Colin@29
For comparison you left out the narco-state of Columbia and the drug transit state of Mexico.
Interesting that the US provides about 600 million is aid to Columbia. It is not just Coco-cola that needs coca leaf production.

Posted by: Krollchem | Jun 1 2019 17:16 utc | 104

Bogged, project of the government and the Episcopate to pacify the country
BY RODRIGO VERA, MAY 16, http://WWW.PROCESO.COM.MX
Faced with the “escalation” of violence in the first months of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate (CEM) urges urgently implement the plan of peace agreed by the Church with the federal government, but which even the date is still undefined.
Being still an elected candidate, López Obrador was the one who asked for ecclesiastical support to pacify the country. And the Episcopate not only accepted, but since last September it elaborated its collaboration project for the construction of peace, making available its personnel and its infrastructure to achieve that goal.
Archbishop Carlos Garfias, vice president of the CMS and in charge of coordinating the efforts of the Mexican bishops to support the federal government, comments with concern:
“Violence is still very present, very alive. The statistics show that it has intensified. Faced with this reality of violence, today it becomes more urgent to implement the peace and reconciliation project that we have agreed with the federal government. ”
Monsignor Alfonso Miranda, general secretary of the CEM, seconded: “We all need to participate. No one, alone, can solve the problem of violence in the country. And as far as the Church is concerned, we are still in the best disposition to collaborate. ”
However, eight months after the Episcopate presented its collaboration project, both prelates indicate that “with the government we are still in a stage of rapprochement, approach and search for greater dialogue.”
Garfias abounds: “We have not yet defined what the collaboration route will be. First of all, we need to dialogue with an instance of direct dialogue, but also determine very clearly how we will contribute our projects. All that is to be defined. ”
This lack of definition is due in large part to the federal government. In the beginning, as president-elect, López Obrador appointed Loretta Ortiz as the person in charge of the process of pacification and interlocutor with the Church. Ortiz got the support of the CEM, the Society of Jesus and the Holy See itself, all with extensive experience in peace processes. Even Ortiz even invited Pope Francis to Mexico to give a message of encouragement.
In an interview with this weekly, in October of last year, Loretta Ortiz enthusiastically announced that she would have an office in the Ministry of Security, through which she would coordinate the efforts of the government and the Church.
He assured then: “My unit will be called Human Security and Peace Processes. It will be the coordinating center for the pacification of the country and will depend on the new Secretariat of Security. Like the Catholic, other churches can join our efforts, as well as social organizations “(Process 2189).
Failed interaction
When Lopez Obrador assumed the Presidency, Loretta Ortiz was relegated from that encomienda and even later contended to be a minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, a position that she did not manage to achieve.
Now, according to the bishops Carlos Garfias and Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, the Episcopate no longer has a dialogue with Ortiz, but with several officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the current Secretariat for Security and Citizen Protection, whose holders are Olga Sánchez Cordero and Alfonso Durazo , respectively.
The prelates indicate that they have met separately with both Sánchez Cordero and Durazo. But mainly, they say, they have held meetings with the team of Diana Álvarez Maury, undersecretary of Citizen Participation, Participatory Democracy and Civil Organizations, of the Interior.
These officials, they say, present their proposals for collaboration that at the time were exposed to Loretta Ortiz and were delineated in the Plan of the Catholic Church for the construction of peace, a document issued by the Episcopate on September 11. last year, in response to the invitation of López Obrador to collaborate in the pacification.
This indicates, for example, the willingness of the CMS to collaborate with its so-called “listening centers”, parish spaces that it is opening throughout the country and where spiritual and legal attention is given to the victims of violence. Each listening center has a team of psychologists, lawyers, priests and lay people who carry out this social work.
The collaboration plan also lists six “actions” of the Episcopate to achieve peace:
First: “to support the clergy in dioceses vulnerable to violence”; second: to promote among priests, seminarians and laity “training for the service of mediation in situations of conflict”; third: to prepare the seminarians in “strategies for the construction of peace”; fourth: train priests in the management of “situations of pain and death”; fifth: disseminate “security protocols” in the presbytery, and sixth: create “crisis committees”.
And while the collaboration between the Episcopate and the government remains unspecified, official figures reveal that the first quarter of 2019 was the most violent in the history of the country, registering 8,493 executions, more than 7,667 registered in the same period last year.
Concerned about this increase in violence, CEM issued a statement on Thursday 2, in the framework of its recent plenary assembly. The bishops point out: “We are doing the anguish of the country, which continues to suffer violence, insecurity, poverty, inequality, political uncertainty, environmental deterioration and social inequality.”
In that assembly – held from April 29 to May 3 – the almost 150 Mexican bishops analyzed the current escalation of violence, especially during the exhibition on the subject that made them -with graphs and statistics- Dr. Rodrigo Guerra López, member of the Diocese for the Integral Human Development Service.
The warnings of the CEM
Separately, some bishops issue warning signals about the increase in violence in their respective dioceses. For example, the Cuernavaca, Ramón Castro, issued a statement on April 18 in which he said:
“Morelos is experiencing the worst moment in its history in terms of security; the bloodshed is scandalous and the way criminal groups operate is increasingly unpunished.
“They are already 453 executed in three and a half months. The insecurity that lives Morelos is strong, the most serious of its history, never before so many people had been killed in such a short time. Given this complex situation we see a Morelos hurt, hurt, angry, but also apathetic and indifferent in the face of this situation of violence. ”
And he urged the government and society of Morelos to “join efforts” in order to “recover the peace that we long for”.
While the bishop of the turbulent Michoacán diocese of Apatzingán, Cristóbal Ascencio García, said in a statement on April 16 that the “power struggle” between “armed groups” is causing “devastating events” in the region, among which he mentioned murders recent, as well as parochial houses and temples “outraged with bullets with weapons of high power”.
And last April 23, in the Chamber of Deputies, Carlos Garfias said that the recent massacre in Minatitlán -in which 13 people were murdered- is “another expression of the situation of violence that our country continues to have and that demands give organicity to our efforts to build peace ”
He added that “there are many efforts and many attempts to achieve peace, but they are isolated actions. With the Minatitlan massacre we have a stronger challenge to implement a precise project in which we all participate. ”
That day, Garfias and Alfonso Miranda were at the San Lázaro campus to present the film documentary Tragedia y crucol del priccercio in Mexico, which deals with the escalation of murders against priests, which some analysts already describe as a “clericide”.
There, before some legislators, Bishop Miranda read a speech where he reiterated the disposition of the Episcopate to collaborate in the process of pacification. He pointed out that “not only in the field of reflection, but above all in that of action, many bishops, priests and lay people have become defenders of human rights.”
He also mentioned in his speech the infrastructure currently available to the Episcopate to collaborate with the government: 20 human rights centers, 35 listening centers to assist victims of violence, 119 migrant homes, eight care centers for relatives of missing, 97 prisoner care groups, 151 orphanages and 34 centers for children and women in street situations, among other “social works”.
In search of new routes
Garfias and Miranda chat with the reporter during a recess in the plenary assembly of bishops, held at the headquarters of the CEM, the imposing bunker located in a depopulated area of Lake Guadalupe and where the bishops were in retreat during the five days of sessions.
Monsignor Garfias shrugs and reiterates:
-The collaboration between the government and the Episcopate remains undefined. There is no route definition. We are still in the stage of approaching and making proposals.
– And what proposals have been made for the moment?
– For example, there is the possibility of creating a National Council for the Construction of Peace, composed of the authorities, the Church and civil society. Besides, there is our proposal to promote a project of education and training for peace. We meanwhile have been working on this project in some parts of the country.
Current Archbishop of Morelia and Vice President of the CEM for the triennium 2018-2021, Garfias has extensive experience in processes of pacification and victim assistance. For example, being archbishop of Acapulco, he was the first to open the listening centers that have now spread throughout the country. In August of last year, the Episcopate appointed him his representative before the government of López Obrador to collaborate in the pacification, for which he participated -invited by Loretta Ortiz- in the forums for peace that took place at that time.
Now, Garfias points out that, for the time being, Alfonso Durazo thinks it’s a good idea to work together in the listening centers. Add:
“The listening centers can be the starting point of our collaboration with the government, because in these spaces the victims are directly served. This is very important, since first you need to rebuild the person and then move on to rebuild the community.
“If the injured person is not reconciled with himself, he will never be able to rebuild the social fabric. That’s why we think that the listening centers will be the starting point, and it seems that there is good government willingness to do so. ”
-These listening centers are usually in the parishes, can the government then access these ecclesiastical spaces?
-The idea is that the centers are expanding to other spaces: to the school environments, to the colonies … Already with a national plan, you can even schedule the annual opening of a certain number of listening centers, to install them in different points and make them available to victims.
Regarding the so-called “centers of reconciliation”, where the Church gathers the victims with their perpetrators to promote reconciliation and forgiveness, as a next stage to the listening centers, Garfias still sees very far that can be implemented in collaboration with the government.
And not to mention a more advanced stage implemented by the Bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Salvador Rangel, who already talks directly with the leaders of the drug cartels. This position is rejected by the government, under the argument that it does not talk with criminals. But the Episcopate accepts it, leaving each bishop at liberty to talk to the capos.
“These are particular circumstances, something very personal that each bishop can implement to carry out his apostolate. It is a very concrete, very precise way to build peace, “concludes Garfias.
Thus, apart from the fact that the collaboration between the government and the Church has yet to be defined, it seems that, if it becomes concrete, it will have certain limits.
This report was published on May 12, 2019 in the 2219 edition of the magazine Proceso
LA PAX NARCA OF THE BOARD RÉGiMEN, HERE AND NOW ON LA 4-7
by Raymundo Riva Palacio and Neri.
May 14 was the morning that brought the surprise in the National Palace; President López listed his priorities in the fight against drug trafficking.
.
First, take care of the causes, which you have said are socio-economic.
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Then, have the National Guard, which is a quick reaction force, like a SWAT team.
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Then a campaign aimed at young people, to raise awareness about the evils of addiction.
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After that, “agreements with the United States”, which is not clear what it means, and to modify the police approach to combating drugs, to place it as a health issue, which has to do with prevention and campaigns so that they do not become consumed narcotics
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Finally, the bomb. “I do not rule out the possibility of reaching a peace agreement,” the president said.
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The press asked him for immediate clarification. “With the narco?” He was asked. “With everyone,” he replied. “Everyone to behave well”.
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The subject was no longer discussed. But this Thursday, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection published in the Official Gazette of the Federation what the president mentioned.
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It was the National Public Security Strategy, which has eight objectives that seek the ethical regeneration of criminals and murderers so that they stop committing crimes, opening the possibility for them to lead legal and regular businesses.
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With this, it was established, it is wanted “to undertake the construction of peace,” and that there be a demobilization, disarmament and reintegration process.
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“Violence obliges us to put on the table solutions applied in other countries to armed conflicts,” says the strategy.
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By re-educating them and injecting ethical values, they dream, they will see the possibility of increasing their life expectancy, leading a quiet life without worries and, even, reaching social respectability.
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If the document is not a joke in bad taste for Mexicans, the strategy of marras is a mixture of ingenuity, ignorance, confusion or, perhaps, tramp perversity.
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A button of sample is when in its plea of the reconstruction of the moral life of the criminals, affirms that it is the way in which the government of the United States acted in the 30s of the last century, “to put an end to the mafias that plagued your cities.
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From that process, the bonanza arose in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Miami and other investment centers. ”
,
The period referred to is the end of the Prohibition of the consumption and production of alcohol, during the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt – whom he admires and in whom López Obrador is inspired – but the conclusion of the Strategy is superficial and wrong.
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The era of prohibition was capitalized by the mafias in the United States, true, but it did not detonate the violence -which is the popular belief expanded even within the Fourth Transformation-, as argued Harvard professor Mark Moore, in a influential article that he published in The New York Times in 1989.
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Affirm that the end of Prohibition. Violence rose in some states in the hand of the change of a rural and agricultural population to a manufacturing in the urbanization of the United States.
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In those highly urban states and cities like New York and Chicago, the levels of violence remained stable.
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Speaking of the bonanza of cities as a result of the legalization of alcohol, is somewhat rocky.
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Atlantic City, 200 kilometers south of New York, was a resting place for the rich, and it was only until the late 70’s, with the opening of casinos, that it emerged as a buoyant place.
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Las Vegas was born in 1947, product of the dream of Benjamin Siegel, who opened the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in the middle of the desert.
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“Bugsy” Siegel was one of the assassins of Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and had the vision of raising an oasis of play with the support and money of the mafia.
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His birth was a byproduct of the criminal business, not as a success of the end of Prohibition.
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The Miami in which they must have thought when they wrote the strategy should be the current one, whose center is spectacular and grows every year, after having been a pit of beggars and drug addicts.
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But its brightness began in the 80’s, but with the money of Colombian drug traffickers, especially Carlos Lehder and Pablo Escobar.
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The analogy with the consequences of the Prohibition is not the only failed strategy.
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There is also the hodgepodge that the Strategy makes between what is a drug cartel, with all the illegal business in the criminal markets that create, feed and reproduce, and the armed movements, when they are proposing alternatives of negotiation with the guerrillas.
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This confusion is much more serious than that of the Prohibition, because although in the latter only show ignorance, in the options for the “construction of peace” are the details of the Devil.

Posted by: Guerrero | Jun 1 2019 17:47 utc | 106

c1ue @102–
Thanks for your reply! I spent many hours yesterday reading up on MMT and the specific ways it would help the economic situation for ordinary folk in most nations since the neoliberal model is locked-in most everywhere. In doing so, writing off debt wasn’t nearly as important as injecting money into the economic sectors that would benefit the 99%, which IMO is where the moral imperative lies. Writing off debt presents itself as a big political problem thanks to the repetitive propaganda fed to the masses meaning millions need to be re-educated and the economic charlatans and their BigLie Media allies exposed for what they are. And it’s not like Hudson’s alone in his quest. He explains the “balance-of-power” within the field of economics–what was once political-economy–thusly: The elite universities indoctrinate you into Junk Economics whereas the small, outlier universities like the University of Missouri Kansas City teach actual political-economy, but those from the elite schools get hired by the FIRE sector and use the revolving door between it and government to keep their position (I looked for the words he uses, but settled on paraphrasing). In this long, concise interview, Hudson explains how the monetary sector gained the upperhand and created today’s dysfunctional situation, along with a host of other information.
The main point the USA’s 99% need to learn is household debt differs greatly from federal government debt. The EU faces a completely different problem given its governing rules. The rest of the world’s nations need to free themselves from dollar hegemony and conduct as much business as possible in their own national currencies–and stay away from IMF/World Bank dollar denominated loans that kill the economy. As part of its BRI, China could use its enormous amount of dollars to allow nations hamstrung by IMF/World Bank dollar loans to pay off those loans and accept the nation’s currency as collateral so they can thus conduct commerce using their own currencies. This would save the indebted nation from continuing austerity as it would be able to pay China back using it’s own currency instead of having to “earn” dollars or yuan through exports. Such actions would rapidly break dollar hegemony and establish an actual free trading market using a plethora of currencies. Of course, the Outlaw US Empire would fight such as it’s already doing, but there’s very little it can do to prevent such from occurring. China of course, would need to be motivated to do such; and the way it’s being treated by the Empire, seems very motivational to me.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 1 2019 18:32 utc | 108

james 103 “how did we get to this place?”
For Australia and I think Canada and NZ, part of that is elected office holders swearing alliegence to a foreign monarch to be able to take office. We have never been an independent sovereign state.
Some appear to be obedient poodles whereas others (the anglosphere crowd) are wholehearted and enthusiastic about carrying out British or US schemes, and for Australia – to the point of enthusiastically sacrificing Australian citizens in the interests of the US or Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes
“The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an anglophone intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence”
Although the US is the face of the persecution against Assange, it is a five eyes project. Five eyes seems to me to be very much an anglosphere deep state.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jun 1 2019 21:27 utc | 110

karlof 1 #76 and ciue 102
The FED is holding over $1 Trillion in US Treasuries that it bought with 0. So those could easily be written off.
Yes, interesting that SS holds IOUs in the form of Treasuries. Since it is past pay-as-you-go, American have to pay twice first in the form of deductions and second in the form of taxes to pay off those SS Treasuries.

Posted by: Curtis | Jun 1 2019 22:09 utc | 112

@ karlof1 with the Assange link, thanks
I like the meme link of Assange to MLK. I am sure that some blacks will not like it but when you look at the “Speaking Truth to Power” aspect and potential ramifications, I think it works. And, we don’t know if Assange is dead yet but where are the Skripal’s?
As as to the observation that your Outlaw Empire includes the UK now as a partner, it shows support for why I continue to call for an end to global private finance……I posit that until/unless a Fortune 500 biggest global trust funds is compiled and released, we haven’t a clue where the elite of centuries all live or who they are. The Rothschild name is in the news for it currently running its annual gathering of elite but do those folks really represent all that own FED, Bank of England, BIS, World Bank, all the multi-national corporations, the MSM, etc.?
I don’t care and think humanity is poorly served by going after individuals when the structure of our social contract with private finance instead of public represents the core of the international conflicts going on and the dysfunctional contortions like war that mankind is going through to keep the elite of the West in power.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 1 2019 23:50 utc | 114

China to finally get involved in Syraq conflict:
“An informed Iraqi source present at the meeting of the center told IRNA on Saturday that given the great success of the quadripartite center and security cooperation between Iran, Iraq, Russia and Syria in the war on terrorism, some other countries, including China, have expressed their readiness.”
Yes, it would be better to get this news from a Chinese source. Given the current geopolitical situation, It would be in China’s interest to join.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 2 2019 0:25 utc | 116

@ karlof1 with the request for confirmation of China’s further involvement in geopolitics
Below is a Xinhuanet post that might do the trick
China makes 3-point proposal on enhancing defense cooperation in Asia-Pacific
The enticing quote
”
Second, to build an open and inclusive architecture for defense cooperation. Military blocs left over from the cold war were the choices of only a small number of countries and do not represent the preference of the majority of regional and international communities, Ci said.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 2 2019 0:50 utc | 118

Replies to my @116–
Thanks for those! Mine came from Chinahand’s twitter, usually an informed source. He also tweeted about this LA Times article: “For the U.S. and China, it’s not a trade war anymore — it’s something worse.”
“Officials on both sides of the Pacific have begun to portray the U.S.-China relationship in nationalistic and emotion-charged terms that suggest a much deeper conflict.”
The article provides evidence to prove the above premise, but we’ve already read such reporting by Pepe Escobar, Alastair Crooke and others. Unfortunately, few writers have attempted to describe the ideological chasm, which is actually rather simple except for the fact of BigLie Media’s longstanding misrepresentation of Neoliberalism’s Zero-Sum ethic. So, properly informing the public means having to alter the controlling narrative–something seldom done. I doubt we’ll see any English language media describe BRI as akin to the Marshall Plan but with Chinese Characteristics. Above @108 I exemplify how China could use its T-bills to rapidly undermine dollar hegemony in a manner the Outlaw US Empire can do nothing to prevent. The G-20 will be held in Osaka at the end of June, and it ought to be intense as China seems to be preparing its cards.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 2 2019 1:18 utc | 120

@Curtis #112
$1 trillion of Fed treasuries is a little less than 1 year’s worth of national debt growth at the average rate of accumulation in the past decade.
Not going to make a difference.
Furthermore, writing off Fed Treasuries doesn’t help 90%+ of American people in any way, shape or form.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 2 2019 1:28 utc | 122

c1ue @121–
Thanks for your reply! I only have time for this short response to your 2nd sentence. To get what needs to be done into the political arena and voted on, the narrative must change so that the 99%–AND–candidates/legislators are properly informed. And the narrative must change globally, not just within the Outlaw US Empire.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 2 2019 1:36 utc | 124

@ Don Bacon with the quote that included the “rules-based international order” verbiage.
That rule-based international order is code for private finance. Them that control finance make the rules….
When and how do we get to see the geo-political discussion about what constitutes this “rules-based international order”?
Probably the same time we get the Fortune 500 world biggest trust funds…..
I agree that the coming G20 could be a real shoot out at the OK corral…..but I thought last year and the previous…..when do we get to the tipping point?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 2 2019 1:46 utc | 126

@ peter and others.. further to the comments on poodle nations, here is caitlin johnstones latest
UK Foreign Secretary Defends Torturing Journalists, Then Says We Must Protect Journalists

Posted by: james | Jun 2 2019 1:58 utc | 128

james
I guess the elephant is the Empire – mostly US but I am starting to see it as much an anglo empire.
“it is like everyone touching the elephant and getting a slightly different impression of just what it is..” perhaps the many aspects of empire and the factions and interests within it. Money is a big part because wealth is power.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jun 2 2019 2:14 utc | 130

Regarding Russia and Iran, every country tends to look out for its own interests, which is the way it should be, as opposed to the US model where every ally is supposed to put US interests first. That’s where China has the advantage, generally not getting involved in other countries’ politics.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 2:20 utc | 132

@ DaffyDuct with the link about US/Russia/Israel/Iran
No facts but lots of purported conclusions I don’t buy given the game in play. It also does not include dynamics about other nations that are aligning and operating within this context.
Time will clarify all but it is encouraging to read that meetings are scheduled/happening instead of nukes lobbed

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 2 2019 2:27 utc | 134

@130 peter.. yes – anglo empire is a better way to see it…
regarding the caitlin article on jeremy hunt, i sent it to the uk conservative party via e mail.. i wonder who opens it? i told them to forward it to jeremy hunt!
OFFICE OF THE
CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN
Thank you for your email. This message is an automated response to acknowledge it has arrived safely.

Posted by: james | Jun 2 2019 2:45 utc | 136

The background story on how the US took over the reins of world hegemony from UK. “World War II was Churchill’s War, not Hitler’s war. ” . .and first UK was encouraged to take it on, then came the military defeats, then the US entry which resulted in USA #1, and no bad feelings, UK is still the top US ally. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 3:16 utc | 138

Israel also confirmed that claims of dropping bombs is helpful with an election coming up.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 3:39 utc | 140

Calm down, Circe, and stop calling other bloggers cowards. Have you risked anything lately? Do tell us about it, brave one.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 4:00 utc | 142

China will be the big player with Iran, not Russia, is how it looks now. Iran is a key player in China’s BRI because of its size and location. Plus Iran now rules in the free Middle East. That’s the future.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 4:19 utc | 144

Oh and what has your xou-xou Trump been up to in Syria while he’s distracting with investigating the investigators?
U.S. forces are bombing oil tankers in Syria and discontent with Assad grows as electricity is disrupted and fuel shortages are increasing. Syria like Iran is suffering economically from U.S. sanctions.
Oil Tankers Syria
And is Russia doing anything about this? Of course…NOT. On the contrary! What kind of duplicitous game is Russia playing to capitalize on Syrian and Iranian pain?
Russia benefits from maximum pressure on Iran
Looks like Netanyahoo can count on Putin too to do his dirty work.
I have suspected this outcome for quite some time now.

Posted by: Circe | Jun 2 2019 4:39 utc | 146

I don’t know if other MoA barflies read the comments by a “the pilots caused the crashes” person at the end of the latest 737MAX posting by b but the person was trollishly adamant about the cause.
I mention that because I just read a posting at Reuters that reported two very different opinions about if/when the plane would return to service….One was saying by summer and the other was saying they would be surprised if by Christmas.
This is a slow motion major failure example of the financialization of corporations and lots of present and future business is riding on how this resolves or doesn’t…..hence the likely paid trolls trying to effect public opinion……..because greed
Boeing is the kind of failure that is inherent in the prioritizing of profit over public good and is why empire will die of its own inconsistencies without the need for external provocation like war

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 2 2019 6:57 utc | 148

Syria attacked massively attacked by Israel.
What happend with S300? Or is that already useless?

Posted by: Zanon | Jun 2 2019 7:46 utc | 150

@karlof1 #124
Again, I disagree. There’s a reason why the major media outlets, worldwide, are owned by a handful of companies. Control of the narrative, legal or illegal funding of legislators via campaign financing and revolving door employment – who in turn are card carrying members of the oligarchy; this is all part of the same evolved system.
The notion that “more education” is all that is needed is naive.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 2 2019 10:55 utc | 152

@149 Hoarsewhisperer
Speaking about Trump bootlickers who continue to deny reality and profess see 4-dimensional genius in every shet move Trump pulls out of his ass…

Posted by: Circe | Jun 2 2019 12:08 utc | 154

I suppose Circe would be happier if the Obama crowd were on duty, starting more wars.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 13:05 utc | 156

oops – close the italics.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 2 2019 13:09 utc | 158

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 1, 2019 11:16:05 PM | 138
Yep. Hitler – Germany – miscalculated.
To claim that there was a possible diplomatic solution that would have made Hitler – Germany – keep the peace, takes a wild imagination and even then.
The Nazis needed the war to remain in power, and they needed the war economy. The German ruling class was in a fever to redo the result of WWI, inside Germany and abroad.

Posted by: somebody | Jun 2 2019 14:11 utc | 160

daffyduct @ 129
Finally the truth I’ve dared to utter is finding its way into more widely respected viewpoints.

Posted by: donkeytale | Jun 2 2019 15:56 utc | 162

Zachary Smith @ 159 says:
I would urge people to read the link this person provided. It was written by the senile old fool Paul Craig Roberts,…
it doesn’t read like something written by a senile old fool to me, but, granted, i haven’t read the relevant histories, though i’ve been working steadily for 25 or 30 years to unlearn much of what they taught me up until then. maybe you could qualify your slur, ’cause i also haven’t read Zachary Smith’s history of WW2.

Posted by: john | Jun 2 2019 16:23 utc | 164

@donkeytale #163
I don’t disagree with anything you said in general terms.
However, it is a mistake to lump all of the “investor class” into one big group. Much as real estate prices are set at the margins, so too is elite political opinion.
Even those with money – there are significant differences. Those that believe outright power or strong influence over government is what matters differ than those that want a hard money regime to solidify the status quo (or the libertarians, a particularly interesting and nihilistic subcategory).
There are also those who understand full well that the existing system is destructive, but will play within the game to the full extent allowed.
My view has evolved to the point that I don’t believe there is conviction in the upper classes (any of the groups above) that revolution is possible anymore, or belief that the consequences of actions won’t come. Call it a “Let them eat cake” state of mental (d)evolution. They’re somewhat uneasy, hence the rise in NZ citizenships and panic rooms, but they don’t really believe the revolution will come.
The Chinese Communist Party, in contrast, still holds a lot of people who witnessed enormous suffering and revolution firsthand.
Still, revolution in a wealthy, western nation is a new thing.
Germany under Hitler, let’s not forget, was one generation removed from feudalism and a Kaiser.
China in 1949 was slightly over a single generation removed from the Qing dynasty.
War has historically been the means by which such outrageous societal pressures are relieved (or unleashed), but nuclear weapons make outright, industrial warfare seem highly unsuccessful.
In contrast, I also looked at the declines of the Dutch, Spanish and British empires. The Dutch were crushed by the Brits because their population was literally 1/5th the size.
The Spanish and British were actually about equal in population when the Spanish empire was around – the “underdog” business is largely bullshit, although the Spanish had tons of money due to New World silver, but of course the British were far better at sea than the Spanish (and perhaps more importantly, the Spanish had long since deforested most of their land).
But again, all of these empires were in eras of overall expansion: new overseas territories, new stashes of people and commodities to exploit, etc.
Instead, the South American model seems more likely: Argentina and Brazil used to be top tier nations but basically stopped growing for nearly a century due to internal inequality and societal/economic stagnation.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 2 2019 17:01 utc | 166

@156 Don Bacon
Wrong. Yet again. One can be against Trump and against Obama and the messianic cults that brought us both.

Posted by: Circe | Jun 2 2019 18:02 utc | 168

@ john | Jun 2, 2019 12:23:33 PM #164

maybe you could qualify your slur, ’cause i also haven’t read Zachary Smith’s history of WW2

To some people 80 years of age isn’t really “old”. The man still produces coherent essays every now and then and a senile person couldn’t do that. And it’s true I haven’t seen the results of any recent IQ test taken by Mr. Roberts. I do find it somewhat surprising that in your 25-30 years of “unlearning” you haven’t run into David Irving. He is still alive, and his books have been strongly favorable to Hitler’s Germany. Later he migrated into Holocaust denial. Elmer Barnes has a wiki, and that describes his belief the US ought to have been on the side of Germany in WW1. Like Irving, he was strongly pro-Hitler and a stout Holocaust denier as well.
Mr. Roberts has written a string of articles about the Crisis Actors at Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and other mass murders. In all cases he hints that nobody died. I’d invite you go google this headline.
“A holocaust was what the Americans did to the Germans
Mr. Roberts strongly recommends Holocaust deniers, but doesn’t come right out and say he believes the death camps were frauds. But using the term for the non-existent event described in that title he invites readers to come to a ‘denier’ conclusion, same as with the way he hints that no children died at Sandy Hook.
So I’ve decided to correct my slur to “generally worthless POS”.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 2 2019 19:33 utc | 170

Zachary Smith @ 170
i asked you to qualify your slur, but all you did was regurgitate inuendo. if you want to get back to me with something meaningful, i’m all ears.

Posted by: john | Jun 2 2019 20:24 utc | 172

Im not necessarily talking about national policies wrt currency devaluation. Currencies are traded on global markets and that is how their values relative are established and maintained relative to other national currencies.
In your example you indicated the federal reserve might try to devalue currency as a means to help poor people. In fact the fed has surely attempted to do devalue or strengthen the $ in the past although as you note not for the benefit of the 99%.
However when the US attempts to devalue China, other nations and institutional investors may also intervene to buy up $ and keep $ price high relative to their own or other currencies thus the effort by tbe Fed could easily fail.
These types of govt interventions can and do occur and quite nakedly to support the goals of their investor classes, which include exporters, importers and of course wealthy shareholders.
I wont quibble with your statement that sovereign and corporate policies are mutually exclusive. Of course they are in theory but in reality…..a state planned economy and a corporotocracy are both widely existing forms of govt where sovereign and national policies do mingle and or coexist. In the US wrt defense, MIC, govt award of contracts to corporations are examples.

Posted by: donkeytale | Jun 2 2019 22:46 utc | 174

Correction: where corporate and national policies do mingle and or coexist.

Posted by: donkeytale | Jun 2 2019 22:54 utc | 176

@karlof1 #175
I refer to the “all or nothing” nature of the California electoral votes – which has had the effect of disenfranchising the voters for Senatorial positions and Presidential elections in North CA, Central CA and places like Orange County since George Bush Senior.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 3 2019 19:54 utc | 178