The Global Conflict

Recent Errata & Musing from MoA

There’s been a lot of hullaballoo since the start of June surrounding the various fronts of the Global Conflict that seem to be widening their geographic scope. There’s quite a lot that could be discussed, but I’ll limit myself to first providing links to some key events and then provide my most recent musing.

The first is Vladimir Putin’s meeting with heads of the world’s leading news agencies that took place in the Constantine Palace. It was cordial enough for a group photo:

IMO, the photo was taken before the verbal jousting between Putin and a few but by no means all of those present.

That was followed by the Plenary Session of the 29th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum—SPIEF

Both transcripts are in English. The SPIEF also has many discussions over its several days encompassing many topics that are taped with English overdubs, the menu for the event can be found here. Quite a bit of criticism arose relative to Putin’s address and his Q&A session with media heads, although IMO much of it is overblown and meant to be provocative.

Lavrov’s presser following his meeting with Bangladeshi FM Khalilur Rahman was highlighted by the very important Q&As dealing with Ukraine and the upcoming selection of a new UN General Secretary. Lavrov provided further comment on Putin’s response to Zelensky’s provocative open letter while providing the current status of the non-negotiations, information which as usual isn’t being properly covered by BigLie Media. Lavrov met with UN Secretary-General candidate Michelle Bachelet but very little of that meeting was made known with Lavorv’s opening remarks being very similar to those he made at the presser.

Iran has modified its defense doctrine to include all fronts—Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, and Persian Gulf—and has shown it will retaliate if the ceasefires on those fronts are violated as the Zionists did in Lebanon. Sadiq Larijani, brother of assassinated Ari Larijani, announced the new doctrine but I’ve yet to find a document where it’s proclaimed. There’s also the rumor of Iran having or given a nuclear device(s) that connected to the backchannel diplomacy being provided by Pakistan. That entire situation is very convoluted, and I defer to Pepe Escobar’s recent article on the situation. I also highly suggest Alastair Crooke’s latest article and his recent chat with Nima Alkhorshid. One can find numerous podcasts daily discussing events surrounding Iran, Ukraine and the massive criminal hole Trump has dug for himself and his Gang.

On Trump’s ongoing grift—or criminal fraudulent activity—here’s the latest:

President Trump's family has earned at least $2.3 billion from cryptocurrency ventures since the start of his term, while ordinary investors in the same projects have lost roughly the same amount, a Reuters investigation has found.

The Al-Mayadeen article doesn’t have a direct link to the article it cites, but it has plenty of info and further internal links to its own investigations. The $2.3 billion is just a fraction of the many billions made via Trump and his Gang’s fraud thanks to his ability to make many markets yo-yo up and down—Charts tell the story very well despite BigLie Media looking the other way.

Perhaps the biggest fraudulent action is actually treasonous as it’s known that Genocidal Zionist PM Netanyahu called a US Congressman and dictated to him language to insert into the Defense Appropriations bill that effectively makes the Zionist military part of the US military and negates the need for another Jonathon Pollard to steal secrets as Zionists will be right there on the inside. There’s been lots of discussion on podcasts and this is one alt-media article explaining the coming travesty. Not even NATO has such access, and the Outlaw US Empire has no treaty of alliance with the Zionists. This IMO is far more alarming than Trump’s massive criminal grift.

Before I move on, here’re three excellent Chinese articles that deal with our contemporary situation. The first is “Shackles in the World Economy and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism” by senior researcher Chen Wenling from the Institute of Contemporary China and the World Studies begins thusly:

I believe the contemporary world economic crisis and the crisis of world capitalism are synchronized; the crisis of the world economy is also a crisis of contemporary capitalism. Currently, the global economic crisis has reached a turning point, and the reasons for this turning point differ from the various economic cycles previously described in traditional economics. Many economic cycle theories can no longer explain the contemporary global economic crisis.

The second is “AI technology is accelerating and could become the perfect explosive point for capitalism” by Lu Zhoulai:

Here, I will discuss four questions:

The first issue shifts from left-wing technological accelerationism to right-wing technological accelerationism….

The second issue shifts from "creative destruction" to "self-subversion."…

The third question: Take the United States as an example and observe how the accelerated development of new technologies like artificial intelligence pushes capitalism into an unprecedented crisis….

The fourth question: about China.

The reading level for these two are post-graduate, so be prepared to be challenged. The third is the discussion from a This is China broadcast: “China’s Modern Multi-Dimensional Transportation Network That Shocked the World” with the main guest Yan Yilong providing most of the discourse and opens with these paragraphs:

As everyone knows, today’s China is called the “infrastructure maniac,” and in fact, this has historical roots. More than 700 years ago, Marco Polo came to China and, seeing the high efficiency of China’s road relay system, exclaimed: “Its system is far superior to that of European countries.” “Over 400 years ago, Matteo Ricci came to China, saw the Grand Canal, and exclaimed: ‘The magnificence of this project truly deserves to be called a world miracle.’ ”

Traditional China not only boasts a brilliant and splendid culture, but also a very high-level artifact civilization. We have created a brilliant civilization in manufacturing, construction, and technology. In terms of transportation, we have set a benchmark for transportation systems in the era of agricultural civilization. Even today, we can still see bronze chariots and horses unearthed from the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, with wheel spacing that fully meets the Qin standard of 6 chi. Moreover, the two deep wheel tracks on the ancient Qin Emperor post road in Jingxing County, Hebei, are measured to be 6 feet in Qin standard, providing tangible evidence of “carriages sharing the same track.”

After the Qin Dynasty unified the six states, it actually began large-scale infrastructure projects, advancing China’s first large-scale transportation revolution. He built the ‘Chidao’ (Chidao) centered on Xianyang and radiated in all directions, the ‘Zhidao’ dedicated to military transport, the ‘Lingnan New Road’ in the south, and the ‘Five-Chi Road’ in the southwest.

Of course, waterways were the main transportation routes in traditional China, relying not only on developed inland river systems but also connected through hydraulic engineering. Besides building roads, Qin Shi Huang also constructed the Ling Canal—the Ling Canal connected the Xiang and Li Rivers, linking the Yangtze and Pearl River systems. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal connects five major water systems from north to south, achieving large transport volumes and low-cost transportation, driving unprecedented prosperity in China’s commodity economy and ushering Chinese civilization into the “Canal Era.”

My hope is readers will be enlightened and educated by these offerings as they translate and read well.

What prompted my musing was this article posted today at Moon of Alabama and the amount of discussion it raised. I initially provided a comment tangential to it here but then noted the massive number of comments posted while I was writing and their general content that pushed my button:

How does the world prevail over Western Colonial/Imperial Hegemony that’s been ongoing for 500+ years ought to be the question at issue and is THE CONFLICT. I continue to provide articles detailing the advancement of non-Western technology and economic gains that has been one of my staple contributions of the 15+ years I’ve been a Barfly. Along with those have been over 100 articles and podcasts done by Dr. Michael Hudson and those from his School of Thought, an increasing number of which are coming from Chinese scholars. The How to Win strategy is publicly forwarded by Xi Jinping and his team that’s grounded in their six major Global Initiatives, which I’d bet the national debt that only a small minority of Barflies have read. More is articulated in the Joint Declarations of Russia and China with the premier point now being exemplified by Iran’s struggle to exert its sovereignty. Why does China back Russia’s SMO? Because it’s part of the overall conflict.

The conflict is a war, and all wars ebb and flow with one side having an advantage that eventually gets replaced by the other side’s advantage. How long has the current conflict existed is a valid question and ought to set the context for discussion provided the answer to that question is agreed upon by those in the discourse–since we aren’t directly involved, that discussion takes the form of a debate. But this being a bar, such a format is rarely followed as this comment thread exemplifies.

Russia clearly has more resources and a much larger manufacturing base than its EU/NATO opponents, which also includes the Outlaw US Empire. And if it needs help, it can call on China, and the reverse is true. China’s ability to conduct war without directly fighting in that war is remarkable, but then it currently has its allies Russia and Iran performing the kinetic tasks. If one were to construct a balance sheet listing assets and liabilities of the Hegemonic Powers on one side versus the Global Majority on the other, it ought to rapidly become clear which side will prevail as long as nukes remain in their lockers. IMO, one of the hard to quantify factors is political will on the parts of the two sides, although in general terms it’s rather easy to see which side holds the advantage–the Global Majority.

As with Ukraine and the Persian Gulf, the overall conflict is one of Attrition, which is why I suggest the balance sheet approach. I’m sure many Barflies will reject that notion despite its correctness. How will the Global majority win? By outlasting the hegemonic powers. It’s really that simple. And that’s why Putin made his strategy as we see it playing out. And of course, he certainly consulted with Xi Jinping about that back in February 2022, and that method can be seen within the Joint Declaration they made at the time. The one item EU/NATO has on its side of the balance sheet that’s more than Russia is population–about 7:1–but look at whose armed forces are larger–Russia by almost 3:1–and the technology edge goes to Russia hands down. And for similar reasons, Iran will prevail. China could mobilize over 500 Million if it really needed to, just as Iran could mobilize 30+ million if it really needed to. Within the Outlaw US Empire, those asked about what they’d do if the Draft was reinstated have said they’d flee–they refuse to serve–and the economic draft can only attract a few tens of thousands. And similar sentiment exists all through NATO. The Hegemons attempt to deal with their manpower shortage via technology, but in that realm they are way behind and the gap is growing for a variety of reasons found on the balance sheet.

The conflict was correctly seen at its outset as a Crisis of Capitalism and the depth of that crisis has only deepened over the last 125 years to the point where it’s become parasitic, which is why the hegemons’ balance sheet is in such bad shape. The crisis moved into the realm of Barbarism long ago and continues while the rise of communitarian efforts in the guise of Socialism is rising to supplant it as the Barbarism repulses the Global Majority and moves it to have the political will to see it defeated. Look at the Big Picture and you’ll see the Arc of Resistance becoming global, even within the dying Hegemonic Empire. It’s very possible the conflict will last the rest of this century, but it’s also possible it will end by 2040 or earlier–the variables that are now present and those that will arise in the next several years–by 2029–will be the determining factors.

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A major factor I see already in play is the inability of the Hegemonic nations institutions to manage the crisis that’s already beginning to drown them. Many are too busy with their grift activities to do anything else. And there’s scant ability or desire to negotiate about anything since the mind-set for centuries has been our rules are the only rules. Recently, one of Xi Jinping’s main drives is the revamping of global governance, which is one of his global initiatives and is spelt out in this editorial, “To reform global governance, nine major directions must be clearly identified.” This is the main goal of the Global Conflict—to establish a global society that lacks both hegemony and the barbarity that it uses to rule with. China amongst all nations has a long history of reinventing itself as one dynasty falls, chaos ensues, and is then replaced by another dynasty that reestablishes a degree of Harmony. It’s very Hegelian. Xi hopes to go beyond that dialectical ladder by turning it into an escalator by urging China’s continuing pursuit of modernization, which means perpetual innovation to extend the CPC Dynasty well into the future. But to make that possible, the rest of the world must also acquire Harmony. And that goal isn’t just Chinese, although China has advanced the idea that it’s the foundation of a shared future for Humanity. Convincing the hegemonic nations is the main challenge along with expunging the notion in some minds that they are exceptional—the two challenges go hand-in-hand if Humanity is to grow beyond its current stage of existence.

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