A boat in international waters that is not running a national flag is categorized in international law the same way a pirate is. Such boats have absolutely no national or international protections, and you cannot commit a war crime against them.
A vessel in international waters is required under UNCLOS to sail under the flag of a specific nation. If it does not, it is legally considered a stateless vessel. A stateless vessel has no right to the protections normally afforded to ships under a national flag, including immunity from interference by other states.
UNCLOS Articles 92, 94, 110, and customary maritime law spell out the consequences clearly:
1. Stateless vessels have no sovereign protection. A flagged ship is an extension of its flag-state’s sovereignty. A stateless vessel is not. This matters because “war crimes” presuppose protected persons or protected property. A stateless vessel is legally unprotected.
2. Any state may stop, board, search, seize, or disable, a stateless vessel. UNCLOS Article 110 explicitly authorizes boarding and seizure. The law does not require states to risk their own personnel or assets while doing so. Disabling a vessel that refuses inspection, including firing on it, is legally permitted under both UNCLOS and long-established state practice.
3. War crimes require an armed conflict. You cannot commit a “war crime” outside an armed conflict. War crimes occur only within the context of international humanitarian law (IHL). Enforcing maritime law against a stateless vessel is a law enforcement action, not an IHL situation.
No armed conflict = no war crime possible.
4. Lethal force may be used when a vessel refuses lawful orders. The International Maritime Organization’s “Use of Force” guidance for maritime interdiction recognizes that disabling fire, even lethal force, is lawful when a vessel refuses lawful boarding, attempts to flee, poses a threat, or engages in illicit activities such as piracy or narcotics trafficking.
Once again: law enforcement rules apply, not IHL.
5. Sinking a stateless vessel is not prohibited by UNCLOS. UNCLOS permits seizure of a stateless vessel and leaves the means entirely to the enforcing state so long as necessity and proportionality are respected. If the vessel flees, attacks, or refuses lawful commands, sinking it is legally permissible. Many states routinely do this to drug-smuggling vessels (e.g., semi-submersibles) without it ever being treated as a war crime.
6. No flag = no jurisdictional shield. The entire reason international law requires ships to fly a flag is to prevent this exact situation. Flagless vessels are legally vulnerable by design.
Because a stateless vessel has no protected status, because UNCLOS authorizes interdiction of such vessels, because lethal force may be used in maritime law enforcement when necessary, and because war crimes require an armed conflict that is not present here, sinking an unflagged ship in international waters is not a war crime.
When wildfires devastate entire communities, the immediate assumption is that they are natural disasters. But what if these catastrophic events were not acts of nature, but calculated moves in a global agenda? The recent infernos in California, the 2023 fires in Lahaina, and the 2018 Paradise, California fires reveal an alarming narrative rife with glaring anomalies, fire hydrants out of water, suspicious decisions, and a trail of evidence leading straight to coordinated sabotage, possibly with China.
Evidence appears to indicate that these fires weren’t just nature taking its course; they were an assault on American soil. From mysteriously nonfunctional fire hydrants to canceled insurance policies months before the disasters, there are too many signs of deliberate destruction to ignore. And what about the maps of these so-called “wildfires”? Instead of continuous flames, we see dozens of widely spaced fires igniting almost simultaneously—an improbable scenario unless you believe in a spontaneous combustion epidemic. This wasn’t a single wildfire; it was dozens of fires ignited by what appears to be organized arson.
Consider the role of California’s broken water management system. While reservoirs sat bone dry, the state prioritized diverting water to protect the Delta smelt—a move that left fire hydrants ineffective during crises. Let that sink in: entire communities were left to burn because California’s leadership thought preserving an “endangered fish” was more important than saving lives.
China’s Role in Ecological Warfare
But who would orchestrate such an atrocity? Evidence points to a chilling possibility: China. According to MIT graduate in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Alex Lightman, the concept of ecological warfare isn’t new—it’s outlined in military strategies like Unrestricted Warfare and the Art of War, which detail the use of fire as a weapon. China has been using fire as a weapon of war for millennia.
In Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” an entire chapter is dedicated to the concept of using fire against enemies, titled “The Attack by Fire,” where he outlines five primary ways to utilize fire strategically. Get this: tens of thousands of Chinese nationals of military age have reportedly entered the U.S. illegally, many through coordinated efforts encouraged by TikTok videos. Among them could be trained saboteurs and arsonists.
According to Lightman, “After COVID-19, why are we reticent to blame China for this? Just like they did with COVID-19, they also could be doing with these fires. It’s the same business plan; they’re just doing the damage with fires instead of a weaponized coronavirus.”
And then there’s California Governor Gavin Newsom’s questionable ties to China. Let’s not forget his $1 billion deal with Chinese company BYD during the COVID-19 pandemic—a company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). At the time, people questioned why he chose a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer to supply medical masks. Now, we have to ask: Was that deal just the tip of the iceberg?
The destruction of Los Angeles and other areas devastated by wildfires seems almost too convenient for the elites pushing the “Smart City” agenda, perfectly aligning with globalist goals like Agenda 2030. Could Newsom be collaborating with China to level parts of the state, making way for the next phase of “urban redevelopment”? Check out this video where he seems giddy about “reimagining Los Angeles 2.0” and the great “opportunity” that these devastating fires have created.
Oh yeah, we almost forgot. Apparently, Giddy Gavin is so eager for everyone to get on the same page about the fires and to avoid all the “misinformation” that he posted about it. He tells people to go to CaliforniaFireFacts.com to get the facts.
But when you click that link, it redirects to GavinNewsom.com where there is a link to DONATE TO THE CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION, but that actually takes you to Act Blue’s website, which is a fundraising platform for the Democratic Party!
Hmmmm…. But before we move on, we must include this AI video story put together by a team of people who are really paying attention:
Directed Energy Weapons?
Evidence of directed energy weapons (DEWs) being deployed in these fires is compelling. Eyewitness accounts and videos show inexplicable patterns of destruction, where homes were incinerated while nearby trees remained untouched. Satellite imagery has captured intense bursts of energy coinciding with the fires’ ignition points. Despite the videos and eye-witnesses, many government officials dismiss these claims as “conspiracy theories,” mocking them with terms like “Jewish space lasers.”
But the evidence is compelling. Steel components of vehicles and buildings melted—a feat that normal wildfires cannot achieve, given their maximum temperatures are insufficient to liquefy metal.
But DEWs are certainly capable of creating molten metal and slicing through steel. Houses in Paradise were literally cut in half by some sort of incendiary device. These anomalies demand answers.
And seriously, what’s up with the color blue? In Lahaina, California, and Paradise, we’ve seen an eyebrow-raising pattern: structures in blue miraculously spared while everything else burned to the ground. Homes with blue roofs? Untouched. Adjacent homes? Reduced to ash.
And then there are the blue umbrellas in Lahaina—perfectly intact, sitting smugly just feet away from buildings that were literally melted into oblivion. Melted. How does that even happen? Are Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) in play, and is blue somehow the magic color they won’t target? It sounds wild, but the evidence keeps stacking up. Don’t take my word for it—check out this video from one of Lahaina’s residents and see for yourself.
And what’s up with Gavin Newsom’s new $9 million compound with the blue roof?
Arson?
Were the files a result of arson as well? The story takes a dark and deliberate turn when you examine the evidence of coordinated efforts to ignite these blazes. Reports have surfaced alleging dozens of individuals were paid to set fires—foot soldiers in a larger, more insidious operation. Could these arsonists have been working hand-in-glove with advanced technologies, like DEWs, to ensure maximum destruction? The pattern is too widespread, too methodical, to be brushed off as mere coincidence.
How many cities need to be reduced to ash before we demand answers? Take Los Angeles, for example, where an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 homeless people live on the streets. There’s ample evidence to suggest that some set fires simply out of boredom or desperation. Yet, there’s a concerted effort to cover up these incidents, with officials reluctant to link the homeless population to the devastation. Why the hesitation? Could it be part of a broader agenda to protect a politically convenient narrative?
Malibu Beachside Homes in Ruins
According to Alex Lightman, in California, it’s plausible that three distinct groups were responsible for these fires, each with their own motivations and handlers:
Saboteurs: Operatives embedded within the country, possibly foreign agents or domestic extremists, executing calculated ecological warfare.
Homeless individuals: Vulnerable and marginalized, they are easily exploited, with some driven to set fires either for warmth, attention, or chaos.
Drug users incentivized by free narcotics: Disturbing reports suggest that Chinese operatives may have offered fentanyl or other drugs in exchange for lighting fires. Imagine the ease of manipulating desperate addicts into becoming unwitting accomplices in a larger plan.
We’re left wondering: why are officials so quick to dismiss or obscure the obvious? Why hasn’t there been a full-scale investigation into the potential involvement of saboteurs, exploited homeless individuals, or even foreign entities with a vested interest in America’s decline? Until we start asking the hard questions and demanding real accountability, these fires will continue to burn—not just through forests and homes, but through the very fabric of our society.
DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Ignition?
The Los Angeles fires don’t just highlight mismanagement—they expose the catastrophic folly of prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over, you know, actual competence. Instead of staffing fire prevention teams and emergency management agencies with experts who could effectively manage disaster risks, city officials seemed more interested in checking off race and gender quotas. DEI policies, hailed as the cornerstone of progress, have left critical infrastructure in the hands of people chosen more for their identities than their abilities. This isn’t inclusivity—it’s ideological arson disguised as governance. DEI didn’t just drop the ball; it fumbled it straight into the flames.
In the last edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson doesn’t hold back when dissecting the DEI failures of Los Angeles in dealing with catastrophic wildfires. Take the $700,000-a-year utilities czar, for instance. Hanson notes, “We have a $700,000-a-year utilities czar in Los Angeles, and she cannot explain why there was not enough water, at least in a convincing way—because she’s never had to, because she was ideologically correct.” When your resume is less about qualifications and more about checking ideological boxes, don’t expect to see any blazing fires put out—literally.
Then there’s Kristine Larson, the Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department. When asked if she were strong enough to carry a man out of a fire, she remarked: “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.” Well, thank you, Captain Obvious! Why do you think he needs your help in the first place? Because he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time—that’s kind of the whole point of an emergency, isn’t it? DEI logic at its finest: redefine responsibility to avoid accountability.
Absurdly, she also said that if you have a fire, you want someone who “looks like you” to respond because it will put you at ease. After all, they might “understand your situation better.” Oh really, Assistant Chief? Here’s a thought: We’d rather have the most badass firefighter on the planet show up—heck, they could look like a one-eyed green alien with antennae for all we care—as long as they know how to put the fire out!
Speaking of DEI hires, let’s talk about Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. While her city was literally up in flames, she was busy enjoying a trip to Ghana. Priorities, right? When she finally returned, her expressionless face said it all as she stonewalled reporters who dared to ask the obvious questions. “Do you owe citizens an apology?” she was asked over and over. But Bass just stood there waiting to deplane, visibly uninterested in addressing her constituents’ devastation. She didn’t have the courtesy to mutter a single word…
Apparently, “equity” doesn’t extend to answering for your own failures—or being present when your city desperately needs leadership. Real leadership. Not DEI-focused leadership that prioritizes optics over competence, leaving the city vulnerable to disaster. But just like Gavin Newsom, she does seem quite happy about the opportunity to rebuild! Might Los Angeles, the “Smart City,” be on the horizon?
The Smart City Agenda
Behind the smoke and ashes lies a possible sinister motive: the transformation of these devastated areas into “smart cities.” The SmartLA 2028 plan, unveiled in 2020, outlines an ambitious strategy to turn Los Angeles into a hyper-connected, tech-driven metropolis by the 2028 Olympics. Similarly, JUMPSmartMaui, a “smart grid” initiative in Hawaii, was already in place before the Lahaina fires. These plans are not coincidental; they align perfectly with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, which promotes “sustainable” urban development under the guise of combating climate change.
Lahaina’s destruction has sparked discussions about rebuilding the area as a smart city. Governor Josh Green hinted at “potential property deals” to accelerate redevelopment.
Smart cities promise convenience and efficiency, but at what cost? These highly digitized urban environments will require complete control over infrastructure, land, and even people. The World Economic Forum’s infamous prediction, “You will own nothing and be happy,” looms large over this agenda.
BlackRock, Vanguard, and other global investment giants have significant stakes in this transformation, as they stand to profit immensely from land acquisitions and technological integration. Is this an instance of “disaster capitalism?” With their massive investment portfolios, these investment giants wield the power to shape global policies and profit from every stage of the smart city rollout. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, has openly advocated for reshaping infrastructure to align with “sustainability” goals, regardless of public resistance.
Supporting this “disaster capitalism” assertion is the fact that several insurance companies pulled out of California in late 2023 and 2024, making it difficult for homeowners to find coverage. The insurance companies cited business risks amid rising replacement costs and the inability to raise premiums adequately. Many policies were canceled, leaving countless residents without coverage when they needed it most.
Malibu Aftermath
But let’s dig a little deeper—who changed the laws and regulations that made it so easy for companies like State Farm to pack up and leave? Was this just incompetence, or was it part of a larger scheme to leave Californians vulnerable, forcing them to rely on government-controlled systems for recovery? Blaming the insurance companies is convenient, but the real responsibility lies with those who created a regulatory nightmare in the first place.
The timing of these fires, coupled with the sudden policy changes that preceded them, suggests a coordinated effort to displace residents and seize valuable real estate under the guise of “rebuilding” and “progress.” These patterns are not limited to Hawaii and California. Across the United States, at least fourteen cities are being primed for smart city conversions. Eminent domain, corporate acquisitions, and sudden “natural disasters” are being leveraged to force these changes. Could your city be next?
The Endgame?
What’s the endgame? These fires appear to be a part of a global push to replace destroyed communities with corporate-controlled “smart cities” aligned with Agenda 2030 goals. Agenda 2030 is a United Nations initiative that aims to “sustainably” reshape global infrastructure. Proponents of this agenda push the narrative of “degrowth,” suggesting that wealthier nations must sacrifice economic prosperity for the sake of global equity. This vision of “sustainability” is built on the false premise of an imminent climate crisis, which is being used to justify land grabs, property confiscations, and invasive technologies.
Palisades Aftermath
It’s the perfect cover for land grabs, property confiscations, and the installation of invasive technologies. By pushing people out with uninsurable risks and devastation, the “powers-that-be” can swoop in, seize the land or buy it for pennies on the dollar, and remake it to fit their dystopian dream of control and surveillance by building “Smart Cities.”
And about those population control theories? Let’s just say the parallels with the Georgia Guidestones’ chilling instructions to reduce the global population to 500 million aren’t exactly a coincidence. Directed energy weapons, ecological warfare, and the purposeful destruction of whole areas—these are the tactics of the so-called “extinction engineers” who think there are just too many people breathing up their precious resources.
But fear not, because some folks aren’t content to sit back and watch as the elites bulldoze their way to total control. President Donald Trump, in a move to dismantle the ideological stranglehold on Tinseltown, recently appointed Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and Jon Voight as “Special Ambassadors to Hollywood.”
With these Hollywood heavyweights on the front lines, the fight for truth—whether it’s in the movie industry or in the smoke of “accidental” wildfires—has just gotten a lot more attention.
Malibu Home in Ruins
Lastly, this tragedy is a reminder that God is in control of all things, and you will always be okay if you seek God and His Kingdom and Righteousness first. Everything that you really need in life will be provided for you by God Himself. We will all leave this world, and when we do, we will leave it with nothing but what we have done for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 6:25-34
We would like to add hope to the end of this story. We can’t live very long without hope, and our hope is bound up in Jesus Christ. Matthew 6 reminds us to seek God first and trust Him to provide for us while we are here, even and especially during the fires and trials of life that come to us all.
Listen to our friend, Mel Gibson, encourage us on this point. Mel lost his Malibu home and possessions in this fire, but rather than moping around and feeling sorry for himself, he is busy encouraging us to look to God and reminding us that there is a purpose higher than ourselves in this trial if we will just look with our hearts to see it. For Gibson, it is a purification of sorts, preparing him for what comes next: the greatest and most important film of his life, “The Resurrection.”
Mel, we are praying for you and your family and for all those who are suffering in California right now due to these fires. We trust that God is comforting and guiding you and providing in ways that only He can.
Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Omer Bartov is a historian who specializes in German military history and genocide studies. I have three of his books: “The Eastern Front, 1941-45, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare”; “Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich”; and “Germany’s War and the Holocaust: Disputed Histories.” He has studied the Holocaust closely; as a young man, he served in the Israeli Defense Forces and now teaches at Brown University. He is uniquely placed to judge what’s happening in Gaza and he’s quite clear about his conclusion. It’s a genocide.
I highly recommend watching this entire interview of Omer Bartov by LTC Danny Davis.
A few points from the interview:
The IDF in Gaza is showing the effects of brutalization similar to that of the Wehrmacht in World War II. IDF soldiers are looting, killing, and showing similar manifestations of barbaric indiscipline, and they are almost never held accountable for their war crimes.
The Israeli people are being encouraged to show no empathy toward Palestinian suffering. Zionism has increasingly morphed into a racist form of Jewish supremacism in which Palestinian lives and suffering simply don’t matter.
U.S. politicians are enabling genocide in Gaza.
What Bibi Netanyahu wants is a “Greater Israel” that is largely free of Palestinians. U.S. talk of a “two-state solution” is nonsensical in the face of Bibi’s ruthless goal.
Israel is obviously pursuing a military solution to the Palestinian question. That “solution” involves mass killing, massive destruction of infrastructure, and deliberate efforts to promote starvation while doing little to prevent the spread of disease. The goal of forcing Palestinians to flee from their land, or to die if they choose to remain and fight, marks this as a genocide under international law, ironically law that was enacted in the aftermath of the Holocaust by Germany against European Jews during World War II.
The U.S. is playing Bibi’s game. Bibi will keep going with this genocide because to stop it with a ceasefire would likely mean that he will be called to account for October 7th (failing to prevent the attacks) as well as crimes he’s previously been indicted for.
Instead of the U.S. being the “best friend” of Israel, it is encouraging the worst impulses within Israel, setting the stage for further Middle East conflict and a possible war with Iran. It is also, let’s always remember, enabling the mass slaughter of innocent Palestinians.
Bartov suggests Netanyahu would prefer Donald Trump to be reelected as president, but he notes a Kamala Harris presidency would likely change little, since Netanyahu will bring all pressure to bear against Democrats to continue the current policy. Harris has already stated she supports Israel’s right to defend itself and is against any weapons embargo. If she wins, it’s likely she’ll continue current practices.
Bartov sees this as a disaster not only for the Palestinians but also ultimately for Israel in the long term.
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views.
Editor’s Note: We the People have been betrayed by our own federal and state governments. attacked by a coordinated efforts by the Intel community, the Department of Defense, The Pentagon, and four U.S. Presidents (Clinton, Bush, Obama & Biden) who have committed horrendous acts of treason against the U.S. Constitution and the citizens of the United States.
Several days ago Lahaina, Maui, Hawai’i was bombed by Direct Energy Weapon (DEW) lasers from space, a planned demolition (like the World Trade Center on 9/11) to make room for an AI governed smart city. It was accomplished under the cover of a distant hurricane with high winds when the U.S. Navy has coincidentally been out of port the day before. They blamed it all on climate change.
👀 Is it a coincidence the Maui Police Chief, John Pelletier, was Coincidentally the Incident Commander in the 2017 Las Vegas Country Music Mass Shooting?
A controversial forecast by Deagel, a global intelligence and consulting firm, recently gained attention for its startling prediction of a significant depopulation event by 2025. While initially dismissed as a speculative estimation, current events and emerging trends have led many to question whether there may be more to Deagel’s forecast than meets the eye.
Recent reports from the Governments of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and various European countries have brought forth troubling revelations, among which is confirmation of a staggering number of excess deaths, reaching over two million since the mass roll-out of Covid-19 injections.
A troubling 120,000 excess deaths have also been recorded among the USA’s infants, children and young adults as of week 40 of 2022, and a curious rise in excess deaths among children across Europe has been recorded ever since the European Medicines Agency (EMA) extended the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer Covid-19 injection to children in the middle of 2021.
With further Government figures confirming mortality rates are highest among the vaccinated in every single age group per 100,000 population, serious questions are now being raised about the accuracy and potential truth behind Deagel’s apocalyptic depopulation predictions.
What is Deagel? The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collect data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
It is known to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.
This means its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are not mere fantasy but instead based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.
What has Deagel Predicted? Deagel.com’s [infamous] 2025 forecast was removed from their website sometime in 2020. However, thanks to the Wayback Machine / Internet Archive, we are able to view the original predictions before discovered by critical thinkers.
Deagel predicted in 2020 that the United Kingdom would see its population decline by 77.1% by the year 2025. Deagel predicted in 2020 that the United States would see its population decline by 68.5 % by the year 2025. Read more…
The UN is sending more observers to Zaporozhye after the Kakhovka dam disasterIAEA issues warning about Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
It is “critical” for the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant to have continued access to water in order to prevent a reactor meltdown, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
Europe’s largest atomic power station relies on the Kakhovka reservoir for water to cool its six reactors. However, the water levels have dropped by 2.8 meters since the Kakhovka dam broke early on Tuesday. Once the water level is below 12.7 meters, the ZNPP will no longer be able to pump water from the reservoir, Grossi warned.
“As the full extent of the dam’s damage remains unknown, it is not possible to predict if and when this might happen,” the IAEA director said, but at the current rate of 5-7 centimeters per hour, that could be “within the next two days.”
ZNPP is building up water reserves while it still can, Grossi noted, citing reports from the IAEA experts who are on site. He intends to visit ZNPP next week and bring additional observers to strengthen the agency’s presence at the facility.
“Now more than ever, the IAEA’s reinforced presence at the [ZNPP] is of vital importance to help prevent the danger of a nuclear accident and its potential consequences for the people and the environment at a time of increased military activity in the region,” Grossi said.
The possible loss of the plant’s main source of cooling water further complicates an already extremely difficult and challenging nuclear safety and security situation.
The Zaporozhye NPP is Europe’s largest atomic power station, with six reactor cores capable of generating a gigawatt of electricity each. Russian troops have controlled it since March last year. The region in which it is located voted to join Russia in September 2022, though Ukraine claims it is illegally occupied.
Russia has accused Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovka dam and causing widespread flooding in Kherson Region. President Vladimir Putin called it a “barbaric act”amounting to terrorism. Moscow says that Kiev is trying to secure the flank of its forces so it can bring up reserves after a series of failed assaults on the Zaporozhye front.
The IAEA deployed an observer mission at the ZNPP in September 2022. Prior to that, the station and its environs had been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian artillery, which Kiev admitted at one point. Just before the IAEA mission arrived, Ukrainian commandos also attempted to seize the facility but were driven back. Russia has provided evidence of Ukrainian attacks to the UN, which has stubbornly avoided assigning blame.
In part due to the Ukrainian artillery activity, five of the six reactors at ZNPP have been shut down, with one continuing to operate at a low level to maintain power to the facility. They all require continued cooling to prevent a fuel meltdown and possible radioactive release.
It’s been rightly said that “he who holds the gold makes the rules.”
After World War 2, the US had the largest gold reserves in the world, by far. Along with winning the war, this let the US reconstruct the global monetary system around the dollar.
The new system, created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, tied the currencies of virtually every country in the world to the US dollar through a fixed exchange rate. It also tied the US dollar to gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce.
The dollar was said to be “as good as gold.”
The Bretton Woods system made the US dollar the world’s premier reserve currency. It compelled other countries to store dollars for international trade or to exchange them with the US government for gold at the promised price.
However, it was doomed to fail.
Runaway spending on warfare and welfare caused the US government to print more dollars than it could back with gold at the promised price.
By 1967, the number of dollars circulating had drastically increased relative to the amount of gold backing them. This encouraged foreign countries to exchange their dollars for gold, draining the US gold supply at an alarming rate and collapsing the London Gold Pool. At this point, it was clear this system was breaking down.
On Sunday night, August 15, 1971, President Nixon interrupted the scheduled TV programs and made a surprise announcement to the nation—and the world. He announced the unilateral end of the Bretton Woods system and severed the dollar’s last tie to gold.
The end of the dollar’s gold backing had profound geopolitical consequences.
Most critically, it eliminated the main reason foreign countries stored large amounts of US dollars and used the US dollar for international trade. As a result, oil-producing countries began to demand payment in gold instead of rapidly depreciating dollars.
It was clear the US would have to create a new monetary system to stabilize the dollar. So it concocted a new scheme… and chose Saudi Arabia as its accomplice. This agreement came to be known as the “petrodollar system.”
The US handpicked Saudi Arabia because of its vast petroleum reserves and dominant position in the global oil market.
In essence, the petrodollar system was an agreement that the US would guarantee the House of Saud’s survival. In exchange, Saudi Arabia would do three things.
First, it would use its dominant position in OPEC to ensure that all oil transactions would only happen in US dollars.
Second, it would recycle hundreds of billions of US dollars from annual oil revenue into US Treasuries. This lets the US issue more debt and finance previously unimaginable budget deficits.
Third, it would guarantee the price of oil within limits acceptable to the US and prevent another oil embargo.
The petrodollar system gave foreign countries another compelling reason to hold and use the dollar. And it preserved the dollar’s unique status as the world’s top reserve currency.
But… why oil?
Oil is the largest and most strategic commodity market in the world.
As you can see in the chart below, it dwarfs all other major commodity markets combined. The annual production value of the oil market is ten times bigger than the gold market, for example.
Every country needs oil. And if foreign countries need US dollars to buy oil, they have a compelling reason to hold US dollars even if they are not backed by a promise to redeem them in gold.
Think about it… If France wants to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, it must purchase US dollars on the foreign exchange market to pay for the oil first.
This creates a huge artificial market for US dollars and differentiates the US dollar from a purely local currency, like the Mexican peso.
The dollar is just a middleman. It’s used in countless transactions, amounting to trillions of dollars that have nothing to do with US products or services.
Since the oil market is enormous, it acts as a benchmark for international trade. If foreign countries are already using dollars for oil, it’s easier to use the dollar for other international trade.
In addition to nearly all oil sales, the US dollar is used for about 80% of all international transactions.
Ultimately, the petrodollar boosts the US dollar’s purchasing power by enticing foreigners to soak up dollars.
The petrodollar system has helped create a deeper, more liquid market for the dollar and US Treasuries. It has also helped the US keep interest rates lower than they would otherwise be, allowing the US government to finance enormous deficits it otherwise would be unable to.
Multi-trillion deficits would otherwise be impossible without destroying the currency through money printing.
It’s hard to overstate how much the petrodollar system benefits the US. It’s the bedrock of the US financial system and has underpinned the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency since the 1970s.
That’s why the US government protects it so fiercely. It needs the system to survive.
World leaders who have challenged the petrodollar have ended up dead.
Take Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, for example. Each led a large oil-producing country—Iraq and Libya, respectively. And both tried to sell their oil for something other than US dollars before US military interventions led to their deaths.
Of course, there were other reasons the US toppled Saddam and Gaddafi. But protecting the petrodollar was a serious consideration, at the very least.
When countries like Iraq and Libya challenge the petrodollar system, it’s one thing. The US military can dispatch them with ease.
However, it’s a whole other dynamic when China (and Russia) undermine the petrodollar system… which is happening in a big way right now.
China and Russia are the only countries with sophisticated enough nuclear arsenals to go toe-to-toe with the US up to the top of the military escalation ladder.
In other words, the US military can’t attack Russia and China with impunity because they can match each move up to all-out nuclear war—the very top of the military escalation ladder.
For this reason, the US is deterred from entering a direct military conflict with China and Russia—even though they are about to strike a fatal blow to the petrodollar system.
US Sanctions Accelerate Demise of Petrodollar
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US government launched its most aggressive sanctions campaign ever.
Exceeding even Iran and North Korea, Russia is now the most sanctioned nation in the world.
“This is financial nuclear war and the largest sanctions event in history,” said a former US Treasury Department official.
He said, “Russia went from being part of the global economy to the single largest target of global sanctions and a financial pariah in less than two weeks.”
As part of this, the US government seized the US dollar reserves of the Russian central bank—the accumulated savings of the nation. (Washington did the same to Afghanistan’s dollar reserves after the Taliban took Kabul.)
It was a stunning illustration of the dollar’s political risk. The US government can seize another sovereign country’s dollar reserves at the flip of a switch.
The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled “If Russian Currency Reserves Aren’t Really Money, the World Is in for a Shock,” noted:
“Sanctions have shown that currency reserves accumulated by central banks can be taken away. With China taking note, this may reshape geopolitics, economic management and even the international role of the U.S. dollar.”
The head of the Russian Parliament recently called the US dollar a “candy wrapper” but not the candy itself. In other words, the dollar has the outward appearance of money but is not real money.
It’s important to remember some simple facts.
#1: Russia is the world’s largest energy producer.
#2: China is the world’s largest energy importer.
#3: Russia is China’s largest oil supplier.
And now that the US has banned Russia from the dollar system, there is an urgent need for a credible system capable of handling hundreds of billions worth of oil sales outside the US dollar and financial system.
The Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) is that system. The maturation of China’s alternative to the petrodollar is a big reason why the massive amount of energy trade between Russia and China occurs in yuan, not US dollars.
Further, Washington has threatened to sanction China similarly for years.
These threats against China may be a bluff, but if the US government carried them out—as it recently did against Russia—it would be like dropping a financial nuclear bomb on Beijing. Without access to dollars, China would have previously struggled to import oil and engage in international trade. As a result, its economy would come to a grinding halt, an intolerable threat to the stability of the Chinese government.
China would rather not depend on an adversary like this. It’s one of the main reasons it created an alternative to the petrodollar system. The INE allows oil producers to sell their products for yuan (and gold indirectly) while bypassing the US dollar, sanctions, and financial system.
Other countries on Washington’s sanctions list are enthusiastically signing up.
According to Credit Suisse, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela own 40% of the proven oil reserves of OPEC+ members. These countries are under strict US sanctions, which makes accepting US dollars and transacting globally challenging. So it’s no surprise that these sanctioned oil producers are happy to accept yuan as payment and support the petroyuan system.
But it’s not just sanctioned oil producers that benefit from the petroyuan…
Think about it. Any oil-producing country has two choices:
Option #1 – The Petrodollar
The dismal financial situation of the US guarantees the dollar will lose significant purchasing power.
Plus, there’s enormous political risk. Oil producers are exposed to the whims of the US government, which can confiscate their money whenever it wants, as it recently did to Russia.
Option #2 – Shanghai International Energy Exchange
Here, an oil producer can participate in the world’s largest market and try to capture more market share.
It can also easily convert and repatriate its proceeds into physical gold, an international form of money with no political or counterparty risk.
From the perspective of an oil producer, the choice is a no-brainer.
Even though most people have not realized it yet, we are at the end of the petrodollar system and on the cusp of a new monetary era.
There’s an excellent chance more financial turmoil is coming soon.
There can be little doubt that we are at war, except it’s not quite like in the movies. This war is unlike any others about which we learned in school where two opposed forces meet in a battlefield and fight it out until one side prevails. That kind of war is happening in Ukraine, but that’s only a part of the conflict that’s engulfed nearly all the rest of the world. It manifests in different and seemingly unrelated ways, but it is part of the same conflict.
Some analysts like to use the phrase “hybrid” or “asymmetrical” to describe it, by which they mean that in addition to shooting, the conflict has information, cultural, economic and financial dimensions. But I think that the war is still bigger than that: it is global and total – perhaps it should be called total global war. The “Trans Day of Vengeance” planned in Washington DC, is only the latest and weirdest part of it.
The clash of two systems
In his address to the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos in May 2022 George Soros explained that we are witnessing a clash between two models of governance. This was only slightly misleading: models don’t wage war on one another; it is the stakeholders in these models that are fighting. Soros characterized the two opposing sides as “open societies,” vs. “closed societies,” where open societies are liberal democracies that respect human rights, and closed societies are autocracies.
But Soros’s “open” societies are in fact oligarchies concealed behind faux democratic facades. To believe Soros, we’d have to accept that the trillionaire oligarchs in charge of open societies are die-hard defenders of democracy and human rights, willing to shed blood and treasure in their defense.
This war is as old as fractional reserve banking
But the notion that the conflict is between “two governance models” is not new: it is as old as the oldest forms of fractional reserve banking. Abraham Lincoln‘s chief economic advisor Henry C. Carey characterized it a bit better than George Soros. In his 1851 work, “The Harmony of Interests.” Carey wrote as follows:
“Two systems are before the world; the one looks to increasing the proportion of persons and of capital engaged in trade and transportation, and therefore to diminishing the proportion engaged in producing commodities with which to trade, with necessarily diminished return to the labour of all; while the other looks to increasing the proportion engaged in the work of production, and diminishing that engaged in trade and transportation, with increased return to all, giving the labourer good wages, and to the owner of capital good profits.
One looks to increasing the quantity of raw materials to be exported, and diminishing the inducements to imports of men, thus impoverishing both farmer and planter by throwing on them the burden of freight; while the other looks to increasing the import of men and diminishing the export of raw materials, thereby enriching both planter and farmer by relieving them from payment of freight.
One looks to giving the (products) of millions of acres of land and of the labour of millions of men for the (services) of hundreds of thousands of distant men; the other to bringing the distant men to consume on the land the products of the land, exchanging day’s labour for day’s labour.
One looks to compelling the farmers and planters of the Union to continue their contributions for the support of the fleets and the armies, the paupers, the nobles and the sovereigns of Europe; the other to enabling ourselves to apply the same means to the moral and intellectual improvement of the sovereigns of America.
One looks to the continuance of that freedom of trade which denies the principle of protection, yet doles it out as revenue duties; the other by extending the area of legitimate free trade by the establishment of perfect protection, followed by the annexation of individuals and communities, and ultimately by the abolition of customs-houses.
One looks to exporting men to occupy desert tracts, the sovereignty of which is obtained by aid of diplomacy or war; the other to increasing the value of an immense extent of vacant land by importing men by millions for their occupation.
One looks to the centralization of wealth and power in a great commercial city that shall rival the great cities of modern times which have been and are being supported by aid of contributions which have exhausted every nation subjected to them; the other to concentration, by aid of which a market shall be made upon the land for the products of the land, and the farmer and planter be enriched.
One looks to increasing the necessity of commerce; the other to increasing the power to maintain it.
One looks to underworking the Hindoo, and sinking the rest of the world to his level; the other to raising the standard of man throughout the world to our level.
One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace.
One is the English system; the other we may be proud to call the American system, for it is the only one ever devised the tendency of which was that of elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.”
Now, if you are like me, and perhaps you studied economics and history, you know about Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, but you probably never heard of Henry C. Carey. I am grateful to Cynthia Chung and Matthew Ehret for bringing Carey’s work to my attention through their invaluable research. If ever you read Carey’s biography, you might wonder why one of the most important economists of his age dropped out of the curriculum.
Well, the total global war is the reason. Namely, the proponents of the “open society” governance model would prefer it if you didn’t know about Henry Carey or about the American system which had turned the United States from a number of British Empire’s disjointed colonies into the world’s most prosperous and most powerful nation. In Lincoln’s days, the United States was known as a nation of readers, many of whom understood clearly what they were up against.
The rise of the United States in fact became such a threat to the British Empire that it orchestrated a civil war in order to break the Union into two smaller, weaker client states that could be set one against one another and kept weak and easily dominated. Empires do not suffer rivals and prefer that the earth be covered by uneducated and disorganized masses whose sole worth would be as a source of cheap, or preferably free labor used to extract their countries’ resource wealth and transfer it to “the nobles and sovereigns of Europe.” These would be the very stakeholders of George Soros’ open societies, who congregate in Davos and fantasize about turning the whole of humanity into a flock of “hackable animals” with no free will.
Even if the shooting war is raging in Ukraine, the United States remains the central battlefield in this total war. The people of the US are under a seemingly unrelated barrage of attacks that have escalated for several decades now and are almost too many to enumerate, but their effects include a sustained decline in living standards, progressive collapse of the nation’s infrastructure, loss of freedoms and permanent warfare. And yes, Americans are dying, only not exactly in trenches:
They already lost!
But the occult oligarchy behind the open societies has already lost their global war. They predicated their plans on achieving total domination of the whole world. The emergence of a multi-polar order entirely collapses their plans. How can you force everyone to rely on windmills and solar panels if your rivals are happily burning oil and gas and running their steel-producing furnaces? Without steel, you can’t build modern weapons. How can you coerce the “hackable animals” to subsist on insects if people in closed societies enjoy traditional foods? How do you force 7 or 8 billion people to take up your vaccines and carry vaccine passes if other nations opt for your rivals’ vaccines? That ship had sailed – it simply cannot be done.
Raising a new Iron Curtain
The only consolation prize available to the occult oligarchy now is to carve out a geopolitical block, break all ties with the closed societies and implement their plans within a new iron curtain. Then perhaps, the open societies could regroup and rebuild their military strength (not with solar panels) for another attempt at world domination in the future.
This new iron curtain would most likely encompass the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of continental Europe. But the block’s viability will depend on whether it can also include the United States which remains an extremely tough nut to crack. The uncontrolled migrations, attack on states’ rights, and the all-out assault of the Bill of Rights, including the periodic mass shootings, are all occult oligarchy’s attempts to crack it. It is all part of the total global war.
Like Henry Carey, those who understood the nature of this conflict knew that the ultimate showdown was coming. In addressing the American people, Ernesto Che Guevara invoked the coming clash: “I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all – you live in the belly of the beast.” Che got many things wrong, but I believe he did get that part right.
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Sovereign’s Handbook by Johnny Liberty (30th Anniversary Edition) (3-Volume Printed, Bound Book or PDF)
A three-volume, 750+ page tome with an extensive update of the renowned underground classic ~ the Global Sovereign’s Handbook. Still after all these years, this is the most comprehensive book on sovereignty, economics, law, power structures and history ever written. Served as the primary research behind the best-selling Global One Audio Course. Available Now!
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