Michael Hudson, who may be one of, if not the, smartest economist that I enjoy reading, reminded me of something that I had noticed sometime ago, and then forgotten.
Trump is destroying the American Imperial Empire, at record pace. With his various sanctions and erratic attacks on any nation that doesn't bow to his "Axis of Evil" John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Elliott Abrams, Trump is driving other nations to build financial, trade, and infrastructure arrangements with each other, independent of the United States, as fast as they can.
The Yankees and their King Dollar, global intelligence networks, and sole remaining superpower military, are no longer to be trusted.
Or if you prefer Michael Hudson's lengthier, more erudite, version of this observation, see his new article at
Trump’s Brilliant Strategy to Dismember U.S. Dollar Hegemony (CounterPunch).
Here are four paragraphs from the middle of Hudson's article to wet your appetite:
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The Deep State is reacting with shock at how this right-wing real estate grifter has been able to drive other countries to defend themselves by dismantling the U.S.-centered world order. To rub it in, he is using Bush and Reagan-era Neocon arsonists, John Bolton and now Elliott Abrams, to fan the flames in Venezuela. It is almost like a black political comedy. The world of international diplomacy is being turned inside-out. A world where there is no longer even a pretense that we might adhere to international norms, let alone laws or treaties.
The Neocons who Trump has appointed are accomplishing what seemed unthinkable not long ago: Driving China and Russia together – the great nightmare of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. They also are driving Germany and other European countries into the Eurasian orbit, the “Heartland” nightmare of Halford Mackinder a century ago.
The root cause is clear: After the crescendo of pretenses and deceptions over Iraq, Libya and Syria, along with our absolution of the lawless regime of Saudi Arabia, foreign political leaders are coming to recognize what world-wide public opinion polls reported even before the Iraq/Iran-Contra boys turned their attention to the world’s largest oil reserves in Venezuela: The United States is now the greatest threat to peace on the planet.
Calling the U.S. coup being sponsored in Venezuela a defense of democracy reveals the Doublethink underlying U.S. foreign policy. It defines “democracy” to mean supporting U.S. foreign policy, pursuing neoliberal privatization of public infrastructure, dismantling government regulation and following the direction of U.S.-dominated global institutions, from the IMF and World Bank to NATO. For decades, the resulting foreign wars, domestic austerity programs and military interventions have brought more violence, not democracy.
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