Unless you’re one of them there coincidence theorists, you might suspect co-ordinated effort to capitalise on Bondi Beach to delegitimise protest at Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Several of my posts – here and here and here and here – since Sunday have in different ways warned of precisely that. Rocket science it ain’t. Today’s post by Caitlin Johnstone adds its own two pen’orth by noting a planet-wide Zionist and empire chorus targeting the phrase, globalize the intifada.
Meanwhile as the hub of said empire does murder and piracy in the Caribbean in the name of a War on Drugs no one with their head screwed on is buying, Washington seems yet again to be overplaying its hand. In a world fast transitioning from US suzerainty to multiple power centres, is the Monroe Doctrine going the way of Paul Wolfowitz’s Project for a New American Century?
Two bold answers, each around ten minutes, assess the hand China is holding as the US seeks, after twenty-six years of failed attempts at regime change in Caracas, to deliver a KO. The first, focusing on economic aspects, is by Piston Pundit, a car-anoraks site with a 173k following and a penchant for pronouncing on matters geopolitical.
The second, from Classified Defense Files, asks how China’s communications capability might co-ordinate Russian and Iranian defence systems, and concludes that the US would likely gain the upper hand in all out war so close to home, but the price would be militarily, economically and politically exorbitant. 1
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- Which begs the question of why, just because the second US president in a row to show clear signs of dementia might want Maduro’s scalp and MAGA be damned, a ruling class for whom that would be nice but not at any price would allow it. See Venezuela: follow through or dial down?
Vis-à-vis that Caitlin Johnstone piece:
The UK has already moved to make the phrase an arrestable offence. Here’s the Met and Manchester Police joint statement of 17/12/25:
https://news.met.police.uk/news/joint-statement-from-the-commissioner-of-the-metropolitan-police-and-the-chief-constable-of-greater-manchester-police-504494
“The words and chants used, especially in protests, matter and have real world consequences. We have consistently been advised by the CPS that many of the phrases causing fear in Jewish communities don’t meet prosecution thresholds. Now, in the escalating threat context, we will recalibrate to be more assertive.
We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as “globalise the intifada” and those using it at future protest or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action. Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed – words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests.
Frontline officers will be briefed on this enhanced approach. We will also use powers under the Public Order Act, including conditions around London synagogues during services.
Visible patrols and protective security measures around synagogues, schools, and community venues have been stepped up in London and Greater Manchester. We are intensifying investigations into hate crime, and Counter Terrorism Policing continues to operate 24/7 to identify and disrupt threats.”
The UK Government has already set the tone, as reported on the Canary:
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/12/17/globalise-the-intifada-is-now/
“I’ve ordered a review of protest and hate crime laws to stop protests breeding hatred. We’re looking at new police powers to deal with repeat and targeted protests, and we’ve launched a review and training to tackle antisemitism in the NHS.”
– Kier Starmer
Meanwhile, even an NHS doctor is arrested at a vigal for a hunger striker close to death:
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/12/17/zarah-sultana-hunger-strike-prisoner/
See Jonathan Cook’s open letter to Met Chief Sir Mark Rowley: “let me tell you what ‘globalise the intifada’ means …”
I must admit to grinning with satisfaction at China’s perfectly balanced response to the US swagger and bluff in placing the USS Gerald Ford and the 12,000 US troops it carried in what is now a very humiliating situation.
China builds twice as many ships as the US every year and now has the ability to a) spoil US plans to regime change in Caracas and b) kiss goodbye to Venezuela’s oil (and probably its rare earth mineral wealth as well) and c) China can now use its own ships to escort its own oil from Venezuela to its own country – or anywhere it pleases and it really would be suicidal of the US to try and thieve China’s oil via piracy on the high seas.
Trump went to town on Biden’s (Saigon humiliation) of Afghanistan, so I wonder how he will (mis)represent his climb down of his much bragged about intended war on Venezuela? Surely the ADS hampered braggart currently acting as POTUS can’t be that short sighted…..can he?
I’d say the bigger question – see my updated footnote 1 – is whether America’s real rulers would allow it.
You and me both, Susan. Especially since he can’t assume east coast media will help him out. But he welshed on that clueless promise to his MAGA base, and to the liberals who’d fled Biden/Harris and brought their votes with them, of a 24 hour end to “Biden’s war” in Ukraine. He’ll come up with something, and believe it the moment it leaves his lips.
Trump, like too many of his compatriots, talks a good fight.
And as Simplicius, among many others, details……..
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/trump-announces-full-naval-blockade
……..Trump’s most recent “truthsocial” (sic) post announcing a ‘full naval blockade’ of Venezuela and the embedded videos of him declaring that the US wants “its” oil and land back and intends to take it by force of arms does not leave much in the way of wriggle room in terms of a climb down.
Even in the factional disjointed context of Washington Beltway and White House Administration, it seems barely credible that Trump was/is unaware and kept in the dark about the significance of the downsides for following through on those bellicose written and verbal declarations before they were written/uttered.
Whilst it is certainly tempting to dismiss this as more of the usual bloviating hot air from Trump, which we have become almost blase about, serious consideration of this representing a marker being put down on the newly announced Trump version of the Munroe Doctrine contained in the recently released NSS (National Security Strategy) Document should not be lightly dismissed.
Should it be the case that the legendary ‘blue touch paper’ has indeed been lit we could be in for an interesting Christmas and New Year break?
“China builds twice as many ships as the US every year and now has the ability to a) spoil US plans to regime change in Caracas and b) kiss goodbye to Venezuela’s oil (and probably its rare earth mineral wealth as well) and c) China can now use its own ships to escort its own oil from Venezuela to its own country – or anywhere it pleases . . .”
True, and in most ways they are now years ahead of, and outnumbering the US, but the question is – is it part of any Chinese plan (and I am sure they have various plans), to confront the US? Do Chinese plans involve a stand-up fight with the US right now? Do they plan for such a confrontation later (when?), when they will be much stronger and the US much weaker? Does China just plan to win without fighting by outlasting the US, taking punishment in the meantime? So far they have swallowed the bombing of their Embassy in Belgrade, the recent seizure of a ship carrying Chinese goods, and numerous provocations in the China Sea. Do they have ‘red lines’? No-one knows except Xi and co., and they are not telling.
However – sign of the times: “the U.S. Navy and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy reportedly engaged in intensive electronic warfare battles in the area . . . as a result American warships “faced an unprecedented crisis—screens full of static and a total loss of GPS signals,” with the fleet withdrawing due to the serious disruption of communication and navigation capabilities.”
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/navies-electronic-warfare-battles-philippines
No one can know these things for sure but there’s a consensus that China’s arms spend is focused on defence, to the point where Pentagon war gaming shows that even with US bases in the Philippines, and
vassalsallies like Korea and Japan, an attack on China on the latter’s home turf, over Taiwan say, would lead to catastrophic defeat for the US.But China, Russia and Iran, unlike the US, have never sought the means – such as 800 military bases across the planet, and outspending (however inefficiently) the next eight nations on its profit-bloated military industrial complex – of projecting power beyond their own neighbourhoods. This reality implicitly informs the conclusion of my second video short: while the US could probably defeat Venezuela, the costs would be politically explosive. Unless its ruling class is so paralysed by division and panic – and I don’t rule that out – neither Trump nor the Lindsey Grahams will be allowed to have their way.