Falling Off, by Dmitry Orlov

Recently Joe Biden fell off his bicycle. This auspicious event was registered on camera. The old reptiloid got up and, barely batting a nictitating membrane, blamed the toe clips. I too fell off my bicycle a couple of times, after coming to a stop just like Biden did, right after I first fitted it with toe clips. Then the neural programming adjusted and pulling the toes out of the toeclips when coming to a stop became automatic. Not so for Biden: in his delicate state—squinting hard to read the large type off his twin teleprompters; answering “Yes!” to provocations from journalists while trying to sound agreeable but in fact giving his handlers heart attacks—things that were once automatic apparently no longer are.

It occurred to me that forgetting how to ride a bicycle is a perfect metaphor for what’s happening right now in the US and in other countries—the EU, Japan, Australia, etc.—that are currently under outside management by some microcephalic midgets answerable only to old Joe. All of them together show a tendency to get stuck on problems that they could have previously solved in auto-mode, instead allowing them to grow into existential threats. It seems that the glowing ember, which is all that’s left of the mighty bonfire of Western imperialism that had burned for five centuries, is growing cooler and dimmer, and the behavior those who still attempt to steer by it is growing more and more erratic and defying even the most basic common sense. I’ll present just two examples, just to get you started. I am sure that you will be able to round out the list with lots of additional ones.

In its unslakable thirst for global domination, America faces two major adversaries—China and Russia. The US remains steadfast in its opposition to both, driven, in its senescent state, to appalling displays of weak-minded fury.

China is an economic competitor that has already won the competition, making it impossible for the US to continue operating without a steady supply of Chinese-made products and spare parts. Efforts to replace Chinese production with domestic, halfheartedly attempted during Donald Trump’s brief reign, have not produced any significant results. At this point, US economic warfare against China would be self-defeating and is not even being attempted.

Russia is a military competitor that has already largely won the competition. The US is not able to respond in any way to Russia’s formidable array of new weapons, which include hypersonic cruise missiles, sub-ballistic intercontinental missiles, laser satellite killers, advanced air and space defense systems and much else, including the new S-500 air defense system that can shoot down hypersonic missiles which nobody else even has yet. Throwing lots of money at the US military-industrial complex has not yielded any such impressive results; the Americans lack the necessary science and technology. At this point, US military warfare (sorry about the tautology) against Russia would be self-defeating and is not even being attempted. The failed attempt to sic Ukrainian Nazis on Russia is perhaps the last of its kind.

So, given that the US cannot stand up to China economically and cannot stand up to Russia militarily, what does it do? The answer is brilliantly simple yet just as blindingly idiotic: attack Russia economically while threatening China militarily. Let us see how viable (not!) this strategy happens to be.

Aside from being a world leader in military hardware, Russia is a major provider of energy, metals, fertilizer, food, nuclear fuel and several specialty items without which the rest of the world would pretty much grind to a halt. Russian economy was previously very import-dependent, but over the recent decade it has made strides in import replacement and now can get along and continue to develop quite well on its own. Faced with economically hostile behavior from the US and its minions in the EU, Russia has been reorienting its export streams away from the West and toward the East (China, India and the rest of Southeast Asia). Since this requires a lot of new infrastructure to be built, the process takes time, but the trend is already unmistakable and the end result predictable: an energy-poor Europe deprived of most industry and commerce; an economically disrupted US deprived of the ability to build airplanes (due to a lack of Russian titanium), to operate its remaining nuclear reactors (due to a lack of Russian enriched uranium), or to grow enough food (due to a lack of Russian fertilizer).

And then there are the specialty items. When Washington ordered Taipei to stop shipping advanced microchips to Russia, Russia responded by halting shipments of ultra-pure neon gas to Taiwan. Russia (with its former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) are together the world’s main supplier of ultra-pure neon, without which microchips cannot be made. The other supplier is People’s Republic of China. Of course, Taiwan can get the neon from China—provided it lists the shipping address on its order as follows: “Taipei, Taiwan Province, People’s Republic of China.” How does that tickle? The obvious response from Taiwan is to continue shipping microprocessors to Russia through indirect channels and not tell the US. Oh, and Russia also makes most of the semiconductor sapphire underlays…

The broad outlines of the result of economic warfare against Russia are already clear: an energy-poor EU deprived of almost all industry as well as such simple pleasures as heating homes and cooking food while the US-appointed microcephalic midgets manning the branch office in Brussels salute their senile master across the ocean and expect to be rewarded for a job well done; a booming economy in Southeast Asia, and the fabled Russian Bear indifferently turning around and presenting its smelly end to the West.

What, then, of the brilliant plan to stand up to China militarily? Given that the US won’t last long without Chinese imports, and that military action against China is virtually guaranteed to cut off these imports, how likely is the US to checkmate itself by attacking China? Not at all likely. So, what purpose does all of this preening and posturing around South China Sea serve (other than enriching US defense contractors and filling the campaign coffers of US congressmen with kickbacks I mean campaign contributions)? It serves the purpose of stimulating China to rearm itself along modern Russian lines and to also make itself invincible militarily.

And there we have it. Joe Biden fell of his bicycle. Joe Biden the figurehead got up, brushed himself off and rode on. But Joe Biden the supreme commander of the Western Imperium is still lying there with his toes stuck in the toe clips, struggling to get them out, not knowing what’s going on. The empire has fallen and it can’t get up. The remaining question is, How many more years will it take for it to realize that this has happened and to stop its futile struggle?