#Xi Jinping and dollar

[poliphoon]

A duo is desperate to dismantle the dollar

This is what makes it a war. Two powerful men on this planet are daring the American dollar to challenge their rising dominance in the global payments system. The two spunky men are none other than Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader. The two menacingly muscle-flexing men seem dead determined to pull the dollar down from its high pedestal.

[itsnothingbutluck]

George Magnus, the former chief economist of UBS Investment Bank and author of the book «Red Flags», explains the disappointing economic recovery in China and says why the talk of de-dollarization remains wishful thinking.

[kneedeepincynade]

The end of the dollar is coming and with it the end of the American era, the century of humiliation for the capitalist will begin soon!

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ DE-DOLLARIZZAZIONE E RAFFORZAMENTO DELLO YUAN, VERSO LA MORTE DEL DOLLARO USA ⚠️

🇺🇸 Nel mentre, negli USA, si verifica una Crisi Bancaria, e PacWest Bancorp rischia il Default, il Processo di De-Dollarizzazione condotto dalla Cina, insieme ai Paesi del Mondo Multipolare, continua spedito, così come il Progetto Cinese di rafforzamento dello Yuan 🇨🇳

🇨🇳 Nell'ultimo anno, il Governo Cinese ha accelerato il Processo di De-Dollarizzazione, stringendo accordi con Paesi come Arabia Saudita, Russia, Brasile e persino Francia per espandere l'utilizzo del 人民币, la Moneta del Popolo, conosciuta principalmente come Yuan 📈

💬 Il Progetto Cinese di formazione di un polo alternativo per l'Economia, la Finanza, il Commercio e i Prestiti Internazionali procede con enorme velocità, tanto che persino gli Analisti Occidentali lo hanno notato, come Adrian Zuercher - Responsabile dell'Asset Allocation per la Regione Asia-Pacifico di UBS Global Wealth Management - che ha dichiarato che la Cina «sta inviando un segnale molto forte agli USA», dicendo - sostanzialmente - che non ha alcun bisogno del Dollaro 🔥

⭐️ Tale messaggio, però, non rimane soltanto all'interno dei confini della Cina, ma risuona nel Mondo, e gli imperialisti statunitensi - giorno dopo giorno - sono più terrorizzati, dato che la Cina sta concretamente seppellendo il Dollaro 🇨🇳

📄 Come scritto nell'articolo "China Takes the Yuan Global in Bid to Repel a Weaponized Dollar": «L'uso del RMB nei contratti per qualsiasi cosa, dal Petrolio al Nichel, sta prendendo velocità, con la quota della valuta nella finanza commerciale globale triplicata dalla fine del 2019» 📈

🇷🇺 Inoltre, prendendo in esame il caso della Russia: «L'utilizzo dello Yuan nei pagamenti all'esportazione è aumentato di 32 volte solo lo scorso anno» 📊

🇷🇺 Bloccata dal Sistema SWIFT, la Russia - come scritto nell'articolo - ha abbracciato lo Yuan per il commercio, il risparmio privato e le transazioni in valuta estera, e il Governo Cinese ha sviluppato la propria piattaforma di pagamenti internazionali, il CIPS, separato dall'Occidente 🇨🇳

Inoltre, con la Grande Riapertura della Cina, Leader politici di ogni Paese del Mondo, dall'Asia all'Africa, passando per l'Europa, si sono recati in Cina, per dialogare con Xi Jinping e Li Qiang, e firmare Accordi di Cooperazione Economica con valute nazionali, indebolendo il Dollaro ✍️

🤦‍♀️ A questo punto, l'articolo si riempie di ideologia spicciola, tra "muuuh free market" di ex-membri della Goldman Sachs e critiche al Partito Comunista Cinese, per «non aver consentito il libero flusso di capitali», ovvero - in pratica - per non aver guidato la liberalizzazione economico-finanziaria 🤡

⭐️ Spiacenti, ma la "Proprietà Pubblica come Pilastro", la Pianificazione Macro-Economica e il Sistema di Regolamentazione del Mercato, rimarranno Principi di Base dell'Economia Cinese 🚩

🤩 Ultimamente, poi, si è verificato un evento di enorme importanza: lo Yuan ha superato il Dollaro come valuta transfrontaliera più utilizzata in Cina. Potete approfondire qui 📰

💬 "Le ripercussioni della Guerra in Russia hanno preoccupato le altre Nazioni per il rischio di sanzioni guidate dagli USA", ha affermato Esther Law - Senior Money Manager di Amundi SA, e quindi ci si aspetta un'ulteriore crescita di popolarità per il RMB 🇨🇳

人 - Persone, esseri umani come concetto generale 👥

人民 - unito con 民 diventa "Popolo" ⭐️

币 - Moneta, valuta, denaro 🤑

人民币 - Moneta del Popolo 🇨🇳

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ DE-DOLLARIZATION AND STRENGTHENING OF THE YUAN, TOWARDS THE DEATH OF THE US DOLLAR ⚠️

🇺🇸 In the meantime, a Banking Crisis occurs in the USA, and PacWest Bancorp risks Default, the De-Dollarization Process led by China, together with the Countries of the Multipolar World, continues quickly, as well as the Chinese Yuan Strengthening Project 🇨🇳

🇨🇳 Over the past year, the Chinese Government has accelerated the De-Dollarization Process, making agreements with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil and even France to expand the use of 人民币, the People's Currency, mainly known as Yuan 📈

💬 The Chinese project to create an alternative pole for the Economy, Finance, Trade and International Lending is proceeding with enormous speed, so much so that even Western Analysts have noticed it, such as Adrian Zuercher - Head of Asset Allocation for the Region Asia-Pacific by UBS Global Wealth Management - which declared that China "is sending a very strong signal to the US", saying - basically - that it has no need for the Dollar 🔥

⭐️ This message, however, does not remain only within China's borders, but resonates in the world, and the US imperialists - day after day - are more terrified, given that China is concretely burying the Dollar 🇨🇳

📄 As written in the article "China Takes the Yuan Global in Bid to Repel a Weaponized Dollar": «The use of the RMB in contracts for everything from Oil to Nickel is gaining speed, with the currency's share in trade finance tripled since the end of 2019» 📈

🇷🇺 Also, considering the case of Russia: «The use of the Yuan in export payments increased 32 times last year alone» 📊

🇷🇺 Blocked by the SWIFT System, Russia - as written in the article - has embraced the Yuan for trade, private savings and foreign currency transactions, and the Chinese Government has developed its own international payments platform, the CIPS, separated from the West 🇨🇳

Furthermore, with the Grand Reopening of China, political leaders from every country in the world, from Asia to Africa, passing through Europe, have traveled to China to dialogue with Xi Jinping and Li Qiang, and sign Cooperation Agreements Cheap with national currencies, weakening the Dollar ✍️

🤦‍♀️ At this point, the article is filled with petty ideology, between "muuuh free market" of ex-members of Goldman Sachs and criticism of the Communist Party of China, for "not allowing the free flow of capital", i.e. - basically - for not leading the economic and financial liberalization 🤡

⭐️ Sorry, but the "Public Property as Pillar", Macro-Economic Planning and Market Regulatory System, Will Remain the Basic Principles of Chinese Economy 🚩

🤩 An event of enormous importance has recently occurred: the Yuan has surpassed the Dollar as the most used cross-border currency in China. You can learn more here 📰

💬 "The repercussions of the war in Russia have worried other nations about the risk of US-led sanctions", said Esther Law - Senior Money Manager of Amundi SA, and therefore further growth in popularity for the RMB is expected 🇨 🇳

人 - People, human beings as a general concept 👥

人民 - combined with 民 becomes "People" ⭐️

币 - Coin, currency, money 🤑

人民币 - People's Coin 🇨🇳

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[revindicatedbyhistory]

if china kills the dollar i will name all of my children after xi jinping

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Nikkei is Private Japanese Media]

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) came at the "right time" for boosting Africa's development, a top African Union (AU) official told Nikkei Asia, as he played down concerns that it was a debt trap for poor countries. Last week, Beijing said it would ramp up the decade-old infrastructure drive to build ports, roads and railways by pushing into the digital realm, as the multibillion-dollar program becomes China's key foreign policy tool for influence in developing nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping's renewed focus on industrialization, agriculture and talent development was also just what the continent needs, said Albert Muchanga, head of trade and industry for the African Union Commission, the AU's Ethiopia-based secretariat.

"China will continue BRI, at the same time there is a complementary effort to support us in those three areas. ... Both came at the right time," Muchanga said in an interview on the sidelines of last week's Turkey-Africa Business and Economic Forum in Istanbul. "Africa was making massive investments in developing infrastructure, connectivity, telecommunication systems as well as energy facilities [when BRI launched] and that helped quite a lot." "We need to start the process of adding value on the continent to push industrialization," added the former Zambian diplomat.[...]

Asked if Western powers were being drawn to Africa in competition with China, Muchanga replied, "Well, they are reacting to it, which is good." He also questioned growing criticism that the BRI's massive infrastructure loans and an opaque structure have saddled some recipient countries with unsustainable debt. Some $76.8 billion worth of Chinese overseas loans were renegotiated or written off between 2020 and 2022, according to U.S. research firm Rhodium Group, compared to $17 billion in the preceding three years. "When you discuss with the scholars from China and other people, I think there's an acknowledgment that if we demonstrate greater transparency, I think some of the allegations that are made may not be well founded," Muchanga said, without elaborating.

AU member nation ministers will gather in November to adopt a critical minerals strategy, the official said, adding that the commission is working on a document for approving its new leaders at a summit scheduled for February. "We are responding to the issue of green transition by coming up with a critical minerals strategy," he said, "but the message is to come and produce at source to contribute to decarbonization."

16 Oct 23

[dertaglichedan]

Putin Hosts BRICS Leaders, Showing He Is Far From Isolated

(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin is playing host to Russia’s biggest gathering of world leaders since the invasion of Ukraine and using the BRICS summit to show the US and its allies that he’s no pariah.

With Russian troops advancing in eastern Ukraine and evidence of growing war fatigue among some of Kyiv’s allies, the Kremlin is seizing its opportunity to cast Putin as standing up to the West in attempting to reshape the global order. The US and its Group of Seven partners dismiss the argument, though it’s a message that resonates with some countries of the emerging world.  

Leaders of 32 countries, as well as top officials of regional organizations and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will attend the three-day summit starting Tuesday in Kazan, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are joining Putin alongside leaders of the new BRICS members, Iran, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia. Putin plans bilateral meetings with many of them, as well as with guests such as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday canceled his plans to attend the summit after suffering a head injury in an accident at his home. Officials said he’ll participate by video link.

While BRICS favors greater use of national currencies in bilateral trade, members including India reject attempts to promote China’s yuan as an alternative reserve currency.

***WAKE UP!! This is NOT good for the US Dollar..

[mariacallous]

Elections in Moldova and Georgia this week are turning into a sobering reality check for the European Union as it finds itself increasingly on the back foot in its battle for influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For years, the EU has been confident that its liberal, democratic agenda will ultimately steer Georgia and Moldova away from the Kremlin’s orbit and toward the West — a confidence boosted by polls suggesting both countries have big popular majorities for EU membership.

This week’s elections now suggest that this optimistic EU vision is increasingly uncertain. Moldova voted for EU membership by only the narrowest of margins on Sunday — with 50.4 percent of voters in favor — and the populist Georgian Dream party that is expected to win on Saturday is set to pursue an illiberal agenda that would make EU membership impossible.

For the EU, the determination of its adversary in Moscow is daunting.

It is evident that the Kremlin — despite its heavy commitments in Ukraine — is still willing to pour big money into vote-buying and disinformation campaigns to reassert its stamp on former Soviet territories. In both Moldova and Georgia, Moscow is making headway with a propaganda narrative that countries which pursue a pro-EU or pro-NATO agenda are playing with fire, recommending neutrality as the antidote to conflict.

Aghast at the result, Moldova’s pro-EU President Maia Sandu complained of Russia’s “unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy.” While recent polls suggested a majority of some 60 percent were in favor of joining the bloc, it looked for much of the night as if the anti-EU camp would win.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was quick to stress the tight result was the result of Russian dirty tricks, and insisted Brussels would press ahead with getting Moldova into the bloc.

“In the face of Russia’s hybrid tactics, Moldova shows that it is independent, it is strong and it wants a European future,” she said.

Still, the result in Moldova lays bare the limits to EU influence just as Putin is styling himself as part of a broader anti-Western alliance.

On Tuesday, Putin will host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and more than 15 other heads of state for talks in the Russian city of Kazan. Moscow has pushed for the admission of a handful of new countries into a BRICS format, designed to band developing economies together to challenge Euro-American interests. It also wants to use it to challenge the United States dollar.

Bribes and disinformation

There is little doubt about the scale of Russian intervention in Moldova.

In a statement following the count, the leader of the National Democratic Institute’s observation mission, former Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, reported widespread efforts to undermine the process.

“The greatest threat to the integrity of these elections has been a broad and concerted campaign of malign foreign influence from Russia, collaborating with Moldovan actors through information manipulation, vote-buying, and other illicit financing of political activity,” he said.

To achieve even the slimmest of majorities in that context, other monitors said, was a significant achievement. “Moldovans demonstrated resilience in the face of unprecedented foreign interference,” said U.S. Congressman Peter Roskam, who led an International Republican Institute observer mission.

Moldovan officials repeatedly sounded the alarm over huge sums of Russian money being funnelled into the accounts of ordinary voters in the weeks leading up to the vote. The authorities accuse Moscow and its local proxies of seeking to use cash to push people into opposing EU membership and uniting behind a pro-Russian challenger standing against Sandu.

“We are talking about up to 20 percent of corrupted votes, and an estimated €150 million interference operation by Russia,” said Valeriu Pasha, program manager at the Moldova-based think-tank WatchDog.MD Community. “Without this massive vote bribing, the result would look totally different. So in these very harsh conditions, the fact that we still have a majority yes vote is already a very good result.”

A transferable model

Speaking to POLITICO ahead of the vote on Sunday, former Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said the referendum had been called to “settle the domestic conversation in the country” before voters head to the polls in next year’s parliamentary elections, where Sandu and her allies face a host of pro-Russian opposition parties.

That gambit appears to have failed. Instead of demonstrating unity, it has created a dangerous new dividing line, and convinced the Kremlin it pays to try to swing the result.

“The preliminary election results highlight the challenges Brussels faces in extending EU membership to post-Soviet countries,” said Marta Mucznik, an analyst with Crisis Group. “With Moldova preparing for parliamentary elections in 2025, these divisions are likely to shape political discourse in the months ahead.”

That bodes ill for Georgia, where the Georgian Dream party is seeking a majority in parliamentary elections on Saturday, vowing to ban the entire opposition if it secures enough votes. The dramatic campaign comes amid warnings of state capture by Russia, as the country passed Moscow-inspired restrictions on Western-funded nongovernmental organizations, the media and the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s time Western policymakers woke up to the fact that Russia’s war isn’t just limited to Ukraine — it’s about taking on the democratic world anywhere that Moscow thinks it can exert influence,” said Ivana Stradner of Washington’s Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “And while risk-averse European and American officials think in terms of individual tactics, Putin has a whole strategy he’s using to try and win.”

For Sandu, it’s not just EU candidate nations that should be worried — or just smaller ones.

Everyone is at risk.

“It is true that you can damage the democratic process in a small country more easily,” the Moldovan president said. “But once these practices are tested in smaller countries, they can be tried in other countries.”

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Lula and Xi Jinping sign 37 deals in Brasília, but Brazil skips Belt and Road

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit on Wednesday at the Palácio da Alvorada in Brasília, Brazil signed 37 agreements with the Asian nation across various sectors, yet did not join the Belt and Road Initiative, China's trillion-dollar investment program.

The agreements between Brazil and China encompass market access for agricultural products, educational exchange, and technological cooperation in areas such as trade, investments, infrastructure, industry, energy, mining, finance, communications, sustainable development, tourism, sports, health, and culture.

Regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, a protocol on "synergies" was established, but Brazil did not fully commit to the Chinese initiative, as previously indicated to O GLOBO by Lula's special advisor for international affairs, Celso Amorim. The countries aim to find common ground between the Belt and Road Initiative and Brazil's infrastructure and industrial incentive programs.

These programs include the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), the New Brazil Industry Plan, the Ecological Transformation Plan, and the South American Integration Routes Program.

Continue reading.

[beardedmrbean]

CHANCAY, Peru (AP) — On the edge of Peru’s coastal desert, a remote fishing town where a third of all residents have no running water is being transformed into a huge deep-water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interest in resource-rich South America.

The megaport of Chancay, a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is turning this outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy.

From the presidential palace in Lima, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the port inauguration ceremony, China’s President Xi Jinping watched a livestream of the ribbon-cutting alongside his Peruvian counterpart, Dina Boluarte, late Thursday.

The leaders' faces appeared on a giant screen in Chancay, where engineers in bright orange safety vests declared the port operational to the swell of string instruments. Chinese dancers with red dragon-costume heads seemingly burst out of nowhere to prance around the docking station as a crane lowered the first aluminum containers onto a berthed cargo ship.

“Considerable income and enormous job opportunities will be generated for Peru,” Xi said from Lima, where world leaders were preparing to gather for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. “This will generate tangible results for the people of the region.”

But the development — expected to encompass 15 quays and a large industrial park drawing more than $3.5 billion in investment over a decade — has met a skeptical response from impoverished villagers, who say it is depriving them of fishing waters and bringing no economic benefit to locals.

“Our fishing spots no longer exist here. They destroyed them,” said 78-year-old fisherman Julius Caesar — “like the emperor of Rome” — gesturing toward the dockside cranes. “I don't blame the Chinese for trying to mine this place for all it's worth. I blame our government for not protecting us.”

The Peruvian government hopes the port will become a strategic transshipment hub for the region, opening a new line connecting South America to Asia and speeding trade across the Pacific for Peru's blueberries, Brazil's soybeans and Chile's copper, among other exports.

Officials cite the port's potential to generate millions of dollars in revenues and turn coastal cities into so-called special economic zones with tax breaks to lure investment.

“We Peruvians are focused primarily on the well-being of Peruvians,” Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer told The Associated Press.

But many of Chancay's 60,000 residents are unconvinced. Fishermen returning to port with smaller catches complain that they have already lost out.

The dredging of the port — which sucked sediment from the seabed to create a shipping channel 17 meters (56 feet) deep — has ruined fish breeding grounds, locals said.

“I’ve been out in the water all day and I’m always needing to venture farther,” said Rafael Ávila, a 28-year-old fisherman with sand in his hair, returning to shore empty-handed and exhausted.

“This used to be enough,” he said, pointing at his painted dinghy. “Now I need a larger, more expensive boat to reach the fish."

To make extra cash, Ávila started offering occasional joyrides to selfie-taking visitors wanting to get a glimpse at the hulking Chinese ships.

With some of the world's largest container ships to berth at Chancay Port in January 2025, residents also fear the arrival of pollution and oil spills. In 2022, a botched tanker delivery at La Pampilla refinery nearby sent thousands of barrels of crude oil spilling into Peru's famously biodiverse waters, killing countless fish and putting legions of fishermen out of work.

Today a glance at the moribund town center, featuring mostly empty seafood restaurants, tells the story of diminished fishing stocks and decimated tourism even without the port being operational.

The port's breakwater changed the currents and destroyed good surfing conditions, locals said, affecting everyone from ice vendors to truckers to restaurant owners. “No to the megaport” is spray-painted on a wall overlooking the waterfront.

“This port is a monster that's come here to screw us,” said 40-year-old Rosa Collantes, cleaning and gutting slimy drum fish on the shore. “People come to the port and they say ‘Wow, tremendous!' but they don't see the reality.”

Port authorities say they're aware of the stark contrast between the sleek modern port and the surrounding village of Chancay, where many live on unpaved roads lined with ragged shacks and littered with trash.

“You cannot build a state-of-the-art port and have a city next to it that has no drinking water, no sewage, a collapsing hospital and no educational centers,” said Mario de las Casas, a manager for Cosco in Chancay, adding that the company had already launched studies to determine how the port could help reduce inequality and spur local growth.

“The port should not be a blemish,” De las Casas said.

[darkmaga-returns]

The Global South-led organization BRICS is growing. More and more countries support the group’s mission: to build a multipolar world, with alternative economic institutions that are more representative and democratic, not dominated by the Western powers.

BRICS held a summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, where 13 new “partner nations” were accepted.

At this historic meeting, China’s President Xi Jinping referred to BRICS as “a vanguard for advancing global governance reform” and “reform of the international financial architecture”.

Bolivia’s left-wing President Luis Arce argued that “the shield of BRICS and multipolarity” can protect formerly colonized nations, helping them resist “Western unipolarity and the tyranny of the dollar”.

[misfitwashere]

Friends,

Elon Musk says that if Trump loses, “I’m fucked.”

Why would the world’s richest man be “f*cked” if Trump loses? 

Because under a Harris administration, Musk may be held accountable for his many abuses of power — for busting unions and mistreating workers, for using SpaceX and Starlink to monopolize America’s satellite and space infrastructure, and for using his social media platform to knowingly spread dangerous lies.

When I say “may be held accountable,” I don’t mean Musk would be punished for supporting Trump, as Trump has promised to punish his opponents. Instead, Musk’s many possible violations of the law, including some that are quite recent, may finally catch up with him under a Harris administration. 

Musk’s daily million-dollar sweepstakes giveaways to people who have registered to vote in battleground states appear to be clear violations of campaign finance law, which makes it illegal to pay money to people to register to vote. 

Campaign finance law also makes it illegal for superPACs to coordinate with candidates. As the person in charge of one of the largest superPACs supporting Trump, Musk’s frequent conversations with Trump would appear to run afoul of these provisions, as well. 

In addition, Pennsylvania — the state where Musk began his million-dollar sweepstakes — prohibits illegal lotteries and deceiving consumers by not providing a complete set of contest rules including odds of winning and details on how winners are selected. The district attorney of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit Monday to halt Musk’s giveaway. 

Musk may also be held accountable for conflicts of interest between his being in “regular contact” with Russian president Vladimir Putin, as reported by The Wall Street Journal last Friday, and his status as one of the most important national security contractors to the U.S. government through his SpaceX and Starlink enterprises. 

The Journal reports that Musk’s regular discussions with Putin — confirmed by several current and former U.S., European, and Russian officials — have involved business and geopolitical tensions. 

Musk’s SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite system, has a $1.8 billion contract with U.S. military and intelligence agencies. It’s the primary rocket launcher for NASA and the Pentagon. It launches vital national security satellites into orbit and is the company NASA relies on to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. 

To effectuate these contracts, Musk says he has top-secret security clearance. 

How can someone who runs two of America’s most important military and intelligence agencies, and who has top-secret security clearance, be secretly meeting with Putin? 

At one point, Putin reportedly asked Musk to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to two people briefed on the request.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said The Wall Street Journal’s report should prompt an investigation.

Musk's conversations with Putin would clearly violate Musk’s security clearance if he failed to properly report them to the U.S. government. If classified information was leaked, Musk could be required to give up control of SpaceX, which holds the majority of his companies’ government contracts.

Musk has also been in contact with other high-ranking Russian officials, according to The Wall Street Journal, including Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department accused Kiriyenko of creating some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Musk’s X, where it was meant to erode support for Ukraine and manipulate American voters ahead of the presidential election. 

If Musk has been a witting conduit for Russian election disinformation, he could lose control of X. He could even go to jail. 

Musk’s and Russia’s interests have increasingly overlapped. Russian forces occupying the country’s eastern and southern swaths have started using Starlink to enable secure communications and extend the range of their drones. Russian troops also began using Starlink terminals, brought in through third countries, undermining one of Ukraine’s few battlefield advantages. 

Earlier this year, Musk gave airtime to Putin and his views on the U.S. and Ukraine when X carried Tucker Carlson’s two-hour interview with Putin inside the Kremlin. In that interview, Putin said Musk was “a smart person” and “you need to find some common ground with him, you need to search for some ways to persuade him.”

But what may get Musk really “f*cked” is his leading role in the emerging anti-democracy movement. 

Since Musk was born in South Africa, he’s ineligible to become president of the United States. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping him. He’s planning to become CEO of the United States of America, Inc. 

The anti-democracy movement includes Musk, along with Peter Thiel (the self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible” and who invested $15 million in JD Vance’s bid for the Senate), JD Vance, Blake Masters (in whose Senate bid Thiel invested $10 million), tech entrepreneur David Sacks, and blogger Curtis Yarvin. 

Yarvin, who comes as close as anyone to being the intellectual godfather of the anti-democracy movement, has written that real political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream press, whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding the social order. 

Yarvin believes democratic governments should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.

How to achieve Yarvin’s vision? The first step, as Vance offered in a 2021 podcast, is to replace “every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state … with our people.”

The second step? We can only guess, but Trump has offered Musk a position in his administration to head up “government efficiency.” 

In early October, Musk registered with the Texas secretary of state’s office a new corporation called United States of America, Inc. 

If Trump becomes president, will Musk’s United States of America, Inc. replace the administrative state?

[bopinion]

2024 / 16

Aperçu of the Week

"You can't knock on opportunity's door and not be ready."

(Peter Gene Hernandez, better known as Bruno Mars and my sons favorite soundtrack while he's cooking)

Bad News of the Week

Sport actually has nothing to do with politics. Because the competition is carried out by individuals who (can) stand outside of systems. Nevertheless, sport is often instrumentalized by politics by stylizing successful athletes as symbolic figures for the strength of a system. I can still remember the Olympic Games in the 70s and 80s very well, in which the athletes of the USA and the Soviet Union competed against each other in many ways as a priority. And Rocky IV, of course.

It is fitting that sports organizations have always been suspected of being corrupt - often rightly so, see FIFA. It is therefore clear that it is almost always not the athletes who are the problem, but the officials. Do you need proof? How about China and doping? Because there was a big boom this week, as a journalistic investigative team from ARD (the BBC of Germany) found out.

At a national swimming competition in China at the beginning of 2021, 23 swimmers tested positive in the mandatory doping tests - which means negative in this context. This was then covered up. With the knowledge of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). The agency did not consider it worth investigating the banned substance trimetazidine, for which the Russian figure skating prodigy Kamila Valiyeva was banned for four years in the same year. The Chinese swimmers, however, were not. In the following Summer Olympics in Tokyo, three of them won gold and two silver.

We can see that China today is what the Soviet Union (and to some extent the GDR) used to be - a regime that abuses even its top performers to score points at international level. The staff looking after athletes (including doctors who have long since thrown the Hippocratic Oath overboard) still have more say than the athletes themselves. An institution that was set up to prevent malpractice can also be corrupt. At the major sporting events this summer, first the European Men's Football Championships and then the Olympic Games in Paris, spectators will not know whether they are cheering on a fake. And the athletes themselves won't know whether the competition was fair at all.

Good News of the Week

At last, US weapons are back in Ukraine. For months, the Republican “Freedom caucus” in the House of Representatives had been standing on the brakes. And Ukraine lost. Because, as is generally the case in the NATO context, all other members cannot compensate for the loss of by far the most capable partner country. It is therefore a great relief that the rationalists in the USA have regained the upper hand. And are now giving the badly shaken Ukraine hope again.

The following still applies: if Putin can subjugate Ukraine or impose a dictated peace on it, he will not sit back contentedly in his armchair in the Kremlin and enjoy the day of victory. He will continue in his quest to bring the Soviet Union back from the dead. Even if the Baltic states are members of NATO, they would be his next victims (not to mention Moldova, for example). Because apparently he could simply allow himself to do this without being stopped. The democracy of the whole of Europe is being defended in Ukraine, that must not be forgotten. So my heartfelt thanks to the US Congress.

A positive side effect of all this is that the same financial package, which Joe Biden will undoubtedly sign as soon as possible, contains even more. Namely 26 billion US dollars for the suffering population in Gaza - in your face, Benjamin Netanyahu! And 8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region - in your face, Xi Jinping! The USA are back on the world stage where they belong. I would not have thought it, but I must now pay tribute to a member of the Republican establishment. So thank you, Speaker of the House James Michael “Mike” Johnson. Hopefully I'll get over it...

Personal happy moment of the week

My son was in trouble with a teacher. A misunderstanding - that had developed into a solid crisis due to a certain stubbornness on both sides - was now threatening to cost him his participation in a project that is important to him. I took his side and was called in for a “clarifying discussion”. This was then canceled because the teacher (probably looking for reinforcement and arguments) consulted with other teachers. And “received very positive feedback on his behavior”. Disciplinary measures were not taken “because he is so committed and keeps the group together.” So a serious accusation suddenly turned into high praise.

I couldn't care less...

...that a Belgian court acquitted a driver who was driving with a blood alcohol level of 2.1. Because he suffers from the extremely rare “home-brew syndrome”: the body produces alcohol itself, which leads to the usual symptoms such as reduced responsiveness etc. Anyone who is a danger to themselves and, above all, to others on the road should not be allowed to drive - for whatever reason. After all, the disability of no blind person is their own fault. But no court in the world would allow him to drive.

It's fine with me...

...that for the first time in the history of the USA a criminal trial is taking place against a (former) president. I don't care whether or not you can plead guilty to election interference by falsifying business records because of hush money payments to a porn star. I just wish that a proven notorious liar and cheat, who is also a sexist, racist, homophobe and incidentally “unfit for office”, would finally have to take responsibility for his actions in court.

As I write this...

...April lives up to its name: first you can go swimming and two days later it's snowing. Candles are set up in the vineyards to warm the tender buds. And the hedgehog that has been hibernating on the terrace under our barbecue probably thinks it has woken up too early. Allergy sufferers are happy about the abrupt end of the pollen season. But everyone misses spring.

Post Scriptum

Everyone gets their life from their mother. She is the primary caregiver that all humans have in their first perceptions. That's why I've never understood why so many men simply devalue this in the course of their lives - and grant women fewer rights than themselves. Poverty, discrimination and a lack of equal rights cost lives, according to the latest UN World Population Report.

Not only is there no progress towards equality, there is actually a decline. The rights of “women, girls and gender-diverse people are being pushed back more and more,” says Dr. Natalia Kanem (head of the United Nations Population Fund). Lack of representation and limited self-determination force one in four women under a male-dominated yoke. And sexual violence is a problem in almost every country in the world. No man can want that. Not for his mother, not for his sister, not for his daughter. And not for his wife either. Shame on you!

[abyrondeans]

China's Relationship With Erasure And Poverty

Going back to my hunch that Landreth's "RAB" connects to my intention before I was born that I'd wipe out poverty around the world or die trying, this was in today's New York Times 'Xi Jinping, declared “a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.”' And so was this "A heartbreaking video of a retiree that showed what groceries she could buy with 100 yuan, or $14.50 — roughly her monthly pension and sole source of income — went viral on the Chinese internet. The video was deleted."

A dollar a day supposedly was the global threshold for poverty a while back. I don't know how they got that number: I was imagining 3,300 euros a month minimum. So that's my target. It makes me laugh to think about the difference.

[workersolidarity]

China & Russia pledge 'changes not seen in 100 years': Xi & Putin take aim at US dollar hegemony - Geopolitical Economy Report

US Dollar dominance is coming to an end. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries can see this and are beginning to take sides against US Hegemony.

The establishment's reaction has been violent and thrashing, if predictable. The US sanctions regime has expanded many-fold over the last decade and its impacts have only accelerated the trend towards Multipolarity.

Back at home in the US and Europe this is having an effect on inflation as supply chains crafted over the last 40-50 years disintegrate and sanctions proliferate.

Meanwhile, the US takes contradictory actions: even as the Fed, which is run by Wall Street banks, tightens the monetary supply and raises interest rates, the central government, whose protectorate includes the broader empire, continues increasing spending on Military procurement and expansion, along with aid to Ukraine.

Aggressively pursuing expansion into the farthest reaches of the empire, surrounding Russia and China with military bases and hostile puppet governments, the US tries with all its might to trip up and make China and Russia stumble through various international incidents, with the US seen attempting to flare up many old, simmering conflicts in the region to divert China and Russia's resources and attention away from the wrestling match for Geopolitical control.

Clearly it's not working.