The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole
Every day, I become more grateful for the election of Donald Trump. All praise. Millions and millions of people have worked to destroy the American empire, and all of them failed. Donald is succeeding, speeding the process by about a decade, I’d guess.
Likewise, I and many others have hated the neoliberal trade order for decades — since the late 80s, in my case. It was designed to destroy countries’ sovereignty, making it impossible to truly regulate investors, to run industrial policy, or even, in rich nations, to keep wages up. As a Canadian, ever since the FTA Canadian manufacturing has proceeded on a slow death march, till instead of selling the US more good than the US sells us, as was historically been the norm, we buy more goods from the US than vice-versa. (The trade surplus is due to energy.)
Meanwhile, Trump is essentially forcing the Europeans to take charge of their own destiny and stop doing what America says. This should have happened decades ago, and EU elites failure to man-up has cost Europe’s countries dearly. It’s quite likely neither NATO nor the EU itself will survive; both excellent outcomes. NATO should have been disbanded when the USSR fell. American troops may leave Europe, or at least there should be a further draw-down — also excellent. As for the EU, it has been an engine of stagnation and de-industrialization, especially since the introduction of the Euro.
The end of the American Empire, and the end of the “no industrial policy, no sovereignty” free trade order, and possibly the end of NATO and the American occupation of Europe.
Oh, the process will suck, and it will hurt. But for the first time since the US imposed its terrible neoliberal trade order on the world, there is at least a chance for most countries to be able to properly manage their own economic affairs.
Unfortunately for Americans, Trump is doing this in the stupidest and most harmful way possible — for America. It needs to be done, sure, but simultaneously pissing off almost every trade partner in the world and speeding up the end of the dollar’s hegemony in such a chaotic way is not going to go well for America or Americans. As the primary beneficiaries of the previous order (other than the Chinese, who suckered the Americans using their greed), the end of the order is going to be ugly, and because America now has no friends except maybe the lickspittle Brits, there’s going to be little cushion for the America’s fall to real economic status.
So, all hail Trump. He’s an idiot, a monster and is doing plenty of terrible things. But he’s ending the American century sooner and more decisively than anyone could really have expected. There’s still the risk of war, to be sure. But if we can avoid that, well, Trump will go down as a very important President and his reign will have made a better world possible.
Sometimes what the world needs is a colossal fuckup in charge to bring the end of an order.
Mark Pontin
Ian: ‘Donald is succeeding, speeding the process by about a decade, I’d guess.’
While I agree with all this, the Biden administration deserves plenty of credit here too.
When I left the US at 2021’s end, I didn’t expect the phase of decline we’re now witnessing to arrive till circa 2035-45. The Biden administration’s stupidity and corruption, its ‘let them eat cake’ obliviousness to the economy’s effect on ordinary US citizens, and its incredibly arrogant, ignorant ‘America is back’ war promotion did as much to bring forward the collapse as Trump and certainly made Trump’s return not just possible, but practically inevitable. And whatever else can be said about Trump, he at least seems to believe that war is bad for business mostly
For that matter, I’d place the true turning point back in 2008-10, with how Obama chose to deal with the GFC then. At that point, for anyone actually living in the US and not comfortably insulated by their class and money, it was nothing like the surface the MSM presented globally: a time when a critical mass of ordinary Americans were — to paraphrase someone or other — “at last compelled to face with sober senses, their real conditions of life, and their relations with their kind.”
confront the fact that they lived in a sh*thole kleptocracy. So in 2016 they then rolled the dice on Trump.
As for what’s now imminent in the US, yes, a replay there of the Yeltsin era with mass privatizations and looting except with an already-existing oligarch class looks highly probably.
Bullweather
I laughed, and I cried. This is some utilitarian nightmare for us Americans. Guess time to buy more gold.
Tallifer
Unfortunately, America is still powerful enough to bring the world down with it. Ukraine will be raped. Americans will cooperate with Russia to make sure that the fascists cripple European politics from the inside. Canada’s economy will suffer so much that politicians will cave into America’s most outrageous demands. Taiwan will be conquered. Corrupt dictators everywhere will be emboldened. The climate will wreak its own indiscriminate wrath, killing more of Trump’s victims than his precious oligarchs. When the dust settles, the world can rebuild. But it will be from ashes and rubble.
Ian Welsh
2008/9 is what made it inevitable. The tragedy of 2008 is that the correct response (a new FDR moment) would have turned the US to a much better path. Since then the end has been inevitable, BUT Trump has really sped it up. As for Biden, well… he was a pretty standard neoliberal President. Still, Harris might well have won if she hadn’t been so incompetent at campaigning and if she and Biden hadn’t been so dead set on genocide being worth losing the election.
Mark Level
I’m mostly in agreement, Ian, but will share my two cents. (Or 20 cents.)
Trump has a Superpower that makes him “the world’s greatest Negotiator” (TM). He chaotically makes bizarre decisions to threaten others, then might get some submission from them. Then if he does “win”, he demands MOAR!! His enormous gut always wants more . . .
Trump also has a gigantic Achilles’ Heel: He chaotically makes bizarre decisions to threaten others, then might get some submission from them. Then if he does “win”, he demands MOAR!! His enormous gut always wants more . . .
He is very open that every “negotiation” (so-called) he is in is “Head’s I Win, Tails You Lose.” Why would any sane or sovereign competing party negotiate with him? Okay, I can think of one time his style worked: when he (crazily, his Aides thought) crossed the border into N. Korea and got the US-NK bluster dropped, one existential threat (nuclear war) sidelined in the 7-8 years since.
Your points about the Europeans are spot on. Their leadership is profoundly brain-dead, and (apart from France with the Yellow Jackets, and now maybe Romania with repeated cancellation of elections/ candidates), their cowed and pathetic minions don’t revolt. The Europeans are not a self-respecting, much less a sovereign power. His predatory moves toward them will either (a) win, or more likely (b) completely alienate the US from the Brussels Globalist delusional “Garden” denizens who imagine they can re-conquer the “Jungle”. See Josep Borrell’s famous racist, imperialist tirade. And he’s supposedly a Spanish “Socialist”!! I spent a month in Spain in 2004, they aren’t right-wing assholes, generally, at that time they still remembered Franco’s Fascism, intensely hated and were ashamed by it. But when Zelensky got the boot from the WH, with the rest of the lick-spittles, the Spanish government declared “eternal unity with Ukraine!”, the Western, Galitzian area a fascist regime which in the 40’s and since allied with Nazism– when even Franco had the good sense to sit out WW II and not ally with the side that installed him and would likely lose!!
My thanks to Mark Pontin and to Ian’s response to him as well. Yes, when I think deeply about how the US is currently circling the drain, the politician I hate and despise most thoroughly is Barack Obama. Elected on the shameless lies of “Hope” & “Change”, he accelerated economic inequality (hurting American blacks the most), continued and ramped up the Forever Wars, and solidified the Clintonian betrayal of working class and middle-class Americans, joked that “We tortured some folks!” & “Turns out, I’m pretty good at killing people!” after having received a Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush. The Dems became a hard-right appendage of the Republicans (which appendage? Hard to say, but most likely a gigantic boil on their ass), & 1st tried to elect the widely-hated racist (“Superpredators”) and War Criminal Hillary, so despised by the general public that the likes of Donald J. Trump could shove her aside. Then, as Ian said, “Harris might well have won if she hadn’t been so incompetent at campaigning and if she and Biden hadn’t been so dead set on genocide being worth losing the election.” Actually, I can’t see any timeline in which Harris could have won, however, given her utter lack of charisma, failure to create any positive “achievements” over a 3-decade long political career, as you state full-throated support of Genocide, lying about “Hamas systematic rapes”, dropping even the pretense of things the Dem. base wanted (which the D’s would campaign on and then forget on day 1 in power) like “the Green New Deal”, preferring to bray, as the biggest boil on the R’s bloated ass, that under her we’d have “the most lethal military” ever seen in human history, etc. Trump can pull off the Top-Dog blustering bullshit, from Kamala’s mouth it just seems a sick and hateful pantomime. (And yes, there does seem to be some healthy portion of “sexism” in this fact; nonetheless, as the Hillbots would say, you go into an election with the electorate you have, not the one you want.)
What was Obama’s reward for destroying the USA? A couple of mansions (one on Martha’s Vineyard which will be underwater in a few decades) & a Chicago Museum glorifying his Cult. Oh, and now it’s widely reported that Michelle will divorce him coz he’s plowing Jennifer Aniston, the vapid bimbo Rachel Green in the homophobic and anti-black, yuppie rich kids 90s show “Friends.” Talk about the banality of evil.
Feral Finster
Settle down.
The War On Russia is not over. The fact that the europeans are cheering the idea of the sham “ceasefire” tells you all you need to know.
If Russia accepts the sham (and Russia has form in believing obvious western shams in the past), Ukraine takes the opportunity to rearm and regroup, then has another go.
If Russia doesn’t accept the ceasefire, europe urges Trump, weak, stupid and easily manipulated, to “escalate to descalate”. This is another sham, but once Trump gets stuck in, he won’t be able to leave without trriggering the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
All this is entirely intentional, and fairly obvious. However, Trump remains weak, stupid, and easily manipulated.
Ian Welsh
Feral,
unless NATO actually joins the war, it doesn’t matter, Russia will still win in either scenario and none of it changes the destruction Trump is doing to the American empire, etc… Ukraine, terrible as it is, is a sidelight unless it turns into a world war.
someofparts
Yeah, that moment when Obama chose NOT to choose the FDR route was when I lost all hope. Even now, if I were to say anything against the man in public I would attract the wrath all of the people who should oppose neoliberal predation. I envy those who made it out and wish them well. I decided that as someone entirely dependent on Social Security it would be safer to stay put than become penniless in an unfamiliar country.
For the moment, the responses to Trump remind me of the confusion I understand the German’s experienced after their loss in WWII. Some still watch Newsmax and ardently believe in the shining future our Glorious Leader promises. Others are financially secure, so not really afraid, but sad because of the loss of civility and, like the von Papen administration, in utter denial about their role in causing our present crisis. The rest of us are afraid and silent, like me hanging onto my Social Security lifeline, or the low-wage service workers wherever I go , because we don’t expect to survive at all.
Yet, even as someone who can expect to die from this, because even my prosperous friends and relations would never help me under any circumstances, I agree with Ian completely that this is a good outcome. Somehow lately it is especially edifying to watch Brian Berletic. Maybe the view of it all becomes clearer the closer one gets to Asia. Whatever the reason, as he explains the relentless, expansive depredations still planned by the Great Satan, it is wonderful to think that those will end soon.
In the western hemisphere, the sooner the US becomes toothless, the better for South America. Listening to the repulsive plans out misleaders have for Venezuela or Cuba make me want to scream. It is wonderful to imagine how that continent will flower with the demon to the north gone and a tsunami of help from Asia. Just as great, I am sure, will be the relief in west Asia when Israel is finally gone.
Honestly, at the end of the day, nothing short of full catastrophe will cut through the ignorance and propaganda here. Only then will the ones watching Newsmax or believing every word they read in the NYT wake up … maybe.
There is one thing I am wondering however. After WWII, the US did all that it could to save as many Nazis as possible. Will there be similar efforts when wealthy culprits flee the US? I assume that as long as they have lots of money, plenty of nations will welcome them. What will that look like if all the worst miscreants are safely snuggled away in some new country, with plenty of opportunities to network with each other and continue to pursue their inhumane goals?
Daniil Adamov
An Australian friend of mine said that Australia is America’s most subservient ally. When I pointed out Britain, the friend agreed to a draw. I admit I am worried about how Australia will do in the decades to come, though.
GrimJim
Yup, everything is going to crash about 10 to 15 years earlier than I figured.
But that’s a GOOD thing in the long run. With Musk going around gut-stabbing the bureaucracy, I’m hoping everything will collapse faster than the Christofascists can consolidate their power.
That way survivors will have a bit more variety of where to flee to, more options for craptastic post-Collapse survival. Other Ethnostates, Religious Enclaves, Libertarian Anglostans, Little New Africas, Techno-City States, Wild West Outback — what have you, this way folks can at least watch civilization crumble under the climate onslaught from a preferred vantage point, rather than all under the Christofascist boot.
But even then, it will be a near thing.
Find that friend’s circle.
Form ever widening, interconnected circles, like a spirograph.
Set aside seedcorn (no hybrids, no genemods) and plenty of ammo.
The Storm Is Coming.
Jan Wiklund
You’re mainly right Ian, I suspect. Except that I don’t believe the Europeans will succeed to take responsibility for themselves. The ruling liberals blame everything on Putin. The next-in-line rightists blame everything on the immigrants. Nobody has a reasonable recipe for what must be done – skip the neo-liberal “market must rule” and apply some good old industrial policy.
What they try now is military keynesiansim, that’s the only thing the bourgeoisie can imagine for public investments. Which, of course, raises the protection rent and make the few productive investments less profitable than they had to be, like in the US.
miss jennings
The ‘Ukraine War’ or the ‘US-NATO versus Ukraine War’ or the ‘Special Military Operation’ were all supposed to be over long ago.
Russia’s acolytes in the US media sphere such as the people on Nima’s ‘Dialogue Works’ or ‘Judge Nap’ and all the associated writers in this milieu which includes people from various levels of military-intel-diplomacy circles from both ‘the east’ and ‘the west’ – all these media personas (which is all they are at this point) have all been stringing this along for years now. Some said this would be a quick and decisive Russian victory, others said it will take some time. But not this long.
As it now stands the war will go on until at least the end of the summer. Russia just announced that it knows that US/EUROPE/NATO/UKRAINE has enough munitions ‘for months’ of more war.
The most basic things get lost in all the blah-blah-blah and one can’t help but think this is by grand design.
What is Russia’s ultimate objective? The ‘four oblasts’ and ‘de-nazification’ of the entire region?
How far along is that objective?
Zelensky’s term expired a year ago yet he’s been the main player still involved in negotiations. Russia has said they won’t deal with him because there is no structural legitimacy to anything involving him.
The US bloc says ‘elections’ in Ukraine are necessary. Russia doesn’t seem to care whether ‘elections’ take place or not.
So, when are the elections?
Will the borders of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions be more clearly defined by Russia? Russia continues to maintain that borders will be defined ‘later’ – a level of operation and diplomacy, or lack thereof, that is on par with the hated ‘west.’
What about all the other EUROPE-US bases surrounding Russia? Isn’t Romania a huge problem?
This is a mess.
Feral Finster
“Ukraine, terrible as it is, is a sidelight unless it turns into a world war.”
It’s heading there.
miss jennings
the ‘US-NATO versus Ukraine War’
should have been the ‘US-NATO-UKRAINE versus RUSSIA War’
Although the first one works as well.
———
The Russian economy is doing well.
I saw this video of Russian shoppers in a supermarket in the Moscow vicinity, I believe. I think it was posted by Rev Kev at NC. He posts a fair number of interesting videos. Anyway, the supermarket was shiny and new and at the same time bland and boring, and the Russian women in the video looked like happy-go-lucky westerners!
I admit to a nostaliga for a ‘simpler’ time.
———
How is this ever going to end? I know that Russia intercepted most of the drones aimed at Moscow but some got through.
I know that I wouldn’t feel safe right now.
Is Russia capable of stopping these attacks? Because it looks like they will continue for the forseeable future.
Putin visits Russia’s Kursk Region for first time since Ukraine’s incursion
“Our goal is to inflict a defeat upon the enemy entrenched on the territory of Kursk Region on short notice,” the president said, adding that Moscow would consider creating a “security zone” along the border with Ukraine as well. The Ukrainian units that invaded the region should be treated as “terrorists,” he stated, including any Ukrainian fighter taken prisoner in the area.
https://www.rt.com/russia/614104-putin-kursk-ukraine-visit/
The Kursk offensive was in the beginning of August last year. Putin arrives seven months – and countless deaths later – and now out comes the iron fist.
It’s often hard not to ‘side’ with those who have said all along that Vladimir Putin is much more aligned with ‘Atlanticist/WEF’ goals and ‘ideals’ than is commonly known.
But what I do know.
From Yves Smith at NC today:
“Russia has no reason to make anything more than trivial or cosmetic concessions because it will win and its momentum is accelerating. But the Ukraine side is dug in because its government is in the control of hard-core Banderites.”
If Russia is sure to ‘win’ why make any concessions at all? This conveniently keeps the war machine going.
Much more importantly:
Are ‘hard-core Banderites’ really in total control of Ukraine government?
The Ukraine government under the ‘hard-core Banderites’ has developed its own intel-military comms and signals systems completely independent of the US-NATO-EUROPE?
This would effectively mean that ‘hard-core Banderites’ are able to hold the US, Europe AND Russia hostage. Is this the case?
Continuing:
“Many commentators relied on the notion that the US, as Ukraine’s big sponsor, could nevertheless bring the Ukraine government to heel by, as Trump threatened to do, cut off arms supplies and intel (there is debate over the degree to which that actually happened).”
I would suggest it didn’t happen at all. See my statement above. Even if Ukraine has enough stored munitions to last a while without further replenishment it is nevertheless wholly dependent on the US-NATO ‘security’ (intel-military) architecture in order to effectively fight the war.
“However, as we pointed out, as weak as Ukraine appears to be, it still has agency. It still holds most of Ukraine.”
Yes. Three years on now.
Just to reiterate: Russia has been unable to defeat a pathetic little corrupt entity next door to it that is sponsored by a failing paper tiger US-led ‘western’ coalition. Civilians in Russia’s capital city of Moscow were just droned to death.
Three years and at least two-hundred thousand dead Russians and Moscow still must live in fear of drone attacks?
“And Ukraine made clear that its intent is to hold out and punish Russia as much as it can. The big drone attacks on Moscow and other parts of Russia, launched on the very eve of the US-Ukraine talks in Riyadh, was a very clear raised middle finger to Russia and the US peace scheme. The Moscow strikes were pure terrorism, on civilian apartment buildings.”
And this was all very predictable.
“Aside from being an unmistakable statement of Ukraine hostility to a settlement, they will increase popular support in Russia for continuing to prosecute the war.”
How convenient for warmongers on all sides.
“The even weaker and embarrassingly behind-the-plot Europeans also have agency. Even though they cannot influence Trump or Russia, they have been noisily and enthusiastically showing their support for Zelensky.”
Uh huh.
And?
There is nothing here. It would be shocking if they in fact didn’t do this. And evidently there is nothing – no outside force or internal resistance mechanism – capable of preventng them from continuing this behavior.
BC Nurse Prof
The U.S. will never allow Canada to become a state because then they would have to allow us to vote, to have representation, and to have a few rights. Instead, they will force Canada into the union as a territory, like Puerto Rico. No voting, no representation, no rights. If you know anything about the history of Puerto Rico, the Marshall Islands or any of the other territories, you know that colonialism is alive and well.
There are those who would welcome the asset stripping of Canada by the U.S. “We would get millions of new jobs that our own governments have been denying us!” No, those jobs would be handed to MAGA loyalists for a job well done, and environmental protections would disappear. Unions would be outlawed. All profits would go south and not stay here. Private capital would buy up any profitable business now in Canada without any rules to prohibit mergers and acquisitions.
Nuclear weapons would be placed in Canada, making us the target of anyone who wanted to damage the U.S. Military bases would be built in many places across the country, including bombers, fighters and personnel. Canadian men would be required to register for the draft. Treaties and agreements with First Nations would all become invalid. Reservation rules would be implemented. Crown land and national parks would become federal land, subject to mining, drilling, and de-forestation. There would be no access to abortion. Real estate prices would skyrocket. Banks would be allowed to buy homes. There would be no parental leave. French language would be outlawed.
Mark Carney will help this along. He is the prime minister representing Goldman Sachs. At the Ministry of Finance, and at the Bank of Canada along with Ralph Goodale, he put pressure on bank regulator Julie Dickson to relax regulations on banks and align more closely with the U.S. It was Dickson who saved Canada’s banks during the financial crisis, not Mark Carney. Like his classmate at Oxford, Kier Starmer, he is an unrepentant neo-liberal. Reduce the capital gains tax? Really? That’s Ronald Reagan trickle-down voodoo economics and we know it doesn’t work. Even though Poilievre is worse, we can’t be fooled again.
Mark Level
someofparts, your praise of Brian Berletic is well-warranted, at some point a rift opened up between him and the 2 Greek Alex/anders at the Duran. Berletic was right, they were wrong. I had seen at various points that they believed the Donald could follow a steady or consistent course & de-link from the Ukraine quagmire. Nope!! Mafia Don does not want to solve anything, he does not want to make life better for his CHUDs, all he wants is constant, daily, minute-by-minute ATTENTION @ Center Stage.
Younger Alex did a better update than elder Alexander did today on the absurd “Cease Fire” proposal, to answer concerns miss jennings rightly raises to the new development, he stated clearly that if Putin agreed to such capitulation he would no longer be the Russian leader. I will say, however, (as Ian has) there is NO prospect whatsoever that Russia will not prevail, we already have the examples of the 3rd Reich and Napoleon, and we know how that worked out. That Ukraine could prevail over the neighboring, giant Russia, even with the Billion$ the West has poured in (for Zelensky to buy luxury homes across the world, 2 yachts, etc) is an absurd idea on its face. And the Russians do not hurry, they are an ancient culture that attrites slowly & thoroughly.
Berletic won the argument though. The US cannot change course, it cannot de-escalate in any of the wars that have overextended it thoroughly and will hasten its collapse. I welcome ms. jennings’ voice as a fairly new commenter, many good and thorough points have been shared in her posts, and she makes me think and re-evaluate some of my ideas & even preconceptions. Whereas the Antic Tallifer only generates hilarity.
The Deep State tried to smear, jail and destroy Donald J. Trump. It openly tried to assassinate him twice before the last election. Yet despite driving out some specific enemies from its precincts, DJT is still a Swamp Critter owned by the Deep State. Vampires gotta vamp, Rapists gotta rape, despoilers gotta despoil. They know nothing else. I take comfort in Ian’s central thesis in this post– Donald is an inadvertent Accelerationist, and will speed the Empire’s collapse.
EUrope and especially the UK are already Dead Cultures Walking. Some rump states within Europe (Hungary, Slovakia, possibly Rumania; the Republica Srpska, which I guess is not in the EU (?) and clearly Belarus) will side with the winner. There may be new Cold War lines drawn, and as when the Roman Empire split apart, those in the East will do far better, those in the West will collapse into chaos, poverty, shorter life-spans, and deeper superstition, fear and ignorance. I was never that big a fan of Oswald Spengler, but he seems to now be vindicated.
mago
I have to disagree with the Finster and others who think Trump is stupid and feeble.
There are many adjectives to describe him: hubristic, arrogant, belligerent, mercurial, two faced, duplicitous and on and on, but stupid he’s not.
He’s a madman with fangs and he’s got the power. The dude’s deranged and dangerous.
I will agree however that if he starts WWIII it will be by blunder and not design. Don’t think it’s going to happen, but I got most everything wrong about this sorry mess thus far.
Also, as someone who went expatriate a few times in more benign times, I wouldn’t do it again. That’s a topic I’ll elaborate upon in the open thread format. . .
mago
When describing Trump’s trait I omitted one of the most important characteristics: vindictive. Also redundant with arrogant and hubristic, but, you know. . .
different clue
@Bullweather,
Food will get you through times of no gold better than gold will get you through times of no food.
bruce wilder
they’ve given Trump a lot to be vindictive about
no one shot at Biden. there would have been no point: he’d be near brain-dead either way
different clue
Did America impose the NeoLiberal Order on the world? Or did the NeoLiberal power seekers impose their Order on the world including America?
From the de-industrialized and de-developed MidWest and other parts of America, it looks to me like the NeoLiberal founders of the International Free Trade Conspiracy victimised America just as much as they victimised every other country they took over ( often by way of internal believers). Since the US had more to be victimised out of, it looks as if the US may have benefited from the IFTC. But that is only because the US reached the general level of decline after many other countries did.
If I am right about that, then the NeoLiberals in every other “Western” country minus America will remain in power in every other “Western” country. They will continue victimizing each of those countries and they will “ride Old Dixie down” in every one of those countries, including Canada.
It will take 20-40 years to know if I am right or wrong about that.
Meanwhile , the Gilead Christianists will take control of the A-bombs and the H-bombs. They may have to share control with the Arma-Rapturists. Will Canada be safer sharing the continent with a nuclear-armed Gilead Theotyranny? You may get to find out.
Meanwhile, we Americans who are here for the duration will simply have to endure what we must.
miss jennings
The Deep State tried to smear, jail and destroy Donald J. Trump. It openly tried to assassinate him twice before the last election.
The same deep state that blows up the world and kills anyone else they want to at will, blows up the Nordstream, etc. etc.etc. etc.
‘tried to smear, jail and destroy’
Attempting to smear and destroy a political opponent is how the game is played these days. It didn’t begin with ‘the other side’ of the same deep state.
The legal warfare not only never amounted to anything, it helped Trump immensely. And Trump himself certainly can’t plead the high road when it comes to lawfaring.
I guess we’ll chock it up to better lawyers on the Trump side.
Or deep state judges.
It’s interesting to note that alleged perennial outsider and extreme danger to all things deep statish Donald Trump somehow penetrated this deep state once and existed within it for four years with no attempts on his life whatsoever.
He then existed outside of it for four more years until June and September of 2024 when two assailants conveniently linked to (1)Iran and (2)Ukraine allegedly tried to kill him.
It’s a script, Mark.
someofparts
“Also, as someone who went expatriate a few times in more benign times, I wouldn’t do it again. That’s a topic I’ll elaborate upon in the open thread format. . .”
I look forward to hearing this mago.
M Level – Interesting what you said about the two Alexanders, especially Alex senior. For people who seem reasonably shrewd, I wondered if my hearing was malfunctioning when they seemed to give Trump more credit for being capable than the evidence I’ve seen would warrant, not to mention giving him credit for wisdom and good will as well. If you are seeing it too then I guess I am not misunderstanding them.
One of the Berletic’s recent podcasts helped me understand that the US chaos agents in Syria intend to use that country as a staging area to launch shady little agents of disruption into the Asian heartland. I am just exhausted by the relentless evil of our mad overlords. Laughing at myself right now because the part of this city I live in is full of Teslas and I feel guilty for not doing at least some cosmetic damage to them.
GrimJim
What is really fascinating is how confused the narrative is right now.
No one knows what the objective truth is on so many fronts.
I wonder lately if there is an objective truth anymore on what is actually happening in Washington.
So many different and often opposing Executive Orders, Musk DOGE Takedowns, Arbitrary Department Secretary Decisions, Congressional Asshatteries, Judicial Counter-Judgments, and Base Falsehoods, with countless forms of Confused Compliance, Malicious Compliance, and Straight-Up Resistance… who knows what “truth” is anymore.
This is the “shock and awe” that Trump promised.
That the government is able to operate at any level at this point in time is miraculous.
WHO even is the government anymore? WHAT parts of the government continue to exist at this time? WHERE is any sort of directive and organization coming from?
This extends to international trade and treaties. There are, simultaneously, articles about Canada fighting back with new tariffs, cancelling new tariffs, capitulating to Trump, fighting against Trump, uniting, disuniting…
Trump’s plan for Ukraine is on, Trump’s plan for Ukraine is off, Trump has no plan, Trump’s plan is perfect, Zelenskyy is signing away the minerals, Zelenskyy is not signing away the minerals, Zelenskyy is kissing Trump’s ass, Zelenskyy gave Trump the finger, Trump and Putin were caught in a love nest, Putin is personally invading Ukraine, Putin is eating babies… fed to him by Trump.
It is all sheer madness!
Trump has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
There is no more truth; there are no more lies. There isn’t even any propaganda.
It is all just chaos.
Anonymous
If Trump can collapse the US without starting a nuclear WWIII, then it works out for Americans as well.
It is been rough to witness all the stupidity and lying and cruelty first hand, but overall I’m happier and more at peace than I’ve ever been since October 8, 2023 -even though we’re just a few days from the HTS massacre of thousands of Alawites civilians. I truly hope this is getting close to the end of the end, or at least middle of the end.
Here’s to a quick collapse and hopefully relatively quick recovery. USians have a lot to apologize to the world, especially the non white world, for. May the next iteration be slightly more responsible and less stupid.
shagggz
@Ian,
“unless NATO actually joins the war, it doesn’t matter, Russia will still win”
I don’t think even NATO joining would change that, though it would increase the odds of a nuclear ragequit for the senile empire, which plenty of our stunted and depraved mis-leaders would call a win. Better to rule over a pile of ashes than countenance equality with untermenschen Slavs.
Mark Level
Okay, 2nd try to leave responses– Firefox problems this a.m. 5 (+?) responses to others since yesterday, this is a very productive thread–
1st, to Mago: DJT (digit?– reportedly his is a little mushroom cap) is clearly a monster psychologically, he may even have “fangs”. However, he attacks, then gets diverted making another attack, forgets the first one, no closure or payoff. GrimJim’s “It’s all just chaos” is the ugly truth. It’s all theater, “sound and fury signifying nothing” (except Pay Attention to Me!! Willy Loman’s “Attention must be paid”.)
2nd, very gratified to see a trenchant post from diff clue, rather than delusions “the Dimmies will save us all!!” Your point is somewhat true, the NeoLib (NeoRoyalist?) conspiracy, steal from the peasants that’s all they’re good for, is very old, and that poison was spread internationally, agreed. But it was centered in the Hegemon. U$ controls world economics with Bretton-Woods, IMF, World Bank, UN, etc. etc. all centered in and controlled by US, which prints the default currency for trade, not by other junior partners. Also, I do not have “20-40 years” to wait at my age for improvement, returning to Mago. Sorry to hear emigration won’t work for you, I will be returning to a culture I lived in for a bit over a year, also attended University in. Arguably I lived in a Hispanic culture much longer, 32 years in NorCal, all of that but 10 years I taught in a high school with a Spanish name and majority of Hispanic parents, students (not staff, however). So I think I can do it. At this point, EVERY day I live in the US is filled with loathing at the violence, venality, MSM insane lies, widespread social stupidity and learned helplessness.
3rd, to miss j– yes, “It’s a script,” the nose on my face is large and plain enough to see. And yet, at best you are only 1/3 right on “to smear, jail, and destroy”– certainly smearing goes back centuries in US political culture. Jailing was very rare, did apply to American Communists from Wilson to McCarthy, selective prosecutions merely for being Left and not based on actual crimes started during the Reagan era, have accelerated with the generalized political rot. (The Steve Donziger case was very flagrant, also supporters of Palestine repeatedly.) “Jail” only starts verbally with Trump against Hillary (never fulfilled, he went on a different attack and dropped it) & yes, you are 100% right that the Dem Lawfare failures only helped him. “Destroy” is a pretty strong term, it some time applied, but inconsistently, crime of opportunity. To cite 2 examples from my current state of residence, Al Franken was only somewhat left, but they still despised him. So for puerile “sex” jokes from a professional comedian, he was ousted as a “sex predator”. Something much more sinister happened to Paul Wellstone in 2002, he was an actual threat to the System (in their eyes at least) and paid with his life. These are, again, crimes of opportunity. To blame the first Trump killing on “Iran” is an absurd lie, straight from the CIA. Linking the 2nd to Ukraine is very clear, yet Ukraine pays no price at the current moment. It’s a deeply stupid script, those with critical thinking abilities (a small minority in USA) see thru it.
A divergence– Pepe Escobar is spitting fire today, with Nima on Neutrality Studies. Now I will agree with many Putin critics who say he is too cautious, too rational, too patient. I am not qualified to do a detailed deep dive on the Russian leadership & its divisions, the preceding is the CIA assessment going back to at least 2000, if not prior. He just took off the mask though, forced to by Trump’s theater of the Absurd. He appeared in Kursk, where the Russians are liquidating the Azov Crew alongside some mercenary trash (Poles, rightist Romanians, etc.) in his Military Uniform.
Now, nobody should get me wrong– I’m the last person in the world to “love a man in a Uniform” that the old song lampooned, but international politics is Society of the Spectacle writ large, and Putin is something that neither Trump (despite his large spawn of offspring) nor the Comedian/ Green Goblin will ever be– an actual Adult. Trump’s latest “script” had a real effect. Speaking of non-adults, Putin is no adult child Justin Trudeau either . . . Nima shared that the psychopathic runt Sikorski started shrieking that “Poland wants Nukes.” He hates the Russians so much that he will annihilate his own population for the prize of—!? Sociopaths is one thing, psychopaths are one step beyond.
Pepe calls the Europeans a “choir of dancing cockroaches” over the prospect of a will-of-the-wisp Ukrainian “victory”, dancing to “Le Freak, C’est Chic.” They see the Cease fire, pretense that the US will impose a No Fly Zone over the Black Sea, etc. as liberation. Van der Lyin’ will impose $80 Billion on the EU Peasants to fund WW III. They fantasize “victory” in 1 year or 20 . . . just as McNamara’s dupes believed vainly in “light at the end of the tunnel.” There was, it was Vietnamese light!!
Escobar rightly says EUrope can provide only weapons, not Meat, few bodies will walk into a Russian wood-chipper voluntarily. VdL fantasizes an eternal Ukrainian “Steel Porcupine”!! He adds Trump’s latest is just a new headline for the News Cycle, the attention he craves. He says when the Brussels overlords raid the French people’s saving accounts for Endless War, “there will be a civil war in French.” And he adds that the Dutch Parliament (who hate the Russians as much as nearly anyone) just vetoed the future contributions to the Ukraine folly. One working brain among 27 EU nations is better than zero.
Meantime, Nima anticipates more terrorist attacks against Russian shipping, underwater pipelines, etc. Pepe responds, “Putin will finally have to take the gloves off.” This already started. The attempt to “minimize civilian casualties in Ukraine” will end, they will no longer “fight with one hand behind their back.”
4th to some of parts– Yes, it is NOW clear: Escobar, Berletic, Blumenthal and the Grayzone crew got it most right, are the greater Luminaries. Martyanov might rank with this group too– his digressions test my patience. The Duran was too establishment-blinkered (more in Mercouris’ case than Christoforou’s likely) and is in 2nd place for accuracy at best. Some fools got Trump-captured, believed the endless bombast– Scott Ritter clearly (his moral sense is impeccable, his common sense not so) and a few others.
Escobar, “The Russians are serious people.” No doubt. Trump is “all hat, no cattle.” Yep.
5th– like Anonymous I mourn all the Alawites and Christians, Shi’a and even Kurds, etc. who are about to be genocided. But that topic relates to Israel, East Asia, not to the far east. (And the Kurds were an Israeli Cat’s Paw/ proxy for decades, so they have reaped the whirlwind. They may have thought they had no choice; that does not absolve them or pull their fat out of the fire.) As to US collapse, might be quick (that’d be best), might drag on for DC’s 2 to 4 decades. I have no way of knowing, but am not optimistic that there are enough people with energy, brains or agency in the US to get thru this quickly. US residents know virtually no history, are Consumerist-trained (haven’t been citizens for decades), and again, mostly aren’t “adults.” It’s been nothing but Bread and Circuses since at least the 1970s (arguably the late 60s), it’d be nice if the culture left adolescence but if they haven’t by now, I’m sure not holding my breath.
6th– shaggz has it 100% right, I cannot add a word.
Link to Nima-Pepe here– what Pepe foresees is the death of the US-EU alliance, & I would bet on this more than the death of the US Vampire class, even in 20 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqwwV_dxtEY&t=2024s
different clue
@GrimJim,
I remember spirograph. I didn’t know it still exists. I wonder if that dates me?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph
different clue
regarding the following quote: ” 2nd, very gratified to see a trenchant post from diff clue, rather than delusions “the Dimmies will save us all!!” . . .
I would invite any fellow readers who might have an abundance of interest in my past comments here over the past 6 months and the abundance of leisure time needed to fill some of it up by finding and reading those comments, to find and read all those comments and see if I did indeed say that “the Dimmies will save us all!!”
If they find what they believe to be such a post, they are welcome to reprint it here in a comment, together with a link to the Originating Post whose thread it came from, so that yet other readers can decide whether or not ” the Dimmies will save us all” is a correct understanding of such a quote.
@someofparts,
I won’t know any better than anyone else in what sense mago would consider expatriating unwise and unworkable for Americans going forward. I will venture the wild guess that it would be something along the lines of: ” You did not cure your own country’s problems while you were there, so why should we tolerate you coming here?
Also, how do we know you don’t have infectious americanitis?” But that’s just a wild guess.
Feral Finster
@Mago: how many never-trumpers eventually find jobs in his administration? He’s hardly vindictive.
Once you realize that there is no strategy, no master plan, that the man agrees with whatever the last person to talk to him says, everything he does makes sense.
different clue
It has suddenly occurred to me thatif our foreign friends and neighbors actually feel this way about the hoped-for consequence of Musk and Trump, perhaps they should be showing gratitude towards Musk and Trump for setting them free from the Evil Empire.
Perhaps our foreign friends and neighbors should all be buying all the Teslas they can, and signing up to all the most expensive special premiums on twitterX, and joining Starlink and etc. Perhaps they should be making pilgrimages to the Shrine of the Golden TrumpenTower and lighting votive candles bearing the image of Saint Elon of the Swasticar.
miss jennings
“Once you realize that there is no strategy, no master plan, that the man agrees with whatever the last person to talk to him says, everything he does makes sense.”
There is a plan. It’s called Eretz Israel. Oded Yinon wrote about it in the early 1980’s – sandwiched between Netanyahu et al’s 1979 ‘International Conference on Terrorism’ and the 1984 conference.
1982 was the Mossad false flag at the Marine barracks in Lebanon.
The 1980’s continued the march to NAFTA and globalization. NAFTA was a result of the 1984 US-Israel bilateral trade deal. The Jewish Zionist Lobby’s Martin Indyk took credit on behalf of the entire global Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC – James Petras’ term) when he said that the US-Israel bilateral was the ‘wedge’ that opened the congress critters up to further bilaterals and then NAFTA. Indyk said that there may a few minor issues but on the whole NAFTA and further global ‘free trade deals’ are good for the US and the world.
Then comes PNAC and ‘Rebuilding “America’s” Defenses’ which was a rehash of Yinon’s plan that openly admitted it would take a ‘New Pearl Harbor’ to achieve these goals of wanton death and destruction. This was then conveniently provided by the 9/11 event which was carried out by a guy in a cave who had been on our vaunted security state’s radar for close to two decades but just couldn’t be captured despite trillions upon trillions of dollars in ‘security’ measures.
This too despite the fact that around this same time a reporter named Peter Arnett walzed into a cave in Tora Bora with a CNN camera crew and sat for an interview with bogeyman Bin Laden immediately after the latter had declared ‘jihad’ on the United States.
Our vaunted ‘Defense Dept’ and its accompanying security state apparatus evidently never spoke to Arnett about where, specifically, he met Bin Laden and how in the hell he got access to Bin Laden in the first place. CNN apparently didn’t thnk it was necessary to contact the feds.
Bin Laden would be interviewed again by a dude named Jon Miller in 1999. He was also interviewed by an Iraqi reporter. And others. All well before the September 11, 2011 event that gave rise to the worldwide ‘war on terror.’
—–
…”the man agrees with whatever the last person to talk to him says…”
I wonder what the person said?
Trump orders large-scale military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis
While warning Iran, the president vowed to use ‘overwhelming lethal force’ against the militant group for its attacks on commercial ships and U.S. forces in the region.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/03/15/trump-yemen-houthis-iran/
Trump launches ‘powerful military action’ against Houthis
The US has launched a major military operation against the Yemeni-based Houthi militants, President Donald Trump said on Saturday. The effort involves air strikes on their “bases, leaders, and missile defenses,” he said, adding that it was aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the adjacent waters.
In a statement on Truth Social, Trump accused the Houthis of waging an “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.”
“It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed,” Trump said and demanded the Houthis stop their attacks. “If they don’t, hell will rain down upon [the militants] like nothing you have ever seen before,” he warned.
The president also warned Iran against providing any support to the Yemeni-based group or “threatening” the US. “Support for the Houthi terrorist must end immediately,” he wrote, adding that the US would otherwise hold Iran “fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it.”
https://www.rt.com/news/614278-trump-launches-military-action-yemen/
——
Israel enacts exacting new rules for aid groups assisting Palestinians
The move to constrain NGOs comes amid a wider Israeli effort to curtail aid delivery in Gaza and shrink the space in which humanitarian groups function.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/03/15/israel-palestinians-aid-groups-registration/
et cetera ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC et cetera
——-
There is an exception in most of the world for ‘the Jews.’
Not right. Not good.
—–
The IDF has destroyed 79% of the mosques in Gaza.
https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1895881574044090867
https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1827573360265425331
——
“We must pursue the removal of church property by any means necessary in order to secure for ourselves a fund of several hundred million gold rubles (do not forget the immense wealth of some monasteries and lauras). . . .
In order to get our hands on this fund of several hundred million gold rubles (and perhaps even several hundred billion), we must do whatever is necessary. But to do this successfully is possible only now. All considerations indicate that later on we will fail to do this, for no other time, besides that of desperate famine, will give us such a mood among the general mass of peasants that would ensure us the sympathy of this group, or, at least, would ensure us the neutralization of this group in the sense that victory in the struggle for the removal of church property unquestionably and completely will be on our side.
One clever writer on statecraft correctly said that if it is necessary for the realization of a well-known political goal to perform a series of brutal actions then it is necessary to do them in the most energetic manner and in the shortest time, because masses of people will not tolerate the protracted use of brutality. . . .
In addition, it will be more difficult for the major part of our foreign adversaries among the Russian emigres abroad, i.e., the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Milyukovites [Left Wing Cadet Party], to fight against us if we, precisely at this time, precisely in connection with the famine, suppress the reactionary clergy with utmost haste and
ruthlessness. Therefore, I come to the indisputable conclusion that we must precisely now smash the Black Hundreds clergy most decisively and ruthlessly and put down all resistance with such brutality that they will not forget it for several decades. . . .
The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie that we succeed in shooting on this occasion, the better because this ‘audience’ must precisely now be taught a lesson in such a way that they will not dare to think about any resistance whatsoever for several decades.
– Letter from Lenin to Molotov, March 19, 1922
—–
Ready to fight, Astrid?
different clue
Here is a 12 minute video of someone named Tom Dillon who I guess is associated with Joe Rogan somehow, according to the ” nameplace” that this is from. It is titled:
” Tim Dillon’s Unfiltered Take on Elon Musk ”
Here is the link. https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/1je3zss/tim_dillons_unfiltered_take_on_elon_musk/
different clue
Saint Vladimir’s Epistle to the Molotovians is part of the Sacred Scripture of the Western Orthodox Church of Marx ( Lenin) and it would be venerated by all true Marxistians.
For a view on Marxism from entirely outside its Western Civilization roots, here is a talk delivered by the one-time American Indian Movement activist Russell Means.
https://www.filmsforaction.org/news/revolution-and-american-indians-marxism-is-as-alien-to-my-culture-as-capitalism/
miss jeniings
Not exactly ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ but:
Menaced by Trump, Canada Prepares to Join E.U. Military Industry Buildup
‘Canada’s draft deal to participate in Europe’s defense industry will bring contracts to Canadian manufacturers and help lessen dependence on the United States.’
Canada gets contracts to bomb Russia!
I suppose the receipts from Canada’s own little war machine will ‘trickle down’ to the Canadian people in greater quantities than they do here in the United States.
Our warmongers take care of us a little better! Take that!
miss jeniings
Here’s the NYT article entitled ‘Menaced by Trump, Canada Prepares to Join E.U. Military Industry Buildup’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/world/canada/canada-eu-military-industry-trump.html