37 Comments

Immediately following the surrender of Japan, U.S. put a number of troops into China to oversee the disarmament and return to Japan of their armies in China. The Soviets had grabbed huge parts of northern China and Korea, in a matter of a few weeks…. Chinese communists were holding on, while Stalin was not overly supportive the U.S. felt he would arm Mao with captured Japanese gear, etc.

Trump pulled George C Marshall out of retirement and sent him over to work with Chiang on multiple issues. He tried to be an open broker bringing both sides together. There was a strong faction to use US forces to aid Chiang.

Marshall saw corruption and no democracy in Chiang and the ruling coalition. He successfully kept US out of what would have made Vietnam seem a walk in the park.

Then McCarthy went after him.

US has slid down ever since.

The wild screeching about the threat of communism hid the imperial faction agenda.

Expand full comment

Thank you for this.

Expand full comment

"Marshall saw corruption and no democracy in Chiang and the ruling coalition".

Exactly what Washington has always aimed for in client governments. What wasn't to like? Luckily none of that mattered, as Mao Zedong administered a sharp kick to Chiang's bottom and ejected him to Formosa.

There is an immense irony and hilarity in the relations of Beijing and Washington since 1945. Mao wrote to Truman proposing partnership between the USA with its money and know-how and China with its resources and labour force. Truman, with typical American class and courtesy, ignored the letter completely. So Mao turned to Stalin, who did what he could to help. Since then China has gone steadily uphill, and the USA steadilg downhill.

Expand full comment

The US's inability to understand the past imperils its future.

Expand full comment

Trump pulled Marshall out of retirement?

Expand full comment

Is that not how we spell Truman these days.

Expand full comment

Damn Autocorrect!

Expand full comment

Trump's circle have looked into 1 single area of the most corrupt country on the planet. Look at the level of corruption in this 1 single entity. Then there is the CIA, FBI, NSA & all the other alphabet agencies. The Pentagon, FEMA, education system. There's too many to list, everything & I mean everything about America is false. It's fantasy one big massive cesspit of corruption

Expand full comment

It’s like trying to get rid of crab grass. There is a root system.

Expand full comment

@Davy Ro

There is an old story about Willy Sutton (a famous bank robber in his day) being asked "why do you rob banks?"

Willy's answer: "Because that's where the money is".

I see a parallel to that reasoning in the wealth extraction schemes now seen to have been carried out via US government funding of the various entities being audited since 1/20... Really, why would a smart wise guy looking for maximum payout with minimum risk have chosen a different target than our good ol' fed.gov?

Expand full comment

The Beltway is generous with your tax money.

Expand full comment

A couple years ago one sentence jumped out in an interview or speech or something with Putin. To the effect of:

Walking away from IMF(?) debt won't impact a country's ability to join BRICS.

Said it all...

Expand full comment

I love Russian understatement.

Expand full comment

BRICS makes it possible from debtor countries to achieve economic autonomy.

Expand full comment

Hubris is human centric without a perceptive glance into the unknown .

As was the Pope adamant the sun revolves around the earth in the 16 th c.

No lesson learned spiritually one can notice yet.

Glad Julian has realized this for a long time.

Hubris fails always.

It’s mistaken for life itself.

lol.

but Trump has revealed the Usaid corruption of the MSM etc which liberates millions.

Expand full comment

It was actually the 17th century when Galileo made an issue of it. The Church's problem was that, if the Earth went round the Sun, the story of how God let Joshua stop the Sun's motion in the sky must be false. Which implied that the Bible wasn't infallibly true. But the Church had been saying that it was.

So the Church declared that until Galileo could irrefutably prove his theory - which he actually couldn't at the time - the Church would go on claiming that the Bible was infallible and the Sun went round the Earth.

But they also said that, as and when someone actually proved heliocentrism, they would reevaluate their dogma. Which they did, a few centuries later.

Galileo's big mistake was to ignore religion and politics. Foolish.

Expand full comment

We have numbers, but must unify. It takes time but has been done before. The final most important ingredient is Discipline.

So there it is in a nutshell. Educate, Organize, Mobilize.

Numbers, Unity, Discipline.

These are the ingredients to successfully overcome the Fascist Oligarchs.

Expand full comment

I just lost my long comment trying to add this link.

I am a huge admirer of Hudson and Escobar. There are many others and none of them are giving up. Our numbers are growing. Even in the USA with our fatal overconfidence some are coming around. I'm living proof! I also know of others.

We must take it to the next level and the link below is the recipe. In short we must first educate, secondly organize and lastly mobilize.

https://open.substack.com/pub/valdphillips/p/the-straw-that-broke-the-fascists?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=rxi5e

Expand full comment

Trump isn’t perfect, but he’s the best there is.

Expand full comment

Now that is a very scary thought.

Expand full comment

The difference between "bad" and "worse" is ALWAYS more painfully striking than that between "good" and "better".

Expand full comment

Dear God, I hope not.

Expand full comment

Good day Mr. Macfarlane. Congratulations on what certainly appears to be a successful adoption of a handsome young kitty!

Expand full comment

Am reading the Prince at this time

One point made by Machiavelli was that allowing a proxy too much power can be a fatal mistake

Are seeing that with USA

Guess who the said proxy is?

Expand full comment

Funny how history repeats itself.

Expand full comment

Very nice analysis. I happen to agree with you. Ironically, all of the grift being exposed by DOGE will just accelerate imperial decline, not slow it down.

Now, Americans who already lost faith in our institutions feel justified, and many of those who haven't yet will at least begin to question what they are told. A lot of the "conspiracy theories" about the Democrats are being proven true, like 5000 out of 13,000 FBI agents were assigned to find something, anything, to keep Trump from being elected again.

It helps Trump now, but If he's not careful, this development could come back to bite him in a couple of years. History is replete with examples of double-edged swords.

Expand full comment

Let us keep in mind that Trump now seems to have control of the Message, with the irrepressible Elon as Oracle. Purging the bureaucracy is also always popular.

Expand full comment

Before we all pile on Trump, it might be wise to read John Carter's long analysis, along with Vox Day's commentary - https://crushlimbraw.blogspot.com/2025/02/our-world-has-changed-vox-popoli.html?m=0 - and remember - we all see through DaGlass DARKLY!

Expand full comment

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him".

Oh dear. Looks very, very bad indeed, doesn't it?

But wait a tick. What makes you think Trump is a ruler? Or Starmer, or Macron? Or... is anyone at all actually in charge of Germany right now?

Actually, the rulers of those countries are unknown to most of us. Trump, Starmer, Macron, et al are just the designated scapegoats. If we get pissed off enough they will be hanging from lamp posts or decapitated. Will that bother the real rulers? Not in the least.

Expand full comment

I didn't say that Trump was a "ruler"as in Machiavelli understood it. On the contrary,I argue that he is a front man, a comprador. As you say, like Starmer or Macron. He is, as you say so well, "designated".

Expand full comment

My heart goes out to dear Pepe Escobar... Ever so positive about BRICS, even though every day seems like a bad-hair-day for Pepe.

Expand full comment

Now, now, at least he HAS hair, sorta.

Expand full comment

It's Revolution or Death. It's fair democratic socialism or death.

https://youtu.be/RzvS6mUpn9s?si=XK0mz7X16MxkNwFg

Expand full comment

Lol! Democratic socialism died in the 80ies and 90ies. Even the European countries that experimented with it, dropped it hard.

Expand full comment

That is not because socialism did not work. They dropped it because it DID work.

Expand full comment

Oh. Always trying to uncork which perverse and psychopathic AmeriKKKan cunt has a higher IQ?

Here's some fun on CIA and Mossad and US MIC and Silicon and Wadi valleys big project...

https://open.substack.com/pub/dhughes/p/lissa-johnson-transhumanism-and-covid?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5i319

Expand full comment