The Chinese and Russians have had maneuvers and training on land and on blue water.
Next, they will fly together, I predict.
Maybe refueling over the South China Seas, so the Chinese can stay up for long flight times.
The Russians use Cam Rahn Bay in Vietnam for their tanker planes. It would be symbolic if Chinese jet fighters got fuel from Russian tankers.
I also expect that when the S400s go to China soon, the Russians will be on the ground to coordinate their radars with Russian Far East radars in order to make a seamless net against US and Japanese missiles and planes.
The Russians announced they will be steaming their navy into the South China Sea also. They will be training with Brunei and other ASEAN nations. This is invaluable for China against the US and its vassals Philippines and Japan.
I expect that the Russians will port in Qingdao and Dalian at times, the two big Chinese naval bases at the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.
The US will push the envelope on sea using the Japanese navy and Philippines, and in the air with our anti-submarine planes and electronics planes.
They will do all they can to get the Chinese to cause an accident, incident, etc.
US is getting desperate because the whole SCS region is out of its control any more.
Policy-wise we are trying to force an ASEAN+US as arbiter multi-lateral confab with China to “solve” the issues. China wants only bi-lateral, one nation at a time negotiations and no US.
There are many things the US can try to do, but I read the Chinese government and public as willing to take nothing from the US. Just as that was their attitude about the Japanese and the Diaoyu Islands.
The economic interests will eventually get shared, but the territory will be what China wants. After all, for the neighbors, they need the fish, they need a piece of the oil and gas and they don’t want a war. So China will “share”.
The US doesn’t need anything but hegemonic control. So they’ll keep at it until some Chinese patriot in a jet or ship defends to death. It’s happened before with the Chinese.
The real scary scenario actually is north of the Spratly Islands. Taiwan. If the US decides to set down on Taiwan and dare the Chinese—all out war! And not much will be left of Taiwan.
However, I see all these things settling down after the US flexes. The meetings in Singapore this week went well between Ashton Carter and the Chinese generals and staff. The US gets a great press, but the facts are always something else.
China is a trading nation. It wants freedom of navigation for its ships and everyone else’s ships. They are not going to hamper sea traffic through the SCS. That is a straw dog the US puts up.
Part of the demonization process.
One of President Xi’s big plans is the Maritime Silk Road. It depends on the SCS being calm. Now do you see why the US is starting trouble there also?
Larchmonter445
What do you think the chances are for India resolving it’s territorial disputes with China and ‘joining up’, so to speak? It appears that ‘wild card’ would overwhelmingly turn the game against NATO. At this point, India’s not feeling much pressure from NATO & their ‘pivot’. But they certainly see the writing on the wall.
Thanks
India has economic need to be that smart and as a major BRICS player and SCO member (June), India is in the mix.
False pride and nursing old wounds is, sadly, a problem for India. It may take a while more to see that the West wants no more development of poor, emerging or developing nations. So, India has to decide if it can function suppressing its own rise economically in order to be friendly with British and American interests.
India is very integrated militarily (co-production of Russian designs) with Russia. It will soon have to be economically integrated with China. China is the big new bank in town. Not just AIIB, but many other funds available for infrastructure development (which India needs before it can succeed as a full economy).
There are many dynamics playing in the India neighborhood. Pakistan with China, also getting into SCO as full member. Iran, with the sanctions off, will be a powerhouse.
The Maritime Silk Road actually needs India’s big navy for protection. Right now, India is upset that China is sailing in the Indian Ocean with its submarine fleet. Well, time to grow up.
So, India has issues. Not just the old border disputes. The Indian Ocean thing, the Pakistan-China thing, the leftover British stink at the top of the society, and fear of the hegemon.
I think Putin will hold their hand as they go to school in global intrigue. He’ll protect them in the playground when the bully comes around.
The Indians always think democracy is the key to success. It has no relevance when you have 1.4 billion people and most are under the poverty line. After all, how many leaders have been assassinated in the great democracy of India? M.K. Ghandi, Indira Ghandi, her son, Rajiv, and counting. They have their own page in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_Indian_politicians
The SCO will change everything in the inter-country relationships. Common enemies (terrorists) brings nations together.
The region is Asia-Pacific, overall. Not just SCS or SE Asia. Russia is a huge nation in the Asia-Pacific with an historic relationship with Vietnam. The handwriting is on the wall. Russia is expanding its Far East and will be a partner with Vietnam and a partner with China. The US has nothing of its own in the Asia Pacific region. It has bases and vassals. Beyond Hawaii, it is an interloper who wants to be the Hegemon. Them days is gone.
Brunei and Malaysia and Indonesia want a taste of freedom from the global hegemon. Russia and China are nice counterparts to have.
Only Australia and New Zealand really want the US there. (And of course, Philippines has fallen back as a recidivist vassal.)
The reality is there is no counterweight to the China-Russia strategic partnership.
Singapore is another, under the lame-brain son of the genius Lee who recently died, who seems to fear China. His father never feared them. He quietly instructed them on how a great China needs to act. The son, is very Westernized, unsure of himself, and is messing up their great economy, also.
The US will play with all these smaller nations to drive up fear of China.
But President Xi will wave the Chinese wealth available to help any and all of them develop and prosper. That is a very powerful weapon.
So, if India is one of the BRICS countries and is the land of “generic drugs” why is Rossia so short of pharmecuticials?? Pls explain if you know the answer. Are there trade or patent restrictions?
I don’t understand .
Generic drugs are those on which the patent has expired. So they are 15 years old at least.. All the newer ones are under patent, so can be made only by the company who “invented” it or their licences. So a lot of diseases and illnesses are not covered by generics.
For many conditions there are several similar brand name drugs and maybe a generic or two to choose from. Some patients and some doctors believe the brand name is “better” and some people genuinely get better results with one or another (usually because of differences in the fillers). I can’t find out what percentage of all common drugs are available in generic form. But only about 20-25% of drugs sold are generic; maybe another 10% could be but they’ve chosen the branded version.
Many foreign pharmaceutical companies have branches or subsidiaries in Russia; 9 of the top 10 there are foreign ones (American or German mostly). This is necessary for the patented ones, but is precisely the kind of dependence on the “west” that Russia is trying to get rid of.
The Russian military announced a joint project with China to investigate the use of Chinese traditional medicine. Any good results from that will flow into the civilian sphere of course.
I can see these two plus India getting their best medical heads together to develop not necessarily new drugs, but new ways of treating various diseases (starting by preventing them rather than patching up afterwards). Their joint cultural capital for this is huge, enormous.
@Larch After all, for the neighbors, they need the fish, they need a piece of the oil and gas and they don’t want a war. So China will “share”.
Absolutely. China could hold those areas (“mine mine mine”), spend a lot of effort and vitriol defending it, sell the fish to the neighbors, use the oil profit to lend to develop the neighbors so they can afford to buy the fish…..while they spend their own money trying to “steal” the area (or its fish) back……
Or they can set up a shared area, JOINT control, where each user is responsible for using the area responsibly, not causing loss or damage to anyone else. This would be sustainable for the environment, too. If the neighbours also share in the oil/gas usage, that’s income of their own they don’t need to borrow. It is income that lets them NOT have to overfish the area to export it for money.
“one nation at a time negotiations and no US” . Who wants to “negotiate with the US?”. We have no leadership, no governance no rule of law and no diplomacy and our foreign policy is one word: WAR. I think Grazdanin Putin has taught them about about leadership, governance and diplomacy, …. and the need for diplomatic communication channels. USA is governed by $$$$$$ and the MIC.
If the Russian and the Chinese want to survive the American onslaught the must give each other military bases.
It means the Chinese must allow the Russian access to Chinese ports and vice versa.
It would be good to make the same deal with Iran.
So that the Russian ships [ Chinese and Iranian too ] can do refueling, repair, and to rest.
“The tankers are staging out of Cam Ranh Bay to refuel Russian Bears.”
Like a mantra. I can’t look at it without smiling.
But then I remember being on a USAF base during the Cuban crisis (coincidentally a tanker base for refueling SAC bombers). They were so sure it was WWIII and they were so happy. Their radio and TV sounded New Year’s Eve on Times Square.
And the other mood strikes. So many advances in Russian military readiness and international alliances are prospective, I know they are goading a substantial and influential body of American opinion that time may be running out for an American first strike and it should be soon. Maybe disguised by an apparent detente.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the Russians are not publishing real military production schedules about anything, let alone when the skies will be sealed, but I doubt their security can keep it safe. Too many whiz kids have to know too much over too long a time. More than can possibly be sequestered.
Where should I go, where do you look, for analyses on the military big picture?
It’s pretty interesting that America is using the same tactics against both Russia and China in the Black Sea and South China Sea respectively. In both cases, the United States sends its military to intrude into or near the territorial waters of Russia and China to provoke a response from them, which the USA then seizes upon as a pretext to ratchet up tensions.
More broadly, America is trying desperately to pit Europe against Russia and Asia against China by using local vassal states or proxies as provocateurs from Ukraine to the Phillipines to Japan to Poland.
This is the cliched “Divide and Rule” strategy that the British Empire specialized in, and which its spawn, the United States of America, now imitates like a well-trained circus monkey.
молодец! Hopefully, Russia and China will delve into the business of Regime Change as well. As Crimea keeps showing us, it’s great fun whenever the Western dregs scream, rage, and fume in real pain and anger.
Anonymous and Nussiminen: “trained monkeys” Nice metaphor. Although my own preferred poetic image has been that of larger, knuckle dragging apes, rather than the smaller more nimble variety, your image contains much truth. And while it is natural to cheer the defeats and frustrations of evil ones, (as an American I also find myself doing that for a second or two, occasionally, because these monkeys don’t represent ME in any way…) let us remember that this is not really a soccer match nor an imperial Roman Coliseum arena fight to the death between Atlanticist simians and Eurasian hero humans. At least I hope not.
Rather, I am persuaded, this has to do with human evolution. Will we make it to the next stage? Or incinerate ourselves into extinction in one glorious Nuclear World Cup Finals for the amusement of all the “fans” of such things???
In that regard, finally freeing 300 million mostly terrified, blindfolded, dumbed down US hostages from these evil; monkeys who have hijacked America several times (most notably Nov 22, 1963 and Sept 11, 2001 in my lifetime) of their US simian (not Arab patsy) hijackers is not only possible, but actually becoming more and more feasible. And that is actually the most efficient pathway to lasting victory of a deeper sort, for all of mankind.
There is a Resistance within North America. This website is part of it, and I believe I will contribute to it this week. But it is not alone, nor does it have the longest, deepest history. There is a lot more here than many newbies here or abroad would think. But it is becoming dearer to me every week. Perhaps that is because my sons are half Russian. Or because I was so intrigued by the spirit of those onion dome chapels in the mists of Unalaska and New Archangelsk (Sitka, Alaska) in the 70’s entering or leaving those ports on crab fishing vessels, that I sought to marry some of that spirit.
Guys, let’s put the monkeys back in the zoo and complete the Bering Straits Tunnel and the World Land Bridge (global extension of the New Silk Road) within a decade or two at most. That’s my mission. And my little family is a Russian American Alliance in miniature. And by conscious design. No Darwinian Accident of Nature or “unnatural selection”.
So take that Darwin, you imperialist swine. We are all not animals, although your modern neocon adherents surely do behave like monkeys.
I like these ideas. True, an increasingly successful groundswell of resistance from the US people would be the simplest solution to a host of global problems engineered by the US hit team. Throwing off the Zionist parasite shackles would be a tremendous lift of freedom to the nation.
I like the concepts of a Bering Straits Tunnel and a World Land Bridge. Imagine being the US end of the Silk Road – thence down into Central and South America? I have always thought that North Americans and Russians would make the greatest of friends.
Patriotic majority opinion must remain impotent until the moral élite organises within the electorally despised GOP to overwhelm and displace the Masonic 1% dominance. Without organisation there in only powerless palaver.
Michael, you are right. Where and how are you organizing and how long and effectively have you done it? So others in your area can join the fight. If you might give them a chance to benefit from your battle hardened experience and wisdom.
Nice picture, but I thought there would be a video with it…
Russia and China are integrating their armies in the Far East. Fantastic stuff. AngloAmerican Empire with its North Atlantic Terrorist Organization should be very scared, and I am guessing that they are. There is no way for them to isolate and contain Russia and China induividually, but united… well, it must be a nightmare for the Empire. And now finally Russia and China can go in offensive and wreck AmgloAmerican plans and schemes: Time to go offensive!
No. Absolutely no need for offense. Just constructive engagement. The idea is to minimize the entropy, globally. Even the West is beginning to realize that unipolar control of food, energy,
resources, labor, profits and information leads to wars. i.e. entropy increase
“” the West is beginning to realize”” – I don’t see that. Who’s actually this West? If it’s USA with British Crown and Israel, then I bet they don’t see any such realizations. They play it like 100 years ago, but now they have FED, Israel in the Middle East and dollar reserve currency that happened to replace gold.. because you can wage wars almost FOR FREE when you print the global currency.
This is how they create and manage things. They are not going to realize anything beside being defeated by politics, power and unfortunately, war. I doubt the empire is going to retreat with saying “ok, sorry, we have got it”. No such a thing. I hope that Russia, China and yes, Europe will be able to stop the worst.
The Chinese are not anxious to have the RMB/Yuan the new reserve currency, replacing the dollar.
When the term World Currency is used, it means they are now, finally, using the RMB all around the world in bi-lateral trade. It is not a reserve currency.
They could conduct World Trade with a gold-backed Yuan, but not at present.
I think many people wish the dollar would be totally rejected and some want it to collapse.
But China needs a healthy US market and a healthy system around the world.
The Yuan will be in the IMF bucket. That was the first goal.
When the Chinese finish developing their economy and all 1.3 billion are at the middle class level by their standards (household income of $9-16,000 per year), then they may consider some new role for the Yuan.
That is a long way off.
The Chinese and Russians have already shredded the BIS and petrodollar. But with no adverse effect. They will take apart the unipolar system carefully. The dollar is not a target per se. If the Chinese wanted to cripple the US, they would dump Treasuries, take the paper losses, watch the US go into depression and have no market to sell their products to, and probably, begin a war on all fronts launched by the neo-cons. That is not a strategy.
China very definitely does NOT want to see America go broke. Exactly as you say,l they need them to SELL TO. USA buys $486 Billion worth of Chinese-made goods every year, which includes goods they make for US companies like Apple. They also import OIL worth $356 at 2014 prices obviously less since they managed to force the price down).
The Chinese exports to US are 18% of their total exports, and many are labour-intensive items, so losing that trade would put a lot of people out of work in China. This sort of issue would remain, no matter what money is being used for trade — an exporter cannot afford his best customers going broke.
It would be better for A”world currency” to e just that — WORLD money,k not any one (or two) nation’s money. That way inflation, interest rates etc that have to be changed internally, fr the good of the country itself doesn’t flow through to make trouble for the rest of the world. Ad outside problems dont’ feed in to hit your local people.
Not at the expense of cutting incomes, and that depends on the sales. What they really need is better prices for what they sell, which will come once nobody can squeeze them with weight of money.
Chinese exports to the US will go down dramatically, once the US dollar implodes. Only the cheapest of the cheapest junk will make its way to the Wallmart penny-stores.
American entrepreneurship and creative small business owners will come to the rescue and be the backbone of a new American revival. Will take a decade or two. Will be a hard time, but also a great time. For pioneers, adventurers, creative folks of all walks of life, yes, true heroes.
Absolutely! China and Russia are not looking to crash the world economy or political system. They are looking to transform it and eventually supplant it with something else.
I do not say that the Chinese want to crash the US economy willfully. But the official statements from the Chinese government were:
1.) “The US has no more economy.” (because of the outsourcing)
2.) “We will de-dolarize the world.”
We should also realize, that if the Yuan is added to the SDR-basket, the Yuan is then a reserve currency besides the Dollar, Euro, Yen and Brittish Pound. Furthermore at one point in time it makes no sense to China to accumulate more Dollars, when she cannot buy something of value with it and what could it be what the US can sell to China, what China wants to have ? (may be real estate and farmland ?). The US cannot have a trade deficit with China to all infinity. What the Western countries have not realized yet is the fact, that the IMF reserve currencies are a form of savings for China – will China wate till these savings are totally devalued by printing money without any backing. Yes, as long as China can buy gold, silver, oil, gas etc. with Dollars, the game will go on, but one day the music stops. Don’t believe, that the US-military can be a backing for the Dollar in the future !
You people are utterly clueless. First you fail to undertsand, even with the ever present talks about indebtness of the USA, how much indebted the West really is – and even a 6 yr old child knows that if something is heavily indebted, it cannot go on buying things on credit (meaning USA, and the West generally, cannot go on buying thing China produce because it has nothing po pay China with anymore: and reast assure that, unlike most of you Wetserners,Chinese are not that dumb to keep on working like slaves for freshly printed paper *Westers seems to think the whole world is that stupid that it is going to work for them, and they are going to pay their hard work and sweat with paper). In short order: the West is dead and it cannot keep going as a market for the Chinese products. That market is dead. USA alone has governement (local, regional and federal) and household debt at 60 trillion $. Add to that number hundreds of trillions in derivatives designed to amsk the true hight of the debt, and you get the picture of the indebtness. Professor Kotlikoff speaks about +230 trillions of US debt if measured in traditional way, before all the changes in measurment have been taking place since 90s. How much more you think that market can keep on “functioning”? Only till the reign of the dollar ends, and not a second afterwards. Not only do you project total economic illiteracy there, but, what is far worse, a logical disability too.
But even worse than that, you fail to understand the nature of the IMF and what it means for it is of far greater importance than any trivialities such as we are being distracted with. IMF is globalist institution which Anglosphere created with the purpose to serve as global central bank, just like the UN is created to serve as global parliament and the rest of blobalist institutions (WTO, WHO, ICC, etc.) with the same purpose in its branch. That is part of history lecture you are oblivious about. Now on the present matters, what Anglosphere wish to achieve is to all the world to accept that currency IMF is about to print (called Special Drawing Rights – SDR or bancor) to accept as “world currency.” And then Anglospehre again preserves its current power of crinting the reserve currency because they again control the SUPPLY of that currency. They are going to print that currency as they wish and would again start where the USA endeavor will have ended just like they have started with the British Empire version 2.0 (you would know it under the name of USA) when British Empire original enterprise had ended. Nobody wins with IMF except oligarchs running the Anglosphere Empire located in City of London and Washington DC. China loses its sovereignty by subjugaton itself to Anglozionist institution – the IMF. That is the battle which will decide the future of the planet. If Anglosphere wins, eventually everything will succumb to the will of the oligarchs running it, and Russia, Chian and eveyone else will lose its sovereignty and become just another Anglozionist occupied land(s).
Before you insult everybody, you should learn the nature of fiat currencies. A fiat currency is of nominal value only, like a common share of no par value. The US doesn’t owe anyone anything beyond the nominal value of the currency. As the US can print it at will, the US will always be able to pay its debts.
As long as the world accepts USD at some value, it’s money good. How long will that be? Well, that depends on many things.
A USN Admiral put it piquantly: “Asia makes lots of wonderful things for us and we give them bits of worthless paper. The 7th Fleet balances the books”. When the 7th Fleet can longer balance the books, the gig will end. Until then, the ponzi will continue.
There’s nothing wrong with fiat currencies in their role as tokens of account and as a medium of exchange. They can also function as a store of value, provided they’re prudently managed. Historically, the most successful currencies were pure fiat, prudently managed. The next world reserve currency, if there is one, will not be left in the hands of one nation to manage ’cause this one screwed up pretty badly. So badly that the world’s financial structure is on the verge of collapse and the world has pretty much sworn they’ll never put all their eggs in one basket again.
Don’t lecture me about the nature of fiat currencies, I have written books about them. When printed, currencies lose purchuasing power, and the only reason US dollar is not worth as much as the paper it is printed on is because its broad use. US have defaulted on 15 August 1971 when its currency stopped being converable to the real money, the money which had been used for 6.000 prior to that date – the gold. Anglosphere then thought of a good deal to circumvent the demise of the post-war world order (Bretton-Woods) by making deal with the house of Saud about Saudis excepting only the dolalr the only acceptable currency for its oil payment (later other OPEC members were added to the deal). Yes, US can print watever amount of currency units it wishes, but each unit of that printed currency won’t hold the same purchasing power: later printed ones always have the lesser values than the ones that had come before them. Only gold backed currencies make fair medium of exchange, as every pirnted currency hold the same amount of purchusing power (since there is pre-determined amount of the currency units which can be printed, hence their value hold). That means that in orde to have the fair trade, you need to have gold and silver backed currencies first – that is, if the currency is the thing you want to use as medium of exchange (in wars, for example, no foreign currenc serves as medium of exchange between the nations – only gold and silver; and there is also something called barter, which you probably haven’t heard of – it’s also a very poternt medium of exchange, far more than the use of currency of some foreign entity).
And to show you how ignorant you are, historically the only currency which has managed to pass the test of time (6.000 years I spoke of earlier) is the gold. Every single fiat currency the worldhzas ever used since its inception in the 11th century in China has miseralby failed. There is not a single exception – they all failed; when not caked by gold and/or silver, it’s the only a matter of time before they inevitably fail. Currencies not backed by anything other than the goverments’ promise not to debase them cannot and have never been mamged prudently.
There is no need for world currency, and won’t be “a next one” which will Anglospehere oligarchs again control. National currencies, as you indirectly even admitted, serve just as good medium of exchange as the current reserve currency – the dollar (they all get debased; their purchuasing power ruined unless they are anchored in the real money – gold and silver). With that said, even the barter is a better option than having Western dominion over trade between sovereign nations of the planet – to have some Western currency backed by nothing to serve as a middleman in deals between sovereign countries. It’s nothing but a form of parasitism and control, and the world wants to be free of Western control and parasitism. Why shouldn’t China have that power? After all, China invented fiat currencies. Why does it have to be London and Washinton? Do explain that to the audience, I bet they are eager to hear why.
Your second post is even better than the first. You are bang on on every point you’ve made on currency (real and fiat). Your detractors are out of their league. It’s a privilege to get conclusions some of us have come to on one our own validated by an expert, a person with real experience and real knowledge.
Again an excellent and valuable post filled with real facts, real expertise, consistent logic and deductive reasoning. Quite different from emotional speculation that is based on what one would like to be true as opposed to what is actually true. The statement that the most successful currencies have always been fiat currencies that were prudently managed is utterly false and contradicts the real historical record. How anyone can make such an absurd statement is breathtakingly ignorant, because even a basic understanding of logic and mathematics (and human nature) would imply that such a scenario is not possible.
Thanks for setting the record straight and again for an extremely informative post. An excellent synopsis the current currency problem and how a real current (gold-backed) should behave. BTW what is wrong with silver-backed currencies? What are the issues with that?
Would you be kind enough to supply a list of recommended reading materials on this topic? I would like to ask you for the title of your books (so that I and others may purchase it) but out of respect for your privacy on this site it would be understandable if you can’t do that. Therefore a recommended reading list would be greatly appreciated.
Gold is not money, but a commodity now. Money is a legal entity as defined by law and government, usable to pay taxes.
There is nowhere near the quantity of gold available in the word to handle the tangible wealth and production, and gold can be as easily manipulated as fiat currency by corrupt politicians and financiers. The value of money is a function of the knowledge and honesty of the government which issues and backs it, and which should reflect the real economy — and that’s the problem, including banksters issuing ‘money’ which is really just private debt (which at this can not possible be deleveraged without everything crashing, and is also the root cause of the current inflation).
Read up on MMT and heterodox economics.
You should refrain form telling people they are ignorant when you show so much ignorance yourself — in such lengthy posts — books or not. What I saw from skimming your posts looks like typical Austrian/Chicago schools & current libertarian nonsense. The arrogance with which you write indicates to me how steeped you are in ideology over economic knowledge.
Blue you have written books on the subject have you?
One of the most absurd statements I’ve seen is that there isn’t enough gold in world to back representative notes of it; seriously absurd since you can fractionalize quantities of gold on those representative notes. Even if your supposition were true, which it isn’t, there is orders of magnitude more silver in the world than Gold and it can also be used for the same purpose.
I’ll think I’ll take the considered evidence of a published expert over the opinion of an amateur. Rurik says he has written books on the subject, let us see his recommended reading list.
Anonymous on June 02, 2015 · at 3:15 pm UTC
Blue you have written books on the subject have you?
Any idiot can write books, and many have, as shown by all the ridiculous books that exist. One can also find authors who totally disagree with one another, yet they have written books.
One of the most absurd statements I’ve seen is that there isn’t enough gold in world to back representative notes of it; seriously absurd since you can fractionalize quantities of gold on those representative notes.
Gold can’t possibly represent all the wealth in the world. 10 years ago total gold was valued at about $2 trillion; now with inflation at about $8 trillion. In2013 gross world product was some $7 or $8 trillion. That’s not total wealth (which would also include value of precious metals, BTW) but just production. Additionally, since gold is a fixed quantity at any using a gold standard leaves no room for governments to regulate economic activity, nor for entrepreneurs to pursue new productive activities without reducing the liquidity available for everyone else — just do a sector analysis.
I’ll think I’ll take the considered evidence of a published expert over the opinion of an amateur. Rurik says he has written books on the subject, let us see his recommended reading list.
You have no idea what I know, nor can we conclude that some unnamed poster who says he is an expert really is. But you can believe whatever you want. I’m not saying you are a fascist, but as an example look at all the fascists in Kiev who will say they are experts, and all the eople who believe them, or all the nutty religious cultists who say they know things and people believe them.
So look up MMT and http://neweconomicperspectives.org/ , and experts like Michael Hudson (especially), Randy Wray, Steve Keen, Warren Buffet, Bill Mitchel, Stephanie Kelton, those at http://www.heterodoxnews.com/HEN/home.html, Henry George, even Marx, and all the rest of the economists who offer different perspectives. And they have written books too, of course. You can find lectures, symposiums, texts and articles — all for free. Even Stafford Beer talks some about about economics.
You do not understand what money is (neither exogenous nor endogenous), or current economic and monetary theory. You have been bamboozled.
Your post was excellent and informative. After going through your long (it was worth the read) and detailed explanation, I have to agree that you know what you’re talking about. I also agree that many here are engaging in wishful thinking rather than fact based analysis and don’t seen to have a grasp of this topic as you clearly do.
Thank you for taking the time to show just how things are devolving/evolving in the ongoing ponzi scheme of fiat currencies and the SDR issue.
Modern monetary theory which this blue is talking about, is just expanded neokeynesianism – Western oligarchs attempt to direct the discussion from the Austrian school of economic thought toward Keynesian one with ever expaneding governmet and ever bigger role of central banking. You blue are totally economically illitrerate. But if I am not mistaken, I remember you supporting anti Anglozionist points of view, am I right? Now, look what ignorance does to a person who foolishy think he is fighting Anglosphere oligarchy – your ignorance made you support the exact thoughts and stances those oliagrchs want you to support, and guess what – they go against your interest (considering you are an average citizen of USA).
As for the book someone mentioned, you have plenty of them online for free. Look for authors like von Mises, Rothbard., Hazlitt etc. I think von Mises Institute has a library of free books and you can find it there. Unfortuanatelly mine are not translated to English language, but you’ll find everything in the works of above mentioned authors. Thoughts regarding fiat currencies are not new ones; they have been known for centuries. So nothing new here, you just need to know where to find the truth, and economic truth is in the works of Austrian school of economic thought.
Austrian School arrogance coupled with ad hominem — typical.
Go your own way, and enjoy your illusions, but I’ll not go back to Von Mises site again — I already wasted far too much time on that nonsense, and I will waste no more trying to open your mind.
Hey — write another book and buy something nice for yourself with the earnings.
The praise towards you is merited. Thank you. I will look into those sites.
@Blue
Thank you for the links you provided I will look into them.
It would enhance your credibility and the ideas you espouse if you did not engage in ad hominems and them simultaneously accuse Rurik of the same. As well you shouldn’t draw hard and fast conclusions as whether someone (Anonymous) has been bamboozled or understands money not. You don’t know what the other party knows or doesn’t know either nor whether their statements are designed to simply get a rise out of you.
Still you are sincere and are trying to contribute your knowledge that comes from a different point of view than that expressed by Rurik. Thank for that and I’ll definitely look into the points you’ve raised. It won’t be the first time that I’ve received an epiphany from reading different points of view on this fantastic site (Sakers Blog and Comments section).
It was not me who entered this thread telling people they haven’t a clue, are ignorant and illiterate, and such things. That’s no way to have a dialogue or discussion.
@others
At this point the MMT people are about the best source of ieconomics nformation and citations to more sources — but don’t discount Marx either, even being dated by some 150 years, or Minsky, or the Stockholm school with Wicksell, or Henry George, and a host of others — even Austrian, Chicago School, and Schumpeter have some things worth hearing about, but none of them should be made into a religion or have ‘The Truth’.
One of the best overall fields to look at now is cybernetics (search on Umpleby and Beer to find the good sources), and some study of epistemology, which is becoming more available on the web. Along with some math such as set, group, complexity, and chaos theory, and abstract algebra in general, even if just to get a sense of what they are about and what the concepts are. But there is a forested mountain of information to explore and it takes a while to collect enough for a decent synthesis and a few workable models. It takes time — I’ve been exploring pretty intensively on the internet over the last 7 years, in addition to over 50 years of learning about related material. The biggest problem for me has always been to find what has been obscured, mystified by BS, and over-complicated and over-abstracted (on this last, yes, read some Korzybski and some semiotics).
At the end of a session I find that 3/4 of most of it can be tossed out right off, and the core of the synthesis is fairly simple and elegant. Economics is no more about money than living in a house is about board feet and squares of roofing material. Economics is about stuff — finding, producing and consuming it.
To think that worshiping one man, like Saint Von Mises who died over 40 years ago, and of course has people who misunderstand what he even said, will give ‘The Truth’ is silly, and to say any who disagree with that school is ignorant is not just silly but rude.
“Methodological individualism is the requirement that causal accounts of social phenomena explain how they result from the motivations and actions of individual agents, at least in principle.” … “In neo-classical economics, people’s behavior is explained in terms of rational choices…”
which basis and axioms has been tossed out the window in light of recent research on both psychology and neuroscience. But what to expect? Menger, who founded the Austrian school, — February 23, 1840 – February 26, 1921 — before anything like a brain scan was even a dream, when Freud was developing just the beginnings of psychology as a science, but with even Freud talking about the non-rational subconscious. Following that economics is like trying to build a Linux computer from gears, levers, and Leyden Jars. For many of the people into this neoclassical stuff it’s like a fundamentalist religious cult. They make the mistake of thinking they *know* things when it’s all just old opinionated paradigms (before Thomas Kuhn, 1962, even!).
Epistemology!!
@Hubert
That is very true. I think the point, for China, is that the collapse of the hegemon and its dollar based world system is slow. A fast collapse would be very damaging to China. China’s dollar reserves (savings) are useful because they can be used to buy from other countries not just the US.
On the other hand the US has many things to sell China, far more than China has money to buy. Off the top of my head I can think of: Boeing, Intel, Exxon, UTC, IBM, GE, GM, Honeywell, Cisco, 3M, Halliburton etc etc Of coure the US has no intention of selling these to China. But as the collapse progresses … who knows. China might pick them up, or their best bits, at fire sale prices.
I thing to keep in mind is that the productive capacity of the BRICS, Russia and China being important, but also India and the rest, is enough to satisfy to tangible wealth need of their populations, and thus have a viable economy just among themselves, but the problem is one of the configuration of production with much of it, in China especially, directed at export to the west rather than BRICS consumption. That — tooling, distribution and finance systems, worker training, etc.) can’t be changed overnight. Russia is working on being self sufficient, of course, but it’s taking time.
By engaging in world trade these nations also yield a certain amount of control to the world powers, especially the dependency on US and EU. This is a possibly serious problem with following comparative advantage (and a side effect of that is the energy and infrastructure costs of transportation, as well as overhead (and often the leeching) of many layers of middlemen and merchants who are non-productive workers). Add to that the costs and inefficiencies of the increased complexity.
Much of the problems here are the result of mercantilism and capitalism, and the assumptions behind them that were largely pulled out of a hat, and perpetuated by those who were getting wealthy from growing pervasiveness of those ideas — often at the expense of local economies.
I wasn’t taliking to you, nor would I recommedn anything to an ignorant person who feel blessed with its ignorance – I find my time too precious to wasting it on such foolish errands. But it might help others who want to know, and since I believe it’s duty of all the travellers searching for the light… for truth, as some Antique philosophers would say, to help them in that sacred quest, I am doing my part bysharing the knowledge. So here are some of the books which will be educate you on the matter, for those of you who are want to have the knoledge… to know.
Somebody sugegsted there is not enough gold to abck the currencies, and the response one gave to that ignorant person was: “Nonsense.” Exactly right. Even an ounce of gold is enough to back en entire currency supply. Take for example Zmbabwean currecy. All Zimbabwean currency supply can be backed with a single ounce of gold (that currency wouldn’t of course be worth much, but that is completely different matter; strenght of a currency is defined by its ratio… weight in gold: how much units of currency you need for an ounce of gold). There is enough gold and silver to back all the currencies with it, as all of them wouldn’t be worth the same.
Quite a few posts have started turning up that appear to violate, some egregiously, the 2nd clause of the Moderation Policy. To whit: 2 ) All comment have to be impeccably courteous to me, the blog’s author, moderators, any guest author and all the other commentators. Absolutely no ad hominems or personal attacks.
Allowing semi-literate, reasonably polite trolls is one thing. Allowing insulting, vitriol-spewing “intellectuals” (with Amen Corners in tow) to scream out half-baked misunderstandings on side topics along with a stream of invective is quite another. What gives?
Aw poor Erebus, you can’t compete based on ideas so you now start attacking the moderators. You accuse others of violations that you yourself are more guilty of.
Look, Rurik has provided substantive information and real learning material. All you’ve provided is your opinion.
The moderators have done a fine job, what they do is difficult, they have to deal with people like you, Rurik, Blue and me. It’s a tough balancing act: To their credit they allow debates that skate on the edge because the rest of us learn from this interaction. I’m very grateful that this site attracts intellectuals like Rurik who help broaden our knowledge (thank you again for those extensive links Rurik). Shutting them up because they may be blunt will dumb-down this site into the vanilla consensus of the politically correct MSM. I’m also grateful to Blue (minus his ad hominems and his attempts stigmatize and invalidate people who believe in Austrian school economics, simply for their beliefs), because he provided a counterpoint based on his views on monetary policy and the underpinning of his views.
I’m immensely grateful to this site and Saker for providing so much intellectual discourse and opening our minds to think outside of the taboos and mental prison that we’ve been conditioned to internalize.
N.B.: In the distant past I had serious idea disagreements with Saker to point he asked to hit the road and get off his site. I replied back to him in kind, not backing off my point of view and providing the rational behind why I disagreed with him (in that particular instance) and to his credit and maturity he allowed my subsequent comments thru (back when he personally moderated this site). That only increased my respect for the site and for its creator (despite how strongly I may disagree with him or a specific author on a specific article or specific view he may hold). That’s the adult way to handle things, something I learned from Saker and some of his gifted readers (such as Mohammed, Uncle Bob, Kat Kan, Conical Hat, The Wend, and many others).
Since the current moderators volunteered their precious time to perform this task, the quality of the articles have increased, and the quality commentary has evolved and improved too, raising the credibility of this site.
Blue, don’t leave just yet. Let’s get down to brass tacks, a more indispensable form of metal than even silver and gold. The problem with the Austrian School and Libertarianism in general is Aristotle. Lousy epistemology, in short. Rurik hates the banksters, but the banksters don’t hate his beloved Von Mises, Von Hayek, Rothbard and Ayn Rand! Just look at Alan Greenspan. A devotee of Rand! What’s the scam? The individual’s refuge from the “tyranny” of any larger group (often bad, but not always bad… The greedy Aristotelian “individual” can never forgive FDR for calling in his precious private gold hoard at $20 an ounce and revalueing at $35 not much later. What is more of a sacrifice, to enlist and die in war or lose $15 an ounce but assist the collective sacrifice to defeat fascism? Wouldn’t you rather “own” part of a nation that is serious about mobilizing for victory, rather than clutch your coins in defeat??Russians have less of a problem with this question than we Americans, many of whom would make the wrong moral and intellectual,and STRATEGIC choice, based on the simplistic tautologies of the always mind-deadening and never creative Aristotle, patron saint philosopher of oligarchism.
Erebus, Rurik, Lowquetus et al in the money thread: Money is over-rated. Yes it is an important technical adjunct to economic activity, but far less important than increases in productive processes in industry and agriculture, brought about by scientific discovery and technological progress. Put all the gold in the world in the hands of a troupe of apes, and see what they do with it. Yes, it is more valuable than paper, badly abused. No, it is NOT more valuable than credit mobilized properly into areas that provide the means for the extinguishing of the debt so created while moving society to a higher economic platform. Lincoln’s Greenbacks, for example. Yes, some problems for some little people, some hairy times during the Civil War. But the result was worth it. Victory over the Confederacy and its Empire backers was obtained. No thanks to anything from Austria.
The oligarchy has no problem with impotent individual gripers whose first premise is that no larger group could ever possibly do anything good.
The world economy and monetary system needs to evolve. And we need to move on to an examination of the genius of Vladimir Vernadsky versus that imperial mutt, Darwin, like I tried to do a few days ago. Fundamentals. Money isn’t fundamental. Gold is a more lasting and recognized form of money than debased paper, but it’s not going to solve a damn thing by itself. It may still be necessary, but it is not sufficient. Credit productively employed is what is needed. The Empire is abusing and destroying credit and money. That, we all agree on. Why? To perpetuate oligarchy. To sit on the human race and hold up its evolution,to a higher form of society that would dispense with them.
Blue, stick around. It’s time for some poetry, dedicated to Rurik:
On First Looking in to Chapman’s Homer John Keats
Much have I traveled in the realms of GOLD
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen.
Round many western islands have I been,
Which bards, in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne.
Yet, did I never breathe its pure serene
Til I heard Chapman speak out loud, and bold!
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,
Or, like stout Cortez, when, with eagle eyes,
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men,
Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Note: Darien is possibly the only spot on earth where one may stare at the Pacific (where vast plains to be claimed for Spain were hoped for by Balboa….poetic license, not Hernan Cortes…that was Mexico) and yet wheel around 180 degrees on the same spot and also stare at the Atlantic one has just crossed. Surprise, surprise.
Discovery, guys. Aristotle and his methods never discovered anything but ways of deadening minds in the service of his oligarchical masters.Instead, why don’t we discover ways of bankrupting them and putting them in the zoo, instead of insulting each other and getting upset?
Yes, China is accumulating gold reserves and some sort of global reset is coming. But they are also going to the moon, where we dropped the ball, and now we’ve got this “been there, done that” clown Obama, a trained monkey for those in London and New York and DC who killed JFK. and will also kill the New Silk Road, the exploration of space, and the advancement of humanity for their sacred right of entitlement to squat on it all.
And there is something on the moon that is more valuable than all the gold ever mined on earth: helium 3. And even more fundamentally, the DISCOVERY of new scientific principles.
Assad, your link “Russia scaling back support for Assad” is nonfunctional. When I searched for it online I found it goes back to a Times of Israel site. But they are the biggest liars. All Israeli media plant stories that they wish were true. Sorry, no cigar!
Assad, your link “Russia scaling back support for Assad” is nonfunctional. When I searched for it online I found it goes back to a Times of Israel site.
It wasn’t able to format the link. That’s hilarious. The “people” at websayanim central apparently are having problems with quality control.
Also, we are finally having Russian blackisting of Eurocrats. From now on, many Eurocrats are banned from going or poassing through Russia. Eurocrats are, for those who do not yet know, bureaucrats working for AngloAmerican (or Anglozionist, to use the Saker term) bankster cabal. They are the enemy of all sovereign nations of this planet.
It has been said that in the last couple of centuries (from 1812. Napoleon’s attack on Russia to today), over 100 million Russians have died in European agression on Russia! 100 million! Europeans are Russian enemy just as USA is!
Once again you are right on the mark. Your comment about Europe being the enemy of Russia is exactly right.
I cannot understand how people keep turning a blind eye the very obvious and malicious actions of the EU in Ukraine even when the EU is practically shouting their culpability from the rooftops. The German BND and the expansionist Eurocrats were the initial instigators of the Maidan. People in their hatred of the United States willfully blind themselves to EU malice to hang on the fantasy that Europe can be won over. The European establishment are not the hapless victims of alleged American pressure, they are active and willing participants in the current attack on the Russophere and the Orthodox world. The facts of history have shown time and time again the covetous, hostile and predatory actions of Europe against Russia, yet each time we have the logically challenged saying: “oh this time it’ll be different, the European establishment has ‘changed’ …”. What nonsense. A popular saying is: Doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. I’d like to add that it’s the definition of stupidity too.
‘Scuse me, Rurik’s sidekick, but have you heard of Victoria Nuland? You think she had something to do with Maidan?
You think the people here don’t know what ‘Eurocrat’ means or that they are all ‘working for’ AngloAmericans — and yet, strangely, Maidan was all Germany’s fault?
I’m not sure just who you are accusing of being logically challenged, insane, and stupid, but it’s beginning to look like you directed this at the wrong blog? I suggest you hang around and soak up the information and analysis from the usual posters here, and from Saker and the staff, and then be in a better position to judge who is illogical, crazy, and stupid — or ignorant. The situation is more complex than it appears on the surface.
Don’t shoot the messenger but he is right. Germany made the EU. It was Germany that was pressuring Ukraine to join the EU free trade deal. Merkel might be working for the Americans but she’s the manager of the Ukraine mess. her party was the one paying the protestors.
I just a headline that says blackwater trained all the top ISIS commanders.. Now I never saw anyone else say the US trained and commands ISIS but I did a while ago. So if the US only paid the guys to train these ISIS but these very same guys are also involved in assassinations and support for the US military, what does that make blackwater?
By the same token the French was at the forefront of bombing Libya. And they are the top hostile force against Syria.
It seems I along with a few others are the only ones who seem to have concluded that Europeans are not all that much better than the Americans. Europeans being vassals will come in and take to running things directly if they find it interesting. Rome did the very same things.
If you are going to tell me Germany is not the 4th Reich then you have miscalculated the readers of this blog. We might not be the many but that don’t mean we are wrong. Each day we seem to be becoming more right..
Europe, and Germany, has been pretty much in the pockets of the US since end of WW2, but as much as the US there is also the international ‘nobility’ — the .01% oligarchs all over the world, but many of those, and the empire, is based in the US. How you speak of it depends on the model being used at the time: US vs the world, manufacturing vs finance, nobles vs peasants, good vs evil, sociopaths vs normal, authoritarians vs democrats, and so forth. Each model can bring out certain aspects difficult to express in others.
Calling someone a sidekick (ad hominem) and others of being austrian school trolls (more opinionated ad hominems [……]-
[MOD: Anonymous you are one of several related accounts that seek to praise Rurik and attack everyone who disagrees with him. This entire post is an attack. This scrap of it is being published just to let you know that any further such from any of you will be totally trashed. — Mod-K.K.]
“The European establishment are not the hapless victims of alleged American pressure, they are active and willing participants in the current attack on the Russosphere and the Orthodox world.”
Very true. Of course, American pressure is not “alleged” — it is very heavy — but the Eurocretins are being richly rewarded, and that is precisely what counts for a Quisling/Comprador. And what further corroborates Europe’s total rottenness is its pathetic Lefties and Greens. If you ever thought you were going to see condemnation of US/EU/NATO accompanied by support for Russia, Syria, or Iran in these milieus — forget about it. Victoria Nuland’s verdict is correct, albeit for slightly different reasons.
Bottom line: A Russian conservative stirs up more trouble to Western imperialism in less than an hours’ time as compared to, for instance, Western anarchism during, say, a millennium. Western self-styled “anti-authoritarians” are simply too stupid, bigoted, and arrogant to understand their own worthlessness. Like the Eurocretins at the very top, they’re happy to be accepted as junior partners in a system of imperialist parasitism. Russia will have to teach all of them humbling lessons.
The USA obviously has absolutely no business establishing a naval/military presence anywhere near the South China Sea. Overlooking for the moment the brutal and unjustified annexation of Hawaii, and accepting it as a state of the USA, the boundary of US control should presumably be drawn somewhere down the middle of the Pacific.
We have heard so many portentous statements about how the USA wants to dominate Asia that we are inclined to forget how utterly ludicrous that is. The most populous part of the whole world, the oldest civilization of all, and now the world’s largest economy… is to be bossed about by a bunch of arrogant, colonialist racists? What nonsense.
The more and the better China and Russia cooperate this way, the better the chances of clearing the Americans out of Asia and the Western Pacific altogether. One day, they may even learn to mind their own business – although I’m not holding my breath.
Spain has signed up for permanent and triple the present basing for US troops. Complete subjugation to the Hegemon.
Rota, the other Spanish base used by the US Navy, was Spanish-controlled.
Now, a new relationship for Moron, an Air Force base, sets the relationship as Hegemon and vassal.
There is something hopelessly comical about this. waiting for the jokes and the hilarious cartoons to commence…
Can you imagine Lavrov falling off a bike?
Americans sit in a chair, watch a video monitor and push buttons on a joystick, firing missiles from drones, safe and comfy thousands of miles from the death and destruction.
that is a great picture. The fact that Chinese and Russians can be militarily close gives me more optimism that China and India will also be able to overcome their existing border issue that had been lingering for decades… We do need a multi-polar world!
The real ‘Masters of the Universe’ only require conventional war, and casualties are no big deal…’no problemo’ …to them collateral is not flesh and blood,but things to be ‘legally’ traded.
As and when ultimatums are issued, by Russia and China, and they both go to DEFCON 2…..the USA will re-discover humility and withdraw.
Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down
US taxpayers will have to shelve out a couple extra million because the banged up SecState is now has to fly back to the US aboard a specially eqipped plane “to ensure he remains comfortable and stable throughout the flight,” Kirby said. “Its use is nothing more than a prudent medical step on the advice of physicians.”
Why the need to spend millions more? Because Kerry’s regular plane was returning to the United States carrying much of his staff and reporters who accompanied on the trip. And now, that plane too will have to fly back again. One way trip cost to US taxpayers: a little over $1 million.
Next piece to the puzzle – who is the biggest owner of gold in the world? Roman Church. So who would be biggest dog in primitive post nuclear war world? Again, Roman Church. What Pope Francis (overtly!) wants? Poor, but fighting, 1st century like Church. Why not all the 1st century world?
Are US elities really so incapable to execute their plans in Ukraine or anywhere else? Or they have no idea what is going on and plans of Francis and his Jesuite comrades are successfully running to their goal – nuclear apocalypse? Jesuites are not such short-sighted amateurs like CIA and US State department’s clerks, they are patient and very experienced miticulous planners.
fascinating; do you have any links? just going by reported history (realize the weakness here so asking for cntra links) Rome aka Catholic wealth/property was dramatically reduced through property acquisition (ahemm) in UK circa Henry VIII; Prussia 1860-75; France 1905 (again; see 1789-91); Spain and Portugal circa 1910; USA through civil court legal settlements;
I don’t think gold is gonna be much use for making swords, bows and arrows , guns, ammunition, ploughs, agricultural tools in that scenario, only big enough to hit people on the head with.
As Norte Americano wakes up,this is what is happening!
There is visual documented evidence of atrocities everywhere!,yet the ‘civilized’ nations do nothing!
Who feeds ‘your’ nation?
Please have the decency to:
‘Boycot,Dis-invest and Sanction’, rid the world of the ‘elected for life class’ …aka …professional politicians,funded by big anything AIPAC and every NGO ‘non-political’ org.
Recently someone in Ukraine remarked “of 45 million people none could be found for Odessa but Saakashvili,a foreign agent”
2016…….out of 314 million people only a Bush or a Clinton?
Americans must be the most stupid Wallyworld muppets….. and these control the world?
Putting aside the politics, it seems to me if there is some truth to what Varangis wrote about the Russian Defense Ministry considering building such a vessel, it may be going in the wrong direction. During World War II, eleven U.S. aircraft carriers were sunk or severely damaged in combat (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_aircraft_carriers). Since then, carriers have not been seriously threatened which leaves the impression they are nearly invulnerable due the contingent of surface and submarine vessels that surround the carrier and provide force protection as it operates near or in a combat zone.
But according to the U.S. Naval Institute, modern aircraft carriers are too expensive to build and maintain, and project a large sea-going footprint which can be easily discovered and targeted with sophisticated multi-platform electronic detection and weapon systems available in today’s military (see: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013-05/rise-missile-carriers ). That means the 5,000 plus crew and multi-billion dollar ship they serve on has a higher degree of being successfully attacked and sunk.
Russia may want to think about building next generation surface-to-surface blue water missile carriers instead of aircraft carriers given the lower cost, shorter build time and less manpower needed to operate this new class of vessel.
Moscow Times is legion for taking 5th column positions, overtly anti-Putin, etc. In the very link provided there’s an article about “Putin’s Lies” that says there’ be no problem in Ukraine were it not for Russia’s aggressiveness.
I know nothing about military strategy, but perhaps since Moscow has no overseas military bases to help in projecting power, an aircraft carrier may seem useful. Remember that she is unable to help Syria or Iraq by bombing ISIS due to the distance involved.
Finally, your premise that Russian Federation is a “regional power” isn’t shared by RF.
This is one other small sign of a growing China-Russia alliance. In the US analysts continue to talk about a natural historical conflict between Russia and China which means that those two countries will inevitably have to go to war. Nixon and Kissinger certainly spread that story in 1972 when they began their triangulation policy. Problem seems to be that there is not really a natural geopolitical antagonism between Russia and China.
Karlin makes the case that over the last 300 years Russia and China had manageable foreign relations and that the dispute that happened between 1960 and 1980 was based not on a natural geopolitical problem but was based on interpretations of Marxist ideology. Given the irrelevancy of Marxist ideology in today’s world there is no natural conflict between Russia and China. But given the very real threat of US imperialism against both Russia and China today there are very good reasons for them to ally. I think the bottom line is if the US believes it can easily drive a wedge between Russia and China then the US will be sadly mistaken.
What is even more crazy for the US is to believe they could confront China (“pivot to Asia”) at the same time they provoked conflict in the Ukraine. Do State Department advisers really believe that attacking both countries at the same time will not result in some kind of alliance? Do they really believe that such an alliance would simply be for temporary convenience? Do these advisers have some kind of world view to think that natural geopolitical facts mean that such alliances will not last long? If so then US foreign policy is in the hands of fools.
Fools, by the hundreds, in the second government, as it is called. The “experts” and ideologues who make policy and coerce the elected government to carry it out.
Toivos, I don’t think they’re stupid. They want conflict.
They intend to control it so as to bring out the resolution that they want: the New World Order. The chaos following WWII enabled them to get part way there w the IMF/BIS system. The chaos they are producing now they intend to manufacture our consent for a one-world govt which they will run.
Oh no!! yet another blog that has fallen for the bellingcat/Eliot Higgins nonsense. His MO is
1) get various google earth images
2) draw circles and lines and arrows on them
3) make various claims about what these represent, without proving how they do so
4) additionally claim discrepant timestamps for other people’s images without explaining or proving how he got those timestamps.
5) conclude “RUSSIA LIED”.
When distractions are portrayed as ‘guidance’ and blatant lies projected as ‘the truth’ I know I’m being jerked around and, on both a personal and moral level, I really don’t like that.
Luckily/fortunately sites like these provide a stern antidote against the venomous interludes of white noise MSM and its the copious amounts of info to sort through, that allows me to be better informed and act accordingly.
That’s the way I like it; give me information and let me decide.
So, to all moderators and every single contributor, a BIG thank you and job well done!
Unlike the usual Soros or CIA funded media, it is owned by a private company celled IBT media (IBTimes is also theirs) which is closely associated with Olivet College, a Bible college/seminary founded by the Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches in America.
This partly accounts for the rather pointless and confused but “persecuted Christians” article.
It is an interesting example of Victim Politics. Something is done for one reason (clearly spelled out and specified) but the Victim decides is was done for some other reason, ie some feature of his that he likes being the Victim about. This type of Victim is actually a BULLY, claiming to know more about the other party’s motives than the other party himself knows.
So, a pastor in Russia spent 5 days in jail for not paying a fine for holding a public meeting without a permjt. He was being PERsecuted for “professing his faith” they reckon. Hullo?? he was PROsecuted for for breaking a law which applies equally to everyone.
After a lot of nonsense which shows most churches are doing well in Crimea and managed to register as churches without problems… NOW we get to the headline “crack down” — assorted priests, including Polish and Ukrainian, are not allowed to operate there (ie WORK) on tourist visas. (Heck, in my country they lock up then deport any tourist found working).
My tip: if you want to be left alone, stop breaking the laws.
To me , as a casual observer , this is a debacle in american implementation of their foreign policy.. and instead of adjusting their actions based on current facts on the ground , they proceed with their original plan (aka containing and antagonizing china in their ‘pivot to asia’ plan)
This ‘pivot to asia’ was the america’s true goal in their foreign policy , but got messed up because the russian didnt bow down when america blatantly used force to change ukraine’s goverment. Now instead of a weakened and cowering russia , with ukraine looming over them and NATO bases in russia’s border , they faced a united chinese and russian alliance…
Now everything the US did will face not just one (china) but two (russia and china) … with russia heavily involved in India’s military , and in vietnam’s military (goes for looong way historically) , other US vassals in asia would be totally clueless on how to proceed without risking a shooting war..
Korea certainly wont take action to aggrevate china , no matter how much pressure from US govt , Japan definitely not seeking confrontation with china , especially with russia behind china , supporting diplomatically and in the case of shooting war , will supply modern weapons to china. The Abe goverment are way too foolish to sell japan to the yankees .. most of japanese are angered with the Abe goverment for continuously seeking confrontation instead of peace and trade.
The fool in this drama will be the stupid and coward philiphino goverment.. lowering themselves to the feet of americans just to spite their biggest neighbour , forgetting that chinese and filipino both are better off trading / join a secure economic partnership..
Note that what i mentioned here are their Goverment , not their people.. im sure filipino people are questioning their goverment’s blatant *ss kisssing to the yankees who once illegally ruled their land..
The Chinese and Russians have had maneuvers and training on land and on blue water.
Next, they will fly together, I predict.
Maybe refueling over the South China Seas, so the Chinese can stay up for long flight times.
The Russians use Cam Rahn Bay in Vietnam for their tanker planes. It would be symbolic if Chinese jet fighters got fuel from Russian tankers.
I also expect that when the S400s go to China soon, the Russians will be on the ground to coordinate their radars with Russian Far East radars in order to make a seamless net against US and Japanese missiles and planes.
The Russians announced they will be steaming their navy into the South China Sea also. They will be training with Brunei and other ASEAN nations. This is invaluable for China against the US and its vassals Philippines and Japan.
I expect that the Russians will port in Qingdao and Dalian at times, the two big Chinese naval bases at the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.
Dear Larchmonter..what do you say about this recent warning that China gave US to back off about the little islands ? What will US do ?
The US will push the envelope on sea using the Japanese navy and Philippines, and in the air with our anti-submarine planes and electronics planes.
They will do all they can to get the Chinese to cause an accident, incident, etc.
US is getting desperate because the whole SCS region is out of its control any more.
Policy-wise we are trying to force an ASEAN+US as arbiter multi-lateral confab with China to “solve” the issues. China wants only bi-lateral, one nation at a time negotiations and no US.
There are many things the US can try to do, but I read the Chinese government and public as willing to take nothing from the US. Just as that was their attitude about the Japanese and the Diaoyu Islands.
The economic interests will eventually get shared, but the territory will be what China wants. After all, for the neighbors, they need the fish, they need a piece of the oil and gas and they don’t want a war. So China will “share”.
The US doesn’t need anything but hegemonic control. So they’ll keep at it until some Chinese patriot in a jet or ship defends to death. It’s happened before with the Chinese.
The real scary scenario actually is north of the Spratly Islands. Taiwan. If the US decides to set down on Taiwan and dare the Chinese—all out war! And not much will be left of Taiwan.
However, I see all these things settling down after the US flexes. The meetings in Singapore this week went well between Ashton Carter and the Chinese generals and staff. The US gets a great press, but the facts are always something else.
China is a trading nation. It wants freedom of navigation for its ships and everyone else’s ships. They are not going to hamper sea traffic through the SCS. That is a straw dog the US puts up.
Part of the demonization process.
One of President Xi’s big plans is the Maritime Silk Road. It depends on the SCS being calm. Now do you see why the US is starting trouble there also?
Larchmonter445
What do you think the chances are for India resolving it’s territorial disputes with China and ‘joining up’, so to speak? It appears that ‘wild card’ would overwhelmingly turn the game against NATO. At this point, India’s not feeling much pressure from NATO & their ‘pivot’. But they certainly see the writing on the wall.
Thanks
India has economic need to be that smart and as a major BRICS player and SCO member (June), India is in the mix.
False pride and nursing old wounds is, sadly, a problem for India. It may take a while more to see that the West wants no more development of poor, emerging or developing nations. So, India has to decide if it can function suppressing its own rise economically in order to be friendly with British and American interests.
India is very integrated militarily (co-production of Russian designs) with Russia. It will soon have to be economically integrated with China. China is the big new bank in town. Not just AIIB, but many other funds available for infrastructure development (which India needs before it can succeed as a full economy).
There are many dynamics playing in the India neighborhood. Pakistan with China, also getting into SCO as full member. Iran, with the sanctions off, will be a powerhouse.
The Maritime Silk Road actually needs India’s big navy for protection. Right now, India is upset that China is sailing in the Indian Ocean with its submarine fleet. Well, time to grow up.
So, India has issues. Not just the old border disputes. The Indian Ocean thing, the Pakistan-China thing, the leftover British stink at the top of the society, and fear of the hegemon.
I think Putin will hold their hand as they go to school in global intrigue. He’ll protect them in the playground when the bully comes around.
The Indians always think democracy is the key to success. It has no relevance when you have 1.4 billion people and most are under the poverty line. After all, how many leaders have been assassinated in the great democracy of India? M.K. Ghandi, Indira Ghandi, her son, Rajiv, and counting. They have their own page in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_Indian_politicians
The SCO will change everything in the inter-country relationships. Common enemies (terrorists) brings nations together.
Russia-Brunei first ever naval excercise… So what is these mean? Is Brunei more prone to Russia than US? Or this is just nothing?
The region is Asia-Pacific, overall. Not just SCS or SE Asia. Russia is a huge nation in the Asia-Pacific with an historic relationship with Vietnam. The handwriting is on the wall. Russia is expanding its Far East and will be a partner with Vietnam and a partner with China. The US has nothing of its own in the Asia Pacific region. It has bases and vassals. Beyond Hawaii, it is an interloper who wants to be the Hegemon. Them days is gone.
Brunei and Malaysia and Indonesia want a taste of freedom from the global hegemon. Russia and China are nice counterparts to have.
Only Australia and New Zealand really want the US there. (And of course, Philippines has fallen back as a recidivist vassal.)
The reality is there is no counterweight to the China-Russia strategic partnership.
Singapore is another, under the lame-brain son of the genius Lee who recently died, who seems to fear China. His father never feared them. He quietly instructed them on how a great China needs to act. The son, is very Westernized, unsure of himself, and is messing up their great economy, also.
The US will play with all these smaller nations to drive up fear of China.
But President Xi will wave the Chinese wealth available to help any and all of them develop and prosper. That is a very powerful weapon.
All the US has is its weapons of war.
So, if India is one of the BRICS countries and is the land of “generic drugs” why is Rossia so short of pharmecuticials?? Pls explain if you know the answer. Are there trade or patent restrictions?
I don’t understand .
Generic drugs are those on which the patent has expired. So they are 15 years old at least.. All the newer ones are under patent, so can be made only by the company who “invented” it or their licences. So a lot of diseases and illnesses are not covered by generics.
For many conditions there are several similar brand name drugs and maybe a generic or two to choose from. Some patients and some doctors believe the brand name is “better” and some people genuinely get better results with one or another (usually because of differences in the fillers). I can’t find out what percentage of all common drugs are available in generic form. But only about 20-25% of drugs sold are generic; maybe another 10% could be but they’ve chosen the branded version.
Many foreign pharmaceutical companies have branches or subsidiaries in Russia; 9 of the top 10 there are foreign ones (American or German mostly). This is necessary for the patented ones, but is precisely the kind of dependence on the “west” that Russia is trying to get rid of.
The Russian military announced a joint project with China to investigate the use of Chinese traditional medicine. Any good results from that will flow into the civilian sphere of course.
I can see these two plus India getting their best medical heads together to develop not necessarily new drugs, but new ways of treating various diseases (starting by preventing them rather than patching up afterwards). Their joint cultural capital for this is huge, enormous.
@Larch
After all, for the neighbors, they need the fish, they need a piece of the oil and gas and they don’t want a war. So China will “share”.
Absolutely. China could hold those areas (“mine mine mine”), spend a lot of effort and vitriol defending it, sell the fish to the neighbors, use the oil profit to lend to develop the neighbors so they can afford to buy the fish…..while they spend their own money trying to “steal” the area (or its fish) back……
Or they can set up a shared area, JOINT control, where each user is responsible for using the area responsibly, not causing loss or damage to anyone else. This would be sustainable for the environment, too. If the neighbours also share in the oil/gas usage, that’s income of their own they don’t need to borrow. It is income that lets them NOT have to overfish the area to export it for money.
The Japanese will be a tough sell.
“one nation at a time negotiations and no US” . Who wants to “negotiate with the US?”. We have no leadership, no governance no rule of law and no diplomacy and our foreign policy is one word: WAR. I think Grazdanin Putin has taught them about about leadership, governance and diplomacy, …. and the need for diplomatic communication channels. USA is governed by $$$$$$ and the MIC.
How can you negotiate with the MIC?
If the Russian and the Chinese want to survive the American onslaught the must give each other military bases.
It means the Chinese must allow the Russian access to Chinese ports and vice versa.
It would be good to make the same deal with Iran.
So that the Russian ships [ Chinese and Iranian too ] can do refueling, repair, and to rest.
Been done already. Evene between Russia and Iran.
“The tankers are staging out of Cam Ranh Bay to refuel Russian Bears.”
Like a mantra. I can’t look at it without smiling.
But then I remember being on a USAF base during the Cuban crisis (coincidentally a tanker base for refueling SAC bombers). They were so sure it was WWIII and they were so happy. Their radio and TV sounded New Year’s Eve on Times Square.
And the other mood strikes. So many advances in Russian military readiness and international alliances are prospective, I know they are goading a substantial and influential body of American opinion that time may be running out for an American first strike and it should be soon. Maybe disguised by an apparent detente.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the Russians are not publishing real military production schedules about anything, let alone when the skies will be sealed, but I doubt their security can keep it safe. Too many whiz kids have to know too much over too long a time. More than can possibly be sequestered.
Where should I go, where do you look, for analyses on the military big picture?
It’s pretty interesting that America is using the same tactics against both Russia and China in the Black Sea and South China Sea respectively. In both cases, the United States sends its military to intrude into or near the territorial waters of Russia and China to provoke a response from them, which the USA then seizes upon as a pretext to ratchet up tensions.
More broadly, America is trying desperately to pit Europe against Russia and Asia against China by using local vassal states or proxies as provocateurs from Ukraine to the Phillipines to Japan to Poland.
This is the cliched “Divide and Rule” strategy that the British Empire specialized in, and which its spawn, the United States of America, now imitates like a well-trained circus monkey.
Tactics ??
All I see is media clownery and t h e a t r i c s ! !
молодец! Hopefully, Russia and China will delve into the business of Regime Change as well. As Crimea keeps showing us, it’s great fun whenever the Western dregs scream, rage, and fume in real pain and anger.
Anonymous and Nussiminen: “trained monkeys” Nice metaphor. Although my own preferred poetic image has been that of larger, knuckle dragging apes, rather than the smaller more nimble variety, your image contains much truth. And while it is natural to cheer the defeats and frustrations of evil ones, (as an American I also find myself doing that for a second or two, occasionally, because these monkeys don’t represent ME in any way…) let us remember that this is not really a soccer match nor an imperial Roman Coliseum arena fight to the death between Atlanticist simians and Eurasian hero humans. At least I hope not.
Rather, I am persuaded, this has to do with human evolution. Will we make it to the next stage? Or incinerate ourselves into extinction in one glorious Nuclear World Cup Finals for the amusement of all the “fans” of such things???
In that regard, finally freeing 300 million mostly terrified, blindfolded, dumbed down US hostages from these evil; monkeys who have hijacked America several times (most notably Nov 22, 1963 and Sept 11, 2001 in my lifetime) of their US simian (not Arab patsy) hijackers is not only possible, but actually becoming more and more feasible. And that is actually the most efficient pathway to lasting victory of a deeper sort, for all of mankind.
There is a Resistance within North America. This website is part of it, and I believe I will contribute to it this week. But it is not alone, nor does it have the longest, deepest history. There is a lot more here than many newbies here or abroad would think. But it is becoming dearer to me every week. Perhaps that is because my sons are half Russian. Or because I was so intrigued by the spirit of those onion dome chapels in the mists of Unalaska and New Archangelsk (Sitka, Alaska) in the 70’s entering or leaving those ports on crab fishing vessels, that I sought to marry some of that spirit.
Guys, let’s put the monkeys back in the zoo and complete the Bering Straits Tunnel and the World Land Bridge (global extension of the New Silk Road) within a decade or two at most. That’s my mission. And my little family is a Russian American Alliance in miniature. And by conscious design. No Darwinian Accident of Nature or “unnatural selection”.
So take that Darwin, you imperialist swine. We are all not animals, although your modern neocon adherents surely do behave like monkeys.
I like these ideas. True, an increasingly successful groundswell of resistance from the US people would be the simplest solution to a host of global problems engineered by the US hit team. Throwing off the Zionist parasite shackles would be a tremendous lift of freedom to the nation.
I like the concepts of a Bering Straits Tunnel and a World Land Bridge. Imagine being the US end of the Silk Road – thence down into Central and South America? I have always thought that North Americans and Russians would make the greatest of friends.
This is a worthy aspiration.
HIGH FIVE!
Patriotic majority opinion must remain impotent until the moral élite organises within the electorally despised GOP to overwhelm and displace the Masonic 1% dominance. Without organisation there in only powerless palaver.
Michael, you are right. Where and how are you organizing and how long and effectively have you done it? So others in your area can join the fight. If you might give them a chance to benefit from your battle hardened experience and wisdom.
talking of monkeys…see this video https://youtu.be/9fK52QxnVdU
Ann: Good use of audio/video medium to illustrate devolution in current events. Apes on drugs won’t survive long, I don’t believe.
Dear Saker: No bs. First check is on the way. Your site is a treasure. Thank you.
Nice picture, but I thought there would be a video with it…
Russia and China are integrating their armies in the Far East. Fantastic stuff. AngloAmerican Empire with its North Atlantic Terrorist Organization should be very scared, and I am guessing that they are. There is no way for them to isolate and contain Russia and China induividually, but united… well, it must be a nightmare for the Empire. And now finally Russia and China can go in offensive and wreck AmgloAmerican plans and schemes: Time to go offensive!
No. Absolutely no need for offense. Just constructive engagement. The idea is to minimize the entropy, globally. Even the West is beginning to realize that unipolar control of food, energy,
resources, labor, profits and information leads to wars. i.e. entropy increase
Regards, Spiral
“” the West is beginning to realize”” – I don’t see that. Who’s actually this West? If it’s USA with British Crown and Israel, then I bet they don’t see any such realizations. They play it like 100 years ago, but now they have FED, Israel in the Middle East and dollar reserve currency that happened to replace gold.. because you can wage wars almost FOR FREE when you print the global currency.
This is how they create and manage things. They are not going to realize anything beside being defeated by politics, power and unfortunately, war. I doubt the empire is going to retreat with saying “ok, sorry, we have got it”. No such a thing. I hope that Russia, China and yes, Europe will be able to stop the worst.
Just in case you missed it, here you can take a look at the new reserve currency – gold backed:
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-chinese-have-put-out-billboard-ads-announcing-the-renminbi-as-the-new-world-currency-16318/
…. and the Anglo-Zionist idiots believe a SDR-basket expanded by the Yuan will do it – lol.
The Chinese are not anxious to have the RMB/Yuan the new reserve currency, replacing the dollar.
When the term World Currency is used, it means they are now, finally, using the RMB all around the world in bi-lateral trade. It is not a reserve currency.
They could conduct World Trade with a gold-backed Yuan, but not at present.
I think many people wish the dollar would be totally rejected and some want it to collapse.
But China needs a healthy US market and a healthy system around the world.
The Yuan will be in the IMF bucket. That was the first goal.
When the Chinese finish developing their economy and all 1.3 billion are at the middle class level by their standards (household income of $9-16,000 per year), then they may consider some new role for the Yuan.
That is a long way off.
The Chinese and Russians have already shredded the BIS and petrodollar. But with no adverse effect. They will take apart the unipolar system carefully. The dollar is not a target per se. If the Chinese wanted to cripple the US, they would dump Treasuries, take the paper losses, watch the US go into depression and have no market to sell their products to, and probably, begin a war on all fronts launched by the neo-cons. That is not a strategy.
But the gold dealers like to talk it up.
China very definitely does NOT want to see America go broke. Exactly as you say,l they need them to SELL TO. USA buys $486 Billion worth of Chinese-made goods every year, which includes goods they make for US companies like Apple. They also import OIL worth $356 at 2014 prices obviously less since they managed to force the price down).
The Chinese exports to US are 18% of their total exports, and many are labour-intensive items, so losing that trade would put a lot of people out of work in China. This sort of issue would remain, no matter what money is being used for trade — an exporter cannot afford his best customers going broke.
It would be better for A”world currency” to e just that — WORLD money,k not any one (or two) nation’s money. That way inflation, interest rates etc that have to be changed internally, fr the good of the country itself doesn’t flow through to make trouble for the rest of the world. Ad outside problems dont’ feed in to hit your local people.
There’s lots of room in China to reduce the work week.
Not at the expense of cutting incomes, and that depends on the sales. What they really need is better prices for what they sell, which will come once nobody can squeeze them with weight of money.
Chinese exports to the US will go down dramatically, once the US dollar implodes. Only the cheapest of the cheapest junk will make its way to the Wallmart penny-stores.
American entrepreneurship and creative small business owners will come to the rescue and be the backbone of a new American revival. Will take a decade or two. Will be a hard time, but also a great time. For pioneers, adventurers, creative folks of all walks of life, yes, true heroes.
Absolutely! China and Russia are not looking to crash the world economy or political system. They are looking to transform it and eventually supplant it with something else.
I do not say that the Chinese want to crash the US economy willfully. But the official statements from the Chinese government were:
1.) “The US has no more economy.” (because of the outsourcing)
2.) “We will de-dolarize the world.”
We should also realize, that if the Yuan is added to the SDR-basket, the Yuan is then a reserve currency besides the Dollar, Euro, Yen and Brittish Pound. Furthermore at one point in time it makes no sense to China to accumulate more Dollars, when she cannot buy something of value with it and what could it be what the US can sell to China, what China wants to have ? (may be real estate and farmland ?). The US cannot have a trade deficit with China to all infinity. What the Western countries have not realized yet is the fact, that the IMF reserve currencies are a form of savings for China – will China wate till these savings are totally devalued by printing money without any backing. Yes, as long as China can buy gold, silver, oil, gas etc. with Dollars, the game will go on, but one day the music stops. Don’t believe, that the US-military can be a backing for the Dollar in the future !
Exactly!
You people are utterly clueless. First you fail to undertsand, even with the ever present talks about indebtness of the USA, how much indebted the West really is – and even a 6 yr old child knows that if something is heavily indebted, it cannot go on buying things on credit (meaning USA, and the West generally, cannot go on buying thing China produce because it has nothing po pay China with anymore: and reast assure that, unlike most of you Wetserners,Chinese are not that dumb to keep on working like slaves for freshly printed paper *Westers seems to think the whole world is that stupid that it is going to work for them, and they are going to pay their hard work and sweat with paper). In short order: the West is dead and it cannot keep going as a market for the Chinese products. That market is dead. USA alone has governement (local, regional and federal) and household debt at 60 trillion $. Add to that number hundreds of trillions in derivatives designed to amsk the true hight of the debt, and you get the picture of the indebtness. Professor Kotlikoff speaks about +230 trillions of US debt if measured in traditional way, before all the changes in measurment have been taking place since 90s. How much more you think that market can keep on “functioning”? Only till the reign of the dollar ends, and not a second afterwards. Not only do you project total economic illiteracy there, but, what is far worse, a logical disability too.
But even worse than that, you fail to understand the nature of the IMF and what it means for it is of far greater importance than any trivialities such as we are being distracted with. IMF is globalist institution which Anglosphere created with the purpose to serve as global central bank, just like the UN is created to serve as global parliament and the rest of blobalist institutions (WTO, WHO, ICC, etc.) with the same purpose in its branch. That is part of history lecture you are oblivious about. Now on the present matters, what Anglosphere wish to achieve is to all the world to accept that currency IMF is about to print (called Special Drawing Rights – SDR or bancor) to accept as “world currency.” And then Anglospehre again preserves its current power of crinting the reserve currency because they again control the SUPPLY of that currency. They are going to print that currency as they wish and would again start where the USA endeavor will have ended just like they have started with the British Empire version 2.0 (you would know it under the name of USA) when British Empire original enterprise had ended. Nobody wins with IMF except oligarchs running the Anglosphere Empire located in City of London and Washington DC. China loses its sovereignty by subjugaton itself to Anglozionist institution – the IMF. That is the battle which will decide the future of the planet. If Anglosphere wins, eventually everything will succumb to the will of the oligarchs running it, and Russia, Chian and eveyone else will lose its sovereignty and become just another Anglozionist occupied land(s).
Before you insult everybody, you should learn the nature of fiat currencies. A fiat currency is of nominal value only, like a common share of no par value. The US doesn’t owe anyone anything beyond the nominal value of the currency. As the US can print it at will, the US will always be able to pay its debts.
As long as the world accepts USD at some value, it’s money good. How long will that be? Well, that depends on many things.
A USN Admiral put it piquantly: “Asia makes lots of wonderful things for us and we give them bits of worthless paper. The 7th Fleet balances the books”. When the 7th Fleet can longer balance the books, the gig will end. Until then, the ponzi will continue.
There’s nothing wrong with fiat currencies in their role as tokens of account and as a medium of exchange. They can also function as a store of value, provided they’re prudently managed. Historically, the most successful currencies were pure fiat, prudently managed. The next world reserve currency, if there is one, will not be left in the hands of one nation to manage ’cause this one screwed up pretty badly. So badly that the world’s financial structure is on the verge of collapse and the world has pretty much sworn they’ll never put all their eggs in one basket again.
Don’t lecture me about the nature of fiat currencies, I have written books about them. When printed, currencies lose purchuasing power, and the only reason US dollar is not worth as much as the paper it is printed on is because its broad use. US have defaulted on 15 August 1971 when its currency stopped being converable to the real money, the money which had been used for 6.000 prior to that date – the gold. Anglosphere then thought of a good deal to circumvent the demise of the post-war world order (Bretton-Woods) by making deal with the house of Saud about Saudis excepting only the dolalr the only acceptable currency for its oil payment (later other OPEC members were added to the deal). Yes, US can print watever amount of currency units it wishes, but each unit of that printed currency won’t hold the same purchasing power: later printed ones always have the lesser values than the ones that had come before them. Only gold backed currencies make fair medium of exchange, as every pirnted currency hold the same amount of purchusing power (since there is pre-determined amount of the currency units which can be printed, hence their value hold). That means that in orde to have the fair trade, you need to have gold and silver backed currencies first – that is, if the currency is the thing you want to use as medium of exchange (in wars, for example, no foreign currenc serves as medium of exchange between the nations – only gold and silver; and there is also something called barter, which you probably haven’t heard of – it’s also a very poternt medium of exchange, far more than the use of currency of some foreign entity).
And to show you how ignorant you are, historically the only currency which has managed to pass the test of time (6.000 years I spoke of earlier) is the gold. Every single fiat currency the worldhzas ever used since its inception in the 11th century in China has miseralby failed. There is not a single exception – they all failed; when not caked by gold and/or silver, it’s the only a matter of time before they inevitably fail. Currencies not backed by anything other than the goverments’ promise not to debase them cannot and have never been mamged prudently.
There is no need for world currency, and won’t be “a next one” which will Anglospehere oligarchs again control. National currencies, as you indirectly even admitted, serve just as good medium of exchange as the current reserve currency – the dollar (they all get debased; their purchuasing power ruined unless they are anchored in the real money – gold and silver). With that said, even the barter is a better option than having Western dominion over trade between sovereign nations of the planet – to have some Western currency backed by nothing to serve as a middleman in deals between sovereign countries. It’s nothing but a form of parasitism and control, and the world wants to be free of Western control and parasitism. Why shouldn’t China have that power? After all, China invented fiat currencies. Why does it have to be London and Washinton? Do explain that to the audience, I bet they are eager to hear why.
@Rurik
Your second post is even better than the first. You are bang on on every point you’ve made on currency (real and fiat). Your detractors are out of their league. It’s a privilege to get conclusions some of us have come to on one our own validated by an expert, a person with real experience and real knowledge.
Again an excellent and valuable post filled with real facts, real expertise, consistent logic and deductive reasoning. Quite different from emotional speculation that is based on what one would like to be true as opposed to what is actually true. The statement that the most successful currencies have always been fiat currencies that were prudently managed is utterly false and contradicts the real historical record. How anyone can make such an absurd statement is breathtakingly ignorant, because even a basic understanding of logic and mathematics (and human nature) would imply that such a scenario is not possible.
Thanks for setting the record straight and again for an extremely informative post. An excellent synopsis the current currency problem and how a real current (gold-backed) should behave. BTW what is wrong with silver-backed currencies? What are the issues with that?
Would you be kind enough to supply a list of recommended reading materials on this topic? I would like to ask you for the title of your books (so that I and others may purchase it) but out of respect for your privacy on this site it would be understandable if you can’t do that. Therefore a recommended reading list would be greatly appreciated.
Gold is not money, but a commodity now. Money is a legal entity as defined by law and government, usable to pay taxes.
There is nowhere near the quantity of gold available in the word to handle the tangible wealth and production, and gold can be as easily manipulated as fiat currency by corrupt politicians and financiers. The value of money is a function of the knowledge and honesty of the government which issues and backs it, and which should reflect the real economy — and that’s the problem, including banksters issuing ‘money’ which is really just private debt (which at this can not possible be deleveraged without everything crashing, and is also the root cause of the current inflation).
Read up on MMT and heterodox economics.
You should refrain form telling people they are ignorant when you show so much ignorance yourself — in such lengthy posts — books or not. What I saw from skimming your posts looks like typical Austrian/Chicago schools & current libertarian nonsense. The arrogance with which you write indicates to me how steeped you are in ideology over economic knowledge.
Blue you have written books on the subject have you?
One of the most absurd statements I’ve seen is that there isn’t enough gold in world to back representative notes of it; seriously absurd since you can fractionalize quantities of gold on those representative notes. Even if your supposition were true, which it isn’t, there is orders of magnitude more silver in the world than Gold and it can also be used for the same purpose.
I’ll think I’ll take the considered evidence of a published expert over the opinion of an amateur. Rurik says he has written books on the subject, let us see his recommended reading list.
Anonymous on June 02, 2015 · at 3:15 pm UTC
Blue you have written books on the subject have you?
Any idiot can write books, and many have, as shown by all the ridiculous books that exist. One can also find authors who totally disagree with one another, yet they have written books.
One of the most absurd statements I’ve seen is that there isn’t enough gold in world to back representative notes of it; seriously absurd since you can fractionalize quantities of gold on those representative notes.
Gold can’t possibly represent all the wealth in the world. 10 years ago total gold was valued at about $2 trillion; now with inflation at about $8 trillion. In2013 gross world product was some $7 or $8 trillion. That’s not total wealth (which would also include value of precious metals, BTW) but just production. Additionally, since gold is a fixed quantity at any using a gold standard leaves no room for governments to regulate economic activity, nor for entrepreneurs to pursue new productive activities without reducing the liquidity available for everyone else — just do a sector analysis.
I’ll think I’ll take the considered evidence of a published expert over the opinion of an amateur. Rurik says he has written books on the subject, let us see his recommended reading list.
You have no idea what I know, nor can we conclude that some unnamed poster who says he is an expert really is. But you can believe whatever you want. I’m not saying you are a fascist, but as an example look at all the fascists in Kiev who will say they are experts, and all the eople who believe them, or all the nutty religious cultists who say they know things and people believe them.
So look up MMT and http://neweconomicperspectives.org/ , and experts like Michael Hudson (especially), Randy Wray, Steve Keen, Warren Buffet, Bill Mitchel, Stephanie Kelton, those at http://www.heterodoxnews.com/HEN/home.html, Henry George, even Marx, and all the rest of the economists who offer different perspectives. And they have written books too, of course. You can find lectures, symposiums, texts and articles — all for free. Even Stafford Beer talks some about about economics.
You do not understand what money is (neither exogenous nor endogenous), or current economic and monetary theory. You have been bamboozled.
@Rurik
Your post was excellent and informative. After going through your long (it was worth the read) and detailed explanation, I have to agree that you know what you’re talking about. I also agree that many here are engaging in wishful thinking rather than fact based analysis and don’t seen to have a grasp of this topic as you clearly do.
Thank you for taking the time to show just how things are devolving/evolving in the ongoing ponzi scheme of fiat currencies and the SDR issue.
Thank you, Lowquestus. Much appriciated.
Modern monetary theory which this blue is talking about, is just expanded neokeynesianism – Western oligarchs attempt to direct the discussion from the Austrian school of economic thought toward Keynesian one with ever expaneding governmet and ever bigger role of central banking. You blue are totally economically illitrerate. But if I am not mistaken, I remember you supporting anti Anglozionist points of view, am I right? Now, look what ignorance does to a person who foolishy think he is fighting Anglosphere oligarchy – your ignorance made you support the exact thoughts and stances those oliagrchs want you to support, and guess what – they go against your interest (considering you are an average citizen of USA).
As for the book someone mentioned, you have plenty of them online for free. Look for authors like von Mises, Rothbard., Hazlitt etc. I think von Mises Institute has a library of free books and you can find it there. Unfortuanatelly mine are not translated to English language, but you’ll find everything in the works of above mentioned authors. Thoughts regarding fiat currencies are not new ones; they have been known for centuries. So nothing new here, you just need to know where to find the truth, and economic truth is in the works of Austrian school of economic thought.
Austrian School arrogance coupled with ad hominem — typical.
Go your own way, and enjoy your illusions, but I’ll not go back to Von Mises site again — I already wasted far too much time on that nonsense, and I will waste no more trying to open your mind.
Hey — write another book and buy something nice for yourself with the earnings.
@Rurik
The praise towards you is merited. Thank you. I will look into those sites.
@Blue
Thank you for the links you provided I will look into them.
It would enhance your credibility and the ideas you espouse if you did not engage in ad hominems and them simultaneously accuse Rurik of the same. As well you shouldn’t draw hard and fast conclusions as whether someone (Anonymous) has been bamboozled or understands money not. You don’t know what the other party knows or doesn’t know either nor whether their statements are designed to simply get a rise out of you.
Still you are sincere and are trying to contribute your knowledge that comes from a different point of view than that expressed by Rurik. Thank for that and I’ll definitely look into the points you’ve raised. It won’t be the first time that I’ve received an epiphany from reading different points of view on this fantastic site (Sakers Blog and Comments section).
@Lowquetus
It was not me who entered this thread telling people they haven’t a clue, are ignorant and illiterate, and such things. That’s no way to have a dialogue or discussion.
@others
At this point the MMT people are about the best source of ieconomics nformation and citations to more sources — but don’t discount Marx either, even being dated by some 150 years, or Minsky, or the Stockholm school with Wicksell, or Henry George, and a host of others — even Austrian, Chicago School, and Schumpeter have some things worth hearing about, but none of them should be made into a religion or have ‘The Truth’.
One of the best overall fields to look at now is cybernetics (search on Umpleby and Beer to find the good sources), and some study of epistemology, which is becoming more available on the web. Along with some math such as set, group, complexity, and chaos theory, and abstract algebra in general, even if just to get a sense of what they are about and what the concepts are. But there is a forested mountain of information to explore and it takes a while to collect enough for a decent synthesis and a few workable models. It takes time — I’ve been exploring pretty intensively on the internet over the last 7 years, in addition to over 50 years of learning about related material. The biggest problem for me has always been to find what has been obscured, mystified by BS, and over-complicated and over-abstracted (on this last, yes, read some Korzybski and some semiotics).
At the end of a session I find that 3/4 of most of it can be tossed out right off, and the core of the synthesis is fairly simple and elegant. Economics is no more about money than living in a house is about board feet and squares of roofing material. Economics is about stuff — finding, producing and consuming it.
To think that worshiping one man, like Saint Von Mises who died over 40 years ago, and of course has people who misunderstand what he even said, will give ‘The Truth’ is silly, and to say any who disagree with that school is ignorant is not just silly but rude.
Wiki Von Mises, then Menger, then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodological_individualism and find:
“Methodological individualism is the requirement that causal accounts of social phenomena explain how they result from the motivations and actions of individual agents, at least in principle.” … “In neo-classical economics, people’s behavior is explained in terms of rational choices…”
which basis and axioms has been tossed out the window in light of recent research on both psychology and neuroscience. But what to expect? Menger, who founded the Austrian school, — February 23, 1840 – February 26, 1921 — before anything like a brain scan was even a dream, when Freud was developing just the beginnings of psychology as a science, but with even Freud talking about the non-rational subconscious. Following that economics is like trying to build a Linux computer from gears, levers, and Leyden Jars. For many of the people into this neoclassical stuff it’s like a fundamentalist religious cult. They make the mistake of thinking they *know* things when it’s all just old opinionated paradigms (before Thomas Kuhn, 1962, even!).
Epistemology!!
@Hubert
That is very true. I think the point, for China, is that the collapse of the hegemon and its dollar based world system is slow. A fast collapse would be very damaging to China. China’s dollar reserves (savings) are useful because they can be used to buy from other countries not just the US.
On the other hand the US has many things to sell China, far more than China has money to buy. Off the top of my head I can think of: Boeing, Intel, Exxon, UTC, IBM, GE, GM, Honeywell, Cisco, 3M, Halliburton etc etc Of coure the US has no intention of selling these to China. But as the collapse progresses … who knows. China might pick them up, or their best bits, at fire sale prices.
I thing to keep in mind is that the productive capacity of the BRICS, Russia and China being important, but also India and the rest, is enough to satisfy to tangible wealth need of their populations, and thus have a viable economy just among themselves, but the problem is one of the configuration of production with much of it, in China especially, directed at export to the west rather than BRICS consumption. That — tooling, distribution and finance systems, worker training, etc.) can’t be changed overnight. Russia is working on being self sufficient, of course, but it’s taking time.
By engaging in world trade these nations also yield a certain amount of control to the world powers, especially the dependency on US and EU. This is a possibly serious problem with following comparative advantage (and a side effect of that is the energy and infrastructure costs of transportation, as well as overhead (and often the leeching) of many layers of middlemen and merchants who are non-productive workers). Add to that the costs and inefficiencies of the increased complexity.
Much of the problems here are the result of mercantilism and capitalism, and the assumptions behind them that were largely pulled out of a hat, and perpetuated by those who were getting wealthy from growing pervasiveness of those ideas — often at the expense of local economies.
I wasn’t taliking to you, nor would I recommedn anything to an ignorant person who feel blessed with its ignorance – I find my time too precious to wasting it on such foolish errands. But it might help others who want to know, and since I believe it’s duty of all the travellers searching for the light… for truth, as some Antique philosophers would say, to help them in that sacred quest, I am doing my part bysharing the knowledge. So here are some of the books which will be educate you on the matter, for those of you who are want to have the knoledge… to know.
https://mises.org/library/austrian-perspective-history-economic-thought
https://mises.org/library/critique-interventionism
https://mises.org/library/economic-policy-thoughts-today-and-tomorrow
https://mises.org/library/economics-one-lesson
https://mises.org/library/bretton-woods-world-inflation-study-causes-and-consequences
https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market
Somebody sugegsted there is not enough gold to abck the currencies, and the response one gave to that ignorant person was: “Nonsense.” Exactly right. Even an ounce of gold is enough to back en entire currency supply. Take for example Zmbabwean currecy. All Zimbabwean currency supply can be backed with a single ounce of gold (that currency wouldn’t of course be worth much, but that is completely different matter; strenght of a currency is defined by its ratio… weight in gold: how much units of currency you need for an ounce of gold). There is enough gold and silver to back all the currencies with it, as all of them wouldn’t be worth the same.
What’s with this invasion by Austrian cultist, name-calling trolls?
Is this what we can now expect on Saker’s blog?
Oh, well — it’s not the first site on the web that’s been taken over before I moved on.
Quite a few posts have started turning up that appear to violate, some egregiously, the 2nd clause of the Moderation Policy. To whit:
2 ) All comment have to be impeccably courteous to me, the blog’s author, moderators, any guest author and all the other commentators. Absolutely no ad hominems or personal attacks.
Allowing semi-literate, reasonably polite trolls is one thing. Allowing insulting, vitriol-spewing “intellectuals” (with Amen Corners in tow) to scream out half-baked misunderstandings on side topics along with a stream of invective is quite another. What gives?
Aw poor Erebus, you can’t compete based on ideas so you now start attacking the moderators. You accuse others of violations that you yourself are more guilty of.
Look, Rurik has provided substantive information and real learning material. All you’ve provided is your opinion.
The moderators have done a fine job, what they do is difficult, they have to deal with people like you, Rurik, Blue and me. It’s a tough balancing act: To their credit they allow debates that skate on the edge because the rest of us learn from this interaction. I’m very grateful that this site attracts intellectuals like Rurik who help broaden our knowledge (thank you again for those extensive links Rurik). Shutting them up because they may be blunt will dumb-down this site into the vanilla consensus of the politically correct MSM. I’m also grateful to Blue (minus his ad hominems and his attempts stigmatize and invalidate people who believe in Austrian school economics, simply for their beliefs), because he provided a counterpoint based on his views on monetary policy and the underpinning of his views.
I’m immensely grateful to this site and Saker for providing so much intellectual discourse and opening our minds to think outside of the taboos and mental prison that we’ve been conditioned to internalize.
N.B.: In the distant past I had serious idea disagreements with Saker to point he asked to hit the road and get off his site. I replied back to him in kind, not backing off my point of view and providing the rational behind why I disagreed with him (in that particular instance) and to his credit and maturity he allowed my subsequent comments thru (back when he personally moderated this site). That only increased my respect for the site and for its creator (despite how strongly I may disagree with him or a specific author on a specific article or specific view he may hold). That’s the adult way to handle things, something I learned from Saker and some of his gifted readers (such as Mohammed, Uncle Bob, Kat Kan, Conical Hat, The Wend, and many others).
Since the current moderators volunteered their precious time to perform this task, the quality of the articles have increased, and the quality commentary has evolved and improved too, raising the credibility of this site.
Blue, don’t leave just yet. Let’s get down to brass tacks, a more indispensable form of metal than even silver and gold. The problem with the Austrian School and Libertarianism in general is Aristotle. Lousy epistemology, in short. Rurik hates the banksters, but the banksters don’t hate his beloved Von Mises, Von Hayek, Rothbard and Ayn Rand! Just look at Alan Greenspan. A devotee of Rand! What’s the scam? The individual’s refuge from the “tyranny” of any larger group (often bad, but not always bad… The greedy Aristotelian “individual” can never forgive FDR for calling in his precious private gold hoard at $20 an ounce and revalueing at $35 not much later. What is more of a sacrifice, to enlist and die in war or lose $15 an ounce but assist the collective sacrifice to defeat fascism? Wouldn’t you rather “own” part of a nation that is serious about mobilizing for victory, rather than clutch your coins in defeat??Russians have less of a problem with this question than we Americans, many of whom would make the wrong moral and intellectual,and STRATEGIC choice, based on the simplistic tautologies of the always mind-deadening and never creative Aristotle, patron saint philosopher of oligarchism.
Erebus, Rurik, Lowquetus et al in the money thread: Money is over-rated. Yes it is an important technical adjunct to economic activity, but far less important than increases in productive processes in industry and agriculture, brought about by scientific discovery and technological progress. Put all the gold in the world in the hands of a troupe of apes, and see what they do with it. Yes, it is more valuable than paper, badly abused. No, it is NOT more valuable than credit mobilized properly into areas that provide the means for the extinguishing of the debt so created while moving society to a higher economic platform. Lincoln’s Greenbacks, for example. Yes, some problems for some little people, some hairy times during the Civil War. But the result was worth it. Victory over the Confederacy and its Empire backers was obtained. No thanks to anything from Austria.
The oligarchy has no problem with impotent individual gripers whose first premise is that no larger group could ever possibly do anything good.
The world economy and monetary system needs to evolve. And we need to move on to an examination of the genius of Vladimir Vernadsky versus that imperial mutt, Darwin, like I tried to do a few days ago. Fundamentals. Money isn’t fundamental. Gold is a more lasting and recognized form of money than debased paper, but it’s not going to solve a damn thing by itself. It may still be necessary, but it is not sufficient. Credit productively employed is what is needed. The Empire is abusing and destroying credit and money. That, we all agree on. Why? To perpetuate oligarchy. To sit on the human race and hold up its evolution,to a higher form of society that would dispense with them.
Blue, stick around. It’s time for some poetry, dedicated to Rurik:
On First Looking in to Chapman’s Homer John Keats
Much have I traveled in the realms of GOLD
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen.
Round many western islands have I been,
Which bards, in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne.
Yet, did I never breathe its pure serene
Til I heard Chapman speak out loud, and bold!
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,
Or, like stout Cortez, when, with eagle eyes,
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men,
Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Note: Darien is possibly the only spot on earth where one may stare at the Pacific (where vast plains to be claimed for Spain were hoped for by Balboa….poetic license, not Hernan Cortes…that was Mexico) and yet wheel around 180 degrees on the same spot and also stare at the Atlantic one has just crossed. Surprise, surprise.
Discovery, guys. Aristotle and his methods never discovered anything but ways of deadening minds in the service of his oligarchical masters.Instead, why don’t we discover ways of bankrupting them and putting them in the zoo, instead of insulting each other and getting upset?
Yes, China is accumulating gold reserves and some sort of global reset is coming. But they are also going to the moon, where we dropped the ball, and now we’ve got this “been there, done that” clown Obama, a trained monkey for those in London and New York and DC who killed JFK. and will also kill the New Silk Road, the exploration of space, and the advancement of humanity for their sacred right of entitlement to squat on it all.
And there is something on the moon that is more valuable than all the gold ever mined on earth: helium 3. And even more fundamentally, the DISCOVERY of new scientific principles.
That picture is – https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQh2NvyGF3T-GNWT4W_jPQwpN6xnh0zO5u_wPa9vVQOTMsnRlVM
Bravo — voilà qui est parler! Qu’en dit notre bon vieux BHL et les imbéciles de Charlie Hebdo?
Is this the end of Assad ?
If so, It’s a sad moment. I hope Putin will somehow undo it.
Russia scaling back its support for Assad
Dead link.
Assad, your link “Russia scaling back support for Assad” is nonfunctional. When I searched for it online I found it goes back to a Times of Israel site. But they are the biggest liars. All Israeli media plant stories that they wish were true. Sorry, no cigar!
Assad, your link “Russia scaling back support for Assad” is nonfunctional. When I searched for it online I found it goes back to a Times of Israel site.
It wasn’t able to format the link. That’s hilarious. The “people” at websayanim central apparently are having problems with quality control.
I am sure I’ve formatted HREF tag properly.
It had to be the blog mechanism is not functioning with these TAGS .
The link is:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/report-russia-scaling-back-its-support-for-assad/
Just above the comment box click the Plus+ for a cheat sheet bout tags; your old one looks like you may have closed the initial one too soon.
The Times of Israel report originated with a Syrian opposition group in exile in London.
Why China supports Russia
http://bit.ly/1Aa90W7
Also, we are finally having Russian blackisting of Eurocrats. From now on, many Eurocrats are banned from going or poassing through Russia. Eurocrats are, for those who do not yet know, bureaucrats working for AngloAmerican (or Anglozionist, to use the Saker term) bankster cabal. They are the enemy of all sovereign nations of this planet.
It has been said that in the last couple of centuries (from 1812. Napoleon’s attack on Russia to today), over 100 million Russians have died in European agression on Russia! 100 million! Europeans are Russian enemy just as USA is!
Rurik,
Once again you are right on the mark. Your comment about Europe being the enemy of Russia is exactly right.
I cannot understand how people keep turning a blind eye the very obvious and malicious actions of the EU in Ukraine even when the EU is practically shouting their culpability from the rooftops. The German BND and the expansionist Eurocrats were the initial instigators of the Maidan. People in their hatred of the United States willfully blind themselves to EU malice to hang on the fantasy that Europe can be won over. The European establishment are not the hapless victims of alleged American pressure, they are active and willing participants in the current attack on the Russophere and the Orthodox world. The facts of history have shown time and time again the covetous, hostile and predatory actions of Europe against Russia, yet each time we have the logically challenged saying: “oh this time it’ll be different, the European establishment has ‘changed’ …”. What nonsense. A popular saying is: Doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. I’d like to add that it’s the definition of stupidity too.
‘Scuse me, Rurik’s sidekick, but have you heard of Victoria Nuland? You think she had something to do with Maidan?
You think the people here don’t know what ‘Eurocrat’ means or that they are all ‘working for’ AngloAmericans — and yet, strangely, Maidan was all Germany’s fault?
I’m not sure just who you are accusing of being logically challenged, insane, and stupid, but it’s beginning to look like you directed this at the wrong blog? I suggest you hang around and soak up the information and analysis from the usual posters here, and from Saker and the staff, and then be in a better position to judge who is illogical, crazy, and stupid — or ignorant. The situation is more complex than it appears on the surface.
Don’t shoot the messenger but he is right. Germany made the EU. It was Germany that was pressuring Ukraine to join the EU free trade deal. Merkel might be working for the Americans but she’s the manager of the Ukraine mess. her party was the one paying the protestors.
I just a headline that says blackwater trained all the top ISIS commanders.. Now I never saw anyone else say the US trained and commands ISIS but I did a while ago. So if the US only paid the guys to train these ISIS but these very same guys are also involved in assassinations and support for the US military, what does that make blackwater?
By the same token the French was at the forefront of bombing Libya. And they are the top hostile force against Syria.
It seems I along with a few others are the only ones who seem to have concluded that Europeans are not all that much better than the Americans. Europeans being vassals will come in and take to running things directly if they find it interesting. Rome did the very same things.
If you are going to tell me Germany is not the 4th Reich then you have miscalculated the readers of this blog. We might not be the many but that don’t mean we are wrong. Each day we seem to be becoming more right..
Europe, and Germany, has been pretty much in the pockets of the US since end of WW2, but as much as the US there is also the international ‘nobility’ — the .01% oligarchs all over the world, but many of those, and the empire, is based in the US. How you speak of it depends on the model being used at the time: US vs the world, manufacturing vs finance, nobles vs peasants, good vs evil, sociopaths vs normal, authoritarians vs democrats, and so forth. Each model can bring out certain aspects difficult to express in others.
Blue,
Calling someone a sidekick (ad hominem) and others of being austrian school trolls (more opinionated ad hominems [……]-
[MOD: Anonymous you are one of several related accounts that seek to praise Rurik and attack everyone who disagrees with him. This entire post is an attack. This scrap of it is being published just to let you know that any further such from any of you will be totally trashed. — Mod-K.K.]
“The European establishment are not the hapless victims of alleged American pressure, they are active and willing participants in the current attack on the Russosphere and the Orthodox world.”
Very true. Of course, American pressure is not “alleged” — it is very heavy — but the Eurocretins are being richly rewarded, and that is precisely what counts for a Quisling/Comprador. And what further corroborates Europe’s total rottenness is its pathetic Lefties and Greens. If you ever thought you were going to see condemnation of US/EU/NATO accompanied by support for Russia, Syria, or Iran in these milieus — forget about it. Victoria Nuland’s verdict is correct, albeit for slightly different reasons.
Bottom line: A Russian conservative stirs up more trouble to Western imperialism in less than an hours’ time as compared to, for instance, Western anarchism during, say, a millennium. Western self-styled “anti-authoritarians” are simply too stupid, bigoted, and arrogant to understand their own worthlessness. Like the Eurocretins at the very top, they’re happy to be accepted as junior partners in a system of imperialist parasitism. Russia will have to teach all of them humbling lessons.
The USA obviously has absolutely no business establishing a naval/military presence anywhere near the South China Sea. Overlooking for the moment the brutal and unjustified annexation of Hawaii, and accepting it as a state of the USA, the boundary of US control should presumably be drawn somewhere down the middle of the Pacific.
We have heard so many portentous statements about how the USA wants to dominate Asia that we are inclined to forget how utterly ludicrous that is. The most populous part of the whole world, the oldest civilization of all, and now the world’s largest economy… is to be bossed about by a bunch of arrogant, colonialist racists? What nonsense.
The more and the better China and Russia cooperate this way, the better the chances of clearing the Americans out of Asia and the Western Pacific altogether. One day, they may even learn to mind their own business – although I’m not holding my breath.
“… the boundary of US control should presumably be drawn somewhere down the middle of the Pacific.”
The boundary of US control should be drawn at the US border!
Free Hawai’i !!!
John Kerry falls from bike, hospitalized, leaves West defenseless against Russian-Chinese world domination schemes ;)
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/john-kerry-drops-from-bicycle/
Apparently he was going to visit Spain, so this incident dispensate us of receive such a “distinguished” visitor.
Spain has signed up for permanent and triple the present basing for US troops. Complete subjugation to the Hegemon.
Rota, the other Spanish base used by the US Navy, was Spanish-controlled.
Now, a new relationship for Moron, an Air Force base, sets the relationship as Hegemon and vassal.
http://rt.com/news/263421-spain-us-permanent-base/
http://militarybases.com/spain/
There is something hopelessly comical about this. waiting for the jokes and the hilarious cartoons to commence…
Can you imagine Lavrov falling off a bike?
Kerry has been hitting the vodka hard for some time now. Vehicular mishaps were inevitable.
https://fullspectrumdominoes.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/the-world-is-interconnected-sochi-vodka-leads-to-bicycle-mishap-in-france/
Better than being a potato head.
Excellent observation :)
I can’t even imagine Lavrov spilling cigarette ash.
Did you catch the two stories/pictures with side by side on Sputnik yesterday.
1. Lavrov (on a flight) wearing a Victory biker jacket, jeans and leather boots – the very essence of Mr Cool and suave.
2. Kerry wearing lycra biker gear and helmet then falling off his perch and breaking a leg.
LOL.
That made my day.
1. Lavrov (on a flight) wearing a Victory biker jacket, jeans and leather boots
2. Kerry wearing lycra biker gear and helmet
That comparison shows the difference between Russian leaders and the sort of leaders chosen to run the zio-colonies. :D
Any news about the wicked plotters against Kerry? No passports found at the site? And who masterminded it?
On a more serious note, Pindos are not much renowned for biking, since that usually requires moving one leg past the other.
Drone attack. It tripped over his pinnochio nose & only killed the bike.
great I can’t stand the loud mouthed bullhorn
Horses should not try riding bikes.
I don’t see how chubby American soldiers can beat these guys …
Americans sit in a chair, watch a video monitor and push buttons on a joystick, firing missiles from drones, safe and comfy thousands of miles from the death and destruction.
Explains their chubbiness.
First Biden’s other boy.Now john Kerry breaks a leg.Karma’s a bit3h no?
A RT video about the Sino-Russian Mediterranean drills: https://youtu.be/_GTtfhmxbXM
A probable source for the photo (lots of pictures): http://www.js7tv.cn/zt/zejy2015/9825/
Maybe they finally ticked off a sorcerer.
that is a great picture. The fact that Chinese and Russians can be militarily close gives me more optimism that China and India will also be able to overcome their existing border issue that had been lingering for decades… We do need a multi-polar world!
Michael T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-delusional-world-of-imperial-washington/
The real ‘Masters of the Universe’ only require conventional war, and casualties are no big deal…’no problemo’ …to them collateral is not flesh and blood,but things to be ‘legally’ traded.
As and when ultimatums are issued, by Russia and China, and they both go to DEFCON 2…..the USA will re-discover humility and withdraw.
Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down
US taxpayers will have to shelve out a couple extra million because the banged up SecState is now has to fly back to the US aboard a specially eqipped plane “to ensure he remains comfortable and stable throughout the flight,” Kirby said. “Its use is nothing more than a prudent medical step on the advice of physicians.”
Why the need to spend millions more? Because Kerry’s regular plane was returning to the United States carrying much of his staff and reporters who accompanied on the trip. And now, that plane too will have to fly back again. One way trip cost to US taxpayers: a little over $1 million.
Next piece to the puzzle – who is the biggest owner of gold in the world? Roman Church. So who would be biggest dog in primitive post nuclear war world? Again, Roman Church. What Pope Francis (overtly!) wants? Poor, but fighting, 1st century like Church. Why not all the 1st century world?
Are US elities really so incapable to execute their plans in Ukraine or anywhere else? Or they have no idea what is going on and plans of Francis and his Jesuite comrades are successfully running to their goal – nuclear apocalypse? Jesuites are not such short-sighted amateurs like CIA and US State department’s clerks, they are patient and very experienced miticulous planners.
fascinating; do you have any links? just going by reported history (realize the weakness here so asking for cntra links) Rome aka Catholic wealth/property was dramatically reduced through property acquisition (ahemm) in UK circa Henry VIII; Prussia 1860-75; France 1905 (again; see 1789-91); Spain and Portugal circa 1910; USA through civil court legal settlements;
where is this wealth?
I don’t think gold is gonna be much use for making swords, bows and arrows , guns, ammunition, ploughs, agricultural tools in that scenario, only big enough to hit people on the head with.
from Vox Populi Evo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MqF-Q-Hl-s
As Norte Americano wakes up,this is what is happening!
There is visual documented evidence of atrocities everywhere!,yet the ‘civilized’ nations do nothing!
Who feeds ‘your’ nation?
Please have the decency to:
‘Boycot,Dis-invest and Sanction’, rid the world of the ‘elected for life class’ …aka …professional politicians,funded by big anything AIPAC and every NGO ‘non-political’ org.
Recently someone in Ukraine remarked “of 45 million people none could be found for Odessa but Saakashvili,a foreign agent”
2016…….out of 314 million people only a Bush or a Clinton?
Americans must be the most stupid Wallyworld muppets….. and these control the world?
The Atlantic Council is a propaganda tool for NATO and one of their interns wrote a brief article about Russia planning to build a naval super carrier (see: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-hidden-costs-of-russia-s-proposed-aircraft-supercarrier ). The intern, Nicholas Varangis, refers to the Moscow Times as his source.
Putting aside the politics, it seems to me if there is some truth to what Varangis wrote about the Russian Defense Ministry considering building such a vessel, it may be going in the wrong direction. During World War II, eleven U.S. aircraft carriers were sunk or severely damaged in combat (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_aircraft_carriers). Since then, carriers have not been seriously threatened which leaves the impression they are nearly invulnerable due the contingent of surface and submarine vessels that surround the carrier and provide force protection as it operates near or in a combat zone.
But according to the U.S. Naval Institute, modern aircraft carriers are too expensive to build and maintain, and project a large sea-going footprint which can be easily discovered and targeted with sophisticated multi-platform electronic detection and weapon systems available in today’s military (see: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013-05/rise-missile-carriers ). That means the 5,000 plus crew and multi-billion dollar ship they serve on has a higher degree of being successfully attacked and sunk.
Russia may want to think about building next generation surface-to-surface blue water missile carriers instead of aircraft carriers given the lower cost, shorter build time and less manpower needed to operate this new class of vessel.
Moscow Times is legion for taking 5th column positions, overtly anti-Putin, etc. In the very link provided there’s an article about “Putin’s Lies” that says there’ be no problem in Ukraine were it not for Russia’s aggressiveness.
I know nothing about military strategy, but perhaps since Moscow has no overseas military bases to help in projecting power, an aircraft carrier may seem useful. Remember that she is unable to help Syria or Iraq by bombing ISIS due to the distance involved.
Finally, your premise that Russian Federation is a “regional power” isn’t shared by RF.
This is one other small sign of a growing China-Russia alliance. In the US analysts continue to talk about a natural historical conflict between Russia and China which means that those two countries will inevitably have to go to war. Nixon and Kissinger certainly spread that story in 1972 when they began their triangulation policy. Problem seems to be that there is not really a natural geopolitical antagonism between Russia and China.
Anatoly Karlin provides a historic prospective on this at (now his discontinued blog) http://darussophile.com/2014/05/a-very-brief-history-of-chinese-russian-relations/
Karlin makes the case that over the last 300 years Russia and China had manageable foreign relations and that the dispute that happened between 1960 and 1980 was based not on a natural geopolitical problem but was based on interpretations of Marxist ideology. Given the irrelevancy of Marxist ideology in today’s world there is no natural conflict between Russia and China. But given the very real threat of US imperialism against both Russia and China today there are very good reasons for them to ally. I think the bottom line is if the US believes it can easily drive a wedge between Russia and China then the US will be sadly mistaken.
What is even more crazy for the US is to believe they could confront China (“pivot to Asia”) at the same time they provoked conflict in the Ukraine. Do State Department advisers really believe that attacking both countries at the same time will not result in some kind of alliance? Do they really believe that such an alliance would simply be for temporary convenience? Do these advisers have some kind of world view to think that natural geopolitical facts mean that such alliances will not last long? If so then US foreign policy is in the hands of fools.
Fools, by the hundreds, in the second government, as it is called. The “experts” and ideologues who make policy and coerce the elected government to carry it out.
Toivos, I don’t think they’re stupid. They want conflict.
They intend to control it so as to bring out the resolution that they want: the New World Order. The chaos following WWII enabled them to get part way there w the IMF/BIS system. The chaos they are producing now they intend to manufacture our consent for a one-world govt which they will run.
OT
And Christopher Miller will tell you that, “Satellite images show clearly that Russia faked its MH17 report.
I get it; Russia loves to shoot itself in its feet, coz ’em sneakers are rubbing it the wrong way, right?
OT, DR’s favorite topic.
MH-17 is settled. The other guys did it.
Don’t waste any more time on it.
Huge distraction here.
@ Signalman,
Q; OT, DR’s favorite topic.
R: Did anything go MIA while the VP was AWOL during the CO’s touchdown in the LZ, while the ETA didn’t clock hasbara’s real speed?
Oh no!! yet another blog that has fallen for the bellingcat/Eliot Higgins nonsense. His MO is
1) get various google earth images
2) draw circles and lines and arrows on them
3) make various claims about what these represent, without proving how they do so
4) additionally claim discrepant timestamps for other people’s images without explaining or proving how he got those timestamps.
5) conclude “RUSSIA LIED”.
must be getting paid by CIA
@ Kat Kan,
When distractions are portrayed as ‘guidance’ and blatant lies projected as ‘the truth’ I know I’m being jerked around and, on both a personal and moral level, I really don’t like that.
Luckily/fortunately sites like these provide a stern antidote against the venomous interludes of white noise MSM and its the copious amounts of info to sort through, that allows me to be better informed and act accordingly.
That’s the way I like it; give me information and let me decide.
So, to all moderators and every single contributor, a BIG thank you and job well done!
Bellingcat … exposed as fakery …all you need to know
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/whats-a-bellingcat-anyway/
More good news from our ‘trusted’ MSM friends in the west…
“Putin Cracks Down on Christians in Crimea”
Sponsored by; ‘Seeing
HIS/HISIS/IS believing!’Newsweek. Not exactly independent, is it?
Unlike the usual Soros or CIA funded media, it is owned by a private company celled IBT media (IBTimes is also theirs) which is closely associated with Olivet College, a Bible college/seminary founded by the Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches in America.
This partly accounts for the rather pointless and confused but “persecuted Christians” article.
It is an interesting example of Victim Politics. Something is done for one reason (clearly spelled out and specified) but the Victim decides is was done for some other reason, ie some feature of his that he likes being the Victim about. This type of Victim is actually a BULLY, claiming to know more about the other party’s motives than the other party himself knows.
So, a pastor in Russia spent 5 days in jail for not paying a fine for holding a public meeting without a permjt. He was being PERsecuted for “professing his faith” they reckon. Hullo?? he was PROsecuted for for breaking a law which applies equally to everyone.
After a lot of nonsense which shows most churches are doing well in Crimea and managed to register as churches without problems… NOW we get to the headline “crack down” — assorted priests, including Polish and Ukrainian, are not allowed to operate there (ie WORK) on tourist visas. (Heck, in my country they lock up then deport any tourist found working).
My tip: if you want to be left alone, stop breaking the laws.
@ Kat Kan,
Q; My tip: if you want to be left alone, stop breaking the laws.
R; Yeah, you know, if you thoroughly analyze the ‘info’ it’s easy to spot the missing ‘dis’ part.
We’re down to the “Anything will do, as long as it puts Russia/Putin/Whom- or whatever in bad spot” routine.
Not before long and
ColonColin Powell will do another UN sponsored, “We’ve got the goods on the USSR” sitrep.OT
A bitter battle for control of oldest synagogue in the US.
Just build a wall around it…
OT
And Comedy Central brings you this whopper of a joke;
“America Sells Israel 32,100 High-Tech Bombs and Missiles. 3 Guesses Why…
Sells? As in being paid for? That doesn’t sound kosher to me at all.
Chinese peacekeepers in Transdniestria protected by Chinese warships in the Black Sea.
Needs to be done asap before Saakashvili starts a conflict in Odessa/ Transdniestria.
To me , as a casual observer , this is a debacle in american implementation of their foreign policy.. and instead of adjusting their actions based on current facts on the ground , they proceed with their original plan (aka containing and antagonizing china in their ‘pivot to asia’ plan)
This ‘pivot to asia’ was the america’s true goal in their foreign policy , but got messed up because the russian didnt bow down when america blatantly used force to change ukraine’s goverment. Now instead of a weakened and cowering russia , with ukraine looming over them and NATO bases in russia’s border , they faced a united chinese and russian alliance…
Now everything the US did will face not just one (china) but two (russia and china) … with russia heavily involved in India’s military , and in vietnam’s military (goes for looong way historically) , other US vassals in asia would be totally clueless on how to proceed without risking a shooting war..
Korea certainly wont take action to aggrevate china , no matter how much pressure from US govt , Japan definitely not seeking confrontation with china , especially with russia behind china , supporting diplomatically and in the case of shooting war , will supply modern weapons to china. The Abe goverment are way too foolish to sell japan to the yankees .. most of japanese are angered with the Abe goverment for continuously seeking confrontation instead of peace and trade.
The fool in this drama will be the stupid and coward philiphino goverment.. lowering themselves to the feet of americans just to spite their biggest neighbour , forgetting that chinese and filipino both are better off trading / join a secure economic partnership..
Note that what i mentioned here are their Goverment , not their people.. im sure filipino people are questioning their goverment’s blatant *ss kisssing to the yankees who once illegally ruled their land..