A crucial ministerial meeting in June – only three months away – will have to define a detailed road map all the way to the Kazan summit four months later.

What happens after this week’s Russian presidential elections will also condition BRICS policy. A new Russian government will be sworn in only by early May. It is widely expected that there will be no substantial changes within the Russian Finance Ministry, Central Bank, Foreign Ministry, and among top Kremlin advisers.

Continuity will be the norm.

And that brings us to the key geoeconomics dossier: the BRICS at the forefront of bypassing the US dollar in international finance.

Last week, top Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov announced that BRICS will work towards setting up an independent payment system based on digital currencies and blockchain.

Ushakov specifically emphasized “state-of-the-art tools such as digital technologies and blockchain. The main thing is to make sure it is convenient for governments, common people, and businesses, as well as cost-effective and free of politics.”

Ushakov did not mention it explicitly, but a new alternative system already exists. For the moment, it is a closely, carefully guarded project in the form of a detailed white paper that has already been validated academically and also incorporates answers to possible frequently asked questions.

The Cradle was briefed on the system via several meetings since last year with a small group of world-class fintech experts. The system has already been presented to Ushakov himself. As it stands, it is on the verge of receiving a final green light from the Russian government. After clearing a series of tests, the system in thesis would be ready to be presented to all BRICS-10 members before the Kazan summit.

This all ties in with Ushakov publicly declaring that a specific task for 2024 is to increase the role of BRICS in the international monetary/ financial system.

Ushakov recalls how, in the 2023 Johannesburg Declaration, the BRICS heads of state focused on increasing settlements in national currencies and strengthening correspondent banking networks. The target was to “continue to develop the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, primarily regarding the use of currencies different from the US dollar.”

No single currency for the foreseeable future

All of the above frames the absolute key issue being currently discussed in Moscow, within the Russia–China partnership, and soon, deeper among the BRICS-10: alternative settlement payments to the US dollar, increased trade among “friendly nations,” and controls on capital flight.

Ryabkov added more crucial elements to the debate, saying this week that the BRICS are not debating the implementation of a single currency:

As for a single currency, similar to what was created by the European Union, this is hardly possible in the foreseeable future. If we are talking about clearing forms of mutual settlements such as the ECU [European Currency Unit] at an early stage of development of the European Union, in the absence of a real means of payment, but the opportunity to more effectively use the available resources of the countries in mutual settlements to avoid losses due to differences in exchange rates, and so on, then this is precisely the path along which, in my opinion, BRICS should move. This is under consideration.

The key takeaway, per Ryabkov, is that the BRICS should not create a financial and monetary alliance; they should create payment and settlement systems that do not depend upon the shifty “rules-based international order.”

That’s exactly the emphasis of the ideas and experiments already developed by Minister of Integration and Macroeconomy at the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) Sergei Glazyev, as he explained in an exclusive interview, as well as the new groundbreaking project on the verge of being greenlighted by the Russian government.

Ryabkov confirmed that “a group of experts, led by the Ministries of Finance and representatives of the Central Banks of the respective [BRICS] countries,” is working nonstop on the dossier. Moreover, there are “consultations in other formats, including with the participation of representatives of the ‘historical west.'”

Ryabkov’s own takeaway mirrors what the BRICS as a whole are aiming at:

Collectively, we must come up with a product that would be, on the one hand, quite ambitious (because it is impossible to continue to tolerate the dictates of the west in this area), but at the same time realistic, not out of touch with the ground. That is, a product that would be efficient. And all this should be presented in Kazan for consideration by the leaders.

In a nutshell: the big breakthrough may be literally knocking at the BRICS door. It just depends on a simple green light by the Russian government.

Now compare the BRICS devising the contours of a new geoeconomics paradigm with the collective west mulling the actual theft of Russia’s seized assets to the benefit of the black hole that is Ukraine.

Apart from being a de facto declaration by the US and EU against Russia, this is something that carries the potential, in itself, of totally smashing the current global financial system.

A theft of Russian assets, would it ever happen, will render livid, to put it mildly, at least two key BRICS members, China and Saudi Arabia, who bring to the table considerable economic heft. Such a move by the west would completely destroy the concept of the rule of law, which theoretically underpins the global financial system.

The Russian response will be fierce. The Russian Central Bank could, in a flash, sue and confiscate the assets of Belgian Euroclear, one of the world’s largest settlement and clearing systems, on whose accounts Russian reserves were frozen.

And that on top of seizing Euroclear’s assets in Russia – which amount to roughly 33 billion euros. With Euroclear running out of capital, the Belgian Central Bank will have to revoke its license, causing a massive financial crisis.

Talk about a clash of paradigms: western robbery versus a Global South-based equitable trade and finance settlement system.

Global South

Yemen consolidates around Ansar Allah (Houthis)

In Yemen, The Squabbling Tribes — ancient vehicle used by Empires to divide and rule  — have been harnessed by Ansar Allah into the unbreakable internal front; the rock upon which shatters the thalassocratic West.

By Saqr Abo Hasan at The Cradle.

In Yemen, tribes hold the keys to power

Yemen’s many tribes are key powerbrokers in the country’s wars and conflicts. Today, it is Ansarallah, and not foreign powers, that has emerged as the predominant force harnessing tribal influence and strategically managing these disparate groups.

Throughout the considerable history of internal conflicts in Yemen, the influential role of tribes has been critical in shaping the outcomes of external wars and internal power struggles.

These ancient tribal structures, deeply embedded in Yemen’s social fabric and military dynamics, have played kingmaker roles in times of conflict – even during periods when the state, with its superior military and security apparatuses, was involved, as seen in the Six Sadaa Wars.

Spanning from 2004 to 2010, those wars pitted government forces against Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement. But each side could only come to the fight with their own set of tribal allies.

Over the years, and especially today, Yemeni tribes in the northern regions – where the Houthi clan is based – have evolved into an “inexhaustible reservoir of fighters,” embodying a formidable force that can be mobilized under the right political and social conditions.

As Yemeni writer Ali Abdullah al-Dhayani points out, these particular Yemeni tribes are “natural warriors, as their men – and even women in some areas – carry weapons as part of daily life.”

The Hashid and Bakil tribes

Two prominent tribal confederations, Hashid (led by the Al-Ahmar family) and Bakil (led by the Abu Lahoum family), stand out as the most potent forces in Yemen’s military, civil, and executive spheres. The Hashid tribe’s clout has helped it secure four seats in the Yemeni House of Representatives for the sons of its late leader, Abdullah al-Ahmar.

Meanwhile, Saba Abu Lahoum, the scion of the Abu Lahoum family, now leads the Bakil tribe, inheriting the mantle from his father, Sinan Abu Lahoum, who passed away in 2021.

For decades, the Al-Ahmar and Abu Lahoum families have vied for the prestigious position of “Sheikh of the Sheikhs of Yemen,” a title that has oscillated between them depending on prevailing political winds.

The loose alliance forged between the Hashid and Bakil encompasses the majority of tribes across northern and eastern Yemen, wielding significant influence. It is worth noting that Ansarallah belongs to the Bakil confederation, while late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s Sanhan clan belongs to Hashid.

According to a study by Iraqi researcher Nizar al-Abadi, published on the Al-Mutamar.net website, which is affiliated with the Saleh-affiliated General People’s Congress Party (GPC) in Yemen, “The number of Yemeni tribes is estimated at 200–168 of them are in the north and the rest in the south, with the majority of them living in mountainous areas.”

Tribalism in politics

Successive governments in Yemen have historically sought to exert control over the tribes, employing various strategies to secure their allegiance. One notable example is Saleh’s establishment of the “Tribal Affairs Authority” in the early 1980s, through which monthly salaries and bonuses were distributed to numerous tribal leaders across the country to ensure the alignment of their interests with Saleh’s ruling GPC.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a leader of one of the tribes informs The Cradle that this government approach encouraged materialism and corruption within tribal leadership, effectively buying their loyalty for the Saleh government:

Joining the Tribal Affairs Authority was based on loyalty to the regime. It included hundreds of sheikhs who had no influence, while opponents of the ruling party were punished by being deprived of salaries. Sometimes, marginal figures were pushed to assume the leadership of the tribe.

After Saleh stepped down in early 2012, there were calls to abolish the Tribal Affairs Authority and invest its annual budget of around 13 billion Yemeni riyals into national infrastructure. But the successor government to Mohammed Salem Basindwa decided against this. It resumed Saleh’s tried-and-tested financial approach “to win over the tribal leaders,” according to a tribal source.

During Yemen’s 2011 ‘Arab Spring,’ Saleh established a new entity – the “Yemen Tribal Council” – to contain the growing tribal preference for the opposition, especially after several of these leaders, including Hashid Chief Sadiq al-Ahmar, publicly supported the popular uprising against his government.

According to political activist Shaalan al-Abrat, the tribes’ involvement provided significant momentum to the so-called February 11 revolution in some Yemeni cities, such as Dhamar (100 km south of Sanaa).

In late 2012, the city of Saada in northern Yemen, an Ansarallah stronghold, witnessed the emergence of the “Tribal Popular Cohesion Council,” which included tribal leaders supportive of the resistance movement. The council quickly expanded to include all tribes in and outside areas controlled by the current Ansarallah-led government based in the capital, Sanaa.

As Dr Abdo al-Bahsh, head of the political department at the Yemeni Studies and Research Center, describes the development:

[This council] was imposed by the Yemeni political reality and attempts to subject Yemen to American control … [It] expresses the aspirations of the Yemeni people and their national will, far from sectarian, ethnic, regional, and narrow partisanship.

The council is headed by Dhaif Allah Rassam, a tribal leader from Saada Governorate. It has branches and representatives in all Yemeni governorates currently under Sanaa’s control. Importantly, its influence extends to tribes outside their area of control, such as in the Shabwa, Ma’rib, and Al-Dhalea areas of Yemen.

Bolstering the argument that the tribes play a key role in dispute resolution, the council’s Dhamar branch head, Abbas al-Amdi, says that throughout the years of aggression against Yemen, the council was instrumental in strengthening internal unity, ending tribal revenge wars, and supplying the fighting fronts with tribal fighters.

Ansarallah’s political ascendency

Yemen’s political factions have long leveraged tribal affiliations to enhance popular support. The Saudi-backed Islah Party, affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, strategically aligned itself with tribal leaders upon its establishment in 1990, with Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmar, chief of the Hashid tribe, assuming its presidency.

The assertion of tribal authority over state influence was exemplified by Hamid al-Ahmar – brother of Hashid’s leader – when asked in an interview on Al-Jazeera whether he was afraid of returning to Sanaa after voicing support for Saleh’s opposition: “Whoever has Sadiq [al-Ahmar] as his chief, and Hashid as his tribe, would not be afraid.”

Tribal influence was strikingly evident during Saleh’s ousting through the 2012 Gulf Initiative, in which a coalition of Yemeni tribal and political factions orchestrated that delicate transition of power. Around this time, Ansarallah capitalized on its tribal networks to expand its movement’s influence, particularly in the country’s northern regions. It gradually extended its reach across Yemen in an alliance with Saleh’s GPC and the armed forces.

Ansarallah’s adept handling of tribal structures facilitated their rise, merging ideology with tribalism to galvanize support. This symbiotic relationship contributed to their military and popular ascendancy, as noted by Yemeni political analyst Abdul Salam al-Nahari:

[Before 2012], finding someone who believed in Ansarallah was difficult due to years of misinformation. However, after 2015, society began to become aware of Ansarallah, especially among tribes exhausted by wars and internal conflicts … After the war in Yemen, the tribe has now become more cohesive after playing a major role in community steadfastness and in supplying the fighting fronts with weapons, money, and men.

Tribe-centric strategies

Nahari points out that the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen put the country at a crossroads: either remaining under American guardianship or breaking away from it at any cost. “The people of Yemen chose independence,” he declares.

The foreign aggression united Yemenis during a time when Ansarallah was encouraging the advancement of many tribal leaders to the front ranks and giving them the opportunity to lead.

Examples abound. In the Al-Bayda region of central Yemen, tribal leader Saleh bin Saleh al-Wahbi founded the “Wahbi Brigades” in 2016. After his death in 2021, his son Bakil succeeded him.

In the Al-Razzamat region, north of Saada Governorate near the southern border of Saudi Arabia, tribal leader and member of the House of Representatives Abdullah Aydah al-Razami threw his weight behind Ansarallah Founder Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, and his tribe fought a fierce war against government forces after the latter’s killing.

During the foreign aggression against Yemen, his son Yahya al-Razami was appointed commander of the Hamidan axis forces and assumed command of the “Death Brigades,” the elite forces affiliated with Ansarallah.

The son played a vital role in the Victory from God operation in 2019 when his forces captured thousands of soldiers loyal to the Yemeni government in Riyadh and seized a vast amount of weapons and military equipment.

Al-Nahari asserts that “fighting in any area where there is no popular incubator is like fighting on open ground.” Ansarallah has actively sought to create supportive environments in strategic areas. By neutralizing certain tribes through treaties and agreements, such as in Marib, Ansarallah has effectively extended its influence with minimal combat cost, illustrating its strategic understanding of Yemen’s tribal politics.

Global South

The General Staff brings the Cure

On the healing power of the Holy Russian General Staff

By Marat Khairullin

What Europe is doing today is literally incomprehensible to the mind. I emphasize: the mind of a modern, civilized, well-informed person, brought up on humanitarian values. Today we all have the opportunity, as they say, online, live to watch as Europe once again slides into the era of savagery and primitive cruelty. The worst thing is that today we can clearly see how huge chunks of modern Europe are peeling off the veneer of civilization that our neighbors have been so proud of in recent decades. And, probably, even more frightening here is that you can clearly see how thin this raid was.

Decades of peace after the Great Patriotic War allowed all of humanity to forget that for centuries Europe was a source of threat to all of humanity. There is no abomination that European civilization does not invent and embody in relation to Man – any form of oppression, genocide, mass burning of women, concentration camps, slavery and the destruction of entire peoples by starvation, colonialism and neocolonialism, the mass introduction of homosexuality as a form of “soft genocide” against the entire human race, etc. so on and so forth…

And the pinnacle of all this: Europe has unleashed two world wars and is now rapidly unleashing a third… That is, some satanic gene that seeks to destroy humanity is embedded in the very structure of European civilization.

Two world wars and tens of millions of innocent victims did not cure Europe of this monstrous genetic disease, and now, before the eyes of the whole world, it is trying to ignite a Third World War, which threatens to destroy this time everyone on the planet, including the planet itself…

Probably, now many of my readers will ask the question-why this philosophical speech from a reporter working exclusively on earth. And the fact is that here on earth, and specifically in the trenches, I discovered that the cure for this satanic European gene has long been developed by our country in the form of fundamental concepts on which domestic military science is built.

Of course, I draw conditional parallels, but the point is that our strategic planners assume that sooner or later Europe will once again attack us. And based on this, they make their own plans. Moreover, as I understand it, based on historical experience, a clear gradation of signs of the coming European invasion has been developed. They fit into a fairly simple formula: as soon as Europe starts moving its borders towards Russia, expect an attack. It’s always been like this. And, as I understand it, the entire current foreign and domestic policy of Russia is based on the fact that a future war with Europe is inevitable.

I have repeatedly written about the profound signs that indirectly indicate this assessment of the situation by our authorities. For example, the country’s defense sector has been sent a clear signal from the highest level that the current rate of financing for the industry will continue for at least a decade. So that production workers are not afraid to deploy additional capacities, realizing that they will always find sales.

However, today, against the background of the fact that Europe has already openly announced another campaign to the East, it makes sense to talk about what cards we are playing in this escalation. Especially in comparison with the situation on the eve of the first two World Wars.

So, the main difference, from my point of view, is that both the first and Second World Wars were not only inevitable for us, but, obviously, we entered them with a much smaller set of trump cards than our opponents. Roughly speaking, the actions of our opponents dictated our moves. For example, the enemy not only deployed its military capabilities before us, but also tested them much earlier.

The German Army in ‘ 41 already had considerable combat experience. This was its main difference from the Red Army. A very important factor is that at the beginning of the war, we were inferior not in terms of the number or quality of armored vehicles, but in terms of the number of experienced, shelled crews.

The same applies to aviation, infantry, artillery, and so on.

Today, the situation is just the opposite, and our moves are already imposing behavior on the enemy. Our army has not just accumulated combat experience, which determines its effectiveness. A powerful single grouping of under a million people has been created, which is unfolding in ever-increasing directions. This is evidenced, for example, by yesterday’s events in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction.

The enemy tried to simply move in our direction and immediately received losses of one hundred people, not counting equipment – this is comparable, for example, to the daily losses of Ukrov in such a hot direction as Kherson.

In other words, Russia has managed to deploy a full-fledged military group with real combat experience in this area in just six months. This is, by the way, to the question of rumors about the breakthrough of our troops in the Kharkiv direction. Obviously, the declared operation Ukrov had primarily intelligence purposes. Well, we’ve scouted it.

Russia today has not only real combat experience, we have well-trained and war-tested specialists at all levels. For example, our command did not just let most of the officers through the front line. Our army, which is much more important, in two years managed to grow from scratch a whole generation of front-line middle-level officers (or, probably, tactical-dear readers, tell me) – this is clearly seen in the example of my native “Slavyanka”. I won’t talk about the mechanism in detail, but anyone who closely follows my publications can see what serious combat work is going on in terms of raising future great commanders from young combat soldiers.

This is a very difficult, sometimes frankly difficult and cruel process, but it is going very fast. I, for example, see how a conditional thirty-year-old battalion commander came to the brigade three months ago-a boy, yesterday’s platoon and company commander, and how he becomes after running in continuous battles in the experienced, well-coordinated Slavyanka brigade.

You probably shouldn’t write about this in live reports, but you, my dear readers, can watch this process in an artistic presentation in essays and stories.

And now I look at this cohort of “Slavyanka” battalion commanders and imagine what they will do from the European army. Do not forget that each battalion commander of the “Slavyanka”, which I write about, is already a ready-made squadron – you can appoint it right now.

What is also important here is that these young people, in general, are also well trained and educated. And” Slavyanka ” is not the only one at the front. Today, only the potential of such (let’s call them “super-experienced”) units as my “Slavyanka”, which have an excellent officer backbone, capable of fighting in any conditions, is estimated at 100 thousand bayonets.

The peculiarity of such units is that they are assigned to newly formed units (usually three or four), which, in conjunction with an experienced unit, adopt combat experience in practice.

And today, thanks to such a system, I see that once raw units are being transformed into strong combat regiments and brigades. And in addition, there are also special shock-assault units, also constantly fighting since the beginning of the SVO and having a huge accumulated combat experience. These are mostly our paratroopers and Marines. The potential of these forces is estimated at 150 bayonets.

That is, we have only in the first line “super-experienced” pure infantry troops numbering about 250 thousand. But there are also exactly the same “super-efficient” and experienced purely artillery, rocket, engineering, aviation, etc. units. What are the Europeans going to do with all this?

Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize once again what constitutes the “super-efficiency” of these teams. On the example of Slavyanka, I have already written more than once how in the summer, just to keep the front in our direction, the Ukry kept the number of troops in the ratio of one to three in front of our position in a defense zone about 10 kilometers deep. That is, for one of our three dill just sat in the trenches. The calculation was that when we go on the offensive (even with a total advantage in aviation and art), our losses in personnel will exceed Ukrop. And we will simply drown in our own blood (who counts dill-no one cared about them, the main thing is our losses).

It’s like a classic: the attackers always suffer heavy losses. Simply due to the fact that the Ukry diligently dug into the ground. In the end, everything turned out exactly the opposite – the Nazis suffered enormous losses.

And if in Bakhmut, according to Prigozhin’s estimates, the losses were one to three in our favor. Even during the counteroffensive in Zaporizhia, dill losses were, according to official estimates, one in eight. And now clearly more. According to my feelings, somewhere one in ten, at least, if not more-there are also a number of indirect signs that are clearly visible to a person who is inside the process.

And this actually put the entire military science of NATO in a stupor – how are they going to fight with such soldiers and with such an army vehicle?

Let’s imagine what the NATO countries can put up against us. For example, the same France, which, through the mouth of Macron, announced the first readiness to march to the East.

France has two divisions of constant combat readiness. The conditional number of real combat bayonets (without real combat experience) is about 7 thousand. At the same time, an extreme check revealed that the combat kit in tanks and armored vehicles is half of what it should be. This is, I emphasize, in the troops of constant combat readiness.

And for this unprecedented power, the whole of France has several dozen artillery barrels and less than a dozen MLRS barrels.

For comparison, according to some estimates, the density of our barrel artillery near Avdiivka was about 60 barrels per kilometer (including self-propelled guns), plus twenty MLRS installations. Plus tanks, UAVs and aircraft.

An even more interesting picture emerges if you know that about 20 percent of French men are homosexuals. Among young people, this percentage exceeds 30 and confidently tends to 40.

You can imagine how homosexuals are fighting – dill, which is strongly moving towards European values, has not been able to gather a single blue battalion.

Few people know, but one of the problems of the Israeli army is a very high percentage of homosexuals (the second problem is religious people who do not want to take up arms). Therefore, the IDF that is destroying Gaza today is not doing it as effectively as the one that fought for the freedom and survival of Israel. Homosexuals make good executioners, but warriors are not so-so.

And what kind of advertising would it be, imagine, in the case of dill: gay fighters tear up the defense of the totalitarian army of Russia and plant a rainbow flag in Donetsk. But it didn’t work out, although they tried repeatedly – the perverts don’t want to fight, and that’s it.

And if so, who will the French send to die on the Eastern Front – the very Arabs who regularly burn their suburbs?

I imagined it: a French Arab immigrant in the winter, but with a bare bottom in a cold puddle in the same trench on the Eastern Front. Such a gay Verdun with an Arabic accent. Very funny.

Or let’s imagine how England will send its Sasu to the Eastern Front, which it is so proud of (that’s all it has). Which will fall, for example, into the clutches of my “Slavyanka”, where there is such a gambling social competition between bats – drive the special forces to the grave. Oh, how much fun it will be – English special forces, with English toilet paper in English backpacks, guys will line up to fight with them. You know, in an aggressive queue like this.

This is not a joke, I told you how the 36th marine brigade of Ukropia lost a battalion of the same special forces trained by the same British sasa in Opytne. As if it wasn’t there, they pretended it wasn’t.

Or how we ate a special forces company of the 3rd assault brigade with diplomas of the American Delta Force near Avdiivka for an afternoon snack. No matter how you look at it, special forces in the southern Russian steppes are not fighting against Russian infantry.

Of course, you can also talk about the Poles, imagine how they will sit in the trenches – these are the very farmers who are now blocking the border with dill. Oh, sorry, but they’ve been here before. Bold ones, flags were openly hung here last summer. We hung there for exactly two weeks, then we went on the attack once – I’m not lying-exactly once, at night, we lost five people to our only position. The next morning, the flags were quickly removed and we did not see them again. No flags, no Poles. In short, Poles, ay, come, we are waiting. You haven’t answered us yet for Susanin.

Speaking in general, the third campaign of the Europeans themselves, who decided not to hide behind dill like a fig leaf anymore, against Russia is still starting so-so. Let’s see what happens next.

As for our side, our Supreme Leader once said [not] in vain that he preferred the prevention of disease to doctors and pills.

We thought that the GDP was talking about human health, but it turns out that it is about our General Staff, which at the moment, like some medieval saint, is preventing Europeans from the Third World War by applying healing bombs and shells to dill.

It will not help, well, then that very gambling and fun Russian infantry will go directly to the treatment. The only thing I would personally wish for here, this time to make Europe healthier for good, is to cut out the damn gene once and for all, with all their gonorrhea, genocide and homosexuality, so that it will never be customary to interfere with the life of normal humanity again.

Marat Khairullin

Global South

West in 404: Nuke or Kneel

And both options lead to same defeat.. Brian Berletic breaks down the Ukraine’s Manpower Crisis: No Amount of Money or Aid Can Solve It

He uses the US Army’s own [admittedly inadequate] doctrine to explain why the Ukraine is finished in terms of manpower, even if further financing and weapons resupply were possible. They lack the time, especially seasoning top cadre, in order to be combat effective. And the ideal environment in which to train within the Ukraine, already involved and enveloped in the hellscape of war. No place on the Ukraine is safe from Russian stand-off weaponry.

The options confronting the sinking West are bitter indeed: double down into nuclear war, as NATO itself lacks the tools and manpower to halt much less defeat the Russian Armed Forces. Or accept defeat and the end of their centuries-old Hegemony.

More detail from The New Atlas:
Ukraine is suffering from a growing military manpower crisis in addition to a lack of arms and ammunition;
Trained military manpower takes up to half a year to produce, new brigade-sized units can take up to 30 months to stand up;
Ukraine and its Western sponsors simply cannot produce trained military manpower faster than Russia is removing it from the battlefield;
This leaves the collective West with the choice of either accepting it has lost its proxy war with Russia, or attempting to intervene more directly;

References:
NEO – Ukraine’s Manpower Crisis: No Amount of Money or Aid Can Solve It (March 5, 2024):
The Kyiv Independent – Ukraine struggles to ramp up mobilization as Russia’s war enters 3rd year (March 3, 2024):
The Washington Post – Front-line Ukrainian infantry units report acute shortage of soldiers (February 8, 2024):
US Department of Defense – The National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) (2023-2024):
NEO – Fatal Flaws Undermine America’s Defense Industrial Base (February 15, 2024):
US Department of Defense – Press Release: Evaluation of Sustainment Strategies for the Patriot Air Defense Systems Transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces (DODIG-2024-056) and Evaluation of the DoD’s Sustainment Plan for Bradley, Stryker, and Abrams Armored Weapon Systems (February 20, 2024):
Reuters – Ukraine considers proposal by army to mobilise another 500,000 for war (December 2023):
Reuters – Who are the forces involved in Ukraine’s counteroffensive? (June 2023):
US DoD – Defense Officials Hold Media Brief on the Training of Ukrainian Military (March 2022):
The US Army War College Quarterly – Expanding Brigade Combat Teams: IS the Training Base Adequate? (2017):

Where to Find My Work:
Website: https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/brianlovethailand
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianJBerletic

Global South

Confident China Lays out the Refined Roadmap

As Project Ukraine goes down the drain of history, Project Taiwan will go on overdrive. Forever Wars never die. Bring it on. The Dragon is ready.

By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture.

This is the Year of the Wooden Dragon, according to China’s classic wuxing (“five elements”) culture. The dragon, one of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac, is a symbol of power, nobility and intelligence. Wood adds growth, development and prosperity.

Call it a summary of where China is heading in 2024.

The second session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was finalized on Sunday in Beijing.

The wider world should know that within the framework of grassroots democracy with Chinese characteristics, an extremely complex – and fascinating – phenomenon, the importance of the CPPCC is paramount.

The CPPCC channels wide-ranging expectations of the average Chinese to the decision level, and actually advises the central government on a vast range of issues – from everyday living to high-quality development strategies.

This year, most of the discussion focused on how to drive

China’s modernization even faster. This being China, concepts – like flowers – were blooming all around the spectrum, such as “new quality productive forces, “deepening reform,” “high-standard opening-up,” and a fabulous new one, “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.”

As the Global Times emphasized, “2024 is not only a critical year for achieving the goals of the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ but also a key year for achieving the transition to high-quality development of the economy.”

Betting on strategic investment

So let’s start with Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s first “work report” delivered a week ago, which opened the annual session of the National People’s Congress. The key takeaway: Beijing will be pursuing the same economic targets as in 2023. That translates as 5% annual growth.

Of course deflationary risks, a downturn in the real estate market and somewhat shaky business confidence simply won’t vanish. Li was quite realistic, emphasizing Beijing is “keenly aware” of the challenges ahead: “Achieving this year’s targets will not be easy.” And he added: “Global economic growth lacks steam and the regional hotspot issues keep erupting. This has made China’s external environment more complex, severe and uncertain.”

Beijing’s strategy remains focused on a “proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy”. In a nutshell: the song remains the same. There won’t be a “stimulus” of any kind.

Deeper answers should be found in the work report/budget released by the National Development and Reform Commission: the focus will be on structural change, via extra funds to science, technology, education, national defense, agriculture. Translation: China bets on strategic investment, the key for a high-quality economic transition.

In practice, Beijing will be heavily invested in modernizing industry and developing “new quality productive forces” such as new-energy vehicles, biomanufacturing and commercial space flight.

Science Minister Yin Hejun made it clear: there was an 8.1% increase in national investment in research and development in 2023. He wants more – and he will get it: R&D spending will grow by 10% to a total of 370.8 billion yuan.

The mantra is “self-reliance”. On all fronts – from chipmaking to AI. A no holds barred tech war is on – and China is totally focused to counter “tech containment” from the Hegemon as much as its ultimate goal is to wrest tech supremacy from its prime competitor. Beijing simply cannot allow itself to be vulnerable to U.S.-imposed tech choke points and supply chain disruptions.

So short-term economic problems will not be causing sleepless nights. The Beijing leadership is always looking ahead – focusing on long-term challenges.

Learning lessons from the Donbass battlefield

Beijing will continue to steer the economic development of Hong Kong and Macau, and invest even more in the crucial Greater Bay Area, which is the premier southern China high tech, services and finance hub.

Taiwan of course was central to the work report; Beijing fiercely opposes “external interference” – code for Hegemon tactics. That will become even trickier in May, when William Lai Ching-te, who flirts with independence, becomes president.

On defense, there will be only a 7.2% increase in 2024, which is peanuts compared to the Hegemon’s defense budget now approaching $900 billion: China’s stands as $238 billion, even as China’s nominal GDP is approaching the U.S.

A great deal of China’s defense budget will go for emerging tech – considering the immensely valuables lessons the PLA is learning out of the Donbass battlefield, as well as the deep interactions part of the Russia-China strategic partnership.

And that brings us to diplomacy. China will continue to be firmly positioned as a champion of the Global South. That was made explicit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a press conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress.

Wang Yi’s priorities: to “maintain stable relations with major powers; join hands with its neighbouring countries for progress; and strive for revitalisation with the Global South”.

Wang Yi once again stressed that Beijing favors an “equal and orderly” multipolar world and “inclusive economic globalization”.

And of course he could not allow U.S. Secretary of State Little Blinken – always out of his depth – to get away with his latest “recipe”: “It is impermissible that those with the bigger fist have the final say, and it is definitely unacceptable that certain countries must be at the table while others can only be on the menu.”

BRI as a global accelerator

Crucially, Wang Yi re-emphasized the drive for “high-quality” cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework. He defined BRI as “an engine for the common development of all countries and an accelerator for the modernisation of the whole world”. Wang Yi actually said he’s hopeful about the emergence of a “Global South moment in global governance” – in which China and BRI play an essential part.

Li Qiang’s work report, incidentally, had only one paragraph on BRI. But then we find this nugget as Li refers to the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor – which links China’s landlocked southwest with the eastern seaboard, via Guangxi province.

Translation: BRI will be focusing on opening new economic roads for China’s less developed regions, diversifying from the previous emphasis on Xinjiang.

Dr Wei Yuansong is a member of the CPPCC and also the Chinese Peasants’ and Workers’ Democratic Party – which happens to be one of the eight non-CCP parties in Chinese politics (very few outside of China know about this).

He offered some fascinating comments on BRI to Fengmian News and also stressed the need to “tell China’s story well” to avoid “conflict and incidents” along the BRI road. For that, Wei suggests the need to use an “international language” in telling these stories; that implies using English.

As for what Wang Yi said in his press conference, in fact that was discussed in detail at the closed-door Central Conference on Foreign Affairs Work in late 2023, where it was established that China faced “strategic opportunities” to raise its “international influence, appeal and power” despite “high winds and choppy waters”.

The key takeaway: the narrative war between China and the Hegemon will be pitiless. Beijing is confident it’s capable of offering stability, investment, connectivity and sound diplomacy to the whole Global South, instead of Forever Wars.

That is reflected, for instance, by Ma Xinmin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s legal advisor, telling the International Court of Justice that the Palestinians have the right to armed resistance  when it comes to fighting the colonialist, racist, apartheid state of Israel. Therefore, Hamas cannot be defined as a terrorist organization.

This is the overwhelming position across the lands of Islam and across the majority of the Global South – linking Beijing with fellow BRICS member Brazil and President Lula, who compared the genocide in Gaza to the Nazi genocide in WWII.

How to resist collective West sanctions

The Two Sessions did reflect Beijing’s full understanding that Hegemon containment and destabilization tactics remain the biggest challenge to China’s peaceful rise. But simultaneously it reflected Chinese confidence on its global diplomatic clout as a force for peace, stability and economic development. It’s an extremely sensitive balance that only the Middle Kingdom seems capable of pulling off.

Then there’s the Trump factor.

Economist Ding Yifan, a former deputy director of the World Development Institute, part of the State Council’s Development Research Centre, is one among those who’s aware China is learning key lessons from Russia on how to resist collective West sanctions – which will be inevitable against China especially if Trump is back at the White House.

And that brings us to the absolute key issue being currently discussed in Moscow, within the Russia-China partnership, and soon among the BRICS: alternative settlement payments to the U.S. dollar, increasing trade among “friendly nations”, and controls on capital flight.

Nearly all Russia-China trade is now in yuan and rubles. As much as Russian trade with the EU fell by 68% in 2023, trade with Asia rose by 5.6% – with new landmarks reached with China ($240 billion) and India ($65 billion) – and 84% of

Russia’s total energy exports going to “friendly countries”.

The Two Sessions did not get into detail on some extremely thorny geopolitical issues. For instance, India’s version of multipolarity – considering New Delhi’s unresolved love affair with Washington – is quite different from China’s. Everyone knows – and no one more than the Russians – that within BRICS 10 the biggest strategic issue is how to accommodate the perpetual tension between India and China.

What’s clear even behind the fog of goodwill enveloping the Two Sessions is that Beijing is fully aware of how the Hegemon is – deliberately – already crossing a key Chinese red line, officially stationing “permanent troops” in Taiwan.

Since last year U.S. Special Forces have been training Taiwanese in operating Black Hornet nano microdrones. In 2024 U.S. military advisers are deployed full time at army bases on Kinmen and Penghu islands.

Those actually driving U.S. foreign policy behind the Crash Test Dummy at the White House believe that even as they are powerless to handle the Houthi Ansarallah in the Red Sea, they are capable of poking the Dragon.

No posturing will alter the Dragon’s roadmap. The CPPCC’s political resolution on Taiwan calls for uniting “all patriotic forces”, “deepen integration and development in various fields across the Taiwan Straits”, and go all out on “peaceful reunification”. That will translate in practice into increased economic/trade cooperation, more direct flights, more cargo ports and logistics bases.

As Project Ukraine goes down the drain of history, Project Taiwan will go on overdrive. Forever Wars never die. Bring it on. The Dragon is ready.

Global South

Russia and The Holy Land

A continuation of the thought of “Zionism, Arrogance & World War III” — why a rising Orthodox Russia is fated to bury both Messianic Judaism and the hired western muscle in the Holy Land — from the perspective of geopolitics and geoeconomics. The eschatological consequences of lose-lose predicaments are profound

By Jamal Wakim at Al Mayadeen.

Gamal Abdel Nasser announced in 1969 that the battle on the banks of the Suez Canal would decide the fate of the world. This piece explains how.

Russia’s victory in struggle with collective West will be achieved in Middle East, not Eastern Europe

This article discusses the importance of what is happening in the Middle East and the battle taking place there specifically in the region extending from Egypt in the west to Iraq in the east to determine the fate of the world. When we talk about this region, there is a connection between the battle taking place in the Middle East and the battle that has always been taking place in the heart of Eurasia, specifically against Russia.

In the past two centuries, Russia was the one facing the so-called collective West, and it was the spearhead in confronting this collective West. In the early nineteenth century, this collective West was represented by Napoleon, and after that, during World War II, the collective West was represented by Nazi Germany, and after World War II, the collective West was represented by the United States of America.

Experience facing Napoleon

In the face of Napoleon’s invasion, we must understand that there was a project for this collective West, represented by global hegemony, and this collective West began its attack in Egypt and the occupation of Egypt in the year 1799. France’s failure in Egypt two years later was what determined Napoleon’s fate, and therefore his defeat was a matter of time in the confrontation against Russia. After that, Napoleon did not succeed in isolating Russia after the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805, despite his victory in this battle. After that, Napoleon had to invade Russia in an attempt to subjugate it, and in this way, he recruited an army from various parts of Europe to begin his invasion of Russia.

On June 24, 1812, and the following days, the first wave of the multinational French Grande Armée crossed the Niemen River, beginning the French invasion of Russia. Despite the great advance of the French forces inside Russian territory, and despite their tactical victory over the Russian army in the Battle of Borodino, and then Napoleon’s occupation of Moscow itself, he was unable to achieve victory over Russia and began his withdrawal five weeks after his entry into Moscow, only to be defeated tactically in the battle. Bonaparte began his retreat before the Russian forces, which pursued him until Paris, where he was forced to abdicate and accept exile to the island of Elba, off the coast of Corsica. Despite his desperate attempt to return to power in early 1815, Napoleon was actually defeated by Russia, but his strategic defeat had begun with his failure in Egypt a decade and a half before that date.

World War II experience

Then, during World War II, Nazi Germany launched a military campaign in North Africa as part of its larger strategic goals. This campaign, led by General Erwin Rommel, was known as the North African Campaign. However, Nazi Germany’s primary focus in Eastern Europe was not initially directed toward the Russian heartland. Instead, it invaded Poland in 1939, which led to the outbreak of the war in Europe. Later, in June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, with the intention of capturing key cities like Moscow and Leningrad.

At the time, the advance of Erwin Rommel’s forces in North Africa constituted an attempt to isolate it and reach the Suez Canal and cut off British access to the Middle East. In parallel, Nazi forces had begun to invade the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. They advanced toward major cities like Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad; where they faced tough resistance from the Soviet military and encountered numerous logistical challenges due to the vastness of the territory and the harsh conditions. But it was Erwin Rommel’s failure in the Middle East that sealed the final failure for Nazi Germany, and it was only a matter of time before Nazi Germany was defeated.

Rommel’s defeat at the Battle of El Alamein in the fall of 1942 represented a colossal failure. Therefore, this defeat in the Middle East was followed by the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943. The Battle of Stalingrad weakened the German army and boosted Soviet morale, contributing to the eventual Soviet counteroffensive. Then, the Battle of Kursk occurred in July 1943 and was a major offensive launched by Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union. The battle ended in a decisive Soviet victory and marked the beginning of a series of successful Soviet offensives that pushed German forces back toward Eastern Europe. The defeat of Nazi Germany was announced in May 1945.

Brezhnev’s geopolitical shortsightedness

The Soviet Union emerged victorious in the war against Nazi Germany, only to find itself facing the United States, which would take the banner of leadership of the collective West from Nazi Germany. According to the divisions of the Yalta Conference, the Soviets expanded their influence into Eastern and Central Europe, securing a defensive depth in the heart of Russia. But Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not have the opportunity to reach the eastern Mediterranean after the defeat of the communists in Greece in the civil war in 1947, nor did he have the opportunity to reach the Adriatic Sea after a dispute broke out with Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, who accepted generous offers from the West to stay away.

About the bloc of socialist countries

Here, the United States began to encircle the bloc of socialist countries by establishing NATO in 1949, which was supposed to besiege the communist bloc and contain the communist influence in Southeast Asia. The Baghdad Pact, also known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was established in 1955 among Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. It aimed to foster cooperation and mutual defense among its member states, particularly in the face of perceived Soviet expansionism and influence in the Middle East. However, the main target of the United States was to attack the Soviet interior. What hindered this plan was the coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, which brought him to power. Abdel Nasser declared his blatant opposition to the policy of Western alliances and declared his own policy of non-alignment in the Cold War, and, at the same time, he began to take rapprochement initiatives toward the Soviet Union and the bloc of socialist countries in order to balance Western support for “Israel”. After his victory against Britain, France, and “Israel” during the tripartite aggression, Abdel Nasser was able to overthrow the Baghdad Pact in 1958 after the coup that he supported against the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq in the summer of 1958.

The Soviet rapprochement with Abdel Nasser contributed to opening the African arena to the growth of African-Russian relations and led to the liberation of African countries from Western colonialism.

But after the year 1965 and the coup against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, the arrival of a bureaucratic class with a “Eurocentrism” orientation in the Soviet Union that gave priority to Moscow’s relations with Europe led to the neglect of Soviet-Arab relations and pushed them to second place in terms of importance. What made matters worse was the communist dogmatism of short-sighted Soviet leaders, which made them neglect the geopolitical dimension. Unfortunately, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and specifically the leadership that took power after 1965, did not realize the importance of what was happening in the Middle East as a result of its European-centric vision. Therefore, they were content and happy with what was happening with their share of influence in Eastern and Central Europe, and they neglected their influence in the Middle East.

After 1965, the United States took advantage of the short-sightedness of the new Soviet leadership to resolve the battle in the Middle East. The defeat of the Arab countries in 1967 was not against “Israel”, but it was in fact against the collective West, primarily the United States of America, which supports “Israel”. It also constituted the first major defeat for the Soviet Union. Then, the American attack began in Eastern Europe via the destabilization of Czechoslovakia and Poland. And when the Soviet Union left the region, and after Egypt turned toward the United States under Anwar Sadat, the issue of defeating the Soviet Union was only a matter of time. This brings us back to what the late Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser said in 1969 when he announced that the battle on the banks of the Suez Canal would decide the fate of the world. Therefore, the defeat of the progressive Arab countries, led by Egypt, constituted a defeat for the Soviet Union as a whole, making it lose strategic superiority in favor of the United States, which began achieving one victory after another, leading to victory in the Cold War.

In summary

Now what is happening in the Middle East is also a renewed attempt launched by the collective West, led by the United States, to win global hegemony. They began this attack by occupying Afghanistan in 2002, then Iraq in 2003, before heading to the Russian heartland. They began their attack in Afghanistan, occupying Afghanistan, and then invading Iraq, only to begin shortly after the process of the so-called “Arab Spring” aimed at changing regimes through the use of soft power. After the outbreak of the “Arab Spring”, an indirect war was launched against Russia in the year 2014. Therefore, what is happening in the Middle East, in my estimation, is that any victory in Eastern Europe will not be decisive until the Middle East is done, and, therefore, the Eurasian powers led by Russia must focus their attention on the battle currently taking place in the Middle East because this is the one that could end American influence.

If the Americans win this battle, all the victories that Russia could achieve in Ukraine or Eastern Europe will have no strategic benefit, because the main battle would have been lost, as it happened during the Cold War. Therefore, in the year 1969, during a visit by the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to the Suez Canal, when Sinai was occupied and the Israeli enemy was on the other side of the canal, he said that on the banks of the Suez Canal the fate of the world was decided, and unfortunately the fate of the world was decided not in our favor, but in their favor. What he meant was the American hegemony with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Now, the focus must be on this battle. What is happening in the Middle East is a major battle centered on the main axis: Palestine. What is happening in Palestine is something mentioned in religious books. I may have my own interpretation. Hence, we find that some of the signs mentioned in the Bible are being witnessed now: the killing of children at the hands of Rhodes two thousand years ago is being repeated at the hands of Netanyahu in Gaza. The attempt to deport the Palestinians to Egypt is similar to the story of the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus taking refuge in the land of Egypt. It is worth mentioning that the Resistance in Palestine receives assistance from Iran, similar to the gifts that the Three Magi gave to the child Jesus in the cave. Note that what led the three wise men to the cave was mainly the North Star seen in the Middle East as Russia. Could it be a sign that guides the current Russian leadership toward the region to achieve a decisive victory in the contemporary battle of Armageddon?

 

Global South

War is chosen

About the new plans of the West in Ukraine

By Rotislav Ishchenko

(machine translation)

It all started with the announced resignation of Victoria Nuland. Given the age of the lagged, this may be the end of the successfully developed career of the granddaughter of the local emigrants and the daughter of Yale professor, who made his way to the highest echelon of American politics, moreover, in its most closed and corporate part – under the auspices of the State Department.

The political analyst and columnist of the MIA “Russia Today” Rostislav Ishchenko expressed his opinion about the new plans of the West in Ukraine.

Until recently, Nuland was seen as a potential candidate for the post of First Deputy Secretary of State and a candidate for the Secretary of State in the event of the unlikely victory of the Democrats in the upcoming presidential election. Given that it was Nuland who was the “engineering” that pulled out American politics in the Russian direction, overcoming all possible difficulties (from reformatting the 2014 Maidan under the USA in its final phase, before the sabotage and breakdown of the Minsk agreements, which would have been impossible without the stubborn but flexible tactics of Nuland at the same time), its further career growth would not only be a fair reward for efforts, but also corresponded to the interests of the Biden administration’s policies.

It can be assumed that Nuland went around at the turn of majors from more decent families. Nevertheless, the hereditary American aristocracy, whose ancestors arrived at the Mayflower, never finally accepts middle-class immigrants. No matter how rich and successful they are, unless their grandchildren can claim relative equality. But Victoria has a very difficult husband, and the time is difficult – at such times, qualified personnel are not scattered, and majors from “good families” are not in a hurry to take responsibility.

Nuland could get tired, get sick, even just want to jump from the ship of the Democratic Party, which is in full swing to the reefs. But all her previous activities are contrary to such assumptions. She looks more like a man who dies at a combat post for the sake of realizing his idea, who will fight for a doomed ship even if the captain and most of the team have already left him. She is one of the people living under the motto “Win or die”.

And suddenly, on the eve of the most difficult elections, the Democrats, without any reflection, refuse such a valuable frame. One could have guessed the reasons for a long time, but the next event happened here.

Zaluzhny, who allegedly stubbornly refused the post of ambassador to Britain, suddenly joyfully accepted this appointment. By the way, hello to those who for a year and a half said that the Zelensky creation of the British (they showed him the MI-6 headquarters and put his special forces to guard him), and the Hollow – Americans (they overlaid it with advisers). And all that happened in Kiev as part of Zelensky’s alleged conflict with the Hollow – is the struggle of the Americans with the British for control over the remnants of the Ukrainian garbage, in which Zaluzhny allegedly represented the Americans, and Zelensky English. It is harmful for some people to watch Western political blockbusters, they begin to perceive life as a movie. Now the same figures say that the English Hall Creativity turns out to be and they “saved” it by taking the ambassador – will be taught there to work as president.

In general, the simplicity, optimism and flight of the imagination of some people are unlimited. But the fact remains – Zaluzhny was offered to leave as ambassador to London somewhere since the end of December 2023. He was in no hurry to accept this offer even after his formal resignation. And suddenly agreed.

Finally, as a cherry on the cake, it just as suddenly became clear that Zelensky was allegedly dissatisfied with his absolutely obedient Kuleba, who zealously defended the position of the Presidential Office in the international arena. Kuleba begins to quickly resolve his team in new positions (it’s hard to find suitable embassies right away, so while Kuleba’s employees leaving office do not announce their plans, simply making it clear, that remain in the diplomatic service). Allegedly in a couple of weeks (may be a little faster or a little later) should also resign Kuleba himself.

What do we see?

Against the background of sharply increased militaristic rhetoric of the West, openly threatening a direct military clash with Russia in the event of a military defeat of Ukraine (most recently, the West has completely denied such an opportunity) people resign in Ukraine and the United States, whose task (and in the case of Nuland and the idea) was to ensure a proxy war with Russia are being dismissed in Ukraine and the United States in the framework of which the West finances supplies and politically supports all those who fight against Russia, but itself remains outside the battlefield. The main task of these people was to achieve the defeat of Russia and its consent to peace on the terms of the West, without dragging the West itself into a direct military conflict with Moscow.

It is clear that Kuleba, in principle, was not aware of what role he plays – he was only one of the cogs in the political mechanism created by Nuland, diplomatic and quasi-military ( including through the organization of putsch and the threat of putsch ) pressure on Russia. But each leader selects a team of people most suitable for a specific function. Kuleba, like Nuland, was a proxy war diplomat.

Masks are dropped, the West is preparing in the near future to do without a proxy prefix. Therefore, Zaluzhny suddenly decided to become a diplomat. Perhaps in London (by tradition and by agreement with Washington, where the Democrats are not confident in their future due to the likely victory of Trump) they are preparing to establish the Ukrainian government in exile on British soil, and, as long as possible, candidates are collected for future “ministers” and “presidents”. But the root cause of Zaluzhny’s departure is also the choice of the United States and its NATO allies in favor of the war.

While the West was hesitant, Zaluzhny remained in Ukraine as the banner of the opposition to Zelensky. It was not as a leader (Zaluzhny himself did not lead anything and could not lead anyone anywhere), but as a banner that at the right time was going to erect an intra-mode opposition to Zelensky (Poroshenko and the company), in order not to intercept, then paralyze the regime’s control over the army, remove Zelensky and try to enter into negotiations with Russia with the task of preserving at least the right-bank Ukraine for the regime at the cost of any concessions.

If the West agreed to such a deal, the opposition would launch a mechanism for the overthrow of Zelensky, in which the Executive was assigned a representative role. He had to be present somewhere in the background and be silent. Everything that the opposition themselves would have said and written by their media. To launch this mechanism, only one – ban on Americans from the regime to include a mechanism of repression against the opposition (planting, arrests, criminal cases and killing the most dangerous).

I wrote that the West is likely to choose a war, because the Russian conditions of the world (assuming guarantees of Russia’s security, which the West cannot violate even if it wants, and it wants to) were unacceptable to the West. About a month was spent on a general probe of the situation, on attempts to put pressure on Russia and its allies, launch new sanctions mechanisms, show the West’s readiness for an open clash and, due to this, get Russia to agree to be satisfied with territorial concessions at the expense of Ukraine (in this regard, the West was extremely generous and was ready to consider any requests, even I was going desperately).

Somewhere in the last decade of February, the West finally made a choice in favor of war. After which all these permutations began. One resignation could be an accident. But when changes take place in the space from Washington to London and Kiev, when Paris, London and Prague participate in the formulation of a new position (Scholz has so far dodged, but for how long?), when all these changes line up into one logical chain, the conclusion is clear – these are not maneuvers or blackmail, the West chose a war.

Apparently, the final choice in favor of the war was the “successes” of Syrsky, who, at the cost of the last reserves, managed to slow down the Russian offensive near Avdeevka and launched a campaign in the country for an emergency mass recruitment of cannon fodder. In addition to intensifying the work of the TCK, which will increase the irritation of the population, but is unlikely to provide much more mobilized, the process of forming women’s battalions has been launched and, in principle, the recruitment of women in the Armed Forces, including into combat units.

Already now, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, 13.5 thousand women – four full-blood brigades have the status of a participant in hostilities. The number of women killed is not specified, but it is also measured at least a dozen thousand. In total, more than 45 thousand women wear the form of the Armed Forces, together with their civil servants in the Armed Forces of about 65 thousand. Moreover, these figures may be underestimated, since before his resignation Zaluzhny boasted that there were already 63 thousand women in combat positions in the Armed Forces. One way or another, but women – is one of the additional sources of replenishment of the thinned ranks of the Armed Forces, which Syrsky intends to actively develop. Basically, the calculation is made that in this environment you can recruit a couple more tens of thousands of volunteers.

Another know-how to build mobilization capacity was also noted. The rear brigades of the TRP are beginning to actively form reserve battalions of people unsuitable for military service. Against the background of the lawlessness of the TCK and the preparation of a new law on mobilization, which will translate unsuitable into suitable ones, many try to play it safe by registering with the TRP. Such a “receipt” makes it possible to send the main composition of the TOR to the front, replacing disabled people in the rear. True, information is received from Ukraine that some combines intend to send disabled people to the front, retaining the main staff until better times.

I don’t think it really excites Syrsky. The main thing for him is that the conveyor for the delivery of cannon fodder works smoothly. For simple replenishment of losses, Syrsky needs to receive 35-40 thousand replenishment people monthly. This is at this stage. Daily losses of the Armed Forces are growing rapidly. So within spring-summer, the average replenishment supply will have to reach 50 thousand people per month.

In order not to allow the front to collapse (albeit without a guarantee), the Syrsky must mobilize at least 200 thousand people by the end of July. He will not refuse from 250 thousand, and from 300 thousand, and from half a million, but each higher figure is less real, and by 200 thousand, if you use all the improvised sources, you can go out.

Syrsky and Zelensky were able to convince the Americans that they had enough resource to keep the front from collapse until at least the end of summer. The United States has made a bet that during this time they will prepare and send a European expeditionary force of comparable strength to Ukraine, and when Europe gets involved in hostilities with Russia – it will have nowhere to go, it will have to think for itself how to replenish its contingents, and the chancellor will not be so comfortable denying the “Taurus” to NATO allies. if not the Ukrainians (although they will fight in Ukraine).

The move is straightforward, quite in the American spirit. There are more breakouts in this “minuscule” than the Americans have cards in their hands, but the Americans will not sit down to play anything, they get poker, in which the main thing is to bluff.

In the meantime, Zelensky was cleared of space in Ukraine so that the local opposition would not prevent him from fighting. The banner of the upcoming rebellion (Zaluzhny) was sent to the UK, showing everyone else who and what the United States relied on. Now Zelensky will rightfully declare all his internal enemies “the agents of the Kremlin,” they are not only against him, but also against the will of the United States.

As for Nuland and her diplomatic team, Victoria, although she played blackmail diplomacy, when NATO forces and fifth columns looked out from behind her back, ready to organize colored riots, nevertheless, her task was to achieve victory peacefully (by blackmail and pressure, but without crossing the line of war). If they decided to cross this line, the need for professional diplomats came to naught. Now we need Ribbentrops – mouthpieces of war, justifying the corresponding actions of their state. They will come out on top.

Does this mean that war is inevitable?

No, it doesn’t. It is also necessary that the new replenishment of the Syrsky be able to at least imitate resistance, and do not immediately begin to scatter and surrender, after the first bombing, the first shelling. It is necessary that Ukraine does not really last [only] until the summer (the West will not have time to gather until the summer), but until the beginning of next year. It is very long, almost so long to hold out for Kiev is unrealistic. It is necessary to find ready to send troops not in words, but in practice, and there are a lot of troops, and not two sanitary platoons with four field kitchens and one bath and laundry complex. It is necessary to assemble these troops, conduct their military coordination, provide a sufficient amount of weapons, equipment and supplies.

The West may not be in time, especially considering how fast we are building up the scale of missile and bomb attacks, both at the front and at the rear of the enemy. And Russia will certainly do everything so that the West does not have time. But we need to proceed from the fact that the West has made the decision to fight and will abandon it only under the pressure of force majeure circumstances. So the war is getting closer.

≈≈≈

Another considered PoV… the mooted transfer to China “hawks”, appears less likely as the dominant consideration, given the abruptness of the transfer and in correlation with Taurus missiles scandal and a new phase of war against Russia. Perhaps a harder approach against Russia, where even her limited “skillset” are of reduced use! Among metrics to follow are continuing softening up of Russian border regions using drone barrages as we just saw; and the absolute horrendous total sacrifice of all able-bodied Ukrainians, sent to the meatgrinder.. One thing we can say — the Empire is in deep turmoil and angst. And its hour is late indeed

Global South

Naledi Pandor on South Africa’s Struggle for Palestine

“When we sat there in The Hague, the feeling in my heart was for the first time Israel’s impunity is visible to the world.”

The bravery of South Africa bears repeating. It is ironic the second to last official Apartheid state started the firestorm to burn down the Old Order, due to outrage over the brazen criminality of the last official Apartheid state.

The legal case and law maneuvers may not be fast enough to save the dying Palestinians, but the price to the accomplices will be TOTAL in the hearts, wallets, and chosen politico-social relations of 85% of Mankind. Note among the questions asked of the eloquent South African foreign minister: (1) we need enforcement powers of international law and where to obtain it, and (2) why are not all accomplices of this savage annihilation ousted from top international decision-making bodies, such as the UN Security Council??

Gaza by itself will help birth the fairer new multipolar world

Global South

6th March Review of the Resistance with Laith Marouf

Garland Nixon interviews Laith Marouf — the moment before much wider conflagration

Global South

Requiem for Rummy’s Old Europe: Switzerland

Open Letter to the People of Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Council and Parliament.

Peter Koenig
7 March 2024

This appeal calls on the people of Switzerland to demand the Swiss Government to exit the World Health Organization (WHO) – effective immediately.

We, Swiss, have the Constitutional Right of Initiatives or Referenda. It is high time that We, the People, make use of this opportunity requesting the Swiss Federal Council and Parliament to renounce its membership in WHO, the organization at the verge of becoming the world’s dictator on issues of health, more brutal and radical than humanity has ever known before.

The Covid-mandates imposed by WHO were just a precursor to what may come.

For the last several years WHO is preparing mostly behind closed doors what they call a “Pandemic Treaty”, or “Pandemic Agreement”, which would become part of the 2005 established and now being drastically revised “International Health Regulations” (IHR). If these two new “rules-based orders” are approved by the World Health Assembly (WHA – 27 May to 1 June 2024 in Geneva), WHO’s health dictate would be above every nation’s sovereignty, and would make health self-determination a thing of the past.

If WHO declares a disease, artificially made or not, as a pandemic, orders would have to be followed. If WHO decides on general vaccination, orders must be followed.

In Switzerland such drastic changes to national health legislation would require changes in the nation’s Constitution. According to the very Swiss Constitution, such changes would require approval by the Swiss people by referendum – with good chances of a popular rejection.

To forego a people’s vote, the Swiss Government – Federal Council and Parliament – are currently working on advance-amending the national Swiss health legislation, so that it would meet the requirements of a potentially impending WHO Pandemic Agreement and the new IHR. A Constitutional amendment may then not be necessary, as the new Swiss health standards would blend in with the potentially new WHO dictate.

This is happening semi-clandestinely. Not known to most citizens. Switzerland is supposed to be – Constitutionally – a democracy and a country of political neutrality; a country with self-determination and sovereignty in decision making, and where people’s voice and active participation counts.

Those were the days.

This call also goes to the Swiss Federal Council and Parliament.

Are you not ashamed after the criminal covid and vaxx-fraud you imposed on the very people that pay your salaries and pensions – to betray Us, the People again – with the behind-our-backs anticipatory acceptance of the new WHO oppressive rules?

How is health defined? Under the WHO definition health includes the “climate change” scam, which is already blamed for causing excess dengue fever in Brazil and malaria in Africa – prompting WHO and Bill Gates releasing billions of genetically modified (GMO) “vaccinating” mosquitos. They have so far brought a 400% increase in dengue fever in Brazil, and in Africa, malaria is rampant despite, or because of the GMO-Mosquitos.

Any “climate-related health issues”, defined by WHO, would also fall under the WHO health tyranny.

Over the past three years, how many people have lost loved-ones from the toxic covid-injections? Thousand, maybe tens of thousands have died from the vaxxes in Switzerland alone, a multiple of those who died from covid, if counted honestly. We know honesty was and is not part of any official covid narrative.

Worldwide, a conservative figure indicates 17 million deaths resulted from the jab. A more realistic figure may put the death toll in the hundreds of millions; and the worst is still to come, according to Dr. Michael Yeadon, former Vice-President and Chief of Pfizer Research.

This same Federal Council which betrayed the people on covid, is now working secretly on another betrayal, formulating an advanced new Swiss health legislation, that would match WHO’s looming Pandemic Treaty and revised IHR dictatorship.

So that you know:

At the same time, the Federal Council, through Cantonal Federalism, allows promoting throughout Switzerland, including in schools, the pathological, Soros’s funded transgender Woke agenda, giving kids, as little as eleven years of age, the choice to decide over their sex without parental interference.

This agenda is also promoted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), WHO, and yes, the United Nations – the eugenists. Queers and transgender people cannot procreate.

Also, be aware, any new “vaccination” even those recommended for new-born children, will in the future be the mRNA-type, as announced by Pfizer, Bill Gates and WHO. The mRNA gene-modifying type is known to, at best, reduce the autoimmune system, and produce a spike protein, with one of its characteristics being a fast or slow killer – myocardities, brain strokes, thrombosis, aggressive turbo-cancers and more.

The mRNA-vaxxes are also known to massively reduce fertility in both women and men.

As a reminder, the number one objective of the WEF, WHO, and UN Agenda 2030, we are living today, is a drastic worldwide depopulation, starting with western industrialized nations.

Let us, Swiss, be frontrunners for the rest of the world, standing up with our Constitutional Rights, demanding our government TO EXIT WHO NOW.

——-

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

STRATPOL

La démission de Nuland marque-t-elle le déclin de l’intérêt américain pour l’Ukraine ?

La démission prochaine de la vice-secrétaire d’État américaine Victoria Nuland a donné lieu à diverses versions de ce qui pourrait

L’article La démission de Nuland marque-t-elle le déclin de l’intérêt américain pour l’Ukraine ? est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.

STRATPOL

L’OTAN a commencé de vastes exercices militaires dans le Grand Nord de l’Europe

Du 4 au 15 mars, des exercices conjoints de 12 pays de l’OTAN, baptisés Nordic Response, ont lieu dans les

L’article L’OTAN a commencé de vastes exercices militaires dans le Grand Nord de l’Europe est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.

Vu du Droit

QUE SE PASSE T IL AU CONGO ? AVEC CHARLES ONANA

LES ÉCLAIRAGES DE VUDUDROIT UN MONDE QUI CHANGE Régis de Castelnau reçoit Charles Onana pour son ouvrage : « Holocauste au Congo ». Charles Onana est un universitaire franco camerounais qui travaille depuis près de 30 ans sur les tragédies… Lire la suite →

Global South

The neo-Reich’s Acts of War

The suicide of Europe in motion is astonishing! This is beyond mere malice or Anglo-American spoiling of Russo-German relations, or even mass psychosis formation — this is mass raving lunacy as admitted by the despairing Mercouris.

Mercouris devotes a shocking session to reviewing the intercept of the German military officers, Anglo-French connivance and outrage at revelation of their intrigue (not outrage or denial at the substance!), refusal of the West to negotiate in any meaningful way with Russia, determination to defeat Russia (if symbolically through burning bridges and other terrorism) and the early implications. All Russians have warned these deranged infantile megalomaniacs on the severe potential consequences, including Prez Putin in his last speech at the Federation council.

The Empire ensures Russia has to strike NATO proper, come what may. This Russia has carefully avoided to date. This is the next maneuver underway.

@ Medvedev (today):

“I think that the whitewashing of the ruling political alliance in Germany will now begin in order to soften the public indignation from the conversation of the Luftwaffe officers. Like, this is all the machinations of the military, they love such talk, don’t feed them bread – let them play a war game. And civilian political leadership has nothing to do with it at all. Moreover, at the head of this leadership is a peace-loving guy (aka liverwurst) Scholz, who refuses to hand over extended-range missiles to the Banderaites. He doesn’t know and will figure it out.

Nobody knows whether the political leadership and the Liver Chancellor personally are aware. But even if they are not aware and have not ordered anything like this, history knows many examples when the military is able to make decisions for civilian commanders about the start of wars or stimulate them. They’ll come to Scholz and say: “Herr (Reich) Chancellor, a missile was shot down in Ukraine. According to its type and trajectory, it was flying to Berlin.” What will Scholz answer, huh?
Clear as day.

So attempts to present the conversation of Bundeswehr officers as a game of rockets and tanks are a malicious lie.

Germany is preparing for war with Russia.”

Vu du Droit

VIDÉO N°77BIS ENTRETIEN AVEC ALEXANDRE ROBERT DE LA CHAÎNE HISTORY LEGENDS

Alexandre Robert anime depuis le Canada une chaîne YouTube « History Légends » spécialisé dans l’histoire militaire. Il a entrepris un travail de ré information sur la situation militaire en Ukraine depuis le début de la guerre. Il était naturel… Lire la suite →

Global South

Rand Corp: Postwar 404 Hardline Scenario

According to the Rand Corporation, there are two scenarios for the United States: “after” the less favorable war or “after” the more favorable war.

Sonja van den Ende at the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The prominent think tank for U.S. policymaking recently published a long report on the so-called aftermath of the war in Ukraine.

Washington and its NATO allies have to admit that the U.S. is losing another proxy war together with its satellite states of Europe. Previously they lost in Afghanistan (after more than 20 years, a second Vietnam), also recently in Syria and Iraq, and now in Ukraine.

Even so-called “Russia experts” in Europe admit that Ukraine is losing.

“I do not rule out that Ukraine will lose the war this year. Europe has misjudged the Russian army,” says Belgian “Russia expert” Joris van Blade to De Standaard.

Russia has the initiative again and the Russian people are not going to stop the war, he thinks. “We have missed historic opportunities to make Europe safer.”

According to the Rand study, two scenarios are possible: a so-called “hardline” or a “softline” postwar. Of course, the U.S. prefers a softline postwar outcome, where they still have room for manipulation and possible coup d’état and Balkanization (partition) of Russia just like they did in former Yugoslavia. According to Rand, the U.S. military presence in Europe has increased to around 100,000 personnel since the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation in February 2022.

The United States deployed attack aviation from Germany to Lithuania; Patriot air defense systems from Germany to Slovakia and Poland; and F-15 tactical fighters from the United Kingdom to Poland. In addition, European countries are sending F-16s to Romania, as the Netherlands recently indicated. These F-16s are capable of attacking Russian cities. Washington characterized these deployments as part of a wartime surge to deter Russia from expanding its aggression beyond Ukraine to attack U.S. allies in Europe.

Leaders in Europe are almost hysterical. One after another, they proclaim that Russia is going to invade Europe, starting with Moldova, the Baltic States, and Poland. The Netherlands, Germany, and France are warning their people to expect an attack from Russia, as is Sweden, which recently joined NATO.

The population is being frightened by the unhinged rhetoric of their politicians. Conscription must be reactivated and Germany even has a concept ready to recruit migrants (about 1.5 million serviceable men) and entice them to get a passport.

European leaders are also concerned about the upcoming elections in the U.S. after Republican contender Donald Trump made comments suggesting he would quit NATO and let Europe fend for itself. They are worried that the U.S. might abandon them.

During a recent NATO conference in Brussels, a lot of war rhetoric was spoken. “We live in an era where we have to expect the unexpected,” said Dutch NATO Admiral Rob Bauer. Meanwhile, the Danish and German defense ministers have warned of a potential war with Russia within five years.

The U.S. and European leaders assume the “hardline” scenario is likely in the next few years. They proclaim through their mouthpieces in the corporate-controlled news media that Russia is becoming much more “risk-acceptant”. Therefore, it is calculated that a hardline approach may increase NATO’s ability to deter purported Russian aggression.

It’s that time of year again for the hawkish Munich Security Conference, in Bavaria, Germany. This is the forum where President Putin provoked alarm when he gave his famous speech in 2007, making it clear that the unipolar world was over and a multipolar world would emerge in the foreseeable future. Putin’s prognosis caused much chagrin for Western leaders.

This year’s theme at Munich is animated by Trump’s supposed undermining of NATO. The appeal for support from the U.S. has become more urgent among some European politicians. Ukraine lacks weapons and ammunition, they openly say. Russia is sometimes five times superior on the battlefield. In addition, a U.S. support package worth around $60 billion was approved by the Senate last week but the Republican-dominated House of Representatives could reject it – and so far it looks like it will.

Europe, in turn, would not be able to fill this gap and, therefore, Ukraine will lose the proxy war for the U.S. and the West.

In addition to the presence of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the European leaders and lobbyists will also use the opportunity in Munich to lobby Republican Senators and Representatives to support Ukraine (with money). Nowhere outside the U.S. can you find as many American politicians in one place as at the Munich Security Conference this year.

Zelensky’s participation in the conference had been expected for some time but had not yet been officially confirmed.

Last year, he opened the most important meeting of Western politicians and experts on security policy via video address. Now he is taking part in person for the first time since the Russian Special Military Operation began almost two years ago. He is afraid for his position; he is losing the proxy war on behalf of the U.S. and EU/NATO.

The actor-President of Ukraine Zelensky desperately wants to secure future European support.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is attending the Munich conference instead of Joe Biden. Rumors are circulating in the Western media that Biden’s cognitive condition has deteriorated even more and he is unable to come. If Biden wins the November presidential election, will Harris become the next president upon his inevitable retirement during a second term? That’s probably the intention.

As President Putin said, he would rather have Biden than Trump as the winner. In his diplomatic way, he said that Biden is an “old school” politician, meaning of course that a Democratic government with Biden/Harris is easier to understand and estimate than Trump, who is capricious and unpredictable.

These are the facts: the presumed hegemony of the Western states is falling to pieces. The “Collective West” is losing its wars. Their status and economies are in a downward spiral, even before the Special Military Operation.

The politicians and the elites who stand behind them, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and other semi-international organizations (usually Western-oriented) want to compensate for this historic loss of the unipolar world with a new system, away from fossil energy, ostensibly for the climate, but actually to try to weaken and isolate Russia by destroying its economy based on copious oil and gas resources.

European so-called leaders, in fact, “vassals” of the U.S., have slavishly followed the agenda of creating a new Cold War, which could turn into a hot war. Instead of betting on diplomacy, they have chosen the path of war, in contradiction to the (Western) UN Agenda 2030, where Western countries have forced this agenda on the Global South. This agenda also states that we must strive for peace and prosperity for everyone. So it is yet another lie from the Global West, or rather the empire of lies, which is now submerged in its own lies.

Vu du Droit

Manouchian au Panthéon : la surprise de Léon Landini

Léon Landini est contrarié. Il a bientôt 98 ans et il est le dernier membre survivant de l’organisation des FTP MOI, l’organisation combattante mise en place par le parti communiste français pendant l’occupation pour lutter à la fois contre l’occupant… Lire la suite →

Global South

2024: Slaying the Green Dragon

“The Rules of the ‘Rules-based Order’ are the Will of the Green Dragon … The World stands on the Brink of Global War.”

by Alexander Dugin

The main issue in 2024 remains the same fundamental problem as before: the confrontation between two waves — the waning wave of a unipolar world order with US hegemony and the collective West, and the rising wave of a multipolar world, embodied in BRICS-10.

This problem did not arise now, but as the West, having gained at one historical moment the appearance of sole planetary domination (after the collapse of the USSR), proved incapable of implementing its leadership in practice, new sovereign poles began to assert themselves — Russia and China. Other poles are on the approach — India, the Islamic civilisation, Africa, and Latin America. In total, seven power centres, including the West. Six of them have united in BRICS, beginning to build a multipolar order.

The West continues to cling to its hegemony and attacks the most dangerous opponents to its domination — Russia, China, and the Islamic world. This did not start today but at the very beginning of the 2000s. But the current contrast of the political world map was finally acquired in recent years — especially after the beginning of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine. The operation became the first hot war of the multipolar world against the unipolar one. Until then — especially during President Trump’s first term and due to the rise of populism in Europe — it seemed that a direct clash could be avoided, that the West would peacefully accept multipolarity, trying to fight for a worthy place in the post-globalist world order. This is what Trump meant by calling to drain the globalist swamp in the US itself. But so far, the swamp managed to drain Trump himself and, during the most swampy administration under President Biden, to unleash a bloody conflict in Ukraine, throwing all the forces of the collective West against Russia, the most important pole of the multipolar world.

The main result of 2023 was Russia’s disruption of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which for the globalists was a decisive moment in the conflict. They supplied Ukraine with comprehensive assistance, including extensive weaponry, significant financial aid, and substantial political, informational, and diplomatic resources. However, when Russia successfully resisted these efforts and started preparing for its own offensive, it became apparent that the extensive support given to the Kiev regime was ultimately futile. However, as long as globalists are in power in the US, they intend to continue the war. And, apparently, not just to the last Ukrainian but to the last globalist.

At the end of 2023, however, a second front opened in the war between the unipolar and multipolar worlds. This time, the West’s vanguard in the Middle East, the State of Israel, in response to the invasion by Hamas, began a systematic genocide of the Gaza population, completely disregarding anything. The USA and the collective West fully supported Tel Aviv’s actions, thus drawing a new line of fracture — the West against the Islamic civilization.

American neoconservatives had already entered this cycle in the early 2000s, resulting in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and then supporting radical Islamists in Libya, Syria, and so on. Now, the West has again confronted the Islamic world, led by the Palestinians, Yemeni Houthis, Lebanese Hezbollah, and also Iran.

Furthermore, in West Africa, another platform for the anti-colonial struggle against unipolarity and for multipolarity, an alliance of the most resolute countries has emerged — Mali, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and Niger, where a series of anti-globalist coups took place. So here, too, a new front has emerged.

Ultimately, Venezuela, led by Nicolas Maduro — whom the USA attempted to replace with their puppet, Guaido, in a move that ended in complete failure — became embroiled in a territorial dispute over the contested Guyana-Essequibo region with British Guyana, which is perceived as a pro-Atlantic puppet state. And the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, although he refused to integrate into BRICS, called on England to reconsider the issue of the Malvinas (Falklands). Thus, another front of struggle is emerging in Latin America.

So we approached the new year, 2024. And here all the trends continued at an accelerated pace. Tension for the USA in the Middle East is growing by the day. The war in Ukraine will undoubtedly continue, and now the initiative is on Russia’s side.

Also, one should expect an exacerbation of the conflict around Taiwan, where the US has pushed through the anti-Chinese candidate Lai Qingde in the elections, further escalation in the Middle East, continuation of anti-colonial revolutions in Africa, and escalation into a hot phase of contradictions in Latin America.

In the West itself, the crisis is intensifying at an accelerated pace. In the USA, there are elections this year, in which the globalists will face a powerful wave of Republicans.

The European Union is in decline, and there again rises an anti-elite, anti-liberal wave of populists — from the left and the right. There are leftists, like Sahra Wagenknecht and her new party. ‘Red Sahra’ is becoming a symbol of anti-liberal left-wing Europe.

Such leftists are primarily enemies of global capital — unlike pseudo-leftists, bought outright by Soros, who primarily advocate LGBT, Ukrainian Nazism, the genocide in Gaza, and uncontrolled migration, and also desperately fight against Russian influence, Putin, and Russia as a whole.

There is also a right-wing component — significantly battered, but in many European countries it represents the second most important political force. For example, Marine Le Pen in France. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gaining strength. In Italy, despite the liberal weakness of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the right half of society has not disappeared. The entire right-wing populism remains as it was.

But there is the globalist West, which tries to present itself as the entire ‘West’, and there are right and left anti-globalists, as well as a huge layer of Western commoners, who make up the ‘silent majority’. This is most important: the European commoner generally does not understand anything about politics. Ordinary Europeans and Americans simply cannot keep up with the demands to change gender, forcibly castrate their little sons, marry goats, bring in and feed even more migrants, eat cockroaches, read prayers to Greta Thunberg at night, and curse the Russians. The Western commoner, the petit bourgeois, is the main support of the multipolar world. He is the core of the real West, not the sinister parody into which it has been transformed by the globalist liberal elites.

It is very possible that in 2024, all these lines of fracture — wars and revolutions, conflicts and uprisings, waves of terrorist attacks, and new territories of genocide — will escalate into something massive. The declining wave of the unipolar world is already giving way to the rising multipolar one. And this is inevitable.

The dragon of globalism is mortally wounded. But it is known how dangerous the agony of a wounded dragon is. The global elite of the West is insane. There are many reasons to believe that in 2024 there will be something terrible. We are at arm’s length from a global world war. On all fronts. If it cannot be avoided, then there is nothing left but to win it.

We must slay the dragon to free humanity from its villainous enchantments, and even the West itself, which is its first victim.

Global South

Russia’s Fight Against The West (2/2)

The second part of the New Rules Podcast Special. The Emergence of a new Russia and the crisis of Western globalist elites.

hosted by Dimitri Simes Jr. at the New Rules.

Alexander Dugin and Pepe Escobar join us to discuss how the Ukraine conflict has permanently changed Russia and the world. This is the second part of our geopolitical super-episode.

Twitter (X):

Slaying the Dragon of Globalism (2/2)

Alexander Dugin and Pepe Escobar join us to discuss the crisis of globalism, the multipolar revolution, and the risk of WWIII. This is part two of our geopolitical super-episode.
#NewRulesPodcast @Agdchan @RealPepeEscobar pic.twitter.com/swnFpDIZXr

— NewRulesGeopolitics (@NewRulesGeo) February 16, 2024

Rumble:

Global South

Russia’s Fight Against The West (1/2)

A New Rules Podcast Special! The Emergence of a new Russia and the crisis of Western globalist elites.

hosted by Dimitri Simes Jr. at the New Rules.

Alexander Dugin and Pepe Escobar join us to discuss how the Ukraine conflict has permanently changed Russia and the world. This is part one of our geopolitical super-episode.

Twitter (X):

Russia’s Fight Against Globalism (1/2)

Alexander Dugin and Pepe Escobar join us to discuss how the Ukraine conflict has permanently changed Russia and the world. This is part one of our geopolitical super-episode.
#NewRulesPodcast @Agdchan @RealPepeEscobar pic.twitter.com/Il3mDZMf99

— NewRulesGeopolitics (@NewRulesGeo) February 14, 2024

Rumble:

Global South

Judea Declares War on Anglo-Saxons

In Jerusalem, the “Conference for the Victory of Israel” threatens London and Washington

by Thierry Meyssan at Voltaire Network

The “Israel Victory Conference – settlements bring security: Returning to the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria” was no mere meeting of Jewish supremacists. A rabbi, sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes, spoke on behalf of the successors of the Stern group that assassinated British leaders in Mandate Palestine. It was a declaration of war against the Anglo-Saxons. By participating in this event, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was threatening Washington and London. President Joe Biden immediately banned all fundraising and money transfers to these extremists. This is the first time that the United States has imposed sanctions against Israelis.

Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984, addresses thousands of Jewish supremacists

Israel Victory Conference

Two weeks ago, a star-studded celebratory event was held at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. It was entitled “Conference for Israel’s Victory – settlements bring security: returning to the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria”. 12 ministers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, took part.

However, not a single political figure, not even the Minister of Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, was entitled to the frenzied ovations that greeted Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf, now a central figure in the Israeli debate, albeit unknown abroad. His presence rekindled in the participants hope of redeeming what they consider to be the “sin” of the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza in 2005.

In the hours that followed, Yaakov Margi (Shas), Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs, declared that his colleagues should have “thought” before going to this circus.

The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, lamented that Benjamin Netanyahu, “who was once at the centre of the national camp being dragged aimlessly by extremists”, has “hit rock bottom.”

Gen. Benny Gantz, declared that the conference was “an insult to Israeli society in wartime. It undermines our legitimacy in the world and the efforts to create a framework for the return of our hostages.” Commenting on the Prime Minister’s participation, he continued: “He who dances and divides, does not decide, and he who is silent and allows himself to be dragged along, is not a leader”.

A banner read: “Only a transfer [of Palestinians out of Gaza] can bring peace”. While a map shows the next Israeli cities in Gaza

The next day, President Joe Biden, as if frightened by the return of an old demon, signed a decree banning some extremist settlers from coming to the United States, and, above all, banning all fund-raising and money transfers to Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf’s men. These sanctions apply not only in the United States, but also in all foreign banks with interests in the United States, i.e., ultimately in the whole of the West [1].

What’s more, the Biden Administration, which until now has discreetly supported the massacre in Gaza by supplying shells and other munitions, is suddenly looking for a way out of the crisis. Secretary of State Antony Blinken set off on a new tour of the region’s capitals, this time with proposals.

Why then, did Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf’s outburst provoke such reactions? To understand why, we need to look back to 1922. Within the revisionist Zionist movement, there is in fact an even more fanatical group that did not hesitate to attack the Anglo-Saxons.

The “Stern Gang”

The “Revisionist Zionists” are the followers of Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a Ukrainian fascist who in 1922 formed an alliance with the Ukrainian “integral nationalists” of Symon Petlioura and Dmitro Dontsov against the Soviets. During this alliance, the “nationalists” massacred not only Ukrainian anarchists and Ukrainian Communists, but also tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews. Refusing to explain his actions, Jabotinsky resigned from his position as director of the World Zionist Organization and founded the Alliance of Revisionist Zionists. He founded a paramilitary fascist formation in Italy, with the help of duce Benito Mussolini, the Betar.

At the end of Second World War, the “Revisionist Zionists” pursued their fascist dream, now without the help of their Italian counterparts. They disassociated themselves from the Jewish communal militia in Palestine, the Hagana, and created their own militia, the Irgun [2].

In a letter to the New York Times, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other Jewish personalities compared the Irgun to fascist and Nazi formations [3].

The Irgun itself gave rise to Lehi, known as the “Stern Group” according to the “Stern Gang” [4]. This group was directly linked to the Polish fascist government (Avraham Stern participated in the first version of the “Madagascar Plan”). Stern was arrested by the British along with the leaders of his group at the start of World War 2, but released when the Polish government reconstituted itself in exile in London. Lehi resumed contact with the Italian Fascists and proposed to the Nazis to help them expel European Jews to Palestine. After some hesitation, the Nazis refused. Lehi multiplied attacks on the British and left-wing Jews in the first two years of the war. Avraham Stern was shot and killed by a British CID officer in February 1942. Yitzhak Shamir, who assassinated his rivals, then reorganized Lehi.

In 1944 Lehi resumed its attacks on the British. It narrowly missed eliminating High Commissioner to Palestine, Harold MacMichael, but succeeded in assassinating the Colonial Minister, Lord Moyne.

The Stern Gang assassinated British political and military authorities in the attack on their headquarters at the King David Hotel

David Ben Gourion, who remained loyal to the British, launched a Haganah campaign to stop the actions of the Irgun and Lehi. Many of their members were arrested. However, in 1945, Ben-Gurion secretly organized a reconciliation with the revisionist Zionists, the “Hebrew Revolt”. This brief alliance did not last. Lehi organized the attack on the secretariat of the British government of Mandate Palestine and its military command, both located in the King David Hotel. It left 91 dead and 46 wounded. Lehi did not cease its terrorist activities with the arrest of Yitzhak Shamir. On the contrary, it extended its activities to London until the British withdrew from Palestine. After that, it targeted the Arabs, thus perpetrating the Deir Yassin massacre.

The Irgun and Lehi were eventually incorporated into the Israel Defense Forces with the unilateral proclamation of statehood. However, the United Nations sent the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte to determine the borders of the two Jewish and Arab states. Yitzhak Shamir then organized his assassination [5]. Yehoshua Cohen executed him. At the same time, André Sérot, a French colonel in the Blue Helmets, was assassinated. Pierre Gaïsset (grandfather of the author of this article) replaced him. The “revisionist Zionists” then changed their label and formed a new party, Hérout, with Menachem Begin as its chairman.

In 1952, Yehoshua Cohen founded the Sde Boker kibbutz. When, the following year, Prime Minister David ben Gurion joined this kibbutz, Yehoshua Cohen became his bodyguard.

The “Jewish Underground”

There is no trace of the Stern Group thereafter. However, after the “Six-Day War” the Bloc of the Faithful (Gush Emunim) developed the idea that Yahweh had given all Palestine to the Jews. They not only had the right to occupy it, but a duty to do so, so that the continuation of prophecy be fulfilled. This movement developed around Rabbi Zvi Yehouda Kook. He taught that, while the first secular Israelis had begun the work, only the religious knew the direction and could finalize it.

It was in this context that Yehuda Etzion, son of a gang member, recreated the Stern group. He used the same logo: a fist with two fingers raised. Its new name: the “Jewish Underground”. After the Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by ex-Muslim Brother Anwar Sadat and Zionist revisionist Menachem Begin, it formally organized itself. It opposed Israel’s retrocession of Sinai to Egypt. It formed two cells. The first, led by Yehuda Etzion himself, was to destroy the Dome of the Rock in the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque, in order to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. The second was to spread terror among anti-colonial Arabs.

Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf was the leader of the “Jewish Underground”. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984 for his involvement in a series of murderous attacks on Palestinians. He was discreetly released in 1991 by two revisionist Zionists, President Chaim Herzog and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

His presence and the thunderous welcome given to him by thousands of activists portends the return of Zionist terrorism against the Anglo-Saxons. Washington’s reaction shows that, in its eyes, what it tolerates when Arabs are its victims must be condemned when it is threatened.

≈≈

Yes, can we say the old Anglo-Saxon Order is in panic, understanding the betrayals in motion? Will the coming Zionist terrorism be limited to the Holy Land? See how the British barking seal of the ICC (who never saw a Gaza Genocide worth mentioning in the last 4+ months) suddenly speaks with such stern conviction. Perhaps the reticence of the Russians in avenging themselves of Perfide Albion is now understandable. At this point, Zionism is a well-known self-destructive entity. Ungrateful hands always fated to be raised against their closest benefactors in the fullness of time!

STRATPOL

La Finlande a élu un président radicalement antirusse

Il convient de noter que Stubb a toujours été un partisan de l’OTAN, mais son attitude à l’égard de la

L’article La Finlande a élu un président radicalement antirusse est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.

Global South

Supplying Israel while it starves Gaza

The trade corridor amounts to active Arab collusion in the genocidal war

By Abdel Bari Atwan at Rai Al Youm

While Yemen gets pummelled by US and British airstrikes for trying to close the Red Sea to Israeli shipping, other Arab countries have been conspiring to sabotage its valiant effort to support the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The UAE, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have been complicit in creating a Dubai-Haifa corridor to provide the occupation state with an alternative route for its commerce that bypasses the Bab al-Mandeb strait and Suez Canal or Gulf of Aqaba.

The countries involved have maintained a deafening silence about, or muttered feeble excuses for, this shameful and ominous normalisation move amid Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip. But the Israeli media haven’t been shy about publicising and hailing it. They’ve shown footage of convoys of freight trucks passing through this route, thereby exposing what the Arab governments are trying to hide from their people.

Last week, Israel’s Channel 13 reported that hundreds of lorries loaded with goods and fresh food have been making their way from the UAE through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the occupation state and its consumers. This amounts to active collusion, even if indirect, in Israel’s murderous war of extermination in the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian authorities already committed the outrage of enabling the export of fruits and vegetables from the Jordan Valley to the occupation state despite its assault. Now, some officials are arguing that Jordan does not have the right to prevent the transit of commercial freight through its territory due to the agreements it has signed in this regard and out of fear of being treated in kind by the countries that would suffer from such a decision, namely Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

But since when has Israel ever complied with the provisions of signed agreements or respected other laws and treaties, not least the Wadi Araba and Oslo accords?

It is disgraceful that an Emirati company, Puretrans, is partnering the Israeli firm Trucknet in jointly overseeing the management of this corridor. Supplying Israel and its settlers with goods and food while it deliberately starves more than two million Palestinians in its attempt to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable amounts to direct participation in that crime.

The Egyptian authorities are doing the same by refusing to open the Rafah crossing by force to allow humanitarian aid to enter, and by charging levies of up to $5,000 on each truck. According to news reports, there are over 2,500 trucks stalled in a 40-km long queue stretching from Arish to the Rafah crossing waiting to deliver aid.

One would have expected the Arab governments complicit in this crime to apply reciprocal treatment by shutting down all crossings to Israel completely, not to mention severing relations with it and closing its embassies on their territory in solidarity with the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They could at least condition the transit of freight through the Dubai-Haifa corridor on Israel lifting the blockade and allowing aid into Gaza.

But that seems too much to hope for. If the killing of more than 30,000 fellow Arabs (thousands of them still buried under the rubble), the injury of some 70,000 others, and the destruction of 86% of Gazan homes does not stir the feelings or consciences of these governments, what can?

We’re not asking Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia to take the same valiant stance as the Yemenis and confront the US and UK warships trying to break the maritime blockade on Israel. We know they would turn a deaf ear to any such demand. But we do ask them to listen to their people who are seething over this feigned impotence, and follow the lead of non-Arab and non-Muslim countries like South Africa, Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia in severing ties with the occupation state instead of throwing it a lifeline.

The Jordanian people are in an unprecedented and mounting state of agitation these days, first over the massacre of their brethren in Gaza and the West Bank, and second over reports of Jordanian planes joining US aircraft in bombing targets in Iraq in retaliation for the Iraqi Islamic resistance’s attack on a US base in northern Jordan.

The survival and sustainability of the Zionist enterprise were dealt a knockout blow by the al-Aqsa Flood operation. It shattered Israel’s security and stability, cost it over $75 billion so far, and displaced over 500,000 of its settlers. Arab governments and leaders should wake up to this reality and bank on the resistance rather than an occupation state facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has condemned for genocide.

If only they could be as bold and courageous as UN Secretary-General António Guterres, leaders from Latin America, Africa, and Asia who have spoken out and severed relations or expelled ambassadors, and the hundreds of millions of people in the West, East, North, and South who have boycotted Israel and taken to the streets to demonstrate against its actions.

Or is that, also, too much to ask?

The 2020 Abraham Accords (AKA Trump Peace Plan):

• …bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain on September 15, 2020
• The Abraham Accords Declaration; “Thanks to the great courage of the leaders of these three countries, we take a major stride toward a future in which people of all faiths and backgrounds live together in peace and prosperity.” — Donald J. Trump
• ‘The dawn of a new Middle East’: Trump celebrates Abraham Accords with White House signing ceremony.

Global South

The Order of Skull and Bones and US Society

“The Order has so wrecked education that reading comprehension is difficult for many – that’s part of the brainwashing program.” – Antony C. Sutton

Professor Dr. Syed Mujahid Kamran at Daily Pakistan

The Order of Skull and Bones is a highly important secret society that was established in 1833. It has, over the years, provided leaders in U.S. society, including presidents, judges of the Supreme Court, ambassadors, intelligence operators, business leaders, academic administrators, etc. It has persistently and relentlessly moulded the life and thought of the United States of America silently and profoundly. The Order has ceremonial rites such as lying in a coffin, its members are sworn to secrecy, and always deny membership of the society. It is headquartered in a windowless building known as “The Tomb”, where meetings of its members are held in secrecy. The “Tomb” was constructed in 1856. It is one of the four secret societies that exist in Yale University, the other three being Scroll and Key, Wolf’s Head and Elihu. However, it happens to be, by far, the most powerful and most controversial of these four.

“Tapping” the Controllers of the imported Prussian Totalitarian Paradigm for Totalen Krieg

In order to understand the purpose of the Order and its enormous influence, one has to delve into its origins, various interconnections at the very start, and the sources from where its drew its inspiration. In the words of author Kris Millegan, Yale is the place “[W]here three threads of American social history – espionage, drug smuggling and secret societies – intertwine into one.” One of the founders of the Order of Skull and Bones was William Huntington Russell. He was a cousin of Samuel Russell who, in 1823, founded Russell and Company for smuggling opium. Opium, acquired from Turkey, was smuggled by Russell and Company into China. Millegan notes that in 1830 Russell and Company merged with a Boston syndicate known as Perkins, becoming the primary opium smuggler of the U.S. Russell partners included Warren Delano Jr., the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Cleve Green who funded Princeton, Abiel Low who financed construction of Columbia, and others. Important partners, who influenced life in the U.S. included Joseph Coolidge, whose son organized the United Fruit Company whose role in South American politics has always been crucial, and whose grandson Archibald C. Coolidge was one of the founders of the Council on Foreign Relations.

William Huntington went to Germany and spent a year studying there (1831-1832). At the time the German society was fermenting with new ideas and a new educational system, based on what was called the “scientific” method, was being developed. It was Johan Wolfgang Fitche who, in an address to the German nation, had declared that children would be taken over by the state and the state would determine what the children should think and how should they think. Fitche was a Freemason, and most likely Illuminati – he had support of the famous Illuminati Johan Wolfgang Goethe. Fitche was succeeded by the famous Hegel, who remained a professor at Berlin University until his death in 1831. It was Hegel who bequeathed the dialectical idea to the world. In the words of Kris Millegan: “To Hegel, our world is a world of reason. The state is Absolute Reason and the citizen can only become free by worship and obedience to the state. Hegel called the state the ‘march of God in the world’ and the ‘final end’. This final end, Hegel said, ‘has supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of a state.” William Huntington Russell imbibed these ideas and was destined to import Hegelianism into American society.

Alphonso Taft, founder of the Taft political dynasty … Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant

Upon returning to Yale in 1832 William Huntington Russell formed a secret society with Alphonso Taft. The secret society was initially named Scull and Bones. Subsequently the title was revised to Skull and Bones (abbreviated as S&B). Sometimes it is called the Brotherhood of Death. It is known as the Order by its members. Its insignia is the same as that on the flag of a pirate’s ship, with the number 322 printed beneath. The year of founding of this secret society is 1833, the year from which hails the first batch of this secret society. Russell went on to become a general and also became a legislator in Connecticut. Alphonso Taft became Attorney General of the U.S., and subsequently became Minister of War. Taft also was the U.S. ambassador to Austria as well as Russia. His son William Taft, was also a member Skull and Bones and became the Chief Justice as well as President of the United States, the only man in history to occupy these two positions. This indicates the enormous power and influence of this secret society formed by Alphonso Taft and William H. Russell at Yale even in its early phase.

Every year, since 1833, 15 students are selected and offered membership (they are “tapped” as the phrase goes). Membership was all male and white until 1992 when women were admitted, followed by colored members as well as LGBT community members. To date, in over 190 years of existence, the total number of members of S&B is close to 3,000. At any given time, the number of members alive is estimated to be between 500 and 600. The establishment of this society was not something done in isolation in an American institution. At one point Yale students broke into the headquarters of this society and recovered secret documents. One of the documents states: “Bones is a chapter of a corps in a German University . . . General Russell, its founder, was in Germany before his Senior Year and formed a warm friendship with a leading member of a German society. He brought back with him in college, authority to found a chapter here.” While this fascinating document reveals Skull and Bones as a chapter of a German secret society, it still does not reveal the name of the individual with whom Russell formed a friendship, nor does it identify the name of the German society. It even does not specify the name of the university where the parent society of Skull and Bones existed. Since Russell had gone to Berlin University, it is likely that the parent secret society existed in that university. Skull and Bones is chapter 322 of some German secret society. In fact, a list of S&B members supplied anonymously to Antony Sutton shows that in the S&B batch of 1833 the name at number 11 is not mentioned – instead two blank lines appear indicating that this could be the name of the anonymous German connection. Eustace Mullins has remarked that Skull and Bones is a branch of German Illuminati.

The Primary Task: Mold the Minds of Children

The Order of Skull and Bones has worked for promoting a Hegelian set up in the United States, where the state is supreme and individual liberties and rights are subservient to the demands of the state. Further the Hegelian dialectic, thesis versus anti-thesis, generates activity through clash of opposites and their resolution, followed by the generation of new opposites and so on. Members of S&B manage the conflict by being on both sides. John Kerry of the Democratic Party contested presidential elections against the Republican George Bush, when in fact both belonged to S&B! The Order has focused on education with particular fervor as a means of “dumbing down” the American mind. In this regard Kris Millegan writes: “Daniel Coit Gilman (1852) along with two other ‘Bonesmen’, formed a troika which still influences American life today. Soon after their initiation in Skull and Bones, Daniel Gilman, Timothy Dwight (1849) and Andrew Dickinson White (1853) went to study philosophy in Europe at the University of Berlin. Gilman returned from Europe and incorporated Skull and Bones as the Russell Trust in 1856 with himself as Treasurer and William H. Russell as President. He spent the next 14 years in New Haven consolidating the order’s power.”

The focus of the order on education, particularly higher education, can be noticed from the following facts about this troika. Daniel Coit Gilman became the first President of the University of California. He also became the founder President of John Hopkins. Timothy Dwight became President of Yale in 1886, whereas Andrew D. White became the first President of Cornell University. Yale, John Hopkins, Cornell, and University of California are first rate institutions and it is highly significant that these were headed in their initial phases by three members of the Order of Skull and Bones who had gone to Berlin University for studying philosophy. It is likely that many subsequent presidents of these institutions have also been members of the Order of S&B. In fact, Yale is almost always headed by a Bonesman.

In addition to heading academic institutions this troika founded and/or headed other highly important organizations that have had, and continue to have, a profound influence on American society. Gilman was the first president of the Carnegie Institution and founded the Peabody, Slater, and Russell Sage Foundations. White became the first president of the American Historical Association, an organization established for the supremely important purpose of writing sanitized history and incorporating this sanitized history in the syllabi of the history courses throughout the United States. This troika also founded the American Economic Association, American Psychological Association and the American Chemical Society. Millegan states: “Through their influences on John Dewey and Horace Mann, this trio continues to have enormous impact on American education today.” Thus control of higher education has enabled them to control education of the United States at all levels. The number 322 in the emblem of the Order is thought by some to represent 322 B.C. when Greek orator Demosthenes died. This year marked the transition of Athens from a democracy to a plutocracy and is thought to represent the belief of S&B members that the U.S. should also become a plutocracy.

From the list of members provided to Sutton an interesting picture emerges. Initially the most important S&B members belonged to certain family lines. Initially the so-called Old Line families that had settled in Massachusetts in the first half of 17th century and had acquired wealth dominated the Order of S&B. These were the Gilman, the Taft, the Whitney, the Lord, the Stimson, the Perkins, the Bundy and the Phleps families. All these families settled in Massachusetts between 1630-1638, except for the Taft family which came in 1679. To these Old Line families were added families which came later and had acquired wealth in the 19th century. These included the Rockefeller, the Payne, the Harriman, the Davison, the Pillsbury, the Sloane and the Weyerhaueser families. Afterwards came families such as the Bush family which joined S&B during the 20th century.

Antony Sutton writes in his groundbreaking book on the Order: “The Order has either set up or penetrated just about every significant research, policy, and opinion making organization in the United States, in addition to the Church, business, law, government and politics. Not all at the same time, but persistently and consistently enough to dominate the direction of American society. The evolution of American society is not, and has not been for a century a voluntary development reflecting individual opinions, ideas and decisions at grass roots. On the contrary the road direction has been created artificially and stimulated by the Order. Not all organizations know they have been penetrated or used for another purpose.”

Not only have members of the Order the very first heads of several key higher education institutions as mentioned, they have also been key players in various Foundations whose wealth is used for the purposes pursued by the Order. Some Foundations set up and/or headed by members of the Order have already been mentioned. In addition, the Ford Foundation was headed by S&B member McGeorge Bundy from 1966-1979 even though the Ford family had views opposed to the secret societies. The American Society for Settlement of International Disputes was set in 1910 by Theodore Marburg who was its President. But the first Chairman of this society was William Howard Taft of S&B. This society was the precursor of the League to Enforce Peace, which evolved into the League of Nations idea and eventually became the United Nations. The brain behind UNESCO was another S&B member named Archiblad McLeash. These organizations reveal how the influence of the Order has acquired a global dimension, touching each and every nation on the planet! In the U.S., the Institute of Policy Studies evolved, in 1963, out of the 1960 Peace Research Institute established by an S&B member named James Jeremiah Wadsworth.

Members of the Order acquired ownership of highly important media organizations from the very start. Henry Luce of S&B owned the Time Life magazines and their allied publications. John Chipman Farrar (S&B 1918) owned the Farrar Strauss publishing enterprise. Alfred Cowles (S&B 1913) became President of Cowles Communications which owned the Des Moines Register and Minneapolis Starr. Similarly the Atlantic Monthly was owned by an S&B member, etc. The first Director of the Nieman Fund, which awards the prestigious Nieman Fellowship in journalism at Harvard, was an S&B member named Archibakld McLeash. Several hundred Nieman Fellowships have been awarded to date.

Members of the Order of Skull and Bones are found on both sides of a conflict. They supported Hitler as well as Stalin! S&B member Averell Harrimann spent a good deal of time by Stalin’s side during WWII. According to Kris Millegan: “Funding and political maneuvering on the part of ‘Bonesmen’ and their allies helped the Bolsheviks prevail in Russia. In defiance of federal laws, the cabal financed industries, established banks, and developed oil and mineral deposits in the fledgling U.S.S.R.” Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin write: “Following his services to Germany’s Nazi Party, Averell Harrimann spent several years mediating between the British, American and Soviet governments in the war to stop the Nazis. He was ambassador to Moscow from 1943-1946. President Harry Truman, whom Harrimann and his friends held in amused contempt, appointed Harrimann U.S. ambassador to Britain in 1946.” Millegan writes that according to some Harrimann also “oversaw the transfer of nuclear secrets, plutonium and dollar printing plates to the U.S.S.R.”

From the list of members supplied secretly and confidentially to Antony Sutton an interesting picture emerges. Sutton had lists that covered approximately the first 150 years of the existence of the Order. He found that 77% i.e. more than three quarters of the members were concentrated in five areas. These areas are Law (18%), Education (16%), Business (16%), Finance (15%) and Industry (12%). As Sutton observes, these five areas are “the key fields for the control of society.” Although Government and politics account for only 3% of the members this is misleading because, on account of the “revolving door” phenomenon, people in these five fields can temporarily occupy important governmental positions. Sutton further notes; “Notably the areas of society least represented are those with the least ability to influence the structural direction of society.” Thus Sutton could find only five engineers in the list of members in 150 years! Further “Art, architecture and music are underrepresented. We can identify only 16 members in these three occupations in 150 years. Again these occupations are not influential in determining the structure of society. Farmers are under represented, only 16 in 150 years, but we suspect that some took up farming to get away from the Order.”

Around 1985, Vice President George HW Bush came to visit his mother Dorothy Bush on Jupiter Island…

Jupiter Island

George H.W. Bush spent his early childhood with his mother on Jupiter Island in Florida, but this is generally not mentioned. The reason for this has to do with the fact that Jupiter Island had been made “a staging ground for the 1940s takeover of the U.S. national security apparatus” by Averell Harrimann. On account of this the island had become “possibly the most secretive place in America”. It was owned by Permelia Pryor Reed, daughter of Samuel Pryor, chairman executive committee of Remington Arms, and a partner of S&B dominated Brown Brother Harrimann, and her husband, Yale graduate Joseph V. Reed. They bought the entire island, which is about half a mile wide and nine miles long, in 1931. The couple sold the land only to people that would fit in with them.

When George H.W. Bush became President he used to visit Jupiter Island frequently. Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin write: “But for several decades before Bush was President, Jupiter Island had an ordinance requiring fingerprinting of all housekeepers, gardeners and other non-residents working on the island. The Jupiter Island police department says that there are sensors in the two main roads that can track every automobile on the island. If a car stops in a street, the police will be there within one or two minutes. Surveillance is a duty of all employees of the town of Jupiter Island. News reporters are to be prevented from visiting the island.”

Jupiter Island resident Robert A Lovett, a partner of Prescott Bush (S&B 1917) was Assistant Secretary of War from 1941-1945. It was Lovett who was the main American advocate of terror-bombing of civilians. It was Lovett who organized the Strategic Bombing Survey in collaboration with the Tavistock Institute in order to terrorize the civilian population of Germany by such actions as fire-bombing of Dresden. He also advised Lyndon Johnson to carry out such terror-bombing of Vietnam. C. Douglas Dillon, a neighbor of George Bush on Jupiter Island, became undersecretary of State after the death of John Foster Dulles in 1958. From 1953 – 1957 Dillon had been ambassador to France and had coordinated the U.S. backing of the French imperialism in Vietnam. The results of this policy became catastrophic for France and eventually the U.S. and Vietnam and adjoining regions leading to tens of millions of deaths. Jock Whitney, ambassador to Britain, was a neighbor of Prescott Bush on Jupiter Island and set up a propaganda organization for the CIA and the British intelligence.

S & B member Averell Harrimann betrayed John F. Kennedy’s attempts to de-escalate the Vietnam war. James Douglas writes about John Kenneth Galbraith’s proposal to JFK to use the Indian government to communicate with the Communist bloc in the matter. “In response to the President’s order to wire such instructions to Galbraith, Harrimann ‘struck the language of de-escalation from the message with a heavy pencil line’ as scholar Gareth Porter discovered in examining Harrimann’s papers. Harriman dictated instructions to his colleague Edward Rice for as telegram to Galbraith that instead ‘changed the mutual de-escalation approach into a threat of the U.S. escalation of war if the North Vietnamese refused to accept U.S. terms’ thereby subverting Kennedy’s purpose. When Rice tried to reintroduce Kennedy’s peaceful initiative into the telegram Harrimann intervened. He again crossed out the de-escalation proposal, then ‘simply killed the telegram altogether.’ As a result of Harrimann’s obstruction, Galbraith never did receive JFK’s mutual de-escalation proposal to North Vietnam.”

John Kennedy was betrayed during the Bay of Pigs invasion by three leading lights of the CIA: Director Allen Dulles and two Deputy Directors Richard Bissell and Gen. Charles Cabell. Bissell had studied at Yale and had refused an offer to become a member of S&B. However, his brother was an S&B member. All three were to play a role in the JFK assassination as JFK had sacked all three of them for having betrayed him. The real disaster during Bay of Pigs occurred when McGeorge Bundy called off the attack on the surviving T33s of Castro’s air force in violation of explicit orders of JFK. Bundy was a member of Order of S&B. His brother William Bundy was also a member of the Order of S&B. Thus S&B members played a crucial role in subverting JFK’s administration. Antony Sutton et al writes about the Bundy brothers: “The two brothers from their positions in the CIA, the Department of Defense and the State Department and as special assistants to President Kennedy and Johnson exercised significant impact over the flow of information and intelligence during the Vietnam war.” William Bundy became the editor of Foreign Affairs, the quarterly journal of the Council on Foreign Relations while McGeorge Bundy became head of the Ford Foundation.

When Gen. Eisenhower instructed that U2 flights over U.S.S.R. be stopped in view of an impending summit with Khrushchev, it was Bissell who betrayed the orders and managed the U2 flight, flown by Gary Powers, which came down over U.S.S.R. leading to a cancellation of the summit. Donald Gibson wrote: “Richard Bissell was the man who developed and almost certainly played a role in the Gates-Powers mess.” Gates was then secretary of defense. Thus S&B members sabotaged the policy of reduction of tensions with the Soviet Union and at the same time sabotaged JFK’s policy of disengaging from Vietnam, eventually playing a role in his assassination. James Jesus Angleton, the head of the CIA’s counter-intelligence wing, played a key role in the JFK assassination. He was a member of the Order of S&B. Members of the Order were responsible for horrendous bombing of civilians during WWII as well as the Vietnam and subsequently Iraq wars under S&B presidents the Bushes, killing tens of millions of innocent civilians.

The Bohemian Grove: An Elite Satanic Club

The Order of S&B stands for serious and managed or forced population reduction as well as the elimination of those who are poor or weak, or have physical or mental handicaps. George H.W. Bush stated: “The per capita income gap between the developed and developing countries is increasing, in large part the result of higher birth rate in poorer countries … Famine in India, unwanted babies in the United States, poverty that seemed to form an unbreakable chain for millions of people – how should we tackle these problems … It is quite clear that one of the major challenges of the 1970s … will be the curb of the world’s fertility.” This thinking is quite similar to that of Adolf Hitler, with whom S&B members cooperated. Hitler had stated: “Those who are physically and mentally unhealthy must not perpetuate their suffering in the body of their children… The prevention of the faculty and opportunity to procreate on the part of physically degenerate and mentally sick over a period of 600 years would … free humanity from an immeasurable misfortune.” The Order of S&B subscribes to this philosophy.

Averell Harriman’s mother had funded the race-science movement in the U.S. in 1910 because she shared with the Farish family an interest in raising thorough breds among horses, extending the same to humans. Dr. Ernst Rudin of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genealogy and Demography was brought to New York for the 1932 New York Eugenics Conference arranged by the Harrimanns, where he was unanimously elected president of the International Federation of Eugenics Societies. In 1928 Dr. Rudin had addressed the Federation’s meeting in Munich speaking on “Mental Aberration and Race Hygiene.” According to Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin components of the world eugenics movement included: “sterilization of mental patients (‘mental hygiene societies’); execution of insane criminals and terminally ill (‘euthanasia societies’); and eugenical race purification by prevention of births to parents from ‘inferior’ blood stocks (‘birth control societies’). Before Auschwitz death camps became a household word, these British-American-European groups called openly for the elimination of ‘unfit’ by means including force and violence.” This movement was backed by the S&B members, particularly the Harrimann family. The Rockefellers also funded this movement significantly.

In summary the Order of Skull and Bones has produced three U.S. presidents, two chief justices, numerous Senators, Congressmen, ambassadors, and cabinet members. They have influenced the U.S. society in a profound way through control of education, law, business, finance and industry. Chief Justice and Bonesman M.R. Waite simply declared in 1886, without any debate, that corporations have the rights of a person. The Order has had a global impact through setting up of UN and international judicial organizations. The Order has promoted war and genocide as a part of its Malthusian philosophy and has worked for making the state more powerful and the individual rights subservient to the demands of the state. The state does not exist to serve the individual, it is the other way round. The Order is, to use Sutton’s phrase, America’s Secret Establishment.

Antony C. Sutton, who had exposed the Order of Skull and Bones through his books and ongoing work died mysteriously in 2002. Kris Millegan wrote: “Antony Sutton was a giant among men. His integrity cost him dearly, his vocation, his income, his family … maybe even his life. Tony had collapsed to his kitchen floor early one morning. All the coroner would tell me was ‘natural causes’. I asked his partner for many years what happened; she said she didn’t know, she was sleeping. The only thing strange was some folks had moved into the apartment upstairs a few weeks before and then moved right out after Tony’s passing.” The Order may have had a hand in his death.

STRATPOL

Yandex vendu à un consortium d’investisseurs en Russie

La société néerlandaise Yandex NV a conclu un accord pour vendre ses activités russes pour 475 milliards de roubles à

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Global South

Western Civilizational Catastrophe

A moment of truth for the West and the whole world

By Rotislav Ishchenko

In the spring, somewhere in March-April, but hardly later in May, a moment of truth comes for the West. The point is not only that while maintaining the current dynamics (and why would she change?) by this time, the Ukrainian front will roll back very noticeably (per kilometers per day along the entire or almost the entire line) and non-stop. In the worst case scenario, such a development of events was predicted and prepared for it.

We have repeatedly considered various options worked out by Washington, which came down to one general decision — due to the delay in hostilities in Ukraine, creating a new military conflict or without it (just by maintaining a high level of tension and deploying troops in border areas) to ensure post-Ukrainian deterrence of Russia by Europe, after which to switch to China.

Each time I considered the next option, I wrote: « If they succeed, but they will try very hard ». They tried. But the logic of the development of events turned out to be stronger than their efforts, and now all the plans to contain Russia in the West by creating a stalemate in a conflict situation turned out to be almost unrealizable.

To maintain the resistance of the Armed Forces by introducing the own forces of NATO countries to Ukraine, the West is catastrophically late with the deployment of new contingents in Poland and the Baltic states. New divisions cannot simply be placed in a clean field — it is necessary to provide them with military towns, a repair base, warehouses, training grounds, etc. All this is not, nor are there any troops ready for operational deployment on a long-term basis (American are needed in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East, and European armies, due to many years of chronic lack of recruits, were reduced to almost a trained composition).

The presence of certain parts of constant readiness does not change the essence of the matter. Today, the readiness of the armies of European NATO members for a real war is lower than that of the Russian army in the most difficult time « of the 90s ». The unfolding Russian offensive and the stubborn intransigence of Russian diplomacy ( not wanting to listen to any world if it is not on Russian conditions ) finally convinced the West that, that the introduction of symbolic contingents to Ukraine to designate the red line will not solve the problem. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will not stop, but simply move « allies » Ukraine together with the Armed Forces themselves, putting the West before the need to choose between recognition of a shameful defeat, with a defeat on the battlefield of NATO units proper, and the beginning with Russia of a full-fledged war, which the European armies cannot wage, and the Americans have no strength for it,for they are going to engage in China at this moment.

Perhaps the Europeans would have somehow solved this problem. But there is something worse than a shortage of troops. EU countries have run out of military equipment and shells. Everything that was gone to Ukraine. The rest is enough for a week or two (with a very economical approach for a month) of hostilities, industry is not only able to satisfy the needs of the front, but even to replenish the spent stocks it takes two to three years, according to optimistic estimates. The Americans have some reserves (it is not clear how large), but they are again needed in the Chinese direction and to help Israel, which, unlike the initial optimistic statements, said, that the Hamas war will last at least until 2025 (and there, except for Hamas, who want to pinch the Tel Aviv tail — car and small cart).

In general, there is no one to fight Europeans and nothing, and there is no one to help them in this grief. Hence, all American architecture « Russian containment » in the West is crumbling.

Moreover, there is no certainty even that European countries will be able to maintain the sanctions mechanism for a long time. US Allied governments are under severe pressure not only from the opposition, but also from the vast majority of their own citizens, who, in unison with French farmers, say: « We are for continuing to support Ukraine, but not at the expense of the interests of their own population. If there is not enough money for everything, then first the problems of our own citizens should be solved, and only then will it be possible to think if something remains for Ukraine ».

Among other things, it means, that even the late (for Kiev belatedly catastrophic) EU decision to allocate 50 billion euros to Ukraine for five years (which will need to be reapproved every year) with a high degree of probability may not be implemented. Mass strikes and protest marches of workers, on the one hand, and the growing popularity of the opposition, on the other, leave very little room for maneuver for pro-American governments in the EU. An attempt to follow the power path of the prohibitions of opposition parties, which the Scholz government in Germany is hinting at, fraught with the emergence in Europe of its « Texas » with unpredictable (but in any case catastrophic for the current system) results.

The United States cannot leave the Russian front unattended and focus on China. In this case, Russia without any war (military operations in Ukraine will quickly end, and Europe will pretend that it just passed by) will be the leader of Europe (at least most of it), much faster than the United States will be able to achieve some kind of hypothetical success in the Chinese direction. It is also impossible to postpone the suppression of China and focus on Russia. In this case, China will win in Asia much faster than the United States can hope to at least stabilize the situation in Europe, reaching a mutually blocked political position in the Russian direction (which they are not a fact, what can they create).

Failure in any of the directions devalues even victory in another, since the overall balance is not in favor of the United States. But the fact is that we can’t talk about Washington’s victory in this option: the best that Americans can hope for is — a draw in one direction (without peace, with armed confrontation, but without war) with an American defeat on the other.

The United States is in a strategic impasse, which is reinforced by the fact that the situation around Texas has shown: the White House does not control the situation within the United States and cannot count on consolidated support not only for the population, but also for elites, he decide on a big war.

The United States lost the main thing — they lost time. Donbass paid for this victory with his lives, while for many years the Russians in Ukraine who remained under Nazi occupation paid for it. During the Great Patriotic War, Smolensk and Kiev, for two years, Minsk for three years, part of the Baltic states were under occupation for four years (until the end of the war), and Leningrad survived the blockade for three years, so that the country can gather strength, exhaust the enemy and win not one battle, but the whole war.

The West has no good solution. He (in the person of the ruling elites) cannot agree to peace on Russian terms, but he does not have the strength to continue raising rates: he no longer pulls a big war not only on the outside, but also according to internal indicators (the population may rebel, and the army — will not fulfill the order if it comes to a big war, especially under the curtain of cadence of unpopular governments, on the eve of the elections they lost in advance).

Moreover, the West is not able to wage a proxy war against Russia beyond 2024. Ukrainian proxies are ending. Even if they manage to hold out not only until the fall, but until December 2024 (which is very doubtful), the end of Ukraine is still near, and to replace them, the West was not able to prepare yet another one who wanted to die for the United States in a proxy war with Russia.

This is a civilizational catastrophe — the first since the fall of the Roman Empire (except for the defeat of American Indian civilizations, which from the point of view of the traditional European approach to history were peripheral and did not affect global processes). The civilization of the traditional West is collapsing before our eyes. On his example, we can understand how not only Roman, but also Assyrian and other military civilizations collapsed, yesterday, still prosperous and in a matter of years, suddenly running from the masters of the world to garbage under the feet of new winners.

// //

There is another problem to which we have devoted a lot of discussions, but which is updated in connection with the sharp weakening of the West and its entry into the finish line leading to the civilizational catastrophe. Against the background of this huge tragedy, no one knows what to do with the remnants of Ukraine.

On the one hand, no one wants to set a precedent for the liquidation of the state — of the UN founder by decision of an international conference (will anyone else be lucky?) On the other hand, no one has the desire or resources to contain « independent Ukraine », which not only cannot exist independently, but tightly inscribed in the old outgoing civilizational system (as a resource of the dying part, used to restrain the growth of new forces) and without this old civilizational system, it is a political and historical misunderstanding, interfering with everything and not inspiring anyone.

Russia has no answer to this question (more precisely, there are many of them, but not one has yet been designated as the final solution). There is no answer to this question in the West. Perhaps against the background of « the death of Atlantis » of the modern West, this issue will be decided by itself (as the Angles, Saxons and Uuts decided in the 5th century the fate of Roman Britain left by legions). But not a fact.

At an interesting time we live.

(machine translation)

Global South

US-Iran Showdown

Message for Joe Biden: Don’t Mess with Iran

In this week’s episode of the New Rules podcast, we delve into the recent escalation between Iran and the US, with Biden administration reportedly considering striking Iran. We hosted University of Tehran professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi who warned that if a new war breaks out in the Middle East, the US will lose against Iran and its allies in the Axis of Resistance.

“The attacks that are taking place in Syria and Iraq show how vulnerable the Americans are. But the real reason right now, why the Americans are occupying Iraq and Syria? They say it’s to contain Iran and to limit Iran’s influence. But in reality, it’s about taking away the sovereignty of countries and to strengthen Israel,” he told the New Rules podcast.

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