“The organizer of the Istanbul airport massacre is a well-known terrorist from Russia’s North Caucasus region who served as a top soldier in the ISIS war ministry, a U.S. official said.”
“Akhmed Chatayev is the man who directed the three suicide bombers in the attacks that killed 43 people Tuesday, said Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.”
source – http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/01/europe/turkey-istanbul-ataturk-airport-attack/
Amerikastan Main Stream Medias are reporting that the Istanbul terrorists are ‘Russian.’

Posted by: ALberto | Jul 1 2016 18:07 utc | 4

Sado-NeoCons?
From the perspective of the non-West it is SADO Europa and it’s descendant and defender the SADO US.
Not that it’ll do a damned bit of good, but Andre Vltchek has an article “Brexit – Let the UK Screw Itself!” at CounterPunch today that actually explains why the system we claim to love is selfish and corrupt. Not that anyone in the west gives a pile of fetid dingo kidneys. SEE: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/01/brexit-let-the-uk-screw-itself/
Oh, and happy fourth of July … go blow up some fire crackers while the west continues to blow up the ‘filthy’ other.

Posted by: rg the lg | Jul 1 2016 18:16 utc | 6

Before Brexit I thought that alarms raised in some articles that Brexit can undermine NATO is nonsensical. However, it definitely destabilized English politics (I guess, one has to eschew “British” when we write about the future, and political parties in Northern Island and Scotland are different than in England). UKIP is not “isolationist” as far as I know, but the left of Labor is. Until recently, getting rid of nuclear weapons and refusing participation in “humanitarian interventions” etc. was not a huge issue in England except “some circles” that included most members of LP (Labor Party) but a minuscule number of members of PLP (Parliamentary Labor Party that has one member from Scotland). In other words, sane people were guarding the asylum.
However, in circumstances that I have yet to understand, the voting rules of LP were change to approximate American primaries. Most revolutionarily, the vote for the party leaders was left to party members, and to top it off, one can become one for the modest amount of 3 pound sterling. It was a smashing success, the party was flooded by new members and certain Corbyn, very much NATO sceptic, was elected for a leader. As long as he sat on a rear bench we was tolerated, but from the moment he became LP leader he was acclaim as a more dangerous person that Assad and Putin combined — the latter at least had no plans to dismantle British nukes! He also failed to express admiration for TODiTME. Would such ideas truly dominate LP, then at some point UK would be ruled by an anti-NATO party. But what does it have to do with Brexit? I would never imagine that there is a connection.
But the connection was made. What some call “Blairite vermin”, and what is actually a wider collection of folks, decided that Brexit is a good moment to get rid of the scourge that is Corbyn. After all, it would not do to start a major brouhaha on the account of “happy Thursday” or some such. But a calamity, and the results were such, calls for a purge, to rid the party of anti-remailers, tepid supporters of Remain, and disparagers of Israel (I kid you not, read today’s NYT if you can). Basically, a calamity is an ipso facto proof of the anger of Heavens, and that can be appeased only with copious human sacrifices, heretics, witches etc. A generation ago LP was actually purged of leftists “infiltrators”, got the support of the press lords and then it managed to rule for few cycles.
However, it is problematic if this will succeed again. First, apparently PLP cannot change party rules. Second, the body that decides what the rules mean is not exactly controlled by PLP. What PLP majority wants is to more or less expel Corbyn, deprive of the leader position and prevent from re-election. But Corbyn actually has a muscle behind him, unions and an organization called Momentum. Moreover, the same social dynamic that propelled Brexit will propel Corbynists. Exalting EU, NATO and Israel is not really terribly popular and the list of offenses that Corbyn committed may be detrimental to which hunters themselves. Already there are rumbles on “de-selection” (in USA it would be primary challenge, but in UK it is actually much easier to accomplish, at least in some places).
It could be that Blairites/Fabians know what they are doing and the British zeal for NATO and owned nukes will survive, but a drastic destabilization of politics raises the chance for a big change.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 1 2016 18:34 utc | 8

@ Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 1, 2016 2:34:57 PM | 8
The dynamics are fascinating (and hilarious at 6000 miles away) but I thought this was interesting:

“”Expecting a leadership challenge, the membership wars are on, as both sides dash to recruit. An astounding 60,000 have joined in a week, bringing the total above 440,000, beyond its 1997 peak – extraordinary for a party on the verge of utter disintegration. Under the insane rules, £3 membership, suspended in normal times, starts again with a leadership contest. But ordinary membership is cheap as chips at £3.92 a month, and can be cancelled any time.””

guardian.
It was hoped Corbyn could revitalize **the party** among the actual working class and young … seems to have done so to the Labor MP’s horror and discomfort.
I was startled by an article yesterday in which, now that Johnson and Cameron are out of the picture, The Guardian seemed to think “avidity of support for Brexit” is a positive indicator … so Home Secretary May is no longer the frontrunner having given only “tepid support” … You’d think they’d been Brexit supporters all along ..

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Jul 1 2016 18:54 utc | 10

@9 AL, ‘The planes are equipped with missiles for their defence’
I guess that’s due to Erdogan’s ‘apology’ for shooting down the Russian plane, Putin’s acceptance of the apology, and the re-opening of the terrorist killing fields in Turkey to Russian tourist victims? I saw the Turks had a ‘demonstration’ of their Russian ‘welcome wagon’ at the airport just the other day.
While Truman approaches the Syrian coast and Eisenhower lurks just off Naples.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2016 19:05 utc | 12

@10 suzy, ‘An astounding 60,000 have joined in a week, bringing the total above 440,000, beyond its 1997 peak – extraordinary for a party on the verge of utter disintegration.’
Wouldn’t it be sweet if “the people” – pace somebody, don’t reach for your revolver – actually draped themselves in the skin of the Labour Party, picked up the post-Brexit pieces, and demonstrated that There Is An Alternative?

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2016 19:25 utc | 14

Why is it sane for people in Britain to want to retain nuclear weapons? What do they get out of it, aside from becoming a target for other people’s nukes?

Posted by: lysias | Jul 1 2016 19:59 utc | 16

More context on the 2012 DIA ISIS memo… CIA’s Mike Morell wrote a whole Politico editorial about it trying to say it’s unimportant and meaningless:
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/07/01/obama-and-the-dia-islamic-state-memo-what-trump-gets-right/

Posted by: Brad | Jul 1 2016 20:09 utc | 18

re 16

Why is it sane for people in Britain to want to retain nuclear weapons?

It isn’t, but you know, the penis is the most important factor.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 1 2016 20:31 utc | 20

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1, 2016 3:25:36 PM | 14
They call it entryism
As far as I know the history of the labour party, they were founded by British Unions. So in the end I suspect it will be the leadership of the unions who decide.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 1 2016 20:52 utc | 22

See Video: Bernie, Please Meet with Jill Stein (See Petition) also I talk about another petition, the YouTube petition in response to YouTube’s unfair policy change. AND BTW, this video is not monetized RIGHT NOW (while uploaded and still as of 11PM EST ) because YouTube treats my channel unfairly. I talk about that situation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN1T0p576gY

Posted by: Tom Murphy | Jul 1 2016 20:59 utc | 24

@22 someone
We’ll see what happens.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 1 2016 21:16 utc | 26

re 25

That second Globalization must be stopped and rolled back

I wish you the best of luck with that. Globalisation is not going to be rolled back. What business leaders have to understand is that cutting people means nobody to buy their products. The effect may be indirect, as the products are made in China, and the fired people may have unemployment pay. But the result will be the same in the end. Popular revolt, perhaps expressed as vote for Trump, or for Brexit.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 1 2016 21:53 utc | 28

I found this article on Brexit, its reasons and aftermath useful, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45013.htm

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 1 2016 22:10 utc | 30

Read on Billmon’s twitter feed:

Mossad Director Yossi Cohen visited Moscow today. Met Putin’s national security adviser and the SVR director

Wonder if there’s a connection between that and Erdogan repairing relations with both Israel and Russia.

Posted by: lysias | Jul 1 2016 22:50 utc | 32

A SIMPLE SOLUTION
Simple lack of clean water and sanitation causes diarrhoea illness that occurs world-wide and is the most common cause of death and malnutrition, killing 2,200,000 people globally each year, …mostly children. So where is the massive foreign aid for clean water projects?
The United States spends nearly $1,000,000,000,000 every year to project its economic and political power overseas, through 100’s of foreign military bases and FOBs. Besides their ‘collateral damage’ murder of 1,000,000’s of innocent civilians through hegemonic cartel wars over lands and resources that the US hopes to seize, these US bases provide nothing to their hosts, besides tax-monies pipelined to the local tin-pot junta, (or in Karzai’s case, $8.5B in humanitarian aid money diverted into his private Bank of Kabul, by HRH Hillary, more than all the aid money spend worldwide in those years,)
And we also know, thanks to Wikileaks and watchdogs, that much of both state- and private-aid funds are, as our special ambassador to Afghanistan put it, “90% is pipelined right back to WADC-NOVA”.
“Hey, we got bills to pay too!” Clinton Foundation
A SYSTEMIC METASTASIS
There are several US bases (ex. Diego Garcia, Kwajalein) where the indigenous population was herded at gun point off their ancestral lands, then dumped in squalor, to die of dysentary, cholera and self-hanging, … much like the original African slaves brought to Cuba by the Spanish conquistadors, who chose self-hanging or jumping into the boiling sugar vats rather than slavery … except this is The New American Century, and We’re All Exceptional Now.
Developing countries around the globe have begun to mimic the US hegemonic model, …rather than providing clean water, sanitation and agricultural support resources in a ‘bubble-up’ development model, …instead, rounding up millions of aboriginals and artisanal farmers, dumping them into urban ghettoes, then consolidating the stolen lands and resources, before leasing them to foreigh corporations, in return for royalties to the local tin-pot junta, Modi in India, for example (…but nowhere nearly as egregious as the $35B handed to the ZUKraine Junta by HRH Kerry, looted from the US Treasury by Congress, to backstop defaulting ZUK junk bonds used to consolidate, collateralize and privatize prime lands for the zUbers.)
This is the 21stC 3W development model. Depopulation brings the fastest ROI, and the biggest payout to the Tin-Pots and their foreign Ubers. It’s the Age of the Leviathan! “I can’t tell you where all the money went!” Benhamin
And then they came for my pension.
Imagine a world where the private pensions are looted, the fifth-quintile wealth NIRPd, the elders and children warehoused, the students warehoused, all of the adults working 365x24x7 to support the Ubers and their Tin-Pot Mil.Gov.Fed. Why, that would be Dachau, wouldn’t it? Dachau, with Netflix and Burger King Mac’n Cheese Substance.
Arbeit Macht Frei! Lei hei!

Posted by: Uk Tahder | Jul 2 2016 0:27 utc | 34

RETIRED U.S. AIR FORCE Gen. Philip Breedlove, until recently the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, plotted in private to overcome President Barack Obama’s reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014, according to apparently hacked emails from Breedlove’s Gmail account that were posted on a new website called DC Leaks.
Obama defied political pressure from hawks in Congress and the military to provide lethal assistance to the Ukrainian government, fearing that doing so would increase the bloodshed and provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with the justification for deeper incursions into the country.
Breedlove, during briefings to Congress, notably contradicted the Obama administration regarding the situation in Ukraine, leading to news stories about conflict between the general and Obama.
…
In the European press, Breedlove has been portrayed as a hawkish figure known for leaning on allied nations to ditch diplomacy and to adopt a more confrontational role again Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. Breedlove, testifying before Congress earlier in February of this year, called Russia “a long-term existential threat to the United States and to our European allies.”
Der Spiegel reported that Breedlove “stunned” German leaders with a surprise announcement in 2015 claiming that pro-Russian separatists had “upped the ante” in eastern Ukraine with “well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of the most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery” sent to Donbass, a center of the conflict.
Breedlove’s numbers were “significantly higher” than the figures known to NATO intelligence agencies and seemed exaggerated to German officials. The announcement appeared to be a provocation designed to disrupt mediation efforts led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/01/nato-general-emails/

Posted by: Les | Jul 2 2016 1:30 utc | 36

M K Bhadrakumar’s comments in today’s article.. Turkey needs help, Russia scrambles

Posted by: james | Jul 2 2016 2:09 utc | 38

in re 37 —
Very little of the 13th. cent. is like the 21st.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 2 2016 2:36 utc | 40

laguerre, jfl: laguerre is confused because “internationalist” had some connotation is Communist and Socialist movements, each having its International organization and each singing “International” at occasion. But in the recent “neocon” usage this means readiness to apply force to defend human rights, free trade etc. Readiness to make desert and call it peace (although, in practice, without the efficiency of late Roman Republic or early Roman Empire).
======
Why is it sane for people in Britain to want to retain nuclear weapons? What do they get out of it, aside from becoming a target for other people’s nukes?
Posted by: lysias | Jul 1, 2016 3:59:18 PM | 16
You need to study the actual application of nuclear weapons after WWII. The chief is the boost to the national pride. Consider the lyrics “…And guardian angels sang this strain:
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
Apart from the reference to a British newspaper from which I have learned about the danger posed by Corbyn to the British national treasure that are nukes, the British feel better in the possession of the finest naval ships on this planet. Alas, that is not possible if you do not have nuclear submarines bearing nuclear missiles. This sense of satisfaction and security has a distinct value. For example, in America about half of owners of passengers vehicles have so-called SUVs that defy principles of aerodynamics and stability. But they give the FEELING of security and that feeling is stressed a lot in commercials. (This is marketing to women, in men-oriented ads it is stressed that you can drive them like a madman). And folks shell quite a few thousand dollars to have that security sense. Another way to gain security in USA is to get permit for carrying a concealed weapon and then to tot the said weapon around. At least, Brits do not shoot each other or smash each other in car crashes to feel secure (apparently, the safest country to drive!), but they still need SOMETHING!
One can complain that this is not rational thinking. But sane humans also have FEELINGS.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 2 2016 3:36 utc | 42

Rufus:
According to whom? What was the number one activity of Europeans in the 13th Century? Looking outward … and that only intensified as each century came and went. Looking outward? For what?
For what others had that Europeans could take. By the 15th and 16th centuries we see this move toward the non-European world as the rise of blatant and unapologetic colonialism. The role of a colony was to sent wealth back to the mother country. Europe still does that, though they don’t claim colonies – now it is spheres of influence. The US also sees Europe as a sphere of influence … and that means that Europe is becoming a colonial entrepot of the empire.
Western Civilization was built on the wealth stolen from non-Europeans. What Europeans want is to go back to the days when they were on top … even the free-education, the long holidays, the medical care that Europeans want was the result of the theft of wealth from the rest of the world. It still is, only now even Europeans are not being allowed to share the wealth of the 0.0001% who are taking what the Europeans believed was theirs.
Thus, when we hear people complain about the 1% what it really boils down to is that the lowly (average?) westerner is not being shared with by the malignant overlords that was common in the post WWII world. Bernie-ites, Trump-sters, pro-BREXIT brits are not talking about equity … they simply want the elites to share part of their ill-gotten gains.
I could have said that all of so-called western (alleged) civilization was culpable … and as the root and source of capitalism, it is.
So, just to make you feel all better, I will agree that the 13th and 20th century were not alike … but one did lead to the other. Was it inevitable? Maybe not … some in the west did demand sharing so long as that sharing did not involve those brown and black others. If you insist, call it racism. I prefer tribalism … .
You are complicit in the theft by the west … just as if you were a Captain John Smith raping the people of the native man Powhatan.

Posted by: rg the lg | Jul 2 2016 3:54 utc | 44

nmb @ 1: The Neo-feudalism offered by advocates of Globalism is the new religion of the elites. And, like most religions, isn’t based on reason, but myths held by some, to convince one another of their superiority.

Posted by: ben | Jul 2 2016 6:27 utc | 46

@ 39 (edit)
Farange’s => Farage’s (subliminal disparagement apparently)
Found at The Guardian: Political use of hypnotism (marketing techniques).

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 2 2016 8:21 utc | 48

Nato General plotting against Obama on Russia policy

Posted by: somebody | Jul 2 2016 11:50 utc | 50

@38 james, ‘Turkey needs help, Russia scrambles’ Bhadrakumar
Yeah. Russia leaves no stones unturned. No matter how many lizards scurry out into the bushes.
Of course we have less than ‘perfect’ information … enough to be skeptical though.
What did b4real say … ‘I try to predict his next step, but consistently fail.’ Me too.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 2 2016 12:29 utc | 52

11;Do you know any supporters of Trump to make that call of ignorance?
All we know is the present,compared to our past,sucks.
And a vote for the hell bitch means a continuance of that sucking.
Lysias;The Zionists want no part of American nationalism and will try anything to kill Trump.In fact some idiot tried to shoot him a week or so ago,and if you slept late the next day you missed it.No sympathy for the golem.
And Corbyn was attacked in the lying times for saying Israel and the Islamic state had similarities.No other MSM ran with it though.
And the WB is in lockdown.Unbelievable.
The Drone king polishes his apple.Only a few innocents murdered.OK then.
.

Posted by: dahoit | Jul 2 2016 13:05 utc | 54

Wasn’t the modern world invented by Europeans?Are the Chinese,Japanese,Indonesians,Brazilians,Africans trying to be like us or we like them?
Yes,our civilization? has its plentiful warts,but we don’t want to be Africa,Asia,or South America,sorry.
As Trump says in trying to make the world like us,we are turning into the world.
F*ck that.

Posted by: dahoit | Jul 2 2016 13:19 utc | 56

Before you attack – keep in mind that I was in SE Asia in 1965 – 1967; a little country called Vietnam.
Like Smedley Butler, author in 1938 of ‘War is a Racket,’ in my view, the nationalistic rhetoric around the 4th of July is little more than a celebration of a bunch of very well-propagandized fools.
I challenge you to read every word in this offering:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/07/01/refuse-to-celebrate-july-4th-militarism/
That is just the tip of the iceberg.
And, Thanks Jack Smith, for your kind comments.

Posted by: rg the lg | Jul 2 2016 13:43 utc | 58

Posted by: dahoit | Jul 2, 2016 9:19:57 AM | 55
Ähem. I think you mix capitalism and continents. I don’t think you can divorce the US from capitalism, and Donald Trump is a very unlikely anticapitalist force.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 2 2016 13:58 utc | 60

@ rg the lg | Jul 2, 2016 9:43:51 AM | 57
Like Smedley Butler, author in 1938 of ‘War is a Racket,’ in my view, the nationalistic rhetoric around the 4th of July is little more than a celebration of a bunch of very well-propagandized fools.
You got it 100%; thanks for that post.
Right on…

Posted by: V. Arnold | Jul 2 2016 14:11 utc | 62

Roitan | Jul 2, 2016 10:12:53 AM | 62
And butchered 20 million native Americans in the process.
Well done, do carry on…

Posted by: V. Arnold | Jul 2 2016 14:17 utc | 64

63
Lebensraum is natural ecology. Procession of Species. Swamps to Alders to Maples to Firs. Then the Old Growth in its prime is felled by zWurms and zFungus. When Deutsche Bank sets off the next Chinese default contagion, and all our wealth is destroyed by the Zio’im algos, within a NY nano-second, a’then you’ll be singing like a magpie for your bread pudding. God I love the smell of $400T of cratering derivatives in the morning.
But, psst, its a felony in EU to even speak Their name. We never had this conversation! They’re the Real Makers, the Chosen, Builders, Settlers of the West, the Exceptionals~!
Happy 4oJ. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.

Posted by: Roitan | Jul 2 2016 14:35 utc | 66

@okie farmer | Jul 2, 2016 9:40:03 AM | 56
Didn’t wanna to posts YouTube “THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING”, by Susan Bates. A video is worth a thousand words, if accurately produced.
YouTube site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP-APn__JT0
and another from shitty MSM’s, especially Charlie Rose makes me puke!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJzFXmmroo
@ rg the lg, you’re most welcome 🙂 BTW I was passing by Vietnam (Saigon) for a few days sometime early 1964 after the French torn it apart and later we the Yanks came and murdered hundred of thousands or millions….. the Vietnamese still suffers today after receiving millions of gallon Agent Orange.

Posted by: Jack Smith | Jul 2 2016 15:02 utc | 68

It boggles the mind how twisted this Saudi’s logic is – he places all responsibility for the deaths of “400 thousand Syrian citizens and caused the displacement of another 12 million” solely on Assad’s shoulders. Inferring that if only Assad had handed the keys to Syria over to the Gulf Arab states long ago these lives wouldn’t have been lost or displaced. Thus, only Assad is responsible for the carnage.
The height of arrogance communicated throughout this Saudi hit piece is not only disconcerting, but it’s suggestions about Russia’s presence in Syria are, well, odd (crap might be a better word though).
Written by Al-Ansari is Founder & President of the Washington DC-based, Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC)
The Russian plan to oust Bashar Al-Assad –
“Going back to Bashar: I am certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Assad dynasty is nothing more to the Russian political elite than a playing card that has been burnt up by 80%, and that the Russians are now salvaging the rest of the card in order to completely preserve their political interests not only on Syrian grounds, but on surrounding shores and what is commonly known as the Mediterranean “warm waters” as well.”
“As expected, Russia has proven through its presence in Syria that it is the only guarantor for Bashar, as he asked for the assistance of the Iranians, which they in turn failed to sustain due to the Syrian opposition stopping them in their tracks. This is why Moscow knows for certain that they are his last option, and that Bashar has no choice but to completely give in to Russia’s demands, effectively depriving him of any free will of his own.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/286243-the-russian-plan-to-oust-bashar-al-assad

Posted by: h | Jul 2 2016 15:31 utc | 70

@51 jfl.. yes to that.. i triple your last comment which is a comment from b4real.
@60 samspade… yes – i mentioned that on the previous thread and then again earlier on this one, but it bears repeating..
@69 h.. that is a bullshit article if ever there was one.. all you need to know about the article is who wrote the article – Al-Ansari is Founder & President of the Washington DC-based, Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee

Posted by: james | Jul 2 2016 15:51 utc | 72

in re 44 —
Nothing like a simplistic, superficial, but manichean view of the past.
Were does the retrofitting of modern sensibilities onto humanity’s nasty, brutish and short history start and stop? Conquest and plunder have been human SOP for quite some time.
In terms of their culture and technologies, the Europeans of ca. 1200 are behind the neighbors on the Med, the Byzantine and Islamic states, as well as the Chinese Empire, with which they were beginning to come into direct contact.
By 1845, the Europeans were busy quarreling over the hulk of the anemic Ottomans and rapidly dividing China into spheres of influence. Why was this small area and population, up ’til then fairly marginal in Mediterranean basin, to say nothing of the Far East, able to export so much of itself in so short a time?
W.H. McNeill explores this in The Pursuit of Power, a history of military organization and technology since ca. 1000. I recommend it highly.
McNeill notes that the Europeans perfected gun-powder weapons and the necessary tactical and logistical arrangements needed to support these labor and capital intensive enterprises in their ruthless competition amongst themselves for territories, populations, and resources. West European geography, with it’s mix of isles, river valleys, and mountains, permitted a bevy of small but energetic states to flourish.
As their trade became increasingly world-wide, so did their ambitions and quarrels. .
The revolt of the Dutch towns against Spain, for example (their “Eighty Years War”), was a global war. The Dutch took Java from Spain, took but lost Brazil from Portugal, and colonized the Cape as a naval center to support the Far Eastern trade. The Dutch East India Company epitomized the synthesis; it was a broadly held joint-stock company, run on strictly commercial principles, though not without a reciprocity of influence with the government of the States-General. These having military consequences, the company possessed its own armed forces and fleet.
Europeans had knowledge of gun-powder and Eastern efforts to weaponize it (large arrows from simple canon) by ca. 1350. In 1453, the bombard, a large, heavy siege weapon makes its debut in European, used against Bordeaux by the French at the conclusion of the Hundred Years War and by the Ottomans against the walls of Constantinople.
Within 100 yrs., the Europeans had proliferated size and type to match a variety of purposes, from side arms to long arms to artillery. Interestingly, much of this occurred through mercenary companies; they were hired by the Italian city-republics of the Renaissance to supplement the traditional stabbing weapons with the new technology; they “outsourced” this to contractors. Who often displaced the republics which hired them. See e.g., the Sforzas in Milan.
Maurice of Nassau, military commander of the Dutch Republic, standardized the training, equipment, organization, and operation of the musket regiment; they had the weapon, and now fully grasped how to use it.
The key was their size. The city-state and the empire were the two forms utilized before the emergence of the national monarchies, later the nation-states, of Europe. The city-state had strong bond with its citizens; the state united them. The royal bond of domination evoked different emotions. But the large-scale resources obtainable from such agglomerations made their acquisition and maintenance quite feasible.
This new hybrid combined resources and engagement.
I would note that this is the scaling up of a phenomena familiar from ancient Greece, where the geography aided the multitude of city-states to jealously jostle.
It is commonly held (cf. Marx and the role of the bourgeoisie, the townsmen, in the emergence of capitalism) that the semi-autonomous city and the merchant communities that ran them were the critical point of difference. Empires, such as Rome or China, are always wary of merchants and their towns. The wealth they possess poses a threat to autocracy; merchants lack arms, but such can be bought, along with men to wield them. And so they closely supervised them.
The fear of these communities and classes prompted the Ming ban on international trade in the late 1400’s, after earlier having sent vessels as far afield as East Africa. While the ban ended in 1567, the tone of unquestionable, unending superiority over the “Southern Barbarians” (Europeans coming in numbers from their southern seas) taken then rather evokes comparison with the “sole superpower’s” attitude. And it largely remained the Chinese attitude as they resumed trade under the guise of “tribute.” They liked mechanical clocks, and would sell tea and porcelain for silver coin.
And such condescension blinds those who might quite understandably oppose the European-based global status quo, of market economies and representative government (at least formally), be it constitutional monarchy or republic, with negative consequences as well, I would say.
Hoping that those horrible globe-spanning bourgeois democrats will off each other doesn’t really seem an effective strategy. Our moral judgements today cannot alter the past; they can however affect the present and future.
In the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the merchant corporations they used to monitor and tax the commercial population took on independent life. In the cash-starved West, lords all-too-gladly sold feudal rights, privileges, and exemptions to cities. Such means typically aided the town in obtaining leave to build walls, hold a market, and build a cathedral. The guilds controlled the town government, typically with the higher offices reserved for the richer trades.
These towns possessed military forces as well, in the militias drawn from their citizens. By Rembrandt’s time, the companies depicted in such works as The Night Watch had become more social, at least in the Low Countries. But participation was still a symbol and token of civic life and union. According to the Wiki, it veritably oozes symbolism of the burghers defeat of the haughty aristocrats. Pirenne’s Early Democracy in the Low Countries would be a good start for the curious. You should wind up with Geoffrey Parker on the Dutch Revolt.
The force underpinning much of this process was the ability of the Europeans to engineer significant improvements in productivity, with much of the new wealth accruing to the lower and middle classes. Partly due to changes in the organization of commercial and industrial enterprises, a great part rested upon a superior understanding of nature, thanks to the scientific method, which enhanced humanity’s ability to manipulate the environment.
See, e.g., the development of the “atmospheric engine,” from Savery’s late 1600 proposed power supply, to the 1715 debut of the Newcomen engine, based upon it, to Boulton & Watt’s improved design, shortly made smaller and more powerful, and hence, capable of installation on railways and ships.
So the question is not so much how the Europeans prevailed, it is, what about these other cultures permitted them to stagnate? A comfortable stasis was the ideal of the ancients, such as the Stoics. We can see the allure of the choice, and perhaps it was attainable in the pre-industrial age. But certainly not in 1800.
The Europeans offered their model as universal, and much of the Enlightenent is, IMHO. One might question how genuine this offer might be. But there is at least one solid case suggesting that it is inherently possible.
The Japanese had cut themselves off even more thoroughly and permanently from the outside world than China; the Manchus always appreciated folks turning up with trade goods, which they viewed as tribute.
The feudal government of the shogun, on paper just the emperor’s top soldier but de facto head of state, eliminated local Catholicism, killing tens of thousands, and give the monopoly of all of their foreign trade (largely with China, largely luxury and cultural goods) to the Dutch. They were far less gung-ho in their faith than the Counter-Reformation Jesuits who typically served Rome in this area.
After the Opium Wars, which shocked the Japanese, the Dutch put them wise to the Industrial Revolution and in 1867 the new Meiji emperor began the transformation of Japan into a modern industrial state. Or rather, elements of the samurai in civil and military service in various “realms” (the de facto autonomous components of the Japanese “Empire”) already stressed by increased contact with the West formed a new state in the name of the traditional figurehead (main job: chief priest of Shinto), suppressing dissent in a civil war.
Within fifty years, Japan had joined in the exploitation of China and decisively defeated a Major Power, Russia, on land and sea.
The spread of what is styled Western Civilization is not simply do to the evil ambitions of the Anglo-Saxons. In their relentless quarrels amongst themselves, in their underdeveloped backwater, the Europeans evolved important new tools for humanity to improve, if unevenly, its lot in life.
As Geoffrey Barraclough noted a number of years ago, in short book on what he saw as the present period, Contemporary vs. Modern, argued that the present Contemporary period would of demographic and socio-economic development be less dominated by the Western powers.

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 2 2016 16:28 utc | 74

July 2, 2016 – You cannot make this stuff up …
“China’s experience of building islands in the sea may now come in handy for Israel as its first Deputy Prime Minister, Yisrael Katz, proposed a project to create an artificial island off the coast of Gaza Strip in the Mediterranean Sea.”
source – http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160702/1042343824/china-construction-israel.html

Posted by: ALberto | Jul 2 2016 17:40 utc | 76

Turkey’s dumping of its old allies, Al Nusra, may increase the risks of terrorists retaliations within Turkey. It will also make the ‘moderate’ Syrian opposition insignificant. How will Qatar and Saudi Arabia react to that backstabbing coming from their “ally” Erdogan?
“During a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara considers not only Daesh but also al-Nusra Front as terrorists.”
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160702/1042338086/russia-turkey-syria-terrorists.html

Posted by: virgile | Jul 2 2016 18:02 utc | 78

virgile @77
I agree. This rapprochement between Turkey and Russia is huge. It could mean that the Turks have finally come to their senses and realize that Russia is their ally, not the Salafi Gulf states that have been supporting Al qaida, ISIS, etc.
We will see soon if it is real. Those terrorists forces fighting in Aleppo are currently getting the their logistical support from inside Turkey. If that dries up then those forces are toast. If that dries up then it would suggest that Russia and Turkey are serious about improving relations.

Posted by: ToivoS | Jul 2 2016 20:05 utc | 80

Posted by: lysias | Jul 1, 2016 6:50:18 PM | 32
Of course.
Turkish aid ships sail to Gaza

Apart from agreeing to Turkey’s humanitarian work in Gaza, Israel will reportedly pay $20 million in compensation to the families of the activists killed by IDF soldiers. Turkey in turn, has agreed to approve a law that would put an end to lawsuits from the families of the victims killed in the raid, the Hürriyet reported.
Israel offered an apology and the compensation to bring about a thaw with Turkey, the Times of Israel reported, adding that Ankara is also to invest in infrastructure projects in Gaza under the deal.

Posted by: somebody | Jul 2 2016 21:36 utc | 82

The only thing that gives me hope in this world run by madmen,
is that “Others” may have our better interests at heart.
43years of meticulous research by Robert Hastings,
who grew up on a USAF base, son of an officer.
His life’s career decided one night in the ATC tower,
where his after school job as janitor had him,
when he saw and heard the ATC controllers,
discussing 5 UFOs on radar over the base.
The UFOs performed impossible manoeuvres,
and zipped off into the stratosphere,
leaving the USAF scrambled fighter jets sputtering and antiquated.
Since then Hastings has uncovered over 140 different instances
of UFOs deactivating nuclear missiles, for both NATO and Soviet Union.
Hopefully some extraterrestrial civilisation has a sense of benevolence.
See the irrefutably convincing testimonies and corroborating declassified documents:
http://www.ufohastings.com/documentary
http://www.ufohastings.com/book
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3jUU4Z8QdHI
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7me4boq5Wyk

Posted by: Anon02July | Jul 2 2016 21:50 utc | 84

@83 a2j, ‘Hopefully some extraterrestrial civilisation has a sense of benevolence.’
I had a good friend in Texas who, when the Anglos pressed him about Tejano ‘superstition’ with regard to the Virgin de Guadalupe, would question the Anglo superstition : UFOs.
Given a choice between the two, I’ll take the Virgin de Guadalupe.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 2 2016 22:06 utc | 86

Posted by: jfl | Jul 2, 2016 5:56:02 PM | 84
Probably got something to do with this
gas in Gaza’s water
and this
Israel wants someone to build a $5 billion island off Gaza — for a seaport, hotels, airport
and this
Why Hamas resumed ties with Iran

Posted by: somebody | Jul 2 2016 23:02 utc | 88

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ozone-hole-shrinks-montreal-treaty_us_577684c8e4b04164640f9cd8?section=
The extreme hubris of the New Technocracy, a taxpayer-funding research-corrupted pension-for-life tenure-seniority revolving-door bureaucracy, to state despite all emperical evidence to the contrary, that humans can affect the earth’s climate, while at the same time willfully ignoring the massive contamination and devastation caused by organic pesticides, herbicides, GMO pollen gene-shifting, deforestation, strip mining, industrial farming, processed foods, pharmaceuticals, food denaturing, depopulation, global trade, financiaal pestilence and all the other blights of that very same New Technocracy, risks nothing, only as long as they don’t gain mind-space traction.
After all, with no emperical evidence than ‘man’ (sic) in the form of carbon dioxide, is affecting the global climate, [¿and whose climate would that be, plants, whose population and biomasse is a million times greater than we little leviathans, are absolutely loving it, NASA studies show?], there there is absolutely no possibility for proof that ‘man’ (sic) can do anything to reverse it! Correlation is not causation, and in a googleplex multivarient natural environment such as Earth’s, reducing fossil fuel access by the 3W, that old 20thC eugenics gambit, (they breed like rabbits! the Pope complained) may just as well increase Global Whateverwesayitistoday!
CFC production was not ‘reduced’ as this article claims. That’s The Big Lie. CFCs were recaptured, bottled, and resold to 3W countries, where no such laws existed. Every single ton of CFCs ever produced is still out there, along with billions of tons of ‘New Cleaner 97% Fat-Free CFCs’ …and a completely retooled refrigeration industry. That the point of the freon-ban process, to juice up a moribund refrigeration industry that had plateau’d into watching your refrigerator age, waiting for a new freon recharge.
But that’s not the point anyway. The massive and sustained growth in industrial production of ozone-destroying chemicals, like anhydrous ammonia now used worldwide for increased crop production, or off-gassed plastics precursers used to make our trillions of plastic bags and plastic automotive finishes, exceeds the displaced-freon production BY A BILLION TIMES! It’s not the CFC’s, stupid!
The New Technocracy is a False God, a Big Lie God, a Massive Screed for the Globalists. Do your homework. Read the studies. Cross-train in scientific and statistical analysis. Because if we don’t regain the high groung of intellectual debate, this New Techocracy ISIS will bring a Second Dark Ages to humankind, and billions of humans will perish for their Satanic Lord of Ba’al and Moloch.
And that’s the real ‘Global Warming’, a Pol Pot Hell on Earth Scientocracy.

Posted by: Uk Tahder | Jul 3 2016 0:50 utc | 90

But Hillary isn’t Jewish. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-hillary-clinton_us_5777e61fe4b09b4c43c0afb4 And Trump supports what is considered by many to be mainstream Jewish interests such as being over the top supportive of Israel. “Mr. Trump regularly touts his close ties to Jewish people, noting that his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism when she married her husband, Jared Kushner. He also has promised to make the security of Israel a top priority if he is elected president.” I think Trump’s graphic designer just used a star shape. And I personally have never seen someone try to depict a star of david using a solid color red. When some in the media refer to it as a “Star of David” instead of a 6 point star or Hexagram star shape, they are manipulating people. I am no fan of Trump BTW: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfrlsC1yJ2dT68_Hur1jfMts7n_QMnx45

Posted by: Tom Murphy | Jul 3 2016 1:20 utc | 92

87
Israel wants the offshore drilling platform, err ‘island’, in Gaza territorial waters over Gazan offshore gas fields that the Israelis are intent on looting (as they will Egypt’s) under their Leviathan Project, just like China wants an offshore island in the Spratly Islands of the Philippines, to stake their South China Sea oil and gas drilling concessions, in someone else’s territory, (big fish eat little fish) and that load of tripe the MSM feeds USEU like this about Fantasy Island is a tribute to the global power of zPlutarch Media.
This has nothing to do with the Jewish people of Israel, but of the Zionazim super-minority over them, elected by only a 28% vote.
91
Both Clinton and Trump have married their first-born into The Tribe, and both are deeply beholden to the Goldman Banking Cartels. Both are involved in financial crimes of graft, corruption and money-laundering. Trump-Clinton 2016 is as much of a sham as Crisis of ISIL (USIL), and that load of tripe the MSM feeds US like this about ‘democracy’ is a tribute to the global power of zPlutarch Media.
Red Army, Blue Army, same Zupreme Zoviet, and you better wake up, America, before Deutsche Bank and China yuan collapse topples the dominoes of your retirement, under this New Zion Trump-Clinton-Goldman Plutocracy.
This time around, you’re not getting ‘kinder, gentler’Obama, you’re getting New zOkhrana-Spetnaz, and a wide-open, no visa revolving door between WADC, NYC, Tel Aviv and Brussels, with The Fall of the American Dream, …but with Netflix, Oculus porn, Tesla 3s and Burger King Mac’n Cheese Substance, …so there’s that!
Everything will be just fine. Have a nice hot shower and then we’ll get you some new camp clothes to wear. Are those gold fillings?

Posted by: Uk Tahder | Jul 3 2016 1:56 utc | 94

So, infinite moral retrofitting then. There is no historical explanation, only petty-bourgeois moralism and volunatarism.
And the West must be destroryed!

Posted by: rufus magister | Jul 3 2016 3:09 utc | 96

Blue @72:
Bwaaah ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is choice! Calling Andre Vltchek a fascist!
I’ve got to ask: just what sort of funny stuff are you ingesting to come up with that one?
May I refer you to: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/13/i-am-a-communist/
Therein Vltchek makes it clear that he is not a fascist.
I will give you a break: there are a lot of people that throw words around without a clue to their meaning. Often the words are viewed as being derogatory. Therefore I assume you simply meant that Vltchek is someone you disagree with and wish to disparage. But Fascist? So you used the word because you don’t like him. Fine. But please attempt to use a term you know the meaning of/for/with.
I know this is a slam, and unkind … but sometimes one is compelled to be unkind because nice is not palatable. [Origin and Etymology of nice:
Middle English, foolish, wanton, from Anglo-French, silly, simple, from Latin nescius ignorant, from nescire not to know — more at nescience
(Definition of nescience: lack of knowledge or awareness : ignorance
nescient \-sh(ē-)ənt, -sē-ənt\ adjective)
First Known Use of nice: 14th century]

Posted by: rg the lg | Jul 3 2016 4:24 utc | 98

I a seeing lots of opinions and parsing of BREXIT statistics around the web. The one I want to share is as follows:
“The poorest twenty districts [those with the most wage stagnation] in England overwhelmingly voted to leave the EU. . . .” (Angry Bear)
I would also argue that while the Leave vote was supported more by older folk, I would argue that older folk may be less inclined to be brainwashed by the media/system and see the EU for the political/economic nightmare it has become (as designed, see book The Shock Doctrine)
The world needs to understand that there are not now, nor into the foreseeable future going to be jobs for all seeking employment. Are the coming nation states going to compete for the declining number of jobs proffered by the corporations of the global plutocrats? That is what is happening now and it will only get worse. Divide and conquer continues to work for the global plutocrats.
IMO, personal responsibility to and expected support from government needs to be redefined to address this within the context of agreeing to global population control and resource sharing decisions along with ending private finance and unfettered inheritance.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 3 2016 5:31 utc | 100