Global power is slowly shifting against the American Empire

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 10/01/2021 - 8:17pm

Losing the war in Afghanistan was an important milestone on the road of our dying empire.
But if you listen closely you can almost hear the death-rattle coming from other places, both near and far.
One place where you can hear it is Mexico.

...the friendship has seen better days.
This is mostly López Obrador’s fault...
López Obrador’s attitude has puzzled experts. While some of the president’s sympathizers on social media pointed to Biden’s protocolary video as proof of a relationship unscathed, others think differently. “López Obrador has been escalating conflicts since June’s midterm election, trying to create discord,” scholar Carlos Bravo Regidor told me.

AMLO certainly has been more confrontational of late, but why do you think it started after June's midterm elections? Hmm?
Could it be because we gave political opposition groups in Mexico $591 million, through CIA-front groups, to try to get Obrador out of power. We failed.

Results from the preliminary electoral count indicate that MORENA will win between 190 and 203 seats in the lower house of Congress known as the Chamber of Deputies, equaling or bettering its result in the presidential election of 2018, when it captured 191. Add this to the range of 35 to 41 seats won by the Workers’ Party (PT) and the 40 to 48 captured by the Greens, and the coalition is set to win somewhere between 265 and 292 seats: a clear majority out of 500. The victory will allow MORENA’s legislative agenda to proceed in tandem with its majority in the Senate, which was not up for election.

Could it be, just possibly, that AMLO didn't like it when we tried to rig Mexico's election, and that he wasn't intimidated?
Since then AMLO has given humanitarian aid to Cuba, when we are busy trying to starve the island. He's hosted a Latin American summit with the stated aim of weakening the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS). He passed a law that DEA agents will no longer have immunity in Mexico. He's given refuge the Bolivia's president that our U.S. supported, right-wing coup tried to murder.
His biggest crimes is that he has rejected neoliberalism. He's reversed the policies of privatizing Mexico's energy sector, and today he announced moves to start nationalizing Mexico's power market.

So maybe it wasn't a good idea to try and manipulate Mexico's elections.

Another place where our Empire is looking sickly is in Russia.
And what do you know, we recently meddled in Russia's elections too. Our media dedicated a whole four sentences to our meddling.

(Reuters) - Russia summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan on Friday over alleged interference by the United States in an election, Russian agencies TASS and RIA reported, quoting a diplomatic source...
The agencies did not specify which election was discussed. Russia will hold a parliamentary election next week.

While the touchstone of conflict between Russia and the U.S. is Ukraine. The battleground is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and we've got that in the bag.

Yep, we stopped Nord Stream cold. Chalk up that victory.

Wait, what? How did that happen?
But let's take a step back to address a directly related issue - Turkstream. While Russia was building Nord Stream 2, against the demands of Poland and Ukraine, it built and completed the Turkstream pipeline through the Black Sea.
And today it went online.

Russia’s Gazprom said it has started transporting gas to Hungary and Croatia on Friday via the TurkStream pipeline.
Russian gas supplies via the TurkStream pipeline to Hungary have irked Ukraine, which is now deprived of part of transit revenues and also can no longer import reverse flow gas from Hungary.

Ukraine screamed about no longer getting free gas and money from pipelines going through their country. Ukraine called on the United States and Germany to impose sanctions on Russia because it made a legal business deal with Hungary. Hungary told them to stop meddling in Hungary's domestic politics. (where have I heard that before?)
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to put immense political pressure on Europe to not use the $11 Billion Nord Stream pipeline. So Russia has done exactly what anyone in their situation would do.

Russian gas supplies via the Yamal-Europe pipeline fell on Friday by almost 77% from Thursday, according to data from grid operator Gascade, as Kremlin-controlled Gazprom booked only a third of its available capacity for October.

Now Russiaphobes will scream about this, but Putin made certain that the solution is easy and only requires Europe to live up to its agreement.

The only losers here are Ukraine, Poland, and the U.S. Empire.
Nearly a decade of crippling sanctions on Russia have actually made Russia stronger. It forced it to replace imported goods with domestic goods.

The share of the oil and gas industry in Russia’s economy declined to 15 percent in 2020, down from 19.2 percent in 2019, according to a first such assessment published by the Russian statistics agency Rosstat.
Back in 2018, this share was even higher than in 2019, at 21.1 percent

Remember how critics of Russia like to portray it's economy as nothing but a gas station for the world? Well now the share of oil and gas in its economy is more in line with Canada's or Norway's.
The sanctions forced Russia's economy to adapt, and now it's economy is more diverse.

As for Russia's economy overall, Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 10.9% year-on-year in May, and is expected to grow about 4% for the rest of the year. Plus the government is expected to run a surplus, which will allow it to spend on infrastructure, education and health.
Finally, it's strong credit outlook cannot be denied.

The U.S. has been losing influence in Europe for several years now. Europe created Instex a few years ago to avoid sanctions on Iran.

But the big surprise was when the EU decided to part ways with our Venezuela policy.

The European Union has dropped its recognition of Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president after he lost his position as head of its parliament.

This isn't exactly a bold brave stand. It's more like a reluctant admission of reality.
But what it does do is it opens the door to diplomacy with the actual government of Venezuela.
The reality is that the members of the Coalition For A Coup have been quietly slipping out the backdoor for months.

However, the press statement issued by the US State Department and GAC is notable because of the dwindling number of ally countries that are now “committed to the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.” What used to be a long list of more than 50 nations is now down to just 19

Plus the U.S. is imposing sanctions on Pakistan and Turkey.

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American Empire

Global Hegemony

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Comments

Submitted by pswaterspirit on Fri, 10/01/2021 - 8:55pm

Mexico

I have spent a fair amount of time living in Mexico between 1990 and 2000. My late husband was a very early expert at installing fiber optic cables. His company offered us a good deal of money along with free pretty much everything to do with living to go down so he could teach Mexican linemen to work with it. He ran the operation laying cable from Mexico City to Puebla then onto Oaxaca. I can say with certainty that the average Mexican is nobodies fool. What their president did is typical behavior when they feel mistreated. No anger no harsh words they just get even. I can also say that being there for 6 months at a time looking back at our country was weird. From a distance we look like we are all crazy hamsters endlessly running in our wheels.

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Fri, 10/01/2021 - 10:25pm

I don't live too far away...

@pswaterspirit ...maybe it's time I emigrated? I've lived in what used to be Mexico my whole life.

Japan's another possibility I've been eyeing - seriously, why should I care more about/be on the hook for what goes on in/comes out of the Deep South/Tidewater/Tornado Alley than either of the countries that made Silicon Valley so much of what it really is (hell, let's not forget Tonga!)?

Some of them, I assume, assume some of us are good people.

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Mon, 10/04/2021 - 2:25am

Newtonian politics

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

It keeps happening as it has for thousands of years, yet the oligarchs NEVER see it coming.

Maybe it's because they have no sense of humor? I genuinely think that a sense of humor is an essential faculty for understanding the universe; you cannot be intelligent or even moral without one, and I am 100% serious when I say the DSM should start including humorlessness as a pathology on par with suicidal depression and psychopathy.

Anyway, here's hoping this WILL lead to proper Justice for Morgoth and its human Ring-Wraiths (Kissinger, Bush, Cheney, Biden, Clinton, Petraeus, Pompeo, Clapper, Prince...well, there's more than 9, and that's not even to mention all the mostly-domestic and corporate monsters and just all the various and sundry cumulative trash that'd have died unknown in a functional society, but it's a good start, right?).

In my heart of hearts, I love my country; but with countries (unlike individuals), it's got to be that archaic frontier tough-love that demands the country fetch you a stick for you to beat it with.

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 10/02/2021 - 4:39am

I am all for balancing gas prices, because ours

in Germany are way too high for the little people. Thanks for the essay, too much information in it for me to ingest right now, but I will come back.

Have a nice weekend.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Sat, 10/02/2021 - 2:30pm

Russia has become

the world's leading exporter of wheat during the Putin era, following the agricultural decline during the Yeltsin era, and in spite of sanctions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Russia

Agriculture in Russia survived a severe transition decline in the early 1990s as it struggled to transform from a command economy to a market-oriented system.[1] Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, large collective and state farms – the backbone of Soviet agriculture – had to contend with the sudden loss of state-guaranteed marketing and supply channels and a changing legal environment that created pressure for reorganization and restructuring. In less than ten years, livestock inventories declined by half, pulling down demand for feed grains, and the area planted to grains dropped by 25%.

The use of mineral fertilizer and other purchased inputs plummeted, driving yields down. Most farms could no longer afford to purchase new machinery and other capital investments. Following a nearly ten-year period of decline, Russian agriculture has experienced gradual ongoing improvement... The relatively smaller corporate farms and family farms that have emerged and grown stronger in the new market environment are now producing in aggregate value more than the total output of large corporate farms that first succeeded the traditional collectives.[2]

The 2014 devaluation of the rouble and imposition of sanctions spurred domestic production, and in 2016 Russia exceeded Soviet grain production levels, and in that year became the world's largest exporter of wheat.[3] In the last years Russia has emerged as a big agricultural power again,[4][5] despite also facing various challenges.[5]

Geopolitical analyses of climate change adaptation foresee large opportunities for Russian agriculture during the rest of the 21st century as Siberia's arability increases.[6] Managing migration flows, internal and international, is expected to be a central aspect of the process.[6]

Submitted by CB on Sun, 10/03/2021 - 8:53am

Russia is also the leading supplier of non GMO

@Linda Wood
grains and seed oils since Putin banned GMO in Russia. They also have other advantages:

Now Russia Makes an Organic Revolution

As if it were not enough that Vladimir Putin’s Russia makes a monkey out of the US “anti-ISIS” campaign in Syria by accomplishing more in six months to damage the terrorist advance in that country than the Pentagon managed, with its suspiciously ineffective campaign in fourteen months. Now Russia delivers a huge slap in the face to US agribusiness domination of global food trade by deciding to make Russia the world’s largest exporter of healthy, non-GMO, non-industrial food.
...
That beautiful Russian black earth

Russia also has an extraordinary natural advantage to become today the world’s most important producer and also exporter of high-quality organic and non-GMO food.

Russia today has some of the richest most fertile agriculture soil in the world. Because during the Cold War economic restraints dictated that products of the chemical industry were dedicated to national defense needs, the fertile Russian soil has not been subjected to decades of destruction from chemical fertilizers or crop spraying as the soils in much of the west. Now this becomes a blessing in disguise, as EU and North American farmers struggle with the destructive effects of chemicals in their soils that have largely destroyed essential micro-organisms. Rich agriculture soils take years to create and can be destroyed in no time. Where the climate is moist and warm, it takes thousands of years to form just a few centimeters of soil. Cold dry climates need far longer.

Russia encompasses one of only two soil belts in the world known as “Chernozem belts.” It runs from Southern Russia into Siberia across Kursk, Lipetsk, Tambov and Voronezh Oblasts. Chernozem, Russian for black soil, are black-colored soils with a high percentage of humus, phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile soil producing a high agricultural yield. The Russian Chernozem belt stretches from Siberia and southern Russia into northeast Ukraine, on to the Balkans along the Danube.
...

Meanwhile Ukraine's land is going to be ~~used~~ abused by American GMO crops and chemicals.

Ukraine Gov't Accepted Toxic Monsanto for 17 Billion IMF Loan

Tucked away in the layers of paper that come with any loan agreement (especially those from the IMF) were arrangements that opened Ukraine to be raided by major corporations one of which is the nefarious Monsanto.

Putin wisely kicked these peddlers of toxin out of Russia, yet traitors like Poroshenko and Yates open the doors to these bandits. Both these two Gestapo leaders came to power via a coup, which is illegal based on Ukraine’s constitution.

Ukraine opens the gateway to other parts of Eastern Europe, but its land is one of the most prized in the world and allowing GMO food in will have a devastating effect on the ecosystem. In fact, Putin has openly stated that Monsanto’s Bee-killing products are enough reason for a nation to go to war.

Ukraine is asking for even more trouble by embracing these corporate thieves. Oakland Institute a California-based organization recently released a report titled “Walking on the West Side” showing how the conniving World Bank and IMF pushed terms that would force Ukraine to open the Country to Genetically Modified Crops.
...

the world's leading exporter of wheat during the Putin era, following the agricultural decline during the Yeltsin era, and in spite of sanctions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Russia Agriculture in Russia survived a severe transition decline in the early 1990s as it struggled to transform from a command economy to a market-oriented system.[1] Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, large collective and state farms – the backbone of Soviet agriculture – had to contend with the sudden loss of state-guaranteed marketing and supply channels and a changing legal environment that created pressure for reorganization and restructuring. In less than ten years, livestock inventories declined by half, pulling down demand for feed grains, and the area planted to grains dropped by 25%. The use of mineral fertilizer and other purchased inputs plummeted, driving yields down. Most farms could no longer afford to purchase new machinery and other capital investments. Following a nearly ten-year period of decline, Russian agriculture has experienced gradual ongoing improvement... The relatively smaller corporate farms and family farms that have emerged and grown stronger in the new market environment are now producing in aggregate value more than the total output of large corporate farms that first succeeded the traditional collectives.[2] The 2014 devaluation of the rouble and imposition of sanctions spurred domestic production, and in 2016 Russia exceeded Soviet grain production levels, and in that year became the world's largest exporter of wheat.[3] In the last years Russia has emerged as a big agricultural power again,[4][5] despite also facing various challenges.[5] Geopolitical analyses of climate change adaptation foresee large opportunities for Russian agriculture during the rest of the 21st century as Siberia's arability increases.[6] Managing migration flows, internal and international, is expected to be a central aspect of the process.[6]

Submitted by Linda Wood on Sun, 10/03/2021 - 12:41pm

Monsanto

@CB

is one tip of the pitchfork thrust through the heart of the Ukrainian people. At least the children of Ukraine will not be effected, as their school lunches have been eliminated by the IMF.

IMF Loans to Ukraine: Aimed at Total Destabilization — Strategic Culture

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/02/17/imf-loans-to-ukraine-a...

EDITOR'S СHOICE
February 17, 2015

... The rate of inflation, running at 25 % in 2014 and expected to rise even higher in 2015, and a hike in gas prices by 50 % in May 2014 made survival almost impossible for the weakest 20 % of the population who already lived below the poverty line in 2013.

Among the measures still to come are the layoff of 10 % of the country’s public employees and the partial privatization of health care and education. The retirement age for women is to be raised by 10 years, that for men by 5 years, most benefits for old age pensioners are to be abolished, the pharmaceuticals market is to be deregulated.

Retirement pensions will be frozen, and there will be no more free lunches for school children and patients in hospitals. Benefits for victims of the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl are to be cut, and the boundaries of the officially designated radioactive hazard zone will be revised. The country’s monthly minimum wage is to remain at 1,218.00 hrivna ($ 46 at the current rate of exchange) until at least November 2015.

... None of these measures will serve to „improve the living standards for the Ukrainian people“, as cynically predicted by Ms Lagarde. Nor will they „restore robust growth“ in an economy which is teetering on the verge of collapse, with a central bank left with only $ 6 billion in currency reserves and incapable of raising new funding in foreign exchange auctions.

However, they will contribute to an intensification of the suffering of the Ukrainian people, deepen the social divide of a country already torn apart by a bloody civil war and lead to its complete disintegration, nurturing separatist movements and thus creating perfect conditions for a future of violence and despair.

In other words, FASCISM on a plate.

#4
grains and seed oils since Putin banned GMO in Russia. They also have other advantages:

Now Russia Makes an Organic Revolution

As if it were not enough that Vladimir Putin’s Russia makes a monkey out of the US “anti-ISIS” campaign in Syria by accomplishing more in six months to damage the terrorist advance in that country than the Pentagon managed, with its suspiciously ineffective campaign in fourteen months. Now Russia delivers a huge slap in the face to US agribusiness domination of global food trade by deciding to make Russia the world’s largest exporter of healthy, non-GMO, non-industrial food.
...
That beautiful Russian black earth

Russia also has an extraordinary natural advantage to become today the world’s most important producer and also exporter of high-quality organic and non-GMO food.

Russia today has some of the richest most fertile agriculture soil in the world. Because during the Cold War economic restraints dictated that products of the chemical industry were dedicated to national defense needs, the fertile Russian soil has not been subjected to decades of destruction from chemical fertilizers or crop spraying as the soils in much of the west. Now this becomes a blessing in disguise, as EU and North American farmers struggle with the destructive effects of chemicals in their soils that have largely destroyed essential micro-organisms. Rich agriculture soils take years to create and can be destroyed in no time. Where the climate is moist and warm, it takes thousands of years to form just a few centimeters of soil. Cold dry climates need far longer.

Russia encompasses one of only two soil belts in the world known as “Chernozem belts.” It runs from Southern Russia into Siberia across Kursk, Lipetsk, Tambov and Voronezh Oblasts. Chernozem, Russian for black soil, are black-colored soils with a high percentage of humus, phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile soil producing a high agricultural yield. The Russian Chernozem belt stretches from Siberia and southern Russia into northeast Ukraine, on to the Balkans along the Danube.
...

Meanwhile Ukraine's land is going to be ~~used~~ abused by American GMO crops and chemicals.

Ukraine Gov't Accepted Toxic Monsanto for 17 Billion IMF Loan

Tucked away in the layers of paper that come with any loan agreement (especially those from the IMF) were arrangements that opened Ukraine to be raided by major corporations one of which is the nefarious Monsanto.

Putin wisely kicked these peddlers of toxin out of Russia, yet traitors like Poroshenko and Yates open the doors to these bandits. Both these two Gestapo leaders came to power via a coup, which is illegal based on Ukraine’s constitution.

Ukraine opens the gateway to other parts of Eastern Europe, but its land is one of the most prized in the world and allowing GMO food in will have a devastating effect on the ecosystem. In fact, Putin has openly stated that Monsanto’s Bee-killing products are enough reason for a nation to go to war.

Ukraine is asking for even more trouble by embracing these corporate thieves. Oakland Institute a California-based organization recently released a report titled “Walking on the West Side” showing how the conniving World Bank and IMF pushed terms that would force Ukraine to open the Country to Genetically Modified Crops.
...

Submitted by edg on Sat, 10/02/2021 - 9:02pm

Great essay!

Thanks for writing this. The American Century has ended. We're still dangerous, of course, as dying empires often go on a rampage. But it's good to see other countries asserting themselves.

Submitted by Battle of Blair... on Mon, 10/04/2021 - 11:03am

Too much being read into the Afghan withdrawal

Our phony wars are never meant to be won. Korea ended at the same borders it started. My first clue in history class that these were phony wars.
Vietnam. Empire didn't miss a beat.
It is worse now than ever and Afghanistan isn't slowing them down.