I wavered between writing another Iran war update and this article, so I’ll say a few things about the Iranian war. There’s evidence that Israeli intelligence networks in Iran and elsewhere are being compromised fast. It appears that:
In simple terms:
Israel’s attack on Iran exposed a hidden network. For 25 years, India’s RAW and Israel’s Mossad have worked together using Indian tech workers across the Gulf as quiet access points into sensitive infrastructure. This network runs through millions of Indian… https://t.co/zkJRVuSoPx
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) June 17, 2025
That India, a Hindu/Brahmin supremacist state which is increasingly treating its minorities the way Israel used to treat Palestinians before it went full genocidal, is allied this deeply with Israel is not a surprise. That they were willing to flush their intelligence network down the drain for Israel shows that they’re as stupid as the US.
This will, of course, lead to Indian tech and guest workers being unwelcome, and a massive crash in foreign earnings sent back to India.
Meanwhile, the US is sending vast numbers of planes and supplies to the Middle East. Only B-2 bombers can deliver munitions powerful enough to actually crack Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment. Trump is screaming “unconditional surrender,” the propaganda operation is in full echo of the Iraq war, and it certainly looks like the US is going to enter the war, though Trump is so fickle that nothing is certain until it happens.
Still, my guess is that TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) rankles with Trump, and since he’s too gutless to stand firm on tariffs, he’ll start a war.
Likewise, as Bush Jr. understood, war-time Presidents are popular. Trump’s polls are atrocious, and he will expect a rally around effect from being a war President to repair them and save him in the mid-terms.
Now, to the larger picture. A US war against Iran, combined with Ukraine and all the munitions sent to Israel, means that the US will not be able to directly fight China or Russia for years.
The non-secret weakness of the US military is how little munitions they are able to produce, a weakness which extends throughout NATO. Western militaries are expeditionary forces, even the American one, intended for fighting non-peer adversaries who are expected to collapse quickly. This means that production of war materials is low.
For example, the US produces the following quantities of air defense missiles every year:
- Patriot: 500-550, expected to go up to 650 by 2027 (the rate of increase is itself pathetic.)
- SM-6 (Aegis naval AD): 125-150 a year
- SM-3 (Aegis again): 20-50 a year
- Stinger (man-pad AD, important in Ukraine): 600-700 a year.
- Sidewinder (short-range A-A): 1600-1800 a year
- THAAD (Air ground for intercepting short- to medium-range ballistic systems; Israel uses these, Ukraine doesn’t): 50-100/year
Numbers for offensive missiles are similar:
- Tomahawk missiles (sea-launched vs. ground targets): 68-100/year
- JASSM missiles (long-range precision cruise missile): 200-300/year
- Javelin anti-tank (man-portable): 1,200-1,500/year
- MGM-400 ATACMS (ground-to-ground, launched from HIMARS and MLRS launchers): 50-100/year
- Hellfire (short-range air-to-ground, laser-guided, launched from helicopters): 500-1000/year
Exact numbers are hard to determine for obvious reasons. Stockpiles of most of these missiles (but not all) have been drawn down vastly throughout the Ukraine and Israeli-everyone wars. If Iran is attacked, multiple years’ worth of production will be used up.
This means that China will have complete dominance in the their part of the Pacific, definitely around Taiwan and the first island chain, for years. Indeed, by the time the US re-stockpiles, China will be so far ahead in numbers of missiles that it will be hopeless, and that’s before we get to the fact that China can replenish stocks much faster than the US.
All of this goes without even discussing drones, where China’s lead is astronomical.
Empires do not go gentle into that good night. What the US is doing and enabling is monstrous.
But it is also accelerating American decline.
That is in foreign affairs. Domestically, Trump is systematically destroying the basis of American advancement in tech and science. The idea that private enterprise, which does not do basic research, can make up the difference is ludicrous to anyone who knows how science and tech works. Indeed, the current AI boom is based on university research from the 80s (Granted, it’s from research in Canada (!), a country the US has decided to turn from an ally into an opponent.)
Trump is also dismantling the social welfare system, turning the US into a police state (and not the sort-of-good kind, yes, they exist, China is one of them), massively increasing inequality and basically destroying any remaining social solidarity between Americans.
I can’t think of a more destructive US President except maybe Reagan (but that was long term). Even Herbert Hoover looks good. (He didn’t cause the stock market crash, he just responded badly.) Trump is just so actively malign. He’s not a Russian agent, but the cold war KGB couldn’t have put someone in place who was more damaging, even in their wildest dreams.
So, all of this is awful. But the US’s days are numbered, truly. Unless you are very old, or die an early death, you will see the end of the American Empire and even of American hegemony over the Americas.
***
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Even when Trump rejects them and treats them like shit, they are still aligned. BFFL — Best Friends For Life. With the G7 and Trump, it’s more than lip service.
Donny Dove the deal-breaking peacemaker. The G7 supports America and Israel in their destruction of Iran despite all the “brave” rhetoric in reaction to Trump taunting them.
https://g7.canada.ca/en/news-and-media/news/g7-leaders-statement-on-recent-developments-between-israel-and-iran/
Oakchair
Polls show 60% to 20% of American’s oppose American involvement against Iran. Republicans oppose it 50% to 25%. When was the last time the American public opposed a war at this early stage?
Israel has succeeded in making most everyone view them negatively by 60%-30% margins even in Western NATO nations.
Similar to the Ukraine war –considering the large amounts of propaganda, unknowable conditions, and censorship– I think it’s best to focus on the forest instead of the trees.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/03/most-people-across-24-surveyed-countries-have-negative-views-of-israel-and-netanyahu/sr_25-06-03_views-of-israel_1/
bruce wilder
Thomas Keith’s hypothesis about how and why Iran could be so thoroughly riddled by Mossad is interesting, but I would regard evidence in support to be emergent not complete. There are not a lot of Indian tech workers in Iran though there are a lot across the water in Gulf states, so Keith’s story says something about those more fragile and more authoritarian states. Competing with it is the “thoroughly corrupt and hypocritical society” hypothesis.
Being attacked by an external enemy is the kind of shock that can change a society very rapidly. Trust, though, is likely to be in short supply. Watch for scapegoats to be identified regardless of truth.
There is a tiny but possibly significant minority in the U.S. who are warning in stark terms about Mossad penetration of U.S. politics. Israel forms a fifth column destroying U.S. power, is the thesis. See John Mearshimmer for the sober version or Tucker Carlson or Steve Bannon for the rougher, paranoid version. If this goes badly for the U.S., which seems almost certain to become the case since the only element of rationality and patriotism possibly allowed consideration in elite decision-making is the depleted and obsolescent stock of U.S. weapons. In this view, Trump is not the malign force, as in Ian’s narrative; rather Trump is weak and hapless tool of the evil of the shadowy Deep State aka teh Blob(tm)
Carborundum
The first image is, contrary to the original assertion therein, AI generated.
The second video is from last October: https://x.com/clashreport/status/1851876599429312816
(Contrary to what the voiceover says, I think that’s actually Nevatim being struck.)
samm
Could be, but the 90 day tariff pause ends in three weeks as well. Just speculating, but it seems like a kinetic war is the perfect cover under which to reopen the trade fronts.
Ian Welsh
Not sure the first image is AI generated rather than a long exposure photograph, but the second one is what I was interested in. Thanks for the heads up, deleted.
GrimJim
Trump always has been, and always will be, a malign force in and if and for himself, and also a weak and hapless tool for whoever holds his reins at the moment, whether that’s MAGA, Mossad, or the KGB.
At this point, however, what is really needed is some kind of disaster, of biblical proportions, to just take out the United States.
Just… wipe it out. Destroy it, for all time, in such a way as to make Ozymandius weep.
We deserve no more. We deserve far worse. Our lower classes are the willing and eager dupes for our diabolical elites, and the few of us who cry out in the wilderness are as a fart in a hurricane.
The USA must end. It must be ground into dust, its people humiliated and scattered, its holy books burned, its myths and legends condemned to the memory hole, and a damnatio memoriae placed on the whole misbegotten experiment, before it brings about an extinction level event all in the name of white supremacist shareholder value.
Feral Finster
1. Would to God or Bastet or whatever that you prove correct. However, we have heard at every stage of escalation that the West is out of everything from burrito coverings to cat treats, yet they escalate anyway.
Were that the case, it beggars the imagination to think that there is nobody in the Pentagon, the Champs Elysses, Whitehall or whatever, who cannot take the politicians aside and tell them to quit letting their mouths write checks that their asses cannot cash.
And if the politicians won’t, can’t or don’t listen, it’s not as if the generals and military planners do not have backdoor channels to get their message out.
2. Surely by now the folks here have learned that nobody of influence and authority cares about popular opinion.
Hiero
I’ve read that the only “munitions powerful enough to actually crack Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment” are tactical nukes, the use of which would open the gate on atomic weapons everywhere, esp by Russia in Ukraine. I guess the silver lining would be that the nuclear enrichment facilities are this catastrophe’s WMDs, so maybe they don’t try it.
“he will expect a rally around effect from being a war President” Bush had the 9/11 swell behind him though. I wonder what corresponding swell might appear for ding dong donny.
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Same goes for Ukraine. Trump treats Zelensky like shit, but hey, BFFL. No matter how bad you treat us Donny Dove, our support for Israel’s right to defend itself, cover for terrorize the world, is unflagging. Throw on top of that Mossad’s heavy involvement in the drone attack on Russia’s nuclear air force assets. It was a facsimile of at least part of the initial attack on Iran.
Zelensky had the nerve to compare Russia to Hamas. What a dirtbag. Even if the excuse is Ukraine has to support Israel to maintain American support, it’s not justifiable as a matter of principle and as such I do not support arming and supporting Ukraine but nor do I support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and nor do I support Israel’s so-called right to defend itself, and America’s support of that, and all that entails which is effectively a license for Israel to declare war on anyone at any given time and Israel’s right to genocide the Palestinians. It’s the only principled approach.
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/ties-that-bind-palestinians-in-ukraine-grappling-with-grief-on-two-fronts-16993045
Zelensky’s rank hypocrisy is disgusting. Whether you mean it or not, Zelensky, you have shot yourself and Ukraine in the foot, maybe even in the face. Those anti-missile missiles may very well have gone to Israel versus Ukraine. When you dance with the devil you get burned and you rightfully are burned, Zelensky.
bruce wilder
GrimJim: Our lower classes are the willing and eager dupes for our diabolical elites, and the few of us who cry out in the wilderness are as a fart in a hurricane.
Good lord, Jim. Take a walk. Eat some ice cream. You are not that special, 1. And, 2. hating on the largely powerless “lower classes” who probably include you is unbecoming.
I really do not understand the allergy to “the lower classes” or the sense of social or philosophic superiority that goes with it. It is very unattractive.
For myself, I will say I don’t see what are almost by definition institutional failures as being the especial responsibility of “the lower classes”. Institutions fail because of rot among the elites that lead (and architect) them or manage the apparatus from on High.
I would not follow Ian in “blaming” Trump for accelerating the demolition of decadent institutions. If my analysis identifies decayed institutions as being at fault, should I not want some demolition? Better that than annihilation of “the lower classes”. I am too ambivalent and I recognize that the institutions of the American hegemony are overbuilt and top-heavy. Trump is doing a dirty job badly, but so what? I do not imagine I can NOT discern what is politically possible let alone ideal, so I observe mostly without feeling I can judge or root wisely. But I don’t think I morally deserve to be annihilated. The foundations of the MIC, which Trump, a hypomaniac social dominator with demagogic tendencies from a military school background, is unlikely to attack directly, will crumble because those foundations are wet sand through no particular fault of Trump’s. (I think Trump did well to call the bluff of the Chiefs over the efficacy of shelling the Houthis. I wouldn’t think I was doing well to echo the TACO slander in that particular context, just to give an example to illustrate my general attitude.)
Purple Library Guy
So, Iran has slowed its missile attacks–there are definitely fewer missiles going in per day. Israel claims it’s because they’ve destroyed so many Iranian launchers, so Iran can no longer do big wave attacks. That seems . . . awfully fast, but I don’t know enough to rule it out. Still . . . one big sortie by Israel and now Iran’s supposed to be nearly out of launchers? Seems odd to me, and of course the Israeli military lie all the time about everything.
The Iranians apparently claim it’s because Israel’s missile defences suck hard enough that it turns out they don’t need wave attacks, they can just pick their targets, especially since they’ve started using the more fancy ordnance now. I’m not sure about that either, although the Patriot systems I believe Israel relies on a lot have been a bit suspect in Ukraine, and it wouldn’t be the first time.
Anybody have any knowledge or ideas about that?
Oakchair
There’s a video segment of Tucker Carlson’s interview with War slut Ted Cruz making the rounds.
Carlson asks Cruz basic things about Iran such as population, and ethnicity. Cruz doesn’t know.
Cruz’s response when his ignorance is revealed epitomizes our societies shallowness. He doesn’t think it’s important or even relevant to know the basics about a topic. He flat out says that knowing Iran’s population and basic ethnic structure is “expert” knowledge.
Cruz should be derided, but the real problem is that he is a product of systemic failure, or I guess succus depending on who is judging. His anti-intellectualism is typical of public discourse. The arrogance and aggressive retaliation when his ignorance is pointed out is the standard operating procedure for our society.
This is how our mainstream society functions and forms opinions. Remember that next time you’re reading/listening to the news on a topic.
different clue
. . . ” In this view, Trump is not the malign force, as in Ian’s narrative; ” . . .
” This view” is irrelevant to Trump’s domestic stateside arson and teardown of domestic governance capabilities which still exist. Mossad didn’t make Trump create DOGE and appoint Musk to be the DOGE Czar. Mossad isn’t driving any of the disablement-cuts to NOAA, EPA, NIOSH, etc. etc. etc.
Mossad did not put Kennedy in charge of HHS.
Mossad is not driving Trump and his Noem and Miller into building up ICE and Homeland Security into a new American combination SS-Gestapo.
Naturally Bannon would like to blame Mossad for “something” , so as to escape blame for his own guiding role in bringing Trump in particular and Trumpery in general into power.
Mearshimer ( Mearsheimer?) is a foreign policy expert. Foreign policy experts consider America as a mere state upon which to perform and display their foreign policy expertise, so of course Mearsheimer would care about Mossad’s penetration of American foreign/military policy, because that is a foreign policy thing. And of course Mearsheimer would not even care about American domestic burndown by Trump because American domestic events are just “domestic” and hence beneath the concern or even notice of a Famous Foreign Policy Intellectual like Mearsheimer.
Has Trump destroyed American social solidarity? He has certainly destroyed any social solidarity I might have felt for the people who have revealed themselves to be such vile anti-American filth as the MAGA/ Christianazi-SatanoFascist garbage have revealed themselves to be. ( By the way, I suspect the MAGA-base divides into two groups: the Movement MAGAs who would be against the coming America-Iran War as against the Trumpanon Cult MAGAs who will support whatever their divine God-Emperor Trump commands them to support. And MAGA is only part of Trump’s base.
The other part is the Christianazi-SatanoFascists such as the New Apostolic Reformation, the Rapturanians and the Armageddonists, the Gilead Republic evangelicals, etc. And they will support the coming America-Iran war in order to speed up the Fulfillment of Prophecy as outlined in Book of Revalation, etc.)
Is co-solidarity possible within smaller sub-groups of Americans? Black America is is solidarity with Black America. Those Americans who attended the various No Kings events might develop a bit of co-solidarity feeling with eachother. If the No Kings organization schedules such a nationwide coverage of events every month and the gatherings are bigger every time, that might allow a measure of Solidarity to grow among a growing number of No Kings event attendees. What would they then do with that solidarity? What would they do between monthly No Kings events?
different clue
In the Mearshimer part of my comment above, I meant to type that Foreign Policy types like Mearsheimer consider America to be a mere stage, not “state” the way I mistyped.
different clue
. . . ” When you dance with the devil you get burned and you rightfully are burned, Zelensky. ” . . .
In other words, the leopards ate his face?
someofparts
This news made my day. I’ve been worried about India being part of BRICS for a long time, so seeing them humiliated and exposed for treachery at such scale is very satisfying.
Years ago I stumbled across this book called Mother India by Katherine Mayo. If you read the reviews on Amazon, the efforts to discredit the author and hide the truth about the book should be familiar to anyone accustomed to the liars in US media.
As someone who did indeed read the book I can tell you exactly what it covers. In the early 1900s, doctors from the UK/US got a good look at the condition of Indian women. What they found was ghastly. India is a pedophile nation. The descriptions in that book are so gruesome that I don’t even have the vocabulary to express their horror.
Ever since I read it, I have felt that India was one of the places in the world that is beyond redemption. They are one of the oldest cultures on the planet, so they have had centuries to sort things out and fix themselves, but they never will.
So it has always bothered me that India is one of the founding members of BRICS, because I have always feared they would be the Enemy Within that would undermine the multi-polar, anti-colonial project. Therefore I am very pleased that they have been caught red-handed in such massive treachery. I look forward to seeing how the rest of the BRICS nations deal with this.
Oakchair
I really do not understand the allergy to “the lower classes” or the sense of social or philosophic superiority that goes with it. It is very unattractive.
——
The upper classes who are in control of the education system, media, government, corporations medical system etc. need someone to scapegoat. Punching down on the lower classes benefits those in power and they have the resources to get that narrative to every ear every day.
For the middle and even lower classes themselves there is –to put it mildly– unpleasantness in admitting that the rulers and institutions of society are corrupt, immoral etc. Denial especially about things we’re mostly powerless to change does cause temporary bliss. Much easier to blame those “dumb losers” than blame the powerful who can squash you like those starving bombed Palestinian children.
—–
the TACO slander
—-
Threats of nuclear war are flying. Another war is starting that could kill millions triple energy costs and destroy several more countries. And one side in the war slut nation is insulting the other for “chickening out”. If Trump chickens out I’ll still smile when he dies.
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A. Vote Dem in 2026 and 2028
B. Vote Dem in 2026 and 2028
C. Vote Dem in 2026 and 2028
D. Vote Dem in 2026 and 2028
E. All of the Above
E is my answer. Same as it always was and is but with the caveat IF they can vote Dem again. IF they can and they’re successful, the Dems will return us/them once again to clutches of the fascists because, well, because that’s all the Dems know how to do.
Blabbin’ Gruesome 2028
Your question is poignant and pertinent, dc. This is why I put little to no faith in protest. Seldom are they truly genuine versus synthetic and there is no next phase aside from vote Dem in the next elections.
This coming from someone who was going to refrain from voting in the last election but after much debate, decided the best bet was Harris as onerous as that was and it was onerous. To not vote was a vote for Trump and we both knew a vote for Trump would give us even worse than the Dems in every way, and that’s pretty f’n bad, and here we are. Our vote was strategically correct but being right is nothing more than a shit burger. What tragic calculus that is, right? Would you rather slow boil like a frog or be seared on Trump’s big beautiful golden grill?
bruce wilder
[Trump] has certainly destroyed any social solidarity I might have felt for the people who have revealed themselves to be such vile anti-American filth as the MAGA/ Christianazi-SatanoFascist garbage have revealed themselves to be.
Trump did that!?
Then, why hold back, dc? Tell us how you really feel!
different clue
@ Like & Subscribe,
Your view does not offer much hope. Is it as bad as that? It could be. Still, what if the people attending these pre-called-for gatherings were to develop enough co-solidarity to where they began wondering what they can do with eachother beTWEEN elections and outside the electoral vote-casting arena?
When I say so many events called for all at once I wondered how professional an effort might be behind the scheduled call-out announcments. I went to the Fifty-FiftyOne website and looked at it for a minute or two. It looked professionally done.
Does that mean it is astroturf? The people who came out were real people and they met eachother and took some heart from the evident numbers of other such people coming out. Astroturf can’t compel that. Perhaps we should think of it as sod farming. The sod has to be planted and cared for. But still, the sod is real sod.
And this sod might be able to care for itself and eachother, and plant itself out further and further as it becomes aware of its own existence.
So we’ll see.
Another sub-sector solidarity driver will be the TrumpAdmin’s ongoing and increasing persecution and oppression and occupation of ” Big Democrat Cities” and then maybe “Blue Zones” in general. The people in these targeted areas will be forced into the kind of Survival Solidarity imposed by a common enemy and its common enemy aggression. What will people driven into a Shared Survival Solidarity mindset do with their Shared Survival Solidarity?
Maybe commenters here could start offering ideas about what the “could” do with that solidarity to see what kind of effect it has.
someofparts
I am definitely a member of the lower classes. Wishing to see us destroyed is probably redundant. People like me will always pay for the crimes of our rulers, so if that’s what you want, relax.
The FBI pointed out decades ago that the US is in the grip of an epidemic of Control Fraud. Control Fraud is the crime of using a company you own to undertake criminal deeds. But don’t worry, those people will escape punishment and their lower class victims will pay the price.
In the Rachel Blevins interview with Laith Marouf that I will provide again here –
https://rumble.com/v6uvukz-iran-preparing-for-long-war-against-israel-nato-as-uss-nimitz-deployed-to-m.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
Marouf points out that Iran and its allies are not using the full force of their weaponry yet because they believe it is wiser to practice the strategy of attrition on Israel/US so that Israel will not panic and nuke Tehran. He notes that if Israel does nuke Tehran, Pakistan will nuke Tel Aviv.
As to the No Kings demonstrations, I am going to re-post a link Mark Level provided in the recent open thread here –
https://rumble.com/v6uvukz-iran-preparing-for-long-war-against-israel-nato-as-uss-nimitz-deployed-to-m.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
Between 8:50 – 18:16 in the conversation, Garland Nixon explains what he thinks is really behind those demonstrations. I would urge everyone to listen to what Nixon has to say here. These are not the honest, straightforward protests that we remember from the glory days of Martin Luther King.
bruce wilder
“This view” is irrelevant to Trump’s domestic stateside arson and teardown of domestic governance capabilities which still exist.
I do not necessarily disagree. I view Trump’s enthusiasm for crypto with extreme prejudice, for example. I do not understand it, though with my economics background, I probably should. My gut reaction is that it is money laundering plus Ponzi scheme plus deflation, all wrapped in an improbable scheme to save the “wealth” of globalist oligarchs when the global dollar system burns to the ground. At the expense of everyone.
On the other hand, I really despise the establishment campaign to oust RFK, Jr. On the rare occasions, I actually know something definite about some public health issue where RFK, Jr is being attacked, the attack is based on an outright lie or deception. I am NOT saying RFK, Jr is right; I often cannot even find out easily what he actually said in full context or why it matters. He seems to me to be a dilettante and gadfly, so I do not expect he is medically right, but he also does not present himself as a medical expert; he presents as an establishment critic, a critic of institutional practice and policy. But the experts who attack RFK, Jr directly or thru journalists, do seem to lie or deceive pretty frequently and casually.
RFK, Jr is attacking institutional corruption imho. Maybe not always from the ideal angle of attack. But, he is pressing for action where action is clearly called for imho. Something is wrong in American public health and in the regulation of food and in medical research. And, no one with political power has been willing to do anything for decades as Americans have gotten sicker.
You can say RFK, Jr sold his soul to the devil Trump to get the power to try and you would be right. I would note as you don’t that his first choice for power platform was the Democratic Party, where a Party establishment without scruples refused him entree and fought his independent candidacy fiercely, a Party whose preferred candidates were a senile architect of many of the afflictions of the country and an airhead bimbo. That last Dem Administration presided over more COVID deaths than the first Trump Administration and completely discredited public health policy with its lies about vaccines and bad guidance to the public.
So, “domestic governance capabilities which still exist”?? Yeah, I am not seeing a lot of that. Life expectancy has been declining at least since Saint Obama — you know, the guy who couldn’t find more than one bankster to prosecute, but put whistleblowers away and whose signature accomplishment was a website that didn’t work.
Do I want Trump to destroy the CFPB or Social Security or what remains of Medicaid? Of course not. I observe that the loyal opposition isn’t doing much to protect them; who they are loyal to I leave as an exercise for the Reader. The “No Kings” protestors I observed on Saturday despite their admitted triumph — on Sunday America had no King; if only Canada could say the same, eh? — do not see to me to be self-aware enough to be politically aware.
Anyway, I digress. I apologize for misspelling Mearsheimer.
Curt Kastens
The US continues to acceletate its decline. Yet the US still managed to topple the Assad Regime which led to the US finally attacking Iran with its Israeli units because the Syrian Air Defence Forces were taken out of action. Yet the US still manages to Keep Iraq docile. Yet the US still managed to keep the Arabs docile in the face of the extermination of the Palestinians.
That means that who ever is running the show in the US whether it is Mossad, or predominatly non jewish continuing criminal conspiracy centered in the Pentagon*, CIA, FBI any maybe a few other 3 letter agencies is not stuoid. Though they are certainly not be omnipotent either.
So what we see as a decline in hegomonic power might be an illusion caused by our lack of knowledge of all the pieces in the puzzle. For example the one thing that does get me to agree that the US is losing its edge to impose its will on other countries is the extent that the US has out sourced its heavy industry in general and specifically the decline that the US has suffered in its ability to produce military products.
To me it does seem really stupid that a system that had the foresight to plan a war against Iran, Russia and China decades ago did not see the need to prevent the outsourcing of heavy industry and to maintain the ability to quickly ramp up military production WW2 style.
But I am not an insider who has access to what the MIC managers of this program to prevent the rise of any compition to US power have been thinking. I know that thinking is getting done somewhere by someone. I know that they have access to a lot of information. How accurate the information is and has been I can not say. What I am getting to is maybe the people managing the US decisions had a good reason to let these aspects of former US power deteriate.
An implication of that is that US hegomonic power is not declining in absolute terms.
US hegomonic power might be declining in relative terms. But to me it is far to soon to say that with any certianity at all. Especially when we consider the factor of climate change and how that will effect the US and its allies and its adversaries.
*The continuing criminal enterprise that has taken control of the US MIC could have started as early as Federal soldiers were pulled out of the confederacy. It might have started in conjuction with the Federal Reserve Act. It might have started in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act. But is beyond any shadow of a doubt that it has been in control of US society since 1963.
The key implication of this is that anyone in the US military that thinks they are a patriot is mistaken. They are actually traitors. But in many cases they will not be smart enough to figure that out becuase they have been molded by thier enviroment.
And ins some cases they will know that they are traitors but not really give a damn because they are possessed by a mercinary spirit.
Therefore humanity can not expect any Colonel Stauffenbergs or Captain Alves to exist in the US military. That means that the US military is not going to stop its criminal activities until someone outside of the United States stops them. But it is very unlikely that anyone outside of the United States will ever have the capabilty to put a stop to the US continuing criminal enterprise that runs US society.
It will eventually come to an end. When industrial civilization collapse due to resource deplition and climate change,
And that brings up something else. I mentioned earlier that there is clearly some thinking going on somewhere by someone about how to screw with the all of the people of planet earth but especially the Palestinians, Iranians, Russians, and Chinese,
But I find it astonishing that these thinkers can think so much about how to wage war against the entire planet, including their fellow citizens but they apparently can not think about how senseless this aggression is in the face of extinction. That really makes me think about the charachteristics of those doing the thinking about how to go about their aggressive behavior. The thinkers might not be who they seem to be.
Crocus Sativus Ipomoea Tricolor : :
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dc, correct, I have less than zero hope at this point. Hope floats but then so too does shit.
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I do not for a second believe Pakistan would nuke Israel. Every nuke is precious to Pakistan and would only ever be used, if ever, against India.
Who are friends and who are enemies? In this day and age and the fog of war it’s hard to tell anymore. China has a positive relationship with both Iran and Israel. What will China do if anything?
Russia also has a positive relationship with both countries but as I have mentioned, Mossad it appears was involved in Ukraine’s attack on its nuclear air force assets and yet no response from Russia related to that.
Here’s a scenario. If Iran is destabilized and becomes a failed state the balance of power is altered and this has a ripple effect EVERYWHERE and most especially Iran’s borders to include the Caucuses which are on Iran’s border. The Caucuses are already a tinder box and that would light the match. It would ultimately bring Turkey and Russia into direct conflict and NATO would ultimately get involved considering, unlike Ukraine, Turkey is a NATO member.
So, as we all know here, it’s not just Iran that will be affected by this. The implications due to balance of power will be far and wide and could ultimately be disastrous to EVERYONE.
I’d say let’s hope it doesn’t come to that but as I said to dc, hope floats and so too does shit so screw hope.
different clue
@Bruce Wilder,
I note you carefully avoid mentioning several of the specific burndowns I view with displeasure . . . NOAA, NIOSH, FEMA, attempt to destaff National Park Service enough to make it fail, shutting the various regional National Forest Wildfire Suppression regional co-ordination headquarterses, etc. If you don’t want to call these things “governance”, what do you want to call them?
At some point the same argument protected by the same diversionary dodges begins to evoke the phrase ” one schtick phony”.
someofparts
B Wilder – I agree with you about RFK Jr. He is an attorney who has practiced environmental law, I think. He had persuasive and damning things to say about how our legal system protects the big pharmaceutical companies and the ones who make vaccines in particular. Maybe he deserves some of the hysterical calumny heaped upon him, or maybe the people hurling the slanders have their own well-financed agendas.
As to Trump’s enthusiasm for crypto and your misgivings about it, let me provide a link to some things Yanis Varoufakis had to say about it. Honestly I am not smart enough to understand what Varoufakis is trying to say, but you can probably make sense of it. What I did understand from his remarks is that of all the destructive things Trump is doing, this one is the most dangerous and the one we should regard with the greatest fear.
https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1928335624953585923?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1928335624953585923%7Ctwgr%5Ee54172bc9be41d070e8913bb20f0caa2a3767cd9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nakedcapitalism.com%2F2025%2F05%2Flinks-5-31-2025.html
miss jennings
Katherine Mayo?
I know it’s wikipedia [links below] but use it for the sourcing. Mayo was at best a very confused woman. And that’s being kind.
By the way, that was 1927.
Just a reminder: We are in year 2025 of our anglo-saxon protestant expansionist lord.
Who said it took protestantism to get to capitalism?
—–
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Mayo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxonism_in_the_19th_century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_India_(book)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Garrison_Villard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalip_Singh_Saund
mago
What’s the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it’s your mind. Via Frank Zappa.
In Ted Cruz and company’s case I’d say it’s body , speech and mind combined. Caught that video segment with Carlson and thought yep, middle school actors all the way.
There you have it folks, the lives of all in the hands of the nya nya I know you are but what am I crowd.
Then this class division ruckus, which is all too real, is another manifestation of the human tendency of judgement, resentment and intolerance. We’ve all got it; it’s all too real.
Anyway, some say yes and yay and others say no way, but I think nuclear puke is close to spewing.
Just another internet rando voicing an opinion. . .
Into that good night we go.
miss jennings
All men are scum, mago. I can prove it.
Imagine Katherine Mayo listening to this:
https://youtu.be/wEtyYNFOIew?list=RDwEtyYNFOIew
Sorry for the diversion. Now back to your not regularly scheduled Ian Welsh post.
Eric Anderson
So, in short, America will become Israel.
A niche fascist finance/tech/weapon supplier that does whatever it wants because *$#! you we have nukes.
Got it.
someofparts
miss jennings – wow – thanks for setting me straight
If I’m this gullible it probably increases my chances of survival to at least be aware of it.
someofparts
hey miss jennings – Reading your posts again I want to make something clear. The information you shared about Katherine Mayo took me entirely by surprise. I had no idea that the author’s intentions were as insidious and scurrilous as they turn out to have been. If I make a mistake as big as trusting a source like that I appreciate being corrected and want to be quick to admit that I was wrong.
That said, the parts of your commentary that extrapolate from my big mistake to assuming that I share the dreadful beliefs that motivated Mayo is unwarranted and offensive.
Curt Kastens
In case you missed these reports from the land of the rising dragon. I would pick some cherries from the cherry trees in Dragonland except there are not many left. It is best that they be left for the natives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3uJZpKnOA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3uJZpKnOA
bruce wilder
@dc
I really do not want an enmity to develop between us. Comments are an opportunity to — among other things — rant, and who doesn’t enjoy a good rant? But, we also benefit from discussion and sharing different perspectives, doubts et cetera.
I have my hobbyhorses, often circling the same theme where I am struggling to work out what I think or to elaborate a difficult and incomplete argument or expressing my alarm concerning some emergent phenomenon. I am temperamentally a bit of a contrarian and maybe a social retard, because the first question in my mind is usually, “is that true?” And, my answer is usually, as a preliminary, “no”.
Among my recurrent concerns about contemporary politics are worries about the effects of a flood tide of propaganda after the destruction of institutions that served as barriers, moderators and filters against the manipulation and subversion of political consciousness that unrestrained polemics and — worse really —subtle dissemination of deceptive memes entails. So, a variety of my recurrent comment “themes” relate to these concerns.
I do not think that what is left of constitutional, representative democracy in the U.S. is working well. I am hardly alone in that view among this commentariat, but I am one of those who volunteers to remind others of the many contributions of feckless Democrats to the dysfunction. This puts me at odds with anyone who has fallen into the Manichean rut and is failing in their struggle to climb out. People often want reasons to be optimistic, the comfort of “solutions” and so on. I cannot supply such. I try to be realistic and I encourage others to also be realistic (and honest) without thinking anyone needs to agree with my point of view. That leads me to promote personal resistance to manipulation by propaganda and to criticize the institutionalized politics of top-down manipulation by propaganda.
I don’t have any superpowers of my own with regard to resistance to propaganda; much of the time, even on topics where I make an effort, I feel I am ignorant and too worn out trying to filter out the stupidity and deception to form my own judgment with any confidence. I get why others may prefer to embrace a fandom and its narrative, but I do not respect that choice or think that they are helping any good cause.
The country is experiencing a pervasive crisis of competence, as I am sure you are aware. Trump did not single-handedly create this crisis, though he is leveraging it for his own purposes. I am not going to be offering opinions on the quality of governance provided by agencies with which I am not familiar. But, I am also not going to default to an assumption of basic competence just because I am unfamiliar. I am done with “trust the science” in all its forms.
Mark Level
This thread is a real downer, but ‘Murican existence is a real bummer.
Responding to PLG, yes, the Iranians (unlike Israel, e.g.) know when to “Keep their powder dry.” Outstanding Dialogue Works interview yesterday with Nima’s guests being John Helmer and Roy McGovern. Helmer is very smart, encyclopedic view of recent history, but quite grumpy (as older people can be) and always likes to score points in a debate. He scored some against McG, who thought an Argentinian scumbag on the IAEA was Spanish, his most substantive point is that Iran mostly sent the older ordnance even during recent attacks, has huge stocks and is ready for a long war.
Also, Helmer asserted something that mj went a bit overboard on, but is true for the most part. Putin is pro-Israel, there are reasons for that, politics, very large # of Russian Jews with family there, etc. We don’t know what, if anything, Russia is doing for Iran at the moment, but imo IF Russia really didn’t support their mutual defense treaty (signed 3 days before Trump’s inauguration), it will harm them badly in the long run.
Thanks to someofparts for re-posting the Ehret, Nixon et al discussion. Yes, Nixon gets it, few real demands were made, the only one I heard at the rally that I attended was “Impeach Trump” (that already failed at least twice) or Article 25 him. Popping one pimple on the face of the Empire will not solve anything. Vance is a rather hapless figure, a Thiel-created puppet who has changed his last name 3 times. He is not as stupid as Trump (a low bar, I know) however. Trump is sundowning, he is not at Biden brain-bleed levels yet but he just turned 79 and is headed that direction, noticeably.
I’ll agree with those calling out GJ, often a relevant commenter, for punching down. What he says is a broad brush, it applies to some clearly, but it is the Ruling Classes, people like the thoroughly odious Ted Cruz or Lindsay Graham (& countless others) who are determined to take the US down, and think like the Mustache Man did when he decided to open a 2-front war and attack eastward. They will likely get their wish and see the US destroyed quicker rather than later.
Somebody who did an exceptionally good discussion of when will Trump trigger Armageddon 3 days ago is the Chapo Trap House podcast. It is in their free content at the link here. https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house
Their guest, Seamus Malekafzali, is exceptionally well-informed about Iran’s region. Despite the Irish first name, he seems quite conversant with both Arabic and Persian politics and culture (at least relative to myself), and perhaps hints at why Donny hasn’t done his Slim Pickens ride atop the A-bomb down onto the evil Russkies yet to call an end to human “civilization.”
Speaking of Russians, interesting to see the mentally and morally blind L&S starting to develop rudimentary abilities to sense light vs. only darkness by noting that the martial-law ruling Zelensky is a scumbag. News flash, water is wet, well we all have to start somewhere, we’ll see if insight goes any further.
Busy couple of days so I got here late, to see who provoked Ian to the more recent Marne history lesson. Not sure I figured it out, a couple possible suspects at least, though I can’t settle on one.
Hope and Arrogance are both great dangers, the latter is the keynote of the Imperial Ruling Class. Hopelessness has its own problems, may be more realistic but can also lead to learned helplessness and actual “surrender monkey” behavior. And to give L&S small credit twice in the same post, yes, all No Kings was asking (or will ever ask, apparently) is what the few remaining ShitLibs constantly demand, was indeed “Vote Dimmie 2026 & 28”. I thought some of them were learning when their approval of the Dem (We exist to kill ALL attempts at even Minor Reform) party as a whole dropped to 23% after Kop Kamala got Kayoed.
For the record, though, I did not see a single “Hands off NATO” sign last Saturday. Nor did a single person get angry or up in my face over my placard stating that the real Axis of Evil is U$A + UK + ZIONAZIS + GERMANY + UKRAINE. Maybe a few lib Deplorables are learning some of the “gold” the Dimmie Hucksters shine at them is fool’s gold? Better late than never.
Like & Subscribe
Here’s the part I don’t get. What’s in it for Donny Dove? Trump properties sprawled across the wasteland formerly known as Tehran? A gold-plated $450 million dollar 747 from Israel? Bibi certainly isn’t as handsome as the Al Qaeda leader of Syria. I mean, according to trump at least, Ahmad al-Sharaa is a hunka hunka burnin’ love.
True “war” with Iran would be boots on the ground. Donny Dove will never commit to boots on the ground like America did in Afghanistan and Iraq. The most he will agree to is a Syria-style campaign using proxies in a Iranian civil war and bombing the daylights out of the country but even that he will become quickly bored with and then he will be unreliable as always to whoever thinks they can control him and whims and fancies.
different clue
@Bruce Wilder,
I apologize for any past and future nastiness expressed in my comments. I do not apologize for my opinions on things and stuff. I will try being nicer about it.
A reflexive cynicism will not help you understand what is or was or will be happening.
The corruption and hijacking of institutions you describe has created the step-by-step process of creating the vacuum which finally sucked Trump into office and then into office again. But 2025 Trump’s willful destruction of non-corrupted and still-functioning agencies, departments, divisions etc. is a real thing and a choice.
Deciding you are done with “trust the science” in all forms is an easy and lazy dodge to avoid the work of understanding various areas of science at a high-functioning layman’s level and then deciding what to trust or not in terms of that understanding.
I trust the Theory of Relativity. Why? Because the photo-electric effect really works and atom bombs blow up just the way Einstein said they should. I trust meteorology because I see the weather reports getting better and better down the decades. I trust the provisional robustness of climatology because I see the “warmists’ ” predictions coming true just as predicted and I don’t see any contrarian theorists having predicted what is actually happening and has been happening. Etc.
And I see the TrumpAdmin shutting down research and conducting linguistico-stalinist purges of words referring to climate change and etc. from all federal websites, publications, etc. The TrumpAdmin is working to corrupt and destroy institutions which were not corrupt or destroyed up to this point.
Reflexive contrarianism and performative cynicism are sterile pathways leading nowhere and I have better railroads down which to send my trains of thought. But I will try to be less personal about it.
shagggz
Like & Subscribe,
“What’s in it for Donny Dove?”
Not having his Epstein-gathered (before Epstein was a household name) kiddie-fiddlin’ exposed.
different clue
@Oakchair,
You raise real questions which deserve real answers. Being at work on a workday does not give me time enough ( lunch,break,etc.) at a computer to think through and craft those answers.
But I do not forget the questions and when a bigger timeblock permits I will circle back and answer.
different clue
Here is a Reece Waters video titled: Trump voting farmers need our help. It’s very funny.
Here is the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unxKBExMxuk
miss jennings aka...
That said, the parts of your commentary that extrapolate from my big mistake to assuming that I share the dreadful beliefs that motivated Mayo is unwarranted and offensive.
someofparts:
It’s offensive to the board here for an otherwise intelligent person such as yourself to post such a comment. You read a book and then form an opinion based on Amazon comments without delving any deeper?
That said, I am sorry. Both in the interest of ‘coming together’ and moving forward ‘cleanly’ and also ‘selfishly’ because I don’t want this on my fragile conscience.
I hope you are well today. The sun is shining where I am after a few cloudy rainy days and I have some time and energy to do some stuff outside today. Yay!
Mark Level:
Also, Helmer asserted something that mj went a bit overboard on, but is true for the most part. Putin is pro-Israel, there are reasons for that, politics, very large # of Russian Jews with family there, etc. We don’t know what, if anything, Russia is doing for Iran at the moment, but imo IF Russia really didn’t support their mutual defense treaty (signed 3 days before Trump’s inauguration), it will harm them badly in the long run.
I don’t think I dissected a Helmer piece here at Ian’s place. Some nutjob over at MOA did recently though 😉
—–
turning the US into a police state (and not the sort-of-good kind, yes, they exist, China is one of them)
No one wants to push back on this at all? Even a teensie bit?
Geez people.
police state (n)
– A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force.
– A nation or state whose government exercises strict and repressive control of the people, by means of police and/or especially secret police.
———
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDwWEpuxfM&list=RDVfDwWEpuxfM&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8rMV7X-YkM&list=RDP8rMV7X-YkM&start_radio=1
‘Some call me crazy. Some politely call me free.’
And here come the tears. Time to go…
Thank you Ian you overly-tolerant…..what did that commenter recently say? I forget the exact words. Oh well.
shagggz
miss jennings,
“No one wants to push back on this at all? Even a teensie bit?”
Considering the provided caveat of “sort-of-good”, what is there to push back on? Especially in the current moment, when China continues its peaceful win-win rise as the fourth reich immolates all pretence to standing for anything even remotely legalistic or moral.
miss jennings
when China continues its peaceful win-win rise as the fourth reich immolates all pretence to standing for anything even remotely legalistic or moral.
‘anything even remotely legalistic or moral’
Fair enough shaggz. The ‘sort-of-good’ caveat applies.
‘even remotely legalistic or moral’
You are talking here about Israel and the US and their ‘partners’ (to use Putin’s hackneyed term).
Okay. Agreed.
And digging a little deeper, as I am wont to do, reveals the absolute necessity of your own ‘even remotely’ caveat to both the words ‘legalistic’ and ‘moral’ – the latter of which should be dispensed with immediately as we shall see.
I am going to use the following article from Marxist-Leninist Today to illustrate.
The article has a mistake in that it confuses the Israeli Tnuva Group – which China’s Bright Foods owns a controlling stake in – it confuses Tnuva with Tnufa, a formerly public Israeli company that went private in 2020.
No matter. We are using this for sourcing and research purposes and it ends up further proving the point I’m making anyway.
Here is the article:
How China Is Quietly Aiding Israel’s Settlement Enterprise
https://mltoday.com/how-china-is-quietly-aiding-israels-settlement-enterprise/
There is nothing moral in China’s behavior here. Not even with the caveat ‘remotely.’
——
Public transportation revolution reaches the Jerusalem area: Tnufa will operate the regional and intercity public transportation lines
‘The public transportation revolution reaches the Jerusalem Corridor. From today (Tuesday), Tnufa will operate the regional and intercity public transportation lines in the Jerusalem Corridor.
This, about a year after winning a tender from the Ministry of Transportation, which was intended to increase public transportation services in the area by tens of percent.
As part of the tender, Tnufa will operate 22 urban and regional lines between Kiryat Ya’arim, Abu Ghosh, Har Hadar and the settlements of Mateh Yehuda, including Ksalon, Ramat Raziel, Eitanim, Givat Ya’arim, Tzova, Beit Meir, Shoresh, Shoeva, Ein Rafa, Ein Nakuba, Neve Ilan, Yad Shmona, Nataf, Ma’ale Hahamisha, Kiryat Anavim and Beit Zayit.
In addition, the service system on the lines connecting Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem will be improved, with an emphasis on improving routes within the city of Beit Shemesh, increasing frequency and creating lines for new destinations in Jerusalem, such as Hadassah Ein Kerem and Shaare Zedek hospitals and the Talpiot industrial zone.
https://www.ifi.today/news/1885-Public-transportation-revolution-reaches-the-Jerus
https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/7367?tnufa-transportation-solutions
Ownership:
Eastlink Lanker (30%), a public UK based wholesale trade company; Maya Tour (30%); China Motors Ltd. (22.5%), a private Israeli company importing and representing Chinese transportation and infrastructure brands Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., JAC Motors, SAIC Motor, and Sany Heavy Industry Co.; Shasha Group Holdings Ltd. (17.5%)…
CEO: Mikhael (Mikha) Kopilovsky
Partners:
Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Wisdom (Fujian, wholly state-owned)
So, here we have Chinese private and wholly-owned state companies and subsidiaries and offshoots etc doing business with a UK company (the largest stake) and Israeli companies.
Someone ought to tell Vladimir Putin that Xi is doing business with the UK who supports Ukraine who is bombing/droning Russia.
https://imeu.org/article/what-leading-israelis-have-said-about-the-nakba
https://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Jerusalem_528/SatelliteView.html
‘even remotely legalistic or moral’
It’s okay. I’m sure Arabs and non-Jews will be allowed in the back of the bus so it’s not all bad. It’s ‘remotely moral’ to borrow your own words.
Oh wait:
Palestinian workers forced off Israeli bus to make way for Jewish passengers
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-workers-forced-off-bus
On second thought, we may have to revisit our adverbial caveat here. ‘Remotely’ is suddenly doing a whole lot of work. I’m going to make an executive decision and drop it entirely. I think the Palestinians would agree with me.
——–
Interestingly, Tnufa – which means ‘momentum in Hebrew – was also a five-year military plan presented to Netanyahu and the security cabinet which proposed establishing a special unit headed by a major general to ‘deal with Iran in a more offensive, decisive manner.
https://archive.ph/HFCXd#selection-711.243-713.26
https://tinyurl.com/yd3psycx
miss jennings
So, Tnufa isn’t Tnuva. So what about the majority-Chinese-held-via-Bright Foods ‘Tnuva’ then?
Palestinian Captive Market
Tnuva also profits from the Palestinian captive market. The company markets its products in Gaza and in Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank. In 2016, Tnuva Group’s sales to the Palestinian Authority amounted to hundreds of millions of shekels.
As of 2014, 200 tons of Tnuva products were imported to Gaza every day, mainly milk and cream, and distributed in about 1,700 stores. In 2012, the import value of Israeli products bought in Gaza amounted to NIS 1.3 billion.
Tnuva Group is part of the “Adopt a combatant” project through which the company gives financial contribution to the combatants of the Shayetet 3 unit, the missile ship unit of the Israeli Navy, and the Shaldag Unit, the commando unit of the Israeli Air Force.
https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3994?tnuva-group
https://www.timesofisrael.com/chinese-state-company-buys-controlling-stake-in-tnuva/
So the Palestinians get slaughtered and their friends and relatives who survive get to support the slaughterers and China has been the primary majority stakeholder in this..errr…’remotely moral’ enterprise since 2014 – coincidentally the year of ‘The Revolution of Dignity’ when those imperial USUK NATO western amoral baddies couped Ukraine…much to the chagrin of poor Vladimir Putin who is only ever looking to be ‘partners’ after all.
Bad intel I guess.
Or not.
——–
‘One of the most striking examples is Adama Agricultural Solutions, a former Israeli company now fully owned by the Chinese state-run firm China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina). Amid the Gaza war, Adama mobilised its workers “to support farmers who have been suffering from a shortage of workers … [including] farmers in the south, in the surrounding residents of the Gaza Envelope and in the northern settlements”, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.
While Beijing voices opposition to settlement activity, its economic ties with Israel strengthen the foundations of Zionist colonialism.
Quoted in the same report, a representative of Adama said: “The farmers of the country, and the farmers of the settlements around Gaza in particular, are the pioneers of our days and their continued work is necessary to maintain the security of the country.
“These days they return to cultivate their lands alongside enormous pain and a lack of working hands. At Adama we have the right to help them in times of routine, and to stand by them also in times of crisis.”
In January 2024, Adama went further, launching a scholarship fund of around one million shekels ($275,000) to support academic degrees in agriculture for residents of the Gaza Envelope and northern settlements.
Adama has a long history of collaborating with settler institutions. Its products have been used in agricultural trials conducted in Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley, and even more troubling, one of its herbicides has been used by a contractor of the Israeli military in aerial spraying that has destroyed vegetation along the Gaza border.
While China presents itself as a neutral or sympathetic actor in the conflict, its ownership of Adama links it directly to the militarised destruction of Palestinian livelihoods.’
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-773148
I don’t think there are any Palestinian or Chinese farmers here:
https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/q_auto/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_720,w_1280/563391
So where are they?
‘“No need, Razan, for you to go to China – come to Huwara, China is here.”
Though said jokingly by my friend Ahmad, who asked his full name be withheld for security reasons, these words carried a heavy truth.
Huwara is a small Palestinian village near Nablus, surrounded by some of the most violent and ideologically extreme Zionist settlements in the country, including Yitzhar.
When I asked what he meant, he told me:
“Chinese workers are living and working in nearby settlements. I see them regularly in the village streets, shopping at local Palestinian stores.”
That offhand remark a couple of months ago pushed me to investigate further. I spoke with Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and collected their testimonies. Ali, who lives in Ramallah near the Beit El settlement, told me:
“I’ve seen dozens of Chinese workers building homes and infrastructure in Beit El.”
Saeed, from Hebron, recalled that “during the Covid-19 pandemic, settlers even quarantined the Chinese workers separately from others.”‘
[from the Marxist-Leninist article]
Separate AND unequal. ‘Remotely moral.’ Yay China and Israel. You go girls.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/chinese-state-company-buys-controlling-stake-in-tnuva/
https://www.reuters.com/article/business/chemchina-seals-combination-of-israels-adama-with-sanonda-idUSKCN11J1Z2/
miss jennings
Does China have an Internationalist Foreign Policy?
‘…others ask why Peoples’ China, a self-described socialist country, has failed to replace the Soviet Union in guaranteeing the economic vitality of tiny socialist Cuba– a country starved by a US blockade and harsh sanctions upon anyone defying that blockade.
It is difficult to reconcile the PRC’s modest economic aid to Cuba with China’s $19 billion dollars of annual exports to proscribed Israel…
…The Five Principles were strikingly similar to the natural-law doctrines adopted by the early mercantilist theorists of bourgeois international relations; they constituted an even less robust version of the eight points of the 1941 Atlantic Charter crafted by Roosevelt and Churchill. Nonetheless, they were enshrined in the constitution of Peoples’ China…
…It is source of great irony that many of the charges the CPC made against the Soviets in the Mao era were and are features of China today that have drawn the same charges from some on the left:
The Chinese attacked the Soviet policy of peaceful coexistence with the US, taunting the US as a paper tiger; they accused the Soviets of being “social-imperialist” intent on global hegemony; they claimed a restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union; they accused the Soviet Party of revising Marxism-Leninism. All charges that resonate for some in current policies of Peoples’ China…
…it has been naive to expect capitalist great powers to respect the high-minded, Enlightenment values of the Five Principles and simply stand by while the PRC rises to challenge their dominance of the world economy.
Since Engels’ early writings, Marxists have understood that competition is the motor of the commodity-based economy. And since Lenin, Marxists have understood that competition between monopoly capitals and their hosts have spawned aggression and war.
It is equally naive — or disingenuous — to equate the Five Principles with the proletarian internationalism, class solidarity that has been embraced by the international Communist movement throughout the twentieth century.
From Comintern activity, to the internationalist sacrifices made for democratic Spain, to the generous support for liberation movements, and the aid to the people of Vietnam, militant, principled internationalism differs fundamentally from the neutrality embodied in the Five Principles.
The Five Principles serve a world with no injustice, a world without class struggle, a world without aggression and war.
Where neutrality may have borne few negative consequences during the PRC’s isolation from global markets, China’s profound economic relations with virtually every country in the twenty-first century, do have consequences, consequences of enormous moral impact.
Like other countries that engage economically or refrain from engaging economically (sanctions, tariffs, boycotts, blockades, etc.), the PRC must be judged by that engagement.
With the daily slaughter of Gazan civilians, the brutal actions of Israel cannot be separated from its trading partners: China, the US, Germany, Italy, Turkiye, Russia, France, South Korea, India, and Spain, in descending order of dollar volume of exports to Israel.
And now with the brazen, unprovoked Israeli attack on its putative “friend” Iran, the neutrality of the Five Principles is even less defensible. The “win-win” strategy of many CPC leaders and their allies is a utopian dream that social justice cannot afford.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/06/does-china-have-an-internationalist-foreign-policy/
‘when China continues its peaceful win-win rise as the fourth reich immolates all pretence to standing for anything even remotely legalistic or moral.’
‘The “win-win” strategy of many CPC leaders and their allies is a utopian dream that social justice cannot afford.’
——
https://www.timesofisrael.com/chinese-firms-eye-future-sale-of-government-owned-assets/
——
Someone over at NC the other day harkened back to a US Supreme Court decision from the early or mid 1800’s to make the point that the US has, for a very long time (with perhaps some exceptions) put the sanctity of contract between two parties above that of the overall social good (let alone human freedom/dignity on the individual level).
I humbly submit that China is no different. It’s in bed with the imperial war machine, it knows damn well it is, and it doesn’t give a rat’s ass because there is oodles and oodles of money to be made.
Sleeping with the enemy.
The end.
different clue
Are miss jennings and miss jennings aka two different people?
shagggz
miss jennings, China believes in national sovereignty and thus that it is not their place to judge the doings of those they do business with on their land. So yes, their approach, that does not result in constant aggressive wars and genocide, is in fact the more moral approach. And it is not even “remotely” close.