The MoA Week In Review – OT 2019-60

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October 20, 2019

The MoA Week In Review – OT 2019-60

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:

October 14 – Syrian Government Regains Control Over Country's Northeastern Parts
October 16 – How The Win-Win-Win-Win Plan For Syria's Northeast Succeeds
October 18 – Media And Pundits Misread The 'Everyone Wins' Plan For Syria
October 20 – New York Times Fakes The Record About Arming The Syrian Rebels

October 17 – North Korea Announces Something Important But Does Not Say What It Is

October 19 – The Democratic Party Should Suspend Hillary Clinton

Clinton's wacky claims came after the NYT published a smear piece about Gabbard: What, Exactly, Is Tulsi Gabbard Up To? Both seem to be part of concerted effort.

The predicted Streisand effect:

Mike Cernovich @Cernovich – 4:12 UTC · Oct 19, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard has gained more than 40,000 Twitter followers today – more than she gains in an average month.

More nonsense from Hillary:

Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton – 00:06 UTC · Oct 19, 2019
When I was a little girl, I wrote to NASA and told them I dreamed of being an astronaut.
They wrote back and said they weren't taking girls.
A new generation of little girls watched today's historic spacewalk. May their dreams of reaching the stars have no bounds.

Oregon Designer @Easycure – 6:40 UTC · Oct 19, 2019
You were born in 1947, NASA wasn't formed until 1958 and we didn't have an astronaut in space until until 1962 when you were 15 years old.
You didn't write a letter to NASA when you were a little girl and you should definitely stop drunk tweeting.

Moody's Analytics' Presidential election model predicts that Trump will win: 2020 Presidential Election Model (pdf)

—
Other issues:

During our last requests for donations several people asked if I would take bitcoins. I said no because those crypto-currencies are in my view largely a fraud. They are also not, as claimed, anonymous: Huge Child Porn Ring Busted as Authorities Cite Ability to Crack Bitcoin Privacy

In case there was any doubt that Boeing knew it was selling a bad airplane: Stunning messages from 2016 deepen Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis

The exchange of messages in 2016 between the two lead technical pilots on the Boeing 737 MAX program was released Friday after regulators blew up at the company for belatedly disclosing the matter. The messages reveal that the flight-control system, which two years later went haywire on the crashed flights, was behaving aggressively and strangely in the pilots’ simulator sessions.

It is not only Boeing that is unable to deliver decent engineering: The Navy’s Accountability Crisis Over A Bet Ensnares Its Top Leader

At the USS Ford, the extent of America’s massive systems engineering failure is impossible to understate. The aircraft carrier does not work. As of October 9, only two of eleven advanced weapons elevators actually function, making it impossible for the carrier to safely receive and store weapons.
…
Sources say that one, maybe two elevators are nearing completion. But then, even if the advanced electromagnetic elevators work, the USS Ford must go through a shock trial, where the ship is jolted by a series of explosive charges near the hull. The rickety elevators–along with several other critical subsystems that require tight tolerances to operate correctly–are unlikely to survive intact.

Electromagnetic elevators work like Maglev trains. The magnets that move the elevator must always be in a fixed distance to the rail. That requires that the rails are kept very straight. But ships are rather flexible structures that flex and twist (vid) all the time. The idea to put electromagnetic rails into them is conceptually misguided. The Ford will need new elevators before it can be put to use.

Use as open thread …

Posted by b on October 20, 2019 at 13:49 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Brexit-wise, the three letters are new profs of the duplicity of Johnson (Brexit yes but more bilateral defense cooperation with EU/NATO! no kidding!!). And the EU reaction (illegal business as usual) shows that the king is not only naked but starts to be freezing cold (feet).
Then the accompanying letter of the UK ambass to the EU is total cowardness since he does not take on himself the responsibility of asking for the delay, and merely writes a covering letter to a non-binding, unsigned letter by BoJo the clown.
Finally, I wonder why the vote of the Englanders should be given more weight than that of the Northern Irish and that of the Scots. If the voting numbers were made proportional to each of the fours pieces of the union, wouldn’t the remainers win?
Having said that, I am definitely for the end of the EU and of its NATO cooperation, but not with BoJo at the head of the ship.

Posted by: Mina | Oct 20 2019 14:06 utc | 1

The refusal to engineer for inconsistancy and change. Perfect does not exist. Mystifying.

Posted by: so | Oct 20 2019 14:13 utc | 2

The refusal to engineer for inconsistancy and change. Perfect does not exist. Mystifying.

Posted by: so | Oct 20 2019 14:13 utc | 3

Deep State election manipulation continues, as they point fingers at Russia:

Deep-State has chosen: Biden-Tulsi 2020

<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
US and Turkey likely timed planned and timed Turkey’s intervention together:

Trump, Turkey and Syrian Kurds: What’s Really Going On?

Trump’s December 2019 shocking announcement of a “pull out” from Syria is best explained as a delaying tactic. In September 2018 Putin gave Erdogan 3 months to tackle the Jihadis in Idlib. By December 2018, it was clear that was a false deadline as Russia and Syria were not yet in a position to mount an attack on Idlib. That attack wouldn’t start happen until mid-2019.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 20 2019 14:19 utc | 4

On the new aircraft carrier, they only talk about problems with the weapons elevators. What about the elevators for the aircraft themselves? Am I right in assuming that they stuck with hydraulics for those, so no such problems?

Posted by: David G | Oct 20 2019 14:23 utc | 5

Boeing came up with the $B aircraft carrier hull-mounted version of the giant SOTA phased-array GBRP radar in the Marshall Islands that skips radar through the ionosphere and so has a Pacific-wide range.
This was after the Army commander at the base retired to become Boeing’s project manager, changing his military uniform for a Boeing hat in the same office, same day.
“Captain? Sir?”
“Just call me Jerry. I’m a Boeing PM now.”
Jerry then promised $100M in Joint Contract Consolidation, which subsequently blew up and today the base is operated by Dyncor, Dyson Dytec whatever they’re called..
Anyway, nobody asked the vital question, how can you mount a truly giant 40m radar dome on a ship at sea and still be able to control pitch and azimuth, calibrate the signal response, … much less see where you’re going? So $1B went winging off to Boeing, the ship made one sea trial and has been mothballed ever since. Winning!
And that’s how America will end. Not by fire. Not by ice. By MICicide.

Posted by: Jack Martin | Oct 20 2019 14:24 utc | 6

Meyssan has pithy remarks and time-line. “L’invasion turque du Rojava”
( voltaire net org )
The retreat is a backhand deal, sez TM…sorta.
Imperial focus may be attempting to shift to the Pacific “arena” and Mr Chin.
……….
Reuters put up story of “Boeing board to meet in Texas as scrutiny inte…” Interesting use of language seems to telegraph deliberate policy of power-elite > which seems to be “fly anyway, after a suitable interval for smoke and mirrors and some ritual cleansing and deregulation” – what the Mafia used to call “fixing”.
Language? “deadly crashes, but also from the financial burden caused by the jet’s safety ban and continued high production. ”
Which means the problems are caused by “accidents” and regulations that brought a “safety ban”…. Can’t solve physics problems with magic rituals fellas, and blame fixes airplane designs only in dreams… See? The problems come from the ban, not the design.

Posted by: Walter | Oct 20 2019 14:35 utc | 7

Brexit
Parliament is rightly concerned about the details of BoKo’s Brexit plan. BoJo says he will provide legislation next week. What if that legislation is unacceptable to Parliament? Then an election, and likely a referendum, will follow.
Saturday’s Brexit vote in 90 seconds
The Observer view on Boris Johnson’s sorry Brexit deal

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 20 2019 14:48 utc | 8

Based on the number of sideshow essays b has posted lately when there is so much red meat news knocking about the subject matters most neer and dear to barfly hearts I think is a clue of the uncertainty prevailing in alt media blog consensus world.
What is happening now in Syria? Idlib is still not liberated, is it? Erdo and the Kurds ignore the ceasefire. Turkey marches in and marches on gobbling up Syrian land under the pretext of a buffer zone. Russia now fully replaces the US squarely in the middle where they will ikely remain for eternity. ISIS is on the rebound everywhere under Turkey’s leadership. Many of them Russian and Chinese minourities who once freed will return to foment against their own native oppressors.
Will the mastermind Prince Metternicht Putin put a foot down on Erdo’s strongman neck next week and put a stop to this madness once and for all? Or will the Syrian war actually never end whether the US is involved or not?
Brexit, the sick man of Europe, is now officially knocking on death’s door. BoJo the Clown’s version is less exit-y even tnan the Theresa (Mother) May (I?) version.
Yet Corbyn still slinks, muted and weakly waffling, well behind the Tories in the polls.
Everyone and I mean all of us should LOAO this morning at the udder joke that has become the conspiracy of Trumpist/Bannonist/Mercerist/Faragist far right nationalism. Curiously, however, many on the so-called left seem to still embrace it because at least fascism is not liberal democracy or its weak kneed cousin, social democracy.
Trump’s “fake” impeachment inquiry gathers steam mostly because of his own ongoing boneheaded, er I mean visionary, moves propelled by damaging testimony by his many recalcitrant aides. Will he be convicted in the Senate? Who cares so long as he slowly roasts in the court of public opinion. One can only imagine what might come next from his swamp fevered brain and twitter feed.
Whether he is actually impeached or not scarcely matters in the wide world of infotainment as long as his burnt orange pig’s carcass continues rotating on the spit.
POPCORN!

Posted by: donkeytale | Oct 20 2019 14:56 utc | 9

Another aircraft carrier story, then I have to get ready for a sub-orbital launch.
So this nameless could be anywhere Pacific base needed to bring in CIA black ships packed with explosives, nuclear cruise missiles and bmobs routinely shuttled back and forth base to base, I suppose to keep them ‘fresh’, like iced lettuce.
Someone said ‘Let’s make the dock big enough for an aircraft carrier and a CIA black ship!” Brilliant. Then to keep it remote out of nuclear blast range to the base, they built it right on the reef facing the open ocean, so that any ship docking there got pounded if there was any wind and a swell.
Anyway, an aircraft carrier is due and the base support crew spent a week planning for it … not the docking so much, as how to get the visiting Admiral’s launch off the aircraft carrier and into the water, so he could motor in triumph into the main base, like Douglas MacArthur, with his bridge officers and some Filipino pleasure girls they had flown in for the event.
But the Angry C02 Sky Gods were having none of it, a wind came up, the launch could not be safely, uhh, launched, in the surging swell, as the huge aircraft carrier slammed against the pier again and again and again.
So the poor Admiral had to take a staff car into the main base, while the McCain beer franchise put those Filipino pleasure girls on the dock, together with two beer trucks for 1,000s of enlisted men, confined to their ship for lack of transport, and to protect the local girls from STDs, I suppose.
Then after the Admiral’s soire at the Officer’s Club 😜, the aircraft carrier sailed away again to some new port of call.

Posted by: Jack Martin | Oct 20 2019 14:57 utc | 10

More Tesla fun: deteriorating flash memory (due to overuse) affecting early Tesla usability (i.e. can’t use).
Overuse due to enormous data collection from every Tesla (and its owner).

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 20 2019 15:00 utc | 11

I don’t know if this was mentioned in the 737Max threads: The NYTimes Magazine of Oct. 13 carried a letter, in response to the Langewiesche article, which appeared earlier in the Times Magazine and was discussed at MOA. The letter was by Capt. Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger who captured everyone’s imagination landing safely in the Hudson River. He cuts Langewiesche to pieces.

…Langewiesche minimizes the design flaws and certification failures that precipitated those tragedies, and still pose a threat to the flying public.
…Inadequate pilot training and…experience…do not excuse the fatally flawed design of the [MCAS] that was a death trap.…The MCAS design should never have been approved—not by Boeing, and not by the FAA.
…We need to fix all the flaws in the current system—corporate governance, regulatory oversight, aircraft maintenance and, yes, pilot training and experience. Only then can we ensure the safety of everyone who flies.

Posted by: browning | Oct 20 2019 15:02 utc | 12

The Moody’s Analytics piece is best considered as advice to Trump for voter suppression. Despite current trends, all the models appear to be assuming good times economically, except the business community’s idea of good times is when workers are going down. The S&P 500 as an index of popular sentiment is questionable. An index of media satisfaction? At any rate, anyone trying to use this to guide their campaigning into specific states is asking for a world of hurt. You campaign in the big bloc states, leave the small states, especially when they’ve been strongly partisan before, on the back burner. Except if you can count on the media to treat a rally in a small backward state as a national bandwagon hauled by the people. Dumping fresh government programs/money into the small states selected by this model is at least not crazy. The thing there is, a lot of these states have been Republican because so many of the kinds of people that used to be called petty bourgeois, like ranchers and farmers, have already been permanently attached to a government tit for decades already. They just dislike other government programs that don’t benefit them.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 20 2019 15:10 utc | 13

For those who aren’t in California: there were planned blackouts several days last week. Hospitals, labs, etc affected.
All this is due to fallout (!) from the Camp Fire tragedy last year.
PG & E was found liable for it – as they have been skimping on line maintenance, both the lines themselves and tree clearance, for likely decades.
As a consequence, PG & E head said these blackouts could continue for a decade. Welcome to Banana Republic California.
Wolf Street posted an article last month about San Francisco buying PG & E’s SF infrastructure for $2.5B – with some pics like this so people can see just what American infrastructure in the most expensive city in the world looks like.
Of course, those of us who actually look around, have known PG & E as a scam corp for a long time.
Here’s PG & E spending $44M+ to try and pass a ballot proposition requiring 2/3rds votes in order for any city or municipality to be able to switch to a different power provider.
Here’s PG & E spending $10M lobbying in 2018 – the largest spend, even more than the Western Petroleum lobbying group.
And lest you think this is a recent thing, it isn’t. Here’s PG & E spending $14M+ in 1983 and 1984 lobbying.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 20 2019 15:14 utc | 14

@ Bemildred
You were discussing browsers and both reading and writing here at MoA in the Syria thread – your comment 297.
For ease of reading, try the Reader View button now built into Firefox. It “de-crappifies” the whole page (to use your lovely term), and presents a perfectly narrowed column of extremely readable font size. Perfect for leaning back and reading an article. It even works on the comments here, although you can get a bit lost with comment authorship, because the dividing rules disappear.
With regard to writing here, the Preview feature seems pretty bullet-proof to me. What you see in preview is what you’ll get when you post.
I have forced myself to use Preview even for a one-liner. That’s the view I post from. There’s a tendency to think one is in a conversation where time is of the essence to get one’s reply or point in, and so one has to rush a response. But in fact the whole thread is numbered and it’s simple enough to cite any prior comments that you want to reference. I force myself to swallow my haste and write a piece that can stand alone regardless of sequence in discussion or pertinence to earlier comments. I stay much more sane and less harried this way.
My point is that I don’t find the editor here at all deficient – except when considering me as the editor, in Preview, of course. Those typos will outlast half a dozen previews – but again, this is all a function of haste. If one took the usual time one used to take to write a letter or a memo, one would walk away and come back later, and catch those typos.
It’s actually only we ourselves telling ourselves that we have to hurry. It’s not the comment box.
~~
ps..and since the session does time out and need refreshing (during which the comment box does preserve the draft, but I can never trust it to do that), and since some links cause the post to go to moderation – which you can’t discover in Preview mode – yes, as you suggest, it’s worth copying a long or suspect post into another place until you know the post actually has appeared in the thread.
~~
pps.. And sometimes I’ll sit here, as just now, looking in Preview mode and think, hmm that seems typographically okay, but it’s rather long – I’d hate to lose it. Maybe I’ll just copy it to the clipboard before I hit Post. And usually, perhaps always, all is well.

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 20 2019 15:20 utc | 15

“Will he be convicted in the Senate? Who cares so long as he slowly roasts in the court of public opinion.”
Do you not see how unlikely it is that a story which demonstrates the utter corruption, personally, of Joe Biden and, institutionally, of the Obama regime will, as it unwinds, turn the people against Trump?
Just to remind you: the charge against Trump is that he tried to expose a massive rip off of the people of Ukraine, made practical thanks to the US replacing an elected President with a bunch of neo-nazis in uniforms, for political advantage.
And that is to put aside the obvious point that nothing could be more advantageous to any Presidential candidate than to have to run against Joe Biden, supported by Hillary Clinton.
What are you putting on that popcorn you eat so much of, donkeytale?

Posted by: bevin | Oct 20 2019 15:31 utc | 16

If there was ever an individual that should be impeached, it would be DJT, just another lackey for the empire, and it’s enablers, the malignantly wealthy.
BUT, that will not happen, because, as we ALL know, there are two systems of justice, one for the peons, and one for the well-connected.

Posted by: ben | Oct 20 2019 15:45 utc | 17

I would like to have been in on the elevator pitch that cemented that deal.

Posted by: bjd | Oct 20 2019 16:00 utc | 18

A very excellent week.
Progress is being made on many fronts – many positive trends developing.
Thanks, B very for your interesting, entertaining and balanced analysis.
I think you were right about the U.S. is vacating Syria. They just don’t realize it yet.

Posted by: jared | Oct 20 2019 16:02 utc | 19

Grieved @14: I don’t have much of a problem myself, I make a lot of typos and that is what gets me once in a while, it takes me somewhere else (poof). Or I get distracted with “research” like you say. But generally I don’t try to write deathless prose on the web anyway, a little “wastage” doesn’t bother me much. If it was really worth it, I can reconstruct it. I am training myself to always use preview/edit, may take a while yet. I’m starting to use firefox again, so I’ll give reader view a try, I’ve heard that before. I agree with your advice, so will leave it at that.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 20 2019 16:03 utc | 20

In the holographic nation of South Korea, the contradictions of capitalism lay bare for everybody to see:
Military service exemptions for BTS still possible: minister

Currently, military exemptions are given only to prize winners of certain contests, mostly Western classical and Korean traditional music events, as well as athletes who win any Olympic medals or Asian Games gold medals.

K-pop may be the greatest cultural scam of the 21st Century. South Korea has a department in its Culture Ministry dedicated to K-Pop. K-Pop is a State fabrication that poses as free market initiative to the rest of the world. It is pure, unadultered State propaganda by a full-blooded capitalist nation. Not by chance the Chinese government calls it “glitz”.
And yet, it is only China that does that. After all, State-backed propaganda is a communist thing, right?
Meanwhile, in the other holographic nation in northeastern Asia:
BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda says central bank can ‘certainly’ cut short-term rates if further easing is needed
But the Japanese interest rates are already in negative territory…
Negative rates forever? Central bankers look for an exit
It’s hilarious because both articles are in the same newspapers (Japan Times), but in different sections (the first, in the home page/first page; the second, in the business section). This particularity of the Western-style propaganda machine created here a bizarre situation where you read the propaganda at the first page, and the real deal in the second page. I imagine the average Japanese citizen reading this thing and being confused about what’s really happening with his country’s economy.
Oh, and someone must remember Kuroda that the universe of the Real Numbers is infinite from both directions of the origin (0). Talking about lowering interest rates for the Nth time won’t make him look any smarter at this point.

Posted by: vk | Oct 20 2019 16:24 utc | 21

Another video from the abandoned base of American troops in Manbidj.

Posted by: alaff | Oct 20 2019 16:31 utc | 22

“PG & E head said these blackouts could continue for a decade. Welcome to Banana Republic California.”
Yes. This is what it means to live in a crumbling empire. People need to think about how they might survive worse conditions. If folks learn how to, and then practice, even simple skills like car camping, that could be useful preparation. Depending on FEMA is not going to work. Being able to save oneself as well as others, like the informal Cajun Navy in Louisiana, will be the order of the day.
People that have only lived in cities and worked in offices will be in big trouble. Poor, rural people already know how to survive adversity, but will still suffer greatly, especially if access to petroleum fuel is cut off.
Uncle Sam’s peons see all the war refugees, destruction, and deprivation on TV but don’t think it could happen here, even after watching the sudden catastrophic destruction of a major US city (New Orleans) on live TV. They are due for a rude awakening.

Posted by: Trailer Trash | Oct 20 2019 16:34 utc | 23

Any takers here on a theory of how protests in Beirut coincide with the “loss of Syria”…?

Posted by: bjd | Oct 20 2019 17:57 utc | 24

PG&E is one of the reasons we moved North to Oregon as the Enron debacle revealed a mass of corruption and mismanagement for which the governor paid by being recalled but PG&E management survived without being fired. Here we have communist utilities that work extremely well, particularly in the Winter when storms with hurricane force winds assault us with almost never an outage.
I’m reposting this link to Dr. Hudson’s latest paper, “Asset-Price Inflation and Rent Seeking: A Total-Returns Profile of Economic Polarization in America,” I used in support of a comment a few days ago arguing polarization is a direct result of corruption combined with the equally corrupt political-economic “philosophy” of Neoliberalism, with Figure 3 graphically illustrating that reality. If a trend ever needed reversing, the one depicted takes the cake.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 20 2019 18:03 utc | 25

bjd @23–
Please read the summary of Nasrallah’s speech I posted here that provides excellent evidence of the legitimacy of the protests and his warning that they not allow them to be co-opted.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 20 2019 18:09 utc | 26

The game PGE plays oft leads to rejection. Game backfire?
Not if PGE can lobby laws to force people to connect and pay or forbid them from standalone solar.
This is written on solar. Yes, PGE ,mains do simmer at the breaker panel – but we use this to minimize battery cycling depth, if it’s on…
In this instance rejection is viable, ie adapting to solar is cheaper than paying through nose for infrastructure re-builds and central power stations – these are obsolete and inefficient…think about the losses in the cps paradigm, losses in fuel sourcing (drilling, pumping, chemical treatments, pipe-lines and storage) at least 30%. Generator turbine about 50% )so now we have half of 70%, or 35% of the original energy – then transmission lines and transformers – the line losses are limited by the heat dissipation and sag of the hot wires – and there are impedance losses – by the time you burn the toast you have about 20 % or less of the original energy…and even this is unreliable.
Solar is yours…
There are only fractional losses, and these cost zero.

Posted by: Walter | Oct 20 2019 18:19 utc | 27

@18 jared… ditto most of your comments!
@25 karlof1… thanks for the Nasrallah overview! as @23 bjd notes – the timing was coincidental…

Posted by: james | Oct 20 2019 18:20 utc | 28

Earlier this week, I posted this Global Times editorial about the blowback being generated by the attempted Color Revolution in Hong Kong. Today, Global Times has published a similar editorial calling further attention to the phenomenon being studiously ignored by 5-Eyes BigLie Media:
“It’s rare to see serious violence occur simultaneously in more than three big cities in the world. Extreme forces in Hong Kong have led the trend of violence. Catalan protesters have declared they have learned from Hong Kong tactics and sworn to turn Catalonia into another Hong Kong. Protesters in Santiago covered their faces with hoodies and masks like mobs in Hong Kong. Earlier, radical environmentalists disrupted traffic in places including London, a common tactic of Hong Kong violent protesters.
“Hong Kong demonstrators are exporting revolution to the world in an unexpected way. The violence may spread to the center of the West. The West has been collectively supporting the Spanish government in cracking down on the separatist movement in Catalonia.
“Now Catalan protesters are taking a lesson from Hong Kong, the West can’t convincingly separate riots in Europe and South America from those in Hong Kong.
“The West is paying the price for supporting riots in Hong Kong, which has quickly kindled violence in other parts of the world and foreboded the political risks that the West can’t manage.”
IMO, the Color Revolution tactic is no longer effective in places the Outlaw US Empire wants to target, although it might actually work better in the West now since its governments are ubber corrupt, ripe for massive protests and ensuing regime changes.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 20 2019 18:33 utc | 29

I see HRC as the agentur(Pike Nihilist Faction) of an Alien Empire
composed of obscenely wealthy, powerful, demonically possessed
psychopaths so her projection is par for the course. I think it was
Nietzsche who defined nihilism as the negation of all values but he
was speaking of the Christian negation of noble values while the
creepy Luciferian Nosferatu have negated all values in their entirety.
The empire finally had the opportunity to implement Operation Northwoods
in Ukraine. The illuminated masters must have been chomping at the bit to
add this ritual mass sacrifice to their repertoire of necromantic black
arts. Ancient sorceries combined with modern science and technology have
brought us to the pinnacle of mind control techniques. It is curious that
the illuminated ones purport to worship the Light-bringer but engage in
the most heinous, ghoulish, fiendish acts conceived in the foulest, darkest
nether regions of hell(hell being a figure for their imaginations). The MH17
false flag followed almost exactly the scenario outlined in Operation Northwoods
so it is likely that it was US centered, which makes sense because the us is the
only country with the resources, technical and financial, to carry out these
sorts of operations. The Em(Vam)-pire is essentially bleeding the us dry paying
for its global operations. Curiouser still, is that while the Nosferati are obscenely
wealthy, they never use a cent of their own money to pay for the operation and information
directorates, preferring to loot the treasuries of their host countries. Kennedy, of course,
shot down the plans of the demonic nutjobs, but it seems like Obama was one of the
possessed all along, only it was directed at Russia as with most of the democrats rather
than the middle east as with most of the republicans.

Posted by: evilempire | Oct 20 2019 19:03 utc | 30

@15 Bevin. Well, the good news is jackrabbit has is own watering hole now so hopefully the donkey will hang out there now. One can hope..

Posted by: Lozion | Oct 20 2019 19:39 utc | 31

Reposted from yesterday’s thread:
Any Epstein developments?
Posted by: Lozion | Oct 19 2019 19:37 utc | 73

Posted by: Lozion | Oct 20 2019 19:41 utc | 32

Lozion @31
Everyone’s welcome at my watering hole!
Even you.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 20 2019 20:01 utc | 33

oh jesus.. not again!

Posted by: james | Oct 20 2019 20:03 utc | 34

of particular note. infuriating. especially considering that the US did nothing while the Turks and their jihadist allies were sucking all the oil out of eastern Syria and then trucking it through turkey. I consider this to be a scorched earth policy and a war crime by the US.
I hope the Omar oil fields further east aren’t similarly damaged – part of the US strategy has always been to cripple the government by starving it of its own resources
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-military-begins-recovery-of-oil-and-gas-fields-in-raqqa/
Syrian military begins recovery of oil and gas fields in Raqqa
Recovery works at oil and gas fields in the Syrian province of Raqqa, as well as in the “triangle” between the freed provinces of Raqqah, Hama and Homs, have begun, the head of the al-Saura field management Ali Ibrahim said.
According to Ibrahim, all oil wells and the entire infrastructure at the treatment plants of the fields were completely destroyed, while the pipelines were partially destroyed….
Ibrahim stressed that the destruction was caused by the American coalition’s airstrikes, which bombed territories under the control of the Daesh* terrorist group and fired rockets at each well….

Posted by: michaelj72 | Oct 20 2019 20:06 utc | 35

@donkey tale 8
“Everyone and I mean all of us should LOAO this morning at the udder joke…”
It’s not the one about the cow not getting to the udder side I hope.

Posted by: Lochearn | Oct 20 2019 20:07 utc | 36

james @34: .. not again!
??

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 20 2019 20:11 utc | 37

Regarding the USS Ford, this $13 billion albatross has lots of problems. Four major systems in the ship will continue to need work: the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) [Trump says go back to steam], the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), the eleven Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWEs) and the Dual-Band Radar (DBR). Issues with those developmental, new-technology systems have been widely reported on for years. While construction began in 2005 and the Ford was delivered to the Navy and commissioned in 2017, it’s been back in the shipyard since July 2018 undergoing a series of fixes known as a post-shakedown availability.
If they ever get the Ford to work, and they plan to build three more like it, carriers require lots of periodic maintenance and port-time. Of eleven carriers only two are deployed currently, about average here.
But it doesn’t matter if they’re available or not, carriers are obsolete. Current planning for the next big one, against China, includes hundreds of miles of carrier stand-off from threats. Just as battleships were obsoleted by carriers because planes with bombs out-distanced gunfire, a hundred years ago, so currently missile ranges greatly out-distance airplane ranges. The F-35 for example only has a range (radius) of 500 nautical miles, and missile ranges are three times that.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 20 2019 20:25 utc | 38

I can’t decide if this is some deliberate attempt not so much to derail Tulsi the candidate but her anti-regime change message, or a senior moment. The message looks to be gaining traction and even makes from a certain of view Trump look good with Syrian troop withdrawal.
But on the other hand, Hillary has basted in her self pity over Russia that it is an automatic reaction to say something about Russia in any and every interview. And Tulsi did take out Harris who I believe was a Hillary favorite.
But incredibily stupid from another angle. Trump won by razor thin number of votes in a number of states. And here is Hillary bad mouthing a candidate who while a minor candidate has enough support that could turn a state away from Trump. The democrats always do this–suppress their progressive base.

Posted by: Erelis | Oct 20 2019 20:40 utc | 39

Can’t see why so many here are down on the donkey and the rabbit. Their opinions are just as valid as anyone elses, and more often than not, well buttressed with relevant facts and links. I, for one, consider them both an asset to this blog. IMO, we can add Circe to that opinion of mine also.
Questioning DJT’s motives is historically accurate, and IMO, should be done by more of us.
The dude(DJT), has a record before he was POTU$, some should explore it.

Posted by: ben | Oct 20 2019 20:42 utc | 40

About the League of Women Voters. They were displaced because they allowed third party candidate Perot into the debates and more than likely caused Bush to lose. Both parties realized that they could be defeated by a third party, so out goes the League. And the result is thee horrid debates we saw and are seeing.
Also, in some states like FL, lawmakers literally criminalized voter registration forms and processes to the extent that the League stop doing (nuetral) voter registration.

Posted by: Erelis | Oct 20 2019 20:44 utc | 41

Want to know more about the real DJT? read a book by this guy. DJT has sued him a few times, and never won..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cay_Johnston

Posted by: ben | Oct 20 2019 20:50 utc | 42

. . .potential thirty-eight percent troop reduction in Afghanistan
Stripes, Oct 20
Esper, in Afghanistan, says troop level could be reduced to 8,600 without hurting mission

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived Sunday in Afghanistan, where stalled peace talks with the Taliban and persistent violent attacks by the insurgent group and Islamic State militants have complicated the Trump administration’s pledged to withdraw more than 5,000 American troops.
Esper told reporters traveling with him that he believes the U.S. can reduce its force in Afghanistan to 8,600 without hurting the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. But he said any withdrawal would happen as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban.
The U.S. has about 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan as part of the American-led coalition. U.S. forces are training and advising Afghan forces and conducting counterterrorism operations against extremists. . .here

Looks like they’re not fighting the Taliban any more? . .just “the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.”. . .Whatever it’s called, give it up in this mountainous tribal country on the other side of the planet with mostly illiterate people.
Anyhow, most of the current US country destruction effort is coming by way of aerial bombing and not from troops on the ground.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 20 2019 20:54 utc | 43

Turkey supporting single national anti Assad government very interesting..explains a lot

Posted by: snake | Oct 20 2019 20:56 utc | 44

Below is a comment I left on the last Weekly Open Thread last night and am bringing it forward to this Weekly Open Thread.
I am reading the latest book from Ellen Brown titled Banking on the People and it has been quite educational which I will continue to share here but the comment I left on her web site speaks to my concern about her contextualization of US QE or Quantitative Easing, also known as socializing the losses…see my added comment below what I left on her web site.
Ellen,
I am reading your new book, Banking on the People, and it is quite educational but is scaring the heck out of me. I am into Chapter 15 about QE and while I understand your arguments I don’t share your optimism that inflation of “property” is not occurring.
I see property as a global thing and can’t help but believe that the global elite are and will continue to drive the price of “property” up world wide if your public banking initiatives become reality. Don’t get me wrong. I am way behind public banking/finance but believe it must happen along with a redefinition of “private property” and inheritance or we will evolve further into an elite owned rentier economy worse than what we have now.
Maybe you cover a bigger picture view of needed evolution of our Western/global social contract and the global “Commons” later in this book but felt motivated to share my concerns with the lack of global context of your claims of no inflation because of QE at this juncture in my consumption of it.
With Respect,
James
More context
In the book Ellen makes the assertion, supported by “studies’ and observations, that QE (US Fed buying up Treasuries and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS)) are not and will not be inflationary. As you can read from my comment to her I think that she is limiting her measure of that concept geographically and especially if public banking occurs and drives the elite to look for “profit” elsewhere.
I read, as do others, about the elite buying up swaths of Argentina and other countries. What is to stop that from escalating if public banking takes hold? Won’t the elite just take the $trillions out of their private banking system and buy “property” all over the world?
While I appreciate her efforts, I worry that they are not being explored and solutions considered in a broader context of the Western social contract of private property, inheritance AND private finance.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 20 2019 20:57 utc | 45

Theodore Postol has resigned from the board of Science and Global Security Journal. On searching articles about this many trashed the mans reputation. Even the one linked to below couldn’t help adding to the attacks in a slightly less obvious way. Unfortunately the world is a safer place for Eliot Higgins now. Postol had just recently defended Tulsi Gabbard for questioning the narrative that emanates from the Washington elites. They weaken Tulsi by destroying those who support her.
In his resignation letter, Theodore Postol, an MIT expert on missile defence and nuclear weapons, accused the Science and Global Security journal of making a “grievous mistake”. Its decision not to publish the paper “fundamentally contradicts the most basic goal to protect honest technical discussion that is the foundation for the advancement of science,” he wrote. “This decision is incomprehensible and inconsistent with everything I have stood for in my career.”
https://al-bab.com/blog/2019/10/mit-professor-postol-resigns-science-journal-spat-over-article-syria
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/15/top-scientist-denounces-smears-of-tulsi-gabbard-on-syria/

Posted by: Tom | Oct 20 2019 21:07 utc | 46

From Beirut:
“Just witnessed this live in Downtown Beirut: just as Saudi @AlArabiya’s reporter went live, protestors started chanting to her face ‘fuck bin Salman’s sister, fuck bin Zayed’s sister, death to al Saud!’ Reporter asked them to remain silent and was cut off from the air.
It would seem Nasrallah’s message was well heard by those in the streets.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 20 2019 21:10 utc | 47

Hadn’t followed Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter yet, but immediately on reading this, I went to Twitter and did.

Posted by: Prairie Bear | Oct 20 2019 21:13 utc | 48

Jr, I’ll be sure to drop by..

Posted by: Lozion | Oct 20 2019 21:13 utc | 49

Maybe NASA should invite the Klintonator to be guest astronaut on its next spacecraft launch. It will be a historic one: it will be a one-way ride to Venus.

Posted by: Jen | Oct 20 2019 21:23 utc | 50

psychohistorian @46–
For anyone to buy, the item must be for sale. That’s why the destructive assaults on victim nations–to force them to sell what they would never dream of parting with. Man made disaster “capitalism,” far more like brigandry and extrotion.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 20 2019 21:37 utc | 51

…and in predictable yet breathtakingly cynical fashion the australian media has launched a ‘your right to know’ campaign without mentioning a certain tall, blonde guy in solitary confinement

Posted by: Paul | Oct 20 2019 21:44 utc | 52

Snake @ 45:
Very interesting link you put up there, thank you for finding it!
You will have noticed that the report was published by the SETA Foundation which has offices in Ankara, Istanbul, Washington DC and Berlin.

Posted by: Jen | Oct 20 2019 22:39 utc | 53

As I’ve been observing, the function of the military industrial work program is to spend money, so the government can borrow more and keep Wall St. happy, with public debt backing private wealth. That is the elephant in the room, with capitalism. It couldn’t survive otherwise. The deficit started with the New Deal, so not only was Roosevelt putting unemployed labor back to work, but unemployed capital, as well. It was said at the time, that he saved capitalism from itself. Though the implication being there wasn’t a socialist revolt, not that the mechanics of the market were being saved from themselves.
Money originated as an accounting device, essentially vouchers. As a receipt, it is a contract, with one side an asset and the other a debt. So in order to create the oceans of monetary assets necessary to both keep the billionaire happy and the economy functioning, similar amounts of debt have to be generated and that is where the deficit, along with the burn pit of military spending, comes in.
Budgeting is to order one’s priorities and spend according to ability, but the government simply puts together enormous bills, adds enough ‘pork’ to get the necessary votes and the prez can only pass, or veto it. Which is about like handing a teenager a credit card. Consider one of the very few solutions to the deficit ever proposed was the line item veto, which had an ice cube’s shot in hell of passing congress, as it would have gutting their power over spending. To use it as a template, they could break the bills into their various items, have every legislator assign a percentage value to each one, put them back together in order of preference and then the president draws the line. “The buck stops here.”
That would leave prioritizing with the legislature, while the president is responsible for overall spending. As the president wouldn’t want to be seen as a spendthrift, it would impose some level of sobriety. As that below the cut off line would have limited support, it wouldn’t be vetoed.
Yet Wall St wouldn’t have a trillion dollars a year of government debt to absorb surplus money! Where would it go, otherwise? Derivatives? Apple stock? As Deep Throat said, “If you want to know what’s going on, follow the money.”

Posted by: John Merryman | Oct 20 2019 22:44 utc | 54

I see that RT speaks of US bombing its own airfields…
“Leave nothing behind? US forces DES…”
Well, yeah…but are they still shooting at you when you’re leaving?
If they are, you lost.
zillionyears ago my old ROTC senior noncom told me that, bless him.
Saved my life.
You know, (true fact) he told us about the new rifle, .222 or .223 (there was a procurement scandal – look it up) – anyway, whatever, his disgusted opinion, a twice wounded (WW2 and Korea) that these cartridges were war crimes, designed to inflict massive wounds and unnecessary suffering etc. He was correct – you can look that up too.
He told me all about the straight dope (dope!) about ‘nam, and the good man whoever…
The stuff he seen…holychit.
That was the old American Army, and I was proud of it. Still am.
Those fellas are gone…

Posted by: Walter | Oct 20 2019 23:04 utc | 55

Lavrov was interviewed by Rossiya-1: “Russia’s Top Diplomat Reveals What He Has Felt Uneasy About.” As yet, I’ve yet to discover the initial video or a translated transcript. If a fellow barfly comes across either, please post the link(s). One of the reasons why Russia produces such outstanding diplomats is because they have a school that produces them–the Moscow Institute of International Relations–which is having its 75th anniversary and which is the occasion for Lavrov’s interview–the Outlaw US Empire has nothing comparable which is why it’s plagued by politicos and cronies being placed in the top positions or worse, ex-DCIs like Pompeo. Saker often posts such translations as does Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 20 2019 23:11 utc | 56

Just for the record–It’s typical of me to refer to myself as a little girl when I was 15 years old, and I’m in my 40s. Hillary, though a complete pathological liar, may do the same thing I do;)

Posted by: SharonM | Oct 20 2019 23:30 utc | 57

From the Grey Zone:https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/20/max-blumenthal-on-why-hillary-clinton-smeared-tulsi-gabbard-and-jill-stein/

Posted by: ben | Oct 20 2019 23:50 utc | 58

“Former and current US officials have slammed the Turkish mercenary force of “Arab militias” for executing and beheading Kurds in northern Syria. New data from Turkey reveals that almost all of these militias were armed and trained in the past by the CIA and Pentagon.”
By Max Blumenthal
Full article;
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/16/us-backed-crazy-militias-turkeys-invasion-syria/

Posted by: ben | Oct 21 2019 0:15 utc | 59

@ ben # 59 with the GreyZone link….thanks for that
I just finished watching the segment and encourage others to observe a clear description of the ass covering that Hillary “war criminal” Clinton and her cronies are participating in with the attacks on Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein.
One can only hope that justice will be served on these war criminals as part of the cleaning out/repudiation that must occur to move the US past this ugly period of being the face of global private finance led empire.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 0:23 utc | 60

Most people who hang round here enjoy well founded contrarian rationales, but when they are evidence free and cui bono is used as ‘proof’ of alleged conspiracies that would need to involve many many participants, all of whom would have to stay silent for the rest of their lives, I don’t buy it.
So ben I’m sorry I cannot be bothered wading through the never ending highly tendentious tosh the posters you seem to favour regale readers with in nearly every thread.
It is worth noting that if someone were to deconstruct that nonsense using the same template those posters prefer, one could uncover a massive neolib conspiracy designed to expose rightist contrarians as half-wits.

Posted by: A User | Oct 21 2019 0:52 utc | 61

Below is a ZH posting with a video of Tulsi Gabbard speaking truth to power
I am not able to post a HREF link and rebooted Opera with same result so I will now try to post the raw link
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/toe-line-or-be-destroyed-tulsi-gabbard-dismantles-establishment-hit-job-viral-video

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 1:19 utc | 62

@62.. ha!

Posted by: Lozion | Oct 21 2019 1:23 utc | 63

@54 Jen, @45 Snake
The posts from b have been coming on the heels of each other, so I only just caught up – that SETA link forms a large part of his article about NYT faking history, the piece just before this open thread.
just fyi, if you want to explore further…

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 21 2019 1:29 utc | 64

@ A User with the not Top/Bottom gibberish slam of another commenter
What is a rightist contrarian anyway?
I do know a half-wit when I read one and will stop doing so. Have a nice life!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 1:30 utc | 65

@29 karlof1
Thanks for putting that together. I’ve been kind of noticing that and wondering kind of the same thing – but hadn’t put my head around it yet.
What an item of note it would be to find two tipping points intersecting: the false color revolution no longer works because governments are savvy enough to neutralize the tactics that are by now well known. Concurrently, genuine protests break out using tactics borrowed from the color revolutions – what are governments to do?
Currently there seems to be a mix of genuine and color actions happening in the world. Not everyone has a Nasrallah to speak to the distinction – Lebanon is lucky. Perhaps the litmus test is if they die down like I think Iraq has (but it’s only my unstudied impression), or if they get more violent like Hong Kong has?
The whole situation bears watching. It’s an irony, and maybe a trend, whose full shape is not yet clear, I think.

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 21 2019 1:46 utc | 66

Liveuamap… is it a UK or US operation. US department of state pages link to it in many places.
https://liveuamap.com/about#history
“Liveuamap operates from its EU-based technical infrastructure and is governed by Liveuamap LLC under the jurisdiction of the State of Virginia, USA.”
Liveuamap is partnering and providing data for ACLED on Syria (ACLED is linked to all the front organisations in Syria, white helmets, Raqqa 24, SOHR ect)
https://www.acleddata.com/syria-partner-network/
Found this.
“Identity of liveuamap.com”
Identity of liveuamap.com
Kicked of for the Ukraine maidan hosted by california based cloudflare. Cloudflare also hosted the ISIS news site Amaq (though under a different name) for its last months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudflare
“Cloudflare’s services sit between a website’s visitor and the Cloudflare user’s hosting provider, acting as a reverse proxy for websites.”
“Project Honey Pot was founded and is managed by Unspam Technologies, Inc.. In addition to various law enforcement agencies, the group affiliates with the Internet Law Group and ViaWest.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Honey_Pot
“Project Honey Pot was founded and is managed by Unspam Technologies, Inc.. In addition to various law enforcement agencies, the group affiliates with the Internet Law Group and ViaWest.”
http://www.unspam.com
“At Unspam, we are the leaders in providing governments with do-not-contact registry deployments. In addition to providing the infrastructure for e-mail, fax, mobile phone and instant messenger do-not-contact registries, Unspam assists companies in complying with child protection registry laws. Founded by attorneys and computer scientists, Unspam’s approach takes into account both the legal and technological aspects of electronic messaging. Beyond our work with governments, Unspam has the longest-running, most robust e-mail address harvester monitoring network, named Project Honey Pot. Large ISPs currently use Project Honey Pot data to track down the bad guys and keep spam from subscribers’ inboxes.”
……….
Looks to be the background of California based Cloudflare that host liveuamap and hosted the ISIS site.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 21 2019 1:54 utc | 67

Messed up the link for identity of liveuamap @68
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File_talk
“OrgName: CloudFlare, Inc.
OrgId: CLOUD14
Address: 665 Third Street #207
City: San Francisco
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94107
Country: US…”
“Domain name registered with the American registrar GoDaddy on February 19 (shortly after Maidan, but long before the military conflict started in April). IP address points at CloudFlare, also an American company…
..It does not claim anywhere that it is based in Ukraine. The existing connections point to it being based and run out of the US. The name being registered so long before any military conflict actually broke out is rather suspicious.”

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 21 2019 2:02 utc | 68

@ Peter AU 1 with the Cloudflare background
I believe that Cloudflare also is involved with the internet representation of typepad/MoA web site, at least in the US.
Given some of the recent problems barflys are having with MoA commenting, now including myself, I look to Cloudflare as a potential suspect intermediary.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 2:05 utc | 69

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 21 2019 1:54 utc | 68
Cloudflare is also used by MoA (or/and the hosting provider – Typepad). It provides HTTPS services (certificate) and mirroring services.

Posted by: phiw13 | Oct 21 2019 2:12 utc | 70

psychohistorian, 61,
One can only hope that justice will be served on these war criminals as part of the cleaning out/repudiation that must occur to move the US past this ugly period of being the face of global private finance led empire.
It would be interesting to see various countries seek to extradite some of our politicians, media personalities, bureaucrats, neo-cons, etc for war-crimes. Not that there is any chance they would be given up, but just to see the cases work their way through our legal system, UN war crimes courts, etc. As well as the degrees to which they would have to lawyer up and be prevented from ever traveling internationally. Given their control over the narrative is slipping rapidly, it would open a further window into the system. Dick Cheney on the dock in Iraq!

Posted by: John Merryman | Oct 21 2019 2:29 utc | 71

psychohistorian and phiw13
Thanks. I thought wordpress and cloudflare were separate service providers or hosts. The Amaq site from memory was hosted on a wordpress server, then it changed names and was hosted on a cloudflare server located in hong kong. Even though it changed names, when I checked the element code that come up with a right click, Amaq appeared a number of times in the script.
Cloudflare itself looks to be a US government operation or at least tied deeply into the US gov.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 21 2019 2:58 utc | 72

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 2:05 utc | 70
If you have problem accessing with forms at MoA look at your browser first, then at your internet connection then at Typepad. One handy problem solving trick is to clear caches and removes cookies for this site, and restarting your browser.
This is for Karlof1 as well – if you want your browser to automatically fill your name + email, then turn on autofill in your browser (you still need to click in fields, but no need to type). MoA does not do that automatically anymore[*].
Cloudfare is almost certainly not the cause of issues, it would throw an error message otherwise.
[*] and that is a consequence of the GDPR (General Directive on Privacy and data protection) One of the nice pieces of legislations from the EU that have a trickle down effect worldwide.

Posted by: phiw13 | Oct 21 2019 3:05 utc | 73

Karloff1, thanks for posting the summary of Nasrallahs speech. My wife is Lebanese and we are following events there from afar. My position is that Nasralllah is one of the few good leaders in the ME, and Hezbollah are generally a force for good. I agree with his position that there needs to be reform without total dissolution of the government, because that is what the Borg desires, even as their actual influence in Lebanon is close to zero. At any rate, it will s a rare instance of an actual popular movement that isn’t triggered by the Deep State. Let us hope that remains the case.

Posted by: Roy G | Oct 21 2019 3:17 utc | 74

I have finished reading Ellen Brown’s book Banking on the People but come away feeling the same sort of angst I felt after reading all the gory details of MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) years ago
Both are wonderful proscriptions of potential paths forward but they lack serious consideration about how to get there from here in a structural rework of the social contract sense.
What they lack is a comprehensive description of and solution to the current definition of private property and ongoing inheritance that make going to public banking only a significant part but of but crippled by the whole of the problem.
The whole of the problem is the Western social contract that currently includes private banking and a definition of private property that includes holding that private property indefinitely via inheritance “laws”. I have read that China is addressing the ongoing hold on private property by putting limited leases on property but don’t know the details and if those leases apply to land, structures , intellectual property and business.
The issue, to me, boils down to building a social contract that recognizes individual and groups abilities to create and manage combinations of intellectual and real property, land and human resources in creative ways that should be recognized and remunerated relative to their social value adding qualities…..at the same time recognizing that such activities can only succeed within the context of society as a whole with attendant roads, water supplies, etc.
I am curious how China is addressing these sorts of issues to create a constantly rebirthing society and mix of creative energies and organizations through time.
/end rant for now

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 3:30 utc | 75

@ phiw13 who wrote
”
Cloudfare is almost certainly not the cause of issues, it would throw an error message otherwise.
”
While I agree that it may be easier for those wanting to frustrate MoA barflies to hack Typepad to cause the problems we are experiencing with commenting autofill and HTLM links, I think, from 50+ years as a techie, that it is quite possible to “adjust” Cloudflare to cause the same problems given the access.
Just saying…we are in a civilization war and much is at stake backed by private finance that can buy almost anything including “invisible” frustration hacks.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 3:57 utc | 76

John Merryman | Oct 20 2019 22:44 utc | 55
John M, I always enjoy your posts. Nice to see you expanding on your thesis of the contradiction of money being both a means of exchange and a store of value.
Your explanation of US military debt as a sponge to absorb excess Wall Street money is simple enough to be true! That would explain a lot.
I look forward to your future posts, let’s keep this conversation going.

Posted by: jonku | Oct 21 2019 4:02 utc | 77

@ jonku.. ditto your comment to john. thanks..

Posted by: james | Oct 21 2019 4:28 utc | 78

Under the title of Boeing continuing to dig down there is this unformatted link to Reuters because something is broke in MoA land
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airline-boeing/boeing-expresses-regret-over-ex-pilots-messages-on-737-max-software-idUSKBN1WZ0MA?il=0
The take away quote
”
SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Sunday that it regrets and understands concerns raised by the release of a former Boeing test pilot’s internal instant messages noting erratic software behavior two years before deadly crashes of its 737 MAX jet.
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 21 2019 4:43 utc | 79

re Poor little astronaut-wannabe Hillary
Maybe she would have been better off writing to Nikita Khrushchev…
Some notable space firsts from the bete noir of US liberals:
1st Female spacefarer (1963 – Valentina Tereshkova)
1st Jewish spacefarer (1967 – Boris Volynov)
1st Asian spacefarer (1980 – Phạm Tuân, Vietnam)
1st Black spacefarer (1980 – Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Cuba)
1st Hispanic spacefarer (1980 – Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Cuba)
1st Hindu spacefarer (1984 – Rakesh Sharma, India)
1st Female spacefarer to make a spacewalk (1984 – Svetlana Savitskaya)

Posted by: Paora | Oct 21 2019 5:44 utc | 80

Oh, and someone must remember Kuroda that the universe of the Real Numbers is infinite from both directions of the origin (0). Talking about lowering interest rates for the Nth time won’t make him look any smarter at this point.
Posted by: vk | Oct 20 2019 16:24 utc | 21
——
A related observation from mathematics that applies both to economics and politics is that what is real does not have to be rational. In high school I even learned how to prove it, but a humanity major can easily observe a lot of stuff (ipso facto, real) that is not rational at all.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 21 2019 6:00 utc | 81

Maybe the simplest explanation for Hillary Clinton’s bizarre rant was that she was off her meds that day.
There was an article on ZH a few days ago that ended by posing an odd question: has anyone seen a recent photos of Hillary where she was standing up?
Anyone know anything about that?

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Oct 21 2019 6:08 utc | 82

re: Yeah, Right | Oct 21 2019 6:08 utc | 83
There was a time back in the 90’s when I wondered what possessed Bill to marry Hill, since she appeared to have none of the attributes which he favoured in women- was that it? I wondered. The attraction stemmed from her tiresome careerism & humouless frumpiness?
I understood the crazy thing on the basis many men enjoy the company of a woman whose next move is never predictable, least of all to themselves – however those women usually have a great sense of humour and are very physically attractive – Hillary didn’t seem to enjoy those attributes, plus Bill always wanted to be a pol and mad Hill came across as the wrong type for any wannabe pol to hook up with.
I concluded perhaps she wasn’t always crazy and the relationship (from the POV of W Clinton – at least) was to be considered purely transactional. It is clear that Hillary may not have considered it in that light and W Clinton either wasn’t upfront and honest about that, or he was but Hill chose to ignore that and believe it would turn into a typical boring close yer eyes and think of amerika, rethug xtian marriage.
Whichever way it was, Hill spun out when she realised the reality of her marriage and W Clinton continued to try and keep his cake whole in a government protected lockbox while he ate it in handfuls.
I acknowledge some may consider this a patriarchal mansplain, but where I come from, Bill is at fault no matter whether Hill’s psychosis was induced by W Clinton lies or H Clinton fantasies – as much as some may claim that this is not the case, experience has taught me, that the bloke is always responsible for the tenor of a relationship.
That stands whether yer spouse is already as mad as a cut snake, or she got that way during the course of a relationship.
However Bill still cannot take responsibility for ensuring his flies stay buttoned so I doubt he will even acknowledge Hill’s lunacy, much less accept any blame for it – that shouldn’t stop the rest of us however.
Next time H Clinton’s act strikes you as so egregious you feel the need to react, may I suggest you contact W Clinton and give him both barrels for having the sheer gall to cause his missus to inflict her craziness on all of humanity.
For one, I’m certain that the people of Libya, black and brown, would still be enjoying one of the most advanced systems of providing of any society anywhere, with Health, Education and Housing were it not for W. Clinton’s tacky inability to keep his hands off the help.
He needs to be told this over and over again; whenever H Clinton’s vacuous babbling becomes too much for any decent human to tolerate.
Fuck ‘im, isn’t it enough he screwed up social security and welfare, plus inflicted NAFTA on the world, the creep should not be given a free pass on anything if he cannot control the sheer unadulterated tosh emanating from his trouble & strife.

Posted by: A User | Oct 21 2019 7:23 utc | 83

Jonku, James,
Here is another essay I put up on medium;
https://medium.com/@johnbrodixmerrymanjr/peeling-paradigms-d6168f007794?source=friends_link&sk=a0554b4bec9d12ff4b77773335012271

Posted by: John Merryman | Oct 21 2019 9:53 utc | 84

jonku,
They are our equivalent of pyramids and other public architecture, because we don’t understand, as the Ancients did, that large standing armies are not always wise. As Julius Caesar said and also attributed to others, “You can do anything with spears, except sit on them.”

Posted by: John Merryman | Oct 21 2019 10:38 utc | 85

Luongo and Crooke have new articles out, similar themes on Middle East developments, but Crooke more apprehensive, since Luongo is pro-Trump and thinks Trump is “unchained” now. Crooke thinks the Israelis might do something stupid, and I can’t say I know how to dispute that worry.
Can Trump Survive Ending Project Syria?
A Panicked Israel Is a Dangerous Israel

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 21 2019 11:35 utc | 86

Okay, again I was right! Troops will remain in Northeastern Syria to patrol oil fields and the those leaving will be stationed in Iraq near Syrian border. This is shet!
Why doesn’t Iraq kick them out, already??? Is Iraq getting a payoff? WTF?
us forces northeast Syria

Posted by: Circe | Oct 21 2019 12:10 utc | 87

Posted by: Circe | Oct 21 2019 12:10 utc | 88
Sure, sure, the US is going to stay on the oil-fields. Of course any Trump would change his mind, and decide to hang on to the oil! I’m not sure it’s possible though to do so – though Washington naturally thinks anything it wants will happen. The problem is that they’ve pissed off the Rojavan Kurds mightily, by abandoning them, but it was the Kurds who were doing the guarding of the fields. Or the Sunni tribes who actually live there, in much the same case. That means it would be the US itself that would have to do the guarding, with the 1000 special forces they’ve just transferred to Iraq, or even more. That would vitiate entirely any withdrawal plan. I can’t see the declaration to stay can work.

Posted by: Laguerre | Oct 21 2019 12:49 utc | 88

clinton came up with another jewel of a tweet, purports to be a copy of a letter in 1962 from jfk to kruschev. i’m not sure about how to link to a specific tweet, and i don’t want to try a screenshot in cases it clutters up the site or something, but i’m sure anybody that’s interested can find it. i have no clue what she is saying.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 21 2019 13:13 utc | 89

WSWS (the trots 4th international) posts Why haven’t Boeing’s executives been arrested?
Well it’s a silly question, eh? They do go into why…which names men of a particular quality and class.
But the details of the article make, I think, fair reading.
I see Reuters blames, in favor of the crooks, the simulator, not the airplanes…or the design…for the words of test-pilot Mark Forkner
Speaking for myself, I will not fly in their simulators… (delusions)
until I can flap my arms and rise to the clouds…

Posted by: Walter | Oct 21 2019 13:32 utc | 90

But ships are rather flexible structures that flex and twist (vid) all the time.
Not only do they flex and twist, but they also move (in the three dimensions.
A magnetic levitation train moves horizontally on a fixed track. The track never moves. By levitating the train, it can be moved very fast and very smoothly with very little friction, vibration and energy.
An elevator, presumably, elevates, i.e. goes up and down. I cannot understand how this could work, nor what it’s supposed benefits would be supposed to be. What is the concept?
If the aircraft carrier had a (horizontally moving) maglev train, the train would work as long as the ship was in dry dock, but as soon as it was launched (even in dock) it would not work for the flex and twist reasons B mentioned (plus it could suddenly jump in any of the three dimensions, independent of the flex and twist). The result is that it would crash at high velocity into the tracks, smashing the maglev solenoids (which are the expensive part) – not once, but once every few seconds. The intrinsic advantage of maglev – super-efficient low-friction low-vibration travel – cannot apply when the rail is itself vibrating.
But maglev for an elevator? How is it supposed to move vertically? I cannot see how it would work even in a small multistory building on dry land (quite apart from the swinging of supertall skyscrapers in the wind!). What is the concept supposed to be?
As to the supposed advantages of maglev for an elevator in a ship on the high seas moving sensitive and explosive weapons, one has to wonder with incredulity. Did they go one up on Boeing and appoint Chicago School economics graduates as engineers to design ships? Was Boeing involved with these elevators? Did they think: “Look, the ship is moving due to the swell, let’s put the elevator on maglev so that it is free from the movement of the swell”?

Posted by: BM | Oct 21 2019 13:36 utc | 91

Posted by: A User | Oct 21 2019 7:23 utc | 84
You have to understand that a Ukrainian proxy war is raging in the US. Firtash is in support of Giulani/Trump, Kholomoijski and Bogolyubov got into trouble in Delaware and Poroshenko supported Hillary Clinton’s campaign. As in all proxy wars sponsors extort the proxies.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 21 2019 13:41 utc | 92

b’s prediction about the failing elevators of USS Ford is refreshingly audacious. If it holds true, which might just happen, the issue is one the most bizarre engineering nightmares I have encountered (while not being a professional collector of such anecdotes). The weapons elevators are critical for a fighting ship, and they’re buried in the bowels of the monster where they’re at their deepest. If the systems don’t work out because of inherent instability of the bearing along the magnetic rail, once more the question arises what kind of mindset allows for such blunders. I suspect it’s got to do with a modular planning which is not regarded as an articial and essentially incomplete dissection of a whole and its parts, but rather as a feasible pragmatic approach that can get a hold on any problem in the end. The question of the relation of a whole and its parts is quite big fish, history-of-philosophy wise (check out Proklos, who was the last dean of the academy in athens before it was shut down to bring in the middle ages).
Indeed it occurs from a “continental” perspective that there is a specific twist in all of anglo-saxon scientific endeavour, which has at least for the last 1,000 years exhibited a stubborn habit of gravitating towards a nominalist position, which in the extreme views all words (Begriffe) as nothing more than names for “the things”. The foregoing of the noetic aspect of perception, ie. the question how the”things” relate, specifically as well as generally, to our being aware of them, is so complete that everyone and their poodle who didn’t see beyond the anglo tradition claims that “nous” (awareness, as awareness) is but a causal function of the “things”, a process naturally happening because they’re in the vicinity of other “things” – therefore, consciousness itself is something that has no particular role in there, and can since be neglected. Don’t laugh too hard, my friends, for you should prepare to read a random interview with Daniel Dennet, a somewhat famous neuro-philosopher, who was asked how his lifelong search for the mind had turned out. “Nothing”, he replied, “I can’t find it anywhere, so probably it doesn’t play a role”. — The reversal of this observation is also true: mindless things arranged into a complex technical system, like computing machines, are unhesitatingly ascribed the potential to develop an awareness of their own and somehow derive “decisions” from there. In truth, all these machines do is apply sorting algorithms, which may be more or less opaque if “machine learning” is involved. An apparatus taht feeds on numbers so crunches numbers, but what do numbers actually mean? The answer is nothing but themselves, which can be seen in the foundation of mathematics through axioms. Not to distinguish between a nomifier (“name”) for a “thing” and a “Begriff” (term) that has meaning only in a noetic situation (where our being aware is expressed by us being conscious of “gestalten”) is unreflected hardcore nominalism, so ridiculous it’d be funny if it wasn’t so serious. Spare a moment and think about the nomination (sorry for the pun) of Ray Kurzweil into a position where he directs the research and development of fucking google.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 21 2019 13:47 utc | 93

@ BM | Oct 21 2019 13:36 utc | 92 Bear in mind that the flux density varies as the cube of D…on real ship it would oscillate as part of a tank circuit, I believe…anyway, yes, is dumbazz fubar idea.
Ordinary wrights and seamen can fix steel cables and hydraulic machines after some damage occurs – but maglev? C’mon, pull the other one.
Some people are laughing…probably in Russian and Chinese.

Posted by: Walter | Oct 21 2019 14:00 utc | 94

On the (Edsel) Ford, from 2016:

Kendall [DOD Acquisiton chief] placed the blame on the so-called “transformation” doctrine of then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon that directed the services to develop weapon systems at the edge of technological possibility. Several weapon systems were developed in the early 2000s under the transformation mandate and very few survived – including the Ford class
“With the benefit of hindsight, it was clearly premature to include so many unproven technologies in the Gerald R, Ford. That decision was made long ago as part of a DoD level initiative called ‘Transformation’,” Kendall wrote.
“What we have to determine now is whether it is best to ‘stay the course’ or adjust our plans, particularly for future ships of the class. The first step in that process has to be a completely objective and technically deep review of the current situation.”. .here

This applies to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) [Trump says go back to steam], the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), the eleven Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWEs) and the Dual-Band Radar (DBR).

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 21 2019 14:47 utc | 95

— “dem party should suspend hillary clinton” — :
The Corporate Dems were very powerful and still are, up to a point. Shafting Sanders as a candidate in 2016, as well as the Podesta emails (i read them all, there are no politics there whatsoever, merely money-grubbing, positioning, in-house quarrels, arguments about best propaganda etc.) put paid to the public image of the Dems as a political party, for some observers. (Tribalists, other story…)
All is just a joust for the public, indeed the opposition Dem-Rep is a fiction to serve divide-to-rule.
Rather, one major cog in the completely corrupt circle that involves Gvmt., Corps, Finance (FIRE), the MIC (and the underground, CIA etc.) that held a lot of power, the Clinton Machine, is slowly being discredited and overtaken by others, who are also fighting amongst themselves.
Gabbard’s public attack on HC evidences this very clearly. Three years ago it wouldn’t have happened.
As a clever politician, in perhaps another time, situation, Gabbard would (should?) have made light – using devastating sarcasm – of such an obviously bonkers accusation (russian stooge..) aka slander, and dismiss HC as a loon, not worthy of 30 secs. attention.
Not what happened. Gabbard took HRC seriously and challenged her directly to join the race! Throwing down the glove! An upstart wants to replace her! Let there be a duel!

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 21 2019 14:59 utc | 96

Gabbard:
“Russia has violated the sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian people, in direct contravention of its own treaty obligations and international law …I support the sanctions announced today, and I strongly urge the President to go further and consider a broader range of consequences. If Russia is allowed to continue its aggressive push for control in Ukraine, there will be long-term, serious, and costly security risks for the United States and Europe. Russia must face serious consequences for their actions; the U.S. must consider options that truly isolate Russia economically and diplomatically—not just sanction a handful of oligarchs—and send a message of unity and strength from the international community. … We cannot stand by while Russia unilaterally degrades Ukraine’s territorial integrity. We must offer direct military assistance—defensive weapons, military supplies and training—to ensure Ukraine has adequate resources to respond to Russia’s aggressions ”
https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/rep-tulsi-gabbard-russia-must-face-consequences-continued-aggression-ukraine
see also
https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/rep-tulsi-gabbard-statement-joint-session-congress-ukrainian-president
What about her stance on health care? Heh.

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 21 2019 15:01 utc | 97

Isn’t it odd that Ms anti-regime-change Gabbard is overlooking the US-promoted regime change in Ukraine, using pro-Nazis and endangering Russia national security.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 21 2019 15:12 utc | 98

The latest on Syria oil fields etc:

The Pentagon is discussing keeping a “residual force” of U.S. troops around oil fields in Syria, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday, as a large U.S. military convoy withdrew from a region of northeastern Syria where Turkey is seeking to establish a buffer zone.
Esper, speaking during a visit to Afghanistan, said the purpose of the residual force would be to “deny access, specifically revenue to ISIS and any other groups that might want to seek that revenue to enable their own malign activities.” He was referring to the Islamic State militant group.
The proposal to keep troops in Syria “in some cities” has not yet been presented to President Donald Trump, Esper added.
… The proposal to keep securing oil fields in Syria, indefinitely, would rely on a force of about 200 U.S. troops in eastern Syria, a U.S. official said. It was intended to deter not only the Islamic State from profiting from the oil, the official said, but also Syria’s own government, which is steadily recovering territory it lost during the civil war as it advances with backing from Russia and Iran.
Trump hinted at the plans two days ago, when he wrote on Twitter that “we have secured the oil” without providing more detail. On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on the Fox News Channel that the United States was going to “deny the oil fields falling into Iranian hands.” . .here

Two hundred troops? With platoon here, and a platoon there — god help them.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 21 2019 15:22 utc | 99

results of a disorderly withdrawal–
Stripes–

AKCAKALE, Turkey — Angry over the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, residents of a Kurdish-dominated city pelted departing American military vehicles with potatoes Monday as they drove through. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that U.S. troops will stay in eastern Turkey to protect Kurdish-held oil fields for at least the coming weeks and that he was discussing options to keep them there.
A video by the Kurdish news agency showed a convoy of armored vehicles driving through the northeastern city of Qamishli. People in the street hurled potatoes at the vehicles, shouting, “No America,” and “America liar,” in English.
“Like rats, America is running away,” one man shouted in Arabic. Another shouted obscenities and talked of babies in Kurdish-held who have died in the Turkish offensive.. .here with image

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 21 2019 15:29 utc | 100

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