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windsclouds2030

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so coup was not orchestrated by Edrogan. He just took full advantage of it to clamp down on opposition,
There are many pieces by MSM, just search under "Turkey Erdogan fighter jet shoot down Gulfstream VIP"

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Erdogan owes his life to Moscow who prevented US led Coup

The Millennium Report
July 25, 2016

The Turkish coup was originally planned for August, when the Greek Government was ‘scheduled’ to enter a crisis and be itself couped. This way, the entire Balkan would have entered a critical phase, with an end result of installing puppet Governments subservient to the US and a new iron curtain between US controlled Europe and Russia.

There isn’t a country that didn’t know a coup was underway in Turkey (apparently with the exception of the Turks who were wondering why were there tanks on the Bosphorus bridge). The specific coup-date kept being moved and wasn’t known, however CNN’s Christiana Amanpour helped everyone narrow it down when she set up base in Ankara and Istanbul just two days before the coup.

The Pentagon has a special relationship with CNN, and typically lets them know when the US is coup-ing a nation, so they can set up camp and report live. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour has managed to get herself banned from several countries; with good reason – when she shows up in a country, something terrible happens to that country. Turkey was no exception.

Moscow sent one of Putin’s advisors to travel to Ankara. The trip was top secret, only known to few select in Putin’s inner circle. Aleksandar Dugin was the man who was sent to Ankara to warn the Turkish leadership, but also to give them a massive list of people involved in the coup.

Coup begun a month earlier after some of the plotters were discovered. The Turkish government secretly asked its Courts to issue order for the arrest of 2,000 army, navy and air force officials after it became evident something was brewing. The Courts refused, on top of it, some of the judges involved in the Coup tipped off high-ranking generals that the Government was suspicious and hot on their trail.

As a result, not fully prepared for a coup, the coup was started anyways.

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KenC

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Dont ask me why, I dont know why the Gov insists on keeping the contract terms behind closed doors.
IMO it might have something to do with these countries not realistically able pay up the debt that China demanded collateral if not repaid. Obviously that collateral would be a political bomb if revealed, it could include ports, mines, land, resources etc.
Colateralised loans will carry lower interest rate, I believe. But as usual in any negotiation, there are always trade off and but in the end the project was delivered on time without substantial cost overruns. Without China's involvement , such a project will never happen. Who else would finance and build such a project? The EU, US , Japan ? If they could, why have they not done it.

Ultimately, Kenya received a very good train line that connects to the ocean. It is up to Kenyan to make money from it, instead of bickering who benefited most or playing too much politics.
 

windsclouds2030

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Registered Member
A TALE OF TWO CIVILIZATIONS

Authored by Alasdair Macleod (21 OCTOBER 2021)

In recent years, America’s unsuccessful attempts at containing China as a rival hegemon has only served to promote Chinese antipathy against American capitalism. China is now retreating into the comfort of her long-established moral values, best described as a mixture of Confucianism and Marxism, while despising American individualism, its careless regard for family values, and encouragement of get-rich-quick financial speculation.

The outcome of the Taiwan issue is likely to be decided by the evolution of economic factors. China is protecting herself against a global credit crisis by restraining its creation, while America is going full MMT [Modern Monetary Theory or Modern Money Theory -- in a nutshell, it is an economic theory that suggests that governments that issue their own fiat currencies should print as much money as they need]. The outcome is likely to be a combined financial market and dollar crisis for America, taking down its Western epigones as well. China has protected herself by cornering the market for physical gold and SECRETLY accumulating as much as 20,000-30,000 tonnes in national reserves.

The wealth disparity between city and country has become an important political issue, which is why as well as refocusing resources towards agriculture Xi has clamped down on super-rich entrepreneurs and their record-breaking IPOs. In his COMMON PROSPERITY POLICY, Xi declared that he was not prepared to let the gap between rich and poor widen, and that Common Prosperity was not just an economic issue but “a major political issue related to the party’s governing foundations”.

Following decades of communism under Mao, after China’s initial recovery and development Xi is now clamping down on UNFETTERED capitalism. He and his advisers have observed the DISINTEGRATION of family values in America and the rise of INDIVIDUALISM at the expense of family life; and with popular culture how these trends are being adopted by China’s youth. The state has now shut down western-style social media, and erased celebrity culture.

The social impact of CULTURAL CHANGE is often overlooked, but it is at the FOREFRONT of China’s policy-makers’ consideration. For millennia, a state-controlled Chinese civilisation endured. Never sympathetic to free markets, statist thoughts have turned inwardly to Confucius and Marx to escape the obvious failings of American capitalism and its decline from familial values to individualism and rampant speculation.

This is what Xi reflects in his presidency. His chief adviser, his éminence grise, is Wang Huning who operates in the political shadows. From all accounts, Wang is extremely clever, speaks French and English, spent a year in America and is a deep thinker who, having examined them, has rejected western values in favour of Chinese tradition.

Wang appears to be promoting a Confucian/Marxist hybrid civilisation which is intended to unify China’s many ethnic groups in a government-set culture, reverting to a morality of yesteryear. Comparing China’s future with that of American democracy and its moral degradation, the approach is understandable and enjoys popular support. All one can say is that so far, the Chinese appear to have made considerably less of a mess managing their economy and currency compared with America’s Federal Government and its central bank.

The political consequences are also important. By stemming the tide of Western moral decadence in her own territory China is insulating herself from the rest of the American-dominated world. This is being bolstered by steps to shift the emphasis from the export trade towards domestic consumption to improve living standards. In the process China will become more of an economic fortress, mainly interested in Africa and the Americas as sources of raw materials and commodities rather than as export markets to be fostered. China’s internationalism of the last four decades is increasingly redirected and confined to the Eurasian continent over which she exercises greater degrees of political and economic control. Which brings us back to the issues of Taiwan and the South China Sea, which China sees as consolidating her rightful political and cultural borders.


Like the Marxist professors in the universities, China’s thinkers, such as Wang Huning and President Xi himself, always believed America to be politically and morally rudderless and would destroy itself. Presumably the election of an unpredictable Trump followed by a President Biden who appears to be in a geriatric decline is seen in Beijing as evidence that American society is indeed rudderless and imploding.

It was against this likely event that in 1983 far-sighted Chinese strategists began to accumulate gold and to corner the word market for bullion. It would have been obvious to them that one day, dancing with the capitalist devils would become too dangerous and China’s future would have to be secured at the outset long before a capitalist collapse.

Accordingly, the Regulations on the Control of Gold and Silver were promulgated on 15 June 1983, appointing the People’s Bank (PBOC) with sole responsibility for managing China’s gold and silver while private ownership remained banned. The PBOC then began to acquire gold from foreign markets, a task made easier by the 1980-2002 bear market. Meanwhile, the government threw substantial resources into developing gold mining, and became the largest gold producer in the world by a substantial margin, overtaking South Africa, Russia, and the United States. State owned refineries took in doré from abroad, adding to the accumulation.

It was only after the PBOC had accumulated sufficient bullion from imports and domestic production that she set up the Shanghai Gold Exchange in 2002 and permitted Chinese citizens to acquire gold. The government even ran advertising campaigns encouraging the purchase of gold, and since then, over 19,000 tonnes have been delivered into private sector ownership from the SGE’s vaults.

Together with the total ban on exports of Chinese refined gold, the pre-2002 ban on private ownership while the state acquired sufficient bullion for its purposes, coupled with the subsequent encouragement to the public to do the same, China clearly regarded gold as her most important strategic asset. It has still not shown its hand, but given the likely amounts involved, to do so would risk destabilising the dollar-centric fiat currency world. Until it happens, we should assume that the 20,000-30,000 tonnes likely to have been accumulated in various state accounts since 1983 is an INSURANCE POLICY against the failure of American capitalism and the world’s reserve currency.

This brings us back to the Taiwan question. For China, the re-absorption of Taiwan may become a simpler matter when the capitalistic Americans are economically at their weakest and the dollar is collapsing. Taiwan itself might face up to this reality. A few steps to push America on its way may be tempting, such as selling down their holdings of US Treasuries (already in process) or disclosing a significantly higher level of gold reserves. The latter may wait until a dollar crisis really develops...


Tale2 - Commodities Prices.png

Tale5 - Shanghai Composite Index vs S&P 500.png

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Strangelove

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Nearly 100 countries voiced their support to China for developing its own pattern for human rights development and opposed politicizing human rights issues to suppress other countries at the 76th session of UN General Assembly on Thursday, while the US and a few Western countries started a new round of attacks on China over Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Xizang (Tibet) regions.

On behalf of 62 countries, Cuba made a joint statement on Thursday at the UN General Assembly to support China for developing its own pattern on human rights that fits its conditions and oppose other countries' interference in China's internal affairs under the banner of human rights.

The joint statement was made at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly as the Third Committee reviewed human rights issues after a few countries, including the US and France, made groundless accusations targeting China's human rights record.

The joint statement said that respecting each country's sovereignty, integrity and independence and no interference in other countries' domestic affairs should be the basic international code. Issues on China's Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Xizang regions are China's internal affairs, and no country has the right to interfere.

The joint statement called on countries to respect people of different countries to choose their own pattern for human rights development and opposed politicizing human rights issues or double standards, or making groundless accusations at China out of political purposes and based on disinformation.

Kuwait, on behalf of three Gulf countries, also made a joint statement to support China and said that to deal with human rights issues, countries should abide by principles of objectiveness without politicization, the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They should also respect each country's sovereignty and not interfere in other countries' internal affairs.

More than 30 countries also voiced their support for China at the meeting, which marked more fair and just voices at the UN platform after the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Wang Wenbin, Chinese FM spokesperson, told a press conference on Friday.

On Thursday, Ambassador Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, refuted the untenable accusations and reiterated China's stance on human rights issues, saying that China firmly opposes and refuses untenable accusations made by some countries.

It is so difficult for the US and a few countries to change their old bad habits - misusing the UN platform to make untenable accusations at China, spreading political viruses and disinformation, and poisoning the atmosphere for cooperation.

China has actively participated in all the topics of the Third Committee and offered China's approach. On behalf of 31 countries, China made a joint statement to oppose unilateral sanctions; on behalf of 76 countries, it made a joint statement on promoting the fair distribution of vaccines; together with African countries, China also released a joint statement opposing racial discrimination, winning support from 78 countries. All these show that China and the majority of developing countries insist that communication is the right direction for promoting human rights, and cooperation is the right pattern, Zhang noted.

I also want to tell US followers that you think you can be superior to others by obeying the superpower and playing the jackal to the tiger. But as a country that has no independence, you lost dignity and earned no respect from others, Zhang said.

The Chinese ambassador pointed out that China has introduced the true situation in its Xinjiang region many times. Before the opening of the Third Committee, China's Permanent Mission to the UN held a joint video conference with the Xinjiang regional government and invited representatives of local residents and foreigners who had visited Xinjiang or lived there to share their stories about the region.

The experiences and stories of more than 1,000 foreign diplomats, journalists, religious people from more than 100 countries who had visited Xinjiang shattered the lies made by some Western countries. Zhang noted that the happy life and smiles of Chinese people are the best and most true proof of China's human rights achievements. The lies made by the West can only fool themselves, not the whole world.

Zhang also noted that China welcomes all good and kind advice but refuses lectures based on lies and political oppression, or from those who think of themselves as superior to others. China's resolve to safeguard its sovereignty, security and interests of developments is firm and unshakable. It will carry out making contributions to promote human rights work around the world.
 

windsclouds2030

Senior Member
Registered Member
Why They Are Nervous. Short Excurse Into the Modern War. Part 1

By Andrei Martyanov (2021/10/23)


PATRICK ARMSTRONG thinks that they simply ran out of options in terms of color revolutions and he justifiably mentions this:

Former successes – in recent times, Ukraine twice, Georgia – are becoming failures: Hong Kong, Venezuela and Belarus. The targets have learned how to counter the attacks.

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Read the whole thing--it is excellent, as is usual for Armstrong.

Then, there is a good piece by TIM KIRBY on current US foreign policy, which he calls "surprising" because it is, in many important respects, repeats that of the Trump Admin. As Kirby astutely concludes:

In this sense, it could be that ultimately, both Biden and Trump were tasked with managing a crumbling global empire, trying to keep the sinking ship afloat as long as possible waiting for something to change. Thus, their reactions to events and plans could look similar because of the similar causes that underlie them, even if the spirit behind the actions are radically different. Like it or not NATO may just be obsolete, Afghanistan may have just been too expensive, China may just be too powerful. The reactions to these situations could wind up being similar out of necessity or a lack of options. Both Trump and Biden faced these same realities.

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And then, there is this, which brings us to the main point:

GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has been one of the most active backers of NATO's new master plan to counter Russia in case a military conflict breaks out between the sides. The strategy, which was agreed on Thursday, envisages the military alliance’s troops fighting Russian forces in the Baltic region and across the Black Sea, while also calling for non-conventional warfare, including nuclear weapons, cyber-attacks, and space military technology, to be employed.

Here is THE main point, as any Western politico with degree in political "science" (or politics), she cannot have a faintest idea what she supports or doesn't whenever it relates to any issue of warfare. And I mean zero, zilch--you cannot, you simply cannot, explain even in the most comprehensive briefings to any person with degree in "politics" and experiences with running basic fiscal-political "protocols" of the West's regional and national election pipelines, how tactical translates into operational, and how operational translates into strategic and, essentially, into the political level when war is involved. You could do this in 1914 and 1945, you still could do it in 1955, however barely, and then "something" happened--it became very hard, and by mid-1960s it all became an alien language to the main shakers and movers of Western politics--people whose only skill in life is how to re-elect oneself or how to navigate regional and national bureaucracies. Don't take it from me, take it from the US armed forces general with Ph.D in physics. These two pages written by a man who knows what he is talking about should be made mandatory for reading by 100% politicos and by about 99% of the so called military "experts".

In other words, no contemporary Western politician can have any sound idea on matters which, actually, are the main drivers behind global affairs, because they do not understand modern warfare. They cannot, you need a solid math, physics, engineering and tactical-operational experience as an officer to be able to grasp a profound connection between foreign policies of nations and the global power balance. Latiff laments that "serious scholarly books are written about war and its consequences, but the vast majority ignores them." Tell me about it. Can you imagine trying to explain to Rachel Maddow or this Germany's "defense minister" how the Probability Theory and Theory of Operations applies to modern politics in the times of hyper-sonic weapons, netcentric warfare, AI elements and over-the-horizon surveillance and anti-satellite weapons. Good luck with that, I heard some "political science" courses even include such things, of course, as Game Theory and... and... here is JOHN MEARSHEIMER of University of Chicago and, allegedly, "realist" teaches this course:

The issue here is not that Mearsheimer can hold those seminars, it is the fact that despite him being a graduate of the USMA at West-Point, class of 1970, he hardly qualifies for any serious military input because his record of "conclusions" regarding the only country which can wipe the US off the map, Russia, in the last decade demonstrates his COMPLETE DETACHMENT from the geopolitical reality in so far as the GLOBAL BALANCE OF POWER and TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION goes. Which his latest disastrous and empty treatise proves without a shade of a doubt. A nauseating meandering dabbling into the pile of contemporary Western political and foreign relations theories none of which ever predicted anything. Not to mention the fact that few in the West really know how things work precisely because the only thing they know is how to obfuscate facts to fit narratives. We are not like that, we have some clue and there is no reason to produce a pile of BS for the sake of own academic sinecure, no matter how risible this doctrine-mongering is. In 99% of the cases it is preposterous.

Now, that we have re-established the fact that Western politicos do not have a clue beyond general political, primarily media-driven, issues and that they can like or dislike anything related to warfare only based on how they are briefed and are told by people with a clue, let's explain now how even knowledge of basic facts of say Search Theory, ASW and physics and math of the modern warfare, namely Salvo model (missile exchange) gives us immediately an exceptionally clear glimpse of this capricious animal of strategy. You see, you need to know not only what to do, you need to know HOW things work and, especially, WHY they work. No course in history, political "science" or social sciences, supported by studying the statistics of GIGO (Garbage In-Garbage Out) can answer this.

(...)
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Who's the author, Andrei Martyanov?

Andrei Martyanov
is a classically educated Russian, which means very well educated. He speaks and writes fluent English. Long ago in the Soviet era, Martyanov graduated from a five-year, six day per week academic program at a rigorous naval academy. Among other things, he studied lots of math and physics, military history and operations theory. In the 1990s, Martyanov emigrated to the U.S. where, for a few years, he taught math and physics to American students, many of whom went on to impressive universities. Eventually he went to work for an aerospace contractor in the Puget Sound region. In 2014 Martyanov began a website called “Reminiscence of the Future.”

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