Ukraine - When sanctions are not sanctions

The EU banned the entry of Russian ships to its ports in a Ukraine-related sanctions package that was introduced on April 8. However, EU countries have made a number of exceptions for some Russian vessels. The Belgian authorities have allowed ships that purchase, import, or transport gas, oil, pharmaceutical, medical, agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilizers, to enter the ports.  RT

Apparently many countries were coerced by the Americans to sanction Russia when the Ukraine war started. But many of these countries, including Germany, France and Japan, only sanctioned Russia in words, not in deeds. Many justified their exceptions on national interests and did not sanction Russia at all.

So, how many silly countries really apply the sanctions to the letter as demanded by the Americans? The sanctions in many instances became a joke, very comical, sanction but no sanction. It makes a fool of those silly countries that stupidly apply the sanctions in fear of the Americans and unable to say no to American pressure. The Europeans and Japanese are quietly sniggering at the stupidity of the sanctions. Even the Americans pretended that the sanctions are in place and would be embarrassed to admit that many of these countries are defying the Americans...on the ground of their national interests.

The Americans could no longer arm twist their allies especially those in Europe and Japan to do their biddings but only their little stooges. And Russia is happily selling coal, oil and gas, fertilisers and essential items to any buyers that are willing to pay in Roubles. Even the Americans are buying coal and oil from the Russians, Europeans made a beeline to buy even more. Japan continues as if nothing has changed. They said they would sanction but until their national interests would not be affected.

Simply brilliant of the Japanese and Europeans.

US converting international financial system into international sanctions system

 All countries face dangerous possibility of being cut off from global financial market at Washington's whim

It is abundantly clear that the United States, by exploiting the U.S. dollar's global dominance, is converting the international financial system into an international sanctions system.

In the mid 1960s, when fixed exchange rates based on the post-World War II gold standard were gradually replaced by a global system reliant on the dollar as the primary means of cross-border payments and reserves, France's then Finance Minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing coined the phrase "exorbitant privilege" to bemoan a United States taking advantage of the dollar dominance for self-interest.

Over the past more than 50 years, the United States has transformed that "exorbitant privilege" into an "exorbitant weapon of mass financial destruction" for geopolitical contention, and pulled the trigger multiple times.

In early of the century, Washington executed the same playbook in its dealing with the Iran nuclear issue, expelling Iranian banks from SWIFT and banning imports of Iranian energy. Even now, the Iranian economy is still struggling in the shadow of Washington's sanctions.

The latest sanctions and threats of more sanctions on Russia are another salient example that Washington is getting increasingly unscrupulous in abusing its dollar hegemony for self-serving purposes. The global community should stay ever more vigilant against Washington's unbounded financial terrorism.

America's messing around is reminding all countries of the dangerous possibility of being cut off from the global financial market at Washington's whim.

As a hedge against the risk of falling into the prey of Washington's financial terrorism, de-dollarization is being accepted as a rational option by more.

Since the 2000s exactly when Washington started using the dollar dominance as a menacing tool for geopolitical coercion, the dollar's position as the world's dominant reserve currency has been going downhill.

According to data from the International Monetary Fund, in 2021, the dollar accounted for less than 60 percent international foreign currency reserves, while in 2000, the number is more than 70 percent.

By contrast, currencies of some emerging economies like the Chinese renminbi are gaining a larger share in international foreign currency reserves and transnational transactions.

People with basic economic knowledge know that the value of a currency rests on people's trust in its issuer, typically a country's government. The eroding dollar dominance is a prognostic indicator of the shrinking trust the world holds towards Washington.

The United States does not lack world-class minds to tell that Washington's addiction to dollar weaponization is provoking a backlash: the world's trust in the U.S. dollar and a global financial transaction system underpinned by the dollar is fading away. There is only one way to explain Washington politicians' craziness: they have grown too hubristic to make rational calls.

Like in the game of Jenga, the tower of the dollar dominance is still standing, yet some of its blocks are being taken away. A complete collapse may take some time, yet seems inevitable in the future if Washington continues down the foolish and destructive path.

- Beijing

Anonymous 

Insolent Australia warns Superpower China of ‘Red Line’

 Scott Morrison declared that a Chinese military base on the Solomon Islands would be a step too far for Australia and the US

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared on Sunday that a Chinese military base on the Solomon Islands would be an unacceptable “red line,” without adding how Canberra would retaliate. Morrison’s government and the United States are scrambling to respond to a recently-signed security deal between the islands and Beijing, which they consider an “aggressive” move.

“Working together with our partners in New Zealand and of course the United States, I share the same red line that the United States has when it comes to these issues,” Morrison said. “We won’t be having Chinese military naval bases in our region on our doorstep.”

A tiny archipelago sitting around 2,000km off the northeastern coast of Australia, the Solomon Islands made international news last week when it signed a security pact with China.

There is much hysteria generated by the future potential for Chinese ships to use port facilities some 2,000 kilometers from Australia's shoreline. The Australian reaction is all about the supposed threat that this poses to Australia rather than the benefits the agreement may bring to the Solomon Islands.

"The spectre of Chinese nuclear submarines, destroyers, fighters and bombers based in the Solomon Islands, merely 1752 kilometres from Australia’s mainland (and closer than New Zealand), brings the looming prospect of global conflict right to our doorstep," says AFR's Christopher Joye. "Sadly, our worst fears have come to pass. What we now need is decisive leadership to protect our way of life, which faces existential threats for the first time since the first Cold War."

There is not a mention of the port facilities offered to U.S. navy ships by Japan and China's Taiwan region that are within 500 kilometers of China's coastline.

Anonymous 

Ukraine - Exposing the white men's international community lie

 The Americans and the western countries like to use the term international community to denounce and threaten Russia, China or countries that they opposed and called enemies. The international community were against so and so, the international community opposed so and so, the international community condemned so and so. In Ukraine, they would said the international community condemned and opposed Russia. Unfortunately the silence from the international community, other than the AngloSaxon and European stocks, have made them look ridiculous, a laughing stock if they ever dare to use the term international community this time round. The only countries that are behind them are the white men countries. No other country is supporting the American and the West in this war.  Yes, no one else is supporting them and they know. 

Japan is not a country and so is South Korea, both are semi colonies, not independent countries and have no say in their foreign policies. They just have to go along with the Empire. Australia and  New Zealand are not real countries like other nation states. They are stolen lands and living in them on borrowed time. They would be evicted one day and sent back to where they come from. There were some small islands in the Pacific that have voted against the Russians but they did it not because of principles or out of their own choice, but being pressured, threatened or bribed into doing so.

For the rest of the world, the real international community, they are happily sitting on the sideline or openly supporting Russia. At worse, they would be neutral. No sensible govt in its right mind would be supporting the warmongering evil American Empire. The international community are eagerly waiting and praying for the demise of the oppressive and warmongering evil American Empire. The destruction of the evil American Empire will set them free to live the life they choose, without fearing for sanctions, regime change or assassinations.

The international community have spoken, loud and clear, let the warmongering white men kill themselves in their savage ways. No one in the international community would want to die for them or be dragged into the fray against their national interests, to die for the cause of the white men so that the white men can continue to rule them and bully them and exploit them would be foolhardy.

Many in the international community are quietly supporting the Russian effort to keep the white savages engaged in Europe, die fighting among themselves.

Solomon Islands - Australian and American duplicity in the Solomon Islands

 

U.S. to ‘Respond Accordingly’ If China Sets Up Base in Solomons - Bloomberg headline April 23
- U.S. will have “significant concerns” over Chinese base, Solomons PM says there will be no long-term Chinese presence


Tiny island nation proves that the West only believes in its own ‘spheres of influence’

Australia and the US believe the Solomon Islands must not be allowed to partner up with China, showing a selective respect for self-determination

Russia is bad. There is no excuse for attacking Ukraine, and the argument that it was a strategic imperative to stop NATO’s encroachment is just propaganda, right? That’s what every source in the mainstream media will tell you. But oddly enough, that logic never seems to apply when western countries perceive rival states to be encroaching on their own peripheries, and there’s been no bigger example of that than as to how American and Australian political classes have reacted to the now signed “Bilateral security agreement” between China and the Solomon Islands, a small archipelago which exists not far from Papua New Guinea.

The deal was confirmed this week, despite Australia and the US having piled on scores of official visits in a bid to try and halt it. This has been combined with a media narrative of extreme paranoia claiming, without due evidence, that China is set to build a naval base on the islands and poses a direct military threat to Australia in turn. This has produced some hysterical commentaries, with a founder of The Diplomat Magazine even literally calling for bombing and regime change in the island nation.

It seems strange that the same countries who said that Ukraine has a right to “choose” its allies, or in other words self-determination, do not seem to apply that logic to countries who choose to tilt towards perceived rival states, and there’s plenty of historical examples to back it up with.

The consensus is, whether expressed in moderate or explicit terms, that more must be done to “remove” the influence of China from the Solomon Islands, with the assumption that only the US and its allies act in the true interests of the state and its people. It’s as if there is no comprehension whatsoever as to why the Solomon Islands may not consent to be under the hegemony of Australia and the United States, and why it is obviously going to prefer a strategy of “hedging” to maximize political space and opportunity for itself, rather than being forced to exclusively pick one side. This is demonstrative of the elitist mindset which dominates these countries.

The Western powers’ insincere concern for Ukraine and their hypocrisy in believing that only they themselves are entitled to “spheres of influence” and they must have an infinite right to encircle rival countries without any right of reply. Russia’s narrative about the threat emanating from Ukraine is simply “propaganda,” we are told, yet China making an ambiguous deal with a tiny island nation of just 700,000 or so is somehow deemed an imminent and escalatory threat to Australia itself. Is it not time we started to question this narrative?

- RT (You can share this story on social media) 

 

 Anonymous