“It’s just crazy, you know? Everyone’s affected by it. It’s like all the money just vanished.†– South Park
James Bond’s doorbell goes: Dong, Ding Dong.
As I’ve mentioned before, Pa Wilder was a banker at a small-town bank that mainly served small farmers. I can recall (in one of my earliest memories) that a savings account was opened for me. This account was fairly small in the amount of money that was in it, but Pa made me go to the teller and deposit the money that I had earned.
I had earned the money in the most Wilder way possible:  by being five and being completely un-babysittable. Ma Wilder needed to go in to help Pa out at the bank and train someone so she could stay home and keep the 3’10†(34 liter) rodeo clown she lived with (me) in line. Apparently, I was against this plan, because I ran off at least two babysitters in as many days.
Even then, I was difficult to get along with.
At the time, Ma and Pa offered me $20 per week if I would just be good, come home from school and watch re-runs of Star Trek®, and not burn the house down in the three hours between when I got off the bus and when Ma Wilder got home. Even as a kid that sounded like a good deal to me. I could try to burn the house down after Ma got home just as easily as when she wasn’t there. I call that a win-win.
When Ma and Pa paid up, I was owed the princely sum of $100. Pa Wilder took me down to the bank, and they opened a savings account for me. I received a savings “passbook,†which was a little book where the teller wrote down my deposit, and then wrote it down on a corresponding card that showed how much money I had in the bank and had my account number on it.
Of course, I then announced that I was moving out. I figured I could live for quite a while on $100. When Ma then described exactly how many loaves of bread that would buy, I did the math and decided I wouldn’t run away just yet.
But snakes can’t rob banks. They’re unarmed.
The passbook was fascinating to me, though.
It, along with the little card showed how much money I had in the bank. The bank would take all of the accounts and save all of the transactions at some frequency (I don’t know how often but I think it was monthly) on a computer in Capital City, which was hundreds of miles away. So, the records were backed up, but the primary record was paper – the account card at the bank, and in my passbook – which had official meaning, Pa told me – it would be difficult to take money out without one, and they’d have to issue a new one if I lost mine.
I hadn’t thought about my first savings account in years – the passbook was a thing of the past before I was eight – replaced by computer statements sent out monthly, but it provided a view of another world. I drained all of my money at age 13 to buy a motorcycle, so that account ceased to exist even before I got a Social Security Number.
Likewise, I hadn’t thought about that passbook until last Sunday, but oddly enough it was computers that brought it to mind.
My computer is so old, that when I upgraded memory they just added more beads.
On Sunday, it was announced that the Department of the Treasury was hacked (LINK). A program made by the company SolarWinds® was allegedly hacked by the Russians. But it wasn’t hacked on Sunday – it is possible the system had been hacked as far back as this spring, according to the news. The same news that said that:
- Russians hacked the 2016 election,
- Hunter Biden’s story was nothing,
- Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, and
- Pepsi® tastes better than Coke™.
I am not sure I believe that they even know who did the hack, or when the hack was done. Given that it’s only been a week, I’m pretty sure they have no idea what information is gone, or if any information has been changed. That’s scary.
So, let’s call that dot number one.
I also read about dot number two on Sunday. This particular dot was that the names of tens of thousands of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members working in Western companies had “accidentally†made public. Thousands of them work in the United States, and thousands more across the West. As an example, 600 CCP members work across 19 branches of just two British banks, HSBC and Standard Chartered (LINK).
Of course, it’s not just banks, it’s Boeing® and Google™ and Facebook©, too. But the banks caught my attention.
Was it always so lonely in the Empire?
Dot number three I’ve known about for several years: the Chinese aren’t planning to re-fight World War II, or even any of the Gulf Wars. They have seen the stunning power of the United States military, and understand the United States has spent trillions of dollars to defeat the Soviet Union in a war that never came. Tanks? The chances of tank warfare with the Chinese are slim. The chances of them engaging the United States in a stand-up military conflict are likewise slim.
The Chinese are very smart, and have taken defeating the United States seriously – they have been thinking since (at least) the 1990s of ways to defeat America, in detail. I’d read some of this strategy before, and it is probably worth a post on its own.
Here is the .pdf of Unrestricted Warfare, by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui (LINK). Thankfully, at least someone in the .mil part of the world has read this – here’s a link to an article about Unrestricted Warfare from the Army University Press (LINK). H/T to Vox Day for reminding me of this information (LINK).
If I were going to fight the United States, I wouldn’t waste my time attempting to build billions of dollars of aircraft carrier and then spend decades trying to learn how to use them well. I wouldn’t try to send millions of men in a mass-wave attack. Where would I attack?
It’s too late for me, though, my Chinese vacuum has been gathering dirt on me for years.
Well, it’s obvious that the Chinese have tried to influence the politics of the United States – how many different politicians have been Fang-Fanged (LINK) by the Chinese has yet to be counted. But there are lots – the Chinese have attempted to find younger, up and coming politicians and reach them early. Again, a great strategy: why fight if you already can influence the leadership of your enemy?
But perhaps, one day that’s not enough. Perhaps one day, it’s required to neutralize the United States.
How would I do it in a single day?
If I were going to attack the United States, I would attack Bank of America© and all of the other large banks. I would attack the Treasury. I would attack the Federal Reserve™.
What would happen if, one day, all of the Bank of America® accounts read zero? What would happen if the Fed® started spasming out trillions of perfectly legal electronic dollars to banks all across the world? What would happen if the Treasury’s computer suddenly forgot who owned all of those electronic savings bonds in the Treasury Direct accounts?
What if every record of every transaction on the NASDAQ® disappeared overnight?
Chaos.
And only one color of dot. I guess going first matters.
Three dots does not make a big dot-to-dot puzzle. But if America was surprised by Pearl Harbor, how surprised would they be if every bank account in the country read zero one fine Monday morning? I’m not saying it will happen – most internet hacks are the equivalent of defacing a poster on the outside of a movie theater.
But if it were to happen, would you think the system where the teller stamped your bank book and then updated the card that had your bank account information on it had some merit?
Sleep well tonight!
China will ultimately win by outmaneuvering the US in the financial battlefields of the 21st Century: cryptocurrency and gold.
https://countercurrents.org/2020/10/towards-a-new-gold-standard-or-a-currency-war-with-china/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2019/12/17/how-china-will-take-over-the-world/?sh=228969c04c1f
Interestingly, speaking of Fang Fang and connecting dots:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/14/how-mark-zuckerberg-met-priscilla-chan.html
https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2016/03/31/facebooks-zuckerberg-accepts-chinese-green-card-offer-plans-home-beijing
https://www.protocol.com/zuckerberg-chan-election-security
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/1/21755078/libra-diem-name-change-cryptocurrency-facebook
https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?sh=121d14223e06
I don’t know the exact number but a huge percentage of the Chinese economy relies on selling cheap crap to U.S. consumers. A completely collapsed U.S. would seem to be against their interests.
“China’s economy produced $22.5 trillion in 2019…In 2018, China exported $2.5 trillion…In 2019, China shipped $451.7 billion worth of goods to the United States. Since the U.S. exports to China were only $106.5 billion, there’s a $345 billion U.S. trade deficit with China…”
https://www.thebalance.com/china-economy-facts-effect-on-us-economy-3306345
Do the math. $0.45T / 22.50T = 2% of the Chinese economy is dependent on US exports. We need them A LOT more than they need us.
Well, except in chips….this is why Taiwan is spicy.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3102518/us-china-tech-war-battle-over-semiconductors-taiwan-stokes
Never forget they are working hard every minute of every day to replace exports to America with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) exports to the Middle East, Africa and especially Europe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/09/04/chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-opens-up-unprecedented-opportunities/?sh=764510a73e9a
Americans are woefully unrealistic in their beliefs vs. factual realities about China, and it is gonna bite us very hard and very soon.
Maybe?
This is a nation that builds empty cities.
So does the US. My sibling (who lives there) says they’re calling Chicago the “glass city” because you can see right thru the new sky scrapers. Built, purchased, empty.
n
Great point – I’ve heard similar on many NYC buildings. 2020 is a turning point – and 2021 will be the next step.
and this video is from 2014? imagine how much better he speaks it now. he could probably take a call from Xi Jinping himself and not even need a translator on standby for assistance.
If they own a whole political party, they can’t really loose . . . especially if the Left is fine with that (which, they are).
Dot #4: throw the world into financial chaos by releasing a virus that throws millions of Americans out of work, so they can’t pay their rent/mortgages, so their landlords can’t pay their mortgages, so their banks become insolvent…
There are rumors that coronavirus vaccines (in general, not specific to the ones approved for emergency use) can cause infertility. Probably temporary, but fertility itself is a temporary condition. Add the mental-health strain of widespread infertility to bankruptcies and financial chaos, and who knows what could happen next? As a widely advertised T-shirt design says “Don’t mess with old folks. Life without parole loses its deterrent value.” “Whatta ya mean, there won’t be any grandchildren?!?”
A few years ago the SWIFT codes to transfer funds bank to bank were recognized to be compromised (just search “swift codes compromised” for a half dozen incidents). That should have been the beginning of the end there. Apparently someone put their foot down.
Way back during DS/DS I suggested hacking all the Iraqi banks – their security in the 90’s was pretty poor of course. Instead of resetting all the accounts to zero, randomly increase / decrease them significantly. Some accounts go up $15,421 and some go down $12,532. The folks whose accounts went up wouldn’t complain – but there are no funds to cover the discrepancy. The account holders who lost money would wail and tie up the banks in person and on the phone. For added value leave some accounts the same – those businesses, individuals or government agencies could take the righteous indignation route and further confuse the audit trail.
The advantage of this over a reset to zero is that the currency retains value – but the issuing government can’t determine it. Handy for offshore bond holders unaffected by a localized hack.
Frankly it’d be more efficient to hack / turn off the power grid for a month. Fewer nodes and overall lower security. When turned back on a month later there would still be a lot of residual value that you could recover as security against the bonds held (not per se – just establishing security for areas where humanitarian aid is being distributed).
I anticipate that 2021 will be more precarious than 2020.
Yup – there’s a reason that in WWII the US produced fake German money.
If you turned off the grid for a month? You’d lose 20% of the United States population. 40% if in January.
Also – great idea on the balance manipulation.
And, don’t look now, but the dollar is tanking.
That is sort of the plot of a Tom Clancy novel.
Anyway, the Chinese don’t have to do much, just a little nudge here and there. They already own Biden and Mitch McConnell, and who knows how many Congressmen were banging that cute Chinese girl, never wondering why a girl several standard deviations more attractive than them was giving them the time of day. We are doing a great job destroying ourselves.
Sort of. I enjoyed that one, though you could tell the sheer size of it got away from him.
The Chinese do not have to worry about shipping an army to US shores, there is one already here. The US has 360k Chinese “students” already here long term. More than enough for an impossible to defeat guerilla warfare. Plus they are effectively spread across the entire country in key cities. And then there is the Canadians training actual hardline troops on their shores.
I already quoted that twice in conversations with people – thanks – good info.
All good points John. We must cast a wary eye on electronic assets.
We must understand that mainland China is not our friend. They are our strategic competitor.
Decades ago and even in some circles today, it was common to believe that by building up the middle class in China, their dictatorship would be overthrown or gradually replaced. I thought this might be wrong in my early university years and am convinced it’s wrong today. All we did was build up their intellectual capacity which translates into strategic advantage.
China is a hierarchical society that goes back thousands of years. There is a certain national ego that goes along with that heritage. An ego that doesn’t necessarily play well with others.
The Chinese government has completely changed – it was communist, now it is an authoritarian capitalist/oligarchy. Much more stable.
And I don’t complain that China is doing these things – wouldn’t we do the same things if the tables were turned?
For the last decade or so, I’ve been terming China a capitalist dictatorship. Nice to see that said elsewhere.
When I was a young adult, Deng Xiao Ping was in power, so I probably sensed “capitalist dictatorship” even back then.
Deng realized that Mao didn’t have the way – and that capitalism did.
The Chinese play the long game while we mostly have ADD. No one more so than our politicians, who can only focus on how they can take the money and not get caught.
It’s in the chicoms interest to fracture us. That way they rid themselves of a meddlesome nuisance, yet still retain a market.
Behind every blade of grass.
Not any more. Lots of rifles, not so many riflemen.
n
They really have increased in stability over the last few decades. Great point.
Or gain an entire new frontier? Why not save a floundering nation?
I wonder if Prisilla was instructed by the Party to honey trap Mark. Marriage to Mark is preferred to death by failing the Party, after all.
Mitt Romney and Georgia Gov Kemp do not fear Republican hatred as much as they fear Arkancide.
John read this morning the investigator O’Sullivan of the car wreck/bombing in Georgia related to Kemp and Loefler was found dead of suicide.
Yup – most politicians on both sides are creatures of the Deep State/Global State.
Fortune cookie say China pwns you. The China-Mart has extended hours and please stock up on masks (made in China) as we do have a rodent themed one for the last rat standing.
Follow the markings on the floor to the pens err I mean back of the store.
First – great name. That is my favorite of all of the movies, hands down. There’s a Tiffany Case joke in there, somewhere.
Second – at some point, this must end. Period. They pulled the markings off the floor here in Modern Mayberry.
Jimmy Dean and Bambi and her friend were the big highlights for me.
And that house was for sale recently. Sadly, a bit beyond what I could offer.
Sun Tzu’s conviction that victory and defeat are fundamentally psychological states. He sees war, therefore, not so much as a matter of destroying the enemy materially and physically (although that may play a role), but of unsettling the enemy psychologically; his goal is to force the enemy’s leadership and society from a condition of harmony, in which they can resist effectively, toward one of chaos (luan), which is tantamount to defeat.
Well, we’re there.
Exactly!!!!
War isn’t (just) manuver: it’s removing the will of the enemy (including population) to fight.
I am guessing they have been gaming us since the 50’s after Korea. Of course they blame the hacks on Russia, everytime. When you see the word Russia change it to China for 100 percent accuracy. Just like they accuse us of what they are doing. We don’t know how deep the tentacles are as we don’t know how deep the cabal is. Time will tell unfortunately hope all of you patriots are prepared as well as you can be. May God bless you all the days of your lives. It is difficult to keep reminding myself God is in control.
Russia gets caught doing what the US wishes it was allowed to do, and what the Chinese do do.
Ha!
A trope born from my own mind, but once you know it, you see it everywhere from the Olympics to warfare to medical development. The US has the technological might to go toe to toe with the Commies, but is held back internally at every turn. Another example of where the cultures are at in Bagot-Glubb’s cycle.
Yup. Glubb saw it very, very well.
I think the efficient/realistic games started in the 1990s.
And may God bless you, too. He is with us.
If you said that the government was wiretapping your phone in 1999, everybody would have called you a nutjob.
Now if you say that the government is wiretapping your phone, no one cares.
How can Americans sleep at night now or look in a mirror without feeling disgusted and ashamed?
A lot of us do. All the rest are sociopaths. When I say they cheated in broad daylight some people you know who just look at you with that stupid goggly eye lips closed look. I don’t get mad, I will get evening sunset. You thought I was going to say something else?
Former corporate IT security person lays out what the report on the Dominion voting machine in Antrim County Michigan means. Fascinating reading.
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/asog-dominion-report-a-review/
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/asog-dominion-report-review-part-2/
Thanks for the links! Good stuff!!!
I’ve been to China for work, Shanghai specifically, and it was 10 years ago. What I saw there was stunning on many levels and also eye opening.
It’s a filth-hole. I mean it is dirtier than dirty. Not a speck of litter in the city, but dirt and pollution everywhere. The air is brown, and the water smells like chemicals.
It’s crowded. You have no idea until you see it first hand. Everyone knows China has a lot of people. Shanghai had 22 MILLION when I was there. MILES of identical high rise apartment buildings. The whole city operates as a ‘three shift” city. There were the same number of people on the street at 3 am as 3 pm. City workers were fixing roads at 3am. Fishermen outside the city live on houseboats with concrete hulls and brick walls because there isn’t enough dry land in the area. They built ‘china’s venice’ a thousand years ago, and people still live in the same brick sheds.
Every scrap of arable land has at least one crop growing on it, and usually three. Freeway cloverleafs are planted with ground crops, trellised crops, and trees. The flip side is miles of land so polluted nothing grows on it but rocks.
The government might be communist but the people are mostly rabidly capitalist. If you have a bike, you are a delivery service, if a car- a taxi, if a truck- a shipping company. Grannies were selling stuff on blankets at bus stops 45 minutes out in the countryside at 2am. Hustlers, every one. (except the commie minders. you see sour faced old hags watching the door of every building too)
China is about face and appearance more than substance. The marble in my hotel tub surround was less than 1/4 inch thick. Anywhere else it would be half inch at least. Chinese will not spend money on quality, only flash. Even on a million dollar project they were building a facade, a thin veneer over rubble.
Family and connections are more important than anything else. Nothing really gets done without connections.
They are rabidly racist against the hundreds of little differences among themselves and against ALL foreigners. They have a superiority complex a mile wide. They also have only a very narrow view of westerners and western culture. I continually amazed people with my chopstick skill. They wouldn’t believe that I ate chinese food all the time at home, and with chopsticks. (and my skilz ain’t great, I can eat rice and noodles, but Mr Miagi I am not)
Did I mention that there are a LOT of them? And that getting enough food is always an issue? I can’t imagine what midwestern wheat fields look like to a chinese agriculture planner, but I’m sure he thinks he could put it to better use than us.
Oh, and high tech is everywhere, and smeared thinly over everything. Bus stops all had video walls showing ads. The buildings are all covered with video and lighting like Blade Runner. City parks had empty stages with giant video walls running content 24/7. and a block off the main street, people were selling food in alleys, and washing dishes in ditches.
The utter ‘just don’t care’ is stunning. Their concerns are not our concerns, aliens are alien. “Ruthless” doesn’t capture the effect and consequences of only caring about yourself and your family (and family only so far as you can use them to further your own goals). “Ruthless” is a western concept. For them it’s “just don’t care about anyone else AT ALL” or the consequences to those others. That makes a huge difference. For planning purposes, consider them individually and collectively as narcissistic sociopaths driven to succeed (by their measures) and you probably won’t be wrong. There is almost literally nothing they wouldn’t do to others if it gave them face or an advantage.
n
Nick,
I haven’t been there, but this is 100% with everything I’ve read or seen. The “don’t care” seems to be very, very deeply culturally rooted. And the fraud . . . .
John … HATS OFF TO YOU … Tremendous site … Great posts by you and a very robust comments section … A huge loss for me that I just found it today 🙁 … but I am hooked.
As a newbie, will post a related second-hand observation … A friend of mine is an engineer that specializes in all things steel … He has made many trips to China related to steel mill construction, etc. He has had the occasion to befriend some of the Chinese that he has worked with on projects. One of the things they marvel at is the fact that we have the 2nd Amendment. Seems like there is actually some thirst for freedom there, and they realize that in America, the populace does have some power (for now).
Chairman Mao
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
That being said, this power is hanging by a thread.
Joey Joe Joe,
First, thanks!!! The folks that come by are awesome.
Second, welcome, and enjoy! Glad you’re here. Every M-W-F (plus I announce the Podcasts on Tuesday).