It's time to buckle up, because the post-WW2 and Cold War systems no longer suit the global order...

Humanity has been gripped by a frenzy. The political and military crisis in Europe has captured everyone's attention, but in global terms it's only part of a larger picture. The tensions over Ukraine, and even the wider conflict concerning post-Cold War European security, are elements (but not the core reasons) behind a major shift.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping parted company with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, it was no coincidence that he remarked that the changes now taking place are the biggest in a century. A hundred years ago, the old world was fast disappearing. Empires were crumbling, the structure of societies was changing, and old ideologies were being radicalized in an attempt to meet people's needs or point them in the right direction. Two World Wars, a global economic crisis, the resurgence of all sorts of local conflicts, and social experiments - that were generally very costly for the people - were all signs of the very changes the Chinese leader was recalling. No one wants to go through that again. Still, there is hope that certain constraints have emerged in recent decades that will prevent extremes - from nuclear weapons to the ability to respond more flexibly to socio-economic upheavals.

In recent days, the news has seemed to confirm the seriousness of the tensions. Germany saw its biggest strike for decades, with transport workers protesting against worsening conditions. France is on fire after the government decided to raise the retirement age, bypassing a parliamentary vote as the reform failed to win a majority. In Israel, a violent confrontation has erupted over the cabinet's intention to curb the powers of the judiciary, which its opponents see as a coup attempt.

It is clear that each of these events has its own circumstances and that there is no direct link between them. What they have in common is that they are all manifestations of a painful socio-political transformation.

The Lockdown Files have dished up a curious exchange among Britain's top policy advisers in early 2020. On 29 February, responding to a WhatsApp message from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings that Israeli scientists were just weeks away from developing a Covid vaccine and if this was credible, Chief Scientist Sir Patrick Vallance replied "Short answer is no."

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty explained:

"For a disease with a low (for the sake of argument 1%) mortality a vaccine has to be very safe so the safety studies can't be shortcut. So important for the long run."

England's highest mortality rate was in April 2020 at 0.6 percent, falling to 0.55 percent in January 2021 and 0.04 percent by January 2023.

Based on the original Phase 3 trial data, Bart Classen showed as early as August 2021:

"Results prove that none of the vaccines provide a health benefit and all pivotal trials show a statically significant increase in 'all cause severe morbidity' in the vaccinated group compared to the placebo group."

This is nicely book-ended by a recent (16 March) CDC report showing US maternal mortality jumped to 1,205 in 2021 compared with 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., broke from his Senate GOP colleagues on Tuesday over their opposition to TikTok, arguing that banning the popular social media app "goes against the First Amendment."

Paul told Fox News Digital:

"I think it's a really bad idea. And people need to ask themselves, 'Why does the Chinese government ban TikTok, and do we want to emulate the Chinese government?' So, I think it's a mistake. If you ban a social media platform, you know, I don't know if you get any clearer that that goes against the First Amendment."

There are currently two bipartisan Senate bills aimed at banning TikTok, a video app that exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic but has raised alarms over its connection to the Chinese Communist Party.

"Reading all the 2016 warnings from the Normalcy Guardians and self-professed Democracy Protectors about how there's literally nothing more corrupt or dangerous than craving the prosecution of your political opponent — especially for trivial crimes — is really quite something." — Glenn Greenwald

The New York Times enjoyed its long-delayed tantric Trumpgasm so much today that it rolled out the full-page banner headline format usually reserved for the commencement of world wars. (They took the banner down before seven o'clock this morning.) For many of the cat-ladies employed as "reporters" at the once-august paper, it was the first Trumpgasm they've ever experienced in a lifetime of emotional displacement, over-eating, and furious knitting of pink polyester hats for the crusade to root out patriarchal wickedness.

This fulfillment of a years-long psychodrama, starring the feared and loathed occult persona of a gold-coiffed "Daddy" figure who once presided in the political household, came at the hands of dragon-slayer Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, archetype of the many long-oppressed victims worked to death in the bilges of our slave ship of state — now turned righteous Woke deliverer of cosmic vengeance!

The US banking system is broken, stresses The Asia Times. That doesn't portend more high-profile failures like Credit Suisse. The central banks will keep moribund institutions on life support.

But the era of dollar-based reserves and floating exchange rates that began on August 15, 1971, when the US severed the link between the dollar and gold, is coming to an end. The pain will be transferred from the banks to the real economy, which will starve for credit.

And the geopolitical consequences will be enormous. The seize-up of dollar credit will accelerate the shift to a multipolar reserve system, with advantage to China's yuan as a competitor to the dollar.

Gold, the "barbarous relic" abhorred by John Maynard Keynes, will play a bigger role because the dollar banking system is dysfunctional, and no other currency — surely not the tightly-controlled yuan — can replace it. Now at an all-time record price of US$2,000 an ounce, gold is likely to rise further.

The greatest danger to dollar hegemony and the strategic power that it imparts to Washington is not China's ambition to expand the international role of the yuan.

This crisis is utterly unlike 2008, when banks levered up trillions of dollars of dodgy assets based on "liar's loans" to homeowners. Fifteen years ago, the credit quality of the banking system was rotten and leverage was out of control. Bank credit quality today is the best in a generation. The crisis stems from the now-impossible task of financing America's ever-expanding foreign debt.

Metropolitan Pavel, Abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, is suspected of supporting Russia's actions during the conflict

The leader of Ukraine's largest Orthodox Christian monastery has said he is under house arrest, marking the latest twist in Kiev's religious crackdown. Metropolitan Pavel (secular name Pyotr Lebed), a senior bishop in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), is suspected of inciting religious tensions.

The cleric, who has served as abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra since 1994, told reporters about his arrest on Saturday, in a video released by the Ukrainian news network Vesti.

Meanwhile the SBU, Ukraine's domestic security service, claimed in a statement that it "had collected well-founded evidence" that the bishop was "inciting inter-religious enmity" and "justifying Russia's aggression." The two potential charges carry prison sentences of up to eight years and three years, respectively.

Ukraine's Western backers have of late expressed more and more skepticism over the future success of the war effort against Russia. This doubt grew louder and more public starting two weeks ago, when Czech President Petr Pavel said in an interview with Polish media that the window is closing on a major new Ukrainian counteroffensive. He then acknowledged that his country may not be able to maintain current levels of assistance to Kiev.

"The window of opportunity is open this year. After next winter, it will be extremely difficult to maintain the current level of assistance," Pavel was quoted as saying. "War fatigue is not only the exhaustion of human resources and equipment, the destruction of infrastructure in Ukraine, but also fatigue in the countries that provide aid."

This week another small central European country has echoed the same. Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová said at a foreign policy event that Slovakia is "morally and financially exhausted" after more than a year of support given to Ukraine, and as war refugees pour in.

Protesters called for an assault weapon ban in the wake of the mass shooting.

Three Democratic lawmakers in the Tennessee state House joined pro-gun control protesters who invaded the state capitol following the tragic Monday shooting in Nashville.

Chants of "no justice, no peace" and "save our children" echoed through the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber as pro-gun control protesters posted up both inside and outside the state capitol building.

Three Democrat state lawmakers — Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson — brought the Tennessee lower chamber to a halt when they joined in chanting with the protesters.

Speaking with Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he has "information" that proves Anthony Fauci is lying about being retired.

"There's a massive cover-up going on, and the lead in all of the cover-up has been Fauci," the Kentucky senator said.

"We now have information that he's still working for the government, even though he says he's retired," Sen. Paul added before claiming Fauci is working for the government out of fears he might be indicted.

US politics have gotten even raunchier with the country's first prosecution of a former president.

Just when one might have supposed that American politics couldn't get any trashier, New York City prosecutor Alvin Bragg and former President Donald Trump have proven that the nation hasn't yet reached the bottom.

The US political system now resembles a reality television show, and with Trump's indictment on Thursday by a Manhattan grand jury, viewers should cringe at how vulgar and obnoxious the program has become. In fact, if it were a scripted soap opera, it would be too unbelievable and tacky for daytime TV audiences.

Consider the story line, which begins with a $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star, stage-named Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence on allegations of an affair with the Republican Party's leading presidential candidate. Then you have the boisterous defendant, a former reality TV star who has been divorced twice and is currently married to an ex-model 24 years his junior. And don't forget Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who is financially backed by billionaire Democratic Party sugar daddy George Soros and is so far left that he's almost allergic to prosecuting alleged crimes - unless they involve self-defense or a Republican suspect.