Sunday night miscellany

Sunday night here in Tokyo, a cold rainy day, and I have been working all day on the three Putin articles — some 15,000 words. Editing, checking, re-checking, re-editing. And oh the typos! And just stupid stuff. Almost there. Sooooooooooonnn!

In the the meantime, my coffeebuyer and commenter Cassandra has sent me a lonnnnnnnnnnng article to publish for him. What shall I say? It’s….umm…. different. A very different point of view, which might stir up some discussion.

Ialso found a new site for news and commentary. The Islander. Try it. It’s on Telegram .

“You Can’t Just Live for Free Off Us” — Unless You’re Israel or Wall Street

Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick laid it out:

“They’ve all been living in our house. Driving our car. Eating our food… You can’t just live for free off us.”

Thank God someone finally said it to Israel.

Oh wait — they didn’t.

Because when they say “you,” they mean China, BRICS, and the Global South, not Tel Aviv, not Kiev, and certainly not Raytheon or Lockheed. The Empire’s favorite tenants are still guzzling from the fridge, rent-free, arms full of weapons paid for by American workers, while Gaza burns and Ukraine bleeds.

“You Can’t Just Live for Free Off Us” — Unless You’re Israel or Wall Street

And now, Trump, the self-declared “tariff king”, got spooked. After a multi market crash, he pressed pause. A 90-day freeze on new tariffs. Wall Street had a tantrum, and the White House folded.

“People were getting yippy… afraid,” Trump said, watching the bond market like a weather vane.

This is not tough medicine. This is cosplay economics for the TV cameras, and bailout capitalism when the suits get nervous.

Sure, the S&P soared the next day. But who’s that really helping? Not Detroit. Not Youngstown. Not the Rust Belt. This is financialized patriotism, empty slogans, with bankers still holding the leash.

The truth? America isn’t being looted by foreign exporters. It was looted by its own ruling class.

• They shipped the factories overseas.

• They turned housing, health, and education into debt traps.

• They sold “free trade” while building a surveillance empire in the name of security.

• They launched forever wars, racked up trillions in costs, then told the world to foot the bill for the cleanup.

And now they want to talk about “reciprocal trade”?

Fine. Let’s compare receipts.

• Just Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan alone— trillions in destruction.

• Sanctions on 40+ countries — economic terrorism by another name.

• CIA coups, color revolutions, and drone assassinations — all billed to the victims.

If the U.S. wants a “level playing field,” the Global South should send the invoice.

Trump can bluff with tariffs all he wants. But the era of unipolar looting is ending. Eurasia is realigning. The dollar is wobbling. And even the Empire’s markets are exposing its own emperor, naked, nervous, and ruled by reflex.

(The Islander)

Strategic Culture

Over at our friends, Strategic Culture….

Pepe Escobar! Who I always confuse with Pablo.

China

Also… From China!

Kursk

Kursk. Ukrainian dead could be higher than 100, 000, according to US sources. Trump is right — people are dyin’— which bothers him. Guess Palestinians are not people.

Russian casualties in Kursk? 5000~7000.

The UK was behind that one.

Is Peace possible?

Chappy and Ichi say yes.

But I don’t want to lick Donald Trump, do you?

All three special articles will be available soon, so while I finish the last one I’m working on the mailing list! They will be available in DOCX, PDF, EPUB, or htm ( htm useful for those who want to translate the text).

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