If only they weren’t able to inflict so much damage, it would be a real life Monty Python sketch.

“I say, we have the best Navy in the world, don’t we old chap?”

“Indeed we do sir.”

“So fine, we’ve never even sprung a leak!”

“Just as you say sir.”

“Now, what are we going to do about all this bloody kelp and these crustaceans?”

Camera pans out to show a creaky old raft half submerged and covered with seaweed and crabs.

It’s genuinely hilarious that the “China slowdown” narrative hinged on incomplete data and imperial hubris. “But the asiatics need us!!! …right?”

Wow, now to get the rest of the Global South on this trajectory. The dollar is cooked.

ETA this gem:

91% of payments between Russia and CIS countries are now made in national currencies. The figure stands at 93% for the Eurasian Economic Union

Can’t wait for the US to just sanction the entire fucking world and cut itself off completely from global trade.

Makes sense. I wonder if it’s more of a survival strategy in their case though. Turkey has Ottoman ambitions, but Pakistan doesn’t have any comparable impecial history.

Anyone know what’s driving these changes in Pakistan? My understanding was that their government was a US puppet. Wonder if they saw the writing on the wall.

Yep. Why would an oil refinery choose to stop accepting Iranian oil just to maintain the good graces of the US? This is probably just another, but very significant, test balloon in the march towards dedollarization.

China has ordered its companies to ignore US sanctions, an unprecedented act of defiance that threatens to trap (!) a vast banking sector in the crossfire as tension rises between the world’s largest economies.

Won’t somebody think of the banks?

Within China, state media outlets and academics who advise the government sought to frame the retaliation as a forceful but calibrated response against US overreach. A commentary on the People’s Daily app, the Communist Party mouthpiece, called it “a pivotal step” in using [a legal order] to restrain what it called the “long-arm jurisdiction” of the US.

Says the capitalist-run mouthpiece of Wall Street.

Workarounds for banks can include transactions in the yuan, which makes them less visible to US authorities.

What authorities? Who the fuck in the US has authority over trade between China and Iran?

The US measures unlawfully restrict normal trade with third countries and breach international norms, the country’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It banned recognition, enforcement, and compliance with the sanctions aimed at the five companies.

“The Chinese government has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that lack authorization from the United Nations and a basis in international law,” the department said.

Half way through the article until they finally quote anyone from the Chinese government.

XD

I wonder if that’s a typical route for their tankers, or an evasive one. It would have been much more direct to head from Sri Lanka towards north Sumatra, then continue along to China.

Gotta love Brit-speak. What “authorities” are going to “investigate”? Iran is the authority of the Straight of Hormuz. They have nothing to investigate as the action was conducted by their military. QED.

Love to see it!

o7

Boy, I wonder what could have caused that?

Asking a question so heinous that it makes Hegseth look good…

Europe

Mariana Trench

I wonder if Monthly Review would be interested in publishing it: https://monthlyreview.org/contact/submissions/

Plus even the ones they do detain are costing them millions in fuel and maintenance. Surely even monopoly finance capital will realize there’s upper limits to what can be captured.

o7