Raging Against America and the World.
New readers should know that my Substack posts are dedicated to surveillance of matters related to a central premise, and that premise, put at its simplest, is that the collective West, made ever more desperate and ruthless because of its unsustainable debt load, is attempting to beat back the multiple forces of multipolarity. It is currently doing this on three main fronts: against Russia over the proxy excuse of defending Ukraine; against Iran over the proxy excuse of defending Israel; against China over the proxy excuse of defending Taiwan. But there is no limit to the number of fronts that the West will entertain.
Yet Again, China
I have often worried that we in the collective West should worry about mainstream media’s long-established agenda-setting, based on the agendas set by what C.W. Mills - mall those decades - ago correctly referred to as the “power elite,” because so often, if not typically, the elitist agenda is missing important things, perhaps the most important things. Why is why in my previous post I highlighted news of China’s progress towards the creation of energy by fusion, and its speed of advance in the realm of AI, and now today, I find from Alfred McCoy up to date information as to China’s lightning development of a new generation of electric vehicles.
In short, America’s decline is every day more visible to the naked eye.
McCoy (McCoy) has discovered the NIO ET7, which comes with a standard 649-mile range and complimentary access to “3,000 battery swap stations across China.” Battery swap stations allow you to exchange your depleted battery for a fully charged one in just a few minutes, minimizing downtime. The ZEEKR 001 can load a 300-mile charge in 11 minutes flat, less time than it takes to pump an equivalent-mileage of gas. The XPENG P7, has an innovative battery that “operates optimally” in temperatures ranging down to –22° Fahrenheit, ending the cold weather battery loss that makes EV driving so frustrating in Midwest winters.
China’s largest automaker, BYD, is selling its Dolphin hatchback for a low-low $15,000, complete with a 13-inch rotating screen, ventilated front seats, and a 260-mile range. The Dolphin has a plug-in hybrid version with an industry-leading 74-mile range on a single charge for only $11,000 and an upgrade with an unbeatable combined gas-electric range of 1,300 miles. EVs accolunt for 52% of all auto sales in China. Chinese companies accounted for more than 70% of global EV sales. China accounts for well over 80% of global sales of battery components and over 60% of all finished EV battiers. China’s robotic factories assemble complete cars, hands-free, from metal stamping to spray painting for less than the cost of a top-end refrigerator in the U.S.
“Chinese companies pop in their low-cost batteries and head to one of the country’s fully automated shipping ports. There, instead of relying on commercial carriers, leading automaker BYD cut costs to the bone by launching its own fleet of eight enormous ocean-going freighters.”
China’s EV exports are rapidly making major headway in Europe and BYD is already planning an export hub in Mexico for the American market while building billion dollar factories in Turkiye, Thailand and Indonesia.
McCoy rightly asks whether Tesla will soon be toast. This is what Trump’s pitiful regime of tariffs is all about: to shore up the tired, megalopolimaniac USA. He has vowed a sweeping roalback of federal support for the adoption of EVs. McCoy considers that the loss or even weakening of the U.S. auto industry will have a devastating effect on this country’s economy and its quality of life.
Frontline News from where News Really Matters
What else did we NOT learn in our tired and pompous mainstream media today? Well not much about China’s Belt and Road, which is transforming the world everywhere beyond the collective West, nor about the BRICS. How about this report from the People’s Daily (People's Daily):
China achieved stable growth in outbound investment in 2024, with a notable increase in international green infrastructure collaboration. Newly signed contracts included eco-protection, and clean energy initiatives rose by 12.7 percent last year. China's overseas contracted projects hit a record high as newly signed contracts totalled $267.3 billion, marking a 1.1 percent year-on-year growth. In green infrastructure new contracts for energy-saving, environmental protection, and clean energy projects rose 12.7 percent to $49.26 billion. In 2024, Chinese enterprises channeled $33.69 billion in non-financial direct investment into these countries, reflecting a 5.4 percent year-on-year growth. China has collaborated with over 100 countries and regions on green energy projects and launched a number of key projects and some "small yet smart" projects that effectively address the accessibility and affordability of power supply in those areas, and provide them with clean, safe and reliable energy supply solutions.
Overall, China's non-financial outbound direct investment rose by 10.5 percent year-on-year to $143.85 billion in the past year. Investment in ASEAN countries grew particularly fast, increasing by 12.6 percent compared to 2023, with significant inflows into Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand and other regional economies. By sector, the majority of investments flowed into leasing and business services, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade, official data revealed. China's overseas labor services dispatched 409,000 workers abroad, representing a 17.9 percent increase from the previous year. Most of these workers were employed across construction, transportation, warehousing, and postal services, playing a crucial role in securing employment and promoting all-around rural revitalization.
Future Tariff and Other Wars…Against America
Agitating Colombia
We had to turn to Russian daily Pravda for the news that following Colombia’s refusal to accept two planeloads of handcuffed Colombian migrants from the US, and the institution of 25% tariffs on imports from the US in retaliation for Trump’s imposition (now apparently withdrawn - read further) of 25% tariffs on Columbian exports to the US (retaliation for Colombia’s refusal to accept illegal migrants), the Colombian leader Gustavo Petro ordered to use his presidential flight for this purpose.
"The Government of Colombia, under the leadership of President Gustavo Petro, has allocated a presidential plane to facilitate the dignified return of compatriots who were about to arrive in the country this morning on deportation flights. This measure is a response to the government's commitment to guarantee decent conditions.”
Trump banned Colombian officials from entering the United States, imposed visa restrictions on their family members and other close associates, and imposed enhanced security checks on all Colombian citizens at the US border.
The Colombian Government announced the extraordinary assembly of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States CELAC, chaired by Honduras, to be held on Thursday, January 30. Former Pentagon whistleblower Scott Ritter has warned that Trump may face a united resistance from Latin American nations.
BUT:
Late in the evening of Sunday, January 26, California time, the BBC reported a White House statement claiming that Columbia has now agreed to accept migrants arriving on US military aircraft "without limitation or delay". Colombia says Washington has agreed to treat repatriated citizens with dignity.
Agitating Brazil
Along with Colombia, Brazil has been equally agitated about the forced deportation of Brazilians from the US, in particular the subjugation of illegal migrants to handcuffing and other indignities. Tel-Sur reports:
“La Cancillería de Brasil ha denunciado el uso indiscriminado de esposas y cadenas para la transportación de deportados desde los Estados Unidos, lo cual viola un acuerdo bilateral que prevé un «trato digno, respetuoso y humano» de los ciudadanos retornados.
“Una nota del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores indicó que el uso de esposas y cadenas en los vuelos de deportación desde Estados Unidos constituye una violación del acuerdo firmado entre ambos países en 2018, en el marco del cual se están llevando a cabo la devoluciones de ciudadanos brasileños a su país natal.
“En ese sentido, la nación sudamericana considera inaceptable la violación de lo acordado en el marco de la anterior administración del mandatario Donald Trump. Dicho acuerdo se estableció a fin de reducir el tiempo de estancia de connacionales en centros de detención estadounidenses, como resultado de la migración irregular.
“En el comunicado, la cartera de Relaciones Exteriores anunció que hará la aclaración al nuevo gobierno estadounidense y le pedirá explicaciones respecto del incidente, así como estará al tanto de los cambios de las políticas migratorias de dicho país, «a fin de garantizar la protección, seguridad y dignidad de los brasileños que allí residen».
Agitating Panama
While on the subject of Latin America we should note, first of all, the understandable unhappiness of Panama with Trump’s now undoubtedly serious threat to seize it. Panamanian President Mulino has furiously rejected Trump’s threat, saying that Trump’s reasoning is false, that Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama. AP reports:
"The Panama Canal was not a concession or a gift from the United States," (Mulino) said, adding that it came into being through a series of treaties dating back to 1903.
The US was instrumental in prising the territory of Panama away from Colombia. Panama had been a Spanish possession for 300 years before being assigned by Simon Bolivar to Greater Colombia. The US supported (instigated?) an independence movement that would allow the US to take over from the French the construction of the canal in 1902. Much later, in 1977, an agreement between Panamanian leader Torrijos and President Carter promised the return of the canal to Panama by the year 2000. This was bitterly opposed by the Reagan administration. George Bush senior sabotaged the agreement just before Christmas 1989 when the US invaded Panama on the pretext that its effective ruler, former CIA-asset Manuel Noriega, was a drug lord, massacred 4,000 Panamanian citizens, destroyed the Panamanian army and installed a US-friendly puppet regime. The handover of the canal to Panamanian control was thus rendered safe for the US.
Agitating India
Everywhere, Trump attacks not only established enemies of the Washington neocon consensus but also and in some case pointedly, US allies such as India, pushing them with ever greater certitude into the domain of the BRICS and the new anti-dollar order of multi-modality. Trump has just attempted to sabotage India’s energetic economy by issuing yet more sanctions (that are bound to be worked-around) on India’s single most important and cheapest source of energy, Russian gas. Now it is India’s illegal migrants to the US who are being targetted. The New York Times today reports that India is one of the top sources of illegal immigration to the United States. More than 700,000 undocumented Indians are living in the United States making them the third-largest group, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans. Indian news outlets reported this past week that the government had been working with the new administration to take back 18,000 Indian illegal immigrants who are under so-called final removal orders.
Agitating Europe
The Hill reports that a 45 minute call between Trump and Danish prime minister Frederiksen last week spiraled into confrontation. Trump, at that time still the president-elect, was reportedly aggressive and threatened tariffs against the NATO ally. As I have noted in recent posts, Greenland is important to Trump because of its mineral wealth and because it will play a vital role in intensifying conflicts over new transit routes made possible by the melting ice of the Arctic, where Russia is currently the strongest, legitimate player, as various nations, including China jostle for control and influence. Greenland was colonized by Denmark in the eighteenth century, but since 1950 has enjoyed an autonomous status subect to Danish authority over security and external relations. Trump’s bid for coercive US ownership of Denmark is illegal and unconstitutional.
This US display of anarchic landgrabbing is especially troubling for a Europe that is already feeling increasingly under pressure from signs that Trump will abandon Europe as a participant in NATO’s proxy war against Russia over Ukraine, so that Trump can focus US attention on other matters, in particular the intensification of its competition with China (well founded, as we have seen in the opening section above).
One of Trump’s recent executive orders put a halt to all US foreign aid (except for Israel and Egypt) for 100 days, pending review. While for the moment it appears that this does not extend directly to the flow of weapons to Ukraine there are many ways in which the cessation of non-military aid may have negative consequences for Ukraine. At this point in time it is uncertain whether the new US Secretary of State Mark Rubio will do anything to mitigate or perhaps even to increase the severity of this order.
I am of the view - and I suspect that Moscow also has the view - that Trump does not have a strong hand in the matter of seeking a cessation of hostilities over Ukraine. Trump’s resort to sanctions is merely a repeat of stale and overworn tactics that have not worked in the past against Russia and will not work now. If that is the best he can do, he shows that in fact there is not much he can do, given Russian supremacy on the battlefield (it has lately scored major victories in Velyka Novoselivka, Toretsk, Chasiv Yar and is surrounding Pokrovsk and Kupyansk, placing both settlements in mortal danger).
There seems very little likelihood that Russia can settle for anything less than “Istanbul Plus” (a reference, of course, to the agreement that was actually reached in March to April 2022 but then sabotaged by Tony Blinken and Boris Johnson, with the consent of Zelensky). This requires absolute Ukrainian neutrality; but the principle of neutrality cannot coexist with the presence of NATO soldiers on Ukrainian soil, whether as “peacekeepers” of a buffer zone or in any other capacity, which is the kind of solution that Trump’s team has to date been exploring.
I am skeptical, therefore, that anything short of a rump Ukraine west of the Dnieper, that is left entirely alone by NATO, which is defanged by means of a considerable reduction in the size of its army, and de-nazified by the punishment and outlawing of its Banderite movements, can possibly work.
There are many influential Russians who think that even such a solution will not be enough. Indeed, they are justified in thinking this because Istanbul Plus does not, in fact, give Russia the security that Russia wants and deserves. Whether Ukraine continues to exist at all is beside the point if the US continues to position potentially offensive nuclear weapons in Poland, Romania or anywhere else, if NATO continues to mount aggressive military exercises along Russian borders, and if Poland, the Baltics and other anti-Russian countries still feel free to engage in slanderous and provocative anti-Russian propaganda and provocation. Therefore, the only lasting solution can be a form of “Yalta Two,” an agreement not just for a European security architecture, as some have argued, but of a new global security architecture,. along the lines that China has articulated quite well in the recent past.
I contend that we should worry that Putin, forever anxious to deal with an irrational world as though it can be reasoned with and in a demonstration of just how much more “civilized” Russia is over the “civilized” West, will allow a “settlement” to the conflict that will not, actually, settle anything that this conflict is “really” about, and what it is “about” is the desperate need to put an end to the schlerotic and dysfunctional world order ruled by a declining US hegemon.
Europe cannot fight its war with Russia without the US and the US, as we have seen, is increasingly disinclined to fight it. Europe can pretend that it can fight it, but it does not now have the assets, whether in men or in weapons, and it does not have sufficient unity. Even the promise of using seized Russian assets or interest on such assets for the purpose of diverting them to Ukraine is again being severely questioned by the the leader of Euroclear, legitimate guardian to the bulk of the seized funds.
The longer the conflict continues, the greater the fissures that will be exposed within the European polity. The outcome of February’s election in Germany will likely provide a major confirmation of this.
But Lauding Israeli Genocide
Even as Israel misses the deadline for it to get out of Southern Lebanon, and kills more Lebanese, Trump has rewarded its criminal belligerance by lifting the supply to Israel of 200 pound bombs which it will doubtless put to use for more genocidal destruction in Gaza, the West Bank, the Lebanon, perhaps Syria. In further enthusiastic support for Israel, Trump has openly canvassed the idea, originally promoted by Blinken at the beginning of the genocide, of moving over 1.5 million Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt. This has already been rejected by Egypt and by Jordan. Furthermore, the population of Gaza prior to October 7, 2023 was of the order of 2.2 million, raising the question as to whether over half a million Palestinians (not just the 44,000 deaths formally acknowledged by Gazan health authorities and which practically all competent sources, including The Lancet, say is fall less than the actual total) may have been annihilated.
Gas Wars
Ukraine is proposing to divert Ukrainian coal (much of it now under Russian control) to Moldova to tide Moldova over the energy crisis it has suffered as a result of Russian discontinuation of supply (a Russian response to Moldova’s non-payment to Gazprom, and unrelated to Ukraine’s unilateral discontinuation of the supply of Russian gas by Ukrainian pipeline to Slovenia, Hungary and other European countries). The coal may be shipped to the major power station in pro-Russian Transnistria so as to restore the flow of electricity from Transnistria to Moldova and, also, back to Ukraine.