This is a follow up posting by a techie site about the claim of China putting spy chips on computer mother boards and such….this was the core basis for the Pence speech against China as I recall.
Chinese Super Micro ‘spy chip’ story gets even more strange as everyone doubles down
I am going to side with the techies calling it Bloomberg BS at this time because there are no pictures or other proof and there is the need for propaganda against China at this time.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 15 2018 6:39 utc | 3

@3
I think this is someting bigger in the bush. It seems that all servers are rigged by them National Security.
And all the traffic is snooped localy and remote, it is just being a matter of who has the total control.
Being a techie it is very feasable that ether0 could be bugged as well as previously mentioned super small spy chip.
The very same portal The Register explained that it is possible and doable.
I am sure that people like Snowden might explain it in a more trustworhy manner and what is really going on.
Also in Snowden’s papers and documents there has been mention of using such methods, as well, way passed the temepest effect. .
Scarry would be if silent collector is on every motherboard worldwide.
But in today’s world we live in, scarry is very near the truth.

Posted by: laserlurk | Oct 15 2018 10:51 utc | 5

Yesterday’s elections in Bavaria did not go well for CSU and, by extension, Ms Merkel. AfD’s influence, however, continues to grow in Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany (present in 15 state parliaments). Below is an essay on aspects of cultural geography as they pertain to contemporary immigration-related issues and electoral support for AfD in former East Germany.
“One cannot paint a rosy picture of Eisenhüttenstadt’s economic future, with or without refugees who suddenly constitute upwards to 15 percent of overall population in a struggling city. But it also cannot ignore the reality of the situation and exclude their impact on demographic and social change, real or perceived.
An understanding of how the homogeneous cultural geographic system—neighborhood, village, city, or state—adapts to sudden changes is the key to solving the challenges. Within that spectrum an important aspect to discuss is the issue of cultural integration. The problem, however, has been that serious debates about integration have been forestalled by critics too eager to raise the racist card and shut down attempts for an honest dialogue.”
Entire essay: http://www.zokpavlovic.com/conflict/germans-dilemma/

Posted by: 47 | Oct 15 2018 12:18 utc | 7

@9 b4real.. thanks for the article. i see it exactly opposite the article and unlike the article, I get no kick backs from google and etc which i hazard to guess that article does.. I am a tourist in Venice at present… everyone is wandering around paying for roaming fees to read off there cell phone google maps.. an ordinary map is far superior and although I would be perceived as the Luddite here, I think it is all the zombies I see with a chain running from there hand to there cell phone…. does technology create efficiency? frankly i mostly think the opposite and reflects the deterioration in today’s culture to be able to know what technology is worth keeping and what is worth tossing.. clearly, fb, Twitter, and all the other nsa backdoor devices can be thrown in the trash can, including the link you have shared.. thanks though, as I feel it is a nice departure from talking, or reading about kashoggi!

Posted by: james | Oct 15 2018 13:52 utc | 9

7
The hand of Isreal and their Rothschild’s minions in France and Germany and Ukraine is incredibly clear. The solution is incredibly easy. Bus all the refugees to Kiev and Tel Aviv, lol. Call their bluff.

Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 15 2018 14:48 utc | 11

11
Capitalism is not ‘modern’. What’s ‘modern’ is the Protestant morality that rose up against the Royal use of capitalism, and the Judeo-Catholic religion that rose up in parallel with it. Old Capitalism is, in fact, somewhat passe.
Now all you need is hot fiat credit-debt under an overweening amoral Judeo-Catholic religion and law of the jungle Federal US-EU supra-state, together with energy-dense fossil fuel and machine industry that can accomplish anything it chooses.
¿New Energy Carbon Catholic Global Tithe-Tribute Usury? Sure, go for it! ¿$40Trillion Suicide Squad Mission Mars Nee New ICBM Program? Round third, round third, and go in standing up!
2008 was our financial 9/11. It burned, it soldered, …and now they’re gonna pull it.

Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 15 2018 15:01 utc | 13

@11
Using the phrase “modern capitalism” does not mean that the writer is claiming that “capitalism is modern” and I don’t think that that was a point Hanauer was making. But “maximizing shareholder value” is a relatively modern concept that dates to 1976 I believe, (Meckling and Jensen) and is an article of faith among too many capitalists in my opinion.
Anyhow, here are two links:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/10/destroy-neoliberalism-kill-homo-economicus.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2017/04/27/harvard-business-review-the-pernicious-nonsense-of-maximizing-shareholder-value/#4729f0f971f0

Posted by: spudski | Oct 15 2018 15:27 utc | 15

If you’re interested in Iran, you may enjoy a new article by Ramin Mazaheri over at the Saker. It’s his summary of the book called “Da” by Zahrah Hoseyni. The 700-page personal account became an instant best-seller in Iran, and is considered the definitive Iranian view of the war that was waged by the west and Iraq against Iran.
Hoseyni is a Basra, Iraqi-born Kurd whose family immigrated to Iran, and who loved her new country in a way that “overwhelmed all reason and logic”.
Mazaheri says of her:

The book is a memoir of Seyyedeh (indicating lineage from Prophet Mohammad) Zahra Hoseyni, a teenager who was living with her extremely poor but tight-knit family on the border city of Khorramshahr. The city was the first to be sneak-attacked by the Iraqis, and the massacres and devastation wrought there would be reflected by a Farsi pun on the city’s name: “City of Blood”.

I don’t think I can post a link to the article but it shouldn’t be hard to find. The Saker’s site is “thesaker dot is” and the article is called:
“Iran’s definitive account of the Iraq war: Written by a female Iraqi Kurd”.
I recommend Mazaheri’s article for yet another taste from him of the true soul of Iran and its society. If you’re new to him, his writing style gets a little combative at times as he snarks back at prevailing western misunderstandings and propagandized views of socialist revolutionary nations, and Iran. But it’s always worth overlooking these minor excursions in order to gain the heart of what he’s saying.
One of the important things he’s saying here is that the west has no understanding of war, and treats it like a game, while the Iranian people have a totally clear knowledge of war, and treat it as a horror, against which they will defend their nation to the last. The west would do well to learn this about its supposed next victim.

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 15 2018 15:52 utc | 17

Danger Route;A movie from 67,where spy murders Russian spy who defector.

Posted by: dahoit | Oct 15 2018 15:54 utc | 19

In our world there is deffinatelly more than meets the eye.
[cut for length and lack of sensible content – b.]

Posted by: Greece | Oct 15 2018 16:29 utc | 21

Hope @4
Could it be that Khashoggi’s death motivated a change in Assange’s circumstances? Ecuador didn’t want activists drawing parallels? Assange is also a publisher/reporter that has/had been silenced.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 15 2018 17:01 utc | 23

Greece @ 22
Dam ! That must be some good stuff your smoking there bro ! Way to strong for me though. There’s enough weard stuff going on back here in reality. I’d have a kip if I were you! That kind of stuff only serves to discredit this blog, or is that your motive ?

Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 15 2018 17:35 utc | 25

6
We live in an neoliberal global Imperfect Usufructarocracy:
—
USUFRUCT, civil law. The right of enjoying a thing, the property of which is vested in another person, and to draw from the same all the profit, utility and advantage which it may produce, provided it be with or without altering the substance of the thing.
Usufructs are of two kinds; perfect and imperfect.
Perfect usufruct, which is of things owned by another which the usufructuary can enjoy without altering their substance, though their substance may be diminished or deteriorated naturally by time or by the use to which they are applied; as a slum tenement, Federal land, draft animals, slaves and other monetizable effects.
Imperfect or quasi usufruct, which is of things owned by another which would be useless to the usufructuary if they did not consume and expend them, or change the substance of them, as taxes, tithes, fees, penalties, usury, grains, liquors.
From Trumpistan Civ. Code of Lehman
—
Now run, Forrest, run! Your 3Q18 $1,000,000,000,000 tithe-tribute to the Imperfect Usufructarocracy is due by midnight tonight!

Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 15 2018 18:27 utc | 27

B, you should talk about the recent Facebook and Twitter purge that happened recently. At least 800 pages and accounts on Facebook were taking down with tens of millions of followers in total. Twitter also followed suit in taking down accounts. I fear that alternative media is now under attack.
Anyone have any opinions on this development?

Posted by: TruthFinder | Oct 15 2018 18:49 utc | 29

The British government has decided to test a scheme whereby postal workers check on lonely or unwell people on their rounds and are encouraged to stop and say hello. Interviewed by the BBC a postal worker responded that before privatization – by the very same government – of what was once a national resource he would have had time to do this, but with the new private owners he has been “Amazonized” with his every optimal step calculated by computer. If he stops he won’t be able to finish his round. All around the world great national assets have been sold off at fire sale prices to speculators in the name of efficiency. Efficiency for whom?
And echoing points made earlier what the hell use to society is a share or a stock?
There is a common misconception that shareholders fund companies. They do occasionally through new rights issues but most corporate financing is taken from cash they generate in-house. And when companies need some extra cash, isn’t that what banks are for? Worked well in Germany and Japan for decades post WWII and may just explain why their products were so much better than their Anglo-American equivalents.

Posted by: Lochearn | Oct 15 2018 19:15 utc | 31

@TruthFinder #30
I do have an opinion and I think it is scary.
However it is to be expected. It is the sign of a lying cheating empire in decay. The empire frantically tries to maintain its grip on the world while its power is fading away. It will get worse, much worse until it gets better.

Posted by: Joost | Oct 15 2018 19:30 utc | 33

Greece @ 22
Dam ! That must be some good stuff your smoking there bro ! Way to strong for me though. There’s enough weard stuff going on back here in reality. I’d have a kip if I were you! That kind of stuff only serves to discredit this blog, or is that your motive ?
Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 15, 2018 1:35:51 PM | 26

I am
[cut for length and lack of sensible content – b.]

Posted by: Greece | Oct 15 2018 19:50 utc | 35

TruthFinder @30–
Please see this report proving those banned were being lined up for said outcome in 2016.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 15 2018 20:00 utc | 37

My little theory, for what it’s worth. Khashoggi and Erdogan are old MB friends. Khashoggi, a pretty streetwise guy by the looks of it, must have been aware of the dangers of entering any Saudi consulate with the exception of one in the US… or Turkey, where he and Erdogan may have hatched a plan whereby the fifteen members of the assassination squad that were bound to arrive would be arrested by Turkish authorities on arrival. Then their cover would be blown, the plot exposed and MBS would get the flak. But Erdogan is, as we all know, a treacherous beast and Khashoggi was worth more dead than alive, so he let the op go ahead.

Posted by: Lochearn | Oct 15 2018 20:20 utc | 39

Wait and see, the audio WILL be released on the eve of MbS BS DesertDavos, or on its inauguration, so that we see the distorted faces of Lagarde and consort “feel so sorry to be there”.

Posted by: Mina | Oct 15 2018 20:27 utc | 41

@ 22: WTF? Ya’ think people read all that BS. Please, write a book, and if you post, be a bit more brief.
The longer the comment, the less people read it..
Posted by: ben | Oct 15, 2018 3:13:53 PM | 31

I get it
[cut for length and lack of sensible content – b.]

Posted by: Greece | Oct 15 2018 20:43 utc | 43

Bernard, the ego tripping user Greece is unbearable; please block when going over some max size.

Posted by: bjd | Oct 15 2018 20:55 utc | 45

karlof1 @ 25, thanks for the link – I have been following the Orthodoxy controversy so do appreciate the uptodate. I cannot say I am expert in all the convolutions of it, just that my own non-affiliated church, which had some unique aspects such as links both to the Old Calendar of the Russian church and to the dastardly ‘ecumenism’ movement no longer has a physical presence in the US. For those not in the know, for the Orthodox in general, the EP or Ecumenical Patriarchate was substituted way back for Rome when that great division occurred, and it has seniority within Orthodoxy though not a Papal sovereignty as now Catholicism does have.
I tried to unravel for myself the history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and suffice it to say, there is no clear ‘right or wrong’ in all of it. So I can’t side with anyone, only to proffer the following from a comment at one of the sites:
“This is what Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans is all about – the insufficiency of the Law/logic/dialectical reasoning to bring salvation. Christ came to us as a person, with all the messy, illogical and non-black-and-white that real Personhood (both human and God) means…”
I realize this isn’t a religious blog, but peace in our time is, and my hope is that those involved in this situation will settle their differences peacefully. It couldn’t hurt.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 15 2018 21:51 utc | 47

Truthfinder@30
Alternative media is “almost” wiped out as it is and with few exceptions, most are just looser extensions of MSM with much disinfo provided among a few golden niggets of truth thrown in for credibility
Control is exercised by those funding with donations as well as the beasts that control search engine results
Not to mention hacking of servers that host sites who dare speak too much truth
Comments are either not permitted or heavily censored/tracked using some of the more popular comment services and heavily moderated/censored by the site owner. Those who permit free discussion get invaded by paid astro turfers who attempt to influnce the discussion, and failing that attempt to totally derail/discredit any discussion with adhominim attacks or hate speech
Probably going to have to go back to weekly magazines soon although the post office is better able to restrict distribution than it was in the pre-internet era, and some of those magazines were CIA publications who were the equivalent of some of todays so called alternative media sites.

Posted by: Pft | Oct 15 2018 22:04 utc | 49

Lands East of Euphrates next after Idlib, and mandate for Turks to disarm terrorists within Idlib has lapsed with Turks asking for more time. My sources are very quiet about what will occur next. But if the East is to follow Idlib, then Idlib Dawn must begin before the Eastern situation further deteriorates.
juliania @48–
You’re most welcome! This translated article posted at The Saker shines more light on that happening. IMO, the entire affair has everything to do with geopolitics and nothing with religion, although relations within the Orthodox World over the past 100 years were rocky at times with various levels of angst remaining between the players.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 15 2018 22:15 utc | 51

@30, If there were no patents or copyrights, there would be no social media or search engine monopolies. The world would think nothing if one of the many media providers cut off communications with, and removed the pages and other contents of 800 customers all at once. But where there is but one or a few social media providers its a big deal . What makes it a big deal is private property laws prevent millions of social media for existing to compete. There is just no competition at all, its a monopoly. If there were no monopoly (patents or copyrights): there would be millions of faceXs, TweetXs, and GooXs published in all kinds of languages with all kinds of interesting creative contents and all kinds of unique and capable search engines.
It there were no property-law-created monopolies; there would be many, many Xs. There would be no one owner or no one exclusive provider deals. Purging 800 customers with millions of pages of content each, would be no big deal, because the same pages would be, at the same time, published on nearly all of the competing social media. For competition to exist there needs to be no monopoly. The monopolies are patents, copyrights and deeds.
IMO it will not be long before someone comes up with some way to circumvent these privately owned public media.

Posted by: boldenough | Oct 15 2018 23:27 utc | 53

@10 James
I agree the article is trash. The facts about Uber, Airbnb, FB and Alibaba are not though. I grabbed the 1st result.
I disagree with much of donkeytales @6 and was reacting to:
“Merely the thought of a competing globalist banking system is absurd on its face and should be enough for any intelligent layman to understand the occurrence of systemic change can happen only as the greater bulk of real wealth underlying a currency grows great enough over time to supercede the wealth represented by current denominations.
I think there is alot of nonsense in what he wrote, but wanted to try and understand his view.
(Looks like you got the bt keyboard?)
b4real

Posted by: b4real | Oct 15 2018 23:53 utc | 55

According to Donald Trump:

“………President Donald Trump suggested Monday that “rogue killers” could be behind the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman about the case.
Trump told White House reporters that Salman offered him a “flat denial” in relation to the disappearance of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who was last seen in public when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey on October 2.
Later Monday, the Saudis were preparing to admit that Khashoggi died during an interrogation that went wrong, one that was intended to lead to his abduction from Turkey, according to two sources…….”

Putin said (in discussing the CCTV pictures of Petrov and Boshirov):

“……….“We know who they are, we found them,” he said at a panel with the leaders of China and Japan. “I hope they will appear on their own to talk about themselves, that will be better for everyone. There’s nothing especially criminal there, I assure you.”…….”

The Saudis lied when they said the killing of Khashoggi was by a rogue element within the Saudi government and Putin lied when he laughingly tried to convince the public that Petrov and Boshirov were just a couple of tourists visiting Britain. These are both rogue authoritarian regimes. The hit on Skripal and the hit on Khashoggi were planned at the highest levels of their respective governments.

Posted by: craigsummers | Oct 16 2018 1:30 utc | 57

Instead of limiting the length of Greece’s posts, why not block any post without at least one idea?

Posted by: Guerrero | Oct 16 2018 6:00 utc | 59

John Helmer’s latest:
Kremlin Endorses Kudrin Capitulation To US ‘Restrictions’
http://johnhelmer.net/kremlin-endorses-kudrin-capitulation-to-us-restrictions/#more-19903

Posted by: John Gilberts | Oct 16 2018 7:38 utc | 61

one less cia journalist. hooray!

Posted by: jezabeel | Oct 16 2018 10:11 utc | 63

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, dies at age 65.
(There are still things that money can’t buy)
Microsoft’s success was largely due to Gates/Allen having a broader vision, and bigger balls, than the entire brains trust of IBM.
IBM effectively handed MicroSoft the keys to the Computer Kingdom on the threshold of the Computer Age.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 16 2018 12:07 utc | 65

Jackrabbit,
Far from ignoring the “new cold war”:
….a subordinate world of national politics of many countries also controlled and dominated by the same elites (and their lackeys) whose job it is to “educate”, “explain” and “rationalise” the fact of its debt enslavement to .998 of the world’s population.
Once again Jackrabbit, thanks for playing your part. You are [almost] unique in your overuse of repetition but I appreciate the attention. Truly, it ishelpful.
Anton Worter 28,
Thanks for the legal lesson. Your math may be slightly off. You forgot to deduct the net value of your social security check.

Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 16 2018 12:52 utc | 67

@Greece | Oct 15, 2018 12:29:07 PM | 22
Or as the Bard put it…
“There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.

Posted by: Ross | Oct 16 2018 13:04 utc | 69

@Lochearn | Oct 15, 2018 3:15:48 PM | 32
re Royal Mail ‘privatisation’
As I appear to be the only person in the world to have noticed this I will pass it on to you. A few years back, out of the blue, George ‘cokehead’ Osborne announced that the mail was to be sold off. This had not been in any manifesto, it just appeared as a ‘policy initiative’. Financial experts had determined the price to be £3bn, and Osborne said that they weren’t going to bother throwing a few crumbs off the oligarchs table to the plebs as they had done in the 1980s (although he didn’t use that exact terminology) and it would be sold exclusively to ‘financial institutions’. Democracy in action.
The sale duly went ahead. A year or so later a HM Treasury audit team announced that the Royal Mail had actually been worth £4bn, which itself was a somewhat conservative estimate. So Osborne had skimmed at least a billion of the top for the benefit of said ‘financial institutions’. However, this was not corruption, as this was the UK and corruption only happens in foreign parts.
There was not outcry, no criminal investigation, no frothing press demanding Osborne’s head on a platter. Just twenty quid silently nicked off every single man, woman and child in the country. Makes yer feel proud, don’t it?

Posted by: Ross | Oct 16 2018 13:22 utc | 71

American Mercenaries Were Hired To Assassinate Politicians In The Middle East
Long story – UAE hired Israeli and U.S. special forces to assassinate Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Aden, Yemen.
Posted by: b | Oct 16, 2018 7:04:24 AM | 65

Is this the same guy?
Leave No One Behind: An American Gets Snared in the Balkan Knot
March 6, 2018 (Foreign Policy Research Institute.)

. Mr. Corbett, said Informer‘s Interior Ministry source, works for a “well-known international security agency owned by an Israeli who is close to Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj,” whom the report calls “the leaders of the fake state (lažne države) of Kosovo. Hashim Thaçi and Ramush Haradinaj are Kosovo Albanian political figures and, respectively, the president and the prime minister of the Republic of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in early 2008.
“The most likely scenario,” according to what Informer called its confidential source in the Serbian Interior Ministry, is that Mr. Corbett “arrived in Serbia on the orders of Albanian extremists (šiptarskih ekstremista) as part of a wider conspiracy involving both Albanian extremists and Western security services, whose aim was to provoke chaos in Serbia.”

Well, most likely if it’s the same guy, it arrived in Albania with orders of the Mossad since the security agency owned by the Israeli man must be nothing else than an Israeli front.
There Is No Heaven Or Hell. There Is Only The Mossad
Following: Another small gem of Mossad Ops in Youtube?
(They certainly croudsource their dissinfo operations, meaning spreading BS using the public itself to disseminate it)
George Webb: Day 3.4. Drugs For Weapons Nephew Khashoggi Tortured/Murdered In Turkey
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MP28Xx_UedI
??

Posted by: Greece | Oct 16 2018 14:08 utc | 73

Greece/regime-Change-Operations/Central-Athens-P.D-attacked/Anarchist-groups
“Omonoia Square” Police Department downtown Athens yesterday attacked at afternoon rush hourdown with streets full of people. It was supposed to be the best guarded Police department in the Greek cpital, after the multistoried Police HQ located not far away.
https://youtu.be/og-AnduipvY
70 individuals, in querilla style coordination, squeezed trough the numerous teams of 4/people police units on guard at the time at the nearby public crossroads, armed with molotov bobms (there is high chance they were were also carrying automatic fire weapons but this never mas it to the whitewhashed news) leaving 4 policemen injured, police station damaged and lots of car damage. The whole episode laste nearly 50 seconds under a minute.
still no actuall videos showing the full extend of the damages, so it might be partially a staged event.
By estimations of who consist these groups. They have a leftist cover, supported by anarchist/leftists illegal media outlets, yet their “announcements” afre being plasted everywhere for their “laying claim” after each attack, or “information operations” (typical of foreign agenture guerila type reverse-gladio/stay-behind methodology, mostly being developed as “ANTIFA” movement in West Germanyfter end of WWII) This trend carries on since their emergence. After 2004 (NSA eavesdropping scandal in Athens Olympics year that later escalated in widespread blackmail political instability, financial turmoil and Greece bankrupting in 2011-12) the profile of the groups changed, while maintaining their leftist/anarchist political style the actual persons are of Albanian origin mostly around 80% of persons. They seem (according to analyses) relatives mostly of families having connections with Albanian Police/Military and thus the parliament. It is believed they are the handles and gatekeepers of the Israeli inteligence drug trade through the Balkans, after the Kosovo wars.
Current “leftist” Greek government doesn’t seem able to contain their operations since they they have many skeletons in their own closets after cooperating with George Soros groups during the Yugoslavian (Balkan) wars, probably acting as cover groups themselves for CIA/Mossad/MI6 or smilar outlets.
Since late 2015/early 2016 the center of Athens and many of what used to be former high esteemed central Athens neighborhoods are being bought up on the cheap by individuals/families/foreign real estate agents (some times carrying Turkish passports but with high percentage of being turkish/jewish origins) and Israeli nationals.
The main reasons for the recent attacks that are escalating in force and frequency seem to be because actors outside of Greece and the EU (D.Trump/Kushner/Israel/Saudis) are covertly funding and promoting “regime change” in Greece, meanwhile US is pressuring to establish in mainland Greece numerous new and sensitive istallations of high strategic value.
THAAD missile systems, Stealth airplanes F-22 (in fact F-22 was specifically mentioned near/close or in Karpathos island) (Alexandropolis for 100 NATO attack helicopter Electronic Warfare base.Purely foreign US-NATO) and nuclear storages (maybe some storage of Turkey’s Incirlick) has been rumored, without any prior knowledge /decision for the Greek parliament, locals etc. The Suda base in Crete is on the largement phase of being able to receive damaged carrier groups (repair and storage) and an entirely new underwater base for submarines has already been signed with the current Greek gov, at same location.
When/if the elections come, the main expected winner and new future PM of Greece will be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyriakos_Mitsotakis K.Mitsotakis. Son of deceassed K.Mitsotakis.
K.Mitsotakis reigned in Greek political scene as also a PM, (during the fall of former Soviet Union 1989/1991) with New-Democracy right wing party.
A rumored Nazi collaborator and of antiquitty hoarding illegaly. A known family acting like a political mafia in Crete and alsoresponsible for the large and unrestricted American presence in the island of Crete.
(What is this all relevant for, well, It is an open thread, meaning “no specific subject matter”. Of course IT ALL TIES TOGETHER)

Posted by: Greece | Oct 16 2018 16:02 utc | 75

b4real…. didn’t get any but yet..
b, thanks for the article on uae hiring the USA mercenaries.. the guy Golan has no problem making money killing whoever the paymaster asks to be murdered, or killed.. that is the beautiful thing about having money as your god… so long as you don’t have a shred of ethics or morals, all is well.. kind of sums up the mind set of capitalism and the uae, or USA for that matter.. who cares whether someone is a terrors, or mother Theresa, so long as uae is paying..
actually the USA operates in much the same way as witnessed by its tacit approval of MBS interrogation gone wrong bullshite… it is all about money and positioning.. Golan could just as easily work for the mafia.. maybe that is wrong.. the mafia has a lot more principal and integrity then him!
@77 Anton.. I tend to see it like you… curious if the others respond to you..

Posted by: james | Oct 16 2018 16:43 utc | 77

FYI–It seems like yesterday we were discussing topics and papers delivered at last year’s Valdai Club Annual Meeting, but a year has passed and the 15th session began yesterday and goes through the 18th. Here’s the Programme:
” This year’s topic is “Russia: Agenda for the 21st Century.” This is not accidental. At the forefront is Russia, its political and socio-economic prospects, social and cultural development, place in the emerging world.”
Putin usually attends the Plenary Session, which occurs the 18th. Lavrov is scheduled to appear for an hour meeting a few hours prior.
Living in a Crumbling World is the title of the Club’s Annual Report; and despite what many see as movement from a Unipolar to Multipolar World, the Report strikes a contrarian tone in its introduction:
“{T}he world has now passed a critical juncture with regard to the formation of an effectively functioning international order based on global governance. That is, the world is now moving in a different direction. It has slipped into a clear and undeniable trend of unilateral decision-making. And, although this process is essentially unmanageable, we must strive to understand its consequences.”
If you’ve been paying attention, Putin’s and Lavrov’s rhetoric over the past several months has brought up that aspect of events, and the Khashoggi murder is just another bit of evidence proving their case.
As usual, there’s a wealth of essays, videos and infographics to peruse, all of which are very educational and too numerous to link.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 16 2018 20:46 utc | 79

81
Here’s a reason to get pissed off if there ever was one: the Deep Purple Mil.Gov UniParty started cooking the books under Reagan 2 and by the time of Clinton 2 was in full swing. Where before they spoke of Fed Government as a Percentage of GDP, first they inflated GDP to include that same Mil.Gov spending, then under Clinton, added in all the synthetic spending on Wall Street, so they can massaginate $1,000B in Pentagon spending as ‘not even 5% of GDP!’
And everyone bought it. Everyone bought the Blue is Labor and Red is Corporate bullish*t, but both the Red and Blue Congress passed a *veto proof* Gramm-Leigh-Bliley Coup, and both Red and Blue Congress passed a *veto proof* No Taxes for the Rich bill, and now $23,500,000,000,000 in Mil,Gov spending is 176% of *real* GDP.
So your real ‘choice’ isn’t to vote Red or Blue in three weeks, you real choice is ‘Get Blue Team, or die trying’. Or as Trump and ‘Ye like to put it, ‘Get busy lying, or get busy (dumpster) diving.’

Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 16 2018 22:41 utc | 81

80
Speaking of ‘unilateral decision making’, Bill Gates just announced he is underwriting a Washington State Carbon Tax initiative on the ballot, ‘the first such tax in the nation!’ NPR is ballyhooing. Well not the first attempt at one. Back in 2006, they floated a ‘carbon license fee’, then after push-back, decided it was a ‘carbon licence tab’, with the same tab cost for an 18-wheeler as for a bicycle (yes, the tab fee would have also applied to bicycles!)
That referendum initiative was wildly hooted down, then lost at the polls. USAryans and generally stupid, but not that stupid. Then the State tried a second carbon tax initiative during Obama, but citizen’s groups who challenged where the ‘carbon’ revenue would be directed, received the response, ‘For more environmental studies’ and then when pushed, State government admitted is would go exclusively to more resource agency staff-up, higher salaries and fatter pensions!
Later I applied for one of these environmental jobs at a local suburban City, advertising for an ‘environmental program manager’. There were four people at the interview, the general manager, and three other environmental program managers, for a town of 16,000 citizens. Paid $75,000 plus free healthcare plus PERS pension. Thrilled, I asked what the “environmental program” was that I would try to grow into a “full-blown citizens movement”. The general manager held up a poster-board, ‘Pick Up Your Dog Poop!’/b>, then she shrugged, “We just don’t have time to take this on, we’re all so over-worked!” When she said ‘over-worked’, her face looked exactly like Norman Bates saying, “She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
I staggered outside and threw up in the bushes.
Now they are hoping with this third carbon tax voter initiative to genocide Millenials by tithe-taxing them out of chi-chi $650,000 townhouse urban areas with a unilateral indefinite indeterminate energy cost burden, and Millenials, being young, barefoot and easily duped, will vote Blue, and then they will cut their own throats with a Green razor blade.
WINNING!!

Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 16 2018 23:18 utc | 83

Anton @ 82. LMAO, I just realised…something.

Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 17 2018 1:34 utc | 85

re: the poodled media ‘controlled dissent’, and all that
Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 16, 2018 12:04:02 PM | 77

What is going to replace Facebook, Twitter, You Tube in your opinion?

Posted by: Guerrero | Oct 17 2018 3:12 utc | 87

@peterau. thanks! this isn’t mine, but i just did what you suggested and sure enough the options are in the settings.. i told my wife what i did with her ipad.. shed doesn’t blab like i do on moa or e mail, lol. she doesn’t care.. thanks peter and for your humour and inghts on the other threads too!

Posted by: james | Oct 17 2018 14:39 utc | 89

Cuba tells fukus to fuck off,
That’s the spirit girls,
cant stand those insufferable !@#$%^!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOmk5dD-gok

Posted by: denk | Oct 18 2018 2:47 utc | 91

sorry b
forget web archive link doesnt work well with MOA,

Posted by: denk | Oct 18 2018 4:56 utc | 93

SIGH,
b
please delete the messed up link.

Posted by: denk | Oct 18 2018 5:11 utc | 95