The Multipolar World Order (yes, it's here)

[Ravenlocke]

Rania Khalek

Feb 15
A call to revive western colonialism received a standing ovation from European leaders. There is a false perception that Europe is more progressive than the US. That is false. It’s a founding partner in imperial barbarity


In his speech to the Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls on European allies to “not be shackled by guilt and shame” over their “culture and heritage” and to help the U.S. "revive the West's age of dominance.” The speech was received by a standing ovation from European leaders.

https://x.com/RaniaKhalek/status/2023114605673988502

[Ravenlocke]

Drop Site

Feb 14
In a keynote at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed the United Nations for failing to “solve the war in Gaza,” claiming it ultimately played “virtually no role” in “freeing captives from barbarians.”

He did not mention that the US was the sole dissenting veto on six different U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire since October 7, 2023.

📌 Timeline of U.S. Vetoes on Gaza Ceasefire:

➤ October 18, 2023: Vetoed a resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid delivery, arguing it did not recognize Israel’s right to self-defense.

➤ December 8, 2023: Vetoed a resolution demanding an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” stating it failed to condemn Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

➤ February 20, 2024: Vetoed an Algerian-drafted resolution for an immediate ceasefire, claiming it would jeopardize sensitive captive negotiations.

➤ November 20, 2024: Vetoed a resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire,” citing that it did not explicitly link the ceasefire to the immediate release of captives.

➤ June 4, 2025: Vetoed a resolution for a permanent ceasefire, maintaining that any measure must condemn Hamas and ensure the group cannot re-threaten Israel.

➤ September 18, 2025: Vetoed the sixth draft resolution demanding a ceasefire and the lifting of aid restrictions, which the U.S. again criticized for failing to sufficiently condemn Hamas.

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2022878344262365216

[Ravenlocke]

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉

Feb 15
Rubio’s speech was a schizophrenic symphony of cultural pessimism: a critique of the “End of History” liberal internationalism wrapped in the very “Clash of Civilizations” barbed wire that keeps humanity divided—the very worldview Rubio claims to reject but merely inverts.

The “Clash of Civilizations” and the “End of History” are twin heads of the same oligarchical snake. Rubio is counterfeit opposition, offering the mirror image of the disease while posing as the cure. He is a man trapped in someone else’s argument, incapable of imagining a future beyond the categories the oligarchy gave him.

By framing the future as a contest between the West and the rest, he ensures the conflict that will block the grand-scale infrastructure and scientific cooperation needed to lift the entire planet.

His insistence that the engine of development must be a narrowly defined, ethnocentric “Western civilization” ignores a simple fact: a shrinking, aging population is the death knell of a physical economy. Who will staff the factories of the new “Western supply chain”? He ignores the demographic problem because he’s focused on culture war, not economics—and that makes him a useful idiot for the oligarchy. He never mentions moving beyond a speculative, finance-driven economy to a productive one. This is the Malthusian madness of the very Club of Rome he claims to reject, dressed up in patriotic clothing. Rubio peddles the same zero-growth poison as the globalists.

Humanity’s destiny is discovery, not nostalgia, but Rubio cannot see past the barbed wire. For him, there is no room for the creative intellect that transcends tribe, no recognition that the scientific method or musical genius knows no border. For Rubio, “the West” is a tribe to be guarded, not a mission to be advanced.

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/2023272274745315699

Rubio correctly identified the symptom but utterly misidentified the cause. He diagnosed the disease but prescribed the poison: ethnic fear dressed as patriotism. He refuses to name the oligarchs who made the choice to deindustrialize America, the City of London and Wall Street cabal that profited from every shuttered plant and every job shipped abroad.

Instead of directing working-class anger at the financiers who destroyed their communities, he scapegoats the migrant, the rival nation, anyone but the true enemy. He poses as a defender of industry while offering no commitment to a nuclear-powered future or the massive infrastructure program that would actually reindustrialize America. Rubio wants to compete for the Global South while locking the gate to the Global South in his own backyard. His “Western civilization” is a gilded cage designed to keep the future out. He has become a useful idiot for the very oligarchical forces he claims to oppose.

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/2023258605550751969

[Ravenlocke]

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉 reposted

No Cold War

Feb 16
🛑BREAKING NEWS: The "Global Bridge" for Cuba is now a reality

Mexico officially becomes the world's gas station for humanitarian aid. 🇲🇽✈️

President Claudia Sheinbaum has just confirmed that any aircraft, regardless of its origin, will be allowed to land and refuel on Mexican soil if its final destination is to deliver aid to the island. 🇨🇺

https://x.com/NoColdWar/status/2023344716364808692

[Ravenlocke]

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉

Two systems are before the world. Marco Rubio’s Munich speech was a vulgar echo of Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden. He mourned the “anti-colonial uprisings” that freed humanity from empire, as if Europe would be better today had colonization never ended. We are the world. We are the children!

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/2023524488097526050

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

Feb 16
https://x.com/i/status/2023366401956925758

Both China and Iran are investing in the Wakhan Corridor.

That will complement not only the East-West BRI corridors but also the Russia-Iran-India INSTC.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...05253706854440

🇮🇷 Iran’s Rail Corridor TOTALLY CHANGES Eurasian Trade Map

Iran is working on a rail connection that could directly link China to Europe through Afghanistan. The key piece is the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of Afghan territory that touches China’s Xinjiang region.

If the rail link is completed, it would create the shortest overland route between East Asia and Europe.

Right now, most China–Europe rail traffic runs north through Kazakhstan and Russia, or relies partly on sea transport. The southern route through Iran would be significantly shorter and more direct. Trains could move from western China through Afghanistan and Iran, then continue to Turkey and into Europe without switching to ships.

Iran has already started building out the infrastructure on its side. Rail freight between Iran and Afghanistan has increased sharply, from 15,000 tonnes to over 535,000 tonnes in about a year. Tehran has invested billions into Afghan rail and transport projects to make the corridor viable.

Traffic from China is also growing. More than 60 trains have arrived in Iran from China this year, compared to just seven the year before.

The implications go beyond transport. For decades, global trade routes between Asia and Europe were dominated by maritime shipping or northern land corridors. A direct southern rail line would shift part of that flow through Iran, turning it into a key transit hub between China and Europe.

Geography is once again becoming destiny. If completed, this corridor would place Iran directly on one of the main arteries of Eurasian trade as a central transit state.

Can Trump stop the rise of alternative trade routes like this or will he just bark about sanctions?

[Ravenlocke]

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉

“Two systems are before the world…” — Henry C. Carey, 1851

Nations rise by building. They decline by hollowing themselves out. The future belongs to those who produce — not those who merely profit. Happy Chinese New Year!

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/2023571320576016463

[Ravenlocke]

🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉 reposted

Jason Smith - 上官杰文

Feb 15
For the China-haters saying 🤬 "Only Shanghai looks like that", here is Yibin, China, a fourth-tier city.

And that's a fact.👇

https://x.com/ShangguanJiewen/status...02977859940801

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

No wonder they are in absolutely freak out mode.

And want to recolonize the Global South.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...55876826169395

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

Feb 14
China isn’t declaring a new world reserve currency.

It’s doing something much quieter.

Step by step, Beijing is expanding the yuan in trade.

It's all about payment systems.

Countries buying from China are encouraged to settle in yuan through CIPS instead of the dollar network.

No dramatic announcement.

Just a slow, steady shift in how the world actually pays for goods.

FULL EPISODE ON THE CRADLE:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=i8o3hDyh0hs&t=219s

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...25282138489046

Pepe Escobar

Feb 14
Here’s something Western media NEVER gets.

In Russia and China, national security ISN’T discussed in public.

Not with journalists. Not with foreigners.

Access takes years. TRUST comes first, politics later.

You won’t hear officials casually revealing strategy.

Because in Moscow and Beijing, serious matters stay behind CLOSED DOORS

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...23672440107284

What does Trump actually see in BRICS?

Only one thing: the threat to the U.S. dollar.

So in his logic they all become enemies — dealt with one by one. Starting with Iran.

Add pressure from political donors and power networks.

And we’re back to the same usual suspects - as scandals swirl around the post-truth elites behind the system.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...22833348686187

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar reposted

Mao Ning 毛宁

Feb 14
Built by Chinese and local workers under scorching heat and desert storms, Africa’s first heavy-haul railway — Algeria’s 950 km Western Mineral Railway — is now open.

Infrastructure that connects. Cooperation that delivers.

https://x.com/SpoxCHN_MaoNing/status...82960697061758

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

Feb 14
BRICS

Ryabkov - immensely competent, Russia's top BRICS sherpa - cuts to the chase:

BRICS is building systems the US can’t easily switch off.

BRICS won’t yield to sanctions or diktats.

BRICS is working on a precious metals exchange.

I'll back in Moscow this weekend.


https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...27741074379180

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

Feb 14
🎥 Golden Corridor

🔻 FINALLY OUT!

GLOBAL PREMIERE TODAY

This is the FIRST English-language documentary ever on the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

We shot it last May in Iran - from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, all the way to the maritime Iran-Pakistan border.

The INSTC links three top BRICS: Russia, Iran and India.

This doc could not be more timely - with the renewed threat of war and regime change against Iran.

And here's to a new BRICS slogan:

Make Connectivity Corridors, Not War.

🗓 Premiere:

Saturday, February 14th | 19:00 GMT
📺 Rebroadcast:

🕜 Sunday 01:30 | 13:30 GMT

@PressTV

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...02788208197819

[Ravenlocke]

TASS

Sergey Lavrov discussed strengthening strategic partnership with ambassadors of BRICS member states and partner countries accredited in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said:
https://vk.cc/cUxBf3

https://x.com/tassagency_en/status/2023809244923838542

Lavrov discusses strengthening strategic partnership with BRICS ambassadors

According to the Foreign Ministry, the sides discussed current issues on the global agenda, with a focus on the inadmissibility of undermining the central role of the United Nations

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed strengthening strategic partnership with ambassadors of BRICS member states and partner countries accredited in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"A substantive exchange of views took place on strengthening strategic partnership within the association, including in the context of the priorities outlined by India for its BRICS chairmanship this year," the ministry said following a working lunch.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the sides also discussed current issues on the global agenda, with a focus on the inadmissibility of undermining the central role of the United Nations.

"The demand for joint efforts to improve the global governance system in order to enhance the role of countries of the global majority in global decision-making was emphasized. A commitment was expressed to raising BRICS’ international profile and strengthening coordination among its participants at key multilateral platforms," the ministry added.

[bojancan]

Always interesting to listen information.. from their perspectives... Max and Aaron!

Feb, 17

In Munich I saw my enemies - The Grayzone live

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2ok3qAiqfyc

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss the follies of the Munich Security Conference, where a bipartisan cast of US leaders, European officials and a Clown Prince clamored for war from Iran to Ukraine, while AOC launched a campaign for... something. They will also cover the Trump-manufactured humanitarian crisis in Cuba, the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson, and more.

[grapevine]

Europe Has Become a War Project — Can It Be Stopped? | Yanis Varoufakis & Jeffrey Sachs

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=iHNa7Qxve9Y

59:11

A thorough and valuable conversation, Yanis V firstly outlining the formation of the European Union and the basis for becoming a member, ie joining NATO, ensuring American hegemony.

Unfortunately there is no timestamp so the following is a mix of their conversation plus my thoughts:

In 2008 NATO expansion (led by George Bush Jr) shifted eastwards which alienated Russia and further strengthened America’s dominance. The German banks, affected by the European sovereign debt crisis in 2010 and Ursula’s "green deal" that didn't materialise, led to the lack of investment in Europe and cemented Europe’s stagnation.

The CIA, created in 1947, has run the world for America since 1991 who thinks, like Britain before them, that nobody can successfully challenge their empire and imo underestimated the power of BRICS during the Democrat government term. They do not (want to) understand that the world no longer wants to be led by one dictatorial country and would rather work with and join BRICS for fairer and more fulfilling relationships. Russia, under Putin leadership, has always wanted and welcomed cooperation with Europe, and as Jeffrey Sachs said, it would only take one European leader to move in this direction for the EU to tumble. But in all honesty, I cannot think of one European stateman with the attributes of Sergei Lavrov or Xi Jinping who could broker a deal at this stage. Maybe Viktor Orban . . .

[Mike Gorman]

Orban, & politicians such as Petr Macinka offer us a non-typical EU response, the big problem here is that they are viewed as outliers & almost perverse opposition to the EU Commission narratives/policies, they are impressive people in my estimation, but my opinions don't weigh very much in that quarter! I think this push for war is a forlorn bluster on the part of the UK/Germany - they may wish they could challenge Russia but they have effectively overseen the deindustrialization & dismantling of their countries, not to mention the corrosion of national spirit and desire to fight: we would see something like the present Ukrainian thuggery forcibly conscripting men from the streets...nobody wants this war.
Multi-polar, we are at the very early stages of this, but I think it is inevitable: it just depends on if we can all survive this time, whatever number world war you think it will be, it is very precariously with us, even if we are a little jaded with this potential, it is very real.

[grapevine]

For me, as both an onlooker and layperson, Mike, I see everything coming together like Christmas Dinner, ie Big Bird goes on first, then everything is timed around it. Trouble is that the instigators have very little control once it reaches that critical point where it speeds out of control, so the outcome could be anything atm, ie feast and/or famine.

I see the Epstein files release and Obama’s disclosure tease as being distraction from the Big Bird, which I suspect is America’s Bankruptcy courtesy of BRICS and empiric fall. There’s another Yanis Varoufakis video supporting this below, and we’ve been waiting for the financial collapse for a while now, like the forgotten bread sauce still in the oven.

https://www.tiktok.com/@capitalvoice...ZN-942CcsW7A1e
(Can't embed sorry)

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

https://presstv.ir/doc/Detail/2026/0...lden-Corridor-

MAKE CONNECTIVITY CORRIDORS, NOT WAR

Total hysteria on starting a war on Iran.

I offer the antidote:

The first English-language documentary in the world on the Russia-Iran-India trade corridor.

Shot in Iran, from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

3 BRICS. Linked by trade. No war.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...27841568923656

[shaberon]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
Both China and Iran are investing in the Wakhan Corridor.

That will complement not only the East-West BRI corridors but also the Russia-Iran-India INSTC.

It's brilliant.

It's epochially pivotal in the sense that what we call Afghanistan does not really have any more travel routes through it now than for all time. It's terribly rugged, mostly impassable.

It's connected to the center of Asia, Ulug Depe, which was inhabited from at least 7,000 B. C. E. almost until the Achemenid era. It is not a close neighbor of Wakhan; this is a topographical map which is relevant because this is completely physical. So we see the northern borders of Afghanistan and Iran, and at its northeast, Iran sticks out in a prominent corner. Following along, the second, smaller corner is the location of Ulug Depe. It is in the northern foothills of the Kopet Dag range, but what may seem counter-intuitive is that the neighboring river flows east towards Afghanistan. Then, you see a relatively short trek through one part of the mountain range, gets you to a river that flow to the Caspian Sea:





What I find impressive is that this made a triangular trading relationship with sites in Iran and India in the Stone Age at like 5,000 B. C. E..

So this actually is growth, "world order", productivity, whatever you would like to call it, for literally Ages, minus the times and ways in which man has fouled it.

The Wakhan Corridor is part of it for the same reason, it physically works like a long chute through the ruggedness. But it is basically tuned for camels. So it would be an important development. And this region will remain of utmost importance, with a route to Iran and possibly west, south to Pakistan's Makran Coast for maritime distribution, or, into India.


On the other hand, I would have to agree its inversion is the Munich Security Conference.

Just consider the location.

What's the main emphasis, Security.

This is the language that ought to be discarded. It's how Nazi Argentina was brought into the United Nations at the eleventh hour, then, transferred into the modus operandi of NATO. Obviously it is the mainstay of that house of particular opinions to this day.

The response given above seems to be correct, the audience for this is going to die. Aside from a few like him who have been trained to pander to it, it's not going to refresh and recharge, it's going to expire.

And, you know, we've honestly been stuck in this sad delusion ever since the Ming Empire. And I still have to hear it because that really is an unelected official.

That's really the key to NATO, unaccountability, almost a stateless junta. It is obsolete, in the business of re-selling itself.