agree its all still a work in progress kind of thing- I should have included- Powell and others have noted it’s not immediate (and certainly not the indium selenide, which was purely lab only), but the graphene industrial chain is the most mature, and tengs are being tested in market applications already, and the MoS2 breakthrough is focused explicitly on manufacturing implementation. Considering the new 5 year plan is specifically mentioning semiconductors and AI so often, I imagine this 3 component convergence that Powell connects makes sense as a potential focus. Much like green tech, evs, etc were for made in 2025 to be realized, 10 years seems to be the proper timeline.

Another note I read that correlates with the tether seizure of Iran’s money- these funds were just sitting there. For years. Untouched. The US seizing them with Tether’s compliance is basically another own goal on both- and perhaps was the bait and induced plan all along by the resistance. It kills Tether and US stablecoins in one blow. Cue Hannibal “love it when a plan comes together!”

ah, actually I just remembered- China DID issue a US treasury bond to Saudi a little while back. Which, while nominal, was perhaps a potential test case for USD as nominal scrip. I recalled Indi doing a pictorial faq about this – https://indi.ca/how-china-starts-printing-usd/

In the meantime, countries and banks around the world are now issuing Chinese panda bonds, and all the countries need China to export deflation and alternative systems even more now while empire’s own industries either pack up and go to China to survive or sanction themselves to death against it.

There’s certainly more to work out here in regards to any nation’s forex USD/ treasury holdings, certainly more than my amateur self can figure- no gold backing, no oil coming, tether/stablecoins a bust, and a CBDC that isn’t trusted or productively supported, so what happens when the holders come calling? Is this going to be gated/capped like they are doing with private credit (Blackrock being the alarming example)? I don’t see how the empire would ever dare to SAP themselves with asset stripping- what does it have to offer that isn’t just more rent seeking and cycles the same system? The material realities slams down the financial fiction.

Right on, China def doesn’t want it. He mentioned in the comments he’s planning to cover the options of what China plans and have done for prevention, He lives in China as well and in a post about what Chinese public intellectuals are saying about the war, a commenter thought all the intellectuals were naive because they didn’t mention it was aimed at China- he replied because it is so obvious that it goes without saying for them, going back to ’03. Much the same is said for best laid “plans” of the west going awry- in the ROF podcast he seems to think along the lines of Powell- China and reality have a say how it all plays out.

William Murphy’s substack has been a nice, concise analysis of all things current geopolitical and economic, from a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist lens- easy to read, bullet points, and a list of recommended reading from which the essays pull from. This one in particular laid out something many commenters have been pointing at as well- crises as permanent structural condition that never culminates into full flagration or resolution.

https://futuredude.substack.com/p/the-managed-catastrophe-imperialism

Reminds me of the tv show “The Americans”: when writing a character’s response to finding out her partner was a spy, showrunners discussed the (possibly apocryphal) cases of german wives who, after finding out their husbands were spies, did nosedives out windows, rather than accept the truth that their lives were lies and fabrications.

Deep psychological compartmentalizing- add to that “racism is a hell of a drug”, in the Upton Sinclair sense- western nations built on the moving target of whiteness as imperial justification, cannot fathom they are not the pinnacle of humanity, no matter the amount of liberal “rational enlightenment” and “education” teaches them otherwise. It is unthinkable that others have agency. Goebbel’s statement about believing the lie as long as the material conditions don’t intrude- I don’t think that is going to hold up. There will be plenty of people whose entire lives are destroyed materially, but will cling to a sense of superiority, etc in order to prevent a mental break- otherwise it would unmoor them from everything they’ve ever known.

“Israel” is such a perfect example of this- the entire thing is going up in flames, and lashing out is all that is left because otherwise the “israel” identity is left with NOTHING because that’s all it ever was- empty bullshit settler colonialism perverted religiousity.  No wonder MagaUSians cling to the absurdity that is Trump, and shitlibs cling to “democracy” (trademarked) etc- they can’t bother to interrogate reality because of what it would show them about themselves, about others as humans, and even if they could understand it, they won’t want to- it’s like a trauma bonding dependency. If people buy into the narrative ideology of “equality for all” and fairy tale bs about the US’s founding, they won’t question the material basis for the structure of it- good short piece on that- https://futuredude.substack.com/p/the-founding-fathers-didnt-invent You can’t reform what was outright evil in the first place – it must be replaced with something else.

As Periol said, “Because God”- been that way since the first Columbus landing, raping and pillaging, all written in their journals “because God gifted these girls to me”, etc- it’s been the epstein way since the start. Laith Marouf’s analysis hits on this, the history of europe perverting abrahamic religions into imperial justification and the belief in the “european” versions being superior or more “real” than where they originated from, the arab/middle eastern birth of Christianity as a reform movement of Judaism as the latter moved to Europe, Islam as a reform movement as Christianity became Europe’s imperial tool, and current Shia Islam as a reform/liberation theology in the face of Saudi-coded/western compatible/wahabi Islam. (And wariness of Russia’s return to Russian Orthodoxy as a “true” Christianity.)

Related to the issue of cognitive dissonance- good video here at bettbeat with David Hundeyin and Indi,

https://bettbeat.substack.com/p/is-iran-decolonizing-the-world-a

It isn’t just the western world either- so much of the colonized world is mind f’d, truly believing they are a part of the white imperialist project. Even with so many things falling apart, even with some of the psychological hold breaking via things like the lego videos, etc, so much is still auto-pilot conditioning. The destruction of international solidarity via the cold war and beyond is truly a mind virus legacy. Extend that to the joke about the synthetic/compatible left only supporting causes and revolutions that lose, or it being easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of imperialism and capitalism, that internalized colonization is very much in evidence.

Returning to the Maoist dictum- work with the advanced, convince the middle, isolate the backwards. The old historical, communist left’s adage of organize and educate is still needed. And people to people connection is so important- it’s the curative to divide and conquer- David mentioned this in the bettbeat video about the need to connect with other colonized people, as Indi’s and his history are so similar and that the victims of colonization need realize that they are not alone and stand together. It certainly will need to include the minds of those in the imperial cores as well. Oftentimes I myself dismiss those in the global north/imperial core, which, even if generous, doesn’t even crack 20% of world population, and again, to quote Indi, cannot imagine a world where they alone are NOT the subjects and drivers of history and reality. But – bourgeois culture is the dominant culture- they cover this in the video too- it seeps into the mind throughout one’s life so much that again, it’s auto-pilot to defend it and denigrate and demean oneself. I don’t know that a contrary material reality being forced upon people will actually change things, unless there is a concerted all around effort to organize and educate. That used to be the historical left and communism, but that’s a long road back. And why I feel so much of the BRICS, SCO, “sovereignty” battles likewise will struggle to nothing like the non-aligned movement if they do not come together to form an international bloc- empire suffers no challenges in any form.

This hits on another conversation on the deprogram channel with Diego Ruzzarin, which really cut to this point of religiousity, the current moment, etc- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbH3LTLcg1I

Diego asked one of the foreign secretary or something of the CPC to Latin American or CELAC- at the 1:40m mark-

“I understand China has this no intervention policy but because you come from a basis that every country has a level of sovereignty to make their own choices. So you’re observing from abroad sovereign countries making choices about their concrete material realities, right? So I said, but I don’t think most of these countries have sovereignty. They are more like occupied colonies in different modes and in different levels. So they’re not really freely choosing what to do and who to trade or who to ally with.

And the response was to my surprise was very profound. The response I got was very different from what I wanted because I wanted something like yeah let’s go intervene Star Wars in the global south everywhere bomb Tel Aviv. Yeah.

They were much more like ‘What a country learns in the process of becoming sovereign cannot be avoided. The process of reaching sovereignty it’s not a skippable historical process.’

That is very profound. It’s very Tao. This is very much in line with Confucianism, with Chinese legalism and very much in line with dialectical materialism as well. You know, we cannot be dirty French accelerationists. Historical processes need to happen. You know, you cannot give somebody their freedom. (my note:Malcolm X certainly hammered this time and time again) This, historically, it’s blown back. We’ve done that. We’ve tried that.

Yugo: It’s one of the criticisms we throw at the Soviet Union…

Diego: …It’s like Spinoza used to say, “Why do people fight for their slavery (servitude) like they are fighting for their freedom (salvation)?…And Lacan added “every revolution is fighting to find a new master”…But sovereignty is…about UNsubmission, UNsubordination…What is happening right now…is the only true power is the power of violence…the purely aesthetic decorations of human rights, international law, UN…they’ve shown their true colors as mechanisms to keep the powerful in place.

This is a very interesting historical process beyond the fact that the world is moving towards, according to me, an unstoppable multilateralism because the weakness of the US is showing everywhere.
Important of this geopolitical moment is the crumbling of international political institutions and the absolute lack of legitimacy in democratic processes. The faith in democracy is f’ing gone. The faith in international institutions is gone. The faith in Pax Americana is gone. This is the time for prophets. As philosophers, as critical thinkers, we should be studying religion at the moment. But not as nerdy
theologicians. No, we should be studying prophets and millenialism and end of the world tales because figures like Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, these prominent figures are the leaders of the future because they understand people are so desperate and times are so shady and there’s nothing for us to grasp on to that we will become highly religious again. This is the time for prophecies. (my note- I’d argue this is more that they are part of confusionist/distraction discourse and are astrologist/fortune telling hucksters that prey on the lost for the power it gives them, but the general point about people flailing for leadership stands)

…I don’t really believe in the left- right division. I think this is highly unuseful for the current state of politics worldwide. I think the division has always been capitalism versus communism. I believe left and right is within the liberal spectrum and even left-leaning political models at the
moment they still rely on private property of the means of production and a welfare state which it’s a 80s idea which peaked at the 80s and since the 80s has nothing but bad results everywhere. You have to be either Norway or Finland and have a reservoir of natural resources or a colony in Africa to sustain a welfare state. So left-wing politics for me it’s over since the 80s.

…I do believe that the ghost of Marx is full on back because of the success of China. And I think Maoism has a lot to teach us as a revolutionary historical process that it’s not directly replicable but is
highly educative for the global south because the global south has no other sovereignty example beyond China…So China it’s our example to be studied, not to be replicated I have to be very clear but to be studied …we have to find our way to develop our productive forces to develop our power to withhold and extense violence, develop our nuclear programs and aspire to sovereignty. Only in that sense then we can have national projects, political projects, emancipatory projects,
humanitarian projects…”

That video happened before the Ramadan war too, so I like to think that political islam/Shia as a liberation theology has created some space to maneuver for moral authority and guidance in contrast to the hucksters. I like the idea that Benji from resistanceisfertile has put it- from a psychologist perspective, China is “creating space” outside of the involved parties- creating options for building what comes after right now (Warwick Powell’s writing, again, great resource on much of this). And that the Chinese historical model, it is not directly replicable – another conversation involving Mikey/@karaokecomputer noted how a lot of revolutions fail not just because of imperial disruption, but because there’s no single blueprint and sometimes people are really f’in bad at it or take horrible pathways or inspiration (as the RT piece on the homepage about the maoist disintegration in India shows).

It is certainly the time of monsters- the question is if we will be able to get beyond this level of increasing insanity, to a more hopeful reality on the other side? Things like China’s Global Governance Initiative, etc are the “creating space” protocols being laid down, Russia and China trying to reform the UN, but the threats are ever looming. Laith has posited the “way out” for the US would be to go in and take the nukes from Israel- one can dream. That leaves the US again as final boss (some silver lining, I believe 1/3rd of the old nukes can’t fly because they rely on vac tube tech and the technicians are all long dead)- I agree with amarynth’s point about needing to completely disable the US and vassals ability to wage war, but that is quite an undertaking and would require the aforementioned missing international solidarity. At the same time, the “work local, think global” mentality is as good a methodology as ever- look forward to seeing what the global call to action site will look like. Though some caution- open activities are important, but as Lenin said – sometimes that can’t be done and things need to go underground. In these times, folks are gonna need to learn the “old ways”- going dark, spycraft, etc, but within new tech contexts. May we survive to the times beyond that.

Dangerous times indeed, though I wonder if it would have gone that far- Chiang Kai-shek knew it was the west who paid his corrupt ass (aka his most accurate nickname “General Cash My Check”), and the complicated and muddled allegiances that were yet to fully formalize into both the Chinese united front and the allies would not be something he would have risked lightly. Chinese head chopping, sure- westerners/whites, especially women, would be a very different matter. All that said, he was also a terrible general, in tactics and leadership and overall general strategy, as history proved, so perhaps she got lucky to get out.

The KMT is stuck- can’t go full on for reunification due to their tortured (as in literally having committed) past with the communists, yet must appeal to the geopolitically blinkered “status quo” crowd, while contending with the slavish insanity of the pro-indie DPP crowd that is concentrated in the cities. The split within the KMT itself is pretty emblematic of the situation- the best times economically in the past 20 years was when cross strait relations were at their best- MaYingJou in power with the KMT, undoing a lot of ChenSuiBian’s DPP idiocy- travel between mainland and taiwan, increased economic ties, etc. Then 2014- not just Ukraine, but HK “umbrella movment” BS, and Taipei’s “Sunflower revolution” where DPP/NED morons/students literally blocked out Taiwan government from passing a bill that was to strengthen economic and people to people ties on a much more official level between mainland and Taiwan.

Since then, Taiwan’s economy has gone backwards, especially with the tarriff wars, and the KMT has been on the back foot, competing for “vibes” with the DPP and TPP (not really a contender, and difficult to form coalition with because of the deliberately structured Taiwan legislature, hence why the DPP got leadership with <40% of the vote). The opposition within the KMT just came back from the US, claiming great US ties and promising to pass the spending bill. Much like Lee in South Korea, Zheng has a difficult line to walk- some of the old guard like Ma YingJou is all in on reunification, but that’s the problem- they all have nothing on the line politically.

Until the KMT takes control of the government, much of this is posturing and angling for leverage- tbd how fully/if Zheng steps into the reunification camp if they attain power. Would it be risking HK/NED 2019, and how would it be handled? Among the most unhinged/stupid people I have ever met in my life, are American Born “Taiwanese” DPP legacy kids- middle aged, and claiming they would join the US army to fight China, and defined his “Taiwanese” ethnic “differences” with Chinese people with that most indisputable and hallowed of the sciences – “Phrenology”. I put nothing past these crazies.

People to people connection is the most important and vital route, even moreso than the economic entanglement. While Rednote is banned already, on the other hand, there is a not insignificant group awakening to the reality- big time Taiwan vloggers like Gym Boss/guanzhang were formally DPP/indie fools, until he himself went to the mainland and he completely flipped (and is now called a CPC bootlicker by the green birds/DPP). There needs to be a deeper connection, or specifically, reconnection- the episode of Taipology between Angelica Oung (former DPP liberal, now reunification supporter) and the insightful Warwick Powell- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1lpVmw7B4 It’s about more than the idea of reunification (tongyi), it’s about reunion of family (quanjiatuanju). Until then, it’s signaling and baby steps.