Thread by @LibertyBlitz

1/ It's Friday, so time for my weekly thread. Will go over my recent piece about geopolitics and whether or not we already exist in a multi-polar world in practice.

Here it is:
libertyblitzkrieg.com/2019/04/01/is-…

2/ First, I want to touch on why certain political factions hate Trump so much. It's generally not his policies, which are pretty similar to George W. Bush and Barack Obama in many important respects. Rather they despise him because he's a really bad salesman for empire.

3/ What do "Never Trumpers" on the right and "Russiagate conspiracy theorists" on the left have in common? They're huge proponents of U.S. empire and militarism. That's why guys like Brian Williams of MSNBC get off by seeing bombs drop, even under Trump.

4/ Obama was the perfect salesman for empire. He had the rare quality of being able to bailout bankers/keep them out of prison, pass healthcare “reform” for insurance companies, and expand U.S. wars everywhere and still be liked around the world and celebrated as liberal at home.

5/ Obama was the exact sort of person you need in charge to keep a corrupt and violent empire running smoothly. Michelle Obama and W. Bush sharing candy lovingly at public appearances is not surprising unless you don't get the joke. It's the same team. Trump disrupted the act.

6/ As such, Trump is a significant figure in the drama of U.S. imperial decline not because his policies are so different, but because the way he carries them out serves to accelerate decline. Which is happening as I write this.

7/ There’s no lipstick on the imperial pig under Trump and his band of creepy recycled neocons. It’s just an endless stream of threats and sanctions.

8/ So what are some of the signposts I see that prove imperial decline is accelerating? For one thing, traditional allies are simply ignoring threats and demands from the Trump administration. I'll name a few

9/ In the aftermath of Trump unilaterally pulling out of the Iran deal (JCPOA), France, Germany and Britain opened a new channel for non-dollar trade with Iran to avert U.S. sanctions.
reuters.com/article/us-ira…

10/ Second, the Trump administration has made Huawei and the 5G buildout a huge issue, pressuring allies around the world to exclude Huawei due to surveillance concerns. Once again, the EU didn't listen.
reuters.com/article/us-hua…

11/ Third, the Trump administration was strongly against Italy signing a memorandum of understanding with China on its belt and road initiative. Italy signed it anyway.
scmp.com/news/china/dip…

12/ While those signposts are interesting, the most clear sign the world is possibly already multi-polar happened when Russia stepped in and stopped the regime change plans for Syria. If not for Russia I'm pretty sure Assad would be gone by now and a U.S. puppet state installed.

13/ This is a huge deal because it was the first clear proof that what the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and politicians want, they can't necessarily get. The fact Russia was able to stop U.S. ambition in Syria means the world is already multi-polar to some extent.

14/ Now we have the Venezuela coup, which is clearly not going according to plan. Whether or not Trump and his creepy neocons can ultimately toss out Maduro and install Guaido remains unclear, but we do know it hasn't been as easy as they assumed. Another sign of weakness.

15/ As such, on a variety of fronts, it appears to me that a multi-polar world isn’t coming at some point in the distant future, but is in fact already here. The U.S. could do whatever it wanted 20 years ago. Those days are over.

16/ All that said, the U.S. still has one gigantic weapon, and it's no small thing. Dominance of the global financial system and the core role of the U.S. dollar in its functioning. While this gives the U.S. upper hand in many short-term situations, its overuse spells its demise.

17/ A world reserve currency cannot function if it's just fiat used by a declining power to bully the world into submission. It can work for a while, but necessity is the mother of all invention. The world will shift, and I expect USD dominance to be reduced significantly by 2025

18/ So that's my big picture geopolitical view. The world is already largely multi-polar, with the big exception being the global financial system. To think everything else shifts, but the global financial system won't shift to accommodate a multi-polar world is wrong in my view.

19/ Finally, if you're an American reading this and you think it's depressing or "doom and gloom," it's not...

20/ The U.S. empire as it stands today is exceedingly corrupt, violent and works against the interests of the average American citizen, both economically and from a civil liberties perspective.

21/ Although the transition from being the unipolar power to just one of several major powers will be challenging, we should see it as an opportunity.

22/ Our government and culture spends so much energy and wealth trying to dominate the world that we’ve collectively lost sight of caring about the country we actually live in. Trump promised to change this, but he's not. He's surrounded by neocons and worships the stock market.

23/ Average American citizens will never prosper as free people until the day we return to being a Constitutional Republic as opposed to an Empire. Empire is killing us in more ways than one.

24/ Anyway, that's it for now. If you enjoy my work, consider supporting it. My stuff is 100% ad-free, so reader support is appreciated. See options here:
libertyblitzkrieg.com/support-libert…

25/ Thanks to all current patrons. If you wish to join with a monthly pledge, check out my Patreon page.
patreon.com/michaelkrieger

26/ And last, but certainly not least, Bitcoin. I love getting BTC. Thanks for reading and for your consideration.
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