> via Armenia, Egypt, and China via netting agreements
Nobody argues alternatives don't exist. Russia will pivot to China.
But for all our gripes with Beijing, they're a more rational regime than Putin's. (See: North Korea.) Russia being their vassal is better than the nonsense they are today. And China's systems are more expensive than SWIFT, which will reduce Russia's proceeds.
China’s reaction to this crisis has elucidated for me the fact that its government is a complex institution with separate power bases (cf. Putin’s lonely autocracy).
It’s clear that at least some of those nodes earnestly hold the principle of always-sacrosanct sovereignty which is a cornerstone of China’s foreign policy (and of its criticism of the West), and are not pleased with the hypocrisy now inherent in their alliance.
I use the Waking Up app. I don’t know if it meets the “proven claims” standard, but it presents a very intuitive framework. You are simply taking to time to notice the phenomenon of consciousness; the more time you spend in this state, the more nuanced it will become; and a guided meditation helps you stay on the tracks, so to speak, so that a fluency like that of language can develop naturally. I would be put off by anything more esoteric than Sam’s methodology.
