CATL and SMIC are two giant Chinese companies that are often singled out by Western think tanks as two firms who benefit from China’s subsidies, at the expense of foreign competition.
But all industrialized countries employ government subsidies, which help favored domestic industries grow. China, however, uniquely can invest in preferred sectors by channeling its massive trading surpluses, and providing low-cost access to its world-leading supply chains and logistics systems.
In contrast, North American and European companies who seek government incentives and subsidies are competing with other spending priorities, as all the funds come from taxpayers. This reality requires of companies seeking government help to do so through proxies, lobbying efforts, and through think-tanks who create research that can be published and used by lawmakers to justify the use of taxpayer funds.
China’s enormous subsidies come from trading profits. US and European subsidies come from taxpayers
Category: Europe
Houthis undeterred despite US action to protect Red Sea shipping
August 08, 2024, Voice of America —
U.S.-led efforts to thwart attacks on international shipping by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen are nothing more than a “shock absorber” and are unlikely to lead to stability or safer seas, according to a senior U.S. commander.
Houthis undeterred despite US action to protect Red Sea shipping
I have an idea, end the slaughter in Gaza!
MacArthur’s Last Stand Against a Winless War
If war breaks out in Asia, the U.S. won’t send ground troops. Take note, Philippines!
MacArthur’s Last Stand Against a Winless War
Never get involved in a land war in Asia, MacArthur had told Kennedy, because if you do, you will be repeating the same mistake the Japanese made in World War II—deploying millions of soldiers in a futile attempt to win a conflict that cannot be won.
…
Kennedy appreciated MacArthur’s soothing judgment on Cuba (and would soon change the military’s top leadership—perhaps in keeping with MacArthur’s views), but then shifted the subject to Laos and Vietnam, where communist insurgencies were gaining strength. The Congress, he added, was pressuring him to deploy U.S. troops in response. MacArthur disagreed vehemently: “Anyone wanting to commit ground troops to Asia should have his head examined,” he said. That same day, Kennedy memorialized what MacArthur told him: “MacArthur believes it would be a mistake to fight in Laos,” he wrote in a memorandum of the meeting, adding, “He thinks our line should be Japan, Formosa, and the Philippines.” MacArthur’s warning about fighting in Asia impressed Kennedy, who repeated it in the months ahead and especially whenever military leaders urged him to take action. “Well now,” the young president would say in his lilting New England twang, “you gentlemen, you go back and convince General MacArthur, then I’ll be convinced.” So it is that MacArthur’s warning (which has come down to us as “never get involved in a land war in Asia”), entered American lore as a kind of Nicene Creed of military wisdom—unquestioned, repeated, fundamental.
On Diplomacy: The United States Though Frightful, Is Not So Frightful
Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League
Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League
Brothers!
In the two revolutionary years of 1848-49 the League proved itself in two ways. First, its members everywhere involved themselves energetically in the movement and stood in the front ranks of the only decisively revolutionary class, the proletariat, in the press, on the barricades and on the battlefields. The League further proved itself in that its understanding of the movement, as expressed in the circulars issued by the Congresses and the Central Committee of 1847 and in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, has been shown to be the only correct one, and the expectations expressed in these documents have been completely fulfilled. This previously only propagated by the League in secret, is now on everyone’s lips and is preached openly in the market place. At the same time, however, the formerly strong organization of the League has been considerably weakened. A large number of members who were directly involved in the movement thought that the time for secret societies was over and that public action alone was sufficient. The individual districts and communes allowed their connections with the Central Committee to weaken and gradually become dormant. So, while the democratic party, the party of the petty bourgeoisie, has become more and more organized in Germany, the workers’ party has lost its only firm foothold, remaining organized at best in individual localities for local purposes; within the general movement it has consequently come under the complete domination and leadership of the petty-bourgeois democrats. This situation cannot be allowed to continue; the independence of the workers must be restored. The Central Committee recognized this necessity and it therefore sent an emissary, Joseph Moll, to Germany in the winter of 1848-9 to reorganize the League. Moll’s mission, however, failed to produce any lasting effect, partly because the German workers at that time had not enough experience and partly because it was interrupted by the insurrection last May. Moll himself took up arms, joined the Baden-Palatinate army and fell on 29 June in the battle of the River Murg. The League lost in him one of the oldest, most active and most reliable members, who had been involved in all the Congresses and Central Committees and had earlier conducted a series of missions with great success. Since the defeat of the German and French revolutionary parties in July 1849, almost all the members of the Central Committee have reassembled in London: they have replenished their numbers with new revolutionary forces and set about reorganizing the League with renewed zeal
Maduro, an Expert in Defense and Counterattack
Maduro, an Expert in Defense and Counterattack
The parallel government strategy
One of the key maneuvers was the statement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, recognizing opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of the elections, openly contradicting the official result given by the only competent body in the matter, the National Electoral Council (CNE), which proclaimed Maduro the winner.
Faced with what appeared to be a repeat of the interim government of former lawmaker Juan Guaidó (who proclaimed himself president in 2019 and was endorsed by Washington, the European Union, and neighboring Latin American countries), Maduro launched a torpedo at the imperial waterline: if the U.S. does not recognize his victory, the energy contracts awarded to U.S. companies will be handed over to companies from the BRICS group, which Venezuela is hoping to join soon.
They need to throw out the Gene Sharp playbook.
Related:
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government – from Gene Sharpe’s “198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION”
Guarimba is a ‘protest method’ devised by Venezuelan opposition member, Robert Alonso (who collaborated with the CIA to train terrorists). It was ‘inspired’ by Gene Sharp’s book, From Dictatorship to Democracy (see my ‘front organizations’ page for more on Sharp).
As predicted: violence by the far-right Venezuelan opposition breaks out across Caracas
The Lithium Cabal Defeated in Bolivia, But Winning in Serbia
A famous person (was it Karl Marx?) once remarked that when history repeats itself, the first time it is a tragedy, the second time a farce. Many of Marx’s important predictions may not have come to fruition exactly as he wanted, but on this one he was spot on.
The Lithium Cabal Defeated in Bolivia, But Winning in Serbia
Israel is now killing Palestinians in Gaza by starvation–media downplaying this are complicit in these preventable deaths.
March 10, 2024, RT.com
*(blog title updated from original published; blog version slightly longer)
-Eva Karene Bartlett
Following the February 29 Israeli slaughter of at least 115 starving Palestinians lined up for food aid, there was little or no outrage by the same Western media which would have howled if the perpetrator were Russia or Syria.
Washington’s Use and Abuse of the Philippines Takes Next Step
The United States has taken yet another step toward shaping the Southeast Asian archipelago nation of the Philippines into an Ukraine-style proxy with which to encircle and contain China, this time in the form of a $500 million military assistance package for Manila.
Washington’s Use and Abuse of the Philippines Takes Next Step
US gov’t-linked firm is source of exit poll claiming Venezuelan opposition won election
Venezuela’s opposition and US media outlets claim there was fraud in the July 28 election based on an exit poll done by US government-linked firm Edison Research, which works with CIA-linked US state propaganda organs and was active in Ukraine, Georgia, and Iraq.
US gov’t-linked firm is source of exit poll claiming Venezuelan opposition won election
Related:
The US government funds election observers and exit polls for regime change
All of my recent posts about the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election are linked below:
As predicted: violence by the far-right Venezuelan opposition breaks out across Caracas
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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