Showing posts with label Monroe Doctrine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monroe Doctrine. Show all posts

Thursday, March 6, 2025

The Panama Canal & The Best MIGA-MAGA-ShowBizMan Money Can Buy

BlackRock, in collaboration with Goldman Sachs, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Balboa and Cristobal ports at either end of the Panama Canal from Hong Kong's CK Hutchison Holdings for approximately $19 billion. This acquisition aligns with strategic US efforts to counter China's influence over the canal and the region, as extensively outlined by US President Donald Trump in recent months.
 
On March 4, 2025, Trump praised this as his latest tremendous, beautiful, and incredible deal to the US Congress, referring to it as the US "reclaiming" the Panama Canal. BlackRock's CEO, Larry Fink, a devoted globalist of the Davos cult, has been involved in various Trump initiatives, and his latest acquisition seamlessly intertwines BlackRock's interests with US geopolitical objectives. Nothing could possibly go wrong: everything within BlackRock, nothing outside BlackRock, nothing against BlackRock. Not even two months in office, and already incredible. Perfect deal.

» One way or the other, we’re going to get it. «
The Art of the Deal.
 
Great job, Donnie; Waltz, Witkoff, Rubio, brilliant. Without a single shot and only a little taxpayer money. Exemplary. Checkbook diplomacy, corporatism, and plutocracy at their finest. Very clever. And a deal with the Greenlanders may finally compensate BlackRock for its misinvestment in Biden's Project Ukraine. Let's see how the UKR rare earths, Nord Stream 2, and this Canada thing play out. Now, if only these issues with the Gaza Casino Beach Resort could be resolved, Jared and Ms. Adelson would be really delighted. And you might very well end up with the Nobel Peace Prize, going down in history as Trump, The Peace President. Never mind, whatever is good for the Goldmans, the Musks, and the BlackRocks is sure good enough for your MAGA crowds.
 
 » I reject in the name of Panama and all Panamanians this new affront 
to the truth and our dignity as a nation. Trump is lying again. «
 José Raúl Mulino, President of Panama, on Trump's MIGA-MAGA show to the Congress.
 
However, on March 5, Panama's President José Raúl Mulino accused President Trump of lying in his congressional address when he declared his administration was "reclaiming" the Panama Canal. 
 
 » Truth is reality. The canal is and will always be Panamanian. «
José Raúl Mulino, President of Panama, March 6, 2025.
 
Panama asserts full control over the canal, arguing that the Chinese group's port operations do not equate to Chinese control over the waterway. The government called the sale a private transaction and dismissed any notion of US "reclaiming" the canal. Mulino rejected claims that the deal was due to US pressure, posting a message on X: "I reject in the name of Panama and all Panamanians this affront to the truth and our dignity as a nation," and accused Trump of "lying again". C'mon, Stalin Mulino, life is a business, and I pleased my MIGA-MAGA crowds. Truth is reality.
 
 » Too Pig to Fail. «
 
 

Saturday, February 1, 2025

In 2025 Cuba May Just Collapse Like Syria │ Mikhail Zvinchuk

Since the 1959 revolution, Cuba has relied on foreign aid. Right now, people appreciate help from other countries, but they don’t want to work. They are unwilling to take action. We are talking about a new Cuba—one that is lazy and has no interest in developing itself.

 » It looks like Gaza. «

To illustrate, Cuba now imports almost everything, even sugar. In the last century, Cuba was a major exporter of sugar, but now it depends on imports.
The country is unable to maintain or rebuild its electricity system on its own. In 2021, they began a foolish economic reform that failed. Economic conditions are dire. Russia and other countries provide some aid, but the main problem is Cuba itself. The situation there reminds me of Syria right before the fall of Bashar al-Assad
 
It is clear that communism in Cuba is not working. When you go to a shop, the shelves are empty. You can find things on the black market for dollars, but in regular shops, there is nothing. While Cuba may have a relatively low crime rate and some degree of safety, it is a poor country, struggling with unreliable electricity and lacking opportunities for social mobility. As a result, many Cubans are still fleeing to Florida. In fact, the flow of migrants to the United States has been steadily increasing over the past decade. If the situation continues, Cuba will eventually end up like Puerto Rico.
 
» Nothing but disgust for the offspring of the Guevara and Castro families. «

If you stand on a high building and look across Havana or any of the major cities, you’ll see decaying, dilapidated buildings falling apart. It’s an insane sight. It looks like Gaza. People often blame the US blockade for this, but at some point, leadership has to come into question. How much of this is due to the blockade, and how much is a result of failed leadership? The problem is poor leadership—they lack the education and skills to properly govern the country.

The country is falling deeper into crisis, and no one seems to know how to fix it. I’ve spoken with many Russian diplomats, and Russia provides humanitarian aid, including oil and gas. However, even our diplomats can’t fill their tanks because the Cuban people expect everything to be handed to them without any effort in return. 
 
» The economic situation will likely cause Cuba to collapse on its own. «
 
If the country were to open its borders and allow for a more open market, there might be hope for improvement. Currently, only the hotel and tourism sectors are allowed some access. But if the country lifted restrictions on the private sector and started working with other countries, there could be a chance to improve the situation. Right now, however, it's a failed social state. The country is clearly collapsing. 
 
Yet, the ruling party elite still posts meme tweets about Trump being a fascist and display LGBT flags at their hotels in Havana. The priorities are completely misaligned. You know who is the main LGBT activist in Cuba? It’s Mariela Castro Espín, the daughter of Raúl Castro. When I spoke to average Cubans, they expressed nothing but disgust and disdain for the offspring of the Guevara and Castro families. They had nothing good to say about them.

Latter-day mission: babble on about feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, trans identities, and—of course—revolution. Priorities.
 
Cuba may fall in 2025. If the US wanted to take Cuba—liberate it from the communist regime, as they might call it—they could do it easily, and quickly. The Cuban people are not like their ancestors from the 1950s—they have changed a lot. It would take significant effort to rebuild the nation.
 
Russian Navy about to lose the haven of another friendly power.
 
Cuba was the last American colony, and now it could become a new American colony. However, Trump is currently focusing on Greenland and Panama, and hasn’t given Cuba much attention. The economic situation, though, will likely cause Cuba to collapse on its own, regardless of Trump’s decisions. Once the humanitarian crisis deepens, the US might intervene as a savior.
 
Quoted from:

Friday, January 24, 2025

Mexico's Strategic Position in the Maritime Silk Road of the Americas

While Trump and Washington focus on renaming the Gulf of Mexico, reclaiming the Panama Canal, 'purchasing' Greenland, toppling the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua, and militarizing and sabotaging global trade, Beijing is subtly reshaping the commercial landscape in the Americas. Enter the new Port of Manzanillo, Mexico's mega project on the Pacific, a crucial element in China’s strategic plan for the Maritime Silk Road of the Americas:

Second phase inauguration of the Manzanillo project, November 23, 2024.
 
Mexico is currently building the largest port in Latin America in Manzanillo, a flagship project in President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration that continues the legacy of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) to enhance the country’s infrastructure and establish Mexico as an economic superpower. 
 
Situated in Cuyutlán Bay, Colima, the port’s expansion aims not only to increase Mexico’s capacity to handle international trade but also reflects the comprehensive vision of the left-wing government in improving key economic sectors: infrastructure, international trade, and energy. By 2030, with a budget of 63 billion pesos (3.4 billion US dollars), the project will expand the port from 450  to 1,880 hectares, allowing it to handle up to 10 million containers annually and establishing it among the 20 largest ports in the world.

 Mexico's new trade hub on the Pacific, bypassing the Panama Canal.

This expansion is part of a broader strategic initiative to amplify Mexico's global connectivity, which includes the construction of specialized terminals, advanced dredging systems, state-of-the-art cranes, and improvements to the railway and road infrastructure. These upgrades will allow the port to accommodate up to five mega-ships simultaneously and connect seamlessly with interoceanic logistical corridors and commercial routes in Asia, North America, and Latin America. The expansion will not only optimize the movement of goods but will significantly reduce transportation times and improve access for Mexican products in markets across the globe.

 By 2030, Puerto Manzanillo will rank among the 20 largest ports in the world.

Puerto Manzanillo will become a pivotal hub for international trade, facilitating direct links with Asia and bypassing the Panama Canal bottleneck. COSCO Shipping’s direct routes further bolster Manzanillo’s position as a central node in the Asia-Pacific supply chain, making it a strategic partner for Latin American markets.
 
Mexico is on track to become an economic superpower, driven by a growing population, an expanding middle
class, and a robust manufacturing sector, potentially surpassing the US in the second half of the 21st century.
 
This connection strengthens Mexico’s role in the global trade network, promoting exports like automobiles, agricultural goods, and steel, and secures it as a vital link between Latin America and Asia’s manufacturing powerhouse.
 

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

I'm Gonna MAGA You, Baby ! │ Pepe Escobar

It’s the greatest show on earth – unleashing a double bill of New Paradigm and Manifest Destiny on crack. We are the greatest. We will rock you – in every sense. We will crush you. We will take whatever we want, because we can. And if you wanna walk away from the US dollar, we will destroy you. BRICS, we’re coming to get ya. Trump 2.0 – a mix of professional wrestling and MMA played in a giant planetary cage – is in da house, starting next Monday.

 A larger-than-life PsyOp to change the narrative.

Trump 2.0 aims to be in the driving seat of the global financial system, in control of the world’s oil trade and LNG supply, and on strategic media platforms. Trump 2.0 is gearing up to be an extended exercise in the capacity to hurt The Other. Any Other. Hostile takeovers – and blood on the tracks. That’s how we “negotiate.” Under Trump 2.0, global tech infrastructure must run on US software, not just on the profit front, but also on the spy front. AI data chips must be American only. AI data centers must be controlled by America only. “Free trade” and “globalization”? That’s for losers. Welcome to neo-imperial, techno-feudal mercantilism – powered by US tech supremacy.
 
Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, has named a few of the targets ahead: Greenland, Canada, assorted cartels, the Arctic, the Gulf of “America,” oil and gas, and rare earth minerals. All in the name of strengthening “national security.” A key plank: total control of the “Western Hemisphere.” Monroe Doctrine 2.0 – actually the Donroe Doctrine. America First, Last, and Always.

Why the Chessboard Needs to Be Rejigged
Well, let’s delve a bit into pesky material imperatives. The Empire of Chaos faces a humongous debt, owed to the usual suspect loan sharks, that may only be—partially—repaid through selected export surpluses. This would imply re-industrialization—a long, costly affair—and securing smooth military supply chains. Where will the resource base come from for this Sisyphean task? Washington simply cannot rely on Chinese exports and rare earths. The chessboard needs to be rejigged—with trade and tech unified under US unilateral, monopoly control.
 
Plan A, so far, was to simultaneously confront Russia and China: the two top BRICS and key vectors of Eurasia integration. China’s strategy, since the start of the millennium, has been to trade resources for infrastructure, developing Global South markets as China itself keeps developing. Russia’s strategy has been to help nations recover their sovereignty; actually helping nations to help themselves on the sustainable development front. Plan A against the concerted geoeconomic and geopolitical strategies of the Russia-China strategic partnership miserably failed. What has been attempted by the ghastly, exiting US administration has generated serial, massive blowbacks.
 
Next best option: Plunder the Chihuahuas.

So, it’s time for Plan B: Looting the allies. They are already dominated Chihuahuas anyway. The exploitation show must go on. And there are plenty of Chihuahuas available to be exploited. Canada has loads of fresh water, plus oil and mining wealth. The Canadian business class, in fact, has always dreamed of deep integration with the Empire of Chaos. Trump 2.0 and his team have been careful not to name names.
 
When it comes to the Arctic as a crucial, evolving battlefield, there may be a vague allusion to the Northwest Passage, but never a mention of what really matters: the Northern Sea Routethe Russian denomination; the Chinese call it the Arctic Silk Road. That’s one of the key connectivity corridors of the future. The Northern Sea Route encompasses at least 15% of the world’s unexplored oil and 30% of the world’s unexplored natural gas. Greenland is smack in the middle of this New Great Game—capable of supplying years of uranium, as much oil as Alaska (bought from Russia in 1867), plus rare earths—not to mention providing useful real estate for missile defense and offense. Washington has been trying to grab Greenland from Denmark since 1946. There’s a deal with Copenhagen in place guaranteeing military control—mostly naval. Now Greenland is being revamped as the ideal US entry point into the Arctic Great Game against Russia.

At the St. Petersburg forum last June, I had the privilege of following an exceptional roundtable on the Northern Sea Route: that’s an integral part of Russia’s 21st-century development project, focused on commercial navigation—“We need more icebreakers!”—and bound to surpass Suez and Gibraltar in the near future. Slightly over 50,000 Greenland residents—which already enjoy autonomy, especially vis-à-vis the EU—would more than accept a full Danish exit; Copenhagen actually abandoned them in 1951. Greenlanders will love to profit from vast US investments. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went straight to the point: “The first step is to listen to the Greenlanders”—comparing it to how Russia listened to the residents of Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya vis-à-vis Kiev.


What Trump 2.0 actually wants from Greenland is crystal clear: total militarization; privileged access to rare earths; and the commercial exclusion of Russia and Chinese companies. Chinese military expert Yu Chun noted that “soon, the long-desired ‘golden waterway’ of the Arctic Ocean is expected to open, allowing ships to traverse the Pacific Ocean and sail along the northern coasts of North America and Eurasia into the Atlantic Ocean.” As the Northern Sea Route is “a key element of Sino-Russian cooperation,” it’s inevitable that the US’s “strategic vision is to prevent the establishment of a ‘golden waterway’ between China, Russia, and Europe by controlling Greenland.”

Freak Out on the Chihuahua Front
On the wider Chihuahua front, activity is frantic. Assorted Davos/Deep State-linked elites across NATOstan—from Europe to Canada—are in the process of being replaced by new, Trump 2.0-affiliated elites. That’s indissociably linked to the Looting the Allies strategy: the further destruction of the vassal EU economy to strengthen the heart of the Empire. In Germany, the AfD’s Alice Weidel—pragmatic, intellectually capable—offers a quite intriguing perspective. She is stressing, on the record, that Germany needs to restart importing raw materials and cheap natural gas—let’s reopen Nord Stream—from Russia.

That opens the tantalizing possibility that Trump and his factotum Elon Musk fully realize that Germany is worthless to the US as a de-industrialized backwater—even under the overall framework of a hardcore neoliberal asset-stripping offensive. Of course, Trump 2.0 will extract a hefty price for Germans to get a revitalized nation back.

Trump 2.0 at least holds the
dubiousmerit of a relatively realistic reading of the chessboard; Russia, India, China—the Primakov triangle—as well as Iran have become too powerful to be looted. So, the next best option is: Plunder the Chihuahuas. The blowing up of Nord Stream, as ordered by the Biden crime family—as detailed by Sy Hersh—was a gleaming starter.

The future of NATO in the Great America project is now up for grabs. Gotta pay up—or else: the contribution of each member nation should go up to 5% of GDP instead of the current 2%. Talk about a 150% price hike. Incidentally, Trump so far has not even muttered the nonsensical expression “Indo-Pacific.” For all practical purposes, Trump is telling NATO to take a hike. In the event of a double NATOstan annexation of Canada and Greenland, the US may even be able to match Russia’s resource base. Arguably, that’s the key rationale for unleashing this New Great Game. Forget “multipolarity.” BRICS, take note.

 
I’m gonna MAGA you, baby! 

The most intriguing side plot is, of course, Elon Musk. Trump badly needs Musk’s massive social media/propaganda digital megaphone. Simultaneously, on the Chihuahua front, the platinum sidekick wants to profit from a Europe capable of assessing enough energy, raw materials, and loads of consumers with solid purchasing power. The facts on the ground already spell out the “rules-based international order” being replaced in a flash by a no-rules international disorder. After all, international law has already been abolished by the Empire of Chaos itself (that’s bipartisan)—when it comes to illegal, unilateral sanctions, theft of financial assets, or legitimization of genocide and head-chopping “moderate rebels.”

Trump 2.0 will be nothing but enforcing a de facto phenomenon: a post-historical disorder. End of History—that was always for suckers. All of this incendiary chain of events is on a roll essentially because of one single reason: the Empire of Chaos lost the proxy war in Ukraine. What remains to be discussed is the modality of the surrender. So, it’s no wonder Trump had to come up with a seductive, but still fraught-with-danger, larger-than-life PsyOp to imperatively change the narrative.