Thomas Fazi je po mojem mnenju pravilno dojel, kako zna establishment znotraj EU z mehanizmi, ki jih obladuje Evropska komisija, duh evropske skrajne desnice, ki uhaja iz steklenice, ukrotiti in nevtralizirati. Primer Giorgie Meloni in Viktorja Orbana je dokaj nazoren. Recept se imenuje: denar oziroma evropska sredstva.

Evropska skrajna desnica je glasna, samo dokler je v opoziciji, ko pride na oblast, pa kot zdresiran slavček ubrano prepeva v evropskem zborčku.

With the European Parliamentary elections just two months away, the final result seems all but decided. “A far-Right takeover is underway,” warn the experts of Foreign Policy. “This time, the far-Right threat is real,” add the prophets of Politico. And, give or take their hyperbolic use of “far-Right”, these cautions are warranted. Even though the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) will remain the largest group in the Parliament, the biggest winners are expected to be the two groups to the Right of the EPP: Identity and Democracy (ID) and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). According to the latest polls, the latter two groups alone could account for more than 20% of MEPs, and have almost as many seats as the EPP alone.

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Poglejte spodnjo sliko: Dinamika BDP per capita in CO2 emisij per capita sta naraščali praktično skorajda popolno korelirani vse do sredine 1970. let. Nato pa se je zgodil popoln preobrat: rast BDP per capita se je še naprej nadaljevala s strmim trendom, medtem ko se je krivulja CO2 emisij per capita obrnila navzdol. Kaj se je zgodilo?

Preden začnete razvijati kakšne divje teorije o kakšni tehnološki revoluciji, ki je vplivala na nenadno povečano energetsko varčnost francoske industrije ali da so Francozi nenadoma prenehali kuriti premog za ogrevanje ali se voziti z avtomobili z motorji na fosilna goriva, poglejte spodnjo sliko. Razlaga za preobrnitev trenda CO2 emisij per capita je zelo preprosta: Francija je dala v pogon svojih 56 jedrskih elektrarn in z njihovo proizvodnjo elektrike lahko nadomestila elektriko iz elektrarn na fosilna goriva. Jedrska energija torej omogoča razogljičenje, ki si ga tako želimo.

…so precej boljše od pričakovanj. In v primerjavi z ameriškimi tudi precej bolj vzdržne. Spodaj je dober vpogled Bena Arisa v ruske javne finance. Koristno je to poznati.

Russia external debt has been falling steadily and reached $326.6bn in December 2023, compared with $322.3bn in the previous quarter and $383.6bn at the end of 2022. It could pay the entire amount off tomorrow – in cash.

The Kremlin has been paying off its external debt. Low external debt means Russia doesn’t need to tap international capital markets so is not vulnerable to any sort of sanctions on bond issues, which are easy to apply and enforce.

Coupled with Russia’s strong current account surplus, which was up to $5.2bn in February from $4.5bn in January, thanks to high oil prices, Russia can fund itself easily on this profit.

At the same time gross international reserves have been rising and are now hovering around $600bn at the end of the first quarter. Half of these reserves are frozen. About $150bn are in monetary gold (up from $135bn pre-war) and the rest in yuan.

Even counting out the frozen funds, Russia can cover its external debt dollar for dollar with cash, whereas everyone in the West is massively leveraged, including the Ukraine where the debt-to-GDP ratio is almost at 100%.

It is these rock-solid fundamentals – no one else in world has even remotely similar fundamentals – which is the essence of Putin’s Fiscal Fortress. It is a ridiculously strong basis, which means even if the West manages to reduce Russia income from oil and gas exports, it will still have a massive amount of wiggle room. And its ongoing commodity exports to the global south mean that it will continue to enjoy the raw materials subsidy for its economy. Because of their external debt (USA, Italy, much of G7, everyone in Africa and even China) everyone else is a lot more vulnerable to a global slow down. Russia is probably currently the least vulnerable on a macro fundamentals basis.

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Kaj je opravičilo za to, da zahodne države na čelu z ZDA ne dovolijo Ukrajini ohraniti človeških življenj in ozemlja?

It was always going to end this way unless we restored neutrality & resolved the issue of security competition in Europe (NATO expansion):

• Between 2004-2014 I argued against dragging Ukraine into NATO against the will of Ukrainians & threatening Russian security.
• In 2013/2014, I argued against toppling the Ukrainian government and ending its neutrality.
• Between 2014-2022, I argued for implementing the Minsk agreement and restoring neutrality.
• After 2022 I argued for peace negotiations based on permanent neutrality & ending NATO expansionism.
• The people who insisted they were “pro-Ukrainian” set the country on a certain path to war. The people who warned that converting Ukraine into a frontline against Russia would destroy the country were denounced as Putinists.
• If we now recognise that NATO/Ukraine has lost the war and more men & territory will be lost every day – what is our excuse for not starting negotiations and save what is left of Ukraine? There is no way to turn the tide!
• The people who provoked the war, sabotaged the peace agreements, and suspended diplomacy for 2 years should stop their empty moral posturing and claim some ownership for this horrific war.

Vir: Glenn Diesen

Kishore Mahbubani, singapurski diplomat in strateg in nekdanji predsednik Varnostnega sveta OZN o vzponu Kitajske, ki ga ne more nič zaustaviti, ker ga poganja politična volja vodstva z dinastičnim spominom in volja 1.4 milijarde ljudi, ki si želijo večje blaginje. O tem, da pogleda na kitajski vzpon ne določa 12 % ljudi, ki živijo na Zahodu, pač pa 88 % ljudi, ki živijo izven zahodnih držav, in ti hočejo sodelovati in trgovati s Kitajsko. In o tem, da je propaganda zahodnih medijev, ki Kitajski že tri desetletja napovedujejo propad, medtem ko je Kitajska v teh 30 letih svoj BDP povečala za 50-krat, pač očividno slaba propaganda.

To je absolutni Must watch. Predsednik Gvajane s podatki suvereno in odločno razbije hipokrizijo novinarja BBC, ki mu skuša podtakniti očitek o negativnih posledicah izkoriščanja naftnih rezerv, ki jih je odkrila Gvajana. Najbolj izstopa predvsem samozavest in suverenost “države tretjega sveta”, ki si ne pusti več pridigati hipokritom iz zahodnih držav. Ta novo pridobljena samozavest “držav tretjega sveta” je tisto, kar nam daje upanje na lepši in bolj pravičen svet v prihodnje.

Tale govor ministrske predsednice Alberte v Kanadi je v popolnem sozvočju z mojo današnjo kolumno v Dnevniku (da nobene države ni mogoče poganjati na sonce in veter).

“There is no industrialised economy in the world operating that way, because they need baseload… And there are long stretches in winter where we can go weeks without wind or solar. That is the reason why we need legitimate, real solutions that rely on baseload power, rather than fantasy thinking… I am not going to engage in fantasy thinking and say something is possible when I know that my principal job is to have a reliable energy grid.”

Ted Snider asks:

Is America a Rogue Superpower?

“Unipolar” used to mean that the United States was, at least in theory, alone in leading the world. Now “unipolar” means that the United States is alone and isolated in opposition to the world.

Snider refers to the recent UN Security Council resolution 2728 which “demands” a ceasefire in Gaza and “demands” a release of hostages and “demands” the unhindered supply of food and other items to Gaza.

The U.S. has claimed, falsely, that the resolution is not binding.

As Snider writes:

On March 25, the U.S. went one step further and took a step toward becoming a rogue state who has supplanted international law with its rules-based order. International law is grounded in the charter system and the United Nations and is universally applicable. The rules-based order is composed of unwritten laws whose source, consent, and legitimacy are unknown. To the global majority, those unwritten laws have the appearance of being invoked when they benefit the U.S. and its partners and not being invoked when they don’t.

On March 25, the Security Council passed a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.” The resolution was able to pass because the U.S. stood aside and let the other fourteen Security Council members pass it by abstaining instead of vetoing.

But in her explanation of the American abstention after the resolution passed, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield “surprisingly” said that “we fully support some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution.”

Her claim that the Security Council resolution was nonbinding was not an off script, impromptu comment. It is the strategy of a country that enforces, not international law, but the U.S. led rules-based order.

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