12 Comments

Destruction of the western economic system is exactly what the sanctions are intended to do, they just are not saying that part out loud.

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N.S. Lyons, in a recent interview, opines that as far as Chinese establishment is concerned, the Special Military Operation is a badly timed and unwelcome development:

https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/china-ukraine-and-the-western-soul?s=w

But I don't think N.S. is as clued in as he first appears, for a pseudonymous member of the DC foreign policy establishment. Especially since this showed up:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-cyberattack-ukraine-z9gfkbmgf

Marko Marjanović of Anti-Empire.com has a guest editorial here about how the invasion is going, from a Russian perspective. I found it refreshingly critical:

https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/i-am-in-awe-of-the-sheer-ruthlessness

Anyway, just some additional sources for you all to consider.

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There is a positive aspect to all this. The 'US' mentioned multiple times in this article does not necessarily mean the people and the ones doing this must maintain political power over the country, not a sure thing with the discontent they are fomenting. Even with that without public support things could evolve in ways they cannot imagine.

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Good article and thanks Mark. Can I assume the WH and Intel community "game theory / gaming strategy" didn't account for the economic aspects? Yes... yes I can.

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PM of Poland:

Mateusz Morawiecki: "I must say this very clearly; the sanctions we have imposed so far don't work. The best evidence is the ruble exchange rate."

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And a second piece on the economic front, though not strictly from a Russia-Ukraine angle, is this one: "The ghost of Milton Friedman is haunting President Biden." (americanexperiment.org/the-ghost-of-milton-friedman-is-haunting-president-biden)

It centers on Friedman's famous words that "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output." It then has a couple graphs that make it abundantly clear that this gap between dollars conjured from thin air and real economic output really and truly does (roughly) equal inflation.

According to one of these charts, in the two year stretch from Q4 2019 to Q4 2021, output increased less than 2% while M2 grew by 40%. I mean, WOW. And this of course was all before any Russia-Ukraine stuff could've had any effect at all.

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There was already pressure to do something about the dollar and inflationary imperialism. The Zhou regime foolishly forced the issue.

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I agree with Mary's "Yup. Yup. And yup." below.

On the economic front, this piece titled The Return of the Third Horseman (tinyurl.com/2p94j35u) is excellent. It begins,

"The Ukraine War is having dozens - hundreds - of follow-on impacts across the world, with the most dramatic about to be felt in the world of food. Whatever you think will happen, the reality is almost certainly worse."

It then supports the claim with what seem to be highly plausible arguments - well worth a read.

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Multiple Fronts, and Various Enemies:

1. Ukraine Physical War with Russia. Goal Russian regime change.

2. Economic sanctions with Russia - goal Russian regime change

3. Propaganda / Narrative War - keep support for US position, use Russia as scapegoat.

4. Threaten non Western countries with sanctions, if trade with Russia. US Dollar as reserve currency.

5. Gop - portray them as weak on Russia

6. Higher Energy Costs - use Ukraine as way to further build back better / green agenda

7. Open Borders - cause food shortages that increase refugees into Western Countries

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Regarding item #3, Just finished watching Gonzalo Lira show 4 different propaganda videos filmed at the same location. About an hour, but entertaining never the less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp41QhVEFZQ&t=1s

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Ultimately, the American bureaucratic state will drown us all in it's colossal, out of control arrogance.

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You may be right. I'd like to hope, however, that at some point, when the DC Regime continues to force their control grid further, they will cross a line and the lower echelons of the military will take out the gangsters in DC. Not saying this is likely or that it won't come too little too late, but it's a possible scenario that might avert our drowning, as you put it.

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