From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Wed Mar  1 03:23:12 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:23:12 -0600
Subject: [Peace] It Is The Mass Media's Job To Help Suppress Anti-War
 Movements
Message-ID: <5B062B87-7F86-49AE-B1F3-7BE67FEAC50B@newsfromneptune.com>

https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/it-is-the-mass-medias-job-to-help


From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Wed Mar  1 17:22:05 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2023 11:22:05 -0600
Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Read_Escobar=E2=80=99s_new_column?=
Message-ID: <1F51A225-EF44-4E09-B95A-9221FB7AE86B@newsfromneptune.com>

<https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-stage-set-hybrid-world-war-iii>

From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Tue Mar  7 19:27:23 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2023 13:27:23 -0600
Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Enemy of the State
References: <20230307191354.3.c4a073e766fb3b3c@mg-d1.substack.com>
Message-ID: <2BF99F4B-375F-4620-8C0D-D8DD596EAAFA@newsfromneptune.com>



Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Scott Ritter Extra <scottritter at substack.com>
> Date: March 7, 2023 at 1:14:51 PM CST
> To: cgestabrook at gmail.com
> Subject: Enemy of the State
> Reply-To: Scott Ritter Extra <reply+1rq6dg&692a&&d4bbdcedb99e7280fcc72d329189276fe3c2e5f6c86a96301090f63e1fcc3065 at mg1.substack.com>
> 
> ?
> Open in app or online
> Enemy of the State
> SCOTT RITTER
> MAR 7
>  
> 
> 
> 
> CROSS-POST
>  
> 
> When NBC reporter Keir Simmons, a citizen of the United Kingdom, accepted his assignment to travel to Crimea for the purpose of covering the impact of the Ukrainian conflict on the local population, I would imagine that the last thing on his mind was that fulfilling his journalistic duties would garner him a spot on the Ukrainian intelligence service?s (SBU) Myrotvorets ?hit list.?
> 
> Yes, you got that right?for the crime of journalism, Keir Simmons has been sentenced to die by the notorious SBU. Keir?s crime? ?He has attacked Ukraine?s sovereignty and territorial integrity,? the SBU declared.
> 
> This is no idle threat?one only need to familiarize themselves with the cases of Russian journalist Daria Dugina and Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli, both of whom were placed on the Myrotvorets list, and both of whom were subsequently assassinated by the SBU and their photographs on the list emblazoned with the word ?liquidated? in blood red.
> 
> Jackson Hinkle, the American host of the popular YouTube podcast ?The Dive,? has likewise been added to the Myrotvorets ?kill list? for the ?crime? of publishing ?anti-Ukrainian propaganda,? spreading ?Kremlin propaganda for profit,? and ?justification and informational support of the open attack of fascist Russia on Ukraine.?
> 
> In America, we call what Jackson Hinkle and Keir Simmons do journalism. In Ukraine, it is apparently a capital crime.
> 
> 
> Scott Ritter will discuss this article and answer audience questions on Episode 51 of Ask the Inspector.
> 
> The silence from both NBC News and the US government is deafening.
> 
> I have been on the Myrotvorets ?kill list? since early summer 2022. I welcome Keir and Jackson to the club of persons marked for death by the government of a nation the United States and United Kingdom are actively supporting in its ongoing war against Russia.
> 
> They say in war, truth is the first casualty. Closely behind, it seems, are the truth tellers, marked to die by a Ukrainian government and, implicitly, their UK and US supporters, who find the pursuit of truth to be the most dangerous threat to their cause.
> 
> If you are an American reading this, I hope the implications are clear?for exercising your constitutionally-guaranteed right of free speech, your government will kill you. There is no other way to put this?the Ukrainian government exists solely on the back of the financial assistance provided by the US and, to a lesser extent, the UK and EU. The SBU is entirely funded by US taxpayer dollars, and its work closely coordinated with the US and UK intelligence services. The Myrotvorets ?hit list? is funded and facilitated by the US and UK governments.
> 
> News flash, Kier, Jackson, and all other US and UK citizens on the Myrotvorets ?hit list??your respective governments want you dead, and are willing to contract out their desires with the Ukrainian SBU.
> 
> The Myrotvorets ?kill list? is the pointy end of an information warfare spear being wielded by the Ukrainian government, in concert with the US, UK, and other NATO member states, seeking to shape the public narrative about the conflict in Ukraine.
> 
> The ?shaft? of this spear, however, comes in the form of the Center for Countering Disinformation, or CCD, a US-funded information warfare office that works as part of the Office of the Presidency in Ukraine. I have been a target of the CCD since its inception, placed on its initial ?blacklist? published in July 2022, where I and the other listed individuals were lambasted as ?information terrorists? who were guilty of ?war crimes? because of our publicly stated positions regarding the war in Ukraine.
> 
> I?ve been a frequent ?guest? on the CCD?s ?propogandist of the week? posts published on their Twitter and Telegram channels, and my analysis is often the target of their ire. On February 23, 2023, I was given the ultimate ?honor? by the CCD, listed first on their roster of western voices highlighted in a report entitled ?How Western Speakers Promoted Main Narratives Concerned with Russian Propaganda.?
> 
> Curiously, the CCD expressly pointed out, ?It should noted that the listed persons are not Russian propogandists, but promote narratives consistent with Russian propaganda.? Whether or not this continues to constitute ?information terrorism? and, as such, a ?war crime? in the eyes f the CCD, is not known.
> 
> I am number one on the list of persons compiled by the CCD of ?Wester speakers who most actively promoted these narratives.?
> 
> 
> Click here for more info.
> I find this designation to be the highest honor the Ukrainian government could bestow upon me, and I want to express my thanks to President Zelensky and the acting director of the CCD, Andrei Shapovalov, for recognizing my work. I promise I will continue to strive to pursue the fact-based truth in a manner which brings me to your attention.
> 
> According to the February 23, 2023 CCD report, myself and the other honorees were guilty of promoting six ?themes? deemed by the CCD to represent ?narratives created by Russian propaganda? to either ?justify Russia?s illegal invasion of Ukraine,? ?discredit the Armed Forces and the Ukrainian government,? and/or ?discredit the Ukrainian people? and ?turn the international population against Ukraine.?
> 
> I was accused by the CCD of promoting five of these themes. However, I plead guilty to all six. The irony of these allegations, however, is that all I?m guilty of is reporting the words of the Ukrainian government, its representatives, and its international supporters. If the CCD was genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of the source of all anti-Ukrainian ?propaganda,? it would do well to start at home.
> 
> Here are the six ?themes? of interest to the Ukrainian government, and my reasons for helping promote them.
> 
> Theme One: NATO?s Expansion to the East provoked Russia?s invasion of Ukraine
> 
> The rhetoric that the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe provoked a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has become very popular in the Western media space. Western representatives use this narrative as an argument to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine.
> 
> Speakers often point out that Russia has long warned that the expansion of NATO to its borders is a red line. They argue that the expansion of the alliance posed a direct threat to Russia, so Putin had no choice but to defend himself.
> 
> I have frequently quoted the words of William Burns, the former US Ambassador to Russia (and current CIA Director) in his February 2008 memorandum, ?Nyet means Nyet: Russia?s NATO enlargement Red Lines?:
> 
> Ukraine and Georgia's NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia's influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.
> 
> When Burns? memorandum is considered alongside the 2019 RAND report, ?Overextending and Unbalancing Russia,? inclusive of its argument that ?Providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia?s greatest point of external vulnerability,? the notion of the US and NATO posing a direct threat to Russia does not seem that far-fetched at all.
> 
> I plead guilty.
> 
> Theme Two: Nazism in Ukraine
> 
> The narrative about ?Nazism in Ukraine? is another Russian propaganda campaign aimed at demonizing Ukraine and its people in the eyes of the world. The narrative is often found in the statements of so-called Western experts who have a pro-Russian position. Very often, when talking about ?Nazism in Ukraine?, speakers emphasize the ?Azov? regiment, calling it a ?radical neo-Nazi group.?
> 
> Another disinformation narrative used by speakers in the West is the widespread support of Ukrainians for the ?Nazi collaborator? Stepan Bandera is proof of Nazism in Ukraine.
> 
> Here, I will let the US Congress speak for me. Since 2015 every omnibus spending bill signed into law contains an amendment stipulating that ?none of the funds made available by this act may be used to provide arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.? According to Representative Ro Khanna, a sponsor of the amendment in question, ?White supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world. I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the U.S. from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine.?
> 
> As for Bandera, I will let the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky address this touchy subject: ?He [Bandera] is one of the people who defended Ukraine?s freedom,? Zelensky said in a 2019 interview with Ukrainska Pravda. ?He is a hero for a certain percentage of Ukrainians, and it?s normal, and it?s cool.?
> 
> Again, I plead guilty.
> 
> Theme Three: The Armed Forces Terrorize Civilians 
> 
> In the statements of Western speakers, you can often hear that the armed forces of Ukraine fire on the civilian population and civilian objects in the temporarily occupied territories and on the territory of Ukraine itself. The most popular claim is that Ukraine has been shelling and terrorizing the population of Donbas for more than eight years.
> 
> Western experts also sometimes claim that the crimes against the civilian population of Bucha were committed by the Ukrainian army, and sometimes even call these events staged by the Ukrainian authorities.
> 
> Enter Petro Poroshenko, the former President of Ukraine, who in a November 14, 2014, speech infamously declared, ?Our children will go to schools and kindergartens, and theirs [the ethnic Russians of the Donbas] will hole up in the basements - this is how we win the war!"
> 
> Ukrainian artillery attacks on the Donbas killed thousands of civilians between 2014 and 2021?including some 150 children.
> 
> As for Bucha, my position is well known?Ukraine did it. ?Special forces began clearing the liberated, by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, city of Bucha of the Kiev region from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian troops,? the Ukrainians themselves admitted in an internet post dated April 2, 2022.
> 
> Once again, I plead guilty.
> 
> Theme Four: The war in Ukraine is a NATO proxy war against Russia
> 
> Some Western experts call the events in Ukraine a NATO proxy war against Russia. Speakers claim that the West is using Ukraine for its own purposes, in particular for confrontation with Russia. Therefore, one gets the impression that Russia is fighting a collective action, and Ukraine is playing the role of puppet in this war.
> 
> This narrative is sometimes supported by the argument that in 2014, after the Pdnosti Revolution, the US allegedly sponsored a coup in Ukraine and helped install a new government in Kiev.
> 
> Allow me to introduce as Exhibit 1 the statement by The Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, made to BBC in an interview on January 13, 2023: ?Ukraine as a country, and the armed forces of Ukraine, became [a] member of NATO. De facto, not de jure (by law). Because we have weaponry, and the understanding of how to use it.?
> 
> Could there be a better definition of ?NATO proxy?? I think not.
> 
> As for the role of the US in helping instigate a coup in 2014 for the purpose of installing a pro-US government, I rely on none other than Victoria Nuland herself, who in a phone conversation with US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, openly backs Arseniy Yatseniuk, a Ukrainian opposition leader, as the man who should replace President Viktor Yanukovych. ?I think Yats is the guy.? That is a direct quote.
> 
> Guilty as charged.
> 
> Theme Five: Military aid is an escalation of war
> 
> The thesis about the escalation of the war by the West is being followed in the western media space. In general, the reports say that the additional military armament for Ukraine provokes Russia to escalate the conflict. Russia realizes that the military support of Ukraine?s Western partners helps it continue to resist Russian aggression. This becomes a stumbling block for the Kremlin. Therefore, the rhetoric about the escalation of the war on the part of the West became part of a hostile propaganda campaign aimed at stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
> 
> Western speakers also use the thesis that Ukraine?s allies are tired of the war and are depleting their stockpile of weapons, supplying them to Ukraine. The goal of such a campaign is to stop military aid for the defense of Ukraine and undermine faith in the West?s ability to stand up to ?mighty? Russia. To reinforce this narrative, the speakers use the argument that the Western supply of weapons will not help Ukraine win the war with Russia, since the Russian side has an advantage in military armament.
> 
> On March 11, 2022, President Joe Biden declared, ?The idea that we?re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews?just understand, don?t kid yourself, no matter what y?all say, that?s called World War III.?
> 
> I agree.
> 
> Oh, yes?don?t forget this February 23, 2023 gem from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: ?The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles. The current rate of Ukraine?s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain.?
> 
> Guilty on both counts.
> 
> Theme Six: Anti-Russian Sanctions hurt the West more than Russia
> 
> The thesis that anti-Russian sanctions imposed in response to full-scale Russian invasion are primarily damaging in the process is part of a propaganda campaign. This narrative is spreading both in Russia and in Western countries. Foreign speakers draw attention to the rise in energy prices and the approach of the global economic crisis, blaming the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions.
> 
> First of all, they claim that sanctions worsen the living conditions of Europeans, and therefore the governments of EU countries should remove the sanctions if they care about their people.
> 
> Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto states the case quite succinctly: ?The sanctions which have been in place on behalf of the European Union seem to hurt us much more than the Russians. But whenever you raise this question and try to try to put the whole [of it in] context on a rational basis, you are immediately being judged and attacked.?
> 
> The Hungarian Foreign Minister was simply stating the obvious, something that The Guardian?s Simon Jenkins?no Russophile he?stated back in May 2022 in an opinion piece entitled ?The EU should forget about sanctions?they?re doing more harm than good.?
> 
> ?Six million households in Britain face the possibility of morning and evening blackouts this winter to maintain sanctions against Russia,? Jenkins wrote, ?as do consumers across Europe.?
> 
> While the CCD did not charge me with violating this particular ?theme?, I?m going to plead guilty none the less, if for no other reason than I have been critical of western sanctions targeting Russia since before they were put into effect. As I wrote in an article published in Energy Intelligence in December 2021, sanctions ?would undoubtedly create economic difficulty for Russia.?
> 
> But they would be fatal for Europe, which depends on Russia for 31% of its crude oil imports and 40% of its natural gas imports, or more than 15% of all EU energy needs. And losing access to Russian energy would have a much bigger impact that a simple 15% drop in energy supply. Such an energy supply disruption would have a cascading effect on not only costs, but on economic output, given Europe?s slim economic operating margins. In short, Europe would not only freeze, but also starve.
> 
> Back in 1998, following my resignation from the United Nations Special Commission, President Bill Clinton?s National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, called a ?a threat to the national security of the United States? simply because I was telling the truth about US policy in Iraq. In April 2003, the US Ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, chastised his fellow NATO Ambassadors for allowing me to speak at NATO, calling me a ?known enemy of the State? because I dared questioned the narrative being pushed by the US regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
> 
> My ?crime? at the time was telling the truth, and I view it as the highest expression of patriotism to have been called out by both the Clinton and Bush administrations for daring to challenge the official narrative with fact-based analysis.
> 
> Today, I face a similar attack from the administration of President Joe Biden, which has provided the financial and political support to the Ukrainian government that makes the Myrotvorets ?kill list? and the CCD ?blacklist? possible. If telling the truth about Ukraine makes me an enemy of the state, then I stand guilty as charged on all counts.
> 
> And I have a news flash for those whose goal it is to silence me through fear and intimidation?I?m still standing. And as long as I am able to, I will speak truth to power.
> 
> ?Enemy of the State.?
> 
> You?re damn right I am.
> 
> Share
> 
> Upgrade to paid
> 
> Donate
> 
> 
> If you are interested in discussion, advocacy and solving societal problems while enjoying adult beverages, join our Facebook group, American Drink Tank.
> You're currently a free subscriber to Scott Ritter Extra. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
> 
> Upgrade to paid
>  
> CROSS-POST
>  
>  
> LIKE
> COMMENT
> SHARE
>  
> ? 2023 Jeff Norman
> P.O. Box 92, Long Beach, CA 90801 
> Unsubscribe
> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20230307/9b497470/attachment-0001.htm>

From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Fri Mar 10 20:36:43 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2023 14:36:43 -0600
Subject: [Peace] Statement to Congress
Message-ID: <8D7BDC56-4E68-4607-8691-981123443495@newsfromneptune.com>

https://open.substack.com/pub/taibbi/p/my-statement-to-congress


From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Sat Mar 11 17:22:32 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2023 11:22:32 -0600
Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Ukraine=E2=80=99s_Death_by_Proxy?=
Message-ID: <C84D6440-362A-4963-8E4E-BE663999E84A@newsfromneptune.com>

https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/ukraines-death-by-proxy


From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Thu Mar 16 18:53:25 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2023 13:53:25 -0500
Subject: [Peace] Best summary of proxy war situation as of today
Message-ID: <45308906-2473-448D-AC86-292308086F8A@newsfromneptune.com>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQSbcxoiAbk


From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Tue Mar 21 15:49:08 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2023 10:49:08 -0500
Subject: [Peace] In Ukraine, US fears 'unacceptable' ceasefire
Message-ID: <E697BD50-E05C-4865-ABB6-499AE1B19DB6@newsfromneptune.com>

https://open.substack.com/pub/mate/p/in-ukraine-us-fears-unacceptable


From carl at newsfromneptune.com  Thu Mar 23 13:15:26 2023
From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook)
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2023 08:15:26 -0500
Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_=5BNew_post=5D_Scott_Ritter=3A_G7_vs_BR?=
 =?utf-8?q?ICS_=E2=80=94_Off_to_the_Races?=
References: <174340743.37499.0@wordpress.com>
Message-ID: <B9C93B8A-330E-43F7-B5F9-38822ECEA232@newsfromneptune.com>



Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "scheerpost.com" <donotreply at wordpress.com>
> Date: March 23, 2023 at 7:49:44 AM CDT
> To: carl at newsfromneptune.com
> Subject: [New post] Scott Ritter: G7 vs BRICS ? Off to the Races
> 
> ?
> 	scheerpost.com
> Scott Ritter: G7 vs BRICS ? Off to the Races
> Editor
> Mar 23
> 
> G7 leaders meeting on June 28, 2022, at Schloss Elmau in Kr?n, Germany. (White House/Adam Schultz)
> By Scott Ritter / Consortium News
> 
> Last summer, the Group of 7 (G7), a self-anointed forum of nations that view themselves as the most influential economies in the world, gathered at Schloss Elmau, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, to hold their annual meeting. Their focus was punishing Russia through additional sanctions, further arming of Ukraine and the containment of China.
> 
> At the same time, China hosted, through video conference, a gathering of the BRICS economic forum. Comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, this collection of nations relegated to the status of so-called developing economies focused on strengthening economic bonds, international economic development and how to address what they collectively deemed the counter-productive policies of the G7.
> 
> In early 2020, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had predicted that, based upon purchasing power parity, or PPP, calculations projected by the International Monetary Fund, BRICS would overtake the G7 sometime later that year in terms of percentage of the global total.
> 
> (A nation?s gross domestic product at purchasing power parity, or PPP, exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States and is a more accurate reflection of comparative economic strength than simple GDP calculations.)
> 
> Support our Independent Journalism ? Donate Today!
> 
> SUBSCRIBE TO PATREON DONATE ON PAYPAL
> Then the pandemic hit and the global economic reset that followed made the IMF projections moot. The world became singularly focused on recovering from the pandemic and, later, managing the fallout from the West?s massive sanctioning of Russia following that nation?s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
> 
> The G7 failed to heed the economic challenge from BRICS, and instead focused on solidifying its defense of the ?rules based international order? that had become the mantra of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
> 
> Miscalculation   
> 
> Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an ideological divide that has gripped the world, with one side (led by the G7) condemning the invasion and seeking to punish Russia economically, and the other (led by BRICS) taking a more nuanced stance by neither supporting the Russian action nor joining in on the sanctions. This has created a intellectual vacuum when it comes to assessing the true state of play in global economic affairs.
> 
> It is now widely accepted that the U.S. and its G7 partners miscalculated both the impact sanctions would have on the Russian economy, as well as the blowback that would hit the West.
> 
> Angus King, the Independent senator from Maine, recently observed that he remembers
> 
> ?when this started a year ago, all the talk was the sanctions are going to cripple Russia. They?re going to be just out of business and riots in the street absolutely hasn?t worked ?[w]ere they the wrong sanctions? Were they not applied well? Did we underestimate the Russian capacity to circumvent them? Why have the sanctions regime not played a bigger part in this conflict??
> It should be noted that the IMF calculated that the Russian economy, as a result of these sanctions, would contract by at least 8 percent. The real number was 2 percent and the Russian economy ? despite sanctions ? is expected to grow in 2023 and beyond.
> 
> This kind of miscalculation has permeated Western thinking about the global economy and the respective roles played by the G7 and BRICS. In October 2022, the IMF published its annual World Economic Outlook (WEO), with a focus on traditional GDP calculations. Mainstream economic analysts, accordingly, were comforted that ? despite the political challenge put forward by BRICS in the summer of 2022 ? the IMF was calculating that the G7 still held strong as the leading global economic bloc.
> 
> In January 2023 the IMF published an update to the October 2022 WEO,  reinforcing the strong position of the G7.  According to Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF?s chief economist, the ?balance of risks to the outlook remains tilted to the downside but is less skewed toward adverse outcomes than in the October WEO.?
> 
> This positive hint prevented mainstream Western economic analysts from digging deeper into the data contained in the update. I can personally attest to the reluctance of conservative editors trying to draw current relevance from ?old data.?
> 
> Fortunately, there are other economic analysts, such as Richard Dias of Acorn Macro Consulting, a self-described ?boutique macroeconomic research firm employing a top-down approach to the analysis of the global economy and financial markets.? Rather than accept the IMF?s rosy outlook as gospel, Dias did what analysts are supposed to do ? dig through the data and extract relevant conclusions.
> 
> After rooting through the IMF?s World Economic Outlook Data Base, Dias conducted a comparative analysis of the percentage of global GDP adjusted for PPP between the G7 and BRICS, and made a surprising discovery: BRICS had surpassed the G7.
> 
> This was not a projection, but rather a statement of accomplished fact: BRICS was responsible for 31.5 percent of the PPP-adjusted global GDP, while the G7 provided 30.7 percent. Making matters worse for the G7, the trends projected showed that the gap between the two economic blocs would only widen going forward.
> 
> The reasons for this accelerated accumulation of global economic clout on the part of BRICS can be linked to three primary factors:
> 
> residual fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic,
> blowback from the sanctioning of Russia by the G7 nations in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a growing resentment among the developing economies of the world to G7 economic policies and
> priorities which are perceived as being rooted more in post-colonial arrogance than a genuine desire to assist in helping nations grow their own economic potential. 
> Growth Disparities 
> 
> 
> It is true that BRICS and G7 economic clout is heavily influenced by the economies of China and the U.S., respectively. But one cannot discount the relative economic trajectories of the other member states of these economic forums. While the economic outlook for most of the BRICS countries points to strong growth in the coming years, the G7 nations, in a large part because of the self-inflicted wound that is the current sanctioning of Russia, are seeing slow growth or, in the case of the U.K., negative growth, with little prospect of reversing this trend.
> 
> Moreover, while G7 membership remains static, BRICS is growing, with Argentina and Iran having submitted applications, and other major regional economic powers, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, expressing an interest in joining. Making this potential expansion even more explosive is the recent Chinese diplomatic achievement in normalizing relations between Iran and Saudia Arabia.
> 
> Diminishing prospects for the continued global domination by the U.S. dollar, combined with the economic potential of the trans-Eurasian economic union being promoted by Russia and China, put the G7 and BRICS on opposing trajectories. The former should overtake the latter in terms of actual GDP, and not just PPP, in the coming years.
> 
> But don?t hold your breath waiting for mainstream economic analysts to reach this conclusion. Thankfully, there are outliers such as Richard Dias and Acorn Macro Consulting who seek to find new meaning from old data. 
> 
> Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
> 
> * indicates required
> Email Address *
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Scott Ritter
> Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, published by Clarity Press.
> 
> Author SIte
> Comment
> Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from scheerpost.com. 
> Change your email settings at manage subscriptions.
> Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: 
> https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/23/scott-ritter-g7-vs-brics-off-to-the-races/
> 
> Get the Jetpack app to use Reader anywhere, anytime
> Follow your favorite sites, save posts to read later, and get real-time notifications for likes and comments.
> 	 
>  	 	 	  
>  
> Learn how to build your website with our video tutorials on YouTube.
> 
> Automattic, Inc. - 60 29th St. #343, San Francisco, CA 94110  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20230323/fee72625/attachment-0001.htm>