Brazil’s newly returned President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has
scrapped plans to sell off eight state-run corporate giants, including
the oil company Petroleo Brasileiro, known as Petrobras, Brazilian news
website G1 reported on Monday.
Lula, who was at the helm from 2003 through 2010, was sworn in as
Brazil’s president on January 1. Imprisoned for graft in 2018, Lula’s
convictions were overturned in 2019, allowing him to defeat Jair Bolsonaro in October’s election.
The decision to remove state corporations from the list of state
asset sales was one of the first official acts by the left-wing
politician.
Aside from Petrobras, the order includes Pre-Sal Petroleo, the state
firm responsible for the supervision and sale of the government’s share
of oil and gas from production-sharing contracts, along with the postal
service Correios, and the Empresa Brasil de Comunicacaooperator, which
manages the federal government’s broadcast network.
The Brazilian social welfare system’s IT services enterprise Dataprev,
state-owned nuclear company Nuclep, IT services corporation Serpro, and
the Agriculture Ministry’s National Supply Company are also off the
privatization list.
Brazil’s newly returned President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has
scrapped plans to sell off eight state-run corporate giants, including
the oil company Petroleo Brasileiro, known as Petrobras, Brazilian news
website G1 reported on Monday.
Lula, who was at the helm from 2003 through 2010, was sworn in as
Brazil’s president on January 1. Imprisoned for graft in 2018, Lula’s
convictions were overturned in 2019, allowing him to defeat Jair
Bolsonaro in October’s election.
The decision to remove state corporations from the list of state
asset sales was one of the first official acts by the left-wing
politician.
Aside from Petrobras, the order includes Pre-Sal Petroleo, the state
firm responsible for the supervision and sale of the government’s share
of oil and gas from production-sharing contracts, along with the postal
service Correios, and the Empresa Brasil de Comunicacaooperator, which
manages the federal government’s broadcast network.
The Brazilian social welfare system’s IT services enterprise
Dataprev, state-owned nuclear company Nuclep, IT services corporation
Serpro, and the Agriculture Ministry’s National Supply Company are also
off the privatization list.
The
returning president has called for “ensuring a rigorous analysis of the
impacts of privatization on the public service or on the market,”
adding that state banks and major oil companies such as Petrobras would
play a “key role” in the new economic cycle.
On Monday, the Sao Paulo stock index shed 3.24%, while Petrobras
shares dropped around 6% as Lula’s inauguration speech sparked investor
fears of interventionist government policies. The national currency –
the real – saw its value slide by 1.5%.
Lula’s predecessor, the populist far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, led
an administration mired in controversies ranging from corruption to
environmental devastation. Lula’s own government was brought down by
massive corruption in Petrobras, which led to the impeachment of his
hand-picked successor in 2016.
mexiconewsdaily |Overall, the magazine highlighted
that, in a year characterized by economic struggles worldwide, some
previously weak performers – such as Mediterranean countries – had
proven surprisingly resilient in the face of geopolitical uncertainty
and global supply shocks.
President López Obrador highlighted
the result at his Wednesday morning press conference, boasting that
Mexico had come out ahead of Canada, Japan, France, Italy, Belgium,
Switzerland, Britain and eventhe United States.
“We’re doing well,” he said. “2023
will be better, much better, because we already have the momentum, and
in politics momentum counts for a lot… Mexico is on the list of
countries with the most advantages to invest.”
Both AMLO and his supporters on
social media took the opportunity to hit back at The Economist for past
statements critical of the president, including a May 2021cover story that described AMLO as a “false messiah” who “pursues ruinous policies by improper means.”
“[And now] we are in sixth place in the world in economic performance,” the president said, emphasizing that The Economist “is not sympathetic to us.”
Fact-checkers were quick to point out
that The Economist’s list does not include all the countries in the
world, but only 34 of the 38 countries that make up the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Furthermore, Mexico’s continued strong performance is far from guaranteed. Themost recent figures
from the national statistics agency (INEGI) show that Mexico’s economic
growth stagnated towards the end of 2022, with the Bank of Mexico now
forecasting 2.9% growth across the whole year.Growth predictions for 2023 have been revised downwards several times, with one recent analysis forecasting 1.1%.
nakedcapitalism | But you are unlikely to hear much about Mexico’s unconventional
economic success story in the mainstream media, whether in Mexico, the
US, Europe or other parts of Latin America. After all, it might
encourage others to follow suit.
Over the past four years, the mainstream media has consistently
derided or attacked the AMLO government’s reform agenda, including its
promotion of energy security, its rewriting of the rules for outsourcing
and its nationalization of lithium. Even today, most MSM coverage
attributes the lion’s share of Mexico’s economic success in 2022 to
“external factors”, such as increased consumer demand and investment
from the US.
Every time AMLO has tried to pursue policies that generally favor
Mexico’s broader economy, dire warnings erupt that investors, both
domestic and foreign, will stampede for the exits. A case in point: one
of AMLO’s first acts in government was to cancel a $13-billion airport
for the capital that was almost one-third finished, around $5 billion
over budget, mired in allegations of corruption and posed serious
environmental downsides. In effect, he took his presidential predecessor
Enrique Peña Nieto’s legacy infrastructure project and ripped it up,
for a slew of good reasons. And in doing so, he sent a clear signal to
Mexico’s business elite that the time for “business as usual” was over.
But he also made sure that the investors holding the bonds that had
financed the unfinished project were paid in due course. And contrary to
what many economists, bankers and media pundits had warned, investors
did not rush for the exits.
Nor was there a mad stampede when the AMLO government began strong-arming
domestic and global corporations into finally settling their
decades-long tax debts with the Mexican state. Until AMLO’s arrival, no
government had even bothered to try. Coca-Cola bottler Femsa, and brewer
Grupo Modelo, a division of the world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch
InBev, paid hundreds of millions of dollars in current taxes and back
taxes. So too did Walmart and a host of other companies.
As a result, the government was able to raise more tax funds in 2020
than in 2019, without raising taxes on the middle classes. Again, no
rush to the exits, though some companies, such as Canadian mining giant First Majestic Silver Corp, are still refusing to pay up.
In fact, Mexico is fast becoming a magnet for foreign investment, as
corporations, particularly from the US, shift their focus from China to a
production base that is similarly cheap but closer to home. In the
first three quarters of 2022 Mexico received record levels of foreign
direct investment, much of it from the US. According to research by the
McKinsey Global Institute, American investors poured more money into
Mexico than into China last year. As the NYTkindly pointed out, for American companies moving business to Mexico location is the main driver:
Shipping a container full of goods to the United States
from China generally requires a month — a time frame that doubled and
tripled during the worst disruptions of the pandemic. Yet factories in
Mexico and retailers in the United States can be bridged within two
weeks.
A coterie of Mexican business lobbies have even suggested
that Mexico could become a vast investment hub for the whole of the
American continent. If this happens, the biggest beneficiaries, of
course, will be transnational corporations, mainly from the US. For
Mexico, it will mean even closer integration with the US economy, which
already accounts for over 85% of Mexican exports.
Just how much economic policy independence future Mexican governments
will have under such an arrangement remains to be seen, though the
answer is likely to be “not much”. The US and Canada are already locked
in a trade dispute with Mexico over AMLO’s energy reforms. It also means
that wherever the US economy goes — and signs are that it is heading
toward a recession — Mexico will quickly follow. And what was this year a
blessing could quickly become a curse.
NYTimes | “Everybody who
sources from China understands that there’s no way to get around that
Pacific Ocean — there’s no technology for that,” said Raine Mahdi,
founder of Zipfox, a San Diego-based company that links factories in
Mexico with American companies seeking alternatives to Asia. “There’s
always this push from customers: ‘Can you get it here faster?’”
During
the first 10 months of last year, Mexico exported $382 billion of goods
to the United States, an increase of more than 20 percent over the same
period in 2021, according to U.S. census data. Since 2019, American imports of Mexican goods have swelled by more than one-fourth.
In
2021, American investors put more money into Mexico — buying companies
and financing projects — than into China, according to an analysis by
the McKinsey Global Institute.
China
will almost certainly remain a central component of manufacturing for
years to come, say trade experts. But the shift toward Mexico represents
a marginal reapportionment of the world’s manufacturing capacity amid
recognition of volatile hazards — from geopolitical realignments to the
intensifying challenges of climate change.
“It’s not about deglobalization,” said Michael Burns, managing partner
at Murray Hill Group, an investment firm focused on the supply chain.
“It’s the next stage of globalization that is focused on regional
networks.”
That Mexico looms as a potential means of
cushioning Americans from the pitfalls of globalization amounts to a
development rich in historical irony.
Three
decades ago, Ross Perot, the business magnate then running for
president, warned of “a giant sucking sound going south” in depicting
Mexico as a job-capturing threat to American livelihoods.
“The
reality is that Mexico is the solution to some of our challenges,” said
Shannon K. O’Neil, a Latin America specialist at the Council on Foreign
Relations in New York. “Trade that is closer by from Canada or Mexico
is much more likely to create and protect U.S. jobs.”
Given
that the United States, Mexico and Canada operate within an expansive
trade zone, their supply chains are often intertwined. Each contributes
parts and raw materials used in finished goods by the others. Cars
assembled in Mexico, for example, draw heavily on parts produced at
factories in the United States.
Overall,
some 40 percent of the value of Mexico’s exports to the United States
consists of parts and components made at American plants, according to a
seminal research paper. Yet only 4 percent of imports from China are American-made.
citizen | The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was sold to the people of all three countries with grand promises. Mexicans were promised NAFTA would raise their wages and bring Mexicans’ standards of living closer to the United States and Canada. Instead, after 25 years, real wages in Mexico are down from already low pre-NAFTA wages, two million Mexicans engaged in farming lost their livelihoods and lands, tens of thousands of small businesses have gone bankrupt as American big-box retailers moved in, and poverty remains widespread. And, Mexican taxpayers have paid foreign investors more than $204 million in compensation following Investor-State Dispute Settlement attacks.
Prior to NAFTA, 21.4 percent of Mexico’s population earned less than the minimum income needed for food, a share that has barely budged in the 25 years since NAFTA’s implementation. Today, over half of the Mexican population and over 60 percent of the rural population still fall below the poverty line, contrary to the promises made by NAFTA’s proponents. On the 10-year anniversary of NAFTA, the Washington Post reported: “19 million more Mexicans are living in poverty than 20 years ago, according to the Mexican government and international organizations.”
Before NAFTA, Mexico only imported corn and other basic food commodities if local production did not meet domestic needs. NAFTA eliminated Mexican tariffs on corn and other commodities. NAFTA terms also required revocation of programs supporting small farmers. But NAFTA did not discipline U.S. subsidies on agriculture. The result was disastrous for millions of people in the Mexican countryside whose livelihoods relied on agriculture. Amid a NAFTA-spurred influx of cheap U.S. corn, the price paid to Mexican farmers for the corn that they grew fell by 66 percent, forcing many to abandon farming. From 1991 to 2007, about 2 million Mexicans engaged in farming and related work lost their livelihoods. Mexico’s participation in NAFTA was conditioned on changing its revolutionary-era Constitution’s land reforms, undoing provisions that guaranteed small plots (“ejidos”) to millions of Mexicans living in rural villages. As corn prices plummeted, indebted farmers lost their land, which newly could be acquired by foreign firms that consolidated prime acres into large plantations.
According to a New Republic exposé: “as cheap American foodstuffs flooded Mexico’s markets and as U.S. agribusiness moved in, 1.1 million small farmers – and 1.4 million other Mexicans dependent upon the farm sector – were driven out of work between 1993 and 2005. Wages dropped so precipitously that today the income of a farm laborer is one-third that of what it was before NAFTA.” The exposé noted that, as jobs and wages fell, many rural Mexicans joined the ranks of the 12 million undocumented immigrants competing for low-wage jobs in the United States.
As I've previously reported, the Department of Homeland Security's new definition of "domestic extremist" includes not only anti-government groups on the right but also anti-establishment left-wing groups such as animal rights and environmental activists:https://t.co/7INcvJjjk8pic.twitter.com/JOaHpeoPEh
piie | This paper is about the critics of the “doers” of globalization. It describes who they are, where they came from, what they want, how economists, policymakers, and others might understand them better, and where globalization might head from here. Many critics are themselves strongly internationalist and want to see globalization proceed, but under different rules. Some, particularly the protesters in the streets, focus mainly on what is wrong with the world. But some of them put forward broad alternative visions and others offer detailed recommendations for alleviating the problems they see arising from status quo globalization. Most of them have roots in long-standing transnational advocacy efforts to protect human rights and the environment and reduce poverty around the world. What brings them together today is their shared concern that the process by which globalization’s rules are being written and implemented is undermining democracy and failing to spread the benefits broadly. This paper sketches the key issues and concerns that motivate the critics in a way that is broadly representative and intelligible to economists. It finds more resonance for the critics’ agenda in economics than they commonly recognize. And it attempts to capture the concerns of Southern as well as Northern critics and to analyze the issues that divide as well as bring them together. Finally, it evaluates those issues and alternative proposals on which even globalization enthusiasts and the critics might come together cooperatively.
greenwald |“Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021,” the March 1 Report
from the Director of National Intelligence states that it was prepared
“in consultation with the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland
Security—and was drafted by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC),
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), with contributions from the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).”
Its primary point is this: “The IC [intelligence community] assesses
that domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated by a range of
ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the
United States pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021.” While
asserting that “the most lethal” of these threats is posed by “racially
or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent
extremists (MVEs),” it makes clear that its target encompasses a wide
range of groups from the left (Antifa, animal rights and environmental
activists, pro-choice extremists and anarchists: “those who oppose
capitalism and all forms of globalization”) to the right (sovereign
citizen movements, anti-abortion activists and those deemed motivated by
racial or ethnic hatreds).
The U.S. security state apparatus
regards the agenda of “domestic violent extremists” as “derived from
anti-government or anti-authority sentiment,” which includes “opposition
to perceived economic, racial or social hierarchies.” In sum, to the
Department of Homeland Security, an “extremist” is anyone who opposes
the current prevailing ruling class and system for distributing power.
Anyone they believe is prepared to use violence, intimidation or
coercion in pursuit of these causes then becomes a “domestic violent
extremist,” subject to a vast array of surveillance, monitoring and
other forms of legal restrictions:
This year began on February 24. Without prefaces and preludes. Sharply. Early. At 4 o'clock.
It was dark. It was loud. It was hard for many and scary for some.
311 days have passed. It can still be dark, loud, and complicated for
us. But we will definitely never be afraid again. And we'll never be
ashamed.
It was our year. Year of Ukraine. Year of Ukrainians.
We woke up on February 24. Into another life. Being another people.
Another Ukrainians. The first missiles finally destroyed the labyrinth
of illusions. We saw who was who. What friends and enemy are capable of,
and most importantly, what we are capable of.
On February 24, millions of us made a choice. Not a white flag, but a
blue and yellow flag. Not escaping, but meeting. Meeting the enemy.
Resisting and fighting.
The explosions on February 24 stunned us. Since then we have not
heard everything. And we don't listen to everyone. We were told: you
have no other option but to surrender. We say: we have no other option
than to win.
On February 24, we began to create our victory. From many bricks – hundreds of other victories.
We have overcome the panic. We did not run away but united. We have
overcome doubts, despair, and fear. We believed in ourselves and in our
strength. The Armed Forces of Ukraine. Intelligence. National Guard.
SBU. Special Operations Forces. Border guards. Territorial defense
forces. Air defense forces. The police. The State Emergency Service. All
our defense and security forces. I am proud of you all, our warriors!
This year can be called a year of losses for Ukraine, for the whole
of Europe, and the whole world. But it's wrong. We shouldn't say that.
We haven't lost anything. It was taken from us. Ukraine did not lose
its sons and daughters – they were taken away by murderers. Ukrainians
did not lose their homes – they were destroyed by terrorists. We did not
lose our lands – they were occupied by invaders. The world did not lose
peace – Russia destroyed it.
This year has struck our hearts. We've cried out all the tears. All
the prayers have been yelled. 311 days. We have something to say about
every minute. But most of the words are superfluous. They are not
needed. No explanations or decorations are needed. Silence is needed to
hear. Pauses are needed to realize.
More #Ukranian soldiers telling their president that they are coming for him and all the other politicians if they can only survive this. pic.twitter.com/S30gKpdtAR
Pravda |Background: On 13 December, the Verkhovna Rada approved
and directed the President to sign draft law No. 8271, which
significantly strengthens the criminal liability of the military. A
petition asking Volodymyr Zelenskyy to promise this law gained more than
25,000 votes in a day.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
stated that he supports the law No. 8271, which increases the criminal
liability of military personnel for disobeying combat orders, deserting
the battlefield or a military unit.
Quote: "Today I have to raise a rather difficult
topic: increased responsibility [of military personnel — ed.] for
voluntarily leaving a military unit or place of service, desertion,
voluntary leaving the battlefield or refusal to act with weapons,
disobedience, and failure to comply with combat orders.
I support the relevant amendments to the legislation adopted by the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine [Ukrainian Parliament — ed.] and ask the
President to sign the law. My opinion clearly reflects the position of
commanders of groups and military units, who demanded a systematic
solution to this set of issues."
Details: The army exists on discipline, Zalyzhnyi empasised.
And if gaps in the legislation do not ensure its compliance, and
"refuseniks" can pay a fine of up to 10% of combat pay, or receive a
probationary sentence, this is unfair, the Commander-in-Chief believes.
Quote: "Furthermore, this is key: exposed areas of
the front are forced to be covered by other servicemen, which leads to
increased losses of personnel, territories, and civilians on them.
Often, lost positions have to be restored by assault actions at a very
high cost. This should not be the case."
BBC | Speaking
after Vladimir Putin delivered a New Year address flanked by people in
military uniform, Mr Zelensky said the Russian president was hiding
behind his troops, not leading them.
At least one person died and dozens were injured in the attacks.
The
head of Ukraine's armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhny, said air defences had
shot down 12 of 20 Russian cruise missiles on Saturday.
There
were further missile strikes on Kyiv just hours into the New Year on
Sunday, officials said. The Ukrainian Air force said it had shot down 45
Iranian-made kamikaze drones overnight.
But
the strikes, which came in the opening hours of 2023, fuelled anger and
hate among Ukrainians already tired of Russia's unrelenting air
campaign.
As
explosions rocked the capital, some residents sang the national anthem,
while officials accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians
while they gathered to celebrated the New Year.
Andriy
Nebitov, the head of the Kyiv police, posted an image to social media
of a downed drone with the words "Happy New Year" scribbled across it in
Russian.
"That
is everything you need to know about the terror state and its army," he
wrote on Facebook, adding that the remains had crashed in a children's
playground.
kremlin.ru |President
of RussiaVladimirPutin: Citizens of Russia, friends,
The year
2022 is drawing to a close. It was a year of difficult but necessary decisions,
of important steps towards Russia's full sovereignty and a powerful consolidation
of our society.
It was a year that put many things in their place, and drew a clear line between courage
and heroism, on the one hand, and betrayal and cowardice on the other, showed us
that there is nothing stronger than love for our near and dear, loyalty to our friends
and comrades-in-arms, and devotion to our Fatherland.
It was a year of truly pivotal, even fateful events. They became the frontier where we
lay the foundation for our common future, our true independence.
This is
what we are fighting for today, protecting our people in our historical
territories in the new regions of the Russian Federation. Together, we are
building and creating.
Russia’s
future is what matters the most. Defending our Motherland is the sacred duty we
owe to our ancestors and descendants. The moral and historical truth is on our
side.
The outgoing
year has brought great and dramatic changes to our country
and to the world. It was filled with uncertainty, anxiety and worry.
But
our multiethnic
nation showed great courage and dignity as it had in every challenging
period
in Russian history, supported the defenders of our Fatherland, our
soldiers and officers, and all participants in the special military
operation, in both word
and deed.
We have
always known that Russia's sovereign, independent and secure future depends
only on us, on our strength and determination, and today, we have become
convinced of it once again.
For years,
Western elites hypocritically assured us of their peaceful intentions,
including to help resolve the serious conflict in Donbass. But in fact, they
encouraged the neo-Nazis in every possible way, who continued to take military
and overtly terrorist action against peaceful civilians in the people's
republics of Donbass.
The West
lied to us about peace while preparing for aggression, and today, they
no
longer hesitate to openly admit it and to cynically use Ukraine and its
people as a means to weaken and divide Russia. We have never allowed
anyone to do this
and we will not allow it now.
Russian
servicemen,
militiamen and volunteers are now fighting for their homeland, for truth
and justice, for reliable guarantees of peace and Russia’s security.
They are all
our heroes and they are shouldering the heaviest burden right now.
From
the bottom of my heart, I wish a very happy New Year to every
participant in the special military operation, to those who are here
next to me now, and who are
on the frontline, those getting ready for action at training centres,
those who
are in hospitals or already back home, having fulfilled their duty,
to all
those now on combat duty in strategic units, and all personnel
of the Russian Armed
Forces.
Comrades,
thank you
for your valiant service. Our entire vast country is proud of your fortitude, endurance
and courage. Millions of people are with you in their hearts and souls, and will
be raising a toast to you at their New Year's table.
Many
thanks
to everyone who provides ancillary support for military operations:
drivers and railway workers who deliver supplies to the front, doctors,
paramedics, and nurses who are fighting for soldiers’ lives and nursing
wounded civilians. I thank the workers and engineers at our military
and other plants who are
working today with great dedication, builders who are erecting civilian
facilities and defensive fortifications, and helping to restore
the destroyed
cities and villages in Donbass and Novorossiya.
Friends,
Russia has
been living under sanctions since the events in Crimea in 2014, but this year,
a full-blown sanctions war has been unleashed against us. Those who started it
expected our industry, finances and transport to collapse and never recover.
This
did
not happen, because together we created a reliable margin of safety. We
have
been taking steps and measures towards strengthening our sovereignty
in a vitally important field, in the economy. Our struggle for our
country, for our
interests and for our future undoubtedly serves as an inspiring example
for other states in their quest for a just multipolar world order.
I consider
it very important that in the outgoing year, such qualities as mercy,
solidarity and proactive empathy have become especially important in Russia.
More and more Russians feel the need to help others. They rally together and take initiative without any formal instructions.
I want
to thank you for being so considerate, responsible and kind, for your
active
involvement in the common cause regardless of age or income. You arrange
warehouses
and transport to deliver parcels to our fighters in the combat zone,
to the residents of affected cities and towns, and help organise
holidays for children
from the new constituent entities of the Federation.
My friends,
you are providing great support to the families of the fighters who perished,
who gave their lives defending the lives of others.
I know how
difficult it is for their wives, sons and daughters, and for their parents, who
raised real heroes; I understand how they feel now, on New Year's Eve. We will make
every effort to help the families of our fallen comrades raise their children,
give them a good education, and get a profession.
With all my heart, I share your pain and ask you to accept my sincere words of support.
Friends,
Our
country
has always celebrated the start of the New Year, even during very
difficult times.
It has always been everyone’s favourite holiday, and has a magical power
to reveal the best in people, to heighten the importance of traditional
family
values, the energy of kindness, generosity and trust.
As we see
the New Year in, everyone strives to give joy to their loved ones, to show them
attention and warmth, to give them presents they have been dreaming of, to see
the delight in children’s eyes and parents’ touching gratitude for our
attention. The older generation knows how to appreciate such moments of happiness.
Friends,
now is the best moment to leave all personal grievances and misunderstandings
in the past, to tell our nearest and dearest how we feel, how much we love them,
how important it is to take care of each other – always, at any time.
Let these heartfelt
words and noble feelings give each of us immense strength and confidence that
together, we will overcome all the challenges and keep our country great and independent.
We will
only move forward, to fight for our families and for Russia, for the future of our only, beloved Motherland.
kunstler | In 2011, relations between the US and
Russia soured when President Putin accused the US of fomenting protests
in Russia over its parliamentary elections. And from there, our State
Department decided that Russia and the USA could not even pretend to be
friendly.
Jump ahead to 2014: Neocons in the
Obama administration figured it was time to cut Russia back down to
size. That effort crystalized around the former Soviet province,
Ukraine, and blossomed into the US-sponsored-and-organized Maidan
Revolution, utilizing Ukraine’s sizeable Stepan Bandara legacy Nazi
forces in the vanguard, to foment violence in Kiev’s main city square.
The US shoved out elected Ukraine President Yanukovych — who angered
America by pledging to join Russia’s Custom’s Union instead of the EU —
and installed its own puppet Yatsenyuk, who was ultimately replaced by
the candy tycoon, Poroshenko, replaced by the Ukrainian TV star,
comedian Volodymyr Zelensky. Ha Ha. Who’s laughing now? (Nobody.)
From 2014-on, Ukraine, with America’s
backing, did everything possible to antagonize Russia, especially
showering the eastern provinces of Ukraine, called the Donbas, with
artillery, rockets, and bombs to harass the Russia-leaning population
there. After eight years of that, and continued American insults (the
Steele Dossier, 2016 election interference), and renewed threats to drag
Ukraine into NATO, Mr. Putin had enough and launched his “Special
Military Operation” to discipline Ukraine. Once that started, American
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated explicitly to the world that
America’s general policy now was to “weaken Russia.”
That declaration was accompanied by
America’s policy to isolate Russia economically with ever more
sanctions. Didn’t work. Russia just turned eastward to the enormous
Asian market to sell its oil and gas and utilized an alternate
electronic trade-clearance system to replace America’s SWIFT system.
Sanctions also gave Russia a reason to aggressively pursue an
import-replacement economic strategy — manufacturing stuff that they had
been buying from the West, for instance, German machine tools critical
for industry.
Russia did sacrifice more than
$50-billion in financial assets stranded in the US banking system — we
just confiscated it — but, ultimately, that only harmed the US banking
system’s reputation as a safe place to park money, and made foreign
investors much more wary of stashing capital in American banks. Net
effect: the value of the ruble increased and stabilized, and Russia
found new ways to neutralize American economic bullying.
Europe was the big loser in all that.
For a while, Europe could pretend to go along with the US / NATO
project, pouring arms and money into Ukraine, and at the same time
depend on Russian oil and gas imports. Eight months into the
Ukraine-Russia conflict, the US blew up the Nord Stream One and Two
pipelines, and that was the end of Europe’s supply of affordable natgas,
to heat homes and power industry. In a sane world, that sabotage would
have been considered an act of war against Germany by the USA. But it
only revealed the secret, humiliating state of vassalage that Europe was
in. Europe had already made itself ridiculous buying into the hysteria
over climate change and attempting to tailor its energy use to so-called
“renewables” in history’s biggest virtue-signaling exercise. Germany,
the engine of the EU’s economy, made one dumb mistake after another. It
invested heavily in wind and solar installations, which fell so short of
adequacy they were a joke, and it closed down its nuke-powered electric
generation plants so as to appear ecologically correct.
So now, Germany, and many other EU
member states, teeter on the edge of leaving Modernity behind. They
managed to scramble and fill their gas reserves sufficiently this fall
to perhaps squeak through winter without freezing to death, but not
without a lot of sacrifice, chopping down Europe’s forests, and wearing
their coats indoors. Now, only a few days into Winter, it remains to be
seen how that will work out. We’ll know more in March of the new year.
France had been the exception in Europe, due to its large fleet of
atomic energy plants. But many of them have now aged-out, some shut down
altogether, and “green” politics stood in the way of replacing them, so
France, too, will find itself increasingly subject to affordable energy
shortages.
Prediction: Europe’s industry will
falter and close down by painful increments. The EU will not withstand
the economic stress of de-industrialization. It will shatter and leave
Europe once again a small continent of many small fractious nations with
longstanding grudges. Some of these countries may break-up into smaller
entities in turn, as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Russia did in the
1990s. Keep in mind, the macro trend world-wide will be downscaling and
localization as affordable energy recedes for everyone. Since the end of
World War Two, Europe was the world’s tourist theme park. Now it could
go back to being a slaughterhouse. The Euro currency will have to be
phased out as sovereign bankruptcies make the EU financial system
untenable, and animosities and hostilities arise. Each country will have
to return to its traditional money. Gold and silver will play a larger
role in that.
The USA poured over $100-billion into
Ukraine in arms, goods, and cash in 2022. That largesse will not
continue as America sinks into its Second Great Depression. In any case,
much of that schwag was fobbed off with. The arms are spent, the
launchers destroyed. A lot of weapons were trafficked around to other
countries and non-state actors. Russia is going to prevail in Ukraine.
The news emanating from American media about Ukraine’s military triumphs
has been all propaganda. There was hardly ever any real doubt that
Russia dominated the war zone strategically and tactically. Even its
withdrawals from one city or another were tactically intelligent and
worthwhile, sparing Russian lives. The Special Military Operation wasn’t
a cakewalk because Russia wanted to avoid killing civilians and refrain
from destroying infrastructure that would leave Ukraine a gutted,
failed state. Over time, the USA proved itself to be
negotiation-unworthy, and Ukraine’s president Zelensky refused to
entertain rational terms for settling the crisis. So, now the gloves are
off in Ukraine. As of December 29, Russia shut off the lights in Kiev
and Lvov.
The open questions: how much
punishment does Ukraine seek to suffer before it capitulates? Will
Zelensky survive? (Even if he runs off to Miami, he may not survive.)
What exactly will be left of Ukraine? In 2023 Russia will decide the
disposition of things on-the-ground. Failed states make terrible
neighbors. One would imagine that Russia’s main goal is to set up a rump
Ukraine that can function, but cease to be an annoying pawn of its
antagonists. Ukraine will no longer enjoy access to the Black Sea; it
will be landlocked. The best case would be for Ukraine to revert to the
agricultural backwater it was for centuries before the mighty
disruptions of the modern era. Perhaps Russia will take it over
altogether and govern it as it had ever since the 1700s — except for
Ukraine’s brief interlude post-USSR as one of the world’s most corrupt
and mal-administered sovereign states.
Bottom line: Ukraine is and always was
within Russia’s sphere-of-influence, and will remain so. The USA has no
business there and it will be best for all concerned when we bug out.
Let’s hope that happens without America triggering a nuclear World War
Three. (Yeah, “hope” is not a plan. Try prayer, then.) Mr. Putin’s
challenge going into 2023 is to conclude the Ukraine hostilities without
humiliating the USA to the degree that we do something really stupid.
mexiconewsdaily | Energy, immigration and trade will be the
key issues under discussion at the North American Leaders Summit (NALS)
held in Mexico City in January, according to an agenda presented by
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
Mexico will host the tenth edition
of the summit between the leaders of Mexico, Canada and the United
States — colloquially known as the “Tres Amigos” summit — at the
National Palace from Jan. 9 to 11. U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will join President López Obrador to
advance shared priorities among their three countries.
“The three nations will seek to continue
the process of regional integration on the principles of respect,
sovereignty and cooperation in good faith for mutual benefit, that is
the objective,” Ebrard said, while presenting the agenda at AMLO’s
morning press conference on Tuesday.
The summit will open with a bilateral
meeting between AMLO and Biden on Jan. 9. This will focus on
strengthening bilateral trade relations, accelerating border
infrastructure projects, and enhancing cooperation on issues such as
labor mobility, security, education and climate change.
The migration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico
border will likely be a key shaper of the discussions, as U.S. courts
battle over the future of Title 42, the pandemic-era legislation that allows undocumented migrants to be immediately expelled to Mexico.
Ebrard explained that another key topic
would be the Sonora Plan — Mexico’s proposal for the U.S. to help
finance renewable energy infrastructure in the lithium hub of Sonora.
Energy policy has been a recent point of tension between the three
countries, with the U.S. and Canada accusing Mexico of unfairly favoring
state-owned companies over foreign clean energy suppliers.
AMLO’s meeting with Biden will be followed
by a trilateral summit on Jan. 10, and a bilateral discussion between
AMLO and Trudeau on Jan. 11 focused on government strategy towards
Indigenous and historically marginalized communities.
The trilateral meeting will seek to tackle
six issue areas: diversity and equality; environment; trade
competitiveness; migration; health; and common security. Mexico also
intends to use the summit to propose a plan for tackling worsening
poverty and inequality in the Americas, called the Alliance for the
Prosperity of American Peoples.
“The central objective [of the alliance]
will be to achieve a more egalitarian distribution of resources in the
Americas based on the strengthening of trade relations … to maintain
North America as the main economic power at the global level, which
would allow establishing new ties with the rest of the continent,”
Ebrard said.
The tenth NALS comes one year after the
three nations relaunched the summit in November 2021, after a hiatus of
five years. The ninth NALS, held in Washington D.C., focused on
addressing the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and improving supply
chain resilience. The latter issue is likely to be still more relevant
this year, in light of the supply shocks created by the war in Ukraine.
Reuters | Concerns
about a U.S. recession and a trade spat Mexico is embroiled in with the
United States and Canada over Lopez Obrador's energy policy, which
critics call nationalist, muddy the outlook for the peso.
"The
perception of risk could rise due to the consultations in the framework
of the USMCA (trade deal), which could lead to the imposition of
measures against Mexico," said Banco Base.
Traders
at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, considered a bellwether of market
sentiment, have started to bet the peso will begin depreciating.
Mexico's
peso, which is ending 2022 with one of its strongest performances in a
decade, could have its gains wiped out in 2023 after an expected end to
the Bank of Mexico's rate hikes cycle and a possible recession in top
trade partner the United States.
The
peso last month clawed its way back to pre-pandemic levels and has
appreciated over 5% versus the U.S. dollar in 2022, making it one of the
best-performing global currencies alongside Brazil's real .
Houstonchronicle | Just weeks before President Joe Biden’s planned visit to Mexico,
talks on the neighbors’ biggest trade dispute have stalled due to the
departures of negotiators from the Latin American nation’s side and its
reluctance to make concessions, according to people familiar with the
matter.
The two sides have struggled to make headway on the
energy-policy spat after Tatiana Clouthier, the economy minister at the
start of the dispute in July, resigned in October, said the people, who
asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The
dismissal of her trade deputy and more than a dozen senior staff also
hindered progress, they said.
Divisions
have affected the Mexican team, with Energy Minister Rocio Nahle and
Manuel Bartlett, the head of the electric utility, refusing for months
to provide the nation’s trade negotiators with key information needed to
address U.S. concerns, the people said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also has been
unwilling to push for major changes in the nationalist energy policy at
the heart of the U.S. complaint, the people said.
A spokesperson for the Mexican economy ministry
didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for
the White House National Security Council acknowledged the request but
didn’t immediately respond. The U.S. Trade Representative’s press office
declined to immediately respond.
The two sides and Canada — which has some of the same
concerns as the U.S. — are working to address the conflict before Biden
visits Mexico next month, but American negotiators have little
expectation for advances in that period, the people said.
Lopez Obrador’s policy privileges Mexican state-owned
oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos and the electricity provider known as
CFE. The U.S. says this violates the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on
trade, which went into force in 2020 to replace the two-decade-old NAFTA
pact. Canada filed a similar request for talks over Mexico’s
electricity policy.
Lopez Obrador denies that his policies violate the pact, saying that the U.S. must respect Mexico’s sovereignty.
LATimes | From the roadside stand in this muggy stretch of southern Mexico
where Carmelo Morrugares sells coconuts for a living, the 45-year-old
father of three says he can see his country changing for the better.
There’s
his pay, which has doubled from $5 to $10 daily thanks to a series of
minimum-wage hikes. And there are the hefty welfare payments that his
elderly father and student daughter now receive from the government.
Then there’s the highway itself, repaved amid a boom of fresh investment across the impoverished south.
“He’s
a visionary,” said Morrugares, who cheered on the president recently as
he zipped past the coconut stand on his way to promote a refurbished
train line that will pass through this region. That the famously frugal
López Obrador traversed the dense tropical forest by car instead of
helicopter said it all.
“Presidents before would just fly over,” Morrugares said. “We’ve never had a leader so close to the people.”
That
sort of praise isn’t something you hear much in Mexico’s wealthier
enclaves, where criticism of López Obrador has reached a fever pitch.
Detractors, tens of thousands of whom marched in Mexico City last month,
hate everything about the president: his moralizing tone and his
ill-fitting suits, his disregard for democratic norms and his embrace of the military, his hypersensitivity to critique and his insistence that every problem can be blamed on a single enemy — the rich.
But
as they pen newspaper columns and fire off tweets insisting that Mexico
has never been worse off, his critics are speaking largely to
themselves.
López Obrador is one of the most popular leaders on Earth.
He
won in a landslide four years ago vowing to finally put the “poor
first” in a country that he said had been hijacked by a corrupt and
conservative elite. And despite a stagnating economy, staggering levels of violence and growing evidence that his efforts to reduce inequality have failed, his approval rating still tops 60%.
To
better grasp the breadth of that support, The Times traveled this month
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a 140-mile wide strip of land that
spans two states — Veracruz and Oaxaca — and stretches from the Pacific
Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
Here in the hinterlands, far
from cosmopolitan Mexico City and the thriving industrial hubs in the
north, it quickly becomes clear why AMLO, as he is widely known, is so
beloved.
pamho | The
plan is to make Stockholder ideology, oops, sorry, *Stakeholder*
ideology THE ideology of a new world system of governing. Leading
non-governmental organizations — like The UN, The World Bank, The IMF,
along with the biggest corporations and investment funds — and of course
the governments of America, Europe, Asia and so on — they will kindly
ask our new African friends to pretty please join our save-the-world
party. The leaders of countries and businesses who don’t want to hop
aboard the Stakeholder express, well, they don’t want to make all those
groups and people have a sad at them do they? We are all in this
together people.
Soon
enough the African countries will “see the smart thing to do.” Capeesh?
Like giving up on “advancing their economy” in favor of “saving the
world” so Babs and Granpa Snooty feel like they are saving the world by
telling them what they can and can’t do. And of course since batteries
are such an important part of saving the world, “everyone” will have to
pitch in and help the worldwide group effort. And wouldn’t you know it,
it just so happens that the stuff that needs to be mined to make lots of
powerful batteries are stuck, by gosh — under the ground in the
underdeveloped world! Wow, what a coincidence!
So
instead of their economy being based on uplifting their people out of
their underdeveloped state, they can now focus on being good people!
Good people who know their place in the worldwide effort to “save our
planet!” Which means they must renounce the dirty fossil fuels they say
will make them rich like America and Europe. I mean, fossil fuels are so
damaging to our shared prosperity in our new Stakeholder world, right?
People in Manhattan and London have just as much right as people in the
Congo and Bolivia to say what the rules of industry are for the Congo
and Bolivia because WE ARE THE STAKEHOLDER NOW!
Sure,
some cynics might say that rich people from the developed world in
reality just don’t want what they believe are “the limited stores of oil
and gas left in the world,” to be “wasted” on building up Africa or
other underdeveloped areas of the world.
But
no no no, that cynicism is what Stakeholder Capitalism is supposed to
put to rest. Don’t be cynical, because The Great Reset is all about
equity, inclusion, AND anti-racism. Being good stewards of the
environment, stopping climate change, and other words meant to make them
look good is what it’s all about baby. It’s most definitely not about
“creating a worldwide enforcement system funded by the richest and most
powerful capitalists in the world to make themselves richer and more
powerful.”
It’s
also NOT about keeping undeveloped nations undeveloped so a cheap labor
force can continue to be exploited in mines and factories. The new and
purehearted “green economy” is about equity, clean air, buzzword, and
another buzzword. So what if you can’t travel when and where and how you
want? You will be safely made to take your medicine when you are told,
and safely made to show your papers when you are told. No more scarey
free speech and freedom to live as you choose! That’s old selfish
extremist thinking. You must think the right safe thoughts. You must.
No, really. YOU MUST.
The Great Reset also includes some newer ideas for newer “problems,”
like a system to be set up for worldwide coordinated reaction to
health-based “emergencies.” I mean, you can’t have the common non-rich
people making the rich nervous by breathing near them can you? If it is
flu season we don’t nay WE WILL NOT ALLOW Sally the waitress to be able
to breath properly if the person she is serving has a trust fund. What
to speak of flying on the same plane. I mean private jets don’t grow on
trees people. It’s so much simpler to make sure Sally is kept from
causing any potential harm she might bring to Justin and Jules on their
bi-weekly getaway to the islands. So a no-fly list for Sally is best.
She can visit her sick Dad next year when the flu isn’t so bad.
PRIORITIES PEOPLE! The Great Reset knows best.
neuberger |These are the latest Twitter Files since the first two sets were released. They extend the list collected here and here. (Emphasis added below.)
Despite
promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter
docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the U.S.
military’s influence operation. […]
The
files show the FBI acting as doorman to a vast program of social media
surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal
government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA.
2.
The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign
Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a
wide array of smaller actors - from local cops to media to state
governments.
3. Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying. […]
2.
So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret
blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the
FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own
political desires.
3. What we have yet to cover is Covid. […]
5. Internal files at Twitter that I viewed while on assignment for @TheFP showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes. […]
As
I’ve said many times about these reports, if you build a gun, anyone
can use it. Especially if its use is widely cheered. This is how we
repealed the Fourth Amendment — by both parties approving and
participating in its violation.
The next Republican president will
use every power bequeathed by the last two Democrats. And when
out-of-power Democrats complain, as they rightly should, much of the
public will say “So the shoe’s on the other foot.”
The public will be wrong in that. But only because no party should have these powers, not because one of them should.
Kunstler | Could it be that the educated and
creatives of the coastal cities — the thinking class, the politically
active on the Left — had become so callous and arrogant as to dismiss
the suffering “little people” they once worked to protect and defend —
or had that also been an act? One thing for sure: the Democratic Party
lost this group as core constituents and they had to search elsewhere
for a voter base.
Another thing had changed along the
way: the Democratic Party became dominated by activist women, who
exhibited two outstanding behavioral tendencies: they tended to make
decisions on the basis of emotion… their feelings about this-and-that;
and they were much more ruthless in political battle than men — their
emotions eclipsed age-old principles, such as the idea of fair play. In short, they resorted almost automatically to dirty fighting.
That is probably at the heart of what
is most confounding and vexing about the great political division in
America these days. We are under a vile spell of pervasive dirty
fighting. Dirty fighters have no respect for reality or for principle;
they do whatever they can do to win the fight. Bad faith is the order of
the day. Hence, the battle over how elections will be conducted and who
gets to vote. You can read about it in Monday’s (Dec 26th) New York Times, an above-the-fold story titled: Democrats, Feeling New Strength, Plan to Go on Offense on Voting Rights. (As long as it stays up.) The story says:
Now it is Democrats, who retained all
but one of the governor’s offices they hold and won control of state
legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota, who are ready to go on offense
in 2023. They are putting forward a long list of proposals that include
creating automatic voter registration systems, preregistering teenagers
to vote before they turn 18, returning the franchise to felons released
from prison and criminalizing election misinformation.”
Note the last three words. The Times
boldly announces that opinion about elections should now be subject to
criminal prosecution if it deviates from whatever the official story is —
as determined by whom? Well, that would be a juridical apparatus
controlled by the Democratic Party. Who else might it be? The Times
doesn’t venture to say. You can also see that the Party doesn’t believe
in any principle that states who or why somebody should be qualified to
vote. Sign up people who manage to get a driver’s license, whether they
are citizens or not. Sign up the convicted criminals and the children.
Dirty fighting = dirty elections.
This is the direction our country has
been going in. I can offer only one note of consolation about what looks
like a pretty demoralizing predicament: what you’re seeing is the end
product of the late-stage in the life of a society. Obviously, it is
ending badly. The catch is we are entering a new era of American life,
an era of deep economic disorder, especially, that will go very hard on
the nation, that will rearrange many of the social categories we now
take for granted, that will compel people of all classes to pay
attention to reality, to what actually works and who actually knows how
to work what works. In that disposition of things, dirty fighting will
be recognized for what it is.
Perhaps the biggest part of that
unspooling event will be the bankruptcy and the failure of the
government in Washington, its consequent loss of legitimacy, and the end
of its ability to control and harass the people who live under it.
Think I’m kidding? Stand by now and wait for it.
greenwald |These moves by the U.S. Security State to commandeer censorship
decisions on TikTok, accompanied by the hovering threat to ban TikTok
entirely from the U.S., appear to be having the desired effect already.
When we launched our new live nightly show on Rumble, System Update, our social media manager created new social accounts for the program on major social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok, etc. Each day, she posts identical excerpts from the prior night's shows on each social media account.
For Monday night's show,
I devoted my opening monologue to documenting how reporting by
mainstream Western media outlets on Ukraine and President Zelensky
completely reversed itself as soon as Russia invaded in February. When
one reviews the trajectory of how these media outlets radically reversed
everything they had been saying about Ukraine and Zelensky, one can see
the Orwellian newspeak — we have always been at war with Eastasia — happening in real time.
For years, for instance, mainstream news outlets in the West repeatedly warned that the Ukrainian military was dominated by a neo-Nazi group called the Azov Battalion, that the Kiev-based government was becoming increasingly repressive and anti-democratic
(including ordering three opposition media outlets closed in 2021), and
that Zelensky himself was not only supported by a single Ukrainian
oligarch but he himself had massive off-shore accounts of hidden wealth as revealed by the Pandora Papers. And the U.S. State Department itself, in 2021, had documented a long list of severe human rights abuses carried out either with the acquiescence or even active participation of the Zelensky-led central government.
One of the video excerpts from our program that was posted to all social media sites, including TikTok, was this indisputably true and rather benign review of how media outlets, including The Guardian,
had previously depicted Zelensky as surrounded by corruption and hidden
wealth. To be sure, the excerpt was critical of Zelensky, but there is
absolutely nothing even factually contestable, let alone untrue, given
that the whole point of the clip is to show how the media had spoken of
Ukraine and Zelensky prior to the invasion as opposed to the
fundamentally different tone that now drives their coverage:
Shortly after posting this video, we were notified by TikTok that the
video was removed by the platform. The cited ground was “integrity and
authenticity,” namely that the video, for unspecified reasons, had
“undermine[d] the integrity of [their] platform or the authenticity of
[their users].” The warning added that TikTok "removes content and
accounts that…involve misleading information that causes significant
harm.” In a separate communication, TikTok notified our program that our
“account is at high risk of being restricted based on [our] violation
history” (the sole violation we were ever advised of was this specific
video). As a result, TikTok warned, “the next violation could result in
being prevented from accessing some feature.” A more ambiguous warning
could scarcely be imagined.
A Foundation of Joy
-
Two years and I've lost count of how many times my eye has been operated
on, either beating the fuck out of the tumor, or reattaching that slippery
eel ...
April Three
-
4/3
43
When 1 = A and 26 = Z
March = 43
What day?
4 to the power of 3 is 64
64th day is March 5
My birthday
March also has 5 letters.
4 x 3 = 12
...
Return of the Magi
-
Lately, the Holy Spirit is in the air. Emotional energy is swirling out of
the earth.I can feel it bubbling up, effervescing and evaporating around
us, s...
New Travels
-
Haven’t published on the Blog in quite a while. I at least part have been
immersed in the area of writing books. My focus is on Science Fiction an
Historic...
Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese
-
sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...
