It’s often said that God can draw straight with crooked lines.
And He can bring greater good out of even the worst evil.
By any measure, a government that cracks down on religious dissidents, outlaws church attendance, and indoctrinates kids into the ruling party’s demonic ideology meets the criteria for “evil”.
But enough about the United States.
China and Russia are pretty bad, too.
So were the ancient Babylonians, Persians, and Romans. Yet God used them to chastise and even liberate His people.
We must always remember that divine punishments are also divine gifts, for the son God acknowledges, He also chastises.
And going by the recent series of agreements involving China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, the US dollar is about to be taken behind the woodshed.
Russia is ready to increase settlements in yuan in its foreign trade, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday during talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who is in Moscow on a three-day official visit.
“We are for the use of Chinese yuan in settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I am sure that these forms of settlements in yuan will be developed between Russian partners and their counterparts in third countries,” Putin said.
Two thirds of current trade between Moscow and Beijing is carried out in national currencies – the yuan and the ruble, the Russian president noted.
China’s trade with Russia hit a record high in 2022, growing by nearly a third amid Western sanctions against Moscow. Bilateral trade is on pace to hit over $200 billion this year.
The latest data from the Bank of Russia shows the yuan has become a major player in Russia’s foreign trade, with its share in the country’s import settlements jumping to 23% by the end of last year from only 4% in January 2022. The yuan’s share in export settlements also surged, from 0.5% to 16%.
In case you didn’t know, America’s superpower status relies on the dollar being the world’s reserve currency. The dollar is the world’s reserve currency because the US sends its military to crush any nation that won’t play ball, and thanks to deals America has with OPEC countries to only accept oil payments in USD.
Sorry, make that “deals America had.”
“It is important that national currencies are increasingly used in mutual trade. This practice should be further encouraged, and the mutual presence of financial and banking structures in the markets of our countries should be expanded,” Putin added.
Meanwhile, the share of the US dollar and euro in Russia’s export settlements last year dropped substantially, from 65% in January 2022 to 46% in December.
In February, the Chinese currency overtook the dollar as the most traded currency on the Russian stock market for the first time ever, according to data from the Moscow Exchange.
In short, China is pulling a jiu-jitsu move (yes, I know that’s Japanese; bear with me) to use America’s greatest strength – her military – against her, courting nations who are tired of being intimidated by the ever more erratic US regime.
And it’s working.
We’re seeing the US-dominated monopolar order break up as BRICS nations ditch the dollar.
Speaking of grave evils, let’s talk about war for a minute.
However you look at it, war is always a dirty business which theologians agree is only justified under the narrowest set of conditions.
In fact, many just war theorists question whether any war using modern weapons could be justified.
I’ll leave that debate to them, but it’s clear that the current war in Eurasia is a sorrowful offense against the common good.
Now, before we go pointing fingers, keep in mind that while launching a war of aggression violates just war conditions, so does exacerbating conflict and thwarting peace overtures.
Thankfully, Americans have begun taking the plank out of their own eye in regard to wars of choice.
Guess who else called that one.
It’s almost like some kind of charism being exercised …
Anyway, it’s hard not to see a providential hand shaping the fallout from the past 20 years of global conflicts.
The Afghanistan debacle will be seen as an inflection point that helped convince nations like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China that the US is a paper tiger.
And those nations are turning NATO’s prolonging of the current war into propaganda against US hegemony.
Effective propaganda
“So you’re saying that Chinese tanks are gonna be rolling through Washington!?”
No, that’s Western counterpropaganda on the level of “Russia hacked the election!!1!”
We won’t get Red Dawn or Mad Max.
Instead, the next 10-20 years will better resemble the future from Looper, minus the invention of time travel.
The good news is that America’s current elite relies on US military power and dollar dominance to maintain their rule.
When the dollar goes, they’ll move on to greener pastures.
Americans will have our work cut out for us cleaning up the mess our rulers will leave in their wake. But it will be an invitation to learn self-reflection and grow in humility.
Our Founders never wanted America to be a world-policing empire. The only way out of the woods this wrong turn has taken us into is through.
See you on the other side.
For an action-packed look at what might await us on the other side of the collapse, read my hit mech adventure series:
