After a wonderful speech indicting American anarcho tyranny, Duterte announced the Philippines would no longer be a vassal of the US and would henceforth be a vassal of China. And how about a bilateral trade deal between the Philippines and China? He then went to China’s ancient, traditional, and natural enemy, Japan, and said the Philippines would not be anyone’s vassal, and how about a bilateral trade deal between the Philippines and Japan?
A little while ago the notoriously and outrageously corrupt US Justice Department, notorious for launching frivolous lawsuits against corporations with deep pockets, and suggesting that the corporations settle by handing out huge amounts of slush money to private individuals who are political allies of individuals in the Justice Department, launched criminal charges of corruption against the Prime Minister of Malaysia, as if Malaysia was some suburb of Washington.
Instead of coming to the US to be put in a US jail by a US court, for crimes committed entirely within Malaysia with absolutely no connection to the US, the Prime Minister of Malaysia headed off to China to do a Duterte.
The specific accusation made by the US Department of Justice against Najib is that he had his Malaysian government do a large favor for a private Malaysian corporation, which subsequently, surprise surprise, made a large private donation to his Malaysian private political campaign, as if this sort thing does not happen all the time in Clinton emails, and as if the US Department of Justice does not openly do far worse things every day.
My analysis is that the dominoes are falling as a result of Blue Empire defeat in Aleppo, as the dominoes fell after Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, or American defeat in Vietnam. But the incompetent, hostile and unpleasant behavior of the US government also pushes its subject states to do what the weakness of the US government allows them to do.
Hat Tip Spandrell, the reactionary and darkly enlightened expert on all things East Asian.
Jesus everything is still speeding up. I have a feeling that, not long from now, I’ll barely be able to remember anything before 2016.
Wars and rumors of wars.
My feelings exactly. But what’s so weirder is the way that most Americans seem unaware of the ongoing collapse.
it turns out, the actual low information voters were the academics, journalists, and people most plugged in
I recall when the Soviet Union fell, its fall had been obvious to everyone for some time, except for academics and the CIA.
Is this all happening rather sooner than you expected?
ZING
Oh Jim, no hats up?
Sorry, oversight
Fixed.
Fun times to be in the area huh.
Loss of Philippines. Loss of Malaysia. This is not a deficit. This is a feature. Why do we want to spend money on their defense? What exciting products do we actually sell them? Don’t they practice Mercantilism like every other Asian country against us? Of what use to the average American is the American Empire. None.
What ships do we have in the south China sea that carry important American made trade goods? None.
No doubt our present government is completely incompetent but I’ll take a win how ever I can get it.
Now if we can just get Japan and Korea to throw us out we’ll be in excellent shape.
Orientals are ugly enough to leave alone, that’s for sure!
I’m disappointed that this thread earned so few comments, as it’s interesting and exciting to see real geopolitics unfold before us.
Agreed. Just not much of value I can add. I’d guess Malaysia has more pressing issues than US extortion rackets like the islamification of its neighbor – https://lionoftheblogosphere.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/evidence-of-the-dangerous-worldwide-islamic-reformation/
US will either stop this nonsense international interference under Trump’s Rule. or bring it to the peak and will be divided like USSR