Money?

For many years, gold was the only real currency. The British had a gold guinea and paper guineas, but one could always exchange a paper guinea for a gold guinea. The Germans had a gold mark. The US dollar, well, actually a US $20 bill could be exchanged for gold.

Then came WWI, and Germany lost, and had to hand over all German gold as war reparations, so the mark became worthless, and we heard many stories like the German who sold a home, put the marks from the sale of the home in the bank, and got a cheque for his deposit in the mail since the value was too small for an account, and the cheque was for less than the cost of the stamp on the envelope.

With all the German gold, the UK and French currencies could still be redeemed for gold, but then came WWII: France lost in 1940, and the French franc became almost worthless.

The UK won, but had spent so much on the war they could no longer redeem UK currency for gold, so the £ left the ranks of the Great Currencies.

But the US could still redeem US$35 for gold, so Bretton-Woods made the US$ the world Key Currency: Anyone not a US citizen or permanent resident could redeem US dollars for gold (US citizens were legally not allowed to own gold). The world used the US$ for international trade. Even the USSR  accumulated lots of US$ to use for international trade.

Until 1971, when President Nixon said the US would no longer redeem US dollars with gold, and the value of the US dollar fell, but not all that much, since the US$ remained (and remains) the World Key Currency, a fact the evil enemies of the US would like to fix. But those enemies of the US not only don't know what to do about the US$, they somehow remain restrained by Bretton-Woods even though the basis of Bretton-Woods was that the US$ was the only currency that could be redeemed for gold, which is no longer true, but the US$ still remains the world's only Key Currency (of course, as the US government spend $trillions more each year than they take in as income, Faith in the Dollar is not what it once was).

The many enemies of the US can scream all they want, but the US$ remains the Key Currency, even though it can no longer be redeemed for gold, but the US still control SWIFT, and the easiest way to do international trade is to use SWIFT and the US$, and since that is such a popular and useful system, the US weaponised it, and made it difficult for nations to do international trade without SWIFT and the US$.

So the evil Chinese and Russians are desperately looking for some way to create alternatives to SWIFT that are not controlled by the US.

If one reads US analysts, it will be impossible to create an alternative to SWIFT, because SWIFT is too entrenched in global trade.

If one reads Russian/Chinese/Iranian sources, an alternative to SWIFT is coming 'very soon now'. 

Who's Winning?????

If one reads the US/UK/EU mainstream media, Russia are being destroyed by the plucky Ukrainians who have managed to build themselves materiel entirely from Ukrainian material and are now striking deep into Russia, killing those evil Russians, destroying Russian industry and oil production and Wildberries stores, and the Russians can only murder civilians, which does nothing to impede the Ukrainian military effort.

'But aren't the Russians military making progress against the Ukrainian military?' those who never follow the mainstream media might ask, when those who read or watch or listen to the US/UK/EU mainstream media know the Russians are losing badly and will soon be totally destroyed, almost certainly before the end of 2022.

If one watches podcasts, presumably financed by the Kremlin, they'll tell you the Russians are winning, that the Russian attempt to blockade the Black Sea is succeeding, that the Ukraine are now landlocked and Kiev is on fire. But, if one sticks to the mainstream US/UK/EU media, all this is false, and total victory for the Ukrainians is rapidly approaching.

(It appears that many now prefer the podcasts for their news, since our respected elders who learned that CNN/BBC/France24/DW were the most reliable sources of news are rapidly retiring from this mortal coil.) 

Iran is a bit less clear. While the Iranians are all fanatical terrorists with only the most primitive of weapons, the mainstream media all know that Trump, the undisputed leader of the fight against the terrorist Iranian regime, is the worst president in the history of presidents, so he has managed to turn a simple, very easy total victory with return of the Shah and all the BP oil and gas into an embarrassing and totally unnecessary defeat.

Anyone could have kept the Strait open, but Trump managed to let the Iranians close it. Anyone could have easily reopened that Strait, but Trump, as only Trump could have done, has managed to mangle that reopening.

Of course, one must give Trump some credit. He did frequently say, 'I have reopened the Strait!' shortly after someone bought puts on oil, and also said, 'The Iranians have managed to close the Strait' shortly after someone bought calls. And he got a law passed that the Revenue Service can't check his taxes. So he did get one thing right, even if he got every other thing wrong, which is why Iran now has an Ayatollah, instead of a Shah, and control of the Strait until 2029 when the new president will very quickly get the Strait reopened and, we're all certain, will also bring the Shah back.

We're all expecting that the next President of the US, after taking office on 20 January 2029, will quickly bring victory for Ukraine and defeat for Russia and Iran, followed by making Taiwan the 51st state. 

What Next???

They polled all the Iranians in the US/UK/EU, and more than 90% said they want an Iran without any Ayatollahs, preferably under a Shah, and they would strongly support any effort to make that happen.

So Israel and the US have been trying to give the Iranians what more than 90% say they want, with help from the UK and EU.

On Friday, 13 June 2025, Israel sent drones to the homes of all the Iranian generals, killing all of them and their families, and also to the homes of all the professors of nuclear science, killing all of them and their families. Then, for about 9 days, Israel kept bombing Iran (from outside Iran, since Iran have anti-aircraft weapons), then said they needed help from the US, so Trump ordered a massive bombing campaign that totally destroyed all Iranian nuclear research and development facilities. And Iran retaliated by hitting the US military base in Qatar, but only after telling the US when and where they would hit the US military base in Qatar, so no Americans were injured and no American materièl was damaged.

Every decent person knows that the US and Israel always tell the TRVTH, the whole TRVTH, and nothing but the TRVTH, unless the TRVTH is Classified TS/SCI/NOFORN/BBR, in which case they can only give out the unclassified bits of the TRVTH. It appears Israel told the truth about getting rid of all the generals and nuclear physics professors, but every general had a 2nd in Command, and every professor also had a 2nd, so the 2nds took over for the generals and nuclear physics professors. The President of Iran was injured but not killed, and the Ayatollah wasn't home. Iran's attempts at retaliation all failed, since they used American GPS which was programmed to give wrong directions to the Iranians.

In December, 2025, the US Secretary of the Treasury went to all the computers that handle Iranian money and paid them to crash it: one day, it was worth enough to buy stuff, the next day it had a value of 0.000000 and no Iranian could buy anything. Many Iranians went into the streets to protest, and 40,000 good, pro-democracy fighters were sent into Iran with Starlink terminals. Sadly, some very evil nation gave the Iranian government some anti-Starlink devices that not only block Starlink, but also allow the Iranian government to track down and arrest all those with Starlink terminals.

Those peaceful protesters tried to bring freedom to Iran by killing police and the Iranian sheep who followed the government, and it is said that the evil Iranian government murdered more than 80,000 of them (when only 40,000 had Starlink and could be tracked and arrested, but we figure the evil Iranian government must have found and killed 80,000 of those peaceful, innocent protestors who did nothing wrong, after all, killing the evil Iranian police is clearly an attempt to bring freedom and prosperity to Iran, and those doing it can never be considered as anything but peaceful freedom fighters who only want peace and democracy).

In any case, the US have been trying since 1979 to eradicate the evil Iranian theocracy and bring freedom, peace, and the return of all BP assets to BP shareholders, and whatever the US do is the RIGHT THING, and must be done.

And all decent people hope the US will succeed this time in their project to make Iran a part of Greater Israel, since the Millennium cannot start until everything from the northernmost tip of the Euphrates to the southernmost tip of the Nile belongs to the good Zionists.

(Please don't get distracted by the original Hebrew that says Israel goes only as far south as the wadi, a Hebrew word that has nothing to do with a river.) 

Swiftly Losing Money

When the Shah was in charge of Iran, one could go to Iran with a Mastercard or Visa or any other major credit card or Traveler's Cheques and pretty much spend them, getting Iranian currency as change, and, upon leaving, one could change all Iranian currency back to the currency of wherever one was going next.

Then the Ayatollah took over, and the US cut Iran off from all International Finance. Anyone going to Iran had to bring US dollars, change them in Iranian currency at whatever rate Iran set, and probably be unable to change your Iranian currency back into some Internationally recognised currency when you left, because the US had complete control over all International Banking. The US built the system that allows money to move freely between nations, and so the US can cut off any nation they wish to cut off, and the US wish the Ayatollahs would go away and let the Shah come back, take over, and return all the BP oil that was stolen when the Ayatollah took over in 1979.

The two big countries where US bans the international money network that allows credit cards to work just about everywhere are Russia and Iran, but also countries like the DPRK, Cuba, Myanmar, Sudan, and a few others that have recently gone pro-US but the banking system hasn't been fully reintegrated, such as Venezuela.

But times are changing. The PRC want to trade with as many different countries as possible as easily as possible, and have set up banking networks independent of the US international monetary system (based in Belgium).

 Life is easier for those doing international transactions if one can use SWIFT, but, where there are great bargains banned by SWIFT, some are using some of the other systems, such as the PRC or the Russian system (I understand Iran now uses the PRC system to sell oil to the PRC and buy PRC manufactured products, and it makes these transactions fairly facile).

The US are determined to destroy any international monetary systems trying to compete with SWIFT, but the US are now playing against some rather large, powerful competitors, a game with which the US are not terribly familiar.

So, as of now, no one knows how this is going to turn out, but Iran and Russia are looking forward to finding out. 

Russia claims the Black Sea as a Russian Sea

After Victoria Nuland convinced the Aryans in the Ukraine to overthrow the government that was a mixture of Slavs, Aryans, and Jews and replace it with a government that was all Aryans in 2014, the new government applied to join NATO and said the Russian naval port in Crimea would become a NATO naval port.

Russia refused to accept this and moved the Crimea back into Russia, where it had been until it was moved from the Soviet Republic of Russia to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine  by Khrushchev in 1954.

NATO do not accept this and plan to move the Crimea back into NATO, where it obviously belongs. But not just yet.

The latest news is that, for some reason, President Putin declared that the Black Sea is now a Russian sea, and no Ukrainian boats are allowed to sail on it. The Ukraine had already declared the Black Sea a Ukrainian Sea, and this was accepted by NATO, and Russia were told to keep out and some Russian boats were attacked.

But, it seems, Russia are serious now, and no Ukrainian ships are sailing the Black Sea, so the Ukraine no longer have any way to ship anything in or out over the Black Sea (but the Ukraine did shell an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea).

So far, NATO haven't done anything, and there is no sign of any NATO ships heading in the direction of the Black Sea.

And the port of Odessa isn't getting any traffic taking Ukrainian produce out for sale or bringing anything in.

This seems like a fairly major development in the war. Along with the collapse of some Ukrainian defensive lines that have held strong since 2022. 

Prof. Doctorow, who has felt that Russia are losing the war, says it looks like the new and improved Russian strategy is turning things around.

Prof. Doctorow

The US/UK/EU mainstream media (TV/news'papers':, i.e., mostly online descendants of what were once ink stamped onto paper/radio/etc.) all agree that the Ukraine, making all their own weapons from non-weapon items bought for them by NATO, are easily defeating the Russians: I saw a map showing that, in the first days of the war, the Russian Army were around Kiev, giving them the overwhelming majority of the Ukraine, but the brave Ukrainian Army have forced the Russians back to less than 25% of the Ukraine, and the Russians also lost a Russian Oblast (since recaptured by the Russians, but likely to be retaken by the Ukrainians). So the Ukraine are obviously winning this war.

The Russians are losing 10 times as many soldiers as the Ukraine, and Russia only has less than 25% of the Ukraine while the Ukraine are striking deep into Russia, destroying homes, military facilities, energy production facilities, & etc., so Russia can no longer sell energy to the evil nations of the world willing to buy Russian energy in violation of International Law that says Russia are not allowed to sell anything to anyone, especially Russian energy resources.

There are some podcasters who keep saying Russia are winning in the Ukraine, that the mainstream media are all owned by a very few corporations who hope to profit from the destruction of Russia and distribution of all Russian wealth as war reparations, all going to people like the owners of those mainstream media, but these podcasters say that isn't really happening, the mainstream media just make it up in support of their self-interest.

One podcaster who says that the total destruction of Russia is likely to happen is Prof. Doctorow, who says Russia is afraid that, if they strike any NATO assets, NATO will respond by nuking Russia, and that is too high a price, so Russia will only use weapons they are approved to use by NATO, lower grade weapons, and Russia must not inflict too much damage on the Ukraine, while the Ukraine are free to destroy as much of Russia as they can manage with those 'Ukrainian built' weapons (made from parts that all come from NATO, including Starlink navigation to get the Ukrainian weapons to wherever they will do the most damage to Russia).

Prof. Doctorow says that NATO are doing massive damage to Russia, while Russia are afraid to use any but their least lethal weapons, and NATO are helping the Ukraine find and draft as many candidates for cannon fodder as they possibly can.

So NATO are throwing everything they have at Russia who are fighting with both their hands self-tied behind their back, and Russia cannot possibly win this way.

NATO, meanwhile, say all Russian energy, gold, and uranium are all NATO property, and will soon be confiscated, and Russia are afraid to object, and so are taking no steps to prevent NATO from taking all Russian assets to enrich the NATO leadership.

Prof Doctorow says he hopes Russia will wake up in time, since he is not fond of what NATO are doing, but the world, including Russia, seem too afraid of NATO to try to stop them or even slow them down a bit.

Prof Doctorow says that if Russia do not start fighting back with the full force of the Russian military, NATO will overwhelm them, and this is what seems to be happening, with no sign that Russia dare do anything to stop NATO.

It wasn't much in the mainstream media how Russia took the Crimea back in 2014 (this has happened before, and it wasn't reported much then, either, only the massive and unnecessary losses by the Light Brigade charging a fortified Russian artillery battery, but the British still defeated the Russians and won possession of the Crimea in 1856). But Doctorow says the Ukrainians have cut off energy and food to the Crimea so most Russians are leaving the Crimea and going back to Russia, all the roads and railways have been destroyed by the Ukrainians, so Crimea has been lost again, just as it was in 1856.

(The mainstream US/UK/EU media don't say much about the Crimea, and nor does Russian news, so I have no idea what the current situation really is.)

Sailboats

Humans have had sailboats for at least 10,000 years. Those sailboats could only sail in the same direction the wind was blowing, so if the winds were west winds, the boats could sail east (or they could lower their sails and travel in whatever direction they wanted to row, but galleys require lots of oarsmen, and oarsmen require lots of food and water, so not much space for cargo or paying passengers).

For fishermen if there was no storm, the winds are seaward at dawn and landward at dusk, so they can use the sails going out to catch fish and coming back home, maybe catching a few more fish as they sail homeward.

But the Vikings wanted to travel west when the North Atlantic winds were mostly west winds, so they lowered their sails and rowed. We know they made it to Canada, started a small colony, and then all died out. Likewise in Greenland. Iceland was close enough they could carry enough stuff (including women, of course) to set up a colony that remains to this day in Iceland, but Iceland was about as far west as those old ships, mostly moved by oarsmen, could travel and set up permanent colonies.

Until the 15th century, when some Italian came up with a ship that could sail into the wind: with a west wind, the ship could sail south-southwest by south or north-northwest by north, and, by sailing between south-southwest by south and north-northwest by north, the ship could tack her way westward into a west wind.

However, no rich and powerful people in Italy had any desire to sail west, they wanted to sail east to fight the Ottomans (and claim all the Ottoman treasures for Christians who G_d wanted to have all those treasures), and when an Italian begged for a ship to sail west, he was refused.

And then the Spanish royalty threw a huge party in 1492 to celebrate the total defeat of Islam in Spain, and when that Italian asked for money to buy one ship, they gave him enough for three ships, and the Europeans began colonising the rest of the world (and figured G_d must have wanted them to do so).

Those sailing ships allowed Europeans to colonise just about the entire world, and also allowed Europeans to have huge naval wars over which European power would have which colony. And, of course, the colonists in the Americas/Western Hemisphere mostly declared independence from their European Imperial masters, and, logistics being what they are, mostly succeeded, with a few minor exceptions.

The US of A started as a British colony, declared independence, won, and then, in 1823, condemned colonialism for 75 years, until someone said no nation can be a Great Nation without colonies, so, in 1898, the US declared war on Spain based on the lie that Spain had attacked the US, and took over just about all of the Spanish colonies. Many in the US decided they hated being Imperialists and demanded that the US 'free' the colonies and make them into neo-colonies, with a faux 'Independent Government' that is entirely run from the US. Of course, a few of those neo-colonies refused 'independence' and remain colonies, and, after most of Cuba was made into a neo-colony, a small part remains a US colony/military base and prison, and the rest, with Soviet support, moved from an American neo-colony to a Soviet neo-colony to a state forced into poverty by harsh US sanctions (and, the US hope, will return to the kind of US neo-colony it was in 1955, with lots of resorts for US tourists, and lots of sugar and tobacco farms owned by US companies).

But the US have returned from a significant Imperial Power into an insignificant Imperial Power, with most of the US vassal states nominally 'Independent States' (with governments who always do what the US leadership order them to do, or else, are maybe killed, or maybe sentenced, like Noriega, to Life in the lowest basement of a US Federal Prison).

So now we're all hoping that All will soon for the Best, in this, the Best of All Possible Worlds (thanks to the brilliant American leadership of just about all the nominally independent governments of the entire world).