A militarized foreign policy is forcing the US to careen toward a war with China
By Franz Gayl for the Global Times

Why does the US secretary of state appear to be a mere impotent advisor in the shadow of the Secretary of Defense? The answer is of course not a coincidence, but the result of a toxic combination of the defense industry, retired military officer interests, and the atrophy of the professional foreign service. Together they have gutted the relevance of traditional US diplomacy.

Many will object and insist on the continued primacy of diplomacy in all US foreign policy. One prescient test would be to query the Secretary of State's depth of familiarity with the perspectives of our main competitor China on the sensitive issue of Taiwan island.

Since alternative futures of war or peace are at stake, has the US secretary of state taken the time to read the Peoples Republic of China white paper titled "The Taiwan Question and China's Reunification in the New Era?" If so, has he met with his Chinese counterpart to jointly develop a responsible way forward to avert an otherwise certain war?

There was a time when learned American statesmen had decisive influence. From Thomas Jefferson and Daniel Webster to George C. Marshal and Henry Kissinger advised presidents on foreign policy, with sustainable peace and the greater good as their only motives.

However, following the 1st Gulf War, something changed. After military indecisiveness in Korea, defeat in Vietnam, followed by the humiliation of the failed rescue of US hostages in Iran and the tragic bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, Americans were rightfully hungry to recover lost military clout on the world stage.

The overwhelmingly one-sided victory of the US over Iraq during Operation Desert Storm gave Americans a taste of greatness and fueled a sense of patriotism not seen since their victory in WWII.

Generals and admirals became objects of public reverence, relegating controversies of Vietnam era Generals to history. Combatant commanders, empowered with the Goldwater Nichols Act and some educated at Ivy League schools, began to eclipse the influence of ambassadors.

All the while the State Department became more politicized with presidential appointees coming to fill posts as far as five levels down. Preferring to do the bidding of elected officials for career survival, the exercise of independent professional judgment became rare. Today the under- valued and resourced US foreign service appears to be in decline.

In contrast, even in their retirement senior Flag officers remain ambitious and refuse to simply fade away as General Douglas MacArthur once preferred of old soldiers. General Collin Powell was the first to ride the euphoric wave of the 1st Gulf War victory to a new career as Secretary of State.

More recently Generals James Mattis and Lloyd Austin took leave from their well-compensated positions as defense industry board members to serve as Secretary of Defense. The retired four- star revolving door between industry and government employment is now the norm. These elite positions are taken for granted as entitlements, even though the operational performance of most has been miserable.

Generals and admirals, both active duty and retired, are now turned to as the most coveted presidential advisors on foreign policy. Naturally, their cultural toolbox contains mostly hammers and most foreign policy challenges appear as nails. Fewer nonmilitary courses of action are offered the presidents, even when they are called for.

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How Quickly The West Forgot It Was Their 2020 Regime-Change Project That Drove Belarus Into Russia’s Arms

March 5, 2023  Eurasia Review
By Mark Ames

The world should be careful when US arms dealers laugh
By Global Times

How great is the risk of war in the world? It is easy to answer. One only needs to look at the total amount of US arms spending right now to make a roughly correct judgment.

The US has the strongest military industry in the world, with the ability to extend its long arms of the military into any corner of the globe quickly, and often volunteers to act as the world's policeman.

The Biden administration just released a budget for US military spending in 2023 of $842 billion, four times the military spending of China. But moreover, the fundamental difference is that China adopts a defensive policy, while in the US foreign military strategy, pre-emption is a principle.

Higher US military spending indicates a higher risk of war in the world.

Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan recently said that increasing global military spending shows that the last seven to eight decades of the peace dividend after the World War II is over.

To find out the reason, we must first make clear who is profiting the most from the global increase in military spending, and whose interests the disappearance of the peace dividend best serves.

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New York-based Signature Bank closed Sunday due to systemic risks after SVB collapse

WASHINGTON March 13 — RIA Novosti. New York's Signature Bank was closed on Sunday due to systemic risks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) chairman Martin Grunberg said in a joint statement.

"We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exemption for New York, New York-based Signature Bank, which was closed by the state today," California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) said in a filing.
As noted, all investors of the New York company will have access to their deposits — the same as in the case of SVB.

Earlier it was reported that all depositors of Silicon Valley Bank from March 13 will be given access to their savings.

The New York Times reported Saturday that SVB's failure had raised concerns that other US banks could also run into trouble. Against this backdrop, there was a "dumping" of shares of similar SVB banks, such as First Republic, Signature Bank and Western Alliance, on the market. Many of these financial institutions cater to first-time clients and have investment portfolios similar to those of SVB.

California regulators closed SVB on March 10, the largest bank failure in the US since the 2008 financial crisis. All insured deposits were transferred from SVB to a separate structure — Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara. The collapse of the SVB turned out to be associated with an increase in the Fed's key rate, which led to the depreciation of assets on the balance sheets of many financial institutions. The combined losses of banks in 2022 were $620 billion, according to the FDIC.

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I think I know why Biden will never visit Odessa…

As found by our subscriber 🙏
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They say that Trump is offering to sell Ukraine to Russia

On the one hand, it's like selling a stolen phone to the owner

And on the other hand…

Given the amount of frozen Russian assets, Poland, Moldova, all three Baltic mutts plus Finland can enter there as a bonus.

Let's restore the Russian Empire together! 😂😁😃😅😂😊

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In Syria and Iraq, we actually funded a significant part of ISIS by supplying weapons and training some of these organizations, and then watching them change their alliances faster than quicksand… I intend to continue to force a vote in Congress to bring our troops home from faraway places where our mission is unclear.

Member of the US House of Representatives Matt Getz on the fact that the US should stop the wars in the Middle East.

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No grounds for new Ukraine peace plan – Kremlin

"Kiev has declared the full return of territories it claims as Ukrainian as a precondition for peace talks. Its national security council has also banned talks with Russia for as long as President Vladimir Putin remains in office.

Moscow has argued that the Ukrainian government has effectively made peace talks impossible, and that Kiev has adopted its stance based on orders from the US, which is aiming to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia." Read the article here 👈

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Shares of US banks are falling rapidly against the backdrop of the situation around the SVB

The value of Western Alliance shares falls by 83.7%, First Republic Bank — by 76.6%, PacWest — by 55.55%. In general, the banking sector is reduced by 7.8%.
Translated from RIA Novosti
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Biden assured Americans that all deposits are available to them if necessary, and the management of bankrupt banks will be fired.

American taxpayers will not suffer losses due to the problems of bankrupt banks, Biden promised.

Biden was laconic and did not say anything particularly specific: the speech lasted 5 minutes, consisted of promises that everything would be fine.

Biden did not answer journalists' questions after his speech.

#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
Somehow we are not convinced... Like those journalists which were ignored.
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The US banking system is not safe, said the former assistant to the head of the Treasury

WASHINGTON, March 13 — RIA Novosti. The US banking system is not safe, contrary to the words of President Joe Biden, Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the treasury in the administration of Ronald Reagan, told RIA Novosti.

"The banking system is not safe, because the five largest US banks bear the risk of losses twice as much as global GDP," the source said.

In his opinion, American credit institutions will have to get rid of assets on the balance sheet, which will lead to further depreciation of securities.
Roberts noted that there are "trillions of secondary financial instruments" that are sensitive to changes in the US Federal Reserve System (FRS) rate.

To prevent further bank crashes, the Fed will have to lower the key rate.

"The Fed will have to abandon its high interest rate policy as it undermines financial sector balance sheets, leading to a wider spectrum of collapse," Roberts said.

The alternative would be to allocate such a significant amount of money for operations to rescue credit institutions that it would threaten the value of the dollar, the former assistant to the head of the Ministry of Finance added.

On Saturday afternoon, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported that regulators in the state of California have closed Silicon Valley Bank, the largest bank to collapse in the US since the last financial crisis. The FDIC transferred all insured deposits from the SVB to a separate entity it created, the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara.

SVB specialized in working with Silicon Valley start-ups. On March 8, the bank announced the sale of virtually all of its securities and suffered an after-tax loss of $1.8 billion.
An attempt to raise capital of two billion dollars the next day ended in failure. SVB shares collapsed by more than 60 percent, and on March 10, trading was suspended altogether. As a result, the US banking sector sank 6.5 percent on March 9, and 3.5 percent on March 10. After that, SVB hired consultants to explore the possibility of a sale.

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Russia supported the extension of the grain deal for 60 days

MOSCOW, March 13 — RIA Novosti. Negotiations between representatives of Moscow and the UN on the situation with the grain deal were held in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Vershinin said.
"We have just completed another round of consultations between the Russian interdepartmental delegation and UN representatives headed by UNCTAD Secretary General R. Greenspan and OCHA Head M. Griffiths," he said.

According to the diplomat, the Russian side, given the "package" nature of the Istanbul agreements proposed by UN Secretary General António Guterres, does not object to extending the deal after the second term expires on March 18, "but only for 60 days."
"Let me remind you that they consist of two interconnected parts: the" Black Sea initiative "on the export of Ukrainian food and raw materials for fertilizers, including ammonia, and the Russia-UN Memorandum on the normalization of domestic agricultural exports," Vershinin said.
Moscow, as the Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized, will determine its further position depending on real progress in the supply of Russian products.
“Including bank payments, transport logistics, insurance, the unfreezing of financial activities and the supply of ammonia through the Togliatti-Odessa pipeline,” he said.

Vershinin drew attention to the fact that now the sanctions relief announced by the United States, Great Britain and the EU for food and fertilizers do not work.
The agreement, which was signed on July 22 last year by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN, involves the export of Ukrainian grain, food and fertilizer across the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The Joint Coordinating Centre (JCC) in Istanbul is responsible for coordinating the movement of ships.

The contract expired on November 18, but its terms implied an automatic extension for 120 days in the absence of objections from any party. As stated in the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were no such reports.
The grain deal itself is an integral part of the package agreement, which, among other things, provides for the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers. Moscow emphasized that this particular condition was not met, despite assurances from the UN.

#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
Once again "partners" are cheating while Russia is fulfilling promises. For how long?
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Bolton: China Increasingly in 'Catbird' Seat

China brokering a deal for Saudi Arabia and Iran to exchange diplomatic relations is a warning to the world of Chinese influence, according to former Amb. John Bolton.

"What this reflects is their fear that the U.S.'s administration still hasn't given up on a nuclear deal, getting back into the nuclear deal with Iran," Bolton, a senior foreign policy, defense, and national security official in both the Bush and Trump administrations, told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM-N.Y.

"It's an indication that the Saudis and others are trying to hedge their bets with China and Russia, because they don't think the United States has the resolve and fortitude necessary to do what they need to do to protect the world against Iran and its intentions both on the terrorist front and the nuclear front."

China is increasingly "in the catbird seat" with respect to Russia, too, Bolton warned host John Catsimatidis.

"We're watching Russia slip increasingly under Chinese control," Bolton said.

During the era of the Soviet Union, the U.S.S.R. was the big brother to China, but now that relationship is the other way around.

"This is China's alliance that it's putting together, and Russia is the junior partner – and that's not good for any of us," Bolton continued. "I'd like to find ways to pry Russia away from China, and I think that's impossible to do while this war's going on."

China is gobbling up world market share as it helps support Russia, putting China in a no-lose situation, according to Bolton.

If Russia loses ground in Ukraine, it will become increasingly reliant on China's support. If Russia wears down Ukraine and eventually takes over, it bolsters the China-Russia alliance.

"What the Chinese are doing is just basic blocking and tackling," Bolton concluded.

"We've got to get our act together in the United States or this is only going to get worse."

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The 10 Rules of Propaganda
Lord Arthur Ponsonby was a British diplomat and politician, dates 1871–1946.

This keen and cagey fellow pinpointed 10 rules of propaganda. They are these:

1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves.

2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war.

3. Our adversary’s leader is evil and looks evil.

4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interest.

5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes.

6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons.

7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big.

8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause.

9. Our cause is sacred.

10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors.

.............

The Propaganda War
Does Russia transmit its own propaganda? We are certain that it does.

Upon reflection we must amend the prior statement — we suspect strongly that Russia transmits its own propaganda. We cannot be certain.

That is because none of it is allowed in. It is all censored out by the Western press. They have erected a great cordon walling off Russian propaganda.

How else does one explain the universal media claims of Ukrainian righteousness and Russian evil? Of Ukrainian brio and Russian incompetence? Of Ukrainian victory and Russian defeat?

We will merely state that we have been privy to… conflicting… reports.

Yet we are aware that by posting the 10 Rules of Propaganda… we will be accused ourselves of distributing propaganda — Russian propaganda.

We plead nolo contendere… comrade.

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The monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra do not intend to leave the monastery

Moscow, March 13 — AiF-Moscow.
The monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) are not going to comply with the order of the museum-reserve administration to evict the monastery. This was stated by the rector of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel.

“We do not intend to move out and will not,” he said in a video message.

The Metropolitan stressed that some priests have been living in the monastery since 1988 and many have no other place to live. According to him, the monks regularly receive threats.

“Now there are laws that are on the side of man. To threaten us that they will deal with us is not the 17th year. Today there is a world community, there is some kind of culture,” he said.

Last week, the administration of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra museum-reserve warned about the termination of the lease agreement with the UOC from March 29 this year. The monks were obliged to leave the buildings of the Lavra before this date.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill appealed to religious figures and representatives of international organizations with an appeal to prevent the expulsion of the UOC from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. According to him, more than two hundred monks and novices live on the territory of the monastery, and the control centre of the UOC is also located there.

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"The US is humiliating Germany." Nikolai Patrushev on the explosions at Nord Stream

A number of foreign media published materials about a certain “pro-Ukrainian group” that organized explosions at Nord Stream. After the publication of the scandalous investigation by Seymour Hersh, Nikolai Patrushev said that he had no data on who exactly ordered and executed the sabotage on gas pipelines. Do they exist now?

Here is what Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, answered this question aif.ru:

"We still do not know for certain who exactly is the author and perpetrator of the explosions at Nord Stream. Russia was never included in the investigation of this unprecedented terrorist act. The situation is intended to confuse and throw in an imaginary leak of data published without any reference to a real source.
The theme of the non-involvement of the United States and England in the terrorist act is obviously being promoted based on the audience's lack of ability to think logically, including the method of denial," stated Nikolai Patrushev.

Solving the task of covering up the true customers of the crime, the pro-government Anglo-Saxon media, on orders from above, appointed the culprit — a certain group of Ukrainian terrorists. Moreover, in essence, once again pointing out the terrorist nature of the current Kyiv regime. At the same time, the authors of the information campaign considered that no one would object to such a version.

If the newspapers claim with pathos that a group of Ukrainian terrorists committed the act of sabotage, the question must be asked whether there is such a group at all, and whether it is capable of doing this in principle. After all, it is no secret that special-purpose units with the appropriate equipment and training are intended to carry out such actions. They definitely have the US and England. Other NATO countries also use combat swimmers to carry out sabotage missions, but only with the approval and support of the country that dictates the main agenda in the North Atlantic Alliance.

The next question is: are the explosions beneficial to Ukraine or Germany? Kyiv has not lost or gained anything from the destruction of the gas pipeline. Moreover, the Zelensky regime, which is essentially standing in Berlin with its hand outstretched in the hope of increasing military and other assistance, does not need to commit such an act.

Germany, which has been trying for many years to build its economy on the basis of a combination of cheap energy resources from Russia and advanced German technologies, understands better than anyone else that a terrorist attack on the pipeline will definitely lead the German economy to further decline. At the same time, Berlin is well aware that close economic cooperation between Germany and Russia has never suited Washington and London.

At the same time, it has long been clear that the modern German state is not independent. Washington imposes its economic and environmental policy on Berlin, keeps a 35,000-strong military contingent in the country. It is known that for many years the White House controlled Angela Merkel, and today it is forcing the German leadership to go along with the version of sabotage on the pipeline that is beneficial to the US authorities. Perhaps it was for this that Chancellor Scholz was urgently summoned to Washington to meet with Biden. Thus, the United States continues to humiliate Germany, showing her its place.

I emphasize that any accusations that are not supported by the results of an impartial trial cannot be credible. Therefore, Moscow insists on conducting an objective investigation with the participation of Russia and other interested states. Without it, the voicing of one-sided subjective versions of the terrorist attack does not explain anything.

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