Imperial Summer Vacation

No forwarding address

Out of Office,

  Eric Zuesse has this analysis:  THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IS BEING DEFEATED; ASIA WILL LEAD THE FUTURE.

I agree with the first part, but the second part remains to be seen. Maybe "Asia" is not such an entity. Maybe the future really will be distributed and "multipolar".

 Zuesse points out the assassination attempt against Turkey's President Erdogan in 2016, carried out by US-aligned Turkish military officers. Russia saved him at the last minute. The NATO-member veto on new members being approved prevents further NATO expansion while Erdogan lives and cooperates with Russia. It largely incapacitates NATO, since Turkey is in a critical position, controlling black Sea and Mediterranean access, and pipeline transit routes to Europe.

  Zuesse does not bring up that Turkey stands to have a much elevated position in a new Eurasian world-economic-order, firstly since it will be able to repudiate it's vast $US denominated debts, but also because Turkey is likely to be less frequently insulted, and given better consideration than the US does. In a new regime, Erdogan clearly sees growth potential for Turkish power and influence.

  In the near term, a hobbled NATO will not act as global enforcer. In the longer term, the $US slipping in global reserve-currency utility will cut funding for the global American military project. This summer, with the shortages of food and oil, and the $US being more expensive for debtor countries, Western finance seemingly plans to extract the wealth producing assets from more countries, and enforce austerity on their starving citizens, replaying the Asian Economic Crisis, though this is an ancient financial grab. Banks make loans for interest, but they really want to take the collateral/property.

  Zuesse foresees that this property-grab will be resisted this time around. He also points out that a lot of Russian oil is still flowing to Europe, and pipeline flows have been increasing since April to countries that get it that way, including Germany. This is not technically "cheating", since pipeline flows were exempted, but I agree that different forms of rationalization and "cheating" can be used by European politicians who are on the American-bribe payroll, but still have to live with people at home.

  As American power within NATO becomes more visibly weakened, then NATO speaking for Europe may be openly contested. My own view is that orders will be given by the imperial command, and accepted, and not effectively followed, maybe by bureaucratic delay or other forms of slowdown or technical inability.

  The lack of enforcement of the declining western financial order must become apparent at the same time as an Eastern/multipolar option becomes available.

That will make the choice "easy" for many debtor countries, and it will get easier as the number of participants in the alternative system increases. If one's neighbor has repudiated $US debt and nationalized oil and mining, and has not been destroyed, doesn't that make it look appealing?

  As soon as $US debts are being defaulted broadly as policy, global financial interests will also seek any other way to maintain or reclaim some value. They are hardly "loyal", but to their own profits.

  The clarity of this path does not determine how quickly it will fall into place, but this summer's dollar shock needs to be managed and people need food. The IMF, World Bank and western finance in general may not see clearly how weak their hand is (hubris). If they try to extract the maximum pound-of-flesh, countries will have to defend themselves and their citizens.

https://southfront.org/the-american-empire-is-being-defeated-asia-will-lead-the-future/

​  ​Turkey ​(in cooperation with Russia)​ attempted to mediate safe passage in the Black Sea for Ukraine's grain harvest, but Ukraine objected to the Black Sea proposal in a statement on Tuesday before the talks in Turkey.
​  ​A significant portion of the world’s food supply is on the line, but Ukraine Nixes a Potential Deal.
​  ​“We cannot rule out Russia’s plans to use such a corridor to attack Odessa and southern Ukraine. That is why effective security guarantees are needed to restore shipping,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/ukraine-safe-passage-grain-talks-fail-expect-still-higher-food-prices-globally

  This is the most recent news story I can find on Sri Lanka, which has borrowed $3 billion from India this year, is talking with the IMF, but really cannot exist on loans that keep getting bigger. They are buying Russian oil at the 30% discount when they can. The big question is that of what Sri Lanka can offer the world in return for commodities like oil, minerals, manufactured goods and food. Any new financial order can decide to help Sri Lanka and get good publicity. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Sri-Lanka-crisis/Cash-strapped-Sri-Lanka-looks-to-Russia-to-quench-thirst-for-oil

Pepe Escobar reviews and encapsulates Michael Hudson's timely new book.  With The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism, Michael Hudson, one of the world’s leading independent economists, has given us arguably the ultimate handbook on where we’re at, who’s in charge, and whether we can bypass them..... The whole Global South will easily recognize the imperial modus operandi: “The strategy of US military and financial imperialism is to install client oligarchies and dictatorships, and arm-twist allies to join the fight against designated adversaries by subsidizing not only the empire’s costs of war-making (“defense”) but even the imperial nation’s domestic spending programs.” This is the antithesis of the multipolar world advocated by Russia and China.....So inevitably the major imperial leverage over the world, a true “strategy of underdevelopment,” had to be financial: instrumentalizing IMF pressure to “turn public infrastructure into privatized monopolies, and reversing 20th century pro-labor reforms” via those notorious ‘conditionalities’ for loans..... The US economy is indeed a lame post-modern remake of the late Roman empire: “dependent on foreign tribute for its survival in today’s global rentier economy.” Enter the correlation between a dwindling free lunch and utter fear: “That is why the United States has surrounded Eurasia with 750 military bases.”....Hudson succinctly frames the central issue facing the world today: whether “money and credit, land, natural resources and monopolies will be privatized and concentrated in the hands of a rentier oligarchy or used to promote general prosperity and growth. This is basically a conflict between finance capitalism vs. socialism as economic systems.”  To advance the struggle, Hudson proposes a counter-rentier program which should be the Global South’s ultimate Blueprint for responsible development: public ownership of natural monopolies; key basic infrastructure in public hands; national self-sufficiency – crucially, in money and credit creation; consumer and labor protection; capital controls – to prevent borrowing or denominating debts in foreign currency; taxes on unearned income such as economic rent; progressive taxation; a land tax (“will prevent land’s rising rental value from being pledged to banks for credit to bid up real estate prices”); use of the economic surplus for tangible capital investment; and national self-sufficiency in food.....I asked him how he analyzed the current discussions between the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and the Chinese – and between Russia and China, further on down the road – as being able to deliver an alternative financial/monetary system. Can they sell the alternative system to most of the planet, all while dodging imperial financial harassment?
  Hudson was gracious enough to reply with what could be regarded as the summary of a whole book chapter: “To be successful, any reform has to be system-wide, not merely a single part. Today’s western economies have become financialized, leaving credit creation in private hands – to be used to make financial gains at the expense of the industrial economy… This aim has spread like leprosy throughout entire economies – their trade patterns (dependency on US agricultural and oil exports, and IT technology), labor relations (anti-unionism and austerity), land tenure (foreign-owned plantation agriculture instead of domestic self-reliance and self-sufficiency in food grains), and economic theory itself (treating finance as part of GDP, not as an overhead siphoning off income from labor and industry alike).” .....That requires an alternative to the IMF, World Bank and ITO (from which Russia has just withdrawn). And alas, an alternative also requires military coordination such as the SCO [the Shanghai Cooperation Organization] to defend against the militarization of US-centered finance capitalism.” .....So how to break free from dollarized debt? “They need a critical mass. That was not available in the 1970s when a New International Economic Order was first discussed. But today it is becoming a viable alternative, thanks to the power of China, the resources of Russia and those of allied countries such as Iran, India and other East Asian and Central Asian countries. So I suspect that a new world economic system is emerging. If it succeeds, the last century – since the end of World War I and the mess it left – will seem like a long detour of history, now returning to what seemed to be the basic social ideals of classical economics – a market free from rent-seeking landlords, monopolies and predatory finance.” .....“In short, it is a conflict between two different social systems, each with their own philosophy of how societies work. Will they be planned by neoliberal financial centers centered in New York, supported by Washington’s neo-cons, or will they be the kind of socialism that the late 19th century and early 20th century envisioned – a ‘market’ and, indeed, society free from rentiers? Will natural monopolies such as land and natural resources be socialized and used to finance domestic growth and housing, or left to financial interests to turn rent into interest payments eating into consumer and business income? And most of all, will governments create their own money and steer banking to promote domestic prosperity, or will they let private banks (whose financial interests are represented by central banks) take control away from national treasuries?” https://thesaker.is/will-the-global-south-break-free-from-dollarized-debt/ 

Moon of Alabama observes:  Washington Starts Blame Game Over Defeat In Ukraine  (People don't seem to believe the scapegoating these days, or care.) https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/washington-starts-blame-game-over-defeat-in-ukraine.html#more

The Status of the Globalist Agenda Has Been Escalated from "Confused" to "Chaotic"
..People will claim that when I say “the West is going to collapse,” I’m being overly optimistic. Part of this is my use of hyperbolic language. I don’t actually think that the US government is going to stop existing in the near future. What I am talking about is the unseating of the US as a contender as the premier world superpower. Once it becomes clear that this is no longer in the cards, I expect there to finally be some form of recalibration. We don’t know what that will look like, or if it will be good or bad for normal people, but it will happen...
..This situation is definitely entering into the realm of “emerging chaos.” There are powerful people now calling for a scale-back, so it’s possible you could see that before the economic situation enters terminal decline. It’s also possible that this might not happen. It’s possible that the Ukraine situation could escalate directly into a world war. “Chaos” is what it sounds like it is.
  In the long-term and even the medium-term, I’m hopeful about the future. The biggest impediment to people at least being allowed to choose to live normal lives has been this globalist agenda, and its failure is a victory for humanity. https://www.unz.com/aanglin/the-status-of-the-globalist-agenda-has-been-escalated-from-confused-to-chaotic/ 

This is good for most Texans and will lower gas and gas-powered-electricity prices this summer. It's bad for making the EU dependent on LNG from the US.European Gas Soars After US LNG Terminal Explosion Halts Exports For Weeks https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/european-gas-soars-after-us-freeport-lng-terminal-explosion​ 

Stagflation is back, due to high debt load and high oil prices, like before, but the American real-economy is not ​making stuff like it did before. What next?

US Consumer Prices Reaccelerate In May, Highest Since 1981 https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/us-consumer-prices-reaccelerate-may-highest-1981

  "I don't think it means what you think it means..." The Insurance companies might get their business-model replaced before this is over. "The oil must flow."

Insurance Ban Is The EU’s Biggest Blow Yet To Russian Oil Exports   Joining the UK, the EU has placed a ban on insuring and financing the marine transportation of Russian oil.The insurance ban will likely have a massive impact on Russian oil exports  https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Insurance-Ban-Is-The-EUs-Biggest-Blow-Yet-To-Russian-Oil-Exports.html 

NO, you simply misconstrued our meaning. This is only about risks TO the US, not risks FROM the US.A US Government Agency Accidentally Revealed the Strategic Danger of GMO Crops
  Without realizing it, the USCC just accidentally revealed the strategic danger of GMO crops, namely that their genetic code can be hacked by adversaries who might then manufacture bioweapons against them in order to cause famines.....GM seeds can be employed as weapons of Hybrid War against those states that aspire for strategic autonomy. All that the US has to do is clandestinely release bioweapons engineered to target those crops in order to cause blights that lead to famines. It would retain “plausible deniability” too since nobody could prove that it was responsible. With this in mind, those states that truly want to defend themselves from unconventional threats must urgently return to purely natural seeds in order to make it more difficult for their adversaries to employ this destabilizing scenario against them as punish for their independent foreign policies. https://astutenews.com/2022/06/a-us-government-agency-accidentally-revealed-the-strategic-danger-of-gmo-crops/

Dr Paul Alexander was aware of the many risks, as was I. We could not understand why such high risk treatments were being pushed to healthy low risk people.  WARNING: FDA, CDC, NIH, Moderna, & Pfizer official (s) expressed their serious concerns with these mRNA vaccines at HHS, especially for children, very fearful of their safety & career destruction
  I restate what was shared with me, privately, confidentially, at HHS (Operation Warp Speed) around July and August 2020, 6 months or so prior to the roll-out of the vaccines

WARNING: FDA, CDC, NIH, Moderna, & Pfizer official (s) expressed their serious concerns with these mRNA vaccines at HHS, especially for children, very fearful of their safety & career destruction

Meryl Nass MD posts this public service announcement: It's a good panel of well known expert speakers.Doctors for COVID Ethics/ UK Column Symposium Saturday June 11: Freedom is the Cure
Unpacking and Defeating the Medical Tactics of World Takeover

Doctors for COVID Ethics/ UK Column Symposium Saturday June 11: Freedom is the Cure

Public Servant (Pictured in Austin summer garden)