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Hi to all,
In recent times we have been sending out podcasts that we consider particularly noteworthy and relevant to recent geopolitical events.
However, rather than continue to bombard you with these, which can be time consuming, we have decided on a different approach! But we also take this opportunity to apologise for the length of this epistle - but there is much going on in the world as we all know.
We are appending a list of Youtube commentators that we consider worthy of your attention and we are also including a precis of recent world events as we see them.
It is hard to know where to start!
First of all, a general comment. It has become more and more obvious that our hitherto benign attitude to the USA as a reliable ally and leader of the "Western World" is seriously flawed and that is a result of in excess of 70 CIA organised aggressive covert "regime change" operations in various countries over the last 80 years and continuous bending of the truth to suit various propaganda narratives. We have all been consistently lied to by the US and its various allies for at least this whole period of time. Note that we were both born in Auckland in 1947 and we are now in our 80th. years and hopefully somewhat wiser as we age!!
This has engendered a growing feeling of betrayal and is reinforced by the actions of the current US president. Following Trump's first term from 2016 to 2020, and then his campaign rhetoric prior to his 2024 election, we felt that it was reasonable to expect that he would pursue a policy of peace and avoidance of armed conflict. In addition he had very acceptable domestic and financial policies, which if pursued consistently, at least had a reasonable chance over time of bringing the US and by extension all of us, back from certain financial catastrophe, which had been largely caused by Presidents Obama and Biden and others before them. But now it is increasingly obvious that Trump himself has substantially increased the chances of such catastrophe, rather than alleviating them.
One can speculate on the reasons for the otherwise inexplicable changes in the Trump Administration's policies, but it seems certain that it is largely due to the underestimated level of influence of the Zionist Lobby in Washington. It is often said that the Israeli P.M., Netanyahu, is the President of the USA with his standing ovations in Congress etc.
The US and its murderous and unhinged "ally" Israel, have variously continued the Ukraine War and deceitfully started the American War on Iran. All of this when the US economy is collapsing under increasing inflation and ever increasing debt, now close to 40 TRILLION US dollars. Note that a Trillion is 1,000 Billion and a Billion is 1,000 Million. These numbers are unimaginable and stratospheric and the debt as it stands CANNOT be repaid.
Now for some relevant detail -
** There is a geopolitical development known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) which has been developing and achieving significant importance for the world's financial systems and certainly has the ability to transcend any issues concerning Ukraine or Iran.
That is the rapidly growing (mostly peaceful) conflict between the Nationalist countries (BRICS led by Russia and China) and the Globalist countries (principally the USA, but also including Western Europe and the "white" countries of the British Commonwealth).
Globalists' ultimate aim is world government as epitomised by the growing political control of European Union member countries. Incidentally the EU is likely to economically collapse. If that happens, they should revert to becoming a simple trading bloc instead of all the more recent legal and political entanglements. Something like the forerunner of the EU, the European Economic Community (EEC) which was formed way back in 1973.
By contrast to the Globalists, the Nationalist countries retain their individual sovereignty and work together with trade and financial cooperation as their primary focus.
The geographical focus for BRICS has naturally predominantly developed around East and West Asia as of course they are all connected by the same land mass. This has alarmed the Globalists who regard the growth of BRICS as a direct threat to the USD financial system established at Bretton Woods in 1944 and which came to include the Petrodollar which was established in the early 70's just after President Nixon took the US off the gold standard.
The American War on Iran has ironically become the catalyst for the further decline of the Globalist countries with the slow but steady growth of the BRICS financial system - CIPS - Cross Border Interbank Payment System. This includes over 190 participant countries, 1,600+ financial participants and 5,000 banking participant institutions. Payments are not made in USD; rather in the individual countries' currencies - or Petroyuan! And the Petroyuan is likely in the very near future to become gold backed in its own right.
The stakes are high as CIPS is creating a lessening of demand for the USD which in turn threatens the ability of the US to borrow with impunity as they have done in the past. This in turn will have serious ramifications relating to the current level of US Federal Debt and whether it can even be maintained at anything like current levels. Default might then be the only option.
This dire financial situation has almost certainly played a significant part in the US decision to accept defeat in the war against Iran. They seem to have also belatedly realised that they need to need to try and retrieve whatever is left of US reputation in the world.
BRICS though has become an unstoppable force and will pose a serious challenge to the former dominance of the US dollar.
** Ukraine - much has been written on this subject already, so we will try and not repeat too much! Suffice it to say that Trump promised to end the Ukraine War in a very few days after his taking office. It is now well over a year since then and the war has escalated to the point where Russia's patience is exhausted and they are now likely to destroy armaments factories in various NATO countries, which have been supplying offensive weapons to Ukraine for use against the Russian Federation. This action will be regardless of NATO's Article 5 which guarantees unity of all NATO members in the event of an attack on any of them. These European manufactured armaments are being continually fired into the Russian heartland from Ukraine and Russian restraint is rapidly ending. As a result they will finish the whole dangerous and unacceptable situation very soon now by destroying those armaments facilities, because NATO in its current impoverished state lacks the ability to retaliate against Russia, in spite of their childish threatening antics.
The cause of the war has been the continued encroachment of NATO (such as it is!) eastward in direct violation of many promises to the contrary to the Russian Federation ever since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. This includes the cynical and deliberate abrogation of agreements and treaties since 1991. The most recent and relevant were the Minsk Accords of 2015 which guaranteed Ukrainian neutrality and which the US and its allies signed, albeit with the full intent of reneging on those obligations.
This is exactly the same situation that confronted the US with Soviet Russian missiles being installed in Cuba - only 90 miles from the US mainland in 1962. That was resolved by some adroit diplomacy between President Kennedy of the US and Premier Kruschev of the USSR and the withdrawal of US missiles from Turkey which had been aimed at Moscow!!
But there is no such diplomacy or agreement today between Russia and the lunatic leaders of W Europe who seem to maintain a visceral hatred of Russia and a determination to confront Russia militarily. If this were ever to occur, which God forbid, Europe and possibly the world would suffer severe consequences. Instead, Europe needs to cultivate friendship and commercial agreements such as the re-inauguration of Russian energy supply to reinvigorate Europe's industrial capacity.
So, Russia has been entirely justified in invading Ukraine in order to secure their southern border in the face of Western intransigence, and that probably and justifiably includes advancing to the Dnieper River and taking the old Russian city of Odessa - founded by Catherine the Great in the 1700's. Contrary to the false US/NATO propaganda, Russia has NO ambition for or intention of continuing and invading Europe, or even West Ukraine. They want trade and cooperation, rather than the current European debilitating and dangerously aggressive behaviour. But hopefully there will be regime change quite soon now in London, Berlin and Paris with Starmer, Merz, and Macron deservedly out on their respective ears. Only then it seems will Europe adopt a congenial relationship with the Russian Federation that must occur before there is any real security in Europe or Eurasia.
** The American War on Iran - in late February 2026 the US and Israel cynically and deceitfully commenced this war with an air and missile attack on Iran with further on-going peace talks scheduled for the next day. One of the horrific consequences was the murder of 170 little schoolgirls when a Tomahawk missile slammed into a school in the southern town of Minab. This and other missiles were fired from a US Navy ship and clearly had satellite guidance, so there was NO mistake. No excuse for hitting a school, so the obvious conclusion is that it was deliberate. So, 170 little girls aged from 6 to 12 and some of their parents as well as their teachers were all vaporised in a single horrific second. On the same day missiles hit the home of the 86 year old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, murdering him, his daughter-in-law and grandchildren. You can only imagine the feelings of his son (who was also there and was injured), having witnessed the murders of his father, wife and children. He is therefore hardly likely to have any kind feelings towards the murderers - the United States and Israel. So much for regime change!! The son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is now the new Supreme Leader of Iran.
Iran has much superior weapons than a year ago, mainly courtesy of Russia and China, who as fellow BRICS members, will NEVER let Iran be defeated. Iran has hypersonic missiles which hit their targets at a closing speed of Mach 10 and upwards. These missiles cannot be detected in flight, much less intercepted. They are also controllable in flight. Neither the US nor Israel has anything comparable. Iran also now has much upgraded air defense systems and has succeeded in shooting down USAF aircraft. At last count up to 40 US combat aircraft of many types have been lost during the war against Iran to date.
So, with the back and forth missile strikes since February, Iran has inflicted massive damage on US bases in the Gulf countries. The US Navy 5th. Fleet HQ in Bahrain has been pretty much obliterated together with a major USAF base in Jordan. These are just a few of the assets damaged or totally destroyed.
By contrast the US has heavily bombed Iran, including civilian areas of Tehran and other cities and has also deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure assets - even desalination plants. But Iran has instead not hit these types of assets elsewhere, although if desalination plants in other countries were struck by Iran, it would be catastrophic for those populations. For example, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, has just one huge desalinator serving the entire population of Riyadh. If that was hit, the entire population of 7 million would need to be evacuated - a logistical nightmare.
Another logistical nightmare has been the on again off again proposal for a US invasion of Iranian territory. We won't go into it in detail - suffice it to say that it is most likely that whatever conveyances were used to place troops in Iran, would be destroyed en route before they ever made it to Iran. Then there would be the problem of keeping troops supplied, even if they did reach Iranian shores. The end result of such a hairbrained scheme would be massive casualties. It would put the British and ANZAC Gallipoli campaign in 1915 completely in the shade!
Iran's main armaments, its extensive missile systems, are largely undamaged and fully functional and have been used very successfully against military targets in the Gulf and in Israel, which are now heavily damaged. The Iranian missiles are in the main buried deep underground and unassailable.
Many analysts have been saying that quite definitely Iran had already won the war and of course holds the huge advantage of absolutely controlling the Strait of Hormuz by means of anti-ship missiles embedded in the cliffs overlooking the Strait.
And now, all of a sudden, we have been greeted with the news that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran has been agreed, thanks to herculean efforts on the part of the mediators, Pakistan, and will be signed in Geneva on Friday the 19th. of June. It is not clear whether in fact the MOU has already been electronically signed. There have always been deep areas of disagreement which have been extensively chronicled. So, it remains to be seen whether in fact an agreement following the MOU within 60 days and acceptable to Iran and the US can actually be finalised.The fact also remains that Israel, true to form, has been doing its damndest to sabotage this "agreement" as they have always done in the past. However, Israel has now been slapped down fairly hard as the US is desperate for a lasting agreement as they are facing shortages yet to come, and that includes oil. Not to mention the dire US financial situation.
Israel still clings to the delusional agenda of "Greater Israel" which necessarily would involve the complete destruction of Iran as a sovereign state and the complete subjugation of all countries and lands between the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers.This harks back to the bloodthirsty Old Testament, which in the main advocates horrific destruction of all civilisations and peoples who are not the current "God's Chosen People". This is ALL fiction, but very cleverly written and presented back in the day, and now used as justification for Israel's continued genocidal and murderous attacks on its neighbours, which hopefully will be stopped, at least in the short term.
In addition, the US and Israel have now fortunately just about exhausted their supplies of offensive and defensive missiles and other ammunition, so this fact alone is probably a significant factor in forcing the US capitulation.
The economic damage that the American War on Iran has caused world-wide is so far incalculable, but is immense. That is in spite of the advent of the MOU as the effects of the war will be felt for months yet. Much of the economic damage has yet to be felt in many countries, so far cushioned against most effects. In the US for example the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being depleted at a faster rate than anticipated and is at its lowest level since 1983. It is not expected to last until the end of July, let alone any longer. And the US is NOT, contrary to popular opinion, self-sufficient in petroleum products. Then there is petroleum derived fertiliser, the lack of which has already caused the beginnings of food shortages in some countries, Helium used in chip manufacture and Sulphur used in a variety of industrial processes to name just a few. It will take several months, if not years, to restore full production of all these products from the Persian Gulf. As much as anything, it will depend on the level of destruction levelled on petroleum assets of the 4 Gulf countries, and Iraq and Saudi Arabia, all of whom either are or have been allies of the US. The Gulf countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. They have been justifiably targeted by Iran, mainly because they were hosting US military bases and other assets on their soil, from which offensive operations had been launched against Iran. Many of these assets have been completely destroyed.
One of Iran's red lines in the MOU was the continuation of operation of these US bases in the Gulf and other allied countries. Therefore a condition of the MOU is complete withdrawal of US military assets and personnel from these countries.
But once again, there is no doubt that Iran has won the war and so holds all the negotiating cards. And they are quite capable of maintaining the war if the US and/or Israel are stupid enough to try and continue. No guarantees!!
The US has suffered a strategic defeat on a massive scale and sheer desperation in the end was the driving factor. At this point the heads of the Neocons in Washington are exploding and it remains to be seen whether they and the Zionists are actually able to derail the present fragile situation.
So, there we are. The only reasonably sure thing arising from this discussion is that the MOU will either have morphed into a legally binding agreement in 60 days time, or Israel will have been successful in sabotaging the deal.
We really hope for all our sakes that the former option comes true and that the world can then look forward to a more secure future free of US and Israeli bullying and hegemony.
So, all this is happening against the backdrop of BRICS and its payment system - CIPS - which is directly challenging the hitherto financial hegemony of the United States. The world order is changing and we believe that the rise of BRICS, together with the increasing decline of the US Empire, is really behind all these seemingly unrelated conflicts. And ironically BRICS is growing faster than expected because of the bullying militarism of the United States
and its vassal, Israel. The reputations of these two countries are in tatters after aggressive murderous adventures in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Venezuela and (soon?) Cuba. It's time the US concentrated on fixing its own degraded infrastructure instead of pointless foreign wars.
We hope that everyone is well................
With lotsaluv and all very best wishes from us in El Retiro, Antioquia, Colombia,
Jim and Jean
P.S. The crazy world financial situation is having a result that is adversely affecting the cost of living here in Colombia -
A year ago 1NZD was buying 2465 Pesos and now it's buying 2009 Pesos. That's a decline of almost 19% and -
a year ago 1USD was buying 4101 Pesos and now it's buying 3480 Pesos. That's a decline of 15%.
The cost of living here has therefore increased!!!
ADDENDUM of useful contacts for news of geopolitical events - in our opinion!! All available on Youtube and other channels. Not in any particular order:
** Mario Nawfal - a Lebanese entrepreneur, geopolitical commentator and interviewer.
** Lt. Colonel Dan Davis (US Army Rtd.) - military expert and entertaining and geopolitically knowledgeable interviewer.
** Judge Andrew Napolitano - retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge and host of Youtube Channel "Judging Freedom".
** Clayton and Natali Morris - Clayton is an ex FoxNews anchor and they are both hosts of "Redacted" - an in-depth interview and investigative journalism channel.
** Nima Alkorshid - Iranian/Brazilian Youtube interviewer and Professor of Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Itajuba in Brazil.
** Danny Haiphong - American journalist and Youtube host of Vietnamese descent.
** Lena Petrova - C.P.A., researcher in international relations, political economy and presenter of financial analysis on Youtube
** Glenn Diesen - a professor at the SE University of Norway and a specialist in Russian politics.
** Peter Schiff - a well-known US fund manager and strong critic of the current state of US Government finances.
** George Galloway - a Scot by birth and a former British M.P. Leftist but knowledgeable and informative. His monologues are worth listening to in their own right!
** Colonel Douglas Macgregor (US Army Rtd.) - a military historian and probably the most knowledgeable concerning world affairs and their histories that we have heard. An appalling lack of knowledge of history is one significant reason for the foreign policy incompetence that we are seeing today.
** Professor John Mearsheimer - international relations scholar and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
** Colonel Lawrence Wilkersen (US Army Retd.) - former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell when Powell was Secretary of State. Former helicopter pilot in the American War in Vietnam. His reasoned comments are a breath of fresh air.
** Larry Johnson - retired CIA analyst with excellent contacts and very good detailed knowledge of affairs as they develop
** Professor Jeffrey Sachs - Economics Professor at Columbia University and financial advisor to many foreign governments. He was present in Moscow in 1991 when Premier Yeltsin announced to the meeting the cessation of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Russian Federation. Sachs is very critical of US foreign policy before and since those days.
** Professor Seyid Marandi - Iranian born in the US. Professor of English Literature at the University of Tehran and fearless commentator even during the worst bombing of Tehran. He was a volunteer during the Iraq-Iran War and suffered nerve gassing carried out by the Iraqis with technical assistance from (you guessed it!!) - the United States. He liaises with the Iranian military and is a great source of information re Iran.
** Alex Krainer - Croatian by birth in the days of the Iron Curtain over Yugoslavia. An excellent investigative journalist, always well researched.
** Yanis Varoufakis - ex Greek Finance Minister very knowledgeable and critical of Greece's treatment a few years ago at the hands of the bureaucratic and controlling EU.
** Scott Ritter - American and ex Marine Intelligence Officer. Also ex UN appointed nuclear weapons inspector. Very knowledgeable about nuclear matters including the bogus claims concerning Iran's nuclear ambitions!!
** Pepe Escobar - Brazilian investigative journalist par excellence. Very experienced and travels often to China and Russia because these days that's where the news is being made. He recently made an excellent documentary of Chinese built railway transport development in Iran and NW to Russia and NE to China. There is also a Chinese built new port on the south coast of Iran close to the Pakistan border which the US recently bombed!! Utterly stupid; the US destroys and the Chinese and Russians are building.
