When you’re down in a hole it’s a good idea to stop digging.

If you’re a fading empire it’s a good idea to not accelerate the descent, but the geniuses that are managing the US empire didn’t get the memo as every day it’s an endless parade of self inflicted wounds.

Here’s Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt speaking at the 2024 Financial Times Global Commodities Summit–“I can’t preview future sanctions actions, but what I can tell you is we’re very focused on ensuring that Russia is not able to develop new projects in order to re-destine the gas that it previously sent into Europe. And I think especially because I’m talking to an audience in Europe, one of the points that’s worth emphasizing for a second is just how extremely successful Europe has been over the past two years in dramatically reorienting its energy system, de-risking its exposure to Russian oil, gas, coal supplies.”

And here’s Victoria Nuland, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and chief architect of NATO war against Russia, in a March 2022 interview with TASS–“If Russia does not end this war and get out of Ukraine, it will be isolated on a small island with a bunch of sub countries and the rest of us 141 countries will go forward and build a prosperous future, while Russia suffers a complete economic and technological isolation…”

Things haven’t quite worked out the way Nuland, Pyatt, and the rest of the American imperial lackeys wanted them to. in fact it’s more of the US and NATO shooting themselves in the foot. In essence, Russia keeps taking everything the West throws at it and emerging stronger. Sanctions from the West continue to drive Russia to accelerate its development efforts in its East and reorient its trade wholly towards Central Asia, China, India, and others, and away from US and European markets.

Prior to the war, the Russian government was trying to find a way to force businesses to stop sitting on financial reserves and prevent them paying gigantic dividends. Businesses complained that they would rather not invest because of a poor investment climate, state interference, and an unpredictable taxation policy. Now, everything has changed. The biggest reason for the jump is simply that the US and Europe have forced them to.

Chinese automaker Chery just became the biggest foreign company in Russia after its revenue quadrupled in 2023 to more than $6.63 billion. According to Forbes Russia, 50 of the biggest foreign companies in Russia are now Chinese. That’s up from only one two years ago. The number will likely only grow as Russia and China strategically develop the former’s Far East regions. ​​That’s because Russia has substantial reserves of virtually every commodity required to help a modern economy flourish.

Couple this with China’s manufacturing dominance, and the neocons at the US State Department really outdid themselves by driving Beijing and Moscow together. The crazy thing is this could be the US investing and helping Russia while US plutocrats helped themselves to healthy profits. Instead they wanted it all, wanted to bring down Putin, and plunder the resources. Lo and behold, Russia and much of the rest of the world is plenty able to move on without them.

And most ironic part is so many in the US formulating policy against Russia have no clue how spectacularly they failed. There are still US officials demonizing Russia, like Hillary Clinton on the Rachael Maddow Show, recently. I wonder what planet they live. Totally out of touch with the real world.

Yet the failures and the doubling-down have real world consequences. Last week one avid U.S. supporter of the fascists in Ukraine, Ryan Routh, who appeared in a propaganda video for the Azov battalion in May 2022, tried to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Bygones.

These are the same feral elite that decided to offshore American manufacturing to China, the country that they want to have a war with now. But their subservience to corporate financialization—the obsessive focus on shareholder value and personal gains—threatens investment in the productive capabilities that enable crucial innovation. Financialization has turned many an American powerhouse into a shadow of its former self: see Intel, IBM, General Electric, and Boeing, among others.

Then there’s the recent terrorist pager attack by Israeli Mossad on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mossad somehow managed to manipulate pager shipments to Lebanon some of which would be acquired by Hezbollah and its affiliates. Yesterday specific encoded messages were sent to the manipulated pagers. Some moments later they started to blow up. Eleven people were killed and some 4,000 were wounded.

Not all people killed or wounded were members of Hezbollah. Pagers are also used by emergency and volunteer services. Western media avoid to call this attack a terrorist operation. But just ask yourself how they would describe the attack if this had happened to the other side of the conflict.

Pagers are not an exclusive means of Hezbollah. The attack was indiscriminate. The explosions happened in many situations of daily life – during visits in shops (vid), in driving cars in the middle of traffic, near to bystanders including children.

Once again, in addition to the terrorist aspect, this attack will have far reaching repercussions. Will anyone in the Global South buy a US, Israeli, or Western electronic device after this?

America’s determination to prolong its global primacy has led the world to another point of danger such that violence and lawlessness have reached catastrophic proportions but these are the sorts of boneheaded decisions that end of empire flunky’s make in a desperate bid to maintain power.

As the American empire enters terminal velocity expect more of them.