Connexion
Le parti Contrat civil du Premier ministre arménien Nikol Pachinian a obtenu moins de la moitié des voix après le
L’article Législatives arméniennes : Pachinian revendique la victoire, malgré un score sous les 50% est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
L’objectif de cette visite est d’apporter son soutien au Premier ministre Viktor Orbán avant les élections du 12 avril. Ce
L’article Vance en visite en Hongrie pour soutenir Orban avant les élections est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
I was waiting for Brian Berletic to speak his piece, but there is more. I find a bunch of Americans liking this, but not understanding it. We wanna believe a US strategy because they say so? Where have they been over the past years, after, say, the 2nd WW, to bracket a timespan? Dmitry Medvedev recognized a diplomatic break for Russia (for now). But we have not heard from China. And the ‘western hemisphere’ is being claimed, as is West Asia.
It is primacy, but selected for this moment and changeable, as they decide with the required ‘burden-sharing’ to share US proxy wars. They’re going to sqeeze the hell out of so-called allies.
‘Should Japan dare to cross red line, it is destined to pay heavy price’
From GT
China’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Thursday responded intensively to a series of recent moves by Japan, including the deployment of missiles on Yonaguni Island, the first export of deadly weapons since Japan relaxed arms export controls, and Japan’s initiation of discussions on revising three security-related documents.
Slamming these dangerous moves, MND spokesperson Jiang Bin said at a press conference held on Thursday that should the Japanese side dare to cross the red line and invite trouble to itself, it is destined to pay a heavy price. He added that people around the world, especially those from China and other victimized countries in Asia, will never forget the catastrophe brought by Japanese fascists. The specter of Japanese militarism must never be allowed to haunt the world again.
Recent media reports said that the Japanese government has sold its domestically produced Patriot air-defense missiles to the US. It was the first export of deadly weapons since Japan relaxed controls on arms exports. In addition, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan has started discussions on revising its three security documents, including the revision of its three non-nuclear principles and increasing its defense spending.
Commenting on the latest moves, Jiang warned that the international community must be on high alert against Japan’s revisionist attempts to break away from the restraints of its pacifist constitution. The attempts include brazenly expanding its military build-up, drastically increasing its defense budget, expediting the revision of its security policies, relaxing restrictions on weapons exports, and attempting to revoke the three non-nuclear principles. It is even attempting to intervene militarily on the Taiwan question. These moves pose serious threats to regional peace and stability, Jiang said.
Regarding the Japanese side’s plan to station medium-range surface-to-air missiles at Yonaguni Island 110 kilometers east of Taiwan, and responding to Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s recent claim that the deployment “will lower the risk of Japan being attacked”, the MND spokesperson said, “Should the Japanese side dare to cross the red line and invite troubles to itself, it is destined to pay a heavy price.”
Jiang noted that this year marks the 80th anniversary of Taiwan’s restoration. “Instead of repenting for its war crimes of invading and colonizing Taiwan, Japan is taking an extremely wrong approach by suggesting military intervention in a so-called Taiwan contingency. This dangerous approach will uproot the post-WWII international order, and lead Japan to repeat the mistakes of its militarist past.”
The PLA has strong capabilities and reliable means to defeat any aggressors, Jiang stressed.
The MND also responded to recent claims from a source in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces saying that if the aircraft carrier Fujian takes military action in the Taiwan Straits, “Japanese and US forces will have the capability to sink it.”
In response, Jiang said, “it is nothing but sheer fantasy and an overestimation of one’s own abilities.”
Japan’s recent series of dangerous moves have inflicted severe harm and posed a major threat to peace and stability in the region and beyond, a Chinese expert said.
“Alarmingly, Japan has shown no remorse whatsoever for its aggressive past in World War II; instead, it continues to stir up troubles and revive militarist practices. Furthermore, Japan harbors ambitions to develop nuclear weapons, acquire nuclear-powered equipment, and promote arms exports. The core reason for its ‘recklessness’ is its utter lack of repentance for its WWII aggression,” Song Zhongping, a military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Song warned that if such a country is allowed to revive militarism, it will undoubtedly bring catastrophic consequences to the region and the world at large.
Song believes that China, as a core force for safeguarding regional and global peace, will never tolerate Japan’s dangerous acts. If Japan dares to exacerbate regional unrest and inflict harm on the region, China will resolutely step forward, and take firm and effective measures to crack down on and resolutely curb Japan’s militarist resurgence.
Tensions have boiled between Beijing and Tokyo following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks on the Taiwan question. The comments have sparked widespread public debate and continuous protests within Japan, with prominent politicians and experts voicing open opposition.
In an exclusive interview with the Global Times, Yukiko Kaikita, president of the Kumamoto Chapter of the Women’s Association for Peace and Against Military Expansion, said Takaichi’s remarks constitute blatant interference in China’s internal affairs, and that a large number of Japanese citizens hope she will retract her statements and issue an apology.
“Most importantly, Japan’s core commitment to the world is that we would never again wage war. When World War II ended in 1945, the Japanese people not only enshrined this principle in our constitution but also internalized, from the bottom of their hearts, the conviction that ‘we must never go to war again’,” said Kaikita. “Yet, among Japanese politicians, that conviction gradually faded, as it was replaced by a complete tilt toward the US-Japan security framework. This shift fills us with deep anger.”
All social media and many reliable media are in chaos. The major issues:
Even Sony Thăng started speaking out, only to be met with screeds and pages of justifications. These journalists feel scorned because Russia, China, and BRICS are not taking the action they decided should be taken.
In addition, we have AI. Here we have to change our perspective. Whereas before we ‘trusted’ certain information from well-known and reliable journos, essayists, and commentators, our default position now has to change. We cannot believe what our eyes see or what our ears hear.
Trust Nothing Unless Verified. Everything is someone else’s opinion. Use extreme informational filters on everything and everybody. Don’t stop resisting!
The reality is that even the good can become crazy overnight, as this level of crazy is communicable.
Is the move to multipolarity fun enough for you yet?
This is the NO RULES commenting thread. Say what you want. I just did and have more. Your karma is yours.
Verily, it is Victory or Martyrdom.
Venezuelans have a “true sense of belonging to a project worth saving.. This is a project of collective self-emancipation. .. Those who are committed to the Bolivarian revolution assume themselves as subjects of transformation, not as victims. And this is something to be reckoned with.”
Video Description:
“I’m joined by Cira Pasqual Marquina, author and educator at the Pluriversidad Patria Grande and co-host with Chris Gilbert of the Marxist education program and podcast Escuela de Cuadros.
I ask her:
≈≈≈
Cira Pascual Marquina interviews at Venezuelanalysis.
The Imperialist Offensive is Nothing New for the Bolivarian Revolution’: A Conversation with Ana Maldonado
A Chavista organizer examines the US militarization of the Caribbean and the Bolivarian Revolution’s enduring resistance to imperial aggression.
In recent months, Washington has stepped up its military presence in the Caribbean, sending warships, aircraft, and even a nuclear submarine to waters near Venezuela amid extrajudicial attacks on fishing vessels. For many, this new phase of aggression is all too familiar — part of a decades-long campaign of hybrid warfare designed to undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty.
In this context, Cira Pascual Marquina spoke with Ana Maldonado, a sociologist, international relations coordinator for the Francisco de Miranda Front—a national Chavista movement—and member of the Venezuelan chapter of ALBA Movements. In this interview, Maldonado offers her perspective on how Venezuelans are experiencing the latest imperialist escalation, reflects on the country’s long resistance to hybrid war, and situates the current threat within the broader struggle for sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean.
How are the Venezuelan people experiencing this new imperialist escalation?
President Nicolás Maduro has said that in this scenario of maximum pressure, our response must be maximum preparation. At the same time, he has called on us to combine vigilance with calm, to continue our daily lives, and to defend the peace with social justice that has cost us so much to build and preserve.
You can see this clearly in the fact that, even amid the current military escalation, the new school year began normally across the country. More than 20,000 educational institutions opened their doors without disruption, and over six million children and youth returned to class, as they do every year around this time.
While we are indeed facing a serious threat of war, people are also carrying on with their everyday lives and that, in itself, is a victory, since the enemy seeks precisely to disrupt our life.
People abroad are often surprised to learn that daily routines here continue undisturbed and that Venezuelans are not living in a state of panic. How do you explain this?
This is far from our first encounter with imperialist aggression. The tactics may shift, but the strategy remains unchanged: hybrid warfare. For years, US imperialism and its allies have waged a relentless campaign against Venezuela, beginning in earnest in April 2002 with the coup d’état and the people’s heroic counteroffensive that restored democracy. That was followed by the oil sabotage, mercenary incursions, and global media campaigns against our democracy.
After Comandante Chávez passed in 2013, a new and sustained period of aggression began. Initially, they bet that we would fail to hold peaceful elections or that President Maduro would never be elected. The dominant narrative was “Maduro is not Chávez.” With that simplistic argument, they sought to demoralize the Chavista social base, implying that the Bolivarian project would not withstand the loss of the Comandante. Yet we won the elections and, even as we mourned Chávez, the project continued.
But the US and their local agents were determined not to let us go on with our revolution. In 2014, the opposition launched a violent campaign called “La Salida” [The Exit], led by Voluntad Popular and María Corina Machado, the same factions now openly calling for foreign intervention. The following year, the United States took another war-like step: Obama’s 2015 executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
That decree was followed by the 2016 economic strangulation, marked by deliberate shortages aimed at making everyday life unbearable. Ten years later, we remain under a blockade that has killed tens of thousands.
In 2017, the most extreme factions of the opposition returned to the streets with fascist violence, committing atrocities such as the burning alive of a young Black man, Orlando Figuera, targeted simply for looking like a Chavista. More than 100 people were killed during this period of intensified fascist terror.
President Maduro responded by calling for a National Constituent Assembly, once again raising the banner of peace and democracy in the face of fascist violence. People from all sectors, including residents of middle-class neighborhoods whose polling centers had been attacked, were able to vote in peace at the Poliedro de Caracas.
Since then, we’ve lived through multiple phases of hybrid war: Juan Guaidó’s self-proclamation as “interim president” in 2019 and the “Battle of the Bridges,” when the opposition attempted to stage a false-flag operation on the Colombian border under the guise of a humanitarian aid effort. That was followed by massive blackouts that left the country in darkness for days and the 2020 Operation Gideon, recently further exposed in a Max Blumenthal interview with its US organizer, Jordan Goudreau, a former Green Beret.
None of these were isolated incidents: they are coordinated fronts in a sustained hybrid war combining political, psychological, economic, and military aggression.
Yet, in each of these moments, the government and the organized pueblo have responded effectively. During the 2019 electrical sabotage, for example, communities mobilized to ensure access to water and basic needs, while Operation Gideon was defeated by the same fisherfolk who are now being attacked in the Southern Caribbean.
So, to return to your original question: yes, people are alert because the threat is real, but we are also seasoned and organized. We know we are capable of defending the Revolution with unity and discipline. We are in a phase of maximum preparation, with millions voluntarily enrolling in the militia and preparing for the defense of the Patria [homeland].
Indeed, people are not only enlisting in the Bolivarian Militia but also preparing collectively. You’ve given us a historical account of the attacks faced by the Bolivarian Revolution over the past 25 years. But as we know, the current military buildup in the Caribbean is not only against Venezuela: it is an attack on the continent. How do you understand its broader implications?
The imperialist onslaught on the Caribbean is nothing new. Haiti, still punished today for its revolution more than two centuries ago, remains under siege. Now, armed gangs tied to the Dominican Republic are also involved. Puerto Rico continues to endure capitalist dispossession, with five million Puerto Ricans now living in the US while barely three million remain on the island. All the while, revolutionary Cuba has faced a brutal blockade for many decades.
However, the recent imperialist military buildup should deeply concern the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, since it signals a shift in Washington’s military policy. Around 10,000 US troops are currently stationed in the Caribbean, mainly in Puerto Rico, to say nothing of the destroyers, nuclear submarine, and air force deployments.
They are not there only to threaten Venezuela; this is the revival of the Monroe Doctrine. As Trump once said, “Why pay for Venezuelan oil, if we can just take it?” That’s how they think about the resources of the continent.
When it comes to Venezuela, beyond seizing our resources, the US also aims to strip away our sovereignty and destroy the example that we represent. If our project succeeds, it will inspire the entire continent. From Canada to Patagonia, people are struggling for liberation, and the Bolivarian Revolution represents a living example of how that can be done.
Attacking Venezuela serves two purposes: to loot our resources and to extinguish the example of participatory democracy. Since 2021, Venezuela has experienced renewed economic growth and the strengthening of its communes and popular power.
That is precisely what Washington wants to halt: they fear that the peoples of Latin America, and even within the United States, will draw inspiration from our experience.
Why the military escalation at this particular moment?
Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” is itself an admission of decline. The US is no longer what it once was, and its elites are desperate to recover lost ground. Yet even within those elites, fractures abound between the neoconservatives, the Zionist zealots, and the MAGA bloc. Their internal contradictions often produce erratic foreign policy decisions.
However, on one point they all agree: war is profitable. The military-industrial complex remains central to sustaining the US economy. So even amid domestic tensions, there is a bipartisan consensus around war as business.
Before the recent attacks on Venezuelan vessels, President Maduro warned that they might attempt to recreate a Gulf of Tonkin incident, because their hunger for war is insatiable. He was right: this aggression is ultimately driven by the economic imperative of feeding the war machine. In a post-Cold War world, it survives through perpetual “hot wars”—and what better front than Venezuela, which is rich in resources and defiant of imperial domination?
Let’s close with Chávez. He declared the Bolivarian Revolution anti-imperialist in 2004, but in truth, it always had a sovereign and anti-imperialist character. Could you reflect on Chávez’s anti-imperialism?
Indeed. The formal declaration came during a historic rally at the Botanical Garden in 2004, but the Revolution was Bolivarian from the start, and Bolívar himself was profoundly anti-imperialist. He warned that the United States seemed “destined by Providence to plague the Americas with misery in the name of liberty.” That same spirit lives in our revolution since day one.
Chávez revived Bolívar’s anti-imperialist legacy as early as 1977, when he created the People’s Army for the Liberation of Venezuela, whose founding document enshrined Bolivarianism and anti-imperialism as guiding principles. Later, in The Blue Book [1991], he outlined the vision of sovereignty and dignity that still guides us. President Maduro calls that text a “historical compass” pointing us steadfastly, no matter how much we have to maneuver, toward our strategic goal: the defense of sovereignty and the rejection of imperial domination.
For us, being anti-imperialist means not only refusing to surrender our resources, but also defending our identity, our dignity, and our very being. The empire’s elites belong nowhere; they want the world to belong to them. We, by contrast, define ourselves by belonging to a land, to a pueblo, and to a history.
That is why even symbolic aggressions, such as the attempt to erase “Bolivarian” from the Republic’s name during the 2002 coup, or mocking us as “venecos” in an attempt to erase our identity, are part of the war.
Bolivarianism and anti-imperialism are also deeply rooted in your organization, the Frente Francisco de Miranda. Can you tell us about it?
Indeed. In 2003, Fidel and Chávez founded the Frente Francisco de Miranda as a movement of Bolivarian, anti-imperialist social workers. However, anti-imperialism isn’t limited to my organization; it’s in the bloodstream of millions of Venezuelans who have resisted International Monetary Fund impositions since 1989 and continue defending the Bolivarian project today.
To be Chavista is to be anti-imperialist. Chávez was the first Latin American president to recognize Palestine, to support the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and to speak of our historical debt to Haiti. His backing of these and other liberation struggles was not just a matter of words but also about material support. He also linked the defense of Haiti to a history that, for him, didn’t begin with Pétion and Dessalines, but with Hatuey, the first known hero of an anti-colonial Caribbean rebellion.
That is our Chávez—the anti-imperialist Chávez—whose legacy continues to guide us!
≈≈≈
Cira Pascual Marquina is a Political Science professor at the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela in Caracas. She is also co‐producer and co‐host (with Chris Gilbert) of the Marxist education program Escuela de Cuadros. She is actively engaged with grassroots organizations in Venezuela and abroad, and is dedicated, both as a militant and as an investigator, to communal initiatives.
[Note: The Chinese strategy around the 3 Island chains explains some of China’s reaction to the words of the Japanese leader. Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi’s remarks linking Taiwan to Japan’s “existential crisis” caters to US attempts to contain China, binds Japan’s fate to Washington’s strategy, and masks its deep fear of being discarded as a disposable ally, says a Chinese journalist and analyst.
China has sanctioned seafood imports from and exports to Japan again, only a short time after they were normalized. China is protecting its strategy given that the first island chain consists of Okinawa, Taiwan, and the Philippines. In addition, China has started talking again about Okinawa, originally the Kingdom of Ryukyu, which is, in modern parlance, islands under occupation.]
MOSCOW, November 17 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kots.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy has put the new aircraft carrier Fujian, the third in the Chinese Navy, on combat duty. The construction process, from the laying of the ship to its full combat readiness, took eight years and nine months, which is a record for a vessel of this complexity. Beijing is rapidly expanding its influence in the Asia-Pacific region and aims to challenge the US hegemony. RIA Novosti provides an overview of what is known about the aircraft carrier.
The Fujian is the first aircraft carrier built according to an original design using only Chinese technologies. It is classified as Type 003. The transfer ceremony was held at the Sanya Port on the island of Hainan. The event was attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The ship was laid down at the Jiangnan Shipyard Group in Shanghai in 2017. The structural elements were manufactured at various facilities. Assembly began in 2021. Last July, Western media outlets published satellite images showing that the aircraft carrier had already received its superstructure and catapult launch systems. The Fujian was launched three years ago and has undergone a full cycle of sea trials.At the same time, an air wing was being created for it. Deck-based pilots were trained in Wuhan on a concrete mock-up of the Fujian. The Type 055 missile destroyers, which have been under construction since late 2014 and are second only to the American Zumwalt destroyers in terms of displacement, are likely to be used as escort ships.
The PLA Navy already has the aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong. The former is an unfinished Soviet aircraft carrier cruiser Varyag that was transferred to China in the 1990s, while the latter is a ship built according to a similar design. They were commissioned into the Navy in 2012 and 2019, respectively.
The Fujian is the largest aircraft carrier not built by the United States. It has a full displacement of 80,000 tons, a length of 320 meters, and a width of 75 meters. The ship inherited its non-nuclear propulsion system from its predecessors, which includes steam turbines and diesel generators. Overall, the Fujian is comparable to the American aircraft carriers of the 1960s, such as the Kitty Hawk class.
However, the Fujian’s electromagnetic catapults for launching carrier-based fighter jets are currently only available on the latest American Gerald Ford-class destroyer. These catapults provide a smoother acceleration compared to traditional steam catapults, allowing for adjustable speed based on the aircraft’s weight. Additionally, they require less space on the ship due to their simpler design.
The superstructure and two elevators are located on the starboard side, just like on the Shandong aircraft carrier. The elevators now lift two aircraft instead of one, which is a significant improvement. Additionally, the superstructure has been compacted to accommodate the flight control center, a phased array radar station, and communication equipment.
The Fujian does not carry offensive weapons, and its air defense is limited to Type 730 rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns and the HQ-10 short-range surface-to-air missile system. Its main striking force consists of J-35 and J-15T/DT multi-purpose fighters, KJ-600 long-range radar detection and control aircraft, and Z-20 helicopters.
It is claimed that the Fujian is capable of carrying more than 50 aircraft, not including UAVs.The latest fifth-generation J-35 carrier-based fighter jets are particularly interesting. The prototype first took to the air in 2021, and the J-35 successfully completed flight tests in 2024. According to Chinese media reports, the fighter jet is highly stealthy, with an effective radar cross-section (RCS) smaller than a human palm. It is capable of carrying a wide range of weapons, including the PL-17 air-to-air missile with a range of up to 400 kilometers. Together with the J-35 AWACS aircraft, they will be able to monitor all approaches to the carrier strike group.
Jin Canrong, deputy director of the Institute of International Studies at the Chinese People’s University, told the Global Times newspaper that Fujian was built to counter the so-called second island chain of US deterrence, which runs through the island of Guam.
“The Americans have deployed three island chains around us,” he explained.
“The first is Okinawa, Taiwan, and the Philippines, the second is Guam, and the third is Hawaii.
In fact, we have already extended our deterrence to the second. Taiwan is a key node in the first, where we have a significant advantage. Therefore, its destruction is not a problem for China, although Beijing’s policy towards Taiwan remains focused on peaceful reunification.”
China is clearly planning to challenge the hegemony of the all-powerful US Navy in the Pacific. And three aircraft carriers are not the limit. According to media reports, a full-scale model of a fourth aircraft carrier has been built in Wuhan. It is estimated to have a displacement of 115,000 tons, a length of 340 meters, and a width of 83 meters. It is expected to have a top speed of over 30 knots (50 kilometers per hour). The carrier will be equipped with a flight deck capable of carrying 60 to 80 aircraft, helicopters, and heavy drones. This ship is expected to have a nuclear power plant.
“China is consistently increasing its ability to conduct operations far from its territory,” said Dmitry Stefanovich, a researcher at the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “This is impossible without an aircraft carrier, especially since Beijing has a maritime component to its Belt and Road Initiative.
China also has an active policy in Africa, and Pakistan should not be forgotten. However, it is clear that the United States is the most concerned about Chinese aircraft carriers.”
And the US shipbuilding industry is cutting its budget. Just this year, the Pentagon abandoned the construction of two Virginia-class submarines and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The Ticonderoga cruiser fleet is gradually declining: all of them have more than 30 years of service. Noticeably outdated shipyards do not have enough capacity either.
The PLA Navy already surpasses the U.S. Navy in terms of the number of warships and submarines. Beijing is also ahead of Washington in terms of the pace of construction and commissioning of new ships.
The only thing missing to become one of the most powerful naval powers was an aircraft carrier fleet. Now China has one.
NATO having spent $400B, armed 32 countries to the teeth, and still got humiliated by the glorified gas station they mocked for decades, and now Finland’s defense minister is lashing out at China because he can’t face the truth:
Russia crushed the West’s entire Ukraine project, and the people who promised “as long as it takes” are choking on their own failure.
What Antti Hakkanen calls “China massively financing Russia’s war chest” is nothing but the howl of a man watching the myth collapse. He’s not revealing Chinese financial aid, it doesn’t exist, he’s mourning. Mourning the fantasy that Western sanctimony could bend Eurasia into submission. Mourning the delusion that sanctions would break Russia. Mourning the fairy tale that Europe’s rusted militaries, hollow economies, and performative moralism could stop a country that actually knows how to fight.
When a $400B project collapses in real time, projection becomes doctrine.
We were humiliated so badly by the gas station, let’s blame China, then it doesn’t sound quite as humiliating. That western ROI, is absolutely humiliating for the West.
And while these ministers flail, the truth they avoid is the truth they fear: Russia didn’t just survive the siege, it grew stronger, and is now an economic superpower, thanks to European sanctions. Production up. Trade soaring. A yuan–ruble axis that outflanks the dollar-euro Ponzi. An army that out-produces all of NATO’s munitions lines combined. And a political class that didn’t buckle when every Western capital bet the house on collapse. The West is left blaming Beijing, because blaming themselves would mean facing the magnitude of their humiliation.
But beneath all this geopolitical cope lies the ugliest truth of all, the industrial-scale laundering that turned Ukraine into a gold rush for Western contractors and Ukrainian elites. While Ukrainian soldiers bled in mud, the presidential inner circle lined pockets with wartime energy contracts, nuclear-grid kickbacks, and foreign aid skimmed through shell firms that all led back to the same small circle of insiders. Golden toilets. Monaco apartments. Offshore accounts fattened while families froze in high-rise stairwells during blackouts. And one day, when this war finally ends and the spell breaks, Ukraine’s own citizens will turn around and see who sold them to the highest bidder. Not Moscow. Not Beijing. But the very handlers who promised salvation and delivered only debt, depopulation, and graves. There is no amnesty in history for leaders who steal from their own dead.
Finland isn’t sounding an alarm, but it is confessing defeat. Because if a “gas station with nukes” can defeat 32 NATO militaries, devour $400B in Western investment, and still push relentlessly through Pokrovsk, then it isn’t a gas station at all — it’s a civilization with a memory, a spine, and an economy immune to Western fantasies. What broke wasn’t Russia. What broke was the illusion that the West still commands the world.
And here’s the real sting: China didn’t break NATO’s strategy, NATO’s arrogance did.
A hubris so blinding they mistook their own propaganda for reality. A delusion so deep they believed history had ended. A failure so absolute the only thing left is to blame the rising world for refusing to drown with them.
That’s the verdict of this war.
Not just defeat, exposure. And no minister in Helsinki can spin that away.
– Gerry Nolan @ TheIslanderNews
China’s innovation drive is reaching fever pitch in 2025. Let’s cut to the chase and focus on four crucial domains.
1.The Huawei Factor
1.Huawei is already testing its first, self-developed EUV lithography machine capable of producing 3nm chips. Trial tests are going full blast at the research center in Dongguan, and mass production should start in 2026.
It’s impossible to overstate how much of a game-changing paradigm this Chinese breatkthrough – specifically in laser-induced discharge plasma (LDP) – is all about. It’s set to turn the seminconductor technology environment totally upside down.
The physics involved in Huawei’s LDP is fundamentally different from the method employed by the Dutch ASML’s de facto monopoly. This being China, it’s simpler, smaller and cheaper.
Huawei’s technology is bound to smash that monopoly while solidifying China’s chip independence. Talk about cost efficiency: Huawei aims to produce EUV machines at a fraction of the cost of ASML’s (around $350 million for each unit), and no less than flood China with homegrown 3 nm chips.
All that is happening after the proverbial Western “experts”, following the 2019 sanctions imposed by Trump 1.0, dictated that China would take up to 15 years to just catch up. After all, EUV technology is too deeply embedded in the Western-controlled supply chain. It was assumed that China would never be able to smash the monopoly.
Well, of course any monopoly is smashable when public-private partnerships – in academia and tech – release untold billions of dollars into R&D, rally the best minds, and focus on building an EUV eco-system from scratch.
This is not only about tech; it’s a geoeconomic and geopolitical earthquake. There was a serious debate going on across China that it would be a matter between 2 and 3 years to cut off any dependence on US/Western tech. Well, Huawei and SMIC will be moving closer to mass production of these 3 nm chips already by next year. Not hard to do the math on where the future of global chipmaking lies.
Invest In R&D And Reach Patent Heaven
Now cut to Fan Zhiyong, Huawei’s Vice-President and Minister of Intellectual Property, talking at the company’s 6th Innovation and Intellectual Property Forum this past Tuesday.
He explained how “from the brand-new HarmonyOS 6 operating system to the powerful Atlas 950 supernode, our R&D team has achieved remarkable successes. Although many leading software and hardware products are massive systems engineering projects, we are making every effort to make them open to everyone.”
Huawei conducts an innovation and intellectual property forum nearly every year, discussing the importance of open/protected intellectual property as well as promoting its Top Ten Inventions: this year they featured, among others, supernodes; the Harmony OS; foldable screens; short-range optical interconnects; and next-generation solid state drives.
There’s no secret: a lot of investment in R&D is behind all these breakthroughs. Over the past five years, Huawei has invested more than 20% of its annual sales revenue in R&D. According to the EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard 2024, Huawei is Number 6 globally in R&D expenditure.
Huawei does not see these accomplishments as leading to a “closed garden”. On the contrary: the strategy is to foment an “open industry”, including the launch of a series of new open source software and hardware.
This opennes is reflected by the fact that Huawei is one of the world’s largest patent holders. By the end of 2024, Huawei held over 150,000 valid authorized patents globally, ranging from over 50,000 Chinese patents to over 29,000 patents in the U.S. and 19,000 in Europe.
And that brings us to…
2. Total Tech Sufficiency
And of course that is centered on AI. Cut to three recent key tech moves:
A. Beijing has banned foreign AI chips in every state-funded data center across the nation. Exempted will be only a few private companies which build their own data centers.
B. Local and regional governments were encouraged and are already subsidizing the electricity bills of AI data centers. China has a key infrastructure advantage over the US: cheap and extremely abundant power – as I saw it in my recent travels in Xinjiang. That is essential to offset the cost of switching to domestic chips, a more energy-intensive operation. For example, Huawei’s AI server system – CloudMatrix 384 – consumes more energy than Nvidia’s NVL72 system.
C. Beijing is also rolling out a new, ambitious “AI Plus Manufacturing” plan, included in the broader AI Plus initiative.
Point A is ultra-pertinent because Trump 2.0 is debating whether to allow Nvidia to sell a downgraded version of its Blackwell chips to China. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang is lobbying for it like there’s no tomorrow, desperate of losing the Chinese market to Huawei for good. He bombastically announced that China is only “nanosenconds” behind the US on semiconductors.
Point C is also ultra-pertinent because as we saw with the Hauwei factor, Beijing is going for no holds barred AI chip self-sufficiency.
Beijing is deploying a very clever strategy. No foreign chips in data centers means a de facto protected market to domestic chip innovators which match foreign chip performances. Talk about a massive incentive.
Li Lecheng, Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), has announced that MIIT will soon issue an “AI Plus Manufacturing” plan, focusing on rolling out AI upgrades in key industries; expanding intelligent assisted design, virtual simulation, and early defect detection; promoting brand new AI-enabled mobile phones and computers; and accelerating R&D for next-generation intel devices such as humanoid robots and brain-computer interfaces.
In a nutshell: that is how Beijing wants to implement AI in every nook and cranny of the Chinese economy. It’s a no holds barred total innovation strategy. Sanctions? What sanctions?
What A Stable And Resilient China May Accomplish
3. Clean Energy
This revolution is already on – with China leaping ahead of the whole collective West, installing, for instance, nearly 900 gigawatt of solar capacity, more than the US-EU combo.
Last year, China generated 1826 terawatt/hour of electricity out of solar and wind power – five times the energy equivalent of all its nuclear warheads.
Yes: that’s a certified energy superpower.
4. An Early-Warning Detection Big Data Platform
The Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology – China’s number one defense-electronics center and a hub of key innovation even under US sanctions – is developing a ground-breaking “distributed early-warning detection big data platform” capable of tracking up to 1,000 missile launches worldwide in real time.
The platform fuses data from an enormous array of space-, air-, sea-, and ground-based sensors, using advanced algorithms to distinguish warheads from decoys and proceed to action across secure networks.
The system integrates literally anything: fragmented, heterogeneous data streams from multiple sources – radars, satellites, optical, electronic reconnaissance systems – no matter where they come from, and when.
Cue to the system’s integration with interceptor missiles. During the Victory Day military parade last September in Beijing, China presented a new generation of air defense and anti-ballistic missiles, including the HQ-29, capable of intercepting hostile missiles beyond the atmosphere. Call it the Chinese Dragon Dome.
These are only 4 vectors amid the concerted Chinese tech drive, one of the key themes of the next Five-Year Plan to be approved next March in the “Two Sessions” in Beijing.
Now cut to Ronnie Chan, the Chair Emeritus of the Asia Society and the chairman of its Hong Kong Centre. He’s one of those affable old-school Hong Kong elite members who’s seen it all – and capable of synthesizing what’s ahead in a sharp and sweet manner. What he said recently at a seminar organized by the Shanghai Development Research Foundation could not be more relevant.
Let’s take just three key takeaways:
1.
“The Chinese people are resilient and patient. As long as domestic stability is maintained, external pressure only strengthens their endurance (…) in this China–U.S. rivalry, there will be no true winner, but the side that stands longer in the end will be China.”
2.
“China’s economy has not been over-financialised, and it continues to be grounded in the real economy. Only when manufacturing is strong can a nation remain stable and resilient.”
3.
“China must stay calm — neither blindly optimistic nor blindly pessimistic. China possess a vast market, a complete industrial chain, and a diligent population. As long as internal stability holds, external pressures cannot defeat it. The real opportunities ahead do not lie in real estate or finance, but in the service sector and innovation-driven real economies.”
There is no Chinese “miracle”: it’s all about planning and hard work.
And now to the next stage: no holds barred innovation.
Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. at the Valdai Club
There are two sections to this.
First is the discussion at the Valdai club and second the following talk by Think-BRICS. This is not casual reading, but instead requires careful study.
—
The need to face up to the deficiencies of the Western-controlled monetary and financial system should lead the BRICS to better organize themselves going forward in order to remove at least in part the internal obstacles to change. Although some sensitive matters, such as the possibility of creating a new reserve currency, are only feasible in the longer term, the group should continue to work towards providing practical alternatives not only for themselves but for developing countries as a whole.
This paper discusses the topic of BRICS monetary and financial initiatives with a focus on Russia’s chairmanship of the group in 2024 and next steps. In so far as monetary and financial matters are concerned, the point of departure of the BRICS is the widely recognized dysfunctionality of the dollar-centered system, a consequence of two distinct factors: a) the weaponization of the US dollar and of the Western crossborder payment network; and b) the structural weaknesses of the economy of the United States, the country issuing the hegemonic international currency. The BRICS, rightly or wrongly, are often seen as the main potential source of alternatives to the current flawed international monetary and financial system.
Paradoxically, as we will see, the US wants to monopolize the role of undermining the dollar and the current international system. Among the countries of the BRICS, Russia is one of the most, if not the most interested country in promoting the discussion and implementation of alternatives to the current international monetary and financial system dominated by the United States and its allies.
The reason is well-known: Russia and Russian banks and firms have been a direct target of sanctions, including exclusion from the Western-sponsored cross-border payments framework and, most notably, the freezing of as much as half of the country’s international reserves, to the tune of US$ 300 billion, after the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. A number of other countries, including Iran, one of the new BRICS members, have also been targeted by the West in similar ways. Thus, it was to be expected that Russia would do its best to advance BRICS discussions of financial matters.
Kindly download the Valdai Club report here: https://valdaiclub.com/files/50206/
Think-BRICS was involved in starting the discussion with Batista and post Valdai discussion, picked up this report and continued the discussion. It was good to see that the proposals arriving from this track align in broad terms with Michael Hudson’s discussions on a new financial system and what is needed. The two accompanying videos are at the end.
The Storm and the Blueprint: Charting the BRICS’ Monetary Liberation
BRICS’ strategic move toward financial independence: Weaponization drives the push for parallel banks, the BCBPI, and a new non-Western reserve system.
The international financial landscape today resembles a high-stakes, unscripted drama, where the established world order, centered on the US dollar, is visibly cracking under the weight of its own political and fiscal pressures. At the heart of this unfolding story stands Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., the Brazilian economist whose experience spans the highest echelons of global finance, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the founding of the New Development Bank (NDB).
Batista Jr.’s proposal, famously titled ‘Beyond the Dollar,’ provides a comprehensive blueprint for the BRICS grouping to construct a new, independent monetary architecture. This vision, first previewed during an interview on ‘Think BRICS’ and subsequently subjected to intense scrutiny during a public debate at the Valdai Club in Moscow, does more than merely catalog the dollar system’s flaws; it maps a daring, two-track path toward global financial sovereignty.
Act I: The Crisis Defined—A Weaponized System on a Cracked Foundation
Batista Jr. grounds his call for a new system in the widely recognized dysfunctionality of the dollar-centered system. He argues this breakdown stems from two distinct, interconnected factors: the calculated weaponization of financial mechanisms and the structural weaknesses inherent in the U.S. economy.
The Financial Sword: Weaponization and the Loss of Confidence
The key driver forcing BRICS nations toward alternatives is the West’s tendency to use its currency and financial architecture as a geopolitical weapon to punish non-cooperative countries.
SWIFT and Exclusion: Cross-border payment systems like SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) have been transformed into tools of coercion. If a country “displease[s] western bosses,” it risks being “thrown out of the system,” as Russia experienced.
Institutional Capture: The dollar, the IMF, and the World Bank are all used as geopolitical weapons, ironically undermining the very institutions the U.S. helped create.
The NDB’s Shackles: This weaponization reaches even the heart of BRICS institutions. Batista Jr., having helped build the NDB, revealed that the bank stopped lending to Russia, a founding member, solely out of fear of sanctions. Had the NDB continued, it risked losing its credit rating, dictated by the “triopoly” of American credit rating agencies (Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, Fitch). Similarly, the bank fears accepting new members like Iran, Cuba, or Venezuela due to the potential negative impact on its credit rating.
Secondary Sanctions: This coercive environment affects not only targeted nations (such as Russia and Iran) but also trading partners. Countries like Brazil, for instance, bear the risk of potential secondary sanctions for trading with nations deemed “toxic” by the West.
As Dmitry Birichevsky, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, observed during the Valdai debate, what happened to Russia can happen to any country, noting that Western nations “themselves force us to do that,” having “deprived” partners of the opportunity to use the dollar and euro through limitations.
The Rotting Foundation: Structural Weakness of the Hegemon
Confidence in a reserve currency rests on the health of the issuing country’s financial arrangements. Batista Jr. points out that U.S. macroeconomic fundamentals are no longer solid, noting that Americans “continue to preach but no longer practice solid economic policies.”
Fiscal Disarray: U.S. fiscal policy is in disarray, with public debt continuously increasing as a proportion of GDP, and the political system failing to deliver necessary surpluses.
Privilege and Resistance: The U.S. maintains its privilege of covering large deficits simply by issuing currency. This economic advantage explains America’s “determined resistance to any proposal or initiative that could weaken the status of the dollar”.
Batista Jr., drawing on his eight years as an IMF Executive Director, stresses the sobering reality: the West will not allow fundamental reform of the international monetary and financial system established since World War II. Therefore, the path forward for BRICS must be to “start off from scratch”.
Act II: The Blueprint Unveiled—A Fiduciary Alternative
Acknowledging that the existing system is unreformable and that reliance on bilateral settlements in national currencies is ultimately limited by imbalances, Batista Jr. sets the long-term goal: the creation of a new international reserve currency.
Dispelling False Solutions
Batista Jr. methodically dismisses two frequently discussed alternatives:
Commodity Backing (e.g., Gold): A trustworthy currency requires stability, but gold and other commodities are “intrinsically unstable.” Tying a new currency to a commodity anchor would make it “prone to instability” as prices fluctuate.
The Renminbi (RMB): Although the RMB is the only Global South currency large enough to potentially pick up the slack, its full internationalization would likely damage China’s successful export-led economic model, which relies on capital controls and stable exchange rates. Internationalization would require China to liberalize its capital account and allow currency appreciation, exposing it to the instability and “vagaries of international finance” that could threaten its industrial sector—a risk of de-industrialization similar to that seen in the United States. Batista Jr. argues that replacing US hegemony with Chinese hegemony would merely be “changing six for half a dozen”.
The New Fiduciary Currency (The IIB Model)
The proposed solution is a fiduciary currency inspired by Keynes’s concept of Bancor. Crucially, this would be an international currency with no domestic role; it would circulate alongside the national currencies of the participating countries, not replace them.
To implement this, three institutional steps are required:
International Issuing Bank (IIB): A new, “simple, lean” institution must be created, as existing structures like the NDB or CRA are “not fit for the job”.
Issuance: The IIB would issue two things: the new currency and new bonds.
Backing Mechanism: The new currency would be convertible into IIB bonds, and these IIB bonds, in turn, would be freely convertible into a basket of bonds of the participating countries. This structure ensures confidence, backed by the commitment of the sponsoring states.
The Necessary Transitional Steps
Recognizing that establishing a full reserve currency is a medium- to long-term endeavor, Batista Jr. prioritizes immediate transitional devices:
New Unit of Account: A simple, SDR-like basket of currencies from participating countries, weighted by relative economic size. This unit would fluctuate based on the weighted fluctuations of the currencies in the basket. It should be named the “new unit of account,” rather than BRICS-specific, to allow non-BRICS countries to join.
BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI): This proposal aims to create a more efficient, transparent, safe, and independent digital payment infrastructure based on national currencies. To overcome the BRICS’ internal consensus barriers, this initiative must be explicitly designated as voluntary and non-binding.
These steps are critical to solve the “very severe limitation” of bilateral settlements: the inability of participating countries to register large trade imbalances without accumulating currency that may not be convertible or may be subject to depreciation (e.g., Russia accumulating Indian Rupees).
Act III: The Confrontation—Voices from the Valdai Debate
The discussion at the Valdai Club served as a crucible, testing the feasibility and political realities of the ‘Beyond the Dollar’ proposal. The speakers offered layers of insight, revealing both fervent support and profound geopolitical hurdles.
The Supporters: Necessity and Sovereignty
Dmitry Birichevsky strongly endorsed the necessity of building separate channels. He agreed that replacing one center of domination with another is not the goal; rather, the BRICS are moving toward a multicentric world. He confirmed Russian leadership supports the BCBPI, emphasizing the need for closed circuits, special companies, and separate channels to avoid restrictions.
Marco Fernandes (BRICS Civil Council) reinforced the necessity of a reserve currency by highlighting the practical failures of bilateral settlements, noting Russia’s predicament of accumulating the equivalent of $40 billion in rupees from trade with India. Fernandez offered a strategic expansion to the proposal: leveraging BRICS’ deterrence power by de-dollarizing commodity markets (food, energy, and critical minerals). He noted that BRICS members control significant shares of global production (60% of gas reserves, 50% of oil reserves, and 85% of rare earth reserves), suggesting this leverage could shift trade away from the dollar, citing the Russian-led proposal for a BRICS grain exchange.
Most tellingly, Fernandes shared a conversation with a “pro-West liberal Iranian banker” who, despite initial criticism of his own government, concluded that the only viable path might be the formation of two distinct economic blocks: the West and the BRICS-led Global South. Batista Jr. responded that he agrees with this analysis, stating that “we already are in a situation of two blocks” and must adapt accordingly.
Rasigan Maharajh (Tshwane University of Technology), backed the geopolitical diagnosis, noting that U.S. power is maintained through the mobilization of “internal allies” (powerful domestic constituencies, or what Batista Jr. referred to as “fifth columns”) in other nations. Maharaj stressed that Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are political instruments, not neutral, reinforcing the need for BRICS to strive for multipolarity and polycentrism rather than attempting to reform institutions established under U.S. hegemony.
The Skeptics: Internal Obstacles and External Fury
The most penetrating criticisms focused on implementation feasibility and geopolitical pushback.
Radhika Desai (University of Manitoba) elaborated on the systemic flaw, arguing that the problem is rooted in the dollar system’s reliance on financialization (asset bubbles) to temporarily counteract the Triffin dilemma.
Desai insisted that the primary domestic obstacle is the “fifth column”—national elites in countries like Brazil, India, and South Africa who are attached to the dollar system because it serves as a tax and financial haven for their wealth. She emphasized that any viable alternative, like the Bancor model, requires substantial capital controls to ensure economic sovereignty, a measure highly resisted by these elites.
Desai predicted that the dollar system’s internal contradictions—the bind between fighting persistent inflation and preventing a crash of the “everything bubble”—may force a crisis that creates the necessary “aperture” for alternatives to succeed.
Anna Tsibulina (Integration Processes Department) raised doubts about the irreversibility of U.S. decline, recalling that the U.S. successfully navigated past crises (e.g., after Bretton Woods through the petrodollar agreement). Her core concern was the unprecedented resistance the U.S. would mount against a parallel monetary system. She questioned how the new currency could be shielded from this “ferocious” resistance, and worried that, given China’s inevitable economic weight, the new unit of account might become de facto China-centric. Batista Jr. conceded that the new currency would indeed be China-centric but suggested “compression factors” could mitigate excessive domination. He agreed that pursuing this direction requires political courage, given the certain U.S. opposition.
The Geopolitical Gauntlet: Consensus and Courage
The debate highlighted that external U.S. resistance is only half the battle; the BRICS grouping must overcome its own internal operational hurdles.
The Consensus Trap: The BRICS’ rigid practice of deciding by consensus, often interpreted as virtual unanimity, effectively grants veto power to any individual member. As the group expands (now 10 full members plus 13 partners), this consensus rule becomes a “recipe for paralysis”.
Working Around the Veto: The solution proposed by Batista Jr. and reflected in the Kazan declaration is crucial: explicitly defining new initiatives, like the BCBPI, as voluntary and non-binding. This allows a “coalition of willing and able nations,” including subsets of BRICS members and non-BRICS nations, to advance without being held hostage by members vulnerable to U.S. pressure or attached to the status quo (the “fifth column”).
Managing Expansion: Batista Jr. recommends that the BRICS freeze or slow down expansion, arguing that “strength does not necessarily lie in numbers”. While expansion increases prestige, multiplying participants increases the obstacles to practical progress and makes decision-making significantly harder.
The ultimate threat to this endeavor comes from the U.S., which has intensified its opposition, demonstrated vividly by Donald Trump’s threats during his 2024 campaign to impose 100% tariffs on countries engaging in activities that undermine the dollar’s status. Batista Jr. interprets these “arrogant statements and threats” as an ambiguous signal—a sign not just of traditional power, but of the weakness of a declining hegemon forced to maintain dominance through “admonitions and coercion” rather than natural acceptance. The U.S. decay, exemplified by political turbulence, is seen as deeper and less reversible than past crises.
The ambitious endeavor charted by Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. is not a short-term project, but a medium- to long-term endeavor requiring “strategic patience” and political courage. The ‘Beyond the Dollar’ proposal is, in essence, a recognition that the BRICS and the Global South have already been thrust into an environment of two separate economic blocks—and must build structures that guarantee their sovereignty and stability outside the orbit of the declining, weaponized dollar system.
The challenge of creating a fiduciary international currency and a payment architecture independent of the current system is immense. It is like trying to forge a new anchor for a global fleet while still navigating a financial storm. The builders (BRICS nations) must not only contend with the fury of the former flagship (the U.S.) but also manage deep divisions and inertia among their own crew members (the consensus rule and domestic elites) who prefer the dubious safety of the old port. Yet, as the internal contradictions of the existing system ripen toward crisis, having a prepared, credible alternative becomes the ultimate insurance policy for true economic liberation.
The discussion at the Valdai Club errors out for me.
Please find it here: https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239331
This is a good video. For all those that still blame Russia because Syria fell, Leith said that Russia owns the South of Syria. Russia has direct control and is the Kingmaker in Syria. Nothing moves, if Russia does not allow it.
“I walked past a McDonald’s, Starbucks, 7-11 and Kentucky Fried Chicken, all lined up, cheek to cheek. America’s icons will survive its collapse.”
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Kathmandu. (L): 10/29/25 ; (R): 10/28/25
Go There! — Oct 29, 2025.
Walking a couple miles, I got a last look at everything, that square with the serene stupa and Tibetan temple, KTM Burger, Fire Café, Bueno Burrito, the early morning chai place that made me feel so at home on my first morning, 4 Square with Sumitra mopping the steps, the Indian beggar in his NIKE knit cap, Saroj’s store, founded in 1943 by his grandad, where I bought more treats and yak cheese. I passed too many gorgeous neighborhood temples to count. I moved too fast for stray dogs to say goodbye or curse me for leaving them.
With plenty of time before my flight, I asked the taxi driver to leave me outside the airport’s gate. Thirty-seven years old, he’s been driving 15 years. Though his village is only 100 kilometers away, he doesn’t have to go there since his parents are dead. Only his 55-year-old brother remains.
“Does he want to come here? To work?”
“He was here.”
“No job!”
“No job.”
“At his age, it’s better he stays in the village. When you’re over 45 or so, no one will hire you for anything. They don’t want experience, only young, strong bodies.”
He chuckled in agreement.
“In Vietnam, too, it’s like that.”
“It’s like that everywhere.”
“For women, it’s even worse. They only want young, pretty women in the restaurants and cafés. Hey, how come your English is so good?”
“I practice.”
“No classes?”
“Four classes!” he chuckled.
That’s all he could afford, obviously. He pays 15,000 rupees ($106) a month for rent. His taxi costs 3,000 a day. That’s also the monthly tuition for his five-year-old-son. Since his other son is only 1 ½, his wife must stay home to take care of this baby. Food for four costs 20,000 per month.
“I have no savings,” he said. “Sometimes, I take out loans.”
“But the interests are so high!”
“There are no jobs.”
“Too many people from the villages, and not enough tourists. I’m very surprised.”
“They’re scared.”
Kathmandu, 10/21/25
“But that was what, six or seven weeks ago? It’s perfectly safe here. Even then, there was no danger. If you see a protest, you just walk the other way! Did you see anything?”
“No, just on the mobile,” he chuckled.
“The protests were in a tiny area. Tourists, though, are always nervous. In Kathmandu, they stay inside a tiny area, where they can eat burgers and pizzas!” I laughed. I didn’t confess to pigging out at Bueno Burrito several times. Vung Tau has no Tex-Mex.
Just now, a guy about 50 looked over my shoulder to see what I was typing. We smiled. I’m sitting outside a cheerful and perfectly skanky eatery with dirty dishes on the concrete floor. Waiting to explode, an old gas canister lies on its side. The young waitress looked very nervous when I said, “Chai,” or when I threw up an index finger, meaning one more. Smartly dressed in his school uniform of button-up shirt, neck tie, creased shorts and dress shoes, a boy of eight eyed me as he walked past. Ten feet away, blue and red plastic bags of food garbage lean against each other. All I smell, though, is the curry being cooked. Since I don’t feel like sweating in agony, I’m not going to order anything. Tall bottles of Gorkha are certainly tempting.
This time tomorrow, I’ll be on my last leg to Saigon. Suddenly, I’ll be in balmy weather again. Snow is expected across Nepal within 48 hours. “4,982 escapees are still on the run,” announces the Himalayan on its front page. Also, Cameroon has just elected a 92-year-old president. Since Trump is just 79, Americans should expect 15 more years, at least, of winning big, no inflation and having so much money, they won’t know what to do. Unlike Elvis, Trump won’t ever leave the building.
At 10:16AM, I’ve cleared immigration and security check. There was a long line to just enter the airport. With boarding still an hour away, I rewarded myself with a 500 ml can of Nepal Ice. With its licker content at 6.1%, I’ll be groovy on that plane. Maybe I’ll sing Elvis.
Already, I miss Shree Gha Vihar, but here’s a deep, original thought. You can’t be everywhere at once! I should have been a hash pushing guru. It’s never too late. That’s what they all say, even as they’re lowered into the ground.
That thought just now is but a limp riff on what my long lost buddy, Aziz Vargha, said. When I visited Aziz on the 8th floor of Pennsylvania Hospital, America’s oldest, he lamented, “You know what’s funny, man? You can’t just be somewhere, you must go there! That takes time.”
Born in Iran, Aziz was raised in Germany then the UK before ending up in the USA. He had “MADE IN USA” tattooed on his forehead, back when tatts anywhere was still rare. Sitting in McGlinchey’s among whites, Aziz shouted, “I’m white, man, just like you!” Soon after, he said to a table of blacks, “I’m black, just like you!”
One snowless Christmas, we headed to Kensington to get lots of the white stuff. Doing lines, we laughed so hard. If alive, Aziz would not being do well, I’m sorry to say. He was already a mess four decades ago.
Just sitting still takes time. That’s all we have. Even if it’s just a hundred yards, I’d rather go there.
After my laptop went dead, I rushed to a charging station. Seeing my heavy machine, a woman in her mid 50’s asked in a Germanic or Dutch accent, “Do you want to sit here?”
“No, no, I just need to charge my laptop. Thank you!’
Immediately I thought of an old woman on the Rome subway from 26 years ago. “Chi vuole scendered?” she said in the gentlest voice imaginable. She even smiled slightly.
Such sweetness or civility is what we live for. OK, must run now. Boarding time. I must go there!
Guangzhou, 10/29/25
Too Heavenly for Words — Oct 30, 2025.
If still in Nepal, I would have been in bed by the time I landed in China. Though exhausted, I was also elated at finally entering China, so I headed into town. Getting a transit visa was relatively painless and not too time consuming. After changing $100 into yuans, I found my way to the Metro. Though I had visited Macau and Hong Kong, and saw Chinese streets from across a thin river in Lào Cai, only now was I inside!
Having no Google Maps, I didn’t know which station to get off. One that connected to two other lines sounded like a transportation hub, so must be busy at street level? Outside, there were just vendors selling assorted sausages on sticks, mostly, taxis and motorbike taxis. No stores or cafes were within walking distance. This was Guangzhou at its grubbiest. The station, though, was well appointed. After ten minutes, I headed back in.
Guangzhou, 10/29/25
Since the ticket machine didn’t accept my 100 yuan bill, a uniformed employee went out of her way to get me change. She also suggested a more lively station. This young lady couldn’t have been nicer.
On the train, all but a very old, tiny woman were looking at phones. Whether in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand or China, Asian subways are new, safe, clean and on time. The squeaking horror shows that still chug along in NYC or Philly are certainly cinematic. Since DC’s Metro must serve swamp dwellers, lobbyists, lawyers and Pentagon staffers, it’s cleaner and safer, though still dark and almost spooky in its cavernous design. DC go-go bars have nicer dancers, too, and they show everything. No coquettish peekaboo. Powerful old creeps don’t have time for subtleties.
Of course I forgot the recommended station, so got off at another drab neighborhood, but this one had stores and restaurants. I walked past a McDonald’s, Starbucks, 7-11 and Kentucky Fried Chicken, all lined up, cheek to cheek. America’s icons will survive its collapse. 7-Eleven has long been owned by the Japanese. Sears, once a symbol of America’s abundance, is mostly dead at home. There are three in Mexico City. I ran into one.
Standing outside McDonald’s, I heard John Denver’s “Take Me Home,” though sung in Cantonese, with only bits of English. “Country roads take me home, to the place I belong. West Virginia, mountain momma. Take me home, country roads.” Arriving in the US in 1975, this was one of the first songs I could almost sing.
Further on was a local fried chicken joint where sat three Chinese and an African. I noticed two pizzarie and several convenience stores. At a bright stand selling lottery tickets, a young female employee slept with her head slumped on a table. I entered a lit up Cantonese restaurant with uncleared tables and beer cans on the floor. To compensate for my suffering, I ordered too much food. I was nearly comatose. Grabbing a takeaway container, I then exited to look for a taxi. Before leaving, I did notice adds for prostitutes inside the toilet. In London, they lined phone booths, with exotic chicks from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Scandinavia and Brazil, etc., especially popular. Dom leather, water sports, pussy licking, uniforms, toys and spanking were all available.
At Kathmandu’s airport, there were about 30 English high school kids. I heard one say, “I’d be very sad if you were to die on the way back.” Deadpan Brit humor. My favorite is what an Englishman says to his wife after their very first night, “I sure hope you’re pregnant, dear, because I don’t want to go through all those ridiculous motions again.”
Reentering Guangzhou’s airport, I knew my can of Nepal Ice, saved for Sơn in Vũng Tàu, would likely be confiscated, but there’s no way I could drink it myself. I had a can of clam sauce taken in Philly, a bottle of wine snatched somewhere and a jar of confit nearly filched from me at Heathrow. Global madness amplified after 9/11, the Anthrax scare then the Shoe Bomber, all hoaxes. In case you haven’t figured it out, Covid was an American bio attack on China, then Iran. Already a totalitarian state, China didn’t need a fake virus to paralyze itself. It was real enough for them to way overreact. Trump’s economic war against China should also be seen in this context. Xi, and Putin, too, certainly knows who’s his main enemy.
Exhausted and irritated, I made a beeline for those sleeping pods I had seen two weeks earlier. At just 138 yuans ($19.44) for three hours, it was absurdly cheap. Inside, there was a comfy seat that could be reclined nearly flat, lights that could be dimmed, a quiet fan and a TV. I assumed when my three hours were up, some alarm would go off or there would be knocks on the locked door, but nothing happened. I slept two extra hours. This, I only realized after emerging outside. Last night’s employee was asleep at her counter.
Since it wasn’t quite 6AM, restaurants were just setting up. Arabica, though, was open. A latte was just what I needed. Even before my first sip, I took photos of this elegant café. Their baguette sandwiches seemed proper. Nearly all Asian and European airports are more comfortable, better organized and civilized than American ones. At Guangzhou’s, hot or cold water is available for free, and you can sleep well enough even outside those pods. There are also free shower stalls. Even today, you cannot take a train from JFK to Manhattan.
At Mi Cang, I ordered rice gruel with just bits of minced pork and century egg, a peasant breakfast much beloved by my buddy John, an ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. It’s his ultimate comfort food, what his mama must have made often. It’s akin to oatmeal for many Americans. In Macau, I met a Chinese-American transplant who was delighted to find a store selling oatmeal. He needed it to feel at home
At $5.92, Mi Cang’s rice gruel was much fancier, for it came with four Japanese fried dumplings. On the menu were also Vietnamese phở, Japanese ramen with tonkatsu and a burger combo that looked pretty good, but they all do in photos. Eating my grub, I thought of a Nam Cao story where a woman feeds slop meant for pigs to her kids. Her calling it chè, a sweet, cold soup eaten as snacks, doesn’t fool them.
Looking up, I noticed a line at my gate, earlier than expected. Joining it, I asked a young white man if this was for Ho Chi Minh City, but he didn’t answer. Overhearing me, a Chinese said, “Yes, Ho Chi Minh.” The other couldn’t hear because he had earbuds on. To block out the foreign, many tourists must listen to familiar songs and check, constantly, websites from home.
With Guangzhou’s airport so vast, you must often take a shuttle to your plane. Getting on, I immediately looked for Vietnamese faces, but there was none. I also strained to hear Vietnamese, without success. Two weeks earlier, the flight from Saigon to Guangzhou had few Vietnamese. It’s that human or animal instinct to identify your own. Forever, life and death could depend on it.
Guangzhou, 10/29 – 30/25
With more money, and many more people, Chinese are much more visible everywhere. With increasing economic and political might, Chinese tourists and immigrants will be even more ubiquitous. JD Vance’s characterization of them as peasants exposes his hickishness. In Canada and Australia, rich Chinese have made real estate prices in many cities unaffordable for native peasants, workers and even the middle class.
After failing repeatedly to log on to Yahoo! Mail or my SubStack, I realized they were blocked. Everything Yahoo! is inaccessible there. Same with Google, Wikipedia, New York Times and Washington Post, etc. China doesn’t want any American information or disinformation for its citizens.
Rejecting most American products, it’s also prepared to ditch the American consumer. That righteous and pushy slob has been buying on credit for decades, from China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and, literally, every country you can think of.
Landing in Saigon, I will leap immediately onto a mini bus for Vung Tau. Failing to bring Sơn a Nepalese beer, I thought of getting him a Chinese one, but busy writing, I never got round to it. Those remaining yuans I’ll use, hopefully, on a proper trip to China.
Cloudy paths, zap me home! To that place, I sorta belong! Ocean mamas, they’re singing and dancing, all right. It’s enough to steal glimpses of them every so often. Why should they sing to me?
On the Kathmandu to Guangzhou leg, two babies on my row screamed or cried often. Others elsewhere did the same. Now, I only hear the slurping of noodles from the guy two seats away. Since there’s no broth, I’m not sure how he does that. Behind me is a well masked American from Chicago. Risking death or long Covid, he did manage to take it off to eat.
I finish this at 6:58PM in Vung Tau. It’s as if I never left. This is Như’s last day at Ông Bầu Coffee, she just told me.
“Where will you go next?”
“I don’t know.”
I don’t either. At some point, I should return to the US to experience, at least for a couple weeks, its Golden Age. I must catch Honolulu, El Paso or San Francisco before it becomes too heavenly for words. As for Philly, I won’t even recognize it, I’m sure.
Guangzhou, 10/30/25
Shrinking Brains and Dwellings — Oct 31, 2025.
On 5/29/25, a garbage truck stopped a Kings Park, NY middle school to empty its dumpster. There, a school janitor saw an injured, garbage draped man trying to climb from the truck. After it emptied its load, another was discovered, but well dead. Since this happened at the back of the school, no student witnessed the horror. Learnt of it from television news, how many thought this could ever happen to them? Much more likely, they envisioned their future as a president, astronaut, NBA star, Hollywood actress, trophy wife, rapper or, at the very least, YouTube influencer. On that date, the low was only 55, so these unfortunates or human garbage had slept inside the dumpster not for warmth, but to be safe. This was conditional on them getting up before the arrival of the garbage truck.
In Santa Monica, bums, especially female ones, dwell inside locked toilets. Further north, you can rent a tent pitched on someone’s backyard. Storage units are more solid, but illegal. Still, thousands of Americans must be dwelling in them. So loaded, they don’t know what to do with their heaps of cash. Those who freeze outside in the winter must be alcoholics or drug addicts, according to conventional wisdom. Don’t say it’s too funny a word in Trumplandia.
Sleeping quite well in my tiny pod at Guangzhou’s airport, I thought these compact solutions should be scattered everywhere. Herding American peasants into cities, huge parks were built to give these factory slaves imitations of their lost landscapes. Thus, we have Central Park in NYC, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Fairmount Park in Philly and Grant Park in Chicago, all built in the 19th century. Now, all these and more can be filled with sleeping pods, imported from China. Spinning in his grave, Frederick Law Olmsted will appreciate the exercise.
Convicted of any crime, the offender’s sleeping pod can just be locked. With bread sticks tossed in daily, he won’t starve. His shit and piss can be eased out through a hole. Capital punishment will be applied quickly and cheaply by denying him of bread sticks. After the stinking corpse is extracted, his sleeping pod will be sold at a slight discount, after a few sprays of disinfectant.
Just a few hours in China yielded so many solutions. Must be in the air.
In China, porn is banned. In the West, it’s freely available as the last bastion of free speech. Since jerking or stroking nearly nonstop is the best means of social control, it must be made mandatory. TVs inside sleeping pods must show only porn. Wouldn’t this lead to more rapes? Quite the opposite. Men who’ve shot their wad several times a day can only grab, at most. Most Americans are already fine with this, at least in principle. It’s also egalitarian. Why should bottom dwellers be denied some Trumpian perks? “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” MAGA chicks are turned on.
Guangzhou, 10/30/25
The last photo I took in Guangzhou was of a white enough man in a LAS VEGAS hoodie. Next to him was his exhausted wife. Bent over, she held her head. His or her wrinkled, white haired mom looked stunned. On 5/26/25, more than 8,800 flights were delayed in the USA alone. The next day, nearly 7,000.
Flying from Chicago to Frankfurt on 10/28/25, a 28-year-old Indian stabbed two sleeping American teens with a metal fork. He then slapped a woman and a crew member. One teen told investigators he had only exchanged pleasantries with the Indian. This non-immigrant had just finished his studies at Moody Theological Seminary.
Since 42 million Americans will lose food aid tomorrow, proactive cops across the USA have increased patrols around grocery stores, convenience stores and shopping centers. America’s Golden Age has just begun.
Yesterday at Saigon’s airport, I joked with the immigration officer, “Coming back, I’m just waiting to die!”
“You’re not that old, uncle,” she smiled slightly.
“I’m exhausted.”
On the minibus to Vung Tau, we passed a young man with this on his hoodie, “SMILE! IT WILL ONLY GET MUCH WORSE.” His helmet said, “WE WILL ROCK YOU!”
The young lady next to me wore a Covid mask and earbuds. When not dozing off, she stared at her cellphone. Born into universal madness, she’s well lost. After she dropped one earbud, we all helped her to find it. When it was discovered, there was universal jubilation inside that mini bus.
Ông Bầu Coffee’s evening barista just gave me a free glass of hot tea. In a minute, I will head home to eat some yak cheese with Nepali biscuits. This morning, I was too pooped to show up at Coffee Seven before 5AM. Tomorrow, then, I will see Mrs. Seven, Sơn, Liệt, Nọng and Milk Cow.
Vung Tau, 11/1/25
Fish in Teapots — Nov 01, 2025.
At Ông Bầu Coffee, one barista is a rather morose 20-year-old I first talked to only yesterday. It turned out she’s a third year student in logistics. With lots of shipping through Vũng Tàu, she’ll get a job easily, she believes. AI won’t bump her into any dumpster.
Though born after the Boat People crisis, Morose knows about corpses being washed up regularly on Vũng Tàu beaches. She also knows about Vietnamese trying to enter the US illegally during the Biden years. Someone approached her family to propose this. $70,000 per head was all it took, he said, and you’d make that back within two years, working in a nail salon, as if the US wasn’t oversaturated with these Vietnamese businesses. As a clumsy newbie whose English or Ebonics wasn’t good enough to interact with customers, who would hire you?
After eight years, you could return to Vietnam loaded with cash. He didn’t say anything about crossing seven countries before reaching the Promised Land. After entering Panama from Colombia, you would be an illegal for over 3,000 miles while being transported by criminals from various nations.
“What’s stopping them from robbing, raping or killing you?” I said. “People who could afford to fly to South America were rich! They sold everything here, thinking they’d never come back. Now, they’re being deported by Trump!”
Morose has never been outside Vietnam. She didn’t even know you could easily reach Cambodia by bus.
Village explainer, “You can go from Saigon to Bavet in just two hours! Cambodia opens all these casinos for Vietnamese. They want as many to come as possible, so go to Bavet, but without entering the casinos! You’ll just lose all your money! Phnom Penh is much more interesting, but it takes six hours to get there. Go to Bavet first, just to get a taste, then go to Phnom Penh later.”
Here three years, Morose started out making 18K, or 68 cents an hour. Now, she earns 23K. Working 200 hours a month, she takes home $129, though the shifty owner often deducts $27 for unexplained reasons.
Morose never protests. When business is slow, she just stares at her phone, like right now.
Morose lives with her parents just two doors down. At least her school is six miles away. She does visit occasionally a married sister in Saigon and has gone as far north as Nha Trang.
Fancying himself a painter, the owner has set up an easel right at the café. He’s so vapid and timid, you can’t talk to him about anything. It took me less than a minute to find out.
Before me, Như tried to mentor Morose, but it’s useless, she said. This girl is just incurious.
“She never had a chance!” I protested. To invigorate her, I will nudge and shove Morose some more, give her a few kicks in the ass.
Once, I overheard Như telling Morose about a new café that paid better. I’m not sure she applied. Begging for acceptance is always intimidating and dispiriting.
Ông Bầu Coffee has a new regular. A Siamese fighting fish is living, all alone, inside a teapot. Its diameter is four times the length of the fish’s body. There are pebbles at the bottom. Though it’s always lidded, I’ve been reassured there’s enough oxygen for this displaced creature. It could be much worse. Next to this teapot is a glazed ceramic planter with a cartoon cat and “cute” above its head. Taking frequent breaks, Morose would sit next to these exiled beasts.
In the next room, someone is strumming a guitar and singing. Surrounded by kitschy paintings, he and his listeners are soaked in an artistic environment.
Out collecting plastic bottles, that homeless Cambodian will return in the evening. He uses Ông Bầu’s bathroom and sleeps each night just feet from where I’m sitting. Lately, he’s refrained from disturbing that garish altar to the goddess beneath a banyan tree across the street. As long as he doesn’t go berserk, he belongs here at least as much as that fish.
Splotchy and discolored, he’s a piss poor representative of his species. With any residual self-respect, he should be deeply ashamed of himself, but I shouldn’t talk. My dorsal, pectoral, pelvic and anal fins are sad and feeble enough. Still, they’re sufficient to propel me home. After paying for my cappuccini, I’ll swiftly swim outta here.
That yak cheese is nearly gone. That cheerful, repetitive hymn to Ganesh I heard dozens of times daily so recently has faded. Soon enough, I’ll remember nothing.
(L): Vung Tau, 11/1/25 ; (R): Trump’s Golden Lincoln Bathroom
Bloodbaths and Bashes — Nov 02, 2025.
Too much excitement this morning at Ông Bầu. Using her thin jacket, a woman swatted at a bee in mid flight, then stepped on this buzzer after he had dropped to the floor. His squashed body now oozes whatever. His stiff, broken wings are stuck up. No one knows what he could have accomplished. He might have been a great bee poet. For this gratuitous display of unfathomable viciousness, she’ll be reincarnated as a bee, wasp, fly or mosquito, I’m sure. Placid, Morose inspected the fleeting carnage. As she walked by, I had to refrain from expressing my entirely justified indignation. I only thought, “What were the odds of the innocent, intelligent looking bee stinging that smug, still smiling broad in the fuckin’ twat?!” Oblivious, she’s yakking away. She does have a melodious voice.
Before Ông Bầu, I stopped at Mrs. Tím’s stand for a $1.52 bowl of crab noodle soup. As I slurped away, a security guard on a motorbike stopped to ask for a 95 cent bowl. After he left, I said, “You still make a profit with that, no?”
“No, but what was I supposed to do?”
“Does he come by often?”
“Only rarely.”
“A security guard’s salary isn’t too bad.”
“But he also has a wife and children. What was I supposed to do?” Mrs. Tím, then, makes nothing selling to this man. Her name means Purple, by the way. One of her two sons is nearly always in drug rehab. This widow has maybe four front teeth left.
Worst are those who stuff some change into their bra or up their long sleeve, then say Mrs. Tím has short changed them!
“They have so many tricks. When you sell stuff, you see everything.” She said this without rancor, only a touch of amusement.
Before Mrs. Tím’s food stand, I was at Coffee Seven. Today, Sơn told me more about his experiences in Cambodia. I had asked Sơn about soldiers who freaked out. Of course, that happened. Losing their minds, some even shot at their comrades.
On a lighter note, Sơn told me about Vietnamese troops visiting Cambodian whorehouses. They were dim and sordid, and the girls were so poor, their panties were pitifully or laughably threadbare. Worst were Viet soldiers who refused to pay after service. “They’d leave a hand grenade on the floor to chase the girls away.”
made in Thailand jeans and T-shirts
Even Viet officers barely had cash. Some sold used artillery shells, illegally, of course. With this profit, they could buy made in Thailand jeans or T-shirts. Both were highly prized back in Vietnam. Even in 1998, I had some rural guy touch my Levi’s with something like awe. They were called cow pants, quần bò, short for cowboy pants.
Underfed Viet soldiers stole chickens, ducks and pigs from Cambodian peasants. Like American, Australian or South Korean soldiers here, they raped. Unchecked aggression or rage is intrinsic to every war, as is wetting or soiling your pants from ungodly terror. Clean uniforms and impeccable discipline are only meant for parades, to fool civilians, draftees and recruits.
Last night, I finally bought a new phone. With a sim card, it cost me just $125. Don’t even know what brand it is. Last phone I bought before this was in Albania four years ago. I need this gadget to take care of some business.
Last night, I also went shopping at Lotte Mart, Vũng Tàu’s fanciest mall. Viets who can afford it treat it like an amusement park, almost. Better dressed kids run around screaming. With burgers, pizzas and fried chicken available in futuristic settings, they’re in the USA of their imagination. KFC Vietnam has a new dish, Migaxuxi. It’s slices of hotdog in an overly sweet red sauce on too soft spaghetti. On KFC’s wall was a nearly life-sized Colonel Sanders, with that first KFC in Harland, KY in the background. Most Viets think this America still exists.
When the entire White House is destroyed, replicas will appear across Asia, I’m sure. Even if all of the USA becomes like Gaza, its highlights will be preserved in the East. There’s nothing to worry about, man! Thousands of Statues of Liberty will sprout, just not in America.
In each Oriental burger, pizza or fried chicken joint, wholesome white families as wax figures will be installed to give yellow diners the impression they’re practically in Sacramento, Cincinnati or Youngstown. In fancier diners, waitresses with their hair already dyed blonde can wear white masks and speak in a cute, flirty English they’ve learnt from movies like American Pie or Grease.
For a while, Michael Bordenaro has done an excellent job of tracking America’s collapse. Three days ago, he said, “As of September, employers have announced over 1 million job cuts, which is the largest number that we’ve seen since the pandemic in 2020 […] So this job market collapse is getting real.” Walmart, Amazon, Ford, Microsoft, Target, Starbucks and McDonald’s, etc., are all firing thousands of workers this year.
When Bordenaro asked his viewers about how they’re coping with this new grim reality, they’re saying they’re buying less or inferior food, driving less, selling more to pawn shops, delaying or avoiding medical care, saving less or nothing, using less energy, including taking cold showers, not traveling or seeing distant relatives, not going to restaurants or movies and, perhaps, most depressingly, having to move back home after decades of living independently.
One man, “I’m 45 living in my parents’ basement again, not because I’m irresponsible, but because of the economy.” Over 57% of Americans between 18 and 24 are living with their folks. You’d have to go back decades to find a higher percentage. Millions of Americans are also side hustling. One, “I’m doing DoorDash after my full-time job just to keep up. I’m exhausted and still falling behind.”
Another, “I barely leave the house anymore because I can’t afford gas to drive to work and see my family.”
All these testimonies, though, must be fake news disseminated, or rather, jerked off, by far-left agitators.
As Trump cut off food aid to over 40 million Americans, he hosted a Great Gatsby themed Halloween bash at Mar-a-Lago called, “A little party never killed nobody.” So cute, the bad English. Shows his common touch.
Posting photos of his glitzed up shitter on 11/1/25, Trump crowed, “The Refurbished Lincoln Bathroom in the White House—Highly polished, Statuary marble!” Let them eat shit is right.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks
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“The whisper turns out to be a touch. We are all so bereft of friends and companions, especially those among us who have lots of ‘friends.’”
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Lalitpur, 10/25/25
Rather Not Be in New Youk! — Oct 26, 2025.
Going from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang, I sat next to an Italian lady on the mini bus. Bumping along on narrow roads with many switchbacks was exhausting. “Now, I’ve seen all of the mountains in Laos!” she blurted near the end. I’ve already told you about Coredo, the owner of Dok Mai Lao Trattoria in Pakse. If I stay anywhere enough, I’ll hear Italian on the streets. At Kathmandu, I just met Marco. His town of Cesenatico, population 15,000, I had never heard of. The closest I got was Bologna. Marco, on the hand, had never heard of Certaldo, where I spent two years.
We did joke about Prato. “Is it 100% Chinese now?” I asked.
“Yes, it is!”
“That’s amazing! It’s a historical place. Dante wrote about it. Empoli, too, must be filled with Chinese.”
Since the tourists who come to Cesenatico for its beaches are nearly all Italian, there isn’t even a fish and chip joint for drunken Brits. Not even the dubiously named Sloppy Joe’s serves it.
I’ve heard people complain about American, British, Israeli, Chinese and Indian tourists, but never a bad word about Italians, or Japanese. In Vũng Tàu, the many Russians are quiet, family orientated folks who never cause problems. Power English, owned by an Australian, won’t hire them, however. He’s bought into the Putin as the new Hitler propaganda.
Lalitpur, 10/25/25
Chinese are very visible in Kathmandu. Amrit Street, in particular, is lined with Chinese restaurants. They’re spilling into Laos and Cambodia, too. Around Thamel and Paryatan, Africans are often seen. Nepal Coffee Hub is their favorite spot. In only its fifth season, the Nepal Super League has seven teams. Each has African players. They come from Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are also black players from France and the UK. With Nepal ranked 180 out of 211 nations, how long before a non Nepali-speaking foreigner is naturalized? Everybody else is doing it. Vietnam’s star striker, Nguyễn Xuân Sơn, is a black Brazilian born as Rafaelson Fernandes. You think his mama calls him Sơn or Rafaelson?
“Ma, I’m Sơn now! Stop speaking Portuguese to me!”
As Hitler points out in Mein Kampf, citizenship in modern times is no longer a question of blood, but bureaucracy.
Yesterday on Mahankal in Boudha, I saw an interesting poster, “YOU NEED A CHANGE? GET A NEW HAIRCUT.” Predictably, all four models were white. Who would want to become some dark skinned, malnourished Dalit?
Since the late 14th century, the Pode have been in charge of sweeping Kathmandu streets. Even today, most are Pode. Many, though, have moved up into the world, primarily through education. Though poorly paid, sweepers I’ve seen weren’t underfed. One I photographed yesterday was positively chubby. Her red T-shirt read, “TENDER EMBRACE / Affection / LOVELY.” Since most adult Pode can’t even read Nepalese, she probably just liked its two hearts and a ribbon. They live in Dhalko, which I’ve roamed through often. It is not a slum.
Lalitpur, 10/25/25
One can also remake oneself by wearing high heels and mini skirts. An elagant and gorgeous young lady I saw at Thamel and Paryatan had some writing tattooed boldly across her pale décolletage. Strolling back and forth, she didn’t seem happy. More comfortable was a squatting chick in a red vinyl jacket and leopard print pants in too thin a fabric for that weather. Like me, she was drinking a chai from a streetside vendor.
There were three Nepalese men, clutching each other. The best and most confident looking was in the middle. The other two looked nervous, if not scared. They were out of their element. More loaded and usually beefier, foreigners commanded more attention. Defeated natives could head home to clutch drive themselves.
They are so unlike their American sisters. In Camden, I would run into Amanda. Each time, I was surprised she was still alive. Once, I gave her money for a bus ticket to her aunt. Of course, Amanda used it to buy heroin. Seeing her writhing on the sidewalk another time, I had to give her $20 just to ease her obvious suffering. In a filthy lot behind an abandoned, boarded up house, she injected, but not before taking a piss. She already smelled like shit, I swear. Smacked, she smiled immediately, then wandered away singing. It was cute. “See you later, Amanda!” Her prematurely wrinkled belly bore stab wounds from some youth who was just bored. They do that to Camden whores.
Stories like that don’t make sense to Nepalese, or Vietnamese. In Lalitpur yesterday, there was young man taking a selfie with his phone. He wore a T-shirt with the Manhattan skyline. “NEW YOUK,” it said.
No thanks, I’d rather be here, Vung Tau, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Busan or even Manila, though the last has a shocking number of filthy homeless, like many American cities. Among East Asians, Filipinos are most Americanized.
Soon, I won’t see 4 Square again. If Sumitra is here when I show up around 6:30AM, there’s the same repetitive hymn to Ganesh on the TV. It’s like Ravel’s Bolero without the jizzy climax. The only variations are the slightly different choruses. Cheerfully, it bounces along. Every so often, there’s an eight bar flute interjection. Even decades from now, I will likely hear this in a dream.
It’s already a dream, Kathmandu, and it’s not over yet. Thank you! Now, I will run outside, simply because I’m allowed.
Kathmandu, 10/26/25
Dog Whisperer at Fire Café — Oct 27, 2025.
Yesterday on Amrit, I noticed a coffee shop that seemed old fashioned, but not in that spiffed up retro way meant for snobs. Modest and quaint, it would have fit on any American Main Street. Its presence in Kathmandu was certainly usual. I walked in.
It suspect it’s a converted tavern. On high stools at the bar, three people were staring at phones, though one, a beefy older Oriental, was also chatting with two men at a table. The tiny waitress wore a red shirt, blue pants and Converse canvas sneakers. Her hair was much shorter than any woman’s just outside. The barista had on an “Australia” T-shirt and jeans. Only the cook and dishwasher was dressed like a Nepalese. My black coffee was too strong to be an Americano. Almost an espresso, it was still served in a mug. You’d never see that in Italy. I imagine Nepalese come to Chikusa to be transported, I don’t know, to Ohio or Nebraska?
I’ve proudly become the dog whisperer of Kathmandu! If there’s a dog cemetery here, I want to be in it. Sitting at Café de Fire, I have two dogs at my feet. Sniffing me out, they’ve come in from outside, and I’m five yards from the door. Suddenly, a man approaches my booth to chase them out. Gently kicking them, he whispers, “Pejo! Pejo!” Get the fuck out, then, is my first Nepalese word!
Kathmandu, 10/26/25
In Philly, I drank at bars not just in my neighborhood, the Italian Market, but in Point Breeze, Bella Vista, Kensington, Devil’s Pocket, Port Richmond, Olney and many more. Each bar was a different universe. I got to know a bunch pretty well. In Norristown, I was almost beaten up by three guys, one white and two black. Though I was loud and momentarily obnoxious, I didn’t deserve such a welcome. Plus, three against one?!
Though I had become very comfortable writing at KTM Burger and 4 Square, I’ve also strayed into many other Kathmandu cafés. Yesterday was my first time at Fire. Walking in, I was greeted by a middle-aged drunk who shouted, “Sifu! Sifu!” That’s Cantonese for “master,” mostly of kung fu. Those Norristown assholes were lucky cops showed up to save them from this sifu. I did escape into a store to avoid a trip to the emergency room.
Don’t tell me you don’t know shit about Nepalese indie rock?! Swar rules! No hymns to Ganesh here. On the screen is a bearded guy, a laborer, courting a sweet country girl. Sitting side by side in idyllic settings, they smile shyly at each other. One day, she disappears, leaving only a note behind. Running onto a dirt road, he finds her riding away in a tuk tuk. Though I can’t understand a damn word, I can see that she’s dressed like a bride, with a golden septum piercing dangling. Draped in white and gold, she’s radiant. Collapsing, bearded motherfucker has tears streaming down his dark face. It’s a timeless plot. In Vietnam, too, there are all these poems, songs or just stories about losing your girl through marriage arranged by her parents. They don’t want your sorry, three-bucks-a-day ass, man!
Though untouchables were traditionally tasked with singing and dancing, all the singers and musicians on Fire’s screen are just too cool looking, with perfect outfits and hair. All these country chicks are also too clean. There is realism in depictions of wet markets and dark, impoverished dwellings. There’s also violence, including, just now, an implied rape. There can never be too much realism.
One of the dogs has returned. Stray ones are fed here. What they lack is love. Only in cheesy songs do humans admit to craving the same. The very word is uncool. We all know who are the coolest people on earth. Even cool, though, has become uncool. There, assholism is now coolest.
Kathmandu, 10/26/25
On the screen, there’s another couple gently courting. Sitting on a pristine hill to stare at mythical, perfectly shot mountains without trekkers and their tons of garbage, they hold hands. Now, she’s on a bus, looking devastated. Moving from village to city is also a universal theme. With opportunities come separations, often from yourself even. She cries. Everybody cries on Nepalese music videos, at least in Indie ones, with their gentle, melancholic melodies.
Demanding touch, these dogs often nudge their head, insistently even, against your leg or hand. As I’ve said, they don’t look at your face. Though demonic enough to these dogs, we have hands.
On the way here, I passed Lulu Lunch Bar. On its lit sign was a white chick holding a goblet of red wine. On her blonde hair was a straw boater hat. She tilted her head just right. Further on was Palace Dance Bar, with another white babe, this one with a Union Jack bikini top over her boobies. With Nepal landlocked, most folks here can only dream of the ocean. Even without near naked white chicks, it must be paradise.
Leaving my dog friend, I will go have a hot chai in the semi dark. For 21 cents, I will buy it from a colorfully wrapped crone. What a quaint, old fashioned word, just like grocery in America. Once, it evoked smiles instead of pain.
Kathmandu, 10/27/25
Change to Die For — Oct 27, 2025.
Life is a battle royale with eight billion hysterical bipeds punching, kicking, clawing, nunchucking, mugging, seducing, hair pulling, fucking, mostly badly, gladhanding and grifting each other. One by one, they die. Some can prolong their stay in this mayhem by ducking or squatting below the fray. Hoisted way above from cradle to grave, the luckiest can shit on everyone at the bottom. In a smugly blighted country, millions think that’s hilarious as they wipe royal diarrhea from their upturned faces.
No matter how many times I’m reincarnated, my Mariners will never make it to the World Series, my Sonics will never reappear and I will never be printed again, not even on toilet paper. Left alone, I will become so pure and focused, dog wisdom will seep from each pore. I won’t even have to bark.
By any measurement, most of us are losers or, to put it more politely, unchosen. I dedicated my first book, Fake House, to the unchosen. Just more proof I was born a Nazi or at least a white nationalist.
In Kathmandu, there are large signs outside highschools with recent graduates. Each is listed in order, with their grade point average displayed. The 47 boys and girls at Amrit Boarding School begins with Rajanish Khanal, with his awesome 3.96, then ends, most miserably, with Samikshya Baniya, with her toilet bowl dwelling 2.89. The shittiest, though, aren’t even on here. They simply failed.
Samikshya is the prettiest. Perhaps she couldn’t study because she was so attractive? I know the feeling. Dogs won’t leave me alone.
Again at 4 Square, I just ran outside to catch a man pushing his old, beat up bicycle loaded with plastic basins, soap dishes, utensil holders, dustpans and soccer balls. Attached to his handlebar was a blaring speaker. Just as in Vietnam, few hawkers hawk any more. Lullabies, too, are mostly dead. Most babies would rather listen to “Johny, Johny, Yes Papa” or “Baby Shark.” Though composed in India and South Korea, they are in English. Everything local is diminished. The plasticware peddler had a professorial demeanor. Nearly everything could have been.
Just now, I joked with Vimal about going into one of those no name eateries to ask for an apple pie or enchilada! Laughing, Vimal explained that those green curtains are traditional. Now, they can come in more colors. Since eating out was considered ostentatious, they hid those inside.
Kathmandu, 10/27/25
During last month’s protest, Lalipur’s Ullens School, walkable from here, was burnt. This is not entirely shocking when you realize its monthly fee for high school kids, $300, is roughly thrice a common laborer’s wage. As for lunch, “The food committee finalizes school menus, and meals are prepared in our modern kitchen by trained staff under the direction of a professional chef.” No dark rooms behind green curtains there.
Yesterday, Vimal made me an excellent lunch of buffalo stew, curried potatoes and basmati rice. Slices of cucumber and carrot added much needed coolness. I didn’t even pay $3. Just now, I asked Vimal to make me whatever. As a traveling foreigner, I’m already privileged, I fully understand. When I told Mrs. Seven I was flying to Nepal, a country she had never heard of, she asked if I would buy my ticket at the airport?
You do what you must with what you have.
My flight back to Saigon has been delayed by more than nine hours, with that extra time in Guangzhou. Since it will be night, who knows if it’s worth it to head into town?
Just flying is a privilege, now winding down.
Online, there are all these videos of enraged passengers, mostly Americans. Each aspect of their society is breaking down. After Trump’s $300 million ballroom is completed, they’ll be free to glimpse it, all lit up, from a quarter mile away, at least. Unlike Nepalese, they will only burn their neighborhoods down.
It’s all good, actually. Washington Post on 10/25/25, “The teardown of the White House’s East Wing this week is a Rorschach test. Many see the rubble as a metaphor for President Donald Trump’s reckless disregard of norms and the rule of law, a reflection of his willingness to bulldoze history and a temple to a second Gilded Age, paid for by corporate donors. Others see what they love about Trump: A lifelong builder boldly pursuing a grand vision, a change agent unafraid to decisively take on the status quo and a developer slashing through red tape that would stymie any normal politician.”
The White House, too, must change, “Like America, it must evolve with the times to maintain its greatness.” As a Third Worlder happily stuck in the Third World, who am I to argue, so evolve away! Change is good. You’re the change you’ve been dying for.
10/25/25 (L): Lalitpur ; (R): Kathmandu
New Babel — Oct 28, 2025.
Those five or six people who bought my Blood of Soap may, or may not, remember its first story, “Prisoner with a Dictionary.” In it, a fool tries to teach himself a new language by studying a dictionary, the only book he has. Many pages are missing, however, for he has to wipe himself, after all. Keeping his ass somewhat clean is much more important and urgent than feeding his brain, and he’s not even doing that, unless you consider any mental exertion, no matter how idiotic or wrong headed, useful.
Since I can’t possibly be more stupid than one of my characters, today I confidently picked up Dor Bahadur Bista’s Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s Struggle for Modernization. Already, I’m halfway through, as proven by a most convincing photograph. This wasn’t easy, I tell you, since I had to guess at every word. I wasn’t even sure those squiggly lines were words.
My immediate mastery of Nepalese made me think of a prisoner, described, I’m pretty sure, by Primo Levi. Since I read If This Is Man at least three decades ago, I can’t recall all the details. Levi’s fool read books in languages he didn’t know. Trapped in a concentration camp, this brainy idiot was surrounded by those whose languages he couldn’t quite understand, or at all. To overcome his despair, he studied these relics, symbols or icons of civilization. Maybe there’s no such fool in This Is Man.
Those Jews from across Europe were forced to build a carbide tower whose top were “rarely visible in the fog.” Levi, “Its bricks were called Ziegel, briques, tegula, cegli, kamenny, mattom, teglak, and they were cemented by hate; hate and discord, like the Tower of Babel, and it is this that we call it: Babelturm, Bobelturm; and in it we hate the insane dream of grandeur of our masters, their contempt for God and men, for us men.”
Towers of Babel are attempts at globalism, no? The United Nations and World Economic Forum are Towers of Babel, and so is English. Marxism, too, obviously.
All the gods must be enraged at Uncle Sam, Klaus Schwab, George Soros, Bill Gates or whoever else is trying to be god. Notice how white they are! That’s why humanity is blessedly divided into Vietnamese, Chinese, Nepalese and South Africans, etc, with each group fragmented much further.
Starting this article at KTM Burger, I sat within earshot of a Brit and an Italian. Speaking English, they were talking quite comfortably about the political situation in each other’s country. How many Americans can name Mexico’s president or Canada’s prime minister? Even before the European Union, it’s no big deal for any Italian to have visited adjacent France, Switzerland and Austria, or Spain, too, with its language similar enough, he could figure out shop signs and menus. Despite this relative cosmopolitanism, he was well aware of how distinctive Italians were. They have fought against all their neighbors many times, and each other, too. Florence, Pisa and Siena used to war among themselves, and they’re all in Tuscany.
The Italian at KTM Burger was a retired doctor. In his caravan, British for “trailer,” he spent months in North Africa. He gushed over the sweetness of Moroccans. After Nepal, he will head to Sikkim. Though belonging to India, it’s ethnically distinctive. With periodic unrest, foreigners need a permit to enter. Assam, too, is Oriental. Assamese I met in Bengaluru and Chennai were delighted to see me. Beaming, each blurted, “We look the same!”
To a Pennsylvania crowd in 2024, Trump said of Biden, “Did you ever hear Shakespeare? He was ‘hail and hearty and well met,’ but he wasn’t a smart person.” The Donald didn’t just mess up “hail-fellow-well-met,” it sounds like he’s declaring Shakespeare stupid.
This year in London, Trump intoned, “A fifth of all of humanity speaks, writes, thinks and prays in the language born on these isles and perfected in the pages of Shakespeare and Dickens, Tolkien and Lewis, Orwell and Kipling—incredible people, unbelievable people like we have rarely seen before and probably won’t see again.” A fifth is 1.6 billion. Only 373 million on earth are native English speakers. Those who speak or write a passable English, like the Italians, Nepalese or Brazilian I’ve met in Kathmandu, don’t think or pray in it, Donald. They do so in their mother’s tongue. What do you expect, though, from a man who mentions Tolkien in the same sentence with Shakespeare and Orwell? It’s a safe bet he’s read none of them. Trump’s stupidity and crassness reflect at least his supporters’.
Halfway through this article, I paused to say goodbye to Vimal. He’s leaving for India this morning, so won’t be at 4 Square when I show up in about an hour. As a Teli Gangauta, Vimal was in the middle among castes. In the US, he’s dark enough to pass as a black American.
In Tennessee 30 years ago, I found myself in a nearly all-white county. An old lady explained, “We do have a doctor. He’s not really black, he’s something!” The guy was Indian. I have an uncle who worked as a doctor in a rural, all-white Texas town in the late 70’s. In a US that was much kinder and sweeter, they treated him fine. Leave it to Beaver, Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy were on TV. From planet Ork, Mork had to be an illegal alien. He’s played by Robin Williams, who committed suicide at age 63 in 2014. Those days are over.
As Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Vietnam, Williams goofed most memorably, “What is a protective dike? Is that a large woman standing by the river saying, ‘Don’t go near there!’ […] Don’t go down to the river! Stay aware from there!” Those days are certainly over.
Kathmandu (L): 10/27/25 ; (R): 10/25/25
So full of shit and themselves, stupid people are painfully unfunny.
Tossed into a Communist concentration camp, Hà Thúc Sinh was beaten up by an interrogator who insisted he was a spy. The proof was all the books this ARVN had published before the Fall of Saigon.
“If you’re not CIA, you must be CIB!”
The thug didn’t mean it as a joke. Recounting it years later, only Hà Thúc Sinh and his readers laughed.
Levi, “The confusion of languages is a fundamental component of the manner of living here: one is surrounded by a perpetual Babel, in which everyone shouts orders and threats in languages never heard before, and woe betide whoever fails to grasp the meaning. No one has time here, no one has patience, no one listens to you; we latest arrivals instinctively collect in the corners, against the walls, afraid of being beaten.”
This world has always been a perpetual Babel. To avoid being beaten or killed, it’s best you understand all shouts, threats, orders or hints. As just guests passing through, travelers are much indulged, especially if they speak good English. It’s an empowering, nearly magical, language. Tomorrow morning, it may be Mandarin. Already, it has 990 million native speakers. Hindi and Spanish, too, have more native babblers than English.
As for listening to your own language, spoken by those who look exactly like you, few, now, have the patience. More are becoming atomized and deranged. Grubbing and scrounging beneath burning towers, we’ll enter a New Babel.
Now, I’ll go back to Fatalism and Development. Can’t say I agree with all of Bista’s conclusions.
Kathmandu, 10/28/25
Cursed Red Ogres With Kissing Toes — Oct 29, 2025.
This time tomorrow, I’ll be flying over China. I haven’t made up my mind whether to explore Guangzhou a bit. By the time I’m sprung from the airport, it’d be at least 8PM, so 9 when I get downtown, assuming everything goes swimmingly. I’m already exhausted, and stumbling.
Several more times, I nearly fell down. My sandals are too loose, with its soles too smooth. They provide almost no traction. Going barefoot nearly always in Vung Tau, I didn’t notice. I’m no longer adapted to footwear, simple as that. Over two weeks in Nepal, I’ve only seen two similar savages. One a girl of about 2, the other a whore with the arm of some drunken Korean around her neck.
It’s cold and drizzly today. Walking to 4 Square at 4PM, I recited out loud lines from “The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock.” Reading it at 18, I thought this poem ridiculous. Its self-pity made me laugh.
Careful to not fall into the gutter or get whacked by a swerving Royal Enfield motorbike, I moaned most earnestly,
“I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I’ve heard the mermaids singing each to each. I do not think they’re singing to me.”
This morning I spaced out over two hot chais at the Shree Gha Vihar, my favorite spot in Kathmandu. The bigger Boudha Stupa has many more shops, restaurants and tourists. Shree Gha Vihar is quiet, though magnificent enough with its Tibetan temple and Tibetan monastery. There’s always a blue tub of water set out for the swarming pigeons. A four story high school and a Mongolian restaurant face this square.
Here, people string up five or six hot peppers over a lemon to ward off evil spirits. As I pondered one such display, an old beggar came up, so I gave him some money, not much. Since his English was rather good, we chattered. Deciding he’d make a great guide for the next hour or so, I invited him to breakfast. Mutual exploitation is fair trade.
Kathmandu, 10/28/25
Fading out, I had to stop, so it’s 2:49AM on the morning of my (final) departure. Walking to Fire, I took my sandals off, to let my semian toes breathe and, more importantly, grip the gravel. Conquering Vietnam in 204BC, the Chinese named it the Jiaozhi Commandery. Zheng Xuan (127-200AD) explains jiaozhi [交趾] as having your toes turned towards each other. They’re nearly kissing. It’s like playing footsie with yourself, but involuntarily. Soon as you sit down, your toes go at it. This exegesis is mine, of course, not the honorable Zheng Xuan’s. Even today, Vietnamese have no problems believing their ancestors had feet funkier than monkey’s. The Chinese also called us 赤鬼. 赤 is just red, but 鬼 is either ghost, devil or ogre. As an adjective, it means cursed. Vietnamese, then, were cursed red ogres with kissing toes. We still are. If you have a problem with that, I’ll go Philly on you, motherfucker! Compared to us, New Yorkers are acrylic painting faggots who must stare at cardamom buns all day long. They can’t even afford them. Tastykake rules!
Walking in, I thought I heard Rod Stewart, but it’s just some Nepalese guy with a prominent mole on his face. Before I lose all threads to this narrative, my life and the state of the world, let’s return to that beggar.
Since we were already outside one of those nameless eateries with just a curtain, I suggested we enter. Inside, there were three chubby women sitting at a table facing the entrance, preparing food. Two other adults were busy in the background. It’s a tiny space. You’d expect them to be startled at seeing me, not the other guy, but they looked at him with shock or annoyance. After some words, we walked out. No one smiled. Something was wrong.
Three minutes later, we reached a similar eatery. Though people were already chowing away, we got a similar reception, as caused by my instant buddy. Leading us out, this stern looking dude wanted to steer us to another eatery, perhaps one that served untouchables? Red ogres with kissing toes would also be welcome. Philly fuckheads, too. Nothing could go wrong.
Ignoring our tout, I said, “Let’s go this way instead. I know of places.” Didn’t I say I felt at home here? Everybody in Kathmandu already knows me, man, and I’m going through libraries in Nepalese. I have entire books memorized. Soon enough, I’ll write some. Soon, we reached this green curtained dump, a place so low-class, no one had ever been refused, I was convinced. Still, our bhado or bhikhari wouldn’t walk in. You’ve got to be kidding me. Were we destined to fine dine inside a bus station toilet?
Most reluctantly, we entered Temal Khaja Ghar. Though dumpy enough, it had a name, plus 17 photos of dishes and drinks on its sign. Beneath each was a name in English. Again, the owner and cook glared at Bhado, let’s just call him that. Still, he allowed us to sit down. Seething in his dark, tiny kitchen, visible through a window, he cooked our thukpa. Again, Pico Iyer wouldn’t touch such shit, nor would V.S. Naipaul. In Bengaluru, I sat next to a westernized Brahman at lunch. Though I asked many questions about her life, she showed zero interest in me. My teeth alone indicated I was low class. It didn’t matter we were featured writers at the same literary festival. I was just lucky this tense, stiffly buggered chick didn’t espy my kissing toes.
With amusement, I told Saroj at 4 Square about that morning’s incidents. When I showed him a photo of Bhado, Saroj immediately blurted, “He’s Indian!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, one hundred percent.”
“So they hated him because he was an Indian beggar?”
“Of course.”
A barista no older than 25 chimed in, “We have many Indian beggars here.”
Kathmandu, 10/28/25
From India, Nepal receives cheap goods and produce which it can’t compete against. During the just completed Tihar festival, all those marigolds had to be imported from India, even though Nepal has better weather for growing such flowers.
Going to Saroj’s shop to buy snacks for the regulars at Coffee Seven in Vũng Tàu, I noticed just about everything packaged was made in India. Yak cheese, a Himalayan delicacy, was locally made. It’s a bit like gouda.
Naipaul on cheese, “It was a delicacy in India. Imports were restricted, and the Indians had not yet learned how to make cheese, just as they had not yet learned how to bleach newsprint.” Uppity enough? It’s from his An Area of Darkness, published in 1964.
In Alexandria, Naipaul was so annoyed by its Oriental chaos, he retreated to his Greek freighter two days early. He preferred his cabin to the baffling and invigorating life outside.
The further East you go, the more misshapen the humanity, according to Naipaul, “The physique of Europe had melted away first into that of Africa and then, through Semitic Arabia, into Aryan Asia. Men had been diminished and deformed; they begged and whined.”
Belonging enough, I will now walk outside in happiness and gratitude. Like you all, I’m nearly out of here.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
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Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People’s Republic of China
At Session I of the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting
Your Excellency President Lee Jae Myung,
Colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to be here in Gyeongju, a city of rich history and culture, to join you in discussing the future of the Asia-Pacific. Let me begin by thanking President Lee Jae Myung and the ROK government for the thoughtful arrangement.
Over the past 30-plus years since its founding, from drafting the blueprint of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) to advancing the vision of an Asia-Pacific community, APEC has been spearheading the region’s rise to the forefront of global open development, and has made the Asia-Pacific the most dynamic part of the global economy.
Currently, changes unseen in a century are accelerating across the world. The international situation is fluid and turbulent. The Asia-Pacific faces growing uncertainties and destablizing factors in its development. The rougher the seas, the more we must pull together. We should stay true to APEC’s founding mission to promote economic growth and improve people’s lives, and champion open development where everyone shares opportunities and emerges a winner. We should promote a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and build an Asia-Pacific community. To this end, I wish to make five proposals.
First, we should work together to safeguard the multilateral trading system. We must practice true multilateralism, and enhance the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core. We should stick to the right direction of WTO reform, uphold the most-favored-nation (MFN), nondiscrimination and other fundamental principles, and update international economic and trade rules to reflect the changing times, so as to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.
Second, we should work together to build an open economic environment in the region. We should keep promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, deepen fiscal and financial cooperation, and steadily push for regional economic integration. With the RCEP being implemented to high standards and the CPTPP membership expanding, we should help the two align with each other and progress together so as to inject impetus into the development of the FTAAP.
Third, we should work together to keep industrial and supply chains stable and smooth. We must join hands rather than part ways, and strengthen our links rather than sever them. We should vigorously expand our common interests, and support the open development of supply chains. The tenth anniversary of the APEC Connectivity Blueprint gives us a good opportunity to strive for concrete and tangible results in physical, institutional and people-to-people connectivity so as to further consolidate the foundations for open development in our region.
Fourth, we should work together to advance the digital and green transformation of trade. We should make digital technologies a strong catalyst for cross-border trade, and promote practical cooperation in paperless trade, smart customs and other areas. We must remove various green barriers, and expand cooperation in green industries, clean energy and green minerals. The Asia-Pacific Model E-port Network and the Cooperation Network on Green Supply Chain initiated by China under APEC have become important platforms for regional cooperation on the digital and green upgrades for trade.
Fifth, we should work together to promote universally beneficial and inclusive development. We should adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, focus on imbalances in development, and foster an economic globalization that is more inclusive, sustainable, and beneficial to all peoples in the region. China is working with various parties to promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and supports the modernization drive of more developing countries, which will help open up new space for global development. We have given zero-tariff treatment on 100 percent tariff lines from the least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China, and stand ready to extend the same treatment to all African countries having diplomatic relations with China through the signing of agreements on economic partnership for shared development. We will continue to strive for common development and shared prosperity with all nations.
Colleagues,
China always pursues the basic state policy of opening up, and has taken real steps to promote an open world economy. Over the past five years, China has ranked as the world’s largest trader in goods and the second largest in services. It has attracted more than US$700 billion in foreign investment in total, and its outbound investment has been increasing by over five percent on annual average. We have been shortening the negative list for foreign investment, and applying the unilateral visa-free policy to more countries. We are steadily expanding voluntary and unilateral opening up, and have actively aligned with high-standard international economic and trade rules through our 22 pilot free trade zones. China’s door to the world will not close; it will only open wider and wider.
A few days ago, the Recommendations for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan were adopted at the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. We will take this opportunity to further deepen reform comprehensively and expand high-standard opening up, and create new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific and the world through the latest achievements of Chinese modernization.
Thank you.
Gyeongju, October 31, 2025
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xw/zyxw/202510/t20251031_11744706.html
“Suddenly, there were more cars, fewer shops, little foot traffic and no history. The car, television and, now, cellphone make being nowhere not just possible, but desirable.”
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Kathmandu, 10/22/25
Could Have Been, Can Be and Will Be Much Worse — Oct 22, 2025.
Should have rung one of those bells five or six times for divine protection! At least it happened near the end. Today, I walked many miles without having the faintest idea where I was going. Done this countless times in too many cities. You must trek through the most boring or, hell, even deadliest parts to understand any place. If all you see of Philly are Center City, Old City, Society Hill, University City and the Italian Market, you have no idea what locals must go through.
Having experienced spectacular temples, awe inspiring stupas, exhilarating street markets, quaint courtyards and tiny, picturesque shops, today I got a numbing taste of Kathmandu’s newer quarters. Suddenly, there were more cars, fewer shops, little foot traffic and no history. If not for those colorful mandalas on sidewalks and Nepalese scripts on some signs, I was hardly in Nepal. Wandering around such a neighborhood in Busan years ago, I nearly thought I was in California! The car, television and, now, cellphone make being nowhere not just possible, but desirable.
On one street, there were all these job placement agencies for Japan. One large sign had a three-tiered pagoda and a sweetly smiling babe in a kimono. Similar teases exist in Vietnam. Sent to Japan, you might never see such a chick. Still, a monthly salary of 250,000 rupees ($1,775) is inducement enough. In Kathmandu, a college graduate makes just $213 a month. For a general laborer, it’s $103. Renting a basic room in town is already $50. With wages so low, it’s even more incredible there are so many smiles, and so few crimes.
Employed at 4 Square, one 17-year-old must walk three hours daily, six days a week. Sometimes, he gets a ride on a motorbike. He can’t even afford a bicycle.
With English classes expensive, few can learn. Those who do try to work abroad.
I didn’t even know I was just north of Thamel. Seeing two goats outside a butcher’s shop was encouraging, though. Just above them through an open window were mostly defleshed skulls of their kind, plus a young female of my kind, smiling. Until it’s our turn to be decapitated, everything is hilarious, or at least interesting. Soon after, I saw my first temple in maybe an hour.
Kathmandu, 10/22/25
As hope returned, I suddenly pitched forward. On the ground, I looked back to see one of my cheap sandals flung many yards behind me.
“Sir, are you OK?”
“I’m fine! It could have been worse.”
“You scraped your knee!”
“I’m OK. Hey, you sound American!”
“I am.”
“Where are you from?”
“Utah.”
“I used to live in Philadelphia.”
“I actually live here! I’ve been here for 13 years.” She’s a white woman around 55-years-old.
“How do you like it?”
“I love it!”
“Do you have family here?”
“I’m my entire family!” She spread her arms out, palms up.
“Now, I know why I fell down.” I was getting mystical. “I fell down so I could meet you, an American, with your interesting story!”
“You’re such a nice man. You fell down because you were trying to get out of my way.”
I’m not sure I did that. I do try to walk on the traffic side when seeing a woman. Here as in Vietnam, people often stray onto streets. Today, I stepped into a gutter. Out of politeness, I gave her a wide berth, perhaps. It could have been much worse. There was some dark blood on my left big toe, but no real pain. In ruined Beirut, I stepped into a broken grate. My leg could have been sliced open.
Sitting in 4 Square at 2:15PM, I’ve been hearing for half an hour loud banging on drums and cymbals from youths on passing trucks, or just marching by. It’s the fourth day of Tihar. Tomorrow, maybe they’ll shoot rockets into hotel room windows. I must be ready for anything.
With no clear boundaries between spectators and participants, this is nearly a carnival. Before it got cleaned up, with its finale moved indoors, Philly’s Mummer Parade was also carnivalesque. Rulers prefer parades. You’re not supposed to do anything but watch. One nation even has “free speech zones” where the ignored are caged.
The best jobs here are government sinecures, as dispensed by a higher-up relative. Running your own business is also an attractive option, but there are so many of all kinds already. On this limited planet, mouths are still multiplying, so wars, riots, lootings and famines are baked in. Even among mild and dignified Nepalese, there’s trouble ahead. For now, they will still dress up, smile brightly and celebrate.
Today, Vimal has on a Celtics jersey, number 5. That’s Kevin Garnett. Looking for cheap apartments in Boston, Vimal was steered to Roxbury, but one quick look told him it was deadly, “I’d rather sleep at the train station.” As a teen, Malcolm X lived in Roxbury. Did you know that “Hold it, brother!” were Malcolm X’s last words?
Now, two girls no older than twelve are chanting, with one holding a bamboo tray with a burning incense stick jutting from a banana, marigold petals, a colorful piece of paper with magical writing and a sort of donut, but thinner and larger. They’re trick or treating, basically. Having given money to so many kids already, the barista ignores them, so they move on, perfectly cheerful.
Still fat enough despite everything, I, too, will move on.
Sacred Stones, Dogs, Mud and Even Men — Oct 23, 2025.
All that racket yesterday was also to celebrate the Newari New Year, Mha Puja (self worship) and Gai Puja (cow worship). Ratopati informs us, “The cow is revered as mata or mother by Hindus […] Modern science has also proved that indigenous breeds of cows absorb the energy from the sun and the moon in their hump which is transmitted through milk to humans.”
Only indigenous breeds, mind you. Hump on that for a while. Three days ago was Kukur Tihar, or Festival of Dogs. Surely, I qualify. Must come back next year to be honored, with a bindi, at least. To expect a marigold garland is already vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Shit, man, I’m getting my religions confused.
Petting that old black dog at KTM Burger, I couldn’t help but think of Nọng and Milk Cow back in Vũng Tàu. They’re washed with human shampoo by Mrs. Seven at least twice a week, then blasted with a hair dryer. I’ve warned her about parching their skin, but do you think anyone listens to anyone? We’d rather die stubbornly stupid and proud.
Speaking Vietnamese to KTM Burger’s dog, I murmured, “So pitiful! You’ve never been washed!” On his forehead, there was a red trace from the bindi applied days ago, during the Festival of Dogs, of course. Once a year, this filthy beast is dabbed with kumkum powder. That’s what it’s called, I swear.
Last week was Jazzmandu. My hipster days over, I wouldn’t have checked it out anyway. Once, I sat in bars to listen to Wynton Marsalis and Mickey Roker. I also caught Sun Ra, Sonny Rollins, Art Pepper, Charlie Rouse, Johnny Hodges, Benny Goodman and, most memorably, the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Lester Bowie was evil! Last time I gushed over jazz, a moron jumped in to protest, “What about great white music?”
White worship of Jewjerked Trump is too appropriate for a society too stupid, degenerate and ignorant to honor its own heritage or recognize what’s best about itself. They’re worshipping a rapist of white children as purveyed by a Jew! Just as bad, they’re fine with his destruction of the Heartland. Anti-Trumpers can’t wait to vote in another Jewjerked puppet.
Not even Germany is so hopeless. It still has enough cultural relics to remind Germans of who they are, and of their greatness. Nepal, too.
Americans are mostly indifferent. Twice, they voted in a culture wrecker.
Erecting his vanity project, Trump Tower, this philistine moron ordered the razing of the Bonwit Teller Building, an Art Deco masterpiece. At least René Chambellan’s bas reliefs and Otto J. Teegan’s entrance grille could be saved, it was hoped. After promising them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Trump simply destroyed them.
Teegan, “It’s odd that a person like Trump, who is spending $80 million or $100 million on this building, should squirm that it might cost as much as $32,000 to take down those panels.” It’s not odd at all. Destruction is how this eternally insecure fool flexes his power. Trumpers seethe at uppity, coastal liberal words like Art Deco, masterpieces or just “art,” so yes, tear it all down.
But what about great white music? Whiggers like Forgiato Blow and Stoney Dudebro are certainly carrying the torch. Dangling his noose, literally, is JJ Lawhorn. Sucking hardest, though, must be Kid Rock. As a yellow outsider, I can’t keep up with so much greatness. You tell me.
Spending two years in Certaldo, particularly its medieval section, I felt, viscerally, each day, the importance of cultural depths, and I’m feeling the same in Kathmandu, except for yesterday, when I strayed into its more modern, thus sterile, neighborhoods. The worst architectural school ever was the International Style, with offshoots like Brutalism or Soviet Modernism just as nasty. Art that isn’t rooted in the local displaces the soul. This is irrelevant if you don’t think art matters at all.
In 2018, the Met returned to Nepal a 10th century standing Buddha and a 12th century stele. In 1996, Britain repatriated 19 artifacts. Thousands of masterpieces were also looted by whites from India, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Cambodia, etc. At least they never bombed Nepal. In Palestine, Jews have long used white bombs to destroy even churches, including some of the oldest ever built. MAGA Christians don’t give a fuck. They have freakish pastors like Paula White-Cain to fulfill their spiritual needs.
Those with means can also fly to the Jewjizzed Holy Land. Kevin Barrett, “In a bold move to resuscitate its genocide-battered tourism industry, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism announced a new initiative this week: ‘Get Baptized In Jewish Spit.’ The project aims at bringing American Christians to Israel so they can be rapturously soaked in the only fluid that’s holier than holy water: pure, fresh, kosher, locally-sourced 100% organic Jewish saliva.” That Satanic outrage will end soon.
Here a week, I haven’t even tried to reach Lalitpur, not five miles away. Hot chai, dirty dogs, radiant smiles and calming squares are more than enough. That’s because I’m bathed in collective memories, echoes and ghosts. Here ancient stones are so alive, they’re smeared with food.
Kathmandu, 10/23/25
Worried Looking Girl with Bills and Green Glow Worm — Oct 23, 2025.
On the fifth day of Tihar, you’re supposed to go home and have lunch with your family, so nearly all stores and restaurants were closed. Though those Chinese joints on Amrit and Jyatha were open, I just didn’t feel like wok fried dishes, yellow noodles or braised chicken skeleton. After a nap, I decided Bueno Burrito would be a great choice. Walking there, I thought about how quintessentially American is Tex-Mex, as is the Mission burrito, born in San Francisco. Jazz, too, is the best of the USA, and no narrowly defined black or white music.
At 4:30PM, Bueno was still closed, so I bought a short story collection by Anjan Adiga, a Nepalese-American writer. I want to write an American writer born in Nepal, but there’s no bio in Leech. Sitting on steps outside shuttered stores, I read. After just a few pages, I could tell Adiga is excellent.
Without his heritage, plus emotional and intellectual investment over many years, I’m just groping, obviously, but travel writing is like a drunken incel being shoved into a whorehouse. As long as he doesn’t run out immediately in terror, we have stories.
With almost nothing open, I decided to try Zaika Biryani Center on Gangalal. Entering a tiny, skanky room on the second floor, I shared a table with two guys. One was the only other foreigner. Not only that, he spoke a fluent American English. We chattered.
Fifty-nine-years old, Marcos is a Brazilian who’s been just about everywhere. This is his third time in Nepal. He’s also spent four months in Vietnam over two visits. We talked about Đà Lạt, Nha Trang and Vũng Tàu. His first time here was in 2005. Nepal was much poorer then, Marcos told me.
“That’s good to hear, so the country has improved.”
“All of Asia has gotten richer,” he chuckled.
As for the USA, where Marcos spent many years, we agree Trump is collapsing its economy on purpose. One motive, obviously, is for his oligarch buddies to buy up all the farm land from MAGA peasants. Those who haven’t committed suicide, that is. Survivors can keep their red hats. Trump and his pals are also raking it in through market manipulations. Then there’s his bitcoin racket. It’s too funny, really.
We laughed over Trump’s 40 billion dollar gift to Argentina, and over China buying soybeans from Brazil instead of the USA. We discussed the growing power of BRICS. Marcos knows what’s up.
Kathmandu, 10/23/25
My chicken biryani was only so-so, but at only $1.78, I can’t complain. It came with one boiled egg, and there was a pitcher at the table. Without cups, you’re supposed to just pour the cold water into your mouth, with the spout not even an inch from that unclean aperture. Though not quite correct, it sounds better than hole or orifice, God forbid.
Though Marcos had vowed just one week ago to never drink alcohol again, I said he must try the excellent Gorkha Beer. Perversely, he admitted to being fond of bia hơi. Brewed overnight by whoever felt like, it became popular in northern Vietnam during the worst years of Communism. Though without kick or character, it’s still being served.
Wandering around, I stumbled onto a Czech restaurant, and a Chinese owned hotel called Vienna!
In an Adiga story, “High Heels,” a young woman has reinvented herself by finishing high school against her mom’s wish, moving from her village to Kathmandu, getting a job at a bank, dabbing herself with Lakme Elegant perfume and wearing red high heels. Most radically, she has become a Christian. Nine pages in, her mentor, Father Matthew, is already betraying impure motives. She, though, has the hots for Binod, a handsome and confident coworker. On their first date, he admits to finding Christian women “bold.”
With six more days here, I have plenty of time to finish this story, or the whole book even, but when traveling, one should spend as much time as possible reading streets, landscapes, bodies and faces.
Just typing this, I’m not doing that, but that’s the paradox of trying to capture reality. Writing, you’re no longer living. Converting all this richness into words, I’m reducing, if not caricaturing, everything. Each second is modified, enriched, complicated or contradicted by the next.
Today, I photographed a small girl in a vermilion top with a neon green glow worm. Holding some bills, she looked worried. Behind her was a man and a boy, each with a disposable surgical mask, of the type made ubiquitous during the Covid hysteria. Why weren’t they caned for not keeping a social distance? Deprived of oxygen, their modest IQs approached zero. Their muffled conversation sputtered one syllable at a time, punctuated by pauses minutes long. Since a photograph is already a translation, I’m translating a translation.
Don’t curse me, though, for shrinking so much into so little, for a postage sized Kathmandu is still better than nothing.
Kathmandu, 10/24/25
No Plunging, Scoop, Halter or Sweetheart Necklines — Oct 24, 2025.
It didn’t take long, did it? Halfway through their first lunch date, Binod said to Sarita, “I have a lot of respect for you, for how far you’ve come in life.”
On the way back, they had to duck into an old temple to escape a heavy rain. Suddenly, this young Christian woman was trapped in a dark, “dismal place,” with even “the stench of uncollected garbage” wafting from an adjacent alley. The only other presence was a statue of Kali, that frightful blue faced goddess with her four arms, red tongue, sword and garland of decapitated heads. Still, Sarita felt safe.
Adiga describes her delusions:
In him there was a hidden capacity to care, she knew it. She wished she could take him to church. They would kneel and pray together. She was now completely sure that the church was the guiding force he needed to turn his life around.
Besides being a spoiled only son, Binod was a lost soul, a sinner. She was destined to save him. He interrupted her noble musing by putting his hands on her shoulders. Sarita’s wet cleavage made her irresistible. This detail indicated, further, her Western orientation. We already knew by her red high heels and tube of Fair and Lovely. Always in her purse, it made her whiter, though never white enough.
Before Sarita knew it, they were kissing, then his hand somehow slipped beneath her bra to squeeze her naked breast. Ignoring her protest, he kept going, but at least they didn’t copulate. In shock, Sarita asked to be dropped off before reaching the bank.
Clearly annoyed at being thwarted, Binod sneered, “Your mole is disgusting.” Patiently seducing her many days before, Binod said it looked like “a tiny juicy grape.” Even her mom thought it resembled a tumor. Sarita fancied it nearly a nipple. This mark of shame became her naked turn on, she desperately hoped. Binod spat at that notion. Born elsewhere, Sarita could just remove it.
Kathmandu, 10/24/25
I’ll read the rest later. Looking up, I see three young men. One wears a baseball cap with “MARQUETTE.” I’m sure he doesn’t know what it means. One is listening to his phone. With porn banned, there’s not much to look at. The last, in a hoodie and jean jacket, is staring at revelers just outside KTM Burger.
At another table is a black man focused on his magical screen. Perhaps 30, he’s alone. Besides TikTok recorded laughter, I can also hear extended dialogues in English. Unlike others, he didn’t go to the counter upon entering, but only ordered a can of Carlsberg and a chicken kathi roll when approached, finally, by an employee after about 20 minutes.
Elsewhere, more young men stare at phones. I’m sure all of them wouldn’t mind a bold, westernized woman, even without otherworldly cleavage throbbing or bobbing. It’s cool enough for a jacket or hoodie. In my short sleeved áo bà ba, I must ignore the weather.
One tallish man with long hair has a girlfriend. He’s wearing a fluffy white and gray fleece hoodie over a shockingly red long shirt, however. Even Sarita wouldn’t try to save this guy, much less a true Western woman. Of course, it’s presumptuous to think he’d even want one, just to see, taste and smell what it’s like, you know. I must disagree with Alberta Hunter. You can certainly tell the difference after dark.
Displaced, you can be so wrong even when you’re dressed perfectly. A female, though, is always welcome, if only for a hit and run. If willing to spend, even the most repulsive can get off. A five minute stroll down Pattaya’s Soi 6 will amply prove this. It’s bad enough in Vũng Tàu.
Quality of whores varies so much, though, with the richer, more prestigious countries offering the worst. Worse than selling one’s body for half an hour or an hour to endless creeps is to be chained to one. Melania often looks disgusted. Ivana wrote about being raped. Once permanent residency is gained, millions book.
In “High Heels,” silver-haired Father Matthew is creepy enough. Fleeing from Binod, Sarita took a taxi to Saint Mary’s Church. It didn’t sound like her ordeal was over.
Finishing this at 4 Square, my right leg went dead, so I hobble outside. At 10:15AM, it’s sunny and warm, with, as usual, a constant stream of pedestrians. There’s not a cleavage in sight. No plunging, scoop, halter or sweetheart necklines. One dips just enough to show collar bones. That’s it.
Around 4AM, I passed four drunken youths, including one woman. Pissed at somebody, she flipped the bird, the first I’ve seen in eight days, and I’m out constantly. Though dressed casually in the American style, she showed no cleavage either.
As a Kami, Sarita was elated to discover she could read the same bible as anybody else. There are 1.5 million of her kind in Nepal. Though caste-based discrimination was abolished in 1963, you can’t mold or regulate anyone’s heart.
10/25/25 (L): Kathmandu ; (R): Lalitpur
Why Not Hitler Fashion? — Oct 26, 2025.
A regular at 4 Square is Saroj, a shop owner in his late 40’s. Though his brother has lived in Boston for 20 years, Saroj hasn’t been able to visit him. Applying for a visa recently, he was rejected. Saroj worked eight years in India, so speaks good Engish, and he has traveled to Hong Kong and Bangkok. An avid bicyclist, he’s also in great shape, so looks every bit a successful and well fed middle class person. Still, Trump won’t let him in. After three months, Saroj will try again.
When told of my time in the USA and Europe, Saroj looked startled for a second. I was just sharing my experiences of NYC, London and Paris, to say those places aren’t like in the movies or popular imagination. “Everywhere I go, I want to see the regular neighborhoods, you know, the more boring ones, because that’s how normal people live.”
This was my response to a visit to the Buddha Stupa. Saroj hadn’t just insisted I see it, but phoned a motorbike guy to get me there. More interesting for me, though, were all the blasé streets I saw on the way. After that stupa, which was indeed spectacular, I had a better time checking out the area. There was Ramsterdam Café, “where hippies meet.” That fabled Kathmandu isn’t just mostly gone, it was hardly there in the first place.
Freak Street and Dharma Path, where Pico Iyer hung out, is as alien to most Nepalese as Phạm Ngũ Lão and Bùi Viện to Vietnamese. That Saigon pocket with its whores, pimps, weird cuisines and bars is known as Phố Tây, or Western Streets.
Even now, most residents of Kathmandu would find this passage incomprehensible:
I had the best enchilada of my life on Freak Street, and the chocolates in the stores seemed to have been sent special delivery from the heavens. As for the pies for which Nepal was famous, they exceeded even their reputation. Soon I established my own sacramental ritual: disappearing several times each day into the dark entrances of cafés—not just Mom’s Health Food Restaurant and Aunt Jane’s, but also Tibetan, Chinese and stateless restaurants—in order to devour extraordinary apple pies, almond layer pies, orange cakes, fruit cakes, lemon pies and more apple pies.
It’s telling that Iyer never mentions momos, choila, khaja, thukpa, sekuwa or even dal bhat, Nepal’s national dish. That’s what most people eat here, man, not lemon or apple pie! They have never heard of them, or enchiladas! Most wouldn’t dare walk into Mom’s Health Food Restaurant. Its name alone sounds expensive.
(L): Busan, 3/29/20 ; (R): Taiping, Malaysia on 7/19/19
The cheapest eateries here are dark, tiny places without a name. You enter through a curtain. Most have no English menus. Yesterday in Lilitpur, I noticed a barefoot girl about three flinging dirt outside Mo:Mo Cha and Stick Food Café. She had on a dirty pale pink top with two smiling cats. Catching me eyeing her daughter, this large woman came out, but not to chase me with a stick or knife. Smiling, she urged her kid to say hello. Her cheerfulness invited me in. If there was no menu, I would just ask to see what she had. I had done this in various countries. Point and you shall receive.
There was a menu, just one, with “Momo Magic and Stick Delights!” on the cover. Its plastic lamination was peeling off. Its wire binding was all awry. Without knowing what “Buff Khaja Set” was, I ordered it anyway. It turned out to be a buffalo stew, choila, with curried potato, peanuts, chickpeas, pickled vegetables and crunchy rice flakes, chiura. The last was most surprising. This delicious meal cost me just 170 rupees, or $1.21.
Arriving in Lilitpur, I emailed my buddy, Jonathan, “You shamed me into going to Patan, motherfucker! You think I give a shit about temples!!! I must admit, though, this place is orgasmically spectacular. Makes me even more ashamed to be Vietnamese. Just kill me now.” Tone is everything. That’s how friends talk. I used to do the same with Giang, whom I had known for more than four decades. After three Jewjabs, he seemed to change. His voting again for Trump hardened Giang further. Suddenly, I could no longer goof around with this guy.
Walking back to Kathmandu, I got seriously lost. Without a map or cellphone, I ended up in Kalanki, then Bafal. It didn’t help that I was lugging my bag with a camera and laptop, both heavy, and, most likely, I kept wandering in circles. I crossed streets and creeks that looked awfully familiar. This misadventure allowed me to enter a nearly dead mall, pass a bus depot with clearly rural folks waiting to go home, ramshackle dwellings abutting swanky developments and, mostly astoundingly, Hitler Fashion!
All I saw were jeans, hoodies, T-shirts and sneakers, typical American styled casual wear. Do Nepalese consider eternally adolescent Americans as Nazis?
Though swastikas are common in the East, this was just weird. Without my phone, I couldn’t speed dial my rabbi or the Anti-Defamation League. In Kukes, Albania, I had run into Bar and Restaurant Nazi, but that’s just the owner’s name, pronounced as Nor Zee.
(L): Skopje, North Macedonia on 9/26/20 ; (R): Vung Tau, 9/8/24
This morning, I read about a 33-year-old, Kenneth Morgan, who had entered Cutter’s Pub, an Athens, Georgia bar popular with college kids. Dressed as an SS officer, complete with a red armband with its black swastika on a white circle, Morgan was clearly asking for trouble. Immediately, he was cursed, then chased out by a crowd. When Grace Lang tried to yank off his armband, Morgan whacked her with his beer mug, breaking her nose. She relayed her account to The Red and Black, which aren’t just Nazi colors but those of the University of Georgia. Of course, many if not most of those outside the South and Midwest think those folks are Nazis anyway.
Though Mao and Stalin killed many more, Hitler is considered uniquely evil. Even most deaths in concentration camps were from starvation, and related diseases, resulting from American and British bombings. At least a million Vietnamese died from the same. Near the end of World War II, Vietnamese ports and rail system were destroyed.
Detailed or nuanced understanding of anything is beyond most people, with American college students among the worst. A little learning is already dangerous. When it’s mostly bullshit, you’re fucked for life.
Here’s how Grace Lang describes herself at Linked, “I capture angles that are rarely seen and humanity that is often overlooked. My photos give the audience a chance to see with my eyes, granting them a vivid, deep connection with my work.” Seeing with her eyes, you will be exposed to hidden truths about humanity.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks
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In the global chessboard, Beijing will keep stressing the power of the “multilateral trading system.” As in the absolute opposite of Trump 2.0.
Four days in Beijing. The fourth plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was really something to behold.
Methodology matters. What happened these four days is that delegates debated and then adopted “recommendations” leading to China’s 15th Five-Year Plan. A communique then laid out the basic vectors to be tackled. The full plan will only be known in detail next March, when it will be approved by the notorious Two Sessions in Beijing.
So let’s get straight to the point: this is how China works, meticulously planning everything in advance, with clear targets and meritocratic supervision. The – metaphorical – terminology does allow some leeway: everyone is aware of the “high winds, rough waves and raging storms” ahead – domestically and internationally. But “strategic resolve” won’t waver.
Key vectors for the Beijing leadership include “strengthening agriculture”, “benefiting farmers”, and “achieving rural prosperity” – side by side with progress with “people-centered new urbanization.”
In the global chessboard, Beijing will keep stressing the power of the “multilateral trading system.” As in the absolute opposite of Trump 2.0.
Major targets for the 15th Five-Year Plan are quite clear. Among them: “advancements in high-quality development”; improving “scientific and technological self-reliance”; a quite Confucianist “notable cultural and ethical progress across society”; and “strengthening the national security shield.”
In a nutshell: the Chinese leadership’s top priority is to build “a modernized industrial system”. As in a productive – not speculative – mixed economic system driving rural, urban and tech development.
Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attend the fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The 20th Central Committee of the CPC convened its fourth plenary session in Beijing from Monday to Thursday. [Photo/Xinhua]
There have been so many practical, graphic examples across China of what has been achieved so far. Last month, I was privileged to see first-hand the socialism with Chinese characteristics surge in terms of sustainable development of Xinjiang . Xinjiang is now an IT hub and a leader in clean energy – exporting to the rest of China.
Then there’s the tech accomplishments of Made in China 2025, launched 10 years ago, and already placing China as tech leader in at least 8 of 10 scientific fields. Plus key programs that many Chinese themselves don’t know about, with particular emphasis on the 973 Program and Project 985.
The 973 Program, launched way back in 1997, is the National Basic Research Program aiming to get a tech/strategic edge in several scientific fields – especially the development of the rare earth minerals industry. The program definitely elevated China to the top in terms of global science competitiviness.
Project 985 was launched in 1998 to develop a select group of top-tier universities to world-class level. Hence the emergence of Tsinghua, Peking, Zhejiang, Fudan and Harbin Institute of Technology, among others, as world leaders in engineering, computer science, robotics, aerospace, including key breakthroughs in AI, quantum computing and green energy. Ivy League and Oxbridge? Forget it: the real deal is Chinese universities.
Another key project is the G60 Science and Innovation Corridor, connecting nine cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta. These cities contributed nearly 2.2% of global (italics mine) manufacturing value-added only last year. That’s China’s strategic economic planning driving tech progress – in effect.
At a press conference, Central Committee officials pointed to some basics obviously totally ignored by the fragmente West, but not by large sectors of the Global South. Especially the fact that Five-Year Plans are regarded as one of China’s key political advantages.
The formulation of the next plan, as usual in China, includes suggestions from all echelons of society. Market drivers from now on necessarily include computing infrastructure, intelligent driving and smart manufacturing. And predictably, up to 2035, there will be special emphasis on quantum tech, biomanufacturing, hydrogen, nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence and 6G, not to mention AI.
Conceptually, China will focus on its immense domestic market: what is defined as the “unified national market”.
A key emphasis was made on Beijing’s drive to combat “involution”: that is, the intra-industry competition that has caused problems for several Chinese sectors.
On thorny US-China relations, Central Committee officials were adamant: the focus will be on “dialogue and cooperation” rather than “decoupling and fragmentation”. Well, both sides are meeting in Malaysia as we speak, on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit. Prospects for a wide-ranging trade deal, though, are slim.
How to understand the evolution of the Chinese political system
The key takeaway: the 15th Five-Year Plan will concern the 2026-2030 period. Beijing wants to reinforce everything that was accomplished so far, with a crystal clear long-term focus: achieve what is defined as “socialist modernization” by 2035.
Based on what I personally saw in Xinjiang last month, compared to my previous visits (the last one had been over a decade ago), there is no shadow of a doubt they will do it.
It’s crucial to examine how two top Chinese academics explain the evolution of the Chinese political system. Relevant sections are worth quoting at length:
“While the traditional system was not immune to change, the goal of these changes was to maintain the status quo, preventing ‘revolutionary’ change. After the Han Dynasty, the policy of ‘abolishing all schools of thought and upholding Confucianism alone’ ideologically suppressed any factors that could catalyze major political change. Confucianism became the sole ruling philosophy, and its core purpose was to maintain rule. The modern German philosopher Hegel argued that ‘China has no history.’ Indeed, for thousands of years, from the Qin Shihuang Emperor to the late Qing Dynasty, China experienced only a succession of dynasties, not a change in fundamental institutions. Marx’s concept of the ‘Asiatic mode of production’ aligns with Hegel’s ideas. Chinese scholars such as Jin Guantao also have this in mind when they use the term ‘superstable structure.’ One can argue that this reflects the vitality of the traditional political system, or that China lacked structural change for thousands of years.”
“The current political system is quite different, primarily because the Enlightenment firmly established the concept of progress: that society can progress, and that progress is endless. From Sun Yat-sen’s revolution to Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party and then to the Communist Party, generations of Chinese people have pursued change, sharing the same goal: to transform China and achieve progress. During the modern Enlightenment, the Confucian individual ethic that sustained the old system was subjected to the most radical criticism and attack. However, while the old ethic is no longer viable, various political factions lack a consensus on what the future holds. What kind of change does China need? How should it be pursued? What is the purpose of change? Various political forces hold divergent views.”
What the Chinese Communist Party has done, the two scholars argue, is in fact quite revolutionary, going for radical change: “This is the socialist revolution it has pursued since its founding, using revolution to overthrow the old regime, thoroughly transform society, and establish an entirely new system. Naturally, this also leads to the various contradictions facing China today, most notably the conflict between traditional Confucian philosophy and Marxism-Leninism. The former is focused on maintaining the status quo or adapting itself for survival, while the latter pursues endless change.”
“Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese Communist Party has accelerated its transformation from a revolutionary party to a ruling party (…). One thing is clear: if a political party governs simply for the sake of governing, it will inevitably decline. This is evident in the history of communist rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as in the historical and current experience of Western political parties that calculate their legitimacy based on votes.”
“After reform and opening up, the Chinese Communist Party redefined its modernity, aiming to achieve the original revolutionary goal of resolving the problem of ‘universal impoverishment.’ However, while redefining modernity, the Party also strived to preserve the ‘revolutionary nature’ of the ruling party (…) In terms of economic development, GDP-oriented economics played an invaluable role, transforming China’s ‘poverty socialism’ situation in just a few decades. By the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China had become the world’s second-largest economy and the largest trading nation, with per capita GDP soaring from less than $300 in the early 1980s to $6,000. More importantly, China lifted nearly 700 million people out of absolute poverty.”
The conclusion, though, is inescapable, and it is inherent to the way Beijing is framing its political evolution now: “The Chinese Communist Party needs to redefine its modernity by reaffirming its mission, emphasizing its original aspirations, and reviving its revolutionary nature.”
After all, as the two scholars note, “in China, political parties are the subject of political action, and this action is not simply about survival and development, but about leading national development in all aspects (…) The ruling party must proactively define its own modernity through action, pursuing and achieving its own modernity. By constantly renewing and defining its modernity, the ruling party can maintain its sense of mission in leading social development while constantly renewing itself.”
There could hardly be a sharper summary of why socialism with Chinese characteristics is in a class by itself when it comes to translating political decisions into sustainable development targets. Complement it with Hong Kong billionaire’s Ronnie Chan’s succint analysis on the inevitability of the rise – again – of China.
The counterpoint is China ceasing to be the Pentagon’s key priority. Circus Ringmaster is essentially being forced to concede the global strategic competition to China. Forget about “winning” a tech/trade war on China – especially after the rare earth Sun Tzu move.
Meanwhile, the containment dogs bark while the Chinese Five-Year caravan strolls on.
For us, because this was recorded on the 9th, it is a look back on what happened in this last week. These conflicts (Palestine, Ukraine) are not simply military conflicts. The narrative (a culture war) is what made us horrified during the peace plan circus, because we knew were were dealing with narrative, and not with truth.
“Well, this is a much longer lasting fight, and it goes beyond the military battlefield, and it’s how the world frames the thinking about what’s happening to it. And this is the deepest, and it’s even the most threatening battlefield over control of the narrative — the narrative of how to frame the issue — and what’s being taught in the schools, in the universities, and spread to the internet platforms and the mass media — that is now already come under the control of extremist Zionist hardliners. ”
NIMA ALKHORSHID: Hi, everybody. Today is Thursday, October 9th, 2025, and our dear friends, Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff, join us. Welcome back.
RICHARD WOLFF & MICHAEL HUDSON: Glad to be here.
NIMA ALKHORSHID: Since everybody’s talking about the Trump peace plan, I want to start with that. Michael, what’s your take on what is happening? You’ve sent me an email. You’ve mentioned that what has happened in Gaza is not Israel’s war, it’s NATO’s war. What’s your point in that?
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, Trump told Fox News last night: The important thing is for people to love Israel again. I told Bibi that Israel cannot fight against the whole world.
And Netanyahu has been saying that this war goes far beyond simply between Gaza and Israel.
It’s really a fight, a ninth front. And that ninth front is: Who is going to control how Americans view international relations, the geopolitics of what’s happening? And I think if the military confrontation stopped, at least temporarily, then this conflict has now shifted to the political and the cultural battlefield. And I think we have to look at that.
This is turning out to be a much deeper and long-lasting conflict, and it goes beyond Palestine and Israel. To answer your question, the war in Gaza and the West Bank isn’t simply a military conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Just like Russia isn’t simply in a military conflict with Ukraine, the Palestinians are not in a war with Israel, but with NATO led by the United States, and Britain, and Germany. And Israel’s strategy is — well, how do we keep the loyalty of the U.S., now that the opinion polls show that younger people are taking the side of the Palestinians, not Israel? What does that bode for continued American support for Israel?
Well, this is a much longer lasting fight, and it goes beyond the military battlefield, and it’s how the world frames the thinking about what’s happening to it. And this is the deepest, and it’s even the most threatening battlefield over control of the narrative — the narrative of how to frame the issue — and what’s being taught in the schools, in the universities, and spread to the internet platforms and the mass media — that is now already come under the control of extremist Zionist hardliners.
And that’s what the whole fight, over the last week, has been over TikTok. President Netanyahu has explained that Israel is at war with what he calls this ninth front: to control the United States. That’s the real war that’s happening. And this control isn’t to be established militarily, but by controlling the U.S. public opinion through, essentially, extremist Zionist billionaires, the Silicon Valley billionaires, who control the mass media. You’ve seen them take control of automatic intelligence to buy out TikTok, and redesign the algorithms of TikTok to replace the pictures that TikTok was showing about murdered Palestinian babies, all sorts of horrendous genocidal attacks. All this is going to be out.
And the new algorithm is blocking any discussion or any exposé of what Israel has been doing to Gaza and to the West Bank. And just like Israel has concentrated — the army has concentrated — on killing two groups of people: journalists — they must destroy any attempt to let the world know what they are doing — and doctors — the doctors must not heal the injured, especially the children who can grow up — and growing up with a memory of what’s happening to them.
And Israel says, if these children live, it is a threat to Judaism, because Israel is a Judaic state — meaning, as Alistair Crooke says — meaning a theocracy; and a theocracy has no room for anyone who is not a member of the Judaic state.
So, you’re having this war extending to the churches. You know, what are the churches going to say? Are they going to say this war of Israel against the Palestinians is part of the Bible — of the Lord backing Israel, as America’s ambassador to Israel has claimed, that he has to follow the Bible?
There’s a whole attempt to create this, not only a false, narrative, but by using the algorithms for all the main internet platforms — Facebook, Google, even X — if you try to use these platforms — and you can now expurgate or censor any discussion that is not reflecting an Israeli opinion — then you’re shaping public opinion. And if you can take over the news, like CBS News was just taken over by an ardent Zionist —
You’re turning the universities, who are preventing any student demonstrations in favor of peace — they say: If you want peace, and not fighting, then you’re antisemitic, we are expelling you — and if you’re a professor, who describes this ‘we will expel you,’ as Columbia University has done, other universities are doing —
This is a cultural war, and that’s what is being overshadowed by all of this military discussion. And since neither Richard nor I are military specialists, I think that that’s really what needs to be discussed on your site, because you have enough military people who are explaining the brutality of what’s happening.
NIMA ALKHORSHID: [muted, addressing Richard Wolff] … from a different angle, but you have your point. We talked about it before. Go ahead. Your take?
RICHARD WOLFF: Let me frame it slightly differently, but, I think, in a way that is complementary to what Michael has just said. Here’s my interpretation of what — translation should be a better word — translation of what Trump said on Fox News, that Michael cited. Here’s my translation. This is not what the president said, but here’s what I think lies behind the words he said: that he has come to the conclusion, with his advisors, that the tide has changed in the world; that Israel is now losing the hearts-and-minds campaign that it launched, and that it did, in that area, too little, and too late; and that it could not overwhelm what the reality was, of what they were doing to the Palestinians in Gaza for the last two years.
Okay. It’s too late. Whether you want to give the credit to the global critical media, whether we pin another medal on Greta Thunberg, I don’t know — but he’s losing. And I don’t think President Trump cares about it anyway.
But what his advisors have told him is that the tide is turning inside the United States. It is becoming politically impossible for him to continue the policies of Biden and Trump, of being 100% pro-Israel — more than half the people of Israel are, in terms of the war policy. It’s becoming dangerous. AIPAC, for all the money it spends, and all the influence it has, has not prevailed.
And he is telling Bibi: Listen, Jack, I can’t keep supporting you if, in my country, the opinion is shifting away from you. I’ve done as much as I can do. I’m bailing. You’ve got to now do — and then he says something which is ridiculous: You’ve got to make the world love you.
Well, I know what he means. He means that AIPAC has to do something to change the direction of American political opinion. And there, again, I would remind everyone: We are now a very few weeks away from an election, which the polls suggest is going to bring an anti-Israeli Muslim socialist into being the mayor of the largest city in the country. This is an extremely powerful message being sent. Even if he were to lose the election — it doesn’t look like that, but even if he were — look how far he has already come!
And if you follow it — which I’ve been doing, from the beginning of his effort, long before he became well-known — one of his key supporters was an organization called the Jewish Voice for Peace, which is a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli war, Jewish organization — in the city that has more Jews than any other in the United States. I mean, wow! What?
And I think they’re learning, and they’re very worried. Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced she’s voting with the Democrats because she can’t go along with the policy of undercutting Medicaid for poor people. Mr. [Thomas] Massie is relentlessly trying to get the Epstein files opened up. There’s serious speculation that the real reason they shut the government down had nothing to do with Medicaid, or anything else: it had to do with postponing the denouement of the Epstein files.
Okay, I don’t know whether these things are true or not, but if you put them all together, they suggest that Michael is right; that there’s a turning point here; that this issue, even the Israelis and the Americans now understand that the military action in Gaza has to stop — because it’s counterproductive, it is damaging. The whole point was to give them more security, and as the critics have told them, for years now: that’s not going to work. You’re making your situation more difficult.
And you’re seeing around the world, even among comedians — Jon Stewart, explaining to his audience that Netanyahu is the one threatening a global wave of antisemitism. What did he mean? Because of what you’re doing in Gaza, you crazy people, you are, in the name of preserving yourself, you’re killing yourself. And that allows me to say — and bear with me: Nothing — nothing — is more typical of declining empires than having their leaders do things which everyone shouts at them: Don’t do that! That makes your decline worse.
But they can’t hear it. They’re stuck in these ways of doing things. And I don’t know whether Netanyahu can hear any of this (either), but that’s my suspicion. Mr. Trump is realizing he’s going to have to choose, and it’s very clear who’s going to be sacrificed.
You know, the Germans did a Holocaust — they did a genocide — and they are suffering, to this day, with the reputation they have around the world for that. How it has all played out in a million people’s minds — you know, you don’t undo this quickly. Hitler is dead in 1945: Here we are, eighty years later, and we can still see — Germany inside the European Union. I mean, my family is part-French and part-German. I have lived the lifelong effects of all of this all my life. Even though I’m born in the United States — I’m an American, and all of that — I’m fully aware that that is alive and, well, in a thousand ways, Israel will take a very long time, if ever, to crawl out from under what it has done.
And Mr. Trump is now telling them: You’re going to lose me too, because I’m not going to sacrifice my political life — because AIPAC is not able to buy and control the narrative, the way Michael laid out. It used to — it was very good at it. We all admired, in our way, how it did it. But we all knew — if you think about it — it wouldn’t last forever. Well, ironically, the most aggressive effort to hold on to it — the Gaza destruction — is also the end of it.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Richard, a few months ago, Netanyahu said that the greatest enemy of Israel are the assimilationist Jews. This is relevant to [Zohran] Mamdani’s running for election. He said, because the assimilationist Jews want to be part of their own society, want to be part of their own economy, they don’t look to Israel — they don’t put Israel first. And if the American Jews will put America first, European Jews will put Europeans first — they are the enemy.
Well, one friend of mine the other day commented that it’s as if Netanyahu has read [George] Orwell’s 1984, and he took to heart his statement that those who control the present control the past, and those who control the past control the future. And so what Israel is trying to do is to reframe the whole past, and the whole history, of the settlement of Israel, from the very beginning — the Israeli Holocaust, the Nakba, the mass assassinations, the whole military history.
Well, as I mentioned: To establish all of this, you have to control the narrative. And it’s a historical narrative, it’s an ongoing news narrative — and it’s capped by what students are taught.
I want to discuss the economics of how this narrative came about — and I have some personal experience in this. Back in the 1970s, more than seven decades ago, I saw how the groundwork was being laid for the cultural war that was being prepared. I was a Wall Street economist, and some of my oldest friends were working for Drexel Burnham — that was the investment banking firm for corporate-raiding junk-bond takeovers.
I often met with them, and I addressed their board meetings sometimes, and a number of their managers told me that the most important thing to them in their life was Zionism. And Drexel [Burnham] was the investment banking firm that developed the junk bonds to take over companies, and turned them into financial vehicles to make capital gains. It was part of the whole transition from America’s industrial capitalism to predatory finance capitalism — by making buyout offers to take companies, to make them into financial vehicles.
And the main organizer, Michael Milken, went to jail for organizing insider-dealing with Drexel’s investors. And the important thing — it was spelled out to me — was that these investors were all Jewish, and they were more than Jewish — they were Zionists.
The financial details have been widely reported about all of this, but what is not recognized is that there was sort of a personal compact among all of these investors — that they were going to be made very rich by playing by new rules — that the “white-shoe” law firms, and investment companies, wouldn’t do — of making hostile takeovers, instead of friendly merger proposals. And the deal was, they were all expected to give a substantial portion of their earnings to the Zionist cause — and that went beyond AIPAC: it meant supporting the Zionist cause in many, many dimensions.
And a few decades later, I met with some of the former Drexel strategists who’d gone on to create firms of their own. And they applied this principle — that in order to join this corporate raiding — and we’re talking about these investors were the ones who took over Silicon Valley, and the internet stocks, and the information technology stocks — they focused on that from the beginning. They became multi-billionaires and, in the case of Larry Ellison, a trillionaire now — they were able to operate with a freedom of attacking the economy-at-large, that the traditional investment banks and companies, and law firms, didn’t.
Well, fast forward to the last decade or so: You have the largest investment firms, those of Silicon Valley — and these firms are all led by Zionists, working together with Israel and the Likud Party, as well as with AIPAC. They’re active in U.S. political campaigns. They’re using some of their billions of dollars to promote the Zionist cause.
And this attempt to shape American public opinion is centered in the financial sector, and, specifically, the financial control of the information technology sector, the main platforms for internet communication — everything that I was discussing earlier, where the information war is being fought, including the takeover of CBS News to promote Zionist positions; the takeover of networks here; the takeover of mass media publications; and the huge propaganda within the churches; especially the fundamentalist churches, to give this fake Christianity, based on the Scofield Bible and the idea that God told Israel: Kill all the non-Jews — so that you’ll have the end of history — and Jesus can come back and send all of us up to heaven, and everyone else to hell —
This is the craziness that has been sponsored, essentially, by the Israelis, pushing the gullible Christian churches to transform — you know, what people think of America as a Christian country is not something that either the traditional Catholics or most Protestant churches, as they existed before 1900, would even recognize today.
So, this is why Trump made the deal with China, forcing the sale of TikTok as part of this campaign — along with Facebook and X, and other platforms and media — to create the Zionist perspective.
And, you remember, Hitler created a fake history: As the world was wrecked by the debt problems of the 1920s and the 1930s, Hitler tried to blame it all on Jewish bankers. Well, the fact is that American banking and European banking was pretty antisemitic. And the origin of these international bankers — they were created by the Catholic Church, in the 13th century, to raise war loans to the kings who were loyal to the church and fighting religious wars and the crusades on its behalf — so there was this fake history.
And the fact is that the Jewish financial presence in the United States was not in banking. When I began to work for banks in the 1960s, there was a marked antisemitism there. They wouldn’t hire Jewish people. And one bank I worked for even hired a black employee before they would hire a Jew.
Well, how do you explain the Jewish presence? They were in the brokerage industry. They were in the stock industry, the investment banking industry — such as Drexel Burnham — not in banking at all. And it’s this reshaping of the investment banking industry that has cost billions, and I guess you could say trillions, of dollars. Part of this has been to make themselves tax-exempt, from paying anywhere near as high an income or wealth tax as 90% of the population has.
So, I think it’s appropriate to explain how the economic powerhouse of this propaganda attempt, that is not only shaping how Americans think of Israel, but [also] because the American internet companies and the associated Silicon Valley companies control the large firms that are active in Europe and Asia. What you’re having are these companies using algorithms and automatic intelligence to essentially act as a censorship that goes way beyond the United States, but over the entire world economy that uses Facebook and X, and all of these other internet — TikTok, now.
You’re having something that — it’s a fight, a global fight, to reshape history in a biased, extremist, Zionist way, a Cold War way, a neocon way, a right-wing, oligarchic way. You’re having the whole narrative become oligarchic, neocon, and Zionist. That’s really what is the context for the fight that we’re going to be seeing unfolding, probably for the next few years.
RICHARD WOLFF: It’s very, very useful to have this kind of history. Michael is exceptional in that, and he has been for a long time. The books he writes, the articles he writes, the take-back, they answer the question. Other people notice something. Michael asked the question: Why is it like that? Why, for example, would Jewish people be prominent in a particular industry, not in another industry? And, then, how does that help you explain why Silicon Valley should be peopled by the people that are there now, rather than the conventional banking? And he explains: because Jews were excluded from the historical banking, so they went somewhere else — and that that becomes part of the history.
Well, I want to do the same thing. Jews have been split — for as long as I’ve heard about any of this — between those who thought that there ought to be a homeland, quote, for Jews — a Zion, a place for them — and we all know what part of the reason must have been: that they were excluded almost everywhere else. Antisemitism, one way or another, could lead people to have the fantastic idea: Gee! If we were in a country that we controlled, maybe, finally, we wouldn’t be vulnerable to what has happened to us — in Spain with the Inquisition, in Germany with the Holocaust, and on and on and on; or in America, with the more polite forms of antisemitism that have long been here, and still remain.
And I want to remind people: Why did Jewish people go into financial issues? It used to be a critique, that finance — [Friedrich] Engels once wrote: Socialism can take a stupid form — his word — “stupid.” That’s when you think that the problem isn’t the capitalist, but the Jew. Antisemitism is the stupid-person socialism, was the way he articulated it.
Well, Jews were not allowed to be part of feudal Europe. They were not acceptable — neither as serf, nor as vassal, nor as lord. So, how are they going to live? They can’t live on the land, the way everybody else did in what was a rural economic system. So, they became the go-between. They became the merchant who didn’t have a piece of land, who moved from one place to another, buying cheap and selling dear — because that’s how you live if you’re a tradesperson.
Okay, so they become tradespeople, but there’s no mystery here. You don’t need the Bible to understand any of this. You need a little economic history to know exactly how it evolves.
But that takes me to the point — and perhaps, here, Michael and I disagree. I think he’s right in laying it out, but I think one side is now clearly losing, and it’s the side that used to be winning. In other words, we’re at a point where the former winners, the people who made the deal, the Zionist wing of the Jewish community — which was, by the way, always a minority, but an important one, but they had a lot of resources — they got their little country, they built it up — with the help of Jews outside, of course, and with the help of allies like the United States and Britain.
But it’s over. It’s over — not because this one or that one failed — because they’re part of the losers in the world economy today. That’s their problem. That’s Mr. Trump’s problem. If he didn’t have six other crises crashing down on him, he could give Mr. Bibi more. He can’t do it anymore. He just can’t. It’s too costly. And it has now turned into being costly to him politically. And since that’s all he has —
He brought three hundred generals and admirals to Washington a couple of weeks ago. He insulted them. He had a numbnuts defense minister tell them that they were fat, and not up-to-snuff. It’s outrageous what he did. You know, he’s so tone-deaf to do such a thing — Trump, likewise. They’re in trouble. That’s why they did that crazy thing, and then messed it up.
You know, if you have too many of these, it’s no longer the failure of this or that plan, or the mistaken strategic — no, no, you have to put it together. What is happening here? And he’s telling Mr. Netanyahu: Look. You’ve got to change the position of Israel in the world —
That’s going to be very hard for Israel. Why would you ask that of a country? Right? You’re asking, I mean, the moon — you can’t. Why would you be in a position to do that?
And he’s clearly pointing out whose job it is, this impossible job: It’s them, not me — I’m back. It’s a little bit like what he’s been telling the Europeans: You know, I’m not in this war in Ukraine, the way I was. You can do it. You better do it. But I’m not going to help you do it anymore, except peripherally.
That’s what he’s telling everybody. It’s because the United States cannot play the role it did. We are in this — pardon me — ass-backwards way, trying to tell the world, and ourselves, the empire is over, and we have to figure out a whole new narrative, strategy, system of alliances, security framework — whatever language you want. It’s over, and we’re in a new place. And we can’t militarize our way out of it.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, there goes Richard again. He’s being reasonable.
I don’t think Israel is reasonable. I’ve known these people. They are fanatics. I’ve worked with Netanyahu’s head of Mossad, his advisors — there is no way they will change. They are not going to be reasonable with the Palestinians. They are committed to exterminating them. The American Christians are committed to genocide. You’ve seen in the whole decision to get rid of Mr. [Charlie] Kirk, a month ago — he wanted to try to be a little more reasonable and reflect just exactly what Richard’s been saying — he was killed. Any refusal to go whole-hog with their program is met in the same way that Republican congressmen here in America are treated — expelled from the insider group, if they don’t go 100% with the extremism.
I think we’re dealing with an extremist ideology, with a religious fundamentalist conviction, that is not amenable to listening to reason. And Trump loves to make promises, and to say: Here’s a promise of peace.
Trump has no intention whatsoever of living up to his promise.
Just in today’s news, the Argentine peso is collapsing because Trump had promised $20 billion to [Javier] Milei in Argentina, and he hasn’t really done anything — just as he made promises to Russia to try to, at least, stabilize diplomacy. And in the last two days, you’ve had a Russian spokesman saying Trump has not followed through on a single promise he’s making. What you are seeing today is the euphoria of a promise that is going to be broken, just as soon as Israel goes to war with Iran. And you can imagine the aftermath of that.
But I want to continue the logic that I’m saying: What do you do if you’re an extremist? You have to be totalitarian when it comes to knowledge. And Trump has declared war in the universities in the United States, to treat student protesters opposing genocide — to expel them. And he’s following the example of the Zionist university donors who said they’re going to cut off all the funding, to Harvard and other prestige universities who don’t support a Zionist, specifically anti-Palestinian, position.
And I think the trauma that the Zionist strategists have in mind are the protests against the Vietnam War by American students — the Kent State killings, that killed the student protesters against the war. And that’s what led President Johnson to resign in 1968, and said he wasn’t going to run again because he couldn’t go anywhere in the United States without escaping through the service entrance of hotels, where nobody would yell: Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?
All of this is in the mind when you think you don’t want the universities and the young people to take a position of supporting peace — because peace is assimilationism. To want peace is to deny that both the joint U.S. and Israeli control of Near Eastern oil and the whole Near/Middle East is at issue.
Well, last December, you had U.S. Senator Tom Cotton introduce a Senate bill that seeks to eliminate any federal use of the term “West Bank” — and instead substitute “Judea and Samaria.” And in Florida, you’ve had the governor try to insist that the textbooks used in the Florida schools rewrite history to use this different terminology. The terminology is sort of an identification as to whose/what language you’re going to use. And the House of Representatives has a bill saying that the government is going to remove all references to the West Bank from U.S. government discussions.
The fighting with Gaza may continue. So Israeli settlers are now redoubling their murder rampage against [Palestinians] on the West Bank. They’re burning their olive trees. They’re destroying their houses. They’re bombing all of their houses to drive them out. The war in the West Bank is now just as vicious as it was in Gaza, but there’s no military protection. And it is symptomatic of the control of the news that this has not been discussed anywhere, except on the internet.
Richard said at the beginning of the show that he doesn’t have the information, we don’t have access to the information. Richard, you and I have better information than President Trump has. We read the internet. We read the newspaper. We know what’s happening. Trump is surrounded by neocon Zionists, and despite the fact that he has the public relations perspective that you described, he has no understanding of the big picture that you and I, and I think most people who follow Nima’s channel, have. That’s what’s so striking in all of this.
RICHARD WOLFF: I think time will tell us how this is going to play out. I could be wrong. I could be wrong that it’s shifting against Israel and that this is symptomatic of that. But let me give you some more evidence that it might be shifting.
The British political system is now in a state of collapse. I mean, almost all points of view about Britain, inside and outside Britain, would agree. The Labour Party has lost pretty much all of the momentum it got from winning the last election, and putting [Keir] Starmer in the position of prime minister. The Conservative Party that ran Britain for most of the last thirty years is in its final death throes. It may disappear, it is so weak at this point in its existence. The polls are against it. Its leadership is fighting each other. It’s really a shadow. And an extreme right-wing reform party is probably the best positioned right now, if there were to be an election. And it is a minority party, with very little of a history, and a very strange man at the head.
But what’s clear is that the program of getting rid of a very popular Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, which was accomplished by Mr. Starmer, the guy who’s now in office, by pillorying Corbyn — by blaming him for being insufficiently vigilant against antisemitism, where the evidence was support of Palestine — that’s over. That’s a game you can play once, but you can never play it twice. It’s like the threat to commit suicide. You can play it really well once, but by the second time, it doesn’t have the punch it did before.
I want to remind everyone that a week ago there was a general strike in Italy. The whole country stopped — because the whole country went out, stopped working in solidarity with the dock workers’ union there, which had refused to load, or offload, Israeli cargo from any ship docking in the ports of Italy.
And a few days before that, you had mass movements across France on the 18th of September, on the 2nd of October, on the 10th of September — those three dates — and among all the flags of the millions who went into the streets of France were the Palestinian flags, that were obvious everywhere. It’s not just Mamdani in New York. There is a global turning against —
Look. It’s remarkable that it took this long, given how long the Israelis have done what they’ve done in Gaza, and the West Bank; and given the way they treated the Arabs, who, let’s remember, are half the population roughly of the country of Israel — so you have this split in the country, and all of that — it’s taken a god-awful long time! But I do believe we now have signs. Britain has recognized Palestine as a state. So have most of the other Europeans. Ireland did it long ago, but Spain, Italy — Germany, I believe, is about to do it, — France has done it. I mean, Israel’s isolation is virtually total.
You know, you even have conservatives running around the United States trying to explain to the American people that we’re pretty soon going to have ten billion people as the population of the earth. Half of them — five billion — are Muslim. You’ve got a problem here. And it’s becoming impossible to pretend otherwise. And all the money of the billionaires in Silicon Valley, and all the expertise that AIPAC has shown, are not enough. You can’t go against a historical shift — when its time is here. Michael may be right — it may not be here yet. I may be seeing things which, even in their aggregate, are not enough.
But, I haven’t thought so before, but I think so now. The communications I got over the last month, from both France and Italy, and also a little bit from Germany, show the Israeli issue — which in Germany has been very important because of their collective guilt and all of that — it doesn’t work anymore. The Alternativ für Deutschland [AfD], which is the right-wing inheritor of the Nazi past, is able to be what it is now, which is the largest single party eclipsing the Christian Democrats in Germany for the first time — and their position is unmistakable. It’s not being held back, as it used to be, by the legacy of their Holocaust. For the Israelis, this is all unspeakably bad news.
MICHAEL HUDSON: You’ve put your finger on the really important thing: What is the rest of the world going to do?
And some of my friends that are still associated with the Democratic Party have suggested imposing a litmus test–pledge on political candidates not to accept any campaign contributions from AIPAC, or other Zionist organization. And if they accept such funding, then the Democratic voters are called upon to reject them; and if they win the primaries, to refrain from voting for them — even if this perpetuates the Republican domination of Congress. You’ve got to get rid of the AIPAC-funded candidates reflecting Zionist interests.
And beyond electoral politics, you have the whole looming threat of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. And that is the modern travesty — this is as destructive as the Dred Scott ruling that led up to the Civil War. Congress has to pass an act prohibiting private contributions to political campaigns beyond some circumscribed limit, with penalties for bribery and corruption brought against such violators. That’s the only way that you can cut off the money that is supporting this rotten congressional neocon, pro-war, oligarchic, anti-labor position. And without such legislation, the United States and its political system are going to continue to be that of an oligarchy, not a democracy. And it’ll be an oligarchy controlled by an extremist minority of wealthy financial institutions, and the international neocons who are supported with them.
So ultimately, it’s going to be up to the U.S. And the same thing applies to Europe and other countries. It’s up to these other countries — outside of Israel — to lead the opposition to the genocide that’s occurring, and to the whole idea of ethnic nationalism and ethnic cleansing that you have in Ukraine against Russian speakers; in the Middle East by the American-supported al-Qaeda and ISIS head-chopper that is the head of it now; and by Israel itself in Gaza and the West Bank.
And if you recognize that Israel’s war against Gaza and Hamas is against the broadest principles of civilization, that have spent centuries developing the laws of war, the laws of international diplomacy, the laws of, basically, international relations, then you realize the travesty that’s occurring in overturning this whole century-long momentum of trying to establish basic civilized —
RICHARD WOLFF: Michael seems to have frozen. Let me pick up while we wait for him to come back.
NIMA ALKHORSHID: Richard. Since you’ve mentioned the case of Germany, here is the poll that they had in Germany. Three out of five voters believe that Israel’s action in Gaza can be called genocide. This is meaningful, as you’ve mentioned. Go ahead.
RICHARD WOLFF: Yes. But I want to underscore the notion of seeing as a symptom of a larger decline, a rejection, an active rejection of what used to be — at least official — norms of acceptable behavior. I understand. Secretly, those norms are violated by the secret services of many countries, all the time — I understand that, I’m not questioning that. And that’s a serious problem.
But it is another step when you do that openly and publicly.
And I think I want to point to something which might even be an argument against what I’m saying. I have watched, and I’m sure you have all seen it, over the last month, on at least four occasions that I’m aware of, the United States has decided to bomb and destroy boats in the Caribbean that are moving in the water near Venezuela. Each time we were told by the president that these boats were involved in the drug traffic and that persons on these boats were killed — and thereby prevented from completing whatever they were doing with the drugs. Okay, so we killed eleven, in one case, four, in another, and I forget the number of people on the other two boats.
Alright, in this situation, the president, who announced and authorized these acts, is functioning as the police, he’s functioning as the jury, he’s functioning as the judge, and he’s functioning as the executioner. In the United States, participation in drug traffic is not a capital crime. You don’t get killed for that, if you’re found guilty. You have to have a chance to see the evidence presented against you. You have to have a lawyer. You have to be able to question and challenge the evidence. Then it goes to a jury, and only if the jury decides unanimously to find you guilty, will you then be punished with the punishment, 99% of the time, being some sort of imprisonment. We don’t kill those people.
We kill in America — it’s bad enough — but we kill people, usually, if they have killed somebody. And there is no evidence — not even offered by the president, who showed no evidence of anything, but he didn’t show any evidence — that these people had killed anyone. This is extra — and no one in the official positions of the United States government — to my knowledge, I’m no expert — but I haven’t heard any outcry — after he did it the first time, he did it a second, third, and fourth time. This is, I mean, this is unbelievable.
This the official murdering of people with no evidence required, no procedure, no due process, no presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Nothing. And the ultimate penalty, execution? Am I the only one here finding this bizarre? Why would you do this? Forget whether it’s correct or not that these people were involved in drugs — I don’t know — but whether or not they were, why would you do this? Why would it be important not to have your Navy, which is down there, arrest these people? Okay. Board them. Check out, you know, bring them back and subject them to — Why wouldn’t you do that? Why would you kill them first?
And here is my answer, again. I am seeing — and I would love [it] to be argued that I’m wrong — I am seeing desperation. I see people getting together in a room. They have to do something. They have that mentality: We are losing something, we must act in a way that will, hopefully, gather support —
And you know, going to war, at least for a few weeks and months, does that for you. It’s awful, then, how it falls away, after a few months — and that’s been the American experience in Vietnam, in Afghanistan. Those wars were lost, in part, because the American people no longer supported them, the way they had in the beginning. Same is true in Iraq. But for a short time, you get a boost.
And you are now behaving? Look. All the laws of the world don’t allow one country to kill people in the boats of another country, and claim that they were involved in some transaction we don’t like — which we don’t even punish by capital punishment. It is extraordinary behavior, on the end of an extraordinary-behaving regime. So, I see a level of desperation, and I bring it up because I think it should be factored into how we look at all these other questions — because that hysteria, that desperation, is operative across the board.
NIMA ALKHORSHID: It seems that Michael has some sort of problem with his internet connection. Thank you so much, Richard, for being with us today. Great pleasure, as always.
RICHARD WOLFF: As always, and I look forward to talking with you again next week.
NIMA ALKHORSHID: See you. Bye-bye.
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Today, we turn our attention to global geopolitics. As we have said several times in this blog, the Western world has squandered its five-hundred-year run of global dominance. Drunk on plunder, sustained by oceans of blood, and blinded by insatiable greed, gluttonous avarice, and stupendous arrogance of exceptionalism, Westerners could not imagine a world where they would no longer call the shots. Their racial arrogance engendered by stupendous ignorance would not allow that.
While the cretinous collective West with all its hubris continues to play empire with its decaying NATO toys and its hollow chants of “rules-based order,” the real tectonic plates of power are shifting under its feet. Anyone with eyes could see that global geopolitics is being remolded in real-time.
Recently, China’s President Xi Jinping quietly but decisively unveiled a vision that may be remembered as the funeral dirge of Western hegemony—the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). It rests on five cornerstones:
Although the stenographers who parrot official talking points as journalists in the West pretended that they did not hear, and, on the surface, President Xi’s words may sound like platitudes for a world summit brochure, we should not be deceived.
In geopolitical terms, Xi’s declaration is a bombshell, a paradigm shift, a rewriting of the global architecture born after the Second World War.
The Chinese president, in effect, announced the birth of a post-Western world order.
For decades, I have cried that the West needed to change gear. It needed to stop behaving like a bloated aristocrat living on stolen inheritance and squandering it with reckless abandon, fighting useless wars for example. I cautioned Westerners that it was necessary to rein in their greed and learn to live in a world where other civilizations also have a right to exist and prosper.
Of course, drunk on hubris, they would not listen to me. Still inebriated from their self-generated triumphalistic hurrahs over the collapse of the Soviet Union, they continue with their sanctions, more bombs, and more lectures about “human rights” given by people whose history is a museum of crimes against humanity – witness the genocide in Palestine.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the West had its chance to build a truly inclusive world. Instead, it went berserk with insane triumphalism. NATO expanded like a metastatic cancer, gobbling countries eastward in direct violation of solemn promises. The twin evil organizations the West set up to rape the world (IMF and World Bank) continued their economic banditry (what else to call it?) in Africa and Latin America.
Washington, London, Paris, and Brussels strutted the world like schoolyard bullies, throwing threats and insults around. They gave themselves the authority to determine who must rule one country or the order. Their cries of “Assad must go!” “Gaddafi must go!” rent the air. The arrogance!
The crowning insult was the hubris of the so-called “unipolar moment”—the fantasy that the United States could reign supreme forever. Analysts with foresight like my favorite military strategy guru, Russian-born Andrei Martyanov, wrote four books and numerous blog posts to warn his adopted country, the US, that it was losing the military to the Russians. Of course, US Army Generals with their chests puffing with medals won from “victories” over inferior third-world armies paid no attention.
That arrogance has now detonated in their faces over their misadventure in Ukraine where Russia, single-handedly, handed a humiliating defeat to the Collective West and its expeditionary force, NATO.
President Xi’s first principle—sovereign equality—is a direct slap across the face of the West. For five centuries, Western powers operated on the doctrine that some nations are more “sovereign” than others. Britain could dictate to Africa. France could decree the terms of “Francafrique.” The United States could overthrow governments at will—from Iran in 1953 to Chile in 1973 to Libya in 2011, plus the countless in the Americas.
President Xi declared that the age of selective sovereignty is over. No country, however powerful, has the right to decide the destiny of another.
We already see that this is no longer a theory. Russia, China, and India refused to bend to Western diktats over Ukraine. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and even tiny Gulf monarchies now tell Washington “no” with increasing frequency. The Saudis recently wisely perched themselves under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.
The balance has shifted. The West no longer has a monopoly on coercive power.
The second cornerstone—abiding by international law—is another blow to Western pretensions. When Western leaders prattle about a “rules-based order,” they mean, “Rules we make, you obey.” When it suits Washington, international law is invoked like scripture; when it doesn’t, it is tossed aside like a soiled rag. More importantly, Westerners refused to share the book containing the rules with the rest of us.
Who illegally invaded Iraq in 2003? Who bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 without UN authorization? Who tore Libya to shreds in 2011 under the grotesque pretense of “humanitarian intervention”? It was these shameless paragons of “rules-based order.”
President Xi’s insistence on international law strips away this hypocrisy. What the Chinese president told us, in his calm voice, was that law is law, not a buffet where the West picks what it likes. It is apparent that the age of Western impunity, if not altogether over, is fast fading. It is being by replaced by a multipolar enforcement reality—where Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, and even Ankara or Tehran can say: enough.
Third, multilateralism. Westerners hear this word and immediately sneer, for in their dictionary, “multilateralism” meant a system where the US led and its vassals echoed. President Xi is not talking about the G7 club, where Europe still imagines itself relevant. He is talking about BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Eurasian integration, and an economic and political architecture that dwarfs anything the West can muster.
As they say, numbers do not lie. BRICS+ now represents more than 45% of the world’s population and nearly a third of global GDP—surpassing the G7 in purchasing power parity. Militarily, Russia alone has outclassed NATO, exposing it as an overrated relic. Add China’s industrial juggernaut and India’s demographic momentum, and the Western bloc looks like an aging rock band still touring on nostalgia.
Unfortunately, one only needs to listen to them to know that Westerners continue to live in a parallel universe.
Under President Xi’s vision, multilateralism means no more monopolies, unilateral sanctions, or economic chokeholds by Washington or Brussels. The new geometry of power has multiple centers, not one imperial metropolis.
President Xi’s fourth cornerstone—a people-centered approach—is almost alien to Western governance and culture. The West’s system is built not on people but on profit. For five centuries, from the slave trade to colonialism to modern neoliberalism, Western governance has meant the systematic robbery of the many to enrich the few. The West remains a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy.
Whatever its flaws, China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty in four decades—something the World Bank and IMF could never dream of. When the Chinese president says “people-centered,” he means development that puts food on tables, roofs over heads, and education in children’s hands. Not endless wars that fatten Lockheed Martin and Raytheon shareholders while millions of human beings starve.
This is not merely a moral difference—it is a civilization contrast. One system views human beings as expendable resources for profit; the other sees them as ends in themselves.
Finally, focusing on real actions, President Xi effectively skewers the West’s favorite sport: rhetoric without responsibility. Western leaders are masters of grand rhetorical speeches—Paris climate accords, Millennium Development Goals, Structural Adjustment Policy, endless summits with glossy communiqués. But what are the results? More carbon emissions, more inequality, more wars, more poverty.
China, by contrast, builds. It builds roads in Africa, ports in Asia, and railways from Asia to Europe. The Belt and Road Initiative may be controversial, but it is concrete, not a PowerPoint display. The West offers PowerPoints and bombs; China offers railways and trade. Free to choose, most countries will prefer President Xi’s Model.
Except for the purblind, everyone could see that there is no longer any doubt that the baton of global leadership has shifted. It is no longer Washington or Brussels that sets the tune. The new triumvirate—Russia, China, India—more than dwarfs the G7 in industrial and military firepower.
Together, these three form the backbone of a multipolar world. The G7, meanwhile, resembles a geriatric ward clinging to past glories with the narcissistic buffoon ordering everyone around.
And here comes the tragedy that stabs the heart. As this new global architecture is being built, where is Africa? Where are the voices of Lagos, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, or Johannesburg? Where are our technocrats, our economists, our philosophers? Tragically, the voice is missing. Our reprobate misrulers are missing in action when the world is being shaped.
It is Berlin 1884 all over again. Then, the Western powers carved Africa like a roast at dinner, without a single African at the table. Today, as Xi, Putin, and Modi redraw the map of power, Africa is again a spectator, not a participant.
The plantation managers we call presidents seem content to administer poverty while the real game of nations is played elsewhere.
Who will wake up our slumbering leaders and tell them that if Africa does not assert itself now, it will once again be written into the footnotes of history as an object, not a subject. That is the bitter lesson of Berlin 1884 and must not be repeated.
Africa cannot afford another century of irrelevance. Our technocrats must wake up from their slumber, shake off their colonial hangovers, and insist on a seat at the table—not as beggars with begging bowls but partners wielding the continent’s vast resources and human potential.
President Xi’s Global Governance Initiative signals the end of Western domination. But unless Africa asserts itself, we will again be the raw-material quarry of the new world order, just as we were for the old one.
—
©️ Fẹ̀mi Akọ̀mọ̀làfẹ̀ (1st Dan)
(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, Satirist, Social Commentator, Polemicist-General of the Pan-African Republic)
My Mission: Stultitia Delenda Est – Stupidity Must be Destroyed!
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Mind Colonization destroys the colonizer and the colonized. As the empire falls, they will employ mind colonization more and more, as resources for other methods of warfare, become scarce. Another name for mind colonization Cognitive Warfare. Teams of cognitive warfare specialists are currently deployed to maintain the old empirical world order. A topical and excellent example is the rage of hasbara that we observe presently.
BRICS and SCO devote considerable time to cultural exchange. I would argue that this is the counter to cognitive warfare, but this is a post for another time.
We will be looking at two pieces of work.
Before we start, and to remain really practical, the following is a listing of cognitive warfare actions in and around Asia:
The external influences (cognitive warfare actions) from the US Deep State have contributed to these developments:
Professor Jiang from his Predictive History series starts us off with the premise and most important kernel of truth. Elite institutions prepare students for a successful life devoid of purpose and meaning. We can see this among the leaders in Europe specifically:
Secondly, to bring perspective and listed order to the issue of Cognitive Warfare, which depends on Mind Colonization, here is the Zinhua paper for download:
US-Colonization-of-the-Mind-Xinhua-Institute-2025.09
Digging into the conclusion, you will note immediately the concept that culture is the counter against mind colonization, and its objective of cognitive warfare to create colonization. This, in modern terms, is more toxic than what we have called ‘neo-colonialism’ up to now. Neo-colonialism was (and still is) the practice of recruiting and coercing local leaders to fulfil and carry out the purpose of the colonizer, as if it were a local leadership, to disguise who the real leaders are. The colonization that we discuss here has lost its veneer and is naked and brutal. Two examples stand out. We observe this with the imposition of tariffs and with attacking others under the guise of peace talks or negotiations.
Conclusion: Breaking the Shackles of Mind Colonization and Promoting Inter-Civilization Exchanges and Mutual Learning
In recent years, countries in the Global South have been awakening at an accelerated pace and increasingly calling for breaking off the U.S. shackles of colonization of the mind, achieving the independence and autonomy of the mind, and promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
As a pivotal member of the Global South, China, drawing on its own development experience and the shared aspirations of peoples worldwide, has put forward a series of visionary proposals: the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), and the Global Governance Initiative(GGI). This series of propositions offers fresh pathways and innovative approaches for nations to
Independence of the mind is a prerequisite for independent development.
Cultural confidence is the foundation of national strength and prosperity.
Both developing and developed countries need to enhance their confidence in their national culture, history, and development. Cultural confidence is the most basic, extensive, and deep-rooted form of confidence. It constitutes the most fundamental, profound, and durable strength for a nation’s development. A nation with cultural confidence can stand firm, remain stable, and go far.
Exchanges and mutual understanding are an effective instrument for inter-civilization coexistence. No civilization is an isolated island separated from the rest of the world. Only through exchanges and mutual learning to make up for each other’s deficiencies, can civilizations continue to evolve.
The civilization of each country or nation is the one and only, with its unique value of existence as well as its own merits and shortcomings. Boasting of one’s “civilizational superiority” and believing one’s own civilization to be superior to that of others is disrespectful to other civilizations. It will only impede the overall progress of human civilizations.
The clash of civilizations should be replaced by their integration; exchanges and mutual understanding should melt away the ice of confrontations.
History has proven time and again that any model of thoughts and standard of civilization imposed on others will eventually go bust and that any attempt to manipulate others’ cognition and control their minds is doomed to failure.
The wheels of time are rolling forward irreversibly. When the shackles of colonization of the mind are completely shattered, a single spark of mutual learning among civilizations can start a prairie fire, a new form of global civilization featuring pluralistic coexistence will emerge from the cocoon, and a community with a shared future for humanity that shares weal and woe will shine with greater brilliance!
The President of the 80th session, H.E. Annalena Baerbock, opened the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 September 2025, at 3pm (local time in New York).
I listened to her speech of pablum but could not make it through. You may find it here:
The first period of UNGA consists of maintenance issues and procedural matters.
High Level Week will start on September 22nd. The first meeting will commemorate the UN’s 80th anniversary and consider “the path ahead for a more inclusive and responsive multilateral system”. On Tuesday, September 23, the General Debate begins, with at least 188 heads of state, heads of government, or other high-ranking officials preliminarily set to speak through September 29.
It is so that all illusions about this body have been stripped away. Yet, both Russia and China consider that the UN, as a world body, is still needed, and with the necessary institutional updates, it could continue to function. That is about the only reason why I pay attention and also because the UN holds the body of international law.
Expected to dominate as topics are the waning US support and institutional reform.
Already sparking dismay ahead of this year’s event has been a decision by the United States, under the administration of President Donald Trump, to withhold or revoke visas for Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Liberation Organization officials to attend the gathering. That comes as France and Saudi Arabia are set to host a conference on Israel and Palestine, promising to join several European countries in recognising a Palestinian state. (Note that France currently is laid low with protests, and Saudi Arabia needs to decide who their real allies are, post-Qatar strikes by Israel with what is almost certainly full knowledge of the US Administration.)
While recognition of Palestine as a full member of the UN would require UNSC approval, a move almost surely to be vetoed by the US, the increased recognition will prove symbolically significant.
It’s now very, very clear that both financially and politically, the UN faces massive crises. If there is a way through that, as Russia and China believe, remains to be seen.
The UNGA is the main deliberative and policy-making body of the UN. It is the only body in the organisation where all 193 member countries have representation. Palestine and the Holy See have non-member observer status.
Under the UN Charter, which entered into force in 1945, the body is charged with addressing matters of international peace and security, particularly if those matters are not being addressed by the UN Security Council (UNSC), a 15-member panel with five permanent, veto-wielding members: France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the US. The UNGA also debates matters of human rights, international law, and cooperation in “economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields”.
Operationally, the UNGA approves the UN’s sprawling annual budget, with one of its six main committees managing the funding of 11 active peacekeeping missions around the world. The US is still the primary contributor of funds.
The first weeks of the UN General Assembly are known for history-making moments: Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez calling George HW Bush “the devil”; Muammar Gaddafi’s 100-minute screed in 2009 against the “terror and sanctions” of the UNSC; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s literal drawing of a red line under Iran’s nuclear programme.
That also includes Trump’s inaugural speech in 2017, when he first took the podium, pledging to, among other aims, “totally destroy” North Korea.
Note that we do not have publically what Mr Putin said in the recent extraordinary BRICS meeting. I have not seen Chinese commentary either. Will we see surprises during High Level Week? Will we see coherence of multipolarity and multilateralism? I expect some indications. It is also clear that while countries organize events around UN objectives, the question will be: ‘Should we do this in Geneva or Vienna or Nairobi? If the US isn’t going to give out visas, then what’s the point of trying to do the global meetings there?
China has announced that it will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the northern city of Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, while simultaneously condemning global “hegemonism and power politics.”
From PressTV
The announcement was made by China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin on Friday, who emphasized the necessity for world leaders to cooperate on development amid ongoing power politics and challenges posed by unilateral and self-interested political actions, particularly those associated with the United States.
“In today’s world, outdated mindsets of hegemonism and power politics still have influence, with certain countries attempting to prioritise their own interests above others, seriously threatening world peace and stability,” said Liu.
He further noted that “The more complex and turbulent the international situation becomes, the more countries need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to promote common development.”
This year’s SCO summit is expected to convene over twenty world leaders, focusing specifically on global stability and peace. Leaders from the bloc, which collectively encompasses roughly one-quarter of the world’s population, are set to unveil new plans aimed at deepening their cooperation.
Among the leaders attending will be Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting represents the largest gathering of the regional security bloc since its inception.
The summit will take place shortly before a large military parade in Beijing commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Top officials from member states including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Turkey, and Vietnam will also participate. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to attend the summit ahead of hosting US President Donald Trump and other leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in October.
The summit will conclude with the signing and release of the Tianjin Declaration, Liu confirmed. The keynote address will be delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping, with international figures such as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also in attendance.
In July, President Xi stated that the SCO “has successfully explored a path of regional cooperation that aligns with the trends of the times and meets the needs of all parties, setting a model for a new type of international relations.”
At the 2024 SCO summit held in Astana, Kazakhstan, member states agreed to intensify cooperation on regional counterterrorism, renewable energy, and the digital economy.
The SCO serves as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed for enhanced collaboration among its members in response to an unjust unilateral world order, which is currently experiencing shifts.
Like the US itself, Trump is nothing but his image, so when he looks weak, confused, ridiculous or petty, the world can see exactly how his eviscerated nation is doing
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Image War — Aug 16, 2025.
Since American presidents are now at risk of stumbling headfirst going up or down Air Force One, it’s only logical for them to use stairlifts and evacuation slides. Why chance having the Defender of the Free World crack his denture and skull, just heading to another golfing vacation, or some global summit where he will be mostly ignored, if not mocked? Sliding down, each POTUS should be without pants or Depend. With a splash, he’ll plunge into a kiddie pool as journalists cheer. After being washed, perfumed and sedated by two illegal immigrant nurses of color, he’s ready to hit the red carpet to shake hands with foreign dignitaries.
For transparency’s sake, this entire process will be broadcast live on CNN, Fox News and the BBC, with appropriate color commentaries. “For some reasons, that brown bitch is taking too long to soap the president’s balls. Soon as we find out why, we’ll give you an update. Meanwhile, President Putin of Russia patiently waits, his only sign of exasperation a barely perceptible sigh.”
These patriotic and constructive reflections were triggered by the alarming yet endearing spectacle of Trump zigzagging in Alaska. Was he trying to find Cook Inlet? Since Putin took his time descending, Trump had to wait. When the better man finally appeared, Trump erupted with three bursts of applause. Receiving no equivalent affection, Trump looked positively forlorn when they finally shook hands. With his palm up, Trump was a beggar, and for seconds, his left hand even joined their manual coupling in an unmanly, needy threesome. In our image obsessed world, these spectacles aren’t just significant but emblematic. Like the US itself, Trump is nothing but his image, so when he looks weak, confused, ridiculous or petty, the world can see exactly how his eviscerated nation is doing.
This stinking and stumbling psycho is strapped to thousands of nuclear warheads, however. Without them, the US would just be one vast Skid Row, begging to be divided up by Mexico, Canada, Russia, China and Greenland. Here and there in the Heartland, there may still be MAGA republics, though impoverished, irrelevant and worse off than today’s Lesotho, Eswatini, Tristan da Cunha or Bir Tawil.
Rwanda and Gabon have joined Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Pakistan and Cambodia in nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. No major European, Oriental or South American countries have done so. Even the most servile US vassals can’t risk embracing a genocidal child rapist.
Demanding peace between Thailand and Cambodia, 2,500 monks marched through Phnom Penh on 8/10/25. Over a dozen hoisted large photos of Trump, with “Thank You! Mr. President.” Though the US likely had a hand in starting that war, these cloistered doofuses credited the Donald with stopping bloodshed.
Right in downtown Tirana is George W. Bush Street. Though short, it passes Mosque of Namazgah, Albania’s largest. Maybe Trump will have at least an alley named after him in Phnom Penh? He’s winning the image war in Cambodia!
In 2020, I was astounded to discover Trump Kids Kindergarten in Lào Cai, a Vietnamese city of 130,000 right on the Chinese border. In an obscure spot high up in the mountains, Trump was idolized by ignorant Communists. This state run school is still there.
(L): 2,500 monks march, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 8/10/25 ; (R): painting of Bill Clinton in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion
The US as a brand is most seductive to those with no chance of experiencing the Tenderloin, Skid Row, Philadelphia’s Kensington, Camden, Gary, South Bend, Youngstown, Scranton, St Louis, Oakland or all of New Orleans outside the French Quarters. They’re like those middle-aged guys in Amman, Jordan who are mesmerized by one Hollywood movie after another at cozy yet grimy Pop Café, a place no tourist but one has ever entered. They don’t know what it’s like to endure social distancing nearly every waking hour for decades. I’ve never experienced a population more atomized.
Let’s examine one photo of Zelensky’s visit to the White House on 2/28/25. With his arms folded, the Jewish clown is being scolded by two suited idiots, with Trump flaunting his trademark pucker. Like his boss, lapdog Vance is waving his hands in disapproval. Basic manners dictate you don’t bully a guest, even in private, but this was a staged spectacle, performed for Trump’s Budweiser and Miller High Life swilling base. The setting itself is laughable. Behind Trump on the mantel are the tackiest golden urns and figurines, and “TRUMP” is on some booksized block on the coffee table. Trump must always push his brand. Of course, there are no real books within sight. Flags of the US Army and US Marines flank this draft dodger. If only Liberace had become president!
If only we were just talking about taste. Just now, photos of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion have emerged. Though we see the same level of pricey tackiness so beloved by Trump, there are much darker notes. Vigilant Citizen describes a work of art, “Everything about this sculpture is creepy and unsettling, especially considering that young girls were being raped and abused in this very mansion. White gowns worn by brides are meant to represent their purity and virginity. This particular bride is seemingly attempting to escape something awful… like maybe an old pedo trying to abuse her. They like to mock their victims.” Inside this pedo rape paradise are sweet photos of Epstein with Bill Clinton, Trump, Melania, Bill Gates, Mick Jagger and Elon Musk, among others. A long letter from Woody Allen includes this poetic line, “Add to this that Jeffrey lives in a vast house alone, one can picture him sleeping in damp earth.”
There’s a lovely painting of a saucy Bill Clinton in a blue dress and red heels. Draped across a French Empire chair, he’s showing off his cleavage and flashing a pink thigh.
Long before death, they’re hell dwellers, and proud of it. Why not? Indulging in the worst acts imaginable has reaped them the greatest benefits. Most of their victims even consider them gods.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA: (L): 5/26/11 ; (R): 12/18/11
So Far Gone! — Aug 17, 2025.
The mysterious animal living in Mrs. Seven’s house turned out to be a large green frog. Dwelling behind her coolers, it had standing water on the concrete floor to drink, plus mosquitoes and gnats, one must assume, to feast on. Worrying about this beast’s poor diet, she left a hunk of bread by its side. Since it remained untouched days later, she removed it. Content, this solitary exile will stay right where he is, a silent, brooding presence, unmolested by men, dogs or God. That’s a better fate than most men’s. His options beyond this house aren’t great. Escaping, he’d likely be squashed or gently lowered into a boiling pot of rice gruel with mung beans.
At Vietnamese wet markets, you’ll see skinned frogs still alive. I’ve also written a poem about a turban wearing and gum chewing “sadistic climbing perch monger.”
Here’s the killer part, “Keeping these fish in a tin basin, she takes out each one and snips, with a scissors, its tail, anal fin, dorsal fin, pelvic fin, ventral fin, pectoral fin, then, finally, head. If only she would reverse this order, the climbing perch would not thrash about during the entire process.”
All travelers know no two nations do anything the same. Of course, if you only hop from one global enclave to another, you’ll miss most of these stark or subtle differences, but that’s not traveling. Landing in Timbuktu, Nakhchivan or Qaanaaq, they look immediately for a McDonald’s and a Starbucks.
Baltimore, 5/26/11
Recently, Trump cited Oakland and Baltimore as examples of cities “so far gone,” they need federal intervention, as just happened in DC. Since Trump doesn’t drive, much less walk, anywhere dicey, he has no direct experience of Anacostia or Deanwood in DC, much less Baltimore, but that’s true of his critics also. Whether conservative or liberal, most Americans know better than to stray into black ghettos. Here are the five deadliest American cities, Memphis, Oakland, St. Louis, Baltimore and Detroit. Four are majority black, with St. Louis nearly so.
Just pointing out these facts will get me charged as a “racist” by many upstanding Americans, but consider this hateful passage, “In the city of Philadelphia the increasing number of bold and daring crimes committed by Negroes in the last ten years has focused the attention of the city on this subject. There is a widespread feeling that something is wrong with a race that is responsible for so much crime, and that strong remedies are called for.” It was written in 1899 by that famous Nazi, W.E.B. DuBois, when he was best buddies with Adolf Hitler. Growing up in adjacent rowhouses, they’d split even a pretzel. So poor, they had to pool money over months to buy one Tastykake.
When Trump talked about solving urban crimes, his MAGA base plus many others immediately understood it as a resolve, finally, to tackle black crime, so they cheered, though not at work or in polite company. With Trump, though, it’s just another con and misdirection. He’s using black crime to normalize the presence of soldiers on American streets. Having engineered the worst economic collapse, he’s preparing for its attendant chaos and violence.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA: (L): 5/26/11 ; (R): 12/18/11
As a high school kid in Northern Virginia, I’d drive my Mustang II to Baltimore to catch my Mariners play the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. I’d head straight there from my McDonald’s job on Little River Turnpike. In my M’s jersey and waving a pennant, I once screamed so loud while sitting alone in the outfield, a player turned around to stare at the freak. I’d like to say it was Ruppert Jones, but he must have been retired by then.
As an adult in Philly, I’d take a Greyhound to Baltimore to spend another relaxing, near suicidal day. Away from its Inner Harbor, the city looked bombed. Wandering around Charm City, I started to understand why John Water’s Divine thought eating dogshit was so wonderful. With so many murals honoring murder victims, you also feel close to God, as in, “I’ll be there in a second, Jesus.” It’s a spiritual city.
You, too, should drop everything to visit Baltimore at the first opportunity. Its tourism slogan, “You won’t get it till you get here.” A preview, “A 13-year-old boy with 18 prior felony arrests has been apprehended again, this time for a series of armed carjackings and robberies that took place across Baltimore from July 26 to 27, according to the Baltimore Police.” Similar youths are liberally sprinkled across America.
Under Biden, there was a noticeable uptick in anti social behavior, including street takeovers, flash robberies, smash and grabs, dine and dashes, porch piracy and nuisance streaming. Far from going away, these have only increased under Trump, since their root causes, alienation, pathological self absorption, community breakdown, unaffordability of basics and meaningless existence, have only been exacerbated. Plus, Trump is himself a worldclass felon. Crime exudes from all his pores and orifices effortlessly. Trump emanates crime.
In 1992, Camden Yards opened in Baltimore. Now, there are retro ballparks all over. Inside these exclusive environments, the USA is still safe and wholesome. The cheapest seat for a game five days from now goes for $23, with the most expensive at $153. With the added cost of hot dogs, soft drinks, beer and parking, a typical family of four can’t come here. Triple locked inside some ghetto rowhouse or a suburban duplex, they can still enjoy this American mirage, on their bought-on-credit flatscreen. That’s how it will be, then, as their world cracks, crumbles and burns.
New York, 8/4/09
John Rocker, Prophet — Aug 18, 2025.
Twenty five years ago, an Atlanta Braves pitcher, John Rocker, said, “I’m not a very big fan of foreigners. How the hell did they get in this country?” With his team in NYC to play the Mets, Rocker observed, “Imagine having to take the 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.”
It’s clear this 26-year-old had never been to Beirut or anywhere in the Middle East. Even today, you almost never see in Muslim nations purple haired kids, queers with AIDS, obvious felons or 20-year-old moms with four kids. Unlike in the USA, their criminals, degenerates and misfits don’t advertise themselves. Even American nerds pose as gangstas, for their culture glamorizes all crimes, including genocides.
When Rocker was born in Statesboro, GA in 1974, it had roughly 17,000 people. In high school, he lived in Macon (pop. 130,000). Though a city, it’s still in the same state, then he was drafted by the Braves. Nearly his entire minor league career was spent in the South.
There were plenty of Latino players in his organization, however, and the big club’s roster for 2020 included players from Venezuela, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Canada and Cuba. Even with so many foreign teammates, Rocker had plenty of white ones to socialize with, however. The appearance of everyone working together towards a common goal disguises the fact that, after the game, most players stick with their own race or at least those who speak their language comfortably. Even on the airplane home, they self-segregate.
New York, USA: (L): 10/8/11 ; (R): 11/3/17
Rocker’s disgust, fear and hatred of NYC is all too common. It’s not just the natural reaction of any bumpkin towards the city, but of every child when forced to enter school, or of any man on his first trip abroad, even if he’s going voluntarily, for pleasure. To be uprooted is always violent, but without this, almost no goals are achievable, especially today. Very few are allowed to be housewives or simply shopkeepers in their hometowns. Thrust into alien, bewildering environments, nearly everyone seeks to reclaim his hickishness by frequenting the same bar, café, cheesesteak joint or Chinese takeout, or he can watch the Braves or Phillies for 200 times a year, including the playoffs and Spring Training. Compulsive, addictive behavior is nearly an inevitable reaction to the terrors of displacement.
Retired, Rocker must be living in some Southern town, so he’s no longer displaced. Most people don’t have that option.
Trump’s decision to send National Guardsmen from Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina to Washington DC made me think of John Rocker. Unlike the pitcher, they won’t be armed with fastballs and sliders, but M4 carbines and M9 pistols. Nothing will go wrong, I’m sure.
Deployed around Union Station, Georgetown, Chinatown and 14th Street, they’ll make a show of arresting sandwich throwing drunks and public urinators, but their real tasks, make no mistake, is to sow fear and disorder. When American cities go up in flames, American hicks will cheer.
Though the worst kind of New Yorker, Trump, with his red cap, is posing as a John Deere tractor driving peasant. You’d never find him plopped next to a John Rocker, though, at any good ol’ boys tavern. Served a pickled trotter, the Donald would retch.
Before college, I had been to NYC just once. At 15-years-old, I went there with my mother, stepfather and half brother on a day trip, a very long drive from Northern Virginia. That day’s highlight was a visit to the top of the World Trade Center. Applying for college, I was accepted at Pratt and Parson, but visited neither. Wanting to become an oil painter, I knew I’d have to confront NYC at some point.
New York, USA: (L): 10/8/11 ; (R): 11/3/17
From Philly, I’d take two local trains to NYC. At first, it was only to visit its museums. Eventually, I’d get to know many neighborhoods, including those across the Hudson in New Jersey. I gave poetry readings at St. Mark’s Place, the Nuyorican Café and a few other venues I can’t quite remember. I was paid to talk to a class at Yeshiva University, I’m not kidding. I was on a panel at NYU with Susan Sontag and Carolyn Forché, among others. I was a critic-in-residence at Art in General. Many of my college friends moved to NYC. My main publisher was there. On my last visit, I was interviewed by Chris Hedges for Russia Today. I wrote a long poem about Yankee Stadium. Despite all this exposure, I never warmed up to Manhattan. It’s too much about image, with every transplant remaking himself to be more worldly, even freakish. Even their speech changes.
At Philly’s Friendly Lounge, there was a regular, Johnny AC, who made it a point to never visit NYC, and he had been to Japan.
For thousands of years, we lived in villages. Now, 55% of the world’s population dwell in cities, with millions packed into cubicles suspended in smog. Last week, some tattooed asshole in Hanoi was caught on camera beating up a female neighbor by the elevators. He clearly didn’t care who she was, or even where he was. His soulless, arrogant face exudes alienation.
When I was born in November of 1963, Saigon had a population of 1.6 million. Now, it has 14. That’s why I’m living in a drowsy city by the ocean. At 4:06AM, I’m again sitting at a sweetly shabby café in a quiet alley. Mrs. Seven is still living in her childhood home. Through the open door of her bedroom, I can see an elegant pastel portrait of her late father. On her wall is a peeling mural of the Vietnamese countryside. Her two dogs’ one big trip was to the wet market, a quarter mile away. Behind her red cooler, a large green frog contently squats. Like everyone, he has had enough harrowing life experiences to brood over.
Clearly, our species’ existence is unsustainable. Though we know and sense this, there’s nothing we can do. Our elites, though, have firm, definite plans they’re already executing. Meanwhile, there are still baseball games to be stared at on our droning televisions.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
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Like a much more famous billionaire, this pitiful man is boastful, exaggerates numbers and loves to play with girls. Insane people are lost in their fantasized greatness.
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Well Prepared for the Worst! — Aug 13, 2025.
Washington DC, 12/6/11
This pre dawn at Coffee Seven, there’s a new half face. The other half is hidden behind a mask. With his mouth muffled, it’s not easy to understand what he’s saying. Plus, he’s speaking very rapidly.
Sơn, “You have a new vehicle!”
“Yes, just bought it, for three billion.”
Since $114,000 doesn’t sound right, I ask him, “Why so expensive? Why not buy a plane?” I tease. “Or a house?”
“My house is a hundred billion! I just bought a cemetery.”
Sơn grins, “A cemetery.”
“Why?” I ask. “You only have one body.”
“To sell lots.”
“How many?”
“A hundred.”
“That’s nothing. You need a plot for a thousand!” Then, “How much is your motorbike, brother Sơn?”
“Three billion.”
I say to Mrs. Seven, “Since all your customers are so rich, you shouldn’t be selling coffee for 10K,” or 38 cents. “Sell it for 100K.”
“He’s so rich, but sometimes he drinks my 10K coffee on credit.”
Already this insane in his early 30’s, he’ll just get worse, for sure, though his agitation will likely decrease with age.
Washington DC: (L): on 3/2/15 ; (R): on 7/28/17
For a nation, too, unchecked madness must increase. Even with violent crime down in DC, Trump has called in the National Guard. Preceding this by days was a photo of Big Balls sitting on the ground with a bloody face and body. Sure looks like he smeared it all over himself for the most dramatic shot. Why was this 19-year-old out, partying, perhaps, at 3AM? More mysterious is his hiring by Elon Musk for DOGE, that personal data harvesting scam that saved no one a dime, but why dredge up ancient history? We’ve so moved on.
Daily Beast on 8/12/25, “White House Wants Big Balls to Get Same Medal as Rosa Parks—The move would appeal to Trump’s MAGA base.” Who can deny Swollen Testicles has done much more than Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King?
Meanwhile in LA, masked goons arrested a handicapped 15-year-old at gunpoint, right outside his high school. This boy was standing next to his grandma’s car, with her inside. In their excitement, ICE agents dropped bullets on the ground. Warriors so professional must be sent immediately to Ukraine, Syria or deadly Washington DC, so they can return to claim a modest lot in a discount cemetery. As with thousands of other cases, this kid was targeted because he was brown. Handcuffed, he was whizzed away as terrified classmates looked on. After an hour, he was released without even an apology. Who are the retards here? With a moronic commander in chief, they’re free to terrorize.
Four decades ago, DC was America’s murder capital. Going there often, I was never mugged, however, because I didn’t wander around drunk at 3AM. I attended Bullets games before the team changed its name to Wizards. I had second row seat for a spectacular performance by George “Ice Man” Gervin. Fourteenth Street right in Northwest was as seedy as NYC’s Broadway. Taxi Driver’s Travis would have been perfectly at home. Since America’s rich and powerful didn’t care to live in shitholes, DC and NYC were much gentrified. I imagine Manhattan below 116th and DC’s Northwest are still fine.
Washington DC: (L): on 11/30/11 ; (R): on 8/28/10
Meanwhile in Gaza, “Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, 28, has been killed along with three of his colleagues in a deliberate Israeli attack on a media tent sheltering journalists outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.” Al Jazeera also claims, “Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers since it launched its war on Gaza.” The Jerusalem Post begs to differ, “IDF kills Hamas terrorist doubling as journalist.” Unlike Israel, al-Sharif hasn’t killed one innocent civilian, but he’s the “terrorist,” while the genocidal Jewish state must be defended by the entire West.
After Kevin Barrett interviewed me recently, he posted our 1 ½ hour conversation at Unz with this headline, “Linh Dinh: ‘It’s a very systematic program to destroy opponents of the Jews’—Is the Great Replacement driven by economics—or by Jewish hatred of Esau (Europeans) and Ishmael (Arabs/Muslims)?” Nearly all 72 comments after it concern Barrett’s suggestion Europe would be better off by converting to Islam. Unlike Jews, Kevin isn’t advocating for Middle Eastern and Northern African Muslims to invade Europe, after their own societies are destroyed. That’s a Jewish project, gleefully executed. In any case, neither Kevin nor I have the power to effect anything. As American “influencers,” we’re a thousand tiers below Johnny Somali or Ice Poseidon. Big Balls wouldn’t spit in our direction. So invisible, we can walk through walls.
True to their Angry White Pussy code and calling, none of those enraged Unzians dared to say Jews. Quaking whites proudly wave white flags.
Going to meet Putin in Alaska, Trump said, twice, he was headed to Russia. A man this confused can’t be expected to formulate policies on Cambodia, Armenia or Azerbaijan, so he’s obviously not in control, so who is? Perhaps Big Balls. Just never say Jews. They’re the most misunderstood and discriminated against do gooders in history.
When a woman across the street asks our billionaire to help her lift a heavy pot, he simply says, “I can’t,” so creaky and slightly stooped Mrs. Seven has to do it. I’d have, of course.
Seeing his gaudy watch, I blurt, “That’s nice!”
“It cost eight billion!”
“So expensive! You should use that money to go out with your girlfriend.”
“I’m married.”
“Oh! How many kids?”
“Eight.”
“Eight!”
After he’s gone, Mrs. Seven tells me, “He’s not married. Who would marry him? His parents are rich, so he just rides around.”
He comes to Vung Tau to play with girls, chơi gái, meaning he visits whorehouses. Like a much more famous billionaire, this pitiful man is boastful, exaggerates numbers and loves to play with girls. Insane people are lost in their fantasized greatness.
As your people become increasingly destitute and outraged, you erect tallest flag poles, build the tackiest ballroom, stage a military parade on your birthday and, now, normalize having heavily armed troops on city streets, something unseen in any civilized country not at war. Who can claim, though, the USA is either?
Triggering the worst, Trump is well prepared for the worst, he thinks. Still, that constant stench from his own body is hard to ignore. It’s not just old age. Continentia in Latin means repression. Since this megalomaniac has never known any self-restraint, it’s all flooding out from every orifice as his cowed subjects endure his repression.
still from Jack from Thailand’s Thailand’s Father Day 2020 featuring Tony Cartalucci
Some Holes in Brian Berletic — Aug 13, 2025.
Between 7/26/25 and 7/31/25, I wrote five articles on the latest conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. Before giving you an update, let’s examine some contentions made by Brian Berletic, whose 28 minute video from 7/26/25 I saw just last night.
Though many of Berletic’s observations are astute, there are fundamental flaws in his world view. He keeps insisting Israel is doing America’s bidding, so Jews serve whiteys. More specifically, Israelis and all other bad actors globally are paid off, manipulated or fooled by the American empire. Ethnic or racial interests don’t trigger conflicts. If not for Uncle Sam, all nations and races would get along.
Like me, Berletic points out that many ethnic Cambodians live on the Thai side of the border, so they, too, were on the receiving end of Cambodian rockets. When there’s no war, Thais and Cambodians coexist well enough. This doesn’t mean, as Berletic contends, “There’s no real animosity between these two countries. A lot of people make this out as if it’s some sort of historical issue. People don’t go to war over history, over religion, over ethnicity. These are things people in power use to dupe people into fighting wars.”
(L): King Vajiralongkorn at Munich Airport, Germany, 2016 ; (R): Bangkok, Thailand, 1/3/23
People have always gone to war over ethnicity, race, religion or historical claims, even if these are grossly exaggerated or entirely fictional. Think six million Jews gassed to death in a Final Solution. To stoke Jews for genocide, Netanyahu said on 10/28/23, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” There’s no need for Bibi to cite the entire passage. Every self respecting Jew already knows it, “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” To a lesser degree, Christians have absorbed this bloodthirsty mindset.
Since Amalek is a long disappeared nation that has nothing to do with contemporary Palestinians, it’s simply a shorthand for any enemy of the Jews. Fueled by racial righteousness and hatred, plus a lust for revenge against an amorphic Amalek, Jews going berserk in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria or Lebanon aren’t Uncle Sam’s proxies. They’re acting out their nationalism, something most leftists insist only the worst whites have, when in fact, nationalism is weakest among those pale folks with blonde, brown or red hair. Blacks, browns and yellows still embrace nationalism without shame.
Berletic acknowledges this himself in a Jack from Thailand’s video, “Thailand Father’s Day 2020 feat. Tony Cartalucci.” Since Berletic is a Slavic name, his adoption of a pen name so Italian was certainly weird. Why the misdirection? Should I call myself Witold Wozniak or Levi Ben-Gurion? Names denote familial, clan or tribal relationship.
In Thailand, love of nation is directly linked with loyalty to king. Though I’d rather not live in such a society, I’m not Thai, it’s their business. My name is not Somchai Ayutthaya. More troubling is their current monarch, Vajiralongkorn. He’s a veritable creep who spends most of his time in Bavaria. Each appearance in Thailand, such as seen in this video, is pure theater. In private, he’s an abuser of women and borderline crossdresser. Since any criticism of the king will land Berletic in prison, he only gushes about Vajiralongkorn here. It is sweet, though, to see thousands of Thais gather to celebrate their heritage. They will survive Vajiralongkorn.
In Bangkok two years ago, I stopped at a high school to observe their lengthy morning ritual to honor Buddha, king and nation. Their national anthem begins, “Thailand unites the flesh and blood of Thais. The land of Thailand belongs to the Thais.” Then, “We will sacrifice every drop of our blood for our nation.” Around that time, I also noticed no photos of kings at one café. This was highly unusual. Talking to the barista, I found out his sister couldn’t stand the royal family. This was her silent protest.
Everywhere, there were photos of Princess Bajrakitiyabha. She had collapsed at age 43 while walking her dogs. During Covid, rich Thais would fly to the USA to get Jewjabbed. Thirty months later, the princess is still in a coma, supposedly. No Thai newspaper or blogger would dare to suggest she’s most likely dead.
Berletic, then, must be extra careful when talking about Thai kings and their policies. His encapsulation of Thailand’s role during the Vietnam War, though, is at best bizarre:
Thailand has had a relationship with the United States over many years. It is complicated. Thailand was in a region the US was bombing. They were bombing Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Thailand was next. The US even encouraged a Communist insurgency in Thailand. Had nothing to do with actual Communism. Thailand decided they would host US troops and they would play along. Then as soon as the war was over, US troops went home. That relationship has gradually faded since and it has long since been replaced by a much closer, stronger and more constructive relationship with China.
Thailand: (L): Chanthaburi, 3/23/18 ; (R): Bangkok, 1/4/23
The US had no intention of bombing Thailand. In fact, it used Thailand as a base to bomb Laos and Cambodia, primarily to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trails. Thailand didn’t just play along but benefited financially from hosting American troops. Those not stationed in Thailand went there for sex vacations. Thailand’s sex industry became the world’s largest during this era. That legacy is on full display today in Bangkok and Pattaya.
Though US troops did go home after the Vietnam War, the Pentagon maintained its influence. One example are the ill fated guerillas headed by a Vietnamese-American, Hoàng Cơ Minh. I should know. He’s my great uncle. In Virginia, he actually asked me if I wanted to go to Thailand. From there, I could follow him back into Vietnam via Laos. Knowing exactly where he was, Hanoi tracked HCM when he crossed into Laos, just north of Pakse, then killed him near Attapeu in 1987. Having spent seven months in Pakse and Ubon Ratchathani, I’m familiar with the region, though not as a guerilla. Only with Pentagon coordination would Thailand tolerate Vietnamese-Americans staging an armed conflict against Vietnam. It was more farcical than the Bay of Pigs.
Berletic’s claim that Thailand’s Communist insurgency was “encouraged” by the USA and “had nothing to do with actual Communism” is also absurd. Its main backers were Vietnam and China. Vietnamese Communists played key roles in growing Communist movements in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and even Malaysia. That these relationships soured later was only due to each nation’s innate nationalism. Oriental tribalism trumped Jewish gibberish.
From 1975 to 1990, Thailand had to absorb waves of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laos fleeing Communism, so it responded, often, by allowing its soldiers and citizens to rape, rob and kill them. After all, the land of Thailand belongs to the Thais. During last month’s conflict, ethnic Cambodians in Thailand were attacked, so thousands have fled home. Half a century ago, thousands of refugees were forced to return to Pol Pot ruled Cambodia at gun point. Stepping on mines, many never made it.
Like Berletic, I’m no fan of American imperialism, but unlike him, I also acknowledge the selfish or evil aims that are at least latent in all nations, and in each man, too. To reserve such agency to only white men or nations is to be, simply put, the purest racists, even if you’re completely unaware or mean well.
Today in the Phnom Penh Post, “Fresh claims that Thai soldiers destroyed homes, installed barricades, in Banteay Meanchey.” So it can certainly flare up again. On 8/7/25, Prime Minister Hun Monet nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, so the Donald has five from world leaders. They include the heads of Israel, Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
West Point trained Hun Monet’s cozying up to Washington has angered Beijing. In December of 2024, the USS Savannah docked in Sihanoukville, not far from Ream, a naval base upgraded by the Chinese at the cost of billions. On 7/31/25, I wrote “Sam Landing Jab Means Chinese Troops in Southeast Asia.” I still stick with this assessment. Having invested so much into Cambodia, there’s no way China will let the US reap the benefits.
Plus, Hun Monet and his daddy, Hun Sen, are surrounded by powerful Chinese, many of whom have only been granted Cambodian citizenship recently. Counting underworld bosses, Cambodia is dominated by Chinese. Much of the Huns’ wealth comes from the Chinese.
The Cambodian economy depends on exports to the USA, however. That’s why Hun Manet has parked his skinny ass between two chairs. Kissing Trump’s rump, he’s also assuming the Donald will last a while. China, though, will be there until eternity.
Busan, South Korea, 7/15/20
Warring Societies — Aug 15, 2025.
Talking to Kevin Barrett just now, I pointed out the obvious. Language’s primary purpose isn’t to communicate but to prevent outsiders from having access to our thoughts, jokes, abject longings, battle plans, animosities towards outsiders and underhanded plots against them. Through vocabulary and accent, we can already tell who aren’t in our tribe, gang or cohort, and these are people who supposedly speak our language. Their mispronunciation of every word tests the limits of our superhuman forbearance and preternatural capacity for charity. Exiled to Morocco, Barrett must daily improve his Moroccan Arabic to blunt, most pitifully if rather sweetly, a universal irritation or amusement his strained babbling must cause. Knowing abject defeat to be inevitable, most expats cling to each other and more or less sleep in the same bed, night after night, in their own minuscule theme park.
Halfway through that paragraph, I looked out a second floor window at Pato’s Bingsu to see a woman in her early 30’s on a bicycle. Stopped in the middle of an intersection, she was cursing someone down Ba Cu Street, then she turned to a second target on Trưng Trắc. She would look left and right to find more enemies, or just to see if anyone was laughing at her. This went on for more than five minutes. I had to assume some motorist had cut her off. Her “fuck your mother” was distinctively northern. Perhaps wisely, no one tried to calm her down. My effort to do so would have been self-serving. The male fantasy of saving a damsel in distress is universal. It would be sci-fi creepy if manifested in a stinking old fart, with blood oozing from one big toe, no less. Two times in three days, I stubbed it, walking barefoot.
With Coffee House at that corner, I asked its security guard what had happened. Nothing, he said. No one had done anything to her. It’s a pity, we agreed.
“It’s stress,” he added. “From society, the economy.”
“And she has no one,” I speculated.
“No lover.”
“Lover?! She has no dog or cat!”
When there’s less to go around, divisions become accentuated. The more diverse a society, the more conflicts it will suffer. Knowing street fighting will erupt, Trump is prepping his masked goons.
The best allegory of human fragmentation is the 7th essay in Chronicles of Bustos Domecq, cowritten by Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. Through the persona of a pompous critic, Borges’ erudition and occasional lapses into a tongue-in-cheek formal language are exaggerated most hilariously. It’s criminal that Norman Thomas di Giovanni’s translation, as published by Dutton in 1976, is out of print. Stuffed in a carton box in South Jersey, my copy is irretrievably lost. Luckily this morning, I was able to locate an online version at archive.org.
Consider its dedication, “To those three forgotten greats—Picasso, Joyce, Le Corbusier.” Penned by Borges, “forgotten” here doesn’t just jar, but is nearly a wish or prediction. These “greats” won’t be so great. Of course, it’s only Bustos Domecq talking.
Podgorica, Montenegro, 7/15/21
In the piece we’ll examine, “The Brotherhood Movement,” there’s also a mention of “Ezra Fishpond,” plus Quo Vadis?, but misattributed. Like Borges, Domecq the fictional critic has a fantastic reading list. Here’s the story’s central contention:
Human kind, he explained away, is made up, despite climatic and political differences, of a multitude of secret societies, or brotherhoods, whose members are not only unknown to each other but who may, at any given moment, change their status. Some of these societies are more enduring than others—for example, the society of individuals sporting Catalan surnames, or surnames that begin with the letter G. Others, inversely, quickly fade—the society of those who, this very moment, in Brazil or Africa, are inhaling the odor of jasmine or, more cultured minded and studious, reading a bus ticket.
Beyond who you are, everything you do, or even think, from moment to moment, aligns you further with a tiny, select “brotherhood” or “society,” while pitting you against the rest of the world. “The most trifling act—striking a match or blowing it out—expels us from one group and lodges us in another […] the person wielding a spoon is the adversary of he who brandishes a fork, but very soon both are at one over the use of the napkin, only to split again over their Postum or Sanka.” With “wielding,” “adversary” and “brandishes,” conflicts are introduced. Just as in real life, there’s no real ceiling. Evil is infinite.
After +30 years, the most enduring image from “The Brotherhood Movement” is of a man getting off a train pulling a switchblade on a boarding passenger. Performing opposites acts, they’re natural enemies. I laughed so hard back then.
Walking to Cóc Cóc, I passed another masked opponent. Now, I’m subjected to a ruthlessly targeted and sustained sonic assault from tattooed enemies wielding video games and TikTok skits. Clutching my bleeding toe, I collapse, my brain damaged and soul soiled. Vastly outnumbered, I must nurse my wounds until one day, perhaps tomorrow, I’ll make them all pay.
With Bustos Domecq’s contention so airtight and unimpeachable, any counter argument deserves to be hissed at, nuked, flushed away or aborted. This feeble example, then, is only dished up for your amusement. Days ago, I passed a puppy tied to a motorbike on Ba Cu. Noticing his entreating eyes, I came over to introduce myself, which sent him into a joyful frenzy.
When his owner appeared seconds later, I asked, “Does he have friends?”
“Who isn’t his friend?” she smiled.
Though what I meant was, “Does he have dog friends?” she and her puppy didn’t make a distinction between men and dogs. Plus, this innocent hadn’t learnt, most bitterly, the meaning of enemy.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks
Tags de l’article
Based on five months recently journeying across the country’s backwoods + 16 years living there.
Speech given to Samui Real, Thailand, 13 August 2025
Table of Contents
Short biography
Presentation
1-Introduction
2-Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure
3-Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventures
4-The Chinese people continue to evolve
Now my observations…
5-Cleanliness
6-China is greener than the West
7-Infrastructure
8-Housing for hundreds of millions of masses
9-Urbanization has come full circle and back out again
10-Electricity
11-China’s farmers are more prosperous than many, if not most Westerners, by going back to collective production
12-The Chinese people are communist-socialist, dammit, and have been for 3,000 years
13-Mao is the Main Man with the Plan
14-Xi Jinping has adopted Mao Zedong’s playbook for the 21st century
15-Conclusion
Short biography
Jeff J. Brown is American born, raised in the state of Oklahoma, with an agricultural background. He lived and worked in the Middle East and Africa, 1980-1990, in livestock genetics and grain trade, where he learned fluent Arabic and French; then to China, 1990-1997 in grain trade, where he worked with Qingdao Brewery to make beer with US malting barley, helping the People’s Liberation Army with aquaculture and then installed, opened and managed McDonald’s first bakery on the Mainland. In 1990, he became a French citizen. After entrepreneurial adventures in France and the USA, the latter where he was forced into bankruptcy in 2008 during the subprime rape of the middle class, he returned to China as a teacher in international schools, 2010-2019. In 2024, he moved back to China in Taiwan Province.
Jeff wrote The China Trilogy, which includes 44 Days Backpacking in China, China Rising and the BIG Red Book on China (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/06/30/praise-for-the-china-trilogy-the-votes-are-in-it-r-o-c-k-s-what-are-you-waiting-for/ AND https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00TX0TDDI/allbooks). His website is www.radiosinoland.com. He created the China Writers’ Group and founded Seek Truth From Facts Foundation (https://seektruthfromfacts.org). Jeff is a co-founder and the curator of the Bioweapon Truth Commission (https://bioweapontruth.com). He produced over 100 videos on China-Tech News Flash (http://chinatechnewsflash.com). Jeff is proud to be the China Desk Editor of The Greanville Post (https://greanvillepost.com). Jeff can be reached at je**@***********is.com.
Presentation
Folks, I’m going to be covering a lot of ground tonight, so to help you follow along, I’ve numbered each topic sequentially with a title. My whole presentation is about 40 minutes. I look forward to your questions thereafter. In the written presentation are many germane hyperlinks to excellent resources to learn more about China. They are listed inside the presentation text and for longer-term reference, they are collected together in a list by topic at the end. Interested in the real China? Read’em all!
1-Introduction
I would first like to thank Pat Kell and Doctor Eamon McKinney for inviting me on your program tonight. I am sincerely humbled and honored (https://www.samuireal.org/)
I am going to talk about China tonight. I have a unique perspective, because I lived and worked here 1990-1997, during what I call the Deng Xiaoping Wild East Buckaroo Days, then went back to France, then back to The United States, and then came back to China in 2010 and stayed here for another nine years, for a total of sixteen years. The interim stays on both sides of the Atlantic were very formative perspectives for my second round in China. Last year, I came back to China to live in Taiwan Province. At 71 years of age, I hope it’s my last move.
2-Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure
Fellow China Writer Group member Amir Khan and I just finished a three-week tour of China, where we concentrated on what are called Red Tours, which are extremely popular right now (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-series-2025-hunan-jiangxi-fujian-and-shaanxi-provinces-red-tour-short-videos-captioned-photos-articles-and-commentary-the-real-chinese-people-you-don/). The Chinese people are gaining a growing awareness of their almost unfathomable communist revolution, civil war, and how China became liberated from the fascist Japanese, from fascist KMT and Chiang Kai-Shek, and from the Americans.
Just like after WWI, where the Allies’ still blood-soaked bayonets were turned on the Russian Revolution, the Americans’ still warm weapons were foisted on the Chinese communists, starting in 1945. A lot of people don’t know that after 1945, the United States dedicated 100,000 soldiers to China, not on the front lines, but with the full force of America’s air force, navy and army, in terms of bombings, transportation, matériel and weapons.
This is a tour that I’ve been wanting to take for many years, since 2018 to be exact (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/10/11/reflections-on-my-travels-to-proud-revolutionary-hunan-province-china-rising-radio-sinoland/) It is truly an amazing story. Amir quotes Nelson Mandela, who said it is a miracle that the Chinese Revolution succeeded, because it was so improbable. There were so many pitfalls, so many mistakes early on, and there was so much brute, genocidal force against the communists, between the Japanese, KMT, and Americans, it truly is a miracle that it became a reality. What I learned on this journey is that no matter how much firepower you use, how much violence you attack with, you cannot defeat a dream.
The dream of the Chinese people was to be liberated from foreign occupation, opium, and then starting in the 1870s, morphine and heroin that was being pumped into the population by Britain and the United States. The Chinese yearned for freedom from rape and plunder at the hands of the Judeo-West and occupying Japanese. In order to achieve that goal, thirty-six million four hundred thousand Chinese gave their lives, a staggering statistic that almost no one knows about.
Never forget that from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, China’s current rise – called rejuvenation by the Chinese – started in 1839, with the people’s humiliating loss against Britian in the first Opium War. Only in this context does Mao’s famous quip about China’s 200-year war make sense. It has been a long, hard climb, ongoing, and I’m looking forward to 2039 (https://radiosinoland.com/2019/05/05/may-4-1919-is-the-day-the-world-changed-forever-and-the-chinese-will-never-forget-china-rising-radio-sinoland-190504/).
Amir and I are doing a series on my website called, Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-series-2025-hunan-jiangxi-fujian-and-shaanxi-provinces-red-tour-short-videos-captioned-photos-articles-and-commentary-the-real-chinese-people-you-don/). We have done 20 posts so far, made up of short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and commentary. I really encourage you to take a look at them. You will see a China that most foreigners don’t know, yet need to understand. There will probably be close to 100 posts, when the series is finished. Like the first book of The China Trilogy, 44 Days Backpacking in China, our series is a serious travelogue built on a geopolitical and socio-economic backbone, that takes a richly deserved, jaundiced view of the Judeo-West, going back 3,000 years.
3-Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventures
The observations from Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure are supplemented by the fact that my partner, Evelyne and I have spent another four months over the last year and a half traveling around Mainland China. Taken together, my observations tonight will be based on traveling in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, one day in Fujian, and then Shaanxi province up in the North.
All our travels involve spending lots and lots of time in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-tier cities. It costs €56 to take a taxi in Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport. Evelyne and I get electric taxis so cheap in China, only about €70 or €80 for a full day for the driver to chauffeur us round, driving the length of Guangdong Province, or getting 80-100 kilometers outside of whatever city we happen to be in, stopping and looking at villages and small towns, etcetera. Amir and I also had a chance to visit a small town, about 120 kilometers outside of Changsha, the latter where he teaches at Hunan Normal University.
Therefore, while I love the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou, all of my observations are based on one second-tier city, Shenzhen (where I lived for three years), and then all of the others are third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-tier cities, all the way down to small towns, with just tens of thousands of people, and on down to villages with thousands of souls.
4-The Chinese people continue to evolve
In order for you to understand what I am about to report on today’s China, you need some proper perspective (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-13-a-critically-important-look-back-at-my-familys-life-in-1990s-china-to-fully-appreciate-what-you-are-living-vicariously-with-us/).
The good, the bad and the ugly
The Chinese people who you’re seeing during Amir&Jeff’s and Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventures are not who my family and I experienced in the 1990s. In the 1990s, China was a street-level, mean, cruel, corrupt, mendacious, lying, cheating, swindling, capitalist concrete jungle. Unfortunately, in my first book, 44 Days Backpacking in China, I blamed this behavior on the Cultural Revolution, which is wrong (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/12/05/transcript-how-eating-at-a-cultural-revolution-themed-restaurant-in-the-boondocks-of-southwest-sichuan-changed-my-life-for-the-better-china-rising-radio-sinoland-221031/). I now realize that by any psychometric measurement, what would be considered psychotic behavior in 1980s-1990s China was not due to the Cultural Revolution. It was due to Deng Xiaoping’s Wild East Buckaroo Days of unchaining the dogs of capitalism onto the streets and into the halls of government, industry and the military (https://radiosinoland.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/).
Why did Tiananmen Square 1989 happen?
This shift to bare-knuckled capitalism created tremendously criminal, get-rich-quick, no-matter-what-it-takes behavior in the population. There was no corruption nor crime during the Cultural Revolution. That’s why there was Tiananmen Square in 1989. It was not because of phony illusions of Western “democracy” and all that. That was all Mossad-CIA-MI6’s contrived and managed color revolution.
The Chinese were upset about 1) nepotism, cronyism, corruption and violent criminality at the highest levels, down to local neighborhoods and small businesses, 2) inflation was almost 30% and 3) the markets were completely turned upside down, transitioning from Mao-Era’s planned and assured economy (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/01/03/the-mao-encyclopedia-for-dummies-updated-and-its-all-here-books-articles-movies-visuals-china-rising-radio-sinoland-240103/); therefore there were a lot of shortages everywhere. That was why the Tiananmen Square protests happened (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/06/04/this-webpage-has-by-far-the-biggest-and-best-library-of-articles-videos-podcasts-and-images-about-1989s-tiananmen-square-protests-something-for-everyone-china-rising-radio-sinoland-continually/).
Mea culpa
Unfortunately, I made this who’s-to-blame mistake in 44 Days, but it drove me to write my second book, China Rising, to get to the truth, because I knew there was something wrong about my analysis. I then brought everything full circle, expanded on it all, to write China Trilogy Book #3, BIG Red Book on China (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/06/30/praise-for-the-china-trilogy-the-votes-are-in-it-r-o-c-k-s-what-are-you-waiting-for/ AND https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00TX0TDDI/allbooks).
Capitalism at its best
Thus, you are not seeing all the capitalist psychosis we lived with every day, when my family and I lived here 1990-1997. From top to bottom, Chinese society was doing what Judeo-capitalists do best (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/01/23/judaism/). The government was corrupt and criminal, so the people adopted the same corruption and crime. It was street-level war every day, just to get anything, to do anything, to go anywhere. However, strangely enough, it was very addictive, like a drug rush. It took a long time to deprogram from it all, when we moved to France (https://radiosinoland.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/).
Why did Deng do it?
Deng publicly stated that to reach communism, China could not wait 300 years to replicate the West’s industrialization, not to mention it took colonialism, imperialism, slavery and genocide to make the Industrial Revolution “succeed”. Thus, like Mao Zedong trusting the masses to fulfill the successful goals of the Cultural Revolution (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/01/03/the-mao-encyclopedia-for-dummies-updated-and-its-all-here-books-articles-movies-visuals-china-rising-radio-sinoland-240103/), Deng trusted the citizens to shrink 300 years of capitalism into 30.
It was harrowing, risky and as Tiananmen Square 1989 showed, came close to crashing the Chinese Revolution into a balkanized, Western resource whore (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/06/04/100s-of-1000s-of-people-including-researchers-journalists-and-authors-have-accessed-this-largest-single-source-covering-the-tiananmen-square-protests-join-the-club-new-entries-for-2025-radio-sin/). But it worked in the end. The citizens came through. A generation later and the Chinese are prosperous and harmonious again, back to their Communist-Socialist-Confucist-Daoist-Buddhist roots.
Chinese changes
So, our journeys just go to show you that people can evolve. The Chinese are continuing to evolve. They changed for the better and are not stopping. Why? It comes from leadership. Citizens emulate their governments. This is a very Confucist concept. Chinese leaders trust the people and the people truth their leaders in kind. If leaders practice the Golden Rule, then the people will emulate them. That is why Westerners are so lying, thieving, corrupt and criminal, because their Judean, plutocratic, authoritarian leaders have been kakocrats 98% of the time for the last 3,000 years.
Hu Jintao rights the collective ship
When Hu Jintao was elected president in 2002, he began to alleviate this mass capitalist psychosis. Why? The Chinese people, like we were, were exhausted, burned out, sick and tired of all the environmental filth, pollution and wanted back Mao-Era harmony, equality and justice. They were demanding changes for a better life. Tiananmen Square 1989 was just a clarion call. Hu heeded their cries, seeing that this train wreck was unsustainable. It worked. His administration brought back Mao’s universal healthcare and lots of other socialist legislation for the masses, so people were not literally dying on the streets like they do in the United States, because they can’t afford to go to the doctor, hospital or find a place to live (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/11/21/a-critique-of-the-recent-article-in-the-new-yorker-magazine-by-evan-osnos-chinas-age-of-malaise/).
Xi is using Mao’s playbook
Then, when Xi Jinping was elected president in 2012, ongoing, his administration was and is accelerating the Chinese people’s unbelievable transformation, harking back to the clean and lean glory days of the Mao Era, stomping out corruption at every level, cleaning up the environment and making the masses more and more prosperous (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/11/19/jeff-takes-james-for-a-walk-in-china-jb-west-and-jb-east-present-see-you-in-the-hague-64/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2018/01/20/headlines-say-it-all-baba-beijings-vision-leads-its-citizens-into-the-21st-century-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180121/).
***
Now my observations…
5-Cleanliness
Think of China today as a Singapore the size of the United States, but a lot more fun and fascinating (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/08/31/new-donor-annette-asked-me-questions-to-which-i-replied-and-since-the-conversation-is-so-informative-i-am-sharing-it-with-you-china-rising-radio-sinoland-230831/).
Cleanliness at all levels, from showcase Shenzhen with 17 million souls, drilling down to the smallest villages is stunning: neat, clean, green and organized. Street sweepers are everywhere you turn, even weeding around sidewalk trees. Garbage is collected nightly. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then the Chinese are already in heaven.
Public bathrooms are now every 800m in 4th-5th-6th-tier agglomerations and public parks. They are so clean, you can eat off the floors. There are photos of the working janitors on the restroom walls – some in formal dress, their personal mobile phone numbers and a complaint line if you do not get satisfaction.
It’s the same system for the local cops on the beat everywhere you go. Accountability is universal. I ask you: do you have your local policeman’s personal mobile phone number, if you have a problem?
Why so many bathrooms? Because like my family in the 1990s, the Chinese were sick and tired of literal shitholes for bathrooms, if you were lucky to find one. They demanded change and the NPC passed laws, when we were in Beijing 2010-2016. Laws were also passed for garbage collection. We were all disgusted with mountains of fetid garbage everywhere we turned.
It takes a lot of money and muscle to keep a country the size of China so spanking clean. How can they afford it, you might ask? The answer is simple. China has so much fuck-you money, because they are not spending trillion of dollars/euros on genociding billions of Brown and Black people with bombs, drones and sanctions (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/05/10/why-is-the-west-addicted-to-forever-wars-radio-sinoland-250510/).
Interesting side note: the Beijing 2008 Olympics were a massive catalyst for many daily life improvements across the country. A billion Chinese were glued to their TVs for three weeks and saw all the nice amenities Beijing had for foreign visitors. Like Rosie the Riveter and Black soldiers who reentered civil society after WWII, demanding equal pay for good jobs, the Chinese wanted the same things that the capital had. And they got them.
Interesting factoid: guess who was handed the Olympic portfolio in 2007? Why none other than some guy you may have heard of – Xi Jinping.
6-China is greener than the West
Along with all this cleanliness comes greenness and environmental consciousness. Everywhere I explored, the land, waters and air are living an unimaginable renaissance. In the 90s, I was working in agriculture and every year, traveled thousands of kilometers across the provinces to conduct field surveys. I can tell you the environment was downright ugly and frighteningly polluted. Not anymore.
I don’t know if it’s still true, but for a number of years, China was reforesting one Ireland a year. That’s right, the land area of the country of Ireland planted with trees, year after year (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/01/29/60-seconds-over-sinoland-china-to-plant-an-ireland-of-forests-in-2018-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180129/)! Not to mention, you may have read or seen on YouTube, Baba Beijing is reclaiming thousands of square kilometers of sand dunes and desert, making them green again, like they were many thousands of years ago.
The most remarkable transformation I saw was on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi Province. When we traveled there in the 90s, it looked like Mars, a barren, eroded moonscape. At least where I journeyed, it is all now covered with trees and shrubs. Simply amazing that all this has been re-greened, after centuries of neglect.
7-Infrastructure
When we lived here in the 90s, driving outside of Beijing was like driving off a flat earth. It was fun adventure, but harrowing. When we came back in 2010, there were good main arteries and some good secondary roads, but further out, it was like back in the 90s (https://radiosinoland.com/2020/04/06/guangzhou-and-shenzhen-have-a-new-interurban-commuter-train-along-with-their-highspeed-train-civilization-can-never-have-enough-infrastructure-china-tech-news-flash-58/).
These days, we expect world-class infrastructure in China’s first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou – +20M) and second-tier cities (10-20M). What is so stunning is how now, like cleanliness, infrastructure is being drilled down to the smallest locales: great asphalt roads and good bridges are everywhere. Elevated 4-lane highways and train tracks crisscross the hinterlands. The smallest towns and villages don’t have metros and public buses, they have people-owned shuttle buses that cost next to nothing to get rural people to their prefectural/county seat and back, to run errands, see a doctor, take care of paperwork, or take high-speed/slow trains from there, since all prefectural capitals/county seats are served with 5,500 train stations, including 1,100 for high-speed trains. It’s phenomenal that what was once only found in the bigger cities is now accessible all across the boondocks.
Think about this, the USA has thousands of small towns that are boarded up and in Europe they are dying a slow death. Do I dare say it is Judeo-capitalism versus communism-socialism (https://radiosinoland.com/2021/09/24/the-usa-is-falling-apart-at-the-seams-and-nobody-seems-to-care-the-rest-of-eurangloland-is-hot-on-its-collapsing-heels-this-while-the-chinese-nation-is-a-speeding-infrastructure-and-technology-bulle/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/10/20/chinas-infrastructure-and-development-prove-that-baba-beijing-governs-for-the-99s-properity-and-quality-of-life-people-like-you-and-me-china-rising-radio-sinoland-221020/).
8-Housing for hundreds of millions of masses
Another remarkable phenomenon that I saw everywhere we traveled is the millions and millions of subsidized, low-income housing, now even down to the smaller towns. Kilometer after kilometer of them, stretching out to the horizons. In the middle of bumfugg nowhere in Guangdong, Hunan or Jiangxi Provinces, for example, with an offramp from a 4-lane highway, or a slow train station stop, there are smallish concentrations of factories, sometimes just one big one, and the subsidized housing needed to keep the local community thriving. I’m sure they have the same shuttle bus system as the rurals do, for daily convenience.
China’s subsidized, low-income housing is not Hong Kong style shoe boxes and cyclone fence cages bolted to walls in near shanty towns. I’m speaking from experience, because my family and I lived in one in Beijing for four years and in Shenzhen for one year. These are 20-30-story apartment towers, of course with elevators, each with 75-105m2, 2-3 bedrooms, one full bath, big living room, full kitchen, terraces, with one of the latter serving as a utility room, served by 1-2 yuan-per-ride people-owned electric buses.
These apartment communities are the so-called ghost towns that the Judeo-West loves to bloviate about so much. Again, speaking from personal experience, our Beijing apartment was in one of them at the start and it was a growing community when we moved to Shenzhen four years later.
This is why China has 80%+ home ownership, including the rurals, and since they are subsidized by Baba Beijing, why 70 percent of them are paid off free and clear. I’d like to not have to send a mortgage check to the Judeo-City of London every month. How about you?
I’m not even going to ask a rhetorical question and just come out and say it – this high quality of life and visionary planning for the masses can only happen in a communist-socialist country (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/02/19/what-is-the-chinese-peoples-secret-ingredient-to-their-never-ending-success-its-staring-you-in-the-face-but-i-bet-you-cant-see-it-china-rising-radio-sinoland-220219/).
9-Urbanization has come full circle and back out again
As my observations have noted, China’s post-liberation urbanization concentrated on bringing hundreds of millions of rural citizens to first- and second-tier cities. Now, they are reversing gears and tempting people to go back to their 3rd-6th tier cities, by offering subsidized, low-income housing, high-speed/new-generation slow trains, cheap public buses in the agglomerations and manufacturing and services nearby for employment. A prime example of this is Xiong’an, the new, 22nd century city, built from the ground up, outside Beijing, to take pressure off the capital.
Urbanization will continue to reach its goal of 80% of the population, the same level the USA has. China became a majority urban country in 2011 and it is now at about 67% (the US became majority urban in 1915). Yes, there will be the super-cities of 50-100 million residents in the Pearl River and Changjiang River Deltas, the Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang and Chongqing-Chengdu complexes, but they will be balanced with high-quality urbanization in the lower-tier, train-connected cities (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/01/09/china-is-collapsing-how-do-i-know-because-the-wall-street-journal-says-so-and-theyre-the-experts-right-china-rising-radio-sinoland-250109/).
10-Electricity
I have never seen so many high-tension electricity pylons in all my life. It was dizzying (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/04/15/electricity-shmectricity-what-are-the-differences-between-chinas-and-americas-grids-why-does-it-matter-to-both-peoples-nine-graphs-and-charts-help-tell-the-story/). They crisscross and run parallel through isolated forests, mountains and along ridges, left, right, all the way out to the horizon. Like American wages since the 1970s, US electricity production has been flat for 20 years, stuck at 4TwH. China’s is already at 9.4TwH, 2.4 times more than America, and will increase to almost 14TwH by 2030, 3.5 times more than Uncle Slaughter. That’s in only five years. My observation is that much of this power is going to rural areas and 3rd-6th tier cities (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/11/27/personal-stories-of-being-a-china-state-grid-customer-the-worlds-biggest-electric-utility-china-rising-radio-sinoland-221127/).
Electricity production is the lifeblood of economic activity and productivity potential. Please convince me that We’re-Number-One-God-Bless-America has the world’s biggest economy (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/06/11/psst-dont-tell-anyone-but-china-has-the-worlds-biggest-economy-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180612/).
11-China’s farmers are more prosperous than many, if not most Westerners, by going back to collective production
You have probably been brainwashed by the Judeo-Big Lie Propaganda Machine that China’s farmers just loved Deng Xiaoping’ s neoliberal Household Responsibility System. It’s simply not true. The farmers to this day much prefer Mao-Era collective farming. Since 1978, they have weathered the storm of all the Deng-Era reforms and are very prosperous. Land taxes were abolished in the 2000s. Hamlets and villages look like picturesque postcards, straight out of rural France. Farmhouses are 150-300m2, 2-3 American stories tall (1-2 European stories), and electricity is wired in everywhere.
Most importantly, why all this prosperity? My observations are that many villages, if not most, have decided to informally go back to collective farming and implements, not individual plots. The average plot of farmland per rural family is less than 0.4ha (< one acre) or 3,900m2, or only 62m x 62m. Everywhere I went, I saw huge fields of corn, rice, sorghum (for distilling maotai), tobacco, fruit orchards, lotus and aquaculture ponds. They are clearly not being managed in 0.4ha plots. I also saw what looked like collective pig sties. I suspect they are also collectively rearing egg layers and broilers, although each family will usually keep a small home garden for fruit and vegetables.
It makes sense. Most of these hamlets are clan-based, meaning they each have their same family bloodlines going back centuries, all having the same last name, like Wang or Zhao. Go to the next valley and it’s the Li Clan; next valley over it’s the Chen’s and on and on. The farmers prefer to collectively farm, keeping it in the family. It’s more efficient and profitable.
It took a couple of generations to come full circle, but it looks like Mao’s vision won the day. So much so that Xi Jinping pushed to pass legislation to prevent all government officials and entities from trying to neoliberalize any farming community that is collectivized (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/09/08/xi-jinping-supports-collectivizing-rural-land-farmers-are-demanding-that-it-happen-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180908/).
12-The Chinese people are communist-socialist, dammit, and have been for 3,000 years
I have written so much about this topic, and really lived it, but I will give you some brief comments why the Chinese have always been communist (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/04/09/chinas-capitalism-is-first-and-foremost-communist-socialist-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180410/ AND http://radiosinoland.com/2016/10/18/so-called-communist-china-an-exclusive-article-for-the-all-china-review-16-10-17/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/12/04/rebuttal-to-china-is-capitalist-the-religiosity-of-the-myth-of-chinese-capitalism-by-ron-leighton-dr-t-p-wilkinson-interviews-jeff-j-brown/). If you want to dig deeper, please read The China Trilogy.
In China, the people own FIRE. By that, I mean Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. The banks, stock and commodity markets, insurance companies and all land are owned by the people. No one can buy one square centimeter of dirt in China. Not Xi Jinping, not McDonald’s, not you or me. How many other countries can say this? The only ones I know of are communist-socialist. And to be blunt, they are the only ones that have been able to rid themselves of the Judean City of London and its humanity destroying usury and forever wars (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/05/10/why-is-the-west-addicted-to-forever-wars-radio-sinoland-250510/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2024/04/13/baba-beijing-is-on-the-war-path-to-make-banks-finance-big-tech-and-social-media-serve-the-people-and-better-their-lives-the-west-not-china-rising-radio-sinoland-2404012/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/08/03/transcript-a-run-on-chinese-banks-dont-believe-the-wests-big-lie-propaganda-machine-it-cant-happen-since-the-citizens-own-them-all-china-rising-radio-sinoland-220622/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/06/23/a-run-on-chinese-banks-dont-believe-the-wests-big-lie-propaganda-machine-it-cant-happen-since-the-citizens-own-them-all-china-rising-radio-sinoland-220622/).
It’s funny, Westerners kind of-sort of begrudgingly accept that Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and other countries are communist and have similar economic systems to China, but mention China and suddenly, it’s capitalist – it has to be, just look at how successful they are. But, that’s gross denial turning obvious logic on its head. The Chinese are so wildly successful – and very spoiled, truth be told, compared to us long-suffering Judeo-Westerners – IS because they are communist-socialist and have been for 3,000 years.
In 1980, Shenzhen was a sleepy fishing and sea salt town of 20,000 residents. I lived there 2016-2019. When I got there, it had 12-14 million inhabitants. It was growing so fast no one knew for sure. Since then, it officially hit 17,000,000 a couple of years ago. That means it added 3-5 million people in just a few years and nobody even noticed.
Let that sink in for a moment. No squalor, no slums, no shanty towns, no beggars, no homeless people, no street crime; spotless, beautiful, with people-centered infrastructure everywhere you turn. Millions and millions of subsidized, low-income housing for the masses out to the horizons, financed by people-owned banks, on people-owed ground and protected by people-owned insurance companies.
Now, try closing your eyes and imagine replicating that in the West. Go on… I don’t know about you, but I see horrific scenes from the movie Soylent Green and worse (https://radiosinoland.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/).
13-Mao is the Main Man with the Plan
Here is another anecdotal experience I have lived countess times across China.
We all know that Shenzhen is the town that Deng Xiaoping built. There is his big, striding statue atop Lotus Park, overlooking City Hall and just one of the city’s amazing skylines. Deng is of course front and center at the Shenzhen Museum.
I had lunch with an 82-year-old man, Mr. Ceng, whom I met in a small noodle restaurant (we are going to see each other again and meet his wife, when Evelyne and I go back to the Mainland in November). He moved to Shenzhen in 1993, from a small town in Guangdong and said he is thankful for Deng making Shenzhen what it is today. And he is right. Shenzhen is global dream city that the Judeo-West cannot even begin to imagine.
But, go on main street, go into all the mom-and-pop restaurants, small shops and businesses and you usually don’t see Deng’s portrait hanging on the wall. No, if there is a portrait, it is of Mao Zedong. You might see a portrait of Deng hanging in the Marriot Hotel or in the offices of Apple, but the working class and small entrepreneurs know it’s Mao Zedong who butters their noodles so to speak, without whose never-in-human-history accomplishments, Deng’s reforms and opening up wouldn’t have lasted 24 hours. I just say, “Long live Mao Zedong” and the people chime right back with, “No Mao Zedong, no New China”, meaning liberated and free (https://radiosinoland.com/2019/01/12/wildly-successful-mao-era-is-airbrushed-out-of-western-media-and-history-books-china-rising-radio-sinoland-190112/).
You all have been brainwashed to believe that Mao was a depraved, genocidal madman, who woke up every day, trying to figure out how he could kill another million of his citizens, while using his bloody claws to pick moss from his vampire fangs (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/01/03/the-mao-encyclopedia-for-dummies-updated-and-its-all-here-books-articles-movies-visuals-china-rising-radio-sinoland-240103/).
There are only two possibilities. Either you are right, and the Chinese people are stupid and brainwashed, or the Chinese know the truth. Hmm… It’s not really a tough choice. Do I go with the Judeo-Big Lie Propaganda Machine’s tsunami of Sinophobic vomit, or do I listen and learn from the Chinese people, who lived it and continue to live it?
14-Xi Jinping has adopted Mao Zedong’s playbook for the 21st century
Amir and I visited the Self-Sufficiency Museum in Nanniwan, south of Yan’an in Shaanxi Province. Mind you, I have visited scores of Chinese museums over the years. But, this time, as we were looking at all the displays, I had a fortuitous epiphany. It was like a hand came out of the wall and slapped me on the face: all of Mao’s language about the communist revolution, socialism and self-sufficiency (the latter which deeply influenced Korea’s Kim-Il-Sung, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and others), counteracted the US’s and Chiang Kai-Shek’s economic blockade against the communists – all this same language has been adopted by current president Xi Jinping. I can now see that what Xi has done is take Mao’s playbook, dust it off and adopt it to today’s realities and conditions, which helps explain Xi’s incredible successes. Now that I can see it, it’s uncanny, but true (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/12/20/timeless-transcript-buckle-up-world-you-are-entering-the-xi-era-44-days-radio-sinoland-2015-3-29/).
These days, in every museum, there are quotes by Mao and Xi. There is Mao Thought and now Xi Thought. Study Mao, study Xi. Mao is the core, Xi is the core. Rally around Mao, rally around Xi. They are like bookends to a glorious eight-decade string of successes, that have made the Chinese some of the most spoiled and prosperous people in the world. It subconsciously resonates with the Chinese people, like an atavistic umbilical cord connecting them to the Mao Era (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/11/21/a-critique-of-the-recent-article-in-the-new-yorker-magazine-by-evan-osnos-chinas-age-of-malaise/).
Their nicknames reveal as much. Mao is known as Mao Yeye (毛爷爷), which means (paternal) Grandfather Mao. Xi is known as Xi Dada (习大大), meaning Daddy Xi. Two avuncular generations spanning the breadth of post-liberation China, keeping a watchful and caring eye on their 1.4 billion citizens (http://radiosinoland.com/2015/04/04/western-demonization-xi-jinping-let-slime-begin-44-days-radio-sinoland-2015-3-20-2-2/).
15-Conclusion
If you have not visited China, go. Just go. You will see what I mean. I know Mandarin, but many Chinese are wanting to speak English. Phones are vocal translation machines now. Chinese train and hotel apps are available in English. You can get around. Just go. Most OECD citizens don’t even need visas anymore… By all means visit first and second-tier cities, but if you can, try to visit 3rd-tier cities like Hefei, Nanchang and Chaozhou. I promise you, you will be gob smacked.
Finally, never forget that the Chinese people have been unstoppable for 5,000 years, except for the unfortunate Judeo-Western, opiate-soaked Century of Humiliation, 1839-1949. Since then, they have regained their millennial communism-socialism, fused with their millennial Confucism-Daoism-Buddhism (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/03/20/china-tech-invention-innovation-technology-research-and-development-past-present-future-5000-years-of-progress-a-china-rising-radio-sinoland-living-document/). If this socio-economic and cultural civilization can be maintained, the Chinese Nation will endure for another 5,000 years, in the face of relentless Judeo-imperialism and capitalism, whose days are definitely numbered.
Thank you.
Never underestimate the incoming tsunami of disruptive “analysis” and predictive programming already embedded in the Hybrid War on China – and the larger war on BRICS.
by Pepe Escobar and first posted at Strategic Culture
Never underestimate the incoming tsunami of disruptive “analysis” and predictive programming already embedded in the Hybrid War on China – and the larger war on BRICS.
Cue to the latest 128-page report by the Hudson Institute in D.C. titled oh so prophetically, China After Communism: Preparing for a Post-CCP China.
You are fully entitled to react in a “Knights Who Say ‘Ni!’” Monty Pythonish way when confronting this inane absurdity. But make no mistake, they take it very seriously. US Think Tankland is a master of telegraphing regime change dreams and existential fears years in advance, in excruciating detail.
That was the case of that tawdry RAND report on blowing up Russia on several fronts, or that tawdry Brookings report on dismembering Persia, actually Iran. Now it’s the turn of the most powerful of the new Primakov triangle (RIC) in BRICS: China.
They are really playing ‘Light my Fire’ on steroids, believing a “sudden regime collapse in China is not entirely unthinkable.” They hark back to the old OSS – the precursor to the CIA – and its ops in China during WWII to suggest that “US special operations forces (SOF) can help stabilize a post-CCP China.”
Mediocre Sinophobe Extraordinaire Gordon Chang advises D.C. to “get American businesses and citizens out of China” and to “remove” Beijing “entities” from important sectors of the US economy.
There’s the inevitable call for the US to “protect human rights during a transitional period” and US intervention “to prevent ethnic violence, civil wars, and political retribution, with a special focus on China’s five autonomous regions – Guangxi, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia.” Yes, let’s build a Disneyland in Tibet.
After the color revolution/regime change op is on a roll, “post-Communist China can establish a constitutional democracy and draft a new constitution”. All supervised by the Empire of Chaos, of course, which will define “China’s relationship with Taiwan” and even “what the new country’s name should be”.
The high-speed train of yuan internationalization
It will be a blast to observe the reaction of Chinese citizens on Weibo, Tik Tok and Guancha to this oh so benign demolition enterprise. Of course this document cannot be taken seriously as a recommended strategic policy. It barely qualifies as shabby psy ops/shallow propaganda, carrying several embedded PhDs in Cognitive Dissonance.
The target is not Chinese public opinion, but actually masses of semi-illiterate Americans – brainwashed 24/7 for eons on the threat posed by evil commies. And evil Russkies. And “the ayatollahs”.
Talk about Clash of Civilizations for sub-dummies.
I propose as a realist antidote our recent conversation hosted by Guancha in Shanghai, involving Professor Huang Jing, Tricontinental founder Vijay Prashad and myself on the larger war of the Empire of Chaos against China and BRICS.
Add to it some fine observations by Miao Yanliang, who’s now chief strategist at the CICC investment bank, formerly with the China State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), part of the People’s Bank of China, and a connoisseur of the Empire, as he got his PhD in Princeton.
Miao recently delivered a quite intriguing speech at Peking University, published as a CICC report in early June.
So let’s start with de-dolarization. Miao argues that “building a multipolar currency system requires policy coordination and exchange rate flexibility among major currency-issuing economies.” Now ‘two key obstacles that once constrained the internationalisation of the renminbi—high US interest rates and persistent depreciation expectations during periods of trade tension—have begun to reverse.”
Translation: from now on China has a wealth of possibilities to leverage its global trade to promote the internationalization of the yuan.
On the American ability to maintain the US dollar’s reserve currency status, Miao points to two factors: “whether the United States can continue to lead the technological revolution”; and “whether it can preserve the advantages of its financial system, such as the Federal Reserve’s independence and the self-regulating and corrective capabilities of its financial markets.”
Yet what’s accelerating now is rather the “fragmentation of the international monetary system”. So we should expect increased use of yuan in payment settlements and as “a store of value”; that’s already happening all across BRICS.
Miao points to the key vector: the yuan is now “a low-interest currency, while the US dollar is high-interest.” Trump 2.0 tariffs “on all countries have contributed to the appreciation” of the yuan.
This high-speed train is now leaving the station: “By leveraging China’s manufacturing strengths in sectors such as machinery, electronics, and new energy equipment”, China is encouraging BRICS nations and partners to use the yuan “for trade settlement, thereby creating a self-sustaining cycle” driven by “real trade demand.”
This is the system those clowns want to regime-change.
They never learn
Well, they did not learn anything out of the collective West humiliation in the proxy war in Ukraine. A top old school hand of the Deep State, now retired, and familiar with the glory days of the OSS, sums it all up. Relevant excerpts of our conversation:
“The US and Europe are already at war with Russia and they are losing it. The US has 20,000 armed troops in Europe to face Russia. NATO forces are largely a figment of the imagination.
Ukraine is nothing but a front in the US battle for control of the Eurasian land mass a la Mackinder. The US cannot supply both Israel and Europe at the same time. It has overstretched itself. As for Europe, it has no army of any consequence and most of its equipment is antiquated. All of it is pure bluff.”
He adds, “the Europeans are waking up to the fact that the US has a moat around it so that it can be reached only by ICBMs and submarine missiles but Europe is in itself indefensible as short range conventional missiles can destroy it. Nukes are not required to destroy Europe in one day but a rain of Russian missiles.”
Now compare that with Russia’s top negotiator in the Istanbul kabuki, historian Medinsky, when asked whether Moscow fears new sanctions by the EU and the US:
“This is not a question for us, not for the negotiating group. I can tell you this. After the revolution and civil war in 1920, again, another historical reference, we had not only sanctions, we had an absolute diplomatic and economic blockade of Soviet Russia from everyone. Everyone! It did not prevent us from winning World War II (…) Nothing will prevent Russia from winning now, The only question is the price of victory and the time it takes to achieve it.”
This is something that will never sink in amongst Think Tankland in D.C. As much as the technological accomplishments – now visible – of the Made in China 2025 plan will never sink in.
Enter bluster, hubris, the regime change obsession – and worse. Because if the US ruling class psycho killers finally conclude they cannot maintain their unilateral world hegemony even via war, they will abandon their cherished Think Tankland “reports” for good and even resort, in despair, to a Samson option.
Exploring the dystopian technofeudalism at heart of the western A.I. race
The unnamed book EMPIRE OF AI is mine, based on 300+ interviews, 7 yrs covering AI, & my time as the first reporter who got extensive access to OpenAI. I sought OpenAI’s perspective throughout. For months they said it was coming. It never did. Pre-order: https://t.co/i5rNJ45fNo. https://t.co/Drr8Gzv7vW pic.twitter.com/0aJpF9P26U
— Karen Hao (@_KarenHao) April 4, 2025
The A.I. Religious Cult: “Just like empires of the past were competing against one another, so are these tech giants. There was this aggressive race of we, the French Empire, are better than the British Empire. We, the British Empire, are better than the Dutch Empire.
And we need to continue to relentlessly race and be number one because we’re the ones that have the right civilizing mission to bring modernity and progress to all of humanity.
And where their missions might have once been about scientific exploration and transparency, they are now about profit, which has resulted in a landscape where they are just scaling at all costs.”
this is about controlling “the civilizational transformation” of the “one global village.” “Our collective attention is their Manifest Destiny.” From Maggie’s “there is no society” to now, “Culture is just what is Next on your phone — and that is A.I.”
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Featured image: A Ball of Vampires
Dmitry Medvedev had an interview with TASS. What is interesting is that he says that Russia now must consider responding in full or “even deliver preemptive strikes if need be.”
We have heard similar messaging from Dmitry Trenin very recently, and from Prof. Sergei Karaganov over a period of time. Then, we had Mr. Shoigu spelling out that NATO is still a threat.
These are serious voices in Russia and certainly voices that will not be ignored.
Medvedev’s Full Speech
https://tass.com/politics/1990623
Exactly 80 years ago, on July 17, 1945, the Potsdam Conference began, bringing together the heads of government from the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain. The meeting laid the foundation for the post-war world order.
In an interview with TASS, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, both a politician and a lawyer, outlined the key lessons Russia has drawn from that historic event and explained its continued relevance in the context of the current situation around Ukraine.
– Decisions from the Potsdam conference were almost immediately breached by the Soviet Union’s allies in the anti-Hitlerite coalition. In parallel, London developed Operation Unthinkable, a war plan against the Soviet Union. Is perfidy the West’s core?
– The anniversary of the Potsdam Conference provides an opportunity to reflect on the past as a mirror of the present. In doing so, we must use the “correct lenses”, without being naive or considering the events of July 1945 in isolation from the centuries-long attitude of European, or, more broadly, Western elites toward our country.
Revising or breaching the decisions from the Potsdam Conference was just a continuation of Western policies regarding Russia from before the war or even earlier.
Since the time of Peter the Great, when Russia established itself as a European power, we have witnessed a consistent trend of hostility, distrust and attempts to weaken our country in Western actions. As part of various coalitions, they [Western countries] have sought to turn Russia into Europe’s stepdaughter who was admitted only to the threshold the pan-European house for re-education. They have also sought to impose a subservient role on our country in European and, later, global affairs. But in vain.
To Western elites, an independent and strong Russia has always been a historical anomaly and a very effective rebuff to the idea of their supposed “civilizational superiority”. Fear and reluctance to engage in dialogue with other nations gives rise to villainy and aggression. This is why Western elites have been making repeated attempts to isolate Russia and avenge their past failures.
So, in 1945, the Potsdam [Conference] was not a prelude to lasting peace, but rather it paved the way for the Cold War. And today’s developments – a proxy war, or actually a full-out war involving the launch of Western-made missiles and satellite reconnaissance, sanctions packages, and loud statements on militarization in Europe – are yet another attempt to destroy the `historical anomaly’ that the West hates so much, to destroy our country.
So, the Potsdam Conference taught us that relations with the West should not be based on illusions. The West’s treacherous nature and its warped and very outdated sense of superiority are still evident. And we should therefore act accordingly, responding in full or even delivering pre-emptive strikes if need be.
The Potsdam Conference was an important history lesson for us.
We have learned the lessons of the Potsdam Conference. And today, as in 1945, our country is fighting not only to protect its borders, but also the idea of a just world order.
– As was at the Potsdam Conference that the Ds – demilitarization, denazification and democratization of Germany – were first formulated. Can the approaches outlined there be applied to present-day Ukraine? And which Ds could be added or adjusted, in your vision?
– The three ‘D’s – demilitarization, denazification and democratization – were developed to address Nazi Germany as an aggressor state that destroyed the world order. Of course, there are significant differences between the Reich of 1945 and present-day Ukraine, in terms of scale, global posture and even, formally, government ideology.
However, one clear similarity does exist.
Firstly, there is the identity crisis and the blatantly Nazi symbols. There is a cult of collaborationist and Nazi ideologists, as well as swastikas and Totenkopf prints on military uniforms and armored combat vehicles, not to mention other references to the Third Reich. Today’s ideology is based on hatred of the neighbor and calls to continue ‘fighting to the end’. All of this is supported by the government and is rippling through society. The militarization of society adds to this, with armed groups acquiring not only military, but also political functions, some of which, in effect, are poorly controlled by the state.
Secondly, there is a tenure of power and increasingly obvious signs of dictatorship. Electoral procedures have been canceled under the pretext of war, opposition activists have been persecuted or jailed, and freedom of speech has been annihilated.
Thirdly, the economy has been in decline. Like the Third Reich in its final months, present-day Ukraine is clearly experiencing an economic and management crisis that has been solely addressed through external funding and mobilization rhetoric.
All this makes the idea of using the three ‘D’s still relevant.
Demilitarization is not a punishment, but an opportunity for Ukraine to stop being used as a pawn in someone else’s bloody geopolitical games, which often target Ukraine itself. For this reason, too, the country’s non-aligned status is an essential part of its demilitarization. Furthermore, eliminating insane defense expenditures would provide additional funds for rebuilding its shattered economy.
Denazification or debanderization is not an act of revenge, but rather long-term work with public conscience and historical memory. The peoples of our countries and many other former Soviet republics share a common historical destiny. This shared heritage creates huge potential for not only peaceful neighborly relations, but also cooperation and joint development.
And democratization involves more than just elections. It involves restoring legal institutions, a free press, competition, and the separation of powers. Had these mechanisms been fully operational in Ukraine, its history since 2014 would have taken a far more favorable path.
To the three ‘D’s, I would add a fourth: deparasitization, or disinsection. Residents of the territories currently controlled by the so-called Ukraine must learn to live independently and take responsibility for their actions. Otherwise, a parasitic Ukraine has no chance of preserving its statehood.
– In violation of the Potsdam Agreements, the Western countries, unlike the Soviet Union, effectively failed to carry out the process of Germany’s denazification. Should this fact not only be acknowledged but also emphasized in the Russian historical narrative? Can the postwar West be considered a covert accomplice in the preservation of Nazism after 1945?
– I have addressed this topic on numerous occasions in my speeches and articles. Before the war, the Western powers nurtured and supported Hitler’s Nazi regime, and after the fascists were defeated in World War II, they made every effort to ensure that the ideology survived.
Rather than implementing genuine denazification measures in the territories under their control, our Western “allies” settled for superficial and perfunctory actions.
Most Nazi criminals tried with the participation of Western judicial authorities got off with little more than a slap on the wrist, receiving exceedingly lenient sentences or being granted amnesty just a few years after the war. Neither they, nor their descendants or close associates, were barred from entering positions of power.
The consequences of this astonishing “tolerance” toward Nazi criminals, combined with rabid and hysterical Russophobia, are being felt to this day. This is especially true in countries that served as Hitler’s lackeys or expendable resources: the Baltic states, Poland, and Ukraine, which has embraced a Banderite identity.
Many high-ranking figures in Germany still take pride in their fascist forebears, emulating them in both rhetoric and policy. A striking example is the recent statement by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius about the country’s readiness to “kill Russian soldiers” on the “eastern flank” and to always deal with Russia “from a position of strength.” And the remarks of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, himself a direct descendant of Nazis, are no less appalling. All of this echoes the hypocrisy of those self-proclaimed “anti-fascists” who like to say their grandfather “heroically died in a concentration camp after falling from a guard tower.”
Let me remind you that our president stated unequivocally: Russia does not intend to go to war with NATO or ‘attack Europe.’ Such claims by Western politicians are utter nonsense. I would also like to add that this kind of drivel is deliberately injected into the information space to destabilize an already difficult situation. It is yet another front in the West’s open war against us.
Without question, all such facts must be brought to light, not swept under the rug. The saying ‘history will be the judge’ only holds true when all the facts and circumstances necessary for such judgment are known. After all, the principal judge for the Nazis in Hitler’s Germany, as we know, was the soldier of the Red Army.
This is what Mr Putin has to say:
Click on the link and the video clip will play in its own window. Stay to the end (it is short). We have it from source now: The Ball of Vampires is about to end!
Trump continues to be seized by the delusional view that his Israeli-centred vision could all be accomplished merely by ending the genocide in Gaza.
Alastair Crooke – Strategic Culture
The big issue emerging from the U.S.’ 22 June strike on Iran – second only to ‘wither Iran?’ – is whether in Trump’s calculus he can ‘rhetorically impose’ the having “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme claim long enough to both restrain Israel from hitting Iran again, yet still allow Trump to pursue his show-stopper headline, ‘WE WON: I’m in charge now and everybody is going to do what I tell them’.
These were the key conflicting issues that were to be hammered out with Netanyahu during his White House visit this week. Netanyahu’s interests essentially are for ‘more hot war’, and thus differ from the Trump ceasefire general stratagem.
Implicit in his ‘In-Boom-Out & Ceasefire’ Iran approach is that Trump may imagine he has created the space to resume his primary objective – that of instituting a broader Israeli-centric order across the Middle East, devolving upon trade deals, economic ties, investment and connectivity, to create a business-led West Asia, centred on Tel Aviv (with Trump as its de facto ‘President’).
And, via this ‘Business Super Highway’, to strike further beyond – with the Gulf States penetrating into BRICS’ south Asian heartland to disrupt BRICS connectivity and corridors.
The sine qua non for any jumpstart to a putative ‘Abraham Accords 2.0 of course – as Trump clearly understands – is an end to the Gaza War; the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza; and the Strip’s re-construction (none of which seems to be in realistic reach).
What emerges rather, is that Trump continues to be seized by the delusional view that his Israeli-centred vision could all be accomplished merely by ending the genocide in Gaza, but with the world watching aghast as Israel continues on a hegemonic military rampage across the region.
The most obvious flaw to the Trump premise is that a chastened Iran somehow has been achieved by Israeli and American strikes. It is the opposite. Iran has arisen more unified, resolute and defiant. Far from being relegated to watching passively from the sidelines, Iran now – in the wake of recent events – resumes its place as a leading regional power. One that is readying a possibly game-changing military riposte to any further strikes by either Israel or the U.S.
What is ignored in all these western claims of Israeli success, is that Israel chose to bet all on a surprise ‘shock and awe’ strike. One that would overturn the Islamic Republic at a stroke. It didn’t work: the strategic objective failed, and it produced the opposite outcome. But the more fundamental point is that the techniques used by Israel – that required months, if not years of preparation – cannot just be repeated again now that their stratagems have been fully exposed.
This White House misreading of the Iran reality signals that the Trump Team allowed themselves to be deceived by Israeli hubris in insisting that Iran was a house-of-cards, primed to collapse completely into paralysis upon the first taste of the Israeli sneak decapitation ‘muscle’ on 13 June.
This was a fundamental error – in a pattern of similar errors: That China would capitulate to the threat of imposed tariffs; that Russia could be coerced into a ceasefire against its interests; and that Iran would be ready to sign an unconditional surrender document in the face of Trump’s threats post-22 June.
What these U.S. blunders speak to – apart from a consistent divorce from geo-political realities – is western weakness masked behind hubris and bluster. The U.S. Establishment clings to its fading primacy; but in doing it so ineffectually, it has instead accelerated the formation of a potent geo-strategic alliance intent on defying the U.S.
The consequence has been the wake up call to other States occasioned by the western slide towards stratagems of outright lies and deceit: The ‘Spider Web’ operation against the Russian strategic bomber fleet on the eve of the Istanbul talks and the U.S.-Israeli sneak attack on Iran two days before the expected next round of U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks, have increased the will-to-resist by China, Russian and Iran particularly, but more generally it is felt across the Global South.
The entire complexion of this war to retain America’s dollar primacy has been irreversibly altered.
All are ‘on guard’ as they see evidence that, with the expectation of NATO’s defeat in Ukraine, the West is ramping up the new Cold War on many fronts: in the Baltic Sea; the Caucasus; the Iran periphery (via cyber attack), and of course via escalated financial war across the board. Trump is again threatening to sanction Iran and any State purchasing its oil. On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would impose a new 10% tariff on “any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS”.
Naturally, States are preparing against this escalation. Tensions are rising everywhere.
Azerbaijan (and even Armenia) are being weaponised against Russia and Iran by NATO powers and Turkey. Azerbaijan was used to facilitate Israeli drones launched into Iran, and its airspace was used too by Israeli aircraft to circle into the Caspian Sea in order for Israel to launch stand-off cruise missiles from Azeri airspace over the Caspian Sea at Tehran.
Iraqi Kurdistan, Kazakhstan and the Baluchi borderlands have been used as platforms to infiltrate sabotage units into both Russia and Iran to pre-position missiles and drones and sabotage units for asymmetric warfare.
On the other flank of this escalating war, Trump is racing to land a string of ‘trade’ agreements across the Pacific, including with Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. The aim being to build ‘a cage’ of special higher tariffs around China’s ability to use ‘trans-shipments’ – that is goods imported into other States from China, which are then re-exported to America.
The U.S. set the precedent via Vietnam, with a 40% tariff on trans-shipments that is precisely double the 20% levy on Vietnamese-made goods.
Except that Trump’s ‘shock and awe’ strategy of imposing tariffs to regain industrial activity and to keep the rest of the world subject to dollar hegemony is not working: First Trump was forced to announce a 90-day moratorium on Liberation Day Tariffs in the hope that 90 deals would be struck in the interim – yet only three ‘framework agreements’ were settled. So the Administration is now forced to extend the moratorium yet again (to 1 August). Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, has said that many of the 90 states originally tariffed did not even try to contact the U.S. to work out a deal
The ability to financially punish people for not doing what the U.S. says is drawing to a close. The alternative to the dollar network exists. And it is not a ‘new reserve currency’.
The alternative is the solution envisaged by China: a fusion of Fintech retail payment platforms with banking and Central Banking digital frameworks, based on block-chain and other digital technologies. (The U.S. cannot replicate this approach – as Silicon Valley and Wall Street are at war with each other, and won’t co-operate).
As Will Schryver noted wryly a couple of years ago —
“The empire’s seemingly endless string of hubris-driven blunders has rapidly accelerated the formation of what is quite arguably the single most potent military / economic / geostrategic alliance seen in modern times: the tripartite axis of Russia, China, and Iran …
“It has astoundingly managed to jump from the frying pan of a regional proxy war against Russia into the fire of a global conflict that all three of its steadily strengthening adversaries now view as existential”.
“In my considered opinion, this is almost certainly the single most inexplicable and portentous series of geopolitical blunders in recorded history”.
—
Alastair Crooke: Former British diplomat, founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.
Pepe Escobar for Sputnik
RIO DE JANEIRO – Hats off, once again, to the stunning unpredictability of the Angel of History. Just when we thought we are doomed as a new, long dark cloud is coming down – see the current convulsions of the Empire of Chaos – a glimmer of hope pierces the horizon.
Against all odds, the BRICS 2025 summit in Rio did deliver. Expectations were low – considering the Brazilian presidency (their priority for the year has always been the COP-30 in the Amazon in November, not BRICS). Setting up a crucial geopolitical/geoeconomic summit in the middle of the year, with only a few months for preparation, is not exactly a brilliant managing strategy.
Yet at the moment of truth, BRICS as a whole scored a stunning comeback. The feeling in Rio – from Global South-wide business representatives and diplomats – was almost of exhilaration.
It starts with the 130-point plus final declaration, not only thoroughly detailing every major issue, with calculated moderation, but resolutely setting a trademark BRICS tone – and clear set of humanistic values – focused in three strategic pillars: economy/finance; designing a new global security framework; and cultural and people-to-people exchanges (to quote our Chinese friends). And everything under the over-arching umbrella of inclusiveness and mutual respect.
To sum it all up, there are reasons to call this approach the Lavrov Effect – after the most consequential diplomat of our time.
The Birth of the “Post-West” World
There were quite a few highlights in Rio. These are some of the key takeaways:
1.The NDB – the BRICS bank, headquartered in Shanghai – finally took the center stage, after an extensive two-day meeting. And it was up to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to act as the most crucial top official at the summit. It was Siluanov who announced that the NDB may become the key platform for financing megaprojects across BRICS, including for partners, bypassing SWIFT.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced a major initiative within BRICS to create a new investment platform linked to the BRICS Development Bank, with the goal of building an innovative tool for… https://t.co/H5Oro2jnHU pic.twitter.com/YwUfqsTFnG
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) July 6, 2025
That is one of the practical follow-ups to the ultra-hard work by Russia last year preparing for the summit in Kazan. Russia sent a high-powered delegation to Rio, the second largest. Siluanov was the point man extolling the drive towards “a new geo-finance architecture and payment settlements architecture.”
The hard work starts now for the NDB. Additionally, let’s see whether member-nations will start using the essential Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) – a mutual financial support platform to help countries with their balance of payments.
2. The BRICS Business Council, which got together in a full day of meetings, opened by President Lula and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar delivered a concise masterclass, invoking the Spirit of Bandung and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) legacy – Sukarno, Nehru, Zhou Enlai – as a precursor to the current, way more powerful Global South renaissance.
Picture virtually the whole Global South networking in a former port warehouse by the seaside, with a special role for Women’s Business Associations, exchanging info on new and prospective investment/development projects. Productive economy in effect, not speculation.
This was compounded by a very special trio: representatives of the Business Council; the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance; and the BRICS People’s Council, its civil society arm – personally received by President Lula, who lavishly praised their work.
3. The lineaments of a new system for international relations, in several fields, being designed in practice by the Global South. This was evident in every major intervention, bet it by Lula, Lavrov or Anwar. Chinese scholars – a formidable contingent in Rio – are already defining it as the “post-West” world.
4. The role of media. Serious debates took place in Rio and in Niteroi, across the bay. A “Letter from Niteroi” first delivered in person to Cuban President Diaz-Canel, detailed possible steps to form a public/private BRICS-wide media network – counterposed to the one-narrative-fits-all Big Tech push. Deeper connections were forged by existing companies, such as the collaboration between Sputnik (Russia), Guancha (China) and Brasil 247 (Brazil)
Let a Million Tariffs Bloom
There was plenty of debate in Rio, at all levels, on reform of the UN Security Council and the IMF. In reality, that’s idle. The Empire of Chaos will never concede anything to BRICS. On the contrary.
Lavrov provided a cystal clear, concrete example: “In 2023 the IMF approved an unprecedented credit for Ukraine worth 15,6 billion dollars (577% of Ukraine’s country quota). It makes up more than a third of annual volume of all IMF programs. Since the beginning of 2022 the World Bank has pledged to allocate nearly 54 billion dollars for Ukraine. In total these sums allocated to Ukraine are twice as much as annual volumes of assignations allocated by the Bretton Woods structures to all countries of Africa.”
There was a feeling, widespread in all discussions, that it’s up to BRICS to advance their own solutions – and fast. For instance: China announcing it will soon establish a China-BRICS Research Center on new quality productive forces, as well as a scholarship for BRICS nations to advance knowledge on industry and telecom.
An imperative derives from all of the above: to attack each individual BRICS member it’s to attack them all. That was already reflected in the consensual reaction to the Empire of Chaos bombing of the Iranian nuclear program. It was crucial for Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi to make the trip to Rio – and receive the solidarity of his peers.
Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s condemnation of Israel and the US for their unprovoked military strikes on Iranian territory — including attacks on nuclear energy sites under IAEA safeguards —… https://t.co/Loj1q0KFDw pic.twitter.com/BHOj7xRBaw
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) July 6, 2025
Endless questions may be asked on whether some BRICS are fully committed to the vision; in fact some partners, like the Southeast Asians, are way more daring. It’s a fabulous development that Lula promised to go to the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur next October; that’s increasing South America/Southeast Asia interconnection in effect.
In parallel, it was quite intriguing to see Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan showing up in Rio. Last year in Kazan, Ankara was invited to become a member but is still hedging its bets. Erdogan evidently has not yet figured out what he may stand to gain, personally, from a multilateral organization based on equality.
As for the UN, BRICS may soon have all it takes to be stronger than the unconsequential UN. Without even the need to take over. As for Lula’s notion of bringing the G20 into BRICS, let’s attribute it to the drowsy effect of a sleepless night – after a marathon of meetings.
In the end, what really matters is that inescapable feeling in the air that the key BRICS drivers – Russia and China – are fully aware that the definitive blow to the Empire of Chaos will not be military. It will be geoeconomical. This was a fascinating, unspoken variable traveling from the tour de force in Kazan to the bossa nova groove in Rio.
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) July 6, 2025
So it’s no wonder the Circus Ringmaster decided to go Full Psycho on the temper tantrum department. First he proclaimed that BRICS is dead – without a clue on what BRICS is all about. Then he threatened 100% tariffs. Now he threatens 10% tariffs – applied to any nation doing business with “anti-American” BRICS. What next? A million percent?
Let a million tariffs bloom. BRICS and the Global South will not lose any sleep about it. Gradmaster Lavrov nailed it: “The traditional paradigm of globalization where the predominant role is played by the so-called developed states of the West is becoming a relic.” Let the (Global South) sushine in.
Guancha, Brazil 247 and Beijing Club unite around the exchange of ideas in the Global South
When Xi Jinping visited Brazil and Peru at the end of last year, following the opening of the Chancay port, he stated in one of his speeches that think tanks must grow and share information. Here is one such media think tank forming.
The meeting of the BRICS countries in Rio de Janeiro has delivered to the world a comprehensive statement with points of consensus on topics such as multilateralism, sustainable development, new international financial architecture, and artificial intelligence. In parallel, actors from the academic and journalistic worlds also met to discuss ways to deepen the exchange between media, universities, and think tanks, to solidify the intellectual basis necessary for the consolidation of the voices of the Global South and a world founded on cooperation between peoples.
One of these meetings took place last night in Rio de Janeiro, bringing together representatives of Brazil 247, from the Shanghai-based Guancha news website, and the Beijing Club, a major Chinese think tank. The cocktail was a consequence of the Global South Media Alliance, launched by Brazil 247 and Guancha in March this year.
This media alliance has to be extended to several other BRICS nations and partners, says Pepe Escobar. I agree.
The sheer change of thinking that is emergent, most of us have not seen. We’ve seen an exorbitant privilege kept in place by war and more war, threats, criminality and coercion, but a truly cooperative model is rare today. We’ve lived in a time when, if there was no opposition to pit groups and countries against one another, an opposition was created. I am, in a sense, skeptical about Elon Musk’s new American Party, as time will tell us whether that is a gathering of those who are disappointed with Trump and the fall of Maga, or the creation of a pretend opposition so that the circus can continue. Time will tell.
As most know, Trump yet again delivered bombast instead of truth, although Khamenei was able to pick out the one shred of truth that tumbled from Trump’s maw.
with appreciation to Dr. Karl at karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium.
What sort of admission it will become in time is unknown at the present. But it will bolster the Iranian nation even more than the attacks themselves. And in that case alone, Trump made yet another major mistake. I won’t spoil Khamenei’s words by telling readers now. The speech is short, and you’ll soon find out:
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
My greetings and best wishes to the dear, great nation of Iran. First, I would like to honor the memory of the esteemed martyrs from recent events – the martyred generals and scientists who were truly, genuinely valuable for the Islamic Republic. They dedicated their lives to serving others. Today, they are with God receiving the reward for their outstanding services, God willing.
I find it necessary to offer my congratulations to the great nation of Iran. I congratulate the nation for several reasons.
First of all, I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime. With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic. The thought that the Islamic Republic could inflict such blows on that regime never even crossed their minds and they never imagined such a thing, but this is what happened.
We thank God for helping our Armed Forces. They were able to break through the enemy’s advanced, multi-layered defense and raze many of their urban and military areas under the pressure brought by Iran’s missiles and powerful attacks using advanced weaponry. This is one of the greatest divine blessings. It has shown the Zionist regime that attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran carries a heavy price. It will be costly for them. It will result in and generate a heavy cost for them. And praise God, this has happened. This honor is due to our Armed Forces and our dear people who’ve built, trained, and supported these Armed Forces from within themselves, enabling and empowering them to carry out such a great task.
My second congratulations is related to our dear Iran’s victory over the US regime. The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed. It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing. It attacked our nuclear facilities, which warrants an independent criminal prosecution in an international court, of course. But they weren’t able to achieve anything significant. The US President used a bizarre exaggeration in describing what happened. It’s evident he needed such an exaggeration. Whoever heard his remarks knew that beneath the surface of these words lay another truth, which was that they weren’t able to accomplish anything. They failed to achieve their intended goal and they exaggerate things to cover up and conceal the truth.
Here too, the Islamic Republic has been victorious and delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face in return. It [Iran] attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the US’s key bases in the region. The same people who made exaggerated claims in the previous case, tried to downplay this one, claiming that nothing much had happened. But in fact, a major event had taken place. The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to key US centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter. It’s quite significant. Such an action can be repeated in the future too. Should any aggression occur, the enemy – the aggressor – will definitely pay a heavy price.
My third congratulations is for the remarkable unity and solidarity shown by the Iranian nation. Praise God, a nation of approximately 90 million people stood together as one, were united in voice, stood shoulder to shoulder, and didn’t show any differences in their demands or the goals they expressed. They stood together, chanted slogans, spoke out, and supported the actions of the Armed Forces, and this will continue to be the case in the future. The Iranian nation demonstrated its greatness and its distinguished, exceptional character in this event. It showed that when it’s necessary, a unified voice will be heard from this nation, and praise God, this is what happened.
The key point I wish to emphasize in my speech is this that in one of his remarks, the President of the United States declared that Iran must surrender. Surrender! The issue isn’t about enrichment or the nuclear industry anymore. It’s about Iran surrendering. Needless to say, this statement is too big to come out of the US president’s mouth.
For the great country of Iran – a nation with such a history, such a rich culture, and a steadfast national determination – any talk of surrender is nothing but a mockery in the eyes of those who truly know the Iranian people. But his statement revealed a certain reality, which is that the US has been actively opposing and trying to harm Islamic Iran from the very beginning of the Revolution. And each time, they come up with a new pretext. One time, it’s human rights. Another time, it’s defending democracy. Then, it’s women’s rights. Sometimes it’s uranium enrichment, and at other times it’s the nuclear issue itself. Or it’s the matter of missile development.
They bring up all kinds of pretexts. But at the core, it all boils down to one thing, which is that they want Iran to surrender.
The previous administrations never openly stated this because it’s something unacceptable. It isn’t justifiable by any human logic to tell a nation that they must surrender. That’s why they were disguising this objective behind other titles and pretexts.
This person let the truth out. He showed this reality that the US will only be satisfied with Iran’s surrender and nothing less. This is a crucial point. The Iranian nation must know that the core of the conflict with the US is over this point. The US is greatly insulting the people of Iran, and such a thing will never happen. It will never happen.
The Iranian nation is a great nation. Iran is a strong, vast country. It possesses an ancient civilization. Our cultural and civilizational wealth is hundreds of times greater than that of the US and other similar countries. Anyone who expects Iran to surrender to another country is spouting nonsense that will surely be ridiculed by wise, knowledgeable people. The Iranian nation is noble and will remain noble.
The Iranian nation is victorious and will remain victorious, by the grace of God. We are hopeful that Almighty God will continuously protect this nation under His grace, preserving it with dignity and honor. May He elevate the spiritual rank of Imam [Khomeini (ra)]. And may Imam Mahdi (may our souls be sacrificed for him) be pleased and satisfied with this nation, and may he support it with his assistance.
May God’s greetings, mercy, and blessings be upon you. [Dr. Karl: my Emphasis]
Given that Iran now knows with 100% certainty what the Outlaw US Empire demands, they’re no longer any grounds for negotiations excepting one: Iran will rejoin the NPT when the Zionists enroll themselves. I expect the papers Iran has incriminating Grossi and the IAEA will be published when Iran votes to withdraw from the NPT. I expect other outcomes will occur as a result of the conflict, some obvious like becoming closer to Russia and China militarily and a change in relations with Azerbaijan, and some not so obvious like the degree of further isolation of the Collective West from the Global Majority. I’m also curious to see what happens with Japan and South Korea’s relations with the Empire once the tariff deadline arrives as this conflict IMO will have a bearing on what occurs. And then there’s Taiwan. Its separatists can’t like what they just observed as the Empire’s most important proxy was partially thrown under the bus.
“… the night sky of the Persian Gulf is torn apart by the tail flames of the Thunderbolt-15 missiles ..
… why do the [Chinese] J-10Cs painted with the crescent moon military insignia dare to face the Israeli air force directly over the Strait of Hormuz? Is Islamabad’s decision makers risking a break with the U.S. to cross the border and show their swords to avenge the old grudge of Israel’s military aid to India or to build a last line of defense to stem the tide of millions of refugees?”
bravo! We can now say Pakistan has both turned and is fully committed to the new imposed world war. This is a disinfo channel, and stemming flood of refugees is Pakistan’s lesser consideration, but there are useful info, not widely spoken elsewhere.
Other nuggets now exist, such as Chinese-Pakistani military hardware crossing the Iranian border by land via Pakistan, and Chinese air cargo via central Asia into Iran. Help has arrived, if not yet commensurate with the unlimited support for the other side.
Russian expertise in ISR and EW and cyberware and other domains should be on offer as well, after they strenuously denounced this unprovoked illegal aggression (UNSC demarches accusing US, Germany, France, Britain of complicity; statements by Putin, Lavrov, Nebenzya and Ryabkov) and saw the same Anglo-Zio-Ukrainian team responsible for the dronification of Operation Spiderweb operating inside Iran..
It is basically about survival for Pakistan and China, who would both be next. The plot thickens as the conflagration spreads…
The file photo shows a view of the Dimona nuclear power plant in the Negev desert in the southern part of the occupied territories.
PressTV and also reported by Iran National TV
Iran’s intelligence community has obtained a vast trove of strategic and sensitive documents from the Israeli regime, including thousands of records related to its nuclear plans and facilities.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) that the intelligence breach was one of the biggest blows to the occupying regime.
The sources said that although the operation to obtain the documents was carried out some time ago, the sheer volume of materials and the need to transport them safely into Iran necessitated a news blackout to ensure they reached the designated protected locations.
They also noted that the abundance of documents is so vast that reviewing them, along with viewing images and videos, has consumed a significant amount of time.
The revelation comes more than two weeks after Israeli authorities announced the arrest of two men on suspicion of committing security crimes on behalf of Iran.
According to a joint statement issued on May 20 by Israel Police and the Shin Bet spy service, Roy Mizrahi and Almog Atias, both 24, were detained in late April for allegedly conducting intelligence-gathering missions for Iran.
Officials claim the two men are accused of shadowing the Israeli minister of military affairs, Israel Katz, in the community of Kfar Ahim in the southern occupied territories.
Sources told IRIB that their arrest, if it was connected to the case, occurred after the documents had been transported out of the occupied territories.
Israel is burning children alive in Gaza. And call me an antisemitic Jew-hating Nazi terrorist lover if you must, but I happen to believe that’s wrong.
Israel is burning children alive in Gaza. And call me an antisemitic Jew-hating Nazi terrorist lover if you must, but I happen to believe that’s wrong.
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Now that it’s been made clear that Israel’s goal in Gaza is the complete ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians, Israel apologists have been shifting from bleating about hostages and Hamas to arguing that ethnic cleansing is actually fine and good. Which makes sense; that’s really the only argument they can make at this point.
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Never forget that the US Congress gave Netanyahu dozens of standing ovations during a single speech while he was in the middle of perpetrating history’s first live-streamed genocide. This is who they are. It will always be who they are.
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Israel has done more to promote hatred toward Jews in the last year and a half than Stormfront has in its entire existence. No white supremacist propaganda will ever be as effective at spreading hatred against Jews as openly mass murdering children under a Star of David flag.
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Support for Israel used to be the overwhelmingly dominant opinion in the western world. Luckily that’s changing, but the fact that this was the case until Israel exposed itself shows you really can’t just go along with majority opinion on any issue. You need to think for yourself.
Ignore what the crowd says. Ignore people who scream at you for disagreeing with their position. Look at the raw facts as free from your own cognitive biases as you are able, and have the courage to stand on your own if necessary.
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Gaza is such an easy moral issue to get right that there’s no way anyone who gets it wrong isn’t a shitty person in other areas of their life as well. I feel sorry for anyone who has interpersonal relationships with Israel supporters, because they’d suck to be around.
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World Food Programme director Cindy McCain is saying that she’s seen no evidence of Hamas stealing aid entering Gaza. Israel’s one and only argument for continuing to block aid to Gaza is being publicly debunked by a member of one of the most pro-Israel families in US politics.
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The US has reportedly delivered some 90,000 tons of weapons to Israel since October 2023.
I mostly focus on the Gaza genocide these days, but sometimes figures like this make me zoom out a few clicks and think about how bat shit insane our civilization is as a whole. Just think how much good we could do in the world if we weren’t pouring resources into evil shit like this.
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Murdoch-owned publication The Australian came after me the other day for tweeting “Two Israeli embassy staff getting shot in Washington DC is less newsworthy than tens of thousands of Palestinians being killed in Israel’s genocidal land grab. It is less important. It deserves less attention. It is not the main story. Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the main story.”
They called me a “journalist” in scare quotes, which I guess is supposed to be an insult, but coming from the Murdoch press it can only be seen as a compliment.
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According to the official western narrative, Americans becoming violently radicalized by a US-backed genocide is a bigger issue than the US-backed genocide.
According to the official narrative, university protests against a transparent ethnic cleansing operation are a greater concern than the transparent ethnic cleansing operation.
According to the official narrative, western Zionist Jews feeling emotionally upset about opposition to a modern-day holocaust is a more urgent problem than a modern-day holocaust.
All of our institutions are backwards and evil. Our media. Our politics. Our education system. Our manufacturers of mainstream culture. This should be clear to everyone by now.
Every historical evil we were taught never to repeat is being repeated by our own rulers.
Everything we were taught to fear about the countries that the western empire hates is true of the western empire.
Every dark future we were warned about in dystopian fiction is true of the dystopia we are living in presently.
We live in a nightmare of a civilization, under an empire that is fueled by human blood. The closer you examine it, the uglier it gets.
This cannot be allowed to continue. It must not be allowed to continue.
The empire must fall.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions from teachers and students of the Armenian branches of Russian universities, members of the expert community, and activists of the youth wing of the Eurasia Autonomous Non-Profit Organisation, Yerevan, May 21, 2025
I am delighted that our meeting began with the national anthems of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia. It is really important for us to always feel an emotional connection to our roots and to what unites us. Motherland embodied in the national anthem and the coat of arms is not just a symbol. In fact, this is an important part of upbringing, particularly in younger generations. But we are not paying a state visit after all. I would like to mix with students and teachers for a little more.
Thank you for the video that shows how the university is developing. There was a small problem at the end. Situations like this one are numerous in Europe nowadays. They would say right away that “Russia did it.” So you ought to decide how you will explain this.
But, joking aside, it is fine to be here again. It is a pleasure to see that the university makes strides and sets itself goals that meet the requirement of training national personnel for the Republic of Armenia’s foreign policy and other services, personnel who have a good command of Russian and knowledge of Russian history and the current state of relations between our countries. This reserve, these activists are of importance for us in building up mutually beneficial efforts to strengthen the highly positive trends observed in our trade, economic and investment ties over recent years (the last couple of years at the very least).
Russia remains the main investor and trade partner for the Republic of Armenia. Trade has reached a record high, inching close to $11.6 billion. If we take the other members of the Eurasian Economic Union, the figure will total $13 billion. That the Armenian economy advances at a fast rate is a result of its cooperation with the EAEU. We discussed this earlier today with President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan and Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan. We will certainly discuss this trend and the tasks involved in making it stronger with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan immediately after our meeting here.
In recent years, some discrepancies have emerged in our positions with regard to how we see the further development of our relations, alliance, and strategic partnership, including alliance within the framework of the CSTO, the CIS, and the EAEU.
Today, subsequent to the meeting between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in autumn 2024 – during which our leaders resolved to reinstate comprehensive contacts across all areas, as these had, to a certain degree, lapsed somewhat in the period preceding their discussions – and in accordance with the leaders’ understanding, I received Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan who visited Moscow in January. We are now here on a reciprocal visit.
Allow me to state immediately that, as instructed by our leaders, we are engaging in the frankest discussions – not only on matters positively received by both capitals and conducive to expanding mutually beneficial projects, but also on issues where our perspectives diverge. This includes, notably, the processes unfolding in the South Caucasus, where, broadly speaking, two trends are in contention.
The first trend involves respecting the sovereign choices of the countries situated here – the nations of the South Caucasus, Transcaucasia (as we once referred to it) – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – while also acknowledging the legitimate interests of their immediate neighbours: Russia, Iran, and Türkiye. The 3+3 platform was established in its time, uniting this group of six (two trios), which has already convened a couple of ministerial meetings in Istanbul and Tehran and is now preparing for a third. There is a fundamental understanding to deepen sectoral dialogues within this framework – encompassing energy, transport, and cultural ties – for which considerable potential exists. We are currently finalising the venue for the third ministerial meeting, though I am confident this matter will be resolved imminently.
This 3+3 process is wholly unencumbered by any obligations requiring participants to curtail relations with states outside the South Caucasus region. No such commitments exist. That is the first trend.
The second trend, however, is precisely that our Western counterparts – primarily the European Union, though it is challenging to speak definitively about the United States at this stage, as the administration of Donald Trump has yet to articulate its clear, doctrinal stance on the South Caucasus – nevertheless, their predecessors in the Joe Biden administration, alongside the EU, openly sought to extend their dominant influence over this region, to bend unfolding processes to their will, and to prevent the consolidation of the three South Caucasus states with their major neighbours – Russia, Iran, and Türkiye. This objective persists.
This trend, this modus operandi of our Western colleagues, is not unique to the South Caucasus but extends to Central Asia and other parts of our vast, shared continent. The same principle applies here: “either with us or against us.” The facts are well known. When EU member states propose collaborative projects to Central Asian and Eastern European nations – including, notably at present, Moldova – as well as to countries such as Mongolia and others across the Eurasian continent, all such proposals involve financing arrangements that, in one way or another, grant the “donors” access to highly sensitive information. This includes data pertaining to allied integration processes within the CSTO and the EAEU, customs statistics, border cooperation, border infrastructure, and cross-border controls. The trend is unmistakable. Politically, conditions are imposed requiring recipient nations to curtail or sever their cooperation with the Russian Federation in exchange for such generous assistance. “Either with us or against us.” “Divide et impera.” This principle remains entrenched in Western foreign policy, which – whether recalling or never having forgotten its near 500-year dominance in global politics through colonial wars, expansionism, and slavery – seeks to sustain itself even now at the expense of others.
In contrast, our stance is based on equality, mutual respect and, above all, the principles that have been set out in the UN Charter and are approved by everyone without exception. It states unequivocally that the United Nations Organisation is based on respect for the sovereign equality of states.
I cannot recall a single conflict or crisis situation – not a single one – that occurred after 1945, when the UN was established, where the West respected the principle of sovereign equality.
On the contrary, the West always promoted a settlement concept that primarily met its own interests. The only exception was the Second World War, or more precisely, the alliance of the Soviet Union, including the Russian people and the Armenian people, with Western countries. It was created because London and Washington saw – it took them a long time to decide which conflicting party to side with – that the tide of war had turned and they should hurry to seize European territories so that they would be able to make decisions on the post-war structure of Europe later.
This does not downgrade the heroism of the Americans, the British and the French resistance or resistance in other European countries whose authorities bowed to Hitler Germany. Neither does it belittle the heroism of our Serbian and Montenegrin friends, who fought against the Nazi hordes.
Nevertheless, that pragmatic, if not cynical, consideration prevailed until the beginning of WWII, when London and Paris chose whom to side with and seriously analysed the option of siding with Hitler to jointly crush the Soviet Union.
That option existed during the last days of WWII. Even before Victory Day, when the banner of victory was raised over the Reichstag and Hitter’s Germany surrendered, our Western allies continued to consider plans which were formalised as Operation Unthinkable, as we know now from archival documents. It is good that they saw that their plans were unthinkable. The name is self-explanatory. That plan provided for massive bombing strikes on Soviet cities, including with the use of nuclear weapons. Thankfully, common sense prevailed. Our relations entered the path of peaceful coexistence, which turned into the Cold War after Winston Churchill’s Fulton speech and led to the establishment of NATO and the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation in response.
That chain of events can be traced to this day, beginning with the violation of the Western promises on the non-expansion of NATO to the east, to East Germany after its reunification with West Germany, which they made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the rules of military deployment there. They have violated all their promises. NATO is expanding, there is the bloc’s infrastructure in East Germany, and this process is ongoing.
What is the essence of these deliberations? There have been a large number of what some describe as lost opportunities and others denounce as Western lies. The promise not to expand NATO has been thrown down the drain. The promise to respect the principle of indivisible security, when no state strengthens its security to the detriment of other states, and no state or organisation tries to dominate in Europe, has been broken.
Our numerous attempts, starting in 2008, to implement the principle of indivisible security, so that nothing threatens our national interests, failed. They told us that this principle had been approved at the highest level in the OSCE, yet it was nothing more than a “political declaration.” We asked in reply if the word of their presidents and prime ministers was worth anything. They told us that it was, politically, but they cannot legally guarantee this.
We made the proposal, and we have repeatedly proposed since 2008 that the political commitment should be codified in the form of legally binding documents. No way! But why? After all, we are suggesting that the commitment not to interfere with each other’s security, a commitment that has been officially approved, should be made legally binding. As simple as that. Because it is only NATO that can provide legal security guarantees. After all, this did not start yesterday. It all started at least 20 years ago, when President of Russia Vladimir Putin addressed the Munich Security Conference in 2007, saying we had come to terms on this and on that but later it transpired that the whole thing was not worth a pin from your point of view.
You want to dominate, suppress the national interests of all others, and bend them to your will, to your selfish designs and your wish to derive benefits by what are, in effect, neo-colonial methods.
Therefore, we have clean conscience. We have warned them over the past 20 years, almost on the daily basis, that all this could come to grief. But after the 2014 coup d’etat, they began converting Ukraine to an “anti-Russia.” They encouraged the junta that came to power as a result of the coup despite the EU-guaranteed plan of settlement. They wanted to eradicate Russian from all spheres of life. They sent armed militants to invade Crimea, but the people of Crimea said that they do not want to have anything to do with them. Donbas said the same. They used all its resources to support this openly Nazi regime. And so, we are where we are.
They deceived us in February 2014, when they staged a coup the morning after a settlement agreement was signed. They did the same a year on by signing the Minsk agreements, which they immediately violated, confessing later that they had no intention whatsoever to comply with them, but just wanted to play for time in order to pump Ukraine full of weapons.
They are using the same tactics today by urging us to accept a truce without any preconditions. Their aim is to give Ukraine a respite and to “load” it with new batches of weapons. Not so long ago, President Vladimir Putin again recalled the talks in Istanbul in April 2022, when we initialed the Ukraine-suggested principles of settlement. We accepted these. The principles were initialed by both us and the Ukrainians. But later the West forbade them to sign the treaty based on these same principles.
So now, when they tell us: Let us have a ceasefire and then we’ll see, we say: No way, guys, we have been through it all before. We don’t want it that way any longer. And so today, when all these Macrons, Starmers, Ursulas von der Leyen, and other European characters are writhing in hysterics and urging the US to join the anti-Russia crusade and increase the number of sanctions, this is a complete giveaway for them.
Quite recently, the European Union approved the 17th package of anti-Russia sanctions. It appears that they had drafted it last week but said that they would wait until Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, and that they would introduce this package or not depending on its results. But we are demanding a truce without any preconditions. At the end of their conversation, both leaders called for determining the parameters of a long-term peace deal that would help eliminate the root causes of this crisis. These root causes included NATO’s eastward expansion and the strategic line of the Ukrainian junta, that had gained power through a coup d’etat, to eliminate education in Russian, Russian-language media outlets and culture. They have recently approved a decision to liquidate the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Today, we have provided our Foreign Ministry colleagues with a list of laws that had been passed long before the special military operation, which aimed to oust the Russian language from all spheres of life.
This should not be the case if you champion human rights, if you are members of the United Nations Organisation who have ratified the UN Charter whose Article 1 states expressly that everyone should promote and encourage respect for human rights without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. Ukrainian legislation expressly bans the Russian language and religion. There is nothing like this anywhere else. Today, we have recalled that Armenia does not ban the Azerbaijani language. According to the Constitution of Azerbaijan, the Armenian language and Armenian-language education are allowed in Azerbaijan, including Nagorno Karabakh. On the other hand, there are few people left there, but this is not important. The legislative framework is important. The Arabic language is legitimate in Israel, the same is true about the Hebrew language in Arab countries. However, the Russian language is banned everywhere in Ukraine.
It is a funny paradox, to a certain extent, that they mostly speak to each other in Russian because they find it more convenient. They simply want to liquidate any outward signs of our common culture, history and our common destiny in this world of Orthodox Slavic nations. They also want to “kill” Orthodoxy for the same reason.
Let me go back to what the European Union had anticipated from the meeting and the phone call between US President Donald Trump and President of Russia Vladimir Putin. The initial response was that they would look into it. Following the conversation, both Putin and Trump offered a positive assessment, agreeing on the need to develop concrete steps toward a long-term, sustainable resolution. This included the potential use of ceasefires, but more importantly, a focus on addressing the root causes of the conflict. And what did the European Union do in response? It announced the approval of the 17th sanctions package.
This indicates that they were seeking an escalation of the crisis. In other words, they claimed to have listened, but saw no support for a ceasefire without preconditions – that would have allowed them, the Europeans, to rearm Ukraine. That’s what they were aiming for.
These developments suggest that the Euro-Atlantic security framework we are currently part of, particularly within the OSCE, is becoming obsolete. This is especially evident as Western participants in this framework are clearly abusing their position. A growing divergence in the approaches of the United States and Europe has also become apparent. Most importantly, security is fundamentally rooted in the consideration of geopolitical realities. Geopolitics and geography alike underscore the necessity of building bridges among all nations across the Eurasian continent. This means, first and foremost, fostering cooperation among the existing regional structures: the SCO, the EAEU, the CSTO, the CIS, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the GCC, and ASEAN. South Asia also has its own integration frameworks, and many of these organisations have already begun establishing ties with one another.
It is somewhat paradoxical not to make use of the advantages offered by geography and history. Here on the largest continent, we have yet to fully tap into the vast, God-given potential for economic, logistical, and infrastructure development. Analysis indicates that leveraging the opportunities presented by the Eurasian continent – particularly through trade routes such as the Northern Sea Route – could prove significantly more efficient than current alternatives, including those passing through the Suez Canal.
However, there are those who are intent on preventing such a mutually beneficial unification of the countries across Eurasia, including those in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Nevertheless, we continue to advance this effort.
President Vladimir Putin has proposed the creation of a Greater Eurasian Partnership, rooted in practical cooperation and the interaction of existing integration structures, which would serve as the foundation for a future Eurasian security architecture.
I repeat, this is a long-term endeavour. It is not some abstract blueprint devised by others. As NATO itself has stated, the alliance seeks to extend its influence beyond the territories of its member states to the Far East, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and Southeast Asia. This ambition stems from a desire to contain the People’s Republic of China and to isolate Russia.
No, our approach is not to impose speculative concepts, especially those driven by ideology or geopolitics, but rather to foster dialogue and the exchange of perspectives. This has been the guiding principle for the past two years at the International Conference on Eurasian Security, convened by Belarus. The conference brings together ministers, political analysts, and representatives from various countries, including some from the European Union and other parts of Europe.
We anticipate that Armenia will take part in these processes. We fully respect the desire of our Armenian partners to develop relations with other countries, whether European or non-European, and with international organisations across various regions. However, we believe that such cooperation should be consistent with the principles that underpin our interaction within the CIS, the EAEU, and the CSTO.
Question: What do you think about the current state and outlook for Russian-Armenian relations? Are there some loose ends that we need to tie up?
Sergey Lavrov: I touched upon this issue in my extended opening remarks.
There were some loose ends, as you put it, and certain complaints in our relations. For example, after the incident at Jermuk in 2022, our Armenian colleagues decided that the CSTO failed to fulfil its obligations when it had not intervened in the clashes, which lasted three days before they were stopped.
After that, a CSTO summit was held in Yerevan in October 2022. Following the Jermuk incident, the CSTO mission led by the organisation’s secretary general visited the region to see if security could be strengthened on that part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. It has submitted a plan for the deployment of a group of CSTO military observers, which we spent a long time coordinating before the CSTO summit in Yerevan at a meeting of foreign and defence ministers. We have coordinated it.
But when the heads of state and government met the next morning, they failed to approve it. The Armenian side was not satisfied with the assessment included in the plan. As we say, you can give advice, but you can’t make someone take it.
Soon afterwards, the Armenian authorities accepted, with Azerbaijan’s agreement, the idea of placing an EU observer mission there. That was Armenia’s choice. We did not argue against it. But several weeks later the European political community held a meeting at the initiative of President of France Emmanuel Macron. He openly described it as a meeting of European OSCE members minus Russia and Belarus. This is an outspoken position that points to what this European political community was created for.
We have discussed this today. The European political community has recently met in Albania. Armenia reportedly wants to host such a meeting next year. We have provided our assessment of that idea. I hope that it is clear to everyone and will be respected, just like we respect the actions of our partners and allies within the CIS and the CSTO.
When the first meeting of that European political community was held in Prague in November 2022, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, guided by President of the European Council Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, approved a document which says that Karabakh is a territory whose status was formalised in the 1991 Almaty Declaration on the “divorce” of the Soviet republics. According to it, Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.
We accepted that as a sovereign decision of the Armenian authorities, even though when we tried to stop that war, President Vladimir Putin, President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan talked overnight on November 9, 2020, and coordinated a document on the termination of hostilities, under which the status of Karabakh was to be decided later. It was not determined in that document.
It was a challenging task. Considering that this issue is of utmost importance for both nations, the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh was to be discussed at subsequent talks. Several years later, in 2022, the Armenian authorities decided that its status was determined in the 1991 Almaty Declaration. We respect any decisions, and we had no problems with that decision either, although it put in question the presence of our peacekeepers, who had been deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh in accordance with the November 2020 agreement, which says that the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is under control of the Russian military peacekeeping force. It means that it was regarded as a neutral zone. Since it was decided in 2022 that Nagorno-Karabakh is an Azerbaijani region, we gradually pulled our peacekeepers out of it. And now we have what we have.
Yes, there was some misunderstanding and suspicion, as you have pointed out. We are ready to discuss all aspects of that situation, our actions and somebody’s inaction. We did not violate any obligations. It was a sovereign decision of the Armenian authorities. We didn’t know that it was made or that it would be made in Prague. We learned about it from the media. When members of the opposition or other political circles claim that Russia has given Karabakh away to Azerbaijan, this is unfair and contradicts the facts. As I have said, we only learned about that decision from the media. For over 20 years before that, Russia helped Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold talks and discuss numerous variants of a peace treaty, but each of them left the status of Nagorno-Karabakh for later. We have nothing to blame ourselves for.
We understand that there may be different developments in Armenia, given the domestic political circumstances, or in Azerbaijan, given the same domestic political circumstances. There was a period of some suspicions, omissions, and misunderstandings. We managed to overcome them, above all thanks to meetings, especially the meeting between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in the autumn of 2024. They had an open and sincere discussion. Many misunderstandings were cleared up, and we agreed to resume contacts across all areas, including between our foreign ministries. As a follow-up to this agreement, Ararat Mirzoyan visited Moscow in January 2025, and now I have come here. I am deeply grateful for the warm welcome extended at the highest level. Today’s talks at the Armenian Foreign Ministry and the meeting with President Vahagn Khachaturyan reaffirmed that we are moving beyond a period of mutual distrust and grievances. We understand that such sentiments are counterproductive, because there are facts, and we will proceed from them. The Armenian leadership has said – though I may not quote precisely – that we should not constantly look back to historical Armenia. What matters is building a strong, modern Armenia and living in today’s realities. I fully agree. We have a saying: “Let bygones be bygones.” The past never has the result that would be important today, but it should not be forgotten: not the history and the legacy of our ancestors, the feats they made for their homeland, their people, or their faith. This memory must live in our hearts and guide the way we raise our children and grandchildren. However, practical decisions must be guided by the realities of today. This also applies to many complex issues on the international agenda, including the situation in Ukraine: it is about today’s realities while not forgetting the past – the history of how these lands came to be, who founded these cities, ports, factories, and who now seek to physically destroy all that, like they are tearing down monuments to Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin. It all just came up to my mind.
As for your question, the main result following today’s visit is that we have left behind the point where we lacked sincerity and mutual trust.
Question: Which diplomatic crisis during your career has been the most challenging for you? In this regard, what advice would you give to future diplomats?
Sergey Lavrov: I have not assessed my diplomatic experience through such a metric. A diplomat in any crisis should focus not on personal hardship but on resolving the issue.
There were a number of episodes during my tenure in New York at the United Nations Security Council. At that time, highly acute crises arose, including in relations between the United States and Cuba. Madeleine Albright was the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, my counterpart.
On a couple of occasions, the situation became truly critical – for instance, when Cuban forces downed an aircraft flown from Florida with provocative intent. This occurred in the dead of night in Moscow, yet within two hours of protracted negotiations, we harmonised two paragraphs. The Americans required a reaction, while the Cubans, naturally, insisted on an objective response from the UN Security Council. We succeeded in drafting a text that satisfied both the United States and Cuba.
I seldom think about this episode, but whenever I visit Havana, our Cuban friends unfailingly remind me that they remember it. This is always gratifying.
Among other instances: the situation in Syria after 2015, when, following the terrorists’ incursion under the guise of the West’s orchestrated Arab Spring, we ultimately concluded that it was necessary to deploy our troops at the request of the legitimate president. This occurred in September 2015. Throughout 2016, we held numerous meetings with then-US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss potential joint actions to avert a large-scale Western military intervention in Syria under the pretext of chemical weapons presence there. Ultimately, we managed to coordinate a document submitted for consideration to the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, which facilitated de-escalation. The United States was thereby able to present its Congress with data rendering even the contemplation of intervention in Syria unnecessary. Syria acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the remaining chemical agents and substances were destroyed.
Incidentally, the OPCW received a Nobel Prize for this. There were several such pivotal episodes, as the topics under discussion were high-profile and acutely perceived within various segments of the international community.
My advice is to study historical precedents. They are never superfluous. Rarely, if ever, can one simply take a blueprint of a past framework and apply it today. Yet one must skilfully leverage experience and precedents. Above all, creativity is essential – advancing your objectives not through ultimatums but in a manner that keeps your counterpart engaged in the negotiation process.
Partners must always be heard. While listening to partners, your own tasks – those indispensable to your country’s security and legitimate interests – must be advanced under any circumstances. Diplomatic manoeuvres are vital, allowing partners, too, to secure outcomes aligned with their interests.
When questioned about the Ukrainian crisis – a point he recently reaffirmed –President of Russia Vladimir Putin states that we have a position and promote it on the basis that any final settlement must be universally acceptable to all sides. Hence, we remain ever ready to discuss compromise.
Welcome to “Ruler of the World” does Wonderland – to the sound of that hypnotic ‘Kashmir’ riff.
By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture Foundation.
Two overarching taboos reign on the – now shattered – collective West:
The taboos happen to be inextricably linked to the Forever Wars deployed non-stop by the Empire of Chaos/Zionist axis.
Lesser Hybrid Wars though – even carrying the horrifying prospect of turning nuclear – are allowed to come and go. Especially if they are part of the current war on BRICS, a sub-section of the war of factions of the West against the Global Majority.
So let’s go to Kashmir – to the sound of Jimmy Page’s hypnotic riff. Both India and Pakistan are escalating the war of decibels. Turkey is offering weapons – to Pakistan. Iran offered a mediator role: no takers.
The motive for the war is as dodgy as they come. An all-male tourist bus packing a bunch of merry tourists is roaming around Indian-held Kashmir. Passengers include a just married 26-year-old lieutenant of the Indian Navy – but without his wife (what kind of honeymoon is that?) Another passenger is Nepalese. The bus is attacked by shady splinter goons loosely affiliated with the Salafi-jihadi Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit.
The Empire has been all over the Indian front. The current US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard was previously fully funded by Prime Minister Modi’s circles. Eyeliner-loaded VP J.D. Vance recently visited India – complete with family Taj Mahal photo op. Then Modi went to visit Saudi Arabia – invited by MbS. After the Kashmir bus terror attack, Hindutva fanatics went on a cyber-attack spree.
The crude tactics spell out classic Divide and Rule. Double whammy: revamped weaponization of India, and destabilization of a key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) China front: the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). A thing of beauty: splitting BRICS from the inside.
None of that, of course, legitimizes the ghastly Pakistani military, which have thrown in jail, on spurious charges, the man who was trying to bring Pakistan to respectability: Imran Khan.
It’s up, once again, to the adults in the room, any room – Russia – to de-escalate. This could be ideally performed inside the SCO – where both India and Pakistan are members, side by side with Iran. Moscow chose to take the initiative, by itself.
Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko met with both India’s Ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia, Muhammad Khalid Jamali.
Russian terminology is essential: not only there was a call for both parties to “engage in constructive dialogue”. Moscow stressed, “we are ready to counter the global terrorist threat together.” The operative word is “global”. Delhi and Islamabad don’t seem to be getting the message – yet.
Kashmir as a volatile war lab
An infernal machine is predictably on. It’s as if the Anglo-Zionist axis is using Kashmir as a volatile lab for a series of live tests – including pushing nuclear powers to the brink of confrontation. And all that dealt with casual insouciance – practically as a sideshow.
Nothing coming from Sültan Erdogan and his intel apparatus could possibly be seen as trustworthy. In Syria, the MIT’s assets – the Headchopper Inc. congregated in Greater Idlibistan – ended up being installed in power in Damascus with their Zionist-friendly gang leader now posing as President.
The comprador Yankee junta in Islamabad, for its part, may be facing the abyss – which in itself qualifies as auspicious news. In parallel, suspense accrues on whether Modi will show up for the Victory Day parade on May 9 in Moscow – and what he will tell his Russian hosts.
BRICS members Russia and Iran want the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) running smoothly to India sooner rather than later. The game gets even more complex when we see that the Iranian investigation is finally starting to consider that the horrendous explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port may have been an act of sabotage or an FPV strike.
Extra pressure on China is a real motivator for setting up this war lab. Now Beijing not only needs to start worrying about an explosively renewed India-Pakistan front but also extra CIA/MI6 mischief pushing the Pak connection to Uighur Salafi-jihadis.
There’s no chance in hell Delhi will really understand Beijing’s geopolitical predicaments. A perfect scenario for the Hybrid War gang.
Meanwhile, at the BRICS front, at least there are some signs of rationality – coming, once again, from Grandmaster Lavrov.
Even before the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting early this week in Rio, Lavrov cut to the chase on the financial and geoeconomic front. He stressed that BRICS are working hard on the 2024 Kazan summit-approved “Trans-Border Payment Initiative”; a “payment and clearing infrastructure”; “a re-insurance company”; and a new investment platform.
He had to once again explain to Western media – from the US to Brazil – that “it would be premature to discuss a transition to a single currency for BRICS. We are working together to create a payment and settlement infrastructure for carrying out cross-border settlements among BRICS countries. In particular, as I have already said, this includes increasing the share of national currencies in our transactions.”
A BRICS common currency – a specter hovering over Trump 2.0 – will only come back to the table “once the necessary financial and economic conditions are in place.” Until then, the war on BRICS, hybrid and otherwise, will be relentless.
Trumpty Dumpty
Switching from reality to fantasy, it was such a blast to find the connection between Kashmir and Alice in Wonderland… in a Chinese essay.
It takes supreme Chinese finesse – quite like subverting Taoist wisdom with a touch of post-modernism – to identify the “ruler of the world” (his own terminology) throwing everyone, virtually the whole planet, into the rabbit hole.
So in this wilderness of narrative mirrors, Trump should be perceived as all characters combined: the White Rabbit, Humpty Dumpty (“When I use a word, it means what I choose to mean, no more and no less”), the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts (“Off with their heads!”)
That certainly illustrates the intersection of the trade war (launched by the “ruler of the world”) and the genocide war (fully legitimized by the “ruler of the world”). With an extra twist: reality has a knack to out-Carroll even Lewis Carroll himself.
Enter the curious case of the USS Truman, a giant aircraft carrier, being possessed by the spirit of Ayrton Senna and deciding to pull out an ultra-sharp curve as if it was a Maserati Gran Turismo Stradale in the middle of the Red Sea – just for a F-18E Super Hornet to protest about the maneuver plunging head on to the bottom of the ocean.
At least that was the narrative CENTCOM sold to global public opinion. Blame that damned Houthi missile fire!
Well, CENTCOM has been relentlessly humiliated by the Yemeni Armed Forces – 21 MQ9-Reapers smashed, and counting – as it has accomplished zero military objectives; the Pentagon has not subdued the Houthis; and has not secured “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea for Israeli-bound ships. Their revenge: to bomb Yemeni civilian targets non-stop.
All that because the “ruler of the world” launched an illegal war – against people guided by moral and spiritual clarity – to protect the genocide perpetrated by his psychopathological regime buddies. Welcome to “Ruler of the World” does Wonderland – to the sound of that hypnotic ‘Kashmir’ riff.
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