Far too many people on the center left and center right have bought into the idea that nations such as Russia or China are genuine enemies of the global system, and far too many people on the far left and far right have bought into the idea that these nations represent credible alternatives to the global system. While it is certainly true that the Washington-London-Brussels-Berlin-Tel Aviv-Riyadh axis is the real international ruling class, the Asian powers are merely backwater provinces in the global system that are occasionally unruly.

The major Asian nations like Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, etc., whether they are officially “allies” or “adversaries” of “the West” or not, are still just components within global capitalism. They may have large populations, and their nuclear weapons may make them impervious to invasion, but their real function within global capitalism is to provide cheap labor for Western corporations and cheap loans for Western governments. America’s national debt, for example, is bankrolled both by “allies” like Japan and Saudi Arabia and “adversaries” like Russia and China.

Nor it is helpful to criticize Zionist power without engaging in a parallel or even more vituperative criticism of Anglo power. Israel is more like California, New York or Texas in the sense of essentially being a province of the USA that has a lot of influence over the policies of the federal government and, by extension, foreign policy and international relations. The way to look at it is like this: Imagine if the USA had about 120 states rather than 50, with 30 more in Europe, and dozens more in the Middle East and East Asia, with Israel (along with Saudi Arabia) being among those states with the most influence, with the other Asian nations being territorial colonies of Western capital.

By Jeffrey Bartash

Market Watch

Who owns the huge and growing U.S. national debt? By and large, Americans.

Some 70% of the national debt is owned by domestic government, institutions investors and the Federal Reserve. A shade under 30% is owned by foreign entities, according to the latest information from the U.S. Treasury.

The nation’s debt climbed to a record $21.21 trillion at the end of June, a 6.9% increase from a year earlier.

American institutions such as private and state pension funds as well as individual investors were the biggest holders. They owned $6.89 trillion in debt and absorbed about four-fifths of the increase over the past year.

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