You Read About Things in the News Because Something Is Happening Here But You Don’t Know What It Is Or How It Will Affect Your Life

Apologies to Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man"

Many have quietly said Trump 2.0 is part of a silent revolution or is causing one to happen. And yes, with Trump’s initial Imperialist bellowing and getting idiot weaklings to rename the Gulf of Mexico on the maps they produce as the Gulf of America sure seemed like that was what was soon to occur. But it was all a fraud because since the 2008-9 Great Bankers Fraud, the need to reorganize the international financial system was made very apparent to its major players outside the Outlaw US Empire and most of its EU vassals, but most importantly for China and Russia. Over the years since, other smaller financial crises occurred, then in 2014 when the Outlaw US Empire started its war on Ukraine and its Russian speakers, massive sanctions were enacted when Russia was able to keep Crimea from falling into NATO’s clutches that began the disruption of the global supply chain. Trump 1.0 began the Empire’s Trade War against China in 2017 rather mildly which caused China to quicken its construction of a firewall against sanctions and diversification of its economy and trading partners. Few Americans watched any of this for a variety of reasons, mainly Culture War distractions aimed at further dividing and ruling the populous capped by the massive falsification of Russia Gate against Trump followed by the Woke, BLM, and Gender crises that had begun under Obama, laid dormant during Trump 1.0 and reinitiated by Biden. The capper was done by Team Biden to weaponize the dollar and international financial system against Russia when it finally counterattacked against the Empire’s war on Ukraine’s Russian speakers and its international financial reserves were stolen, graphicly showing the world that the Outlaw US Empire wasn’t to be trusted nor was a safe place for your wealth. (Yes, it’s true Libya was attacked first followed by Venezuela.) Now with Trump 2.0 in place having drastically escalated the trade war with China to include the whole world, some American people are noticing something’s happening but still aren’t clear just what it’s all about.

Internationally it’s another story as dedollarization is a hot topic as it creeps into headlines and interviews. Although it’s Alt-Media, Alastair Crooke’s Strategic Cultural Foundation publication has the revolution as its primary topic that closes with this citation:

“And here is the ‘revolution’: No fireworks, no Western headlines. Just one quiet early morning in Beijing where the dollar’s crown slipped. The world’s financial plumbing just got a reroute—through the China [super highway]”

“For the first time ever, China’s CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) surpassed SWIFT in single-day transaction volume. A red banner flashed across Bank of China’s HQ at 1:30AM on April 16, 2025”.

“CIPS [as Zerohedge tells it] processed a jaw-dropping ¥12.8 trillion RMB in just one day—roughly $1.76 trillion USD. That volume, if verified, overtakes the greenback-dominated SWIFT system in sheer daily cross-border throughput”. [All original format]

The key is the last paragraph, “CIPS processed a jaw-dropping ¥12.8 trillion RMB in just one day—roughly $1.76 trillion USD.” Personally, I don’t see Trump as being revolutionary at all; one important intellectual who proposes that’s the case is Emmanual Todd, the French Historian/Anthropologist, who Crooke cites at the opening of his essay:

“I believe we must start from the notion of defeat leading to revolution – to grasp the Trump revolution”.

“The experience underway in the United States, even if we don’t know exactly what it will be, is revolution. Is it a revolution in the strict sense? Is it a counter-revolution?”

In a talk he gave in Russia, Todd devoted a great portion of it to “The Trump Revolution” and asks “I would like to try to understand the immediate cause of the Trump Revolution.” Crooke having read it all tells us Todd sees it thusly: “For the United States, it is fundamentally an economic defeat.” As with his prediction of the USSR’s collapse, Todd’s being predictive to a large degree because the overall defeat is still underway. And why it that? Are there enough omens visible to tell the entire tale? IMO and those of others, there are, which all condense down to two major factors—Trust and Respect—Honor—For Law. In this case, fundamental contract law where you agree to do something and properly fulfill that duty. The very recent Tariff War and its episodes provide a vivid example of how those two factors are being more than abused by Trump. Trump had to relent on his crazed raising of tariffs on China to 145% because China refused to kowtow. Trump asked for talks at Geneva, which resulted in a declaration that stipulated a detailed course of behavior to be followed by both sides. It didn’t take Team Trump long to break the agreement. In testimony, I present this Global Times Editorial that provides the details:

In recent days, some US officials and media outlets have been spreading the narrative that "tensions between the US and China are rising again" because China was "slow-rolling the deal" with the US. The Wall Street Journal also claimed that "a trade truce between the US and China is at risk of falling apart." Such attempts to create public pressure on China through media manipulation are, in themselves, a violation of the Geneva consensus.

On Monday, China's Ministry of Commerce firmly rejected these groundless claims, and urged the US side to work with China, immediately correct its wrong actions, and jointly safeguard the consensus reached in Geneva.

The Joint Statement of the China-US Economic and Trade Talks in Geneva clearly stated that both sides would be moving forward in the spirit of mutual opening, continued communication, cooperation, and mutual respect. However, following the achievement of substantive outcomes in Geneva, the US side has repeatedly taken unilateral steps and introduced a series of discriminatory restrictions targeting China. These include issuing export control guidance for AI chips, curbing the sale of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software to China, and announcing the revocation of Chinese students' visas, among others.

How do any of these actions reflect the spirit of "mutual opening, continued communication, cooperation, and mutual respect"? Isn't the so-called "slow progress" caused by the US itself?

No matter how some in the US try to shift the blame onto China, the facts are indisputable: Since the release of the joint statement, China has taken a responsible attitude—seriously treating, strictly implementing, and actively uphold the consensus of the Geneva economic and trade meeting. This has included, in line with the joint statement, canceling or suspending certain tariff and non-tariff measures imposed in response to the US' "reciprocal tariffs." This also includes the fact that despite the US' constant provocative moves, China has always put the overall situation first and has not escalated economic and trade frictions between the two countries. This is not because we are afraid of the US, but because of our good faith in keeping the consultations moving forward and contributing to the stability of the global trading system.

The Geneva Joint Statement represents a key consensus reached by both sides on the basis of mutual respect and equal consultation. Whether China-US "tensions" continue to escalate ultimately depends on whether the US is willing to move in the same direction as China and promptly correct its wrongful actions. China's words and deeds in implementing the consensus are sincere, but its attitude in safeguarding its own legitimate rights and interests is also firm. The US must recognize that pressure and threats are not the right way to engage with China. It already ran into a wall with its tariff blackmail in the past—and if it continues to harm China's interests with the same misguided approach, it will inevitably run into the wall once again. China has sufficient capability and confidence to respond to various uncertainties.

It is also necessary to set the record straight on claims regarding export controls. Some in the US have been relentlessly pushing the narrative that China is "choking off" the global supply chain with its control over critical minerals. However, this just once again exposed the US' shameless double standards and its hypocritical and ugly hegemonic logic. As we all know, it is the US that has overstretched the concept of national security, abused export controls, and blatantly imposed illegal unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" on specific countries and companies in recent years.

In response to the smear campaign by some people in the US against China's rare earth export controls, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it clear that China's export control measures are consistent with universal practices and such measures are non-discriminatory and not targeted at any particular country. If the US insists on making itself the target, it only shows that politicizing and weaponizing economic and technological issues has not only gotten to the heads of some US individuals but also has become an obsession.

The reason China and the US were able to reach important outcomes in Geneva is because both sides recognized a shared understanding: A stable, sustainable, and mutually beneficial bilateral economic and trade relationship is vital—not only for the two countries themselves, but for the global economy as a whole. These consensuses were clearly articulated in the Joint Statement on China-US Economic and Trade Meeting in Geneva and publicly announced to the international community. Senior US officials have also acknowledged that "the consensus from both delegations is that neither side wanted a decoupling." That understanding is the foundation for further dialogue between the two countries.

If Washington's actions truly reflected the spirit of mutual openness, continuous communication, cooperation, and mutual respect, and if the China-US trade relationship was moving toward healthy, stable, and sustainable development, then wouldn't the advancement of bilateral trade negotiations follow naturally—just like water flowing where the channel has already been dug?

Following the Geneva economic and trade talks, orders from US buyers surged, and ships are in high demand in the China-US shipping market, clearly reflecting the huge two-way demand between the two countries. The widespread positive response to this round of talks shows that the international community generally hopes the world's two largest economies will maintain stable relations and continue contributing to global economic growth. Hopefully the US can abandon its zero-sum thinking and bullying tactics, and approach China-US relations with openness, inclusiveness, and cooperation. The consensus reached in the Geneva talks was hard-won; what the US should do now is fulfill its commitments instead of saying one thing and doing another. [My Emphasis]

Outlaw US Empire elite’s too many years of Exceptional Thinking and getting its own way all the time are what’s being defeated along with its military standing. In the second half of his recent chat with Larry Johnson, Alastair Crooke expands on his SCF essay’s content and is well worth the twenty minutes, although the entire discussion is excellent. There again the issue of trust and honoring law comes into play where the Global Majority finds the Outlaw US Empire a woeful, dangerous failure. I’ll close with this passage from one of Todd’s paragraphs that tells the American audience what’s happening:

It was, in association with cancel culture, with the preference for war, an element of the nihilism that predominated under the Biden administration. Trump rejects all this. Yet, what strikes me right now is the emergence of a nihilism that takes other forms: a desire to destroy science and academia, the black middle classes, or disorderly violence in the application of the American protectionist strategy. When, without thinking, Trump wants to establish tariffs between Canada and the United States, when the Great Lakes region is a single industrial system, I see it as an impulse for destruction as well as protection. When I see Trump suddenly establishing protectionist tariffs against China while forgetting that the majority of American smartphones are made in China, I tell myself that we can't just consider this stupidity. It's stupidity, certainly, but it may also be nihilism. Let's move on to a higher moral level: Trump's fantasy of turning Gaza, emptied of its population, into a tourist resort is typically a high-intensity nihilistic project. [My Emphasis]

It’s believed and understood by many that nihilism is what destroyed the USSR’s Empire. Todd says it appears to be a similar process that’s undoing the Outlaw US Empire. Crooke seems to agree. The factors that have driven the US Empire’s elites to Megalomania and Pleonexia are well understood and have persisted and expanded for over 100 years—It’s all about getting a Fistful of a Few Dollars More. The rest of the world, however, is refusing to pay tribute anymore. The peace and jobs Trump promised were mere ploys to get elected again as it’s now very clear to some he can’t deliver on either—hopefully that clarity will spread and become commonplace. As Lu Feng described, the Outlaw US Empire deindustrialized itself as a policy goal, which is to say China and other rising developing nations aren’t the enemy they’re being portrayed as by those who are actually the guilty parties. What they are doing is trying to free themselves from a hegemonic international finance system and its institutions that were put in place to do just those things—immiserate the world to feed the elites of the Outlaw US Empire so little bits would trickle down to its populous and keep them amused.

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