Listening In,
In Vague War Reporting https://www.
This discussion now appears to be open. The Overton window just got expanded as a wrecking ball opened a hole in the wall next to it. My personal read of this encourages me. It seems that a broad movement is in place to replace the existing oligarchy, or at least their existing "courtiers" in the Imperial city of Washington DC. I have long known that there was another, weaker faction in the halls of power, which I have called the "rationalists" and some call the "white hats".
It seemed that Donald Trump sought to serve nationalist interests during his presidency, and imperfectly so, to be sure. The power structure which was in place from the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama years was expecting Clinton-II, and tried to keep those plans warm, while sabotaging, "resisting" and sniping at the elected president and his cabinet. Many believe that Barack Obama is now operating the O'Biden drone from his Washington command center. It's plausible.
The Empire has had a debacle in Afghanistan, and the NATO proxy-army in Ukraine is now heavily outgunned by Russia artillery, as the west cannot supply the required ammunition or the big guns rapidly enough to keep up with the Russian barrages. Inexperienced Ukrainian recruits of all ages are dying in freezing, muddy trenches. That is the main cost of maintaining the pretense that Russia might not win this war. Thousands of Polish "volunteers" are also dying, as attested to by funeral services in Poland.
The current western empire, which does not actually serve "American" interests, cannot negotiate any practical closure to this failing war, as the largest and best equipped NATO army in Europe has mostly passed through the Russian meat grinder, and the "Ukrainian army" now in place is a lot like the German army of 1944, not the Wehrmacht of 1939, which it resembled a year ago. In order to back down from the unipolar-world posture of the post-9/11 Global War On Terror years, in order to engage the multipolar world, and in order to coordinate the step-down from the American Petrodollar as global reserve currency, the world will need a western "Partner" which is "Agreement Capable".
It seems that history is about to demand a different administration in Washington DC, an administration different-enough to plausibly be able to negotiate, and then to abide by global treaties and international laws. This administration, to be plausible, cannot tout "American Exceptionalism", but can certainly pursue and defend the actual interests of the American people and American industry.
In our current world, with declining cheap-oil and likely declining total energy to drive economies, the successful economic strategy will no longer be to burn as much oil, coal and gas as rapidly as possible, but rather to refine economic goals to be practical in long decades of declining energy availability. Some of us were raised by depression era parents and grandparents, who valued things which were well made and lasted a long time. Many of us have been frustrated by modern appliances, which have electronic malfunctions after a few years, when the rest of the washing machine or stove could work for 30 more years, or longer. Most modern automobiles also have artificially shortened life-spans for similar reasons of electronic lifespan being shorter than mechanical lifespan with reasonable repairs.
Will the United States be able to approach or realize a change-of-management by 2024-2025?
Even sooner?
This seems like too short a period for there to be an actual change-in-ownership in the American oligarchy, but some oligarchs might step back from management, while others take more of a hand. Another factor in the management change will be the necessary decline of globalist interests, in favor of rebuilding industry and infrastructure within the United States, with American workers.
There was a "New Deal" social contract negotiated in the US in the FDR and post-war years. American workers have been progressively dispossessed since 1976, which was the most-egalitarian year for American paychecks. The squeeze on American labor via inflation, while paychecks shrank in absolute terms, was long used as the "fix" for various economic ills. It has recently been topped-off by increasing consumer-debt and college-loan debt. These debts have been made possible by falling interest rates, which allowed them to be rolled-over. That is over. The problems really need to be addressed and remedied now.
New management in The United States of America will need to renegotiate the social contract with American workers, which will need to be fair and equitable, and will need to reward people for their work. A lot of problems need to be worked out, by a lot of competent people at all levels. American workers and their families will need to experience actual benefit from their best-efforts, not just be paid an hourly wage.
This same new management should also negotiate America's place in a more cooperative international order as a nation, not as the hegemon.
Americans have a lot to offer. Ocean trade needs to be protected from piracy. The US navy has been prominent in that role, and could usefully remain prominent, but how would that be funded? There are a lot of questions like that, which need to be negotiated and agreed upon.
Tulsi Gabbard, provides the warmth and Aloha on her new show, interviewing Tucker Carlson as the guest this time, and they talk as the friends they are. Tucker starts talking about his awareness of racing towards his own death, seeing this as a core of wisdom. Life, Death, Power, the CIA , Washington corruption bubble, rigid political factionalism, and the coming American collapse. Tucker talks about his search for wisdom and his practices of prayer and meditation. Tulsi, too.
Tucker Carlson has the most watched American TV news show. Carlson's unnamed source had access within the CIA to the withheld CIA documents regarding JFK's assassination. This is made into the focus of the show, that the CIA was involved in JFK's assassination, and every director since then has known it.
Mike Pompeo declined to accept an interview on the show.
Tucker Carlson: Source says yes, the CIA was involved in JFK's assassination Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.
Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth...
..A surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.
Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth...
..A surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.
The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.
Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content.
Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content.
Social Media Coordination Between DOJ And FBI Is Not Limited To Twitter: Devin Nunes
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/social-media-coordination-between-doj-and-fbi-not-limited-twitter-devin-nunes
MH: The dollar will remain in demand, thanks to its success in making the Eurozone dependent on it. The British pound has little means of support, and little reason for foreigners to invest in it. The euro is a junior satellite currency to the dollar.
Without a dollar or other currency to hold their monetary reserves in, governments will continue to increase the proportion held in gold, because it doesn’t have government liabilities attached to it – so U.S. officials can’t simply grab it, as they did with Russia’s foreign reserves. Eurozone countries cannot be trusted not to follow U.S. orders to grab foreign countries’ reserves, so it will be shunned.
As the euro’s exchange rate declines against the dollar, foreign investment will decline, because investors will not want to invest in (1) a shrinking market, and (2) companies that earn domestic euros that are worth fewer and fewer dollars or other hard currency for head offices.
Of course, gold will have to be kept at home, so that it can’t simply be grabbed, as the Bank of England grabbed Venezuela’s gold and gave it to the right-wing U.S. proxy. Germany would be wise to accelerate its airlift of its own gold supply from the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank vaults in New York City.
Q: What is your current analysis of the energy and financial crises in the world?
MH: No real crisis as much as a slow crash. Rising prices paid for what America exports: oil, food and IT monopoly goods, with living costs for consumers rising faster than wages. So there will be a tightening squeeze or most families. The middle class will discover that it really is the wage-earning class after all, and will go deeper into debt – especially if it tries to protect itself by taking out a mortgage to buy a home.
The Petrodollar’s Long Goodbye , Vijay Prashad
Michael Hudson has a new interview out. Here is a pertinent excerpt:
Q: What is your view on the current weakness or strength of the US dollar, the Euro, the British Pound, Gold and Silver?MH: The dollar will remain in demand, thanks to its success in making the Eurozone dependent on it. The British pound has little means of support, and little reason for foreigners to invest in it. The euro is a junior satellite currency to the dollar.
Without a dollar or other currency to hold their monetary reserves in, governments will continue to increase the proportion held in gold, because it doesn’t have government liabilities attached to it – so U.S. officials can’t simply grab it, as they did with Russia’s foreign reserves. Eurozone countries cannot be trusted not to follow U.S. orders to grab foreign countries’ reserves, so it will be shunned.
As the euro’s exchange rate declines against the dollar, foreign investment will decline, because investors will not want to invest in (1) a shrinking market, and (2) companies that earn domestic euros that are worth fewer and fewer dollars or other hard currency for head offices.
Of course, gold will have to be kept at home, so that it can’t simply be grabbed, as the Bank of England grabbed Venezuela’s gold and gave it to the right-wing U.S. proxy. Germany would be wise to accelerate its airlift of its own gold supply from the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank vaults in New York City.
Q: What is your current analysis of the energy and financial crises in the world?
MH: No real crisis as much as a slow crash. Rising prices paid for what America exports: oil, food and IT monopoly goods, with living costs for consumers rising faster than wages. So there will be a tightening squeeze or most families. The middle class will discover that it really is the wage-earning class after all, and will go deeper into debt – especially if it tries to protect itself by taking out a mortgage to buy a home.
As part of their concern about “currency power,” many countries in the Global South are eager to develop non-dollar trade and investment systems.
On Dec. 9, China’s President Xi Jinping met with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss deepening ties between the Gulf countries and China...
..In 1993, China became a net importer of oil, surpassing the United States as the largest importer of crude oil by 2017. Half of that oil comes from the Arabian Peninsula, and more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports go to China...
..In 1993, China became a net importer of oil, surpassing the United States as the largest importer of crude oil by 2017. Half of that oil comes from the Arabian Peninsula, and more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports go to China...
..At this first China-GCC summit, Xi urged the Gulf monarchs to “make full use of the Shanghai Petrol and Gas Exchange as a platform to conduct oil and gas sales using Chinese currency.” Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia suggested that it might accept Chinese yuan rather than U.S. dollars for the oil it sells to China.
While no formal announcement was made at the GCC summit nor in the joint statement issued by China and Saudi Arabia, indications abound that these two countries will move closer toward using the Chinese yuan to denominate their trade. However, they will do so slowly, as they both remain exposed to the U.S. economy.
While no formal announcement was made at the GCC summit nor in the joint statement issued by China and Saudi Arabia, indications abound that these two countries will move closer toward using the Chinese yuan to denominate their trade. However, they will do so slowly, as they both remain exposed to the U.S. economy.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/15/the-petrodollars-long-goodbye/
Asked about Kissinger’s proposal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “eager to give the article a thorough reading”.
Does Kissinger obliquely advocate for US regime-change to facilitate timely negotiations here?
Urgently negotiating an end to hostilities in Ukraine would prevent another world war, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger argued in an essay published on Friday. The 99-year-old statesman noted that, in 1916, the US government had the chance to end the First World War through diplomacy, but missed it for reasons of domestic politics...
What’s fresh in Kissinger’s Spectator essay is his reasoning. He points to August 1916, at the height of the First World War, when the warring powers sought US mediation to end the unprecedented bloodshed. Though “a peace based on the modified status quo ante was within reach,” President Woodrow Wilson delayed the talks until after he could get re-elected in November. By then it was too late, and the war would go on for two more years, “irretrievably damaging Europe’s established equilibrium.” Asked about Kissinger’s proposal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “eager to give the article a thorough reading”.
The "Biden" administration clearly cannot negotiate any reasonable settlement, having staked-out a rigid and indefensible political position.
This administration would have to accept a public humiliation to enter any realistic negotiation.
A replacement administration would not carry that baggage.
It is not yet time for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan argued in an interview on Friday. Meanwhile, Henry Kissinger – who held the same post in the early 1970s – has said talks should happen sooner rather than later. “We don’t know where this is going to end up,” Sullivan said of the conflict, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment think tank in Washington. “What we do know is that it’s our job to continue to sustain our military support to Ukraine, so they are in the best possible position on the battlefield, so that if and when the diplomacy is ripe, they will be in the best possible position at the negotiating table.” “That moment is not right now,” he added...
..There was no indication that 46-year-old Sullivan was aware of his predecessor’s essay in The Spectator, in which the 99-year-old Kissinger called for an armistice in Ukraine before the conflict spins out of control.
https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/time-for-ukraine-talks-not-right-now-white-house/
What parallel universe is this?
The White House believes Ukraine’s military could retake the Crimean Peninsula from Russia. However, officials say the offensive may cross Moscow’s "red lines" and prompt a nuclear strike.
Seeking Constructive Dialogue
I am reading Longchenpa 'Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind', I have the trilogy, and Will Johnson, take your pick, anapansati meditations. God Bless You John. Den
ReplyDeleteThanks Dennis.
Delete"God bless us, every one"
Tiny Tim