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October 25, 2015
Open Thread 2015-39
Comments
@fairleft #62
Law and Justice is practicing identity politics, just not the postmoddernist western “liberal” version. They’re practicing the Polish equivalent of the Pat Buchanan – Donald Trump version. There’s a line between progressive sounding economic self-determination and atavistic xenophobia. They cross it.
Posted by: Thirdeye | Oct 26 2015 20:55 utc | 102
“Anti-Democratic presidential terrorist of Prtugal – who should be arrested and imprisoned for violation of fundamental human principles – denies Portugal election results where the “left” wins power.”
I was as outraged as you seem to be when I first read this but it is not an accurate framing of what is actually going on in Portugal. Your quote is based on the comments of one person in the ruling government and his comments are qualified…”if it were up to him and according to the law”…which it may not be depending on what happens from here.
The reality is that a coalition government must form first from the minority vote-getters and then they would have a challenge to the current ruling party, but if they don’t form a coalition (and that isn’t a slam-dunk) then the argument remains moot.
We have to wait and see what happens.
Posted by: paulmeli | Oct 26 2015 21:10 utc | 103
This might slow ISIS down a bit…
“Five Saudis, reportedly including a prince, were detained at Beirut’s airport after two tonnes of pills branded as Captagon were found in cases due to be loaded onto a private jet.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34640310
Posted by: dh | Oct 26 2015 22:34 utc | 104
@juliania (previous Open Thread #103):
Thanks for your reply and explanation. Yes, that makes sense to me, that Father Zosima was expressing an Orthodox idea rather than a conservative German one.
Your remark about the “moment when eternity entered time” is very interesting.`That perhaps gives me a better entry point into Orthodoxy than anything else you have written. Orthodoxy will always be of interest to me, because I am more convinced than ever that Luther got Western Christianity right. In other words, other than early Lutheranism, my only interest in Christianity now is in Russian Orthodoxy. And for me personally, Lutheranism ended with Hegel (unless I change my mind in a really big way), so that makes Orthodoxy even more interesting. There will never be an Orthodox Hegel!
By the way, Kierkegaard, whom you mention, was another thinker whose thought was a reaction to Hegel. He thought that Hegel’s system obscures – and hence does not do enough justice to – the particularity of the individual.
Blues at 60 –
“Historical fact? Disinformation? What’s the difference?”
I thought you knew the difference, you seemed to want to lecture me on it. Your secret decoder ring that reveals all suddenly on the fritz?
the lameass wanker dahoit at 92
Don’t get upset, they’re just a subset of humans. It’s not like I’m labelling all dahoits that, right?
Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 26 2015 23:36 utc | 106
There’s a line between progressive sounding economic self-determination and atavistic xenophobia. They cross it.
Posted by: Thirdeye | Oct 26, 2015 4:55:59 PM | 102
It’s not “progressive sounding,” it’s progressive. Xenophobia is right-wing, their economic measures are progressive/left-wing. Neither cancels out the other. I think their economic proposals and seeming general state-led approach would be very beneficial to average Poles if followed through on. It is very important for Poles to pressure them to do so.
Posted by: fairleft | Oct 27 2015 3:25 utc | 108
@fairleft #108:
They’ve got to be doing something right, if the Guardian is slinging mud at them:
Russia Insider:
The Guardian Takes a Day Off From Russia Bashing to Slam Poland
No love lost between the Empire’s two Trojan horses in the EU.
Old news: Australian-owned shipbuilder Austal has been invited to talk with the Royal Saudi Naval Force about plans for the recapitalisation of its Eastern Fleet, chief executive Andrew Bellamy has disclosed to IHS Jane’s .
Speaking during a visit to Austal’s Mobile, Alabama, facilities for the christening on 13 June of USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), the third of 10 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) being constructing there for the US Navy under a USD3.5 billion contract, Bellamy suggested the Saudis were leaning towards the same type of vessel.
======
More recent news are “Despite Dismal Human Right Record, USA approves $11.25 Billion Warship Sale to Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon has notified Congress of a planned sale to Saudi Arabia of as many as four Littoral Combat Ships made by Lockheed Martin Corp. for $11.25 billion, as the U.S. works to bolster defenses of its Gulf allies after the nuclear deal with Iran.” Weep and wail, my little Austal. Instead of el cheapo Australian design for backward outfits like US Coast Guard, mere 350 M dollars a piece, the Kingdom gets EIGHT times more expensive treasure ships from Lockheed Martin. Honestly, even MY probity has some limits. If I could get the ships for mere 1.4 billion and resale to Saudis for 11.25 billion, I could overlook not just some human rights violation (who is without a blemish or two?) but also brazen drug purchases (two tons in packages with the home address of a Saudi prince, son of another prince valued by Forbes as having 28 billion dollar fortune), totally brazen and tasteless abuse of domestic help (like peeing on three maids forced to lie down on the floor of LA mansion for the princely pleasure) etc. etc.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 27 2015 4:48 utc | 110
This is an interesting story …
Iran firms ditch Chinese for Europeans
In August, Deputy Petroleum Minister Abbas She’ri-Moqaddam didn’t mince his words when he said he preferred Japanese, European and even American investors to the Chinese.
Under an agreement, China uses Iran’s oil money, which Tehran cannot easily repatriate due to sanctions, to finance projects in the Middle Eastern country.
Former central bank governor and economy minister Tahmasb Mazaheri has said Iran often faced a myriad of problems to access its own funds in China.
“Project owners awaiting finance prefer not to get it from China because it is expensive due to high fees,” Shah-Daei said on Tuesday.
She said Chinese investors force clients to source 50-70% of equipment from the Asian country. “This is while we can get 70% of the equipment needed inside Iran.”
Iran’s petrochemical sector requires $70-80 billion of investment over the next decade, state officials have said.
Some Iranian petrochemical entities are currently in the process of receiving funds from Germany and Spain and “negotiations with respective foreign parties have been finalized, pending official removal of sanctions”, Shah-Daei said.
Where there’s smoke there’s fire? Or are these the Iranian Medvedevs’ “bitch briefs”?
Posted by: jfl | Oct 27 2015 13:00 utc | 111
Demian@105
I’m glad something I said made sense. We all approach the world store of knowledge from uniquely individual tracks – I’d agree with Kierkegaard on the particularity (even I’d say peculiarity) of the individual. Thank you, that’s helpful; I’ve puzzled over his telling of the Abraham/Isaac tale and just that bit of info helps. It’s why I think most folk (including Aristotle) don’t get Plato – the characters who people his dialogues aren’t there as props. Of course, the Greeks would have known that better than we do, just as the Russians have an ‘in’ on Dostoievski, Brits on Shakespeare, etc. Makes it hard for the rest of us, but we need a challenge, don’t we? (Darn those Babel-builders!)
Posted by: juliania | Oct 27 2015 16:02 utc | 112
Lone Wolf@49
On the subject of Valdai conversations, here is a good piece that is close to my heart. When my son graduated from the community college to which he is still in debt, the job he was promised turned out to be for a weapons manufacturing firm. To his credit he did not take it. Putin here asks the question I have been asking myself:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/27/putins-question-and-the-ambassadors-answer/
Posted by: juliania | Oct 27 2015 17:21 utc | 113
Anti-Israel Activism Criminalized in the Land of Charlie Hebdo and “Free Speech”
The individuals arrived at the supermarket wearing shirts emblazoned with the words: “Long live Palestine, boycott Israel.” They also handed out fliers that said that “buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza.”
In France — self-proclaimed Land of Liberté — doing that makes you a criminal. As The Forward reported, the court “cited the French republic’s law on Freedom of the Press, which prescribes imprisonment or a fine of up to $50,000 for parties that ‘provoke discrimination, hatred or violence toward a person or group of people on grounds of their origin, their belonging or their not belonging to an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a certain religion.’” Because BDS is inherently “discriminatory,” said the court, it is a crime to advocate it.
The French court ruling is part of a worldwide trend. As more and more people around the world recognize the criminal and brutal nature of the Israeli government, its loyalists have been increasingly trying literally to criminalize activism against the Israeli occupation.
Pascal Markowicz, chief lawyer of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, published this celebratory decree (emphasis in original): “BDS is ILLEGAL in France.” Statements advocating a boycott or sanctions, he added, “are completely illegal. If [BDS activists] say their freedom of expression has been violated, now France’s highest legal instance ruled otherwise.”
Echoing guest77’s question of the other day … what’s up with France? Speaking of Valdai, is the USA/CIA/NSA really blackmailing Hollande and the rest, as Vladimir Putin alleged was likely in his speech at the 11th Session of the Valdai Discussion Club?
Certainly the same forces are at work to criminalize criticism of Israel in the USA as in France, but why is France so much the willing dupe – acting as the socialist vanguard of the people? What about Voltaire, who was thrown up in all our faces along with Charlie Hebdo?
Once they’ve made criticism of Israel illegal … well you can imagine who’s next in the no-criticize zone … the USA, the KSA, …
Posted by: jfl | Oct 27 2015 21:46 utc | 114
Not to pick only on France …
Nord Stream-2: The Funeral of Transit Powers
“Strange as it may sound, direct gas deliveries from Russia to Germany under the Baltic sea do not contradict common EU energy policy, but support it. The gas that comes to Europe bypassing Ukraine, Belarus or other countries, comes to Germany — a country with high competence, free market. The gas can be supplied at competitive prices, including to Eastern Europe”, — said recently the President of Eurogas, Gertjan Lankhorst.
Lithuania, which a year ago had brought a mobile LNG terminal to Klaipeda, was surprised to find out that the gas from Norway is one and a half times more expensive than Russian. And even tried to adjust its contractual obligations. Even more surprised where the poles, who also acquired the LNG terminal — it turns out, the price of gas from Qatar is twice that of the hated “Gazprom”. Both countries have contracts for twenty years, which includes the principle of “take or pay”.
Recently a contract was signed for construction of a gas pipeline between Poland and Lithuania. The European Commission announced it a priority and has allocated 300 million euros. Presumably, in a few years Poland and Lithuania will have the opportunity to sell each other the surplus of expensive gas.
Is that why Merkel has been so steadfast in Ukraine? With friends like the Germans, Europeans need no enemies : the EU is a ying/yang, self-contained Unit.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 27 2015 21:49 utc | 115
Impressive refugee/migrant infographic
http://www.lucify.com/the-flow-towards-europe/
Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Oct 27 2015 23:47 utc | 116
jmckay,
*Your Consortium quote describes S. Korean actions>consequences, not US and you try and link with your rant. S. Korea had done very well on it’s own of late, thank you very much.*
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/10/two-prominent-promoters-of-the-syrian-revolution-give-up.html#c6a00d8341c640e53ef01b8d16d8ebd970c
apparently we got another china watcher here who never heard of the *asia pivot* 😉
or sk is another unitedsmake vassal like jp, ph..
or china is sk’s biggest market ?
beijing has warned sk repeatedly about the jeju base, its like a fucking dagger pointing at china’s heart.
now why’d sk wanna shoot itself in the foot by antagonisng china, its biggest market ?
the same way tokyo is shooting itself in the foot by picking fight with china, its biggestg market ,
the same reason why berlin is poking the bear !
ask washington !
* when I and several other Americans called the Korean Embassy in Washington to register our concerns, we all received similar versions of the same prepared response, “Don’t call us; call the U.S. State or Defense Departments; they are the ones who are pressuring us to build this base.”* [2]
so the state dept [1] called up seoul, *i want this base pronto and i dont give a fuck how u do it*
but when seoul resort to skulldruggeries, bribery , even violence to kick out farmers, fishermen from their ancestral homes to make way for the base,
jmkay says *its the sk govn who’s doing these shit, wtf has it gotta do with us* ?
the next thing we know u’d be telling us unitedsnake has nothing to do with the plight of the okinawans, hell its tokyo who’s doing the dirty work !
hehehe
[1]
see, the *state dept* is operating as another pentagoon, hehehe
[2]
http://fpif.org/naval_base_tears_apart_korean_village/
Posted by: denk | Oct 28 2015 2:01 utc | 117
117
sk goons kicking out grandpas, grandmas from their ancestral homes,
http://tinyurl.com/kbhzkny
meanwhile,
murcunt gulping down a pizza with coke, watching the drama behind three layers of barbed wires with disdain,
*It’s up to the Korean police to get them out of there,,I can’t see why they don’t get them out of there.*
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HE17Dg03.html
back home, murkkans watching the tube shake their heads at *sk brutality*, thats no way to
treat your grandpas, grandmas, you kook !
hehehehe
Posted by: denk | Oct 28 2015 4:34 utc | 118
US Senate approves controversial cyber security bill
The bill, aimed at bolstering the country’s cyber defenses, cleared the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 74-21 with strong bipartisan support.
The measure must be reconciled with two similar information-sharing measures that passed the US House of Representatives earlier this year.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, would expand liability protections to companies that choose to voluntarily share cyber threat data with the US government.
CISA 2015 is the NSA privatization act. When asked whether they approved or disapproved Adobe, Autodesk, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Symantec … Amazon, CloudFlare, Facebook, Google, Netflix, T-Mobile, and Yahoo! all said nuthin’. It’s clear which side they are on, the side that’s buttered. Google is said to have written the bill.
This bill applies not just to Americans but to everyone who uses … Amazon, Faceboo, Google, and/or Yahoo! … for instance.
It’s a done deal. It will only get worse in the conference. Everyday in everyway the TNCs assume more power over our lives and we are all that much more ground down and poorer for it.
This one was the big one, as far as worldwide spying and the worldwide dragnet go. All the info on Google and Facebook, for instance, will now be in the hands of the federal government. Legally, with the corporate criminal betrayal immunized by the criminal federal government of the United States of America.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 28 2015 7:00 utc | 119
The body of the first Russian soldier to die in Syria was returned to his parents with wounds inconsistent with the official version that he hanged himself, the serviceman’s uncle told a Russian newspaper on Wednesday.
“What is this stuff about him hanging himself?,” an unnamed man who described himself as the uncle of Vadim Kostenko told the Novaya Gazeta newspaper on the day of the dead serviceman’s funeral in his home village in southern Russia.
“He had a broken jaw and the back of his head was bashed in. And his neck was broken.” He also said his nephew’s nose was broken, the newspaper reported.
Kostenko, 19, one of the Russian air force’s support staff in Syria, on Tuesday became the first Russian serviceman to be confirmed dead in four weeks of air strikes there. The ministry of defense said he hanged himself because of problems in his personal life.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/28/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-death-idUSKCN0SM0R320151028
Posted by: okie farmer | Oct 28 2015 14:25 utc | 120
another UN success
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34657418
Posted by: Mina | Oct 28 2015 18:09 utc | 121
Russia Insider:
The Guardian Takes a Day Off From Russia Bashing to Slam Poland
No love lost between the Empire’s two Trojan horses in the EU.
Posted by: Demian | Oct 27, 2015 12:30:15 AM | 109
—————
Actually it was not such a bad article. Poles had a wide choice in the recent election: whacko, insane, insipid, mercenary, in different combinations. Whacko party won absolute majority, to the relief of some wise commentators because this avoided whacko + insane coalition. It is not like parties in more western countries are that much superior, but the combinations of slogans are very different in Poland, in particular, so-called Left was eliminated from the Diet in part because so-called Right Wing that I call whacko made such bold populist promises that the Left did not dare to be equally radical.
In matters of foreign policy, the only reasonable party, kind of libertarian, overdid insanity on other aspect of the program and the election campaign. In general, Poles are not particularly satisfied with the existing parties and the turn-out was 51%. Wide swings from one election cycle to another are typical.
For some reasons, the role of business tycoons, so prominent in Ukraine and USA, is hardly noticed in Poland. Although one businessman was very bitter because (he claims, may be correctly) very unfair investigations by the previous government. He bribed waiters in an exclusive Warsaw restaurant who taped conversations of politicians of the government, and while the released tapes did not show particular criminality, exposed the seemingly insipid sober politicians as profane idiots etc. Well, few people are sober after a number of drinks, so in the future, politicians should take care to change restaurants frequently. In any case, the affair of the tapes severely dented the popularity of the government.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 29 2015 1:44 utc | 122
murcunts official excuse to meddle *arbitrate* in scs, ecs,
1] to enforce fon !
my ass !!!
china has zero record of fon violation in scs or anywhere else.
zero, nada, zilch.
whereas the untedsnake have committed fragrant violations in international waters and air,
off hand, these come to mind,
+mining of nicaragua harbor in 1984 to block shipping traffics, *to make the leftist govn scream *
criminals still at large, currently masquering as enforcer of said fon in scs !
+hijacking *interdicting* international shipping in open sea to check for *contraband cargoes* under the fraudulant wot.
one of the most notorious case was the hijacking of chinese freighter yinhe in international water, forcing it to dock at a saudi port for *inspection*.
+shooting down an iranian airplane on its normal flight path cuz it *intruded* in an *no fly zone*
unilaterally imposed by the highsea pirates murcunt navy on international water.
+imposing illegit *no fly zone* over iraq prior to the invasion.
2] to stop china destroying the eco system, you know, those wonderful coral reefs ?
rofl, china is building on an uninhibited isle.
other claimants have done been doing it for decades, all over the scs.
as for the murcunts, well they have *appropriated* most of the unesco certified natural treasures on earth,
kicking out screaming grandpas,grandmas from their ancestral lands to make way for those
monstrous military bases, okinawa [1], jeju [4] ,Vicenza [2], diego garcia [3] [wholesale ethnic cleansing]….
coming next , phalawan isle in the ph, another unesco site gonna bite the dust !
not to forget its nuke test in the [formerly] beautiful bikini isle, with the usual wholesale eviction
of the indigenous.
p.s.
apparently the green peace has gone awol all this while when the snake is stripping the earth bare, hehehe
unitedsnake,
champion of *human rights*, *international rule* , now its champion of *eco preservation*
somebody pass me the sick bag,!
[to be continued, typing between work, ]
[1]
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1608446!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/japan-military-sexual-assaults.jpg
http://www.liberationnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/japanese-protest.jpg
[2]
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2007/01/360525.jpg
http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/2003577245-300×0.jpg
[3]
https://activist1.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/images.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/12/1/1291212233574/Diego-Garcia-islanders-pr-006.jpg
[4]
http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1433038664819/sites/telesur/img/2015/05/30/jeju_island_protests.jpg_1718483346.jpg
murcunt sergeant gulping down a burger, watching with disgust behind three rows of barbewire,
*forchrissake, now why dont those pussies just crack some skulls and get it done with * ?
Posted by: denk | Oct 29 2015 3:32 utc | 123
denk@117
> [2]
> http://fpif.org/naval_base_tears_apart_korean_village/
Thanks for link… good read. Helpful.
bs 1
china is violating fon,
oh it isnt doing anything like that yet..
but it might do it soon, hehehe
bs 2
china is destroying coral reef in scs
bs3
*china is *militarising the scs*
cuz of its build up on an uninhabited isle amidst the vastness of the scs, china’s
own backyard ?
gimme a fucking break !
look at this map
somebody tell me who’s the one militarising the scs AND ecs , never mind the whole god damned planet ,
can the culprit please stand up ?
http://space4peace.blogspot.sg/2015/05/planning-for-war-with-china.html
this must be the ultimate in *robber crying out robbery*, but wait..
murkkans have this uncanny knack to surpass themselves with each new day !
Posted by: denk | Oct 30 2015 3:11 utc | 125
jdmckay 124
why do i have this feeling alternate media is becoming so msm like ?
Posted by: denk | Oct 30 2015 3:13 utc | 126