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The latest wave of sanctions comes a month after the electoral authority declared that Maduro was reelected for a third consecutive term, despite electoral data published by the opposition that suggested he lost by a wide margin. Protests against Maduro’s claim of victory swept the capital of Caracas and other cities in the days after the vote, with more than 2,400 Venezuelans arrested—including more than 100 minors—in the fiercest crackdown of his 11-year rule.
Of course, they know that there couldn't possibly have been that many votes for Maduro... because all those Maduro voters are now living (and voting) in the U.S. /s
The action against Venezuela looks like gas-lighting...
They're hoping that by posturing as opposing (the fact of) "fake elections" in Venezuela... you'll avoid noting (the fact that) the U.S. elections appear to be at least equally as corrupt... while the U.S. own abuses of the political opposition resisting the usurpation of power here... appear to be equal to those in Venezuela...
There are political prisoners being held in the U.S. today... because they object to and protest against fraudulent elections depriving them their rights... and depriving the country of legitimate leadership... depriving the country of fundamental legitimacy... The usurpers fail to enforce the laws... in order to foster and use the resulting lawlessness as a means of clinging to power... using it to engineer "votes"... by fraudulent means including even illegally organizing an invasion of immigrants... purposed for illegitimately importing new "voters"... in the thinly veiled fraud that is enabling illegal immigrants to vote... when the voters we have... know better than to vote for them...
Noted in prior post... that clinging to power by election fraud... is "the same thing"... as what we see in the frauds being practiced to sustain "control" over the economy... again, clinging to power by knowing frauds practiced in misrepresenting economic reality...
That they have been purposefully lying about employment data... is THE SAME THING as lying about vote totals... and done for the same reasons... ?
And it is unavoidably true... that there is convergence between the fact of (overt - openly conducted) corruption in elections... in which the massive effort enabling (and subsidizing) immigration fraud is only one part... while the parallel fact of corruption in government... telling lies masking truths about the economy... is "more of the same" ?
It is not "coincidence" that the events we're seeing occurring today... in relation to the economy... are no only "parallels" in relation to the frauds being practiced... but are fully synched to the same timelines on which elections occur ?
The U.S. today... is a hollow caricature of itself... which is equally true whether considering the values once attached to our rights [free speech, anyone ?]... to which they still pretend to pay homage when that is politically convenient... as it is true of the economy... which was once the freedom driven engine powering the global economy by virtue of the creative capacities of free people expressed through free markets... which is today a tightly controlled fiction and an empty husk... far removed from free market functions.
That those are "the same thing"... is necessary to understand... if you hope to have any ability to understand both the need for change... the fact of its prevention being the source of the problems we face... and the likely sequences in events as change occurs anyway... in spite of their efforts to prevent it... as the efforts in obstruction of change... have persisted long enough to ensure "change" will occur of necessity.... if not by the peaceful expedients in "continual revolution" enabled by free markets and free and fair elections... then by the inevitable in the collapse of corruption struggling under the unsustainable weight of its own deceptions...
The global economy is imploding... It's been proceeding in slow motion for a long time...
And, now, it seems... we're at the point of transition from "slowly at first"... to, "and then all at once"...
One can hope we will see transformational change... that corrects the excesses, abuses and frauds of the corrupt leaders inflicted upon us... without it requiring... or in any case being attended by violence.
But, history provides few reasons for optimism... given the desperate and deluded will so frequently resort to violence as a first option...
Whether that occurs as "violence in the streets" in result of the failure of elections to reflect the popular will... or as "violence organized by the state" in seeking to illegitimately sustain "control" over others...
You should expect "blood in the streets"... as more than euphemism... with few geographic limits...
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In Germany, last week, the entrenched powers that just lost the elections... were openly discussing and publicly coordinating efforts to ensure that the winners of the elections... would not be able to govern as the winners of the elections...
It's so "in your face"... its amazing that people still fail to see it...
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Not just me... Look at a sampling of recent posts from Ray Dalio ?
A wide ranging and " mostly" more well tempered example... that sort of aggregates a lot of recent work in a less detailed and more concise presentation of the major points...
Dalio's approach to the study of history has always distinguished Dalio's views from most others... He's careful to study things in historical context where others are not... which has his work often far better grounded than that of others who lack the age, and thus the experience of "going through what we're going through again now"... His focus on study of proofs in history fills those voids others blunder through...
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Gas hit a seven week high today... on the back of a smaller than expected storage build, higher than expected flows to LNG export plants, and continuing declines in production throughout the last month...
The market has already adjusted to "the solution to low prices is low prices"... as over production spurred by higher prices earlier in the year...
Still to come... the end of summer recognition of cooler weather... which tends to generate an annual spike in gas prices from late September, October, occasionally persisting into November...
This time around... seasonality in demand may collide with LNG plants coming on line and ramping up exports... and with dynamics related to shifting patterns in investors choices given declining fortunes in the stock market... natural gas usually drifting higher as markets head lower...
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Are the BRICS going to announce their new payment system "going live"... ready, ready, "now" ?
Or, their new alternative currency... partially backed by reserves of gold at some convenient fraction ?
Rumor was... they were set to do that in August... ? But...<checks calendar> ??? <queue crickets chirping>.
What we saw instead was... Xi going MIA for a month following the plenary session... and not much else.
Note that in context of and relation to the BIS efforts to enable immutable alternatives to use of essentially worthless debt instruments as the primary foundation of the global economic system... the "BRICS-led" effort is a newly created "potential" that exists parallel to its predecessors... and is intended to be poised as "in competition with" the existing systems. But, the BIS effort is essentially agnostic to those elements ?
If gold is going to replace paper as that "foundational element"... restoring gold to the role it has held throughout history, pre-WW II, or pre-Nixon... that's not obviously a change that confers any obvious or unique competitive advantages in itself... much less in empowering any "new" alternative as some new monopoly ? It does more the opposite... in restoring a universal standard that is not an intrinsic monopoly that is able to be controlled... that enables some unique advantage in monopoly control of money ?
That competition... the dirty shirts duking it out in the back behind the laundry... occurs more or less independent of those "higher level" functions related to agreements re re-monetizing gold ? There's going to be a "reset"... we just don't know yet... how the one change occurring might relate to... or occur independently of... change occurring in other things, too ???
In any case... it has been Russia taking the lead in fostering the new BRICS alternative payments system...
So... its worth noting... while not pretending there's no relationship between the two...
How are things are going in Russia... in relation to the war... and payments ?
The war: clearly shifting to advantage Ukraine for now.
The only thing I see preventing Russia being rapidly destroyed at an accelerating pace right now... are western restrictions that work to protect Russia... both by limiting Ukraine's access to resources and by limiting its use of longer range weapons. But, Ukraine appears to be on the cusp of fielding, in numbers, low cost domestically produced alternatives that are likely to obviate the benefit to Russia of the western restrictions. Ukraine is also constrained by resource limits, as the west are reluctant or unwilling to provide what they'd need to do more than sustain the fight in place... until Russia exhausts itself.
It's a mindlessly stupid "plan"...
However, Ukraine is increasingly proving capable of slipping the noose... to fight its own fight rather than the one Russia (and the west ?) wants... while innovating in ways that both overcome resource limits imposed by the west, and obviate the point of the limits...[ resulting in greater risks of escalation, perhaps... but, escalation.. to what end... with what real threat in a greater risk ?]... advantaging Ukraine by improving its capabilities over time. The war is increasingly putting Russia at greater risk of outright failure... on the battlefield... and, increasingly... economically, politically, systemically...
For Russia, that means its continued existence is left dependent on its (own reliance on) expectations about western ability or willingness to constrain the fight... to Russia's advantage. Russia's failure to provide a defense in Kursk is "an instance"... built on expectation Ukraine should respect borders in a way Russia does not... to keep the fight in Ukraine... conducted on Russian terms... to Russian advantage... for no obvious reason ? It is not the only instance in which that structure in dependencies... and potential for error in expectations... exists ?
Kursk... or its proper exploitation... should have brought the war to a quick end, already. It may not... only as the west will limit Ukraine's ability to fully exploit its victories in the ways they otherwise might. But, the dynamic is shifting, still, in result of Ukraine... showing it has a learning curve that Russia does not... and becoming dramatically, dangerously, better over time. Russia mindlessly persists in trying "more"... making the meatwave bigger... proving only that they cannot "win" in Ukraine... but can lose in Russia. In the ebb... that likely requires that Putin will not survive long... as that's how dictatorships tend to work in fostering change... if the effort to restore the flow fails.
Where it goes from here... perhaps dependent on nothing else as much as it is the outcome of the U.S. elections. Kamala "wins"... and perhaps expect more of the same only more so... which is still not "Russia winning"... or "Russia losing"... rather than continuing in wasting itself. Trump wins... and its more likely its over in shorter order... NOT as some may expect because Trump ends support leaving Russia succeeding in its takings... and leaving Europe to be Europe... but more likely as "withdrawing the limitations" that foster the imbalances required for endlessly sustaining the war... Odds are "more of the same" for another year in any case...
The current basis... is addressing companies in China with each acting to sustain businesses that are being specifically threatened... not a function of overt changes in direction being imposed as policy through mandates by China's leadership ?
That's been left as an open ended "pause in the conversation"... for as long as China demurred in replying.
It doesn't mean we won't be seeing "unexpected" policy shifts occur in the future... when China does opt to act ? But... it wasn't really left as a question, back in May ?
But... China can't have it both ways much longer...occasionally "making nice" in public while playing both sides... in a game of "let's you and him fight"...
A cynic might see it as... "at least the stakes are getting smaller"... as the U.S. now finally joins the crowd... as the entire global economy collapses into dysfunction...
China using Russia to constrain the U.S., to "pin us down" in Europe... to leave them with a free hand to act as they might prefer in Asia (including in the Russian far east)... appears it has broadly failed. Russia is succeeding only in proving itself increasingly incompetent... while dramatically degrading those capabilities they did have prior to committing them to destruction... leaving only Russia being left more at risk in its position in Asia, now, than they were before.
But... without following through on commitments it made to Russia and the BRICS... or deliberately changing course in its purposefully fostered conflicts with the west... when those two choices appear they are completely incompatible with each other ?... China appears it is committing to growing isolation, sustained failure, increasing irrelevance and persistent decline...
But... of course... enabling a new BRICS payment system and a new BRICS currency regime... aren't "the same thing" as committing to materially support the Russian war against the west... if there isn't a war ?
But, there... the nature of the real interest... in enabling aggression against one's neighbors (but, you go first)... is fully exposed as conflicting with "the opposite" in "self interest"... posed in the propaganda...
From here... things appear set to become uglier... fast... even without it leading to... or providing cover for... the choice to expand the still limited conflicts ongoing now... into more general conflict...or more new and specific instances of conflict... imposing the same result.
FWIW... I don't see the diplomacy... succeeding... not even in masking the bared fangs...
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