Neither Facebook nor Twitter will let me post a url to the article you posted, as it violates "community standards".

Posted by: Jim Phillips | Apr 6 2021 18:23 utc | 1

I always felt there could be a better system that would incorporate the best features of both Capitalism and Socialism while defending against the shortcomings of the either. With Communism/Socialism the obvious ones were lack of motivation/productivity, inefficiency and susceptibility to corruption and concentration of power. All of the above, except motivation and productivity perhaps, are slowly emerging in advanced capitalist economies, none more obviously than in the USA, where even the benefits of all past productivity have benefited mostly only the top 5% and the commodification of all services are eroding living standards.

While no terminology has yet emerged to precisely describe it, the China/Russia model of Free Markets regulated by a centralised, strong Government that, perhaps chiefly out of sheer necessity, rejects short term thinking and favours more cost effective long term strategies, while focused on prioritising Sovereignty over Democracy as an expression of People Power, is proving to be the winning model for the future.

Posted by: Et Tu | Apr 6 2021 18:27 utc | 2

Thanks for the Crooke posting and link b

The global resistance economy is China with a public Central Bank and finance as a utility instead of Rentier finance like in the West.

As Hudson says over and over, mixed economies have existed since the Romans but just what that mix is makes all the difference when the tools of finance are public instead of private.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2021 18:37 utc | 3

"With Communism/Socialism the obvious ones were lack of motivation/productivity..."

So... socialism, but with whips and cattle prods? Maybe firing squads for workers who don't meet their production quotas?

I rather doubt that socialism will ever be able to match the ever-present threat of being cast out of the economy that hangs over all workers' heads in capitalism, so I would suppose that beatings would have to suffice.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 6 2021 18:43 utc | 4

It's also China that is less socialist than the guy thinks.

If you say it's good I will read it later. But the first impression from the quote above: That man is living in the past. The Cold War has been over since 1991, the bi-polar world order is gone.

Posted by: m | Apr 6 2021 18:44 utc | 5

b - thanks for highlighting this article... bemildred had shared it in the open thread yesterday and we discussed this and the most recent article from michael hudson march 29th -What Flavour Oligarchy? which i encourage others to read...

@ Jim Phillips | Apr 6 2021 18:23 utc | 1.. as gil scott heron was given over to saying - the revolution will not be televised...The Revolution Will Not Be Televised .. that song came out 50 years ago and nothing has changed.... a friend was talking about how the capitalism has monetized so much of culture - expropriated it basically and tried to profit off it, but they wouldn't be selling tickets to the revolution or anything like that and it won't be on facebook, twitter, tik tok and etc. etc. either....

@ 5 m..... i am not sold on some super idealistic concept about china... but at this point the usa and west are going to have to move over as they have destroyed so much looking after a very small percentage of the population... it is time for a change.. we need to go into it with eyes wide open... i think the unipolar world is gone and a bi polar world is indeed in the cards...

Posted by: james | Apr 6 2021 18:58 utc | 6

This is perhaps announcing the global resistance economy?

Putin to give a major address to Russian Parliament 21. April

Putin poised to set out vision for future in dramatic speech, in what allies say will be ‘world’s most important political event’

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing to give a major address in which he will fire the starting pistol on a “new era” and set out a different vision for the future of his country

Putin is due to speak to the national parliament, encompassing both the Senate and its lower house, the State Duma, on April 21. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed on Monday that the annual message would be delivered in person

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2021 19:03 utc | 7

It's too early to tell. The biggest variable here is Russia.

We already know what China's going to do until 2049. Of all the variables, China is the most predictable.

Russia, however, has a big problem in its hands. It seems it is divided into three main ideologies:

1) the communists, who seek to resovietize Russia, with its due reforms, a la China;

2) the Christian Orthodox supremacists (Duginians), who seek to turn Russia into an Empire based on the Christian Orthodox religion, with the ultimate goal of conquering Istanbul and thus creating a warm waters exit through the Bosphorus to then play on the "big chessboard"; and

3) the old fashioned neoliberals, remnants of the Yeltsin era (Saint Petersburg intelligentsia), who seek to turn Russia into a normal Third World country, at the services of the USA (rules-based international order).

Putin is the only thing that keeps those three different factions at bay. He managed to do that with some kind of chimera system, where neoliberalism reigns supreme (aggressive inflation controls, precarization of the working class, protection of the oligarchies) but in exchange of a little bit of mercy to the people, the preservation of the defense sector and some eventual kabuki. The Orthodox Church is appeased with some token laws (anti gay propaganda bill, Christianization of the Armed Forces, historical revisionism to make the Tsar look good etc.) and the good ol' tax exemptions and other hidden State funding.

However, Putin will not be in this world for much longer. Some made a lot of fuss on the new bill which would allow him two more presidential mandates (i.e. govern up to 2036), but this is a fallacy: Putin will certainly be long dead by 2036, as he's already too old for a Russian man.

After Putin's death, we'll see a struggle between those three ideologies for power. If the non-communists win this struggle (which is practically certain to happen), then China is fucked, as its complete isolation will be possible.

Besides, Russia still is economically neoliberal: the Yeltsin structural reforms are still in place today. That means the Russian economy will eventually collapse again, a la the 1990s (this is an inevitable collateral effect of neoliberalism, regardless of who is administering it). Economic collapse may be followed by the rise of the Christian Orthodox supremacists to power, which could strike a deal with the USA in order to sacrifice Turkey in exchange for a full hot and nuclear war against China. That's the worst possible scenario for China and humanity.

Another possibility is for the neoliberals to stick to power until the end of times, a la the West, surviving the next big economic crash in Russia. Russia would then degenerate to a normal Third World country (a la Brazil). This is also bad for China, as this kind of Russia would open the gates to the American capitalists, this time privatizing even their mineral, oil and defense sectors to the Americans. This could even culminate with the accession of Russia to NATO, thus transforming NATO in the PTO ("P" for "Pacific Ocean"). The USA would then not only have the territory to encircle China by land and from the north, but also the Russian/Soviet technology to utterly crush it in an eventual WWIII.

Therefore, the only solution I see for Russia - and, by association, for China and the entire Eurasia - is Re-Sovietization. Russia must imitate the Chinese socialist method, and restart from where the Perestroika stopped while correcting its mistakes.

Why? Well, for starters, that would shield Russia from the inevitable economic crash it will have if it persists with the Yeltsinite (neoliberal) model. With Russia socialist again (with its due characteristics, a "market socialism with Russian Characteristics"), it would have the tools for a constant and high enough growth rate, with the appropriate distribution of social wealth, so that it would be shielded from the cyclical phases typical of capitalism. This would greatly increase its national security not only because its people would have a higher morale and sense of social duty, but also because it would gain more capacity to continue to integrate with China (and, therefore, a path towards uniting Eurasia).

Secondly, it would further secularize its people, thus getting rid of the danger of Orthodox Christian imperialism.

Thirdly, it would greatly enhance the general educational levels of its populations, thus shielding it from pseudo-scientific obscurantism (Liberal propaganda, religious mysticism) and from pseudo-scientific indoctrination (neoliberalism, bourgeois economy etc. etc.).

Fourthly, it would be a step further in the direction of the unification of Eurasia, and the liberation of the oppressed peoples from the American Empire (specially from Latin America), as it would serve as an inspiration, further weakening the American Empire, thus further enhancing Russian national security. We already know these effects from the rise of the old Soviet Union (without which modern China, Vietnam, Cuba et al wouldn't exist) and we know how much little things such as an S-300 in Venezuela and Syria can do for those cursed peoples, so I don't think it would be any different with a Re-Sovietized Russia allied with the Popular Republic of China.

China is completely impotent here. It will let Russia be whatever it wants to be and prepare for the worst case scenario. The only certain thing here is that Russia, whatever decision it wants to make, will have to make it quickly: Putin will not be around for much longer, a new capitalist crisis is looming and the old generation that was still raised in the Soviet Union (Lavrov, Zakharova, Shoigu, Peskov etc. etc.) are also starting to fade away. The new generation of Russians will certainly be more liberal, more pro-West, and will certainly privatize whatever they can to the Americans when they take power; the window of opportunity for an independent Russia is small.

Posted by: vk | Apr 6 2021 19:19 utc | 8

it means that China will help itself to other people's resources, like they are doing with Siberian timber, Filipino and Ecuadorian fish, etc. Sorry, I am not convinced it's a good thing.

Posted by: not convinced | Apr 6 2021 19:59 utc | 9

Jim Phillips,

It's amazing, isn't it, to live in a fascist rogue censorship state like Nazi Germany. I feel sorry for the young people - they will be forced to pay the price that the button pushing plow and plundering elites will force on them.

Posted by: AriusArmenian | Apr 6 2021 20:01 utc | 10

Capitalism is a natural and needed phenomenon as communism is. Every society always had booth characters played out in their structures, everywhere and always, in different proportions. Modern China just managed to find a balance, based on a moral code which is modern and more important atheists. As much I agree with vk about possible future for Russia, there is no future with to much religion in politics beside a personal freedom at home.

Posted by: rico rose | Apr 6 2021 20:03 utc | 11

b, thanks for bringing Alastair Crooke's article to our attention. It complements well "In Quest of a Multipolar Economic World Order" from Pepe Escobar and Michael Hudson.

Liked this: "Socialism versus capitalism? No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today. It has become, more and more, a rentier economy ..."

Looking at the stock markets and asset prices in general, they are completely disconnected from fundamentals - so much for "market efficiency" and "price discovery" under US-led "capitalism".

And as Jim Phillip's comment @1 suggests, the U.S. "democracy" is also not much of a democracy, but more of a corporatocracy and corrupt plutocracy.

Agree with Et Tu @2 that it doesn't have to be an either or between socialism/capitalism, and that we can take the key ingredients from both - perhaps what Professor Hudson means by a mixed economy, perhaps something along the lines of what China is trying. There can be other flavours and variations.

vk @8, agree about the importance of Russia ensuring that it does not get re-infected with neoliberalism or imperialism post-Putin, and that education is critically important, but not sure it's helpful to invoke 're-Sovietization'. Would rather look to new paths.

james @6, hopefully multi-polar vs just bi-polar ...

Posted by: Canadian Cents | Apr 6 2021 20:03 utc | 12

Funny how many Westerners love to say China is not socialist, but capitalist. But, when discussing the future of Russia post-Putin, they call for Russia not to so fast adopt the Chinese system, as the solution must be "somewhere between capitalism and socialism/communism".

So, which is it? Is China capitalist or socialist?

Posted by: vk | Apr 6 2021 20:08 utc | 13

vk @ 8

"Pacific Ocean and Trans-Atlantic Treaty Organization", or POTATO?

The problem is that economic decline will continue in the West, and of course in Russia as well if they go any more neoliberal. Naturally, Russia going back to economic "shock therapy" would be a precondition for the formation of POTATO, but how much of an economic boost would it give the empire to re-rape Russia? My guess is not very much.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 6 2021 20:13 utc | 14

@ 12 canadian cents.. yes.. meant to say multi polar, not just bipolar...

@ 8 vk... it is quite an interesting post you make.. you seem very glum on russias position here... what makes you so confident the younger generation of russians will want to jump in bed with the west and neo-liberal agenda... granted, your comments on the influence of orthodox christian imperialism are interesting, but i am not so sure as you about all that and how much of a concern that is here.. as for your comment @13 - i think china is some type of combo of capitalism and socialism... it doesn't seem all socialist to me... i can't quite figure it out...

Posted by: james | Apr 6 2021 20:14 utc | 15

China is leading the way forward.

Paradoxically, the way forward in the west involves a turning back from globalism to nationalist-protectionism which China is perhaps the best and most useful example.

By acknowledging this painful reality, the west and its member countries will have to take a hard and inward look at their own condition, realize that there are unwanted aspects and members that were responsible for converting our economies from industrialism to extraction-based via the promise of cheap goods, lack of hard work, admin jobs up the wazoo, and, for Europe, to be awash forever in travel money and tourism.

These realities, whether or not b and the like here who advocate for supranational entities such as the EU like it or not, are doomed to sublation through the Hegelian dialectic of history.

It means more border skirmishes and bilateral diplomacy, but the creeping threat of world war and our extinction might be eradicated for good. It also means pitchforks work again and do not draw air when thrusted.

But with humanity's luck, a world-ending asteroid will likely follow soon after.

...

But as the Tao Te Ching makes clear:

"The way forward paradoxically resembles the way back."

How true is this? Forever.

P.s. China will in the future have its areligious central authority be challenged by the resurgence of a strong draw back to its native religions. Its relationship with the west has been as much a blessing as a curse, as globalism infects just as much as it always extracts.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Apr 6 2021 20:16 utc | 16

@William Gruff | Apr 6 2021 20:13 utc | 14

POTATO - I love it :-)

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2021 20:22 utc | 17

vk@8 "Besides, Russia still is economically neoliberal: the Yeltsin structural reforms are still in place today. That means the Russian economy will eventually collapse again, a la the 1990s"

State support of the agriculture sector has turned it into a grain/meat exporter. And because of tax system reforms & economic diversification, The Russian budget needs oil at $44/bbl to balance, as opposed to $100+/bbl in 2008.

"Therefore, the only solution I see for Russia - and, by association, for China and the entire Eurasia - is Re-Sovietization. "

Who's to say that isn't the eventual plan? Marx was actually a huge fan of Capitalism, seeing it as the only economic system that could develop production capacity to the point that it abolishes scarcity. The main eventual contradiction in Capitalism would develop at the point that productive capacity would grow so powerful, and hence competition would grow so intense, that the rate of profit declines to zero and there is misery & destitution amid abundance, which is the indicator of the revolutionary situation.

Posted by: rkka | Apr 6 2021 20:23 utc | 18

vk@13
If you really want to find the answer to your question I suggest that you go over to the Saker`s site and read the article `Dealing with demons` by Larry Romanoff. That should set you straight. Think on`t.

Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:26 utc | 19

And capitalism certainly has developed Russia, since Putin crushed the independent political power & predation of the "Seven Bankers" in 2003 & given Russia a Stolypin-like "Twenty years of peace..."

Now all that's missing is evolution to Socialism, rather than revolution.

Posted by: rkka | Apr 6 2021 20:27 utc | 20

James@15
Go to the article called `Dealing with demons` by Larry Romanoff at the Saker. All will be clear.

Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:29 utc | 21

Socialism does not mean the government owns everything, if means the government owns the things that everybody needs to have work well, things you don't want some needy jerk exploiting to make themselves rich or powerful. And those socialized things should be at nominal cost or free, to enable EVERYBODY to do their best in life. If you want your culture and society as a whole to do well, you have to enable them all with the necessities. You can have unproductive parasites or you can have a healthy body politic, not both.

That is the "good example" the USA has for so long not wanted to contemplate.

Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 6 2021 20:32 utc | 22

Will There Be A Global Resistance Economy?

Wrong question, imo.
If China is nattering about it then it's a fact on the ground.
The question now is "What will the Totalitarian Capitalist do to nip it in the bud?"
One of the reasons advanced for the Iraq Fake War was that Saddam had declared his intention to side-step the US$ in conducting Iraq's oil transactions.

The trouble with China is that it plans ahead in 5-year & 10-year chunks so the idea of a GRE isn't something Xi dreamt up yesterday afternoon. If he's nattering about it it means that all the physical and bureaucratic infrastructure is in place, and is probably already processing transactions.

I wondered why Scum Mo panicked by chopping CGTN off at the socks after hearing about China's 13th People's Congress in early March and assumed it was because his idea of a long-range plan is "Who are we going to screw tomorrow?" or "No, sorry, we're discussing the future and the meeting is Top Secret so you voters/shitkickers aren't invited!"

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 6 2021 20:33 utc | 23

@NemesisCalling | Apr 6 2021 20:16 utc | 16

But with humanity's luck, a world-ending asteroid will likely follow soon after.

In the mean time we must re-organize our societies and get rid of the parasites that try to end our world even before the next big asteroid. What China and Russia is doing is clearly the way forward.

I think however "capitalism" and "socialism" is 20th century vocabulary of limited relevance in the present situation. It is not "left" vs. "right" anymore (if it ever was).

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2021 20:43 utc | 24

HW @23
Russians are chess masters and the Chinese have Go, while the U.S.of A has Monopoly. Simple really.

Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:46 utc | 25

Bemildred@22
Wholeheartedly agree.I have read many of your comments and I am always impressed by your obvious humanity. Of course all utilities should be held in the public domain and not exploited for profit, no question. That state of affairs, contrary to conservative/liberal (U.S.sense)/capitalist ideology, does not preclude creativity or innovation.

Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 21:03 utc | 26

Michael McPherson @25, "the U.S.of A has Monopoly" - like that, very apt! That simple analogy encompasses the American plutocracy's mindset of non-productive rent extraction, seeking to control every part of the world, and goal of winner-takes-all hegemony.

Posted by: Canadian Cents | Apr 6 2021 21:11 utc | 27

@ Posted by: rkka | Apr 6 2021 20:27 utc | 20

The Stolypin reforms were a failure. The problem with them was that, albeit a logical progression from the Tsar's capitalist reforms of 1861, they were a form of capitalist utopianism, as it expected agricultural production to rise with the partition of the large farms to the individual peasants:

The Stolypin reform may have been inspired by the desire to build a bulwark against revolution through the creation of a class of prosperous and contented peasants [...]
It had become customary in the literature of the subject to distinguish between three categories of peasants - the "poor peasants", comprising some 80 per cent of the whole number, who were landless or had holdings too small for them to live without hiring out to others their own labour and that of their family; the "middle peasants", who were self-supporting on their holdings with the labour of their family ; and the "peasant bourgeoisie" or "kulaks" who were prosperous enough to be able to hire labour (though the hiring even of a single worker would seem to have qualified for inclusion in this category). The purpose of the reform was to support and encourage the kulak or potential kulak at the expense of the less energetic, less thrifty or less fortunate mass of poor peasants, and thus create an upper stratum of well-to-do peasants loyal to the regime: "the government", explained Stolypin himself," has placed its wager, not on the needy and the drunken, but on the sturdy and the strong". The calculation failed. [...] This could not be achieved without the introduction of modern machinery and modern techniques, which was in turn not possible on a basis of individual peasant holdings. [...] As it was, Stolypin could only hope to improve the lot of a few "sturdy and strong" kulaks at the cost - and here Lenin was perfectly right - of a still more ruthless and unsparing exploitation of the shiftless mass of the poor peasantry. In the end, the measure which had been designed to stave off revolution made a vital contribution to the success of the revolution.

The economic mini-boom of 1909-1913 was due to Russian the industrial sector, not the agrarian sector, i.e. not due to the Stolypin Reforms. But this industrial gain evaporated with the start of WWI, which put to the open all the ineptness of the Tsarist Empire:

The war of 1914 quickly revealed the inadequacy and the impotence of the Russian national economy in conditions of modern warfare. Military requirements gave an impetus to heavy industry: the two specific developments of the war years were the extension of state control over industry and the concentration of industry through the elimination of smaller and weaker concerns. But the virtual cessation of foreign supplies of machinery and specialized materials quickly brought expansion to an end even in the war industries ; and other industries soon came near to a complete standstill. At the end of 1916 it was clear that Russia's main industrial effort was exhausted. Meanwhile, agriculture had suffered more acutely than industry from the loss of its most efficient man-power to the army, and renewals of agricultural machinery and implements were no longer procurable. Production declined catastrophically, and by the winter of 1916-1917 the large cities were hungry. Industrial strikes, prompted by hunger, by increasingly hard conditions in the factories and by the evident hopelessness of the war, were the prelude to the February revolution.

Posted by: vk | Apr 6 2021 21:19 utc | 28

@ Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:29 utc | 21... thanks.. i will look at it when i find a moment.. here is a link for others to the article you reference..

https://thesaker.is/dealing-with-demons/

Posted by: james | Apr 6 2021 21:21 utc | 29

Russians are chess masters and the Chinese have Go, while the U.S.of A has Monopoly. Simple really.

Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:46 utc | 25

Heh heh heh heh heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh. Succinct and pointed.

Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 6 2021 21:21 utc | 30

i thought GO was japanese? fun line either way!

Posted by: james | Apr 6 2021 21:22 utc | 31

turns out it is chinese.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

Posted by: james | Apr 6 2021 21:23 utc | 32

I couldn't share Crooke's article either. Twitter and Facebook are blocking it.

Posted by: Michael Weddington | Apr 6 2021 21:33 utc | 33

@ Posted by: james | Apr 6 2021 21:22 utc | 31

Shogi is the Japanese chess. Go is the Chinese chess.

Yes, all of these games (including the Western/European chess, which came from Old Chess through Persia) have a common ancestor - an unnamed board game, now lost to us, that most likely came from somewhere in Northern India.

Posted by: vk | Apr 6 2021 21:41 utc | 34

Humans tend to believe that we are invincible and can continue our economic growth through rapacious ravaging of the natural world. I don’t think anyone can assume that human civilization will return to structures of the past, particularly Industrial Capitalism which Dr. Hudson seems to advocate in some modified form. It’s apparent industrial civilization as a whole will be forced to massively downsize and reduce its consumption due to resource and environmental constraints. This will bring a significant reduction in “standard of living” (by Western standards) in the developed countries as well as curtailment of expected growth in developing ones. The assumption that China’s economic power, which is based on greatly increased resource consumption, will enable it to continue on its current path is simply wrong. The same goes for the assumption of technological growth, which is based largely on greatly increased resource extraction. Russia may have greater energy resources and agricultural production capability, but their extraction of fossil energy will necessarily be limited due to the environmental devastation that is happening on a vast scale. The world's leaders need to reckon with the limits to growth in order to forestall a total breakdown in sustainable habitat on this fragile planet, but instead they continue to devote enormous effort toward fighting each other. Humans simply are not evolving.

Posted by: norecovery | Apr 6 2021 21:42 utc | 35

@vk 8, a pretty accurate reflection of Russia - with Putin the adept balancer between the competing groups, you may want to add the Siloviki into the mix. They could form the base of a strong nationalist bureaucracy. Doesn't change the fact that Putin has to get on with building a proper power base to protect his legacy in the years he has left (hopefully he lives a lot longer than the average Russian male), with as much help from the Chinese as possible. The Chinese cannot allow Russia and Central Asia to be lost to them.

The longer he hangs on, the weaker the West gets and the stronger China gets.

Posted by: Roger | Apr 6 2021 22:05 utc | 36

Posted by: vk | Apr 6 2021 19:19 utc | 8

A record low of russians see themselves as "european" or their country as "european country".

Anyone thinking that Russia will ally with the West after Putin is making a mistake.

Has the West lost Russia? ‘European’ identity is collapsing in the continent’s largest country, with the youth leading the charge

https://www.rt.com/russia/519115-european-identity-collapsing-youth/

Posted by: Passer by | Apr 6 2021 22:25 utc | 37

Nice link. The headline article chronicles the development that was pretty much destined to happen since the US fully committed to its big move in the early 2010's to divide Russia from EU, thereby driving it into the Chinese camp. Seen from US circa 2010, either combination, EU+RU, or China+RU, would be powerful enough to end US hegemony if allowed to grow naturally -- but the EU+RU combination would have the ability to do it much sooner. So that was that.

Not sure where the mention of socialism is coming from -- all the power centers are some form of managed quasi-market economy with gross inequalities that show no signs of going away, and leftist politics are mostly suppressed worldwide, except maybe in Latin America, where there is some hope on decade-timescales. However that does not figure into this business of imperial geopolitics. At least not just yet.

Posted by: ptb | Apr 6 2021 22:29 utc | 38

@8 vk

Interesting analysis. Certainly the current Russian leadership had better be preparing their succession plan, if they plan to keep the balance. Russia has done well enough, considering. If necessary, she could survive entirely without EU, but this would put EU at a disadvantage vs China.

As for predictions about the future, 30 years is a very long time, the world could be very different. At one extreme, if the climate-change predictions are true, there could be the beginning of major disruptions. Alternatively, if non-carbon energy sources (whether current renewables combined with some energy storage, or widespread nuclear, or even fusion power) could radically change the trade of energy that determines so much of the world's power balance.

---------

But looking closer, 10 years lets say: If the China-Iran and China-Pakistan relationship has another 10 years to develop, they will have some much improved development, along with central Asia. In that scenario, I'd say Afghanistan will be close to joining them, followed by Turkmenistan, one would think. Then you have a real no-joke Asian bloc. Taiwan's 15 minutes of fame will have peaked, Japan will be considering going nuclear (at which point the China-Japan relationship would actually stabilize IMO), EU will still be in disarray, and US will still be dominating social media with the same s##t talk, but the multipolarity will be the acknowledged reality and the world will move on.

Posted by: ptb | Apr 6 2021 22:40 utc | 39

Michael McPheron #19 #21

Tight on brother, and Romanoff has this pithy comparison:

The main objective of China’s Government is the rejuvenation of China, in part demonstrably evidenced by the determined efforts made for the betterment and the well-being of its population, which is reflected in the credibility and high level of trust the Chinese people place in their government. These concepts don’t exist in the west. In the US, the “world’s model for everything”, a virus epidemic is seen through lenses of profiteering by large corporations, sick people not being humans in need of assistance but merely a new lucrative “market” – for those with money to pay. An American hospital is not a place for healing the sick but a kind of barnyard filled with cash cows to milk. This is one fundamental reason underlying America’s chaotic and hopeless approach to dealing with the epidemic. [my emphasis]

Thankfully Australian states adapted that approach internally while its pentecostal lunatic national government set about bashing China. The bunya nut republic style of Tao :-)

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 6 2021 22:41 utc | 40

The size of the resistance economy will grow to the number of countries that have been screwed over by the U.S.

Venezuela, Cuba, & Syria - definitely
Countries in Africa / Latin America - a few more.

Taiwan and S. Korea - Possible, after they watch Ukraine get destroyed because we use them as canon fodder against Russia. They might choose a different path then the one the U.S. chooses for them. We are perfectly fine with destroying Ukraine if it means blocking Nord Stream 2, slamming Russia w/more sanctions, and getting to call Putin the devil one more time.

Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Apr 6 2021 22:45 utc | 41

Folks on this blog remember that a few months back I was debating with Iranian personality (Faramarz) about Silk Road and China trade with Iran. He like most of Iranian opposition was in opinion that Iran lost the Silk Road (OBOR) connectivity to the Turks since Armenia agreed to give a sort of passage to Azerbaijan and I argued that is impossible since Silk Road is trade and connectivity and not really politics. Actually Silk Road died back in 17th century because of disconnection to west made by the ottoman Turks.
Iran’s capital Tehran (Ray) has been an always will remain the most important crossroad of the ancient Silk Road.
Tehran is where north south corridor (India and Indian ocean gets connected to Europe ) connects to the east west Silk Road road. After Tehran the second most important city was Halab or Aleppo in Syria since it was a crossroad to Europe in north and Egypt Africa and Arabia in south. Israel is made and positioned to block that connectivity.
All Iranian opposition was echoing that China is replacing Iran with Azerbaijan and Turkey now that China has signed the agreement all Iranian oppositions are echoing that Iran was sold to China and is becoming a colony of China. With this Aholes, one never wins an argument.

Posted by: Kooshy | Apr 6 2021 23:32 utc | 42

Funny how many Westerners love to say China is not socialist, but capitalist. But, when discussing the future of Russia post-Putin, they call for Russia not to so fast adopt the Chinese system, as the solution must be "somewhere between capitalism and socialism/communism".

So, which is it? Is China capitalist or socialist?

Posted by: vk | Apr 6 2021 20:08 utc | 13

China is real, and not lost inside the pattern of conceptual thinking that you, certainly, appear to trapped in.

-------------------------------------------------------

vk @ 8

"Pacific Ocean and Trans-Atlantic Treaty Organization", or POTATO?

The problem is that economic decline will continue in the West, and of course in Russia as well if they go any more neoliberal. Naturally, Russia going back to economic "shock therapy" would be a precondition for the formation of POTATO, but how much of an economic boost would it give the empire to re-rape Russia? My guess is not very much.

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 6 2021 20:13 utc | 14

A cohort of vk, eh?

"Of course, I know that the Communist Party is always concerned over issues of privatisation. I have also spoken about this. Probably, our approaches to this matter do not always coincide, but at any rate I believe we share the common view that privatisation for the sake of privatisation is unacceptable for us, especially the way it was carried out in the 1990s in some areas. It must be beneficial for the economy; it must improve the economic structure. We must proceed from the premise that any step in this context must create a better, more efficient owner de facto, in practice rather than formally. But obviously, this must be done in a certain environment so as not to give away what costs millions and maybe billions for next to nothing. This is the bottom line for us." Vladimir Putin

Sounds like he is one on one with Mr. Xi.

Posted by: donten | Apr 6 2021 23:33 utc | 43

@ donten | Apr 6 2021 23:33 utc | 43 with the replies to vk and Gruff

vk is the bar ideologue and I wish she would go do her own blog but many of us have forced ourselves into scrolling to the end of comments before reading because some authors are not worth the time....it takes a bit of reading of some commenters to get a feel for their projected value base

As to Mr. Gruff, I think you misunderstood his context/comment and I don't consider him a cohort of vk

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2021 23:47 utc | 44

@ donten | Apr 6 2021 23:33 utc | 43 with the replies to vk and Gruff

vk is the bar ideologue and I wish she would go do her own blog but many of us have forced ourselves into scrolling to the end of comments before reading because some authors are not worth the time....it takes a bit of reading of some commenters to get a feel for their projected value base

As to Mr. Gruff, I think you misunderstood his context/comment and I don't consider him a cohort of vk

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2021 23:47 utc | 45

Am I the only one that finds it strange that Crooke talks of a "global resistance economy" without mentioning China's recent introduction of an electronic currency?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 7 2021 0:12 utc | 46

Re-posting for readability

Am I the only one that finds it strange that Crooke talks of a "global resistance economy" without mentioning China's recent introduction of an electronic currency?

What Crooke labels as "global resistance" is simply trade without dollars coupled with a China that has some interest in world affairs (ie. concerned about the potential for war in the Middle East).

In his post, Crooke offers no rebuke for the policies that led to Middle East insanity and no praise for China for attempting to navigate that insanity. He just sees a power-grab by China (and Russia).

Why does Crooke see "weaponizing" instead of responsible statecraft?

IMO Crooke's post furthers WEF's "Great Reset". A phony 'revolution' that keeps the failed crony capitalist Powers-That-Be on top as they shakedown everyone else (shades of MbS). Brace for the familiar war-time appeal: we must all sacrifice for the war effort (some more than others). How many will ask: what are we fighting for?

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 7 2021 0:13 utc | 47

For those who have not yet read Dealing With Demons by Romanoff, here is yet another gem:

In all the confusion, the US media failed to notice that the US itself led the world competition for defective medical products. As of the middle of February, 2020, AFP was reporting that even small countries like South Korea had performed hundreds of thousands of tests while the US was below about 8,000, the reason being that all the tests produced by the CDC and American companies were flawed and useless. (66) (67) (68) The kits would produce opposite results on the same patient at the same time, or clearly miss serious infections while declaring infections in clean patients. The CDC eventually had to instruct all hospitals and clinics to discard the tests as unusable. (69) Again, in early to mid-April, the US media were reporting the CDC was still unable to produce usable tests, this time because the test kits themselves were contaminated with the coronavirus for which they were to be testing. This was attributed to “a glaring scientific breakdown” at the CDC’s central lab. (70) (71)

To make matters worse, the CDC shipped those faulty tests not only across the country but sold them to 34 countries around the world, and no evidence emerged anywhere to suggest the CDC informed those other nations of the uselessness of their tests. To my knowledge, the UK was the only nation to discover this – at their own expense. (72) To say that the exported CDC tests were unusable would be quite an understatement. President John Magufuli of Tanzania complained that various fruits, a goat and a quail tested positive for coronavirus using the American tests. (73)

It appears the US ‘national stockpile’ was not an improvement on the CDC. (74) In early April, the media were reporting that many states received medical masks that were rotten, with an expiry date in 2010, and that 150 ventilators (at $30,000 each) sent to Los Angeles were broken, defective, and missing parts. (75) (76) (77) But, no problem. ABC News and other US media including US military channels ran dozens of articles titled, “Have a clean T-shirt? That’s all you need to make this mask.” (78)

It is a long read but it slays more Western propaganda BS than you have ever read in one report and it is littered with footnotes.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 0:46 utc | 48

@ Jackrabbit | Apr 7 2021 0:13 utc | 47 with the question
"
Why does Crooke see "weaponizing" instead of responsible statecraft?
"

I think that is a reasonable question and will take a crack at answering it by saying that it is both responsible statecraft done in a manner that is also defensive from a military perspective.

The various forms of money will all be part of the combined statecraft and military defensive position. The link you provide showing China expanding the use of the Digital Yuan outside China is significant in that it provides a transactional form of money that is not the US Dollar. I don't expect the Digital Yuan to be see as a store of value like coinage and precious metal backed currencies of the past. If the Digital Yuan transaction is international I expect that it will process the exchange rate component in a timely manner.....but have not seen the details and expect empire to be working on how to game it as I write this....hence the ongoing characterization as resistance.

The investment form of money is also moving in China's direction but with the crazy western debt overhang and derivative standing when the music stops it is had to say how the mess could be reconciled. China is providing resistance here with the AIIB and other BRI funding initiatives.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 7 2021 0:59 utc | 49

@ uncle t with a non working link ....let me try

Dealing With Demons

The truth should not be hidden

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 7 2021 1:08 utc | 50

#49

"I don't expect the Digital Yuan to be see as a store of value like coinage and precious metal backed currencies of the past. "

I could see having a percentage of investments held in CNY as being very useful. Especially if I could seamlessly, electronically transfer money to and from China exchange listed stocks and China bonds yielding far higher rates than USD or EUR denominated bonds. There's none of the terrifying volatility of, say, Bitcoin.

Even if the worst happened and it became impossible to convert, I could buy things from there and go over there and spend some quality time traveling that fascinating country.

Posted by: bill baly | Apr 7 2021 1:25 utc | 51

Sanctions eroding US dollar reserve status

https://www.newsweek.com/sanctions-destroying-us-dollar-status-top-currency-1580619

Posted by: Les | Apr 7 2021 1:39 utc | 52

psychohistorian #50

Thank you.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 1:47 utc | 53

link is also posted @ 29, but i realize it is hard to follow all the comments here..

Posted by: james | Apr 7 2021 1:55 utc | 54

@51 bill baly

Totally agree with all your points.

For some years now I've been looking for a decent currency to live my life with. We seem much closer now with the Digital Yuan. And as you say, if somehow it were banned by the world and refused exchange in other currencies (which seems impossible even to imagine), I'd be happy to cash it all in within China.

Bitcoin never became a currency - it may or may not end up highly priced at a collector's value but it seems improbable that it could settle enough to become a usable mainstream currency. It could be a wealthy person's trading counter, perhaps. But like all such tokens, it remains vulnerable to fads.

But I don't want to leave my last word with bitcoin. The last word, quite possibly for the entire world, may well rest with the Yuan.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 1:57 utc | 55

I have now completed reading the Dealing with Demons posting at the Saker and wish there were some way to force the American public to read it.

@ bill baly | Apr 7 2021 1:25 utc | 51 with the comment about Digital Yuan...thanks

One of the toughest nuts to crack in a multi-polar financial world will be the management of international exchange rates. It can't be done any worse than now by the privately owned and operated BIS but it still be fraught with attempts to manipulate the rates.

And as I have mentioned before about tulipbits instantiations like bitcoin; without being owned and managed by a sovereign nation these ponzi schemes are worthless in the long run and not something you want to be holding when the global financial music stops.....permissioned blockchain by China is what I think is behind the Digital Yuan...permissionless bitcoin is owned/managed by ???

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 7 2021 2:46 utc | 56

Little bit off topic, but related:

US wanting other countries to raise corporate tax so it can profit is a bizarre super-capitalist demand

Just a small correction to his article:

In typical ‘world-leading nation’ fashion, the US is now requesting that other countries raise corporate tax to a ‘global standard’ minimum. While good to combat tax havens, it’s only being done with America’s profits in mind.

Janet Yellen's "global corporate tax rate" wouldn't affect tax havens at all. Tax havens are not countries, they're special jurisdictions inside countries (e.g. Cayman Islands, the State of Delaware, Isle of Jersey). Even in countries that are considered to be, as a whole, "tax havens" (Switzerland, Ireland, Panama, Luxembourg) that's not quite the truth: there are no articles in the Constitutions of those nations that explicitly state they're tax havens. For obvious reasons, tax havens don't have a defined legal form: they're the amalgamation of a series of loopholes, bills and decrees in those countries that make them, effectively, tax havens.

By definition, tax havens are immune to tax rates. It is irrelevant if those rates are 3,000% or 0,0001%: you'll always pay zero tax in a tax haven. That's what makes them tax havens to begin with.

That said, Mr. Fowdy is correct: developed capitalism has always had to heavily depend on a centralized economy. It depends on a central bank (without which it has no fiat money). It depends on a universal set of property rights laws (without which it cannot make any transactions of assets between two parts). It depends on a legal-military structure to ensure the sanctity of private property (without which there's no private property to begin with). It needs a Statized infrastructure (without which the bourgeoisie would constantly live in a state of warfare between themselves, for the control of the waters, the air, the soil, the roads and the transport system).

Now, it appears this centralizing aspect of capitalism is spreading to the geopolitical sphere. The USA - which already commands the domestic policies of almost all of the countries in existence today on a strategic level - suddenly realized it can do that in a planned form, by directly dictating to them which their tax rates they should adopt. All of that, of course, to preserve the center of the system, the USA itself.

If successful, the USA will have at its hands a superior for of economic planning, even more powerful than the IMF (the IMF can only control the nations that make the mistake of borrowing from it). The USG intends to cut the middleman and have its provinces (allies) at "arms length" for its future war against China.

Posted by: vk | Apr 7 2021 2:51 utc | 57

psychohistorian @Apr7 2:46 #56:

without being owned and managed by a sovereign nation these ponzi schemes are worthless in the long run.

Not being owned/managed by a government central bank is an important feature of digital currencies. The problem isn't with the lack of ownership/management it's with State desire for control. (And those States work for the same wealthy elites that you always rail against.)

If digital currencies like bitcoin fail, it will be because countries take action to kill them and NOT because a non-centrally managed currency is unsustainable.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 7 2021 3:04 utc | 58

Mr. rkka

Those who could make socialism be liberating as well as just, were young Western European men from good families that perished in World War; the war that began the Second Thirty Year War and helped free the rest of mankind from Western European domination.

Free Market was a theoretical construct, so was socialism, and so is Newton's Second Law. The moment a mechanical system is designed and built, corrections have to be made to Newton's Second Law to take into account this or that effect or to adjust for this or that desirable outcome.

This is to be expected, reordering the societal constructs of social animals is an exercise in engineering and thus full of design and construction compromises.

Which basically means that it is prudent not to put too much stock in these theoretical models and stick to the empirical fact of the Fall of Man, as the Christians would call it. When I cogitate on the situation that obtained in Europe in 1912, when I contemplate the photographs, letters, novels of that era, I tell to myself that "Those people had a good life, and yet they destroyed it.". Was the War in 1914 inevitable? Only if you think that Man is like a Pavlovian dog. So why did they do it?

One can look at a string of leaders that US could not work with, starting with the late Mr. Arbenz and ending with Mr. Rouhani. What is it about Judeo-Christians that control the United States that mandates all those brave young Vietnamese men be killed? What is it that causes them and their brethren in the United Kingdom to pursue this stupid policy agains Russia an China? An ostensibly Rational policy of resisting another power, just like what happened in Europe a century earlier.

The flaw, in my opinion, is not heavily caused by our ideal models of our economic doctrines. The flaw is in us, look at these well-fed, well-dressed, decently educated Judeo-Christians that have ignited another Muslim-Christian War. what were they thinking? Why did they believed or thought they desired to gain control of Palestine?

Posted by: Fyi | Apr 7 2021 3:16 utc | 59

Mr. Kooshy

I think that liberalized trade routes could really have helped USSR prolong its existence.

Posted by: Fyi | Apr 7 2021 3:25 utc | 60

@ Jackrabbit | Apr 7 2021 3:04 utc | 58 with the opinion about digital currencies contrary to mine

Bitcoin is not permissionless, therefore not scalable and is questionably owned/managed. Why would anyone want to buy/hold such a form of money except for the trusted exchange possibilities. Bitcoin is like the tulips of the 1600 in that, like then, there is a perceived need for alternative mediums of exchange. I would also argue that bitcoin is already "owned" by private finance folk because they can print the money to buy a controlling interest....and will be continue to be manipulated to entice the ignorant.

I challenge you to layout for me and others how this non government owned/managed central bank of scalable bitcoin works and is trusted other than by the barrel of a gun like we have now with private finance.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 7 2021 3:26 utc | 61

Damn...I fucked up a sentence in comment #61 that should read

Bitcoin is permissionless, therefore not scalable and is questionably owned/managed.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 7 2021 3:28 utc | 62

Mr. Vk

I think your prognostication on Russia is wrong.

Nobody is pro-West there, just as in Iran.

The Ants, kings of their nests
Have no need of Solomon's feasts

Posted by: Fyi | Apr 7 2021 3:31 utc | 63

Mr. B

There already is a resistance economy, it is just not that large. It will become larger as governments and private enterprises develop or establish different mechanisms than USD for their trade and settlements. It will take many decades.

Posted by: Fyi | Apr 7 2021 3:48 utc | 64

LOL!!!

Below is a Wall Street on Parade link that defines clearly what a global resistance economy is up against

Archegos: Wall Street Was Effectively Giving 85 Percent Margin Loans on Concentrated Stock Positions – Thwarting the Fed’s Reg T and Its Own Margin Rules

Take away quotes
"
Under the seeming law of the land, broker dealers on Wall Street could not have loaned Archegos more than 50 percent to make its stock purchases. But to get around this, the banks did not open a margin account for Archegos. According to the press reports, the banks instead structured derivative contracts where they loaned 85 percent of the money to Archegos to make the trades while, technically, retaining ownership of the stock themselves.
...
According to reporting in the New York Times over the weekend, Archegos owned “$20 billion in shares of ViacomCBS, effectively making him the media company’s single largest institutional shareholder. But few knew about his total exposure, since the shares were mostly held through complex financial instruments, called derivatives, created by the banks.”

Let’s pause here for a moment and do the math. The Times’ report indicates that the $20 billion value held by Archegos in ViacomCBS shares occurred “mid March.” Using an average price between March 15 and March 19 of $96, that would mean that Archegos owned 208,333,333 shares of ViacomCBS. According to the most recent April 2 proxy filing for ViacomCBS, as of March 26 it had 605,267,057 Class B shares outstanding, meaning that Archegos owned a stunning 34 percent of the outstanding shares without anyone being the wiser.

This derivative deception evaded another important rule that benefits both U.S. corporations and all investors. When an individual or other entity acquires 5 percent or more of a company’s stock, they have to make a public filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission – allowing the company and other investors to be aware of who is acquiring the company’s stock so that they are afforded material disclosures. But as Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang, the man behind Archegos Capital hedge fund, was amassing his giant stake in ViacomCBS, no one was the wiser because he did not make such filings. This denied the company and other investors of the knowledge that a man previously charged by the SEC with insider trading and manipulating stock prices was the force behind the runup in the share price of ViacomCBS.
"

This is the sort of lying, cheating and stealing that has been not just normalized in America but now glorified......until it is not, which we hope is soon.....but, unfortunately, until the financial music stops the citizens of brainwashed empire will continue to nod at their Plato's Cave Display's version of reality

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 7 2021 4:25 utc | 65

psychohistorian @Apr7 3:26 #61

Discussions of digital currency technical features and scalability are available online for anyone to find. Here's a place to start for anyone that is interested (note: 2 years old): The Blockchain Scalability Problem & the Race for Visa-Like Transaction Speed.

In short, there are ways to make bitcoin more scalable and they are constantly being researched along with lots of other innovations. There is keen competition among the many digital currencies. For example: 9,000 Transactions Per Second: Bitcoin SV hits new record. That's a much higher number than VISA - but not BTC and still in development.

!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 7 2021 4:31 utc | 66

To all my sisters and brothers I say drastic change is in the air as Nature is informing us on many levels of our standing on the precipice of annihilation (not in 30 years but currently), and the only hope for humanity is a quantum leap in consciousness. There is no time to waste. On the world stage, “Us versus Them” is becoming obsolete while “united we stand, divided we fall” increasingly will be forced upon us by momentous forces infinitely more powerful than our illusive technology and weapons that only threaten self destruction while delaying action to save us from our follies and foibles. If we are to survive as a species, we must all strive to develop a cooperative and holistic view of life encompassing all other beings and species, the ecosystem and its vulnerabilities, and the stability of the climate system. We must refrain from conflict resolved through violence, otherwise we are finished. Any discussion of geopolitics must be framed by that awareness.

Posted by: norecovery | Apr 7 2021 4:36 utc | 67

@uncle tungsten, psychohistorian, and others who have read or are interested in the summation by Larry Romanoff over at the Saker called, Dealing With Demons.

It's a lengthy review of the coronavirus as it hit China and the world. It's basically a forensic report on 2020, with about 160 footnotes to media and authority sources - the piece itself is a reference to bookmark, and the stories linked are probably a world of fascination.

For those of us intensely following the situation, many of the facts and summaries presented are not new, but everyone will find something previously unknown in Romanoff's magisterial story.

And it is a story, immensely readable, merely long - so make coffee or pour a drink and find a quiet hour, and there in that mere one hour you will have the real story of 2020, and the true picture of China.

~~

One thing - I had originally heard the translation of Xi's rallying call to action as the virus being a "Devil", not a Demon. The obvious connection seemed compelling with the "foreign devils" that plundered China of old and that still at every opportunity now attempt to exploit it. Maybe it's a nothing, maybe it's everything, in China's response of total mobilization, as if under attack. Romanoff doesn't go there, although he may have in earlier reports of this pandemic that he has dealt with so well (he's had great articles on the pandemic at Unz).

~~

For me, the venality and mean-spiritedness of the US establishment becomes so clear that I have to correct a previous speculation I made recently. I wondered - here in these threads, I think - if the hardening of Chinese diplomatic language was somewhat calculated and aimed at preparing its own nation for military conflict with the US.

But I see now from Romanoff's report the extraordinary effort made by the Chinese people to help the US, in the spirit of goodness, even as the US media was being fed the lies to demonize China, and to turn the US populace into a majority population that hates China.

And the Chinese people are well aware of this. And now that the dust has settled for them, it is a clear picture for them to reflect on regarding the US and say, "fuck 'em - never again will we help those people."

So the real change came first, as the Chinese nation opened its heart to the US, and was trashed and slandered in return. And the Chinese diplomatic language is simply reflecting the overall feeling of 1.4 billion citizens of this planet who now understand with great finality that the US is beyond the pale.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 4:38 utc | 68

it isn't just the lead article by Crooke that is blocked over at Facebook, but everything from Strategic Culture.. I tried saving 4 different articles by different authors, saving only for myself, and they were all rejected as per:

"strategic-culture.org

Your post couldn't be shared, because this link goes against our Community Standards

If you think this doesn't go against our Community Standards let us know."

someone at the CIA/NSA/the US National Security State is hard at work to make sure subversive/deviant political ideas don't circulate at FB.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Apr 7 2021 5:17 utc | 69

Apologies for the almost OT remarks, but John Dubya Howard's Totalitarian Capitalist Liberal (cough, cough) Party has been conducting an undeclared War on ABC.net.au since the beginning of the Fake War On Terror - using successive budget cuts as the tool of control. The downside for the Libs has been that ABC has dedicated itself to rummaging around in the Lib's dirty linen and blowing the whistle on every piece of sleaziness they uncover. And there's no shortage of people providing tip-offs, to the ABC, to advance this endeavour.

I've already had a whinge about Scum Mo 'arranging' for SBS to cease broadcasting CGTN Chinese news. His approach to muzzling the ABC has focused on spiking broadcasts of the weekly ABC-sponsored National Press Club Address. NPCA invites an authoritative speaker on a current and potentially controversial topic to deliver his/her opinion to a room full of journalists, for about 30 minutes, after which the journos are free to ask questions and/or demand answers.

Anyhow Scum Mo doesn't like many of the topics NPCA 'explores'. And since he spiked CGTN's broadcasts into Oz, he has also spiked NPCA's broadcasts. But ABC still schedules broadcasts in the various printed TV Guides, as if they were going to be broadcast. BUT in the Electronic Program Guide on the TV they schedule David Attenborough's 1 hour Climate Change extravaganza EXTINCTION.
Every week.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 7 2021 5:28 utc | 70

james #54

Thank you, admittedly I have been skimming today and missed your earlier post :-)

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 5:28 utc | 71

Grieved #68

That is my take as well. Plus the message that China possesses an incredible sense of social solidarity and flexibility. The switches in production to meet emergency pandemic components from masks to complex ventilators to food distribution chains - that is an extraordinary tale of a great civilisation facing an immense stress test and emerging wiser and stronger.

Most interesting is the synchronicity between the small and large capitalist sector with the public sector. THAT is the economy that the west was deluded into abandoning and still detests and undermines with every ounce of its effort.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 5:40 utc | 72

Ramin Mazaheri has a couple of articles at the Saker on the Iran China agreement. China offers peace while the west offers war. Others in the region are interested in peace and development.

A sample;
Contrarily, Iranian and Chinese businessmen simply wonder why the West refuses to do mutually-beneficial, productive, long-term business? But good, fair business is not what capitalism is – capitalism’s surpluses primarily rely on the savings provided by imperialist plunder, and then the subsequent masking of this reality of stolen resources, stolen wages and thwarted lives and cultures with a tin mass media halo. This is not a radical view of “capitalism with Western characteristics”, but an increasingly accepted view even within the 21st century West.

The author considers Iran to be socialist with Islamic characteristics. And he's funny too!

"Nixon ‘opened’ China, but only superpower, socialist China could ‘open’ Iran (1/2)"

http://thesaker.is/nixon-opened-china-but-only-superpower-socialist-china-could-open-iran-1-2/

"The Iran-China pact is a huge blow for Western imperialists who want war in Asia (2/2)"

http://thesaker.is/the-iran-china-pact-is-a-huge-blow-for-western-imperialists-who-want-war-in-asia-2-2/

There, I did to help fill in for Karlof1 while he is on a slow coach across the continent!

Posted by: Tom | Apr 7 2021 5:41 utc | 73

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 7 2021 5:28 utc | 70

"BUT in the Electronic Program Guide on the TV they schedule David Attenborough's 1 hour Climate Change extravaganza EXTINCTION.
Every week."

Could be worse, Swan Lake was played over and over at the time of the coup in 1991? Russia.

Always wondered what movie would be played in the US under similar events. Blazing Saddles would be my choice. Oh to be able to laugh again. Canada's choice, easy, Anne of Green Gables.

Posted by: Tom | Apr 7 2021 5:50 utc | 74

correction to last sentence #73

There, I my bit to help fill in for Karlof1 while he is on a slow coach across the continent!

Posted by: Tom | Apr 7 2021 5:54 utc | 75

Good for Iran; and China, Russia, and Asia will benefit as well.
My main fear is a wounded USA over reacting itself into a war...
A bully usually needs a good whupping to stop bullying; in the case of the US, it may bring out the worst, to avoid losing face on the world's stage.
...and yes; they're that sick, IMHO...
The positive in all this is that, I believe, both Russia and China know the US better than the US knows them...

Posted by: V | Apr 7 2021 6:06 utc | 76

Reading Larry Romanoff's "dealing with deamons" I notice some holes in his narrative: amnesia about the many times virus epidemics originated in China (live-exotic food markets) or allowing many foreigners to fly back home from the hot zone, thus spreading it world wide. Nothing about Chinese Covid-19 scare stories/ clips send abroad over Twitter etc.- blocked in China. Covid-19 mutations (South Africa) are not at all mentioned; China's own vaccinations could be quite ineffective against some, just like Oxford-AstraZeneca's. No idea why he takes Chinese State statistics at face value.

Good points too: China's formal top down system works fast and massive, though being monolithic. Western press responses to Covid from China were as bad as the rest of their pro Establishment baby food. China's massive industry could and did out perform all still left over competition in Covid products too. Anglo production has been reduced to assembling aircraft and weapons thanks to their own "greed is good" motto - a warning for Chinese too. Just hardware, software and financial designs are not going to rescue the Anglos. The present world power balance keeps shifting to Asia and rightly so as it is where most Homo Sapiens live.

Posted by: Antonym | Apr 7 2021 6:34 utc | 77

If facebook & twitter are blocking all www.strategic-culture.org/ posts, wouldn't the best way to share a post someone believes needs be shared, wouldn't copy pasting the article on another site then linking to that help fix the problem?
The new site could include a link back to the original post.

It is a nuisance & yes it shouldn't happen but IMO rather than getting wound about big tech's increasing censorship, cos most of us knew it was going to happen and it has, better to begin sabotaging their censorship efforts.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 7 2021 6:50 utc | 78

Many of you will be aware that Matt Taibbi has been highlighting big Tech's move to censor any news which may conflict with BidenCorp and how it extends well beyond alleged 'enemies' such as China, Iran & Russia, past Q-anon's loony tunes, or Alex whatshisface's fantasies.

Well as Taibbi writes in Meet the Censored: The U.S. Right to Know Foundation even a amerikan based non-partisan NGO, will be censored if it discusses the Covid-19 Pandemic in a manner which could call the BidenCorp indoctrination into question.
This Right to Know mob doesn't play down the virus or suggest masks and/or social distancing don't matter, no.
What they have published calls into question the virus's zoonotic origin and interrogates if amerika's worst kept secret that the amerikan government has been funding the development of lethat viruses- perhaps even Covid-19. eg:

"the Foundation began publishing the results of those document requests. These included reports of unsafe conditions at biolabs in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as emails connected with the EcoHealth Alliance, an American non-profit that has been supported in part by taxpayer-funded grants, and has collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Those emails were not flattering to the EcoHealth Alliance. They showed that its leadership had a role in helping organize a letter in the prominent medical journal, The Lancet, denouncing as “conspiracy theory” the idea that Covid-19 might have had laboratory origins, but appeared reluctant to have its own involvement made public. "

Personally I believe the SARS-2 blah blah blah virus probably was the result of humans coming into contact with some 'bridging' animal which passed the virus on from bats, but that is irrelevant.

More important is the fact that whatever the true answer is, no one is gonna believe it if a complete and open debate is stymied.

I don't bring this up to make another whine about the current phase of censorship that the internet is struggling to survive.
We need to know, understand then publicise as widely as possible every instance of censorship in a way that encourages as many as possible to seek ways to subvert the thousands of sad little goebbels (evil fucker murdered his 6 children rather than let them hear alternative points of view), who're trying to build a world where truth is the foe of our communities.

We know that net 'information control' must destroy the societies so controlled, all of us can devise workarounds - some may not be effective but many will be - whether or not we choose to advertise our successes.

What we can never do is accept this destructive state of affairs as being 'just the way of the world'. Resistance is key, especially for us old fuckers who're never likely to have some recruitment/HR clerk searching through our 'social media' to decide whether we would be a good hire or not ever again. In other words we are far more fireproof than our children, grandchildren and their peers, so we need to resist.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 7 2021 8:05 utc | 79

It's interesting how the Saker shut down comments to the Romanoff piece.

It's also interesting how Bangladesh scored better on the mortality scale than China did, even though the virus spread fairly rapidly throughout the entire country, a country of 160 million people and one of the most densely populated with over a thousand per square kilometre.

I'm not denying the formidable response by the Chinese, nor the hubristic one by the Americans, but I am maintaining that the numbers have been juggled and gerrymandered so much as to render them almost meaningless, and that the pathogen, at least the original one, is a relatively benign flu for the vast majority of people on this planet.

Posted by: john | Apr 7 2021 9:22 utc | 80

From the article:

To give one example: New York’s Second Avenue Subway extension cost $6 billion, or $2 billion per mile – the most expensive urban mass transit ever built. The average cost of underground subway lines outside the U.S. is $350 million a mile, or a sixth of New York’s cost.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Apr 7 2021 11:54 utc | 81

One the US$ is displaced as the world's default currency for international transactions, the US will no longer be able to go into as much debt as it wants to whenever it feels that it needs to and will have to start revamping its own economy on a more sound (and social) basis.

Posted by: Malchik Ralf | Apr 7 2021 12:02 utc | 82

@ Posted by: john | Apr 7 2021 9:22 utc | 80

Most countries have a lower COVID-19 mortality rate than China.

That's not surprising, as China was the first country hit by the pandemic and the country that most aggressively contained it. As a result, it has relatively very few cases but a high mortality rate among those cases.

The countries that managed to contain the pandemic very early do have a much higher mortality rate than the countries with a lot of cases, not just China. This is probably due to statistical distortion, as the denominator is smaller, which, at this scale, can easily eschew the rates by very high margins. As a result, Cuba has a much higher (above 5%) mortality rate than the USA (at around 1% and lowering) - but Cuba had less than 200 deaths and some thousands of cases, while the USA has dozens of millions of cases and half million dead.

Posted by: vk | Apr 7 2021 12:40 utc | 83

@69 michaelj72 | Apr 7 2021 5:17
@78 Debsisdead | Apr 7 2021 6:50

I don't know much about twitter (not a user) but Facebook has very basic AI-101 it seems. The basic hack I use takes a couple of low-tech steps but works (so far).
I use it to avoid the 'fact checker' idiocy that pops up whenever the letter "C" and the number "19" are placed together. And in other cases such as zh, unz or strategic-culture etc. Maybe even this site if the topic looks like a trigger.

1. Take a screen shot of the headline caption or image that would likely show up if the link was posted on FB.
2. Drop it into MS Paint 3D (or equivalent) and crop it to size (annotate, underline, arrow point etc if appropriate) and save the image.
3. Write your FB pre-amble text and paste any direct quotes etc (that do not contain trigger words).
4. Take a copy of the item's web link (www.abc.com) and edit with a text processor to change the "." to "_" or some other special character (www_abc_com). Advise in square brackets or other means to replace the "_" with "." in order to use the link.
5. Paste this modified link in the FB post or as a comment.
6. Upload the cropped image (which gets displayed in place of the link's header image).
7. Post the item.

It is primitive, and there may be other ways, but this works for me so far. As everything is now an image (usually readable in itself by a human) then FB system knows no better. It could be a cat photo. They may well catch on and smarten up their link detection processing in due course (to detect other special substitute characters) but atm I suspect they are at rather primitive levels. So, again, it is just random text to the system which does not conform to standard recognised formats.

Readers can get a sense and a snippet of the topic (from your cropped image) and if interested take and re-modify the link ("_" back to dots) to find the story. The machine 'sees' nothing suspicious and your humans see what they need to in order to take next steps if appropriate etc. [Yes, I was in this programming/coding business since the 1970's.]

Posted by: imo | Apr 7 2021 12:59 utc | 84

Posted by: vk | Apr 7 2021 12:40 utc | 83

A more accurate picture would be obtained calculating the deceased over total population.

Good analysis the three options for Russia, as it is the CPR should renovate faces since as you said the Duginists are ahead, and I agree, they're not the best option.

Posted by: Paco | Apr 7 2021 13:11 utc | 85

@john | Apr 7 2021 9:22 utc | 80

It's interesting how the Saker shut down comments to the Romanoff piece.

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 7 2021 14:15 utc | 86

Rumours that those arrested after the Jan 6. events in Washington DC are being tortured in prison

TG 310: The Increasingly Sinister DOJ

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 7 2021 14:29 utc | 87

@80 john (& 86 Norwegian) - "interesting how the Saker shut down comments to the Romanoff piece"

And that's why the Saker prohibited comments - he didn't shut them down in the way that language might suggest, he published the article from the beginning with comments closed - there is an exclusive email to send real comments for consideration.

He shut off open comments because he simply didn't want a thousand useless comments straining his already strained moderators, and arguing over whether the virus is real or "just a flu" - the very words that the Saker states he doesn't have any time for. We've had a year to see that this type of argument is fruitless, and a great distraction from what can otherwise be valuable analysis.

Romanoff's article stands as an excellent reference to what events happened, with news sources given. It doesn't discuss the authenticity vs. fabrication of the situation. So comments about the virus being a hoax simply don't pertain to the article.

The Saker knew that, and accorded Romanoff's piece better respect. We're still learning it in this thread, apparently.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 14:49 utc | 88

ditto @88 grieved comment.. thanks for saying that.. i guess it needs to be said!

@ uncle tungsten.. thanks... i am guilty of the same!

@ 84 imo... it seems pointless, but maybe debs is right and resistance is the best approach.. i figure people would be better off just being off fb, but that's me..

Posted by: james | Apr 7 2021 15:59 utc | 89

The struggle over Eurasia continues:
https://journal-neo.org/2021/04/07/what-is-the-uk-s-grey-eminence-charles-garrett-doing-in-kyrgyzstan/

Posted by: bevin | Apr 7 2021 16:02 utc | 90

@Et tu #2
You said:

With Communism/Socialism the obvious ones were lack of motivation/productivity, inefficiency and susceptibility to corruption and concentration of power.

I have issues with this line. Among other things, it echoes the Cold War agitprop.

Let's not forget that Russia was a distinctly 3rd rate, 2nd world or first rate 3rd world country when the October Revolution happened.

From that starting point, it became enough of a world power to beat back Hitler and to counterpoint the United States and its vassal European (and other) states for 50+ years. Russia furthermore maintained a world class military this entire period.

How can this be reconciled with lack of motivation, lack of productivity, inefficiency etc?

China, in turn, was definitely 3rd world when the Qing dynasty fell. 40 years of "capitalism" did nothing whatsoever to improve China's economy. And even at the beginning of Deng's "market" reforms, China was a very different place - economically and infrastructurally - than it was in 1949.

What Crooke writes about is exactly what Hudson has repeatedly spoken to: the original goal for economists was reform. Reform of economies away from the stranglehold of feudal/aristocratic rentiers towards economic goals that benefit everyone. The feudal/aristocratic interests have only been replaced by banksters - and thus the Russia/China/Iran response is as much defensive as it is reform. They're being attacked politically and economically by the bankster classes because all 3 of those nations have, in the recent past, booted out their oligarchs.

Russia booted out its aristocrats in 1917 then Putin brought the "privatization" oligarchs to heel 2000-2006.

China booted out its capitalist/warlord oligarchs in 1949, then booted out the socialist bureaucrats in the 1980s.

Iran booted out both its king and British American oil interests in 1979.

Is it any wonder these nations are hated and feared by the banksters worldwide? And their existence gleefully used to justify outrageous sums spent on "defense" by the MIC profiteers?

Posted by: c1ue | Apr 7 2021 16:56 utc | 91

@imo #184
Your strategy is not effective if the intention is to bring in more viewers. In the case where OCR (optical character recognition) is not used, then the post will only go to those already following you.
However, OCR is trivially deployed. Converting text in to a pic to machine understood text is literally 2 lines of code, if Facebook really cared (which it generally does not).

Posted by: c1ue | Apr 7 2021 16:59 utc | 92

Grieved @ 88

there is an exclusive email to send real comments for consideration

Yeah, you're right, he didn't shut them down, just added an 'exclusive' filter on top of his already rather fussy moderation policy, thus creating even more work for his 'strained moderators.'

Not to mention that the presumption of 'useless' comments kind of suggests a disrespect of its own.

Either have a comment section or don't, 'cause I'll be my own arbiter, thank you.

Posted by: john | Apr 7 2021 17:22 utc | 93

@Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 7 2021 8:05 utc | 79:

What we can never do is accept this destructive state of affairs as being 'just the way of the world'. Resistance is key, especially for us old fuckers who're never likely to have some recruitment/HR clerk searching through our 'social media' to decide whether we would be a good hire or not ever again. In other words we are far more fireproof than our children, grandchildren and their peers, so we need to resist.

Oh so well said! True the West's MSM, now complemented by Big Tech, is indeed acting like what Pravda and People's daily used to be back in the 50's & 60's. True also that ole fuckers like ourselves must 'Resist' on our children's behalf as we are relatively more fireproof. Hence my urge to hang around 'Resistance' alt media such as here and Saker's for comfort, inspiration, and solidarity. In my own case I have another 'fireproof' characteristic: my modest means implies I ain't got much to lose :-).

Let's fight on, comrades!

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 7 2021 18:55 utc | 94

c1ue@91 is reliably fictional on key point. In particular, Putin has not brought the "privatization" oligarchs to heel: They have mostly kept their booty, provided they don't try to cross the line in politics, which appears to be funding opposition to Putin. Being guaranteed you can keep the loot you got if you don't piss off the boss is *not* being brought to heel in any reasonable sense of the phrase.

Further, the "socialist bureaucrats" in China were not kicked out in the "1980s," which presumably means after Deng returned to power. Also, Liu Shao-chi was the only "socialist bureaucrat" who outranked Deng, whose return to power was the *triumph* of the "socialist bureaucrats." The so-called Eight Immortals were socialist bureaucrats one and all. (Eight Immortals is more of an anglophone nickname, in China "Eight Immortals" refers to Daoist semi-deities.)

Further, the Chinese socialist economy progressed through the larger part of the Fifties It also grew through the later Cultural Revolution period, though *not* at the high speed and increasingly large levels of production starting in the late Nineties, but getting massive in the early twentieth century. (This pace seems to now be a history thing, along with previous economic miracles found in so many other countries, like post-war Germany, Seventies Japan, Sixties Italy, the Asian Tigers in the Nineties, etc, etc, etc, etc.) The Dengist black legend is that the Chinese economy was catastrophically unhinged during the Cultural Revolution but if there was ever such a retrogression it was the Great Leap Forward...which is *not* an official Bad Thing. (Possibly because the Great Leap Forward was either not solely Mao's doing or the failures to address famine are partly the Dengists? At any rate, the Great Leap Forward was a decided attack *against* socialist bureaucracy, especially national, and most especially against central planning...and thus not a suitable object lesson in the value of capitalist roading.) Most of Deng's career as national leader did *not* work wonders for the economy, despite the promises. Thus the need to pretend the Cultural Revolution wasn't just hard on "socialist bureaucrats," but the lowest nadir of China, on a par with the Yusn dynasty I suppose.

Even the rebuttal of Et tu@2 needs work. Efficiency is not creating billionaires or a hard money or a high-flying stock market. Efficiency in an economy is in the effective use of resources to meet human needs. The presumption that the USSR was inefficient, as Et tu presumes, is that it wasn't *profitable.* Most people like to talk about how inefficient the USSR was in the later years. But the standard of living for most Soviet people rose considerably, on a very wide scale, much more equitably than is usual in capitalist economies. How is this inefficient? Except in providing an elevated standard of living for the highly educated who felt horribly oppressed by not being able to travel abroad? Or even live in the better neighborhoods of Moscow?

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 7 2021 19:10 utc | 95

@Posted by: john | Apr 7 2021 9:22 utc | 80:

I'm not denying the formidable response by the Chinese, nor the hubristic one by the Americans, but I am maintaining that the numbers have been juggled and gerrymandered so much as to render them almost meaningless, and that the pathogen, at least the original one, is a relatively benign flu for the vast majority of people on this planet.

It's understandable that you harbor suspicions of data juggling and all that, but to come to conclusion on that point don't you owe it to yourself to present some evidences?

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Apr 7 2021 19:11 utc | 96

Oriental Voice @ 96

...don't you owe it to yourself to present some evidences

Let's keep it real simple and ignore the gerrymandering.

Posted by: john | Apr 7 2021 20:31 utc | 97

Posted by: rkka | Apr 6 2021 20:27 utc | 20

Stolypin failed because he got assassinated.

Posted by: Baron | Apr 7 2021 21:34 utc | 98

China has one trump that the West lacks, it's low labour costs.

The min wage in China is between £120-180 per month, in the West that sort of money is earned by someone on the minimum wage in a day, two or possibly three. This advantage beats anything else, will take time to be erased, presents the West with a problem close to insurmountable.

Add to it the low energy costs, half of the UK (US is better off, so far t's energy costs were not that much different from the Chinese), also the superbly well oiled infrastructure, the containers can get to ports easily, all that gives China an advantage that's hard to compete against.

Posted by: Baron | Apr 7 2021 21:41 utc | 99

I don't think so, China makes too much money of this mess to do a dividing line.

Why do East vs West, when China can make stuff for East, West, South, North too? The USA says all of this, but they still pay money in the end.

There won't be a change in this "global market" until socialists become in charge of most countries and greed don't rule.

Posted by: Smith | Apr 8 2021 1:30 utc | 100