US DEEP STATE HUMILIATED AT ASEAN CONFERENCE

      The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) concluded on Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia. Likely haunted by disturbing memories of his former boss' experiences at ASEAN, Head-of-State Biden delegated representation to his flunky, Kamala Harris. At least Harris and her entourage were spared some of the indignities that previous US delegations received in the East; but despite this, Kamala managed to leave the Summit empty-handed while other regional nations came away with trade deals and other memoranda of cooperation. 

     Kamala arrived with Filipino makapili leader Ferdinand Marcos II, and Japan's nominal president, Fumio Kishida in tow. Marcos is under fire for intentionally grounding a Filipino ship on a Chinese-claimed islet; Kishida also has made himself deeply unpopular in the region, following his decision to release radioactive wastewater from Japan's failed Fukusihma Reactor into the Pacific Ocean. The President of Indonesia, who served as Chairman this year, cautioned members not to exacerbate regional disputes, saying that "We all have a responsibility to not create new conflict, new tension, new war and at the same time we also have a responsibility to reduce tensions." Kamala, of course, violated that precept from the first time she opened her mouth forward. 

      In reality, the US didn't offer the region much of anything other than a commitment to continue the Deep State's hegemonic claims. Kamala denounced the Burmese Government's campaign to suppress a Soros-backed rebellion which is tied to the international Heroin trade, and stirred up the territorial dispute between Indonesia and Timor. She announced the opening of a private-public partnership ASEAN Center in Washington, DC, as if this was supposed to impress anyone. The 'private' end of this arrangement is Arizona State University, an institution which is little more than a front for Corporate America and the Pentagon. ASU has received nearly a billion dollars of its bloated budget from corporations tied to Big Pharma and to exploitative labor practices in Southeast Asia. Recently, some local alumni pulled donations from ASU for its aggressive suppression of freedom of speech. ASU has been run with an iron hand for the last two decades by Michael M. Crow who, like many of his stripe, fancies himself among the elite vanguard qualified to transform the world. 

      Like most of the recent summits in this region, China stood out as the leader in development---mostly because, unlike the US, the Chinese could point to an actual record of tangible achievements. One of the most striking contrasts came when Chinese Premier Li Qiang participated in a test-run of Indonesia's first high-speed rail line, which is scheduled to open October 1st.

     The Jakarta-Bandung Rail Line links two of the most populated cities in Indonesia, reducing a three-hour commute to 40 minutes. The US has no high-speed rail lines in contrast, and our outdated Amtrak passenger-rail system is riddled with crime and frequent accidents. The Indonesian project was financed by China at a cost of $7.3 billion: a fraction of what our Military-Industrial Complex dumps on Taiwan or maintaining our unwanted presence in the South China Sea. Amtrak currently has a repair backlog of over $45 billion and experiences annually over 5,000 hours of commuter delays due to repair-related issues. 

    China itself has a sophisticated high-speed rail system and is adding new lines with regularity. Indonesia is not the first country in which China has invested rail technology; much of Indonesia's decision was based upon the highly-successful China-Laos Railway. Thailand and Cambodia are also working with China to create a spur which will feed into the China-Laos Line. 

     The reason that the US is losing to China isn't complex. The reason is, flatly speaking, because we have nothing to offer. The Chinese offer goods and services that other countries need in fair exchange for goods and services that China needs. The US offers military support for unpopular governments in exchange for exporting our cultural rot and importing resources at the expense of foreign labor and mass-unemployment and inflation in our own country. China talks about the need to expand cooperation as the world grows; our leaders talk of depopulating the planet so that more resources are available to the self-appointed 'elite.' 

    The people of Southeast Asia aren't buying into the exceptionalist malarkey any longer. The results of the two approaches have become apparent for anyone---other than the dumbed-down, doped-up American population---to see. Freight disasters like the recent East Palestine incident and violent crime and deteriorating conditions on Amtrak will continue, and Ameroboobs will accept it as another New Normal.