Civilisations collapse when the elites become self-destructive in their greed and evil. This is a theme common to much of the reporting at this blog. Is it true? A scholarly book explores the same theme:  Anne Glyn-Jones, Holding Up a Mirror: How Civilizations Decline, (Imprint Academic, Thorverton, 1996). There is also a very good video about this which can serve as Collapseology 101, an introduction to this topic by Paul Joseph Watson, who argues that almost every factor that led to the collapse of past civilisations, can be found in the West, and there are more as well, generating a situation of over-determination:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELoFwPwIQm0

     First, on the Glyn-Jones book, there are informative remarks given in an interview, saving us time in reading the book:

     This international bestseller caused a few ripples when it was learned that, for this English language version, some references to the power wielded by the Rothschild family which appeared in the original 2017 Spanish first edition, have been omitted. A storm in a teacup: the author appears genuinely to have avoided negative bias against any political, ethnic or religious group. He is a colonel in the Spanish army and was formerly chief of counter-intelligence and security for the European Army Corps. He is said to be one of Europe’s top specialists in geopolitics, terrorism and intelligence.

     It is a sobering account, drawing from worldwide evidence taken from the near and far past, as well as present time. It is an antidote to much of the half-baked idealism common in Australia among political commentators and agitators. In his introduction Banos remarks: ‘The powerful have always tried to seize control wherever their tendencies can reach…..It’s important that we are aware of these strategies that allow the powerful to rule the world. We like to think of ourselves as free individuals who make autonomous choices about our lives….. However, we are in fact continually being induced to make certain choices, and the same thing is happening at the geopolitical level – countries are manipulated into making particular decisions and alliances, and their populations have no say in the matter.’

     President Trump is the very definition of a cuck puppet president, a low intellect fool, used as a tool by the real powers to be of the Deep State and beyond. Thus, he breaks every electoral promise made to traditional America who put him in place, then follows to the letter everything a globalist like Jared whispers in his senile shell-like ear. Harsh, but how else to explain “his” insane decisions, such as now selling arms to Taiwan! Of all things, China sees Taiwan as part of itself, and the case for this is overwhelming, it is like you Aussies saying that Tasmania is part of Australia, only much stronger:
  https://supchina.com/2018/11/26/kuora-explaining-chinas-case-against-taiwan-independence/

     No sane country should stand in the way of China and Taiwan reuniting in my opinion, and certainly it is not worth a nuclear war over it, as China has said that economic production and business will be as usual. China has already gone on a war footing because of the arms sale’s proposal, the dopiest, and most inflammatory of Trump’s long list of blunders.
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2019/07/china-holds-military-drills-approves-arms-sale-taiwan-190714053228921.html
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/china-vows-sanctions-firms-taiwan-arms-sale-190712133310269.html

     Is it possible? Can there be someone more afflicted with the disease of globalitis than Hillary Clinton? Yes, old Democrat Joe Biden.
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/07/11/biden-lays-out-globalist-vision-to-counter-trumps-america-first-agenda-i-respect-no-borders/

“Biden, who has been criticized by former Obama administration colleagues for being on the “wrong” side of most international issues, began his remarks by noting that American policies at home and abroad are “deeply” intertwined. “In 2019, foreign policy is domestic policy, in my view, and domestic policy is foreign policy. They’re deeply connected,” the 76-year-old Democrat frontrunner said. “A deeply connected set of choices we make about how to advance the American way of life and our vision for the future.” “I respect no borders and cannot be contained by any walls,” Biden added, taking a shot at Trump’s efforts to reassert control over the U.S.-Mexico border. With that in mind, the former vice president committed to leading “an effort to reimagine” America’s global priorities. At the top of his list was preventing nuclear proliferation, which Biden hoped to accomplish by rejoining the Iran Nuclear Deal and extending the New START Treaty between the U.S. and Russia. Both are Obama-era initiatives widely interpreted to have been negotiated to the detriment of U.S. interests. The Iran Deal, which Trump abandoned soon after taking office, would have removed sanctions and given the country millions in financial relief in exchange for little oversight on their commitment to shutter their nuclear arsenal. Likewise, the New START Treaty, which is still in effect until 2021, has been criticized by Trump for allowing Russia to violate its parameters. Apart from reentering the nuclear deal, Biden signaled he would further take pressure off Iran by ending U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The conflict has been brewing since 2014, when Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, attempted to overthrow the Yemeni government. Saudi Arabia, seeking to counter Iran’s influence in the Middle East, interceded to defend Yemen through aerial bombardment. Although the bombing likely staved off the collapse of the Yemeni government, it has been blamed for civilian causalities. There is also debate in Congress as to whether America’s support for the Saudis requires military authorization.”

     Here, by way of summary are the latest moves of the European elites to create a United States of Europe, even while the present USA is falling apart. The one world dream is a delusion deriving from the same source as communism, but perhaps more powerful given the dark money interests always behind it.
  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14503/european-union-towards-superstate

•     “German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, nominated to be the next President of the European Commission, has called for the creation of a European superstate. "My aim is the United States of Europe..." she said in an interview with Der Spiegel. She has also called for the creation of a European Army.
•     Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, nominated to be the next President of the European Council, has said that Eastern European countries opposed to burden-sharing on migration should lose some of their EU rights. He is also a strong proponent of the Iran nuclear deal.
•     Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, nominated to replace Federica Mogherini as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is a well-known supporter of the mullahs in Iran. Borrell has also said that he hopes Britain will leave the EU because it is an impediment to the creation of a European superstate.
•     International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, nominated to be the next President of the European Central Bank, has supported U.S. President Donald J. Trump's trade war with China. "President Trump has a point on intellectual property. It is correct that nobody should be stealing intellectual property to move ahead.... On these points clearly the game has to change, the rules have to be respected."
•     "The best cure for Europhilia is always to observe the EU's big beasts at their unguarded worst... unencumbered by any attachment to democracy, accountability or even basic morality... [W]e witnessed rare footage of the secretive process that propels so many retreads and second-rate apparatchiks into positions of immense power in Brussels and Frankfurt, utterly disregarding public opinion.... Everything that is wrong with the EU was shamelessly on display." — Allister Heath, The Telegraph.”

     There is no doubt about it, but the globalists are in this until the entire planet is reduced to a crisp, like toast left in the toaster for way too long. Nothing, not even the failure of open borders immigration has caused them to pause. It will be a battle to the last breath, and the politically obese will fall, even before the start line.

     Many a letter I have written saying that the US border crisis can be solved by Mexico actually doing something, and that economic sanctions need to be slapped on them. Trump is threatening this now, it sounds good, but whether this will happen or not remains to be seen.
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/05/30/donald-trump-declares-he-will-increase-tariffs-on-mexico-until-illegal-immigration-remedied/

“President Donald Trump made good on a promised immigration announcement Thursday night, proclaiming he will increase tariffs on Mexico. “On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” President Trump wrote in a Thursday night tweet.

     The idea of film wars appeals to my twisted sense of perspective; that before the shooting war, there will be a battle of the celluloid:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-19/china-state-run-media-broadcasts-anti-american-movies-millions-amid-deepening-trade

“With the trade war between the US and China suddenly erupting after a 5-month ceasefire, CCTV 6, the movie channel of China's leading state television broadcaster, aired three anti-American movies last week, reported What's On Weibo. The three movies are Korean war films: Heroic Sons and Daughters (1964), Battle on Shangganling Mountain (1954), and Surprise Attack (1960), which aired about one week after President Trump raised an existing 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25%. All last week, anti-American propaganda flourished across the country, with the slogan "Wanna talk? Let's talk. Wanna fight? Let's do it. Wanna bully us? Dream on!" going viral on Chinese social media platforms. CCTV 6 broadcasted the movies to 500 million people in 23 provinces. The films fall under a category called "Resist America, Help North Korea," first debuting at the end of the Korean War (1950-1953). The first movie is Battle on Shangganling Mountain, also translated as Battle of Shangganling. It depicts a group of Chinese soldiers who are fighting against American soldiers on Triangle Hill. The second movie is Heroic Sons and Daughters tells the story of a political commissar in China's Army runs into his lost son and daughter in North Korea during the Korean War. The movie shows how China and North Korea were battle buddies against the Americans.

     President Rump cannot control the massive influx of illegals at the US/Mexican border, a product of the Left/Democ-rats making an example of anyone even giving token lip service to regulating immigration. But he is talking tough on the Iran issue though, hoping to provoke war so that his neo-conmen masters will pat him on his otherwise empty pointy head:

Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump

     I saw a great electoral advert by the United Australia Party about the Chinese takeover of Western Australian mining resources. Here is some written material about this:
  https://www.unitedaustraliaparty.org.au/wa-labor-government-supporting-secret-takeover-of-australia/

“Media release
WA Labor Government supporting secret takeover of Australia
The Labor government was supporting the clandestine takeover of Australia by granting Chinese communist government owned companies extraordinary powers to build and operate strategic assets in WA. That’s the stark assessment from the Leader of the United Australia Party’s Senate Team for Western Australia, James McDonald, who says allowing Chinese state-owned conglomerate CITIC Limited to build a jet airstrip in the Pilbara and exercise control over the deep water port at Cape Preston should be deeply concerning for all Australians. “Under a cloak of secrecy with the help of the Labor party,   Chinese communist government owned companies have built a private jet airport approximately 80km south of Karratha and the existing Karratha airport,’’ Mr McDonald said.

     The globalists are moving to the next stage of tyranny, after mixing up peoples by immigration; now it is time, they think, to roll out the one world money supply, to control, everything.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-05/it-begins-former-un-under-secretary-general-calls-one-world-currency
  https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/imf-special-drawing-right-global-currency-by-jose-antonio-ocampo-2019-04

“The best alternative would be to turn the IMF into an institution fully financed and managed in its own global currency – a proposal made several decades ago by Jacques Polak, then the Fund’s leading economist. One simple option would be to consider the SDRs that countries hold but have not used as “deposits” at the IMF, which the Fund can use to finance its lending to countries. This would require a change in the Articles of Agreement, because SDRs currently are not held in regular IMF accounts. The Fund could then issue SDRs regularly or, better still, during crises, as in 2009. In the long term, the amount issued must be related to the demand for foreign-exchange reserves. Various economists and the IMF itself have estimated that the Fund could issue $200-300 billion in SDRs per year. Moreover, this would spread the financial benefits (seigniorage) of issuing the global currency across all countries. At present, these benefits accrue only to issuers of national or regional currencies that are used internationally – particularly the US dollar and the euro.

     Just roll over and die, the West, or better yet, go through another cycle of communism-liberalism-communism …  Meanwhile China is building its heart out, doing things that were once only whispered about, such as making horizontal castles in the sky:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-28/chinas-horizontal-skyscraper-nears-completion-video

“A megastructure featuring the world's tallest sky bridge has been erected in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing. Designed by the world's most renowned and prolific architects, Moshe Safdie, Raffles City Chongqing complex measures 1.12-million-square-meters and consists of eight towers and a large connecting sky bridge, which is called a "horizontal skyscraper." The 250-meter-long sky bridge - which is basically a horizontal "skyscraper" resting on the to of several traditional skyscrapers - dubbed Crystal, if made vertical, would be the height of the Eif When open, it will have an observatory wing, sky gardens, an infinity pool, and shopping district. At night, the sky bridge transforms into a large light beam, illuminating the sky into a heavenly light show, fel Tower. The sky bridge is composed of 3,000 glass panels and 5,000 aluminum panels. The Raffles City Chongqing complex will feature a 230,000-square-meter shopping mall, 1,400 residential apartments, an upscale hotel, and 160,000 square meters of office space.”

     There is by now no secret that China is seeking to surpass the US and become number 1, top of the pop charts. That is the thesis of Michael Pillsbury’s book, The Hundred Year Marathon (2016), although the subtitle: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, is inaccurate, since there is no secret.
  https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2019/02/05/we-have-30-years-left-in-chinas-100-year-marathon-to-replace-america-as-worlds-superpower/

“China has been pursuing a strategy known to China hawks as The Hundred-Year Marathon, according to Michael Pillsbury‘s book which takes that strategy as its title.  President Donald Trump has described Pillsbury as “the leading authority on China.” In his book, Pillsbury describes China’s marathon strategy as one built around deception, playing on America’s view of China as a poor country and our elite’s belief that China can be democratized and reformed toward a market-based economy. But this play-acting is all an elaborate ruse intended to “mislead and manipulate American policymakers to obtain intelligence and military, technological and economic assistance” Pillsbury notes.”

     It is either national suicide, the desire for self-annihilation, or just another screw up, or perhaps a Deep State conspiracy, but the US is supplying weapons to terrorists, that in turn are used against the US:
  https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/02/middleeast/yemen-lost-us-arms/

“Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States, a CNN investigation has found. The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America's sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its main partner in the war, have used the US-manufactured weapons as a form of currency to buy the loyalties of militias or tribes, bolster chosen armed actors, and influence the complex political landscape, according to local commanders on the ground and analysts who spoke to CNN. By handing off this military equipment to third parties, the Saudi-led coalition is breaking the terms of its arms sales with the US, according to the Department of Defense.

     Trump, among his infinity of mistakes wants to have America’s largest immigration intake. This will destroy American jobs, all in the name of furthering the evil agenda of the globalists:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/13/trumps-hint-to-increase-legal-immigration-automation-dooms-american-workers/

“President Trump’s hint that he will increase legal immigration levels and a pending automation doomsday that lawmakers have yet to regulate threatens millions of America’s working and middle class workers. This week, Trump reiterated for the third time in a few weeks that he believes the U.S. should be increasing already historic levels of legal immigration — where more than 1.2 million legal immigrants are admitted every year at the expense of American taxpayers who are forced to subsidize the scheme through depressed wages and fewer job prospects. Trump has suggested that the country does not have enough Americans to fill high-paying jobs in sectors like the automotive industry. Nonetheless, Bureau of Labor Statistics data tell a different story, one that is nowhere near a so-called “labor shortage,” as the business lobby has continued to falsely claim. There are at least 13 million working-age Americans who are either unemployed, not in the labor force but want a job, or who are working part-time jobs but want a good-paying full-time job.Immigration Reform Law Insititute (IRLI) Executive Director Dale Wilcox told Breitbart News that increasing legal immigration levels would subject those 13 million Americans to more foreign competition against mostly low-skilled workers. Wilcox said:

     While James Reed is hoping that China may continue on the best of the West, I for one, have my doubts, and I pretty much have doubts about everything. For one thing, at long last, China is running head-first into a great wall of debt:
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-20/chinas-looming-great-wall-of-debt/10713614

“China's debt has been a key factor to its economic success in riding out the GFC, due to a large government stimulus injected into its economy. However, the financial boost has mostly led to China having one of the highest corporate debts in the world, only second to the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. The past year has been a tumultuous one for the Chinese market: it was hit by an economic downturn, and for the first time in two years, exports unexpectedly plunged to its lowest point, all of this against the backdrop of an ongoing trade dispute and punishing tariffs by the US. Beijing made moves to solve its issues by slashing central bank reserves earlier this month — the fifth time within a year — freeing up $US116 billion ($161.3 billion) to stimulate more economic growth. But forecasted figures by a number of global financial institutions are not looking too positive for the global superpower, and adding to the debt fears is an opaqueness and inability for analysts to completely obtain information and understand the full extent or impact of the potential looming problem.”

     The US is up to its usual thing of interfering in the affairs of other countries, even while internally a big thing was made bout the illusionary Russian meddling in the US election, now shown by the Mueller inquiry to be groundless. Talk about double standards! For progressives, Trump is responsible for even the New Zealand shooting:
  https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/03/24/ilhan-omar-suggests-trump-to-blame-for-new-zealand-terror/

     Anyway, Putin is not the puggy low-T cuck (low testosterone being our pet theme this week; my suggestion), that Trump is, and this iron leader, dripping manly T, who rides horses half naked,  has laid down the line on Venezuela to the neo-con war mongers:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-24/maduro-allegedly-foils-us-assassination-plot-against-him-used-bofa-funds
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-24/russian-troops-aid-arrive-caracas-trump-leaves-military-intervention-venezuela

     Could the end be nigh for … globalism? We have endured the end of everything of value to us, so it is only cosmically fair, that if the universe is taking the disintegration path, that globalism cops it too:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-19/death-globalization-accelerates-global-trade-declines
  https://www.barrons.com/articles/whether-or-not-there-is-a-u-s-china-deal-the-global-trade-system-is-changing-51552692446

“Investors have been on edge as the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and China, tiptoe toward a trade agreement. Yet even if President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping reach a deal, a tariff peace won’t mean a return to the old ways of doing business. The global system of trade is being realigned. A decades long drive toward freer trade across borders has begun to reverse. Globalization is being overwhelmed by populism, nationalism, and protectionism. Brexit threatens to erect new trade barriers between the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. India just moved to limit foreign operators selling goods online. An eroding global consensus on free trade has led U.S. companies to modify their supply chains, often bringing suppliers closer to their end markets. In the 1990s, global trade regularly grew at twice the rate of worldwide gross domestic product; since 2012, it has been rising only slightly faster than GDP, on average, according to the World Trade Organization. For this year, amid slowing global economic growth and rising barriers, the WTO has lowered trade expansion expectations to 3.7% from 4%, and said that first-quarter trade is slumping to 2010 levels.

     We are of course opposed to globalism in all its forms, because it is a form of centralisation of power, that ultimately erodes individual freedom. But, in the imperfect messy world of real politics, there may need to compromises for a time to counter even larger tyranny. Thus, maybe for the short term, not all globalists adventures will be equally bad, and some may retain enough freedom for future generations to work at dismantling them, once the real evil ones have been defeated.

     The proposal has been made by Brazil’s future chancellor Ernesto Araújo, in his document “For a Foreign Policy of the Brazilian People,” for the creation of a Right wing alignment of the US, Russia and Brazil, to counter the left/communist axis of China and Western Europe, and to defeat globalists to “resist the demonization of national sentiment, the crushing of faith (especially Christian faith), which rejects the emptying of the human soul and its replacement by anaemic dogmas that serve only the interests of world domination of certain elites.”    If this counter to the communist New World Order can be got up and running it may give us some breathing space to try and get sanity back into the world.

     As the Western anti-colonial forces have driven Western powers out of Africa, the Chinese have walked in, and are conducting an unopposed, by the Western Left that is, colonisation of Africa, beginning with vast loans, and when the inevitable default occurs, outright ownership of resources:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-05/how-china-colonized-entire-continent-without-firing-single-shot

“Back in 1885, to much fanfare, the General Act of the Berlin Conference launched the Scramble for Africa which saw the partition of the continent, formerly a loose aggregation of various tribes, into the countries that currently make up the southern continent, by the dominant superpowers (all of them European) of the day. Subsequently Africa was pillaged, plundered, and in most places, left for dead. The fact that a credit system reliant on petrodollars never managed to take hold only precipitated the "developed world" disappointment with Africa, no matter what various enlightened, humanitarian singer/writer/poet/visionaries claimed otherwise. And so the continent languished....  until 2012 when what we then dubbed as the "Beijing Conference" quietly took place, and to which only Goldman Sachs, which too has been quietly but very aggressively expanding in Africa, was invited. … 

     Last year the generally Left Polity Press published the book  by Salvatore Babones, The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts. Dr Babones is an America academic with an position  in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. What is of interest to us is the central thesis of the book, that there has been a potential conflict between liberalism and democracy throughout the Western political tradition. At present, liberalism is on the rise, if not out of control, but he does see merit in the presidency of Donald Trump in stopping the overwhelming influence of liberalism, and turning the pendulum back towards democracy. The subtitle of the book mentions the tyranny of experts, and here the central conflict between liberalism and democracy gets murky, because the technocrats are neither liberal, nor democratic, but, as I see it a sui genesis power group. The politically correct liberal is guided by fanatical ideology, but the technocrat is concerned solely with social control and the smooth operation of the social control mechanisms. However there is an alternative position that should be considered:
  https://www.counter-currents.com/2019/01/trump-vs-the-tyranny-of-experts/#more-89408

“Babones is correct that modern liberalism requires deference to expert (or pseudo-expert) authority. The people are the passive recipients of those rights the experts deem them to possess. As the domain of rights expands, experts end up making more and more of the decisions in an ever-increasing number of the most important aspects of public life: economic policy, criminal justice, what’s taught in schools, who’s allowed to enter the country, what diseases will be cured, even who will have the opportunity to run for elective office. The areas reserved to expert adjudication seem only to expand. Previously depoliticized domains rarely return to the realm of democratic determination. University instruction, medical research councils, disaster relief agencies, courts of law and (in America) the Federal Reserve Bank are just some institutions financed by government (i.e., taxpayers) but protected from democratic political oversight. In every case, the rational is that only those with the relevant professional expertise should be permitted to make decisions effecting such institutions.