reply to #1. No its not fake news. It all depends on ones definition of “mass shooting”. There is no agreed upon definition. Definitions include 3 or more casualties in a a single incident, 4 or more, or 3 or 4 deaths in a single incident.

Posted by: ToivoS | Aug 4 2019 14:25 utc | 3

So the FAA is now REALLY going to get seriuos about airline safety.
And Boing is shaking.
Bad FAA!
Now can I get my ticket to fly on MAX?
Oh wait… They havent anounced the name and model changes. Come fly the all new environmentally friendly 8000XRT!!!

Posted by: Jared | Aug 4 2019 14:41 utc | 5

About those mass killings in the US
2 in the last 24 hours, one in El Paso, Texas and another in Dayton, Ohio
But they are not domestic terrorism fueled by the world wide Terrorist-In-Chief are they ?
As sick as this may sound, I like the smell of failing empire in the morning…..how much further is the fall?
Thanks for all the reporting b.
@ Joost from other thread asking about therapies to help them sleep and such. Please contact me through my web site and/or go to http://www.lettinggobreath.com/neuromodulation for some information about new “mental health” healing therapies

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 4 2019 14:57 utc | 7

It’s the 215th day of the year. There have been 251 mass shootings in the United States this year. Just imagine what the media would write had those happened in Russia.

I can tell you what the Western media wouldn’t do in that case: they would definitely not call for more gun control. Oh no! They would try to blame the whole thing on Putin somehow, while encouraging the ‘Russian people’ to rise up against ‘the Tyrant’. That’s what they’d do.

Posted by: Seamus Padraig | Aug 4 2019 15:10 utc | 9

Hope is the last thing to give up on…go Assange….
https://www.courthousenews.com/dnc-loses-racketeering-suit-over-2016-election-hack/

Posted by: notlurking | Aug 4 2019 15:49 utc | 11

Oh, and one more thing, the kid was 17 when Trump took power. So is that kid actually saying he had these ideas BEFORE Trump when he was 16, 15,or 14? Maybe, but someone elevated them and breathed life into them.

Posted by: Circe | Aug 4 2019 16:06 utc | 13

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-03/irans-fm-zarif-was-secretly-invited-rand-paul-meet-trump-oval-office
If this is true, gives even more credence to the rumors of Trump wanting to get rid of Bolton and his posse. Inviting Zaria to Oval Office is a slap in his ugly face and totally contrary to what he is trying to achieve.
Zaria rejected it because of no permission from Tehran and also that it would have been just a photo-op. But it would have been sweet just to see the look on Boltons face as fumes rising from underneath his ‘stache.

Posted by: Uncle Jon | Aug 4 2019 16:22 utc | 15

Noirette
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone on a comment board predicted the US bombing of Iran, WWIII, nuclear annihilation, etc.
This tendency should become (and maybe has for all I know) the focus for a sociological study in late stage decadence of the western empire. I hesitate to indict so many commenters as nihilists, but only because my schtick has matured from prior times…maybe this is the same as scaring ourselves at horror movies when we were kids, a sort of second childhood developing in old age.
Especially as the overhelming majority of commenters seemingly live uber-comfortable (relatively speaking) lives of retirement leisure (thanks to decadent social democrat state policies about which there are seldom any comments) which allows ample time, personal security and lack of material need to spend goofing around on the internet to our heart’s content. And, please, before anyone comes in to tell me how rough THEY have/had it in life….ok fine. I’ll cue the sad violins in my head everytime you post from now on.
Often, I wonder why the supposed malcontents of the Western World who spend so much time blogging in fury are never to be found commenting from the front lines of anything, anywhere?

Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 4 2019 16:32 utc | 17

to Jared # 4 Unfortunately Jared I don’t think most countries will be turning their heads. There is a big powwow of the “Lima Group” which includes Chile Colombia Argentina Ecuador and Brazil. coming up this Tuesday. This group is committed to “regime change” in Venezuela. Altho Guido has fallen flat on his smarmy little embezzling face, the Lima Group has their eye on – the benjaminos and continue to refer to the Gusano as the “interim president.”
Lots of resources – read loot – in Venezuela. The current govs of the LG are all right wingers, some with prior experience in “privatization.” Especially Pinera and Bolsonaro, who can’t seem to get enough of Pense. Go figure. Anyway, I don’t think the Lima Group will necessarily send in the warhorses, but there is sure to be lots of soto voce manipulation. An interesting question is “how much direct funding is Guido getting from the billionaires in the Lima Group?”
cheers

Posted by: Miss Lacy | Aug 4 2019 16:39 utc | 19

Good news about Asma! “The pearl of the middle east” as Arte (the French/German State sponsored TV channel) rightly called here.. Of course before the NATO mentored Jihadists revolution. 😉
to the 251 mass shootings: I think in this statistic all shootings are included, most are gang related. And everyone should know, those suscepts dont care about gun control, the make a profit from gun control.

Posted by: DontBelieveEitherPr. | Aug 4 2019 16:59 utc | 21

Off Topic as such.
A very recent, 04/07/2019, R.T. headline reads:
China is now officially open for foreign oil, gas exploration.
B.P. and Shell and presumably others are interested.
There are many forms of madness, is this one of them?

Posted by: Beibdnn. | Aug 4 2019 17:01 utc | 23

excellent point. We should trust the same government that lies to us about war, lies to us about surveillance, lies us into prison, lies about the economy, etc., etc;, to decide who gets guns who does not

Posted by: paul | Aug 4 2019 17:12 utc | 25

donkeytale @ 17
Often, I wonder why the supposed malcontents of the Western World who spend so much time blogging in fury are never to be found commenting from the front lines of anything, anywhere?
I have found the best bloggers do not live in the West. If they did they would be imprisoned or eliminated in some other form or fashion. The cult of National Security trolls is mostly a US invention. They live comfortably in the US. Not sure about how Europe works.
I count two World Wars fought with terrible ferocity and where nuclear weapons were not available. As soon as they became available they were used. It is not a stretch of the imagination to presume that if World War 2 ended with the use of nuclear weapons then if and when World War 3 happens they will be used in some form as well. The latest jets can launch nuclear weapons from their platform as they have been perfected for tactical use.
Now let me turn on my air conditioner, it is 77*F and very uncomfortable in here as I manage my investment portfolio. How I love those dividends. Expecting the climate to change, fall is on the horizon.

Posted by: dltravers | Aug 4 2019 17:16 utc | 27

b – thanks for all your hard work and insights…
@26 b quote – “Correlation is not causation. Its the free availability of guns and racism that kills so many in the U.S.” from my pov trump is also stimulating the racism card – add that to the mix here as well… building walls is all about racism against mexicans and appealing to americans lowest… i have to say trump and his 24/7 media exposure is also an important contributing factor at this point..

Posted by: james | Aug 4 2019 17:42 utc | 29

@ Michael Droy
If you have the time and inclination to elaborate on your last paragraph, please do.

Posted by: oglalla | Aug 4 2019 17:52 utc | 31

A quotation> “Fascism in the postwar inevitably will push steadily for Anglo-Saxon imperialism and eventually for war with Russia. Already American fascists are talking and writing about this conflict and using it as an excuse for their internal hatreds and intolerances toward certain races, creeds and classes.”
That was said in 1944, true then, true now…and as we see, true in Texas.
See: The British Roots Of The Deep State: How The Round Table Infiltrated America @ OrientalReview . org

Posted by: Walter | Aug 4 2019 17:57 utc | 33

Re. correlation availabilty of guns and mass homicides –
Just a shot in dark, but makes me wonder if mass killings also correlate to predominance of Methodist church (or even possum population.

Posted by: Jared | Aug 4 2019 19:36 utc | 35

Federico Pieraccini’s provides a useful review of the global Big Picture where he implies in conclusion that Washington, London, Tel Aviv and Riyadh are understood to be the unhealthy part of the globe by the vast majority of nations, which is the context of how we should view Russia’s Persian Gulf Collective Security proposal and the SCO & ASEAN’s increasingly collaborative security efforts reported by Escobar as linked above.
Trump continues his tree sitting on the thin unstable branches he forced himself to occupy. One wonders what he’ll do next to force himself even higher. Given NordStreaam 2’s almost finished completion, I’d expect a last-ditch sanctioning of EU nations if they use the product it conveys.
Meanwhile, TurkStream is on schedule to begin shipping gas in the last Q of 2019, the exact time not yet announced. Both strings, one for Turkey another for Southeast Europe, will have a “throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters each.”
As we’ve seen, the desire to control energy sources has driven much conflict and underlies Geopolitics to a large degree. The big problem already existing is the Saudis and the animosity they have for Iran and Qatar. For those two heavily NatGas endowed nations, the most logical destination for their product is Africa via pipeline across Saudi, under Red Sea and emerging in Eritrea and/or Egypt. Such a project won’t be undertaken until there’s a drastic change in Saudi attitude/leadership. And since Iran and Qatar face the same distribution challenges for their product, I expect to see more joint efforts by them now that Qatar’s leadership has come to its senses.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 4 2019 20:18 utc | 37

Jared #35 – THAT was helpful!
You’ll like these:
Training Exercises Dovetail with Mass Shootings. What are the Odds?
The Las Vegas Mass Shooting – More to the Story Than We’ve Been Told
CIA, mind control & mass shootings – Is there a correlation?

Posted by: Evelyn | Aug 4 2019 20:24 utc | 39

psychohistorian @36–
I don’t think you can exonerate H Clinton of not being racist that easily–she teamed with Obama to overthrown the Honduran government and further reinforce the other fascist Central American governments which have the result of upholding the Whites in power there while forcing the mestizos to migrate. Then there’re the record number of deportations Clinton, then Kerry and Obama instrumented. As for domestic policy, Obama arguably was as White as Trump. Did you catch the shooter’s surname; he’s from immigrant stock himself and clearly is of such limited intelligence that he probably has no clue as to why the town’s name is El Paso or what it means in English; and many similar idiots dwell in Texas and elsewhere.
Did Trump help this deluded kid make his decision? I skimmed his alleged Manifesto, and IMO a case could be made for Trump abetting, but the same could be said for Reagan, the KKK, numerous Neonazi outfits, and so forth. However, the usual place for such hatred to arise is from the shooter’s family, after all you “must be carefully taught how to hate and fear.” Education too is at fault for not teaching at kindergarten and in every year thereafter that there’s only one race–The Human Race–that humans are similar to flowers: they come in many different shapes and colors, but they are all still flowers. (That may seem a very non-controversial fact, but in too many places it is. The Old Testament–written by a Southwest Asian ethnic group, declares god made man in his image; yet almost all Christian and Jewish imagery depict man, his female slaves and their offspring as non-swarthy White-Europeans.) Of course, the Current Oligarchy benefits greatly from the continuation of racism and ethnic conflict as it prevents wider solidarity between the citizenry–a goal the Clintons, Obamas, and their kin in both parties would agree to perpetuate.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 4 2019 21:10 utc | 41

Posted by: b | Aug 4 2019 17:12 utc | 26
Its the free availability of guns and racism that kills so many in the U.S.
And mental health disorders.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 4 2019 21:20 utc | 43

Proven Propagandist Bellingcat joins D-Party talking-point hit parade attacking Gabbard for being “Assad Apologist.” Interesting how she’s getting the similar sort of negative publicity Trump got quite a lot of at the outset of his campaign, which only serves to increase her national exposure. Her retorts are forceful and having success; and as Trump proved, smear campaigns no longer are assured of success. Clearly, the Current Oligarchy and their D-Party allies are convinced that the massive propaganda smearing of Assad was successful; but, was it really?

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 4 2019 21:36 utc | 45

In regards to the recent mass shootings. Studies have shown this has been trending upwards for a few decades now in American society while intentional homicides have been trending downward. Even as access to guns have been getting more restrictive over the years, at least more so than it was in the past. Ironically “gun control” laws were first enacted to keep people of color from arming themselves even as police(the state) killing citizens has been the norm(for people of color) for over 100 years.
Racism is a major factor in the majority of these killings , at least the officer involved ones, but not all, Columbine, Parkland, Vegas, and Pulse are some examples.
Indiscriminate mass killings point to something more of a mental disease. Is it the SSRI’s?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/25/antidepressants-linked-murders-murderous-thoughts/
I know here in the belly of the beast the average citizen is awashed with prescription drugs, in particular antidepressants. From the morning newscast and the evening newscast advertisements for these drugs and others is nonstop.
And for some nagging reason I can’t put my finger on, is the government egging these events to happen other than the obvious bloviator in chief? Is it the vast history of the US government running mind control experiments on its own population ?

Posted by: O | Aug 4 2019 22:13 utc | 47

Those videos are clearly of Assad destroying the last hospital in Idlib!
Jocularity aside, that’s a lot of dead CIA mercenaries.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 4 2019 22:27 utc | 49

Evelyn @ 34, O @ 48:
My suspicion is that some of these supposed “loner” white supremacist individuals have had some contact with security forces in the past either as or through informants. I would not be surprised if many (if not most) such individuals ended up converted to extreme forms of fascism by joining online groups and networks infiltrated by government law and order / security organisations (you can guess which ones in your own countries) looking for gullible informants and patsies.
Before the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege and shoot-out in Idaho that resulted in the deaths of his wife and son, the survivalist Randy Weaver had resisted being drawn into white supremacist groups such as the Aryan Nations (though he personally knew some people in those groups) on the suspicion that he was being set up by law enforcement agencies. (An informant for one such agency met Weaver at an Aryan Nations meeting in 1986.)
WSWS.org has published articles in the past on the close association between far-right extremists and sections of the military and security forces in Germany (like this one, and this one also).
I would not be surprised if some of the mass shootings (and other supposed terrorist incidents blamed on radicalised Muslim individuals) that have occurred in the US and elsewhere eventually turn out to have the fingerprints of agencies that claim to be protecting the public.

Posted by: Jen | Aug 4 2019 22:47 utc | 51

Jen #52 — “I would not be surprised if some of the mass shootings (and other supposed terrorist incidents blamed on radicalised Muslim individuals) that have occurred in the US and elsewhere eventually turn out to have the fingerprints of agencies that claim to be protecting the public.”
Almost certainly. Thanks, Jen.

Posted by: Evelyn | Aug 4 2019 22:53 utc | 53

Re: the mass shootings – We’re a militarized and regimented society at this point. The NRA and its supporters have effectively prevented any analysis or examination of the American love of ever more powerful, easily concealed and manufacturable (as in the case of a 3-D printed gun, where one would still need to procure a barrel) military style/grade weapons. This is all enabled by Hollywood which only relatively recently was demonstrated to be nearly totally corrupted/co-opted by the Pentagon. The military has virtual veto power over too many films and television programs, video games, and even sporting events are used to project military principles. But it’s forbidden for reporters – even the “embedded” lackeys – to publish any news or photographs that depict the violent results of our needless wars on the human body, especially American “troops”….
But more importantly, these mass shootings take place in a society where even local police are militarized both in form and function. They’ve had military grade weaponry and vehicles and surveillance tactics for a while now, but have almost completely transformed the rule of law into whatever arbitrary “order” a police officer gives a citizen. Try walking away from a cop – especially if you’re black. You are NOT required to provide identification to an officer unless you are driving and pulled over for a stated reason or unless the officer tells you that you are a suspect in a crime – at which point you simply have to provide your name and address of residence. Good luck asserting these rights however. The cop is the drill sergeant and you are his direct report; period. Disobedience constitutes an immediate and ever more nebulous “crime” for which you can be shot on sight, even if you’re unarmed and for which there is NO real accountability for the officer(s) besides temporary paid leave in 99% of cases.
Every time there is one of these shootings I try to get as many people to read the following pieces including links by John Whitehead and Steve Martinot. This is all related, people – the United States has succumbed to a worship of violence and submitted to authoritarianism and with each new generation the gun violence will only get worse. We are at a point where the government authorities will gladly lock down a city and impose martial law to find a single suspected terrorist but do nothing (and in the case of El Paso not a single police bullet was fired – can’t sell loosie cigarettes on the corner though, that’s a serious offense) to prevent the or adequately deal with the continuing carnage.
gun-culture-and-the-american-nightmare-of-violence
Boston Marathon bombing and US gun laws
Mass Shootings, Culture of Violence and the Military Entertainment Complex
Pentagon Influence on Hollywood, etc.

Posted by: KC | Aug 4 2019 23:03 utc | 55

“My suspicion is that some of these supposed “loner” white supremacist individuals have had some contact with security forces in the past either as or through informants.”
Posted by: Jen | Aug 4 2019 22:47 utc | 52
Yes this is one of my suspicions as well in particular when some of these shooters had documented contact with the FBI or law enforcement prior to committing the acts of violence. Or when the FBI foils some ‘terrorist plot’ all the while they were the one providing the means for the terrorist plot to happen in the first place.

Posted by: O | Aug 5 2019 0:02 utc | 57

Below are two links from Xinhuanet that MoA barflies may find informative
Erdogan says Turkey to launch offensive in northern Syria
The take away quote
”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that his country will carry out a military operation in northern Syria against Kurdish militia that it views as a “grave security threat.”
The operation will be carried out east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria, an area controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Turkish leader said in the northwestern city of Bursa during a motorway opening ceremony.
Turkey has been very frustrated with the United States, which made an agreement with Ankara to implement a safe zone in northern Syria.
”
Iraqi, Egyptian, Jordanian FMs meet in Baghdad to boost ties, ease regional tension
The take away quote
”
The meeting discussed “the tension between neighboring Iran and the United States, and Iraq’s position toward this crisis is clear as it is based on calm and reduce the escalation by adopting efforts to resolve this crisis by peaceful means,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim told a joint press conference with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 5 2019 1:56 utc | 59

latest from caitlin johnstone that goes right into @52 jens last comment…
Americans Should Be Very Skeptical Of Calls For New “Terrorism” Laws
they’ll get rammed thru in the police state, no matter…

Posted by: james | Aug 5 2019 2:21 utc | 61

Maximus at #41 posted a link that would be easy to miss.
It’s an article at Unz by Godfree Roberts giving one of the best breakdowns of the democratic process by which China tests and surveys and performs trials of potential legislation and policies before choosindg the best performing concepts and rewarding those who initiated them:
Hong Kong, Trial Spot
Within this context, Roberts claims, Hong Kong too is a long-term trial, and if it should end up with the best results as a city, China would emulate its example. Sadly, and as we have discussed, Hong Kong is failing to match the successes of the rest of China. Hong Kong under its old colonial system, has 23% child poverty, while the mainland has 2%.
Roberts’s footnotes are interesting in this regard. The US has 21% child poverty and 62% home ownership, compared with China’s 2% child poverty and 78% home ownership – speaking of examples to emulate.

Posted by: Grieved | Aug 5 2019 2:59 utc | 63

What if sanctions were really about walling off the US from the rest of the world so that as they deteriorate and kill each other, the rest of us can ease through the transition?

Posted by: Jezabeel | Aug 5 2019 3:45 utc | 65

Posted by: Passer by | Aug 4 2019 23:56 utc | 57
“In my assessment Trump is very aggressive President foreign policy wise. Way more aggressive than Obama.”
–A significant difference is that of body count, and clearly Obama wins that grotesque “competition” with flying colors.
dollars v lives…

Posted by: Anacharsis | Aug 5 2019 4:39 utc | 67

@26 and @29 –
Oops. Your reasoning about “guns and racism” as the cause appears to be dead wrong with the Dayton shooter. He was a lefty who appeared to be a supporter of Pocahontas. The AP reports that one of the 9 dead is the shooter’s sister. Whoa! Something else was the motivation for the Dayton shooter, and “racism” isn’t likely part of it.
How many of the shooters over that past two decades were on anti-depressants? Yes, it’s a theory. The tendencies toward suicide are clearly marked as a warning on SSRI anti-depressants, and many of the mass shooters of recent years were on anti-depressants. And yes, Alex Jones has brought that possibility up numerous times. Therefore it must be false. Not. Think for yourself folks – be skeptical of anything you read or hear – regardless of the source, including here at MOA.

Posted by: Don Wills | Aug 5 2019 5:20 utc | 69

The HK situation is more interesting, i.e. worse, than it first appears. I am not sanguine that the Colour Revolution here will be suppressed by local authorities. It is clear that the police are loath to use anything approaching adequate force on rioters, as they will face an unsupportive and indeed overzealous magistracy, one prepared to jail police readily, but which will release rioters on derisory bail amounts.
In that connection, think of Andy Chan, allegedly arrested in a building full of explosives and offensive weapons, who was promptly bailed for a mere HKD1,000 without any restriction on leaving Hong Kong.
Effectively, the administration in HK is failing to exercise the first prerogative of a state, that being the monopoly on the use of force. Large parts of the legislature and the judiciary will not support the police, so they do not do their jobs beyond a highly ineffective minimum.
In such conditions the HK government cannot survive. I think it is much more likely now that there will be armed intervention from China. There must be. HK authorities are split and can no longer use force as appropriate and required.

Posted by: Herr Ringbone | Aug 5 2019 5:37 utc | 71

@karlo1 46
Loved Bellingcat’s tweet:
I just wrote 4000 words on @TulsiGabbard’s “Reports on Chemical Attacks in Syria”. Dear Reader, it’s really bad.https://t.co/gWl5xNHXdd
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) August 4, 2019
and the comment by Drazil Tembero in the above RT posting
I will not announce a report with the number of words that I have written.
I will not announce a report with the number of words that I have written.
I will not announce a report with the number of words that I have written.
As a former translator I understand the value of being payed by the word!
A bit like the Muller report, I guess

Posted by: el sid | Aug 5 2019 8:19 utc | 73

@75 –
Your post is very confusing. Do the first two sentences imply you do not believe various reports concerning the Dayton shooter’s Twitter account posts?
You ask b to block commenters who post “hateful homophobia”. Homophobia is hatred for homosexuals. I cannot recall any posts here that expressed anything related to homophobia. Maybe I missed the posts – please correct me if I’m wrong.
You state that “religious freaks that are already promoting violence against minorities” should not be allowed to post here. I cannot recall any posts that expressed such ideas. Examples please.
Then you state that “Hate speech against minorities is not covered under ‘free speech'”. Wrong. A) Your comment implies that hate speech against white folks is OK, and B) yes, hate speech IS COVERED by the First Amendment which is where the liberty called free speech is specifically enumerated – although b is of course free to block any posts he wants to for any reason whatsoever because this is thankfully not a government run or controlled space.

Posted by: Don Wills | Aug 5 2019 13:39 utc | 75

Latest!!
Trump’s schizophrenia is progressing well!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49240310
Trump: US must condemn white supremacy
Soon he will say that the Christian Zionists are the enemies of Israel.

Posted by: Mina | Aug 5 2019 14:31 utc | 77

vk – I commend you for your comment. However, you need to look into the anecdotal evidence linking SSRI withdrawal to suicide and, more importantly, linking SSRI use to a mental deficiency in the impulse control area of the brain. In simple terms, some people (unknown percent) who take SSRI anti-depressants cease to have the self control with respect to violence that undrugged people have. This aspect of SSRI usage is a documented side effect.
I do not know the percentage of shooters who were taking or had been taking anti-depressants compared with the percentage of the US populace that use SSRIs, therefore I can’t make any claims. I only suggest a theory that SHOULD BE TESTED BUT WON’T BE because of the huge profits for big pharma generated by SSRI sales.
FWIW, anyone who cares should look into the claims made in a World Net Daily article dated Feb 15, 2018 about this very topic.
If there is a correlation (a theory), then yes correlation is not causation, so no conclusions should be made. It may be that mentally fragile folks take SSRIs and the SSRIs don’t do anything to make them more prone to mass killings. I don’t know. But to summarily dismiss this possibility falls into the trap that big pharma thrives off of.

Posted by: Don Wills | Aug 5 2019 14:42 utc | 79

.. this is the same as scaring ourselves at horror movies when we were kids .. donkey tale @ 17
Maybe 🙂
However, I am also the person who has consistently said that the US will not attack Iran, post Trump election, and that no invasion etc. of Venezuela would take place, Random Guy-do was a lame plot that would collapse or even backfire badly (though I see there is now talk of a blockade?) and that moves / bombing in Syria would be minor or symbolic, which is exactly what Trump did (more or less..), so I am not your snowflake Oh My God War will Kill Us Me person.
I do think that MAD balance is being steadily and consistently eroded. The ‘old’ Cold War was based on some rationality (on the surface, whom exactly it served is another matter) with its various treaties, which were entered into in good faith (say) and respected – on the whole.
Those days (e.g. Reagan-Gorby ..) have gone by, and the New Cold War is far more dangerous, as it entails the fracturing of the ‘old’ standard, with many jagged inconsidered moves, extraordinary exagerations and ‘sense-leaving’ (media, other, hysteria, e.g. NATO, hyping, lies, bluff..), competition between individual actors, etc. The tearing up of past treaties, agreements, and ‘ways of acting’ in diplomacy. With the added complication, today, of a China arisen.
The existential long-standing opposition is between Russia and the Anglos, see also, Walter 33.
The only ones who have used nukes are the USA – incl. depleted uranium weapons.

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 5 2019 15:14 utc | 81

@ Posted by: Don Wills | Aug 5 2019 14:42 utc | 80

[…] you need to look into the anecdotal evidence linking SSRI withdrawal to suicide and, more importantly, linking SSRI use to a mental deficiency in the impulse control area of the brain. In simple terms, some people (unknown percent) who take SSRI anti-depressants cease to have the self control with respect to violence that undrugged people have. This aspect of SSRI usage is a documented side effect.

Even if your hypothesis turns out to be valid, that would also mean they would impair the individual’s capacity to plan in the medium-long term. The El Paso gunman planned his attack with at least one month of antecedence. He took care to choose the place, the time, the date and also the fairly complicated logistics to execute the plan. He also allegedly published a manifesto which didn’t seem to be written by someone with attention deficit (even mentioning the Christchurch massacre as his inspiration). Definitely not the modus operandi of a mad person with impulse control problems.
Yes, I reinforce my statement that Trump is not a white supremacist himself, but a person who has a pragmatic view of white supremacism: he sees it as an ideology with good potential, but still too green to be readily used for America’s national interests. His only red line is the absolute subjugation of socialist China: if the white supremacists insist in not considering socialist China the main enemy, then he will not hesitate to throw it away like an used condom.
As an American capitalist with class consciousness, Donald Trump knows who America’s real enemy is — and it is socialism (which, in the 21st century, essentially survives through China).

Posted by: vk | Aug 5 2019 15:56 utc | 83

VK
if China exemplifies socialism of the 21st Century then socialism is non-existent in the 21st century. China is the most income and wealth unequal major economy and growing moreso by the year…much like the US whose macroeconomic policies it increasingly emulates.
Not to set psychohistorian off but JP Morgan just became the 1st western private bankster to acquire majority ownership interest in a Chinese private wealth fund.
You hope the communist party (which consists of many of the wealthiest Chinese “entrepreneurs” in a classic Orwellian paradox of fake leftism) someday reverts to socialism in the 21st Century but the evidence from the data prove conclusively China is a managed capitalist economy which in fact is trending less socialist by its own laws over time.

Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 16:18 utc | 85

Noirette – 82
You are correct. The US is the only nation to use nukes in anger although I’m not entirely sure about the use of depleted uranium weapons, either what that constitutes or if the US is the only one. Havent looked into it. Thanks. Now I will.
Today’s nukes of course are much more devastating and their use leads to MAD which was not the case in Truman’s day. I’m not backing Harr A’s decision to melt two Japanese cities and their inhabitants in any way shape or form but I can comprehend the temptation presented by their use, diabolical though it can be rightly termed, of wanting to end the Japanese Empire in 1945 sooner rather than later.
Nothing goes on today in reality that can be construed on the same or even near a similar level of imperialism than wrought by Japan in the first half of the 20th Century….but of course this probably won’t stop someone from arguing with me about it. 🙂

Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 17:09 utc | 87

VK, I also believe you are both wrong and right about Trump’s racist attributes and strategies.
Trump is a white supremacist without doubt and his racism is directed entirely at the working class non-whites, such as working class blacks and poor latinos who make up the bulk of the immigrants massing under the threat of Trumpist persecution along the southern border.
OTOH, Trump is not overtly playing the race card in any way that I can comrephend with his trade war against China, although here you may be on more solid ground with your argument in certain ways. In general, East Asians in the US are viewed positively by the ruling elites and [generally] are not subjected to anywhere near the same level of racism as are blacks, latinos, arabic muslims, for instance.
East Asians with money buying homes in exclusive enclaves are never questioned, while wealthy blacks and latinos are often looked upon as criminals when mowing their own front lawns or walking the streets of exclusive neighborhoods where they happen to live. Indeed, arrests, violence and even murder of affluent blacks in their own wealthy neighborhoods are not all that uncommon in the US.
Similarly to East Asians, Indians are generally welcome with open arms in the upper class milieus, unless they happen to be Sikhs, whose attire is sometimes misconstrued as muslim and they too have been subjected to white supremacist-inspired mass murder (Oak Creek WI).
Further, Asian women are desired as sexual objects while Asian men are not seen as physically intimidating (unlike black and latino men) to insecure white morons such as Trump.
Remember the Chinese madam who supplied prostitutes to several Republican monied men/Trump supporters in the Palm Beach area awhile back? She was even an invited guest at Mar A Lago as I recall.

Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 17:40 utc | 89

To take it a step further, Amerikkkan and western capitalists are very comfortable with China as a place to do business and expand their wealth.
The trade wars are an exclusive Trump fantasy come to life.
There is no way anyone else in either the GOP or Democrat Parties would ever start a trade war with China. The global elites supplying both parties financing make WAY too much money from investments in China.
The trade wars are aimed at the deplorables and the GOP is simply enthralled to Trump’s racist electoral strategies and tax cuts to make anything but ineffective whimpers of protest against the Trade Wars.
While of course the deplorables gain nothing from any of Trump’s policies. But they get to feel delusionally they are superiour to blacks and Mexicans so there is that…

Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 17:50 utc | 91

@ Posted by: donkeytale | Aug 5 2019 16:18 utc | 86
Well, in terms of abstract economic theory, we could have an endless debate about if China is socialist or not.
But, in terms of History, there’s no concrete reason to consider China not socialist:
1) First of all, the official source, which formally defines China’s system as “market socialism with Chinese characteristics”. There’s no reason to doubt that definition isn’t sincere: since it was first created (Deng Xiaoping era), China had multiple windows to formally abandon socialism and openly declare being capitalist — Mao’s death (1976), opening up (1978), Tiananmen Square (1989), fall of the USSR (1991) and its accession to the WTO (2001). Why haven’t the CCP seized any of those opportunities to do an honorable return to capitalism, like all the other ex-socialist states? If it indeed was a capitalist party running a capitalist government, then it would be better for it to do so in the open and without the attriction a socialist definition causes with the other capitalist powers.
2) Second, the Chinese people seems to consider itself socialist. They see socialism as the legitimate successor of confucionism. They absorbed their socialist identity into their cultural history.
3) There are many macroeconomic aspects that points to the direction China is a not-capitalist country in a socialist direction, such as an 100% public banking system, the impossibility to own land (every land you purchase is actually a 70-year lease, including the peasant land), the State ownership of the most strategic means of production (including the industrial-military complex) and the anti-cyclical nature of its economy (well-stablished rules of bourgeois economic theory doesn’t seen to apply to China, such as certain businesses cycles, the “middle income trap” etc.).
4) Albeit the private sector has been contributing with more than 50% of the GDP for some years, it has been only done so because the CCP has explicitly allowed it to do so (in this sense, they learned from Soviet mistakes, read Gorbachev’s Perestroika) and only in non-strategic sectors (mainly consumer goods).
5) Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” doctrine has nothing to do with neoliberalism, but a lot in common with Lenin’s NEP. The myth that Deng was a neoliberal comes from the optical illusion that it begun in 1978 — only two years before Reagan and Thatcher.

Posted by: vk | Aug 5 2019 18:09 utc | 93

donkeytale @88:

Nothing goes on today in reality that can be construed on the same or even near a similar level of imperialism than wrought by Japan in the first half of the 20th Century

Although you’re attempting to dispell fears that USA might use nuclear weapons, your failure to see the imperialists in your own backyard is typical of Kool-Aid drinkers.
You have a blindsport for victims like:
Palestinians. And, central and south Americans (from places like Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chili). And, Afgahnis in their 17 year of war. And, Yemenis. And the 500,000 Iraqi children whose deaths Madeleine Albright said was “worth it”. And Syrians that have been killed, maimed, and driven from their homes due to a Western-supported proxy army. Or even the Westerners that waste enormous sums on “defense” (protection racket and kickback scheme) that doesn’t make them safer. Or, … anyone that actually stands in the way of the soft tyranny (for now) of big brother – like jailed/beat up Yellow Vest protesters and Julian Assange.
Of course there is many more such victims but I won’t belabor the point.
No one in USA/West wants to hear about the cruelty of Western imperialism anymore than they want to hear about the corruption of their political system. It creates an unpleasant feeling of cognitive dissonance in Kool-Aid drinkers.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 5 2019 18:18 utc | 95

donkey – sometimes i agree with you, but sometimes you do yourself no favours! i suppose everyone has to learn the hard way…
about socialism… i asked ben this the other day on a different thread, but don’t believe i got an answer…
was the wall st bail out of 2008 a type of socialism?? that is how i see that.. if americans have a problem with socialism, they need to wake the fuck up and see how they already have it for the bankers – just not for themselves…

Posted by: james | Aug 5 2019 18:52 utc | 97

james @97
You’re referring to what’s called “corporate welfare”.
It’s not socialism because it’s not equal burden-sharing, it’s actually pushing the burden of corruption (the banks knew their underwriting was flawed) and failed risk-taking on to ordinary people.
Better terms for this are oligarchy or tyranny.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 5 2019 19:23 utc | 99